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
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
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
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
the Lord's and the fulness thereof and he requires this as a Tribute whereby we may acknowledge him to be the Giver of what we have Away with words or mere verbal thanksgivings God is thy Landlord he requires a Lords Rent those who use not to pay it will soon forget who is their Landlord which is the proper fountain of all the evil that comes by Abundance Nay he that thinks this Tribute of his goods is not due doth already disclaim his Landlord and deny God to be his Lord. When David made that bountiful and glorious offering for the building of the Temple 1 Chron. 29. 10 11 14. he blessed him in this manner Thine O Lord is the kingdom and thou art exalted over all Both riches and honour come of thee and thou raignest 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 All things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee If thou wouldst have the grace to say as David said thou must do as David did THUS we have considered the First part of the Reason of Agur's Prayer Why he prayed against Riches let us next examine the Second which moved him to pray against Poverty also Lest saith he I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain Poverty we see and want of things needful hath her dangers and evils as well as Riches and Abundance First Stealing Lest I be poor and steal Where by Stealing we must understand as much as is forbidden in the eighth Commandment not only Stealing by force and violence which we call Robbery but Stealing by fraud consenage or detention of anothers due though not so much punished by the Laws of Man yet as great a Sin before God as forcible robbing You may find all these kinds of Stealing reckoned up together Levit. 6. and one and the same Sacrifice appointed by God for atonement of them whereby it appears their guilt is the same in his estimation whatsoever men think of them Lev. 6. 2. If a Soul sin and commit a trespass against the Lord and lye unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep or in fellowship or dealing or in things taken by violence or hath deceived his neighbour Ver. 3. Or hath found that which was lost and lieth concerning it and sweareth falsly in any of all these that a man doth sinning therein Ver. 4. Then it shall be because he hath sinned and is guilty that he shall restore that which he took violently away or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten or that which was delivered him to keep or the lost thing which he found Ver. 5. Or all that about which he hath sworn falsly he shall even restore it in the principal and add the fifth part more thereto Then followeth the Sacrifice for atonement Here you may easily see how far this sin of Stealing extends And there is none of all these but a poor man in extremity of want is in danger to fall into as not only Agur's fear but daily experience may tell us and therefore it needs no further proof The second danger that Agur nameth is of Taking the Name of God in vain that is of perjury and false swearing as that which would follow upon Stealing as Stealing doth upon Poverty The danger of Perjury upon committing of Theft was greater among the Iews than amongst us by reason of a Custom and Law amongst them to tender an oath to those who were accused or suspected of Theft to clear and purge themselves For because Theft was not punished by death according to the Divine Law but by restitution and recompence this course with them was just and reasonable when no other evidence sufficient could be brought to give an oath to the accused it being supposed that the guilty party where the punishment for Theft was but restitution would rather confess his offence than incur so hainous a sin as the sin of Perjury But with us who punish Theft with death this way of trial by oath would be most unreasonable it being most true though spoken by the father of lies that Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life But that this manner of trial was practised among the Iews the place I even now quoted out of Leviticus for the kinds of Theft doth sufficiently manifest where it is said If a soul have committed such or such a kind of theft and lieth concerning it and sweareth falsly and again it is said he shall restore all that about which he hath sworn falsly And Exod. 22. 8 11. there is an express commandment to give an oath in a case of Theft there mentioned Hence it is that the prohibition of Theft and Perjury are joyned together Lev. 19. 11 12 13. because the one depended of the other Ye shall not steal neither deal falsly neither lie one to another And ye shall not swear by my Name falsly neither shalt thou prophane the Name of thy God I am the Lord. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour neither rob him The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning The Perjury and false swearing here mentioned the Iews understood to be specially intended in case of Theft For the same reason Theft and Swearing are coupled together Zech. 5. 3 4. and a curse pronounced against them both The curse saith the Lord of Hosts shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsly by my Name and it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it And thus you see what special reason Agur had in regard of the custom of his Nation to add to the first evil of Stealing this second danger of Taking God's Name in vain because the one was like to bring on the other Yet I would not have you so to take me as if I thought that we were altogether exempt from this danger for through the occasion be less yet we find by experience that our Thieves will also forswear themselves though no Law or Iudge constrains them to swear at all And for Lying the next neighbour to it we find that to be the ordinary and almost unavoidable consequent of this sin So that Agur's reason will fit us well enough THUS much shall serve for the Explication of the words that ye might understand Agur's meaning Now let us see what Lessons and Observations we may gather from them which are these First That it is not lawful to steal no not in a case of want and necessity For though Agur were poor and wanted food convenient for him yet were it a sin for him to steal which makes him pray against it Lest I be poor and steal For that which is of it self unjust and sinful no necessity can make lawful or dispensable Indeed in Ceremonies and things by
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
credit in fine he that hated his brother before must now love him as tenderly as himself What traveller is there that knowing himself to be in a contrary way and admonished that he must go back again would not return speedily Who but a fool would not consider that the longer he went forward the further he had to go back again the sooner he returned the easier would be his return the longer he went forward the more hard and difficult Why this is the case of every sinner every step he takes the further he is from God How painful then and tedious will that return be which is not speedily undertaken Nay when looking back we shall behold the infinite distance between God and us how can our heart almost but fail us and despair utterly that so long a way can ever be accomplished The Stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed time Ier. 8. 7. the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming Let the wise man be ashamed that knows not the sinner that considers not the time of his Return The second thing proper to a man's returning is to obliterate and tread out his former footing This is also required of every truly repentant sinner that wheresoever any footing remains of his former works he should tread them out for a repentant sinner must return by a line in the very path and tract of his sins Now some sins do vanish in the act and so leave no print behind them and such because they perish in the doing remain not to be undone by repentance But other sins there are which pass not away in the very doing but leave as it were a footing behind them I mean the work of the sin remains when the act is past and these works are to be undone in repentance Of this sort are sins most-what against the eighth Commandment Robbery Cousenage all ill-gotten and ill-withholden gain for in these Restitution is as it were the recalling undoing and treading out the mark of the sin committed He that hath taken a man's purse may give it him again but he that hath blasphemed cannot recal his blasphemy nor the refractary his former disobedience He that hath taken his brother's life cannot give it him again nor he that hath defamed him undo the word he hath spoken In these and such like Restitution hath no place but only God forgive me and doing the contrary hereafter But in Robbery Bribery Cousenage and all ill-gotten goods the goods we have taken from our neighbour remaining in our hand and power there is no repentance no forgiveness no returning without restoring what we have gotten Upon this I will dwell a while because I verily think that many men do not believe it but think it enough to cry God mercy but as for restoring of ought he must pardon them Surely Zaccheus the Publican had never learned this Evasion who to make good his Repentance gave half his goods unto the poor and promised fourfold Restitution of what he had gotten from any man wrongfully But if we will live by Laws and not by Examples hear the express Law of God Levit. 6. 2 c. where the Lord thus speaks unto Moses If a Soul sin in fellowship or dealing or in a thing taken away by violence or hath deceived his neighbour c. or hath found that which was lost and lieth concerning it c. Then it shall be because he hath sinned and is guilty that he shall restore what he hath taken violently or the thing that he hath gotten deceitfully c. he shall even restore the principal and adde the fifth part more thereunto in the day of his trespass-offering The day of our trespass-offering who are Christians is the day wherein we offer Christ unto his Father by a lively Faith for atonement for our sin the day of our repentance or our turning to God If the Iew 's sacrifice could not be accepted without thus doing no more shall a Christian's repentance Neither will it be enough to confess our sins and cry God mercy as we say For Numb 5. 7. where this same law is repeated Those saith the Lord which have thus sinned shall confess their sin which they have done and yet recompense his Trespass too with the principal thereof c. Yea so rigid is the Lord in exacting this that if the man himself who was thus wronged were dead and had no kinsman living yet the party offending was not so excused but was to make a recompence unto the Lord himself by giving it to his Priest as ye may see in the same place v. 8. Hence it is that the Lord Ezekiel 33. 14 15. maketh Restoring a main part of Repentance or Returning unto him If the wicked saith he turn from his sin and do what is lawful and right if he restore the pledge give again what he hath robbed then he shall surely live he shall not die If he will not do this it is easie to imagine what will follow namely that he shall surely die and not live But thou wilt say I am not able to make Restitution Why then shew thy self willing unto thy power for in this case God accepts the will for the deed But take heed thou dissemble not with him that knows thy most inward thoughts for he it is that trieth the heart and reins and nothing can be hid from him upon peril therefore of thy salvation deal truly with him that made thee for he is not as man that thou shouldst mock him or as the son of man that he should be deceived But thou wilt say I cannot do it unless I leave my wife and children to beggery Alas wilt thou venture thy own Soul to perish eternally to save thy house from beggery I must say unto thee as Peter said to Simon Magus Acts 8. 21 23. Thou hast neither part nor lot in the life to come for thy heart is not right in the sight of God Thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity thou preferrest the momentany glory of thy house before the everlasting safety of thy self Thou fool what will it profit thee to win the whole world and lose thy own soul But I shall thou wilt say in so doing proclaim mine own shame unto the whole world What then wouldst thou not be willing to undergo a greater penance than this for thy Soul's safety or how comes it to pass thou art more loth that men should know thy shame than God himself who made thee Lord how hard will it be for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven If men would think of this in their unjust dealing if they would remember this who scrape unto themselves riches by unlawful and ungodly means if those who get by extortion by cousening tricks of Law by bribery by sacrilegious Simony would think of this methinks it should make them pull back their hand For what joy and pleasure
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
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
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
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