Twenty-One Sermons on Amos 1

five thousand men, besides women and children; then he commanded the multitude 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to lie down on the grass, Matth. 14.19. Another time he fed with seven loaves, and a few little fishes four thousand men beside women and children: then he commanded the multitude, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to fall down on the ground, Mat. 15.35. At both times, Jesus his words had reference to that ancient manner of sitting, or lying down at meat.

Which manner of sitting, or lying down at meat, Jesus himself seemeth to have observed at his celebration of his last Paschal supper. For we find, John. 13.23. that at that supper one of the Disciples of Jesus, the Disciple whom Jesus loved, even John the Evangelist, leaned on the bosom of Jesus. Jesus lay down. John did likewise; and leaned on Jesus his bosom. You see, that in the time of the new Testament, even among the Jews, it was a custom to lie down at meat.

Even among the Jews, it was a custom long before. Eight hundred years before the incarnation of the Messiah, the posterity of Jacob used it. My text affirmeth it. The Israelites, the of-spring of Jacob, laid themselves down upon clothes.

Did they lay themselves down upon clothes? And why might they not do so? Was not the common custom of so doing, a warrant for them so to do? Out of doubt it was. It was no fault of theirs to lie down at meat, and upon clothes. But herein were they blame worthy; first, that the clothes whereon they lay, were not their own, secondly, that they lay upon them unseasonably.

First, they were not their own; they were the pawns, they were the pledges of the poor: they were clothes laid to pledge.

Secondly, they lay upon them unseasonably; even before their Altars. The first argueth their cruelty towards the poor: The second their Idolatry in respect of God. First of the first.

They lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge] We shall the better understand what that sin is, which our Prophet here reproveth in the Israelites, if we will have recourse to the Law concerning pledges. That Law is written, Exod. 22.26. If thou at all take thy neighbors raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the Sun goeth down: The Law is repeated, Deut. 24.10, 11, 12, 13. When thou lendest anything to thy neighbor, thou shalt not enter into his house to take his pledge. But thou shalt abide without, and the man to whom thou lendest, shall bring the pledge out of the doors unto thee. And if the man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge. But shalt restore him the pledge when the Sun goeth down. The ground of this Law is mercy: the Law-giver, is the God of mercy: its given, to stir us up to mercy.

If at all thou take thy neighbors raiment to pledge, thou must deliver it unto him by the going down of the Sun. That is the Law. Thereof, Exod. 22.27. have you two reasons: One is taken from common humanity. The poor man's raiment! It is his only covering; It is his raiment for his skin. Take that from him, and wherein shall he sleep? Restore therefore his pledge before the Sun goeth down. The other reason is taken from the judgment of God. If the poor man cry, God will hear him, for he is gracious. Restore thou therefore his pledge before the Sun goeth down.

In the 24. of Deut. ver. 13. three reasons are brought to the same purpose. The poor man's pledge; See that in any case thou deliver it, when the Sun goeth down.

First, that he may sleep in his own raiment.

Secondly, that he may bless thee, may pray for thee, may testify unto God the sense and feeling he hath of thy humanity, and kind dealing.

Thirdly, that it may be righteousness unto thee, even before the Lord thy God.

See therefore, that in any case thou restore the poor man's pledge, when the Sun goeth down. You have the law, and the reasons of the Law.

This Law these Israelites violated. They took to pledge poor men's clothes, they detained them, they used them, they lay upon them, as if they had been their own. The sin then here laid unto their charge, is Detentio pignoris pauperum, the keeping back of the poor man's pledge. The doctrine which we may take from hence, is this,

I say, such as is necessary for his use. Moses, in the alleged places of Exodus and Deuteronomy, makes mention of his raiment. The raiment of the poor man! it is operimentum, his covering; it is vestimentum, his clothing: he hath nothing else, wherewith to hide his nakedness: nothing else, wherewith to save himself from cold. Such a pledge, as is the poor man's raiment, his coat, his dublet, his bed, his covering, or any other thing, that is necessary for the preserving of his life, God will have it restored. Yet it will please him well, if such a pledge be never taken.

The Law runs thus in the 22. of Exodus. If at all thou take thy neighbors raiment to pledge, thou must deliver it unto him by the going down of the Sun. It is as if the Lord had thus said: I shall like it well, if thou lend unto thy poor neighbor without taking any pledge of him; but if thou be so cruel, and hard hearted, as that thou wilt not be induced to lend without taking of a pawn, yet see in any case, that thou restore unto him his pawn before the Sun goeth down.

The Lord's desire to have no pawn at all taken of the poor man, is more plainly manifested, Deut. 24.6. The Law there is: No man shall take the two mil-stones, or the upper mil-stone to pledge. Mention is made first of two millstones, and then of the uppermost. It is all one as if the Lord had said: You shall not take to pledge both millstones, no nor one of them. As good take both, as one. There is no grinding without both. If thou take one and leave the other, how shall the poor man grind? Milstones are named: under them by a Synecdoche you may comprehend all kind of utensils, or instruments, with which a poor man gets his living. In this rank I place the Husbandmans plow, the Smiths anvil, the Tailors sheares, and every other handy-crafts man's tool, which is necessary for the exercise of his trade or occupation. None such may you take to pawn. Moses add the reason: For, he that takes such a pawn of a poor man, takes the poor man's life to pawn.

May not such a pawn be taken by the Law of the millstones, and for the reason specified? Then out of doubt whosoever is so cruel and hard of heart, to take such a pawn, he is bound by the Law of the poor man's raiment, to restore it ere the Sun go down. Thus is my doctrine established.

The pledge of a poor man, such as is necessary for his use, is not to be withholden from him.

This doctrine hath its use in this wringing world. It may serve to reprove the wealthy, the great devourers, the Sea-gulfs of this age. No money shall out of their purses to the poor without a pawn. Tell them it is cruelty. They will say; No. He comes to borrow of me; I may deny him if I will. I lend him my money; I look for no profit; I take no usury. Shall I have no assurance? Shall I not be suffered to take a pawn?

Foolish man! Why pleadest thou so? It is the will of God, that thou lend without a pawn: or if thou lend upon a pawn, that thou restore it before the Sun go down. This is the will of God: Why wilt thou not obey it?

Say; thou lendest a poor man thy money, and he buyeth bread therewith, & eateth; and in the mean time through want of his raiment, which thou hast to pawn, the poor man be frozen to death: how hast thou relieved him? What difference is there, whether he die for hunger, or for cold? If thou slack his hunger, and starve him with cold, thou dost but change his torment; thou dost not succor him. In like sort: if thou lendest a poor man thy money, and for thy security takest to pawn the tools, those necessary tools, with which he getteth his living, thou doest not relieve him, but doest, as much as in thee lieth, cut the poor man's throat.

Flatter not thyself (beloved) whosoever thou art, that hast accustomed thyself to secure the loan of thy money by taking of pawns. If the course be simply and absolutely lawful, what meaneth the Law, Deut. 24.17. Thou shalt not take a widows raiment to pledge? And why doth Job, Chap. 24.3. reprove them, who take the widows ox for a pledge? It is in thy power I grant, to take a pledge of thy debtor, to assure thyself, that thou mayest receive thine own again: but if in taking thy pledge, thou transgress the Law of charity; if thou take such a pledge, as thy neighbor cannot spare without the hazard and peril of his livelihood, it is thy sin; and thou art bound with speed to restore it. If thou restore it not, what then? Ezekiel chap. 18.13. will tell thee: Moriendo morieris, thou shalt surely die, thy blood shall be upon thee.

But here thou wilt apologize, defend thyself, & plead that for thy taking of pawns, thou hast thy warrant out of Prov. 20.16. I must confess, thou art there permitted to take a man's garment as a pledge or pawn, for the assurance of thy money. But of whom? of him, to whom thou lendest thy money? No. But of him, who rashly, unadvisedly, and lavishly becomes surety unto thee, for the man he knoweth not. And what is this to the poor man, that borroweth of thee? Of him if thou take any such pledge, thou mayest be strained with the abomination of Usury.

I put thee a case: Thou lendest ten pounds, upon a pawn of bedding, or linen, and thou lendest it freely: but as the borrower useth thy money, so thou usest his pawn. This is Usury in thee. For the bedding or linen, which thou hast in pawn is the worse for the wearing: so is not thy money in the borrowers hand. I know the very name of Usury is detested of thee, and thou hatest to be called an Usurer. Take heed then, that by thy taking of pawns, thou become not one of that damned crew.

If therefore you have taken any pawn of a poor man, any such pawn, as by the Law thou oughtest not to have taken of him, restore it unto him according to the Law, even before the Sun go down. So shall the poor man, to whom thou hast shown mercy in lending thy money, bless thee, and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God. Hereof art thou assured, Deut. 24.13. Yea, Uiuendo vives, thou shalt surely live. The Lord God hath said it, Ezekiel. 18.9.

Hitherto (Beloved) you have heard of the cruelty of the Israelites, towards the poor; their cruelty in deteining the pledges of the poor: they laid themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge. And this they did unseasonably, even before their Altars, which argueth their Idolatry; the next thing to be considered.

By every Altar] Multa erant altaria Idolorum; altare autem Domini non nisi vnum. It is a Bishops note; the note of Albertus Magnus upon my text. Many were the Altars that were erected for the service of Idols, but for the worship of God, there was but one Altar: but one Altar, whereon to offer sacrifice.

This one Altar at first was to be made of earth, or of stone rough and vnhewen, as appeareth, Exod. 20.24.25. Such an Altar was fittest for the then-estate of the children of Israel. They were then in the desert journeying toward the holy Land, and were to remove from place to place. An Altar of earth would soon be made: so would an Altar of stone, rough, and vnhewen. They might make their Altar of earth, that when they should change their station, they might with ease destroy it, Ne aut abusui aut superstitioni esset, that it might not be superstitiously abused. Or, they might make it of rough and vnhewen stone tumultuarily, Ne sollicitaret quemquam ad conservationem religionem{que} constantem illius altaris, that it might not allure any one to a constant reverence, and dread of the holiness of that Altar.

In the 27. of Exod. ver. 1. there is a prescription of an Altar of better fashion. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Altar of Holocaustes, of burnt offerings, of sacrifices, is there described according to the matter, the measure, the form, the instruments and vessels thereof. Thou shalt make an Altar of wood, of the choicest Cedar. An Altar, not Altars, It was but one Altar.

And why would God have but one Altar? He would have but one, quod vnum at{que} eundem cultum inter omnes esse vellet. Because he would have but one & the same worship among all, therefore would he have but one Altar: so saith Galasius. He would have but one Altar, to note unto us one truth, one religion. But one Altar Vt vinculum esset sacrae vnitatis, that it might be unto the rude people, a bond of sacred unity. That one and the same religion might remain among them inviolable. God would have but one Altar.

It was therefore sin in Jeroboam to set up two other Altars, one in Bethel, the other in Dan, 1. King. 12.29. It was sin in Urijah, the high Priest, when to please the idolatrous King Ahaz, he caused a new Altar to be set up after the pattern of the Altar of Damascus, 2. King. 16.11. It must needs be a sin in the children of Israel, to multiply their Altars according to the multitude of their fruit, Hos. 10.1. And I may not excuse the Israelites, whom my text concerneth, they laid themselves upon clothes, laid to pledge by every Altar. They had there many Altars too. But, Altare Domini non nisi vnum: For the worship of God there was but one Altar.

And that one Altar was a type of our blessed Savior; a lively figure, or representation of Christ crucified. In regard whereof, Heb. 13.10. Christ is called an Altar; yea, our Altar: We have an Altar. We have an Altar, whereof they have no right to eat, that serve at the tabernacle. Christ is this Altar; he is our Altar; Christ with all his benefits. Which his benefits are nothing available, nothing profitable for them which are under the Law, who yet are in bondage under the rudiments, under the ceremonies of Moses Law. Those benefits of Christ are spiritual; Regeneration, faith, remission of sins, justification, the favor of God, security against our enemies, (the world, the Devil, death, and hell) life and eternal glory: these are the benefits, which Christ through his most glorious death and passion hath purchased for his elect. This purchase he wrought not by the blood of Goats, and Calves, but by his own blood, whereby he entered in once into the holy place, and so obtained for us eternal redemption, as the Apostle speaketh, Heb. 9.12.

Thus hath Christ, the sacrificer, the sacrifice, and the Altar made full satisfaction to God for all our sins. Now a • e we not to rely upon our own good works, upon the merits of Saints, or upon their mediation. For this were nothing else quàm aliud novum Altare praeter Christum instituere; It were to appoint another new Altar beside Christ. And that Christians may not do.

May not Christians do it? How then is it that in Popery there are so many Altars? It is (Beloved in the Lord) one of the blemishes, one of the shames of that religion. They have their many Altars, some of stone, sumptuously built, and dedicated with the unction of oil, and the Priests benediction: as appeareth by the decrees of two Councils, the one called Apaunense, the other Agathense, Stone-Altars they make for steddinesse and continuance; and why so? But, Quia Petra erat Christus, because the Rock was Christ? It is the devise of Durand. A profound reason sure. The wit of fore-ages could not reach unto it.

The Primitive times of the Church knew no such Altars of stone, no nor of wood. Then there were no Altars at all. Origen may witness it. He flourished in the year of Christ 230. Then it was objected unto him by Celsus, that the Christians had neither Altars, nor Images, nor Temples. Arnobius flourished after Origen in the year 290. and in his time the Heathen accused the Christians, for that they had neither Churches, nor Altars, nor Images. So for two hundred and ninety years, there were no Altars in the primitive Church.

None for 290. years? Yet Martin of Polonia sometimes an Arch-bishop, and Penitentiarie to Innocent the fourth, affirmeth in his Chronicle, that Pope Sixtus did institute, Vt missa super Altare celebreter: that the Mass should be celebrated upon an Altar. Sixtus of whom he speaketh was Bishop of Rome Anno Christi 125. So by Martins opinion, Altars should have been in the Church above a hundred years, before either Arnobius, or Origen were writers.

But what small credit is to be given to this Chronicler Martin, let Bellarmine tell you. Fuit Martinus vir simplex & fabellas pro historijs obtrudit. This censure he giveth in his Book of Ecclesiastical writers upon the year 1250. Martin was a simple man, and one that obtrudeth fables for histories.

If Martin be false in this point of the institution of Altars, how shall we find out the truth? Bellarmine lib. 4. de verbo Dei cap. 3. will seem to deliver it. There reproving Kemnitius for making Felix the fourth to have instituted the consecration of Altars, calleth that a lie, and saith; Constat, Sylvestrum autorem huius ritûs fuisse. It is manifest that Sylvester was the author of this rite, of the consecration of Altars. Now Sylvester ascended to the Popedom in the year 314. So by Bellarmine's opinion, (and what writer among the Papists is of greater authority then Bellarmine? ) by Bellarmine's opinion there were no Altars of use in the Church before the year 314. So my proposition stands good:

Which truth, as it hath served to condemn the Papists of blind superstition, for creeping unto, and worshipping before, their Altars, whereof they have out of God's book no warrant: so may it be a motive to us to lift up our hearts unto the Lord, and to give him thanks, for that it hath pleased him to deliver us from the more then Egyptian darkness of Popery, wherein our forefathers living, committed abomination before stocks and stones.

We have not now an Altar properly so called, no material Altar: our Altar is metaphorical, it is spiritual. As our sacrifices are, which we are to offer up unto the Lord, so is our Altar: our sacrifices are spiritual; our Altar therefore must be spiritual.

There were under the Law many kinds of sacrifices: Burnt offerings, Sin offerings, Meat offerings, Drink offerings, Peace offerings. All are reduceable to two heads; they were either 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , either propitiatory, or Eucharisticall; either expiatorie, or gratulatorie; either sacrifices of satisfaction, or sacrifices of thanksgiving. The first sort of sacrifices, which I call propitiatory, expiatorie, or satisfactory, had their end in the death of Christ: the other which I call Eucharisticall, gratulatorie, or sacrifices of thanksgiving do remain forever; but without legal rites and ceremonies: that which was legal in them is done away; there remaineth only that which was Evangelical, that which was Spiritual. These sacrifices gratulatorie, these sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving are the sacrifices, which we can, and must, offer unto Almighty God.

Of these sacrifices I observe three sorts, according to the three sorts of goods which man usually enjoyeth. The Philosopher deuides them into goods of the mind, goods of the body, and external goods. By external goods, you may understand riches, rule, honor: by the goods of the body, you may understand health, beauty, comeliness: by the goods of the mind, you may understand virtues, and virtuous actions, functions, and operations, together with all the powers and faculties of the soul.

All these goods must we offer up unto the Lord in sacrifice. First, we must offer up 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , our external goods, the goods of this world. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews wisheth us not to forget it, chap. 13.16. To do good and to distribute forget not. And to make us remember it the more willingly, he gives this reason: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. It is true, God accepteth, and taketh in good part, as bestowed upon himself, whatsoever is bestowed upon the poor. Give meat to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, cloth the naked, visit the sick, yield comfort to the poor prisoner; thou doest all to Christ. The day shall come wherein Christ will tell thee so, Mat. 25.40. Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Do good to the poor, you do it unto Christ. Say not; if I give, I shall want myself. Give, and it shall be given to thee. The promise is, Luk. 6.38. Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together, and running over. So your giving will be but a lending, and good payment will be made unto you. Solomon bears record hereunto, Prov. 19.17. He that hath mercy upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given, will he pay him again. Thus must we offer up unto the Lord 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , our external goods, the goods of this world.

Secondly, we must offer up unto the Lord in sacrifice 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the goods of the body. The goods of our body we may offer up in sacrifice two manner of ways, patiendo or faciendo, by suffering, or by doing; by dying for the Lord, or by doing that which is acceptable to the Lord.

This sacrifice of suffering or dying for the Lord is a precious sacrifice; according to that, Psal. 116.15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. It is acceptable with God. S ^t Peter affirmeth it, 1. Epi. chap. 2.20. If when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. In the verse following he exhorts us to this suffering: Christ hath suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps. Christ hath suffered for us: we must if need be, suffer for him. Martyrdom! It is so pleasing a sacrifice, as that it made Ambrose say of his sister: Appellabo Martyrem, & praedicabo satis: I will call her Martyr, and so shall I be sure to commend her enough. S. Jerome in his Ep. to Heidibia saith, Triumphus Dei est passio Martyrum: The suffering of Martyrs is God's triumph.

What do I? In time of peace exhort to Martyrdom? Why not? Though through God's goodness (blessed be his name for it) there is not now among us any occasion of persecution, habet tamen & pax nostra Martyrium suum, as Gregory the Great spake of his time, Homil. 3. in Euangelia, yet hath our peace her Martyrdom. Albeit we do not yield carnis colla ferro, our necks to the iron, or our bodies to the stake, yet do we gladio spirituali, with the spiritual sword slay the carnal desires within us. You have seen what it is to offer up unto the Lord the goods of our body patiendo, by suffering, by dying for the Lord.

Now let us see what it is to offer them up faciendo, by doing that, which is acceptable to the Lord. It is that, whereto S. Paul exhorteth us, Rom. 12.1. even our reasonable service of God. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.

Our Bodies a sacrifice! How may that be? S. Chrysostom Hom. 20. in Ep. ad Rom. doth elegantly express it. Let the eye behold no evil, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and the eye is a sacrifice: let the tongue speak no evil, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and the tongue is an oblation: let the hand do no evil, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and the hand is a burnt offering. So that sweet Father. We may enlarge the meditation; let the ear hear no evil, and the ear is a sacrifice: let the arm embrace no evil, and the arm is a sacrifice: let the foot follow no evil, and the foot is a sacrifice. In a word, let all other parts of the body be preserved from evil, and they are all sacrifices. The eye that is full of adultery, is no fit offering; the tongue that is deceitful, is no fit offering: the hand that is ever shut against the poor, is no fit offering: the uncircumcised ear, the wanton arm, the cruel foot, they are no fit offerings: neither is any part of our body, that is unsanctified, a fit offering for the Lord. Wherefore (dearly beloved in the Lord ) let it be the care of everyone of us, to present our bodies unto the Lord a living and a holy sacrifice; for that only will be acceptable unto him.

Now that our sacrifice may be living and holy, and so acceptable to the Lord, it is not enough for us to abstain from doing of evil, but we must willingly and cheerfully betake our selves to the doing of good: and this must we do betimes.

You deceive yourselves if you think to offer your youthful years unto the Devil, and to lay your old bones upon God's Altar. God's sacrifice must be the fattest; it must be the fairest. He must have both head and hinder parts; to teach you, that your duty is to remember your Creator, as well in the days of your nonage, as in the days of your dotage; as well while you are young, as when you shall be old. For if you defer your offerings till the last hour, till sickness, deaths-Bailiff, shall arest you, your offering may prove sick, it may prove dead, it may prove an unholy sacrifice. Receive therefore S. Paul's word of exhortation, I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies, a living and an holy sacrifice unto God.

You have heard, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , our external goods, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the goods of our bodies, are to be offered up in sacrifice unto the Lord: the same I am now in brief to show concerning 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the goods of our mind.

The goods of our mind I called virtues, and virtuous actions, functions, and operations; together with all the faculties and powers of the soul: all these we must offer up unto the Lord.

But how shall we offer them up? devotione & contritione: by devotion and contrition. For as it is, Psal. 51.17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart is such a sacrifice, as God will not despise. Whosoever by divine meditation, and devout prayer, beateth down the proud conceits of his rebellious heart, he killeth, and offereth up, as it were, his son Isaac, that which is most nere unto him, that which is most dear unto him: he offereth up a broken spirit: and that is Sacrificia Dei, the sacrifices of God. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

Sacrifices in the Plural number: because this one sacrifice of a broken spirit, is instar omnium, in steed of all; its worth all other sacrifices in the world. And well may it be so: for it is the sacrifices of God: of God, that is, accepta Deo, acceptable, and well pleasing unto God.

But what is this broken spirit I speak off? It is animus contritus, commut ••• , & abjectus propriae infirmitatis ac indignitatis conscientiâ. It is a mind contrite, beaten as it were to dust, or powder, broken in pieces, and cast down with the conscience of its own infirmity and unworthiness. It is a mind, that is void of any conceit of its own worth, that thinketh it self worthy of any punishment; that esteemeth all its own goods most base, that followeth the word of God upon any occasion, that is comforted at the least sign of God's favor; that is cast down at any token of his displeasure; that is easily moved with affections of love, fear, joy, and hope; that is always full of pity to others; that maketh conscience of the smallest transgression. The man that is of such a broken spirit, and so contrite a mind, he may well be said to offer up in sacrifice unto the Lord, the goods of his mind.

Thus you see that we are, and how we are, to offer up in sacrifice unto the Lord the goods of this world, the goods of the body, and the goods of the mind. But whereon shall we offer them? where is our Altar? Our Altar is within us: even our heart: that is our Altar.

Durand in his Rationall of Divine offices deduceth it out of the first to the Corinthians, Chap. 3.17. The Temple of God is holy, which ye are. Ye are the Temple of GOD. Si Templum Dei sumus, Altare habemus. Altare nostrum est cor nostrum. Hoc enim est cor in homine, quod Altare in Templo. If we are the Temple of God, we have an Altar. Our Altar is our Heart. For the Heart is that in man, as the Altar is in the Temple. Our Heart then is our Altar: no Legal Altar, but an Evangelical Altar. Answereable to our Altar must our sacrifices be: Evangelical too.

Now saith Lactantius Divin. institut. lib. 6. cap. 24. Now the Lord requireth not of us any sacrifice of a dumb beast, of death and bloodshed, but Victimam hominis & vitae, the sacrifice of man and his life. In our now-sacrifices we need not garlands of Uervim, nor the inwards of beasts, nor turffs of earth, but such things only, as proceed from the inner man, righteousness, patience, faith, innocence, chastity, abstinence; such are the sacrifices to be offered up upon God's holy Altar, placed in our hearts.

In the Chapter following, Chap. 25. his observation is, that there are two things to be offered up unto God; donum & sacrificium, a gift and a sacrifice; the one perpetual, the other temporal. According to some, the gift is, whatsoever is made of gold, silver, purple, or silk; and the sacrifice is a beast slain, or whatsoever is burnt upon the Altar. But God hath no use of these. These are subject to corruption, but God is incorrupt. We must therefore offer both, gift and sacrifice, in a spiritual manner; so shall God have use of both. Our gift must be integritas animi, the uprightness of our mind: our sacrifice, laus & hymnus, praise and thanksgiving.

That I may conclude (Beloved brethren) let me sum up together the Evangelical sacrifices, which the giver of the new law requireth of us. A broken spirit, obedience to the will of God, love towards God and man, judgment, justice, mercy, prayer, thanksgiving, alms-deeds, our bodies, and our souls; these are the Evangelical sacrifices, the sacrifices of Christianity, to be offered up unto the Lord upon the Altar of a faithful heart.

A faithful heart, I say. For if the heart be unfaithful, the sacrifices will not be acceptable; they will not be esteemed above the sorceries of Simon Magus. Call them not sacrifices, they are sacrileges, if the heart be unfaithful. But let the heart be faithful, and the sacrifices which it offereth up, will be as the beneficence was, which the Philippians sent by Epaphroditus unto Paul: they will be odors of a sweet smell, acceptable sacrifices, and well pleasing unto God.

Neither did that precious ointment, that ran down Aaron's beard. Psal. 133.2. nor that, that the woman poured upon Christ's head, Mat. 26.7. nor that sweet incense, Exod. 25.6. nor that wine of Lebanon, Hos. 14.7. yield so pleasant a savor, as do the sacrifices of Christianity, that ascend from a faithful heart. O! the sweet savor of a good life, that springs and sprouts from a true belief, far surpasseth all other sweets in the world.

O! Let our sacrifices be such. Let them spring from a true belief, let them proceed from a faithful heart, so shall our minds when we think on God; and our wills, when we obey God; and our souls, when we love God; & our tongues when we praise God; and our feet, when we walk with God; and whatsoever else we have, when we use it for the glory of God, be an odour of a sweet smell, an acceptable sacrifice, and well pleasing unto God. I end.

Vouchsafe, we beseech thee, most merciful Father, so thoroughly to sanctify us with thine holy Spirit, that all our sacrifices, our preaching, our hearing, our prayers, our praises, our thanksgivings, our deeds of mercy, and pity, and charity, may ever be acceptable in thy sight. Grant this dear Father, for thy best beloved Son, Jesus Christ his sake: to whom with thee, in the unity of the holy Spirit, be all praise, and power, might, and majesty, dignity, and dominion, for evermore. Amen.

THE XII. LECTURE.

THis is the last branch in the enumeration of the sins of the Israelites. It concerneth the Judges of Israel, and the Rulers of that state; them principally. It is appliable to others also, to the richer sort. The words are a reproof of the gross superstition of that people. They thought their duty touching the service of God, well discharged, so they repaired to their temples. Such holy places they thought were of themselves sufficient to cleanse them, albeit they should even there betake themselves to inordinate eating, to immeasurable drinking, to infamous luxury, yea, to every kind of villainy.

For my more plain proceeding in the handling of the words of this text, will you be pleased to note in them,

First, the action, for which the Israelites are here reproved; it is a drinking of wine. They drink wine.

Secondly, whose wine it is, they drink. Its not their own; its vinum damnatorum; it's the wine of the condemned. They drink the wine of the condemned.

Thirdly, where they drink it. They drink it not at home, which were more tolerable; but in domo deorum suorum, in the house of their God's. They drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God's.

The first convinceth them of riot, and excess. They drink wine immoderately. They are so given to it, that they abstain not even then, when they are in their temples, and would seem most religious. For they drink it in the house of their God's.

The second convinceth them of oppression. The wine they drink, is vinum damnatorum; it is the wine of the condemned: it is vinum mulctatorum, the wine of such as they have fined or mulcted: wine, bought with the money of them, whom they have in their unrighteous judgments spoiled of their goods.

The third convinceth them of idolatry. They drink their wine in the house of their God's; not in the Temple at Jerusalem, that once glorious Temple of the true and living God, but in the temple of their gods, in Dan and Bethel, and other places, before their golden calves and other their Idols. They drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God's.

First, They drink wine.

Wine! Why might they not? Is it not one of the good creatures of God, that may well be used with thanksgiving? God himself gives it to the obedient, to them that love and serve him, Deut. 11.14. I will give you the rain of your land in due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. That thou mayest gather in thy wine.

Christ his miraculous turning of water into wine at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, John. 2.11. is evidence enough that he allowed the drinking of wine. Yea, himself drank wine. Else the people would never have called him a wine-bibber, as it appeareth they did, Matth. 11.19. S Paul, 1. Tim. 5.23. wisheth Timothy no longer to drink water, but to use a little wine for his stomachs sake. Wine hath its praises in the Scripture. It makes glad the heart of man, Psal. 104.15. It cheereth God and man, Judge. 9.13.

How then is it, that the Israelites are here reproved for drinking wine? I answer, not for drinking wine, but for the abuse in drinking are the Israelites here reproved. It is with wine, as it is with every other good creature of God. It may he abused. Wine is abused, when men are drunken with it. This abuse of wine, S. Paul desirous either to prevent, or to reform in the Ephesians, thus speaketh to the Ephesians, chap. 5.18. Be ye not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. It is as if he had said: Take heed of wine; be not overcome of it. In vino luxus. Consider the man that is given over to drunkenness. His life its profuse, its dissolute, its unclean, its luxurious, its unworthy a Christian. Take heed of wine.

Solomon, Prouerb. 20.1. saith: Wine is a mocker. It is so: wine taken immoderately deceives him that takes it. He takes it to be sweet and pleasant, but will find it in the effect exceeding bitter. What more bitter then drunkenness? and what causeth drunkenness more then wine? Aufert memoriam, dissipat sensum, confundit intellectum, incitat libidinem, omnia membra debilitat, vitam{que} exterminat. It is said to be S. Augustine's. Drunkenness! it takes away the memory, it consumes the senses, it confounds the understanding, it provoketh lust, it weakeneth the body, it drives life away.

The drunkard is notably deciphered by the same Father in his book de poenitentiâ. Quùm absorbet vinum, absorbetur à vino; the drunkard while he devoureth his wine, is devoured of his wine: abominatur à Deo, despicitur ab Angels, deridetur ab hominibus, destituitur virtutibus, confunditur à daemonibus, conculcatur ab omnibus. God detesteth him, the Angels despise him, men deride him, virtues forsake him, the Devils do confound him, all do spurn him.

The ancient Fathers generally are eloquent in beating down this sin of drunkenness. Basil calls it a voluntary Devil, the mother of naughtiness, the enemy of virtue. Chrysostom, Homil. 57. ad populum Antiochenum saith: where drunkenness is, there is the Devil. Drunkenness, its a disease remediless, a ruin without excuse, the common reproach of mankind. The drunken man, he is a voluntary Devil, a dead-living man: worse then an Ass, worse then a dog, worse then any brute beast. The brute beast cannot be compelled to drink, when he hath no thirst: but this drunkard is so intemperate, that when he is replete, even to the mouth, yet will he pour in more. He will verify the saying of the Prophet, Isaiah 28.8. Your tables are full of filthy vomitings, no place is clean. S. Ambrose in his book de Elia & Ieiunio, cap. 17. to work in us a detestation of this sin, saith: Ebrietas fomentum libidinis, ebrietas incentivum insaniae, ebrietas venenum insipientiae. Drunkenness, its a cherisher of lust, a prouoker of madness, the poison of folly. Hereby are men strangely affected. Vocem amittunt, color variantur, oculis ignescunt, ore anhelant, fremunt naribus, in furore ardescunt, sensu excidunt. They loose their voice, their color is changed, their eyes are fiery, at the mouth they fetch breath a pace, in the nostrils they snore aloud, they are fierce in their fury, they are deprived of their sense. They have for their attendants, dangerous frenzies, grievous pains of the stone, deadly crudities, frequent castings. Mentior, saith Ambrose; I lie, if the Lord hath not said as much by his Prophet Jeremiah, chap. 25.27. Drink ye, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more.

I may not pass by S. Jerome. He in an Epistle of his, which he wrote to that noble virgin Eustochium, to persuade her still to continue a Virgin, warneth and exhorteth her, to fly from wine, as from poison. He tells her, the Devils have not a better weapon wherewith to conquer or corrupt youth. Youth! Covetousness may shake it, pride may puff it up, ambition may delight it; but drunkenness will overthrow it. Other vices we may in time forsake: hic hostis nobis inclusus est. If this enemy once get possession of us, it will along with us, whither soever we go. Wine and youth! ech of them is incendium voluptatis, fit to set lust on fire: young men and young women, fly from wine. Quid oleum flammae? why cast we oil upon the flame? Quid ardenti corpusculo fomenta ignium? why bring we tinder, why touchwood, to a fire already kindled? So discourseth that good Father to persuade the Virgin Eustachium to hate wine as poison. The discommodities of wine he briefly toucheth in his Comment upon Galat. 5. Vino, hominis sensus evertitur, pedes corruunt, men's vacillat, libido succenditur: by wine, a man's sense and feeling is impaired, his feet do fail him, his understanding is abolished, his lust is inflamed.

It were infinite to relate, how Origen, how Chrysologus, how Bernard, how others have painted out this vice, with the mischiefs which it bringeth.

But what need any such relation? Why hear we the Fathers speak, when the Scripture is plain? Solomon, Prov. 23. propoundeth a question. It is verse 29. Who hath we? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without a cause, who hath redness of eyes? His answer is, verse. 30. They that tarry long at the wine. You see a troupe of mischiefs at the heels of a drunkard. Solomon well weighing this, in the next verse, in the 31. he prescribeth a remedy against drunkenness. Look not thou upon the wine, when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth it self aright. Let not the pleasant color of the wine, glorious and fair to thine eye, let it not deceive thee. If it do, what then? Then, as it is, verse. 32. it will bite thee like a serpent, it will sting thee like an adder, like a cockatrice, like a viper. And as it is, verse. 33. Thine eyes shall behold strange women] thou wilt become shameless and unchaste: or, Thine eyes shall behold strange visions] Bina, pro singulis putabis te videre: Every thing will seem double to thee. Thou wilt think thou seest two candles, when there is but one in the room. And thine heart shall utter perverse things] Out of the abundance of thine heart, openly, in the presence of others, thou shalt speak things filthy and unseemly: out will thy greatest secrets. Yea, saith he, verse. 34. Thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the Sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast] careless and secure in greatest danger. It followeth, verse. 35. Though thou be stricken, though beaten grievously, yet wilt thou not feel it; so dead thou art in the sleep of thy drunkenness: and which is to be admired, when thou awakest thou wilt to thy wine again. So excellently doth Solomon give the picture of a Drunkard.

Beloved in the Lord, I hope there is none of you that heareth me this day, given over to this vile sin. If any one hath at any time through infirmity been overtaken with it, let him be wary for the time to come, that he fall so no more. This sin, it is morbus regius, as Bonaventure calls it. Its a costly sin. Costly indeed. For he that draweth his patrimony through his throat, eating and drinking more in a day, then he is able to earn in a whole week, his end must needs be beggary; according to that of the wise man, Prov. 23.21. The duunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. You have heard of many other inconveniences that do accompany this sin. They may move the mere natural man, the man whose Heaven is here on earth, to take good heed, that this sin have no dominion over him. Much more should the true Christian, he, who hath his Heaven above, withstand the rage and fury of this sin. It is a work of the flesh. So its called, Galat. 5.21. and there the Apostle hath past his doom upon it: They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Parallel to which is that of the same Apostle, 1. Cor. 6.9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God.

I shut up this point with a word of exhortation. I borrow it from Luk. 21.34. The words are the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to his Disciples: Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and so the last day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them, that dwell upon the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy, to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the son of man.

Thus far of the first general part, the action of these Israelites, their drinking of wine. Now in the second place we are to consider, whose wine it was. It was not their own; it was vinum damnatorum, the wine of the condemned.

By this wine of the condemned, some understand the wine, that was of custom given to condemned persons, to refresh and comfort them, when they were to suffer execution, for their offenses. Of this custom a certain Hebrew in a book of his entitled, Liber iudicum ordinariorum, maketh mention, after this manner: It is the advise of Lemuel the King, Prov. 31.6. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. Upon occasion of these words the Seniours of the Jews made this constitution, vt condemnatis ad mortem daretur vinum aromaticum ad bibendū, vt faciliùs tolerarent passionem: that sweet and odoriferous wine should be provided for such as were condemned to death, which they might drink, and so the more easily endure their suffering. This constitution was put in practice by the Jews.

At the time of Christ's suffering, there were in Jerusalem certain devout Matrons, full of compassion, who did out of their devotion bestow this wine. This wine so provided, for Christ, and those that suffered with him, some cruel Jews took unto themselves, according to these words of Amos, They drink the wine of the condemned. This wine they took unto themselves, and in the place thereof they did put vinegar mixed with gall, as S. Matthew saith, chap. 27.34. If vinegar mixed with gall might serve Christ's turn, so it was: the Jews would have the wine: They would drink the wine of the condemned.

This custom of giving wine to such as were condemned to die, you see was very ancient. The learned expositors of the Gospel in their Commentaries upon the 27. of S. Matthew do generally remember it. Lucas Brugensis very precisely: Moris erat, qui & hodie apud nos in vsu est; It was a custom, and is this day in use with us, that to malefactors, brought to the place of execution, wine should be given them, and that of the best, partly to refresh their thirsty, and wearied bodies; and partly to exhilarate and cheare up their hearts, that they might the less think of death, and with more ease endure it. If to this custom our Prophet here alludeth, then are the Israelites here reproved for their cruelty, for taking to themselves; to their own private use, what was of custom belonging to poor condemned prisoners.

But I take it more agreeable to the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this place, if we understand by the wine of the condemned, wine bought with the money of such as the Judges of Israel had in their unrighteous judgments put to the worse.

This wine the Septuagint do call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , vinum de calumnijs, wine gotten by deceitful dealing, by malicious surmises, by false accusations. The Chaldee Paraphrast terms it vinum rapinae, the wine of oppression, of pillage, of robbery. Luther stiles it vinum mulctatorum; and Castalio, vinum mulctatitiū, wine issuing from mulctes, from fines. In our now English translation, it is the wine of the condemned: cast your eye but to the margent, and you will find it to be the wine of such as were fined or mulcted. Here then by the wine of the condemned, we are to understand, that the Judges of Israel laid upon the poor men unjust penalties, by which they might be provided of wine and other delicates, and so spend their days in jollity.

You see now, what sin it is, whereat this second general part doth aim. It is an oppressing sin; the sin of oppression: when Judges, rulers of states, and men in authority make havoc of the poor. Of this sin I spake at large in my Ninth Lecture upon this second chapter of Amos; at what time I delivered this doctrine.

The less need have I now to spend my time upon it. Yet a word of it. My now-doctrine I deliver in this positiō:

Oppression I call every injustice, used of the mightier, either by violence, or by color of law, or by any other cunning dealing, against such as are not able to withstand them.

This description of oppression, I gather from Levite. 25.14. from Micah 2.1, 2. and from 1. Thess. 4.6. In ech place the unlawfulness of oppression is manifested.

The first place is, Levite. 25.14. The commandment there is: If thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest ought of thy neighbors hand, ye shall not oppress one another. Whether you sell or buy, you may not oppress: the very forbidding of oppression, is a sufficient argument, that oppression is unlawful.

The second place is, Micah 2.1, 2. Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds: when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hands. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away. So they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. where you have an imprecation against oppressors, a woe thundered out against them. It is enough to prove oppression to be unlawful.

The third place is, 1. Thess. 4.6. This is the will of God, that no man oppress, or over-reach his brother in any matter. Is it God's will? Then surely it is not lawful for you to oppress or over-reach one another in any business. Men of trade may not gain by their false weights, false measures, false speeches, or false oaths; neither may men in any other course of life gain by violence, or by color of Law, or by any other cunning dealing. Thus is my doctrine confirmed,

First, it may serve for a reproof of the Oppressors of this age, who make gold their hope, and the wedge of gold their confidence, as Job speaketh, chap. 31.24. S. Paul, he taught, 1. Tim. 6.6. that Godliness is great gain: but these men suppose the contrary, that gain is great godliness: and therefore they fear not to gain with the hurt of others.

They build their houses, as the moth. So saith Job, chap. 27.18. As the moth! How is that? The moth is made full by spoiling the barks, and books wherein it liveth. So is it with these men; they make themselves full, by spoiling others, with whom they live, and have to deal. I express it in Jeremiah's phrase, chap. 22.13. They build their houses by unrighteousness, and their chambers by wrong: and in Habakkuks phrase, chap. 2.12. They build them towns with blood, and stablish their Cities by iniquity. Against these is that complaint of the Lord, Isaiah. 3.14, 15. Ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye, that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? Woe to these men; a woe from Micah, a woe from Jeremiah, a woe from Habakkuk in the now-alleged places; a woe from Isaiah too, Chap. 5.8. Woe upon woe and yet will they not cease from joining house to house, and laying land to land, as if the way to the spiritual Canaan were all by Land, and not through a red Sea of death, as one wittily speaketh.

From this contempt of the Prophets of the Lord, or rather, of the Lord himself speaking by his Prophets, it is now come to pass, that many a poor tenant is thrust out of his house; that Villages are depopulated, that those streets which were wont to be sown with the seeds of men, are now become pastures for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep, as Isaiah speaketh, chap. 7.25.

Now may Hythlodaeus his complaint have place: Our sheep in England were sometimes the meekest beasts of the field, and contented themselves with a little: but now are they become so fierce and greedy, that they devour men, and Town-fields, and houses, and villages, and lay all waste. Alas, silly sheep, it is no fault of yours; you are as meek as ever you were. Whose then is the fault? It is yours, ye grinding oppressors: yours, whose hearts are like the vast Ocean, fit to swallow up every base commodity, that the earth is able to afford you.

O that these men would at length call themselves to a strict account of the oppressions, wherewith they have oppressed the poor, either by depopulating, or by raising rents, or by hoysing fines, or by interest, or otherwise: and would once begin to make some restitution. Did they but know in what estimation they stand in Church and Common-wealth, they would remit somewhat of their Cruelty.

The Church heretofore denied them Christian burial. Its apparent in the Canon Law: Extra de Usuris, Cap. Quia in omnibus.

How the Common-wealth brooketh them, they may perceive by two instances. Catillus a British King 170. years before Christ, did hang them up: He hung up all oppressors of the poor. My Chronicler writes in the margent; A good example. Long after him, King Edward, commonly called good King Edward, banished them his Land. So writeth Glanvil lib. 7. de Leg. & consuet. Angliae c. 37. The same author in the same book cap. 16. affirmeth; that by the most ancient laws of England, the goods of a defamed o • pressor, dying without restitution, were escheated unto the King; and all his lands unto the Lord of the town.

Wherefore let the oppressor now at last forsake his oppressions. What can all the wealth, all the mucke of the earth avail him, if for it he loose the kingdom of Heaven? Momentaneum est, quod delectat; aeternum, quod cruciat. The wealth he here heapeth up may for a time yield him some delight: but what is a moment of delight to the eternity of sorrow that must follow? Must follow! Yea it must follow, if amendment hinder it not. If he amend not, I say, as God is God, so certainly shall the oppressor be destroyed, though not in the red Sea, as the oppressing Egyptians once were, yet in a Sea, a black Sea of Hellish deeps, where he shall be pained unspeakably, tormented intolerably, both everlastingly.

Thus have you the first use of my doctrine. My doctrine was, It is not lawful for any man to oppress another.

The use was a general reproof of our now-oppressors.

A second use may be to admonish Judges, Justices, and other Magistrates and Rulers, that they suffer not themselves to be stained with this sin of oppression. It is the duty of the Magistrate to deliver the oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor.

This duty is laid upon him, Ierem. 21.12. There thus saith the Lord to the house of David: Execute iudgem • nt in the morning, and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor. It is likewise laid upon him, Isaiah. 1.17. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and defend the widow. Where first God's commandment is, that Magistrates should execute judgment in the morning. In the morning: Therefore they are not to use delays in doing justice. Secondly, God's commandment is, that Magistrates should seek judgment. Must they seek judgment? Therefore in cases of oppression they are not to stay till they be called for. Thirdly, God commendeth unto Magistrates, all that are oppressed, but specially the fatherless and widow: the fatherless, because they want the defense of their parents; and the widow, because she is destitute of the help of her husband; and we know, every man goeth over, where the hedge is lowest. Therefore are Magistrates to take upon them the defense of the fatherless, the defense of the widow, the defense of everyone, that is oppressed.

Is it so? Then are Magistrates to take special heed, that themselves be neither principals, nor accessories, in the sin of Oppression. They must abhor the practice of the Princes of Jerusalem, who Isaiah 1.23. are styled companions of thieves, because they loved gifts, and followed after rewards. They are to detest the corruption of the rulers of Israel, who Hos. 4.18. love with shame to cry, Bring ye, Bring ye. They must hate the ways of Samuel's sons, who 1. Sam. 8.3. turned aside after lucre, took bribes, and perverted judgment. They must loath the courses of cursed Balaam, who 2. Pet. 2.15. Loved the wages of unrighteousness.

Happy is the land that is ruled by such Magistrates. Such may with boldness stand up, and make protestation with just and uncorrupt Samuel, 1. Sam. 12.3. Behold, here we are; witness against us: whose ox have we taken? whom have we defrauded? whom have we oppressed? of whose hand have we received any bribes to blind our eyes therewith? and no man shall be able to accuse them.

Are ours such? I stand not here to plead against them. Only this I say: If ours be not such, but are of another stamp: if they love the wages of unrighteousness, if they love gifts, if they follow after rewards, if they turn aside after lucre, if they take bribes, if they shame not to cry, Bring ye, bring ye; I may rank them with these Israelites in my text: They will sell the righteous for silver; they will sell the poor for a pair of shoes; they will pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor; they will turn aside the way of the meek, and they will drink the wine of the condemned.

Thus have you the second use of my doctrine. My doctrine was, It is not lawful for any man to oppress another. The use was an admonition to Magistrates, rulers, and other officers, that they suffer not themselves to be stained with the sin of oppression.

A third use followeth. It reacheth to the poor oppressed. They may from hence receive consolation; from hence they may be comforted. Is it not an exceeding great comfort to a poor oppressed wretch, to know, that God taketh notice of the oppressions, under which he groaneth? That God doth so, I have already made it manifest in the proof of my doctrine, in the reproof of oppressors, and in the Magistrates admonition. It is clear also in the letter of my text. Here God taketh notice of the oppressions of the poor in Israel, in as much as the Judges, the Rulers, and great men there did drink the wine of the condemned.

Hereto I add that Psal. 12.5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise (saith the Lord) I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him, from him that would ensnare him. Behold here, first God's readiness to help the poor, and secondly, how forcible with God the poor man's prayers are. Are not both these to a poor oppressed man points of singular comfort? Out of doubt they are.

But some poor man pressed down with the burden of oppression, may here say unto me. Hath God promised to deliver me from mine oppressors? Why then am I still oppressed?

Stay a while, and thou shalt behold the goodness of the Lord. Its not for thee to make haste, or to seek by vile, and unwarrantable courses to wind thyself out of thine oppressors hands. Until it shall please the Lord to put an end to thy present grievances, its thy duty to possess thy soul in patience. Prescribe not thou unto the Lord, what he shall do. Let his grace, let his favor be sufficient for thee, whatsoever it bring with it; be it want, or poverty, or adversity. One drop of his favor is better worth unto thee, and more of value, then this whole world. If thou have but a taste, but a touch of it, it will make thee sing with David, Psal. 119.71. Its good for me that I have been afflicted: good, that I have been in want, in poverty, in adversity, under the griping hand of the oppressor. O! how sweet is the quiet fruit of righteousness, that springeth forth from the bitter root of tribulation!

I have done with the poor oppressed, when I shall have given them a Caveat. The Caveat is, that they themselves oppress not themselves. There is no oppression to the oppression, that one poor man exerciseth towards another. For a poor man that oppresseth the poor, is like a sweeping rain, that leaves no food. Solomon avoweth it, Prov. 28.3. A poor man] a man of mean estate, if he oppress] by force, by fraud, by bargaining, or otherwise, a poor man] such as he himself is, whom he should tender and pity, because by him he may be put in mind of his own estate, he is like a sweeping rain] like a flood that riseth through abundance of rain, or he is like a great storm and tempest of rain, that suddenly carrieth away corn, hay, and whatsoever it meeteth with, and leaves behind it no food for men or cattle to live on. A poor man if he oppress the poor, is like a sweeping rain, that leaves no food.

A poor man, and yet an oppressor! Such a one is much more intolerable then a rich man, that oppresseth. For, whereas by the law of God, every oppressor is bound to make actual restitution for the wrongs he hath done, the rich man may be in case to do it, the poor man never.

My exhortation is, to rich, to poor, to all; that all would be of the same mind one towards another. So S. Paul exhorted the Romans, chap. 12.16. Be of the same mind one towards another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Recompence to no man evil for evil. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Since here we have no continuing city, Heb. 13.14. since here we are but pilgrims and strangers, 1. Pet. 2.11. since here is not our rest, Micah 2.10. why use we fraudulencie and forgery in our contracts? why bribery in justice? why cruelty in our dealings? why over-bear we right by might? why grind we the poor like corn with the millstones of oppression? why eat we them up like bread? yea, why do the poor grind themselves? why oppress they one another? Will we never leave crushing one another? Dearely beloved, we forget our selves: we think we are at home, but are not. Our home is above; it is Heaven. Here we are but strangers: and say; Is it fit that strangers, when they are but passing through a strange country, should devour and consume one another?

Beloved in the bowels of Jesus Christ, let us for the time to come so live and love together, whilst we shall be here iornying towards our wished-for-home, that Celestial Canaan, that when it shall please God to call us to our accounts, how we have here carried our selves, we may with blessed Paul, 2. Cor. 7.2. boldly make our profession: We have wronged no man, we have consumed no man, we have defrauded no man.

Thus far of the second general part, whose wine it was that these Israelites did drink. It was the wine of the condemned. I can but salute the third; it noteth the place where the Israelites drank their wine: it was in domo deorum suorum, in the house of their God's. They drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God's.

The Septuagint have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . In the house of their God. So readeth the author of the Vulgar Latin: So Luther, and Calvin, and Munster, and Castalio, and Gwalther, and so our new English. The reading I disallow not. Yet because the Israelites, the ten tribes of Israel, they to whom this prophesy of Amos was directed, went not now up to Jerusalem, to the Temple there, there to worship the true and living God; but had Temples of their own, Temples in Dan, in Bethel, in other places, to which they repaired for the worship of their golden calves, and Baal, and other their Idols; I rather read (and the Hebrew text will well bear it) in the house of their God's. Mercer so readeth it; so doth Vatablus, so Drusius, so Tremellius and Junius. Jonathan the Chaldee Paraphrast he reads; In the house of their Idols. He hath respect to the purpose of the Holy Ghost. His purpose in this place is to tax the Israelites for their superstition, for their idolatry, for their riot and excess in spending their goods, gotten by the oppression of the poor in the houses, Temples, or Churches of their Idol God's. The doctrine, we may take from hence is this,

Not in the service of God. They are rejected by Ecclesiasticus, chap. 34.18. He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is ridiculous. Ridiculous! And will you think a ridiculous offering fit for God's service? In the 20. verse. of the same Chapter Ecclesiasticus saith further: Who so bringeth an offering of the goods of the poor, doth as one that killeth the son before the fathers eyes. Can a father be pleased to have his son slain before his eyes? You will say, no. No more will it be pleasing to God to have an offering of ill gotten goods presented to him.

Solomon Prov. 15.8. saith, The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. He saith it again, chap. 21.27. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. Its true. Whatsoever Sacrifice the wicked man offereth to the Lord, be it offered never so solemnly, never so sumptuously, it will be an abomination to the Lord, the Lord will abhor it, he will detest it. Much more will he abhor and detest any offering that shall be made of goods ill gotten, of the goods of the poor. Of such sacrificers he saith in Isaiah, chap. 66.3. He that killeth an ox, is as if he slue a man: he that sacrificeth a lamb, as he that cut off a dogs neck, he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's flesh, he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an Idol.

You acknowledge the truth of the first part of my doctrine.

But may they be employed in the service of Idols? No, they may not. My reason is: The Idolater having no perfect knowledge of the true and living God, takes his Idol to be his God, and worshippeth him as God. Now • en worship him amiss, if carelessly, if with goods of oppr ••• with ill-gotten goods, he dishonoreth the true and living God: and the true and living God will be the avenger of such dishonor done unto him. This is the very reason why our Prophet here reproveth the Israelites for bringing into the Temples of their Idols, their ill-gotten goods, the wine of the condemned. They thought thereby to do service, not so much to their Idols, as to the great God of Heaven, whom by their Idols they represented. Thus have you my whole doctrine established,

1. This may serve to admonish such, as shall hereafter found Colleges, build Hospitals, erect Schools, ordain Aniuersaries, that they endow them not, that they enrich them not with lands and possessions, purchased with ill-gotten treasure.

2. Here is a lesson for all such as have heaped up unto themselves abundance of wealth by oppression, by extortion, by usury, by deceit, or otherwise unlawfully. Such may here be put in mind to make actual restitution in their life time. Happily they will by their last Will and Testament bequeath part of their ill-gotten wealth to the Church, and part to the poor, and will leave but a portion to their heirs. A poor shift. Can they think that God will be so mocked? He will not.

What remaineth then, but that everyone, who hath increased his substance by wrong, do while he is living, make actual restitution. Zacchaeus the Publican professeth unto Christ, Luk. 19.8. Behold Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man, by forged cavillation, I restore him four-fold. Zacchaeus of Jericho, he being converted to Christianity was content to restore four-fold. It is a good consequent, they are scarce half Christians, that will not restore the principal. Thou wilt say, what need restitution? I will repent for my oppressing sins, and God is gracious; he never turns away the sinner that repenteth. Take heed, deceive not thyself: if thou be able to make actual restitution, and doest it not, poenitentia non agitur, sed fingitur. S. Augustine tells thee so, Ep. 54. which is to Macedonius. Thy repentance is no repentance; thou doest but feign repentance. It will never procure thee pardon for thy sin. Make thou therefore actual restitution.

Thus far of the 8. verse.

THE XIII. LECTURE.

MY meditations have been heretofore five times exercised in discoursing unto you of the sins, wherewith the people of Israel in the precedent verses stand charged. Their sins were, Covetousness, Crueltie, Oppression, False dealing, Filthie lusts, Incest, Idolatry, Riot, and Excess. Grosse and palpable enormities. My endeavor was by the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, to arm you against them, that ye give them no passage, no not a little; that ye suffer them not by any means to have dominion over you.

From their sins we come to their Blessings; those blessings wherewith God had blessed them. Four are here mentioned.

One is, the ruin of the Amorites, set down verse 9. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the Cedars, and he was strong as the Okes, yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

The second is, their deliverance from the servitude of Egypt. ver. 10. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt.

The third is, their safe passage through the desert, touched in the same verse; I led you forty years through the wilderness. And why so? but, to possess the land of the Amorite.

These were three great blessings; yet were they but temporal. The fourth passeth; It is spiritual, ver. 11. I raised up of your sons for Prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites.

The confirmation of all followeth in the same verse: Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord? Say O ye children of Israel; Have I not done so and so for you? Have I not destroyed the Amorite for your sake? Have I not freed you from your Egyptian yoke? Have I not guided you through the desert? Have I not given you Prophets and Nazarites of your own sons, and of your own young men for your instruction in the true service and worship of your God? Is it even thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord?

You have now the scope of my Prophet, and the sum of this Scripture. My present discourse must begin with the first mentioned benefit bestowed by God upon that people. It is the ruin of the Amorites for their sake, thus expressed, ver. 9. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, &c.

Herein I commend unto you three principal parts;

The first hath a general touch of the ruin of the Amorites: Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them.

The second hath a description of that people. They are described, from their stature, and from their valor. Each is set forth unto us by way of comparison: their stature or tallness by the Cedar, their valor or strength by the Oke; Their height was like the height of the Cedars, and he was strong as the Okes.

The third hath a particular explication or amplification of their ruin; It was not any gentle stripe that they received, not any light incision, not any small wound; but it was their extermination, their contrition, their universal overthrow, their utter ruin. Their root and fruit; Princes and subjects; Parents and children, young and old, were all brought to naught: Yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

Of the first of these three parts at this time. It hath a general touch of the ruin of the Amorites. Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them.

Yet.] The Hebrew letter is Uau; it is most usually put for And: It is here so rendered by Leo Judah, by Calvin, by Gwalther, by Brenz, and by Drusius. The Septuagint, the author of the Vulgar Latin, and Vatablus do translate it But. Tremellius and the Translator of the Chaldee Paraphrase have Although. Our English Bible hath Yet. Be it either And, or Although, or But, or Yet, it varieth not the meaning of the holy Ghost.

The meaning of the holy Ghost, is, by this enumeration of God's benefits upon Israel, to tax Israel of Ingratitude. God showered down his benefits upon them, yet they returned no thanks. So much is here enforced by this particle, Yet, to this sense: Notwithstanding all the good I have done unto Israel, whether for their temporal, or for their spiritual estate; for their temporal, by destroying the Amorite before them, by freeing them from their servitude in Egypt, and by guiding them through the wilderness: and for their spiritual estate, by giving unto them Prophets even of their own sons: yet Israel, my people Israel, have forgotten me. Crueltie, Covetousness, Oppression, False dealing, Filthie lusts, Incest, Idolatry, Riot, and Excess, these are the fruits wherewith they repay me: Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them.

Here we are to take out a lesson against Vnthankefulnesse. It is this,

This truth you will acknowledge to be very evident, and out of question, if you will be pleased to consider three things.

• The First is, that God doth seriously forbid Vnthankefulnesse.
• The Second is, that he doth severely reprehend it.
• The Third is, that he doth dulie punish it.

First, God forbiddeth unthankfulness. It is forbidden, Deut. 6.12. Take heed, that thou forget not the Lord thy God when thou art full. When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy Fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee, and shall have given thee great and goodly Cities, which thou buildest not: And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and Wells di • g • d which thou diggedst not; vineyards & olive trees planted, which thou plantedst not, when thou hast eaten and be full, Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Take heed that thou be not unthankfull.

Secondly, God reprehendeth unthankfulness. He reprehendeth it in the Jews, Esa. 1.2. I have nourished, I have brought up children, but they have rebelled against me. He reprehendeth it in the Gentiles, Rom. 1.21. There are the Gentiles said to be without excuse, Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful. He reprehendeth it in the proud Christian, 1. Cor. 4.7. The proud Christian he boasteth of his dignity, of his good works, of his merits. Vnthankfull man, what hast thou, that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why doest thou glory, why boasteth thou as if thou hadst not received? It is a reprehension of Vnthankfulnesse which you have, Mat. 25 26. There the servant that received of his Master one Talent to be employed to the best advantage, and employed it not, is thus checked: Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knowest that I reap, where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers.

I may not pass by Jesus his censure, which he giveth of the Leapers, Luk. 17.17. It is a reprehension of their Vnthankfulnesse. Ten were cleansed: only one, and he a Samaritan, returned to give thanks. It drew from Jesus this expostulation: Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

Let me recall you to review that reproof of Vnthankefulnesse, Esa. 1.2. How begins it? Hear ô men, hearken ô Angels? No. A greater Auditory must yield attention. Hear ô Heavens, and hearken ô earth. Why? What is the matter? I have nourished, and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. What? Children! and they rebel! If servants had done it, if bondmen, if the sons of Agar, of whom it was said of old, Cast out this bondwoman, and her son, if these had rebelled against me, it were the less to be marvelled at: but they are children, mine own children, children of mine own education, nourished and brought up by myself: That these should rebel against me! Hear ô Heavens, and hearken ô earth, stand ye hereat astonished.

Mark, I beseech you, how the Lord goeth on to amplify this Vnthankefulnesse of his people, ver. 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the asse his Masters crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. See you not, how God setteth his people, as it were to School, to the Ox, and to the Ass, to learn of them what their duty is? And no marvel is it, saith a good Interpreter. For it often times falleth out, that brute beasts do make a greater show of humanity, then man himself doth.

It is a commendation given unto dogs, that they are fidelissimi dominis, & gratissimi, most faithful, most grateful unto their Masters: that by night they watch and ward, and keep their Masters houses; that by day they attend their Masters abroad; that they fight for them, ye and sometimes die for them too. The Dog that in K. Pyrrhus his Campe in the midst of his armed soldiers invaded the parricide and murderer of his Master, is recorded for a pattern of thankfulness. So is that Merchants dog, that in the Island Teos, lay upon a bag of money of his Masters, which his Masters boy had by negligence left behind him in a by-way: and so long he lay upon it, that at his masters return to seek what he had lost, tùm custodiae finem fecit, tùm caninam efflavit animam, saith my Author, he yielded up the custody of the bag, and died.

I could tell you of as great thankfulness in Lions. It was a thankful Lyon that spared Androclus a runagate from his Master, put into Circus Maximus at Rome, to be devoured by the Beasts there. The kindness he had done to the Lyon was in Africa: and it was nothing else but the plucking of a thorn out of his foot, It was a kindness, and the Lyon forgot it not. Its registered by Gellius Noct: Attic. lib. 5. cap. 14.

It was a thankful Lyon, that followed Gerasimus the Abbot to keep his Asses: the kindness that the Abbot had done to the Lyon, was done at the river Jordan. It was nothing else, but the removing of a little bramble from the Lions foot; It was a kindness, and the Lyon did him service for it. Its reported by Johan. Moscus in his pratum spiritual c. 107. And Fran. Costerus the Jesuit cites it to be true, in his Sermon upon the thirteenth Dominicall after Pentecoast.

It was a thankful Lyon that followed a certain soldier that went with Duke Godfrey of Bullein to the Conquest of the Holy land. The kindness that the soldier had done to the Lyon, was done not far from Jerusalem. And what was it? A serpent that had gotten this Lyon at the advantage, and was like to be his executioner, was slain by this soldier: This was a kindness, and the Lyon was thankful for it. It is storied by Bernardus Guidonis in his Chronicle: And Philip Diez, a Friar minorite of Portugal in his Summa predicantium at the word, Ingratitude, takes it for true: and upon the relation thereof breaketh out into this exclamation: O magnam bestiae gratitudinem, & ingentem hominum ingratitudinem! Quare haec audientes vos, non confunditis! O the great thankfulness of a beast, and the exceeding great unthankfulness of men! How is it that you hear this, and are not confounded.

Solomon, the wisest among the sons of men, Prov. 6.6. sends the sluggard to the Ant, to learn of her to labor. Go to the Ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise. She having no guid, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. Go, learn of her, do thou likewise. Is the sluggard sent to the Ant to learn? Then well may the Unthankful man be sent to the Lyon, to the dog, to the ox, and to the asse. He may learn to be thankful of the Lyon, and of the dog: I have shown it unto you by human testimonies. The ox and the asse may also teach it them: divine demonstration makes it good. Remember, I beseech you that same exaggeration of the ingratitude of Israel: The ox knoweth his owner, and the asse his masters crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. And let this suffice to show, that God doth severely reprehend unthankfulness.

Now in the third place, I am to show, that he doth punish it.

The punishments wherewith God repayeth unthankfulness are of two sorts. They are either Temporal or Eternal.

Among Temporal punishments I rank the loss of the commodities of this life.

Such a punishment, a temporal punishment it was, wherewith God repaid the Vnthankefulnesse of the Israelites in the wilderness of Pharan, at Kibroth-Hattaauah, or the graves of lust, their thirteenth mansion, so called because there they buried the people that lusted for flesh. This punishment, Psal. 78.30, 31. is thus described: While their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen of Israel. In the 11. of Numbers, ver. 33. thus: While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.

A temporal punishment it was, wherewith God repaid the mother that played the Harlot, Hos. chap. 2. for her unthankfulness. She knew not, that the Lord gave her Corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, and her gold. For she said verse 5. I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. You may see her punishment resolved upon, verse. 9. I will return, saith the Lord, and will take away my Corn in the time thereof, and my wine, in the season thereof, and I will recover my wool and my flax. Mine saith the Lord. They are all his. It was the Harlots Vnthankefulnesse to call them hers. But she was punished with the loss of them.

A temporal punishment it is, which is threatened to fall upon every Unthankful wretch, Prov. 17.13. Who so rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. Plagues and punishments from God shall be his portion.

Thus is Unthankfulness repaid with temporal punishments. It is repaid likewise with Eternal.

An Eternal punishment it is, which is adjudged to the unthankfull, and unprofitable servant, in the parable of the talents, Matth. 25.30. Cast him into utter darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Eternal is the punishment, which Judas suffereth for his unthankfulness. He fell headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, all his bowels gushed out, and so he went into his own place, Act. 1.25. His own place! Ex proprijs meritis damnationis locum, suum effecit, saith Caietane, Judas by his own deserts made the place of damnation, his own place. His own place, not by any desire or affectation of his own, but by God's ordination. He went into his own place: Abijt in Infernum, saith Lorinus, he went into Hell: and there he suffereth the second death; a death after death, a death and yet everlasting. For as Hell is large, so its long, and strong too. Between us and you saith Abraham in Paradise to Dives in hell, there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Ex inferno nulla redemptio: there is no getting out of Hell: and therefore Judas his punishment is Eternal.

S ^t Paul 2. Tim. 3.2. sets down a catalogue of the wicked: Among them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the unthankfull have their place. They have their place among the wicked; and therefore the portion of the wicked, must be their portion. And what shall become of the wicked? S. Paul saith, 1. Cor. 6.10. They shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He saith it again, Gal. 5.21. They shall not inherit the kingdom of God. S. John in his Revelation, Chap. 21.8. saith, They shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone. The Unthankful therefore, as wicked, shall not inherit the kingdom of God, but shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone. Their punishment shall be Eternal.

Hitherto you have heard; First, that God doth seriously forbid Unthankfulness. Secondly, that he doth severely reprehend it. Thirdly, that he doth duly punish it. From hence is the lesson, which I commended unto you, made good.

Vnthankefulnesse is a sin very odious in the sight of God.

The consideration hereof should work in us a resolution to give thanks unto our God for all his benefits. And although Dignas Deo gratias agere non sufficimus, though we be not able worthily to give God thanks; yet let everyone of us profess with S. Bernard, in his second Sermon de septem panibus: Ingratitudinem prorsus odit anima mea, my soul doth hate unthankfulness. Peremtoria siquidem res est Ingratitudo. Vnthankefulnesse! its a killing sin, its an enemy to grace, its a black friend to salvation. I tell you, saith that Father, quoniam pro meo sapere, I tell you, that to my understanding, there is nothing, that so much displeaseth God, especially in the children of Grace, and men of Conversion, as unthankfulness doth. His reason is: Vias obstruit gratiae; & vbi fuerit illa, iam gratia accessum non invenit, locum non habet. Vnthankfulnesse, it stops, it dams up the passage of grace. Let Vnthankefulnesse be anywhere, the good graces of God will have no access thither; much less will they reside there.

The same sweet Father Serm. 51. in Cantica speaketh to like purpose. Vnthankefulnesse! its the souls enemy; its a burning wind, siccans tibi fontem pietatis, rorem misericordiae, fluenta gratiae. It drieth up the fountain of piety, the dew of mercy, the rivers of grace.

He may seem to have reference to that Heavenly meditation of S. Augustine in the 18. chapter of his Soliloquies: Lord I will recount in my mind all the good which thou hast done for me all my life long, even from my youth. For I know right well, that unthankfulness doth much displease thee, as being the root of all spiritual wickedness. It is ventus quidam desiccans, & vrens omne bonum; It is a certain wind, that drieth and burneth up whatsoever good is, and stoppeth the fountain of thy heavenly mercies, ô Lord.

Such should be our every days meditation. Every day should we recount in our minds, all the good things which God hath done for us all our life long, even from our youth. Here to are we exhorted by S. Paul, 1. Thes. 5.18. In everything give thanks. His exhortation is made strong with a reason annexed. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. The like exhortation is made to the Colossians, chap. 3.15. Be ye thankful, and ver. 17. Whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, and the Father by him. The Ephesians are in like sort exhorted, chap. 5.20. Give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this Apostolical exhortation to thanksgiving four circumstances are principally remarkable, Quando, pro quibus, cui, per quem.

One is, Quando; When we are to give thanks. We are to do it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , always, at all times.

The second is, pro quibus; for what we are to give thanks, We are to do it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for all things. For all things which God sendeth upon us, or our neighbors, be they prosperous or otherwise. For even adversity worketh for the good of them, that love God.

The third is, cui; to whom we are to give thanks. We are to do it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to God and the Father, because he is God and Father: God in greatness, and Father in goodness: God, for his creation and general government of the world, and Father, for his election, redemption, and justification of the faithful.

The fourth is, Per quem; By whom we are to give thanks, we are to do it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not in our own name, for there is no good in us. Of our selves we cannot so much as think a good thought; much less can we speak a good word, or do a good deed. Nor in any Angels name, for the Angels are but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they are but ministering spirits. Nor in any Saints name: for this were to mingle the blood of Thomas with Christ's blood, as Pilate mingled the blood of the Galileans with their own sacrifice: Christ, he alone is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Mediator, our Advocate: in his name alone are we to give thanks. Give thanks always for all things to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is our duty, beloved, even to give thanks always for all things to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is it our duty? Let us then embrace it. Ascendant gratiae, vt descendat gratia: let our thanks ascend up to God, that his grace may descend down upon us. For cessat decursus gratiarum, vbi non fuerit recursus, saith Bernard Serm. 1. in capite ieiunij. The course and descent of the graces of God ceaseth, and the spring is dried up, when there is not a recourse and tide of our thankfulness.

O! Why should so good an exercise be a burden and grief to any Christian soul. Let the unrighteous vanish away in their graceless unthankfulness, and become as the dung of the earth: but let the righteous always rejoice in the Lord, for it well becometh the just to be thankful.

Early and late let us praise his holy name, though not with the harp, nor with the Psalterie, nor with an instrument of ten strings, as the Psalmist adviseth, Psal. 33.2. Yet let us do it with the best members, and instruments we have, with our bodies, and with our souls.

An eminent pillar of our Church, hath for this place a sweet meditation: Let us never turn our backs to the Temple of the Lord, nor our faces from his mercy seat. Let us not take without giving, as unprofitable ground drinketh and devoureth seed without restoring. Let us neither eat nor drink, nay, let us neither hunger nor thirst, without this condiment to it, The Lord be praised. Let the frontlets between your eyes, the bracelets upon our arms, the gards upon our garments, be thanks. Whatsoever we receive to use or enjoy, let us write that posy & Epiphoneme of Zechariah upon it; Grace, grace unto it: for all is grace.

To shut up this point, let our daily devotion, be the same that David's was. Psal. 103.1, 2. let it be our daily song: Bless the Lord ô my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord ô my soul, & forget not all his benefits.

Thus far hath the unthankfulness of Israel, noted in the particle Yet, carried me. I now go on with the explication of the first benefit here mentioned, to have been bestowed by God upon that unthankfull people.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , say the Septuagint, I have taken away; Exterminavi, the Vulgar, Calvin, and Gwalther, I have cast out; Delevi, Leo, Judah, and Castalio, I have wiped away; Excidi, O • colampadius, I have cut off; Perdidi, Vatablus, Tremellius, and Junius, I have destroyed; Drusius expounds it, Delevi, Perdidi, profligavi; Mercerus, Disperdidi, abolevi. The word in the original signifieth, so to abolish and wipe away a people or a nation, that there be not any memory left of it.

The Amorites were descended from Canaan the fourth son of Ham. In Gen. 10.16. Canaan is said to have begotten, the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Gargasite. He begat the Amorite.

I destroyed the Ammorite] What? The Ammorite alone? Not so: But the Amorites and other nations of the land of Canaan: whom, when they had fulfilled the measure of their iniquity, God did cut of, that he might give their land for an habitation to the posterity of Jacob, the people of Israel, according to his covenant made with Abraham, Gen. 15.18. Unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. The Kenites and the Kenizites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgasites, and the Jebusites. The Amorites you see were not alone.

According to this covenant with Abraham, a promise is made to the Fathers in the desert, Exod. 23.27. I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people, to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out from before thee. Whom? The Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite? Its true. But they are not all. Look back to the 23. verse. There shall you find the Lord thus to speak. Mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. You see again, the Amorites were not alone.

I pervse the Catalogue of the Nations, whom the Lord hath cast out before Israel. It is Deut. 7.1. There I find, that he hath cast out, the Hittites, and the Girgasites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Heuites, and the Jebusites, seven Nations, greater and mightier then Israel was. Seven Nations? Then the Amorites were not alone.

Were they seven Nations, that were driven out before Israel? How then is it, that the Lord here in my text recounting unto Israel this great benefit, nameth only the Amorite, saying, Yet destroyed I the Ammorite.

The Jesuit Pererius in his third Tome of Commentaries upon Genesis, writing upon the 15. Chapter, ver. 16. these words, The iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full, moves this very doubt, but thus: The reader may here wonder, why mention is made only of one Nation of the Amorite, since it is plain by other places of holy Scripture, that there were seven Nations, which the Lord drave out from before the Israelites.

His first answer is: It may by a Synecdoche. A part may be put for the whole; one Nation of the Amorites for all the seven. A like Synecdoche there is, Josh. 1.4. There thus saith the Lord unto Joshua: From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great Sea, toward the going down of the Sun, shall be your coast. All the land of the Hittites, shall be your coast; The Hittites only are named; and yet within the bounds described all the seven had their habitations. It is therefore a Synecdoche. A part is put for the whole: One Nation of the Hittites for all the seven. Its so here: One Nation of the Amorites for all the seven.

This answer admitting a Synecdoche is approved by Piscator, Tremellius, and Junius. Yet Pererius thinks to give a better. And therefore his second answer is: that the Amorites are praecipue & singulariter, chiefly and principally, named above all the rest, and for them all; because for the largeness of their Nation, and for their height of stature, and for their strength of body, and for their excessive cruelty, and impiety, they were above all, famous and much spoken of.

Mercerus, that great Professor of the Hebrew tongue in the University of Paris, is of opinion, that the Amorite here, and else-where, is above all, and for all mentioned, because he of all was the most terrible, the most mighty, and the strongest.

The like is affirmed by Arias Montanus, that learned Spaniard; Amorrhaeum potissimùm appellate, The Amorite he especially nameth, because that Nation & multitudine, & copijs, at{que} potentiâ, in multitude, in forces, and in power, excelled all the rest of the Nations, that were cast out before Israel.

Here then, where the Lord hath said, Yet destroyed I the Amorite, in the Amorite we are to understand also, the rest of those seven Nations, which the Lord drave out from before Israel: the Hittites, & the Girgasites, and the Canaanites, and the Perezzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Seven they were in number, greater and mightier then Israel was. All seven were cast out by the Lord from before Israel: and so much are we to understand by this, that the Lord here saith, Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them.

Before them] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , say the Septuagint. They well render the Hebrew, which word for word is a facie ipsorum, from their face. Mercerus saith, a conspectu eorum, from their sight; that is, saith he, corum causâ, ad eorum adventum, for their sake, or at their coming. Albertus Magnus renders it, à praesentia eorum, from their presence. Our English, before them, hits the sense. The sense is: God stroke such a terror into those seven Nations, the inhabitants of the land of Canaan; that at the coming of the Israelites, at the hearing of the name of Israel, they vanished, they fled away, they forsook their ancient habitations; or else were suddenly slain without much resistance.

Thus have you the exposition of the first branch of this ninth verse, which containeth a general touch of the ruin of the Amorites. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them. ] The Israelites, their unthankfulness towards me is very notorious, yet have I destroyed the Amorite before them. Yet I ] the Lord their God, who have freed them from their bondage in Egypt, and have led them forty years through the wilderness, I have destroyed ] have overthrown, have driven out, have brought to ruin— The Amorite ] not only the Amorites, but also the rest of the Nations, six other mighty Nations, whose dwelling was in the land of Canaan: all these have I destroyed before them ] for their sake, for Israel's sake; that Israel might without resistance take quiet possession of the land of Canaan, the land that floweth with milk and honey. The lesson which we may take from hence is this:

For further proof hereof we may have recourse to the 15. chapter of the Book of Exodus. There Moses sings a song unto the Lord, a song of thanksgiving, wherein he acknowledgeth the Lord to be all in all, in the overthrow of his enemies, Pharaoh and his host in the red Sea. His acknowledgment is, verse. 6. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy: In the greatness of thine excellency, thou hast overthrown them: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which hath consumed them as stubble. With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together: the floods stood upright as an heap: the depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea. The enemy feared not to enter. But thou Lord, didst blow with thy wind: the Sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord? Who is like thee? God is all in all in the overthrow of his enemies.

He is also all in all in the upholding of his children. Moses in the same song avoucheth it, verse. 13. Thou, Lord, in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thine holy habitation. It was not their own sword that delivered them, neither did their own arm save them. But the Lord, He and his mercy He and his strength delivered them, God is all in all in upholding of his children.

Is it thus dearly beloved? Is God all in all in the overthrow of his enemies? Then for the overthrow of that great Nauie, called the invincible Nauie, the great Armada of Spain, which twenty seven years since threatened desolation to the inhabitants of this I will, let God have the glory. It was the right hand of the Lord; not our virtue, not our merits, not our arms, not our men of might, but the right hand of the Lord it was, that brought that great work to pass. Their chosen Captains were drowned in the Sea: the depth covered them; they sank into the bottom as a stone. Some of them that were taken from the fury of the waves, and were brought prisoners to the honorablest city in this land, in their anguish of mind spared not to say, that in all those fights, which at Sea they saw, Christ shown himself a Lutheran. Sure I am, that Christ shown himself to be little England's rock, and fortress, and strength, and deliverer. Quid retribuemus? What shall we render? nay, what can we render, unto the Lord for so great a deliverance? Let our song begin as the Psalm doth, the 115. Psalm. Non nobis, Domine, non nobis: Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the glory, for thy mercy and for thy truths sake.

With like affection recount we the deliverance of our King and State, from that infernal and hellish exployt of the powder treason. The contriuers thereof I now name not. What could they expect, but upon the least discovery of so execrable an action, to incur an universal detestation, to have all the hatred of the earth poured upon them and theirs, to be the outcasts of the Common wealth, and the Maranathaes of the Church, they and their names forever to be an abhorring to all flesh. Yet they so far proceeded in that their Diabolical machination, that they were at the point to have given the blow; that blow, that should have been the common ruin of us all. But God, our God, who is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the Greeks describe him, Psal. 9.9. A helper at opportunities, in the needful times of trouble, when we were thus albi ad messem, white for their harvest, ready to be cut down by them; then, even then did our God deliver us. Quid retribuemus? What, what shall we render? nay, what can we render unto the Lord for so great a deliverance? Let our song be as before: Non nobis Domine, non nobis: Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truths sake.

God, you see, is all in all in the overthrow of his enemies: So is he, all in all in the upholding of his children.

Of his children, that is, of such, as live by faith in Christ, and do serve the Lord their God in spirit and in truth. Such if they be oppressed, if they be in need, if in trouble, have God for their refuge, Psal. 9.9. God will be the same God to them, as he was to David, Psal. 18.2. He will be their Rock, their Fortress, their Deliverer, their God, their Strength, their Buckler, the horn of their salvation, and their high Tower.

Here are they to be admonished, who, neglecting the strong God of their salvation, put their confidence in the transitory things of this world. They, who trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, they are here reprooueable. How can their wealth, how can their riches profit them in the evil day? Will they serve for a ransom unto God for thee? Look to the 49 ^th Psalm, and the 8. verse, and you shall find, that the redemption of a soul is much more precious.

And they who rely upon great men, thinking themselves safe in the shadow of their wings, are here reprooueable. They have their warning, Psal. 146.3. Put not your trust in Princes, nor in any son of man. And why not? There is no help in them: and why no help? Their breath goeth forth, they return to their earth, and their very thoughts do perish.

They also who make any other creature their confidence, are here reproueable. They for their instruction may have recourse to the 33. Psalm, at the 16. verse, thereof they may thus read: There is no King saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.

What? Is a horse a vain thing to save a man? Is much strength vain? Is there no safety for a King in the multitude of an h • st? Is there no trust to be put in Princes? Nor in any man? Nor in wealth? Nor in the multitude of riches? Nor in any of the transitory things of this world? Quid nos? What shall we then do, beloved? Let us say with the confidence, that the Church hath in God's succor, Psal. 20.7. Some put their trust in Chariots, and some in Horses, some in Princes, some in other men, some in their strength, some in their riches, some in something else, that is vain and transitory, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. The Lord our God who was all in all in destroying the Amorites before his people Israel; is now all in all in upholding us, his Children by adoption and grace, against the fury of all our enemies, that have had evil will at our prosperity. I conclude with the words of the Psal. 146.5. Happy is he, that hath the God of Jacob for his help; whose hope is in the Lord his God, which made Heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is. To this Lord our God, Father, Son, and holy Ghost, one true and everliving God, sing we an Hallelujah. Hallelujah, salvation and glory, and honor, and power, be unto the Lord our God for evermore.

THE XIIII. LECTURE.

OF the benefits here mentioned to have been bestowed by God upon his people, the people of Israel, in the first place we have the overthrow of the Amorites. It is delivered, verse. 9. Therein I propounded to your religious attentions three principal parts.

In the first, we have the overthrow of the Amorites; Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them.

In the second, the Amorites are described. Their description is taken from their stature, and from their valor, each is set forth unto us by way of Comparison: their stature or height by the Cedars; their valor or strength by the Oke. Their height was like the height of the Cedars, and he was strong as the Okes.

The third hath an explication, or an amplification of the overthrow of the Amorites. It was not any gentle stripe that they received, not any light incision, not any small wound; but it was their extermination, their contrition, their universal overthrow, their utter ruin. Fruit and root, Prince and people, Parents and children, old & young, were all brought to naught: Yet destroyed I their fruit from above, and their root from beneath.

The first of these three principal parts, delivering in a generality the overthrow of the Amorites, was the subject of my last discourse out of this place. Now followeth the second: the description of that people, the people of the Amorites. They are for their height or stature compared to the Cedars, and for their strength and valor to the Okes. Their height was like the height of the Cedars, & he was strong as the Okes.

IN Syria, and especially in mount Lebanon, the Cedar trees grew very high. Sennacherib King of Assyria by his message to Hezekiah King of Judah, giveth testimony hereunto. His message is, 2. King. 19.23. With the multitude of my chariots, I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall Cedars thereof. Succidam altitudinem Cedrorum eius, so he speaketh in the Hebrew, I will cut down the tallness of the Cedars of Lebanon. The words are repeated, Esa. 37.24. I will cut down the tallness of the Cedars of Lebanon. The tallness of the Cedars ] out of doubt they are very high.

The Cedars of Lebanon, Esa. 2.13. are said to be sublimes & elevatae, high and lifted up. In Tremellius his translation, they are celsissimae & elatissimae, most tall and towering. Out of doubt they are very high.

If human authority may be added to divine, Theophrastus in his fifth Book of his history of Plants, chap. 9. saith, that the Cedar for its length or height is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , its worthy admiration. Rovillius in his History of Plants, lib. 1. cap. 11. affirmeth, that the Cedar of Phoenicia or Syria beareth a body straight and very tall, mounting above all other trees. Arias Montanus saith as much: Cedrus vbicum{que} fuerit, the Cedar wheresoever it groweth, it ouertoppeth all other trees, and is above all pre-eminent and conspicuous. To prove it, he bringeth those words of the spouse concerning her Beloved, Cant. 5.15. His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the Cedars: that is, his Heroicall proceritie and the majesty of his countenance is like unto the Cedars of Lebanon.

The Spouse thus comparing the countenance of her beloved, to mount Lebanon and the Cedars there, intimateth, that the increase of the knowledge of God and his worship shall be so great, as that the open profession of Christ, for its durableness & stability, may well be likened to mountains: and that the Cedars of Lebanon do not so much ouergrow other trees in tallness; as true Christian religion for its reverend majesty shall ouergoe whatsoever blind, bushie, and thorny superstitions.

It is out of doubt. Cedar trees are very high. So high, that never man, never Giant was so high. How then is it, that my text thus speaketh of the Amorites, Their height was like the height of the Cedars?

It is by a figure, which the Greeks call Hyperbole. Whereof many instances may be alleged out of holy Scripture. In the 2. of Sam. 1.23. it is said of Saul and Jonathan, They were swifter then Eagles, they were stronger then Lions. Swifter then Eagles, and yet the Eagle of birds is the swiftest; stronger then Lions, and yet the Lyon of Beasts is the strongest. They were swifter then Eagles, they were stronger then Lions: they are two Hyperboles, or proverbial speeches. By them the holy Ghost lets us understand, that Saul and Jonathan, were exceeding swift of foot, and strong of body.

In Psalm 107.26. it is said of the waves of the Sea in a great tempest; They mount up to Heaven, they go down again to the depths. They are two Hyperboles. By them the Psalmist setteth as it were before our eyes, the greatness of the danger, wherein they often times are, that trade by Sea.

In Genes. 13.16. The Lord said to Abram, I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. I will make 〈◊〉 seed as the dust of the earth, saith the Lord. It is an Hyperbole. S. Augustine so takes it, de Civ. Dei lib. 16. c. 21. And well. For who seeth not, how incomparably greater the number of the dust is, then the number of all the men, that ever have been, are, or shall be, from the first man, Adam, to the end of the world, can be? And therefore where the Lord saith, I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; we are not to imagine that the posterity of Abram, was to be in number as the dust (all the people of the earth put together cannot stand in this comparison) but we are given to understand, that they were to be a very great people.

I pass over with silence, many instances of like nature, and return to my text, where it is said of the Amorites, Their height was like the height of the Cedars. The speech is proverbial, its hyperbolical. We may not from it collect, that the Amorites were as high as the Cedars, but this only that the Amorites were a people very tall and high of stature. Never did any man equal the Cedars in height: yet show me a man, that is of a vast body, and of an unusual proceritie, I may take up this Scripture phrase, and say of him; His height is like the height of Cedars.

Thus you see the Amorites for their height or talnes are likened to the Cedar. For their strength or valor they are resembled to the Oke, in the next words:

The figure of speech is, as before. Its proverbial. The Oke you know, is a hard kind of wood, strong, firm, and durable. Hence is the proverb, Quercu robustior, or robore validior, stronger then the Oke. Never was there man of so firm a constitution, that he can properly be said to be stronger then the Oke: Yet show me a man of extraordinary strength, I may take up this Scripture-phrase, and say of him, Fortis ipse quasi quercus, he is strong as the Okes. And in this sense it is here said of the Amorite, He was strong as the Okes.

That the Amorites were of an unusual and extraordinary height and strength, as they are here described by our Prophet Amos, you may further know by the relation which the Spies made unto Moses after their return from the search of the Holy land. Their relation is, Num. 13.28. The people be strong that dwell in the land; we saw the children of Anak there. At the 32. verse they speak more fully: All the people, that we saw in it, are men of great stature. And there we saw the Giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the Giants, and we were in our own sight, as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight. By this relation of the Spies you see, that the Amorites, the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, were more, then ordinary tall and strong.

The tallest and strongest of the Amorites (of these Amorites, which the Lord destroyed before Israel ) was Og the King of Basan. Of his height and strength, the Jews make strange reports. For his height they say▪ he was in his cradle and swaddling cloths thirty cubits high, and as he grew in years, so grew he in tallness. For his strength they say, when he had heard that the tents of the children of Israel, took up the space of three miles, he rooted up a mountain of like space, and set it on his head, with purpose to cast it upon the tents of Israel: but as he carried it, Ants made a hole through the midst of it, and so it descended and rested upon his neck: whence by reason of his teeth excessively increasing and running into the holes of the mountain, the mountain stuck so fast, that he could not remove it, to cast it, as he had purposed, upon the campe of the Israelites. This the Jews do write in their book of Benedictions; and Lyra in his Postill upon Num. 21. makes mention of it: but withal censures it to be so absurd, that it needs no other refutation: yet he makes mention of it, that we may see quanta coecitas est in Iudaeis, how blind the Jews are, to believe such fables.

It is, I grant, one of those Jewish fables, whereto S. Paul wished Titus, chap. 1.14. not to give any heed: and I believe it no more, then I do, that the Giant Antaeus was threescore cubits high, because Gabinius in the 17. book of Strabo his Geography affirms it: or that in Scythia in a rock by the river Tyres, there was to be seen the print of Hercules his foot of two cubits length, because Herodotus in his Melpomene is the relator of it.

Yet believe I, that Og the King of Basan was of more then ordinary tallnes and strength. And you will believe it too, if you will estimate a monument of his, which was to be seen in Rabbath, the Metropolitical City of the children of Ammon, now called Philadelphia. The monument was a bedstead of his. It is described, Deut. 3.11. His bedstead was a bedstead of iron: nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man. Of a man of reasonable stature; not of a Giant, nor of a dwarf. Nine cubits long was his bedstead, and bedsteds usually exceed the common stature of men by two feet: therefore the stature of Og was about seven cubits and a foot. So he was about three yards, two foot, and six inches high. Such an unusual tallnes could not but be accompanied with strength answerable to it: and therefore Og the King of Basan was of extraordinary tallnes and strength If the rest of the Amorites were anything like unto Og, then might the relation of the Spies be just: The people of the land are strong; they are men of a great stature: and my text saith well, Their height was like the height of the Cedars, and he was strong as the Okes.

Thus have you the description of the Amorites, They were tall of stature, and strong of body. Tall and strong. Yet, were they not thereby the more acceptable to the Lord. The Lord, notwithstanding their talnes, and their strength brought them to ruin. For so it followeth: Yet destroyed I their fruit from above, and their root from beneath. The lesson which we are to take from hence is:

Its true. God seeth not as man seeth. Man indeed looketh on the outward appearance; but God looketh on the heart. Man usually esteems of a man, by the beauty of his face, by the fairness of his countenance, by the comely feature of his body. God doth not so.

Saul, the first of the Kings of Israel, was a choice young man, and a goodly: there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person then he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher, then any of the people. He is so described, 1. Sam. 9.2. So is he, chap. 10.23. Saul, when he stood among the people, was higher, then any of the people, from the shoulders and upward. In the next verse Samuel asketh the people: Do you see him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? What is the people's answer? They shout, and say; God save the King. They saw him a goodly man of person; and therefore judged him fit to be a King. But the Lord, who seeth not as man seeth, and respecteth not man's outward appearance, rejected him from being King. His talnes, and the goodly proportion of his body were no privilege unto him. You are to believe it upon the Lord's own words, 1. Sam. 16.1. There the Lord tells Samuel, that he hath rejected Saul from reigning over Israel.

Upon the rejection of Saul, the Lord provided him a King among the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite, and Samuel was to anoint him. Samuel for that purpose went unto Bethlehem, and called for Jesse his sons. Eliab the eldest, came first in place. Him would Samuel have anointed. His motives were two. Abulensis quaest. 22. in 1 Sam. 16. sets them down. One was, the prerogative of birth in Eliab; the other was, his fair countenance and goodly stature.

Eliab had the prerogative of birth: he was the first-borne son. Some of the perogatives of the first-borne son are couched by old Jacob in his prophecy concerning his eldest son, Reuben, Gen. 49.3. Reuben, thou art my first-borne, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Prior in donis, major in imperio; so the vulgar Latin concludes that verse.

Prior in donis] There is the first prerogative belonging to the eldest son; it concerns his profit. Prior in donis; he was first to be respected in the division of his Fathers inheritance; he was to have a double portion of all his substance, according to the Commandment, Deut, 21.17. The Father shall give to his eldest son a double portion of all that he hath. The reason is annexed: For he is the beginning of his strength: the right of the first borne is his.

Major in imperio] It is the second prerogative of the eldest son. It concerns his honor and state of authority. He had a certain regal principality & rule over his brethren. It appeareth by the blessing which Isaac bestowed upon Jacob, who had gotten the birth-right from his brother Esau, Gen. 27.29. Be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy mothers sons bow down to thee.

Onkelos paraphrasing the prophecy of Jacob concerning Reuben, mentioneth a three-fold prerogative of the eldest son. Reuben, it was thy right to have received three better portions, then thy brethren; the priest-hood, the birth right, and the kingdom.

Now, if the eldest son had such perogatives; if he were prior in donis, and was to have the best respect in the division of his Fathers inheritance: if he were major in imperio, and had regal principality and rule over his brethren, if the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power were his; if his were the priest-hood, the birth-right, and the kingdom; why might not Samuel, think Eliab, Iesses eldest son, to be the man, whom the Lord had chosen to be King over Israel, rather then a younger brother?

A second motive, why Samuel might think Eliab fit to be the anointed king of Israel, was Eliabs fair countenance, and his goodly stature. Euripides could say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , beauty, its worthy an Empire. Atheneus the Dipnosophist, lib. 13. affirms it, and Porphyry in the second Chapter ^l of his Introduction cites it. Beauty, its worthy an Empire. Priamus in Homer, admiring the beauty of Agamemnon, saith unto Helena, with these mine eyes I never yet beheld man so fair; and adddeth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , In his countenance he is like a King. Many Nations (saith Athenaeus in the same place) have chosen for their Kings the fairest among them. And well. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Beauty, it best of all beseemeth Kings.

Now if Eliab were of a fair countenance, and of a goodly stature, why might not Samuel think Eliab to be the man, whom the Lord had chosen to be King over Israel, rather then any other of his brethren, who could not be compared unto him, either for fairness of face, or for goodliness of stature?

Thus, what for priority of birth, and what for comeliness of person, Eliab was by Samuel thought to be the man, whom the Lord had chosen for his King among all the sons of Jesse. It seems, Samuel thought so. For when Eliab was brought before him, he looked on him, and said of him: Surely the Lord's anointed is before him, 1. Sam. 16.6. Surely, Eliab is the man, whom the Lord hath designed to be his anointed.

But the Lord, the Lord who seeth not as man seeth, who respecteth not man's outward appearance, he refused Eliab. Eliab was no King for him. For thus saith the Lord to Samuel concerning Eliab. 1. Sam. 16.7. Looks not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. Eliab, notwithstanding the priority of his birth, and notwithstanding the comeliness of his person, he is refused: and David, little David, little in his fathers eyes, and little in the eyes of his brethren, neglected and despised of all (for he was the youngest of all) he is chosen to be the Lord's anointed. He is taken from the sheep-folds, from following the Ewes great with young, and is placed in rule and government, to feed Jacob the people of the Lord, and Israel the Lord's inheritance.

Thus much may serve for the confirmation of my propounded doctrine: God respecteth not the tall man for his tallness, nor the strong man, for his strength: You may add, nor the great man, for his greatness, nor the rich man for his wealth, nor the wise man, for his wisdom. The reason I have already touched. It is expressed, 1. Sam. 16.7. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. He looketh on the heart: and therefore he chooseth not as man chooseth, the tall, the great, the strong, the rich, the wise; but the low man, the little man, the weak man, the poor man, the foolish man. Whereto else tendeth the Apostles speech to the faithful among the Corinthians, 1. Cor. 1.26. You see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things that are mighty: and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. And what is the end of all? Its this: that no flesh should glory in the presence of God. It is the use we are to make of the doctrine now delivered.

We are urged unto it, Ierem. 9.23. There thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. In like sort say we: Let not the tall man glory in his tallness, neither let the strong man glory in his strength, though the height of the one be like the height of the Cedars, and the other be strong like the Okes, yet let them not glory therein: but let them glory in this, that they understand & know God to be the Lord, which exerciseth loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: that is, in the Apostles phrase, 1. Cor. 1.31. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And again, 2. Cor. 10.17. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. All other glorying is vain. Glory not in thy tallness; what can it avail thee? Glory not in thy strength; it cannot help thee. Say thou wert as tall as the Amorites in my text, and thy height were like the height of the Cedars; say thou wert as strong as they, strong as the Okes: yet notwithstanding the one, or the other, height or strength, thou mayest perish and come to naught, as they did. Glory thou therefore in the Lord.

Here may the man that is low of stature, or weak of body, be comforted; for as much as God seeth not as man seeth, nor chooseth as man chooseth. Be thou little, or be thou weak, thou art never a whit the further from the grace & favor of God. No further then Zacchaeus was. Zacchaeus was a very little man. In the 19. of Luke, ver. 3. it is said of him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that he was little of stature. Jesus