invidentiae a murmur of envy against our neighbours when wee 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 no◠〈…〉 or 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 bee 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 Amorites 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 The 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
meanes hee would goe at last saith Saint Austine by a familiar violence they drew him once to goe and see those bloudy sports Well saith hee I will goe but I will be absent while I am there I will not looke on it Hee went and when hee came hee sate there among the rest but hee shut his eyes and would not see any of those sports till at length there was a man wounded and then the people shouted Hee had shut his eyes but hee had not stopped his eares hee heard the shout and would see what was the matter hee looked about and seeing the wounded man he then desired to see a little more Thus saith Saint Austine he grew at the last not to be the same man he was when he came thither but to be as one of the company to which hee came and after that time hee desired to see it a second and a third time and at last hee came to be not only a companion of those that went thither but would be a guide to them yet hee would goe not tanquam unus ex illis he would be one of the forwardest And thus hee continued a while till it pleased God by a mighty hand to deliver him from this vanity The eyes are the windowes of the body and if wee shut them not up against allurements wee may happily be forced to crie out as they did Jerem. 9. 21. Death is entered in at the windowes Lord saith David turne away mine eyes that they behold not vanity Idols are called vanities oft in Scripture Surely wee shoud make a covenant with our eyes that they be not the occasion of our falling I said it the other day I conclude with it now Hee that would have an eye to his heart must have an heart to his eye My fourth caveat that I give is this Take heed how you doe allow your selves to live in any knowne sinne without repentance for this is the way for which God gives men over to this sinne of Idolatry Unrepented of errours in life breed errours in judgement Those 2 Thes 3. v. 10 11. that will not embrace the love of the truth that they may be saved saith the Apostle those men shall have strong delusions to beleeve lies I conclude all with what the Apostle speaking of the heathen saith Rom. 1. 25. They knew God The heathen had some knowledge of God but they were not carefull to glorifie him as God but were unthankfull What punishment came upon them for it This their foolish heart grew full of darkenesse and when they professed themselves wise men they became fooles Fooles Why How did they play the fooles Saith the Apostle which is the very phrase that is here Because when they knew God they did not care to glorifie him as God but were unthankfull therefore God gave them over to this blindenesse to turne the glory of the incorruptible God to the Image of corruptible man and of foure-footed beasts and they served and worshipped the creature more then the Creator that is God over all who is blessed for ever Thus beloved I have now done with that great point concerning the worshipping of Images Now I come to the last thing in my Text that is the roote of this sin whence this sin of theirs did spring it was from forgetfulnesse of God and of his workes They forgat God their Saviour c. The words are many and many things may be observed out of them I will runne them first over with a briefe paraphrase and then speake of that sinne that was the cause of this Idolatry the forgetfulnesse of God They forgat God There was one of the Tribes that was called the Tribe of Manasses Manasses had this name of forgetfulnesse When I looke over this Psalme mee thinkes this people should be all of that Tribe they were so forgetfull In ver 7. They remembred not the multitude of his mercies There the Spirit of God speakes of their forgetfulnesse Then in ver 13. they soone forgat his workes They made haste and forgat them as the words are And now here againe They forgat God their Saviour Three times the Spirit of God in this Scripture speakes of their forgetfulnesse of God It was but three months agoe since God brought them out of the land of Egypt It was little more then one month agoe since God appeared to them in a fearefull manner upon Mount Sinai with thunder and lightning and earth-quakes and yet see they have already forgot God God their Saviour Saviour The word is sometime taken strictly in the Scripture in a narrow sense and sometime it is taken in a larger sense Take it in the narrow sense and then a Saviour is such an one as saveth from sinne from the punishment of sinne from Gods wrath from hell and eternall damnation Thus our Lord is called a Saviour You know what the Angell said to the Shepheards This day is borne to you in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And his very name shewes him to be thus Jesus it signifies a Saviour and the reason is given by the Angell because hee shall save the people from their sinnes Hee saves them First from the guilt of sin Then he saves them from the punishment of sin Then hee saves them from the power of sin Thus the word Saviour is taken when you take it strictly But you may take it more largely and then a Saviour is such an one as is a deliverer a preserver either from wrong from afflictions from oppressions from dangers from temporall death A Saviour that is as if hee should say a Preserver In this sense the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 1. 10. that God is the Saviour of all men that is the preserver of all men but especially of them that beleeve In this sense take the word here God was their Saviour that is their Preserver And doe but consider First the evils from which hee preserved them and those were many Then consider the meanes whereby hee preserved them and those were mighty Then consider the end to which he preserved them and that was glorious that they should be a holy people a peculiar treasure to himself Consider I say the meanes by which the ill from which and the end to which they were saved and then no people may more appropriate God to be their Saviour then this people could Yet behold They forgat God their Saviour Yea and they forgat his works The works of God are set downe here to be of three sorts Great workes Wonderfull workes Terrible workes Great works in Egypt Wondrous works in the land of Ham the land of Ham and Egypt are all one Then Terrible works by the Red-sea Great works The works of God are either workes of Nature workes of Grace The workes of Nature are either workes of Creation or they are workes of Actuall providence in the preserving that that is created The workes of Grace those are many The principall
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 marke 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 forgat 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 bee should destroy them In these words you have two things The sâ—ntence 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 from the execution of this judgement
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 altered 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 and then the sentence is