Priesthood any pretence for Rebellion But all these pretences would not serve to make them escape the severe hand of divine justice for in an extraordinary and remarkable manner he made them suffer the just desert of their sin for they perished in their contradiction which is the next thing to be considered viz. 2. The Iudgement which was inflicted upon them for it They had provoked Heaven by their sin and disturbed the earth by their Faction and the earth as if it were moved with indignation against them trembled and shook as Iosephus saith like waves that are tossed with a mighty wind and then with a horrid noise it rends asunder and opens its mouth to swallow those in its bowels who were unfit to live upon the face of it They had been dividing the people and the earth to their amazement and ruine divides it self under their feet as though it had been designed on purpose that in their punishment themselves might feel and others see the mischief of their sin Their seditious principles seemed to have infected the ground they stood upon the earth of a sudden proves as unquiet and troublesome as they but to rebuke their madness it was only in obedience to him who made it the executioner of his wrath against them and when it had done its office it is said that the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation Thus the earth having revenged it self against the disturbers of its peace Heaven presently appears with a flaming fire taking vengeance upon the 250. men who in opposition to Aaron had usurped the Priestl office in offering incense before the Lord. Such a Fire if we believe the same Historian which far outwent the most dreadful eruptions of Aetna or Vesuvius which neither the art of man nor the power of the wind could raise which neither the burning of Woods nor Cities could parallel but such a Fire which the wrath of God alone could kindle whose light could be outdone by nothing but the heat of it Thus Heaven and Earth agree in the punishment of such disturbers of Government and God by this remarkable judgement upon them hath left it upon record to all ages that all the world may be convinced how displeasing to him the sin of faction and sedition is For God takes all this that was done against Moses and Aaron as done against himself For they are said to be gathered together against the Lord v. 11. to provoke the Lord v. 30. And the fire is said to come out from the Lord v. 35. And afterwards it is said of them This is that Dathan and Abiram who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Corah when they strove against the Lord. By which we see God interprets striving against the Authority appointed by him to be a striving against himself God looks upon himself as immediately concerned in the Government of the world for by him Princes raign and they are his Vicegerents upon earth and they who resist resist not a meer appointment of the people but an Ordinance of God and they who do so shall in the mildest sense receive a severe punishment from him Let the pretences be never so popular the persons never so great and famous nay though they were of the great Council of the Nation yet we see God doth not abate of his severity upon any of these considerations This was the first formed sedition that we read of against Moses the people had been murmuring before but they wanted heads to manage them Now all things concur to a most dangerous Rebellion upon the most popular pretences of Religion and Liberty and now God takes the first opportunity of declaring his hatred of such actions that others might hear and fear and do no more so presumptuously This hath been the usual method of divine Judgements the first of the kind hath been most remarkably punished in this life that by it they may see how hateful such things are to God but if men will venture upon them notwithstanding God doth not always punish them so much in this world though he sometimes doth but reserves them without repentance to his Justice in the world to come The first man that sinned was made an example of Gods Justice The first world the first publick attempt against Heaven at Babel after the plantation of the world again the first Cities which were so generally corrupted after the flood the first breaker of the Sabbath after the Law the first offerers with strange fire the first lookers into the Ark and here the first popular Rebellion and Usurpers of the office of Priesthood God doth hereby intend to preserve the honour of his Laws he gives men warning enough by one examplary punishment and if notwithstanding that they will commit the same sin they may thank themselves if they suffer for it if not in this life yet in that to come And that good effect this Judgement had upon that people that although the next day 14000. suffered for murmuring at the destruction of these men yet we do not find that any Rebellion was raised among them afterwards upon these popular pretences of Religion and the Power of the People While their Judges continued who were Kings without the state and title of Kings they were observed with reverence and obeyed with diligence When afterwards they desired a King with all the Pomp and Grandeur which other Nations had which Samuel acquaints them with viz. the officers and Souldiers the large Revenues he must have though their King was disowned by God yet the people held firm in their obedience to him and David himself though anointed to be King persecuted by Saul and though he might have pleaded Necessity and Providence as much any ever could when Saul was strangely delivered into his hands yet we see what an opinion he had of the person of a bad King The Lord forbid that I should do this thing against my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Anointed of the Lord. And lest we should think it was only his Modesty or his Policy which kept him from doing it he afterwards upon a like occasion declares it was only the sin of doing it which kept him from it For who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless Not as though David could not do it without the power of the Sanhedrin as it hath been pretended by the Sons of Corah in our age for he excepts none he never seizes upon him to carry him prisoner to be tryed by the Sanhedrin nor is there any foundation for any such power in the Sanhedrin over the persons of their Soveraigns It neither being contained in the grounds of its institution nor any precedent occurring in the whole story of the Bible which gives the least countenance to it Nay
surely think we have reason enough this day to lay to heart the evil of our doings which have brought all these things upon us and abhor our selves repenting in dust and ashes That would seem indeed to bear some analogy with the present ruines of the City and the calamities we lie under at this time but God will more easily dispense with the pompous shews and solemn garbs of our humiliation if our hearts bleed within for our former impleties and our repentance discovers its sincerity by bringing us to that temper that though we have done iniquity we will do so no more That is the true and proper end which Almighty God aims at in all his Judgements he takes no delight in hurling the World into confusions and turning Cities into ruinous heaps and making whole Countries a desolation but when he sees it necessary to vindicate the honour of his Justice to the World he doth it with that severity that may make us apprehend his displeasure and yet with that mercy which may incourage us to repent and return unto the Lord. Thus we find in the instances recorded in the Text when some Cities were consumed by him so that as far as concerned them they were made like to Sodom and Gomorrah yet he doth it with that kindness to the Inhabitants that they are pluckt as firebrands out of the burning and therefore he looks upon it as a frustrating the design both of his Iustice and of his Mercy when he is fain to conclude with that sad reflection on their incorrigibleness Yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Thus ye see what the design and scope of the words is which I have read unto you wherein we may consider 1. The severity of the Judgement which God was pleased to execute upon them I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah 2. The mixture of his mercy in the midst of his severity and ye were as a firebrand pluckt out of the burning 3. The incorrigibleness of the people notwithstanding both Yet have ye not c. In the first we have Gods Rod lifted up to strike in the second we have Gods Hand stretched out to save yet neither of these would make them sensible of their disobedience though their Cities were overthrown for their sakes though they themselves escaped not for their own sakes but for his mercies sake only whom they had so lighly provoked yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. I am sure I may say of the two former parts of the Text as our Saviour doth in another case This day hath this Scripture been fulfilled among you we have seen a sad instance of Gods severity a City almost wholly consumed as Sodom and Gomorah and a great expression of his kindness the Inhabitants saved as firebrands pluckt out of the burning O let it never be said that the last part of the words is fulfilled too Yet have ye not returned unto me c. which that it may not be I shall first consider the severity of God in his judgement this day and then discover the mixture of his kindness with it and the result of both will be the unreasonableness of obstinate disobedience after them 1. The severity of the judgement here expressed which though we take it not in reference to the persons of men but tâ— the Cities wherein they dwelt as it seems to be understood not only by the Original wherein the words relating to persons are left out but by the following clause expressing their preservation yet we shall find the Judgement to be severe enough in regard 1. Of the nature and kind of it 2. The series and order of it 3. The causes moving to it 4. The Author of it I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew c. 1. The nature and kind of it We can imagine nothing more severe when we consider what it is set forth by the most unparalleld Judgement we read of viz. the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by a fire from Heaven Although in all circumstances the instance might not come up to the parallel yet in several respects there might be so sad a desolation that any other example but that might fall beneath the greatness and severity of it And we may better understand of how sad and dreadful a nature such a Judgement must be if we consider it with relation to the suddenness and unexpectedness of it to the force and violence of it and to all that sad train of circumstances which attend and follow it 1. The suddenness and unexpectedness of it as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah i. e. when they least of all looked for such a desolation For thus it was in the days of Lot as our Saviour tells us they did eat they drank thy bought thy sold they planted they builded but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all They were all immersed either in their pleasures or in their business they little thought of destruction being so near them as it proved to be Thus it was with the Iews in their first and latter destruction both of their City and Country they were as high and as confident of the contrary as might be to the very last nothing could perswade them that their Temple or their City should be burnt with Fire till they saw them staming before their eyes Thus Iosephus observes of his Countrymen that in the midst of all their miseries they had no kind of sense at all of their sins but were as proud presumptuous and arrogant as if all things went well with them and were like to do so They thought God could not possibly punish such a people as they were in such a manner they could easily have believed it of any other people but themselves but that God should punish his own people in Covenant with him that Judgement should begin at the house of God that they who had loved to be called by his Name should be made examples to all other Nations this seemed so harsh and incredible that by no means could they entertain it But God and Wise men too thought otherwise of them than they did of themselves they could not but see an outward shew of Religion joyned with a deep and subtil hypocrisie there being among them an heap of pride and luxury of fraud and injustice of sedition and faction gilded over with a fair shew of greater zeal for God and his Glory which that impartial Historian as one who knew them well hath described at large and although they could not believe that such heavy Judgements should befall them yet others did not only believe but tremble at the apprehensions of them Who among all the Citizens of London could have been perswaded but the day before the Fire brake out nay when they saw the Flames for near a day
world that cannot over-reach his Brother and not be discovered or however in the multiplicity and obscurity of our Laws cannot find out something in pretence at least to justifie his actions by But if appeal be made to the Courts of Iudicature what arts are then used either for concealing or hiring witnesses so that if their Purses be not equal the adverse party may overswear him by so much as his Purse is weightier than the others I heartily wish it may never be said of us what the Orator once said of the Greeks Quibus jusjurandum jocus testimonium ludus they made it a matter of jest and drollery to forswear themselves and give false testimonies But supposing men keep within the bounds of justice and common honesty yet how unsatiable are the desires of men they are for adding house to house and land to land never contented with what either their Ancestors have left them or the bountiful hand of Heaven hath bestowed upon them Till at last it may be in the Prophets expression for their covetousness the stone cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber answer it i. e. provoke God to give a severe check to the exorbitant and boundless desires of men as he hath done by this days calamity Thus while the City thought with Babylon to sit as a Lady for ever while she dwelt carelsly and said I am and there is none else beside me evil is come upon her and she knows not from whence it comes and mischief is fallen upon her and she hath not been able to put it off and desolation is come upon her suddenly which she did not foresee 3. Contempt of God and his Laws That we read of v. 4. where the Prophet speaks by an Irony to them Come to Bethel and transgress c. he knew well enough they were resolved to do it let God or the Prophet say what they pleased For these Kine of Bashan were all for the Calves of Dan and Bethel and some think that is the reason of the title that is given them These great men of Samaria thought it beneath them to own Religion any further than it was subservient to their civil interests They were all of Ieroboams Religion who looked on it as a meer politick thing and fit to advance his own designs by I am afraid there are too many at this day who are secretly of his mind and think it a piece of wisdom to be so Blessed God that men should be so wise to deceive themselves and go down with so much discretion to Hell These are the Grave and retired Atheists who though they secretly love not Religion yet their caution hinders them from talking much against it But there is a sort of men much more common than the other the faculties of whose minds are so thin and aiery that they will not bear the consideration of any thing much less of Religion these throw out their bitter scoffs and prophane jests against it A thing never permitted that I know of in any civilized Nation in the world whatsoever their Religion was the reputation of Religion was always preserved sacred God himself saith Iosephus would not suffer the Iews to speak evil of other Gods though they were to destroy all those who tempted them to the worship of them And shall we suffer the most excellent and reasonable Religion in the world viz. the Christian to be profaned by the unhallowed mouths of any who will venture to be damned to be accounted witty If their enquiries were deeper their reason stronger or their arguments more perswasive than of those who have made it their utmost care and business to search into these things they ought to be allowed a fair hearing but for men who pretend to none of these things yet still to make Religion the object of their scoffs and raillery doth not become the gravity of a Nation professing wisdom to permit it muche less the sobriety of a people professing Christianity In the mean time such persons may know that wise men may be argued out of a Religion they own but none but Fools and mad men will be droll'd out of it Let them first try whether they can laugh men out of their Estates before they attempt to do it out of their hopes of an Eternal happiness And I am sure it will be no comfort to them in another world that they were accounted Wits for deriding those miseries which they then feel and smart under the severity of it will be no mitigation of their flames that they go laughing into them nor will they endure them the better because they would not believe them But while this is so prevailing a humour among the vain men of this Age and Nation what can we expect but that God should by remarkable and severe judgements seek to make men more serious in Religion or else make their hearts to ake and their joints to tremble as he did Belshazzars when he could find nothing else to carouse in but the Vessels of the Temple And when men said in the Prophet Zephany chap. 1. 12. that God neither did good nor evil presently it follows therefore their goods shall become a booty and their houses a desolation the day of the Lord is near a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wastness and desolation as it is with us at this time Thus we see how sad the parallel hath been not only in the judgements of Israel but in the sins likewise which have made those judgements so severe 4. The severity of the Judgement appears not only from the Causes but from the Author of it I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah God challenges the execution of his Justice to himself not only in the great day but in his judgement here in the world Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it When God is pleased to punish men for their sins the excution of his justice is agreeable to his nature now as it will be at the end of the world We all know that he may do it if he please and he hath told us that he doth and will do it and we know withal that without such remarkable severities the world will hardly be kept in any awe of him We do not find that Love doth so much in the World as Fear doth there being so very few persons of tractable and ingenuous spirits It is true of too many what Lactantius observes of the Romans Nunquam Dei meminerunt nisi dum in malis sunt they seldom think of God but when they are afraid of him And there is not only this reason as to particular persons why God should punish them but there is a greater as to Communities and Bodies of men for although God suffers wicked men to escape punishment here as he
difficult and unpleasing for what ever the actions of Princes are they are liable to the censures of the people Their bad actions being more publick and their good therefore suspected of design and the wiser Governours are the more jealous the people are of them For alwaies the weakest part of mankind are the most suspicious the less they understand things the more designs they imagine are laid for them and the best counsels are the soonest rejected by them So that the wisest Government can never be secure from the jealousies of the people and they that will raise a faction against it will never want a party to side with them For when could we ever have imagined a Government more likely to be free from this than that which Moses had over the people of Israel He being an extraordinary person for all the abilities of Government one bred up in the Egyptian Court and in no mean degree of honour being called the the Son of Pharaohs Daughter one of great experience in the management of affairs of great zeal for the good of his Country as appeared by the tenderness of his peoples interest in their deliverance out of Egypt one of great temper and meekness above all men of the earth one who took all imaginable care for the good establishment of Laws among them but above all these one particularly chosen by God for this end and therefore furnished with all the requisites of a good man and an excellent Prince yet for all these things a dangerous sedition is here raised against him and that upon the common grounds of such things viz. usurpation upon the peoples rights arbitrary Government and ill management of affairs Usurpation upon the peoples rights v. 4. the Faction makes a Remonstrance asserting the priviledges of the people against Moses and Aaron Ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them Wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord As though they had said we appear only in behalf of the Fundamental Liberties of the people both Civil and Spiritual we only seek to retrench the exorbitances of power and some late innovations which have been among us if you are content to lay aside your power which is so dangerous and offensive to Gods holy people we shall then sit down in quietness for alas it is not for our selves that we seek these things what are we but the cause of Gods people is dearer to us than our lives and we shall willingly sacrifice them in so good a Cause And when Moses afterwards sends for the Sons of Eliah to come to him they peremptorily refuse all Messages of Peace and with their men of the sword mentioned v. 2. They make votes of non-Addresses and break off all Treaties with him and declare these for their reasons that he did dominando dominari as some render it exercise an arbritary and tyrannical power over the people that he was guilty of breach of the trust committed to him for he promised to bring them into a Land flowing with Milk and Honey or give them inheritance of fields and vineyards but he had not done it and instead of that only deceives the people still with fair promises and so puts out their eyes that they cannot see into the depth of his designs So that now by the ill management of his Trust the power was again devolved into the hands of the people and they ought to take account of his actions By which we see the design was under very fair and popular pretences to devest Moses of his Government and then they doubted not but such zealous Patriots as they had shewed themselves should come to have the greatest share in it but this which they most aimed at must appear least in view and only Necessity and Providence must seem to cast that upon them which was the first true motive they had to rebel against Moses and Aaron 2. The Persons who were engaged in it At first they were only some discontented Levites who murmured against Moses and Aaron because they were not preferred to the Priesthood and of these Corah was the chief R. Solomo◠observes that the reason of Corahs discontent was that Elizaphan the Son of Uzziel of the younger house to Izhar from whom Corah descended was preferred before him by Moses to be Prince over the Sons of Kohath Corah being active and busie in his discontents had the opportunity of drawing in some of the Sons of Reuben for they pitched their tents near each other both on the South side of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and these were discontented on the account of their Tribe having lost the priviledge of Promogeniture Thus what ever the pretences are how fair and popular soever in the opposition men make to Authority ambition and private discontents are the true beginners of them but these must be covered over with the deepest dissimulation with most vehement Protestations to the contrary nothing must be talked of but a mighty zeal for Religion and the publick Interest So Iosephus tells us concerning Corah that while he carried on his own ambitious designs with all the arts of sedition and a popular eloquence insinuating into the peoples minds strange suggestions against Moses his Government as being a meer politick design of his to enslave the people of God and advance his own family and interest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would seem to regard nothing but the publick good If fair pretences and glorious titles will serve to cheat the people into their own miseries and the sad effects of Rebellion they shall never want those who will enslave them for the sake of Liberty undo them for the publick good and destroy them with designs of Reformation For nothing is more popular than Rebellion in the beginning nothing less in the issue of it And the only true reason that it is ever so is from the want of wisdom and judgement in the generality of mankind who seldom see to the end of things and hardly distinguish between the names and nature of them till their own dear bought experience hath taught them the difference Sedition is of the nature and hath the inseparable properties of Sin for it is conceived with pleasure brought forth with pain and ends in death and misery Nothing enters upon the stage with a braver shew and appearance but however prosperous for a time it may continue it commonly meets with a fatal end But it is with this sin as to this world as it is with others as to the next men when they are betrayed into them are carried away and transported with the pleasing temptations not considering the unspeakable misery that follows after them So that what the Devils advantage is in order to the ruine of mens souls is the advantage of seditious persons over the
less understanding people they both tempt with an appearance of good and equally deceive them which hearken to them But as we still find that notwithstanding all the grave admonitions the sober counsels the rational discourses the perswasive arguments which are used to deter men from the practice of sin they will still be such Fools to yield to the Devils temptations against their own welfare So neither the blessings of a continued Peace nor the miseries of an intestine War neither the securitie of a settled Government nor the constant danger of Innovations will hinder men of fiery and restless spirits from raising combustions in a Nation though themselves perish in the Flames of them This we find here was the case of Corah and his company they had forgotten the groans of their captivity in Egypt and the miracles of their deliverance out of it and all the faithful services of Moses and Aaron they considered not the difficulties of Government nor the impossibility of satisfying the ambitious desires of all pretenders they regarded not that God from whom their power was derived nor the account they must give to him for their resistance of it nothing but a full Revenge upon the Government can satisfie them by leaving no means unattempted for its overthrow though themselves be consumed by the fall of it It were happy for Government if these turbulent spirits could be singled out from the rest in their first attempts but that is the usual subtilty of such men when they find themselves aimed at they run into the common herd and perswade the people that they are equally concerned with themselves in the present danger that though the pretence be only against faction and sedition the design is the slavery and oppression of the People This they manage at first by grave nods and secret whispers by deep sighs and extatick motions by far fetched discourses and Tragical stories till they find the people capable of receiving their impressions and then seem most unwilling to mention that which it was at first their design to discover By such arts as these Corah had prepared as Iosephus tells us almost the whole Camp of Israel for a popular tumult so that they were like to have stoned Moses before he was aware of it and it seems the Faction had gained a mighty interest among the people when although God so severely and remarkably punished the heads of it yet the very next day all the Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron saying Te have killed the people of the Lord. What a mark of Gods people was sedition grown among them When these men were accounted Saints in spight of Heaven and Martyrs though God himself destroyed them They were men who were only sanctified by Rebellion and shewed no other fruits of their piety but disobedience to Authority But the danger had not been so great how loud soever the complaints had been if only the ruder multitude had been gained to the Favour of Corah and his party for these wanted heads to manage them and some Countenance of Authority to appear under and for this purpose they had drawn to their Faction 250 Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of Renown i. e. Members of the great Council of the Nation Whom Moses was wont to call and advise with about the publick Affairs of it such who sate in Comitiis Senatorum as Paul Fagius tells us therefore said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were called to the great Assembly which sate in Parliament at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation which was the place where they met together These were the Heads of the Tribes and the Captains of thousands and the men of the greatest Fame and Authority among the People whom Moses assembled together for advice and counsel as often as he saw just occasion for it And as far as I can find were distinct from the great Sanhedrin which seemed to be rather a constant Court of Iudicature which sate to receive Appeals from Inferiour Courts and to determine such difficult causes which were reserved peculiarly for it as about Apostasy of a whole Tribe the case of false Prophets and the like But these 250 men did far exceed the whole number of the Sanhedrin and the Heads of the Tribes and the Elders of Israel were summoned together upon any very weighty occasion by Moses both before and after the institution of the Sanhedrin And now since the Faction had gained so great strength by the accession of so great a number of the most leading men among the People we may expect they should soon declare their intentions and publish the grounds of their entring into such a combination against Moses 3. Which is the next thing to be spoken to viz. the colours and pretences under which these persons sought to justifie the proceedings of the Faction Which were these two 1. The asserting the Rights and Liberties of the people in opposition to the Government of Moses 2. The freeing themselves from the encroachments upon their spiritual Priviledges which were made by the Usurpations of Aaron and the Priesthood 1. The asserting the Rights and Liberties of the people in opposition to the Government of Moses 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 make thy self altogether a Prince over us And before their charge was that Moses and Aaron took too much upon them in lifting up themselves above the Congregation of the Lord. Which Iosephus more at large explains telling us that the great accusation of Moses was that out of his ambition and affectation of Power he had taken upon himself the Government of the people without their consent that he made use of his pretence of Familiarity with God only for a Politick end that by this means he debarred the people of that Liberty which God had given them and no man ought to take from them that they were all a Free-born people and equally the Children of Abraham and therefore there was no reason they should depend upon the will of a single Person who by his Politick Arts had brought them to the greatest necessities that he might rule them the better Wherefore Corah as though he had been already President of a High-Court of Iustice upon Moses their King determines that it was necessary for the Common-wealth that such enemies to the Publick Interest should be discovered and punished lest if they be let alone in their Usurpations of Power they declare themselves open enemies when it will be too late to oppose them There were then two great Principles among them by which they thought to defend themselves 1. That Liberty and a right to Power is so inherent in the People that it cannot be taken
and condemn their Soveraign And if Corah Dathan and Abiram had succeeded in their Rebellion against Moses no doubt they would have been called the Keepers of the Liberties of Israel It makes all Government dangerous to the persons in whom it is considering the unavoidable infirmities of it and the readiness of people to misconstrue the actions of their Princes and their incapacity to judge of them it not being fit that the reasons of all counsels of Princes should be divulged by Proclamations So that there can be nothing wanting to make Princes miserable but that the people want Power to make them so And the supposition of this principle will unavoidably keep up a constant jealousie between the Prince and his people for if he knows their minds he will think it reasonable to secure himself by all means against their Power and endeavour to keep them as unable to resist as may be whereby all mutual confidence between a Prince and his People will be destroyed and there can be no such way to bring in an arbitrary Government into a Nation as that which such men pretend to be the only means to keep it out Besides this must necessarily engage a Nation in endless disputes about the forfeiture of Power into whose hands it falls whether into the people in common or some persons particularly chosen by the people for that purpose for in an established Government according to their principles the King himself is the true representative of the people others may be chosen for some particular purposes as proposing Laws c. but these cannot pretend by vertue of that choice to have the full power of the people and withal whatever they do against the consent of the people is unlawful and their power is forfeited by attempting it But on the other side what mighty danger can there be in supposing the persons of Princes to be so sacred that no sons of violence ought to come near to hurt them Have not all the ancient Kingdoms and Empires of the world flourished under the supposition of an unaccountable power in Princes That hath been thought by those who did not own a derivation of their power from God but a just security to their persons considering the hazards and the care of Government which they undergo Have not the people who have been most jealous of their Liberties been fain to have recour'e to an unaccountable power as their last refuge in case of their greatest necessities I mean the Romans in their Dictators And if it were thought not only reasonable but necessary then ought it not to be preserved inviolable where the same Laws do give it by which men have any right to challenge any power at all Neither doth this give Princes the liberty to do what they list for the Laws by which they Govern do fence in the rights and properties of men and Princes do find so great conveniency ease and security in their Government by Law that the sense of that will keep them far better within the compass of Laws than the Peoples holding a Rod over them which the best Princes are like to suffer the most by and bad will but grow desperate by it Good Princes will never need such a curb because their oaths and promises their love and tenderness towards their people the sense they have of a Power infinitely greater than theirs to which they must give an account of all their actions will make them govern as the Fathers of their Country and bad Princes will never value it but will endeavour by all possible means to secure themselves against it So that no inconveniency can be possibly so great on the supposition of this unaccountable Power in Soveraign Princes taking it in the general and meerly on the account of reason as the unavoidable mischiefs of that Hypothests which places all power originally in the people and notwithstanding all oaths and bonds whatsoever to obedience gives them the liberty to resume it when they please which will always be when that Spirit of Faction and Sedition shall prevail among them which ruled here in Corah and his company 2. Another pretence for this Rebellion of Corah was the freeing themselves from the encroachments upon their spiritual priviledges which were made by the usurpations of Aaron and the Priesthood This served for a very popular pretence for they knew no reason that one Tribe should engross so much of the wealth of the Nation to themselves and have nothing to do but to attend the service of God for it What say they are not all the Lords people holy Why may not then all they offer up incense to the Lord as well as the Sons of Aaron How many publick uses might those Revenues serve for which are now to maintain Aaron and all the sons of Levi But if there must be some to attend the service of God why may not the meanest of the people serve for that purpose those who can be serviceable for nothing else Why must there be an order of Priesthood distinct from that of Levites why a High-Priest above all the Priests what is there in all their office which one of the common people may not do as well as they cannot they slay the sacrifices and offer incense and do all other parts of the Priestly office So that at last they make all this to be a Politick design of Moses only to advance his own Family by making his Brother High-Priest and to have all the Priests and Levites at his devotion to keep the people the better in awe This hath always been the quarrel at Religion by those who seldom pretend to it but with a design to destroy it For who would ever have minded the constant attendance at the Temple if no encouragements had been given to those who were imployed in it Or is not Religion apt enough to be despised of it self by men of prophane minds unless it be rendred more mean and contemptible by the Poverty of those who are devoted to it Shall not God be allowed the priviledge of every Master of a Family to appoint the ranks and orders of his own servants and to take care they be provided for as becomes those who wait upon him What a dishonour had this been to the true God when those who worshipped false Gods thought nothing too great for those who were imployed in the service of them But never any yet cryed but he that had a mind to betray his Master to what purpose is all this waste Let God be honoured as he ought to be let Religion come in for its share among all the things which deserve encouragement and those who are imployed in the offices of it enjoy but what God and Reason and the Laws of their Country give them and then we shall see it was nothing but the discontent and faction of Corah and his company which made any encroachment of Aaron and the
several passages of Scripture utterly overthrow it for how could Solomon have said Where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou If by the constitution of their Government the Sanhedrin might have controlled him in what he said or did But have not several of the modern Iews said so Granting that some have yet so they have spoken many unreasonable and foolish things besides but yet none of these have said that it was in the power of the Sanhedrin to depose their Kings or put them to death all that they say is that in the cases expressed by the Law if the Kings do transgress the Sanhedrin had the power of inflicting the penalty of scourging which yet they deny to have had any infamy in it among them But did not David transgress the Law in his murder and adultery did not Solomon in the multitude of his wives and Idolatry yet where do we read that the Sanhedrin ever took cognisance of these things And the more ancient Iews do say that the King was not to be judged as is plain in the Text of the Misna however the Expositors have taken a liberty to contradict it but as far as we can find without any foundation of reason and R. Ieremiah in Nachmanides saith expresly That no creature may judge the King but the holy and blessed God alone But we have an Authority far greater than his viz. of Davids in this case who after he hath denied that any man can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless In the very next words he submits the judgement of him only to God himself saying As the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battel and perish He thought it sufficient to leave the judgement of those things to God whose power over Princes he knew was enough if well considered by them to keep them in awe We have now dispatched the first consideration of the words of the Text as they relate to the fact of Corah and his company 2. We ought now to enquire whether the Christian Doctrine hath made any alteration in these things or whether that gives any greater encouragement to faction and sedition than the Law did when it is masked under a pretence of zeal for Religion and Liberty But it is so far from it that what God then declared to be displeasing to him by such remarkable judgements hath been now more fully manifested by frequent precepts and vehement exhortations by the most weighty arguments and the constant practice of the first and the best of Christians and by the black character which is set upon those who under a pretence of Christian Liberty did despise dominion and speak evil of dignities and follow Corah in his Rebellion however they may please themselves with greater light than former ages had in this matter they are said to be such for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever It would take up too much time to examine the frivolous evasions and ridiculous distinctions by which they would make the case of the Primitive Christians in not resisting Authority so much different from theirs who have not only done it but in spight of Christianity have pleaded for it Either they said they wanted strength or courage or the countenance of the Senate or did not understand their own Liberty when all their obedience was only due to those precepts of the Gospel which make it so great a part of Christianity to be subject to Principalities and Powers and which the Teachers of the Gospel had particularly given them in charge to put the people in mind of And happy had it been for us if this Doctrine had been more sincerely preached and duly practised in this Nation for we should then never have seen those sad times which we can now no otherwise think of than of the devouring Fire and raging Pestilence i. e. of such dreadful judgements which we have smarted so much by that we heartily pray we may never feel them again For then fears and jealousies began our miseries and the curse so often denounced against Meroz fell upon the whole Nation When the Sons of Corah managed their own ambitious designs against Moses and Aaron the King and the Church under the same pretences of Religion and Liberty And when the pretence of Religion was broken into Schisms and Liberty into oppression of the people it pleased God out of his secret and unsearchable judgements to suffer the Sons of Violence to prevail against the Lords Anointed and then they would know no difference between his being conquered and guilty They could find no way to justifie their former wickedness but by adding more The consciousness of their own guilt and the fears of the punishment due to it made them unquiet and thoughtful as long as his life and presence did upbraid them with the one and made them fearful of the other And when they found the greatness and constancy of his mind the firmness of his Piety the zeal he had for the true interest of the people would not suffer him to betray his Trust for the saving of his life they charge him with their own guilt and make him suffer because they had deserved to do it And as if it had not been enough to have abused the names of Religion and Liberty before they resolve to make the very name of Iustice to suffer together with their King by calling that infamous company who condemned their Soveraign A High Court of Iustice which trampled under foot the Laws both of God and men But lest the world should imagine they had any shame left in their sins they make the people witnesses of his Murther and pretend the Power of the People for doing that which they did detest and abhor Thus fell our Royal Martyr a sacrifice to the fury of unreasonable men who either were so blind as not to see his worth or rather so bad as to hate him for it And as God gave once to the people of the Iews a King in his Anger being provoked to it by their sins we have cause to say that upon the same account he took away one of the best of Kings from us in his wrath But blessed be that God who in the midst of judgement was pleased to remember mercy in the miraculous preservation and glorious restauration of our Gratious Soveraign let us have a care then of abusing the mercies of so great a deliverance to quite other ends than God intended it for lest he be provoked to say to us as he did of old to the Iews But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And if we look on this as a dreadful judgement let us endeavour to prevent it by a timely and sincere reformation of
yet are in continual fear of being so God seems to preserve that miserable Nation in being to be a constant warning to all others to let them see what a difference in the same people the Favour or Displeasure of God can make and how severe the judgements of God are upon those who are obstinate and disobedient 2. They make the Kingdom of God to consist in the flourishing of their State or that Polity which God established among them He was himself once their immediate Governour and therefore it might be properly call'd his Kingdom and after they had Kings of their own their plenty and prosperity did so much depend on the kindness of heaven to them that all the days of their flourishing condition might be justly attributed to a more than ordinary providence that watched over them For if we consider how small in comparison the extent and compass of the whole land of Iudea was being as Saint Hierom saith who knew it well but 160. miles in length from Dan to Beersheba and 46. in bredth from Ioppa to Bethlehem if we consider likewise the vast number of its inhabitants there being at Davids numbering the people 1500000. fighting men who ought not to be reckoned above a 4th part of the whole and Benjamin and Levi not taken in if we add to these the many rocks mountains and deserts in this small country and that every 7. years the most fertile places must lye fallow we may justly wonder how all this number of people should prosper so much in so narrow a territory For although we ought not to measure the rules of Eastern diet by those of our Northern Climates and it be withall true that the number of people add both to the riches and plenty of it and that the fertile places of that land were so almost to a miracle yet considering their scarcity of rain and their Sabbatical years we must have recourse to an immediate care of heaven which provided for all their necessities and filled their stores to so great abundance that Solomon gave to King Hiram every year 20000. measures of wheat and twenty measures of oyl every one of which contained about 30. bushels And God himself had particularly promised to give them the former and the latter rain and that they might have no occasion to complain of their Sabbatical years every sixth year should afford them fruit for 3. years By which we see their plenty depended not so much upon the fat of their land as upon the dew and blessing of heaven And if we farther consider them as environed about with enemies on every side such as were numerous and powerful implacable and subtle it is a perpetual wonder considering the constitution of the Jewish nation that they should not be destroyed by them For all the the males being obliged strictly by the Law to go up three times a year to Hierusalem we should think against all rules of Policy to leave the country naked it seem's incredible that their enemies should not over-run the Country and destroy their Wives and Children at that time But all their security was in the promise which God had made neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shall go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year And to let us see that obedience to God is the best security against the greatest dangers we never read of any invasion of that Country in one of those times nor of any miseries they suffer'd then till the last and fatal destruction of Hierusalem when God had taken away his Kingdom from them And with that their whole Polity fell for never since have they been able to maintain so much as the face of Government living in subjection if not in slavery in all parts of the world So that whether we mean the succession of power in Iudahs tribe or the seat of power in the whole nation or the distinction and superiority of that tribe above the rest by the Scepter which was not to depart from Iudah till Shiloh came we are sure in every one of these senses it is long since departed from it For neither have any of the Posterity of David had any power over them nor was it possible they should considering that all Government is taken from them and the very distinction of tribes is lost among them they having never had any certain Genealogies since the destruction of the Temple I know what vaine hopes and foolish fancies and incredible stories they have among them of some supreme power which they have in some part of the world but they know not where Sometimes they talk of their mighty numbers at Bagdad and the officers of their own nation which are set over them but had they not so in Egypt and were they ever the less in captivity there Sometimes they boast of their Schools in those Eastern parts such as Pombeditha Sura and Neharda and the authority the Rabbins have over them but this is just as the Orator said of Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse that he loved Government so well that when he was not suffered to govern men there he went to govern boys at Corinth usque eò imperio carere non poterat But these are tolerable in comparison with the incredible fictions of the 4. Tribes in the East hemm'd in by a vast and unpassable ridge of mountains on every side but when the famous Sabbatical River runs which for 6. days bear 's all before it with a mighty torrent and carries stones of such incredible bigness that there is no passing over it but because the admirable nature of that River is that it keeps the Sabbath and rests all that day we might have thought it had been possible to have had some entercourse with them on that day but to prevent this they tell us that as the water goes off flames of fire come in the place of it and hinder all access to them But these are things which a man must be a Iew first before he can believe and what will not they believe rather than Christ is the Son of God! For Manasse ben Israel hath had the confidence in this age to say that the sand taken out of the Sabbatical River and preserved in a Tube doth constantly move for 6. days and rests punctually from the beginning of the Sabbath to the end of it Which is the less to be wondred at since in all his book of the hope of Israel he eagerly contends for the incredible fiction of Montezini of the flourishing condition of the Jews at this day in some parts of America but the Salvo is translated thither too for there is a mighty River which hinders any from access to them By all which we see how vain all their attempts are to preserve any reputation of that power and Government wherein they made so great a part of the
a flame together For then the present frame of things shall be dissolved and the bounds set to the more subtile and active parts of matter shall be taken away which mixing with the more grâ—ss and earthy shall sever them from each other and by their whirling and agitation set them all on sire And if the Stars falling to the earth were to be understood in a literal sense none seems so probable as this that those aethereal fires shall then be scattered and dispersed thoughout the universe so that the earth and all the works that are therein shall be turned into one funeral Pile Then the foundations of the earth shall be shaken and all the combustible matter which lies hid in the bowels of it shall break forth into prodigious flames which while it rouls up and down within making it self a passage out will cause an universal quaking in all parts of the earth and make the Sea to roar with a mighty noise which will either by the violent heat spend it self in vapour and smoak or be swallowed up in the hollow places of the deep Neither are we to imagine that only the sulphureous matter within the earth shall by its kindling produce so general a conflagration although some Philosophers of old thought that sufficient for so great an effect but as it was in the deluge of water the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened so shall it be in this deluge of fire as one of the ancients calls it not only mighty streams and rivers of Fire shall issue of out the bowels of the earth but the cataracts above shall discharge such abundance of thunder and lightning wherein God will rain down fire and brimstone from Heaven that nothing shall be able to withstand the force of it Then the Craters breaches made in the earth by horrible earthquakes caused by the violent eruptions of Fire shall be wide enough to swallow up not only Cities but whole Countries too And what shall remain of the spoils of this devouring enemy within shall be consumed by the merciless fury of the thunder and lightning above What will then become of all the glories of the world which are now so much admired and courted by foolish men What will then become of the most magnificent piles the most curious structures the most stately palaces the most lasting monuments the most pleasant gardens and the most delightful countries they shall be all buried in one common heap of ruines when the whole face of the earth shall be like the top of mount Aetna nothing but rubbish and stones and ashes which unskilful travellers have at a distance mistaken for Snow What will then become of the pride and gallantry of the vain persons the large possessions of the great or the vast treasures of the rich the more they have had of these things only the more fuel they have made for this destroying fire which will have no respect to the honours the greatness or the riches of men Nay what will then become of the wicked and ungodly who have scoffed at all these things and walked after their own lusts saying where is this promise of his coming because all things yet continue as they were from the beginning of the creation When this great day of his wrath is come how shall they be able to stand or escape his sury Will they flie to the tops of the mountains that were only to stand more ready to be destroyed from Heaven Will they hide themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains but there they fall into the burning furnaces of the earth and the mountains may fall upon them but can never hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Will they go down into the deep and convey themselves to the uttermost parts of the Sea but even there the storms and tempests of these shours of fire shall overtake them and the vengeance of God shall pursue them to everlasting flames Consider now whether so dreadful a preparation for Christs coming to judgement be not one great reason why it should be called the terror of the Lord For can any thing be imagined more full of horror and amazement than to see the whole world in a flame about us We may remember and I hope we yet do so when the flames of one City filled the minds of all the beholders with astonishment and fear but what then would it do not only to see the earth vomit and cast forth fire every where about us and the Sea to boyl and swell and froth like water in a seething pot but to hear nothing but perpetual claps of thunder and to see no light in the Heavens but what the flashings of lightning give Could we imagine our selves at a convenient distance to behold the eruption of a burning mountain such as Aetna and Vesuvius are when the earth about it trembles and groans the Sea foams and rages and the bowels of the mountain roar through impatience of casting forth its burden and at last gives it self ease by sending up a mixture of flames and ashes and smoak and a flood of fire spreading far and destroying where ever it runs yet even this though it be very apt to put men in apprehensions and fears of this great day falls very far short of the terror of it Could we yet farther suppose that at the same time we could see fire and brimstone raining from Heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah the earth opening to devour Corah and his company Belshazzar trembling at the hand writing against the wall and the Jews destroying themselves in the fire of their Temple and City this may somewhat higher advance our imaginations of the horror of the worlds conflagration but yet we cannot reach the greatness of it in as much as the Heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store saith the Apostle reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men even those heavens whole beauty and order and motion and influence we now admire and that earth whose fruitful womb and richly adorned surface affords all the conveniencies of the life of man must either be destroyed or at least purged and refined by this last and dreadful Fire The expressions of which in Scripture being so frequent so particular so plain in Writers not affecting the â—ofty Prophetical stile wherein fire is often used only to express the wrath of God make it evident that their meaning is not barely that the world shall be destroyed by the anger of God but that this destruction shall be by real fire which adds more to the sensible terror of it to all that shall behold it 2. The terror of Christs appearance in that day The design of the Scripture in setting forth the coming of Christ to judgement is to represent it in such a manner to us as is most
apt to strike us with awe and terror at the apprehension of it Now the greatest appearance of Majesty among men is either when a mighty Prince marches triumphantly in the midst of a Royal Army with all the splendor of a Court and the discipline of a Camp having his greatest attendants about him and sending his Officers before him who with the sound of Trumpets give notice of his approach and is every where received with the shouts and acclamations of the people or else of a Prince sitting upon his throne of Majesty set forth with all the Ornaments of State and Greatness with all his Nobles and Courties standing about his Throne and in his own Person calling Malefactors to account and both these ways the appearance of Christ upon his second coming is represented to us first as coming in the clouds of Heaven i. e. riding triumphantly as it were upon a Chariot on a body of light brighter than the Sun having all the Heavenly host attending upon him and therefore he is said to come with power and great glory and sending his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet before him after whom the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God Not as though we were to imagine any material trumpet as some have grossly done whose sound could reach over the whole earth but the sound of the last trumpet seems to be the same with the voice of the Son of God which the dead are said to hear and live i. e. it shall be an effectual power for raising the dead which may be therefore called the sound of a trumpet because it supplies the use of one in calling all people together and doth more lively represent to our capacities the Majesty of Christs appearance with all the Heavenly host of Angels and Saints Thus when God appeared upon Mount Sinai with his Holy Angels about him we there read of the noise of the trumpet and when God shewed his glorious presence in the temple he is said to go up with a shout and the Lord with the sound of a trumpet and when he sets himself against his enemies God himself is said to blow the trumpet and to go with the whirlwinds of the South But besides this we find Christ upon his second coming described as sitting on the throne of his glory and all the Holy Angels about him and all nations gathered before him to receive their sentence from him His throne is said to be great and white i. e. most magnificent and glorious and to make it the more dreadful from it are said to proceed lightnings and thundrings and voices and so terrible is the Majesty of him that sits upon the throne that the Heaven and earth are said to flie away from his face but the dead small and great are to stand before him and to be judged according to their works And if the appearance of a common Judge be so dreadful to a guilty prisoner if the Majesty of an earthly Prince begets an awe and reverence where there is no fear of punishment what may we then imagine when Justice and Majesty both meet in the person of the Judge and fear and guilt in the Conscience of Offenders Therefore it is said behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreas of the earth shall wail because of him We find the best of men in Scripture seized on with a very unusual consternation at any extraordinary divine appearance The sight upon Mount Sinai was so terrible even to Moses that he did exceedingly fear and quake the vision which Isaiah had of the glory of God made him cry out Wo is me for I am unâ—one for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts When Daniel saw his vision all his strength and vigor was gone and though an Angel raised him from the ground yet he saith of himself that he stood trembling If these whom God appeared o in a way of kindness were so possessed with fear what horror must needs seize upon the minds of the wicked when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire on purpose to take vengeance upon them If in the days of his flesh there appeared so much Majesty in his Countenance that when the Officers came to apprehend him they went backward and fell to the ground how unconceivably greater must it be when his design shall be to manifest that Glory to the world which he then concealed from it If in the short time of his transfiguration on the Holy Mount his own Disciples were so far from being able to behold the glory of his presence that they fell on their faces and were sore afraid how shall his enemies abide the day of his wrath or how can they stand when he shall appear in the full glory of his Majesty and Power 3. The terror of the proceedings upon that day for then we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ not for any ostentation of his greatness and power before the whole world but that every one may receive according to the things done in his body whether it be good or bad How full of terror will the proceedings of that day be wherein all secrets shall be disclosed all actions examined and all persons judged That will be a the day of the Revelation of the righteous judgement of God this is the time of darkness and therefore of disputes and quarrels but then the wisdom and justice of divine providence shall be made manifest to all for every one shall receive according to his works and none will wonder at the sentence when they have seen the evidence Then the most secret impurities the most subtile hypocrisie the most artificial fraud and the most dissembled malice shall be laid open to publick view For then God will bring to hight the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts Then all the intrigues of lust and ambition so much the talk and business of this world will be nothing but mens shame and reproach in the next With what horror will they then behold all the sins of their lives set in order before them when they seemed in this life next to the committing them to design as much as may be to forget them Happy men if their Consciences were like their Table Books that they could blot out and put in what they pleased themselves then all the black Catalogue of their sins would be presently expunged and they would have nothing to be seen there but the Characters of what at least seemed to be good For though men be never so vicious they neither care that others should think so of them nor they of themselves of
men as any thing else is But here men think they may justly plead with God and talk with him of his judgements what proportion say they is there between the sins of this short life and the eternal misery of another which objection is not so great in it self as it appears to be by the weak answers which have been made to it When to assign a proportion they have made a strange kind of infinity in sin either from the object which unavoidably makes all sins equal or from the wish of a sinner that he might have an eternity to sin in which is to make the justice of Gods punishments to be not according to their works but to their wishes But we need not strain things so much beyond what they will bear to vindicate Gods justice in this matter Is it not thought just and reasonable among men for a man to be confined to perpetual imprisonment for a fault he was not half an hour in committing Nay do not all the Laws of the world make death the punishment of some crimes which may be very suddenly done And what is death but the eternal depriving a man of all the comforts of life And shall a thing then so constantly practised and universally justified in the world be thought unreasonable when it is applyed to God It is true may some say if annihilation were all that was meant by eternal death there could be no exception against it but I ask whether it would be unjust for the Laws of men to take away the lives of offenders in case their souls â—urvive their bodies and they be for ever sensible of the loss of life if not why shall not God preserve the honour of his Laws and vindicate his Authority in governing the world by sentencing obstinate sinners to the greatest misery though their souls live for ever in the apprehension of it Especially since God hath declared these things so evidently before hand and made them part of his Laws and set everlasting life on the other side to ballance everlasting misery and proposed them to a sinners choice in such a manner that nothing but contempt of God and his grace and wilful impenitency can ever betray men into this dreadful State of eternal destruction 2. Thus much for the argument used by the Apostle the terrour of the Lord I now come to the assurance he expresseth of the truth of it Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men We have two ways of proving Articles of faith such as this concerning Christs coming to judgement is 1. By shewing that there is nothing unreasonable in the belief of them 2. That there is sufficient evidence of the truth and certainty of them In the former of these it is of excellent use to produce the common apprehensions of mankind as to a future judgement and the several arguments insisted on to that purpose for if this were an unreasonable thing to believe how come men without revelation to agree about it as a thing very just and reasonable If the conflagration of the world were an impossible thing how came it to be so anciently received by the eldest and wisest Philosophers How came it to be maintained by those two Sects which were St. Paul's enemies when he preached at Athens and always enemies to each other the Epicureans and the Stoicks It is true they made these conflagrations to be periodical and not final but we do not establish the belief of our doctrine upon their assertion but from thence shew that is a most unreasonable thing to reject that as impossible to be done which they assert hath been and may be often done But for the truth and certainty of our doctrine we build that upon no less a foundation than the word of God himself We may think a judgement to come reasonable in general upon the â—…sideration of the goodness and wisdom and justice of God but all that depends upon this supposition that God doth govern the world by Laws and not by Power but since God himself hath declared it who is the Suprem Judge of the world that he will bring every work into judgement whether it be good or evil since the Son of God made this so great a part of his doctrine with all the circumstances of his own coming for again this end since he opened the commission he received from the Father for this purpose when he was upon earth by declaring that the Father had committed all judgement to the Son and that the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Since this was so great a part of the Apostles doctrine to preach of this judgement to come and that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead No wonder the Apostle speaks here with so great assurance of it knowing therefore c. And no persons can have the least ground to question it but such who wholly reject the Christian doctrine upon the pretences of infidelity which are so vain and trifling that were not their lusts stronger than their arguments men of wit would be ashamed to produce them and did not mens passions oversway their judgements it would be too much honour to them to confute them But every Sermon is not intended for the conversion of Turks and Infidels my design is to speak to those who acknowledge themselves to be Christians and to believe the truth of this doctrine upon the Authority of those divine persons who were particularly sent by God to reveal it to the world And so I come to the last particular by way of application of the former viz. 3. The efficacy of this argument for the perswading men to a reformation of heart and life knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade men For as another Apostle reasons from the same argument Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness There is great variety of arguments in the Christian Religion to perswade men to holiness but none more sensible and moving to the generality of mankind than this Especially considering these two things 1. That if this argument doth not perswade men there is no reason to expect any other should 2. That the condition of such persons is desperate who cannot by any arguments be perswaded to leave off their sins 1. There is no reason to expect any other argument should perswade men if this of the terror of the Lord do it not If an almighty power cannot awaken us if infinite justice cannot affright us if a
fat but this All the fat is the Lords Which was enough to keep them from eating it but we see here in the case of blood somewhat further is assigned viz. that it was the life and therefore was most proper for expiation the life of the beast being substituted in the place of the offenders Which was therefore called anamalis hostia among the Romans as Grotius observes upon this place and was distinguished from those whose entrails were observed for in those Sacrifices as Servius saith sola anima Deo sacratur the main of the Sacrifice lay in shedding of the blood which was called the Soul and so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place From whence it appears that such a sacrifice was properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used both relating to the blood and the soul that is expiated by it and the LXX do accordingly render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the last clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From whence Eusebius calls these Sacrifices of living Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterwards saith they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Crellius elsewhere grants that where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it doth imply that one doth undergo the punishment which another was to have undergone which is all we mean by substitution it being done in the place of another From whence it follows that the Sacrifices under the Law being said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth necessarily infer a substitution of them in the place of the offenders And from hence may be understood what is meant by the Goat of the Sin offering bearing the iniquity of the Congregation to make atonement for them before the Lord Levit. 10. 17. for Crellius his saying That bearing is as much as taking away or declaring that they are taken away hath been already disproved And his other answer hath as little weight in it viz. That it is not said that the sacrifice did bear their iniquities but the Priest For 1. The Chaldee Paraphrast and the Syriack Version understand it wholly of the Sacrifice 2. Socinus himself grants That if it were said the Priest did expiate by the sacrifices it were all one as if it were said that the sacrifices themselves did expiate because the expiation of the Priest was by the sacrifice Thus it is plain in the case of uncertain murther mentioned Deut 21. from the first to the tenth If a murther were committed in the Land and the person not known who did it a heifer was to have her head cut of by the Elders of the next City and by this means they were to put away the guilt of the innocent blood from among them The reason of which was because God had said before That blood defiled the Land and the Land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it From whence it appears that upon the shedding of blood there was a guilt contracted upon the whole Land wherein it was shed and in case the Murtherer was not found to expiate that guilt by his own blood then it was to be done by the cutting off the head of a heifer instead of him In which case the death of the heiser was to do as much towards the expiating the Land as the death of the Murtherer if he had been found And we do not contend that this was designed to expiate the Murtherers guilt which is the Objection of Crellius against this instance but that a substitution here was appointed by God himself for the expiation of the peoâ—… For what Crellius adds That the people did not deserve punishment and therefore needed no expiation it is a flat contradiction to the Text For the prayer appointed in that case is Be merciful O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent blood unto thy people Israels Charge and the blood shall be expiated for the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used here which is in the other places where Expiation is spoken of So that here must be some guilt supposed where there was to be an expiation and this expiation was performed by the substitution of a sacrifice in the place of the offender Which may be enough at present to shew that a substitution was admitted by the Law of a sacrifice instead of the offender in order to the expiation of guilt but whether the offender himself was to be freed by that Sacrifice depends upon the terms on which the sacrifice was offered for we say still that so much guilt was expiated as the sacrifice was designed to expiate if the sacrifice was designed to expiate the guilt of the offender his sin was expiated by it if not his in case no sacrifice was allowed by the Law as in that of murther then the guilt which lay upon the Land was expiated although the offender himself were never discovered I now come to prove that in correspondency to such a substitution of the sacrifices for sin under the Law Christ was substituted in our room for the expiation of our guilt and that from his being said to dye for us and his death being called a price of Redemption for us 1. From Christs being said to dye for us By St. Peter For Christ hath also once suffered for sins the just for the unjust by whom he is also said to suffer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for us and for us in the flesh By St. Paul he is said to dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the ungodly and to give himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom for all and to taste death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for every man By Caiaphas speaking by inspiration he is said to dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the people So Christ himself instituting his last Supper said This is my body which was given and my blood which was shed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for you and before he had said That the Son of man came to give his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom for many We are now to consider what arts our Adversaries have made use of to pervert the meaning of these places so as not to imply a substitution of Christ in our room 1. They say That all these phrases do imply no more than a final cause viz. That Christ died for the good of mankind for the Apostle tells us We are bound to lay down our lives for the Brethren and St. Paul is said to suffer for the Church To which I answer 1. This doth not at all destroy that which we now plead for viz. That these phrases do imply a substitution of Christ in our room For when we are bid to lay down our lives for our
never in Scripture mentioned as distinct from his Kingly but is comprehended under it and the great difference between them is that one is of a larger extension than the other is the Kingly Office extending to punishing and the Priestly only to expiation This is the substance of what Crellius more at large discourseth upon this subject Wherein he asserts these things 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ doth not in reference to the expiation of sins respect God but us his Intercession and Oblation wherein he makes the sacerdotal function of Christ to consist being the exercise of his power for the good of his People 2. That Christ did offer up no Sacrifice of expiation to God upon Earth because the mactation had no reference to expiation any other than as a preparation for it and Christ not yet being constituted a High-Priest till after his Resurrection from the dead Against these two assertions I shall direct my following discourse by proving 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God and not to us 2. That Christ did exercise this Priestly Office in the Oblation of himself to God upon the Cross. 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God and not to us which appears from the first Institution of a High-Priest mentioned by the Apostle Hebr. 5. 1. For every High-Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins Id est saith Crellius elsewhere ut procuret peragat ea quae ad colendum ac propitiandum numen pertinent i. e. That he may perform the things which appertain to the worshipping and propitiating God We desire no more but that the propiating God may as immediately be said to respect him as the worshipping of God doth or let Crellius tell us what sense the propitiating God will bear if all that the High-Priest had to do did immediately respect the people nay he saith not long after That it was the chief Office of a High-Priest to plead the cause of sinners with God and to take care that they may find him kind and propitious and not angry or displeased In what sense God was said to be moved by the Expiatory Sacrifices is not here our business to discuss it is sufficient for our purpose that they were instituted with a respect to God so as to procure his favour and divert his wrath In which sense the Priest is so often in the Levitical Law said by the offering up of Sacrifices to expiate the sins of the people But Crellius saith This ought not so to be understood as though God by Expiatory Sacrifices were diverted from his anger and inclined to pardon which is a plain contradiction not only to the words of the law but to the instances that are recorded therein as when Aaron was bid in the time of the Plague to make an Atonement for the people for there is wrath gone out from the Lord and he stood between the living and the dead and the plague was stayed Was not Gods anger then diverted here by the making this Atonement The like instance we read in Davids time that by the offering burnt-offerings c. the Lord was intreated for the Land and the plague was stayed from Israel By which nothing can be more plain than that the primary intention of such Sacrifices and consequently of the Office of the Priest who offered them did immediately respect the Atoning God But yet Crellius urgeth This cannot be said of all or of the most proper Expiatory Sacrifices but we see it said of more than the meer Sacrifices for sin as appointed by the Law viz. of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings and incense in the examples mentioned So that these Levitical Sacrifices did all respect the atoning God although in some particular cases different Sacrifices were to be offered for it is said the burnt-offering was to make atonement for them as well as the sin and trespass-offerings excepting those sacrifices which were instituted in acknowledgement of Gods Soveraignty over them and presence among them as the daily Sacrifices the meat and drink offerings or such as were meerly occasional c. Thus it is said that Aaron and his sons were appointed to make an Atonement for Israel So that as Grotius observes out of Philo The High-Priest was a Mediator between God and man by whom men might propitiate God and God dispense his favours to men But the means whereby he did procure favoursto men was by atoning God by the Sacrifices which he was by his Office to offer to him We are now to consider how far this holds in reference to Christ for whose sake the Apostle brings in these words and surely would not have mentioned this as the primary Office of a High-Priest in order to the proving Christ to be our High-Priest after a more excellent manner than the Aaronical was unless he had agreed with him in the nature of his Office and exceeded him in the manner of performance For the Apostle both proves that he was a true and proper and not a bare Metaphorical High-Priest and that in such a capacity he very far exceeded the Priests after the order of Aaron But how could that possibly be if he failed in the primary Office of a High-Priest viz. In offering up gifts and sacrifices to God If his Office as High-Priest did primarily respect men when the Office of the Aaronical Priest did respect God To avoid this Crellius makes these words to be only an allusion to the Legal Priesthood and some kind of similitude between Christ and the Aaronical Priests but it is such a kind of allusion that the Apostle designs to prove Christ to be an High-Priest by it and which is of the greatest force he proves the necessity of Christs having somewhat to offer from hence For every High-Priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer This is that which he looks at as the peculiar and distinguishing character of a High-Priest for interceding for others and having compassion upon them might be done by others besides the High-Priest but this was that without which he could not make good his name what order soever he were of If Christ then had no proper sacrifice to offer up to God to what purpose doth the Apostle so industriously set himself to prove that he is our High-Priest when he must needs fail in the main thing according to his own assertion How easie had it been for the Iews to have answered all the Apostles Arguments concerning the Priesthood of Christ if he had been such a Priest and made no other Oblation than Crellius allows him When the Apostle proves against the Iews that there was no necessity that they should still retain