Discourses on Divers Texts of Scripture, Discourses 1 · Sermon 9
PSALM 8. 2.Psal. 8. 2.
Out of the Mouth of Babes and Sucklings, thou hast ordained strength, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest quell the Enemy, and the Avenger.
THese words are alledged by our blessed Saviour, Matth. 21. 16. and three more of the verses following this by S. Paul, to prove, that Christ must raign till he had subdued all his enemies under his feet: As Heb. 2. 4. What is man, that thou art mindefull of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5. For thou hast made him little lower then the Angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6. Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thine hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. Again, 1 Cor. 15. 23. Christ, (saith he) shall deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, authority and power. 25 For he must raign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27. For he hath put all things under his feet. This is the quotation; for it follows presently; When he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
How principall a part of the Argument of this Psalm, what is in these two places cited by S. Paul, contains, every man may see, that reades and compares them. But how it should be consonant to the meaning of the Psalm, seems somewhat difficult to apprehend. For he that reades the whole Psalm, would think it were nothing else, but a description of mans excellency; whom God had made next to the Angels in dignity, & given him dominion over all things he hath made. For so after those words, Thou hast put all things under his feet; it follows immediately, All sheep and Oxen, yea and beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the Sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the Sea. But what is the dominion over these, to subduing of enemies, which the Apostle cites it for? or how is that, which is a description of mankinde in generall, a Prophecy of Christ in speciall?
Some therefore, as in other citations of the Old Testament, so here also, betake themselves to the covert of an Allusion; namely, that the Apostle onelyonly borrows the words of the Psalmist, to expresse his own, and not the Psalmists meaning. But, howsoever this may have place in some other allegations of the Old Testament, which are for Illustration or Exornation onelyonly; yet when the testimony is brought for proof and demonstration, as this is, it can in no wise be admitted. For how can that testimony be of force to conclude any thing, where not the Authors meaning is brought, but his words onelyonly made use of? Others therefore say, that whatsoever is spoken of the Dignity and Excellency of Man in generall, is to be understood by way of eminency of Christ, the chief of the sons of men. This indeed is something, but not enough. For what is the dignity of man, in regard of his Dominion and Lordship over the creature, to conquering and subduing of enemies? which is that the Apostle seeks to demonstrate thence.
Well, to hold you no longer in suspence, the key of the interpretation of this Psalm, and the ground of S. Pauls accommodation of that passage (Thou hast put all things under his feet) to Christs victory, is to be sought in the words I have now chosen; Out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings, &c. which being first alledged by our Saviour in the Gospel, in defence of that acclamation given unto him by his followers, Hosanna, (that is, Save now) to the son of David; (which the Pharisees thought too high an attribute, to be deferred to flesh and blood) this application thereof by Christ to himself, gave the Apostle good warrant, to interpret the Psalm as he did, and to ground a Demonstration thereon.
I shall therefore divide my discourse into two parts; First, I will shew the meaning of the words as they stand in the Psalm: And secondly, make it appear, that our Saviour in the Gospel cites them according to that meaning.
The whole drift therefore of the Psalm, is to praise and glorifie God for the dignity wherewith he hath invested Man: What is man (saith he) that thou art mindefull of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him little lower then the Angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. This glory and honour is exemplified in two particulars: First, that God hath ordained man, even that weak and feeble creature, Man, to subdue and conquer his enemies; which is that my Text expresseth in the words before named; Out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings, thou hast ordained strength, because of thine enemies, that thou mightest quell the Enemie, and the Avenger. Secondly, that he hath made man the Lord of all his Creatures: Thou hast made him, saith he) to have dominion over the works of thine hands: then follows, as it were the summing up of both in a word: Thou hast put all things under his feet. For having ordained him, both the Champion to conquer thine enemies, and made him at his Creation the Lord and Ruler of the works of thine hands, Quid reliquum est? what honour couldst thou have given him, which thou hast not? Lord! (therefore) what is man, that thou art mindefull of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? Where is to be observed, that the Corollarie, Thou hast put all things under his feet, comes in before his time, namely, before the description of this exemplification of mans dominion over the creature, was fully ended: as if the Prophet, out of admiration, could hold no longer from telling us the summe of that Dignity, wherewith man was invested. Thou hast made him (saith he) to have Dominion over the works of thine hands, and so one way or other, Thou hast put all things under his feet. Then follows the other part of the Description, All Sheep and Oxen, over these thou hast made him have Dominion, The Beasts of the field, the Fowles of the air, and the Fish of the Sea: whereas in direct order it should have stood thus; Thou hast made him have Dominion over the works of thine hands, over all Sheep and Oxen, the Beasts of the Field, and Fowles of the Air, and Fish of the Sea; And so in the upshot; Thou hast put all things under his feet.
For this last particular of mans dignity, to have Dominion over the Creatures, is so plainly and evidently intended in the Psalm, that I shall need speak no more of it: I return therefore to the former, to make it clear also. That God ordained man, not onelyonly to exercise Dominion over the visible creatures, but to be the Champion to conquer and subdue his Enemies; which is the drift of the words I have chosen for my text.
Out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings (saith he) that is, of mankinde, who springs from so weak and poor a beginning, as of Babes and sucklings; namely, out of the mouth of babes, not in sensu composito, but diviso: Of such whose condition is to be babes and sucklings; not that they should exercise this strength he speaks of, To quell the enemy and the Avenger, while they were babes; but that this power should be given to those, whose condition was to be such. And this is marvellous enough, that God should advance so weak a creature, and of so despicable a beginning, to such a power, as to grapple with the Enemy, and overcome him. But behold, there is yet something more admirable, namely, that this should not be done by the strength of his Arm, but by the breath & power of his Mouth. Out of the mouth of Babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine enemies. &c. What Enemies? Thine, saith the Psalmist, and such too, as are ultores, avengers, the enemies both of God and mankinde: And who are those, but Satan, and his Angels? those Principalities and Powers of the Air, those foreign, and Rulers of the Darknesse of this world, as Saint Paul speaks: For when mankinde is the one party, what can the other be but some Power that is not of mankinde? Besides, who are the Enemies both of God and mankinde but these? And of mankinde especially; I put enmity, saith God to the serpent, between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: Hence he is called Satan, the adversary, or Fiend, and the enemy foreign. Behold, I give you power (saith our Saviour to the seventy Disciples, Luke 10. 19.) to tread on serpents, and scorpions, and over all the Power of the Enemy; Your Adversary the Devill (saith S. Peter) And this is he as I conceive who is here called the foreign, the Enemy & the Avenger; mans tormentor; which words being found again in the 44. Psalm, may, for ought I know, by warrant of this place, be taken for the same Enemy, and the usuall distinction altered, and the place read thus. By reason of the Enemy and the Avenger, all this (to wit, the Calamity and confusion he spake of before) is come upon us; that is, by the malice of Satan. Now that such Enemies as these, should be subdued by an arm; yea, by a mouth of flesh, is a thing which might justly make the Prophet cry out; Lord what is man, &c.
Now that this, which I have given, is the true meaning of this place, may be gathered from S. Paul… inculcating the word Enemy; when 1 Cor. 15. he demonstrates out of this Psalm, that Christ, before the end, shall abolish foreign, For He must raign, saith he, till he hath put all enemies under his feet: The last Enemy which shall be destroyed … Death: and then he alledges for his proof, that Corollary in this Psalm, For he hath put all things under his feet: But, in all this Psalm, there is no mention of Enemies, or subduing them, but onelyonly in the verse I have in hand; which unlesse it be thus expounded, S. Pauls allegation from hence will be too narrow, to prove what he intendeth.
Having thus cleered the words I chose for my Theme, I shall not spend much time to shew you, how directly and literally, the purport of them was fulfilled in our blessed Saviours incarnation: You have, in part, heard such Scriptures already, as do evince it. The summe is this: The Devill, by sin, brought mankinde under thraldom, and became the prince of this world, himself, with his Angels, being worshipped and served every where, as Gods; and the service and honour due to the great God, the Creator of heaven and earth, cast off, and abandoned; and all this to receive at last, for reward, eternall wo and everlasting death. To vanquish and exterminate this enemy, and redeem the world from this miserable thraldom, the Son of God took upon him, not the nature of Angels, (which might have been the enemies matches) but the nature of weak and despicable man, that growes from a babe and suckling: Who (saith Esay, in that famous Prophecy of Messiah) hath beleeved our report, and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed? (namely, that works such powerfull things by weak means:) for he shall grow [foreign] as a tender plant, or sucker; (it is the very word here used in my Text, for a sucking childe, and translated by the Seventy foreign) and as a root out of a dry ground; that is, a small and little one.
This is that whereof S. Paul discourses so divinely, in the Epistle to the Hebrews: To which of the Angels said he at anytime, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak: but unto him, of whom it is said, What is man that thou art mindefull of him, or, &c. Again, We see Iesus, who was made little lower then the Angels, (that is, was made man; that's the meaning) for the suffering of death, crowned with Glory and Honour: what can be so plain as this? It is the Son of man, by whom in part we are, and more fully shall be, delivered out of the hands of our enemies, that we might serve the true God without fear; as Zachary sayes in his Benedictus. It is the Son of man that delivered us from the power of darknesse, Col. 1. 13. The Son of man, that spoiled Principalities and Powers, and made a shew of them openly, Col. 2. 15. It was no Angel, that did all this; but the Son of man; even as was prophesied from the beginning, when the Devill first got his Dominion; That the Seed of the woman should break the Serpents head.
Nor is this all; for this Son of man enables also other sons of men his Disciples and Ministers to do the like in his name: The seventy Disciples, in the Gospel, return with joy, saying, Lord, even the Devils are subject to us through thy name: Yea, not these onelyonly, but as many as fight under his Banner against these enemies, have promise they shall at length quell and utterly subdue them: Yea, at that great Day shall sit with their Lord and Master, to judge and condemn them. Do ye not know, saith S. Paul, that the Saints shall judge the world? know ye not that we shall judge Angels?
Lastly, this victory, as for the event, so for the manner of atchieving it, is agreeable to our Prophesie. For as much as Christ our Generall, nor fights, nor conquers by force of Arms, but by the power of his Word and Spirit; which is the power of his mouth, according to my Text; Out of the mouth of Babes, &c. Hence, in the Apocalypse, Christ appears with a sword going out of his mouth: In the 2 Thess. 2. it is said, He shall consume Antichrist with the Spirit of his mouth: Esay prophesies, Chap. 11. 4. That the Branch of Iesse should smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips should stay the wicked. That is, he does all nu… & verbo, as God made the world: By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the Hoasts of them by the breath of his mouth, Psal 33. 6. So doth Christ vanquish his enemies, and enable his Ministers to vanquish them, Verbo & Spiritu oris, according to that Hos. 6. 5. I have hewed them by my Prophets, and slain them by the words of my mouth.
I come now to the second thing I propounded; namely, to shew, that our Saviour in the Gospel, when he cited this place, alledged it for, and according to this, and no other meaning. The Euangelist relates it thus; When the chief Priests and Scribes saw the wonderfull things that Jesus did, and those in the Temple crying, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore displeased; and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? how they ascribe the power of salvation, (which is Gods peculiar) to thee, who art a son of man? Is that solemn acclamation of Save now, wherewith we are wont to glorifie God, fit to be given to thee? Our Saviour answers, Yes; for have ye not read, (saith he) Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast ordained strength? Consider what that means. You will wonder perhaps, that a thing so plain, could be taken in a differing meaning. For, it is commonly supposed to be alledged, onelyonly to prove that children should glorifie Christ, whilest the great ones of the world despised him: And there are two things which have occasioned this mistake, and drawn the sense awry; The first is, because the Septuagint, (according to which the Euangelist reads this place) in stead of strength, translate here foreign, praise; Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast ordained praise. Secondly, because those who made this acclamation, are said to have been foreign, When they saw the things which Iesus did, foreign, To the first, I answer, Our Saviour alledged not the words of the Psalm in Greek, but in Hebrew; where it is foreign, strength, which is the constant signification thereof, through the whole Bible, and never Praise: Nor do the Seventy themselves ever translate it otherwise, save, as it seems, in this place. But whatsoever the use of the word foreign, be otherwise, it must be here regulated by the Hebrew verity; according to which our Saviour alledged it, and must signifie not simply, praise, but Robur praedicandum, or Robur laude dignum, Robur celebrandum, or the like. To the second, that they are called foreign, who made this acclamation of Hosanna, to our Saviour; I answer, Be it so: yet I am sure, they were no babes and sucklings, but of reasonable years; How then would our Saviours quotation have, in such a sense, been pertinent? Besides, young children are not properly called foreign, but foreign. Again, the Pharisees found no fault with the speakers, but with the thing spoken; which they thought too much for a man; and therefore our Saviour, when he alledged this Scripture, answered to that, and intended not to Apologise for the speakers. Fourthly, in all reason, those who cried here Hosanna in the Temple, were the same company, that brought him crying Hosanna all the way thither. But these (saith Saint Mark) were of the multitude which followed him; and S. Luke of the multitude of the Disciples; who also tels us, that the Pharisees, who were offended thereat, bad him rebuke his Disciples. foreign therefore here signifies, either Christs Disciples, or the retinue which followed him, and brought him up thither, as a King. Take which ye will, you shall not fasten upon the word, any notion other then usuall: I shall not need to tell you the Disciples of the Prophets are called, sons of the Prophets, that is, foreign or that Herods Courtiers, Matth. 14. are termed his foreign He said foreign, This is Iohn the Baptist, &c. Christ cals his Disciples foreign, Iohn 21. 5.