similitudes of true things similitudines auri with studs or points of silver id est scintillis quibusdam spiritualis intelligentiae that is points spangles or sparkles of precious and spirituall meaning For example Aarons mitre and his breast-plate of judgement engraven with Urim and Thummim and his golden bells were similitudines auri similitudes of gold or golden similitudes and the studs or points of silver that is sparkles or rayes of spirituall truth in them were Christ his three offices His Priestly represented by the breast-plate His Princely by the mitre His Propheticall by the bells Againe in the breast-plate of Aaron there were set in rowes twelve precious stones here were similitudes of gold or golden similitudes and the studs of silver that is sparkles or rayes of spirituall meaning were the l Apoc. 21.14 twelve Apostles laid as precious stones in the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem that is the Church Take yet a third example in the Arke there were the two m Heb. 9.4 Tables and the golden of Manna and the rod that had budded these were similitudines auri golden similitudes and the puncta argenti that is the cleere and evident points of spirituall truth in them are the three notes of the true Church 1 The Word or the Old and New Testament signified by the two Tables 2 The Sacraments prefigured in the golden pot of Manna 3 Ecclesiasticall discipline shadowed by Aarons Rod. Thus I might take off the cover of all the legall types and shew what lieth under them what liquor the golden vessell containeth what mysteries the precious robes involve what sacraments their figures what ablutions their washings what table their Altars what gifts their oblations what host their sacrifices pointed unto The Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrewes observeth such an admirable correspondency betweene these things that in this respect the whole Scripture may be likened to one long similitude the protasis whereof or first part is in the Old Testament the antapodosis or second part in the New For in the Old as the Apostle testifieth there were n Heb. 9.23.24 similitudes of true things but in the New we finde the truth of those similitudes Which if our new Sectaries of the precisian or rather o Mr. Whittall Bradburn and their followers circumcision cut had seriously thought upon they would not like Aesops dog let fall the substance by catching at the shadow they would not be so absurd as to goe about to bring the aged Spouse of Christ to her festraw againe and reduce all of us her children to her p Gal. 4.2.3 nonage under the law they would not be so mad as to keepe new moones and Jewish Sabbaths after the Sunne of righteousnesse is risen so long agoe and hath made us an everlasting Sabbath in heaven These silly Schismatickes doe but feed upon the scraps of the old Ebionites of whom q Hay hist sac l. 3. Ebionitae pauperes interpretantur verè sensu pauperes ceremonias adhuc legis custodientes Haymo out of Eusebius writeth thus The Ebionites according to the Hebrew Etymologie of their name are interpreted poore and silly and so indeed they are in understanding who as yet keepe the ceremonies of the old Law Nay rather they licke the Galathians vomit and therefore I thinke fit to minister unto them the purge prescribed by the r Gal. 3.1 2 3. Apostle O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath beene evidently set forth crucified among you This onely would I learne of you received yee the Spirit by the workes of the Law or by the hearing of faith Are yee so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh Behold I ſ Gal. 5 2. Paul testifie unto you that if you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing we may adde If you keepe the Jewish Sabbath or abstain from swines flesh out of conscience and in obedience to the ceremoniall Law Christs flesh shall profit you nothing if you abstaine from bloud in any such respect Christs bloud shall profit you nothing For I testifie againe saith St. Paul to every man that is circumcised that he is become a debter to the whole Law And will they not yet learne that Mosaicall rites and ceremonies were at severall times 1. Mortales or moriturae 2. Mortuae 3. Mortiferae They were mortales at their first constitution mortuae that is dead at Christs death and now mortiferae deadly to all that observe them Will they put off the long white robes washed in the bloud of the Lambe and shrowd themselves with the old rags or as St. Paul termeth them beggarly rudiments of the Law If they are so minded I leave them and fill up this Border with the words of Saint t Ser. 7. Antiqua observatio novo tollitur sacramento hostia in hostiam transiit sanguinem sanguis excludit legalis festivitas dum mutatur impletur Leo The ancient rite is taken away by a new Sacrament one host passeth into another bloud excludeth bloud and the Legall festivity is fulfilled in that it is changed The second exposition of this Scripture which understandeth the golden borders and silver studs of the glorious and pompous splendour of the Christian Church seemeth to come neerer unto the letter faciemus wee will make thee the verbe in the future tense evidently implyeth a promise or prophesie and the sense of the whole may be illustrated by this or the like Paraphrase O glorious Spouse of Christ and blessed Mother of us all who art compassed with a straight chaine about thy necke that suffereth thee not to breathe freely being confined to the narrow limits of Judea in the fulnesse of time the fulnesse of the Gentiles shall come in and in stead of a straight chaine of gold or small string of pearle we will make thee large borders we will environ thee with Christian auditories and congregations as it were borders of gold and these borders of gold shall be set out and supported with studs of silver that is enriched with temporall endowments and upheld by regall authority u Esay 49.23 King shall bee thy nursing fathers and Queenes shall be thy nursing mothers Nay such shall be thy honour and power that thou shalt binde Kings with x Psal 149.8 chaines and Nobles with linkes of iron who for their ransome shall offer unto thee store of gold to make thee borders and silver for studs Which prophesie seemed to have been fulfilled about the dayes of Constantine or a little after when such was the sumptuous statelinesse of Christian Churches and so rich the furniture thereof that it dazled the eyes of the Heathen Foelix the Emperours Treasurer blessing himselfe when hee beheld the Church vessels and vestments saying En qualibus vasis ministratur Mariae filio See what plate the sonne of Mary is served
him Apoc. 1.7 even they that nailed him to the Crosse and pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him Yea and Amen then he shall bring or send forth judgement unto victory He brought forth judgement in his life by preaching the Gospel in his owne person and he sent it forth after his death by the ministery of his Apostles and doth still by propagating the Church but hee bringeth not forth judgement unto victory in the Evangelists phrase because this his judgement is much oppressed the light of his truth smoothered the pure doctrine of the Gospel suppressed the greater part of the Kings of the earth and Potentates of this world refusing to submit their scepter to his Crosse and saying as it is in St. Lukes Gospel Luke 17.14 Wee will not have this man to reigne over us but when the sonne of man shall display his banner in the clouds and the winds shall have breathed out their last gaspes and the sea and the waters shall roare when heaven and earth shall make one great bonefire when the stage of this world shall be removed and all the actors in it shall put off their feigned persons and guises and appeare in their owne likenesse when the man of sinne 2 Thes 2.3 8. that exalteth himselfe above all that is called God shall be fully revealed and after consumed with the spirit of Christs mouth and be destroyed by the brightnesse of his comming then he shall suddenly confound the rest of his enemies Atheists Hypocrites Jewes Turkes Idolatrous Gentiles and Heretikes and breake the neckes of all that stubbornly resist him and then the truth shall universally prevaile and victoriously triumph All this variety of descant which you heare is but upon two notes a higher and a lower the humility and the majesty the infirmity and the power the obscurity and the glory the mildnesse and the severity of our Lord and Saviour his humility upon earth his majesty in heaven his infirmities in the dayes of his flesh and his power since hee sitteth at the right hand of his Father the obscurity and privacy of his first comming and solemnity of his second his mildnesse and clemency during the time of grace and mercy and his wrath and severity at the day of Judgement and Vengeance Ecce tibiâ cecinimus vobis Behold out of this Scripture I have piped unto you recording the pleasing notes of our Redeemers mildnesse and mercy who never brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe now I am to mourne unto you sounding out the dolefull notes of his justice and severity which shall one day bring forth judgement unto victory But before I set to the sad tune pricked before mee in the rules of my Text I am to entreat you to listen a while till I shall have declared unto you the harmony of the Prophet Esay and the Evangelist S. Matthew the rather because there seemeth some dissonancy and jarre between them For in Esay we reade Esay 42.3 Hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth that is give sentence according to truth but in St. Matthew He shall send forth judgement unto victory which importeth somewhat more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. that the judgement he shall send forth viam inveniet aut faciet shall either finde way or force it take place or make place no man or divell being able to withstand it Besides this discord in their notes there is a sweet straine in the Prophet he shall not faile Verse 4. nor bee discouraged till hee have set judgement on the earth left out in the Evangelist To the first exception the Jesuit Maldonat saith that the Syriack word signifieth both truth and victory and that Saint Matthew wrote not in pure Hebrew but in the Hebrew then currant which was somewhat alloyed and embased with other languages which if it were granted unto him as it is not by those who defend that the Greeke in the New Testament is the originall yet the breach is not fully made up For still the originall Hebrew in Esay and the Greeke in Saint Matthew which hath been ever held authenticall are at odds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew signifying truth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke signifying victory and not truth I grant the truth of Christ is most victorious and hath subdued all the false gods of the Heathen as the Arke laid Dagon on his face and the rod of Aaron devoured all the rods of the Magicians yet truth and victory are not all one A weake Judge may bring forth judgement unto truth yet not unto victory as on the contrary a potent and corrupt Judge may bring forth judgement unto victory yet not unto truth Tully in a bad cause prevailed against Oppianicus by casting dust in the Judges eyes And Aeschines prevailed not against Ctesiphon in a good cause Right is often overcome by might and sometimes by the sleight of a cunning Advocate for the false part To the second objection Beza answereth that these words that hee will not faile nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement on the earth were anciently in St. Matthew but of late through the carelesnesse of some transcriber from whose copy ours were drawne are left out But sith this Verse is wanting in all the copies of Saint Matthew now extant neither can Beza bring good proofe of any one in which this Verse was ever found it is not safe to lay any such imputation upon the first transcribers of St. Matthewes Gospel whereby a gap may be opened to Infidels and Heretickes to cavell at the impeachable authority of the holy Scriptures in the originall languages A safe and easie way to winde out of these perplexed difficulties is to acknowledge that the Evangelist who wrote by the same spirit wherewith the Prophet Esay was inspired tyed nor himselfe precisely to the Prophets words but fitteth the Prophets sense to his owne purpose and what the Prophet delivered in two Verses he contracteth into one For what is hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth and he shall not faint nor be discouraged till hee hath done it but that he shall doe it effectually and powerfully and what is that but he shall send forth judgement unto victory Hee shall send forth Cal. in Mat. 1. Hoc verbum educere quo utitur Propheta significat officium Christi esse Regnum Dei quod tum inclusum erat in angulo Judeae propagare in totum orbem This phrase reacheth forth unto us a twofold observation the first touching the extent the second touching the freedome of this judgement here spoken of By judgement is here meant the Kingdome of Christ which must not bee confined to Jury nor bounded within the pale of Palaestine but hee sent forth that is propagated and spread over the whole world according to the prophecy of the Psalmist a Psal 110.2 The Lord shall send a rod of thy strength out
of Sion be thou ruler in the middest of thine enemies Whilst our Saviour lived upon earth the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind yeelding a savour of life unto life was kept as it were in a narrow boxe but at our Saviours death the boxe was broken and this precious oyntment poured out and the whole world filled with the smell thereof This doctrine touching the naturalizing if I may so speak of the Gentiles into the spirituall Common-wealth of Israel was implyed in the Metaphor of the Rose of the field Cantic 2.1 I am the Rose of the field Christ is not a garden flower for few to see and fewer to smell unto but a Rose of the field for all to gather that have a hand of faith to touch him but it was unfolded at large to Saint Peter in a vision of a sheet let downe from Heaven knit at foure corners Acts 10.11 12. in which were all manner of foure footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things c. The foure corners of the sheet signified the foure parts of the world all sorts of living creatures all sorts of men of all kindreds nations and languages The sheet in which they were all wrapped is the Church militant In the end of the vision the vessell was received up againe into heaven Acts 10.16 to shew that in the end of the world the whole Church militant shall be transported into heaven and become triumphant St. b Orig. comment in Cant. homil 1. Quemadmodum in Evangelio mulier illa quae sanguine fluebat archi Synagogae filiam curatione praevenit sic Aethiopissa id est Gentium Ecclesia Israel aegrotante sanata est Origen representeth this truth most cleerly unto us through the mirrour of an allegory Though saith he the found of the Gospel came later unto the Gentiles yet the Gentiles prevented the Jewes in giving credit to it and were justified before them as the woman in the Gospel that was sicke of a bloudy issue was healed before the Rulers daughter The daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue was a type of the Jewish Synagogue the woman that was in a long consumption by reason of her continuall fluxe of bloud was an embleme of the people of the Gentiles lying more than twelve ages sicke of a bloudy issue weltring in her naturall filth and bloud Now as Christ going to cure the Rulers daughter was touched by the Canaanitish woman sicke of a bloudy issue and she by that touch was cured so though Christ came first to heale the Synagogue yet the Gentile Church touching the hemme of his garment by faith is first healed and saved The phrase of sending forth judgement expresseth our Saviours readinesse in opening the treasures of heavenly wisedome and unfolding the mysteries of eternall salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he shooteth out casteth out or sendeth forth judgement of his owne accord as a tree doth his fruit or the Sunne his beames Matth. 12.35 A good man bringeth forth out of the treasure of his heart good things Matth. 2.11 The Sages opened their treasures and every Scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a man that is an house-holder which bringeth forth out of his treasures things new and old I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart Psal 40.10 saith David in the person of Christ I have declared thy faithfulnesse and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindnesse and thy truth from the great congregation Ver. 9. I have preached righteousnesse in the great assembly I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest And according to this fore-going type how ready the truth himselfe was to publish the Gospel of the Kingdome appeareth by his taking all occasions from every ordinary occurrent to instruct his Disciples in points of heavenly wisedome as from a draught of fish to admonish them of fishing for soules from Well-water to treat of the water of life from barly loaves to exhort them to labour for the food that perisheth not from burying the dead to reprove those that are dead in sinne from curing the blind in body to rebuke the spirituall blindnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees from a question concerning the materiall Temple to fore-tell the dissolution of the temple of his body and raising it up againe in three daies To conceale any needfull especially saving truth is to bury the gold of Ophir and thereby deprive not only others but our selves also of the benefit and use thereof Wherefore St. c August l. 12. confess Veritas nec mea nec tu◠nec illius est sed omnium nostrûm quos ad ejus communionem publicè vocas admonens nos ut nolimus eam habere privatam ne privemut ea Augustine sharply censureth such as would challenge a peculiar interest and propriety in that which is the common treasure of Gods Church saying The truth is neither mine nor thine nor his but all ours in common whom thou O Lord callest publikely to the communion thereof dreadfully admonishing us not to desire to have it private lest we be deprived of it In speciall the truth of judgement ought not to bee kept in but to bee sent forth For to detaine any private mans goods is but a private wrong but unrighteously to detaine justice which is the Kings or the Common-wealths or rather both their good is a kind of peculatus or publike theft We laugh at the Indians for casting in great store of gold yeerly into the river Ganges as if the streame would not runne currently without it yet when the current of justice is stopt in many Courts the wisest Soliciters of sutes can finde no better means than such as the Indians use by dropping in early in the morning gold and silver into Ganges to make it runne Pliny reporteth of Apis the Aegyptian god whom they worshipped in the likenesse of a Cow or Oxe that hee gave answers to private men è manu consulentium cibum capiendo Taking alwayes some food from their hands otherwise the Oracle was dumbe I need not to prosecute the application in this place where by the testimony of all men and the truth it selfe the streame of Justice if any where runneth cleerly most free from all filth and corruption Therefore I passe from Christ his sending forth judgement to his victory Hee shall send forth judgement unto victory There are two principall acts or to speake more properly effects of our Lords Princely function 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgement and victory judgement upon and victory over all his enemies Wee have them both in the words of my Text Judgement which hee shall send forth and Victory unto which But of what Judgement or Victory the words are to bee construed the learned Interpreters of holy Writ somewhat differ in judgement Some in their ghesses fall short upon the particular judgement and utter
worse than perdition to bee saved for ever in these flames to bee ever scorched and never consumed that is to bee ever dying and never dye Here as Saint g Aug. de civit Dei l 13. c. 11. Ibi non erunt homines ante mortem neque post mortem sed semper in morte atque per hoc nunquam viventes nunquam mortui sed sine fine morientes Austine acutely observeth wee can never bee sayd properly dying but either alive or dead for to the moment of giving up the ghost wee are alive and after that dead whereas on the contrary the damned in hell can never bee said to bee alive or dead but continually dying not dead because they have most quicke sense of paine not alive because they are in the pangs of the second death O miserable life where life is continually dying O more miserable death where death is eternally living Yea but shall all be salted with this fire the fire of hell God forbid Doth Christ say of this salt not of the earth but of hell that it is good ver 50. is this the meaning of his exhortation have salt in you that is procure the salt of hell fire to keep you alive in the torments of eternall death to preserve you to everlasting perdition By no meanes h In hunc locum Maldonat therefore and Barradius and all that are for this first interpretation are justly to bee blamed because they had an eye to the antecedents but not to the consequents of my text On the other side those who adhere to the second interpretation are not free from just exception because they had an eye to the consequents and not to the antecedents For wee ought to give such an interpretation of these words as may hold good correspondence both with the antecedents and consequents and either give light to both or receive it from them The elect to whom these latter restraine the word All have nothing to doe with the unquenchable fire of hell mentioned ver 48. neither have the reprobate to whom the former interpreters appropriate these words any thing to doe with the good salt ver 50. yet both have to doe with some kinde of salting and with some kinde of fire For every one shall bee salted one way or other either here with the fire of the spirit seasoning our nature and preserving it from corruption or hereafter with the fire of hell There is no meanes to escape the never dying worme of an evill conscience but by having salt in us nor to prevent the unquenchable fire of hell but by fire from heaven I meane heart-burning sorrow for our sinnes Dolor est medicina doloris That we may not bee hereafter salted with the fire of hell wee must be here salted with a threefold fire of 1 The word 2 The spirit 3 Affliction or persecution First with the fire of the word the word is a fire i Jer. 23.29 Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord It hath the three properties of fire 1 To give light 2 To burne 3 To search First it giveth light therefore Psal 119. it is called a lanthorn to our steps and a light to our paths Secondly it burneth 1 In the eare 2 In the mouth 3 In the heart First in the eare k 1 Sam. 3.11 Whosoever heareth my words saith God his eares shall tingle Secondly it burneth in the mouth l Jerem. 5.14 I will make my words fire in the mouth Thirdly it burneth in the heart m Luk. 24.32 Did not our heart burne within us when hee opened to us the scriptures Lastly it searcheth pierceth and tryeth like fire The n Heb. 4.12 word of God is mighty in operation and sharper than a two-edged sword c. Secondly with the fire of the spirit the spirit is a fire o Act. 1.5 You shall be baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire Water will wash out filthy spots and blots on the skinne onely but fire is more powerfull it will burne out rotten flesh and corrupt matter under the skinne This fire of the holy Ghost enlightneth the understanding with knowledge enflameth the will and affections with the love of God and zeale for his glory and purgeth out all our drossie corruptions Thirdly with the fire of persecution and affliction Persecution is called a p 1 Pet. 4.12 fiery tryall and all kinde of afflictions and temptations wherewith Gods Saints are tryed in Saint Austines judgement are the fire whereof Saint Paul speaketh q 1 Cor. 3.15 He shall be saved as it were through fire And of a truth whatsoever the meaning of that text bee certaine it is that the purest vessels of Gods sanctuary first in the Heathen next in the Arrian and last of all in the Antichristian persecution have beene purified and made glorious like gold tryed in the fire There is no torment can bee devised by man or divell whereof experiments have not beene made on the bodies of Christs martyrs yet the greater part of them especially in these later times have beene offered to God by fire as the Holocausts under the law Bloody persecutors of Gods Saints set on fire with hell of all torments most employed the fiery because they are most dreadfull to the eye of the beholders most painefull to the body of the sufferers and they leave nothing of the burned martyr save ashes which sometimes the adversaries maâ—ice outlasting the flames of fire cast into the river And many of Gods servants in this land as well as in other parts in the memory of our fathers have been salted with this fire call you it whether you please either the fire of martyrdome or martyrdome of fire And howsoever this fire in the dayes of Queen Mary was quenched especially by the blood of the slaine for the testimony of Jesus Christ as the fire in the city of the r Liv. decad 3. l. 8 Bruson facet exempl l. 1. Astapani as Livie observeth when no water could lave it our was extinguished with the blood of the citizens yet wee know not but that it may bee kindled againe unlesse wee blow out the coales of wrath against us with the breath of our prayers or dead them with our teares Admit that that fire should never bee kindled againe yet God hath many other fires to salt us withall burning feavers fiery serpents thunder and lightning heart-burning griefes and sorrowes losse of dearest friends wracke of our estates infamy disgrace vexations oppressions indignation at the prosperity of the wicked terrors of conscience and spirituall derelictions And God grant that either by the fire of the Word or of the Spirit or seasonable afflictions our fleshly corruptions may bee so burned out in this life that wee bee not salted hereafter with the fire of hell which burneth but lighteth not scorcheth but yet consumeth not worketh without end both upon soule and body yet maketh an end of neither O that