which of it self would be smooth and calme enough but that the boisterous winds do so enrage and discompose it and thus the minds of Christians after all these troubles sure would be of themselves Even and quiet but only the blustring breath and tempestuous tongues of some men do nothing else but ruffle and disturb them And this they will do for as he in the Hieroglyphick that had the Quiver of Arrows could say Nequicquam nisi emitterem To what purpose unlesse I spend them So those that abound in Malice Pride Self-willednesse ill Principles and the like and have their Quivers full of them alas they loose their Talent of Mischief unlesse they trade with it And hence is it that Firebrands Arrows and Death are hurl'd about with such confidence and all in sport indeed a mad-man's sport so was it formerly accounted but now adaies this more is done in good sad earnest by the sober Subverters of our Kingdome who very seriously contrive the Plat-forme of new Confusions and upon pretence of pulling down I know not what imaginary Babylon as I have seen the blackest Chimney bedeckt with the goodliest Flowers do indeed what they can lay the foundations of another Babel Is this torrid Temper any part of that Fire Luk. 12. 49 which Christ came to send upon the Earth no I cannot believe it Is this the Gospell trumpet which that Evangelicall Prophet speaks of saying Life up thy voyce like a Trumpet I can't believe Isa 58. 1. that neither 'T is confest they do lift up their voice like a Trumpet indeed but what not to tell Iacob of his Sins so much as his supposed Sufferings nor to reproove Transgressions but rather to raise and encourage Rebellion Truly one would think that English Swords had now been sufficiently made drunk with blood and long before this might all have been beaten into Plow-shares even those Qui niteant primo tantum mucrone cruenti whose points have been only dipt much more some others whose blades have been drencht in Bloud But if Swords are not become Plow-shares nor Spears Pruning-books but remain Swords and Spears still then thank the Restlesnesse of those who will not suffer it whose Tongue as'tis the most sharp-edgedsword so is it still unsheath'd and runs riot every where walking through through the World as he describes that fierce Commander in the Head of his severall Regiments Quâcunque vagatur Sanguineum veluti quatiens Bellona Flagellum i. e. Their Tongue is an over-flowing Scourge wheresoever it lights it draws blood O how contrary are these to Moses He saith here Sirs ye are Brethren no say these they are Tyrannicall Anti-christian any thing rather then Brethren He sayes Why do ye wrong one to another not then positively determining which was the wrong-doer till afterward he wrong'd him also who was the Peace-maker but these say peremptorily Sirs they are in the Wrong and doubtlesse you are in the Right O why will ye take the least wrong from any other In a word he finds men at emnity and would gladly make them friends these find men at unity and would fain make them enemies So that however they please to call others Anti christs themselves are plain Anti-Mose's yea I doubt Anti-Prophets and Anti-Apostles also and indeed like genuine Iewes according to that character of theirs they please not God and are contrary to all good men For the Word is the Gospell of Peace Christ is the Prince of Peace God is the God of Peace but these are People that do erre in their hearts the way of peace they have not known If such as these will needs be Preaching For I would not have you think I have been all this while speaking of lawfull Preachers I hope I have not O how beautifull are their feet that bring glad tidings of salvation and pitty it were any of those beautifull feet should prove bloody feet Therefore I say again if such as those I have here spoken of must needs be Preaching t were well they would think of such Subjects as these Study to be quiet Follow the things that make for Peace Obey them that have the rule over you Let nothing be done through strife c. In which kind should they make any adventures yet such Subjects as these now proposed being so much out of their way I suppose it would not be worth a Sabbath dayes journey to go out of ours to hear them So much of the 2d Conclusion And as from this Act of Moses here we have rais'd as to some contrary minded ones matter of just Reprehension so In the third place to All the chief Magistrate 3. Concl. especially here is matter of Religious imitation Reconcile persons at variance compose their differences part their Quarrels prevent their petty strifes and wranglings these little Beginnings from growing to greater Mischiefs Do as doth Moses here who was first their Peace-maker then afterward their Law-giver This is a time of uniting this dayes Solemnity calls for it the Church now comemorating that grand Vnion betwixt Heaven and Earth in the Vnity and Community of All-Saints Not that we are for his Patrocinia Dominorum One God One Lord. Dominus we own and adore but can't tell what to do with that Dominorum Angels themselves though we know not of what Original Extraction before or above us yet as the same Author elsewhere saith acknowledg themselves in respect of us Consanguineos Bern. in sanguine Redemptoris there is Consanguinity betwixt them and us And Origen affirms Hom. 5. sup Levit. Quandam esse cognationem inter visibilia et invisibilia Heaven and Earth are a Kin as it were and the Kindred this day commemorated In this Chapter where our Text is we read how the Heavens were open'd and in one of ib. 56. v. the Lessons for this day we have them open'd Rev. 19. 11 again And whereas in the Transfiguration of Christ we find three together on the Mountain Moses Elias and Christ a Congregation made up of Heaven and Earth two from Above and one yet Below so here in our Text we find the like though not just the same Congregation Moses St Stephen and St Luke one penning another pronouncing the Third we know not how dictating unto him and this Congregation so also compounded as the former one yet of the Church Militant the other two of the Church Triumphant Which severall Openings in Heaven as aforesaid to receive and take in Earth and holy combinations on Earth Earth as it were mixing with Heaven me thinks should much encourage us to the ready embracement of those uniting Motions which this Text affords us especially at such a time as this concerning which beside what hath been already spoken in that regard I shall only adde that of the Psalmist which hints both the day and its duty Sing unto the Lord all ye Saints of his and give thanks c. All Saints except some new
ones who they say care not much for any Singing and so how they may share in the Day I know not but doubt they will not joyn in the Duty No question but you the Magistrate to whom I speak like Moses your Pattern may meet with some Aegyptian as well as Hebrew Transgressors I mean some Criminall Offenders as well as other sleight Quarrellers and peevish Contenders If so you must with Moses here admonish the one but smite the other When there 's any Sin or Mischief going forward Swearing Drinking Whoring contemning the Lord's day despising the Lords worship plotting against the Lord 's Anointed and the Peace of this Kingdome c. All these are mischievous Aegyptians and'tis high time then for Moses to shew himself and not Himself only but his Sword also Thus the Curser and Blasphemer were brought before Moses and so the Stick-gatherer on the Lev. 24. 11 Sabbath day was brought before Moses and his bundle of Sticks poor Sinner turn'd into an Num. 15. 33. beap of Stones Which I observe not that we Christians ought to mete by that severe Jewish Measure but this in generall you cannot likely over-doe in the Concerns of God's Glory Only remember as the Breast was Moses his part of the Sacrifice so Prudence should be yours Ex. 29. 26. Here you are in the midst of Dividings as where else would you not be so Ephraim against Manasseh Manasseh against Ephraim but few I hope against Iudah what should you do but with St Stephen here in the Chapter Look up sted fastly into Heaven and with Moses here in ib. 55. the Text look down directly upon your Duty and doubt you not but the Lord and his Anointed will direct and defend you So much of the Third And now having said thus much to the Magistrate me thinks somewhat more should be spoken to the People Therefore in the Last place let me perswade 4. Concl. you all to these two Duties First to Obedience towards Superiors Secondly to Love and Peaceablenesse amongst your Selves the Former imply'd here the Later express'd both I am sure claiming very properly and directly from the Text First for Obedience Without this there can be no Peace and with this there could have been no Strise betwixt these two Brethren For had they but obey'd Moses as they ought to have done when he said Sirs why do ye wrong c. then there had been an end of the Quarrell Peace is the Daughter of Obedience Obedience is the true Mother of Peace which Peace cannot any way be broken but the Daughter must be dasht pieces against the Mother Thus it was with these two Combatants which the Text presents us withall before they had quite forfeited their Peace they must needs bid adiew to their Obedience For Moses was now their Governour deputed from God to deliver them as'tis in the verse foregoing and ib. 25. v. though where he might have commanded he only intreated a Peace Sirs why do ye wrong yet in the account of good Subjects such Entreaties are the most powerfull Commands But we see how little Moses is regarded betwixt them the One probably sleighting him the Other thrusting him away and threatning him while he poor Prince is fain to fly for it the Field is kept and the Quarrell maintain'd by the two Brethren as well through their Disobedience to him as their Variance one with another For had they been but loyall Subjects and hearkned to Moses without more adoe they hed been loving Friends but as the fruit of Submission had been peace so on the contrary nothing but Strife endlesse strife is the Product of Disobedience vvhich one disloyall act of theirs beside the particular trouble it cost them two it occasionally brought a generall mischief upon the vvhole body of the Iews by being one visible means of retarding their Deliverance yet forty years longer St Bernard vvriting to one of his Brother-Abbots Epist 87. who in his love to Obedience had voluntarily quitted his place of being a Governour for that he smartly rebukes him but in that he presently put himself under the Povver of another he doth as highly commend him adding this of his experience Securiùs possum praeesse multis aliis quà m mihi soli c. He could vvith far more ease Qui se sibi magistrum constituit stulto se disci pulum subdit ibid. and safety dispose of others then himself much more be at others Disposall then his ovvn as he intimates in that Epistle O there 's a great deal of Sweetnesse in the Conscience of Obedience do but tast and see Certainly there 's none but may perceive it except those vvho never did never will tast or make Tryall of it The sickly Woman in S. Marke touches not Mar. 5. 28. the very body of Christ yet by touching his cloaths only which do touch his Body she is healed And we that live in this sickly Haemorroisse Kingdome of Ours though by our submission to our lawfull King all those under him don 't just touch the very top of Christ's scepter yet mediately we do by touching that which doth touch it and is in immediate subordination unto it and vvould we all touch but so we might soon be healed So that Obedience is no◠only a pleasing but a healing Vertue All is not cannot ought not to be as every one would have it what then must People repine wrangle fight for it rather then be debarr'd of their own peculiar fancies God forbid Remember at the rebuilding of the Temple some joyed Ezr. 3. 12. others wept yet such was the Obedience of them all they don't offer to remove or hinder the laying of one Stone whereby to disturbe the Building So much for Obedience Secondly for Peaceablenesse And here one would think that few Arguments might serve to perswade men to be happy However let 's First look upon the Danger 2ly the Deformity of its contrary that so the mischief and uglinesse of Strife may if not enhance yet give a due worth to the Blessings and Beauties of Peace 1. First the Danger of this kind of Strivings What said one Vincere fratrem non interficere volui I will only conquer my Brother I don't mean to kill him Indeed it is so at first men strive only for Mastery yet rather then they will not master they will Kill murther And when once it comes to that Iusque datum sceleri that kind of legall Killing or as the Psalmist hath it imagining yea and doing Mischief by a law then we shall find Non solū cum Rhodiis sed cum Artibus bellum geri the War is not only levied against men but against good manners against good Learning and Religion too Inso much that however we may sleight it yet in God's account who best knows the weight of his own Judgments a three-months War especially if in the 2 Sam. 24. 33. bowels of the Kingdome
the Egyptian indeed 't is Death to some to hear talk of Peace As Millers and Sailers with other such that live by the winds a perpetuall Calme would undo them Give such as those Sea-room enough and then they are safe whereas if they come neer firme ground and are once cast upon Shoar they split and are broken to pieces The Disciples of Christ we read were once Mat. 14. 27. afraid of their own Master as if they had seen a Spirit So many when they see Peace a coming toward them are afraid and think 't is an Apparition But what Christ said to them his Majesty hath been pleas'd to say to us Be not afraid behold it is I. In some 't is probable the fear of Restitution may lie like a Lyon in the Way And indeed should many amongst us repent but at half that rate as the little Publican did and restore but twofold yea but the same again for his fourfold I doubt many that are great ones now would soon be as little in Estate as Zacheus was in Stature and they would quickly repent of such a Repentance Therefore that the way of Peace may be straw'd with Flowers as well as pav'd with Marble so that all may be perswaded to come and walk in it Behold here are no severe exhausting Satisfactions no grievous and ruining Restituions no harsh and cruell Compositions As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here that must be let alone for ever Be of good cheer if thy sins are forgiven thee thy wrongs are Only after all the Injuries on one side and the Acts of Kindnesse on the other let 's be willing to be friends with our King and Country and those whom we have so much wrong'd if they have wronged us in forgiving us O forgive them that wrong St Austin observes that whereas the other Creatures were made two and two God created Man single there assigning the reason thereof De uno multitudo propagatur ut in mult is unitas Civ D. l. 22. c. 26. servaretur Thus that we might be all taught of God to love one another God would at first give us all one Spring head as it were that so we might the more undividedly stream along in the same Channell God is the God of Love and Peace be perfwaded to it for God's sake And Christ though content to be crucifyed on Mount Calvary yet while he was living as may be observed he was most delighted to be in Mount Olives He looseth his life in the place of Skuls an Embleme of War where the truth is he is still crucify'd but he leads his Life most commonly in a place of Olives an Embleme of Peace There he prayes there he preaches there he walks contemplates and watches do's all but dye that was reserv'd for Mount Calvary yea thence he ascends up into Heaven and as Peace Act. 1. 12. was one of the last legacies his Lips bequeath'd us when he dyed so Mount Olives the dwelling place of Peace was the last piece of Earth his blessed Foot toucht when he ascended Remember Christ is the great lover of Peace Do it for Christ's sake But if neither for God's sake nor Christ's yet some perhaps may be mooved for their Countreys sake Imagine you sawthis native Kingdome of ours like another Iob not now upon but newly crept off the Dunghill and thus bespeaking you as there he doth his Visitants Have pity upon me O Job 19. 21 my Friends have pity for the hand of the Lord hath touched me Indeed the hand of the Lord hath not only toucht but a longtime lain heavy upon this Land of ours and if after all we have yet no pitty we are far more miserable comforters then ever Jobs were For if we observe they seem to have some kind of sympathizings with his Sorrow He rents his Mantle and they rent theirs he shaves his head they throw Dust upon theirs If he sits upon the Ground so do they and their Sorrows maintain as long and as sad a silence as his do Yea as in most things they did with him Job 2. so in one passage they out-did him For whereas we find not as yet that Iob had shed one Tear for all his sufferings 't is said of them They lift up ib. 12. v. their voice and wept O be not more remorselsse then were Iob's friends Do it for your Countrey 's sake But if the present age prevaile nothing yet have some regard and pitty upon Posterity Let not the little ones as soon as born be taken and dasht against the stones as it were by being taught such hard and unrelenting Lessons and exposed unto such harsh and ruthlesse principles as the men of this generation have proceeded upon I have heard of an ingenious Limmer who mostlively represented a dying piece in this manner A goodly Matron mortally wounded at the Storming of a City as she lay bleeding and expiring of her Wound behold her helplesse hungry Infant comes crawling towards her Breasts while the dying Mother looks wistly and carefully upon it Ne sanguis metuens pro lacte bibatur as if fearing lest the hungry Babe should suck down Blood in stead of Milk How far this sad Resemblance might not long since be suitable to our Church and Kingdome I leave to your Consideration Only take heed I speak it to all unpeaceable implacable Spirits that the Children yet unborn in lieu of the innocent wholsome milk of true Christian Principles be not betray'd to Blood by your Examples I do not dispair but that by these poor yet well-meant Motives some Salamander may be enticed out of his beloved fire and that we Christian Brethren will regard these Peace-offers of Moses although the Iewish ones did not But what need we a further wast of Words to a Christian Audience when one Quirites hath pacified an Heathen Tumult Men and Brethren that 's only our Quirites what have we so soon forgotten the miseries of War that we must already be labour'd and perswaded to Peace Need there be a Law enacted That every one shall eat when he is hungry and drink when he is thirsty Need any of us be intreated to sleep securely live plentifully eat the fat and drink the sweet of a good Land sit quietly under our own Vine by day and rest undisturbedly in our own Beds at night What is it indeed so much sweetnesse and pleasure for me to eat my own morsell with a trembling hand and drink of my own Cup as Belshazar did of anothers with a perpetuall shaking because of the sad and frightfull Alarms of War Well if we must be argued into Peace and men will not be happy unlesse they see good reason for it at present I shall seek no farther than the Text Sirs ye are Brethren Were are they Hebrews so are we Christians Were they in the midst of enemies are not we Had they a Peace making Moses blessed be God so have we and if they are all Brethren we much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Co-uterini such as have lain in the same womb of this our Church drawn at the same Breasts of Consolation both the Testaments have been nurst up with the same sincere milk of Gods word and a good Chatechisme And as we have been brought up on the same Knees and hung upon the same Breasts of one common Mother so we hope all to be received into the Bosome of one common Father What saith St Paul There 's one Body one Spirit Eph. 4. 4 one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all Now if after all these ones we must still be two I shall even leave you as Moses did them Only remember this the time may come that what Moses here speaks to us all we may one day sadly repeat to each other saying Sirs we were Brethren why would we do such wrong one to another THE END
obliging the people together with many other advantages which are more peculiarly annex'd both to their Persons and Places But I have wasted so much of my allowance in the first part that I doubt I cannot be so much as indifferently just to the second without being extremely unjust to the third part the which being of most Practical concernment and because I perceive also that much of the Second will without any violence flow into that Channel I hasten thither to meet it and so shall spend the rest of my time in recommending unto you those Inferences that may arise from the whole matter which was the third thing proposed 1. Since God we see hath that great Hand in Government that he saith here I will restore thy Iudges c. then it may not be unseasonable here 1. Inference First of all to enter our Caveat against the People T is not they but God as the Text informs us who is the giver and restorer and indeed the onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the oeconomy of Dominion Why then do the People imagine a vain thing why should they trouble themselves and others in things too high and too hard for them Let the 1 Sam. 6. 13. men of Bethshemesh follow their reaping why should they forsake their own to thrust their sickles into God's Harvest and with their sweaty palms handle his Mysteries I would to God that some of those that now pretend to so much study of the Scriptures would not overlook that one line in S. Paul but Study to be quiet and do their own businesse 1 Thes 4. 11. 'T is confess'd matters in Government may chance to be somewhat unhing'd and disorder'd but then are these men of skill and authority to set things right again If any thing be amiss in the instrument must every rude and boisterous hand that can only increase the distempers of it be trying and tampering with it What must that venerable image Order and Government which as hath been shew'd fell down from Heaven upon the least crack or bruise be only hammer'd out by a company of Ephesian silver-smiths No let the people know 't is not their common Shop-oyle but the Oyle of the Sanctuary that is used in the Fiat of Government Besides let them but view this Text again and there they will meet with Counsellers Judges and in them Kings like Angels ascending and descending and God himself standing at the uppermost round of this Ladder All these are betwixt them and the honest power of restoring and reforming So that unlesse they overturn this Ladder which will be hard so long as God stands at the top of it or unlesse they resolve to rush on and ride o're the heads of their Superiors 't will be a great while ere it fairly comes to their turn to have to do in these grand matters of Government The Arke I told you was a Type of Authority what State-Carpenters soever might have an hand in the hewing and erecting it we know not but this we are sure of 't was God only that put Noah into it and gave him the full possession of it by that usual ceremony of shutting Gen. 7. 16. him within it as there 't is express'd they went in male and female and the Lord shut him in which unlesse the Lord himself had done shut the door fast upon him and clos'd up all the chinks and little crevises in the outside thereof which none of them within could possibly do the waters you know might soon have soakt through and endanger'd all So for this great bottom of Government unlesse the Lord take the Governour and shut him in and then perfectly close up every crany with his own hand it cannot be but the waters of Strife Sedition and Rebellion will soak through the sides thereof and in time hazard the drowning of all That 's the first Inference 't is God and not the People I will restore c. Then how contrary are 2. Inference those unto God Almighty who are altogether for changing or destroying when God is wholly for restoring yet not as of Late but as at the Beginning First for Changing Some there be so strongly enamour'd with any strange face of Affaires that fresh and new Deformities please them better then accustom'd Beauties So the Scenes be new and often shifted the Play will be applauded be it never so bloody and Tragical I was well and would be better I took Physick and dyed saith that forraign Proverb and how far our late troubles may put it into better English I submit to any indifferent Judgment Certainly this Turba Medicorum had well nigh made an end ofus and cur'd the Disease as one observes many do by destroying the Patient And yet how rife and frequent are those amongst us that would willingly part with their present Gold Silver Peace Safety for a little more of the former Iron and Steel again When the lewes pass'd through the red Sea every Orig. sup Exod. hom 5. Tribe saith a Father had its peculiar channel for their safe conveyance to the Shore Was it not so with us when on this side and that side the Waters stood upon huge threatning heaps we were so in love with Ruine we were not content to be sav'd the same way but among those many Divisions of ours every Tribe must be allow'd a several and safe passage through its own Channel And yet now that we are so newly gotten upon these Banks of Iustice and Peace whereon God be blessed we yet stand what numbers have we who would be glad to plunge themselves others back again into the bottom of that red Sea of blood and confusion and this chiefly if not meerly from a fond love after Changes If there be as some hold such Circulations in Nature that in seven years time men may be said to have other Flesh and Blood and so other Bodies certainly such men as these may have twenty other Minds in half that space Not that he who without tumult fairly motions a change in lesser matters should alwaies do it as their Custome was with a rope about Plutarch his neck Nor that it should be present death to offer to wind up or slacken the least string in the circumstantials of Policy no but if Archimedes thinks he can unhinge the Earth he must have some firme foundation for the foot of his Engine to rest upon So if the great globe of Government should be stirred which God forbid though some can spy not only Motes but Beams in the Worlds bright eye the Sun and though the Goddesse be well drawn yet 't will go hard but some Hypercriticks will find fault with her slipper however I say if they will be moving our modern Archimede's should chose some more probable supporters whereon to fix their new Engines then the various and floating humors of the People who if they are like Gen. 49. 3 4. Reuben the
beginning or chief of our strength yet like him also they are unstable as water I am the more earnest herein because I perceive in diverse no great mind after changes in themselves but only the People love to have it so and they love to humor those People But it Nullam vestem bis induit Sueton de Neâ—one was costly following his Fashions who was never seen twice in the same Garment and certain it is we have found this novellizing of Ours none of the cheapest for Imitation As when we behold a full Moon we think it a glorious Body yet 't would make but an uncertain Standard to go by Such are the minds of this kind of People and if we should chip and chop all our Measures according to that Standard we might do like that Statuary who thought the piece never fine enough till at last by overmuch he wing and polishing he had scrapt away all into an heap of Dust in stead of a Statue 2. And as this kind of wanton changing so any 2. Destroying kind of destroying is contrary to this restoring This hath so little of Iacob that it hath both Esau's hands and Esaus voice too and so is plain down right Edom who said Down with it down with it even to the ground Good and Bad Corn and Tares all must be bound up in the same Bundles As if Absalom's way to burn Ioabs field had been the best course to cleanse and weed it 2 Sam 14. 30. and if the House be grown a little dusty presently to bring the Besome of Destruction to reform it Certainly that Besome hath no relation to Christs fan wherewith he hath promisd to purg Luc. 3. 17. his floor If either the Church-clock or Stateâ—arum should be at a stand sure a little oyle and a gentle rubbing would do better then to come with axes and hammers to set it going Indeed time hath been when those Clergy-men were hung by as useless Harps whose mad Musick could not enrage our late Alexanders and Dion make them presently draw their swords runie either City or Country I desire to blesse God I never knew how to beat a March upon these sacred Boards nor had I ever the least skill to sound a Charge from the Pulpit but have often wondered to see how any could rejoyce in or at the work of Destruction especially because it looks so like the Devil who took one of his chiefest titles from thence and is called the Destroyer and God Almighty Keeep us all from the paths of Ps 17. 4. that Destroyer When two strings of Musick saith Cùm ista sonitum reddit illa quae in eodem cantu temperata est tremit Greg. M. 1. c. 5. that Father are equally stretch'd to both the same note touch but the one the other though at some distance will shiver and tremble by Sympathy I would to God that all Christians were sensible of these sympathizing kinds of Shiverings though we are at a distance in some other respects yet we all agree in that common key of Christian and why should not those many great things wherein we do accord hold us faster together then that those few little things wherein we differ should be able to shatter us asunder O let us often read and ponder upon that of the Prophet Destroy it not there is a Blessing in it Isa 65. 8. I would be understood of those vulnera non immedicabilia such as are not past our help those that be so we leave to higher and better Iudgments and I could wish we might hear no more of those dismall Dirges at least that they might be all taken out of some of David's Al-taschiths provided that a Psalm of Mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compassion to one prove not a Song of Lamentation to many Then for God's sake Destroy not for as t was said before there is at least there may be a blessing in it And so 't were well we were all of God's mind there or here in the Text rather to seek the Restoring then the Ruine of a Sinner And as this Destroying is contrary to this Restoring here and so contrary to that great Restorer in respect of private persons much more in respect of Iudges and Counsellors and such like publick persons Our King is worth ten 2. Sam. 18. 3. thousands of us one of his Iudges or his Counsellors are worth many hundreds of us and his Government it self worth us all for indeed we were all lesse worth then nothing without it Yet time was we would adventure and be trying how it was to be without it and therefore God sent Locusts amongst us such as those in the Revelations they had faces men and Rev. 9. 7 8 c. Hair like Women yet withall they had Tailes like Scorpions and Teeth like Lyons nor would the seeming sweetnesse of their looks cure the stinging of the one or the bitting of the other I say the Lord sent Locusts amongst us Now as Agur observes The Locusts have no King yet they go Prov. 30. 27. forth all of them by Bands and so did we who a long time had none of the former but God knowes enough and too much of the latter These I say that have no King God sent amongst us that would have none that so our Punishment might be our Fescue to point out our Sin But their waies were not God's waies and 't is well for us they were not for they like true Locusts are all for devouring and destroying when God is all for restoring He and all his I am perswaded are for peace though the other make them ready for battel When I consider the perpetual Desolation even all that the Enemy hath done evill in the Sanctuary I cannot but admire Ps 74. 3. in the name of God out of what bottomlesse pit hath arisen that Spirit which is all for ruining and nothing at all for restoring What is his name Prov. 30. 4. or what is his Sons name who can tell faith the Scripture We know God of whom that is spoken his Name is The only Potentate The Mighty King The Indge Eternal and his Sons name is Wonderfull Counsâ—llor Prince of Peace Everlasting Father all names of Order and Government But for this Spirit whereof we now are speaking what is his and his sons name I 'll tell you his Name is Legion and it may be feared a Roman one and his Sons name is Confusion and Destruction Oye foolish Christians who hath bewitched you with these principles of Destroying What though Corah and his company abus'd their Censers which reall abuses are of an higher nature then any petty personal ones whatever yet even those Censers may serve for broad plates for the Num. 16. 38. Altar What is Belshashar's heathen lips defile Dan. 5. the Bowles of the Temple yet if they be well wash'd again what were those Iewes the worse who