(e) P. 68. — ' Catch ' = on the watch. This supplies Eichardson's lack (in his great Dictionary), of an example of ' catch' in the meaning here.
(f) P. 85. — ' Voyage ' = a travel, a journey ; but now limited to travel by sea. Milton uses it repeatedly in the earlier sense. See P. L., ii,, 426, 919 ; vii. 431. P. R. i., 103.
(g) P. 86. — ' Sobs.' To ' sob ' means to ' sop ' or ' soak,' and ' sobs,' as applied to kindled ' greenwood,' is vividly descriptive.
(h) P. 96. — ' Send forth hath a stronger sense in the original.' Consult and compare Dr J. A. Alexander on the passage in his commentary on Isaiah (ed. by Eadie, 1848).
(i) P. 100. — ' The gospel's course hath hitherto been as that of the sun, from east to west, and so in God's time may proceed further west.' This remarkable an- ticipation may be placed side by side with the better known but much later, and admittedly grander, vaticination of Berkeley : —
' Weshvard the course of empire takes its way ;
The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; Time's noblest oftspring is the last.
The ' Priest ' of Bemerton, George Herbert, may have had his equally memorable couplet suggested by Sibbes's words, the 'Bruised lieed ' having preceded 'The Temple ' by three years : —
' Religion stands a-tiptoe in our land, Eeady to pass to the American strand.'
Church Millilant.
Sibbes and his Puritan contemporaries turned with wistful eye to ' JVeiv England,* and read in the light of the present position of America among the nations of the earth, it is curious to note the mingled hope and dread with wliioh tlie mighty un- known continent was regarded. John Cotton, John Davenport, Thomas Hooker, and many other of Sibbes's personal friends, became fugitives thitlicr. For various curious memorabilia on the subject of this note (Sibbes's being an addition thereto), consult Mayor's Nicholas Ferrar, pp. 52-3. G.
THE SWORD OF THE WICKED.
THE SWORD OF THE WICKED.
NOTE.
The title-page, a copy of which is given below [*], will, as in the case of ' The Description of Christ,' in its relation to ' The Bruised Reed,' explain the position of ' The Sword of the Wicked ' in the present publication. It wilJ be observed that it consists of the leading, i.e., introductory sermons to that treatise, called ' The Soules Coniiict.' As such, it falls to bo associated therewith. The ' Sword of the "Wicked ' forms a small portion of one of the posthumously-published quartos of Sibbes, entitled ' Evangelicall Sacrifices ' [1640]. It labours under the same disadvantage with the ' Description,' as compared with its companion treatise, the ' Soul's Con- flict,' being even more unfinished; but abounds with pungent and vigorous writing.
G. [*] Title-page—
The
SWORD
of
THE WICKED.
In two Sermons.
Being the leading Sermons to that Treatise
called
The Soules Conflict.
By
The late Learned and Reverend Divine,
Rich. Sibbs :
Doctor in Divinity, Mr of Katherine Hall
in Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher
to the Honourable Society of
Grayes-Inne.
Psal. 57. 4.
Their Tongue is a sharpe Sword.
London,
Printed by E. P. for N. B. and R. H. 1639. 4to.
THE SWORD OF THE WICKED.
As ivitJi a sword in my hones, mine enemies reproach me ; while they say unto me daily, Where is thy God ? — Psalm XLII. 10.
The Psalms are, as it were, the anatomy of a holy man ; they lay the inside of a true devout man outward, even to the view of others.
If the Scriptures be compared to a body, the Psalms may well be the heart, they are so full of sweet and holy afiections and passions. In other portions of Scripture, God speaks to us; in the Psalms, holy men (especially David, who was the penman of most of them), speak to God, whei-ein we have the passages of a broken, humble soul to God. Among the rest, in this Psalm David lays open variety of passions. His condition at this time was such, as that he was an exiled man, from his own house and his own friends, and which grieved him worst of all, from the tabernacle, the house of God. It was upon the occasion of Saul's persecution, or of Absalom's, his son ; but I take it rather of Saul's^ that hunted him as a partridge in the wilderness. Hereupon you have a discovery, how this holy man of God stood affected with this case and condition of his. First he lays open his grief. His grief ariseth from his desire. He that loves most and desireth most, he always grieves most ; and all other affections have their scantling (a) from love, which is the firstborn affection of the soul. Therefore, before he lays out his grief, he sets out his desire to the house of God, the want whereof giieved him most of all. ' As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 0 God,' ver. 1. As the chased hart panteth after water,' so the soul thirsteth for God, for the \\vmg God, ' O when shall I come and appear before God ?' ver. 2.*