SERMON XLIX. PtiE.4CtlED UPON TItE PENITENTIAL PSALMS.
PSAL.Xl vi. 2, 3. l-lave mercy upon me, 0 Lord, for I ara weak; 0 Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed: my sou1 is also sore vexed; but thou, 0 Lord, how long? Tins wholo Psalm is /)rayer; and tho whdo prayer is eithor deprecatory, as in the first verse, or postulatory. Something David would have forborne, and something done. And in that postulatory part of David's prayer, which goes through six verses of this Psalm, we consider the petitions, and tho inducements; what David asks, and why: of both vhich, thero are somo ming|ed, in theso two verses, which constitute our text. And therefore, in them, we shall necessari|y tako knowledge of some of the petitions, and some of the reasons. For, in the prayer, thero are rive petitions; first, Miserere, Haze ¢nercy qon me, think of me, look graciously towards me, prevent me xvith thy mercy; and then,Sana me, 0 Lord, heal che, thou didst creato me in health, but my parents begot me in sickness, and I haro complicated other sicknesses with that, actual with original fin, 0 Lord, heal me, give me physic for them; and thirdly, Convertere, Rêturn, 0 Lord, thou didst visit me in nature, return in grace, thou didst visit me in baptism, rêturn in the other sacrament, thou dost visit me now, return at the hour of my death; and, in a fourth petition, Erie, 0 Lord, d«lirer y soul, every blessing of thine becauso a snare unto me, and thy benefits I make occasions of sin, in al1 conversation, and even in my solitude, I adroit such temptations from others, or I produce such temptations in myself, as that, whensoever thou art pleased to return to lne, thou findest me af the brink of some sin, and there, fore Erpe w, 0 Lord, take hold of me, and deliver me; and lastly,,S'a/rum ¢nef«c, 0 Lord, sae e, manifest thy good purpose upon me so, that I may never be shaken, or never overthrown in the faithful hope of that salvation, which thou hast preordained for me. These are the rive petitions of the prayer, and two of the rive, the 2ll, erere, Have merey upon me, and the,Sana, 0 Lord, ieal me, are in these two verses. And then, the reasons of the prayer, arising partly out of himself, and partly out of God; and somo being mixed, and growing out of both roots together, some of the reasons of the rirst nature, that is, of those that arise out of himself, are also in this text. Therefore in this text, we shall eonsider, rirst the extent of those two petitions that are in it, Quid miserere, what David intends by this prayer, Hare mereu upon me, and then, QuM 8ana me, what he intends by that, 0 Lord, heal me. And secondly, we shall eonsider the strength of those reasons, which are in our text, Quia ioErmu, why God should be moved to mercy with that, because David vas weak, and then Quia tarbata osa, XVhy, because his bones were vexed; and again, Quia trbata anima,:alde, Because his soul was sore vexed. And in a third consideration, we shall also see, that for all our petitions, for mercy, and for spiritual health, and for all out reasons, weakness, vexation of bones, and sore vexation of the soul itself, God doth hot always corne to a speedy remedy, but puts us to out Usque quo, But thou, 0 Lord, how long. How long wilt thon delay. And then lastly, that how long soever that be, yet we are still to attend his time, still to rely upon him; which is intimated in this, that David changes not his toaster, but still applies himself to the Lord; with that naine, that he begun with in the first verse, he proceeds; and thrice in these few words he calls upon him by this naine of essence, Jehovah, 0 Lord aee mercy uTon me, 0 Lord heal ne, 0 Lord how long wilt thon delay. He is hot weary of attending the Lord, he is hot inclinable to turn upon any other than the Lord; bave nercy npon me, 0 Lord, &c. First then in out first part, that part of David's postulatory prayer in this text, ave nerc. upon me, this mercy that David begs here, is hot that mercy of God which is above ail his works; for those works which follow it, are above it; toeal Mm, ira this text, fo return fo him, fo deliver his soul, fo save him, in the next verses, are greater works than this, which he calls here in th'at general naine of mercy. For this word chanar used in this place, is hot Dele iniquitates, Have mercy upon me so, as to b]ot out all naine inlquities; if is hot JDimitte debita, Have merey upon me so, as to forgive a my sins; but it is only.qratiam, Lord shed some drops of graee upon me, or Tremellius bath it, Gratio»u» i» mihi, Be a graeious Lord unto me. For this word is used, where 'oah is said aveybud9race the eye of trie Lord; whieh aee was, that God had provid for his boly preseation in the ark. And this word is used, hOt only of God toards men, but also of men towards God when they expre their zeal towards God's bouse, and the compassion, and holy indignation whieh they had of the ruins thereof, they exTre it in this word, Tfiy serrant» deliyt in te Zio», et mi»erti »unt pulreri» çns, They had mercy, tfi«y had compassion on te du»t and rubbiafi tereoE . So that here this miserer« ei, which is the first n of a sick soul, the first glance of the so rected towar God, impos onIy this, Lord turn th) countenance towards me, Lord bring me to a sense that thou a tumed towards me, Lord bring me within such a distance, my soul may feel warmth and comfo in the rising of that sun » miser¢ mei, look graciously upon me. At the first meeting of Isaac and Rebecca, he was gone out fo meditate in the fields, and she came riding that way, ith his father's man, who w employed in making that marriage and when upon king, she knew that it w he who was to be ber husband, she tk a êil and corered ber face, says that Vhat freedom, and nearness soever they were fo corne to after, yet there was a modesty, and n bashfulness, and a reseedness required before; and ber first kindne should be but to be seen. A man wodd be glad of a good countenance from ber that shall be his, before he ask ber g-hether she will be his or no; a man would be glad of a good countenanee from his prince, before he intend to press him ith any paicular suit: and n sinner may be corne to this miserere mei Domine, to desire that the Lord would think upon him, that the Lord would look graciously towar him, that the Lord would refresh him with the beams of his favour, before he bave digested his devotion into a formal prayer, or entered into a paiedar consideration, what his nece sities are.
s.e. xix.] »mz,t, eL,S. 399 Upon thoso words of tho apostle', I e.ort you tat tins, and prager,, and interceione, and iei of tan', be ade for all men, St. Bernard » makes ceain radations, and steps, and aoeonsions of the soul in prayer, and intimates thus much, that by the ace of God's spirit inanimating and quickening him, (without which grace he eau have no motion at ail) a sinner tnay corne ad supplicationes, whieh is St. PauFs first step, to supplications, whieh are à st«ppliciis, that out of a sense of some judgment, corne punishment, he may make lfis reeourse to Goal; and then, by a further growth in that grace, he may eolne ado'atienes, which are oris rationes, the paaieular expressing of his neeessiries, with his mouth; and a faithfid assurance of obtailfing them, in his prayer; and after, he may eome farther, ad intercessicnes, to an intercession, fo such an interest in God's favour, as tllat he durst put himself betwixt God and other men, as Abraham in the behalf of Sodonl, to intercede tbr them, with a holy confidence tlmt God wouhl do ggod to them, for his sake; and to a farther step than these, which the apostle may intend in that last, ad çratiaru» actiones, to a eontinual thanksgiving, that by reason of God's benefits multiplied upon him, he find nothing to k, but his thanksgivings, and his acknowledgments, for former blessings, possess and fill ail his prayers; though he be grown up to this strenh of devotion, to supplications, to prayers, to intercessions, to thanksgiviugs, yet, says St. Bernard, at first, when he cornes first to deprehend hilnself in particular sin, or in a course of sin, he colnes rerecndo qffectu, bashfully, shaluefastly, tremblingly; he knows hot what fo ask, he dares ask no partieular thing at God's hand; but though e be hot eome yet, to partieular reques, for pa.rdon of past sins, nor for strength against future, hot to partieular consideration of the weight of his sins, nor to comparison betwixt his sin, and the merey of God, yet ho cornes to miserere ei Dombe, to a sudden ejaeulation, 0 Lord be mercithl unto me, how date I do this in the sight of my God? It is mueh sueh an affection as is sometimes in felon taken in the manner, or in eondenmed person brought to execution: ono desires the justice be gd to him, and yet he secs hot how « 1 Tire, ii. 1. De quatuor mod orang.
he can bail Lira; the otLer desires the sheriff to be good to him, and yet Le knows Le mu.st do his office. A sinner desires God to Lave mercy upon Lira, and yet Le LatL hot descended to particular considerations requisite in that business. But yet tLis spiritual malet'actor is in better case, tLan the temporal are; they desire them to be good to them, wLo can do tLem no good; but God is still able, and still ready to reprieve them: and to put off the execution ot" Lis judments, whicL execution were to take tLem out ot" tLis wor]d under the uiltiness, and condemnation ot" unrepented sins. And theret'ore, as St. Basil says, In scal, prima ascensio est ab umo, He that makes but one step up a stair, though he be hot got mueh nearer to the top of the bouse, yet he is got ri'oto the ground, and delivered from the foulness, and dampness of that; so in this first step of prayer, niserere mei, O Lord be merciful unto me, though a man be hOt established in heaven, yet he is stept from the world, and the miserable comforters thereof; He that committetl sin, i of the deril': yea, he is of him, in a direct line, and in the nearest degree; he is the offspring, the son of the devil; Frpatre zestro estis, says Christ, ]:'ou are of your fatler the de:il . 'ow, Qti se à ma[iyH patri anitate submorerit', He that withdraws himselï from such a father's bouse, though he be hot presently corne to means to lire of himself, Quam feliciter patte uo orbatu! How blessed, how Lappy an orphan is he become! How much better shall he find it, to be fatherless in respect of such a father, than masterless in respect of sueh a Lord, as ho turns towards in this first ejacu]ation, and general application of the soul, Mierere mei, Hare mercy qoon w, 0 Lord, so much mercy, as to look graciously towards me! And therefore, as it was, by infinite degrees, a Teater work, to make earth of nothing, than to make the best creatures of earth; so in the regeneration of a sinner, when he is to be ruade up a new ereature, Lis first beginning, his first application of himself to God, is the hardest matter. But though he corne hot presently to look God fully in the face, nor conceive hot presently an assurance of an established reconciliation, a fulness of pardon, a cancelling of all former debts, in an instant, though he dare hot corne to touch God, and I John ]. " John viii. 44. » BasiL lay hold of himself, by reeeiving his body and blood in the saerament, yet the evangelist ealls thee to eoutemplation of mueh eomfort to thy soul, in certain preparato accesoes, and approches. BeltoM, says he; that is, Look up, nd eonsider thy patrn: Behold, a woma diseased came behid 6%rist, and touched the hem of his yarment; for she said in herse If I may but toucl the hem his yarment only, 1 shall be u'hole . She knew there was viue to eome out of his body, and she came as ner that, s she durst: she had desire to spek; but she went no farther, but to speak to herself; slw sad to herse sys tht Gospel, if I may but touc, e. But Christ Jesus supplied ail, performed all on his part, bundantly. Presently he turued about, says the text: and this vas hot trnsitory glance, but full sight, and exhibiting of himself to the fruition of her eye, that she might sec him. He saw ber, says St. Matthew: her, he did hot direct himself upon others, and le,ve out her; and then, he spake to her, to overcome ber bashfulness he called her dauyhter, to o,erconte her didenee he bids her be of co»oEb't, for she had met more powetul phyieian, than those, upon whom she had spent ber time, and her estate; one that could cure her; one that vould; one that had Iready; for so he sys presently, faitk bath ruade thee t'hole. From how little spark, how great a tire $ From hov little beginning, how great She desired but the hem of his garment, and had ail him. Belo'ed in him, his power, and his goodness ended hot in her; Ail that u'ere sick c'etc brouyht, tkat they miybt but touch the hem " Ms yarment, and as many as tou&ed it, «'ere ruade whole . It was far from perfeet faith, tht ruade them whole; to hare desire to toueh his garment, seems not, was hot much: neither was that desire that was, always in themselves, but in them that brought them. But yet, eome thou so far: eome, or be content to be brought, to be brought by example, to be brought by statute, to be bught by euriosity, eome any way to touch the hem of his garment, ye the hem of his servant, of Aaron's garment, and thou shalt partieipate of the sweet ointment, whieh flows from the head to the hem of the garment. Co]ne to the house of God, his ehureh; join with the eongregafion of the Matt. 20. o Matt. v. 36. 'OL. II. D saints; love the body, and love the garments, too, that is, the order, the discipline, the decency, the unity of the church; love even the hem of tho garment, that that ahnost touches the ground; that is, such ceremonies, as had a good use in their first institution, for raising devotion, and are freed and purged frein that superstition, which, as a rust, was grown upon them, though they may seem te touch the earth, that is, te bave been induced by earthly men, and net immediate institutions frein God, yot love that hem of that garment, those outward assistances of devotion in the church. Bring with theo a disposition te incorporate thyself with Godes people bere; and though thou beest net yet corne te a particular consideration of thy sius, and of the remedies, though that spirit that possesses thee, that siu that governs thee, lie still awhile, and sleep under all the thunders, which we denommo frein this place, se that for awhile thou beest net moved ner affected with ail that is said, yet AI,propintuas, et escls, (as St. Augustino said, when he came only out of curiosity te hear St. Ambrose preach at lilan) thon dost corne nearer and nearer te God, though thon discern it net, and at one tique or other, this blessed exorcism, this holy charm, this ordinanco of God, the word of God in the mouth of his servant, shall provoke and awaken that spirit of security in thee, and thou shalt feel him begin te storm, and at first that spirit, thy spirit, will say te the spirit of the preacher, Tuze qt«i cott«rbas. Art tho he that trotblest Israél n. (as Ahab said te Elijah) Art thon ho that troublest the peaco of my conscience, and the security of my ways. And, when the Spirit of God shall search farther and farther, even ad occulta, te thy secretest sins, and touch upon them, and that that spirit of disobedience, when ho feels this powerftd exorcism, shall say in thee, and cry as Ahab also did, IveMsti me? Hast thou]bund e, 0 mine eem!/'. God sllall answer, IvéM te, I have fottzd thee, and round that thou hadst sold th!ts«l.f te wor] wic]{'edêss in thê si.oht " the Lord, and se shall bring thee te a nmre particular consideration of thine estate, and fmm thy having joined with tho church, in a Domi«s miserebitur,S'iou, in an assurance, and acknowledgment, that t]e Lord will aride, azd bave raercy ion 1 Kigzxviii. 17. z 1 ILings;r,i. 20.
ss. x.x.] »sTSNT. PS.s. 403,5';0 , that is, of his who]e Catho]ic church, and then corne to a ominua miereatur otri, God be merciful uuto u, ad ble and cauae kiaface to kine upon ua', upon us tha are met here, aeeording to his ordinanee, and in confidence of his promise, upon this eongregation, of which thou makest thyself a pa, thou wilt alto eome to thi of David bore, Domine miaerere mei, Hae mercv pou me, m« in partieular, and tlmu hal hear God answer thee, Miaerana mierebor tibi, XVith great merey will I bave merey upon thee; npon thee #r, u'ith him ia pleutifid redemption; merey for hi whole ehureh, merey for this whole eonegation, lnerey for every partieular soul, that makes herself part of the eongregation. Aeeustom thysêlf therefore to general devotion, to a general application, to general ejaculations towards God, upon every occasion, and then, as wedge of gold, that cornes to be coined into particular pieces of outrent money, the Lord shall stamp his image upon a thy devotions, and bring thee to partieular confessions of thy sins, and to particular praye, tbr thy particular necessities. And this we may well conceive and adroit to be the nature of David's first prayer, 3liaerere mei, Ilure mercy Ul)On me; and then, the reason, upon whieh this first petition is grounded, (for so if will be fittest to handle the parts, first the prayer, and then the rason) is, Quia ioErmua, ]Iare ercy q, on me, Jbr I ara weak. First then, how imperfeet, how weak soever out prayers be, yet still if it be a prayer, it hath a quia, a reason, upon whieh it is groundcd. It bath in it, some implied, mme interpretative eonsideration of ourelves, hoxv it beeomes us to ask that, xvhieh we do ask af God's hand, and it hath some implied, and interpretatire eonsideration of God, how it eonduees to (;od's glory togrant it: for that prayer is ver)" far ri'oto faith, which is hOt ruade so mueh as with reason; with a consideration of some possibility, and some eonvenieney in it. Erery man tkat èaya Lord, Lord, enters hOt into keai'en; every Lord, Lord, that is said, enrs not into heaven, but vanishes in the air. A prayer must be with a serious purpose to pray; for else, those fashional and eustomary prayers, are but false rires without shot, they batr hOt heaven; it is but an interjection, that slips in; it is but a parenthesis, a Psa cri. 13, » Psa xvfi, 1.
that might be left out, whatsoever is uttered in the manner of a prayer, if it have nota quia, a reason, a ground for it. And therefore when out Saviour Christ gave us that form of prayer, which includes all, he gave us it in a form of a reason too, Quia tuum, Fo»" thi»e is the i»tydom, &-c. It were nota prayer, to say, Adreniat reynum, Thy kinydom corne, if it were not grounded upon that faithful assurance, that God bath a kingdom here; nor to say »$'ancti.lfcetttr nomet, II«llowed be th!! tame, if ho desired hot to be glorified by us; nor to ask àaily bread, nor forTivete$$ ofsins, but for the qt«ia potestas, because he bath all these in his power. We consider this first access to God, 11Iiserere mei, tiare mercy upon me, to be but a kind of imperfect prayer, but the first step; but it were none at ail, if it had no reason, and tlaerefore it hath this, Q«ia injfrmt«s, Because I ara weak. This reason of out own weakness is a good motive for mercy, if in a desire of farther strength we corne to that of Lazarus" sisters, to Christ, Ecce, quam amas, it.flrmatt«r », Beho]d Lord, that soul that thou lovest, and hast died for, is weak, and lan- maishes. Christ answered then, _Non est irmitas ad mortem, This weakwss is wt utzto death, bt«t that the »çot of God mlyht be.qlorijfed. He will say so to thee too; if thou present thy weakness with a desire of strength from him, he will say, Quare nwriemini, domtts Israel? Vhy will ye die of this disease. Gratia mea szfficit; You may recover for all this; you may repent, you may abstain from this sin, you may take this spiritual physic, the word, the sacraments, if you will; T«ttummodo robustus esto, (as God says to Joshua) Ouly be valiant, and fight against it, and thou shalt find strength grow in the use thereof. But for the most part, De iflrmitate blandimttr «, says St. Bernard, We flatter ourselves with an opinion of weakness; Et «t liberizs Feccem«ts, libenter ioErmamur, We are glad of this natural and corrupt weakness, that we may impute ail out licentiousness to out weakness, and natural infirmity. But did that excuse Adam, (says that father) Quod Ter uxorem ta«quam per carMs irmitatem peccavit, That he took his occasion of sinning from his weaker part, from his wife. Q«a irmus, That thou art weak of thyself, is just motive to induee God to bring thee to himself; (?ui ere loortarit la»yuore tuas, SVho hath surely borne all thine infirmities7; but to leave him again, when he hath brought thee, to refuse so light and easy yoke as his is; hOt to make use of that strength which he by his grace offers thee, this is hot thÇ affection of the spouse, lan.quor amanti, wheu the person languishes for the love of Christ, but it is atguor amori, when tlle love of Christ languishes in that person. And therefore if you be colne so far with David, as to this mierere 9uia irmus, that an apprehension of your own weakuess bave brought you to him, in a prayer tbr merey, and more strength, go forward v,'ith him still, to his next petition,,_'ana me, 0 Lord leal me, for God is always ready to build upon his own fotmd.- tions, and aeeomplish his own beginnings. Acceptus i» yratiam, Mlaritcr 'eni ad polulatione: SVhen thou art established in favour, thou mayest make any suit; when thou art possessed of God by one prayer, thou mayest offer more. This is an encouragement whieh that thther St. Bernard gives, in observing the diverse degrees of praying, that hough hnilitati yratiw, di'ia lieta ordinarit, To make his huufility the moto profitable to him, God imprints in an humblo atd penitent sinner, this apprehension, grt quanto ¥1u yrofecit, eo mit, e rqutettro./ècisse, That the more he is in God's thvour, the more he tbars he is hot so, or the more he fears to lose that favour, because it is a part, and a symptom of the working of the grace of God, to make him sec his own unworthiness, the more manifestly, the more seusibly, yet, it is a religious insinuation, and a circumve»tion that Goal loves, when sinner husbands his graces so well, as to grow rich uuder him, and to make his thanks for one blessing, a reason, and an occasion of auother; so to gather upon God by a rolling trench, and by a winding stair, as Abraham gained upon God, in the behalf of Sodom; tbr this is an act of the wisdom of the serpent, which out Saviour reeommends unto us, in such serpentine line, (as the artists call it) to get up to God, and get into God by such degrees, as David does here, from his ierere, to pelçect recovery; from the act of the Levite that looked upon the wounded man, to the act of the Smml'itan that undcrtook his cure '; from desil'ing God to visit him as a t'iend, (as.41,raaam was c«lleg tae fried GoJ ) to study him as a physiciall. Because the prophet Esay lnakes a proclanmtiou in naine, o, eery one ta« tar*t«ta ", &c. And because the saine prophet says of llim, lre portarit, lle katl truQt bo'tw upon himse" (and therefore taken away from us) all our diseases «, Teullian says elegantly, that Esay presents Christ, ]»rwdicatorero, et JIedicatorem, As a Preaeher, and as a l)hysieian; indeed he is a physieiau both ways; in his word, aud in power, and therefore in that notion only, as a 1)hysieian, David presents him here. Now physieians y, That mail hath in his constitution, ill his complexion, a natural virtue, which they eall Balsam«m suum, His own balsamum, by which any wound which a nlau eould reeeive in his body wotfld ente itself, if it eould be kept elcan from the annoyanees of the air, and all extriusie ineumbranees. Something that hath some proportion and analogy fo this balsamum of the body, there is in the soul of nian too: the soul hath oardum suum, ber spikenard, as the spouse says, 2X%rdus ea dedit odorem suum , She ]lad a spikenard, a perfume, a fragraney, sweet savour in herself For, lïrtutes.qermauius attDyuttt anlma»n, quam corpus,atit«s «, Virtuons hlelinations, aud a disposition to moral gooduess, is more natural to the soul of man, and nearer of kin to the soul of man, than heald is to the body. And then, if" we eonsider bodilv health, 2*ull« oratio, nulla doctri»w formula ws docet motbum odiis.e, savs that father: There needs no art, there lleeds no outward eloquenee, to persuade a ma, to be loath fo be siek: Ira in atdma inest m, tt«rali.% et citra doctrinam nali erit«tio, says he: So the soul hath a natural and untaught hatred, and detestation of that which is evil. The ehureh at thv baptisnl doth hot require sureties at thv hands, for this: thy sureties undertake to the ehureh in thy behalf, That thou shalt forsake the flesh, the world, aud the devil, that thou shalt lieve a]l the articles of our religiou, that thou shalt keep ail the eommandments of God; but for this knowledge and de- v Le x. 9 Jam ii. 23. =» Iiah Ll. 1. * Isah fii. 4. z Cant. i. 12. BH.
sza. x[x.] Pt«TST[, PsS. 607 testation of evil, they are hOt put to undertake them then, neither doth the church catechize thee in that after: for the sure of all those duties whid concern the detestation of evil, consists in that unwritten law of thy conscience which thou knowest naturally. 5'efs uoJ boni proxmo f«eien«m, says that father, aturally thou knowest what ood thou art bound to do to another man; Idem enim est, uod ab aliis tttte tibi fieri elis; For it is but asking thyselç, wha thou woulds that that other man should do unto tllee: ron çqnoras quid sit ipsum malum, Thou canst hOt be ignoralt, what evil thou shouldst abstain from oflbring to another, Est enim quod ab alio.fieri nolis, If is but the saine, which thou thiukest another should not put upon thee. So that the soul of man hath in it baL«amum suum, narchtm suttm, a medicinal balsamum, a fragrant Sl)ikenard in llerself, a natural disposition to moral goodness, as tlle bodv hath to health. But flerein lies the soul's disadvatage, that whereas the causes that hinder the cure of a hodilv wouud, are extrinsic oflbnees of the air, and putrefaction ri'oto thence, the causes in the wounds of the soul, are intrinsic, so as no othcr man tan apply 1)h)ic to thenl; nay, they are hereditary, and thcre was no time early enough for ourselves to apply anything by way of 1)revention, for the wounds were as soon as we were, and sooner; here was g new soul, but an old sore; a young chihl, but au in'etel'ate disease. As St. Augustine cannot conceive any interim, any distance, between the creating of the soul, and the infusing of the uod into the body, but eases himself upon that, Creando bndit, and b)tndendo creat, The creation is the infision, and the infusion is the creation, so we cannot couceive any interim, any distance, between the infising and the sickening, between tlle coming and the sinning of the soul. So that there was no means of preventiou; I could hot so much as wish, that I might be no sinner, for I could not wish that I might be no ehild. Neither is there any means of separation now; out concupiscences dwell in us, and prescribe in us, and will gnaw upon us, as worms, till they deliver out bodies to the worms of the grave, and our consciences to the worm that never dies. From the dallgerous eflcts then of this sickness, David desires to be hegled, and by God himself, 5bna me Domine, 0 Lord heal
408 PREACHED I.'PON THE [SER. XLLo ne; for that physic that man gives, is ail but drugs of thc earth moral and civil couusels, rather to cover thau recover, rather to disuise than to avoid: they put a clore in the mouth, but they do hot mend the lungs. To cover his nakedness Adam took but 9-1eares; but to recover Hezekiah, God took g themselres*'. Man deals upon leaves, that eover, altd shadow, God upon fruitful and effeetual means, that cure, and nourish..knd then, God took a lump offi.as*; God is liberal of his graces, and gives not over a cure, at one dressing: and they were dryfly» too, sa.vs that story; you nmst not look for figs front the tree, for immediate revelations, for private inspirations ri'ont God; but the medieinal preaehing of the word, medieinal saeraments, medieinal absolution, are such dry figs as God hath preserved in his ehureh for all out diseases. St. Paul had a Stl'ong desire, and he expressed it in often prayer to God, to bave this peeeant humour, this malignity elean purged out, to bave that,timulus car»la, that eoneupiseenee absolutelv taken away. God would not do so; but vet he applied his efletual physie,.uflïcie»t yrace. This then is the soul's panacea, the pharmacum catkolicum, the medicina omnimorbia, the physie that eures all, the suflîeient graee, the seasonable merev of God, in the merits of Christ Jesus, and in the love of the Holv Ghost. This is the physie; but then, there are ever ehicula medicinw, eertain syrups, and liquors, to eonvey the physie; water, and wine in the saeraments; and certain ph.vsieians to ordain antl preseribe, the ministers of the word and saeraments; the Father send.% the Son makes, the Itoly Ghost brings, the minister lavs on the plaster. For, dicinw ars a Deo data, «t inde rationem animw curandw di.«ceremus'*, God's purpose in giving us the seienee of bodily health, was not determined in the body: but his large and graeious purpose was, by that restitution of the body, to raise us to the eonsideration of spiritual health. XVhen Christ had said to him, who was brought siek of the palsy, Tky sina are for.oiren thee ", and that the Seribes and Pharisees were seandalized with that, as though he, being but man, had usurped upon the power of God, Christ proves to them, by an aetual restoring of his boclily Laiah xxxviii, i i. 2 King xx. 7. "- Basil. Mark il. 5.
health, that he cou]d restore his roui too, in thc forgiveness of sins: he asks them there, lI'hetker fs it. casier to «q/, Ty ins are foqien tee, or to say, çl rie, take up ty/ bed, and 'alg'. C'hritu facit mnitatem cooralem aqnmentum s]iritualis; Christ did hot determine his doctrine in the declaration of a miraetdous poxver exercised upon his body, hut hy that, established their belief of his spiritual power, in doing tha, whieh in their opinion was the greater work. l'nrstte therefore his method of euring; and if God have restored thee in any siekness, by sueh means, as he of his goodness hath imprinted in natural herbs, and simples, think hOt that tha was done only or simply for ghy body's sake, but hat, as ig is as easy for God to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, as Take up hy bed and xvalk, so i is as easy for flee, to bave spiritual physie, as bodily; because, as God bath planted all those medieinal simples in de open fields, foi" all, though some do tread them under their feet, so hath God deposied and prepared spiritual hdps for all, though all do hot make benefi of those helps xvhieh are offered. Iç is truc, tha Goal says of his chureh, Itortus concluus soror mea, 3lit i.«ter, mit spou$e [s a 9arden encloed, a a oIrin 9 kut in, mol a.fountain zealed «q"; bug therein is our advantage, who, by being enwrapped in the eovennt, as gle seed of the faithful, as the ehildren of Christian parents, are born if nog within this wa]led garden, yeg wih key in out hand to open the door, tha is, with a right and title, to the saemmeng of hapfim. The ehureh is a garden walled in, for their better defenee and seeurity thag re in i; buç no walled in to keep any out, who, either by being hom within the eovenang, inheri a right o it, 9r by aeeepting the groee whieh is ofired them, aequire, and profess a desire to enter thereinto. For, as ig is garden, fidl of epikenard, and of incense, nd o( ag pice.% (as the tex says there) so tha they who are in this garden, in the chureh, are in possession of all these blessed means of spiritual health; so are these spiees, and ineense, and spikenard, of diflktsive nd spreding nature, and breathe even over the wlls of he garden: O#um OEu. zum -nomen uz"; The name ofChris is unefion, ointmeng; but ig
410 PREACHED UPON THS [Slno XLIXo is an ointment poured out» an ointment that communicates the fra,rancy thcreof, to persons at a good distance; and, as it is said there a, Christ calls up the ort and the,ço«t to blow «pon Ms yarden, he raises up men fo transport and propagate these lneans of salvation to all nations, so that, in everv nation, they that fear him are acceptable fo him; not that that fear of God in general, as one universal power, is sufllcient in itself, to bring any man to God inunediately, but that God directs the spikenard, and incense of this garden upon that man, and seconds his former fear of God, with a love of God, and brings him to a knowledge, and fo a desire, and to a poession, and fruition of our more assured means of salvation. "Vhen he does so, this is his method, as iu restoring bodily health, he said,,ç'urye, tolle, ambtda, Avise, take up thy bed, and walk: so to every siek soul, whose cure he undertal¢es, he says so too,,ç«tr.qe, toile, ambula. Our beds are our natural affections; these he does hot bid us cast away, nor burn, nor destroy: sinee Clrist vouchsafed indnere lominem, we must hot exuere .omiwm; since Christ invested the nature of man, and became man, we mu_t hOt pretend to divest if, and become any_els, or flatter ourselves in the merit of mortifications, not enjoined, or of a retiredness, and departing out of the worl«l, in the world, by the withdrawing of onrselves from the offices of mntual society, or an extinuishing of natura] affections. But,,'«t:oe, says our Saviour, Avise from this bed, s]eep hot lazily in an over-indulgency to these aflèetions but, ambtta, wa]k sineere]v in tby calling, and thou shalt hear thy Saviour say, Aon est ioErmitas lcec ad mortem, These affections, nay, these eoneupiscencies shall hot destrov thee. David then doth hot pray for such an exact and exquisite state of health, as that he shou]d bave no infirmity; physieians for our bodies tell us, that there is no such state; the best degree of health is but oettralitas; he is well (that is, as well as man tan be) that is hot dangerously sick; for absolutely well ean no man be. Spiritual physieians ill tell you so too; he that says you have no sin, or that God sees not yonr sin, if you be of the elect, deceives you. It is hOt for an innocency that David prays; but it is against deadly diseases, and against violent accidents of a Cant. iv. 16.
those diseases. Ho doth hOt beg, he cannot hope for an absolute peace: nture bath put a war upon us; true happiness, and apparent happiness fight against oue auother: sin hath put a war upon us; the flesh and" the spirit fight one against another: Christ.lesus himself came to put a war upon us; the zeal of his glory, and the course of this worl,I, fight onc agaiust another. It is not against all war; nay, it is not against all victory that David prays, he cannot hope that he should be overcome hy no teml)tatious; but against such a xvar, and mch a victory, as should bring him to servility, and bondage to sin, that sin enteriug by conquest upon him, should govern as a tvrant over him, against such a sickness as should induce a consumption, it is that he directs this prayer,,S'aa me Domine, Not, Lord lnake me impeccable, but Lord make me penitent, and then heal me. And he cornes hOt to take physic upon wantonness; but bccause the disease is violent, because the accidents are vehement; so vehcment, so violent, as that it bath pierced Ad ossa, and ad anim««m, 1][!1 boes are 'e.red, ad my sorti is sore trotbl«l, theretbre heal me; which is the reason upon which he grounds this second petition, IIeal me, becat«se m!! bows are vexed, &c. We must necessarily insist a little upon these terlns, the bows, tke soul, the trouble, or ve.ratiot. First, ossa, bows, we know in the natural and ordinary acceptation, what they are; the)" are these beams, alld timbers, and rafters of these tabernacles, these temples of thc Holy Ghost, these bodies of ours. But Immanebim,s notirov sig,(]icationi. sa)'s St. ]3asil, 8hall we dwell u]Oll the native and natural sigmfication of these bows? Et i,t«lli.qê,tia passim obria contenti erim,«s? Shall we who have our conversation in heavem find no more in these boes, than an earthl.v, a worldly, a natural man would do. By St. Basil's example, we nmy boldly proceed farther: 1]Iembra etiam ai»ov su,t, says he: The soul hath her limbs as well as the bodv. S«trdi a,tdite, ca, ci ospicite, says God in Isaiah*; if their souls had not ears and eyes, the blind could hot see, the deaf could not hear, and yet God calls upon the deaf and blind, to hear and see. As St. Paul says to the Ephesians, The eyes of your «derstandi»g beig en- ligktened; so David says, Dentes peccatorum contrivisti, Tho« kaet broken tke teeth; that is, the pride and thc power, thc vençm and nm]iity of the wieked: lImbra etlam anlmw unt, The soul bath ber bones too; and here David's bones were the strongest powers and faeulties of his soul, and the best actions and operations of those teulties, and yet they vere shaken. For this hereditary siekness, original sin, prevai]s so far upon us, that upon out good days we hve some grudgings of that fever; even in out best actions, we bave some of the leaven of that sin. So that if we go about to eomfort ourselves, with some dispositions to God's glry, which we find in ourselves, with solne sparks of love fo his 1)recepts, and his conmmndments, with somc good strcngth of faith, with some lneasure of good works, yea, with having something for the naine, and glory of Christ Jesus: yet if we consider what human and corrupt affections bave beeu mingled in ail these, conturbuntm" ossa, our bones will be troubled, even those that al,peared to l)e strong works, and likely to hohl out, will need a reparation, an exclamation,,bTtna me Dominée, 0 Lord heal these too, or cl these are as weak as the worst: Ossa non dole»t; the bones themseh'es have no sense, they tel no pain. We need not say, That those good works tbenselves, which we do, have iu their nature, the nature of sin; that evcry good work considered alone, and lu the substance of tbc act itsclf is sin; but membrana, dolent; those little lnembranes, those films, thosc tbin skins, that cover, and that line some bones, are very sensiblc of paiu, and of any vexation. Though in the nature of the work itselt: the work be not sin, yet in those circumstances that iuvest, and involve the work, in those things which we mingle with the work, whether desire of glory towaMs men, or opinion of lnerit towards God; whensoever those bones, those best actions corne to thc examination of a tender and a diligent conscience, sl ossa wn dolent, embrana dolet, if the work be not sinful, the circumstances are, and howsoever they may be conceived to be strong, as they are ossa, bones, works, in a moral consideratiou, good, yet, as they are Ossa mea, savs David, As they are my bones, such goed works: t Psal. ifi. 7.
SEII. XLlX,] IENI'rE-'rlAL I'SAL,|S, 413 a faste oç my ill corruptions, so long they are vexed, and troubled, and eannot stand upright, nor appear with any confidence in tire sight of od. Thu far theu first David needed this nation, this health that lin pray for, that hi best actions were eorrupt; but the corruption weut farther, to the very foot and fountain of those actions, Ad iam animam, his very,oui w,ore eed. It is true, that as this word anima, te,oul, is ometinm taken in the Seriptures, thi nia seem to go no çarther thau the former, no more that his oul was vexed, than that his bone were so: for, anima, in nmny plies, is but aulmalis omo, the soul signifies but the naturM man: and so oponitur siritul, the sou[ is hOt ouly said to be diverse thing, but a eontrary thing to the sirit. XVhen the apostle says to the Thessalonians, çw te very God of peace eanctoEg you tkrougkout, that your whole,l»irit. and »oul. atd may be kept blamele», unto the comDt 9 f out Lord de,u Christ '. And where the saine apostle says to the Itebrews, The cord GOE dieideth asutMer te soul aM the opirit»; here is a difference put between corrupt nture, and the working of the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost in man; for here, the soul is taken for Animalis homo, The natural man, and the spirit is taken for the Spirit of God. But besides this, these two words, soul and opirit, are sometimes used by the fathers, in n sense diverse from one another, and as different things, and yet stiH as parts oç one and the saine man; man is said by them, not only to have a body, and a soul, but to have a soul, and a spirit; hot as spirit is the Spirit of God, and so an extrinsical thing, but as spirit is a constitutive prt of the natural man. So, in paicular, amongst many, Gregory Nyssen takes the body to be spoken De mtribili, The flesh and blood of man, and the soul De sendbili, The operation oç the senses, and the spirit De intellectuali, The intellectual, the reasonable çaculties of man; that in the body, man is con- çormed to plants that have no sense, in the soul, to beasts, that have no rean, in the splrit, to angels. But so, the spirit is but the saine thing with that, which now we do ordinarily account the ul to be; for we make account, that the image of God is imprinted in the ul, nd that gives him his conformity to t« I The$s. v. 23. Heb. iv. 12.
41 PREAenED UPON THE [SERo XLIXo angels: but divers others of the ancients have taken #oui and s/irit, for diflrent tlfings, even in tle intellectual part of man, somewhat obscurely, | confe and, as some venture to say, unnecessarily, if hOt dangerously. It troubled St. Hieronm sometimes, how to undcrstand the word qMrit in man: but he takes the easiest way, he despatches himself of it. as fast as he could, that as, to speak of it only as it was used in the Scriptures: Famosa quwstio, says he, sed brei sermon« tractanda«; It as a question often disputed, but may be shortly determined, Idem sTiritus hic, ac in ils verbis, Nolite extinyuere spiritum; Vllen we hear of the spia-it in a man, in Scriptures, we must understand it of the gifts of the spia'it; for so, fully to the saine purpose, says St. Chrysostom,,S'Tiritus est charisma spirit«s, The spirit as the working of the spirit, the gifts of tlae spirit: and so when we llear, the q, irit was vexed, the sFirit was quenched, still it as to be uuderstood, the gifts of the spirit. And so, as t]ley l'estrain the signification of spirit, to tlaose gifts only, (thougll the word do indeed, in lalany places, requil'e a larger extension) so do many restrain this word in out text, the soul, OldV ad sensum, to the sensitive faculties of the soul, that as, only to tho pain and anguish that lais body suffered; but so tr, at ]cast, David laad gone, in that which lae said before, 11!! bones are ¢exed. Now, Iaravescit morbus, The disease fcsters beyond the bone, even into tlae ularrow itself. His boues were those best actions that ]le had produced, and he saw in that contenlplation, that for all that he had done, he was still, af best, but an unl)rofitable servant, if not a rebellious enenly; but then, wllel he considers his whole soul, mad all tlaat ever if eall do, he sees ail the test will be no bettel'; the poison, he sees, is in the fouutain, the canker in the l'OOt, the rancour, the venonl in tbe soul itself. CorTus iastrumentum, anina ars psa, says St. Basil: The body, and the seuses are but the tools, and illstrUllelts, that the soul works with. But the soul is the art, the science that directs those instruments; the faculties of the soul are the boughs that produce the fruits; and the operations, and particulaa" acts of tllose faculries are the fruits, but the soul as the foot of ail. And David
StaR. X|AXo] PFNITENTIAL PSALISo sees, that this a, this scicnce, this soul can direct him, or establish him in no good way tbat hot only the fruits, his particular acts, nor only the boughs, and arms, his several faculties, but tbe foot itself, the soul itself, was infected. His bones are shakcn, he dates hot stand upon the goed he bath done, his ul is so too, he cannot hope for any the past, he bath no freewill for the future; that is his case. This trot«bles his boes, this trotbles his sotd, tbis vexes tbem both; for, the word is ail one, in both places, as out last translators have observed, and rendered it aright; hot «exedin one place, and troubled in the other, as out former translators had it; but in both places it is Bahal, and Bahal imports a vehemence, both in the itenseness of it, and in tbe suddenness, and inevitableness of it: and therefore it signifies ofie]t, Prwcipitatttiam, A henrilong downfal and irrecoverablene; and ofien, Eranescettia»t, An utter vanishing away, and annihilation. David, (whom we always consider in the Psalms, hOt only to speak literally of those miseries which were actually upon bimself, but prophetically too, of such measures, and exaltations of those miseries, as would certainly fall upon them, did not seek their nation, their recovery from the God of all health) loeking into all bis actions, (tbey are the fruits)and into all his faculties, (they are the boughs) and into the foot of all, the ul itself, considering what he had done, what he could do, be sees that as yet he had done no goed, he sees he should never be able to do any; his bows are trottbled, he bath no comfo i that which is grown up, and past, and his sottl is sore troubkd, (for to the trouble of the soul, there is added in the text, that particle, valde, it is a sore trouble that falls upon the soul, A troub&d spirit wko van bear?) because he bath no hope in the future; he was no surer for that which was to corne, than for that which was past; but he, (that is, ail, cousidered in that case which he proposes) he cornes (as the word signifies) adprwcipit(t»tian, that all his strenh can scarce keep him from precipitation into despair, and he cornes (as the word signifies too) ad erawscettiam, to an evaporating, and a vanishing of his soul, that is, even to a renouncing, and a detestation of bis immoality, and to a willingness, to a desire, that he might die the death of other creatures, -hich perish altogether, and go
] ( PREACHED UPON THE [SER. XL1X. out as a candle. This is the trouble, the sore trouble of his soul, a-ho is brought to au apprehension of God's indignation for hot performing conditions required at his hands, and of his inability to perform them, and is hOt corne to the contemplation of his ntercy, in supply thereof. There is Turbatio timoris, A trouble out of fear of danger in this world, Herod's trouble; ll'ken tke ma.qi brou.q]t word of another king, t[erod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him . There is Turbatio confusionis, The mariner's trouble iu a tempest; Tkeir soul meltetk j'or trouble , says David. There is Turbatio occupationis; Martha's trouble; 21lartka thou art troubled about many tkinys , says Christ. There is, Tut'batio admirationis, The blessed Virgin's trouble, IVken she saw the angel, she was troubled at his sai.q "°. To eontraet this, there is T«rbatio comloassionis, Christ's own trouble, IVhen he sate Iar weep for ber brother Zazarus, he 9roand in the sTi-rit, and was troubled in hlmself . But in all these troubles, Herod's fear, the nmriner's irresolution, Martha's multiplieity of business, the blessed Virgin's sudden anmzenlent, our Saviour's conlpassionate sorrow, as they are in us, worldly troubles, so the world administers some means to extenuate, and alleviate these troubles; for fears are overcome, and stornls are appeased, and businesses are ended, and wonders are understood, and sorrows wear out, but in this trouble of the bones, and the soul, in so deep and sensible impressions of the anger of God, looking at once upon the pravity, the obliquity, the malignity of ail that I bave done, of ail that I shall do, nmn bath but one step between that state, and despair, to stop upon, to turn to the author of ail temporal, and all spiritual health, the Lord of lire, with David's prayer, Cor mtnd«m crea, Create a clean keart within ne'; begin with me again, as thou begunnest with Adam, in innocency; and see, if I shall husband and govern that innocency better than Adam did; for, for this heart which I bave ri-oto him, I have it in corruption; and, who can briny a clean tkiny out of uncleanness«? Therefore David's prayer goes farther in the saine place, _Renew a constant spirit in ne; present cleanness cannot be had from myself; but if I bave that from lIatt, il. 3. Psalm cvii. 27. Luke x. 41. «o Luke i. 29. John xi. 33. Psalm ri. 10. Job xiv. 4.
BER. XLIX.] IENITENTI XL S-«L.',tS. +1 7 God, mine own clottea will make me foul a.¢ain, and therefore do hot only ereato a elean spirit, but renew a spirit of eonstaney and perse'eranee. Thereforo I haro also another prayer in file sanie Psalm,,S'l)iritu principali confirma me", Sustain me, uphold me with thy freo spirit, thy large, thy munificent spirit: for thy ordi= nary graces will hOt defray nie, nor earry nie through this valley of temptations; hot thy singlo money, but thy talents; hot as thou art thine own a]moner, but rhino own treasurer; it is hOt tho dew, but thy former and latter tain that must water, though it be thy hand that bath planted; hOt an)- of the rivers, though of Paradiso, but the oeean itself, that must bring me to thy Jerusalera. Creato a e}ean heart; thou didst so in Adam, and in him l defiled it. Renew that heart; thou didst so in baptism; and flty upholding me,vith thy constant spirit, is thy afl'ording me means, whieh are constant, in thy ehureh; but thy eonfirming me with thy principal spirit, is thy making of those moins, instituted in thy ehureh, effeetual upon me, by the spirit of application, the spirit of appropriation, by which the merits of tho Son, deposited in the ehureh, are de]ivered over unto me. This then is the force of David's reason in this petidon, Ossa h'ntur ritlis, as one of Job's friends speaks, 2lIy bones arefull of the sins of my youth", that is, my best actions, now in mine age, have some taste, some tineture from the habit, or sonie sinfui memory of the acts of sin in my youth Adhæret os meure carni, as David also speaks, $Qt bones cleae to my flesh «, my best actions faste of my worst; and ]ly d{'in cleaees to my bones, as Jeremy laments '*, that is, my best actions eall tbr a skin, for something to eover them: and thereIbre, hot therefore becauso I have brought myself into this state, but beeause by thy grace I have power to bring this my state into thy sight, by this humble confession,,S'ana »te Domine, 0 Lord heal me; thou that art my Messiah, be my Moses, and carry these bones of thy Joseph out of Eg'pt«; deliver me, in this consideration of mine actions, from the terror of a self-aecusing, and a jealous, and suspicious conscience; Bury my bones beside the bones of the man of God'*; beside the bones of the Son of God: look upon my bones as they " Psalm Ll. 12. " Job xx. 11. Psalm cii. 5. "* Lam. iv. IL Exod. xiii. 19. "* I Kings xiii. 31. VOL. 1I. 2 E are coflned, and shronded in that sheet, the rihteousne of Christ Jesus. A««eant o a ossa, as in EzekieFs vision °, Let or bones corne toether, bone to bone, ine to his, and look upon the,no intut,, ail toether, and tere sa corne sinews, and flesh, and skin pon them, and reathe upon them, and in him, in Christ Jesus, I shall lir; my bones bein laid by hi though but grisfles in themselves, my actions being considered in his, though imperfect in themselves, shall bear me up in the sight of God. And this may be the purpose of this prayer, this sanation, grounded upon t]fis rean, O Ld eal me, for y bone are vexed, &c. But yet David must, and doth stop upon this step, he stays God's ]eisure, and is put to his Usqu«oEuo? But thou, 0 Lord, ow lonç? David had cfied miserere, he had begged of God to look towards him, and consider him; he had revealed to him his weak and troubleme estate, and he had intreated relief but yet God gave hot that relief presently, nor seemed to bave heard his prayer, nor to have accepted his reasons. David cornes to some degrees of expostulation with God but he dares hOt proceed far; it is but «squequo Domine? Which if we consider it in the original, and so also in our lt translation, requires a serious consideration. For it is hot How loço wilt thou delay? but it is only, Et tu Domine, loo. And there he ends in there as it is in the first translation, David charges God with no delay: «squequo? But thou, 0 Lord, ltow a ho" abruptness, as though he had taken himself in a fault, to enterprise any expostulation with God. He doth hot say, How long ere thou hear me. If thou hear me, how long ere thou regard me. If thou regard me, how long ere thou heal me. How long shall my bones, how long shall my soul be troubled. He says hot so; but leaing all to his leisure, he corrects his passion, he breaks off his expostulation. As long as I have that commission from God, Dic animw tuw, salus tua sum ', Say unto thy soul, I ana thy salvation, my soul shall keep silence unto God, of whom cometh my salvation: silence from murmuring, how long soever he be in recovermg me: not silence from prayer, that he would corne; for that is out last consideration; David proposed his desire,.liserere, and,ana, vo Ezek. xxxviL 7. » Psalm xxxv. 3.
look towards me, and heal me, that was out first; and then his reasons, Ossa, alima, 3!y bones, ny soul is troubled, that w our second; and then he grew sensible of Godes absence, for ail that, which was out third proposition for yet, for ail this, he continues patient, and solicits the saine God in the saine naine, the Lord, But tou 0 Lord, ow loy? Need we then any OEher example of sueh patience than God h]mself, who stays se long in expectation of our conversion But we have David's example too, who having fir ruade his deprecation, that God wou]d net reprove him in anger, having prayed God te forbear him, he in aise well content te forbear God, for those other things which ho asks, ti]l it be his pleasure te give them. But yet he neither gives over praying, ner doth he incline te pray te any body else, but still oine iserere, Have nwrcy upon me 0 Lord, and DomDw sam, 0 Lord eal nze: indttstry in a lawful calling, faveur of great persons, a thankful ackuowledgqnent of the ministry and protection of angels, and of the pryers of the saints in heaven for us, all these concur te out assistance; but the root of all, all temporal, a]l spiritual bles in.gs, is he, te whom David leads us here, Don, inus, Te Lord; Lo, as he is proprieta of all creatures; he ruade a]], and therefore is Lord of a]l as he is Jehovah, which is the name of essence, of being, as a]l things bave all their beiag frein him, their very being, and their we]l-being, their creation, and their conservation; and in that naine of recognition and acknowledgment, that al] that can be had, is te be asked of him, and him on]y, him, as he is Jehovah, Te Zoo'd, does David so]icit him here; for, as there is no other nanw mder heavê, ive amoyst et, wkereb -we m«st be sat'ed, bt the mme " Jesus Christ; se is there no other nanm above in heaven proposed te men, whereby they should receive these b]essings, but the naine of Jehovah; for Jehovah is the name of the who]e Trinity, and there are no more, no queen-mother in heaven, no councillors in heaven in commission with the Trinity. In this naine thercfore David pursues his prayer: for, frein 3 river, frein a cistern, a man may take more water at once, than he tan fmm the first spring and fountain-head; but he cannot Acts iv. 12.
take the water so sincerely, so purely, so intemeratelv from the channel as from the fountain-head. Princes and great persons may raise their deendents faner than od does his; but sudden riches corne like a land-water, and bring much foness with them. SVe are God's vineyard; The rinoEard OE the Lord OE host, is tke bouse Israel, and tke n Juoek are his pleasant plant , says the prophet. And God delights to sec his plants prosper, and grow up seonably. More than once Christ makes that profession, That he goes down into the çarden OE nuts, to sec the fruits OE the ealley", and to see u'hether the ine flourished, and hether the pomegranate budded; and he go up rly into the ineyard, to sec hetk the nder grape appred . He h a plemure in the growth and successive inerease of his plants, and did hot loek they shod corne hastily to their height and maturity. If woddly blessings, by a good indust, gw up in us, it is natural; but if they fall upon us, pluit laqueo», God tains do springes and snares , easions of sin in those abundanees, and pluit.orandinem, he 1 tain do hailones; hailon m big as talent in the Revelation ; as big as miltones; he 11 make out riches occasions of raising enemies, and make the enemies grindstones to grind out fortunes to powder. Make not too mueh hae tobe rich: even in irituM riches, in spiritual health make hot toe much hte. Pray for it; for there is no other way to get it. Pray to the Lord for it: for saints and angels bave but enough for themsdves. Make hae to ben to have these iritual gres; desire them, is to begin to have them: but make hot too mueh haste in the way; do hot thi thysdf purer than thou a, beeae thou see another do some such sins, thou hast forboe. Beloved, at lt, when Chrt Jesus cornes with his scales, thou shalt hot be weighed with that man, but eve man hall be weighed th God: Bepure as your Father in hearen is pure, is the weight that mu try us ail; and then, the pure of us a, that trus to his o purity, must hear that feafful let Tekel Upharsin, Thou a weighed, thou a found too light, thou art divided, separad from the face of God, becae thou ht hot s v. 7. s CL d 10. s Ct. 12. sa p 6. sz o . Rev. xvL 21.
taken the purity oF that Son upon thee who hot only in lmself' bu those also who are in him n him are pure, as his, and their Father in heven is pure. eiher make Go much baste fo these spiritual riches and health as to think thyse|ï whole before thou ar: neiher murmur, nor despar oF thy recoverT, ff thou bees hot whole GO soon as thou desiredst. If" thou wrestle v«ih temptafions, and canst hot overcome them, if" thou purpose to pmy earnesly, and find thy mnd present|7 strayed from tht purpose, if thon inteud a good course, and nleet with stops in the way, if thou seek peace of conscience, and scruples out of zeal interrupt that, yet discomfort hot thyself. God stayed six days in his first work, in the creation, belote he came fo make thee; yet ail that while he wrought for thee. Thy regeneration, to make thee a new creature, is a greater work than that, and it cannot be donc in an instant. God bath purposed a building in thee; he bath sat down, and considered, that he bath sufficient to accomplish that building, as itis in the Gospel, and therefore leave hira to his leisure ». Vhen thou hast begun with David, with a Domine e arguas, 0 Lord rebuke me hOt, and followed that, with a Z)omine saa me, 0 Lord hem me, if thou find a Dominée usqt«eqw? Any degree of weariness of attending the Lord's leisure, arising in thee, supiress it, overcome it, with more and more petitions, and that which God did by way of commandment, in the first crea tion, do thou by way of prayer, in this thy second creation; first he said, Fiat lttx, Let there be liglt: pray thou, that he would enlighten thy darkness. God was satisfied with that light for three days, and then he said, Fiant ltmiaria, Let there be great liglts: bless God for his present light, but yet pray that he will enlarge that light which he hath giien thee; and turn all those his commandments into prayers, tili thou corne to his Faciamus homiwm, Let us ma['e man according fo ottr ow image; pray that he will restore his image in thee, and conform thee to him, who is tle image of tlle invisible G'od *°, out Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus. He did his greatest work upon thee, belote rime was, thine election; and he bath reserved the consummation of that work, till time shall be no more, thy glorification: and aa for thy Luke xiv. 28. eo Coloss. i. 15.
2 I)ENITENTI)-L I)S.kLIISo [SER, XLIXo vocation ho hath taken his own time, ho did hOt call thee into the world in the time of the I)rimitive church, nor I)erchance, call thee eflctually, though in the church, in the days of thy youth; so stay his time for thy sanctification, and if the daysi)ring from ou high have visited thee but this morning, if thou beest corne to a.fiat lux but now, that now God have kindled some light in thee, he may corne this day seven-night to a.fiant l«minaria, to nmltii)ly this light by more I)owerful means. If not so soon, yet still remember, that it was God that ruade the sun stand still to Joshua, as vell as to run his race as a giant to David; and God was as much glorified in the standing still of the sun, as in the motion thereof; and shall be so in thy sanctification, thouh it seem to stand at a stay for a time, when his time shMl be to I)erfect it, in a measure acceptable to thee. othing is accei)table to him, but that which is seasonable; nor seasonable, excei)t it corne in the time I)roi)er to it: and, as St. Augustine says, _t«ra re est, quam dldit ])eus, That is the nature of everything which God bath iprinted in it, so that is the time for everything, which God hath api)ointed for it. Pray, and stay, are two blessed monosyllables; to ascend to God, to attend God's dcscent to us, is the motion, and the test of Christian; and as ail motion is for test, so let ail the motions of out soul in out I)rayers to God be, that our wills may test in his, and that all that pleases him, may 1,1ease us, therefore bccause it p]eases him; for therefore, because it I)leases him, it becones good for us, and then, when it pleases him, it becomes seasonable unto us, and expedicnt for us.
PSALI ri. , 5. Return, 0 Lord; Dcliver my soul » 0 Lord save me, for thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee; and in the grave, who slmll give thee thauks? TH whole psahn is prayer; and prayer is out whole service to God. Earnest prayer hath the nature of importunity we press, we importune God in prayer; yet that puts hot God to a morosity, to a fi'owardness; God flings hot away from that;God suffers that importunity, and nmre. Prayer hath the nature of impudency; we threaten God in prayer; as Gregory Nazianzen adventures to express it; he says, his sister, iii the vehemenée of her prayer, would threaten God, Et o«sta q«ada» de»tia, e[/it i»pu,le»tem; She came, says he, to a rcligious impudency with God, and to threaten him, that she would never depart from his altar, till she had her petition granted; and God suffers this impudency, and more. Praver hath the nature of violence; in the public prayers of the conovegation, we besiege God, says Tertullian; and we take God prisoaer, and bring God to our conditions; and God is glad to be straitened by us in that siege. This prophet here executes before, what the apostle counsels after, Pra!/itcessa»tl; even in his singing ho prays; and as St. Basil says, Etiam son»tiajustorttm preces s««»tt, A good man's dreams are prayers, he prays, and hOt sleepily, in his sleep, so David's songs are prayel'S. Now in this his bcsieging of God, he brings up his works from afar off, closer; lle begius in this psahu, ata deprecatory prayer; he asks nothing, but that God would do nothing, that he would forbear him; Rebtd'e ve hot, correct me hot. Now, it costs the king less, to give a pardon, than to give a pension; and less to give a reprieve, than to give a pardon; and less to connive, hot to call in question, than either reprieve, pardon or pension; to forbear, is hot nmch. Bat then, as the mathematician said, that he could nmke an engine, a screw, that should more the whole frame of the world, if he could
42e rREACHED uroN TIIE [SEI. L. have place assigned him, to fix that engine, that screw upon, that so it might work upon the world: so prayer, when one petition Imth taken hold upou God, works upon God, moves God, prevails with God, entirely Ibr ail. David then having got this ground, tlfis footing i.. God, he b.'ings his works closer; he" cornes from the deprecatory, to a postulatory prnyer; hot only thnt God would do nothin against him, but that he would do something for him. God Imth suffered man to see Arc«na imp«rH, the secrets of his state, how he governs; he governs by precedent; by precedents of his predecessors, he cnnnot; he bath none by precedents of other ods, he cannot; there,are aorte; and yet he proceeds by precedents; by his own precedents; he does as he did before; hab«»H dot, fo him that hath received, he gives more, and is willing to be wrought, and prevailed upon, and pressed with his own example. And, as though his doing good, were but to learn how to do good botter, still he writes after his own copy; and Nulla diês sine liiea, He writes something to us, that is, he doth something for us, every day. And then, that which is not often seen, in other masters, his copies are better than the originals; his latter mercies larger than his former: and in this postulatory prayer, larger than the deprecatory, enters our text, lttm'n 0 Lord; delirer soul; 0 sare e, &C. David, who everywhere remembers God of his covenant, as he was the God ofIbraha»;, remembers also, how Abraham proceeded with God, in the behalf of Sodom; and he remembers, that when Abraham had gained upon God, and brought h]m from a greater, fo a less number of righteous men, for whose sakes Goal would bave spared that city, yet Abraham gave over asking, before God gave over granting; and so Sodom was lost. A little more of St. Augustine's mportunity, of qazianzen's impudence, of Tcrtullian's violence in prayer, would have done well in Abraham; if Abraham had corne fo a less price, fo less than ten, God knows what God would have done; for God went ot awaA says the text there, till he had left communiçq witl Abraham; that is, till Abraham had no more to say to him. In memory and contemplation of that, David gives not over in this text, till he corne to the uttermost of ail, as far as man can ask, as far as
God can give; he begins at first, x'ith a Rerertere Domine, Return 0 Lord, and higher than that, no man can begin no man can begin at a lni Domine; no man cau pray to God, to corne, till God be corne into him; Quid peto, ut ee»ias in says St. Augustine: Qui non essem, sinonesses in me? How should I pray, that God would corne into me, who hot only could hot bave the spirit of praying, but hOt the spirit of beiug, not ]ife itself, if God were hot in me already But then, this prayer is, that when God had been with him, and for his sins, or his coldness, and slackness in prayer, was departed aside from lfim, yet he xuld vouchsafe to return to him again, and restore to him that light of his countenance whieh he had before, Rerertere Domine, 0 Lord return. And then lin passes to his second petition, Eripe animam, Delirer my soul; That when God in his return saw those nmny and strong snares which entangled him, those many and deep tentations and tribulations which surrounded him God, being in his mercy thus returned, and in his p,vidence seeing this danger, would hot nowstand ncutral between them, and sec him and these tentations fight it out, but fight on his side and deliver him; Eripe animam, Ddirer l soul. And theu, by these two petitions, he makes wy for the third and last, which is the perfection and consnlnmation of ail, as far as he tan carry a prayer or a desire,,Salrum ne lac, 0 Lord sare me; that is, Imprint in me strong hope of sah'ation in this lire, and invest me in an irremovable posssession, in the lire fo corne. Lord I acknowledge that thou hast visited me heretofore, and for my sins hast absented thyself, 0 Lord return; Lord, now thou art returned, and seest me unable to stand lu these tentations and tribulations, Delirer thou.my soul; Lord thou hast delivered me again and again, and again and again I fall baek to my former danger, and therefore, 0 Lord sare me, place me where I may bo sale; fe in u constant hope, that the Saviour of the world intended that lvation to me; and these three petitions constitute our first prt in David's posttflatory prayer. And then the second part, which is also within the words of this text, and consists of those reasons, by which David inclines God to grnt his three petitions, which are two, first, Propret misericordlam tuam, Do this 0 Lord, ]br tk ine own mercy sake, and
40-6 e.«cv »o THE [se. . then, O«[a non n ore, Do it 0 Lord, for thine own honours sake, because in death there is no remembrance of thee, that second part wilI be the subject of another exereioe, for, that which belongs to the three petitions, will employ the rime aHowed for this. First then, the first step in this prayer, Beverere, 0 Lord return, implies first a former presenee and then a preoent absence, and also a confidence for the future; whoever says, 0 Lord return, ys all this, Lord thou wast here, Lerd thou a departed henee, but yet, Lord thou mayest return hither again. God w with us all, before we were anything at all; and ever sinee our making, hath been uth us, in his general proqdenee; and oe, we eannot say, 0 Lord return, bause so he was never gone fronl us. But as God ruade the cash, and the frui thereof, before he ruade the sun, whose force was to work upon that cash, and upon the natural fruits of that earth, but before he made paradise, whieh was to have the tree of lit, and the tree of knowledge, he ruade the sun to do those oees, of shining upon it, and returning daily to it; so God makes this earth of ours, that is ourselves, by natural ways, and sustains us by general providence, before anv sun of partieular graee be seen to shine upon us. But before man ean be a paradise, possessed of the tree of life, and of knowledge, this sun is nmde and pmdueed, the paiear graees of God fise to him, and work upon him, and awaken, and solieit, and exalt those natural faeulties whieh were in him this Son fills him, and fits him, compasses him, and dispooes him, and does all the oees of the sun, seasonably, oppounely, maturely, for the nourishing of his sou], aeeording to the veral ueeessities thereof. And this is Godes returning to us, in a general apprehension; after he hath ruade us, and blessed us in our nature, and by his natural means, he returns to make us again, to make us better, first by his first preventing graee, and then by a succession of his partieular graees. And therefore we must return to this returning, in some more partieular eonsiderations. There are besides others, three signifieations in the Seripture, of this word,huba, which is here tralated, to return, appliable to our prescrit purpose. The first is the natural and native, the primary and radicM signification of the word. And so, hubah,
BEKo L.] PENITENTIAL IBALMS. 407 fo reeur, is eJ;re aJ &c«m succin, to retm'n to that place, to which a thing is naturally aected so heavy tlfings return to the centre, and light things return to the expansion; So 's breat dearteth, s)'s Dvid, e edi i terrain suam, he,return into hb eartlt; tht earth, xvhich is so much his, ns that it la he himself; of earth he was, and thefore to eatoEh he returns. But ean God return in such nse as this Can wo find an ttbi for God A place that is his place $ Yes; and an earth which is his earth; surely the inel/ard of the Zorcl of kosts, is the bouse of Israel, and tke men Judah are his p&a8ant plant . So the church, which is his vineyard, is his ubi, his place, his centre, fo which he is naturally affected. And when he calls us hither, and meets us here, upon his Sabbaths, and sheds tho promises of his gospel upon tlc congregation in his ordinance, he returns fo us here, as in his nbi, as in his own place. And as he hath a place of his own here, o he bath an earth of his own in this place. Out flesh is earth, and Goal hath invested out flesh, and in that flesh ot" ours, which suflred death for us, he returns to us in this place, as often as he maketh us partakers of his flcsh, and his blood, in the blessed Saerament. So then, though in my days of sin, God bave abseuted himself ri'oto me, (for God is absent when I do not discern his l)resenee) yet if toeday I tan hear his voice, as God is returued to-day fo this place, as fo his tbi, as to his own place; so in his entering into me, in his flesh and blood, he returns to me as fo his earth, that eaoEh whieh he bath ruade his by assuming my nature, I ara become his ubi, his place; Deliciw us, His delight is to be with the sons " nn, and so with me; and so in the ehureh, in the sermon, in the saerament he rcturns to us, in the first significatiou of this word shtbah, as fo that place fo which he is naturally affected and disposed. In a second signification, this word is referred, not fo the place of God, hot fo the person of God, but (if we may so speak) fo the passion of God, to the anger of God; and so, the retttrning of G, that is, of God's anger, is the alla)ng, the becalming, the departing of his anger; and so when God returns, God stays; his anger is returned from us, but God is still with us, The u'rath of tke Lord u'as kindled, says the prophet Esay; and he Pst. exil. 4. Isaiah v. 7.
amote hia FeoFle, o that the moutaia trembled, and their carcae were torn in the dat of the areetaL Here is the tempest, here is the visitation, here is God's coming to them; he cornes, but in auget, and we heur of o redibat «ror, for all this, his wrath, his fury did hot return; that is, did hOt depart from them; for, as God uever cornes in this manner, till out mtiplied sins eall him, and importune him, so God never returns in this sense, in withdrawing his anger and judents from us, till both out words aud our works, out prayers and out amendment of lire, join in a Eerertem Domiw, 0 Lord wtur», withdraw this judgment ri'oto us, for it bath eflçeted thy purpose upon us. And so the original, whieh expresses neither signification of the word, for it is neither return to me, nor return ri'oto me, but plainly and ouly retul'n, leaves the sense indifférent; Lord, thou hast withdra thvself from me, therefore in merey return to me, or else, Lord, thy judgments are heavy upon me, and therefore return, withdraw these judgments ri'oto me; whieh shows the duetileness, the appliabl ness of God's mercy, that yields almost to any form o£ words, any words seem to fit it. But then, the eomfort of God's returning to us, cornes nearest us, in the third signification of this word suba; hot so mueh in God's returning to us, nor in his anger returning from us, as in out returning to him, Turn us ayain, 0 Lord, savs David, et alri erimus, attd ee hall be,ared'; there goes no more to salvation, but such Lord, is an operative, an effecttml returning, that tnrns out hearts, and eyes, and hands, and feet to the ways of God, and produees in us repentance, and obedience. For these be the two legs, whieh our conversion to God stands npon; for so Moses uses this very word, Beturn uto the Lord and hear hi.« olce; there is no returning, without hearing, nor hearing without believing, nor believing, to be believed, without doing; returning is all these. Therefore where Christ ys, That those,eorks had bee done in Tyre ad,5ïdon, Tyre ad,çidon could hare repented in,acg'clot and a.«e,«; in the Syrie translation of St. Matthew, IsMah v. 25 « Matt. ii. l.
we have this very word s/ub, they would have returned in sac'- cloth d ashes. So that the word which David receives from the Holy Ghost in this text, being only -returned, and no more, ai)plies itself to ail three senses, returu thyself, that is, bring back thy mercy; return thy,vrath, that is, call back thy judgments, or return us to thee, that is, make thy means, and offers of grace, in thine ordinance, powerful, and effectual upon us. Now when the Lord cornes to us, by auy way, though he corne in corrections, in chastisements, hot to turn to him, is au irreverent, and unrespective negligence. If a pursuivant, if a serjeant corne to thee from the king, in any court of justice, though he corne to put thee in trouble, to call thee to an account, yet thou receivest him, thou entertainest him, thou payest him fees. If any messenger of the Lord come to attach thee, whether sickness in thy body, by thine own disorder, decay in thy estate, by the oppression of others, or terror in thy conscience, by the preaching of his ministers, turn thou to the Lord, in the last sense of the word, and his mercy shall return to thee, and his anger shall return from thee, and thou shalt bave fulness of consolation in all the three significations of the word. If worm be trodden upon, it turns again; we may think, that is done in anger, and to revenge; but we know not; the worm hath no stingi and it may seem as well to embrace, and lick his foot that treads upon him. Vhen God treads upon thee, in any calamity, spiritual or temporal, if thou turn with murmuring, this is the turning of serpent, to sting God, to blaspheme him this is turning upon him, nota turning to him but if thou turn like a worm, then thou turnest humbly to kiss the rod, to lick and embrace his foot that treads upon thee, that is, to love his ministers, which denounce his judgments upon thy sins, yea, to love them, from whom thou receivest defamation in thy credit, or detriment in thy state. We see how it was imputed to Asa, when God trod upon him, that is, diseased him in his feet, and exalted his disease into extremity, Yet in his disease he souyht hOt to the 1,ord, but to the physiciansL He turned a by-way; at least, though a right way, too soon, to the physician belote the Lord. This is that, that exaspcrated God se vehcmcnt|y, Because te ]eople tmmet ot te him that smiteth them; neither de they seek the Lord ofhostsg; when the Lord of hosts lies with a heavv army upon them. Therefore, say the prophet there, the Lord will cut off frein lsrael, head and tail, branch and rush lu one da!t. God is net se vehement, when they neglected him in their prosperity, a.s when, though he aglicted them, yet they turned net te him. Measure God by earthly princes; (for we may measure the wofld by a barleycorn) if the king corne te thy house, thou wilt profess te take it for an honour, and thou wilt entertain him; and yet his eoming cannot be without removes, and troubles, and charges te thee. Se when God cornes te thee, in his word, or in his actions, in a sermon, or in a sickness, though his coming dislodge thee, remove thee, put thee te seine ineonveuience, in leaving thy bed of sin, where thou didst sleep securely before, yet here is the progress of the Holy Ghost, intended te thy seul, that first he cornes first te thee, and then if thou turn te him, he returns te thee, and settles himself, and dwells in thee. This is too lovely a prospeet, te depart se soon frein; therefore look we by St. Augustine's glass, upon God's coming and returning te nmn. God hath imprinted his image in out seuls; and God cornes, says that father, Ut videat intayinem; Vhere I ha'e given my picture, I would sec how it is respeeted: God cornes te sec in what case Iris image is in us draw curtains between him and his seuls, and disguise and palliate our returns in none of those former sins.
; if we shut doors, ifwe image, that is, cover our sins, he gocs away, and But if we lay them open, by our frce confessions, ho returns again; that se, in hov iii case soever ho find his image, he may wash it over with our tcars, and renew it-«ith his own blood, and, ut resculpat imayinem, that he may refresh and re-engrave his image in us again, and put it in a richer and safer tablet. And as the angel which came te Abraham at the promise and conception of lsaac, gave Abraham a further assurance of his return at Isaac's birth, I will certanly return unto thee, and thy u'ife shall bave a song; se tho Lord, which was "«'ith thee in the first conception of any good purpose, returns te thce again, te give thce a quickening of tllat blessed Isaiah ix. 13. Gen. xviii. 10.
ehild of hic, and again, and again, to bring it forth, and to bring it up, to accomplish and perfect those good intentions, which his spirit, by over-shadowing fl,y soul, bath formerly begotten in it. So then, he cornes in nature, and he returns in grace; he cornes in preventing, and returns in subsequent graces. He cornes in thine understanding, and returns in thy will; he cornes in rectifying thine actions, and returns in esablishing habits; he cornes to thee in zeal, and returns in discretion; he cornes to thce in fervour, and returns in perseverance; he cornes to thee in thy peregrination, all the way, and he returns in thy transmigration, at thy last gasp. So God cornes, and so God returns. Yet ] alll loath to depart lnyselt loath to dismiss you from this air of paradise, of God's COlning, and returning to us. Therefore we consider again, that as God came long ago, six thousand years ago, in uature, when we were created in Adam, and then in nature returned to us, in the g¢neratiou of our parents: so our Saviour Christ Jesus came to us long ago, sixteen hundred years ago, in grace, and yet in grace returns to us, as ofteu as he assembles us, in these holy convocations. He came to us then, as the v,'ise nmn came to him, wit]l treasure, and dfts, and gold, and ineense, and myrrh; as having an ambition upon the souls of men, he came with that abundant treasure to purchase us. And as to flwm who lire upon the kins pension, it is some comfort to hear that the exchequer is full, that the kins moneys are corne in: so is it to us, to know that there is enough in God's hands, paid by his Son, tbr the dischargo of all our debts; ho gave enough for us ail af that coming; but it is his returning to us, that applies to us, and d¢rives upon us in particular, the benefit of this general satisfaction. When he returns to us in the dispensation and distribution of his graces, in his word and sacraments; when he calls upon us to corne to the receipt; when the greater the sure is, the gladder is he of our coming; that where sin abounds, grace might abound too; when we can pursue this prayer, t?evertere omie, Return 0 Lord in grace, in more and more grace, and when we are in possession of good measure of that grace, we ean pray again, t?eeertere Domine, Return 0 Lord in glory, corne Lord Jesus, corne quickly; when we are so rectified by his ordinances here, that in a sincerity of soul, we are hot only contented, but desirous to depart from hence, then have we religiously followed our example, that man according to God's heart, David, in this prayer of his. If Christ have hot been thus fully in thine heart, before, this is his coming entertain him now: if he have been there, and gone again, this is his returning; bless him for that: and meet him, and love him, and embrace him, as often as he offers himself to thy soul, in these his ordinances: wish every day a Sunday, and every neal a sacrament, and every discourse a homily, and he shall shine upon thee in all dark ways, aud rectify thee in all rugged ways, and direct thee in all cross ways, and stop thee in all doubtful ways, and return to thee in every corner, and relieve thee in every danger, and ann thee even against himself, by advancing thy work, in which thou besiegest him, that is, this prayer, and enabling thee to prevail upon him, as in this first petition, Revertere 1)omie, 0 Lord return, so in that vhich follows next, Eriloe ctinct», 1)eliver n soul. In this prayer, we may either consider David in that affection which St. Paul had when he desired to be delivered e«b atgelo »5"ataæ, from the messenger of Satan tiret buffeted him, that so that sti»t«lts cartis which he speaks of, that vexation, and provocation of the flesh, might have been utterly removed from him, whereby he might have past his life in God's service in a religious cahn, without anv storm, or opposition, or contradiction arising in his flesh: or we may consider it as a prayer agreeable to that petition in out Lord's prayer, Libera ws à malo, Delirer us d"fore eril; which is hot from beiug attended by evil, but by being swallowed up by it. Eripe me, may be, deliver me from rebellions, or deliver nie in rebellions; either that they corne not, or that they overcome hot. In that prayer of St. Paul, that God would remove açqelum »çataw, and take away sti»ulu» carnis, first, St. Paul is not easily understood, and then, it may be, not safely imitated. It is hard to know what St. Paul means in his prayer, and it may be dangerous to pray as he prayed. For the actions of no man, how holy soever, till we corne to Christ himself, lay such an obligation upon us, as that we must necessarily do as they did.
Nay, the actions of Christ himself lay not that obligation upon us, to fast as ho fasted; no uor to pray as he prayed. A man is hot uud in an aiction, or persecution, at least at all rimes, to that prayer,,S«i Tossible, or Transeat calix, If it be psible let this cup pass; but if God vouchsafe him a holy constancy, to go through with his mayrdom, he nmy proceed in it without any such deprecation to-'God, or petition to the judge. But first, before we consider whcther ho might be ilnitated, if we understoed him, we find it hal'd to understand him. St. Augustine's free confession,,S'e nesclre qtid sit a»dts,Sta«e, That he never understood what St. Paul meant by that messeer of,'ata, is more ingenuous than their interetation, who, I know hot upon what tradition, refer it fo an extreme pain in the head, that St. Paul should bave, as Theophylact says; or refer it ad morb«m iliacum, which Aquinas speaks of; or to the gout, or pains in the stomach, as azianzen, and Basil interpret it. OECUlnenius understands this a.qel, this messenger of,bta, tobe those heretics, which were his adversaries, in his preaching of the gospcl; according to that signification of the word ta, in which So]onlon use8 it to Hiram, ron est mihi,S'ataa, I hare no adersar l°. Othcrs, even amongst the fathers, understand it particularl)ç and ]iterall)ç of that concupiscence, and those lusts of the flesh, which even the mt sanctified men may bave some snse of, and some attempts by. Others understand it generally of ail calamities, spiritual, and temporal, incident to us in this life. But Cajetan goes furthest, who reads it not as we do, Agelu»t,b'atatw, but Atgelttm »$'atanttm; not that angel which cornes from Satan, but that angel that is Satan himselE So that he conceives if tobe a prayer against ail tentations and tribulations here, and hereafter, which the devil or the devil's instruments can frame against us. ow, if we think we understand it aright, in understanding so generally, then enters our second doubt, whether we may imitate St. Paul in so general a prayer. We dispute in the schl, whether, if it were in his power to do it, man might lawfully destroy any entire species of creatures in the world, though offensive, and venomous, as vipers or scorpiolm. For o 1 Kings v. 4. $'OL. II. 2 F every species bein a link of God's great chain, and a limb of his great creature, thc whole world, it seems net te be put into our power, te break his ehain, and take out a link, te maim his gl-eat creature, and eut off a limb, by destroying any entire species, if we eould. Se neither does it seem conducible te God's purposes in us, (whieh is the rule of all our prayers) te pray utter]y against ail tentations, as vehemently as against sins. God should lose by it, and we should lose by it, if we had no tentations; for God is glorified in those victories, which we, by his grace, gain over the devll. *eêeit diabolus, quanta bona de ilio fiunt, étiam, cure wvit'; Little knows the devil, how mueh good he does us, when he tempts us; for by that we are excited te have our present recourse te that God, whom in out |rmer security, we neglected, who gives us the issue with the tentation. E,.lo no'ci quid aIOsuerim, I know what infirnfities I have sublnitted thee te, and what I have laid and applied te thee. Ego nori nde OEa'ote, éyo noi nde anêri»; I know thy sickness, and I know thy physic.,S'uflicit tlbi 9ratia nea; whatsoever the disease be, my grace shall be suflcient te cure it. For whether we understand that, as St. Chrysostom does, De.qratla niracuiorum, that it is sufl]cient for any man's assurance, in any tentation, or tribulation, te consider God's miraculous deliverances of other men, in the like cases; or whether we understand it according te the general voice of the interpreters, that is, be content that there remain in thy flesh, marrer and subject for nie te produce glory frein thy weakness, and matter and subject for thee te exercise thy faith and allegiance te me, still these words will carry an argument alainst the expedience of absolute praying against al] tentations; for still, this ratia néa tffcit, will import this, amount te this, I have as many antidotes, as the devil hath poisons, I have as much mercy as the devil hath malice; there nst be scorpions in the world; but the scorpion shal] cure the scorpion; there must be tentations; but tentations shall add te mine, and te thy glory, and, eripiavn, I wil] deliver thee. This word is in the orinal, ckalatz; which sio-aifies eripere in such a sense, as eut ]anguage does net fully reach in any one a Augustine.
. .] m SLS. word. Se there is seine defectiveness, seine slackness in this word of out translation, delieri!/. For it is sueh a delivering, as is . sudden catching hold, and snatching at the seul of a man, then, when it is at the brink, and edge of a sin. Se that if thy facility, and that which thon wilt make shift te call good nature, or good manners, lmve put thee into the hnds of that subtlo woman, that Solomou speaks of, Tkat is corne fort] te meet tkee, and eek thy face TM; if dmu have followed her, As an ox.qoetl, to the slaughter, and a» a fool to the correction of the stoeks; even then, when the axe is over thy head, then when thou hast approaehêd so ne,r to destruction, then is the season of this prayer, Eripe me Domine, Catch hold of me now 0 Lord, and deliet" y soul. When Joseph had resisted the tempttions of his maaster's wife ', aud resisted them the only sale way, net only net te yield, but as tho toxt says, Net te corne in ber compny, and yet she had found her oplmrtunity when there was noue in the house but they, ho came te an inward Eripe ne Domine, 0 Lord take hold of me new, and she caught, and God caught; sho caught his g,rment, and God his seul; she delivered him, and God dclivered him: she te prison, and God frein thence. If thy curiosity, or thy confidence in thine own spiritual strength, curry thee into the ]muse of Rimmon, te idolatry, te a mass, trust net thou te Naamau's request, Igtoscat Dominons serve i hac re , That God will pardon thee, as often as thou dost se; but since thou hast doue se new, new corne te this Erile animam, 0 Lord deliver n.! seul new, frein taking harm new, and hereafter, frein exposing myself te tho like burin. For this is the purpose of David's prayer in this signification of this word, tht howsoever infirmity, or company, or curiosity, or confidence, bring us within the distance, and danger, within the sphere, and latitude of a temptation, that though we ho net lodged in Sodom, yet we are in the suburbs, though wo be net impaled in a sin, yet we are within the purlieus, (which is net safely doue; no more than it is in a state, te trust always te a defensive war) yet when we are engaged, and enthralled in such a temptation, then, though God be net delighted xvith out danger, yet then is God most delighted Prov. vii. 10. a ]Prov. i. 15. Gen. xxxix. 10. 15 2 K v, to hêlp us, when we are in danger; and then, he cornes hot only to deliver us from that imminent, and particu]ar danger, according to tlmt signification of this word, but according to that interpretation of this word, which the Septuagint bath given it, in the prophet Esay, Jachalitz, pinguefaciet '; He shall procêêd in his work, and makefat thy soul; that is, deliver thêe now, and presêrve, and establish thee after, to the fulfilling of all, that belongs to the last petition of this prayer,,Salrum mefac, 0 Lord save me; though we have been absent, he shall return; and beiug returned, shall not stand still, nor stand neutral, but ddirer thêe; and having delivêred thêê, shall hot determine his love in that one act of mercy, but shall rare thee, that is, imprint in thêe a holy confidence, that his salvation is thine. So then, in that manner is God's dêliverance expressed, They skall cry nto kim, (till we cry, he takes no knowlêdge at all) and then he enàs fo them, (there is his returning upon their cry) and thên, He »hall àdirer tkem, says that prophet ; and so, the two former petitions of this prayer are answerêd; but the consummation, and establishment of ail, is in the third, which follows in the saine place, He okall end them a,S'aiour, and a yrea one. But who is that. Vhat Saviour . Doubtlêss he that is proclaimêd by God, in the saine prophet, Beholà, the Lord bath procloimêd tnto the end of the world, Behold, th¢ alration comêth '. For, that word which that prophet uses there, and this word, in which David presents this last petition here, is in both places Jasany, and Jad.any is the very word, from which the naine of Jesus is derived; so that David desires here, that salvation which Esay proclaimed there, salvation in the Saviour of the world, Christ Jesus, and an interest in the assurance of his merits. We find this naine of Saviour attributed to other men in the Scriptures, than to Christ. In particular distresses, when God raised up men, to deliver his people sometimes, those men were so called Saviours. And so St. Jerome interprets those word ofthe prophet, Ascêndent alvatores,,S'aviotrs shall corne «p, on mount Zion ', of prophets, and preachêrs, and sueh othêr instruments, 1. Isaiah 5ii. 11. 1 Isaiah xix. 20. Iv Isaiah /.xii. 11. Obad. i. 21.
as Go shold raise for the salvatio o sols. Thoe, who in oher laces, e cM]s nçels of e curc, ere he ca]]s by highcr naine,,S'aiour. But such Saviour as is proc/aimed to the ends of the world, to all the world, Saviour in the mountains, in the height of presumptuous sins, and Saviour in the vaileys, in the dejection of inordinate melaneholy t, A Saviour of the East, of rising, and gwing men, and n Szviour of the West, &E withering, deelining, lanishing fortunes too, A Saviour in the state of nature, by having inthsed the knowledge ofhimselt; into some men then, belote the light, and help of the law was afforded to the world, a Sviour in the stte of the law, by having ruade to some men then, even types accomplishments, and prophecies histories, and, himself calls thi»gs that are hot, as tou te were, he ruade thoee men see things tlmt were not, as though they were, (for so Abraham saw Ms da and r¢joiced) a Saviour in the state of the Gospel, and so, m that he saves me there, for the ftmdamental Gospel's kc, that is, tbr standing fast in the fundamental aicles thereof, though they may bave been darkened with me ignorances, or may bave srayed into some errors, in some circunmtantial points, a Saviour of ail thc world, of ail the conditions in the world, of ail rimes through the world, of ail places of the world, such a Saviour is no man called, but Crist Jesus only. For when it is said that Pharaoh oelled Joseph, 6çdratorem mundi, A Saviour of the world ', (besicles, flm if it were so, that which is called all the world, can be rcferred but fo that part of the world which was tlleu under Pharaoh; as when it is said, that Augustus taxed world, that is intended d« orbe omano, so much of the world, as was under the Romans) there is a manifest error in that translation, which calls Joseph so, for that naine which was given to goeeph there, in that language in which if was given, doth truly siify reelatorem secretor«m, and no more, a reveMer, a discoverer, a decipherer of secret and mysterious things; according to e occasion, upon which that naine was then given, which was the deciphering, the intewreting of Pharaoh's dream. Be this then thus established, that David for out example considers, and refers all salvation, to salvation in Christ. As ho does also where he says after, Notura fecit salutare tuum, Lord bath ruade known Ms salvation , Quid est sal«tar t«um? says St. Basil; Vhat is the Lords salvation. and ho makes a sale answer out of Simeons mouth, 1[i eys bave seen thy salratlon , when ho hd seen Christ Jesus. This then is he, which is hot only,'alvator populi sd, the Saviour of his people, tho Jews, to whom he hath betrothed himself, in pacto salis, a covcnant of salL an everlastin covenant: hot only,_Tdzator coToris sJ, the Saviour of his own body, as the apostle calls him; of that body which he hath gathered from the Gentiles in the Christian church; nor only Salrator m«di, a Saviour of the world, so, that which he did, and suffered, was suflïcient in itself, and w accepted by the Father» for the salvation of the world; but, Tertullian, for the most part reads the word, he was,_'abtflcator; hot only a Saviour, because God mado him an instrument of slvation, as though ho had no interest in out salvation, till in his flesh lin died for us; but he is s(«b«ti./icator, so the author of this salvation, as that from ail cternity, he was at the making of the decree, as well as in the fulvess of time he was at the executin thereof. In the work of out salvation, if we consider the merit, Christ was sole and lone, no Father, no Holy Ghost trod the wine-press with him; and if in the work of our lvation we conider the mercy, there, thouh Christ were hot sole, attd alone, (tbr that mercy in tho decreo was the joint-act of the whoIe Trimty).ver e'en in that, C|lrist was equal to the Fatller, and the Holy Ghost. So he is sab, ti-.ficator, tho very author of this salvation, as that when it came to the act, he, and flOt they, died for las; and whcn it was in council, lle, as vell a. they, and as soon as they, decreed it for us. As therefore the chm-ch of God scarce presents any petition, any prayer to God, but it is subscribed by Christ; the naine of Christ, is for the most part the end, and the seal of ail out collects; all out prayers in the Liturgy, (though they be but for temporal things, for plenty, or peace, or fair-weather) are sllut u l) so, Grat this 0 Lord, for or Lord ad Sariotr Christ Jesus" sae: so David for our example, drives ail his petitions in this text, to ] PsaL xcviii. 2. Luke ii. 30.