it then good for can you make a hook or naile of it to hang a vessell on You may doe it with other trees if they grow unprofitable the fig-tree or the apple 〈◊〉 others when they are unprofitable and beare no fruit you may make a pin of them to hang a vessell on but the vine what is it good for surely it is good for nothing but the fire from one end to the other of it you cannot make a pin to hang a vessell on So either there must be grapes there must be fruit or woe and eternall perdition To distribute and to doe good forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Heb. 13. 16. To doe good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased HEre is an Exhortation and the Reason to enforce it That Exhortation is To doe good and to communicate And then doe wee doe good when we doe communicate that good that God hath given us to the good of others Wee have done with the Exhortation Wee come to the Reason that the Apostle useth to enforce the Exhortation with all For with such sacrifices God is well pleased Hee saith not With such workes God is well pleased but with such sacrifices There are spirituall sacrifices Prayer is one and Thanksgiving another and Repentance another and Beneficence another But the thing that is offered to God in all these spirituall sacrifices is the heart A devout heart in Prayer a broken heart in Repentance a gratefull heart in Thanksgiving and a tender compassionate heart in Beneficence And it is the tendernesse and compassionatenesse and the charitablenesse of the heart that makes it a sacrifice to God and well-pleasing to him and accepted of him Againe hee doth not say This is such a sacrifice as God requires though hee doo require it too but This is such a sacrifice as God is well pleased with It is motive enough to perswade a good child to doe this or that if it be a thing that will please his father It is motive enough to perswade a faithfull honest-hearted servant to doe a thing to tell him This will please your Master It is enough to perswade any good subiect to doe this or that to assure him the thing will please his Soveraigne It is motive enough to a Christian heart to perswade him to doe good and communicate to assure him that this is a thing that God is well pleased with But yet it is not every work done not every thing that is in it of the substance of a good work that is pleasing to God there is more required then so to make a sacrifice acceptable to God There is something required in the doer and There is somewhat required in the thing done There is somewhat required in the doer First hee must be in Christ that will offer a sacrifice acceptable to God Take these Rules First If the person of a man please not God his works can never please him God accepted Abel and his sacrifice Abel first and then his sacrifice God never accepts a mans offering till first hee accept of his person Now God accepts of no mans person but in Christ this is hee in whom I am well pleased The Apostle calls Christ the Sonne of Gods love and there are none that ever God loves but hee loves them in his Sonne the Sonne of his love Col. 1. 13. That is one ground Another is Though a work be good as it comes from the Spirit of God the Author of all goodnesse yet it cannot come thorow our fingers but wee soyle it All our righteousnesses are as menstruous cloaths If God should bee extreme to marke what is done amisse in our best works who were able to abide it Even as the offering of the children of Israel it was called a holy offering yet as holy as it was there was some iniquity in that holy offering but that was laid on Aaron and when hee bare the iniquity of all the other the men and their workes were accepted So it is here the workes of a Christian man may be good workes good in substance because they are works that God requires at his hands Then they may be good in the fountaine when they spring from the Author of all goodnesse And good in the end because they are done to the glory of God and the good of our brethren But yet as there was some iniquity did cleave to the holy offering of the children of Israel as holy as it was so there is some iniquity cleaves to our good worke how good soever it be when that iniquity that cleaves to our workes is laid upon Christ who in his owne body on the tree bare the iniquity of us all then our persons and workes are graciously accepted and all the iniquity that cleaves to our workes mercifully pardoned This is the first thing What is required in the doer to make his beneficence acceptable to God But here is not all there is something required in the thing done and that I shall shew you in the remainder of the time by Gods grace And I shall lay it down in foure Rules The first is about the end And you must not wonder that I begin at the end for howsoever the end is the thing last attained yet it is the thing first intended it is the first thing in a mans intention And besides God regards not so much quid as propter quid not so much what wee doe as for what we doe A man may doe good works for ill ends and then hee must not look that God should accept them It is the end that commends the action Now there are three ill ends of doing good works One end that some propound to themselves in doing good works is to make satisfaction to divine iustice for the sins they have committed The Apostle would have us doe good works for necessary uses but God never appointed this use of good works Our good works may be tokens of our secret predestination they may be fore tokens of our future happinesse but to think that by doing good wee can make recompense and satisfaction to divine iustice and appease the infinite wrath of God for sinne before the which the very Angels themselves are not able to stand it is a senslesse and gracelesse fancie tending much to the dishonour of Christ and that all-sufficient satisfaction that hee hath made for the sinnes of the world when hee offered up his flesh a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour to God That is one ill end Secondly some propound another end that is to merit eternall blisse by it And our English men Rhemists Romish English men by birth and Rhemists by education and Romish by profession oft times stand to it to prove that good works are truly and properly meritorious ex condigno even of very condignity In so much say they in their Comment upon Heb. 6. Good works are so farre meritorious that God were uniust
over till hee had done it Be it so yet this importunity of theirs though it may extenuate the fault cannot excuse it Or if you will say it may excuse it it may excuse it à tanto but not à toto it may qualifie it somewhat but it cannot justifie it But say they it is likely the people would have stoned him if hee had not done it It is like enough so they were ready enough to take up stones they did it to Moses but grant it Aaron should have chosen rather to have died a thousand deaths then to suffer God almightie to be so dishonoured Wee know what some said afterwards in the like case Know O King that our God is able to deliver us from the fiery fornace if not wee will not worship thine Image There is no question Aaron cannot be excused in this sinne You may truly say thus farre for Aaron that that hee did hee did it out of feare and out of weaknesse and out of Pusillanimity hee durst not displease the people he did it out of feare and frailtie But take the sinne in it selfe O it is a fearefull sinne in it's owne nature Look in Deut. 9. 20. and you shall finde what Moses saith concerning it that GOD was angry with Aaron for this sinne nay hee was very angry with him for this sinne yea so angry and very angry that hee would have destroyed him had not Moses made intercession for him he had destroyed him Now the anger of God is not wont to come like fire to flame out against his servants but upon mightie provocations Surely God was provoked mightily against Aaron that hee would have destroyed him had not Moses made intercession There is no excuse of it But then This is a point of some use let me not passe from it thus Why did not God so stablish this servant of his that hee might not fall into such a sinne as this The Apostle saith God is faithfull and hee is able to stablish you and to deliver you from all evill 2 Thess 3. 3. The Apostle assures himselfe God will deliver mee from every evill worke and will preserve mee to his heavenly kingdome and many such like places God was able to establish Aaron so that hee should not have condescended out of weaknesse to this request of theirs It is true but it pleased God to leave Aaron to himselfe hee would suffer him to fall and you may thinke that God hath some good ends in it God being a good God would not suffer evill to be in the world but that hee knowes how to order that evill to some superiour event that is good Surely there was some speciall end why God suffered Aaron to fall into such a fearefull sinne as this I will tell you what I conceive The first was this to shew that the Leviticall Priest-hood of the old Law was imperfect How could the Priest of the old Law perfectly reconcile a poore sinner to God since hee was a sinner himselfe Looke in Heb. 7. and you shall see there the Apostle shewes the difference between our Lord Jesus Christ the High-Priest of the New Testament and the Priests of the Old Testament Verse 27. The Priest of the Old Testament stood in need to offer for his owne sinnes first and then for the sinnes of the people The Priest of the old Law was not only to offer for the sinnes of the people but for his owne sinnes yea first for his owne sinnes and then for the sinnes of the people Now how shall one sinner reconcile another sinner to God It cannot be therefore saith our Apostle there verse 26. It became our High-Priest to be another manner of High-Priest to be holy and harmlesse separated from sinners and made higher then the heavens That is one reason to shew that the Priest-hood of the old Law could not perfectly reconcile men to God A second reason why God permitted him to fall was that in so great dignity as Aaron was now assigned to in so great a place as the high-Priest-hood Aaron might learne to walk humbly with his God There is nothing that will beat downe a child of God more in the sight of his owne eyes then the sight of his owne corruptions and the conscience of his owne unworthinesse Solomon tells us that All the afflictions that God sends a man under the sun are to humble him And all that is too little God is faine sometimes to let corruptions loose in his children to suffer his owne children many times to have many a fearefull conflict and combate and Messenger of Satan to buffet them a pricke in the flesh to molest them hee suffers them to have many fearefull tryalls in the flesh to the intent that there being such a Jebusite in the land such an enemy in our own bowels such a thorne in our eyes such prickes in our sides the proud heart may never finde time to sit and blesse it selfe in any gift or grace wherewith God hath honoured it Nay here is not all God doth not only suffer corruptions to grow and to rule in his children that he may humble them But God sometime permitts his children to fall into some great sinne that they may not fall into Pride saith Saint Austine I am bold to speake it I thinke it profitable for the children of God sometimes to sin to keep them from falling into Pride As a Physician when hee would cure a Convulsion hee doth what hee can to procure an Ague so God to cure Pride that dangerous sin in his children many times suffers them to fall into other sins though they be fearfull in themselves that they may not fall into Pride When men grow proud of any gift or grace that God hath honoured them with A man as Gregorie speakes makes a sore of a salve Therefore God suffers them to fall into other sinnes that so he may make a salve of a sore that when a man hath been wounded by his owne vertues hee may be healed by his owne vices That is the second reason Thirdly God suffered him to fall I conceive for this to teach Aaron to looke compassionately being a Priest upon poore sinners considering himselfe Remember the Apostles precept Galat. 6. Brethren if any of you be overtaken with a fault you that are spirituall yea they especially whose Function and Ministery is spirituall you that are spirituall restore such a man with the spirit of meeknesse restore him againe the Greek word is set him in joynt againe Doe you see him out of joynt handle him gently as you doe a bone that is out set him in joynt againe with the spirit of meeknesse Why Considering thy selfe lest thou also be tempted That good Father that heard tell of the fall of his brother hee cried out Alas hee fell to day and I may fall to morrow O Consider thy selfe either thou art tempted or hast been tempted or mayest be tempted as that man was The Lord would have Aaron
up his hands and prop them up that they might not be weary Brethren wee should all be holding up our hands to God for mercy If thou out of conscience of thine owne unworthinesse thinkest surely that God will not regard the holding up of thine hands he will never have an eye to thine hands when thou holdest them up yet doe as Aaron and Hur hold up the hands of them whose hands thou thinkest God will respect If thou canst not act Moses his part act Aarons and Hurs Alas the hands of Gods children are faint they are discouraged their knees are feeble with prayer O encourage them lift up their hands it may be God will yet heare their prayers and shew mercy to them Thus much shall serve for the first point It was Moses that got the sentence revoked I come to the other the meanes by which he got it revoked hee stands in the breach had not Moses his chosen stood in the breach A military phrase a phrase taken from the wars If a City be besieged and if the enemy without by a ram or any other warlike Engine hath made a breach in the wall all that are men of courage and valour runne to the wall runne to the breach and strive by all meanes possible to keepe the enemy from entring in at that breach that hee hath made This fearefull sinne of the people had made a breach by which divine justice might have entred and have brought an utter destruction upon them all Moses runnes to the breach and sets himselfe between God and the people that God should not proceed further to their destruction Now you must note he stood in the breach two waies First by a due execution of justice And then by an earnest importunate intercession for mercy First I say by the execution of justice Doth the wrath of God at any time burne like fire against a sinfull people There are two things whereby it may be quenched A man may quench the wrath of God in regard of any temporall calamity the fire of Gods wrath with two things two liquors The one is blood The other is teares The blood I meane is the blood of malefactors principall malefactors that shall be shed with the sword of justice The teares I speake of are such teares as are shed by principall men by the Favourites of heaven in their prayers for mercy Moses doth both he pleads Gods cause here against the people and he pleads the peoples again with God First Causam Dei apud populum gladio he pleads Gods cause against the people with a sword of justice hee pleads the peoples cause against God with teares and prayers in both hee shewes himselfe a zealous Magistrate and I cannot tell whether hee shew himselfe more zealous to the glory of God in the one or more zealous of the peoples good in the other For the first his execution of justice There is a way to stand in the breach Moses is said to be the mildest man that was upon the earth but I pray marke what this mild man did when hee saw the glory of God bestowed upon a base filthy inglorious abomination First hee comes from the Mount and brings the Tables of God in his hand and casts down the Tables and breakes them I doe not thinke hee did it through impotency of passion Mark his words Deuteronom 9. ver 17. mee thinkes hee did it advisedly but with some secret warrant from God Hee saw the people had broken the Covenant and hee before their eyes breakes the Tables of the Covenant the most precious monument that ever the world had This was the first thing hee did Hee stayes not here hee goes to the Calfe the sinne that they had made as hee calls it he takes it and breakes it to pieces stampes it to powder hee beats it as small as dust and casts it into the brooke and makes them drink the water of it these are the Gods that shall goe before them Let them looke their god in their urine He is not yet content but cries Who is on the Lords side And the Tribe of Levi come and gird their swords on their sides and run from one side of the camp to the other and slay every man his brother and every man his Father and every man his companion They slew at that time three thousand and with the blood of these three thousand hee slacked the wrath of God The sonnes of Levi never offered a sacrifice of the flesh of beasts that was a sacrifice of so sweet a smelling savour in the nostrils of God as this sacrifice of their brethren When a sinne is committed wherewith earth is annoyed and heaven provoked the justice of God sets out presently against that sin but goes on slowly very slowly hee will see whether mans justice will follow after it or no if mans justice overtake it Gods justice pursues it no further there is an end There may be easily an unmercifull cruelty in the shedding of blood and there may be an over-cruell mercy in the sparing of it Jonah was no sooner cast out of the ship but the sea was quiet Achan and his family were no sooner stoned to death and burned with fire but Israel prevailed The sonnes of Saul were no sooner hanged but the famine ceased Phineas stood up and executed judgement and the plague was stayed in verse 30. of this Psalme As soone as this blood of three thousand men that were principall offenders in this Idolatry as soone as that was shed as soone as that blood was throwne upon the fire of Gods wrath the fire slacked presently But yet it was not quenched till his prayer came There is the second way his prayer The prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much if it be Jam. 5. 16. fervent Can you finde a more fervent prayer then this that Moses made for this people Mark the prayer you shall finde it Exodus 32. where this story is set downe First hee puts God in mind of his propriety in this people It was thy people O God c. God before called them Moses his people as you may perceive when God bids him goe downe Goe downe for thy people that thou hast brought out of Egypt c. Moses disclaimes them as if he should say Lord they are none of my people they are thy people Wilt thou lose any thing that is thine There is his first argument His second argument is from Gods great workes Lord thou hast brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand Wee love not to lose our former benefits our former benefits are lost if they be not seconded with new Lord wilt thou lose thy former favours done to this people The third argument is hee puts God in mind of his glory Lord what will the Egyptians say Thou hast brought them forth with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arme Why is it To kill them in the mountaines To consume them from the earth Lord how will
sweare Hee swore hee would punish them Punish them in their owne persons hee would punish them thus Hee would overthrow them in the wildernesse And hee would punish them in their seed Hee would overthrow their seed among the Nations and scatter them in the land Therefore he lift up his hand against them There was his swearing that hee would overthrow them in the wildernesse and overthrow their seed also among the Nations and scatter them in the land Now you see the whole Text what it containes But I cannot give you a perfect understanding of this nor gather such doctrines out of it as the words will naturally afford to us except I first make knowne to you the history at large that is here epitomized This is the Epitomy of an history the history is set out at large and I must declare that to you I pray heare an historicall narration first to make way to the Text. This history here epitomized is set downe at large in Numbers 13. and 14. I pray at home reade over those two Chapters and compare with them when you reade them the first Chapter of the booke of Deuteronomy beginning at ver 19. and so to the end of that Chapter you shall finde many observable circumstances of this history that you shall not finde out of the booke of Numbers Give mee leave to tell you all the whole history how it is out of all these places together It was thus Let me shew you first that three months after the people of Israel came out of Egypt they came to Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai for it was called sometime by the one name and sometime by the other It was the same mountain in the root it had two tops as I shewed you They came there the third month after their coming out of the land of Egypt there they continued for the space almost of one whole yeare for they went away from thence again upon the twentieth day of the second month of the second yeare Almost a whole twelve-month they were at Mount Horeb at Mount Sinai as soone as they came there God called Moses to him Moses goes up to the Mount there God gives the Law in fearefull manner Moses abode with God in the Mount fourty daies In that time the children of Israel committed that Idolatry which you heard of they made a golden calfe and worshipped the Image For that God said he would destroy them Moses stood in the breach in the gap and turnes away Gods wrath that hee should not destroy them Then Moses goes up againe to the Mount and tarries fourty dayes and fourty nights longer hee comes downe againe and gives them the Ceremoniall Law and the Judiciall framed the Tabernacle and all the vessels appertaining to it sets the people in their march shewes them how they should march in the wildernesse towards the land of Promise This was all done in that yeare And let me observe this to you In every place where they came you shall find some extraordinary example of Gods judgements on them Before they came to Mount Horeb before the Law was given God bare with them much but after hee had given them the Law he would not beare with them They removed from Horeb and came to Taberah there some of them fall a murmuring they were burned Then they removed to another place to Kebroth-Hattana the grave of lust that was the place where they fell a lusting for quailes for flesh there God destroyed the wealthiest the best of them with the very meat in their mouthes Then they removed to Hazeron there Miriam was smitten with leprosie for her ill tongue against Moses Thence they removed to Cadesh-Barnea now Cadesh-Barnea was upon the very borders of the land of Promise that God would give them they were now upon the very entrance of the land inasmuch as Moses tells the people that now you are come to the land that God hath sworne to give to your Fathers now goe your waies in and possesse the land The people would seeme to be a little wiser and more circumspect then Moses was they would have Moses goe send spies first to the land to see the goodnesse thereof The thing pleased Moses well Moses saith so Deut. 1. The thing pleased mee well to doe this Hee goes and acquaints God with it and he permits it Well hee sends the spies into the land the spies were twelve chosen commonly when wee choose spies to send to a country wee choose men of meane condition Moses did not so hee would have them choice men that the eminency of their place might give credit to their testimonie of the land Out of the twelve Tribes hee chose twelve men a principall man out of every Tribe to view the land Of these twelve Caleb the son of Jephunneh was one hee was fourty yeares old then hee went for the Tribe of Judah and Josuah the son of Nan Moses his servant was another and went as a principall man of the house of Ephraim you shall finde the names of all the rest these two I name the cause you shall heare anon These twelve spies were sent to goe and see what the land was and what the people of the land were they were to give them these instructions First from the land they must see whether it were good or bad whether it were a wholesome or an unwholesome land Then they must see againe whether it were a fat or a leane land a fertile or a barren land And then whether it bare trees or no there were no trees in the desert where they were and this was neare it they must see if it bare trees This for the land Then for the people of the land they were to give them these instructions they must see whether they were many or few whether they were strong or weake then whether they dwelt in tents or in cities and townes And then if they dwelt in cities whether their cities were walled or no what fortifications they had these things pleased Moses well And in very deed prudent policy is allowed us in the execution of that that God gives us in charge so as it be not mixed with unbeliefe I beleeve that this policy of theirs was mixed with a great deale of cowardise and unbeliefe Thus the men goe they view the land they were fourty daies in viewing it they returne againe they bring with them such a branch of a vine as hath not been heard of such a cluster of grapes that two men were faine to bring it upon a staffe upon a barre between them such a mighty cluster of grapes this was They bring with them also pomegranats and figs that they might see the fruit of the land Well they come they make an account of this journey of theirs They all agree in this the land was a wondrous good land a marvelous pleasant land as my text calls it here a wondrous pleasant land they all agree in that And Caleb and Josua