riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Yea the 24. Elders which are the Christian Presbytery expressing ch 4. 11. the very argument and sum of that Hymnologie which the Primitive Church used at the offering of Bread and Wine for the Eucharist worship God saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created TAKING therefore for granted that which the Practice of the Church of God in all ages yea I think I may say the Consent of mankind from the beginning of the world beareth witness to that among those duties of the Sanctification of God's Name wherewith his Divine Majesty is immediately and personally glorified of which I have before spoken this is one and a principal one to agnize and confess his peerless Soveraignty and dominion over the creature by yielding him some part thereof toward his worship and service of which we renounce the propriety our selves and that accordingly there are both Things and Persons now in the Gospel as well as were before the Law was given in this manner lawfully and acceptably set apart and separated by the devotion of men unto the Divine Majesty and consequently relatively Holy which is nothing else but to be God's by a peculiar right I say that these are likewise to be done to according to their degree of sanctity in honour of him whose they are not to be worshipped with divine worship or the worship which we give unto God communicated to them far be it from us to defer to any creature the Honour due unto the Divine Majesty either together with him or without him but yet habenda cum discrimine to be regarded with a worthy and discriminative usance that is used with a select and differing respect from other things as namely if Places not as other places if Times not as other times if Things by way of distinction so called not as other things if Persons set apart unto the service and worship of God neither to be used by others nor they to carry themselves in their fashion of life as other persons for that which in other things sacred is their use in persons sacred is their conversation demeanour or carriage of themselves But all to be sanctified with a select appropriate or uncommon usage that as they are God's by peculiar relation and have his Name called upon them so to be separate as far as they are capable from common use and imployed as instruments and circumstances of his worship and service which is the highest and most singular honour that any creature is capable of Nay as I have said before even this is to the honour of God That as himself is that singular incommunicable and absolutely Holy One and his service and worship therefore incommunicable so should that also which hath his Name thereon or is coasecrated to his service be in some proportion incommunicably used and not promiscuously and commonly as other things are They are the words of Maimonides the Iew but such as will not misbecome a Christian to make use of concerning that Law Levit. 5. 15. If a soul commit a trespass and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord then he shall bring unto the Lord for his â—respass a Ram c. Behold saith he how great weight there is in the Law touching sacrilegious transgression And what though they be wood and stone and dust and ashes when the Name of the Lord of all the world is called upon things they are sanctified that is made holy And whoso useth them to common use he transgresseth therein and though he do it through ignorance he must needs bring his atonement Yea it is a thing worthy to be taken special notice of that that so presumptuous and most dreadfully vindicated sin of Korah Dathan Abiram and their company in offering Incense unto the Lord being not called thereunto did not discharge their Censers of this discriminative respect due unto things Sacred For thus the Lord said unto Moses after that fire from heaven had consumed them for their impiety Speak unto Eleazar the Son of Aaron the Priest that he take up the Censers out of the burning and scatter thou the fire yonder for they are hallowed The Censers of these Sinners against their own souls let them make them broad plates for a covering of the Altar for they offered them before the Lord therefore they are hallowed or holy Now that by this discriminative usance or sanctification of Things sacred the Name of God is honoured and sanctified according to the tenor of our petition is apparent not only from Reason which tells us that the honour and respect had unto ought that belongs unto another because it is his redounds unto the owner and Master but from Scripture which tells us that by the contrary use of them his Name is prophaned Hear himself Lev. 22. 2. Speak unto Aaron saith he and his sons that they separate themselves from the Holy things of the children of Israel and that they prophane not my Holy Name in the things which they hallow unto me Also in the Chapter next before v. 6. the Priest that should not discriminate himself according to those singular observations or differing rules there prescribed him is said to prophane the Name of his God Again Ezek. 22. 26. when the Priests prophaned God's holy things by putting no difference between the Holy and Prophane I saith the Lord am prophaned amongst them Likewise chap. 43. 7. Together with other abominations there mentioned the Lord saith that his Holy Name had been polluted or prophaned by the carkasses of their Kings that is of Manasseh and Amon buried in the King's Garden hard by the walls of the Temple for so by the Hebrews and others that place is understood See 2 Kings 21. 18 26. By the pollution of the Temple the Lord esteemed his own Name prophaned Take in also if you will that of Malachi ch 1. where the Lord saies of those who despised and dishonoured his Table or Altar by offering thereon for sacrifice the lame blind and sick which the Law had made unclean and polluted that they had prophaned his Holy Name But if the Name of God be prophaned by the disesteem and misusage of the things it is called upon then surely it is sanctified when the same are worthily and discriminatively used that is as becometh the relation they have to him I HAVE already specified the several Kinds of Sacred things which are thus to be sanctified yet lest something contained under some of them might not be taken notice of by so general an intimation it will not be amiss a little more fully and particularly to explicate them than I have yet done Remember therefore that I ranged all Sacred things under four heads First of Persons Sacred such as were the Priests and Levites in the Old Testament and now in the
these words ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any hath a Devil or is mad let him not be made a Clergy-man nor let him be admitted to pray with the faithful another of Timotheus sometime Patriarch of Alexandria speaking thus ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any of the faithful be a Daemoniack he ought to partake of the holy Mysteries To reconcile these I say they affirm the former which admits them not to be meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him that is continually and always mad namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. lest one so affected should either by some indecent actions and foul miscarriages of his own or by his daemoniacal clamours disturb the people of God and the Church-service but that of Timotheus that admits them to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him that is mad but by fits and hath his Lucida intervalla And thus I have acquainted you with what I have observed to confirm me in this opinion and make no doubt but there are more passages yet to be found this way than I have met with DISCOURSE VII PROVERBS 21. 16. The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the Congregation of the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in coetu Gigantum IT is a question sometimes moved amongst Divines and worth resolving How and by what name the Place and condition of the damned which in the Gospel is called Gehenna was termed or expressed in the Old Testament before the Captivity of Babylon and whilst the first Temple stood For presently after the Return the afore-mentioned name Gehenna began to be frequented as appears both by the second of Esdras the Chaldee Paraphrast and other Iewish writings where that name is often found as also by the Gospel where our Saviour useth it as then vulgarly known amongst the Iews But it is as certain that before the Captivity or second Temple for so the Iews call the time of their state after their return this name was not in use both because it is no where to be found in the Canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament which were all written within that time and especially because the ground and occasion thereof was not till about that time in being which was the pollution of the valley of the sons of Hinnom or Tophet by King Iosiah and the dreadful execution of divine vengeance in that Place Hence it became to posterity to be a Name of execration and applied to signifie the Place of eternal punishment For this valley of Hinnom Gehinnom or as afterward they pronounced it Gehenna was a valley near Ierusalem in a place whereof called Tophet the Children of Israel committed that abominable Idolatry in making their Children pass through the fire to Moloch that is burnt them to the Devil For an eternal detestation whereof King Iosiah polluted it and made it a place execrable ordaining it to be the place whither dead Carkasses Garbage and other unclean things should be cast out for consuming whereof to prevent annoiance a continual fire was there burning Yea not man only but the Lord himself as it were consecrated this place to be a place of execration by making it the field of his vengeance both before and after For first this was the place where the Angel of the Lord destroied the host of Sennacherib King of Assyria and where one hundred and eighty thousand of their Carkasses were burnt according to that Esay 30. 31. Through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down V. 33. For Tophet this was a place I told you in the valley of Hinnom is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it This was also the place where the Idolatrous Iews were slain and massacred by the Babylonian armies when their City was taken and their Carkasses left for want of room for burial for meat to the fowls of heaven and beasts of the field according to the word of the Lord by the Prophet Ieremy in his seventh and nineteenth Chapters The Children of Iudah have built the high places of Tophet which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart Therefore behold the daies come saith the Lord that it shall be no more called Tophet nor the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of slaughter For they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place And the carkasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the field and none shall fray them away Hence as I said this place being so many wayes execrable for what had been done therein especially having been as it were the gate to eternal destruction by so remarkable judgments and vengeance of God there executed for sin it came to be translated to signifie the Place of the damned as the most accursed execrable and abominable place of all places the invisible valley of Hinnom For such was the property of the Iewish Language to give denominations unto things unseen from such analogical and borrowed expressions of things visible By all which it is apparent that this notion of that name took its beginning after the Captivity and was not in use before Still therefore we are left to seek by what other name and under what other notion this place of the damned was expressed before the word Gehenna or Gehinnom came to be used I answer out of my Text it seems to have been called Domus or Coetus Gigantum Vir qui erraverit à via intelligentiae in Coetu Gigantum commorabitur The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the Giants in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Coetu Rephaim which word Rephaim properly signifies Giants and to that sense is alwayes rendred by the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we and the later Interpreters both in this and some other places take it for manes or mortui the Souls of the deceased but the ancient I think deserve the more credit especially it being confessed that the word elsewhere so signifies In Coetu Gigantum therefore that is of those Giants and Rebels against God of whom we read Gen. 6. those mighty men and men of renown of the old World whose wickedness was so great in the earth that it repented and grieved God he had made man and to take vengeance upon whom he brought the general Deluge upon the earth and destroyed both man and beast from the face thereof Vir qui erraverit à via doctrinae intelligentiae The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding shall go and keep them
Christ but the whole Sacred Action or Solemn Service of the Church assembled whereof this Sacred Mysterie was then a prime and principal part and as it were the Pearl or Iewel of that Ring no publick Service of the Church being without it This observed and remembred I define the Christian Sacrifice ex mente antiquae Ecclesiae according to the meaning of the ancient Church in this manner An Oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer to God the Father through Iesus Christ and his Sacrifice commemorated in the Creatures of Bread and Wine wherewith God had first been agniz'd So that this Sacrifice as you see hath a double object or matter first Praise and Prayer which you may call Sacrificium Quod secondly The commemoration of Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross which is Sacrificium Quo the Sacrifice whereby the other is accepted For all the Prayers Thanksgivings and Devotions of a Christian are tendred up unto God in the name of Iesus Christ crucified According whereunto we are wont to conclude our Prayers with Through Iesus Christ our Lord. And this is the specification whereby the Worship of a Christian is distinguisht from that of the Iew. Now that which we in all our Prayers and Thanksgivings do vocally when we say Through Iesus Christ our Lord the ancient Church in her publick and solemn Service did visibly by representing him according as he commanded in the Symbols of his Body and Bloud For there he is commemorated and received by us for the same end for which he was given and suffered for us that through him we receiving forgiveness of our sins God our Father might accept our service and hear our prayers we make unto him What time then so sit and seasonable to commend our devotions unto God as when the Lamb of God lies slain upon the holy Table and we receive visibly though mystically those gracious Pledges of his blessed Body and Bloud This was that Sacrifice of the ancient Church the Fathers so much ring in our ears The Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer through Iesus Christ mystically represented in the Creatures of Bread and Wine But yet we have not all there is one thing more my Definition intimates when I say Through the Sacrifice of Iesus Christ commemorated in the Creatures of Bread and Wine wherewith God had first been agnized The Body and Bloud of Christ were not made of common Bread and common Wine but of Bread and Wine first sanctified by being offered and set before God as a Present to agnize him the Lord and Giver of all according to that The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof and Let no man appear before the Lord emptie Therefore as this Sacrifice consisted of two parts as I told you of Praise and Prayer which in respect of the other I call Sacrificium Quod and of the Commemoration of Christ Crucified which I call Sacrificium Quo so the Symbols of Bread and Wine traversed both being first presented as Symbols of Praise and Thanksgiving to agnize God the Lord of the Creature in the Sacrificium Quod then by invocation of the Holy Ghost made the Symbols of the Body and Bloud of Christ in the Sacrificium Quo. So that the whole Service throughout consisted of a reasonable part and of a material part as of a Soul and a Body of which I shall speak more fully hereafter when I come to prove this I have said by the Testimonies of the Ancients CHAP. III. The words of the Text explained and applied to the foregoing Definition of the Christian Sacrifice Incense denotes the rational part of this Sacrifice Mincha the material part thereof What meant by Mincha purum Two Interpretations of the Purity of the Christian Mincha given by the Fathers a third propounded by the Author AND this is that Sacrifice which Malachi foretold the Gentiles should one day offer unto God In every place Incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure Mincha for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of hosts Which Words I am now according to the order I propounded to explicate and apply to my Definition Know therefore that the Prophet in the foregoing words upbraids the Iews with despising and disesteeming their God forasmuch as they offered unto him for sacrifice not of the best but the lame the torn and the sick as though he had not been the great King Creator and Lord of the whole World but some petty God and of an inferiour rank for whom any thing were good enough Vers. 6 7. If I be a Father where is mine honour If I be Dominus where is my fear saith the Lord of Hosts unto you O Priests that despise my name and ye say Wherein have we despised it Ye offer polluted bread upon mine Altar and ye say Wherein have we polluted thee I 'le tell you In that ye say The Table of the Lord is contemptible or not so much to be regarded that is you think so as appears by the baseness of your Offering for the Present shews what esteem the giver hath of him he honoureth therewith But you offer that to me which ye would not think fit to offer to your Prorex or Governour under the King of Persia which shews you have but a mean esteem of me in your hearts and that you believe not I am He that I am It may be because you see me acknowledged of no other Nation but yours and that ye have been subdued by the Gentiles and brought into this miserable and despicable condition wherein you now are you imagine me to be some Topical God and as of small jurisdiction so of little power But know that howsoever I now seem to be but the Lord of a poor Nation yet the days are coming when from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered to my Name and a pure Offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts it follows though you have prophaned it in that ye say The Table of the Lord is contemptible whereas I am a great King and my Name shall be dreadful among the Heathen This is the coherence and dependence of the Words Now to apply them Incense as the Scripture it self tells notes the Prayers of the Saints It was also that wherewith the remembrance was made in the Sacrifices or God put in mind Mincha which we turn Munus a Gift or Offering is Oblatio farrea an Offering made of meal or flower baked or fried or dried or parched corn We in our English when we make distinction call it a Meat-offering but might call it a Bread-offering of which the Libamen or the Drink-offering being an indivisible concomitant both are implied under the name Mincha where it alone is named The Application then is easy Incense here notes the
it had been ere this well-nigh extinguished But experience tells us the contrary that this Fancy is not only still living but begins as it were to recover and get strength afresh In which regard my Discourse at this time will not be unseasonable if taking my rise from these words of our Saviour I acquaint you upon what grounds and example this practice of the Christian Church hath been established and how frivolous and weak the Reasons are which some of late do bring against it To begin therefore You see by the Text I have now read that our Blessed Saviour delivered a set Form of Prayer unto his Disciples and in so doing hath commended the use of a set Form of Prayer unto his Church Thus therefore saith he pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven c. Is not this a set Form of Prayer and did not our Saviour deliver it to be used by his Disciples They tell us No. For Thus say they in this place is not thus to be understood but for in this manner to this effect or sense or after this pattern not in these words and syllables To this I answer It is true that this form of Prayer is a Pattern for us to make other Prayers by but that this only should be the meaning of our Saviour's Thus and not the rehearsal of the words themselves I utterly deny and I prove it out of the eleventh Chapter of S. Luke where the same Prayer is again delivered in these words O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven that is do it in haec verba For what other phrase of Scripture is there to express such a meaning if this be not Besides in this of S. Luke the occasion would be considered It came to pass saith he as Iesus was praying in a certain place that when he ceased one of his Disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as Iohn also taught his Disciples From whence it may not improbably be gathered that this was the custom of the Doctors of Israel to deliver some certain Form of Prayer unto their Disciples to use as it were a badge and Symbolum of their Discipleship at least Iohn Baptist had done so unto his Disciples and thereupon our Saviour's Disciples besought him that he also would give them in like manner some Form of his making that they might also pray with their Master's spirit as Iohn's Disciples did with theirs For that either our Saviour's or Iohn's Disciples knew not how to pray till now were ridiculous to imagine they being both of them Iews who had their certain set hours of prayer which they constantly observed as the third sixth and ninth It was therefore a Form of Prayer of their Master's making which both Iohn is said to have given his Disciples and our Saviour's Disciples besought him to give them For the fuller understanding whereof I must tell you something more and the rather because it is not commonly taken notice of and that is That this delivery of the Lord's Prayer in S. Luke is not the same with that related by S. Matthew but another at another time and upon another occasion That of S. Matthew in that famous Sermon of Christ upon the Mount whereof it is a part that of S. Luke upon a special motion of the Disciples at a time when himself had done praying That of S. Matthew in the second that of S. Luke in the third year after his Baptism Consider the Text of both and you shall find it impossible to bring them into one and the same Whence it follows that the Disciples when it was first uttered understood not that their Master intended it for a Form of Prayer unto them but for a pattern or example only or it may be to instruct them in special in what manner to ask forgiveness of sins For if they had thought he had given them a Form of Prayer then they would never have asked him for one now Wherefore our Saviour this second time utters himself more expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven Thus their inadvertency becomes our confirmation For as Ioseph said to Pharaoh The dream is doubled unto Pharaoh because the thing is established by God so may we say here the delivery of this Prayer was doubled unto the Disciples that they and we might thereby know the more certainly that our Saviour intended and commended it for a set Form of Prayer unto his Church Thus much of that set Form of Prayer which our Saviour gave unto his Disciples as a precedent and warrant to his Church to give the like Forms to her Disciples or members a thing which from her infancy she used to do But because her practice is called in question as not warranted by Scripture let us see what was the practice of the Church of the Old Testament than whose example and use we can have no better rule to follow in the New First therefore we find two set Forms of Prayer or Invocation appointed by God himself in the Law of Moses One the Form wherewith the Priests were to bless the people Num. 6. 23 24 25 26. On this wise saith he shall Aaron and his sons bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace Is not this a set Form of Prayer For what is to bless but to pray over or invocate God for another The second is the Form of profession and prayer to be used by him who had paid his Tithes every third year Deut. 26. 13. O Lord God I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the stranger and fatherless and unto the widow according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments nor have I forgotten them 14. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning neither have I taken away thereof for an unclean use c. 15. Look down from thy holy habitation from heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest to our Fathers a Land that floweth with milk and honey But what need we seek thus for scattered Forms when we have a whole Book of them together The Book of Psalms was the Iewish Liturgy or the chief part of the Vocal service wherewith they worshipped God in the Temple This is evident by the Titles of the Psalms themselves which shew them to have been commended to the several Quires in the same To Asaph To the sons of Korah To Ieduthun and almost forty of them To the Magister Symphoniae the Prefect or Master of the Musick in general The like we are to conceive of those which have no Titles as for example of
and out before the Glory of the Holy One But neither S. Hierome who translated it out of the Chaldee nor the ancient Hebrew Copy set forth by Paulus Fagius and in likelihood translated out of the same Chaldee Original hath any such matter but read as I first quoted And therefore it seâ—ms to be an addition or liberty of the greek Translator who thought their Ministery to consist in presenting the Prayers of the Saints and so translated accordingly This Tradition is farther testified by Ionathan ben Vziel the Chaldeâ— Paraphrast Gen. 11. 7. where the Lord's words spoken in the plural number 〈…〉 go down and let us confound their language are paraphrased in this 〈…〉 spake unto the Seven Angels which stand before him Go to now let us go 〈…〉 Whether rightly or fitly in this place it matters not the Testimony is 〈◊〉 for the Iewish Tradition of Seven Arch-angels that stand before the Throne of God This Tradition Iunius saith is Magical and not a little triumphs therein aâ— an undoubted Argument to evince the Book of Tobit not to be Canonical But whâ—tâ—oever the Book of Tobit be I hope to shew this Tradition to have firm ground and footing in Scripture and not so rashly to be rejected The chief and most clear place is this I have now read which gives us to understand that these Seven Angels were represented by that Candlestick of Seven Lemps which continually burned in the Temple before the Veil over against the Mercy-seat which was the Throne of God For in the beginning of the Chapter the Prophet being shewed this Seven lamped Candlestick in a Vision and two Olive-branches on each side ministring oyl to the Lamps thereof the Angel asketh him ver 5. if he knew what these meant The Prophet answers No my Lord. Then the Angel discoursing a little by way of Preface tells him what they were These Seven saith he that is the Seven Lamps are the seven Eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth that is those Seven Vigils or prime Ministers of his Providence the Seven Arch-angels As for the two Olive-trees on each-side These are saith he the two anointed ones which stand before the Lord of the whole earth v. 14. that is Zorobabel and Iesua the Prince and Priest of that time which should be God's two Instruments on earth whereby his Church signified by the Candlestick should be re-established and his Temple builded and that not by force or strength as he saith in his Preface v. 6. but by the Spirit of God working with them as the Olive-trees here conveyed oyl to the Candlestick not after a natural and usual but a supernatural and secret manner This interpretation of the latter hath the suffrage of the best Expositors both Iews and Christians and so I shall need say no more of it but betake my self to make good the first concerning the words I chose for my Text That those Seven Eyes of God signified by the Seven Lamps are Seven Angels That this is so I prove out of two places of the Apocalyps derived from hence where as well the Seven Lamps before the Throne as the Lamb 's Seven Eyes are said to be the Seven Spirits of God I saw saith S. Iohn Ch. 4. 5. Seven Lamps before the Throne which are the Seven Spirits of God And again Ch. 5. 6. I saw in the midst of the Throne and of the four Beasts as we translate it and of the four and twenty Elders a Lamb as if he had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the Seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth Here first we have Zacharie's very words Seven eyes sent forth into all the earth secondly that these Seven eyes are the Seven Spirits of God thirdly that these Seven Spirits were represented by the Seven Lamps burning before the Throne If this be not sufficient to make my interpretation of Zacharie's good I know not what can be For who can now but think that the Iews derived their Tradition of these Seven Angels from this place of Zachary and the Apocalyps from them both And that indeed the Iews supposed some such thing meant by the Seven Lamps in the Temple appears by the report of Iosephus though depraved and fashioned unto the capacity of the Gentiles For he tells us both in his Antiquities Lib. 3. cap. 7. and in his De Bello Iudaico Lib. 6. cap. 6. Gr. 〈◊〉 that the Seven Lamps signified the seven Planets and the most holy place within the veil Antiq. l. 3. cap. 5. the Heaven of God or Heaven of Glory and that therefore the Lamps stood slope-wise as it were to express the obliquity of the Zodiack Now it is true that the Iewish Astrologians favouring of Gentilisme make these Seven Angels the Prefects of the Seven Planets which they seem to have learned in part from the Greek Philosophy which conceit howsoever it be vain and groundless yet may be as a Key to understand the meaning of this of Iosephus And one thing more If the visible things of God may be learned as S. Paul says from the Creation of the world why may not the Invisible and Intelligible World be learned from the Fabrick of the Visible the one it may be being the Pattern of the other But to let this pass and return again to the Apocalyps Where concerning the places alledged there may be two things objected First That the Seven Spirits there mentioned are and may be expounded of the Holy Ghost thus represented in respect of those seven-fold that is manifold Graces he communicates unto the Church I answer that many indeed have so taken it but besides the uncoâ—thness of expressing one Spirit by seven there is a reason in the Text why they cannot be so taken namely because not only the Seven Lamps are said to be those Seven Spirits of God but the Seven eyes and Seven Horns of the Lamb also to be the same Now it will be very hard and harsh to make the Holy Ghost the Horns and Eyes of Christ as he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world that is as he is Man Above Angels indeed the Man Iesus is exalted and that too for the suffering of death that is as the Lamb but not above the Holy Ghost This made not only Drusius but even Beza himself in his Notes upon this place to affirm it could not be meant of the Holy Ghost but of Seven created Spirits A second scruple is How if they be created Spirits Iohn could pray for Grace and Peace from them Grace be unto you saith he and peace from him which is which was and is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his Throne and from Iesus Christ the faithful witness c. Would he pray for Grace and Peace from Angels I answer Why not For first He praies not to them but unto God unto whom such
votes are tendered Secondly He praies for Grace and Peace from them not as Authors but as the Instruments of God in the dispensation thereof Are they not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation And if it be no Idolatry to pray unto God to give Grace and Peace from the outward Ministery of his Word no more is it to pray unto him for it from the invisible Ministery For certainly it is lawful to pray unto God for a blessing from an Instrument which he is wont to give us by an Instrument Secondly It may be said it being a Salutation that the words Grace and Peace need not be taken in that special and strict sense but in the large and general wherein Grace sounds favour at large and Peace all manner of prosperity In which sense no man will deny but the blessed Angels have an interest in the dispensation of the favours and blessings of God to his Church and so God may be prayed to to give them as he is wont by their Ministery Grace and Peace from him which is which was and is to come as the Author and Giver and from the Seven Spirits as the Instruments and from Iesus Christ as the Mediator There is yet one place more in the Apocalyps to confirm this Tradition Chap. 8. 2. I saw saith S. Iohn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seven Angels which stood before God Is not this as plain as Tobit Why should then the one be accounted Magical rather than the other I add moreover that these Angels are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principes primarii or chief Princes mentioned in the 10. of Daniel 13. Michael one of the chief Princes saith the Angel there came to help me Now Michael we know is one of the Arch-angels and why therefore may not these chief Princes be those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof S. Paul speaks in his adjuration to Timothy I charge thee saith he before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the Elect Angels not the good Angels at large but those Angeli eximii the Seven Arch-angels which stand before the Throne of God And it may not without reason be conjectured that those Seven chief Princes famed in the Persian Monarchie took their beginning from hence namely that Daniel who in respect of his account for wisdom and of his power under Darius the Mede had a main stroke in the moulding and framing the Government of that State caused the Persian Court to resemble that of Heaven ordaining Seven chief Princes to stand before the King Of which we find twice mention in Scripture as in the Book of Esther where they are recorded by name and styled the seven Princes of Media and Persia who saw the King's face and sate first in the kingdom and in the Commission granted to Ezra by Artaxerxes Ezra 7. 14. they are called the King's seven Counsellors Forasmuch as thou art sent by the King and his seven Counsellors c. And it may be the Church of Ierusalem when they chose Seven Deacons to minister unto their Bishop had an eye the same way HITHERTO of the Number of these Arch-angels now a word or two of their Office And that is First to be the universal Inspectors of the whole world and the Rulers and Princes of the whole Angelical host which appears in that they are called Principes primarii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chief Princes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Archangels i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chief of the Angels their universal jurisdiction is meant by the words sent forth into the whole world whereas the rest are limited to certain places Secondly to have the peculiar Charge and Guardianship of the Church and affairs thereof whilst the rest of the world with their Polities Kingdoms and Governments is committed to the care of subordinate Angels who according to their several charges may seem to carry those names of Thrones Principalities Powers and Dominions That the charge of the Church quà talis belongs thus peculiarly and immediately to the Seven Arch-angels may appear by S. Iohn's saluting the Churches with a Benediction of Grace and Peace from their ministery and the typing of them by the Seven Eyes and Horns of the Lamb as Powers which the Father since he exalted Him to be Head of his Church hath annexed to his Iurisdiction Hence it comes to pass that we find these Angels peculiarly both before and in the Gospel to have been employed about the Church-affairs In the Old Testament the Angiel Gabriel one of the Seven revealed to Daniel the time of the restauration of the Iewish State and coming of Messiah and the Angel Michael one of the chief Princes was his assistant when he strengthened Darius the Mede who founded the Monarchy which should restore them and is in special termed Dan. 12. 1. the Prince that stood for Daniel 's people In the Gospel we find the same Angel Gabriel imployed both to Zachary and the Blessed Virgin with the Evangelical Tidings and that Zachary might take notice that he was one of the Seven he says unto him I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God Likewise in the Churches combate with the Dragon Apocal. 12. 7 c. Michael and his Angels are said to be her Champions and in her quarrel to have cast the Dragon and his Angels down to the Earth And in this Prophecy of Zachary it is said that these Seven eyes of the Lord took care of one stone which Zorobabel laid for the foundation of the Temple and therefore the work could not be disappointed but should certainly at length be finished So as by this time we may guess the meaning of that which Hanani the Seer told King Asa 2 Chron. 16. 9. The Eyes of the Lord that is these Seven Eyes run to and fro through the whole Earth to shew themselves strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards him DISCOURSE XI S. MARK 11. 17. Is it not written My House shall be called a House of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all the Nations THEY are the words of our Blessed Saviour when he cast the Buyers and Sellers and Money-changers out of the Temple and forbad to carry any vessels through it Concerning which story it is worth observâ—â—â—on that our Saviour whilst he was upon earth never exercised any Kingly or coactive Iurisdiction but in vindicating his Father's House from prophanation And this he did two several times Once at the first Passeover after he began his Prophesie whereof you may read Iohn 2. 14 c. and now again at his last Passeover when he came to give his soul a sacrifice for sin This is that which S. Mark relates in this place as do also two other of the Evangelists S. Matthew and S. Luke The vindication of God's House from Prophanation how little account soever we are wont to
example many other of the Iews of the best rank having married strange wives likewise and loth to forgo them betook themselves thither also Sanballat willingly entertains them and makes his son-in-Law Manasse their Priest For whose greater reputation and state when Alexander the Great subdued the Persian Monarchy he obtained leave of him to build a Temple upon Mount Garizim where his son-in-Law exercised the office of High Priest This was exceedingly prejudicious to the Iews and the occasion of a continual Schism whilst those that were discontented or excommunicated at Ierusalem were wont to betake themselves thither Yet by this means the Samaritans having now one of the sons of Aaron to be their Chief Priest and so many other of the Iews both Priests and others mingled amongst them were brought at length to cast off all their false gods and to worship the Lord the God of Israel only Yet so that howsoever they seemed to themselves to be true worshippers and altogether free from Idolatry nevertheless they retained a smack thereof inasmuch as they worshipped the true God under a visible representation to wit of a Dove and circumcised their Children in the name thereof as the Iewish Tradition tells us who therefore always branded their worship with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spiritual Fornication Iust as their predecessors the Ten Tribes worshipped the same God of Israel under the similitude of a Cals This was the condition of the Samaritan Religion in our Saviour's time and if we weigh the matter well we shall find his words here to the woman very pliable to be construed with reference thereunto You ask saith he of the true place of worship whether Mount Garizim or Ierusalem which is not now greatly material forasmuch as the time is at hand when men shall worship the Father at neither But there is a greater difference between you and us than of Place though you take no notice of it namely even about the Object of worship it self For ye worship what ye know not but we Iews worship what we know How is that Thus Ye worship indeed the Father the God of Israel as we do but you worship him under a corporeal representation wherein you shew you know him not But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth In Spirit that is conceiving of him no otherwise than in Spirit and in Truth that is not under any corporeal or visible shape For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not fancying him as a Body but as indeed he is a Spirit For those who worship him under a corporeal similitude do beli◠him according as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 23. of such as changed the glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man Birds or Beasts They changed saith he the truth of God into a lie and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juxta Creatorem as or with the Creator who is blessed for ever v. 25. Hence Idols in Scripture are termed Lies as Amos 2. 4. Their Lies have caused them to erre after which their Fathers walked The Vulgar hath Seduxerunt eos Idola ipsorum Their Idols have caused them to erre And Esay 28. 15. We have made Lies our refuge And Ier. 16. 19 20. The Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say Surely our Fathers have possessed the Chaldee hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have worshipped a lie vanity wherein there is no profit Shall a man make Gods unto himself and they are no Gods This therefore I take to be the genuine meaning of this place and not that which is commonly supposed against external worship which I think this Demonstration will evince To worship what they know as the Iews are said to do and to worship in Spirit and Truth are taken by our Saviour for one and the same thing else the whole sense will be inconsequent But the Iews worshipped not God without Rites and Ceremonies who yet are supposed to worship him in Spirit and Truth Ergo To worship God without Rites and Ceremonies is not to worship him in Spirit and Truth according to the meaning here intended DISCOURSE XIII S. LUKE 24. 45 46. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures And said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day OUR Blessed Saviour after he was risen from the dead told his Disciples not only that his Suffering of death and Rising again the third day was foretold in the Scriptures but also pointed out those Scriptures unto them and opened their understanding that they might understand them that is he expounded or explained them unto them Certain it is therefore that somewhere in the Old Testament these things were foretold should befall Messiah Yea S. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 3 4. will further assure us that they are I delivered unto you saith he first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures Both of them therefore are somewhere foretold in the Scriptures and it becomes not us to be so ignorant as commonly we are which those Scriptures be which foretell them It is a main point of our Faith and that which the Iews most stumble at because their Doctors had not observed any such thing foretold to Messiah The more they were ignorant thereof the more it concerns us to be confirmed therein I thought good therefore to make this the Argument of my Discourse at this time to inform both you and my self where these things are foretold and if I can to point out those very Scriptures which our Saviour here expounded to his Disciples Which that I may the better do I will make the words fore-going my Text to be as the Pole-star in this my search These are the things saith our Saviour which I spake unto you while I was yet with you That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me Then follow the words I read Then opened he their understanding c. These two events therefore of Messiah's death and rising again the third day were foretold in these Three parts of Scripture In the Law of Moses or Pentateuch in the Nebiim or Prophets and in the Psalms and in these Three we must search for them And first for the First That Messiah should suffer death This was fore-signified in the Law or Pentateuch First in the story of Abraham where he was commanded to offer his son Isaac the son wherein his seed should be called and to whom the promise was entailed That in it should all the Nations
to Moses but as solennia verba in that Case to her Child whom she circumcised it remains I should now tell you how they are so construed I say therefore Tu mihi sponsus sanguinum in Zipporah's meaning is as much as Sis mihi initiatus circumcisione Be thou my Bloud-son or the like It is well known how Tropically those words of relation of kindred Father Mother Sister Son are used in the Hebrew Tongue and Son besides other notions to be often the circumlocution of our vox concreta as Filius percussionis the Son of striking is he that is stricken or worthy to be beaten Filius foederis the Son of the Covenant is he that is in Covenant or to whom the Covenant belongs Filius mortis the Son of death he that is condemned to die or worthy of death and the like And why may not then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gener sanguinum that is as the Holy Ghost expounds it circumcisionis be as much as circumcisus and Gener sanguinum tu mihi es for so I told you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies be as much as I pronounce thee circumcised As if the circumcised person by being married to Circumcision were made the Circumciser's Son-in-law and Circumcision's Bridegroom as Es or Sis mihi in generum desponsatus circumcisioni Now thou art or Be thou my Son-in-law being espoused to Circumcision Or if Bloud or Circumcision note the Instrument the Formula may be thus explicated That the person circumcised becomes God's Son-in-law as being wedded and joyned to his Church by the Bloud of Circumcision as with a Ring and then the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mihi must not be taken relatively to Zipporah as before but efficienter only in this sense Per me factus es gener Deo per sanguinem circumcisionis By me thou art made God's Son-in-law by the bloud of Circumcision or Feci te generum Deo I have made thee God's Son-in-law or if you like better the notion of Sponsus I have espoused thee to the Church of God by this rite of Circumcision or Thou art or Be thou espoused to the Church of God c. Thus as you see may the Formula be either way explicated to one and the same sense But the first I like the best because of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mihi the relative to Zipporah Tu mihi in generum es desponsatus circumcisioni Now thou art my Son-in-law being espoused to Circumcision Now lastly to free my Interpretation from novelty the sense I have given of these words is that which both the Septuagint and the Chaldee Paraphrast directly aim at the Paraphrast expounding it thus In sanguine circumcisionis istius datus est sponsus or gener mihi the Septuagint as we now read thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stetit sanguis circumcisionis filii mei where the Text is corrupted and I believe the Septuagint translated not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sit hic sanguis circumcisionis Filii mei a Periphrastical but evident sense with the change of one letter only From the sense of this place thus proved I will point at two Observations and so conclude The First is That it is lawful to use some fitting form of words in the exhibition of a Sacrament though not expresly ordained by God at the institution thereof as appears by this Form that Zipporah used no doubt ex more according to the custom then whatsoever the Form were after that time The Second is That the neglect of the Circumcision of a child then and so consequently of Baptizing it now makes not so much the Child as the Parents liable to the wrath of God As here the Angel sought not to kill the Child who was uncircumcised but Moses the Father who should have circumcised it Both which Observations I mean to amplifie no farther but leave them to your exacter meditations and so I conclude DISCOURSE XV. EZEKIEL 20. 20. Hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a sign between me and you to acknowledge that I Iehovah am your God THIS Commandment with the End thereof the Lord bids Ezekiel tell the Elders of Israel that he gave it to their Fathers in the Wilderness And it is recorded in the Law so that I might have taken it thence But I rather chose to make these words in Ezekiel my Text as expressed more plainly and so a Comment to those in the Law The place there is Exod. 31. 13. where this which my Text containeth is expressed thus Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations to acknowledge that I Iehovah am your sanctifier that is your God as the expression in Ezekiel tells us For to be the Sanctifier of a People and to be their God is all one whence also the Lord is so often called in Scripture the Holy One of Israel that is their Sanctifier and their God That which I intend at this time to observe from these words is the End why God commanded this Observation of the Sabbath to the Israelites to wit That thereby as by a Symbolum or Sign they might testifie and profess what God they worshipped Secondly out of this ground to shew How far and in what manner the like Observation binds us Christians who are worshippers of the same God whom the Iews worshipped though not under the same relation altogether wherein they worshipped him All Nations had something in their Ceremonies whereby they signified the God they worshipped So in those of the Celestial Gods as they termed them and those which were Deified Souls of men were differing Rites whereby the one was known from the other Those Gods which were made of men having Funeral rites in their services as Cogniâ—ances that they were Souls deceased and each of them some imitation of some remarkable passage of the Legend of their lives either of some action done by them or some accident which befel them as in the ceremonies of Osyris and Bacchus is obvious to any that reads them And indeed it is a natural Decorum for servants and vassals by some mark or cognisance to testifie who is their Lord and Master In the Revelation the worshippers of the Beast receive his mark and the worshippers of the Lamb carry his mark and his Father 's in their Fore-heads Hence came the first use of the Cross in Baptism as the mark of Christ the Deity to whom we are initiated and the same afterwards used in all Benedictions Prayers and Thanksgivings in token they were done in the name and merits of Christ crucified So that in the Primitive Church this Rite was no more but that wherewith we conclude all our Prayers and Thanksgivings when we say Through Iesus Christ our Lord and Saviour though afterward it came to be abused as almost all other Rites of Christianity to abominable Superstition To return therefore unto my Text. Agreeably to this Principle and this
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the Oak where Ioshua here in my Text set up this great Stone for a witness to Israel For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the other two places signifie one and the same thing to wit either an Oak Terebinth or some other kind of Tree as the Seventy perpetually render them Yea that of Iudges must of necessity so be rendred by comparing it with this of my Text to which it hath reference Nevertheless our last Translation in the first of these places Gen. 12. concerning Abram chose rather I know not wherefore to follow S. Hierome who follows not himself and translates it a Plain not an Oak to wit the Plain of Morch by which Translation the identity of that place with the other two where it is translated Oak is obscured and made the less observable If there be any difference between the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it should rather be this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signifie a Tree and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Grove Holt or Wood of such Trees as the Seventy in that place of the ninth of Iudges have expresly rendred it namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Quercetum Oak-toft or Holt of Sichem And so I believe it ought to be understood in the other places that is to be taken collectively of which we shall hear more hereafter But this is no great matter of difficulty that which follows is namely How this Oak or Oaken-holt of Sichem is said here in my Text to have been in for the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the Sanctuary of the Lord. For how comes the Sanctuary of the Lord to be at Sichem whenas the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Testimony were at Shiloh there set up by Ioshua himself and so remained as the Scripture elsewhere tells us until the time of the Captivity of the Land which without question was not till after Ioshua was dead and buried and is usually understood of that time when the Ark was taken captive by the Philistines And yet is not only here a Sanctuary mentioned at Sichem but in the beginning of the Chapter the Elders and Officers of the Tribes are said upon Ioshua's summons to have presented themselves there before the Lord which speech useth to imply as much If we say the Ark of God was taken out of its place at Shiloh and brought to Sichem by the Levites upon occasion of this general Assembly yet the difficulty will not be removed For first How could the Ark alone give denomination to the place where it stood to be called the Sanctuary of the Lord Or secondly If the Altar were there with it how was the Law of God observed which saith Thou shalt nâ—t plant a Grove of any trees or any tree near unto the Altar of the Lord thy God which thou shalt make thee Neither shalt thou set up a Pillar which the Lord thy God hateth whenas here are both an Oak or Quercetum in the Sanctuary of God and a Pillar or Statue erected under it Thirdly This Sanctuary whatsoever it was must be something which had a constant and fixed station and was not temporary and mutable and that because the Oak under which this Pillar was erected by Ioshua is here designed and pointed out by it as by a constant and standing mark else to what purpose had it been to sign out the Oak by it if it were such as would be here to day and not to morrow For these reasons it appears that this Sanctuary could not be the Tabernacle where the Ark and Altar for Israel were but that it was something else And what that should be is to be enquired I answer It was a Proseucha or praying-place which the Israelites at least those of Ephraim in whose lot it was after the Countrey was subdued unto them had erected in that very place at Sichem where God first appeared to Abram and where he built his first Altar after he was come into the Land of Canaan the place where God said unto him Unto thy seed will I give this Land For the understanding whereof you must take notice that the Iews besides their Tabernacle or Temple which was the only place for Sacrifice had first or last two sorts of Places for religious duties the one callet Proseuchae the other Synagogues The difference between which was this Proseucha was a plot of ground encompassed with a wall or some other like mound or inclosure and open above much like to our Courts the use properly for Prayer as the name Proseucha importeth A Synagogue was aedificium tectum a covered edifice as our Houses and Churches are where the Law and Prophets were read and expounded and the people instructed in divine matters according to that Acts 15. 21. Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day From whence also you may gather that Synagogues were within the Cities as Proseucha's were without which was another difference between them as you shall hear confirmed That Proseucha's were such places as I have described them to be I prove out of a notable place of Epiphanius a Iew bred and born in Palestine who in his Tract against the Massalian Hereticks after he hath told us that the Massaliani built themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. certain houses or large places like the ancients places of market which they called Proseuchae he goes on thus And that the Iews of old as also the Samaritans had certain places without the Cities for prayer which they call'd Proseucha's appears out of the acts of the Apostles where Lydia a seller of purple is said to have met with the Apostle Paul and to have heard him preaching in that place of which the Scripture saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seemed to be a place of prayer of which I shall say more anon He goes on still There is also at Sichem saith he which is now called Neapolis above a mile without the City a Proseucha or place of prayer like a Theatre which was built in the open air and without a roof by the Samaritans who affected to imitate the Iews in all things Out of these words you may collect every part of my Description First That Proseuchae were out of the Cities in the fields Secondly that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Ancients Fora or places of market and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the open air and without roof such as the Courts of the Temple also were whither the people came to pray so that they were as it were a kind of disjoyned and remoter Courts unto the Temple whither they turned themselves when they prayed in them Thirdly That they were ordained for places of Prayer All these are in this passage of Epiphanius
their assembly mine honour be not thou united And thus much of our first Observation There is another Lesson yet more to be learned from this Act of the Angels namely That if they glorifie God for our Happiness and the Favour of God towards us in Christ much more should we glorifie and magnifie his Goodness our selves to whom solely this Birth and the benefit of this Birth redounds If they sing Glory be to God on high for his Favour toward men we to whom such Favour is shewn must not hold our peace for shall they for us and not we for our selves No the Quire of Heaven did but set us in we are to bear a part and it should be a chief part since the best part is ours As therefore the Church in her publick Service hath ever since kept it up so must every one of us in particular never let it go down or die in our hands THUS much of the Quire Now come we to the Amhem or Song it self whose contents are two First The Doxology or Praise Glory be to God on high Secondly A Gratulation rendring the reason thereof Because of Peace on earth Good-will towards men For the conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be taken here for a copulative but as Vau is frequently in the Hebrew for a conjunction causal or for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory to God in the highest for that there is Peace on earth and Good-will towards men Or if we retain the copulative sense yet we must understand the words following as spoken by way of Gratulation Glory be to God on high and welcome Peace on earth Good-will towards men Or both causally and gratulatorily thus Glory be to God in the highest for ô factum bene there is Peace on earth and Good-will towards men To begin with the First The Doxology or Praise Glory be to God in the Highest that is Let the Angels glorifie him who dwell on high for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be referred to Glory and not to God the sense being Glorified be God by those on high and not God who dwells on high be glorified This may appear by the like expression in Psalm 148. 1 2. whence this Glorification seems to be borrowed Praise ye the Lord from the Heavens praise him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest Praise ye him all his Angels praise ye him all his Hosts And therefore Iunius for Praise ye the Lord from the Heavens hath Laudate eum coelites Praise him ye that dwell in Heaven The Chaldee for Praise him in excelsis hath Praise him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye high Angels In like manner here Gloria in excelsis Deo Glory to God in the highest are the words of the Angelical Quire inciting themselves and all the Host of Heaven to give glory and praise unto God for these wonderful tidings Now therefore let us see What this Glory is and How it is given to God To tell you every signification of the word Glory in Scripture might perhaps distract the hearer but would inform him little Nor will it be to purpose to reckon up every signification it hath when it is spoken of God I will therefore name only the two principal ones And first Glory when it is referred to God often signifies the Divine Presence or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in this Chapter a little before my Text when it is said The GLORY of the Lord shone round about the Shepherds and they were sore afraid But this is not the signification in my Text but another which I shall now tell you For Glory besides signifies in Scripture the high and glorious Supereminency or Majesty of God which consisteth in his threefold Supremacy of Power of Wisdom and of Goodness And as words of Eminency and Dignity with us as Majesty Highness Honour Worship are used for the Persons themselves to whom such Dignity belongeth as when we say his Majesty his Highness his Honour his Worship so in the Scripture and among the Hebrews His Glory or the Glory of the Lord is used to note the Divine Essence or Deity it self As in 2 Pet. 1. 17. There came a voice saith S. Peter from the excellent GLORY that is from God the Father This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Rom. 1. 23. the Gentiles are said to have changed the GLORY of the incorruptible God into the likeness of things corruptible As it is said in Psal. 106. 20. of the Israelites in the Wilderness that they changed their GLORY into the similitude of an Oxe that eateth grass S. Iohn chap. 1. 14. of his Gospel says of the Son We beheld his GLORY the glory as of the only-begotten Son of God According to which sense he is called Heb. 1. 3. The Brightness of his Father's glory and the express Image of his person where the latter words are an exposition of the former Image expounding Brightness and Person or Substance expounding Glory If Glory therefore signifie the Divine Majesty or Greatness to Glorifie or give Glory unto God is nothing else but to acknowledge and confess this Majesty or Greatness of His namely his Supereminent Power his Wisdom and Goodness for in the peerless supereminency of these Three under which all his other Attributes are comprehended his Glorious Majesty consisteth Take this withal That all the religious service and worship we give unto God whether we praise him pray or give thanks unto him is nothing else but the acknowledging of this Glory either in deed or word namely by confessing it or doing some act whereby we acknowledge it To come to particulars By our Faith we confess his Wisdom and Truth by our Thanksgiving his Goodness and Mercy when we Pray we acknowledge his Power and Dominion and therefore the form of prayer our Saviour taught us concludes For thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory In Praise we confess all these or any of them according to that in the Hymn of the Church Te Deum laudamus Te Dominum confitemur We praise thee O God we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All which is evident by those forms of Glorification set down in the Apocalyps which are nothing else but express and particular acknowledgements of the Greatness or Majesty of God and his peerless prerogatives When the four Wights are said to have given Glory Honour and Thanks to him that sate upon the Throne what was their Ditty but this Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created When the Lamb opened the Book with seven Seals the Wights the Elders and every creature in Heaven in earth and under the earth sung Worthy is the Lamb to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Blessing And again Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and
depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee so if we examine the use thereof in the New Testament 〈◊〉 shall find it in special applied to this our Reconciliation to God in Christ by reâ—â—â—sion of sin S. Peter to Cornelius Acts 10. 36. describes the Gospel thus The word which God sent to the children to Israel preaching peace by Iesus Christ. And S. Paul Col. 1. 19 20. It pleased God the Father that in Christ all fulness should dwell And having made peace through the bloud of his Cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself What can be plainer than this The same as I take it he means Eph. 2. 17. when he tells us that Christ came to preach peace both to those that were afar off and to them that were nigh that is both to Iew and Gentile But what peace namely that through him we both might have access by one Spirit unto the Father Hence the Gospel is called The Gospel of peace and God so often in the New Testament The God of peace that is of reconcilement and favour and the Evangelical salutation is Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and Iesus Christ our Lord. The meaning of this Angelical Gratulation being thus cleared let us see now what may be learned and observed therefrom Where my first Observation shall be this S. Peter tells Cornelius that to Christ give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Our Saviour after his Resurrection expounding the Scriptures to his Apostles says the same Luke 24. 46 47. Thus it is written saith he and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day And that remission of sins should be preached in his Name among the Nations But where is this Publication of remission of sins by Christ written for in those formal words we shall hardly find it Let us take here the Angels Key and we shall for they tell us that Peace on earth is this Good-will towards men Now do not the Prophets speak of some Peace on earth which Messiah should bring with him when he comes Yes surely Well then let us look for this Publication of remission 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under that name and we shall find it Esay 9. 6. Vnto us a Child is born unto as a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor The mighty God The Father of eternity The Prince of peace that is of peace not between men and men but between God and men and of the increase of his government and peace shall be no end Esay 52. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Zion Thy God reigneth Which place S. Paul Rom. 10. 15 interprets of the publication of the Gospel of Christ Esay 53. 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him that is he suffered for the remission of our sins Esay 57. 19. quoted by S. Paul to the Ephesians chap. 2. 17. Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord and I will heal him Ezek. 34. 24 25. I the Lord will be their God and my servant David King Messiah a Prince among them And I will make a Covenant of peace with them So Chap. 37. 26. Hag. 2. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts Zech. 9. 9 10. Shout O daughter of Ierusalem behold thy King cometh unto thee and he shall speak peace unto the Heathen and his Dominion shall be from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the end of the earth Thus much of the Use to be made of the Angels expression in this heavenly Carol Now I shall propound to your consideration another and that taken from the argument it self namely That if Almighty God our Heavenly Father be so graciously disposed to us-ward as to be reconciled unto us by forgiving us our trespasses then ought we semblably to be reconciled to our brethren and forgive them their trespasses when they have wronged or offended us Leo Serm. 6. de Nativit Natalis Domini natalis est pacis c. The Birth-day of our Lord is the Birth-day of peace and therefore let all the faithful offer up unto God their Father the united affections of peaceable-spirited children The Illation is good we have the authority of the Apostle S. Iohn to back it 1 Ioh. 4. 10 11. God saith he so loved us that he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins What follows Beloved saith he If God so loved us we ought to love one another So say I If God be so gracious to forgive and be reconciled to us we ought as it were to eccho this his loving-kindness and to forgive and be reconciled one to another This Congruity or semblableness of our Actions and Affections one towards another with God's Favour and Mercy towards us is the Rule and Reason not only of this but of many other duties he requires at our hands Thus the Iews were every seventh year to manumise their servants as an act of Congruity and Thankfulness to God who had delivered them when they were servants out of the land of Egypt and house of bondage They were bidden to use a stranger kindly because themselves had been strangers and God when they were oppressed had been compassionate and kind towards them and redeemed them from their thraldom Likewise we read in the Gospel Luke 6. 36. Ee ye merciful as your Father also is merciful and Matth. 5. 7. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy In a word God hath revealed he will shew mercy to none but such as appear before him with this Congruity Iames 2. 13. He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy And therefore the tenour of our Sentence at the last Iudgment runs Come ye Blessed and be partakers of mercy because ye have shewed it But Go ye Cursed without all mercy into Hell-fire because ye have shewed no mercy Thus we see how God requires this Congruity in general And as for the particular of reconcilement and forgiving our brother it is written in capital letters and urged in such sort as it might not unfitly be termed The Livery of Christianity Insomuch that if we consider it duly it cannot but breed astonishment that the evidence and necessity should be so apparent and the practice among those who look for the benefit of Christ and call upon his Name so little regarded whenas I dare boldly pronounce there is no remission of sins to be looked
them that trespass against us DISCOURSE XXV S. MARK 1. 14 15. Now after that Iohn was put in prison Iesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God And saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and Believe the Gospel THESE words are a Narration of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ his first beginning to preach the Gospel which they describe 1. By the Time when 2. By the Place where 3. By the Summe of what he preached 1. The Time when After that Iohn was put in prison 2. The Place where Galilee Iesus came into Galilee preaching c. 3. Lastly The Summe of what he preached The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel In which Sermon there are also some parts to be considered which we shall more conveniently distinguish when we come to handle it Mean while let us begin with the Three parts or circumstances already named in order And first with the First The Time when After that Iohn was put in prison Our Saviour began not his solemn preaching till his Messenger Iohn the Baptist who was sent to prepare his way was cast into prison This circumstance is elsewhere precisely noted in the Scripture so that we cannot doubt but there is some matter of moment therein For S. Matthew tells us as S. Mark doth Now when Iesus had heard saith he that Iohn was cast into prison he departed into Galilee and then it follows From that time Iesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand So S. Peter Acts 10. when he came to preach the Gospel of Christ to Cornelius was careful to mention this circumstance of Time as well as the other of Place The word saith he V. 36 37. which God sent unto the children of Israel preaching peace by Iesus Christ he is Lord of all That word I say you know which was published throughout all Iudaea and began from Galilee after the Baptism which Iohn preached Loe here the Place Galilee and the Time After that Iohn Baptist had done as in my Text. All which argues this circumstance of Time to be one of the marks of the true Messiah as namely That this Iesus was that Lord whom they looked for who was to send a messenger before him the voice of a cryer in the wilderness to usher his preaching and prepare the way of his Gospel as was prophesied by Esay and Malachi and the Iews at that time expected Which was the reason of that scruple of the Disciples in the Gospel when they saw our Saviour and Elias whom they supposed should be his Forerunner appear in glory both together at his Transfiguration Why then say they do the Scribes say that Elias must come first Our Saviour tells them that Iohn Baptist was that Elias the Forerunner of Messiah according to those words of his Father Zachary And thou child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways namely as the Angel told him in the power and spirit of Elias For this reason as our Saviour was not conceived nor born till six months after Iohn so he began not his prophecy till Iohn had done that so the Scripture might be fulfilled and Iohn be his forerunner and messenger both in the one and the other And lastly to conclude the illustration of this circumstance Iohn was not only a Forerunner of our Saviour in his Nativity and Prophecy but also in his Passion and Suffering For so our Saviour himself expresly saith Matth. 17. 12. Elias is come and they knew him not but have done unto him whatsoever they listed even so also shall the Son of man suffer of them Now for the Observation or if you will the Consideration I will make upon this circumstance it shall be this If that Messiah according to Prophecy were to have an Harbinger to prepare the way for his coming and the Holy Ghost in the New Testament thought this circumstance so needful to prove the verity thereof as so curiously to note it in the history of his Nativity Preaching and Suffering It would be considered seeing the coming of Christ is twofold First and Second whether the same Prophecy imply not that there should be an Harbinger as well of his Second coming as of his First as well an Elias to prepare the way for his coming in glory to judge the world as there was at his First coming in humility to preach the Gospel and suffer for the world An Elias I mean to be the Harbinger of Christ to the nation of the Iews before his Second coming as Iohn Baptist was at his First For to the Iews alone is this Elias promised and not to the Gentiles and Iohn Baptist we know the Elias of his First coming preacht to them alone It is well known that all the Fathers unless S. Hierom somewhat staggered were of this opinion and why we should so wholly reject it as we are wont to do I can see no sufficient reason For if the Fathers erred concerning the person and other circumstances of this Elias yet it follows not but the substance of their opinion might be true As we know also they erred concerning the person quality and reign of Antichrist and yet for the substance the thing was true Our Saviour rejected not the Tradition of the Scribes concerning the coming of Elias when the Apostles objected it though it were mingled with some falshood but corrected it only for they looked for Elias the Thisbite but our Saviour admits it only of Elias in Spirit not of Elias in Person so yielding it true for the substance though erring in circumstance So should we do in the like case For he that throws away what he finds because it is foul and dirty may perchance sometimes cast away a Iewel or a piece of gold or silver So he that wholly rejects an ancient Tenet because it hath some Error annexed to it may unawares cast away a Truth as this seems to be of an Elias to be the Harbinger of Christ's Second coming and that for these Reasons First Though the Prophecy of Esaias The voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight alledged by all the four Evangelists and by Iohn himself seems appliable only to the First coming of Christ yet the other out of Malachi expresly quoted by S. Mark and by our Saviour Matth. 11. 14. though elsewhere alluded unto seems by Malachi himself to be applied not only to the First coming of Christ but also to his Second coming to Iudgment For in his last chapter speaking of the coming of that day which shall burn like an oven wherein all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble and it shall burn them up leaving neither
blemish in the Consecration makes the act it self void It appears in the story of Korah Dathan and Abiram in that oblation of Incense made by the two hundred and fifty Princes of the Congregation whose service though it were so displeasing unto the Lord that he sent fire from heaven to consume them yet when all was done he gave this commandment to Moses Speak saith he unto Eleazer the son of Aaron the Priest that he take up the censers out of the burning and scatter thou the fire yonder for they are hallowed The censers of those sinners against their souls let them make of them broad plates for a covering of the Altar for they offered them before the Lord therefore they are hallowed Numb 16. 37 38. Mark here Though they were offered by sinful men and in a sinful manner and were not to be used any more for Censers yet must they be applied to some other holy use because they were become sacred by having been offered unto the Lord. So Rabbi Solomon Iarchi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnlawful for common use because they had made them vessels of Ministery My last Observation is raised from the Iudgment which befel Ananias That it must needs be a hainous sin which God so severely punished namely with death For there is no Example to be found again in the whole New Testament of so severe a Punishment inflicted by the mouth of the Apostles for any sin whatsoever But this was the first Consecration of goods that ever was made unto Christ our Lord after he was invested to sit at the right hand of God and this transgression of Ananias and Sapphira the first Sacriledge that ever was committed against him Wherefore it was requisite that by the severity of the punishment thereof he should now manifest unto men what account he made of and how hainous he esteemed that Sin that it might be for an Example to the world's end unto all that should afterward believe in his name to beware thereof So saith S. Hierome Ananias Sapphira quia post votum obtulerunt quasi sua non ejus cui semel ea voverant praesentem meruere vindictam non crudelitate Sententiae sed correctionis exemplo Ananias and Sapphira most worthily deserved to be so severely punished viz. with death because that after their vow they presented the price of their estate as if it had been their own and not God's to whom they had given it and withal kept back and reserved to themselves part of that which was no more theirs but anothers viz. God's Nor was this an over-severe and cruel sentence but an useful exemplary Severity that others might amend and beware of offending in the like kind For the First in every kind is the Measure of that which follows and though Sacriledge be not since punished by God as often as it is committed by such a visible death yet was it his purpose that by this First punishment we should take notice how great that Sin was and how displeasing in his sight which was a punishment by the greatest visible judgment that could be The like severe Example to this and for the like end was that upon him who at first proâ—aned the Sabbath-day in the Wilderness by gathering sticks Numb 15. 32 c. who by the sentence of God himself was put to death and stoned by the whole Congregation that the Iews hereby might know that howsoever the like were not ordinarily afterward to be inflicted for the like sin yet the gravity thereof in the eyes of God was still the same which that First severity intimated Furthermore it is worthy to be noted that we find three Examples of such a kind of coactive jurisdiction if I may so term it exercised either by our Saviour when he was here on earth or by his Apostles and all three for the profanation of that which was sacred The first two by our Saviour himself against those that profaned his Temple by buying and selling therein as a common place For which at the first Passeover after his beginning to preach the Gospel he made him a whip and whipped such profaners out of it saying Make not my Father's house a house of Merchandise Iohn 2. 16. Another time which was at his last Passeover He overthrew the Tables of the Money-changers and the seats of them that sold Doves and would not suffer any to carry a Vessel through the Temple telling them that his house was made for an house of prayer but they had made it a den of Thieves Matt. 21. 12. Mark 11. 15. Luke 19. 45. The third Example is this which the Apostle Peter exercised upon Ananias and Sapphira for Sacriledge Whereby it should appear that how small account soever we are now-a-days wont to make of these sins yet in God's esteem they are other manner of ones than we take them for Another argument of the hainousness of the sin of Sacriledge is That there was no Sacrifice appointed in the Law to make atonement for the same if it were committed willingly and wittingly but only if it were ignorantly done For so we have it Levit. 5. 15 16. If a soul commit a trespass and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord he shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord a Ram without blemish out of the flock And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing and add the fifth part thereunto And the Priest shall make an atonement for him and it shall be forgiven him Thus if it were done ignorantly but if wittingly and presumptuously there was no atonement appointed for it though for other sins there be even to Perjury it self For as it is in Mal. 3. 8. Will a man rob his God Another proof and testimony of the hainousness of this Sin is that so ancient a custom in Dedications to lade it with a Curse Which to be no late custom as some may suppose taken up among Christians but used both by Iew and Gentile before Christ was born may appear by that Decree of King Darius for the building of the Temple of Ierusalem which concludes with this Execration The God that hath caused his Name to dwell there destroy all Kings and people that shall put to their hand to destroy this House of God which is at Ierusalem I Darius have made a Decree let it be done with speed Ezra 6. 12. From this custom it came that Anathema signifies both a Donary given unto a Temple and an accursed thing or that which hath a curse with it So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew a thing cursed and destined to destruction and also a kind of offering or consecration which had a curse laid upon it namely a curse to him that should meddle with it Which kind of Consecration had this peculiar that even the very individual might never be altered changed or redeemed upon any terms Leviâ— 27. 28. whereas other offerings
their sins According to the Law none should appear before the Lord empty what offering what sacrifice then must we bring when we come in to Christ but that which David who well knew tells us Psal. 51. 17. The sacrifice of God saith he is a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Thus must they come furnished whom Christ inviteth For this is that which S. Paul calls 2 Cor. 7. 10. a sorrow after God or a godly sorrow which saith he worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of For understanding therefore of this Metaphor in my Text we must know That Sin is compared in Scripture unto a burthen wherewith every sinner is loaden yea overcharged a burthen intolerable So Psal. 38. 4. Mine iniquities saith David are gone over mine head as a heavie burthen they are too heavie for me Ver. 6. I am troubled I am bowed down greatly Ver. 8. I am feeble and sore broken I have roared because of the disquietness of my heart S. Paul followeth the manner of speech when he tells us 2 Tim. 3. 6. of silly women laden with sin and led away with divers lusts This loading and pressure of sin is in respect of a twofold weight which oppresseth the Soul the one of Punishment the other of Loathsomness For the weight of Punishment it is the ordinary style of the Prophets to term God's Iudgments for sin by the name of burthens Iehu calls his execution upon Iehoram the burthen which the Lord laid upon his father Ahab 2 King 9. 25. So S. Paul saith Gal. 6. 5. that every one shall bear his own burthen For the other the Loathsomness of sin that also weighs heavie Ah sinful Nation saith the Prophet Esay ch 1. 4. a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers and it follows v. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores This also is a part of David's burthen Psal. 38. 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness I am troubled or wryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incurvatus sum I am bowed down greatly Is Sin indeed so heavie a thing how then do we make it so light a matter Nullum onus saith Ambrose Ep. 18. gravius est quà m sarcina peccatorum pondus flagitiorum No burthen is more heavie no load more pressing to the Soul than the weight and load of Sin If every thing that presseth down be heavy how heavy is that which presseth down to Hell that is unto that depth of woe whose bottom can never be fathom'd Is Sin so heavy a thing indeed how comes it then to pass we feel it not Our case is so much the more fearful and dangerous For saith Chrysosiome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The evil is so much the greater by how much it seems to be the lesser For Physicians all agree that those are most dangerously sick who have no sense and feeling of their sickness whereas on the contrary to be sensible of pain is a sign the sickness is not deadly Happy therefore are those who can add the other word to this being not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laden but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 labouring under the weight of their burthen These are those whom Christ calleth and these are those whose condition we are now to consider that we may know it and whether our selves be any of that number That a man therefore may truly be said to labour and be weary of his burthen two things are requisite First That he feel and be sensible of the weight thereof Secondly That he desire to be rid thereof He must feel and be sensible of the weight thereof Now the weight of sin as I told you is twofold First The weight of Punishment and secondly The load of Loathsomness The first and soonest felt is that of Punishment which as it is the grossest weight so may it be felt while the sense of the Soul is yet but gross and dull But to feel the other that is to loath our sin requires a quicker and more tender sense which is not easily attained to unless the Soul be first well rubbed and galled with the weight of Punishment The entry therefore and as it were the porch of Penitence are those Terrors and Pangs of the Soul affrighted with the apprehension of the Wrath of God for Sin and of the danger we are in therefore When the piercing sting of an accusing conscience upbraids us and tells us we are in a state to be damned eternally That if I should die this day this night this hour I must go to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth there to yell and howl with devils in pains unspeakable and be tormented for ever and ever When our Soul is stricken with horror to think how long we have lived in this danger and how little we thought thereof nay how securely we encreased our score as though we should never have come to a reckoning for the same how often God might have taken me away in the midst of my sins and where had I been then yea what shall become of me if he should do it now O how am I afraid of this moment who feared nothing so many years These are those arrows of the Almighty which must go through our Souls at the beginning of our Repentance That we may take up the words of David Psal. 38. 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure v. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore v. 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin This is a good beginning but is no more than a beginning for yet we labour not enough yet we are not weary enough for Christ to call us unto him This is but as the prick of a needle making way for the thread We must go further else this will do us no good For thus far as to be sensible and affected with the punishment due for sin to be terrified with the weight of the wrath of God which lies upon us for the same thus far he may come who shall be damned For it is common to the desperate reprobate as well as to the children of God to Iudas who hanged himself to Cain whom God drove out from his presence for he could say and confess to God himself My punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4. 13. Let us therefore see what we are further to add unto it And that is a sense and feeling of the foulness loathsomness and odiousness of Sin If If we feel not our selves affected with this weight the former groaning will be accounted no better with God than hypocrisie and slavish fear for this is the soul and the life of a godly sorrow indeed without which the other is
shewed himself according to his style A God gracious and merciful long-suffering and slow to anger But when these Iews notwithstanding this second tender not only continued in their former obstinacy refusing to accept him for their Redeemer but also misused and persecuted his Ambassadors sent unto them this their ingratitude was so hideous and hainous in the eyes of God that he could bear with them no longer but resolved thenceforth to cast them off and chuse himself a Church among the Gentiles To prepare a way whereunto he sent a Vision much about the same time both to Peter who was then by reason of the Iews persecution fled to Ioppa and to Cornelius a Gentile Captain of the Italian Band living at Caesarea upon that coast ordaining the one Peter to be the Messenger and Preacher and the other Cornelius to be the first Gentile which should be partaker of the Faith of Christ. Therefore accordingly Peter's Vision was to admonish him not to make scruple as all Iews did of conversing with a Gentile as unclean signified by a sheet let down from heaven wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the aire that is of all both clean and unclean wherewith came also a Voice saying Rise Peter kill and eat Whereunto when Peter answered Not so Lord for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean the Voice replies What God hath cleansed that call not thou unclean Now as this Vision was to give Peter commission to go unto Cornelius so was Cornelius his Vision to command him to send for Peter For he saw in a Vision at the ninth hour of the day an Angel of the Lord coming unto him and saying Cornelius Whom when Cornelius beholding and being afraid said What is it Lord The Angel said unto him Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial or had in remembrance before God And now send men to Ioppa and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter and he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do And thus have I brought the Story as far as my Text which is as you see a part of this Message of the Angel to Cornelius namely his Report And he said unto him Thy Prayers and thine Alms c. Wherein I will consider two things First Who was the man and what was the condition of this person to whom the Angel spake namely Cornelius And the Angel said unto him Secondly What the Message or Report he brought importeth Thy Prayers and thine Alms-deeds are come in remembrance before God To begin with the First The man here spoken to as you may read in the beginning of the Chapter and as I have in some part already told you was Cornelius a Gentile Captain of the Italian Band at Caesarea and so no doubt himself of that Nation To understand which ye must know that at this time the Land of Iury like as most other Nations were was under the Roman Empire and ruled by a President of their appointing which President had his Court and Seat at Caesarea a great and magnificent City upon the Palestine coast some seventy miles from Ierusalem where was continually a guard of Souldiers both for the President 's safety and awing the subdued Iews and among these was our Cornelius a Commander being Captain of the Italian Band. But howsoever he were by race and breeding a Gentile yet for Religion he was no Idolater but a worshipper of the true God the God of Israel or God the Creator of heaven and earth For the Text tells us that he was a devout man and one that scared God with all his house who gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alway which is as much as to say he was a Proselyte for so were those converted Gentiles called who left their false Gods and worshipped the true Yet was he not circumcised nor had taken upon him the yoke of Moses Law and so was not accounted a member of the Church of Israel wherefore according to the Ordinances of the Law he was esteemed unclean and so not lawful for Peter or any other circumcised Iew to company with him had not God given Peter and Item that he should thenceforth call no man unclean forasmuch as that badge of separation was now dissolved For the better understanding of this we must know there were while the Legal worship stood two sorts of Proselytes or converted Gentiles One sort which were called Proselytes of the Covenant These were such as were circumcised and submitted themselves to the whole Mosaical Pedagogy These came into the Court of Israel to worship being accounted Iews and as freely conversed with as if they had been so born But there was a second sort of Proselytes inferior unto these whom they called Proselytes of the Gate These were not circumcised nor conformed themselves to the Mosaical Rites and Ordinances only they were tied to the obedience of those Commandments which the Hebrew Doctors call the Commandments of Noah that is such as all the sons of Noah were bound to observe Which were 1. To worship God the Creator 2. To disclaim the service of Idols 3. To abstain from Bloud namely both from the effusion of man's bloud and 4. from eating flesh with the bloud therein 5. To abstain from Fornication and all unlawful conjunction 6. To administer Iustice and 7. To abstain from Robbery and do as they would be done to And such Proselytes as these howsoever they were reputed Gentiles and such as with whom the Iews might not converse as being no free denizons of Israel yet did the Iewish Doctors yield them a part in the life to come Such a Proselyte was Naaman the Syrian and of such there were many in our Saviour's time and such an one was our Cornelius Hence it was that when afterward there arose a Controversie in the Church Whether or no the Gentiles which believed were to be circumcised and so bound to observe the Ordinances and Rites of Moses S. Peter in the Council of the Apostles at Ierusalem determined It was the will of God they should not and that upon this ground Because Cornelius the first believing Gentile was no circumcised Proselyte but a Proselyte of the Gate only and yet nevertheless when himself was sent as ye have heard to preach the Gospel of Christ to him and his house the Holy Ghost came down upon them as well as upon the Circumcision Whereby it was manifest that God would have the rest of the Gentiles which believed to have no more imposed upon them than Cornelius had and accordingly the Council concluded that no other burthen should be laid upon them but only those Precepts given to the sons of Noah To abstain from pollutions of Idols from bloud from things strangled and from fornication and the rest which they had received already
which is given for the relief of the poor the Orphan and the Widow which is called Alms. For not only our Tithes but our Alms are an Offering unto Almighty God So Prov. 15. 17. He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord and Chap. 14. 31. He that hath mercy on the poor honoureth his Maker And our Saviour will tell us at the day of Iudgment that what was done unto them was done unto him This then is the Reason why we must give Alms because they are the Tribute of our Thanksgiving whereby we acknowledge we are God's Tenants and hold all we have of him that is of the Mannor of Heaven without which duty and service we have not the lawful use of what we possess Whence our Saviour tells the Pharisees who stood so much upon the washing of the Cup and Platter left their meat and drink should be unclean Give alms saith he of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you Luke 11. 41. Now that this Acknowledgment of God's Dominion was the End of the Offerings of the Law both those wherewith the Priests and Levites were maintained and those wherewith the poor the Orphan and the Widow were relieved appears by the solemn profession those who pay'd them were to make Deut. 26. where he that brought a basket of first-fruits to the house of God was to say I profess this day unto the Lord that I am come unto the Country which the Lord sware unto our Fathers for to give us And when the Priest had taken the basket he was to say thus verse 5 c. A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous And the Egyptians evil intreated us c. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm c. And brought us into this place and hath given us this land even a land that floweth with milk and honey And now behold I have brought the first-fruits of the land which thou O Lord hast given me And thou shalt set it saith the Text before the Lord thy God and worship before the Lord thy God This was to be done every year But for Tithes the profession was made every third year because then the course of all manner of Tithing came about For two years they pay'd the Levite's Tithe and the Festival Tithe the third year they pay'd the Levite's Tithe and the poor man's Tithe So that year the course of Tithing being finished the party was to make a solemn profession When thou hast made an end saith the Lord of Tithing all the Tithes of thine increase the third year which is the year of Tithing that is when the Tithing course finisheth and hast given it to the Levite the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widow that they may eat within thy Gates and be filled Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the hallowed thing out of mine house and also have given it to the Levite and to the Stranger to the Fatherless and to the Widow according to all the Commandments which thou hast commanded me Look down from thy holy habitation from heaven and bless thy people Israel and the land which thou hast given us as thou swarest to our Fathers a land that floweth with milk and honey What we have seen in these two sorts is to be supposed to be the End of all other Offerings for pious uses which were not Sacrifices namely To acknowledge God to be the Lord and Giver of all As we see in that royal Offering which David with the Princes and Chieâ—tains of Israel made for the building of the Temple 1 Chron. 29. 11 c. where David acknowledgeth thus Thine O Lord is the Kingdom and thou art exalted as Head over all Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thine hand is power and might and in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all Now therefore our God we thank thee and praise thy glorious Name For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee For this Reason there was never time since God first gave the Earth to the sons of men wherein this Acknowledgment was not made by setting apart something of that he had given them to that purpose In the state of Paradise among all the Trees in the garden which God gave man freely to enjoy one Tree was Noli me tangere and reserved to God as holy in token that he was Lord of the garden So that the First sin of Mankind for the species of the fact was Sacriledge in prosaning that which was holy For which he was cast out of Paradise and the Earth cursed for his sake â—ecause he had violated the sign of his Fealty unto the great Landlord of the whole Earth Might I not say that many a man unto this day is cast out of his Paradise and the labours of his hands cursed for the same sin But to go on After man's ejection out of Paradise the first service that ever we read was erformed unto God was of this kind Abel bringing the best of his flock and Cain of the fruit of his ground for an Offering or Present unto the Lord. The first spoils that ever we read gotten from an Enemy in war paid Tithes to Melchisedâ—k the Priest of the most High God as an Acknowledgment that he had given Abraham the Victory Melâ—hisedck blessing God in his name to be the possessor of heaven and earth and to have delivered his enemies into his hand To which Abraham said Amen by paying him Tithes of all Iacob promiseth God that if he would give him any thing for at that time he had nothing he would give him the Tenth of what he should give him which is as much to say as he would acknowledge and profess him to be the Giver after the accustomed manner For the Time of the Law I may skip over that it is well enough known no man will deny it But let us come to the Time of the Gospel which though it hath freed us from the bondage of Typical Elements yet hath it not freed us from the profession of our Pealty unto God as Lord of the whole Earth 'T were strange methinks to affirm it I am sure the ancient Church next the Apostles thought otherwise I will quote for a witness Irenaeus who tells us that our Saviour when he took part of the Viands of his last Supper and giving thanks with them consecrated them into a Sacrament of his body and bloud set his Church an example of dedicating part of the creature in Dominicos usus Dominus saith he dans discipulis suis consilium Primitias Deo offerre ex suis creaturis non quasi indigenti
here described to be one upon whom God bestowed a special favour or grace a special 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace of the holy Ministery for so S. Paul calls this power of Order a grace or favour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eph. 3. 8. Vnto me who am less than the least of all Saints is this grace given to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And of Timothy the same Apostle speaketh Neglect not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or grace in thee which was given by prophecy with the imposition of hands With this grace was Levi graced with this favour was he highly favoured and well might be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's highly favoured one And thus the issue will be all one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this sense will fall out to be God's holy one in the last sense For to be specially favoured of God is to have a special relation to God-ward to be God's more especially and this is to be holy with a Relative holiness Now which soever of these we take to be here meant we see that that is in special given to Levi which otherwise was common to all the other Tribes If you take it in the first sense for Holiness in life as it were to put Levi in mind how it behoved him above all to be holy were not all the Tribes as holy as Levi and yet Levi alone is called God's holy one If you take it in the second sense for a Relative holiness were not all the Tribes of Israel thus holy unto God were not all his own people his peculiar people and a chosen Nation and yet Levi alone is called God's holy one If you take it in the last sense for God's favoured one were not all Israel a Nation favoured of God above all Nations and yet Levi alone is especially called God's favoured one 1. We therefore whom God hath set apart to minister about holy things we who are holy unto the Lord and God's own in a peculiar manner we who have a special relation unto God we who have received a special favour from God We must remember we owe a special thankfulness unto him We who are God's peculiars must demean our selves peculiarly both toward God and man We are unto God as other men are not and therefore may not always do as other man do We cannot reason from others to our selves no not in things of themselves lawful Why should not we do as every man may do For all that is lawful for others will not be seemly for us for we are the houshold-servants of the most High we are special men of whom God requires a special demeanour in life and actions This was one cause why God enjoyned the Iews so many peculiar Rites and special Observations differing from the fashions of other people because they were his peculiar people an holy Nation because they were toward him as no other was though all the world were His and therefore he would have their manners differ from the fashion of all other Nations as a badge and acknowledgment of that special relation they had to him above others Levit. 20. 24 25 26. I saith God am the Lord your God which have separated you from other people Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean unclean fowls and clean c. And ye shall be holy unto me For I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that you should be mine This was also a cause why God restrained the Priests of the Law from that which was lawful for the rest of the people They might drink no Wine they might not mourn for their kin they might not marry a divorced woman the reason of all this is given because they were holy unto the Lord that is with a Relative holiness as being God's men in a special manner and therefore he required they should specially demean themselves in their lives These Observations indeed were Ceremonial but there is something Moral in them And therefore in the New Testament we hear of some special things required in a Minister as that he should have a good report of those who were without this was not required in every one who was to be a Christian. Again S. Paul requires in a Bishop that he should be the husband of one wife this was not in those times required of every one who was to be a Christian. I shall not need to tell you what special demeanor the ancient Church bound her Clergy unto But it came to pass at last this Rule was over-practised by them for hence it was that a Bishop might not marry at all that Priests and Deacons might not marry being once in Orders and at last marriage was quite forbidden them all Thus our Fathers erred on the right hand but we go aside on the left They restrained their Clergy from that which was lawful for and beseemed all men we think almost that lawful for us which is lawful for no man at least we think that which any man may do we may do also But there is a golden Mean between these Extreams happy is he that finds it for he alone shall demean himself like himself like a Levite like God's holy one 2. From this special title given to Levi we may note how causlesly some are offended to hear those who minister about holy Things distinguished from others by names of holiness and peculiarity to hear them called Clerus and Clerici The Clergy as it were the Heritage of God for so saith S. Ierome Clerus dicimur quia sors Dei sumus We are called Clerus or the Clergy because we are the lot and portion of God But say they are not the People also God's Heritage Doth not S. Peter call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he forbids Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to domineer over God's heritage I confess he doth But those who reason after this manner come too near the language of Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 3. Moses and Aaron you take too much upon you Is not all the Congregation holy every one of them and is not the Lord among them why then lift ye your selves above the Congregation of the Lord If this reasoning had been good wherein had these Rebels offended It could not be denied them that all the People were an holy People for they might have alledged the testimony of God himself avouching them to be his peculiar People and an holy People unto the Lord their God All the earth saith he Exod. 19. 5. is mine but you shall be my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my peculiar people a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation But it might be answered them Though all the people were God's peculiar people and therefore his holy ones yet Levi was his peculiar Tribe of his peculiar people and therefore comparatively his
only holy one All the Land of Canaan was the Lord's The Land is mine saith he and therefore it could not be alienate beyond the year of Iubilee and yet for all this there were some parts of the Land specially called Holy unto the Lord. All the increase of corn all the increase of wine all the fruit of the field was the Lord's and yet the Offerings alone were called Holy unto the Lord. God himself calls them his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his inheritance and therefore gave them unto that Tribe alone which alone he had made his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tribe of his inheritance So the offered Tribe lived of God's offerings the holy Tribe on the holy things Again why may we not call our Clergy God's inheritance when God himself calls the Levites his Levites Thou shalt saith he Num. 8. 14. separate the Levites from among the children of Israel and the Levite shall be mine that is my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Clergy Why may not we call the Ministers of Christ his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or inheritance when he himself calls them the gift his Father gave him out of the world for so he saith Ioh. 17. 6. I have declared thy name unto the men thou gavest me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me and again ver 11. Holy Father keep them in thy name even them whom thou hast given me If you say he speaks here of all his Elect the words following v. 12. prove the contrary for those saith he whom thou hast given me I have kept and none of them is lost but the child of perdition Here he plainly affirms he lost one of those his Father gave him wherefore he speaks not of his Elect ones for those no man can take out of his hands Again ver 18. As thou didst send me into the world saith he so I sent them into the world but I hope all the Elect are not sent as Christ was sent by his Father I conclude therefore So long as God in the Law says specially of the Levites They are mine So long as Christ in the Gospel of his Apostles They are mine O Father which thou hast given me out of the world it is neither arrogancy nor injury to stile those who minister about holy things by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inheritance of the Lord. WHAT LEVI was and what is meant by this Title God 's Holy one we have now shewed sufficiently It remains we should come unto the words containing the Blessing it self which is called Vrim and Thummim the words themselves signifie Light and Perfection Illumination and Integrity good endowments certainly whosoever shall enjoy them But because they are not only Appellative words but also Proper names of certain things we must enquire further what is meant by them and that in a twofold consideration First specially and properly as they are names of certain things belonging in special unto the High Priest Then generally as they are applied by Moses unto the whole Tribe of Levi. The first again shall be twofold What they were in the High Priest personally or what they signified in him typically himself being also a Type For the first What is meant by these things as they belong unto the High Priest personally is a matter full of controversie and therefore that we may the better proceed we will first see the Generals wherein all or the most agree and after come unto the particulars wherein they disagree The first wherein all agree is that this Vrim and Thummim was something put in the Breast-plate which was fastned to the Ephod over against the Heart of the High Priest And thus much the Scripture witnesseth Exod. 28. 30. where God saith to Moses And thou shalt put in the Breast-plate of Iudgment the Vrim and the Thummim and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord. And for this cause as most think was the Breast-plate made double that the Vrim and Thummim might be enveloped therein The second thing wherein all agree is That this Vrim and Thummim was a kind of Oracle whereby God gave answer to those that enquired of him and from hence the Septuagint call the whole Breast-plate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some turn Rationale but might more truly be turned Orationale for an Oracle is as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the voice of God though this Voice or Revelation were of divers kinds for at sundry times and in divers manners saith S. Paul God spake in old time to our Fathers The Iews therefore make four kinds of Divine Revelation First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prophecy which was by Dreams and Visions The second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost as was in Iob David and others The third Urim and Thummim which was the Oracle The fourth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Voice from heaven which was usual in the second Temple after the Oracle had ceased as Matt. 3. 17. at Christ's Baptism there came a Voice from heaven saying This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and Ioh. 12. 28. when Christ said Father glorifie thy name There came a Voice from heaâ—â—â— like thunder saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again But to return again to our purpose That Urim and Thummim was an Oracle of God besides the consent of Iews and others it is plain by Scripture Num. 27. when God had commanded Moses to put his hands upon Ioshua and to set him over the congregation in his stead he addes Vers. 21. And he that is Ioshua shall stand before Eleazar the Priest who shall ask counsel for him by the judgment of Urim before the Lord. So 1 Sam. 23. when David was to ask counsel of the Lord he called for the Ephod wherein the Oracle was and whereas before he had once or twice asked counsel of the Lord concerning Keilah to prevent the objection how the Lord answered it follows in the next by way of a Prolepsis That Abiathar then Priest when he fled to David to Keilah brought the Ephod with him vers 6. Lastly in the second of Ezra when certain of the Priests which returned from Captivity could not find their names written in the Genealogies it is said vers 63. that the Tirshatha commanded they should not eat of the most holy things till there rose up a Priest with Urim and Thummim that is till God should by Oracle reveal whether they were Priests or no whereby it also appears that this Oracle had then ceased And for more light to that we have in hand it will not be amiss to observe that Teraphim among the Idolaters was answerable to the Urim and Thummim of the holy Patriarchs Both were ancient For Rachel is said to have stollen away her Father 's Teraphim and Urim and Thummim seems to have been used among the Patriarchs
the Serpent and what the Heel of the Woman's 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 marvel for the Head is as it were the whole Bodie 's Epitome But we who have expounded The seed of the woman collectively of Christ and his Members must also in this mystical Body find a mystical Head and a mystical 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 Serpent's head is the Devil's Soveraignty which is called Principatus 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 temporal and eternal and such a Soveraignty whose power consists not in saving and giving of life but in destroying and bringing 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 Sceptre whereby it is maintained or as S. Paul speaks the Sting of this Serpent's head is Sin This is that which got him this Kingdom at the first and this is still the right whereby he holds the greatest part thereof Imperium iisdem artibus conservaâ—ur quibus acquiritur By the same arts and methods is an Empire conserved by the which it was at first obtained This Soveraignty of the Devil which once overwhelmed â—igh all the world the Woman's 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 was manifested 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 wonderful victory he hath long ago gotten of the Serpent when after a terrible battel he overcame and destroyed the Soveraignty of the Serpent in the Roman Empire see it described in the 12. of the Revelation v. 7 8. where 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 v. 10. Now is come salvation strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. And what he will at the length do with the remainder yet of the Devil's Soveraignty you may find in the 19. and 20. chapters of the Revelation For he must reign as S. Paul saith until he hath put all his enemies under his feet until 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 Kingdom unto his Father as it is 1 Cor. 15. 25 c. 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 Christ's Manhood But now we expound the seed Christ's Mystical Body what shall we make the Heel thereof I could say that by it were only meant a light wound or the Devil 's 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 hypocritical Christians who profess Christ outwardly but inwardly are not his to make these the heel of his Mystical 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 Lord's Headship and Soveraignty But will you give me leave to utter another conceit If the Blessed souls in heaven be the upper part of Christ's mystical 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 believe but they have relation to this mystical 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 Devil's 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 Michael's 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 poyson of Saint-worship and Saint-invocation into the Kingdom of Christ with which wound of the heel the Devil coming on the blind side the true Church had been long annoyed and limpeth still DISCOURSE XLIII 2 PETER 2. 1. But there were false Prophets also among the people even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction MANY are the Prophesies in Scripture wherein the Holy Ghost forewarns us of a great and solemn Defection and Corruption of Faith which should one day overspread the visible Face of the Catholick Church of Christ and eclipse the light of Christian Verity and Belief S. Paul 2 Thes. 2. 3. foretels us that there should be an Apostasie or Falling away of Christians and the Man of sin be revealed before the coming of the day of the Lord. The same Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 1. tells us that though the great Mystery of Godliness spoken of chap. 3. 16. were then preached among the Gentiles and believed on in the world yet the Spirit spake expresly that in the latter times some should depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils or Daemons S. Iohn tells
us Rev. 17. 5. that the Christian Rome of the Spouse of Christ should become a Babylonish strumpet and the Mother of the fornications and abominations of the Earth At the same mark aimeth this Prophecy of my Text though perhaps less taken notice of than the rest The evidence whereof I hope you will confess with me when I have unfolded the same Understand therefore that the Words I have read are A prediction of a Corruption of Faith which should one day surprise and overcloud the visible Church or that company of men upon whom the name of Christ was called and who outwardly professed him to be their Lord and Redeemer This Corruption is here set First generally both for the matter and the manner For the matter There shall be false Teachers among you who shall bring in damnable Heresies For the manner it should be done privily Who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies Secondly The Apostle also specially informs us of what kind and sort these damnable Heresies should be that so we might not only know that Heresies should be but be forewarned also what they should be and that by a double mark and description For first They should be like unto those which we read have befallen the people and Church of Israel There were false Prophets also among the people i.e. the Iews even as there shall be false Teachers among you The second mark is That these Heresies should be of such a kind as men who openly professed themselves Christians and servants of Christ should yet deny Christ to be their Lord and Master for saith our Apostle They shall deny the Lord that bought them that is professing themselves to be of that number of men whom Christ had purchased with his bloud or the bought servants of Christ they should nevertheless deny their Lord who bought them The last thing he tells us is the Doom which should befall such as had interest in these Heresies They should bring upon themselves swift destruction To begin with the general description of the matter There shall be false Teachers among you which shall bring in damnable Heresies The time should be when the Doctors of the Church should teach falsly and the people with them believe damnably For we must understand that these false Teachers should not be a few only here and there one nor these Heresies scattered only in some few places but that this Corruption was to be such a one as should cover and overwhelm the face of the visible Church For the Great Defection was to be a general and solemn one such a one as should stain the whole body with the soul name of Whore of Babylon Rev. 17. 5. Such a one as whereby the Court of the Temple of God should not only be prophaned but even troden down by Gentilism Rev. 11. 2. Such a one as the World is said to wonder after the Beast and worship him Rev. 13. 3 4. Such a one as should not only make War with the true Saints but overcome them Rev. 13. 7. Otherwise if S. Iohn and S. Paul should mean no more but the errors of particular men and their trouble from the Church they should make no Prophecy at all or a needless one For who knows not that in S. Paul's S. Iohn's and the Apostles own times were divers Heresies and Hereticks here and there dispersed and grown up as Weeds in the wheat-field of Christ but the wheat yet overtopped them and the known body of the visible Church disclaimed them Of such as these therefore they could not mean when they foretell of a corruption to come in after-times or as Paul speaks 1 Tim. 4. 1. in the latter times for no man uses to foretell of things which are already as if they were to come Nor would the Apostles foretell of Heresies as it were special to the after and latter times if they were but such and in such manner as was but usual and no novelty in their own time The corruption and desection therefore so much prophesied of was another manner of one such a kind of one as before neither had been in the Church nor was to be namely such a one as should not be disclaimed by the body of the Church but should surprise eclipse and overwhelm and as it were overcloud the visible Church it self which should be as when the Heavens are overcast so as the bright Firmament with the stars and lights therein can no more be seen If this be so then may we hence observe how vain and idle that challenge of our Adversaries is when they bid us shew our Church to have been always visiâ—â—e and to give them the names of those who have been of our Belief in all Ages since Christ and his Apostles times What may they not have been although we cannot name them This is as unreasonable a demand as to require a man to shew him and point him where the Sun is when the whole face of Heaven is overcast with Clouds would you not believe the Sun were in the Firmament and risen in a cloudy day though no man could point and shew you with his finger where she is yes I am sure you would and say too that there may be other signs thereof though a man cannot see her as namely Day-light which never is without the Sun yea and now and then we may have a glimpse of her through a thinner cloud which assures us thereof Even so when the great Defection as a Cloud overspread the face of the Christian Firmament the visible Church of Christ for divers Ages together though the Cloud be for a great part so thick as it will not suffer us to discern the company of those who still kept intire the true and unstained Faith of the Gospel yet we rest assured that it was under the Cloud because some Day-light of Christianity still appeared which argued the Sun was in the Firmament though the great Cloud overshadowed her yea and now and then we can shew and spy some glimpse of her as often as any breach happened in the Cloud which overcast her I might also make use of that Parable of our Saviour where the Church or Kingdom of God for both is one is compared to a Field where the Master sowed good seed but while men slept the Enemy that wicked one came and sowed tares among the Wheat If the tares once grow so many and so high that they quite overshadow the wheat whereof there is but little left can a man who stands a good way off shew the wheat from the tares with his finger I think not though if the wheat overmasters the tares he easily might This is the very case of the true Church so long as the Apostasie prevailed And we who live now are something far off if we had been nearer as those were who lived then we might have discerned the wheat a great deal better But if you would yet be more fully informed how
name of Islands of the Gentiles and no other were called by this name but these The truth of this may be seen in many places of the Bible whereof I will quote the most pregnant Esay 11. 10 11. The Prophet shewing the Calling of the Gentiles by an allusion of the restoring of the Iews from the places where they were dispersed maketh an Induction of those places and countries wherein they were scattered saying The Lord shall recover the remnant of his people from Assyria Egypt Pathros Cush Elam Shinar Hamath and from the Islands of the Gentiles Here by the Islands of the Gentiles are meant distinct places from those before named and places too where the Iews were scattered but these can be no other but the countries of Armenia the less which together with the rest that he names were under the Empire of the Assyrians Medes and Persians And because this Prophecy is to be understood of the Calling of the Gentiles the Prophet in his Induction would not omit those places where he only laboured who was surnamed The Apostle of the Gentiles and which were from the beginning and are at this day the principal seat of Christian Churches So that at this day there is no part of the world called by the name of Christendome but that which is divided from the Iews by Sea even the blessed Iaphet and the happy Islands of the Gentiles And this was foreshewed by the Prophets in that they never spake of the Calling of the Gentiles but they harped upon the Islands of the Gentiles The same Prophet Esay ch 40. 15. to shew God's Omnipotency and great power speaketh after this manner Behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing Where if by Isles we mean those which we call Islands the comparison of disparity will not hang together because those which we call Islands are indeed very little things It remains therefore that by Islands here are meant those huge Countries which were beyond the Sea in regard of Egypt and Palaestine Again in ch 42. he saith The Isles shall wait for the Law of God What is here meant by Isles you may easily guess by that I said before and that which followeth in the same Chapter will help you Sing unto the Lord a new song ye that go down to the Sea that is ye which dwell low to the Sea-ward and if ye ask who these are the very next words will tell you namely the Isles and the inhabitants thereof Where is plainly expounded who are meant by the inhabitants of the Isles namely those that dwell downward to the Sea-ward Moreover Ieremy 2. 10. we find Pass over to the Isles of Chittim but the Island of Chittim was no Island or place encircled by the Sea unless Macedonia be an Island for Alexander is said in 1 Maccab. 1. 1. to have come forth of the land of Chettim and in Ch. 8. 5. Perseus King of Macedonia is called King of the Citims In Ezek. 27. 3. Tyrus is called a merchant of people for many Islands because unto Tyrus came many people from beyond the Sea for merchandise And lastly in 1 Maccab. 14. 5. which I hope will be a sufficient testimony to shew what the Iews called by the name of Isles of the Gentiles among the Commendations of Simon one of the worthy Maccabees it is said That he took Ioppa for an haven and for an entrance to the Isles of the Sea where it is more than manifest that by the Isles of the Sea the Iews meant those Nations which came to them by Sea Now if this be so That the Iews called those Countries the Isles of the Gentiles which were divided from them by Sea we may see how true that opinion is though commonly received which affirmeth that the posterity of Madai one of the Sons of Iaphet are those Medes who were compartners with the Persians in the Second Monarchy For he that hath any skill in Geography knows that this Media is not divided from the Iews by Sea and therefore cannot be one of the Islands of the Gentiles unless Mesopotamia and Assyria be also Islands of the Gentiles And yet my Text says That Of these namely of the seven Sons of Iaphet whereof Madai is one were divided the Islands of the Gentiles The occasion of this Errour for so I take it to be was the mistaking of Iosephus who says that of Madai came those people which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But first I doubt whether the Greeks called those Medes so famous in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or not rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iosephus means those Medes which had title in the Second Monarchy he can no ways agree with himself for a little before he said that the posterity of Iaphet had their seat from the mountain Amanus Westward but these Medes lie above the Persians from the mountain Amanus Eastward But if any man ask where then was the original seat of the Sons of Madai I will defer mine answer till I come to assign to the several Sons of Iaphet their several habitations HAVING found out that part of the Earth which was divided among the posterity of our Father Iaphet I come now to the Second part of my General consideration to make another search Concerning the manner of this Division and the Order of their dwelling and neighbourhood one with another And here my Text answers That they were sorted every one according to his Language according to his Family and according to his Nation Whence before we come to particular examination of every word we may observe That this great Division of the Earth was performed orderly and that they are much deceived who dream of a confused and irregular Dispersion wherein every one went whither he listed and seated himself where he liked best For besides that these latter words of my Text imply the clean contrary the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also which we translate divided will bear the force of an Argument to this purpose in that it signifies not a scattering or a confusion but a most distinct partition Or if there were no such insinuation in my Text yet there may be many Reasons drawn from the Circumstances of this Division which will enforce the same Verity 1. As first The Custome and as it were the property of Almighty God in all those Actions wherein he hath a special hand and directs by a special providence according to that saying God is not the Author of Confusion but of Order And if in any other surely in this God's Providence was seen most especially it being so principal an action and as it were the ground and foundation of the Second propagation of Mankind 2. Another Argument lieth in the End why God multiplied the Languages of these builders
most High THE Book of Psalms is a Book of Prophecies witness the frequent citing of them by our Lord and his Apostles witness the Surname of King David who being the penman of no other but this Book is styled the Prophet David I say the Psalms are Prophecies and that both Concerning Christ himself and also the Church which should be after him Concerning Christ himself it needs must be Saith he in the Gospel Luke 24. 24. These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you That all things must be fulfilled which were written of me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the PSALMS and more especially concerning his Beginning S. Paul quotes the words of the Psalm speaking in the Person of God Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and again concerning his Office Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek Now for the Church of the Gospel and calling of the Gentiles as many parts of many Psalms do foretel thereof so is this whole Psalm a description of the same 1. What manner of one it should be 2. What worship God would establish therein For the first it should be Catholick and gathered out of all Nations The God of Gods saith the beginning of the Psalm v. 1 2. even the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof Out of Sion the perfection of beauty hath God shined Agreeable to the words of the Gospel it self That it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Ierusalem and that it did begin at Ierusalem where Christ himself began where the Holy Ghost came down in cloven tongues So out of Sion God shined our God came and kept not silence for a fire came before him and a tempest moved round about him Now for the Worship and service which Christ would establish in his new reformed Church it concerns either the First or the Second Table For the First Table it tells us What Offerings God would abolish namely all Typical Offerings or all the Offerings of fire and then What Offerings he would accept to wit the Offerings of Praise and Prayer Offer unto God Praise and pay thy Vows unto the most High For the Second Table it commands a right and upright conversation from the 16. verse unto the last and the last is the Summe or a brief summary of both Tables He that offereth Praise shall glorifie me and to him that disposeth his way aright will I shew the Salvation of the Lord. But to return again to the reformation of the First Table whereof my Text is the Affirmative part where as I said we are told both What Offerings God will not have offered and What Offerings he requireth He will no longer have any Typical Offerings any Offerings of fire or bloudy Sacrifices For I will not saith he reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings I will take no bullock out of thine house nor goats out of thy folds For all the beasts of the forrests are mine and the beasts on a thousand hills If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the world is mine and all that therein is Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the bloud of goats Nevertheless he still requireth Offerings of Thanksgiving and a Present when we come to pray unto him so faith my Text Offer unto God Praise c. And so here is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul saith in a like case He taketh away the first that he may establish the second But as in Typical Speeches it often comes to pass that the things which are spoken are true both in the Type and Antitype as that in Hosea 11. 1. Out of Egypt have I called my Son was in some sense true both of Christ and Israel and that in Exod. 12. 46. Thou shalt not break a bone thereof was true literally both of Christ and the Paschal lamb and that in Psal. 22. 18. They parted my garments among them was true figuratively in David and literally in Christ Even so it comes to pass in Prophecies and namely in this That it so foretells of things to come that it concerned also the time present it foretells the estate of the Church in the Gospel and yet meant something that concerned the present Church of the Law To which purpose we must frame the sense after this manner That God even then did not so much regard the Offerings of fire and Expiatory sacrifices as he did the Offerings of Praise and Thanksgiving because the first were Ceremonial the other Moral the first their End was changeable the other everlasting So that in respect of the Catholick Church the words of my Text are an Antithesis or Aphaeresis with the former I will in no sort have any Typical and Bloudy Offerings but only Offerings of Praise and Prayer But in respect of the Legal Church or the Church of the Law they are a Protimesis or Estimation I require not so much any Typical offerings as I do that you should offer unto me Praise and pay your Vows unto the most High For so when God saith elsewhere I will have mercy and not sacrifice it is no Antithesis but a Protimesis that I had rather have mercy than sacrifice So again Matth. 6. 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven this is no Antithesis or Aphaeresis as though Christ would not have us at all provide for things of this life but a Protimesis he would not have us take so much care for this life as for the life to come The Scope therefore of my Text is to shew What kind of Offerings God did chiefly accept under the Law and doth only require in the Gospel to wit two sorts of Offerings Eucharistical and Euctical or Votal Eucharistical Offerings are such whose End is Thanksgiving to God for Benefits received which are here termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Offerings of Praise Euctical I call such as are made to God upon occasion of suit we have unto him that is when we come to pray before him that he might accept our supplications and we find favour in his sight And this is performed two manner of ways either by promise if God shall hear us and grant our petition which is called a Vow or by actual exhibition at the time we do pray unto him An example of the first kind is that of Iacob If the Lord shall be with me and bring me back again of all I have the Tenth will I give unto him The second was much used in the first times of the Christian Church and of it in the Law we understand
from all your transgressions for why will ye die O ye house of Israel namely that death wherewith God threatned them if they should continue in their sins they might prevent by returning to him by repentance And so saith God to Ieremy in chap. 26. 2 3. Speak all the words that I command thee to speak unto them If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings Lo here If we repent us of our Sins God will also repent him of his Iudgments that is he will not send them Thus when the Ninevites repented in Sackcloth and ashes it is said Ionah 3. 10. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil may and God repented of that is he brought not upon them the evil that he had said he would do unto them And so if Laodicea in my Text should leave her Lukewarmness God who would have chastised her because he loved her would yet withhold her chastisements because she repented Would we then avoid the Iudgments of God hanging over our heads Let us not then defer our Repentance Would we not have the flaming fire of God's wrath and vengeance to consume us Let us repent of our Lukewarmness and get this sacred Fire of Zeal the only means to preserve us Be zealous therefore and repent DISCOURSE LIII 1 Ep. IOHN 2. 3. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments MAN that is born of a woman saith Iob is of short continuance and full of trouble Nay our days are not so few but they are also as full of sorrow full of unquietness and discontent no hour is without no estate is free from him that sitteth upon the glorious throne unto him that is beneath in the earth and ashes from him that is clothed in silk and wears a crown even unto him that is clothed in simple raiment He that had attained the highest pitch of worldly felicity King Solomon who was great and encreased above all that were before him in Ierusalem whose eyes had whatsoever they desired who withheld not his heart from any joy yet when he had considered all he could see no good thing under the Sun nothing wherein he could find true hearts-content but cryed out Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of Spirit All things are full of Labour man cannot utter it Yea Pleasure it self is linkt with pain and sorrow Extrema gaudii semper occupat luctus In vain then do men take up their rest where they have not long to stay in vain do they seek for comfort in those things where no true comfort can be found There is but one thing in the world that can make this miserable life happy unto us and that is so to demean our selves while we live here as that we may be assured of the Life to come This is that will make us not to feel the sorrows and troubles of this life This is that will make us with ease to swallow the bitter pills of Death it self when we can say with Iob I know or I am sure that my Redeemer liveth and that these eyes shall see him though worms consume this body of mine But the greatest part of men think no such Assurance can be had and therefore think it but labour lost to seek after it Others on the contrary are too credulous assuring themselves of God's savour and of eternal life without any proof or trial of their Assurance whether it be true or no. That both these sorts of men may see what a dangerous Error they are in let them peruse but this one Epistle of S. Iohn and out of the whole Epistle let them consider with me a while the Verse which I have read let them hear what the Spirit saith by the beloved Apostle of the Lord By this we do know or come to be assured that we know him if we keep his Commandments The first part of these words tells us of an Assurance to be gotten and lest we might deceive our selves the other part tells us what that is whereby we come to be assured and whereby we may prove insallibly whether our Assurance which we have conceived be good or no viz. If we keep his Commandments By this we do know or we are sure so the former Translation and it comes all to one that we know him if we keep his Commandments In the first part of these words all is plain and there is nothing hard to be understood but only what is meant by this Knowing of Christ what manner of Knowledge this should be which is here spoken of For there are diverse kinds of knowing Christ. There is a Knowledge which the very Devils have the Devils saith S. Iames believe also and tremble and in Luke 4. 34. we read that the Devil said unto Christ I know thee who thou art the holy one of God and in verse 41. that other Devils also came out of many whom they possessed crying out and saying Thou art Christ the Son of God but Christ rebuked them and would not suffer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say that they knew him to be Christ. There is a Knowledge likewise which the wicked may have but it is like unto the Knowledge which Devils have For the wicked may know Christ to be the Son of God they may know he died upon the Cross for the sins of men they may know that he is gone up into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of his Father in glory everlasting but alas this Knowledge if they have no more than it will not profit them at all it will never stand them in stead but rather make them more inexcusable at the Day of Iudgment But the Knowledge which the Text speaks of it is the Knowledge of the Faithful yea it is the Knowledge of Faith yea it is Faith it self For this Knowledge of Christ is to know him to be our Christ to know him to be our Redeemer to know him to be the Propitiation for our sins as well as for the sins of other men This you see is Faith it self and this is the Knowledge here meant as you may easily see further if you do but read the words going next before my Text where our Apostle saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And he is the Propitiation for our sins and then come the words of my Text And hereby we know or we are sure that we know him that is Hereby we know him to be as was said before our Advocate our Propitiation all this we are sure we know he is to us if that we keep his Commandments If therefore Faith be a Knowledge If to believe in Christ to be know Christ how then can Faith and Ignorance stand together how can an ignorant
be made by God's appointment at Mount Sinai but was much more ancient Noah built an Altar as soon as he came out of the Arkâ— Abraham Isaac and Iacob wheresoever they came to pitch their Tents erected Places for Divine worship that is Altars with their septs and enclosures without any special appointment from God Iacob in particular vowed a place for Divine worship by the name of God's House where he would pay the Tithes of all that God should give him Gen. 28. 19 c. Lo here a Church endowed Yea Moses himself Exod. 33. 7. before the Ark and that glorious Tabernacle were yet made pitched a Tabernacle for the same purpose without the Camp whither every one that sought the Lord was to go And all this was done tanquam recepti moris as a thing of custom and as mankind by Tradition had learned to accommodate the Worship of their God by appropriating some Place to that use Nature teaching them that the work was honoured and dignified by the peculiarness of the place appointed for the same and that if any work were so to be honoured there was nothing it more beseemed than the Worship and service of Almighty God the most peculiar and incommunicable act of all other Nay more than this It was believed in those elder times That that Country or Territory wherein no Place was set apart for the Worship of God was unhallowed and unclean Which I think I rightly gather from that Story in the Book of Iosua of the Altar built by Reuben Gad and the half Tribe of Manasseh upon the bank of the River Iordan which Iosua and the Elders as their words intimate supposed they had done lest the land of their possession being by the River Iordan cut off from the land of Canaan where the Lord's Tabernacle was and so having no place therein consecrated to the worship of their God might otherwise be an unclean and unhallowed habitation Hear the words of Phinehas and the Princes sent to disswade them Iosua 22. 19. and judge whether they import not as I have said If the land say they of your possession be unclean then pass ye â—ver unto the land of the possession of the LORD where the LORD'S Tabernacle dwelleth and take possession amongst us but rebel not against the LORD nor against us in building you an Altar besides the Altar of the LORD your God Now concerning the condition and property of Places thus sanctified or hallowed what it is whence can we learn better than from that which the Lord spake unto Moses Exod. 20. immediately after he had pronounced the Decalogue from Mount Sinai where premising that they should not make with him gods of gold and gods of silver but that they should make himâ— an Altar of earth as namely their ambulatory state then permitted otherwise of stone and thereon sacrifice their burnt-offerings and peace-offerings he adds in all places where I record my Name I will come unto thee and bless thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In every place where the remembrance or memorial of my Name shall be or Wheresoever that is which I have or shall appoint to be the remembrance or memorial of my Name and presence there I will come unto thee and bless thee Lo here a description of the Place set apart for Divine worship It is the Place where God records his Name and comes unto men to bless them Two things are here specified The Monument Record or Memorial of God's Name secondly His coming or meeting therewith men Of both let us enquire distinctly what they mean I know it would not be untrue to say in general That God's Name is recorded or remembred in that place upon which his Name is called or which is called by his Name as the Scripture speaks that is which is dedicate to his worship and service But there is some more special thing intended here namely the Memorial or Monument of God's Name is that token or Symbole whereby he testifieth his Covenant and commerce with men Now although the Arkâ— called the Ark of the Covenant or Testimony wherein lay the two Tables namely the Book or Articles of the Covenant and Manna the Bread of the Covenant were afterwards made for this purpose to be the standing Memorial of God's Name and Presence with his people yet cannot that be here either only or specially aimed at because when these words were spoken it had no being nor was there yet any commandment given concerning the making thereof Wherefore the Record here mentioned I understand with a more general reference to any Memorial whereby God's Covenant and commerce with men was testified such as were the Sacrifices immediately before spoken of and the seat of them the Altar which therefore may seem to be in some sort the more particularly here pointed unto For that these were Rites of remembrance whereby the Name of God was commemorated or recorded and his Covenant with men renewed and testified might be easily proved Whence it is that that which was burned upon the Altar is so often called the Memorial as in Leviticus the 2. 5. 6 and 24. chapters Accordingly the son of Sirach tells us chap. 45. 16. that Aaron was chosen out of all men living to offer Sacrifices to the Lord incense and a sweet savour for a Memorial to make reconciliation for his people Add also that Esay 66. 3. Qui recordatur thure quasi qui benedicat Idolo He that without true contrition and humiliation before the Lord recordeth or maketh remembrance with incense is as if he blessed an Idol But I must not stay too long upon this You will say What is all this to us now in the time of the Gospel I answer Yes For did not Christ ordain the holy Eucharist to be the Memorial of his Name in the New Testament This saith he is my Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do this for my Commemoration or in Memorial of me And what if I should affirm that Christ is as much present here as the Lord was upon the Mercy-seat between the Cherubims Why should not then the Place of this Memorial under the Gospel have some semblable sanctity to that where the Name of God was recorded in the Law And though we be not now tied to one only Place as those under the Law were and that God heareth the faithful prayers of his Servants wheresoever they are made unto him as also he did then yet should not the Places of his Memorial be promiscuous and common but set apart to that sacred purpose In a word All those sacred Memorials of the Iewish Temple are both comprehended and excelled in this One of Christians the Sacrifices Shew-bread and Ark of the Covenant Christ's Body and Bloud in the Eucharist being all these unto us in the New Testament agreeable to that of the Apostle Rom. 3. 25. God hath set forth Iesus Christ to be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through faith in
though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow c. and that in Esay the last To this man will I look to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit He that killeth an ox namely otherwise is as if he slew a man he that Sacrificeth a lamb unless he comes with this disposition as if he cut off a dog's neck he that offereth an oblation as if he offered bloud he that burneth incense as if he blessed an Idol And surely he that blesseth an Idol is so far from renewing a Covenant with the Lord his God that he breaks it So did they who without conscience of Repentance presumed to come before him with a Sacrifice not procure atonement but aggravate their breach According to one of these three senses are all passages in the Old Testament disparaging and rejecting Sacrifices literally to be understood namely when men preferred them before the greater things of the Law valued them out of their degree as an antecedent duty or placed their efficacy in the naked Rite as if ought accrued to God thereby God would no longer own them for any ordinance of his nor indeed in that disguise put upon them were they I will except only one Passage out of the number which I suppose to have a singular meaning to wit that of David in the 51. Psalm v. 16 17. which the ancient translations thus express Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium dedissem utique sed holocaustis non oblectaberis vel holocaustum non acceptabis Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus c. If thou wouldst have had a Sacrifice I would have offered it but thou wilt accept no burnt-offering c. For this seems to be meant of that special case of Adulterie and Murther which David here deploreth for which Sins the Lord had provided no Sacrifice in his Law Wherefore David in this his Penitential confession tells him That if he had appointed any Sacrifice for expiation of this kind of sin he would have given it him but he had ordained none save only a broken spirit and a contrite heart which thou O God saith he wilt not despise but accept that alone for a Sacrifice in this case without which Sacrifice in no case is accepted Now out of this Discourse we are sufficiently furnished for the understanding of this Caution of Solomon in my Text Be more ready to obey than to offer the Sacrifice of fools or as the words in the Original import Be more approaching God with a purpose and resolution of obedience to his Commandments than with the Sacrifice of fools that is Have a care rather to approach the Divine Majesty with an offering of an obediential disposition than with the bare and naked Rite But the sense is still the same namely The House of God at Ierusalem was an House of sacrifice which they who came thither to worship offered unto the Divine Majesty to make way for their prayers and supplications unto him or to find favour in his sight Solomon therefore gives them here a caveat not to place their Religion either only or chiefly in the external Rite but in their readiness to hear and keep the Commandments of God without which that Rite alone would avail them nothing but be no better than the sacrifice of fools who when they do evil think they do well For without this readiness to obey this purpose of heart to live according to his Commandments God accepts of no Sacrifice from those who approach him nor will pardon their transgressions when they come before him He therefore that makes no conscience of sinning against God and yet thinks to be expiate by Sacrifice is an ignorant fool how wise and religious soever he may think himself to be or appear unto men by the multitude or greatness of his Sacrifices The reason Because the Lord requires Obedience antecedently and absolutely but Sacrifice consequently only and then too not primariò or chiefly and for it self but secondarily only as a testimony of Coutrition and a ready desire and purpose in the offerer to continue in his favour by Obedience This is Solomon's the Preacher's meaning Wherein behold as in a glass the condition of all external Service of God in general as that which he accepteth no otherwise than secondarily namely as issuing from a Heart respectively affected with that devotion it importeth For God as he is a living God so he requires a living worship But as the Body without the Soul is but a carkass so is all external and bodily worship wherein the pulse of the Heart's devotion beats not But if this be so you will say it were better to use no external worship at all of course as we do the worship of the Body in the gestures of bowing kneeling standing and the like than to incur this danger of serving God with a dead and hypocritical service because it is not like the Heart will be always duly affected when the outward worship shall be required I answer Where there is a true and real intent to honour God with outward and bodily worship there the act is not Hypocrisie though accompanied with many defects and imperfections Here therefore that Rule of our Saviour touching the greater and lesser things of the Law must have place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things that is the greater things of the Law we ought to do and not to leave the other though the lesser undone For otherwise if this reasoning were admitted a man might upon the same ground absent himself from coming to Church upon the days and times appointed or come thither but now and then alledging the indisposition of his Heart to joyn with the Church in her publick worship at other times or if he came thither act a mute and when others sing and praise God be altogether silent and not open his mouth nor say Amen when others do For all these are external services and the service of the voice and gesture are in this respect all one there is no difference But who would not think this to be very absurd We should rather upon every such occasion rouse and stir up our Affections with fit and seasonable meditations that what the order and decency of ◠Church-assembly requires to be done of every member outwardly we may likewise do devoutly and acceptably These things we ought to do and not leave the other undone But you will say What if I cannot bring my Heart unto that religious fear and devotion which the outward worship I should perform requireth I could say that some of the outward worship which a man performs in a Church-assembly he does not as a singular man but as a member of the Congregation But howsoever I answer Let the worship of thy Body in such a case be at least a confession and acknowledgment before God of that love fear and esteem of his Divine Majesty thou oughtest to have but hast not For though to come
thereof might as by way of pledge be certified of his acceptation into Covenant and fellowship with his God by eating and drinking at his Table S. Augustine comes toward this Notion when he defines a Sacrifice though in a larger sense Quod Deo nuncupamus reddimus dedicamus hoc fine ut sanctâ societate ipsi adhaereamus That which we devote dedicate and render unto God for this end that we may have an holy society and fellowship with him For to have society and fellowship with God what is it else but to be in league and covenant with him In a word a Sacrifice is Oblatio foederalis For the true and right understanding whereof we must know That it was the universal custom of mankind and still remains in use to contract covenants and make leagues and friendship by eating and drinking together When Isaac made a covenant with Abimelech the King of Gerar the Text saith He made him and those that were with him a Feast and they did eat and drink and rose up betimes in the morning and sware one to another Gen. 26. 30 31. When Iacob made a covenant with Laban after they had sworn together he made him a Feast and called his brethren to eat Bread Gen. 31. 54. When David made a league with Abner upon his promise to bring all Israel unto him David made Abner and the men that came with him a Feast 2 Sam. 3. 20. Hence in the Hebrew tongue a Covenant is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To eat as if they should say An eating which derivation is so natural that it deserves to be preferred before that from the other signification of the same Verb which is To chuse And this will suffice for the custom of the Hebrews Now for the Gentiles Herodotus tells us the Persians were wont to contract leagues and friendship inter Vinum Epulas in a full Feast whereat their wives children and friends were present The like Tacitus reports of the Germans Amongst the Greeks and other Nations the Covenantees ate Bread and Salt together Unto which comes near that Ceremony some-where used at Weddings that the Bridegroom when he comes home from Church takes a piece of Cake tastes it then gives it to his Bride to taste it likewise as a token of a Covenant made between them The Emperor of Russia at this day when he would shew extraordinary grace and favour unto any sends him Bread and Salt from his Table And when he invited Baron Sigismond the Emperor Ferdinand's Ambassador he did it in this form Sigismunde comedes Sal panem nostrum nobiscum Sigismond you shall eat our Bread and Salt with us Hence that Symbol of Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Break no bread is interpreted by Erasmus and others to mean Break no friendship Moreover the Egyptians Thracians and Libyans in special are said to have used to make leagues and contract friendship by presenting a cup of Wine one to another which custom we find still in use amongst our Western Nations And what is our â—le pledge you but I take it as a pledge of league and friendship from you Yea it is a rule in Law that if a man drink to him against whom he hath an accusation of slander or other verbal injury he loses his Action because it is supposed he is reconciled with him Such now as were these Covenant-feastings and eatings and drinkings in token of league and amity between men and men such are Sacrifices between Man and his God Epulae foederales Federal feasts wherein God deigneth to entertain Man to eat and drink with or before him in token of favour and reconcilement For so it becomes the condition of the parties that he which hath offended the other and seeks for favour and forgiveness should be entertained by him to whom he is obnoxious and not è contrá that is that God should be the Convivator the entertainer or maker of the Feast and man the Conviva or Guest To which end the Viands for this sacred Epulum were first to be offered unto God and so made his that he might entertain the offerer and not the offerer him For we are to observe that what the Fire consumed was accounted as God's own Mess and called by himself the meat of his Fire-offerings the rest was for his guests which they were partakers of either by themselves as in all the Peace-offerings or by their proxies the Priests as in the rest to wit the Holocausts the Sin and Trespass-offerings The reason of which difference was I suppose because the one was ad impetrandum or renovandum foedus for the making or renewing the Covenant with God where therefore a Mediator was needful the other to wit the Peace-offerings ad confirmandum consignandum for the confirming the Covenant only wherein therefore they addressed themselves before the Divine Majesty with greater confidence If any shall object That the Holocaust was wholly burnt and consumed and so no body partaker thereof I answer It is true the Beast which was slain was wholly burnt and so all of it as it were God's Mess But there was a Meat-offering and Drink-offering annexed thereunto as a part of the holy Feast of which a handful only was burnt for a memorial the remainder was for the Priests to eat in the holy place Besides Burnt-offerings were regularly accompanied with Peace-offerings as you shall find them in Scripture ordinarily joyned together now in these the people that offered had the greatest share In a word That those who offered Sacrifice both among Iews and Gentiles were pertakers of the same is a thing to be taken for granted as appears by the warning God gave the Israelites Exod. 34. 12 15. That they should make no covenants with the inhabitants of the land Lest when they went a whoring after their Gods and offered a sacrifice unto them they might call them and they also eat of their sacrifice Also by that Psal. 106. 28. They joyned themselves to Baal-Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead By that of S. Paul Heb. 13. 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve at the Tabernacle So that of this there need be no question It remains only that we prove That these sacred Epulae were Epulae foederales Federal Feasts and so our Definition will stand good Now this will appear first in general by that expression of Scripture wherein the Covenant which God makes with Man is expressed by eating and drinking at his Table Luke 13. 26. Those to whom the Lord opens not plead for themselves We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets c. Chap. 22. 29 30. Our Saviour tells his Disciples I appoint you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me That ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom Apocal. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the
shewed That a Sacrifice was nothing else but a Sacred Feast namely Epulum foederale wherein God mystically entertained Man at his own Table in token of amity and friendship with him Which that he might do the Viands of that Feast were first made God's by oblation and so eaten of not as of Man's but God's provision There is nothing then wanting to make this sacred Epulum of which we speak full out a Sacrifice but that we shew That the Viands thereof were in like manner first offered unto God that so being his he might be the Convivator Man the Conviva or the Guest And this the ancient Church was wont to do this they believed our Blessed Saviour himself did when at the institution of this holy Rite he took the Bread and the Cup into his sacred hands and looking up to Heaven gave thanks and blessed And after his example they first offered the Bread and Wine unto God to agnize him the Lord of the Creature and then received them from him again in a Banquer as the Symbols of the Body and Bloud of his Son This is that I am now to prove out of the Testimonies of Antiquity not long after but next unto the Apostles times when it is not likely the Church had altered the form they left her for the celebration of this Mystery I will begin with Irenaeus as the most full and copious in this point He in his fourth Book cap. 32. speaks thus Dominus Discipulis suis dans consilium Primitias Deo offerre ex suis Creaturis non quasi indigenti sed ut ipsi nec infructuosi nec ingrati sint eum qui ex Creatura panis est accepit gratias egit dicens Hoc est curpus meum Calicem similiter qui est ex ea Creatura quae est secundùm nos suum sanguinem confessus est Novi Testamenti novam docuit oblationem quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offert Deo ei qui alimenta nobis praestat primitios suorum munerum in Novo Testamento Our Lord counselling his Disciples to offer unto God the First-fruits or a Present of his Creatures not for that God hath any need thereof but that they might shew themselves neither unfruitful nor ungrateful He took that Bread which was made of his Creature and gave Thanks saying This is my Body and he likewise acknowledged the Cup consisting of the Creature which we use to be his Bloud And thus taught the new oblation of the New Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles offers throughout the world unto God that feeds and nourisheth us being the First-fruits of his own gifts in the New Testament And Cap. 34. Igitur Eâ—clesiae oblatio quam Dominus docuit offerri in universo mundo purum sacrificium reputatum est apud Deum acceptum est ei non quòd indigeat à nobis sacrificium sed quoniam is qui offert glorificatur ipse in co quod offert si acceptetur munus ejus Per munus enim erga Regem honos affectio ostenditur Therefore the Oblation of the Church which our Lord taught and appointed to be offered through all the world is accounted a pure Sacrifice with God and is acceptable unto him not because God stands in need of our Sacrifice but because the offerer is himself honoured in that he offers if his Present be accepted For by the Present it appears what affection and esteem the Giver hath for the King he honoureth therewith He alludes to that in Malachi 1. 14. I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts Ibid. Oporiet nos oblationem Deo facere in omnibus gratos inveniri Fabricatori Deo Primitias earum quae sunt ejus Creaturarum offerentes hanc oblationem Ecclesia sola puram offert Fabricatori offerens ei cum gratiarum actione ex Creatura ejus It behoveth us to present God with our Oblations and in all things to be found thankful unto God our Maker offering unto him the First-fruits of his Creatures and it is the Church only that offers this Pure Oblation unto the Creator of the world while it offers unto him a Present out of his Creatures with thanksgiving In the same place Offerimus autem ei non quasi indigenti sed gratias agentes Dominationi ejus sanctificantes creaturam But we offer unto him not as if he needed but as giving thanks to his Soveraignty and sanctifying the Creature He alludes again to that in this Chapter of Malachi v. 6. If I be Dominus where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts unto you O Priests that offer polluted Bread ubon mine Altar My next witness shall be Iustin Martyr in time elder than Irenaeus though I reserved him for the second place He in his Dialogue with Tryphon the place before alledged telling the Iew That the Sacrifices of Christians are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supplications and giving of Thanks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that these are the only Sacrifices which Christians have been taught they should perform in that thankful remembrance of their food both dry and liquid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein also is commemorated the Passion which the Son of God suffered by himself Here is a twofold commemoration witnessed to be made in the Eucharist The first as he speaks of our food dry and liquid that is of our meat and drink by agnizing God and recording him the Creator and giver thereof the second of the Passion of Christ the Son of God in one and the same food And again in the same Dialogue Panem Eucharistiae in commemorationem passionis suae Christus fieri tradidit Christ hath taught us that the Eucharistical Bread should be consecrated for the Commemoration of his Passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that withall we may give thanks to God for having made the world with all things therein for man and for having freed us from that evil and misery wherein we were and having utterly overthrown Principalities and Powers by him that became passible according to his counsel and will To which he immediately subjoyns the Text and applies it to the Eucharist Thus Iustin Martyr My third witness is Origen in his 8. Book Contra Cels. Celsus saith he thinks it seemly we should be thankful to Demons and to offer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we think him to live most comelie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that remembers who is the Creator unto whom we Christians are careful not to be unthankful with whose benefits we are filled and whose Creatures we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is And we have also a Symbol of our Thanksgiving unto God the Bread which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where note that the Eucharistical Bread is said to be a Symbol not only of the Body and Bloud of Christ but a Symbol of that Thanksgiving which we render to the Creator through him Again in
the same Book where Celsus likewise would have mankind thankful unto Demons as those to whom the charge of things here upon earth is committed and to offer unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First-fruits and Prayers Origen thus takes him up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Celsus as being void of the true Knowledge of God render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Demons As for us Christians whose only desire it is to please the Creator of the Vniverse we eat the Bread that was offered unto him with Prayer and Thanksgiving for his Gifts and then made a kind of holy Body by Prayer Mark here Bread offered unto God with Prayer and Thanksgiving pro datis for that he hath given us and then by Prayer made a holy Body and so eaten Thus much out of Fathers all of them within less than two hundred and fifty years after Christ and less than one hundred and fifty after the death of S. Iohn The same appears in the Forms of the ancient Liturgies As in that of Clemens where the Priest in the name of the whole Church assembled speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We offer unto thee our King and God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his that is Christ's appointment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Bread and this Cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Giving thanks unto thee through him for that thou hast vouchsafed us he speaks of the whole Church to stand before thee and to minister unto thee And we beseech thee thou God that wantest nothing that thou wouldst look favourably upon these Gifts here set before thee and accept them to the honour of thy Christ c. Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Gift or Oblation that is offered to the Lord our God let us pray that our good God would receive it through the mediation of his Christ to his heavenly Altar for a sweet-smelling savour Yea in the Canon of the Roman Church though the Rite be not used yet the words remain still as when the Priest long before the consecration of the Body and Bloud of Christ prays Te Clementissime Pater per Iesum Christum Filium tuum Dominum nostrum supplices rogamus ut accepta habeas benedicas haec Dona haec Munera We humbly beseech and intreat thee most merciful Father Through Iesus Christ thy Son our Lord to accept and bless these Gifts these Presents and other like passages which now they wrest to a new-found Oblation of the Body and Bloud of Christ which the ancient Church knew not of But of all others This Rite is most strongly confirmed by that wont of the Ancient Fathers to confute the Hereticks of those first times who held the Creator of the world to be some inferiour Deity and not the Father of Christ out of the Eucharist For say they unless the Father of Christ be the Creator of the world why is the Creature offered unto him in the Eucharist as if he were would he be agnized the Author and Lord of that he is not Hear Irenaeus Adversus Haeres lib. 4. cap. 34. Haereticorum Synagogae saith he non offerunt Eucharisticam oblationem quam Dominus offerri docuit Alterum enim praeter Fabricatorem dicentes Patrem Ideo quae secundùm nos Creaturae sunt offerentes ei cupidum alieni oftendunt eum aliena concupiscentem The Synagogues of the Hereticks do not offer the very Eucharistical oblation which our Lord taught and appointed to be offered for they affirming another besides the Creator of the world to be the Father of Christ do therefore while they offer unto him the Creatures which are here with us represent him to be desirous of that which is anothers and to covet that which is not his and a little after Quomodo autem constabit eis eum panem in quo gratiae actae sunt Corpus esse Domini sui Calicem sanguinis ejus si non ipsum Fabricatoris mundi Filium dicant id est Verbum ejus per quod lignum fructificat defluunt fontes terra dat primùm quidem gramen post deinde spicam deinde plenum triticum in spica How shall it appear to them that that Bread for which Thanks have been given is the Body of their Lord and that Cup the Cup of his Bloud if they deny him to be the Son of the Creator of the world that is to say to be the word of him by whom the Tree brings forth fruit Fountains send forth water and the Earth brings forth first green corn like grass then the ear after that the full corn in the ear From the same ground Tertullian argues against Marcion Contra Marc. lib. 1. cap. 23. Non putem saith he impudentiorem quà m qui in alâ—ena aqua alii Deo tingitur ad alienum Coelum alii Deo expanditur in aliena terra alii Deo sternitur super alienum panem alii Deo gratiarum actionibus fungitur I cannot conceive any one more impudent than he that is baptized to a God in a water that is none of his that in prayer to a God spreads forth his hands towards an Heaven that is none of his that prostrates himself to a God upon an Earth that is not his that gives thanks to a God for that Bread which is none of his Origen against the same Heretick useth the same Argument Dialog advers Marc. 3. pauso ante finem Dominus aspiciens in coelum gratias agit Ecquid non agit conditori gratias Cùm panem accepisset poculum benedixisset quid alterine pro Creaturis conditoris benedicit an potiùs illi qui effecit exhibuit Our Lord looking up to heaven gave thanks What did not he give thanks to the Creator of the world When he took the Bread and the Cup and blessed did he bless and give thanks to any other for the Creatures of God the Maker of the world and not rather bless and give thanks to him who made them and gave them us Lastly This Oblation of the Bread and Wine is implied in S. Paul's parallel of the Lord's Supper and the Sacrifice of the Gentiles Ye cannot saith he be partakers of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devils namely because they imply contrary Covenants incompatible one with the other a Sacrifice as I told you being Epulum foederale a Federal Feast Now here it is manifest that the Table of Devils is so called because it consisted of Viands offered to Devils for so S. Paul expresly tells us whereby those that eat thereof eat of the Devil's meat Ergo The Table of the Lord is likewise called his Table not because he ordained it but it because consisted of Viands offered unto him Having thus as I think sufficiently proved what I took in hand I think it not amiss to answer two Questions which this Discourse may beget The first is How the Ancients
saith Though there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 's many that is Dii Coelestes Sovereign Deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Lords many that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemons Presidents of earthly things Yet to us Christians there is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Sovereign God the Father of whom are all things and we to him that is to whom as Supream we are to direct all our services and but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Lord Iesus Christ in stead of their many Mediators and Daemons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom are all things which come from the Father to us and through whom alone we find access unto him The allusion methinks is passing elegant and such as I think cannot be well understood without this distinction of Superior and Inferior Deities in the Theology of the Gentiles they having a plurality in both sorts and we Christians but one in each as our Apostle affirmeth There wants but only the name of Daemons in stead of which the Apostle puts Lords and that for the honour of Christ of whom he was to infer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Lord the Name of Christ being not to be polluted with the appellation of an Idol for his Apodosis must have been otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Daemon Or it may be he alludes unto the Hebrew name Baalim which signifies Lords and those Lords as I told you were nothing else but Daemons For thus would S. Paul speak in the Hebrew tongue There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Gods and many Lords CHAP. IV. The Gentiles Doctrine concerning the Original of Daemons viz. That they were the Souls of men Deified or Canonized after death This proved out of Hesiod Plato Trismegist Philo Byblius the translator of Sanchuniathon Plutarch Tully Baal or Bel or Belus the first Deified King Hence Daemons are called in Scripture Baalim Daemons and Heroes how they differ Daemons called by the Romans Penates Lares as also Dii Animales Soul-Gods Another and an higher kind of Daemons such as never dwelt in Bodies These answer to Angels as the other viz. the Soul-Daemons answer to Saints AND thus have I shewed you though but briefly in regard of the abundance the argument would afford the Nature and Office of these Daemons according to the Doctrine of the Gentiles I come now unto another part of this Doctrine which concerns the Original of Daemons whom you shall find to be the Deified Souls of men after death For the Canonizing of the Souls of deceased Worthies is not now first devised among Christians but was an Idolatrous trick even from the days of the elder world so that the Devil when he brought in this Apostatical doctrine amongst Christians swerved but little from his ancient method of seducing mankind Let Hesiod speak in the first place as being of the most known the most ancient He tells us that when those happy men of the First and Golden age of the world were departed this life great Iupiter promoted them to be Daemons that is Keepers and Protectors or Patrons of earthly mortals and Overseers of their good and evil works Givers of riches c. and this saith he is the Kingly Royalty given them But hear his own words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hence it is that Oenomaus quoted by Eusebius calleth these Daemon-gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod's gods The next shall be Plato who in his Cratylus says That Hesiod and a great number of the rest of the Poets speak excellently when they affirm that good men when they die attain great honour and dignity and become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is saith he as much to say as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Wise ones for Wise ones saith he are only Good ones and all Good ones are of Hesiod's Golden generation The same Plato Lib. 5. de Repub. would have all those who die valiantly in the field to be accounted of the Golden kind and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 effici to be made Daemons and the Oracle to be consulted how they should be buried and honoured and accordingly ever afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. their Sepulchres to be served and adored as the Sepulchres of Daemons In like manner should be done unto all who in their life-time excelled in vertue whether they died through age or otherwise This place Eusebius quotes Lib. 13. Praep. Evang. to parallel with it the then harmless practice of Christians in honouring the memory of Martyrs by holding their assemblies at their Sepulchres to the end that he might shew the Gentiles that Christians also honoured their Worthies in the worthiest fashion But it had been well if in the next Ages after this custom of Christians then but resembling had not proved the very same Doctrine of Daemons which the Gentiles practised But I go on and my next Author shall be Hermes Trismegistus whose antiquity is said to be very near the time of Moses I will translate you his words out of his Asclepius which Apuleius made Latine There having named AEsculapius Osiris and his Grandfather Hermes who were as he saith worshipped for Daemons in his own time he adds further That the AEgyptians call them namely the Daemons Sancta animalia and that amongst them namely the AEgyptians per singulas Civitates coli eorum animas quorum sunt consecratae virtutes Through every city their Souls are worshipped whose Vertues are deified And here note by the way that some are of opinion that the AEgyptian Serapis whose Idol had a bushel upon his head was Ioseph whose Soul the AEgyptians had canonized for a Daemon after his death Philo Byblius the translator of Sanchuniathon that ancient Phoenician Historian who lived before the times of Troy and wrote the Acts of Moses and the Iews saith Eusebius very agreeably to the Scripture and saith he learned his Story of Ierom-baal a Priest of the God IEVO Philo Byblius I say in a Preface to his Translation of this Author setteth down what he had observed and learned out of the same Story and might serve to help their understanding who should read it namely That all the Barbarians chiefly the Phoenicians and AEgyptians of whom the rest had it accounted of those for Dii Maximi who had found out any thing profitable for the life of men or had deserved well of any Nation and that they worshipped these as Gods erecting Statues Images and Temples unto them And more especially they gave the Names of their Kings as to the Elements of the world so also to these their reputed Gods for they esteemed the natural Deities of the Sun Moon and Planets and those which are in these to be only and properly Gods so that
time of the Fourth Kingdom of Daniel So Antichrist and his Mystery of impiety was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter times of those Last times that is as I shall better shew hereafter in the Last times or Last Scene as I may so speak of the Fourth Kingdom of Daniel When Christ came the Sceptre was to depart from Iudah and that Common-wealth to be dissolved So when Antichrist was to come the Roman Empire was to fall and He that hindered was to be taken out of the way 2. Thess. 2. 7. The Iews expected Christ to come when he did come and yet knew him not when he was come because they had fancied the manner and quality of his coming like some temporal Monarch with armed power to subdue the earth before him So the Christians God's second Israel looked the coming of Antichrist should be at that time when he came indeed and yet they knew him not when he was come because they had fancied his coming as of some barbarous Tyrant who should with armed power not only persecute and destroy the Church of Christ but almost the World that is they looked for such an Antichrist as the Iews looked for a Christ. Wherefore as Christ came unto his own and his own received him not so Antichrist came upon those who were not his own and yet they eschewed him not But yet as some Iews though few knew Christ when he came and received him so did some Christians though but few keep themselves from the pollution of Antichrist Lastly as the Iews ere long shall acknowledge and run unto him whom they pierced as not knowing him So hath the Christian Church for a great part discovered that Son of perdition whom a long time they had ignorantly worshipped because they knew him not O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of GOD how unsearchable are his judgment and his ways past finding out But for our part seeing our case is so like unto that of the Iews let their lamentable and woful error in mistaking their Messiah by wrongly fancying him be a warning and caveat unto us that we likewise upon like conceits and prejudice mistake and misdeem not the Man of sin TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME CHAP. X. The Second Particular in the Description of the Great Apostasie viz. The Persons Apostatizing exprest by TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME The Great Apostasie was to be a General one That the word TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME doth not always imply a Few or a Small number proved by several passages in Scripture The true Church of Christ was never wholly extinguish't Wherein we and the Papists differ about the Churche's Visibility In what respects our Church was Visible and in what it was Invisible under the Apostasie and Reign of Antichrist This is further cleared by the parallel state of the Israelitish Church under the Apostasie of Israel NOW I come unto the Second point expressed in this Description of the Great Apostasie namely The Persons Revolters They should not be all but TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOME 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some shall Apostatize Some that is not as we in our English do often use it a Few but Some that is not All yet Some that is So many as that the whole visible Church should be said thereof to be Apostatized So many as should like a Cloud over-spread the face of the Christian Firmament in such sort as the Stars and Lights therein should not easily be discerned For the Great Defection so much prophesied of was to be a Solemn and General one such a one as wherein the chiefest of the Churches honoured as a Mother in Israel should become a Babylonish Whore a Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the Earth Revel 17. such a one as whereby the Outmost Court of the Temple of God should not only be prophaned but troden down by Gentilism Revel 11. such a one as the World is said to wonder after the Beast and to worship him and such a one as should not only make war with the Saints but overcome them Rev. 13. Otherwise if our Apostle here and S. Iohn there should mean no more but the Errours of some particular ones and their Revolt from the Faith of the Church they should make either no Prophecy at all or at the best but a needless one For who knows not that in S. Paul's S. Iohn's and the Apostles own times were many Heresies and Hereticks grown up as weeds in the Wheat-field of Christ but as yet the wheat overtopped them and the visible body of the Church disclaimed them If these had been the worst the Church should look for the Apostles should seem to prophesie of things present and not as they do of things to come yea and more than this they should foretell of a thing as proper and peculiar to the Last-times which was no Novelty in their own times We must take notice therefore that the Apostasie and Corruption of Faith so much prophesied of was another manner of one than that which was so frequent in those first times such a kind of one as should not be disclaimed by the Visible body of the Church but should surprise eclipse and overcloud the beautiful face thereof which manner of Desection never had been before nor should the like be after it Now that the word TINE ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or SOME useth in Scripture to imply no small number but only serves to intimate an exception of some particulars though there were but two or three to be excepted I will make manifest by a few examples lest ou◠English use might deceive us First Iohn 6. 60. Many of the Disciples saith the Text when they heard this said This is an hard saying and v. 66. Many of his Disciples from that time went back and walked no more with him Nevertheless concerning these many Christ himself saith v. 64. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But there are Some of you which believe not Here we see that Some is a great many So Rom. 11. 17. S. Paul there saith of the rejection of the Iews Some of the branches are broken off Now what a Some this was appears in the same Chapter v. 32. when he saith God hath included them ALL in unbelief that he might have mercy upon ALL. But to seek no further the 1 cor 10. will store us with examples as v. 7. Neither be ye Idolaters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Some of them were this was a great Some for Moses saith of it Exodus 32. 3. And ALL the people brake off their golden Ear-rings and brought them to Aaron In v. 8. Neither let us commit fornication as Some of them which were so many Numb 25. 4. that the Lord said unto Moses Take ALL the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned
Christian belief hath in all ages been for the out-side a distinct Ecclesiastical Corporation from other Societies of men My Answer is That for the First Ages it was so not only thus Visible but easily discernable from all other Societies of men whatsoever But afterward when the Great Apostasie we speak of surprized and deformed the beautiful Spouse of Christ then was not that Virgin-Company of Saints our Mother a distinct external Society from the rest of Christendom but a Part yea and the only sound Part of that External and Visible Body whereof our Adversaries boast their predecessors to have been members For howsoever this our Virgin-Mother for the inward and invisible communion of her sincere and unstained Faith were a distinct and severed Company from the rest with whom she lived yet for the Common Principles of the Christian Faith still acknowledged in that corrupt body of Christendom she retained communion with them and for the most part of that time of darkness continued an External part of the same Visible Body with the rest in gross call'd Christians as being begotten by the same Sacrament of Baptism as the Israelites in the like case of Circumcision taught in some part by the same Word and Pastours still continued amongst them and submitting to the same Iurisdiction and Government so far as these or any of these had yet some soundness remaining in them But for the rest which was not compatible with her sincere and unstained Faith and which annihilated in those it surprised even those Common Grounds of Christianity otherwise outwardly professed she with her children either wisely avoided all communion with it or if they could not then patiently suffered for their conscience sake under the hands of Tyrants called Christians until that Tyranny growing insupportable and that mortal contagion unavoidable it pleased God lest we might have been as Sodom and Gomorrah to begin to call us thence at the time appointed unto a greater Liberty as we see this day As therefore when a little Gold is mixed with a great quantity of base and counterfeit metal so that of both is made but one mass or lump each metal we know still retains its nature diverse from the other and yet outwardly and visibly is not to be discerned the one from the other but both are seen together as they are outwardly one but cannot be distinguished by the eye as they are diverse and several the Gold is Visible as it is one mass and under the same outside and figure with the rest yet it is truly Invisible as it is diverse from the rest but when the Refiner comes and severs them then will each metal appear in his own colours and put on his own outside and so become Visible apart from the rest Such is the case here and such was the State and Condition of the Church in the prevailing and great Apostasie The purer metal of the Visible Christian Body was not outwardly discernable from the base and counterfeit while one outside covered them and so much the rather because the Apostate part in a great proportion exceeding the sound made it imperceptible but when the time of Refining came then was our Church not first founded in the true Faith God forbid but a Part of the Christian Body newly refined from such Corruptions as time had gathered even as Gold refined begins not then first to be Gold though it begin but then to be refined Gold WHATSOEVER we have hitherto spoken of the State of the true Believers under the Apostasie of Antichrist is the same which befell the true Israelites in the Apostasie of Israel And doth not S. Peter intimate that the Apostasie which should beâ—ide Christians should be like to that which we read to have befallen Israel 2 Pet. 2. 1 Therewere saith he False Prophets also among the people i.e. Israelites even as there shall be False teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them If the Apostasie of Christians were to be of the same stamp with that of Israel and the Heresies brought into Christendom by the false Doctors of Babylon like unto those wherewith the false Prophets of Israel infected and poisoned the ancient people of God surely we cannot find a better Pattern whereby to know what was the state and condition of the unstained Christian Believers under the Apostasie of the Man of sin than that which was of the true Israelites under the Apostasie of Israel For the right understanding whereof we must always remember that the Israelitish Church did at no time altogether renounce the true and living God not in their worst times but in their own conceit and profession they acknowledged him still and were called his people and he their God though they worshipped others beside him So Christians in their Apostasie neither did nor were to make an absolute Apostasie from God the Father and Christ their Redeemer but in an outward profession still to acknowledge him and to be called Christians though by their Idolatry and spiritual whoredoms they indeed denied the Lord that bought them i.e. whom they profest to be their Redeemer just as Israel for the like is said to have forsaken the Lord their God that brought them out of the Land of AEgypt Here therefore the case of both is alike let us also see the rest You ask Where was the true Church we speak of in Antichrist's time I ask likewise Where was the Company of true worshippers in Ahab's time was it not so covered and scattered under the Apostate Israelites that Elias himself who was one of it could scarce find it I have been very jealous saith he for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thy Altars and slain thy Prophets with the sword and I even I alone am left and they seek my life to take it away 1 Kings 19. 14. Yet the Lord tells him verse 18. I have yet left me seven thousand in Israel all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him Yet I trow these seven thousand were not outwardly severed from the rest of Israel but remained still external members of the same Visible body with them But you will except that the true and unstained Church in Iudah was still visible and apparent I ask you then Where was the Company of the true worshippers of Iehovah in Manasses time the worst time of all other when the ten Tribes were carried captive and but Iudah and Benjamin only left and they as far as the eye of man can see wholly and generally fallen from the Lord their God to all manner of Idols and Idolatries like unto the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel when in the Temple it self the only place where the true God was legally to be worshipt were Idolatrous Altars erected even in the House
novissimos decem Reges in quos divideretur regnum illorum super quos Filius perditionis veniet Cornua dicit decem nasci Bestiae c. The prophet Daniel eying the end of the Fourth or Last Kingdom that is those Ten Kings into whom their Kingdom should be divided and upon whom the Son of Perdition should come viz. the Little Horn that should domineer and overtop them saith chap. 7. that the Beast had Ten Horns grow out of his Head and that there came up among them another little Horn and that before this Horn Three of the first Horns were pluck'd up by the roots Yea a little after he tells us that S. Iohn in his Ten Kings which should receive their Kingdoms at one hour with the Beast expounds this of Daniel Manifestius adhuc de novissimo tempore de his qui sunt in eo decem Regibus in quos dividetur quod nunc regnat Imperium significavit Ioannes Domini discipulus in Apocalypsi edisserens quae suerint decem cornua quae à Daniele visa sunt c. What was before prophesied concerning the Last Times and the Ten Kings therein amongst whom the Empire that now reigns should be divided Iohn the disciple of our Lord hath more clearly exprest in his Apocalypse where he tells what those Ten Horns were which Daniel saw viz. Ten Kings which had received no Kingdom as yet but were to receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast Chap. 17. 12. Nay S. Ierome in his Comment upon this seventh chapter of Daniel will give us to understand that all the Ecclesiastical Writers delivered this to be the true exposition For having there confuted Porphyrie who to derogate from the divinity of this Prophecy would have it meant of Antiochus Epiphanes and therefore written when the Event was past he concludeth thus Ergo dicamus quod omnes Scriptores Ecclesiastici tradiderunt In consummatione inundi quando regnum destruendum est Romanorum decem futuros reges qui â—rbem Romanum inter se dividant undecimum surrecturum esse Regem parvulum qui tres reges de decem regibus superaturus sit in quo totus Satanas habitaturus sit corporaliter Let us therefore affirm agreeably to the concurrent judgment of all Ecclesiastical Writers That in the consummation of the world when the Roman Empire is to be destroyed there shall arise Ten Kings who shall share the Roman world among themselves and that an Eleventh King the little Horn in Dan. 7. shall arise who shall subdue Three of those Ten Kings in which little Hornish Tyrant Satan shall dwell entirely and bodily Who these three Kings were which this Horn displanted to make himself elbow-room you shall hear more anon But I will not conceal that I have heard of another Exposition which fits our turn for the Beginning of the Apostasie no less than that of the Fathers namely That by Ten Kingdoms may be meant the full Plurality of the Roman Provinces so much whereof as Three is of Ten should have the Imperial power rooted out of them and fall under the Dominion of the Antichristian Horn who should act the Sovereignty of the Latter times or the last Sovereignty of that Kingdom Now it is most true that the Pope's Patriachdom in the West holds just that scantling of the ancient Territory of the Roman Empire which a man may judge by his eyes or compasses in a Map and yet I prefer the other Exposition before it To come to an issue It is apparent by all that hath been said that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times with that wicked Sovereignty which should domineer in them were to take beginning from the wound the fall the ruine the rending in pieces or rooting up of the Imperial Sovereignty of the City of Rome When that City should cease to be the Lap of that Sovereignty which the Caesars once held over the Nations and many new upstart Kings should appear in the place and Territory of that once-one Empire then should the Apostasie be seen and the Latter times with that Wicked one make their entrance Now in what Age this fell out I think no man can be ignorant who hath but a little skill in History CHAP. XIV That we are not to reckon the Latter Times or the Times of the Empire 's ruine and the Apostasie attending from the full height thereof This illustrated from other Computations in Scripture The Three main Degrees of the Roman Empire's Ruine Who are those 3 Kings whom the Little Horn or Antichrist is said in Dan. 7. to have displanted or deprest to advance himself About what time Saint-worship began in the Church That we are not too curiously to enquire from which of the 3 degrees of the Empire 's ruine the Apostatical or Latter Times take their beginning BUT you will say The Imperial Sovereignty of Old Rome fell not all at once but had divers steps and degrees of Ruine so that the doubt will be notwithstanding from which of these steps of the Fall thereof these Latter times must be reckoned I answer From any of them For as the Imperial Sovereignty fell by degrees so the Apostasie under the lattermost Sovereignty grew up also by degrees and for every degree which the ruinous Empire decayed was the rising Son of perdition a degree advanced Secondly All the main and evident degrees of the Empire 's ruine fell in the compass of an Age and the knowledge and observation of that Age only within which the Times of this Fall are comprehended was sufficient both to warn them who then lived that that which should come was then a coming and to inform us who now live that it is already come Now which were these main and evident degrees of the Empire 's falling and at what time I will tell you as soon as I have removed an usual mistake in this business which is to reckon the times of the Empire 's ruine and so likewise of the Apostasie attending it only from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full height thereof But this is too much against Reason and not agreeable to the course we otherwise use in the like For as when we reckon the Age of a man we reckon not from the time since he came to mans estate but from the time of his birth so should we do here for the Times of the Man of sin I say not we should begin to count his Age from his conception for that we use not in other things but from the time he was first editus in lucem when he first began to appear in the world and so likewise the Fall of the Empire and the Apostasie not from the time they were consummate but from the time they first evidently appeared As therefore I hold their opinion the best and most agreeable to truth who begin the 70 years of the Iewish captivity in Babylon not from the consummation thereof under Zedekiah when the City and
discontented soon after he had destroyed the kingdom of the Goths 10 Greeks In the residue of the Empire Marcianus Ancient Rome's Empire finished that of the Greeks is but one of the Kingdoms whereinto it was divided Thus was the Empire divided and shared Anno 456. the year after Rome was sacked by Gensericus and the off-spring of these Nations through many alterations partly by the inconstancy of humane things unions and disunions partly by the further enlargement of the Christian Faith are the body of most of the Kingdoms and States of Christendom at this day Three of these Kings saith Daniel should the Antichristian Horn depress and displant to advance himself which Three are those whose Dominions extended into Italy and so stood in his light 1. That of the Greeks whose Emperor Leo Isaurus for the quarrel of Images he excommunicated and revolted his subjects of Italy from their allegiance 2. That of the Longobards successors of the Ostrogoths whose Kingdom he caused by the aid of the Franks to be wholly ruined thereby to get the Exarchate of Ravenna which since their revolt from the Greeks they were seized on for a Patrimony to S. Peter 3. The last was the Kingdom of the Franks it self continued in the Empire of Germany whose Emperors from the day of Henry the Fourth he excommunicated deposed and trampled under his feet and never suffered them to live in rest till he made them not only quit their interest in Election of Popes and Investitures of Bishops but that remainder of Iurisdiction in Italy wherewith together with the dignity of the Roman name he had once inseoffed their Predecessors These are the Kings by displanting or as the Vulgar hath by humbling of whom the Pope got elbow-room by degrees and advanced himself to the height of Temporal Majesty and absolute Greatness which made him so terrible in the world This Third blow therefore I suppose is to be counted the Last of the Ruine of the Empire the Imperial power of the ancient Rome until the Pope some 345 years after revived the name henceforth ceasing For as for those who yet some twenty years after our date scuffled for that Name one of them deposing another they were indeed but shadows of Caesars and as it were struglings with the pangs of death until with Augustulus it gave up the ghost Yea it is to be observed that two of them Avitus the very next and Glycerius being deposed from the Empire were made Bishops the one of Placentia or Piacenza the other of Portus as a sign perhaps that the Emperor of Rome henceforth should be a Bishop and a Bishop the Emperor To conclude therefore with the application of our Apostle's Prediction Whether the Christian Apostasie in worshipping new Daemon-Gods began not with the First of these degrees notably increased with the Second and was established by the Last I leave you to judge when you shall have surveyed the Monuments and Records of those times It is commonly and truly affirmed by our Ecclesiastical Antiquaries That before the year 360 there is no word to be found of the Invocation of Saints glorified or Worshipping their Reliques to which I add no not of any Miracles done by them But presently after that year when our first date of the Empire 's ruine began search and you shall find I spare to name the Authors not willing to discover the nakedness of the Fathers But whoso reads them will admire to see so truly verified what the Spirit foretold should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter times And to make an end If any shall think this Speculation of Times to be a needless curiosity I desire him to remember how our Saviour reproved the Iews for neglect hereof Matth. 16. 3. O ye Hypocrites ye can discern the face of the skie but can ye not discern the signs of the times or as S. Luke 12. 56. How is it that ye do not discern this Time They through neglecting the Signs of the Times when Christ came received him not How many through ignorance of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter Times when the Apostasie hath appeared eschewed it not From which of these Three Beginnings of the Apostatical Times or whether from some other moment within or between them the Almighty will reckon that his Computation of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which ended shall finish the days of the Man of sin I curiously enquire not but leave unto him who is Lord of times and seasons Nor do I think that the Iews themselves could certainly tell from which of their Three Captivities to begin that reckoning of LXX years whose end should bring their return from Babylon until the Event assured them thereof AN APPENDIX CHAP. XV. That Daniel's 70 Weeks are a lesser Kalendar of Times That in reference to these Weeks must those Phrases in the Epistles to the converted Iews viz. The Last Hour or Time The End of all things The Day approaching c. be expounded of the End of the Iewish State and Service at the expiring of the 70 Weeks That the Apostles were not so mistaken as to believe the End of the World should be in their dayer proved against Baronius and other Romanists I SHOULD now presently come to speak of the Fourth particular which I observed in this Verse But because in this Discourse of Times besides the Great Kalendar of Times I so much spake of there was some mention of a Lesser Kalendar viz. of Daniel's 70 weeks give me leave to 〈◊〉 some places of Scripture which I suppose to have reference thereto for the better clearing not only of our former Discourse but of some scruples that might trouble our minds when mention is made of an End then supposed near though the World hath so many hundred years since continued and no end thereof is yet come Know therefore that these 70 weeks of Daniel are a Little Provincial Kalendar containing the time that the Legal worship and Iewish state was to continue from the re-building of the Sanctuary under Darius Nothus until the final destruction thereof when the Kalendar should expire Within the space whereof their Commonwealth and City should be restored and 62 weeks after that the Messias be slain for sin and at the end of the whole 70 their City and Temple again destroyed and their Commonwealth utterly dissolved To these Weeks therefore whose computation so especially concerns the Iews is reference made in those Epistles which are written to the Christian Churches of that Nation whether living in Iewry or abroad dispersed Such is S. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews both S. Peter's to those of the Dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bythinia the Epistle of S. Iames to the twelve Tribes and likewise the first Epistle of S. Iohn which though the Salutation expresseth not as in the former yet may appear both because Peter Iames and Iohn were all three Apostles of the Circumcision and from that
directed to God alone and such places only chosen for the stirring up of zeal and fervor by the memory of those blessed and glorious Champions of Christ. But whiles the world stood in admiration and the most esteemed of these Wonders as of the glorious beams of the triumph of Christ they were soon perswaded to call upon them as Patrons and Mediators whose power with God and notice of things done upon earth they thought that these Signs and Miracles approved Thus the Reliques of Martyrs beginning to be esteemed above the richest Iewels for the supposed virtue even of the very aire of them were wonderfully sought after as some divine Elixir sovereign both to Body and Soul Whereupon another Scene of Wonders entred namely of Visions and Revelations wonderful and admirable for the discovery of the Sepulchres and ashes of Martyrs which were quite forgotten yea of some whose names and memories till then no man had ever heard of as S. Ambrose's Gervasius and Protasius Thus in every corner of the Christian world were new Martyrs bones ever and anon discovered whose verity again miraculous effects and cures seemed to approve and therefore were diversly dispersed and gloriously templed and enshrined All these things hapned in that one Age and were come to this height in less than a 100 years But here is the wonder most of all to be wondred at That none of these miraculous Signs were ever heard of in the Church for the first 300 years after Christ until about the year 360 after that the Empire under Constantine and his sons having publickly embraced the Christian Faith the Church had peace and the Bodies of the despised Martyrs such as could be found were now bestowed in most magnificent Temples and there gloriously enshrined And yet had the Christians long before used to keep their Assemblies at the Coemeteries and Monuments of their Martyrs How came it to pass that no such virtue of their bones and ashes no such testimonies of their power after death were discovered until now Babylas his bones were the first that all my search can find which charmed the Devil of Daphne Apollo Daphnaeus when Iulian the Apostate offered so many sacrifices to make him speak and being asked why he was so mute forsooth the corps of Babylas the Martyr buried near the Temple in Daphne stopped his wind-pipe I fear I fear here was some Hypocrisie in this business and the Devil had some feat to play the very name of Babylas is enough to breed jealousie it is an ominous name the name Babylas yea and this happened too at Antioch where Babylas was Bishop and Martyr in the persecution of Decius Would it not do the Devil good there to begin his Mystery where the Christian name was first given to the followers of Christ Howsoever this was then far otherwise construed and a conceit quickly taken that other Martyrs bones might upon trial be found as terrible to the Devil as those of Babylas which was no sooner tried but experience presently verified it with improvement as you heard before So that all the world rung so with Wonders done by Martyrs that even holy men who at the first suspected were at length surprised and carried away with the power of delusion Besides the silence of all undoubted Antiquity of any such Sepulchral wonders to have happened in the former Ages the very manner of speech which the Fathers living in this miraculous age used when they spake of these things will argue they were then accounted novelties and not as continued from the Apostles times Chrysostome in his Oration contra Gentiles of the business of Babylas speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any man believes not those things which are said to be done by the Apostles let him now beholding the present desist from his impudency Ambros. Epist. ad sororem Marcellinam relating of a piece of the Speech he made upon the translation of the Bodies of Gervasius and Protasius and the miracles then shewed Reparata saith he vetusti temporis miracula cernitis You see the miracles of ancient times he means the times of Christ and his Apostles renewed S. August Lib. de civ Dei 22. cap. 8. in a discourse of the Miracles of that time saith We made an order to have Bills given out of such Miracles as were done when we saw the wonders of ancient times renewed in ours Id namque fieri voluimus cùm videremus antiquis similia divinarum signa virtutum etiam nostris temporibus frequentari ea non debere multorum notitiae deperire But alas I now began the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Latter times this was the fatal time and thus the Christian Apostasie was to be ushered If they had known this it would have turned their joyous shoutings and triumphs at these things into mourning The End which these Signs and Wonders aimed at and at length brought to pass should have made them remember that warning which was given the ancient people of God Deut. 13. If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder And the sign or wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods and serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet or that dreamer of dreams For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. But why should I go any further before I tell you that even in this also the Idolatry of Saint-worship was a true counterfeit of the Gentiles Idolatry of Daemons Did not Daemon-worship enter after the same manner was it not first insinuated and at length established by signs and wonders of the very self-same kind and fashion Listen what Eusebius will tell us in his fifth book de Praeparat Evangel chap. 2. according to the Greek edition of Rob. Stephen When saith he those wicked spirits as he proved them to be which were worshipped under the names of Daemons saw mankind brought off to a Deifying of the Dead he means by erecting Statues and ordaining Ceremonies and Sacrifices for their memorials 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they insinuated themselves and helped forward their error 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by certain motions of the Statues which anciently were consecrated to the honour of the deceased as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by ostentation of Oracles and cures of diseases whereby they drave the superstitious headlong sometimes to take them to be some heavenly Powers and Gods indeed and sometimes to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Souls of their deified worthies And so saith he the earth-neighbouring Daemons which are those Princes of the Air those Spiritualities of wickedness and Ringleaders of all evil were on all hands accounted for great Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the memory of the Ancients deceased was thought worthy to be celebrated
whosoever shall remember thy name and this my conflict no pestilent disease may enter upon his house nor any other of those evils which may bring damage or troubles to the bodies of men She had no sooner spoken saith he but a voice was miraculously heard from heaven calling her and her fellow-Martyr Iulian to the heavenly pâ—aces and promising also that those things which she had asked should be accomplished In Saint Blasius who suffered saith Baronius under Licinius our Simeon tells us That when a woman came unto him to cure her son who had a fish-bone sticking in his throat he prayed in this manner Thou O Saviour who hast been ready to help those who called upon thee in truth hear my prayer and by thy invisible power take out the bone which sticks in this child and cure him And whensoever hereafter the like shall befall men children or beasts if any one then shall remember my name saying O Lord hasten thy help through the intercession of thy servant Blasius do thou cure him speedily to the honour and glory of thy holy Name Again he tells us That while they were carrying him before the President he restored to a poor widow a Hog her only Hog which a Wolf had taken away from her And when as afterward in sign of thankfulness she brought the Hog's head and feet boiled to the Martyr in prison he blessing her spake in this manner Woman in this Habit celebrate my Memorial and no good thing shall ever be wanting in thine house from my God yea and if any other imitating thee shall in like manner celebrate my Memorial he shall receive an everlasting gift from my God and a blessing all the days of his life When he comes to suffer he makes him pray to God thus Hear me thy Servant and whosoever shall have recourse to this thine Altar he means himself and whosoever shall have swallowed a bone or prickle or be vexed with any disease or be in affliction or necessity of persecution Grant Lord to every one his heart's desire as thou art gracious and merciful for thou art to be glorified now and evermore When he had thus prayed saith he Christ descended from heaven as a cloud and overshadowed him and our Saviour said unto him O my beloved Champion I will not only do this but that also which thou didst request for the widow and I will bless also every house which shall celebrate thy Memory and I will fill their store-houses with all good things for this thy glorious Confession and thy faith which thou hast in me Saint Catharine whom he calls AEcatharina a Martyr of Alexandria under Maximianus he makes to pray thus at her Martyrdom Grant unto those O Lord who through me shall call upon thy holy Name such their requests as are profitable for them that in all things thy wondrous works may be praised now and evermore But above all the rest Marina's prayer whom we Latines call Saint Margaret is compleat and for the purpose she suffered under Diocletian and thus she prayed if you dare believe Simeon And now O Lord my God whosoever for thy sake shall worship this Tabernacle of my Body which hath fought for thee and whosoever shall build an Oratory in the name of thy handmaid and shall therein offer unto thee spiritual sacrifices oblations and prayers and all those who shall faithfully describe this my conflict of Martyrdom and shall read and remember the name of thy handmaid Give unto them most holy Lord who art a lover of the good and a friend of Souls remission of sins and grant them propitiation and mercy according to the measure of their faith and let not the revenging hand come near them nor the evil of Famine nor the curse of Pestilence nor any grievous scourge nor let any other incurable destruction either of Body or Soul betide them And to all those who shall in faith and truth adhere to my house her Oratory or Chappel or unto my name and shall unto thee O Lord offer glory and praise and a sacrifice in remembrance of thine Handmaid and shall ask salvation and mercy through me Grant them O Lord abundant store of all good things for thou alone art good and gracious and the giver of all good things for ever and ever Amen While she was thus praying with her self saith Simeon behold there was a great earthquake c. yea and the Lord himself with an host and multitude of holy Angels standing by her in such sort as was perceptible to the understanding said Be of good chear Marina and fear not for I have heard thy prayers and have fulfilled and will in due time fulfill whatsoever thou hast asked even as thou hast asked it Thus saith Simeon who nevertheless in the very entrance to this his tale of Marina or Margaret complains much forsooth that not a few of these Narrations of the Acts of Martyrs were at the beginning forged yea profaned as he faith more truly than he was aware of evidentissimis Daemoniorum doctrinis Besides he calls I know not what Narration of this Virgin 's Martyrdom in that sort corrupted Dictio Daemoniaca but for his own part he would reject all counterfeit fables and tell us nothing but the very truth Which how honestly he hath performed and what touchstone he used let the Reader judge Baronius I am sure is quite ashamed of him who though he can be sometimes content to trade with not much better ware yet this of Simeon's he supposes will need very much washing and cleansing before it be merchantable CHAP. V. An useful Digression concerning the time when Simeon Metaphrastes lived and the occasion of his writing That his living within the time of the great Opposition against Saint-worship moved him to devise such Stories as made for the credit and advantage of that Cause then in danger A brief historical account even out of the Records left by the Adversaries of the great Opposition in the Greek and Eastern Churches against worshipping of Images and of Saints When it began how long it lasted and under what Emperors Of the Great Council held at Constantinople under Constantinus Copronymus against Idolatry An attempt to foist in two Canons in favour of Saint-worship frustrated Several Slanders and Calumnies fastened upon the Council and the Emperor by the idolatrous faction The Original of these Slanders That they were notorious Lies proved from the Decrees of the Council BUT for the better understanding of this Mystery of iniquity and what necessity there was of such desperate shifts when time was ye shall know that this superstitious Simeon lived towards the end of that time of great and long Opposition against Idolatry in the Greek and Eastern Churches by divers Emperors with the greatest part of their Bishops Peers and People lasting from about the year of our Lord 720 till after 840 that is a 120 years which was not against Images only though they bare
capable in some measure to discern the strength of rational discourse and the congruity of Conclusions with their Premisses in any argument And to profess a truth I did not think the mysteries of God's Providence set down as they are in obscure Prophecies had been capable of such evidence of illustration as God hath enabled you to bring thereunto before the Event doth manifest them I went a little too far in my last only that I might not be too immodest to create new troubles unto you by comparing your Book on the Revelation I guess the destruction of Gog is before the ruine of Antichrist though perhaps not long and thereupon will follow that great commotion Revel 19. 19. And as for the destruction of the Temple after Gog in Ezechiel whether you think it to have any reference to new Ierusalem I know not As for your former mystery concerning Gog I find it evident that if Lactantius were now alive in all likelihood he would go hand and foot into your opinion He is clear for the reservation of some Gentes untouched of the fire at Christ's coming This lately I met withal not in Lactantius himself but in Sixtus Senensis As for the peopling of the new world I find more in this Letter of yours than formerly I have been acquainted with Your conceit thereabouts if I have any judgment is grave and ponderous and the particular you touch upon of Satan's wisdom imitating the wisdom of God doth affect me with admiration And for matter of fact the grounds you go upon for ought I see are as good as the world can afford I think it a far safer course to entertain your apprehensions of God's Providence concerning our better Plantations in those parts than the vain prognostications of those who think that likeliest which pleaseth them best Were it not for Christians that live amongst them they could neither have notice of the glory of new Ierusalem nor ever in all likelihood attain either to the Art of Ship-building and Navigation or Art military to fit them for such an Expedition as you speak of And it may serve as a chamber to hide many of God's children till the indignation pass over whic hastens upon us more and more Call that which you write Fancies as your modesty suggests I cannot but entertain them as sage conceits As for the place alledged by our Saviour to prove the Resurrection God is not the God of the dead but of the living long ago my brains were exercised to make it good which I did in a Philosophical way from the Immortality of Souls concluding the Resurrection of their Bodies from that Philosophical Maxim Nihil violentum perpetuum and consequently the dividing of the Soul from the Body not to continue for ever I then thought not of the mystery of God concerning the First Resurrection and that of the Iust only And albeit some thoughts do arise against your way therein upon consideration that glorified Bodies stand in no need of inheritance temporal and undoubtedly the eating and drinking of Saints in their Resurrection shall be rather to maintain a familiar communion with the Nations that escape who are to walk in their light than to supply any domestical necessity of their natures yet howsoever the land of Canaan being the place where they shall reign as Kings and the promise of God so express to Abraham Isaac and Iacob not to their seed only and albeit the state of Grace was a better inheritance than the land of Canaan yet the state of Glory reigning with Christ better than that this makes me highly to respect your interpretation And you back your interpretation with learned Observations out of the Rabbins and the good use you make of them makes me the more in love with them and I am sorry I have not spent more time in them and it stirs me up sometimes to recreate my self in the Venice Bibles set forth by Buxtorsius wherein I have been not a little refreshed with what they write of Balaam's prophecy and upon Gog in Ezechiel and how they strain their wits upon that Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time R. Solomo fetching it from Eldad and Medad whic made me smile and Kimchi referring it to Ezechiel only and Zachary and upon that Matth. 8. 11. and the like One Mr. in Lincolnshire doth vehemently insist for your way as I have heard from my Lord S. to whom I have lately written pleasantly touching upon his counsels for advancing the Plantations of the West and telling him that his Lordship little thinks that they tend to the promoting of the kingdom of Gog and Magog For that noble Lord gives me leave to be merry with him nothing pleaseth him more than when he finds me free from a dejected Spirit In his next he gave a touch only thereupon which was this that surely the Americans were not Gog and Magog In my text I shewed him they could not be the same with Gog of the land of Magog in Ezechiel which was his opinion that Gog coming from the North but these from the East West North and South the four corners of the world But withal I told his Lordship he was not as yet idoneus Auditor of this mystery he must first be a good Proficient in an inferior Form where is read and studied the mystery of Regnum Christi Sanctorum and the First Resurrection Vpon this he wrote a larger Letter opposing the conceit I touched upon of Gog and Magog though the Millennium of Christ's Kingdom were granted yet not a little against that also I answered his Letter punctually but when I had done I kept that by me and wrote at large to him concerning Regnum Christi professing my desire he might not be unacquainted with the Mystery of God Revel 10. 7. according to the true contents thereof Revel 11. 15. and so proceeded to shew unto him what a Mystery it seemed to me at the first and how incredible though that Revel 20. 4. was plain enough but we were willing to project some recondite meaning because the plain sense of the words seemed incredible When I came to understand your way what course I took to crave leave to propose my Reasons in number ten to send unto you these I sent to him without any answer which yet he shall have if he require it not otherwise for I do not affect to cramme any man against his appetite I know he is much taken with Mr. Brightman As touching my Objection I know that 1 Cor. 15. Every man in his own order is more fair for your way than that I proposed and to contract it to that which immediately followeth seems to me to infatuate it especially you having so fairly confirmed it out of Daniel and the Ancients stand with you herein Vndoubtedly the enjoying of Christâ—s God-head is more happiness than the enjoying of his Manhood and the same joy in enjoying Christ the Lord can
corruptione itidem mutatione liberabitur Itaque hominis causà in cujus gratiam major hic mundus creabatur primùm renovatus tandem faciem induet multò â—ùm jucundiorem tum pulchriorem M. Deinde autem quid superest Aud. Vltimum generale Iudicium Veniet namque Christus ad cujus vocem mortui omnes resurgent animâ corpore integri atque in throno Majestatis suae residentem videbit totus mundus post excussionem autem conscientiae cujusque extrema sententia pronunciabitur Tunc temporis filii Dei perfectè possidebunt Regnum illud immortalitatis aeternae vitae quod illis praeparatum fuit ante jacta fundamenta mundi regnabunt cum Christo in aeternum Impii verò qui non crediderunt abjicientur in ignem aeternum destinatum diabolo angelis ejus I send you this passage as I did the former that you might admire with me what this Author meant whether such expressions could fall from him by mere chance or whether they argue not some further notion in this Mystery than was common and ordinary though those to whom the review and approbation of the Book was committed were not capable to observe it CONCERNING Ezekiel's Vision of the measuring of the Temple I have no no Notions either general or special worth relation Only I suspect some Mystery to be in the Numbers as in the New Ierusalem in the Apocalyps I observe all the Numbers to be 12 or multiplied thereof with reference I suppose to the 12 Apostles But whether the Number of Ezekiel's measures should have reference I cannot yet so well comprehend I have been sometimes tampering that way and methought they seemed to suit very well with the Name of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the letters whereof are 3 in each and the Numbers they signifie 1. 5. 6. 10. 30. For these are the Numbers or the Radices of the Numbers of nigh all Ezekiel's measures Notwithstanding I give my self but little satisfaction in so Cabbalistical a conceit Yet seeing the measures of the City in Ezekiel cap. ult in sine are diverse from those of S. Iohn in the Apocalyps if the Cities be the same the Numbers also must have some identity in a Mystery which they have not in the Letter one fitted to the time of the Law the other to the time of the Gospel But he that can tell me how to unfold this Mystery shall be my Master CONCERNING my application of the King of the South and the King of the North to the Saracen and Turk who should plunder the Roman Empire in his latter end 't is not my conceit alone but Mr. Brightman's upon that part of Daniel And 't is true which you guess that I incline to apply the King of the North's going forth upon the tidings from the East and the North in a fury to destroy and to that purpose to plant the Tabernacles of his palace in the glorious mountain of Holiness to the Iews return and the expedition of Gog and Magog into the Holy land For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place is constantly in this Book a description of the Holy land See chap. 8. 9. and this chap. vers 16 and 41. The tidings from the East and North may be that of the return of Iudah and Israel from those quarters For Iudah was carried captive at the first into the East and Israel by the Assyrian into the North namely in respect of the Holy land and in those parts the greatest number of each are dispersed at this day Of the reduction of Israel from the North see the Prophecies Ier. 16. 14 15. and chap. 23. 8. also chap. 31. 8. Or if this tidings from the North may be some other thing yet that from the East I may have some warrant to apply to the Iews return from that of the Sixth Vial in the Apocalyps where the waters of the great River Euphrates are dried up to prepare the way of the Kings of the East If you can digest this application of the Kings of the South and North to the Saracen and Turk I will then desire you to consider the notation of the Time when which saith the Holy Ghost v. 40. should come to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the time of the End that is of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Roman Kingdom which what they are you will find in my Discourse upon 1 Tim. 4. And to this you may refer that Question of Daniel in the next chap. vers 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How long shall this latter end of wonderful things be which the Angel answers For a time times and a half referring to his former Vision thereof chap. 7. 25. Of the same Latter times he asketh yet again vers 8. incertus mirabundus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord what are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translation turns but untowardly And further than this I cannot go in Daniel The next is all dark But it may seem the Angel tells the Prophet in those last Numbers when and how long it should be before this Mystery of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be understood For so he intimates both vers 4. Shut up the words and seal the Book until the time of the End and again vers 9. The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the End and then None of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand vers 10. Now you know the Mystery of Antichrist whereon the knowledge of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholly depends was not discovered till a good part of them were run out What if those Numbers vers 11 12. point out that time counting from the Prophanation of Epiphanes But I confess I know not here which way to take This I intimate was an old Notion which I can neither satisfie my self in nor yet meet with another better grounded Io. Mede EPISTLE LV. Dr. Twisse's Seventh Letter to Mr. Mede desiring to know his thoughts touching Genuflexio versus Altare Worthy Sir and my dear Friend THese are only to give you to understand that your Packet is arrived safely in my hands your Letters your Manuscripts two larger upon 1 Tim. 4. and the other of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a third less Time will not serve me to express the content I take in them the satisfaction you give me in your Letters I am taken with the meditation of the slavery of the Creature ever since the Fall of Adam in bondage to them that are slaves to sin and what that bespeaks of better times both for the Creature and for us the passages of the Form of Doctrine prescribed by the Council of Nice the Catechism in K. Edward's days and the rest And like enough the land of Canaan shall have preeminence above all the
the Camp whither every one that sought the Lord was to go and called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tabernacle of meeting viz. of meeting with God not of Mens meeting together as we mean when we turn it Tabernacle of the Congregation Of which perhaps more hereafter Now for the nature of these Places we can no where learn it better than from that of the Lord to Moses Exod. 20. immediately after he had pronounced the Decalogue from Mount Sinai where premising that they should not make with him whom they had seen talking with them from Heaven Gods of silver and Gods of gold and that they should make his Altar namely whilst they were there in the Wilderness of earth and sacrifice their sacrifices thereon he adds In all places where I record my Name I will come unto thee and will bless thee Here is contained the definition of the Place set apart for Divine Worship 'T is the Place where God records his Name and communicates himself to men to bless them Exod. 20. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In every place where the Memorial I appoint of my Name shall be or In every place set apart for the Memorial of my name The Memorial of God's Name is any token or symbol whereby he testifies his Covenant and as it were commerceth with Men. And though the Ark were afterward made for this purpose as the standing Memorial of his Name and therefore called The Testimony and the Ark of the Covenant yet could not that here be specially pointed at as which yet was not in being nor any commandment concerning the making thereof yet heard of And so the words to be taken generally for any such as were the Sacrifices immediately before mentioned and the Seat of them the Altar and therefore may seem to be more particularly referred unto for that these were Federal Rites whereby the Name of God was remembred and his Covenant testified may be easily proved whence that which was burned upon the Altar is so often called The Memorial See Levit. chap. 24. 7. c. 2. c. 5. c. 6. And the Son of Sirach tells us Ecclus. 45. 16. that Aaron was chosen out of all men living to offer Sacrifices to the Lord incense and a sweet savour for a Memorial to make reconciliation for his People Add Esay 66. 3. Qui recordatur thure quasi qui benedicat idolo But I must not stay too long in this Now I ask Did not Christ ordain the Holy Eucharist to be the Memorial of his Name in the New Testament Hoc saith he est corpus meum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there be those that will not stick to say That Christ is as much present here as the Lord was upon the Mercy-seat between the Cherubims Why should not then the Places appointed for the Station of this Memorial under the Gospel have some semblable Sanctity to that where the Name of God was recorded in the Law And though we be not now tied to one only Place as under the Law and that God hears the faithful prayers of his Servants wheresoever they are made unto him as also he did then yet should not the Place of his Memorial be promiscuous and common but set apart to that sacred purpose You will say This Christian Memorial is not always there present as at least some one or other of those in the Law were I answer It is enough it is wont to be as the Chair of Estate loseth not its relation and due respect though the King be not always there And remember that the Ark of the Covenant or Testimony was not in Ierusalem when Daniel opened his windows and prayed thitherward and that it was wanting in the Holy place all the time of the Second Temple the Seat thereof being only there You will say In the Old Testament these things were appointed by Divine law and commanded but in the New we find no such thing I answer In things for which we find no new Rule given in the New Testament there we are referred to the analogy of the Old witness the Apostles proofs taken thence for the maintenance of the Ministery 1. Cor. 9. and the like and the practice of the Church ab initio in Baptizing Infants from the analogy of Circumcision in hallowing every First day of the Week as one in Seven from the analogy of the Iewish Sabbath For it is to be seriously considered That the end of Christ's coming into the world was not to give new Laws but to fulfil the Law already given and to preach the Gospel of reconciliation through his Name to those who had transgressed it Whence we see the Style of the New Testament not any where to carry the form of enacting Laws but such as are there mentioned to be mentioned only occasionally by way of allegation of interpretation of proof of exhortation and not by way of re-enacting There comes now very fitly into my mind a passage of Clemens a Man of the Apostolical Age whose name S. Paul says was written in the Book of Life in his genuine Epistle ad Corinthios lately set forth page 52. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnia ritè ordine facere debemus quaecunque Dominus peragere nos jussit What doth he command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. praestitutis temporibus oblationes liturgias obire neque enim temere vel inordinatè voluit ista fieri sed statutis temporibus horis V B I etiam A QVIBVS peragi velit ipse excelsissimâ suâ voluntate definivit But where hath the Lord defined these things unless he hath left us to the analogy of the Old Testament 4. Concerning the Objection of our Saviour's eating the Passeover and first Institution of the Holy Supper in a Common place in an Inne Against the supposed Sanctity or Dignity to be ascribed to the Holy Table or Altar as the place where the Memorial of the Body and Bloud of Christ is represented you object the Table and place of the first Institution which was an ordinary Table and a common Inne whereby it should seem that the Table whereon it was afterwards to be celebrated should no otherwise be accounted of First I answer It follows not and that from the parallel of the Institution of the Passeover which though at first it were killed in a private house and the bloud stricken upon the door-posts yet afterwards it might not be so but was to be offered in the place which the Lord should chuse Deut. 16. 5 6. to place his Name there according to the Law given for all Offerings and Sacrifices in general Deut. 12. à versu 4. ad 14. inclusivè with a triple inculcation in one continued Series of speech This Answer seems to me sufficient for the Objection of the first Institution But there is one thing more yet to be considered That there is not the same reason of the Place where the
some brand or stamp upon them which points at the Sin for which they are inflicted you may call it a Sin-mark If the passages and ground of the continuance of this German War be well considered would not a man think they spake that of the Apostle Thou that hatest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge But I dare go no further it may be I have said too much already For I well know the way that I go pleaseth neither party the one loves not the Pope should be Antichrist nor the other to hear that these things should not be Popery Thus you see I have at length brought both ends together and end where I began Pardon me this one Letter and I will trouble you no more with this Theme your Reply to my short Answer to your Quere occasioned it I forget not my best respect unto your self nor my prayers to the Almighty for blessing to you and yours Thus I rest Christ's Coll. Iuly 15. 1635. Your assured Friend Ioseph Mede I sent by Mr. B. 4. or 5. Exercises upon passages of Scripture such as I had in separate papers and fit to be communicated For those that were in Books joyned with other things I could not and some that were apart for some Reasons I would not expose to danger of censure I hope those which I sent are safely arrived with you EPISTLE LIX Dr. Twisse's Ninth Letter to Mr. Mede thanking him for his pains in the foregoing Letter and desiring his resolution of a Doubt concerning the 7 Lamps signifying the 7 Angels in Zach. 4. Right dear and Right worthy Sir I AM somewhat of a more chearful spirit than when I wrote my last I have gotten more liberty of spirit to consider your large Discourse savouring of great Learning no less Iudgment and a distinctive Apprehension of things of good importance and that not in my judgment only but in the judgment of others though all require serious and further consideration And for mine own particular I cannot but reflect upon my self how deeply I am beholden unto you for intrusting me in so liberal a manner with these your Speculations We can never offend in putting difference between the Holy and Prophane neither can we offend in presenting our selves too reverently at the Lord's Table Never was the Mercy-seat so well known in the days of the Old Testament as in these days of the New We now behold the glory of the Lord with open face and accordingly our Saviour tells us the Lord requires the true worshippers should worship him in spirit and in truth in distinction from worshipping him either at Ierusalem or in the Mount the woman spake of And in this kind of worship we cannot exceed But as for outward Gestures I doubt I shall prove but a Novice as long as I breath and we affect not to make ostentation of our Devotion in the face of the world the rather because thereby we draw upon our selves the censure of Hypocrisie and sometimes if a man lifts up his Eyes he is censured for a P. and I confess there is no outward Gesture of Devotion which may not be as handsomly performed by as carnal an heart as breaths I am confident you are far from studia partium so should we be all and be ambitious of nothing but of the love and favour of God and of our conformity unto him in truth and holiness I heartily thank you for all and particularly for these Pieces which now I return I hope they will arrive safely in your hands What I wrote the last time I have almost utterly forgotten saving the clearing of one Objection concerning the Seven Angels standing before the Throne represented by the Seven Lamps which I much desired it arising from the Text it self the Lamps being maintained by the Oile which drops from the Two Olive-trees which are interpreted to be Zorobabel and Ieshua But I have troubled you so much that I fear the aspersion of immodesty in troubling you any further I cannot sufficiently express my thankfulness for that I have already received I desire ever to be found Newbury Iuly 27. 1635. Yours in the best respect Will. Twisse EPISTLE LX. Dr. Twisse's Tenth Letter to Mr. Mede desiring him to reveal unto him those Pluscula in Zach. chapters 9 10 11. which fit not so well Zachary's time as Ieremy's as also to resolve a Doubt about the 7. Lamps in Zach. 4. with some reflexions upon Mr. Mede's large Letter about Temples and Altars and the Christian Sacrifice Worthy Sir DO you not miss your Letter ad Ludovicum de Dieu And do you not find it strange it is not returned with the rest I assure you I took no notice of it till Wednesday last two days after the last week's Letter I wrote unto you In every particular it was welcome unto me as all yours always are But your Variae lectiones concerning the Old Testament and the pregnant evidences thereof which you alledge do astonish me and above all your adventure to vindicate unto Ieremy his own Prophecy which so long hath gone under the name of Zachary I never was acquainted with any better way of reconciliation than that which Beza mentions of the likeness of abbreviations of each name which might cause a mistake by the Transcribers O that you would reveal unto me those Pluscula which in those three Chapters of Zachary 9 10 11. do more agree as you observe to the time of Ieremy than to the time of Zachary Why may you not have a peculiar way also to reconcile the Genealogie in the LXX with that in the Hebrew where Kainan is found in the one which is not in the other Thus I make bold to put you to new trouble but I presume it is no more trouble to you than the writing like as that other whereabout I moved you How the Seven Lamps are maintained by the oyl derived from the two Olive-Trees if by the Seven Lamps are meant the Seven Angels that stand before the Throne of God Yet have I not done with your large Letter concerning Temples and Altars Since the writing of my last while I was reading that large Letter of yours to some Divines who were much taken with admiration at the Learning contained therein in an Argument wherein we had been so little versed I say in the reading of it I observed one thing which in all my former readings I took no notice of and that is in these words This is a point of great moment and consequent worthy to be looked into by all the Learned of the Reformed Religion lest while we have deservedly abolished the prodigious and blasphemous Sacrifice of the Papists wherein Christ is again hypostatically offered to his Father we have not but very implicitely and obscurely reduced that ancient Commemorative Sacrifice of Christians wherein that one Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross was continually by that sacred Rite represented and inculcated to his Father his Father
Dominus docuit offerri in universo mundo purum Sacrificium reputatum est apud Deum acceptum est ei c. The evidence of this was such as forced Hospinian Hist. Sacrament lib. ◠c. 6. to say Iam tum primo illo seculo viventibus adhuc Apostolis magis huic Sacramento quà m Baptismo insidiari ausus sit Daemon homines à prima illa forma sensim adduxit and Sebastianus Francus Statim post Apostolos omnia inversa sunt Coena Domini in Sacrificium transformata est Now Sir if I was loth to pass so harsh a censure as some do upon the First Fathers and Church Christian and could not be perswaded but that which the Catholick Church from her infancy conceived of the Eucharist should have some truth in it and accordingly endeavoured to find out that ratio Sacrificii therein such as might be consonant both to the Principles of the Reformed Religion and unto the Scripture of the New Testament yea perhaps found therein not quoad rem only but quoad nomen also did I merit to be irrided for having found out I know not what Mystery of a Sacrifice now-a-days a Mystery in my sense to all the Christian world When all men are at a seek and one cries I think I have found it shall he be chidden therefore Sir I can remember when you understood me more rightly and interpreted my freedom with much more candour To tell you true therefore I am somewhat suspicious lest the air of Cambridge did you some hurt But let that pass That which I wrote to you concerning this Mystery especially in my Second Reply was for the most part little other than Testimony of matter of Fact If it were false testare de mendacio if true cur caedor Yet one thing more It is no time now to slight the Catholick consent of the Church in her First ages when Socinianism grows so fast upon the rejection thereof nor to abhor so much the notion of a Commemorative Sacrifice in the Eucharist when we shall meet with those who will deny the Death of Christ upon the Cross to have been a Sacrifice for sin Verbum intelligenti There may be here some matter of importance Lastly You may remember how much I desired to be spared from any farther writing or answering upon this argument because I knew it was a nice and displeasing theme and such as I should have no thanks for Now I see I am become a Prophet and that when I looked not for it And thus I have done with this business which hath made me so much work The Censure I gave of the Declaration of the Palsgrave's Churches was not in respect of the matter but the manner of handling as the term of laxe shewed And before I had seen it I heard that Censure given of it by one that wishes the Palsgrave's Churches and their Doctrine as well as I know any Is I erred in my judgment there is an end I use not to be often faulty in rashness that way And this shall teach me to be more wary hereafter If I had had any suspicion of misconstruction I could in this kind have held my tongue with as much ease as any man What my Lord of Armagh's opinion is of the Millennium I know not save only that I have not observed him neither when I gave him my Synchronisms nor in discourse thereabout after he had considered them to discover any opposition or aversation to the Notion I represented thereabout The Like Mr. Wood told me of him after he had read his papers nay that he used this complement to him at their parting I hope we shall meet together in Resurrectione prima But my Lord is a great man and thinks it not fit whatsoever his opinion be to declare himself for a Paradox yet the speeches I observed to fall from him were no wise discouraging He told me once he had a Brother si bene memini who would say He could never believe but the 1000 years were still to come Now for Mr. Potter's Discourse I confess I came to the reading thereof with as much prejudice as might be having been cloyed with so many vain and fancisul Speculations about that mystical Number that I had no stomack to any more of them Which was the reason to tell you true that I shewed no more desire or eagerness to have a sight of your Exscript notwithstanding your commendations and offer of the same For I was loth to be put to give my Censure which I doubted according to former experience must be in sequiorem partem But when I was a little entered thereinto◠and began to perceive the Grounds whereon he meant to build I found my self presently to altar and to anticipate in my mind with much content what he aimed at before I could come to read it and longed not a little to find it well proved and to fall out accordingly That which wone me was the way to reduce Ezekiel's and S. Iohn's so differing measures of the New Ierusalem unto the same and so as both should allude to the Measures of the Ierusalem that was in being As soon as I found this I was not a little glad to see that made fecible which I before took for desperate and as it is ill halting with Criples I began presently to wish O that the Number of the Beast might have the like success for the designing of his See of Rome Concerning which and the compleat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of both Numbers when I found such Testimonies produced you may guess how I was affected namely That if it be not a Truth which I was very willing to believe it is the most considerable Probability that ever I read in that kind And thus with many thanks for your kind communication thereof unto me even when you had found me not to long for a sight of it I commend you and your learned meditations to the Divine blessing and so I rest Christ's Coll. Aprill 1637. Yours Ioseph Mede Diversum sentire bonos de rebus iisdem Incolumi licuit semper amicitiâ Eusebius De laudibus Constantini p. 492. Edit 1612. Quis praeter Christum Servatorem cunctis totius Orbis terrarum incolis sen terrâ seu mari illisint praescripserit ut singulis septimanis in unum convenientes Diem Dominicum sestum celebrarent I know not whether the Tractators of this argument have observed this passage or not Graeca sic habent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the Vanity of man's life When I began this Letter Dr. Whaley your good and religious Friend was in health Before I had finished intermitting some few days I heard he was fallen suddenly sick and soon after that he was recovering Now when I was about to seal my Letter upon the opportunity of a Friend 's going to London I hear he is departed this life and the Bells are yet ringing out for him I expected not to have been the
that of Israel's Mora in deserto an estate and condition externally better than what they came from in Egypt but inferiour to that they should in time attain unto Yea besides this general the Allusion is most fit for many particular Correspondencies Moses brought the Israelites out of the Egyptian bondage into the Wilderness a place where they might worship and sacrifice unto the Lord safely where the Law was given Tabernacle built Ordinances both Sacred and Political enacted c. So did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great Constantine deliver the Apostolical Woman and brought her into the like condition wherein she might worship Christ safely the Laws of the Church were established Tabernacles for Christian Worship erected Tâ—thes and Revenues assigned c. And had not this Christian Wilderness a Calf too made of the Ear-rings stoln from the Egyptians Was there not here found a Korah among the Sons of Levi with his partakers men of renown to rebel against Moses and Aaron and to offer strange fire unto the Lord Was there not here a Balaam to deceive and a Baal-Peor to be worshipped was there not a Marah and a Meribah Yea was there not here also as well as there those who brought an evil report upon the Land whither they were to go Farther might not God say of the times of this Christian Wilderness as he did of the abode of Israel there Psal. 95. 10. Forty years long was I grieved c. and Amos 5. 25 26. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years O house of Israel But ye have born the Tabernacle of your Moloch c. CHAP. 17. 14. and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful i.e. The Lamb and those called and elect and chosen ones which are with him shall overcome the Beast So I understand it These are that Virgin-Company Chap. 14. which follow the Lamb whither soever he goeth and shall now accompany him in this Exploit This therefore will serve for a Character Synchronistical That that Virgin-Company continues in time to the end of Babylon and the Beast and for an intimation of whom that Vision meaneth viz. such as faithfully adhere unto the Lamb while the Beast reigneth and the rest of men admire and worship him CHAP. 19. 15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the Nations So it was prophesied of him by Esay chap. 11. 4. that he should smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips should shay the wicked and in 2 Thess. 2. 8. he shall consume that Wicked one viz. Antichrist with the Spirit of his mouth Christ our General nor fights nor conquers by force of Arms but by the power of his Word and Spirit He does all nutu verbo As it is said Psal. 33. God made the world by his word and by the breath of his mouth in like manner doth Christ overcome his enemies and enables his Ministers to overcome them also Verbo Spiritu oris Agreeable hereunto is that in Hos. 6. 5. I have hewed them by my Prophets and slain them by the words of my mouth CHAP. 20. 6. Blessed and Holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection What is meant by the First Resurrection see in The Remains upon the Apocalyps Book III. pag. 604. and in Book IV. Epistle 20. Vers. 14. And Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire This is the Second Death Nothing is hereby meant but that Death was now quite vanquished and that there should be no more Death of Body or Separation of Soul but only the Second Death As if it had been said Death and Hades were now confined only to the lake of fire which is the Second Death The Death of Bodies in the grave should be no more nor the state of Separate Souls in Hades CAP. XI Commentationes Minores in Apocalypsin CAP. 1. vers 3. Tempus enim prop è est i.e. Iam adest tempus quo verba Prophetiae hujus impleri coeperint indies magìs magÃsque implebuntur Vers. 4. ab eo qui est qui erat qui venturus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eadem habentur verba vers 8. cap. 4. 8 cap. 11. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Venturus idem est quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Futurus ut ex cap. 16. 5. manifestum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utì locum hunc restituit Beza ex vetusto bonae fidei manuscripto codice Seculum Futurum Haebraeis est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unde Marc. 10. 30. Luc. 18. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Psal. 71. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esa. 27. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Venturis sub diebus id est Posthac Imposterum Esaiae 44. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vulgat Ventura quae futura sunt Dan. 9. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Populus Principis venturus id est futurus Et à septem Spiritibus qui in conspectu throni ejus sunt Per Spiritus hos intelligit Angelos Aretas in locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cornelius à Lapide pro eadem sententia Iunium laudat sed fallitur Fortè Drusium dicturus fuisset nam ille sic sentit ad hunc locum ubi inter alia habet Septem Archangelos esse qui stant coram Deo etiam Ionathan prodidit Sed ubi non commemorat Locus est Gen. 11. 7. Dixit Dominus Septem Angelis qui stant coram eo Venite nunc c. Cum istis facit Th. Beza Quòd inquit Septem hos spiritus nonnulli pro Spiritu Sancto acceperunt cujus septiformis ut loqunutur sit gralia manifestè refelli potest vel ex eo quod scribitur infrà 5. 6. Et paulò pòst Vt nemo de hoc possit ambigere iidem isti Septem Spiritus infrà cap. 5. 6. Agni cornua oculi id est ministri dicuntur Accedit quòd in cap. 8. 2. expressè dicuntur Angeli Vidi inquit Ioannes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septem Angelos qui adstant coram Deo Confer cap. 4. 5. Septem lampades ante Thronum quae sunt septem Spiritus Dei Cap. 5. 6. Agnum stantem tanquam occisum habentem cornua septem oculos septem qui sunt septem Spiritus Dei missi in omnem terram Zach. 4. 10. Septem isti oculi sunt Domini qui discurrunt per universam terram Videsis etiam Tobiae 12. 15. Ego sum unus ex septem Angelis qui astamus ante Dominum Cypr. adversus Iudaeos lib. 1. 20. Hilar. in Psal. 118 vel 119. Psal. 129. vel 130. Adde Clem. Alex. lib. 6. Strom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Septem quidem sunt quorum est maxima potentia primogeniti Angelorum principes Sed de Septem hisce Angelis