thy self to Christ become a disciple and a member of his Kingdom S. Paul likewise taught the Gospel in like manner for himself tells us so Acts 20. 21. that he testified both to Iews and Gentiles Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Iesus Christ. Repentance therefore and the Gospel cannot be separated If Repentance includes newness of life and good works the Gospel doth so For Christ is the way of Repentance without Repentance there is no use of Christ and without Christ Repentance is unavailable and nothing worth for without him we can neither be quit of the sins we forsake nor turn by a new life unto God with hope of being received He is the blessed Ferry-man and his Gospel is the Boat provided by the unspeakable mercy of God for the passage of this Sea As therefore in Repentance we forsake sin to serve God in newness of life so in the tenour of the Gospel Christ delivers us from sin that we might through Faith in him bring forth the fruits and works of a new life acceptable to our heavenly Father Hence it is that we shall be judged and receive our sentence at the last day according to our works Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me Forasmuch as ye have done these things unto the least of my brethren ye have done them unto me Lord how do those look to be saved at that day who think good works not required to Salvation and accordingly do them not Can our Saviour pass this blessed sentence upon them No assuredly he will not But if the case be thus in the Gospel What is the reason will some men say that the Apostle tells us that we Christians are no longer under the Law nor justified by the works of the Law but under Grace and justified by Faith only I answer It is true that we are justified that is freed and acquitted from sin by Faith only But besides Iustification there is a Sanctification with the works of piety towards God and righteousness towards men as the Fruits yea as the End of our Iustification required to eternal life For therefore we are justified that we might do works acceptable to our heavenly Father through the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ which of our selves we could not and so obtain the reward he hath promised the doers of them As for the Law it is to be considered either as a Rule and so we are bound to conform and frame our actions to it for who dare deny but a Christian is bound to fear God and keep his Commandments or the Law may be considered as it is taken for the Covenant of works The Apostle when he disputes of this argument by the Law means the Covenant of works which he also calls The Law of works and by Faith and the Law of Faith he understands the Covenant of grace the condition whereof is Faith as will easily appear to him that shall diligently read the third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians where he expresly changeth those terms of Law and Faith into the equivalent appellations of the Two Covenants Now as the Law is taken for the Covenant of works the Seal whereof was Circumcision 't is true we are not under it For the Covenant of works called by the Apostle the Law is that Covenant wherein Works are the condition on our part which if we perform in every point as the Law requires we are justified before God as keepers of his Covenant otherwise if we fail in the least thing we are condemned as guilty of the breach thereof Under this Covenant we are not for if we were and were to be judged according to it alas who could be saved For all saith the Apostle have sinned and come short of the glory of God There is none righteous no not one But the Covenant we are under is Believe and thou shalt be saved the Covenant of Grace the condition of which Covenant on our part is not the doing of works which may abide the Touch-stone of the Law but Faith in Iesus Christ which makes our works though of themselves insufficient and short of what the Law requires accepted of God and capable of reward This is that S. Iohn saith 1 Ep. 5. 3 4. That to love God is to keep his commandments and his commandments now under the Gospel are not grievous For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith c. Whence our Saviour also saith that his yoke the yoke of the Gospel was easie and his burthen light The condition of the first Covenant was that which we could not do the condition of the second Covenant is that which enableth us to do and makes accepted what we can do and this is the Covenant of the Gospel a Covenant of savour and grace through Iesus Christ our Lord. And thus we have seen what the Apostle's meaning is when he saith we are not under the Law but under Grace Not as though a Christian were not bound to walk after God's commandments but that the exact fulfilling of them is not the condition whereby we are justified in the New Covenant but Faith in Iesus Christ in whom whosoever cometh unto the Father is accepted be his offering never so mean so it be tendered with sincerity and truth of heart Most unworthy therefore should we be of this so great and unspeakable favour of Almighty God our heavenly Father offered us in the Gospel if when he hath given us his only Son to make the yoak of our obedience easie and possible to be born we contemning this superabundant grace should refuse to wear and draw therein Far be it from the heart of a Christian to think it possible to have any benefit by Christ as long as he stands thus affected or ever to win the prize of eternal life without running the race appointed thereunto Shall we sin that grace may abound saith S. Paul God forbid THUS much of the Gospel Now of Faith whereby we are partakers of the grace therein being the condition of the New Covenant which God hath struck with men Faith is to believe the Gospel that is to attain Salvation through Christ. But there is a three-fold Faith wherewith men believe in Christ. 1. There is a false Faith 2. there is a true Faith but not a saving and 3. there is a saving Faith A false Faith is to believe to attain Salvation by Christ any other way than God hath ordained as namely to believe to attain Salvation through him without works of obedience to be accepted of
hear abused with prophane and scurrilous application 3. Under this fourth head of Things Sacred I comprehend Sacred Acts such as are the Acts of God's holy worship and administration of his Sacraments For albeit these Acts are duties of the first and personal Sanctification of God's Name whereof the immediate object is God yet are the Acts themselves Sacred things and therefore have some sanctification due to them also as other Sacred things have of which although it be most true that the unseigned devotion of the Heart as before him who alone knoweth the Hearts of the children of men be the main and principal requisite yet unless even in the outward performance they be for the manner and circumstances discriminated from common acts by a select accommodation befitting their holiness their sanctification is defective and by such defect if voluntary God's Name is prophaned even then when we are worshipping him How much more when our carriage therein cometh short even of that wonted reverence wherewith we come before an earthly Potentate May not God here justly use the same expostulaâ—ion with us that he did with those in the Prophet Malachi who presented themselves before him with such an offering as was in regard of the blemishes unworthy of and unbefitting so great a Majesty and therefore to be accounted rather an affront than an act of honour and worship Ye have saith he despised and prophaned my Name Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person yet I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts And this is the document or lesson which this place naturally and unavoidably ministreth to us That to come before the Divine Majesty with less reverent and regardful deportment than we do before earthly Kings and Potentates is to despise and prophane his holy Name And not that which some would shelter under this Text and lean too much upon namely That the Acts of God's external worship ought to be wholly conform to the use of the semblable actions performed unto men and not differ from them and upon this ground charge the Christian Liturgies with absurdity in their forms of praying and praising God with responsals singing by turns and speaking many together For this principle is directly repugnant to the nature of Sanctification which consists in discrimination and difference And therefore though the material of our gestures and other expressions vocal or visible be borrowed from the use and custom of men yet for the formality of them not only they may but ought to be differenced from them Moreover touching this reproof of the Prophet take notice that it is grounded upon the Law Levit. 22. where we are taught that when that is not observed concerning the Rites of God's service which the Sanctity of them requireth as in other particulars so in this of a not defective or unblemished offering his Name is thereby prophaned See verse 32. with the rest of the Chapter foregoing it And if so then by the contrary it is sanctified Lastly Unto this head of Sacred Acts I reduce Oaths and sacred Covenants that is such as are made either with God or between men God's Name being called upon which therefore 1 Sam. 20. 8. are styled Covenants of the Lord. For that the observance due touching both is a sanctifying of them as things upon which the Name of the Lord is called is apparent forasmuch as when they are violated by falshood they are said to be prophaned as Levit. 19. 12. Psalm 55. 20. Ier. 34. 15 16. Thus together with my Explication of these several sorts of Sacred Things I have briefly and in general pointed at that also wherein the proper Sanctification of each consisteth which though far short of such a tractation as the matter requireth yet if it may serve only but to give occasion to others who are better able to bend their thoughts upon this Argument which perhaps the Times call for I shall fully attain the end I aimed at For mine own part to descend to particulars would be a task too high for me and as I suspect not very acceptable For it is ten to one if the grounds I have laid be true but that the most of us would be found faulty in some things and some of us in all Well the summ of my argumentation hath been this Is there any thing in the New Testament God's by a peculiar right To say there is not is absurd and against the perpectual tradition of Christianity If there be then it is holy if holy then to be sanctified if sanctified then to be discriminated in the usance and respect thereof from that which is of common condition NOW out of this Discourse which I have hitherto made you may see and take notice that contrary to the vulgar opinion the Prohibition of Idolatry and the discriminative observance of things sacred not to prophane them by a promiscuous and common use are derived both of them from one and the same principle namely God's Incommunicableness which derives a shadow and resemblance upon the things which have his Name called upon them to wit a staâ—e of appropriateness and singularity Wherefore the Apostle Rom. 2. 22. not without good reason compares together the transgressions of the one and the other kind as parallel sins or sins of affinity Thou that hatest Idols saith he dost thou commit Sacriledge Where by Sacriledge understand not only the usurpation of things sacred but the violation of that which is sacred in general And it is as if he had said Thou hast mended the matter well indeed for still thou dashest against the same principle For it is one of the exemplifications of that he saith in the beginning of the Chapter He that judgeth or condemneth another and doth the same or the like himself is inexcusable By this it appears how much they are mistaken who under pretence of avoiding Idolatry and Superstition cannot endure that any distinction should be made between things Sacred and Common Is not this to unhallow God's Name one way that so we might not prophane it another Far be it from me to be a patron of Idolatry or Superstition in the least degree yet I am afraid lest we who have reformed the worship of God from that pollution and blessed be his name therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S Basil speaks that is by bending the crooked stick too much the other way have run too far into the contrary extreme and taken away some of us all difference in a manner between Sacred and Prophane and by this our transgression in doing God's work made our selves lyable to that upbraid of the Apostle In qui idola abominaris sacrilegium admittis Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge that is prophanest thou God's Name by violating that which is sacred Let no man think it strange or incredible that such an enormity should be committed or an occasion at least given thereof in the
is and nothing more true That no works of ours in this life can abide the Touch-stone of God's Law and therefore not able to justifie us in the presence of God but to condemn us But it is true also That we are therefore justified through Faith in the bloud and righteousness of Christ that in him we might do works pleasing and acceptable to Almighty God which out of him we could not do For as the bloud and sufferings of Iesus Christ imputed to us through Faith cleanseth and acquitteth us of all the sins whereof we stood guilty afore we believed so the imputation of his righteousness when we believe makes our works though of themselves far short of what they should be yet to be acceptable and just in the eyes of the Almighty Christ supplying out of his Riches our poverty and by communication of his obedience continually perfecting ours where we fail that so we might receive the reward of the righteous of him that shall reward every man according to his works Being therefore in Christ we are so much the more bound to frame our lives in holy obedience unto God's Commandments in that before we were justified we could not but now henceforth we are enabled to do that which for Christ's sake will be acceptable and pleasing to Almighty God our Father This is that which S. Peter tells us 1 Epist. 2. 24. That Christ his own self bare our â—â—s in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness So S. Paul Tit. 2. 11 c. The grace of God saith he that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men wherefore Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ ver 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Here you may see that Christ is therefore given us to be a propitiation for our sins and to justifie us that in him we might walk before God in newness of life so to obtain a crown of righteousness in the world to come But if this be not enough to perswade us to take on this yoke of Christ yet I hope this consideration will do it when I shall shew you that That Faith can never be true which is not attended with these fruits Nor is there any other mean to assure us we are truly come to Christ and ingraffed in him but this If we have taken up this yoke of Christ we may know then we have put on him If we have never put our necks to his yoke we never put on him It is S. Iohn's express assertion 1 Epist. 1. 6. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the the truth Ch. 2. 3. Hereby we know that we know him viz. to be our Advocate with his Father and the propitiation for our sins if we keep his commandments The Reason is plain Because the one follows the other as the heat doth the Fire or the light the Sun Which I thus demonstrate both on Christ's part and ours On ours thus He that sincerely sues to and seriously relies upon another for a Favour which nearly concerneth him and no other can do for him will by all means endeavour to avoid whatsoever he knows may distaste his Patron and do his best to approve himself in whatsoever he can learn is most pleasing unto him If you should see a man having a Suit to some great Courtier for a pardon of his life and yet shewing no care of doing in his presence what he knew would deeply offend him and wilfully neglecting that he knew would give him the best content would you think such a man in earnest and sufficiently perplext with fear of death and seriously relying upon that man to save it I know you would not If therefore out of a true affrightment and sense of the wrath of God for sin with a sincere and serious Faith thou suest unto and reliest upon Christ for mercy and redemption as the only name under heaven whereby thou canst be saved how canst thou but love him with all the Powers of thy Soul and therefore do thy best to please him upon whom thou dependest for so great and unvaluable a benefit If thou dost not surely thou hast not yet weighed thy misery sufficiently thy Faith is insufficient and counterfeit it never yet came home to Christ that he might ease thee The same appears on Christ's part For unto whomsoever Christ is given for Iustification through the imputation of his merits and righteousness in him God creates a new heart and reneweth a right spirit as the Psalmist speaketh Psal. 51. 10. that is by virtue of this union he conferreth upon him the grace of his Spirit for the abolishing of the body of sin and enabling the Soul in some measure against the assaults thereof to abandon at least the more eminent notorious enormous and mortal sins though sins of ordinary infirmity shall not be quite subdued in this life If therefore I see a man run still without restraint into gross and open sins and walk not blameless in the eyes of men I conclude he hath not this Spirit of grace within him and therefore was never ingraffed into Christ by a true and lively Faith Wheresoever therefore is a true faith and unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. there follows a new life He that cometh to Christ sincerely takes his yoke upon him too Labour therefore as S. Iames saith to shew your Faith by your works For not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father saith Christ shall inherit the kingdom of heaven DISCOURSE XXXII S. MATTHEW 11. 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls THese Words are a continuing of the former Exhortation to take upon us the yoke of Christ First in general That we follow his Example Learn of me Then in particular wherein we should follow him In Meekness and Lowliness For I am saith he Meek and Lowly in heart Then the Profit we shall reap thereby Do this And ye shall find rest unto your souls For the first Learn of me Observe That Christ is given unto us not only for a Sacrifice for sin but for an Example of life They are the words of one of our Collects For he is our Lord and King and Subjects we know will naturally conform and fashion themselves unto the manners of their Princes Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis And those which do so are accounted the most devoted to them and are the best accepted of them If Christ then be our Lord and King we must acknowledg him to be such by conforming to his Example
brother that there may be given you a blessing this day This Blessing here spoken of is our Vrim and Thummim the blessing of Sacred Order So bountifully did God reward them who were so forward to be on his side when Moses called them that himself vouchsafed to call them unto his side for ever Whence first we may learn whom we are chiefly to prefer unto this holy Function namely Those who are zealous for the Lord of Hosts who prefer the glory of God above all worldly respects whatsoever This got Phinehas the son of Eleazar the High-Priesthood this got all the sons of Levi the guerdon of Vrim and Thummim the blessing of Holy Orders Secondly We may see by the advancement of this Tribe how merciful our God is We know that Levi's fury did once as much offend him as his sons zeal now pleased him and yet for this one action he forgot the sin of their Father in the bloudy slaughter of the Sichemites He remembred not the curse of Iacob Into their secret let not my soul come My glory be not thou joyned with their assembly Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruel Gen. 49. 6 7. Nay he turned the very curse of Iacob into a blessing by dividing them in Iacob and scattering them in Israel Here Mercy and Truth met both together and Iustice and Peace kissed each other Lastly Here God verified his own description of himself That though he be a jealous God and visits the sins of the Father upon the children unto the third and fourth generation yet he is also a merciful God and shews mercy even unto the thousandth generation of them that love him and keep his Commandments AND thus have you seen why of Levi Moses said this Blessing And of Levi he said Now I come to The description of this blessed Tribe in these words God's Holy one Let thy Vrim and thy Thummim be with thy Holy one How is Levi here called Holy how is this Title given to him above the rest of his Brethren Are not all the Lord's people holy Certainly whatsoever is meant hereby it is something more specially belonging to Levi than to any other Tribe Which that we may the better find we must take notice of a Threefold Holiness Essential Habitual Relative Essential Holiness is the Holiness of God all one with God himself and this is a glorious Holiness Who saith Moses is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods who is like unto thee glorious in holiness Exod. 15. 11. Habitual I call an Inherent Holiness such as is the holiness of righteous men integrity of life or righteous holiness whereof Abraham Iob David and all the Patriarchs are called Saints and Holy men This is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Sanctimonia Relative Holiness I define a special relation or relation of peculiarity which a thing hath unto God either in regard of propriety of possession or speciality of presence That which is holy after this manner the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Sacrum The first of these three is proper to God alone for he only is essentially holy The second is proper to reasonable creatures for they are only habitually holy or endued with holy qualities But the last is common to all manner of things For all things animate or inanimate are capable of relative holiness or peculiarity towards God Persons Things Times Places Persons So the Nazarites of the Law are called holy thus was Sampson thus was Samuel holy from their Mother's womb Things So the Offerings of the Law yea and of the Gospel too are holy things The Censers of Korah and his company were holy because saith the Text they offered them before the Lord. Times So the Sabbath-day and other Festival days are holy days Places So the Temple of the Lord is an holy Place Mount Sion an holy Mount yea the ground about the Bush where God appeared to Moses is called Holy ground And of these four Persons Things and Times are holy because of God's peculiar propriety in them in that they are his Persons his Things and his Times But Places are holy in another regard because of God's special manner of Presence in them Now let us see in which of all these three ways Levi may be said to be holy Essentially holy he cannot be for he was not God but the holy one of God Habitually holy the event shews he was not more than the rest though he should have been The Tribe of Levi was always Tribus sacra holy unto the Lord but was not always righteous before the Lord. It was not always true of Levi that he walked before God in peace and equity and turned many from iniquity but often yea too often they were gone out of the way and caused many to stumble at or in the Law Phinehas the son of Eli was not like Phinehas the son of Aaron Annas and Caiaphas high Priests as holy as any for their order as unholy as any in life and conversation It should therefore seem that Levi should be only called Holy by a Relative holiness namely because he was God's peculiar one because his offered one because his peculiar of peculiars that is his peculiar Tribe of his peculiar people for in this Levi had a priviledg above the rest in the other none And this Ezra gives unto him chap. 8. 28. when he delivered unto the Levites the holy vessels Ye are holy saith he unto the Lord and these Vessels are holy also that is Ye are holy as the Vessels are for he saith not they were holy before the Lord for so he had meant holy in life but holy unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which always implies a Relative Holiness But though this be true that Levi was Holy after this manner yet the word which in my Text is turned Holy seems scarce to admit of this construction for the word here used is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies favourable and gracious and in Religion charitable and godly All which leans to an Habitual not to a Relative holiness But because Levi was not in this sort holy above other as I said before it may seem therefore it should be thus construed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken Actively or Passively Actively it signifies favourable benigne and gracious Passively he that is favoured or graced And thus Iunius expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place virum tuum quem beneficio prosequeris Let thy Thummim and thy Vrim be with thy favoured one not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which word and sense the Angel useth in his salutation to the blessed Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hail thou highly-favoured one Hail thou whom God hath especially graced to be the Mother of his only Son So Levi is
place was not fit to entertain the presence of God nor any thing duly prepared to approach or come near him which was not thus externally cleansed and sanctified Such is the case of the inward cleansing of the heart unless it be sanctified with purity and cleanness God will never dwell in it nor suffer ought from it as acceptable to come near him Wherefore it is not without good reason we pray in our Liturgie O Lord make clean our hearts within us And take not thy holy Spirit from us For God's Spirit will not dwell in a sty it is a clean Spirit and will have a clean habitation That which S. Paul speaks of the whole man 2 Cor. 6. 16 17. Ye are the Temple of the living God wherefore touch no unclean thing and I will receive you is principally true of the heart and spirit The rest of the Body is but as the Court of the Temple but the Seat of his presence in the spiritual man as the Holy place is the Heart even as it is also the Seat of life in the natural primum vivens ultimum moriens the first that lives and the last that dies But by what means should a man get and keep such a Heart as this How is this Holiness and Cleanness of heart to be come by I answer The General means on our part to obtain this and all other Graces of God is faithful and devout Prayer But this being common to all Graces is not proper to be spoken of in this place Let us therefore see a means more special and peculiar for obtaining this Cleanness and Purity of heart such a one as though it may have some use for other Graces yet I think is more proper unto this than unto any other whatsoever and that is For a man always to possess his heart with the apprehension of God's presence and to walk before him as in his eye Wheresoever thou art there is an Eye that sees thee an Ear that hears thee and a Hand that registreth thy most secret thoughts For the ways of man saith Solomon Prov. 5. 21. are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings How much ashamed would we be that any one we loved and honoured should surprise us in our corporal uncleanness to see and behold any nasty pollution either of our bodies or chambers How would a man blush and be confounded to be taken and seen in the manner as we speak But every unclean thought wicked desire and motion of our heart is more open and revealed to the eyes of God than the works themselves if we should put them in execution could be visible to the eyes of men Yea and these thoughts and desires wherewith our hearts are besmeared are as foul ugly and loathsom in his sight as the works themselves would appear shameful in the eyes of men if we should commit them openly in the street and in the fight of the Sun Nay suppose that men could see our hearts as well as they may our out-works would we not be as much ashamed they should behold the foulness of the one as see the shamefulness of the other Consider it What if such a Patron such a Friend such a one to whom I desire to approve my self should know what I now ruminate in my heart what unchast pollution what other abhorred desire and thought it now wallows and delights in should I not blush and be ashamed What horrible Atheism doth this argue That the presence of man yea sometimes of a little child should hinder us from that wickedness which God's presence cannot If we did throughly and indeed believe this Ubiquity of God's Eye and let it make a firm impression in our minds how would it quash the first rising of evil thoughts in our hearts The eye of man draws from us a care of our outward behaviour why then should not the All-seeing Eye of God if we loved him if we honoured him if we desired at all to approve our selves unto him draw from us a care of the inward behaviour of the Heart since he sees thy Heart better than man sees thy Face and understands thy Thoughts better than any man thy Works and Words Little children when in the midst of their disorders they spie once their Father's eye they are hushed presently So should it be with us when through forgetfulness of this All-seeing Eye of our Heavenly Father continually overlooking us our Hearts begin to break loose and to sport themselves in vain and idle thoughts and desires then should we consider that all this while God looked upon us and beheld our misbehaviour then should we cry him mercy with Iacob at Bethel Surely God was here and I was not aware And thus I come to the second requisite of that gracious Temper a good Heart must be kept unto which is Loyalty unto God We must keep a loyal heart The Loyalty of the heart to God consisteth in an universal purpose of obedience and resolution against all sin without Reservation and Exception Sceptra non ferunt socium Kings can endure no copartners Nor can a purpose of obedience mingled with Exceptions and Reservations stand with a true faith and allegiance to Christ our Lord. In anima in qua peccatum regnaverit non potest Dei regnare regnum saith S. Ierome In the Soul where sin reigns and has got dominion God's Kingdom can never be set up nor established For how can he be a faithful servant of Christ who still holdeth correspondence with and is a Pensioner to his Arch-enemy the Devil Even such an one is he who hath any sin which he holds so dear that he hath no purpose nor will to part with it What will it profit thee to keep thy Heart at all unless thou keepest it loyal Will God accept a piece of thy Heart No he will have a whole Heart and a whole Soul or none Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and whole mind otherwise thou keepest not thy heart to God but betrayest it unto the Devil For one breach in the walls of a City exposeth it to the surprise of an enemy one leak in a Sâ—â—p neglected will sink it at last unto the bottom of the Sea 1. If thou wilt therefore have a Loyal heart know that such a heart cherisheth no darling sin no Herodias no boâ—om-sin such a dead fly as this will mar the whole box of oyntment 2. A Sound and Loyal heart is not that which boggles and scruples at small sins but makes no conscience of greater like the I harisees straining at a Gnat and swallowing a Camel nor the contrary whose conscience is only for the greater matters of the Law Mercy and Iudgment without any regard of Mint or Anise A Loyal heart is like unto the Eye troubled with the least mote 3. A Loyal heart as it hates all sins so at all times Sometimes the unsound heart will hate sin
utmost with meditation prayer and practice But on the contrary we must resist and crush every exorbitant thought which draws to sin at the first rising Tutissimum est It is most safe saith S. Austin Epist. 142. for the Soul to accustom it self to discern of its thoughts ad primum animi motum vel probare vel reprobare quid cogitat ut vel bonas cognationes alat vel statim extinguat malas and at the first motion thereof either to approve or else to disallow what the Mind is thinking of and so either to cherish and improve the thoughts and motions of the Mind if goodâ— or presently to extinguish them if evil 3. Lastly Let him that will indeed guard his Heart as it should be take heed of familiar and friendly converse with lewd prophane and ungracious company There is a strange attraction in ill company to poison and pervert even the best dispositions He that toucheth pitch saith the Son of Sirach shall be defiled therewith Can a man take fire in his bosom saith Solomen and his clothes not be burnt For believe it when a man is accustomed once and wonted to behold lewd and ungodly behaviour there steals upon him insensibly first a dislike of sober courses next a pleasing approbation of the contrary and so presently an habitual change of affections and demeanour into the manners and conditions of our companions It is a point that many will not believe but few or none did ever try but to their cost It was wise counsel had it not been in a sinful business which Ieroboam advised If this people saith he go up to sacrifice at Ierusalem then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord even to Rehoboam king of Iudah and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Iudah O that some men would be as wise for their good as he was for his sin THUS I have done with the first part of my Text The Admonition Keep thy heart with all diligence or above all keeping Now I proceed to the Motive For out of it are the issues of life that is All spiritual life and living actions issue from thence All living devotion all living service and worship of God issues from the Heart from those cleansed and loyal affections and dispositions of the Soul and inward man whereof I spake before Where such a Heart is not the Fountain there no action to God-ward liveth but is spiritually dead how gay and glorious soever it may outwardly seem No outward performance whatsoever be it never so conformable and like unto a godly man's action yet if it be not rooted in the Heart inwardly sanctified it is no issue of spiritual life nor acceptable with God Even as Statues and Puppets do move their eyes their hands their feet like unto living men yet are they not living actions because they come not from an inward Soul the fountain of life but from the artificial poise of weights and device of wheels set by the workman So is it here with heartless actions they are like the actions of true Christians but not Christian actions because they issue not from a Heart sanctified with purity and loyalty in the presence of God who tries the heart and reins but from the poise of vain-glory from the wheels of some external respects and advantages from a rotten heart which wrought not for the love of God but for the praise of men As therefore we judge of the state of natural life by the Pulse and beating of the Heart so must we do of spiritual No member of the body performs any action of natural life wherein a Pulse derived from the Heart beats not So is it in the spiritual man and the actions of Grace That lives not which some gracious and affectionate influence from the Heart quickens not Now this Issuing of our works and actions from the Heart is that which is called Sincerity and Truth so much commended unto us in Scripture For this Sincerity and Truth which is said to be in the works and actions of all such as fear and serve the Lord with acceptance is nothing else but an agreement of the outward work seen of men with the inward and sutable affection and meaning of the heart which God and our selves alone are privie to For as our words and speeches have truth in them when we speak as we think so our works and actions are done in sincerity and truth when they are done according to our heart's affection Sincerity therefore and Truth is the life of all our works of devotion and obedience unto God without this they are nothing but a carkase they are dead they live not neither doth God accept them For he desireth truth in the inward parts Psal. 51. 6. that is truth which proceedeth or issueth from the inward parts The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him that call upon him in truth Psal. 145. 18. For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Iohn 4. 24. Whatsoever ye do saith S. Paul Col. 3. 23. do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men Our faith must be unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. that is in truth and in sincerity Also our Love must not be in speech and tongue only but in deed and truth 1 Iohn 3. 18. And this is the highest Perfection attainable in this life for which God accepteth of our obedience as perfect which springeth from it though it be stained with much corruption and full of imperfection That which is wanting in the measure of obedience and holiness is made up in the truth and sincerity thereof If it have not this whatsoever it be it is good for nothing because it wants the Issue of life And such Actions are all the Actions of Hypocrites For Hypocrisie is the contrary to Sincerity and wheresoever Sincerity and Truth is not there Hypocrisie is being nothing else but a counterfeiting and falsehood of our actions when they come not from a Heart sutably affected and therefore is otherwise in Scripture understood by the name of Guile when those who serve God in sincerity and truth are said to be without guile that is without hypocrisie So Nathanael Iohn 1. 47. is called an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile And of the Virgin-Saints Rev. 14. 5. it is said that in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the Throne of God that is they served God without hypocrisie in sincerity and truth and therefore God accepted of their obedience as if it were without fault and imperfection as he is wont to do the works of those who serve him in that manner If therefore Sincerity be the life of our obedience and that which makes it graceful in the eyes of God then is Hypocrisie the death thereof which makes him loath and abhor it as a stinking carkase Hitherto have I
credit in fine he that hated his brother before must now love him as tenderly as himself What traveller is there that knowing himself to be in a contrary way and admonished that he must go back again would not return speedily Who but a fool would not consider that the longer he went forward the further he had to go back again the sooner he returned the easier would be his return the longer he went forward the more hard and difficult Why this is the case of every sinner every step he takes the further he is from God How painful then and tedious will that return be which is not speedily undertaken Nay when looking back we shall behold the infinite distance between God and us how can our heart almost but fail us and despair utterly that so long a way can ever be accomplished The Stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed time Ier. 8. 7. the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming Let the wise man be ashamed that knows not the sinner that considers not the time of his Return The second thing proper to a man's returning is to obliterate and tread out his former footing This is also required of every truly repentant sinner that wheresoever any footing remains of his former works he should tread them out for a repentant sinner must return by a line in the very path and tract of his sins Now some sins do vanish in the act and so leave no print behind them and such because they perish in the doing remain not to be undone by repentance But other sins there are which pass not away in the very doing but leave as it were a footing behind them I mean the work of the sin remains when the act is past and these works are to be undone in repentance Of this sort are sins most-what against the eighth Commandment Robbery Cousenage all ill-gotten and ill-withholden gain for in these Restitution is as it were the recalling undoing and treading out the mark of the sin committed He that hath taken a man's purse may give it him again but he that hath blasphemed cannot recal his blasphemy nor the refractary his former disobedience He that hath taken his brother's life cannot give it him again nor he that hath defamed him undo the word he hath spoken In these and such like Restitution hath no place but only God forgive me and doing the contrary hereafter But in Robbery Bribery Cousenage and all ill-gotten goods the goods we have taken from our neighbour remaining in our hand and power there is no repentance no forgiveness no returning without restoring what we have gotten Upon this I will dwell a while because I verily think that many men do not believe it but think it enough to cry God mercy but as for restoring of ought he must pardon them Surely Zaccheus the Publican had never learned this Evasion who to make good his Repentance gave half his goods unto the poor and promised fourfold Restitution of what he had gotten from any man wrongfully But if we will live by Laws and not by Examples hear the express Law of God Levit. 6. 2 c. where the Lord thus speaks unto Moses If a Soul sin in fellowship or dealing or in a thing taken away by violence or hath deceived his neighbour c. or hath found that which was lost and lieth concerning it c. Then it shall be because he hath sinned and is guilty that he shall restore what he hath taken violently or the thing that he hath gotten deceitfully c. he shall even restore the principal and adde the fifth part more thereunto in the day of his trespass-offering The day of our trespass-offering who are Christians is the day wherein we offer Christ unto his Father by a lively Faith for atonement for our sin the day of our repentance or our turning to God If the Iew 's sacrifice could not be accepted without thus doing no more shall a Christian's repentance Neither will it be enough to confess our sins and cry God mercy as we say For Numb 5. 7. where this same law is repeated Those saith the Lord which have thus sinned shall confess their sin which they have done and yet recompense his Trespass too with the principal thereof c. Yea so rigid is the Lord in exacting this that if the man himself who was thus wronged were dead and had no kinsman living yet the party offending was not so excused but was to make a recompence unto the Lord himself by giving it to his Priest as ye may see in the same place v. 8. Hence it is that the Lord Ezekiel 33. 14 15. maketh Restoring a main part of Repentance or Returning unto him If the wicked saith he turn from his sin and do what is lawful and right if he restore the pledge give again what he hath robbed then he shall surely live he shall not die If he will not do this it is easie to imagine what will follow namely that he shall surely die and not live But thou wilt say I am not able to make Restitution Why then shew thy self willing unto thy power for in this case God accepts the will for the deed But take heed thou dissemble not with him that knows thy most inward thoughts for he it is that trieth the heart and reins and nothing can be hid from him upon peril therefore of thy salvation deal truly with him that made thee for he is not as man that thou shouldst mock him or as the son of man that he should be deceived But thou wilt say I cannot do it unless I leave my wife and children to beggery Alas wilt thou venture thy own Soul to perish eternally to save thy house from beggery I must say unto thee as Peter said to Simon Magus Acts 8. 21 23. Thou hast neither part nor lot in the life to come for thy heart is not right in the sight of God Thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity thou preferrest the momentany glory of thy house before the everlasting safety of thy self Thou fool what will it profit thee to win the whole world and lose thy own soul But I shall thou wilt say in so doing proclaim mine own shame unto the whole world What then wouldst thou not be willing to undergo a greater penance than this for thy Soul's safety or how comes it to pass thou art more loth that men should know thy shame than God himself who made thee Lord how hard will it be for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven If men would think of this in their unjust dealing if they would remember this who scrape unto themselves riches by unlawful and ungodly means if those who get by extortion by cousening tricks of Law by bribery by sacrilegious Simony would think of this methinks it should make them pull back their hand For what joy and pleasure
22. 8. and so he did indeed I shall need gather no more Examples Let no man therefore be discouraged for fear of danger to do his duty in that calling and vocation wherein God hath set him If God hath bid thee hope thou likewiâ—e he will protect thee But if thou neglect his commandment so to avoid what thou fearest be sure then that thou fearest or a worse will come upon thee take heed thou goest not out of God's blessing into the warm Sun Let Saul's example be our warning who to prevent as he thought the scattering of the people from him and the evil which longer delay might occasion if he should stay for Samuel presumed to offer Sacrifice himself but he was called a fool for his labour and made to know at length that Obedience was better than Sacrifice And so shall every one that makes so ungodly an experience find his policy in the end plain foolery and Obedience to God's Commandment better than all the Policy in the world AND thus I come to the third thing considerable viz. The place where every Male was to appear In the place the Lord shall chuse namely in the place where the Ark and Tabernacle of God should be which at the first was at Shiloh in the Country of Samaria and Tribe of Ephraim afterwards at Ierusalem in the Tribe of Iudah where David first pitched a new Tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant after it had been taken by the Philistins and returned home again and in the same place his son Solomon built that glorious Temple which was the Beauty of the whole earth Of these two places spake the Samaritan woman in the Gospel to our Saviour Iohn 4. 20. Our Fathers said she worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship By Our Fathers she means the old Ephraimites from whom the Samaritans falsly vaunted they were descended upon which ground she likewise calls Iacob Our Father Iacob v. 12. For they were indeed the off-spring of those strange Nations which Shalmaneser transplanted into the Cities of Samaria when he had carried Ephraim and the rest of Israel captives into Assyria as we read 2 Kings 17. 24. By this Mountain she means Mount Ephraim where Shiloh was and the Ark and Tabernacle of God in ancient time had been For when Manasses the brother of Iaddus the High Priest was excommunicated and driven from the Priesthood because he had married the daughter of Sanball at the Horonite as it is in the last of Nehemiah v. 28. he with his faction to vex his own Nation procured a Temple to be built in Gerizim on Mount Ephraim whereof himself was the High Priest and to draw a company of Transgressors like himself from the Temple at Ierusalem unto this it was coloured as if this were the only place which the Lord had chosen because the Tabernacle was first pitched at Shiloh in Mount Ephraim and not at Sion on Mount Moriah and this was the bone of everlasting division and capital hatred between the Iews and Samaritans Thus we have seen where This place was first and last which the Lord had chosen Now let us further consider why it is thus called The place which the Lord shall chuse First therefore these words imply That the place for holy Assemblies was a select place For they were not to assemble in every place as occasion and opportunity served but to have a choice and select place for that purpose Secondly This place for Legal worship was to be one only place and no more and therefore here the singular number is used I say there was but one only place for Legal worship meaning Sacrifices and the Service accompanying them for otherwise they had many Synagogues for heaâ—ing the Law read and expounded Ierusalem it self had four hundred and in those the Scribes bore rule as the Priests did in the Temple But the reason why there was but one Temple and place of Sacrifice and Prayer was for a Type of that one only Mediator Iesus Christ in whom alone our sins are expiated and our prayers and thanksgivings accepted before God So that in the time of the Law to build an holy Altar or offer Sacrifices any where but here though it were unto the true God was a Typical Idolatry because it implied a multiplicity of Mediators of whose Oneness the one only place of worship and the one Altar was a sign which was the reason why it was so unlawful to sacrifice in the high places though it were unto the Lord their God And yet because it was but a ceremonial sin God did in the confused times of that Church sometimes pass by it as it were because of the hardness of their hearts as our Saviour saith in another kind But he that did dispense with an irregularity in figure because of the state of the times will never allow Idolatry in deed such as is that of the Church of Rome who fulfil the very substance of that whereof the Iewish sin was but a Type whose Mediators are so many that they are not easily numbred and though they for excuse subordinate them all to Christ as the chief and derive their Mediatorship from the virtue of his merits yet is this but like unto that of the erring Church of the Law which notwithstanding God's commandment to the contrary had a conceit that they might sacrifice in any high place so it were unto the Lord their God only The third and last thing which these words imply is That this select and only place should be of the Lord 's own chusing The place he shall chuse But how should the Lord chuse it it seems by giving some extraordinary sign of his allowance in accepting their Sacrifice or it may be they did consult him in this case by the Oracle of Vrim and Thummim For of the first place in Shiloh we have nothing expressed but only read Ioshua 18. 1. That the whole Congregation of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation there But of the second place in Mount Sion we read That the Angel of God commanded Gad to say to David that he should set up an Altar in the threshing-floor of Ornan and that when David offered thereon burnt-offerings and peace-offerings the Lord answered him from heaven by fire upon the Altar of burnt-offering and that David hereupon designed that place for the Tabernacle and future Temple saying This is the house of the Lord God and this is the Altar of the burnt-offering for Israel 1 Chron. 22. 1. Now to make some application of this to the times of the Gospel The two last circumstances of this place concern us not For that of one place was a Type and so is gone the second of God's immediate choice seems to be so also and to be a figure of that which the Angel Gabriel said to the blessed Virgin
most High THE Book of Psalms is a Book of Prophecies witness the frequent citing of them by our Lord and his Apostles witness the Surname of King David who being the penman of no other but this Book is styled the Prophet David I say the Psalms are Prophecies and that both Concerning Christ himself and also the Church which should be after him Concerning Christ himself it needs must be Saith he in the Gospel Luke 24. 24. These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you That all things must be fulfilled which were written of me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the PSALMS and more especially concerning his Beginning S. Paul quotes the words of the Psalm speaking in the Person of God Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and again concerning his Office Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek Now for the Church of the Gospel and calling of the Gentiles as many parts of many Psalms do foretel thereof so is this whole Psalm a description of the same 1. What manner of one it should be 2. What worship God would establish therein For the first it should be Catholick and gathered out of all Nations The God of Gods saith the beginning of the Psalm v. 1 2. even the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof Out of Sion the perfection of beauty hath God shined Agreeable to the words of the Gospel it self That it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Ierusalem and that it did begin at Ierusalem where Christ himself began where the Holy Ghost came down in cloven tongues So out of Sion God shined our God came and kept not silence for a fire came before him and a tempest moved round about him Now for the Worship and service which Christ would establish in his new reformed Church it concerns either the First or the Second Table For the First Table it tells us What Offerings God would abolish namely all Typical Offerings or all the Offerings of fire and then What Offerings he would accept to wit the Offerings of Praise and Prayer Offer unto God Praise and pay thy Vows unto the most High For the Second Table it commands a right and upright conversation from the 16. verse unto the last and the last is the Summe or a brief summary of both Tables He that offereth Praise shall glorifie me and to him that disposeth his way aright will I shew the Salvation of the Lord. But to return again to the reformation of the First Table whereof my Text is the Affirmative part where as I said we are told both What Offerings God will not have offered and What Offerings he requireth He will no longer have any Typical Offerings any Offerings of fire or bloudy Sacrifices For I will not saith he reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings I will take no bullock out of thine house nor goats out of thy folds For all the beasts of the forrests are mine and the beasts on a thousand hills If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the world is mine and all that therein is Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the bloud of goats Nevertheless he still requireth Offerings of Thanksgiving and a Present when we come to pray unto him so faith my Text Offer unto God Praise c. And so here is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul saith in a like case He taketh away the first that he may establish the second But as in Typical Speeches it often comes to pass that the things which are spoken are true both in the Type and Antitype as that in Hosea 11. 1. Out of Egypt have I called my Son was in some sense true both of Christ and Israel and that in Exod. 12. 46. Thou shalt not break a bone thereof was true literally both of Christ and the Paschal lamb and that in Psal. 22. 18. They parted my garments among them was true figuratively in David and literally in Christ Even so it comes to pass in Prophecies and namely in this That it so foretells of things to come that it concerned also the time present it foretells the estate of the Church in the Gospel and yet meant something that concerned the present Church of the Law To which purpose we must frame the sense after this manner That God even then did not so much regard the Offerings of fire and Expiatory sacrifices as he did the Offerings of Praise and Thanksgiving because the first were Ceremonial the other Moral the first their End was changeable the other everlasting So that in respect of the Catholick Church the words of my Text are an Antithesis or Aphaeresis with the former I will in no sort have any Typical and Bloudy Offerings but only Offerings of Praise and Prayer But in respect of the Legal Church or the Church of the Law they are a Protimesis or Estimation I require not so much any Typical offerings as I do that you should offer unto me Praise and pay your Vows unto the most High For so when God saith elsewhere I will have mercy and not sacrifice it is no Antithesis but a Protimesis that I had rather have mercy than sacrifice So again Matth. 6. 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven this is no Antithesis or Aphaeresis as though Christ would not have us at all provide for things of this life but a Protimesis he would not have us take so much care for this life as for the life to come The Scope therefore of my Text is to shew What kind of Offerings God did chiefly accept under the Law and doth only require in the Gospel to wit two sorts of Offerings Eucharistical and Euctical or Votal Eucharistical Offerings are such whose End is Thanksgiving to God for Benefits received which are here termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Offerings of Praise Euctical I call such as are made to God upon occasion of suit we have unto him that is when we come to pray before him that he might accept our supplications and we find favour in his sight And this is performed two manner of ways either by promise if God shall hear us and grant our petition which is called a Vow or by actual exhibition at the time we do pray unto him An example of the first kind is that of Iacob If the Lord shall be with me and bring me back again of all I have the Tenth will I give unto him The second was much used in the first times of the Christian Church and of it in the Law we understand
though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow c. and that in Esay the last To this man will I look to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit He that killeth an ox namely otherwise is as if he slew a man he that Sacrificeth a lamb unless he comes with this disposition as if he cut off a dog's neck he that offereth an oblation as if he offered bloud he that burneth incense as if he blessed an Idol And surely he that blesseth an Idol is so far from renewing a Covenant with the Lord his God that he breaks it So did they who without conscience of Repentance presumed to come before him with a Sacrifice not procure atonement but aggravate their breach According to one of these three senses are all passages in the Old Testament disparaging and rejecting Sacrifices literally to be understood namely when men preferred them before the greater things of the Law valued them out of their degree as an antecedent duty or placed their efficacy in the naked Rite as if ought accrued to God thereby God would no longer own them for any ordinance of his nor indeed in that disguise put upon them were they I will except only one Passage out of the number which I suppose to have a singular meaning to wit that of David in the 51. Psalm v. 16 17. which the ancient translations thus express Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium dedissem utique sed holocaustis non oblectaberis vel holocaustum non acceptabis Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus c. If thou wouldst have had a Sacrifice I would have offered it but thou wilt accept no burnt-offering c. For this seems to be meant of that special case of Adulterie and Murther which David here deploreth for which Sins the Lord had provided no Sacrifice in his Law Wherefore David in this his Penitential confession tells him That if he had appointed any Sacrifice for expiation of this kind of sin he would have given it him but he had ordained none save only a broken spirit and a contrite heart which thou O God saith he wilt not despise but accept that alone for a Sacrifice in this case without which Sacrifice in no case is accepted Now out of this Discourse we are sufficiently furnished for the understanding of this Caution of Solomon in my Text Be more ready to obey than to offer the Sacrifice of fools or as the words in the Original import Be more approaching God with a purpose and resolution of obedience to his Commandments than with the Sacrifice of fools that is Have a care rather to approach the Divine Majesty with an offering of an obediential disposition than with the bare and naked Rite But the sense is still the same namely The House of God at Ierusalem was an House of sacrifice which they who came thither to worship offered unto the Divine Majesty to make way for their prayers and supplications unto him or to find favour in his sight Solomon therefore gives them here a caveat not to place their Religion either only or chiefly in the external Rite but in their readiness to hear and keep the Commandments of God without which that Rite alone would avail them nothing but be no better than the sacrifice of fools who when they do evil think they do well For without this readiness to obey this purpose of heart to live according to his Commandments God accepts of no Sacrifice from those who approach him nor will pardon their transgressions when they come before him He therefore that makes no conscience of sinning against God and yet thinks to be expiate by Sacrifice is an ignorant fool how wise and religious soever he may think himself to be or appear unto men by the multitude or greatness of his Sacrifices The reason Because the Lord requires Obedience antecedently and absolutely but Sacrifice consequently only and then too not primariò or chiefly and for it self but secondarily only as a testimony of Coutrition and a ready desire and purpose in the offerer to continue in his favour by Obedience This is Solomon's the Preacher's meaning Wherein behold as in a glass the condition of all external Service of God in general as that which he accepteth no otherwise than secondarily namely as issuing from a Heart respectively affected with that devotion it importeth For God as he is a living God so he requires a living worship But as the Body without the Soul is but a carkass so is all external and bodily worship wherein the pulse of the Heart's devotion beats not But if this be so you will say it were better to use no external worship at all of course as we do the worship of the Body in the gestures of bowing kneeling standing and the like than to incur this danger of serving God with a dead and hypocritical service because it is not like the Heart will be always duly affected when the outward worship shall be required I answer Where there is a true and real intent to honour God with outward and bodily worship there the act is not Hypocrisie though accompanied with many defects and imperfections Here therefore that Rule of our Saviour touching the greater and lesser things of the Law must have place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things that is the greater things of the Law we ought to do and not to leave the other though the lesser undone For otherwise if this reasoning were admitted a man might upon the same ground absent himself from coming to Church upon the days and times appointed or come thither but now and then alledging the indisposition of his Heart to joyn with the Church in her publick worship at other times or if he came thither act a mute and when others sing and praise God be altogether silent and not open his mouth nor say Amen when others do For all these are external services and the service of the voice and gesture are in this respect all one there is no difference But who would not think this to be very absurd We should rather upon every such occasion rouse and stir up our Affections with fit and seasonable meditations that what the order and decency of ◠Church-assembly requires to be done of every member outwardly we may likewise do devoutly and acceptably These things we ought to do and not leave the other undone But you will say What if I cannot bring my Heart unto that religious fear and devotion which the outward worship I should perform requireth I could say that some of the outward worship which a man performs in a Church-assembly he does not as a singular man but as a member of the Congregation But howsoever I answer Let the worship of thy Body in such a case be at least a confession and acknowledgment before God of that love fear and esteem of his Divine Majesty thou oughtest to have but hast not For though to come
Christ but the whole Sacred Action or Solemn Service of the Church assembled whereof this Sacred Mysterie was then a prime and principal part and as it were the Pearl or Iewel of that Ring no publick Service of the Church being without it This observed and remembred I define the Christian Sacrifice ex mente antiquae Ecclesiae according to the meaning of the ancient Church in this manner An Oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer to God the Father through Iesus Christ and his Sacrifice commemorated in the Creatures of Bread and Wine wherewith God had first been agniz'd So that this Sacrifice as you see hath a double object or matter first Praise and Prayer which you may call Sacrificium Quod secondly The commemoration of Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross which is Sacrificium Quo the Sacrifice whereby the other is accepted For all the Prayers Thanksgivings and Devotions of a Christian are tendred up unto God in the name of Iesus Christ crucified According whereunto we are wont to conclude our Prayers with Through Iesus Christ our Lord. And this is the specification whereby the Worship of a Christian is distinguisht from that of the Iew. Now that which we in all our Prayers and Thanksgivings do vocally when we say Through Iesus Christ our Lord the ancient Church in her publick and solemn Service did visibly by representing him according as he commanded in the Symbols of his Body and Bloud For there he is commemorated and received by us for the same end for which he was given and suffered for us that through him we receiving forgiveness of our sins God our Father might accept our service and hear our prayers we make unto him What time then so sit and seasonable to commend our devotions unto God as when the Lamb of God lies slain upon the holy Table and we receive visibly though mystically those gracious Pledges of his blessed Body and Bloud This was that Sacrifice of the ancient Church the Fathers so much ring in our ears The Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer through Iesus Christ mystically represented in the Creatures of Bread and Wine But yet we have not all there is one thing more my Definition intimates when I say Through the Sacrifice of Iesus Christ commemorated in the Creatures of Bread and Wine wherewith God had first been agnized The Body and Bloud of Christ were not made of common Bread and common Wine but of Bread and Wine first sanctified by being offered and set before God as a Present to agnize him the Lord and Giver of all according to that The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof and Let no man appear before the Lord emptie Therefore as this Sacrifice consisted of two parts as I told you of Praise and Prayer which in respect of the other I call Sacrificium Quod and of the Commemoration of Christ Crucified which I call Sacrificium Quo so the Symbols of Bread and Wine traversed both being first presented as Symbols of Praise and Thanksgiving to agnize God the Lord of the Creature in the Sacrificium Quod then by invocation of the Holy Ghost made the Symbols of the Body and Bloud of Christ in the Sacrificium Quo. So that the whole Service throughout consisted of a reasonable part and of a material part as of a Soul and a Body of which I shall speak more fully hereafter when I come to prove this I have said by the Testimonies of the Ancients CHAP. III. The words of the Text explained and applied to the foregoing Definition of the Christian Sacrifice Incense denotes the rational part of this Sacrifice Mincha the material part thereof What meant by Mincha purum Two Interpretations of the Purity of the Christian Mincha given by the Fathers a third propounded by the Author AND this is that Sacrifice which Malachi foretold the Gentiles should one day offer unto God In every place Incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure Mincha for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of hosts Which Words I am now according to the order I propounded to explicate and apply to my Definition Know therefore that the Prophet in the foregoing words upbraids the Iews with despising and disesteeming their God forasmuch as they offered unto him for sacrifice not of the best but the lame the torn and the sick as though he had not been the great King Creator and Lord of the whole World but some petty God and of an inferiour rank for whom any thing were good enough Vers. 6 7. If I be a Father where is mine honour If I be Dominus where is my fear saith the Lord of Hosts unto you O Priests that despise my name and ye say Wherein have we despised it Ye offer polluted bread upon mine Altar and ye say Wherein have we polluted thee I 'le tell you In that ye say The Table of the Lord is contemptible or not so much to be regarded that is you think so as appears by the baseness of your Offering for the Present shews what esteem the giver hath of him he honoureth therewith But you offer that to me which ye would not think fit to offer to your Prorex or Governour under the King of Persia which shews you have but a mean esteem of me in your hearts and that you believe not I am He that I am It may be because you see me acknowledged of no other Nation but yours and that ye have been subdued by the Gentiles and brought into this miserable and despicable condition wherein you now are you imagine me to be some Topical God and as of small jurisdiction so of little power But know that howsoever I now seem to be but the Lord of a poor Nation yet the days are coming when from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered to my Name and a pure Offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts it follows though you have prophaned it in that ye say The Table of the Lord is contemptible whereas I am a great King and my Name shall be dreadful among the Heathen This is the coherence and dependence of the Words Now to apply them Incense as the Scripture it self tells notes the Prayers of the Saints It was also that wherewith the remembrance was made in the Sacrifices or God put in mind Mincha which we turn Munus a Gift or Offering is Oblatio farrea an Offering made of meal or flower baked or fried or dried or parched corn We in our English when we make distinction call it a Meat-offering but might call it a Bread-offering of which the Libamen or the Drink-offering being an indivisible concomitant both are implied under the name Mincha where it alone is named The Application then is easy Incense here notes the
shewed That a Sacrifice was nothing else but a Sacred Feast namely Epulum foederale wherein God mystically entertained Man at his own Table in token of amity and friendship with him Which that he might do the Viands of that Feast were first made God's by oblation and so eaten of not as of Man's but God's provision There is nothing then wanting to make this sacred Epulum of which we speak full out a Sacrifice but that we shew That the Viands thereof were in like manner first offered unto God that so being his he might be the Convivator Man the Conviva or the Guest And this the ancient Church was wont to do this they believed our Blessed Saviour himself did when at the institution of this holy Rite he took the Bread and the Cup into his sacred hands and looking up to Heaven gave thanks and blessed And after his example they first offered the Bread and Wine unto God to agnize him the Lord of the Creature and then received them from him again in a Banquer as the Symbols of the Body and Bloud of his Son This is that I am now to prove out of the Testimonies of Antiquity not long after but next unto the Apostles times when it is not likely the Church had altered the form they left her for the celebration of this Mystery I will begin with Irenaeus as the most full and copious in this point He in his fourth Book cap. 32. speaks thus Dominus Discipulis suis dans consilium Primitias Deo offerre ex suis Creaturis non quasi indigenti sed ut ipsi nec infructuosi nec ingrati sint eum qui ex Creatura panis est accepit gratias egit dicens Hoc est curpus meum Calicem similiter qui est ex ea Creatura quae est secundùm nos suum sanguinem confessus est Novi Testamenti novam docuit oblationem quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offert Deo ei qui alimenta nobis praestat primitios suorum munerum in Novo Testamento Our Lord counselling his Disciples to offer unto God the First-fruits or a Present of his Creatures not for that God hath any need thereof but that they might shew themselves neither unfruitful nor ungrateful He took that Bread which was made of his Creature and gave Thanks saying This is my Body and he likewise acknowledged the Cup consisting of the Creature which we use to be his Bloud And thus taught the new oblation of the New Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles offers throughout the world unto God that feeds and nourisheth us being the First-fruits of his own gifts in the New Testament And Cap. 34. Igitur Eâ—clesiae oblatio quam Dominus docuit offerri in universo mundo purum sacrificium reputatum est apud Deum acceptum est ei non quòd indigeat à nobis sacrificium sed quoniam is qui offert glorificatur ipse in co quod offert si acceptetur munus ejus Per munus enim erga Regem honos affectio ostenditur Therefore the Oblation of the Church which our Lord taught and appointed to be offered through all the world is accounted a pure Sacrifice with God and is acceptable unto him not because God stands in need of our Sacrifice but because the offerer is himself honoured in that he offers if his Present be accepted For by the Present it appears what affection and esteem the Giver hath for the King he honoureth therewith He alludes to that in Malachi 1. 14. I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts Ibid. Oporiet nos oblationem Deo facere in omnibus gratos inveniri Fabricatori Deo Primitias earum quae sunt ejus Creaturarum offerentes hanc oblationem Ecclesia sola puram offert Fabricatori offerens ei cum gratiarum actione ex Creatura ejus It behoveth us to present God with our Oblations and in all things to be found thankful unto God our Maker offering unto him the First-fruits of his Creatures and it is the Church only that offers this Pure Oblation unto the Creator of the world while it offers unto him a Present out of his Creatures with thanksgiving In the same place Offerimus autem ei non quasi indigenti sed gratias agentes Dominationi ejus sanctificantes creaturam But we offer unto him not as if he needed but as giving thanks to his Soveraignty and sanctifying the Creature He alludes again to that in this Chapter of Malachi v. 6. If I be Dominus where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts unto you O Priests that offer polluted Bread ubon mine Altar My next witness shall be Iustin Martyr in time elder than Irenaeus though I reserved him for the second place He in his Dialogue with Tryphon the place before alledged telling the Iew That the Sacrifices of Christians are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supplications and giving of Thanks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that these are the only Sacrifices which Christians have been taught they should perform in that thankful remembrance of their food both dry and liquid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein also is commemorated the Passion which the Son of God suffered by himself Here is a twofold commemoration witnessed to be made in the Eucharist The first as he speaks of our food dry and liquid that is of our meat and drink by agnizing God and recording him the Creator and giver thereof the second of the Passion of Christ the Son of God in one and the same food And again in the same Dialogue Panem Eucharistiae in commemorationem passionis suae Christus fieri tradidit Christ hath taught us that the Eucharistical Bread should be consecrated for the Commemoration of his Passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that withall we may give thanks to God for having made the world with all things therein for man and for having freed us from that evil and misery wherein we were and having utterly overthrown Principalities and Powers by him that became passible according to his counsel and will To which he immediately subjoyns the Text and applies it to the Eucharist Thus Iustin Martyr My third witness is Origen in his 8. Book Contra Cels. Celsus saith he thinks it seemly we should be thankful to Demons and to offer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we think him to live most comelie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that remembers who is the Creator unto whom we Christians are careful not to be unthankful with whose benefits we are filled and whose Creatures we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is And we have also a Symbol of our Thanksgiving unto God the Bread which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where note that the Eucharistical Bread is said to be a Symbol not only of the Body and Bloud of Christ but a Symbol of that Thanksgiving which we render to the Creator through him Again in
the same Book where Celsus likewise would have mankind thankful unto Demons as those to whom the charge of things here upon earth is committed and to offer unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First-fruits and Prayers Origen thus takes him up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Celsus as being void of the true Knowledge of God render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Demons As for us Christians whose only desire it is to please the Creator of the Vniverse we eat the Bread that was offered unto him with Prayer and Thanksgiving for his Gifts and then made a kind of holy Body by Prayer Mark here Bread offered unto God with Prayer and Thanksgiving pro datis for that he hath given us and then by Prayer made a holy Body and so eaten Thus much out of Fathers all of them within less than two hundred and fifty years after Christ and less than one hundred and fifty after the death of S. Iohn The same appears in the Forms of the ancient Liturgies As in that of Clemens where the Priest in the name of the whole Church assembled speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We offer unto thee our King and God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his that is Christ's appointment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Bread and this Cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Giving thanks unto thee through him for that thou hast vouchsafed us he speaks of the whole Church to stand before thee and to minister unto thee And we beseech thee thou God that wantest nothing that thou wouldst look favourably upon these Gifts here set before thee and accept them to the honour of thy Christ c. Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Gift or Oblation that is offered to the Lord our God let us pray that our good God would receive it through the mediation of his Christ to his heavenly Altar for a sweet-smelling savour Yea in the Canon of the Roman Church though the Rite be not used yet the words remain still as when the Priest long before the consecration of the Body and Bloud of Christ prays Te Clementissime Pater per Iesum Christum Filium tuum Dominum nostrum supplices rogamus ut accepta habeas benedicas haec Dona haec Munera We humbly beseech and intreat thee most merciful Father Through Iesus Christ thy Son our Lord to accept and bless these Gifts these Presents and other like passages which now they wrest to a new-found Oblation of the Body and Bloud of Christ which the ancient Church knew not of But of all others This Rite is most strongly confirmed by that wont of the Ancient Fathers to confute the Hereticks of those first times who held the Creator of the world to be some inferiour Deity and not the Father of Christ out of the Eucharist For say they unless the Father of Christ be the Creator of the world why is the Creature offered unto him in the Eucharist as if he were would he be agnized the Author and Lord of that he is not Hear Irenaeus Adversus Haeres lib. 4. cap. 34. Haereticorum Synagogae saith he non offerunt Eucharisticam oblationem quam Dominus offerri docuit Alterum enim praeter Fabricatorem dicentes Patrem Ideo quae secundùm nos Creaturae sunt offerentes ei cupidum alieni oftendunt eum aliena concupiscentem The Synagogues of the Hereticks do not offer the very Eucharistical oblation which our Lord taught and appointed to be offered for they affirming another besides the Creator of the world to be the Father of Christ do therefore while they offer unto him the Creatures which are here with us represent him to be desirous of that which is anothers and to covet that which is not his and a little after Quomodo autem constabit eis eum panem in quo gratiae actae sunt Corpus esse Domini sui Calicem sanguinis ejus si non ipsum Fabricatoris mundi Filium dicant id est Verbum ejus per quod lignum fructificat defluunt fontes terra dat primùm quidem gramen post deinde spicam deinde plenum triticum in spica How shall it appear to them that that Bread for which Thanks have been given is the Body of their Lord and that Cup the Cup of his Bloud if they deny him to be the Son of the Creator of the world that is to say to be the word of him by whom the Tree brings forth fruit Fountains send forth water and the Earth brings forth first green corn like grass then the ear after that the full corn in the ear From the same ground Tertullian argues against Marcion Contra Marc. lib. 1. cap. 23. Non putem saith he impudentiorem quà m qui in alâ—ena aqua alii Deo tingitur ad alienum Coelum alii Deo expanditur in aliena terra alii Deo sternitur super alienum panem alii Deo gratiarum actionibus fungitur I cannot conceive any one more impudent than he that is baptized to a God in a water that is none of his that in prayer to a God spreads forth his hands towards an Heaven that is none of his that prostrates himself to a God upon an Earth that is not his that gives thanks to a God for that Bread which is none of his Origen against the same Heretick useth the same Argument Dialog advers Marc. 3. pauso ante finem Dominus aspiciens in coelum gratias agit Ecquid non agit conditori gratias Cùm panem accepisset poculum benedixisset quid alterine pro Creaturis conditoris benedicit an potiùs illi qui effecit exhibuit Our Lord looking up to heaven gave thanks What did not he give thanks to the Creator of the world When he took the Bread and the Cup and blessed did he bless and give thanks to any other for the Creatures of God the Maker of the world and not rather bless and give thanks to him who made them and gave them us Lastly This Oblation of the Bread and Wine is implied in S. Paul's parallel of the Lord's Supper and the Sacrifice of the Gentiles Ye cannot saith he be partakers of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devils namely because they imply contrary Covenants incompatible one with the other a Sacrifice as I told you being Epulum foederale a Federal Feast Now here it is manifest that the Table of Devils is so called because it consisted of Viands offered to Devils for so S. Paul expresly tells us whereby those that eat thereof eat of the Devil's meat Ergo The Table of the Lord is likewise called his Table not because he ordained it but it because consisted of Viands offered unto him Having thus as I think sufficiently proved what I took in hand I think it not amiss to answer two Questions which this Discourse may beget The first is How the Ancients
Haud temerè suspicatus sum de argumento nam eandem planè tuetur de Die suo Novissimo sententiam quam ego de Die Iudicii conceperam Ut Libro prelecto non mediocriter in sententia mea confirmatus sim tum propter hoc ipsum tum quòd multa Scripturae loca in eo reperi adeò ad meam mentem interpretata ut consensionem in talibus à communi sententia abeuntibus oppidò mirarer Vides Reverende Praesul quò me rapit Contemplatiunculae meae nimium fortaâ—se studium ut etiam tibi hisce narrandis importunus sim. Sed ultrà Paternitatem tuam à gravioribus tuis meditationibus non distinebo Deus te Reverendissime ac Illustrissime Domine quà m diutissimè incolumem superstitem velit Ecclesiae Patriae tuae bono E. Collegio Christi 24 Aprilis An. 1628. Reverendissimae Paternitatis tuae studiosissimus Iosephus Medus EPISTLE IV. Mr. Mede's Second Letter to Archbishop Usher touching the Millennium and the Chronology of the Samaritan Pentateuch c. My Reverend Lord HAving understood by Mr. Lowe's Letter to Mr. Chappel that my Books were lost between Dublin and Droghedah as they were coming to your Lordship I presumed a second time to obtrude upon your Grace three or four more of them howsoever the worth were not such that the first loss was much material I sent with them a Letter and a Speculation or two with it which yet through some defect in sending I fear will come after them I beseech your Lordship pardon me if I have offended as I am afraid I have either against discrâ—tion or good manners For I confess I have been since somewhat jealous that the Books I first sent were not so lost but that they were found again which if they were how can I but blush to think that I have with such either shew of self-love or unmannerly importunity again troubled your Lordship with them who should noâ— have presumed at the first to have offered any more than one But my confidence is in your Grace's experienced humanity to accept any thing in good part from a Scholar's hand though perhaps accompanied with some melancholick vanity My Lord I sent in the Letter I mention the last Paragraph or piece of some Specimina Interpretationum Apocalypticarum namely that which concerned the Millennium Whereto I added for further probability of my Conceit somewhat more out of my Adversaria and in special that one of Carpentarius's Com. in Alcinoum Platonis p. 322. Septimum Millenarium ab universa Cabbalistarum Schola vocari MAGNVM DIEM IVDICII Wherein I had no intent or thought not yet have to avow that old conceit of the Chiliasts That the World should as it were labour 6000 years and in the Seventh thousand should be that glorious Sabbath of the Reign of Christ I inclined to think it much nearer But only to shew how fitly in the Hebrew notion not only a long time of some Years and Ages but even this very time of a Thousand years might be styled a Day Howbeit I desire your Lordship to give me leave if but for your recreation to relate the event of a piece of my Curiosity since that time the rather because the means thereof is beholding to your Grace I chanced to light upon Mr. Selden's Marmora Arundelliana and found therein together with an honorable and deserved mention of your Grace's name the Chronology of your Samaritan Pentateuch published to the view of the whole world I had thereby opportunity to take more curious notice thereof than I had done when your Lordship was in England and observed that it much more exceeded the Iewish in the Genealogy of the Patriarchs after the floud then it came short in those before it It came therefore into my mind to try how near the 6000 years of the world would be by that computation I found it would be Anno AErae Christianae 1736 which is just the very year when the 1260 years of the Beast's reign will expire if it be reckoned from the Deposition of Augustulus the last Roman Emperor Depositio Angustuli Anno AErae Christ. 476 Anni Regni Bestiae 1260 Sum. 1736 A Condito Mundo ad AEram Christ. juxta Scaligerum 3949 Adde quadriennium quo idem anticipat initium Nebuchadnezzaris nam in caeteris nihil muto 4 Excessus Chronologiae Samaritanae supra Iudaicam 311 Ità à condito Mundo ad AEram Christ. erunt Ann. 4264 Adde annos AErae Christ. quando exibunt Tempora Bestiae seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si ducantur à depositione Angustuli 1736 Sum. 6000 I began here to consider whether this difference of the Account of the years of the world were not ordered by a special disposition of Providence to frustrate our Curiosity in searching the time of the Day of Iudgment My Lord I would trouble your Lordship with a Conceit or two more if I had time As that I conceive Nebuchadnezzar's dream Dan 2. to have been some years before he sought for the interpretation which was the reason he had forgotten it the words in ver 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken for the dream and may be well so construed viz. That his dream came upon him or came into his mind Also that the 40 years Ezek. 4. 6. should be the time of Manasses Idolatry for which God threatens so often that he would destroy that Kingdom But Mr. Provost will not stay for me I beseech the Almighty long to bless your Grace and grant you life and thus I end with my humble Service and am Christ's Coll. 22 May 1628. Your Lordship 's most ready to be commanded Ioseph Mede EPISTLE V. Mr. Hayn his First Letter to Mr. Mede about several passages in Daniel and the Revelation SALUTEM in CHRISTO Worthy and Learned Sir SOme kind friend have lately imparted to me your Synchronisms of the Apocalyps printed and some other written passages on Daniel's times and other parts of Scripture The world must needs give good entertainment to your painful and learned labours who have undertaken paths troden by few with much care of sure footing especially in your Synchronisms Yet see how it falls out as in this kind it cannot be avoided in all things you shall not find assent For my part I know well quà m sit mihi curta supellex yet partly that I may be better instructed my self partly to give you occasion of further clearing the Truth I have sent here included some Positions with Arguments confirming them contrary to some of your Tenets desiring your favourable interpretation of my meaning and your Answer at your best leisure and assuring you that I do this not contradicendi studio sed amore veritatis indagandae and minding if you encourage me thereto to shew hereafter my Reasons of some dissent in other matters I commend you and your studies to God's blessing and rest From Christs-parish in London Iune 5. 1629.
rest of the Beasts together with the fourth Beast and so not to admit of such a distance Let others judge Thirdly But I will not conceal that I have suspected there might possibly be a third Interpretation farâ—d â—â—ering from them both and which would make the Vision fully to agree with the Angel's interpretation But the words then must be construed much otherwise than they use to be viz. Daniel in the former verse mentioning precisely the Body of the Beast to be given to the flames it should follow thus And as the Body was burned and destroyed so the rest of the Beast viz. the tâ—n Horns and ruffling Horn had their dominion at the same time the Body was burned taken away and prolongation of life was given them for a season and time viz. until I saw one like to the Son of man coming in the clouds c. that is they reigned till the Son of man came in the clouds c. The reason why I thought of this Interpretation is because the word which we traâ—slate here plurally is as it is pointed in the Original of the singular number namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas if it were the plural it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that say the Chaldee Grammarians is the difference between the singular and the plural Emphatick that the one hath Scheva â— in the penultima the other hath Camets â— And so we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Scheva in this Chapter singularly Beast twice in the following verses of this Chapter viz. verse 19 23. The reason which moved the Interpreters to translate it here plurally was because the Affixes following are all plural their dominion their lives But this may be because that remainder of the Beast under the Horns consisted of many Kingdoms and in that respect the dominion and duration thereof is expressed with plural Affixes as of many March 31. Yours Ioseph Mede Post-script My paper streightens me and my time and I have been a 3. or 4. times troubled while I was writing this last way of Interpretation which made me so blurr and blot and scarce know what I did I should else have expressed my self more plainly and fully EPISTLE XXV A more distinct and perspicuous expression of the last of those three ways to interpret that twelfth verse of Dan. 7. I Confess my skill in the Chaldee is no more but Grammatical yet thus much a little smattering in Grammar could teach me and so made me seek in what sense it might be translated singularly notwithstanding the plural Affixes following it and what this rest or remainder of the Beast if it be so turned might be First I observed that in the destruction of the Fourth Beast immediately before mentioned the Body of the Beast was precisely and particularly named whereby I began to conceive the Remainder here spoken of might be the Beast's Horns that is the eyed and mouthed Horn with that Decarchy of Horns subject to him which the Holy Ghost would tell us was destroyed at the same time and together with the Body of the Beast And so the Text to be construed thus The Body of the Beast was destroyed and given to the burning flame And the rest of the Beast also viz. the Horns had their dominion taken away after that a continuance of life had been given them for a season and a time Thus interpreted it would answer to that part of the Angel's interpretation verse 25. which saith that the State of the Beast under the wicked Horn's dominion should last a time and times and half a time whereunto otherwise there will be nothing answering in the Vision Secondly The Kingdom of the Son of man immediately following the expiration of this season and time in the Vision would answer to that in the Interpretation verse 22. The Horn prevailed against the Saints until the Ancient of days came and the Saints possessed the Kingdom Thirdly It is certain that the Session of Iudgment described in the Vision sate to destroy the wicked Horn for so saith the Angel verse 26. But the Iudgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion And Daniel himself in the Vision exspected to see that in special for as soon as the Bench was set and the Books were opened verse 10. I beheld then saith he verse 11. because of the voice of the great words which the Horn spake viz. he looked what would become of the Horn. Something then should seem to follow in special concerning it else Daniel was frustrate of his looking But what follows I beheld until the Beast was slain This is something but general only And his Body destroyed This indeed is special but not that which Daniel looked after For how would these hang together I looked to see what would become of the Beast's horn and I saw his Body destroyed should it not seem rather to follow to answer Daniel's looking And the rest of the Beast also that is not the Body only or people of the Beast's dominion were destroyed but the Horns also with their Captain-horn who spake the big words that is the State then domineering had their dominion taken away after they had enjoyed it a season and a time Lastly Those words of the Angel's interpretation verse 26. The Iudgment shall sit and take away his dominion that is the Horn's dominion seem to have reference to that passage in the Vision which saith in the same words that the rest of the Beast had their dominion taken away The reason of the plural Affixe's answering to a singular Antecedent being because this rest of the Beast had in it a plurality of Kingdoms according to the rule of the Grammarians That a singular Antecedent to be taken collectively or distributively may have a plural number answer to it This was my adventure I. M. EPISTLE XXVI Mr. Burnet's Letter to Mr. Mede touching the Provostship of Trinity Colledge near Dublin SIR I Am bold to write unto you though a stranger to certifie you that I hear Dr. Bedle Provost of Trinity Colledge in Ireland is chosen Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland which is valued worth 600 l. per annum appointed thereto by the King howbeit some time will be ere he leave the Colledge in the mean space I am bold to intreat your Answer to know if you will accept the place of Provost if you be chosen thereto as you were wrote to by my Lord. Primate formerly before Mr. Bedle went I am now writing to my Lord Primate an Answer of Letters this day I received from him and do certifie him of this accident for it was but this week that the King granted it and no Letter is yet gone over I sent the Book you sent me long since to my Lord Primate I dwell at the sign of the Golden fleece in Lombard-street and shall expect your Answer next return and so I commend you to God Almighty resting London April 12. Your loving Friend Francis Burnet
EPISTLE XXVII Dr. Ames his Letter to Mr. Mede touching Lawenus his Censure of his Clavis Apocalyptica Good Mr. Mede I Shewed your Clavis to one much given unto those Studies and desired his censure which having at length received I send herewith unto you desiring from you to receive what you think fit to be opposed You shall perceive his full meaning out of the printed Treatise adjoyned He seemeth to me to carry all to the Iews upon no other grounds than communion of Phrases Thus with hearty salutations to you and Mr. Chappel I rest Franeker Oct. 11. Your loving Friend W. Ames EPISTLE XXVIII A Second Letter from Dr. Ames touching Mr. Mede's Defence SIR YOur Answer to Lawenus I have received that you be no longer in suspence and like so well that I shall long to see more of your Notions in that kind yet methinks that Millenary state spoken of may well be understood of the Church raised from a dead condition and so continued for that space We have here no News but of Silva-Ducis streightly and hopefully besieged by our Army the Enemy as it seemeth not being in case to bring an Army into the field Thus with salutations to your self Mr. Chappel c. I rest Franeker May 27. Your loving Friend W. Ames EPISTLE XXIX Mr. Mede his Third Letter to Archbishop Usher excusing his unwillingness to accept the Provostship of Trinity Colledge in Ireland containing also an account of Lawenus his Animadversions upon his Clavis and his Answer together with his Explication of Ezek. 4. 6 c. Right Reverend and my most Honoured Lord I Make no question but your Colledge is far better provided of a Provost than it would have been of me who never could perswade my self I was fit to be the Head and Governour of the only Seminary of a Kingdom And therefore though my name were the Second time brought upon the Stage yet was it without consent or privity of mine Indeed a Proposition was made unto me upon Mr. Bedle's preâ—erment and before the news thereof was sent to him whether I would accept the place in case I were again chosen thereto Unto which because I answered not by a direct and categorical denial but only alledged divers reasons both from mine own unfitness in divers respects and other circumstances which might and did deter me therefrom leaving them who made the motion to infer the conclusion it pleased some to whom I am yet beholden for their affection so to interpret it as if in modesty only I had by such a kind of answer concealed my willingness which as soon as I understood and that some Sir Nathaniel Rich by name endeavoured upon the motion of some others to procure me to be named by his Majesty I presently took him off and that so effectually as he stirred no more though perhaps I was not a little blamed by some of my friends for so doing But enough of this For my Clavis I am afraid that Reverend Archbishop your Lordship nameth values it far more than it deserveth though it may be something I have by God's goodness discovered toward the better understanding of that Book which if I have the praise be to God alone to whom it is only due But I cannot imagine what those Additions thereto should be which your Lordship saith you received out of the North of Ireland I sent a Copy or two to Franeker to Doctor Ames he sends one of them to Daniel Lawenus an ancient Student in those parts in that Prophecy whose Apparatus to a bigger volume of many years study was printed the same year desiring his censure of it He finding it not to sute with his Notions wrote presently Stricturae in Clavem Apocalypticam not knowing my name but calling me Synchronista and sometimes seemed to be very angry in his confutation of me though he agreed with me in the mainest Paradox of all He sends it to Doctor Ames as I suppose not intending me But the Doctor dispatcheth it to me together with his printed Book for my better understanding his meaning desires to receive again from me what I thought fit to oppose by way of defence Thus unwittingly I made my self work yet such as in the doing I at length found some benefit by having my torpid thoughts revived and quickned and the second time more able to wield any notions than they were at the beginning But I should admire if your Lordship had seen a Copy of this For besides that I sent into Friseland I conceive not how any other should get abroad having as I thought kept mine own Copy private in my study That touching the years of Israel and Iudah I know not what it should be unless that the 40. years of Iudah's sin for which the Prophet lay so many days upon his right side were the years of Manasses Idolatry to which the Scripture particularly ascribes their captivity 2 Kings 24. 3. ch 23. 26. Ier. 15. 4. Which I thought had been a novelty and cried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but since I find it to be the opinion of R. Kimchi whom I suppose also the first author thereof Salianus adds Hieronymus not Iosephus de Prado Funccius but I never looked them It was but a conjecture which had it been new I conceived would not have been altogether unacceptable to your Lordship whom yet far be it from me to teach or inform but only to be better instructed or confirmed by your Lordship's profounder judgment Presently after my Clavis was printed I drew at the intreaty of some friends Specimina Interpretationum Apocalypticarum ad amussim Clavis Apocalypticae which finding beyond my expectation or merit to be accepted I have since gone more largely through some part thereof as The Description of the Theatrum Apocalypticum chap. 4. The 6 Seals and 7 Trumpets unto the 11. Chapter The rest is yet but Specimina as it was in the beginning the last Chapter whereof I once sent your Lordship namely de Millennio But could I have gotten an orthographical Scribe I would have sent your Lordship all ere this both Specimina and the larger Expositions upon the first half But I had no such of mine own and those who have are not so kind as to lend them for any hire And for my self I should never get through that which is mine own without everlasting mending blurring and pausing at every sentence to alter it I am exceedingly sorry for the death of Buxtorf and Amama especially the latter as being but now in store and one that had a natural genius to inlighten the Text of Scripture and to find the notion of the Sacred language If Ireland will not spend the remainder of my Pamphlets if your Lordship have opportunity to send them I shall willingly entertain them again their fellows being all gone Thus with my most humble Service remembred to your gracious Lordship desiring the God of Heaven to bless and preserve your Grace I
Psal. 37. 21. but the Righteous sheweth mercy and giveth and vers 25 Yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken p. 80 Psal. 40. 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire mine ears hast thou bored c. p. 896 Psal. 44. 16. By reason of the Enemy and Avenger all this is come upon us p. 38 Psal. 50. 14 Offer unto God praise and pay thy Vows unto the most High p. 284 Vers. 16. Vnto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes and take my Covenant in thy mouth p. 371 Psal. 51. 16 17. Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt-offering The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit c. p. 353 Psal. 68. 9 10. Thou O God didst send a plentiful rain whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance when it was weary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animalia tua dwelt therein p. 438 594 Psal. 74. 7 8. They have cast fire into thy Sanctuary They have burnt up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the land p. 69 Psal. 89. 18. The Holy one of Israel is our King p. 8 Psal. 104. 4. He maketh his Angels Spirits his ministers a flaming fire p. 28 Vers. 19. He appointeth the Moon for seasons p. 492 Psal. 110. 3. Thy people in the day of thy power shall be a people of free presents p. 115 Psal. 112. 6 The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance p. 80 Psal. 116. 13. I will take the cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. p. 380 Psal. 132. 7. We will go into his Tabernacle we will worship towards his Footstool p. 393 Psal. 138. 1 â— Before the Gods will I sing praise unto thee I will worship towards thy holy Temple p. 394 PROVERBS Chap. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life p. 199. Chap. 8. 10. Receive my instruction and not silver p. 352 Chap. 11. 4. Righteousness delivereth from death p. 81 Chap. 15. 11. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. p. 32 Chap. 21. 16. The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the Congregation of the dead p. 31 Chap. 30. 8 9. Give me neither Poverty nor Riches feed me with food convenient for me Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain p. 124 ECCLESIASTES Chap. 5. 1. Look to thy foot when thou comest to the House of God and be more ready to obey than to offer the Sacrifice of fools p. 340 Vers 4. 5 6. When thou Vowest a Vow defer not to pay it c. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the Angel It was an error p. 345 Vers. 14. he begâ—tâ—eth a Son and there is nothing in his hand pag. 119 CANTICLES Chap. 7. 10. I am my beloved's and his desire is towards me p. 668 ESAY Chap. 2. 2. And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tâ—p of the mountains c. and all Nations shall flow unto it p. 135 Chap. 4. 1. Only let thy name be called upon us to take away our reproach p. 5 Chap. 6. 1. I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his Train filled the Temple p. 344 Chap. 7. 14. and shall call his name Emmanuel p. 465 Chap. 8. 12 13. Fear ye not their Fear neither dread ye it Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your Fear and let him be your Dread p. 9 Chap. 9. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quoniam non est obscuratio ei qui angustiae est ipsi p. 457 Vers. 1 2 3. As the first time he made vile or debased the land of Zebulâ—n and the land of Naphtali so in the latter time he shall make it glorious The way of the Sea by Iordan Galilce of the Gentiles the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light c. Thou hast multiplied the Nation and encreased the joy thereof p. 101 457 Vers. 6. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counseller The mighty God c. p. 465 Chap. 11. 15. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the AEgyptian Sea c. p. 529 Chap. 17. 7. to the Holy one of Israel p. 8 Chap. 19. 5. And the waters shall fail from the Sea p. 463 Chap. 24. 23. The Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion p. 448 Chap. 26. 19. Thy dead men shall live my dead bodies shall arise p. 578 Chap. 30. 31 33. Through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down For Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstanc doth kindle it p. 31 Chap. 40. 15. He taketh up the Isles as a very little thing p. 273 Chap. 42. 4. The Isles shall wait for this Law Ibid. Chap. 45. 14. The labour of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans c. p. 578 Vers. 20. Assemble your selves and come draw near together ye that are escaped of the Nations p. 915 Chap. 51. 15 16. I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared And I put my words in thy mouth and covered thee in the shadow of my hand that I might plant the Heavens and lay the Foundation of the Earth and say unto Sion Thou art my people p. 616 448 Chap. 53. 1 2. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed For he shall grow as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground p. 38 Chap. 55. 7. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him p. 206 Chap. 66. 19. I will send those that escape of them unto the Nations and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles p. 915 Vers. 23. From one New-Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me p. 841 IEREMY Chap. 2. 10. Poss over to the Isles of Chittim p. 273 Vers. 11. my people have changed their Glory p. 5 Chap. 8. 20. The harvest is past the summer is ended and we are not saved p. 520 Chap. 10. 11. Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that made not the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens p. 187 Chap. 34. 18 19. And I will give the man which have not performed the words of the Covenant which they had made before me when they cut the â—alf in twain and passed between the parts thereof I will give them into the hand of
Cor. 11. 22. Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God and verse 34. If any man hunger let him eat at home c. c In answer to that Question Whether may the Holy Oblation or Eucharist be celebrated in a common house he affirms That as the Word doth not allow that any common vessel or utensil should be brought into places that are Sacred carried through the Temple Mark 11. 16. so likewise doth it forbid that the Holy Mysteries should be celebrated in a common house For neither would the Old Testament permit any such thing to be done nor our Lord who said There is here one greater than the Temple Matth. 12 6. nor the Apostle saying Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in c. Whâ—nce we may learn That we ought not to take our common supper in the Church nor should we dishonour the Lord's Supper by eating it in a private house But if one be necessitated to communicate in private let him then chuse out the most clean and decent house or room for such a purpose and withal see that he do it in the fittest and most seasonable time d Despise ye the Church of God e Making it a place for common feasts and banquettings f Behold a fourth charge That not the poor only but also the Church it self is injur'd For as hereby thou makest the Lord's Supper a private Supper so thou dealest no better with the Place in that thou usest the Church as a private and ordinary house g If ye come together to feast it do this in your own Houses for to do thus in the Church is a manifest contempt a plain dishonour done to the Church For how can it but seem a thing wholy indecorous and absurd for you to fare deliciously in the Temple of God where the Lord himself is present who hath prepared for us a common table when at the same time those Christians that are poor are hungry and out of countenance by reason of their poverty * Isidorus Pâ—lusiota lib. 2. Ep. 246. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whâ—â—â— note that of two câ—p 〈…〉 place the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Copy are deficient in the first them but to bâ— supplied out of this the second or repetition of the same thing as the Reader that considers it will observe the Antithesis requires * Coenacula dicuâ—tur ad quae sâ—â—â—â— ascenditur lest Inde Ennio Coenacula maxima coeli a The Upper room of Sion * For these Traditions see Adricomius ex Nicephor c. and 〈…〉 infra de locis sanctis Iohn 20. 6. Acts 6. Acts 15. Epist. 27. Psal. 87. 1 2. a Her foundations are in the holy mountains the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Iacob Acts 4. 34 35. b In the upper plain of Mount Sion there are cells of Monks encompassing that great Church which was founded there as they say by the Apostles because that there they received the Holy Ghost and there also is to be seen the venerable place of the institution and first celebration of the Lord's Supper 〈…〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The breaking of the Eucharist 1 Cor. 10. 16. a And he came down to Caesarea and went up into the House of the Christians that is the Church and saluted them and departed thence to Antioch Hist. Eccl. l. 2. cap. 17. b Philo having described what kind of habitations they had proceeds to speak of their Churches which were frequently to be met with in several places of their Country How that the Sacred House was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Worshipping-place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Monastery wherein these solitary livers perfomed the Mysteries of a severely-religious life bringing in thither not meat nor drink nor any other necessaries for the use of the Body but the Books of the Law the Prophets the Psalms or Hymns and the like things of Sacred use whereby Divine knowledge and Piety might be encreased and advanced to great perfection * 〈◊〉 Const. 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈…〉 David 〈◊〉 canat populus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extremitates versuum non versuum initia ut male interpres Bovius * He mentions it Hist Eccl. l. 5. cap. 1. * Lib. 7. c. penult a They were so eminently religious as that they converted their own House into a Church Or else it is said The Church at their House because all of their houshold were Believers and faithful Christians so that their House or Family was a little Church b He was a person of great esteem for he turned his House into a Church * Or whosoever else were the Author thereof under Trajan whose then fresh success in subduing the Parthians and Arabians contrary to the unlucky presages of some his scope seems to have been to gratulate See Iacobus Miâ—yllus in Argumento a We passed through iron gates and over brazen thresholds and by many winding ascents we came at last to the house or room whose roof was overlaid with gold not unlike to what Homer makes Menelaus his house to have been And now I beheld and observ'd all things therein but I could see no Helena there but on the contrary a company of persons with their bodies bowed down and pale countenances * Pag. 52. See this of Clemens quoted in Greek and translated by the Author in the next Discourse Sect. 1. toward the end Ab Ann. 100 ad 200. a This passage out of Ignatius is thus translated by the Author in another M S. copy of this Discourse All of you meet together for prayer in one place let there be one prayer common to all one mind one hope in love in the immaculate faith in Iesus Christ than whom nothing is better All of you as one man run to the Temple of God as to one Altar to one Iesus Christ the High-Priest of the unbegotten God b One Altar to every Church and One Bishop with the Presbytery Deacons my fellow-servants 1 Tâ—m 2. 5. c On Sunday all that live in towns or in the country meet together in one place d To set up another Altar e One Altar to all the Church and One Bishop with the Presbytery and Deacons a Let the Door-keepers stand at the entries of the men looking well to them the Deaconisses at the doors where the women were to enter * Holy Porches * Lib. 6. c. 14. al. 21. Vid. Graec. a In Graeco 27. b In Graeco 12. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Epiphan Exposit Eidâ—i cathol c. 21. De duobus ulâ—imis Const. Apol. l. 8. c. 24 26. b See Act. 11. 26. Sâ—cr lib. 6. c. 8. Tâ—â—od l. 2. c. 24. 2. * In Tom 1 Biblioth Patrum edit Parisâ—â—ns ex Ardâ—ivo Viennensi * The word Missa seems to have been long used in Italy before it was elsewhere a As in