which the Physitian is to looke unto in the Plague so likewise something for Phinees to doe and Phinees was a Priest And so some worke for the Priest as well as for the Physitian and more then it may be It was King Asa's fault He in his sicknesse looked all to Physitians and looked not after God at all That is noted as his fault It seemes his conceit was there was nothing in a disease but naturall nothing but bodily which is not so For infirmity is not onely a thing bodily there is a Spirit of infirmity we finde Luke 13.11 And something spirituall there is in all infirmities something in the soule to be healed In all but specially in this Wherein that we might know it to be spirituall we finde it oft times to be executed by spirits We see an Angell a destroying Angell in the Plague of Aegypt another in the Exod. 12.13 Esay 37. 36. 1 Chro. 21.16 Rev. 16.2 Plague in Senacheribs Campe a third in the Plague at Ierusalem under David a fourth pouring his phiall upon earth and there fell a noisome plague upon man and beast So that no man looketh deeply enough into the cause of his sicknesse unlesse he acknowledge the finger of God in it over and above any causes naturall God then hath his part God but how affected God provoked to anger so it is in the Text God provoked to auger His anger His wrath it is that bringeth the plague among us The Verse is plaine They provoked him to anger and the plague brake in among them Generally there is no evill saith Iob but it is Iob 5. 6. a sparke of GODS wrath And of all evils the Plague by name There is wrath gone out from 1 Chro. 21.7 the Lord and the plague is begunne saith Moses Numbers 16.46 So it is said God was displeased with David and he smote Israel with the plague So that if there bee a plague GOD is angry and if there be a great plague God is very angry Thus much for By what for the anger of God by which the plague is sent Now for what There is a cause in GOD that he is angry For which sin in generall Hab. 3.8 And there is a cause for which he is angry For he is not angry without a cause And what is that cause For what is GOD angry What is God angry with the waters when he sends a tempest it is Habacucks question Or is GOD angry with the earth when hee sends barrennesse Or with the aire when he makes it contagious No indeed His anger is not against the Elements they provoke him not Against them it is that provoke Ephos. 5.6 him to anger against Men it is and against their sinnes and for them commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience And this is the very cause indeed As there is Putredo humorum so there is also putredo morum And putredo morum is more a cause than putredo humorum The corruption of the soule the a Mica 7.3 corruption of our wayes more than the b Gen. 6 12. corrupting of the aire The c 1 King 8.38 plague of the heart more than the sore that is seene in the body d Rom. 5.12 The cause of death that is sinne the same is the cause of this e Psal. 38.5 kinde of death of the plague of mortality And as the f Ier. 8. ult Balme of Gilead and the g Ier. 48. â—6 Physitian there may yeeld us helpe when Gods wrath is removed so if it be not no balme no medicine will serve Let us with the Woman in the Gospell h Mark 5.26 spend all upon Physitians wee shall bee never the better till we come to CHRIST and he cure us of our sins who is the onely Physitian of the diseases of the soule And with CHRIST the cure begins ever within For Sonne thy sins be forgiven thee and Marke 9 2. then after take up thy bed and walke His sins bee first and his limbes after As likewise when we are once well Christs counsell is sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee As if sin would certainly bring a relapse into a sicknesse But shall we say the wrath of GOD for sins Particular sin indefinitely That were somewhat too generall may we not specifie them or set them downe in particular Yes I will point you at three or foure First this Plague here as appeareth by the 1 Fornication XXVIII Verse the Verse next before came for the sinne of Peor that is for fornication as you may reade And not every fornication but fornication past shame as was that of Zamri there with a daughter of Moab And indeed if wee Num. 25.1 marke it well it fits well For that kinde of sin fornication doth end in Vlcers and sores and those as infectious as the Plague it selfe a proper punishment such sore for such evill Secondly Davids plague of seventy thousand 2 Pride which wee mention in our Prayer that came 1 Chro. 21.14 for Pride plainly His heart was lifted up to number the people And that seemes somewhat kindly too and to agree with this disease That pride which swels it selfe should end in a tumor or swelling as for the most part this disease doth Thirdly Senacheribs plague it is plaine came 3 Blasphemy Esay 37. 36. from Rabshakes blasphemy Blasphemie able to infect the aire it was so foule In which regard Aarons act might be justified in putting odours Num. 16.46 into his Censer to purifie the Aire from such corruption And last the Apostle sets downe the cause of 4 Neglect of the Sacrament 1 Cor. 11.30 the plague at Corinth For this cause saith hee that is for neglect of the Sacrament Either in not caring to come to it or in comming to it we care not how For this cause is there a mortality among you and many are sicke and many are weake and many are fallen asleepe And this is no new thing Moses himselfe his neglect of the Exod. 4.24 Sacrament made him be stricken of GOD that it was like to have cost him his life And hee saith plainly to Pharaoh If they neglected their sacrifice God would fall upon them with the pestilence Exod. 5.3 which appeareth by this that the Sacrament of the passeover and the bloud of it was the meanes to save them from the plague of the destroying Angell in Aegypt A little now of the phrase that their sins are The phrase for sin Their inventions here called by the name of their inventions And so sure they are as no wayes taught us by God but of our owne imagining or finding out For indeed our inventions are the cause of all sinnes And if wee looke well into it wee shall finde our inventions are so By Gods injunction we should In matters of Religion all live and his injunction is You
shall not doe every man what seemes good in his owne eyes or findes out in his owne braines but whatsoever I command Deut. 12.8 you that onely shall you doe But we setting light by that charge of his out of the old disease of our Father Adam Eritic sicut Dii scientes bonum malum thinke it a goodly matter to be witty to find out things our selves to make to our selves to be Authors and inventors of somewhat that so we may seeme to be as wise as God if not wiser and to know what is for our turnes as well as he if not better It was Sauls fault GOD bade destroy Amalek all and hee would invent a better way to save some forsooth for sacrifice which GOD could not thinke of And it was S. Peters fault when he perswaded Christ Mat. 16.22 from His Passion and found out a better way as he thought than Christ could devise This is the proud invention which will not be kept in but makes men even not to forbeare in things pertaining to Gods worship but there to be still devising new tricks opinions and fashions fresh and newly taken up which their Fathers never Deut. 32.17 knew of And this is that which makes men that have itching eares to heape to themselves 2 Tim. 4.3 Teachers according to their owne lusts which may fill their heads full with new inventions And this is that that even out of Religion in In the common life the common life spoiles all The wanton invention in finding out new meats in diet in inventing new fashions in apparell which men so dote on as the Psalme saith at the 39. Verse as they even go a whoring with them with their owne inventions and care not what they spend on them And know no end of them but as fast as they are weary of one a new invention is found out which whatsoever it cost how much soever it take from our Almes or good deeds must bee had till all come to nought That the Psalmist hath chosen a very fit word that for our inventions the plague breakes in among us for them as for the primarie or first moving cause of all Indeed for them as much and more than for any thing else Wee see then 1 First that a cause there is 2 That that cause is not onely naturall but that God Himselfe hath a hand in it 3 God as being provoked to anger 4 To anger for our sinnes ingenerall and for what sins in speciall For our sins proceeding from nothing but our inventions Which cause if it continue and yet we turne not to the Lord as Amos the 4. then will not his anger bee turned away but His hand will bee stretched out still as Esay the 9. And no way to avoide the one but by appeasing the other For the cure now One contrary is ever cured by II. Of the Cure another If then it be anger which is the cause in God anger would be appeased If it be inventions which is the cause in us of the anger of God they would be punished and removed That so the cause being taken away the effect may cease Take away our inventions Gods anger will cease Take away Gods anger the plague will cease Two Readings we said there were 1 Phinees prayed or 2 Phinees executed judgement Palal the Hebrew word will beare both And both are good And so we will take them both in Prayer is good against the plague as appeareth Not onely in this plague in the Text wherein all Against Gods anger 1 Prayer the Congregation a Num. 25.6 were weeping and praying before the doore of the Tabernacle But in King b 2 Sam. 24.17 Davids plague also where wee see what his prayer was and the very words of it And in c Esay 38. 3. Ezekiahs plague who turned his face to the wall and prayed unto GOD and his prayer is set downe God heard his prayer and healed him And for a generall rule d 1 Kings 8. 37 38 39. If there be in the Land any pestilent disease whatsoever plague whatsoever sicknesse it bee the prayer and supplication in the Temple made by the people every man knowing the plague of his owne heart God in heaven will heare it and remove His hand from afflicting them any further And it standeth with good reason For as the Aire is infected with noisome sents or smels so the infection is removed by sweet odours or incense which Aaron did in the Plague put sweet odours Num. 16. 48. in his Censer and went betweene the living and the dead Now there is a fit resemblance betweene Incense and Prayers f Psal. 141 2. Let my prayer come before thy presence as the Incense And when the Priest was within burning Incense g Luke 1. 10. the people were without at their prayers And it is expresly said h Rev. 5.8 that the sweet odours were nothing else but the prayers of the Saints Prayer is good and that Phinees prayer Phinees 2 Phinees prayer as a Priest was a Priest the son of Eleazar the Nephew of Aaron So as there is Vertue as in the prayer so in the person that did pray in Phinees himselfe As we know the Office of a Sergeant being to arrest the office of a Notarie to make acts the act that is done by one of them is much more authenticall then that which is done by any common Heb. 5.1 person So every Priest being taken from among men and ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer prayers the prayers hee offereth hee offereth out of his office and so even in that respect there is caeteris paribus a more force and energie in them as comming from Him whose calling it is to offer them than in those that come from another whose calling it is not so to doe To this end God saith to Abimelech Abraham is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live So that the prayer of a Prophet in that he Gen. 20.7 is a Prophet is more effectuall And in the Law you shall finde it all along when men come to bring their sacrifice for their sins it is said the Priest shall make an attonement for them before the Lord and their sins shall be forgiven them And in the Prophets we see plainly in time of distresse Ezekia sent unto the Prophet Esay to entreat him to lift up his prayer for the remnant that were left and so he did and was heard by GOD. And in the new Testament S. Iames advice is In time of sicknesse to call for the Priests and they to pray over the party and that prayer shall worke his health and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him For where the grace of prayer is and the calling both they cannot but availe more than where no calling is but the grace alone The prayer of Phinees and
of Phinees standing What need there be any mention of Phinees standing Was it not enough to say Phinees prayed It skils not whether he sate or stood for praying it selfe was enough No wee must not thinke the Holy Ghost sets downe any thing that is superfluous Somewhat there is in that he stood Of Moses it is said Ier. 18.20 before in this Psalme that hee stood in the gap to turne away the wrath of God In Ieremie it is said though Moses and Samuel stood before me So there is mention made of standing also And the Prophet himselfe puts God in mind that he stood before him to speake good for the people and to turne away his wrath from them that is put God in mind of the very sight of his body For though God be a Spirit and so in Spirit to Iohn 4.24 be worshipped yet in as much as he hath given us a body with that also are we to worship Him and to glorifie him in our body and spirit which both 1 Cor. 6 20. Rom 12.1 are Gods and to present or offer our bodies to God as a holy and acceptable sacrifice in the reasonable service of Him And to present them decently For that also is required in the service of God Now judge in 1 Cor. 14.40 1 Cor. 11.13 your selves Is it comely to speake unto our betters sitting Sedentem or are extra disciplinam est saith Tertullian to pray sitting or sit praying is against the order of the Church The Church of God never had nor hath any such fashion All tendeth to this as Cyprians advice is Etiam habitu corporis placere Deo even by our very gesture and the carriage of our body to behave our selves so as with it we may please God Vnreverent carelesse undevout behaviour pleaseth Him not It is noted of the very Angels Iob 1.6 Esa. 6.2 Dan. 7.10 that they were standing before God If them it becomes if Phinees if Moses if Samuel and Ieremie it may well become us to learne our gesture of them Prayer is availeable to appease Gods wrath and Against their inventions 1 Execution of judgement so consequently to remove the Plague but not prayer alone For though it abate the anger of God which is the first yet it goeth not high enough takes not away the second cause that is our inventions which are the cause of Gods anger We see it plaine in Num. 25.6 they were all at prayers and Phinees among them he and the rest Num. 25.7.8 But yet the plague ceased not for all that till in the verse following Phinees tooke his javelin wherewith in the very act of fornication he thrust them both through Zamri and his woman and then the plague was stayed from the children of Israel For as prayer referreth properly to anger so so doth executing judgement to sin or to our inventions the cause of it Prayer then doth well but prayer and doing justice both these together joyntly will doe it indeed And if you disjoyne or separate them nothing will be done If we draw neere to God with our mouthes and honour Him with our lips it will not availe us if judgement be turned back or justice Esay 29. 14. stand afaroff There are two persons Both of them were 2 By Phinees as a Prince in his Tribe and a Magistrate in Phinees For as he was a Priest so he was a Prince of his Tribe So then both these must joyne together as well the devotion of the Priest in prayer which is his Office as the zeale of the Magistrate in executing judgement which is His. For Phinees the Priest must not onely stand up and pray but Moses the Magistrate also must stand in the gap to turne away the wrath of God that he destroy not the people No lesse he than Aaron with his golden Censer to run into the midst of the Congregation to make attonement for them when the plague is begun Moses he gave in charge for the executing of them that were joyned to Baal-Peor Num. 25.4 Phinees he executed the charge Moses stood in the gap when he gave the sentence Phinees stood up when he did the execution And these two are a blessed conjunction One of them without the other may misse but both together never faile For when Zamri was slaine and so when Rabshaketh perished and so when the incestuous Corinthian was excommunicated in all three the plague ceased But what if Moses give no charge what if Phinees 3 By every man upon himselfe doe no execution as oft it falleth out How then In that case every private man is to bee Phinees to himselfe is not onely to pray to God but to be wreaked doe judgement chasten his owne body and so judge himselfe that he may not be judged of the Lord. For every one for his part is a cause of the judgements of God sent downe and so 2 Cor. 2.11 may bee and is to bee a cause of the removing 1 Cor 9. 1 7. them Somewhile the King as David by the 1 Cor. 11 3. pride of his heart Otherwhile the people by their murmuring against Moses and Aaron So that King and people both must judge themselves every private offender himselfe Zamri if he had judged himselfe Phinees should not have judged him The incestuous Corinthian if he had judged 1 Chr. 21. 1.8 himselfe S. Paul had not judged him For either Num. 16.3 by our selves or by the Magistrate or if by neither of both by God Himselfe For one way or other sin must be judged Zamri by his repentance Phinees by his prayer or doing justice or God by the plague sent among them Now then these two 1 Phinees stood up and prayed 2 and Phinees stood up and executed judgement if they might be coupled together I durst undertake the conclusion would be and the plague ceased But either of them wanting I dare promise nothing To conclude then 1. The plague comes not by chance but hath a cause 2. That cause is not altogether naturall and pertaines to Physicke but hath something supernaturall in it and pertaines to Divinity 3. That supernaturall cause is the wrath of God 4. Which yet is not the first cause For the wrath of God would not rise but that he is provoked by our sins and the certaine sinnes that provoke it have beene set downe 5. And the cause of them our owne inventions So our inventions beget sin sin provokes the wrath of God the wrath of God sends the plague among us To stay the plague Gods wrath must be stayed To stay it there must be a ceasing from sin That sin may cease we must be out of love with our owne inventions and not go awhoring after them Prayer that asswageth anger To executejustice that abareth sin to execute justice either publikely as doth the Magistrate or privately as every man doth or may doe upon himselfe which joyned with prayer and prayer with it will soone rid us of that we complaine and otherwise his anger will not be turned away but his hand stretched out still FINIS