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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32780	The commination prescribed in the liturgy of the Church of England vindicated, and recommended to the consideration of all pious Christians in a sermon preached to a countrey audience on the first Sunday in Lent, 1679/80 / by Benjamin Camfeild ...	Camfield, Benjamin, 1638-1693.	1680 (1680)	Wing C377; ESTC R1330	19,289	31

to girding with Sack-cloath and behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine saying with the Epicurean Drolls of all Ages Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of Hosts saith the Prophet surely this Iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts Nor do I aggravate the matter here by this Comparison beyond what is Just and Right For whensoever our Governors both in Church and State do by their Laws and Orders call us to Mourning and Fasting and Humiliation we are to look upon it and interpret it as if God himself call'd us by them thereunto See 2 Cor. 5.20 1 Thes 4.8 c. and he expects we should take the warning which they as his Deputies give us and construes our despising of them as a contempt to himself by whose Authority they Act And so also of old he gave the warning to his People according to that of the Prophet Joel ch 2. Blow the Trumpet Sanctifie a Fast Call a Solemn Assembly Gather the People Sanctifie the Congregation Assemble the Elders gather the Children and those that suck the Breasts Let the Bride-groom go forth of his Chamber and the Bride out of her Closet Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say spare thy People O Lord This you see is the Truth of the Case we are all herein Transgressors though it may be aggravated in some by their Contumacy and mitigated in others by their Seduction and Inadvertency Beseech we God of his infinite mercy therefore that he lay not this great Iniquity to the Charge of this sinful Kingdom Pray we as Moses did for the Israelites Deut. 9.27 Look not O Lord unto the stubbornness of this People nor to their wickedness nor to their sin Or as we have it our Letany From hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandment Good Lord deliver us However upon all these Considerations laid together I have purposely diverted unto the Text even now Read that I might meet with those who will not so much as afford their presence at such a Solemnity and give them that account of this part of our Service which may by Gods Grace engage them hereafter to a conscionable frequenting of it And that I may do this with the better success I will First set before you the Law and Practise as it stood among the Israelites what was the Divine institution and Ordinance among them in this matter and then Secondly shew you how far we are still concerned in it or what this observance among them suggests to invite and justifie or vindicate our imitation First It is good to consider the Order which the Lord kept with his People in times pasts T. 6. L. 1. p. 196. as the Nonconformists themselves have sometimes worded it upon other Occasions The First provision about this we Read of Deuter. 11.26 c. Behold saith Moses Augmentatio Boni Diminutio Boni Aben-Ezra I set before you this day a Blessing and a Curse that is Good and Evil Happyness and Misery A Blessing if ye obey the Commandment of the Lord your God which I Command you this day and a Curse if ye will not obey And it shall come to pass saith he when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the Land whither thou goest to Possess it that thou shalt put the Blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the Curse upon Mount Ebel Are they not on the other side Jordan c Ainsworth in Loc. Thou shalt put or give the Blessing Upon or Towards Mount Gerizim for so the Hebrew Preposition Gnal sometimes signifies that is cause it to be pronounced there and so the Curse in like manner Upon or Towards Mount Ebel Thou shalt see or take care that the Blessing and Curse be given forth by the Priests Dandam curabis operâ scil Levitarum Vatablus the Levites towards these Mountains respectively by the Levites I say whose Office it was to teach Jacob Gods Judgments Deut. 33.10 and Israel his Law by whom God had before ordered the Solemn Blessing ch 10. and the Curses too as afterwards we find it But of this same matter he speaks more particularly and distinctly in This 27th Chapter Psal 12. c. These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the People when ye are come over Jordan Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph under which Ephraim and Manasseh and Benjamin These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to Bless the People Vatablus ad audiendam benedictionem to hear the Blessing pronounced on the People for Obedience And these shall stand upon Mount Ebel to Curse Reuben Gad and Asher and Zebulun Dan and Naphtali These on Mount Ebel to Curse or for the Cursing that is in like manner to hear the Curse denounced for Disobedience For the People were not on either Mountain to pronounce the Blessing or the Curse but to hear and witness unto both proclaimed by the Levites as it follows And the Levites shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice Cursed be or is the man that maketh any Graven or Molten Image an abomination to the Lord the work of the hands of the Craftsman and putteth it in a secret place And all the People shall answer and say Amen Cursed is he that setteth light by his Father or his Mother And all the People shall say Amen c. Munster is mistaken who reckon'd but 11. in Twelve particulars in the end of each of which it is prescribed still in words at length And all the People shall say Amen And as this Office was twice prescribed by Moses in the name of God unto them as we have seen so afterwards we find it put in practice under Joshua when he had Conducted them over Jordan to this place Josh 8.33 c. And all Israel and their Elders and Officers and their Judges stood on this side the Ark and on that side before the Priests the Levites which bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord as well the stranger that is the Proselite as he that was born among them Half of them over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebel as Moses the Servant of the Lord had Commanded before that they should Bless the People of Israel And afterwards he Read all the words of the Law the Blessings and Cursings according to all that is written in the Book of the Law there was not a word of all that Moses Commanded which Joshua read not before all the Congregation of Israel with the Women and the little ones and the Strangers that were Conversant among them An august and full assembly we see here of the Rulers and all the People Women and Children too and Strangers who had embraced their Religion

not excepted And when Joshua is said to have read all the Blessings and Cursings according to all that was written in the Law and as Moses had Commanded we must understand that he issued out his Warrant gave forth his Edict to the Priests the Levites herein to do their proper Office and what they did at his Command is ascribed to him as if he had done it And so again though there be no particular mention here of the Acclamations of all the People answering and saying Amen yet there can be no question at all but that so we are to conceive of it because All is said to be done by him according to all that was written by Moses in the Book of the Law about it where he had his Pattern as well as Commission given him and in which it was so often repeated All the People shall say Amen Concerning the place where these two Mountains stood Vide Matium in Josh 8. Non procul â Sicimis Antiq. L. 4. c. ult some difference there is among Cosmographers which I shall not trouble you with Josephus describes them near to Sichem and that is the most common Opinion it being reported by Travellers into those parts that near the Gate of that City was Jacobs Fountain and somewhat above that a Mount arising with two Tops as it were one against the other which the Inhabitants thereabouts take for Gerizim and Ebel the one upon the Right hand the other on the Left supposing the Face turned to the East or Sun-rising Mount Gerizim Southward which was accounted Dextrum mundi latus the Right side of the World and Mount Ebel Northward which hath been ever look'd upon as Male-ominata plaga an ill-bodeing Coast Now in the Valley between these two Mountains as the story tells us was placed the Holy Ark and next to that the Priests the Levites which bore it and all Israel Officers and People in their several Tribes on this side and on that Half of them over against Mount Gerizim and Half of them over against Mount Ebel That is as we are told more particularly Towards Mount Gerizim were the six heads of the Free Tribes with their respective Tribes Liberarum filij ex justis Matribus familiâs Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin all Children of the Free-Women Rachel and Lea. And Blessedness the Apostle tells us belongs to the Children of the Free-Woman Gal. 4.22.31 Upon this Mount afterwards the Samaritans are said to have Built their Temple taking occasion it seems Ainsworth in Deuteron from what was now done there for a Superstitious conceit of the place it self calling themselves Those that belong to the Blessed Mount. Servarum filij And then for Mount Ebel there were six others the Sons of the Bond-Women Four of them Born of the two hand-maids viz. Gad and Asher the Sons of Zilpah Lea's hand-maid Dan and Naphtali of Bilhah Rachel's hand-maid But then to make up the number even with those on the other side two are added that were Born indeed of the Free Reuben the Eldest by Leah but one that had forfeited his dignity by defiling his Fathers Bed and Zebulun the last of the Sons by Leah also and so the least in Dignity Thus the People are divided into two equal Choires as it were the one on the Right-hand and the other on the Left with all their Faces towards the Ark Ora omnium obversa ad Arcam Matius ut suprâ the Blessings to be pronounced by the Levites towards those on Mount Gerizim and the Curses towards those on Mount Ebel over against them not unfitly declaring as one of the Rabbi's observes Quantum esset inter benedictionem maledictionemque dissidium how great a Distance there is between Obedience and Disobedience the Blessing and the Curse A vast Gulf as it were between them like to that we read of in the Gospel between Abrahams Bosome and the place of Torment They move towards two opposite points and are not possibly to be reconciled so as to meet together in one Well the Congregation thus set we are to suppose that some one or more of the Levites did lift up his voice like a Trumpet and Tanquam fecialis Mat ius ibid. as God Almighty's Herald propound the Articles of his Law and Covenant turning first to the Right that is towards Mount Gerizim to utter the Benedictions and Blessings But what these Blessings were Moses doth not specifie and this silence of his in the Case is look'd upon by some Ainsworth in Loc. as instructive about a Mystery in like manner as the Apostle to the Hebrews interprets his silence concerning the Genealogie of Melchisedec leading the Sagacious Reader to look for them by another which is Christ by whom cometh Grace and Truth and whom God hath sent to Bless us But waving this conjecture though these Blessings are not specified it is not to be question'd but they were rehearsed to the People as well as the Curses nay it is observable where we have the History of the practise in the time of Joshua that the chief if not only mention is made of Benediction as Moses the Servant of the Lord had Commanded before that they should Bless the People of Israel Masius in Loc. Sola Benedictio agebatur It was their Blessing all along that was design'd and aimed at the other was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing as it were by the by Subservient and in order to this Benediction as a likely means to remove the impediments and hindrances of it Those therefore that are versed in the Jewish Antiquities tell us that the Blessings are particularly to be Collected out of the Curses here mentioned answering to each of them A pause being made by the Levite at the end of every Sentence or Period both of Blessing and Curse that the People on both sides might attest their approbation distinctly to every Article as he went along by their joynt Acclamations of Amen only with this difference Those on Mount Gerizim beginning the Amen to the Blessings and their Brethren on the other side against them on Mount Ebel resounding or ecchoing the like after them Those on Mount Ebel again beginning the Amen to the Curses P. Fagius in Denter and their Brethren on Gerizim repeating the same after them And it is not improbable but that the twelve Benedictions on the one side and the twelve Maledictions on the other were pronounced alternatim by turn or Exchange Antiq. L. 4. C. ult in the way of Antiphone or Responsal succinentes sibi invicem as Josephus hath it The Levites suppose first beginning towards the Right with the Blessings thus Blessed is he that worshippeth the true Jehova only and no other Gods besides or with him whereunto All the People answer and say Amen Those on Mount Gerizim beginning the shout and those on Mount Ebel following them therein And then turning