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A47339
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A sermon preached before the lords spiritual and temporal in the Abey-Church at Westminster, the 30th of January, 1691/2 by ... Richard Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells.
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Kidder, Richard, 1633-1703.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing K414; ESTC R2194
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11,426
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34
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great Sinner that indulgeth himself in that very sin which he pretends to loath Their Fathers did well or ill If they did well why should they declaim against them If ill why should they imitate them These Men are without all excuse they practice in contradiction to themselves and add to their Father's guilt the vilest hypocrisy They imitate the treachery of Judas who kissed and betrayed his Lord at the same time These Men preface their Villanies with shew of Religion and follow the worst of Men when they personate the best They are like him who proclaimed a Fast but designed by it to gain his Neighbour's Vineyard and him who plotted Treason against his Prince when he made a shew of paying his Vows to his God This is such an aggravation as added to the rest does abundantly shew the Justice of this denunciation III. I shall now proceed to the Use and Application of what hath been said with a particular Reflection upon the sad Occasion that brings us together this Day On this Day it was that our Soveraign of Blessed Memory fell by the hands of Violence and Wickedness Then was his Righteous bloud shed And tho' we gave no explicit consent to this barbarous Murther and perhaps with the Jews have said That if we had been in the days of our Forefathers we would not have been partakers with them yet all this while we may deceive our selves and others if we do not confess this Sin with great humility and abandon all propensities to so great a wickedness I shall more particularly shew you the Application of what hath been said 1. This will justifie our solemn assembling at this time We come together to deprecate God's displeasure for the innocent bloud that was this day shed And we have good cause so to do For if the Righteous bloud shed so long before might justly be required of the after-generation of the Jews this may be required of us We find that the Jews kept a Fast a long time for the slaughter of Gedaliah Zech. 7.5 with Jer. 41.1 2. called by the Prophet the Fast of the seventh Month We have greater reason for this That we consented not to the shedding this Righteous bloud will not discharge us from the Service of this day For neither did those Jews that kept that Fast consent to the Murther of Gedaliah Deut. 21. We know what the Law required in case of an uncertain Murther An Heifer was to be killed the Priests were to be present the Elders of the neighbouring City were to wash their hands and say Our hands have not shed this bloud neither have our eyes seen it Be mercifull O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent bloud unto thy people of Israels charge It follows So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent bloud from among you when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. This wil be our best course upon this occasion not onely to disown the fact our selves but to deprecate the Divine displeasure and pray that it may not be imputed to the Nation 2. We may learn what cause we have to be humbled for our Fathers sins and more particularly for that Wickedness committed on this day Then was the Nation stained with the Righteous bloud of an innocent and excellent Prince That bloud God will require of the principal Criminals and Accessories also of the first Offenders and their Associates The cry of innocent Bloud is loud It pierceth the Heavens and finds a direct way to the Ears of God As we would not be charged with it let us humble our selves before God The stain can be removed no other way but by Tears of Repentance and the Bloud of Jesus The Psalmist was guilty of bloud He was a Prince and might say to God Against Thee Thee onely have I sinned Ps 50. But it follows Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness O God thou God of my Salvation And Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit The Wickedness committed this day was premeditated and studied coloured with a pretence of Law and Justice practiced under the cloak of Religion and disguise of Piety It will admit of no extenuation It was an action foul and deformed cruel and barbarous without excuse or plea. He must be lost to the reason of a Man and the tenderness of a Christian whom it strikes not with horror What remains then but that we apply our selves to the Mercies of God and Merits of Christ for our atonement and expiation Nothing short of this can give us hope and nothing but our sorrow and repentance can give us the hope of this 3. Let us endeavour to cut off the entail of Curses which threaten us from our Forefathers sins We too often inherit their guilt and are infected with their vicious inclinations Let us do what we can to derive a blessing on our selves and our posterity And to that purpose let us be perswaded First To perfect our Repentance both for our Fathers and our own iniquities This is the onely way to keep off the Evils which threaten us the best Security against the Wrath to come Our timely and complete Repentance is our defence and God will do by us all as we do in this matter As we would avoid the plagues of this and the next life let us retire our selves from this World and all its amusements enter into our Closets and examin our State towards God and humbly deprecate his displeasure on account of our Fathers and our own iniquities Let us do it as frequently as we can and as fervently too There is great reason we should do thus The Wickedness committed on this day requires it from which I fear we are not yet purged our Personal sins and their circumstances of aggravation require it also We had need of our Solemn times of Repentance and Humiliation and the good improvement of them are the best preservative of our Selves and the Nation After all our guilts both National and Personal after so many and such crying Sins so great a decay of Piety and real Goodness contempt of God and Religion we must not think that a cold confessing our Sins will serve our turn we must abhor them and be greatly humbled for them Secondly Let us be exemplary in Piety and real Goodness Let us own it before all the World and promote it what we can in those under our care and influence Let us do it with all our might in our several places and as this will be the best of our titles so 't will be our surest defence Thirdly Let us run counter to the crimes of our Forefathers Let their Disobedience commend to us Fidelity and true Allegiance Their Oppression teach us Mercy and Good-will Their Bloud-guiltiness put us upon Compassion and Kindness Their Revenge direct us to Forgiveness and Forbearance And their Hypocrisy stir us up to Sincerity
the Offence might abound Rom. 5.20 Secondly It will be a matter of greater difficulty to determine who was this Zacharias the Son of Barachias who was slain between the Temple and the Altar There are several Opinions about it 1. That it is to be understood of the Prophet Zechariah Zech. 1.1 who is said to be the Son of Barachiah But this is not likely For we do not find that he was slain and if we had cause to believe that he was slain yet have we no cause to think he was slain between the Temple and the Altar The Jews in his time were newly returned from Captivity and then their Temple and Altar were not built If it had 't is not very likely they should there have slain this Prophet Be that as it will we have not Evidence of the fact 2. That it is to be understood of Zacharias the Father of John Baptist This would well agree with the Context had we sufficient reason to believe the matter of fact We have not ground enough to believe that he was slain by the Jews nor does it appear that he was the Son of Barachias 3. There is another Zacharias that bids fairer than those named before to be the Person meant by our Saviour He is mentioned 2 Chron. 24.20 He was indeed a Prophet and a Righteous Man He was slain by the Hands of the People and Command of the King and that also in the Court of the house of the Lord And that agrees well with what is in my Text expressed by between the Temple and the Altar When he was killed he said The Lord look upon it and require His was indeed Righteous bloud and the guilt was National and might well be required of that generation His Death was a most hainous Sin He was himself a Prophet and a Priest and the Son of an High-Priest who was the great Restorer of God's Worship and had deserved greatly both of the King and People 'T was great Impiety to kill so great a Saint and the Son of one who had deserved a perpetual Memory from King and People 'T was a detestable crime to murther him considering his innocence his birth and character and greater still to doe it when he was in the execution of his Office and bringing them back to the worship of God and to doe all this not onely in the sight of the Sun but in the House of his God But after all that hath been said there are two considerable objections against this otherwise very probable opinion also First That the person mentioned 2 Chron. 24. is said to be the Son of Jehojada this in my Text the Son of Barachias R. Isaac Chizuk Emun l. 2. c. 22. This is by a Jewish Writer urged as an Error in the Text of St. Matthew and such an one also as will admit of no salvo But the Jews of all Men have no reason to make this objection against the authority of the Text. Such pretences may be brought against some Books of the Old Testament which yet can be of no force to destroy their authority They might rather suppose this person to have two Names that of Jehojada and this of Barachias It was very common among them Psal 34. Tit. with 1 Sam. 21.11 No man doubts of the Psalmist's authority because he calls the same man Abimilech whom another sacred Writer calls Achish The same man is called Ner in one place who in another is called Abiel 1 Sam. 9.1 with 1 Chron. 8.32 One sacred Writer calls him Ammiel whom another calls Eliam 2 Sam. 11.3 with 1 Chron. 3.5 And him Chileab whom another calls Daniel 2 Sam. 3.3 with 1 Chron. 3.1 The same woman is said to be the daughter of Elon and in the same book called the daughter of Ismael Menass B. Israel Concil in Exod. qu. 1. Joseph Antiq. l. 2. c. 12. Gen. 26.34 with Chap. 36. v. 3. Reuel Jethro and Hobab are by the Jews allowed to be the several Names of the same person Nothing being more common than for the same man to have divers Names and for that cause no man in his wits can impeach the sacred Writers for using this variety I shall add that the Gospel of St. Matthew was written originally in Hebrew And St. Hierom tells us expresly Hieron in Matt. 23. that in that Hebrew Copy which the Nazarens used it was Jojada where we now reade Barachias We have no reason to doubt of one or of the other And then the objection lies not against the Original Text And it can have no force against the Greek Version For Jehojada and and Berachiah being names of the very same import and signification in the Hebrew as Eliakim and Jehojakim are 2 Chro. 36.4 which belonged to the same person and for what we know the same person might be called by both 'T is not strange that Jehojada should by the Greek Interpreter be rendred Barachias Secondly It may likewise be objected that 't is not likely that the Zacharias in my Text should refer to the Son of Jehojada because our Saviour beginning as high as Abel 't is not to be supposed he should descend no lower than that Son of Jehojada who was slain Eight hundred years before these words were spoken 'T is more reasonable to believe that he would descend to the latter end of the Jewish Polity and that he refers to some person that was slain a little before the dissolution of the Jewish State And upon this Consideration I add 4. That there is another Zacharias mentioned by Josephus De Bell. Judaic l. 4. c. 18. that was slain by the Jews a-while before the destruction and dissolution of the Jewish Polity Him he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was accused as guilty of Treachery and too great a Favourer of the Romans But tho' he were innocent and absolved by the Sanedrin yet was he unjustly slain by the Jewish Zealots 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in the middle of the Temple which agrees very well with between the Temple and the Altar This instance answers very well to Abel slain from the beginning It agrees well with my Text he was the Son of Baruch and slain in the Temple And then our Saviour's words are proleptical and being a Prophecy of what was shortly to come to pass no wonder that they are expressed in such terms a thing very usual in the old Prophets as if the thing had already been fulfilled The time past is frequently used for the future among the ancient Prophets and sometimes in the New Testament also Rev. 11.13 And if the words of Jesus refer to this person then are they so far from affording an Objection against the truth of the Gospel-history that they do confirm it What hath been said is sufficient I hope for the Explanation of my words I proceed now to II. Shew the Justice of this denunciation That upon you may come c. And here I