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A32780
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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 ...
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Camfield, Benjamin, 1638-1693.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing C377; ESTC R1330
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19,289
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31
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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
deserve at Gods hands and most justly expose us to and admire the patience and forbearance of God towards us and they are to be as a School-master to lead us unto Christ for deliverance from them and as a Tutor and Monitor of the great obligation we have to him our Redeemer They are also to bring us to a true and serious Humiliation for all our Transgressions and to warn us against them for the time to come For notwithstanding the Blessing of the Gospel we are yet if we take not heed †If any man love not the Lord Jesus Let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 liable to a Curse also if we are wilfully Disobedient to it nay and a greater and sadder Curse and Condemnation than the Law ever pronounced because the Blessing to us is by many degrees greater than what was set before them As we have better promises so we have also a sorer Judgment held forth unto us as the Apostle to the Hebrews more than once intimateth How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation ch 2. And of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Blood of the Son of God c ch 10. The Gospel is not made up altogether of comforts and promises as some mistake it but hath its Threats and Terrors also knowing therefore the Terror of the Lord we perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 Both the Baptist Christs fore-runner and our Blessed Saviour himself too call upon us to Repent that we may flie from wrath and tell us that the Axe is now laid to the root of the Trees so that every Tree which bringeth not forth good Fruit is to be hewen down and cast into the Fire and that unless we Repent we shall all perish In that famous Sermon of our Lords upon the Mount we have him not only as it were upon Mount Gerizim uttering the Beatitudes or Blessings to his Disciples St. Matt. 5. Blessed are the poor in Spirit Blessed are they that mourn Blessed are the meek Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness Blessed are the merciful Blessed are the pure in heart Blessed are the Peace-makers Blessed are they that are persecuted for Righteousness-sake But if we compare St. Luke ch 6. We find him also as it were upon Mount Ebal to denounce unto others a contrary Wo and Curse But Wo unto you that are Rich. Wo unto you that are full Wo unto you that Laugh now Wo unto you when all men speak well of you As elsewhere we find him uttering many Woes against the Hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees St. Matth. 23. St. Luke 11. St. Matth. 11. St. Luke 10. and those that Repented not at the sight of his mighty works among them And when he vouchsafes to give us an account of the Judgment of the Last day he lets us understand how all men then shall be divided and separated as the Children of Israel now were the Righteous that is the Sons of the Free-Woman the Faithful Disciples of Christ as it were on Gerizim at the Right hand to receive a Blessing but the unrighteous that is the Bond-Slaves of Sin and Satan as it were on Ebal at the Left hand to receive the Curse St. Matth. 25. Then shall the King say unto them on his Right hand Come ye Blessed of my Father ver 34. Then shall he say also unto them on the Left-hand Depart from me ye Cursed ver 41. So that you see the Gospel it self hath its Sentences both of Blessing and Cursing And there is an Amen too St. Mat. 28.20 St. Mark 16.20 St. Luke 24.53 St. John 21.25 you may observe at the end of all the Four Evangelists which relates to all things Contained in them Woes and Curses as well as Blessings to testifie the Certainty of both and the Belief of both in the Church of Christ Amen that is This is the Gospel of Truth We say commonly as True as Gospel And both of them shall be made good to the full at the Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God when all Nations shall be gather'd before the Great Judge and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and set the Sheep on his Right hand that is as hath been said on Gerizim and the Goats on the Left that is on Ebal When our Lord shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe 2 Thes 1. This Institution therefore among the Jews which gives us a Remembrance and Representation of these things is not any more unsuitable to the times of the Gospel than to those of the Law For we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Law to Christ †1 Cor. 9.21 Gal. 6.2 St. Jam. 2.12 It is as fit now as then that we should attend to the whole will of God his Curses no less than Blessings 'T is as fit now as then that we should set the Amen of our Faith to each of them answering unto every Sentence in the Holy word of God Amen and so confessing with our mouths that we believe it unfeignedly in our hearts To the intent as it follows in our Church Service that being admonished of the great indignation of God against sinners we may the rather be moved unto earnest and true Repentance and may walk more warily in these dangerous dayes fleeing from such vices for which we affirm with our own mouths the Curse of God to be due Mark here I beseech you the plain Resolution of our Amen to Gods several Curses It is not uncharitably to Curse our selves or others No all is in order to a Blessing that we may every one carry a share of the Blessing home with us It is only to affirm with our mouths the Truth of the Divine Curses That the Curse is due to such and such Transgressors by Gods appointment That it is most certain all such Sinners are really accursed by God under his Curse while they continue such and have no possibility of removing that Curse but by a speedy Repentance and Return to God for pardon and forgiveness through Jesus Christ that by and in him they may be Blessed for ever Blessed by being first saved from their Sins and turn'd from their iniquities God of old declared his great Indignation against those who hearing the words of his Curses should yet bless themselves in their hearts saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord saith Moses will not spare such a man but all the Curses in this book shall lie upon him Deuter. 29.18.19 The Prophet Isaiah proclaims it once and again There is no peace saith the Lord