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A56696
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A sermon preached before the king, on the second Sunday in Advent, Decemb. viii, 1678 by Symon Patrick ...
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing P841; ESTC R7087
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16,535
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44
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may have leave briefly to represent it will be the clearest Explication I can give of these words of St. Paul and let you see how much we may learn even out of the Scriptures which were written aforetime I. The first of them viz. That the Writings of the Old Testament were from the evil Principle the Law and the Prophets being dictated by bad Angels is such a senceless Blasphemy that I should have wholly omitted it were it not for the reason now mentioned that it gives a fair occasion to shew there is something worth our learning even in such Historical passages of the Old Scriptures as seem less instructive For S. Paul having plainly declared that the Law and the Gospel had the same Author when he saith iii. Galat. 24. The Law was our School-master to bring us to Christ proceeds in the next Chapter of that Epistle to illustrate this most elegantly from the History of Abraham who had two Sons iv Gal. 22. the one by a Bond-maid the other by a Free-woman the first of which was born after the Flesh but the other was by Promise Which things saith he v. 24. are an Allegory for these are the two Covenants or Testaments the one from Mount Sinai which gendreth to Bondage the other from Jerusalem or Sion which is free the Mother of us all Where we learn these two things First That even in such historical Relations as these the Apostles read diviner things which they saw there lye hid and concealed For that 's his meaning when he saith these things are an Allegory aliud portendentia as Tertullian expounds it * L. V. contra Marcionem c. 4. a speech about another matter portending something else than at first sight appears For he clearly discerned that under the Names and Actions of Sarah and Hagar Isaac and Ishmael God was pleased to foreshadow what He intended to do in future times both at the giving of the Law and when He sent his Son to preach the Gospel And Secondly we learn that as those two Wives of very different Condition had but one and the same Husband who was the Father of those two Children So the two Testaments the Old and the New which were represented by those two Women belong to one and the same God who brings forth and breeds up his Children under various Dispensations but is the Father of all those who lived piously under the Old Testament as well as of those who live so under the New This is the necessary Consequence of the Apostles Discourse If those two Wives and their Children were an Allegorie of the two Testaments and of those who were born and bred under them then as those two Children had the same Father though different Mothers so the two Testaments have the same Original though they be Dispensations as different as the Bond-woman and the Free There cannot be a more evident Confutation of the false Principles of these Men than this Observation of the Apostle Who in the beginning of this Epistle i. Rom. 1 2. calls himself an Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God which he had promised afore by his Prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. And in the entrance of the Epistle to the Hebrews openly avows that the same God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his Son But I shall not trouble you any further in so manifest a business having thus far obtained my end which was to shew that the Historical Books are not unuseful but more serviceable than many imagine not merely because they relate the wonderful Providence of God over that People for whose use they were first written in blessing them when they were faithful to him and punishing them when they revolted from him but because they contain many secret Representations of things belonging to the Person and the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ II. The next part of their wicked Doctrine was that the Old Testament did not belong to Christians but only to the Jews This Faustus the Manichee against whom St. Austin wrote XXXIII Books endeavoured to perswade by his Natural Eloquence and smooth way of speaking for which he was famous * See St. Aust Confessions L. V. cap. 3. 6. without any judgment or reason at all For it is directly confuted by the words of my Text as if the Apostle intended to anticipate such an Objection and prevent the entrance of this extravagant Conceit into any bodies mind The absurdity of which appears also farther from hence that the Promises made in the Old Testament belong to us Christians who are therefore concerned in the Testament it self Which is a Consideration to which St. Paul directs us in the Epistle for this day a little below my Text v. 8. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a Minister of the Circumcision sent that is to preach the Gospel unto the Jews for the truth of God to justifie that is the Faithfulness of God who promised to send him as it follows to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers that is make good those Promises he had passed to them in ancient time among which this was the chief that he would send a Person into the World in the fulness of time in whom all Nations should be blessed So it follows v. 9 10 c. And that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his Mercy as it is written For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy Name And again he saith Rejoyce ye Gentiles with his People And again Praise the Lord all ye Gentiles c. And again Psaias saith He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles in him shall the Gentiles trust All which places of the Old Scriptures are alledged to shew that though this was the grand Priviledge of the Jews that God had expressely obliged himself by Promises to their Fathers to send his Son Christ to them of which Promises the Gentiles i. e. People of other Nations were wholly ignorant and knew not a syllable of this Grace yet God intended to be so mercifull as to make all the world partakers of those Promises which the Jews alone had recorded in their holy Books Which the Apostle proves was agreeable to the Books themselves wherein these Promises were contained For they predicted that the Gentiles also should rejoyce in God and praise him and sing unto his Name because Christ the Son of David should reign over them as well as his Ancient People and they should place their hope and trust in him This he urges from more places of the Old Scriptures as well of the Law of Moses as of the Prophets and Psalms as you will find if you take the pains to examine them than he alledges for the proof of any one thing whatsoever for this great reason That the Gentiles might be the more confirmed
and settled in the Faith of the Gospel when they saw it was brought to them not by the Will of Man but by the good pleasure and Counsel of God long before predicted in the Holy Scriptures of Truth This is a plain demonstration how much we are concerned in the Scriptures written aforetime whose true Learning the same Apostle shews in another place is not understood by the Jews but only by Christians to whom the Grace of God is translated which is taken away from the other till they also Believe on Christ Jesus Read 2 Corinth iii. 14 15. where he saith their Minds are blinded and that they have a Veil upon them in the reading of the Old Testament Which veil is done away in Christ i. e. when men become Christians But even unto this day when Moses is read the veil is upon their heart nevertheless when it their heart shall turn to the Lord our Saviour Christ the veil shall be taken away and not till then Which is an evidence that we have more benefit by the Scriptures written aforetime than the Jews themselves till they also turn Christians and abundantly confirms that pithy saying of Tertullian which comprehends all that need be said in this Argument Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet the New Testament lyes hid in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed and discovered in the New And so I have done with the Second Cavil of these men against the Old Testament III. The third part of their impious Doctrine about this matter was That the Scriptures written aforetime were unprofitable for the confirmation of our Faith Which is directly against the whole Scope of the Apostle in this place and is confuted in express terms by our Blessed Lord himself in several places of the last Chapter of the Gospel according to S. Luke Where speaking of his Passion to two of his Disciples v. 25. 27. He upbraided them that they were such Fools and slow of heart to believe what the Prophets had spoken and beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself And not long after appearing to all the Apostles and eating with them he said v. 44. These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me And then opening their understanding that they might understand the Scripture he said Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again the third day c. So abominably false it is which those Hereticks were wont to assert that in the Old Testament there was no Testimony concerning Christ They are the words of Faustus as they are reported by St. Austin * Lib. xii contra Faust c. 1 2. and may well make us wonder how any men that were called by his Name should arrive at such a boldness as to contradict Christ himself who proved all things concerning himself out of those ancient Books But this it is to be proud and self-conceited to be forward to teach †Vid. S. Austin Confess l. v. c. 5. before men have learnt to be addicted to a Sect and to love to contradict to be engaged early in a party and then to stop ones ears against the means of Information to be carryed away with a strong antipathy to that which men do not understand nor have duly weighed and considered Against all which Vices the Scriptures caution us sufficiently if we mean to understand them telling us plainly that if we will not purge our selves from such ill humours we shall become vain in our Imaginations and our foolish hearts will be darkned Witness the foolish exception that these men took to the Books of Moses because they represented God according to their Imagination as desirous of the Blood and Fat of Beasts which he required to be offered in Sacrifice to him Whereas nothing is more manifest than that God himself by the Prophets who spake as they acknowledge by the same Spirit that Moses did utterly disclaimed any delight or satisfaction that he took in mere Sacrifices though never so numerous and costly Nay protests that he abominated them if they were not brought to his Altar with a pious mind and accompanyed with actions of Justice and Charity Which makes it apparent that it was the heart of the Offerer to which he had regard and that he lookt upon these but as outward testimonies and significations of a grateful Mind or of a penitent heart or of a Soul resolved to devote it self to his service I need not adde that they were manifest Figures and Presignifications of the great Sacrifice of Christ Jesus who hath purged away our sins by his own blood nor take any further pains to confute these audacious Hereticks from other places of Holy Writ I will rather take to task a little another sort of men no less bold and shameless who would fain be thought the greatest Enemies to Hereticks of all men in the world I mean them of the Romish Religion who notwithstanding their glorious pretences would be heartily glad if this Proposition could be made good That the Scriptures written aforetime are unprofitable for the Confirmation of Points of Faith For our Writers have so overpower'd them with Testimonies fetcht from thence that they are not able to stand before us to defend the Prime Article of their present Faith that Article which is the principal Cause of the Divisions of Christendome for whose sake all other Controversies have been craftily kept on foot I mean that of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome * Rome enim subjici inde pendere haec Vestrae Religionis summa est Resp ad Tort. p. 81. Which we utterly confound by beginning at Moses to allude to the words before mentioned and so shewing through all the Scriptures written aforetime that He and Joshua and David and Solomon and Asa and Jehoshaphat and Hezekias and Josias governed the Priests and the whole Tribe of Levi Ordering the time of their waiting and officiating in their Courses appointing Judges in Ecclesiastical Causes and setting Presidents over those Judges taking away abuses and corruptions in Religion commanding the Ark to be removed from one place to another and calling the people by their Proclamations to come and meet there before the Lord requiring the Priests to read the Book of the Law and to reduce things to a Conformity with it renewing the Covenant of Moses for Reformation of Religion making Missions of Priests into such parts of the Countrey as they saw needed their assistance and to say no more ejecting the High-Priest himself and deposing him from his Office Now what say our Adversaries to all this Truly after many other poor shifts they are at last driven thus far to side with the Manichees as to say