Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 19
SERMON XIX.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
PSAL. 38. 2.
For thine arr…wes stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
ALmost every man hath his Appetite, and his tast disposed to some kind of meates rather then others; He knows what dish he would choose, for his first, and for his second course. We have often the same disposition in our spirituall Diet; a man may have a particular love towards such or such a book of Scripture, and in such an affection, I acknowledge, that my spirituall appetite carries me still, upon the Psalms of David, for a first course, for the Scriptures of the Old Testament: and upon the Epistles of Saint Paul, for a second course, for the New, and my meditations even for these publike exercises to Gods Church, returne oftnest to these two. For, as a hearty entertainer offers to others, the meat which he loves best himself, so doe I oftnest present to Gods people, in these Congregations, the meditations which I feed upon at home, in those two Scriptures. If a man be asked a reason why he loves one meat better then another, where all are equally good, (as the books of Scripture are) he will at least, finde a reason in some good example, that he sees some man of good tast, and temperate withall, so do: And for my Diet, I have Saint Augustines protestation, that he loved the Book of Psalms, and Saint Chrysostomes, that he loved Saint Pauls Epistles; with a particular devotion, I may have another more particular reason, because they are Scriptures, written in such forms, as I have been most accustomed to; Saint Pauls being Letters, and Davids being Poems: for, God gives us, not onelyonly that which is meerly necessary, but that which is convenient too; He does not onelyonly feed us, but feed us with marrow, and with fatnesse; he gives us our instruction in cheerfull forms, not in a sowre, and sullen, and angry, and unacceptable way, but cheerfully, in Psalms, which is also a limited, and a restrained form; Not in an Oration, not in Prose, but in Psalms; which is such a from as is both curious, aud requires diligence in the making, and then when it is made, can have nothing, no syllable taken from it, nor added to it: Therefore is Gods will delivered to us in Psalms, that we might have it the more cheerfully, and that we might have it the more certainly, because where all the words are numbred, and measured, and weighed, the whole work is the lesse subject to falsification, either by substraction or addition. God speaks to us in or atione strictâ, in a limited, in a diligent form; Let us speak to him in or atione solutâ; not pray, not preach, not hear, flackly, suddenly, unadvisedly, extemporally, occasionally, indiligently; but let all our speech to him, be weighed, and measured in the weights of the Sanctuary, let us be content to preach, and to hear within the compasse of our Articles, and content to pray in those formes which the Church hath meditated for us, and recommended to us.
This whole Psalm is a Prayer, Divisio.and recommended by David to the Church; And a Prayer grounded upon Reasons. The Reasons are multiplyed, and dilated from the second to the 20. verse. But as the Prayer is made to him that is Alpha, and Omega, first, and last; so the Prayer is the Alpha and Omega of the Psalme; the Prayer possesses the first and the last verse thereof; and though the Reasons be not left out, (Christ himself settles that Prayer, which he recommended to our daily use, upon a Reason, Quia tuum est Regnum, for thine is the Kingdome,) yet David makes up his Circle, he begins, and ends in prayer. But our text fals within his Reasons; He prays in the first verse that God would forbear him, upon the Reasons that follow; of which some are extrinsecall, some arising out of the power, some out of the malice, some out of the scorn of other men; And some are intrinsecall, arising out of himself, and of his sense of Gods Judgements upon him; and our Text begins the Reasons of that last kind, which because David enters, with that particle, not onelyonly of Connexion, but of Argumentation too, For, (Rebuke me not O Lord, for it stands thus and thus with me) we shall make it a first short part, to consider, how it may become a godly man, to limit God so far, as to present and oppose Reasons against his declared purpose, and proceedings. And then in those calamities which he presents for his Reasons in this Text, For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore, we shall passe by these steps, first, we shall see in what respect, in what allusion, in what notification he cals them arrows: And therein first, that they are alienae, they are shot from others, they are not in his own power; a man shoots not an arrow at himselfe; And then, that they are Veloces, swift in coming, he cannot give them their time; And again, they are Vix visibiles, though they bee not altogether invisible in their coming, yet there is required a quick eye, and an expresse diligence, and watchfulnesse to discern and avoid them; so they are arrows in the hand of another; not his own; and swift as they come, and invisible before they come. And secondly, they are many arrows; The victory lies not in scaping one or two; And thirdly, they stick in him; they finde not David so good proof, as to rebound back again, and imprint no sense; And they stick fast; Though the blow be felt, and the wound discerned, yet there is not a present cure, he cannot shake them off; Infixae sunt; And then, with all this, they stick fast in him; that is, in all him; in his body, and soul; in him, in his thoughts, and actions; in him, in his sins and in his good works too; Infixae mihi, there is no part of him, no faculty in him, in which they stick not: for, (which may well bee another consideration) That hand, which shot them, presses him: follows the blow, and presses him sore, that is, vehemently. But yet, (which will be our conclusion) Sagittaetuae, and manus tua, These arrows that are shot, and this hand that presses them so sore, are the arrows, and is the hand of God; and therefore, first, they must have their Effect, they cannot be dis-appointed; But yet they bring their comfort with them, because they are his, because no arrows from him, no pressing with his hand, comes without that Balsamum of mercy, to heal as fast as he wounds. and of so many pieces will this exercise consist, this exercise of your Devotion, and perchance Patience.
First then,1 Part. this particle of connexion and argumentation, For, which begins our text, occasions us, in a first part, to consider, that such an impatience in affliction, as brings us toward a murmuring at Gods proceedings, and almost to a calling of God to an account, in inordinate expostulations, is a leaven so kneaded into the nature of man, so innate a tartar, so inherent a sting, so inseparable a venim in man, as that the holyest of men have scarce avoided it in all degrees thereof. Iob had Gods testimony of being an upright man; and yet Iob bent that way, O that I might have my request, says Iob, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for.6. …. Well, if God would, what would, Iob aske? That God would destroy me, and cut me off. Had it not been as easie, and as ready, and as usefull a prayer, That God would deliver him? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh of brasse? says hee, in his impatience. What though it bee not? Not stones, not brasse; is there no remedy, but to wish it dust? Moses had Gods testimonies of a remarkable and exemplar man, for meeknesse. But did God always finde it so? was it a meek behaviour towards God, to say, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? Have I conceived all this people,Numb. 11. 11. have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosome? Elias had had testimonies of Gods care and providence in his behalf; and God was not weary of preserving him, and he was weary of being preserved; He desired that he might dye,1 Reg. 19. 4. and said, Sufficit Domine, It is enough O Lord, now take my soul. Io…as, even then, when God was expressing an act of mercy, takes occasion to be angry, and to bee angry at God, and to be angry at the mercy of God. we may see his fluctuation and distemper, and irresolution in that case, and his transportation; He was a…gry, says the text; very angry; And yet, the text says, He prayed, but he prayed angerly; O Lord take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to dye,4. 1. 3. then to live. Better for him, that was all he considered; not what was best for the service and glory of God, but best for him. God asks him, If he doe well to be angry? And he will not tell him there;4. God gives him time to vent his passion, and he askes him again …after: Doest thou well to bee angry? And he answers more angerly, I doe well to be angry,9. even unto death. Ieremy was under this tentation too. Ionas was angry because his Prophesie was not performed; because God would not second his Prophesie in the destruction of Nineveh. Ieremy was angry because his Prophesie was like to be performed; he preached heavy Doctrin, and therfore his Auditory hated him; Woe is me, my Mother, says he, that thou hast born me a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! 15. 11.I preach but the messages of God; and (vae mihi si non, wo be unto me if I preach not them) I preach but the sense of Gods indignation upon mine own soul, in a conscience of mine own sins, I impute nothing to another, that I confesse not of my selfe, I call none of you to confession to me, I doe but confesse my self to God, and you, I rack no mans memory, what he did last year, last week, last night, I onelyonly gather into my memory, and powr out in the presence of my God, and his Church, the sinfull history of mine own youth, and yet I am a contentious man, says Ieremy, a worm, and a burthen to every tender conscience, says he, and I strive with the whole earth, I am a bitter, and satyricall preacher; This is that that wearies mee, says hee, I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent me on usury, yet, as though I were an oppressing lender, or a fraudulent borrower, every one of them doth curse me.
This is a naturall infirmity, which the strongest men, being but men, cannot devest, that if their purposes prosper not, they are weary of their industry, weary of their lifes; But this is Summa ingratitude in Deum, m…lle non esse, quàm miserum esse: There cannot be a greater unthankfulnesse to God then to desire to be Nothing at all, rather then to be that, that God would have thee to be; To desire to be out of the world, rather then to glorifie him, by thy patience in it. But when this infirmity overtakes Gods children,Chrysost. Patiuntur ut homtines, sustinent ut Dei amici; They are under calamities, as they are r…en, but yet they come to recollect themselves and to beat those calamities, as the valiant Souldiers, as the faithfull servants, as the bosome friends of almighty God: Si vis discere, qualis esse debi…s, disce post gratiam, says the same Father; Learn patience, not from the stupidity of Philosophers, who are but their own statues, men of stone, without sense, without affections, and who placed all their glory, in a Non facies ut te dicam analum, that no pain should make them say they were in pain; nor from the per…i…acy of Heretiques, how to bear a calamity, who gave their bodies to the fire, for the establishing of their Disciples, but take out a new lesson in the times of Grace; Consider the Apostles there,Act. 5. 42. Gaudentes & Gloriantes, They departed from the Councell, rejoycing that they were counted worthy, 1. 2.to suffer rebuke for his name. It was Ioy, and all Ioy, says S. Iames; It was Glory, and all Glory, says S. Paul, Absit mihi, God forbid that I should glory,Gal. 6. 14. save in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ; And if I can glory in that, (to glory in that, is to have a conscience testifying to me, that God receives glory by my use of his correction) I may come to God, reason with God, plead with God, wrastle with God, and be received and sustained by him. This was Davids case in our Text: therefore he doth not stray into the infirmities of these great, and good Men, Moses, Iob, Elias, Ieremy, and Ionah; whose errours, it is labour better bestowed carefully to avoid, then absolutely to excuse, for that cannot be done. But David presents onelyonly to God the sense of his corrections, and implies in that, that since the cure is wrought, since Gods purpose, which is, by corrections, to bring a sinner to himself, and so to God, is effected in him, God would now be pleased to remember all his other gracious promises too; and to admit such a zealous prayer as as he doth from Esay after,64. 9. Be not angry, O Lord, above measure; (that is, above the measure of thy promises to repentant souls, or the measure of the strength of our bodies) Neither remember iniquities for ever; But, loe, wee beseech thee, Behold, we are thy people. To end this first part, (because the other extends it self in many branches.) Then when we are come to a sense of Gods purpose, by his corrections, it is a seasonable time to flie to his mercy, and to pray, that he would remove them from us; and to present our Reasons, to spare us, for thy corrections have wrought upon us; Give us this day, our daily bread, for thou hast given us stones, and scorpions, tribulations and afflictions, and we have fed upon them, found nourishment even in those tribulations and afflictions, and said thee grace for them, blessed and glorified thy name, for those tribulations, and afflictions; Give us our Cordials now, and our Restoratives, for thy physick hath evacuated all the peccant humour, and all our naturall strength; shine out in the light of thy countenance now, for this long cold night hath benum'd us; since the dr…sse is now evaporated, now withdraw thy fire; since thy hand hath anew cast us, now imprint in us anew thine Image; since we have not disputed against thy corrections, all this while, O Lord open thou our lips now, and accept our remembring of thee, that we have not done so; Accept our Petition, and the Reason of our Petition, for thine Arrows stick fast in us, and thy hand presseth us sore.
David in a rectified conscience findes that he may be admitted to present reasons against farther corrections,2. Part. And that this may be received as a reason, That Gods Arrows are upon him; for this is phrase or a Metaphore, in which Gods indignation is often expressed in the Scripture.Ps. 18. 14. He sent out his Arrows, and scattered them; sayes David; magnifying Gods goodness in his behalf, against his enemies. And so again, God will ordaine his Arrrowes for them that persecute me.Ps. 7. 13. Complebo sagittas, says God, I will heap mischiefs upon them,Deut. 32. 23. v. 42. and I will spend mine arrows upon them: yea, Inebriabo sanguine, I will make mine Arrows drunk in their bloud. It is Idiotismus Spiritus sancti, a peculiar character of the holy Ghosts expressing Gods anger, in that Metaphore of shooting Arrows. In this place, some understand by these Arrows, foul and infectious diseases, in his body, derived by his incontinence. Others, the sting of Conscience, and that fearfull choice, which the Prophet offered him, war, famine, and pestilence. Others, his passionate sorrow in the death of Bethsheba's first childe; or in the Incest of Amnon upon his sister, or in the murder upon Amnon by Absolon; or in the death of Absolen by Ioab; or in many other occasions of sorrow, that surrounded David and his family, more, perchance, then any such family in the body of story. But these Psalmes were made, not onelyonly to vent Davids present holy passion, but to serve the Church of God, to the worlds end. And therefore, change the person, and wee shall finde a whole quiver of arrows. Extend this Man, to all Mankind; carry Davids History up to Adams History, and consider us in that state, which wee inherit from him, and we shall see arrows fly about our ears, A Deo prosequente, the anger of God hanging over our heads, in a cloud of arrows; and à conscientia remordente, our own consciences shooting poisoned arrows of desperation into our souls; and ab Homine Contemnente, Men multiplying arrows of Detraction, and Calumny, and Contumely upon our good name, and estimation. Briefly, in that wound, as wee were all shot in Adam, we bled out Impassibilitatem, and we sucked in Impossibilitatem; There we lost our Immortality, our Impassibility, our assurance of Paradise, and then we lost Possibilitatem boni, says S. August: all possibility of recovering any of this by our selves. So that these arrows which are lamented here, are all those miseries, which sinne hath cast upon us; Labor, and the childe of that, Sicknesse, and the off-spring of that, Death; And the security of conscience, and the terrour of conscience; the searing of the conscience, and the over-tendernesse of the conscience; Gods quiver, and the Devils quiver, and our own quiver, and our neighbours quiver, afford, and furnish arrows to gall, and wound us. These arrows then in our Text, proceeding from sin, and sin proceeding from tentations, and inducing tribulations, it shall advance your spirituall edification most,Eph. 6. 16. to fixe your consideration upon those fiery darts, as they are tentations, and as they are tribulations. Origen says, he would wish no more, for the recovery of any soul, but that she were able to see Cicatrices suas, those scars which these fiery darts have left in her, the deformity which every sinne imprints upon the soul, and Contritiones suas, the attenuating and wearing out, and consumption of the soul, by a continuall succession of more, and men wound, … upon the same place. An ugly thing in a Consumption, were a fearfull spectacle, And such Origen imagins a soul to be, if she could see Cicatrices, and Contritiones, her ill-favourednesse, and her leannesse in the deformity, and consumption of sin. How provident, how diligent a patience did our blessed Saviour bring to his Passion, who foreseeing that that would be our case, our sicknesse, to be first wounded with single tentations, and then to have even the wounds of our soul wounded again, by a daily reiterating of tentations in the same kinde, would provide us physick agreeable to our Disease, Chyrurgery conformable to our wound, first to be scourged so, as that his holy body was torn with wounds, and then to have those wounded again, and often, with more violatings. So then these arrows, are those tentations and those tribulations, which are accompanied with these qualities of arrows shot at us, that they are alienae, shot from others, not in our power; And veloces, swift and sudden, soon upon us; And vix visibiles, not discernible in their coming, but by an exact diligence.
First then,Alienae. these tentations are dangerous arrows, as they are alienae, shot from others, and not in our own power. It was the Embleme, and Inscription, which Darius took for his coin, Insculpere sagittarium, to shew his greatnesse, that he could wound afar off, as an Archer does. And it was the way, by which God declared the deliverance of Israel from Syria;2 Reg. 13. 17. Elisha bids the King open the window East-ward, and shoot an arrow out. The King does shoot: And the Prophet says, Sagitta salutis Domini, The arrow of the Lords deliverance: He would deliver Israel, by shooting vengeance into Syria. One danger in our arrows, as they are tentations, is, that they come unsuspectedly; they come, we know not, from whence; from others; that's a danger; But in our tentations, there is a greater danger then that, for a man cannot shoot an arrow at himself; but we can direct tentations upon our selves; If we were in a wildernesse, we could sin; and where we are, we tempt temptations, and wake the Devil,1 Reg. 22. 34. when for any thing that appears, he would sleep. A certain man drew a bow at a venture, says that story; He had no determinate mark, no expresse aime, upon any one man; He drew his bow at a venture, and he hit, and he flew the King Ahab. A woman of tentation, Tendit areum in incertum, as that story speaks; shee paints, she curls, she sings, she gazes, and is gazed upon; There's an arrow shot at randon; shee aim'd at no particular mark; And thou puttest thy self within shot, and meetest the arrow; Thou soughtest the tentation, the tentation sought not thee. A man is able to oppresse others;Ps. …2. 1. Et gl…riatur in mal… quia potens, He boasts himselfe because he is able to doe mischief; and tendit arcum in incertum, he shoots his arrow at randon, he lets it be known, that he can prefer them, that second his purposes, and thou putt'st thy self within shot, and meet'st the arrow, and mak'st thy self his instrument; Thou sought'st the tentation, the tentation sought not thee; when we expose our selves to tentations, tentations hit us, that were not expresly directed, nor meant to us. And even then, when we begin to flie from tentations, the arrow overtakes us.2 Reg. 9. 23. Iehoram fled from Iehu, and Iehu shot after him, and shot him through the heart. But this was after Iehoram had talk'd with him. After wee have par…ed with a tentation, debated whether we should embrace it or no, and entertain'd some discourse with it, though some tendernesse, some remorse, make us turn our back upon it, and depart a little from it, yet the arrow overtakes us; some reclinations, some retrospects we have, a little of Lots wife is in us, a little sociablenesse, and conversation, a little point of honour, not to be false to former promises, a little false gratitude, and thankfulnesse, in respect of former obligations, a little of the compassion and charity of Hell, that another should not be miserable, for want of us, a little of this, which is but the good nature of the Devill, arrests us, stops us, fixes us, till the arrow, the tentation shoot us in the back, even when wee had a purpose of departing from that sin, and kils us over again. Thus it is, when we meet a tentation, and put our selves in the arrows way; And thus it is when we fly not fast enough, nor farre enough from a tentation. But when we doe all that, and provide as safely as we can to get, and doe get quickly out of distance, yet, The wicked bend their bowes, Ps. 11. 2.that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart; In occulto; It is a work of Darknesse, Detraction; and they can shoot in the dark; they can wound, and not be known. They can whisper Thunder, and passe an arrow through another mans eare, into mine heart; Let a man be zealous, and fervent in reprehension of sin, and there flies out an arrow, that gives him the wound of a Puritan. Let a man be zealous of the house of God, and say any thing by way of moderation, for the repairing of the ruines of that house, and making up the differences of the Church of God, and there flies out an arrow, that gives him the wound of a Papist. One shoots East, and another West, but both these arrows meet in him, that means well, to defame him. And this is the first misery in these arrows, these tentations, Quia alienae, they are shot from others, they are not in our own quiver, not in our own government.
Another quality that tentations receive from the holy Ghosts Metaphore of arrows is,Veloces. Quia veloces, because this captivity to sin, comes so swiftly, so impetuously upon us. Consider it first in our making; In the generation of our parents, we were conceiv'd in sin; that is, they sinn'd in that action; so we were conceiv'd in sinne; in their sin. And in our selves, we were submitted to sin, in that very act of generation, because then we became in part the subject of Originall sin. Yet, there was no arrow shot into us then; there was no sinne in that substance of which we were made; for if there had been sin in that substance, that substance might be damn'd, though God should never infuse a soul into it; and that cannot be said well then; God, whose goodnesse, and wisdome will have that substance to become a Man, he creates a soul for it, or creates a soul in it, (I dispute not that) he sends a light, or hee kindles a light, in that lanthorn; and here's no arrow shot neither; here's no sin in that soul, that God creates; for there God should create something that were evill; and that cannot be said; Here's no arrow shot from the body, no sin in the body alone; None from the soul, no sin in the soul alone; And yet, the union of this soul and body is so accompanied with Gods malediction for our first transgression, that in the instant of that union of life, as certainly as that body must die, so certainly the whole Man must be guilty of Originall sin. No man can tell me out of what Quiver, yet here is an arrow comes so swiftly, as that in the very first minute of our life, in our quickning in our mothers womb, wee become guilty of Adams sin done 6000 years before, and subject to all those arrows, Hunger, Labour, Grief, Sicknesse, and Death, which have been shot after it. This is the fearfull swiftnesse of this arrow, that God himself cannot get before it. In the first minute that my soul is infus'd, the Image of God is imprinted in my soul; so forward is God in my behalf, and so early does he visit me. But yet Originall sin is there, as soon as that Image of God is there. My soul is capable of God, as soon as it is capable of sin; and though sin doe not get the start of God, God does not get the start of sin neither. Powers, that dwell so far asunder, as Heaven, and Hell, God and the Devill, meet in an instant in my soul, in the minute of my quickning, and the Image of God, and the Image of Adam, Originall sin, enter into me at once, in one, and the same act. So swift is this arrow, Originall sin, from which, all arrows of subsequent tentations, are shot, as that God, who comes to my first minute of life, cannot come before death.
And then, a third, and last danger, which we noted in our tentations,Invisibiles. as they are represented by the holy Ghost, in this Metaphore of arrows, is, that they are vix visibiles, hardly discernible. 'Tis true, that tentations doe not light upon us, as bullets, that we cannot see them, till we feel them. An arrow comes not altogether so: but an arrow comes so, as that it is not discern'd, except we consider which way it comes, and watch it all the way. An arrow, that findes a man asleep, does not wake him first, and wound him after; A tentation that findes a man negligent, possesses him, before be sees it. In gravtssimis criminibus, confinia virtutum ladunt; This is it that undoes us,Ambros. that vertues and vices are contiguous, and borderers upon one another; and very often, we can hardly tell, to which action the name of vice, and to which the name of vertue appertains. Many times, that which comes within an inch of a noble action, fals under the infamy of an odious treason; At many executions, half the company will call a man an Heretique, and half, a Martyr. How often, an excesse, makes a naturall affection, an unnaturall disorder? Vtinam aut sororem non amasset, Hamon, aut non vindicasset Absolon; Hamon lov'd his sister Tamar; but a little too well;Idem. Absolon hated his brothers incest, but a little too ill. Though love be good, and hate be good, respectively, yet, says S. Ambrose, I would neither that love, nor that hate had gone so far. The contract between Ionathan and David, was, If I say, The arrow on this side of thee, all is wel; 1 Sam. 20.If I say, The arrow is beyond thee, thou art in an ill case. If the arrow, the tentation, be yet on this side of thee, if it have not lighted upon thee, thou art well; God hath directed thy face to it, and thou may'st, if thou wilt, continue thy diligence, watch it, and avoid it. But if the arrow be beyond thee, and thou have cast it at thy back, in a forgetfulnesse, in a security of thy sin, thy case is dangerous. In all these respects, are these arrows, these infirmities, deriv'd from the sin of Adam, dangerous, as they are alienae, in the hand of others, as they are veloces, swift in seising us, and as they are vix visibiles, hardly discern'd to be such; And these considerations fell within this first branch of this second part, Thine arrows, tentations, as they are arrows, stick fast in me.
These dangers are in them, as they are sagittae, arrows; and would be so,Plures. if they were but single arrows; any one tentation would endanger us, any one tribulation would encumber us; but they are plurall, arrows, and many arrows. A man is not safe, because one arrow hath mist him; nor though he be free from one sin.Ios. 7. 25. In the execution of Achan, all Israel threw stones at him, and stoned him. If Achan had had some brother, or cousin amongst them, that would have flung over, or short, or weakly, what good had that done him, when he must stand the mark for all the rest? All Israel must stone him. A little disposition towards some one vertue, may keep thee from some one tentation; Thou mayst think it pity to corrupt a chast soul, and forbear soliciting her; pity to oppresse a submitting wretch, and forbear to vex him; and yet practise, and that with hunger and thirst, other sins, or those sins upon other persons. But all Israel stones thee; arrows flie from every corner; and thy measure is not, to thank God, that thou art not as the Publican, as some other man, but thy measure is, to be pure and holy, as thy father in heaven is pure, and holy, and to conform thy self in some measure, to thy pattern, Christ Jesus. Against him it is noted, that the Jews took up stones twice to stone him. Once, whē they did it, He went away and hid himself. Our way to scape these arrows,Iob. 8. 59. these tentations, is to goe out of the way, to abandon all occasions, and conversation, that may lead into tentation. In the other place, Christ stands to it,10. 31. and disputes it out with them, and puts them from it by the scriptum est; and that's our safe shield, since we must necessarily live in the way of tentations, (for coluber in via, there is a snake in every path, tentation in every calling) still to receive all these arrowes, upon the shield of faith, still to oppose the scriptum est, the faithfull promises of God, that he will give us the issue with the tentation, when we cannot avoid the tentation it self. Otherwise, these arrows are so many, as would tire, and wear out, all the diligence, and all the constancy of the best morall man. Wee finde many mentions in the Scriptures of filling of quivers, and emptying of quivers, and arrows, and arrows, still in the plurall, many arrows. But in all the Bible, I think, we finde not this word, (as it signifies tentation, or tribulation) in the singular, one arrow, any where, but once, where David cals it, The arrow that flies by day; And is seen, that is, known by every man; for, for that, the Fathers, and Ancients runne upon that Exposition,Psal. 91. 5. that that one arrow common to all, that day-arrow visible to all, is the naturall death; (so the Chalde paraphrase calls it there expresly, Sagitta m…rtis, The arrow of death) which every man knows to belong to every man; (for, as clearly as he sees the Sunne set, he sees his death before his eyes.) Therefore it is such an arrow, as the Prophet does not say, Thou shalt not feel, but, Thou shalt not feare the arrow that flies by day. The arrow, the singular arrow that flies by day, is that arrow that fals upon every man, death. But every where in the Scriptures, but this one place, they are plurall, many, so many, as that we know not whence, nor what they are. Nor ever does any man receive one arrow alone, any one tentation, but that he receives another tentation, to hide that, though with another, and another sin. And the use of arrows in the war, was not so much to kill, as to rout, and disorder a battail; and upon that routing, followed execution. Every tentation, every tribulation is not deadly. But their multiplicity disorders us, discomposes us, unse…les us, and so hazards us. Not onelyonly every periodicall variation of our years, youth and age, but every day hath a divers arrow, every houre of the day, a divers tentation. An old man wonders then, how an arrow from an eye could wound him, when he was young, and how love could make him doe those things which hee did then; And an arrow from the tongue of inferiour people, that which we make shift to call honour, wounds him deeper now; and ambition makes him doe as strange things now, as love did then; A fair day shoots arrows of visits, and comedies, and conversation, and so wee goe abroad: and a foul day shoots arrows of gaming, or chambering, and wantonnesse, and so we stay at home. Nay, the same sin shoots arrows of presumption in God, before it be committed, and of distrust and diffidence in God after; we doe not fear before, and we cannot hope after: And this is that misery from this plurality, and multiplacity of these arrows, these manifold tentations, which David intends here, and as often as he speaks in the same phrase of plurality, vituli multi, many buls, canes multi, Ps. 22. 13. 17.many dogs, and bellantes multi, many warlike enemies, and aquae… multae, many deep waters compasse me. For as it is said of the spirit of wisdome, that it is unicus multiplex,Wisd. 7. 22. manifoldly one, plurally singular: so the spirit of tentation in every soul is unicus multiplex, singularly plurall, rooted in some one beloved sin, but derived into infinite branches of tentation.
And then, these arrows stick in us; the raine fals,Fixae. but that cold sweat hangs not upon us; Hail beats us, but it leaves no pock-holes in our skin. These arrows doe not so fall about us, as that they misse us; nor so hit us, as they rebound back without hurting us: But we complain with Ieremy, The sons of his quiver are entred into our reins. Lam. 3. 13.The Roman Translation reads that filias, The daughters of his quiver; If it were but so, daughters, we might limit these arrows in the signification of tentations, by the many occasions of tentation; arising from that sex. But the Originall hath it filios, the sons of his quiver, and therefore we consider these arrows in a stronger signification, tribulations, as well as tentations; They stick in us; Consider it but in one kinde, diseases, sicknesses. They stick to us so, as that we are not sure, that any old diseases mentioned in Physicians books are worn out, but that every year produces new, of which they have no mention, we are sure. We can scarce expresse the number, scarce sound the names of the diseases of mans body; 6000 year hath scarce taught us what they are, how they affect us, how they shall be cur'd in us, nothing, on this side the Resurrection, can teach us. They stick to us so, as that they passe by inheritance, and last more generations in families, then the inheritance it self does; and when no land, no Manor, when no title, no honour descends upon the heir, the stone, or the gout descends upon him. And as though our bodies had not naturally diseases, and infirmities enow, we contract more, inflict more, (and that, out of necessity too) in mortifications, and macerations, and Disciplines of this rebellious flesh. I must have this body with me to heaven, or else salvation it self is not perfect; And yet I cannot have this body thither, except as S. Paul did his, I beat down this body, 1 Cor. 9. ult.attenuate this body by mortification; Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I have not body enough for my body, and I have too much body for my soul; not body enough, not bloud enough, not strength enough, to sustain my self in health, and yet body enough to destroy my soul, and frustrate the grace of God in that miserable, perplexed, riddling condition of man; sin makes the body of man miserable, and the remedy of sin, mortification, makes it miserable too; If we enjoy the good things of this world, Duriorem carcerem praeparamus, Basil.wee doe but carry an other wall about our prison, an other story of unwieldy flesh about our souls; and if wee give our selves as much mortification as our body needs, we live a life of fridays, and see no Sabbath, we make up our years of Lents, and see no other Easters, and whereas God meant us Paradise, we make all the world a wildernesse. Sin hath cast a curse upon all the creatures of the world, they are all worse then they were at first, and yet we dare not receive so much blessing, as is left in the creature, we dare not eat or drink, and enjoy them. The daughters of Gods quiver, and the sons of his quiver, the arrows of tentation, and the arrows of tribulation, doe so stick in us, that as he lives miserably, that lives in sicknes, and he as miserably, that lives in physick: so plenty is a misery, and morti…ication is a misery too; plenty, if we consider it in the effects, is a disease, a continuall sicknes, for it breeds diseases; And mortification, if we should consider it without the effects, is a disease too, a continuall hunger, and fasting; and if we consider it at best, and in the effects, mortification is but a continuall physick, which is misery enough.
They stick, and they stick fast; altè infixae; every syllable aggravates our misery.Alrè Infixae. Now for the most part, experimentally, we know not whether they stick fast or no, for we never goe about to pull them out: these arrows, these tentations, come, and welcome: we are so far from offering to pull them out, that we fix them faster and faster in us; we assist our tentations: yea, we take preparatives and fomentations, we supple our selves by provocations, lest our flesh should be of proof against these arrows, that death may enter the surer, and the deeper into us by them. And he that does in some measure, soberly and religiously, goe about to draw out these arrows, yet never consummates, never perfects his own work; He pulls back the arrow a little way, and he sees blood, and he feels spirit to goe out with it, and he lets it alone: He forbears his sinfull companions, a little while, and he feels a melancholy take hold of him, the spirit and life of his life decays, and he falls to those companions again. Perchance he rushes out the arrow with a sudden, and a resolved vehemence, and he leaves the head in his body: He forces a divorce from that sinne, he removes himself out of distance of that tentation; and yet he surfets upon cold meat, upon the sinfull remembrance of former sins, which is a dangerous rumination, and an unwholesome chawing of the cud; It is not an ill derivation of repentance, that poenitere is poenam tenere; that's true repentance, when we continue in those means, which may advance our repentance. When Ioash the King of Israel came to visit Elisha upon his sick bed,2 Reg. 13. 17. and to consult with him about his war, Elisha bids the King smite the ground, and he smites it thrice, and ceases: Then the man of God was angry, and said, Thou shouldst have smitten five or sixe times, and so thou shouldst have smitten thine enemies, till thou hadst consumed them. Now, how much hast thou to doe, that hast not pull'd at this arrow at all yet? Thou must pull thrice and more, before thou get it out; Thou must doe, and leave undone many things, before thou deliver thy selfe of that arrow, that sinne that transports thee. One of these arrows was shot into Saint Paul himselfe, and it stuck,1 Cor. 12. 7. and stuck fast; whether an arrow of tentation, or an arrow of tribulation, the Fathers cannot tell; And therefore, wee doe now, (not inconveniently) all our way, in this exercise, mingle these two considerations, of tentation, and tribulation. Howsoever Saint Paul pull'd thrice at this arrow, and could not get it out; I besought the Lord thrice, says he, that it might depart from mee. But yet, Ioash his thrice striking of the ground, brought him some victory; Saint Pauls thrice praying, brought him in that provision of Grace, which God cals sufficient for him. Once pulling at these arrows, a slight consideration of thy sins will doe no good. Do it thrice; testifie some true desire by such a diligence; Doe it now as thou sitt'st, doe it again at the Table, doe it again in thy bed; Doe it thrice, doe it in thy purpose, do it in thine actions, doe it in thy constancy; Doe it thrice, within the wals of thy flesh, in thy self, within the wals of thy house in thy family, and in a holy and exemplar conversation abroad, and God will accomplish thy work, which is his work in thee; And though the arrow be not utterly pull'd out, yet it shall not fester, it shall not gangrene; Thou shalt not be cut off from the body of Christ, in his Church here, nor in the Triumphant Church hereafter, how fast soever these arrows did stick upon thee before. God did not refuse Israel for her wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores, though from the sole of the foot,Esa. 1. 6. to the crown of the head, but because those wounds were not closed, nor bound up, nor suppled with ointments, therefore he refused her. God shall not refuse any soul, because it hath been shot with these arrows; Alas, God himself hath set us up for a mark, says Iob, and so says Ieremy, against these arrows. Lam. 3. 12.But that soul that can pour out flouds of tears, for the losse, or for the absence, or for the unkindnes, or imagination of an unkindness of a friend, mis-beloved, beloved a wrong way, and not afford one drop, one tear, to wash the wounds of these arrows, that soul that can squeaze the wound of Christ Jesus, and spit out his bloud in these blasphemous execrations, & shed no drop of this bloud upon the wounds of these arrows, that soul, and only that soul, that refuses a cure, does God refuse; not because they fell upon it, and stook, and stook fast, and stook long, but because they never, never went about to pull them out; never resisted a tentation, never lamented a transgression, never repented a recidivation.
Now this is more put home to us in the next addition, Infixae mihi, Mihi.they stick, and stick fast, in mee, that is, in all mee. That that sin must be sav'd or damn'd; That's not the soul alone, nor body alone, but all, the whole man. God is the God of Abraham, as he is the God of the living; Therefore Abraham is alive; And Abraham is not alive, if his body be not alive; Alive actually in the person of Christ; alive in an infallible assurance of a particular resurrection. Whatsoever belongs to thee, belongs to thy body and soul; and these arrows stick fast in thee; In both. Consider it in both; in things belonging to the body and to the soul; We need clothing; Baptisme is Gods Wardrobe; there Induimur Christo; In Baptisme we put on Christ; there we are invested, apparell'd in Christ; And there comes an arrow, that cuts off half our garment,2 Sam. 10. 4. (as Hammon did Davids servants) A tentation that makes us think, it is enough to be baptized, to professe the name of Christ; for Papist, or Protestant, it is but the train of the garment, matter of civility, and policy, and government, and may be cut off, and the garment remain still. So we need meat, sustenance, and then an arrow comes, a tentation meets us, Edite, & bibite, Eat and drink, tomorrow you shall die; That there is no life, but this life, no blessednesse but in worldly abundances. If we need physick, and God offer us his physick, medicinall corrections, there flies an arrow, a tentation, Medice cura teipsum, that hee whom wee make our Physician, died himselfe, of an infamous disease, that Christ Jesus from whom we attend our salvation, could not save himself. In our clothing, in our diet, in our physick, things which carry our consideration upon the body, these arrowes stick fast in us, in that part of us. So in the more spirituall actions of our souls too. In our alms there are trumpets blowne, there's an arrow of vaine-glory; In our fastings, there are disfigurings, there's an arrow of Hypocrisie; In our purity, there is contempt of others; there's an arrow of pride; In our coming to Church, there is custome and formality; In hearing Sermons, there is affection to the parts of the Preacher. In our sinfull actions these arrows abound; In our best actions they lie hid; And as thy soul is in every part of thy body, so these arrows are in every part of thee, body, and soul; they stick, and stick fast, in thee, in all thee.
And yet there is another weight upon us, in the Text,Manus. there is still a Hand that follows the blow, and presse it, Thy hand presses me sore; so the Vulgat read it, Confirmasti super me manum tuam, Thy hand is settled upon mee; and the Chalde paraphrase carries it farther then to man, Sit super me vulnus manus tua; Thy hand hath wounded mee, and that hand keeps the wound open. And in this sense the Apostle says, It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Heb. 10. 31.But as God leaves not his children without correction, so he leaves them not without comfort, and therefore it behoves us to consider his hand upon these arrows, more then one way.
First, because his hand is upon the arrow, it shall certainly hit the mark;Tua ut afflictio. Gods purpose cannot be disappointed. If men, and such men, left-handed men, and so many 700 left-handed men, and so many of one Tribe, 700 Benjamites, Iud. 20. 16.could sling stones at a hairs breadth, and not fail, God is a better Mark-man then the left-handed Benjamites; his arrows alwayes hit as he intends them. Take them then for tribulation, his hand is upon them; Though they come from the malice of men, his hand is upon them. S. Ambrose observes, that in afflictions, Gods hand, and the Devils are but one hand. Stretch out thy hand, says Satan to God, concerning Iob; And, all that he hath is in thy hand, says God to Satan. Stretch out thy hand, and touch his bones, says Satan again to God; And again, God to Satan, He is in thy hand, but touch not his life. A difference may be, that when Gods purpose is but to punish, as he did Pharaoh, in those severall verall premonitory plagues, there it is Digitus Dei; It was but a finger, Exod. 8. 19.and Gods finger. When Balshazzar was absolutely to be destroyed, there were Digiti, Dan. 5. 5.and Manus hominis, mens fingers, and upon a mans hand. The arrows of men are ordinary, more venimous, and more piercing, then the arrows of God.2 Reg. 13. 17. But as it is in that story of Elisha, and Ioash, The Prophet bade the King shoot, but Elisha laid his hand upon the Kings hand; So from what instrument of Satan soever, thy affliction come, Gods hand is upon their hand that shoot it, and though it may hit the mark according to their purpose, yet it hath the effect, and it works according to his.
Yea, let this arrow be considered as a tentation, yet his hand is upon it;Tua ut Peccatum. at least God sees the shooting of it, and yet lets it flie. Either hee tries us by these arrows, what proof we are; Or he punishes us by those arrows of new sins, for our former sins; and so, when he hath lost one arrow, he shoots another. He shoots a sermon, and that arrow is lost; He shoots a sicknesse, and that arrow is lost; He shoots a sin; not that he is authour of any sin, as sin; but as sin is a punishment of sin, he concurs with it. And so he shoots arrow after arrow, permits sin after sin, that at last some sin, that draws affliction with it, might bring us to understanding; for that word, in which the Prophet here expresses this sticking, and this fast sticking of these arrows, which is Nachath, is here, (as the Grammarians in that language call it) in Niphal, figere factae, they were made to stick; Gods hand is upon them, the work is his, the arrows are his, and the sticking of them is his, whatsoever, and whosesoever they be.
His hand shoots the arrow, as it is a tribulation, he limits it, whosoever inflict it.Tua ut Medicamenta. His hand shoots it, as it is a tentation; He permits it, & he orders it, whosoever offer it. But it is especially from his hand, as it hath a medicinall nature in it; for in every tentation, and every tribulation, there is a Catechisme, and Instruction; nay, there is a Canticle, a love-song, an Epithalamion, a mariage song of God, to our souls, wrapped up, if wee would open it, and read it, and learn that new tune, that musique of God; So when thou hear…st Nathans words to David, The child that is born unto thee, shall surely die, 2 Sam. 12. 14.(let that signifie, the children of thy labour, and industry, thy fortune, thy state shall perish) so when thou hear'st Gods word to David, Choose famine, or war, or pestilence,2 Sam. 24. for the people, (let that signifie, those that depend upon thee, shal perish) so when thou hear'st Esays words to Hezekiah, Put thy house in order, for thou shalt die; (let that signifie,Esa. 38. thou thy self in person shalt perish) so when thou hear'st all the judgements of God, as they lie in the body of the Scriptures, so the applications of those judgements, by Gods Ministers, in these services, upon emergent occasions, all these are arrows shot by the hand of God, and that child of God, that is accustomed to the voice, and to the ear of God, to speak with him in prayer, when God speaks to him, in any such voice here, as that to David, or Hezekiah, though this be a shooting of arrows,Iob 41. 19. Non sugabit eum vir sagittarius, The arrow, (as we read it) The Archer, (as the Romane Edition reades it) cannot make that child of God afraid, afraid with a distrustfull fear, or make him loth to come hither again to hear more, how close soever Gods arrow, and Gods archer, that is, his word in his servants mouth, come to that Conscience now, nor make him mis-interpret that which he does hear, or call that passion in the Preacher, in which the Preacher is but sagittarius Dei, the deliverer of Gods arrows; for Gods arrows, are sagitta Compunctionis, arrows that draw bloud from the eyes; Tears of repentance from Mary Magdalen, and from Peter; And when from thee? There is a probatum est in S. Aug. Sagittaveras cor meum, Thou hast shot at my heart;Confess. l. 9. c. 2. and how wrought that? To the withdrawing of his tongue, à nundinis loquacitatis, from that market in which I sold my self, (for S. Aug. at that time taught Rhetorique) to turn the stream of his eloquence, and all his other good parts, upon the service of God in his Church. You may have read, or heard that answer of a Generall, who was threatned with that danger; that his enemies arrows were so many, as that they would cover the Sun from him; In umbra pugnabimus; All the better, says he, for then we shall fight in the shadow. Consider all the arrows of tribulation, even of tentation, to be directed by the hand of God, and never doubt to fight it out with God, to lay violent hands upon heaven, to wrastle with God for a blessing, to charge and presse God upon his contracts and promises, for in umbra pugnabis, though the clouds of these arrows may hide all suns of worldly comforts from thee, yet thou art still under the shadow of his wings. Nay, thou art still, for all this shadow, in the light of his countenance. To which purpose there is an excellent use of this Metaphor of arrows, H…bak. 3. 11. where it is said, that Gods servants shall have the light of his arrows, and the …ining of his glittering spear: that is, the light of his presence, in all the instruments, and actions of his corrections.
To end all, and to dismisse you with such a re-collection, as you may carry away with you; literally, primarily, this text concerns David: He by tentations to sin,Christus. by tribulations for sin, by comminations, and increpations upon sin, was bodily, and ghostly become a quiver of arrows of all sorts; they stook, and stook fast, and stook full in him, in all him. The Psalm hath a retrospect too, it looks back to Adam, and to every particular man in his loines, and so, Davids case is our case, and all these arrowes stick in all us. But the Psalm and the text hath also a prospect, and hath a propheticall relation from David to our Saviour Christ Jesus. And of him, and of the multiplicity of these arrows upon him in the exinanition, and evacuation of himself, in this world for us, have many of the Ancients interpreted these words literally, and as in their first and primary signification; Turne we therefore to him, before we goe, and he shall return home with us. How our first part of this text is applyable to him, that our prayers to God, for ease in afflictions, may be grounded upon reasons, out of the sense of those afflictions, Saint Basil tels us, that Christ therefore prays to his Father now in heaven, to spare mankinde, because man had suffered so much, and drunk so deep of the bitter cup of his anger, in his person and passion before: It is an avoidable plea, from Christ in heaven, for us, Spare them O Lord in themselves, since thou didst not spare them in me. And how far he was from sparing thee, we see in all those severall weights which have aggravated his hand, and these arrowes upon us: If they be heavy upon us, much more was their weight upon thee, every dram upon us was a Talent upon thee, Non del…r sicut dolor tuus, take Rachel weeping for her children, Mary weeping for her brother Lazarus, Hezekiah for his health, Peter for his sins, Non est delor sicut dolor …uus. The arrows that were shot at thee, were Alienae, Afflictions that belonged to others; and did not onelyonly come from others, as ours doe; but they were alienae so,Alienae. as that they should have fallen upon others; And all that should have fallen upon all others, were shot at thee, and lighted upon thee. Lord, though we be not capable of sustaining that part, this passion for others, give us that, which we may receive, Compassion with others. They were veloces, these arrows met swiftly upon thee; from the sin of Adam that induced death, to the sin of the last man, that shall not sleep, but be changed,Veloces. when thy hour came they came all upon thee, in that hour. Lord put this swiftnesse into our fins, that in this one minute, in which our eyes are open towards thee, and thine eares towards us, our sins, all our sins, even from the impertinent frowardnesse of our childhood, to the unsufferable frowardnesse of our age, may meet in our present confessions, and repentances, and never appear more. They were (as ours are too) Invisibiles; Invisibiles.Those arrows which fell upon thee, were so invisible, so undiscernible, as that to this day, thy Church, thy School cannot see, what kinde of arrow thou tookest into thy soul, what kinde of affliction it was, that made thy soul heavy unto death, or dissolved thee into a gelly of blood in thine agony. Be thou O Lord, a Father of Lights unto us, in all our ways and works of darkenes; manifest unto us, whatsoever is necessary for us to know, & be a light of understanding and grace before, and a light of comfort and mercy after any …in hath benighted us. These arrows were, as ours are also, plures, Plures.plurall, many, infinite; they were the sins of some that shall never thank thee, never know that thou borest their sins, never know that they had any such sins to bee horn. Lord teach us to number thy corrections upon us, so, as still to see thy torments suffered for us, and our own sins, to be infinitely more that occasioned those torments, then those corrections that thou layst upon us. Thine arrows stook and stook fast in thee; the weight of thy torments, thou wouldest not cast off, nor lessen, when at thy execution they offered thee,Fixae. that stupesying drink, (which was the civil charity of those times to condemned persons,Mar. 15. 23. to give them an easier passage, in the agonies of death) thou wouldest not tast of that cup of ease. Deliver us, O Lord, in all our tribulations, from turning to the miserable comforters of this world, or from wishing or accepting any other deliverance, then may improve and make better our Resurrection. These arrows were in thee, in all thee: from thy Head torn with thorns, to thy feet pierced with nayls; and in thy soul so as we know not how, so as to extorta Si possibile, If it be possible let this cup passe, and an Vt quid dereliquisti, My God, my God, why half thou forsaken me? Lord, whilest we remain entire here, in body and soul, make us, and receive us an entire sacrifice to thee, in directing body and soul to thy glory, and when thou shalt be pleased to take us in pieces by death, receive our souls to thee, and lay up our bodies for thee, in consecrated ground, and in a Christian buryall. And lastly, thine arrows were followed, and pressed with the hand of God; The hand of God pressed upon thee, in that eternall decree, in that irrevocable contract, between thy Father and thee, in that Oportuit pati, That all that thou must suffer, and so enter into our glory. Establish us, O Lord, in all occasions of diffidences here; and when thy hand presses our arrows upon us, enable us to see, that that very hand, hath from all eternity written, and written in thine own blood, a decree of the issue, as well, and as soon, as of the tentation. In which confidence of which decree, as men, in the virtue thereof already in possession of heaven, we joyn with that Quire in that service, in that Anthem, Blessing, and glory, and wisdome, and thanksgiving, Apoc. 7. 11, 12.and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever, and ever, Amen.