not so much the child as the Parents liable to the wrath of God as here the Angel sought not to kill the child who was uncircumcised but Moses the Father who should have circumcised it Both which observations I mean to amplifie no farther but to leave to your exacter meditations and so I conclude EZEKIEL 20. 20. Hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a signe between me and you to acknowledge that I Iehovah am your God THis Commandement with the end thereof the Lord bids Ezekiel tell the Elders of Israel that he gave to their Fathers in the Wildernesse And it is recorded in the Law so that I might have taken it thence but I rather chose to make these words in Ezekiel my Text as expressed more plainly and so a Comment to those in the Law the place is Exod. 31. where this which my Text containeth is expressed thus Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a signe between me and you throughout your generations to acknowledge that I Iehovah am your sanctifier that is your God as the expression in Ezekiel tels us For to be the Sanctifier of a People and to be their God is all one whence also the Lord is so often called in Scripture the Holy One of Israel that is their Sanctifier and their God That which I intend at this time to observe from these words is the end why God commanded this observation of the Sabbath to the Israelites to wit that thereby as by a Symbolum they might testifie and professe what God they worshipped Secondly out of this ground to shew how far and in what manner the like observation binds us Christians who are worshippers of the same God whom the Jews worshipped though not under the same relation altogether wherein they worshipped him All Nations had something in their ceremonies whereby they signified the God they worshipped so in those of the celestiall Gods as they termed them and those which were Deified souls of men were differing rites whereby the one was known from the other Those gods which were made of men having funerall rites in their services as cognisances that they were souls deceased and each of them some imitation of some remarkable passage of the Legend of their lives either of some action done by them or some accident which befell them as in the ceremonies of Osyris and Bacchus is obvious to any that reads them And indeed it is a naturall Decorum for servants and vassals by some mark or cognisance to testifie who is their Lord and Master In the Revelation the worshippers of the Beast receive his mark and the worshippers of the Lamb carry his mark and his Fathers in their Fore-heads Hence came the first use of the crosse in Baptisme as the mark of Christ the Deity to whom we are initiated and the same afterwards used in all Benedictions Prayers and Thanksgivings in token they were done in the name and merits of Christ crucified so that in the Primitive Church this rite was no more but that wherewith we conclude all our Prayers and Thanksgivings when we say Through Iesus Christ our Lord and Saviour though afterward it came to be abused as almost all other rites of Christianity to abominable superstition To return therefore unto my Text Agreeably to this principle and this custome of all Religions of all Nations of all vassals the Lord Iehovah Creator of heaven and earth ordained to his people this observation of the Sabbath day for a sign and cognisance that he should be their God and no other It is for a sign saith he between me and you that I Iehovah am your God In the place I quoted before in the 31. of Exod. are these words The Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetuall Covenant it is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested As if he had said it is a sign that the Creatour of heaven and earth is your God But for the distinct understanding of this signification we must know that the Sabbath includes two respects of time First the quotum one day of seven or the seventh day after six days labour Secondly the designation or pitching that seventh day upon the day we call Saturday In both the Sabbaticall observation was a sign and profession that Iehovah and no other was the God of Israel the first according to his attribute of Creator the second of Deliverer of Israel out of Egypt For by sanctifying the seventh day after they had laboured six they professed themselves vassals and worshippers of that only God who created the heaven and the earth and having spent six days in that great work rested the seventh day and therefore commanded them to observe this sutable distribution of their time as a badge and livery that their religious service was appropriate to him alone And this is that which the fourth Commandement in the reason given from the Creation intendeth and no more but this But seeing they might professe this acknowledgement as well by any other six days working and a sevenths resting as by those they pitched upon there being still what six days soever they had laboured and what seventh soever they had rested the same conformity with their Creator let us see the reason why they pitched upon those six days wherein they laboured for labouring days rather then any other six and why they chose that seventh day namely Saturday to hallow and rest in rather then any other And this was that they might professe themselves servants of Iehovah their God in a relation and respect peculiar and proper to themselves to wit that they were the servants of that God which redeemed Israel out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage and upon the morning watch of that very day which they kept for their Sabbath he overwhelmed Pharaoh and all his Host in the Red Sea and saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians This I gather from the repetition of the Decalogue Deut. 5. where that reason from the worlds Creation in the Decalogue given at Horeb being left out Moses inserts this other of the Redemption of Israel out of Egypt in stead thereof namely as the reason why those six days rather then any other six for work and that seventh day rather then any other seventh for rest were pitched upon as Israel observed them Remember saith he thou wert a servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and a stretched out arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day Not for the quotum of one day of seven for of that another reason was given the example of God in the Creation but for the designation of the day But whether this day were in order
the seventh from the Creation or not the Scripture is silent for where it is called in the Commandement the seventh day that is in respect of the six days of labour and not otherwise and therefore whensoever it is so called those six days of labour are mentioned with it The seventh day therefore is the seventh after six days of labour nor can any more be inferred from it The example of the Creation is brought for the quotum one day of seven as I have shewed and not for the designation of any certain day for that seventh Neverthelesse it might fall out so by disposition of Divine Providence that the Jews designed seventh day was both the seventh in order from the Creation and also the day of their deliverance out of Egypt But the Scripture no where tels us it was so howsoever most men take it for granted and therefore it may as well be not so Certain I am the Jews kept not that day for a Sabbath till the raining of Manna For that which should have been their Sabbath the week before had they then kept the day which afterward they kept was the fifteenth day of the second month on which day we reade in the 16. of Exodus that they marched a wearisome march and came at night into the wildernesse of Sin where they murmured for their poor entertainment and wished they had died in Egypt that night the Lord sent them Quails the next morning it rained Manna which was the sixteenth day and so six days together the seventh which was the two and twentieth it rained none and that day they were commanded to keep for their Sabbath now if the two and twentieth day of the month were the Sabbath the fifteenth should have been if that day had been kept before but the Text tels us expresly they marcht that day and which is strange the day of the month is never named unlesse it be once for any station but this where the Sabbath was ordained otherwise it could not have been known that that day was ordained for a day of rest which before was none And why might not their day of holy rest be altered as well as the beginning of the year was for a memoriall of their comming out of Egypt I can see no reason why it might not nor finde any testimony to assure me it was not And thus much of the Jews Sabbath how and wherein it was a sign whereby they professed themselves the servants of Iehovah and no other God Now I come to the second thing I propounded to shew how far and in what manner the like observation binds us Christians I say therefore that the Christian as well as the Iew after six days spent in his own works is to sanctifie the seventh that he may professe himself thereby a servant of God the Creatour of Heaven and Earth as well as the Jew For the quotum therefore the Jew and Christian agree but in designation of the day they differ For the Christian chooseth for his Holy day that which with the Jews was the first day of the week and cals it Dominicum that he might thereby professe himself a servant of that God who on the morning of that day vanquished Satan the Spirituall Pharaoh and redeemed us from our Spirituall thraldome by raising Iesus Christ our Lord from the dead begetting us in stead of an earthly Canaan to an inheritance incorruptible in the Heavens In a word the Christian by the day he hallows professes himself a Christian that is as S. Paul speaks To beleeve on him that raised up Iesus from the dead so that the Jew and Christian both though they fall not upon the same day yet make their designation of their day upon the like ground the Jews the memoriall day of their deliverance from the temporall Egypt and temporall Pharaoh the Christians the memoriall of their deliverance from the spirituall Egypt and spirituall Pharaoh But might not will you say the Christian as well have observed the Jewish for his seventh day as the day he doth I answer No he might not For in so doing he should seem not to acknowledge his Redemption to be already performed but still expected For the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the Ministery of Moses was intended for a type and pledge of the spirituall deliverance which was to come by Christ their Canaan also to which they marched being a type of that heavenly inheritance which the redeemed by Christ do look for Since therefore the shadow is now made void by the comming of the substance the relation is changed and God is no longer to be worshipped and beleeved in as a God foreshewing and assuring by types but as a God who hath performed the substance of what he promised And this is that which S. Paul means Colossians 2. 16 17. where he saith Let no man judge you henceforth in respect of a Feast day New Moon or Sabbath days which were a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. 1. CO◠〈◊〉 5. Every woman praying or prophecying with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head I Have chosen this of the woman rather then that of the man going before it for the Theme of my Discourse First because I conceive the fault at the reformation whereof the Apostle here almeth in the Church of Corinth was the womens only not the mens That which the Apostle speaks of a man praying or prophecying being by way of supposition and for illustration of the unseemlinesse of that guise which the women used Secondly because the condition of the sex in the words read makes something for the better understanding of that which is spoken of both as we shall see presently What I intend to speak upon this Text shall consist of these two parts First of an enquiry what is here meant by prophecying a thing attributed to women and therefore undoubtedly some such thing as they were capable of Secondly what was this fault for matter and manner of the women of the Church of Corinth which the Apostle here reproveth To begin with the first and which I am like to dwell longest upon Some take prophecying here in the stricter sense to be foretelling of things to come as that which in those Primitive times both men and women did by the powring out of the Holy Ghost upon them according to that of the Prophet Ioel applied by S. Peter to the sending of the Holy Ghost at the first promulgation of the Gospel I will powre out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophecy and your young men shall see visions And that such Prophetesses as these were those four Daughters of Philip the Euangelist whereof we read Acts 21. 9. Others take prophecying here in a more large notion for the gift of interpreting and opening Divine mysteries contained in holy Scripture for the instruction and edification of the hearers especially as it was then inspired and
second place which foretels that Christ should suffer is that in the ninth of Daniel who pointing ou◠the time of Messiah's comming by seventy weeks limits his account not at his birth but at his suffering as the most principall moment of his story From the going out of the commandement saith he to restore and build Ierusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks and after sixty 〈◊〉 weeks shall Messiah be cut off what can be more plain then this A third place in the Prophets is to be found Zachary 12. 10. where at the time when the Jews shall be converted Christ is brought in speaking in this manner I will poure out saith he upon the House of David and upon the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of grace and supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced Hence it follows that the Jews should have pierced Messiah before they received him to be their Redeemer And that this place also was one of those applied by the Apostles to this purpose appears by S. Iohns twice alledging it Once in his Gospel when a Souldier with a Spear pierced our Saviours side Then saith he was fulfilled that Scripture which saith They shall look upon him whom they have pierced Again in the beginning of his Revelation Behold saith he he commeth in the clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him Now for the third division of Scripture the Psalms the principall place there which I dare warrant is that of the 16. Psalm quoted both by S. Peter and S. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles My flesh shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soule in the grave neither suffer thine Holy One to see corruption For David as S. Peter and S. Paul say was buried and his body saw corruption therefore it cannot be spoken of him but of Messiah in the person of David as a type in whose loyns Messiah was Now then if Messiahs body were to be laid in the grave it follows he was to die and to be in the state of the dead And thus I have done the first part of my task and proved that Messiah was to suffer death according to the Scriptures namely foretold in that threefold division of Scripture mentioned here by our Saviour The Law the Prophets and the Psalms Now I come to prove the other part that it behoved him also to rise again the third day according to the Scriptures And this was first foreshewn in the same story of Isaac wherein his sacrifice or suffering was acted For from the time that God commanded Isaac to be offered for a burnt offering Isaac was a dead man but the third day he was released from death This the Text tels us expresly that it was the third day when Abraham came to Mount Moriah and had his son as it were restored to him again which circumstance there was no need nor use at all to have noted had it not been for some mystery For had there been nothing intended but the naked story what did it concern us to know whether it were the third or the fifth day that Abraham came to Moriah where he received his son from death Now that I have not misapplied this figure S. Paul is my witnesse who expresly makes this release of Isaac from slaughter a figure of the Resurrection For thus he speaks of this whole story Hebrews 11. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that received the promises offered up his onely begotten Sonne Of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be cal led Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure The same was foreshewn by the Law of sacrifices which were to be eaten before the third day some sacrifices were to be eaten the same day they were offered but those which were deferred longest as the Peace-offerings were to be eaten before the third day The third day no sacrifice might be eaten but was to be burnt If it were eaten it was not accepted for an atonement but counted an abomination To shew that the sacrifice of Messiah which these sacrifices represented was to be finished the third day by his rising from the dead and therefore the type thereof determined within that time beyond which time it was not accepted for atonement of sin because then it was no longer a type of him Thus far the Law as for the Prophets I finde no expresse prediction in them for the time of Christs rising for that of the Prophet Ionah I take to be rather an allusion then a Prophecie onely in generall it is implyed that Christ should rise again both in that famous Prophecie of Esay the 53. and that of Zachary 12. In the former it is said that after he had made his soul a sacrifice for sin He should see his seed and prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand And again that the Lord should divide him a portion with the great and that he should divide the spoile with the strong because he had poured out his soul unto death which argues that he should not onely live again but be victorious after he had died In that of Zachary it is said the Iews should look upon or see him whom they had formerly pierced and that in that day he would powre upon them the spirit of grace and supplication therefore he was to live again after they had pierced him I come to the Psalms where not onely his rising again is prophesied of but the time thereof determined though at first sight it appears not so namely in that fore-alledged passage of the sixteenth Psalm Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption All men shall rise again but their bodies must first return to dust and see corruption But Messiah was to rise again before he saw corruption if before then the third day at farthest for then the body naturally begins to see corruption this may be gathered by the story of Lazarus in the Gospel where Iesus commanding the stone to be rolled from his Grave Martha his sister answered Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four daies Also by that rule given by the Masters of Physick that those who die of the Apoplexie suffocation of the Mother or like sudden deaths should not be buried till seventy two hours were past Because within that time they might revive and examples are given of those who have done so They give also a reason of it in nature because say they in that time the humours of the body make their revolution the flegme in one day or twenty four hours the choler in two dayes or forty eight hours the melancholy in three dayes which is seventy two hours and this to be the reason why an Ague
of Ezekiel Thou wast not washed with water nor salted with salt that of putting on the white garment to resemble swadling All these were anciently especially the first used in the Sacrament of our Spirituall birth out of reference to that which was done to Infants at their naturall birth Who then can doubt but the principall rite of washing with water the onely one ordained by our blessed Saviour was chosen for the same reason to be the element of our initiation and that those who brought in the other did so conceive of this and from thence derived those imitations JOSH. 24. 26. And Joshuah took a great stone and set it up there viz. in Sichem under the Oak which was in the Sanctuary of the Lord Alii by the Sanctuary Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE Story whereupon these words depend is this Ioshuah a little before his death assembled all the Tribes of Israel at Shechem or Sichem there to make a solemne Covenant between them and the Lord to have him alone for their God and to serve no other Gods besides him which they having solemnely promised to do saying The Lord our God will we serve and his voice will we obey Ioshuah for a testimony and monument of this their stipulation erects in the place a great stone or pillar under an Oak which was by or as the Hebrew hath it in the sanctuary of the Lord. Of this Oak or rather collectively Querceâ—um or Oaken-holt of Sichem is twice mention made elswhere in Scripture For this was the place where Abraham first sate down and where the Lord appearing unto him he erected his first Altar in the Land of Canaan after he came out of Haran thither as we reade Gen. 12. 6. in these words And Abraham passed through the Land unto the place of Sichem unto the Oak or Oak-grove of Morch where the Lord appeared unto him saying Vnto thy seed will I give this Land and there he builded an Altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him And what place more fit for Abrahams posterity to renew a Covenant with their God then that where their God first made his Covenant with Abraham their Father Again it was this place where in the after-times of the Judges one hundred and seventy years after the death of Ioshuah the Sichemites made Abimelech the base son of Ierubaal or Gideon King as we read Iudg. 9. 6. That all the men of Sichem gathered together and all the House of Millo and went and made Abimelech King by the Oak of the Pillar which was in Sichem The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the Oak where Ioshuah here in my Text set up this great stone for a witnesse to Israel For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the other two places signifie one and the same thing to wit either an Oak Terebinth or some other kinde of tree as the Septuagint perpetually render them Yea that of Iudges must of necessity so be rendred by comparing it with this of my Text to which it hath reference Neverthelesse our last Translation in the first of these places Gen. 12. concerning Abraham chose rather to follow S. Hierome wherefore I know not who follows not himself and translates it a plain not an Oak to wit the plain of Morch by which Translation the identity of that place with the other two where it is translated Oak is obscured and made the lesse observable If there be any difference between the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it should rather be this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signifie a tree and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grove holt or wood of such trees as the Septuagint in that place of the ninth of Iudges have expresly rendred it namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Quercetum Oak toft or holt in Sichem And so I beleeve it ought to be understood in the other places that is to be taken collectively of which we shall hear more hereafter But this is no great matter of difficulty that which follows is namely how this Oak or Oaken-holt of Sichem is said here in my Text to have been in for the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the Sanctuary of the Lord. For how comes the Sanctuary of the Lord to be at Sichem when as the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Testimony were at Shiloh there set up by Ioshuah himself and so remained as the Scripture elswhere tels us untill the time of the Captivity of the Land which without doubt was not till after Ioshuah was dead and buried and is usually understood of that time when the Ark was taken captive by the Philistims And yet is not onely here a Sanctuary mentioned at Sichem but in the beginning of the Chapter the Elders and Officers of the Tribes are said upon Ioshuahs summons to have presented themselves there before the Lord which speech useth to imply as much If we say the Ark of God was taken out of its place at Shiloh and brought to Sichem by the Levites upon occasion of this generall Assembly yet the difficulty will not be removed For first how could the Ark alone give dâ—â—oininâ—tion to the place where it stood to be called the Sanctuary of the Lord Or secondly if the Altar were there with it how was the Law of God observed which saith Thou shalt not plant a Grove of any trees or any tree neer unto the Altar of thy God which thou shalt make thee Neither shalt thou set up a pillar which the Lord thy God hateth when as here are both an Oak or Quercetum in the Sanctuary of God and a Pillar or Statue erected under it Thirdly this Sanctuary whatsoever it was must be something which had a constant and fixed station and was not temporary or mutable because the Oak under which this pillar was erected by Ioshuah is here designed and appointed out by it as by a constant and standing mark else to what purpose had it been to sign out the Oak by it if it were such as would be here to day and not to morrow For these reasons it appears that this Sanctuary could not be the Tabernacle where the Ark and Altar for Israel were but that it was somthing else And what that should be is to be enquired I answer it was a Proseucha or praying place which the Israelites at least those of Ephraim in whose lot it was after the Country was subdued unto them had erected in that very place at Sichem where God first appeared to Abraham and where he built his first Altar after he was come into the Land of Canaan The place where God said unto him Vnto thy seed will I give this Land For the understanding whereof you must take notice that the Jews besides their Tabernacle or Temple which was the onely place for sacrifice had first or last two sorts of places
Now for Synagogues the common opinion is that they were not before the Captivity of Babylon and that necessity first taught the Jews the use of them in that Captivity which afterward they brought with them at their return into their own Country The reason why men so think is I suppose the absolute silence of them in Scripture untill the time of the second Temple but though the name were not it is possible the thing might be howsoever because it is most received that they were not we will let it passe for currant But as for Proseucha's such as we have described them none that I know have affirmed or determined ought of their antiquity it may be not taken it into consideration either because they had no occasion to think of any such matter or because they confounded them altogether with Synagogues The matter therefore being free and undecided I will make bold to affirm that if Synagogues were not yet Proseucha's that is open places for Prayers were a long time before the Captivity yea even from the dayes of Ioshuah the son of Nun. And though the Jews had or were to have but one Altar or place of Sacrifice that namely which the Lord should choose to place the Ark of his Covenant there the Tabernacle or Temple yet had they other places for devotion and religious use And that this Sanctuary of God here mentioned in my Text at Sichem which was a Leviticall City was such a one my reasons are these First because it is incredible that the Israelites having but one Temple for the whole Nation whereat they were bound to appear and those the males onely but thrice a year should have no other places of prayer nearer their dwellings whither they might resort on Sabbath dayes the Temple or Tabernacle being from some of them above an hundred miles distant at the least Secondly because as I have already shewed this sanctuary at Sichem could not be the Tabernacle which was then at Shiloh not at Sichem and yet must have some stable and fixed place because the situation of the Oak is designed by it yea must have been still there when this story of Ioshuah was written which is thought to have been long after his death surely this Chapter was written after it where both his death and buriall are recorded wherefore to say the Ark was brought thither upon this occasion will not serve turn Thirdly this place should be a Proseucha because of that circumstance of trees growing in it which as it proves it not to have been the Tabernacle where no such thing was lawfull to be so seems it to be a Characteristicall note of a Proseucha For though it were not lawfull to have trees near the Altar of God that is in or about the Court of the Tabernacle Yet was it not so with Proseucha's yea they seem to have been ordinarily garnished and beset with them This may be gathered from a passage of Philo Iudaeus where relating the barbarous outrage of the Gentiles at Alexandria against the Jews there dwelling in the time of Caius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of some of the Proseucha's they cut down the Trees others they demolished to the very Foundations The same is implied by that of Iuvenal speaking of a Jewish Wizard or Fortune-teller conducta sub arbore conjux And again in his sixth Satyre Arcanam Iudaea tremens mendicat in aurem Interpres legum Solymarum magna sacerdos Arboris ac summi sida internuncia coeli Interpres legum Solymarum that is of Moses Lawes Magna Sacerdos Arboris because of the Trees in their Proseucha's or Places of worship The same appears also out of those verses of his third Satyre complaining that the once sacred Grove of Fons Capenus where Numa used to meet with the Goddesse AEgeria was then let out to the beggerly Jews for a Proseucha and that every Tree such were the times must pay rent to the people by which means the woods which formerly had been the habitation of the Muses were become dens for beggerly Jews to mutter their Orizons in hear his words Hic ubi nocturne Numa constituisset amicae Nunc sacri Fontis nemus delubra locantur Iudaeis quorum cophinus foenumquâ— supellex Omnis enim populo mercedem pendere jussa est Arbor ejectis mendicat sylva Camoenis Whence comes this connexion of Iews and Trees but from their having trees in their Proseucha's unto which their situation without the Cities conduced as also it did for privacy and retirement Thus you see how well the description and mark of a Proseucha agrees to this Sanctuary in my Text. And that the Jews had many other such in other places as well as at Sichem even in those elder times as at Mispah Bethel and Gilgal I make little doubt which we reade to have been places of Assembly for the people and the two last sanctified of old by Divine apparition as Sichem was Of Mispah the Author of the first of Maccabees in his third Chapter if I understand him testifieth as much when he tels us that whilst the holy City lay desolate and the Sanctuary was trodden down by the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes Iudas Maccabaeus and those of the people which adhered unto their God assembled together at Maspha to make there their supplications unto their God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because at Maspha or Mispah had been a place of prayer in former time for Israel as much as to say there had been a Proseucha of old And do we not reade in that story of the â—…jamiticall war in the Book of Iudges That the Iabernacle being at Shiloh as appears by the last Chapter yet in the Chapter going before it is said that the whole Congregation of Israel was gathered together as one man unto the Lord in Mispah and that in the twenty sixth verse is mention of an house of God there where the people prayed and fasted It is said indeed that the Ark of the Covenant was upon that extraordinary occasion brought thither but it being certain out of the next Chapter that the Tabernacle was still at Shiloh this House of God could be none of it Nay perhaps we may hence learn that when the Ark upon occasion of such a generall and extraordinary assembly was to be removed they used to bring it to such places as these which were as holy Courts ready prepared for it and that then it was lawfull but not else to sacrifice in them Of these Courts for prayer we may understand that also in the seventy fourth Psalm They have cast Fire into thy Sanctuary they have burnt up all the Conventicula Dei in the Land namely in the Captivity by Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed both their Temple and their Proseucha's For if we understand it of the persecution of Antiochus as some do it must then follow that some Canonicall Scripture was written after Malachi and the
excellent creatures when an inferiour nature the nature of man was now to be advanced into a Throne of Divine Majesty and to become Head and King not only of men but of the heavenly Host it self O ye blessed Angels what did these tidings concern you that ruined mankinde should be restored again and taken into favour whereas those of your own Host which fell likewise remained still in that gulf of perdition whereinto their sin had plunged them without hope of mercy or like promise of Deliverance what did it adde to your eminent Dignity the most excellent of the creatures of God that the Nature of man should be advanced above yours that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth The Observation therefore which this Act of the Angels first presents unto us is the ingenuous goodnesse and sweet disposition of those immaculate and blessed spirits in whose bosomes Envy the Image of the Devil and deadly poison of charity hath no place at all For if any inclination to this cankered passion had been in these heavenly creatures never such an occasion offered nor greater could be to stir it up to envy But heaven admits of no such passion nor could such a torment consist with the blissefull condition of those who dwell therein It is the smoke of that bottomlesse pit a native of hell the character and cognisance of those Apostate Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation and are reserved for chains of everlasting darknesse These indeed grieve no lesse at the happinesse of men then the Angels joy witnesse the name of their Prince Satan which signifies the Fiend or malicious one who out of envy overthrew mankinde in the beginning out of envy he and all his fellow-fiends are so restlesse and indefatigable to seduce him still The Use of this Observation will not be far to seek if we remember the admonition our Saviour hath given us in the prayer left unto his Church which is To make the Angels the pattern of our imitation in doing the will of our heavenly Father for so he teacheth us to pray Let thy will be done in earth as it is done in heaven that is Grant us ô Lord to do thy will here as thy holy Angels do it there And as we should imitate them in all things else so in this affection towards the happinesse and prosperity of others And good reason I think if we mean at all to approve our selves unto God our Father why we should endeavour rather to be like unto them then unto Devils But in nothing can we be more like them then in this to rejoyce at the good and not repine at the happinesse of our brethren Hoc enim Angelicum est This is the Character of the Angelicall nature and consequently of those who one day shall have fellowship with them To be contrarily affected Diabolicum est the badge and brand of Devils and Fiends and those who wear their Livery reason good they should keep them company Let every one therefore examine his own heart concerning this point that he may learn upon what terms he stands with God and what he may promise himself of the blessednesse to come Do the gifts of God Doth his favour or blessing vouchsafed to thy brother when thou seest or hearest of them torment and crucifie thy soul Dost thou make their happinesse thy misery Is thine eye evill to thy Brother because Gods is good If this be so without doubt thy heart is not right before God nor doth his Spirit but the spirit of Devils or Fiends reign therein But if the contrary appear in any reasonable measure with a desire to increase it for we must not look to attain the perfection of Angels in this life but in some measure and degree only if thou canst rejoyce at anothers good though it concerns not thy self the Spirit of God rests upon thee For emulations and envyings saith the Apostle Gal. 5. are the fruits of the flesh but the fruits of the Spirit are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kindnesse and goodnesse So he cals the opposite vertues to those former vices But as any good that betides our brother ought to affect us with some degree of joy and not with grief and envy so chiefly and most of all his spirituall good and that which concerns his salvation ought so to do This was that the holy Angels praised God for in my Text on the behalf of men that unto them a Saviour was born who should save them from their sins and reconcile them unto God Which sweet disposition of those good and blessed spirits our Saviour himself further witnesseth when he saith Luk. 15. 17. There is joy in heaven namely among the holy Angels for one sinner that repenteth But is there any man will you say such a son of Beliall as will not do this will not imitate the holy Angels in this Judge ye There is an evil disease which commonly attends upon Sects and Differences in opinion that as men are curious and inquisitive into the lives and actions of the adverse party so are they willing to finde them faulty and rejoyce at their fals and slips hear and relate them with delight namely because they suppose it makes much for their own side that the contrary should by such means be scandalized and the Patrons and followers thereof disreputed But should that be the matter of our grief whereat the Angels joy or that the matter of our joy whereat the Angels grieve How is this to do our Fathers will on earth as the Angels do in heaven Nay if this be not to put on the robes of darknesse and to shake hands with hellish fiends I know not what is O my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united There is another Lesson yet more to be learned from this act of the Angels namely that if they glorifie God for our happinesse and the favour of God towards us in Christ much more should we glorifie and magnifie his goodnesse our selves to whom solely this Birth and the benefit of this Birth redounds If they sing Glory be to God on high for his favour toward men we to whom such favour is shown must not hold our peace for shall they for us and not we for our selves No the Quire of heaven did but set us in we are to bear a part and it should be a chief part since the best part is ours As therefore the Church in her publick Service hath ever since kept it up so must every one of us in particular never let it goe down or dye on our hands Thus much of the Quaere Now come we to the Antheme or Song it self whose contents are two First the Doxology or Praise Glory be to God on high Secondly a gratulation rendring the reason thereof Because of
to procure a blessing from him Now I come to the third thing propounded The reasons why God requires them and why they are so pleasing unto him which reasons when they are known will be also strong motives to us why we should frequent them For though indeed their efficacy alone were a motive sufficient to invite any reasonable man to do them yet will these reasons adde a further enforcement thereunto To begin then with prayer the reasons why God requires this duty at our hands I will name but the chief are these First that we might acknowledge the property he hath in the gifts he bestows upon us otherwise we would forget in what tenure we hold those blessings we receive from his hands Though therefore he be willing to bestow his benefits upon us yet he will have us ask them before he doth it Even as Fathers do with their children though they intend to bestow such things upon them as are needfull yet they will have their children to ask them Unlesse therefore we ask of God the things which are his to give as we shall not receive what we have not so we cannot lawfully use any thing we have Secondly Another reason is that we might be acquainted with God Acquaint now thy self with God saith Eliphaz Job 22. 21. and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Now acquaintance we know grows amongst men by conversing together by intercourse and speaking to one another So it is here by accustoming to speak to God in prayer we grow acquainted with him otherwise if we grow strangers to him and he to us we shall not dare to behold him Thirdly Prayer is the way to keep our hearts in order For to come often into the presence of God breeds an holy awe in our hearts It makes us to call our sins to remembrance with sorrow and shame and to be afraid to commit them we may know it by experience men are afraid to offend those into whose presence they must often come to ask and sue for favours and if they have offended they are presently ashamed and the first thing they do will be to sue for pardon These are the reasons for prayer Now let us see the reasons also why Alms are required which are near of kinde to those for prayer For first we are to offer Alms to testifie our acknowledgement of whom we received and of whom we hold what we have For as by prayer we ask Gods creatures before we can enjoy them so when we have them there is another homage due for them namely of thanksgiving without which the use of the creature which God gives us is unclean and unlawfull to us Every creature of God saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 4. is good if it be received with thanksgiving not else And the same Apostle 1 Cor. 10. tels us that even those things which according to the manner of the Gentiles were offered unto Idols that is to Devils a Christian might lawfully eat so it were done with thanksgiving to the true and onely God for so he should professe he eat not meat of the Devils gift or Devils Table but of the Lords whose of right was the earth and the fulnesse thereof Whether therefore saith he ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do else do all to the glory of God that is give him the glory of the Lordship of his creature by your thanksgiving Now our thanksgiving to God for his creature must not expresse it self in words only but it must be also in work and deed that is we must yeeld him a rent and tribute of what we enjoy by his favour and blessing which if we doe not we lose our Tenure This Rent is twofold either that which is offered unto God for the maintenance of his worship and Ministers or that which is given for the relief of the poor the Orphan and the Widow which is called Alms. For not onely our riches but our Alms are an offering unto Almighty God So Prov. 19. 17. He that hath pity on the poore lendeth to the Lord and Chap. 14. 31. He that hath mercy on the poor honoureth his Maker And our Saviour will tell us at the day of Judgement that what was done unto them was done unto him This then is the reason why we must give Alms because they are the tribute of our thanksgiving whereby we acknowledge we are Gods Tenants and hold all we have of him that is of the Mannor of heaven without which duty and service we have not the lawfull use of what we possesse Whence our Saviour tels the Pharisees who stood so much upon the washing of the Cup and Platter lest their meat and drink should be unclean Give alms saith he of such things as you have and behold all things are clean to you Luke 11. 41. Now that this acknowledgement of Gods Dominion was the end of the Offerings of the Law both those wherewith the Priests and Levites were maintained and those wherewith the poor and the Orphan and the Widow were relieved appears by the solemne profession of those who paid them were to make Deut. 26. where he that brought a basket of first-fruits to the house of God was to say I professe this day unto the Lord that I am come unto the Country which the Lord sware unto our Fathers for to give us And when the Priest had taken the basket he was to say thus A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great and mighty and populous And the Egyptians evil intreated us c. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm c. And brought us into this land and hath given us this land even a land that floweth with milk and honey And now behold I have brought thee the first-fruits of the land which thou 〈◊〉 Lord hast given me and thou shalt set it saith the Text before the Lord thy God and worship before the Lord thy God This was to be done every year But for Tithes the profession was made every third year because then the course of all manner of Tithing came about For two years they paid the Levites Tithe and the Festivall Tithe the third year they paid the Levites Tithe and the poor mans Tithe So that year the course of Tithing being finished the party was to make a solemne profession When thou hast made an end saith the Lord of Tithing all the Tithes of thine increase the third year which is the year of Tithing that is when the Tithing course finisheth and hast given it to the Levite the Stranger the Fatherlesse and the Widow that they may eat within thy gates and be filled Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the hallowed thing out of mine house and also have given it to the Levite and to the Stranger to the Fatherlesse
same speech used by our Saviour Luk. 13. They shall come saith he from the East and from the West and from the North and from the South and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God And behold there are last which shall be first and there are first which shall be last What means this Out of the eighth of S. Matthew where the same passage is related we shall hear it expounded for there the words run thus Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of heaven But the children of the Kingdom that is the whole generation of Israel who received not the Gospel at the Preaching of Christ and his Apostles and all the generations since who have continued in unbeleef shall be cast out into utter darknesse And here by the way because the Parable useth the notion of a day to signifie a time of many ages it will not be altogether unseasonable to note that the Metaphor may appear the easier how that the Scripture often elsewhere cals the whole time of mans pilgrimage in this world by the name of a Day As To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts S. Paul Heb. 3. 13. Exhort one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every day whilest it is called to Day where we say Day to include every day And I beleeve we are thus to understand Day in the Lords Prayer in that Petition Give us this day our daily Bread that is the whole time we live in hoc seculo For in stead of S. Matthews This Day spoken after the Hebrew notion Saint Luke hath in the same Petition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is every day Therefore S. Matthews Hodie must comprehend S. Lukes Every day if the sense of the Petition in both of them be the same as I beleeve it is Nay more then this The world to come even seculum aeternitatis or eternity it self is likewise termed a day 2 Pet. 3. ult Domino nostro saith he servatori Iesu Christo sit gloria nunc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in diem aeternitatis A long Day indeed But this obiter Thus having cleared my Proposition in thesi or in generall That there shall be differing degrees of glory in the reward to come It remains that I make it good in the hypothesis concerning a Prophet namely that to them who instruct others in the ways and will of God which is the Office of a Prophet there belongs a preheminence of reward above and besides that which is common to all Saints This preheminence of glory the Schoolmen term Aureola that is an Additament of felicity to that essentiall glory in the Vision of God which they term Aurea This Aureola or Coronet to be added to the Crown of glory they ascribe to three sorts of persons To Virgins to Martyrs and to Doctors or Prophets The two first are out of my scope The third of Prophets let us see how it is proved out of Scripture First therefore it is apparent from my Text He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward Ergo there is some speciall or peculiar reward belonging to a Prophet and that too an eminent one otherwise our Saviours speech will have no enforcement in it as he that considers thereof may easily see The second is Dan. 12. 3. where the Angel prophesying of the Resurrection to be at the end of Time and saying That many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt he addes And those that be wise that is have learned the true wisdome which consists in the fear of God shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament But those that turn many unto righteousnesse that is the Teachers and Instructers as the stars for ever and ever Here the difference between those that teach and are taught is as much as between the light of the Stars and the brightnesse of the Firmament Some will have the whole sentence to speak of the eminency of glory laid up for Prophets Translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first place not docti or intelligentes but Doctores The Teachers shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament and they that turn many unto righteousnesse as the stars for ever and ever but I have followed that interpretation which our Translators thought most likely Thirdly to this eminency of glory the Angel seems also to have respect in the end of that Chapter when he says But go thy way Daniel till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand up in thy lot at the end of days in sorte tua i. in sorte Prophetarum And this perhaps may be that too which our Saviour intends Mat. 5. Qui fecerit docuerit magnus vocabitur i. erit in regno coelorum The reason of all this is because those who teach convert others to righteousness have an interest and a kind of title to all the good works which they shall do How then can their reward but be great and eminent when not onely their own works but the works of their converts and disciples shall be brought into their account A matter if we consider it of no small encouragement and comfort unto us whom God hath placed in this condition to be Teachers and Instructers of others if so be we bury not our Talent in a Napkin but imploy it for the advantage of our Lord and Master For it is not the habit or faculty but the work which shall reap the reward we speak of Happy are we therefore if we neglect not this opportunity of blisse which God hath given us And thus having done with the first Proposition I undertook I come unto the second which is That he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall be partaker of a Prophets reward He that receives that is doth any good office or deserves well of a Prophet For this to be the meaning may appear by that which follows He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward where righteous is to be taken by way of eminency for one of eminent sanctity such as among the Jews had therefore the sirname of Iusti as Simeon Iustus Iacobus Iustus and other the like Then in the next words the expression is varied Whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple shall not lose his reward whence I say we may gather what good office the word receiving before used intimated to us namely to relieve maintain support and the like He therefore that thus receives a Prophet shall be partaker saith our Saviour of a Prophets reward that is have an eminent reward or of the quality of a Prophet though himself be none The reason is because
he that supports and enables a Prophet for his duty hath an interest in his work and consequently in the reward that belongs unto it This appears by the contrary because he that maintains and abets those who commit an evil act makes himself guilty of their sin and so of the punishment due to the same An example whereof we have in that of the Benjamites in the Book of Judges who by abetting the men of Gibeah who committed that foul abomination with the Levites Wife made themselves guilty of their sin and brought that hideous judgement which at first was deserved only by a few sons of Beliall upon the Heads of the whole Tribe It is a known story Now it is par ratio for a man to entitle himself to anothers good works as to his ill But there is a modification in the Text whereupon this reward we speak of depends otherwise not to be looked for And that is This good office must be done in nomine Prophetae not for any other respect then as he is and because he is a Prophet He that receiveth a Prophet in nomine Prophetae shall receive a Prophets reward not he that receives him onely for some personall or by-respect because he is his kinsman friend or friends ally or which is the ground of the most respect the Prophet gets among the most now adays because he is one of their own side and faction but setting all such respects aside eo nomine quia Prophet◠with meer respect to their office and calling or because they are as Valens and Valentinian in their Rescript apud Theodoretum cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Procuratores magni Regis I may tell you that this is no ordinary thing now adays we may perhaps finde some that can be content to make much of the Prophet for some personall qualities of his or perhaps because he hath abilities above ordinary or because it may be he is like to further the way they wish good luck to or that they may gain repute among some sort of men or other respects of like nature But are there many which regard them in nomine Prophetae How then comes it to passe that their courtesies are so appropriate to the persons of some that they shew no respect or esteem to the calling in others Whence comes that Unchristian or indeed Atheisticall language A base Priest A paultry Priest It would never have grieved me if any other had served me thus but to be served thus by a base Priest who can endure it Tell me in good earnest is this to honour a Priest or a Prophet in nomine Prophetae or not rather point-blank unto it to reproach and dishonour him under that reverend Name that is to despise and reproach the Calling it self For can a man honour that condition the name whereof he thinks to be a reproach Is any man wont to say A base Lord A base Knight A base Gentleman A base Christian No And why because he accounts them all terms and titles of honour Judge then by this what account they make of Gods Ambre who turn the very title of their Calling into a name of reproach and what reward by proportion they are like to merit at Christs hands Not a Prophets I am sure and whether a Christians or not themselves may judge 'T is often and too often true indeed that for our persons we are unworthy of any better respect but even then it best appears whether a man hath respect to the Calling eo nomine when there is nothing in the Person to move him to it But there is another sort of men who honour not a Prophet in the name of a Prophet yet behinde namely such as rob and spoil them of their livelihood and daily bread and not onely themselves give nothing to enable and encourage them the better to perform their Ministery but take from them severall ways that which the piety and bounty of their Ancestors hath allotted them yea to many if not to the most no gain or theft is more sweet then that which is gotten out of the Priests portion But whether it will prove so at that day when the just God shall reward every man according to his works may be greatly feared I told you a little before that the reason why he that receives a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall be partaker of a Prophets reward is because he that supports and enables a Prophet to do his duty hath thereby an interest in his work and consequently to the reward due to the same If this be so what can they look for who by subtracting their daily bread from them hinder and disenable them from the free and chearfull performance of their duty by distracting them with the cares of providing for their bodily life Do they not derive upon themselves the guilt of whatsoever impediment comes hereby to the propagation of the Kingdom of Christ Shall not the losse of every soul that perisheth for want of due provision to maintain an able Minister be cast in their account at the last day I will speak nothing now of the burden which Sacriledge it self being a robbing of God carries with it see Prov. 20. 25. It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vows to make enquiry nor of those dreadfull execrations which the Donors of such things were wont antiquo ritu to lay upon the heads of all such as should divert them to profane uses wherewith these men willingly and wilfully involve themselves But for a close let us join in an humble and hearty acknowledgement of Gods goodnesse and mercy and say Blessed be God our heavenly Father who notwithstanding the malignity of many hath not left us destitute but in every age hath raised up some to shew kindnesse unto the Prophets and to provide entertainment for them Witnesse the goodly structures and liberall endowments in our two Seminaries for the entertainment and education of Prophets and Prophets Sons being the bounty of those Worthies the fruits of whose Piety and Devotion the whole Church of God by his Divine goodnesse doth enjoy To whose blessed Names as their deserts challenge from us let all due honour and thankfulnesse be for ever rendred DEUT. 33. 8. And of Levi he said Let thy Thummim and thy Vrim be with thy Holy One. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THis verse is part of that blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death and these words are part of the blessing of Levi a blessing which much exceeds those that went before it and is far above all that come after it For as S. Paul proves Melchisedec to be greater then Abraham because he blessed Abraham and worthier then Levi because he tithed Levi in the loins of Abraham so may we say of this blessing that it is the greatest of all because it is the blessing of him who by his Office was