Discourses on Divers Texts of Scripture, Discourses 2 · Sermon 4
PSAL. 112. 6.Psa. 112. 6.
The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
A Word fitly spoken, saith Solomon, is like Apples of Gold in pictures of Silver; that is, gracefull and comely: so is a Text of Scripture fitly chosen, and rightly applied to the occasion. Such an one, as I take it, is this I have now read, not chosen by me, but appointed by order to be used at these times of commemoration. I shall need no other preface to commend it to your attention: Let us therefore see what is the sense and meaning thereof.
The Righteous; that is, the bountifull: shall be in everlasting remembrance: In remembrance with God; in remembrance with men: with God; in the world to come, and in this world: with men, how, and in what manner? These are the severall heads I shall treat of; and first of the first, the Subject; The Righteous, or the bountifull man.
Righteousnesse in a speciall sense, in the Hebrew and the rest of the Orientall Tongues of kinde to it, signifies Beneficence or Bounty, both the Virtue and the work; and therefore by the Hellenists or Septuagint is it translated foreign, the word so frequent in the New Testament, for that we call Alms. 'Tis a known place, Dan. 4. according both to the Septuagint and vulgar Latine; Peccata tua Eleemosynis redime, & iniquitates tuas misericordi is pauperum: where in the Originall for Eleemosyna is foreign Iustitia, as we in our English render it; Break off thy sins by righteousnesse, and thine iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor. This notion of righteousnesse is to be found thrice together in the 12. of Tobit, ver. 8. Prayer (saith old Tobit there to his son) is good with fasting, and with alms, and righteousnesse: A little with righteousnesse is better then much with unrighteousnesse: It is better to give alms, then to lay up gold. 9. For alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousnesse, shall be filled with life. Here in the Greek copy, alms and righteousnesse are exegetically put the one to expound the other, but in the Hebrew there is but one word foreign for them both, that being the word in that language for foreign. Hence in the Syriack Translation of the New Testament foreign is rendred by foreign Iustitia, and so in the Arabick. Hence Mat. 6. 1. for, Take heed that you do not your alms before men, (as we reade it) the vulgar Latine and some Greek Copies have, Attendite, ne justitiam vestram faciatis coram hominibus: foreign for foreign. Namely, as the word charity with us, though in the larger sense it signifies our whole duty both to God and man, is restrained to signifie our liberality to the poor; so is the word Righteousnesse in the Orientall Languages.
If Righteousnesse therefore signifie Beneficence and Bounty, then is the righteous according to this notion the bountifull man, or as we speak the charitable. And that it is so taken in my Text, both the generall scope of the Psalm, and the connexion with the words before and after, is proof sufficient; for before goes this; A good man sheweth favour and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with judgement: Surely he shall not be moved for ever: Then come the words of my Text; The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. After it follows this; He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousnesse remaineth for ever: which S. Paul alledgeth 2 Cor. 9. to promote their collection for the poor Saints at Jerusalem.
For illustration of this and our further information, it will not be amisse I hope, to commend to your observation some other places of Scripture where the word righteous is thus taken; as namely Psal. 37. 21. The wicked borroweth and payeth not again; but the righteous sheweth mercy and giveth. Again, Psal. 25. 26. I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous for saken, nor his seed begging their bread. He is ever mercifull and lendeth, and his seed is blessed. Here the righteous is the mercifull and bountifull; to whom namely this blessing, that his seed shall not want, is proper and peculiar. The same use is, Prov. 10. 2. Treasures of wickednesse profit nothing, but righteousnesse delivereth from death. The same is repeated again cap. 11. 4. Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousnesse delivereth from death. Where righteousnesse to be taken for alms is apparent out of Tobit 12. where it is so applied and rendred, namely, Alms doth deliver from death. I could adde also another place, Prov. 21. 28. but these shall be sufficient.
Hence appears their error who conceive of the nature of Alms, as of an arbitrary thing, which they may do if they will, or not do, without sin; as that which carries no obligation with it, but is left freely to every mans discretion. And this makes some contend so much, to have the Priests maintenance granted to be eleemosynary, that so they might be at liberty to give something or nothing as they listed. But if that were so, yet if Alms be Iustitia in the Hebrew tongue, and the language which our Saviour spake. If our Saviour call'd them Iustitia, when he mentioned them, who dare affirm then, that Iustitia implies no obligation, or that a man may leave it undone without sinne?
So much for the subject, The Righteous: The next is the Praedicate, shall be in everlasting remembrance: In remembrance, I said, with God and men: with God, in the life to come, and this life: Let us consider the first, The world to come.
It is certain, that at the day of Judgement we shall receive our doom, according to our works of charity and mercy; and that of all the works that a Christian man hath done, these alone have that peculiar priviledge to bee then brought in expresse remembrance before God: Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me, &c. For asmuch as ye have done thus unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matth. 25. What doth my Text say? The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance; God remembers our good deeds, when he rewards them, (as he doth our prayers when he hears them;) If to remember then, be to reward, an everlasting reward is an everlasting remembrance. 'Tis remarkable that this priviledge which the works of Bounty and Mercy shall have at the day of Judgement, was not unknown to the Jews themselves: for so we read in the Chaldee Paraphrast upon Ecclesiastes; Futurum est ut Dominus mundi dicat omnibus justis ante se constitutis, Vade, gusta cum gaudio panem tuum, ut statutum est, pro pane quem dedisti pauperibus & obscuris qui esuriebant; & bibe corde bono vinum quod repositum est tibi in horto Eden, (id est, Paradiso) pro vino quod miseuisti pauperibus & obscuris qui sitiebant: quia ecce modò accepta sunt opera tua bona coram Domino.
The reason of this prelation of works of mercy at that great day is, because all we can expect at the hands of our heavenly Father is meerly of his mercy and bounty: we can hope for nothing but mercy, without mercy we are undone; according to that of Nehemiah in his last Chap. Remember me, ô Lord, concerning this, and spare me according to the greatnesse of thy mercy. Now in those that are to be partakers of mercy, the divine wisdome requires this congruity, that they may be such as have been ready to shew mercy unto others, judging them altogether unworthy of mercy at his hands who have afforded no mercy to their brethren: for so the Scripture tels us, that they shall have judgement without mercy, that have shewn no mercy. The tenour of our Petition for forgivenesse of sins in the Lords Prayer, runs with this condition, As we forgive them that trespasse against us. And who can reade without trembling the Parable of the unmercifull servant in the Gospel, to whom his Lord revoked the Debt he meant to have forgiven him, because he shewed no mercy to his fellow-servant, who owed him a far lesse Debt? Shouldst thou not, saith he, have shewed compassion to thy fellow-servant, as I shewed compassion unto thee? This rule of congruity, I say, is the reason why at the day of our great account, we shall be judged according to our works of mercy and bounty: To do as we would be done to, hath place not onelyonly between man and man, but between God and men.
Nor is this I speak of, manifest by the form of our last sentence onelyonly, but by other Scriptures beside: what else means that of our Saviour, Luke 16. Make unto your selves friends of the unrighteous Mammon, (that is, of these slippery and deceitfull riches, for foreign in the Scriptures Dialect is foreign) that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting Tabernacles? Or what means that of S. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 17. Charge them that be rich in this world,—that they trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God,—That they do good, that they be rich in good works, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternall life?
Laying up a good foundation, &c. in the Greek, foreign foreign. Here it is observable that works of Beneficence are said to be foreign, or the foundation of the reward we shall receive in the life to come. If any but S. Paul had said so, we should have gone near to have excepted against it for an error: Works the foundation of eternall life? No, that shall not need: but the foundation of that blessed sentence we shall receive at the last day for them, and that is evident by the form thereof, which we have alledged: whatsoever is meant, a great priviledge sure is hereby implied, that these works have above others. A like place to this we have in the old Testament, with application particularly to Alms or works of mercy, Tobit 4. 9. For thou layest up for thy self a good treasure against the day of necessity: in the Greek it is, foreign, &c. which answers to the Hebrew word, foreign. Here give me leave to tell you what a late sacred Critick hath observed concerning the word foreign in that place of Timothy; namely, that the signification thereof there is not Vulgar, but Hellenisticall, agreeable to the use of the Hebrew word foreign whereto it answers; for foreign signifies, as it doth, Radix or fundamentum; but besides this in the Rabbinicall Dialect it is used for Tabula contractus, a Bill of contract, a Bond or Obligation whereby such as lend are secured their loan again. That therefore foreign which answers foreign in the first sense, doth answer the same likewise in the second; and accordingly the Apostles meaning to be, that those who exercise these works of beneficence do provide themselves as it were of a Bill or Bond, upon which they may at that day sue or plead for the award of eternall life, Vi pacti, but not Vi meriti.
In the same sense he takes foreign, 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal: The Lord knoweth them that are his. And let every one that nameth (or calleth upon) the name of Christ, depart from iniquity. The mentioning of a Seal here, implies a Bill of contract; for Bils of contract had their Seals appendent to them; each side whereof had his Motto, the one suiting with the one party contrahent; the other with the other: That to this S. Paul alludes; Gods foreign, saith he, standeth sure; (that is, Gods Bill of contract, or his Chirographum,) having a Seal according to the manner; the one side whereof carrieth this Motto, The Lord knoweth them that are his: the other this, Let every one that calleth upon the Name of Christ, depart from iniquity.
Thus God remembreth the Righteous, or charitable man in the world to come. He remembreth him also in this: For that which the Apostle saith of godlinesse that it hath the promise of this life, as well as of that to come, is most properly and peculiarly true of this righteousnesse of bounty and mercy: other righteousnesse indeed must not look for reward till hereafter, but this is wont to be rewarded now.
For spirituall blessings we have the example of Cornelius, who for his Almesdeeds found favour with God, to have S. Peter sent unto him, to instruct him in the saving knowledge of Christ: Thy prayers and thine Almesdeeds, said the Angel, are come up in remembrance before God; Now therefore send to Joppa, and inquire for one Simon Peter, &c.
For temporall blessings hear what David says, Psa. 37. 25. (quoted before) I was young, saith he, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread. He is ever mercifull and lendeth, therefore his seed is blessed. This blessing is the mercifull and charitable mans peculiar, that his children shall not want, who was liberall and openhanded to supply the want of others. But think not that God remembers the charitable man with a temporall blessing in his posterity onelyonly; for he remembers him also in his own person: Thus the same David, Psal. 41. 1. Blessed is he that considereth the poore, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. 2. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. 3. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, &c. And doth not his Son King Solomon say the same? Prov. 19. 17. He that hath p…ty upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given, he will pay him again. But this perhaps some will think, may be applied to the reward in the life to come: If it be, it would much illustrate that of S. Pauls foreign I now spake of. But Prov. 28. 27. is a place not capable of this exception; He that giveth to the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes, shall have many a curse.
Thus we have seen, how the righteous man is in remembrance with God: Now let us see how the same is and ought to be in remembrance with men: And it may be inferred from the former; for why should not we remember those whom God doth? The practice in the Church of God hath been accordingly.
The Jews, when they make mention of any of their deceased Worthies, are wont to do it with this Encomium, foreign, id est, Memoria ejus sit in benedictione: Otherwhile with this, foreign, Memoria ejus sit ad vitam futuri seculi. And of their Rabbies in generall, when they mention them, they say, foreign, Magistri nostri, quorum memoria sit ad benedictionem. Which encomiasticall scheme is taken from that of Solomon Pr. 10. 7. foreign, Memoria justi sit ad benedictonem: which therefore they sometimes use unaltered to the purpose aforesaid; sometimes with addition, as Memoria Justi sit in benedictione ad vitam futuri saeculi; sometimes, Memoria Justi & Sancti sit ad benedictionem. These formulae are frequent in their writings: Nor hath this commemorative Scheme been taken up by them (as some perhaps may suppose) since the comming of our Saviour in the time of their dispersion; but was used long before, as may appear Ecclus. 45. 1. where Moses is thus remembred, Moses beloved of God and men, foreign, whose memoriall is blessed. And in the next Chapter like mention is made of the Judges of Israel; namely, The Judges every one by name, whose heart went not a whoring, nor Eccl. 46. 11departed from the Lord, foreign, Let their memory be in benediction. So of Iudas Maccabaeus, 1 Mac. 3. 7. He grieved many Kings, and made Iacob glad with his acts, foreign, His memoriall is, or let his memoriall be blessed for ever.
But what is the meaning of this Formula? what is it for the memory of the righteous to be foreign, or in benedictionem? The Septuagints Translation of that Prov. 10. 7. (whence, as I told you, this form of honourable remembrance is taken) will soon resolve us; for they in stead of the words foreign, Memoria justi in benedictione, foreign, the memory of the just is with praises. To make mention therefore of the righteous by way of benediction, is to praise them, for the word foreign, or foreign, to blesse, in Scripture hath a treble notion: First, to speak well of: Secondly, to speak well for: Thirdly, to do well unto. To speak well of, is to praise; So we are said to blesse God, when we praise and glorifie him: Benedic anima mea Domino; Blesse the Lord ô my soul; that is, praise him. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; that is, praised. Blesse the Lord all ye Nations; that is, praise him: and so every where in the Psalms. The second notion, to speak well for, is to pray for: So the Priest is said to blesse the people, when he prays for them: The Lord blesse you, and save you, the Lord make his holy countenance to shine upon you, and be mercifull unto you: So other blessings of the like kinde, are prayers for those, over whom they are pronounced. The third notion of blessing is, to do good unto, to bestow some gift or good upon: Thus God is said to have blessed man, when he said unto him, Increase and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it; that is, He endowed him with these gifts. In thy seed shall all the Nations of the world be blessed; that is, receive some great benefit. So God is said to have blessed the Patriarchs when he made them to thrive, and gave them wealth and riches; according to that of Solomon, Prov. 10. 22. The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it; namely, such as is wont to accompany riches gotten without Gods blessing. Hence foreign, or foreign in Scripture signifies a gift or present, bounty or beneficence: the present of cattell which Iaacob provided for his brother Esau, when he went to meet him, is all that Story through call'd his Blessing: The Presents which David sent of his prey to the Elders of Judah, 1 Sam. 30. 26. are there call'd Blessings. And in the New Testament, 2 Cor. 9. the collection at Corinth for the poor Saints at Jerusalem, is thrice called foreign, their blessing, which we translate Bounty. I thought good to be a little diligent in this explication, that we might be the better able to discern what kinde of remembrance of righteous men deceased is commended unto us in that Scripture, The memory of the righteous is with blessing: whence not the Jew onelyonly, as you have heard, but the Christian also seem to have derived their practice in that particular, which I am now to shew.
For the Christian in this point hath been no whit short of the Jew, but exceeded them rather, not in the later only, but in those better and primitive times: witnesse those anniversary remembrances of the Martyrs and Saints deceased; the appointing of Festivall days for their memoriall; the custome to assemble at their Sepulchres, to make Panegyrick orations in their honour; and above all, that ancient and so long continued custome without known beginning, to commemorate at the Holy Table, when the Eucharist was celebrated, the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Euangelists, Martyrs, and Confessors: All which tended to this, that the memory of the righteous might be with blessing. In the extent of which blessing the Christian went beyond the Jew: for of that threefold notion of blessing I now spake of; first, to speak well of, or to praise: secondly, to speak well for, or to pray for: thirdly, to do well unto; the Jews seem (not only anciently, but of *Vid. Buxtorf c. 35.late) to have used none but the first in their commemorations, namely, that of praise. But the Christian added the second of prayer and good wishes for the Saints departed, namely, for their publike acquitall and consummation at the day of Resurrection: which, had it continued in the first and originall meaning, could not be disliked; but having roved in time, (the Mother of many Superstitions and Errors) and kindled the fire of Purgatory, it was thought fit by the Authors of our Reformation, to be disused, and the blessing of the Dead to be confined to that of praise onelyonly, namely, of praising and commending them, by recounting their worthy deeds; and then secondly, of praising God for them.