think they are in a better condition then wee are wee dislike it The Grecians murmured against the Jewes because their women were neglected Acts 6.1 Cain murmured because Abels sacrifice was accepted and his was not Judas murmured at the box of Spicknard that was bestowed upon our Lord. The elder brother of the prodigall child murmured that the fat calf should be killed for his riotous brother that had spent his fathers goods among harlots This people murmured thus against Moses and Aaron They envied Aaron the Saint of the Lord and murmured against Moses in their tents This wee speake not of now this was not the murmuring of envie What murmur was it then The other two First a murmuring of displeasure and discontent against God And then a murmur of disobedience both against God and against the Magistrate First I say it was a murmur of discontent against God and a fearefull murmur you shall seldome heare of the like I pray marke this When God promised them the land at any time hee usually promiseth it to them out of his love Because God loved the fathers therefore hee chose the seed Deuter. c. 4. ver 37. In another place Deuter. 7. ver 8. The Lord set his love upon you not because you were many for you were the fewest of all people but because hee loved you therefore hee brought you out of the land of Egypt I thinke there was never Nation had so many sensible demonstrations of Gods love as this people had Doe you think that God would have brought them out of the land of bondage with such a mighty out-stretched arme if he had not loved them Doe you think he would have made a way for them in the sea and afterward have fed them with bread from heaven and given them water out of the rock and have guided them with a pillar of fire in the night and a pillar of a cloud in the day if hee had not loved them Doe you think hee would have appeared to them in fire and have spoken to them in an audible voice out of Mount Sinai and have chosen them there to be a peculiar people to him of all the people in the earth if hee had not loved them You will say Who doubted of this love O I pray you heare this people hearken to this people out of their impatience and impatiency is ever full of misconstructions they impute all this that God had done to the very hatred of them Would you thinke it Look in Deut. c. 1. ver 27. Because God hated us therefore hee brought us out of Egypt to destroy us with the Amorires O sinfull Nation worthy to be hated indeed not worthy to be loved that takes Gods love thus for hatred This was the murmur of impatiency The murmur of disobedience against God and the Magistrate was in these words O that wee had died in the wildernesse O that wee were dead They were but affraid of death and they might have lived if they had beleeved they were but affraid of death and for feare they should die they wish O that wee were dead I he like murmuring you shall finde oft times of this people Fourty yeares long was God grieved and vexed with their continuall murmuring One while they murmured for want of water after they had water then they murmur at the bitternesse of the water One while they murmur for want of bread another time they had bread and the bread of Angels the bread of heaven then they murmur because they had nothing but bread One while they murmur at the government of Moses and Aaron God punished them for that murmuring then they murmur againe because God punished them They murmur at the tediousness of the way from Egypt to Cadesh-Barnea now they murmur because they may not goe from Cadesh Barnea to Egypt againe Thus they were like swine For as the swine whether full or empty waking or sleeping is ever grunting so this people were still murmuring The Apostle 1 Corinth chap. 10. ver 10. saith that this is written for our example that wee should not murmur as they murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Brethren beware of this sin of murmuring I will not speake of the murmuring of envie you have in this Psalme v. 16. They murmured one against another I doe not speake of that but I begin First beware of that murmuring of disobedience Children take heed how you murmur against your Parents Servants take heed how you murmur against your Masters Subjects take heed how you murmur against your Soveraigne Let nothing saith the Apostle be done with murmuring and reasoning Doe all things without murmurings and disputings Phil. chap. 2. ver 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome on that place excellently It is a grievous sin that same murmuring It is better saith hee there for a man not to have his worke done then done with murmuring The voice of murmuring is but a low voice it is not loud it is rather muttered then uttered it is but a low voice It may be the man heares thee not against whom thou murmurest But it is said The Lord heard the voice of this peoples murmuring Deuteronomy chap. 1. And the Author of the book of Wisedome excellently There is quoth hee auris zeli an eare of jealousie hee speakes of divine jealousie and that is a jealousie as hot as fire and there is an eare of a Jealous God and the voice of murmuring saith hee shall not be hid therefore saith hee in the next verse Beware of murmuring There is not such a secret thought that shall goe for nought If wee must give an account to God for every idle word surely wee shall give an account to God for words of desperate murmuring That is for the one Beware of that murmuring of disobedience Then of the other Beware above all of that murmuring of impatience There are a generation of men that cannot be troubled with any thing that they would not be troubled with nor can they want any thing that they would have they must not be crossed with wet nor dry with wind nor raine with foule nor faire weather but their mouths are presently set against heaven and they will not stick to charge God foolishly as the people did that God hates them I pray let mee onely give you a few remedies against this impatient murmuring The first is this Consider that that same Discipline of God at which wee murmur is from God Affliction comes not out of the dust as Eliphaz speakes There is nothing befalls thee in thine estate but it comes from a Divine power and is guided by a most wise providence and wilt thou murmur at it The very savage beast that is ready to flee at the throat of a stranger will endure it selfe to be stricken and beaten by his keeper Surely thou art worse then a beast if thou wilt not suffer God thy Father and thy Maker and thy Keeper to strike thee Then secondly againe
Aaron should have been more vigilant more couragious more resolute in his government to withstand them But they were importunate and clamorous they would never give Aaron 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
tempests he can bring down fire hee can hurrie a body and remove it as he did the body of our Lord from the wildernesse to the pinacle of the Temple and thence to the mountaine Hee can speake in Images it was the divell that spake in some Images of the Gentiles And if popish Images have now and then spoken too as they say they have Bene de me scripsisti said he of Thomas Aquinas Thou hast written well of mee Thomas I make no question but the divell spake in them The divell can doe more then that the divell knowes the secret and hidden vertues in things their sympathies and antipathies their qualities and properties The divels can doe wonderfull things Though they cannot doe miraculous things they can doe wonderfull things Thus the sorcerers in Egypt they did many wonderfull things mira but not true miracles Now fourthly there are mirabilia Dei the wonderfull things of God Indeed there is never a worke of God but it is wonderfull what worke soever it be The very Heathen man could say in every naturall thing there is something in it that is wonderfull But there are some workes of God above all other that are truly miracles not mira but miracula What workes are those Such as exceed the facultie and possibility of nature they are properly and theologically miracles The divell can doe many things by the concurrence of naturall causes but hee cannot worke a miracle that which is properly and theologically called a miracle the divell cannot worke it Now God had wrought many miracles for this people The turning of the dust of the earth into lice this was a miracle the Magicians by the help of the divell attempted to doe this but they could not doe it the art of the Magicians failed them in such a thing as this they could not turne the dust into lice Then he turned the water of the river into blood hee turned the red-sea into drie land hee turned three daies into three darke nights hee turned light into palpable darknesse that no man saw one another nor stirred from the place where hee was for three daies These are wonderfull things truely miracles yet this people forgat God their Saviour that had done such great things for them in Egypt and wondrous things in the land of Ham. Yea and lastly Terrible things in the Red-sea yea God did terrible things for them before they came to the red-sea He did terrible things for them in Egypt if you mark them hee plagued the Egyptians in all things First in their soules with hardnesse of heart hee plagued them in their bodies with botches and blaines hee plagued them in their corne with haile hee plagued them in their beasts with murraine hee plagued them in their houses with froggs hee plagued them in their families with the death of their first-born Here were terrible things when they were in Egypt but the most terrible thing of all was that at the red-sea when hee drowned Pharaoh and all his host that there was not one of them left In the ninth verse of this Psalme you may observe a worke of power in the tenth verse a worke of mercy and in the eleventh verse a worke of judgement The worke of mercy was a great worke the worke of power was a wonderfull worke and the worke of judgement was a terrible worke Yet for all this see the unthankfulnesse of this people They forgat all these But is it possible you will say that they forgar in so little a time all these works that they did not remember them There is a two-fold forgetfulnesse there is a forgetfulnesse of the minde and a forgetfulnesse in affection and action A man may have God in his minde yea in his words in his mouth and yet forget him while hee thinkes of him while hee speakes of him I will shew it you in examples Aske the Idoll-monger Why dost thou make this Idoll He will say To remember God by it It is the usuall word of the Papists Why have you these Images Why To remember God by them But this is no way to remember God this is to forget him because when his Commandement is forgotten hee is forgotten his Commandement is that thou shalt not make an Image They made this calfe to have a visible representation of God before their eyes to remember him O they forgat him now A blasphemer a swearer will have the Name of God in his mouth there are not three periods but hee will have the Name of God in his mouth Will you say that this man remembers God that talkes and speakes of him and swears by him at every word Doth hee remember him thinke you This is to forget God For if hee remembred the Name of God that it is a good name hee would love it If hee remembred that it were a great name hee would feare it If hee remembred it were a glorious name hee would reverence it But hee neither knowes it to be a good name hee forgets that it is a good name and a great name and a glorious name and that makes him to forget God even when hee remembers him and speakes of him To conclude let mee onely make a little application I thinke if any Nation may call God their Saviour next this people surely I thinke wee may doe it Consider how God saved us in 88. Was not that a great worke Remember how God saved us in the Gun-powder treason Was not that a wonderfull worke Remember how God saved our lives from death five yeares since in that same great and heavie plague Was not that plague a terrible worke Yet surely brethren have not wee forgotten God have not wee forgotten these workes of his Our falling from our first love our sliding back again to Egypt our neutrality in Religion our little hatred of Idolatry and Superstition such is our pride such is our wanton excesse such is our oppression such our false weights and such our false oathes and such our false faces Our waies that wee walke in are so unworthy of the Gospell of Christ that I am affraid God may charge us as truely as hee charged this people Wee have forgot God our Saviour that hath done so great things so wondrous things and so terrible things for us FINIS PSAL. 106.23 Wherefore hee said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach c. I Have done with that same fearefull sinne of this people I am now in the verse that I have read to shew you the fearefull punishment of God upon them for this sinne He said hee would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turne away his wrath lest hee should destroy them In these words you have two things The sentence that God pronounceth against this people for this sinne He said hee would destroy them You have secondly the revocation of this sentence the meanes whereby God was kept
I wonder not at the murraine of cattell in many places of this Kingdome I wonder not that the arrowes of pestilence flee abroad to so many corners of the Kingdome that the venome of them drinkes up the spirits of so many hundreds in severall places I wonder not at our mutuall Jealousies and discontents peradventure fore-runners of heavier judgements I wonder at the mercy of God considering what a sinfull Nation we be a Nation laden with sins a Nation that walk most unworthy of those high favours that God hath vouchsafed us I wonder I say at Gods mercy that hath spared us thus long It is his mercy that wee are not all consumed It is his mercy that God blots not out our names from under heaven Pradventure there be some Moseses in the land some chosen servants of God some that have stood in the gap to keep this judgement from us That is the first point I come now to the second He said he would destroy them saith the text then Moses his chosen stood in the breach and kept away his fierce wrath that hee should not destroy them Here are three things observable First that a sentence of extirpation pronounced against a people is revoked God said that hee would destroy them yet hee doth it not A second thing that one man Moses indeed a chosen man Moses whom hee had chosen procures this revocation of this sentence against this whole people A third thing is the meanes by which Moses came to get this sentence revoked and that was this hee stood in the breach God like an enemy had made a breach in the wall and Moses hee runnes to that breach and there stayes God that hee should not destroy them I am affraid time will not give mee leave to goe through all these I will goe as farre as I can and leave the rest till the next day they are not things that are to be hastily passed over The first is that the sentence is revoked Hee said that hee would destroy them Hee said it If a man had said it I should not then have wondred that it should have been revoked A man may say a thing and never meane it Man is deceitfull upon the weight lighter then vanity it selfe Or secondly a man may say a thing and meane it and yet not be able to make it good as Senacherib used great and big words against Jerusalem what hee would doe and hee meant it surely for hee came with a mighty army against it but God put a hooke in his nostrils and a bridle into his lips and brought him back againe that same way that hee came hee was not able to shoote an arrow against it Thirdly a man may say a thing and meane it and have power in his hand to doe it but his mind may be altere hee may repent of what he hath said as you see of David he said he would not leave a man alive in Nabals house to make water against the wall surely hee meant it too and had power in his hand to do it but by the wisedom of Abigail he was perswaded to turne and alter his mind hee did not doe it If a man had said this I say I should not have wondred But that God that is the prime truth the prime essentiall truth upon whom all truth depends Hee that is light in whom is no darknesse at all hee that is truth in whom there is no falshood at all none actually hee cannot deceive us none passively hee cannot be deceived himselfe that hee should say and should not doe it when hee hath said it for as that Wizard Balaam said truely God is not as man that hee should lie or as the son of man that he should repent Hath God said it and shall he not doe it saith hee Hath the word come out of Gods mouth and shall he not make it good I will urge the objection no further But I answer it and with the words of Gregorie Deus mutare sententiam c. God knowes how to change a sentence pronounced against a people but God knowes not how to change his counsell The counsell of God that is what God in his secret counsell hath decreed and determined from all eternity that shall be fulfilled in the season in the substance yea in every circumstance God knowes not how to change his counsell the counsell of God is as immutable as God himselfe There is no variablenesse with God saith S. James nor shadow of change c. 1.18 Mutability is a kind of mortality It is as possible for God to be mortall as to be mutable The counsell of God is immutable God knows not how to change that but God knows how to change a sentence pronounced You shall see it in many examples God tells Abimelech in a dream Surely thou art a dead man for this woman that thou hast in thine house yet no sooner had Abimelech restored the woman but Gods sentence was changed his life spared In Judg. 10. the people were oppressed by the Philistines and by the Ammonites they come to God for help God tells them No saith hee I have delivered you heretofore when you cried to mee I delivered you but you have gone and served other gods goe get you to those gods let them deliver you as for mee I will deliver you no more A fearefull sentence yet presently upon their repentance God delivered them and many times afterward Ezechiah was sick to death and God sends him a message by Isaiah Set thine house in order for thou shalt die Ezechiah turnes his face to the wall and weepes God revokes his sentence and hee addes fifteene yeares more to his daies God sends a fearefull message by the mouth of Jonah to the Ninevites Yet fourty daies and Nineveh shall be destroyed yet for all that fourty and fourty and almost fourty more not daies but years passed over the heads of the Ninevites before that City of theirs was lodged in bloud Why but will some say how can this stand though with the constancy and unchangeablenesse of Gods nature yet with his truth thus to change and revoke his sentence Not to trouble you with the opinions of some men let me only hold to this That these same comminations and threatnings of God are not absolute but they are conditionall they are upon a condition Now a condition as the School-men say a conditionall threatning a conditionall commination it doth turne it selfe upon the condition this way or that way as the doore doth upon the hinges Let me make it a little plainer if I can When God doth threaten that hee will roote out a people as hee did here now or to bring such and such judgements upon a people hee doth it usually upon a two-fold condition When God doth so threaten a people hee requires two things from that people The first is at the hands of wicked men that is that they shall all turne away from their sins repent of their sins
two they encourage them and say it is no more but arise come let us possesse it They were full of faith Caleb his name signifies hearty a hearty man full of courage Come quoth hee let us goe up and possesse it the land is worth our labour The other ten spies white liver'd men they tell another tale they begin with a commendation of the land It could not be denied it was a good land a land that flowed with milk and hony as God told them that was very true But commonly when a man will deprave when he will calumniate hee begins his calumniation with a commendation and hee comes in with a But As when wee commend a man O hee is a good man a very good man a good neighbour but and then he goes on Like as wee reade of Naaman the Assyrian a great man an honourable man a mighty man at armes one that had done great acts but hee was a leper Even as the Papists they commend the Scripture O it is an excellent booke the booke of Scripture It was written by the Spirit of God holy Pen-men of holy matters in a holy stile to an holy end O it is a good booke but it is a hard booke it is difficult there are great mysteries in it it is impossible for Lay-men to attaine to it it is good to keep them from it Ignorance is the mother of devotion Even thus doe the spies It is a good land O a very good land it flowes with milk and hony there wants nothing you can desire you see the fruit of it but it is hard coming to it there is great difficulty I tell you it is impossible to come to it Why what was the matter First of all the men wee found in the land were the sons of Anak Gyants men of mighty stature their height was as the height of Cedars and their strength as the strength of Oakes as the Prophet speakes of the Amorites A mighty people they are Gyants wee are but like grashoppers in their sight they took us as grashoppers they may tread us downe at their pleasure And then againe these men dwell in cities and these cities are walled yea and to make it the more terrible they are walled up to heaven thus they say in Deuteronomy chap. 1. Their Cities are walled up to heaven there is no scaling of them Then besides say they it is such a land as devoures the Inhabitants of it it eates out the Inhabitants How is that It is hard to say their meaning Some think thus there were pestilentiall vapours there that caused the pestilence among them that they died upon heapes Some think they were at civill wars one among another Or peradventure it will eat out the heart of the husband man in the tillage of it with strong labour they must toyle and work hard if they will have their living Somewhat it was but they bring an ill name an ill report upon the land as the Scripture saith Never seeke to get this land it is impossible the men are so great and the wals are so high and it is such a land as eates out the Inhabitants The people they heare this and first they fall to their old weeping as they did before for meat for flesh they fell a weeping all that night there was nothing but weeping to heare this Well the next day they fall to murmuring in their tents If they had wept for their sin of infidelity it had beene well but in their mourning they fall a murmuring First against God for when God promised to give them this land out of his love Because I loved your Fathers therefore I gave you the land the people turne it the other way No God did it out of his hatred thus they say in Deut. God hated us therefore hee brought us out of Egypt to kill us here Then they fall a murmuring against Moses What were it not better to have died in Egypt Were there no graves in Egypt Were it not better to die in the wildernes then to go in and die there They wish to die for feare of death they wish themselves dead for feare they should die Then they goe a little further they will forsooth chuse a new Captaine and goe back into Egypt they will not goe into the pleasant land they will chose an Elect one and back they will goe and they will not goe in there Mases and Aaron fall upon their faces and entreat them and Caleb and Josua encourage them this land may be gotten the Lord delivered us from the Amalekites and he will deliver us from the Amorites the Lord hath slaine the Egyptians and cannot hee slay the Anakims No by no meanes they tooke up stones and would have stoned Caleb and Josua had not the glory of God appeared upon the Tabernacle God knowes what they would have done Upon that they stayed then they knew Gods displeasure then God swears of all these people that came out of the land of Egypt and there were six hundred thousand men that were twenty yeares old and upward not one man of them should enter into the land of Promise they shall all of them since they wish they might die in the wildernesse they shall die every one of them and hee commands them to goe back againe hee carries them to the red-sea hee makes them wander thirty eight yeares and an halfe more in the wildernesse and in that time all that generation was worne out Hee gave it to their seed but not one man of them did come into the land of Promise but those two Caleb and Josua Now you may see what the meaning of my Text is They despised the pleasant land When they heard they could not have it without some blood-shed they will none of it They despised the pleasant land and would not beleeve his Word The spies told them one thing that they could not get it and God said they should have it they tooke mans word rather then Gods They would not beleeve his word Then marke how my Text goes on then they murmured in their tents First they murmured against God It is out of his hatred that hee doth it Then against Moses Why have you brought us to die here Then last of all they utterly refuse to goe to this land But as it is in the story when they saw that God had sworn that not a man of them should come in then all in haste they would goe God bids them goe and then they say No. Then hee saith See you goe not for if you doe surely you shall be made a spoyle to them yet for all that they would go and they were made a spoyle to their enemies a number of them fell by the sword Now I have told you this whole history you shall the better observe out of these words such points as they shall naturally afford to us I begin first with the first sin their despising of the pleasant land They