same prayer is again delivered in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whē you pray say Our Father which art in heaven that is doe it in haec Verba For what other phrase 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 passe 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 custome 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 Saviours Disciples besought him that he also would give them in like manner some forme of his making that they might also pray with their Masters spirit as Iohns Disciples did with theirs For that either our Saviours or Iohns Disciples knew not how to pray till now were ridiculous to imagine they being both of them Jews who had their certaine set houres of prayer which they constantly observed as the third sixt and ninth It was therefore a forme of prayer of their Masters making which both Iohn is said to have given his Disciples and our Saviours 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 Lords 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 speciall motion of the Disciples at a time when himselfe had done praying That of S. Matthew in the second that of S. Luke in the third yeare after his Baptisme Consider the Text of both and you shall finde 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 forme of prayer unto them but for a pattern or example onely or it may be to instruct them in speciall in what manner to ask forgiveness of sins For if they had thought he had given them a forme of prayer then they would never have asked him for one now wherefore our Saviour this second time utters himselfe 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 dreame is doubled unto Pharaoh because the thing is established by God so may wee 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 forme 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 doe 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 then whose example and use wee can have no better rule to follow in the New First therefore wee 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 blesse the people Num. 6. 23. On this wise saith he shall Aaron and his sons blesse the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord blesse thee and keepe 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 forme of Prayer For what is to blesse but to pray over or invocate God for another The second is the forme of profession and prayer to be used by him who had paid his Tithes every third yeare 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 to the Fatherlesse and unto the widow according to all thy commandements which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandements neither have I forgotten them 14. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning neither have I taken away ought thereof for any uncleane use c. 15. Look downe from thy holy habitation from heaven and blesse thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest to our Fathers a Land that floweth with Milke and honey But what need we seek thus for scattered Formes when wee have a whole booke of them together The Booke of Psalmes was the Jewish Liturgie or the chiefe part of the vocall service wherewith they worshipped God in the Temple This is evident by the Titles of the Psalms themselves which shew them to have beene commended to the severall Quires in the same to Asaph to the sonnes of Korah to Ieduthun and almost forty of them to the Magister Symphoniae in generall The like wee are to conceive of those which have no titles as for example of the 105 and 96 Psalmes which though they have no such Inscription in the Psalme-booke yet wee finde 1 Chron. 16. 7. That they were delivered by David into the hands of Asaph and his Brethren for formes to thanke the Lord. This a man would think were sufficient to take away all scruple in this point especially when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solve◠and all the reformed Churches use to sing the same Psalmes not onely as set formes but set in Meeter that is after a humane composure Are not the Psalmes set formes of Confession of Prayer and of Praising God And in case there had been no prayers amongst them yet what reason could be given why it should not bee as lawfull to pray unto God in a set forme as to praise him in such a one What therefore doe they say to this Why they tell us that the Psalmes are not sung in the Church unto God but so rehearsed for instruction of the people onely namely as the Chapters and Lessons are there read and no otherwise But if either wee doe ought or may sing the Psalmes in the Church with the same end and purpose that the Church of the old Testament did and it were absurd to say wee might not this exception will not subsist for what is more certaine then that the Church of Israel used the Psalmes for Formes of praising and invocating God What mean else those formes Cantemus Domino Psallite Domino and the like so frequent in them But there are more direct
acknowledgement of that speciall relation they had to him above other Levit. 20. 25. 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 holinesse as being Gods men in a speciall manner and therefore required they should specially demean themselves in their lives These observations indeed were ceremoniall but there is something morall in them And therefore in the Gospel we hear of some speciall 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 speciall demeanour the ancient Church bound her Clergy unto but it came to passe 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 lawfull for and beseemed all men we think almost that lawful for us which is lawfull 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 extremes happy is he that finds it for he alone shall demean himself like himself like a Levite like Gods holy one Secondly from this speciall 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 holinesse and peculiarity to hear them called Clerus and Clerici as it were the Heritage of God for so saith S. Hierome Clerus dicimur quia sors Dei sumus But say they are not the People also Gods heritage Doth not S. Peter call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he forbids Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to domineer over Gods heritage I confesse he doth But those who reason after this manner come too near the language of Dathan and Abiram Num. 16. 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. is mine but you shall be my Segulla my peculiar people a Kingdome of Priests and an holy Nation But it might be answered them Though all the people were Gods 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 Lords The Land is mine saith he and therefore it could not be alienate beyond the year of Jubilee 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 Lords and yet the offerings alone were called holy unto the Lord. God himself cals 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 Gods offerings the holy Tribe on the holy things Again why may we not call our Clergy Gods inheritance when God himself cals the Levites his Levites Thou shalt saith he Num. 8. separate the Levites from among the children of Israel and the Levites shall be my Levites that is my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Clergy Why may not we call the Ministers of Christ his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he himself cals them the gift his Father gave him out of the world for so he saith Ioh. 17. 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 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 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 send 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 ô Father which thou hast given me out of the world it is neither arrogancy nor injury to style those who minister about holy things with the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inheritance of the Lord. What Levi was and what is meant by this Title Gods 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 speciall 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
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 Gods 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 consecrated to his service be in some proportion incommunicably used and not promiscuously and commonly as other things are They are the words of Maymonides the Jew but such as will not misbecome a Christian to make use of concerning that Law Levit. V. 15. If a soule commit a trespasse and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the LORD then he shall bring unto the Lord for his trespasse a Ram c. Behold saith hee 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 i. made holy And who so useth them to common use he transgresseth therein and though he doe it through ignorance he must needs bring his atonement Yea it is a thing worthy to be taken speciall 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 of them broad plates for a covering of the Altar for they offered them before the Lord therefore they are hallowed or holy Num. 16. 37 38. Now that by this discriminative usance or sanctification of things sacred the Name of God is honoured and sanctified according to the tenour of our petition is apparent not onely from reason which tels 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 tels us that by the contrary use of them his name is prophaned Hear himself Lev. XXII 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 is said To prophane the Name of his God Again Ezek. XXII 26. When the Priests prophaned Gods holy things by putting no difference between the Holy and Prophane I saith the Lord am prophaned amongst them Likewise Chap. XLIII ver 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 Manasse and Amon buried in the Kings Garden hard by the walls of the Temple for so by the Hebrews and others that place is understood See 2 Kings XXI ver 18 26. by the pollution of the Temple the Lord esteemed his own Name prophaned Take in also if you will that of Malachi Cha. 1. where the Lord says of those who despised and dishonoured his Table or Altar by offering thereon for sacrifice the lame the blinde 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 becommeth the relation they have to him I have already specified the severall 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 generall an intimation it will not be amisse a little more fully and particularly to explicate them then I have yet done Remember therefore that I ranged all sacred things under four heads 1. Of Persons Sacred such as were the Priests and Levites in the Old Testament and now in the New the Christian Clergy or Clerus so called from the beginning of Christian Antiquity either because they are the Lords 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Portion which the Church dedicateth unto him out of her self namely as the Levites were an offering of the Children of Israel which they offered unto him out of their Tribes or because their inheritance and livelihood is the Lords portion I preferre the first yet either of both will give their Order the title of Holinesse as doth also more especially their descent which they derive from the Apostles that is from those for whom their Lord and Master prayed unto his Father saying Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctifie them unto or for thy Truth thy Word is Truth that is Separate them unto the Ministery of thy Truth the word of thy Gospel which is the truth and verification of the promises of God It follows As thou hast sent me into the world so have I also sent them into the world this is the key which unlocks the meaning of that before and after And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified for thy Truth that is And for as much as they cannot be consecrated to such an Office without some sacrifice to atone and purifie them therefore for their consecration to this holy function of ministration of the new Covenant I offer my self a Sacrifice unto thee for them in lieu of those legall and typicall ones wherewith Aaron and his sons first and then the whole Tribe of Levi were consecrated unto thy service in the old An Ellipsis of the first Substantive in Scripture is frequent So here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth for the Ministery of Truth Now that the Christian Church for of the Jewish I shall need say nothing hath always taken it for granted that those of her Clergy ought according to the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were all one as men then conceived Note here that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were taken to be the souls of men deceased and that not among the Gentiles onely but as may seem among the Jews also For Iosephus in his seventh Book De Bello Iudaico Cap. 25. mentioning these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon occasion of a certain herb supposed to be good for them saith expresly by way of Parenthesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus sunt pessimorum â—omâ—num vivis immersi I tell not this meaning to avouch it for true but only that you might understand how Iustin Martyrs argument proceeds to prove that souls have existence after Death from Daemoniaâ—i My last proof is taken from those Energumeni which are all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so often mentioned in the Church Liturgies in the ancient Canons and in other Ecclesiasticall writings many ages after our Saviours being on earth and that not as any rare and unaccustomed thing but as ordinary and usuall They were wont to send them out of the Church when the Liturgie began as they did the Poenitentes Auditores and Catechumeni which might not be partakers of the holy Mysteries If those were not such as we now adayes conceive of no otherwise then as mad-men surely the world must be supposed to be very well rid of Devils over it hath been which for my part I beleeve not Nay that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were such as I speak of Balsamon and Zonaras both in their Scholia upon the Canons of the Church will I think inform us For to reconcile two Canons concerning these Energumeni which seem contradictory one called of the Apostles in these words Si quis Daemonem habet ne fiat Clericus sed neque cum fidelibus precetur Another of Timotheus quondam Patriarch of Alexandria speaking thus Si qui fidelis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debet esse sanctorum mysteriorum particeps To reconcile these I say they affirm the former which admits them not to be meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him that is continually and alwayes mad ne forte quid mali aut inhonesti agat aut Daemoniac as voces emittat ita ut populum Dei conturbet atque divinum officium impediat But that of Timotheus which 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 then I have met with 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 Gebenna began to be frequented as appears both by the second of Esdras the Chaldee Paraphrast and other Jewish writings where that name is often found as also by the Gospel where our Saviour useth it as then vulgarly known amongst the Jews But it is as certain that before the Captivity or second Temple for so the Jews 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 Canonicall 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 dreadfull execution of divine vengeance in that Place Hence it became to posterity to be a name of execration and applyed to signifie the place of eternall punishment For this valley of Hinnom Gehinnom or as afterward they pronounced it Gehenna was a valley neer Jerusalem in a place whereof called Tophet the children of Israel committed that abominable Idolatry in making their children to passe through the fire to Moloch that is burnt them to the Devil For an eternall 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 annoyance a continuall fire was there burning Yea not man onely 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 destroyed the host of Senacherib King of Assyria where one hundred and eighty thousand of their Carkasses were burnt according to that Esay 30. Through the voyce of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down 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 Jews were slain and massacred by the Babylonian armies when their City was taken and their Carkasses left for want of room for buriall for meat to the fowles 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 dayes 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 eternall destruction by so remarkable judgements 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 vallâ—y of Hinnom For such was the property of the Jewish Language to give Denominations unto things unseen from such analogicall and borrowed expressions of things
of worship in speciall which was confessed by both sides to be tied to one certain place onely that is of worship by Sacrifice and the appendages In a word of the typicall worship proper to the first Covenant of which see a description Heb. 9. This Iosephus expresly testifies Lib. 12. Antiq. cap. 1. speaking of the Jews and Samaritans which dwelt together at Alexandria They lived saith he in perpetuall discord one with the other whilest each laboured to maintain their Country customes those of Ierusalem affirming their Temple to be the sacred place whither sacrifices were to be sent the Samaritans on the other side contending they ought to be sent to Mount Garizim For otherwise who knows not that both Jews and Samaritans had other places of worship besides either of these namely their Proseucha's and Synagogues wherein they worshipped God not with internall onely but externall worship though not with sacrifice which might be offered but in one place onely And this also may seem to have been a type of Christ as well as the rest namely that he was to be that one and onely Mediator of the Church in the Temple of whose sacred body we have accesse unto the Father and in whom he accepts our devotions and services according to that Destroy this Temple and I will rear it up again in three daies He spake saith the Text of the Temple of his Body This sense divers of the Ancients hit upon Eusebius Demon. Euang. Lib. 1. Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not by Symbols and Types but as our Saviour saith in Spirit and Truth Not that in the New Testament men should worship God without all externall services for the New Testament was to have externall and visible services as well as the Old But with such as should imply the verity of the promises already exhibited not by types and shadows of them yet to come we know the Holy Ghost is wont to call the figured Face of the Law the Letter and the Verity thereby signified the Spirit As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both together they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once found in holy Writ to wit onely in this place And so no light can be borrowed by comparing of the like expression any where else to expound them Besides nothing hinders but they may be taken one for the exposition of the other that to worship the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with to worship him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But howsoever this Exposition be fair and plausible yet me thinks the reason which our Saviour gives in the words following should argue another meaning God saith he is a Spirit therefore they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth But God was a Spirit from the beginning If therefore for this reason he must be worshipped in Spirit and Truth he was so to be worshipped in the Old Testament as well as in the New Let us therefore seek another meaning For the finding whereof let us take notice that the Samaritans at whom our Saviour here aimeth were the off-spring of those Nations which the King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria when he had carried away the ten Tribes captive These as we may reade in the second Book of the Kings at their first comming thither worshipped not the God of Israel but the gods of the Nations from whence they came Wherefore he sent Lyons amongst them which slew them which they apprehending either from the information of some Israelite or otherwise to be because they knew not the worship of the God of the Countrey they informed the King of Assyria thereof desiring that some of the captiv'd Priests might be sent unto them to teach them the manner and rites of his worship which being accordingly done they thenceforth as the Text tels us worshipped the Lord yet feared their own gods too and so did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Chrysostome speaks mingle things not to be mingled In this medly they continued about two hundred years till toward the end of the Persian Monarchy At what time it chanced that Manasse brother to Iaddo the High Priest of the returned Jews married the daughter of Sanballat then Governour of Samaria For which being expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah he fled to Sanballat his Father in Law and after his example many other of the Jews 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 Jews and the occasion of a continuall 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 Jews 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 onely Yet so that howsoever they seemed to themselves to be true worshippers and altogether free from Idolatry neverthelesse they retained a smack thereof in as much 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 Jewish Tradition tels us who therefore always branded their worship with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spirituall Fornication Just as their predecessors the ten Tribes worshipped the same God of Israel under the similitude of a Calf This was the condition of the Samaritan Religion in our Saviours time and if we weigh the matter well we shall finde 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 so greatly materiall for as much as the time is at hand when men shall worship the Father at neither But there is a greater difference between you and us then of place though you take no notice of it namely about the object of worship it self For ye worship what ye know not but we Jews worship what we know How is that Thus Ye worship indeed the Father the God of Israel as we doe but you worship him under a corporeall representation wherein you shew you know him not but the houre commeth and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth In spirit that is conceiving of him no otherwise then in spirit And in truth that is not under any corporeall or visible shape For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ob tot successus bis quidem sacrificavimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenophon in his Hellanica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To conclude it is apparent by these examples that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a gift or tribute due for good tidings whether as an offering to the Gods the Authours or as a reward to men the messengers and bringers Now the most blessed happy tidings that ever came to the ears of the sons of men is salvation by Jesus Christ our Lord whereof his Priests and Ministers are the daily messengers Is there not then an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 due for this And is not this that our Apostle meaneth when he says The Lord hath ordained that they who preach the Gospel should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that which of old was required only for acknowledgement of the Divine Dominion under the bondage of the Law is now turned into the nature of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the liberty of the Gospel I mean that which we offer now unto God for the maintenance of the Euangelicall Ministery and other uses of his service The sense is most fit and agreeable and makes the Apostles expression if so understood passing elegant But you will say What probability is there the Apostle should use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this notion For though prophane Authors do so yet the Scriptures meaning both here and elswhere is to be measured by its own Dialect Have therefore the Hebrew the Chaldee the Septuagint any such notion as this I answer Yes all three of them For in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the onely word for good tidings signifies also Praemium boni nuncii Yea being not above five times found in the Old Testament some will have it thrice taken in that signification and twice will be easily yeelded them Likewise in the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie as well the one as the other both nuncium and nuncii praemium As for the Septuagint the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but thrice found with them and once so apparently in this signification as leaves no place for contradiction It is 2 Sam. 4. 10. where they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cui oportet me dedisse Euangelia They are the words of King David when Rechab and Baanah brought Ishbosheths head unto him When one told me saith he Behold Saul is dead thinking he had brought good tidings I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag when I should have given a reward for his tidings The Hebrew word rendred here reward for good tidings is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Septuagint as I said before have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Vulgar or S. Hierome mercedem pro nuncio The Chaldee Paraphrast Donum boni nuncii Thus you see this notion was familiar to all the Languages that S. Paul was brought up in Why should it then be improbable he should use it when he had occasion And no marvel it is to be found no oftner For unlesse it be in this Chapter in the whole New Testament the thing it self reward for good tidings is never mentioned intimated or alluded to How then could the word be used But in this Chapter me thinks I hear it used a second time ver 23. I will only propound it to your consideration and so conclude The matter stands thus S. Paul though he received no reward at the hands of the Corinthians for his pains in making known the glad tidings of salvation unto them but did it gratis to them-ward yet he looked for an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from God stored up in the heavens for all his faithfull Messengers and to be received at the great Day In expectation whereof he not only preached the Gospel to them freely but endured all things and made himself a servant to all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this I doe for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I might be partaker thereof What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should it be that Paul here aimed to be partaker of Surely it should seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here notes some Proemium even by that which immediately follows Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the brabeum So run that ye may obtain I leave it to your better meditations and so conclude FINIS DIATRIBAE OR A continuation of certain DISCOVRSES ON SUNDRY TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE Delivered upon severall occasions BY JOSEPH MEDE B. D. late Fellow of Christs Colledge in CAMBRIDGE Never before published being exactly printed according to the Authors own Manuscripts LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill MDCXLVIII The Texts newly added LUKE 2. 13 14. AND suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory be to God on high or in the highest and on earth peace good-will towards men pag. 241 MATTH 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven 264 ACTS 10. 4. And he said unto him Thy prayers and thine Almes are come up for a memoriall before God Or as it is verse 31◠are had in remembrance 285 PSALM 112. 6. The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance 311 NEHEM 13. 14 22. Remember me O my God concerning this and wipe not out my good deeds Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I have done for the house of my God and for the offices thereof And spare me according to the greatnesse of thy mercy 324 MATTH 10. 41. He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward 356 DEUT. 33. 8. And of Levi he said Let thy Thummim and thy Vrim be with thy Holy One. 350 ACTS 5. 3 4 5. But Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to purloin of the price of the land Whiles it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not in thy power why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God And Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the Ghost c. 379 JOEL 2. 17. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and say Spare thy people ô Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach 404 GEN. 3. 13 14 15. And the Lord God said unto the woman What is this that thou hast done And the woman said The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat And the Lord God said unto the Serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattell and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days
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 â—s that this Vrim and Thummim was some thing put in the Brest-plate which was fastened 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 shall put in the Brest plate of Iudgement the Vrim and the Thummim which shall be on Aarons heart when he goeth in before the Lord. And for this cause as most think was the Brest-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 kinde of Oracle whereby God gave answer to those that enquired of him and from hence the Septuagint call the whole Brest-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 Jews therefore make four kinds of Divine Revelation First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prophecy which was by dreams and Visions The second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflatus Spiritus sancti as was in Iob David and others The third Vrim and Thummim which was the Oracle The fourth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filia vocis which was usuall in the second Temple after the Oracle had ceased as Mat. 5. at Christs Baptism there came a voice from heaven saying This is my welbeloved son in whom I am well pleased and Ioh. 12. when Christ said Father glorifie thy name There came a voice like thunder saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again But to return again to our purpose That Vrim and Thummim was an Oracle of God besides the consent of Jews 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 And he that is Ioshua shall stand before Eleazar the Priest who shall ask counsell for him by the judgement of Vrim before the Lord. So 1 Sam. 23. when David was to ask counsell of the Lord he called for the Ephod wherein the Oracle was and whereas before he had once or twice asked counsell 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 ver 6. Lastly in the second of Ezra when certain of the Priests which returned from Captivity could not finde their names written in the genealogies it is said that Ezra commanded they should not eat of the most holy things till there rose up a Priest with Vrim 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 amisse to observe that Teraphim among the Idolaters was answerable to the Vrim and Thummim of the holy Patriarchs Both were ancient for Rahel is said to have stollen away her Fathers Teraphim And Vrim and Thummim seems to have been used among the Patriarchs before the Law was given because the making of it is not spoken of among other things of the Ephod And because God speaks of it to Moses demonstratively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vrim and the Thummim Both also were Oracles for the Jews and others agree Teraphim were small Images made under a certain constellation which they used to consult both in things doubtfull and things future supposing they had a power to this effect received from heavenly influence much like to puppets made of wax and like matter which our Wizzards still use unto like purpose And therefore Ezek. 21. we reade that the King of Babel among other divinations consulted also of Teraphim And the King of Babel saith the Text stood at the head of the two ways to use divination consulting with Teraphim he looked in the liver And Zac. 10. 2. Surely saith the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Teraphims have spoken vanity and the Soothsayers have seen a lie and the Dreamers have told a vain thing Besides from this like use of Teraphim with the holy Vrim and Thummim we may reade Ephod and Teraphim joyned both together as things of like kind as Hosea 3. The children of Israel saith the Lord shall remain many days without a King and without a Prince and without an Offering and without an Image and without an Ephod and Teraphim Yea of so near a nature was this Teraphim unto the Vrim and Thummim that Micah he that had an house of Gods when he had made an Ephod because he had no Vrim and Thummim he put Teraphims in stead thereof as we may gather Iudg. 17. 18. where we may see also that when the children of Dan enquired of the Lord concerning their journey it pleased him to give answer by the Idolish Teraphim So we may gather likewise that the Israelites after Ieroboams schism having no Vrim and Thummim used Teraphim in the Ephod and therefore it is that Hosea threatens that they shall be without Ephod and Teraphim Having hitherto shewn how far it is agreed about Vrim and Thummim in the next place the points of difference ought to be considered which are either about the matter whereof it was made or in the manner how God answered by it For the matter some will have it to be nothing else but the writing or carving of the great name Iehovah which was put within the folding of the brest-plate and that it was called Vrim and Thummim because by the knowledge of the mystery of Iehovah in the Trinity our minds are enlightned and understandings made perfect Some other there are of the same opinion but they will have it called Vrim and Thummim because by the virtue of that name written Sacerdos verba sua illustrabat perficiebat And moreover they say the brest-plate was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brest-plate of judgement because by it the Lord gave as it were sentence and judgement what was to be done in hard and doubtfull matters And this is the opinion of Rabbi Shelomo Some other will have it called the brest-plate of judgement because that by it the judgement of the Judges if it were amisse was hereby as it were pardoned because the High Priest was to bear the sins of the people The Authors of this opinion are mentioned by R. Shelomo Aben Ezra saith it was so called because by it the judgement and decrees of the Lord were known And he thinks also that
he saith ye are strangers and sojourners with me the meaning is that as the Gentiles who became Proselytes had no inheritance in the land but dwelt therein as sojourners so was all Israel in the sight of God who would have none accounted Proprietaries of that land but himself having acquired it by his own powerfull conquest from the Canaanite For although in the same land some part were yet in a more speciall manner the Lords land yet comparatively secundum quid the whole land was sacred and His As all Israel was a peculiar and holy people though the Tribe of Levi were in a more speciall sort the holy Tribe Now if that which was but in a more generall sense holy and the Lords might not be alienated what shall we say of that which is holy and His in the most speciall manner of all I speak all this while of that which is dedicate unto God absolutely and not with limitation or for term of time only for such Dedications I suppose there may be Now if any shall ask me whether this assertion That things dedicate to God are unalienable admits not of some limitations I answer It may be and that in two cases If either it can be proved that the donation made unto God were a nullity or shewed that God hath relinquished the right which once he had But here the water begins to grow too deep for my wading yet I hope I may say thus much That whosoever he be that shall plead either of these two cases to acquit himself of Sacriledge had need be sure in a point of such moment that his evidence be good and such as he can shew good warrant for out of Gods own book To go upon bare conjectures will not be safe And for direction and caution in this case I will adde further That not every sinfulnesse of the person who is the Donor nor every default or blemish in the consecration makes the act it self void It appears in the story of Corah 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 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 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 Num. 16 37 38. Mark here though they were offered by sinfull men and in a sinfull 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 Solomo Iarchi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unlawfull for common use because they had made them vessels of Ministery My last observation is raised from the judgement which befell 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 and how hainous he esteemed that sin that it might be for an example to the worlds end unto all that should afterward beleeve in his name to beware thereof So saith S. Hierome Ananias Sapphira quia post votum obtulerunt quasi sua non ejus cui semel eavoverant praesentem manere vindictam non crudelitate Sententiae sed correction is exemplo For the first in every kinde is the measure of that which follows 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 judgement that could be The like severe example to this and for the like end was that upon him who at first profaned the Sabbath day in the Wildernesse by gathering sticks Num. 15. 32 c. who by the sentence of God himself was put to death and stoned by the whole Congregation That the Jews hereby might know that howsoever the like were not ordinarily afterward to be inflicted for the like sin yet that 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 finde three examples of such a kinde 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 Fathers house a house of Merchandise Ioh. 2. 13. 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 Theeves Mat. 21. 12. Mark 11. 15. Luk. 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 adays wont to make of these two sins yet in Gods esteem they are other manner of ones then we take them for Another argument of the hainousnesse 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 onely if it were ignorantly done For so we have it Levit. 5. 15. If a soul commit a trespasse and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord he shall bring for his trespasse 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 adde 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. 4. Will a man rob his God Another proof and testimony of the hainousnesse of this sin is that so ancient a custome in Dedications todade it with a curse which to be no late custom as some may suppose taken up among Christians but used both by Jew and Gentile before Christ was born may appear by that Decree of K. Darius for the building of the Temple of Jerusalem 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 custome it came that Anathema signifies such 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 kinde of offering or consecration which had a curse laid upon it namely a curse to him that should meddle with it Which kinde of consecration had this peculiar that even the very individuall might never be altered changed or redeemed upon any terms Levit. 27. 28. whereas other offerings might so that a valuable thing or better were given for them Such a consecration I mean a Cherem or consecration under pain of a curse in the very individuall was that of the City Iericho as the First-fruits of the conquests of Canaan To these Arguments I will adde two or three examples to this of Ananias of the punishment of this sin and so conclude To begin then with the beginning of all Was not the first sin of Mankinde for which himself his posterity and the whole earth was accursed a great and capitall sin But this if we look well into it was no other for the species and kind of the Fact then Sacriledge Such the ancient Jews conceived Adams sin to have been namely a species of theft as may be gathered out of the Book De morte Mosis where Moses is brought in deprecating death and answering God that his case was not such as Adams for he transgressed by stealing and eating what God forbad him to meddle with and so was justly condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But who could Adam steal from save from God only And therefore I say the first sin of mankinde for the Fact was the sin of Sacriledge For whereas among all the trees of the Garden which God gave man freely to enjoy there was one Noli me tangere which he had reserved unto himself as holy in token he was Lord of the Garden Man by eating of this as common violated the sign of his Fealty unto the great Landlord of the whole Earth and committed Sacriledge for which he was cast out of Paradise and the whole earth accursed for his sake Might I now say that to this day many a son of Adam is cast out of his Paradise and the labours of his hands accursed for medling with this forbidden fruit But to go on Achan for nimming a wedge of gold and a Babylonish garment of the devoted thing of Iericho aforementioned brought a curse both upon himself and the whole Congregation of Israel For the Sacriledge of Eli's sons who not content with those offerings which God allowed them for their maintenance robbed him of his Sacrifices to furnish their own Tables God gave not only his people but even the Ark of his Covenant into the hands of the Philistins For the Sacriledge of the seventh or Sabbaticall year God caused his people to be carried captive and the land lie waste 70. years By the Law of Moses every seventh year the whole land was sacred unto the Lord so that no man that year might challenge any right of propriety either to sow his field or prune his vineyard or reap that which grew of it self or gather the fruits of his vineyard undressed only he might eat thereof in the field as at other times any might of that which was none of his as he travelled by otherwise every mans field and vineyard was that year free as well to the Servant as the Master to the Stranger as the Owner to beasts as well as to men The same year also were all servants and all debts sacred unto the Lord and so to be released whence that year was called The Lords Release See Exod. 21. Levit. 25. Deut. 15. This consecration being as much as the forgoing of the seventh part of every mans profits the covetous Jews for many years neglected the observation thereof For which sin the Lord as himself professeth caused them to be carried captive and the land to lie waste seventy years without Inhabitant till it had fulfilled the years of Sabbath which they observed not For their Idolatry he gave them into the hands of the Gentiles their enemies for their Sabbaticall Sacriledge hee added this unto it that they should beside their bondage be carried captives into a strange Countrey and their land lie desolate 70. years For the Sacrilegious profanation of Belshazzar in causing the Vessels of Gods House to be made his Quaffing-bowls for himself and his Lords his Wives and his Concubines to carouse in was the hand writing upon the wall sent which did so affright him that the Text says His countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against another And the same night Gods vengeance light upon him Dan. 5. Lastly in the days of the Greek Kings God gave his own Temple and worship to be profaned and his people to be trodden under foot by Antiochus Epiphanes a Gentile King because they themselves had a little before profaned the same with sacrilegious hands having betraid the Treasures and Offerings of the same unto a Gentiles coffers and sold the sacred Vessels to the Cities round about them 2 Mac. 3 4. 5. cap. JOEL 2. 17. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and say Spare thy people ô Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach THese words are part of a description of a Fast as the Context before and after will tell you and they contain a Rite or Custome wont to be used in such solemne deprecations namely for the Priests of the Lord who are to be the Intercessors and Mouth of the Congregation not then as at other times to enter into the Temple to offer and sanctifie with Incense the prayers of the people at the Golden Altar before the vail but to prostrate themselves without the door between the Porch and the Altar of burnt-offering as unworthy to approach the Throne of the Divine Majesty or come over his Threshold and therefore
despising of others be cropped and withered and these I can tell you will quite spoil a garden where many good flowers grow If after this manner we be affected then are we humbled If not we are not sufficiently taken down all our service is hypocrisie nor will our devotions be accepted of that all-seeing Majesty who resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble GEN. 3. 13 14 15. 13. And the Lord God said unto the woman What is this that thou hast done And the woman said The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat 14. And the Lord God said unto the Serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattell and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel THE Story whereof the words I have read are part is so well known to all that it would be needless to spend time in any long preface thereof Who knows not the story of Adams fall who hath not heard of the sin of Eve our Mother If there were no Scripture yet the unsampled irregularity of our whole nature which all the time of our life runs counter to all order and right reason the wofull misery of our condition being a scene of sorrow without any rest or contentment This might breed some generall suspition that Ab initio non fuit ita but that he who made us Lords of his creatures made us not so worthlesse and vile as now we are but that some common Father to us all had drunken some strange and devillish poyson wherewith the whole race is infected This poyson saith the Scripture was the breach of Gods commandement in Paradise by eating of the forbidden fruit for which Adam being called to an account by the great Judge and laying the fault upon the woman which God had given him for an helper God vouchsafes as ye hear in my Text to examine the Woman saying What is this that thou hast done And she answers The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat These words contain in them two parts First Gods Inquisition accusing Secondly the womans Confession excusing her fact The first in the first words And the Lord said unto the woman c. The second in the last words And the woman said The Serpent c. For the first words which God speaks being considered absolutely are an indictment for some crime as they are interrogative they are an inquisition concerning the same and therefore I call them an Inquisition accusing So the second are a Confession as the woman says I have eaten but with an excuse when she says The Serpent beguiled me and therefore I call them a Confession excusing In the Inquisition are two things to be considered First the Author and Person who makes it which is the Lord God himself So saith my Text And the Lord God said unto the woman Secondly the Inquisition it self What is this that thou hast done In the Person who comes and makes this Inquest being the Lord God himself we may observe and behold his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wonderfull goodnesse and unspeakable love to mankinde which here reveals it self in four most remarkable circumstances First in his forbearance And the Lord said When said the Lord namely not till Adam had accused her she who was first in the sin was last questioned for the same and that too because her husband had appealed her God knew and observed well enough the first degree and every progresse of her sin he needed no information from another yet as though he were loth to take notice thereof as though he were loth to finde her guilty yea as though he were loth to denounce the punishment which his Justice required he comes not against her untill now and that as though he were unwilling to come at all If we look back into the story we shall yet finde a further confirmation thereof How long did God hold his hand before he stripped the woman especially of that glorious beauty of her integrity and made her with opened eies to see her shamefull nakednesse She had at the first onset of her conference with the Serpent sinned a sin of unbeleef of God and yet God spared her In the progresse she sinned more in her proud ambition of being like to God himself and to be wise above what was given her and God yet spared her She sinned when she coveted and longed once to eat of the forbidden fruit when it began to seem more pleasing and desirable unto her then obedience to Gods Commandement and God yet spared her At last she takes and eats thereof and so came to the heighth and consummation of her sin and yet behold and see the clemency and longanimity of our good God he paused yet a while untill she had given unto her husband also and then and not till then he opened their eyes to see their wofull misery A lesson first to us men if so be we think the example of God worthy our imitation to bear long with our brother as God bears with us to admonish him as it is in the Gospel the first second and third time before we use him like an Heathen or a Publican to forgive him seven times yea as Christ says to Peter if he repent and ask forgivenesse seventy times seven times Secondly this may be a cordiall of spirituall comfort unto us sinners though we make a shift to keep our selves from the execution of sin yet we finde our hearts full of sinfull thoughts ungodly desires and unclean lusts and such like sinfull motions from the infirmity of our flesh which notwithstanding we cannot ever expell or be rid of yet let us hope that God out of his mercy will bear with our weaknesse and passe by our infirmities who bore with the sin of our first Parents untill it came to execution The second circumstance is the temper of his Justice in that he vouchsafes first to enquire of the offence and examine the fact before he gives sentence or proceeds to execution The like example we have Gen. 11. where it is said The Lord came down to see the City and Tower which the children of men had builded afore he would confound their language or scatter them abroad from that ambitious Babel upon the face of the earth Again Gen. 18. the Lord says I will go down and see whether they of Sodâ—me have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know He from whom no secrets are hid he that formed the heart of man and knows all the works we do he that trieth and searcheth the heart and reins even he will first examine the fact will first hear what miserable man can say for himself before his sentence shall
even to continue him in that accursed and vile condition to which he had dejected him For food is for the repairing and preservation of nature and the goodnesse and badnesse thereof doth make the temper of the body better or worse Hence according to the degrees of excellency in the creatures their food is finer or courser Plants suck the moisture of the earth beasts live most upon plants but man of the flesh of cattell fowl and fishes Since therefore the Serpent was to have no better fare then the dust of the earth as it argues the basenesse of his nature which can with such food be nourished so doth it necessarily imply his continuance in that his dejection and vilenesse whereas otherwise it were not impossible because his nature for the essence is still the same it was if his diet were as it had been for him to improve himself more near to his primitive temper then now he is But God who had decreed he should ever remain under this malediction appointed also the means to retain him therein VERSE 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman c. THE third and last particular remains to be treated of I will put enmity between thee and the woman c. This no doubt intendeth in some things more directly the spirituall Serpent then the brute yet for the generall it may and ought as well as the rest to be expounded of the brute Serpent as a glasse wherein to behold the malice and destiny of the other the Devil It containeth two parts The Enmity and the Event and managing thereof For the enmity how it is verified concerning the brute Serpent experience telleth It is some part of the happinesse of the creature to be the favourite of man who is the Lord thereof what honour could betide it greater then this But between the Serpent and Man is the most deadly enmity and the strongest antipathy that is amongst the beasts of the field Such an one as discovereth it self both in the naturall and sensitive faculties of them both For the first their humours are poison each to other the gall of a Serpent is mans deadly poison and so is the spittle of man affirmed to poison the Serpent For the sensitive antipathy it appears in that the one doth so much abhorre the sight and presence of the other mans nature is at nothing so much astonished as at the sight of a Serpent and like enough the Serpent is in like manner affected at the sight of man And that more especially as the Naturalists affirm of a naked man then otherwise As though his instinct even remembred the time of his malediction when he and naked man stood before God to receive this sentence of everlasting enmity And whereas the words of the Text do in speciall point out the woman in this sentence of enmity the Naturalists do observe that is greater and more vehement with that sex then with the male of mankinde Insomuch that Rupertus affirmeth that if but the naked foot of a woman doth never so little presse the head of a Serpent before he can sting her both the head and body presently dieth which no cudgell or other weapon will do but that some life and motion will still remain behinde Hoc saith he ita est ipsorum qui per industriam exploraverunt fide relatione comperimus Lib. 3. de Trin. c. 20. You know my Author The remaining words of my Text do expresse the managing and event of this enmity which is far more dangerous and unlikely on the Serpents part then on Mans for man is able to reach the Serpents head where his life chiefly resideth and where a blow is deadly but as for the Serpent he shall not be able to prevail against man otherwise then privily and unawares and that but in his lowest part namely when he shall passe him unseen to sting him by the heel And that this is the nature of a Serpent it appeareth in the words of Dans blessing Gen. 49. Dan shall be a Serpent by the way an Adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward And to make an end of this discourse also it is a thing to be observed in the nature of a Serpent that assoon as he perceiveth man ready to throw or strike at him he will presently roul his body for a buckler to save his head even as though he had some impression of that doctrine which God here read him in my Text Ipse conteret tibi caput Beware thy head And thus hitherto I have considered these words as they are the curse of the brute Serpent now I am to go over with them again to shew how they are propounded unto us by God as a glasse wherein to behold the Devils malediction the Serpent being made now the discovery of his vilenesse which once he abused for a mask to hide it from the woman As therefore the Serpent is the most accursed of all the cattell and beasts of the field so is the Devil the most accursed spirit amongst all orders and degrees of spirits namely of the highest of Angels become the abjectest of spirits more base accursed then the most cursed damned soul having little or nothing left him of that good which was sutable to a spirituall condition and this is the state of the Devil for the generall answerable to that of the Serpent Now for the particulars The first is Vpon thy brest shalt thou go How doth this befit the Devil The Devil hath no bodily brest to go upon But as I shewed in the Serpent that this groveling signified the abasement of his whole nature from his primitive excellency so in the Devil it signifies his stooping down and falling from his most sublime and glorious condition A wonderfull stoop this was when that which had been advanced as high as heaven was made to fall down as low yea lower then the earth it self This is the Devils going upon his brest this the groveling of that once so highly reared posture according to that description of Iude ver 6. who cals them the Angels that kept not their first estate but left their own habitation agreeable to that of S. Peter 2 Ep. c. 2. v. 4. God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell The second particular is The dust of the earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life The food wherewith spirits are fed is analogicall spirituall and not corporall we must therefore here seek out that which in them hath the fittest resemblance with corporall food The life of Angels consists in the continuall contemplation of the excellent greatnesse wonderfull goodnesse and glorious beauty of the essence of God both as it is in it self and as it is communicated unto his creatures This is that which our Saviour intimates Mat. 18. 10. Their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven The