on which the due interpretation of the whole Psalm depends The coming of God ordinarily signifies in Scripture any judicial proceeding of his Gods punishments and vengeance on his enemies see Psal 18. noted. But this Psalm seems peculiarly to look forward to the times of the Messias and so to denote some coming of his The Chaldee applies it to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of the great judgment But this phrase I suppose may be taken in some latitude in that Paraphrast not to denote the last judgment though thus St. Augustine will have this Psalm uderstood de judicio Dei novissimo of the last judgment of God but as their Paraphrase on v. 2. seems to interpret it some great destruction that was to be wrought in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beginning of the creation of the age meaning I suppose by the age the age of the Messias which as 't is there said was to come out of Sion which is not applicable to any other age but that Now there be three comings of Christ exprest in the Scripture The first in humility by his being born in our flesh the last in glory for the judging of the whole world in the day of the universal doom And a middle coming which was not to be corporal but spiritual a mighty work wrought in the world by the power of that spirit which raised Jesus from the dead beginning in a terrible vengeance upon his crucifiers the notable destruction of the Jewish Temple and of Jerusalem and so of the Mosaical worship and the Judaical politie and proceeding to the propagation of the Christian Faith to all the world wherein were many glorious acts of Gods power and mercy and are all together oft stiled in Scripture the coming of Shiloh of the desire of all nations of the kingdom of God of the son of Man of Christ see note on Mat. 16. o. 24. b. Joh. 21. b. And this is it to which this Psalm most signally seems to belong as also Psal 96.10 11 12 13. and conteins these several stages or branches of it 1. the terrible manner of this his coming v. 3. Secondly the formality of it a judicature used in it v. 4. Thirdly the preservation and rescue of the believing Jews out of the common ruine v. 5 6. Fourthly the rejection of legal worship of sacrifices of beasts v. 8 9 10 11 12 13. Fifthly the establishing of the Christian service the spiritual oblation of Prayer and Thanksgiving v. 14 15. and Lastly the destruction of the impenitent Jews which having received the Law of God and entred into Covenant with him would not yet be reformed by Christs preaching v. 16. c. to the end V. 3. Silence The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath several significations But that which is most agreeable to this place is that of doing nothing being idle delaying tarrying as applied to the actions not the speech only So 2 Sam. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is best rendred Why do you defer or delay to bring back the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the LXXII Why are you silent in that other notion applied to the tongue but the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word which belongs to the actions as well as words the learned Schindler there renders it cessatis cunctamini defer or delay The Syriack there renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath that signification among others of cessavit moratus tardatus fuit and is by the Latine translator rightly rendred haesitatis and so the Arabick appears there to understand it And so the context inforces by another phrase used there in the same matter v. 11. and 12. Why saith he are ye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 last to bring back the King i. e. very backward and dilatory So the Arabick expresses that also Why do you defer or neglect And so Psal 28.1 the sense carries it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not defer or neglect to answer me neglect me not saith the Arabick And thus 't will best be rendred here Our God shall come and not delay not neglect saith the Arabick as in the place of Samuel And the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which though it may signifie shall not keep silence yet it is also not defer or delay and so is determined here by the remainder of their paraphrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work vengeance for his people So the Jewish Arab. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall not withhold or refrain from it And thus the phrase seems to be made use of and interpreted by the Apostle Heb. 10.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will come and not delay or tarry i. e. he will certainly come Which I suppose to be the reason of the learned Castellio's rendring this place veniet Deus noster sine dubio Our God shall come without doubt the coming and not delaying being all one with his certain coming The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is again used v. 21. and rendred by the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I stayed or expected that thou mightest repent which is a full proof of this notion of the word for delaying Where the Jewish Arab reads as here I withheld from thee adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delaying V. 11. Wild beasts For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beast the LXXII seem to read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beauty and render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine pulchritudo the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cock of the wood whose feet stand on the earth and his head touches the heaven of which Elias Levita in his Thisby p. 273. taking notice adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is a new thing not without reason expressing his wonder at their rendring but the Syriack is clear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the beast The Fifty First PSALM TO the chief Musitian A Psalm of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba Paraphrase The Fifty first Psalm was composed by David after the commission of those many sins in the matter of Uriah 2 Sam. 11. when by Nathan the Prophet his message to him from God he was brought to a due humiliation for them which he exprest in this penitential Psalm and to make it the more publick to remove the scandal of so many notorious sins he committed it to the Prefect of his Musick to be solemnly sung 1. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Paraphrase 1. O thou Father of all mercies and compassions permit me thy most unworthy servant foully guilty of many horrid crimes to make mine humblest approach to thee and out of the riches of thy benignity out of the abundance of thy melting compassions to
uncharitable to charge this ignorance still upon Disciples after so many solemn Embassies of the Holy Ghost unto us to teach us and remember us of this Duty Nay I wish that now after he hath varied the way of appearing after he hath sat upon us in somewhat a more direful shape not of a Dove but Vultur tearing even the flesh from us on purpose that when we have less of that carnal Principle left there might be some heed taken to this Gospel-Spirit there were yet some proficiency observable among us some heavings of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath so long been a working in the World I am confident there were no such way of designing a prosperous flourishing durable Kingdom as to found its policy upon Gospel-Principles and maintain it by the gospel-Gospel-Spirit I have authority to think that was the meaning of that Prophecy of Christs turning swords into plough-shares not that he should actually bring peace he tells you that it would prove quite contrary but because the fabrick of the Gospel is such that would all men live by it all wars and disquiets would be banished out of the World It was a madness in Machiavel to think otherwise and yet the unhappiness of the World that Sir Thomas Moor's Book that designed it thus should be then called Vtopia and that title to this hour remain perfect Prophecy no place to be found where this Dove may rest her foot where this Gospel-Spirit can find reception No not among Disciples themselves those that profess to adventure their lives to set up Christs Kingdom in its purity none so void of this knowledg as they Whether we mean a speculative or practical knowledg of it few arrived to that height or vacancy of considering whether there be such a Spirit or no. Some so in love with nature that old Pelagian Idol resolve that sufficient to bring them to Heaven if they but allow their brethren what they can claim by that grand Character love of Friends those of the same perswasion those that have obliged them they have Natures leave and so are resolved to have Christs to hate pursue to death whom they can phansie their Enemies And I wish some were but thus of Agrippa's Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so near being Christians as nature it self would advance them that gratitude honour to Parents natural affection were not become malignant qualities disclaim'd as conscientiously as obedience and justice and honouring of betters Others again so devouted to Moses's Law the Old Testament Spirit that whatever they find practised there they have sufficient authority to transcribe And 't is observable that they which think themselves little concerned in Old Testament Duties which have a long time past for unregenerate morality that faith hath perfectly out-dated are yet zealous Assertors of the Old Testament Spirit all their pleas for the present resistance fetch'd from them yea and confest by some that this liberty was hidden by God in the first ages of the Christian Church but now revealed we cannot hear where yet but in the Old Testament and from thence a whole CIX Psalm full of Curses against God's Enemies and theirs and generally those pass for synonymous terms the special devotion they are exercised in and if ever they come within their reach no more mercy for them than for so many of the seven nations in rooting out of which a great part of their Religion consists I wish there were not another Prodigy also abroad under the name of the Old Testament Spirit the opinion of the necessity of Sacrifice real bloody Sacrifice even such as was but seldom heard of among Indians and Scythians themselves such Sacrifices of which the Canibal Cyclops Feasts may seem to have been but attendants furnished with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that come from such savage Altars sacrificing of Men of Christians of Protestants as good as any in the World to expiate for the blood shed by Papists in Queen Mary's days and some Prophets ready to avow that without such Sacrifice there is no remission no averting of judgments from the Land What is this but like the Pharisees To build and garnish the Sepulchres of the Prophets and say That if they had lived in their Fathers days they would never have partaken of the blood of the Prophets and yet go on to fill up the measure of their Fathers the very men to whom Christ directs thee O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest in the present tense a happy turn if but the Progeny of those Murtherers and what can then remain but the Behold your house is left unto you desolate irreversible destruction upon the Land A third sort there is again that have so confined the Gospel to Promises and a fourth so perswaded that the Vnum necessarium is to be of right perswasions in Religion i. e. of those that every such man is of for he that did not think his own the truest would sure be of them no longer that betwixt those two popular deceits that of the Fiduciary and this of the Solisidian the Gospel-spirit is not conceived to consist in doing any thing and so still those practical Graces Humility Meekness Mercifulness Peaceableness and Christian Patience are very handsomly superseded that one Moses's Rod called Faith is turned Serpent and hath devoured all these for rods of the Magicians and so still you see men sufficiently armed and fortified against the Gospel-spirit All that is now left us is not to exhort but weep in secret not to dispute but pray for it that God will at last give us eyes to discern this treasure put into our hands by Christ which would yet like a whole Navy and Fleet of Plate be able to recover the fortune and reputation of this bankrupt Island fix this floating Delos to restore this broken shipwrakt Vessel to harbour and safety this whole Kingdom to peace again Peace seasonable instant peace the only remedy on earth to keep this whole Land from being perfect Vastation perfect Africk of nothing but wild and Monster and the Gospel-spirit that Christ came to preach and exemplifie and plant among men the only way imaginable to restore that peace Lord that it might at length break forth among us the want of it is certainly the Authour of all the miseries we suffer under and that brings me to the third and last particular That this ignorance of the Gospel-spirit is apt to betray Christians to unsafe unjustifiable enterprizes You that would have fire from Heaven do it upon this one ignorance You know not c. It were too sad and too long a task to trace every of our evils home to the original every of the fiends amongst us to the mansion in the place of darkness peculiar to it If I should it would be found too true what Du Plesse is affirmed to have said to Languet as the reason why he would not write the story of the Civil
them upon condition of performance of moral precepts for all things being indifferently moved to the obtaining of their summum bonum all I say not only rational agents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Andronicus saith on the Ethicks which have nothing but nature to incite them to it the natural man may upon a sight and liking of an happiness proposed on severe conditions call himself into some degrees of moral temper as best suiting to the performance of the means and obtaining of the end he looks for and by this temper be said to be morally better than another who hath not taken this course to subdue his passions And this was evident enough among the Philosophers who were as far beyond the ordinary sort in severity of conversation as depth of learning and read them as profitable precepts in the example of their lives as ever the Schools breathed forth in their Lectures Their profession was incompatible with many vices and would not suffer them to be so rich in variety of sins as the vulgar and then whatsoever they thus did an unregenerate Christian may surely perform in a far higher measure as having more choice of ordinary restrainment from sin than ever had any heathen for it will be much to our purpose to take notice of those ordinary restraints by which unregenerate men may be and are curbed and kept back from sinning and these saith Austin God affords to the very reprobates Non continens in ira suas misericordias Much to this same purpose hath holy Maximus in those admirable Sections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where most of the restraints he speaks of are competible to the unregenerate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 1. Fear of men 2. Denunciation of judgments from Heaven 3. Temperance and moral vertues nay sometimes other moral vices as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain glory or ostentation of integrity 4. Natural impressions to do to others as we would be done to 5. Clearness of judgment in discerning good from evil 6. An expectation of a reward for any thing well done Lastly some gripes and twinges of the conscience to all add a tender disposition a good Christian education common custom of the Country where one lives where some vices are out of fashion nay at last the word of God daily preached not a love but servile fear of it These I say and the like may outwardly restrain unregenerate men from riots may curb and keep them in and consequently preserve the soul from that weight of the multitude of sins which press down other men to a desperation of mercy Thus is one unregenerate man less ingaged in sin than another and consequently his soul less polluted and so in all likelihood more capable of the ordinary means of salvation than the more stubborn habituate sinner when every aversion every commission of every sin doth more harden against grace more alien and set at a greater distance from Heaven and this briefly we call a moral preparation of the soul and a purging of it though not absolutely from sin yet from some measure of reigning sin and disposing of it to a spiritual estate and this is no more than I learn from Bradwardine in his 16. de causa Dei. ch 37. A servile fear a sight of some inconvenience and moral habit of vertue and the like Multum retrahunt à peccato inclinant ad opera bona sic ad charitatem gratiam opera verè grata praeparant disponunt And so I come to my last part to shew of what use this preparation of the soul is in order to Christs birth in us the ways of the Lord. I take no great joy in presenting controversies to your ears out of this place yet seeing I am already fallen upon a piece of one I must now go through it and to quit it as soon as I can present the whole business unto you in some few propositions of which some I shall only recite as conceiving them evident enough by their own light the rest I shall a little insist on and then apply and drive home the profit of all to your affections And in this pardon me for certainly I should never have medled with it had not I resolved it a Theory that most nearly concerned your practice and a speculation that would instruct your wills as well as your understandings The propositions which contain the summ of the business are these 1. No preparation in the world can deserve or challenge Gods sanctifying grace the spirit bloweth where it listeth and cannot by any thing in us be predetermin'd to its object or its work 2. The Spirit is of power to work the conversation of any the greatest sinner at one minute to strike the most obdurate heart and soften it and out of the unnatural womb of stones infinitely more unfruitful than barrenness and age had made the womb of Sarah to raise up children unto Abraham According to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diseases are sometimes cur'd when the patient is at the extremity or height of danger in an ecstasie and almost quite gone 3. 'T is an ill Consequence that because God can and sometimes doth call unprepared sinners therefore 't is probable he will deal so with thee in particular or with unprepared men in general God doth not work in conversion as a physical agent to the extent of his power but according to the sweet disposition and counsel of his Will 4. In unprepared hearts there be many profest enemies to grace ill dispositions ambition Atheism pride of spirit and in chief an habit in a voluptuous setled course of sinning an indefatigable resolute walking after their own lusts And therefore there is very little hope that Christ will ever vouchsafe to be born in such polluted hardned souls For 't is Basil's observation that that speech of the fools heart there is no God was the cause that the Gentiles were given over to a reprobate sense and fell headlong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into all manner of abominations Hence it is that Jobius in Photius observes that in Scripture some are called Dogs Mat. xv 26 some unworthy to receive the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. xiii 11 that some hated the light and came not to it John iii. 20 as if all those had taken a course to make themselves uncapable of mercy and by a perfect hostility frighted Christ out of their coasts In the liberal dispensation of miracles in the Gospel you would wonder to see Christ a niggard in his own Country yet so in respect of other places he was and did not many miracles there because of their unbelief Mat. xiii 58 not that their incredulity had manacled him had shortned his hand or straitned his power but that miracles which when they met with a passive willingness a contentedness in the patient to receive and believe them were then the ordinary instruments of faith
A PARAPHRASE AND ANNOTATIONS UPON THE BOOKS OF THE PSALMS A PARAPHRASE AND ANNOTATIONS Upon the BOOKS of the PSALMS Briefly Explaining the Difficulties thereof ALSO A Paraphrase Annotations On the Ten First Chapters of the PROVERBS The Second Edition Corrected and Amended By H. HAMMOND D. D. LONDON Printed by T. Newcomb and M. Flesher for Richard Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner and Richard Davis Bookseller in Oxford Anno Dom. MDCLXXXIII A PREFACE Concerning the Duty Practice and constant Vsage of Psalmody in the Church The Benefits thereof The Design of this Work The Literal and Prophetical Senses The Helps toward the Indagation of each The Interpreters especially the Greek The Spirit and Affections of Psalmodists 1. THE Duty and Benefits of Psalmody and the many Excellencies of these Divine inspired Books cannot fitly be set out by any lower Hand than that which first wrote them 2. For the former of these we are sufficiently provided from this Treasury Psal 33.1 Praise this of Psalmody vers 2. is comely for the upright Psal 92.1 2 3. It is a good thing to give thanks to sing praises to shew forth thy loving kindness and thy faithfulness upon the Psaltery with a solemn sound 135.3 Praise the Lord for the Lord is good sing praises to his Name for it is pleasant 81.1 2 3 4 5. Sing aloud Take a Psalm Blow up the Trumpet For this was a Statute for Israel and a Law of the God of Jacob. This he ordeined in Joseph for a Testimony when he went out through the Land of Egypt and very frequently elsewhere And the sum of the Testimonies is that as it is the principal thing we know of the Joys of Heaven that we shall most ardently love and praise God there and devoutly contend with the holy Angels his supreme Ministers in sounding forth the adorable Excellencies of our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier so we are obliged by our holy calling and our own many great Interests to take some Antepast of those Coelestial Joys in this lower Kingdom of Heaven and to spend no unconsiderable part of our present Lives in this most blessed and holy Imployment wherein also those Angels which shall then be our Praecentors are here pleased to follow and attend our Motions and invisibly to assist in those Quires where they can find meet Company the Hearts pure and whole Hearts the Spirits and inflamed Affections and Voices of Psalmodists 3. As for the latter it is no otherwise to be fetcht from hence than as the Light commends Beauty to every Eye and as the Matter it self speaketh this Type of Christ the Psalmist having transcrib'd this part of his Character that he hath not thought fit to testifie of himself any otherwise than the works which he did bare witness of him For this therefore we must appeal to Foreign Testimonies and therein not so much to the diffused Panegyricks which have been largely bestowed on this holy Book by many of the Antient Fathers of the Church as to the Offices of all Churches Jewish nay Mahometane as well as Christian and the more private practices of Holy Men in all Ages 4. For the practice of the Jewish Church we have 1 Chron. 15.16 where the Levites are appointed to be Singers with Instruments of Musick Psalteries and Harps and Cymbals sounding by lifting up the voice with joy and to record and to thank and to praise the Lord God of Israel chap. 16.4 And being thus prepared for the office David delivered this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his Brethren vers 7. Give thanks unto the Lord in the words of Psal 105.1 And this not only upon an extraordinary occasion to solemnize the carrying up of the Ark but to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord and also every evening chap. 23.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and to or at every offering up so the LXXII rightly render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all that is offered of burnt-sacrifices to the Lord in the Sabbaths in the New-moons and on the feast days vers 31. And thereto the recital of their practice accords Ecclus. 50.15 16 18. He poured out the sweet-smelling savour Then shouted the Sons of Aaron and sounded the Silver Trumpets and made a great noise to be heard for a remembrance The Singers also sang praises with their voices with great variety of sounds was there made sweet Melody So again 2 Chron. 5.12 the Levites arrayed in white Linen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar and with them an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets And as the Trumpeters and Singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord and when they lift up their voice with the Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick saying For he is good for his mercy endureth for ever in the words of this Psalmist so often repeated then in token of God's acceptation and approbation the House was filled with a Cloud vers 13. the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of God vers 14. 5. This old Copy of the Jews is at once transcribed and confirmed and recommended to all the World by the signal practice of Christ himself in his great Reformation 6. Beside his many incidental Reflections on this Book of Psalms to prove his Doctrine and give account of himself Luk. 20.42 and 24.44 Matth. 16.27.21.16.25.41 and 26.23 Joh. 10 34.15.25 and 17.12 two signal instances are recorded for us the one at the Institution of the Eucharist Matth. 26.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they sung a Psalm closed the whole action with a Hymn and so went out 7. That this their singing was the recitation of the Paschal Hymn or great Hallelujah Psal 114. and the four subsequent is not exprest by the Evangelist yet is much more probable than the contrary opinion of those that conceive it was a new Hymn of Christ's effusion possibly the same which is recorded Joh. 17. wherein it cannot be believed that the Disciples had their parts as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must conclude they had in the singing this Hymn or Hymns 'T is evident our Saviour chose to retein much more of the Jewish Customs than that of the Paschal Psalm amounts to 8. The other instance was that upon the Cross being now at the pouring out of his Peace-offering Matth. 27.46 About the ninth hour the hour of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he lift up his voice like a Levites Trumpet resounded with a loud voice Eli Eli Lamma Sabachthani the express words in the Syriack reading of the beginning of the 22 Psal How much more of that or of the insuing Psalms he recited the Text advertiseth us no farther than that he concluded with the words of the 31. v 5. So St. Luke tells us Chap. 23.46 And
when Jesus had cried with a loud voice which belongs to the former passage he said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said this he gave up the Ghost 9. Here we see our Blessed Saviour that had not the Spirit by measure that spake as never man spake chose yet to conclude his life to entertain himself in his greatest Agony and at last to breath out his Soul in this Psalmist's form of words rather than in his own No tongue of Men or Angels can invent a greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set out the honour of any Writing or give us more reason to lay up in our minds the words of the Martyr Hippolitus that in the dayes of Antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Liturgy shall be extinguisht Psalmody shall cease Reading of the Scriptures shall not be heard In which three as the Publick Service of God was by the Antients thought to consist so the destroying of all and each of them must needs be a branch if not the whole body of Antichristianisme a direct contradiction to Christ who by his own prescription or practice of each of these imprest a Sacred Character on each 10. The use which the Apostles of Christ are recorded to have made of this Book bears proportion with these precedents 11. In St. Peter's Speech about Judas and his Successor the directions are taken from hence Act 1.16 20. In his first Sermon to his Countreymen his proofs are from hence Act. 11.25 31 34. So again chap. 4.11 And upon the delivery of him and John out of the Rulers hands the whole company celebrate the news of it chap. 4.24 first in the words of Psal 146.6 then of Psal 2.1 2. so St. Paul in his Preaching Act. 13.22 33 35. in his Writings Rom. 3.4 10 c. 8.36 10.18.11.9.15.3 9 11 and oft elsewhere and so in his Sufferings also Act. 16.25 At midnight one of the Solemn hours of Prayer and Psalmody in the Antient Church Paul and Silas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their office of Prayer used an Hymn or Psalm one or more also and recited so loud that the prisoners heard and this again signally accepted and rewarded by God with the earth-quake and opening of the doors and loosing of their bands v. 26. 12. The use of these in the Publick Assemblies as early as the Apostles times is intimated 1 Cor. 14 26. but distinctly set down 1 Cor. 2.4 under the style of Prophesying every Man praying or prophesying according to the importance of that phrase 1 Chron. 25. Heman and Jeduthun should prophesy with harps with psalteries and with cymbals v. 1. and the sons of Asaph prophesied according to the order of the King v. 2. and the sons of Jeduthun prophesied with the harp to give thanks and praise the Lord v. 3. and in them as in praying all joyned the whole assembly in heart and voice had all their common inteterest women as well as men every woman that prayeth or prophesieth v. 5. though in other parts of the office they were not allowed to speak chap. 14.34 yet let us exalt his name together Psal 34.3 young men and maidens Psal 148.12 and so still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidore Polusiote the Apostles of Christ wisely permitted that women should Sing Psalms in the Churches and he there mentions it as a most severe punishment to be inflicted on them for their misdemeanours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be interdicted Singing in the Church with which he joyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the turning them out of the City 13. Then for the more private use of them St. Paul's prescriptions are authentick testimony Eph. v. 18 19. where in opposition to the heathen Orgia of Bacchus's Enthusiasts he directs to speaking to themselves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in their hearts unto God and Col. 3 16. teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord. And so St. James also chap. v. 13. Is any merry let him sing Psalms 14. How this Exercise was frequented in all after-Ages in the Church and made a very great part of the Christians devotions both in the publick assembly and more privately in the Family and yet in the greater retirement in the Closet and the waking Bed we need not seek in the Histories of the Ascetae and Recluse many of which spent their whole time in this imployment reciting the whole Psalter daily others weekly none past an hour of Prayer without a considerable portion of it The Fathers of the Church assure us that for those that lived in Seculo Psalmody was the constant attendant sometimes of their Meals generally of their Business in the shop and in the field that they learnt the whole Book by heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and through their whole age continued singing or saying Psalms that whereas the custome of the world had taught all to deceive the wearisomness or length of business by any kind of singing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God had provided them Psalms for their pleasure and profit together that whilst they did in appearance but sing they should really be instructed and improved in their souls 15. The consideration of these things but especially of the common interest of all sorts and states Ages and Sexes in this one great treasury and magazine deposited with the Church for the inriching and securing of Souls together with one sadder reflection which I had rather the Reader should be told from St. Chrysostome than from me have oft suggested and at length perswaded me to make this attempt to cast in my Mite to this Treasury my Symbolum toward so charitable a work as is the indeavour that every man may be in some measure able to say with St Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will sing or recite a Psalm with the spirit I will do it with the understanding also 16. In order to which what is here attempted to be performed together with the uses which every pious Christian may think fit to make of it I am in this place to advertise the Reader 17. For the first The maine if not only scope of the Paraphrase and Annotations hath been to extricate and clear the literal importance of each Psalm whether that were more general wherein all men indifferently were concerned or more particular and that again either such as concerned the Psalmist only in relation to some Matter of Fact in the Story of those Times or such as had a farther and more Divine Aspect on Christ the Messias of the World who without question is oft predicted in this Book of Psalms and either by Christ himself or by his inspired Apostles acknowledged and attested to have been signally meant and so to have given the World the most eminent Completion of those Predictions 18. Now because the Expounding of Prophecies
is no easie task and especially of those Poetick and Prophetick Writings which have had one immediate Sense and Completion in some other and because there is but one Infallible Clue to this Labyrinth the Applications of such places made by Divine Writers in the New Testament I have therefore made use of that as oft as it was to be met with and then advanced with confidence beyond what the Letter in its first or immediate sense suggested But for all other Passages which by some kind of Accommodation or Anagogy or Figure or Moral or Spiritual Sense were capable of being thus applied either to Christ or his Church I have not frequently chosen to be thus adventuruous both because I knew this was for the most part the Product of Phansy wherein all Men are willing to reserve their Liberty and neither needed to be directed nor liked to be anticipated and because I was unwilling to affix any Sense to Scripture which I had not some degree of assurance that the Holy Ghost in the inspired Writer had respect unto who though he may have designed whatever the Words are capable of and so may have intended more Senses than one yet cannot be proved to have done whatsoever he might have done And therefore though I blame not the Inlargements of their Spirits who extend themselves to Allegorical and Tropological Descants so they be founded in the Literal Sense first secured yet this latter was it which I had in my Aim and I both found and foresaw a Competent Weight and Number of Difficulties in that which as I was intent by Gods Help to overcome so I was not willing to weaken by diverting any part of my Forces to what was more easie but less necessary considering especially that this Book of Psalms brought home thus plainly and without any descant to every Mans Understanding would be able to yield him an intire Body of necessary Theology in Directions of Life Fundamentals of Faith and Incentives and Helps of Devotion and copious and various Matter of Divine Meditation which are sufficient to recommend it to the Readers most diligent revolving to which then those Anagogies are likely to be consequent of their own accord as the result of a more passionate Delight hovering over the more solid Intellectual Joy of conversing with God and inriching his own Soul 19. For the fetching out of this Primary or Literal Sense oft veiled in Poetick Colours sometimes more intricated whether by Ellipses or Trajections but most frequently made doubtful by the variety of Notions of which the same Hebrew Words are capable my first resort hath been to the Antient Learned Literal Interpreters in many Languages as they are lately published with most advantage by the great Diligence and unwearied Industry of my very worthy and learned Friend Dr. Walton 20. Of these I must acknowledge the most advantageous Directions to have been afforded me by the Chaldee Greek and Syriack for as to the Latine Arabick and Aethiopick they do so closely follow and in a manner render the Greek that the chief use of them hath been to secure us of the antient Reading of the Greek which being sometimes corrupted in the Autograph is to be recovered by help of these Transcripts 21. Of these three the Chaldee which is not so literal as the others pretend to be but owns the liberty of a Paraphrast is yet as commodious as any to direct to the literal sense the very design of a Paraphrast being truly this to render that fully in more words which an equal number could not sufficiently express Yet hath not this made so full a provision for us but that all others Aids have sometimes been little enough to stear us through the difficulty 22. For the Greek whether it be truly what the Title assumes the translation of the LXXII i. e. those so many Jews in Ptolemaeus Philadelphus his time who were sent him by the High Priest competently instructed to perform that Work I shall not take upon me to determine For as I am no way convinced with the Arguments of those who affirm that those LXXII translated no more than the Law of Moses as that strictly signifies but the Pentateuch when yet the Title is inlarg'd in Christs style John 12.34 and 15.25 and S. Pauls Rom. 3.19 to this Book of Psalms peculiarly and to the Prophets also 1 Cor. 14.21 and when the Antientest Fathers of the Church Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus and so forward till S. Hierome all uniformly produced their Testimonies out of the Prophets and Psalms as well as out of the Pentateuch upon the Authority of these LXXII Jews which had thus rendred them or that what they translated was by the burning of Ptolemies Library in Julius Cesar's time irrecoverably lost when certeinly many Copies of it had been transcribed before that time which met not with that Conflagration so neither am I obliged by the relation of the Cells and other Circumstances which Justin was told in Egypt over and above what we find in Aristeas or Josephus to conclude their Interpretation a work of Gods peculiar Conduct and so to ascribe as some great Lights of the Church have done their Variations from the Hebrew to the same Spirit by which the Originals were first indited 23. I shall only remember on this occasion what is observed by Jesus the Son of Sirach in his Prologue to Ecclesiasticus where taking notice of the Interpretation not only of the Law but of the Prophets and other Books also and in the next words setting down the time of his coming into Aegypt in the eight and thirtieth year under King Euergetes the immediate Successor of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus and so may probably be understood to speak of the LXXII not long after the compiling their Interpretation he tells us withall that there was great Differenec betwixt the Original and the Translation And allowing it to have place in this of the Psalms as well as other Books though I think as little in this as in most other 't is yet certain that great use is to be made of it toward the present Design of interpreting the Original And in gratitude for the many Benefits thus received but especially because this Translation was the means of conveying the Word of God unto the Heathen was in many Synagogues used by the Jews in and before Christ's time as Justine and Tertullian and the Jews themselves assure us was constantly cited and resorted to by Philo Judaeus in his writings and frequently honoured by the Writers of the New Testament who retein their Rendrings even where they differ from the Hebrew and lastly hath reteined that honour in the whole antient Church which universally used and followed this Translation which we now have and that without any question but the LXXII were the Authors of it I have payed them a more peculiar Respect and Consideration very often examined their
which all the sacrifices and burnt-offerings under the Law were but types and shadows and at the presence of which they were to cease as we know they did and as is exprest here in the following words Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required Then said I Loe I come That this whole passage is an eminent prophecy of Christ appears by the Apostle Heb. 10.5 who makes Christ not David to be the speaker here wherefore when he i. e. Christ cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice which makes it less necessary for us in this place to seek for any first sense wherein David might be interpreted to speak this of himself but rather to account of it as the great signal wonder of mercy done by God to men which in the recounting of Gods wonderful works and thoughts to us-ward v. 5. he seasonably brings in by the spirit of prophecy viz. the birth of the Messias and the Sacrifice of himself wherein so many even innumerable and unexpressible mercies were comprised and folded up If it may be thus understood as an instance brought in by David prophetically of Gods wonderful mercies then will these three verses be no more but a description of Christs coming into the world after which David again proceeds to the recounting of Gods mercies more generally vers 9. But because there is no assurance of this and the Apostles words Heb. 10.5 may refer only to the higher and Prophetick completion of the words and yet not prejudice a first immediate sense of them as belonging to David it is not amiss therefore here though not in the paraphrase to annex that viz. that God prefers obedience noted as was said by opening the ear before the richest oblations and holocausts and that therefore David designes that as his way of rendring his humblest thanks for Gods mercies by performing faithful obedience to his commands This is the literal meaning of Sacrifices and burnt-offerings thou wouldest not desire mine ears hast thou opened the latter that of ready willing obedience thou hast much preferred before the former And again to the same purpose Burnt-offerings and sacrifice thou hast not required Then said I Loe I come to do thy will O my God i. e. They are not sacrifices in their greatest multitude that God requires and expects of Kings or such as David as their returns for the greatest mercies but a ready and cheerful obedience to his commands such a discharge of the regal office as may tend most to the honour and glory of God such as was prescribed Deut. 17.16 c. where the duties of a King are set down and in the close of them this of his writing him a copy of the law in a book and reading therein all the days of his life v. 18 19. In reference to which as it may truly be said In the volume of the book it is written of me of David as of all other Kings in this place of Deuteronomy so may that be fitly interpreted that follows O my God I have delighted therein made thy service the study and practice thereof the great imployment and pleasure of my life yea thy law is in the midst of my bowels which was much more then the command of having it written in a Book I am perfect in the knowledge and continually exercised in the practice and performance of thy commandments V. 7. In the Volume From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to roll or fold comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Symmachus literally renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 folding and Theophylact on Heb. 10.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a roll The LXXII read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must be understood in that sense denoting the round form that a writing is in when it is folded up as in Architecture some round parts are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the LXXII and so saith Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word being applyed to a book or writing as here which some call the folding As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a book that signifies any writing among the Jews whose custom it was to write in a long roll see note on Luk. 4. a. and that folded up to preserve it and so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more than a folded paper or parchment of writing a roll Now as by this phrase any kind of writing is signified and so as it belongs to Davids person it may fitly refer to the book of the Law wherein the duty of Kings was set down Deut. 17. So it must be remembred that in such rolls were contained their contracts as among us in indentures and so here the roll of the book as it belongs to Christ is no more but a bill or roll of contract betwixt God the Father and him wherein is supposed to be written the agreement preparatory to that great work of Christs incarnation wherein he undertaking perfectly to fulfill the will of God to perform all active and also passive obedience even to death had the promise from God that he should become the author of eternal salvation to all those that obey him V. 15. For a reward For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a reward the LXXII seem to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the heel and so render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 presently As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies their turpitude or filthy actions and so their shame in that sense as it is taken for any shameful thing for that is it which is to be rewarded with desolation The Forty First PSALM TO the chief Musitian a Psalm of David Paraphrase The Forty First Psalm sets forth the present reward of merciful-minded men in this life and from thence ascendeth to the assured mercies of God to his faithful servants that stand in need of them It was composed by David and committed to the Praefect of his Musick 1. Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble Paraphrase 1. The blessings of God shall not fail to be poured out on the merciful-minded man who is careful to consider and succour those that are in sickness or any kind of misery God shall be sure to succour him when afflictions come upon him 2. The Lord will restore him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the earth and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies Paraphrase 2. Whatsoever his diseases or dangers are God will interpose for his relief and if he see it best for him signally secure his life and restore him to a prosperous flourishing condition in this world and whatever the malice of his enemies be deliver him out of their hands 3. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness Paraphrase 3. When he falls into sickness or distress for from those the pious man is not secured in this life the God of might
is his Tabernacle and his dwelling in Sion Paraphrase 2. And that especially in the holy place of publick assembly where when pious men meet devoutly to offer up their sacrifices and requests to him they receive certain answers of mercy from him most evident demonstrations of his peculiar presence and audience there 3. There brake he the arrows of the bow the shield and the sword and the battel Selah Paraphrase 3. Whilst we kept close to his service there we never failed to receive portentous aids from him to obtain the most illustrious victories over our enemies to secure our selves and destroy them in their most furious and formidable assaults and whatsoever we have at any time atchieved in this kind it hath been no strength of ours but his peculiar interposition 4. Thou art more glorious and excellent then the mountains of prey Paraphrase 4. Thy presence O God in this hill of Sion hath a far greater and more glorious vertue for the guarding of us and overcoming our opposers than the mountains of most strength and advantage where our malicious enemies in their siege and designs of taking our City make their randezvous are for the fortifying themselves or annoying of us 5. The stoutest-hearted are spoiled they have slept their sleep and none of the men of might have found their hands Paraphrase 5. The stoutest and most able men in the world the most warlike and victorious Assyrians have by this means without any considerable strength of ours been utterly discomfited when they had betaken themselves to their rest 2 Chron. 32.21 in the midst of their security the Lord sent an Angel and cut off all their mighty men of valour they slept but never waked again and so their whole Army see Isa 37.36 like men asleep have been able to do nothing not so much as to move an hand to hurt us 6. At thy rebuke O God of Jacob both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep Paraphrase 6. 'T was the secret interposition of thy power O Lord that wrought this signal destruction upon so potent and numerous an Army 7. Thou even thou art to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry Paraphrase 7. Thou art most terrible and irresistible in thy judgments and consumest all before thee in the first minute that thou art pleased to execute them 8. Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven the earth feared and was still 9. When God arose to judgment to save all the meek of the earth Selah Paraphrase 8 9. When thou though in heaven didst please to interpose for thy oppressed people in imminent pressing danger to deliver them from the violences of men and to punish those that injured them then thy Angels came forth on thy messages with thunder and lightning and earthquakes by these the proudest sinners were stricken with horror dreaded these thy thunderbolts and had no means imaginable to secure them from them were all destroyed and put to flight and so left thy people to their rest and quiet whom they came to besiege and conquer 10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain Paraphrase 10. And thus art thou praised and acknowledged and in some degree honoured by the miscarriage and frustration of unjust and wicked men and occasionally by their very sin their cruelty and blasphemies when they came to be restrained and quelled and remarkably punished by thee or Against their rage thou preparest rage they begin in fury against pious blameless men afflicting and oppressing them and thou in thy time dealest with them in wrath repayest them as they have deserved 11. Vow and pay unto the Lord your God let all that be round about him bring presents to him that ought to be feared Paraphrase 11. Our God is a gratious and dreadful God gratious to us in defending us against the most savage oppressors dreadful to them that continue thus to provoke and blaspheme him O let us all that profess his service consecrate and performe to him the fruits of our lips all possible praises and thanksgivings all works of piety and charity And let those that have provoked make speed to atone him by reformation and the meet fruits thereof 12. He shall cut off the spirit of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the earth Paraphrase 12. Else be they never so great and prosperous never so proud and stout God will in a most terrible manner deal with them and at length be sure to bring them low enough as he hath done the proud Senacherib and Rabshakeh and the whole Assyrian Army Annotations on Psal LXXVI V. 3. Arrows The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies fire Job v. 7. where sparkes that fly upward are poetically exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of the fire So Psal 78.48 it is used not for thunderbolts or lightnings as our margin reads but simply for fire shot out of the clouds and running along upon the ground Exod. 9.23 And from thence by metaphor it is applied to an arrow or dart shot out of a bow and by the swiftness of the motion supposed to be inflamed see Cant. 8.6 where of love it is said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the Coals but the arrows thereof are arrows of fire it shoots and wounds and burns a mans heart inflames it vehemently by wounding it Here we have the word twice and if the former of them do not signifie arrows simply it will not be found in that sense in the Bible nor do the LXXII render it in the notion of an arrow but in this place express it by a general word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strengths of the bowes referring to that which is supposed to be the cause of inflaming the arrows the strength of the bow from which they are shot out The Syriack in some degree of complyance with them render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the armes of the bow that which the bow reacheth out as a man doth his arme and by which as by an arme it reacheth to and forcibly seiseth on that which is distant from it The poetical expression will best be conserved by reteining some notice of the primary sense in the rendring of it fires or lightnings of the bow i. e. those hostile weapons which are most furious and formidable as fire shot out from a bow V. 5. Found their hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be rendred have not found their hands i. e. have not been able to use them for resistance for the offending others or even for their own defense the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which they here render it signifying as to find or get so to have in readiness in their power to be able to use To this the Chaldee look in their paraphrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they
Christ and that the importance of this Prophecy in the first place 2. The truth of this Prophecy will be most clear if you observe the They in the front and the reflection of that on the former part of the verse Christ shall judge amongst nations and rebuke many People He shall set up his Kingdom in mens hearts subdue and conquer them that is the meaning of judging as the Administrators of the Jewish Nation and they that subdued their enemies were called Judges for some time and he shall mould them anew into an Evangelical temper that is the interpretation of rebuking And then They i. e. these subjects of this Kingdom of his these malleable tame Evangelical new creatures that are effectually changed by the Spirit and power of Christ's doctrine in their hearts they that are his Disciples indeed they shall beat their swords into those more edifying shapes shall profess more Christianly Trades and if they do not be sure they are at the best if not Amti yet Pseudo-Christians either profest enemies or false friends of Christ By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another no other Character of difference to distinguish a Disciple of Christ from any man else but the Ecce ut se invicem diligunt Behold how they love how they embrace not how they pursue or slaughter one another And so there you have the difficulty cleared how it comes to pass that there is so little Charity among Christians why because there is so little Christianity among Christians so much of the hypocritical guise of the form of Christian piety but so little so nothing of the power of it discernable among us Had but Christ the least real influence on our hearts it would inflame and animate us with love had we any of that salt within us Mar. 9.50 the only preservative from putrefaction and rottenness of spirit it would be as the Naturalists observe of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unitive and bring along what our Saviour hath joyned with it the peace with others 'T is the propriety and peculiarity of the Gospel where 't is entertained to impress this well-natured quality and whereever 't is not impress'd 't will not be censorious to affirm in despite of all the glorious appearances to the contrary that those men have received the Gospel the name the grace of Christ in vain which will be demonstrated to you if I proceed to my second or last particular to shew you by what means Christianity undertakes to work this great work to beat our swords into plough-shares and our spears c. And that is by three strokes as it were and impressions upon our Souls 1. By inculcating a peculiar strain of Doctrines 2. By prescribing a peculiar Spirit 3. By setting before us a peculiar Example Every of these very proper moral instruments to this end though God knows the stubborn unmalleable weapons of our warfare have too-too often the honour or resisting and vanquishing them all For the first his peculiar strains of Doctrines they are of two sorts either they are the direct contrary to these swords and spears or else such by way of consequence and result Directly contrary such is that of not avenging our selves the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matt. 5. not retributing of trouble or violence to the injurious but leaving God and his Vicegerents to work all these necessary acts of revenge or repaiment such is that of loving blessing praying for enemies and let me tell you not only our own but which is worth the considering our God's enemies For 1. such are all the cursers and persecutors of Disciples the true Christian's enemies there spoken of they are all God's enemies also as Saul's persecuting of Christians was the persecuting of Christ There is no possible separating the hatred of the Brethren from enmity to Christ And therefore Polycarpus an Apostolical person and Bishop and Martyr one of the first Angels of Smyrna in the Revelation commanding to pray for them that persecute us takes in not only the Heathen Powers and Princes the greatest enemies of God then living but in plain words the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the renouncers and enemies of the Cross i. e. certainly of Christ himself 2. Such were the Samaritans direct enemies of Christ and yet such 't will not be permitted the Disciples to curse Luke 9.55.3 Because the commandment of mercifulness lying on us proportionably to God's pattern to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful 't is there said that he is merciful to the evil as well as to the unthankful to those that have sinn'd against vertue in general as well as against that particular of gratitude and 't is clear God loves his enemies as well as ours and out of that love gave his Son for those that had sinned against the first as well as the second Table and consequently so are we obliged to do also Lastly because St. Paul's reason against avenging our selves is grounded on God's sole prerogative of punishing Malefactors Rom. 12.19 As it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord. And this priviledge of God's sure extends to the punishing of his own as well as our enemies Having named this I need not mention any more plain Doctrines of direct contrariety to these hostile weapons If God hath left us no kind of enemies to hate neither our own nor his the first the ordinary object of our animosity and revenge the second of our very piety and zeal and so the furious and the pious sword the Jehu-zeal for the Lord of Hosts as well as that other for our selves the slaughtering of Christ's or the Christian's enemies be quite excluded out of our Commissions then sure there is no excuse for keeping so much profitable Metal in that unprofitable cutting piercing shape there is far more use of those materials in another form in that of the plough-share and pruning-hook the work of Repentance being still as necessary as that other of uncharitableness is unchristian But then this is not all that Christ hath done by way of pacifick Doctrines some other Doctrines he hath as effectually contrary to swords and spears though not so directly and visibly some mines more secretly to supplant this bloudy temper Such are his teaching his Disciples humility and meekness and patience and contentedness with our own four graces which if once received into our hearts are the breaking the bow the knapping the spear asunder the rending up all unpeaceableness by the roots What are the roots of strife and contentions among men or in St. James his style From whence come wars and fightings among you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the greater and lesser size the piracies of the first or second magnitude are they not from the lusts that war and rage in your members What be those lusts Why the spawn of those two great sensual principles anger and desire
Mahomet to be a talking with God whil'st he lies foaming in an Epileptick fit but is content to be judged and discerned by the old plain Doctrines of the Gospel a regular authorized ordinary sober Spirit 3. The Zelotick Spirit was a thing peculiar among the Jews introduced and settled by the example of Phineas and Elias by way of precedent and standing Law to that Nation whereby 't was lawful when a man was taken in some notorious facts specifi'd by their Law Idolatry c. to run him through to kill him in the place without expecting any Legal process against him This was expresly commanded by Moses Numb 25.5 Slay ye every one the men that are joyned to Baal-peor and accordingly practised by Phineas upon incitation from God and when 't was done so by a Jew in the cases provided by the Jewish Law and by divine impulsion and the person assured that it was so there was then no harm in it but when that incitation from God was but pretended only not true when in any case but that prescribed by the Law then 't was perfect butchery and villany even among those Jews and unless in those few precedents of Phineas and Elias and the Maccabees i. e. Zelots for so the word Maccabee signifies in the Syriack 't will be hard to find either in Scripture or Josephus where there were whole multitudes of such men any one example of this practice justifiable even in a Jew And in opposition to and not compliance with that is the Gospel-spirit quite contrary to the heights of the Jewish practice never sheds bloud upon any but regular commissions an obedient orderly temperate cool Spirit 4. The Cursing spirit that may be of two sorts either in passing judgments on mens future spiritual estates a censorious damning spirit such as hath been usual in all kind of Hereticks almost that ever came into the Church nos spirituales we the spiritual and in the King of China's style filii coeli sons of heaven and all others animales psychici animal carnal men or 2. in wishing praying calling for curses either on God's or our enemies And you may know the Gospel-spirit by the opposition to these a hoping charitable merciful deprecating blessing Spirit Lastly the Fiery spirit is a vehement violent untractable unreconcileable spirit sets all where ever it comes into a flame and combustion and will never have peace with any thing which it can possibly consume nay farther it infuseth warmths and distempers and turbulencies into all that come within any reach of it communicates and diffuses its violencies to all others And the Gospel-spirit is direct antipodes to that an allaying quenching quieting cooling Spirit And so you see this new Spirit the Spirit of the Gospel of what a temper it is in all these respects a Spirit more fit than Lightning to melt the swords in our scabbards to new forge these hostile weapons into those that are more civil and profitable and that was the second course by which Christianity was to work this metamorphosis to beat these swords c. 3. And lastly our Saviour hath contributed toward this great work by the exemplariness of his own practice in this kind Not only in the first place in refusing to have the fire from heaven that the Boanerges would have help'd him to against the Samaritans profest enemies of Christ and of all that had any kind looks toward Jerusalem and besides notorious Hereticks and Schismaticks and yet pretenders to the only purity and antiquity against all sense and reason and so most arrogant Hypocrites also and yet all this not enough to inflame Christ's Spirit into that of Elias's or to change his temper into any thing of zeal or anger against these Nor only in the second place in reprehending and trashing of St. Peter's zeal when it drew the sword in his Master's defence against the high Priest's servants and indeed against the very Crucifiers of Christ Nor only in the third place in refusing the aid even of Angels from Heaven when they were ready upon his summons against the Heathens that attach'd him But fourthly and above all by that answer of his to Pilate John 18.36 If my Kingdom were of this world then should my servants fight c. which was certainly part of that good confession before Pilate mentioned with such honour 1 Tim. 6.13 inferring that because his Kingdom was not of this world because he was not a worldly or an earthly King therefore his servants were not to fight for him against a legal power of Heathens though 't were but to save him from Crucifying 'T is clear 't was one of his Accusers main hopes to find him in Judas Gaulonita's Doctrine That 't was unlawful for God's people and so for him that undertook to be God's Son to be subject to Idolaters making advantage of Piety as the Gnosticks after did toward their secular ends the freeing themselves from subjection in this world But our Saviour every where disclaims that Doctrine both Matth. 22.21 vindicating Caesar's Prerogative by his Coin and in that good confession to Pilate From which 't is demonstrable that what was not to be done in defence of Christ when he was in that danger and under that persecution is no more to be attempted in that case for Religion for Christianity it self I shall shut up this by leaving in your hands that most glorious lively Image of his whole Soul and Life delivered to us in one Medal that Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your Souls To which if you add the sealing and the practising of this in the giving up his Soul laying down his Life an Offering of Charity even for enemies and yet farther for those enemies Souls this one Amulet hung about your necks one would think were sufficient to charm all the weapons of our warfare that are so unmercifully carnal to exorcize and conjure all the swords and spears out of the world to work new transfigurations and metamorphoses among us to return the Bears and Vultures into their old humane shapes again and proclaim an universal truce to all the military affections we carry about us to our wraths our covetings our aspirings a Sabbath a Jubilee of rest and peace like that which Jamblichus talks of in the Sphears a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a catholick constant harmony and accord a present pacification of all our intestine broils and so a quiet and rest unto our souls and till this be done till this Advent Prophecy be fulfilled in your ears you must know there is little of Christianity among us little of Evangelical graces or Evangelical Spirit nothing but Legal at the best That in God's good time there may be more not in the brain or tongue to elevate the one or adorn the other but in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the depth and sincerity of the heart more of the work and power the spirit and
that will not be purified cast us again into what fornace thou pleasest that we may at length leave our dross our filth behind us and having used thine own methods toward this end and purged our eyes to see that it is thou that hast thought this necessary for us that hast of very mercy very fidelity thus caused us to be troubled work in us that purity here which may make us capable of that vision that peace that fulness of sanctity and glory hereafter Which God of his infinite abyss of Purity grant us all To whom with the Son that Image of his Father's Purity and the holy sanctifying purifying Spirit c. Christ and Barabbas THE SEVENTH Being a Lent SERMON at Oxford A. D. 1643. JOHN 18.40 Not this Man but Barabbas THIS passage of Story not unagreeable to the time every day of Lent being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Passion-week hath much of the present humour of the World in it whether we consider it as an act of Censure or as an act of Choice both these it is here in the Jews 1. An Act of popular Censure i. e. most perfect injustice very favourable to the Robber and very severe to Christ Barabbas may be releas'd the vilest wretch in the world one that was attach'd for robbery and for insurrection may become the peoples Favourite be pitied and pleaded for and absolutely pardon'd dat veniam corvis the blackest Devils in Hell shall pass without any of our malice our indignation our animosities but an innocent Christ or any of his making one that comes from Heaven to us upon errands of holiness of reformation that by authority of his doctrine and example would put vice out of countenance discover our follies or reproach our madnesses and in the Wisemans phrase upbraid our ways and reprove our thoughts he that hath no sins to qualifie him for our acquaintance no oaths no ribaldry to make him good company none of the compliances or vices of the times to commend him to our friendship at least to our pardon none of that new kind of popularity of being as debauch'd and profestly vitious as other men shall be supected and feared and hated the most odious unpardonable unsufferable neighbour grievous unto us even to behold Wisd 2.15 Innocence is become the most uncomely degenerous quality vertue the most envious censorious thing the not being so near Hell as other men the most ridiculous scrupulosity and folly in the world And the misery of it is there is no discoursing no reasoning this humour out of us they had cried once before and the crossing doth but more enflame them the charm that should have exorciz'd doth but enrage the evil spirit Then cried they all again saying Not this man but Barabbas But besides this I told you these words might be taken in another notion and under that it is that we are resolved to handle them as an act of the Jews choice of their absolute inconditionate decree their loving of Barabbas and hating of Jesus not before they had done either good or evil but after one had done all the evil t'other all the good imaginable then hating the Jacob and loving the Esau electing the Robber and rejecting the Saviour the Barabbas becomes a Barabbas indeed according to the origination of the name a son of a father a beloved son in whom they are well pleased a chosen vessel of their honour and Christ the only refuse vessel of dishonour the only unamiable undesirable formless beautiless reprobate in the mass Non hunc sed Barabbam Not this man c. In the words under the notion of the Choice you may please to take notice of these severals 1. A Competition precedaneous to this Choice presumed here but express'd in St. Matt. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which of the two will ye c. 2. The Competitors Barabbas and Christ 3. The choice it self not only preferring one before t'other non hunc sed but 1. absolutely rejecting of one non hunc not this man and then by way of necessary refuge pitching upon t'other Non hunc sed Barabbam Not this man but Barabbas And of these in this order And First of the first That there is a Competition before what the Competitors are or what the Choice 1. I say that there is a Competition a canvass or plying before we come to choose any thing This is a truth most constantly observable in all which we are most concern'd in in that transcendent interest the business of our souls Were there but one object represented to the faculty one Christ one holiness one salvation the receiving him would be any thing rather than Choice Chance it might be or Necessity it might be Chance it might be that such a thing had the luck to come first to prepossess and forestal us to get our favour when there was no body else to sue for it and indeed he that should be godly or Christian on such a felicity as this through ignorance only or non-representation of the contrary he that should give his voice unto Christ because there was no body else to canvass for it that if Mahomet had plied him first would have had as much saith for the Alchoran as he hath now for the Bible been as zealous for a carnal sensual as now for a pure spiritual Paradise he that if he had been born of Heathen Parents or put out to nurse to an Indian would have suck'd in as much of Gentilism as by this civil English education he hath attain'd to of the true Religion that hath no supersedeas no fortification against worshipping of Sun and Moon posting from one Heathen Shrine as now from one Sermon to another but only that Christianity bespake him earliest that Idolatry was not at leisure to crave his favour when Protestancy got it is I confess a Christian he may thank his Stars for it Planetarius Sanctus a Saint but such an one as a Jew would have been might he have been a Changling stollen into that cradle or the most barbarous China-Infidel had he had as he of old fortunam Caesaris so fortunam Christiani the Christians fortune to have tutor'd him And so for vertue and sinlessness also he in whom 't is not conscience but bashfulness and ignorance of vice that abstains only from uncreditable or unfashionable from branded or difused sins swears not only because he hath not learnt the art of it hath not yet gotten into the Court or into the Army the schools where that skill is taught the snops where those reverst thunderbolts so tempestuously shot against Heaven are forg'd he that is no Drunkard no Adulterer no Malicious person only quia nemo because he hath no company to debauch no strength to maintain no injury to provoke the uncommitted sin is all this while but a child of Fate born under a benign Aspect more lucky but not more innocent more fortunate but not more vertuous than other men Again if
daily on our souls in blessing in turning every one c. and that is the first thing 2. Christs resurrection hath a hand in blessing in turning from iniquity in respect to that solemn mission of the Holy Ghost promised before and performed immediately after his ascension This not person I mean but office of the Holy Ghost in setling a Pastorage in the Church and to it the consequent power and necessity of preaching administring Sacraments governing censuring all which were the effects of the Holy Ghosts descending and the direct interpretation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then and ever since then To which if you please to add the promise of the annexion of the Spirit and the invisible grace of God to the orderly use of these so far that the preaching of the Gospel not only that manner of preaching among us that hath gotten the monopoly of all the service of God into its Patent the only thing that many of us pay all our devotion to but any other way of making known the Gospel of Christ the doctrine of the second Covenant is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.8 the adminstration or means of dispensing the Spirit to us and the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the communication of the bloud of Christ yea and the censures no carnal weak blunt weapons of our warfare 2 Cor. 10.4 but mighty through God c. you have then a second energy of his resurrection toward our turning so great that he that holds out against this method of power and grace and will not turn nor understand after all this shall never be capable of any other means of blessing of working that great work for him and so you see the second ground of dependence between the resurrection and blessing or turning O that it might work its design upon us that to day we would hear the voice that cries so loud to us out of heaven the last perhaps numerically I am sure the last in specie or kind the last artifice this of the Word and Sacraments that is ever to be hoped for to this end to bless us to turn us every one from our c. 3. The Resurrection hath to do in blessing and turning in respect of Christs Intercession that prime act of his Melchisedech-priesthood his powerful intercession i. e. in effect conferring of grace on us thus Rom. 8 34. where that weighty business of justifying is laid more on the Resurrection than Death of Christ It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again 'T is thus enlarged in the next words who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us his intercession powerful intercession at the right hand of God a consequent of Gods raising up his Son Jesus hath a main influence on turning first and then justifying the ungodly and so Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to save them for good and all deliver them from all kind of assailants from sin from themselves from wrath from hell though not absolutely all yet those that come unto God by him those that turn when he will have them turn seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Will you see this more clearly Why then thus There are three degrees of grace preventing exciting assisting the first for conversion the second for sanctifying the third for perseverance And two acts of turning being already premised for the beginning of that blessing work 1. By the power of that Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead Then 2. By the descent of the holy Ghost the first as the seed sown the second as the rain and Sun-shine to bring it up there is yet a third required for the earing and hardning of the corn that of Gods giving increase for the consummating this weighty affair for the confirming and establishing those that are initially blest and turned into a kind of Angelical state of perseverance And to this it is that Christs continual intercession belongs for that is peculiarly for Disciples for those that are Believers Christians already that they may be preserved and kept in that state as for Saint Peter in the time of shock of tempest when Satan is at his expetivit that if we be permitted to be tempted yet our faith may not fail Luke 22.32 Another copy of this intercession you have John 17. the whole chapter is a prescript form of it a platform of what he now daily performs in heaven Look in the 11. verse Holy Father keep through thine own name own power those whom thou hast given me those that are believers already and in the 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one not for immunity from temptations for an impeccable state but for a sufficiency of grace to keep to sustain them in time of temptation that they may be able to stand So that this Intercession of Christ is apportion'd and adequate to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proficients those that are Believers already Disciples or others to come that shall be such and when they are pray'd for are considered under that notion as 't is clear ver 20. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also that shall believe on me through their word a direct notation who they are that this daily intercession for keeping for perseverance belongs to the believers faithful disciples and none others I pray for them I pray not for the world ver 9. Other prayers he can allow for the world the veriest incarnate devils in it the very crucifiers Father forgive them but this prayer for perseverance for keeping is only for the them the believers there The impenitent unbeliever cannot have his portion in that unless he would have Christ pray to damn him irreversibly to keep him in his impenitence to seal him up unto the day of perdition You see from hence by way of result or corollary what 't is that our perseverance in the faith and favour of God is imputable to not any fatal contrivance for some special confidents that their sins shall not be able to separate them not any such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Marcus his Scholars in Irenaeus pretended to that by it they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naturally spiritual that all the debaucheries in the world could no more vitiate them than the â—un-beams are profan'd by the dunghill which they shine on or the gold by the â—luttery it may be mixt with that by the shield of the mother of heaven what ever they did they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invisible to the Judge No such comforts and hopes as these of perseverance in sin and favour with God at once of making good our union with God when we are in the gall of bitterness of being justified when we are not sanctified that magical spell that fastens us in a circle
the owner from most certain destruction This is the reason that so much of Gods Husbandry among us returns him so thin so unprofitable an Harvest ceciderunt in petrosa and 't is hard finding any better tillage now adays the very Holy Land the milk and honey of Canaan is degenerate they say into this Composition and herein is a marvellous thing that where God hath done all that any man if it were put to his own partial judgment would think reasonable for him to do for his Vineyard gathered out stones those seeds of natural hardness and which deserves to be marked built a Wine-press Isa v. 2 a sure token that he expected a Vintage in earnest not only maner'd for fashion or to leave them without excuse yet for all these Labruscas wild juiceless Grapes heartless Faith unseasoned Devotion intemperate Zeal blind and perverse Obedience that under that name shall disguise and excuse Disobedience tot genera labruscarum so many wild unsavoury fruits is the best return he can hear of One thing more let me tell you 'T is not the original hardness of Nature to which all this can be imputed for for the mollifying of that all this gardening was bestowed digging and gathering out and indeed nothing more ordinary than out of such stones to raise up children unto Abraham But 't is the long habit and custom of sin which hath harrast out the Soul congealed that natural gravel and improved it into a perfect quarry or mine and 't is not the Preachers Charm the Annunciation of the Gospel that Power of God unto Salvation unto a Jew or Heathen 't is not David's Harp that could exorcise the evil Spirit upon Saul not the every day eloquence even of the Spirit of God that can in holy Esdras his phrase perswade them to salvation 2. Sluggishness and inobservances of God's seasons and opportunities and seed-times of Grace God may appear a thousand times and not once find us in case to be parlyed with Christ comes but thrice to his Disciples from his Prayers in the Garden and that thrice he finds them asleep Mat. xxvi Christ can be awake to come and that in a more pathetical language Sic non potuistis horâ unâ as the vulgar most fully out of the Greek Were you so unable to watch one hour The Pharisee can be awake to Plot Judas to betray their joint Vigils and Proparasceve to that grand Passeover the slaying of the Lamb of God and only the Disciples they are asleep for their eyes were heavy saith the Text and this heaviness of eyes and heaviness of heart whereupon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the LXXII is ordinarily set for sinners is the depriving us many times not only of Christ but of his Spirit too So many apologies and excuses to him when he calls A little more sleep and slumber and folding of the hands Such drowsie-hearted slovenly usage when he comes that no wonder if we grieve him out of our houses such contentedness in our present servile estate that if a Jubilee should be proclaimed from Heaven a general Manumission of all servants from these Gallies of sin we would be ready with those servants for whom Moses makes a provision to come and tell him plainly We will not go out free be bored through the ear to be slaves for ever Ex. xxi 6 3. Rankness and a kind of spiritual sin of Sodom Pride and fulness of bread abusing the Grace of God into wantonness either to the ostentatious setting themselves out before men or else the feeding themselves up to that high flood of spiritual pride and confidence that it will be sure to impostumate in the soul Some men have been fain to be permitted to sin for the abating this humour in them by way of phlebotomy St. Peter I think is an example of that Nebuchadnezzar was turned a grazing to cure his secular Pride and St. Paul I am sure had a Messenger sent to him to that purpose by way of prevention that he might not be exalted above measure and when he thought well of it he receives it as a Present sent him from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reckons of it as a gift of Grace or if you will a medicinal dose or recipe but rather a playster or outward application which per antiperistasin would drive in his spiritual heat and so help his weak digestion of grace make him the more thriving Christian for ever after The Issue of this first Inference is this That 't is not God's partial or niggardly dispencing of Grace but either our unpreparedness to receive or preposterous giddiness in making use of it which is the cause either of Consumptions or Aposthume in the Soul either starving or surfeiting the Christian The second Inference how all the Christians diligence is to be placed what he hath to do in this wayfare to his home And that is the same that all Travellers have first to be alway upon his feet advancing minutely something toward his next stage See that we be employed or else how can God assist we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and see that we be employed aright or else God must not cannot assist The Sluggards devotions can never get into God's presence they want heat and spirit to lift them up and activity to press and enforce them when they are there It was an impression in the very Heathen Porcius Cato in the History That watching and acting and advising aright and not emasculate womanish supplications alone were the means whereby Gods help is obtained Vbi socordiae atque ignaviae tradideris frustra Deos implores And Jerome to the same purpose That their sacrifices are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 food for the fire to devour and their richest offerings to the Temple but a spoil to the sacrilegious to prey on And the sinners devotions must not be entertained there they would even prophane that holy place He that was born blind saw thus much Joh. ix 31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners but if any be a worshipper of God and doth his will him doth God hear And then secondly to get furnished whatever it cost him of all provision and directions for his way and so this will conclude in a double Exhortation both combined in that of David to Solomon 1 Chron. xxii 16 when all materials were laid in and Artificers provided for the building of the Temple and wanted nothing but a chearful Leader to actuate and enliven them Arise therefore and be doing and 〈◊〉 Lord be with thee 1. To set about the business as thine own work as the task that will not be required of the Spirit of God of the Scripture of the Preacher but of thee When it is performed thou wouldst be loth that God should impute all to himself crown his own Graces Ordinances Instruments and leave thee as a cypher unrewarded And therefore whilst
himself of ingenuity and innocence together and become one of Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natural slaves which if it signifie any thing denotes the fools and simple ones in this Text whom nature hath marked in the head for no very honourable imployments But from this passivity in the Mines and Gallies to attain to a joy and voluptuousness in the imployment to dread nothing but Sabbatick years and Jubiles and with the crest-faln slave to disclaim nothing but liberty and manumission i. e. in effect Innocence and Paradise and Bliss to court and woo Satan for the Mansions in Hell and the several types and praeludiums of them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the initial pangs in this life which he hath in his disposing to be such a Platonick lover of stripes and chains without intuition of any kind of reward any present or future wages for all his patience and as it follows to hate knowledge and piety hate it as the most treacherous enemy that means to undermine their Hell to force them out of their beloved Satan's embraces this is certainly a very competent aggravation of the simplicity And yet to see how perfect a character this is of the most of us that have nothing to commend or even excuse in the most of those ways on which we make no scruple to exhaust our souls but only our kindness irrational passionate kindness and love toward them and then that love shall cover a multitude of sins supersede all the exceptions and quarrels that otherwise we should not chuse but have to them Could a man see any thing valuable or attractive in Oaths and Curses in Drunkenness and Bestiality the sin that when a Turk resolves to be guilty of he makes a fearful noise unto his Soul to retire all into his feet or as far off as it is possible that it may not be within ken of that bestial prospect as Busbequius tells us Could any man endure the covetous man's sad galling Mules burthens of Gold his Achans Wedge that cleaves and rends in sunder Nations so that in the Hebrew that sin signifies wounding and incision Joel ii 8 and is alluded to by his piercing himself thorow with divers sorrows 1 Tim. vi 10 his very Purgatories and Limbo's nay Hell as devouring and perpetual as it and the no kind of satisfaction so much as to his eye from the vastest heaps or treasures were he not in love with folly and ruine had he not been drenched with philtres and charms had not the Necromancer plaid some of his prizes on him and as St. Paul saith of his Galatians even bewitched him to be a fool Would we but make a rational choice of our sins discern somewhat that were amiable before we let loose our passion on them and not deal so blindly in absolute elections of the driest unsavory sin that may but be called a sin that hath but the honour of affronting God and damning one of Christ's redeemed most of our wasting sweeping sins would have no manner of pretensions to us and that you will allow to be one special accumulation of the folly and madness of these simple ones that they thus love simplicity The second aggravation is the continuance and duration of this fury a lasting chronical passion quite contrary to the nature of passions a flash of lightning lengthned out a whole day together that they should love simplicity so long It is the nature of acute diseases either to have intervals and intermissions or else to come to speedy crises and though these prove mortal sometimes yet the state is not generally so desperate and so it is with sins many the sharpest and vehementest indispositions of the Soul pure Feavers of rage and lust prove happily but flashing short furies are attended with an instant smiting of the heart a hating and detesting our follies a striking on the thigh in Jeremy and in David's penitential stile a So foolish was I and ignorant even as a beast before thee And it were happy if our Feavers had such cool seasons such favorable ingenuous intermissions as these But for the hectick continual Feavers that like some weapons the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 barbed shafts in use among the Franks in Agathias being not mortal at the entrance do all their slaughter by the hardness of getting out the Vultures that so tyre and gnaw upon the Soul the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that never suffer the sinner fool to make any approach toward his wits toward sobriety again this passionate love of folly improved into an habitual steddy course of Atheisticallness a deliberate peremptory final reprobating of Heaven the purity at once and the bliss of it the stanch demure covenanting with death and resolvedness to have their part to run their fortune with Satan through all adventures this is that monstrous brat that as for the birth of the Champion in the Poet three nights of darkness more than Egyptian were to be crowded into one all the simplicity and folly in a Kingdom to help to a being in the World and at the birth of it you will pardon Wisdom if she break out into a passion and exclamation of pity first and then of indignation How long ye simple ones c. My last particular The first debt that Wisdom that Christ that every Christian Brother ows and pays to every unchristian liver is that of pity and compassion which is to him of all others the properest dole Look upon all the sad moneful objects in the world betwixt whom all our compassion is wont to be divided first the Bankrupt rotting in a Gaol secondly the direful bloody spectacle of the Soldier wounded by the Sword of War thirdly the Malefactor howling under the Stone or gasping upon the Rack or Wheel and fourthly the gallant person on the Scaffold or Gallows ready for execution and the secure â—enseless sinner is the brachygraphy of all these You have in him 1. A rich patrimony and treasure of grace purchased dear and setled on him by Christ most prodigally and contumeliously misspent and exhausted 2. A Soul streaming out whole Rivers of blood and spirits through every wound even every sin it hath been guilty of and not enduring the Water to cleanse much less the Wine or Oyl to be poured into any one of them the whole Soul transfigured into one wound one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congelation and clod of blood Then thirdly beyond this all the racks and pangs of a tormenting conscience his only present exercise and lastly all the torments in Hell the Officer ready hurrying him to the Judge and the Judge delivering him to the Executioner his minutely dread and expectation the dream that so haunts and hounds him And what would a man give in bowels of compassion to Christianity or but to humane kind to be able to reprieve or rescue such an unhappy creature to be but the Lazarus with one drop of water to cool the tip of the scalding Tongue that
the World and ours to Grace and so even possess Christ whilst we speak of him And first if we look on his Mother Mary we shall find her an entire pure Virgin only espoused to Joseph but before they came together she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost Matth. i. 18 And then the Soul of Man must be this Virgin Now there is a threefold Purity or Virginity of the Soul First An absolute one such as was found in Adam before his fall Secondly A respective of a Soul which like Mary hath not yet joyned or committed with the World to whom it is espoused which though it have its part of natural corruptions yet either for want of ability of age or occasion hath not yet broke forth into the common outrages of sin Thirdly A restored purity of a Soul formerly polluted but now cleansed by repentance The former kind of natural and absolute purity as it were to be wished for so is it not to be hoped and therefore is not to be imagined in the Virgin Mother or expected in the Virgin Soul The second purity we find in all regenerate infants who are at the same time outwardly initiated to the Church and inwardly to Christ or in those whom God hath called before they have ingaged themselves in the courses of actual hainous sins such are well disposed well brought up and to use our Saviours words Have so lived as not to be far from the Kingdom of God Such happily as Cornelius Acts x. 1 And such a Soul as this is the fittest Womb in which our Saviour delights to be incarnate where he may enter and dwell without either resistance or annoyance where he shall be received at the first knock and never be disordered or repulsed by any stench of the carkass or violence of the Body of sin The restored purity is a right Spirit renewed in the Soul Psal li. 10 a wound cured up by repentance and differs only from the former purity as a scar from a skin never cut wanting somewhat of the beauty and outward clearness but nothing of either the strength or health of it Optandum esset ut in simplici Virginitate servaretur navis c. It were to be wished that the Ship our Souls could be kept in its simple Virginity and never be in danger of either leak or shipwrack but this perpetual integrity being a desperate impossible wish there is one only remedy which though it cannot prevent a leak can stop it And this is repentance after sin committed Post naufragium tabula a means to secure one after a shipwrack and to deliver him even in the deep Waters And this we call a restored Virginity of the Soul which Christ also vouchsafes to be conceived and born in The first degree of Innocence being not to have sinned the second to have repented In the second place the Mother of Christ in the flesh was a Virgin not only till the time of Christ's conception but also till the time of his birth Matth. i. 25 He knew her not till she had brought forth c. And farther as we may probably believe remained a Virgin all the days of her life after for to her is applied by the Learned that which is typically spoken of the East-gate of the Sanctuary Ezek. xliv 2 This gate shall be shut it shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it because the Lord the God of Israel hath entred in by it therefore it shall be shut A place if appliable very apposite for the expression Hence is she called by the Fathers and Counsels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Perpetual Virgin against the Heresie of Helvidius The probability of this might be farther proved if it were needful And ought not upon all principles of nature and of justice the Virgin Soul after Christ once conceived in it remain pure and stanch till Christ be born in it nay be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Perpetual Virgin never indulge to sensual pleasures or cast away that purity which Christ either found or wrought in it If it were a respective purity then ought it not perpetually retain and increase it and never fall off to those disorders that other men supinely live in If it were a recovered purity hold it fast and never turn again As a Dog to his vomit or a Sow to her wallowing in the mire For this conception and birth of Christ in the Soul would not only wash away the filth that the Swine was formerly mired in but also take away the Swinish nature that she shall never have any strong propension to return again to her former inordinate delights Now this continuance of the Soul in this its recovered Virginity is not from the firm constant stable nature of the Soul but as Eusebius saith in another case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From a more strong able Band the Vnion of Christ to the Soul his Spiritual Incarnation in it Because the Lord the God of Israel hath entred in by it therefore it shall be shut Ezek. xliv 2 i. e. it shall not be opened either in consent or practice to the lusts and pollutions of the World or Flesh because Christ by being born in it hath cleansed it because he the Word of God said the Word therefore the leprosie is cured in whom he enters he dwells and on whom he makes his real impression he seals them up to the day of redemption unless we unbuild our selves and change our shape we must be his In the third place if we look on the agent in this conception we shall find it both in Mary and in the Soul of Man to be the Holy Ghost that which is conceived in either of them is of the Holy Ghost Matth. i. 20 Nothing in this business of Christs birth with us to be imputed to natural power or causes the whole contrivance and final production of it the preparations to and labouring of it is all the workmanship of the Spirit So that as Mary was called by an ancient so may the Soul without an Hyperbole by us be styled The Shop of Miracles and The Work-house of the Holy Ghost in which every operation is a miracle to nature and no tools are used but what the Spirit forged and moves Mary conceived Christ but it was above her own reach to apprehend the manner how for so she questions the Angel Luke i. 34 How shall this be c. So doth the Soul of Man conceive and grow big and bring forth Christ and yet not it self fully perceives how this work is wrought Christ being for the most part insensibly begotten in us and to be discerned only spiritually not at his entrance but in his fruits In the fourth place that Mary was chosen and appointed among all the Families of the Earth to be the Mother of the Christ was no manner of desert of hers but Gods special favour and dignation whence the
troubled about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their prophaneness and uncleanness that they were not fit for an Apostle to defile himself about their Conversion And this was the general opinion of all the Jews they of the Circumcision were astonished at the news Act. x. 45 Nay this is it that the Angels wondred at so when they saw it wrought at the Church by Pauls Ministery never dreaming it possible till it was effected as may appear Eph. iii. 10 This was the Mystery which from the beginning of the World had been hid in God V. 9. One of God's Cabinet Counsels a Mercy decreed in secret that no Creature ever wish of till it was performed And in this behalf are we all being lineally descended from the Gentiles bound over to an infinite measure both of humiliation and gratitude for our deliverance from the guilt and reign of that second Original sin that Heathenism of our Ancestors and Catholick damnation that Sixteen hundred years ago we were all involv'd in Beloved we were long ago set right again and the obligation lies heavy upon us to shew this change to have been wrought in us to some purpose to prove our selves Christians in grain so fixed and established that all the Devils in Hell shall not be able to reduce us again to that abhorred condition If we that are thus called out shall fall back after so much Gospel to Heathen practices and set up Shrines and Altars in our hearts to every poor delight that our sottishness can call a God if we are not called out of their sins as well as out of their ignorance then have we advanced but the further toward Hell we are still but Heathen Gospellers our Christian Infidelity and practical Atheism will but help to charge their guilt upon us and damn us the deeper for being Christians Do but examine your selves on this one Interrogatory whether this calling the Gentiles hath found any effect in your hearts any influence on your lives whether your Conversations are not still as Heathenish as ever If you have no other grounds or motives to embrace the Gospel but only because you are borâ— within the pale of the Church no other evidences of your Discipleship but your livery then God is little beholding to you for your service The same motives would have served to have made you Turks if it had been your chance to have been born amongst them and now all that fair Christian outside is not thank-worthy 'T is but your good fortune that you are not now at the same work with the old Gentiles or present Indians a worshipping either Jupiter or the Sun 'T was a shrewd speech of Clemens that the life of every unregenerate Man is an Heathen-life and the sins of unsanctified Men are Heathen-sins and the estate of a Libertine Christian an Heathen-estate and unless our resolutions and practices are consonant to our profession of Christ we are all still Heathens and the Lord make us sensible of this our Condition The third and in summ the powerfullest Argument to prove God's willingness that we should live is that he hath bestowed his spirit upon us that as soon as he called up the Son he sent the Comforter This may seem to be the main business that Christ ascended to Heaven about so that a Man would guess from the xvi Chapter of St. John and Vers 7. that if it had not been for that Christ had tarried amongst us till this time but that it was more expedient to send the Spirit to speak those things powerfully to our hearts which often and in vain had been sounded in our ears 'T is a phancy of the Paracelsians that if we could suck out the lives and spirits of other Creatures as we feed on their flesh we should never die their lives would nourish and transubstantiate into our lives their spirit increase our spirits and so our lives grow with our years and the older we were by consequence the fuller of life and so no difficulty to become Immortal Thus hath God dealt with us first sent his Son his Incarnate Son his own Flesh to feed and nourish us and for all this we die daily he hath now given us his own very Life and incorporeous Essence a piece of pure God his very Spirit to feed upon and digest that if it be possible we might live There is not a vein in our Souls unless it be quite pin'd and shrivel'd up but hath some bloud produced in it by that holy nourishment every breath that ever we have breathed toward Heaven hath been thus inspired Besides those louder Voices of God either sounding in his Word or thundring in his Judgments there is his calm soft voice of Inspiration like the Night Vision of old which stole in upon the mind mingled with sleep and gentle slumber He draws not out into the Field or meets us as an Enemy but entraps us by surprize and disarms us in our quarters by a Spiritual Stratagem conquers at unawares and even betrays and circumvents and cheats us into Heaven That precept of Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To worship at the noise and whistling of the wind had sense and divinity in it that Jamblichus that cites it never dreamt of that every sound and whispering of this Spirit which râ—stles either about our ears or in our hearts as the Philosopher saith Tecum est intus est when it breaths and blows within us the stoutest faculty of our Souls the proudest piece of flesh about us should bow down and worship Concerning the manner of the Spirits working I am not I need not to dispute Thus far it will be seasonable and profitable for you to know that many other Illuminations and holy Graces are to he imputed to Gods Spirit besides that by which we are effectually converted God speaks to us many times when we answer him not and shines about our eyes when we either wink or sleep Our many sudden shortwinded Ejaculations toward Heaven our frequent but weak inclinations to good our ephemerous wishes that no man can distinguish from true piety but by their sudden death our every day resolutions of obedience whilest we continue in sin are arguments that God's Spirit hath shined on us though the warmth that it produced be soon chill'd with the damp it meets within us For example there is no doubt beloved but the Spirit of God accompanies his Word as at this time to your ears if you will but open at its knock and receive and entertain it in your hearts it shall prove unto you according to its most glorious attribute Rom. i. The power of God unto salvation But if you will refuse it your stubbornness may repel and frustrate God's Work but not annihilate it though you will not be saved by it it is God's still and so shall continue to witness against you as the day of doom Every word that was ever darted from that Spirit as a beam or javelin of
and conversion would have been but cast away upon obdurate hearts so that for Christ to have numbred miracles among his unbelieving Country men no way prepared to receive them had been an injurious liberality and added only to their unexcusableness which contradicts not the Axiom of St. Paul 1 Cor. xiv 22 That some signs are only for unbelievers for even those unbelievers must have within them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proneness or readiness to receive them with belief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in Jobius to open to the spirit knocking by those miracles and improve them to their best profit 5. Though God needs not yet he requires moral preparation of us as an ordinary means to make us more capable of grace for although according to Saint Austin Ne ipsâ quidem justitiâ nostrâ indiget Deus yet according to Salvian's limitation Eget juxta praceptionem suam licet non juxta potentiam eget secundum legem suam non eget secundum Majestatem We are to think that God hath use of any thing which he commands and therefore must perform whatever he requires and not dare to be confident of the end without the observation of the means prescribed 'T is too much boldness if not presumption to leave all to his omnipotent working when he hath prescribed us means to do somewhat our selves 6. Integrity and Honesty of heart a sober moral life and chiefly humility and tenderness of spirit in summ whatever degree of Innocence either study or fear or love or natural disposition can work in us some or all of which may in some measure be found in some men not yet regenerate are good preparations for Christs birth in us so saith Clement of Philosophy that it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. make ready and prepare the way against Christs coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cooperate with other helps that God hath given us all with this caution that it doth only prepare not perfect facilitate the pursuit of wisdom to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which God may bestow on us without this means To this purpose hath Basil a notable Homily to exhort Scholars to the study of Foreign humane especially Graecian Learning and to this end saith he that we prepare our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Heavenly spiritual Philosophy In the like kind the Fathers prescribe good works of Charity observing out of the xix of St. Matthew that the distribution of all their substance to the poor was a praeludium in the Primitive believers to the following of Christ Prius vendant omnia quà m sequantur from whence he calls Alms-deeds exordia quasi incunabula conversionis nostrae The like may be said though not in the same degree of all other courses quibus carnalium sarcinarum impedimenta projicimus for if these forementioned preparations be meer works of nature in us as some would have them then do they naturally incline the subject for the receiving of grace when it comes and by sitting as it were and organizing the subject facilitate its entrance or if they be works of Gods restraining preventing grace as 't is most orthodoxly agreed on then are they good harbingers for the sanctifying spirit good comfortable symptoms that God will perfect and crown the work which he hath begun in us 7. Gods ordinary course as far as by events we can judge of it is to call and save such as are thus prepared Thus to instance in a few of the first and chiefest 'T was appointed by God that she only should be vouchsafed the blessed office of dignity of being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ's Mother who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in Photius fuller of vertues than any else of her sex could brag off In like manner that the rest of the family Christs Father and Brethren in account on earth should be such whose vertues had bestowed a more eminent opinion though not place upon them amongst men so was Joseph and his Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famous for very just men James the brother of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy from the womb as Eusebius cites it called by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he out of Hegesippus which he interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stay of the people and justice it self In brief if a Cornelius be to be called from Gentilism to Christianity ye shall find him in the beginning of his character Acts x. 1 to be a devout man and one that feared God with all his house gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God alway one cut out as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the first-fruit of the Gentiles Now though none of these vertues can be imputed to nature in the substance of them but acknowledge a more supernatural spiritual agent in them yet are they to be reckoned as preparations to Christs birth in them because they did precede it for so in respect of his real Incarnation in the world the type of his spiritual in the soul Mary was a vertuous pure virgin before the Holy Ghost over shadowed her Joseph a just man before the Holy Ghost appeared to him Mat. i. 19 James holy from the womb and Cornelius capable of all that commendation for Devotion and Alms-deeds Acts x. 1 before either Christ was preach't to him in the 37. or the Holy Ghost fell on him in the 44. verse 8. The Conversion of unprepared hardned blasphemous sinners is to be accounted as a most rare and extraordinary work of Gods power and mercy not an every days work like to be beâ—towed on every habituate sinner and therefore 't is commonly accompanied with some evident note of difference to point it out for a miracle Thus was Paul called from the chief of sinners 1 Tim. i. 15 to the chief of Saints but with this mark that Christ Jesus might shew forth all long-suffering c. which was in him first and perhaps last in that degree that others in his pitch of blasphemies might not presume of the like miracle of mercy And indeed he that is thus called must expect what Paul found a mighty tempest throughout him three days at least without sight oâ— nourishment if not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a swoon a kind of ecstacy of the whole man at this tumultuary driving out of this high rank insolent habituate body of sin 'T is observed that when the news of Christs birth was brought by the wise men the City was straight in an uproar Herod was much troubled and all Jerusalem with him Mat. ii 3 for it seems they expected no such matter and therefore so strange and sudden news produced nothing but astonishment and tumult whilst Simeon who waited for the consolation of Israel makes no such strange business of it takes him presently into his embraces and familiarly hugs him in his arms having been before acquainted with him by
pray God to encrease his graces In matters of spiritual joy and sorrow I will if I can be counselled by an heart which once was broken that I may see how he recovered and repair my breaches by a pattern and yet even these things may be learnt from him which never had them but in his speculation as the Physician may cure a Disease though himself was never sick of it But for the ordinary Theories of Religion I will have patience to receive instructions from any one and not examine his practices but in modesty and in submission and humility receive the Law at his mouth But all this with caution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to a guide not a Monarch of my Faith rule he shall my belief but not tyrannize over it I will assent to my teacher till I can disprove him but adhere and anchor and fix my self on the Scripture 7. In matters of superstruction where Scripture lays the foundation but interpreters i. e. private spirits build upon it some gold some stubble c. and I cannot judge or discern which is firmliest rooted on the foundation I will take the Philosophers Counsel in the first of his Rhetor. and observe either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be guided either by the ancientest if they have shewed themselves in the cause or else men alive which be best reputed of for integrity and judgment I shall scarce trust the honestest man you can commend to me unless I have some knowledge of his parts nor the learned'st you can cry up unless I can believe somewhat in his sincerity 8. All the contradictions and new ways of my own brain opposite or wide from the current of the learned I must suspect for a work of my own phansie not entitle them to Gods spirit in me Verebar omnia opera mea saith Job whatever a man can call his own he must be very cautious and jealous over it For 't is no less than atheism which the scorners of the last age are to fall upon by walking after their own lusts 2 Pet. iii. 3 And thus was the Pharisees practice here who makes use of his own authority to deny Christ 't was the Pharisees that said Have any of the Pharisees believed on him There is not a more dangerous Mother of Heresies in the midst of Piety than this one that our phansy first assures us that we have the spirit and then that every phansie of ours is Theopneust the work of the spirit There are a multitude of deceits got altogether here 1. We make every idle perswasion of our own the evidence of Gods Spirit then we join infallibility to the person being confident of the gift then we make every breath of our Nostrils and flame that can break out of our hearts an immediate effect of the spirit and fire which hath spiritually enlivened us and then we are sure it is authentical and all this while we never examine either the ground or deductions from it but take all upon trust from that everlasting deceiver our own heart which we ought to sit upon and judge of by proofs and witnesses by comparing it with other mens dictates probably as godly perhaps more learned but certainly more impartial Judges of thee than thou canst be of thy self Lastly If the word of God speak distinctly and clearly enforce as here by miracles done before all men to their astonishment and redargution then will I not stay my belief to wait on or follow the learnedst man in the world when Christ himself speaks to my Eyes the proudest eminentest Pharisee in Earth or Hell nay if any of their Sect have crowded into Heaven shall not be able to charm my Ear or lay any clog upon my understanding So that you see the Pharisees argument in that case was sophistical the matter being so plain to them that they needed no advice His works bore witness of him John v. 36 yet in the general it holds probable and learning remains a good guide still though an ill Master in matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first thing we undertook to demonstrate And this we should draw down yet lower to our practice and that variously but that almost every Proposition insisted on hath in part spoken to your affections and so prevented store of uses This only must not be omitted For Scholars to learn to set a value on their precious blessing which God hath vouchsafed them above all the World beside to bless God infinitely that they understand and conceive what they are commanded to believe this I am sure of there is not a greater and more blessed priviledge besides Gods spirit which our humane condition is capable of than this of learning and specially divine knowledge of which Aristotle himself witnesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none i◠better than it As long as we have no evidence or demonstration from that which yet it most nearly concerns us to rely upon we cannot enjoy without an immediate supernatural irradiation a tranquillity and consistency of spirit we cannot peremptorily have resolved our selves that we have built upon the rock every temptation proves a discouragement to us many horrours take hold of us and sometimes we must needs fall to that low ebb not far from despair which the Apostles were in Luke xxiv 22 We had trusted but now we know not what to think of it that this was he that should have redeemed Israel But to see all the Articles of my Faith ratified and confirmed to my understanding to see the greatest treasure and inheritance in the World sealed and delivered to me in my hand written in a Character and Language that I am perfectly skilled in O what a comfort is this to a Christian Soul O what a fulness of joy to have all the mysteries of my Salvation transcribed out of the Book of the Lord and written in my heart where I can turn and survey and make use of them as much and as often as I will Nay where I have them without Book though there were neither Father nor Bible in the World able out of my own stock to give an account nay a reason of my faith before the perversest Papist Heathen or Devil This serves me instead of having lived and conversed and been acquainted with Christ By this I have my fingers put into the print of the nails and my hands thrust into his side and am as sure as ever Thomas was I see him as palpably as he that handled him that he is my Lord and my God 'T was observed by the Philosopher as an act generally practised among Tyrants to prohibit all Schools and means of learning and education in the Commonwealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer neither learning nor Schools nor common meetings that men being kept blind might be sure to obey and tyrannical commands through ignorance be mistaken for fair Government And thus did Julian interdict the Christians all manner
Soul bestows all life and motion on it and enables it to perform any work of nature Again the Body and Soul together considered in relation to somewhat above their power and activity are as impotent and motionless as before the Body without the Soul Set a man to remove a Mountain and he will heave perhaps to obey your command but in event will do no more towards the displacing of it than a stone in the street could do but now let an Omnipotent Power be annext to this man let a supernatural spirit be joined to this Soul and then will it be able to overcome the proudest stoutest difficulty in nature You have heard in the Primitive Church of a grain of Faith removing Mountains and believe me all Miracles are not yet out-dated The work of Regeneration the bestowing of a spiritual Life on one dead in trespasses and sins the making of a Carcass walk the natural old man to spring again and move spiritually is as great a miracle as that Now the Soul in that it produces life and motion the exercise of life in the body is called a principle that is a Spring or Fountain of Life because all comes from it in like manner that which moves this Soul and enables it to do that which naturally it could not that which gives it a new life which before it lived not furnisheth it with spiritual powers to quell and subdue all carnal affections which were before too hard for it this I say is called properly an inward principle and an inward because it is inwardly and secretly infused doth not only outwardly assist us as an auxiliary at a dead lift but is sown and planted in our hearts as a Soul to the Soul to elevate and enable it above it self hath its seat and palace in the regenerate heart and there exercises dominion executes judgment and that is commonly either by Prison or Banishment it either fetters or else expels all insolent rebellious lusts Now the new principle by which not the man but the new man the Christian lives is in a word the spirit of God which unites it self to the regenerate heart so that now he is said to be a godly man a spiritual man from the God from the Spirit as before a living reasonable man from the Soul from the reason that inform'd and ruled in him which is noted by that distinction in Scripture betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate exprest by a natural or animal and a spiritual man Those Creatures that have no Soul in them are called naturals having nothing but nature within to move them others which have a Soul animals or living Creatures by both which the unregenerate is signified indifferently because the Soul which he hath stands him in little stead his flesh rules all and then he is also called a carnal man for all his Soul he is but a lump of flesh and therefore whether you say he hath a Soul and so call him an animal or hath not a Soul and so call him a mere natural there is no great difference in it But now the regenerate man which hath more than a Soul Gods spirit to enliven him he is of another rank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual man nay only he properly a Christian because he lives by Christ He lives yet not he but Christ liveth 〈◊〉 him Gal. ii 20 This being premised that now you know what this new Creature is he that lives and moves by a new principle all that is behind will be clearliest presented to you by resolving these four questions first whence it comes secondly where it lodges thirdly when it enters fourthly what works it performs there To the first whence it comes the answer is clear and punctual John iii. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above from whence comes every good and especially every perfect gift James i. 17 but this most peculiarly by a several and more excellent way than any thing else Since Christs Ascension the Holy Ghost of all the persons in the Trinity is most frequently employed in the work of descending from Heaven and that by way of mission from the Father and the Son according to the promise of Christ John xv 26 The comforter whom I will send from the Father Now this spirit being present every where in its essence is said to come to us by communication of his gifts and so to be peculiarly resident in us as God is in the Church from which Analogy our Bodies are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us 1 Cor. vi 19 God sends then his spirit into our hearts and this I said by a peculiar manner not by way of emission as an Arrow sent out of a Bow which loses its union which it had with the Bow and is now fastned in the Butt or White nor properly by way of infusion as the Soul is in the Body infus'd from God yet so also that it is in a manner put into our hands and is so in the man's possession that hath it that it is neither in any mans else nor yet by any extraordinary tye annext to God from whom it came but by way of irradiation as a beam sent from the Sun that is in the air indeed and that substantially yet so as it is not separated from the Sun nay consists only in this that it is united to the Sun so that if it were possible for it to be cut off from the Sun it would desist to be it would illuminate no longer So that you must conceive these beams of Gods spirit at the same time in the Christians heart and in the spirit and so uniting that spirit to the heart as you may conceive by this proportion I have a Javelin or Spear in my hand if I would mischief any thing or drive it from me I dart it out of my hand at it from which Gods judgments are compared to shooting and lightning He hath bent his bow he hath sent forth his arrows he cast forth lightnings Psalm xviii 14 But if I like any thing that I meet with if I would have it to me I reach out my Spear and fasten in it but still hold the Spear in my hand and having pierc't it draw it to me Thus doth God reach forth his graces to us and as I may so say by keeping one end in his hand and fastning the other in us plucks and unites us to himself from which regeneration is ordinarily called an union with Christ and this union by a strong able band 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euseb his phrase which no man can cut asunder 'T is impossible to divide or cut a spirit and this Bond is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual one and that made St. Paul so confident That no creature should ever separate him Rom. viii 39 And this God does by way of emanation as a Loadstone sending out its effluvia or magnetick atomes draws the Iron to
it self which never stays till it be united Thus do you see from whence this principle comes to me and in what manner from Gods spirit by this means uniting me to himself To the second question where it lodges my answer is in the heart of man in the whole soul not in the understanding not in the will a distinction of faculties invented by Philosophers to puzzle and perplex Divines and put them to needless shifts but I say in the whole Soul ruling and guiding it in all its actions enabling it to understand and will spiritually conceived I say and born in the Soul but nursed and fed and encreased into a perfect stature by the outward Organs and actions of the body for by them it begins to express and shew it self in the World by them the habit is exerted and made perfect the Seed shot up into an Ear the Spring improved to Autumn when the tongue discourses the hands act the feet run the way of Gods commandments So I say the Soul is the Mother and the operations of Soul and Body the Nurse of this Spirit in us and then who can hold in his spirit without stifling from breaking out into that joyful acclamation Blessed is the womb that bears this incarnate spirit and the paps that give him suck Now this inward principle this grace of regeneration though it be seated in the whole Soul as it is an habit yet as it is an operative habit producing or rather enabling the man to produce several gracious works so it is peculiarly in every part and accordingly receives divers names according to several exercises of its power in those several parts As the Soul of man sees in the Eye hears in the Ear understands in the Brain chooses and desires in the heart and being but one Soul yet works in every room every shop of the Body in a several trade as it were and is accordingly called a seeing a hearing a willing or understanding Soul thus doth the habit of grace seated in the whole express and evidence it self peculiarly in every act of it and is called by as several names as the reasonable Soul hath distinct acts or objects In the understanding 't is first spiritual wisdom and discretion in holy things opposite to which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. i. 28 an unapproving as well as unapproved or reprobate mind and frequently in Scripture spiritual blindness Then as a branch of this it is belief or assent to the truth of the promises and the like In the practical judgment 't is spiritual prudence in ordering all our holy knowledge to holy practice In the will 't is a regular choice of whatsoever may prove available to Salvation a holy love of the end and embracing of the means with courage and zeal Lastly in the outward man 't is an ordering of all our actions to a blessed conformity with a sanctified Soul In brief 't is one principle within us doth every thing that is holy believes repents hopes loves obeys and what not And consequently is effectually in every part of Body and Soul sanctifying it to work spiritually as an holy instrument of a divine invisible cause that is the Holy Ghost that is in us and throughout us For the third question when this new principle enters first you are to know that comes into the heart in a threefold condition first as an harbinger secondly as a private secret guest thirdly as an inhabitant or Housekeeper As 't is an harbinger so it comes to fit and prepare us for it self trims up and sweeps and sweetens the Soul that it may be readier to entertain him when he comes to reside and that he doth as the ancient gladiators had their arma praelusoria by skirmishing with our corruptions before he comes to give them a Pitch-Battel he brandishes a flaming Sword about our Ears and as by a flash of lightning gives us a sense of a dismal hideous state and so somewhat restrains us from excess and fury first by a momentany remorse then by a more lasting yet not purifying flame the Spirit of bondage In summ every check of Conscience every sigh for sin every fear of judgment every desire of grace every motion or inclination toward spiritual good be it never so short-winded is praeludium spiritus a kind of John Baptist to Christ something that God sent before to prepare the wayes of the Lord. And thus the spirit comes very often in every affliction every disease which is part of Gods Discipline to keep us in some order in brief at every Sermon that works upon us at the hearing then I say the lightning flashes in our Eyes we have a glimpse of his spirit but cannot come to a full sight of it and thus he appears to many whom he will never dwell with Unhappy men that they cannot lay hold on him when he comes so near them and yet somewhat more happy than they that never came within ken of him stopt their Ears when he spake to them even at this distance Every man in the Christian Church hath frequently in his life a power to partake of Gods ordinary preparing graces and 't is some degree of obedience though no work of regeneration to make good use of them and if he without the Inhabitance of the spirit cannot make such use as he should yet to make the best he can and thus I say the spirit appears to the unregenerate almost every day of our lives 2. When this spirit comes a guest to lodge with us then is he said to enter but till by actions and frequent obliging works he makes himself known to his Neighbours as long as he keeps his Chamber till he declare himself to be there so long he remains a private secret guest and that 's called the introduction of the form that makes a man to be truly regenerate when the Seed is sown in his heart when the habit is infused and that is done sometimes discernibly sometimes not discernibly but seldom as when Saul was called in the midst of his madness Acts ix he was certainly able to tell a man the very minute of his Change of his being made a new Creature Thus they which have long lived in an enormous Antichristian course do many times find themselves strucken on a sudden and are able to date their regeneration and tell you punctually how old they are in the spirit Yet because there be many preparations to this spirit which are not this spirit many presumptions in our hearts false-grounded many tremblings and jealousies in those that have it great affinity between Faith natural and spiritual seeing 't is a spirit that thus enters and not as it did light on the Disciples in a bodily shape 't is not an easy matter for any one to define the time of his conversion Some may guess somewhat nearer than others as remembring a sensible change in themselves but in a word the surest discerning of it
is in its working not at its entring I may know that now I have the spirit better than at what time I came to it Vndiscernibly Gods supernatural agency interposes sometimes in the Mothers Womb as in John Baptist springing in Elizabeth at Maryes salutation Luke i. 41 and perhaps in Jeremy Jer. i. 5 Before thou camest out of the womb I sanctifyed thee and in Isaiah Isa xlix 5 The Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant But this divine address attends most ordinarily till the time of our Baptism when the spirit accompanying the outward sign infuses it self into their hearts and there seats and plants it self and grows up with the reasonable Soul keeping even their most luxuriant years within bounds and as they come to an use of their reason to a more and more multiplying this habit of grace into holy spiritual acts of Faith and Obedience from which 't is ordinarily said that Infants baptized have habitual Faith as they may be also said to have habitual repentance and the habits of all other graces because they have the root and seed of those beauteous healthful Flowers which will actually flourish then when they come to years And this I say is so frequent to be performed at Baptism that ordinarily 't is not wrought without that means and in those means we may expect it as our Church doth in our Liturgy where she presumes at every Baptism that it hath pleased God to regenerate the infant by his holy Spirit And this may prove a solemn piece of comfort to some who suspect their state more than they need and think 't is impossible that they should be in a regenerate condition because they have not as yet found any such notable change in themselves as they see and observe in others These men may as well be jealous they are not men because they cannot remember when their Soul came to them if they can find the effects of spiritual life in themselves let them call it what they will a religious Education or a custom of well doing or an unacquaintedness with sin let them comfort themselves in their estate and be thankful to God who visited them thus betimes let it never trouble them that they were not once as bad as other men but rather acknowledge Gods mercy who hath prevented such a change and by uniting them to him in the Cradle hath educated and nursed them up in familiarity with the Spirit Lastly The spirit sometimes enters into our hearts upon occasional emergencies the sense of Gods judgments on our selves or others the reflexion on his mercies the reading good books falling into virtuous acquaintance but most eminently at and with the preaching of the Word and this by degrees as it seems to us but indeed at some one especial season or other which yet perhaps we are not able to discern and here indeed are we ordinarily to expect this guest if we have not yet found him here doth it love to be cherished and refreshed and warm'd within us if we have it for even it is the power of God unto salvation Rom. i. 16 The third condition in which this spirit comes into our hearts is as an inhabitant or House-Keeper The spirit saith Austin first is in us then dwells in us before it dwells it helps us to believe when it dwells it helps and perfects and improves our faith and accomplishes it with all other concomitant graces So I say here the Spirit is then said to inhabit and keep House in us not as soon as it is entertained and received but when it breaks forth into acts and declares it self before all men When men see our good works and glorify our Father Matth. v. 16 Before we were said to live in the spirit now to walk as you shall see the phrases used distinctly Gal. v. 25 To walk that is to go about conspicuously in the sight of all men breaking forth into works as the Sun after the dispersions of a mist or Cloud whereby all men see and acknowledge his Faith and Obedience and find their own evil ways reprehended and made manifest by his good as is noted in 13. verse All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light Semblable to which is that of the Atheists repining at the godly man Wisd ii 14 He is made to reprove our thoughts Thus is the third Quaere resolved also when this inward principle enters 1. It comes as an Harbenger in every outward restraint by which God keeps us from sinning 2. It enters as a guest in some season or other once for all In the Womb at Baptism at some Sermon sometimes at a notable tempest shaking and stirring us violently ordinarily and for the most part not to be discerned by us and lastly it comes and dwells with us and shews it self in its works yet that not at any set time after his Entrance not constantly without ever covering his Face but when and as often as it pleases and the flesh resisteth not To the last Quaere What works it performs the answer shall be brief every thing that may be called spiritual Faith Repentance Charity Hope Self-denial and the rest but these not promiscuously or in an heap altogether but by a wise dispensation in time and by degrees The Soul being enabled by this inward principle is equally disposed to the producing of all these and as occasions do occur doth actually perform and produce them so that in my conceit that question concerning the priority of Repentance or Faith is not either of such moment or difficulty as is by some Disputers pretended The Seeds of them both are at one time planted in the Soul and then there is no Faith in any Subject but there is Repentance also nor Repentance without Faith So that where it is said Without Faith 't is impossible to please God in any thing else 't is true but argues no necessary precedence of it before other graces for the habits of them all are of the same age in us and then also will it be as true that without Repentance or without Love Faith it self cannot please God for if it be truly acceptable â—aith there is both Repentance and Love in the same Womb to keep it Company Thus are we wont to say that only Faith justifieth but not Faith alone and the reason these promises in Scripture are made sometimes to one grace precisely sometimes to another is because they are all at once rooted in the man and in their habits chain'd together inseparably Faith saves every man that hath it and yet the believing'st man under Heaven shall not be saved without Charity Charity hides a multitude of sins and yet the charitablest man in the World shall never have his score cross't without Repentance A Catalogue of these fruits of the spirit you may at your leisure make up to your selves for your tryal out of the fifth to the Gal.
the meer eating of an apple In the next place as Adam was no private person but the whole humane nature so this sin is to be considered either in the root or in the fruit in its self or in its effects In its self so all mankind and every particular man is and in that name must humble himself as concerned in the eating of that fruit which only Adams teeth did fasten on is to deem himself bound to be humbled for that pride that curiosity that disobedience or whatsoever sin else can be contained in that first great transgression and count you this nothing to have a share in such a sin which contains such a multitude of Rebellions 'T is not a slight perfunctory humiliation that can expiate not a small labour that can destroy this monster which is so rich in heads each to be cut off by the work of a several repentance Now in the last place as this sin of all mankind in Adam is considered in its effects so it becomes to us a body of sin and death a natural disorder of the whole man an hostility and enmity of the flesh against the spirit and the parent of all sin in us as may appear Rom. vii and Jam. 1.14 Which that you may have a more compleat understanding of consider it as it is ordinarily set down consisting of three parts 1. A natural defect 2. A moral affection 3. A legal guilt i. e. a guiltiness of the breach of the Law for these three whatsoever you may think of them are all parts of that sin of our nature which is in and is to be imputed to us called ordinarily original sin in us to distinguish it from that first act committed by Adam of which this is an effect And first that natural defect is a total loss and privation of that primitive justice holiness and obedience which God had furnisht the Creature withal a disorder of all the powers of the Soul a darkness of the understanding a perverseness of the will a debility weakness and decay of all the senses and in summ a poverty and destruction and almost a nothingness of all the powers of Soul and Body And how ought we to lament this loss with all the veins of our heart to labour for some new strain of expressing our sorrow and in fine to petition that rich grace which may build up all these ruines to pray to God that his Christ may purchase and bestow on us new abilities that the second Adam may furnish us with more durable powers and lasting graces than we had but forfeited in the first The following part of this sin of our nature viz. A moral evil affection is word for word mentioned Rom. vii 5 For there the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinarily translated motions of sins and in the margin the passions of sins are more significantly to be rendred affections of sins i. e. by an usual figure sinful affections That you may the better observe the encumbrances of this branch of this sin which doth so over shadow the whole man and so fence him from the beams and light of the spiritual invisible Sun I am to tell you that the very Heathen that lived without the knowledge of God had no conversation with and so no instruction from the Bible in this matter that these very Heathens I say had a sense of this part of original sin to wit of these evil moral lusts and affections which they felt in themselves though they knew not whence they sprang Hence is it that a Greek Philosopher out of the antients makes a large Discourse of the unfatiable desire and lust which is in every man and renders his life grievous unto him where he useth the very same word though with a significant Epithet added to it that S. James doth c. 1. ver 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infinite lust with which as S. James saith a man is drawn away and enticed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith he that part of the mind in which these lusts dwell is perswaded and drawn or rather fall backward and forward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which lust or evil concupiscence he at last defines to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unsatiable intemperance of the appetite never filled with a desire never ceasing in the persecution of evil and again he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our birth and nativity derived to us by our parents i. e. an evil affection hereditary to us and delivered to us as a Legacy at our Birth and Nativity all which seems a clear expression of that original lust whose motions they felt and guest at its nature Hence is it that it was a custom among all of them I mean the common Heathen to use many ways of purgations especially on their children who at the imposition of their names were to be lustrated and purified with a great deal of superstition and ceremony such like as they used to drive away a plague or a cure for an House or City As if nature by instinct had taught them so much Religion as to acknowledge and desire to cure in every one this hereditary disease of the soul this plague of mans heart as 't is called 1 Kings viii 38 And in summ the whole learning of the Wisest of them such were the Moralists was directed to the governing and keeping in order of these evil affections which they called the unruly citizens and common people of the soul whose intemperance and disorders they plainly observed within themselves and laboured hard to purge out or subdue to the government of reason and virtue which two we more fully enjoy and more Christianly call the power of grace redeeming our Souls from this Body of sin Thus have I briefly shewed you the sense that the very Heathen had of this second branch of original sin which needs therefore no farther aggravation to you but this that they who had neither Spirit nor Scripture to instruct them did naturally so feelingly observe and curse it that by reason of it they esteemed their whole life but a living death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their body but the Sepulchre of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both which together are but a periphrasis of that which S. Paul calls in brief the body of death And shall we who have obtained plenty of light and instruction besides that which nature bestowed on us with them shall we I say let our Eyes be confounded with abundance of day shall we see it more clearly to take less notice of it Shall we feel the stings of sin within us which though they do but prick the regenerate prove mortal to the rest of us and shall we not observe them Shall we not rather weep those Fountains dry and crop this luxury of our affections with a severe sharp sorrow and humiliation Shall we not starve this rank fruitful Mother of