his Servants i. e. remain errand Atheists under a Christian profession who by letting loose either their wits to prophane jests or their reason to Heathenish conceits and disputings or their actions to all manner of disobedience demonstrate that indeed they care not for God they scarce remember his name Neither is he in all their thoughts Psalm x. 4 In the next place walking after their own lusts is giving themselves liberty to follow all the directions of corrupt polluted nature in entertaining all conceits and practices which the pride of their understandings and rankness of their affections shall propose to them in opposition to God And this without any reluctancy or twinge of conscience walking on as securely and confidently as if it were indeed the right high-way So that now you have seen the outside of the Text and lookt it over in the gross 't is time to survey it more particularly in its parts and those are two 1. The sin of Atheism and the subjects in which it shews it self There shall come in the last days Scoffers 2. The motive and impellent to this sin a liberty which men give themselves to walk after their own lusts And first of Atheism and the subjects in whom it shews it self In the c. Where you may note that the words being in form of a prophecy do note a sort of people which were to come in respect of St. Peter who writes it And though in its first aspect it refers to the period of the Jewish Nation and destruction of Jerusalem takes in the parallel state of things under the last Age and dotage and declination of the Word Accordingly we see at the 24. of St. Matthew the Prophecy of both as it were interwoven and twisted into each other so that what St. Peter saith shall be we may justly suspect is fulfilled amongst us his future being now turned into a present his prophecy into a story In the Apostles times when Christianity was in the Cradle and wanted years and strength to move and shew it self in the World there were but very few that would acknowledge it many Sects of Philosophers who peremptorily resolved themselves against this profession join'd issue with the Apostles in assiduous disputation as we may find in the seventeenth of the Acts. Amongst those the Epicureans did plainly deny that there was any God that governed the World and laught at any proof that Moses and the Prophets could afford for their conviction And here a man might think that his Prophecy was fulfilled in his own days and that he needed not to look beyond that present Age for store of Scoffers Yet so it is that the infidelity which he foresaw should in those last Ages reign confidently in the World was represented to him in a larger size and uglier shape than that of the present Philosophers The Epicurean unbelief seem'd nothing to him being compared to this Christian Atheism where men under the Vizard of Religion and profession of Piety are in heart arrant Heathens and in their fairest Carriages do indeed but scoff and delude and abuse the very God they worship Whence the note is that the profession of Christianity is mixed with an infinite deal of Atheism and that in some degree above the Heathenism of the perversest Philosophers There were in St. Peters time Epicureans and all Sects of Scoffers at Christianity and yet the Scoffers indeed the highest degree of Atheism was but yet a heaving it would not rise and shew it self till the last days 'T is worth observing what variety of stratagems the Devil hath always had to keep us in defiance with God and to nourish in us that hostility and enmity against Heaven which is so deep and predominant in himself He first set them a work to rebel and fortify themselves against God and make themselves by building of a Tower so impregnable that God himself could not be able to disperse them Gen. xi 4 Afterwards when by the punishment and defeating of that design the World was sufficiently instructed that no arm of flesh no bodily strength could make resistance against Heaven when the body could hold out in rebellion no longer he then instructs the inward man the Soul to make its approaches and challenge Heaven Now the Soul of man consisting of two faculties the Vnderstanding and the Will he first deals with the Understanding and sets that up against God in many monstrous fashions first in deluding it to all manner of Idolatrous worship in making it adore the Sun the Moon and the whole Host of Heaven which was a more generous kind of Idolatry Afterwards in making them worship Dogs and Cats Onions and Garlick for so did the Egyptians and this was a more sottish stupid affection a man would wonder how the Devil could make them such Fools Afterward he wrought still upon their understanding in making them under pretence of two laudable qualities admiration and gratitude admiration of any kind of vertue and gratitude for any good turn to deify and worship as gods any men which had ever done either their Nation or private persons any important good or favour So that every Heros or noble famous man as soon as he was dead was worshipt 'T were long to shew you the variety of shifts in this kind which the Devil used to bring in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Gentiles i. e. their worshipping of many gods In brief this plot lasted thus till Christianity came into the World and turn'd it out of Doors and at Christs Resurrection all the gods of the Heathen expired However the Devil still stuck close to that faculty of the Soul which he had been so long acquainted with I mean the understanding and seeing through the whole World almost the Doctrine of Christ had so possest men that he could not hope to bring in his Heathen gods again he therefore hath one design more on the understanding seeing 't is resolved to believe Christ in spight of Heathenism he then puzzles it with many doubts about this very Christ it is so possest with He raises up in the first Ages of the Church variety of Heresies concerning the union of his natures equality of his person with the Father and the like and rung as many changes in mens opinions as the matter of Faith was capable of There was no truth almost in Christianity but had its Heretick to contradict and damn it Now since at last reason and truth and the power of Scripture having out-lived in a good degree fundamental error in opinion hath almost expuls'd the Devil out of the head or upper part of the Soul the Understanding his last plot is on the heel i. e. the Will and Affections and that he hath bruised terribly according to that Prophecy Gen. iii. 15 He deals mainly on our manners and strives to make them if it be possible sinful beyond capability of mercy And this design hath thrived with him wonderfully he hath
Lord But if it were thus in the Hebrew the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must have been put after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas here it is before it Others seem to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a particle aequivalent with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the interlinear ipsum Decretum but it is more reasonable to take it as vulgarly it is for a preposition signifying de and then it will be best rendred I will tell of a decree or covenant V. 8. Son That David as a King exalted by Gods peculiar command should be stiled Gods Son or that the time of his inauguration or instating in that power taking possession of his throne and subduing his enemies on every side should be exprest by the day of Gods begetting hath nothing strange in it It is affirmed in the name of God Psal lxxxix 26 He shall cry unto me Thou art my Father and v. 27. Also I will make him my first-born higher then the Kings of the earth where each King of the earth is lookt on as a Son of God but he as being higher then they his first-born We know an adopted Son is stiled a Son and Salathiel Mat. i. 12 is said to be begotten by Jechoniah because he succeeded him in the Kingdom though he were not indeed his Son And so may David be Gods Son being immediately exalted by him and indeed all other Kings who are said to reign by him And that the time of his Coronation should be lookt on as his birth-day and accordingly kept festival as the birth-day was that is familiar in all Countreys The Feast of commemorating the building of Rome we know was called Palilia and this title was by decree given to the day of Caius the Emperour his advancement to the Empire Decretum ut dies quo cepisset imperium Palilia vocaretur 'T was decreed that the day on which he began his Reign should be so called and accordingly celebrated And the Emperour generally had two natales or birth-days kept Natalis Imperatoris and Imperii the birth-day of the Emperour and of the Empire the first to commemorate his coming into the World the second his advancement to the Imperial Dignity So Spartianus in Adriano tells us of the Natalis adoptionis the day of his adoption i. e. his civil birth on V. Ides of August and then Natalem Imperii the birth-day of his Empire on the III. And Tacitus of Vespasian Hist l. ii Primus Principatus dies in posterum celebratus the first day of his Empire was celebrated afterwards But then in the mystical sense some difficulty there is what Sonship or begetting of Christ is here meant The Schoolmen from some of the Ancients understand it of the eternal Generation of the Son of God and interpret the hodiè to day of an hodiè aeternitatis a day of eternity But the Apostle S. Paul Act. xiii 33 applies it distinctly to his resurrection He hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and so Heb. v. 5. it is brought as an evidence of Christ's being consecrated by his Father to his Melchizedekian High-Priesthood which we know was at his Resurrection Christ glorified not himself to be made an high-Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee who in the dayes of his flesh v. 7. being made perfect became the Author of eternal salvation called of God an high-Priest v. 9 10. So Heb. 1.5 where this Text is again recited the Context refers it to the exaltation of him in his humane nature when having purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high being made so much better than the Angels v. 3.4 And to this belongs that of St. Hierom ad Paulin. David Simonides noster Pindarus Alcaeus Christum lyrâ personat decachordo Psalterio ab inferis suscitat resurgentem David our Divine Poet sounds out Christ upon his Harp and with his Psaltery of ten strings awakes him rising from the dead Only it must be remembred that as it was an act of his divine power by which he was raised and so his resurrection was an evidence demonstrative that he was the promised Messias of whom the Learned Jews themselves resolved that he was to be the Son of God and that in an eminent manner so the High-Priest Mat. xxvi 63 Tell us whether thou art the Christ the Son of God and Joh. i. 20 Rabbi thou art the Son of God the King of Israel so this begetting him from the grave to a life immortal did comprehend and presuppose the truth of that other fundamental Article of our Creed that he was that eternal word or Son of God which thus rose Thus the Apostle sets it Rom. i. 4 speaking of Jesus Christ our Lord made of the seed of David according to the flesh and adding that he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead Now that this his resurrection and exaltation consequent to it is here fitly exprest by Gods begetting him will easily be believed upon these two accounts 1. That in respect of his humane nature it was a second as that from the Mothers Womb a first entrance on humane life the grave was but a second womb from which now he came forth and it is not unusual to call the resurrection of one of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new or second birth 2. That Princes or Rulers are in Scripture style called Gods and children or sons of God I said you are Gods and you are all children of the most high and then instating Christ in his Regal Office is the begetting him and so the saying Thou art my son i. e. by saying constituting him so the second sort of Natalis or birth-day the birth-day of his Kingdom yea and Melchizedekian Priesthood too to that the Apostle applies it Heb. v. 4.5 for to both these he was solemnly installed at his Resurrection The Chaldee of all the Interpreters seem alone not to have understood this mysterie who render it Thou art beloved by me as a Son by a Father thou art pure to me as if this day I had created thee V. 8. Vtmost parts That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 finitus terminatus consumptus est signifies the utmost skirts the extreme parts of that which is spoken of there can be no question All that is here to be noted is the dubious notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth that is joyned with it For if that be interpreted of the Vniverse or whole World then there can here be no place for the historical sense respecting David for it is certain he was never constituted by God the Vniversal Monarch of the whole World Yet on the other side if it be not taken in this latitude it will
are mentioned with other utensils of the Temple 2 King 12.13 snuffers basins trumpets c. But for the use of trumpets in consort or harmony with other instruments for the lauding of God to which onely this place belongs the first mention we find of them is 1 Chron. 13.8 at David's fetching the Ark from Kiriath-jearim when he and all Israel played before God with all their might with singing and with harps and with psalteries and with timbrels and with cymbals and with trumpets so again c. 15.28 So on another and not so festival an occasion when on Azariah's prophesie Asa and Judah made a covenant to God 2 Chron. 15. they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice with shouting and with trumpets and with cornets v. 14. And as Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.20 at his going out against his enemies to his exhortation to belief in God adds the appointing of singers unto the Lord v. 21. and this attended with a signal blessing v. 22. a victory over their enemies wrought by God's hand so they celebrated their triumph accordingly going in procession to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets v. 28. So on Hezekiah's reformation and sacrifice 2 Chron. 29.26 the Levites stood with the instruments of David and the Priests with the trumpets and when the burnt-offering began the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments ordained by David King of Israel So at the laying the foundation of the Temple when it was reedified Ezra 3.10 they set the Priests with trumpets and the Levites with cymbals and so at the dedication of the wall Neh. 12.41 And as here so Psal 118.6 the praises of God are appointed to be sung with that joyfull noise that the harps and trumpets and cornets do send forth From these premisses it will not be difficult to judge of the solidity of that Annotation which the Geneva Bible hath affixt to this verse in these words Exhorting the people to rejoyce in praising God he maketh mention of those instruments which by God's commandment were appointed in the old Law but under Christ the use thereof is abolished in the Church If by this phrase appointed by God's commandment in the old Law be meant that the use of these instruments was any part of the Ceremonial Law given by God to Moses in which onely the abolishing of it in the Christian Church can be founded with any appearance of reason it already appears that there is no truth in this For as this practice of praising God with the assistance of instrumental as well as vocal musick is found to be ancienter than the giving of the Law in Sinai much more then of the ceremonies in God's service either in the Tabernacle or Temple being related of Miriam the prophetess the sister of Aaron Exod. 15.20 that to celebrate the delivery out of Aegypt to Moses's song took a timbrel in her hand and the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances so the appointment of it in God's service cannot by the scripture be deduced from any higher original than that of David according to that of 2 Chron. 29.26 which expresseth the instruments to have been ordained by David The appointment I say or praescript command for as to the practice of it we have an earlier example and instance of that 1 Sam. 10.5 where the company of prophets are met by Saul coming down from the high place with a psaltery and a tabret and a pipe and a harp before them while they prophesied or sang praises to God And another yet earlier I mentioned that of Miriam and her maidens And indeed the universal usage among all the nations that we reade of gives us cause much rather to assign it a place in the natural Religion which the common light of Reason directed all civilized Nations to in attributing honour to God than to number it among the ceremonies of the Mosaical Law Homer one of the ancientest heathen writers that we have gives a sufficient account of the usage of the Greeks in celebrating the praises of the Gods and Heroes upon the Harp and after him nothing more frequent than the mention of the Paeans Dithyrambicks Choriambicks Pythaulae the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Bacchus the Phrygian way of service unto Cybele with the Drum the Egyptians to Isis with the Timbrel or Sistrum Of the more Eastern practice the third of Daniel is sufficient testimony where the sound of the Cornet Flute Harp Sackbut Psaltery Dulcimer and all kinds of Musick are used in the worship of their Idol-Gods v. 5. As for the Western or Roman Musick was so great an ingredient in their Religion that in the first Ages of that state before they had learnt and received in to their own the rites of the nations they conquered the Tibicines had a College or Corporation among them and when upon a disobligation they left the City the Senate addrest a solemn Embassy to them to bring them back and at their return courted them with the donation of all the privileges they desired By all this it appears how little affinity to truth there is in that observation which made Church-Musick a piece of abrogated Judaism it being no part of the Law given by Moses and so great a part of the Religion of those to whose rites the Mosaical oeconomy was most contrary and yet so far also from being defamed by the Idolatrous heathens using of it that the Prophets among the Jews practised it Miriam celebrated the deliverance from Aegypt with it in the presence of Moses and David solemnly ordain'd and endow'd it and from him the rest of the Kings of Judah in the Tabernacle and the Temple Which appointment of David's although I suppose it not so far to be extended as to lay an obligation on all Christians in all their services to use this solemnity of instrumental Musick David's practices being not thus obligatory to us nor his appointment reaching all Christians yet 1. neither is there any reason deducible from hence to perswade us that these Instruments taken in to assist in God's service either then were or now are unlawfull on that account because they were not commanded by God but appointed by David for it being evident that David was both a Prophet and a King the former if not the latter of these alone enabled and qualified him to ordain ceremonies in God's service as is visible in his numbring the age of the Levites 1 Chron. 23.27 otherwise than Moses had appointed v. 3. and Numb 4.3 and by his design to build God a Temple not commanded but after forbidden and yet his design of doing it approved by God And 2. the motives which recommended the use thereof to David and his successours after him being not shadows of things to come which therefore by the presence of the substance the coming of Christ are abolished but reasons of equal efficacy now and before and in his time viz. the propriety
c. I begin with the first of these To clear the fundamental difficulty or explain what is meant by sending to bless All sorts of Arts and Sciences have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their peculiar phrases and words of art which cannot be interpreted fully but by the critical observing their importance among those Artists Casaubon I remember observes it among the Deipnosophists that they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that none but Athenaeus can interpret to us and certainly the Book of God and Christ that spake as never man spake must not be denied this priviledge Among the many that might be referr'd to this head two here we are fall'n on together the matter of our present enquiry sending and blessing The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to send and the Greâ—k parallel to it if we look it in common Dictionaries and in many places of the Scripture it self is a word of most vulgar obvious notion but if you will ask the Scripture-Critick you shall find in it sometimes a rich weighty pretious importance To design or destine to instal or consecrate to give commission for some great office How shall they preach unless they be sent and a hundred the like Thus we hear of the sending of Kings Judges Prophets but especially of our spiritual Rulers under the Gospel No other title assign'd them but that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the missi the sent or the Messengers of Christ the more shame for those that contemn this mission lay violent hands on that sacred function the meanest and lowest of the people to make one parallel more betwixt Jeroboams Kingdom and ours those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ignatius phrase brass Coines of their own impressing so contrary to the royal prerogative of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peters agonistical stile that run without any watch-word of Gods to start them yea and run like Ahimaaz out-run all others that were truly sent The defect in our tongue for the expressing of this is a little repair'd by the use of the word Sent and so read it thus God having raised up his son Jesus gave him commission to bless us you will somewhat discern and remember the importance of this first phrase And so again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bless and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text so fully answerable to it though it be a vulgar stile in all Authors yet a propriety it hath in this place and in some others of Scripture noting the Office of a Priest to whom it peculiarly belongs to pronounce and pray for blessings i. e. in this eminent sense to bless others For there being two sorts of Priests in the Pentateuch or if you will two acts of the same Divine function the one of blessing the other of sacrificing the one observable in the Fathers of every Family in Gen. who therefore use solemnly to bless their children and after the enlarging of Families into Kingdoms belonging to Kings and eminently and signally notified in Melchisedech Gen. 14.19 the other more conspicuous in Aaron and his Successors in the Jewish Priesthood Both these are most eminently remarkable in our Christ the one in his death the other ever since his resurrection The sacrificing part most clearly a shadow of that one great oblation on the Altar of the Cross for us and in spight of Socinus such a Priest once was Christ though but once in spight of the Papists Once when he offer'd that one precious oblation of himself the same person both Priest and Sacrifice and but once no longer Priest thus than he was thus a sacrificing this is his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.23 a Priesthood not suffer'd to continue the same minute determin'd his mortal life and mortal Priesthood buried the Aaronical rites and the Priest together But for the Melchisedech Priesthood that of blessing in my Text that of intercession powerful intercession i. e. giving of grace sufficient to turn us this is the Office that now still belongs unto Christ the peculiar grand Office to which that notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which Christs durable unction belongs by which he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consecrate for evermore Heb. 7. ult parallel to that so frequent style of his A Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech not that Melchisedech was a Priest for ever and Christ like him in that but that Christ was to continue for ever such a Priest as Melchisedech in Gen. was or that his Aaronical Priesthood had an end one sacrifice and no more but his other Melchisedech priesthood was to last for ever which you will more discern if you proceed to the second particular the date of this sending the time of his instalment into his Priesthood after his resurrection God having raised up sent c. That the resurrection instal'd Christ to his eternal Priestly office or to that part of it which was to endure for ever is a truth that nothing but inadvertence hath made men question There 's nothing more frequently insinuated in the Scripture were not my Text demonstrative enough first raised up and then thus sent or instal'd the 5. and 7. to the Heb. would more than prove it so in that fundamental grand prophecy to which all that is said there refers that in the 110. Psal the Priesthood of Christ is usher'd in with a Sit thou at my right hand ver 1. ruling in the midst of enemies ver 2. the day of his power ver 3. all these certain evidences of his resurrection and then and not till then ver 4. The Lord hath sworn c. thou art a Priest for ever a mortal dying determinable Priest he was before in his death but now after his resurrection from that death a Priest for ever Once more Heb. 7.15 perhaps there may be some Emphasis in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ariseth there ariseth another Priest or he ariseth another an Aaronical Priest in his death but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Melchisedech i. e. another kind of Priest in his resurrection Add to this that the Melchisedech-Priest must be like the type a King as well as a Priest which Christ as Man was not till after his resurrection and so that other famous type of our Jesus Zach. 6.13 Josua the son of Josedek the High-Priest he shall be a Priest upon the throne and the counsel of peace that grand consultation of reconciling sinners to God shall be betwixt them both in the union of that Sceptre and that Ephod that Mitre and that Crown the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Regal and Sacerdotal Office of Christ and as one so the other both dated alike from after the resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thing that by this accumulation of Scripture-testimonies it was necessary to demonstrate For the clearing of which truth and reconciling or preventing all
Wars of France That if he were careful to observe the causes and honest to report them he must Hound the Fox to a Kennel which it was not willing to acknowledge drive such an action to the Brothel-house that came speciously and pretendedly out of a Church find that to be in truth the animosity of a Rival that took upon it to be the quarrel for Religion or as in Polybius oft the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a thing very distant from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the colour from the cause In the mean it will not be a peculiar mark of odium on the imbroilers of this present State and Church to lay it at their doors which I am confident never failed to own the like effects in all other Christian States the Ignorance i. e. in the Scripture phrase Not Practising of those Christian Rules which the Gospel-spirit presents us with I might tire you but with the names of those effects that flow constantly from this Ignorance such are usurping the Power that belongs not to us which Humility would certainly disclaim such resisting the Powers under which we are placed by God to which Meekness would never be provoked such the judging and censuring mens thoughts and intentions any further than their actions inforce most unreconcileable with the forgiving part of mercifulness such the doing any kind of evil that the greatest or publickest good may come designing of Rapine or Blood to the sanctifiedst end which St. Paul and Peaceableness would never endure such Impatience of the Cross shaking a Kingdom to get it off from our own shoulders and put it on other men diametrally opposite to the suffering and patience of a Christian To retire from this Common to the Inclosure and to go no farther than the Texts suggests to me To call fire from Heaven upon Samaritans is here acknowledged the effect of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the want of knowledge or consideration of the quality of their spirit And what may that signifie to us Why fire you know is the embleme of a Civil War which is called a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a combustion or being farther broken out into flames a conflagration and I conceive should be so rendred in that place of St. Peter where we read the Fiery Trial. Now fire you know belongs most naturally to Hell and therefore when the fire and brimstone came down upon Sedom the phansie of the Fathers calls it Gehennam de Coelo and so generally the Civil Fire the Combustion in a State its original is from thence too part of that wisdom that is not from above These Tares so apt for burning are sowed by Satan the Enemy-man From whence come Wars and strivings among you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wars of all sizes are they not from your lusts that war in your flesh saith St. James The lusts from the Flesh but the War from Hell the Devil the Spiritus sufflans that sets them a warring Believe it they would not be able to do it in this manner prove such fiery boutefeus if they were not inflamed from beneath if they were not set on fire by Hell And therefore to call fire from Heaven to intitle God or Heaven to that fire is to do both of them great injury nay though it be on Samaritans that are not so friendly to Christ as might be expected and so to call fire from Heaven upon Samaritans is by accommodation at least to pretend God or Heaven or Religion for the cause of War which of all things hath least to do it if the Gospel-spirit may have leave to be considered Indeed very few kinds of War there are that will be justified by Gospel-principles It was truly said though by a rough Soldier That if the Lord of Hosts were permited to sit in the Council of War there would soon be a cessation of Arms and disbanding of Armies Though that all War is not unlawfull will appear by John Baptists address to the Soldiers who gave rides to regulate their Militia but did not disband them and the example of the Convert Centurion a Centurion still after his Conversion Where yet this still remains as an infallible resolution that Wars are to be used like the Regia Medicamenta never but when the Physician sees there is no other means available never upon the wantonness of the Patient but command of the Physician and never but when peace appears to be impossible for if it be possible the precept is of force Fâ—llow peace with all men And then to shed the blood of Christians when blood may be spared what an hideous thing it is you may guess by that Emperor that having beheaded a Christian was by the sight of a fishes head that came to his Table so astonished phansying that it was the head of that slaughtered Christian gaping on him that he scarce recovered to his wits or of that poor penitent David in his pathetick expression Deliver me from blood guiltiness O Lord a wonderful deliverance it seems to get clear from that And what an Ocean of fishes heads may appear one day gaping on some Men I have no joy to tell Deliver us from blood-guiltiness O God I have done with my third particular also and have now no more to importune you with but my requests to you and to Heaven for you that the time past of all our lives be sufficient to 〈◊〉 spent in the will of the Gentiles after the dictates of that Heathen spirit the natural or Jewish principles that you be content at length to go up to the Mount with Christ and be auditors of his Sermon to that other Mount with the same Christ and be transfigured after him to that spirit of humility spirit of meekness spirit of all kind of mercifulness that peaceable patient spirit which will give you a comfortable passage through this valley of Achor here yea though it prove a Red Sea of Blood and will fit you for a Crown that true Olympick Olive Crown the peaceable fruitâ— of righteousness an eternal weight of glory hereafter Which God of his infinite mercy grant thorough the merit and promise of his Son To whom with the Father c. SERMON VI. EZEK XVIII 31 For why will you die SINCE the Devil was turned out of Heaven all his care and counsels have been imployed to keep us from coming thither and finding Gods love very forward and increasing toward us he hath set us upon all ways of enmity and opposition against him The first warlike exploit he put us upon was the building of Babel when man having fortified himself and the arm of flesh grown stout began to reproach and challenge and even assault the God of Heaven But the success of that boldness cost so dear that we have ever since been discouraged from such open proud attempts Our malice and despight hath kept in somewhat more close and secretly hath retired and setled in the Soul the inward man hath ever
that undertaking sort of people the peremptory expounders of depths and prophecies In the mean time we have places enough of plain prediction beyond the uncertainty of a guess which distinctly foretold this blessed Catholick Truth and though Peter had not markt or remembred them so exactly as to understand that by them the Gentiles were to be preach'd to and no longer to be accounted prophane and unclean Act. x. yet 't is more than probable that the devil a great contemplator and well seen in prophecies observ'd so much and therefore knowing Christs coming to be the season for fulfilling it about that time drooped and sensibly decayed lost much of his courage and was not so active amongst the Gentiles as he had been his oracles began to grow speechless and to slink away before hand lest tarrying still they should have been turned out with shame Which one thing the ceasing of Oracles though it be by Plutarch and some other of the Devils champions refer'd plausibly to the change of the soyl and failing of Enthusiastical vapours and exhalations yet was it an evident argument that at Christs coming Satan saw the Gentiles were no longer fit for his turn they were to be received into a more honourable service under the living God necessarily to be impatient of the weight and slavery of his superstitions and therefore it concern'd him to prevent violence with a voluntary flight lest otherwise he should with all his train of oracles have been forced out of their coasts for Lucifer was to vanish like lightning when the light to lighten the Gentiles did but begin to appear and his laws were out-dated when God would once be pleased to command Now that in a word we may more clearly see what calling what entring into covenant with the Gentiles is here meant by Gods commanding them we are to rank the commands of God into two sorts 1. common Catholick commands and these extend as far as the visible Church 2. peculiar commands inward operations of the spirit these are both priviledges and characters and properties of the invisible Church i. e. the Elect and in both these respects doth he vouchsafe his commands to the Gentiles In the first respect God hath his louder trumpets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. xxiv 31 which all acknowledge who are in the noise of it and that is the sound of the Gospel the hearing of which constitutes a visible Church And thus at the preaching of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Heathens had knowledge of his Laws and so were offered the Covenant if they would accept the condition For however that place Acts i. 25 be by one of our writers of the Church wrested by changing that I say not by falsifying the punctuation to witness this truth I think we need not such shifts to prove that God took some course by the means of the Ministry and Apostleship to make known to all Nations under Heaven i. e. to some of all Nations both his Gospel and Commands the sound of it went through all the earth Rom. x. 18 cited out of the xix Psal verse 4 though with some change of a word their sound in the Romans for their line in the Psalmist caused by the Greek Translators who either read and rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else laid hold of the Arabick notion of the word the loud noise and clamour which hunters make in their pursuit and chase So Mark xiv 9 This Gospel shall be preached throughout the world So Mark xvi 15 To every creature Matth. xxiv 14 in all the world and many the like as belongs to our last particular to demonstrate Besides this God had in the second respect his vocem pedissequam which the Prophet mentions a voice attending us to tell us of our duty to shew us the way and accompany us therein And this I say sounds in the heart not in the ear and they only hear and understand the voice who are partakers as well of the effect as of the news of the Covenant Thus in these two respects doth he command by his word in the Ears of the Gentiles by giving every man every where knowledge of his laws and so in some Latine Authors mandare signifies to give notice to express ones will to declare or proclaim And thus secondly doth he command by his spirit in the spirits of the elect Gentiles by giving them the benefit of adoption and in both these respects he enters a Covenant with the Gentiles which was the thing to be demonstrated with the whole name of them at large with some choice vessels of them more nearly and peculiarly and this was the thing which by way of Doctrine we collected out of these words but now commands Now that we may not let such a precious truth pass by unrespected that such an important speculation may not float only in our brains we must by way of Application press it down to the heart and fill our spirits with the comfort of that Doctrine which hath matter for our practice as well as our contemplation For if we do but lay to our thoughts 1. the miracle of the Gentiles calling as hath been heretofore and now insisted on and 2. mark how nearly the receiving of them into Covenant concerns us their successors we shall find real motives to provoke us to a strain and key above ordinary thanksgiving For as Peter spake of Gods promise so it is in the like nature of Gods command which is also virtually a promise it belonged not to them only but it is to you and your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Acts ii 39 From the first the miraracle of their calling our gratitude may take occasion much to enlarge it self 'T is storied of Brasidas in the fourth of Thucydides that imputing the Victory which was somewhat miraculous to some more than ordinary humane cause he went presently to the Temple loaded with Offerings and would not suffer the gods to bestow such an unexpected favour on him unrewarded and can we pass by such a mercy of our God without a spiritual Sacrifice without a daily Anthem of Magnificats and Hallelujah's Herodotus observes it is as a Proverb of Greece that if God would not send them rain they were to famish for they had said he no natural Fountains or any other help of Waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but what God from above sent So saith Thucydides in the fourth of his History there was but one Fountain within a great compass and that none of the biggest So also was Aegypt another part of the Heathen World to be watered only by Nilus and that being drawn by the Sun did often succour them and fatten the Land for which all the Neighbours fared the worse for when Nilus flowed the Neighbouring Rivers were left dry saith
over the whole world and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 2.1 not taxing but inrolling that brought Christ's Parents up to Bethlehem and so occasioned his birth there was an effect and immediate product of that Cessation and 't was a remarkable act of providence that upon a former peace and so command for that in rolling in the same Augustus time proclaim'd at Tarracone in Spain as Sepulveda tells us which if it had succeeded Christ in any likelihood had not been born in Bethlehem there brake out some new broils that deferred the peace and inrolling till this very point of time when Christ was carried up in Mary's womb to obey the prediction of his Birth in Bethlehem But sure all this would be but a very imperfect completion of this other prophecy in my Text this peace was soon at an end and besides was rather the midwife to bring Christ into the world than Christ to bring this peace And yet to see how some Observers have been willing to pitch upon this one passage of story the shutting of Janus Temple about the birth of Christ the Catholick peace in that part of the world at that point of time as the main thing that was pointed at in this Verse Their reason is clear because as for a long time before so since that time there was never any such completion of it Christ born in an Halcyon hour had scarce ever any one afterwards whilst he lived and for his posterity he makes the profession he came not to bring peace but a sword that is he foresaw this would be the effect of his coming Christianity would breed new quarrels in the world some men really hating one another upon that score of difference in Religion and they say no feuds are more desperately implacable no swords more insatiably thirsty of bloud than those which Christ brought into the world but most men making this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pretence and excuse of all their bloudiness 'T was Du Plesse's account to Languet why he had not a mind to write the Story of the Civil wars of France because if he had said truth he must render new originals and causes of these Wars hound that fox to a kennel which would not willingly be acknowledg'd charge that on an emulation or rivality of state which like the Harlot that coming fresh from her unclean imbraces had wiped the mouth came demurely and solemnly and superciliously out of the Church the only sanctuary to give impunity and reputation apology at least to the blackest enterprizes and betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true and the pretended causalities the effect God knows is generally too sad Mahomet that profest to propagate his Religion by the Sword hath not brought such store of these bloudy weapons so rich a full-stockt artillery into the world hath not kept them so constantly imploy'd so sharp set so riotous in their thirsts of bloud as hath been observable in Christendom I am sure that Caesarean section practising upon our own mothers our own bowels fellow-Christians fellow-Protestants fellow-Professors shall I add fellow-Saints but sure sanctity if it were sincere would turn these Swords into Plough-shares was never so familiar among Turks or Savages nay as Erasmus hath sweetly observed among the wildest beasts in nature which are not beast enough to devour those of their own kind as it is among Christians of this last Age almost in every part of the world Only the bladder of Snakes in Epiphanius hath been our parallel They were there but few hours together but one of them had devoured all the rest and when to try the Experiment how solitude and want of prey would discipline the devourer's appetite he was shut up alone in the bladder his vulturous stomach le ts loose upon himself and within few minutes more one half of him devours the other so many divided and subdivided enmities and when all others are wanting such bloudy practisings upon our selves that if it be true which Psellus saith that the devils feast on the vapour that is exhaled from the bloud of men sure the Christian devils and of late the English are the fattest of the whole herd the richliest treated of any since whole Tables were furnished for them of the bloud and flesh of their worshippers And thus far I confess my self unable to vindicate this Prophecy in this sense of it that so it should actually prove that Christianity would really drive Swords out of the world I should be glad to be secured by the Millenary that ever there would come an age when this Prophecy would thus be completed but more glad if this Nation might have the happiness within some tolerable term to enter upon its millennium that the Pacem Domine in diebus nostris Peace in our time our age O Lord were not such a desperate non-licet form and that for deliverance from battel and murther as scandalous a piece of Litany as that other from sudden death hath been deem'd among us I have sufficiently shewed you in what sense these words have no truth in them 't is time I proceed to shew you in what sense they have and that will be either 1. By telling you that this prophetick form is but a phrase to express the duty and obligation of Christians They shall beat their swords into plough-shares i. e. 't is most certainly their duty to do so Charity is the only precept Peace the only depositum that Christ took any care to leave among them and then be there never so many swords in Christian nations yet 't were more obediently and more Christianly done if they were beaten into plough-shares There is a thousand times more need of amending mens lives than of taking them away of reforming our selves than of hating or killing our Brethren one broken heart is a richer and more acceptable sacrifice to God than a whole pile of such bloudy offerings such Mosaical consecrating our selves to God upon our Brethren And then as Clemens speaks of seals or rings that those that have the impressions and sculptures as of Idols so of Bow or Sword must not be worn by the disciple of Christ the pacifick Christian or as the Polonian being asked concerning two Brethren that desired to be of his Congregation as being of a Trade which was suspected to be unlawful the making of Images or Faces to put upon Guns or Ordnances gave answer that he knew no great danger in those Images if there were any thing unchristian 't was sure in the Guns which they were used to adorn so certainly that Christ that came to cast Idolatry and Heathenism out of the World desired also to cast out that heathenish custome of wallowing in one anothers bloud of hunting and worrying and devouring one another and with the Christian faith to introduce the brotherly charity into his Church this being the most strict and most frequently reiterated command of
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