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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	prayer_n	read_v	word_n	2,960	5	4.5557	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62373	A sermon preached in the Church of Putney in the County of Surrey upon the 24th of April, 1681, His majesty's declaration being read that day by Edward Sclater ...	Sclater, Edward, 1623-1699?	1681 (1681)	Wing S912; ESTC R16222	18,453	31

a Combat with the Devil as well as St. Paul and if he be but a little more heated with this Frenzy he will adde I and as well as Michael the Archangel too The meanest of Corah's Complices train'd up in his School of Rebellion I make no question thought he could lead the Army of the Israelites as well as Moses and do you think he did not fancy he could offer Incense as well as Aaron Methinks I fancy some such discourse as this amongst them you cannot expect it should be very learned or rational from people of their capacities cannot we slay a Bull or a Goat as well as he and lay it upon the Altar and put fire to it Why we can slay him if he do not please us and sacrifice the Sacrificer with his own Knife Incense will burn if fire be put to it Cannot we put fire to it as well as he Cannot we reade a few Prayers out of a Book and Bless the people in those words that are put in our mouths as well as he Cannot the meanest among us say The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee And Aaron did no more Numb 6.24 Cannot any of us perform the same Ceremonies that were to be performed by the Priest at the cleansing of the Leper which were no more then thus That he take for him that is cleansed two Birds alive and clean and Cedar wood and Scarlet and Hyssop and that he command that one of the Birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water and that he take the living Bird and the Cedar-wood and the Scarlet and the Hyssop and dip them and the living Bird in the blood of the Bird that was killed and sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed seven times and then pronounce him clean and let the living Bird loose into the Air. These are the Ceremonies to be performed all easie and without the least difficulty a Child may be taught to doe as much and cannot we do it as well as Aaron or any of the whole Tribe 'T is easie to confute this unreasonable discourse with a parallel one Are not Abanah and Pharpar rivers of Damascus better then all the waters of Israel may I not wash in them and be clean says Leprous Naaman 2 King 5.12 His Servants clear the case he could not because God had not endowed any other Waters with that cleansing faculty And as he can doe whatsoever he pleaseth so he can doe it it with whatsoever he pleaseth Raise up children unto Abraham out of these stones Restore sight to the blind with clay and spittle Nothing can move the least mote in the Sun without his Word and the least mote in the Sun can move the greatest Mountains with it What Artificer will not say proportionably the same concerning the Instruments he works withall Can a few hairs and paint decipher out the lively representation of a man that noble Creature the image of God Can a few pieces of Iron make a Watch They can and they cannot of themselves they are as ineffective as if there were no such materials but by the operation of those workmen who prepare them for his use and his skill and management that guides them to their ultimate design they wonderfully produce their curious effects But to what purpose do I oppose more then Naaman's Servants sound and solid Questions to the loose discourse of Corah and his Complices Men that lie under the inchantment of Rebellion are not capable of sound Reason and must return to their Allegeance again before they can be Masters of Wits and Senses When they are again reduced to Reasons just Dominion over them when that Witchcraft has done working upon them and they are again converted from Beasts into Men they 'l presently without any more adoe discern what a senseless discourse they made against Moses and Aaron Till then there 's no reason can silence their clamours or any the soundest Arguments oppose their rage and animosities And therefore as good spare that pains and spend that breath and time in Prayers to him who stilleth the raging of the Sea and the noise of its waves that he would also suppress the Madness of the People Psal 65.7 And Moses and Aaron doe so Numb 16. with this assurance that God will hear them for their comfort and the comfort of all that retain their Loyalty to them That their counsels against Moses cannot stand because they are against God in as much as Moses was his Vicegerent and in rejecting him they rejected God And in what they designed against Aaron he whom God gave as a Mouth to Moses he whom God made his own Spokes man to the people Exod. 4.6 Whom he thought fittest to be employed in the best place of Trust and highest Importance in the Commonwealth of Israel under Moses He that was an Earthly Saviour and Intercessour between the People and their Maker is made an unparallel'd spectacle of scorn and derision to the lowest of the People Can those Counsels prosper or if they doe can it be with any other prosperity then that fading one David speaks of that shall pass away like a morning dew or Jonah's Gourd that aim at the ruine of God's Sanctuary In their Consultations that conspire the subversion of Throne and Altar God is so certainly excluded the Council-board that he is not in all their thoughts We may truly say they have nothing of God amongst them And then shall not God at one time or other visit for these things shall not his soul be avenged on such consultations as these Yes And cloth his Priests with Salvation and his Saints those that are so indeed i. e. those that retain their Loyalty to Moses and their dutifull Reverence to Aaron not those that onely call themselves so shall shout aloud for joy God shall make the Horn of David to bud and ordain a Lamp for his anointed Yes And his Enemies shall be clothed with shame how can they otherwise chuse but upon himself shall his Crown flourish For if God have a Controversie with that People that are as those that strive with the Priest Hos 4.4 how much greater with those that as Corah Dathan and Abiram contend with Moses and Aaron too If a man that will doe presumptuously and not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God shall die shall not he more deserve it that shall resist the Ministration of the Priest and Judge too Deut. 17.12 If Schism in the Church be an evil to Israel deserving death can Rebellion in the State be a less evil and deserve a less punishment This assurance the Loyal and Devout party had who remained faithfull unto Moses and Aaron that God was angry with the Rebels and would assuredly at one time or other visit them for their presumptuous doings and be severely avenged of them Nay they the Rebels

Aaron the Saint of the Lord. In the words consider these particulars I. The Parties rebelled against Moses and Aaron II. The Parties rebelling Corah Dathan and Abiram and 250 Princes of the Assembly III. What they did or wherein their Rebellion manifested it self and broke out they Envied Lastly The Place were they did it in the Camp Of these in their Order I begin with the first the Parties rebelled against who they were Moses and Aaron the Prince and the Priest and first Moses They envied Moses also in the Camp c. Moses That he had Regal Power is attested by Holy Scripture Deut. 33.5 where we are told that he was King in Jesurun when the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together And if King then their Judge too Deut. 17.9 and in the singular number and that must intimate that he was the Judge of all other Judges in Israel and had the Supreme Power in his hand that he was not onely a Minister of the Law but a Law-giver Moses commanded us a Law Deut. 33.4 And that he was not a Titular Prince but invested with the Supreme Power is plainly read in that God committed to him the two Trumpets of Silver and in them the Power to convocate the Assembly Num. 10.1 2. a work of the highest consequence of all in whatsoever Kingdom and seated onely in the Supreme Power of it A Power formerly onely in the hands of God himself Num. 9.18 20 23. till now he pleases to transmit it to Moses his Vicegerent for he is made as well the keeper of the two Trumpets as of the Tables of the Law There are two parts of Moses his Power intimated fairly enough in the Delegation of these silver Trumpets both Regal The first was their use ad Castra movenda for the pitching of their Tents and their marching to the places appointed So he had by this the power of the Militia he was the Generalissimo of all the Hoast Secondly ad comitia Convocanda to call their Assemblies to summon and convene the Princes of the Tribes to come together to consult de rebus quibusdam arduis of some hard and difficult Questions and Affairs of and concerning the weal of the People and the service of their God For by this Power does he gather together the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel Deut. 33.5 I stand not to tell you that he was faithfull in all God's House and by that gained that honourable appellation of the Man of God or that he was a very Meek man above all the men that were upon the face of the Earth how zealous he was for God's Honour and how severe in punishing the worshippers of the Golden Calf that he was exactly just and wronged no man and for his Learning that he was learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians excellent Accomplishments all able you 'l easily acknowledge to make his bad Subjects blush at their Rebellion if they had had any shame left in them But the true Israelites in whose mouths there is no Guile much less Rebellion in their hands or hearts let their King be what he will a Moses or a Manasses a David or a Jeroboam had fully learnt non tangere Christos Dei not so much as to Touch the Lord 's Anointed nor to Revile the Gods or Curse the Ruler of the People Exod. 22.28 Not to wound him with their tongues they can smite too Jer. 18.18 much less kill him with the sword Who ever looks upon Moses his Power and Prerogative will easily find that he was the life of Religion and Law Indeed it 's hard to imagine any People that in their right minds have not thought their King so or that have not found Religion degenerate every day and decline still more and more into Atheism and Prophaneness or crumble into multiplicity of Opinions and their Law to want its strength as if its Sinews were cut in pieces in his Absence So that when Corah and his Complices rebell against Moses they cannot aim more at his life then at the life of these Religion must bleed and Law expire in him who is the life of both And this was fairly intimated in that Miracle by which God was pleased to attest the Mission and Commission of Moses His Rod or Scepter is thrown upon the Ground and turned into a Serpent but when taken by the Tail it turned into a Scepter again When his Regal Power lies under the peoples Feet there 's no restraining them from poysonous Practices the Scepter is not onely accounted a Serpent a fellow Creature with them and therefore shall have no more power over them who are themselves a brood of Serpents and a generation of Vipers perhaps by subtlety one Basilisk or Cockatrice domineers over the rest but they will all agree to bruise this Serpent's Head if Moses take it not into his hand again And when he does you see they become a glorious Nation a Royal Priesthood Exod. 19.5 Every man of them a King when the Scepter was again taken by him that had the just right to it Well God has made Moses the Ruler of his People and therefore whosoever resisteth his Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And would you think that men who are forbid to speak evil of him no not in their thoughts Eccles 10.20 and assured that it shall come to light for a Bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter would you think these should rise up in open Rebellion against him that they should list Armies and gather themselves together against Moses the servant of the Lord No reason can be given for it but that of Samuel Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft as well in its fascination as its guilt none but men bewitcht could be guilty of so grievous an Impiety For judge you did they observe that counsel that was written in the Hearts of every Loyal Israelite by the Hand and Pen of Wisedom it self before it was written in their Books by the Wise man I counsel thee to keep the King's commandment and that in regard of the oath of God Eccles 8.2 Did not the same Wisedom tell them that against a King there was no rising up Prov. 30.31 and that in the word of a King there is Power and who may say unto him what dost thou Eccles 8.4 And had they not forgot it And could such Lessons as these be unlearn'd but by some strange fascination could men in their wits recede from them Let St. Peter speak they which despise Government and are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities are as natural brute beasts 2 Pet. 2.12 And you know if it be not witchcraft 't is something as bad that turns men into beasts Thus you have the first Object of their Envy Moses They envied Moses in the Camp and Aaron c. Solomon built the Temple and the King's Palace together which