A comfort it was to Aaron no doubt to see the budding of his rod that there was life in it that God had quickened it and yet we know that a branch cut down so long as the stock of sap which is in it will feed it it will do so But when it shall prove like Jeremies tree planted by the waters Jer. 17.8 Which spreads out her root by the river and shall not feel when the heat cometh but her leafe shall be green and she shall bring forth blossomes This is delight as well as comfort And yet Hosea calls Israel vitem frondosam a vine full of leaves Hosea 10.1 Although within a few verses it wither'd and was plucked up But where the fruit is come to perfection grown hard and ripe and lasting then may it well be laid up in the Sanctuary to testifie for him in the latter day And surely beloved Aarons rod in a mysticall sense continues fruitfull to this day No Sermon which you hear which is but a branch cut off from the tree of Gods word shall return in vain but if it be dead to some and prove the savour of death it will quicken in others and prove the savour of life unto life everlasting Thus the very budding of this rod the watchfull attention of you that hear us puts us in some hopes that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Or if after hearing you fall a discoursing of some point delivered praise the Preacher commend the fitneses semen accipitis verba redditis sayes St Austin good seed you receive good words you give back laudes vestrae folia sunt fructus quaeritur as he goes on good words are but leaves or at the best but blossomes it is fruit we preach for and this St. Matthew calls Chap. 3. ver 8. fruit worthy of repentance restorative fruit which may be antitidote against the fruit of that other forbidden tree which poysn'd us all If this fruit appear it will testifie for us in the latter day Us that we are of Gods sending called of God as was Aaron You that you are of Gods planting and if by him planted you shall never be rooted up Mat. 15.13 Thus whilst some are budding others in the blossome others grown ripe God may every day receive a fruitfull harvest One word more behold these Almonds grow upon the rod still and are not gathered off and it is a good reason which a reverend Prelate has given why Aarons rod was treasurd up and not Moses because this carried the miracle still in it self whereas the wonders of that other rod were past and gone Those are rotten fruits which fall off from the bough that bears them The parable in 13 Mat. Tells us of seed sprung up hastily amongst the stones but because it had not depth of Earth it withered There is I know a sort of Gospellers whose hearts on a suddain are all on fire but are soon quenched again Jonahs gourd cannot outgrow them but smitten by a worm they wither Those are Gods Champions which stand fast in the faith those are his chosen that fall not away whose buds grow blossomes whose blossomes grow fruit and so they grow on in grace from one degree unto another till they become perfect in the Lord of all perfection Jesus Christ The 2. Circumstances yet remain and I shall handle them but as Circumstances the Time and Place On the morrow in the Sanctuary 1. For the time this change was wrought on a suddain one night was spring summer and harvest to the rod on the morrow it bore fruit We must not limit the eternal God to time miracles are his works and his works are like himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an instant And as the high Priest under the law so the Apostles and Bishops in the Gospel on a suddain were advanced There was but an insufflavit he breathed upon them and with his breath they received the holy Ghost Which Spirit so changed their Spirits that it amazed their Adversaries to behold such Idiots as Saint Luke calls them Acts 4.13 men unlearned and simple command so many tongues and cure such diseases So what the Schools say of the Apostles I may say of this Rod probatur Deus per Virgam as this suddain change proves Aaron and the Apostles preferment came from God so by them it proves there is a God since none but he could work the Miracles Then secondly for the place 't was in the Sanctuary and no place so fit as Gods own House for Gods own Work That house which budded in Davids thoughts for which God commends him 1 Kings 3.18 But it flourished in Solomons hands who raised the glorious structure of it And however the zeal of some in these wretched dayes go about to eat it up as the zeal of that eat up Davids Heart Psal 69.9 or rather Christ in David typified 2 John 17. Yet Gods House it shall remain still so long as there be Nations upon the Earth to inhabit any other and that in a twofold respect First as God dwells in it it is his Temple secondly as his services are performed in it it is his House of prayer My house sayes the Prophet Isaiah 56.7 repeated by our Saviour in three Evangelists shall be called the House of prayer to all Nations And now let the brain-sick Separatists brood what conceit they list that Temples were but ceremonial and Christs Passion put them out of date either they must grant the fulness of the Gentiles before the descension of the holy Ghost and that all Nations met at prayers at Hierusalem which is ridiculous enough or that whilst nations acknowledg a God to be worship'd he shall have a House to be worship'd in And truly Sirs we need not wonder that Harons rod in our dayes seems withered since the Sanctuary in which it is kept is so neglected But alas What speak I of the crosier when the crown it self has found the same doom When the traytor Jeroboam seduced the ten tribes of Israel against their King he forbids them to go to the Temple at Jerusalem and sets up his high-way Religion to worship his calfs at Dan and Bethel Nay he drives away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and Levi with the Sanctuary away goes the budding rod They are Relatives you see pull down Church government and the Church will not stand long after it 2 Chron. 13.9 and made him Priests like the people of other countreys Whosover comes to fill his hand with a young bullock and seven rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no Gods But what speak I of earthly Princes when neglect of the Sanctuary ushers in Rebellion against the King of heaven Hence we finde those precepts so frequently conjoynd of Observing Gods Sabbaths and reverencing his Sanctuary T is strange that the one should be Morall the other Ceremoniall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Heathen Psal 74.8 they will burne
an Angel of God A Prince of so gratious a disposition that the gratest fear his good subjects have to loose him is because he is too good for Earth One which lingers for peace in the greatest success of war One which has hoped to win by loosing and has willingly made himself less a King if by that means he might make us more subjects One which calls out for mercy in the field of blood ye stones hear this and melt forbidding the slaughter of those which they can take prisoners notwithstanding they came out to be his executioners Groaning for our wants our infringed Liberties our decayed religion which now lay expiring but that the soul of it has found a warme seat in his royal breast A true Cedar of Mount Lebanon that hath afforded a secure shelter to the humble vallies and never O never may he be cut down till he be removed to the building of the Heavenly Sanctuary As for those trees that would have the bramble raign let them be consumed by the brambles curse and be burnt up with the fire which the bramble kindles But I have forgot my self 2. Deprecemur The great God of Heaven remove this curse from us for let us no longer flatter our selves Brethren with a superficiall Allegiance have we been as zealous for God and the King as our duty binds us have our Eliahs cried as loud have they rent and cut themselves as much as Baals lying Prophets Has not the fear of Daniels den the place where the Kings Lions were kept and Jeremiahs dungeon stopped the mouths of our Men of God Did not Deborah here find better aid from Zebulon of those that handle the writers pen whereas after the groaning of the press vvith seditious Pamphlets our gracious Soveraign makes a just complaint that all pens are silent in his righteous cause If he do gladio protegere shall not we calamo defendere If his sword rights our cause shall not our quils write his He that fights for Heaven and us shall not our prayers fight with Heaven and wrastle with Almighty God for him Shall a little of Demosthenes his gold send the sqinzy in our throats Shall a politick silence stop our Mouths For good Sirs what should you fear the losse of your Estates Alas if you let fall this cause who can challenge a propriety 'T will be in vain to preach a non concupisces thou shalt not wish when a vote turnes you out of all nerutis caesis receptis Do you fear the losse of Liberty Was it ever more infringed Do you fear the losse of Religion I here indeed it pinches We have betrayed the cause Amyclaeo filentio whilst we durst not tell you the enemy was a coming They have taken away the Lord and we know not where they have laid him Nay they have not left so much as the white cloaths in the place where he lay before They have defaced the Sanctuary and yet we the Nehemiahs the Eliashibs the Priests and Labourers have taken neither a sword in one hand to defend it nor a trowell in the other to repair it God be mercifull unto our sin for it is great we have not holpen the Lord Against the might But the King shall rejoyce in thy Strength O Lord exceeding glad shall he be in thy Salvation Thou shalt give him his hearts desire and wilt not deny him the request of his lips For thou shalt prevent him with the blessings of goodness and shalt set a crown of pure gold upon his head His honour shall be great in thy Salvation glory and great worship shalt thou lay upon him For thou shalt give him everlasting felicity and make him glad with the joy of thy countenance And why because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most Highest he shall not miscarry All thine enemies shall feel thy hand thy right hand shall find out them that hate thee Thou shalt make them like a fiery oven in the time of thy wrath the Lord shall destroy them in his displeasure and the fire shall consume them Their fruit shalt thou root out of the Earth and their seed from among the Children of men For they intended mischief against thee and imagined such a device as they shall not be able to perform Therefore shalt thou put them to flight and the strings of thy bow shalt thou make ready against the face of them Be thou exalted Lord in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power Amen Amen The Third SERMON NUMBERS 17.8 And it came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the Tabernacle of Witness and behold the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded Almonds THen it appears that time was when Aaron had a rod and that rod budded too yes and it budded in the Tabernacle and was laid up in the Ark of the Covenant to be kept for a token against the Rebels in the latter dayes verse 10. And may not we fear that those latter dayes are faln upon us when Aarons rod is now broken and he himself scarce suffered to enter into the Tabernacle Whilst an Antichristian brood sit in the Temple of God which exalt themselves above all that is called God The Author to the Hebrews chap. 9. tells us of three sacra deposita holy Utensils laid up in the Ark together the pot of Manna the Tables of the Covenant and this budding rod and there they kept company so long that now they will not be parted Let one be banisht and all the rest we may fear will follow Once break the Crosier this pastorall rod and the Tables of the Covenant the ten Commendements are not long liv'd after it They shall be banisht out of the Church by sacrilegious deformers out of the heart by impious Antinomians and the pot of Manna the heavenly bread of holy doctrine shall be poysoned with the Coloquintida of errors mixt amongst it there will be mors in olla till some Elisha poure in meal better ground better sifted principles there is death in the pot Doctrine and Discipline like Hippocrates twins will alwayes either laugh or cry together The words read may be called Gods lottery the lots are rods the bag they are put in is the Tabernacle the hand that drew them out is the hand of Moses the house they fall on is the house of Levi. Or more plainly it is Gods miraculous preferring the house of Levi and Aaron most eminently of all that Tribe before the mutinying Congregation They depend upon the foregoing History and I should handle them very partially if I did not preface them with it When the Levite Coraâ— thought himself undervalued that he was only separated from the Congregation to do the service of the Tabernacle and to Minister to the people esteeming it but a small thing that the Lord had thus brought him neer unto himself
of their rebellion That so long as the altar has a being Men may learn from thence that no Man may take that honour to himself but he that was called of God as was Aaron 5 Heb. 4. And sure the love of God was such that he would choose none but the best of Governments for his Church Had all the Princes of the tribe of Levi had an equall share they by an Aristocrasy would have bred an emulation had all the People injoyed a parity their Democrasie would have brought in confusion but exalting Aaron in the high Priests chair and disposing of the rest in subordinate offices under him God maintained so blessed a Harmony in his Church as that it was an imperfect shadow of that blessed Harmony in heaven But 3. It was Aarons rod for the house of Levi upon whom the priesthood was entailed The Reubenites thought they had a fair plea for it because they were the first born of their Father Jacob and the other tribes wished well toward it witness the rods which every tribe put into the lottery in hopes it might be taken But God which is constant to all his purposes had chosen Levi of all the Tribes of Israel to be his Priest as the Man of God testifies 1 Sam. 2.28 To offer upon his altar and to burn incense before him And it is well that this honour was once esteemed so great that all the tribes were ambitious of it When the Ephod and the imbroydered coat were esteemed glorious The dregs of Jeroboams corruptions have a greater influence upon our times who made Priests of the lowest of the people and when God requires the most comely bodies and proportionable countenances for his service If any by nature be made so decrepit that he be unfit for any other imployment he will come and crouch and say put me into the Priests office that I may eat a morsel of bread Yet this Act of God which made the Priesthood Levi's impropriation as it debars others from affecting of it witness the destruction of the Reubenites Dathan Abiram and their Confederates or so much as intermedling with it vvhich cost poor Uzziah dear 2 Sam. 6.7 Who going to uphold the arke vvas smitten down so neither does it priviledge the Levites themselves to perform his service after their ovvn fancy If Aarons own sons Nahab and Abihu shall presume to offer up any other fire then that which descended from Heaven upon Gods Altar that fire which should consume their sacrifices shall devour themselves The service of the Sanctuary must be intire It will admit of no Mechanicks to officiate nor yet must the fiery zeal of Clergymen themselves coyne any new fangled formes of services and worship which God has not prescribed Both are enemies to Aarons rod here for as the one break it in pieces or steal it away and clap their own in the room so the other bow it to their humor and make it crooked after their own fancy Hitherto we have beheld the rod withered and dead let us now consider it in the miracle and see what fruit it bears which is branched in 3. degrees it budded it blossomed it brought forth Almonds Every tribe in Israel had provided his rod and every rod was strip'd alike and had the name of the Prince of the tribe ingraven on it Aarons rod had no more sap in it no more earth about it Onely it had Aarons name upon it Where God has made a secret choice he will make an open difference They go to the wrong end of the ladder which climb up into Gods breast first and there trace out those unsearchable points of his election and from thence ground themselves upon their impossibility of barrennesse and falling off and by consequence their necessity of budding and blossoming and bearing fruit Would such a course as this have comforted Aaron or satisfied the other tribes What difference between a Log and a Tree before it spring again But then is salvation sure when you work it out Then faith is alive when it is manifested by its works Then is Aaron declared to be Gods chosen when his rod quickens And quicken it must or else he cannot be the chosen of God No surer token of the life of grace then fruitfulness Barrenness was banished at the first creation out of his garden of the World Increase and multiply says he to all his creatures and if any fall short cut it down why combreth it the ground And he that is not marr'd by the Divel is always thus increasing he is alwayes going forward either budding new or ripening his last blossom'd fruit It was a curse laid upon avarice Esaiah 5.10 that ten acres of Vines should yeild but one bath and the seed of an Homer should yeild but an Ephah but one part for ten sure that is an incumbrance not a crop and those Vines are fitter for winters fire then summers vintage Nor yet will standing still in the same condition serve the turne as they say an Oak will for an hundred years together T is a true saying in Divinity qui Deo non progreditur regreditur he that goes not forward to God goes backward to the Devill It was no excuse to the idle servant that had hid his talent although he had buried it up for fear of losing ' ont and put it in a napkin for fear of rusting of it It was taken from him for his negligence he had gained nothing to it Yet who is there here present that cannot strike upon his heart and say Lord I am in a worse condition He was idle I am sinfull He hid his talent and brought it to light again I have spent mine and can shew no portion of it He did not ripen his blossoms I have made strip and wast of mine My beauty I have abused to voluptuousness my wealth to luxury my wit to knavery my zeal to hypocrysy my natural ingeny to maintain schism and heresy Utinam nescirem literas O that thou hadst given me no talent that having little I might had the lesse required The heat of thy spirit has sometimes quickened in me the buds of grace but the coldnesse of my devotion has nipp'd them Or if the warmth the sunshine of thy mercy or the fire of thy judgments has thaw'd my frozen heart and made it vigorous enough to bring forth blossoms the Prince of this ayr has mildewed them Or if the fruit has been set it has either been blown down by the storms of Affliction or wormeaten in the sunshine my prosperity and grown rotten at the Core Thus have our rods which should bud and blossom and bring forth fruit turned like the sorcerers to Serpents and stung us to death Observe yet farther as Aarons rod had three degrees of fruitfulness budding blossomming and bearing fruit so those three degrees met at one season spring summer ana harvest was joyn'd together as the one fed his hopes so the other confirmed his assurance
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