Asham though it is used for sin in general yet it seems to imply in a more special sense sins of an higher nature such as are committed with more deliberation or with more consent of will or against more light or with less of temptation or more of injury unto others sins of a more grievous and heinous nature for the same word signifies also desolation and laying waste Isai 24.6 therefore hath the Curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein are desolate vajeshmu And in the same sense is this word used elsewhere e. g. Psal 5.10 destroy them O God desolato eos tanquam reos Buxtorf Moreover there be Instances given here in the Trespass Offering of gross sins against light and knowledg conscience-wasting soul-desolating sins as lying cheating perjury Cap. 6.2 3. And we may therefore render Asham piaculum The issue then is this That the Sin Offering relates to those involuntary infirmities which are unavoidable while there is a body of sin and death dwelling in us and which are consistent with assurance and sincerity But the Trespass-Offering to those greater conscience wasting and soul-desolating sins which are inconsistent with assurance and true Communion with God though it includes some lesser sins yet it extends to these also 2. The second Law of the Sin-Offering is this That there is a various matter of this Offering for four sorts of persons that sin and miss the way which indeed are the Analysis of this Chapter 1. For the anointed Priest a young Bullock vers 3. 2. For the whole Congregation a young Bullock vers 13. 3. For the Ruler a Kid of the Goats a Male without blemish vers 22. 4. For any particular person a Kid or else a Lamb a Female without blemish vers 27. And so the Chapter divides it self into these four parts 1. The Sin Offering for the anointed Priest is a young Bullock c. vers 3 to 13. There is some difficulty upon this Who is meant by the anointed Priest Some restrain it to the High Priest only because none but he was anointed with material Oyl The word in the Text is Hachohen hammashiach the Priest that is anointed vers 3. But if this be restrained to the High Priest only the question will be what shall become of the other inferior Priests Is there no Sin Offering Is there no Expiation for their sins and sailings Doubtless there is But we cannot well refer them amongst the common people of the Land the Priests and people being so continually distinguished every where throughout the Scripture Therefore it seems more congruous to conceive as some do that all the Priests are here included and that the word anointed intends no more but dedicated consecrated set apart unto that work and office or that it may refer to that first Consecration of them in Aaron their Fore-father Exod. 29.7 And thou shalt take the anointing Oyl and pour it upon his head and anoint him The Law is if he shall sin le ashamath hyam according to the sin of the people as our Translation renders it that is like one of the common people For the Priests were not made infallible or impeccable by their Office and therefore had need to offer for their own sins as well as for the peoples Heb 5.2 3. It is not to be restrained only to such sins of his as wherein he seduceth and draws the people aside to sin with him or whereby he brings publick Judgments upon them as some have rendred it si delinquere fecerit populum and others si deliquerit in populi noxam For then here were no relief for him as to all his other failings in the discharge and execution of his trust and office in the house of God and in his own private and personal walkings Therefore it must be understood in the largest and most comprehensive sense for any sin or failing of weakness in any of the Priests Let him bring a young Bullock for his Sin Offering 2. For the whole Congregation a Bullock vers 13. the whole body of the people collectively taken the same that was appointed for the Priest though with some difference in the Rites There the Priest but here the Elders as in the name of the people being to lay their hands upon the Head of the Sacrifice 3. For the Ruler a Kid a Male vers 22. Nasi Princeps quasi elatus super alios from Nasa exaltavit tulit that is any Civil Ruler that is raised or lifted up above others The word is used not only concerning Kings and chief Magistrates as Ezek. 34.24 but concerning inferior Rulers also Exod. 16.22 And all the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses c. Numb 16.2 4. For any of the common people their Sin Offering is a Kid a Female vers 27. or else a Lamb a Female vers 32 to the end of the Chapter Now from this second Law of the Sin-Offering namely this various matter of it for so many sorts of persons that sin we may learn these Instructions before we proceed to the third Law 1. That the anointed Priest may err Therefore the Bishop of Rome if he were an Officer of Christ he might err and miss his Mark though being Antichrist it may be granted to him that he seldom errs from his Scope it being to promote the Devils Kingdom and to obstruct the Kingdom and oppress the Church of Christ I must confess I have wondred at this error of Popery that the Pope cannot err I wonder why he may not err in Doctrine as well as in life Why may he not deny God in words as well as in his works That he may and doth err in his life and that his works are evil themselves have not the impudence to deny therefore he may err in his Faith as well as in his life in his words as well as in his works And if you do but look into a weekly News book you will ever and anon find mention of the Popes Nephews what they do and what preferments he provides for them But who are these It is fit you should know the meaning of it The word Nephew it is an Italian Phrase of Speech for a Bastard and so indeed the Popes Nephewes is nothing else but the Popes Bastards this is he that cannot err Among the Papists Priests you know must not marry and the Pope is not so humble as to own others of his poor Kindred But yet we must believe in this unclean Beast and we must call him his Holiness forsooth whose Leprosy is written in his Forehead and who declares his sin as Sodom and hides it not as Gomorrah For they are not ashamed of all their uncleannesses and abominations having their Consciences seared with an hot Iron and yet this sinful doleful Creature cannot err when his Bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall ly down with him in the dust 2. The second Instruction is this That there are degrees of
Ten Commandments Exod. 19.9 that the people might hear and cap. 20.22 he talked with you from Heaven and he wrote them in two Tables of Stone and in the five Books of Moses The Ceremonial and Judicial Laws were delivered in this last way viz. by Writing being left upon Record in the Books of Moses This is celebrated as a choice Mercy Psal 103.7 He made known his ways unto Moses his Acts unto the Children of Israel yea as a peculiar and distinguishing Mercy Psal 147.2 last v. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and Judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation And now seems to have been the first Invention of the Art of Writing The first mention we find of it is in Moses his time In Jacobs time it may seem they had no knowledg of it because in the Covenant between him and Laban instead of any Articles in Writing between them or signing or sealing of it they only erect an heap of Stones as Monuments of Remembrance of it Gen. 31.45 seq And the Invention is so admirable that it seems to transcend all humane Wit and Industry The reducing of all audible and articulate Sounds unto visible Marks and that in so familiar and short a way by twenty or thirty Letters without any further load to the Memory that we may well ascribe it unto God himself as the blessed Author and Inventor of it to help his poor people to and in the knowledg of himself according to that in Prov. 8.12 I Wisdom dwell with Prudence and find out knowledg of witty Inventions 3. The Lord accepted the whole Nation to be his own peculiar people erecting a glorious Frame and Fabrick of Church and Common-wealth amongst them wherein the Lord himself was King and did immediately preside and therefore it hath been fitly called a Theocracy so Gideon Judg. 8.23 The Lord shall rule over you Isai 51.16 that I may plant the Heavens and lay the foundations of the Earth and say unto Zion thou art my People 4. He gave them glorious and visible symbols and tokens of his Presence amongst them walking before them in a Pillar of Cloud and Fire Exod. 13.21 22. which Pillar rested upon the Tabernacle after that the Tabernacle was built Exod. ult ult which also was a symbol of his Presence with them and so was the Ark and the Manna from Heaven Exod. 16.14 15. with the Rock that followed them Exod. 17.6 1 Cor. 10.4 5. The Lord himself conducted and led them through the Desarts of Arabia by the Hand of Moses and into the Land of Promise by the Hand of Joshuah drying up Jordan for them subduing the Inhabitants before them raising up Judges and Rulers for them and finally training them up by many instructing Providences to fit them for the further Mercies he had yet in store for them One would think all things were now well setled but there were two or three things partly defects in this Dispensation it self and partly some provoking evils on their part under it by reason whereof the Lord brought in a further and an higher Dispensation afterwards 1. There had been strange Rebellions and Provocations in the Wilderness which have had an influence into all the sorrows and troubles that have befallen them ever since Murmuring against God Mutining against Moses and Aaron which the Lord took very hainously and therefore destroyed Corah Dathan and Abiram by miracle For to disobey the just Commands of a lawful Magistrate is to rebel against God himself And above all Idolatry Exod. 32.34 35 In the day when I visit I will visit their Sin upon them and the Lord plagued the people because they made the Calf which Aaron made From whence the Jews have a proverb that in every affliction in every calamity that comes upon them there be some grains of the Molten Calf in it 2. There were frequent Degeneracies and Oppressions under the Judges 3. The Tabernacle was unfixed Upon all which accounts the Lord had not yet satisfied himself in the expressions of his own Love towards them but his Heart was full and he was resolved to do yet more for them and so to try them to the utmost Therefore he was pleased to put a period unto this Dispensation which began about the year of the World two thousand five hundred and thirteen and lasted about four hundred eighty seven or eighty eight years 1 Kings 6.1 2. The Lords second Dispensation under the Law was from the Temple to the Captivity in Babylon In this Period the Glory of the Legal Dispensation rose up to the greatest height and splendor and that chiefly in two particulars the Glory of the Kingdom and Temple 1. The Kingdom was setled in the House of David as the Type and Progenitor of the Messiah And in his days and Solomons it extended to the utmost bounds that God had spoken of to Abraham though afterwards for their own sins they were cut short the neighbour Nations shaking off the yoke and the Kingdom it self divided into two parts two Tribes only left to Solomons Posterity The Lord had promised Abraham that his Seed should possess all the Land to the River Euphrates Gen. 15.18 And it was performed in Davids time and in Solomons 1 King 4.21 24. 2 Chron. 9.26 And this Kingdom was a Type of the Kingdom of Christ 2. The other piece of their Glory was the Temple Before God had dwelt in Tents but now he had an House built unto his Name The Lord turned his flitting Tabernacle into a fixed Temple for which David made plentiful Preparation Solomon did erect and set it up He did it in seven or eight years time or more precisely seven years and an half for he began it in the second month and finished it in the eighth 1 King 6.1 and ult and he began it in the fourth year of his Reign and finished it in the eleventh moreover he began it in the 480th year after the coming out of Egypt and dedicated it seven or eight years after which fell into the year of the World three thousand or three thousand and one as you will find if you take the pains to compute and put all the former Periods together And their Kingdom and Temple stood in some degree of outward Glory about four hundred years from the finishing and dedicating of it to the beginning of their Bondage under the Yoke of Babylon And now one would think they had been setled in such a condition as might have stood for ever But the Apostacies were very great which brought this high and prosperous Dispensation to an end to a sad end For 1. The peoples hearts being not so with God as became a people crowned with such Glory God left them and their Princes the first and wisest of them the very Founders of their Kingdom and Temple unto very great and enormous transgressions David committed Adultery and Murther a very unparallell'd case for which the Lord threatneth the
and threw it up with his own Bowels with these words vicisti Galilaee vicisti In these latter times of all the Persecutors in Queen Marys time there is none that seems to have sinned and shed the blood of Saints against Light more than Stephen Gardner of whom there is this Story in the Book of Martyrs and others that write of those times That having invited sundry persons of Quality the Duke of Norfolk and others to dine with him at his house he would not sit down to Dinner till he had news brought him by his servant of the death of two Martyrs Ridley and Latimer who suffered at Oxford and so made his Friends and Guests stay and wait upon his cruelty and blood thirstiness till four a clock in the Afternoon and then being informed that fire was most certainly set to them he said now let us go to Dinner and he began to eat but was taken ill and carried sick from his Table and so lay fifteen days in most intollerable torments having no ease or voidance of any thing in his body by Urine or otherwise his body being miserably inflamed thereby and thrusting his tongue out of his mouth swollen and black and while he lay in this condition uttering sometimes words of despair and blasphemy when Dr. Day Bishop of Chichester came to him and began to comfort him with the Promises of the Gospel and free Justification in the blood of Christ what my Lord saith he will you open that Gap now Nay then farewell all together such words may be fit for one in my condition but if once you open that Gap to the people then farewel altogether And when he was put in remembrance of Peters denying his Master he said that he had denyed with Peter but had never repented with Peter Acts and Monuments vol. 3. pag. 527. and pag. 957. Here was Light and inward Conviction that this was indeed the right way and yet malice even unto blood Open that Gap to the people and then farewel all together just as the Pharisees said they feared the people would go after Christ Some have Instanced also in some of the last killers of the Witnesses of Christ Rev. 11. of whom it is said fire proceedeth out of their mouths and devours their Adversaries vers 5. which they parallel with that expression of the Apostle Heb. 10.27 a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation that shall devour the Adversaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A receiving of Judgment that is in their own Consciences God sealing up with some flashes of his Wrath their eternal damnation they have some sparks of Hell fire spit into their Consciences from the lives and doctrine of the Witnesses It is spoken in Rev. 11. in allusion to Moses by whom those Rebels Corah and his Company as also Nadab and Abihu were burnt with fire There be two things which are sure signes a man hath not committed it 1. When the Soul is afraid of it least they have committed this sin here is no malice against the Spirit of Grace for on the contrary here is a fear least they have sinned against him this great sin 2. If there be but common meltings and relentings of heart yea though without any true and saving brokenness and softness of heart yet even this common work is evidence enough that this sin hath not been committed for the sin against the Holy Ghost is the highest degree of wickedness and hardness of heart but where there are any common meltings there is not the highest degree of hardness therefore there is not the sin against the Holy Ghost In such there is a perfect fixation of the will in evil like the very Devils and the damned in Hell Therefore let the greatest sinners know if God hath but kept them from this unpardonable sin that there is hope and help in the Gospel for them there is atonement in the blood of Christ for all that come unto God by him God hath not excluded thee do not thou exclude thy self 'T is true there is atonement but how are we to apply this atonement How may we so improve and apply that precious blood of Christ as to get peace by it and sense of pardon and reconciliation with God 1. Turn your eyes and thoughts from all other things but the blood of Jesus Christ alone for reconciliation a man may set his mark upon his Sheep but it is his money that bought them Other things may be Evidences of Justification but it is the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ that purchases it Phil. 3.7 8. Never think to make God amends or content his Justice or appease his Wrath by any thing that you can do 2. Get a thorough conviction in thy Conscience of the fulness of the atonement and the Soul-redeeming virtue that is in the blood of Jesus Christ that it cleanseth from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 The redeeming power of the blood of Christ is greater then the condemning power of sin This excellency it hath from the excellency and dignity of his person for it is the blood of God Act. 20.28 which makes his obedience and suffering give more glory to God then our sufferings in Hell would have done Desire the Lord to make a clear discovery of this mystery to thy soul 3. Consider how freely this blood is held forth and offered in the Gospel to be rested on by sinners Rom. 3.25 and 16.26 God has revealed it that it may be rested on 4. Be not afraid of receiving the Atonement Rom. 5.11.17 but rather be afraid to reject it Heb. 4.1 We should not be afraid of believing but of not believing for the Gospel is not tendred unto men that they should have notions in their heads but that they should believe Rom. 4.23 24. 5. Let your acting of Faith upon Jesus Christ be always accompanied with repentance Ezek. 16. last This obviates that Objection about fear of presuming if thy Faith be accompanied with repentance thou dost not presume THE GOSPEL OF THE OFFERINGS and SACRIFICES September 10. 1668. Lev. 7.37 INtending at this time my brethren to wind up this Subject of the Legal Offerings and Sacrifices I have therefore now resumed this Text from which you may remember two Doctrins have been formerly observed 1. That there was a divine Institution and command of God for the Offerings and Sacrifices that were under the Law 2. That there were six kinds or sorts of propitiatory Sacrifices under the Law namely the Burnt-Offering the Meat Offering the Peace-Offering the Sin-Offering the Trespass-Offering and the Offering of Consecrations in Serm. 1. of Doct. 1. on this Text pag. 232 233. Doct. 2. That the propitiatory Sacrifices under the Law may be referred to these six kinds or sorts viz. c In the prosecution of this Doctrine we have gone through many of the Offerings and Sacrifices of the old Law in the way of Exposition upon the former Chapters of this Book to vers
docebantur ne dum convenit spirituali cultui novi Testamenti If it were saith he a good and pious thing to appoint Holy days this Piety were better imployed in so many Commemorations of the actions of Christ as the Church could bear then in turning aside to the Saints To dedicate a day unto God in remembrance of a man is a thing which the very Jews were never taught to do in those weak and childish times much less doth it agree to the spiritual Worship of the New Testament And though it were lawful saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 153. for the Church to ordain Holy days to our Saviour Christ or the blessed Trinity yet it is not therefore lawful to institute Holy days to the Apostles and other Saints or to their remembrance As to that pretense of honouring their memorial I remember this is alledged by Bellarmine for the keeping of Reliques and Dr. Ames Bellarm Enerv. tom 2. l. 6. c. 6. thes 25. his answer to him De istiusmodi conservatione nihil traditur in Scripturâ ubi tamen omne genus honoris virtuti defertur may be applied here this is such a way of honouring the memorial of Saints departed as the Scripture knows not wherein yet all due honour is given to virtue and holiness For as we reason against the Popish Purgatory saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 153. that it is therefore nought forasmuch as neither in the Old Testament nor in the New there is any mention of Prayer at any time for the Dead so may it be reasoned against these Holy days ordained for the remembrance of the Saints that forasmuch as the old people did never keep any Feast or Holy day for the remembrance either of Moses or Daniel or Job or Abraham or David or any other how holy or excellent soever they were Nor the Apostles nor the Churches in their time never instituted any neither to keep the remembrance of Stephen or of the Virgin Mary or of John Baptist or of any other notable rare personage that the instituting and erecting of them now and this attempt by the Churches which followed is not without some note of presumption for that it undertaketh those things which the primitive Church in the Apostles times having greater gifts of the Spirit of God durst not venture upon And what though some of these Corruptions crept in some what early they are but old sins and grey-headed errors That Antichristian violence of Victor Bishop of Rome for Easter was about the year of Christ one hundred ninety eight but Christmas is not so ancient Pezelius refers the first establishment of it to the Council of Constantinople in the year of Christ five hundred fifty three Celebrata est saith he Constantinopoli Synodus Oecumenica quinta circa annum Christi 553. In eadem Synodo dies natalis Christi dies Purificationis Mariae primum sunt instituti ut solenniter quotannis celebrarentur Pezel Mellific Hist par 2. Justinian 1. pag. 326. But be their antiquity more or less they have been abundantly testified against by the faithful Servants of Christ both in former and later times Socrates who wrote the History of the Church above twelve hundred years ago hath a whole Chapter concerning Easter wherein he hath many notable arguments against those that contend so much for it He saith that as many other things crept in of custom in sundry places so the Feast of Easter prevailed amongst all people of a certain private custom and observation seeing not one of the Apostles hath any where prescribed any thing about it He sheweth also that the Apostles have set the Churches free from the yoke of bondage by their Letters to them Acts 15. But some neglecting these things account of Fornication as a thing indifferent yet they contend about Holy days as it were for life and death they despise the Commandments of God and establish them Canons of their own they set at nought they make no account of the Law published by the Apostles but raise a foul stir about Days and Months c. Thus Socrates Hist lib. 5. cap. 22. Which Testimony of his is so plain and punctual that Bellarmine knew not how to rid his hands of it but by flying out upon Socrates and calling him a Novatian Heretick Bell. de Cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 10. which is but a poor shift instead of answering his Arguments to reproach his Person But the Book he hath written I mean his Ecclesiastical History is evidence enough for him that he was a man of an excellent spirit It was one of the Articles held and owned by the Waldenses as Mr. Fox sheweth five hundred years ago Constrained and prefixed Fasts bound to days and times difference of Meats superfluous Holy days and all the rabblement of Rites and Ceremonies brought in by Man to be abolished Fox Acts and Mon. vol. 1. p. 300. art 6. It was Luthers desire no less then seven score years ago in his Book de Bonis Operibus set forth anno 1520. that there were no other Festival days amongst Christians but only the Lords day Beza saith Superstitiosum esse docemus arbitrari unum aliquem diem altero sanctiorem Bez. Confes c. 5. art 41. And Reverend Mr. Dod condemns it as Idolatry against the second Commandment either to pray unto the Saints or to swear by them or to dedicate set days and times to the honour of them either by Fasting or Feasting Dod on the second Commandm p. 67 68. In Scotland they were laid aside in the first Reformation and have been witnessed against by the Godly there ever since They were revived indeed by those backsliders in the Assembly of Perth in the year 1618. For one of the five Articles of that Assembly was concerning Festival days but they found little acceptance with such as adhered to the Reformation of Religion as appears by the Books and Writings of many godly learned men against the Acts of that Assembly Yea King James himself before his Apostasie bore witness against them Right excellent was that Speech of his to a National Assembly in Scotland anno 1590. He praised God that he was King in the sincerest Church in the world sincerer then the Church of England for their Service was an ill said Mass in English sincerer then Geneva it self for they observed Pasche and Yoo le that is Easter and Christmas and what warrant said he have they for that I find this Speech of his recorded in Didoclavius his Altare Damascenum pag. 666. and in the Book intituled Perth Assembly the Proceedings the Nullity thereof c. printed 1619. pag. 64. and in the Re-examination of the five Articles of Perth printed 1636. pag. 340. How far he did sin against these enlightenings and convictions and how the Bishops did poyson him and pervert his Spirit in his declining times it is needless here to discourse But these were his Principles in his first which were his best times
which is sinful are not unlike the Laws made by King Henry the Second in the times of Popish Profaneness and Darkness for the Regulation of Stews and Whorehouses as that no Stewholder should receive any mans Wife nor keep any Woman against her Will if out of remorse of Conscience she would leave that leud life c. upon which a late Historian well observes that such Canons and Constitutions could not make them who were bad in themselves to be good though they might happily keep some who were bad Dr. Fullers History of the Church book 5. pag. 240. from being worse For though natural Poysons may by art be so qualified and corrected to make them cordial yet moral Poysons viz. things sinful of themselves can never be so ordered and regulated but that still they will remain sinful and unlawful the only way to order and amend being to remove and extirpate them And therefore King Henry the Eighth did utterly suppress those Brothel-houses And the like course those two and thirty grave learned men who were chosen in King Edwards days to reform Ecclesiastical Laws and Observances thought fit to take with this superstitious Musick which the Church of Rome hath gone a whoring after Vibratam illam operosam Musicam quae figurata dicitur auferri placet It likes us well say they to have this quavering and curious kind of Musick quite taken away De Divino Officiis ca. 5. apud Amesium ubi supra And the reformed Churches abroad have laid it aside with one consent as hath been shewed whereby it is evident that they did not account it a good thing abused but a thing sinful and evil in it self So likewise the great Parliament in their Ordinance of May 9. 1644. in Mr. Scobells Collection Anno 1644. Ch. 38. thus reject them The Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament the better to accomplish the blessed Reformation so happily begun and to remove all Offences and things illegal in the Worship of God do ordain that all Organs and Frames or Cases wherein they stand in all Churches and Chappels shall be taken away and utterly defaced and none others hereafter set up in their places whereunto all persons within this Kingdom whom it may concern are hereby required at their peril to yield due obience I have now examined all that I can meet with that hath been objected in this Cause and I know not what can be objected further unless being driven from all their other holds they will fly for refuge to the Authority of the Church as their manner is which if they do we may easily retort the Argument upon themselves and beat them with their own weapons If I held any Opinion according with the Church of Rome but contrary to the concurrent Judgment and Practice of all the choisest Saints and purest Churches I would even desire the Lord to write it in Stars and Sun-beams But such is the Musick now in question It is borrowed from the Church of Rome and they who write for it borrow their Arguments from Bellarmine who disputes for it against Peter Martyr as hath been shewed so that Papists and Semi-Protestants are almost the only Sticklers for it but the reformed Churches have cast it off which though it is not in it self a demonstrative or cogent Argument neither do I so intend it fot the Scripture is the only infallible Judge yet it is enough to confound and stop the mouths of such Objectors as pretend the Authority of the Church for this Chaunting Idol-Service For they take part with the Church of Rome in this particular against all the Reformed Churches To the Reader WHereas the Author in the foregoing Discourse asserts that the Reformed Churches have with one consent laid aside Instrumental Musick in the Worship of God that word Reformed Churches is not to be understood as including either the Lutheran Churches abroad or our Prelatick ones at home And moreover the Reader must consider that he therein speaks according to the declared Judgment of the chief and generality of their Writers For though it appears by learned Voetius Pol. Eccles part 1. l. 2 tr 2 sect 1. c. 3. that some Churches in Holland have Organs yet the Reader may there find the Judgment of the Netherland Synods to have been against them and that they were brought in among them but of late and that too not by any publick Authority but only on the private affection of some particular persons here and there besides a great cloud of witnesses against them not only from amongst Protestant Writers but many of the very Papists themselves and some in the elder ages of Christianity Moreover this Discourse of our Author was written in or neer the time of his unhappy leisure after the memorable Bartholomew 1662. and therefore before that Book of learned Voetius came forth Moreover it is certain that this Musick in the Worship of God is a much later Invention then many other Popish Corruptions are An Organ was long unknown in France or Germany the first of them being brought to King Pipin by Stephen Bishop of Rome and other Embassadors from Constantinus Copronymus as that excellent Historian and Antiquary Aventinus hath it Res adhuc Gallis Germanis incognita Organon appellant Annal. Boior lib. 3. pag. 300 Edit Ingolst 1554. which is seconded by Amoinus who adds that afterwards one George a Grecian Presbyter undertook to make one for Lewis the Emperor His words are these Adduxit vero Baldricus Domino Imperatori Presbyterum quendam Georgium nomine bonae vitae hominem qui se promitteret Organum more posse Graecorum componere Quem Imperator gratanter suscepit quia Deus illi quae ante se inusitata erant Regno Francorum attribuebat gratiarum actiones reddidit ac Tanculfo sacrorum scriniorum Praelato commendavit publicisque stipendiis curare jussit ea quae huic operi necessaria forent praeparare mandavit de Gest Franc. lib. 4. cap. 64 cap. 114. This is placed by Calvisius in the year 826. and that sent to Pipin was about threescore and ten years before Though withall I know some Writers give them somewhat an older standing The Centurists of Magdeburg have these words Cent. 7. cap. 6. Tandem anno 666. in pleno numero Bestiae Apocalypsis 13. cantum latinum cum Organis Ecclesiae â Vitaliano Pontifici susceperunt missamque deinde c. At last in the year 666. in the full number of the Beast in the 13th of the Revelations the Churches they speak of the Churches in England received Latine Singing with Organs from Pope Vitalian and thereafter began to say Latine Mass and set up Altars with idolatrous Images from whence followed both Prayers to the Dead and Exorcisms and other prodigious practices of the Papists For which they there cite Bale For my part I suspect they and he were therein deceived both because of what is before mentioned from Aventinus
shoulder-pieces belonging to it in which were placed two Ouches of Gold with two Onyx stones set and fastened in them Two Ouches that is hollow Circles two hollow places in which the stones were set like Diamonds in a Ring Onyx stones white stones not unlike the white of a mans Nail The Hebrew word is Shoham It is I know otherwise rendered by some but the Onyx being a large stone as it was requisite that these should be that there might be space enough to ingrave six names in a stone besides other circumstances we may rest in this Translation The use of these precious stones was for the writing of the names of the twelve Children of Israel in them that the High Priest might bear them upon his shoulders for a memorial before the Lord. See Exod. 28.9 10 11 12. Now the Priest being a Type of Christ and the people of Israel a Type of the whole Church of God their being born thus upon the shoulders of the High Priest clothed with this sacred Ephod intimated three things 1. The Lord Jesus Christ his supporting of his Church and people and bearing them up as upon the shoulders of his Power and Grace and Government Isai 9.6 the Government shall be upon his shoulders so he is said to do with the lost Sheep Luke 15.5 Isai 46.3 4. hearken unto me O House of Jacob all the remnant of the House of Israel which are born by me from the Belly which are carried from the Womb and even to your old age I am he and even to hoary hairs I will carry you I have made you and I will bear even I will carry and will deliver you 2. His presenting them to the Lord to be in everlasting remembrance before him that he cannot look upon the High Priest but their names appear upon his shoulders for a memorial before the Lord their names are engraven in his sight that he cannot look from off them Mal. 3.16 A book of remembrance is written before him for them that fear the Lord Ephes 5.27 that he might present it to himself a glorious Church 3. He bears their names before the Lord in this curious and costly Ephod as representing his own perfect Righteousness wherewith he stands clothed before God in the glorious merit whereof he appeareth for his people For men to trust to their own works and merits is to have their names born before God in an Ephod of their own weaving which God abhors by which sin both the Jews and the Papists perish Rom. 10.3 But the Saints dare not appear before God in such filthy Garments but confess as Isai 64.6 All our Righteousness is but as filthy rags c. 5. The curious Girdle of the Ephod of which the words of Text are these And he girded him with the curious Girdle of the Ephod and bound it unto him therewith Exod. 28.8 so that this Girdle of the Ephod is thought not to be a distinct thing separable from the Ephod but to have been as it were a piece of it Mr. Ainsworths Note out of the Rabbins is this The Ephod had as it were two hands or pieces going out from it in the weaving on this side and on that with the which they girded it and they are called Cheseb the curious Girdle of the Ephod This curious Girdle of the Ephod was tyed upon his heart under the Brest-plate This differeth from the other Girdle Abnet which is after spoken of in ver 39. and by reason of the Gold in this which the other had not it is called the Golden Girdle Some have doubted whether there were two Girdles but the Text is clear for it Levit. 8.7 He put upon him the Coat and girded him with the Girdle This is the Linnen Girdle Now it follows and he clothed him with the Robe and put the Ephod upon him and he girded him with the curious Girdle of the Ephod and bound it unto him therewith And they are called by two several names Abnet and Cheseb The reason why there was two was because his Garments did require two As to the mystery of this second Girdle it is the same with the former It signified the truth and strength and readiness for action that is in Christ and should be in all that bear his name so I need say no more upon it 6. The sixth piece of the High Priestly attire and indeed the chief of all was the Brest-plate of which the Text saith and he put the Brest-plate upon him Concerning this holy Pectoral or Brest-plate there be four things declared in Exod. 28. from ver 15. c. to ver 29. 1. The Materials of Gold Blue c the same with the Ephod ver 15. 2. The form and shape four-square a span in breadth and length ver 16. 3. The twelve Stones with the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel set therein ver 17 to 22. And thou shalt set in it settings of Stones even four rows of Stones c. 4. The fastening of the Brest-plate to the Ephod by four Golden Rings in the four corners of it In the two upper Rings of the Brest-plate there were two Chains of Gold by which it was fastened above to two Golden Ouches in the shoulder-pieces of the Ephod and in the two lower Rings of the Brest-plate there was a blue Lace by which it was tyed to two Gold Rings in the sides of the Ephod ver 22 to 29. that so the Brest-plate might not be loosed from the Ephod ver 28. which may help in the understanding of that place 1 Sam. 23.9 where David saith to Abiathar the Priest Bring hither the Ephod that is to consult with the Lord by Urim and Thummim saith the Geneva Note upon the place for by the Providence of God the Ephod was preserved and kept with David the true King that so he might have the means of consulting with God in all his dangers and distresses and the Brest-plate wherein was the Urim and Thummim by which they inquired of God was fastened to the Ephod and not to be loosened from it so that David called for the Ephod because of the Brest-plate that was fastened to it and because of the Urim and Thummim that was in the Brest-plate Quest Why is it called Pectorale Judicii the Brest-plate of Judgment so Exod. 28. ver 15 29 30. Answ There may be a twofold account given of this 1. Because the High Priest was to wear this upon his Brest when he gave forth a Sentence and Judgment from God unto such as came to him to inquire of God by him 2. The Judgment of the Children of Israel may be understood to signifie the Concernments of their Good for Judgment is not always put for Wrath and Punishment but for a wise and accurate and exact Administration of things saepe per nomen Mishpat Scriptura significat quicquid bene rite ordinatum est Hoc Epitheto commendatur rectus omni vitio purus Ordo Calvin in