The Blessedness of the Righteous, Chapter 1
THE BLESSEDNESSE OF THE RIGHTEOVS.
Psal. 17. 15.
As for me, I will behold thy Face in Righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness.
CHAP. I.
A reflection upon some foregoing verses of the Psalm, by way of Introduction to the Text. A consideration of its somewhat various readings, and of its literal importance. A discussion of its real importance, so far as is necessary to the settling the subject of the following discourse.
THe Title speaks the Psalm a Prayer of David. The matter of the Prayer is preservation from his enemies. Not to go over the whole Psalm, we have …n the 13. and 14. verses, the sum of his de…ires, with a description of the Person he prayes to be delivered from; in which Description every Character is an Argument to enforce his prayer.
From the Wicked] q. d. They are equally enemies to thee and me: not more opposite to me by their cruelty, then by their wickedness they are to thee. Vindicate, then at once, thy selfe and deliver me.
Thy sword thy hand] Thou canst as easily command and manage them, as a man may weild his sword, or move his hand. Wilt thou suffer thine own sword, thine own hand, to destroy thine own Servant.
Men of the world, which have their portion in this life] Time, and this lower World bound all their hopes, and fears. They have no serious believing apprehensions of any thing beyond this present life: therefore have nothing to withhold them, from the most injurious violence, if thou withhold them not (Men that believe not another world, are the ready Actors of any imaginable mischiefes, and Tragoedies in this.)
Whose belly thou fillest] i. e. Their sensual appetite. As oftentimes that term is used*Rom. 16 18. With thy hid Treasures, Phil. 3. 19.viz. the riches, which either God is wont to hide in the bowels of the earth, or lock up in the repository of Providence, dispensing them at his own pleasure.
They are full of Children] So it appears by that which followes, it ought to be read, and not according to that grosse*foreign (but easie) mistake of some Transcribers of the Seventy.
As if in all this he had pleaded thus; Lord thou hast abundantly indulged those men already, what need they more? They have themselves, from thy unregarded bounty, their own vast swoln desires sufficiently filled, enough for their own time; and when they can live no longer in their Persons, they may in their Posterity, and leave not Strangers, but their numerous Off-spring, their heirs. Is it not enough, that their avarice be gratified, except their malice be also? That they have whatsoever they can conceive desirable for themselves, unlesse they may also infer what ever they can think mischievous on me?
To this description of his enemies, he ex opposito, subjoyns some account of himself, in this his closure of the Psalm: As for me] Here he is at his statique point, and, after some appearing discomposure, his spirit returns to a consistency, in consideration of his own more happy state, which he opposes and prefers to theirs in the following respects.
That they were wicked, he righteous. I will behold thy face in righteousnesse.] That their happinesse was worldly, terrene, such onelyonly as did spring from the earth; his heavenly and divine, such as should result from the Face and Image of God. Theirs present, temporary, compast within this life; His, future, everlasting, to be enjoyed, when he should awake. Theirs partial, defective, such as would but gratifie their beastial part, fill their bellies; His adequate, compleat (the foreign) Such as should satisfie the Man: I shall be satisfied, &c.
The variety in rendring this Verse (to be seen,foreign by comparing, the Original and Translations noted in the Margent, need not give us any trouble, the differences not being of great moment, nor our own reading liable to exception. The word foreign, about which is the greatest diversity,Sept. foreign. hath the significancy we here give it, in the second Commandment, and constantly elsewhere. And then, what more proper english can this text be capable of, than it hath in our Bibles? Each word hath its true and genuine import;The v…lgar Latine, E…oautem … appa…c…o …o…spectui …, satiabo… … …p…u…ri… glo…ia tua. Exactly following the Seventy, as doth the Ethiopique. the Chaldee Paraphrase disagrees little, the Arabique lesse, the Sy…i…ck mistook it seem… foreign for foreign and so read that word saith which we read likenesse. and the Syntax is sufficiently regular, and grammaticall of the whole.
Only as to the former, that usual and obvious observation must here have place; tha… the foreign prefixed to foreign, and which, with it, w… read, [in righteousnesse] doth often signifie among its various acceptations) by or through and that, not onelyonly as denoting instrumentality; but more at large, the place of any medium necessary to the attainment of the end, it subserves to, whence the same use of the Grek foreign, that answers thereunto, is wont to go for an Hebraism.
And as to the latter, the onelyonly thing liable to controversie is; whether the Gerund foreign is to be construed with the Person speaking [when I awake] or [in my awaking] or with the thing; the likenesse or image spoken of [in the awaking of thine image] or [when thine image shall awake] and I conceive,Hieronymus (juxta Hebr.) reads the words exactly as we do. Ego in justi…iâ vi…bo faci…m tuam, implebor, cum evigilavero, similitudine tua. we need not discusse it; but following our own Translation, leave the judgement of it to the ear it self, which (as Elihu tell us) trieth words.
In the mean time, the real importance of this Scripture, more calls for discussion than the literal; concerning which a threefold enquiry will be necessary, for the settling the subject of the following discourse:
1. What relation this [righteousnesse] must be understood to have to the Vision of Gods face, and the other consequent blessednesse.
2. What time or state [awaking] refers to.
3. What is intended by the [likenesse of God.]
To the first,foreign It is onelyonly necessary to say at present:Seems best to be rendered here [by or through righteousness,] as by the condition in which he may expect the return of Gods mercies here, or the eternal vision of him hereafter, &c. So the learned Dr. Hammond, Annot. in loc. quoting also Castellio. to the same purpose. that the already noted import of the preposition [in] being supposed most sutable to this text (as apparently it is) Righteousnesse must be lookt upon in reference to this vision, not as in an idle, or meerely casuall concomitancy; or as an unconcern'd circumstance, that hath nothing to do with the businesse spoken of; but as in a close and intimate connexion therewith; being 1. Antecedent. 2. Conducible. 3. Necessary thereto. Nor can I better expresse its place, and reference to it, generally and in one word, than in saying it qualifies for it, which how it doth will be more proper to consider hereafter. It may now suffice to say those words give us the qualified subject of this blessednesse [I in righteousness.] A righteous person as such.
2. To the Second: Taking it for granted th… none will understand this awaking as opposed to natural sleep in the tralatitious or tropica… sense; it must be understood to intend either some better state in this life in comparison whereof the Psalmist reckons his present state but as a sleep; or the future state of blessededness in the other life. There have been some, who have understood it of the former, and thought the Psalmist to speak onelyonly of an hoped freedom from his present temporal afflictions, but then, that which will be imply'd seems not so specious; that trouble and affliction, should be signified by the (necessarily) presupposed sleep, which sure doth more resemble rest than trouble.
I conceive it lesse exceptionable to refer [awaking] to the blessed state of Saints after this life▪ For;
That Saints, at that time when this was writ, had the knowledge of such a state (indeed a Saint not believing a life to come, is a perfect contradiction) no doubt can be made by any that hath ever so little read and compared the Old and New Testament.Heb. 11. We are plainly told that those excellent Persons mentioned in that famous roll *,ver. 1. liv'd by that faith, which was the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. 9.That of them Abraham, 13.Isaac, 14.and Jacob, while they lived in Canaan, yet sought a better, 15.an heavenly Country; Confessing themselves pilgrims and strangers on earth: 16.We know it was the more general belief of the Jews in our Saviours time. And whence should they have it, but from the Old Testament? Thither our Saviour remits them to search it out,John 5. 39. and the way to it. The Apostle Saint Paul gives it as the common faith of the twelve Tribes;Act. 16. & 6. 7. compared with the 8. grounded upon the promise made to their forefathers: and thence prudentially he herein states the Cause, wherein he was now engag'd; supposing it would be generally resented, that he should be call'd in question, for avowing (onelyonly) so known, and received a truth. Sure, they were beholding to these sacred Writings they had then among them, for so common a belief: and since it is out of question, from our Saviours expresse words, they do contain the ground of that belief; what cause have we to be so shy of so interpreting Scriptures, that have a fair aspect that way?
Is it, that we can devise to fasten here and there another sence upon divers such? I wonder, what one text can be mentioned in all the Old Testament to this purpose, wherein one may not do so: and what then would be the tendency of this course, but to deny in all the particulars: what, upon so clear evidence, we are, in the general, forced to admit? and to put Moses, and Abraham, and David in a lower classe, then Pythagoras, and Socrates, and Plato.
And I think, it would not be easie to find one text in all that part of the Bible; where both the words thereof, and the context, do more fairly comply than in this, so as not only to admit, but even to invite that interpretation.
For the terme [awake] about which the present enquiry is, how apt and obvious i… the analogy between our awaking out of natural sleep, and the holy souls emerging out of the darknesse and torpor of its present state, into the invigorating light of Gods presence. It is truely said so to awake, at its first quitting these darksom regions, when it layes aside its cumbersom night-vail. It doth so more perfectly in the joyful morning of the Resurrection day, when mortality is swallowed up in life, and all the yet-hovering shaddows of it are vanished and fled away. And how known and usual an application this is of the metaphorical terms of sleeping and awaking in holy Writ, I need not tell them, who have read the Bible. Nor doth this interpretation lesse …itly accord to the other contents of this verse. For to what state do the sight of Gods Face, and satisfaction with his likenesse, so fully agree, as to that of future blessednesse in the other world.
But then the contexture of discourse, in this and the foregoing verse together, seems plainly to determine us to this sense. For what can be more conspicuous in them, then a purposed comparison and opposition of two States of Felicity mutually each to other? That of the wicked, whom he calls Men of time (as the words are rendred by*foreign one, and do literally signifie) and whose portion, he tells us, is in this Life; and the righteous man's, his own;… Pagnin. which he expected not to be, till he should awake, i. e. not till after this life.
Thirdly, it is further to be enquired, how we are here to understand [the likeness of God] I doubt not but we are to understand by it, his glory. And the only difficulty which it will be necessary, at present, to consider, about it, is; whether we are to take it objectively or subjectively, for the glory to be represented to the blessed soul; or the glory to be imprest upon it; the glory which it is to behold, or the glory it shall bear. And I conceive the difference is more easily capable of accommodation then of a strict decision on either part.
By [Face] is undoubtedly meant objective glory, and that in its most perfect representation (the face being, as we know with men, the chief seat of a spectable Majesty and Beauty.) Hence when Moses desires to see Gods glory; though he did vouchsafe some discovery of it, yet he tells him his face cannot be seen. Hereupon, therefore, the next expression [thy likeness] might the more plausibly be restrained to subjective glory; So as to denote the Image of God now in its most perfect impression on the blessed souls.
But that I insist not on; Supposing therefore, that what is signified by [Face] be repeated over again in this word [likeness] yet I conceive the expression is not varied in vain, but having more to say than only that he expected a state of future Vision, viz. that he assured himself of satisfaction too, another word was thought fit to be used that might signifie also somewhat that must intervene in order to that satisfaction. 'Tis certain the meer objective representation and consequent intuition of the most excellent, (even the Divine) glory, cannot satisfie a soul remaining disaffected and unsuitable thereunto. It can only satisfie, as being represented, it forms the soul into the same image, and attempers it to it self. q. d. I expect hereafter to see the blessed Face of God, and to be my self blessed or satisfied by his glory, at once appearing to me and transfusing it self upon me. In short therefore, I understand by that tearm, the glory of God as transforming, or, as impressive of it self. If therefore, Glory the Object of the soul… Vision, shall by any be thought to be intended in it, I contend not; Supposing only, that the Object be taken not materially, or potentially only, for the thing visible in it self considered▪ but formally, and in esse actu…ti objecti: that is, as now actually impressing it self, or as connoting such an impression upon the beholding soul. For so only is it productive of such a pleasure and satisfaction to it, as must ensue. As in this form of speech [such a man takes pleasure in knowledge] it is evident knowledge must be taken there both objectively, for the things known, and subjectively, for the actual perception of those things; in as much as, apparently, both must concur to work him delight. So it will appear, to any one that attentively considers it, glory must be taken in that passage we rejoyce in hope of the glory of God. Rom 5. 2.'Tis Divine glory both revealed and received. His exhibition and communication of it, according to his immensity, and our participation of it, according to our measure that must concurr to our eternal satisfaction. Herein the Platonique adage†Voluptatis generatio est ex infiniti & finiti copulatione. hath evident truth in it. Pleasure is here certainly made up of something finite and something infinite, meeting together. 'Tis not (as the Philosopher speaks) a foreign but a foreign, not any thing separate from the soul, but something it possesses that can make it happy. 'Tis not happy by an incommunicate happiness, nor glorious by an incommunicate glory. Indeed the discovery of such a glory to an inglorious unholy soul must rather torment than satisfie. The future glory of Saints is therefore called a glory to be revealed in them (or into them as the word signifies.)Rom. 8. 18▪ foreign And in the foregoing words, the Apostle assures Christs fellow sufferers that they shall be glorified together with him. Surely the notation of that word, the formall notion of glorification cannot import so little as only, to be a Spectator of Glory: it must signifie a being made glorious.
Nor is the common and true Maxime otherwise intelligible, that grace and glory differ only in degree For certainly, it could never enter into the mind of a sober man (though how dangerously some speak that might possibly have been so if too much learning had not made them mad, will be animadverted in its place) that objective glory, and grace in Saints, were the same specifique (much less the same numerical) thing.
'Tis true that Scripture often expresses the future blessedness by vision of God. But where that phrase is used to signifie it alone, 'tis evident (as within the lower region of grace, words of knowledge do often imply affection, and correspondent impressions on the soul) it must be understood of affective transformative Vision, such as hath conformity to God most inseparably conjunct with it. And, that we might understand so much, they are elsewhere, both expresly mentioned together, as joynt-ingredients into a Saints blessedness; as in those words so full of clear and rich sense. When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Which Text I take for a plain Comment upon this; and me-thinks it should not easily be supposeable they should both speak so near the same words and not intend the same sense: you have in both the same season When he shall appear, when I shall awake, the same subject the righteous person born of God, (compare the close of the former Chapter with the beginning of this) and I in righteousness, The same Vision, We shall see him as he is, I shall behold his face, The same Assimilation, We shall be like him, I shall be satisfied with his likeness; (concerning the foreign or habitude this vision and assimilation mutually have to one another, there will be consideration had in its place.)
I therefore conceive neither of these Notions of the Divine likeness, do exclude the other; if it be enquired which is principally meant, That needs not be determined; if the latter, it supposes the former; if the former, it infers the latter. Without the first, the other cannot be, without this other, the first cannot satisfie.
If any yet disagree to this Interpretation of this Text, let them affix the Doctrine propounded from it to that other last mentioned (which only hath not the expresse mention of a consequent satisfaction as this hath, whence therefore, as being in this respect fuller, my thoughts were pitch'd upon this.)
Only withal let it be considered how much more easie it is, to imagine another sense, and suppose it possible, than to disprove this, or evince it impossible. How far probable it is, must be left to the judgment of the indifferent: With whom, it may not be insignificant to add, that thus (mostly) it hath been understood by Interpreters, (I might adventure to say the generality) of all sorts: however the few annexed †Agitur de resurrectione & Manifestatione gloriae coelestis▪ Ruffin. in loc. Cum apparuerit gloria tua. i. e. gloria resurrectionis. Bed. Comment. in Psalm. How the Jews were wont to understand it, may be seen at one view in that of Petrus Galatinus in loc. Duo mi Caprio, me hic per priscas Judaeorum Scripturas ostendere ho…taris, & generalem mortuorum resurrectionem futuram ess… & cam per Messiam factum iri, Primum itaque pat…t no… solu… per sacrae scripturae testimo…ia verum etiam per Talmudistarum dicta. N…m illud quidem Psal. 17. dictum Ego … justitiâ—&c. sic e…ponuat, & presertim Rabbi Abraham Aven Ez…a & Rabbi Solomo, &c. And so he goes on to recite their words. De Arcanis Catholicae veritatis. Opponit …aec, iis quae de impiis dixerat. Illi Sapiunt terrena Saturantur filiis, & portionem suam in hâc vitâ ponunt, mihi verò contempta est haec vita; ad futuram festino, ubi non in divitiis, sed i… justitiâ videbo non terren… haec transitura, sed ipsam faciem tuam, nec saturabor in siliis carnis sed cum evigilavero tuâ similitudine …icut. 1 John 3 2.—Cum apparuerit, &c. I…th in Psalm. —Resurgam è mortuis—videbot… perfectissimè sicut es Similis …ro … Jan. & Tremel. in Psal. 17. Mollerus thinks it ought not to be restrained to life Eternal, but saith, some understand it of the glory, quâ ornabuntur pii in vitâ aeternâ. And adds,—& quidem non male. in loc. —Ego ver▪ & omnes electi tui—piè & justè vivimus in hoc soeculo, ut aliq…ando …n saturo saeculo videamus faciem tuam, & eâ sattemur cum … à pulvere terrae evigil…verimus & reformati fuetimus ad similitudinem Christi tui. S…b. Munster. in notis in loc. —Cum ego ad imag…nem tuam conditus resurrexero. Vatablus (though he adds, alii ad resurrectionem non referunt.) —De futurae vitae soelicitate ait satiabor quum expergiscar. i. e. quum resurgam è mortuis—Similitudine tuâ hoc est videbo te perfectissimè, sicuti es & … …ro tibi quum patefactus Christus glorioso adventu suo. 1 John 3 2. Fabrit. Conc. in Ps. 17. ult. D…sc…bit his verbis Psalmographus beatitudinem …ternam filiorum Dei. Gesnerus in loc.(for I neither apprehend the necessity, nor have the present conveniency of alledging many) will suffice to avoid any imputation of singularity or novelty.