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
Prophet in the name of a Prophet yet behind namely such as rob and spoil them of their livelihood and daily bread and not only themselves give nothing to enable and encourage them the better to perform their Ministery but take from them several ways that which the Piety and Bounty of their Ancestors hath allotted them yea to many if not to the most no gain or theft is more sweet than that which is gotten out of the Priest's portion But whether it will prove so at that day when the just God shall reward every man according to his works may be greatly feared I told you a little before that the reason why he that receives a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall be partaker of a Prophet's reward is because he that supports and enables a Prophet to do his duty hath thereby an interest in his work and consequently in the reward due to the same If this be so what can they look for who by subtracting their daily bread from them hinder and disenable them from the free and chearful performance of their duty by distracting them with the cares of providing for their bodily life Do they not derive upon themselves the guilt of whatsoever impediment comes hereby to the propagation of the Kingdom of Christ Shall not the loss of every Soul that perisheth for want of due provision to maintain an able Minister be cast to their account at the last day I will speak nothing now of the burthen which Sacriledge it self as being a robbing of God carries with it See Prov. 20. 25. It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vows to make enquiry nor of those dreadful execrations which the Donors of such things were wont antiquo ritu to lay upon the heads of all such as should divert them to prophane uses wherewith these men willingly and wilfully involve themselves I will I say not speak of these for the present occasion calls upon me and tells me that I came not hither to curse but to bless I therefore change my note and say Blessed be God our heavenly Father who notwithstanding the malignity of many hath not left us destitute but in every Age hath raised up some to shew kindness unto the Prophets and to provide entertainment for them Witness the goodly Buildings and liberal Endowments in our two Seminaries for the entertainment and education of Prophets and Prophets Sons more particularly the Bounty of those Worthies the fruits of whose Piety and Devotion we our selves here assembled by the Divine goodness enjoy Whose blessed names therefore as their deserts challenge at our hands let us remember with all due honour and thankfulness After the mention of the Names of the College-Benefactors this followes in the Authors own Manuscript These are the Names of our pious Founders and Benefactors let their Memory be blessed for ever And when Christ our Lord shall come in his Glory to render every one according to his works and their Bones flourish again out of their graves let all the benefit and enlargement which shall redound to the Church of God by this their Bounty be cast in their account and we with them and they with us hear that comfortable voice Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the World DISCOURSE XXIV S. 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 AT the Creation of the world when God laid the foundations of the Earth and stretched out his line thereon the Stars of the morning as God himself describes it Iob 38. 7. sang together and all the Sons of God that is the holy Angels shouted for joy This in my Text is so like it that a man would think some new Creation were in hand nor were it much wide of truth to affirm it for if ever there were a day wherein the Almighty Power the incomparable Wisdom the wonderful Goodness of God again the second time appeared as it did at the World's Creation it was this day whereof S. Luke our Evangelist now treateth when the Son of God took upon him our Flesh and was born of a Virgin to repair the breach between God and man and make all things new The news of which Restauration was no sooner heard and made known to the Shepherds by an Angel sent from heaven but suddenly the heavenly Host descended from their celestial mansions and sung this Carol of joy Glory be to God on high and welcome Peace on earth Good-will towards men A Song renowned both for the singularity of the first example for until this time unless it were once in a Prophetical Vision we shall not find a Song of Angels heard by men in all the Scripture and from the custom of the Church who afterward took it up in her Liturgy and hath continued the singing thereof ever since the dayes of the Apostles unto these of ours Yet perhaps it is not so commonly understood as usually said or chaunted and therefore will be worth our labour to enquire into the meaning thereof and hear such Instructions as may be learned therefrom Which that we may the better do I will consider First the Singers or Chaunters The heavenly Host Secondly the Carol or Hymn it self Glorid in excelsis Deo Glory be to God on high c. For the First The Heavenly Host here spoken of is an Army of holy Angels For the Host of heaven in the language of Scripture is twofold Visible or Invisible The Visible Host are the Stars which stand in their array like an Army Deut. 4. 19. Lest thou lift up thine eyes saith the Lord there unto heaven and when thou seest the Sun Moon and Stars even all the Host of heaven shouldst be driven to worship and serve them The Invisible Host are the Angels the heavenly Guard according to that of Micaiah 1 King 22 19. I saw the Lord sitting upon his Throne and all the Host of Heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left So. Psal. 103. 20 21. Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his Commandments Bless the Lord all ye his Hosts ye ministers of his that do his pleasure Where the latter words do but vary that which is expressed in the former From this it is that the Lord Iehovah the true and only God is so often styled the Lord or God of Sabaoth or of Hosts that is King both of Stars and Angels according to that Nehem. 9. 6. Thou art God alone and the Host of Heaven worshippeth thee By which Title he is distinguished from the Gods of the Nations who were some of the Host to wit of the Stars or Angels but none of them The Lord of Hosts himself For the same reason and with the same meaning and sense in
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
Custom of all Religions of all Nations of all Vassals the Lord Iehovah Creator of Heaven and Earth ordained to his people this Observation of the Sabbath-day for a Sign and Cognisance that he should be their God and no other It is for a sign saith he between me and you that I Iehovah am your God And besides in the place I quoted before the 31. of Exod. 16 17. are these words The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested As if he had said It is a Sign that the Creator of heaven and earth is your God But for the more distinct understanding of this signification we must know that the Sabbath includes two respects of time First the quotum one day of seven or the Seventh day after six days labour Secondly the designation or pitching that Seventh upon the day we call Saturday In both the Sabbatical observation was a sign and profession that Iehovah and no other was the God of Israel the first according to his attribute of Creatour the second of Deliverer of Israel out of AEgypt For by sanctifying the Seventh day after they had laboured six they professed themselves vassals and worshippers of that only God who created the Heaven and the Earth and having spent six days in that great work rested the Seventh day and therefore commanded them to observe this sutable distribution of their time as a baâ—ge and livery that their Religious service was appropriate to him alone And this is that which the Fourth Commandment in the reason given from the Creation intendeth and no more but this But seeing they might profess this acknowledgment as well by any other six dayes working and a seventh's resting as by those they pitched upon there being still what six dayes soever they had laboured and what seventh soever they had rested the same conformity with their Creator let us see the reason why they pitched upon tâ—ose six dayes wherein they laboured for labouring dayes rather than any other and why they chose that Seventh day namely Saturday to hallow and rest in rather than any other And this was that they might profess themselves servants of Iehovah their God in a relation and respect peculiar and proper to themselves to wit that they were the servants of that God which redeemed Israel out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage and upon the morning-watch of that very day which they kept for their Sabbath he overwhelmed Pharaoh and all his Host in the Red Sea and saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians This I gather from the repetition of the Decalogue Deut. 5. where that reason from the world's Creation in the Decalogue given at Horeb being left out Moses inserts this other of the Redemption of Israel out of Egypt in stead thereof namely as the reason why those six dayes rather than any other six for work and that Seventh day rather than any other seventh for rest were pitched upon as Israel observed them Remember saith he V. 15. thou wert a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day Namely not for the quotum of one day of seven â—or of that another reason was given the example of God in the Creation but for the designation of the day But whether this day were in order the seventh from the Creation or not the Scripture is silent for where it is called in the Commandment the seventh day that is in respect of the six dayes of labour and not otherwise and therefore whensoever it is so called those six dayes of labour are mentioned with it The seventh day therefore is the seventh after the six dayes of labour nor can any more be inferred from it the example of the Creation is brought for the quotum one day of seven as I have shewed and not for the designation of any certain day for that seventh Nevertheless it might fall out so by disposition of Divine Providence that the Iews designed Seventh day was both the seventh in order from the Creation and also the day of their deliverance out of Egypt But the Scripture no where tells us it was so howsoever most men take it for granted and therefore it may as well be not so Certain I am the Iews kept not that day for a Sabbath till the raining of Manna For that which should have been their Sabbath the week before had they then kept the day which afterward they kept was the fifteenth day of the second moneth and which day we read in the 16 of Exod. that they marched a wearisom march and came at night into the wilderness of Sin where they murmured for their poor entertainment and wished they had died in Egypt that night the Lord sent them Quailes the next morning it rained Manna which was the sixteenth day and so six dayes together the seventh which was the twenty second day it rained none and that day they were commanded to keep for their Sabbath Now if the twenty second day of the moneth were the Sabbath the fifteenth should have been if that day had been kept before but the Text tells us expresly they marcht that day and which is strange the day of the moneth is never named unless it be once for any station but this where the Sabbath was ordained otherwise it could not have been known that that day was ordained for a day of rest which before was none And why might not their day of holy rest be altered as well as the beginning of the year was for a memorial of their coming out of Egypt I can see no reason why it might nor not find any testimony to assure me it was not And thus much of the Iews Sabbath How and wherein it was a Sign whereby they professed themselves the servants of Iehovah and no other God Now I come to the Second thing I propounded to shew How far and in what manner the like observation binds us Christians I say therefore that the Christian as well as the Iew after six dayes spent in his own works is to sanctifie the seventh that he may profess himself thereby a servant of God the Creator of Heaven and Earth as well as the Iew. For the quotum therefore the Iew and Christian agree but in designation of the day they differ For the Christian chuseth for his Holy Day that which with the Iews was the First day of the week and calls it Dominicam the Lord 's Day that he might thereby profess himself a servant of that God who on the morning of that day vanquished Satan the Spiritual Pharaoh and
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
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
fulfilled amongst us Christians the new people of God There were false Prophets among the people of Israel even so saith my Text were there to be false Teachers among Christians who should bring in damnable Heresies Which that you may the better do Know first that the Israelites did at no time altogether renounce the true and living God not in their worst times but in their conceit and profession they acknowledged him still and were called his people and he their God though they worshipped others besides him So Christians in their Apostasie neither did nor were to make an absolute Apostasie from God the Father and Christ their Redeemer but in outward profession still to acknowledge him and to be called Christians Secondly There are two main Apostasies of Israel recorded in Scripture The First is styled The sin of Ieroboam the son of Nebat as a principal establisher thereof And this was to worship the true God himself under an Image For he set up Calves at Dan and Bethel and consecrated them in this manner Behold Israel the Gods which brought thee out of the land of Egypt For those are Calves indeed which here think he took the Calves themselves to be Gods The truth was Because he would not have the people go to the Temple of Ierusalem where the Ark the pledge of God's presence was therefore he made these Calves in stead thereof supposing as the Gentiles did of their Gods that the true God would have yielded his presence to an Image made in honour of him And therefore they used when they came to make vows or oaths at the Calf to swear Iehovah liveth as Hosea 4. 15. When therefore our Papists worship God the Creator under an Image and Christ their Redeemer in a Cross Crucifix or in a piece of Bread this is the very same Apostasie with that of Ieroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin And as false Prophets taught Israel that so have false Teachers brought into Christendom the very same as you see was prophesied The Second main Apostasie of Israel is called The way of Ahab not because he was the first bringer in but the chief establisher thereof And this was not only to worship the true God idolatrously in an Image as Ieroboam did but to worship other Gods besides him namely Baal-gods or Baalim supposing either by these to have easier access unto the Lord of Hosts the Soveraign God or that these he might resort unto at all times and for all matters as being nearer at hand and not of so high a Dignity whereas the Soveraign God Iehovah the God of Israel either managed not smaller and ordinary matters or might not be troubled with them For such as I told you was the conceit of the Heathen as that the Souls of some great ones after death had the honour to be as Agents betwixt the Soveraign and Superior Gods and men as being of a middle nature between them which in Greek are called Daemons in the Scriptures Baalim When therefore those who are called Christians and have given their faith to Christ Iesus to be their only Mediator and royal Agent between them and his Father when these do worship and invocate Saints or Angels whether with Images or without to be as under-Mediators with God for them or of themselves to bestow some favour upon them those who do this as you know who do are fallen into the Apostasie of Ahab and are worshippers of Baalim For the Idolatry of Saints is altogether the same with that of Baalim HAVING therefore thus seen the verity of S. Peter's Prophecy for the first mark to know of what kind of Heresie should be the Christian Apostasie even like unto that of Israel now let me tell you what use to make of S. Peter's comparison and thus coupling the one by the other First That wheresoever you read in Scripture of the Idolatry of Ieroboam's Calves and of Ahab's Baalim you think of what I have told you and know that whatsoever God speaks against those things there the same he speaks of the Apostate Christians under Rome whose case is in all respects the same If therefore other points be hard and such as you cannot understand yet this of Idolatry is an easie mark for you to know the true Church from the false by and almost every leaf in the Scripture will help you Bless the Lord therefore and never cease to bless him who hath delivered us from those woful abominations and Idolatries wherewith the Church was so long overwhelmed and hath restored unto us the sincerity of his Gospel Secondly Seeing the Holy Ghost hath taught us here to compare the Christian's Apostasie with that of Israel we may hereby learn also what was the state and condition of true Christian Believers under the Apostasie of Antichrist namely the same with the true Israelites under the Apostasie of Israel Where was the true Church in Ahab's time was it not covered so under the Apostate Israelites that Elias himself who was one of it could scarce find it 1 Kings 19. 10. Where was the company of true worshippers in Manasses time the worst time of all or had the Lord no Church at all Yes he had a Church even then even hidden in the body of that Idolatrous Nation yea a strong party though not seen as appeared presently upon Manasses death when Iosiab came to reign who at eight years of age a very child yet was able to reform all again When therefore the Papists shall ask us where our Church was before Luther let us answer She was as the true Israelites were then buried under the Apostate body of Christendom she was even there whence God in his good time called her out viz. she was in the Spiritual Babylon If Rome now be Babylon and your Mother-Church that ancient Spouse of Christ which hath been so long an abominable Strumpet committing Fornication with strange Gods as we are sure she is we cannot chuse but know where ours was in the mean time until it pleased God to call her thence even amongst you she was then and where she is now you know and shall one day feel until you bite your tongues for pain But how could the faithful company of Christ live in the midst of Idolaters and have means of Salvation I answer Even as the true Israelites lived in the midst of the Apostasie of Israel But you may ask further When the face of the Church and the whole visible worship therein was so universally stained with abominable Idolatries how and whereby should a man gather that there were any such sincerer company amongst them who had not defiled their garments I might tell you that Histories though written by our enemies do mention many such discovered at several times But I will give you another sign to know it namely The light of God's word and some other Divine Truths still remaining For it was not so much
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
a Daemon â— yet spake not of and yet a Daemon to sit as God in the Temple and Throne of Christ with the keys of Hades and death to deliver them What stronger presumption can there be of this than the Event and that the errour of Purgatory had so long been working before the Devil seemed to know how to make this use of it which at length he spied out and plied lustily with Signs and Wonders If all this be true then it follows still that it is Spiritual Fornication which the Holy Ghost in Scripture intendeth and the Event hath marked out for the Soul of Antichristian abomination and impiety But of the matter of Miracles and lying wonders more in the Second part of my Text which is the proper place thereof 3. And lastly The Great Apostasie is a thing proper to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latter times which I will shew when I come at it to be the last times of the Fourth Kingdom of Daniel Dan. 7. 25. alibi But amongst all other Corruptions only the Spiritual fornication of the Church and Spouse of Christ will be found proper to these times CHAP. IX Two Exceptions against the foregoing Assertion Except I. That Idolatry should rather be laid upon the Pagans This answered and proved That Pagan Idolatry is not here meant nor can the Saracen or Turk be the Antichrist meant in Scripture Except II. That Antichristianism cannot be charged upon those that acknowledge the true God and Christ. The Answer to this wherein is interwoven the Author's serious and pathetical Expostulation with the Church of Rome That Antichrist is a Counter-Christ and his Coming a Counter-resemblance of the Coming of Christ shew'd in several particulars BUT you will say if Idolatry and Spiritual fornication be the matter why should not this rather be laid upon Paynims and Turks and Saracens who acknowledge not Christ rather than upon Christians who do I answer S. Paul and S. Iohn prophesied of a thing to come not of that which was in being when they prophesied But Ethnical and Paynim Idolatry at that time overwhelmed the whole earth yea and persecuted and made war with the Saints and no time hath yet been when this Idolatry was not to be found It must needs be then some other Whoredom for Whoredom it was to be which was prophesied of to come Again neither Saraâ—en nor Turk the greatest unchristian States since Christ neither of these I say can be the Antichrist we speak of nor their Blasphemy that Mystery of iniquity foretold by the Apostles and Prophets For there are two unquestionable Characters of that Mystery which will neither of them without doubt not both of them agree to Turk or Saracen namely First That it should sit in the Great City which in S. Iohn's time reigned over the nations of the earth Secondly That it should be an Apostasie from the Christian faith once embraced But the Turk whatsoever he be is no Apostate being of a Nation which never was Christian Nor was the seat of the Saracen Empire whilest it stood either in the Old or New Rome or near unto either For I would seem to yield for this time that New Rome or Constantinople would serve the turn though I am far enough from believing it Nor will I allege that Mahumet himself and his Nation were both Paynims when they began their blasphemie for you would tell me that Sergius the Monk taught him to make the Alcoran Nor will I question now whether the Christian or the Mahumetan be the greater Idolater though the doubt might soon be resolved seeing it is well known that the Mahumetans worship no Images But I have alleged nothing but what is without exception That both these Characters I speak of cannot be applied either to Turk or Saracen though I believe that neither can be When I spake of Paynims and Mahumetans I would have you remember that there were some blasphemous Sects in the first Ages of the Church which are no more to be accounted of as Christians than Mahumetans and Paynims are nay Mahumetanism is nearer Christianity than many of them were For amongst whom the Christians Deity is not received and worshipped those though they spring up in imitation of Christianity I account but new Paynim-blasphemies and not Christian Heresies Such were the Cerinthians Marcionites Saturnians Valentinians and Manichees c. Which neither professed the same Deity nor acknowledged that Divine Word which we Christians do whereas yet the Mahumetans worship the same God with Iews and Christians God the Creator of Heaven and Earth the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob howsoever they conceive otherwise of his Nature and Properties than Christians do But this by the way lest it might put a rub in our discourse of Spiritual fornication But you will still allege for her behalf who seems all this while to be charged That Antichrist and the Man of sin is set forth in Scripture as the most hateful and execrable thing that can be in the eyes of God Almighty But how can such a thing be said and comparatively to be where the true God with Christ his Son God and man are in any sort acknowledged and worshipped Lord that the whole strain of Scripture in the Prophets especially and the example of the Church of Israel should not cure this web and take this filme from the eyes of men Doth not the Lord say of Israel that he had chosen them to be a special people to himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth Deut. 7. 6. You only have I known saith he of all the families of the earth Amos 3. 2. And is not Christ the Lord of Christians and is not the Church his Spouse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul Ephes. 5. 32. This is a great Mystery No marvel then where this Mystery is not considered if the Mystery of iniquity be not understood Alas poor Church of Israel thy case it seems should have been a very hard one For what Nation in the world ever suffered so much rebuke so many plagues so much wrath as thou hast done Yet couldst thou say for thy self thou never forsookest the true God altogether but wast still called by his Name only thou wouldst fain worship him in Calves and Images as other Nations thy neighbours did their Gods thou wouldst needs follow the fashion and this was thine errour Thou never meantest to cast off thy Iehovah altogether but still wouldst have him to be thy God and thy self to be his people yet thou tookest this liberty to have other Gods besides the Lord thy God viz. thy Baalims and Daemon-Gods of other Nations about thee and yet hopedst that Iehovah the God of heaven thy only Sovereign God would not be offended thereat since thou retainedst him still in chief place and honour with thee Why was thy God then so unkind and cruel unto thee to call thee Whore and Prostitute Whore
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
to Moses but as solennia verba in that Case to her Child whom she circumcised it remains I should now tell you how they are so construed I say therefore Tu mihi sponsus sanguinum in Zipporah's meaning is as much as Sis mihi initiatus circumcisione Be thou my Bloud-son or the like It is well known how Tropically those words of relation of kindred Father Mother Sister Son are used in the Hebrew Tongue and Son besides other notions to be often the circumlocution of our vox concreta as Filius percussionis the Son of striking is he that is stricken or worthy to be beaten Filius foederis the Son of the Covenant is he that is in Covenant or to whom the Covenant belongs Filius mortis the Son of death he that is condemned to die or worthy of death and the like And why may not then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gener sanguinum that is as the Holy Ghost expounds it circumcisionis be as much as circumcisus and Gener sanguinum tu mihi es for so I told you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies be as much as I pronounce thee circumcised As if the circumcised person by being married to Circumcision were made the Circumciser's Son-in-law and Circumcision's Bridegroom as Es or Sis mihi in generum desponsatus circumcisioni Now thou art or Be thou my Son-in-law being espoused to Circumcision Or if Bloud or Circumcision note the Instrument the Formula may be thus explicated That the person circumcised becomes God's Son-in-law as being wedded and joyned to his Church by the Bloud of Circumcision as with a Ring and then the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mihi must not be taken relatively to Zipporah as before but efficienter only in this sense Per me factus es gener Deo per sanguinem circumcisionis By me thou art made God's Son-in-law by the bloud of Circumcision or Feci te generum Deo I have made thee God's Son-in-law or if you like better the notion of Sponsus I have espoused thee to the Church of God by this rite of Circumcision or Thou art or Be thou espoused to the Church of God c. Thus as you see may the Formula be either way explicated to one and the same sense But the first I like the best because of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mihi the relative to Zipporah Tu mihi in generum es desponsatus circumcisioni Now thou art my Son-in-law being espoused to Circumcision Now lastly to free my Interpretation from novelty the sense I have given of these words is that which both the Septuagint and the Chaldee Paraphrast directly aim at the Paraphrast expounding it thus In sanguine circumcisionis istius datus est sponsus or gener mihi the Septuagint as we now read thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stetit sanguis circumcisionis filii mei where the Text is corrupted and I believe the Septuagint translated not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sit hic sanguis circumcisionis Filii mei a Periphrastical but evident sense with the change of one letter only From the sense of this place thus proved I will point at two Observations and so conclude The First is That it is lawful to use some fitting form of words in the exhibition of a Sacrament though not expresly ordained by God at the institution thereof as appears by this Form that Zipporah used no doubt ex more according to the custom then whatsoever the Form were after that time The Second is That the neglect of the Circumcision of a child then and so consequently of Baptizing it now makes not so much the Child as the Parents liable to the wrath of God As here the Angel sought not to kill the Child who was uncircumcised but Moses the Father who should have circumcised it Both which Observations I mean to amplifie no farther but leave them to your exacter meditations and so I conclude DISCOURSE XV. EZEKIEL 20. 20. Hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a sign between me and you to acknowledge that I Iehovah am your God THIS Commandment with the End thereof the Lord bids Ezekiel tell the Elders of Israel that he gave it to their Fathers in the Wilderness And it is recorded in the Law so that I might have taken it thence But I rather chose to make these words in Ezekiel my Text as expressed more plainly and so a Comment to those in the Law The place there is Exod. 31. 13. where this which my Text containeth is expressed thus Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations to acknowledge that I Iehovah am your sanctifier that is your God as the expression in Ezekiel tells us For to be the Sanctifier of a People and to be their God is all one whence also the Lord is so often called in Scripture the Holy One of Israel that is their Sanctifier and their God That which I intend at this time to observe from these words is the End why God commanded this Observation of the Sabbath to the Israelites to wit That thereby as by a Symbolum or Sign they might testifie and profess what God they worshipped Secondly out of this ground to shew How far and in what manner the like Observation binds us Christians who are worshippers of the same God whom the Iews worshipped though not under the same relation altogether wherein they worshipped him All Nations had something in their Ceremonies whereby they signified the God they worshipped So in those of the Celestial Gods as they termed them and those which were Deified Souls of men were differing Rites whereby the one was known from the other Those Gods which were made of men having Funeral rites in their services as Cogniâ—ances that they were Souls deceased and each of them some imitation of some remarkable passage of the Legend of their lives either of some action done by them or some accident which befel them as in the ceremonies of Osyris and Bacchus is obvious to any that reads them And indeed it is a natural Decorum for servants and vassals by some mark or cognisance to testifie who is their Lord and Master In the Revelation the worshippers of the Beast receive his mark and the worshippers of the Lamb carry his mark and his Father 's in their Fore-heads Hence came the first use of the Cross in Baptism as the mark of Christ the Deity to whom we are initiated and the same afterwards used in all Benedictions Prayers and Thanksgivings in token they were done in the name and merits of Christ crucified So that in the Primitive Church this Rite was no more but that wherewith we conclude all our Prayers and Thanksgivings when we say Through Iesus Christ our Lord and Saviour though afterward it came to be abused as almost all other Rites of Christianity to abominable Superstition To return therefore unto my Text. Agreeably to this Principle and this