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
their Minister hee 'l serve them in it Although we for ought find when they were settled where they would be they casheer'd him Jonathan was consecrated in his stead 'T is so with us Religion is a good cloak though many times Covetousness and Sacriledg are hid under it Dionysius pluckes off Aesculapius his golden beard in Apollo's Temple not out of fear of Idolatry least the people should fall down and worship it but that he alone might adore it when it was locked up safe in his own Coffers Thus all the holiness of some of our Reformers has ere now proved but sacra fames auri a religious itch their fingers have had to be telling the Gold of the Sanctuary which hath constantly proved an Achans wedge corrupted and consumed the heap to which 't was laid Thus the Danites story that 's made up too and in all this we have done that which is right in our own eyes The Last is the rape in Gibeah but in sins of that nature we scorne to have patterns set us wee 'l out do all examples that which once was said of Rome is now more true of England illic impune peccare licet we dare sin without controul else what mean those scandalous adulterous incestuous copulations acted as if it were in despight quam ingeniosa est haec nequitia under the nose of those Courts which formerly have punished them But closer yet this Ephraimite was a Levite which travailed thus patiently after his offending Concubines but returning among the Benjamites he finds them so far estranged from civil hospitality that pro disco damnum lust back'd with violence is their most friendly salutations None here I hope will deny but the Ministers in the Gospell are espoused to their severall Congregations God Almighty is the Father which gives them in this mysticall Marriage Where after much pains and patience long suffering and meekness they have travailed to reclaim their errors and call them back to their first Loves if they pass by the Benjamites those ravenous wolves which love to devour the prey and devide the spoyl Gen. 49.27 't is well if they finde high-way respect and not be cudgeld out of that too The Lyons courtesie goes a great way now I assure you when he did no injury More likely the young Children of the Bethlemites will meet them in the streets and cry go up thou bald head go up thou bald head but for their Concubines the benefices every man must be better acquainted with them They will lie with them that is Know them one after another make their severall impropriation of them and that all night so long till they have made a custome of it So that in the morning when this poor Concubine returnes to her Lord the Levite she shall neither have life or heat to comfort him If a poor old Sojourner one that hath enough to do to secure his own head from violence amongst them shall take these traveilers under his roof to protect them from the fury of the Citizens he runs the same danger with them and well if the prostituting of his own Daughter can quit him from their hands Gods mercy to his Church is such that he hath alwaies raised up some to vindicate the reputation of it yet sometimes they are so far overborne that good Obediah that Patron of the Prophets is every hour in danger of his own destruction 1 Kings 18. And whotsoever shall be so religious as to undertake their Patronage although he plead not for Bigamy plurality of Concubines the old Ephraimite here did not so but only that they may quietly enjoy the freedom of the place with what the Law of God and nature gives them yet this very plea may indanger the prostitution of his own Daughter the publication of his own Estate Thus the Gibeonites story that 's made up too and in all this we have done that which is right in our own eyes You see the effects are come home to us within our doors but the cause you will tell me fails For in these dayes we have a King in this our Israel And God be blessed that in these dayes we have a King may the dayes of this King in himself and his Royall race indure for ever Yet let me tell you there is no great difference between having no King and a King no whit obey'd Or if any be the latter is the most extreme if malum culpae exceed that of poenae for so we alter it from a punishment of God to a sin of our own When every churlish Nabal shall refuse to let distressed David enter commons with his own day-labourers and partake of such provision as he had made for his sheep-sherers denying the least portion of his Estate to Davids use when the security of all his Estate consist in Davids protection And if Ahimelech the Priest which has scarce bread enough to put in his own belly shall feed him with some few loaves of the Sanctuary and so refresh and strengthen him with a little Consecrated bread although in the mean time he fast himself for it it shall be cause enough for some treacherous Doeg to inform against him and the next news will be Sauls command to his foot men his Militia to turne and slay the Priests of the Lord because their hands are with David When every reviling Shimei as he passes by the high-way may freely and without controul curse the Lords Anointed Nay more throw stones and durt upon him bespatter his unblemisht name and poyson his reputation with malitious and false slandours disscourses of most dangerous Consequences When Achitophel his own bosome Friend and choicest Counsellour shall provoke all Israel against him and put down Joab the Captain of the Kings Host and set set up Amasa in his room When Sheba the Benjamite neither Priest nor Prophet shall dare to blow the Trumpet in the high way renounce David and send every man of Israel to their tents When the King and all his Servants shall be forced from Jerusalem that Royall City and receive no entertainment as he passes by Bahurim till he come to Mahanaim far off where old Barzillay remembers his Duty and performs his allegiance better If these scattered drops do fore-token a black storm a coming if these thick mists which fall so fast may easily convince us that our Suns a setting we need not go farr to seek a cause for those forenamed Insolencies I am amazed Sirs when I behold the purest times of our Religious Forefathers and see those blessed Martyrs even when they were dressed up in flames and accompanied Eliah to heaven in a charret of fire when they were grinding between the teeth of Lions when they were driven to the tops of Mountains like so many sheep to the slaughter when their ingenuous Torturers were overcome at their own art and could invent no punishment answerable to their patience Then at their hower of suffering to hear them pray for
Mountain at a great distance has seemed to vanish into the Air and prove a little nothing suffer your selves to be undeceived search the Scriptures and if ye be of Davids faith put on Davids conscience who after he had cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily his heart smote him and his tears wash'd out his faule 1 Samuel 24.6 The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord He did but cut off a lap and shall we lay our Lords anointed naked Naked not to relieve his wants naked to discover if any were his shames If we be Christians it makes good our title to him he is Christus Domini The Lords Christ if we be Protesants I speak it again such as disclaiming the names of Papists would not degenerate into their Religion we must confess that damnation is the portion of him that resists this ordinance of God Shall Isaiah call Cyrus the Lords anointed Baruch and Jeremiah bid us pray for Nebuchodonoser Peter and Paul command submission to Tyberius Nero and Caligula all heathenish persecuting Emperors and we neglect our Constantine our Theodesius the dew of Heaven which is fallen upon this fleece of England when all the World is wet with blood besides If we shall abuse his patience into fury can we expect any less judgment then to be forced under that fury to practise Patience If any then neglecting the Urim and the Prophets the establisht ordinance of God as fanatick Saul did 1 Sam. 28. and recurr to Wizards wise women as you call them and inquire of them the event of such a battle as this would prove they may perhaps bring you to Samuels Ghost some Devill in a Prophets likeness but look for no better success then he fourd there the death of your selves and your Sons The stars in their course from Heaven will fight against Sisera conjurati venient in classca venti the wind and the hail-stones will muster up their forces against Adonizedek and his confederates But for you which despise Micah and his private new fangled devotion which resist Dan and his riotous tumultuous assemblies which would cool Benjamin and his goatish ravenous lust make it your care to continue a Rex in Israel Suffer no Baanahs and Rechabs that dare murther Kings there beds no Bightans and Tharezes that dare entertain the motion in their hearts to live amongst you Oyles by experience we know will mix although power'd into a vessel much water be put betwixt them You which have found the Oyle of the holy Spirit in your hearts let it joyne your hearts and commix your souls to the Oyle upon the head of Gods anointed That thus the religion of your hearts may burst our of joyfull lips with prayers That God would visit him as he did Moses in the bush Joshua in the Battell Gideon in the field David in the Temple that the dew of his abundant mercies may fall upon his head and that he would give unto him the blessings of David and Solomon That he would he his helmet of Salvation against the face of all his enemies and a strong Tower of defence in the time of adversity That his raign may be prosperous and his dayes many That peace and love holynesse and Justice and Truth all Christain Vertues may flourish in his time That his people may serve him with Honour and Obedience and that he may so duly serve God here on Earth that he may hereafter everlastingly raign with God in Heaven Amen Amen The Second SERMON JUDGES 4.23 Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord yea curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty A Text no doubt in season we have an age to Curse in I to curse bitterly too tanquam venena Aspidum the poyson of Aspes is under our lips And these lips we think are touched by the Angel of God too A coal from the Altar at least has fired our tongues Nay we are grown valiant of late we dare go out to fight now and make the people believe it is to the help of the Lord And that no title be left out 't is to the help the Lord against the mighty too Our pulpits by their Almighty power can create new forces and in one nights space proclaim them mighty whom our Saterdays night Pamphlets told us where to be pittied for their weakness Thus can we wrest the Scripture to our own destruction and gain this credit when we are once unmaskt that we have been plausible deceivers 'T is no new rule that corruptio optima fit pessima That the most Sovereign antidote when the Spirits are decay'd or that it self by some unskilfull Emperick mis-apply'd proves oftentimes the rankest poyson And I know indigefting stomachs may corrupt the most nourishing meats and the sweetest flowers may stink of his breath that smells them Thus that pure that sacred fountain of Holy Scripture whence the waters of life are drawn in their own Christall integrity when it is royld with our inventions proves aqua mortis the poyson'd waters of Sodom The standing lake which neither flows to other Contryes nor nourishes in their own tuus esse incipit This book of God so abused does God as little or less service then the Turkish Alcoran or the old Romane-Tables I know this place was never meant for controversy The intent of Sermons was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for conclusions to edification not for disputation they should not rob the chair But yet when Sheba shall dare to blow the Trumpet in the high-way and renounce his inheritance in David 't is time for Joab to cast a bank about his City and besiege him If any unprejudicate and well-affected Christians have drank in poyson at their ears which now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflames their souls sets them a fire on mischief I shall desire which I do on my knees to heaven by a plain lesson on Deboras harp to disenchant them and by a true though homely relation of this story here a relation in which neither language nor method shall be concise to undeceive them The people of Israel Gods own inheritance was at this time under the government of their Judges which had then the supream authority Which authority whether it were the same with what their Kings did after injoy or onely a praeparative to it an Usher to the royall dignity I will not here determine Yet this I am sure of it came from Heaven and God himself was Author of it for when the common people queis semper mutare potentes principium est whose brains are alwaies turning round upon their changes did in the following story desire a King which might seem an honourable and fair exchange whether ye regard their higher credit with other nations or their greater security against forraign powers or the praedetermination
of Almighty God who had promised this dignity long ago to the seed of Abraham Gen. 17. God takes the affront as put upon himself 1 Sam. 18. They have not refused thee but they have refused me that I should not raign over them So constant is Almighty God to his own principles that although in things intended by himself he will not be prevented by the phantastick desires of men Well! Israel thus founded had many enemies furnaces at lest to cleanse them from their dross Intestina pericula pills left in the bowels of their possessions to purge out their corruption Five Lords of the Philistines and the Zidonians and the Hivites and the Jebusites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites who would claim title of inheritance to this land of promise Amongst these Jabin a Mighty Man that had nine hunderd Chariots of Iron and a powerfull host whose Captain was Sisera that lived in Harosheth like a near neighbour he lies heavy on them he oppresseth the Sons of Israel Those which would shew their skill in fetching proper names from their originnall and indeed your old Geneva Bibles do it tell me that Sisera signifies a foreseer of Horses and Harosheth a wooden place of strength once get a place of strength and then pretend some fears and jealousies of I know not what impossible conceits that naked Israel which had not a speare among forty thousand in the beginning of this Chapter is preparing strength of Horses or I know not what 't is provocation enough for Sisera to go up against them Their judge Deborah a Woman of most masculine Spirit was under a Palme tree in the highway to Mount Ephraim Whether excluded her City or not I cannot tell but the text sayes there she dwelt And truly why may we not think excluded 'T was Davids lot afterward who had more Majesty and title too in and to the Royal City which himself had raised yet forced from thence Bahurim and the other places as he passed by proves as ungratefull as Jerusalem her self She with her Co-partner Barak at the Lords appointment do prepare for Battle But alas nisi Dominus unlesse the Lord had been on their side all the forces they could gather had not been enough for Siseras host to breath themselves upon Reuben they finde divided Gilead would not pass his borders Asher had possessed himself of the Sea Coasts and the strong holds he thought himself securer there Dan was imployed about the ships he will make the coasts sure whatsoever becomes of the Countrey within Yes naviget Antyceras a little Hellebore would purge his brain better and make him wiser Onely the two Northern Tribes Zebulon and Napthali with ten thousand men which offer themselves willingly will undertake this quarrell Yet let me not bespatter all the rest Ephraim and Benjamin and Machir the son of Manasses and Issachar too all Southern Counties sent out some Nobles which were so bold as to be honest and associated themselves in this holy war And I know not how there crept in some that handle the pen of the writer too which might make Gods battails famous and record to after ages those stories which the sword here had wrote in blood Those Judges which escaped the noise of the Archers came down upon their white Asses and although the Laws are mute where the Drum speaks they durst then tell them what the Law was they durst sit in Judgment and speake the righteous acts of God As for the rest they chose them new Gods novum cultum saith the Paraphraser new forms of devotion new moulds of the old Religion if you will every one made an Idoll of himself and worshipped his own inventions Well their Army thus confederate prepare their march But where is their Ammunition No armour but that of faith not one shield or speare amongst forty thousand men in Israel and as little hopes of supplyes was there in other places Asher had stop'd the coasts Dan had seized the Ships the high wayes were beset and the travellers glad to walk thorough by paths But Deborah arose Deborah that mother in Israel She knew that Gods hand was not shortned that he could not redeem nor his power diminished that he could not deliver Joshua had tryed it before with trumpets of rams-hornes Ehud with his two edged sword Shamgar with his ox-goad He which before had slain five Kings with hailstones could not he muster up an army of stars to fight in their courses against the army of Sisera Timere metuit t is the Lords appointment she dares not fear it but marches on couragiously whilst her generall Barak leads on the forces to Mount Tabor the randevouz A little distance from the Mountain was the village Meroz whose neighbouring Situation might well have succored them if not with a greater strength of men for a reserve at need yet with a necessary shelter in the day of Battle But this whether affrighted with the chariots or trusting to the horses of the enemies troops shut in themselves and shut out the Israelites they will not come to hely the Lord. And indeed what need of help has he in whose name all help consists The battle joynes the Charets are discomfited Sisera leaves his Coach and flies away on foot and Deborah returns back a triumphant Conqueror Yet least She should forget that God that taught her hands to fight and her armes to break those bows of steel She sings a Paean a song which a Quire of Angels would Eccho too a song of triumph to the Lord of hosts In the midst of which as it were a sharp a relish to all the rest she brands this ingratitude of Meroz in the Text. Curse ye Meroz sayes the Angel curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty I shall be very brief in the Theory of my Text. Discourses of this nature require more practise In the words behold an Anathema a sentence of excommunication if you will pronounced And accordingly to make it legal here are all the parts of it 1. There is the hand and seal the authority confirming it The Angel sayes it 2. There is the form of the sentence curse ye yea curse ye bitterly 3. There is the Excommunicate person Meroz and her inhabitants 4. There is the crime of which she stands convict a negative fault a sin of omission for not helping the Lord not helping the Lord against the mighty Oppositions seem here at the first view abundantly to meet The ark of God and Dagon you would think were content with the same roof here is the Angel of God that messenger of glad tidings with curses in his mouth here 's God the Lord Almighty has need of help against the mighty here is the first Caos moulded up together yet with your patience out of this darkness God may inable us to produce some light First the Angel speaks it
some time in the descant in which every one of us must bear a part And I cannot but begin with a just indignation against those who have abused the words and made them speak their own crazy humours and frantick dreams Like Men troubled with an Hydrophobia bitten with a mad dog and now raging they think all things before them look like water like the froth of their own brains Indeed Scripture shall be no longer Scripture if it do not please them Being in this like the old Tyrians who were wont to whip their Gods if they crossed them with a misfortune till they made them better Thus came they armed to the Pulpit with as brave a resolution as Hannibal to the Alps aut viam invenient aut facient Where they find no tracke before them they will adventure first and are grown so daringly presumptuous as to slight these texts which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do in plain rerms cross their trayterous position and tell you it was doctrine fit for those times the Apostles lived in I my self have heard it were they upon the Earth now when Christians knew their own strength they would write in another strain Blasphemous wretches is the blessed Spirit of God a servant or the times Is that eternal goodnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unchangeably constant and for ever more the same become the Idoll fortune and dances he upon a wheel Never Musselman thought thus of his lawgiver Mahomet never Heathen of the rule of Nature Yet that they may shew some commixture of madness and wit sometimes they will prove ingeniously wicked and like a conjurer cast a mist before your eyes till you think you see the face of these times presented you in the glass of prophesie which once perswaded what ever language came from the top of Ebal is a Charientismus a message of peace compared with theirs Thus Deborah the Church shall fall a cursing Meroz the friends to the crown because they came not out to help the Lord against Siseras host the royall Army 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here le ts joyn hands Good sirs instruct me whose person bore distressed Deborah was it not the supream and are there or can there be 2. supreams She was a Mother a Judg a Captain in Israel And can any order that is a primo primus derived from the first be equall to it Had Jabin been a King to Deborah I am sure she had too religious a soul to have cursed him For what was Sisera Was he not a stranger One of another line another claim another religion another God one commanded by God long since to be expeld the Land and his inheritance devided amongst the Tribes Make you your selves an Analogy between the stories and see what an apt proportion they have left But one nice distinction will stop this gap We can cut an hair between the King and his forces The King is a good King a well meaning King and so he is in spite of their bold faced detractions but his Siseras his Generals his Commanders they are none of ours No and yet within these three years the reverend Fathers of our Church were quarreld at by these very Men for leaving their names out of our divine service book But are we grown such experienced artificers to devide between the squirrel and the tail that hides the back The fable makes a pretty dialogue between the wolf and the dog The wolf bids him go home and sleep quietly why should he expose himself to the winters frosts and the summers heat to watch his flock There was no emnity between them true sayes the dog but when thou hast worried my sheep and art grown fat and lusty with their flesh thou maist seize upon my throat next But closer yet for I would faine follow my text however they leave it Neither has the Angel said it to them nor have they power to curse nor have they cutsed Meroz nor curse they for not helping of the Lord nor in their sense does the Lord need any help against the mighty First an Angel has not said it whatever visions they pretend or if he should though an Angel from Heaven deliver any other doctrine then what the Scripture has preached let him be accursed I Gal. I. the Divine revelations and Angelicall descentions which the Anabaptists glory of are things grown too naked to delude us any longer They sound like the story of Mahomets dove Since Christs ascension into Heaven he left the holy Spirit as a Legacy to his Church that Spirit which shall guide it into all truth and so it will notwithstanding all these impostures When their writings are ad thus scombros alligata made as they are wastpaper St. Peter and St. Paul will be true and sound divinity And yet I know t is no new thing for Satan to transform himself into an Angel of light and become a lying Spirit in the mouths of such as would be accounted Prophets We know when he perswaded a Nation to go to warr to its own destruction May our good God defend us from the like mischief But 2ly they have no power to curse no commission for their execrations a Christians office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.10 speak friendly to their persecutors Marke the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well to them and well of them too not pump hell for language and arme the tongue with such Rhetorick that it cutteth like a razor The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint uses here for cursing signifies pray ye barkward if ye will for so the Scholiast tels me that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the theme in Homers time signified humble prayers but being abused in the succeeding ages who turned their prayers into curses the interpretation of the word changed too and it signifide an execration and indeed in this art of praying backward we are too good proficients If that be to pray we can learn our lessons quickly By the abuse of time it comes that we have changed the genuine meaning of the word For in the dayes of old before Religion was adulterated the reverend Fathers in the primitive times were wont to bless the patience of Christian Souldiers bless them for their loyalty bless them for their service performed to their most cruel blood-sucking persecutors When they behaved themselves like the stoutest Champions in the causes of the Emperors they were incouraged with an Euge sic decet Christianos you shew now that yee serve the Lord of Heaven by obeying his vice-roys upon earth But alas the ditty is chang'd in our dayes if any true hearted piety dare be so bold as to stand in the just defence of that Soveraignty which the law of God the laws of Nations our oathes and protestations binds us to there is an Ito maledicta passed upon it it is cursed and cursed bitterly But though they curse yet God will blesse It is not the name malignant can exclude us out of
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
with what difficulty he raised up any forces remember what opposition he found in preparing a guard for his royal person indeed he needed none he had a guard of Angels that being quarreld at for him in an open Country which his Courts of Justice thought necessary for themselves in the greatest place of security I should distrust your judgments to remember you of Dans ships or Ashers coast Towns Reubens divisions or Gileads confaederacy What ever the wit of man could invent to stop supplies by sea or land of monyes or men or ammunition what ever disheartning could be thrown upon his well affected subjects what ever opposition could be made by an association entred between Geball and Ammon and Ameleck the Phylistines and those that dwell at Tire all these and more then these he incountred with But non est consilium contra altissimum In the day of battle Deborah wins the field wonder not if the power of Heaven prevail Against the arme of flesh Though his excellency reach unto the Heavens and his head mount up to the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung Job 20.6 Mount Tabor can tell you and so can rebellious Meroz too how succesfull those Northern troops have been which God rais'd up as a pledg of his providence over his anointed which all that look upon impartially must needs conclude with an hic Dei digitus This is the hand of Heaven which has defended the Lord of the earth Against the mihgty But I haue cut out these so large a share in my text that I have kept for our selves but a very small division What ever remains two words shall dispatch 1. Imprecemur 2. Deprecemur let us curse and let us pray Curse those that have deserved it pray that we may not deserve it Imprecemur first Curse if not with Deborah Meroz there for not helping the Lord yet with St. Paul Meroz here for fighting against the Lord In denouncing which sentence I clash not with the doctrine I have delivered There is an Evangelicall curse for all such coyned to my hands and that the deepest of all other no less then damnation Whosoever resists shall receive to himself damnation Rom. 13. Had we the art of opening our bibles and reading there as well as wearing them under our armes which we love so well we had been taught this divinity from as many plain texts as there are found to confirm any Article of the Creed But a seeming devotion is no new vizor Horace tells us of the light wenches in his dayes that Libellos stoicos jacere inter sericos pulvillos amant they would not go to bed but their grave treatises of chastity must be their pillows profession I know is very good but it is when the hearts and lips are friends But if we walk not honestly toward them which are without we teach Turks and Mahumetans to blaspheme our God and whereas their religion is their shame we prove a shame to our religon For consider I beseech you and consider seriously against whom ye would take up armes Is it not against the power against the ordinance of God Contra animatam Dei Imaginem against the walking picture of Heaven In Kings sayes Lactantius there is a double appearance they are Men before God but they are Gods before Men Such sayes Optatus as acknowledg no power to controul them but him alone which instated them in such power And who that is Tertullian will tell you elegantly Inde Imperator unde homo antequam Imperator inde potestas illi spiritus St. Pauls words shall interpret him there is no power but what is ordained of God Which strook good St. Bernard to so brave are resolution that maugre the confederacy of the world he would prove himself a Christian to God by a loyal subjection to his Soveraign his words deserve letters of Gold in his 170. Epistle Si totus orbis sayes he adversumme conjuraret ut quippiam molirer adversus regiam Majestatem ego tamen Deum timerem ordinatum adeo Regem offendere temere non auderem And he gives his reason Nec enim ignoro ubi legerim qui potestati resistit Dei ordinationi resistit See how vast a difference here is between our Spirits Religious soul the whole earth combining could not make him willingly offend his King and shall the fear of a threatned plundering make us oppose our King Alas Sirs those that we fear for the thorns to wound us should be the spurs to incite us Do their worst it is the best for us they can but rob us of our intanglings as Theophilact glosses upon 2 Tim. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some Serpents that imbrace us and hinder us from pleasing him who has called us to be Souldiers shall we embrace a little nick named favour here before the Eternal love of God shall the common rout perswade me to go to Hell for company If the name of Christian be not worn out with some newborn title for which we have exchanged it think what our Captain hath done before us He curses Peters sword which was drawn in defence of him his Lord and Master and when the judg of Heaven earth stood before the bar of Caesar to be adjudged he confesses himself to the author of that power which spoke his own condemnation 'T is truely said that Kings have long arms they can reach to heaven for vengeance they can crow'd down to hell for torments And this is true of all Kings Christians or Heathen good or bad not only of the Vespasians the sweet governours but of Domitian the cruel Tyrant of Nero of Tyberius that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Master Gadareus called him that heap of morter tempered with blood The Oyl upon Sauls head saved his throat sayes Optatus He was a wicked King it is true and deserved to dy but David was a good man and durst not be his executioner dum timuit olenm servavit inimicum the oyl with which he was anointed David well knew would never sink but in despight of violence would swim uppermost 'T is true that God sometimes refines his Church in the furnace of perfection neither then does he leave it naked and disarme it But what are the Churches weapons St. Anselm had his dolere potero potero flere his sighs and groans against the Gottish Souldiers St. Bernard fought to death against Lewes of France non scutis gladiis sed precibus fletibus prayers and tears were his sword and buckler Nazianzen overcame Julian but it was Christianorum lachrymis ubertim effusis by softning his Adamantine heart with salt drops from their eyes Thence flowes the only sea which can overthrow Pharoahs host But alas this is not our case We prepare other armes against a Prince of another temper One whom if the first Christians had known they would have made him more then the delight of Men they would receive him as
an Angel of God A Prince of so gratious a disposition that the gratest fear his good subjects have to loose him is because he is too good for Earth One which lingers for peace in the greatest success of war One which has hoped to win by loosing and has willingly made himself less a King if by that means he might make us more subjects One which calls out for mercy in the field of blood ye stones hear this and melt forbidding the slaughter of those which they can take prisoners notwithstanding they came out to be his executioners Groaning for our wants our infringed Liberties our decayed religion which now lay expiring but that the soul of it has found a warme seat in his royal breast A true Cedar of Mount Lebanon that hath afforded a secure shelter to the humble vallies and never O never may he be cut down till he be removed to the building of the Heavenly Sanctuary As for those trees that would have the bramble raign let them be consumed by the brambles curse and be burnt up with the fire which the bramble kindles But I have forgot my self 2. Deprecemur The great God of Heaven remove this curse from us for let us no longer flatter our selves Brethren with a superficiall Allegiance have we been as zealous for God and the King as our duty binds us have our Eliahs cried as loud have they rent and cut themselves as much as Baals lying Prophets Has not the fear of Daniels den the place where the Kings Lions were kept and Jeremiahs dungeon stopped the mouths of our Men of God Did not Deborah here find better aid from Zebulon of those that handle the writers pen whereas after the groaning of the press vvith seditious Pamphlets our gracious Soveraign makes a just complaint that all pens are silent in his righteous cause If he do gladio protegere shall not we calamo defendere If his sword rights our cause shall not our quils write his He that fights for Heaven and us shall not our prayers fight with Heaven and wrastle with Almighty God for him Shall a little of Demosthenes his gold send the sqinzy in our throats Shall a politick silence stop our Mouths For good Sirs what should you fear the losse of your Estates Alas if you let fall this cause who can challenge a propriety 'T will be in vain to preach a non concupisces thou shalt not wish when a vote turnes you out of all nerutis caesis receptis Do you fear the losse of Liberty Was it ever more infringed Do you fear the losse of Religion I here indeed it pinches We have betrayed the cause Amyclaeo filentio whilst we durst not tell you the enemy was a coming They have taken away the Lord and we know not where they have laid him Nay they have not left so much as the white cloaths in the place where he lay before They have defaced the Sanctuary and yet we the Nehemiahs the Eliashibs the Priests and Labourers have taken neither a sword in one hand to defend it nor a trowell in the other to repair it God be mercifull unto our sin for it is great we have not holpen the Lord Against the might But the King shall rejoyce in thy Strength O Lord exceeding glad shall he be in thy Salvation Thou shalt give him his hearts desire and wilt not deny him the request of his lips For thou shalt prevent him with the blessings of goodness and shalt set a crown of pure gold upon his head His honour shall be great in thy Salvation glory and great worship shalt thou lay upon him For thou shalt give him everlasting felicity and make him glad with the joy of thy countenance And why because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most Highest he shall not miscarry All thine enemies shall feel thy hand thy right hand shall find out them that hate thee Thou shalt make them like a fiery oven in the time of thy wrath the Lord shall destroy them in his displeasure and the fire shall consume them Their fruit shalt thou root out of the Earth and their seed from among the Children of men For they intended mischief against thee and imagined such a device as they shall not be able to perform Therefore shalt thou put them to flight and the strings of thy bow shalt thou make ready against the face of them Be thou exalted Lord in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power Amen Amen The Third SERMON NUMBERS 17.8 And it came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the Tabernacle of Witness and behold the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded Almonds THen it appears that time was when Aaron had a rod and that rod budded too yes and it budded in the Tabernacle and was laid up in the Ark of the Covenant to be kept for a token against the Rebels in the latter dayes verse 10. And may not we fear that those latter dayes are faln upon us when Aarons rod is now broken and he himself scarce suffered to enter into the Tabernacle Whilst an Antichristian brood sit in the Temple of God which exalt themselves above all that is called God The Author to the Hebrews chap. 9. tells us of three sacra deposita holy Utensils laid up in the Ark together the pot of Manna the Tables of the Covenant and this budding rod and there they kept company so long that now they will not be parted Let one be banisht and all the rest we may fear will follow Once break the Crosier this pastorall rod and the Tables of the Covenant the ten Commendements are not long liv'd after it They shall be banisht out of the Church by sacrilegious deformers out of the heart by impious Antinomians and the pot of Manna the heavenly bread of holy doctrine shall be poysoned with the Coloquintida of errors mixt amongst it there will be mors in olla till some Elisha poure in meal better ground better sifted principles there is death in the pot Doctrine and Discipline like Hippocrates twins will alwayes either laugh or cry together The words read may be called Gods lottery the lots are rods the bag they are put in is the Tabernacle the hand that drew them out is the hand of Moses the house they fall on is the house of Levi. Or more plainly it is Gods miraculous preferring the house of Levi and Aaron most eminently of all that Tribe before the mutinying Congregation They depend upon the foregoing History and I should handle them very partially if I did not preface them with it When the Levite Coraâ— thought himself undervalued that he was only separated from the Congregation to do the service of the Tabernacle and to Minister to the people esteeming it but a small thing that the Lord had thus brought him neer unto himself
indeed his ambitious heart kept him at far distance when the Priesthood was intayl'd on Aaron and his Successors he joynes himself to Dathan and Abiram two ruling Elders of the Tribe of Reuben with two hundred and fifty Princes of the Assembly and there begins to preach parity a doctrine easily disgested by ambitious minds to this Independent Congregation A pretence of holinesse cloaked their wickednesse For being gathered into a riot and daring do all acts of violence which their strength could secure them in they exclaim against their governours you take too much upon you say they seeing all the Congregation are holy and the Lord is amongst them Wherefore then lift yee up your selves above the Congrâ—gation of the Lord A strange presumption which the mad World will never leave to entitle God to the Divels cause to bring the Lord of Order to countenance their disorders but these unhappy dayes hath left the story at our own doors where a specious outside guilds many rotten Hypocrites Sampsons two foxes cannot be coupled with a firebrand of Sedition between them but they be reported abroad to draw the yoke of Jesâ—s Christ under a pretence of Every one is holy a parity in righteousnes every one strives for a primacy a supremacy in wickedness And it were well if these thrusts were made against Aaron the high priests breast plate only Moses his rod is beaten down too The Miter cannot fall but the Crown shakes they that made Religion their qnarrel just before presently after make politicall grieveances the burden of the song Moses like a good Prince had taken off the envy from his High-Priest Aaron and pointed their arrows at an higher mark you are gathered against the Lord sayes he and indeed Sirs God is in all his ordinances but what is Aaron that yee murmur against him Yet let his next work be to secure himself Is it a small thing say they that thou hast brought us out of a Land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness except thou make thy self a Prince altogether over us This strong complaint of Tyranny was the most forcible cord that could unite the hands of the many-headed-monster-multitude But the next verse tells us it was their own particular interests which ingaged the Rebells it was because they had not Fields and Vineyards to their hearts desire Absolom may flatter the people in the gate and pitty their case that justice is delayed them but let his heart comment upon his words and he pitties most his own case that he is not in place to do it But Moses can easily wash his hands of Tyranny I have not taken ass from them neither have I hurt one of them sayes he The complaint of Rebels most commonly is as far removed from truth as their quarrell is from goodness Yet unless God from Heaven will attest his integrity his own righteousnesse will scarce defend him against two hundred and fifty assembly men Moses and Aaron fall upon their faces but the Lord holds them up and at their command the Congregation separates from the tents of Corah and his Confederates who would have made them Separatists from the Congregation Whilst those mutinying Traytors which did not deserve to live are not suffered to dye but are buryed before their death and they which would have made a division from their Fathers may not be gathered to their Fathers in peace But the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit and the earth closed upon them and they perished from amongst the Congregation As for the other 250 with censers in their â—â—nds which would be flashing of strange fire before the Lord God sends down a true fire from Heaven which eats them up Two pararell judgments A Schisme of the Earth punisheth a Schism of the People a fire from Heaven consumes their ignis fatuus their false fire upon the Earth so surely does God overtake those which do not carry him along with them in their designs By this time we would think that an awful reverence of Moses Aaron was wrought upon the hearts of the Congregation by the finger of heaven but seditious minds are restlesse Like Sisyphus his stone if it be faln to the bottom it must be rold to the top of the hill again The People fly from the gaping of the Earth and are afraid of the fire from Heaven but having digested their Panick fears next morning like men hardened to their destruction they dare challenge God to renew his judgments by charging his Magistrates with the blood of those which perished in their own rebellion as if Moses his rod which before had devoured the Egyptian mock-Serpents had now feasted upon the Rulers of the assembly and Aarons blue and purple and scarlet were now altogether dyed in blood ye have killed say they the people of the Lord. But unless those whom they accuse for their Murtherers prove their deliverers they are all but dead men for there is wrath gone out against them Aaron at Moses his command runs into midst of the Congregation takes the censer puts fire upon the censer puts on incense and stands between the living and the dead and makes atonement for the People The mercy of a good Governour resembles God from whom he has his Commission he is ready to spare and protect them that conspire his destruction knowing that his Saviour dyed for them which crucified him yet least the death of fourteen thousand and seven hundred should in the next Generation be worn out and forgoten God will perpetuate this story with a lasting miracle and that the mouthes of murmerers may for ever be stop'd he makes choise of Aaron symbolically the twelve Princes of the twelve Tribes cast in their twelve rods as Moses appointed with their names wrote every man upon his rod and on the morrow Moses went into the Sanctuary of the Witness and behold the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi budded and bloomed blossomes and brought forth Almonds In prosecuting these words Aquinas his rule shall be our guide In omni Scripturae narratione historica sayes he profundamento tenenda est veritas historiae de super spirituales rationes sunt fabricondae in any histocal narrative part of Scripture the first principle which we must ground upon is the truth of the history and that foundation once laid we make our mystical spirituall interpretations a super-structure Give me leave hear then to make Aaron another coat and to imbroyder over the fine linnen the groundwork of the history with the Blew and Purple and Scarlet and Gold the several colours of the mystery Observe we then in this miraculous Election of Almighty God the subject on which the miracle was wrought which falls under our notice 1. In the simple it was a rod 2. The composit it was Aarons rod 3. The decomposit it was Aarons rod for the house
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
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