Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	able_a	let_v	15	3	4.7803	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74698	Logoi Ōraioi. Three seasonable sermons the first preach't at St. Mary's in Cambridge, May 31. 1642. The others designed for publick auditories, but prevented. / By Tho. Stephens, M.A.	Stephens, Thomas, fl. 1648-1677.	1660 (1660)	Thomason E1839_2; ESTC R210165	57,540	136

up all the Synagogues in the Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint changing one letter they will forbid all his festivals But the first part of the verse reconciles both Let us say they destroy them altogether so that no Sanctuary no budding rod on budding rod no Aaron no Aaron no worship of God Thus we have dispacht the history of the Text with such inferences touched upon by the way as could not well be bauk'd Now since whatsoever was written of Old was written for our instruction it will not be amiss to see how this rod of Aaron points down to us and is laid up to testify against these latter dayes And first I must not baulk the next high Priest next in time though first in honour our Saviour Christ who although he succeded not of Aarons order but of Melchizedecks yet he is the Architype and substance which that other Priesthood shadowed The Author to the Hebrews his saved me the labour of making an Analogy between them And I hope his Offices without dispute will furnish him with a rod as a King a rod of power and correction as a Prophet of guidance and instruction as a Priest of comfort and sustentation In vain was that scape-goat of the Jewes upon whose head was laid the sins of the Congregation if it were not for this Lamb slain from the beginning this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this high-Priest which sacrificed himself and laid the burthen of all our sins upon his own shoulders He it is that took the censer in his hand as Aaron did when the fire of Gods wrath was gone out against us and stood between the living and the dead nay he fell down amongst the dead and was numbred among the transgressours that by his stripes we might be healed He he it is who in the last act of his life erected his crosse the rod of his exaltation that rod upon which his name was wrote which bore most precious fruit the fruit of his own Body which whosoever can lay up in a sanctifyed heart the Temple of the holy Ghost may be sure to have it testifye for him in the latter day But being thus gone up on high and lead captivity captive and received guifts for Men is he grown a niggard of them and bestowed none upon his Church which he hath left behind him Were the Jews better provided for who were only ad memoriam but types and figures of him that was to come then we which are a memoria his remembrancers and Priests in his stead in persona ejus sayes the vulgar his deputies which here personate him and act him over again No his Church has Aarons still and the Aarons have their rods too Nay the Aarons of the Gospel shall be refined too sayes Malachi 3. Chap. 3. God shall purge the Sons of Levi which St. Hierome interprets the Evangelical Ministers If the Testament be above the law God forbid the Ministration should be beneath it St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. tells us of divers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free graces or gifts proceeding from the Spirit verse 4. and that we may not think them to be heaped confusedly all upon one in the next verse he speaks of several 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrations and offices among which they are devided the graces are reckoned up verses 8 9 10. Some peculiar to the A postles some streaming down upon the skirts of the Church The offices are recounted v. 28. and of them likewise some meerly Apostolical some permanent and perpetual namely those three Teachers Helpers Governours Perpetuall I call them for besides that the light of nature instructed the heathen so far as the morality of the service of a God carried them to the same division of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their helpers their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their teachers and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their governours they are the very same which God prescribed his own people the Jews in their Levites their Helpers and as it were their Deacons their Priests their Teachers and instructers the sons of Aaron their Praelates and Governours And thus we find the oyntmentt powred upon Aarons head has run down o his beard and wet the borders of his garments But this quick sighted generation amongst whom we live has seen farther into the words then any of the ancient Fathers and out of the word Governours has extracted an Elixar their ruling Elders A Government it is indeed but such as Jothams bramble was which burnt down the Cedars of Libanon the pillars of the Temple An opinion so full of novelty and void of authority that fourscore years ago it scarce had a being As if Gods Church all the time before had been hid with Eliah in his cave or fled with the woman into the Wildernesse Some there are I know which have deeply strained their wits to fetch this Government out of the Scriptures and pinch hard upon that text 1 Tim. 5.17 when all other fail them The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour especially they which labour in the word and Doctrine Ergo by implication Elders there are say they which labour not and those are lay-ruling-Elders But St. Chrisostome which lived nearer and knew more of the Apostles practise than we found out another sence All Priests sayes he which may administer the Sacraments are not allow'd to preach the meaner sort may deal with Baptism the wiser only with the Word Which difference St. Paul found in himself 1 Corin. 1.17 Christ hath sent me not to baptize says he but to preach the Gospel If then thou hast such a Minister over thee as is gifted for both Offices allow him a double honour And let no man mistake the name of Elder or Presbyter in Scripture which is no other then Priest or Minister so St. John stiles himself in his two last Epistles so St. Peter 1 Ep. 5.1 and so all the pen men of Gods holy Word have called the Ministers of the Gospel Which is so notoriously true that the very patrons of this Government have disclamed the jus divinum of it and make it onely a State convenience Undenyably true it is that our Saviour in his time did choose his twelve Apostles as Superiours his seventy as subordinate Subordinato I say they were for besides that they were forbidden by the other in the time of Christ Luke 9.49 They were commanded by them afterward as Silas was by Paul Acts 17.15 and so were within their power Afterward that the Apostles left their successours Bishops may be evident by St. Pauls own Epistles to Timothy the Bishop of Ephesius and Titus Bishop of Crete and the undoubted testimony of Ireneus confirms it who lived immediately upon the Apostles age But what need we more Authority St. Jude v. 11. Speaks of some in his time which perished in the gainsaying of Corah What that was ye have heard he would be Aarons equall how any could perish in it was impossible unlesse by desiring or affecting a parity with their Governours In the fear of God Brethren suffer then a word of Exhortation This rod of Aaron ha's sap in it still and sprouts to this day Oh shake not of the blossomes pluck not off the fruit if God have laid it up in the Tabernacle let not Sacrilegious hands steal it thence T is a rod of power submit to it a rod of correction be afraid of it a rod of instruction obediently receive it a rod of sustentation rely on it Obey them which are set over you in the Lord. Let no Uzzah presume to touch the Ark nor Uzziah to offer sacrifice let the sons Levi only wait upon the altar If a quis aequisivit be terrible at the last day who has required these things at your hands will not prohibita sunt have I not fobid thee be much more terrible We find in Exodus that Pharaohs sorcerers had got them rods too but Moses his Serpent soon devour'd them And the Sons of Sceva Act. 15.19 would be conjuring in the name of Jesus but the Devil soon prov'd himself their Master Beware that fearfull curse which befell the nolumus hunc regnare those that would not let Christ raign over them And such are they that despise his Ordinances and so do all such as disobey his substitutes His substitutes I call them for they are his Labourers but one degree remov'd from himself he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if God be the chief guide Moses and Aaron are the hands to lead his people if God be chief Shepheard Peter and his partners have the office under him to feed the flock 1 Pet. 5. And if in temporalls the civil Magistrate at this day thinks himself sufficient without bringing the difficultest causes to Aaron and the Priests as God prescribes Deuter. the 17.8 9. if Jehoshaphat I say think his Judges able to dispatch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the affairs of State yet let the Priest dispence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Chro. 19.8 The Lords business the judgment cause of the Lord. Make not thy self the Devils instrument since he hath left disputing about Moses his body for thee to dispute Aarons authority But rather joyn with that Captain of Israel in his prayer for Levi. Deuter. 33. Let thy Urim and Thumim be with thy holy one bless O Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands and smite through the loins of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again To conclude Aarans rod is Gods rod and Gods rod will alwayes bring forth fruit either sweet or bitter Almonds sermons prove either the savour of Life or death May that rod and this Sermon take such deep rooting in our heart that it may bring foorth fruit abundantly in our lives to Gods honour his Churches glory our own comfort c. Gloria Deo in Excelsis

their Minister hee 'l serve them in it Although we for ought find when they were settled where they would be they casheer'd him Jonathan was consecrated in his stead 'T is so with us Religion is a good cloak though many times Covetousness and Sacriledg are hid under it Dionysius pluckes off Aesculapius his golden beard in Apollo's Temple not out of fear of Idolatry least the people should fall down and worship it but that he alone might adore it when it was locked up safe in his own Coffers Thus all the holiness of some of our Reformers has ere now proved but sacra fames auri a religious itch their fingers have had to be telling the Gold of the Sanctuary which hath constantly proved an Achans wedge corrupted and consumed the heap to which 't was laid Thus the Danites story that 's made up too and in all this we have done that which is right in our own eyes The Last is the rape in Gibeah but in sins of that nature we scorne to have patterns set us wee 'l out do all examples that which once was said of Rome is now more true of England illic impune peccare licet we dare sin without controul else what mean those scandalous adulterous incestuous copulations acted as if it were in despight quam ingeniosa est haec nequitia under the nose of those Courts which formerly have punished them But closer yet this Ephraimite was a Levite which travailed thus patiently after his offending Concubines but returning among the Benjamites he finds them so far estranged from civil hospitality that pro disco damnum lust back'd with violence is their most friendly salutations None here I hope will deny but the Ministers in the Gospell are espoused to their severall Congregations God Almighty is the Father which gives them in this mysticall Marriage Where after much pains and patience long suffering and meekness they have travailed to reclaim their errors and call them back to their first Loves if they pass by the Benjamites those ravenous wolves which love to devour the prey and devide the spoyl Gen. 49.27 't is well if they finde high-way respect and not be cudgeld out of that too The Lyons courtesie goes a great way now I assure you when he did no injury More likely the young Children of the Bethlemites will meet them in the streets and cry go up thou bald head go up thou bald head but for their Concubines the benefices every man must be better acquainted with them They will lie with them that is Know them one after another make their severall impropriation of them and that all night so long till they have made a custome of it So that in the morning when this poor Concubine returnes to her Lord the Levite she shall neither have life or heat to comfort him If a poor old Sojourner one that hath enough to do to secure his own head from violence amongst them shall take these traveilers under his roof to protect them from the fury of the Citizens he runs the same danger with them and well if the prostituting of his own Daughter can quit him from their hands Gods mercy to his Church is such that he hath alwaies raised up some to vindicate the reputation of it yet sometimes they are so far overborne that good Obediah that Patron of the Prophets is every hour in danger of his own destruction 1 Kings 18. And whotsoever shall be so religious as to undertake their Patronage although he plead not for Bigamy plurality of Concubines the old Ephraimite here did not so but only that they may quietly enjoy the freedom of the place with what the Law of God and nature gives them yet this very plea may indanger the prostitution of his own Daughter the publication of his own Estate Thus the Gibeonites story that 's made up too and in all this we have done that which is right in our own eyes You see the effects are come home to us within our doors but the cause you will tell me fails For in these dayes we have a King in this our Israel And God be blessed that in these dayes we have a King may the dayes of this King in himself and his Royall race indure for ever Yet let me tell you there is no great difference between having no King and a King no whit obey'd Or if any be the latter is the most extreme if malum culpae exceed that of poenae for so we alter it from a punishment of God to a sin of our own When every churlish Nabal shall refuse to let distressed David enter commons with his own day-labourers and partake of such provision as he had made for his sheep-sherers denying the least portion of his Estate to Davids use when the security of all his Estate consist in Davids protection And if Ahimelech the Priest which has scarce bread enough to put in his own belly shall feed him with some few loaves of the Sanctuary and so refresh and strengthen him with a little Consecrated bread although in the mean time he fast himself for it it shall be cause enough for some treacherous Doeg to inform against him and the next news will be Sauls command to his foot men his Militia to turne and slay the Priests of the Lord because their hands are with David When every reviling Shimei as he passes by the high-way may freely and without controul curse the Lords Anointed Nay more throw stones and durt upon him bespatter his unblemisht name and poyson his reputation with malitious and false slandours disscourses of most dangerous Consequences When Achitophel his own bosome Friend and choicest Counsellour shall provoke all Israel against him and put down Joab the Captain of the Kings Host and set set up Amasa in his room When Sheba the Benjamite neither Priest nor Prophet shall dare to blow the Trumpet in the high way renounce David and send every man of Israel to their tents When the King and all his Servants shall be forced from Jerusalem that Royall City and receive no entertainment as he passes by Bahurim till he come to Mahanaim far off where old Barzillay remembers his Duty and performs his allegiance better If these scattered drops do fore-token a black storm a coming if these thick mists which fall so fast may easily convince us that our Suns a setting we need not go farr to seek a cause for those forenamed Insolencies I am amazed Sirs when I behold the purest times of our Religious Forefathers and see those blessed Martyrs even when they were dressed up in flames and accompanied Eliah to heaven in a charret of fire when they were grinding between the teeth of Lions when they were driven to the tops of Mountains like so many sheep to the slaughter when their ingenuous Torturers were overcome at their own art and could invent no punishment answerable to their patience Then at their hower of suffering to hear them pray for

affliction may reduce them As David Psal 9. wisht a terror upon the Nations that they might know themselves to be but men From hence then we shall receive a speedy satisfaction to those three questions which are only material 1. penes quos est in whose power this power of cursing lies 2. ad quos attinet on whose shoulders it will fall 3. in quantum praevalet with what burthen it presses there is infinite distance between all these here is abyssus abyssum invocans one deep calling upon another only a powerfull hand from heaven can throw down vengeance only a sinners neck can bear it and if this thunderbolt be not stopt only the pit of hell can bound it From heaven it comes whether immediately from God himself or from his Delegates The first can make that serpent lick the dust of the earth which but just now aspired to the Scepter of Heaven he can make Cain a Runnegate in his own land and fear the stroak of death from man when he and his father summed up for ought we know the total number of mankind The other have it by Commission and that Commission they had need take care should be well signed or else their arrows will recoyl upon their own bosoms and they will provoke God to blesse by their malitious curses Some good expositors are of opinion that all the curses denounced in the old Law shall rather be interpreted for propheticae praedictiones then imprecationes maledicae But what ever power they had I am sure 't is now limited there is an Evangelical temper if we believe Christ that speaks it when James and John would have been a flashing in the clouds and followed Elias in the Law for fire from Heaven on the Village of the Samaritans Christ cooles their furious zeal with another Spirit Luke 9. he rebukes them saying ye know not what manner of Spirits ye are of Fo●bear such legal threats if you follow me your Master I came to save the World not to destroy it For Ananias and Saphira's judgment 't is true it came from heaven but unlesse you enterline the Text and read it with spectacles to make it bigger it will no way appear to be caused by Peters Curse So that if we compare St. Pauls precept Rom. 12. blesse and curse not with his anathematizing Text 1 Cor. 16. we shall soon find the Church has no keyes left to shut up Heaven but those which Christ left as a Legacy in that sacred ordination of his Apostles But secondly this curse is only due for sin that being the adequate object of the wrath of God Hence does St. Paul think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doing good will be an undoubted shield against the power So that Bellarmines Uteunque ferit will prove but a blunt push his excommunication undeserved is but a bull without hornes crackers tyed upon a line flash they may but wound they cannot Lastly to Hell it goes if not prevented The Royall prophet in the 37. Psalm sayes that they that be cursed of God shall be cut off Cut off from the Earth first as Pharoah and his crew of persecutors after they had blunted the arrows of God with often wounding though they could never yet pierce their hardned hearts his final destruction is threatned Exod 9.15 he will cut them off from the face of the Earth But 2. cut them down or a passage for them down to hell too witness Corah and his rebellious Conspirators quibus dum non essent digni vivere sayes Optatus nec mori concessum est not deserving to live they were not vouchsafed to dye sepulti sunt priusquam mortui they which had made a seperation from their Fathers may not be suffered to be gathered to their Fathers but go down quick to Hell This is the effect of a curse a curse arising from a just cause proceeding from a just Judge If this be the cause of Meroz let her beware and sure it is for her judge is just that speaks it the Angel sayes Curse ye Meroz and her inhabitants We are come to the Persons upon whom the censure falls Meroz and her inhabitants Where I will not make you sport to tell you what pains Rupert takes although he cite St. Hierom for it to make Meroz the praesident Angel of the Canaanites and the inhabitants to be the people under his protection Gerrae germanae it is not worth confuting Here is no Labyrinth that needs a clue or if there did expositors with one mouth assure me that this village Meroz was a place adjoyning to the field of battle which must now be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a piaculum a sacrifice to Gods curse to expiate the degenerate backwardness of the neutrall tribes Well may the gates of the Temple be made of Cedar trees Cedars so fat so joyfull all Hieroglyphicks of Gods mercy when as the gates of Heaven for ought we find here were open to an offending multitude and only shut against this handfull of the people Thus God is pleased sometimes to decimate his malefactors in paucos vindicta transit in plures monitio he sets up Lots Wife as a pillar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes the Scholiast a Trophie to turn the hearts of the backsliding generations for as he is a fire to burn the chaff so he is a fan to separate it from the purer wheat When fawning Absolom had seduced the people to a great rebellion promising a freer course of justice if he might raign 't is true a slaughter of the Israelites was made in the wood of Ephraim but still the surviving rebels were suffered to return with David whilst the justice of God contented it self with the head of Absolom hanging now as his counsels formerly had done between Heaven and Hell But still as Meroz was but one place yet a place it was and a place very considerable With great disadvantage must Deborah fight when the villages about her were confaederate with her enemies Put case that God had defeated her before her enemy as indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A just cause does not alwayes inherit victory what place was left to retreat to from the bloody Mountain what refreshment could be given to the fainting Souldiers What disheartning found the remoter tribes when the place they marched to for fresh supplies upon occasion proved the quarters of their enemies As God gives to Men so he accepts from Men their opportunities Rehekah was known to be a fit wife for Isaac by her ready letting down her pitcher and that soul that would be espoused to Christ must discover it self by a seasonable and willing service Yet mark one step farther yet together with the inhabitants Meroz herself the very fabrick bears a burthen in the curse The Eagles nest is brought down from the Stars that the young ones may be destroyed Oba 4. Thus when by Gods permission the Israelites accursed for one mans pillaging found a repulse at the great