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
Daemon-gods of the Nations for Christ's Monarchical Mediation excludes all other Mediators and Daemons not that the wooden Idol was ought of it self but that the Gentiles supposed there dwelt some Daemon therein who received their sacrifices and to whom they intended their services Thus may this place be expounded and so the use of the word Daemon in the worst sense or directly for a Devil will be almost confined to the Gospel where the subject spoken of being men vexed with Evil spirits could admit no other sense or use and yet S. Luke the best-languaged of the Evangelists knowing the word to be ambiguous and therefore as it were to distinguish it once for all doth the first time he useth it do it with an explication Chapter 4. verse 33. There was saith he a man in the Synagogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having the spirit of an unclean Daemon Thus much of the word Daemonium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture whereby I hope it appears that this place of my Text is not the only place where the word is used according to the notion of the Gentiles and their Theologists But you will say Did any of the Fathers or Ancients expound it thus in this place If they had done so the Mystery of iniquity could never have taken such footing which because it was to come according to divine disposition what wonder then if this were hidden from their eyes Howsoever it may seem that God left not his spirit without a witness For as I take it Epiphanius one of the most zealous of the Fathers of his time against Saint-worship then peeping took 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text for a Doctrine of worshipping dead men You may read him in the seventy eighth Heresie towards the conclusion where upon occasion of some who made a Goddess of the blessed Virgin and offered a cake unto her as the Queen of Heaven he quotes this place of my Text concerning them saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in English sounds thus That also of the Apostle is fulfilled of these Some shall apostatize from the sound Doctrine giving heed to Fables and Doctrines of Daemons for saith he they shall be worshippers of Dead men as they were worshipped in Israel Are not these last words for an Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But what will you say doth he mean by the Dead worshipped in Israel I suppose he means their Baalim who as is already shewed were nothing else but Daemons or Deified Ghosts of men deceased yet he brings in two examples besides one of the Sichemites in his time who had a Goddess or Daemoness under the name of Iephtah's daughter another of the AEgyptians who worshipped Thermutis that daughter of Pharaoh which brought up Moses Some as Beza would have these words of Epiphanius to be a part of the Text it self in some copy which he used But how is that likely when no other Father once mentions any such reading Nay it appears moreover that Epiphanius intended to explain the words as he quoteth them as he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Faith by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sound Doctrine and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erroneous spirits by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fables and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving heed to Doctrines of Daemons by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worshipping Dead men Otherwise we must say he used either a very corrupt copy or quoted very carelesly But grant that Epiphanius read so Either this reading was true and so I have enough because then the Apostle with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. should expound himself by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mean the Deifying of the dead Or it was not the original reading but added by some or other for explication sake and so it will follow that those who did it made no question but that the words there contained some such thing as worshipping of the dead Therefore take it which way you will it will follow that some such matter as we speak of was in times past supposed to be in this Text and Prophecy CHAP. VII Why those words in the description of the Mystery of Godliness Received into Glory are set last That praying to Saints glorified as Mediators and Agents for us with God is Idolatry For the proof of this several Grounds are laid down To be prayed to in Heaven and to present our Devotions to God and to deal as an Agent and Mediator between us and him is a Prerogative appropriate to Christ a Flower of his Glory and Exaltation to sit at God's Right hand a Royalty incommunicable to any other That none but Christ our High Priest is to be an Agent for us with God in the Heavens was figured under the Law in that the High Priest alone had to do in the Most holy place and there was to be Agent for the people That though Christ in regard of his Person was capable of this God-like Glory and Royalty yet it was the Will of God that he should purchase it by suffering an unimitable Death This proved from several Testimonies of Scripture Saint-worship is a denial of Christ's Prerogative Bread-worship in the Eucharist to what kind of Idolatry it may be reduced How Saint-worship crept into the Church NOW I come to the Second point to maintain and prove That praying to Saints glorified as Mediators and Agents for us with God is justly charged with Idolatry For this is the hinge whereupon not the Application only of my Text but the Interpretation thereof chiefly turneth For this is that which I told you in the beginning that my Text depended upon the last words of the former chapter and verse Received into glory which were therefore out of their due order put in the last place because my Text was immediately to be inferred upon them The like misplacing and for the like reason see Heb. 12. 23. where in a catalogue or recension of the parts of the Church Christ the Head and the sprinkling of his bloud is mentioned in the last place and after the spirits of just men because the next verses are continued upon this sprinkling of Christ's bloud Ye are come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect And to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel whereas the right order should have been◠First God the Iudge of all secondly Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant and thirdly in the last place the Spirits of just men made perfect Agreeably therefore to this dependance of my Text I am to shew That the Invocation of Saints glorified implies an Apostasie from Christ and a denial of his Glory and Majesty whereunto he is installed by his Assumption into heaven to sit at the right hand of God Which before I do I
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
apud Persas aureum caput arietinum pro diademate gestare as appears from Ammian Marcellinus l. 19. The clear understanding of these and many other particulars in those Chapters depends altogether upon History By all which it is manifest how necessary it is for the full understanding of several parts of Scripture to be acquainted as the Author was with the Original Languages ancient Versions the Genius and Idioms of the Scripture-style and also with History and the ancient Customes both of the Iews and others without which it would be a fruitless attempt even for such as otherwise are of good abilities to undertake to give a pertinent and satisfying account of the forementioned and other the like passages of Scripture And as for those who though they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and bring not forth the Fruits of the Spirit would engross the Spirit wholly to themselves as the Iews did the Messias to their Nation to the excluding of the Gentiles and ignorantly despise all humane Learning and means of Knowledge what has been said may abundantly check their vain confidence such Scriptures as I have instanced in and others of the like nature being not to be explain'd without skill in the learned Languages History and Antiquity which is not to be had but by a studious converse with the best Authors except they will say that such skill and knowledge is infused and that the particular Events and Res gestae at large treated of in Books are made known to them by extraordinary Revelation which yet they are so wary as not to pretend to as they are also so wise as not to pretend to the Gifts of Tongues or Interpretation of Tongues those Gifts of the Spirit not unusual in the Apostles Age. 3. His diligent enquiry and happy insight into the Oriental Figurative Expressions and Prophetick Schemes throughout the Scripture For he observ'd that there were especially in the Writings of the Prophets certain Symbols Emblems and Hieroglyphical representations which were no less familiar to those Eastern Nations than our Poetical Schemes and Pictures are to us and that the true meaning of these Symbols was to be found out by some such means as these as 1. By comparing those several places of Scripture where they occur and observing what they use to stand for or what their uniform signification and notion is in such places which may be farther cleared as by considering the fitness and analogy between those Symbols and the Things represented by them so likewise by attending to some Plainer expressions in the Context which are a certain Key to the understanding of those that are Figurative and Emblematical Thus what in Ier. 4. 23. is figuratively describ'd The Earth is without Form and void 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words used Gen. 1. 2 of the old Chaos and the Heavens have no light is the same with what is plainly express'd in the Context The whole Land is spoiled The whole Land shall be desolate And that in Haggai 2. 6 21. I will shake the Heavens and the Earth is explain'd by the words immediately following Thus in Zech. 11. 2. The Cedar is fallen the defenced Forest is come down is no other than that which is plainly set down in the same verse The mighty or the Nobles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are spoiled But in Dan. chap. 7. and ch 8. and in Apoc. 17. much of the Visions is there explain'd and the Symbols therein are render'd out of the Prophetical style afterwards into more easie and familiar sense 2. By observing how these Oriental Symbols are interpreted and render'd into plainer expressions by the Chaldee Paraphrasts who may justly be presum'd to know best what was meant thereby in those Countries as for example when the Prophets frequently speak of the Sun 's being darkned in its going forth the Moon not giving her light and elsewhere of the Stars falling from Heaven upon the Earth a phrase not to be understood Literally the Targum renders these and the like Prophetick strains in words that signifie the diminution of the Glory and Felicity of the State and the Downfal of the Grandees and Chiefs therein Sun Moon and Stars being put according to the Prophetick style for the Higher Powers Princes and Peers those Great Lights shining in the Firmament of the Political World Thus also when the Prophets denounce God's Iudgments to come upon all the Cedars and Oaks Esay 2. and when the Firre-trees and Oaks are bid to howl Zech. 11. the Targum in stead of mentioning these tall and goodly Trees has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princes of the People and Rulers of Provinces 3. By consulting such Authors as had collected any Fragments and Remains of the ancient Onirocriticks as Apomasar or Achmetes the Arabian published by the learned Rigaltius had of the Onirocriticks of the Indians Persians and Egyptians concerning which I need not enlarge the Author having inserted some pertinent Extracts thereof together with his judgment of their fitness to illustrate the meaning of the Prophetical Representations in his Commentary upon the Apocalyps p. 451. and elsewhere By which Onirocriticks it may appear what the Eastern nations did commonly suppose to be signified by such Symbols 4. His observing things in distant places of the Apocalypse to Synchronize and belong to the same time whence he was well assured That it was a false Hypothesis and a fundamental Error in any Commentators to think That all the Prophecies and Visions in this Mysterious Book are placed in such an order as is agreeable to the order of time wherein they were fulfill'd or That the Events succeeded one another in the same Series and order as the Visions do and consequently for them to frame their Interpretation of the Visions according to that deceitful Hypothesis and not according to that safe guidance and light which the Synchronisms afford must needs expose them to manifold mistakes from first to last and encumber the whole work with such Difficulties Inconsistencies and Incongruities in applying the Prophecies to History and Events as cannot possibly be excus'd and remov'd by all their wit were it greater than it is Of such consequence it is for all that would interpret the Apocalyptick Visions to take heed to the Apocalyptick Synchronisms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use S. Peter's expression as unto a light that shineth in a dark place Otherwise their whole Fabrick of Annotations will be but as a Building without a sure Ground-work and Foundation an House built upon the Sand which is but a fluid and uncertain bottome a Pile of private Fancies slight Conceits and weak Conjectures And though there may be some things therein which may have a shew of Learning and a seeming Concinnity to the injudicious and unskilful in the Prophetick Style yet the main of their performance for want of attending to this and the other means of knowledge mention'd in the foregoing particulars will
not swerving one jot therefrom as he somewhere professeth in his Epistles Yea so cautious and careful was he not to determine positively where the Scripture was not express that he confessed he durst not so much as imagine that Christ's presence in this Kingdom should be a Visible converse upon Earth He was also well aware that some both of elder and of later times degenerating from the Piety of the most ancient and purest Ages of the Church and swerving from that Primitive sober sense and harmless Notion of the Millennium which the Christian Church generally entertain'd in the days of Iustin Martyr had shamefully disfigur'd and deformed it with several erroneous conceits and idle fancies of their own But herein our Author's name and reputation is not concern'd he had nothing to do with the wood hay and stubble which some foolish builders had built upon the old foundation nor with those unseemly assumenta and disgraceful opinions which some that were miserable bunglers at the Interpretation of Prophecies had fastned upon the ancient Hypothesis He disavow'd with as much zeal as any one the extravagancies of such men and yet he would not in a rash heat wholly reject an ancient Tenet for having some Error annex'd to it for so he might sometime cast away a Truth as he that throws away what he finds because it is dirty it was his own comparison may perchance cast away a Iewel or a piece of Gold or Silver Thirdly and lastly to conclude this argument His Notion of the Millennial State was both Pure and Peaceable and therefore not unworthy of a fair construction Pure and clean it was altogether free from the least suspicion of Luxury and Sensuality It was his express Caution to beware of gross and carnal conceits of an Epicurean happiness misbeseeming the Spiritual purity of Saints If we conceit saith he any Deliciae let them be Spirituales which S. Austin confesseth to be Opinio tolerabilis lib. 20. De Civit. Dei. And therefore he was justly offended with Hierom. who being according to his wont a very unequal relator of the opinion of his Adverâ—aries imputed to the most ancient Fathers of the Church such an Unspiritual notion as this That the Felicity of this State was Beatitudo ventri gutturi Iudaico serviens and in several parts of his Writings he has clearly detected the unfaithfulness and falshood of Hierom in loading those Holy Souls with the charge of Iudaism and Epicurism as foul and undeserved an aspersion as could be imagined And verily such a Sensual State is so contrary to the character of the Kingdom of Christ and the true importance of what is meant by Reigning with Christ that it is no other in reality than the Kingdom of the Devil and a Reigning with him He well remembred that the proper Character of the New Heavens and the New Earth that is of the World renewed is thus described in S. Peter's Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein dwelleth Righteousness A greater increase of Piety and Peace than has yet been in the world is that which makes up the Primary notion of Felicity of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or World to come And what hearty Christian does not most affectionately desire that Righteousness and true Holiness Peace on earth and Good will towards men may spread and obtain more universally in the world These things would as naturally make the world Happy as the abounding of Iniquity with the decays of Charity in any age makes the world Miserable Nor was his Notion lets Peaceable and Pure as may partly appear by what hath been already observed He was a true Son of Peace and lived a life of Obedience to the Laws of the Realm and of Conformity to the Discipline of the Church He feared both the Lord and the King and medled not with them that were given to change And his Writings bare the Impress and Character of his Peaceable Spirit and Life for not one clause not a syllable not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that naturally tends to blow men up into such furious heats as threaten publick Disquietnesses and Embroâ—lments is to be found therein as neither in the Writings of Iustin Martyr Irenaeus Cyprian and others of utmost Antiquity whose Doctrine touching this Point as also their Practices were far from any shew of Unpeaceableness far from provoking to any thing but Love and Good works As our Author himself was a man of a cool Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so likewise is his Notion and representation of the Millennium cool and calm and moderate not ministring to Faction and Sedition to Tumults and subversion of all Degrees and Orders of Superiority in the publick And assuredly the Happiness of the Millennial State shall take place in the world without that Disorder and Confusion which some men have extravagantly imagined men of unhallowed minds and consciences who judging of things according to the lusts of ambition and love of the world reigning in them have deprav'd and stain'd this Primitive Tenet the ancient sober and innocent notion of the Kingdom of Christ as likewise every other Mystery with not a few carnal conceits and intolerable fancies of their own And thus unto them that are defiled is nothign pure Nor shall those Tempora refrigerii ever be brought in by hot fanatick Zelots men set on fire in the Psalmist's phrase and ready also to set on fire the Course of Nature as S. Iames speaks such as are skilful only to destroy and overturn Destruction and Wasting are in their ways they are good at making the World a miserable uncomfortable and unhabitable place but the way of Peace they have not known as for Peace and Charity they have no right sentiments thereof and know not what belongs to them And therefore the Temper and Frame of their spirit being perfectly contrary to the Temper and Quality of those Better times they are thereby render'd uncapable either of furthering and hasting the Felicities of the New Heavens and Earth or of enjoying them when the New Ierusalem shall be come down from God out of Heaven and the Tabernacle of God shall be with men For the primary Character of that Future State being as was before observed Vniversal Righteousness and Good will Piety and Peace it naturally follows That they who are men of embitter d passions and of a destroying Spirit altogether devoid of civility gentleness and moderation kindness and benignity towards men and altogether unacquainted with what is lovely decorous venerable praise-worthy equitable and just can have no part nor lot in this matter so gross and course a constitution of spirit as theirs is speaks them unqualified for the Happiness of this Better State Nor can they ever be made meet for the World to come and the Kingdom of Christ till they have got the victory over their Self-love and Love of the world over their Pride and Envy their Wrath and
but I fear that the maintenance thereof by Fallacy or Falshood may not end with a blessing Thus did he upon occasion express himself with a just reflexion upon some who pretending to Policy did prudently as they thought advise That for the better securing and advancing some Doctrines men should be born in hand that they were Fundamental and accordingly were to receive them as such But our Author who was a great lover of Truth endeavouring to judge and speak of every thing according to the truth of the thing and who always valued the Iacob-like Plainness and Simplicity of spirit a free Openness and Singleness of heart in any faithful Christian as an high Perfection look'd upon all such Practices with the greatest disgust and abhorrence and so will every one who is an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile And yet though it be a most unworthy it has been nevertheless a too common and usual artifice among some of the divided Churches in Christendom to heighten Speculative Doctrines and such as are less weighty and sometimes doubtful and uncertain into Fundamental Articles especially when it is for the advantage of the party that they should be deem'd such But it had been infinitely better if the Moderation of the Church of England as to Articles of Religion had been imitated in other Churches for want whereof elsewhere Ex Religione Arsfacta est cui deinde consequens fuerit ut ad exemplum eorum qui turrim Babylonicam aedificabant affectatio temeraria rerum sublimium dissonas locutiones discordiam pareret as Grotius complains upon a like occasion in his De Veritate Relig Christ. l. 6. We might also briefly observe another Instance of his Prudence and that was as to the choice of the fittest and most seasonable Time for communicating Truth to others And indeed this was a point of Prudence which he would advise should be most carefully consider'd as being in his esteem half the work otherwise some Useful Notions might because they were Uncommon be rashly condemned before they were well considered and understood and there are none more ready to condemn than the half-learned and half-witted which are not the less numerous nor the less confident sort of men who stear not as he observed by Reason but by another Compass viz. Faction or Interest or Affection c. So true is that of the Comoedian Homine imperito nunquam quidquam injustius Qui nisi quod ipse facit nihil rectumputat Whereasmen of the greatest Reason deepest Iudgment and noblest Accomplishments are also men of the greatest Civility Candour and Ingenuity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 34. And now having advanced thus far in the Description of his Vertues we may not silently or slightly pass over his Charity a Grace that was very eminent and conspicuous in him and so it ought to be in every Christian it being the peculiar Badge and Livery of Christ's Disciples as well as their indispensable Duty and necessary Qualification for their doing good here and their receiving a Reward hereafter And therefore to allude to that in 1 Cor. 13. although our Author had great skill in Tongues and had the gift of Prophecy and understood Mysteries and was also able to remove Mountains of Difficulties so as to make all become plain and smooth particularly as to the understanding of hard passages in the more Mysterious and Prophetical Books of H. Scripture yet notwithstanding all these Accomplishments had he not had Charity he had been nothing better nay he had been just nothing according to those two observable expressions in that fore-named Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Knowledge if alone might have been apt to puff him up but his Charity which accompanied it both disposed and enabled him to edifie and build up others in the most holy Faith in sound Wisdom and Understanding His Charity was of the right kind and could have approved itself such to those that were capable to judge thereof by all those Fifteen Properties mentioned in that Chapter as the sure Marks and proper Characters of the genuine Christian Charity But to insist upon so many particulars would be an unreasonable Excursion and an unmerciful usurping upon the Reader 's Patience And besides it is not very needful some of those Properties having been more or less spoken to already in some foregoing Sections To pretermit therefore his most endearing Sweetness and obliging Affability in converse with others his absolute Inoffensiveness either in words or behaviour towards all men his rare Communicativeness and singular Alacrity in imparting what he knew to those who were of a soberly-inquisitive Genius all which were the fair Fruits and excellent Effects of the true Christian Love we shall select only Two more General Instances whrein he express'd his Charity towards men for of that we are speaking and they were 1. His careful concealing or lessening of others Failings and Imperfections So far was he from making the worst of every thing as some do who without making any favourable allowances are extream in marking what is amiss And 2. His free relieving of the Necessitous So far was he from hiding his face and shutting up his bowels from the poor and needy in the day of their distress He was so perfect in the first instance that he would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak evil of no man much less would he watch for their halting as one that rejoyced in iniquity Nay at such a distance he was from that evil but epidemical humour that he chose rather to speak well of those in whom he had only Hope for a ground of commendation Nor did he only conceal and cover the faults of others even of his Enemies as far as the circumstances would bear and in case it were not a greater Charity sometimes to disclose them but he would also avoid the company of such as he had observed to please themselves or thought to tickle ill-minded persons in passing unworthy censures upon other men And thus sometimes by silence sometimes by rebuke and when it was convenient by withdrawing from the place and company he declared he would have no share in the sin of those who endeavoured to shew their uncharitable wit in either disparaging the parts or vilifying the performances of others As for himself when his own name was concern'd he was signally Patient even another Moses for Meekness vir mitissimus he knew how to bear personal disrespects with an untroubled spirit nobly and meekly and thus according to that of Siracides he glorified his Soul in Meekness An instance whereof appears in his civil Reply to the Strictures of Dan. Lawenus which were not without some angry and unhandsome reflexions upon our Author The man had a long time been poring upon the Apocalyps and seem'd to envy him the praise due to him for his Apocalyptick Labours fearing belike that thereby Mr. Mede would increase and his
Christ were not where the Name of God is call'd upon in publick through the Mediation not of Saint or Angel but of the One Mediator Christ Iesus and where the Word of Christ not unwritten and uncertain Traditions and fabulous Legends is publickly read and preach'd and hath prosper'd through God's blessing to the conversion and salvation of many thousand Souls But our Author being a strong and adult Christian one that could see into the nature and reasons and consequences of things one that had look'd into the perfect Law of liberty and was establish'd with a free spirit well knew the slight insignificancy of what is pretended by some for their uncharitable Separations and that their way was not Perfection but Weakness an argument of a low narrow and Iewish spirit that would engross Messias only to themselves and confine him to their particular modes and no less an argument of a weak servile and really Superstitious spirit to be unreasonably scrupulous about things of an indifferent nature to forbid themselves such things as God hath no-where forbidden and to put a greater stress upon the doing of some things and the not-doing of other things than either the Scripture hath or the nature of the things will bear And therefore the Scripture represents those of this temper as Weak in the faith in opposition to the Strong who as they manifest themselves to be such in a not being over-sollicitous about those little things though in the mean while most mindful and strictly observant of the necessary and substantial things of Religion which are all clearly declar'd in the H. Scripture so likewise in that they can better bear the censurings and sometimes unhandsom dealings of those that are Weak and find it more easie to treat such civilly and to look upon them with a more benign and clear aspect than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do at least some of them if we may judge of men by their behaviour But of that better temper was our Author a person that did not proudly or passionately despise or behave himself unseemly to those that dissented from him for then of Strong he had become Weak nor would he do any thing that was uncivil or unhumane unto any he could say in a very good sense to borrow that of the Comoedian Homo sum humani à me nihil alienum puto 45. Before we conclude this argument it may be Operae-pretium to superadde one useful Observation and Notion of our Author's not impertinent to the present business There were some in his time who thought themselves excused for non-compliance with the establish'd Liturgy and Orders Ecclesiastick by a vulgar yet false notion of Scandal as if To Scandalize were To displease or aggrieve others or To occasion the dislike or anger of others as of such particularly who had formerly entertain'd a good opinion of them and their Ministery Now as these things came sometimes to be mention'd in discourse he was wont to express his Thoughts concerning the right and genuine notion and importance of that word to this sense That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and having a Transitive signification as words in the Conjugation Hiphil have in Hebrew and therefore well render'd To make to offend 1 Cor. 8. 13. and so in the Margin Matth. 5. 29. doth according to the Syle of the Scripture generally import thus much By our actions to induce another to sin in imitation of our evil example and so to put a Stumbling-block in the way of piety and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fitly render'd Stumbling-block in Rev. 2. 14. where Balaam is said to have taught Balak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel c. or when it is joyn'd with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Stumbling-block it is as fitly render'd an occasion of falling Rom. 14. 13 Nor is this sense much distant from the Etymon of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à claudicando and accordingly To Scandalize is to make or to occasion one to fall or some way or other to hinder one from walking evenly steddily and regularly as he ought And agreeable to this sense is that observable description of Scandal given by Tertullian Scandalum ni fallor non bonae rei sed malae exemplum est aedificans ad delictum This our Author did apprehend to be the proper notion of the word rather than that which the other did pretend viz. To do that which may displease or grieve or vex others For some are angry without a cause and are offended and displeas'd sometimes at that which is not in itself evil yea are grieved and vexed when another is doing his duty and being so affected are therefore far from being induced and emboldened to the practice of that which the other accounts his duty and consequently far from being Scandaliz'd according to the general sense of the word in Scripture only they are displeas'd offended and angry but without any just cause and therefore not to be justified in that humour as neither are the Ministers upon that score to think themselves excus'd from their duty For a man to neglect his Duty and such as the performance whereof is accompanied with the advantage of being instrumental to the best good of others is plainly to displease and offend God who is never displeas'd but justly But to offend man is not always to sin against our Brother and to do that which may displease or dislike others and how is it possible in such a contradiction of humours and vast contrariety of fancies not to be displeasing unto some is not necessarily to Scandalize in the Scripture-idiom Besides what the great Apostle saith would be seriously consider'd Do I seek to please men For if I yet pleas'd men I should not be the Servant of Christ To this purpose has our Author been known to express himself in familiar discourse with some Friends And much-what like the Notion did the Learned Dr. Hammond happily light upon as appears by his elaborate Tract of Scandal 46. HITHERTO we have endeavour'd though in a rude and imperfect draught to represent the rich Endowments of his Mind together with those Vertues and Graces that adorn'd and beautified his Inward man and made his Soul a meet Habitation for the Divine Shechinah which loves to rest in such Souls as are Holy Humble and Meek full of Charity and Good will towards men It remains now before we conclude this Narrative that we add something concerning the Frame and Temper of that Body wherein this excellent Soul dwelt that Earthen Vessel wherein these Heavenly Treasures were deposited and which only of him was capable of Mortality and thence pass to the last Scene and Epilogue of his Life His Body was of a comely proportion rather of a tall than low stature In his younger years as he would say he was but slender and
Experience which shews us that the Evil spirits are not yet bound with eternal chains having so much liberty of gadding about supplies in the Text vinciendos as if there were an Ellipsis reading it thus Iudicio magni illius Diei vinculis aeternis vinciendos reservâsse He hath reserved them to be bound in eternal chains at the Iudgment of the great Day In that of S. Peter if I understand him he takes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for Dativus instrumenti with chains of darkness but as Dativus acquisitionis for chains of darkness and construes it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were He delivered them for chains of darkness namely supposing a trajection of the words But for my part I take both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Iude to be neither of them Dativus Instrumenti but both Acquisitionis or Finis and governed the one of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in the Hebrew the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serves both for the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for the Dative Case whose propriety the style of the Greek Testament every where imitates and why not in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for not with chains Nay among the Greek Grammarians we find observed that the Dative Case is sometimes put for the Accusative with the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in this example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more in the sacred Greek which so frequently imitates the Hebrew Construction Next for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once used and so not bound by any use or example to the signification which we here give it to wit casting down to hell I would therefore render it ad poenas tartareas damnavit he hath adjudged them to hellish torments to wit thus Angelos qui peccaverunt cum ad tartari supplicium damnasset catenis caliginis servandos tradidit ad Diem Iudicii Having adjudged the Angels that sinned to hell-torments he delivered them to be kept or reserved in the Aiery region as in a prison for chains of darkness at the Day of Iudgment For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudgment here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of Iudgment as S. Iude hath it So also Matth. 12. 42. The Queen of the South shall rise in Iudgment with this Generation that is in or at the Day of Iudgment Or if I would render it not casting down to hell but casting down to hell-ward so the meaning in both places will be That the wicked Angels were cast down from Heaven to this lower Orb there to be reserved for chains of darkness at the Day of Iudgment Which sense the ninth verse of this Chapter of S. Peter plainly intimates by way of reddition Novit Dominus pios in tentatione cripere The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly in temptation as he did Noah and Lot Injustos verò in diem Iudicii cruciandos servare But to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Iudgment to be punished as he doth the wicked Angels Moreover verse 17. where the same hellish darkness is spoken of it is said to be reserved for the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom that hideous darkness is reserved for ever whence it is probable that S. Peter in the foregoing passage of Angels referred also those chains of darkness to reserving and not to delivering that is not that the evil Angels were now already delivered to chains of darkness but reserved for them at the Day of Iudgment AND thus much for clearing of the words of these two parallel Texts Now what hath been anciently the current opinion about this point And first for the Iews it is apparent to have been a Tradition of theirs That all the space between the Earth and the Firmament is full of Troops of Evil spirits and their Chieftains having their residence in the Air which I make no doubt but S. Paul had respect to when he calls Satan the Prince of the power of the Air. Drusius quotes two Authors one the Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another one of the Commentators upon Pirke Aboth who speak in this manner Debet homo scire intelligere à terra usque ad firmamentum omnia plena esse turmis praefectis c. A man is to know and understand that all from Earth to the Firmament is full and no place is empty of Troops of Spirits together with their Chieftains and such as are Praepositi all which have their residence and fly up and down in the Air some of them incite to peace others to war some to goodness and life others to wickedness and death By Praepositi I suppose he means such among the Spirits as are set as Wardens over several charges for the managing of the affairs of mankind subject to their power This was the Opinion of the Iews which they seem to have learned by Tradition from their ancient Prophets for in the Old Testament we find no such thing written and yet we see S. Paul seems to approve it Now for the Doctors of the Christian Church S. Hierome upon the sixth of the Ephesians tells us that their Opinion was the same ' T is the opinion of all the Doctors â—aith he that the Devils have their Mansions and residence in the space between the heaven and the earth And that the Fathers of the first 300 or 400 years nor did nor could hold the evil Angels to have been cast into Hell upon their sin is evident by a singular Tenet of theirs For Iustin Martyr one of the most ancient hath this saying That Satan before the coming of Christ never durst blaspheme God and that saith he because till then he knew not he should be damned The same is approved by Irenaeus lib. 5. cap. 26. Praeclarè saith he dixit Iustinus quòd ante Domini adventum Satanas nunquam ausus est blasphemare Deum quippe nondum sciens suam damnationem Post adventum autem Domini ex sermonibus Christi Apostolorum ejus discens mâ—nifestè quoniam ignis aeternus ei praeparatus sit per hujusmodi homines blasphemat eum Deum qui judicium importat It was a worthy saying of Iustin That Satan before the coming of our Lord never durst blaspheme God as not till then knowing he should be damned But after the coming of our Lord he clearly understanding by the Discourses of Christ and his Apostles that everlasting fire was prepared for him by these men Irenaeus means those Hereticks who blasphemed the God of the Law
Levites meaning the chief in both sorts This honourable name the Apostles gave as a name of distinction to the Evangelical Pastors whereby they dignified them above those of the Law whose name in the Hebrew as I said before is but a denomination of Ministry And we have rejected the name of Dignity of Fathership of Eldership and assumed in stead thereof a name of under-service of subjection of Ministery to distinguish our Order by I say to distinguish our Order for in a general sense and with reference to God we are all his Ministers and it is an honour unto us so to be more than to be other mens Masters as our Apostle in my Text intimates Fourthly In the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas there is a worse Solecism by reason of this misapplied speech They have a kind of Officers who are the Pastors assistants in Discipline much like to our Church-wardens these they call Elders we style them Lay-Elders These are but a kind of Deacons at the most and of a new erection too and yet these are dignified by the name of Elders and Presbyters who are indeed but Deacons or Ministers and the Pastor himself is called a Minister who in the Apostles style is the only Presbyter or Elder For so they speak The Minister and his Presbyters or Elders To conclude it had been to be wished that those whom the term of Priest displeased as that which gave occasion by the long abuse thereof to fancy a Sacrifice had rather restored the Apostolical name of Presbyter in the full sound which would have been as soon and as easily learned and understood as Minister and was no way subject to that supposed inconvenience But the mis-application of the word Presbyter in some Churches to an Order the Apostles called not by that name deprived those thereof to whom it was properly due Howsoever when they call us Ministers let them account of us as the Ministers of Christ and not of men not as deputed by the Congregation to execute a power originally in them but as Stewards of the Mysteries of God DISCOURSE VI. S. IOHN 10. 20. He hath a Devil and is mad IT is a matter of greater moment than perhaps every man thinks of under what notions Things are conceived and from what property or Character the Names we call them by are derived For hereby not seldom it comes to pass that the same things presented to us under different notions and names derived therefrom are not taken to be the same they are Even as he that meets a man well known unto him in an exotick disguise or antick habit takes him to be some other though he knew him never so well before For example a man would wonder that a Comet as we call it being so remarkable and principal a work of the Divine power and which draws the eyes of all men with admiration towards it should no where be found mentioned in the Old Testament neither there where the works of God are so often recounted to magnifie him whenas Hail Snow Rain and Ice works of far less admiration are not pretermitted neither by way of allusion and figured expression in the Prophets predictions of great calamities and changes whereof they were taken to be presages especially when we see them borrow so many other allusions both from heaven and earth to paint their descriptions with Should a man therefore think there never appeared any of them in those times or to those Countries It is incredible Or that the Iews were so dull and heedless as not to observe them That is not like neither What should we say then Surely they conceived of them under some other notions than we do and accordingly expressed them some other way As what if by a Pillar of fire such a one perhaps as went before the Israelites in the Wilderness Or by a Pillar of fire and smoke as in that of Ieel 2. 30. I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth Bloud and Fire and Pillars of smoke Or by the name of an Angel of the Lord whereby no doubt they are guided according as it is said of that Pillar of Fire which went before thâ—â—â— raclites that the Angel of God when they were to pass the Red Seaâ— came and â—â—ood between them and the AEgyptians when that Pillar did so And who knows whether that in the 104. Psalm v. 4. may not have some meaning this way He maketh his Angels Spirits or winds and his Ministers a Flame of fire to wit because they are wont to appear in both It comes in in the Psalm among other Works of God in a sit place for such a sense both in regard of what goes before and follows after These I say or some of these may be descriptions of those we call Comets which because they are disguised under another notion and not denominated from Stellâ— or Coma hence we know them not Now to come toward my Text alike instance to this I take to be that of the Daemoniacks so often mentioned in the Gospel For I make no question but that now and then the same befals other men whereof I have experience my self to wit to marvel how these Daemoniacks should so abound in and about that Nation which was the People of God whereas in other Nations and their writings we hear of no such and that too as it should seem about the time of our Saviour's being on earth only because in the time before we find no mention of them in Scripture The wonder is yet the greater because it seems notwithstanding all this by the Story of the Gospel not to have been accounted then by the people of the Iews any strange or extraordinary thing but as a matter usual nor besides is taken notice of by any forein Story To meet with all these difficulties which I see not how otherwise can be easily satisfied I am perswaded till I shall hear better reason to the contrary that these Daemoniacks were no other than such as we call Mad-men and Lunaticks at least that we comprehend them under those names and that therefore they both still are and in all times and places have been much more frequent than we imagine The cause of which our mistake is that disguise of another name and notion than we conceive them by which makes us take them to be diverse which are the same That you may rightly understand this my Assertion before I acquaint you with the Reasons which induce me thereunto you must know That the Masters of Physick tell us of two kinds of Deliration or aliâ—nation of the Understanding One ex vi morbi that namely which is from or with a Fever called Delirium or Phrenitis the latter being a higher degree than the former Another kind sine Febre when a man having no other disease is crased and disturbed in his wits And this they say is either simple dotage proceeding from some weakness of the Brain or Intellective
a creature and of so despicable a beginning to such a power as to grapple with the Enemy and overcome him But behold there is yet something more admirable namely that this should not be done by the strength of his Arm but by the breath and power of his Mouth Out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine Enemies c. What Enemies Thine saith the Psalmist and such too as are Vltores Avengers the Enemies of both God and Mankind And who are those but Satan and his Angels those Principalities and Powers of the Air those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Rulers of the Darkness of this world as S. Paul speaks For when Mankind is the one party what can the other be but some Power that is not of Mankind Besides who are the Enemies both of God and Mankind but these and of mankind especially I will put Enmity saith God to the Serpent between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed hence he is called Satan the Adversary or Fiend and the Enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold I give you power saith our Saviour to the seventy Disciples Luke 10. 19. to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the Enemy Your Adversary the Devil saith S. Peter And this is he as I conceive who is here called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Enemy and the Avenger man's tormentor which words being found again in the 44. Psalm v. 16. may for ought I know by warrant of this place be taken for the same Enemy and the usual distinction altered and the place read thus By reason of the Enemy and the Avenger all this to wit the Calamity and confusion he spake of before is come upon us that is by the malice of Satan Now that such Enemies as these should be subducd by an Arm yea by a Mouth of flesh is a thing which might justly make the Prophet cry out Lord what is man c. Now that this which I have given is the true meaning of this place may be gathered from S. Paul's inculcating the word Enemy when 1 Cor. 15. 24. c. he demonstrates out of this Psalm that Christ before the end shall abolish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all rule and all authority and power For he must reign saith he till he hath put all Enemies under his feet The last Enemy which shall be destroyed is Death and then he alledges for his proof that Corollary in this Psalm For he hath put all things under his feet But in all this Psalm there is no mention of Enemies or subduing them but only in the Verse I have in hand which unless it be thus expounded S. Paul's allegation from hence will be too narrow to prove what he intendeth HAVING thus cleared the words I chose for my Theme I shall not need spend much time to shew you how directly and literally the purport of them was fulfilled in our Blessed Saviour's Incarnation You have in part heard such Scriptures already as do evince it The sum is this The Devil by sin brought mankind under thraldom and became the Prince of this world himself with his Angels being worshipped and served every where as Gods and the service and honour due to the great God the Creator of heaven and earth cast off and abandoned and all this to receive at last for reward eternal woe and everlasting death To vanquish and exterminate this Enemy and redeem the world from this miserable thraldom the Son of God took upon him not the nature of Angels which might have been the Enemies matches but the nature of weak and despicable Man that grows from a babe and suckling Who saith Esay in that famous Prophecy of Messiah hath believed our report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed namely that works such powerful things by weak means For he shall grow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a tender plant or sucker it is the very word here used in my Text for a sucking child and translated by the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a root out of a dry ground that is a small and little one This is that whereof S. Paul discourses so divinely in the Epistle to the Hebrews To which of the Angels said he at any time Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak but unto him of whom it is said What is man that thou art mindâ—ul of him c Again We see Iesus who was made little lower than the Angels that is was made man that 's the meaning for the suffering of death crowned with Glory and Honour what can be so plain as this It is the Son of man by whom in part we are and more fully shall be delivered out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve the true God without fear as Zachary sayes in his Benedictus It is the Son of man that delivered us from the power of darkness Col. 1. 13. The Son of man that spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly Col. 2. 15. It was no Angel that did all this but the Son of man even as was prophesied from the beginning when the Devil first got his Dominion that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's head Nor is this all For this Son of man enables also other Sons of men his Disciples and Ministers to do the like in his name The seventy Disciples in the Gospel returned with joy saying Lord even the Devils are subject to us through thy name Yea not these only but as many as fight under his Banner against these Enemies have promise they shall at length quell and utterly subdue them yea at that great Day shall sit with their Lord and Master to judge and condemn them Do ye not know saith S. Paul that the Saints shall judge the world know ye not that we shall judge Angels Lastly This victory as for the event so for the manner of atchieving it is agreeable to our Prophecy Forasmuch as Christ our General nor fights nor conquers by force of Arms but by the power of his Word and Spirit which is the power of his Mouth according to my Text Out of the mouth of Babes c. Hence in the Apocalyps Christ appears with a sword going out of his mouth In the 2 Thess. 2. 8. it is said He shall consume that wicked one that is Antichrist with the Spirit of his mouth Esay prophesies Chap. 11. 4. that the Branch of Iesse should smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips should slay the wicked that is he does all nutu verbo by his word and command as God made the world By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Hoast
openeth the womb shall be called Holy unto the Lord Ergo To be the Lord's and to be Holy are Synonyma's Though therefore the Gentiles Court had no sanctity of legal distinction yet had it the sanctity of peculiarity to God-ward and therefore not to be used as a common place The Illation proceeds by way of Conversion My House shall be called the House of Prayer to all Nations or People Ergo The House of Prayer for all Nations is my Father's House And the Emphasis lies in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators were not so well advised of when following Beza too close they render the words thus My House shall be called of all Nations the House of Prayer as if the Dative Case here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not Acquisitive but as it is sometimes with passive verbs in stead of the Ablative of the Agent for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which sense is clean from the scope and purpose of the place whence it is taken as he that compares them will easily see and I shall make fully to appear in the next part of my Discourse which I tendred by the name of an Observation To wit That this fact of our Saviour more particularly concerns us of the Gentiles than we take notice of Namely we are taught thereby what reverent esteem we ought to have of our Gentile Oratories and Churches howsoever not endued with such legal sanctity in every respect as was the Temple of the Iews yet Houses of Prayer as well as theirs This Observation will be made good by a threefold Consideration First of the Story as I have related it secondly from the Text here alledged for warrant thereof and thirdly from the circumstance of Time For the Story I have shewed it was acted in the Gentiles Court and not in that of the Iews because it is not credible that was thus prophaned It cannot therefore be alledged that this was a place of legal sanctity for according to legal sanctity it was held by the Iews as common only it was the place for the Gentiles to worship the God of Israel in and seems to have been proper to the second Temple the Gentiles in the first worshipping without at the Temple-door in the holy Mountain only Secondly The place alledged to avow the Fact speaks expresly of Gentile-worshippers not in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only but in the whole body of the context Hear the Prophet speak Esay chap. 56. ver 6 7. and then judge The sons of the stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the Name of the Lord to be his servants every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant namely that I alone shall be his God Even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and make them joyful in my House of Prayer their burnt-offerings and sacrifices accepted upon mine Altar Then follow the words of my Text For my House shall be called that is shall be it is an Hebraism a House of Prayer for all People What is this but a Description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gentile-worshippers And this place alone makes good all that I have said before viz. That this vindication was of the Gentiles Court Otherwise the allegation of this Scripture had been impertinent for the Gentiles of whom the Prophet speaks worshipped in no place but this Hence also appears to what purpose our Evangelist expressed the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely as that which shewed wherein the force of the accommodation to this occasion lay which the rest of the Evangelists omitted as referring to the place of the Prophet whence it was taken those who heard it being not ignorant of whom the Prophet spake Thirdly the circumstance of Time argues the same thing if we consider that this was done but a few days before our Saviour suffered to wit when he came to his last Passeover How unseasonable had it been to vindicate the violation of Legal and typical sanctity which within so few days after he was utterly to abolish by his Cross unless he had meant thereby to leave his Church a lasting lesson what reverence and respect he would have accounted due to such places as this was which he vindicated DISCOURSE XII S. IOHN 4. 23. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him THEY are the words of our Blessed Saviour to the Woman of Samaria who perceiving him by his discourse to be a Prophet desired to be resolved by him of that great controverted point between the Iews and Samaritans Whether Mount Garizim by Sichem where the Samaritans sacrificed or Ierusalem were the true place of worship Our Saviour tells her that this Question was not now of much moment For that the hour or time was near at hand when they should neither worship the Father in Mount Garizim nor at Ierusalem But that there was a greater difference between the Iews and them than this of Place namely even about That which was worshipped For ye saith he worship that ye know not but we Iews worship that we know Then follow the words premised But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth It is an abused Text being commonly alledged to prove that God now in the Gospel either requires not or regards not External worship but that of the Spirit only and this to be a characteristical difference between the worship of the Old Testament and the New If at any time we talk of external decency in rites and bodily expressions as sit to be used in the service of God this is the usual Buckler to repel whatsoever may be said in that kind It is true indeed that the worship of the Gospel is much more spiritual than that of the Law But that the worship of the Gospel should be only spiritual and no external worship required therein as the Text according to some meus sense and allegation thereof would imply is repugnant not only to the practice and experience of the Christian Religion in all Ages but also to the express Ordinances of the Gospel it self For what are the Sacraments of the New Testament are they not Rites wherein and wherewith God is served and worshipped The consideration of the holy Eucharist alone will consute this Gloss For is not the commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ's death upon the Cross unto his Father in the Symbols of Bread and Wine an external worship And yet with this Rite hath the Church in all Ages used to make her solemn address of Prayer and Supplication unto the Divine Majesty as the Iews in the Old Testament did by Sacrifice When I say in all Ages I include also that of the Apostles For so much S. Luke testifieth of that first Christian society
Acts 2. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They continued in breaking of Bread and in Prayers As for bodily expressions by gestures and postures as standing kneeling bowing and the like our Blessed Saviour himself lift up his sacred eyes to heaven when he prayed for Lazarus fell on his face when he prayed in his agony S. Paul as himself saith bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ He and S. Peter and the rest of the Believers do the like more than once in the Acts of the Apostles What was Imposition of hands but an external gesture in an act of invocation for conferring a blessing and that perhaps sometimes without any vocal expression joyned therewith Besides I cannot conceive any reason why in this point of Evangelical worship Gesture should be more scrupled at than Voice Is not confessing praising praying and glorifying God by Voice an external and bodily worship as well as that of Gesture why should then the one derogate from the worship of the Father in Spirit and Truth and not the other To conclude There was never any society of men in the world that worshipped the Father in such a manner as this interpretation would imply and therefore cannot this be our Saviour's meaning but some other Let us see if we can find out what it is There may be two senses given of these words both of them agreeable to Reason and the analogy of Scripture let us take our choice The one is That to worship God in Spirit and Truth is to worship him not with Types and shadows of things to come as in the Old Testament but according to the verity of the things exhibited in Christ according to that The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Iesus Christ. Whence the Mystery of the Gospel is elsewhere by our Saviour in this Evangelist termed Truth as Chap. 17. ver 17. and the Doctrine thereof by S. Paul the word of Truth See Ephes. Chap. 1. ver 13. Rom. 15. 8. The time therefore is now at hand said our Saviour when the true worshippers shall worship the Father no longer with bloudy Sacrifices and the Rites and Ordinances depending thereon but in and according to the verity of that which these Ordinances figured For all these were Types of Christ in whom being now exhibited the true worshippers shall henceforth worship the Father This sense hath good warrant from the state of the Question between the Iews and Samaritans to which our Saviour here makes answer which was not about worship in general but about the kind of worship in special which was confessed by both sides to be tied to one certain place only that is of worship by Sacrifice and the appendages in a word of the Typical worship proper to the first Covenant of which see a description Heb. 9. This Iosephus expresly testifies Lib. 12. Antiq. cap. 1. speaking of the Iews and Samaritans which dwelt together at Alexandria They lived saith he in perpetual discord one with the other whilst each laboured to maintain their Country customs those of Ierusalem affirming their Temple to be the sacred place whither sacrifices were to be sent the Samaritans on the other side contending they ought to be sent to Mount Garizim For otherwise who knows not that both Iews and Samaritans had other places of worship besides either of these namely their Proseucha's and Synagogues wherein they worshipped God not with internal only but external worship though not with Sacrifice which might be offered but in one place only And this also may seem to have been a Type of Christ as well as the rest namely that he was to be that one and only Mediator of the Church in the Temple of whose sacred body we have access unto the Father and in whom he accepts our service and devotions according to that Destroy this Temple and I will rear it up again in three days He spake saith the Text of the Temple of his Body This sense divers of the Ancients hit upon Eusebius Demon. Evang. Lib. 1. Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not by Symbols and Types but as our Saviour saith in Spirit and Truth Not that in the New Testament men should worship God without all external services For the New Testament was to have external and visible services as well as the Old but such as should imply the verity of the promises already exhibited not be Types and shadows of them yet to come We know the Holy Ghost is wont to call the figured Face of the Law the Letter and the Verity thereby signified the Spirit As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Spirit and Truth both together they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once found in holy Writ to wit only in this place and so no light can be borrowed by comparing of the like expression any where else to expound them Besides nothing hinders but they may be here taken one for the exposition of the other namely that to worship the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with to worship him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But howsoever this exposition be fair and plausible yet methinks the reason which our Saviour gives in the words following should argue another meaning God saith he is a Spirit therefore they that worship him must worship in Spirit and Truth But God was a Spirit from the beginning If therefore for this reason he must be worshipped in Spirit and Truth he was so to be worshipped in the Old Testament as well as in the New Let us therefore seek another meaning For the finding whereof let us take notice that the Samaritans at whom our Saviour here aimeth were the off-spring of those Nations which the King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria when he had carried away the Ten Tribes captive These as we may read in the second Book of the Kings at their first coming thither worshipped not the God of Israel but the gods of the Nations from whence they came wherefore he sent Lions amongst them which slew them Which they apprehending either from the information of some Israelite or otherwise to be because they knew not the worship of the God of the Country they informed the King of Assyria thereof desiring that some of the captiv'd Priests might be sent unto them to teach them the manner and rites of his worship which being accordingly done they thenceforth as the Text tells us worshipped the Lord yet feared their own Gods too and so did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostome speaks mingle things not to be mingled In this medley they continued about three hundred years till toward the end of the Persian Monarchy At what time it chanced that Manasse brother to Iaddo the High Priest of the returned Iews married the daughter of Sanballat then Governour of Samaria for which being expelled from Ierusalem by Nehemiah he fled to Sanballat his Father in Law and after his
example many other of the Iews of the best rank having married strange wives likewise and loth to forgo them betook themselves thither also Sanballat willingly entertains them and makes his son-in-Law Manasse their Priest For whose greater reputation and state when Alexander the Great subdued the Persian Monarchy he obtained leave of him to build a Temple upon Mount Garizim where his son-in-Law exercised the office of High Priest This was exceedingly prejudicious to the Iews and the occasion of a continual Schism whilst those that were discontented or excommunicated at Ierusalem were wont to betake themselves thither Yet by this means the Samaritans having now one of the sons of Aaron to be their Chief Priest and so many other of the Iews both Priests and others mingled amongst them were brought at length to cast off all their false gods and to worship the Lord the God of Israel only Yet so that howsoever they seemed to themselves to be true worshippers and altogether free from Idolatry nevertheless they retained a smack thereof inasmuch as they worshipped the true God under a visible representation to wit of a Dove and circumcised their Children in the name thereof as the Iewish Tradition tells us who therefore always branded their worship with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spiritual Fornication Iust as their predecessors the Ten Tribes worshipped the same God of Israel under the similitude of a Cals This was the condition of the Samaritan Religion in our Saviour's time and if we weigh the matter well we shall find his words here to the woman very pliable to be construed with reference thereunto You ask saith he of the true place of worship whether Mount Garizim or Ierusalem which is not now greatly material forasmuch as the time is at hand when men shall worship the Father at neither But there is a greater difference between you and us than of Place though you take no notice of it namely even about the Object of worship it self For ye worship what ye know not but we Iews worship what we know How is that Thus Ye worship indeed the Father the God of Israel as we do but you worship him under a corporeal representation wherein you shew you know him not But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth In Spirit that is conceiving of him no otherwise than in Spirit and in Truth that is not under any corporeal or visible shape For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not fancying him as a Body but as indeed he is a Spirit For those who worship him under a corporeal similitude do beli◠him according as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 23. of such as changed the glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man Birds or Beasts They changed saith he the truth of God into a lie and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juxta Creatorem as or with the Creator who is blessed for ever v. 25. Hence Idols in Scripture are termed Lies as Amos 2. 4. Their Lies have caused them to erre after which their Fathers walked The Vulgar hath Seduxerunt eos Idola ipsorum Their Idols have caused them to erre And Esay 28. 15. We have made Lies our refuge And Ier. 16. 19 20. The Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say Surely our Fathers have possessed the Chaldee hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have worshipped a lie vanity wherein there is no profit Shall a man make Gods unto himself and they are no Gods This therefore I take to be the genuine meaning of this place and not that which is commonly supposed against external worship which I think this Demonstration will evince To worship what they know as the Iews are said to do and to worship in Spirit and Truth are taken by our Saviour for one and the same thing else the whole sense will be inconsequent But the Iews worshipped not God without Rites and Ceremonies who yet are supposed to worship him in Spirit and Truth Ergo To worship God without Rites and Ceremonies is not to worship him in Spirit and Truth according to the meaning here intended DISCOURSE XIII S. LUKE 24. 45 46. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures And said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day OUR Blessed Saviour after he was risen from the dead told his Disciples not only that his Suffering of death and Rising again the third day was foretold in the Scriptures but also pointed out those Scriptures unto them and opened their understanding that they might understand them that is he expounded or explained them unto them Certain it is therefore that somewhere in the Old Testament these things were foretold should befall Messiah Yea S. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 3 4. will further assure us that they are I delivered unto you saith he first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures Both of them therefore are somewhere foretold in the Scriptures and it becomes not us to be so ignorant as commonly we are which those Scriptures be which foretell them It is a main point of our Faith and that which the Iews most stumble at because their Doctors had not observed any such thing foretold to Messiah The more they were ignorant thereof the more it concerns us to be confirmed therein I thought good therefore to make this the Argument of my Discourse at this time to inform both you and my self where these things are foretold and if I can to point out those very Scriptures which our Saviour here expounded to his Disciples Which that I may the better do I will make the words fore-going my Text to be as the Pole-star in this my search These are the things saith our Saviour which I spake unto you while I was yet with you That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me Then follow the words I read Then opened he their understanding c. These two events therefore of Messiah's death and rising again the third day were foretold in these Three parts of Scripture In the Law of Moses or Pentateuch in the Nebiim or Prophets and in the Psalms and in these Three we must search for them And first for the First That Messiah should suffer death This was fore-signified in the Law or Pentateuch First in the story of Abraham where he was commanded to offer his son Isaac the son wherein his seed should be called and to whom the promise was entailed That in it should all the Nations
sute our Text better I think than any of the former to wit that Prophesying here should be taken for praising God in Hymns and Psalms For so it is fitly coupled with praying Praying and Praising being the parts of the Christian Liturgie Besides our Apostle also in the fourteenth Chapter of this Epistle joyns them both together I will pray saith he with the spirit and will pray with understanding also I will sing with the spirit and I will sing that is prophesie with understanding also For because Prophets of old did Three things first foretel things to come secondly notifie the will of God unto the People and thirdly utter themselves in Musical wise and as I may so speak in a Poetical strain and composure hence it comes to pass that to prophesie in Scripture signifies the doing of any of these Three things and amongst the rest to praise God in Verse or Musical composure This to be so as I say I shall prove unto you out of two places of Scripture and first out of the first of Chronicles Chap. 25. where the word Prophesie is three several times thus used I will alledge the words of the Text at large because I cannot well abbreviate them Thus therefore it speaks Vers. 1. Moreover David and the Captains of the Host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Ieduthun who should prophesie with Harps with Psalteries and with Cymbals and the number of the men of Office according to their service was 2. Of the sons of Asaph Zaccur and Ioseph and Nethaniah and Asarelah the sons of Asaph under the hands of Asaph which prophesied according the order of the King 3. Of Ieduthun the sons of Ieduthun Gedaliah and Zeri and Ieshaiah Hashabiah and Mattithiah and Schimei six under the hands of their father Ieduthun who prophesied with a Harp to give thanks and to praise the Lord. Lo here to prophesie and to give thanks or confess and to praise the Lord with spiritual songs made all one Nor needs such a Notion seem strange when as even among the Latins the word Vaâ—es signifieth both him that foretels things to come and a Poet for that the Gentiles Oracles were given likewise in Verse And S. Paul to Titus calls the Cretian Poet Epimenides a Prophet as one saith he of their own Prophets said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Arabians whose language comes the nearest both in words and notions to the Hebrew call a chief Poet of theirs Princeps omnium Poetarum saith Erpenius quos unquam vidit mundus Muttenabbi that is Prophetizans or the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now then if Asaph Ieduthun and Heman prophesied when they praised God in such Psalms as are entituled unto their several Quires and as we find them in the Psalm-Book for know that all the Psalms entituled To the sons of Korah belonged to the Quire of Heman who descended from Korah why may not we when we sing the same Psalms be said to prophesie likewise namely As he that useth a prayer composed by another prayeth and that according to the spirit of him that composed it so he that praiseth God with these spiritual and prophetical composures may be said to prophesie according to that spirit which speaketh in them And that Almighty God is well pleased with such Service as this may appear by that one story of King Iehoshaphat in the second of Chronicles who when he marched forth against that great confederate Army of the children of Ammon Moab and mount Seir the Text tells us that having consulted with his people he appointed Singers unto the Lord that should praise the Beauty of holiness as they went out before the Army and to say Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever that is they should sing the one hundred and sixth Psalm or one hundred and thirty sixth Psalm which begin in this manner and were both of them not unfit for such an occasion And when they began to sing and praise saith the Text the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon Moab and Mount Seir which were come against Iudah and they were smitten A second place where such kind of Prophets and Prophesying as we speak of are mentioned is that in the first of Samuel in the story of Saul's election where we read that when he came to a certain place called The Hill of God he met a company of Prophets coming down from the Highplace or Oratory there with a Psaltery and a Tabret and a Pipe and a Harp before them and they prophesied and he with them Their Instruments argue what kind of Prophecy this was namely Praising of God with spiritual songs and melody In what manner is not so easie to define or specifie but with an extemporary rapture I easily believe And if we may conjecture by other examples One of them should seem to have been the Praecentor and to utter the Verse or Ditty the rest to have answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the extremes or last words of the Verse For after this manner we are told by Philo Iudaeus that the Esseni who were of the Iewish Nation were wont to sing their Hymns in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or worshipping-places And after the self-same manner Eusebius tells us did the Primitive Christians having in all likelihood learnt it from the Iews whose manner it was The same is witnessed by the Author Constitutionum Aposiolicarum in his second Book and fifty seventh Chapter where describing the manner of the Christian Service after the reading of the Lessons of the Old Testament saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let another sing the Psalms of David and the people succinere or answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the extremes of the verses Some footsteps of which Custom remain still with us though perhaps in somewhat a different way when in those short Versicles of Liturgie being Sentences taken out of the Psalms the Priest sayes or sings the first half and the People answer the latter quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for example in that taken out of Psalm 51. 15. the Priest sayes O Lord open thou our lips the People or Chorus answers And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise But whatsoever the ancient manner of answering was thus much we are sure of That the Iews in their Divine Lauds were wont to praise God after this manner in Antiphons or Responsories as to let pass other Testimonies and the use of their Synagogues to this day derived from their Ancestors we may learn by two special Arguments One from the Seraphims singing Esay 6. 3. where it is said that the Seraphims cryed one unto another saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory Note They cried one unto another Secondly from the use of the Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the proper and
would consider it to adventure the Conscience upon the least violence if it endure but a scratching once or twice it is secretly and before a man is aware hardned to endure a wound O let us be then tender to keep our Conscience tender else we are undone Is it therefore indeed so with thee that thou canst take thy sinful liberty and yet find no scruple check thee Canst thou cast off the yoke of Christ and yet thy heart be at rest within thee or at the worst if it pants a little it will soon have done O rouse it up in time else the time will come when thy Conscience will be so awaked that all the world cannot quiet and still it The longer it hath been smothered the more dreadful and unquenchable will the flame be when it once breaketh out No tongue of mortal man is able to express the terrors which then shall overwhelm thee In the day-time we know Spirits and Hobgoblins usually walk not but in the night-time when darkness covereth the face of the earth So in the brightness and Sun-shine of health and proâ—perity what marvel though this terrible Fiend an evil Conscience doth not much haunt a dull and stupid heart but in the darkness of sickness in the midnight of death when the black times of calamity shall surprise thee then will this grifly and gastly Spirit begin to affright and scare thee then will he roar in the chamber of thy soul and most hideously rattle his chains about thine ears As the blows and bruises received in the flower of our youth though then we feel them not will pain us in the decay of our strength in our declining years So the blows and bruises given the Soul by sin in the days of our jollity and prosperity will most grievously torment us when by sickness fear of death or other calamity our wonted mirth and transitory contentment shall be eclipsed Then as the carkass of him that is slain though it seemed stark and stiff is said to bleed afresh at the presence of the murtherer So when our former and unfelt sins whereby the Soul was wounded and murthered shall present themselves unto our view as at such times they use to do then our stark and benummed Conscience will gush out streams of bloud and be in danger to bleed unto eternal death What would a man then give for this Rest unto his soul even all the gold of Ophir all the riches of the East and West Indies yea he would be content never to have had ease never to have enjoyed any contentment no not lawful in these worldly and transitory things all the days of his life so he might have but one dram of that comfortable quietness of Soul which a good conscience bringeth A good conscience therefore from a life well led is a Iewel unvaluable for which a man should undergo the hardest task and forgo all the contentments of the world if it could not otherwise be gotten Which is the Second thing I here observe For our Saviour we see propounds it as a Reward and Prize such as he thought sufficient to allure any reasonable man even to abandon his liberty and freedom and to enter a bondage and to take a yoke upon his neck a yoke the sweetest that ever was worn and far surpassing the greatest liberty in the world A good conscience saith Solomon Prov. 15. 15. is a continual Feast that is an everlasting Christmas The twelve-days-Feast of our Blessed Saviours Nativity how is it longed for before-hand how welcomed when it comes and yet it lasts but a short time But a good conscience is a Feast that lasts all the year yea all a mans life long and that too without satiety without fulness without the least wearisomness There are three things in a Feast which make it so pleasing and desirable Mirth good Company and good Chear In this Feast all three of them are superlative 1. For Mirth all the merriment and Musick all the wine and good chear in the world will not make a man's heart so light and merry as the wine which is drunk at the Feast of a good conscience This is no superficial matter but rooted in the very Centre of the Soul Whereas your Wine-mirth is but the smothering sometimes if not drowning of a deeper grief like the lustick fit in some Countries of such as are going to execution Give strong drink saith Solomon unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts 2. For Society and Company what Feast in the world can afford the like this doth For it hath not only exceeding good but all suitable and homogeneal where is no admixture of ill Here you shall have no unruly persons blaspheming God or men to make themselves or others pastime no unsavoury communication to stain and pollute by degrees the purity of the Soul and make a reckoning unsupportable when the day shall come wherein we must give accompt of every idle word But a good Conscience hath ever good Company and so good as will admit no ill For the Father is with it that great and mighty God who made us The Son is with it even Christ himself who redeemed us they sup and feast together The Holy Ghost is with it who chears up and sanctifies the hearts of all who come to this Table What Feast in the world can shew so honourable so loving so chearful company as this 3. And for the last thing which makes a Feast desirable good Chear it is a Table richly furnished with all Varieties and Dainties a collection of all the Rarities and Delicacies not which Sea and Land only but which Heaven it self affords Who would not come upon any invitation to partake of such a Feast as this DISCOURSE XXXIII ACTS 10. 4. And he said unto him Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial before God or as it is ver 31. are had in remembrance c. WHEN the Iews had crucified our Blessed Saviour the Lord and Prince of Life though their impiety were most horrible and such as might seem to admit of no expiation or atonement yet would not God for that reject them but after he was risen from the dead his Apostles and Messengers were sent to offer and tender him once more unto them if so be they would yet receive him as their Messiah and Redeemer which was promised to come telling them that what they had formerly done unto him God would namely according to our Saviour's prayer upon the Cross Father forgive them for they know not what they do pass by it as done of Ignorance on their part whilest himself was by the disposition of his Providence fulfilling that which was long before spoken by the mouth of all his Prophets That Christ or Messiah should suffer death All which you may read in the Sermon which S. Peter preached unto them in the Temple Acts 3. 12 c. Thus the Lord
Ashteroth the Gods of the Sidonians Rimmon the God of the Aramites Where is now Dagon of the Philistines Milcom of the Ammonites Chemosh of Moab and Tammuz of the Egyptians Even these also whose names we hear so frequent in Scripture are perished with their very names from this earth and from under these heavens And the Nations which once worshipped them worship now the great God Creator of heaven and earth once all of them and yet the most of them truly and savingly in Christ Iesus the Saviour and Redeemer of the world The beginning of this strange and wonderful Change was about the Birth and Incarnation of Christ our Saviour at which time the Gods of the Gentiles grew speechless in their Oracles or if at any time they answered it was to testifie the nearness of that time wherein they were to be cast out and the presence of him who should do the same As it is reported of Augustus who consulting the Oracle of Apollo who should reign after him received this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning whereof is this The Hebrew child which rules the blessed Gods bids me leave this house and presently pack to hell From henceforth depart thou with silence from our Altars Whereupon it is said that Augustus reared an Altar in the Capitol with this Inscription ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI The Altar of the First-begotten of God Porphyrie though an enemy of Christians reports three farewel Oracles of Apollo The first whereof is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus O wo is me lament ye Tripods for Apollo is gone he is gone he is gone For the burning light of heaven that Iupiter which was is and shall be O mighty Iupiter he compels me Ah wo is me the bright glory of my Oracles is gone from me And to the Priest which last consulted him his demand being Which was the true Religion he answered in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus Thou unhappiest of the Priests oh that thou wouldst not have asked me being now at my last of the Divine Father and of the dear begotten of that famous King nor of the Spirit which comprehendeth and surroundeth all things For wo is me He it is that will I nill I will expel me from these Temples and full soon shall this dividing seat become a place of desolation And if at any time he were extremely urged by inchantments and exorcisms to break off this uncouth silence he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apollo's voice is not to be recovered it is decayed through length of time and locked up with the keys of never-divining silence but do you as ye were wont such sacrifices as it beseemeth Phoebus to have The ceasing of Oracles in ancient times so frequent made the Heathen wonder what the cause should be for being grown very rare as the coming of Christ drew near and at the time of his being upon the earth the chiefest of all the Oracle of Delphos grown speechless as Strabo living at that time witnesseth before the end of that Age all the Oracles of the world in a manner held their peace Plutarch as ye all know at that time writ a Tract of the decay of Oracles wherein he labours to find the cause of their ceasing and after much search and many disputes he concludes the Reason partly to be from the absence of his Demoniacal spirits who by his Philosophy might either die through length of years or flit from place to place either exiled by others more strong or upon some other dislike and partly from the alteration of the soil where Oracles were seated which might not yield such Exhalations as in former times they had done This is the Summe of the Reasons in that Discourse But as we embrace this Testimony of Plutarch for the use and decay of Oracles so we are better enabled to give a true reason thereof than he was or could be namely As Meteors and smaller lights vanish and appear not when the Sun begins to rise So did these false lights of the Heathen vanish when the Sun of righteousness Christ Iesus arose unto the world As Dagon fell down when the Ark of God was brought into his Temple so when the true Ark of God Christ Iesus came into the world all the Dagons of the Nations fell down The time was come when as our Saviour saith Iohn 12. 31. the Prince of this world was to be cast out The night was past and the day was come and therefore such Bats and Birds of darkness as these were not any longer to play such reaks as in times past they had done Now began that War in heaven between Michael and the red Dragon whereof we read in the Revelation Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and his Angels that is Christ our Lord and his undaunted souldiers fought with the Devil and all his Ethnick forces led by the Roman Emperors Which War though it lasted long and cost the bloud and lives of many a thousand valiant Martyrs yet in the days of Constantine the Dragon received so great an overthrow that he never could recover it and though in the days of Iulian he made head again and kept the field a while yet was he soon fain to quit it and leave the victory unto Michael's army Which defeature of his was accompanied with an ominous sign of his utter overthrow his Throne or Temple at Delphos with earthquakes thunder and lightening being utterly ruined For as by the rending of the veil of the Temple was signified the abolishment of Legal worship so by the prodigious destruction of the chiefest Temple the Devil had in all the world was as it were sealed the irrecoverable overthrow of Ethnicisme which in the Event immediately following proved true For though he retained some strength under Valens in the East by still enjoying his wonted sacrifices yet in the days of Theodosius he was utterly and finally vanquished when his last champion Eugenius who threatned to be another Iulian and to restore Ethnicisme again with his whole Army was discomfited by the prayer and prowess of Theodosius about the year of our Lord three hundred and ninety For after this time Ethnicisme was never publickly maintained in the Roman Empire nor any open attempt made for restoring it again whereby it seems the red Dragon was cast down to the earth and that now was perfected the Triumph of Michael's victory when the Gods that made not the heaven and the earth were fully perished as concerning their Empire from the earth and from under
to commit it in God's Temple How impudently contumelious was this Sin therefore which was committed in God's very presence-chamber All these Aggravations are common to both our Parents which all laid together make their Sin as great as ever any was saving the sin against the Holy Ghost for so the best Divines do think But Eve adds one Aggravation more to her weight in that she was not content to sin her self alone but she allured and drew her husband also into the like horrible transgression with her whereby she was not only guilty of her own personal sin but of her husband 's also And this added so much unto her former sum that S. Paul 1 Tim. 2. 14. speaks of her as if she had been the only transgressour Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression So great and horrible a thing it is in the Eye of God to be cause or mover of another's sin Wo be unto them who by any means are the cause of another's fall And justly might God say to Eve for this respect though there had been no more What is this that thou hast done NOW I come to the Woman's excuse The Serpent beguiled me In which words are three things considerable The Author The Serpent The Action Guile The Object Me. Concerning the Author The Serpent two things are inquirable First What the Serpent was indeed Secondly What Eve supposed him to be For the first I think none so unreasonable as to believe it was the unreasonable and brute Serpent For whence should he learn or how should he understand God's commandment to our first Parents and how is it possible a Serpent should speak and not only so but speak the language which Eve understood For though some there be who think that Beasts and Birds have some speech-like utterings of themselves yet none that a Beast should speak the language of Men. It remains therefore that according unto the Scriptures it was that old deceiver the Devil and Satan who abused brute Serpent either by entring into him or taking his shape upon him The last of which I rather incline unto supposing it as you shall hear presently to be the Law of Spirits when they have intercourse and commerce with men to take some visible shape upon them as the Devil here the Serpent's whence he becomes styled in Scripture The old Serpent Now for the Second question What Eve took him to be whether the Serpent or Satan If we say she thought him to be the brute Serpent how will this stand with the perfection of Man's knowledg in his integrity to think a Serpent could speak like a reasonable creature Who would not judge her a silly woman now that should think so and yet the wisest of us all is far short of Eve in regard of her knowledg then Again If we say she knew him to be the Devil I will not ask why she would converse at all with a wicked spirit who she knew had fallen from his Maker but I would know how we should construe the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the beginning of this Chapter where he saith The Serpent was the subtillest of all the beasts of the field which God had made and so implies the woman's opinion of the Serpent's wisdom was the occasion why she was so beguiled otherwise to what end are those words spoken unless to shew that Satan chose the Serpent's shape that through the opinion and colour of his well-known wisdom and sagacity he might beguile the Woman For the assoiling of which difficulty I offer these Propositions following First I will suppose There is a Law in the commerce of Spirits and Men that a Spirit must present himself under the shape of some visible thing For as in natural and bodily things there is no entercourse of action and passion unless the things have some proportion each to other and unless they communicate in some Common Matter So it seems God hath ordained a Law that invisible things should converse with things visible in a shape as they are visible which is so true that the conversing presence of a Spirit is called a Vision or Apparition And Experience with the Scriptures will shew us that not only evil Angels but good yea God himself converseth in this manner with men And all this I suppose Eve knew Secondly I suppose further That as Spirits are to converse with men under some visible shape so is there a Law given them that it must be under the shape of some such thing as may less or more resemble their condition For as in nature we see every several thing hath a several and sutable Phisiognomy or figure as a badge of their inward nature whereby it is known as by a habit of distinction so it seems to be in the shapes and apparitions of Spirits And as in a well-governed Commonwealth every sort and condition of men is known by some differing habit agreeable to his quality so it seems it should be in God's great Commonwealth concerning the shapes which Spirits take upon them And he that gave the Law that a man should not wear the habit of a woman nor a woman the habit of a man because that as he had made them diverse so would he have them so known by their habits so it seems he will not suffer a good and a bad Spirit a noble and ignoble one to appear unto men after the same fashion And this also I suppose Eve knew Now from these grounds it will follow That good Angels can take upon them no other shape but the shape of Man because their glorious excellency is resembled only in the most excellent of all visible creatures the shape of an inferiour creature would be unsutable no other shape becoming those who are called the sons of God but his only who was created after God's own image And yet not his neither according as now he is but according as he was before his fall in his glorious beauty of his Integrity Age and deformity are the fruits of Sin and the Angel in the Gospel appears like a young man his countenance like lightning and his raiment white as snow as it were resembling the beauty of glorified bodies in immutability sublimity and purity Hence also it follows on the contrary That the Devil could not appear in humane shape whilest Man was in his integrity because he was a Spirit fallen from his first glorious perfection and therefore must appear in such shape which might argue his imperfection and abasement which was the shape of a Beast otherwise no reason can be given why he should not rather have appeared unto Eve in the shape of a Woman than of a Serpent for so he might have gained an opinion with her both of more excellency and knowledg But since the fall of man the case is altered now we know he can take upon him the shape of Man and no wonder since one falling star
may well resemble another And therefore he appears it seems in the shape of Man's imperfection either for age or deformity as like an old man for so the Witches say and perhaps it is not altogether false which is vulgarly affirmed That the Devil appearing in Humane shape hath always a deformity of some uncouth member or other as though he could not yet take upon him Humane shape entirely for that Man himself is not entirely and utterly fallen as he is By this time you see the difficulty of the Question is eased Now it appears why Eve wondered not to see a Spirit speak unto her in the shape of a Serpent because she knew the Law of Spirits apparitions better than we do Again when she saw the Spirit who talked with her to have taken upon him the shape though of a Beast yet of the most sagacious Beast of the field she concluded according to our forelaid suppositions That though he were one of the abased spirits yet the shape he had taken resembling his nature he must needs be a most crafty and sagacious one and so might pry farther into God's meaning than she was aware of And thus you may see at last how the opinion of the Serpent's subtilty occasioned Eve's fall as also why the Devil of all other Beasts of the field took the shape of a Serpent namely to gain this opinion of sagacity with the Woman as one who knew the Principles aforesaid Here I observe That overmuch dotage upon a conceived excellency whether of Wisdom or whatsoever else without a special eye to God's commandment hath ever been the Occasion of greatest Errors in the world and the Devil under this mask useth to blear our eyes and with this bait to inveigle our hearts that he may securely bring us to his lure It was the mask of the Serpent's wisdom and sagacity above the rest of the Beasts of the field whereby he brought to pass our first Parents ruin The admired wisdom of the long-living Fathers of the elder world having been for so many ages as Oracles their off-spring grown even to a People and Nation while they yet lived was the ground of the ancient Idolatry of mankind whilest they supposed that those to whom for wisdom they had recourse being living could not but help them when they were dâ—ad This we may learn out of Hesiâ—d The men saith he of the golden age being once dead became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became Godlings and Patrons of mortal men and Overseers of their good and evil works So the opinion of the blessed Martyrs superlative glory in Heaven was made the occasion of the new-found Idolatry of the Christian Churches wherewith they are for the greater part yet overwhelmed And the esteem which Peter had above the rest of the Apostles in regard of chief-dome even in the Apostles times was abused by the old Deceiver to instal the man of sin This made S. Paul to say The mystery of iniquity was even then working and therefore he laboured as far as he could to prevent it by as much depressing Peter as others exalted him Nay he puts the Churches in mind of this story of the Serpent's beguiling Eve that her mis-hap might be a warning to them 2 Cor. 11. 2 3. I am jealous over you saith he with a godly jealousie for I have esponsed you to one husband that I might present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And to come a little nearer home Have not our Adversaries when they would get Disciples learned this of the Devil to possess them first with an opinion of superlative Learning in their Doctors surpassing any of ours I will say no more in this point but that we ought so to prize and admire the gifts and abilities of Learning which God hath bestowed upon men that the Pole-star of his Sacred Word may ever be in our eye THE next thing to be spoken of is The Action Guile And first I shall shew what it is To beguile is through a false faith and persuasion wrought by some argument of seeming good to bereave a man of some good he had or hoped for or to bring upon him some evil he expected not Practice hath made it so well known that I should not need to have given any definition or description thereof but only for a more distinct consideration Whereas therefore I said that Guile wrought by forelaying a false persuasion or belief I would intimate that it was nothing else but a Practical Sophism the Premisses whereof are counterfeit motives the Conclusion an erroneous execution Now as all Practice or Action consists in these two The choice of our End and The execution of Means to attain thereunto So is this Practical Sophism we call Guile found in them both either when an evil End is presented unto us in the counterfeit of a good and so we are made to embrace Nubem pro Iunone and find our selves deceiv'd in the event whatsoever the Means were we have used or else we apply such Means as are either unlawful or unsufficient to attain our End as being so mask'd that they appear unto us far otherwise than they are With both these sorts or parts of Guile the Devil wrought our first Parents ruin First by making it seem a thing desirable and by all means to be laboured for To be like unto God which was an ambition of that whereof man was not only not capable but such as little beseemed him to aspire unto upon whom God had bestowed so great a measure of glorious perfections as he seem'd a God amongst the rest of the creatures What unthankfulness was this that he upon whom God bestowed so much as he was the glory of his workmanship should yet think that God should envy him any degree of excellency fit for him For this was the mask wherewith the Devil covered both the unfitness and impossibility of the End he insinuated but he beguiled them Secondly He put the same trick upon them in the choice of the Means to be used which was to transgress the severe commandment of Almighty God Had the Aim been allowable yet could not the Means have been taken for good but only of such as were beguiled in that the Devil made the Woman believe with his questioning the truth of God's commandment that the danger was not great nor so certain as it seemed or that evil which might be in the action would be countervailed with the excellency to be attained thereby the gloriousness of which End the Devil so strongly sounded that it drowned in her imagination the least conceit of evil in the Means And as a man which always looks upward sees not the danger in the patâ— and way he walks in until he tumbles into
with cattel and beasts of the field thereby accounting the Serpent one of that number Besides Satan they say was accursed before this time and some of the words in this Curse cannot well be applied to any but the brute Serpent as that he should eat the dust of the earth c. 2. Others would have this Curse pronounced only upon the Spiritual Serpent the Devil because the brute Serpent was only an Instrument abused by the Devil and neither knew what was done nor could do withal and why should it therefore be punished 3. Others would divide the Controversie applying the first part of the Curse in the 14. verse to the brute Serpent the latter in the 15. vers to the Devil or Spiritual Serpent because as the latter words Of the promised seed of the woman which should destroy the Serpent and his seed must needs be meant of Christ and Satan so the former words are most fitly appliable to the brute Serpent only But against this may be said That the same Thou and Thee spoken of in the first part of the Curse is all one with the Thou and Thee in the latter and therefore of whatsoever the first is meant of the same is also meant the latter 4. There is therefore a fourth opinion That this Curse is throughout pronounced upon both both upon the Serpent and the Devil In which though there be some difference about the manner how yet I embrace it as the truest as not only conceiving it may be so by the fitness of all the parts so applied to both but think moreover that this only ought to be the meaning and no other if it be conceived as I am now to shew For in the first place The Devil when he beguiled man came not as a naked Spirit but in the shape and figure of a Serpent as I have shew'd heretofore and therefore that his punishment in the manner might be sutable and answerable to his offence he was to receive his doom likewise under the figure of a Serpent and the style thereof framed unto a Serpent's condition For God useth in his wisdom to brand the Punishment with the stamp of the Sin that the offender thereby might not only know what he felt but also read why he suffered Why were Adonibezek's thumbs and great toes cut off but that he might read therein as he did his former cruelty Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and toes cut off gathered meat under my Table As I have done so God hath requited me Why was Pharaoh with his Host rather drowned in the Sea than slain in the Field but that all the world might read it was for his cruel Edict to drown all the male children of the Hebrews Why did Absalom lie with David's Concubines but to put David in mind that he had lien with Vriah's wife And why was the Curse of the Devil shaped here in and unto the condition of the Serpent but because he had beguiled man in a Serpent's shape Secondly For the Serpent The known excellency and subtilty of the Serpent above all the Beasts which God had made the Devil had abused to gain credit with the woman that he was an excellent and a most sagacious Spirit and therefore might be ably to pry farther into God's meaning than she could which was the cause of her attention and so of her ruin For I have shewed heretofore that the Woman in the state of Integrity knew well enough That as it was the Law of Spirits in their commerce with men to present themselves under the shape of some visible thing so it must be likewise under the shape of some such thing as may more or less resemble their condition And that as the glorious Spirits might take no other shape but of Man the glory of visible creatures so the fallen Spirits could not then afore Man's fall take any other shape but of a Beast thereby to bewray his abasement Yet because the Devil here took upon him the shape of the most wise and most excellent of Beasts he so bleared the Woman's eyes with an opinion of his Excellency and Sagacity that in a manner she forgot or regarded not that he was one of the evil and abased Spirits which was the ground of her miserable ruin and overthrow Now because the Excellency and Sagacity of the Serpent had thus been the occasion of man's confusion by being made the lying counterfeit of the Devil's Excellency and Wisdom and the mask whereby he so covered his vileness that the Woman took him not to be as he was indeed therefore God in his wisdom thought good to change the copy and henceforth to bluâ—and deface that unhappy Physiognomical letter and by abasing the Serpent for the time to come to make him an everlasting embleme and monument wherein man might hieroglyphically read the malice vileness and execrable baseness of that wicked Spirit which had beguiled him to hate him as now we do the Serpent with mortal hatred and by his unlucky fortune to expect the Devil 's deadly destiny In a word that which was once used for a mask to cover the Devil's knavery should for the future be a glass wherein to behold his villany These being the Reasons which have led me to understand this Curse in an equal sense both of the brute Serpent and the Devil and in the literal sense applied unto the Serpent yet therein shaping out the Malediction of the Devil as truly as the Devil had taken upon him the Serpent's shape Let us now come to a more particular handling of the words And first we will consider them As they are the Curse of the unreasonable Serpent Secondly As they include the Devil's malediction But for the better understanding thereof before we can proceed two things are to be resolv'd First How it could be just with God to punish the brute Serpent who was Instrumentum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had neither will to sin nor yet knowledge of what the Devil had done especially if we suppose as I have done hitherto that the Devil took only the shape of a Serpent which the Serpent could not do withal For this argument hath driven some to affirm That the whole Curse was to be understood only of the Spiritual Serpent and not at all of the Natural But why should this strumble them more as concerning the Iustness of God than that in Adam's censure in the 17. verse where the whole Earth is cursed for Adam's sake Cursed be the Earth for thy sake c. But what had the Earth done or how was it guilty of Adam's transgression Again Chap. 6. v. 5 7. it is expresly said That because God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth he said I will destroy both man and beast and the creeping things and the fowls of the air But how were the beasts the creeping things and the fowls of the air partakers of man's wickedness what had they
Rom. 12. 11. 3. Zeal is that which carries our Devotions up to Heaven As Wings to a Fowl Wheels to a Chariot Sails to a Ship so is Zeal to the Soul of Man Without Zeal our Devotions can no more ascend than Vapours from a Still without fire put under it Prayer if it be fervent availeth much but a cold Sute will never get to Heaven In brief Zeal is the Chariot wherein our Alms our Offerings and all the good works we do are brought before the Throne of God in Heaven No Sacrifice in the Law could be offered without fire no more in the Gospel is any Service rightly performed without Zeal Be zealous therefore lest all thy works all thy endeavours be else unprofitable Rouze up thy dull and heavy Spirit serve God with earnestness and fervency and pray unto him that he would send us this fire from his Altar which is in Heaven whereby all our Sacrifices may become acceptable and pleasing unto him AND thus I come to the next thing in my Text Repentance Be zealous and repent Repentance is the changing of our course from the old way of Sin unto the new way of Righteousness or more briefly A changing of the course of sin for the course of Righteousness It is called also Conversion Turning and Returning unto God This matter would ask a long discourse but I will describe it briefly in five degrees which are as five steps in a Ladder by which we ascend up to Heaven 1. The first step is the Sight of Sin and the punishment due unto it for how can the Soul be possessed with fear and sorrow except he Understanding do first apprehend the danger for that which the Eye sees not the Heart rues not If Satan can keep sin from the Eye he will easily keep sorrow from the Heart It is impossible for a man to repent of his wickedness except the reflect and say What have I done The serious Penitent must be like the wary Factor he must retire himself look into his Books and turn over the leaves of his life he must consider the expence of his Time the employment of his Talent the debt of his Sin and the strictness of his Account 2. And so he shall ascend unto the next step which is Sorrow for sin For he that seriously considers how he hath grieved the Spirit of God and endangered his own Soul by his sins cannot but have his Spirit grieved with remorse The Sacrifices of God are a contrite Spirit Neither must we sorrow only but look unto the quality of our Sorrow that it be Godly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the quantity of it that it be Great We must fit the plaister to the wound and proportion our sorrow to our Sins He that with Peter hath sinned heinously or with Mary Magdalen frequently must with them weep bitterly and abundantly 3. The Third step of this Ladder is the Loathing of sin A Surfiet of Meats how dainty and delicate soever will afterwards make them loathsome He that hath taken his fill of sin and committed iniquity with greediness and is sensible of his supersinity or abundance of naughtiness and hath a great Sorrow for it he will the more loath his sins though they have been never so full of delight Yea it will make him loath himself and cry out in a mournful manner with S. Paul Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 4. The fourth step is the leaving off Sin For as Amnon hating Tamar shut her out of doors So he that loaths and hates his Sins the sight the thought the remembrance of them will be grievous unto him and he will labour by all good means to expel them For true Repentance must be the consuming of sin To what purpose doth the Physician evacuate ill humors if the Patient still distempers himself with ill diet What shall it avail a man to endure the launcing searching and tenting of a wound if he stay not for the cure So in vain also is the Sight of sin and the Sorrow for and Loathing of Sin if the works of darkness still remain and the Soul is impatient of a through-cure And therefore as Amnon not only put out his loathed Sister but bolted the door after her as it is said in the forequoted place So must we keep out our sins with the Bolts of Resolution and Circumspection Noah pitched the Ark within and without Gen. 6. 14. So to keep out the waters and a Christian must be watchful to secure all his Senses External and Internal to keep out sin 5. The Fifth and last step is the Cleaving unto God with full purpose of heart to walk before him in newness of life All the former Degrees of Repentance were for the putting off of the Old man this is for the putting on of the New For ubi Emendatio nulla Poenitentia necessariò vana saith Tertullian de Poenit. c. 2. Where there is no Reformation there the Repentance must needs be vain and fruitless for as he goes on caret fructu suo eui eam Deus sevit i. e. hominis saluti it hath not its fruit unto holiness nor the end everlasting life Rom. 6. 22. And thus have I let you see briefly What Repentance is Will you have me say any more to make you to affect it as earnestly as I hope by this time you understand it clearly Know then that this is that which opens Heaven and leads into Paradise This is that Ladder without which no man can climb thither and therefore as S. Austin saith Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam Let us change our life here if we look for the Life of Glory hereafter Let us leave the old way of sin for the new way of righteousness and to apply all to my Text Let us change our course of Lukewarmness for a course of fervency in God's service our dull and drowsie Devotions for a course of Zeal Be zealous and Repent AND thus I come to the Third thing I propounded namely the Connexion and dependance of these latter words Be zealous therefore and Repent upon the former As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Many things might be here observed but I will name but one which is this That Repentance is the means to avoid and prevent God's Iudgments For as Tertullian in his de Poenitentia observes * Qui poenam per judicium destinavit idem veniam per poenitentiam spospondit He that hath decreed to punish by Iustice hath promised to grant pardon by Repentance And so we read in Ieremy 18. 7. When I shall speak saith the Lord there concerning a Nation or Kingdom to pluck up to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from evil I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them And in Ezekiel 18. Repent and turn
should get Faith and know Christ to be their Redeemer But they would have some new things taught them these common things are tedious the Minister must teach them something they never knew before or if they must have the old things still their stomachs are so queasie that they must needs have them drest and set out with delicious words and gay shews of Learning that so they may go down the better that is They would have Gold to be gilded and find want of knowledge in the noblest piece of Learning in the world These men are like unto the Israelites Num. 11. who when God gave them Manna from heaven and fed them with the food of Angels after they had a while been used to it they began to murmure and said Our souls loath this Manna what nothing but Manna what still Manna every day Manna Manna O that we had the flesh-pots of Egypt our onions and our cucumbers I As if they had said What though this Manna be an heavenly Manna we had rather have that which comes from the Earth so it be rare and geason we regard not the goodness of the meat but the variety of fare But what befel these dainty-mouthed murmurers Many they had their wish they had flesh of the best the flesh of Quails sent them but while the meat was in their mouths the wrath of the Lord came upon them and they died not because it was unlawful for them to eat flesh but because they made more account of this grosâ—â—r food because 't was rare then of the Manna which fell from heaven Take heed therefore you that are too-too choice in hearing and had rather hear rare and new things than profitable things because you hear them often The Knowledg of Christ is this Manna which came from heaven If the Minister of God feed you with this it is the best food he can give you What more soveraign Diet can be unto your souls than that which makes them live for ever What more pleasing News can you hear than Tidings that God will be at peace with men This made the very Angels of heaven to sing for joy at the birth of Christ Glory be to God on high and peace amongst men Account not that common which so few men tast of account not that tedious which the best of you all have need of and which if you could once but relish the sweetness of you would think you never had enough of I speak not all this as quite disallowing a moderate shew of Learning in Sermons but because I would have you know that in respect of the Manna it self they are but leeks and cucumbers the onions and garlick of Egypt AND so I come to the next thing I observe out of the First part of my Text and that is from these words we are sure or we know as in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it comes all to one for he that knows he knoweth Christ is sure he knows he that knows he hath a thing is sure he hath it Mark then from hence That a man may be sure he shall be saved he may be sure that the Benefits of Christ's death belong unto him For to know Christ I told you was to know him to be our Redeemer that is to have Faith in him or to believe him to be our Christ. If every one therefore that knows him aright and believes in him truly shall be saved he that is sure he knows him he that knows he believes truly in him this man must needs know also and be assured of his Salvation But you see the words of my Text do plainly imply that a man may be sure he knows Christ or else in vain should the Apostle tell us of the means how to get that which was impossible to be gotten But if the words of my Text be not sufficient to persuade you then call to mind the firm Assurance of S. Paul who was perswaded that neither life nor death neither principalities nor powers nor any thing else in the world could sever him from the love of God Call to mind again the words of Iob who saith he was sure that his Redeemer liveth and that his eyes should see him But perhaps you will say that these were extraordinary men Apostles and Prophets might know so much by special inspiration but every man must not look for that which they had All are not Apostles all are not Prophets and therefore all must not look to be like unto Apostles and Prophets But mark again the words of my Text We are sure or we know that we know him He says not I Iohn am or may be sure or that the other Apostles might be sure but we know or we are sure we know him that is I and you both not I alone who am an Apostle but all you also to whom I write who have believed through the preaching of the Apostles and Disciples of the Lord Iesus we all of us may be sure or know we know him if we keep his Commandments And surely if this be not so why doth S. Peter 2 Ep. chap. 1. 10. bid us endeavour to make our calling and election sure why is the Spirit of God called the Earnest and Seal of our Salvation The Seal we know confirms and makes a thing sure and he that hath given earnest is bound to stand to his bargain whosoever then doth feel the Spirit of God to be within him as every one may and must do before they shall be saved this man hath God's promise sealed unto him and God hath given him the Earnest of his Salvation and certainly God useth not to break covenants he will not break promise with us if we keep promise with him for he is not as the sons of men that he should be changed the Lord hath sworn and it shall not repent him the counsel of the Lord remains for ever and his decree from generation to generation Wouldest thou then have comfort in thy misery wouldest thou have joy in all thy sorrows wouldest thou find rest in the greatest troubles of thy life wouldest thou entertain Death as a messenger of joy wouldest thou welcome the Lord Iesus at his coming O labour then to make thy election sure never cease till thou hast gotten the seal and earnest of thy Salvation renounce all kind of peace till thou hast found the peace of conscience discard all joy till thou feelest the joy of the Holy Ghost Do this and there is no calamity so great but thou mayest undergo no burthen so heavy but thou mayest easily bear it Do this and thou shalt live in the fear dye in the favour and rise in the power of God the Father and help to make up the heavenly Confort singing with the Saints and Angels Hallelujah Hallelujah All glory and honour and praise be ascribed to the Lamb and to him that sitteth upon the throne for
evermore But now lest that which hath been spoken concerning Assurance of Salvation might disquiet the weak conscience of some who cannot feel this Assurance in themselves let them know That this Assurance doth not always continue in like measure but is often shaken with the assaults of mis-belief and overcast with clouds of distrust We know that though the Sun be risen upon the earth she doth not always shew her self in full brightness but sometimes is overcast with clouds and shadowed from our sight and yet she always giveth so much light as thereby we may discern the day from the night Even so although the Sun of comfortable Assurance be risen in our hearts yet it doth not always shine forth with brightness or shew it self in full strength and vigour but is sometime overcast with fear and distrust and yet when there is least there is so much light that a man may discern day from night and know the children of God from the sons of Darkness Despair not therefore though fear sometimes disquiets thee Distrust not the Lord thy God though he seems sometimes to hide his Countenance from thee but when thou feelest a combate in thy soul pray then and say with the Father of that child in the Gospel Lord I believe help thou my unbelief AND thus I come unto the second part of my Text which contains the Means whereby we come to this Certainty of knowing Christ and this Assurance of Salvation and that is By keeping God's Commandments for saith my Text Hereby we know that we do know him if we keep his Commandments To know Christ I told you is to believe in him to be assured we know him is to be assured our Faith is a right and a true Faith which Faith whosoever knoweth he hath cannot chuse but know certainly he shall be saved But hereby saith my Text may we know that we know Christ aright and believe in him truly and savingly if that we keep his Commandments From whence I observe First That though it be true That whatsoever good thing we have cometh from God and that it is his Holy Spirit that worketh all heavenly graces in our hearts yet he doth it not immediately without means but by blessing those helps and motives to us which he hath ordained for us to attain such graces and such favours by For it is true That Assurance of Salvation is the work of God's Spirit and yet S. Iohn saith here That it is the keeping of God's Commandments whereby we are assured we know Christ to be our Redeemer that is The Spirit of God by this keeping of the Commandments and by obedience to the will of God doth assure us as by an argument or evidence that our Faith is a true Faith a living Faith and that therefore we may assure our selves that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us and that we shall enjoy a Crown with Saints and Angels in the life to come So likewise Faith is the work of the Spirit of God and yet S. Paul saith that Faith cometh by hearing and how should men believe unless they hear the Word preached It is God that saveth us and Christ who purchased eternal life for us and yet the use of the Sacraments must be as means to bring us to this happiness So saith Christ Every one that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and S. Peter 1 Ep. 3. 21. calleth Baptism the figure whereby we are saved And throughout the Scripture we shall find that God bestows his blessings and favours by the use of means and to those who use the means which he hath appointed If Abimelech will have God to heal him and to forgive his sin he must have Abraham to pray unto God for him so saith the Text Gen. 20. 7. Restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live So if Iob's friends will have God to forgive their sin in censuring Iob so uncharitably they must use the means which God commanded them Iob 42. 8. Take unto you saith God seven bullocks and seven rams and go to my servant Iob and offer for your selves a burnt-offering and my servant Iob shall pray for you and I will accept him If Cornelius will have the will of God revealed to him he must send to Ioppa for Peter to preach unto him Acts 10. 5. If Naaman the Syrian will have the God of Israel to heal him of his Leprosie he must use the means commanded to wash himself seven times in the River Iordan 2 Kings 5. 10 14. Again Though God had promised Iacob that he would be with him that he would do him good when he was to return unto the land of Canaan and though Iacob depended only upon God to deliver him from the fury of his brother Esau yet he knew that God would require of him the using of the means and therefore he sent a Present to his brother and when he came unto him he used all humble and submiss behaviour toward him Lastly Though Hezekiah in his sickness had received a Sign and a Promise from God that he should recover I have heard thy prayer saith the Lord 2 Kings 20. 5. I have seen thy tears behold I will heal thee on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord yet for all this he did not neglect the means for according to the counsel of the Prophet Esay he took a lump of figs saith the Text ver 7. and laid it upon the boil and he recovered Thus then you see the manner how God bestows his graces and favours upon the sons of men He is the chief and principal worker in all things which are done and yet he worketh not without the means for so he should always do Miracles for Miracles are nothing else but the works of God without and against the ordinary means but he worketh by blessing of the means to those who have and use them Here is therefore a Lesson worthy to be learned of those who when you tell them of the perverseness and corruption of their hearts and exhort them to seek to be at peace with God to amend their lives to eschew evil and do the works of righteousness answer presently That all the thoughts of man's heart are by nature evil and that of our selves we are not able so much as to think one good thought much less to do any good deed we have no free will in these things but are dead in sin we cannot turn to God unless he turns us first unto him we cannot mend unless God first amend us we cannot believe unless he give us Faith we cannot of our selves do any good untill it pleaseth God to enable us And after this manner as S. Peter saith those who are unskilful and unstable wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction But do you not know also that it is God that giveth us our daily
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
Spirit The rising of the Sun is known by the shining beams the Fire is known by its burning the Life of the Body is known by its moving Even so certainly is the presence of God's Spirit known by the shining light of an holy conversation even so certainly the purging Fire of Grace is known by the burning Zeal against sin and a servent desire to keep God's Commandments even so certainly the Life and liveliness of Faith is known by the good motions of the Heart by the bestirring of all the powers both of Soul and Body to do whatsoever God wills us to be doing as soon as we once know he would have us do it He that hath this Evidence hath a bulwark against Despair and may dare the Devil to his face He that hath this hath the Broad Seal of Eternal life and such a man shall live for ever But on the contrary He that walks not in the ways of Obedience to God's Commandments whatsoever conceit he hath of God's favour toward him without all doubt he knows not Christ to be his Redeemer he hath not nor cannot have any Assurance of Salvation for how should a man be assured of that which is not His Hope is Presumption his Faith is nothing but Security his Comfort if he feels any a mere imagination His Hope his Faith his Comfort are all delusions of the Devil For if we say saith our Apostle chap. 1. ver 6. that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we are lyars yea and the Devil the Father of lies is in us Here therefore is a good Caveat for us all Let us not deceive our selves without Holiness no man shall see God Beware of Presumption for Presumption sends more to Hell than Desperation Let us never think we have Faith to be saved by or acknowledge Christ throughly till we may see and know it by keeping his Commandments For hereby we know that we know him c. But you may say Alas this is an hard saying If none have true Faith or know Christ aright but those who keep the Law of God who then can be saved For what man is he who hath such a Faith For there is no man living which sins not and who can say his Heart is clean the best of us all hath need to pray unto God daily and hourly Lord forgive our trespasses 1. I answer It is true that an absolute and perfect Obedience to the Law of God is not attainable in this life For the best that are though not in a current and constant course yet ever and anon offend both in doing what they ought not and omitting what they should do yea some mixture of infirmity and imperfections will cleave unto the face of the fairest action So incompatible is an uninterrupted and unstained purity with this unglorified state of mortality 2. All this is true and cannot be denied For our Apostle himself saith chap. 1. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us But the same Apostle in chap. 3. 8. of this Epistle saith also That he which commits sin is of the Devil There is therefore some measure of holiness and obedience and that more than ordinary required of those who are the Sons of God That ours may be such we must know the requisites thereof are three To be Cordial Resolved and Vniversal 1. It must be Cordial that is Conscionable and Sincere it must be internal proceeding from the Heart not external only in the appearance of the outward work God looks for fruit and not for leaves therefore the Fig-tree in the Gospel which had nothing but leaves we know was accursed But blessed are they saith David that keep his Testimonies and seek him with their whole heart For true Faith not only restrains the actions of the outward man for that Humane laws and other respects may do but it purifies the Heart also from the reigning allowance of any lust or lewd course of sin There is abhorring as well as abstaining loathing as well as leaving for else a chained Lion though he abstain from devouring hath his Lionish nature still 2. It must be Resolved that is out of a full and setled purpose to conform our selves to the Law of God That howsoever we often fail in the execution yet this Root may still keep life within us For good actions which come only by fits and occasions are no part of true Obedience nor where such a Resolution is are failings and slips more a sign of a disobedient child than the missing of a mark argues he that shot never aimed to hit it but only is a sign either of weakness want of skill or good heed or some impediment 3. It must be Vniversal I say not absolute and perfect for no man can keep the Law of God absolutely and perfectly yet it must be Vniversal that is to one Commandment as well as to another True Obedience knows no exception no reservation nor can any such stand with a true Faith and allegiance to Christ our Lord. First therefore there must no darling no bosome sin no Herodias be cherished such a dead fly as this will marre the whole box of ointment For how should he take himself for a faithful servant of Christ who still holds correspondence with his Arch-enemy the Devil It were treason in an earthly subject to do it how serviceable soever he might otherwise be unto his Prince One breach in the walls of a City exposeth it to the surprise of the Enemy one leak in a Ship neglected will sink it at last into the bottom of the Sea the stab of a Pen-knife to the Heart will as well speed a man as twenty Rapiers run through him If thou hedge thy close as high as the middle region of the Air in all other places and leave but one gap all thy grass will be gone If the Fowler catch the Bird either by the head or the foot or the wing she is sure his own So in the present case If Satan keep possession but by one reigning sin it will be thine everlasting ruine If thou live and die with allowance and delight in any one known sin without resolution to part with it thou art none of Christ's servants thou as yet carriest the Devil's brand he hath thereby markt thee out for his own Secondly An Vniversal obedience submits not only to Prohibitions of not doing evil but puts in practice the Injunctions of doing good Many think they keep the Commandments well so they do nothing which they forbid But the not doing good is a sin as well as the doing of evil Dives fries in Hell not for robbing but for not relieving Lazarus The unprofitable servant was cast into outer darkness not for spending but for not bestowing his Master's talent The five foolish Virgins were shut out of doors not for wasting but for not having oil in their Lamps And the wicked shall be
dari cur immaniter CONVENTICVLA dirui in quibus summus oratur Deus pax cunctis venia postulatur Magistratibus Exercitibus Regibus Familiaribus Inimicis adhuc vitam degentibus resolutis corporum vinctione c. He alludes unto the burning of the Books of Scripture and demolition of the Christians Oratories by Diocletian of which see Eusebius Lib. 8. c. 2. And know from hence when Arnobius wrote Nay Origen himself one of the first brought to depose against us if Rufinus his Translator deserve my credit will in his Homily upon the 9. chap. of Iosua testifie both for Churches and Altars among Christians in his time For thus he allegorizeth there the story of the Gibeonites whose lives Iosua and the Elders spared but gave them no better entertainment than to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Congregation and for the Altar of the Lord Sunt quidam in Ecclesia saith he credentes quidem habentes sidem in Deum acquiescentes in omnibus divinis praeceptis quÃque etiam erga servos Dei religiosi sunt servire eis cupiunt sed ad ornatum ECCLESIAE vel ministerium satis prompti paratÃque sunt in actibus verò suis conversatione propria obscoenitatibus vitiis involuti nec omnino deponentes veterem hominem cum actibus suis sed involuti vetustis vitiis obscoenitatibus suis siâ—ut isti i. Gabaonitae pannis calceamentis veteribus obtecti praeter hoc quòd in Deum credunt erga servos Dei vel ECCLESIAE cultum i. ornatum videntur esse devoti nihil adhibent emendationis vel innovationis in mores c. And a little after Veruntamen sciendum est quantum ex hujuscemodi figurarum adumbrationibus edocemur quòd si qui tales sunt in nobis quorum fides hoc tantummodo habet ut ad ECCLESIAM veniant inclinent caput suum sacerdotibus mark here a custom officia exhibeant servos Dei honorent ad ornatum quoque ALTARIS vel ECCLESIAE aliquid conserant non tamen adhibent studium ut etiam mores suos excolant actus emendent vitia deponant castitatem colant iracundiam mitigent avaritiam reprimant rapacitatem refraenent sciant sibi qui tales sunt qui emendare se nolunt sed in his usque in senectutem ultimam perseverant partem sortémque ab Iesu Domino cum Gabionitis esse tribuendam Thus Origen by his Interpreter And if any where Rufinus may be trusted sure he may in this forasmuch as in his Peroration in Epist. ad Romanos he hath given us his word that in his translation of this and the next Book he took not his wonted liberty to insert or alter any thing but simply expressed every thing as he found it Hear his words Illa saith he quae in Iesu Nave in Iudicum librum in 36 37 38. Psalm scripsimus simpliciter expressimus ut invenimus non multo cum labore transtulimus Vide locum Erasmi Censuram Lib. Origen Besides he that but considers the matter together with the brevity of this Homily cannot see a possibility how these passages can be an addition or supplement of the Translator's unless he made the whole Homily because the contents of them are the only argument thereof and being taken from it nothing would be remaining Lastly Because the fore-alledged words of Lactantius are so usually brought against us though they be nothing urgent and his time be altogether repugnant to any such inference yet absolutely to take away all scruple let us hear him also Instit. Lib. 5. c. 2. expresly giving evidence for us and that even by the name of Templum Ego saith he cum in Bithynia literas oratorias accitus docerem contigissét que eodem tempore ut Dei Templum everteretur duo exstiterunt ibidem qui jacenti atque objectae veritati the Christian verity nescio utrùm superbiùs an importunius insultârunt See the rest which follows This was when the Edict of Diocletian came forth for the demolishing of the Christian Churches And thus having removed that stumbling-stone which hath been the main inducement to the contrary opinion so prejudicial to those works of religious bounty and piety I hope my Proofs will find the freer passage with those of understanding and judgment to whose pious consideration I have devoted this my Discourse THE REVERENCE OF GODS HOUSE ECCLESIASTES 5. 1. Look to thy foot or feet when thou comest to the House of God and be more ready to obey than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they know not that they do evil SOLOMON whom God chose to build that sacred and glorious Temple to his Name it hath pleased his holy Spirit to make also our principal Instructor how we ought to demean our selves in such sacred places This appears as by that his solemn and famous Prayer made at the Dedication thereof so also by this Scripture which I have now begun to read the first seven verses of this Chapter if we will rightly understand them being wholly spent upon that argument and containing precepts and instructions fitted to the several duties of holy worship we are to perform both at our coming thither and whilest we remain there To unfold them all were too much for the shortness of the time allotted me May it please you therefore to vouchsafe me your Christian patience and charitable attention whilest I utter my thoughts upon the words I have now read For the better and more distinct explication whereof consider in them these two parts An Admonition and a Caution 1. An Admonition of reverent and awful demeanour when we come to God's House Look to thy foot or feet when thou comest to the House of God 2. A Caution not to prefer the secondary Service of God before the first and principal Be more ready to obey than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they know not that they do evil In the first or Admonition I will consider two things 1. The Place God's House 2. The Duty of those who come thither Look to thy feet Of these in order and first of the Place God's House SECTION I. THE House of God is the place set apart for his Worship and service and so hath peculiar Relation unto him wherewith being invested it becomes sacred and holy not only whilest Divine duties are performed therein as some erroneously affirm but as long as it is for such use namely according to the nature of other Sacred things which continue their state of separateness and sanctity so long as that relation they have unto God wherein this Sanctity consists is not quite abolished To erect and set apart such Places as these for the exercise of the Rites of Religion is derived from the Instinct of Nature and approved of God from the beginning It began not with that Tabernacle or ambulatory Temple which Moses caused to
whereof the Lord had said In this House and in Ierusalem will I put my name for ever even in this House this holy House were Idols and graven Images erected and in both Courts thereof Altars to Baalim the Sun the Moon and the whole host of heaven the like whereof never had been until that time Besides who is able to name the man for almost fifty years together that remained a Faithful servant and True worshipper of the Living God in the midst of this hideous profanation Nor is it easie to be conceived how it was possible all that time to offer any Legal sacrifice without Idolatry when God's own Temple and House was made a den of Idols nay his Altar the only Altar of Israel destroyed to make room for Altars erected to Idols as may be gathered 2 Chron. 33. 15 16. Where was the true Church of Israel now or had the Lord no Church at all Yes certainly he had a Church and a Company which defiled not their garments a Company I say but not visibly distinguished from the rest of their Nation but hidden as it were in the midst of that Apostate body and yet known together with the rest to be Israelites and people of Iehovah but known to God alone and themselves to be true Israelites and faithful servants to Iehovah their God And that such a Company there was and a strong party too though not seen appeared presently upon the death of Manasses and his wicked son when Iosiah began to reign at eight years of age For they then prevailed even in the Court it self and so brought up the King that even while he was yet young in the eighth year of his reign he began to seek after the God of David his father and in the twelfth year to make a publick and powerful Reformation such as the like was never done before him Could all this have been done so soon and by a King so young in years and to carry all before it like a torrent unless there had been a strong party which now having a King for them began quickly to shew themselves and to sway the State though before they were hardly to be seen When therefore our Adversaries ask us where our Church was before Luther we see by this what we have to answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XI The Third Particular or The Time of the Apostasie That the Last Times in Scripture signifie either a Continuation of Time or an End of Time That the Last Times simply and in general are the Times of Christianity the Last Times in special and comparatively or the Latter Times of the Last Times are the Times of the Apostasie under Antichrist That the Times are set out to us to be as Marks to inform us when the Things to fall out in them should come to pass and not the Things intended for signs to know the Times by This Observation illustrated from Dan. 8. OF the two first Particulars of the Four whereby the Great Apostasie of Christian Believers is here decyphered I have spoken sufficiently viz. First for the Quality and kind thereof it should be a new Doctrine of Daemons Secondly that for the Persons revolting they should not be All but Some Now I am to speak of the Third The Times when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Latter Times For the easier understanding whereof we must know that speeches of Last Times in Scripture mean sometimes a Continuation or Length of time sometimes an End of time A Continuation of time I mean as when we say that Winter is the Last time or season of the year or old age the Latter time of life neither of them being the very End but a space of time next the end which therefore in respect of some whole System of time whereof it is the Last part is truly termed the Last time thereof Man's life is a Systeme of divers ages the Last space whereof is the Last time of life The Year is a Systeme of four seasons and therefore the Last season thereof Winter may be called the Last time of the year But by an End of time I mean the very expiring of time as the Last day of December is the End or last time of the year the moment when a man dies is the Last time that is the End of his life Now in the New Testament when by mention of Last time is meant an End or Terminus temporis I observe it to be exprest in the Singular number as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Last day being four times mentioned in the sixth of Iohn and once in the eleventh is in every one of them meant of the Day of the Resurrection at the End of the world I will raise him up saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last day Iohn 6. 39 40 44 54. And Martha of her brother Lazarus I know saith she he shall rise again in the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Last day Iohn 11. 24. So 1 Pet. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last time is used in the self-same sense being spoken of the incorruptible inheritance reserved in heaven and to be revealed saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Last time In all which is meant the End of the world But in 1 Iohn 2. 18. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Last hour Little children it is the Last hour where no doubt he meaneth an End of some time but not the End of the world which was then far off but an End of their time to whom he then wrote his Epistle that is an End of the Iewish State and Religion which was then at the very door which Exposition I will make more plain hereafter But when a Continuation or Longer space of time is signified then I find the Plural number to be used as 1 Pet. 1. 20. of the Incarnation of Christ it is said that he was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was made manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Last times which times have continued these 1600 years at the least So Heb. 1. 2. God saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these Last days hath spoken unto us by his Son And 2 Tim. 3. 1. This know also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in the Last days perillous times shall come Again Acts 2. 17. In the Last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh In the 2 Pet. 3. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Last days shall come scoffers And so in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Latter times some shall revolt from the Faith and give heed to Doctrines of Daemons Whatsoever the validity of this observation be for the rest I make no question but it will be granted That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text means some Continued space of time and not Terminus temporis or the very End of time which therefore presupposed I approach
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
hypothesin praestandam adigerer 6. Concerning the Book written mediately or immediately by the B. of Lincoln It is written very ably and with much variety of Learning and where that Coal lay open to the lash as it did in some things very fouly he pays him soundly and very magisterially Yet I may tell you that in the Discourse concerning the Antiquity of the Name Altar there is parùm aut nihil sinceri aut sani And though his Adversary quoted what he never seems to have read and examined and is accordingly and deservedly met withal yet are there such strange mistakes confusions concealments and wrested interpretations of the Answerer that he lies open to the lash for that part extremely insomuch that I believe that part to have been elaborated by another hand and one that gave more trust to the opinions of some of our Writers than to his own search and judgement But whereas the Coal maintained that Altars had generally and anciently stood up against the East-wall and not in medio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was a monstrous and foul error as I had often told some of ours here you shall find him most fully and largely confuted but the place of Socrates as strangely expounded as the Coal's illation therefrom was most illogically and weakly deduced Thus with my wonted affection and prayers I rest Yours Ios. Mede Christ's College March 22. 1636 7. EPISTLE LXX Dr. Twisse's Thirteenth Letter to Mr. Mede wherein after his desire to know his judgment of Mr. Potter's Book touching the Number of the Beast 666 he expostulates with him about certain Ceremonies c. Reverend Sir and my worthy Friend HAD I stay'd longer in Cambridge you had enjoy'd my company longer or to speak more properly I should have desired to enjoy your company longer and it would be very long ere I should be weary of your discourse I long to hear your judgment of Mr. Potter's Discourse touching the Number of the Beast 666. I presume also you know Bishop Usher's opinion of Christ's Kingdom here on earth I would gladly know it and whether he doth retract his former opinion touching the Binding of Satan which in his Book De successione Ecclesiae he conceives to have been in the days of Constantine I have returned your Paper and sent you a Copie of your own concerning The Four Monarchies which you call The A B C of Prophecies I have sent you also Tilenus his Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice with an answer thereunto In Oxford it 's counted unanswerable translated out of French by D. or A. from whom it was spred as I hear in O. and at first fathered upon one of them But it appears by the Dutch copy and Voetius his answer in Dutch that Tilenus was the Author At my coming from Cambridge I found 8 Copies of them sent unto me and 6 of them I have sent amongst you for truly I never found better content in any friends than there with you and with your self amongst the rest O Mr. Mede I could willingly spend my days in hanging upon your ears while you discourse of Antichrist and the accommodation of his Legend to the Pope of Rome and the Whore of Babylon to Rome it self though my studies have lain far more in their Writings than in our own Divines and I was never found to dislike any Opinion of a Papist for the Papistâ—s sake who maintains it as having profited in Divinity more by their Writings than by our own always excepting Interpretation of Scripture How much more to hear you discourse of the glorious Kingdom of Christ here on Earth to begin with the ruin of Antichrist It may be you do not find many Disciples more docile this way than my self But I would intreat you to spare me in the point of Ceremonies in some particulars whereof you told me once in a Letter you were no Practitioner but now I fear by that which I find you are a Promoter of them In Easter-term last I heard your good Friend while he lived complain not a little of a Sermon of yours which you had then lately preached and he delivered it with much grief After Mr. B. wrote unto you of the battel of Armageddon inquiring whether the time thereof were not already extant the next Letter I received from him had this passage I am verily of Mr. M s. Opinion in this that the times wherin we live are the times for the slaughtering of the Witnesses Whereupon I compared your Letters and I found that well it might be by your opinion And if it be so how sorry should I be to observe that you should have an hand in the slaughtering of them as namely by promoting of such courses and countenancing them for not conforming whereunto many are like to be slaughtered that is according to your interpretation turned out of their Places And as for outward complements nothing more pleaseth a natural man in Religious worship and he finds himself apt enough for it yea far more apt than he who knowing and considering that God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit are most careful for the performance thereof whereupon while their minds are intent they find themselves not so free for outward complements the care whereof is apt to cause avocation and disturbance in that Unum necessarium You bade me stand up at Gloria Patri and it was in such a note too that you had the mastery of me I know not how I profess I little look'd for such Entertainment at your hands My Wifeâ—s father Dr. M. was Bishop Bilson's Chaplain and most respected by him of any Chaplain that ever he had and he a Cathedral-man too but they could never get him to stand up at Gloria Patri I living in a Countrey-Auditory am a mere stranger to such Ceremonies neither do I know any order of our Church urging thereunto neither do I know when it began and upon what grounds it may be it was upon their prevailing against the Arrians and as the Creed is pronounced standing so and in the same respect this also all which is duly to be considered before we come to the practice of it It is true we were private and I was loth to offend you In like sort concerning Bowing towards the Altar for which it was as I heard that you preached I profess unto you I have hitherto received no satisfaction and I long to hear of my Lord of Armagh's judgment of the passages between us And therein I perceive the main thing you reached after was a certain Mystery concerning a Sacrifice which the Papists have miserably transformed but in your sense is now-a-days become a Mystery to all the Christian world And hereupon you touched upon the Iudgments of God at this time in Christendom as if it were for the neglect of that Sacrifice which while I attended in the issue came only to the Sacrilege of these
22. 32. I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living p. 801 Chap. 23. 19 the Altar that sanctifies the Gift p. 376 Verse 39. Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. p. 519 Chap. 24. 14. And the Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world p. 705 and then shall the End come p. 36 Verse 20. Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath-day p. 841 Verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of these days shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from heaven p. 615 753 Verse 34. This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled p. 752 Chap. 25. 33 34. And he shall set the Sheep on his right hand but the Goats on the left Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom c. p. 841 Chap. 27. 34. They gave him vineger to drink mingled with gall p. 518 S. MARK Chap. 1. 14. Now after that Iohn was put in prison Iesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God pag. 97 Verse 15. And saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel p. 106 Chap. 11. 17. Is it not written My house shall be called a House of Prayer to all the Nations p. 44 Chap. 15. 23. And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrhe p. 518 S. LUKE Chap. 1. 28. Hail thou highly-favoured one p. 181 Verse 72. To shew mercy or kindness to our Fathers p. 801 Chap. 2. 1. that all the World should be taxed p. 705 13 14. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest c. p. 89 Chap. 6. 12. he continued all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 67 Chap. 7. 47. Her sins which are many are forgiven therefore she loved much p. 766 Chap. 16. 9. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness c. p. 170 Chap. 18. 28. Lo we have left all and followed thee p. 120 Chap. 21. 24. Vntil the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled p. 709 753 Verse 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then shall be Signs c. p. 744 753 Chap. 22. 20. This Cup is the New Covenant in my bloud p. 372 Chap. 24. 45 46. Then opened be their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures And said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day p. 49 S. IOHN Chap. 1. 14. And the Wâ—rd was made flesh and tabernacled in us p. 266 Chap. 4. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain p. 263 Verse 22. Ye worship what ye know not we worship what we know p. 49 Verse 23. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth p. 46. Chap. 7. 37. As the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water p. 62 Chap. 10. 20. He hath a Devil and is mad p. 28 Chap. 12. 28. Then came there a voice from heaven The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundred p. 459 Chap. 17. 17. Sanctifie them unto or fâ—r thy Truth thy Word is Truth p. 14 Verse 19. And for them I sanctifie my self that they might be sanctified for thy Truth ibid. Chap. 18. 36. My kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight p. 103 Chap. 21. 22. If I will that he stay till I come p. 708 ACTS Chap. 2. 5. And there were sojourning at Ierusalem Iows devout men out of every Nation under heaven p. 74 Verse 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 364 Verse 45. See Chap. 4. 34 Verse 46. And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the House ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart p. 322 Chap. 3. 19. Repent and be converted c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so the times of refreshing may come p. 612 Chap. 4. 34 35. As many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet p. 127 Chap. 5. 3 4. And Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy Ghost and to purloin of the price of the land c. p. 115 Chap. 10. 1 2. There was a certain man in Caefarea called Cornelius a Centurion of the Italian band a devout man and one that feared God c. p. 165 Verse 4. Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial before God p. 164 Chap. 13. 48. And there believed as many as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to eternal life p. 21 Chap. 14. 15. Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways p. 515 Chap. 15. 16 17. After this I will return and will build again the Tabernacle of David which is fallen c. That the residuc of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my Name is called p. 455 Chap. 16. 13. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river-side where there was taken or where was famed to be a Proseucha and Verse 16. It came to pass as we went to the Proseucha p. 67 Chap. 17. 4 There associated themselves to Paul and Silas of the worshipping Greeks a great multitude p. 19 Verse 18. He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Gods because he preached unto them Iesus and the Resurrection p. 635 Chap. 18. 22. And he sailed from Ephesus and when he had landed at Caesarea having gone up and saluted the Church he went down to Antioch p. 323 Chap. 24. 16. ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and men p. 871 ROMANS Chap. 1. 23. They changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image c. p. 5 Verse 25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 49 Chap. 8. 20. For the creature was made subject to vanity Because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God p. 230 812 Chap. 9. 1. my Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost p. 118 Chap. 11. 11 15. Through their fall Salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world p. 455