Discourses on Divers Texts of Scripture, Discourses 1 · Sermon 21
1 COR. 9. 14.1 Cor. 9. 14.
Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel; foreign.
MY purpose, in choosing this Text, is not to make the maintenance of the Ministery under the Gospel, the direct aim of my discourse; but only to enquire what is meant by these last words, foreign ▪ Which that we may the more readily and certainly finde, let us examine, and consider the foreign, whereof the words I have now read, are the foreign Know ye not, saith the Apostle, that [foreign] those that minister about holy things, [foreign] doe eate of the holy thing, or, as we turn it, of the things of the Temple: [foreign] they which wait at the Altar, [foreign] are fellow-shares with the Altar? [foreign] So hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the Gospel should foreign.
Here, foreign, those who were imployed about holy things, are the Levites who lived foreign, of the holy thing, or if you had rather it should be a substantive) of the Temple: that is, of that which belonged thereto; namely, of the Tithes which belonged to the Temple, but were no offering of the Altar. foreign, they who did incumbere, or assidere altari, were the Priests, whoseproper office it was to offer sacrifices thereon, and hadpart of the same for their proper maintenance; as the brest & left shoulder before it was burnt, and after so much as was reserved from burning: so they did foreign, as the Apostle speaks, they were fellow-shares with the Altar; the Altar having one part of the Offering, they another.
Thus you see, the Apostle in both, sutes the maintenance with the office: The office of the Levites was foreign, their maintenance, foreign, the holy thing, or the revenue of the Temple; foreign, they eat of the foreign. The Office of the Priests, foreign; their maintenance, foreign, to share with the Altar. Now then must not the Apodosis answer the Protasis? what manner of similitude, what analogy wil there be else? Ergo, as foreign is the office of the Ministers of the Gospel, so is their maintenance noted by foreign. Those therefore who interpret these words, as if foreign in the last place, were taken in no other sense, then it was in the first; namely, to note the function or calling of the Ministers; (as if the sense were no other, but that the Ministers of the Gospel, whose calling it is to preach the Gospel, should get their living by their Calling of preaching the Gospel;) make S. Paul the Author of a lame and inconsequent similitude, whose Apodosis answers not unto his Protasis. For what an foreign, what an even so, or analogy would this be? The Levites lived of the holy portion, or revenue of the Temple, as their foreign, or wages; Even so the Ministers of the Gospel must live by ther Calling and Function: The Priests were maintained out of the share they had of the Offerings of the Altar; Even just so, the Ministers of the Gospel must live by their Calling and Function of Preaching the Gospel: May not any one see that the Apodosis answers not the Protasis? For that speaks of the wages, this of the service, for which the wages is due. Well therefore, as in the Protasis the wages was compared with the work; so must it be in the Apodosis too; & consequently foreign, must here express the wages, as foreign, doth the work.
But now here is the quaere; If foreign, note not the function, but the wages, and maintenance due to the Euangelick Ministers, in what notion then is foreign here to be taken, and how to be expounded? Oecumenius would have foreign, in this last place to signifie foreign, the beleevers of the Gospel, foreign, & the meaning to be, that those who preach the Gospel, should be maintained by those which beleeve the Gospel: But this would make our Apodosis to answer the Protasis, little better then the former: For that speaks of the maintenance, and wages of the Levites, and Priests, not a word of the maintainers. *Philo de Sacerdotú honoribus. foreign, &c. foreignBesides, to speak properly, it is not true, that the people maintain the Ministers: They are not their Ministers, but Gods; and he maintains them, out of his own revenue, and not at other mens charges. Quis militat suis stipendiis? (saith our Apostle, at his entrance upon this Argument;) Who goeth to war at his own charges? Now I ask; Cujus stipendiis militat, qui militat? nonne Imperatoris? To which purpose note also by the way, that it is not said here (as we translate it,) So hath God ordained, that those which preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel: But, So hath God appointed, or given order to those which preach the Gospel, that they should live of the Gospel; that is, Non dicit Dominū mandasse aliis, ut eos alerent, sed mandâsse ipsis, ut ex Euangelio viverent.
But to return again to the interpretation of foreign, which others therfore had rather take here for foreign, for that which in the Gospel is consecrate to God; to wit, as the Priests and Levites had their maintenance Jol. 18. 7. The Priesthood of the Lord is their [the Levites] inheritance.out of that which was offred unto God in the Law: So God had ordained, that the Ministers of the Gospel should be maintained of that which is consecrate to him in the Gospel. And this sense is streight and good.
But what need we fly to a Trope, when the naturall sense of the word foreign will serve our turn; yea do it much better? For howsoever in the New Testament it most commonly signifies good tidings; yet, in other Greek Writers, the more usuall signification in the singular number is foreign, praemium quod datur laetum afferenti nuncium; the gift or reward wont to be given for good tidings. Homer (Odyss. 14.) brings in Vlysses in a poor travellers disguise, stipulating with his servant Eumaeus, what his reward should be, for the good news he promised to tell him of his Masters life and speedy return, foreign let this be my foreign, or Reward, saith he, foreign To whom Eumaeus answers, foreign Neither am I able to give such an foreign, neither will Vlysses ever come home again. Plutarch (in his De gloria Atheniensium) relates, that the Lacedemonians to one that brought them tidings of the victory at Mantinea, having been no actor, but a spectator only, sent for an foreign, only a dish of meat from one of their common suppers, called Phiditia: The words are, foreign. The same Author (within three or four lines after) affirms, that Historians, who relate and describe battels and victories in such perspicuous styles, deserve an foreign from those who first read them: And (in his Demetrius) he tels, that when one Aristodemus brought news to King Antigonus, of a notable victory his party had obtained against Ptolomaeus Lagi, but put the King first in great perplexity, by discovering nothing, either by word or countenance, what his tidings were, till he came to the Kings presence, then saying, Salve Rex Antigone, vicimus praelio navali Regem Ptolomaeum: The King answered, Et tu quo que herclè salve; quia vero ita nos torsisti, lues poenam, nam tardius foreign accipies; which is a sufficient testimony both of the use of the word, and the custome. Cicero (in one of his Epistles Ad Atticum) useth the Li. 2. Ep. 8.plurall number: O suaves tuas Epistolas, (saith he) uno tempore mihi datas duas! Quibus foreign quae reddam nescio; deberi quidem plane fateor.
Besides, in the plurall number, foreign, signifies a sacrifice for good tidings; Hence Plutarch (in his Phocion) hath foreign Isocrates (in Areopagitico) foreign, ob tot successus bis quidem sacrificavimus foreign Xenophon (in his Hellanica) foreign. To conclude; it is apparent by these examples, that foreign signifies a gift, or tribute due for good tidings; whether as an offering to the Gods, the Authours, or as a reward to men, the messengers and bringers.
Now the most blessed & happy tidings that ever came to the ears of the sons of men, is salvation by Jesus Christ our Lord; whereof his Priests and Ministers are the daily messengers: Is there not then an foreign due for this? And is not this that our Apostle meaneth when he says; The Lord hath ordained that they who preach the Gospel should foreign. So that which of old was required only for acknowledgement of the Divine Dominion, under the bondage of the Law, is now turned into the nature of an foreign in the liberty of the Gospel; I mean that which we offer now unto God for the maintenance of the Euangelicall Ministery, and other uses of his service: The sense is most fit and agreeable, and makes the Apostles expression (if so understood) passing elegant.
But you will say; What probability is there the Apostle should use foreign in this notion? For though prophane Authors do so, yet the Scriptures meaning, both here and elswhere, is to be measured by its own Dialect. Have therefore the Hebrew, the Chaldee, the Septuagint any such notion as this? I answer, Yes; all three of them. For in the Hebrew, foreign, the onelyonly word for good tidings, signifies also Praemium boni nuncii; Yea, being not above five times found in the Old Testament, some will have it thrice taken in that signification, and twice will be easily yeelded them. Likewise in the Chaldee, foreign, and foreign, signifie as well the one as the other; both nuncium and nuncii praemium. As for the Septuagint, the word foreign is but thrice found with them, and once so apparently in this signification, as leaves no place for contradiction. It is 2 Sam. 4. 10. where they have, foreign, Cui oportet me dedisse Euangelia. They are the words of King David, when Rechab and Baanah brought Ishbosheths head unto him; When one told me, saith he, Behold Saul is dead, (thinking he had brought good tidings) I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, when I should have given a reward for his tidings. The Hebrew word rendred here reward for good tidings, is foreign: The Septuagint, as I said before, have foreign. The Vulgar, or S. Hierome, mercedem pro nuncio: The Chaldee Paraphrast, Donum boni nuncii.
Thus you see, this notion was familiar to all the Languages that S. Paul was brought up in. Why should it then be improbable, he should use it when he had occasion? And no marvel it is to be found no oftner; For, unlesse it be in this Chapter, in the whole New Testament the thing it self (reward for good tidings) is never mentioned, intimated, or alluded to. How then could the word be used? But in this Chapter, me thinks I hear it used a second time, ver. 23. I will only propound it to your consideration, and so conclude.
The matter stands thus; S. Paul, though he received no reward at the hands of the Corinthians for his pains in making known the glad tidings of salvation unto them, but did it gratis to them-ward: yet he looked for an foreign from God, stored up in the heavens, for all his faithfull Messengers, and to be received at the great Day: In expectation whereof, he not only preached the Gospel to them freely, but endured all things, and made himself a servant to all: foreign (saith he) foreign this I doe for the foreign, that I might be partaker thereof. What foreign should it be, that Paul here aimed to be partaker of? Surely, it should seem foreign here notes some Proemium, even by that which immediately follows; Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the brabeum; So run that ye may obtain. I leave it to your better meditations, and so conclude.
FINIS.
DIATRIBAE. OR, A continuation of certain DISCOVRSES ON SUNDRY TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE: Delivered upon severall occasions,
BY JOSEPH MEDE, B. D. late Fellow of Christs Colledge in CAMBRIDGE.
Never before published, being exactly printed according to the Authors own Manuscripts.
LONDON, Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK, and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill.
MDCXLVIII.