A comfort it was to Aaron no doubt to see the budding of his rod that there was life in it that God had quickened it and yet we know that a branch cut down so long as the stock of sap which is in it will feed it it will do so But when it shall prove like Jeremies tree planted by the waters Jer. 17.8 Which spreads out her root by the river and shall not feel when the heat cometh but her leafe shall be green and she shall bring forth blossomes This is delight as well as comfort And yet Hosea calls Israel vitem frondosam a vine full of leaves Hosea 10.1 Although within a few verses it wither'd and was plucked up But where the fruit is come to perfection grown hard and ripe and lasting then may it well be laid up in the Sanctuary to testifie for him in the latter day And surely beloved Aarons rod in a mysticall sense continues fruitfull to this day No Sermon which you hear which is but a branch cut off from the tree of Gods word shall return in vain but if it be dead to some and prove the savour of death it will quicken in others and prove the savour of life unto life everlasting Thus the very budding of this rod the watchfull attention of you that hear us puts us in some hopes that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Or if after hearing you fall a discoursing of some point delivered praise the Preacher commend the fitneses semen accipitis verba redditis sayes St Austin good seed you receive good words you give back laudes vestrae folia sunt fructus quaeritur as he goes on good words are but leaves or at the best but blossomes it is fruit we preach for and this St. Matthew calls Chap. 3. ver 8. fruit worthy of repentance restorative fruit which may be antitidote against the fruit of that other forbidden tree which poysn'd us all If this fruit appear it will testifie for us in the latter day Us that we are of Gods sending called of God as was Aaron You that you are of Gods planting and if by him planted you shall never be rooted up Mat. 15.13 Thus whilst some are budding others in the blossome others grown ripe God may every day receive a fruitfull harvest One word more behold these Almonds grow upon the rod still and are not gathered off and it is a good reason which a reverend Prelate has given why Aarons rod was treasurd up and not Moses because this carried the miracle still in it self whereas the wonders of that other rod were past and gone Those are rotten fruits which fall off from the bough that bears them The parable in 13 Mat. Tells us of seed sprung up hastily amongst the stones but because it had not depth of Earth it withered There is I know a sort of Gospellers whose hearts on a suddain are all on fire but are soon quenched again Jonahs gourd cannot outgrow them but smitten by a worm they wither Those are Gods Champions which stand fast in the faith those are his chosen that fall not away whose buds grow blossomes whose blossomes grow fruit and so they grow on in grace from one degree unto another till they become perfect in the Lord of all perfection Jesus Christ The 2. Circumstances yet remain and I shall handle them but as Circumstances the Time and Place On the morrow in the Sanctuary 1. For the time this change was wrought on a suddain one night was spring summer and harvest to the rod on the morrow it bore fruit We must not limit the eternal God to time miracles are his works and his works are like himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an instant And as the high Priest under the law so the Apostles and Bishops in the Gospel on a suddain were advanced There was but an insufflavit he breathed upon them and with his breath they received the holy Ghost Which Spirit so changed their Spirits that it amazed their Adversaries to behold such Idiots as Saint Luke calls them Acts 4.13 men unlearned and simple command so many tongues and cure such diseases So what the Schools say of the Apostles I may say of this Rod probatur Deus per Virgam as this suddain change proves Aaron and the Apostles preferment came from God so by them it proves there is a God since none but he could work the Miracles Then secondly for the place 't was in the Sanctuary and no place so fit as Gods own House for Gods own Work That house which budded in Davids thoughts for which God commends him 1 Kings 3.18 But it flourished in Solomons hands who raised the glorious structure of it And however the zeal of some in these wretched dayes go about to eat it up as the zeal of that eat up Davids Heart Psal 69.9 or rather Christ in David typified 2 John 17. Yet Gods House it shall remain still so long as there be Nations upon the Earth to inhabit any other and that in a twofold respect First as God dwells in it it is his Temple secondly as his services are performed in it it is his House of prayer My house sayes the Prophet Isaiah 56.7 repeated by our Saviour in three Evangelists shall be called the House of prayer to all Nations And now let the brain-sick Separatists brood what conceit they list that Temples were but ceremonial and Christs Passion put them out of date either they must grant the fulness of the Gentiles before the descension of the holy Ghost and that all Nations met at prayers at Hierusalem which is ridiculous enough or that whilst nations acknowledg a God to be worship'd he shall have a House to be worship'd in And truly Sirs we need not wonder that Harons rod in our dayes seems withered since the Sanctuary in which it is kept is so neglected But alas What speak I of the crosier when the crown it self has found the same doom When the traytor Jeroboam seduced the ten tribes of Israel against their King he forbids them to go to the Temple at Jerusalem and sets up his high-way Religion to worship his calfs at Dan and Bethel Nay he drives away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and Levi with the Sanctuary away goes the budding rod They are Relatives you see pull down Church government and the Church will not stand long after it 2 Chron. 13.9 and made him Priests like the people of other countreys Whosover comes to fill his hand with a young bullock and seven rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no Gods But what speak I of earthly Princes when neglect of the Sanctuary ushers in Rebellion against the King of heaven Hence we finde those precepts so frequently conjoynd of Observing Gods Sabbaths and reverencing his Sanctuary T is strange that the one should be Morall the other Ceremoniall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Heathen Psal 74.8 they will burne
the Church triumphant if in a true cause we are here militant Thirdly it is not Meroz any poor little Villages they curse tales aquilae muscas non capiunt but Tabor and Hermon the Mounts of God the hills of Learning God knows our Meroz's our Countrey parishes are infatuated with a bayard blindnesse they will neither see nor yet believe they are blind Chyrurgions tell us no such sure sign of death as a senselesse Apathy when we feel not the smarting of our wounds Thus where our State is wounded in the head the seat of judgment wounded in the heart the seat of life wounded in the hands the execution of justice wounded in the feet the interpretation of those laws on whose bottom the Kingdom stands we as if we were bitten with a Tarantula shall laugh our selves to death in the midst of these distractions and only be grieved at yesterdays ache and take physick for that disease which had seazed and left us three years agoe And this was the very case of the Israelites in the great defection from Rhehoboam the complaint was oppression by his Father Solomon whose dayes indeed was golden dayes the very stones of the street which the people trampled on were outvyed in their number almost by others far more pretious But crafty Rhehaboam galling their mindes first and then finding when it pinched he scarrifies first Remonstrates to the people the greivous Yoke the King had thrown upon them and then applies an itching plaister he would ease them of the trouble to go up to worship at the Mother Church at Jerusalem he knew if the doors of the Sanctuary were open the law of God read there would keep the people in subjection 1 Kings 12.17 Therefore he will lock them up if he can and pretend the peoples ease it is too much for them to go up thither especially since they have made Calves at their own homes what need a Church when the highwayes of Dan and Bethel will serve the turne Thus when he had cheated them into a civill war they run madly to their own confusion continually weakning the powers of one another till the forreign Assyrian enemy seized on both Under which captivity ten revolting tribes lost both their names and beings If in the mean time a Prophet come with a message from the Lord to reduce these wandring sheep and bring them home to their forsaken folds Jeroboam presently stretches out his hand against him and if a miraculous power from heaven do not whither it that hand will lay him fast 'T is reported of Julian that Enemy of Christianity that although he himself was an able Clerk yet he hated and forbade all learning in others left they should detect his cunning fallacies The comparison I know is very odious and yet I fear me we shall finde in our dayes more barbarism Meroz cursing Tabor When the people have broken off their golden earings for their calf Aaron himself shall be threatned if he will not dance about it Nay further yet foolish ignorant lying Zedekiah shall have leave to smite Micaiah on the face if he presume to be so honest to diswade his Countrimen from a warr and prevail so far with those that are in power as to clap him up in prison God quit England from Jerusalems sins of stoning those which are sent unto her But fourthly their curses come not for not helping the Lord. Unlesse they could perswade us there are two Gods in Heaven as they would make two faiths and more then two baptismes upon the Earth For was ever the cause of God set up by lying Lying so palpable so notorious that Bellarmines piae frauds were religious if compared with it every week being a Cretian Mart where the Devill sends us in impressions by the whole sale which may teach the next Generation how voluminously wicked their Fathers were Was ever Gods cause set up by oppression Cruel inhuman barbarous oppression where one subject shall be armed with power to kill another Whilst the mouth of the Laws are stop'd and they outroad by Ordinances Where every discontented Country boor shall challenge an Equall share in his Neighbours goods and fall a plundering by the liberty of the Subject Liberty Licence let us rather call it licence qua deteriores sumus an abuse of licence which makes us worse Was ever Gods cause set up by Blasphemy Most execrable deep mouth'd blasphemy which a sober Christian would be afraid to hear least the Divel should be in presence Some daring in the Pulpits which I my self have heard tell Almighty God that if he deserted this cause he would loose his honour none would ever call upon his name again Others professing in that sacred place if this cause failed they should turne Atheists as I think they are already I will not tell all you hear too much allready Oh Sirs we are cheated of our Religion The modester Papists have rob'd us of some of the choycest of our Refined Doctrine whilst we are degenerated into the dregs of Jesuitisme Shall they make proffers of their service to hazerd their lives and fortunes in the just defence of a good Prince which notwithstanding hates their Religion although he cherishes their subjection and shall we unchristianly imagine that we help the Lord by destroying the Lords Anointed The Giants may as well say they raised those mountains for bulwarks to defend the heavens from whence they meant to scale them Judas may as well say he had given his Master a kiss of courtesie when he brought out men with swords and staves to secure him Horrour and amazement keeps in the rest Lastly in their sense I say God ha's needed no help against the mighty For compare Deborahs Estate to Siseras and make an equall reference in all to our own Nation and see who might properly be called the mighty Deborah was under a palm tree in the high way whilst Sisera dwelt in Harosheth You may all remember the time when his sacred Majesty was first driven to these parts when except his goodness there was nothing about him like a Prince whether you look upon his retinue or his provision or the homage of his vicegerents as he passed all so much inferior to his Estate that had those beheld it which could have wisht it meaner I perswade my self they would have pitied it under the burden of which humility he must needs have faln if his heart had not proved like Deborahs palm tree grown higher with depressing Sisera at this time abounding with all provision Deborah seeks out for succour to encounter him but those as you heard come in very slowly and unarmed her enemy had made a party in those Tribes she trusted to When the necessity of a warr was made which God knowes was most unwelcome news to the religious heart of our pious Soveraign witness those several condescentions to almost unequal termes of peace as would make a marble heart thaw to tears that reads them think but
of Levi Secondly the miracle it self branched out in 3 decrees This rod at Aaron for the house of Levi 1. Brought foorth buds 2. Bloomed bosome 3. Yielded almonds Thirdly the circumstances of time and place like two Servants to attend upon it It was on the morrow In the Sanctuary These are the stages thorough which we shall drive in this hours discourse which will hardly affoord us time to bait in them but only with a running eye to overlook them The subject of this miracle first was a rod and this was chosen of God before any other as the most proper the most significant Indeed if we look upon things with a superficial eye there was nothing belonging to the high Priest which did not promise more and might not better prove Aarons preheminence His very garments which God prescribed Exod. 28. to be made glorious and beautifull like Josephs imbroidered coat might have taught his Brtheren that he was his Fathers darling Or the Urim and the Thummim and the stones of his breastplate which afterwards delivered those divinations to the people might have proved their own Oracles and witnessed their praeferment Or the golden bels upon the verge of his garment might have challenged that honour which is promised to the bells of the Horses Zach. 14.20 to be superscribed Holiness to the Lord. But ratio divina in medulla est non in superficie It is not the glorious outside which God regards That Almighty power which chooses the weak things of the World to confound the mighty and sayes unto the dead bones live takes here a sapless sere stick without either root or branch for a Scepter at the exaltation of his anoynted and that which before was the instrument of working many miracles is now become the subject matter upon which a miracle is wrought And this was most apposite to Gods intent and purpose in four respects 1. as it is symbolum potestatis a rod to rule and govern them 2. As it is symbolum correctionis a rod to correct and scourge them 3. As it is symbolum instructionis a rod to guide and instruct them 4. As it is symbolum sustentationis a rod to support and comfort them Power Correction Instruction Sustentation are the four pinacles of Aarons Tower which make him lift up his head above his fellows 1. As a Rod of power For of old the Priesthood was not fetterd nor Aarons hands bound behind him If we look to his first election Exod. 4.16 We shall finde he was made Lord Chancellour to Moses amongst the Israelites He shall be thy spokesman unto the people saith the Lord Afterwards he and his sons were oftentimes the Lords high Stewards which executed judgment upon the offenders And when Moses was called up to Mount Sinai to talk with God Aaron and Hur were made the Lords high Constables to govern the people in his absence I deny not but that there was a Subordination of Power the Crosier gave place to the Scepter Aarons rod submitted to Moses For in the fore-quoted place Exod. 4. Where the Priest was made the Princes mouth the Prince was made the Priests God He shall be as thy mouth and thou shall be to him as God As for that high Priest now a dayes which proves himself the Man of sin by exalting himself above all that is called God he had need build upon a firmer foundation then the Sandy Clementines or their false Glosses otherwise their honour will fall into the dust Because the vision bids Peter arise kill and eat therefore the Pope may depose Princes because Malchus which being interpreted a King was servant to the High Priest therefore Kings were the Popes servants You may well question whither these arguments had their rises from the Brains or the Gutts of the Friers And truly we need not wonder to see those Mountains are brought low and level'd if we do but consider that the pride of the Clergy hath been caution enough to Prince and People to look about them that that Crosier has not been used as a Pastoral staff to catch the Sheep but to hook away the Crown and Aarons Rod is turned to a Scepter of iron to crush the Kings of the Earth in pieces Yet a lawful subordinate power they have delegated from God himself yes and that in Temporals too however the policie of our State of late hath thought it otherwise convenient For to omit the story of Judas Maccabeus who in the time of the Captivity of their Kings governed the people we shall find Phineas the Grand-son of Aaron in the next generation executing this Authority who as a Priest the son of Eleazar and as a Prince of the Congregation did judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi the idolatrous adulterers And it is worth your observing how the Psalmist recording this story Psalm 106. makes choice of a word of double signification to imply his double capacity the word is Palal which signifies either to pray or to execute judgment verse 30. Phineas stood up and prayed or Phineas stood up executed judgment denoting not only the connaturality of these two that executing judgment is a kind of prayer or sacrifice to God but likewise their competibility to the same subject that executing judgment is as proper an office of the Priest as prayer it self And thus is Aarons a rod of power But 2. as of power so of correction too and indeed the first patronises the second his power enables him for correction By correction I mean not a corporal scourging or whipping of the people as the disciplining Friers use upon themselves and others upon their pennancedayes Arons rod had no whipcord at the end of it but a more piercing lash circa potiorem partem such arrows which David speaks of which enter into the soul It is a tradatur Satanae a shutting them out of the Congregation and a banishing them from the camp of Israel To this purpose Levit. 13. God gives the Priests marks tokens to discover the leprous party to make a difference between the clean unclean and those marks once found out it is not Nobility of blood or greatness of power can secure the Leper or keep him within the pale The crown on Uzzias head cannot hide the Leprosie on his brow but Azariah the Priest will cast him out 2 Chro. 26. Indeed if there be Livor in oculis Pontificis malice in the Priests eye which discolours all he looks upon and makes the most clear object seem full of leprous spots their casting out proves but brutum fulmen potguns which make a crack but cannot wound As the blind man newly recovered to his sight by our Saviour in the Gospel because he saw more then the high Priest was ejected Indeed they threw him out of the Church that he might be neerer God But when it is done clave non errante with an unerring judgment pronounced on those markes which God has set he is polluted he is unclean let
up all the Synagogues in the Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint changing one letter they will forbid all his festivals But the first part of the verse reconciles both Let us say they destroy them altogether so that no Sanctuary no budding rod on budding rod no Aaron no Aaron no worship of God Thus we have dispacht the history of the Text with such inferences touched upon by the way as could not well be bauk'd Now since whatsoever was written of Old was written for our instruction it will not be amiss to see how this rod of Aaron points down to us and is laid up to testify against these latter dayes And first I must not baulk the next high Priest next in time though first in honour our Saviour Christ who although he succeded not of Aarons order but of Melchizedecks yet he is the Architype and substance which that other Priesthood shadowed The Author to the Hebrews his saved me the labour of making an Analogy between them And I hope his Offices without dispute will furnish him with a rod as a King a rod of power and correction as a Prophet of guidance and instruction as a Priest of comfort and sustentation In vain was that scape-goat of the Jewes upon whose head was laid the sins of the Congregation if it were not for this Lamb slain from the beginning this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this high-Priest which sacrificed himself and laid the burthen of all our sins upon his own shoulders He it is that took the censer in his hand as Aaron did when the fire of Gods wrath was gone out against us and stood between the living and the dead nay he fell down amongst the dead and was numbred among the transgressours that by his stripes we might be healed He he it is who in the last act of his life erected his crosse the rod of his exaltation that rod upon which his name was wrote which bore most precious fruit the fruit of his own Body which whosoever can lay up in a sanctifyed heart the Temple of the holy Ghost may be sure to have it testifye for him in the latter day But being thus gone up on high and lead captivity captive and received guifts for Men is he grown a niggard of them and bestowed none upon his Church which he hath left behind him Were the Jews better provided for who were only ad memoriam but types and figures of him that was to come then we which are a memoria his remembrancers and Priests in his stead in persona ejus sayes the vulgar his deputies which here personate him and act him over again No his Church has Aarons still and the Aarons have their rods too Nay the Aarons of the Gospel shall be refined too sayes Malachi 3. Chap. 3. God shall purge the Sons of Levi which St. Hierome interprets the Evangelical Ministers If the Testament be above the law God forbid the Ministration should be beneath it St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. tells us of divers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free graces or gifts proceeding from the Spirit verse 4. and that we may not think them to be heaped confusedly all upon one in the next verse he speaks of several 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrations and offices among which they are devided the graces are reckoned up verses 8 9 10. Some peculiar to the A postles some streaming down upon the skirts of the Church The offices are recounted v. 28. and of them likewise some meerly Apostolical some permanent and perpetual namely those three Teachers Helpers Governours Perpetuall I call them for besides that the light of nature instructed the heathen so far as the morality of the service of a God carried them to the same division of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their helpers their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their teachers and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their governours they are the very same which God prescribed his own people the Jews in their Levites their Helpers and as it were their Deacons their Priests their Teachers and instructers the sons of Aaron their Praelates and Governours And thus we find the oyntmentt powred upon Aarons head has run down o his beard and wet the borders of his garments But this quick sighted generation amongst whom we live has seen farther into the words then any of the ancient Fathers and out of the word Governours has extracted an Elixar their ruling Elders A Government it is indeed but such as Jothams bramble was which burnt down the Cedars of Libanon the pillars of the Temple An opinion so full of novelty and void of authority that fourscore years ago it scarce had a being As if Gods Church all the time before had been hid with Eliah in his cave or fled with the woman into the Wildernesse Some there are I know which have deeply strained their wits to fetch this Government out of the Scriptures and pinch hard upon that text 1 Tim. 5.17 when all other fail them The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour especially they which labour in the word and Doctrine Ergo by implication Elders there are say they which labour not and those are lay-ruling-Elders But St. Chrisostome which lived nearer and knew more of the Apostles practise than we found out another sence All Priests sayes he which may administer the Sacraments are not allow'd to preach the meaner sort may deal with Baptism the wiser only with the Word Which difference St. Paul found in himself 1 Corin. 1.17 Christ hath sent me not to baptize says he but to preach the Gospel If then thou hast such a Minister over thee as is gifted for both Offices allow him a double honour And let no man mistake the name of Elder or Presbyter in Scripture which is no other then Priest or Minister so St. John stiles himself in his two last Epistles so St. Peter 1 Ep. 5.1 and so all the pen men of Gods holy Word have called the Ministers of the Gospel Which is so notoriously true that the very patrons of this Government have disclamed the jus divinum of it and make it onely a State convenience Undenyably true it is that our Saviour in his time did choose his twelve Apostles as Superiours his seventy as subordinate Subordinato I say they were for besides that they were forbidden by the other in the time of Christ Luke 9.49 They were commanded by them afterward as Silas was by Paul Acts 17.15 and so were within their power Afterward that the Apostles left their successours Bishops may be evident by St. Pauls own Epistles to Timothy the Bishop of Ephesius and Titus Bishop of Crete and the undoubted testimony of Ireneus confirms it who lived immediately upon the Apostles age But what need we more Authority St. Jude v. 11. Speaks of some in his time which perished in the gainsaying of Corah What that was ye have heard he would be Aarons equall how any could perish in it was impossible unlesse by desiring or affecting a parity with their Governours In the fear of God Brethren suffer then a word of Exhortation This rod of Aaron ha's sap in it still and sprouts to this day Oh shake not of the blossomes pluck not off the fruit if God have laid it up in the Tabernacle let not Sacrilegious hands steal it thence T is a rod of power submit to it a rod of correction be afraid of it a rod of instruction obediently receive it a rod of sustentation rely on it Obey them which are set over you in the Lord. Let no Uzzah presume to touch the Ark nor Uzziah to offer sacrifice let the sons Levi only wait upon the altar If a quis aequisivit be terrible at the last day who has required these things at your hands will not prohibita sunt have I not fobid thee be much more terrible We find in Exodus that Pharaohs sorcerers had got them rods too but Moses his Serpent soon devour'd them And the Sons of Sceva Act. 15.19 would be conjuring in the name of Jesus but the Devil soon prov'd himself their Master Beware that fearfull curse which befell the nolumus hunc regnare those that would not let Christ raign over them And such are they that despise his Ordinances and so do all such as disobey his substitutes His substitutes I call them for they are his Labourers but one degree remov'd from himself he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if God be the chief guide Moses and Aaron are the hands to lead his people if God be chief Shepheard Peter and his partners have the office under him to feed the flock 1 Pet. 5. And if in temporalls the civil Magistrate at this day thinks himself sufficient without bringing the difficultest causes to Aaron and the Priests as God prescribes Deuter. the 17.8 9. if Jehoshaphat I say think his Judges able to dispatch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the affairs of State yet let the Priest dispence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Chro. 19.8 The Lords business the judgment cause of the Lord. Make not thy self the Devils instrument since he hath left disputing about Moses his body for thee to dispute Aarons authority But rather joyn with that Captain of Israel in his prayer for Levi. Deuter. 33. Let thy Urim and Thumim be with thy holy one bless O Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands and smite through the loins of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again To conclude Aarans rod is Gods rod and Gods rod will alwayes bring forth fruit either sweet or bitter Almonds sermons prove either the savour of Life or death May that rod and this Sermon take such deep rooting in our heart that it may bring foorth fruit abundantly in our lives to Gods honour his Churches glory our own comfort c. Gloria Deo in Excelsis