an Absolute freedom with Liberty and Property Words I must confess not expressed but sufficiently implyed in this Chapter as will appear to any who seriously read the same They are made to believe that they shall have a Power in sacred Matters as should both authorize and justifie their approaches to the Holy Altar without the intervention of Priest or Prelate The People being gulled by such Arts as these the Leaders boldly shew themselves against Moses and Aaron and impudently tell them to their faces vers 3. of this Chapter You take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are Holy even every one of them and the Lord is among them Wherefore then lift ye up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord At the hearing of this Moses falls upon his face vers 4. and tells them that on the morrow the Lord would shew who were his and then gently rebukes these Sons of Levi the true Fathers of our Presbyterians who scorn to acknowledge any Jurisdiction above their own vers 9. Seemeth it but a small thing to you that the God of Israel hath seperated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself to do the Service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the Congregation to Minister unto them and he hath brought thee near to him and all thy Brethren the Sons of Levi and seek ye the Priest-hood also for which cause both thou and all thy Company are gathered together against the Lord and what is Aaron that ye Murmur against him As if he should have said It is not Aaron that hath thrust himself into or invaded this Office for he was consecrated unto it by God himself After such a gentle Rebuke he condescends to send a Messenger unto them to call Dathan and Abiram who vers 12. impudently return they will not come unto him and not only so but with most upbraiding terms and severest Sarcasms vers 13 14. endeavoured to expose him to the shame and contumely of the People Is it a small thing say they that thou hast brought us up out of a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey to kill us in the Wilderness except thou makest thy self altogether a Prince over us Moreover thou hast not brought us up into a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey or given us Inheritance of Fields and Vineyards wilt thou put out the Eyes of these Men we will not come up Moses though the meekest of men yet as the following Verse tells us was wroth and appeals unto the Lord as a Witness of his Integrity hear himself speaking I have not taken one Ass from them neither have I hurt one of them Thus Beloved you have an Account of their Conspiracy now be pleased to take a view of the end of these wicked Men see whether they are not consumed in their Sins Their Sin was great so likewise was their Punishment too and that all men might be fright'ned and terrified from their levelling Principles from opposing their lawful Magistrate and promoting a Party between the High-Priest and Levite or between the Bishop and Priest now for I cannot but take the latter in the Christian Church to answer the former in the Jewish vers 31. We read That the Ground clave asunder that was under them and the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their Houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah all their Goods they and all that appertained unto them went down alive into the Pit and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation And so I come to my second Proposition viz. 2. That all Rebellion of what kind soever is not only unlawful but destructive likewise to Traytors and that in both Worlds 1. It is unlawful but I shall only speak two or three Words of this as supposing it a Subject that hath been often handled especially at this time by more learned men I shall only say this That to oppose our lawful Magistrates is against the Sense and Practice of Christ's Church in all Ages even under the severest Persecutions I say in all Ages even under the severest Persecutions of Heathen Emperours nay under Julian the Apostate for never never were the Primitive Fathers brought in and wrack'd to patronise Rebellion till these last Years calculated without doubt for the Meridian of this Conspiracy though how much the Fathers were wronged the Confutation of what hath been alledged hath sufficiently declared But then 2. Rebellion is not only unlawful but destructive likewise to Traytors in both Worlds Give me leave to dwell somewhat long upon this Particular I say then Treason is pernicious and destructive to Traytors Good Christians If we shall reflect upon the judicial Proceedings of God Almighty in this kind you will find him so jealous of his own as not to suffer in his Deputy's Honour and therefore by a secret and irresistible Power he hath still countermanded the deepest projects of T raytors he hath split their Councils and struck their most refined Policies with Frustration and a Curse Histories both sacred and profane are full of Instances of this nature You have heard how Korah Dathan and Abiram amongst the Jews suffered both in themselves and Accomplices for their Mutiny against Moses But because people are more won by Examples than any other way of Discourse I shall mention several out of the Sacred Bible and our English Annals 1. Out of the Bible Let Absolom steal the Hearts of Israel from David both his King and Father let ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel acknowledge and proclaim him King in Hebron let him be back'd with all the Policy of Achitophel let the distressed David fly from his Royal Seat and let his ungrateful and rebellious Son possess Jerusalem let a Tent be spread upon the top of the House and Absolom go in unto his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel so that all the Conspirators may know that he never expected to be reconciled to his Father Let Achitopbel give Absolom advice to pursue David and his Followers who were weary and faint and in no likelihood of escaping had not God been on his side when wicked men thus rose up against him A very formidable Conspiracy this you will say but behold the Issue of it the Council of Achitophel is turned into folly insomuch that he is forced to lay violent hands upon himself and though the too indulgent Father gives command to the Army to spare this his unnatural Son yet rather than Absolom shall prosper in his Treason his â—wn beloved Hair shall serve for an Halter to execute him you may read the whole Conspiracy at your leasure in Sam. 2. from Chap. 15. to the 19. Let Sheba the Son of Bichri make aparty in Israel against David let him secure himself in the strong City of Abel a Woman shall perswade his own followers to cut off his Head and present it unto Joab
suffers no hands of violence to hurt his Anointed A Fire at New-market like the Angel that hastened Lot out of Sodom forceth the King with his Royal Brother to come back to White-hall sooner than he intended and so were the Conspirators disappointed Thus God brings him safely back again that so he might be now looked upon by his Subjects not only as Gods Ordinance but his Gift as the Ingenious as well as Pious Compilers of this Service express it Upon this one of the Conspirators could not but see the finger of God and that it was in vain to design any hurt to him who had God for his Protector thereupon he discovers the Plot and many others confess the same every one as they were more or less engaged in it Four of them have been Tryed found Guilty and received the usual as vvell as just vvages of Rebellion Several of them are in prison for the same Crime one arraigns himself at the Bar of his ovvn Conscience and proves his ovvn Judge and Executioner too vvhilest the greatest Traytor of them dyes I grant in his Bed but I pray God vvhat the last Lord Chancellour vvhen Attorney General said of some of the Murderers of the old King it be not the vvorse for him that he dyed in Peace and that he did not in some manner in this World expiate his Treason vvith his Blood The other Traytors vvander up and dovvn like Cain bearing a mark in their foreheads and fearing every one they see Thus Beloved you have seen our vvicked Conspirators consumed in their sins and novv vvhat gratitude vvhat thanks do vve ovve to Almighty God for this signal Mercy vve novv commemorate If the deliverance of the King vvith his Royal Brother If the putting a stop to the Massacre of those vvho adhered to their Prince in these perillous times If the preservation of our Religion from the Imposture of Presbytery and I knovv not hovv many other Factions If the security of our Liberty and Property under our Lavvful Prince If these have any weight as sure they must with all honest and Loyal Men Why then let us send up our Addresses to Almighty God that he will still protect his Anointed and keep him under the shadow of his Wings Let no Aristodemuses no Murmurers or Repiners appear amongst us But if there be any amongst us who instead of giving Glory to God for the discovery of this Fanatical and Hellish Plot do play the Israelites in this 16th Chapter and seem to be grieved for the punishment of Traytors I wish to God they would seriously advert and consider the 49th verse of this Chapter where they will find that no less than 14700 were destroyed because they maliciously cryed out against Moses and Aaron that they had killed the people of the Lord and what people were they why even the Blessed Conspirators Korah and his Accomplices Good God that any should be so bold or foolish to call these whom the Holy Ghost in my Text brands with the Character of Wicked Men the People of the Lord No no they never were nor can be the People of the Lord who resist lawful Authority What shall I say of those who would assassinate Princes Let us O let us therefore assent to the advice of my Text let us with the Elders here of Israel follow our English Moses and depart as he commands us by his Laws from the Tents or Conventicles of those wicked men let us not meddle with those who are given to change but abandon all those Doctrines whether vented by the Jesuit or Presbyterian that shall any ways withdraw or seduce us from our Loyalty Let our thoughts of God's so often preserving our King render him the more dear unto us and let us strive to be as dutiful to him as he hath been gracious to us in his Government Let the Remembrance of Gods consuming wicked Conspirators in my Text and his constant appearance in the rescuing of his anointed ones especially our King from the hands of Violence not only deterr Wicked Men from their disloyalty but spur on and encourage Obedient Subjects in the prosecution of their Duties to their Sovereign If any hereafter offer to seduce any of you from your obedience to your Ruler tell such an one that God Almighty still protects Princes especially this present King Tell him that Traytors and Conspirators are still consumed in their sins in this World and if that will not throw off the Tempter tell him That you dare not be eternally damned For Conclusion of all let me speak a word or two by way of Exhortation to those that have been or now being convinced of their errours do desire to shew themselves Loyal to the King Wouldst thou O Subject have the King preserved and long and happily reign over his people why then let me as Samuel said in the like case to the Israelites advise you to be Religious towards God Abhor that which is evil cleave to that which is good do Justice love Mercy and walk humbly with God If ye do well said Samuel ye and your King shall live Never O never flatter thy self that thou canst truly honour the King unless thou fearest God for as there is no such thing as a Rebellious people of the Lord so neither can there be a wicked Loyalist Do not O do not pretend to be Loyal to your Prince if you be disobedient to God Every vain Oath that you swear may prove a Dagger every Whoredome or Adultery every Oppression of the Poor c. may prove a Blunderbuss to your King and not only so but destructive to your Bodies and Souls eternally Therefore for your King's sake nay for your own Bodies and Souls sake eternally if you have followed sin hitherto break from it now Let us repent us of our evil ways and put on firm Resolutions never to commit the same Crimes again This if we do both our King and we shall live Which God grant through the Merit and Mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen There are some few faults escap'd which the Reader is desir'd to amend thus pag. 4. l. 8. read Theocratical p. 8. l. 1. read endeavour p. 8. l. 24. read Parity p. 20. l. 25. read Troublers FINIS Books Printed for and sold by James Norris at the King's Arms without Temple-Barr 1. MAssinello or a Satyr against the Association and the Guild-Hall Riot 4 to 2. Eromena or the Noble Stranger A curious Novel Octavo 3. Tractatus adversus Reprobationis absolutae decretum Nova Methodo succentisimo Compendio adornatus in duos Libros digestus Octavo 4. An Idea of Happiness in a Letter to a Friend enquiring wherein the greatest Happiness attainable by man in this Life does consist Quarto 5. A Murnival of Knaves or Whiggism plainly display'd and if not grown shameless Burlesqu'd out of Countenance Quarto 6. Haec Hic or the Feminine Gender more worthy than the Masculine being a Vindication of that ingenious and innocent Sex from the biting Sarcasms bitter Satyrs and opprobrious Calumnies wherewith they are daily tho undeservedly aspers'd by the Virulent Tongues and Pens of malevolent men Twelves 7. Patria Parricida or the History of the horrid Conspiracy of Catiline against the Common-wealth of Rome in English Octavo
Core Redivivus IN A SERMON PREACHED At Christ-Church Tabernacle in London upon Sunday September 9. 1683. BEING A Day of Publick Thanksgiving for the Deliverance of His Sacred Majesties Person and Government from the late Treasonable Rebellion and Fanatick Conspiracy By WILLIAM BOLTON one of the School-Masters of the Charter-House LONDON Printed for James Norris at the Kings-Arms without Temple-Bar M.DC.LXXXIV Core Redivivus A Thanksgiving SERMON For a Deliverance from a Fanatick Conspiracy NUMB. 16. ver 26. And he spake unto the Congregation saying Depart I pray you from the Tents of these wicked Men and touch nothing of theirs lest ye be consumed in all their Sins THE Context runs thus And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak unto the Congregation saying Get ye up from the Tabernacle of Korah Dathan and Abiram and the Elders of Israel followed him and he spake unto the Congregation c. The Words are an Exhortation of Moses the Supream Magistrate of the Israelites to his Loyal Subjects That they should depart from the Ten 's of those wicked Conspirators Korah Dathan and Abiram with their Associates lest they should be consumed in their Sins What I have to say upon the Words shall be laid out in this following method 1. I shall give you an Historical Narration of this Conspiracy as the Scripture doth afford Light thereto with the Punishment of those wicked Men as the Holy Ghost calls them in my Text which Particular being spoken to I shall for my second Part 2. Draw this natural Proposition That all Rebellion of what kind soever is not only unlawful but destructive likewise to Traytors and that both in this Life and that which is to come 3. I shall reflect upon the sinister Practices and Opinions of the Jesuits and Presbyterians relating to the Matter in hand I name the latter because of their so known Opposition to Prelacy that they seem to draw their Extraction from this famous Triumvirate Korah Dathan and Abiram in this Chapter My last part shall be by way of Application First then that you may the better understand the History of this Chapter be pleased to go back two or three Years and you will find these rebellious Persons with all the Children of Israel groaning under the heavy Oppression of the Egyptians In this their misery they cried unto the Lord who heard their Complaints and by a Succession of Miracles wrought by the hands of Moses and Aaron was pleased to rescue them from their cruel Task-masters Suppose them therefore on the other side of the Red Sea from Aegypt free from their cruel Oppressors whom they had with Joy seen drowned in the Sea but yet these men forgat God at the Sea even at the Red Sea After this we find them often murmuring against God and as often punished though in the midst of Judgment God remembred Mercy nay they so provoked the Almighty at one time that had it not been for the Prayer of this Moses against whom they conspire in this Chapter I say had not this Moses then interceeded for them as ungrateful as they now appear the Lord had utterly rooted them out from the Face of the Earth These men had often rebelled against the Lord but they saw it was to their own Ruine now they will try whether they may not more safely fly out against their Prince and High-Priest whom the Lord had set over them here they think themselves safe and that God was not concerned in the Person of Moses their Supream Magistrate But surely my beloved one would rather expect these men to have been strengthning one another against the many Enemies with whom they were to fight one would have imagined to have heard these men offering up their Praises to God for the great Mercies past and imploring the Continuance of his Favours upon his Servants Moses and Aaron who as they had been God's great Instruments in freeing this People from an horrid Slavery so they might likewise settle them in the Promised Land but instead thereof we read in this Chapter of nothing in some men but Murmurings but Repinings but Rebellion the chief Heads whereof are Korah Dathan and Abiram who had supplanted from their Loyalty no less than two hundred and fifty Princes of the Assembly men of Renown upon whom notwithstanding the Holy Ghost in my Text fastens no other Character than that of Wicked who are here threatned to be consumed Dathan and Abiram were descended from the Line of Reuben the eldest Son of Patriarch Jacob and therefore reckoned themselves more fitting to receive the Supream Authority than Moses who descended from a younger House and Korah thought himself as much slighted and contemned in seeing Elizaphan the Son of Uzziel to have been made the Prince of the Kohathites the principal Family of he Levites next to Gerson when he himself descended of the elder Brother You may fancy them therefore in their Cabals and Association for in vers 2. we are told they had no less than 250 Princes of the Assembly and men too famous in the Congregation men of renown that joyned with them I say you may fancy those men got together in their Tents and Corah Addressing himself to them in this manner I intimate Korah rather than any of the others because the Conspiracy in Scripture is called the Gain-saying of Korah Suppose therefore Korah speaking to his Associates after this manner 'T is true indeed Moses and Aaron have delivered us from the Hands of the Aegyptians but we had better have continued there than basely to submit ourselves to be Vassals to our Fathers Children We do no longer indeed make Brick of Clay but then we were not in Subjection to our fellow-Servants Moses promised that he would bring us into a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and behold he kills us in a Wilderness If we must have Princes you my Lords Dathan and Abiram are more fitting to rule over us as being of an elder House than he and if there be a Necessity of having one Priest above another in place and power without Ostentation the Mitre might sit as well upon my head as that of Aaron In vain in vain we are freed from the Yoke of Aegypt to be Slaves to those whose birth at the best is but equal to our own As for my part I will not bear it neither do I think such generous Spirits as yours can submit to such a Servitude any longer But in this Speech I would not be misunderstood concerning Succession for the Jewish Government was then perfectly Theocatical and God himself was pleased to appoint Governours for his own People to which Theocracy amongst the Jews the next of Kin in Blood answers in other Nations I am sure in this Kingdom and may it always continue After such words as these you may imagine the chief Conspirators confirmed the People now are to beseduced and what measures I beseech you are followed Why They are flattered with the hopes of