473 THE RESTORATION OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. [ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL] A SERMON PREACHED AT DUBLIN, UPON THE 23D OF APRIL, 1661, BEING THE DAY APPOINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S CORONATION. PSALM CXXVi. 6. He that now goeth on his way weeping, and beareth good seed, shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him. IN the saddest afflictions and blackest storms that can befall a man in this world, give me leave to make this thankful acknowledgment, there is no companion or comforter like the Psalms of David: he that speaketh experimentally is the best physician, both for soul and body. Being to speak unto this auditory upon His Majesty's happy restitution, I fitted and fixed my thoughts to the first verse of this Psalm, "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion, then were we like to them that dreamed." "When the Lord," not the Lord Cyrus in relation to the Jews, though the edict for their restitution came out from him, but the Lord of Cyrus; nor the Lords of Parliament in relation to us, though they helped to lay the foundation of our present happiness; but the Lord Paramount of heaven and earth. "When the Lord turned.", In God "there is no shadow of turning by change." But with us there is nothing but turning and re-turning; we are all turning shadows upon the old exchange of this world. "When the Lord turned the captivity," that is, the Babylonish captives, by an ordinary Hebraism: so it is said of Christ, "he led captivity captive;" that is, those who were captives to sin and Satan he reconquered, and made them to become his own servants: and what were we better than Babylonish captives, while we sojourned in idolatrous and superstitious countries? There are two sorts of captivity, corporal and spiritual; both are bad, but the latter ten times worse. In a corporal captivity the tyrants are external; but in spiritual captivity they are internal, in our bosoms and bowels. There the stings are sharp; but nothing so sharp as the stings of a guilty conscience. Corporal tyrants may dispossess us of our wealth, our life, our liberty; but spiritual, deprive us of our souls, of God's image, of eternal blessedness. There, one or two members do sinful and slavish offices; but here, all our members are weapons of unrighteousness. Corporal captives have but one master; but spiritual captives have many masters: pride commands to spend, and covetousness to spare: nay, the same vice distracts them with contrary commands; as vain-glory forceth them, at the same time, to soar aloft in the air, and yet to creep beneath upon the earth; to swell inwardly with pride, to crouch to the meanest persons, to obtain popu lar applause. Corporal slaves have hope to escape by flight; but in spiritual captivity no flight can help us, unless we could fly away from ourselves. Lastly, corporal captivity doth end with life. Death is a perfect cure of all human miseries; but in spiritual captivity, death is but a beginning of slavery, and a shutting the door of liberty with the key of eternity. But can mountains be led away captives? otherwise, what signifieth "captivity of Sion?" I answer, that as we say there is more of Mon Martyr at Paris than there is of Mon Martyr at Mon Martyr; so it might be truly said, there was more of Sion carried to Babylon than was left at Sion. First, the Temple, which was the glory of Sion, was demolished; then, the ceremonies and sacrifices and ordinances of Sion were abolished. Thirdly, the holy vessels and garments and other utensils and sacred ornaments were exported. Lastly, the priests and Levites and people of God were all carried away captive. These were the living Sion: without these, Sion was but a dead carcass of itself. Justly, therefore, is the captivity of the people of God called the "captivity of Sion." "Then were we," that is, by way of historical narration; or, "Then we shall be," by way of prophetical prediction; (either sense may be admitted ;) "like them that dream;" that is, like those who are between sleeping and waking: the events were so strange, so unexpected, incredible, that we doubted whether they were real events, or vain fancies and drowsy imaginations. Others translate it, "like those that are comforted," or like those that are recovered from some languishing sickness, and restored to their former strength and vigour. But whilst I was making a parallel between the Jewish captivity, and of our English captivity and of our deliverance and restitution with theirs, I see the flower which I had designed for the subject of my discourse cropped away before my face; this necessitated me to alter my meditations from the first verse to the last verse of this psalm. The former was more emphatical for the Jewish captivity; but the latter suits altogether as well with our present condition. "He that now goeth on his way weeping, and beareth forth good seed, shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him.” It is not my manner to amuse my hearers much with various lections or translations. Every language hath its proper idiotisms, or peculiar forms of expression, which differ more in sound than in sense. The worst reading or translation is commonly not so ill as those clashings and uncharitable altercations which are about them. Various lections may sometimes bring some light to the understanding, but they shake that Christian faith which is radicated in the heart. Break ice in one place, and it will crack in more: suffer the truth of Sacred Writ to be questioned, in a word or a syllable, and you weaken the authority and lesson the venerable estimation of the whole text. That which satisfieth me, and may satisfy any good Christian, is this: that God, who hath given the Holy Scriptures to his Church, to be the key of his revealed counsels, the anchor of their |