some brand or stamp upon them which points at the Sin for which they are inflicted you may call it a Sin-mark If the passages and ground of the continuance of this German War be well considered would not a man think they spake that of the Apostle Thou that hatest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge But I dare go no further it may be I have said too much already For I well know the way that I go pleaseth neither party the one loves not the Pope should be Antichrist nor the other to hear that these things should not be Popery Thus you see I have at length brought both ends together and end where I began Pardon me this one Letter and I will trouble you no more with this Theme your Reply to my short Answer to your Quere occasioned it I forget not my best respect unto your self nor my prayers to the Almighty for blessing to you and yours Thus I rest Christ's Coll. Iuly 15. 1635. Your assured Friend Ioseph Mede I sent by Mr. B. 4. or 5. Exercises upon passages of Scripture such as I had in separate papers and fit to be communicated For those that were in Books joyned with other things I could not and some that were apart for some Reasons I would not expose to danger of censure I hope those which I sent are safely arrived with you EPISTLE LIX Dr. Twisse's Ninth Letter to Mr. Mede thanking him for his pains in the foregoing Letter and desiring his resolution of a Doubt concerning the 7 Lamps signifying the 7 Angels in Zach. 4. Right dear and Right worthy Sir I AM somewhat of a more chearful spirit than when I wrote my last I have gotten more liberty of spirit to consider your large Discourse savouring of great Learning no less Iudgment and a distinctive Apprehension of things of good importance and that not in my judgment only but in the judgment of others though all require serious and further consideration And for mine own particular I cannot but reflect upon my self how deeply I am beholden unto you for intrusting me in so liberal a manner with these your Speculations We can never offend in putting difference between the Holy and Prophane neither can we offend in presenting our selves too reverently at the Lord's Table Never was the Mercy-seat so well known in the days of the Old Testament as in these days of the New We now behold the glory of the Lord with open face and accordingly our Saviour tells us the Lord requires the true worshippers should worship him in spirit and in truth in distinction from worshipping him either at Ierusalem or in the Mount the woman spake of And in this kind of worship we cannot exceed But as for outward Gestures I doubt I shall prove but a Novice as long as I breath and we affect not to make ostentation of our Devotion in the face of the world the rather because thereby we draw upon our selves the censure of Hypocrisie and sometimes if a man lifts up his Eyes he is censured for a P. and I confess there is no outward Gesture of Devotion which may not be as handsomly performed by as carnal an heart as breaths I am confident you are far from studia partium so should we be all and be ambitious of nothing but of the love and favour of God and of our conformity unto him in truth and holiness I heartily thank you for all and particularly for these Pieces which now I return I hope they will arrive safely in your hands What I wrote the last time I have almost utterly forgotten saving the clearing of one Objection concerning the Seven Angels standing before the Throne represented by the Seven Lamps which I much desired it arising from the Text it self the Lamps being maintained by the Oile which drops from the Two Olive-trees which are interpreted to be Zorobabel and Ieshua But I have troubled you so much that I fear the aspersion of immodesty in troubling you any further I cannot sufficiently express my thankfulness for that I have already received I desire ever to be found Newbury Iuly 27. 1635. Yours in the best respect Will. Twisse EPISTLE LX. Dr. Twisse's Tenth Letter to Mr. Mede desiring him to reveal unto him those Pluscula in Zach. chapters 9 10 11. which fit not so well Zachary's time as Ieremy's as also to resolve a Doubt about the 7. Lamps in Zach. 4. with some reflexions upon Mr. Mede's large Letter about Temples and Altars and the Christian Sacrifice Worthy Sir DO you not miss your Letter ad Ludovicum de Dieu And do you not find it strange it is not returned with the rest I assure you I took no notice of it till Wednesday last two days after the last week's Letter I wrote unto you In every particular it was welcome unto me as all yours always are But your Variae lectiones concerning the Old Testament and the pregnant evidences thereof which you alledge do astonish me and above all your adventure to vindicate unto Ieremy his own Prophecy which so long hath gone under the name of Zachary I never was acquainted with any better way of reconciliation than that which Beza mentions of the likeness of abbreviations of each name which might cause a mistake by the Transcribers O that you would reveal unto me those Pluscula which in those three Chapters of Zachary 9 10 11. do more agree as you observe to the time of Ieremy than to the time of Zachary Why may you not have a peculiar way also to reconcile the Genealogie in the LXX with that in the Hebrew where Kainan is found in the one which is not in the other Thus I make bold to put you to new trouble but I presume it is no more trouble to you than the writing like as that other whereabout I moved you How the Seven Lamps are maintained by the oyl derived from the two Olive-Trees if by the Seven Lamps are meant the Seven Angels that stand before the Throne of God Yet have I not done with your large Letter concerning Temples and Altars Since the writing of my last while I was reading that large Letter of yours to some Divines who were much taken with admiration at the Learning contained therein in an Argument wherein we had been so little versed I say in the reading of it I observed one thing which in all my former readings I took no notice of and that is in these words This is a point of great moment and consequent worthy to be looked into by all the Learned of the Reformed Religion lest while we have deservedly abolished the prodigious and blasphemous Sacrifice of the Papists wherein Christ is again hypostatically offered to his Father we have not but very implicitely and obscurely reduced that ancient Commemorative Sacrifice of Christians wherein that one Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross was continually by that sacred Rite represented and inculcated to his Father his Father
their enemies p. 372 Chap. 35. 6 7. The Rechabites said We will drink no wine for Ionadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us saying Ye shall drink no wine nor shall ye build an house but dwell in teats c. p. 127 LAMENTATIONS Chap. 2. 1. The Lord hath cast down the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstool in the day of his anger p. 393 EZEKIEL Chap. 4. 6. Lie again on thy right side and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Iudah forty dayes p. 784 Chap. 20. 20. Hasâ—ow my Sabbaths and they shall be a Sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God p. 55 Chap. 27. 3. Tyrus a Merchant of people for many Islands p. 273 Chap. 38. 17. Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the Prophets of Israel c. p. 796 Chap. 43. 7. my holy Name shall the house of Israel 〈◊〉 more desile by the Carkâ—ses of their Kings p. 14 DANIEL Chap. 2. from vers 32. to vers 44. p. 104 Vers. 44 45. In the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed nor left to another people but it shall break in pieces and consume at these Kingdoms and it self shall stand for ever Forasmuch as thou sawest that a Stone was cut out of a mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the iron the brass c. p. 744 754 755 Chap 4. 26. after that thou shalt have known that the heavens bear rule p. 102 Chap. 7. 3. And four Beasts came up from the Sea p. 454 Vers. 9. I behold till the Thrones were pitched down p. 762 Verse 10. the Iudgment was set p. 532. 762 Verse 11. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the Horn spake I beheld till the Beast was slain and his body destroy'd and given to the burning flame Ibid. Verse 12. As concerning the rest of the Beasts they had their dominion taken away yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time p. 780. 781 Verse 22. and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High p. 532 Vers. 24. And the ten Horns are ten Kings and another shall rise behind them and he shall be diverse from the first and shall depress three Kings p. 778 779 Vers. 25. And he shall think to change Times and Laws p. 737 Ch. 5. 4. behold an He-goat came from the West p. 473 c. Verse 23. And in the latter end of the Kingdom of Graecia a King of a fierce countenance shall stand up p. 654 Chap. 9. 24. Seventy weeks are allotted for thy people and for thy holy City to finish transgression and make an end of sins c. p. 697 Verse 25. Also know and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to cause to return and to build Ierusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be Sevens of weeks c. p. 699 Verse 26. And after 62 weeks shall Messiah be cut off and they none of his c. p. 704 Verse 27. Nevertheless he shall confirm a covenant with many one week c. p. 706 Chap. 10 2. I Daniel was mourning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 599 Verse 13. Michael one of the chief Princes came to help me p. 42 Chap. 11. V. 36 37 38 39. p. 667 670 671 Verse 41 42 43. p. 674 Verse 44 45. p. 816 Chap. 12. 11 12. And from the time that the daily Sacrifice shall be taken away shall be 1290 days Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1335 days p. 717 IOEL Verse 30. Pillars of smoke p. 28 AMOS Chap. 4. 2. The Lord hath sworn by his Holiness p. 8 Chap. 8. 7. The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Iacob ibid. MICAH Chap. 5. 5. And he shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land c. p. 796 ZACHARY Chap. 3. 9. For behold the stone that I have laid before Ioshua p. 833 marg Chap. 4. 2 3. I looked and behold a Candlestick with seven Lamps and two Olive-trees by it p. 833 Verse 6. Not by might nor by force but by my Spirit p. 41 833 Verse 10. These Seven are the Eyes of the ' Lord which run to and fro through the whole Earth p. 40 Verse 14. These are the two anointed ones that stand before the Lord of the whole Earth p. 41 Chap. 8. 19. The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the tenth p. 890 MALACHI Chap. 1. 6 7. Ye say Wherein have we polluted thy Name In that ye say The Table of the Lord is contemptible And if ye offer the blind for Sacrifice is it not evil Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee p. 357 Verse 11. In every place Incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure Offering p. 355 TOBIT Chap. 14. Verse 3. to Verse 8. p. 〈…〉 I MACCABEES Chap. 14. 5. An entrance to the Isles of the Sea p. 273 II MACCABEES Chap. 4. 38. he took away Andronicus his purple p. 911 S. MATTHEW Chap. 5. 17. Think not that I am come to dissolve the Law and the Prophets I am not come to dissolve but to fulfil p. 12 Verse 19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so to do he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven ibid. Chap. 6. 1. Take heed that ye do not your Alms before men p. 80 Verse 9. Thus therefore pray ye p. 1 Hallowed be thy Name p. 4 Verse 11. Give us this day our daily bread p. 125 Verse 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth p. 352 Chap. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven c. p. 213 Chap. 8. 12. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness p. 86 Verse 29. Art thou come hither to torment us before the time p. 25 Chap. 10. 41. He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward p. 84 Chap. 11. 28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls p. 150 Chap. 12. 42. The Queen of the South shall rise up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with this generation p. 24 Chap. 17. 11. Elias truly shall first come and restore all things p. 98 Chap. 19. 21. If thou wilt be perfect go sell that thou hast and give it to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven p. 126 Verse 28. in the regeneration p. 85 Chap. 20. 16. So the last shall be first and the first last for many be called but few chosen p. 86 Chap.
a free and chearful exercise of Christian Charity it is absolutely necessary that he retrench and cut off all needless expences either about Apparel or Diet Building or Sports and Recreations c. Otherwise Frequent or Expensive Treatments Pride and Curiosity about Attire and Dressings will soon make Charity bare and cold make it look pale and meagre and at last quite starve it Where much is laid out upon Back or Belly there will be but little spared for Beneficence Where a man through his Voluptuousness and Sensuality finds himself too dear for himself so that it becomes difficult to maintain his deliciousness it will be thought too grievous to maintain good works for necessary uses as the Apostle speaks Tit. 3. Such a one will be greedily scraping for himself that he may have to consume upon his Lusts rather than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to distribute proportionably to his estate to him that needeth Where so much is solemnly offer'd in Sacrifice as especially at great Feasts to that false God the Belly and the best and fattest is offer'd up and withall the sweetest for large Drink-offerings to that mortal and perishing God there will be but little reserv'd for the Sacrifices of communicating and doing good with which the Eternal and only true God is well pleased But Christian Religion as it designs to cherish and advance every thing that is worthy lovely and useful for the good of man is excellently prepar'd and accommodated to secure the Grace of Charity by obliging to Modesty and Humility sober Frugality and Temperance and in order thereunto to the subjugating of all inordinate Affections to the resolute denying of the clamorous cravings and impetuous desires of the Sensitives Powers the subduing whereof is a great instance of Spiritual Valour inward Health and Strength as on the contrary it is a great Imperfection and Weakness and withal a dishonourable thing for one that owns the name of Christian not to have power over his Sensual appetites but to have impatient desires vehement affections for such or such delicacies and as vehement delights in them to be over-curious and studious for pleasing his Appetites to be enslaved to his Palate enslaved to Wine and serving various pleasures as the Apostle describes the temper of some unworthy Christians Besides it argues a man not to have had so true a Gust of the powers of the world to come nor to be as he ought affected with the Hope of those pure and permanent Felicities in the Future Life which Christianity over and above the present ease and pleasure that accompanies Humility and Temperance here hath more fully brought to light and set before us For were these cordially believed they would work in men a generous disregard of those Sensual enjoyments which too many such is the courseness of their Temper count their Felicity making themselves hereby like the Beasts that perish who if this were Felicity enjoy as much or more of it than Man himself To conclude If men are not so much under the Power of Religion as to deny the solicitations of their inordinate Appetites and bring in subjection the Flesh with the Passions and Lusts thereof to the Spirit they do but Parrot-like and as they are taught talk of Self-denial and Mortifications and being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of Pleasures rather than Lovers of God and their Neighbour they plainly and in reality deny the Power of Godliness though they may have the Form of it Whereas if they were under the power and energy of Religion they would find themselves throughly furnished and chearfully dispos'd to every good work So true a Friend is Frâ—gal Temperance so hurtful an Enemy is a Delicious Soft and Luxurious as well as the Covetous humour to that Divine Amiable and universally-Beneficial Grace of Charity 40. And now having spoken of his Charity or Love towards men it aptly falls into this place that we should observe something of his Love towards God wherein yet we need not be so large as in the former Instances for what we have already observ'd of his Character doth abundantly prove it His Meekness Patience Christian Prudence and Moderation and those Two bright Graces of the Greatest magnitude his Humility and Charity are pregnant evidences and real demonstrations of the Love of God dwelling in him Where these Fruits of the Spirit grow and flourish it 's a sure sign that such a Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rooted in Love To be Meek and Patient Humble and Lowly in spirit to have an Heart full of Charity and melted into all compassionate endeavours for the good of others even of Enemies these are higher and harder things than to talk of Religion to say Lord Lord to shew much love with their mouth to abound in the external observances of Religion for so did the Pharisees who therefore by their outward specious profession gain'd a great reputation of Sanctity from the world but yet of them our Saviour Christ pronounces freely and smartly I know you that ye have not the Love of God in you a startling and grievous word to the Pharisees then and the like it would be to the Pharisaick Christians to be told so now In brief He testified his Love to God in that which is the most eminent and genuine expression of it viz. an Entire Sincere Uniform and Constant Obedience to his Commandments For this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments or according to those two main Characteristicks of the Pure and Vndefiled Religion in S. Iames in Vnspottedness from the world and Charity to the poor and desolate What 's less than this is but Lip-devotion religious Courtship insignificant and empty Complements And whereas he observ'd that too many seem'd to make conscience of the Duties of the First Table but had little or no care of the Duties of the Second he had respect unto both For said he None can be truly Religious towards God that is not truly Honest in his conversation towards his Neighbour Thus he believ'd and thus he practis'd 41. But to superadd some other particular Instances of his Love to God He farther shew'd the Tenderness of this Affection by the Zeal he had for the Honour of God and by the dear regard he express'd to every thing wherein he thought the Divine Interest was concern'd He could in no wise brook the bestowing Religious Worship upon Creatures and therefore with a just severity he would equal the practices of the present Roman Church in their Saint-worship and Image-worship with those of the Israelites in following the ways of Ahab and Ieroboam and constantly asserted That the Great Apostasie or Antichristianism did as to one main part thereof consist in Spiritual Fornication or Idolatry Nor need any Protestant be disturb'd at the word Antichristian or Antichrist so frequently used by our Author when he has to do with the Roman
him to set his House in order and to dispose of by Will whatsoever God had given him It was readily accorded to by Mr. Mede and Mr. Alsop was by him constituted the Executor of his Will whereby he gave to the poor of the Town of Cambridge an Hundred pound and to the Colledge whereof he was a Member all the remainder of his Estate after some Legacies to his Kindred amounting to Three hundred pounds a large Legacy out of a Scholar's purse for and towards the New building then intended as also for the adorning of the Chappel nor was he unmindful of the Library for he knew well the excellent use of good Books This he did in way of a Grateful return for the Mercies he had so long enjoy'd in that Colledge the enlarging and encrease of whose prosperity and good estate was his great desire and endeavour and that which he preferr'd above his chief joy 50. And now having finished the care of his Secular affairs he composed his Soul for its address into the Divine presence with holy Thoughts and humble Prayers desiring also to strengthen his Faith and heighten his Love whilst by the participation of the Sacred Eucharist he made a thankful Commemoration of his Saviour's Death by which he hoped for an Entrance into the Happiness of an Eternal Life But in this he was prevented shall we say by the sudden approach of Death or not rather more suddenly and in an higher measure satisfied in his desire by the Love of his Saviour who in stead of giving him a tast of the Bread of Life here on Earth by Faith received him into the present possession and more full participation of the ineffiable Ioyes in Heaven 51. Thus died this Religious and Learned person upon Monday-morning about break of day the first of October 1638. having lived Fifty two years and spent above two thirds of his time in that Colledge to which whilst he lived he was so great and illustrious an Ornament and which now he is dead is his Monument The next day in the Evening being October 2. he was decently carried to his Grave by the Fellows of the House and there in the Inner Chappel of the Colledge about the middle of the Area on the South-side close to the Bachelors or Sophisters Seats he lies interred his Memory being embalm'd with his Vertues of more force to preserve his Name than the Spices which the Hebrews or Egyptians used for the embalming of Bodies and having left his most Learned Writings as his truest Picture and best History 52. The Executor some time after against which time he had gathered in some scattered debts and paid out some Legacies preach'd his Funeral Sermon in a full Congregation of Regents and Non-Regents at S. Marie's before the whole University with high approbation of all that heard it upon that Text in Gen. 5. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him A thousand pities it is that that excellent Sermon miscarried in the late Troubles had it survived to have been printed with these Works it would have been for its own sake very acceptable to the world being a Texture as all his were of an accurately-spun thread And that part of it which particularly commemorated Mr. Mede was so full and expressive to the life as might have made any after-endeavours to represent this Great Author less necessary 53. We will only observe one thing more concerning the Time of his Death That he was taken away from the Evils that were then ready to come upon this Island a Favour which God vouchsafes to many of the righteous Esay 57. 1. So of good Iosiah it is said He should be gather'd to his grave in peace and not see all the evil which God would bring upon Ierusalem So Posidonius in the life of S. Austin relates that he was taken away by death when the Goths and Vandals had begun to besiege Hippo so that he saw not the direful Miseries that were coming upon that place Thus that good God who had favour'd our Author with a life of Tranquillity and Freedom from worldly encumbrances made his Death a preservative against those approaching Evils which then hover'd over this Kingdom and closed his eyes that he saw not those dreadful Calamities which were so grievous and afflictive unto all meek and humble Christians to behold 'T is true he beheld them at a distance and by the presage of his own divining spirit he guessed at what afterwards came to pass For about a year or two before he died he would sometimes mention an Observation of his upon that in Iudg. 3. 30. The Land had rest fourscore years the longest period of time as he noted that the people of Israel ever enjoy'd it and then which scarcely any other Nation ever enjoy'd a longer Such a rest would he say from the beginning of Blessed Queen Elizabeth's Reign we of England have enjoy'd and who knows whether our period be not near at hand And whether it be so or not whosoever shall live but a year or two may know it certainly It happened accordingly and what havock the devouting Sword made amongst us after God had sent it to revenge our abuse of his Mercies is well known and can never be remâ—mbred without horrour That God who maketh wars to cease and by his miraculous Providence in the peaceful reduction of his Sacred MAIESTY hath dissipated those Storms of fire and dried up those Shours of bloud he of his Goodness grant that whilst we all offer up our due Thanks for his so great and undeserved Mercies we may so carefully avoid the Sins which drew down our late Punishments and so zealously make up the defects of our former Omissions that God may be pleas'd not only to perpetuate the Felicity of our present Peace but also to increase it by the accumulation of all necessary Blessings The End of the Author's Life Effare Marmor iners Dic Cujus Cinis Salvis modestissimi Viri Manibus IOSEPHUS heîc MEDUS jacet S. T. B. Collegii Christi apud Cantabrigienses Socius Ipse Musarum Hospitium solenniorum Iusta in Collegio Vniversitas Qui Omnes Linguas calluit Artes excoluit Philosophiae Mathematicae adjungens Quicquid AEgyptii occultârunt aut invenerunt Chaldaei Chronologiam insuper ac Historiam omniúmque Reginam Theologiam Quarum praelucente face Induit se in abditissimos Prophetiarum recessus Speluncâ Apocalypticâ exuit Romanam Belluam Confligendi cum Difficultatibus avidissimus Mysteriorum Interpres felicissimus Ut in IOSEPHO hoc nostro Facilè agnovisset Gens Hieroglyphica Zaphnath Paaneah redivivum Hic Nullis addictus partibus omnibus aequus fuit Veritatis ac Pacis amans Benignus aliis Amicis totus patens Verbis Voto Vitâ sanctus castus humillimus Ast Imminentis tunc Ecclesiae Reipublicae Tempestatis Mens Prophetis contubernalis praesaga Coelestem portum occupavit Anno post
faculty or Melancholia and Mania which they describe and distinguish thus Both of them to be when the Understanding is so disturbed that men imagine speak and do things which are most absurd and contrary to all reason sense and use of men but their difference to be in this that Melancholia is attended with fear sadness silence retiredness and the like Symptoms Mania with rage raving and fury and actions sutable which is most properly styled Madness Now when I say that those Daemoniacks in the Gospel were such as we call Mad-men understand me to mean not of Deliration ex vi morbi or of simple dotage but of those two last kinds Melancholici and Maniaci whereunto add morbus Comilialis or falling sickness and whatsoever is properly called Lunacy Such as these I say the Iews believed and so may we to be troubled and acted with evil Spirits as it is said of Saul's Melancholy that an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him and therefore passing by all other Causes or Symptoms they thought sit to give them their Name from this calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An occasion of the more frequent use of which expression in our Saviour's time and the ages immediately before him than formerly had been may seem to have been given by the Sect of the Saddâ—cees which after the time of Hyrcanus had much prevailed and affirmed as S. Luke tells us that there was no Resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit To affront and cry down whose error it is like enough the Pharisees and the rest of the right-believing Iews who followed them affected to draw their expressions wheresoever they could from Angels and Spirits as presently they did in the Acts when S. Paul awakened their faction in the Council saying I am a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee c. We find no evil say they in this man but if a Spirit or an Angel hath spoken unto him let us not fight against God Having thus sufficiently stated and explicated my Assertion now you shall hear what grounds I have for the same First therefore I prove it out of the Gospel it self and that in the first place from this Scripture which I have chosen for my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath a Devil and is mad Where I suppose the latter words to be an explication of the former Secondly I prove it out of Matth. 17. 14 15. where it is said There came to our Saviour a certain man kneeling down to him and saying Lord have mercy on my son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he is Lunatick and sore vexed for oft-times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water That this Lunatick was a Daemoniack it is evident both out of the 18. verse of this Chapter where it is said Our Saviour rebuked the Devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour as also out of the 9. of the Gospel of S. Luke V. 39. where it is said of the self-same person Lo a spirit taketh him and he suddenly crieth out and it teareth him that he foameth again and bruising him hardly departeth from him By comparing of these places you may gather what kind of men they were which the Scripture calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemoniacks Now I come to other Testimonies And first take notice that the Gentiles also had the like apprehension of their Mad-men whence they called them Larvati and Cerriti where Larvati is as much as Larvis id est Daemonibus acti so Festus Larvati saith he furiosi mente moti quasi Larvis exterriti And for Cerriti they were so called quasi Cereriti hoc est à Cerere percussi And therefore you may remember that when Menaechmus in Plautus feigns himself mad and talks accordingly the Physician who was sent for to cure him asks the old man who came to fetch him whether he were Larvatus or Cerritus If the Gentiles thought thus of their Mad-men should we think it strange the Iews should I could tell you here that the Turks conceit of their Mad-men is not unlike this but that they suppose the Spirit that works in them to be a good rather than an evil one But I let this pass My next Testimony shall be out of Iustin Martyr who in his second Apology ad Antoninum to prove at least to a Gentile that the Souls of men have existence and sense after death brings for an Argument their Necromancy and their callings up the spirits of the deceased together with other the like and in the last place this of Daemoniacks where by his description of them we may easily gather what kind of people they were which were so taken to be They also saith he which are seised upon by the Spirits of the deceased for such were these Daemonia taken to be and are cast and tumbled upon the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all call Daemoniacks and Mad-men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were all one as men then conceived Note here that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were taken to be the Souls of men deceased and that not among the Gentiles only but as may seem among the Iews also For Iosephus in his seventh Book De Bello Iudaico Chap. 25. mentioning these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon occasion of a certain Herb supposed to be good for them saith expresly by way of Parenthesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these Daemonia are the Spirits or Souls of the worst sort of men deceased which are gotten into the bodies of the living I tell not this with a meaning to avouch it for true but only that you might understand how Iustin Martyr's argument proceeds to prove that Souls have existence after Death from the Daemoniacks My last proof is taken from those Energumeni which are all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so often mentioned in the Church-Liturgies in the ancient Canons and in other Ecclesiastical writings many Ages after our Saviour's being on earth and that not as any rare and unaccustomed thing but as ordinary and usual They were wont to send them out of the Church when the Liturgy began as they did the Poenitentes Auditores and Catechumeni which might not be partakers of the Holy Mysteries If those were not such as we now-a-days conceive of no otherwise than as Mad-men surely the world must be supposed to be very well rid of Devils over it hath been which for my part I believe not Nay that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 possessed with the Devil or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemoniacks were such as I speak of Balsamon and Zonaras both in their Scholia upon the Canons of the Church will I think inform us For to reconcile two Canons concerning these Energumeni or possessed which seem contradictory one called of the Apostles in
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
root nor branch c. he addeth Behold saith the Lord I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of that great and dreadful day of the Lord And he shall turn or restore the heart of the Fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their Fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse If we will not admit the Day here described to be the Day of Iudgment I know scarce any description of that Day in the Old Testament but we may elude For the phrase of turning or as I had rather translate it restoring as the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heart of the Fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their Fathers the meaning is That this Elias should bring the refractory and unbelieving posterity of the Iewish nation to have the same heart and mind their holy Fathers and Progenitors had who feared God and believed his promises that so their Fathers might as it were rejoyce in them and own them for their children that is he should convert them to the faith of that Christ whom their Fathers hoped in and looked for lest continuing obstinate in their unbelief till the great day of Christ's Second coming they might perish among the rest of the enemies of his Kingdom Therefore the son of Syrach in his praise of Elias the Thisbite paraphraseth this place after this manner Who hast ordained saith he an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or type for so it may be turned for the times to come to pacifie the wrath of the Lord's judgment before it break forth into fury and to turn the heart of the Father unto the Son and to restore the tribes of Israel Ecclus. 48. 10. Which explication also the Angel warrenteth Luke 1. 17. in his message to Zachary concerning his son He shall go saith he before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just this is in stead of reducing the hearts of the children to their Fathers to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. For the better understanding of this first Reason we must know That the old Prophets for the most part spake of the coming of Christ indefinitely and in general without that distinction of First and Second coming which we have more clearly learned in the Gospel For this reason those Prophets except Daniel who distinguisheth those comings and the Gospel out of him speak of the things which should be at the coming of Christ indefinitely and all together which we who are now more fully informed by the revelation of his Gospel of this distinction of a Twofold coming must apply each of them to its proper time Those things which befit the state of his First coming unto it and such things as befit the state of his Second coming unto his Second and that which befits both alike as this of an Harbinger or Messenger may be applied to both My Second Reason for the proof hereof is from our Saviour's own words in the Gospel Matth. 17. 10 11. where his disciples immediately upon his Transfiguration asking him saying Why then say the Scribes that Elias must first come Our Saviour answers Elias truly shall first come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall restore all things These words our Saviour spake when Iohn Baptist was now beheaded and yet speaks as of a thing future 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elias shall come and shall restore all things How can this be spoken of Iohn Baptist unless he be to come again Besides I cannot see how this Restoring of all things can be verified of the ministry of Iohn Baptist at the First coming of Christ which continued but a very short time and did no such thing as these words seem to imply for the Restoring of all things belongs not to the First but to the Second coming of Christ if we will believe S. Peter in his first Sermon in the Temple after Christ's ascension Acts 3. 19 c. where he thus speaks unto the Iews Repent saith he and be converted for the blotting out of your sins that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord And that be may send Iesus Christ which before was preached unto you Whom the heavens must receive until the times of the Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began The word is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the time or Restoring all things be not till the Second coming of Christ how could Iohn Baptist restore all things at his First If the Master come not to restore all things till then surely his Harbinger who is to prepare his way for restoring all things is not be lookt for till then These are the Reasons which have induced me to think that the opinion which the Church hath held as far as I know from her Infancy of an Elias which should be the Harbinger of Christ's Second coming hath some matter of truth in it But that this Elias should be Elias the Thisbite who was taken up into Heaven I confess I believe not no more than that he should be slain by Antichrist as some fable For that which the Prophet saith Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet proves no more that it should be Elijah in person than that which is said of Messiah And David my servant shall rule over them proves Christ should be David in person It is much more like if it be one that comes again it should be Iohn Baptist himself who was the Harbinger of the First coming That as Christ himself the Master hath two comings so should his Harbinger have And as it shall be the same Christ which comes the second time that came the first so should his Harbinger be the same And to this both the words of the Angel to Zachary the father of the Baptist and the words of our Saviour in the place before quoted would not be unpliable The Second coming of Christ is the time of the Resurrection and in that respect it would not be unsuitable for the Harbinger thereof to be one risen from the dead But as for Elias the Thisbite's coming I find no ground at all but the contrary Howsoever though I compare probabilities I will not determine any thing lest some perhaps should say that while I reject old fables I coin new ones I rather conclude with that Iewish Proverb Cùm Elias venerit solvet nodos When that Elias comes he shall dislolve hard questions AND thus much of the circumstance of Time when our Saviour first began his solemn prophecy or preaching of the Gospel namely not till his Harbinger Iohn had done and finished his preparation Now I come to the Second circumstance namely of the Place which was Galilee Iesus came into Galilee c. A circumstance curiously noted
of the field he brought him but part thereof Both expressions point out the same Fact which in regard of the matter was stealing or purloining in regard of the Vow and Consecration a breach of promise or lying unto God So that when Peter says in the third verse Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost and to purloin of the price of the land the latter is the explication of the former and is as if it had been laid Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost in purloining the price of the land But what will some man say means this special expression of the Deity in the Person of the Holy Ghost why is Ananias said to have lyed to the Holy Ghost rather than to have lyed unto God only For lying unto God would bear the sense I speak of Should not then lying unto the Holy Ghost seem to have something else or something more in it I answer Ananias his lie or breach of promise is applied thus in special to the Holy Ghost in respect of the Prerogative of that Person as to stir and sanctifie so to take notice of the motions of the Heart Forasmuch therefore as Ananias his Vow and Promise which he broke was not such as men could witness or take notice of but such as his own Heart and Conscience only was privy to hence it is said to have been done under the privity of the Holy Ghost and he in the breach thereof to have lied unto him because that which none but the inward man knoweth of and is yet but in the purpose of the Heart is under his privity There is a plain place Rom. 9. 1. to this purpose I say the truth in Christ saith the Apostle I lie not my Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that is the Holy Ghost who is privy to my Conscience bearing me witness or my Conscience which the Holy Ghost is privy to Some other places of Scripture I could name which may receive light from this notion but I am loth to meddle with them But for their interpretation who expound this Lying unto the Holy Ghost of Ananias his Hypocrisie I cannot well see how it can stand for Ananias dissembled not with the Holy Ghost but with men the Holy Ghost knew his Heart well enough And the Hypocrite properly lies unto men who guess only by the out-side and not unto God who knows the Heart Others expound Lying unto the Holy Ghost as if it were Lying to try whether the Holy Ghost in the Apostles could discover him or not But this is an harsh and forc'd sense As for that in the 9. verse whereon it is grounded viz. How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord The word Tempt or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mistaken the notion thereof in Scripture being otherwhile To provoke God by some presumptuous fact to anger as it were to try whether he will punish or not to dare God There is an evident place for this sense Numb 14. 22. Those men saith the Lord which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice 23. Surely they shall not see the land which I sware to their Fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it And thus much of the bare description of Ananias his Sin Come we now to the aggravation thereof While it remained was it not thine and after it was sold was it not in thy power That is Before it was sold was it not thine and being sold was not the money paid thee was not the price in thine hand Thou hast therefore no excuse for what thou hast done For there were two Cases which might have excused Ananias for bringing but part of the price If either he had not been Dominus in solidum the full Proprietary of what was sold or had not received the whole price it was sold for For as for the First it is a Rule in Law Quoties Dominium transfertur ad alium tale transfertur quale apud eum fuit qui tradit A man can sell no more than is his So that if Ananias had been owner but in part he had power to dispose but in part Secondly Though he were Dominus in solidum the full Proprietary of the Field and so had right enough to sell it yet had not the whole price been received and in his power and possession he might still have been excused for bringing but part thereof But Ananias could plead neither of these for saith S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilst it remained unsold did it not remain thine or wert not thou owner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when it was sold was not the money it was sold for in thy possession The first words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though there be no such speech again in Scripture yield the sense I speak of pliantly enough nor will they bear any other meaning unless somewhat forsaking the letter we should with others construe them to imply That Ananias was not constrained or urged to sell his possession at all but might have kept it still Which sense is most commonly followed and hath the authority of Oecumenius in the words before alledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c We were far saith S. Peter to Ananias and Sapphira from compelling you in the least to sell your estate But when as you were pleased of your own accord to offer it as a Sacrifice and Free-will-offering to God for you afterwards to withdraw any part of what ye had devoted to God and take it to your own use this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 downright Sacriledge without all controversie and dispute Therefore Beza translates the words Nonne si servâsses so he renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manebat tibi True it is this sense makes as much for the unexcusableness of Ananias as the other For could he have alledged that what he had done for the sale of his land was done not spontè but coacte not willingly but by way of constraint it might have excused him Because that act only is taken to be of force in Law which a man consents unto but that which is done by constraint or compulsion is not done with full and free consent and therefore binds not So this sense agrees well enough with the story only it may seem somewhat to strain the words Howsoever if you had rather follow it because of the authority I will not contend Only note thus much that the Syriack Translator inclines to the first sense for he translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Was it not thine before it was sold A second plea for the excuse of Ananias might have been in case he had not yet received the full price and so had not the whole money in his hand But this S. Peter also takes
fulfilled or accomplished But it seems to me that the Fulness of the Gentiles and the Fulfilling or Accomplishment of their times should not be the same howsoever they may be coincident It should rather seem that our Saviour hath reference as to a thing known unto the Prophecy of Daniel where the Times of the Gentiles or the times wherein the Gentiles should have dominion with the misery and subjection of the Iewish Nation are set forth in the Vision of a fourfold Image and four Beasts which are the four Monarchies the Babylonian Persian Greek and Roman The first began with the first captivity of the Iewish Nation and through the times of all the rest they should be in subjection or in a worser estate under them But when their times should be accomplished then saith Daniel The Saints of the most High God shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever and ever that is there shall be no more kingdoms after it but it shall continue as long as the world shall endure Three of these Monarchies were past when our Saviour spake and the fourth was well entred If then by Saints there are meant the Iews which we know are called the holy People in that sense their country is still called the holy Land and their city in the Scripture the holy City viz. relatively then is it plain enough what Daniel's and our Saviour's words import namely a glorious revocation and kingdom of the Iews when the time of the fourth Monarchy which then remained should be expired and accomplished But if here by the Saints of the most High are in general meant the Church yet by coincidence of time the same will fall out on the Iews behalf because S. Paul saith that at the time when the Fulness of the Gentiles shall come in the Iew shall be again restored For a conclusion The last limb of the fourth Monarchy is in Daniel The Horn with eyes which spake proud things against the most High which should continue a time times and half a time that is a year years and half a year In the Revelation it is The Beast with so many heads and horns full of names of blasphemy which was to continue forty two months the same period with the former which was expressed by times or years and the same time with a thousand two hundred and sixty days of the Churche's remaining in the wilderness When these Times whatsoever they be shall be ended then is the period of the Times of the Gentiles and of the Iews misery whereto our Saviour seems to refer in the Gospel then by S. Paul shall the Fulness of the Gentiles enter in then saith S. Iohn shall the kingdoms of the earth be the Lord's and his Christ's then saith Daniel in the former place Chap. 7. 27. shall the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him The Use we are to make upon this long Discourse is Hope and comfortable Expectation Experience saith S. Paul Rom. 5. 4. worketh hope Let therefore our experience of God's Power and Truth in that which is past be as a pledge and pawn unto us of the future We have seen a great part of this Doom of false Gods fulfilled already what though we see not the means of the full accomplishment If thou shalt say in thy heart saith Moses Deut. 7. 17 18. These nations are more than I how can I dispossess them Thou shalt not be afraid of them but shalt remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all Egypt So if any of us shall say How can this be let us remember what the Lord hath done already in subduing so great a part of the world unto himself which once sate in darkness and in the shadow of death DISCOURSE XXXVII PROVERBS 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all keeping For out of it are the issues of life EVERY way of man saith the same mouth which uttered this is right in his own eyes but the Lord pondereth the hearts Prov. 21. 2. And chap. 16. 2. All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirits Which words have this Discretive sense that Although the eyes of men judge of the rightness of the ways of men by that which appeareth to the eye yet God he is not as man nor judgeth like him but he pondereth the heart and spirit Therefore in Scripture he is styled A God that searcheth the heart and reins Ier. 17. 10. I the Lord search the heart I trie the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings Which words our Saviour useth Rev. 2. 23. in his Epistle to Thyatira I am he which searcheth the reins and the hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works that is Men esteem of works as they see but I judge and reward them as I see Men punish and reward according to the outside only which comes under the view and stands in awe of men but God judges and rewards according to the Heart or inward man which he only sees and which therefore stands in awe and fear of none but him For as for the outward act it may as well be done for the praise and awe of men as for love and fear of God and therefore by it cannot be discerned whether our obedience be to God or man But the Heart is that divine Touch-stone as that which hath none to fear none to please none to approve it self unto but him who alone sees it and is only able to try and examine it If therefore any Precept any Admonition in the whole Book of God deserve the best of our attention to hear and greatest care to put in practice this of my Text is worthy to be accounted of that number Keep thy heart above all keeping For out of it are the issues of life The words divide themselves into two parts An Admonition and A Motive The Admonition Keep thy heart above all keeping The Motive For out of it are the issues of life that is Even as in the life of nature the Heart is the fountain of living and the well-spring of all operations of life so in the life of grace we live to God through it In the Admonition consider 1. The Act Keep 2. The Object what we are to keep our Heart 3. The Manner and Means how it must be kept with all diligence or above all keeping Of the Act Keep I shall not need say much it is an easie word and we shall not forget it in that which follows but ever and anon have occasion to repeat it Only here observe in general That our Hearts are untrusty
unruly and obvious to be surprised for such things we are wont to keep and so much therefore is implied in that they are to be kept else they needed no keeping This is therefore the condition of our Hearts 1. They are untrusty The heart is deceitful above all things Ier. 17. 9. Therefore it stands in hand to watch it to suspect it and deal with it as we would with a notable Iugler or with an untrusty and pilfering servant to have a jealous and a watchful eye over it For if our eye be never so little off it will presently break out into some unlawful liberty or other 2. It is an unruly thing if it be once lost a man cannot recover it again without much time and labour For it is like unto a wild horse if the bridle be once let go he will be gone and not gotten again in haste yea it may be we shall be forced to spend as much time in recovering him as would have served to have dispatched our whole journey So if the bridle of watchfulness be once let go and our Hearts get loose they will not easily be regained it will ask us no small time to temper and tune them again for the service of God Lastly our hearts are continually liable to surprise we walk in the midst of snares encompassed with dangers on every side What is that almost which will not entice and allure so fickle a thing as the Heart from God We can be secure of it at no time neither sleeping nor waking in no place neither house not street neither bed nor board not in our Closet no not in the Church and Pulpit THUS much shall suffice to have been briefly observed by way of implication from the Act Keep Now I come to the Object it self The Heart Keep thy Heart By Heart we must understand the inward thoughts motions and afâ—ections of the Soul and Spirit whereof the Heart is the Chamber But not a natural man's Heart for that is not worth a keeping but such a Heart as lives to God-ward a good and gracious heart which consists in two properties in Purity and Loyâ—lty This is the state and temper we must keep our Hearts in I will speak of them in order And first of Purity and Cleanness We must keep our Hearts in Purity and Cleanness For Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God and none but such shall ever see him It behoves us therefore to know what this Cleanness is the having or not having whereof concerns us so nearly Know then A clean or pure Heart is that which loaths sin and loves righteousness For the better understanding whereof we must further know That an absolute cleanness and pureness of the heart and soul from sin is not attainable in this life Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Yet is there a cleanness of heart which must be had and without which we shall never see God as you heard before Such was that which David prays for Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me And 2 Tim. 2. 22. true Christians are described to be such as call upon the Lord out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. 5. The end of the Commandment saith the Apostle is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned And himself 2 Tim. 1. 3. thanks God whom he served from his forefathers with a pure conscience But if this Purity of the heart were no other than a total freedom thereof from all unclean thoughts and sinful motions and desires in such sort as a man should never be troubled and defiled with them alas who then should see God who should be saved That Claenness therefore that measure of Purity which God requires to be in the heart of every one who shall see him and with whom he will vouchsafe to dwell is as I told you the loathing of sin and the love of righteousness that is an accepted Cleanness through Faith when the hate of impurity and love of cleanness in the heart is accepted with God for cleanness and pureness it self Though not a cleanness of all our affections yet at least and what can God require less an affection to all cleanness For God accepts the will for the deed If we love if we desire if we delight heartily in that which is clean and pure in the eyes of God if we hate and abhor if we loath in our selves all sinful impurities and pollutions both of flesh and spirit howsoever we find in our selves a great want of the one and our hearts much and often vexed and troubled with the other yet is this affection of our hearts accepted with God for a pure and cleansed heart indeed And where this disposition is the heart cannot chuse but grow cleaner and cleaner even with real and formal cleanness For a man cannot but cherish that which he loveth and rid himself as much as may be of what he loatheth So he that loveth and affecteth cleanness of heart will cherish and make much of every good motion which the Spirit of God shall put into it and if he indeed loath and abhor unclean and sinful thoughts will do his best to stifle them and remove them far from him This Cleanness and Purity of Heart is that which the Scripture slyleth Holiness even that Holiness without which S. Paul tells us Heb. 12. 14. no man shall see the Lord. For in the Law the legal cleansing washing and purging of that which any way belonged to God or was prepared for his presence and service is called sanctifying or hallowing Exod. 19. 10. When the Lord was to come down upon Mount Sinai Go unto the People saith he to Moses and sanctifie them to day and to morrow and let them wash their clothes 2 Chron. 29. 5. Hezekiah saith to the Levites Sanctifie now your selves and sanctifie the house of the Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place And accordingly in the 16. ver the Priests go in to cleanse it which cleansing in the next verse is called their sanctifying it In Deut. 23. 14. where a law is given for cleanness and neatness in the Camp the reason is rendred in these words For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the Camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee therefore shall thy Camp be holy that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee The same expression S. Paul applies to spiritual cleansing 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us saith he cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Here with S. Paul also Holiness is Cleansing and Cleansing is Holiness So Eph. 5. 26. That he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. As therefore under the Law that
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
spoken of the Influence of life into a Christian's actions in general But as in natural life so in spiritual are many Branches as the words of my Text imply speaking not singularly of one Issue but plurally of many Issues of life For that which lives exerciseth many living acts as so many streams flowing from the Fountain of life none of which belong unto that which liveth not These Issues in Nature are five Health Nourishment Growth Sense and Motion and the Heart is the Fountain of them all without it they are not they cannot be but as it fareth so fare they all The like unto these are to be found in our spiritual life of which I will speak somewhat in special the rather because every of them are as so many Motives to incite us to the attainment of this life to God-ward by serving him in Sincerity and Truth 1. The first Issue of Spiritual life flowing from the Heart is spiritual Health For the curing of our Souls of their Spiritual diseases must begin at the Hearts and the inward causes of corruption must thence be purged before there can be any true Reformation or sound Health in the outward parts Even as the heat of the Face is not much abated by casting water and cooling things upon it but by allaying inwardly the heat of the Liver Again That which seems to spring and flourish in our lives unless it be rooted in the Heart will wither and die The Fig-tree that only made a shew with leaves having no fruit in the end being cursed lost the leaves too wherewith it deceived our Saviour So the Seed which sprouted upon the stony ground is said to have withered because it had no root And if an Apple seem never so beautiful yet if it be rotten at the core it will quickly putrifie 2. The second Issue of spiritual life is spiritual Nutrition whereby the Soul continually feeds upon Christ in his Word and Sacraments But this is in none whose works and actions issue not from the Heart by Sincerity and Truth For where Hunger and Thirst is not the body is not nourished He must have a stomach to his meat that will have good by it Chewing in his mouth will not do it though he swallow it if his stomach be against it he will vomit it up again And can this spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst be where the inward man is not sanctified Can he have a Spiritual stomach whose heart is not cleansed 3. The third Issue of Spiritual life is spiritual Growth It is God's wont to reward the sincerity of a little grace with abundance of great graces Nathanael a man of no great knowledg yet being a true Israelite void of guile is further enlightened by our Saviour who gives him a sight of the true Messiah endues him with true faith and promises him still greater matters A weak and dim knowledg had the Eunuch and Cornelius in the Mystery of Godliness yet because they worshipped God sincerely an Evangelist was sent to the one and an Angel and an Apostle to the other to give them clearer light of the Gospel and a fuller largess of spiritual gifts The curse of God is upon Hypocrisie to destroy a great deal a great stock of grace but his blessing is upon Sincerity to improve a little portion to a greater measure A little Spring is better than a great Pond for in Summer when Ponds are dried up little Springs will still hold out 4. The fourth Issue of Spiritual life is spiritual Sense the Sense and feeling of the favour of God This no man shall ever find who lives not the life of sincerity For this is the most found and undeceivable evidence of our portion and interest in the power and purity of Christ's saving passion and sanctifying bloudshed 5. The fifth Issue of Spiritual life is spiritual Motion such I call Alacrity and Courage Sincerity is the cause of these It makes us chearful in all duties of service and obedience unto God it makes us valiant and courageous in all dangers trials and temptations begetting in us a true manly generous and heroical spirit The wicked saith Solomon Prov. 28. 1. flee when no man pursueth but the righteous are bold as a Lion DISCOURSE XXXVIII ISAIAH 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon I Will not speak of the coherence of these words for they are an entire sense of themselves and contain in them two parts First The Conversion of a sinner Secondly The Condition of one so converted The Conversion of a sinner is exprest in three degrees In the forsaking of wicked wayes In the forsaking of evil thoughts and thirdly In returning again unto the Lord. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord. The Condition or State wherein he stands who hath done all this is no state of Merit but of Mercy no not so much as a little Merit but even abundant Mercy If the Lord after all this accepts him it is because he will have mercy upon him if our God forgive he doth even abundantly pardon Of these I intend to speak in order and first of the First which is The Conversion of a sinner which is as I have said laid down in three degrees or steps the latter always excelling the former Even as in the Temple of Solomon he that would approach the Mercy-seat of God must ascend through three parts of the Temple the Court the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies So must he that will attain this Condition of Mercy mount these three steps of Repentance that he may enter into that glorious Sanctuary which is not made with hands where the great God that â—hews mercy unto thousands lives for ever and ever The first two of these forementioned degrees To forsake a wicked way To rid the heart of evil thoughts lest they seem but one thing expressed in many words I must handle both together that by comparing I may the better distinguish them As for the latter therefore of these words they have no great difficulty and therefore will not need much explication but in the former Let the wicked man forsake his way the Metaphor of way causeth some obscurity which I think is thus to be unfolded Every way implies a walking a way being that wherein men use to walk In whatsoever sense therefore the Metaphor of walking is taken elsewhere in Scripture in the same is way taken here But To walk in Scripture seems in a special and proper sense to signifie the outward life and conversation of men For as in the natural man the act of progression or moving to and fro is the most external act of all others and the most obvious to the sense of every one So in a man
improve himself more near to his primitive temper than now he is But God who had decreed he should ever remain under this malediction appointed also the means to retain him therein DISCOURSE XLII GENESIS 3. 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel THE third and last particular remains to be treated of I will put enmity between thee and the woman c. This no doubt intendeth in some things more directly the spiritual Serpent than the brute yet for the general it may and ought as well as the rest to be expounded of the brute Serpent as a Glass wherein to behold the malice and destiny of the other the Devil It containeth two parts The Enmity and the Event and Managing thereof For the Enmity how it is verified concerning the brute Serpent experience telleth It is some part of the happiness of the creature to be the Favourite of Man who is the Lord thereof what honour could betide it greater than this But between the Serpent and Man is the most deadly enmity and the strongest antipathy that is amongst the Beasts of the field such an one as discovereth it self both in the natural and sensitive faculties of them both For the first Their humours are poison each to other the gall of a Serpent is Man's deadly poison and so is the spittle of a Man affirmed to poison the Serpent For the sensitive antipathy it appears in that the one doth so much abhor the sight of presence of the other Man's nature is at nothing so much astonished as at the sight of a Serpent and like enough the Serpent is in like manner affected at the sight of Man and that more especially as the Naturalists affirm of a naked man than otherwise As though his instinct even remembred the time of his malediction when he and naked man stood before God to receive this sentence of everlasting enmity And whereas the words of the Text do in special point out the Woman in this sentence of enmity the Naturalists do observe that is greater and more vehement with that sex than with the male of mankind Insomuch that Rupertus affirmeth That if but the naked foot of a Woman doth never so little press the head of a Serpent before he can sting her both the head and body presently dieth which no cudgel or other weapon will cause but that some life and motion will still remain behind Hoc saith he ita esse ipsorum qui per industriam exploraverunt fidâ relatione comperimus Lib. 3. de Trin. c. 20. You know my Author who affirms that he had this from the faithful report of such as had purposely bestow'd their pains to find out the truth thereof The remaining words of my Text do express the Managing and Event of this enmity which is far more dangerous and unlucky on the Serpent's part than on Man's for Man is able to reach the Serpent's head where his life chiefly resideth and where a blow is deadly but as for the Serpent he shall not be able to prevail against Man otherwise than privily and unawares and that but in the lowest part namely when he shall pass him unseen to sting him by the heel And that this is the nature of a Serpent it appeareth in the words of Dan's blessing Gen. 49. 17. Dan shall be a Serpent by the way an Adder in the path that biteth the horse-heels so that his rider shall fall backward And to make an end of this discourse also it is a thing to be observed in the nature of a Serpent that assoon as he perceiveth man ready to throw or strike at him he will presently roul his body for a buckler to save his head even as though he had some impression of that doctrine which God here read him in my Text Ipse conteret tibi caput He shall bruise thy Head Beware thy head AND thus hitherto I have considered these words as they are the curse of the brute Serpent Now I am to go over with them again to shew how they are propounded unto us by God as a Glass wherein to behold the Devil's malediction the Serpent being made now the discovery of his vileness which once he abused for a mask to hide it from the woman As therefore the Serpent is the most accursed of all the cattel and beasts of the field so is the Devil the most accursed Spirit amongst all orders and degrees of Spirits namely of the highest of Angels become the abjectest of Spirits more base and accursed than the most cursed damned Soul having little or nothing left him of that good which was sutable to a spiritual condition and this is the state of the Devil for the general answerable to that of the Serpent Now for the particulars The first is Vpon thy breast shalt thou go How doth this befit the Devil The Devil hath no bodily breast to go upon But as I shewed in the Serpent that this groveling signified the abasement of his whole nature from its primitive excellency so in the Devil it signifies his stooping down and falling from his most sublime and glorious condition A wonderful stoop this was when that which had been advanced as high as heaven was made to fall down as low yea lower than the earth it self This is the Devil 's going upon his breast this the groveling of that once so highly reared posture according to that description of Iude ver 6. who calls them the Angels that kept not their first estate but left their own habitation agreeable to that of S. Peter 2 Ep. 2. 4. God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell The second particular is The dust of the earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life The food wherewith Spirits are fed is analogical spiritual and not corporal we must therefore here seek out that which in them hath the fittest resemblance with corporal food The life of Angels consists in the continual contemplation of the excellent Greatness wonderful Goodness and glorious Beauty of the Essence of God both as it is in it self and as it is communicated unto his creatures This is that which our Saviour intimates Matth. 18. 10. Their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven The food of Angels whereby this their Intellectual life and vegetation is strengthened and continued is that unspeakable joy and delight which accompanies their contemplation of God and which they find in the beholding of whatsoever else hath any conformity and sutableness with him his Power his Wisdom his Glory his Goodness according to that in the Gospel There is joy in heaven and in the presence of the Angels of God for one sinner that repenteth This is that Manna which feeds the blessed Angels and which makes them unweariable and unsatiable in their contemplation and imitation of
Blind zeal which wants knowledge 3. Turbulent zeal which wants love and moderation 1. The First of these Hypocritical zeal is a meer blaze and shew of fervency without any true and solid heat It is nothing but the Vizor of zeal looking a squint one way but tending another pretending God and his Glory but aiming at some private and sinister end Such was the zeal of Iehu who marched furiously and his word was The Lord of hosts Come said he to Ionadab and see my zeal for the Lord but his project was the Kingdom Iezabel proclaimed a Fast as out of an Extasie of zeal that God should be blasphemed but her aim was Naboth's vineyard So in Acts 19. Demetrius the Silver-Smith and his fellows cry Great is Diana of the Ephesians but meant the gain they got by making of her Silver Shrines vers 24. This Zeal is soon descried by the proper Character it hath namely an affectation of having their works seen of men which is said of the vain-glorious Pharisees in Matt. 6. be it by ostentation of their zealous deeds like Iehu or by the excess of affected gestures sighs and other like actions falling within the view of men Not but that a true zeal doth shew it self vehement even in external actions but it is the straining of them beyond measure which argues the Heart to be guilty of emptiness within 2. The Second kind of False zeal is Blind zeal Ignis fatuus or Fools fire leading a man out of the right way when men zealously affect evil things supposing them to be good or are eagerly bent against good things supposing them to be evil Such was the Zeal of the Iews of whom S. Paul witnesseth that they had a zeal of God that is in the matters of God but not according to knowledg And with this Zeal was he himself once carried when he persecuted the Christians with an opinion of doing God good service as the phrase is Iohn 16. 2. I verily thought saith he with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Iesus of Nazareth And such is the zeal of simple and devout Sectaries who blindly run after some person they esteem without knowing themselves either why or whither This kind of zeal is like to metal in a Blind horse that will speed to fall into a pit or to break his neck The counsel I would give for avoiding this kind is to look before we leap and see our way clearly before we run 3. The Third kind of False zeal is Turbulent zeal which S. Iames calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter zeal a kind of Wildfire transporting a man beyond all compass of Moderation namely when in the excess of our heat we either outgo the bounds of our place and calling or use undue Means or wayes or overshoot the limits of Love and Charity whether to God or our Neighbour For howsoever Zeal be an excess of our affections in the things of God yet must this excess never break over the banks either of our vocation or in choice of Means out-bound the Rule of God's Law as theirs most certainly doth who endeavour to colour their Religion by the Massacres of Princes overturning of Kingdoms breach of Oaths and almost all bands of humane Society Such was the Zeal of Saul when he slew the Gibeonites forgetting the Oath which the Princes of the Congregation had made unto them Iosh. 9. 15 18 19. And such was the zeal of Iames and Iohn in the Gospel when to vindicate the honour of Christ they would have Fire to come down from heaven to consume a whole Village of Samaria Such also was Peter's zeal when he cut off Malchus his ear The former outwent the limits of Love and Charity the last the limits of his Vocation As Clocks whose Springs are broken overstrike the hour of the day So this mad and untempered Zeal the measure of Moderation Thus I have briefly described these False fires that by the Law of contraries we may know who is the true Zealot whom God approveth namely He whose Spirit is in Fervency and not in Shew for God and not for himself guided by the Word and not with humours and opinions tempered with Charity and free from head-strong violence This is that Zeal which our Saviour calls for in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be zealous therefore This is that Zeal which whoso wants in him God hath no pleasure but will spue him out of his Mouth as it is said in vers 15. a little before my Text. But why will you say should this zeal be so needful or why may we not worship God without it Let us therefore now see the Reasons and Motives which do evince and prove it needful and should urge us to it 1. First therefore I will seek no further than my Text where the want of Zeal is reckoned for a Sin a Sin to be repented of Be zealous and Repent Is not that needful without which all our works are sinful But Vertue you will say consists in a Mean and not in Excess and why should not Piety also I answer The Mean wherein Vertue is placed is the Middle of different kinds and not the Middle or Mean of degrees in one and the same kind Vertue so it be Vertue is at the best in the highest degree and so is Religion in the highest pitch of Zeal 2. It is the Ground-rule of the whole Law of God and of all the Precepts concerning his Worship That we must love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our Soul with all our Mind and with all our Strength What is this else but to love him zealously to worship him with the highest pitch of our affections and the uttermost strain both of Body and Soul For he is the Soveraign and chiefest Good what Love then can suite to him but the very top and Soveraignty of Love All things in God are Supreme his Power his Knowledg his Mercy and therefore he cannot truly be worshipped unless we yield him whatsoever is Supreme in ourselves a supremacy of Fear a supremacy of Hope a supremacy of Thankfulness For whom then should we reserve the top and chief of our affections for our gold for our Herodias c How can we offer God a baser indignity will he endure that any thing in the world should be respected before him or equalled to him The Lord our God is a jealous God and will not suffer it Let therefore all the Springs and Brooks of our affections run into this Main and let no Rivulet be drawn another way If Zeal be good in any thing it is most required in the best things and if in any thing it be comely to work with all our might Eccles. 9. 10. certainly in the service of God it is most comely Be not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord
from all your transgressions for why will ye die O ye house of Israel namely that death wherewith God threatned them if they should continue in their sins they might prevent by returning to him by repentance And so saith God to Ieremy in chap. 26. 2 3. Speak all the words that I command thee to speak unto them If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings Lo here If we repent us of our Sins God will also repent him of his Iudgments that is he will not send them Thus when the Ninevites repented in Sackcloth and ashes it is said Ionah 3. 10. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil may and God repented of that is he brought not upon them the evil that he had said he would do unto them And so if Laodicea in my Text should leave her Lukewarmness God who would have chastised her because he loved her would yet withhold her chastisements because she repented Would we then avoid the Iudgments of God hanging over our heads Let us not then defer our Repentance Would we not have the flaming fire of God's wrath and vengeance to consume us Let us repent of our Lukewarmness and get this sacred Fire of Zeal the only means to preserve us Be zealous therefore and repent DISCOURSE LIII 1 Ep. IOHN 2. 3. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments MAN that is born of a woman saith Iob is of short continuance and full of trouble Nay our days are not so few but they are also as full of sorrow full of unquietness and discontent no hour is without no estate is free from him that sitteth upon the glorious throne unto him that is beneath in the earth and ashes from him that is clothed in silk and wears a crown even unto him that is clothed in simple raiment He that had attained the highest pitch of worldly felicity King Solomon who was great and encreased above all that were before him in Ierusalem whose eyes had whatsoever they desired who withheld not his heart from any joy yet when he had considered all he could see no good thing under the Sun nothing wherein he could find true hearts-content but cryed out Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of Spirit All things are full of Labour man cannot utter it Yea Pleasure it self is linkt with pain and sorrow Extrema gaudii semper occupat luctus In vain then do men take up their rest where they have not long to stay in vain do they seek for comfort in those things where no true comfort can be found There is but one thing in the world that can make this miserable life happy unto us and that is so to demean our selves while we live here as that we may be assured of the Life to come This is that will make us not to feel the sorrows and troubles of this life This is that will make us with ease to swallow the bitter pills of Death it self when we can say with Iob I know or I am sure that my Redeemer liveth and that these eyes shall see him though worms consume this body of mine But the greatest part of men think no such Assurance can be had and therefore think it but labour lost to seek after it Others on the contrary are too credulous assuring themselves of God's savour and of eternal life without any proof or trial of their Assurance whether it be true or no. That both these sorts of men may see what a dangerous Error they are in let them peruse but this one Epistle of S. Iohn and out of the whole Epistle let them consider with me a while the Verse which I have read let them hear what the Spirit saith by the beloved Apostle of the Lord By this we do know or come to be assured that we know him if we keep his Commandments The first part of these words tells us of an Assurance to be gotten and lest we might deceive our selves the other part tells us what that is whereby we come to be assured and whereby we may prove insallibly whether our Assurance which we have conceived be good or no viz. If we keep his Commandments By this we do know or we are sure so the former Translation and it comes all to one that we know him if we keep his Commandments In the first part of these words all is plain and there is nothing hard to be understood but only what is meant by this Knowing of Christ what manner of Knowledge this should be which is here spoken of For there are diverse kinds of knowing Christ. There is a Knowledge which the very Devils have the Devils saith S. Iames believe also and tremble and in Luke 4. 34. we read that the Devil said unto Christ I know thee who thou art the holy one of God and in verse 41. that other Devils also came out of many whom they possessed crying out and saying Thou art Christ the Son of God but Christ rebuked them and would not suffer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say that they knew him to be Christ. There is a Knowledge likewise which the wicked may have but it is like unto the Knowledge which Devils have For the wicked may know Christ to be the Son of God they may know he died upon the Cross for the sins of men they may know that he is gone up into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of his Father in glory everlasting but alas this Knowledge if they have no more than it will not profit them at all it will never stand them in stead but rather make them more inexcusable at the Day of Iudgment But the Knowledge which the Text speaks of it is the Knowledge of the Faithful yea it is the Knowledge of Faith yea it is Faith it self For this Knowledge of Christ is to know him to be our Christ to know him to be our Redeemer to know him to be the Propitiation for our sins as well as for the sins of other men This you see is Faith it self and this is the Knowledge here meant as you may easily see further if you do but read the words going next before my Text where our Apostle saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And he is the Propitiation for our sins and then come the words of my Text And hereby we know or we are sure that we know him that is Hereby we know him to be as was said before our Advocate our Propitiation all this we are sure we know he is to us if that we keep his Commandments If therefore Faith be a Knowledge If to believe in Christ to be know Christ how then can Faith and Ignorance stand together how can an ignorant
man be a faithful man or how can he have Faith who knoweth not the things of Faith Here is a Lesson to be learned of those that think it needless for a man to busie his head in the knowledge of the things belonging to his Salvation that think it is enough if they have a good meaning though they know nothing else They are proud of their Ignorance and will say they have as good Souls as the best of them all but alas they know not that Light and Darkness cannot agree together they know not that to walk in darkness is to walk in the shadow of death they remember not that Light is come into the world and that those that love darkness rather than light should be cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gâ—ashing of teeth What will you answer at the great day of hearing when Christ will not know you because ye knew him no better Will you say as some do That you were not Book-learned and therefore could not read Will you say you had no Learning and therefore hope to be excused These Fig-leaves will not serve to cover your nakedness withal I confess there are many things which the Learned know which you are not bound to know Those who are expert in the Scriptures know many things both concerning God and his Works which others may be ignorant of without endangering their Souls safety yea matters of high Controversie those who are simple are forbidden to meddle withal for so saith S. Paul Rom. 14. 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations But things which concern our Faith things which are needful to our Salvation things which concern our Obedience unto God these things no man must be ignorant of that regards the safety of his Soul these things God will require at the hands of every one who shall be saved whether they be learned or unlearned whether they be of the wise or of the simple whosoever knows not Christ and the means to come to Christ whosoever knows not what it is to have a Redeemer to have God to be his Father what it is to be reconciled to God to have Christ to be his Advocate and Mediatour whosoever knows not such things as these must hear that heavy doom of Go ye cursed into everlasting fire For want of this knowledge of things needful to be known God had a controversy with his people Israel Hos. 4. 1. The Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the land because there is no knowledge of God in the land For want of this knowledge it was that God saith Esay 5. 13. My people are gone into captivity because they wanted knowledge And our Saviour in Luke 19. 42. wept over Ierusalem and said O that thou hadst known the things which belong unto thy peace c. As it befel the Iews so will it fall out with every one of us that knows not the things which belong unto our peace that is unto our reconciliation with God in Iesus Christ God will have a controversie with us he will send us into everlasting captivity from whence we shall never return again Let me therefore beseech you Brethren in the bowels of Iesus Christ If there be any among you that have not yet gotten this needful knowledge that do not yet know the things belonging to their peace that they would now look unto themselves and use the means which God hath appointed If you may have the best means use the best if not yet make use of those which God hath given you despise not the least and weakest means despise not the bare reading of the Scriptures for they are the Oracles of God and God's Spirit may be in the mouth of the reader Pray therefore unto the Lord that he would give you hearts to understand that his Word may dwell in you plentifully in all wisdom that he would open unto you the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that you may relish the heavenly Manna and that you may long after the sincere milk of the Gospel that by this means your ways may prosper your sorrows may be easie and your comforts may your lives holy and your deaths comfortable And thus much I have spoken to those who are ignorant and please themselves therein Now let me speak a word or two also to those who covet and desire knowledge and take delight in the understanding of rare and excellent things Surely it is a commendable thing to be desirous of knowledge in any thing which may lawfully be known and this desire in Solomon pleased God so well that because he asked wisdom and knowledge God gave him riches also and such honour that there was no King like unto him among the Kings that were before him neither after him ever came the like Art thou then desirous of knowledge wouldst thou know rare and excellent things wouldst thou know things secret and foreknow things which are to come Lo here is a Knowledge the best of all knowledges the knowledge of Faith to know Christ to be thy Redeemer What more secret thing wouldst thou know than to know the Mystery which was hidden from the beginning of the world What higher knowledge than to know thy name to be written in heaven What more gainful knowledge than that knowledge that will bring thee a Kingdom whose glory shall never have end What better knowledge of things to come than to know that thou shalt live in the life to come If thou knewest the tongues of Men and Angels if thou knewest all Arts and Sciences if thou were wiser than Solomon and couldst discourse of Trees and Herbs of Beasts of Fowl and of Fishes and yet wantest this Knowledge of Faith all thy wisdom is folly and thou art not worthy to wipe the shoes of those who are truly wise indeed Nevertherefore count thy self wise before thou art wise in the Lord never think thou knowest any thing before thou knowest thou hast a part in Christ Iesus For Faith is the Wisdom of wisdoms he that knows Christ knows all though he knows nothing else So that we may say with Solomon Prov. 3. 13 c. Blessed is the man that findeth this wisdom and getteth this understanding For the merchandise thereof is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her There is yet a third sort of men to whom this which hath been spoken may give profitable instruction I mean the nice and dainty hearers of the Word who grow almost weary of hearing because the Ministers sing nothing but this old song of Knowing and Believing in Christ they always beat upon this one point How men
bread that he giveth us meat to eat and cloaths to put on and yet which of you all will not use the means to get these things because else you cannot look that God should give you his blessing Do you not know when you are sick of a bodily disease that if you be healed God must heal you God must restore you to your former health and yet which of you all will not seek unto the Physician and use all means that can be gotten Do you not know when you are in danger that God must deliver you and yet would you not laugh at him that in such a case should sit still and say God help me and never stir his finger to help himself Are you thus wise in these outward things and will you not be as wise in things spiritual It is needful you should use the means to obtain God's blessing in things concerning your Body and is it needless in things concerning the good of your Soul It is true indeed that of your selves you are not able to turn from your evil ways unto the Lord your God but you are able I hope to use the means whereby God's Spirit works the conversion of the heart This Sun the Lord makes to shine both upon the evil and the good this Rain he showres down upon the just and unjust What though thou canst not believe of thy self yet thou canst use the means of believing What though thou canst not of thy self will or do the thing which is good yet mayest thou use the means whereby God gives the grace of willing and doing good Wouldest thou then have God to enable thee with the grace and power of his Spirit use the means wherein the Spirit of God is lively and mighty in operation sharper than any two-edged sword and entreth through even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit Meditate continually in the Law of God be diligent to hear the Word both read and preached attend to Exhortation to Instruction and as Ioab said unto his army going against the Aramites Be strong and let us be valiant for our people and for the cities of our God and let the Lord do that which is good in his eyes so say thou unto thine own Soul I will firmly resolve and with all the power I have endeavour to use the means appointed by our God and let the Lord do that which is good in his eyes Nay then fear not thou shalt see the salvation of the Lord he will give thee a new heart and put a new spirit within thee he will take away thy heart of stone and give thee an heart of flesh that thou mayest walk in his statutes and keep his Commandments and thou shalt be one of his people and he will be thy God Observe in the second place That a true and unfeigned Faith in Christ which is the knowing him here mentioned brings forth obedience to his Commandments Christ we must know is not only a Priest to reconcile us but also a King to be obeyed by us These two as they are inseparable in him a Priest but a Kingly Priest a King but a Priestly King so must the acknowledgment of them be in his servants Whosoever therefore receives him as a Priest for atonement of his sin must also submit unto him with loyal obedience as a King We can never truly acknowledge him the one but we must also yield him the other For Christ will not be divided by us we must if we will have him take him whole otherwise we have no share in him at all This is that Faith we say justifies and no other but such a Faith as this which adheres unto Christ Iesus both as a Priest and as our Lord and King And therefore do our Adversaries most unworthily and wrongfully charge us That we condemn Good works or hold a man may be in Christ or in the state of grace though his life be never so wicked because we hold as S. Paul does we are justified by Faith and not by the works of the Law Gal. 2. 16. Observe thirdly That the Act of Faith which justifies is the Receiving or Knowing of Christ not as some erroneously conceive an Assurance or Knowing we know him For Assurance of being justified is no way a Cause or Instrument but a Consequent of Iustification A man must be first justified before he can know or be assured he is justified For this Assurance or Certification you may see in my Text comes in the third place not in the first wherein you may observe these three things to have this order 1. Knowing or owning Christ which is Faith 2. Keeping his Commandments which is the Fruit and evidence of a true Faith then in the third place comes Assurance For by this we are sure we do know him if we keep his Commandments The Object must be before it can be known the Sun must be risen before she can be seen So hath every one his interest in Christ before he can know he hath it Nay he may have it long before before he knows he hath it For it is not only a consequent but a separable consequent neither presently gotten and often interrupted For though it be necessary the Sun should be risen before she can be seen yet she may be long up before we see her and often clouded after she hath shined This I observe for the comfort of those who are troubled in mind and tempted to despair because they see not the light of God's countenance shining in their hearts My fourth Observation and the chief in the Text is this That he that walks in the ways of God and makes conscience to keep his Commandments may hereby inâ—allibly know he knows Christ that his Faith is a true Faith and that he shall be saved everlastingly This is the main and principal Scope of the Text and so plainly therein expressed that it needs no other confirmation But the Reason is plain For Good works are the fruits of Faith and a Godly conversation is the work of God's holy Spirit Whomsoever Christ accepts as a Servant he gives the token of his Spirit the Grace which enlivens and quickens the Heart and Will to his Service in a new and reformed conversation Even as the heat of the Fire warmeth whatsoever comes near unto it so the Spirit of Christ kindles this Grace in every Heart that Faith links unto him the Fruit whereof is that infallible Livery whereby every one that wears it may know himself to be his Servant A Tree is known by its fruit the workman is known by his work whosoever them shews these works and brings forth these fruits hath an infallible argument that the Spirit of God the earnest of his Salvation dwells in his heart that his Faith is a true and saving Faith that his believing is no presumption no false conceit no delusion of the Devil but the true and certain motion of God's own
this we are not in the right nor was it so from the begining Whatsoever is dedicated unto God in general or to speak in the phrase of Scripture whatsoever is called by his Name that is is His by peculiar relation ought to be used with a different respect from things common and God's House as you have heard hath something singular from the rest Should we then come into it as into a Barn or Stable It was not once good manners so to come into a mans house For our Blessed Saviour when he sent forth his Disciples to preach the Gospel Matt. 10. 12. said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when ye enter into an house salute it Why should we not think it a part of religious manners to do something answerable when we come into the House of God that is to bless the Master thereof you know how far that word extendeth and if not to say God be here which hath been the form and is somewhere still when we enter into a mans House yet to say with Iacob at Bethel God is here and to testifie in some manner or other as the Saints of God were wont to do that we acknowledge it and that both at our first coming thither and while we continue there for the one follows from the other And because I paralleled before that Oriental rite of Discalceation whereunto I supposed the words of my Text to have reference with ours of Vncovering the Head by the name of a leading ceremonie if any shall therefore ask me what other Gesture I implied thereby as fitting to accompany this in the case we speak of I answer That belongs to the discretion of our Superiours and the authority of the Church to appoint not to me to determine For here as in other Ceremonies the Church is not tied but hath liberty to ordain having respect to the Analogy of the Old Testament what she shall judge most sutable and agreeable to the time place and manners of the people where she lives But if I may without offence or presumption speak what I think then I say That Adoration or Bowing of the body with some short ejaculation which the Church of Israel used in their Temple together with Discalceation and which the Christians of the Orient use at this day and time out of mind have done at their ingress into their Churches is of all other the most seemly ready and fitting to our manners which yet I submit namely according to that of the 132. Psal. v. 7. Introibimus in Tabernacula ejus incurvabimus nos scabello pedum ejus We will go into his Tabernacles and worship before or toward his Footstool that is the Ark of the Covenant or Mercy-seat which you shall find thus styled 1 Chron. 28. 2. and according to that Psal. 5. 7. I will enter into thine House in the multitude of thy mercies in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy Temple i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they stood in the Courts when they worshipped which is the Form the Iews use at this day when they come first into their Places of worship and so might we too for any thing I know The ordinary form among the Greeks is that of the Publican God be merciful to me a sinner yet sometimes they premise this of the Psalm before it SECTION IV. AND thus have I done with the First part of my Text which for distinction sake I called The Admonition I come now to the Second which I termed A Caution Be more ready to obey than to offer the Sacrifice of fools as much as to say Prefer not the Secondary service of God before the First and Principal Our Translation hath Be more ready to hear than c. whereby some have taken occasion childishly to apply this Scripture against that custom of a short and private Prayer at our first coming into the Church before we joyn with the Congregation For we should say they rather hear and listen to what the Minister is reading or speaking as Solomon here bids us than at such a time to betake our selves to any private devotion which say they is but the Sacrifice of fools But I would themselves who thus argue were as wise as they should be For if they were they would consider both that Solomon according to the time wherein he spake must needs mean of another kind of Sacrifice than what so loose a notion importeth namely of such as were then used in the Temple he had built and besides that this sense of theirs directly thwarts the purport and meaning of the words going before which is that we ought to use some sign of reverence when we come into the house of God such as according to the custom of the West is this But though none of these things were yet would this Text be nothing to their purpose Forasmuch as by Hearing in this place is not meant auricular hearing but practical that is Obedience to God's commandments according as the Vulgar hath Melior est obedientia quà m victimae stultorum For it is the same with that Proverbial sentence of Scripture Obedience is better than Sacrifice which Samuel used in that bitter reproof of King Saul for sparing Agag and the best of the spoil of the Amalekites upon a pretence of sacrificing to the Lord in Gilgal Hath the Lord saith he as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams The word here twice rendered obey is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same which is in my Text and it is an ordinary signification thereof in Scripture The case is clear But was not the offering of Sacrifice will some man say part of the obedience due unto the divine Law How come they then to be thus opposed one to the other Give me leave therefore before I give my full explication of this passage to enquire and consider of some others of much more difficulty in this respect yet their meaning conducing to the understanding of this There are divers places in Scripture disparaging and villifying Sacrifices yea so far as if Sacrifice were a service which God neither appointed nor approved As Psal. 51. 16 17. Thou desirest not Sacrifice saith David else would I have given it thee but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Hosea 6. 6. I will have mercy and not sacrifice Micah 6. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the most High shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and with ten thousands of rivers of oyl Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and
himself It is a description of the Eucharist wherein as I have already told you the Bread and Wine were first presented unto God as the Primitiae or a kind of First-fruit-Offering to agnize him the Giver of our Food both dry and liquid and then consecrated to be the Symbols of the Body and Bloud of Christ. My next Author shall be Tertullian ad Scap. in the place before alledged Sacrificamus saith he pro salute Imperatoris sed quomodo praecepit Deus purâ prece Non enim eget Deus Conditor Vniversitatis odoris sanguinis alicujus haec enim Daemoniorum pabula sunt The Gentiles so thought that their Gods were refreshed and nourisht with the smell and savour of their Sacrifices Besides in his third Book contra Marcionem cap. 22. In omni loco sacrificium nomini meo offertur sacrificium mundum to wit saith he Gloriae relatio benedictio laus hymni and Lib. 4. cap. 1. Sacrificium mundum scilicet simplex oratio de conscientia pura Thirdly Clemens Alexandrinus Lib. 7. Stromat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We Christians honour God by Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this we send up unto him as the best and holiest Sacrifice honouring him by that most sacred Word whereby we receive knowledge that is by Christ. Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sacrifice of the Church is an oration exhaled from sanctified souls He speaks not of the private Prayer of every Christian but of the publick Prayer of the Church as a Body as will be evident to him that reads the place and appears by the words quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sacrifice of the Church and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exhaled not from a sanctified soul but from sanctified souls For to private Prayer was not given this title of the Christian Sacrifice but unto the publick which the Church offered unto God when she presented her self before him as one Body in Christ by the mystical Communication of his Body and Bloud This my next Author Cyprian will make plain in his 16 Epist. ad Mosen Maximum Nos quidem saith he vestri diebus noctibus memores quando in sacrificiis precem cum pluribus facimus cum in secessu privatis precibus oramus We indeed are mindful of you day and night both when we in our Sacrifices pray publickly with others and when we pray privately in our retirements where we see the Sacrifice of Prayer to be cùm precent cum pluribus facimus and distinguisht from that we do cùm in secessu privatis precibus oramus These Authorities are all within the first three hundred years to which I will add one of the fourth Optatus Milevitanns Lib. 6. contra Parmenianum where he thus expostulates with the Donatists for breaking and defacing the Altars of the Catholicks Quid est enim tam sacrilegum saith he quà m Altaria Dei in quibus vos aliquando obtulistis frangere radere removere in quibus Vota Populi Membra Christi portata sunt quò Deus omnipotens invocatus sit For what is there so sacrilegious as to break and deface nay and quite take away the Altars of God whereon ye your selves have sometimes offered those Altars which did bear both the Prayers of the People and the Body and Bloud of Christ that so Almighty God might be invocated Mark here Altaria in quibus Vota populi Membra Christi portata sunt and gather hence what parts the Christian Sacrifice consisted of Vota populi are the Prayers of the Church Membra Christi the Body and Bloud of Christi which the Prayers were offered with both of them upon the Altar For it is worthy your notice That the ancient Church had no other Place whereat she offered her publick Prayers and Orisons but that whereon the memory of the Body and Bloud of Christ was celebrated that as they were joyned in their Use so they might not be severed in their Place According to which use and agreeable to this passage of Optatus speaks the Council of Rhemes commanding the Table of Christ that is the Altar to be reverenced and honoured Quia Corpus Domini ibi consecratur sanguis ejus hauritur Preces quoque Vota populi in conspectu Dei à Sacerdote offeruntur Because there the Body of Christ is consecrated and his Bloud is drunk there also the Prayers and Desires of the People are offered up by the Priest before God Furthermore That the Christian Sacrifice was an Oblation of Prayer and consisted in Invocation is also another way to be evinc'd namely Because the Fathers when they speak thereof use the terms of Prayer Oblation and Sacrifice promiscuously and interchangeably one for the other as words importing the same thing Tertullian Exhort ad Cast. disswading a Widower from marrying again because it would be uncomely in the Sacrifice of the Church to make mention as the manner then was of more Wives than one and that too by the mouth of an once-married Priest speaks thus Neque enim pristinam poteris odisse cui etiam religiostorem reservas affectionem ut jam receptae apud Dominum pro cujus spiritu postulas pro qua oblationes annuas reddis Stabis ergo ad Dominum cum tot uxoribus quoi in oratione commemoras offeres pro duabus commendabis illas duas per Sacerdotem de monogamia ordinatum circundatum virginibus univiris ascendet sacrificium tuum cum liberâ fronte For thou canst not hate thy former wife for whom thou reservest a more religious affection as being received already with the Lord for whose spirit thou makest request for whom thou rendrest yearly Oblations Wilt thou then stand before the Lord with as many wives as in thy prayers thou makest mention of and wilt thou offer for two and commend those two by a Priest ordained after his having been but once-married encompassed with virgins and with women but once married and shall thy Sacrifice ascend freely and confidently Here postulatio and oblatio oratio and offerre oratio and sacrificium are interchangeably put one for the other So also in his Book De Oratione are Oratio and Sacrificium where he speaks of the kiss of Peace and Reconcilement used at the Eucharist Quae oratio saith he cum divortio sancti osculi integra quale sacrificium à quo sine pace receditur What Prayer can be complete that is without the holy kiss what a kind of Sacrifice is that from which Christians come away without the kiss of Peace Augustine De Civit. Dei Lib. 8. cap. 27. speaking of the honour of Martyrs Nec Martyribus saith he sacrificia constituimus quis audivit aliquando fidelium stantem Sacerdotem ad Altare etiam super sanctum corpus Martyris ad Dei honorem cultúmque constructum dicere in Precibus Offero tibi sacrificium Petre vel Paule c. We do not sacrifice
be the more happy in that day of vengeance and wrath upon our Nation Neither need we wonder that this Desolation should be called the End for our Saviour himself taught them so to speak in his Prophecy concerning it as may appear if we consider that Antithesis in S. Luke chap. 21. 9. Ye shall hear of wars and commotions but the End is not by and by Ver. 20. But when ye shall see Ierusalem encompassed with armies then know that the Desolation thereof is nigh AND thus much I thought to add to my former discourse of Latter Times lest through ignorance thereof we might incline to that little better than blasphemous conceit which Baronius by name and some other of Rome's followers have taken up viz. That the Apostles in such like passages as we have noted were mistaken as believing the End of the World should have been in their own time God of purpose so ordering it to cause in them a greater measure of zeal and contempt of worldly things An opinion I think not well beseeming a Christian. 1. For first whatsoever we imagine the Apostles might here conceive in their private opinions as men yet we must know that the Holy Ghost by whose instinct they wrote the Scriptures is the Spirit of truth and therefore what is there affirmed must be true yea though the Pen-man himself understood it not 2. It was not possible the Apostles should expect the End of the World to be in their own time when they knew so many things were to come to pass before it as could not be fulfilled in a short time As 1. The desolation of Ierusalem and that not till the seventy weeks were expired 2. The Iews to be carried captives over all Nations and Ierusalem to be troden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled 3. That in the mean time the Roman Empire must be ruined and that which hindered taken out of the way 4. That after that was done the Man of sin should be revealed and domineer his time in the Temple and Church of God 5. After all this viz. when the fulness of the Gentiles should come in that Israel should be received again to mercy 6. That Christ should reign in his Church on earth so long till he had put down all rule all authority and power and subjected all his enemies under his feet before he should subdue the last enemy which is death and surrender his kingdom into the hands of his Father 7. That the time should be so long that in the last days should come Scoffers saying Where is the promise of his coming How is it possible they should imagine the Day of Doom to be so near when all these things must first come to pass and not one of them was yet fulfilled And how could the expectation of this Day be made a ground of exhortation and a motive to watchfulness and prayer as though it could suddenly and unawares surprize them which had so many wonderful alterations to forego it and none of them yet come to pass I have spoken hitherto of what was revealed to all the Apostles in general But if we take S. Iohn apart from the rest and consider what was afterward revealed to him in Patmos we shall find in his Apocalyptical Visions besides other times more obscurely intimated an express prophecy of no less than a thousand years which whatever it mean cannot be a small time and must be fulfilled in this world and not in the world to come Notwithstanding all this I make no question but even in the Apostles times many of the believing Gentiles mistaking the Apostles admonitions to the Iews of the End of their State approaching thought the End of whole world and the Day of the Lord had been also near whom therefore S. Paul 2 Thess. 2. beseeches to be better informed because that Day should not come until the Apostasie came first and the Man of sin were revealed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expresly or In express words CHAP. XVI The Fourth Particular viz. The Warrant or Proof of this Prophecy When the Spirit speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Spirit foretold the Great Apostasy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly in Dan 11. vers 36 37 38 39. A View of these Verses in the Hebraw Text with an exact Translation of them both in Latin and English The chief Difficulties in these Verses explained and incidentally other places of Scripture The different opinions of Iunius and Graserus about Vers. 38. The Author's Translation free from the inconveniences of both A particular Explication of Mahoz and Mahuzim That hereby are meant Fortresses Bulwarks as also Protectors Guardians Defenders c. How fitly this Title is appliable to Angels and Saints accounted to be such by those that worshipt them NOW I come to the Fourth particular of this Prophecy The Warrant or Proof thereof The Spirit hath foretold it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in express words in some place or other of Divine Writ The Spirit told Peter Acts 10. 19. Behold three men seek thee The Spirit said Separate Barnabas and Saul Acts 13. 2. The Spirit forbade S. Paul to preach in Asia The Spirit said that the Iews should bind S. Paul at Ierusalem Acts 21. 11. But in all these the Spirit spake not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these things were nowhere written and therefore what it spake it spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only by secret Instinct or Inspiration But that which the Spirit speaks in the Written word that it speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verbatim expresly If therefore concerning this Apostasie of Christian believers to be in the Latter times the Spirit speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then is it to be found somewhere in the Old Testament for there alone the Spirit could be said to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or verbatim in the Apostles time Having therefore so good a hint given us let us see if we can find where the Spirit speaketh of this matter so expresly There are three main things in this our Apostle's Prediction whereof I find the Spirit to have spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in express words and that in the Prophecy of Daniel 1. Of these Last or Letter times 2. Of the new worship of Daemons in them 3. Of a Prohibition of marriage to accompany them As for the first of these the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latter times Daniel as you have heard before expresly names them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A time times and half a time being those Last times of the Last Kingdom wherein the Hornish Tyrant should make war with the Saints and prevail against them For the second A worship of new-Daemons or Demi-gods with the profession of the name of Christ you will perhaps think it strange if I should shew it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if I do it was
time of 49 years I would rather chuse to count the LXII Weeks from the same Epocha with them under Artaxerxes Mnemon than from the end of them and yet leave as probable a conjecture to be made of what was done in them as those who follow Funccius from the other Artaxerxes do use to give I have sometimes considered whether if it be translated Seven Weeks those Seven Weeks might not be applied as rotundus numerus to those Fifty and two days Nehem. 6. 15. where it is said So the Wall was finished in the 25 th day of the Month Elul in fifty two days somewhat more indeed than Seven Weeks yet short of Seven and an half and so not regarded in accompt by Weeks If this could be then the reason of the Angel's division of weeks into 7 and 62 would be because of diverse kinds of Weeks understood the first of days wherein the Wall of Ierusalem should be finished the second of years from thence unto the Messiah If it seem impossible or unlikely that the Wall of the City should be repaired in so short a time and therefore those words according to Iunius to be meant of setting up the doors and bars only I could say first that the Wall was not new builded from the foundations but repaired upon the old ruines Secondly the speedy dispatch thereof was taken for a wonder even by the Iews Enemies who thereupon saith the Text perceived that this work was wrought of our God So that were there no worse scruple than this it were easily answered nor would examples be wanting to parallel with it such as might make it seem at least possible As that strange and speedy building of the Walls of Athens by Themistocles after that Xerxes had demolished them reported by Diodor. Sic. lib. 11. Yea to come more near to the thing in question Iosephus l. 6. c. 13. De Bell. Iud. tells us That Titus dividing the work amongst his Army begirt Ierusalem in three days space with a Wall of thirty nine Furlongs and thirteen Bulwarks to hinder the Iews excursions from within and all relief from without What the materials were I know not but he says it was a thing beyond all belief and might have seemed to be a work of some Months But leaving this digression let us see the Computation and Impletion of our LXII Weeks The Computation and Impletion of the LXII Weeks FROM the seventh year of Artaxerxes Mnemon when Ezra had Commission to cause to Return and carry with him as many of the Iews as would to Ierusalem Ezra c. 7. ver 7 13 And from the twentieth year of the same Artaxerxes when Nehemiah obtained leave to build Ierusalem the City of his Fathers Sepulchres Nehem. 2 From both these Commissions though thirteen years distant the one from the other are by divine disposition unto MESSIAH the PRINCE threescore and two Weeks from the first of Solar from the latter of Lunar years For LXII weeks or 434 Lunar years are less than so many Solar as much as is between the seventh and twentieth of Artaxerxes Which admirable concordance I cannot impute to chance but ascribe to Divine providence so ordering it of purpose that these two Epocha's and Commissions To cause to Return and To build Ierusalem might be as one and the same And as the Lunar year is contained within the Solar and by it ordered and directed so is the Period here from Nehemiah's Commission to Build the City contained and reduced to that from Ezra's Commission to cause the people to return In the last of these Weeks according to prediction was Christ our Lord anointed In the beginning whereof exactly between the first and second Passeover after his Baptism when his Harbinger Iohn had now finished his Message and was cast in Prison a time precisely and purposely noted in the Evangelical Story he first began to preach in Galilee the Gospel of the Kingdom ordained his Apostles and proclaimed himself to be the MESSIAH After Iohn was put in Prison saith Mark 1. 14 15. Iesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God And saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The time is fulfilled i. the last week of the sixty two weeks is come and the Kingdom of God is at hand From that time saith Matthew c. 4. 17. Iesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand This was that day whereof Christ himself said at Nazareth that that Scripture was fulfilled The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor c. and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord Luke 4. 18 19. This the time and place whence S. Peter reckoned the beginning of Christ's Prophecy in his Sermon to Cornelius That word saith he which was published throughout all Iudaea and began from Galilee after the Baptism which Iohn preached c. Acts 10. 37. In the third year of this Week two years and an half after he began his Prophecy and three years and an half after his Baptism being made our Priest he offered himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice for sin was dead buried and rose again then ascended up into heaven to be installed and to sit at the right hand of God from thenceforth to reign until he hath put all his Enemies under his feet But you will say This was all performed four years before the 434 years which is sixty two Weeks of years were expired I answer as before The Angel reckons not by single years but by Weeks the last whereof should be Messiah's Week as we have shewed it to have been If the Angel had said There shall be 434 years unto MESSIAH then to make good the prediction MESSIAH must have been anointed the last year But when he says There shall be Sixty two Weeks unto MESSIAH it is sufficient he was anointed the last Week But how this Week will at length be compleat we shall see in the next verse But first let us demonstrate our Computation Ezra's Commission Darius Nothus died saith Diodor lib. 13. in the same year but a little while after the Composition of the Peloponnesian war which was in May Olymp. 93. 4. that is An. Olymp. 372. finiente Ergo  The first of Artaxerxes begins about August and concurs with An. Olymp. 373. The seventh of Artaxerxes with An. Olymp. 379. N. B. If Artaxerxes had began before August the number or date of his reign must have altered either in or between the first and fifth Month but they are both of one year Ezra 7. as also the first and the ninth Nehem. c. 1. c. 2. Christ's Prophecy Christ our Lord was Baptized Anno Olympiadico 805 ineunte about the Feast of Expiation in the seventh Month Tisri six Months after Iohn began to baptize and in that year natural and political which began in the 15 of Tiberius towards ending but was the 16 when he
put in mind thereof by those monuments set before him wherein we testified our own mindfulness thereof to his sacred Majesty that so he would for his sake according to the Tenour of the New Covenant in his Bloud be favourable and propitious to us miserable sinners In which words upon better and more serious consideration I observe you acknowledge 1. A Commemorative Sacrifice of Christians continually performed in ancient times 2. This hath been miserably corrupted by the Papists and transformed by the Papists into that Service which is called their Mass in distinction from their Mattins 3. That Protestants have justly abolished this prodigious and blasphemous Sacrifice of theirs 4. But they have not done well in that they have not reduced that ancient Commemorative Sacrifice of Christians save implicitly and obscurely Now in two things I am to seek for the understanding of your meaning 1. How we have reduced it in that implicite and obscure manner you speak of 2. How you would have it reduced in conformity to the Ancients and wherein this Conformity doth consist I remember what you alledged out of Clemens of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were to be performed in times prescribed by Analogie to the courses of Devotion commanded in the Old Testament Now this I guess you deliver not so much in respect unto the Sabbath-Service as unto the daily Sacrifice of a Lamb every morning I imagine you would have the celebration of that Service which we call the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to be daily but I presume not in a private manner but in the way of a Communion but unless it be twice a-day it is not congruous to the daily Sacrifice which was of a Lamb every evening as of a Lamb every morning And then again I find amongst the Ancients no small difference For a time it was celebrated in the evening only at least in some places and that with some difference for some celebrated it after they had eaten some fasted all the day before that they might come jâ—juni thereunto Now I would hear your judgement both of the practice of the Ancients in this particular wherewith I am not so well acquainted Our Saviour saith Do this in remembrance of me this prescribes nothing concerning the frequency of it S. Paul adds This do as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me Where also we find no certain time prescribed Act. 2. 42. We read that they continued in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers here likewise is no signification that this breaking of bread which I understand of the celebration of that Sacrament was performed daily And whereas vers 46. it is said that they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread at home did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart I have conceived it to be spoken of refreshing natural not Sacramental and Spiritual And Act. 20. 7. their meetings for breaking of bread seem to have been restrained to the First day of the week that being the day of their assembling themselves as it seems by 1 Cor. 16. 2. And Iustin Martyr makes relation of their Christian meetings when the Sunday comes 2. I would gladly know how far you think fit that custom of the Ancients you speak of whatsoever it be should be reduced and that clearly not implicitly and obscurely For I assure you I am much to seek in the meaning of this yet I have read in some sort Mornay upon the Mass and Bishop Morton too and somewhat in Baronius concerning this And I am in doubt whether the Papists themselves were it not for their Doctrine of Transubstantiation would not be as much to seek herein as we are That which you touch concerning the German War and the Causes of it and the Sin-mark I willingly profess doth make me melancholick for I cannot but sympathize with them Yet although as I understood when I was in the Palatinate none was more free from such Sacrilegious courses than the Palatine not only Bishopricks but even Monasteries continuing there of his Ancestors foundation yet have they suffered as much as any both first and last if not much more In the close of that large Letter of yours you signifie that you reserve one thing lest it might undergoe censure which otherwise you would communicate Good Sir you have no cause to distrust my censure I hear by Mr. B. it is concerning Cornelius whom you take to have been no Proselyte in any degree the contrary whereunto supposed in our Divinity-Schools was one of the first things I was acquainted with upon my coming to Oxford and since I find confessed by Schindler on the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet I pray let me see your Discourse thereon and let me know how you salve it for I am confident you are no Arminian The Text acknowledgeth him to be not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and one of good report amongst all the Iews and Act. 11. they that opposed Peter's going to him and his are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I heartily desire to know the most and worst that can be said against any Tenet of mine I shall be no loser by Truth Veritas magna est praevalebit against all opposition For that is from God Error and Falshood is from the Creature You may see by this I make you a great if not the greatest part of my study especially considering my infirmity at this time which requires I should rather be lying upon my Bed than either going or sitting up Your Answer to these particulars Zachary in two places the Prophecy of the fourth Chapter and that other of the 9 10 11. The sight of Cornelius and your explicating the Practice of the ancient Churches in their continual celebrating of that Commemorative Sacrifice in distinction from that which we do implicitly and obscurely will be a great refreshing to my spirit and consequently may prove some ease to my bodily infirmity also And I hope I shall trouble you no more unless it be to excite you to go on upon the Revelation The Lord give a blessing to all your studies and in good time perfect them to the consolation of his Church in these sorrowful days of Christendom Newbury 3. Aug. 1635. Your loving friend in the surest bond W. Twisse Post-script It is time to return that of yours ad Ludov. de Dieu which herewith I do Mr. B. knows him well and he desires to be heartily remembred unto you with many thanks for your kind and free entertainment of him EPISTLE LXI Mr. Mede's Answer about the seven Lamps in the Temple signifying the seven Archangels as also about the Pluscula in Zach. 9. 10 11. with an intimation of his purpose to perfect his Discourse on Dan. 12. 11 12. THE seven-lamped Candlestick in the Temple before the Veil signified the
him Ans. I suppose in the last year of his reign and life and that his ill usage at that time was the occasion of his so miserable death before he was yet gone from Ierusalem And yet perhaps those who came to fetch him went not home empty but carried those 3023 mentioned Ier. 52. 28. though I had rather refer them to Iehoiachin's going which was immediately Object The first deportation of the Iews was in the 7. of Nebuchadnezzar Ier. 52. 28. Therefore not the 4 but the 11. of Iehoiakim's reign Ans. Ieremy intended not a rehearsal of all the Captivities nor of the full number of captives as appears by the smalness of the number It may be those numbâ—rs contain men of particular quality and such as were disposed of in one and the same place But here I am resolved I. M. CHAP. II. The Mystery of S. Paul's Conversion or The Type of the Calling of the Iews 1. 1. PAVL among the sons of men the greatest Zelot of the Law and Persecutor of the way of Christ. THE Iews among the Nations most obstinate Zelots of Moses and the most bitter Enemies of the Followers of Christ. 2. 2. Paul in the height of this his zeal and heat of his persecuting fury found mercy and was converted The Iews though persisting unto the last in their extremity of bitterness and mortal hate to Christians yet will God have mercy on them and receive them again to be his People and be their God 3. 3. Paul converted by means extraordinary and for manner strange not as were the rest of the Apostles by the Ministerie of any Teacher upon earth but by visible Revelation of Christ Iesus in his glory from Heaven the light whereof suddenly surprising him he heard the voice of the Lord himself from Heaven saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me The Iews not to be converted unto Christ by such means as were the rest of the Nations by the Ministerie of Preachers sent unto them but by the Revelation of Christ Iesus in his glory from Heaven when they shall say not as when they saw him in his humiliation Crucifie him but Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord. Whose coming then shall be as a lightning out of the East shining into the West and the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the clouds of Heaven and every eye shall see him even of those which pierced him and shall lament with the Spirit of grace and supplication for their so long and so shameful unbelief of their so merciful Redeemer 4. 4. Those who accompanied Paul at the time of this Apparition saw the light only and were amazed but Paul alone saw the Lord and heard the voice which he spake unto him This Revelation of Christ from Heaven like to be most apparent to the Iews in all places where they are dispersed but not so perhaps to the Gentiles with whom they live The light of his glorious presence shall be such as the whole world shall take notice of but those only to see him and hear his voice who pierced him 5. 5. Paul no sooner converted but was immediately inspired with the knowledge of the Mysteries of Christ without the instruction of any Apostle or Disciple for he received not the Gospel which he preached of Man neither was he taught it but by the Revelation of Iesus Christ. He consulteth not with the rest of the Apostles but after 14 years preaching communicated to them the Gospel which he preached among the Gentiles who added nothing unto him but gave him the right hand of fellowship The Iews together with their miraculous Calling shall be illuminated also with the knowledge of the Mysteries of the Christian Faith even as it is taught in the Reformed Churches without any Instructers from them or Conference with them and yet when they shall communicate their Faith each to other shall find themselves to be of one communion of true belief and give each other the right hand of fellowship 6. 6. Paul the last called of the Apostles The Iews to be called after all the Nations in orbe Romano or in the circuit of the Apostle's preaching 7. 7. Paul once converted the most zealous and fervent of the Apostles The Iews once converted the most zealous and fervent of the Nations 8. 8. Till Paul was converted the Gospel had small progress amongst the Gentiles but when he became their Apostle it went forward wonderfully Till the Calling of the Iews the general Conversion of the Gentiles not to be expected but the receiving of Israel shall be the riches of the world in that by their restitution the whole world shall come unto Christ. 9. 9. The miracle of S. Paul's Conversion the person so uncapable till then a Persecutor and most bitter Enemy of Christians the manner so wonderful as by an Apparition and Voice from Heaven was a most powerful motive to make all those who heard and believed it Christians and therefore so often by S. Paul himself repeated The miracle of the Iews Conversion so much the more powerful to convert the Nations of the world not yet Christians by how much their opposite disposition is more universally known to the world than was S. Paul's and by how much the testimony of a whole Nation living in so distant parts of the world of so divine a miracle as a Vision and Voice from Heaven exceeds that of s. Paul being but one Man 10. 10. Paul reproveth Peter one of the chief Apostles for symbolizing with Iudaism May not the Iews likewise reprove if not more the Church of Rome the chief of Christian Churches for symbolizing with Gentilism S. Paul to Tim. 1 Ep. c. 1. v. 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth ill long-suffering for a Pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life CHAP. III. Answer concerning a Discourse inferring from the Septenary Types of the Old Testament and other Arguments That the World should last 7000 years and the Seventh Thousand be that happy and blessed Chiliad I. THE Millennium of the Reign of Christ is that which the Scriptures call The Day of Iudgment the ancient Iews and S. Iude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnus Dies Iudicii or Dies Iudicii magni Septimus Millenarius ab universa Cabbalistarum Schola saith Carpentarius vocatur Magnus Dies Iudicii Comment in Alcinoum Platonis pag. 322. A Day not as our languages commonly import of a few hours but according to the Hebrew notion from whence the name is derived of many years For with them Day is Time and not a short only but a long Time A Day whereof S. Peter speaking 2 Epist. chap. 3. tells the believing Iews his brethren as soon as he had named it vers 8. That he would not have them ignorant that one Day with the Lord was as a Thousand years and a Thousand years
the Apocalyptick Visions is expounded by the Angel 432 582. why she is said to have a golden cup in her hand and her Name written in her forehead 525 Wilderness Israel's being in the Wilderness and the Churche's abode in the Wilderness compared 906 907 Wing signifies in Dan. 9. an Army the fitness of the word to signifie thus 707. Wing of abominations is an Army of Idolarrous Gentiles ibid. How the Roman Army was the Army of Messiah 708 Witnesses why Two and in sackcloth 480 481. the two Wars of the Beast against them 765. their Slaughter how far it extends 760 761. their Death and Resurrection how to be understood 484 Women Why the Corinthian women are reproved for being unveiled or uncovered in the Church 61. how they are said to prophesie 58 59 Works Good Works 3 qualifications of them 217 c. 3 Reasons for the necessity of them 215 c. God rewards our Works out of his mercy not for any merit in them 175 World Heaven and Earth put according to the Hebrew idiom for World 613. That the World should last 7000 years and the Seventh Thousand be the Beatum Milleunium was an ancient Tradition of the Iews 892. World sometimes in Scripture put for the Roman Empire 705 Worship External worship required in the Gospel 47. Four Reasons for it 349 350. The Iews worshipped versus Locum praesentiae 394. That such Worshipping is not the same with worshipping God by an Image 395 To worship God in spirit and truth what 47. 48. The Worship directed to God is Incommunicable and why 638 639 Y. YEars That the Antichristian Times are more than 3 single Years and an half proved by 5 Reasons 598. The 70 years Captivity of the Iews in Babylon whence to be reckoned 658 Z. ZAchary The 9 10 and 11 Chapters in his Book seem to befit Ieremy's time better 786 833 c. Zebach or The bloudy Sacrifice defined 287 Zipporah deferred not the circumcision of her child out of any aversation of that Rite 52. her words in Exod. 4. 25. vindicated from the common misconstruction 53 c. ERRATA Page 481. line 3. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 790. l. 14. for Page r. Figure pag. 495. l. 10. r. Angelo pag. 496. l. antepenult r. legibus pag. 498. l. 1. r. crudelitate l. 41. r. Caesarum imperium A Catalogue of some Books Reprinted and of other New Books Printed since the Fire and sold by Richard Royston viz. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament by H. Hammond D. D. in Fol. Third Edition Ductor Dubitantium or the Rule of Conscience in Five Books in Fol. by Ier. Taylor D. D. and late Lord Bishop of Down and Gonnor The Practical Catechism together with all other Tracts formerly Printed in 4 o in 8 o and 12 o his Controversies excepted now in the Press in a large Fol. By the late Reverend H. Hammond D. D. The Great Exemplar or the Life and Death of the Holy Iesus in Fol. with Figures suitable to every Story Ingrav'd in Copper By the late Reverend Ier. Taylor D. D. Phraseologia Anglo Latina or Phrases of the English and Latine Tongue By Iohn Willis sometimes School-master at Thistleworth together with a Collection of English Latine Proverbs for the use of Schools by William Walker Master of the Free-School of Grantham in 8 o new The Whole Duty of Man now Translated into the Welch Tongue at the command of the four Lord Bishops of Wales for the benefit of that Nation By Io. Langford A. M. in 8o. The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the necessity end and manner of Receiving the Holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in memory of our Blessed Saviour in 8 o By the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. Chaplain in Ordidinary to his Sacred Majesty A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Non-conformist in 8o. Peace and Holiness in three Sermons upon several occasions the First to the Clergy Preached at Stony-Stratford in the County of Buoks being a Visitation-Sermon published in Vindication of the Author The Second preached to a great Presence in London The Third at the Funeral of M rs Anne Norton by Ignatius Fuller Rector of Sherrington in 8 o new A Discourse concerning the true Notion of the Lords Supper to which are added two Sermons by R. Cudworth D. D. Master of Christs-Colledge in Cambridge in 8o. The Works of the Reverend and Learned Mr. Iohn Gregory sometimes Master of Arts of Christ-Church in Oxon. 4o. The Sinner Impleaded in his own Court to which is now added the Signal Diagnostick by Tho. Pierce D. D. and President of St. Mary Magdalen-Colledge in Oxon. in 4o. Also a Collection of Sermons upon several occasions together with a Correct Copy of some Notes concerning Gods Decrees in 4o. Enlarged by the same Author Christian Consolations drawn from Five Heads in Religion I. Faith II. Hope III. The Holy Spirit IV. Prayer V. The Sacrament Written by the Right Reverend Father in God Iohn Hacket late Lord Bishop of Leichfield and Coventry and Chaplain to King Charles the First and Second in 12 o new A Disswasive from Popery the First and Second Part in 4 o by Ier. Taylor late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor The Principles and Practises of certain several Moderate Divines of the Church of England also The Design of Christianity both which are written by Edward Fowler Minister of Gods Word at Northill in Bedfordshire in 8o. A Free Conference touching the Present State of England both at home and abroad in order to the Designs of France in 8 o new to which is added the Buckler of State and Iustice against the design manifestly discover'd of the Universal Monarchy under the vain Pretext of the Queen of France her pretensions in 8o. Iudicium Vniversitatis Oxoniensis à Roberto Sandersono S. Theologiae ibidem Professore Regio postea Episcopo Lincolniensi in 8o. The Profitableness of Piety open'd in an Assize Sermon preach'd at Dorchester by Richard West D. D. in 4 o new A Sermon preached at the Funeral of the Honourable the Lady Farmor by Iohn Dobson B. D. Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen-Colledge in Oxon. in 4 o new THE END * All of them except some few mentioned at the end of this Preface * None of which were number'd among the Errata * Pag. 109. lin 21. ‖ These the Author a little before calls the Two parts of Repentance Aversion from sin the first Conversion to God the second part ‖ See p. 280. lin ult ‖ See p. 276 279 281. * Luk. 6. * Chap. 4. 15. * Chap. 2. ‖ Rev. 10. 9. * See a particular account both of the Enlargements and of the Additiâ—nals at the end of this Preface * See a particular account both of the Enlargements and of the Additiâ—nals at the end of this Preface * See Epistle 97. p. 881. * p.