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
into a most languishing terrible condition provoked thee to withdraw thy grace and give me up to the effects of thy displeasure This is a sad disease and of the worst condition even of the soul wherewith thou art pleased also that my body or outward condition should bear consent And in all this 't is I that have thus diseased my self disturbed and miserably wasted the health of my soul which consists in an exact conformity of my desires and actions to thy will And now there is no remedy left but one that of thy pardon and gratious forgiveness pouring thy wine and oile and healing balsom into my gaping wounds and this most seasonable mercy I beseech thee to bestow upon me 3. My soul is also sore vexed but thou O Lord how long Paraphrase 3. The disquiet and torment hereof doth pierce my soul there are the sharpest arrow◠of thy displeasure 〈◊〉 and afflict me exceedingly Lord that it might be at length thy season to asswage thy wrath to speak peace to 〈◊〉 to afford me some refreshing which I cannot hope from any other hand 4. Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake Paraphrase 4. Lord be thou pacified and reconciled to me and by that means rescue me out of this sad condition wherein I am involved under the weight of my sin and thy displeasure And though there be in me no means to propitiate but only to avert and provoke thee yet let thine own mercy and free bounty of grace have the glory of it reflect on that and from thence work this deliverance for me 5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who will ‖ give thee thanks Paraphrase 5. For shouldest thou now proceed to take away my life as it were a most direful condition for me to die before I have propitiated thee so I may well demand what increase of glory or honor will it bring unto thee will it not be infinitely more glorious for thee to spare me till by true contrition I may regain thy favour and then I may live to praise and magnifie thy mercy and thy grace thy mercy in pardoning so great a sinner and then confess thee by vital actions of all holy obedience for the future and so demonstrate the power of thy grace which hath wrought this change in me Neither of which will be done by destroying me but only thy just judgments manifested in thy vengeance on sinners 6. I am weary with my groaning All the night make I my bed to swim I water my couch with my tears Paraphrase 6. The sadness of my present condition under the weight of thy displeasure and the grievous effects thereof is such as extorts those groans from me which instead of easing do only increase my torment The night which is the appointed season of rest is to me the time of greatest disquiet my agonies extort whole rivers of tears from me and the consideration of my horrible sins the causes of them gives me not one minute of intermission 7. Mine eye is consumed because of grief it waxeth old because of all mine enemies Paraphrase 7. The tears which the thought of thy continual displeasure and punishments incessantly draws from me have corroded and even exhausted the animal spirits that maintain my sight make mine eyes very dim above what is proportionable to my age and still there remains a succession of new sorrows to mind me of my successive sins one enemy after another still riseth up against me 8. Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping Paraphrase 8. Whilst I thus bemoan my self before so gracious a God I cannot but with confidence look up and expect his speedy return unto my Prayers and consequently assure my self that all the designs of my rebellious enemies shall be utterly frustrated by him 9. The Lord hath heard the voice of my supplication the Lord will receive my prayer Paraphrase 9. He that hath promised not to despise a broken heart to comfort the mourner he whose title it is to be the hearer of prayers the vindicator of the innocent will certainly make good these promises to me at this time in pardoning my sins and averting these punishments from me 10. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and ‖ sore vexed let them return and be ashamed suddenly Paraphrase 10. And therefore I am most confident that all my opposers shall be discomfited and sent back successless in their present design and how confident soever now they appear they shall very suddenly be routed and put to confusion and utterly disappointed in their enterprize Annotations on Psal VI. V. 2. My bones The chief difficulty in this verse will be removed by considering the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render my bones and so indeed it often signifies from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 robustus or fortis fuit but not only so but in a greater latitude the members of the body and then the body it self nay the substance or being and not only the body as Job 11.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his bone or body is by the Chaldee rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself in opposition to his goods and family which had been toucht sharply Chap. 1. And so among the Rabbines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is oft used for ipsimet themselves see Note on Rom. 6. a. It being an ordinary figure among the Hebrews to express a thing by the names of the parts of it Thus Psal 35.10 All my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee where certainly the bones which say and praise God are to signifie the Psalmist himself his tongue and heart and every part of him And so here being in conjunction with I am weak and my soul is sore vexed v. 3. it is but a Poetical expression my bones i. e. every part of my body Now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render vexed from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Niphal signifies any sudden commotion or disturbance or trembling and so being joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 languishing from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be sick or faint and so weak in the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament See Note on Rom. viii m. and Gal. 4. a. it must signifie a sore affliction perhaps literally a disease a terrible shaking fit as of a Paralytick and this being founded in and so including also his sin the malady of the soul which is likewise called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weakness see 1 Cor. 8. Note 6. the whole verse is the doleful description of him that hath committed any wasting sin and being cast down under Gods punishments for it is passionately suing out Gods pardon the only means possible to recover or heal him again V. 10. Let all my enemies All the Antient Interpreters understand this last verse of
literally interpretable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for or according to their iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abjection casting or vomiting out shall be to them i. e. they shall as vile persons be rejected and cast out by God And thus the Chaldee appear to have understood it who render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be empty or vile and to this best connects that which follows in the verse In thine anger cast down the people The Fifty Seventh PSALM TO the chief Musitian Altaschith Michtam of David when he fled from Saul in the Cave Paraphrase The fifty seventh Psalm was composed by David on occasion of what happened in Sauls pursuing him 1 Sam. 24. when David finding Saul in the Cave might have killed him if he would but spared him and thereby gave him assurance of his friendship and not as he had been calumniated enmity to him It was set to the tune of a former Psalm which began with the words Destroy me not and it is as the former stiled his jewel see note on Psal 16. â— in respect of the greatness of the mercy recounted in it It was committed to the Prefect of his Musick 1. Be merciful unto me O Lord be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee yea in the shaddow of thy wings will I make my refuge untill these calamities be overpast Paraphrase 1. To thee O Lord I make my most affectionate and humble address relying on thee reposing my whole trust in thee neither seeking nor projecting any means of safety to my self save that which consists in thine only aid and protection Be thou mercifully pleased to afford me this at this time and continue it till this persecution be over 2. I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth all things for me Paraphrase 2. The Lord that hath espoused my cause is a God of might All that I ever received hath been from him my deliverances his immediate vouchsafements to him therefore now do I with all chearful confidence address my supplications 3. He shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up Selah God shall send forth his mercy and his truth Paraphrase 3. When malicious-mindâ—â— men are most bitterly set against me even to devout and destroy me utterly God shall send me relief from his throne by some means which he shall think fittest to chuse for me by his Angels or by his gracious over-ruling providence disappointing those that had these bloody designs against me He hath bound himself by promise and so both his mercy and fidelity are concerned in it and he will make good both unto me 4. My Soul is among Lions and I lie even among them that are set on fire even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword Paraphrase 4. My life is in the same danger as if I were incompast with Lions virulent men such as are continually inflaming and inciting Saul to pursue and destroy me never say any thing but with some bloody design of bringing mischief upon me 5. Be thou exalted O God above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth Paraphrase 5. Lord be thou pleased to rescue me out of this danger and so to magnifie thy own glory over the pride and malice of the greatest men by discomfiting and frustrating the designs of such 6. They have prepared a net for mp steps my soul is bowed down they have digged a pit before me into the midst of which they are fallen themselves Selah Paraphrase 6. They have designed very treacherously against me like fowlers that by digging holes and laying ginâ— or toils in them insnare the simple unwary bird and God hath disappointed them in all their designs brought on them what they had projected against me 7. My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Paraphrase 7. This is enough to raise and enliven and inspirit any mans heart to praise and magnifie the mercy of so signal a deliverance And as there is nothing so fit so nothing that I shall more readily perform 8. Awake up my glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early Paraphrase 8. My tongue see Psal 16. note â— shall begin the hymn and the instruments of Musick shall follow in a chearful and melodious note they shall no longer lie idle when such eminent mercies exact their acknowledgments and my heart whose tribute is most due and every member of my body faculty of my soul and action of my life shall be most diligent in an early payment of it 9. I will praise thee O God among the people I will sing unto thee among the nations Paraphrase 9. My acknowledgment shall not be made to thee in private only but in the midst of the congregation with the greatest solemnity possible calling all others to assist me in so weighty a work 10. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens and thy truth unto the clouds Paraphrase 10. For thou hast in a most eminent manner made good thy great mercy most undeservedly and gratiously promised to me and thereby thy fidelity also 11. Be thou exalted Lord above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth Paraphrase 11. Lord be thou pleased to rescue me out of this present danger and so to magnifie thy own glory over the pride and malice of the greatest men by disappointing and frustrating their designs against me see v. 5. Annotations on Psalm LVII Tit. Altaschith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perdidit is a form of deprecation destroy not It is four times used in the titles of the Psalms in this and the two next succeeding 58. and 59. and 75. This makes the Chaldees gloss improbable viz. that it was composed at a time when he said Destroy me not for that will not fitly be applicable to any much less to all of these 'T is much more probable that as many other titles of the Psalms so this was designed to denote the melody or tune to which it was set the same that had formerly belonged to some Psalm or hymn beginning with those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroy not V. 3. The reproach All the Antient Interpreters make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a verb and so sure it is of the preterperfect tense in Piel and apply it to God that he shall deliver David having shamed or reproached his enemies So the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath reproached the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he shamed or reproached So before them the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vulgar dedit in opprobrium he gave to reproach and accordingly the Arabick and Aethiopick And in all reason â—o we are to render it rather then imagine the prefix â— to be wanting But another rendring the words are also capable of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the World and ours to Grace and so even possess Christ whilst we speak of him And first if we look on his Mother Mary we shall find her an entire pure Virgin only espoused to Joseph but before they came together she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost Matth. i. 18 And then the Soul of Man must be this Virgin Now there is a threefold Purity or Virginity of the Soul First An absolute one such as was found in Adam before his fall Secondly A respective of a Soul which like Mary hath not yet joyned or committed with the World to whom it is espoused which though it have its part of natural corruptions yet either for want of ability of age or occasion hath not yet broke forth into the common outrages of sin Thirdly A restored purity of a Soul formerly polluted but now cleansed by repentance The former kind of natural and absolute purity as it were to be wished for so is it not to be hoped and therefore is not to be imagined in the Virgin Mother or expected in the Virgin Soul The second purity we find in all regenerate infants who are at the same time outwardly initiated to the Church and inwardly to Christ or in those whom God hath called before they have ingaged themselves in the courses of actual hainous sins such are well disposed well brought up and to use our Saviours words Have so lived as not to be far from the Kingdom of God Such happily as Cornelius Acts x. 1 And such a Soul as this is the fittest Womb in which our Saviour delights to be incarnate where he may enter and dwell without either resistance or annoyance where he shall be received at the first knock and never be disordered or repulsed by any stench of the carkass or violence of the Body of sin The restored purity is a right Spirit renewed in the Soul Psal li. 10 a wound cured up by repentance and differs only from the former purity as a scar from a skin never cut wanting somewhat of the beauty and outward clearness but nothing of either the strength or health of it Optandum esset ut in simplici Virginitate servaretur navis c. It were to be wished that the Ship our Souls could be kept in its simple Virginity and never be in danger of either leak or shipwrack but this perpetual integrity being a desperate impossible wish there is one only remedy which though it cannot prevent a leak can stop it And this is repentance after sin committed Post naufragium tabula a means to secure one after a shipwrack and to deliver him even in the deep Waters And this we call a restored Virginity of the Soul which Christ also vouchsafes to be conceived and born in The first degree of Innocence being not to have sinned the second to have repented In the second place the Mother of Christ in the flesh was a Virgin not only till the time of Christ's conception but also till the time of his birth Matth. i. 25 He knew her not till she had brought forth c. And farther as we may probably believe remained a Virgin all the days of her life after for to her is applied by the Learned that which is typically spoken of the East-gate of the Sanctuary Ezek. xliv 2 This gate shall be shut it shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it because the Lord the God of Israel hath entred in by it therefore it shall be shut A place if appliable very apposite for the expression Hence is she called by the Fathers and Counsels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Perpetual Virgin against the Heresie of Helvidius The probability of this might be farther proved if it were needful And ought not upon all principles of nature and of justice the Virgin Soul after Christ once conceived in it remain pure and stanch till Christ be born in it nay be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Perpetual Virgin never indulge to sensual pleasures or cast away that purity which Christ either found or wrought in it If it were a respective purity then ought it not perpetually retain and increase it and never fall off to those disorders that other men supinely live in If it were a recovered purity hold it fast and never turn again As a Dog to his vomit or a Sow to her wallowing in the mire For this conception and birth of Christ in the Soul would not only wash away the filth that the Swine was formerly mired in but also take away the Swinish nature that she shall never have any strong propension to return again to her former inordinate delights Now this continuance of the Soul in this its recovered Virginity is not from the firm constant stable nature of the Soul but as Eusebius saith in another case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From a more strong able Band the Vnion of Christ to the Soul his Spiritual Incarnation in it Because the Lord the God of Israel hath entred in by it therefore it shall be shut Ezek. xliv 2 i. e. it shall not be opened either in consent or practice to the lusts and pollutions of the World or Flesh because Christ by being born in it hath cleansed it because he the Word of God said the Word therefore the leprosie is cured in whom he enters he dwells and on whom he makes his real impression he seals them up to the day of redemption unless we unbuild our selves and change our shape we must be his In the third place if we look on the agent in this conception we shall find it both in Mary and in the Soul of Man to be the Holy Ghost that which is conceived in either of them is of the Holy Ghost Matth. i. 20 Nothing in this business of Christs birth with us to be imputed to natural power or causes the whole contrivance and final production of it the preparations to and labouring of it is all the workmanship of the Spirit So that as Mary was called by an ancient so may the Soul without an Hyperbole by us be styled The Shop of Miracles and The Work-house of the Holy Ghost in which every operation is a miracle to nature and no tools are used but what the Spirit forged and moves Mary conceived Christ but it was above her own reach to apprehend the manner how for so she questions the Angel Luke i. 34 How shall this be c. So doth the Soul of Man conceive and grow big and bring forth Christ and yet not it self fully perceives how this work is wrought Christ being for the most part insensibly begotten in us and to be discerned only spiritually not at his entrance but in his fruits In the fourth place that Mary was chosen and appointed among all the Families of the Earth to be the Mother of the Christ was no manner of desert of hers but Gods special favour and dignation whence the
towards it But seeing it hath proposed its fruitfulness under condition of our drudgery we plow and harrow and manure and drain and weed it or else we are sure to fare the worse at harvest The variety of preparations in these low affairs was by Cato and Varro and Columella accounted a pretty piece of polite necessary learning And a Christian if he will apply their rules to his spiritual Georgicks the culture of his soul shall be able to husband it the better and by their directions have a further insight into those fallow-grounds of his own heart which the Prophet speaks of 'T were a great and perhaps unnecessary journey to trace over the whole world of creatures to perfect this observation almost every passage of nature will furnish you with an example Hence is it that they that had nothing but natural reason to instruct them were assiduous in this practice and never ventured on any solemn business without as solemn endeavours to fit themselves for the work they took in hand those series of preparations before the ancient Athletica as anointing and bathing and rubbing and dust 't were fit enough for a Sermon to insist on the exercise which they prepared for being reputed sacred and parts of their solemnest worship and the moral of them would prove of good use to discipline and to bring us up to those spiritual Agones mentioned in Scripture as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. iv 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. ix 26 and in the same place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and its preparative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wrestling cuffing and running three of the five Olympian games adopted as it were into the Church and spiritualiz'd by the Apostle for our imitation But to pass by these and the like as less apposite for our discourse what shall we think Was it superstition or rather mannerliness that made the Graecian Priests so rub and wash and scour themselves before they would meddle with a sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was and that we construe superstition but indeed it signifies an awe and reverence to the Deity they worship and a fear and a care lest the unpreparedness of the Priest should pollute their sacrifice as 't is much to be feared that our holiest duties for want of this care are turn'd into sin the vanities and faults of our very prayers adding to the number of those guilts we pray against and every sacrifice even of atonement it self needing some expiation To look a while on the highest part and as it were the Sacraments of their Religion their Eleusinia sacra resembling in one respect Christian Baptism in another holy Orders What a multitude of rites and performances were required of every one before his admission to them For their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being divided into two classes the less or lower sort were praeludia to the greater or as the Scholiast on Aristophanes hath it more clearly to our purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a praemundation or praesanctification of them that sued to be admitted higher as Baptism Confirmation and a Christian education in the Church fits us for the participations of those mysteries which the other Sacraments present to us so that it punctually notes that preparation we here talk of for before they were admitted to those grand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were saith Suidas to spend a year or two in a lower form undergo a shop of purgations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many more so that Tertullian could not without wonder and praise of their solemnities observe tot suspiria epoptarum multam in adytis divinitatem 'T was no mean toyl nor ordinary merit that was required to make them capable of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristophanes calls them The ground of all the ceremony we may observe to be the natural impurity which the Heathens themselves acknowledge to be in every man as may appear most distinctly by Jamblichus though they knew not clearly at what door it came in at sure they were they found it there and therefore their own reason suggested them that things of an excellent purity of an inherent or at least an adherent sanctity were not to be adventured on by an impure nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clement till it had by some laborious prescribed means somewhat rid it self of its pollutions and this the Barbarian did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he thinking the bare washing of the outward parts sufficient but the Graecians whom learning had made more substantial in their Worship required moreover an habituate temper of passions longam castimoniam sedatam mentem that the inward calmness and serenity of the affections might perform the promises of the outward purity In summ when they were thus qualified and had fulfill'd the period or circle of their purgation required to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were at length admitted intra adyta ad epoptica sacra where all the mysteries of their Theology were revealed to them All which seems to me as much as can be expected from their dim imperfect knowledge to express the state of grace and saving knowledge in the world and also the office of ministring in sacred things into which no man was thought fit to be received or initiated but he which had undergone a prentiship of purgations for although those Eleusinia of theirs at a Christian's examination would prove nothing but religious delusions containing some prodigies of their mythical divinity in summ but grave specious puppets and solemn serious nothing yet hence it may appear that the eye of nature though cheated in the main taking that for a sacred mystery which was but a prodigious vanity yet kept its self constant in its ceremonies would not dare or hope to approach abruptly to any thing which it could believe to be holy Now shall we be more sawcy in our devotions and insolent in our approaches to either the throne of Majesty or grace of our true God than they were to the unprofitable empty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their false Shall we call the mannerliness of the Heathen up in judgment against the Christian rudeness 'T will be an horrid exprobration at the day of Doom when a neat wash't respectful Gentile shall put a swinish miry negligent Christian to shame such a one who never took so much care to trim himself to entertain the bridegroom as the Heathen did to adore an empty gaud a vain ridiculous bauble Yet is not their example prescribed you as an accomplish't pattern as the pitch to aim at and drive no higher but rather as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sarcasm or contumely engrav'd in Marble to upbraid you mightily if you have not gone so far All that they practised was but superficial and referring to the body and therein the washing of the out-sides yours must be inward and of the soul which is the next word
in the doctrine the specification of it by the subject noted in the Text by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the way and expressed in the latter part of the subject of my proposition the Preparation of the soul This Preparation consists in removing those burthens and wiping off those blots of the soul which any way deface or oppress it in scouring off that rust and filth which it contracted in the Womb and driving it back again as near integrity as may be And this was the aim and business of the wisest among the Ancients who conceived it possible fully to repair what was lost because the privation was not total and finding some sparks of the primitive flame still warm within them endeavour'd and hoped hard to enliven them To this purpose a great company of them saith St. Austin puzled themselves in a design of purging the soul per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consecrationes theurgicas but all in vain as Porphyry himself confesses No man saith he by this theurgick Magick could ever purge himself the nearer to God or wipe his eyes clear enough for such a vision They indeed went more probably to work which used no other magick or exorcism to cast out these Devils to clear and purge the soul but only their reason which the Moralist set up and maintain'd against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the two ringleaders of sensuality To this purpose did Socrates the first and wisest Moralist furnish and arm the reasonable faculty with all helps and defensations that Philosophy could afford it that it might be able to shake off and disburthen it self of those encumbrances which naturally weighed and pressed it downward ut exoneratus animus naturali vigore in aeterna se attollerer where if that be true which some observe of Socrates that his professing to know nothing was because all was taught him by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wonder not that by others his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consecrated into a Deity for certainly never Devil bore so much charity to Mankind and treachery to his own kingdom as to instruct him in the cleansing of his soul whereby those strong holds of Satan are undermined which cannot subsist but on a stiff and deep Clay foundation From these beginnings of Socrates the Moralists ever since have toil'd hard at this task to get the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Jambl. phrases it out of that corruption of its birth that impurity born with it which the soul contracts by its conversation with the body and from which they say only Philosophy can purge it For it is Philoponus his observation that that Canon of the Physicians That the inclinations of the soul necessarily follow the temper of the body is by all men set down with that exception implied unless the Man have studied Philosophy for that study can reform the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make the soul contemn the commands and arm it against the influences and poysons and infections of the body In summ the main of Philosophy was to this purpose to take off the soul from those corporeal dependances and so in a manner restore it to its primitive self that is to some of that divine perfection with which it was infused for then is the soul to be beheld in its native shape when 't is stript of all its passions At other times you do not see the soul but some froth and weeds of it as the gray part of the Sea is not to be called Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some scurf and foam and weeds that lye on the top of it So then to this spiritualizing of the soul and recovering it to the simplicity of its essence their main precepts were to quell and suppress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Maximus Tyrius speaks that turbulent prachant common people of the soul all the irrational affections and reduce it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a Monarchy or regal government where reason might rule Lord and King For whensoever any lower affection is suffered to do any thing there saith Philoponus we do not work like men but some other creatures Whosoever suffers their lower nutritive faculties to act freely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these men are in danger to become trees that is by these operations they differ nothing from meer plants So those that suffer their sensitive appetites lust and rage to exercise at freedom are not to be reckoned men but beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. then only will our actions argue us men when our reason is at the forge This was the aim and business of Philosophy to keep us from unmanning our selves to restore reason to its scepter to rescue it from the tyranny of that most atheistical usurper as Jambl. calls the affections and from hence he which lived according to those precepts of Philosophy was said both by them and Clement and the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Austin Secundum intellectum vivere to live according to the guidance of the reasonable soul Which whosoever did saith Plotinus though by it in respect of divinity he was not perfect yet at last should be sure to find a gracious providence first to perfect then to crown his natural moderate well tempered endeavour as Austin cites it out of him L. 10. de civit Dei This whole course and proceedings and assent of the soul through these Philosophical preparations to spiritual perfection is summarily and clearly set down for us in Photius out of Isidorus Philosophically observed to consist in three steps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The first business of the soul is to call in those parts of it which were ingaged in any foreign fleshly imployment and retire and collect it self unto it self and then secondly it learns to quit it self to put off the whole natural man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it s own fashions and conceits all the notions all the pride of humane reason and set it self on those things which are nearest kin to the soul that is spiritual affairs and then thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it falls into holy enthusiasms and spiritual elevations which it continues till it be changed and led into the calm and serenity above the state of man agreeable to the tranquillity and peace which the Gods injoy And could the Philosophers be their own Scholars could they exhibit that felicity which they describe and phansie they might glory in their morality and indeed be said to have prepared and purged the soul for the receit of the most pure and spiritual guest But certainly their speculation out-ran their practice and their very morality was but Theorical to be read in their books and wishes far more legible than in their lives and their injoyments Yet some degrees also of purity or at least a less measure of impurity they attained to only upon the expectation and desire of happiness proposed to
of one of these three sorts either earthly the work of a plant or sensual the work of a Brute or thirdly above the condition of both these devillish Thus do you see the sin of the contempt of the light of nature which although it be dimm'd in us by our corruption yet shined so bright in the Heathen that they were left without excuse in the Jews that even their own hearts accused them for their rebellions and in us Christians that unless we move according to its directions we are fallen below the condition of men almost of Creatures 'T were now superfluous farther to demonstrate it our time will be better spent if we close with some use of it and that will prove manifold first by way of caution not to deify or exalt too high or trust in this light of nature It was once a perfect glorious rule but is now distorted and defaced it once was light in the Lord almost an Angel of light it shone as the Sun in the Firmament in majesty and full brightness but is now only as the Moon pale and dim scarce able to do us any service unless it borrows some rays from the Son of righteousness The fall hath done somewhat with it I know not what to call it either much impaired it and diminisht its light in its Essence or else much incumbred or opprest it in its operations as a Candle under a Vail or Lanthorn which though it burn and shine as truly as on a Candlestick yet doth not so much service in enlightning the room the Soul within us is much changed either is not in its Essence so perfect and active and bright as once it was or else being infused in a sufficient perfection is yet terribly overcast with a gloom and cloud of corruptions that it can scarce find any passage to get through and shew it self in our actions for the corruptible body presseth down the soul c. Wisd ix 15 And from this caution grow many lower branches whence we may gather some fruit as in the second place infinitely to humble our selves before God for the first sin of Adam which brought this darkness on our Souls and account it not the meanest or slightest of our miseries that our whole nature is defiled and bruised and weakned to aggravate every circumstance and effect of that sin against thy self which has so liberally afforded fuel to the flames of lust of rage and wild desire and thereby without Gods gracious mercy to the flames of Hell This is a most profitable point yet little thought on and therefore would deserve a whole Sermon to discuss to you 3. To observe and acknowledge the necessity of some brighter light than this of nature can afford us and with all the care and vigilancy of our hearts all the means that Scripture will lend us and at last with all the importunities and groans and violence of our Souls to petition and sollicit and urge Gods illuminating spirit to break out and shine on us To undertake to interpret any antient Author requires say the Grammarians a man of deep and various knowledge because there may be some passage or other in that Book which will refer to every sort of learning in the World whence 't is observed that the old Scholiasts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were most exquisite Scholars Thus certainly will not any ordinary skill serve turn to interpret and explain many dark sayings which were at first written in the Book of our hearts but are now almost past reading only that omniscient spirit that hath no shadow of ignorance the Finger that first writ must be beseeched to read and point out the riddle We must make use of that rotten staffe of nature as far as its strength will bear and that very gingerly too never daring to lean or lay our whole weight upon it lest it either wound with its splinter or else break under us our help and stay and subsistence and trust must be in the Lord our Eyes must wait on his inlightning spirit and never lose a ray that falls from it Fourthly to clear up as much as we can and re-inliven this light within us And that first By stirring up and blowing and so nourishing every spark we find within us The least particle of fire left in a Coal may by pains be improved into a flame 't is held possible to restore or at least preserve for a time any thing that is not quite departed If thou findest but a spark of Religion in thee which saith A God is to be worship't care and sedulity and the breath of Prayers may in time by this inflame the whole man into a bright fire of Zeal towards God In brief whatever thou dost let not any the least atome of that fire which thou once feelest within thee ever go out quench not the weakest motion or inclination even of reason towards God or goodness how unpolish't soever this Diamond be yet if it do but glissen 't is too pretious to be cast away And then secondly By removing all hindrances or incumbrances that may any way weaken or oppress it and these you have learnt to be corrupt affections That democracy and croud and press and common people of the Soul raises a tumult in every street within us that no voice of law or reason can be heard If you will but disgorge and purge the stomach which hath been thus long opprest if you will but remove this Cloud of crudities then will the brain be able to send some rayes down to the heart which till then are sure to be caught up by the way anticipated and devoured For the naked simplicity of the Soul the absence of all disordered passions is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aphrodiseus that kindly familiar good temper of the Soul by which it is able to find out and judge of truth In brief if thou canst crop thy luxuriant passions if thou canst either expel or tame all the wild Beasts within thee which are born to devour any thing which is weak or innocent then will that mild voice within thee in the cave take heart and shew it self In the mean time this hurry of thy senses drowns that reason and thou canst not hope to see as long as like old Tobit the dung and white film doth remain upon thine Eyes If thou canst use any means to dissolve this dung of affections which an habit of sin hath baked within thee the scales will fall off from thine Eyes and the blind Tobit shall be restored to his sight In brief do but fortify thy reasonable Soul against all the undermining and faction and violence of these sensual passions do but either depose or put to the Sword that Atheistical Tyrant and Usurper as Jamblichus calls the affections do but set reason in the Chair and hear and observe his dictates and thou hast disburthened thy self of a great company of weights and pressures thou wilt be able
it self which never stays till it be united Thus do you see from whence this principle comes to me and in what manner from Gods spirit by this means uniting me to himself To the second question where it lodges my answer is in the heart of man in the whole soul not in the understanding not in the will a distinction of faculties invented by Philosophers to puzzle and perplex Divines and put them to needless shifts but I say in the whole Soul ruling and guiding it in all its actions enabling it to understand and will spiritually conceived I say and born in the Soul but nursed and fed and encreased into a perfect stature by the outward Organs and actions of the body for by them it begins to express and shew it self in the World by them the habit is exerted and made perfect the Seed shot up into an Ear the Spring improved to Autumn when the tongue discourses the hands act the feet run the way of Gods commandments So I say the Soul is the Mother and the operations of Soul and Body the Nurse of this Spirit in us and then who can hold in his spirit without stifling from breaking out into that joyful acclamation Blessed is the womb that bears this incarnate spirit and the paps that give him suck Now this inward principle this grace of regeneration though it be seated in the whole Soul as it is an habit yet as it is an operative habit producing or rather enabling the man to produce several gracious works so it is peculiarly in every part and accordingly receives divers names according to several exercises of its power in those several parts As the Soul of man sees in the Eye hears in the Ear understands in the Brain chooses and desires in the heart and being but one Soul yet works in every room every shop of the Body in a several trade as it were and is accordingly called a seeing a hearing a willing or understanding Soul thus doth the habit of grace seated in the whole express and evidence it self peculiarly in every act of it and is called by as several names as the reasonable Soul hath distinct acts or objects In the understanding 't is first spiritual wisdom and discretion in holy things opposite to which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. i. 28 an unapproving as well as unapproved or reprobate mind and frequently in Scripture spiritual blindness Then as a branch of this it is belief or assent to the truth of the promises and the like In the practical judgment 't is spiritual prudence in ordering all our holy knowledge to holy practice In the will 't is a regular choice of whatsoever may prove available to Salvation a holy love of the end and embracing of the means with courage and zeal Lastly in the outward man 't is an ordering of all our actions to a blessed conformity with a sanctified Soul In brief 't is one principle within us doth every thing that is holy believes repents hopes loves obeys and what not And consequently is effectually in every part of Body and Soul sanctifying it to work spiritually as an holy instrument of a divine invisible cause that is the Holy Ghost that is in us and throughout us For the third question when this new principle enters first you are to know that comes into the heart in a threefold condition first as an harbinger secondly as a private secret guest thirdly as an inhabitant or Housekeeper As 't is an harbinger so it comes to fit and prepare us for it self trims up and sweeps and sweetens the Soul that it may be readier to entertain him when he comes to reside and that he doth as the ancient gladiators had their arma praelusoria by skirmishing with our corruptions before he comes to give them a Pitch-Battel he brandishes a flaming Sword about our Ears and as by a flash of lightning gives us a sense of a dismal hideous state and so somewhat restrains us from excess and fury first by a momentany remorse then by a more lasting yet not purifying flame the Spirit of bondage In summ every check of Conscience every sigh for sin every fear of judgment every desire of grace every motion or inclination toward spiritual good be it never so short-winded is praeludium spiritus a kind of John Baptist to Christ something that God sent before to prepare the wayes of the Lord. And thus the spirit comes very often in every affliction every disease which is part of Gods Discipline to keep us in some order in brief at every Sermon that works upon us at the hearing then I say the lightning flashes in our Eyes we have a glimpse of his spirit but cannot come to a full sight of it and thus he appears to many whom he will never dwell with Unhappy men that they cannot lay hold on him when he comes so near them and yet somewhat more happy than they that never came within ken of him stopt their Ears when he spake to them even at this distance Every man in the Christian Church hath frequently in his life a power to partake of Gods ordinary preparing graces and 't is some degree of obedience though no work of regeneration to make good use of them and if he without the Inhabitance of the spirit cannot make such use as he should yet to make the best he can and thus I say the spirit appears to the unregenerate almost every day of our lives 2. When this spirit comes a guest to lodge with us then is he said to enter but till by actions and frequent obliging works he makes himself known to his Neighbours as long as he keeps his Chamber till he declare himself to be there so long he remains a private secret guest and that 's called the introduction of the form that makes a man to be truly regenerate when the Seed is sown in his heart when the habit is infused and that is done sometimes discernibly sometimes not discernibly but seldom as when Saul was called in the midst of his madness Acts ix he was certainly able to tell a man the very minute of his Change of his being made a new Creature Thus they which have long lived in an enormous Antichristian course do many times find themselves strucken on a sudden and are able to date their regeneration and tell you punctually how old they are in the spirit Yet because there be many preparations to this spirit which are not this spirit many presumptions in our hearts false-grounded many tremblings and jealousies in those that have it great affinity between Faith natural and spiritual seeing 't is a spirit that thus enters and not as it did light on the Disciples in a bodily shape 't is not an easy matter for any one to define the time of his conversion Some may guess somewhat nearer than others as remembring a sensible change in themselves but in a word the surest discerning of it
abroad in Tents we have seen or heard of him but have not yet brought him home into our hearts there to possess and rectify and instruct our wills as well as our understandings Thirdly The whole mystery of Christ articulately set down in our Creed we as punctually believe and to make good our names that we are Christians in earnest we will challenge and defie the Fire and Faggot to perswade us out of it and these are good resolutions if our practices did not give our Faith the lye and utterly renounce at the Church Door whatsoever we profest in our Pews This very one thing that he which is our Saviour shall be our Judge that he which was crucified dead and buried sits now at the right hand of God and from thence shall come to judge the world this main part yea summ of our belief we deny and bandy against all our lives long If the story of Christ coming to judgment set down in the xxv of Matthew after the 30. Verse had ever entred through the doors of our Ears to the inward Closets of our hearts 't is impossible but we should observe and practise that one single duty there required of us Christ there as a Judge exacts and calls us to account for nothing in the World but only works of mercy and according to the satisfaction which we are able to give him in that one point he either entertains or repels us and therefore our care and negligence in this one business will prove us either Christians or Infidels But alas 't is too plain that in our actions we never dream either of the Judgment or the Arraignment our stupid neglect of this one duty argues us not only unchristian but unnatural Besides our Alms-deeds which concern only the outside of our neighbour and are but a kind of worldly mercy there are many more important but cheaper works of mercy as good counsel spiritual instructions holy education of them that are come out of our loyns or are committed to our care seasonable reproof according to that excellent place Lev. xix 17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart but in any wise reprove him a care of carrying our selves that we may not scandal or injure or offer violence to the Soul and tender Conscience of him that is flexible to follow us into any riot These and many other works of mercy in the highest degree as concerning the welfare of other mens Souls and the chief thing required of us at the day of Judgment are yet so out-dated in our thoughts so utterly defaced and blotted out in the whole course of our lives that it seems we never expect that Christ in his Majesty as a Judge whom we apprehend and embrace and hug in his humility as a Saviour Beloved till by some severe hand held over our lives and particularly by the daily study and exercise of some work of mercy or other we demonstrate the sincerity of our belief the Saints on Earth and Angels in Heaven will shrewdly suspect that we do only say over that part of our Creed that we believe only that which is for our turn the sufferings and satisfactions of Christ which cost us nothing but do not proceed to his office of a Judge do not either fear his Judgments or desire to make our selves capable of his mercies Briefly whosoever neglects or takes no notice of this duty of exercising works of mercy whatsoever he brags of in his theory or speculation in his heart either denies or contemns Christ as Judge and so destroys the summ of his Faith and this is another kind of secret Atheism Fourthly Our Creed leads us on to a belief and acknowledgment of the Holy Ghost and 't is well we have all conn'd his name there for otherwise I should much fear that it would be said of many nominal Christians what is reported of the Ephesian Disciples Acts xix 2 They have not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost or no. But not to suspect so much ignorance in any Christian we will suppose indeed men to know whatsoever they profess and enquire only whether our lives second our professions or whether indeed they are mere Infidels and Atheistical in this business concerning the Holy Ghost How many of the ignorant sort which have learnt this name in their Catechism or Creed have not yet any further use to put it to but only to make up the number of the Trinity have no special office to appoint for him no special mercy or gift or ability to beg of him in the business of their Salvation but mention him only for fashion sake not that they ever think of preparing their Bodies or Souls to be Temples worthy to entertain him not that they ever look after the earnest of the spirit in their hearts 2 Cor. i. 22 Further yet how many better learned amongst us do not yet in our lives acknowledge him in that Epithet annext to his title the Holy Ghost i. e. not only eminently in himself holy but causally producing the same quality in us from thence called the sanctifying and renewing spirit How do we for the most part fly from and abandon and resist and so violently deny him when he once appears to us in this Attribute When he comes to sanctifie us we are not patient of so much sowreness so much humility so much non-conformity with the world as he begins to exact of us we shake off many blessed motions of the spirit and keep our selves within garrison as far as we can out of his reach lest at any turn he should meet with and we should be converted Lastly The most ordinary morally qualified tame Christians amongst us who are not so violent as to profess open arms against this Spirit how do they yet reject him out of all their thoughts How seldom do many peaceable orderly men amongst us ever observe their wants or importune the assistance of this Spirit In summ 't was a shrewd Speech of the Fathers which will cast many fair out-sides at the bar for Atheists That the life of an unregenerate man is but the life of an Heathen and that 't is our Regeneration only that raises us up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from being still mere Gentiles He that believes in his Creed the Person nay understands in the Schools the Attributes and gifts of the Holy Ghost and yet sees them only in the fountain neither finds nor seeks for any effects of them in his own Soul he that is still unregenerate and continues still gaping and yawning stupid and senseless in this his condition is still for all his Creed and Learning in effect an Atheist And the Lord of Heaven give him to see and endeavours to work and an heart to pray and his spirit to draw and force him out of this condition Fifthly Not to cramp in every Article of our Creed into this Discourse we will only insist on two
the meer eating of an apple In the next place as Adam was no private person but the whole humane nature so this sin is to be considered either in the root or in the fruit in its self or in its effects In its self so all mankind and every particular man is and in that name must humble himself as concerned in the eating of that fruit which only Adams teeth did fasten on is to deem himself bound to be humbled for that pride that curiosity that disobedience or whatsoever sin else can be contained in that first great transgression and count you this nothing to have a share in such a sin which contains such a multitude of Rebellions 'T is not a slight perfunctory humiliation that can expiate not a small labour that can destroy this monster which is so rich in heads each to be cut off by the work of a several repentance Now in the last place as this sin of all mankind in Adam is considered in its effects so it becomes to us a body of sin and death a natural disorder of the whole man an hostility and enmity of the flesh against the spirit and the parent of all sin in us as may appear Rom. vii and Jam. 1.14 Which that you may have a more compleat understanding of consider it as it is ordinarily set down consisting of three parts 1. A natural defect 2. A moral affection 3. A legal guilt i. e. a guiltiness of the breach of the Law for these three whatsoever you may think of them are all parts of that sin of our nature which is in and is to be imputed to us called ordinarily original sin in us to distinguish it from that first act committed by Adam of which this is an effect And first that natural defect is a total loss and privation of that primitive justice holiness and obedience which God had furnisht the Creature withal a disorder of all the powers of the Soul a darkness of the understanding a perverseness of the will a debility weakness and decay of all the senses and in summ a poverty and destruction and almost a nothingness of all the powers of Soul and Body And how ought we to lament this loss with all the veins of our heart to labour for some new strain of expressing our sorrow and in fine to petition that rich grace which may build up all these ruines to pray to God that his Christ may purchase and bestow on us new abilities that the second Adam may furnish us with more durable powers and lasting graces than we had but forfeited in the first The following part of this sin of our nature viz. A moral evil affection is word for word mentioned Rom. vii 5 For there the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinarily translated motions of sins and in the margin the passions of sins are more significantly to be rendred affections of sins i. e. by an usual figure sinful affections That you may the better observe the encumbrances of this branch of this sin which doth so over shadow the whole man and so fence him from the beams and light of the spiritual invisible Sun I am to tell you that the very Heathen that lived without the knowledge of God had no conversation with and so no instruction from the Bible in this matter that these very Heathens I say had a sense of this part of original sin to wit of these evil moral lusts and affections which they felt in themselves though they knew not whence they sprang Hence is it that a Greek Philosopher out of the antients makes a large Discourse of the unfatiable desire and lust which is in every man and renders his life grievous unto him where he useth the very same word though with a significant Epithet added to it that S. James doth c. 1. ver 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infinite lust with which as S. James saith a man is drawn away and enticed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith he that part of the mind in which these lusts dwell is perswaded and drawn or rather fall backward and forward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which lust or evil concupiscence he at last defines to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unsatiable intemperance of the appetite never filled with a desire never ceasing in the persecution of evil and again he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our birth and nativity derived to us by our parents i. e. an evil affection hereditary to us and delivered to us as a Legacy at our Birth and Nativity all which seems a clear expression of that original lust whose motions they felt and guest at its nature Hence is it that it was a custom among all of them I mean the common Heathen to use many ways of purgations especially on their children who at the imposition of their names were to be lustrated and purified with a great deal of superstition and ceremony such like as they used to drive away a plague or a cure for an House or City As if nature by instinct had taught them so much Religion as to acknowledge and desire to cure in every one this hereditary disease of the soul this plague of mans heart as 't is called 1 Kings viii 38 And in summ the whole learning of the Wisest of them such were the Moralists was directed to the governing and keeping in order of these evil affections which they called the unruly citizens and common people of the soul whose intemperance and disorders they plainly observed within themselves and laboured hard to purge out or subdue to the government of reason and virtue which two we more fully enjoy and more Christianly call the power of grace redeeming our Souls from this Body of sin Thus have I briefly shewed you the sense that the very Heathen had of this second branch of original sin which needs therefore no farther aggravation to you but this that they who had neither Spirit nor Scripture to instruct them did naturally so feelingly observe and curse it that by reason of it they esteemed their whole life but a living death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their body but the Sepulchre of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both which together are but a periphrasis of that which S. Paul calls in brief the body of death And shall we who have obtained plenty of light and instruction besides that which nature bestowed on us with them shall we I say let our Eyes be confounded with abundance of day shall we see it more clearly to take less notice of it Shall we feel the stings of sin within us which though they do but prick the regenerate prove mortal to the rest of us and shall we not observe them Shall we not rather weep those Fountains dry and crop this luxury of our affections with a severe sharp sorrow and humiliation Shall we not starve this rank fruitful Mother of
Except ye repent ye shall perish Indignation and anger and wrath upon every soul that doth ill Our God is a consuming fire There remains no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall consume the adversary and many the like which are to be admitted into the very bowels of the Soul there to perform their work of Melting Contrition Mortification and Reformation to bruise the Soul and dissolve it and purge all the dross out of it and so refine and prepare it for the uses of Holiness 'T is ordinarily said that the Jews were a typical people the whole divine oeconomy toward them is doctrinal and instructive to us not immediately or literally but by way of Anagogy the severity required of them toward the Canaanites is to be transcribed by us no other way than by our displeasure and revenges on our Lusts and sins the greatest enemies either of God or us And thus our zeal and indignation may be seasonably laid out yea and our Anathemas if we still continue them in that form our solemn delivering them up to God's displeasure judgment and executions without pleading their cause or solliciting any reprieve for them 33. If again it be objected That many affections of the Psalmist are much more divinely elevated than 't is imaginable our dull earthy hearts should keep pace with them That the Beatitudes belong to those which are much higher advanced than we are That the professions of love are exuberant and but reproaches of our lukewarmness not paterns of forms for it I answer That 't is most true that these divine flames are much above the common pitch and were not meant so to our use as to flatter us that we are or may lawfully assume to be such as David was or as he by these pourtraitures desired we should be Yet are there other proper advantages to be made of these They that recite the Beatitudes are to do it with the sincerity of honest hearts aspiring to that pitch and begging God's grace and assistance to advance them to some measure of all those practices to which those Beatitudes are pronounced they that take into their mouths David's forms of professions of love or faith or zeal or resolute adherence and obedience to God are thereby to reproach and excite their own defects to humble themselves before God that they cannot pronounce them so vigorously as they ought and to pray for that growth and spiritual proficiency that at their next approaches to that part of the office they may performe it with more savour and profess with more truth what the Psalmist calls us and teaches us to profess 34. Lastly for the sweetness of Gods Law which is so oft proclaimed in these Books the gratiousness of Gods precepts not only of the promises annext to them by way of future reward but the resultance of present joy and gratefulness and agreeableness which discovers it self in every part of our obedience to Gods Yoke more to be prized than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the honey-combe and such as when it is tried to the uttermost the servant of the Lord not only willingly supports but unfeignedly loves it If we are not cordially able to joyn with the Psalmist in these and the like expressions then as we need not be told 't is for want of the like temper and frame of mind which he had so we must hereby be directed first to cure our appetites and then to taste and see as the Psalmist advises solemnly to make our trials to gain this part of Christian experience which is not to be had but in a constant serious practice of all God's wayes and then we shall not faile to see and discern how gracious the Lord is and that there is not any such probable way to the blessedness even of this life as that of adhering and keeping fast to his precepts and directions in opposition and defiance and abhorrence to all the false wisdom and promises of the World 35. I shall not now farther inlarge this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by inquiring as I had thought into the Measures and Musick of this Divine Poesy Of which as it is not easie to make any exact discoveries so some imperfect observations which are the utmost I can aspire to will not be sufficient to excuse the confidence of entring on a disquisition which no others have adventured to trace before me nor found themselves invited to it either by the Helps which remain in this kind or the Profit that probably were to be reaped by it The only advise with which I shall conclude is That in general we remember that the whole Book is originally metrical and so designed to consort and united affections and therefore ought to be distinguisht and have its use separate from other Scriptures which are read in our presence and accordingly we sit and hearken to them and indeavour to remember them and apply them to the increase of our spiritual knowledge whereas this as all the Hymns of the Church belongs to the whole Assembly of both Sexes not as to Auditors but to Actors and therefore in this part of the Publick Service whether saying or singing of Psalms every person of the Congregation is to preserve his interest with his voice and heart joyning in all or at least by maintaining his right to all by interposing in every other verse by way of Response and alternation Which that it was the Primitive custom if we wanted other evidences the Epistle of Plinie to Trajane would competently assure us where he tells him of the custom of the Christians in their coetus Carmen Christo tanquam Deo dicere secum invicem to say one with another by turns a verse i. e. a Psalm or Hymne to Christ as unto God Which custome together with the reverend posture of standing assigned to this office of Psalmody and the Doxology at the end of every Psalm to testify what Pliny discovered that we say our Psalms to Christ as to God upon what deliberations or designs it hath been indeavoured to be laid aside and the Psalms whilst they are but in Prose barely read in the common mode of other Scriptures and the people denied their parts in them save when they are sung in very ill Metre I list not to conjecture but shall hope when we have attained any part of the Psalmists affections to fit us for the office it will be thought as fit for our Lips and Hearts as for our Ears to turn Psalmodists THE WORKS Of the REVEREND and LEARNED Henry Hammond D. D. The Fourth VOLUME CONTAINING A Paraphrase Annotations UPON THE PSALMS As also upon the Ten First Chapters of the PROVERBS TOGETHER WITH XXXI SERMONS ALSO An APPENDIX to Vol. II. LONDON Printed by T. Newcomb and M. Flesher for Richard Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner and Richard Davis Bookseller
especially that of Joh. 3. 〈…〉 on that 〈…〉 and generally Christ is the person 〈…〉 bridegroom Now as those bridegroom 〈…〉 solemnly brought out from under the 〈…〉 25.1 〈…〉 of darkness comes to us 〈…〉 of his 〈…〉 whither he hath 〈…〉 to be seen 〈…〉 morning at the rising of the 〈◊〉 saith the 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 star 〈…〉 that 〈…〉 sense 〈…〉 of God to the 〈◊〉 whether 〈…〉 or by voice from heaâ—en at last 〈…〉 of righteousness was ready to come forth their 〈…〉 and his son John the Baptist of whom it is peculiarly said he was a â—rning and a shining lamp this light from heaven that of Prophecy began to shew it self as the Phosphorus of Daduchus the light bearer or torch-bearer to bring out this bridegroom into the world who when he was come should imitate the Sun in his course 〈…〉 and warm all the parts of the babâ—â—able world before he set again This we know Christ did by 〈…〉 rays by those his Apostles 〈…〉 which makes it 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 of Christ and not only of 〈…〉 in the creatures V. 8. 〈…〉 is 〈…〉 is thought to be the 〈…〉 to the Chaldee 〈…〉 and the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 But it is not so 〈◊〉 that 〈…〉 the feminine of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rather 〈…〉 then it may not be 〈◊〉 to remember 〈…〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take food and from the◠〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 meat or food So Iam. 4.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for food in thâ— plural the Chaldee renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for food so Psal â—8 22 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for food 〈…〉 Sam. 13.5 7 10. And to this sense the 〈…〉 here to inclinâ— First by rejoycing the heart precedent which being the effect attributed to wine 〈…〉 that this second part of the verse should 〈◊〉 long 〈…〉 and the effects thereof and so secondly it follows it enlightens the eyes That this is an effect of taking food peculiarly hath been noted at large Psal â—â— note 〈◊〉 from that passage of Jonathan when the tasting 〈◊〉 little honey was the inlightning his eyes and so the phrase is used to express any refection of mind or body And so it will be most agreeable here the law of God and obedience thereto being the most proper aliment to the soul as it is said to be Christs meat to do the will of him that 〈◊〉 him and the effect thereof all manner of refreshment to the spirit when on the other side sin puts men into a sad weak famishing condition such as the prodigal in the Gospel is described in To this sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for food the reader will be more inclined 1. by the context v. 7. where the law of the Lord is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make my soul or life return which is the ordinary expression of foods refreshing us when we faint with hunger So Psal 23.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he restores my soul a consequent of the green pasture and still waters v. 2. he refresheth me So 1 Sam. 30.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his spirit 〈…〉 him as an effect of eating and drinking after 〈…〉 days So Lam. 1.16 the conforter 〈…〉 or bringing back the soul i. â— he that 〈…〉 restoring refresh me And then this restoring of the soul and 〈◊〉 food to it are in effect all one This food be◠〈◊〉 that of Paradise without the curse â—â—â—ext to 〈…〉 us by God without our labour the 〈…〉 of knowledge and of life 〈…〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the 〈…〉 from both the roots 〈…〉 dimensum or por◠〈…〉 â—is purged and drest before 〈…〉 V. 10. 〈…〉 signifies will be uncertain The 〈◊〉 renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oâ—ryzum 〈…〉 Hierome conceives 〈…〉 that which comes 〈…〉 gold But the 〈…〉 precious stone and Psal 〈…〉 precious stone And this latter is very 〈…〉 the word and is but a light variation of it 〈◊〉 other languages if we may believe Hesyâ—â—â— For 〈◊〉 he speaking of the 〈…〉 which is but this 〈◊〉 with the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pa◠〈…〉 Topaâ— and is a precious stone Meanwhile it is also clear that it is used for fine gold also of which the Crown is made Psal â—â— 3 and of which 〈◊〉 vessels Job 28.17 and so it may be here also V. 11. Warned The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used hath three significations First to shine and is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shine forth Dan. 12.3 Secondly by a metaphor to admonish and warn and then is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezech. 33.3 to signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezech. 33.9 to declare before â—and and Thirdly to flourish in the Chaldeâ— Paraphrase Hos 14.6 and Psal 90.6 From the second of these most of the Antient Interpreters render it here the Chaldee thy servant was circumspect in them the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keeps them and so oft elsewhere and from them the Syriack Latine Arabick and Aethiopick But the context â—â—ems rather to determine it to the first or which 〈◊〉 all one to the third sense the glorious and flourishing condition that is to be attained to either in 〈◊〉 or in another world by this means of careful obedience unto Gods commands and by no other for to this it follows that in keeping of them there is great reward V. 13. Presumptuous From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—bullivit intumuit to boil to swell is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proud or insolent one that on set purpose deliberately commits any ill and also the action that is so committed This the LXXII render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine ab alienis from strangers or strange sins or other mens sins most probably misreading the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from strangers for it V. 14. Let the words The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the future is literally to be rendred shall be and 〈◊〉 the LXXII and Latine read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—raâ—â—â— and the words shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut complaceant such as shall be acceptable before God or in his sight or more expresly an acceptable sacrifice So 't is used Exod. 28.38 Lev. 22.20 21. Isai 56.7 Jer. 6.20 in all the places where it occurs And to this sense the context confines it speaking of that abstinence from all wilful known presumptuous sins which is required of all men to make their prayers or any other their best performances or sacrifices acceptable before God according to that of the Apostle exhorting to lift up clean or holy hands 1 Tim. 2.8 and the Prophet Isai 1.16 Wash ye make ye clean till then surely God heareth not sinners John 9.31 The Twentieth
is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies two things 1. to incline or decline and 2. to stretch out extend distend But how in either of these notions it shall be joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here it will not be easie to judge The LXXII render it in the former notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they bow'd down evil things on thee and the Latine declinaverunt in te mala and the Syriack seems to accord rendring it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Arabick they bow'd down If this be the notion of the word then it will best be rendred they wrested or perverted evil things against thee as Exod. 23.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to decline and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pervert is used and again v. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt not pervert i. e. by perverting or distorting thy words framed accusations calumnies which are stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil or wicked words or things Matth. 5.2 against thee In the second notion it is ordinarily applied to lines and curtains and then to spread evil against any may be a phrase taken from the spreading of nets as Psal 140.5 they spread a net with cords for the insnaring of any But the Chaldee which render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies first to beat out and compress and thence to machinate contrive or forge in the brain in which sense it best agrees with imagining that follows make it probable to be taken from the Metallists who beat out and so extend or distend their metals and so frame them into any fashion from whence by an easie metaphor it may be drawn to that of designing or forging any evil against another V. 11. Make them turn their backs That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a shoulder or shoulder-blade there is no question Scapula that part of the body which from the neck reacheth on both sides before and behind to the arm But what the meaning is here of the Poetical phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt set them a shoulder is not so easie to resolve The Chaldee reads it Thou hast set them to thy people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one shoulder The sense of it seems to be best fetcht from that which follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thy strings from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nervous a bow-string Psal 9.2 The LXXII seem not to have understood it rendring it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thy remainders as if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reliquus fuit But sure it signifies the strings of a bow as the instrument of shooting or wounding and then whether we joyn that to the precedent words Thou shalt set them a shoulder for thy bow-strings or to the subsequent words Thou shalt set them a shoulder with thy bow-strings thou shalt prepare against the face of them the latter part must have some influence on the former and then either way the setting them a shoulder will be either the setting them in aray drawing them up in a full and fair battalio that so his arrows may freely play upon them which in the end of the verse are said to be prepared against the face of them or to the same sense thou shalt make them as one neck so the Jewish Arab. renders it for slaughter Somewhat parallel to this we have Hos 6.9 where it is said of the Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they killed shoulder-wise or by the shoulder The Chaldee render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one shoulder in the same words as here they use to expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shoulder which shews it to be a proverbial form to signifie sure and uniform slaughter This the learned Castellio saw and paraphrastically but very significantly exprest Nam tu eis pro scopo collocatis rectâ in eos tuis nervis collineabis For thou shalt set them as thy butt or mark and with thine arrows aim straight at them And this sure is the perspicuous meaning of this dark place For the Souldier in procinctu both in the antient and modern wars was and is wont to oppose only the shoulder to the enemy that being the most commodious posture both for defence and offence Thus the Phalanx was drawn up thus our stand of Pikes are accustomed to charge thus the Archers draw the bows the Musketiers give fire so the Swordmen receive the enemy covering the left shoulder with the buckler and they that use no buckler yet stand upon a guard of like nature and hold it for a rule never to leave open the whole body to the opposite All which gives the account clearly why the phrase of setting them a shoulder is here used because that was the military posture Abu Walid interprets it thou shalt set them as one side or on one side viz. to deal with them all alike comparing the use of it here with that in Hoseah c. 6.9 The Twenty Second PSALM TO the chief Musitian upon Aiieleth Shahar A Psalm of David Paraphrase The Twenty Second Psalm was composed by David on occasion of his own flying from his persecutors and the calamities that befell him at that time and belongs mystically to the Crucifixion of Christ and was therein most literally fulfilled in several passages see Matth. 27.35.43 and was by Christ recited upon the Cross either all or at least some part of it Matth. 27.46 The Psalm thus composed by David was committed to the Praefect of his Musick 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring Paraphrase 1. O my God O my God I am forsaken by thee mine enemies prevail against me and all my loudest and most importunate cryes to thee for help bring me no relief How long wilt thou thus leave me to this state of destitution I beseech thee at length to look upon me This was farther completed in Christ upon the Cross when his Divine Nature suspended the exercise of his omnipotence so far as to deliver up his body to that reproachful death and real separation from his Soul Matth. 27.46 2. O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent Paraphrase 2. O my God I call and cry unto thee continually day and night and thou givest me no redress nor least cessation to my afflictions 3. But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel Paraphrase 3. Yet am I not discouraged by this I am sure that thou continuest faithful and true such as canst not forget thy promises thou art he that hast and wilt continue to do all wonderfull things for thy people and even when for a time thou permittest them to be opprest by their enemies thou art still most worthy to be magnified and praised by them 4. Our father 's trusted in thee they trusted
in the greatest distresses the lowest depression of sadness the most palpable darkness of despair yet am I chearfully resolved not to be discouraged therewith or to apprehend 't will make me miserable being confident of the continuance of this special guard about me and that as a shepherd still thou wilt keep me from straying from thee and protect me from all dangers 5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oyle my cup runneth over Paraphrase 5. Nay more thou givest me that treatment of the most indulgent possessor 2 Sam. 12.3 that admitted his beloved lamb unto his table to eate of his bread and drink of his cup with him thou ommittest no expression of respect and tender love to me By this means thou providest all plenty for me maugre the malice of my enemies who grieve to see the riches of thy bounty to me and care over me Thou entertainest me with wine and oyle in the most festival manner affordest me not only in a sufficient but in a most plentiful degree all things that are for the advantage as well as support both of my body and soul 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I †will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Paraphrase 6. And I cannot doubt but this bounty and super-abundant mercy of thine shall continue to me all my dayes and for my return to thee I shall most diligently frequent the publick Assembly of thy saints and servants wheresoever the Ark is placed and there bless and praise thy name and address my prayers to thee as long as I live And this is a farther addition to the felicities of my life that thou wilt afford me this honourable and glorious way of inhabiting in thy sanctuary and most amicably conversing with thee Or to crown all this thou shalt enfold me at last in that best of sheep-coats that place of equal purity and safety where no unclean or ravenous beast can come there shall I rest and there abide for ever Annotations on Psal XXIII V. 5. Runneth over The LXXII for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exuberant read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inebriating but this is their ordinary use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for drinking liberally not being intoxicated or drunk The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies moist watered and watering being a means of making ground fertile plentiful exuberant and so is fitly applied to the festival cup here But to this the LXXII add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latine quam praeclarus est how excellent is it This they do by taking the beginning of the next verse and adding it to the end of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they therefore render how good But that belongs to the consequent words and so is rendred by the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but goodness or benignity and so the Syriack and the Arabick who yet finding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the version of the LXXII render that there inebriating as pure wine accounting that the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 best the wine which hath no dash of water being such In this place the LXXII read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy cup and from them the Arabick and Aethiopick but the Hebrew hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my cup and so the Chaldee and Syriack and Latine and St. Hierome in his Epistle to Sunia and Fretella saith that in the edition of the LXXII it was my cup and that thy cup was an error of the Scribes V. 6. Dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the interlinear regularly renders I shall return from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is commonly taken in that sense is by all the antient Interpreters rendred I shall dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the LXXII and so in the rest from a second notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to inhabit in which we have it Jer. 42.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We render it if ye shall still abide and the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by dwelling ye shall dwell and so the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if ye shall surely abide and the Arabick if ye shall remain firm and the Latine si quiescentes permanseritis if ye shall abide quiet and so the Syriack also Thus 2 Sam. 19.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his abiding the Chaldee again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his dwelling at Mahanaim And that thus it was taken here is much more probable from their general consent than that they read as some imagine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being ordinary for words of so near alliance as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to return and I may add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rest to change significations the one with the other and so to signifie the same thing especially when 't is remembred that he that is returned to a place is supposed to abide for some time and so to inhabit there The Twenty Fourth PSALM A Psalm of David Paraphrase The Twenty fourth Psalm composed by David on occasion of bringing the Ark into Sion is a declaration of Gods dominion over this world his providential presence in every part of it but his special presence in the place assigned for his worship the Ark of the Covenant which is therefore joyfully to be received into Sion and entertain'd by all Israel being moreover a signal emblem of Christ's ascension into heaven 1. The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein 2. For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods Paraphrase 1 2. This whole lower orbe of ours and not only the heaven where he is said to dwell is the Lords by all right of creation and providence and preservation and so are all the sorts of creatures and every particular with which he hath replenisht it the Universe and all the inhabitants thereof produced at first continued since and every minute preserved by him for were it not so this globe whereon we dwell would suddenly be overwhelmed and covered with waters For thus the order of nature would direct and thus we find in the beginning of the creation that next under the aire were the waters encompassing the whole surface of the earth Gen. 1.7 till God reformed this course made such cavities in the earth as should receive the water into them and such banks as should bound and keep it in and such a law as should bridle this vast Ocean that it should not break forth Gen. 1.9 and so now by his providence the water is beneath the earth and yet the earth stands firm on that fluid body as upon the most solid foundation which is a
it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corruption as Psal 16.10 they do as from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corruptus fuit and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the known word for a net or snare or toyle to catch beasts or birds or fish in and not improbably from it the Latine rete This the LXXII here render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ginn or snare and so the Syriack and Latine and Arabick And then the whole phrase denotes the manner of toyles among the Jews digging a hole and slight covering it over and hiding it and setting a snare in it that they that not seeing prest the clod and fell therein might be caught and held from getting out again To this also belongs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that follows from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dig which the Chaldee therefore renders Paraphrastically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they insnared or laid wait for but the LXXII from another notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exprobravit render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reproacht and so the Latine and Arabick from them V. 12. Spoiling The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 orbitas deprivation most frequently applied to loss of children and so here rendred by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 childlessness being applied as here it is to the soul signifies the loss or deprivation of life the soul being then deprived when it is by death separated from the body the only companion which it hath And accordingly as the Chaldee renders it more literally they seek to deprive my soul so the Syriack expresseth the sense more paraphrastically they destroyed my soul from among men and so the Arabick they destroyed my soul i. e. indeavoured to do so But the Latine from the LXXII read sterilitatem barrenness and the Aethiopick they deprive my soul of the births thereof V. 14. Behaved my self From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in Hithpael I have walked or made my self to walk the mourner discovering his passion as by his dress so by his gate Thus Ahab walked sofuly and Isaiah expresseth mourning by bowing down the head like a bulrush This the LXXII according to their wont render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pleased So Gen. v. 22 24. and 6 9. and 17.1 and 24.40 and 48.15 Psal 26.3 and 115.9 they render the same word and from them the Apostle Heb. 11.5 But here the context confining the discourse to mourning wearing sackcloth and fasting going before v. 13. and bowing down and mourning following after it is in reason to be taken in that sense and so 't is expresly used Psal 38.6 I walked mourning and so Eccles 12.5 the mourners are said to go about the streets I walked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were a friend or brother of mine that had fallen into some mischief But then in that which follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I bowed down as a mourner bewailing his mother or as the Jewish Arab joyning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a mourning mother expressing saith he his sorrow by the sorrow of a mother for her child which indeed is the fittest instance of a passionate sorrow the LXXII have omitted the word mother and render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one mourning and sore lamenting so was I humbled or bowing down And thus the Syriack and Arabick and Latine follow them But the Chaldee read the mother with the Hebrew as a mourner that mourneth for his mother V. 15. In mine adversity From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 latus a side is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inclinatio ad latus going down on one side being lame falling calamity adversity and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will best be rendered at my fall see Psal 38.17 the Chaldee read in my tribulation the Syriack in my suffering but the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against me V. 15. Abjects From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 percussit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any base or vile or wicked person So the Chaldee here renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked men and so the Arabick in the sense that Deut. 25.2 of a wicked man 't is said if he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filius percussionis a son of beating i. e. worthy to be scourged a vile person The LXXII here render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flagella scourges i. e. men fit to be scourged and so the Latine flagella I suppose in this figurative use of the word In the end of the verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they tare or used me reproachfully Abu Walid conjectureth it to signifie speaking lies or false things and ceased noâ— is by the LXXII rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were divided the passive for the Active 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had no compunction for which the Arabick they repented not All the difficulty is to what belongs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I knew not in the midst And the resolution will be most reasonable that we learn the meaning of it from v. 11. where the same phrase is used for those accusations whereof he was no way conscious Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitly signifies to know having oft the notion of being conscious of So 1 King 2.44 Thou knowest all the evill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thy heart knows i. e. is conscious of And so here the abjects gathered themselves together against me laid reproachful things to my charge tare my good name and ceased not used me most contumeliously and did so continually and all this was without any cause or provocation on my part I knew not I was not conscious or guilty of any thing just as v. 2. without cause they hid their pit without cause they digged for my soul V. 16. In feasts From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bake comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cake 1 King 17.12 and so here it may signifie a cake or any kind of meat as that which Parasites and trencher-friends buffones and scoffers desire to gain by scoffing at others and making mirth a meals-meat is their best reward This verse the LXXII seem to have rendered onely Paraphrastically for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the hypocrites of mockings or hypocritical mockers or jesters for a cake reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they tempted me they jeered or laughâ— at me and so the Latine Arabick and Aethiopick but the Chaldee neerer the original with words of flatteries jeering and deriding where the words of flattery seem to be set to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For those that flatter according to the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—able-friends or Parasites do it on purpose to gain some such reward and nothing more common with such kind of flatterers than by deriding and scoffing of others to intertain them who give them their meat
from whence the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give blowes under the eye is frequently used for putting to shame and accordingly the Chaldee would more fitly be rendered vibices than cicatrices scars as the Translation of the Targum and the vulgar Latine have it V. 6. Troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incurvatus est is regularly to be rendered I am incurvate so the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incurvatus est signifies The LXXII paraphrase it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was afflicted the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was in commotion I was afraid But the literal must be reteined to connect it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was deprest or bowed down that follows which the LXXII rightly renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was crookt or bent down As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usque valde exceeding much or to extremity the LXXII render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until the end so the Latine usque in finem and so the Arabick for ever in the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for eternity But in v. 8. where the phrase is used again they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine nimis in the notion of that word for very much V. 7. Loins The notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the flank is known in Scripture Lev. 3.4 the kidneys and the fat which is upon them which is over or by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the flanks so Job 15.27 fat on his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flank And so here it must be taken for that sinewy part of the body next under the loynes the groine c. wherein boils and plague-sores frequently rise Some copies of the LXXII render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those the Latine follow and read lumbi loines but Suidas tells us what parts of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in Hippocrates's dialect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he the kidneys are situate in them Athenaeus l. 9. out of Simaristus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 3. tells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies fleshy in opposition to bony parts over against the loins and out of Clearchus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 musculous parts on each side adding that some call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I see â—e learned men will have changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wombes of the reins because as was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kidneys are placed in them But I conceive that is not the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in composition especially at the end of a word certainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16.13 Numb 11.31 Psal 104.40 Wisd 16.2 and 19.12 is not the womb of the quails but a great sort of quails the mother quaile as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the great and so the mother City and in this sense sure the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot be called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great or the mother-kidneys I shall therefore adhere to the vulgar reading that they are in Clearchus called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great or the mother nerves for such indeed are the flanks grissly or nervous parts beyond all others in the body and that makes them very sensible when any inflammation or swelling is in them Other copies of the LXXII have instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my soul and the Arabick follows them But the former is surely the truer reading Then for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith he saith his flank is filled that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vilipendit is ordinarily rendered in the notion of foule or vile the Latine renders it illusionibus and the Arabick and Aethiopick to the same sense with reproaches from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Romane edition of the LXXII have But it must be remembred that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies also to rost or burne c. and so the noun by analogy may signifie inflammation such we know all those boiles and sores are and the Chaldee here renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 burning from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to inflame or burne and from thence is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feaver or burning disease and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a carbuncle which as it signifies a gem so a coal of fire and a burning boile or swelling also And whereas those editions of the LXXII which read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that must needs be a corruption very probably for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflammations and then there will be a perfect agreement betwixt the Hebrew and Chaldee and LXXII and the rendring be clear my flanks are filled with inflammations by those signifying boiles swellings carbuncles in those nervous parts very painful and sensible by that means V. 11. Sore From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to touch or to wound or to come near is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here my wound or stroke or bruise the evils that have befallen me The Chaldee render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my wound or contusion the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my grief but the LXXII as reading it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the verbe and in the notion of approaching render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they came neer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they came neer me and stood over against me and by this they have fully though paraphrastically exprest the sense of it as Luk. 10.31 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passing by over against him that was wounded signifies not taking any care of him V. 12. Snares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is certainly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that in Piel signifies collisit concussâ— prostravit to destroy saith Abu Walid to lay grins or snares saith the Jewish Arabick translator any injurious or violent usage toward any so Psal 109.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let the usurer catch or take by violence all that he hath The Chaldee there render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which with them is to levy take or exact and accordingly the LXXII here render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used violence and the Latine vim faciebant the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bound me laid hold on me and the Arabick opprest me Only the Chaldee that there rendred it rightly yet here reading it as from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lay snares render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laid snares as on the other side the LXXII which duly interpret it here yet in that of Psal 109.11 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search either taking it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so signifies or respecting the notion wherein the Arabs use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for
the sons of Heman 1 Chron. 25.4 stiled Heman the finger 1 Chron. 6.33 who came from Elkanah Assir Abiasaph v. 36 37. three of the posterity of Coreh Exod. 6.24 and 1 Chron. 6.22.31 and were not slain Num. 26.11 1. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God Paraphrase 1. No Deer when he is in the greatest inward inflammation expresseth more ardent desire and thirst of water than my heart is at this time affected with toward God and his publick service 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Paraphrase 2. I am in a most impatient thirst much afflicted to be kept so long from that place where God is pleased to exhibit himself to those that come to worship him 3. My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me Where is thy God Paraphrase 3. It is very great cause of continual sorrow unto me to hear men reproach me for my trust in God thinking that I am wholly forsaken by him 4. When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy-day Paraphrase 4. This puts me into a great excess of sorrow and impatience when reflecting on what I have formerly injoyned I remember how I was wont to go in the society of many pious men to the place of Gods worship in a most cheerful devout alacrious manner but now am as in a wilderness wholly deprived of these most divine pleasant and valuable opportunities 5. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted in me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance Paraphrase 5. But let me not be dejected or disturbed even with this though as sad a reflection as is possible viz. to be deprived of these blessed advantages of solemn converse with God A full reliance and resignation to the divine will is a medicine for this also and I do not yet despair but I shall find some way of escape for which to pay my acknowledgments The time will come when God shall afford me occasion to praise him see v. 8. for this deliverance also and for the supports which his favour hath yielded me in the midst of all this sadness 6. O my God my soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Missar Paraphrase 6. Mean-while in this great dejection of my spirit flying from one place to another from one side of Jordan and the Countrey adjoyning passing over that River and then still flying on the other side of it from Hermon to Tabor I have nothing to support my self but meditation on that God which I have hitherto served and never been destituted by him 7. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me Paraphrase 7. And by the same God by the same most gracious providence I have now been supported also For though I have for a while been under thy displeasure thy punishments lying heavy upon me and by them my enemies incouraged to design me all mischief who seeing the effects of thy displeasure on me are soon excited to add more weight to my pressures and though by the conjunction of these I have been ready to be overwhelmed yet at length all is past over without doing me any hurt 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life Paraphrase 8. And the account of it is clear His gracious providence hath surrounded me day and night my whole time hath been divided between receiving and acknowledging and again praying for mercies from him as from one that delighted in doing me good 9. I will say unto God My rock why hast thou forgotten me why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy Paraphrase 9. Thus therefore have I constantly addressed my self to him in this mournful ditty saying O thou which art the only aid and support of my life the only sure fortress wherein I can repose any trust how am I despised and rejected by thee what a black gloomy condition am I now in mine enemies being permitted by thee to oppress me sorely 10. As with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me Where is thy God Paraphrase 10. Shimei hath reviled me bitterly 1 Sam. 16.7 8. I am pierced hereby and wounded to the very heart like one that hath received a killing wound or stroke in his body And in this greatest exigence this lowest depression that either the scorn or malice of mine enemies can bring upon me concluding by my pressures that God hath utterly forsaken me 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Paraphrase 11. My soul shall still make a comfortable reflection in its constant recourse to God in this my saddest condition I have always had some hope and comfort left to support me and keep me from being utterly cast down or disturbed immoderately And upon the strength thereof I shall for ever incourage my self to rely and cast my self intirely on him not despairing but that he will one day return in mercy to me deliver me out of all my distresses and shew forth his favour and loving kindness to me Annotations on Psal XLII V. 1. Panteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to cry and is applyed to Beasts especially to Deer when they impatiently desire the water This they are said to do when they have eaten some vipers which medicinally they are said to seek and eate and then are inflamed thereby and vehemently desire water to cool them This they do again when they are hunted hard that they may cool and relieve themselves from the dogs that way But the more prompt and ready interpretation is that feeding in a dry and parched wilderness they want and oft-times can find no water and then go about and make a mournful noise for it And thus is it most fitly applyed to David when in his flight from Absalom he was thus in the wilderness destitute of the spiritual advantages of joyning with the people of God in his service The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be here taken in the foeminine gender as appears by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 following and accordingly the LXXII read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the foeminine V. 4. Remember The first words of this v. 4. are by the LXXII literally rendred from the Hebrew
themselves that they shall perpetuate the wealth and greatness which they have gathered but are very wide of their expectations find themselves foully deceived and frustrated And yet they that succeed them in their estates go after them in the same track imitate that folly which was so fatal to them and think themselves happy that they shall enjoy the fruits of it 14. Like sheep they are laid in the grave death shall feed on them and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling Paraphrase 14. But then death comes upon them all and defeats all their expectations As sheep or other such creatures they die remove from all their splendid possessions to those dark invisible plains where they continue as a flock in a pasture till that great morning of the resurrection when the righteous shall be assumed by God to assist in judicacature and so shall arise in their old shapes when the earth shall give up her dead and the grave wherein their beauty strength and form decayed and was consumed shall at length it self decay and lose its strength death having lost its sting and the grave its victory and so being no longer the mansion for the bodies of just men 15. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me Selah Paraphrase 15. And accordingly my comfort is that God will after my death one day restore me again to life into his hands I commend my spirit not doubting but he will hereafter receive me to glory And so for all others that constantly adhere to and wait on God whatever terrors they meet with here they have this full matter of confidence that God hath particular care of them and will either deliver them out of their dangers or convert them to their greatest good rewarding them abundantly in the resurrection 16. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the glory of his house is increased Paraphrase 16. It is therefore most unreasonable to be troubled at or to envy the increase of wordly riches or honour or any kind of greatness or prosperity to the worldly man 17. For when he dyeth he shall carry nothing away his glory shall not descend after him Paraphrase 17. For death will soon overtake him and then he cannot carry his wealth with him his present glory and greatness shall not then yield him the least advantage 18. Though whilst he lived he blest his soul and men will praise thee when thou dost well to thy self Paraphrase 18. Indeed might his own word be taken he were an happy man for so he flattereth himself that he hath goods laid up for many years and as long as this life lasts he entertains no other thoughts But when death comes all these flattering fallacies vanish 'T is not thine own mouth but anothers whose commendation will be worth the having and that will not be had but for the real kindnesses and good turns thou dost unto thy self in doing that which will prove thy durable good and not in saying magnificent things of thy present state applauding thy temporal felicities 19. He shall go to the generation of his fathers they shall never see light Paraphrase 19. The just shall be gathered to their fathers in peace die indeed as their fathers did before them but the wicked shall be destroyed for ever their death shall be their entrance into endless unexpressible darkness and misery and to that they shall be for ever confined 20. Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish Paraphrase 20. The conclusion then is There is not a more brutish creature more fit to be pitied than envied than a worldly wicked man advanced to greatness in this world and pleasing himself in it he doth not at all understand his own condition he triumphs and thinks himself very happy and whilst he doth so death unexpectedly seises upon him and confutes him sweeps him away helpless and friendless as a beast of the field that just now took himself for one of the greatest men in the world just as they perish and leave all behind them so doth he Only the wise and virtuous the upright v. 10 14. have better hopes and shall not fail of atteining them Annotations on Psalm XLIX V. 2. Low and high The difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may here briefly be noted The former is taken for a great or eminent person in any respect of virtue extraction strength c. So 1 Sam. 26.15 Art thou not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man is expounded by what follows and who is like thee in Israel signifying there the military valour and reputation of Abner and many the like Whereas as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth signifies an earthy or frail mortal mean man And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here sons of this mean man are the lower and ordinary sort of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of the earth say the LXXII not that they read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because they would in their reading allude to the original of the word as oft they do And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the contrary to these persons of the higher quality The Chaldee express the former phrase by the sons of old Adam the latter by the sons of Jacob making this difference between the rest of mankind and the people of Israel and giving the latter the preeminence over all other and so they make them comprehensive words containing Gentiles and Jews i. e. all the men in the world and that very fitly the Psalm following being the equal concernment of them both But 't is more likely that the phrases denote only the several conditions of men of the lower and higher rank for so the consequents interpret it rich and poor the former according to the sacred style frequently observable explicative of the latter of those and the latter of the former by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. 4. Dark saying The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proverb or parable is of great latitude signifies primarily any similitude by which another thing is exprest thence a figurative speech either by way of fiction and fable such are riddles or significant apologues as that of Jotham Jud. 9.7 and many others in Scripture both in the old and new Testament or by way of application of some true example or similitude as when the sluggard is bid go to the ant the impenitent sinner to the swallow and crane which return at their certain seasons and so are fit to preach returning or repentance to sinners And finally it belongs to all moral doctrine either darkly or only sententiously delivered because the wise men of the world were wont to deliver that in short concise sentences
morning in the resurrection in which the just shall judge the world and so subjugate the wicked wordlings to all eternity Then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their beauty or form or figure so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 effinxit formavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a contraction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being an imperfect sense must be supplied from that which went before and their form i. e. so likewise shall their form do as the upright shall in the resurrection have dominion over the wicked rise and raign joyfully so likewise shall their form or figure referring to the restauration of their bodies they shall rise again in their old shapes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the failing of Hades from an habitation to it i. e. where Hades shall fail to be an habitation to it i. e. when the grave or common repository of the dead in which their beauty form and figure was consumed shall it self decay and lose its strength death having forfeited her sting and the grave her victory no longer to be a mansion to the bodies of the just And this being here spoken in general of all just men is by David particularly applied to himself v. 15. But God will deliver my soul from the power of the grave c. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXXII read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their help as from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 petra a rock and by metaphore strength refuge and so help and the Latine follows them but Syriack reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their form or image And so this is the interpretation of this whole verse the principal part of difficulty in this parable or dark saying for which this Psalm was designed V. 15. Receive me God 's receiving here is to be understood in the same sense as Enochs being received or taken by God Gen. 5.24 or as we find Psal 73.34 thou shalt after receive me to glory Thus Jonah 4.3 he prays take I beseech thee my life And then it will signifie Gods future receiving him to glory V. 18. Though whilst he lived The Hebrew of the 18. verse is thus literally and clearly rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for in his living or life time he blest his soul the impious worldling applauded much his own present state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but men shall praise thee or thou shalt be praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if or when thou dost well to thy self i. e. for doing well to thy self for doing that which may tend really and eternally to thy good and not for saying well for applauding thy present felicity V. 19. Shall go To go or to be gathered to the fathers is a known expression of dying in peace and the same is the importance of the phrase here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall go to the generation of his fathers So the Chaldee read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the memory of the just shall come and be added to the generation of their fathers but the wicked shall never see light The Fiftieth PSALM A Psalm of Asaph Paraphrase The Fiftieth Psalm is a solemn magnifying of Gods power and majesty and a description of the calling of the Gentiles and of the true Evangelical way of worshipping God It was composed probably by David and appointed to be sung by Asaph a Levite appointed by David to attend the Ark and to record and to thank and to praise the Lord God of Israel 1 Chron. 16.5 1. The mighty God even the Lord hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof Paraphrase 1. The decree is gone out from the Omnipotent God of heaven the supreme eternity Lord and Judge over all the world that he will assemble and convocate the whole Nation of the Jews from Dan to Bersheba from sea to sea from East to West to reduce and take them off from their hypocritical and abominable practises and bring them to the due acknowledgment and pure worship of the true God and the practise of all virtue 2. Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Paraphrase 2. To this end as God hath fixt his Tabernacle on Mount Sion presentiated himself as illustriously there as he did at the giving the Law on Mount Sinai so shall the Son of God in the fulness of time descend to this earth of ours the true light John 1.9 shall shine forth the Messias shall be born of our flesh of the seed of David and having preacht repentance to the Jews and being rejected by their Sanhedrim and Crucified by them he shall rise from death and ascend to his Father and then send his Spirit on his Apostles thereby commissionating them to reveal his Gospel to all the world beginning from the place where God hath been pleased in a special manner to reside this most beautiful mount of Sion there he now presentiates himself and from thence he shall then begin to shine forth and inlighten the heathen world the preaching of his Gospel to all the world shall commence and proceed from thence 3. Our God shall come and shall not keep silence a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him Paraphrase 3. What is thus decreed shall certainly come to pass in its appointed time and be lookt on as an extraordinary and signal work of Gods power wherein much of his divine presence shall be discernible and the immediate attendants of it shall be very dreadful and terrible above that of the giving the Law to the Jews from Mount Sinai 4. He shall call to the Heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people Paraphrase 4. And it shall begin with a summons as to a solemn Assises for the examining the actions of men good and bad those that have resisted and despised the Messias and those that have subjected themselves to him All shall be judged by him the former punished and the latter rewarded And Angels and Men shall be summoned and called in to be executioners of these his judgments 5. Gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by sacrifice Paraphrase 5. And the good Angels his ministers of preservation shall be appointed to take special care of all the pious believing Jews Mat. 24.31 Rev. 7.3 who have sincerely given themselves up to his service received the Christian faith and in their baptism made vow of performing it faithfully which adore and pray constantly to him and not to suffer any harm to come nigh to these 6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is Judge himself Selah Paraphrase 6. And so accordingly shall they do rescuing all faithful believers out of the calamities that attend the crucifiers A thing much to be taken notice of as an act of most
their own absolute impotence to go on to any farther victory unless God who once forsook be now pleased in a special manner to aid them And 't is poetically contriv'd by way of question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who shall lead me i. e. it is not possible for me by my own strength or with any humane aids whatsoever to enter any one place of strength the Chaldee names Tyre to conquer Idâ—â—â—aâ— unless God interpose in my behalf assist and prosper my attempts It follows therefore v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shalt not thou O Lord i. e. None can except thou dost Thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hast or hadst forsaken us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the LXXII qui repâ—listi noâ— say the vulgar thou which formerly hadst cast us off for some â—â—me not complaining that he now doth so that is quite contrary to the drift of the whole Psalm but affirming and concluding from their improsperousness when formerly he did forsake that none can now aid successfully but he And then concluding with confidence of his favour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and wilt thou not i. e. certainly O Lord thou wilt go out with our hosts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and wilt thou not go forth say the LXXII And so this well accords with the contexture and design of the Psalm to magnifie Gods aids and the consequent thereof all manner of good success and prosperity The Sixty First PSALM TO the chief Musitian upon Neginoth A Psalm of David Paraphrase The sixty First Psalm is made up of Thanksgiving and humble dependance on God for all his mercies It was composed by David and committed to the Prefect of his Musick to be sung to the Harp or Psaltery or other such stringed instrument Psal 4.1 1. Hear my cry O God attend unto my prayer Paraphrase 1. O Gratious God to thee is my only resort in all my distresses be thou pleased to receive and answer my prayers 2. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Paraphrase 2. Though I am driven as far as from Absalom I was fain to fly 2 Sam. 17.22 to the utmost parts of the land beyond Jordan v. 23. how great soever my trouble and streights are yet to thee have I a sure retreat when my condition is at the lowest thou hast a fortress of impregnable safety to which thou wilt be sure to conduct me 3. For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong Tower from the enemy Paraphrase 3. For thus have I alwayes experimented thy goodness to me when men have assaulted thou hast rescued and secured me 4. I will abide in thy Tabernacle for ever I will trust in the covert of thy wings Selah Paraphrase 4. And that teacheth me the wisdom of this resolution of keeping me constantly under this safeguard and that I may do so of continuing my daily dependance on thee and addresses to thee in that place where thou hast promised to be alwayes present 5. For thou O God hast heard my vows thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name Paraphrase 5. To this none had greater incouragement than I my offerings have always been accepted and my prayers heard by thee This is the priviledge of all thy faithful servants and this thou hast been pleased to afford me 6. Thou wilt prolong the Kings life and his years as many generations Paraphrase 6. Thou shalt bless me with a long and prosperous life and therein make me a type of the Messias whose Kingdom when it commences shall have no end 7. He shall abide before God for ever O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him Paraphrase 7. Thou shalt never cast me from thy favour as long as I continue my fidelity to thee thy free but promised mercy will not fail to perpetuate my prosperity 8. So will I sing praise to thy name for ever that I may daily perform my vows Paraphrase 8. And this shall oblige me to bless and magnifie thy gracious and glorious Majesty as long as I live to present my daily oblations to thee and yield thee all the obedience of a thankful heart for ever The Sixty Second PSALM TO the chief Musitian to Jeduthun A Psalm of David Paraphrase The Sixty Second Psalm is an Eucharistical hymne composed by David and committed to the Praefect of his Musick to be sung and play'd to by instruments after the manner that Herman and Jeduthun were appointed to do 1 Chron. 16.42 1. Truly my soul waiteth upon God from him cometh my salvation Paraphrase 1. All my defence and relief is from God alone on him will I patiently and chearfully attend for a supply to all my wants 2. He is my rock and my salvation he is my defense I shall not be greatly moved Paraphrase 2. The strength which I have from him gives me security that I shall not be in any great measure deprest by my enemies 3. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man ye shall be slain all the sort of you as a bowing wall and as a tottering sense Paraphrase 3. How vain then are all the attempts of my slanderous violent rebellious subjects which are always raising of stirs and tumults as if all of them combined as one man to take away my life 4. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency they delight in lyes they bless with their mouth but they curse inwardly Selah Paraphrase 4. All their contrivances and consultations are to pull me from the Throne to wrest the regal power out of my hand and this traiterous design they gloss and varnish over with fair flattering language 5. My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him Paraphrase 5. But I will remit my whole cause to God and attend how he shall please to dispose of me 6. He only is my rock and my salvation he is my defense I shall not be moved Paraphrase 6. Being confident of a certain relief and support from him which will not permit me to be cast down by these men 7. In God is my salvation and my glory the rock of my strength and my refuge is from God Paraphrase 7. On him only I rely for deliverance for exaltation for aid to defend me and for sanctuary when any distress surrounds me 8. Trust in him at all times ye people pour out your heart before him God is a refuge for us Selah Paraphrase 8. And this wil be matter of imitation to all that profess to be his servants to repose all their trust in him to empty themselves of all secular confidences and apply themselves in prayer to him devoutly to beg and confidently to depend on his relief 9. Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye to be
and attend the voice of my supplications Paraphrase 6. And hereon I found my trust and importunity that thou wilt now grant this my petition 7. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee for thou wilt answer me Paraphrase 7. When I am in the greatest streights then aâ— in thy special opportunity I address my prayers unto thee being then most confident that thou wilt give me an answer of mercy 8. Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works Paraphrase 8. Of all the Angels in heaven much more of the false heathen Idol gods there is none fit to be compared with thee their power to relieve is not comparable to thine nor proportionably their readiness for such a work of mercy 9. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorify thy name Paraphrase 9. And this is so evident in thy works of creation but especially in thy works of redemption and thy strange providential dispensations and interpositions of thy hand in behalf of thy servants that all the blindest Idolatrous Gentiles may therein discern reasons abundantly sufficient to convince them of thy power and to bring them as proselytes to thy worship to acknowledge and magnifie thy divine Majesty and so at length they shall do in the days of the Messias 10. For thou art great and dost wondrous things thou art God alone Paraphrase 10. For to thee only belongs the soveraign commanding controlling power to which all creatures yield their obedience as being the one only God over all the world None but thou only hast the priviledge of working true miracles of resisting the most puissant power of men and so of rescuing the most disconsolate sufferers out of the utmost distresses 11. Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name Paraphrase 11. O Lord let thy spirit direct and guide all the actions of my life that they may be acceptable to thee that I may uniformely practice what thou requirest O be thou pleased to purge all hypocrisy out of my soul that I may perform a sincere universal obedience to thy commands not taking any interest of the world or flesh into competition with thee 12. I will praise thee O Lord my God with all mine heart and I will glorifie thy name for evermore 13. For great is thy mercy toward me and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell Paraphrase 12 13. This I am sure is most perfectly due to thee and with it all the praises and acknowledgments of my whole soul and that for ever It being a work of thy superabundant mercy toward me thy poor indigent helpless and withall most unworthy servant that thou hast not permitted me to be swallowed up with that abyss of dangers that have incompast me but as yet preserved and so in some degree delivered me out of them 14. O God the proud are risen against me and the Assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them Paraphrase 14. For they are a sort of obstinate and withall very numerous powerful and formidable enemies that have set themselves purposely to destroy me without any fear of thee or imagination that thou wilt interpose any hinderance to the prosperous success of their designs 15. But thou O Lord art a God full of compassion and gratious long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth Paraphrase 15. But thou O Lord wilt undoubtedly relieve me and discomfit them Of this thy divine attributes assure me who art so wholly made up of mercy and pity to them that are in distress and cry to thee for help that I cannot doubt of thy hearing and rescuing me at this time and though thou deferâ—est the execution of thy wrath upon wicked doers on purpose to reduce them by thy patience to repentance yet when this work of thy long-sufferance and mercy proves in effectual when men go on impenitently and obstinately in their course thy fidelity and performance to thy servants that are opprest by such as well as that soveraign property thy mercy oblige thee to discomfit and exemplarily to punish them and relieve and deliver those that are oppressed by them 16. O turn unto me and have mercy upon me give thy strength unto thy servant and save the son of thy handmaid Paraphrase 16. Lord if it be thy will may this now be thy opportunity to restore thy wonted mercies to me to interpose thy power for my rescue and deliver me thy most lowly servant out of these present dangers 17. Shew me a token for good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed because thou Lord hast holpen me and comforted me Paraphrase 17. Let thy favour and kindness toward me be now by some means as thou shalt think good signally and illustriously exprest that it may be effectual to work a shame and reformation in mine enemies so far at least as to give over their malitious design when they discern thee to espouse my cause to take my part to assist and support me against all their machinations Annotations on Psalm LXXXVI V. 2. For I am holy The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render for I am holy may deserve to be examined The Chaldee directly follow the Hebrew words and are to be interpreted by them and give no help toward the understanding them The LXXII read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as literal the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an aspirate for ×— as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with γ for ×— being most probably formed by an easie change from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This signifying originally 1. piety to God 2. probity 3. mercy or benignity the Syriack it seems thought it so unreasonable for the Psalmist to affirm any of these of himself that taking it in the third notion that of goodnese as that is all one with mercy they apply it not to the Psalmist but to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art good and so the Arabick also That this was by them done either through change or misunderstanding the Hebrew is not probable when there is another notion of the word which as it will best accord with this place so it will perfectly justify this their rendring that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see note on Ps 4. d. one that hath found favour with God This best accords with the rest of the titles here given to himself poor and needy v. 1. thy servant that trusteth in thee v. 2. one that cries daily to thee v. 3. that lifts up his soul to thee v. 4. Which what are they but the description of Gods Eleemosynary the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elsewhere Another possible notion of the word and which recedes very little from this such as may be owned of the
affairs and shut up from the conversation of men And in proportion with these they that are dead and laid in their graves are here said to be free i. e. removed from all the affairs and conversation of the World even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the commandments say the Jews of them that are dead Nidda fol. 76. Thus is death described Job 3. by lying still and quiet and at rest v. 13. in desolate places v. 14. where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary be at rest v. 17. where the prisoners rest together and hear not the voice of the oppressor v. 18. and where the servant is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here free from his master v. 19. In this verse there seems to be a gradation To be slain is more than to dye to be in the grave more than either but to dye by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be cut off by excision not to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remembrance of blessing to be utterly forgot and have no share in the world to come which they say every Israelite hath is the utmost pitch of misery V. 10. Dead That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies the dead those that lye in the grave there can be no question The Chaldee render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the carcasses that are putrified in the dust So Isa 26.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall not rise is but the interpretation of what went before they are dead they shall not live and so v. 19. the earth shall cast out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead bodies So Prov. 21.16 the man that wandreth from the way of understanding shall remain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the congregation of the dead the Chaldee reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the sons of the earth The same word is elsewhere used for gyants Gen. 14.5 and Isa 17.5 which makes it probable that the word comes from a notion of the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not ordinarily taken notice of by Lexicographers who generally take it for healing and curing such as may be common to these two so distant derivatives dead men and gyants The gyants we know are in most languages exprest by phrases taken from the bottom or bowels of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and terrae filii born from or sons of the earth and just so the Chaldee even now rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where 't was used for dead bodies Prov. 21.16 which gives us reason to resolve that the Radix originally signified something pertaining to the lower parts of the earth and so 't will be fitly communicated to these two which in the notion of healing it will not be And to this accords a notion of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Hebrews for metals minerals gold silver coral c. which are digged out of the earth and from the very bottom of the Sea the abysse which is very agreeable to both these notions of the word the dead being there laid and disposed of after their departure out of this world their bodies in the grave and their animal Souls in Scheol the state of separation not otherwise capable of being described but by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disappearing the abyss or deep and the gyants by their great strength and exercise of it in invading and oppressing others and by being of uncertain originals phansied to have received their birth from some subterranean powers and so called by that title The LXXII deducing the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to heale render it here and elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Physitians and the Latine medici but the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong men or Gyants V. 18. Acquaintance From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was darkned is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here an obscure dark place an hole or hiding-place and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a darke place or hole to my acquaintance signifies the lying hid and sculking of friends hiding themselves for fear they should be seen by him and called to help him The Jewish Arab reads And mine Acquaintance are become as darkness The Eighty Ninth Psalm MAschil of Ethan the Ezrahite Paraphrase The 89 Psalm is a commemoration of the mercies performed and promised to be continued to David and his posterity to the end of the world but now in the time of some great affliction on Prince and People probably in the captivity v. 38. c. see note i. seemingly interrupted by their sins and their breach of Covenant with God together with an hearty prayer for the return of them The Author of it is not known It was set to the tune of a Song of Ethan the son of Zerah called Maschil see note on Psalm 88. b. 1. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations Paraphrase 1. The mercies of our God in making such gracious and glorious promises to his people and his exact fidelity in performing them is so great that it exacts all our lauds and most magnificent commemorations thereby to proclaim and divulge them to all posterity 2. For I have said Mercy shall be built up for ever thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens Paraphrase 2. God hath promised abundant kindness and mercy and that to endure to us to all our posterities and so I am most confident he will perform make good by his continual faithfulness from his seat of mercy and of justice what he hath thus promised us 3. I have made a Covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant Paraphrase 3. This promise of his was most solemnly made by way of a sworn Covenant stricken with David whom he chose to be King over his people when he rejected and removed Saul 4. Thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy throne to all generations Selah Paraphrase 4. And the sum of his Covenant was not only that he should be King over his people but that this dignity should be continued to his posterity for many generations and that in some degree though with great disturbances which their sins should bring upon them as long as this Nation should continue and that toward the time of the destruction thereof the Messias should be born of this very race of David and erect a spiritual Kingdom in the hearts of all faithful men the only true genuine posterity of Abraham and David which should undoubtedly endure to the end of the world 5. And the heavens shall praise thy wonders O Lord thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the Saints Paraphrase 5. This is a most glorious Covenant of transcendent and wonderful mercies which as thou hast made so thou shalt exactly perform to us the glories thereof shall be admired and celebrated by all the Angels in heaven when they are met together for the praising and
and care and remarkable preservations over his people and an evidence that there is no means of security no way to avert or remove any though but temporal evils disease and the like but that one of applying ones self to God by humiliation and reformation and sacrifice i. e. solemn intercession and then as when Saint James ch 6.14 gives the like directions in time of sickness and promiseth that the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up it is not yet to be imagined that no such person which observed such directions should ever die but that generally this should be a successful way and that no means should have that assurance of being effectual as this so in this Psalm the promises of immunity from dangers pestilential diseases c. made to those that remain in the protection of the most High v. 1. i. e. to pious men in the use of these means thus adhering to and not departing from God are not so to be interpreted that no pious man shall die of any Epidemical disease any more than that he shall not die at all but that this of adherence and address to God with humiliation and intercession is the only means either to preserve single persons or multitudes whole nations at once which is the full importance of Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple 1 King 8.31 c. which may be taken as a comment on this Psalm whereas wicked men that have no right to any part in this promise are to expect excision whole multitudes of them together thousands and ten thousands v. 7. and that as the just reward of their impiety v. 8. V. 9. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou must here in the beginning of the verse be understood of God is most evident and so the rendring clear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thou O Lord art my hope and so all the antient Interpreters have understood it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou thy self O Lord art my trust say the Chaldee and the LXXII exactly accord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou O Lord art my hope and so the Syriack and Latine c. But then that which follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most High hast thou set or made thy help or refuge is a part of a soliloquie between the Psalmist and his own soul i. e. himself And though the Chaldee feigning the Psalm to be in stead of a soliloquie a Dialogue betwixt David and Solomon understand this as the former part of the verse of God also that he hath set the house of his Majesty on high and so the Syriack also thou hast set thy house on high yet the LXXII and Latine not discerning two persons in the Psalm beside God but only the Psalmist and his own soul have agreed to understand it of the soul making God her refuge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altissimum posuisti refugium tuum thou hast set or made the most High thy refuge And indeed in this manner hath the whole Psalm proceeded sometimes in the first person ver 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will say of the Lord He is my refuge then in the second person ver 3. Surely he shall deliver thee i. e. thee my soul which is in effect my self and so the most perspicuous way of paraphrasing the whole Psalm is by understanding it throughout in the same i. e. first person but that so as to extend it as appliable to all other pious men as well as the Psalmist according to the general Aphorism in the first verse He that dwelleth and in a most eminent manner to the Messiah to whom the devil applies it Matth. 4.6 If thou be the son of God c. for it is written v. 11. and 12. of this Psalm he shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands shall they bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone And so saith Aben Ezra of the last verse and shew him my salvation it refers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the days of the Messias And so R. Gaon and Kimchi also And so especially the latter part of the Psalm though in a lower sense it may agree to David yet hath its fuller completion in Christ The Jewish Arab takes the whole Psalm for a Colloquie or discourse by David directed to a godly man and therefore as he reads the first verse of the Psalm O thou that sittest under the covert of the High c. I say of the Lord c. v. 2. so he renders this ninth verse Because thou hast said to the Lord Thou art my refuge and hast made the High thy habitation The Ninety Second PSALM A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day Paraphrase The ninety second Psalm is a joyous meditation on the gratious works of God toward his people and his judgments on wicked men appointed in the Jewish Church to be used on the Sabbath day not so much to commemorate the Creation and Sabbath following that as to foretel their peace and prosperity in this world and withal that rest from persecutions which God had promised to give his Church under the Messiah See note a. on the title to the Romans and 2 Thess 1. note a. and Heb. 3. c. The Jewish Arab ascribes this Psalm also to David 1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name O most Highest 2. To shew forth thy loving-kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night 3. Upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the Psaltery upon the harp with a solemn sound Paraphrase 1 2 3. There is nothing that better becomes a pious man than to confess and laud and magnifie the great and glorious Name of Almighty God morning and evening every day to proclaim his gratious goodness in promising and his fidelity in performing what he hath promised and to do this with all the advantage that art and all sort of Musical Instruments and voices can add to it there being no so proper and seasonable imployment for all these as that of worshipping and glorifying the great and good Creator of all the world and faithful protector of his servants 4. For thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work I will triumph in the works of thy hands Paraphrase 4. The works of thy creation were all exceeding good and thy continued protections and preservations the glorious all-wise and all-gratious dispensations of this thy providence are matter of the most ravishing transporting exultation 5. O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep Paraphrase 5. Thy actions and thy counsels are evidences of thy transcendent unfathomable power and wisdom and goodness 6. A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this 7. When the wicked spring as the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed
he the way of patience or enduring and calling out on thee and we being in captivity our strength is weakned from or by it or from bearing it by reason of the length of it The Hundred and Third PSALM A Psalm of David Paraphrase The hundred and third Psalm is a solemn acknowledgment of the great and abundant mercies and deliverances of God especially that of pardoning of his sin and not exacting the punishments due to it which must interweave in every mercy or deliverance which is bestowed on sinfull men whose demerits have so much provoked the contrary It was composed by David as 't is thought on a recovery from sickness and is also a prophetick description of the state of Christians under the Gospel 1. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name 2. Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Paraphrase 1 2. When I behold God in himself and his glorious divine attributes but especially in his works of mercy toward me I am obliged with my whole heart and all my most ardent affections of devotion to bless and praise his name for all the mercies and favours which in great bounty he hath afforded me 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases 4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies 5. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles 6. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed Paraphrase 3 4 5 6. Particularly that for some time having corrected me for my good to bring me to repentance he hath now returned to me in mercy pardoned my sins which most justly deserved this his wrath and withdrawn his punishments from me and not onely rescued me from the greatest dangers hanging over my life out of the bowels of his compassion to his distressed creature but restored me to a perfect health and to a most prosperous condition a confluence of all mercies to surround me and satisfie all my desires and so made my old age like that of the Eagle when she hath moulted the old and comes out furnished and adorned with new young plumes as fresh and flourishing as in youth it ever had been hereby exercising that signal property of his to vindicate the cause of all those that suffer injuries to punish the oppressor and relieve those that are not able to defend themselves 7. He made known his ways unto Moses his acts unto the children of Israel 8. The Lord is mercifull and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy Paraphrase 7 8. Thus did he once proclaim his name to Moses and the Israelites Exod. 34. and therein his glorious nature and the manner of his dealing with men all exactly according to the rules of the most abundant mercy in giving and forgiving and sparing long and never sending out his thunderbolts or destructions till our provocations continued in impenitently extort and force them from him 9. He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities Paraphrase 9 10. And this is God's constant course though he rebuke and express his just displeasure and punish us for our sins yet upon our reformation and serious return to him he takes off his punishing hand again and will not proceed with us according to that measure that our sins might justly expect from him 11. For as the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him Paraphrase 11. On the contrary to them that love and fear and serve him faithfully his mercy is most abundantly poured out as much above the proportion of their services as heaven is above the earth nay infinitely more there being indeed no proportion between them 12. As far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us Paraphrase 12. And by that mercy of his it is that at this time he hath so perfectly reconciled himself to us and freed us from the punishments due to our sins 13. Like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Paraphrase 13. And so he constantly will deal with all that sincerely return from their sins to new obedience having the bowels of a father to all such which will never permit him to be wrath with penitents to scourge but rather compassionate that child that reforms that for which the punishment was sent 14. For he knows our frame he remembreth that we are dust Paraphrase 14. For he knows and considers the frailness and fickleness and great infirmities of our lapsed sinfull nature our first original out of the dust of the earth an emblem of our meanness and vileness to which the corruption introduced by Adam's first sin see note on Psal 51.3 and hereditarily derived to us hath added wicked inclinations which oft betray us to actual sin if we do not strictly watch and guard our selves and such is our weakness in this lapst state that the most perfect being not able to keep always upon so diligent and strict a watch do oft slip and fall All which God is graciously pleased to weigh and not to deal in rigour with us to punish us or to cast us out of his favour or withdraw his grace from us for every sin that we commit through this weakness but in all his proceedings with us to make an allowance for such sins as are committed through infirmity sudden surreption continual incursion of temptations c. and for these to afford his mercy in Christ to all that sincerely endeavour his service and do not indulge themselves to any deliberate sin 15. As for man his days are as grass as a flour of the field so he flourisheth 16. For the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more 17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto childrens children 18. To such as keep his covenant to those that remember his commandments to doe them Paraphrase 15 16 17 18. Man is a pitifull weak feeble frail creature fit to be compared with the most short-lived herb or flour which in its height of flourishing is suddenly blasted and destroyed and gone never to return again And herein is the infinite mercy of God toward his servants to be seen that it is much more durable than their lives If they adhere faithfully to him in constant loyalty to his precepts perform their part of the Covenant made with him that of uniform sincere though not of never-sinning obedience his mercies shall continue to them even after death and then what matter is it how short their present life is to their persons in eternal
immarcescible joy and bliss in another world and to their posterity in the blessings of this life which he hath promised not onely to the third and fourth but to the thousandth generation Exod. 20.6 and being thus by promise obliged will be sure to perform it to all those that are carefull to observe the condition of it 19. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom ruleth over all Paraphrase 19. This is he surely able to doe being the omnipotent God of heaven and earth sitting in heaven as a great Monarch in his throne and exercising dominion over all creatures in the world who are all most ready to obey him and doe whatsoever he will have them But most eminently this will he doe by sending his Son the Messias into the world the spring of all grace and mercy who after his birth and death shall rise and ascend and enter on his regal office in heaven subduing the whole heathen world in obedience thereto See Rev. 4.2 20. Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excell in strength that doe his commandments hearkening unto the voice of his word 21. Bless ye the Lord all ye his hosts ye ministers of his that doe his pleasure Paraphrase 20 21. A natural and proper consequent to this it is that as Rev. 4.8 at the erecting of Christ's throne all the living creatures rest not day and night saying Holy holy so the Angels of heaven meant by those living creatures those Courtiers that attend his throne and are by him indued with the greatest power of any that incompass him many Myriads of them and doe whatsoever he commands them with all the readiness and speed imaginable these glorious creatures that are witnesses and ministers of his great and wonderfull acts of mercy should for ever bless and magnify his sacred name 22. Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion bless the Lord O my soul Paraphrase 22. And that all the men in every corner of the world acknowledge and bless and praise his name as being all the subjects of his kingdom as well as works of his power among whom it is most just that I that have received such mercies from him should take up my part of the Anthem make one in the quire and consort of those that sing continual praises to him Annotations on Psal CIII V. 5. Thy mouth What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies is not agreed among interpreters The Chaldee renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the days of thy old age referring it saith Schindler to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 old worn out clothes opposed to the renewing of the age which here follows But the word is used for the mouth Psal 32.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose mouth must be holden the LXXII there render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his jaws According to this notion it is that the Syriack here render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy body but the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy desire or sensitive appetite the satisfying of which is the providing for the body all the good things it standeth in need of and so is a commodious paraphrase for filling the mouth the organ of conveying nourishment to the body Aben Ezra and Kimchi that refer this Psalm to David's recovery from sickness give this farther account of the phrase because in sickness the soul refuseth meat Job 33.20 and the Physician restreins from full feeding and prescribes things that are nauseous In which respects the blessing of health is fitly described by the contrary Abu Walid recites two interpretations 1. that of our translators 2. taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the notion of ornament that multiplieth thy adorning with good i. e. that abundantly adorneth thee with good Aben Ezra approves the notion of ornament but applies it to the soul the ornament of the body i. e. who satisfieth thy soul with good And an Hebrew Arabick Glossary renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy body Ibid. Thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Of the Eagle S. Augustin affirms that the beak grows out so long that it hinders her taking her food and so would endanger her life but that she breaks it off upon a stone and of this he interprets the renewing her youth here But S. Hierome on Isa 40.30 more fitly expounds it of the changing of feathers Of all birds it is known that they have yearly their moulting times when they shed their old and are afresh furnished with a new stock of feathers This is most observable of Hawks and Vultures and especially of Eagles which when they are near an hundred years old cast their feathers and become bald and like young ones and then new feathers sprout forth From this shedding their plumes they seem to have borrowed their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Eagle from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decidit defluxit to fall or shed To their bareness or baldness the Prophet Micah refers c. 1.16 inlarge thy baldness as the Eagle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Eagle whose feathers shed And to the coming again of their feathers Isaiah relates c. 40.30 they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eagles they shall send up their feathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall sprout out their feathers say the LXXII and so the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall send out their wings but the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they shall be renewed to their youth just as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy youth shall be renewed as an Eagle which therefore in all reason must refer to the new or young feathers which the old Eagle yearly sprouts out Aquila longam aetatem ducit dum vetustis plumis fatiscentibus novâ pennarum successione juvenescit The Eagle is very long-lived whilst the old plumes falling off she grows young again with a new succession of feathers saith S. Ambrose Serm. 54. So the Jewish Arab reads So that thy youth is renewed like the feathers of Eagles V. 7. His acts From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to machinate to design to study to attempt to doe any thing is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here annext to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his way by these to signifie the nature and ways of God or his dispensations toward men The place here evidently refers to Exod. 33. There Moses petitions God shew me thy way that I may know thee v. 13. and I beseech thee shew me thy glory v. 18. by his way and glory meaning his nature and his ways of dealing with men that they might discern what to conceive of him and expect from him And he said I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord v. 19. by which his nature is signified and what that name is is set down by enumeration of his attributes c. 34.6 The Lord the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another his name shall be blotted out i. e. all those that bear his name his children and so the verse comprehends his own and his childrens destruction which is much more reasonable than his childrens destruction and his childrens blotting out which is no more than the former V. 23. Tossed up and down like the Lâ—â—usts From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to move to and fro to drive or agitate is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here I am tost or driven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Chaldee I am carried removed the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am shaken or driven or cast out in accordance with the LXXII who reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am shaken out The full notion of it here will be guest by the adjoyning resemblance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Locust That creature hath its name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiplying because they fly in great multitudes see Jud. 6.5 Psal 105.34 Prov. 30.27 and being weak and feeble creatures they are driven by the wind whole sholes of them together So Exod. 10.15 the East wind brought the army of Locusts into Aegypt and so v. 19. a mighty strong West wind took away the Locusts and cast them into the Rod sea And to this the similitude here seems to refer David was in his flight from Absalom he and all that were with him and this flight from this rebellion is poetically described by being driven as the Locusts are driven by the wind or tempest Another possible way there is of understanding the resemblance The Locust is but a large sort of Grashopper which hath no set abiding place or nest but leaps to and fro roves about the field so we have the running to and fro of Locusts Isa 33.4 And this uncertain unsettled condition of those creatures may be proper also to express David's condition in his flight when he had not where to lay his head but wandred from place to place uncertainly But the former that is founded in the bands of Locusts is fitter to express David and the company with him his weak fugitive army the LXXII reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural and the Hebrew word in the singular may import a plurality of them than that which is founded in the manner of the single Locust or Grashopper and so that of being tossed to and fro by a tempest is the most probable importance of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. 24. Faileth of fatness From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deny to lye there is also a metaphorical use of it for any kind of change or frustration or destitution And being here applied to the flesh it signifies a change of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the LXXII was changed attenuation emaciation decay from the state that before he was in or wherein healthy men are wont to be Iâ— is here 〈…〉 from â—â—le or from fatness The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both fat and oile and the LXXII render it in the second notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 changed for oile either by the confused use of prepositions ordinarily observed among them and then for oile may be instead of from oâ—â— or else for oilâ— i. e. for the loss of oile viz. that radical moisture which resembleth oile The plainest rendring will be my flesh as emaciated from fatness that which was before full and coâ—ment is now fallen away grown 〈…〉 aâ—oâ—â—ted And this very consonant to the beginning of the verse his â—neâ— being weak through fasting the feeble knees being proverbially taken notice of in Scripture as the parts which in any weakneâ—â— are most sensible of the weight that lies upon them and in any great lassitude or other infirmity are the first that are wont to fall V. 31. That condemn his soul Some difficulty there is here whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his soul be to be joyned with 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 rendred 〈…〉 or lifâ— or else with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our English 〈◊〉 from thâ—se that condemn is soul But this is 〈◊〉 salved by leaving it indifferent in either or both of them it being certain that he that delivers from the condemners of soul or life doth thereby deliver the soul or life the deliverance being of necessity proportioned 〈◊〉 the assult The greater question will be what is the adequate notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ordinarily used for judging or condemning but it signifies also to implead accuse or bring to judgment to lay any crime to ones charge for thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oft signifies a controversie or question a crime or fault as well as punishment or judgment or sentence in jâ—dicature The Chaldee here expresses thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is indifferent to these two judging and contending in judgment from whence the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinarily used among the Hellenists for sâ—â—ng or 〈◊〉 â—ing 1 Cor. â—â— 1 see note on Rom. 3. â— And to this notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place the sense directs For David speaking of himself and those that espoused his cause under the notion of the poor and consequently of his adversaries under the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is most agreeable that the word should be here taken in that notion of opposing or â—suing Thus they are formerly exprest v. 20. by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—y i. e. David's adversaries plaintiffs occusers â—o that word properly signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an adversary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iâ— judgment i. e. an accuser and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that speak evil against his soul And this verse is thus far parallel with that in describing the persons viz. those that design and wage evil for so speaking is oft taken for doing against his life and then that exactly agrees with this notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opposers of his soul those that contend fight against his soul For though it was in war and not in judicature that they thus contended with him yet one of these is poetically exprest by the other their hostile opposition by words which are only forensick Thus the Jewish Arab reads and will help him from those that implead him or contend with him for his soul And in this scheme this whole verse runs He shall stand at the right hand of the poor i. e. to defend and plead for him as the accuâ—ser stood at the right hand see v. 6. note b. so shall he stand as his advocate to maintain him against his injurious charge and that is to save him from those that oppose or implead his sâ—â—l that assault him and call his life in question The LXXII here most firâ—tly express the sense by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from those that pursue my soul
they are consecrated but have really not the least degree of sense or life in them The materials whereof they are made are perfectly inanimate and the artificers carving on them mouths and eyes and ears and noses and hands and feet and throats is not at all available to give them the use or first faculty of language or sight or any other sense or so much as of breath And then they that can carve and work them to this end specially those that can offer their prayers repose their confidences in such inanimate statues are certainly as to any regular use of their faculties as senseless as irrational as any of them act as contrary to all reasonable or animal rules as meer images would doe if they were supposable to doe any thing 9. O Israel trust thou in the Lord he is their help and their shield Paraphrase 9. Whilst those the best gods that other nations acknowledge are thus perfectly impotent the God of Israel is a God of goodness and of power as able as willing to relieve them that trust in him O let all that are admitted to the honour of being own'd as his people confidently rely and repose their trust in him 10. O house of Aaron trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield Paraphrase 10. And above all those especially that draw nigh to him wait on his altar officiate in his divine service are in peculiar manner obliged to offer up their prayers and repose their affiance in him who hath promised to be present and assistent to them as those which are his proxies and commissioners upon earth to intercede betwixt God and man in things belonging to God 11. Ye that fear the Lord trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield Paraphrase 11. And the same is the duty or rather privilege of all faithfull servants of God to repose their whole trust in him as one that will be sure never to fail them nor forsake them 12. The Lord hath been mindfull of us he will bless us he will bless the house of Israel he will bless the house of Aaron Paraphrase 12. Of this we have had many experiences in the several acts of his power and mercy toward us and each of those is a pawn and ingagement to secure us of the continuance of the like both to our Church and State Temple and People whensoever we have need of it 13. He will bless them that fear the Lord both small and great Paraphrase 13. And the same will he not fail to doe to all true servants of his of what condition soever they are in this world the greatest Prince shall not have any privilege herein above the meanest peasant 14. The Lord shall increase you more and more you and your children Paraphrase 14. And the same blessings which he bestoweth on such he will continue and intail upon their posterity 15. Ye are the blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth Paraphrase 15. This is a prerogative indeed wherein the pious man infinitely exceeds and surpasses all other men in the world that he and his family and all that come from him are the peculiar province and care of the Creator of all the world and what blessing is there that they may not confidently expect and depend on by that tenure 16. The heavens even the heavens are the Lords but the earth hath he given to the children of men Paraphrase 16. The highest heavens hath God provided for his own palace and court of residence but the other part of the Universe the inferiour globe of earth and air and sea hath he given to man to have the dominion and use of the creatures that are therein 17. The dead praise not the Lord neither any that go down into silence 18. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore Praise the Lord. Paraphrase 17 18. And to this vast bounty of his what praises and acknowledgments of ours can ever bear any proportion The most we can doe in discharge of this duty is to bless and serve him constantly whilst we live here and when we are gone off from this scene where this service is performed to him and our bodies laid in their graves where there is nothing but silence no power or opportunities of serving or magnifying God any longer to leave it as a legacy to our posterity through all successions unto the end of the world that they may supply our defects and sing continual Hosanna's and Hallelujah's to him for ever Annotations on Psal CXV V. 1. Not unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is literally to be rendred not with us in the notion wherein that is said to be with us which we have or is in our power as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 73.25 who is with me or whom have I in heaven and Gen. 33.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enough with me or I have enough V. 4. Idols The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies literally grievances and 't is usually observed that the Jews imposed names of ill omen on the heathen Deities so the feasts dedicated to them in their idiome are proportionably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mourning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrition But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be sad and anxious signifies also by Metonymy to form or frame any thing very diligently applied to God's framing of us Job 10.8 and to enemies distorting and depraving others words Psal 56.5 And in that notion of it also may be deduced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here the simulacra idols or Images of the Gentiles which being consecrated by their Priests and thereby thought to be animated by those whose images they are thenceforth are worshipped as Gods So when 2 Sam. 5.21 we reade that the Philistims left there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their images 1 Chron. 14.12 it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Gods So S. Augustine De Civit. Dei l. 8. c. 23. tells us of the Theology of the heathens received from Trismegistus that the simulacra or statues were the bodies of their Gods which by some magical ceremonies or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were forced to joyn themselves as souls and so animate and inliven those dead organs to assume and inhabit them So saith Minutius Isti impuri spiritus sub statuis imaginibus consecratis delitescunt those impure spirits lie hid under the consecrated statues or images and again rapiunt ad se daemonia omnem spiritum immundum per consecrationis obligamentum they catch and force to them the devils and every unclean spirit by the band of consecration the spirits are supposed to be annext and bound to them by their magical rites and ceremonies So Arnobius cont Gent. l. 6. Eos ipsos in his signis colitis quos dedicatio infert sacra fabrilibus efficit inhabitare simulacris the heathens in the images worship
patient that which opens or which is opened If we take it in the latter sense then the opening of God's words is the explaining them so the Jewish Arab renders Because the opening of thy word inlighteneth O thou that makest the simple to understand And so the LXXII their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is understood both by the Latin and the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 open thy word and illuminate saith the one and declaratio verborum tuorum illuminat the declaring of thy words doth illuminate saith the other But if it be in the sense of thy word being the agent then 't is the opening our eyes wrought by thy word and that seems to be the more genuine meaning of it that God's word by opening our minds gives light to them teacheth them those things which naturally they did not could not know till they were thus illuminated And the Chaldee favours who renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sculpture or impression of thy word illuminates which evidently refers to the Vrim whose name is derived from light and therefore will with full propriety be said to enlighten which surely the LXXII likewise reflected on when they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word by them used constantly to translate Vrim V. 139. Consumed me The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here as it signifies to consume and so is here rendred by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath melted me or by melting consumed me and by the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cruciated me so it signifies also to bind press constrain in the notion wherein 't is said of Paul Act. 18.5 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was constrained or prest in spirit Thus the Chaldee renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath constrained me And this is the most probable acception of it zeal having that faculty of pressing and forcing expressions from one either of grief or indignation or the like as the occasion requires V. 148. Night-watches The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep guard watch signifies indifferently any of the three watches into which the night was divided the evening watch or beginning of the watches or first watch Lam. 2.19 the middle or night watch Jud. 7.19 and the last or morning watch Exod. 14.24 And to the last of these the context here inclines it so as it may agree with the dawning of the morning v. 147. and be fitly joyned with preventing which sure in both verses signifies rising betimes so it is proper to the morning not evening watch The Chaldee indeed gives it a greater latitude and reads the watches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the morning and evening both but the LXXII reade expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 early in the morning V. 165. Offend them The Hebrew here reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. as the LXXII literally reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no scandal to them by scandal meaning any thing that may wound or hurt or cause them to fall in their journey in the threefold notion of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the LXXII here use and is perfectly parallel to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a stumbling-block and a snare and a gall-trap The meaning of it will be best understood by comparing it with the like phrase 1 Joh. 2.10 He that loveth his brother abideth in light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there is no scandal in him or to him the light wherein he abides will so assist him in every part of his march that he shall be free from those dangers which are parallel to the snares and stumbling-blocks and gall-traps which they that travail in the dark are subject to There the scandals are means of betraying the soul into sin temptations and no scandal to them signifies their security from those temptations that others so frequently are overcome by And so here as the great peace in the beginning of the verse according to the Hebrew notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes all manner of prosperity and felicity that especially wherein the soul is concerned so the no scandal to them is the immunity from temptations and snares i. e. from sins to which temptations are designed to bring men and this is the security which the love of God's commandments will give men when nothing else will The Chaldee here reade there is no scandal to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the world to come meaning no mischief punishment of sin but the Syriack there is to them no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infirmity sickness disease the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sickness either of body or minde and so is most applicable to sin the disease of the soul V. 168. Before thee What is the meaning of a man's ways being before God will best be judged by other parallel phrases such are walking before God or in his sight and that signifies to live piously and so as is accepted by him And then here though it is certain all men's actions are seen by God and done in his sight yet his ways being before him will best be interpreted walking or living piously The Hundred and Twentieth PSALM A Song of Degrees The hundred and twentieth is a Prayer against calumniators and malicious persons and a complaint of the infelicity of such companions It seems to have been first formed by David in relation to Doeg 1 Sam. 22. and to have been after made use of in relation to the Captivity and is called a Psalm of Ascents because it was appointed to be sung by the Levites on some place of advantage with elevation of voice 1. IN my distress I cried unto the Lord and he heard me Paraphrase 1. Blessed be the name of the Lord God for all his mercies vouchsafed unto me I was in great distress and accordingly addrest my self to God for his relief and he was pleased to give ear unto me 2. Deliver my soul O Lord from lying lips and from a deceitfull tongue Paraphrase 2. And this was the summ of my prayer O blessed Lord I am fallen into the midst of calumniators and malicious false persons who by treachery and deceit are resolved to destroy me if thou Lord be not graciously pleased to deliver me out of their hands 3. What shall be given unto thee or what shall be done unto thee thou false tongue Paraphrase 3. All the good that is to be had by such company is to be wounded incurably and mischieved by them 4. Sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of juniper Paraphrase 4. Their tongues are as piercing as darts red hot in a stout souldiers hands no armour of innocence is fence against them 5. Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar 6. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace Paraphrase 5 6. O what an infelicity
context doth wholly incline it for in the application so it lies even so our eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Lord our God i. e. look or wait or are turned to the Lord our God untill he have mercy upon us and then follows the importunate prayer Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us where the mercy that is waited for and the mone and importunity for mercy is just the description of one that is under chastisement and so determins the sense to that V. 4. Those that are at ease From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be quiet at ease is the noun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used not onely for quiet secure in the original notion but by metonymie of the Cause for the Effect for insolent scornfull because ease and security makes men such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle in his Rhetoricks riches and worldly felicity makes men insolent and contumelious despisers of others The Syriack renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contemners scorners deriders from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to scorn to mock Ibid. Proud The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here seems to be no simple but compound word made up of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proud and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to afflict and so to signifie proud oppressours The Chaldee seem to take notice of this rendring it by two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scorners from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to contemn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and proud The Jewish Arab reads of mocking with or from the armies and contempt from the stout or from the armies Besides this active notion of the scorning and contempt the passive may also be considered for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Epithe◠of excellent persons So R. Shererah Gaon R. Saadias Gaon c. and the Talmudists that lived streight after the close of the Gemara were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a mark of honour and if that were the word here the despight of them must be despight which they suffered and the reproach of the quiet so also taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as frequently 't is in a good sense but taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a compound the high or great oppressours it must be active despight that which they doe to others The Hundred Twenty Fourth PSALM A Song of Degrees of David The hundred twenty fourth is an acknowledgment of God's assistance and a thankfull commemoration of the deliverances wrought signally by him It seems first to have been composed by David upon his deliverances from the hands of Saul and after of Absalom and being very applicable was appointed to be sung by the Levites after the return from the Captivity and is very agreeable to any other eminent deliverance wrought by God for his servants 1. IF it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say 2. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us 3. They had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us 4. Then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our soul 5. Then the proud waters had gone over our soul Paraphrase 1 2 3 4 5. It is now full time to look back with humility and thankfulness on the dangers and miseries we have past and devoutly to acknowledge to whom our whole deliverance is to be imputed 'T is now most evident to us that the mischief designed us was no less than utter ruine and destruction that the power of the designers was equal to their malice and that no humane means were any way able to have resisted or diverted them they were so mightily inraged and violently bent against us One onely means there was which could avail us in this condition the supreme omnipotent irresistible strength of heaven and that hath signally appeared for us and rescued us out of this ruine 6. Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Paraphrase 6. His holy and glorious name be now and ever magnified that he hath not permitted them to have their will but timely delivered us from their rage 7. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the foulers the snare is broken and we are escaped 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth Paraphrase 7 8. And now being safely returned from our captivity we have leisure to review our former state the very same that the silly bird is in when it is caught in a gin or springe we were fast in their hands they had long pursued their game and at length were possest of it we were taken in their nets And in this seasonable point of time God came and disappointed their malice and rescued us out of their hands David by the death of Absalom the Jews by the Persians breaking the Chaldean Monarchy to which the deliverance of the Jews was consequent And so our deliverance is to be acknowledged as an immediate work of God's interposition and as signal an evidence of his overruling power as the creation of the whole world was when it was wrought by a word of his Annotations on Psal CXXIV V. 5. The proud waters This verse is from the Hebrew thus literally to be rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then had it past over our soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular belonging to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 torrent in the former verse then follows by opposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swelling lifted up or proud waters The word is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to swell or boil as water in a pot over the fire and from thence 't is applied metaphorically to other things And by comparing the Arabick it is probable that the signification of the Root is more general for any encrease or superabundance The LXXII here render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that phrase I suppose meaning very deep waters either unfordable where there is no standing or else rapid against which there is no holding out no resisting The Syriack reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 copious plentifull waters Thus the meaning is clear the torrent v. 4. had past over our soul and that torrent farther exprest by swelling or proud i. e. great plenty of waters breaking in for such is a torrent The Jewish Arab translates it Then they had drowned us as water and had been as a torrent over our souls The LXXII here as in the former verse reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our soul past through the water and our soul past through the torrent but this I suppose as a paraphrase not so much to express the condition in or under as the escape and deliverance out of the danger but the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over our
to add a little more what this morning watch was or of how many hours it consisted because in this matter the computation of the Old and New Testament doth appear to differ In the Old Testament we find but three watches in the night and then each must consist of four hours The first is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of the watches Lam. 2.19 the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the middle watch an evidence that there were but three Judg. 7.19 the third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the morning watch Exod. 14.24 and accordingly here we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the watchers in the morning And so in the Talmud tr Berachoth Rabbi Eliezer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are three watches in the night and so afterward R. Isaac also And that thus the night was divided among the Grecians also appears by Homer in the 11th of the Iliads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the larger part of the night that of two portions of it was past and now the third portion of division remained On which saith Eustathius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes the night according to the ancients to be divided into three watches in like manner as the day also saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 morning or evening or midday Yet in the New Testament it is evident there were four watches in the night among the Jews introduced as several other customs from the Romans mentioned Mar. 13.35 under the styles of evening midnight cockcrowing and morning and so Matth. 14 25. Jesus came to them in the fourth watch of the night The verse is by the Jewish Arab rendred So my soul is to him of or from the keepers or guard by day and the keepers or guard by night and in a note he saith that this is not a literal version yet a rendring as he supposed of the sense to express his continual doing it through the whole course of night and day Kimchi reads My soul is to the Lord of the watchers for the morning i. e. waiteth in the night for the Lord that it may be of those that watch for the morning i. e. that rise in the morning-watch to pray and the repeating the words sheweth their continual course and custom so to doe The Hundred and Thirty First PSALM A Song of Degrees of David The hundred thirty first is a profession of humility as that which best qualifies for God's mercy and is the onely sure foundation of hope in him It seems to have been first formed by David in the time of his distresses to vindicate himself before God of the accusation which Saul's sycophants so studiously threw upon him that he designed mischief to Saul and thereby the kingdom to himself And after it was appointed to be used at the return from captivity no temper better becoming those that have received the greatest mercies than that of humility and affiance 1. LOrd mine heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty neither do I exercise my self in great matters or in things too high for me Paraphrase 1. O Lord I have always indeavoured to keep all pride and ambition out of my heart not to meddle with things of weight and difficulty and such as are above my strength to manage 2. Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his mother my soul is as a weaned child Paraphrase 2. But on the contrary to learn and practise humility self-denial resignation and submission to the will of God to look on my self as a most feeble impotent child able to doe nothing of my self but wholly to be directed supported and inabled by him in all my undertakings and so to wean my self from my natural affections and desires as an infant is when he is estranged from his mothers breast 3. O Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever Paraphrase 3. And the same temper I shall recommend to all pious men as that which will for ever stand them in most stead with an utter abrenunciation of all self-trusts or secular confidences to roll and repose themselves wholly upon God who will undoubtedly answer and supply and never be wanting to them that thus depend on him Annotations on Psal CXXXI V. 2. Surely I have behaved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is according to sense to be rendred quin but. The LXXII attending to the letter render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if not For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that follows from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set or dispose the Chaldee reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I put my hand upon my mouth and the LXXII to the same sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was humbly disposed and so most rationally it is to be rendred if not by force of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet by virtue of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that follows which notes imposing silence upon himself and then the putting preparative to that must be the putting the hand upon the mouth and so the Chaldees rendring may seem rather a supply of an Ellipsis than by way of paraphrase But there is another notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to level Isa 28.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he hath made plain the face of the ground a scheme which the Baptist uses for working such a temper in the heart as is qualified for the reception of piety Luk. 3.5 To which that of the LXXII comes nearer humility and lowliness of mind being the plain meaning of that other more poetical phrase For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXXII seem to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but have elevated but hereby they have varied the sense little their if I have not humbled but exalted my soul being all one in effect with I have not exalted but humbled The similitude that follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a weanling with or toward the mother so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies with or toward is a denotation of the greatest obedience and dependence and self-denial and resignation that can be for so the weanling though he begin to goe and speak and live without the teat yet wholly depends on the mothers aid and teaching and provision for each of these And so in the application my soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a weanling with me where yet the LXXII render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as retributions from another notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to retribute which cannot belong to that place The Jewish Arab reads But I have equalled my soul and made it like to a weanling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that desireth after his mother as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were of the same notion with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be like and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that were much alike in signification The sense he gives in a note I cast my affairs on the Lord
was principally designed 6. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth for ever Paraphrase 6. A like act of infinite power and wisedom it was when the waters covered the face of the earth and so rendred it unhabitable to us to prepare vast receptacles for the waters and thither to convey and remove them from the surface of the earth and so to secure the earth by bounds set to the Ocean that it shall not be overflowed by it but remain a peaceable fruitfull safe habitation for us which is an act of the same infinite constant mercy 7. To him that made great lights for his mercy endureth for ever 8. The sun to rule by day for his mercy endureth for ever 9. The moon and stars to rule by night for his mercy endureth for ever Paraphrase 7 8 9. A like act of his power and wisedom it was and so also of his infinite mercy and bounty toward us that he created the sun moon and stars for such excellent benefits of mankind not onely illuminating this lower world of ours but refreshing and warming and sending forth various influences into every the meanest creature by these great instruments managing and guiding and preserving and by propagation continuing all creatures directing them in all their undertakings preparing both for work and rest and providing all things necessary for them 10. To him that smote Aegypt in their first-born for his mercy endureth for ever 11. And brought out Israel from among them for his mercy endureth for ever 12. With a strong hand and with a stretched out arm for his mercy endureth for ever 13. To him which divided the red sea into parts for his mercy endureth for ever 14. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it for his mercy endureth for ever 15. But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the red sea for his mercy endureth for ever Paraphrase 10 11 12 13 14 15. But yet more peculiarly hath his power and mercy to us been magnified in rescuing our whole nation out of the slavery and oppressions of Aegypt and this in a most prodigious manner multiplying judgmenâ— upon the Aegyptians 〈◊〉 one degree to mother till at length he destroyed the first-born in every family upon which they were inforced to let us go but then farther interposing for us by making the red sea recede till our people past through the chanel of it and then bringing it back again in a full violence upon the armies of the Aegyptians which pursued us at our departure and overwhelming and drowning all of them which was such an heap of prodigies of mercies to us his unworthy people that no story hath ever exemplified in any other time 16. To him which led his people through the wilderness for his mercy endureth for ever Paraphrase 16. And after this leading us through the desart for many years together he miraculously provided necessaries for us sending us bread from heaven abundance of delicate food and water out of a rock of â—nt and so gave us conâ— testimonies of his infinite unexhausted bounty 17. To him which smote great Kings for his mercy endureth for ever 18. And slew famous Kings for his mercy endureth for ever 19. Sihon King of the Amorites for his mercy endureth for ever 20. And Og the King of Bashan for his mercy endureth for ever 21. And gave their land for an heritage for his mercy endureth for ever 22. Even an heritage unto Israel his servant for his mercy endureth for ever Paraphrase 17 18 19 20 21 22. And then to perfect his mercy he led us to that land of Canaan which he had promised to give to the posterity of Abraham and by his sole power and conduct inabled us to conquer and destroy great and eminent Princes with their whole armies such were Sihon and Og see Psal 135.11 12. and Numb 21.24 c. which came out against us and by these slaughters rooted them out planting us in their stead giving us a most fertile Kingdom to possess as our own for our selves and our posterities An unparallel'd number and weight of mercies which ought for ever to be commemorated by us And yet for all this but a weak imperfect shadow and resemblance of the redemption of mankind out of a far more unsupportable slavery under sin and Satan which by the gift of his own Son he hath wrought for us 23. Who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever 24. And hath redeemed us from our enemies for his mercy endureth for ever Paraphrase 23 24. And though since our coming unto all this plenty he hath permitted us upon our provoking sins to be brought low and oppressed by our enemies yet hath he not utterly forsaken us but again returned in mercy to us and rescued us out of their hands and restored us wonderfully to our former peace and safety 25. Who giveth food to all flesh for his mercy endureth for ever Paraphrase 25. Yet neither are his mercies confined and inclosed within so narrow a pale as this of the people of Israel but it is inlarged to all mankind even to all living creatures in the world which as they have from him their original being so have they their continual support and a constant supply to all their wants of what sort soever they are all that is necessary to their bodies as well as their souls 26. O give thanks to the God of heaven for his mercy endureth for ever Paraphrase 26. All which and all the goodness that any man partakes of in this life is but an efflux from that unexhausted fountain of infinite bounty descends from the Father of lights the one Creatour and preserver and governour of the world and so is to be own'd and acknowledged by all and he to have the thâ—nks and honour and glory of it O let all men in the world pay him this tribute and never miss to commemorate his endless mercies The Hundred and Thirty Seventh PSALM The hundred thirty seventh is a description of the sadness of the Babylonish captivity and the peoples vehement desire and hopes to return to Canaan and seems to have been composed presently after the return from the Captivity or when they saw the taking and wasting of Babylon to approach 1. BY the waters of Babylon there we sat down yea we wept when we remembred Zion Paraphrase 1. In the time of our deportation and captivity being carried so far and deteined so long from the comforts of our own countrey we had no divertisement but that of reposing our selves on the banks of Euphrates and Tigris c. and bewailing our losses and recounting the felicities we once enjoyed when we were allowed the solemn publick meeting for the service of God at the Temple 2. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof Paraphrase 2. As for the instruments of our Musick which were wont to assist in the quire and help to
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are deemed to come from that original in this place and many others it is surely taken in the Hebrew notion of it i. e. for mercifull and pitifull and so should better be rendred in Latin pius than sanctus as in Salvian and other good Authours pietas piety in God ordinarily signifies mercy However this equivocalness of that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken by readers for holy when it signifies mercifull and the misinterpreting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for just when it imports mercifull may well be deemed to have contributed occasionally to the leaving v. 14. out of our Bibles Of which the learned H. Grotius asks a question Quomodo ad hoc respondebunt What answer will be given to this by those men which require us in all things to stand to the decrees of the Masorites which by their fence have hedged this verse out of the scripture The onely answer to the question which I shall offer is this 1. That it is no news that one letter or more should be left out and missing in an Alphabetical Psalm especially Psal 25. where ר being twice repeated ק is certainly omitted 2. That the LXXII and the translations that depend on them have admitted several verses and larger additions which are not in the Hebrew text But then 3. since 't is certain the Psalms received divers alterations and both copies were transmitted to the use of the Temple the answer will be satisfactory that so it was here And that will both justifie the Jews from negligence in loosing part of the scripture and the other translatours from presumption in adding to it V. 18. In truth The notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth in this place being the qualification required in prayer to make it effectual is fit to be observed The word signifies truth firmness fidelity constancy stability so Jer. 14.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the peace of truth is a stable firm constant durable peace And then that truth or constancy may be applied either to the person praying or to the prayer it self First if to the person then it signifies his firmness of adherence to God styled fearing him v. 19. constancy in his service keeping close to God and making good his dependence on him and not applying himself to any indirect means to obtain what he prays for but waiting onely on God from him in his good time to receive it Secondly in respect of the prayer it self it signifies the continued constancy of address not giving over the petition when it is not immediately granted but inforcing it with importunity And the union of these two is that to which the promise is here made that the prayers so qualified shall certainly in God's due time be answered by him And this specially the former part Saint James styles asking in faith the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying both faith and truth See note on Jam. 1. a. The Chaldee here reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies truth rectitude integrity and so the Syriack also The LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth but that capable of this same notion as when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unrighteous See note on Luke 16. a. The Hundred and Forty Sixth PSALM Praise ye the Lord. The hundred forty sixth is another form of solemn praising of God his sole and supereminent power and mercy his patronage to all that are in distress his judgments and the eternity of his kingdom The title of it is Hallelujah and it is anciently thought to have been composed at the return from the captivity 1. PRaise the Lord O my soul 2. While I live will I praise the Lord I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being 3. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help Paraphrase 1 2. I will excite and rouse up all the faculties of my soul to the solemn performance of that great and necessary duty of praising and magnifying the God of heaven This is an office never to be intermitted by me as long as I have a tongue or breath to proclaim the excellencies and glories of so great and gracious a Majesty 4. His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Paraphrase 3 4. As for any other be it the greatest and most powerfull Princes in the world none born of woman excepted save onely the Messias the Son of God as well as man they being but mortal men have no power to relieve any and consequently will deceive and disappoint all those that rely on them For how able or willing soever they may be in the eyes of men or in their own resolutions forward to perform any office of charity to any yet 't is certain their whole being depends every minute upon the will of God whensoever he pleaseth they die their soul is separated from the body the one is gathered to the earth from whence it hath its first beginning see Psal 90. note c. the other to the hands of God that gave it Eccl. 12.7 and when this hour comes 't is then too late for them to help themselves whatsoever they designed for the relief of others together with all their other worldly contrivances are evacuated and frustrated 5. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God 6. Which made heaven and earth the sea and all that therein is which keepeth truth for ever Paraphrase 5 6. The onely sure hold and never failing foundation of confidence is the special mercy and protection of the one omnipotent Creatour of heaven and earth the Lord of Israel who as he is able to overrule all his creatures and doe whatsoever he pleases so he hath promised to protect those that depend on him and will certainly make good this promise to all that are carefull to make good their fidelity to him 7. Which executeth judgment for the oppressed which giveth food to the hungry the Lord looseth the prisoners 8. The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down the Lord loveth the righteous Paraphrase 7 8. One peculiar property of his it is to interpose his aid most seasonably when our distresses are the greatest to undertake the defence and patronage of those which are most unjustly opprest to work even miracles of mercy for them that stand in most need of them signally to express his favour to pious and charitable minded men to provide food for some as he did for Elias to send others liberty from their restraints as he did to Daniel to restore sight to the blind to revive and comfort those that are in the greatest distress either of body or soul And this in a far more eminent completion by the incarnation of his Son the Messias of the
the good providence of God who hath the dispencing of life and all good things it is to be expected that obedience to his methods shall thus be crowned godliness having the promises of this life as well as of another as far as God shall see them best for his servants And even in ordinary reason the practice of vertues tends to the preserving health and life both from diseases and from violent invasions temperance and sobriety secures from those many lothsome diseases to which the contrary betray men and meekness and peaceableness and mercifulness c. gain the kindness and generally secure us from the rages and violences and injuries of men and the hand of justice that avenges and cuts off sinners is designed not for the punishing but rewarding them that doe well 11. I have taught thee in the way of wisedom I have led thee in the right paths Paraphrase 11. Assure thy self the precepts and directions of life which I give thee from God tend most to all thy real advantages will lead thee a direct and straight way to all felicity and there is nothing tolerably wise but to order thy whole course according to them 12. When thou goest thy steps shall not be straitned and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble Paraphrase 12. If thou doest so there shall no incommodation or danger befall thee of any kind whatsoever thou settest thy self to shall prosper 13. Take fast hold of instruction let her not go keep her for she is thy life Paraphrase 13. This then may conjure thee to give a most diligent ear to all the precepts of good life yea not onely to hearken to them when they are taught thee and set thy self to the practice of them as a duty owing from thee to God but most greedily to catch hold of them as thy greatest prize and crown thine own dearest interest as dear unto thee as is thy life and indeed the onely means to continue that comfortable to thee and therefore to be sought and kept with the greatest earnestness and diligence 14. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men 15. Avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away Paraphrase 14 15. As for the contrary ways of wicked men who hope to make great acquisitions of pleasure and profit by those means be carefull thou never suffer thy self to engage with them never flatter thy self that any such course is likely to thrive with thee the wicked are so far from being just matter of envy to godly men or consequently of imitation that their course is to be averted and dreaded and detested by all that mean kindness to themselves to be look'd on as a mere trap and snare from which every wise man will guard himself as diligently as it is possible and never approach or enter the confines of it 16. For they sleep not except they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall Paraphrase 16. One sad observation thou mayest make of wicked especially of violent injurious persons which is sufficient to deter any man from their society from envying or imitating them Their heart is most violently and transportingly set on their unjust designs they cannot take any rest enjoy their necessary refreshment of sleep unless they can compass the mischief they design By which means they put themselves into most painfull distempers through the eagerness of their pursuit especially if they encounter difficulties and are crost in them And all this while it is not any advantage which they project to themselves and are at all this expence to purchase but the bare empty gainless diabolical satisfaction of having done some mischief to others Their whole life is best pourtray'd by the emblem of the most sordid witch that submits her self to the basest and most horrid usages besides the giving her soul by compact to the devil onely that she may have the pitifull noisome pleasure of doing some mischief to her neighbour Just such is the whole life of malicious men 17. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence Paraphrase 17. And as for their sleep so for all other the most necessary refection their very meat and drink they contemn and despise it in the eagerness of their pursuits It is their meat and drink to wrong and defraud others their heart is set importunately upon that If they miscarry in their enterprises they are strangely discontented Ahab could enjoy nothing else if he were denyed Naboth's vineyard he turned away his face and would eat no bread 1 King 21.4 if they succeed they have oft no other benefit by it but the satisfaction of having been instruments of grieving others i. e. so many lictors or executioners or fiends and this is a strange sort of sensuality for any ingenuous man to be emulous of Or if they reap gain to themselves by rapine and violence and oppressing of other men even this is very unfit to be enjoyed in them The conscience of the injustice will deprive them of all real contentment or comfort in enjoying it when they know that every bit they eat is torn out of other mens throats taken by fraud or violence from the just possessours And this also may avert any man from their ways 18. But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Paraphrase 18. Whereas the whole course of righteous men the beginning progress consummation is all imitable and exemplary fit to attract all others to it whether in respect of the inward lustre and excellency of it or the present satisfaction and pleasure that results from such practices above that which attends any other or the joy and comfort of conscience immediately following it In all these respects it cannot be more lively resembled than by the light of the Sun when it is come above our Horizon which is in continued increase till it come to high noon the day is all that while arraying and adorning it self as it were continually putting on addition of lustre from morning till mid-day and then the whole Horizon is fully illuminated no shade or degree of darkness any where remaining Such is the way of veâ—ue and good men it sends out a lustre constantly encreasing illuminates and warms at once attracts all that see it enamours them with its beauty enlivens with its rays see Matt. 5.14 16. till at length if they be not perfectly blind and insensate it brings all to partake of its excellencies 19. The way of the wicked is as darkness they know not at what they stumble Paraphrase 19. Whereas the wicked man's course is most black and dismall made up of all darkness the image of death and hell whether you respect the impiety of their deeds or the both present and future miseries that attend them And one direfull part of their condition
thy estate and enrich her own family with the spoils of thine 11. And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed 12. And say how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof 13. And have not obey'd the voice of my teachers nor enclined mine ear to them that instructed me 14. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly Paraphrase 11 12 13 14. Thus is it evident before hand what cause of repentance and indignation at himself and his own folly this sin if indulged to is sure to bring upon any man when he hath exhausted and rotted his very flesh and brought himself to utter ruine he will too late to mend his temporal condition most sadly bewail and lament his madness wish every vein of his heart that he had taken the advice I now give him betimes that he had believed the serious and sad truth of such documents as these by despising of which and so adventuring on some beginnings and degrees of this sin he at last comes to be a most scandalous spectacle of misery and woe to all the people marked and pointed at for a wretched sottish creature that hath brought himself to the brink of endless ruine by his own imperswasible folly and obstinacy 15. Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running rivers out of thine own well Paraphrase 15. Having thus represented to thee the dangers and wasting miseries of incontinence the advice will be but seasonable and necessary that every man resolve to satisfie himself with his own wife and most strictly abstain from wandring lusts 16. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in thy streets Paraphrase 16. This shall beside all other felicities yield thee the comforts of a numerous and flourishing offspring which as streams or rivers from a fountain shall flow from a chast conjugal bed 17. Let them be onely thine own and not strangers with thee Paraphrase 17. This shall give thee assurance that the children thou ownest are truly thine whereas those which come from the strange woman and call thee father 't is very uncertain whose they are she being no enclosure of thine but common to others also 18. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoyce in the wife of thy youth Paraphrase 18. This shall secure God's blessing of fruitfulness to thy wife and that flourishing state to thy offspring which bastard slips cannot pretend to This shall yield thee a constant never fading pleasure in the love and embraces of her whose purity and loyalty thou hast so long been acquainted with and the longer thou art afforded this blessing the more pure unallayed satisfaction thou wilt find in it when wandring lusts end in satiety and misery and being thus furnished by her thou hast no temptation to aliene thy self from her and take any other into thine embraces 19. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe let her breasts satisfie thee at all times and be thou ravisht always with her love Paraphrase 19. Thou mayst alwaies find matter of pleasure and kindness in her the same that the stag or rain-deer doth in his beloved mate which he hath long associated with and so perfectly confine thy love to her and never wish for the society of any other or be weary of hers 20. And why wilt thou my son be ravisht with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger 21. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Paraphrase 20 21. If all this be not sufficient to engage thee to a constancy to thine own wife and an exact abstinence from all others if the true joy and delights resulting continually from the one ballanced with the consequent satieties and miseries of the other be not competent motives effectually to prevail with thee then sure this one determent may work on thee the consideration of the law of marriage made by God in Paradise that every man shall forsake all others and cleave to his own wife and the severe judgments threatned against the violaters of this obligation and the no possibility that be it never so close it should be kept secret from God's all-seeing eye which discerns and observes and will severely avenge all such enormous sins in all that are guilty of them 22. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins 23. He shall die without instruction and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray Paraphrase 22 23. And an eminent act of his vengeance and providence it is that this sort of sinners seldom goes unpunished in this life His sin without any other aid constantly brings sore punishments upon him seises on him as the Hound or Vulture on its prey or as the Lictor and Serjeant on the malefactour lays him under the custody of some noisome disease His unnurtured unsavoury life his disobedience to the laws of marital chastity and continence is the exhausting his body and perhaps estate and good name and all that is valuable and brings him to a scandalous death he goes out unpittied and scorned as guilty of the highest folly and mistakes as well as injustice and such like enormous crimes against his wife and others and himself he thought he had pursued his pleasure and at least gratified his senses but in the end he finds it quite contrary he acquires nothing but loathsome maladies and untimely death and so appears cheated of all that he projected to gain by his sin beside the yet sadder losses and pains both of body and soul to all eternity Annotations on Chap. V. V. 6. Lest thou shouldest ponder That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here to be rendred not and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applied to the strange woman whose feet and steps are mentioned v. 6. is agreed on by all ancient Interpreters and there is no cause of doubting it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she goes not in the paths of life saith the Chaldee and so the Syriack in the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she enters not on the ways of life say the LXXII and the Latin applying it to her feet precedent per semitam vitae non ambulant they walk not by the path of life Which agree also to give us the right notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here for directing the steps i. e. walking or going which it is acknowledged to signifie as well as pondering and which properly belongs to it in this place the steps being mentioned in the former verse To this interpretation agrees that which follows her paths are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wandring vagi saith the Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dangerous say the LXXII because they that wander run into danger but unstable saith the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 literally not to know i. e. either thou canst not know them non scies
the trouble to mortifie his own unruly appetites is soon overrun and laid waste by them All these sorts of misery though he expects them not but in confidence of safety goes on in his idle slothfull course will when he little thinks of it knock at his door as a traveller or way-goer to an host that knows nothing of his coming and when it comes it comes with a vengeance there is no way of resisting and as little of supporting it This traveller is stout and armed and will force his entrance and lay all waste where he enters 12. A naughty person a wicked man walketh with a froward mouth Paraphrase 12. Among other most noxious effects of idleness and unprofitableness one deserves to be taken notice of and most carefully avoided that of whispering and backbiting calumniating and detracting labouring nothing so much as to deprave and defame the actions of other men This is an eminent fruit of sloth and wickedness combin'd together and a most diabolical sin 13. He winketh with his eyes he speaketh with his feet and teacheth with his fingers Paraphrase 13. Such an one when he hath nothing of weight to say against a man will by significative gestures of all sorts give intimations of some grand matters and so perswade others without laying any particular to his charge that he is a most pestilent fellow 14. Frowardness is in his heart he deviseth mischief continually he soweth discord Paraphrase 14. His thoughts which have no good business to take them up are continually imployed in projecting what mischief he may doe and are never more gratefully busied than when he is a causing debate among neighbours One such person in a City is enough to embroil the whole and put it into a tumult 15. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly suddenly shall he be broken without remedy Paraphrase 15. And as to idle persons v. 11. so to this above all a proportionable vengeance is to be expected He that is of this temper seldom fails to be met with in his kind to fall unexpectedly by some secret hand parallel to the secrecy of his detracting whispering humour and when he falls he can never be recovered again he perishes unpitied unregarded 16. These six things doth the Lord hate yea seven are an abomination to him 17. A proud look a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood 18. An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations feet that be swift in running to mischief 19. A false witness that speaketh lies and him that soweth discord among brethren Paraphrase 16 17 18 19. And there is all reason for this for as there be seven sins which be very hatefull to God so this is a compound of five if not of all seven of them The seven are these 1. pride or haughtiness 2. lying or fraudulence 3. guilt of blood 4. malice or projecting of evil 5. a pleasure in mischieving any 6. false witness or calumny 7. causing of discord or debates among those that live friendly together Of these the second the fourth the fifth the sixth and seventh are evidently in this of the detractour or calumniatour see v. 12 14. And that pride is the root of it and blood-guiltiness the effect of it cannot be doubted the pride and high opinion of our selves and desire to be esteemed above all constantly inciting us to defame others and the debates and discord which are caused by back-biting ending generally in feuds and the bloodiest murthers And this is a competent indication how odious this sin is and how punishable in the sight of God 20. My son keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother 21. Bind them continually upon thy heart and tie them about thy neck 22. When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee 23. For the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life 24. To keep thee from the evil woman from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman Paraphrase 20 21 22 23 24. In the next place a principal caution there is for all young men of which they are to take an extraordinary care 'T is that which all parents timely warn their children of and it concerns them to lay it up and never forget it to carry it continually about with them as the Jews do their Phylacteries that it may be a perpetual memorative never out of their sight If they doe so they will have the comfort and benefit of it at home and abroad sleeping and waking in all the varieties of their life they will see and discern that timely which they that discern not run into all the most noxious and ruinous courses And what is this so important a caution thus pompously introduced Why onely this that thou be sure to keep thee from that horrible sin of fornication or adultery and not suffer thy self by whatsoever flatteries and deceits by soft and fair speeches the common address of whores to be seduced and ensnared in it 25. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart neither let her take thee with her eye-lids 26. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life Paraphrase 25 26. Whatever allurement is in her beauty that may warm and attract thy love whatever invitation in her behaviour and amiableness of her looks or address thou art most nearly concerned to guard and fortifie thy self that thou beest not captivated thereby that thou permit not any unclean desire to kindle so much as in thine heart for as that is adultery in the eyes of that God that requires purity of the heart as well as actions see Matt. 5.8 28. so most sad and dismall are the effects of this passion as by many thousand examples hath been evidenced both in relation to mens estates and also their lives Many great estates have been utterly ruin'd and brought to the smallest pittance by that sin and many bodies have been exhausted and brought to noisome diseases and untimely death the very life and soul and whatsoever is most precious is the prey that this vulture gorges herself on 27. Can a man take fire in his bosome and his clothes not be burnt 28. Can one go on hot coals and his feet not be burnt 29. So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent Paraphrase 27 28 29. It is as imaginable that a man shall put fire in his bosome or walk upon live coals and receive no harm from them either to his garments or his flesh as that a man shall adventure on this sin of adultery and not exhaust and ruine himself by that course A fire in his bones and a wasting to his estate are the regular natural inevitable attendants of this sin But that is not all The wrath
was framed encompassing the air and superiour abyss wherein the waters in the clouds and those in the bowels of the earth were assigned their mansions wherein this globe of earth and sea were so formed that the one should be confined to its channel the other stand firm on its basis this eternal Word and wisedom of the Father was the great artificer by which all was framed inseparably united the Son to the Father and as a Counsellor joining in all the wise fabrick of the Universe and all therein contained All which being formed by infinite wisedom all was exceeding good and beautifull and delightfull to the Creatour And though it were so yet the creating of mankind was a special and principal piece whereto the whole Trinity was summoned Gen. 1.26 and about this one sort of creature when created God took special delight to be employ'd as bearing his image in a special manner and when that by sin was defaced immediately this wisedom of the Father was promised to be incarnate to unite it self to our humane nature thereby preferring it before the very Angels on purpose to redeem and restore us to purity 32. Now therefore hearken unto me O ye children for blessed are they that keep my ways 33. Hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not 34. Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at the posts of my doors 35. For whoso findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favour of the Lord. Paraphrase 32 33 34 35. These considerations put all together the all kind of advantages from obedience to the divine commands of God and their flowing from that eternal wisedom of God whereby the whole world was designed and created and so unquestionably the most divine and excellently wise and such as the eternal Word and Son of God was to be incarnate in our flesh to exemplifie and oblige to this practice may make it most perfectly reasonable for all that consider themselves their present or future weal to set to this exercise diligently and constantly see Luk. 11.28 as the onely way to all kind of felicity not to frustrate so great a mercy as is the instruction of God himself who certainly knows what is our best and wisest course and therefore prescribes it us because he knows it most agreeable to the better part of us but to apply themselves to it most solicitously constantly and unweariedly as that which is made up of all kind of felicity makes life worthy to be called life prepares them that live well here for that favour of God which will never deny them any good thing here and will over and above reward them for being thus happy here with an eternal immarcescible crown of glory hereafter 36. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death Paraphrase 36. Whereas the neglect of these precepts is the greatest treachery against ones self the going on in any course of sin is the immersing him in an abyss of present wretchedness the engaging him in certain eternal woes hereafter So that every wicked man stands off on terms of the utmost defiance to wisedom and is onely in love with ruine and destruction refuseth happiness when it is put into his hand when he is courted to it and wooes and importunes misery casts himself away and his body and soul to all eternity for that that yields him the least fruit in the enjoyment Annotations on Chap. VIII V. 12. Witty inventions From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excogitavit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 counsel machination most frequently in an ill sense so Lev. 19.29 it is rendred by the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the counsel of the wicked and by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wickedness and Prov. 12. v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of cogitations is by the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wicked man and so by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wicked man and accordingly here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be rendred the knowledge of machinations which if it be in an ill sense of machinations then the finding them will be the finding them out discovering and defeating and frustrating all such the craftiest contrivances of worldly and wicked men but it may be also in a good sense and then it is the finding i. e. the obtaining and acquiring them and thus it best agrees with the beginning of the verse where of this true i. e. practical wisedom it is said that it dwells with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. subtlety cunning craft as before v. 5. contrary to simplicity and deceivableness and so the full importance of the place is that this kind of wisedom the practice of vertue though it be not so esteemed but be under the contrary prejudice is indeed the onely true subtlety The LXXII reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I invoked knowledge and cogitation reading it seems 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cogitations and so doth the Chaldee and Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowledge and cogitations V. 22. Possessed one The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thus most literally rendred from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to possess But it must be remembred that this possession is sometime acquired by begetting as the Son is certainly to be reckoned among the possessions of the Father as well as the Servant which is brought up by him or the Cattel or House in like manner so Gen. 4.1 upon the birth of Cain Eve saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it I have gotten a man c. And Zach. 13.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 begat me This makes it reasonable to bestow some consideration on the reading of the LXXII in this place where we have it rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord hath created me in the beginning of his ways on or over his works That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 created is mistaken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 possessed was St. Jerom's conceit on Isa 26. and is obvious to imagine because that will be directly answerable to the ordinary notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for possessing and because Aquila reads expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 possest me But beside that the Ancient Fathers before St. Jerome follow this reading of the LXXII which now we have 't is evident the Chaldee concur in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 created me And the Son of Sirach more than once transcribes it ch 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisedom hath been created before all things and v. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord himself created her and ch 24.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he created me from the beginning before the world And Gen. 14.19 the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the LXXII rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where speaking of God they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who
of the Millennium To this end must Prophecies be precipitated and what belongs to the future perhaps long ago past Conversion of the Jews or our yet more future bliss shall be all anticipated presently the Cross condemn'd and banish'd out of the world and none like to be of the Order of the new Disciples but he that will cast off that unchristian luggage and so not follow Christ Can there be a greater contrariety unto Christ's judgement a more perfect Antipodes to all that hath hitherto been Gospel than that which by pulling out one pin in the scene hath been thus shifted into its stead And as in the general so in the particular too In what state soever I am therewith to be contented is not to be had by Saint Paul's own confession without a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great deal of mysterious instruction such as in the Eleusinia sacra cost the Client so many sighing patient years of attendance and purgation before he could ascend to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heights of Christian contentment but especially to have any good opinion of Afflictions when they are actually on our shoulders to be so tame as to think such a proportion of earth with wormwood imbibed can prove useful or medicinal to any Will not a brave golden showr of cordials dispel poysons raise a collaps'd habit of Soul infuse a new stock of spirits more probably far than a course of steel or quicksilver Would not an army of Sun-beams that have light as well as warmth in them subdue and thaw the most hardned heart in the whole quarry dissolve the most icy crystal spirit better than a stroke of Moses rod or a crack of thunder Thus hard it is for flesh and bloud to believe that God can chuse best for us Are not Abanah and Pharphar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Jordan May not I wash there and be clean Would not a little kind usage a few fatherly kisses and embraces an inheritance or portion given me in my hand a fair demeans to keep hospitality upon be more likely to work upon well-natur'd sinners that do not love to be forced will be as thankful as any man living if they may be courteously treated but with a froward handling cannot chuse but shew themselves unsavoury This driving and forcing men to repentance is a violation of the Gospel-liberty a kind of constraining and violencing of the spirit if it be inslaved to these beggerly rudiments of stripes and terrors and savours much of the spirit of Legal fear that Hagar or mount Sinai that ingendreth unto bondage quite contrary to the free-born Sion or Jerusalem-spirit whereby we cry Abba Father Farther yet I have heard Ephraim a murmuring as well as a bemoaning I am so incumbred with the pressures of a villanous world such a hurry of passions of indignation and impatience of a tumultuous grief and shame that I have neither heart nor joy nor leisure to mend any thing Thus it follows vers 19. I am ashamed and confounded because I bear the reproach of my youth no possible reforming in such a state of confusion such a kind of Tophet and hell as this And I heartily wish I did not speak to men that can think Ephraim in the right all this while that with Jonas on the withering of the Gourd can justifie against God himself that they do well to be angry even unto death that can really perswade themselves that Afflictions are not for their turn that they are as noxious to their Souls as to their bodies that as Hippocrates resolved of the Scythians that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they came from God that all the curses and ill-turns that Heaven had to spare would be confined to the poor because their wants set them always a murmuring and a blaspheming of God so I say I wish we had not some of that Atheist's conceit that cannot tell how to imagine that stripes should bring forth any thing but clamours and execrations more ferity more sullen Atheisms more bestiality to drown Opiate potions to benum the sense of our calamities And many of us do this out of pure judgment that affluence is far the more probable way toward mending that a Canaan were able to inspire Israelites as the good foil in Plutarch was thought to infuse Poetry into the Oracle And having experience to demonstrate the first part of Ephraim's speech being no more wrought on by all God's smiting than the most untractable Steers they go on with a presumption of the truth of the second that Prosperity will do all that Adversity hath not done Turn thou me c. But then 2. I told you there was a second notion of these words as they are an act of promise and temporary resolution that if God will but turn our captivity we will infallibly amend And 't is very possible at a distance for a man to think himself in earnest when he so promises 'T was Dio's observation of Nero's mother that profest her self content to be kill'd by her son on condition he might be Emperor That 't is very ordinary at a distance to enter such obligations we 'l venture any the sowrest paiment from Satan after this life so we may get but his Kingdom of the Earth his Seraglio of Carnal felicities at the instant The Hypocrite or false-hearted professor will make any bargains with God for the future will not doubt but to be a Disciple of Christ so he may but first go and bury his father or with Jephta's daughter have a month or two to go up and down the mountains and bewail her virginity she and her fellows Be it the Cloister or the Altar Chastity or Death it self as you know 't is not resolved which 't was that that Vow belong'd to a little present felicity will be sufficient paiment for either of them only when the date of the undertaken returning begins to commence when the sowr part of the bargain comes to be performed the Nero to kill as well as to reign the Cloister to be actually entred and with that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vow never to return ad seculum again then the Votary begins to understand himself better finds it as improper to turn Penitentiary in a Palace as it was in a Prison as irrational to be condemn'd to Tantalus as to Prometheus fate to be abstemious in a river of delights as patient of fastening to a mountain of torments and had he known it that he should thus have been taken at his word have had his turning required as soon as his Captivity was turn'd his mortification expected at the restoring of his peace and with the festivity and rest the holiness also and services of a Sabbath and Jubilee he would have even courted his Rod embraced his pleasanter Gyves or Dunghill have continued a slave in Aegypt rather than thus be circumcised in Canaan have been bored
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the voluptuous or pleasurable drew but drops or lappings but will yield the illuminate Christian full streams of all the real joy and Epicurism in the world Which as it shall be the sum of my present Address to you so of my Prayers to God for ever for you that he that knows best how to chuse for us will not suffer us to do it for our selves will answer the necessities of our health and not the importunities of our appetites that he will take our Soul's part against our enemy Flesh and not our Bodies our Estates our Satans against our Souls will teach us that patience and that joy that tranquillity and that Serenity that courage and that Anthem of his three Martyr-children that we may sing also in the midst of flames denudate us of all when that may fit us for our prizes prescribe us any the scorchingst Fornace here which shall prove most instrumental to our present Reformation and future bliss to our life of obedience here and of glory hereafter Which God of his infinite mercy grant us all for his Son Jesus Christ his sake To whom with the Father c. John Baptist's Warning The IV. SERMON MATTH 3.2 Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand TWO Difficulties there are in these few words what is meant by the Kingdom of heaven and what by Repentance and then one plain matter of Practical Divinity that results from the union of them The Difficulties must be explained or else the Doctrine will not be come by the Earth removed ere the Ore be sprang the Veil be rent and then the Oracle will appear The former what is the importance of the Kingdom of heaven as being more disputable I shall propose more civilly and tenderly and unconcernedly as willing to give an Example of that meekness and that charity that in matters of Opinion will keep a Christian from noise or quarrel but the latter being more practical to which your eternal weal is more closely consequent a little mistake in Repentance being like the losing of a pin in a Watch the Actions and Motions of the whole life even the success of every temporal enterprize or hope depending on it you must give me leave to be more dogmatical to affirm confidently and if need be contend and quarrel you out of such errors To begin with the first Difficulty The Kingdom of heaven in this place I conceive to have a peculiar critical sense different from what belongs to it in many other places and to signifie the destruction of the Jews that remarkable vast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or final subversion of that Church and State wherein the power and so Kingdom of Christ was most illustriously visible against his persecutors And if you must have the reasons of my conceit I will give you a taste to them First The parallel use of the phrase in some other places not to trouble you with many In the 21 Luke where our Saviour having mentioned the beginnings of sorrows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beginnings of their throes of travail and prolusions of this so bloody day Jerusalem encompast with Armies and the Prodigies that should be observable about that time the signs in the Sun and Moon c. ver 25. parallel to the relations in Hegisippus and Josephus and predictions in Joel The Sun shall be turn'd into darkness and the Moon c. he then concludes in the words of this Text When ye see these things come to pass know yee that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand A second Argument you may take from the Preacher the Baptist whose office it was to warn the Jews of this destruction as you may see Mal. 4.5 6. Behold I will send you Eliah the Prophet i. e. John Baptist a prophesying before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord and he shall turn the hearts of the Fathers c. directly the Sermon of Repentance Conversion in my Text lest I come and smite the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in the Scripture phrase peculiarly the land of Judaea with a curse the clear interpretation of this Kingdom A third Argument you may have from the consequents in this Text where the Baptist saith it over again to the Pharisees in other words the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wrath ready to come and the axe laid to the root of the trees and so it seems this Kingdom was a heavy slaughtering hewing Kingdom And so indeed the propriety of the word will bear which will serve for a fourth Argument there being two notions of a Kingdom the one as it signifies reigning the other as executing judgment the first ruling the second coercing or punishing the first the golden sceptre the second the iron rod that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 royal Officer of God being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13. an avenger or executioner for punishment And for the matter in hand the case is most clear Christ was never so demonstrably a King as in that royal act of revenge upon his Crucifiers then was his standard set up his ensign displayed the sign of the Son of man appearing in Heaven and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Matt. 24.30 Once more There is but one interpretation of this Kingdom of Heaven that can pretend against that which we have now given you and that is that it should signifie the preaching of the Gospel which at John Baptist's Sermon was not yet present but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was at hand But how could that be the thing meant when Christ himself who was this King and his preaching this Kingdom doth still continue the same style Matt. 4.17 Jesus began to preach and say Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand the other Kingdom was already come in Jesus preaching but still this Kingdom is to come yet future though 't were at hand Yea and when the Apostles were sent out a preaching which sure was the presence of that Kingdom the same style was still continued by them Luke 10. v. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kingdom of God is at hand upon you and then immediately to give the interpretation of that Kingdom they shake off the dust against them a direful ceremony and it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that City v. 12. the destruction that Sodom met with was more supportable than this I will now flatter my self that I have given you some hints and 't is in kindness to my Auditory that I do no more to acknowledge it not improbable that the Kingdom of heaven may have a peculiar separate notion in this and some other few places from that which it ordinarily signifies and so denote the fatal final day to the Jews and that will give our Baptist a preacher of Repentance just as Jonas and Noah were God's oeconomy the same and the style but little
a passive obedience to Heaven The submitting to God's will in suffering what he lays upon us the utmost degree of Patience that the most of us attain to and when we have done that think our selves Champions and Martyrs of the first magnitude is but a very moderate degree of Christian fortitude that which Christ needed not have ascended to the Cross to preach unto us a man must be a kind of mad Atheist to come short of that for what is it but Atheism to think it possible to resist his will and what but madness to attempt it 'T is that high Philosophy of submitting to his wisdom the acknowledging God the best chuser for us the stripes which he sends far fitter for our turns than all the boons we pray for his denying of our demands the divinest way of granting them and in a word the resolving that whatever is is best whatsoever he hath done best to be done whatsoever permitted best to be permitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that very fury and madness of earth and hell is a piece of God's oeconomy whatsoever is revealed to be his will by its coming to pass among us is though the Actors in that Tragedy shall pay dearly for it yet better and more desirable and eligible for us than all friends and Patron-guardians in heaven and earth yea and our own Souls could have contrived and chosen for us The good Hezekiah's Good is the word of the Lord which he hath spoken when it denounced destruction to his whole family old Nahum's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even this for good to the heaviest news that ever came so oft repeated that we find him in Elias Levita surnamed Gamzo Even this the firm adherence to the truth of that Apostolical Aphorism that all things tend to good to them that love God from tribulation through seven degrees to sword or death it self and the forming all our lives by the plastick vertue of this one Article this submission I say to his wisdom superadded to that other to his will and that attended with its natural consequent a rejoycing in tribulation is the lesson God's rod must teach us yea and submission in actions as well as sufferings to his precepts as well as to his decrees doing chearfully as well as patiently enduring his will or else we are still but punies in St. Paul's Academy but triflers in the School of the Cross of Christ Once more Denunciations of God's wrath may set us a praying oftner than we were wont before make us assiduous and importunate in that duty The tempest in Jonah may cast the heathen Mariners upon their knees crying every man unto his God and yet for want of the clean hands to spread forth towards Heaven of the new Soul to exhale and breath forth those prayers the liveliest of those flames like all those which our earthy fire brings forth faint and extinguish long before they come to that Region of purity 'T was the blind man's Divinity Now we know that God heareth not sinners a principle of blind Nature and Hierocles a Philosopher descants excellently upon it The sacrifice of such unreformed fools is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a feast for the fire to prey on their offerings to the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prize for the sacrilegious to seize on the wise man is the only Priest the only friend of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only man that knows how to pray offering up himself for a sacrifice hewing his lower Soul into an Image his upper into a Temple of his Deity I might shew you some more of these inferiour uses imperfect sudden motions that these judgments may have forced from us and so still like Chymicks in the pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone we meet with may handsome Experiments by the way please our selves in our journey though never attain to our journeys end These sad Times and this forced study and contemplation of God in his Judgments may have cast us upon some considerable Christian vertues and yet not advanced us within any ken of that great transcendent treasure to which all the ignis and the sulphur the fire and the brimstone of his Judgments that vast expence of thunder-bolts to the emptying of his Armory was design'd Repentance is a higher pitch than any or all of these and 't is only Repentance is the proper Use of this sad Doctrine and not all kinds that pass under that Title neither and that must be shewed you in our next stage And first the Repentance we speak of is not Sorrow whether for misery or for sin For Misery that sluce which lets out such rivers of tears which get away all the custom from godly sorrow or humiliation Such sorrow as this is admirably described by God Hos 7.14 and call'd assembling themselves for corn fasting and praying only upon the loss and for the recovering of worldly plenty and this it seems very reconcileable with all the impiety in the world for it follows and they rebel against me Nor bare sorrow for sin neither that which some men call Repentance and by so doing have fill'd Hell with none but Penitents for I am confident there is not an unhappy creature there which hath not both these parts of sorrow both for his misery and for his fall that betray'd him to it had he not Hell were not half so much hell as 't is two of the sorest tormentors would be missing the sense of the flames and the gnawing of the worm the one extorting the tears the other the gnashing of the teeth Nor secondly Humiliation alone though that were a great rarity to be found among us for though that might prevail to avert or defer secular calamities from a Kingdom as it did from Ahab and therefore our Satan that accuses this Nation day and night before God will not allow us this common grace after all our sufferings the whole Nation God knows is as unhumbled as ever yet will not a bare humiliation under God's rod be accepted for a sufficient return when Repentance and change is call'd for No nor thirdly the sudden passionate motions toward Reformation the shooting up of the seed in the stony ground many such weak false conceptions there are in the world and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or speedy abortion the common fate of them all like the Goats in the Philosopher that give milk when they are stung but never else When he slew them they sought him and turned them early and enquired after God Every one of these is but a poor imperfect paiment of that great arrear that God's terrors and imminent Judgments are come like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Gospel to arrest us for and if we do not presently make our peace with our adversary by rendring him that only royal tribute the sincere impartial uniform obedience of our whole age to come and counting the time past of our lives sufficient to have wrought the will
wizard flesh within us that hath thus bewitch'd us to its false pleasures first and then its fallacious hopes the fatall'st horrid'st condition in the world you may excuse the Preacher and the Apostle if it carry them both into a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an out-cry of love and pity and desire to prevent this unremediable ruine to which thou art posting to catch thee when thou art nodding thus dangerously with a most affectionate compassionate compellation of a dearly beloved let us cleanse Which brings me to the second General the Address adding somewhat of earnestness and somewhat of sweetness to the Exhortation Having therefore these Promises dearly beloved The Exhortation to purifying reforming mortifying of sins is an effect and expression of the greatest kindness sincerest love and tenderest affection imaginable You shall see this exemplified by the most earnest Lover that ever was in the world Will you believe the holy Ghost Greater love than this hath no man shewed than to lay down his life for his friend Now our Saviour you know laid down his life somewhat more than the life of a mere man the life of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that divine celestial Person on purpose to fetch back this divine but scorn'd Purity into the world again He gave himself for us saith St. Paul that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people Tit. 2. laid down his life for that only prize to which the Apostle here exhorts this of purifying You shall see it again Act. 3. ult God having raised up his Son Jesus sent him to bless us in-turning every one from his iniquities This turning from iniquities the purifying in the Text was the prime end and design of Christ's coming into the world of all his glorious Offices and the exercises of them and that the most blessed work of mercy that could ever be meant to polluted Souls this turning is there the interpretation of his blessing of us to bless us in turning c. 'T were superfluous farther to assist this truth in shewing you what an act of benefaction and mercy of charity and real blessing it is to contribute in any the smallest manner to the mortifying of any sin in any 't is the rescuing him from the most noisome miserable putrefied piteous condition in the world The plagues of Aegypt the Frogs and Flies and Lice and Locusts of Aegypt and the Murren and Death of the first-born were but the imperfect emblems of these unclean hated Vermin in the Soul that devour all the fruit and corn of the land all the Christian vertues and graces despoil and depopulate all that is precious or valuable in it and then what proud Pharaoh would not fall on his knees to Moses to make use of his power with Heaven to deliver him from such plagues as these And yet to see how quite contrary 't is order'd in the world God is fain to send suppliants to us that we will but be content to part with an impurity that we will but endure so huge a blessedness You know we are Embassadors for Christ and what 's the nature of an Embassage why setting up this impure unmortifi'd sinner in a throne to have an Embassie address'd to him is an argument of a Prince and not only men but God himself as it were prostrate before his foot-stool the King of Heaven to this proud reigning sinner on earth to beseech him but to part with these weapons of his hostility against God these provoking impurities as though God did beseech you by us God himself becomes the suppliant and then we Ministers may very well be content with the imployment we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God Thus through the whole Book of Canticles is the beloved Husband of his Church most passionately a wooing her to this duty to this opening to him giving him an admission all upon this score that he might come in to bless and purifie and O what Rhetorick is bestowed on her far beyond the dearly beloved in this Text Open to me my love my dove my undefiled my fair one he calls her fair and undefiled on purpose that he may make her such and O that we had but that Saviour-like passion that blessing kindness to our own poor perishing Souls some of those bowels of love to our own bowels That we have not is the greatest defect of self-love the most contrary sin against our grand fundamental principle that of Self-preservation which can combine with the devil for the undermining and ruining and subverting of whole Kingdoms on that one commanding design of getting off the cross from off our one shoulders on whomsoever it be laid but cannot think fit to assist Heaven in purging out one refuse impurity out of the Soul Yet shall I not on such discouragements give it over as a forlorn impossible hope but proceed one Stage farther on this errand to the last General the Exhortation it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us cleanse our selves 1. Cleanse 2. our selves 3. us our selves the verb is active the pronoun reciprocal and the verb and pronoun both plural And so beside the duty it self of cleansing two Circumstances of this duty we must learn from hence namely 2. That it is the Christian's task upon himself this of purifying then 3. That it ought to be the common united design of all Christians the Apostle and people together to assist one another in this work this of purifying For the first the duty it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cleanse This is not the actual acquiring but the motion and proficiency and tendency toward Purity And so there again you have two things 1. What this Purity is 2. What this motion toward Purity The Purity is of two sorts the first opposed to filth the second to mixture as the Wine is pure both when 't is fetch'd off from the lees and dregs and when 't is not mingled with water In the first notion the purifying here is the purging out of carnality in the second of hypocrisie the first is the clean heart in David the second the right or sincere single or simple spirit the first from the filthiness of the flesh the second of the spirit and you will never be prosperous Alchymists never get the Philosopher's stone never acquire the grand Christian hope if you miscarry in either of these The first kind of Purity again that of the flesh is two-fold proportionable to the two fountains and sources of carnality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lust and rage that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infernal pair that hath so undermined the peace of Souls and Kingdoms Lust the common parent both to all fleshly and all worldly desire to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh again either the warm or the moist carnality the burnings of the incontinent or the thirsts of the
luxurious that deluge of fire and water that had and shall have the honour to divide betwixt them the first and second ruine of the world And for the lust of the eye that cold drie piece of sensuality that strange kind of Epicurism that mad raving passion after Stones and Minerals the deifying of that forlorn Element which saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could never get any Advocate to plead for it that which struck Moses into such a passion These people have committed a great sin have made them gods of gold This love of the world and things of the world extravagant desire hot pursuit of such cold embraces like the Embalmers in Herodotus that had flames toward the chill'd earth the Carkasses before them this drie juiceless sin is yet able to pollute and defame the Soul as earth you know is as apt to foul and s222ully as any thing covetousness is as irreconcilable with purity as incontinence and intemperance and all with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the these Promises in the Text. So in the second place for that of Rage 't is a fruitful teeming mother which contains all the more sublimate kinds of carnality pride and ambition and all the generation of those vipers Gal. 5.20 Hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers and the like all prime works of the flesh verse 19. though somewhat more volatile and aerial i. e. have more of Satan and Lucifer in them than the other Even he that but sides in Religion that makes that band of all charity and humility an engine of faction or pride that saith I am of Paul c. is he not carnal 1 Cor. 3.4 the most undoubted carnality in the world A multitude of sins there are under this one head able to bespot a Man a Nation into a Leopard and those spots are far from being the spots of sons reconcilable with the promises of this Text. But above all one that pollutes in grain that crimson die the guilt of Bloud in which those Souls that are roll'd as every malicious unpeaceable spirit certainly is though he never had the courage to shed any look so direful in God's sight that in comparison with them the mire and mud of the basest Swine may pass for a tolerable beauty the bloud of men saith Psellus yielding a fume or nidour that the Devils and sure none but of their complexion and diet are fed and fatten'd with and Maimonides to the same purpose that 't is the food of Devils that he that can feed on it is a guest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the table of Devils and literally guilty of that which St. Paul mentions so sadly 1 Cor. 10.20 I would not that ye should have fellowship with Devils partake of that Cyclops feast prepar'd like Hell peculiarly for the Devil and his Angels those great Abaddons and Apollyons and cannot without injury and riot be snatch'd out of his hands be swill'd and wallowed in by us those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that were so scandalously charg'd on the Primitive Christians and cost Justin Martyr and Athenagoras such Apologies their feasting on one another's flesh which charge should it be now resumed and brought in by Turks or Indians against us Protestants as they say it is but certainly will be when it is told in Gath and Askalon Good God! what should we do for an Apologist Come we then in the last place to the last degree of Purity that which excludes Hypocrisie or mixture the sin which hath so died this Nation given it an heir-apparency to all the Pharisees woes Not only that Notion of Hypocrisie which in our ordinary speech hath ingross'd the title the vain-glorious publishing all our own acts of piety O! that is but a puny degree of this sin I know not whether I should not do well to give it some good words in comparison to its contrary the desiring to appear more impure more impious than we are that gross confident bold-fac'd devil the far more dangerous of the two But I say the other more secret nice hypocrisie the falseness to God taking in rivals into the heart the partial halting mutilate obedience that which keeps a reserve for Satan for Mammon for my self when all should be given up to God but above all that yet profounder piece the Aegyptian Temple a most glorious Fabrick most pitiously inhabited nothing but Cats and Crocodiles within in stead of Gods that of the painted Sepulchre the noisome poysonous secrecie under the loveliest disguise the Vault or Charnel-house of rottenness of all the impurity in the world the deep-digg'd Golgotha and Aceldama under the fairest and most inviting inscription that Histrionical piece of the Beasts Tragedy the couchaut but ravening Wolves under the Sheep's cloathing the God brought in for the basest services the impurest contrivances in the world and never pretended to or thought on till we had those vile imployments for him And this you will acknowledge sufficiently inconsistent with the purifying in this Text and so with the these Promises Having given you the severals of this Purity by the contrary branches of the Impurity we come now to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the notion of cleansing or purifying that is here so vehemently required of us And that is not the having acquired this purity having attained any perfection of this state in either kind but only the being on the way the constant motion and growth a setting out and progress and proficiency in it a daily purging and rinsing of the Soul that good innocent kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that pardonable Pharisaism of assiduous washings a daily slaughtering of the great defilers one after another one day of execution for Lust another for Rage one for the impurities of the Tongue the oathes the lies the profanations the blasphemies the noisome unsavoury discourses Blessed Lord that this might but be the day of demolishing that Babel of strange heathen languages the least degree of which is intolerable among Christians another for the impurities of the Eye and a whole Ocean of purgations little enough for that but above all an every-day care for the drying up the great fountain of Leprosie in the Heart In a word a firm ratifi'd resolution of mortifying and crucifying a devoting and consecrating all and making as much speed with them as we can To that end though the perfect Purity be not acquired yet must these three essaies be made toward it these three degrees of ascent and proficiency observ'd 1. Barring up the inlets obstructing the avenues against all future breakings in of the great polluters the resisting all fresh temptations by the remembrance how dear they have formerly cost our Souls what flouds of tears if we have done our duty what a whole shop of purgatives to get out one spot so contracted but especially stopping the recurrence of the old profane polluted habits that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cleansed swine returned to her old
of Aegypt God and a cruel Pharaoh a Deliverer and a Tyrant one to have them Slaves in Aegypt t'other to have them Princes in Canaan a sufficient inequality betwixt the Pretenders that it might be impossible for any to prefer the Onions and the Garlick before the Manna and the Kingdom After 't was betwixt God and a golden Calf a Calf still no very honourable creature though 't were of gold and anon betwixt God and a brazen Serpent Serpent and brazen too neither form nor metal to commend it and all along through the heathen world the competition was yet more unequal betwixt the God of Heaven and Wood and Stone of the Earth the most glorious Creator and vilest Creature nay the piece of Wood as the Prophet sets it that was not fit for any use not so much as to be burnt the very refuse of the refuse is the thing the Idol was made of and none but that Idol thought fit to be a Competitor with God for the adoration If you look back to Judaea again at the time of the great competition for the hearts of Israel betwixt Rehoboam and Jeroboam it was still of the same making betwixt a Kings son and a Servant a right Heir and a cunning Seducer a kind of Serpent again yes and betwixt the glorious Temple of Jerusalem on one side and the upstart Dan and Bethel on t'other the high Priest on one side and the basest of the People on the other betwixt the Calves at that Dan and the Cherubims at that Jerusalem and so still there was advantage enough one would think on Gods side against such Competitors And if we look now abroad into the most idoliz'd adored Diana's the sins that get all the custom away from Christ the only rivals with him for our souls we shall find them but little advanc'd above that old pitch little lovelier than the Serpent just such are our crafts our unsanctified counsels our wily artifices that have nothing but Serpent in their composition little honourabler than the Calf just such are our Gods of gold which I cannot mention but in Moses passion O these people have committed a great sin have made them Gods of gold all piety transform'd and contracted into the worship of that one shrine our gain the only godliness we can hear of and then a multitude more of a yet viler making fit only for a competition with that knotty refuse piece of wood of which the Idol was made the more shame they should outvie a most glorious God a Christ that if he had nothing in his life amiable yet hath died for us and so hath dearly purchas'd a title to our love yea and a blessed Spirit come down on purpose to sublime our judicative faculty to convince the world of the unreasonableness of sin yea and a poor thirsty panting soul which hath some reason to expect kindness from us a heaven and an immortal bliss Consider but a few of that glittering train of reigning sins in this our Land in this my Auditory and be astonished O Earth that they should ever be received in competition with Christ The oaths that all the importunity of our weekly Sermons turn'd into Satyrs against that sin cannot either steal or beg from us what gain or profit do they afford us which of our senses do they entertain which of our faculties do they court an empty profitless temptationless sin sensuality only to the devil-part in us fumed out of hell into our mouths in a kind of hypochondriacal fit an affront to that strict command of Christ his ego autem to his Disciples but I say unto you Christians swear not at all the best quality that it can pretend to is that that Hierocles of old mentions with indignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fill up the vacuities of the speech to express and man a rage i. e. to act a mad man the more perfectly And of him that hath in his time sworn over all the hairs of his head I would still ask but this one question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what fruit had he then of this sin then when it was full in his mouth a swelling his cheeks whereof he is now ashamed cannot chuse but blush his ears glow or be in some pain till I have done speaking of it and yet beyond this the end of those things is death a several fiend in hell most sadly to come the paiment of every of those gainless oaths It were but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or cold address to this kind of sinner to bespeak in that of expostulating stile what advantageth it to gain the whole world and lose his own soul 't were more to his purpose to demand what advantageth it him to gain not one atome or most diminutive part of the world not the least acquisition of any thing desirable even to the carnal man satisfactory to any part of his appetite save that in a manner Platonick designless love of sinning and ruining his own soul and yet to do that as sure as if he had Satans totum hoc his whole Exchequer of wealth and honour in exchange for it I shall rather add what shall that man give in exchange for his soul to get it back again which he hath parted with so cheap without any barter sold it for nought and taken no mony for it in the Psalmists phrase and now cannot redeem it with all his patrimony 'T would grieve one I confess that did but weigh this sin in this ballance and observe the Tekel in the wall over against it how light and kexy and impertinent a sin this is to hear that any body should be damn'd for it in another world part with such treasures for such trifles make such African voyages carry out the substantial commodities of a good land and return with a fraight of toies or monsters pay so hugely dear for such perfect nothings and yet 't would grieve one more that this sin should glitter in a Protestant Court become part of the gallantry and civility of the place I and defame and curse our Armies that the improsperousness ruin perhaps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a whole Kingdom should be imputable to one such sin and all our prayers to Heaven for you be outsounded and drown'd with that most contrary eloquence 'T were the Justest thing in the world that he that upon my present instance this more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 second admonition will not now vow to part for ever with this one sin so threatful to his Soveraign his Country his own Soul to the hosts gone forth against the enemy to all that is or should be pretious to him and so absolutely gainless to himself in his vilest capacity even as a sensual brute should never be admitted within these doors again never be preach'd to more never be consider'd as a Christian so much as in profession that will part with his true Christ or Jesus rather than with the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the venerable and the pure but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovely and commendable Phil. 4. Embraced by men of quality upon the same motives on which now all the contrary vices are taken up in adoration to that great Idol Civility and Reputation Vertue was then the more splendid title the more courtly name And 't is none of the meanest sins and plagues provocations and vengeances of this Kingdom that the measure of honour and gallantry among us is taken from fools and mad-men and by that means shame so prodigiously transplanted The chast man is the only leper to be separated and thrust out from the Camp Modesty the only scandalous thing the three degrees of the new-fashion'd Excommunication are denounced and executed like the Athenian Ostracism upon the several gradations of that vertue The purity of the body the Tongue the Eye have a kind of Nidui Cherem and Scamatha proportioned to them no man is civil enough for ordinary converse till he hath renounced such pusillanimous innocencies and brought forth fruits worthy of that repentance a whole Knight errantry in that sin confession with the mouth glorying of their masculine enterprizes enough to fill a Romance and even martyrdom it self and many sad encounters and real hellish sufferings in that service and all this penance of the least to expiate the crime of bashfulness to reconcile the modest Puny to make him fit for society with men I remember a conceit of Herodotus when the Greeks besieged Troy he believes Helena was in Aegypt because otherwise had she been in the City they would certainly have deliver'd her up and saved themselves so strange did it seem to him and irrational that men should chuse rather to die than part with a lust And yet to the shame of us Christians when Gods judgments make such direful approaches to us on this great quarrel for our vile and reproachful lusts when a black grim cloud â—ngs just over our heads gather'd from the vapours which this one dung-hill hath exhaled as Rome they say and others as well as that is enabled to oppress Countries by the pensions it receives from them when the voice is come flashing out of that cloud and the business driven to a close issue repent or perish irreversibly the kingdom used by God at this time as Antiochus of old by the Roman Ambassadors put into a circle as it were and not suffered to come out till we shall give our answer we desert and renounce estates and lives honours and souls and all rather than retrench or abate ought of this accursed superfluity And to this unsavoury humour and custom of the world one Use may be brought home from St. Pauls Sermon though taken in cypher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of continence I beseech you save me the pains resume and enlarge it to your selves 3. For judgment to come 1. That there is such a thing 2. That it descends to such mean particulars as justice and continence I cannot but in passing be your Remembrancer 1. That there is such a thing Injustice and incontinence are two main supplanters of all belief of the judgment to come when a man hath once set up that infamous trade of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6. of resolving to be rich in spight of all those objections and stops and encumbrances of honesty and direct dealing when he is come to a contemning that pedantry of justice of observation of Oaths that shall interpose so uncivilly to resist his thrift and advancement in the world believe it the minae vatum the news of the judgment to come in the Preachers mouth will be under an heavy suspicion of fraud and cheat and in fine pass but for fictions and mormo's too weak to outlook a brave glittering temptation the Taxes on the Ecclesiasticks in Florence which no body else dare collect for fear of the Popes thunderbolts the Jews will exact undauntedly Now the covetous worldling is that Jew whose soul being gone down into the bowels of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Diodorus his phrase to an eternal drudgery in the gold-mineral is out of the reach of sounds from Heaven out of the awe or noise of thunderbolts The Mammonist is in your danger at your mercy to turn Atheist whensoever you bid him whensoever the lure of Gold shall be at leisure to tempt him ready to renounce all hope all fear of another world whensoever your goods are so put within his reach that an easie perjury will bring them into his Inventory And for the lusts of the flesh 't was Aristotles observation that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they debauch and corrupt our principles they send up more heathen fumes into the brain than any other distemper can do Saint Cyril tells us of some Idolaters that would have only a day-God because the night was a time for revelling and to have a God then would destroy their game and therefore they pitcht upon the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might be Atheists all night and then they take it out to purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil saith of the Gluttons fasts revenging themselves on their Day-devotions by their Night-revels never acknowledge a God when a lust is to be lost by it and Athenagoras hath given it for a rule that the denying of the Resurrection the resolved concluding the world with this life and believing nothing of another is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only beloved doctrine of the voluptuous He that hath once transformed himself into that swine hath his Optick Nerves so chang'd in his forehead that as Plut. observes of that creature he never sees Heaven again till he be laid on his back And I fear the race of such heathen swine is likely within a while to prove the prime staple commodity of the land We are fallen into peevish times wherein all Gods methods are quite perverted the powerfull'st means that were ever afforded for the casting such Devils out of a Kingdom are debauch'd into matter of improvement and heightning of the humour and even dethroning God if he will not comply with it the very Angels that came to Sodom to visit for villany are once more assaulted and violated by our lusts I mean those judgments from Heaven upon a vitious Generation that would have inspired a Colony of Scythians with some piety by a strange kind of Antiperistasis or contrary working have made men more profane and godless than ever they were before the storm so close over our heads that in other Kingdoms they say sets them a ringing bells shooting guns lifting up voices to break and dissolve the cloud that threatens them hath set us upon the same design by oaths and blasphemies and those accursed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shouts of our Souldiers have broke the cloud indeed brought down not the Dove flying over our heads as Historians tell us a shout in an
who can dwell with everlasting burnings and all little enough to rouze you out of that dead prodigious sleep of sin to retrench the fury of one riotous lust I beseech you tell me is there ever a judgement to come ever an account to be given for moral vertues Do you so much as fear that for every unclean embrace or dalliance every shameless loud riot for every boisterous rage or execration that I may not add for every contumelious rude address to the throne of grace every base contempt of that majesty that fills this place God shall one day call you into judgement if you do and yet go on in these believe me you are the valliantest daringst persons in the world and if death be not more formidable to you than hell you are fit for a reserve or forlorn hope for the Cannons mouth for Cuiraisiers for fiends to duel with and let me for once set up an infamous trade read you a Lecture of cowardise and assure you that a judgment to come may be allow'd to set you a trembling that it may be reconcilable with Gallantry to fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell and put you in mind of that which perhaps you have not considered that you are not Atheists enough to stand out those terrours when they begin to come close up to you in a death-bed-clap of thunder Cain that was the first of this Order was not able to bear that near approach he went out from the presence of the Lord and the Rabbins have a fansie of Absalom that when he was hang'd by his hair in the midst of his rebellion he durst not cut it because he saw hell below him but chose to die rather than adventure to fall into that place of horrour that his attached conscience had prepared for him They are believe it such unreformed Atheistical hights as these that have made it so indifferent a choice Whether the kingdom be destroyed or no whether it be peopled with Satyrs or with wilder men become all desart or all Bedlam This heaviest judgment that ever fell upon a Nation extream misery and extream fury is I confess a most direful sight but withall a more inauspicious prognostick a sound of a Trumpet to that last more fatal Day with an Arise thou dementate sinner and come to judgment When all our most bloudy sufferings and more bloudy sins got together into one Akeldama or Tophet shall prove but an adumbration of that heavier future doom after which we shall do that to some purpose which we do now but like beginners by way of essay curse God and die suffer and blaspheme blaspheme and suffer for ever But then secondly this doctrine of justice and continence and judgement to come is most necessary as to awake the courtly Governour Felix so in the next place to convert the unbelieving heathen Felix Will you see the first principles of the doctrine of Christ when they are to be infused into such an one or as the Original hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.1 the doctrine of the beginning of Christ the laws of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or initiation of a heathen Convert the elements of his Catechism they are in that place Heb. 6.2 1. Repentance from dead works And 2. Faith towards God 3. Resurrection And 4. Eternal judgment and believe me for him that thus comes unto God out of his animal heathen unregenerate life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Catalogue of the necessariò credenda is not over large he must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder Heb. 11.6 this and it seems no more but this is the minimum quod sic the summ of the faith without which 't is impossible to please him and therefore perhaps it was that Ammianus Marcellinus expresses his wonder that Constantius should call so many Councils whereas before Christian Religion was res simplicissima a plain Religion without contentions or intricacies and Epiphanius of the primitive times that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divided the Church into its true and erroneous members Impiety the only Heretick good life the orthodox professour Next the acknowledgment of the one God and his eternal Son the crucified Messias of the world and the Holy Ghost those one and three Authors of our Religion into which we are baptized and those few other branches of that faith the judgment to come and the practice of Christian vertues in the elevated Christian pitch is the prime if not only necessary And though there be more to be known fit to exercise his industry or his curiosity that hath treasur'd up these fundamentals in an honest heart yet sure not to serve his carnal mind to purge his spleen to provoke his choler to break communions to dilapidate that peace that charity that Christ beyond all other inheritances bequeathed to his disciples Let us but joyn in that unity of spirit in those things which we all know to be Articles of Faith and the precise conscientious practice of what we cannot chuse but know to be branches of our duty and I shall never lead you into any confounding depths or mazes divert you one minute by a walk in the gallery from that more Christian imployment and task in the workhouse And that will be the improvement of the second particular Lastly as the Felix was guilty of those sins which those vertues did reproach to him This Felix is to be met with in our books presented to us on a double view of Tacitus and Josephus Tacitus renders him an Eques Romanus that Claudius had sent Procurator of Judaea to manage it for a time and saith he did it per omnem saevitiam libidinem in the most cruel arbitrary manner and then see the difference of an Apostolick Preacher from Tertullus the Rhetor the one at his humble address and acknowledgment of the obligations that the whole Nation had received from this most excellent Felix ver 2. But Saint Paul in a pricking close discourse of justice and upon neglect of it judgment to come Josephus he looks nearer into his actions and finds him a tyrannical usurper of another mans wife Drusilla seduced to his bed from her husband Azys the King of the Emessâ—ni And then the Sermon of the faith on Christ presently lets loose at this adulterous couple and so you have the seasonableness of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too of chastity to the unchaste Felix and of judgment to come on such wasting sins This will certainly teach the Preacher the combatant of the Lord the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the regular manner of his duelling with sin not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wounding the empty air lashing those sins or sinners that are out of reach of his stripes but the closer nearer encounter the directing his blows at those crimes that are present to him most culpable and visible in his Auditory and thus grasping with the Goliah
either of those sins bring in to any man he should think fit to venture that dismal payment in another world And now my Brethren to conclude this reasoning and your task of patience together when you are likely to have so little excuse in perishing so no colour of reason for so wild an option of chusing death in the errour of your wayes when you must be so out of countenance when you come to that place of darkness so unable to give an account to any fiend that meets you why you should cast away all the treasures in the world for that so sad a purchase and act that really which the Rabbins feign of the Child Moses prefer the coal of fire before the ingot of gold chop it into your mouths and so singe your tongue not to make you stammer with him but howle with Dives for ever after and not get one drop to quench the tip of that tongue which is so sadly tormented in those flames when I say you are likely to come so excuseless to your torments so unpitied and so scorned so without all honour in your sufferings as having but your petitions granted you advanced to your vengeance as to your preferment optantibus ipsis whilst Heaven was look'd on as a troublesome impertinent suiter and you would not be happy only because you would not O remember then the Disciples farewel when they gave over the Jews and turn'd to the Gentiles Behold you despisers and wonder and perish But before you do so if it be possible give one vital spring and if but for Pythagoras's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the reverence if not the charity for the honour and awe you owe to your own souls if not to save them yet to save your credits in the world to manifest that you are not such abject fools retract your choice call back the hostages you have given to Satan and set out on a more rational more justifiable voyage You have heard of the rich Spaniard that had put all his estate into jewels how he was ready to run mad with the fansie of thinking what a condition he should be in if all men next morning should awake wise that he should become not only the arrantest Begger but the most ridiculous Fool. And believe it that last Trump when it begins to sound will have the faculty thus to make all men wise to disabuse and inspire the whole world with a new sense Those that are in the flames before you will reproach your madness count you but Bedlams to come thither Poor Dives if he had but a Messenger would long since have sent you a hideous report and admonition that whatever it cost you you should not venture coming to that place of torments O let Saint Pauls reasoning do it to us here that we make not such piteous bargains pay not so sad a price for so pure a nothing Let us be wise now that we may be happy eternally which wisdom the only way to that happiness God of his infinite mercy grant us all to whom c. The blessing influence of CHRIST's Resurrection The NINTH Being An Easter SERMON at S. Maries in Oxford A. D. 1644. ACTS III. 26 God having raised up his son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities T WERE but a cold unequal oblation to so blessed so glorious a festivity to entertain you with the story of the Day to fetch out the napkin and the grave-cloaths to give you that now for news that every seventh day for sixteen hundred years hath so constantly preach'd unto you 'T is true indeed what Aristotle observes in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the every-day wonders are the greatest the perfectest miracles those that by their commonness have lost all their veneration he speaks it of a circle which is of all things most common and yet of all things most strange made up of all contraries and so the mother of all prodigies in art of all the engines and machines in the world And the same might be resolved of this yearly this weekly revolution the greatest but common'st festival in the Christians Calendar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Queen-day as S. Chry. calls it I and that Queen all glorious within a many saving miracles inclosed in it and yet this Queen of most familiar condescendings is content to be our every weeks prospect and after all this as glorious still as ever no gluts no satieties in such beholdings But supposing this I must yet tell you one precious gemm there is in this jewel one part of the great business of this day which is not so commonly taken notice of and that is the blessing saving office of the day to us the benign aspect the special influence of the rising of Christ on the poor Sinners soul the use the benefit of the Resurrection and to discover this unto you let me with confidence assure you there is not a vein in this whole mine a beam in this whole treasure of light a plume of those healing wings of the Sun of righteousness a Text in this whole Book of God able to stand you in more stead than this close of S. Peters Sermon That our justification is more dependent on his resurrection than his death it self is sometimes clearly affirmed by S. Paul he was delivered up for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 4.25 It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Rom. 8.34 and so for salvation it self And being made perfect he became the Authour of eternal salvation Heb. 5.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being consummate and crown'd as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the crowning of Martyrs or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being consecrated to his great Melchisedech-priestly office as the context enforceth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint imports in either sense a denotation of the resurrection of Christ peculiarly and in this capacity considered he became the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Author of our salvation But for all this compacted together and the distinct explication of the manner how all this is wrought by Christ's resurrection this is a felicity reserv'd the peculiar prerogative of this Text brought out now and prepared for you if you can but have patience till you see it open'd God having raised up his son Jesus sent him to bless c. In these words one fundamental difficulty there is the clearing of which will be the first part of my task and ground-work of my future discourse and that is to enquire what is meant by sending Christ to bless which when we have open'd there will remain but two particulars behind The time of this sending and the interpretation of this blessing the time of this sending after his resurrection God having raised up sent him The interpretation of this blessing or wherein it consists In turning every one
estate such are our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our weaknesses ignorances and the like and some that are not the spots of sons they which do them shall not without actual reformation and victory and forsaking enter or inherit the kingdom of God after all that Christ hath done and suffered for them such our deliberate acts and habits against light against grace the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text and let me tell you the not pondering these differences not observing the grains and scruples of sin how far the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extend and when they are overgrown into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the ground that I say no more of a deal of desperate profaneness We cannot keep from all sin and therefore count it lost labour to endeavour to abstain from any having demonstrated our selves men by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we make no scruple to evidence our selves Devils too by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the desperation of perfect sinlessness makes us secure in all vileness and being engaged in weakness we advance to madness either hope to be saved with our greatest sins or fear to be damned for our least and having resolv'd it impossible to do all resolve securely to do none our infirmities may damn us and our rebellions can do no more our prayers our almes have sin in them and our murthers and sacriledges can be but sinful and so if the Devil or our interests will take the pains to solicite it the deadliest sin shall pass for as innocent a creature as tame a stingless Serpent as the fairest Christian vertue and all this upon the not observing the weight of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here which Christ rose from the grave on purpose to turn us from and from which whosoever is not turned shall never rise unto life Add unto this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the his iniquities as it refers to the author of them and this is the bill of challenge and claim to those accursed possessions of ours nothing is so truly so peculiarly ours as our sins and of those as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our frailties our lapses our ignorances the diseases and infelicities of our nature which may insensibly fall from us vix ea nostra voco but our wasting wilful acts and indulg'd habits those great Vultures and Tygres of the soul they are most perfectly our own the natural'st brats and truest progeny that ever came from our loins nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Agamemnons phrase nor God nor Fate nor Fiend are any way chargeable with them The first were blasphemy the second Stoicism and folly to boot the third a bearing false witness against the devil himself robbing him of his great fundamental title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calumniator and proving those that thus charge him the greatest Devils of the twain and all this is but one part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here the his c. as it refers to the Author And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again the his as it is a note of eminence his peculiar prime reigning sins that all others like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or commonalty are fain to be subject to sometimes a monarch-dictator-single sin a the plague in his own heart a principality of ambition of pride of lust of covetousness that all others at their distance administer unto sometimes an optimacy of a few all prime coequal in their power and sometimes a democracy or popular state a whole Aegypt full of locusts in one breast a Gad a troop or shole of sins all leading us captive to their shambles and thus our Soveraign sins as different as our tempers and every oâ—e the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here every man from his iniquities The summ of this first prospect is briefly this Thâ—â—urning every one from his iniquities wherein Christs blessing us consists is his giving of grace sufficient to work an universal sincere impartial thorough-change of every sinner from all his reigning wilful sins The sincerity though not perfection of the new creature And the dependence betwixt this and the resurrection of Christ is the second or next enquiry The resurrection of Christ in the Scripture-stile signifies not always the act of rising from the dead but the consequent state after that rising by the same proportion that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new creation and the being regenerate or born of God signifie the state of Sonship and not the act of begetting only So that in brief the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here the raising up of Jesus signifies the new state to which Christ was inaugurate at his resurrection and contains under it all the severals of ascension of sitting at the right hand of power of the mission of the Holy Ghost and his powerful intercession for us in Heaven ever since and to the end of the world And this is the notion of the resurrection of Christ which is the blesser which hath that influence on our turning 't will not be amiss to shew you how And here I shall not mention that moral influence of his resurrection upon ours by the example of his powerful rising out of the grave to preach to us the necessity of our shaking off the grave-cloths that cadaverous chill noisome estate of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rise again with him This is the blessing in the Text but this the example of Christ might preach long enough to dead souls before it would be hearkened unto although the truth is the antient Church by their setting apart these Holy-days for the baptizing of all that were baptized and the whole space betwixt this and Pentecost and every Dominical in the year for the gesture of standing in all their services that no man might come near the earth at the time that Christ rose from it did certainly desire to enforce this moral on us that our souls might now turn and be blessed rise and be conformed to the image of Christs resurrection Blessed Lord that it might be thus exemplary to us at this time But to omit this the special particulars wherein the resurrection of Christ as our blesser hath its influence on our turning are briefly these three 1. The bestowing on us some part of that Spirit by which Christ was raised out of the grave Consider Rom. 8. verse 11. and 't is all that I shall say to you of that first particular If the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you that Spirit of power by which Christ was raised out of the grave is the very efficient of our turning our new birth the Author of our present blessedness and the pledge of our future immortality God having raised his Son by his Spirit anointed him with that Spirit to work the like miracles
on the N. T. published 1657. with this Advertisement TO THE READER MY fear that these Additional Notes may fall into some hands which for want of sufficient acquaintance with the larger Volume may miss receiving the desired fruit from them hath suggested the affixing this Auctarium of two plain intelligible discourses the one prepared for an Auditory of the Clergy the other of Citizens or Laity and so containing somewhat of useful advice for either sort of Readers to whose hands this Volum shall come That it may be to both proportionably profitable shall be the prayer of Your Servant in the Lord H. HAMMOND THE PASTORS MOTTO The XI SERMON Preach'd to the Clergy of the Deanery of Shorham in Kent at the Visitation between Easter and Whitsuntide A.D. 1639. held at S. Mary-Cray 2 COR. 12.14 For I seek not yours but you THis Text hath somewhat in it seasonable both for the assembly and the times I speak in For the first It is the word or Motto of an Apostle Non vestra sed vos not yours but you transmitted to us with his Apostleship to be transcribed not into our rings or seals of Orders but our hearts there if you please to be ingraven with a diamond set as the stones in our Ephod the jewels in our breast-plate gloriously legible to all that behold us And for the second consider but the occasion that extorted from our humble Saint this so magnificent elogie of himself you shall find it that which is no small part of the infelicity of his successors at this time the contempt and vileness of his ministery a sad joyless subject of an Epistle which would have been all spent in superstruction of heavenly doctrine upon that pretious foundation formerly laid in dressing of those noble plants that generous vine Isa 5. that had cost him so much care to plant but is fain to divert from that to a comfortless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a parenthesis of two or three chapters long to vindicate himself from present danger of being despised and that even by his own children whom he had begotten in the Gospel but other pseudo's made up all of lying and depraving had debauch'd out of all respect to his doctrine or estimation to his person I should have given a S. Paul leave to have hoped for better returns from his Corinthians and now he finds it otherwise to have express'd that sense in a sharper strain of passion and indignation than Tullie could do against Antonie when on the same exacerbation he brake out into that stout piece of eloquence quid putem contemptumne me non video quid sit in moribus aut vitâ meâ quod despicere possit Antonius But there was another consideration which as it composes our Apostles style so it inlarges it with arguments all that he can invent to ingratiate himself unto them because this contempt of their Apostle was a most heinous provoking sin and withal that which was sure to make his Apostleship succesless among them And then though he can contemn reputation respect any thing that is his own yet he cannot the quaero vos seeking of them that office that is intrusted him by Christ of bringing Corinthians to heaven Though he can absolutely expose his credit to all the Eagles and Vultures on the mountains yet can he not so harden his bowels against his converts their pining gasping souls as to see them with patience posting down this precipice by despising of him prostituting their own salvation And therefore in this ecstatick fit of love and jealousie in the beginning of chap. 11. you may see him resolve to do that that was most contrary to his disposition boast and vaunt and play the fool give them the whole tragedy of his love what he had done and suffered for them by this means to raise them out of that pit force them out of that hell that the contempt of his ministery had almost ingulph'd them in And among the many topicks that he had provided to this purpose this is one he thought most fit to insist on his no design on any thing of theirs but only their souls Their wealth was petty inconsiderable pillages and spoil for an Apostle in his war-fare too poor inferior gain for him to stoop to A flock an army a whole Church full of ransomed souls fetched out of the Jaws of the Lion and Bear was the only honourable reward for him to pitch design on Non quaero vestra sed vos I seek not yours but you In handling which words should I allow my self licence to observe and mention to you the many changes that are rung upon them in the world my Sermon would turn all into Satyre my discourse divide it self not into so many parts but into so many declamations 1. Against them that are neither for the vos nor vestra the you nor yours 2. Those that are for the vestra but not vos the yours but not you 3 Those that are for the vos you but in subordination to the vestra yours and at last perhaps meet with an handful of gleanings of pastors that are either for the vestra yours in subordination to the vos you or the vos you but not vestra yours Instead of this looser variety I shall set my discourse these strict limits which will be just the doctrine and use of this text 1. Consider the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the truth of the words in S. Pauls practice 2. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end for which they are here mentioned by him 3. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how far that practice and that end will be imitable to us that here are now assembled and then I shall have no more to tempt or importune your patience First of the first S. Pauls practice in seeking of the vos you that his earnest pursâ—it of the good of his auditors souls though it have one very conpetent testimony from this place v. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most willingly will I spend and be spent for your souls even sacrifice my soul for the saving of yours yet many other places there are which are as punctual and exact for that as this in this text nay 't is but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seek here but you shall find it an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contend in many other places all the agonistical phrases in use among the antient Grecians cull'd out and scattered among his Epistles fetch'd from Olympus to Sion from Athens to Jerusalem and all little enough to express the earnest holy violence of his soul in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good fight as he calls his ministery running and wrestling with all the difficulties in the world and no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 price or reward of all that industry and that patience but only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you gaining so many colonies to heaven But then for the non vestra not yours his absolute
at once accuser and lyer both If he do not so I am sure 't will be small matter of rejoycing to us small comfort in suffering as a thief saith the Apostle though all joy in suffering as a Christian and so small comfort in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being reproached unless the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsly be joyned with it And therefore you must add that caution to your comfort that they be your good at least your justifiable deeds that be evil spoken of or else it will not be a sic prophet as the prophets were used like you The Clergy-man that in such a time as this when the mouth of hell is open against us shall think fit to open any other mouth to join in the cry against the Church to give life or tongue to any scandalous sin and set that to its clamans de terra crying from the ground that shall with any one real crime give authority to all the false pretended ones that are laid to the charge of our calling that by drunkenness or incontinence by luxury or sloth by covetousness or griping by insolence or pride by oaths or uncomely jesting by contention or imtemperate language by repaying evil for evil or railing for defamations shall exasperate this raging humour and give it true nourishment to feed on what doth he but turn broiler and boutefeau make new libels against the Church and by that means perswade credulous seducible spectators that all are true that have been made already I know not what climax or aggravation of woes is heavy enough for that man all the lamentations and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Bible Alas my brother will not reach unto it that of the milstone about the neck or the Melius si nunquam natus esset it had been better if he had never been born are the fittest expressions for him S. Paul for the vindicating his ministery from vileness was fain to mention all the good deeds he had ever done among them O let not us bring our evil to remembrance by acting them over afresh but think it most abundantly sufficient that we have already thus contributed to the defaming of our calling He that hath done so formerly that by the guilt of any one scandalous sin and it need not be of the first magnitude to deserve that title in a Minister hath contributed ought to the vilifying of the whole Order 't is now time for him to see what he hath done been a troubler of Israel set the whole kingdome in an animosity against the Clergy and when will he be able to weep enough in secret to wash out this stain incorporate into the very woofe of our robe I shall no farther aggravate the sin upon him than to prepare him to seek out for some remedy and to that end to bear me company to my last particular how far we are concerned in the transcribing S. Pauls pattern how far that practice and that end is imitable by us that are here assembled This practice consists of two parts a positive and a negative The positive part of this practice the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but you hath no case of scruple or difficulty in it The You are the Corinthians souls As in other places the souls signifie the persons so many souls went out of Aegypt i. e. so many men so here by way of exchange or quittance on the other side you i. e. your souls according to that of Pythagoras of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy soul is thou And then add the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I seek to it and it gives you the uncontradicted duty of a Minister to be a seeker of souls the spiritual Nimrod the hunter before the Lord hunter of men hunter of souls and that indeed as wild and untameable subtle a game as any wilderness can yield so unwilling to come into our toyls so wise in their generation to escape our snares so cunning to delude all our stratagems of bringing them to heaven that a man may commonly labour a whole night and catch nothing He that winneth or taketh souls is wise saith the wise man Prov. 11.30 A piece of wisdom 't is not suddenly learned a game wherein all the wisdome of the world the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prudence of the flesh and the cunning of hell are all combin'd in the party against us for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Synesius calls the soul this state betwixt God and devils and the game must be very carefully play'd and dexterously managed on our side if we think ever to win it out of their hands The manner of pastors as of shepherds among us is much changed from what it was in the Eastern parts of the world in Greece and in Jurie The sheep saith the Philosopher in his time would be led by a green bough and follow whithersoever you would have them and so in the Scripture is still mention of leading of sheep and of the people like sheep Psal 77. but now they must be driven and followed yea and sometime by worrying brought into the fold or else there is no getting them into the fairest lovelyest pasture The sheep were then a hearing and a discerning sort of creatures could hear the shepherd and know his voice from all others and when the thief and robber came the sheep did not hear them John 10.8 but now 't is quite contrary either not hearing at all profaneness and dissoluteness hath possess'd our souls with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirit of slumber torpor absolute deafness that all our hearing of Sermons is but a slumber of such a continuance or else having no ears for any but the thief and robber if any come on that errand to rob us of our charity of our obedience of our meek and quiet spirits and infuse calumnies animosities railings qualities that ipso facto work metamorphoses in us change sheep into wolves his voice shall be heard and admired and deified like Herods the voice of God and not of man though nothing be so contrary to God or godliness as that voice In this and many other considerations it is that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I seek here is so necessary All our pains and industry diligence and sagacity are little enough to bring men into the true way to heaven so many by-wayes on every side inviting and flattering us out of it so much good company perswading nay so many false leaders directing us into error that a Minister had need fasten himself into the ground like a Mercuries post in this division of waies and never leave hollowing and calling and disabusing of passengers with a This is the way walk in it or in the Apostles words Follow peace with all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pursue and follow it and holiness without which no man shall set the Lord Peace and holiness two such strangers such prodigies in the world having taken their leaves so solemnly with Astraea
reward with such a crown but the sincere labouring in the word and doctrine filling our souls with the earnest desire of saving others espousing it as the sole felicity of our lives the one promotion that we aspire to to people heaven with Saints to send whole colonies of inhabitants thither 'T was the excellence and pride of the ancient Jews yea and the craft peculiar to them saith Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 getting of children propagating miraculously and the barren was the most infamous person among them behold I go childless the saddest lamentation and Give me children or else I dye and Take away our reproach most pathetical Scripture-expressions yea and among the Romans the jus trium liberorum the right of three children you know what a prerogative it was This is our trade my brethren to beget children to heaven and according to the Law of the Goel in Deut. now our elder brother Christ is dead we are the men who by right of propinquity are obliged to raise up seed to our elder brother O let it not be our reproach to go thus childless to our graves at least our guilt and just accusation to bereave our Saviour of that seed he expects from us you know what a sin it was to repine at that duty let not us be wanting to Christ in this so charitable a service charitable to Christ that his blood may not have been shed in vain charitable to others whom we may by Gods blessing convert unto righteousness and the charity will at last devolve on our selves who by this means shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever THE POOR MAN'S TITHING A SERMON Preached in St. Paul's Church before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London on the 12. of April A.D. 1640. DEUT. XXVI 12 13. When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine encrease the third year Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God THAT the first sound of this text may not possess you with an expectation of a Vicars plea a discourse of tithes and querulous invective against sacriledge and consequently by this prejudice your ears and hearts be fortified impenetrable and impregnable against the speaker and the Sermon that I may reconcile the choice of this text with the imploring and hoping for your patience I shall immediately deliver you from your fears by assuring you that the main of this text is and the total of my discourse shall be bent quite toward another coast that which in the sincerity of my heart I conceive may best comply with your designs either as Christians or as men most tend to your serving of Christ and enriching of your selves with the increase of your wealth here and glory hereafter And when I have told you this I cannot chuse but say that I am your friend and for that may claim not as an act of favour but justice the payment of this debt the return of your patience in receiving and care in practising what shall be delivered There was a double tithing among the Jews the every years tithing and the third years tithing the every years tithing you know whose patrimony it was but aâ—ter that was set apart and presented unto the owners every third year there was another to be raised over and above for the stranger the fatherless and the widow as you may see it enacted c. 14. v. 29. this was called by the Rabbines the second tithing and in another respect the third by some of them the tithe for feasts Deut. 14.23 going for the second and the tithe of the tithes which the Levites paid the High-priest going for the fourth in that account but most significantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tithe for the poor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Josephus the poor mans tithing or in the words of the text the compleveris decimare anno tertio the making an end of tithing the third year Till this were done there wanted a compleveris what ever other dues were paid the work was incomplete and upon the performance of that here is a stock of confidence toward God for him that hath done it a right invested on him to all the abundance of Canaan v. 15. a justifiable pretension to all temporal blessings which he may depend on and challenge at Gods hand 't were but a cold expression to say he might expect by petition I will add he may require by claim and produce his patent for it here in my text Cùm compleveris c. When thou hast made an end c. This text I have upon advice resolved not to divide into parts but my discourse upon it I shall by setting it these bounds and limits 1. That it presents unto you the duty of alms-giving by occasion of these words Cùm compleveris decimare anno tertio when thou hast made an end of tithing the third year 2. The benefit arising from the performance of this duty from the rest Dicas coram Domino then thou shalt or mayest say i. e. hast right and power to say before the Lord thy God In our progress through the first of these we shall observe these gesses 1. We shall begin with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consider alms-giving simply deducing the practice of the Jews down to us Christians and so in a manner give you the history of alms-giving 2. We shall look into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what portion ought to issue out of every mans revenues taking our rise from the practice of the Jews a tithe of all increase every third year 3. We shall proceed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consider it as a duty and then we shall have done with the first general In the second general we shall shew you 1. In thesi that confidence or claiming any thing at Gods hands must take its rise from duty in performance Then thou mayest say then but not before 2. In hypothesi shew you the connexion between this confidence and this performance claiming of temporal plenty upon giving of alms These are the several posts and stages of my future discourse the Monogramm drawn in cole as it were wherein you may discern the lines and lineaments of the whole body I must now descend to the filling them up and giving you them a little more to the life taking them in the order proposed very loosely and very plainly making provision for your hearts not your ears for your future gain and not your present sensuality and begin with the first general and in that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or alms-giving simply considered deducing the practice of the Jews down to us Christians and so give you in a manner the history of alms-giving Though we assert not an equality of worldly riches from any decree either of God or nature find not any statute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any law of community in any but Plato's institutions and those
August de Civit. Dei and other of the Fathers will number them out to you And thus far this tyrant over Impiety and Lust will be a Pelagian as to order all his deviation by imitation of Adam's Every breach of one single Law shall contain a brood or nest into which it may be sub-divided and every circumstance in the Action shall furnish him with fresh matter for variety of sin Again How imperious is he in triumphing over a sin which he hath once atchieved If he have once got the better of good nature and Religion broke in upon a stubborn sullen vice that was formerly too hard for him how often doth he reiterate and repeat that he may perfect his conquest that it may lie prostrate and tame before him never daring to resist him And if there be any Virgin modest sins which are ashamed of the light either of the Sun or Nature not coming abroad but under a veil as some sins being too horrid and abominable are fain to appear in other shapes and so keep us company under the name of amiable or innocent qualities then will this violent imperious sinner call them out into the Court or Market place tear away the veil that he may commit them openly and as if the Devil were too modest for him bring him upon the stage against his will and even take Hell by violence and force Thus are men come at last to a glorying in the highest impieties and expect some renown and credit as a reward for the pains they take about it and then certainly honour is grown very cheap when it is bestowed upon sins and the man very tyrannical over his spectators thoughts that requires to be worshipped for them This was a piece of the Devils old tyranny in the times of Heathenism which I would fain Christianity hath out-dated to build Temples and offer sacrifice to sins under the name of Venus Priapus and the like that men that were naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superstitious adorers of Devils or any thing that was called God might account Incontinence Religion and all impieties in the world a kind of adoration Thus to profess whoredoms and set up trophies in our eyes to build their eminent place in the head of every way in the verse next to my Text was then the imputation of the Jews and pray God it prove not the guilt of Christians from whence the whole Church of them is here styled An imperious c. Thus hath the Apostate Jew represented to you in his picture and resemblance the Libertine Christian and Ezekiel become an Historian as well as Prophet Thus hath indulgence in vice among Professors of Christianity been aggravated against you 1. By the weak Womanish condition of it nature it self and ordinary man-like reason is ashamed of it 2. By the Adulterous Unfaithfulness 1. Want of Faith 2. Of Fidelity bewray'd in it 3. By the imperiousness of the behaviour 1. In shamelesness 2. In confidence and spiritual security 3. In tyrannizing over himself and faculties by force compelling and then insulting over his goods and graces prodigally mis-spending them in the prosecution of his lusts and Lording over all that come near him men or sins first pressing then leading the one and both ravishing and tormenting the other to perform him the better service Now that this discourse may not have been sent into the air unprofitably that all these prophetical censures of sin may not be like Xerxes his stripes on the Sea on inanimate senseless bodies 't is now time that every tender open guilty heart begin to retire into it self every one consider whether he be not the man that the parable aims at that you be not content to have your ears affected or the suburbs of the Soul filled with the sound unless also the heart of the City be taken with its efficacy Think and consider whether 1. This effeminacy and womanishness of heart and not weakness but torpor and stupidity 2. This unfaithfulness and falseness unto Christ exprest by the spiritual incontinence and whoredoms of our souls and actions 3. That Confidence and magnanimous stately garb in sin arising in some from Spiritual Pride in others from Carnal Security whether any or all of these may not be inscrib'd on our Pillars and remain as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against us to upbraid and aggravate the nature and measure of our sins also I cannot put on so solemn a person as to act a Cato or Aristarchus amongst an Assembly that are all Judices critici to reprehend the learned and the aged and to chide my Teachers you shall promise to spare that thankless task and to do it to your selves It will be more civility perhaps and sink down deeper into ingenuous natures fairly to bespeak and exhort you and from the first part of my Text only because 't would be too long to bring down all from the weakness and womanish condition of indulgent sinners to put you in mind of your strength and the use you are to make of it in a word and close of Application We have already taken notice of the double inheritance and patrimoney of strength and graces which we all injoy first as Men secondly as Christians and ought not we Beloved that have spent the liveliest and sprightfullest of our age and parts in the pursuit of Learning to set some value on that estate we have purchased so dear and account our selves somewhat the more men for being Scholars Shall not this deserve to be esteemed some advantage to us and a rise that being luckily taken may further us something in our stage towards Heaven That famous division of Rational Animals in Jamblichus out of Aristotle into three different species that some were Men others Gods others such as Pythagoras will argue some greater priviledges of Scholars above other men That indeed the deep Learneder sort and especially those that had attained some insight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in divine affairs were in a kind of a more venerable species than ordinary ignaro's And for the benefits and helps that these excellencies afford us in our way to Heaven do but consider what a great part of the world overshaded in Barbarism brought up in blind Idolatry do thereby but live in a perpetual Hell and at last pass not into another kind but degree of darkness Death being but an officer to remove them from one Tophet to another or at most but as from a Dungeon to a Grave Think on this and then think and count what a blessing divine knowledge is to be esteemed even such a one as seems not only the way but the entrance not only a preparation but even a part of that vision which shall be for ever beatifical and therefore it will nearly concern us to observe what a talent is committed to our husbanding and what increase that hard Master will exact at his coming For as Dicaearchus in his Description of Greece saith of the
and lives not to gaze upon the Sun to the dazling nay destroying of your eyes but as it were in a burning-glass contract those blessed sanctifying rayes that flow from it to the enlivening and inflaming of your hearts And 2. In the behalf of others so to digest and inwardly dispense every part of sacred knowledge into each several member and vein of Body and Soul that it may transpire through hands and feet and heart and tongue and so secretly insinuate it self into all about you that both by Precept and Example they may see and follow your good works and so glorifie here your Father which is in heaven that we may all partake of that blessed Resurrection not of the learned and the great but the just and so hope and attain to be all glorified together with him hereafter Now to him c. SERMON II. PHIL. IV. 13 I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me THose two contrary Heresies that cost St. Austin and the Fathers of his time so much pains the one all for natural strength the other for irrecoverable weakness have had such unkindly influence on succeeding ages that almost all the actions of the ordinary Christian have some tincture of one of these scarce any sin is sent abroad into the World without either this or that inscription And therefore parallel to these we may observe the like division in the hearts and practical faculties between pride and sloth opinion of absolute power and prejudice of absolute impotence the one undertaking all upon its own credit the other suing as it were for the preferment or rather excuse of being bankrupts upon record that so they may come to an easie composition with God for their debt of obedience the one so busie in contemplation of their present fortunes that they are not at leisure to make use of them their pride helping them to ease and if you look nearly to poverty too Revel iii. 17 the other so fastened to this Sanctuary this religious piece of prophaneness that leaving the whole business to God as the undertaker and proxy of their obedience their idleness shall be deemed devotion and their best piety sitting still These two differences of Men either sacrilegious or supine imperious or lethargical have so dichotomised this lower sphere of the World almost into two equal parts that the practice of humble obedience and obeying humility the bemoaning our wants to God with Petition to repair them and the observing and making use of those succors which God in Christ hath dispensed to us those two foundations of all Christian duty providing between them that our Religion be neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither the vertue of the Atheist nor the prayer of the Sluggard are almost quite vanished out of the world as when the Body is torn asunder the Soul is without any farther act of violence forced out of its place that it takes its flight home to Heaven being thus let out at the Scissure as at the window and only the two fragments of carcass remain behind For the deposing of these two Tyrants that have thus usurped the Soul between them dividing the Live child with that false Mother into two dead parts for the abating this pride and enlivening this deadness of practical faculties for the scourging this stout Beggar and restoring this Cripple to his Legs the two Provisions in my Text if the order of them only be transposed and in Gods method the last set first will I may hope and pray prove sufficient I can do c. 1. Through Christ that strengthneth me You have there first the Assertion of the necessity of grace and secondly that enforced from the form of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports the minutely continual supply of aids and then thirdly we have not only positively but exclusively declared the person thus assisting in Christo confortante it is by him not otherwise we can do thus or thus Three particulars all against the natural confidence of the proud Atheist 2. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I can do all things First the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and secondly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. The power and 2. the extent of that power 1. The potency and 2. the omnipotency and then 3. this not only originally of Christ that strengthneth but inherently of me being strengthned by Christ Three particulars again and all against the conceived or pretended impotence either of the false spie that brought news of the Giants Anakims Cannibals in the way to Canaan Numb xiii 32 Or of the Sluggard that is alway affrighting and keeping himself at home with the Lion in the streets some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or other difficulty or impossibility whensoever any work or travel of obedience is required of us Prov. xxvi 13 It will not befit the majesty of the subject to have so many particulars by being severally handled joyntly neglected Our best contrivance will be to shorten the retail for the encreasing of the gross to make the fewer parcels that we may carry them away the better in these three Propositions I. The strength of Christ is the Original and Fountain of all ours Through Christ that c. II. The strength of a Christian from Christ derived is a kind of Omnipotency sufficient for the whole duty of a Christian Can do all things c. III. The strength and power being thus bestowed the work is the work of a Christian of the suppositum the Man strengthned by Christ I can do c. Of these in this order for the removing only of those prejudices out of the Brain which may trash and encumber the practice of piety in the heart And first of the first The strength of Christ is the Original and Fountain of all ours The strength of Christ and that peculiarly of Christ the second Person of the Trinity who was appointed by consent to negotiate for us in the business concerning our Souls All our tenure or plea to grace or glory to depend not on any absolute respectless though free donation but conveyed to us in the hand of a Mediator that Privy Seal of his annexed to the Patent or else of no value at that Court of Pleas or that Grand Assizes of Souls Our Natural strength is the gift of God as God is considered in the first Article of our Creed and by that title of Creation we have that priviledge of all created substances to be able to perform the work of nature or else we should be inferior to the meanest creature in this for the least stone in the street is able to move downwards by its own principle of nature and therefore all that we have need of in the performing of these is only Gods concurrence whether previous or simultaneous and in acts of choice the government and direction of our will by his general providence and power However even in this Work of
Christ making all that but a Chimaera and so evacuating or antiquating that old tenure by which we hold all our Spiritual Estate The Romanists again at least some of them bestowing upon the blessed Virgin after Conception such Jurisdiction in the temporal procession of the Holy Ghost that no grace is to be had but by her dispensing that she the Mother gives him that sends the Holy Ghost and therefore gives all gifts quibus vult quomodo quando per manus that she is the neck to Christ the head Cant. vii 4 and Sublato Virginis patrocinio perinde ac halitu intercluso peccator vivere diutius non potest and store enough of such emasculate Theology as this And yet others that maintain the quite contradictory to all these acknowledging a necessity of supernatural strength to the attaining of our supernatural end and then ask and receive this only as from the hands and merits of Christ without the mediation or jurisdiction of any other are yet had in jealousie and suspition as back-friends to the cause of God and enemies to Grace because they leave man any portion of that natural strength which was bestowed on him at his Creation Whereas the limits of both of these being distinctly set there may safely be acknowledged first a natural power or if you will call it natural grace the Fathers will bear you out in the phrase Illius est gratiae quod creatus est St. Jerom Gratia Dei quâ fecit nos St. Austin and Crearis gratia St. Bernard And that properly styled the strength of God but not of Christ enabling us for the works of nature And then above this is regularly superstructed the strength of Christ special supernatural strength made over unto us not at our first but second birth without which though we are men yet not Christians Live saith Clemens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of embryon imperfect heathen of a child in the womb of the Gentile dark uncomfortable being a kind of first draught or ground colours only and monogram of life Though we have Souls yet in relation to spiritual acts or objects but weak consumptive cadaverous souls as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Old Testament word for the Soul and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 72 signifies a carcass or dead body Numb v. 2 and otherwhere and then by this accession of this strength of Christ this dead Soul revives into a kind of omnipotency the Pygmie is sprung up into a Giant this languishing puling state improved into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that even now was insufficient to think any thing is now able to do all things which brings me to my second Proposition The strength of a Christian from Christ deriv'd is a kind of Omnipotence sufficient for the whole duty of a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can do all things The clearing of this truth from all difficulties or prejudices will depend mainly on the right understanding of the predicate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text or the whole duty of a Christian in the proposition which two being of the same importance the same hand will unravel them both Now what is the whole duty of a Christian but the adequate condition of the second Covenant upon performance of which salvation shall certainly be had and without which salvare nequeat ipsa si cupias salus the very sufferings and saving mercies of Christ will avail us nothing As for any Exercise of Gods absolute Will or Power in this business of Souls under Christs Kingdom I think we may fairly omit to take it into consideration for sure the New Testament will acknowledge no such phrase nor I think any of the Antients that wrote in that language Whereupon perhaps it will he worth observing in the confession of the Religion of the Greek Church subscribed by Cyrill the present Patriarch of Constantinople where having somewhat to do with this phrase Of Gods absolute Dominion so much talked on here in the West he is much put to it to express it in Greek and at last fain to do it by a word coyned on purpose a meer Latinism for the turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an expression I think capable of no excuse but this that a piece of new Divinity was to be content with a barbarous phrase Concerning this condition of the second Covenant three things will require to be premised to our present inquiry 1. That there is a Condition and that an adequate one of the same extent as the promises of the Covenant something exacted at our hands to be performed if we mean to be the better for the demise of that Indenture As many as received him to them he gave power c. Joh. i. 12 to these and to none else positively and exclusively To him that overcometh will I give Rev. ii 7 I have fought a good fight c. 2 Tim. iv 7 henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown then begins the title to the Crown and not before when the fight is fought the course finished the faith kept then coelum rapiunt God challenged on his righteousness as a Judge not on ground of it his absolute pleasure as a Lord which will but upon supposition of a Pact or Covenant which limits and directs the award and process for according unto it God the righteous Judge shall give And Mark xvi 16 in Christs farewell speech to his Disciples where he seals their Commission of Embassage and Preaching to every creature He that believeth not shall be damned this believing whatever it signifies is that condition here we speak of and what it imports you will best see by comparing it with the same passage set down by another Amanuensis in the last verse of St. Matth. To observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you a belief not of brain or phansie but that of heart and practice i. e. Distinctly Evangelical or Christian obedience the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text and the whole duty of a Christian in the proposition which if a Christian by the help of Christ be not able to perform then consequently he is still uncapable of Salvation by the second Covenant no creature being now rescuable from Hell stante pacto but those that perform the condition of it that irreversible Oath of God which is always fulfilled in kind without relaxation or commutation or compensation of punishment being already gone out against them I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest And therefore when the end of Christs mission is described Joh. iii. 17 That the world through him might be saved there is a shrewd But in the next verse But he that believeth not is condemned already this was upon agreement between God and Christ that the impenitent infidel should be never the better for it should die unrescued in his old Condemnation So that there is not only
were Not all the ugliness and poyson of the toad hath so deformed that kind of creatures brought it so low in genere entium as the deformed malignant condition of sin hath brought down the very nature and kind of men making them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children i. e. the objects of all the wrath and hatred in the World 2. A reproach to our Souls those immortal vital Creatures inspir'd into us by Heaven and now raised higher superinspir'd by the Grace of Christ which are then as Mezentius's invention of punishment bound up close with a Carkase of Sin tormented and poisoned with its stench buried in that noysomest Vault or Carnel-house 'T was an admirable golden saying of the Pythagoreans the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a restraint of sin it would be if a man would remember the reverence he ought unto himself and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was their own explication of it the Soul within thee is that self to whom all that dread and awe and reverence is due And O what an impudent affront what an irreverential prophaning of that sacred Celestial Beam within thee that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosophers call it is every paultry Oath or Rage or Lust that the secure sinner is so minutely guilty of Every sin say the Schools being in this respect a kind of Idolatry an incurvation and prostitution of that Heavenly Creature ordain'd to have nothing but Divinity in its prospect to the meanest vilest Heathen Worship the Crocodile the Cat the Scarabee the Dii Stercorei the most noysom abominations under Heaven 3. A reproach to God who hath owned such scandalous Creatures hath placed us in a degree of Divinity next unto Angels nay to Christ that by assuming that nature and dying for it hath made it emulate the Angelical Eminence and been in a manner liable to the censure of partiality in so doing in advancing us so unworthily dignifying us so beyond the merit of our behaviours honouring us so unproportionably above what our actions can own Whilst those that are in scarlet embrace the dunghill as it is in the Lamentations those that are honoured by God act so dishonourably 'T was Plato's affirmation of God in respect of men that he was a Father when of all other Creatures he was but a Maker and 't is Arrian's superstruction on that that remembring that we are the Sons of God we should never admit any base degenerous thought any thing reproachful to that stock unworthy of the grandeur of the Family from whence we are extracted If we do it will be more possible for us to prophane and embase Heaven than for the reputation of that Parentage of ours to ennoble us the scandal that such a degenerous disingenuous Progeny will bring on the house from whence we came is a kind of Sacrilege to Heaven a violation to those sacred mansions a proclaiming to the World what colonies of polluted Creatures came down from thence though there be a nulla retrorsum no liberty for any such to return thither Lastly 'T is a reproach to the very Beasts and the rest of the Creation which are designed by God the servants and slaves of sinful Man which may justly take up the language of the slave to his vitious Master in the Satyrist Tune mihi Dominus Art thou my Lord who art so far a viler Bond-slave than those over whom thou tyrannizest a slave to thy Passion thy Lust thy Fiends who hast so far dethroned thy self that the beast becomes more beast when it remembers thee to have any degree of soveraignty over it Put these four Notions together and 't will give you a view of the first intimation of this Text the baseness and reproachfulness of the sinners course and unless he be the most abject wretchless forlorn sot in the whole Creation unless he be turned all into earth or phlegm if he hath in his whole Composition one spark of Ambition of Emulation of ordinary sence of Honour the least warmth of Spirit impatience of being the only degenerous wretch of the Earth now and of Hell to all Eternity if he be not absolutely arriv'd to Arrian's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his practical as well as judicative faculty quite quarr'd and petrifi'd within him to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Gospel that direct ferity and brutality in comparison of which the most crest-faln numness palsie or lethargy of Soul were Dignity and Preferment if he be not all that is deplorable already and owned to be so for ever he will certainly give one vital spring one last plunge to recover some part of the Honour and Dignity of his Creation break off that course that hath so debased him precipitated him into such an abyss of filth and shame if it be but in pity to the Nature the Soul the God the whole Creation about him that like the seven importunate Women Isai iv 1 lay hold on this one insensate person in the eager clamorous style of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away our reproach And let that serve for a first part of the Sinners Character the consideration of his reproachful scandalous offensive state which might in all reason work some degree of good on him in the first place A second Notion of this Phrase and degree of this Character is the giddiness and unadvisedness of the Sinners Course as simplicity ordinarily signifies sencelesness precipitousness as Trismegistus defines it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a species of madness in one place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of drunkenness in another a wild irrational acting and this doth express it self in our furious mischieving our selves in doing all quite contrary unto our own ends our own aims our own principles of action and this you will see most visible in the particulars in every motion every turn of the sinners life As 1. In his malices wherein he breaths forth such Aetna's of flames against others you may generally mark it he hurts neither God nor man but only himself In every such hellish breathing all that malignity of his cannot reach God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untemptable by evil in this other sence I mean impenetrable by his malice All that was shot up towards God comes down immediately on the sinners own head And for the Man against whom he is enraged whose blood he thirsts after whose ruine he desires he does him the greatest courtesie in the World he is but blest by those curses that honourable blissful estate that belongs to all poor persecuted Saints and consequently the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 matter of joy and exultation is hereby become his portion and that is the reason he is advised to do good to him by way of gratitude to make returns of all civility and acknowledgments not as to an Enemy but a benefactor to bless and pray for him by whom he hath been thus obliged Only this raving mad-man's own Soul is
himself of ingenuity and innocence together and become one of Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natural slaves which if it signifie any thing denotes the fools and simple ones in this Text whom nature hath marked in the head for no very honourable imployments But from this passivity in the Mines and Gallies to attain to a joy and voluptuousness in the imployment to dread nothing but Sabbatick years and Jubiles and with the crest-faln slave to disclaim nothing but liberty and manumission i. e. in effect Innocence and Paradise and Bliss to court and woo Satan for the Mansions in Hell and the several types and praeludiums of them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the initial pangs in this life which he hath in his disposing to be such a Platonick lover of stripes and chains without intuition of any kind of reward any present or future wages for all his patience and as it follows to hate knowledge and piety hate it as the most treacherous enemy that means to undermine their Hell to force them out of their beloved Satan's embraces this is certainly a very competent aggravation of the simplicity And yet to see how perfect a character this is of the most of us that have nothing to commend or even excuse in the most of those ways on which we make no scruple to exhaust our souls but only our kindness irrational passionate kindness and love toward them and then that love shall cover a multitude of sins supersede all the exceptions and quarrels that otherwise we should not chuse but have to them Could a man see any thing valuable or attractive in Oaths and Curses in Drunkenness and Bestiality the sin that when a Turk resolves to be guilty of he makes a fearful noise unto his Soul to retire all into his feet or as far off as it is possible that it may not be within ken of that bestial prospect as Busbequius tells us Could any man endure the covetous man's sad galling Mules burthens of Gold his Achans Wedge that cleaves and rends in sunder Nations so that in the Hebrew that sin signifies wounding and incision Joel ii 8 and is alluded to by his piercing himself thorow with divers sorrows 1 Tim. vi 10 his very Purgatories and Limbo's nay Hell as devouring and perpetual as it and the no kind of satisfaction so much as to his eye from the vastest heaps or treasures were he not in love with folly and ruine had he not been drenched with philtres and charms had not the Necromancer plaid some of his prizes on him and as St. Paul saith of his Galatians even bewitched him to be a fool Would we but make a rational choice of our sins discern somewhat that were amiable before we let loose our passion on them and not deal so blindly in absolute elections of the driest unsavory sin that may but be called a sin that hath but the honour of affronting God and damning one of Christ's redeemed most of our wasting sweeping sins would have no manner of pretensions to us and that you will allow to be one special accumulation of the folly and madness of these simple ones that they thus love simplicity The second aggravation is the continuance and duration of this fury a lasting chronical passion quite contrary to the nature of passions a flash of lightning lengthned out a whole day together that they should love simplicity so long It is the nature of acute diseases either to have intervals and intermissions or else to come to speedy crises and though these prove mortal sometimes yet the state is not generally so desperate and so it is with sins many the sharpest and vehementest indispositions of the Soul pure Feavers of rage and lust prove happily but flashing short furies are attended with an instant smiting of the heart a hating and detesting our follies a striking on the thigh in Jeremy and in David's penitential stile a So foolish was I and ignorant even as a beast before thee And it were happy if our Feavers had such cool seasons such favorable ingenuous intermissions as these But for the hectick continual Feavers that like some weapons the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 barbed shafts in use among the Franks in Agathias being not mortal at the entrance do all their slaughter by the hardness of getting out the Vultures that so tyre and gnaw upon the Soul the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that never suffer the sinner fool to make any approach toward his wits toward sobriety again this passionate love of folly improved into an habitual steddy course of Atheisticallness a deliberate peremptory final reprobating of Heaven the purity at once and the bliss of it the stanch demure covenanting with death and resolvedness to have their part to run their fortune with Satan through all adventures this is that monstrous brat that as for the birth of the Champion in the Poet three nights of darkness more than Egyptian were to be crowded into one all the simplicity and folly in a Kingdom to help to a being in the World and at the birth of it you will pardon Wisdom if she break out into a passion and exclamation of pity first and then of indignation How long ye simple ones c. My last particular The first debt that Wisdom that Christ that every Christian Brother ows and pays to every unchristian liver is that of pity and compassion which is to him of all others the properest dole Look upon all the sad moneful objects in the world betwixt whom all our compassion is wont to be divided first the Bankrupt rotting in a Gaol secondly the direful bloody spectacle of the Soldier wounded by the Sword of War thirdly the Malefactor howling under the Stone or gasping upon the Rack or Wheel and fourthly the gallant person on the Scaffold or Gallows ready for execution and the secure â—enseless sinner is the brachygraphy of all these You have in him 1. A rich patrimony and treasure of grace purchased dear and setled on him by Christ most prodigally and contumeliously misspent and exhausted 2. A Soul streaming out whole Rivers of blood and spirits through every wound even every sin it hath been guilty of and not enduring the Water to cleanse much less the Wine or Oyl to be poured into any one of them the whole Soul transfigured into one wound one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congelation and clod of blood Then thirdly beyond this all the racks and pangs of a tormenting conscience his only present exercise and lastly all the torments in Hell the Officer ready hurrying him to the Judge and the Judge delivering him to the Executioner his minutely dread and expectation the dream that so haunts and hounds him And what would a man give in bowels of compassion to Christianity or but to humane kind to be able to reprieve or rescue such an unhappy creature to be but the Lazarus with one drop of water to cool the tip of the scalding Tongue that
respect to this Incarnation of Christ that the hopes the belief the expectation of Salvation which the Father 's lived and breathed by under the types of the Law was only grounded upon and referred unto these Promises of the future Incarnation that they which were not in some measure enlightned in this mystery were not also partakers of this Covenant of Salvation that all the means besides that Heaven and Earth and which goes beyond them both the brain of Man or Angel could afford or invent could not excuse much less save any child of Adam That every Soul which was to spring from these loins had been without those transcendent mercies which were exhibited by this Incarnation of Christs plung'd in necessary desperate damnation Your patience shall be more profitably imployed in a brief Application of the point First That you perswade and drive your selves to a sense and feeling of your Sins those sins which thus pluckt God out of Heaven and for a while depriv'd him of his Majesty which laid an engagement upon God either to leave his infinite Justice unsatisfied or else to subject his infinite Deity to the servile mortality of Flesh or else to leave an infinite World in a common damnation Secondly To strain all the expressions of our hearts tongues and lives to the highest note of gratitude which is possible in answer to this Mystery and Treasure of this God with us to reckon all the Miracles of either common or private preservations as foils to this incomparable Mercy infinitely below the least circumstance of it without which thine Estate thy Understanding thy Body thy Soul thy Being thy very Creation were each of them as exquisite Curses as Hell or Malice could invent for thee Thirdly To observe with an ecstasie of joy and thanks the precious priviledges of us Christians beyond all that ever God profest love to in that we have obtained a full revelation of this God with us which all the Fathers did but see in a cloud the Angels peep'd at the Heathen world gap'd after but we behold as in a plain at mid-day For since the veil of the Temple was rent every man that hath eyes may see Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of Holies God with us Fourthly To make a real use of this Doctrine to the profit of our Souls that if God have designed to be Emmanuel and Jesus an Incarnate God and Saviour to us that then we will fit and prepare and make our selves capable of this Mercy and by the help of our religious devout humble endeavours not frustrate but further and promote in our selves this end of Christs Incarnation the saving of our Souls and this use is effectually made to our hands in the twelfth to the Hebrews at the last Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that cannot be moved i. e. being partakers of the Presence the Reign the Salvation of the Incarnate God Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear And do thou O powerful God improve the truth of this Doctrine to the best advantage of our Souls that thy Son may not be born to us unprofitably but that he may be God not only with us but in us in us to sanctifie and adorn us here with his effectual grace and with us to sustain us here as our Emmanuel and as our Jesus to crown and perfect us hereafter with glory And so much for this point That Jesus and Emmanuel import the same thing and there was no Salvation till this presence of God with us We now come to the substance it self i. e. Christs Incarnation noted by Emmanuel which is by interpretation c. Where first we must explain the word then drive forward to the matter The Word in Isaiah in the Hebrew is not so much a name as a sentence describing unto us the mystery of the Conception of the Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with us God where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is taken in Scripture either absolutely for the nature of God as for the most part in the Old Testament or personally and so either for the Person of the Father in many places or else distinctly for the Person of the Son so Hos i. 7 And will save them by the Lord their God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their God i. e. Christ and so also most evidently in this place out of Isaiah where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Son Incarnate God-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many the like especially those where the Targum paraphrases Jehovah or Jehovah Elohim by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word of the Lord i. e. Christ Jesus Joh. i. 1 As for instance Gen. iii. 22 that Word of the Lord said and Gen. ii 6 the Word created Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies in its extent near at with or amongst Thirdly the Particle signifying us though it expresses not yet it must note our humane nature our abode our being in this our great World wherein we travel and this our little World wherein we dwell not as a mansion place to remain in but either as an Inn to lodg or a Tabernacle to be covered or a Prison to suffer in So that the words in their latitude run thus Emmanuel i. e. The second Person in Trinity is come down into this lower world amongst us for a while to travel to lodg to sojourn to be fetter'd in this Inn this Tabernacle this Prison of mans flesh or briefly at this time is conceived and born God-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same both God and Man the Man Christ Jesus And this is the cause and business the ground and theme of our present rejoycing in this were limited and fulfilled the expectation of the Fathers and in this begins and is accomplished the hope and joy of us Christians That which was old Simeons warning to death the sight and embraces of the Lord Christ Luk. ii 28 as the greatest happiness which an especial favour could bestow on him and therefore made him in a contempt of any further life sing his own funeral Nunc Dimittis Lord now lettest thou c. This is to us the Prologue and first part of a Christians life either the life of the World that that may be worthy to be call'd life or that of Grace that we be not dead whilst we live For were it not for this assumption of flesh you may justly curse that ever you carried flesh about you that ever your Soul was committed to such a Prison as your Body is nay such a Dungeon such a Grave But through this Incarnation of Christ our flesh is or shall be cleansed into a Temple for the Soul to worship in and in Heaven for a robe for it to triumph in For our body shall be purified by his Body If ye will be sufficiently instructed into a just valuation of the weight of this Mystery you must resolve
Martyr and directed to the Philippians 't is observed that whilst he was at a pretty distance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devil hastned the structure of Christs Cross as much as he could set Judas and all the Artificers of Hell about the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but when all was even ready Christ for the Cross and the Cross for Christ then he began to put i◠demurs shews Judas an Halter frights Pilar's Wife in a dream she could not sleep in 〈…〉 and in summ uses all means possible to prevent Christs Crucifixion Yet this saith Ignatius not out of any repentance or regret of Conscience but only being started with the foresight of his own ruine by this means Christ's suffering being in effect the destruction of his Kingdom his death ou◠Triumph over Hell and his Cross our Trophy By this you may discern what a miracle of God's love was this giving of his Son the conceiving of which was above the Devil's reach and wherein he was providentially ingaged and if we may so speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carried blindfold by God to be an Instrument of his own ruine and in a kind be a Co-worker of our Salvation Not to inlarge or expatiate upon Circumstances Man being thus involved in a necessity of damnation and no remedy within the sphere either of his power or conceit left to rescue him nay as some have been so hold to say that God himself had no other means besides this in his Store-house of miracles to save us without intrenching on some one of his Attributes for God then to find out a course that we could never prompt him to being solicited to it by nothing in us but our sins and misery and without any interposition any further consultation or demur to part with a piece of himself to redeem us Brachium Domini The Arm of the Lord as Isaiah calls our Saviour Isa liii Nay to send down his very Bowels amongst us to witness his compassion to satisfie for us by his own death and attach himself for our liberty to undergo such hard conditions rather than be forced to a cheap severity and that he might appear to love his Enemies to hate his Son In brief to fulfil the work without any aid required from us and make Salvation ready to our hands as Manna is called in the sixth of Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bread baked and sent down ready from Heaven Wisd xvi 20 to drop it in our mouths and exact nothing of us but to accept of it this is an act of love and singleness that all the malice we carry about us knows not how to suspect so far from possibility of a treacherous intent or double dealing that if I were an Heathen nay a Devil I would bestow no other appellation on the Christians God than what the Author of the Book of Wisdom doth so often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the friend or the lover of Souls But this is a vulgar though precious subject and therefore I shall no longer insist on it Only before I leave it would I could see the effect of it exprest in our Souls as well as acknowledged in our looks your hearts ravished as thorowly as your brains convinc'd your breasts as open to value and receive this superlative mercy as your tongues to confess it then could I triumph over Hell and death and scoff them out of countenance then should the Devil be reduced to his old pittance confined to an empty corner of the World and suffer as much by the solitariness as darkness of his abode all his engines and arts of torment should be busied upon himself and his whole exercise to curse Christ for ever that hath thus deprived him of Associates But alas we are too sollicitous in the Devil's behalf careful to furnish him with Companions to keep him warm in the midst of fire 't is to be feared we shall at last thrust him out of his Inheritance 'T is a probable argument that God desires our Salvation because that Hell wheresoever it is whether at the Center of the Earth or Concave of the Moon must needs be far less than Heaven and that makes us so besiege the gate as if we feared we should find no room there We begin our journey betimes lest we should be forestall'd and had rather venture a throng or crowd in Hell than to expect that glorious liberty of the Sons of God 'T is to be feared that at the day of Judgment when each Body comes to accompany its Soul in torment Hell must be let out and inlarge its territories to receive its Guests Beloved there is not a Creature here that hath reason to doubt but Christ was sent to die for him and by that death hath purchased his right to life Only do but come in do but suffer your selves to live and Christ to have died do not uncrucifie Christ by crucifying him again by your unbelief do not disclaim the Salvation that even claims right and title to you and then the Angels shall be as full of joy to see you in Heaven as God is willing nay desirous to bring you thither and Christ as ready to bestow that Inheritance upon you at his second coming as at his first to purchase it Nothing but Infidelity restrains Christs sufferings and confines them to a few Were but this one Devil cast out of the World I should be straight of Origens Religion and preach unto you Universal Catholick Salvation A second Argument of God's good meaning towards us of his willingness that we should live is the calling of the Gentiles the dispatching of Posts and Heralds over the whole ignorant Heathen World and giving them notice of this treasure of Christ's blood Do but observe what a degree of prophaneness and unnatural abominations the Gentile World was then arrived to as you may read in all their stories and in the first to the Romans how well grown and ripe for the Devil Christ found them all of them damnably Superstitious and Idolatrous in their Worship damnably unclean in their lives nay ingaged for ever in this rode of damnation by a Law they had made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never to entertain any new Laws or Religion not to innovate though it were to get Salvation as besides their own Histories may be gathered out of Act. xvii 18 And lastly consider how they were hook'd in by the Devil to joyn in crucifying of Christ that they might be guilty of that bloud which might otherwise have saved them and then you will find no argument to perswade you 't was possible that God should have any design of mercy on them Peter was so resolv'd of the point that the whole succession of the Gentiles should be damned that God could scarce perswade him to go and Preach to one of them Act. x. He was fain to be cast into a Trance and see a Vision about it and for all that he is much
to instruct you in its causes And first of the first wherein this Infidelity and to speak more plainly Perjury of formal Believers consists Though they say c. Since that rather phancy than Divinity of the Romanists Schoolmen and Casuists generally defining Faith to be a bare assent to the truth of Gods word seated only in the understanding was by the Protestant Divines banished out of the Schools as a faith for a Chamaeleon to be nourished with which can feed on air as a direct piece of Sorcery and Conjuring which will help you to remove Mountains only by thinking you are able briefly as a Chimaera or phantastical nothing fit to be sent to Limbo for a Present since I say this Magical Divinity which still possesses the Romanist and also a sort of men who would be thought most distant from them hath been exorcised and silenced and cast out of our Schools would I could say out of our hearts by the Reformation the nature of Faith hath been most admirably explained yet the seat or subject of it never clearly set down some confining it to the understanding others to the Will till at last it pitched upon the whole Soul the intellective nature For the Soul of man should it be partitioned into faculties as the grounds of our ordinary Philosophy would perswade us it would not be stately enough for so Royal a guest either room would be too pent and narrow to entertain at once so many graces as attend it Faith therefore that it may be received in state that it may have more freedom to exercise its Soveraignty hath required all partitions to be taken down that sitting in the whole Soul it may command and order the whole man is not in the brain sometimes as its gallery to recreate and contemplate at another in the heart as its parlour to feed or a closet to dispatch business but if it be truly that Royal Personage which we take it for it is repletive in the whole house at once as in one room and that a stately Palace which would be much disgraced and lose of its splendor by being cut into offices and accordingly this Royal Grace is an intire absolute Prince of a whole Nation not as a Tetrarch of Galilee a sharer of a Saxon Heptarchy and described to us as one single act though of great command and defined to be an assent and adherence to the goodness of the object which object is the whole Word of God and specially the promises of the Gospel So then to believe is not to acknowledge the truth of the Scripture and Articles of the Creed as vulgarly we use knowledge but to be affected with the goodness and Excellency of them as the most precious objects which the whole world could present to our choice to embrace them as the only desirable thing upon the earth and to be resolutely and uniformly inclined to express this affection of ours in our practice whensoever there shall be any competition betwixt them and our dearest delights For the object of our Faith is not meerly speculative somewhat to be understood only and assented to as true but chiefly moral a truth to be prosecuted with my desires through my whole Conversation to be valued above my-life and set up in my heart as the only Shrines I worship So that he that is never so resolutely sworn to the Scriptures believes all the Commands Prohibitions and Promises never so firmly if he doth not adhere to them in his practice and by particular application of them as a rule to guide him in all his actions express that he sets a true value on them if he do not this he is yet an Infidel all his Religion is but like the Beads-mans who whines over his Creed and Commandments over a threshold so many times a Week only as his task to deserve his Quarterage or to keep correspondence with his Patron Unless I see his belief exprest by uniform obedience I shall never imagin that he minded what he said The sincerity of his faith is always proportionable to the integrity of his life and so far is he to be accounted a Christian as he performs the obligation of it the promise of his Baptism Will any man say that Eve believed God's inhibition when she eat the forbidden fruit If she did she was of a strange intrepid resolution to run into the jaws of Hell and never boggle 'T is plain by the story that she heard God but believed the Serpent as may appear by her obedience the only evidence and measure of her Faith Yet can it not be thought that she that was so lately a Work of God's Omnipotence should now so soon distrust it and believe that he could not make good his threatnings The truth is this she saw clearly enough in her brain but had not sunk it down into her heart or perhaps she assented to it in the general but not as appliable to her present case This assent was like a Bird fluttering in the Chamber not yet confined to a Cage ready to escape at the first opening of the door or window as soon as she opens either ears or eyes to hearken to the Serpent or behold the Apple her former assent to God is vanish'd and all her faith bestowed upon the Devil It will not be Pelagianism to proceed and observe how the condition of every sin since this time hath been an imitation of that The same method in sin hath ever since been taken first to revolt from God and then to disobey first to become Infidels and then Sinners Every murmuring of the Israelites was a defection from the Faith of Israel and turning back to Egypt in their hearts Infidelity as it is the fountain from whence all Rebellion springs Faith being an adherence and every departure from the living God arising from an evil heart of unbelief Heb. iii. 12 so it is also the channel where it runs not any beginning or progress in sin without a concomitant degree of either weakness or want of faith So that Heathens or Hereticks are not the main enemies of Christ as the question de oppositis fidei is stated by the Romanists but the Hypocrite and Libertine he is the Heathen in grain an Heretick of Lucifer's own sect one that the Devil is better pleased with than all the Catalogue in Epiphanius or the Romish Calendar For this is it that Satan drives at an engine by which he hath framed us most like himself not when we doubt of the Doctrine of Christ for himself believes it fully no man can be more firmly resolved of it but when we heed it not in our lives when we cleave not to it in our hearts when instead of living by Faith Heb. x. 38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we draw back and cowardly subduce our selves and forsake our Colours refusing to be martialled in his ranks or fight under his Banner Arian the Stoick Philosopher hath an excellent discourse concerning
represent to you your own Consciences if they be but called to cannot choose but reflect them to your sight Your outward profession and frequency in it for the general is acknowledged your Custom of the place requires it of you and the example of Piety that rules in your Eyes cannot but extort it Only let your lives witness the sincerity of your professions let not a dead Carcass walk under a living head and a nimble active Christian brain be supported with bed-rid mentionless Heathen â—imbs Let me see you move and walk as well as breath that I may hope to see you Saints as well as Christians And this shall be the summ not only of my advice to you but for you of my Prayers That the Spirit would sanctifie all our hearts as well as brains that he will subdue not only the pride and natural Atheism of our understandings but the rebellions and infidelity and heathenism of our lusts that being purged from any reliques or tincture or suspicion of irreligion in either power of our Souls we may live by Faith and move by Love and die in Hope and both in Life and Death glorifie God here and be glorified with him hereafter SERMON VIII LUKE XVIII 11 God I thank thee that I am not as other men extortioners c. or even as this Publican THAT we may set out at our best advantage and yet not go too far back to take our rise 't is but retiring to the end of the 8. Verse of this Chapter and there we shall meet with an abrupt speech hanging like one of Solomon's Proverbs without any seeming dependance on any thing before or after it which yet upon enquiry will appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faln down from Heaven in the posture it stands in In the beginning of the Eight verse he concludes the former Parable I tell you that he will avenge them speedily and then abruptly Nevertheless when the Son of man comes shall he find faith upon the earth And then immediately Verse 9. he spake another parable to certain that trusted in themselves where this speech in the midst when the Son of man comes c. stands there by it self like the Pharisee in my Text seorsim apart as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or intercalary day between two months which neither of them will own or more truly like one of Democritus his atomes the casual concurrence of which he accounted the principle and cause of all things That we may not think so vulgarly of Scripture as to dream that any title of it came by resultance or casually into the world that any speech dropt from his mouth unobserved that spake as man never spake both in respect of the matter of his speeches and the weight and secret energie of all accidents attending them it will appear on consideration that this speech of his which seems an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a supernumerary superfluous one is indeed the head of the corner and ground of the whole Parable or at least a fair hint or occasion of delivering it at that time Not to trouble you with its influence on the Parable going before concerning perseverance in prayer to which it is as an Isthmus or fibula to joyn it to what follows but to bring our eyes home to my present subject After the consideration of the prodigious defect of faith in this decrepit last age of the world in persons who made the greatest pretences to it and had arriv'd unto assurance and security in themselves he presently arraigns the Pharisee the highest instance of this confidence and brings his righteousness to the bar sub hac formâ There is like to be toward the second coming of Christ his particular visitation of the Jews and then its parallel his final coming to judgment such a specious pompous shew and yet such a small pittance of true faith in the world that as it is grown much less than a grain of mustard-seed it shall not be found when it is sought there will be such giantly shadows and pigmy substances so much and yet so little faith that no Hieroglyphick can sufficiently express it but an Egyptian temple gorgeously over-laid inhabited within by Crocodiles and Cats and carcasses instead of gods or an apple of Sodom that shews well till it be handled a painted Sepulchre or a specious nothing or which is the contraction and Tachygraphy of all these a Pharisee at his prayers And thereupon Christ spake the parable verse 9. there were two men went up into the temple to pray the one a Pharisee c. verse 10. Concerning the true nature of faith mistaken extreamly now adays by those which pretend most to it expuls'd almost out of mens brains as well as hearts so that now it is scarce to be found upon earth either in our lives or almost in our books there might be framed a seasonable complaint in this place were I not already otherwise imbarked By some prepossessions and prejudices infus'd into us as soon as we can conn a Catechism of that making it comes to pass that many men live and die resolv'd that faith is nothing but the assurance of the merits of Christ applied to every man particularly and consequently of his salvation that I must first be sure of Heaven or else I am not capable of it confident of my salvation or else necessarily damned Cornelius Agrippa being initiated in natural magick Paracelsus in mineral extractions Plato full of his Idea's will let nothing be done without the Pythagoreans brought up with numbers perpetually in their ears and the Physicians poring daily upon the temperaments of the body the one will define the soul an harmony the other a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philoponus And so are many amongst us that take up fancies upon trust for truths never laying any contrary proposals to heart come at last to account this assurance as a principle without which they can do nothing the very soul that must animate all their obedience which is otherwise but a carcass or heathen vertue in a word the only thing by which we are justified or saved The confutation of this popular error I leave to some grave learned tongue that may enforce it on you with some authority for I conceive not any greater hindrance of Christian obedience and godly practice amongst us than this for as long as we are content with this assurance as sufficient stock to set up for Heaven there is like to be but little faith upon the earth Faith if it be truly so is like Christ himself when he was Emmanuel God upon the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incarnate faith cut out and squared into limbs and lineaments not only a spiritual invisible faith but even flesh and bloud to be seen and felt organiz'd for action 't is to speak and breath and walk and run the ways of God's Commandments An assent not only
makes his crimes his reputation and his abominations his pride and glory 'T is that which we lay to the Devils charge in the times of Heathenism that he strove to bring sin in credit by building Temples and requiring Sacrifices to lust under the name of Venus Priapus and the like that incontinence might seem an act of Religion and all the prophaneness in the world a piece of adoration And it begins now to be revived in the world again when bashfulness is the quality of all others most creditably parted with and the only motive to the commission of some sins is to be in the fashion to be seen of men when men put on affected errors affected vanities affected oaths just as they do gay clothes that they may be the better counted of this indeed is a damnable hypocrisie when men are fain to act parts in sin that they are not naturally inclined to and to force their constitutions and even to offer violence to their own tender dispositions that so they may not be scoffed at for punies or precise persons as Augustus his daughter which being admonished of a sin that beasts would never have committed answer'd that that was the reason they omitted the injoyment of so precious a delight because they were beasts as if innocence were more bestial than lust and ignorance of some sins the only guilt The horror and detestation that this sin strikes into me makes me I confess willing almost to become an advocate of the first kind of hypocrisie whereby men retain so much modesty in their sins I hope of weakness as to be willing to injoy the charitable mens goood opinion though undeserv'd But for the second kind of hypocrisie this cousening of a mans own soul this tiring and personating in the closet this inventing of arts and stratagems to send himself comfortably and believingly to the Devil this civil intestine treachery within and against ones self this is the grand imposture that here the Pharisee is noted for An easiness and cheateableness that costs the bankrupting of many a jolly Christian soul He saith Plutarch that wants health let him go to the Physicians but he that wants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good durable habit of body let him go to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the masters of exercise otherwise he shall never be able to confirm himself into a solid firm constant health call'd thereupon by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the constitution of wrestlers without which health it self is but a degree of sickness nourishment proves but swellings and not growth but a tympany Both these saith he Philosophy will produce in the soul not only teaching men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where by the way he repeats almost the whole decalogue of Moses though in an heathen dialect to worship the Gods c. which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the health of the soul but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is above all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be overjoyed or immoderately affected in all this This which he attributes to Philosophy in general is saith Aristotle an act of intellectual prudence or sobriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to vouchsafe higher titles to himself than he is worthy of not to think himself in better health than he is which is not the dialect of a mere heathen but the very language of Canaan Rom. xii 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word in Aristotle which cannot be better exprest than by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have a moderate sober equal opinion of ones own gifts not to overprize Gods graces in our selves not to accept ones own person or give flattering titles to ones self in Jobs phrase This Chrysostom calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word near kin unto the former the meekness or lowliness of heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. when a man having attain'd to a great measure of grace and done great matters by it and knoweth it too yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fancies no great matter of himself for all this As the three Children in Daniel having received a miracle of graces which affected even the enemies of God yet were not affected with it themselves enabled to be Martyrs and yet live Or as the Poet of Callimachus that stood after he was dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is Nebuchadnezzars phrase walking in the midst of the fire and yet they have no hurt Yet in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Song of praise all that they say of themselves is this and now we cannot open our mouths ver 9. for this saith Chrysostom we open our mouths that we may say this only that it is not for us to open our mouths By this low modest interpretation every Christian is to make of his own actions and gifts you may guess somewhat of the Pharisees misconceits For first were he never so holy and pure of never so spiritual Angelical composition yet the very reflecting on these excellencies were enough to make a Devil of him The Angels saith Gerson as the Philosophers intelligences have a double habitude two sorts of imployments natural to them One upwards in an admiration of Gods greatness love of his beauty obedience to his wll moving as it were a circular daily motion about God their Center as Boethius of them Mentemque profundam circumeunt another downward of regiment and power in respect of all below which they govern and move and manage Now if it be questioned saith he which of these two be more honourabe for the credit of the Angelical nature I determine confidently that of subjection pulchriorem perfectiorem esse quam secunda regitivae dominationis 't is more renown to be under God than over all the world besides As the service to a King is the greatest preferment that even a Peer of the Realm is capable of And then if an Angel should make a Song of exultance to set himself out in the greatest pomp he would begin it as Mary doth her Magnificat For he hath regarded the low estate of his servant So that the blessed Virgins mention of her own lowliness was not a piece only of modest Devotion but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of expression and high Metaphysical insinuation of the greatest dignity in the world And then let the Pharisee be as righteous as himself can fancy come to that pitch indeed which the contemptuous opinionative Philosophers feigned to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Tatianus which is in the Church of Lâ—â—dicaea's phrase I am rich and am increased in spiritual wealth and have need of nothing or the fools in the Gospel I have store laid up for many years nay to St. Pauls pitch wrapt so high that the schools do question whether he were viator or comprehensor a traveller or at his journeyes end yet the very opinion of Gods graces would argue him a Pharisee
from off the earth what means have we left us but our prayers to prepare or mature this reconciliation Shall we then take heart also and bring in our action of trespass Shall we sit and pen our railing accusation in the form that Christ uses against the Pharisees Mat. xxiii 13 Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men for you neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in This we might do upon better grounds were we so revengefully disposed but we fear to incur our Saviour's censure Luke ix 55 And he turn'd and rebuk't them saying Ye know not what manner of spirits ye are of We should much mistake our Christian spirit if we should not in return to their curses intercede with God in prayer for them First that he will bestow on them the grace of meekness or charity then sincerity and uprightness without wilful blindness and partiality and lastly to intercede for the salvation of all our souls together And this is the only way St. Paul hath left us Rom. xii 20 by returning them good to melt them hoping and praying in the words of Solomon that by long forbearing this great Prince of the West will be perswaded and that our soft tongues may in time break the bone But whilst we preach charity to them shall we not betray partiality in our selves by passing over that uncharitable fire that is breaking out in our own Chimnies 'T were to be wished that this Christian grace which is liberal enough of it self would be entertain'd as gratefully as it is preach't we should not then have so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of fire amongst us as we have who being inflam'd some with faction others with ignorant prejudice others with doting on their own abilities fall out into all manner of intemperate censures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of the sword all sharp contumelious invectives against all persons or doctrines or lives that are not ordered or revised by them For what Photius out of Josephus observes among others to have been one main cause or prognostick of the destruction of Jerusalem the civil wars betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Zelots and the Cut-throats pray God we find not the same success amongst us Whilst the Zelots saith he fell on the Sicarii the whole body of the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was bitterly and unmercifully butcher'd betwixt them and under one of those two names all the People were brought to suffer their part in the massacre I desire not to chill or damp you with unnecessary fears or to suspect that our sins shall be so unlimited as utterly to out-vie and over-reach God's mercies But beloved this ill bloud that is generally nourish't amongst us if it be not a Prognostick of our fate is yet an ill Symptome of our disease These convulsions and distortions of one member of the body from another as far as it can possibly be distended this burning heat and from thence raving and disquietness of the soul are certainly no very comfortable Symptomes When the Church and Kingdom must be dichotomiz'd precisely divided into two extreme parts and all moderate persons by each extreme tossed to the other with furious prejudice must brand all for Hereticks or carnal persons that will not undergo their razor And then the contrary extreme censure and scoff at their preciseness that will not bear them company to every kind of riot These beloved are shrewd feaverish distempers pray God they break not forth into a flame When the boat that goes calmly with the stream in the midst of two impetuous rowers shall be assaulted by each of them for opposing or affronting each when the moderate Christian shall be branded on the one hand for preciseness on the other for intemperance on the one side for a Puritan on the other for a Papist or a Remonstrant when he that keeps himself from either extreme shall yet be intituled to both what shall we say is become of that ancient Primitive charity and moderation The use beloved that I desire to make of all this shall not be to declaim at either but only by this compass to find out the true point that we must sail by By this saith Aristotle you shall know the golden mediocrity that it is complained on both sides as if it were both extremes that may you define to be exact liberality which the covetous man censures for prodigality and the prodigal for covetousness And this shall be the summ not only of my advice to you but prayers for you that in the Apostles phrase your moderation may be known unto all men by this livery and cognizance that you are indited by both extreams And if there be any such Satanical art crept in amongst us of authorizing errors or sins on one side by pretending zeal and earnestness against their contraries as Photius observes that it was a trick of propagating heresies by writing books intitled to the confutation of some other heresie the Lord grant that this evil spirit may be either laid or cast out either fairly led or violently hurried out of our coasts I have done with the Pharisees censoriousness I come now in the last place to the ground or rather occasion of it his seeing the Publican comparing himself with notorious sinners I thank thee that c. That verse 1 Cor. xv 33 which St. Paul cites out of Menanders Thais that wicked communication corrupts good manners is grounded on this moral essay that nothing raiseth up so much to good and great designs as emulation that he that casts himself upon such low company that he hath nothing to imitate or aspire to in them is easily perswaded to give over any farther pursuit of virtue as believing that he hath enough already because none of his acquaintance hath any more thus have many good wits been cast away by falling unluckily into bad times which could yield them no hints for invention no examples of poetry nor encouragement for any thing that was extraordinary And this is the Pharisees fate in my Text that looking upon himself either in the deceivable glass of the sinful world or in comparison with notorious sinners extortioners adulterers Publicans sets himself off by these foils finds nothing wanting in himself so is solaced with a good comfortable opinion of his present estate and a slothful negligence of improving it And this beloved is the ordinary lenitive which the Devil administers to the sharp unquiet diseases of the conscience if at any time they begin to rage the only conserve that he folds his bitterest receipts in that they may go down undiscern'd that we are not worse than other men that we shall be sure to have companions to Hell nay that we need not neither at all fear that danger for if Heaven gates be so strait as not to
understand yet they can produce only an absolute simple general will that is an assent and approbation of the absolute goodness of the thing proposed not a resolute will to abandon all other Worldly purposes to perform that which I will Knowledge and right apprehension of things may convince me first of the History that all that is spoken of or by Christ is true and then of the expedience to apply all his merits to my Soul but when I see all this cannot be done without paying a price without undoing my self without pawning all that I have my learning my wealth my delights my whole worldly being without self-denial then the general assent that absolute will is grown chill and dead we are still whatever we believe but Infidels all the Articles of the Creed thus assented to are not enough to make us â—hristians So that the issue of all is all knowledge in the World cannot make us deny our selves and therefore all knowledge in the World is not able to produce belief only the spirit must breath this power into us of breathing out our selves he must press our Breasts and stifle and strangle us we must give up the natural ghost he must force out our Earthly Breath out of our Earthly Bodies or else we shall not be enlivened by his spiritual Thus have you reasons of the common divorce betwixt knowledge and faith i. e. the no manner of dependence betwixt them in nature Secondly the open resistence in some points betwixt reason and Scripture Thirdly the more secret reluctancies betwixt the pride and contents of learning and the spirit And lastly the insufficiency of all natural knowledge and transcendency of spiritual so that he cannot know them because they are spiritually discernâ—d I should now in very charity release you but that there is one word behind of most important necessity to a Sermon and that is of Application That laying to our hearts the important documents of the Text our righteousness and faith may exceed that oâ— the Pharisees Mat. v. 20 our preaching and walking may be like that of Christs in power and as having authority and not as the Scribes Mat. vii 29 and we not content with a floating knowledge in the Brain do press and sink it down into our inferiour faculties our senses and affections till it arise in a full Harvest of fruitful diligently working Faith It was Zenophanes his phansy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that God was all Eyes and all Ears but breathed not there was no use of that in him and so is it with us who are always exercising our knowledge powers to see and hear what e're is possible but for any breath of life in us any motion of the spirit we have no use of it it is not worth valuing or taking notice of nothing so vulgar and contemptible in them that have it nothing of which we examine our selves so slightly of which we are so easily mistaken so willingly deceived and nothing that we will be content to have so small a measure of A little of it soon tires as out 't is too thin aery diet for us to live upon we cannot hold out long on it like the Israelites soon satiated with their bread from Heaven nothing comparable to their old food that Nilus yielded them Numb xi 5 We remember the fish that we did eat in Egypt but now our Soul is dryed away there is nothing but this Manna before our Eyes as if that were not worth the gathering Pythagoras could say that if any one were to be chosen to pray for the people to be made a Priest he must be a vertuous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Iamblichus because the Gods would take more heed to his words and again that many things might be permitted the people which should be interdicted preachers It was thâ— confirmation of his precepts by his life and practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that made Italy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Country his School and all that ever heard him his Disciples Nothing will give such authority to our Doctrine or set such a value on our calling as a religious Conversation He that takes such a Journey as that into Holy Orders must go on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his 15 Symâ—olum must not return to his former sins as well as trade saith Iamblichus the falling into one of our youthful Vices is truly a disordering of our selves and a kind of plucking our hands from the Plow A Physician saith Hippocrates must have colour and be in flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a good promising healthy complexion and then men will guess him a man of skill otherwise the patient will bid the Physician heal himself and having by his ill look a prejudice against his Physick his phansy will much hinder its working You need no application He again will tell you that the profession suffers not so much by any thing as by rash censures and unworthy Professors In brief our very knowledge will be set at nought and our gifts scoffed at if our lives do not demonstrate that we are Christians as well as Scholars No man will be much more godly for hearing Seneca talk of Providence nor be affected with bare words unless he see them armed and backt with power of him that utters them Consider but this one thing and withal that my Doctrine is become a Proverb and he is a proud man that can first draw it upon a Scholar his learning and his clergy make him never the more religious O let our whole care and carriage and the dearest of our endeavours strive and prevail to cross the Proverb and stop the mouth of the rashest declamer That Comedy of Aristophanes took best which was all spent in laughing at Socrates and in him involved and abused the whole condition of learning though through Alcibiades his Faction it miscarried and mist its applause once or twice yet when men were left to their humour 't was admired and cried up extremely Learning hath still some honourable Favourers which keep others in awe with their Countenance but otherwise nothing more agreeable to the people than Comedies or Satyrs or Sarcasms dealt out against the Vniversities let us be sure that we act no parts in them our selves nor perform them before they are acted Let us endeavour that theirs may be only pronunciations a story of our faults as presented in a Scene but never truly grounded in any of our actions One wo we are secure and safe from Wo be to you when all men shall speak well of you we have many good Friends that will not let this Curse light on us O let us deliver our selves from that Catalogue of woes which were all denounced against the Pharisees for many Vices all contained in this accomplisht piece 〈◊〉 say but do not Mat. xxiii 4 And seeing all our intellectual excellencies cannot assure or bribe or woo Gods spirit to overshadow
us and conceive Christ and bring forth true and saying Fâ—ith in us let all the rest of our studies be ordered in a new course let us change both our method and our Tutor and having hitherto learnt God from our selves let us be better advised and learn our selves from God Let us all study all learning from the Spring or Fountain and make him our instructer who is the only Author worth our understanding and admit of no Interpreter on him but himself The knowledge of God shall be our Vision in Heaven O let it be our speculation on Earth Let it fill every conceit or phansie that we at any time adventure on It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last work in which all the promises all our possible designs are accomplished O let us in part anticipate that final revelation of him lest so sudden and so full a brightness of glory be too excellent for the Eyes of a Saint and labour to comprehend here where the whole comfort of our life is what we shall then possess And if all the stretches and cracking and torturing of our Souls will prevail the dissolving of all our spirits nay the sighing out of our last breath will do any thing let us join all this even that God hath given us in this real service to our selves and expire whilst we are about it in praying and beseeching and importuning and offering violence to that blessed spirit that he will fully enlighten and enflame us here with zeal as well as knowledge that he will fill us with his grace here and accomplish us with his glory hereafter Now to him that hath elected us hath created us and redeemed us c. SERMON XI MATTH X. 15 It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that City THE whole new Covenant consists of these two words Christ and Faith Christ bestowed on Gods part Faith required on ours Christ the matter Faith the condition of the Covenant Now to bring or present this Faith before you as an object for your understandings to gaze at or to go farther to dissect and with the diligence of Anatomy instruct in every limb or joynt or excellency of it were but to recal you to your Catechism and to take pains to inform you in that which you are presum'd to know The greater danger of us is that we are behind in our practice that we know what Faith is but do not labour for it and therefore the seasonablest work will be on our affections to produce if it were possible this pretious vertue in our souls and to sink and press down that floating knowledge which is in most of our brains into a solid weighty effectual Faith that it may begin to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a work of faith which was formerly but a phansie dream and apparition To this purpose to work on your wills no Rhetorick so likely as that which is most sharp and terrible no such Physick for dead affections as Corrosives the consideration of the dismal hideous desperate estate of infidels here in my Text and that both in respect of the guilt of the sin and degree of the punishment proportioned to it and that above all other sinners in the World It shall be more c. Where you may briefly observe 1. the sin of infidelity set down by its subject that City which would not receive Christ being preach't unto it v. 14. 2. the greatness of this sin exprest by the punishment attending it and that either positively it shall go very sore with it and therefore it is to be esteemed a very great sin implyed in the whole Text or else comparatively being weighed with Sodom and Gomorrha in judgment it shall be more tolerable for them than it and therefore 't is not only a great sin but the greatest the most damning sin in the world And of these in order plainly and to your hearts rather than your brains presuming that you are now come with solemn serious thoughts to be edified not instructed much less pleased or humor'd And first of the first The sin of infidelity noted in the last words that City To pass by those which we cannot choose but meet with 1. a multitude of ignorant Infidels Pagans and Heathens 2. of knowing but not acknowledging Infidels as Turks and Jews We shall meet with another order of as great a latitude which will more nearly concern us a world of believing Infidels which know and acknowledge Christ the Gospel and the promises are as fairly mounted in the understanding part as you would wish but yet refuse and deny him in their hearts apply not a Command to themselves submit not to him nor desire to make themselves capable of those mercies which they see offered by Christ in the World and these are distinctly set down in the verse next before my Text Whosoever shall not receive you i. e. entertain the acceptable truth of Christ and the Gospel preached by you as 't is interpreted by the 40. verse He that receiveth you receiveth me i. e. believes on me as the word is most plainly used Mat. xi 14 If you will receive it i. e. if you will believe it this is Elias which was for to come And John i. 12 To as many as received him even to them that believe in his name For you are to know that Faith truly justifying is nothing in the World but the receiving of Christ Christ and his sufferings and full satisfaction was once on the Cross tender'd and is ever since by the Gospel and its Ministers offered to the world and nothing required of us but an hand and an heart to apprehend and receive and to as many as received him he gives power to become the sons of God John i. 12 So that Faith and Infidelity are not acts properly determined to the understanding but indeed to the whole Soul and most distinctly to the Will whole part it is to receive or repel to entertain or resist Christ and his promises the Author and Finisher of our salvation Now this receiving of Christ is the taking or accepting of the righteousness of Christ and so making it our own as Rom. i. 17 being rightly weighed will enforce Read and mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it or by it the Gospel mentioned in the former verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of God by Faith as Rom. iii. 22 i. e. the not legal but Evangelical righteousness which only God accepts directly set down Phil. iii. 9 That righteousness which is through Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is revealed to Faith is declared that we might believe that finding no life or righteousness in our selves we may go out of our selves and lay hold on that which is offered us by Christ and this you will find to be the clearest meaning
finding him in the state of damnation it sets him going suffers him not to lay hold on any thing that may stay him in his Precipice and in the midst of his Shipwrack when there be planks and refuges enough about him hath numm'd his hands depriv'd him of any power of taking hold of them In the second place in respect of Christ and his sufferings the objects of our Faith so Faith is in a manner the Soul of them giving them life and efficacy making things which are excellent in themselves prove so in effect to others Thus the whole splendor and beauty of the World the most accurate proportions and images of nature are beholding to the Eye though not for their absolute excellency yet for both the account and use that is made of them for if all men were blind the proudest workmanship of nature would not be worth the valuing Thus is a learned piece cast away upon the ignorant and the understanding of the Auditor is the best commendation of a Speech or Sermon In like manner those infinite unvaluable sufferings of Christ if they be not believed in are but as Aristotle saith of divine knowledge a most honourable thing but of no manner of use if they be not apprehended they are lost Christ's Blood if not caught up in our hearts by Faith but suffered to be poured out upon the Earth will prove no better than that of Abel Gen. iv 10. crying for judgment from the ground that which is spilt is clamorous and its Voice is toward Heaven for Vengeance only that which is gathered up as it falls from his side by Faith will prove a medicine to heal the Nations So that infidelity makes the death of Christ no more than the death of an ordinary man in which there is no remedy Wisd ii 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no cure no physick in it or as the same word is rendred Eccles xxviii 3 no pardon no remission wrought by it a bare going down into the Grave that no man is better for It doth even frustrate the sufferings of Christ and make him have paid a ransom to no purpose and purchased an Inheritance at an infinite rate and no man the better for it Again Christ is not only contemn'd but injur'd not only slighted but robb'd he loses not only his price and his thanks but his servant which he hath bought and purchased with his blood For redemption is not an absolute setting free but the buying out of an Usurpers hands that he may return to his proper Lord changing him from the condition of a Captive to a Subject He which is ransomed from the Gallies is not presently a King but only recovered to a free and tolerable service nay generally if he be redeemed he is eo nomine a servant by right and equity his Creature that redeemed him according to the express words Luke i. 74 That we being delivered might serve him Now a Servant is a Possession part of ones Estate as truly to be reckoned his as any part of his Inheritance So that every Vnbeliever is a Thief robs Christ not only of the honour of saving him but of one of the Members of his Family of part of his goods his Servant nay 't is not a bare theft but of the highest size a Sacriledge stealing an holy instrument a Vessel out of Gods Temple which he bought and delivered out of the common calamity to serve him in holiness Luke i. 74 to be put to holy special services In the third place Faith may be considered in reference to God the Father and that 1. as the Author or Fountain of this Theological grace 2. as the commander of this duty of believing and either of these will aggravate the Unbelievers guilt and adde more Articles to his indictment As God is the Author of Faith so the Infidel resists and abandons and flies from all those methods all those means by which God ordinarily produces Faith all the power of his Scriptures all the blessings of a Christian Education all the benefits of sacred knowledge in summ the Prayers the sweat the Lungs the Bowels of his Ministers in Christs stead beseeching you to be reconciled 1 Cor. v. 20 spending their dearest spirits and even praying and preaching out their Souls for you that you would be Friends with God through Christ All these I say the Infidel takes no notice of and by his contempt of these inferiour graces shews how he would carry himself even towards Gods very spirit if it should come in power to convert him he would hold out and bid defiance and repel the Omnipotent God with his omnipotent charms of mercy he that contemns Gods ordinary means would be likely to resist his extraordinary were there not more force in the means than forwardness in the man and thanks be to that controuling convincing constraining spirit if ever he be brought to be content to be saved He that will not now believe in Christ when he is preached would have gone very near if he had lived then to have given his consent and join'd his suffrage in Crucifying him A man may guess of his inclination by his present practices and if he will not now be his Disciple 't was not his innocence but his good fortune that he did not then betray him 'T was well he was born amongst Christians or else he might have been as sowre a profest Enemy of Christ as Pilate or the Pharisees an Unbelieving Christian is for all his livery and profession but a Jew or Heathen and the Lord make him sensible of his condition Lastly Consider this duty of Faith in respect of God the Father commanding it and then you shall find it the main precept of the Bible 'T were long to shew you the ground of it in the law of nature the obscure yet discernable mention of it in the moral law both transcendently in the main end of all and distinctly though not clearly in the first Commandment he that hath a mind to see may find it in Pet. Baro. de praest dignit div legis 'T were as toilsom to muster up all the commands of the Old Testament which exactly and determinately drive at belief in Christ as generally in those places where the Chaldee Paraphrase reads instead of God Gods Word as Fear not Abraham for I am thy shield say they my word is thy shield which speaks a plain command of Faith for not to fear is to trust not to fear on that ground because Gods Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word Joh. i. 1 i. e. Christ is ones shield is nothing in the World but to believe and rely and fasten and depend on Christ Many the like commands of Faith in Christ will the Old Testament afford and the new is nothing else but a perpetual inculcating of it upon us a driving and calling entreating and enforcing wooing and hastning us to believe In which respect the Schools call
it also necessary necessitate praecepti a thing which though we should be never the better for we are bound to perform So that though Faith were not able to save us yet infidelity would damn us it being amongst others a direct breach of a natural a moral nay an Evangelical Commandment And so much for the danger of infidelity considered positively in relation to the Subject whom it deprives of Heaven the Object Christ and his offers in the Gospel which it frustrates and lastly the Author and Commander of it God the Father whom it resists disobeys and scorns You will perhaps more feelingly be affected to the loathing of it if we proceed to the odious and dangerous condition of it above all other sins and breaches in the World which is my third part its comparative sinfulness It shall be more tolerable c. And this will appear if we consider it 1. in it self 2. in its consequences In it self it is fuller of guilt in its consequences fuller of danger than any ordinary breach of the moral Law In it self so it is 1. the greatest aversion from God in which aversion the School-men place the formalis ratio the very Essence of sin it is the perversest remotion and turning away of the Soul from God and getting as far as we can out of his sight or ken the forbidding of all manner of Commerce or spiritual Traffick or correspondence with God as may appear by that admirable place Heb. x. 38 The just shall live by faith but if any man draw back my soul hath no pleasure in him and verse 39. We are not of them which draw back unto perdition but of them that do believe to the saving of the Soul Where the phrase of drawing back oppos'd here to Faith and Believing is in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cowardly pusillanimous subducing of ones self a getting out of the way a not daring to meet or approach or accept of Christ when he is offered them the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Physicians a contraction of the Soul a shriveling of it up a sudden correption and depression of the mind such as the sight of some hideous danger is wont to produce so 2 Mac. vi 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to be discouraged and to forsake the Jewish Religion because of the calamities So is the word used of Peter Gal. ii 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He withdrew and separated himself fearing those that were of the Circumcision The Infidel I say draws back withdraws and sneaks out of the way as if he were afraid of the mercies of his Saviour as if it were death to him to be so near salvation as if Christ coming to him with the mercies of the Gospel were the mortal'st enemy under Heaven and there were no such mischief to be done him as his conversion This indeed is an aversion in the highest degree when we fly and draw back from God when he comes to save us when the sight of a Saviour makes us take our heels Adam might well hide himself when God came to challenge him about his disobedience the guilty conscience being afraid of revenge may well slink out of his presence with Cain Gen. iv 16 But to tremble and quake at a proclamation of mercy when God draws with cords of a man Hos xi 4 a powerful phrase exprest in the next words with the bands of love when he loveth us and calls his Son out for us v. 1. then to be bent to backsliding in the 7. ver to draw back when he comes to embrace this is a stubbornness and contraction of the soul a crouching of it in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that neither nature nor reason would be guilty of an aversion from God which no other sin can parallel and therefore of all other most intolerable in the first place 2. Infidelity gives God the lye and denies whatever God proclaims in the Gospel The reason or ground of any ones belief the objectum formale quo that by assenting to which I come to believe is Gods Veracity the Confidence that God speaks true the relying on his word is that which brings me to lay hold on Christ and therefore the Infidel is down right with God he will not take his word he 'll never be perswaded that these benefits of Christs death that are offered to all men can ever do him any good Let God call him to accept them he 'll never come his surly resolute carriage is in effect a contradicting of whatever God hath affirmed a direct thwarting a giving the lye to God and his Evangelists and this is an aggravation not to be mentioned without reverence or horror the most odious affront in the World the Lord be merciful to us in this matter Next this sin is a sin of the most dangerous consequences of any 1. It produces all other sins and that positively by doubting of his justice and so falling into adulteries blasphemies and the like in security and hope of impunity by distrusting of his providence and mercy and so flying to covetousness murmuring tempting subtlety all arts and stratagems of getting for our temporal estate and ordinary despair in our spiritual then privatively depriving us of that which is the mother and soul of our obedience and good Works I mean faith so that every thing for want of it is turned into sin and thereby depopulating the whole man making him nothing in the World but ruins and noysomness a confluence of all manner of sins without any concomitant degree of duty or obedience 2. It frustrates all good Exhortations and forbids all manner of superstructions which the Ministers are wont to labour for in moving us to charity and obedience and joy and hope and prayer by not having laid any foundation whereon these must be built any of these set or planted in any Infidel heart will soon wither they must have a stock of faith whereon to be grafted or else they are never likely to thrive As Galba's Wit was a good one but 't was unluckily placed ill-seated there was no good to be wrought by it The proudest of our works or merits the perfectest morality will stand but very weakly unless it be founded on that foundation whose corner stone is Christ Jesus 1. It leaves no place in the world for remedy he that is an Idolater a Sabbath-breaker or the like he that is arraigned at the law and found guilty at that Tribunal hath yet an Advocate in the Gospel a higher power to whom he may appeal to mitigate his sentence but he that hath sinned against the Gospel hath no farther to go he hath sinned against that which should have remitted all other sins and now he is come to an unremediable estate to a kind of hell or the grave of sin from whence there is no recovery There 's not a mercy to be fetch'd in
the world but out of the Gospel and he that hath refus'd them is past any farther treaty He that believeth not is condemned already John iii. 18 his damnation is sealed to him and the entail past cutting off 't is his purchace and now wants nothing but livery and seizin nay 't is his patrimony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclus. xx 25 he is as sure of it as of any peny worth of his inheritance And the reason is implyed 1 Cor. xv 17 If Christ be not risen you are yet in your sins there is no way to get out of our sins but Christs resurrection and he that believeth not Christ is not risen to him 't were all one to him if there had never been a Saviour and therefore he remains in his old thraldom he was taken captive in Adam and hath never since had any other means to restore him the ransom that was offered all he would none of and so he sticks unredeemed he is yet in his sins and so for ever like to continue And now he is come to this state 't were superfluous farther to aggravate the sin against him his case is too wretched to be upbraided him the rest of our time shall be imployed in providing a remedy for him if it be possible and that must be from consideration of the disease in a word and close of application The sin being thus displayed to you with its consequences O what a spirit should it raise in us O what a resolution and expression of our manhood to resist and banish out of us this evil heart of unbelief Heb. iii. 12 what an hatred should it work in our bowels what a reluctancy what an indignation what a revenge against the fruit of our bosom which hath so long grown and thrived within us only to our destruction which is provided as it were to eat our souls as an harbinger to prepare a place within us for the worm in Hell where it may ly and bite and gnaw at ease eternally 'T is an Examination that will deserve the most precious minute of our lives the solemnest work of our souls the carefullest muster of our faculties to shrift and winnow and even set our hearts upon the rack to see whether any fruit or seed of infidelity lurk in it and in a matter of this danger to prevent God inquest by our own to display every thing to our selves just as it shall be laid open before God in judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. iv 13 naked and discernible as the entrals of a Creature cut down the back where the very method of nature in its secrecies is betrayed to the eye I say to cut our selves up and to search into every crany of our souls every winding of either our understanding or affections and observe whether any infidel thought any infidel lust be lodged there and when we have found this execrable thing which hath brought all our plagues on us then must we purge and cleanse and lustrate the whole City for its sake and with more Ceremony than ever the heathen used even with a superstition of daily hourly prayers and sacrificing our selves to God strive and struggle and offer violence to remove this unclean thing out of our Coasts use these unbelieving hearts of ours as Josiah did the Altars of Ahaz 2 King xxiii 12 break them down beat them to powder and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron that Cedron which Christ passed over when he went to suffer John xviii 1 even that brook which Christ drank of by the way Psa cx 7 And there indeed is there a remedy for infidelity if the Infidel will throw it in If he will put it off be it never so dyed in the contempt of Christs blood that very blood shall cleanse it and therefore In the next place let us labour for Faith let not his hands be stretched out any longer upon the cross to a faithless and stubborn generation 'T were a piece of ignorance that a Scholar would abhor to be guilty of not to be able to understand that inscription written by Pilate in either of 3. languages Jesus of Nazareth King John xix 19 Nay for all the Gospels and Comments written on it both by his Disciples and his works still to be non-proficients this would prove an accusation written in Marble nay an Exprobration above a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In a word Christ is still offered and the proclamation not yet outdated his sufferings in the Scripture proposed to every one of you to lay hold on and his Ministers sent as Embassadors beseeching you to be reconciled 2 Cor. v. 20 and more than that in the Sacrament of the Eucharist his body and blood set before our eyes to be felt and gazed on and then even a Didymus would believe nay to be divided amongst us and put in our mouths and then who would be so sluggish as to refuse to feed on him in his heart For your Election from the beginning to this gift of Faith let that never raise any doubt or scruple in you and foreslow that coming to him this is a jealousie that hath undone many in a resolvedness that if they are not elected all their Faith shall prove unprofitable Christ that bids thee repent believe and come unto him is not so frivolous to command impossibilities nor so cruel to mock our impotence Thou mayest believe because he bids Believe and then thou mayest be sure thou wert predestinated to believe and then all the decrees in the World cannot deny thee Christ if thou art thus resolved to have him If thou wilt not believe thou hast reprobated thy self and who is to be accused that thou art not saved But if thou wilt come in there is sure entertainment for thee He that begins in Gods Counsels and never thinks fit to go about any Evangelical duty till he can see his name writ in the book of life must not begin to believe till he be in Heaven for there only is that to be read radio recto The surer course is to follow the Scripture to hope comfortably every one of our selves to use the means apprehend the mercies and then to be confident of the benefis of Christs suffering and this is the way to make our Election sure to read it in our selves radio reflexo by knowing that we believe to resolve that we are elected thereby we know that we are past from death to life if we love the brethren 1 John iii. 14 And so is it also of Faith for these are inseparable graces So Psal xxv 14 Prov. iii. 32 Gods secret and his Covenant being taken for his decree is said to be with them that fear him and to be shewed to them i. e. their very fearing of God is an evidence to them that they are his elect with whom he hath entred Covenant Our Faith is the best argument or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
of his fellow Gentiles If the book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were his own legitimate work a man might guess that he saw something though he denyed the particular providence of the Deity and that he acknowledged his omnipotence though he would not be so bold with him as to let him be busied in the producing of every particular sublunary effect The man might seem somewhat tender of God as if being but newly come acquainted with him he were afraid to put him to too much pains as judging it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. neither comely nor befitting the Majesty of a God to interest himself in every action upon earth It might seem a reverence and awe which made him provide the same course for God which he saw used in the Courts of Susa and Echatana where the King saith he lived invisible in his Palace and yet by his Officers as through prospectives and Otacousticks saw and heard all that was done in his Dominions But this book being not of the same complexion with the rest of his Philosophy is shrewdly guest to be a spurious issue of latter times entitled to Aristotle and translated by Apuleius but not owned by its brethren the rest of his books of Philosophy for even in the Metaphysicks where he is at his wisest he censures Zenophanes for a Clown for looking up to Heaven and affirming that there was one God there the cause of all things and rather than he will credit him he commends Parmenides for a subtle fellow who said nothing at all or I am sure to no purpose Concerning his knowledge of the soul 't is Philoponus his observation of him that he perswades only the more understanding laborious judicious sort to be his Auditors in that subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But dehorts men of meaner vulgar parts less intent to their study from medling at all with this science about the soul for he plainly tells them in his first de anima 't is too hard for any ordinary capacity and yet in the first of the Metaph. he defines the wise man to be one who besides his own accurate knowledge of hard things as the Causes of the soul c. is also able to teach any body else who hath such an habit of knowledge and such a command over it that he can make any Auditor understand the abstrusest mystery in it So then out of his own words he is convinced to have had no skill no wisdom in the business of the soul because he could not explain nor communicate this knowledge to any but choice Auditors The truth is these were but shifts of pride and ambitious pretences to cloak a palpable ignorance under the habit of mysterious deep speculation when alas poor man all that which he knew or wrote of the soul was scarce worth learning only enough to confute his fellow ignorant Philosophers to puzzle others to puffe himself but to profit instruct or edifie none In the third place concerning happiness he plainly bewrays himself to be a coward not daring to meddle with Divinity For 1 Eth. c. 9. being probably given to understand or rather indeed plainly convinced that if any thing in the world were then happiness must likely be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift of God bestowed on men yet he there staggers at it speaks sceptically and not so magisterially as he is wont dares not be so bold as to define it and at last does not profess his ignorance but takes a more honourable course and puts it off to some other place to be discust Where Andronicus Rhodius his Greek Paraphrase tells us he meant his Tract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about Providence but in all Laërtius his Catalogue of the multitude of his writings we find no such title and I much suspect by his other carriages that the man was not so valiant as to deal with any so unwieldy a subject as the Providence would have proved Sure I am he might if he had had a mind to it have quitted himself of his engagements and seasonably enough have defined the fountain of happiness there in Ethicks but in the 10. c. it appears that it was no pretermission but ignorance not a care of deferring it to a fitter place but a necessary silence where he was not able to speak For there mentioning happiness and miserableness after death where he might have shewed his skill if he had had any he plainly betrays himself an arrant naturalist in defining all the felicity and misery to be the good or ill proof of their friends and children left behind them which are to them being dead happiness or miseries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which they are not any way sensible But of what hath been spoken it is plain that the Heathen never looked after God of their own accord but as they were driven upon him by the necessity of their study which from the second causes necessarily lead them in a chain to some view of the first mover and then some of them either frighted with the light or despairing of their own abilities were terrified or discouraged from any farther search some few others sought after him but as Aristotle saith the Geometer doth after a right line only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a contemplator of truth but not as the knowledge of it is any way useful or conducible to the ordering or bettering of their lives they had an itching desire to know the Deity but neither to apply it as a rule to their actions nor to order their actions to his glory For generally whensoever any action drove them on any subject which intrenched on Divinity you shall find them more flat than ordinary not handling it according to any manner of accuracy or sharpness but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only as much use or as little as their study in the search of things constrained them to and then for most part they fly off abruptly as if they were glad to be quit of so cumbersom a subject Whence Aristotle observes that the whole Tract de causis was obscurely and inartificially handled by the Ancients and if sometimes they spake to the purpose 't was as unskilful unexercised fencers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they lay on and sometimes strike a lucky blow or two but more by chance than skill sometimes letting fall from their pens those truths which never entred their understandings as Theophilus ad Auto. observes of Homer and Hesiod that being inspired by their Muses i. e. the devil spake according to that spirit lyes and fables and exact Atheism and yet sometimes would stumble upon a truth of Divinity as men possest with Devils did sometimes confess Christ and the evil spirits being adjured by his name came out and confest themselves to be devils Thus it is plain out of the Philosophers and Heathen discourses 1. Of God 2. The Soul 3 Happiness that they were also ignorant
as ignorance is opposed to piety or spiritual wisdom which was to be proved by way of premise in the second place Now in the third place for the guilt of their ignorance that it was a perverse gross malicious and unexcusable ignorance you shall briefly judge Aristotle 1 Met. 2. being elevated above ordinary in his discourse about wisdom confesses the Knowledge of God to be the best Knowledge and most honourable of all but of no manner of use or necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. No Knowledge is better than this yet none more unnecessary as if the Evidence of truth made him confess the nobility of this wisdom but his own supine stupid perverse resolutions made him contemn it as unnecessary But that I may not charge the accusation too hard upon Aristotle above others and take as much pains to damn him as the Colen Divines did to save him we will deal more at large as Aristotle prescribes his wise men 1. Met. and rip up to you the unexecusableness of the heathen ignorance in general 1. By the authority of Clemens who is guest to be one of their kindest patrons in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where having cited many testimonies out of them concerning the unity he concludes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Seeing that the Heathen had some sparks of the divine truth some gleanings out of the written word and yet make so little use of it as they do they do saith he shew the power of Gods word to have been revealed to them and accuse their own weakness that they did not improve it to the end for which it was sent that they encreased it not into a saving knowledge where by the way the word weakness is used by Clement by way of softning or mercy as here the Apostle useth ignorance when he might have said impiety For sure if the accusation run thus that the word of God was revealed to them and yet they made no use of it as it doth here in Clem. the sentence then upon this must needs conclude them not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weak but perverse contemners of the light of Scripture Again the Philosophers themselves confess that ignorance is the nurse nay mother of all impiety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. whatsoever an ignorant man or fool doth is unholy and wicked necessarily ignorance being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a species of madness and no mad-man being capable of any sober action so that if their ignorance were in the midst of means of knowledge then must it be perverse if it had an impure influence upon all their actions then was it malicious and full of guilt 2. Their chief ground that sustained and continued their ignorance proves it to be not blind but affected which ground you shall find by the Heathen objection in Clem. to be a resolution not to change the religion of their fathers 'T is an unreasonable thing say the Heathens which they never will be brought to to change the customs bequeathed to them by their ancestors From whence the Father solidly concludes that there was not any means in nature which could make the Christian Religion contemned and hated but only this pestilent custom of never altering any customs or laws though never so unreasonable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 't is not possible that ever any nation should hate and fly from this greatest blessing that ever was bestowed upon mankind to wit the knowledge and worship of God unless being carried on by custom they resolved to go the old way to Hell rather than to venture on a new path to Heaven Hence it is that Athenagoras in his Treaty with Commodus for the Christians wonders much that among so many Laws made yearly in Rome there was not one enacted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that men should forsake the customs of their fathers which were any way absurd From whence he falls straight to their absurd Deities as if it being made lawful to relinquish ridiculous customs there would be no plea left for their ridiculous gods So Eusebius Praep. l. 2. makes the cause of the continuance of superstition to be that no man dared to move those things which ancient custom of the Country had authorized and so also in his fourth book where to bring in Christianity was accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to change things that were fixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and to be pragmatical friends of innovation and so 't is plain they esteemed St. Paul and hated him in that name as an Innovator because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection Acts 17.18 So Acts the 16.21 St. Paul is said to teach customs which were not lawful for them to receive nor observe being Romans because saith Casaubon out of Dio 't was not lawful for the Romans to innovate any thing in religion for saith Dio this bringing in of new Gods will bring in new Laws with it So that if as hath been proved their not acknowledging of the true God was grounded upon a perverse resolution not to change any custom of their fathers either in opinion or practice though never so absurd then was the ignorance or as St. Paul might have called it the idolatry of those times impious affected not a natural blindness but a pertinacious winking not a simple deafness but a resolved stubbornness not to hear the voice of the charmer which we might further prove by shewing you thirdly how their learning or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might be proved an excellent preparative to religion their Philosophy which was to them as the Law to the Jews by their using of it to a perverse end grew ordinarily very pernicious to them 4. How that those which knew most and were at the top of prophane knowledge did then fall most desperately headlong into Atheism as Hippocrates observes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. Basil that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most perfect constitution of body so of the soul is most dangerous if not sustained with good care and wisdom 5. How they always forged lies to scandal the people of God as Manetho the famous Aegyptian Historian saith that Moses and the Jews were banished out of Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of an infectious leprosie that over-spread the Jews as Theophilus cites it and Justine out of Trogus and also Tacitus and the Primitive Christians were branded and abomined by them for three special fauâ—ts which they were little likely to be guilty of 1. Atheism 2. Eating their Children 3. Incestuous common using of women as we find them set down and confuted by Athen. in his Treaty or Apology and Theophilus ad Autol. c. 6. By their own confession as of Plato to his friend when he wrote in earnest and secretly acknowledging the unity which he openly denied against his conscience and the light of reason in him and
and sentences are subject either not to be understood or amiss and may either be doubted of by the ignorant or perverted by the malicious You have learnt so many words without Book and say them minutely by heart and yet not either understand or observe what you are about but this unwritten Law which no Pen but that of nature hath engraven is in our understandings not in words but sence and therefore I cannot avoid the intimations 't is impossible either to deny or doubt of it it being written as legible in the tables of our hearts as the print of humanity in our Foreheads The commands of either Scripture or Emperour may be either unknown or out of our heads when any casual opportunity shall bid us make use of them but this law of the mind is at home for ever and either by intimation or loud Voice either whispers or proclaims its commands to us be it never so gag'd 't will mutter and will be sure to be taken notice of when it speaks softliest To define in brief what this law of nature is and what offices it performs in us you are to know that at that grand forfeiture of all our inheritance goods truly real and personal all those primitive endowments of Soul and Body upon Adams Rebellion God afterwards though he shined not on us in his full Image and Beauty yet câ—st some rayes and beams of that eternal light upon us and by an immutable Law of his own counsel hath imprinted on every Soul that comes down to a body a secret unwritten yet indeleble Law by which the Creature may be warn'd what is good or bad what agreeable what hurtful to the obtaining of the end of its creation Now these commands or prescriptions of nature are either in order to speculation or practice to encrease our knowledge or direct our lives The former sort I omit as being sitter for the Schools than Pulpit to discourse on I shall meddle only with those that refer to practice and those are either common which they call first principles and such are in every man in the World equally secundum rectitudinem notitiam saith Aquinas every one doth both conceive them in his understanding what they mean and assent to them in his will that they are right and just and necessary to be performed and of this nature are the Worship of God and justice amongst men for that lumen super nos signatum in Bonaventures phrase that light which nature hath seal'd and imprinted on our Souls is able to direct us in the knowledge of those moral principles without any other help required to perswade us or else they are particular and proper to this or that business which they call conclusions drawn out of these common principles as when the common principle commands just dealing the conclusion from thence commands to restore what I have borrowed and the like And these also if they be naturally and directly deduced would every man in the World both understand and assent to did not some hindrance come in and forbid or suspend either his understanding or assent Hindrances which keep him from the knowledge or conceiving of them are that confusion and Chaos and black darkness I had almost said that Tophet and Hell of sensual affections which suffers not the light to shew it self and indeed so stifles and oppresses it that it becomes only as Hell fire not to shine but burn not to enlighten us what we should do but yet by gripes and twinges of the conscience to torment us for not doing of it And this hindrance the Apostle calls ver 21. the vanity of imaginations by which a foolish heart is darkned Hindrances which keep us from assenting to a conclusion in particular which we do understand are sometimes good as first a sight of some greater breach certain to follow the performance of this So though I understand that I must restore every man his own yet I will never return a Knife to one that I see resolved to do some mischief with it And 2. Divine laws as the command of robbing the Aegyptians and the like for although that in our hearts forbid robbing yet God is greater than our hearts and must be obeyed when he prescribes it Hindrances in this kind are also sometimes bad such are either habitude of nature custom of Country which made the Lacedemonians esteem theft a virtue or a-again the Tyranny of passions for every one of these hath its several project upon the reasonable Soul its several design of malice either by treachery or force to keep it hood-winkt or cast it into a Lethargy when any particular vertuous action requires to be assented to by our practice If I should go so far as some do to define this law of nature to be the full will of God written by his hand immediately in every mans heart after the fall by which we feel our selves bound to do every thing that is good and avoid every thing that is evil some might through ignorance or prejudice guess it to be an elevation of corrupt nature above its pitch too near to Adams integrity and yet Zanchy who was never guest near a Pelagian in his 4. Tome 1. l. 10. c. 8. Thesis would authorize every part of it and yet not seem to make an Idol of nature but only extol Gods mercy who hath bestowed a Soul on every one of us with this character and impression Holiness to the Lord which though it be written unequally in some more than others yet saith he in all in some measure so radicated that it can never be quite changed or utterly abolished However I think we may safely resolve with Bonaventure out of Austin against Pelagius Non est parum accepisse naturale indicatorium 't is no small mercy that we have received a natural glass in which we may see and judge of objects before we venture on them a power of distinguishing good from evil which even the malice of sin and passions in the highest degree cannot wholly extinguish in us as may appear by Cain the Voice of whose Conscience spake as loud within him as that of his Brothers blood as also in the very damn'd whose worm of sence not penitence for what they have done in their flesh shall for ever bite and gripe them hideously This Light indeed may either first be blindness or secondly delight in sinning or thirdly peremptory resolvedness not to see be for the present hindred secundum actum from doing any good upon us He that hath but a vail before his Eyes so long cannot judge of colours he that runs impetuously cannot hear any one that calls to stop him in his career and yet all the while the light shines and the voice shouts and therefore when we find in Scripture some men stupefied by sin others void of reason we must not reckon them absolutely so but only for the present besotted And again though they
Mistress of their actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a creature sent on purpose to preserve them and these saith he deserve not to be chid but pitied for nature at first appointed them this condition of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is their birthright and inheritance and therefore no body will be angry with them for living on it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But for them who were made Creatures of light and had it not been for their wilfulness had still continued light in the Lord who are altogether encompast and environed with light light of nature light of reason light of religion nay the most glorious asterism or conjunction of lights in the World the light of the Gospel to walk in for these men meerly out of perverseness of wilful hearts to hate and abjure and defy this light to run out of the World almost for fear of it to be for ever a solliciting and worshipping of darkness as Socrates was said to adore the Clouds this is such a sottishness that the stupidst Element under Heaven would naturally scorn to be guilty of for never was the earth so peevish as to forbid the Sun when it would shine on it or to sâ—ink away or subduce it self from its rayes And yet this is our case beloved who do more amorously and flatteringly court and woo and sollicite darkness than ever the Heathens adored the Sun Not to wander out of the sphere my Text hath placed me in to shew how the light of the Gospel and Christianity is neglected by us our guilt will ly heavy enough on us if we keep us to the light only of natural reason within us How many sins do we daily commit which both nature and reason abhor and loath How many times do we not only unman but even uncreature our selves Aristotle observes that that by which any thing is known first that which doth distinguish one thing from another à priore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be called the beginning or cause of that thing and that the light of reason distinguishing one action from another being the first thing that teaches me that this is good that otherwise may from thence be termed the beginning of every reasonable action in us and then where ever this cause or beginning is left out and wanting there the thing produced is not so called a positive act or proper effect but a defect an abortion or still-born frustrate issue and of this condition indeed is every sin in us Every action where this Law within us is neglected is not truly an action but a passion a suffering or a torment of the Creature Thus do we not so much live and walk which note some action as ly entranced asleep nay dead in sin by this perverseness 't is perpetual night with us nay we even dy daily our whole life is but a multiplyed swoon or lethargy in which we remain stupid breathless senseless till the day of Death or Judgment with a hideous Voice affrights and rouses us and we find our selves awake in Hell and so our dark Souls having a long while groped wilfully in the Sun are at last lead to an Everlasting inevitable darkness whither the mercy or rays of the Sun can never pierce where it will be no small accession to our torment to remember and tremble at that light which before we scorn'd Thus I say do we in a manner uncreature our selves and by the contempt of this Law of our Creation even frustrate and bring to nothing our Creation it self and this is chiefly by sins of sloth and stupid sluggish unactive Vices which as I said make our whole life a continued passion never daring or venturing or attempting to act or do any thing in Church or Commonwealth either toward God or our Neighbour and of such a condition'd man no body will be so charitable as to guess he hath any Soul or light of reason in him because he is so far from making use of it unless it be such a Soul as Tully saith a Swine hath which serves it only instead of Salt to keep it from stinking For 't is Aristotles observation that every one of the Elements besides the Earth was by some Philosopher or other defin'd to be the Soul Some said the Soul was fire some that 't was air some water but never any man was so mad as to maintain the earth to be it because 't was so heavy and unweildy So then this heavy motionless unactive Christian this clod of Earth hath as I said uncreatured himself and by contemning this active reason within him even deprived himself of his Soul Again how ordinary a thing is it to unman our selves by this contempt of the directions of reason by doing things that no man in his right mind would ever have patience to think of Beloved to pass by those which we call unnatural sins i. e. so in the highest degree as too horrid for our nature set down in the latter end of this Chapter for all Christian Ears to glow and tingle at and I had hoped for all English spirits to abhor and loath To pass these I say our whole life almost affords minutely sins which would not argue us men but some other Creatures There be few things we do in our age which are proper peculiar acts of men one man gives himself to eating and drinking and bestows his whole care on that one faculty which they call the vegetative growing faculty and then what difference is there betwixt him and a Tree whose whole nature it is to feed and grow Certainly unless he hath some better imployment he is at best but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a plant-animal whose shape would perhaps perswade you that it hath some sense or Soul in it but its actions betray it to be a mere plant little better than an Artichoak or Cabbage another goes a little higher yet not far doth all that his sense presents to him suffers all that his sensitive faculties lust and rage to exercise at freedom is as fierce as the Tyger as lustful as the Goat as ravenous as the Wolf and the like and all the Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the air be but several Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks concurring to make up his character carries a Wilderness about him as many sins as the nature of a sensitive Creature is capable of and then who will stick to compare this man to the beasts that perish For 't is Theophilus his note that the Cattle and Beasts of the Field were created the same day with man Gen. i. 25 to note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brutish condition of some men and that therefore the blessing was not bestowed on them but reserved for the man which should have the dominion over them Verse 26 28. In summ every action which reason or Scripture or Gods spirit guides not in us is to be called the work of some other Creature
to look more like a man to hold thy head more couragiously and bend thy thoughts more resolutely toward Heaven and I shall expect and hope and pray and almost be confident that if thou dost perform sincerely what thy own soul prompts thee to Gods spirit is nigh at hand to perfect and crown and seal thee up to the day of redemption In the next place thou maist see thine own guilts the clearer call thy self to an account even of those things which thou thinkest thou art freest from that which the Apostle in this chap. and part of my Discourse hath charged the Heathens with and if thou lookest narrowly I am afraid thou wilt spy thine own picture in that glass and find thy self in many things as arrant a Gentile as any of them For any sincere care of God or Religion how few of us are there that ever entertained so unpleasant a guest in their hearts we go to Church and so did they to their Temples we pray and they sacrificed they washed and bathed themselves before they durst approach their deities and we come in our best cloths and cleanest linen but for any farther real service we mean towards God there for any inward purity of the heart for any sincere worship of our Soul we are as guiltless as free from it we do as much contemn and scorn it as ever did any Heathen Again what man of us is not in some kind guilty even of their highest crime Idolatry Some of them took the brain to be sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Athenaus and therefore hearing some cry God help when one sneezed the ignorant sort worshipt that noise as an expression of a deity in the brain and so as senselesly many of us deify our own brains and adore every thing that ever comes out of them Every conceit of ours must be like the birth of Jupiters brain a Minerva at least be we never so ignorant or mechanical every device every fancy of our own especially in matters of Religion is straight of divine authority and having resolved our selves the Children of God every crochet we fall upon must be necessarily Theopneust and inspired and others accused for irreligious or singular that will not as soon give homage to it In summ every imagination becomes an Image and the Artificer deifies his own handy-work forgetting that he made it as 't is described in the xiii of Wisd toward the end and this is one kind of Idolatry Again who is there that hath not some pleasure in his heart which takes place of God there They had their Sun and Moon most glorious Creatures their Heroes whose vertues had even deified their memory and silly men they admired and could not choose but worship The Devil and a humour of superstition customary in them fee'd and bribed the law in their hearts to hold its peace and not recal them But how basely have we outgone their vilest worships How have we outstript them Let but one appearance of gain like that golden Calf of the Israelites a beautiful Woman like that Venus of the Heathens nay in brief what ever Image or representation of delight thy own lust can propose thee let it but glance or glide by thee and Quis non incurvavit Shew me a man that hath not at some time or other faln down and worshipt In summ all the lower part of the Soul or carnal affections are but a picture of the City of Athens Acts xvii 16 Wholly given to Idolatry The basest unworthiest pleasure or content in the World that which is good for nothing else the very refuse of the refuse Wisd xiii 13 is become an Idol and hath its shrines in some heart or other and we crouch and bow and sacrifice to it and all this against the voice of our Soul and nature within us if we would suffer it to speak aloud or but hearken to its whisperings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philoponus Nature only bids us feed our selves with sufficient lust brought in superfluity and pleasure But this only by the way lest you might think that part of my Sermon concerning the Heathens contempt of this law did belong little to you and so might have been spared Lastly Not to lade every part of my former Discourse with its several use or application take but this one more If this Light shines but dimly within us then let us so much the more not dare contemn it That Master that speaks but seldom then surely deserves to be obeyed he that is slow in his reproofs certainly hath good reason when he falls foul with any body If Croesus his dumb Son in Herodotus seeing one come to kill his Father shall by violence break the string of his tongue that formerly hindred his Speech and he that never spake before roar out an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir Kill not Croesus I wonder not that the Persian held his hand a very Barbarian would be amazed and stopt by such a Prodigy it must needs be an odious thing when the Child which can scarce speak expresses indignation Wherefore if ever our bestial soul that of our sense shall seduce us to any thing that our manly soul that of our reason which is now somewhat decrepit and dim-sighted shall yet espy and find fault with if in any enterprize this natural law within us shall give the check let us suddenly remove our project and not dare to reject such Fatherly sage admonishments if all the means in the World can help to avoid it let us never fall into the snare And if at thy audit with thy own Soul and examination of thy self amongst the root of thy customary ignorant sins and O Lord deliver me from my secret faults if in that heap and Chaos thy own heart can pick out many of this nature and present them to thee which it before forewarned thee of then let the saltest most briny tear in thy heart be called out to wash off this guilt let the saddest mortified thought thou canst strain for be accounted but a poor unproportionable expiation Think of this seriously and if all this will nothing move you I cannot hope that any farther Rhetorick if I had it to spare would do any good upon you Only I will try one suasory more which being somewhat rough may chance to frighten you and that is the punishment that here expects this contempt and that a dismal hideous one all the wild savage devourers in the Wilderness Vile affections which punishment together with the inflicter and manner of inflicting it are the last parts of my Discourse of which together in a word God gave them up to vile affections A punishment indeed and all the Fiends of Hell could not invent or wish a man a greater there is not a more certain presage of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or total subversion of Body and Soul not a more desperate prognostick in the World 'T is observed in
whensoever this light shall fail that it cannot guide us or our Eyes dazle that we cannot follow let us pray to the Father of lights and God of Spirits that he will shine spiritually in our hearts and fulfil us with his light of grace here which may enable us to behold him and enjoy him and rejoice with him and be satisfied with that eternal light of his Glory hereafter Now to him that hath elected us hath created redeemed c. SERMON XV. GAL. VI. 15 But a new Creature AMongst all other encumbrances and delays in our way to Heaven there is no one that doth so clog and trash so disadvantage and backward us and in fine so cast us behind in our race as a contentedness in a formal worship of God an acquiescence and resting satisfied in outward performances when men upon a confidence that they perform all that can be required of a Christian they look no farther than the outward work observe not what heart is under this outside but resolve their estate is safe they have as much interest in Heaven as any one Such men as these the Apostle begins to character and censure in the twelfth Verse of the Chapter As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh c. They that stand only on a fair specious out-side and think all the sap and life of Religion lies in the bark they do this and this these will have you circumcised and constrain you to a many burthensom Ceremonies measuring out Religion to you by the weight thus much is required of you to do as Popish Confessors set their deluded Votaries their task of Ave Maries and Pater nosters by tale and thus you may be sure to be saved In brief the Apostle here shews the unprofitableness of all these and sets up the inward sanctity and renewedness of heart against them all as the only thing that will stand us in stead and appear to be of any weight in the balance of the Sanctuary If you observe all the commands and submit your selves to all the burden of both Law and Gospel and bear it upon your shoulders never so valiantly if you be content to be circumcised as Christ was or because he hath now abrogated that make use of Christian liberty and remain uncircumcised notwithstanding all inducements to the contrary In brief be you outwardly never so severe a Jew or Christian all that is nothing worth there is but one thing most peremptorily required of you and that you have omitted For neither circumcision availeth any thing neither uncircumcision but a new Creature The particle but in the front of my Text is exclusive and restrictive it excludes every thing in the World from pretending to avail any thing from being believed to do us any good For by circumcision the Church of the Jews and by uncircumcision the whole profession of Christian Religion being understood when he saith neither of these availeth any thing he forcibly implies that all other means all professions all observances that men think or hope to get Heaven by are to no purpose and that by consequence it exactly restrains to the new creature there it is to be had and no where else thus doth he slight and undervalue and even reprobate all other ways to Heaven that he may set the richer price and raise a greater estimation in us of this The substance of all the Apostles Discourse and the ground-work of mine shall be this one Aphorism Nothing is efficaciously available to salvation but a renewed regenerated heart For the opening of which we will examine by way of doctrine wherein this new Creature consists and then by way of use the necessity of that and unprofitableness of all other plausible pretending means and first of the first wherein this new creature consists 'T is observable that our state of nature and sin is in Scripture exprest ordinarily by old age the natural sinful man that is all our natural affections that are born and grow up with us are called the old man as if since Adams fall we were decrepit and feeble and aged as soon as born as a Child begotten by a man in a Consumption never comes to the strength of a man is always weak and crazy and puling hath all the imperfections and corporal infirmities of age before he is out of his infancy And according to this ground the whole Analogy of Scripture runs all that is opposite to the old decrepit state to the dotage of nature is phrased new The new Covenant Mark i. 27 The language of believers new tongues Mark xvi 17 A new Commandment John xiii 34. A new man Ephes ii 15 In summ the state of grace is exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all is become new 2 Cor. v. 17 So that old and new as it divides the Bible the whole state of things the World so it doth that to which all these serve man every natural man which hath nothing but nature in him is an old man be he never so young is full of Years even before he is able to tell them Adam was a perfect man when he was but a minute old and all his Children are old even in the Cradle nay even dead with old age Eph. ii 5 And then consequently every spiritual man which hath somewhat else in him than he received from Adam he that is born from above John iii. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it may be so rendred from the original as well as born again as our English read it he that is by Gods spirit quickned from the old death Ephes ii 5 he is contrary to the former a new man a new creature the old Eagle hath cast his beak and is grown young the man when old has entred the second time into his mothers Womb and is born again all the gray hairs and wrinkles fall off from him as the Scales from blind Tobits Eyes and he comes forth a refin'd glorious beauteous new Creature you would wonder to see the change So that you find in general that the Scripture presumes it that there is a renovation a casting away of the old Coat a Youth and spring again in many men from the old age and weak Bed-rid estate of nature Now that you may conceive wherein it consists how this new man is brought forth in us by whom it is conceived and in what Womb 't is carried I will require no more of you than to observe and understand with me what is meant by the ordinary phrase in our Divines a new principle or inward principle of life and that you shall do briefly thus A mans Body is naturally a sluggish unactive motionless heavy thing not able to stir or move the least animal motion without a Soul to enliven it without that 't is but a Carcass as you see at Death when the Soul is separated from it it returns to be but a stock or lump of flesh the
Soul bestows all life and motion on it and enables it to perform any work of nature Again the Body and Soul together considered in relation to somewhat above their power and activity are as impotent and motionless as before the Body without the Soul Set a man to remove a Mountain and he will heave perhaps to obey your command but in event will do no more towards the displacing of it than a stone in the street could do but now let an Omnipotent Power be annext to this man let a supernatural spirit be joined to this Soul and then will it be able to overcome the proudest stoutest difficulty in nature You have heard in the Primitive Church of a grain of Faith removing Mountains and believe me all Miracles are not yet out-dated The work of Regeneration the bestowing of a spiritual Life on one dead in trespasses and sins the making of a Carcass walk the natural old man to spring again and move spiritually is as great a miracle as that Now the Soul in that it produces life and motion the exercise of life in the body is called a principle that is a Spring or Fountain of Life because all comes from it in like manner that which moves this Soul and enables it to do that which naturally it could not that which gives it a new life which before it lived not furnisheth it with spiritual powers to quell and subdue all carnal affections which were before too hard for it this I say is called properly an inward principle and an inward because it is inwardly and secretly infused doth not only outwardly assist us as an auxiliary at a dead lift but is sown and planted in our hearts as a Soul to the Soul to elevate and enable it above it self hath its seat and palace in the regenerate heart and there exercises dominion executes judgment and that is commonly either by Prison or Banishment it either fetters or else expels all insolent rebellious lusts Now the new principle by which not the man but the new man the Christian lives is in a word the spirit of God which unites it self to the regenerate heart so that now he is said to be a godly man a spiritual man from the God from the Spirit as before a living reasonable man from the Soul from the reason that inform'd and ruled in him which is noted by that distinction in Scripture betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate exprest by a natural or animal and a spiritual man Those Creatures that have no Soul in them are called naturals having nothing but nature within to move them others which have a Soul animals or living Creatures by both which the unregenerate is signified indifferently because the Soul which he hath stands him in little stead his flesh rules all and then he is also called a carnal man for all his Soul he is but a lump of flesh and therefore whether you say he hath a Soul and so call him an animal or hath not a Soul and so call him a mere natural there is no great difference in it But now the regenerate man which hath more than a Soul Gods spirit to enliven him he is of another rank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual man nay only he properly a Christian because he lives by Christ He lives yet not he but Christ liveth 〈◊〉 him Gal. ii 20 This being premised that now you know what this new Creature is he that lives and moves by a new principle all that is behind will be clearliest presented to you by resolving these four questions first whence it comes secondly where it lodges thirdly when it enters fourthly what works it performs there To the first whence it comes the answer is clear and punctual John iii. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above from whence comes every good and especially every perfect gift James i. 17 but this most peculiarly by a several and more excellent way than any thing else Since Christs Ascension the Holy Ghost of all the persons in the Trinity is most frequently employed in the work of descending from Heaven and that by way of mission from the Father and the Son according to the promise of Christ John xv 26 The comforter whom I will send from the Father Now this spirit being present every where in its essence is said to come to us by communication of his gifts and so to be peculiarly resident in us as God is in the Church from which Analogy our Bodies are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us 1 Cor. vi 19 God sends then his spirit into our hearts and this I said by a peculiar manner not by way of emission as an Arrow sent out of a Bow which loses its union which it had with the Bow and is now fastned in the Butt or White nor properly by way of infusion as the Soul is in the Body infus'd from God yet so also that it is in a manner put into our hands and is so in the man's possession that hath it that it is neither in any mans else nor yet by any extraordinary tye annext to God from whom it came but by way of irradiation as a beam sent from the Sun that is in the air indeed and that substantially yet so as it is not separated from the Sun nay consists only in this that it is united to the Sun so that if it were possible for it to be cut off from the Sun it would desist to be it would illuminate no longer So that you must conceive these beams of Gods spirit at the same time in the Christians heart and in the spirit and so uniting that spirit to the heart as you may conceive by this proportion I have a Javelin or Spear in my hand if I would mischief any thing or drive it from me I dart it out of my hand at it from which Gods judgments are compared to shooting and lightning He hath bent his bow he hath sent forth his arrows he cast forth lightnings Psalm xviii 14 But if I like any thing that I meet with if I would have it to me I reach out my Spear and fasten in it but still hold the Spear in my hand and having pierc't it draw it to me Thus doth God reach forth his graces to us and as I may so say by keeping one end in his hand and fastning the other in us plucks and unites us to himself from which regeneration is ordinarily called an union with Christ and this union by a strong able band 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euseb his phrase which no man can cut asunder 'T is impossible to divide or cut a spirit and this Bond is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual one and that made St. Paul so confident That no creature should ever separate him Rom. viii 39 And this God does by way of emanation as a Loadstone sending out its effluvia or magnetick atomes draws the Iron to
from the 22. verse and 1 Peter i. 5 All these graces together though some belonging to one some to another faculty of the Soul are yet all at once conceived in it at once begin their life in the heart though one be perhaps sooner ready to walk abroad and shew it self in the World than another As in the 2 of Kings iv 34 Elisha went up on the bed and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth and eyes upon his eyes and hands upon his hands and stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm and verse 35. the Child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes Thus I say doth the spirit apply it self unto the Soul and measure it self out to every part of it and then the spiritual life comes at once into the Soul as motion beginning in the centre diffuses it self equally through the whole sphere and affecteth every part of the Circumference and the flesh of the child waxed warm where the flesh indefinitely signifieth every part of it together and in the spiritual sense the whole Soul and this is when the inward principle when the habit enters Then for acts of life one perhaps shews it self before another as the Child first sneezed seven times a violent disburthening it self of some troublesome humours that tickle in the head to which may be answerable our spiritual clearing and purging our selves by Self-denyal the laying aside every weight Heb. xii 1 then opened his eyes which in our spiritual Creature is spiritual illumination or the eye of Faith these I say may first shew themselves as acts and yet sometimes others before them yet all alike in the habit all of one standing one Conception one plantation in the heart though indeed ordinarily like Esau and Jacob the rougher come out first We begin our spiritual life in Repentance and contrition and with many harsh twinges of the spirit and then comes Faith like Jacob at the Heels smooth and soft applying all the cordial promises to our penitent Souls In brief if any judgment be to be made which of these graces is first in the regenerate man and which rules in chief I conceive Self-denial and Faith to be there first and most eminent according to that notable place Matth. xvi 24 where Christ seems to set down the order of graces in true Disciples Let him deny himself and take up his Cross that is forgo all his carnal delights and embrace all manner of punishments and miseries prepare himself even to go and be Crucified and then follow me that is by a lively Faith believe in Christ and prize him before all the World besides and indeed in effect these two are but one though they appear to us in several shapes for Faith is nothing without Self-denial it cannot work till our carnal affections be subjected to it Believe a man may and have flesh and fleshly lust in him but unless Faith have the pre-eminence Faith is no Faith The man may be divided betwixt the law of his members and the law of his mind so many degrees of flesh so many of spirit but if there be constantly but an even balance or more of flesh than spirit if three degrees of spirit and five of flesh then can there not be said to be any true Self-denyal and consequently any Faith no more than that can be said to be hot which hath more degrees of cold than heat in it In brief 't is a good measure of Self-denyal that sets his Faith in his Throne and when by it Faith hath conquered though not without continual resistance when it hath once got the upper hand then is the man said to be regenerate whereupon it is that the regenerate state is called the life of Faith Faith is become a principle of the greatest power and activity in the Soul And so much for these four Queries from which I conceive every thing that is material and directly pertinent to instruct you and open the estate of a new Creature may be resolved And for other niceties how far we may prepare our selves how cooperate and join issue with the spirit whether it work irresistibly by way of physical influence or moral perswasion whether being once had it may totally or finally be lost again and the like these I say if they are fit for any I am resolved are not necessary for a Countrey Auditory to be instructed in 'T will be more for your profit to have your hearts raised than your brains puft up to have your spirits and souls inwardly affected to an earnest desire and longing after it which will perhaps be somewhat performed if we proceed to shew you the necessity of it and unavailableness of all things else and that by way of use and application And for the necessity of renewedness of heart to demonstrate that I will only crave of you to grant me that the performance of any one duty towards God is necessary and then it will prove it self for it is certain no duty to God can be performed without it For 't is not a fair outside a slight performance a bare work done that is accepted by God if it were Cain would deserve as much thanks for his Sacrifice as his Brother Abel for in the outside of them there was no difference unless perhaps on Cain's side that he was forwardest in the duty and offered first Gen. iv 3 But it is the inside of the action the marrow and bowels of it that God judges by If a summ in gross or a bag sealed up would pass for payment in Gods audit every man would come and make his accounts duly enough with him and what he wanted in gold for his payment should be made up in Counters But God goes more exactly to work when he comes to call thee to an account of thy Stewardship he is a God of thoughts and a searcher of the hearts and reins and 't will then be a harder business to be found just when he examines or clear when he will judge The least spot and blemish in the Face of it the least maim or imperfection in the Offering the least negligence or coldness in the performance nay the least corruption in the heart of him that doth it hath utterly spoiled the Sacrifice Be the bulk and skin of the work never so large and beautiful to the Eye if it come not from a sanctified renewed gracious heart it will find no acceptance but that in the Prophet Who hath required it at your hands This is not it that God is taken with or such as he commanded it may pass for a complement or a work of course but never be valued as a duty or real service Resolve thy self to dwell no where but in the Church and there like Simeon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euseb plant thy self continually in a Pillar with thy Eyes and words fixt and shot up perpetually towards
accomplish't defer all our happiness to be performed to us at the Resurrection and though God kill us yet trust in him and be able to see through Death in a trust That our Redeemer lives and that with these eyes we shall behold him then may we chear up and perswade our selves on good grounds that our hearts and lives do assent to the Resurrection which our tongues brag of Take no heaviness to heart but drive it away and remember the end But if this consideration cannot digest the least oppression of this life cannot give us patience for the lightest encumbrance but for all our Creed we still fly out into all outrages of passion and ecstacies of impatience we plainly betray our selves men of this present World whose happiness or misery is only that which is temporary and before our Eyes are not able by the perspective of faith to behold that which easily we might all our wants relieved all our injuries revenged all our wounds bound up in the day of the Resurrection but all our life long we repine and grumble and are discontented as men without hope and whilst we do thus what do we but act the part of these Atheists here in my Text scoffing and saying Where is the promise â—f his coming in the next Verse to my Text. This very impatience and want of skill in bearing the brunts of this our warfare is but a piece of cowardly Atheism either a denying or mocking at the Resurrection Every sigh is a scoff every groan a gibe every fear a sly art of laughing at the stupidity of those who depend upon the fulfilling of the promise of his coming Lastly say we what we will we live as if there were no Resurrection as Sadduces if not as Atheists all our designs look no further than this life all our contrivances are defeated and frustrate in the Grave we mannage our selves with so little understanding that any Spectator would judge by our actions that 't is no injury to compare us to the beasts that perish and never return again Certainly if we had any design upon Heaven or another life we would here make some provision for it Make our selves friends of our unrighteous Mammon that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting habitations i. e. use those good things that God hath given us with some kind of providence that they may stand us in stead when we have need of them i. e. not only as instruments to sin for that is to get us more Enemies but as harbingers to be sent before us to Heaven 'T was a bitter sarcasm of the fool to the Abbot on his Death-Bed that the Abbot deserved his staff as being the verier Fool of the two that being straight to die to remove his Tent to another World he had sent none of his houshold-stuff before him The truth is we live generally as men that would be very angry much displeased if any should perswade us there were a Resurrection the very mentioning of it to us might seem to upbraid our ordinary practices which have nothing but the darkness of death and silence of the Grave to countenance them I may justly say that many ignorant Heathens which were confident there was nothing beyond this life expected certainly with death to be annihilated and turn again into a perpetual nothing yet either for the awe they bore to vertue or fear of disgrace after death kept themselves more regularly lived more carefully than many of us Christians And this is an horrid accusation that will lie very heavy upon us that against so many illuminated understandings the ignorance of the Gentiles should rise up in judgment and the learned Christian be found the most desperate Atheist I have been too large upon so rigid a Doctrine as this and I love and pray God I may always have occasion to come up to this place upon a more merciful subject but I told you even now out of Lev. xix 17 that 't was no small work of mercy 't was the most friendly office that could be performed any man to reprehend and as the Text saith Not to suffer sin upon thy neighbour especially so sly a covert lurking sin as this of Atheism which few can discern in themselves I shall now come to Application which because the whole Doctrine spoke morally to your affections and so in a manner prevented Vses shall be only a recapitulation and brief knitting up of what hitherto hath been scattered at large Seeing that the Devils policy of deluding and bewitching and distorting our Vnderstandings either with variety of false gods or Heresies raised upon the true is now almost clearly out-dated and his skill is all bent to the deforming of the Will and defacing the character of God and the expression of the sincerity of our Faith in our lives we must deal with this Enemy at his own Weapon learn to order our munition according to the assault and fortify that part most impregnably toward which the tempest binds and threatens There is not now so much danger to be feared from the inrode of Hereticks in opinion as in practice not so much Atheism to be dreaded from the infidelity of our brains as the Heathenism and Gentilism of our Lusts which even in the midst of a Christian profession deny God even to his Face And therefore our chiefest Frontiers and Fortifications must be set up before that part of the Soul our most careful Watch and Sentinel placed upon our affections lest the Devil enter there and depopulate the whole Christian and plant the Atheist in his room To this purpose we must examine what Seeds are already sown what treachery is a working within and no doubt most of us at the first cast of the Eye shall find great store unless we be partial to our selves and bring in a verdict of mercy and construe that weakness which indeed signifies Atheism When upon examination we find our lives undermining our belief our practices denying the authority of Scripture and no whit forwarder to any Christian duty upon its commands When we find God's Essence and Attributes reviled and scoffed at in our conversation his omnipresence contemned by our confidence in sinning and argued against by our banishing God out of all our thoughts his all-sufficiency doubted of by our distrusts and our scorn to depend upon it When we perceive that our carriages do fall off at this part of our belief in Christ that he shall come again to be our Judge and by our neglect of those works especially of mercy which he shall then require of us shew that indeed we expect him not or think of him as a Judge but only as a Saviour When we observe our Wills resisting the gifts and falsifying the Attribute whilst our Creed confesses the Person of the Holy Ghost and see how little how nothing of the sanctifying spirit of the earnest of our Regeneration is in our hearts and we still
in then doth it run about the pastures scorns to be kept within any compass Thus is it with the soul of man if it be ordered within terms and bounds if it have a strict hand held over it if it be curb'd and brought to its postures if it have reason and grace and a careful Tutor to order it you shall find it as tame a Creature as you need deal with it will never straggle or stray beyond the confines which the spirit hath set it the reason is because though it be in it self fluid and moist and ready to run about like water yet Deus firmavit Aquas God hath made a Firmament betwixt the waters as he did Gen. i. 7 i. e. he hath establisht it and given it a consistency that it should not flow or pour it self out beyond its place But if this Soul of man be left to its own nature to its own fluid wild incontinent condition it presently runs out into an Ocean never staies or considers or consults but rushes head-long into all inordinacy having neither the reins of reason nor God to keep it in it never thinks of either of them and unless by chance or by Gods mercy it fall into their hands 't is likely to run riot for ever Being once let loose it ranges as if there were neither power on Earth to quell nor in Heaven to punish it Thus do you see how fluid how inconstant the Soul is of its own accord how prone it is how naturally inclined to run over like a stream over the Banks and if it be not swathed and kept in if it be left to the licentious condition of it self how ready is it to contemn both reason and God and run head-long into Atheism Nay we need not speak so mercifully of it this very licentiousness is the actual renouncing of Religion this very walking after their own lusts is not only a motive to this sin of scoffing but the very sin it self A false Conception in the Womb is only a rude confused ugly Chaos a meer lump of flesh of no kind of figure or resemblance gives only disappointment danger and torment to the Mother 'T is the soul at its entrance which defines and trims and polishes into a body that gives it Eyes and Ears and Legs and Hands which before it had not distinctly and severally but only rudely altogether with that mass or lump Thus is it with the Man till Religion hath entred into him as a Soul to inform and fashion him as long as he lives thus at large having no terms or bounds or limits to his actions having no form or figure or certain motion defined him he is a Mola a meer lump of man an arrant Atheist you cannot discern any features or lineaments of a Christian in him he hath neither Eyes to see nor Ears to hear nor hands to practice any duty that belongs to his peace Only 't is Religion must take him up must smooth and dress him over and according to its Etymon must religare swathe and bind up this loose piece of flesh must animate and inform him must reduce him to some set form of Christianity or else he is likely after a long and fruitless travel to appear a deformed monstrous Atheist But not to deal any longer upon simile's lest we seem to confound and perplex a truth by explaining it I told you the licentious voluptuous life was it self perfect Heathenism For can you imagine a man to be any but a Gentile who hath abandoned all love all awe all fear all care of God any one of which would much contract and draw him into compass who hath utterly put off every garb of a Christian who hath enjoy'd the reins so long that now he is not sensible or at least contemns the curb or snaffle if he be but check't with it gets it in his teeth and runs away with it more fiercely The Heathen are noted not so much that they worshipt no God at all but that they worshipped so many and none of them the true Every great friend they had every delight and pleasure every thing that was worth praying for straight proved their God and had its special Temple erected for its Worship So that do but imagine one of them every day worshipping every God whom he acknowledged in its several Oratory spending his whole life and that too little too in running from one Temple to another and you have described our licentious man posting on perpetually to his sensual devotions worshipping adoring and sacrificing every minute of his life to some Idol-vanity and bestowing as much pains and charges in his prophane heathenish pleasures as ever the Gentiles did on their false gods or the most supererogating Papist on their true We are wont to say in Divinity and that without an Hyperbole that every commission of sin is a kind of Idolatry an incurvation and bending down of the Soul to some Creature which should alwayes be erect looking up to Heaven from whence it was infused like water naturally inclined to climb and ascend as high as the Fountain or Head from whence it sprang And then certainly a licentious life is a perpetual Idolatry a supineness and proneness and incurvation of the Soul to somewhat that deserves to be called an Idol i. e. either in St. Pauls acceptation of it nothing an Idol is nothing 1 Cor. viii 4 or else in the most honourable signification only an Image or some rude likeness or representation of God We are the Image of God our selves and whatsoever is below us is but an imperfect draught of him containing some lineaments some confused resemblances of his power which created them have no being of their own but only as shadows which the light doth cast And therefore every love every bowe every cringe which we make to any Creature is the wooing and worshipping of an Image at best in plain terms of an Idol nothing What degree then of Idolatry have they attained to who every minute of their lives bowe down and worship make it their trade and calling for ever to be a solliciting some pleasure or other Some exquisite piece of sensuality to bless and make them happy which have no other shrines to set up but only to their own lust to which they do so crouch and creep and crawle that they are never able to stand up right again like those Trees which the Papists talk of which by bowing to our Ladies House when in walks by the Wood toward Loretto have ever since stood stooping Thus do you see how the latter part of my Text hath overtook the former the walking after his own lusts becomes a scoffer the licentious man proceeded Atheist and that with ease his very voluptuous life is a kind of Atheism and the reasons of this are obvious you need not seek or search far for them For first this walking in their own lusts notes an habit gathered out of many acts he hath
coals of fire which hath a vehement flame She had before often lost her beloved which made her so fiercely fasten on him for having roused him ruit in amplexus she rusht into his embraces she held him and would not let him go Thus you see the jealousie and eagerness of love produc'd by either a former loss or present more than ordinary want of the object both which how pertinent they are to the regenerate man either observing his past sins or instant temptations this Discourse hath already made manifest The Vse of this Thesis to wit that the greatness of ones sins makes the regenerate man apply himself more fiercely to Christ is first by way of caution that we mistake not a motive for an efficient an impulsive for a principal cause For where we say It makes him apply himself c. we mean not that the encrease of sin produces faith formally but only inciteth to believe by way of instruction by shewing us what distress we are in and consequently in what a necessity of a deliverer The meditation of our sinful courses may disclose our misery not redress it may explore not mend a Sinner like a touchstone to try not any way to alter him It is the controuling spirit which must effectually renew our spirits and lead us to the Christ which our sins told us we had need of The sense of sin may rouze the Soul but it is the spirit of God that lays the toils the feeling of our guilt may beat the Waters but it is the great Fisher of our Souls which spreads the Net which entraps us as we are in our way to Hell and leads us captive to salvation The mere gripings of our Conscience being not produced by any Pharmacon of the spirit but by some distemper arising from sin what anxiety doth it cause within us What pangs and twinges to the Soul O Lord do thou regenerate us and then thy holy spirit shall sanctifie even our sins unto our good and if thy grace may lead us our sins shall pursue and drive us unto Christ Secondly By way of character how to distinguish a true convert from a false A man which from an inveterate desperate malady shall meet with a miraculous unexpected cure will naturally have some art of expression above an ordinary joy you shall see him in an ecstasie of thanksgiving and exultancy whilst another which was never in that distress quietly enjoys the same health and gives thanks softly by himself to his preserver So is it in the distresses of the Soul which if they have been excessive and almost beyond hope of recovery as the miracle must so will the expression of this deliverance be somewhat extraordinary The Soul which from a good moral or less sinful natural estate is magis immutata quam genita rather chang'd than regenerate into a spiritual goes through this business without any great noise the spirit entring into it in a still small voice or at a breathing but when a robustous obdurate Sinner shall be rather apprehended than called when the Sea shall be commanded to give up his ship-wrack't and the Sepulchre to restore her dead the Soul surely which thus escapeth shall not be content with a mean expression but will practise all the Hallelujahs and Magnificats which the triumphant Liturgies of the Saints can afford it Wherefore I say if any one out of a full violent course of sinning conceive himself converted and regenerated let him examine what a degree of spiritual exultancy he hath attained to and if he find it but mean and flight and perfunctory let him somewhat suspect that he may the more confirm the evidence of his calling Now this spiritual exultancy of the regenerate consists both in a solemn humiliation of himself and a spiritual rejoycing in God his Saviour both exprest in Maries Magnificat where she specifies in the midst of her joy the lowliness of his handmaid and in S. Pauls victory-song over Death So that if the conversion of an inordinate Sinner be not accompanied with unwonted joy and sorrow with a godly sense of his past distress and a godly triumph for his delivery if it be not followed with a violent eagerness to fasten on Christ finally if there be not somewhat above ordinary in the expression then I counsel not to distrust but fear that is with a sollicitous not suspicious trembling to labour to make thy calling and election sure to pray to that Holy Spirit to strike our hearts with a measure of holy joy and holy sorrow some way proportionable to the size of those sins which in our unregeneracy reigned in us and for those of us whom our sins have separated far from him but his grace hath called home to him that he will not suffer us to be content with a distance but draw us close unto himself make us press toward the mark and fasten our selves on that Saviour which hath redeemed us from the body and guilt of this so great death The third Vse is of comfort and confirmation to some tender Souls who are incorporate into Christ yet finding not in themselves that excessive measure of humiliation which they observe in others suspect their own state and infinitely grieve that they can grieve no more Whereas this Doctrine being observed will be an allay to their sorrow and wipe some unnecessary tears from their Eyes For if the greatness of sin past or the plentiful relicks of sin remaining do require so great a measure of sorrow to expiate the one and subdue the other if it be a deliverance from an habituate servitude to all manner of sin which provokes this extraordinary pains of expression then certainly they who have been brought up with the spirit which were from their baptism never wholly deprived of it need not to be bound over to this trade of sorrow need not to be set apart to that perpetual humiliation which a more stubborn sin or Devil is wont to be cast out by I doubt not but a soul educated in familiarity with the spirit may at once enjoy her self and it and so that if it have an humble conceit of it self and a filial of God may in Earth possess God with some clearness of look some serenity of affections some alacrity of heart and tranquillity of spirit God delights not in the torment of his children though some are so to be humbled yea he delights not in such burnt-offerings as they bestow upon him who destroy and consume and sacrifice themselves but the Lords delight is in them that fear him filially and put their trust i. e. assurance confidence in his mercy in them that rejoice that make their service a pleasure not an affliction and thereby possess Heaven before they come to it 'T is observed in husbandry that soyl laid on hard barren starved ground doth improve it and at once deface and enrich it which yet in ground naturally fruitful and kept in heart and good case
righteous judgment in God and a testimony that all that should pass should be from Gods particular disposing And so it was in the story before the fatal siege of Hierusalem all the Christians in obedience to Christs admonition Mat. 24.16 fled out of Judea unto Pella and so none of them were found in Judea at the taking of it See note on Mat. 24. g. 7. Hear O my people and I will speak O Israel and I will testifie against thee I am God even thy God Paraphrase 7. Then shall he establish a new law with these his faithful servants the disciples of Christ the members of the Christian Church entring into a stedfast covenant of mercy with them ratified and sealed in the death of his Son 8. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings to have been continually before me Paraphrase 8. And abolish the old Mosaical way of Sacrifices and holocausts of bullocks c. constantly offered up unto God by the Jews 9. I will take no bullock out of thy house nor he-goats out of thy fold Paraphrase 9. And never any more put the worshipper to that chargeable gross sort of service of burning of flesh upon Gods Altar that the smoak might go up to heaven and Atone God for them as was formerly required whilst the Jewish Temple stood 10. For every beast of the forrest is mine and the cattel upon a thousand hills 11. I know all the fouls of the mountains and the c wild beasts of the field are mine 12. If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the world is mine and the fulness thereof 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats Paraphrase 10 11 12 13. For indeed this kind of service was never appointed by God as that which he had any need of or pleasure in it If he had he might have provided himself whole hecatombs without putting the Israelites to the charge or trouble of it having himself the plenary dominion of all the cattel on the earth and fouls of the air and the certain knowledge where every one of them resides so that he could readily command any or all of them whensoever he pleased But it is infinitely below God to want or make use of any such sort of oblations sure he feeds not on flesh and blood of cattel as we men do There were other designs of his appointing the Israelites to use these services viz. to adumbrate the death of his own eternal Son as the one true means of redemption and propitiation for sin and the more spiritual sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving and almes to the poor members of Christ which may receive real benefit by our Charities which cannot be imagined of God 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most High Paraphrase 14. And such are the sacrifices which under the Messias are expected and required of us 1. That of the Eucharist the blessing God for all his mercies but especially the gift of his Son to dye for us and this brought to God with penitent contrite mortified hearts firm resolution of sincere new obedience and constantly attended with an offertory or liberal contribution for the use of the poor proportionable to the voluntary oblations among the Jews and these really dedicated to God and accepted by him Phil. 4.18 Heb. 13 16. 15. And call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Paraphrase 15. 2. That of prayer and humble address unto God in all time of our wants to which there is assurance of a gracious return and that must ingage us to give the praise and glory of all to the Messias in whose name our prayers are addrest to God 16. But unto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth 17. Seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee Paraphrase 16 17. But as for those that make no other use of these mercies of God than to incourage themselves to go on in their courses of sin which think to perform these sacrifices of prayer and praise and yet still continue in any wilful known vice unreformed make their formal approaches unto God but never heed his severe commands of reformation these have no right to the mercies of this Evangelical Covenant and do but deceive themselves and abuse others when they talk of it and the more so the more solemnly they pretend to piety and talk of and perhaps preach it to others 18. When thou sawest a thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been partaker with adulterers Paraphrase 18. Such are not only the thief and adulterer those that are guilty of the gross acts of those sins but such as any way partake with them in these 19. Thou givest thy mouth to evil and thy tongue frameth deceit Paraphrase 19. Such the evil speaker and lyer 20. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother thou slanderest thine own mothers son Paraphrase 20. The backbiter and slanderer 21. These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Paraphrase 21. When men commit such sins as these God doth not always inflict punishment on them immediately but defers and gives them space to repent and amend that they may thus prevent and escape his punishment And some make so ill use of this indulgence and patience of his which is designed only to their repentance as to interpret it an approbation of their course and an incouragement to proceed securely in it But those that thus deceive themselves and abuse Gods mercies shall most deerly pay for it God shall bring his judgments upon them here cut them off in their sins and pour out his indignation on them in another world 22. Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Paraphrase 22. This therefore is matter of sad admonition to every impenitent sinner that goes on fearless in any course of evil immediately to stop in his march to return betimes lest if he defer Gods judgments fall heavily upon him selfe him and carry him to that place of torment for then there is no possible escaping 23. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Paraphrase 23. Whereas on the other side the Christian duties required v. 14. Repentance and charity c. and the orderly spending of these few days of our life in this world are beyond all the sacrifices of the Law an eminent means of glorifying God and providing for the present bliss and eternal salvation of our souls Annotations on Psalm L. V. 3. Shall come The notion of Gods coming must here first be established as that
on which the due interpretation of the whole Psalm depends The coming of God ordinarily signifies in Scripture any judicial proceeding of his Gods punishments and vengeance on his enemies see Psal 18. noted. But this Psalm seems peculiarly to look forward to the times of the Messias and so to denote some coming of his The Chaldee applies it to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of the great judgment But this phrase I suppose may be taken in some latitude in that Paraphrast not to denote the last judgment though thus St. Augustine will have this Psalm uderstood de judicio Dei novissimo of the last judgment of God but as their Paraphrase on v. 2. seems to interpret it some great destruction that was to be wrought in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beginning of the creation of the age meaning I suppose by the age the age of the Messias which as 't is there said was to come out of Sion which is not applicable to any other age but that Now there be three comings of Christ exprest in the Scripture The first in humility by his being born in our flesh the last in glory for the judging of the whole world in the day of the universal doom And a middle coming which was not to be corporal but spiritual a mighty work wrought in the world by the power of that spirit which raised Jesus from the dead beginning in a terrible vengeance upon his crucifiers the notable destruction of the Jewish Temple and of Jerusalem and so of the Mosaical worship and the Judaical politie and proceeding to the propagation of the Christian Faith to all the world wherein were many glorious acts of Gods power and mercy and are all together oft stiled in Scripture the coming of Shiloh of the desire of all nations of the kingdom of God of the son of Man of Christ see note on Mat. 16. o. 24. b. Joh. 21. b. And this is it to which this Psalm most signally seems to belong as also Psal 96.10 11 12 13. and conteins these several stages or branches of it 1. the terrible manner of this his coming v. 3. Secondly the formality of it a judicature used in it v. 4. Thirdly the preservation and rescue of the believing Jews out of the common ruine v. 5 6. Fourthly the rejection of legal worship of sacrifices of beasts v. 8 9 10 11 12 13. Fifthly the establishing of the Christian service the spiritual oblation of Prayer and Thanksgiving v. 14 15. and Lastly the destruction of the impenitent Jews which having received the Law of God and entred into Covenant with him would not yet be reformed by Christs preaching v. 16. c. to the end V. 3. Silence The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath several significations But that which is most agreeable to this place is that of doing nothing being idle delaying tarrying as applied to the actions not the speech only So 2 Sam. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is best rendred Why do you defer or delay to bring back the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the LXXII Why are you silent in that other notion applied to the tongue but the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word which belongs to the actions as well as words the learned Schindler there renders it cessatis cunctamini defer or delay The Syriack there renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath that signification among others of cessavit moratus tardatus fuit and is by the Latine translator rightly rendred haesitatis and so the Arabick appears there to understand it And so the context inforces by another phrase used there in the same matter v. 11. and 12. Why saith he are ye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 last to bring back the King i. e. very backward and dilatory So the Arabick expresses that also Why do you defer or neglect And so Psal 28.1 the sense carries it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not defer or neglect to answer me neglect me not saith the Arabick And thus 't will best be rendred here Our God shall come and not delay not neglect saith the Arabick as in the place of Samuel And the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which though it may signifie shall not keep silence yet it is also not defer or delay and so is determined here by the remainder of their paraphrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work vengeance for his people So the Jewish Arab. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall not withhold or refrain from it And thus the phrase seems to be made use of and interpreted by the Apostle Heb. 10.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will come and not delay or tarry i. e. he will certainly come Which I suppose to be the reason of the learned Castellio's rendring this place veniet Deus noster sine dubio Our God shall come without doubt the coming and not delaying being all one with his certain coming The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is again used v. 21. and rendred by the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I stayed or expected that thou mightest repent which is a full proof of this notion of the word for delaying Where the Jewish Arab reads as here I withheld from thee adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delaying V. 11. Wild beasts For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beast the LXXII seem to read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beauty and render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine pulchritudo the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cock of the wood whose feet stand on the earth and his head touches the heaven of which Elias Levita in his Thisby p. 273. taking notice adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is a new thing not without reason expressing his wonder at their rendring but the Syriack is clear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the beast The Fifty First PSALM TO the chief Musitian A Psalm of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba Paraphrase The Fifty first Psalm was composed by David after the commission of those many sins in the matter of Uriah 2 Sam. 11. when by Nathan the Prophet his message to him from God he was brought to a due humiliation for them which he exprest in this penitential Psalm and to make it the more publick to remove the scandal of so many notorious sins he committed it to the Prefect of his Musick to be solemnly sung 1. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Paraphrase 1. O thou Father of all mercies and compassions permit me thy most unworthy servant foully guilty of many horrid crimes to make mine humblest approach to thee and out of the riches of thy benignity out of the abundance of thy melting compassions to
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the evil days i. e. from persecution see Ephes 5.16 which God gives to good men is to continue till the pit be digged up for the ungodly i. e. till the measure of their sins be filled up and so destruction be ready for them whereas the contrary to this is evident that either the destruction of the wicked is first and the quiet and rest of the good oppressed by them a natural effect of that and so subsequent to it or that both of them are of the same date at once tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest 2 Thess 1.6 7. And this is evidently the meaning of it here and so will be discerned if only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be rendred dum whilst as it is elsewhere used Jon. 4.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilst I was Job 1.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilst he was speaking for then thus it will run very fitly That thou mayst give him rest whilst the pit is digged V. 15. Vnto righteousness The notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteousness for charity and mercy hath oft been observed only the Emphasis of the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto here offers it self to consideration which will best be exprest by even unto as when Gen. 14.23 we read from a thred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to a shooe latcher and Gen. 7.23 Every living substance was destroyed from man to beast to creeping things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usque ad saith the Interlinear and even to the fowls of heaven which were in least danger to be destroyed with water And thus here it seems to import that the present rigour of their enemies shall by Gods judging or taking their part not only be removed but be even converted into the greatest mercies Thus in every revolution of state it is ordinary none are so likely to escape and be favoured by the conquerer as they that were opprest by the former government And so was it to the Jews of the Captivity of whom the learned Jews understand this Psalm when the Persian executes judgment on the Babylonian when the sacrilegious drunken Tyrant is taken in his city as in a pit or snare v. 13. the Jews then are no losers by their former oppressions but receive preferments in the common-wealth Dan. 6.5 and licence to return to their own countrey And the same observation held both in the destruction of the Jewish and Heathen enemies of Christ the Christians were not only freed from their persecutions but became most flourishing And this is the full importance of judgments returning even to righteousness God not only pleading their cause and delivering them which is meant by judgment but even converting their former sufferings into their greatest advantages To this is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and after it all the pure in heart What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies may be learned from Jud. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after thee Benjamin i. e. saith the Chaldee Saul the son of Benjamin succeeded Joshuah noted before by Ephraim And so after this all the upright in heart i. e. to this shall immediately succeed the flourishing prosperous condition of all pious men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be redeemed saith the Chaldee but it is somewhat more they shall return to a flourishing condition and so this very fitly agrees to what went before and is as the proof of it The severity of their enemies is turned into mercy and then follows the prosperity of all pious men V. 19. Delight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look upon with delight is in Piel doubled and used for looking kindly and lovingly imbracing and making much of doing any thing that is grateful to another So the Chaldee understood it rendring it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make much of so they use the word Prov. 29.21 for that which we render delicately bringeth up And hence it is that the LXXII render it here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have loved i. e. behaved themselves in a loving manner so as they which love are wont to do Isa 11.8 it is used for playing or sporting dealing friendly and with confidence with any and Isa 66.12 for being dandled on the knees like a child by the nurse or parent and by analogy with all these being here applied to Gods consolations it will most significantly be rendred have cherished or refresh't caressed or gratified my soul The Ninety Fifth PSALM The Ninety Fifth Psalm is an invitation to all to bless and praise the Name of God and to live obediently before him 'T is affirmed to be written by David Heb. 4.7 and may probably have been fitted by him among others here put together for the solemnity of bringing the Ark to the place of Gods rest v. 11. and is by the Jews confest to refer to the duties of the Messias as we see it applyed Heb. 3. 4. 1. O Come let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation Paraphrase 1. The Lord of heaven is he from whom all our deliverance and strength doth come see note on Psal 89. l. O let us uniformly joyn in praising and glorifying his Name 2. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with Psalms Paraphrase 2. Let us make our daily constant addresses to him with all the acknowledgments and expressions of thankful hearts 3. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all Gods Paraphrase 3. As to him that is the supreme God of heaven and earth the only super-eminent Monarch over all powers and dignities the Angels his ministers in heaven and the mightiest Princes his vicegerents upon earth 4. In his hands are the deep places of the earth the strength of the hills is his also Paraphrase 4. The bowels and bottom of the earth are in his disposal and what is emblematically intimated by them the meanest and lowest men or creatures on the earth are particularly respected and ordered by his providence in all that befals them here and so likewise the loftiest and stoutest hills and the mightiest men in the world are bounded and governed by him 5. The sea is his and he made it and his hands formed the dry land Paraphrase 5. It is he that framed the whole Orb of the sea and dry land and contrived them so the one in the bowels of the other that neither should incommodate the other but both together make up an useful globe for men and all other creatures to inhabit 6. O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker Paraphrase 6. O let us joyntly adore and praise and pray unto him and make the members of our bodies partners and witnesses of the real devotion of our hearts joyn inward and outward reverence
together even the submissest and lowliest gestures to signifie and express the sincere humility of our souls a tribute most due to him who is both Lord and Creator of all 7. For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and sheep of his hand To day if ye will hear his voice Paraphrase 7. For although we have oft rebelled against him and so oft deserved his dereliction and oft smarted for it yet if now at length we shall be wrought on by his calls and warning and perform sincere obedience to him he is most ready to accept us to take us into his care and protection and secure us from all our enemies 8. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness 9. When your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works Paraphrase 8 9. Our Ancestors when they had been delivered by him with the greatest manifestation of his almighty power from the hardest oppression and slavery in Egypt were yet so unthankful and obdurate that they repined and murmured at every turn ten times one after another Numb 14.22 apostatizing from and rebelling against them they would not believe and relie on his power though it were abundantly testified to him by miraculous effects of it but still required more miracles and assurances of his presence among them and hereby they most sadly provoked Gods wrath O let not us that have so liberally tasted of his power and goodness and long-suffering and are yet afforded his calls to repentance imitate these in our ingratitude and impenitence 10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and said It is a people that do err in their hearts for they have not known my ways 11. Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest Paraphrase 10 11. Those Ancestors of ours for the space of forty years wherein God for their sins deteined and perplext them in the wilderness of Sin did very frequently provoke God to indignation made him resolve that they were a most stupid idolatrous people that preferred the service of the irrational Egyptian false gods and devils before the obedience and worship of the one true God of heaven and earth and therefore being as it were tired out with their continued provocations God at length by an oath obliged himself irreversibly that of all the many thousands that were listed after their coming out of Egypt none but only Caleb and Joshua should enter the promised land of Canaan O let us not offend after their example lest we follow them in their punishments also and be denied our part in Gods rest here the priviledges of the Ark and presence of God among us in Jerusalem where he hath promised to rest and dwell for ever if we do not provoke him to forsake us How this was applicable to the Jews under the times of Christ see note b. Annotations on Psalm XCV V. 7. His pasture When the Psalmist useth these two phrases together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 people of his pasture and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sheep or cattel of his hand 't is obvious to discern the seeming impropriety and withal to cure it by interchanging the adjuncts and annexing the hand to the people and the pasture to the sheep But it is more reasonable to fetch the explication from the different significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as for feeding so for governing equally appliable to men and cattel from whence it is but analogy that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a pasture where cattel are fed should also signifie dominion or kingdom or any kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein a people are governed And then the other part the sheep of his hand will be a sit though figurative expression the shepheard that feeds and rules and leads the sheep doing it by his hand which manageth the rod and staff Psal 23.4 by which they are administred The Jewish Arab reads the people of his feeding or flock and the sheep of his guidance Ibid. If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here rendred If is elsewhere oft used for an optative sign and expression of a wish So Luk. 19.42 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou knewest for O that thou knewest and Luk. 22.42 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou wilt for O that thou wouldest remove this cup from me So Exod. 32.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou wilt for O that thou wouldest forgive them And if so it be here then the rendring must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O that to day you would hear his voice live obedient to him as people to a Ruler or sheep to a Pastor And this may be thought needful to the making the sense compleat in this verse which otherwise is thought to hang though not so fitly on the eighth verse and not to be finisht without it But it may be considered also whether this verse be not more complete in it self by rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if thus Let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and sheep of his hand if ye will hear his voice to day or as the Jewish Arab reads sheep of his hand or guidance to day i. e. speedily if ye will hear his voice perform obedience to him setting the words in form of a conditionate promise thereby to inforce the performance of the condition on our part The condition to the performance of which they are exhorted v. 6. is paying God the worship and lowly obedience due to him and the promise secured to them on this performance that he will be their God and they his people of his pasture c. i. e. that God will take the same care of them that a shepheard of his sheep preserve them from all enemies Midianites Philistims Canaanites c. and that though for their rebellions and disobediences against God they had hitherto been oft disturbed and not long since the Ark taken by their heathen enemies yet if now to day they shall at length hear Gods voice and perform this obedience sincerely they shall also be secured that their enemies should no more disturb them their Ark should no more be captive but enjoy a rest v. 11. with them for ever in Jerusalem That to this of Jerusalem the rest spoken of by David referred as well as to the land of Canaan in Moses's time is the observation of Rab. Solomon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the land of Israel and also Jerusalem which is called a rest as 't is said This is my rest for ever here will I dwell And so their enjoying this rest of Gods these priviledges of the Ark and Gods presence among them was the completion of the promise on Gods part that he would be their God and they his people c. And according to