Hanani asked him, Were not the Ethiopians, and the Lubims a huge host? But because after this deliverance, he relied upon the king of Syria, and not upon God, the judgment is, From henceforth thou shalt have wars: that was a sickness upon the state, and then he fell sick in his own person, and in that sickness, says that story, He sought not to the Lord, but to the physician, and then he died. To the Lord and then to the physician had been the right way; if to the physician and then to the Lord, though this had been out of the right way, yet he might have returned to it: but it was to the physician, and not to the Lord, and then he died. Omnipotenti medico nullus languor insanabilis, says St. Ambrose, There is but one Almighty; and none but the Almighty can cure all diseases, because he only can cure diseases in the root, that is, in the forgiveness of sins. We are almost at an end; when we had thus catechised his convertite, thus rectified his patient, he turns upon them, who beheld all this, and were scandalized with his words, the Scribes and Pharisees; and because they were scandalized only in this, that he being but man, undertook the office of God, to forgive sins, he declares himself to them, to be God. Christ would not leave even malice itself unsatisfied; and therefore do not thou think thyself Christian enough, for having an innocence in thyself, but be content to descend to the infirmities, and to the very malice of other men, and to give the world satisfaction; Nec paratum habeas illud è trivio, (says St. Hierome) Do not arm thyself with that vulgar, and trivial saying, Sufficit mihi conscientia mea, nec curo quid loquantur homines, It suffices me, that mine own conscience is clear, and I care not what all the world says; thou must care what the world says, and thinks; Christ himself had that respect even towards the Scribes, and Pharisees. For, first he declared himself to be God, in that he took knowledge of their thoughts; for they had said nothing, and he says to them, Why reason you thus in your hearts? and they themselves did not, could not deny, but that those words of Solomon appertained only to God, Thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men 25, and those of Jeremy, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the 25 2 Chron. vi. 30. 24 2 Chron. xvi. 8. heart, and I try the reins. Let the school dispute infinitely (for that he will not content himself with means of salvation, till all school points be reconciled, will come too late) let Scotus and his herd think, that angels, and separate souls have a natural power to understand thoughts, though God for his particular glory restrain the exercise of that power in them, (as in the Roman church, priests have a power to forgive all sins, though the pope restrain that power in reserved cases; and the cardinals by their creation, have a voice in the consistory, but that the pope for a certain time inhibits them to give voice) and let Aquinas present his arguments to the contrary, that those spirits have no natural power to know thoughts; we seek no further, but that Christ Jesus himself thought it argument enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees, and prove himself God, by knowing their thoughts, Eadem majestate et potentia, says St. Hierome, Since you see I proceed as God, in knowing your thoughts, why believe you not, that I may forgive his sins as God too? And then in the last act he joins both together; he satisfies the patient, and he satisfies the beholders too: he gives him his first desire, bodily health; he bids him take up his bed and walk, and he doth it; and he shows them that he is God, by doing that, which (as it appears in the story) was harder in their opinion, than remission of sins, which was, to cure and recover a diseased man, only by his word, without any natural or second means. And therefore since all the world shakes in a palsy of wars, and rumours of wars, since we are sure, that Christ's vicar in this case will come to his dimittuntur peccata, to send his bulls and indulgences, and crociatars for the maintenance of his part, in that cause, let us also, who are to do the duties of private men, to obey and not to direct, by presenting our diseased and paralytic souls to Christ Jesus, now, when he in the ministry of his unworthiest servant is preaching unto you, by untiling the house, by removing all disguises, and palliations of our former sins, by true confession, and hearty detestation, let us endeavour to bring him to his dimittuntur peccata, to forgive us all those sins, which are the true causes of all our palsies, and slacknesses in his service; and so, without limiting, him, or his great vicegerents, 26 Jer. xvii. 9, 10. and lieutenants, the way, or the time to beg of him, that he will imprint in them, such counsels, and such resolutions, as his wisdoms knows best to conduce to his glory, and the maintenance of his Gospel. Amen. PREBEND SERMONS. THE FIRST OF THE PREBEND OF CHISWICK'S FIVE PSALMS; WHICH ARE FIVE SERMON LXV. PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S, MAY 8, 1625. PSALM LXii. 9. Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. WE consider the dignity of the Book of Psalms, either in the whole body together, or in the particular limbs and distribution thereof. Of the whole body, it may be enough to tell you that which St. Basil saith, That if all the other books of Scripture could perish, there remained enough in the Book of Psalms for the supply of all: and therefore he calls it Amuletum ad profligandum dæmonem; Any psalm is exorcism enough to expel any devil, charm enough to remove any temptation, enchantment enough to ease, nay to sweeten any tribulation. It is abundantly enough that our Saviour Christ himself cites the psalms, not only as canonical scripture, but as a particular, and entire, and noble limb of that body; All must be fulfilled of me (saith he) which is written in the law, in the prophets, and in the psalms'. The law alone was the Sadducees' scripture, they received no more: the law and the prophets were (especially) the Scribes' scripture, they interpreted that the Christian's Scripture, in the Old Testa ment, is especially the Psalms. For (except the prophecy of Isaiah be admitted into the comparison, no book of the Old Testament is so like a gospel, so particular in all things concerning Christ, as the Psalms. So hath the Book of Psalms an especial dignity in the entire body, altogether. It hath so also in divers distributions thereof into parts. For even amongst the Jews themselves, those fifteen psalms which follow immediately and successively after the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm, were especially distinguished, and dignified by the name of Gradual Psalms; whether because they were sung upon the degrees and stairs ascending to the altar, or because he that read them in the temple, ascended into a higher and more eminent place to read them, or because the word gradual implies a degree of excellency in the Psalms themselves, I dispute not; but a difference those fifteen psalms ever had above the rest, in the Jewish and in the Christian church too. So also hath there been a particular dignity ascribed to those seven psalms, which we have ever called the Penitential Psalms; of which St. Augustine had so much respect, as that he commanded them to be written in a great letter, and hung about the curtains of his death-bed within, that he might give up the ghost in contemplation, and meditation of those seven psalms. And it hath been traditionally received, and recommended by good authors, that that hymn, which Christ and his apostles are said to have sung after the institution and celebration of the sacrament, was a hymn composed of those six psalms, which we call the Hallelujah Psalms, immediately preceding the hundred and nineteenth. too. So then, in the whole body, and in some particular limbs of the body, the church of God hath had an especial consideration of the Book of Psalms. This church in which we all stand now, and in which myself, by particular obligation serve, hath done so In this church, by ancient constitutions, it is ordained, that the whole Book of Psalms should every day, day by day, be rehearsed by us, who make the body of this church, in the ears of Almighty God. And therefore every prebendary of this church, is by those constitutions bound every day to praise God in those 2 Matt. xxvi. 30. five psalms which are appointed for his prebend. And of those five psalms which belong to me, this, out of which I have read you this text, is the first. And, by God's grace, (upon like occasions) I shall here handle some part of every one of the other four psalms, for some testimony, that those my five psalms return often into my meditation, which I also assure myself of the rest of my brethren, who are under the same obligation in this church. For this whole psalm, which is under our present consideration, as Athanasius amongst all the fathers, was most curious, and most particular, and exquisite, in observing the purpose, and use of every particular psalm, (for to that purpose, he goes through them all, in this manner; If thou wilt encourage men to a love, and pursuit of goodness, say the first psalm, and thirty-first, and one hundredth and fortieth, &c. If thou wilt convince the Jews, say the second psalm; if thou wilt praise God for things past, say this, and this, and this, and this if thou wilt pray for future things) so for this psalm, which we have in hand, he observes in it a summary abridgment of all; for of this psalm he says in general, Adversus insidiantes, Against all attempts upon thy body, thy state, thy soul, thy fame, temptations, tribulations, machinations, defamations, say this psalm. As he saith before, That in the Book of Psalms, every man may discern motus animi sui, his own sinful inclinations expressed, and arm himself against himself; so in this psalm, he may arm himself against all other adversaries of any kind. And therefore as the same father entitles one sermon of his, Contra omnes hæreses, A sermon for the convincing of all heresies, in which short sermon he meddles not much with particular heresies, but only establishes the truth of Christ's person in both natures, which is indeed enough against all heresies, and in which (that is the consubstantiality of Christ with the Father, God of God) this father Athanasius, hath enlarged himself more than the rest (insomuch, that those heretics which grow so fast, in these our days, the Socinians, who deny the Godhead of Christ, are more vexed with that father, than with any other, and call him for Athanasius, Sathanasius) as he calls that sermon, a sermon against all heresies, so he presents this psalm against all temptations, and tribulations; not that therein David |