soever of them decays first the other does not long survive it If Moses fall Aaron must not think to stand If the Throne be subverted the Altar must needs sink And therefore God sometimes placed both Offices in one and the same person Melchisedeck was both King and Priest of the most high God And when God made them two mens work they were to be like Hippocrates his Twins so linkt together that they could not happily subsist if there were any distance between them And Moses and Aaron are both Brethren The King and Priest not onely Cooperatores Fellow workmen in the Government of the People but Consanguinei of the same Blood that they might be a mutual support to one another And therefore Corah and his Complices though they begin with one yet aim at both and like Man and Wife both are equal sharers in the direfull issues of this Rebellion both intended for the same Sword or Axe But yet you may see they observe a Method Moses tells us they aim at him What says he have I done against you yet they began with Aaron but what is Aaron that you should murmur against him 'T is a piece of Satan's Polity à facilioribus progredi to begin with the weaker vessel The Church who has nothing to offend her Enemies but Prudence and Innocency Weapons that to be sure draw no Blood nor break any Bones no Buckler to ward a blow but her Faith and what care boisterous Enemies for what these can do unto them The Church I say is in all their designs the first sufferer Judgment still begins at the House of God and through the Temple lies the Enemies Road to the King's Palace For that sin that is as the sin of witchcraft must needs first take away the fear of God from before the Eyes of those that are resolved to admit it into their Hearts and commit it with their Head and Hands and then to be sure Aaron the Saint of the Lord the chief Priest or Bishop shall be the first man they lay violent hands upon and this for three Reasons 1. He and his Brethren are men of great Learning and incorruptible Integrity The first renders them able to discern the guilt of such impious undertakers and lay their shame open to all impartial beholders and display their Malice Hypocrisie Covetousness Ambition and whatsoever Viper else lies in the Womb of that Monster Rebellion The other renders them impregnable and immoveable to all the Temptations and Allurements can be used to work them over to the Enemies Party So that these grave men will be sure not onely to doe them no good Aaron cannot be a Neuter in a cause of God's but to be their great hinderance as being the first men because of their profound Abilities that can discover their Intentions and display their Projects Seeing then they cannot ensnare the Consciences of Aaron and his Brethren all their Subtlety and Polity must be bent against them or else how shall they captivate the Consciences of the common People who will so long as any sparks of Religion remain in them be seeking knowledge at their Lips and therefore unless Corah and his Complices first stop Aaron's mouth their hopes are all blasted and their design must come to nought 2. They were men of Gravity of an awfull and austere Deportment If a Grave Cato or a Severe Aristides would make a sinner blush and fall back from the pursuit of any sin what would an Aaron a Man of God doe And therefore a resolved sinner must make it a Maxime in his Polities to remove these checks of Consciences that neither themselves be deterr'd from their impious designs by that Reverence that these may extract from them or strike into them nor their Complices from joyning with them and assisting them 3. They Aaron and his Brethren had large Revenues And you know the Wolf in the Fable draws up a thundering Accusation against the Lamb that hurts no body not because the poor innocent Creature was his Enemy but because he was resolved upon it as a matter very convenient to account him so that he might proceed against him accordingly and devour him 'T is easie for you to find out the reason why never any but he who wrought the greatest Miracles could ever make the Wolf lie down with the Lamb. And yet I believe never could any man say that ever the Lamb wrong'd the Wolf or so much as troubled the Waters where he used to drink but you never knew a Beast of Prey reconciled to those Creatures they prey upon or want an Accusation to excuse their Ravening and Cruelty Thus you may reade Corah and his Rout clamouring with open mouth against Moses and Aaron and all they can say against them is you take too much upon you It is not likely they should make it good against Moses God's Vicegerent and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. Not likely that these should so forget themselves to go beyond their Commission But how shall Corah put swords into his followers hands to destroy their Persons unless he put some bitter malicious words no matter whether they be true or no into their mouths to wound their Reputations The first step to their Ruine and his Design is to make them odious with the People and then who more ready to throw dirt in their faces then the very Sheep themselves And if the Sheep become so unnatural to revile the Shepherd his Enemies have a fair opportunity to call in the Wolf to devour him And if the Sheep themselves do not turn Wolves as by these inchantments they many times do and fasten their teeth in the sides of their Shepherds yet they 'l stand by and look on whilst they are devoured and like it For you 'l find them in the passages of this History Numb 16. crying out All the Congregation are holy every one of them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord vers 3. As if they should say No Moses no Supreme Magistrate down with Prerogative No Aaron no Priests you may suppose with that hideous outcry a rude Multitude must needs make And then it must needs follow that they themselves must seek the Priesthood vers 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil de Spiritu Sancto Those that have but a few Coleworts or Onions growing in their Gardens think themselves skilfull enough to extract out of them a sovereign juice shall cure all the distempers of their Souls 'T is the custome of discontented Souldiers to raise the discontents of their mutinous spirits with such insolent and unreasonable Language against their Leaders as this We by our long experience and too long obedience can lead the Companies now as well as you and need not any longer learn of you to fight against an Enemy Alexander the Coppersmith when Ambition and Discontent has corrupted his Brains will presently fansie and brag he can martial an Army and manage
a Combat with the Devil as well as St. Paul and if he be but a little more heated with this Frenzy he will adde I and as well as Michael the Archangel too The meanest of Corah's Complices train'd up in his School of Rebellion I make no question thought he could lead the Army of the Israelites as well as Moses and do you think he did not fancy he could offer Incense as well as Aaron Methinks I fancy some such discourse as this amongst them you cannot expect it should be very learned or rational from people of their capacities cannot we slay a Bull or a Goat as well as he and lay it upon the Altar and put fire to it Why we can slay him if he do not please us and sacrifice the Sacrificer with his own Knife Incense will burn if fire be put to it Cannot we put fire to it as well as he Cannot we reade a few Prayers out of a Book and Bless the people in those words that are put in our mouths as well as he Cannot the meanest among us say The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee And Aaron did no more Numb 6.24 Cannot any of us perform the same Ceremonies that were to be performed by the Priest at the cleansing of the Leper which were no more then thus That he take for him that is cleansed two Birds alive and clean and Cedar wood and Scarlet and Hyssop and that he command that one of the Birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water and that he take the living Bird and the Cedar-wood and the Scarlet and the Hyssop and dip them and the living Bird in the blood of the Bird that was killed and sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed seven times and then pronounce him clean and let the living Bird loose into the Air. These are the Ceremonies to be performed all easie and without the least difficulty a Child may be taught to doe as much and cannot we do it as well as Aaron or any of the whole Tribe 'T is easie to confute this unreasonable discourse with a parallel one Are not Abanah and Pharpar rivers of Damascus better then all the waters of Israel may I not wash in them and be clean says Leprous Naaman 2 King 5.12 His Servants clear the case he could not because God had not endowed any other Waters with that cleansing faculty And as he can doe whatsoever he pleaseth so he can doe it it with whatsoever he pleaseth Raise up children unto Abraham out of these stones Restore sight to the blind with clay and spittle Nothing can move the least mote in the Sun without his Word and the least mote in the Sun can move the greatest Mountains with it What Artificer will not say proportionably the same concerning the Instruments he works withall Can a few hairs and paint decipher out the lively representation of a man that noble Creature the image of God Can a few pieces of Iron make a Watch They can and they cannot of themselves they are as ineffective as if there were no such materials but by the operation of those workmen who prepare them for his use and his skill and management that guides them to their ultimate design they wonderfully produce their curious effects But to what purpose do I oppose more then Naaman's Servants sound and solid Questions to the loose discourse of Corah and his Complices Men that lie under the inchantment of Rebellion are not capable of sound Reason and must return to their Allegeance again before they can be Masters of Wits and Senses When they are again reduced to Reasons just Dominion over them when that Witchcraft has done working upon them and they are again converted from Beasts into Men they 'l presently without any more adoe discern what a senseless discourse they made against Moses and Aaron Till then there 's no reason can silence their clamours or any the soundest Arguments oppose their rage and animosities And therefore as good spare that pains and spend that breath and time in Prayers to him who stilleth the raging of the Sea and the noise of its waves that he would also suppress the Madness of the People Psal 65.7 And Moses and Aaron doe so Numb 16. with this assurance that God will hear them for their comfort and the comfort of all that retain their Loyalty to them That their counsels against Moses cannot stand because they are against God in as much as Moses was his Vicegerent and in rejecting him they rejected God And in what they designed against Aaron he whom God gave as a Mouth to Moses he whom God made his own Spokes man to the people Exod. 4.6 Whom he thought fittest to be employed in the best place of Trust and highest Importance in the Commonwealth of Israel under Moses He that was an Earthly Saviour and Intercessour between the People and their Maker is made an unparallel'd spectacle of scorn and derision to the lowest of the People Can those Counsels prosper or if they doe can it be with any other prosperity then that fading one David speaks of that shall pass away like a morning dew or Jonah's Gourd that aim at the ruine of God's Sanctuary In their Consultations that conspire the subversion of Throne and Altar God is so certainly excluded the Council-board that he is not in all their thoughts We may truly say they have nothing of God amongst them And then shall not God at one time or other visit for these things shall not his soul be avenged on such consultations as these Yes And cloth his Priests with Salvation and his Saints those that are so indeed i. e. those that retain their Loyalty to Moses and their dutifull Reverence to Aaron not those that onely call themselves so shall shout aloud for joy God shall make the Horn of David to bud and ordain a Lamp for his anointed Yes And his Enemies shall be clothed with shame how can they otherwise chuse but upon himself shall his Crown flourish For if God have a Controversie with that People that are as those that strive with the Priest Hos 4.4 how much greater with those that as Corah Dathan and Abiram contend with Moses and Aaron too If a man that will doe presumptuously and not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God shall die shall not he more deserve it that shall resist the Ministration of the Priest and Judge too Deut. 17.12 If Schism in the Church be an evil to Israel deserving death can Rebellion in the State be a less evil and deserve a less punishment This assurance the Loyal and Devout party had who remained faithfull unto Moses and Aaron that God was angry with the Rebels and would assuredly at one time or other visit them for their presumptuous doings and be severely avenged of them Nay they the Rebels
A SERMON Preached in the CHURCH of PVTNEY IN THE COUNTY of SVRREY Upon the 24th of April 1681. HIS Majesty's Declaration Being Read that day By EDWARD SCLATER M. A. Minister there From all Sedition Privy Conspiracy and Rebellion Good Lord deliver us LONDON Printed for R. Horne at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1681. PSALM 106.16 They envied Moses in the Camp and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. 'T IS a strange powerfull charm their Rhetorick works by who undertake to perswade a People there are Distempers in their Government they never want Multitudes of credulous Auditors who as in the Affairs of the Body Natural they lend their Ears to those Mountebanks who make glorious promises of curing either their Diseases or their Fears so in the Body Politick they as easily follow the sly allurements of those who promise to make the yoke of Government more easie and pleasant These Undertakers shall not fail to gain all those to be their Proselytes who think their Native Liberty is imposed upon and unjustly restrain'd by whatsoever Positive Laws and Constitutions and may be able to apprehend those defects whereunto every Government is subject for none can be absolutely without on this side Heaven but cannot judge of or discern those lets and impediments those insuperable difficulties and invincible oppositions with which even the best of Governments is visited These are easily perswaded to take Physick from any hand either such as their ill chosen Physicians having cheated them into the belief they are Diseased tell them is proper for the cure or if they cannot work this belief in them prescribe for the prevention One way or other the less discerning multitude become their Patients either to cure their Imaginary Diseases or their Infused Jealousies Absolom is thronged with attentive Proselytes in the Gate whilst David is almost solitary and alone upon the Seat of Judgment His Insinuations whose especial business it was slily to publish the Defects of his Royal Father there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee 2 Sam. 15.3 and to hide those infinite impediments and difficulties that were the invincible causes of whatsoever the People suffered if they suffered any thing at all His Insinuations I say of his Royal Father's neglect in doing Justice and glorious promises of what he would do if he were made a Judge in Israel together with his flattering Kisses and treacherously courteous Deportment and Affability have a most miraculous power and operation upon the easie and unstable Multitude David their King chosen by God and anointed by Samuel with God's Holy Oyl and therefore his Majesty cannot be less then Sacred is forc'd to flie from Jerusalem and desert his Royal Palace because of their Rebellious Tumults and Threatnings And Absolom the fair spoken Hypocrite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stole away says our English makes his own proper goods says the Septuagint the Heart of the Men of Israel vers 6. In which expression of theirs 't is easie to discern these three things First That his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his making of them his own or stealing of them supposes they were the Proper Goods of another man and 't is God that gives all Propriety So that Absolom's stealing them away was a Rebellion as well against God who was the fountain of that Propriety as against his King in whom it was so settled Secondly That Absolom's treacherous heart had so powerfull an Instrument of his Tongue as to steal away almost the whole People for the Septuagint express it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Singular number the Heart of the Men of Israel Lastly That the Hearts of Men towards their David the Anointed of the Lord should be all cemented together by Loyalty and Allegeance that they should become as one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heart of the Men of Israel Offences will come says our Saviour but woe be to him through whom they do come This Heart has several times been divided and God has often shew'd his infinite Displeasure and burning Indignation against them by whose hands or tongues this Division has been made Had Zimri peace who slew his Master Had Absolom who rebelled against his Royal Father and stole away the Heart of the People from him Had Corah Dathan and Abiram the persons in my Text had they peace who envied Moses in the Camp and Aaron the Saint of the Lord No you know they had not Zimri burns himself to death 1 King 16.18 God burns the Remnant the Complices of Corah Dathan and Abiram by a miraculous Fire from Heaven Numb 16. Absolom is hanged in an Oak 2 Sam. 18. Sad and direfull Judgments all and therefore it should seem the Crime was heynous For to divide the Heart of the People from their Moses or their David what is it but to divide the Heart of the People from their God for they have not rejected Thee says God but they have rejected Me that I should not reign over them 1 Sam. 8.7 For what is a Moses or a David nay a Saul or a Cyrus or a Nebuchadnezzar but the Breath of our Nostrils that God has breathed into his People the Anointed of the Lord Lam. 4.20 And is not this the reason why Solomon joyns God and the King together and makes them as it were the one object of his Peoples Fear Prov. 24.21 and a greater then Solomon Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are Gods ' Matth. 22.11 The Holy Spirit of God the Spirit of Peace has made them both the one object of our Obedience and must not that Hand or Tongue be highly impious that shall divide those whom the whole Blessed Trinity have thus signally united and made one No marvel if he who has set his King upon his Holy Hill of Sion not onely have them in Derision but break them with a Rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potter's Vessel Psal 2.4.9 But Rebellion were not as the sin of Witchcraft if those who engage in it were not bewitcht by it if it would suffer them without a mist before their Eyes to behold the goodly work they are going about For if this mist take away from their sight the Fear of the King so it does the Fear of God too so says Xenophon if the subjects were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true Servants of God and not Hypocrites calling themselves Saints and the Godly and making onely a specious shew of Godliness if they did not deny the power of it they would give the King his Honour seeing they are in so close a conjunction Fear God and Honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 Samuel you see has rankt this sin of Disobedience in its due order 1 Sam. 15.22 and given it its right name it works powerfully as by charms and spells and the instance in my Text will give it its best Description They envied Moses also in the Camp and
Aaron the Saint of the Lord. In the words consider these particulars I. The Parties rebelled against Moses and Aaron II. The Parties rebelling Corah Dathan and Abiram and 250 Princes of the Assembly III. What they did or wherein their Rebellion manifested it self and broke out they Envied Lastly The Place were they did it in the Camp Of these in their Order I begin with the first the Parties rebelled against who they were Moses and Aaron the Prince and the Priest and first Moses They envied Moses also in the Camp c. Moses That he had Regal Power is attested by Holy Scripture Deut. 33.5 where we are told that he was King in Jesurun when the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together And if King then their Judge too Deut. 17.9 and in the singular number and that must intimate that he was the Judge of all other Judges in Israel and had the Supreme Power in his hand that he was not onely a Minister of the Law but a Law-giver Moses commanded us a Law Deut. 33.4 And that he was not a Titular Prince but invested with the Supreme Power is plainly read in that God committed to him the two Trumpets of Silver and in them the Power to convocate the Assembly Num. 10.1 2. a work of the highest consequence of all in whatsoever Kingdom and seated onely in the Supreme Power of it A Power formerly onely in the hands of God himself Num. 9.18 20 23. till now he pleases to transmit it to Moses his Vicegerent for he is made as well the keeper of the two Trumpets as of the Tables of the Law There are two parts of Moses his Power intimated fairly enough in the Delegation of these silver Trumpets both Regal The first was their use ad Castra movenda for the pitching of their Tents and their marching to the places appointed So he had by this the power of the Militia he was the Generalissimo of all the Hoast Secondly ad comitia Convocanda to call their Assemblies to summon and convene the Princes of the Tribes to come together to consult de rebus quibusdam arduis of some hard and difficult Questions and Affairs of and concerning the weal of the People and the service of their God For by this Power does he gather together the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel Deut. 33.5 I stand not to tell you that he was faithfull in all God's House and by that gained that honourable appellation of the Man of God or that he was a very Meek man above all the men that were upon the face of the Earth how zealous he was for God's Honour and how severe in punishing the worshippers of the Golden Calf that he was exactly just and wronged no man and for his Learning that he was learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians excellent Accomplishments all able you 'l easily acknowledge to make his bad Subjects blush at their Rebellion if they had had any shame left in them But the true Israelites in whose mouths there is no Guile much less Rebellion in their hands or hearts let their King be what he will a Moses or a Manasses a David or a Jeroboam had fully learnt non tangere Christos Dei not so much as to Touch the Lord 's Anointed nor to Revile the Gods or Curse the Ruler of the People Exod. 22.28 Not to wound him with their tongues they can smite too Jer. 18.18 much less kill him with the sword Who ever looks upon Moses his Power and Prerogative will easily find that he was the life of Religion and Law Indeed it 's hard to imagine any People that in their right minds have not thought their King so or that have not found Religion degenerate every day and decline still more and more into Atheism and Prophaneness or crumble into multiplicity of Opinions and their Law to want its strength as if its Sinews were cut in pieces in his Absence So that when Corah and his Complices rebell against Moses they cannot aim more at his life then at the life of these Religion must bleed and Law expire in him who is the life of both And this was fairly intimated in that Miracle by which God was pleased to attest the Mission and Commission of Moses His Rod or Scepter is thrown upon the Ground and turned into a Serpent but when taken by the Tail it turned into a Scepter again When his Regal Power lies under the peoples Feet there 's no restraining them from poysonous Practices the Scepter is not onely accounted a Serpent a fellow Creature with them and therefore shall have no more power over them who are themselves a brood of Serpents and a generation of Vipers perhaps by subtlety one Basilisk or Cockatrice domineers over the rest but they will all agree to bruise this Serpent's Head if Moses take it not into his hand again And when he does you see they become a glorious Nation a Royal Priesthood Exod. 19.5 Every man of them a King when the Scepter was again taken by him that had the just right to it Well God has made Moses the Ruler of his People and therefore whosoever resisteth his Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And would you think that men who are forbid to speak evil of him no not in their thoughts Eccles 10.20 and assured that it shall come to light for a Bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter would you think these should rise up in open Rebellion against him that they should list Armies and gather themselves together against Moses the servant of the Lord No reason can be given for it but that of Samuel Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft as well in its fascination as its guilt none but men bewitcht could be guilty of so grievous an Impiety For judge you did they observe that counsel that was written in the Hearts of every Loyal Israelite by the Hand and Pen of Wisedom it self before it was written in their Books by the Wise man I counsel thee to keep the King's commandment and that in regard of the oath of God Eccles 8.2 Did not the same Wisedom tell them that against a King there was no rising up Prov. 30.31 and that in the word of a King there is Power and who may say unto him what dost thou Eccles 8.4 And had they not forgot it And could such Lessons as these be unlearn'd but by some strange fascination could men in their wits recede from them Let St. Peter speak they which despise Government and are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities are as natural brute beasts 2 Pet. 2.12 And you know if it be not witchcraft 't is something as bad that turns men into beasts Thus you have the first Object of their Envy Moses They envied Moses in the Camp and Aaron c. Solomon built the Temple and the King's Palace together which
the Altar should by the Sword sacrifice their Brethren in the Field that these should preach the Nobles in a Kingdom into a Rebellion against that Prince that God had set over them who most certainly were by their Office and Function to kindle no Fires but in the Sanctuary 4. Both Parties were of the same Religion though Corah will seem purer then all those of Moses and Aaron's side and charge Moses for an Impostor in Religion Wilt thou says he put out the eyes of these men vers 14. Corah's side may have more of the form of godliness and outward shew but Moses his have more of the power of it For nothing is more the bane of Religion then that Hypocrisie that propagates Religion by the Sword that presents a Bible to the Eyes of a man and a Dagger to his Heart If the Sword be in the Right hand no Book becomes the Left like the Alcoran especially if this Sword be intended against Moses the Lord's Governour and Vicegerent Let his fine outside make never so glorious a shew though he pray never so much or oft he is not a true Israelite in whom is no guil that with Corah will not give Moses the things that are Moses's and God in Aaron the things that are God's Lastly Corah had received high and eminent Favours and Preferments from God he was separated from the Congregation of Israel to the Service of the Tabernacle brought near to God himself to stand before the Congregation to Minister unto them is not his ingratitude the more notorious and his sin the more transcendent that he should goe about to set the Altar on fire in stead of the Sacrifice Will they because they have not the Preferments they aspire to in the Church though they have far greater then they deserve destroy the Tabernacle in the flames of Schism which has always been that gap which the enemies of God have enter'd in at when they have brought in all Impiety and Prophaneness into his Church and at which they have endeavour'd to send out whatsoever part of pure and undefiled Religion Can there be a more horrid Treachery then for one of the Tribe of Levi thus to betray the Tabernacle Can there be a greater Ingratitude Did it not adde much to the dimensions of his sin of whom David complains who being a familiar Friend that eat of his Bread and went up to the House of God together with him yet was the person that did him a notorious injury Does he not say he could have born it had it been a stranger that had done it Do you not think that Judas was the more intolerable Traitour for that he was one of the Twelve May we not think that Ananias or Caiphas or Pilate will be better able to answer what they did at the General Account then Judas May we not reade his sadder condition in that Woe denounced against him Vae illi homini Woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed Nor indeed are the Princes of the Assembly and the men of Renown less guilty of this Ingratitude for how came they to be so but by Moses his favour and bounty towards them Could they have been his Peers unless he had made them so Was there an Office or Trust that was not his gift and will they destroy the Fountain of their own Honour What shall we say of both Improbus à nullo flectitur obsequio Neither those Favours and Honours that God had bestowed upon the Levites nor those Moses their King had bestowed upon the Nobles can satisfie their froward spirits No Preferment appease and settle the rebellious thoughts of their discontented Souls If there be not witchcraft in it judge you seeing there is no such Fiend as Ingratitude Notwithstanding all obligations that Heaven and Earth can lay upon them Hell gets the upper hand They envied Moses in the Camp and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. And so I come to my next part what they did They envied c. They envied Moses c. Our English Translation comes somewhat short of any other Language I reade it in They Envied them and yet this expresses one of the most base and unworthiest Passions man's mind is affected withall so base and unreasonable that sometimes and I take it the Parties in my Text is such it can give no reason for it self Non amo te Sabidi c. I do not love thee Sabidius nor can I tell a reason of my hate onely this I do not love thee If any can find out the hidden reason why Vultures so abominate sweet smels or Horse-flies are so distasted with odoriferous ointment I shall desire them to instruct me in the reason why Corah should be angry with Aaron's Incense or Dathan and Abiram with Moses his Unction It has been noted of Envy that it does fascinate and bewitch and therefore though Envy make so little noise in our English Tongue it is as well as Rebellion that makes a greater a Witchcraft too For this Envy in the Text to be sure was not a corrupt black Blood running in their Veins but had its outward operations And their Eyes like the Evil Aspects of Malignant Planets darted forth their infectious Influences from which no power could have secured them they aim'd at but his Qui regit astra that disappoints the most direfull presages and the horrid consequences of them For Moses is in his glory in the Camp in the Head of the Tribes of Israel Generalissimo of the whole Hoast Aaron the High Priest their spiritual Generalissimo too Now if an envious Eye as they say it does take edge and courage at this sight and be whetted by this spectacle its infectious beams will dart themselves with the greater vigour and virulency and so doe the more hurt especially if the Spirits of the person envied do come forth as Joy and Triumph will emit and dilate them for then they meet the stroke in the midst and full of all its strength But the baseness of this Passion is more apparent in that it is observed that those who have no vertue in themselves are the onely men that envy vertue in others This argues their stomachs are so invenom'd that what is the greatest Cordial and best nourishment in others is digested by them into deadly poyson For can you give any other reason why the Jews envied the Saviour of the World but because he was innocent and had done so many mighty works amongst them But yet I take it the English expresses it not so fully They Envied so they might and not attempt or be able to shew their Envy For Envy is Envy how impotent soever it is and therefore the Greek goes a little nearer the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they sinfully angred them and this must be by some transgression some treacherous design or attempt upon Moses and some sacrilegious act against Aaron But this is not all aemulati sunt says the Latine
own Houses in corners and private Conventicles it is otherwise those often prove the Schools of Rebellion But is it not a matter of sad consideration that when the Temples of God are those stately Edifices that make Civitatem Dei a whole Land the City of God our own Houses should be that Babylon or City of Satan inhabited by Fiends raising Rebellion against and designing the ruine of it And yet you see Corah and his Complices have their Seditious Meetings in the Tents in which the Conspiracy is hatcht against Moses God's Vicegerent and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. Veritas non quaerit Angulos Truth and Honest dealing dares stare the Sun in the face onely Treachery and Rebellion have their lurking holes and secret places till they are hatcht up and grown big enough to break forth These are the fittest places for such Children of the Prince of disorder and darkness for he that doth evil saith our Saviour hateth the light If Thoodosius the Emperour be in a fault never was there Prince without but the Prince of Peace St. Ambrose does in the spirit of meekness admonish him of it Nathan a Prophet of the Lord reproves David Saint John Baptist tells Herod his duty Nor these nor any Saint of God did ever creep into corners and secret holes to lay their heads together with the discontented spirits of the Times to raise a Rebellion against a Moses or a David or a Manasses c. to bring them to their demands by open violence and those that did received to themselves damnation Corah if Rebellion be but as the sin of Witchcraft will not have wrong done him if he be call'd the Conjurer that raised those evil spirits the Ground opens in his own Circle and devours him and his Complices Saint Jude tells us there were them in his time that perish'd in the gainsaying of Corah and then it seems that sin of his may be acted over again And therefore having as well as I could describ'd the sin and shew'd its punishment I shall keep you no longer from your Prayers that God would please to make your own Houses partake of the service and blessings of his That as you ought to learn Obedience here you may practise it at home and as you pray for all men especially for Kings and all in authority in the Temple you may frequently and honestly repeat the same Petitions in your private Closets To encourage you to Obedience the most thank-worthy Duty that man can pay unto his God the onely quality that is Sacred in man consider they are the words of God Obedience is better then Sacrifice and in the performing this most acceptable Service assure your selves Our God who is the King of Kings who has deliver'd our Moses our David The Breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord so often from the peril of the Sword and so miraculously and peaceably a Blessing never to be forgotten but by wicked men brought him again to his People and set him on the Throne of his Forefathers will make him a Patron of his People a Nursing Father to his long-afflicted Handmaid the Church of God amongst us And he that has preserved us formerly from the gathering together of the froward and the insurrections of those wicked doers that were confederate against God and his Anointed will still defend us from all evils they shall contrive against us and make us hereafter Kings and Priests to live with him for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Blessed Spirit be ascribed as is due All Honour Glory Praise and Dominion now and ever Amen THE END