We rely not upon God as we ought when we pray but trust more to second means to our Wit to our Friends or the like than to Him And this seems to be that wavering in prayer S. Iames speaks of when he bids us pray in faith without wavering Chap. 1. 6. that is without reeling from God to rest upon second means But as with our mouth we pray to him so should our Hearts rely upon him to give us what we ask But we often pray to God for fashion but indeed we look to speed by others and so God takes himself mocked and so no marvel if he hears us not If it were our own case we would not listen to such suiters Or 3. We pray and speed not when we make not God's glory the End of what we ask Ye ask saith S. Iames Chap. 4. 3. and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye might consume it upon your lusts Or 4. We may ask something that crosseth the Rule of Divine Providence and Iustice and then also we must not look to speed David prayed for the life of his child by Bathsheba Vriah's Wife but was not heard because it stood not with the Rule of Divine Iustice that so scandalous a sin which made the Enemies of God to blaspheme should not have an exemplary punishment In like manner sundry times when the children of Israel rebelled against the Lord and murmured against Moses and Aaron their Governours Moses poured forth very earnest prayers to God for removing his judgments from off the people but God would not hear him because their sins were scandalous and committed with so high a hand that it could not stand with the Rule of his Iustice not to inflict punishment for them 2. Again sometimes and that too often we are indisposed for God to grant our request As first when some sin unrepented of lies at the door and keeps God's blessing out Psal. 66. 18. If I regard saith David iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me So God would not hear Ioshua praying for the Israelites when they fled before the men of Ai because of Achan's Sacriledge Get thee up saith God why liest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned for they have taken of the accursed thing that is the thing that cursed were those that medled therewith Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their Enemies because they were accursed Neither will I be with you any more except ye put the accursed thing from among you Or lastly our Prayers often are not heard because we appear before the Lord empty we do not as Cornelius did send up Prayers and Alms together we should have two strings to our bow when we have but one This is another indisposition which unfits us to receive what we ask of God For how can we look that God should hear us in our need when we turn away our face from our brother in his need When we refuse to give to God or for his sake what he requires why should he grant to us what we request Hear what an ancient Father of the Church S. Basil by name in Concione ad Divites saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have known many saith he who would fast who would pray who would sigh but not bestow one halfpeny upon the poor But what then will their other devotion profit them 3. Add to all these Reasons of displeasure a Reason of favour why God sometimes grants not our requests namely because we ask that which he knows would be hurtful for us though we think not so We ask sometimes that which if he granted us would utterly undo us As therefore a wise and loving Father will not give his child a knife or some other hurtful thing though it cries never so much unto him for it so does God deal with his children And how wise soever we think our selves we are often as ignorant in that which concerns our good as very babes are and therefore we must submit our selves to be ordered by the wisdom of our heavenly Father Moreover we must know and believe that God often hears our Prayers when we think he doth not and that three manner of ways As namely 1. When he changes the means but brings the End we desire another way to pass We ask to have a thing by our means but he likes not our way but gives it us by another means which he thinks better S. Paul that he might the better glorifie God in serving him desires the thorn in the flesh might be taken from him God denies him that means but grants him grace sufficient for him that so being humbled by the sight of his own infirmity he might glorifie God for his power in mans weakness And is it not all one whether a Physician quench the thirst of his Patient by giving him Barberies or some other comfortable drink as by giving him Beer which he calls for 2. God often grants our request but not at that time we would have it but defers it till some other time which he thinks best Daniel prays for the return of the Captivity in the first year of Darius but God defers it till the first of Cyrus We must not therefore take God's delays for denials The Souls of the Saints under the Altar Rev. 6. 10. cry out aloud for vengeance God hears that cry and cannot deny the importunate cry of innocent bloud yet he defers it for a little season saith the Text v. 11. and why because their fellow-servants and brethren that should be slain as they were might be fulfilled Lastly God sometimes grants not the thing we ask but gives us in stead thereof something which is as good or better And then we are not to think but that he hears us And thus much concerning the power and efficacy of Prayer Now I come also to shew the like of Alms how powerful a means they are to procure a blessing from God Not thy Prayer only saith the Angel but thine Alms also are come up for a remembrance in the sight of God For Alms is a kind of Prayer namely a visible one and such an one as prevails as strongly with God for a blessing as any other Hear David in Psalm 41. 1. Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble 2. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon earth and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies 3. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness A place so evident as flashes in a man's eye But hear Solomon speak to Prov. 19. 17. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given he will pay him again And Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack but he that hideth his eyes
of Zophar Iob 20. 4. was known in the days of old and found true ever since man was placed upon the earth For as the Apostle saith of righteousness that it hath both the promise of this life and of the life to come so it is most true of unrighteousness that it hath the curse of this life as well as of the life to come The first sin of our first Parents whereof we all stand guilty was thus punished as it were to be a Rule and Law of what God would do after I say the first sin of our first Parents was punished with a curse in things of this life From hence come all the outward calamities and miseries of mankind wherein the happiest man on earth hath his share hence our labour and vexation of spirit hence our pain our want and all our trouble wherein we travel under the Sun No man in the world is exempted from this Law all of us as well feel a present punishment here in this life as fear that which shall be to come hereafter in the world to come Now as the universal misery we all feel is a temporal punishment of an universal sin so the clods of daily sin which we add unto this great mountain of transgression doth usually bring us under some special kind of punishment above that which we have in common with other men The whole History of the Bible if we look well into it is most part taken up in Examples of this one Maxim whosoever thinketh otherwise he hath taken too slight a view and too short a survey of the world's affairs Perhaps he sees the person of a Tyrant of an Oppressor of a Blasphemer to live long in jollity and to end his days in tranquillity or to use the words of Iob in the same argument to spend their days in wealth and in a moment without any more trouble go down into the grave How is it then true That God requiteth sin in this life or that any regard should be had to any temporal calamities or worldly disasters since these come alike to the just and unjust to the fool and to the wise to those whom God favoureth as well as those he favoureth not But for Answer hereunto we must know That the way of God in temporal punishments is one and his way in eternal and spiritual another he deals not after the same fashion in both For eternal punishments in the world to come the person which sinneth shall alone suffer and no other for him but as for temporal punishments which are seen in this world sometimes God lays them upon the person sometimes upon the posterity of the offender or sometimes upon others which in such like respects are near unto them as he sees best in his wisdom When therefore thou seest a man live in open and gross sins confine not thine eye unto his person only but look farther about him survey his whole family if nothing appear while he is living yet after his death consider of his posterity and thou wilt find the ways of God to be just and glorious in the avenging of sin and wickedness This question was long debated between Iob and his friends and at last came to this very issue Iob himself determining and assoiling it after this manner I will teach you saith he chap. 27. ver 11 c. by the hand of God that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal Behold all ye your selves have seen it why then are you thus altogether vain This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty If his children be multiplied it is for the sword and his off-spring shall not be satisfied with bread c. The reason of this difference between temporal punishments and eternal is to be gathered from the several and differing Ends of them both Because they are for divers Ends and Purposes therefore the way of God is diverse in the execution of them The End of eternal punishments is to satisfie the justice of God in avenging sin but the End of temporal punishments chiefly exemplary that is for example and warning unto others that they might hereby know that God regardeth and observeth the actions of men and therefore fear lest the like might come unto themselves which they have seen to have befallen other men Now for such an End as this it is not always requisite that God should punish every offender in his own person because the punishment here respecteth not so much the person of the offender himself as others who have been witnesses of his sin that they might take heed of committing the like Now this End may be as well attained in the punishment of a mans posterity subjects servants as of his own person For by both alike may others see that God observeth the sins of men and hath plagues in readiness for those which commit them And by both alike will men be afraid of the hand of God seeing most men do most vehemently wish the good and happy condition of their posterity and others having like relation unto them Kings the weal of their Subjects Fathers the good of their Children Husbands the good of their Wives and therefore will refrain from doing that which they see by experience of others may bring a plague or a curse upon any of them Yea God so much regardeth this exemplary End in temporal punishments that I think this to be one chief reason why God forgiving the sin and consequently eternal punishment yet he remitteth not temporal plagues and chastisements lest when the sin is notoriously known and scandalous those who saw the sin and could not so well know of the inward reconciliation between God and the sinner might stumble and doubt in their hearts Whether there were a God or no who observeth the ways of men In this sort and for this end was David punished whom though upon his humble repentance Nathan had told The Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die yet nevertheless did God raise up evil against him out of his own house he took his wives from before his eyes and gave them unto his neighbour and the sword never departed from his house according as the Lord had spoken The reason hereof follows in the Text in the words of Nathan Because saith he by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also which is born unto thee shall surely die The child also that is all the former plagues together with the death of the child shall come upon thee for this end This then being so plain what End God chiefly aims at in his outward and visible judgments we ought hence to learn what to do as often as we see the hand of God fall heavy upon any open and known sinner namely to accomplish in our selves the End which God aâ—ms at to
will it profit a man to enjoy an hour's pleasure for many a year's pain What will the sweet do us good which is mixt with so much four What will it profit a man to be rich in his youth and a beggar in his age What will it profit a man by guile and oppression to raise his house while he liveth by that which shall most certainly ruine it when he is dead and gone And lastly if none of all this were yet What will it profit a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul NOW having done with the First consideration of these words I come unto the Second which is with relation to him that uttered them and so they are a Confession In which I observe Three things 1. That the suffering of punishment extorts the Confession of sin Thus this miserable King is made for all his pride and stomach to lament with an Ego â—eci with an I have done 2. God's Iustice in the punishing of sin visibly is one of the strongest Motives to make an Atheist confess there is a God Adonibezek who scarce believed or perhaps not well remembred that there was a God till now is here forced to confess The unresistible God that crusheth down the proud he hath requited me 3. As the Punishment in general bringeth sin to mind which else would be forgotten so the fashion and kind thereof well considered may lead us as it were by the hand to know the very sin we are punished for Many sins had Adonibezek committed the condition and manner of his punishment made him remember his cruel usage of the seventy kings and say As I have done c. To begin with the First I say The suffering of punishment extorts the confession of sin The reason whereof is the very nature of Punishment which always implieth some offence and therefore is a good remembrancer of the same Thus Ioseph's brethren when they were distressed in Egypt cried We are verily guilty concerning our brother Proud Pharaoh when he saw the plague of hail and thunder said I have now sinned the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked The proud stomachs of the Israelites came down when once the fiery serpents stung them and then they came to Moses and said We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee Manasses whom all the threatnings of God's Prophets in fifty years space could never move yet when he was bound in fetters and carried prisoner unto Babylon Then he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers Whosoever therefore he be that feels not this fruit and makes not this use of his crosses and afflictions is worse than hard-hearted Pharaoh worse than cruel Adonibezek But if by this means we come to see and acknowledge our sin then may we say with David It is good for me that I was afflicted and give thanks and praise unto our God who is able out of such hard rocks as these to make flow the saving waters of repentance And thus I come to my second Observation which is That God's judgment for sin is one of the strongest motives to make an Atheist confess there is a God Those who say There is no God David accounts them in the number of fools The fool saith in his heart There is no God Psal. 53. 1. Now Solomon styleth Punishment Eruditio stultorum the Schoolmaster of fools If for all fools then also for Atheistical fools that they either by their own or by example of God's plagues upon others may be taught to put away their folly Most certain it is The not observing of God's judgments or the supposed examples of some who seem to escape the hand of God in the greatest sins is a main occasion of Atheism This made David himself to say My feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipped For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked It is reported of Diagoras Melius surnamed the Atheist that at the first he was very devout and a great worshipper of the Gods but having committed some certain money unto a friend's keeping and afterwards demanding it again his friend loth to forgo such a booty forsware that he ever received any whom when Diagoras saw notwithstanding this horrible perjury to thrive and prosper and no divine judgment to fall upon him he presently turned Atheist and enemy to the Gods and laboured by all means to bring other men to the like impiety For this cause therefore David as jealous of God's honour and knowing what force God's Iudgments have to keep Atheism from creeping into the hearts of men desireth God Psal. 59. 13. that he would avenge himself of evil-doers even for this end that it might be known he was the Lord Consume saith he in thy wrath consume them that they may not be and let them know that is that men may know that God ruleth in Iacob unto the ends of the earth And hence it is also that God often in Ezekiel doth plainly affirm this to be the End of his judgments That it might be known that he was the Lord. As in chapter 6. v. 6. thus he threatens Israel Your cities shall be laid waste and your high places shall be desolate c. v. 7. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you and you shall know that I am the Lord. And again v. 12 13. He that is far off shall die by the pestilence and he that is near shall fall by the sword Then shall ye know that I am the Lord. And chap. 25. 17. concerning the Philistins I will execute great vengeance upon them saith the Lord with furious rebukes and they shall know that I am the Lord when I shall lay my vengeance upon them If this then be so as ye have heard let us learn hence a good preservative against Atheism and all the ill motions of the devil and our flesh drawing thereunto not lightly as most men do to pass over the Iudgments of God upon sin but duly and diligently to observe them if in our selves then more severely if in our neighbours curiously but charitably And so I come to the third and last point which is That as Punishment in general bringeth sin to mind which else would be forgotten so the fashion and kind thereof well considered may lead us as it were by the hand to know the very sin we are punished for I have shewed already at large That God's visible judgments have usually in them a stamp and mark of conformity with the sin for which they are inflicted For either we suffer the same thing our selves that we have done to others or some resembling or like unto it or else are punished about the same thing wherein our sin was or lastly in the place or time where and when we sinned I am perswaded there is no judgment
they are imperfect and whatsoever they were we owed them to him in whom we live and have our Being whether there were any Reward or not promised for them Neither do we hereby any whit detract from the truth of that Axiome That God rewardeth every man according to his work For still the Question remaineth the very same Whether there may not be as well merces gratiae as merces justitiae that is Whether God may not judge a man according to his works when he sits upon the Throne of Grace as well as when he sits upon his Throne of Iustice. And we think here that the Prophet David hath fully cleared the case in that one sentence Psal. 62. 12. With thee O Lord is Mercy for thou rewardest every one according to his work Nay more than this We deny not but in some sense this Reward may be said to proceed of Iustice. For howsoever originally and in it self we hold it cometh from God's free Bounty and Mercy who might have required the Work of us without all promise of Reward For as I said we are his Creatures and owe our Being unto him yet in regard he hath covenanted with us and tied himself by his Word and Promâ—â—e to confer such a Reward the Reward now in a sort proveth to be an Act of Iustice namely of Iustiâ—ia promissi on God's part not of Merit on ours even as in forgiving our sins which in it self all men know to be an Act of Mercy he is said to be Faithful and Iust 1 Iohn 1. 9. namely in the faithful performance of his Promise For Promise we know once made amongst honest men is accounted a due debt But this argues no more any worthiness of equality in the Work towards the obtaining of the Reward than if a Promise of a Kingdom were made to one if he should take up a straw it would follow thence that the lifting up of a straw were a labour or a work worth a Kingdom howsoever he that should so promise were bound to give it Thus was Moses careful to put the children of Israel in mind touching the Land of Canaan which was a Type of our Eternal habitation in Heaven that it was a Land of promise and not of merit which God gave them to possess not for their righteousness or for their upright heart but that he might perform the word which he sware unto their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob Whereupon the Levites in this Book of Nehemiah say in their Prayer to God Thou madest a Covenant with Abraham to give to his seed the Land of the Canaanites and hast performed thy words because thou art just that is true and faithful in keeping thy promise Now because the Lord hath made a like promise of the Crown of life to them that love him S. Paul sticks not in like manner to attribute this also to God's Iustice Henceforth saith he 2 Tim. 4. 8. is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them that love his appearing Upon which S. Bernard most sweetly as he is wont Est ergo quam Paulus expect at corona Iustitiae sed justitiae Dei non suae Iustum quippe est ut reddat quod debet debet autem quod pollicitus est There is therefore a crown of righteousness which Paul looks for but it is of God's righteousness not his own it being a righteous thing with God to give what he owes now he owes what he hath engaged himself to by promise Lastly for the word Merit â—t is not the name we so much scruple at as the thing wont now-a-daies to be understood thereby otherwise we confess the name might be admitted if taken in the large and more general seâ—se for Any work having relation to a reward to follow it or whereby a reward is quocunque modo obtained in a word as the Correlate indifferent either to merces gratiae or justitiae the reward of Grace or of Iustice. For thus the Fathers used it and so might we have done still if some of us had not grown too proud and mistook it Since we think it better and safer to diâ—use it even as Physicians are wont to prescribe their Patients recovered of some desperate disease not to use any more that meat or diet which they find to have caused it And here give me leave to acquaint you with an Observation of a like alteration of speech and I suppose for the self-same cause happening under the Old Testament namely of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness into That which findeth mercy For the Septuagint and the New Testament with them render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness not only when it is taken for Beneficence or Alms as in that Tongue it is the ordinary word in which use we are wont to expound it Works of mercy but where there is no relation to Alms or Beneficence at all Whence I gather that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Septuagint meant not as we commonly take it Works of mercy but rather Works whereby we find mercy at the hands of God I will give you a place which methinks is very pregnant Deut. 6. 24 25. where we read thus And the Lord commanded us to do all these Statutes you may see there what they are to fear the Lord our God for our good alwayes that he might preserve us alive as at this day And it shall be our Righteousness if we observe to do all these Commandments before the Lord as he hath commanded us Here the Septuagint for And it shall be our Righteousness have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it shall be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that whereby we shall find mercy at the hands of God if we observe to do all these Commandments c. This place will admit no evasion for there is no reference to Alms here And indeed all our Righteousness is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that whereby we find mercy at the hands of God and no marvail if Works of mercy as to relieve the poor and needy be especially so called for they above all other are the works whereby we shall find mercy and receive the reward of Bliss at the last day And thus much of my second Observation I come now to my third That it is lawful to do good works Intuitu mercedis with an eye or respect to the recompence of Reward It is plain that Nehemiah here did so Remember me O my God concerning this c. So did Moses of whom it is said Heb. 11. 25 26. that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for saith the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aspiciebat vel intuebatur 〈◊〉
brother that there may be given you a blessing this day This Blessing here spoken of is our Vrim and Thummim the blessing of Sacred Order So bountifully did God reward them who were so forward to be on his side when Moses called them that himself vouchsafed to call them unto his side for ever Whence first we may learn whom we are chiefly to prefer unto this holy Function namely Those who are zealous for the Lord of Hosts who prefer the glory of God above all worldly respects whatsoever This got Phinehas the son of Eleazar the High-Priesthood this got all the sons of Levi the guerdon of Vrim and Thummim the blessing of Holy Orders Secondly We may see by the advancement of this Tribe how merciful our God is We know that Levi's fury did once as much offend him as his sons zeal now pleased him and yet for this one action he forgot the sin of their Father in the bloudy slaughter of the Sichemites He remembred not the curse of Iacob Into their secret let not my soul come My glory be not thou joyned with their assembly Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruel Gen. 49. 6 7. Nay he turned the very curse of Iacob into a blessing by dividing them in Iacob and scattering them in Israel Here Mercy and Truth met both together and Iustice and Peace kissed each other Lastly Here God verified his own description of himself That though he be a jealous God and visits the sins of the Father upon the children unto the third and fourth generation yet he is also a merciful God and shews mercy even unto the thousandth generation of them that love him and keep his Commandments AND thus have you seen why of Levi Moses said this Blessing And of Levi he said Now I come to The description of this blessed Tribe in these words God's Holy one Let thy Vrim and thy Thummim be with thy Holy one How is Levi here called Holy how is this Title given to him above the rest of his Brethren Are not all the Lord's people holy Certainly whatsoever is meant hereby it is something more specially belonging to Levi than to any other Tribe Which that we may the better find we must take notice of a Threefold Holiness Essential Habitual Relative Essential Holiness is the Holiness of God all one with God himself and this is a glorious Holiness Who saith Moses is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods who is like unto thee glorious in holiness Exod. 15. 11. Habitual I call an Inherent Holiness such as is the holiness of righteous men integrity of life or righteous holiness whereof Abraham Iob David and all the Patriarchs are called Saints and Holy men This is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Sanctimonia Relative Holiness I define a special relation or relation of peculiarity which a thing hath unto God either in regard of propriety of possession or speciality of presence That which is holy after this manner the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Sacrum The first of these three is proper to God alone for he only is essentially holy The second is proper to reasonable creatures for they are only habitually holy or endued with holy qualities But the last is common to all manner of things For all things animate or inanimate are capable of relative holiness or peculiarity towards God Persons Things Times Places Persons So the Nazarites of the Law are called holy thus was Sampson thus was Samuel holy from their Mother's womb Things So the Offerings of the Law yea and of the Gospel too are holy things The Censers of Korah and his company were holy because saith the Text they offered them before the Lord. Times So the Sabbath-day and other Festival days are holy days Places So the Temple of the Lord is an holy Place Mount Sion an holy Mount yea the ground about the Bush where God appeared to Moses is called Holy ground And of these four Persons Things and Times are holy because of God's peculiar propriety in them in that they are his Persons his Things and his Times But Places are holy in another regard because of God's special manner of Presence in them Now let us see in which of all these three ways Levi may be said to be holy Essentially holy he cannot be for he was not God but the holy one of God Habitually holy the event shews he was not more than the rest though he should have been The Tribe of Levi was always Tribus sacra holy unto the Lord but was not always righteous before the Lord. It was not always true of Levi that he walked before God in peace and equity and turned many from iniquity but often yea too often they were gone out of the way and caused many to stumble at or in the Law Phinehas the son of Eli was not like Phinehas the son of Aaron Annas and Caiaphas high Priests as holy as any for their order as unholy as any in life and conversation It should therefore seem that Levi should be only called Holy by a Relative holiness namely because he was God's peculiar one because his offered one because his peculiar of peculiars that is his peculiar Tribe of his peculiar people for in this Levi had a priviledg above the rest in the other none And this Ezra gives unto him chap. 8. 28. when he delivered unto the Levites the holy vessels Ye are holy saith he unto the Lord and these Vessels are holy also that is Ye are holy as the Vessels are for he saith not they were holy before the Lord for so he had meant holy in life but holy unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which always implies a Relative Holiness But though this be true that Levi was Holy after this manner yet the word which in my Text is turned Holy seems scarce to admit of this construction for the word here used is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies favourable and gracious and in Religion charitable and godly All which leans to an Habitual not to a Relative holiness But because Levi was not in this sort holy above other as I said before it may seem therefore it should be thus construed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken Actively or Passively Actively it signifies favourable benigne and gracious Passively he that is favoured or graced And thus Iunius expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place virum tuum quem beneficio prosequeris Let thy Thummim and thy Vrim be with thy favoured one not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which word and sense the Angel useth in his salutation to the blessed Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hail thou highly-favoured one Hail thou whom God hath especially graced to be the Mother of his only Son So Levi is
the next verse But the first Fathers took it otherwise and besides it proves it not For the question is not whether the time be long or short in respect of God but whether it be long or short in respect of us otherwise not only a thousand but an 100 thousand years are in the eyes of God no more than one day is to us and so it would not seem long to God if the Day of Iudgment should be deferred till then 3. Let the judicious consider it whether this passage so prone to be taken in the exposition I have given yea and alledged to that purpose were not some part of a motive to the zelotical Anti-chiliasts whereof Eusebius whom we trust was none of the least to be so willing and ready to question the authority of this Epistle as they did also at the same time of the Apocalypse The pretence against this Epistle was because it wanted the testimony of allegation by the first Fathers But Dies Domini sicut mille anni quoted both by Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus is not out of the ninetieth Psalm as they took for granted for there are no such words but out of this Epistle of Peter who applies it to the Day of Iudgment which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Lord. Consider it Verse 9. And though this Day be long deferred yet is not the Lord slack concerning his promise as some men account slackness as if he had alter'd his purpose or meant never to perform it but the cause of this delay is his long-suffering towards us a S. Peter speaks and writes in this Epistle to his brethren the Iews as appears by the first verse of this chapter of the seed of Israel not willing that any should perish at that day but that our whole Nation should come unto repentance b Therefore the same S. Peter in his first publick Sermon to his Nation in the Temple after the sending of the Holy Ghost Acts 3. 19 c. exhorts them to repent and be converted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the washing away of their sins That so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those times of refreshing and restitution of all things which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets might come which till then were to be suspended Object But God could have hastened the Iews conversion if it had pleased him Resp. But it stood not with the oeconomy of his Iustice when the Iews had rejected Christ their expiation to grant them this grace until they should have fulfilled a time of penance for all the sins of their Nation even from the first time they were a people until the last destruction of Ierusalem For since they would none of their pardon and attonement by Christ with respect unto whose coming God had so long spared them for all their expiation by Sacrifice looked unto him God would not bate them an ace of the judgment they had merited but would visit all the former sins of their Nation upon them from the golden Calf until their crucifying and final rejecting of their Messiah which if that Day should surprise them in their unbelief must inevitably perish with the rest of the enemies of Christ. Verse 10. But as for the manner of the coming of this great Day of the Lord it shall be suddenly and unawares as a thief in the night in which the a What these Heavens are and why I render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the host of them and how this Conflagration is to be understood I will shew when I have done my Paraphrase Heavens with a crackling noise of fire shall pass away and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a What these Heavens are and why I render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the host of them and how this Conflagration is to be understood I will shew when I have done my Paraphrase or host of them shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works therein shall be burned Verse 11 12. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness to make our selves fire-proof and such as may abide the day of refining As namely becometh those who by faith look for and hasten the coming of the Day of the Lord wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the host of them melt with fervent heat For our life and conversation ought to be sutable to our faith and we are so to walk as if that were always present which by faith we look for Verse 13. But this Conflagration ended whatsoever those Scoffers say who question the promise of Christ's second coming we look according to his promise Isa. 65. 17 66. 22 for a New heaven and a New earth that is a new and refined state of the World wherein righteousness shall dwell according as the same Prophet saith chap. 60. 20 21. The Lord shall be thine everlasting light and the days of thy mourning shall be ended Thy people also shall be all righteous they shall inherit the land or earth for ever Verse 14 15 16. Wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for such things at his coming be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless and account the long-suffering of God in the delay thereof to be for salvation Even as our beloved Paul also one of the Apostles of our Lord who confirmeth these words of the holy Prophets according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you enforcing the like exhortation unto holiness of life from this our faith and expectation of the Lord Iesus his appearing to judgment which we now make unto you namely Heb. 12. 14 28 29. As also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things viz. Rom. 2. 4 5 6 7. ‑ 1 Cor. 1. 7 8. 3. 13. ‑ 2 Cor. 5. 9 10 11. initio 7. 1. ‑ Phil. 1. 10. 2. 15 16. also 3. 20 c. ‑ Coloss. 3. 4 5. ‑ 1 Thess. 2. 12. 3. 13. denique 5. 23. ‑ 2 Thess. 1. 8 c. 1 Tim. 6. 14 15. ‑ Tit. 2. 12 13. Verse 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amongst which things concerning the Second coming of Christ are somethings hard to be conceived which those which are unlearned and not well setled in the Faith like unto these Scoffers stumble at as they do at other Scriptures taking occasion thereby to stagger and doubt of the truth of God so perverting the Scriptures from their right end by making them the means of their own destruction which were given by God as a means whereby they might believe and be saved How this Conflagration of the World whereof S. PETER speaks and especially of the Heavens is to be understood FOR resolution of this Question I must premise some things to make the way thereto the more easie 1. That in the old Hebrew language wherein the