the spirit their flesh they nourish and pamper their soules they starue and famish neyther laying hold of Gods promise which is the ground wherevpon they stand neyther caring for the word of God which is their foode neyther by Prayers and Meditations raysing vp in them the ayde and strength of faith which is the sword wherewith they must fight So daily the bodie growes stronger as if he should say Who can conquer mee and the spirit weaker crying who shall deliuer mee Lastly we should fight for brotherly loue but we trample it vnder our feete else what doe so many diuisions and schismes Doe wee feare our part is too strong and hauing escaped the sword of our enemies doe we seeke to fall by our owne But the actors of sects doe separate themselues as the onely sanctified and chosen despising all others as Publicanes and Sinners But let me aske where there is among you enuying and strife and diuisions are you not carnall You are not as this Publicane or Sinner are you not worse he is come neere to teare the flesh of IESVS which hath rent his coat But these may suffice God grant that we all which haue ourâ—… profession in CHRIST may haue our minde for CHRIST and not onely resolue to fight this fight for the Kingdome of Heauen in our seuerall stations as we are to ioyne with the honour of God the rescuing of our soules and bodies from the enemies of God but in all our states and callings whatsoeuer publikely to behaue our selues like good labouring Souldiers of Christ our Lord whether we be Counsailours or Iudges or Deligats for peace or inferiour Officers or priuate men or Pastours of the flocke or any wayes called to thinke that to all doth belong this good labour that publique peace and tranquilitie be defended the truth maintayned Religion preserued the good encouraged the wicked punished and aboue all GODS prayse and glory euer magnified Now to God the Father with the Sonne and the holy Ghost be all Power and Dominion ascribed now and for euer Amen THE CALLING OF MOSES The fourth Sermon EXOD. Chap. 3. Vers. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Verse 1. When Moses kept the sheepe of Iethro his father in law Priest of Midian and droue the flocke to the backe-side of the desart and came to the mountaine of God HOREB Verse 2. Then the Angell of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middest of a Bush and beholde the Bush burned with fire and the Bush was not consumed Verse 3. Therefore Moses said I will turne aside now and set this great sight why the Bush burns not Verse 4. And when the Lord saw that hee turned aside to see God called vnto him out of the middest of the Bush and said Moses Moses And he answered I am heere Verse 5. Then he said Come not hither put off thy shooes from thy feete for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground IF this place of Scripture had moued me to but an intent of handling the seuerall parts according to their just weight and substance I must of necessity haue giuen it ouer and layd this burthen on some other whose shoulders could haue better borne it than mine can and haue chosen some foords and shallowes of other Scriptures through which more easily I might haue waded But sithence I haue no other purpose than to gather from these branches such fruit as hangeth lowest for my reaching I hope I shall offend no reasonable Hearer The generall Scripture which hath in it the Calling of Moses sheweth vs first who called him God Verse 4. Verse 2. The Angell of the Lord secondly the place generall Verse 1. The Desart thirdly the particular place Verse 4. Out of the Bush fourthly the manner of Calling familiarly by name Moses Moses fiftly Moses his readinesse Heere am I sixtly a Prohibition Come not hither seauenthly a Commandement or Exhortation Put off thy shooes from thy feete eightly a reason it may be of both For the place where thou standest is holy ground There is no doubt but as often as God appeared to our Fathers making himselfe manifest by some signe so often hee stouped downe from the height of his Majesty and as wee may thinke went forth from himselfe to come nearer to them For that which is most vnworthy of that Diuine majestie to borrow a Body or a Face of his Creatures for a time is yet the greatest vouchsafing wherewith hee can vouchsafe vs and the possiblest meanes he hath to make vs whiles we are here in the flesh attentiue and to wonder at his greatnes The same God doth stoupe downe and bow himselfe to vs when he speaketh and calleth by his word out of the lippes and mouthes of his Prophets and Ministers and there is no difference betweene that trembled Majesty which spake to Moses miraculously and to vs ordinarily But this is the end of extraordinary calling that they haue extraordinary effects to whom God doth appeare by strange and fearefull signes and wonders in them he sheweth more wondred workes of his power Had not God called Moses who could haue perswaded a silly poore man a shepheard in the wildernesse such an one as before fled from the face of one man to oppose himselfe to a mighty kingdome to a whole Nation Had not God inspired how could one naked man with a little wand in his hand whip Pharaoh and his kingdome and smite the whole land and hauing first beaten him with haile and stormes after he had almost eaten him vp with Lice Exodus 8 17. and Caterpillers Exodus 10. 13 after hee had shaken him with thunders and scorched and blasted him with lightnings Exodus 9. 23. powre him out and his whole hoste like dregges into the Sea Now for the calling of Moses wee must consider this followed another calling of his namely his inward calling with which he was called before it was then an outward calling yet not that outward which is opposed to the inward for so many are called But a certaine deputation of a purpose which God would publish and make manifest by him whom by warrant of this calling as by Commission he would authorize to sit in his owne place and to visite Pharaohs house in regard whereof he saith I will make thee Pharaohs God So now Moses considering the highnesse of him that calleth him shall little regard how vilely men esteeme of him being assigned by him before whom not onely all earthly Kings and their kingdomes but the heauens themselues are lovve And againe Moses considering the power of him that calleth him shall now despise his owne weaknes and a thousand slow tongues And further looking into the end for which he is called to deliuer his brethren from their bondage and affliction shall comfort himselfe not onely against the hardnesse of his labour and the obstinacie of blind Pharaoh but against the bitter murmurings of his own brethren
cast forth into the Wildernesse into the place of Dragons to haue thy abiding with Zym and Dragons and Ostriches and Ohim c. yet heere God looketh vpon thee The same God which saw thee when thou fleddest from thy Brother I the same God which saw thee when thy Mother which bare thee forsooke thee and shut thee vp in a little Arke of Slime and Pitch and cast thee forth among the Bulrushes and left thee floating vpon the water We see as the littlenesse or vnaptnesse of the persons cannot hinder God in executing by them works of wonder no more can the vnlikelinesse or vnaptnesse of the place He can make as many Springs to flow out of the rocky Desart as from Apenninus the father of Riuers hee can store the waste and roaring Wildernesse with as much prouision as fruitfull Aegypt he can leuye as great an Armie from Sina bushes as from the middest of Pharaohs Kingdome But what is the reason that God appeareth to Moses rather in the Wildernesse then in Aegypt Haue the Aegyptians onely driuen out Moses from them Haue they not also chased God away He cannot abide in Pharaohs Court there is so much hardnesse in Pharaohs hart he cannot abide in their land for their cruelty nor in their Temples for their Idolatry It was a poore entertaynement that the Lord of life when he came to dwell with vs and to inhabite our flesh that hee must be driuen to seeke the Asses cratch and that our vnthankefulnesse did thrust the God of life into a Stable but it was harder that quietly the Babe IESVS could not enioy that but Mary must be driuen to flie by the way of the Wildernesse into Aegypt to hide her Sonne for feare of Herod and the Iewes Why doe we thus banish God from vs and chase him forth into remote and farre Countries from whence he will not returne but to smite vs and iudge vs as he did the Aegiptians heere Why doth hee rather dwell in the thornie bush then in Pharaohs heart He is not in Samaria but he is in the Desart with Eliah he is not with Belshazzar in his Pallace Dan. 5. but he is with Daniell in the denne of the Lyons Dan. 6. He is not in Sodome but hee is in the Mountaine with Lot He is not with Saul in his Tent but he is with Dauid in the caue Oh our vngratefulnesse nay our wretchednesse if where we are most there God is least Now for the third part in order the Place particular It should little boote to set downe the varietie of the opinions of them which haue interpreted this vision but God had doubtlesse his secret heere Some apply it to the Israelites and their peruerse disposition which were alwaies like the thornes which resistes the fire Some take for the Bush the wombe of the blessed Virgin some the bodie of CHRIST I will not maintayne these opinions neyther will I impugne them but we more safely compare this vision with that of Abrahams where God appeared to him in a firebrand out of a darke Fornace The reason is God sufreth not his people to be extinguished in darkenesse The afflicted and oppressed people of Israell we may resemble to the low shrub or bush The tyranny of Pharaoh to the fire burning in the middest which had consumed them had not God miraculously preserued them So by the presence of God the bush scapes the fire as it is written that although the flouds lift vp themselues against the Sanctuary of God yet it shall not be moued because God is in the middest of it Saint Paul saith of God our God is a consuming fire But Moses can say our God is a preseruing fire To the Aegyptians he was a consuming fire but to the Israelites a preseruer from fire He consumed the Captaynes of Ahaziah but he preserued Elijah Hee consumed the Princes of Nabuchodonosor but he preserued the three children in the middest of the fire Isay was preserued by this fire for when God touched his mouth with a coale burning from the Altar he heard Thine iniquitie shal be taken away and thy sinne purged And although the fire be now out of the Bush yet Christ hath brought fire anew from heauen and left it burning in the Tongues and Lippes of his Apostles and made them the Lights of the world Now touching the Vision No doubt but Moses was wonderfully astonished with the miracle he goeth aside to wonder to gaze at this strange sight But these if thou compare Moses with those miracles which God wil worke by thee with those great wonders in Aegypt with his continuall appearing to thee in a Cloude by day and in a Pillar of fire by night This burning flame I say if thou compare with these and with Mount Sinai burning all with fire it shall seeme to be but a little sparke And yet that great deliuerance of Gods people which was wrought by Moses at which all the earth trembled which filled all hearts with astonishment which was done with so mighty an hand outstretched arme compare we it to our deliuerance in Iesu Christ and it will seeme but as shadow to a body and lesse indeede than a little sparkle to a great flame What is their deliuerance from Aegypt to our deliuerance from Death and Hell What the leading of them through the red Sea to our washing in the bloud of Christ What the standing of the Sunne at the praier of Ioshuah to the descending of the Sunne of God into the world What the slaying of the first borne in Aegypt to the crucifying of Iesus Christ the Lord of Life Come we how to the manner of his calling which is the fourth in order Heere wee earne first that this was no dumbe shew to terrifie the holy man For it hath Doctrine annexed to establish his minde And indeede the miracle is great but the calling of Moses is greater And God calleth Moses by name familiarly which telleth him that now hee hath a kinde of fellowship and acquaintance with God that he must now walke with God and forget his father and acquaintance in the flesh and his flocke of sheepe and the world and follow his calling For God by speaking to him in this sort doth enter and insinuate himselfe into his minde and moue him to regard his daily walking as a continuall judging For how must they walke with whom Gods eie doth alwayes walke as an indiuiduall companion Now God by nameing vs when hee calleth shewes that hee knowes vs when he speaketh not He calls vs in time he knowes vs before time when he calleth he is not neerer to vs than he was before but he teacheth vs to draw nearer to him But this is the least we can imagine of God to thinke hee walketh with vs as an indiuiduall companion for hee walketh in our soule and betweene the diuisions of
and the hardnesse of their hearts And lastly Moses calling to heart that wonderfull vouchsafing of the Diuine majesty first in looking vpon a people which were afflicted with so cruell bondage but especially in looking on him which was afflicted by the afflicted in a lower degree of misery than bondage to make him their Leader to make him Pharaohs God to furnish him with all helpes to grace him with the familiarity of his owne presence how gladly shall hee consecrate all his power and strength to this seruice to Gods businesse with care with resolution with all his heart But we must obserue that albe it be heere written God called him yet in the second Verse we finde the Angell of the Lord appeared to him If we desire to know who this Angell should be which in the sixt Chapter verse 3. calleth himselfe by the name of Iehouah and taketh to him the glory of the eternall Godhead wee may safely with the Fathers take him for the eternall Sonne of God in regard of his person of a Mediator Which person albeit he did after take vpon him when in the fulnesse of time hee tooke our flesh yet he bore the figure and image thereof from the beginning And to this purpose Saint Paul calleth him the a Leader of the people in the desart For albeit he were not yet come yet might his Predestination to that office be of that force that hee might make himselfe knowne to the Fathers vnder no other habite For all the communication they had with God was by no other meanes than of the Messiah which was promised which although he were the eternall Word that is God himselfe yet might he in respect of his future Office and Embassie borrow the name of an Angell And farther be it that the eternall Sonne of God did appeare to Moses yet could not this hinder any thing that hee appeared by an Angell more then that when God appeared to Abraham in the likenesse of three Angels for that there also the Angels speake in the person of God at the time appoynted I will returne vnto thee according to the time of life It is no extraordinary thing for the Prophets themselues which beare Gods message doe sometimes take vpon them Gods person and speake as God speaketh as Elisha second of Kings Ch 6. vers 16. which vseth the same words and Eliah the first of Kings Ch. 21. 20. Onely this may suffice to be gathered from this place that whatsoeuer God speaketh by his Angels is of as much certayntie as if Gods owne mouth had spoken it I if he leaue Angels and chuse Shepheards and Fishermen to doe his message the authority is no lesse then if it had beene thundred from Heauen or vttered by an hoast of Angels or written in the Heauens or spoken from Heauen by the mouth of the Sonne of God from the right hand of God for although the Angels of Gods Church heere on earth be by no meanes to be compared with those blessed mindes for excellency of substance or immortality or purenesse from sinne yet are they not inferiour to them in respect of their message if they be not aboue them in regard of their office which is greater then to sit vpon the Spheares of Heauen and to bring the Sunne to his daily course to vphold the earth to dispose seasons and times to inflict famines and pestilence for to them only is committed the dispensation of the word of Life the power of the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen the Administration of the Sacraments they wash you with liuing water in Baptisme In the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost they reach you the flesh and bloud of Christ in the Lords Supper they lift you vp to Heauen by preaching of that powerfull word the least iot and title whereof shall not passe when heauen and earth are passed away and for this cause although an Angell appeared to Cornelius he went no farther then to messenger him to Saint Peter which should tell him what he should doe I when CHRIST himself appeared to Saul and spake to him from Heauen yet he gaue to Ananias this honour that he should be the instrument of his conuersion and of his receiuing the holy Ghost Let no man then now looke to be called out of a bush burning with fire or by a voyce from heauen sithence God doth as vndoubtedly call vs daily out of the mouthes of his Ministers and Preachers and speake by them as familiarly as he did by Moses and if they be Ministers to you of Grace and Life and the riches and glory of the Kingdome of heauen let it not grieue you with good consciences to be Ministers to them of the perishing things of this world neyther despise you them because they are men and sinners as you are for God which deputed them did it not for want of Angels but in calling them he preferreth your nature Hee knowes their vnworthines better then you yet he honoureth them Doe you dishonour them whom God honoureth What then doe you blaspheme the good of your brethren for which you are to giue God thanks I and some there are which load them with disgracefull termes and rayling words such as the Angell sustayned not to giue to the Diuell himselfe The spirit himselfe calleth that blinde and carelesse Minister the Angell of his Church Doe we esteeme them whom the mouth of God calleth Angels as the basest of all men Are you wiser then the holy Ghost or can you constitute a better forme of gouernment in Gods Church then God himselfe hath ordayned Doubtlesse none can set little by the Ministers of Christ but they which haue hated him first Wee cannot reach at his Heauens we cannot touch his Sunne nor Starres nor disorder the least of his workes heere on earth and yet we oppose our selues to that to which God hath giuen a farre more excellent being namely the word of truth the image of his glory the sword of of his Iustice the Scepter of his Kingdome Our second circumstance followeth The Place general out of which Moses is called the Desart c. The Prophet shewing that no man can flie from the presence of God neyther by ascending into Heauen or lying in Hell or dwelling in the Sea c. As hee proueth that if we doe wickedly we lye open alwayes to the vengeance wrath of God so he enforceth that if we doe well nothing can take our reward from vs. What maruell if then God search the Wildernesse for his seruant Moses doth he not vse to search for his seruants the dennes of Lyons and fiery Ouens and the bottome of the Sea and the bottome of the graue For as he reioyceth to bring hidden wickednesse to open punishment so he more delighteth to bring secret godlinesse to open light and glory Although then Moses thou be
parts as he passed by What then Didst thou see any vnrighteousnes in the Lord VVas there any weaknesse in his arme any crookednesse in his path VVas hee like the sonnes of men whose breath is in their nostrills Thou hast seene Moses his backer parts blessed are they which shall see his face Blessed are they which when the face of the Lord shall be reuealed shall not seek the hills to couer them or the clefts of the rockes to hide them Blessed are they whose rocke is the Lord 2 Sam. 22. 1. whose mercy is to them as the hills on euery side Psal. 125. 2. Blessed are the pure in heart which shall see God strange and mercifull and gracious slow to anger and not making the wicked innocent reseruing mercy for thousands for giuing iniquitie and transgressions visiting the iniquity of the fathers vpon the children and vpon the childrens children vnto the third and fourth generation Let vs come to our seauenth part Put off thy shooes from thy feets By these words God doth stirre him vp and prouoke him to further Deuotion and Reuerence This ceremony of standing bare-foote before GOD is like our kneeling and vncouering in the Church And of all ceremonies this is the end that Gods trembled Majesty may haue a more effectuall working in vs. Moses had shewed a reasonable readinesse to his calling before Here am I he hath yet need to be more stirred vp And if the most noble Prophet of God had need of such preparation no maruell if God doe stirre vp our dulnesse by diuers like meanes when his high worship is required for that which is in some the effect of godlines to others a cause of godlinesse In them which are more perfect reuerence descendeth from their inward worship of God by which the weaker ascend to the inward worship And godly ceremonies are in some tokens of duety to others lessons of duety Afflictions and sorrow come from Repentance by which God doth bring many to repentance Thus we see Ceremonies haue their necessary vses Neyther doe we by lawfull vsing them tie Religion to outward things but rather leade our selues to the inward worship Although wee liue in that age where all markes of outward duety are contemned I would not so much mislike if the inward seruice were not also neglected Wee count it now as profane I will not say to fast or afflict our selues or wearesacke-cloth but to decke and beautifie our Temples VVe say wee must worship GOD in Spirit as if they did not which poured forth infinite treasures in building Churches and beautifying them and which praised God with the Harpe and all instruments of Musicke I say that where the heart is set to serue God it rejoyceth to moue the hands and feete and all the outward parts to doe the same And if we had more outward behauiours of Religion and Deuotion than we vse they might well become vs. But this is little It is a dangerous thing now to praise good workes as if Faith were Faith without them Non sunt parua sine quibus magna constare non possunt S. Augustine saith These are not small things without which greater things cannot consist If a man goe towards the Sunne his shadow will goe before him but if hee goe from the Sunne yet his shadow will follow him What then if our Aduersaries which haue departed from the Sonne of Righteousnesse Iesus Christ haue set before themselues the shadow of Signes and Ceremonies Doth this forbid vs which turne to the Sonne of God in sincerity and purenesse of worship to haue it follow vs The Church of the Ievves had Shadowes and Signes without the Truth For the truth was vailed and couered to them vnder these All things were to them vnder Shadowes The Church of Christ vnder the Gospell hath the Truth with Signes The Church Triumphant in Heauen hath the Truth without Signes So the Church of Christ heere on Earth is middle betweene both participating of the Iewish Church in signes and of the Church in Heauen in the Truth Dionis Areopagita de Eccles. Hierarch lib. 1. cap. 5. part 1. And thus we are come to our last part For the place where thou standest is holy ground If we make this the reason of that first come not neare we haue a sufficient warrant to manifest our dutie to God in all places for God filleth all places with his presence Whither shall I goe from thy presence Coelum terram ego impleo I fill Heauen and Earth saith the Lord. In respect of our weaknesse he seemeth to be lesse present to some place but as he is in himselfe he is a like present in all We haue a more awfull regard of God where he sheweth more signes of his excellence but he worketh infinitely aboue our vnderstanding euen there where he sheweth no signe at all But let vs rather construe this of the holinesse of the ground for a reason of that which went next before why he must put off his shoes from his feete We haue this doctrine hence First the holinesse of the place doth witnesse Gods presence secondly it moueth vs to inward reuerence and feare thirdly it telleth vs what we ought to be Shall the place be holy when wee are prophane Where we must not tread amisse must we thinke amisse where Moses must not weare shoes on his feete shall he carry wickednesse in his heart Regard we what men see and despise we the eyes of God for God requireth truth of the inward parts yet so that he refuseth not the worship of the outward parts which if he would euer haue refused he would haue done so heere for God saw Moses heart and none were present but God and Moses heere was no congregation assembled none that might learne by outward ceremony or behauiour and yet God which is a Spirit and worshipped in spirit saith Moses put off thy shoes from thy feete for the place where thou standest is holy ground If Moses stood before God in holy ground where God appeared to him in a bush burning with fire how holy must our standings be before him which haue him not within kenning onely or at a gaze or where wee are forbidden to come but in the middest of vs If Mount Sinai were sanctified for a temporall residence what shall wee thinke of these Mountaines our Temples dedicated to his glory and worship to which hee hath promised a presence for euer If God did discend to the low Bramble-bush and sanctifie it doe you thinke he will abandon his Temples where we daily come together in his name If God haue any place holy vnder Heauen this is that place This place we exempt from all other vses and consecrate to God Heere we meete to acknowledge his diuine presence so often as we come together in his name and we testifie the same by our most solemne and royall assemblies For if wee consider