depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee so if we examine the use thereof in the New Testament 〈◊〉 shall find it in special applied to this our Reconciliation to God in Christ by reâ—â—â—sion of sin S. Peter to Cornelius Acts 10. 36. describes the Gospel thus The word which God sent to the children to Israel preaching peace by Iesus Christ. And S. Paul Col. 1. 19 20. It pleased God the Father that in Christ all fulness should dwell And having made peace through the bloud of his Cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself What can be plainer than this The same as I take it he means Eph. 2. 17. when he tells us that Christ came to preach peace both to those that were afar off and to them that were nigh that is both to Iew and Gentile But what peace namely that through him we both might have access by one Spirit unto the Father Hence the Gospel is called The Gospel of peace and God so often in the New Testament The God of peace that is of reconcilement and favour and the Evangelical salutation is Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and Iesus Christ our Lord. The meaning of this Angelical Gratulation being thus cleared let us see now what may be learned and observed therefrom Where my first Observation shall be this S. Peter tells Cornelius that to Christ give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Our Saviour after his Resurrection expounding the Scriptures to his Apostles says the same Luke 24. 46 47. Thus it is written saith he and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day And that remission of sins should be preached in his Name among the Nations But where is this Publication of remission of sins by Christ written for in those formal words we shall hardly find it Let us take here the Angels Key and we shall for they tell us that Peace on earth is this Good-will towards men Now do not the Prophets speak of some Peace on earth which Messiah should bring with him when he comes Yes surely Well then let us look for this Publication of remission 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under that name and we shall find it Esay 9. 6. Vnto us a Child is born unto as a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor The mighty God The Father of eternity The Prince of peace that is of peace not between men and men but between God and men and of the increase of his government and peace shall be no end Esay 52. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Zion Thy God reigneth Which place S. Paul Rom. 10. 15 interprets of the publication of the Gospel of Christ Esay 53. 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him that is he suffered for the remission of our sins Esay 57. 19. quoted by S. Paul to the Ephesians chap. 2. 17. Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord and I will heal him Ezek. 34. 24 25. I the Lord will be their God and my servant David King Messiah a Prince among them And I will make a Covenant of peace with them So Chap. 37. 26. Hag. 2. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts Zech. 9. 9 10. Shout O daughter of Ierusalem behold thy King cometh unto thee and he shall speak peace unto the Heathen and his Dominion shall be from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the end of the earth Thus much of the Use to be made of the Angels expression in this heavenly Carol Now I shall propound to your consideration another and that taken from the argument it self namely That if Almighty God our Heavenly Father be so graciously disposed to us-ward as to be reconciled unto us by forgiving us our trespasses then ought we semblably to be reconciled to our brethren and forgive them their trespasses when they have wronged or offended us Leo Serm. 6. de Nativit Natalis Domini natalis est pacis c. The Birth-day of our Lord is the Birth-day of peace and therefore let all the faithful offer up unto God their Father the united affections of peaceable-spirited children The Illation is good we have the authority of the Apostle S. Iohn to back it 1 Ioh. 4. 10 11. God saith he so loved us that he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins What follows Beloved saith he If God so loved us we ought to love one another So say I If God be so gracious to forgive and be reconciled to us we ought as it were to eccho this his loving-kindness and to forgive and be reconciled one to another This Congruity or semblableness of our Actions and Affections one towards another with God's Favour and Mercy towards us is the Rule and Reason not only of this but of many other duties he requires at our hands Thus the Iews were every seventh year to manumise their servants as an act of Congruity and Thankfulness to God who had delivered them when they were servants out of the land of Egypt and house of bondage They were bidden to use a stranger kindly because themselves had been strangers and God when they were oppressed had been compassionate and kind towards them and redeemed them from their thraldom Likewise we read in the Gospel Luke 6. 36. Ee ye merciful as your Father also is merciful and Matth. 5. 7. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy In a word God hath revealed he will shew mercy to none but such as appear before him with this Congruity Iames 2. 13. He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy And therefore the tenour of our Sentence at the last Iudgment runs Come ye Blessed and be partakers of mercy because ye have shewed it But Go ye Cursed without all mercy into Hell-fire because ye have shewed no mercy Thus we see how God requires this Congruity in general And as for the particular of reconcilement and forgiving our brother it is written in capital letters and urged in such sort as it might not unfitly be termed The Livery of Christianity Insomuch that if we consider it duly it cannot but breed astonishment that the evidence and necessity should be so apparent and the practice among those who look for the benefit of Christ and call upon his Name so little regarded whenas I dare boldly pronounce there is no remission of sins to be looked
examine our actions past to amend our lives lest as bad if not a worse thing befal us or ours And if at any time we see an Example of this upon one of God's own children as we heard of David before a man after God's own heart let us learn to fear and tremble and say If such things befal those whom God most loveth what shall become of us if we sin likewise Again when we see God thus punishing sin in the eyes of the world let us acknowledge his All-seeing Providence and say with those Rev. 15. 3 4. Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name when thy judgments are made manifest and with David Psal. 9. 16. and Psal. 11. 7. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness AND thus I come to the second thing I observed namely That God often forbears and defers his punishments As I did long ago saith Adonibezek yea again and again seventy times one after another so long and so often that I thought God had either not seen or quite forgotten me yet now I see he requiteth me How true this Observation is is sufficiently witnessed by their experience who have little less than stumbled and staggered hereat This made Cato a Heathen man to cry out Res divinae multum habent caliginis The disposals of Divine providence are not a little cloudy and dark This made David a man after God's own heart to confess and say My feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipped This made Ieremy cry out from the bottom of an amazed soul Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper why are they happy that deal very treacherously Yea those Martyred Saints Rev. 6. 10. are heard to cry from under the Altar How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell upon the earth Now as these forenamed have stumbled at God's delaying and forbearing his judgments so others there are who have been quite deceived verily believing that with God Quod differtur ausertur what was forborn was also forgotten Such as one was Adonibezek here who having escaped so long thought to have escaped ever And such were those whereof David spake Psal. 10. 6. Who say in their hearts We shall never be moved we shall never be in adversity Such an one is the great Whore of Babylon that sings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I sit like a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Such an one was Pherecydes Syrius master of Pythaegoras and a famous Philosopher and one that is said to have been the first Philosopher that taught among the Greeks the Soul to be immortal and yet among all his knowledge had not learned this one Principle The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom For as AElian reports he used among his scholars to vaunt of his irreligion after this manner saying That he had never offered sacrifice to any God in all his life and yet had lived as long and as merrily as those who had offered several Hecatombs But he that thus impiously abused the long-suffering of God came at length to an end as strange as his impiety was unusual for so they report of him that he was stricken like Herod by the Angel of the Lord with such a disease that Serpents bred of the corrupt humors of his body which eat and consumed him being yet alive But that we may neither distrust the righteous ways of God nor prevent his unsearchable counsels with our over-hasty expectation let us a little consider of the Ends why God oftentimes deâ—ers and prolongs his Iudgments These Ends I suppose may be referred unto four heads 1. For the sake of godly ones for whom God useth to forbear even multitudes of sinners So had there been but ten righteous persons in Sodom Sodom had never been destroyed I will not destroy it saith God for tens sake So for good Iosiah's sake God deâ—erred the plagues he had decreed to bring upon that people that Iosiah might be first gathered unto his fathers in peace and his eyes might not see all the evil that he was to bring upon that place as it is 2 Kings 22. 20. For as the new wine saith the Lord Esa. 65. 8. is found in the cluster and one saith Destroy it not for a blessing is in it even so will I do for my servants sakes that I may not destroy them all That is I will spare a whole cluster of men even for one or two blessed servants of mine which I shall find therein This is the first End and this is most if not only found in publick judgments and common sins such as concern whole societies of men for in such properly doth God for the sake of godly ones forbear a multitude of sinners 2. The second End is To give time of repentance and amendment For the Lord is long-suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance as it is 2 Pet 3. 9. This is shewed by the parable of the Fig-tree Luke 13. 7. Three years the husbandman came to seek fruit and found none and the fourth year he expected before he would cut it down An hundred and twenty years the old world had given them before the Floud came And Ionah proclaimed not Yet one day but Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed This End concerns such punishments as deprive men of life and of the means of salvation and of amendment of life For such as these only can God be said to forbear to give time of repentance For as for other punishments not the forbearance but the hastening of them rather would cause repentance seeing men then use to remember and call upon God when they are in misery and affliction 3. The third End of God's deferring his punishments is The opportunity of example by them unto others and of manifesting his own glory God is Lord of Times and as he created them so he alone knows a fit Time for all things under the Sun He therefore who knows all occasions when he seeth a fit Time for his Iudgments to profit other men by example and most of all to set forth his own glory then he sends them forth and till then he will defer them 4. The fourth End or Reason hath some affinity with this and it is When God intending some extraordinary judgment suffers mens sins to grow unto a full ripeness that their sin may be as conspicuous unto the world as his purpose is their punishment shall be Thus God punished not the Canaanites in Abraham's time but deferred it till Israel's coming out of Egypt and that as
unto the Lamb for ever and ever In which we may observe the whole Glorification to consist in the acknowledgement of these Three soveraign prerogatives of the Divine Majesty his Power his Wisdom his Goodness The two first Power and Wisdom are express and Riches and Strength belong to Power the third is contained in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessing or Thanksgiving which is nothing else but the Confession of the Divine Goodness Hence it is that the Septuagint and Vulgar Latine commonly render the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to praise and glorifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confiteor Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus quoniam in seculum misericordia ejus Confess unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy is for ever Psal. 106. 1. 107. 1. 136. 1. Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo quoniam audisti verba oris mei I will confess unto thee O Lord with my whole heart for thou hast heard the words of my mouth So the Vulgar Latin in Psal. 137. Confitemini Domino invocate nomen ejus Confess unto the Lord and call upon his name Psal. 105. 1. and the like And in the 148. Psal. 13. Confessio ejus super coelum terram that is His glory is above the heaven and the earth The Holy Ghost in the New Testament useth the same language Matth. 11. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes where we have I thank thee O Father Beza and Erasmus read â—loriam tibi tribuo I give glory unto thee which I think is the better So Luke 2. 38. it is said of Anna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she confessed to the Lord or she gave praise and thanks unto the Lord. So Heb. 13. 15. By him therefore that is by Christ let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fruit of our lips confessing to his Name By all which it is evident That to Praise and give Glory unto God whether by Praise at large or Prayer and Thanksgiving in special is nothing else as I have said but to confess and acknowledge his peerless Majesty over all and in all which the Scripture calls his Glory And if ever there were a Work of God wherein all these peerless Prerogatives of Power Wisdom and Goodness all together appeared in the highest degree it was undoubtedly in this wonderful Work of the Incarnation of the Son of God for man's redemption well therefore might the heavenly Host sing Gloria in excelsis Deo Glory be to God on High The Power the Wisdom and Goodness of the Glorious God be acknowledged by the holy Angels and all the Host of heaven for ever and ever This is the meaning of the Doxology COME we now to the Gratulation which contains the cause thereof Glory be to God on high for ô factum bene O happy news there is peace on earth good-will towards men One and the same thing two ways expressed for it is an Apposition or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter words declaring the meaning of the former Peace on earth that is Good will towards men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit in imitation of the Hebrew construction where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbs which signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Noun signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are construed with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek and accordingly both the Septuagint and New Testament express the same But the Vulgar Interpreter reads here Pax in terris hominibus bonae voluntatis Peace on earth to men of good-will as if the Greek were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as now all our Copies constantly read and I believe ever did Yet Beza seems here to favour the Vulgar Latin expounding Homines bonae voluntatis Men of good-will of those whom God wills well to to wit of the Elect to whom this Peace by Christ belongeth and from the conveniency of this sense inclines to believe that the Greek anciently read so quoting to this end Irenaeus Origen and Chrysostome as he saith in divers places But he trusted too much the Latin Translation of Chrysostome for the Greek Chrysostome hath no such matter but both in those places Beza points to and in divers others reads constantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Copies do And so I make no question Irenaeus and Origen did too in the Greek Originals if we had them to look into But the Latin Translators thought not fit to alter the words of the Hymn so ordinarily sung in the Liturgy and so expressed it in Latin as the Latin Church used And for the meaning I believe the Vulgar Latin aim'd at no other sense than what the Greek implies namely That this Peace was no earthly Peace but the Peace of God's good-will to man referring the Genitive Case voluntatis not to hominibus but to Pax. Pax in terris what Pax Pax bonae voluntatis hominibus That which makes me think so is because Origen or his Translator in the place Beza quotes for this reading expresly expounds it so And so there will not be a pin to chuse save that the Greek expresseth this sense by way of Apposition more naturally the Latin by way of Rection somewhat harshly and yet perhaps the Translator thought less ambiguously Well then This Peace on earth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's good-will or favour to men and God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good-will to men is the Peace on earth the Angels gratulate namely the Reconciliation of God to men in Christ. For by reason of sin Heaven and Earth God and Man were till now at enmity but by Christ this enmity is taken away and man by the forgiveness of his sin restored unto peace and favour with God And as by this Nativity God and Man became one Person so by this conjunction Heaven and Earth Angels and Men become one Fellowship one City and Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Satan that Prince of the powers of the Air who by reason of sin had captivated and brought under his service the whole Earth and thereby held the same at open war and enmity with Heaven being now by degrees to be destroyed and rooted out And this is that admirable Mystery of our Redemption by Christ which the Angelical Host here gratulates by the name of Peace on earth and Good-will towards men And that we may not doubt but we have hit the meaning That this Peace on earth is God's Good-will to men and therefore expounded by it besides that in the Old Testament Peace is often taken for God's favour and mercy to men as in that of Esay 54. 10. The mounâ—ains shall