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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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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
am to consider how far Children are obnoxious upon account of their Father's offences For that they are concerned on account of their Father's faults is plain from the Words and from other Arguments also We find God denouncing against the third and fourth Generation of Idolaters or of them that hate Him Exod. 20. Holy Men have confessed the Sins of their Fathers Dan. 9.16 We have sinned with our Fathers Nehem. 9. we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly Ps 106.6 7. Our Fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies but provoked him at the Sea even at the red Sea And God promiseth Mercy to them who confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers Levit. 26.40 Josiah was a good King but descended from Menasseh a very wicked person upon his account Judah is afflicted Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Menasseh had provoked him withall 2 Kings 29.2 This is enough to justifie our Church when she directs us to pray Remember not our iniquities nor the iniquities of our Forefathers For the better speaking to this matter First I shall shew how this is to be understood Secondly I shall consider the grounds of it First How it is to be understood that the Children are obnoxious upon the account of their Fathers Sin And that in the following particulars 1. It must not be understood of Eternal punishment A man shall not for his Father's Sins lye down in Everlasting burnings As our Fathers Faith will not let us into Heaven so neither will their Impiety shut us out We may be deprived of many Temporal blessings on their account but not of Eternal glory The Children of those that murmured and lusted in the Wilderness were admitted into the promised Land The Daughters of Zelophehad are not deprived of their Inheritance tho' their Father fell short of the good Land We shall be separately considered there according to our own deeds When the Father dyes for Treason the Son is not capitally punished unless he were an associate or complice However his Bloud be tainted or his Goods diminished his Life cannot be touched 2. Where the Children continue in their Father's crimes there is no injustice in punishing them Thus have those words Exod 20.5 been anciently understood and thus it is in the case before us Behold I send unto you Prophets and some of them ye shall kill v. 34. In this case there is no shadow of injustice And they may be said to continue in their Fathers sins who do not confess them nor repent of them who abhor them not and root not out of their Minds those faulty Principles and vicious Propensities that lead them to the same crimes There is no injustice in punishing the nocent what-ever the impulsive cause may be 3. For Temporal Evils they may be without any shadow of injustice the lot and portion of the best of Men. I say without any shadow of injustice on God's part For on Man's part there is often great injustice And tho' God makes use of Men as instruments of severity to chastise his Servants this does not excuse their fault or lessen their crime But 't is evident that a good Man may suffer greatly in this World without impeachment of the Justice or Providence of God 'T is sometimes for the good of the whole that the Righteous Man suffers and always for his own He will have a more ample reward hereafter and will not want a sufficient support here These things being premised it will not be hard Secondly To give you the grounds of this That is to shew you why the Children are many times punished or afflicted upon the score of their Father's impiety I shall speak of these with a particular respect to the Jews to whom my Text relates There are several circumstances in the case before us that do enhance the crime of the Jewish posterity 1. Their Sin was the greater because their Fathers sins as well as the many Plagues that were inflicted on them for their offences were recorded and the record of these things was preserved among them Whatever things were written afore-time were written for their warning and instruction They were not left without witness For besides their Conscience and their warning by their Prophets from time to time they had among them an account in writing of their Fathers crimes and plagues This advanceth their iniquity above the size and stature of that of their Forefathers They sinned after the greatest Warning and severest Examples To this purpose it hath been well observed that tho' Murther was forbid as a capital Crime to the Sons of Noah as well as to the Jews And there was no sacrifice of Expiation allowed for that Sin by the Law of Moses yet Cain the first Murtherer was exempted from Death by God himself He was indeed doomed to be an Exile and a Vagabond but care was taken that Cain should not be killed because in him the World had warning In after-times it was strictly provided that every Murtherer should dye the death This is applicable to our present case The Fathers of these Jews had killed the Prophets and had suffered severely for their wickedness they knew all this very well and yet after all this warning they tread in their Father's steps 2. Because they repeated the same Sins and persisted in them to the last To repeat our folly and persist in it is always a great aggravation of it 'T is some extenuation of our fault that we are surprized The liquor of the Grape hath prevailed sometime upon a righteous but unwary Man Our persisting adds weight to our guilt This was the case of these Jews they went on to persecute and destroy the Righteous as their Fathers did They fill up the measure of their iniquity and hasten their own ruine and destruction 3. They do this also under the profession of better things If we had been in the days of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the bloud of the Prophets v. 30. This made their Sin the more detestable that they were guilty of the greatest cruelty when they made profession of mercy and tenderness They covered their hatred to God's living Saints by professing a great veneration for the Saints departed That 's a detestable Hypocrisy when Men shall declaim against their Fathers sins and make much of their own This does mightily enhance their guilt and call for their destruction Their iniquity is now ripe and full when they condemn and practice the same thing Their Fathers sinned greatly but they owned it These Hypocrites cloak their own malice by exclaiming against that of their Father's No sin is greater than that which is acted under the disguise of Piety No Wolf is more ravenous and formidable than he that lurks under Sheep's-cloathing He is the