think they are in a better condition then wee are wee dislike it The Grecians murmured against the Jewes because their women were neglected Acts 6.1 Cain murmured because Abels sacrifice was accepted and his was not Judas murmured at the box of Spicknard that was bestowed upon our Lord. The elder brother of the prodigall child murmured that the fat calf should be killed for his riotous brother that had spent his fathers goods among harlots This people murmured thus against Moses and Aaron They envied Aaron the Saint of the Lord and murmured against Moses in their tents This wee speake not of now this was not the murmuring of envie What murmur was it then The other two First a murmuring of displeasure and discontent against God And then a murmur of disobedience both against God and against the Magistrate First I say it was a murmur of discontent against God and a fearefull murmur you shall seldome heare of the like I pray marke this When God promised them the land at any time hee usually promiseth it to them out of his love Because God loved the fathers therefore hee chose the seed Deuter. c. 4. ver 37. In another place Deuter. 7. ver 8. The Lord set his love upon you not because you were many for you were the fewest of all people but because hee loved you therefore hee brought you out of the land of Egypt I thinke there was never Nation had so many sensible demonstrations of Gods love as this people had Doe you think that God would have brought them out of the land of bondage with such a mighty out-stretched arme if he had not loved them Doe you think he would have made a way for them in the sea and afterward have fed them with bread from heaven and given them water out of the rock and have guided them with a pillar of fire in the night and a pillar of a cloud in the day if hee had not loved them Doe you think hee would have appeared to them in fire and have spoken to them in an audible voice out of Mount Sinai and have chosen them there to be a peculiar people to him of all the people in the earth if hee had not loved them You will say Who doubted of this love O I pray you heare this people hearken to this people out of their impatience and impatiency is ever full of misconstructions they impute all this that God had done to the very hatred of them Would you thinke it Look in Deut. c. 1. ver 27. Because God hated us therefore hee brought us out of Egypt to destroy us with the Amorires O sinfull Nation worthy to be hated indeed not worthy to be loved that takes Gods love thus for hatred This was the murmur of impatiency The murmur of disobedience against God and the Magistrate was in these words O that wee had died in the wildernesse O that wee were dead They were but affraid of death and they might have lived if they had beleeved they were but affraid of death and for feare they should die they wish O that wee were dead I he like murmuring you shall finde oft times of this people Fourty yeares long was God grieved and vexed with their continuall murmuring One while they murmured for want of water after they had water then they murmur at the bitternesse of the water One while they murmur for want of bread another time they had bread and the bread of Angels the bread of heaven then they murmur because they had nothing but bread One while they murmur at the government of Moses and Aaron God punished them for that murmuring then they murmur againe because God punished them They murmur at the tediousness of the way from Egypt to Cadesh-Barnea now they murmur because they may not goe from Cadesh Barnea to Egypt againe Thus they were like swine For as the swine whether full or empty waking or sleeping is ever grunting so this people were still murmuring The Apostle 1 Corinth chap. 10. ver 10. saith that this is written for our example that wee should not murmur as they murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Brethren beware of this sin of murmuring I will not speake of the murmuring of envie you have in this Psalme v. 16. They murmured one against another I doe not speake of that but I begin First beware of that murmuring of disobedience Children take heed how you murmur against your Parents Servants take heed how you murmur against your Masters Subjects take heed how you murmur against your Soveraigne Let nothing saith the Apostle be done with murmuring and reasoning Doe all things without murmurings and disputings Phil. chap. 2. ver 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome on that place excellently It is a grievous sin that same murmuring It is better saith hee there for a man not to have his worke done then done with murmuring The voice of murmuring is but a low voice it is not loud it is rather muttered then uttered it is but a low voice It may be the man heares thee not against whom thou murmurest But it is said The Lord heard the voice of this peoples murmuring Deuteronomy chap. 1. And the Author of the book of Wisedome excellently There is quoth hee auris zeli an eare of jealousie hee speakes of divine jealousie and that is a jealousie as hot as fire and there is an eare of a Jealous God and the voice of murmuring saith hee shall not be hid therefore saith hee in the next verse Beware of murmuring There is not such a secret thought that shall goe for nought If wee must give an account to God for every idle word surely wee shall give an account to God for words of desperate murmuring That is for the one Beware of that murmuring of disobedience Then of the other Beware above all of that murmuring of impatience There are a generation of men that cannot be troubled with any thing that they would not be troubled with nor can they want any thing that they would have they must not be crossed with wet nor dry with wind nor raine with foule nor faire weather but their mouths are presently set against heaven and they will not stick to charge God foolishly as the people did that God hates them I pray let mee onely give you a few remedies against this impatient murmuring The first is this Consider that that same Discipline of God at which wee murmur is from God Affliction comes not out of the dust as Eliphaz speakes There is nothing befalls thee in thine estate but it comes from a Divine power and is guided by a most wise providence and wilt thou murmur at it The very savage beast that is ready to flee at the throat of a stranger will endure it selfe to be stricken and beaten by his keeper Surely thou art worse then a beast if thou wilt not suffer God thy Father and thy Maker and thy Keeper to strike thee Then secondly againe
remedie but the cords of your tabernacles must be fastned among the tents of Kedar among Idolaters then learne and remember how Noah lived in the old world hee walked with God when all the world walked from him Remember how Lot lived in Sodome how Joseph lived in the Court of Pharaoh and Obadiah in the Court of Ahab and Daniel in the Court of Babylon Remember how the Saints lived in Neros houshold Phil. 4.22 Remember a Church that held the Name of God and denied not the Faith that lived in such a place where Satan's throne was The fish keepes the fresh taste though it live in salt-water A Myrtle loseth not the nature it is a Myrtle still though it grow in the midst of netles It is a foule shame to live among good men in good places not be good but it is an high commendation to live among evill men in evill places and not be ill Thus much shall suffice concerning the Idoll It was a calfe and they learned to make it in Egypt I come now to their worke the making of it They made a calfe in Horeb. There are three circumstances in that making of it First who were they that made it They made it Secondly where did they make it In Horeb. Thirdly of what did they make it That my Text speakes not of here but wee must take it out of the story It was of the golden eare-rings that Aaron tooke out of the eares of the men and women of their sonnes and daughters and of that they made a calfe They made a calfe in Horeb. For the first the persons that made it They made it The Hebrewes the Jewes would very faine put this from themselves they say that there were some Egyptians that were mingled among them and indeed wee reade that there came out a great multitude a mixed confused company came out of Egypt but they were not these only that made the calf the Israelites themselves made it too They made it Yet I doe not thinke that all of them had a hand in making of it I make no question but some of them hated this calfe with a perfect hatred and them that made it them that worshipped it they were but some of the people that made it Harke what the Apostle saith Let us not be Idolaters as some of them were Idolaters 1 Corinth 10.7 But some of them were Idolaters yea a great company of them were Idolaters They made the calfe But how can it be said they made it for if you look in the story wee shall finde that Aaron made it Aaron threw their gold into the fornace Aaron polished the calfe Aaron set up an Altar Aaron proclaimed an holy day To morrow shall be an holy day unto the Lord. It was Aaron that made it why is it not said that Aaron made the calfe in Horeb but They made the calfe Marke those words where this storie is set downe Exod. 32. verse ult It is said there that God plagued the people for their sinne in making the calfe that Aaron made Marke God plagued the people for their sinne in making the calfe that Aaron made So the people and Aaron both made it the people first They made it Take these rules A man may have a hand hee may have fellowship in the unfruitfull workes of darknesse many waies foure especially It is the usuall phrase of Scripture 1. A man is said to doe that that he doth not himself but another man if he command it that is one So David slew Uriah the Hittite with the sword because hee commanded him to be set in the Army where he might be slaine with the sword of the Children of Ammon Secondly a man may be said to doe that that another man doth if hee doe counsell and perswade to it and entice and solicite to it Thus the High-Priests and the Scribes and Pharisees are said with their wicked hands to take Christ and to crucifie him and to hang him on a tree They with their wicked hands did not doe it but they perswaded Pilate to doe it with much importunity therefore they did it Thirdly a man may be said to doe that that another man doth if hee occasion the doing of it It is said of Judas that hee purchased a field Acts 1. ver 18. This man purchased a field Judas did not purchase it but Judas by returning the money to the treasury again for which he sold Christ gave them occasion to purchase it therefore this man purchased the field Fourthly a man may be said to doe that that another man doth if he doe not hinder the doing of it if he ought and might hinder it The men of Tyrus came upon the Sabbath day and sold wares in Jerusalem Nehemiah that good governour hee goes to the Rulers of the people and saith What is this that you doe and breake the Sabbath Nehem 13. They brake it because they should have hindred the breaking of it and did it not Wee have sinnes enough and too many of our own to answer for wee need not answer for the sins of others yet wee shall answer for the sins of others too for all those sinnes that other men have committed if either wee Command them Counsell them Occasion them Or not hinder them Aaron made the calfe but yet they made it because they would have him make it Aaron made it It is a thing to be considered a little Whether did Aaron sinne in making this calfe or no Did Aaron well in yielding to the people in making this calfe Tantum Sacerdotem condemnare non audemus c. saith S. Ambrose We dare not condemne so great an High-Priest and we cannot tell how to justifie and excuse him yet some in former time and one of late dayes in our time but a Papist hath written a book Munsius de AARONE purgato of Aaron purged Hee will free Aaron from all manner of sinne in making of this calfe but it will not be Should he purge him with Nitre and with Fullers sope seven times over hee could not doe it I see the Fathers are wondrous carefull in extenuating this sin and we may doe that excuse it we cannot we must needs acknowledge it a very great sin in this High-Priest First of all say they the people would have him doe it hee would not have done it else Well be it so hee was now a Governour left under Moses hee should have been more vigilant and have looked better to his government The permission of an evill is as great an evill as the commission of it Woe to that people that are humoured in their sins either by the Ministers or by the Magistrates the one should check them the other should punish them but woe to the people that are humoured in them But then you will say This people was set upon a mischief they would have it there would be no remedie Indeed Aaron told Moses so It is true they were so Be they so
may fall to morrow O Consider thy selfe either thou art tempted or hast been tempted or mayest be tempted as that man was The Lord would have Aaron to fall that hee might look with an eye of compassion upon sinners Then lastly It pleased God to suffer him to fall thus that hee might be a warning to us Quomodò tener Agnus c. Alas how shall the tender Lamb doe when the Bell-wether of the flock is thus endangered If Aaron the saint of the Lord as hee is called in this Psalme a man so familiarly acquainted with God and divine visions and a man that had been so powerfull with Moses in working miracles a man that approached so near to God a man so long conversant with God a man that had gone of so many errands of God as hee did with Moses to Pharaoh If so holy and so great a man as hee fell into so great a sinne as this then let us learn to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Howle Firr-tree saith the Prophet when the Cedar fals Be not high-minded but feare It is the use wee are to mak of it So much for the first circumstance The second circumstance is Where they made this calfe In Horeb. There ran all along in Arabia a ridge of mountaines it was but one mountain but there were two great tops of it Sinai was one and Horeb was the other and you shall finde them sometime called by the one name and sometimes by the other sometimes the whole mountaine is called by the name of Sinai sometimes all the mountaine is called by the name of Horeb sometime by the one top sometime by the other Now this is a thing to be observed they were not gone yet from Horeb the law was given in Sinai but a little before where the Lord charged them out of the fire Thou shalt not make an Image to me they were but at the foot of the hill and had not tarried there much above a month after the law was given they saw mount Sinai before them that was the higher top and they could not but remember how mount Sinai was all on a smoaking fire and flame and with what earnestnesse God had charged them Thou shalt not make any similitude of mee they were not yet gone altogether from the mountaine they were yet in Horeb and yet you see as it is ver 13. They made haste and forgat God and fell to this sinne so saith God to Moses Goe get the downe this people are quickly gone out of the way Exod 32.7 You may see it in this I stand not upon that point The third circumstance is Whereof did they make this calfe They made it of their golden eare-rings Pull off the golden ear-rings saith he from your wives and your sonnes and your Daughters and give them to mee No doubt of it but the servant of God Aaron would faine by this have diverted them from making them a calfe Hee would faine have turned them from it if hee could Hee knew that all those people in those Easterne parts were much delighted in ornaments in eare-rings they say they weare them usually there to this day And suppose hee could perswade the men to be content to part with their ornaments out of their eares yet he thought it impossible to get the women to part with theirs What for a woman to part with her jewels and ornaments This seems a thing impossible You see they are so desirous of them they will many of them pinch their bellies that they may lay somewhat more upon their backes We know there are many that had rather their bellies should want sufficient sustenance then their backes a superfluous ornament You see what a hard matter it is to get women to leave an idle instrument or a bagge of vanity that they carrie about with them but to leave their jewels to part with their ornaments hee never thought they would doe it though the men might part from theirs yet they all do both men and women Wee may observe how easily men and women will part with any thing to maintaine Idolatry I cannot tell whether it be as that Father imagined the pride of our hearts that wee are in love with the workes of our owne hands with the devices of our owne braine with the invention of our own spirits that because they are our own we like them Or whether it be the vigilancy of the divell that roaring lyon that goes about seeking whom he may devoure or what else is the cause I know not but this I know men are more willing to part with any thing to an Idoll to a superstitious worship then to the true worship and service of God And for this cause Idolatry may fitly be compared to whoredome You see a whoremonger will be pinching and sparing enough to his wife and children at home but he cares not how expensive and excessive and lavish he be upon his whores abroad Thus it is in spirituall whoredome men are never so niggardly as in the worship of God but they are content to part with any thing for the maintaining of Idolatry This forwardnesse of this people even to pull their very eare-rings out of their eares to bestow upon an Idoll it will rise up and condemne us that are not willing to pull any thing out of our purses to the worship and service of God Many men in this liberall age we live in are content with the Wise men to take a great journey to see Christ peradventure they are content to fall downe and worship him but they are not willing with those Wise-men to open their treasures Speake to them of opening their treasures whether for works of piety to God or of charity to men then they stand at it as Naaman the Assyrian Nay the Lord be mercifull to me for that Brethren I could speak a great deale more to this purpose but I am loath to trouble you Then besides I know how unnecessary this is in this place I have had many a time here twice especially a plentifull experience of your forwardnesse I have seene how your hearts have beene enlarged in bounty towards the enlarging of this place towards the maintenance of the Ministery and service of God in this place I need not speake of that now But yet I will exhort you now to a worke of charity Do you remember the Briefe that was read even now for that poore towne of Cambridge Me thought your hearts did even yearne within you with pity and compassion to heare of almost 3000. poore distressed soules brought into this extreame misery through the hand of * The great plague in Cambridge Aug. 1630. God Brethren I need say no more I beseech you give us that are your servants in ordinary here in the worke of the Ministery both of the one side and of the other we are all brought up in the Universities I pray give us leave to repaire to your houses and If
there be any consolation of Christ any comfort of love any fellowship of the Spirit any communion of Saints any bowels any mercy fulfill our joy in this I beseech you bestow such a blessing upon that poore Towne and the poore Inhabitants that they may be occasioned and we for them to blesse you again and pray to God to restore that which you shall give in the riches of grace here and of glory hereafter FINIS PSAL. 106.19,20 They made a calfe in Horeb and worshipped the molten Image c. I Began to handle these words the last Lords day There are three things in them First the Idoll a calfe or young Oxe or Bullock Secondly their sin in this calfe in three things First in making of it Then in worshipping of it And then in changing their glory into the similitude of it They made a calfe in Horeb They worshipped the molten Image They changed their glory c. The third thing is the roote of this sin the cause of it whence it grew it grew from forgetfulnesse of God and his works The God they forgat was their Saviour The works they forgat were First great works Secondly wonderfull works Thirdly terrible works They forgat God their Saviour that had done great things for them in Egypt wondrous things in the land of Ham terrible things by the Red sea Of the Idoll I have spoken and of their first work in making of it wherein I considred three circumstances First who made it Secondly where they made it Thirdly of what they made it I now go on to the second thing They worshipped the molten Image This was the end for which they would have it made and so consequently they turned the glory of God into this similitude Here was their sin which was not so much in making of it they might have made it without sinne but to make it to that end to worship it this was abominable Now because these are dangerous dayes wherein we live and there are a generation of men that will compasse Sea and Land to make a proselyte Out of my desire to stablish your hearts in the true and sincere worship of God I shall besides my custome fall upon a matter of Controversie and discusse the question betweene the Church of Rome and us about worshipping of Images There is a great dispute betweene them and us about this peoples Idolatry in worshipping this calfe We do beleeve the sin was sinfull above measure but yet they would make it somewhat worse then it was because they would not be thought to be Idolaters as these were The thing will ask a little time to discusse it more then I have to day I shall but make an entrance into it I shall tell you what order I will take in the handling of it First I will shew you That the making of an Image is not simply forbidden except it be in way of Religion to worship and to serve God by it That is the first They made it and they worshipped it A second thing I will shew is this That all application of divine honour to any Image whatsoever is Idolatry I will shew you thirdly That all Idolaters do change their God they change their glory into the similitude of that they worship I will shew you fourthly That the Church of Rome doth commit as grievous Idolatry in worshipping their Images as this people did in worshipping of this Calfe Lastly I will shew what use we are to make of the whole I say I cannot do all to day I shall but begin it but have patience till I can end it And if in the handling of these things I alledge either Fathers or Councels or Traditions of the Church or History more then I use or more then I think is fit in popular Sermons I pray beare with me and consider whom I deale with with unreasonable men such as will not be satisfied with the meere authority of holy Scripture For the first point The making of an Image is no act of Idolatry except it be by way of Religion to worship God by it that is my first proposition God doth never in the Scripture simply forbid the making of an Image He saith in the second Commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image It is true but you must know that that is a Commandement of the first Table Now the first Table concernes the worship of God so you must understand it by way of relation to the worship of God Thou shalt not make an Image If you will heare God expounding his owne Law that it is thus looke in Levit. 26.1 Ye shall make you no Idols nor graven Image neither shal ye set up any Image of stone in your land to bow downe unto it So it is not the making of the Image that is forbidden but the bowing downe to the Image we have made or the making it to that end to bow downe that is Idolatry If the making of an Image were simply and absolutely evill then surely the same Art and skill and cunning that some men have in carving and graving of Images should never be attributed to the Spirit of God as the author of it Now you shall finde what God saith I have filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with the spirit of wisdome and understanding and knowledge to work all such rare curious inventions whereof some were Images as you shall heare anon God allows the making of Images to foure uses which I shall name unto you First he allows us to make an Image for the distinction of coines The first coines almost that I can finde in all the Scriptures mentioned they were stamped with a Lamb upon them and were called for that cause Lambs You reade in Gen. 33.19 that Jacob did purchase a field a parcell of ground of Hamor the son of Shechem and he purchased it for an hundred pieces of silver a hundred pieces of money so it is called there but the Hebrew phrase is with an hundred Lambs He bought it with money so Stephen saith But why doth he say with an hundred Lambs It was money stamped with a Lamb. So in Job ult every one of Jobs friends brought to him a piece of money our Translation reads it so but the Hebrew phrase is a Lamb a piece of money so stamped As we call that piece of gold that is stamped with an Angel an Angel so the Scripture called that piece of money that was stamped with a Lamb a Lamb. This was the ancient coine I finde Then that same shekell that we reade oft of in Scripture it had two figures upon it it had the likenesse of the pot of Manna on the one side and the likenesse of Aarons Rod on the other side Our Lord said to the Herodians Shew me a penny Whose Image hath it Caesars Our Lord disliked not to have Caesars Image upon a penny but saith he Give to Caesar that which belongeth to Caesar and to God that which is Gods God
will thy glory be eclipsed Then fourthly hee puts him in mind of their progenitors Abraham Isaac and Jacob Lord these be the children of those Fathers Didst thou love the tree and wilt thou cast away the fruit Didst thou love the Fathers and wilt thou cast away the children Then another is from the promise of God confirmed with oathes thou swarest to them that thou wouldest give them the Land shall not thy promise hold Not thy promise confirmed with oathes Here is his pleading for the people as before you heard how hee pleaded Gods cause with the sword yea how earnestly hee pleaded Gods cause in that very day that hee brake the Calfe Yet notwithstanding all this the good man feared though God might repent of the evill yet it may be he will not be thorowly reconciled to the people there will not be a thorow reconciliation therefore he goes to God againe Lord quoth hee If thou wilt pardon this people It was a vehement pathos If thou wilt pardon it hee saith no more but if thou wilt not put mee out of the booke of life So desirous was hee of Gods glory together with the salvation of the people that hee was carelesse of the salvation of his own soule Lord either forgive them or blot me out of the book of life Here is a vehement prayer and with this he slacks the wrath of God quencheth it It was slacked with the bloud that he cast on it it was quenched with the teares Wee reade of many more in Scripture that stood in the breach Samuel God is wont by Jeremy to joyne him and Moses together If Moses and Samuel stood before mee Then Ezekiel stood in the breach another time Josiah another time And not to heape other examples God complaines Ezek. 13.5 that the Prophets would not stand in the breach the false Prophets But there is an excellent place worth your observation in Ezek. 22. ver 30. God had spoken of the sins of the people thorow that Chapter and shewed how those sins had made way for Divine justice to breake in among them Then in verse 30. marke what hee saith I sought for a man among them that would make up the hedge and stand in the gap before mee for the land that it should not be destroyed I found none see I sought for a man When our sinnes have opened such a gap whereby divine justice may come in to the destruction of a whole land then God looks for a man he looks about to see if he can find a man that will come and stand in the gap to keep him that he might not destroy them Brethren hee that doth not see what a wide gap what a wide breach the manifold sins of this land have made whereby divine justice may breake in and hath begun to breake in already hee that sees not this gap this breach sees nothing I pray you brethren doe but remembet Did not God a few yeares agoe make us turne our backes twice or thrice upon our enemies Did hee not make us a very derision and scorne to them that are round about us Doth not God come in now among us as the Prophet Habakuk shewes his manner of coming when hee comes to judgement to wit with the pestilence before him and burning coales going forth at his feet Hab. 3. verse 5. Doe you not see beloved brethren what a number of new upstart heresies there be in the world It bodes no good surely new heresies broached every day and old heresies renewed Doe you not see what miserable rents and schismes there be in the Church while some hold of Paul some of Apollo some of Cephas some of all of them and some of none of them Doe you not see the aspect one upon another is like the aspect of malignant planets Is not Christ divided Then doe you not see what jealousies and discontents there are in the secular state Brethren surely God is looking for a man to come to the breach Help men fathers and brethren come to this breach help Magistrates it is not enough for you to looke upon our miseries though with teares in your eyes unlesse your hands be put to the redresse of it Are there no houses of correction for these vagrant persons that live under no Magistracy under no Ministry Have you no carts for bauds No whips for harlots No pecuniarie mulcts for others No punishments for transgressors It is for us too that are Ministers to runne to this breach If ever wee did preach with power and evidence and demonstration not of nature or art but of grace and of the spirit it is time for us now to preach and to preach againe in season and out of season O that wee could be Boanerges sons of thunder and crie downe those sins that crie for vengeance And hearken Masters Fathers and Governours of families run to the breach In cleansing of the City if every man sweep before his own door the streets will be kept cleane Why doe you suffer revelling and swearing and quarrelling and drinking in your families Your houses should be Churches for God Where be your old exercises of Religion in your housholds Where be your prayers and your reading of Scriptures and your singing of Psalmes Where is your catechising I say no more but high and low rich and poore let us all run to the breach by earnest intercession to God privatly by continuall teares of repentance I conclude now as I did the last day Who knowes yet whether the Lord will have mercy on us and turne from his fierce wrath that wee perish not FINIS PSAL. 106.24,25 c. Yea they despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word But murmured in their tents and hearkned not unto the voice of the LORD c. WE have two things in the Text The sinnes of the people And their punishment The sins of the people are set down in the two former verses And the punishment in the two later Their sinnes are foure The first is their unthankfulnesse in despising the pleasant land They despised the pleasant land The second is their infidelity that was the cause of that same unthankfull despising of the land They did not beleeve his Word The third sin was their accustomed sin of murmuring They murmured in their tents The fourth sin was their rebellion and disobedience They hearkned not to the voice of the Lord. They despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word they murmured in their tents they hearkned not to the voice of the Lord. You see their sinne see their punishment The Lord threatens that hee will punish them for this you heard before my Text The Lord said hee would destroy them Now hee sweares it Hee lift up his hand against them The lifting up of the hand was a ceremony among them used in swearing and God is said to doe it to lift up his hand when hee sweares He swore against them now And what did hee sweare
two they encourage them and say it is no more but arise come let us possesse it They were full of faith Caleb his name signifies hearty a hearty man full of courage Come quoth hee let us goe up and possesse it the land is worth our labour The other ten spies white liver'd men they tell another tale they begin with a commendation of the land It could not be denied it was a good land a land that flowed with milk and hony as God told them that was very true But commonly when a man will deprave when he will calumniate hee begins his calumniation with a commendation and hee comes in with a But As when wee commend a man O hee is a good man a very good man a good neighbour but and then he goes on Like as wee reade of Naaman the Assyrian a great man an honourable man a mighty man at armes one that had done great acts but hee was a leper Even as the Papists they commend the Scripture O it is an excellent booke the booke of Scripture It was written by the Spirit of God holy Pen-men of holy matters in a holy stile to an holy end O it is a good booke but it is a hard booke it is difficult there are great mysteries in it it is impossible for Lay-men to attaine to it it is good to keep them from it Ignorance is the mother of devotion Even thus doe the spies It is a good land O a very good land it flowes with milk and hony there wants nothing you can desire you see the fruit of it but it is hard coming to it there is great difficulty I tell you it is impossible to come to it Why what was the matter First of all the men wee found in the land were the sons of Anak Gyants men of mighty stature their height was as the height of Cedars and their strength as the strength of Oakes as the Prophet speakes of the Amorites A mighty people they are Gyants wee are but like grashoppers in their sight they took us as grashoppers they may tread us downe at their pleasure And then againe these men dwell in cities and these cities are walled yea and to make it the more terrible they are walled up to heaven thus they say in Deuteronomy chap. 1. Their Cities are walled up to heaven there is no scaling of them Then besides say they it is such a land as devoures the Inhabitants of it it eates out the Inhabitants How is that It is hard to say their meaning Some think thus there were pestilentiall vapours there that caused the pestilence among them that they died upon heapes Some think they were at civill wars one among another Or peradventure it will eat out the heart of the husband man in the tillage of it with strong labour they must toyle and work hard if they will have their living Somewhat it was but they bring an ill name an ill report upon the land as the Scripture saith Never seeke to get this land it is impossible the men are so great and the wals are so high and it is such a land as eates out the Inhabitants The people they heare this and first they fall to their old weeping as they did before for meat for flesh they fell a weeping all that night there was nothing but weeping to heare this Well the next day they fall to murmuring in their tents If they had wept for their sin of infidelity it had beene well but in their mourning they fall a murmuring First against God for when God promised to give them this land out of his love Because I loved your Fathers therefore I gave you the land the people turne it the other way No God did it out of his hatred thus they say in Deut. God hated us therefore hee brought us out of Egypt to kill us here Then they fall a murmuring against Moses What were it not better to have died in Egypt Were there no graves in Egypt Were it not better to die in the wildernes then to go in and die there They wish to die for feare of death they wish themselves dead for feare they should die Then they goe a little further they will forsooth chuse a new Captaine and goe back into Egypt they will not goe into the pleasant land they will chose an Elect one and back they will goe and they will not goe in there Mases and Aaron fall upon their faces and entreat them and Caleb and Josua encourage them this land may be gotten the Lord delivered us from the Amalekites and he will deliver us from the Amorites the Lord hath slaine the Egyptians and cannot hee slay the Anakims No by no meanes they tooke up stones and would have stoned Caleb and Josua had not the glory of God appeared upon the Tabernacle God knowes what they would have done Upon that they stayed then they knew Gods displeasure then God swears of all these people that came out of the land of Egypt and there were six hundred thousand men that were twenty yeares old and upward not one man of them should enter into the land of Promise they shall all of them since they wish they might die in the wildernesse they shall die every one of them and hee commands them to goe back againe hee carries them to the red-sea hee makes them wander thirty eight yeares and an halfe more in the wildernesse and in that time all that generation was worne out Hee gave it to their seed but not one man of them did come into the land of Promise but those two Caleb and Josua Now you may see what the meaning of my Text is They despised the pleasant land When they heard they could not have it without some blood-shed they will none of it They despised the pleasant land and would not beleeve his Word The spies told them one thing that they could not get it and God said they should have it they tooke mans word rather then Gods They would not beleeve his word Then marke how my Text goes on then they murmured in their tents First they murmured against God It is out of his hatred that hee doth it Then against Moses Why have you brought us to die here Then last of all they utterly refuse to goe to this land But as it is in the story when they saw that God had sworn that not a man of them should come in then all in haste they would goe God bids them goe and then they say No. Then hee saith See you goe not for if you doe surely you shall be made a spoyle to them yet for all that they would go and they were made a spoyle to their enemies a number of them fell by the sword Now I have told you this whole history you shall the better observe out of these words such points as they shall naturally afford to us I begin first with the first sin their despising of the pleasant land They
take heed that the pleasures of this land make us not forget him I pray marke When ever God shewes to his people the commodities of this pleasant land of Canaan that hee would give them as in Deuter. c. 8. hee gives them this charge When thou art come into that good land and findest it a land of springs and fountaines of wheat and barley of pomegranats and vines and fig-trees a land the stones whereof are Iron and out of whose mountaines thou mayest dig brasse When thou hast eaten and art full then take heed that thou forgettest not the Lord thy God that gave thee that good land It is an easie matter to forget God in abundance Nimia bonorum copia ingens malorum occasio too too great plenty of good is too too great an occasion of ill That same abundance of good things that should make us remember our good God makes us forget him Then take another lesson with you and I have done with it that is Take heed that wee defile not this good land Were a land never so pleasant were it a more pleasant land then this land of Judea were it the very Eden the garden of God if it once come to be defiled with sinnes of an high nature Gods soule can take no pleasure in it I conclude this point with that exhortation that David a little before his death gave to the Over-seers of the people assembled together And now quoth hee here before the Congregation of Israel and in the Audience of your God I give you this charge That you seeke the Commandements of God and keepe them that you may enjoy the good things of this land and continue them to inherite to your children and to your childrens children for ever 1 Chron. 28.8 This is the first thing the sinne of theirs in despising this land it was a fearefull sinne in regard the land was a pleasant land The sin was yet a little more fearefull I can but touch this point if you consider how they despised this land in regard of the house of bondage whence they came They knew their usage in Egypt well enough they knew how they were loaden there with burthens and blowes and injuries so loaden that their very lives were bitter to them as the Scripture saith all the while they were in Egypt yet forsooth they will forsake this pleasant land to goe back againe to the house of bondage If they had despised this pleasant land in regard of something that had been better it had been well done If a man despise the faire beautifull wife that lies in his bosome out of love to Christ and the Gospell from the which that wife would seeke to draw him hee should doe well to despise her Hearken what our Lord saith Hee that forsakes not father and mother and wife and children and all for my sake and the Gospels he is not worthy of mee hee cannot be my disciple Luke 14.26 But if a man despise this faire beautifull wife out of love to a foule baggagely strumpet this is a sin an untolerable abominable sin If this people had despised this good land this pleasant land in regard of heaven of an heavenly country O they had done well in that their fathers are commended for doing that Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Apostle saith of them They regarded not that good land of Canaan they tooke themselves there to be like pilgrims and strangers they regarded not that They sought for a better country the heavenly one Hebrews 11. ver 16. If I say they had despised this pleasant land in regard of heaven they had done well in it but to despise it in regard of Egypt though it was a fruitfull land wee deny it not though it was a plentifull land yet in regard it was the land of their servitude and bondage wherein they had been so ill used and out of which God brought them with such a mighty hand and out-stretched arme to despise this pleasant land in regard of this O that wee had died in Egypt this was a thing that made God lift up his hand that for this they should never come to the land of Promise This was the sin of them And brethren is it not our sinne too You heard how the people despised the good land God promised them and you thinke this was a great sin of them to doe it and you will say more when you heare the words following But are not wee guilty of the same sin too Hath not God promised us a country a better country then this That same better country that the Apostle speakes of when hee saith Abraham Isaac and Jacob sought a better country Hath not God promised us a Canaan not a terrestriall but a celestiall Canaan a Kingdome of heaven And we say of the fruits of the land O they are glorious fruits O what a blessed country is that O how happy are they that are in heaven Wee all say it is a goodly country If some of these countries upon earth are such Paradises O what a Paradise is that in heaven What a country is that Yet though God hath promised us that country when wee are told it is hard coming by it and we must fight for this country before wee come to it and that not with flesh and bloud those sons of Anak those mighty men but with Principalities and powers with the divell with the world with the flesh that we must forsake our selves and forsake all that stands in the way father and mother and wife and children and through many afflictions come to it O then we despise this good land nay wee despise it in regard of the earth Shall I saith the worldling looke after an uncertainty in heaven and lose my certainty here upon earth Must I forsake such a sin that brings me in profit Must I forsake such sins as bring me pleasure upon earth No let others seek heaven if they will let me have earth Thus they crie for earth and thus they preferre the spirituall Egypt of this world before the celestiall Canaan the Kingdome of heaven Thus wee preferre a mess of pottage before our birth-right and our swine with the Gergasens before Christ and these vaine transitory joyes before the joyes of the Kingdome of heaven that cannot be conceived and shall never be ended To which eternall joyes the Lord for his mercies sake and for his Christs sake bring us FINIS PSAL. 106.24,25 Yea they despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word But murmured in their tents and hearkned not unto the voice of the LORD c. YOU have in these verses foure sins of this people Wee have done with the first of them which was this They despised the pleasant land I now goe on to the next sinne which is their Unbeliefe They beleeved not his Word That word was a word of promise that promise was a particular promise of the land they did not beleeve that God told them that hee
Lord heard it and his wrath was kindled against Jacob and the fire burned against Israel because they beleeved not the word of the Lord. What will not men beleeve upon experience Experience breedeth hope Among men if I had experience of a mans goodnesse if I have bought and sold with him and have ever found him a just and an honest man that never brake his day with mee Dare not I trust this man upon experience May a man be trusted upon experience a good man and shall not God take it ill that hee cannot be trusted upon experience You see the sin of this people Let mee now come and make use of it Let mee tell you It was not onely their sin it is our sin too It is the sin of us all The best of Gods children have need to mourne every day over their unbeliefe They that doe not find this unbeliefe in themselves surely are strangers to themselves If a man were not a stranger to himselfe hee would finde such a deale of unbeliefe as would make him mourne continually under it and strive against it It is a wondrous hard thing brethren to beleeve Gods word to beleeve a promise Let mee give you but an instance in one promise Hebrews 13.5 Let your conversation saith the Apostle be without coveteousnes Be content with those things that you have Why For hee hath said it this is the promise hee hath said I will not faile thee I will not forsake thee He hath said it Who is that hath said it Pythagoras his scholars were wont to attribute so much to their Master that when in their Disputes it came to Ipse dixit He said it there was no more talking of it all was well they beleeved it Behold a greater then Pythagoras is here Ipse dixit Hee hath said it and I thinke hee never said a thing more earnestly then hee said that There are in the Greek five negatives in that sentence I doe not remember the like in all the Scripture besides The Grecians when they are wont to deny a thing earnestly double the negative The Spirit of God here is pleased not only to double it but also to treble it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing cannot be spoken with more earnestnes Wee know not how to expresse it in our English but wee translate it thus I will never leave thee nor forsake thee It is well so It is as if hee should say Beleeve mee upon my word I will never leave thee no no no I will not leave thee It is so earnest God never promised a thing with more earnestnes then that And besides wee have found in experience the truth of this promise many a time Wee are here some of us twenty yeares old and some of us fourty and some sixty and some above and in all this time wee have found how true this was upon twenty or fourty or sixty yeares experience wee may say God never left us yet he never forsook us Wee have been sometimes in sicknesse and sometimes in danger and sometimes in want God never left us yet hee never forsook us yet notwithstanding all this wee dare not beleeve that same word wee dare not beleeve it Doe not tell mee that thou doest certainly thou doest not beleeve it Even as Saul would needs justifie himselfe to Samuel when hee reserved the best of the cattle contrary to Gods command I have kept Gods commandement quoth hee O thou blessed of the Lord. Hast thou so saith Samuel Then what meanes the bleating of these sheep in mine eares and the lowing of these oxen Mee thinkes I might say so thou sayest thou beleevest the promise of God that hee will not leave thee nor forsake thee Doest thou so Doest thou beleeve it Then what meane those false weights those false measures and those false oathes And what meanes that cunning over-reaching of thy neighbour in bargaining and that secret undermining of him in his estate And what meanes thine inordinate carking and caring That same losing of many a sweet sleep and losing many a sweet Sermon for the things of this life Surely if thou didst beleeve that God would not leave thee nor forsake thee thou wouldest indeed use those meanes whereby the providence of God might be served thou wouldest never be thus worldly thou wouldest never be thus covetous thou wouldest never use this sharking nor these dishonest trickes if thou didst beleeve As sure as the Lord liveth thou beleevest not that promise I will not leave thee nor forsake thee I could shew the like in many other promises Good Lord how slow of heart are we to beleeve any promise that God hath made to us either concerning this life or concerning a better considering with mee these things that I tell you First considering how much seed of unbeliefe there is in the nature of every man upon the earth even in the best of Gods children and considering what a deep root this seed takes in all our hearts Then considering that the time that God hath set for the performance of promises is First uncertaine And many times long before a promise be performed Then consider againe that same wonderfull working of God when his workes goe against his promise as many times it seemes God promiseth many times a blessing and hee seemes to goe against his word Then considering how busie and subtile the divell is labouring still as hee did with Eve to discredit the truth of Gods promise Then considering how ready we are to listen as Eve to the whisperings and suggestions of that subtile serpent Certainly brethren we should never please our selves in any measure of faith but labour still for a greater measure thereof and never think we can lay hold fast enough upon the promises of God O that is a safe course that Mr Luther gave In all temptations and conflicts and combates and agonies still urge the promise whatsoever the divell can object against it still hold the promise That that we would hisse at in schools in disputes among men is a good course in disputing with Satan When wee cannot answer the Premisses deny the Conclusion hold to the promise The Covenant of day and night may be altered that there may be neither day nor night any more in their season but there is never a promise in the Covenant of grace but it shall stand for ever Lord I beleeve it helpe mine unbeliefe So much shall suffice concerning the second sin They beleeved not his word I come to the third They murmured in their tents There is a three-fold murmuring There is murmur displicentiae a murmur of displeasure of dislike and discontent that is against God when things goe with us otherwise then wee would have them Then there is murmur inobedientiae a murmur of disobedience against our Superiours when wee thinke that they command us something that wee conceive to be unreasonable Then there is murmur invidentiae a murmur of envy against our neighbours when wee
consider God is righteous in all his waies and holy in all his workes Discat non murmurare qui malum patitur Let not a man that suffers ill murmur though hee know not for what ill hee suffers hee can but suffer justly There is nothing but it comes with due desert because God is just and it shall have a due profit The judgements of God some of them are secret some of them open they are all righteous never murmur We desire that God would not enter into judgement with us Shall wee enter into judgement with God wee doe so if we murmur Thirdly consider that this same Discipline that thou murmurest at it may be it is not so much penall as medicinal Thou murmurest peradventure that thou art poore if thou wert rich peradventure thou wouldest be proud of it Thou murmurest because thou art kept low Thou art a hewer of wood and a drawer of water to the host peradventure if thou wert higher thou wouldest be more licentious Thou murmurest peradventure because thou hast a weak sickly body if thou wert more healthy it may be thou wouldest be more intemperate God knowes what is better for thee then thou doest for thy selfe Therefore as there was a law among the Persians that if any man had been beaten at the Kings command hee should have beene so farre from murmuring against the King that hee was bound by that law to come and give the King thanks as though it was a favour from the King hee must come and give the King thankes that hee was pleased to remember him Surely when God beates us with any affliction with poverty or abasement or whatsoever wee should be so farre from murmuring that wee should come and give God thankes that hee is pleased to remember us and to make us againe to remember him that otherwise might have forgotten him dayes without number Fourthly and lastly consider the fearefull judgement of God that falls upon murmurers I could have shewed many examples but remember this heavie judgement of God that at last fell upon this people for murmuring the Lord bare with it a while they murmured at Marah hee bare with it and at Rephidim and hee bare with it and at Taberah and hee punished them a little and at Kebroth-Hattanah and then hee punished them a little But at length hee would beare no more but sware hee lift up his hand that they should never enter into the land of Promise they entred not into that land And let mee conclude with that speech of Gregorie Nullus qui murmurat c. there are none that murmur that enter into the Kingdome of heaven nor shall any but the sons of peace ever participate of that peace and tranquillity the Saints shall there enjoy Let us therefore take heed of murmuring FINIS Heb. 13.16 To doe good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased OF this Sicknesse this grievous Sicknesse that now rageth and raigneth and spreads it selfe more and more among us as wee are not busie to seek a reason of it in naturall causes so wee are not especially to seek the remedy of it by naturall meanes It is no hand but that of God that smiteth us and there is no hand but that of God can heale us It is no hand but that of God that gave the wound and it is no hand but Gods that must bind up againe Therefore it was an usuall custome both among the Iewes and among the Gentiles when as the Plague began to break out at any time among them the first thing they did was they did seek to appease the wrath of God by sacrifice The Iewes did it by the light of grace and the Gentiles by the light of nature The Sicknesse being now broken out and that a long time our course must be still to appease Gods wrath by sacrifice Sacrifices in the old Law were many in the new Testament there is but one true reall externall propitiatory sacrifice that our blessed Lord offered on the Altar of the Crosse a sacrifice of a sweet savour to God But though there be none of that kind yet there be sacrifices of other kinde a great number by which wee must seek to appease Gods wrath There be spirituall sacrifices saith St Peter 2 Pet. 2.5 And what are those There be these five especially First Prayer that is a sacrifice Let my prayer ascend as incense and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice Psal 141.2 The second sacrifice whereby we should appease Gods wrath is a contrite heart that David speaks of The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Psal 51.17 That is the second A third is a mortified body I beseech you brethren saith the Apostle by the mercies of God offer up your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God Rom. 12.1 A fourth sacrifice is in the Verse before my Text a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving The Apostle calls it there The fruit of the lips but Hosea from whom the Apostle hath it calls it The calves of the lips Calves were wont to be offered in sacrifice and these calves of the lips ought to be offered to God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving That God may be pleased in mercy to give us occasion to offer this sacrifice for our deliverance from this infectious and venemous disease when his good will and pleasure is I have in the mean time now thought good to speak of a fifth sacrifice of Almes-giving To doe good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased I need not to divide the Text it breaks it selfe into two parts 1. An Exhortation And 2. The Reason of it To doe good and to communicate forget not there is the Exhortation With such sacrifices God is well pleased there is the Reason of it Concerning the Exhortation I shall handle none but that to day by Gods grace consider there The matter the thing we are exhorted to And the manner how the Exhortation is framed The thing we are exhorted to is double two fold Well-doing and Communicating To doe good and communicate These are the things we are exhorted to For the manner how the Exhortation is framed it is not thus Doe good and communicate but Doe not forget to doe good it is a thing of great necessity what-ever thing you forget beside forget not this it is a thing you may easily forget to doe good and to communicate forget not And of these with Gods assistance with all brevity and plainnesse I can I have many matters to goe through and I would be briefe Mark I beseech you first the two things wee are exhorted to they are Substantives in the Greek how they differ or whether there be difference between them Writers doe differ Some think they are both one and the same thing in two words Others do think the latter word