be once prepar'd and disposed to follow Christ unless we also persevere in our Course after him Now then the Bridegroom is Christ himself the time of the Wedding is at his last coming the night is the melancholy state and condition of the Church in the World the Virgins are they that make profession of the purity of the Gospel and the wise Virgins are the true Believers that are constantly provided in their Hearts to receive him at his coming making an holy Life and Practice their daily Business through the assistance of Divine Grace which is the Oil that burneth howsoever it be not always in actual exercise but the foolish ones are they in the Church who have been very negligent to excite and cherish the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit the Lamps are their Hearts which are unprovided the Slumber is their Remissness and Cessation from continual exercise of Piety without expectation of Christ's sudden appearance caused chiefly through the Infirmity of the Flesh that is unactive and tired out through his long delays of coming The Holy Scripture is very full of Allegories of all sorts See Job 20. 12 13. c. 27. v. 20. c. 28. v. 9. Psal 23. v. 1. 69. 1 2 3. 75. 8. 80. v. 8 9 10. Prov. 3. 8. Isai 1. 5 6 7. 30. 30. Matt. 3. 10 12. 5-13 7 3 4 5 6. 9. 14. Luk 9. 62. Rom. 11. 16 17 18. But I should be too tedious should I give you an accurate view of the particular Instances belonging to this Figure METALEPSIS Metalepsis multiplies a Trope in one word when one improper term serves to express another by it till you arrive at the most proper one of all Matt. 21. 20. All the City was moved The word City here signifies Jerusalem the general term comprehending the particular by Synecdoche generis and Jerusalem denotes the Inhabitants of it by a Metonymy of the Subject Lament 4. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for very thirst here first by the extreme thirst of the sucking Infant is signified the barren and dry breasts of the Mother and by her Want of Milk extreme Hunger and Famine and by Famine the dismal Poverty and Misery of the People Four kinds of a Trope There are four sorts of a Trope Metonymy Irony Metaphor Synecdoche METONYMY Metonymy of the cause when the name of the very Person serves to express the act or operation proceeding from him thus The Holy Spirit sometimes signifies only regeneration or a new birth which is the peculiar efficacy of the third Person in the Blessed Trinity Psal 51. 10. Renew a Right spirit within me and to the very same purpose see Ezek. 36. 26. Eph. 4. 23. Rom. 12. 2. all which places seem to imply nothing less than a moral change wrought in our Souls by the Influence of divine grace whereby we become regenerate or born again 1 Thess 5. 19. 't is the admonition of St. Paul not to quench the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a similitude borrowed from the fire of the ancient Altars which was continually to be preserved alive and so here he must not extinguish the Gifts of the Spirit but keep them in constant exercise such are Grace Charity meekness c. See Matt. 25. 8. 2 Tim. 1. 6. The very same Apostle commands us to stir up the Gift of the Holy Spirit that is Grace or Faith or Godliness or some other divine Quality which is excited in us by the mighty energy power or operation of the Holy Ghost Spirit also sometimes signifies a divine power or energy reigning in the Soul of the regenerate Man See Luke 1. 46 47. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour There are not a few other places of Scripture where you will find the word Spirit is often made use of to express the new Man and spiritual strength Rom. 1. 9. Galat. 3. 3. Acts 17. 16. 2 Kings 2. 9. It was the earnest request of Elisha to Elijah let a double portion of thy Spirit be upon me that is give me an extraordinary measure of the gift of Prophecy and power in working Mirecles which are here called the portion of thy Spirit as being the peculiar gifts of the Holy Spirit conferred upon us See Num. 11. 25. 2 Kings 4. 1 and 42. Dan. 5. 12. Daniel had a more excellent spirit that is a more eminent gift of the spirit more knowledge and more understanding Numb 11. 25. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon the seventy Elders that is the Gift of Prophecy and Prediction Acts 19. 2. We have not so much as heard whether there be Any Holy Ghost that is we are very much Strangers to the virtue power or influence of him And you find afterwards they received the Holy Ghost that is the divine Inspirations of him which did eminently appear in the Gift of languages and of power of working Miracles and other kind of Wonders To the same purpose see Acts 1. 5. Jo. 7. 39. Rev. 1. 10. I was in the Spirit that is in a Rapture or Ecstasie in which the Understanding is exalted after a wonderfull manner to the Contemplation of Heavenly things Ezek. 37. 1. The hand of the Lord carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord that is by a vision occasioned by him where you see in both these places the Spirit the efficient Cause is put for the Effect proceeding from him Luke 16. 29. They have Moses and the Prophets that is the Books of Moses where by a Metonymy of the efficient Cause the Author is put for his Writings See Luke 24. 27. Eph. 4. 20. But ye have not so learned Christ that is the Gospel and Doctrines delivered by him Acts 2. 4. They began to speak with Other tongues that is with different sorts of languages Prov. 25. 15. A Soft Tongue breaketh the Bones that is a mild and courteous way of speaking softens the hardest Heart and most obstinate Resolutions where you see in both these places of Scripture the instrumental Cause signifies the Effect it self produced by it Gen. 11. 1. And the whole earth was of One lip that is of one language and uniform way of speaking Instrumentum pro Effectu ipso Job 31. 6. Let God weigh me in an even Balance the instrument of Equity and Justice for equity it self and so without a Metaphor the Phrase signifies no more but Let God try and examine me impartially Ezek. 7. 15. the Sword is without and the Pestilence and the Famine within that is death and ruin is scattered every where and is signified by those which are the unhappy instruments of it Matt. 10. 34. I came not to send Peace but a Sword that is variance and death and persecution instrumentum pro Re effecta Not that our Saviour's Coming was the proper Cause of such Unhappiness but so it should eventually happen out upon his appearance in our Nature because his
to us we might fansie there was some kind of truth in those impious and pernicious doctrines which tell us God design'd to make man to make him miserable even from all eternity but how unworthy are such notions of God who is infinite in goodness and mercy how contradictory to his loving-kindness to us Not willing that any should perish but that all should come and be saved Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God where the Passion of sorrow is applied to the Holy Ghost as a personal act and cannot with any propriety be ascribed to a mere power or faculty as some fansie the Holy Spirit and not to be a real Person Grieve not then the Holy Ghost the third Person in the Blessed Trinity lest he withdraw his comfort his joy and consolation from your heart lest the blessed influence of his grace departeth from you as from an unpleasant conversation Gen. 6. 6. God is said to repent See also 1 Sam. 15. 11 29. Not that there is the least change or alteration in God but only in the object in the works of his hand which were once good but now are evil for God himself is unchangeable and always the same but 't is his eternal will and pleasure that wicked men should be miserable and good men happy either here in this world or at least in the world to come which always is accomplished in some respect or other though we are sometimes unable to make the discovery of it we cannot look into the hearts of men and there see their joys or their sorrows growing up in their minds and therefore how often do we make a false estimate of the condition of the ungodly man and fansie him to be at ease and quiet in his thoughts and to live with pleasure and satisfaction who upon reflection upon his past actions and upon expectation of death and judgment is often a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief full of trouble and anxiety and thinks himself unhappy and miserable even beyond all expression Thus when God is said to descend which implies a local motion a motion from one place into another yet the phrase by interpretation signifies that God did there reveal and manifest himself Gen. 11. 5. Gen. 18. 21. I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come to me and if not I will know here God himself discourseth as a man to his neighbour as if he was not a Being of infinite knowledge but did receive his notice and information of worldly affairs by a gradual course of thinking and observation and by farther enquiries into second causes Thus God suffers himself to be discribed like a Judge who repairs to the place where the matter in question was transacted that by his personal appearance he may more fully and easily assure himself of the innocence or the guilt of the accused person and one reason why God makes use of such a form of speaking is to certifie us that there is not always one event to the righteous and to the wicked but that he rewards or punisheth man according to the rules and equity of Justice and not with unadviseable rashness and indeliberation And the Lord called unto Adam and said Where art thou Not that this kind of question in the least signifies that God possibly could be ignorant where Adam was but this way of speaking is rather a formal citation or a summons to Adam who seems unwilling to come and appear before his offended God being extreamly conscious of his sin and guiltiness and of his fall from the happy state of innocence and now beholding a mighty train of miseries which were to follow him as a just retribution for his disobedience One of the Fathers is of opinion this expression Where art thou is rather a severe kind of reprehension to Adam as if God said to terrifie him more exceedingly From what grace and innocence art thou fallen Come then and appear before me Where art thou and behold Adam was afraid And God blessed them saying Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the fowl multiply in the earth which kind of phrases denote nothing else but his divine appointment of the encrease of his Creatures in their kind for certainly you can never be so unkind to your own sence and reason as to fansie God speaks to his irrational Creatures as if they were capable to hear and obey his pleasure but God rather dictates to their proper natures and by natural instinct and inclinations he has given them power and virtue and efficacy to propagate and preserve their kind Isai 5. 6. I will command the clouds that they rain no more upon it and now who supposes that God himself presently sent strict orders to the Clouds to keep back their fall of waters for the expressian imports no more but this that God by the course of natural causes so disposeth things in heaven and earth that at such a time the Clouds of heaven should be void of water so that he orders second causes and the operations of them not according to the present exigency but by his infinite prospect into futurity he does antecedently so manage every thing that nothing falls out unexpectedly but according to his will and pleasure Psalm 18. 10. He rode upon a Cherub and did fly yea God did fly upon the wings of the wind which expression conveys to our mind a more sensible notion of speed God did not ride but fly even upon the very wings of the wind which is the highest degree of speedy motion that possibly can be describ'd to frame in us an Idea of his incredible swiftness And now because God is so indulgent to submit himself to our Capacities must we presently pretend to describe him according to the narrow proportions of man How does God baffle us how does he put us to silence when he is pleas'd to ask us questions beyond the compass of our knowledge Hath the rain a Father or who hath begotten the drops of dew Job 38. 28. that is Am not I the Lord and the Author of these and is there any one besides Job 38. 19. Where is the way where the light dwelleth and as for darkness where is the place thereof that is No man knows the particular points of the Sun 's rising or setting and now that God may make us still more sensible of our ignorance Hast thou says God entered into the springs of the seas or hast thou walked in the search of the depth that is Thou art perfectly a stranger to the whole course of nature Vers 22 23. Hast thou entred into the treasures of snow or hast thou seen the treasures of hail which I reserved against the time of trouble against the day of war and battle All which assure us that we are unacquainted with the secret cause and origin use and production of these things and
another mode of expression than our other thoughts which spring only from the cooler debates of reason and argument If you question this I appeal only to the most natural Impressions of any Passions and whether Nature her self discovers no sensible difference when she expresses her self in a passionate way as suppose now in a most violent transport of Anger and cannot you easily by the very Face discern what passes in the soul of a furious man Observe the fire the very sparkling of his eyes the wrinkles of his brow the most sudden changes of his countenance the mighty eagerness and the hesitation of his words are not these the natural expressions of this angry Passion which give us notice of the most disorderly motions of our spirits and that the very stream of our thoughts are in a most violent and rapid motion and therefore to express this furious Passion to the very life must there not be as great an alteration in all our words and phrases as there is in our very Faces and Complexions and this is enough to show that this and every Passion works very differently upon our minds and requires different expressions and colours of speech to give it a sensible representation Rhetorick then is a natural Language and a necessary Ornament of Discourse and many an honest Gentleman now and then stumbles upon a Trope or a Figure who was never acquainted with Mr. Butler or Farnaby and much less with such profane Authours as Aristotle or Quinctilian And are not Metaphors very frequent in holy Scriptures The Prophets themselves seldom give us a description of the fury of God's displeasure but they give him arms and hands and describe God preparing his mighty instruments of ruine his lightning and his thunder and by such formidable representations as these they work more powerfully upon our minds and there create the deeper impressions of his almighty Power But if Rhetorical Figures are as common as necessary must not that man be very ridiculous who examines every thing in a strict and literal sence What strange what mighty inconsistent notions must they then conceive of God himself or of his divine Attributes What gross and very absurd Idea's of his infinite Power if they should fansie God cannot accomplish the vengeance of his high displeasure without material organs without arms and legs Must not such a man transform himself into any shape of errour and delusion if he pretends to maintain the doctrine of literal explications must he not imbibe the false opinion of every Sect as often as their pernicious errours are sounded upon a literal sence and meaning Thus the Quaker must become a Roman Catholick because according to his Principle he must understand these words according to the very letter this is my body so must he believe the bread and wine to be substantially changed into the very body and blood of Christ and so at the least eventually if not designedly he will maintain the most absurd doctrine of Transubstantiation and truly perhaps their inward light may prove as dangerous and not so different from Infallibility But I do not charge them as if literal expositions of Scripture was their constant universal Principle but if they expound any Text literally though never so absurd and so contrary to other places of Scripture they may as well explain others in the very same manner till at last they become nothing but mistake and contradiction And now if they will needs understand this Text literally Matt. 5. 34. Swear not at all and not as if it was only a prohibition of rash and voluntary swearing in our common discourses although St. Paul himself useth an oath for confirmation Rom. 1. 9. For God is my witness whom I serve that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my Prayers And again Gal. 1. 20. Now the things which I write unto you behold before God I lye not Nay even God himself when he could not swear by a greater he swore by himself Heb. 6. 13. This is enough to show that the taking of an oath is not sinfull in its own nature when St. Paul and even God almighty makes use of an oath and therefore if the Quaker will still expound this Text according to the very letter in contradiction to other Texts of holy Scripture and in direct opposition to the very practice of St. Paul and even of God himself he may with as much reason expound other Texts in the same manner till he runs himself into the wildest absurdities A great Master of Eloquence has long a go made the observation That the Lawgiver of the Jews meaning Moses had a most incomparable notion of God's infinite power when he describes the Almighty thus giving his Orders for the creation and God says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let there be light and there was light as if there was no distinction between his pleasure for the creation of any Being and the actual formation of it and is not the expression it self very stately and full of majesty for he only says Let there be and it was so There are other expressions no less emphatical representing God most infinite in power and operation Isaiah 40. 12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meeted out the heaven with a span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in Scales and the hills in a balance As much as to say I the Lord only have done this And verse 17. All nations before him are as nothing and to whom then will you liken me saith the Lord And how does holy David break forth in a mighty admiration of his infinite power and greatness Psalm 104. 1 2 3. O Lord my God! Thou art very great thou art cloathed with honour and majesty who coverest thy self with light as with a garment who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain who layest the beams of his chamber in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariot comes flying upon the wings of the wind What can better represent to us his most incredible swiftness than when he thus describes God not only flying but even upon the very wings of the wind which still gives a most sensible Idea of the quickest motion that is possible Psalm 50. 11 12. How does God himself assert his own Supremacy over all things I know the fowles of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the world is mine and the fulness thereof Isaiah 5. 26. How does God promise that he will accomplish things most difficult with the greatest ease and facility to himself I will says God Lift up a sign unto the nations a far I will hiss unto them from the ends of the world and behold they shall come with speed God does not say he will call them with the mighty voice of his thunder but with the least kind of noise as it
thing that may be objected against us by answering by way of prevention the very objection our selves Rom. 11. 19 21 22. Thou wilt say then The branches were broken off that I might be graffed in Well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith Be not high minded but fear For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee St. Paul here obviates the objection of the Gentiles who were inserted into the body of the Church and the unbelieving Jews who are here styled the broken branches were rejected this he tells the Gentiles was a mighty favour of God so to incoporate them with his Church but then he also assures them that they must not so far presume upon their present state and vocation For if God spare not the natural branches that is the Jews themselves take heed lest he also spare not the◠For if by your disobedience you now incurr God's displeasure you cannot in reason but expect to suffer the same unhappy fare with the Jewish Nation St. Paul discoursing of the resurrection resolves a difficult question concerning the mode and manner of the resurrection and what sort of body shall be raised up from the grave But some will say How are the dead raised up and with what body do they come 1 Cor. 15. 35 36. Thou soul Our Saviour stifles their objection by offering another so very difficult that they were unwilling to answer it Matth. 21. 24 25. I will also ask you one question which if you tell me I likewise will tell you by what authority I doe these things The baptism of John whence was it from heaven or of men This was such a Dilemma and the resolution of it so highly inconvenient that they pretend ignorance and answer We cannot tell Rom. 9. 19 20. Thou wilt say them unto me Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God Thus St. Paul anticipates their false opinion assuring them that the work of grace is of God's mere free-will and if he doth deprive some of it he is not in the least guilty of any injustice to them since he is under no obligations to conferr it upon them and this very subtraction of his grace upon their impenitency and continuance in a vicious course of life is no cause of their sin and wickedness but on the contrary their disobedience and sinfull life is the reason why God withdraws the influence of his holy spirit from them and so our sins chase away the holy spirit and render its operation ineffectual to our conversion and so the heart of Pharaoh is hardned EPITROPE Epitrope from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concedo By this Figure we often grant a thing not unwillingly to obtain another and show more effectually the inconveniency of such a Practice or Principle Romans 2. 17. Behold thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God and art confident that thou thy self art a guide to the blind Thou therefore that teachest another teachest thou not thy self As if he said I grant thou art an Instructer of the foolish and a teacher of babes but then Why is thy conversation so unsuitable to thy doctrine Where is thy example Where is thy practice and Why are they so disagreeable to thy external profession thus How does our Apostle seem to concede all they desire to prove at last upon them that their practice was not consonant to their principles and from that absurdity more severely reprehends them Judges 10. 14. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen let them deliver you in the time of trouble This seems no small encouragement to their practice of idolatry but in reality 't is the strongest dissuasion from it and virtually implies the disability of other gods to save and deliver them in times of danger 1 Kings 22. 15. The King said to Micaiah Shall we go against Ramoth gilead to battel or shall we forbear and he answered him Go and prosper Where the Prophet seems to encourage them to the battel though he easily foresaw the dangerous consequence of the war 1 Cor. 14 38. But if any man be ignorant let him be ignorant still that is If after such a plain and positive proof of my ministery he will nevertheless resolve to continue ignorant of it let it be at his own peril where the concession is nothing else but a discouragement to his want of understanding and reflection in a matter of so high importance See Amos 4. 4 5. where the Prophet in a way of derision seems to approve of their idolatrous practives Prov. 6. 10. Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep As if he said You do well to indulge your self in ease and slothfulness but then at last how does the wise Man ruturn upon the Sluggard so shall thy Poverty come as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed Man and so more fully convinceth him of the great inconveniences of an idle way of living James 2. 19. Thou believest that there is one God thou doest well the devils also believe and tremble Where after this sort of commendation of their faith he at last tells them that such a belief without a suitable practice is vain and ineffectual and that even the devils themselves have a speculative faith Matth. 5. 46. If ye love them that love you what reward have you do not even the Publicans the same I will if you please saith the Apostle allow the matter of fact yet what use can you make of it where is the commendation where is the vertue of such a practice if the worst of men doe the very same These following are called secondary Figures of a word PLEONASMUS Pleonasmus you know Sir is a Greek word and 't is uncivil to explain it in your company This Figure makes use of more words than are necessary but they give a much stronger accent and emphasis to our discourses Deuter. 33. 6. O foolish people and unwise Which sort of expression still more eminently denotes their want of wisdom and discretion Prov. 27. 2. Let another man praise thee and not thy own mouth a stranger and not thine own lips And this variety of words is not so unusefull to engage our thoughts to consider with more attention the subject matter of our discourse and the importance of it See Deuter. 13. 4. John 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made And the variation of the sence in other words was very convenient to assure us that Christ was before the world and that all things in it were the works of his hand and from the universality of his creative power he must be omnipotent and therefore God for what less than infinite power it self can make and