there is one reason more to raise our esteem for such Solemn Conventions as were at this time in Solomon's Porch we are to Magnifie that which is administred and those who do officiate in it because in doing so we may turn away many sinners from the errors of their ways save their souls from death and hide a multitude of sins we may save our selves and those with whom we do converse when they shall behold our meek Conversation as to God and his service coupled with Reverence and Fear This was the truest Respect the choicest Reverence that was here given not barely an Ecstatical Enthusiastical rapid admiration but such a one as had an influence on the course of this life in the hopes of a Better all was in order to salvation Which is the Fourth part of the Text and the subject of the last Discourse The Fourth SERMON The great Benefit which did accrue to the whole Community from the Reverence which was here exhibited or rather from the whole Dispensation at this present BEcause of the judgment from God inflicted which was grievous because of the Signes and Wonders wrought which were terrible because of the publick Convention the place of their meeting their behaviour there all which were holy because of the due distance observed which was solemn because of the awfull Reverence exhibited which was beautiful and glorious because of the Providence of God exerted which was miraculous but yet Constant all these things did work together for good to those who should be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Believers were the more added to the Lord Multitudes of men and women So that already you may percieve that this last Discourse is to be confined to these two particulars 1. To consider what was the occasion of this great Benefit implyed in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rather or the more and so referring to all those circumstances but now enumerated all contributing to the increase of their Number who were the general Assembly of the first-born Secondly What this great Benefit it self was more particularly and closely to be examined and that in these following Particulars all within the compass of the words themselves First A Conversion or an Effectual Calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some that were added and that in an External Communion because they were added therefore the increase of their number was visible added to the Lord but so as to be known in and acknowledged by the Church Secondly a due qualification and that internal in the heart but still in order to an outward profession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were Believers in the Lord added to the Churches Communion and there holding the Faith which was once delivered to them Thirdly For their Number the Benefit great because it was diffusive the Redemption was the more precious because intimated that it might be Vniversal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were Multitudes Fourthly No respect of Persons in relation unto Sex in Christ Jesus it is not Male nor Female but a New Creature the weaker Vessel has here its equal honour and proportionable too in its number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There were Multitudes as of Men so of Women of honourable and vertuous Women and of holy Men not a few Fifthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all this the rather which is again to be considered in relation to the Subject capable of this great benefit the rather because of what they saw and what they heard and so it may denote in these Multitudes an Act of free choice and mature deliberation they saw what was done and they heard what was spoke and were convinced of all so that it was an Act of their judgment and of their reason in that they delivered themselves up to the obedience of their Faith Believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes of Men and Women First To begin with that which is in the Text both first and last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The rather did this great Benefit accrue or the more was it enhanced occasion being given for this increase because of those various circumstances ennumerated all which wrought together for the good of those who should be saved by all which God was pleased to add unto the number of those who were to be blessed in glory everlasting I shall only touch upon each of the forementioned circumstances conducing to this happy increase and so apply the main scope of the former Discourses to the intent that holiness may be promoted Diffusive love and universal Charity may be increased and that the God of Order may be glorified in the hearts of all men First Because of the judgment from God inflicted upon the sin of Sacrilege which was grievous hence Believers were the more added to the Lord and those Multitudes ver 11. Fear came upon the whole Church Ob recentem adhuc ex prodigioso Ananiae interitu metum id tamen progressui Evangelii non obfuit the surprise was sudden and yet still conuinued timor fecit Deum the Gospel of God was glorified from the fears of those who were affrightned the terrours of the Lord did work kindly in order to a through and a pure perswasion Psal 110.2 This was the rod of strength out of Sion in that Christ and his word should rule in medio inimicorum in the midst round about and over all his enemies in the day of so dreadful a power the People were a willing People Fear is properly the coarctation of the Spirits upon any surprise summoning them from the more distant parts of the body to the relief of the nobler parts of the heart chiefly which is the principle seat of life and so it might seem here in the Vnion of the Body of the Church assembled they sought God in the way of his judgments at the dreadful effects of which they could not but be affrightned as men and yet as Christians they did hence take occasion to pluck up their Spirits the more earnestly to attend upon the service of their God securing in the first place the integrity of their Souls towards him in so much that should God kill them all the day long exhibiting himself in nothing but the sad expressions of his wrath that he is a jealous God and a Consuming fire yet they did all of them humbly resolve as one man to put their trust in him Not unlike to this was that glorious and Beneficial effect of the Divine Displeasure against those Exorcists who Sacrilegiously arrogated to themselves the Apostolical gift presuming to cast out Devills in the Name of Jesus saying We adjure thee by Jesus whom Paul Preacheth the evil Spirit knew both the Master and his Servant Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye and leaping upon them he prevailed against them so that they fled away naked and wounded The result of all which Act. 19.17 was that when this came to be known to the Jews and the Greeks dwelling at Ephesus
Scripture though it may be sadly observed a new way of spinning out discourses without any the least regard had to the Law and the Prophets Bring me hither the Ephed says David that Ephod from behind which he took his Sword and so it was consecrated for the Lord's battels thus doth he enquire of the Lord upon every enterprise and that in no other way then according to the Divine Institution with a linen Ephod The answer from God to him was either a speedy return of Peace and safety or else a sure caution certainly to prevent and escape the Danger Upon this doth Doog that wicked Edomite put forth his hand to fall upon the Priests of the Lord kills them onely to take possession of their inheritance and is Abiathar escaped unto David with the Ephod in his hand there was a strange Providence in the escape and a wonderful security unto Both in that flight 1 Sam 22.23 Abide with me says the King unto the Priest and fear not for he that seeketh my Life seeketh thy Life but with me thou shalt be in safeguard Both these for a while may be hunted after upon the mountains by the sons of violence and yet they travelling together in yea and persecuted through a wilderness shall even there find a Sanctuary at the Mount of God and in God's due time which is the best for Both these Two keeping still close together the Consecrated Sword in the hand of the One the lâ—nnen Ephod upon the breast of the Other the Kingdom shall be established in the hand of the One the Priesthood shall be confirmed to the house of the Other these are the suremercies of David and of the Son of David to them Both. But let not David in his prosperity forget the House of Abiathar which was afflicted with him in all his affliction nor let Abiathar in his eminency and prelacy be unmindful of the servants of David so oversee them as to overlook them who were formerly a security to him when he fled from the face of Tyranny and Oppression let Both together live in that mutual Dependance in which God hath set them carrying on the same design so advantagious to Both keeping as sacred this Vnion which I must still reinforce to be the Divine Institution lest the last errour prove worse then the first and again some rebellious Sheba do blow the Trumpet God in his mercy prevent such doleful Alarms that they never more be heard amongst us To your Tents O Israel we have no part in David nor inheritance in the son of Jess Now see to thine own House David And would David look well to his own House it must be by having a due regard unto and a tender care of the House of God Thus Psal 132.1 God remembers David and all his trouble in that this was his Oath unto the Lord this was his Vow unto the mighty God of Jacob that he would not come within the Tabernacle of his house nor climb up unto his Bed untill he found out a Place for the Lord and with this most pathetick repetition of the words of his vow an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. The instance in the Text is the conclusion of the whole matter v. 27. Aaron met Moses in the Mount of God and kissed him Oh happy interview Moses and Aaron mutually embracing locus honestat the very Place bespeaks both Love and Honour it was at the Mount of God and then the Ceremony denotes both Veneration and endearment Osculum dignitatis he kissed him as a Token of subjection to him thus acknowledging his Majesty and Supremacy deosculatus est ex amore he rejoiced in his heart when he saw him and because he loved him he gave the seal of his affections with his lips an intimation at this first greeting that his Mouth joyned unto those lips quasi coalescebant in Vnum Os was now become but One Mouth with which he was resolved to proclaim Liberty to the Captives and after that enjoyn obedience to those ransomed ones This was Aaron's promise unto Moses and that because of the Divine appointment the Brethren being doubly dear to each other both in the flesh and in the Lord that he would be Moses's Spokesman unto the People he would be even he would be unto him instead of a Mouth Moses embraceth Aaron in the Arms of Love and of Protection the Rod in his hand is a Scepter of favour held out as a token of good will and kind acceptance to him This is the Rod which shall be stretched out working wonders in the defence of the Priesthood Moses embracing him in his Arms assures him from his very heart to the heart of his Brother that they Two thus clasping together coalescebant in Vnum Hominem became now but One Man this being the Promise of Moses that he would never be unmindful of the Word of the Lord as an everlasting command upon him That he should be unto Aaron instead of God Appl. Let it be known this day that there is a God in Israel that this God is to be worshipped and that in the Administration of this worship the Priesthood is to be secured from Contempt to be had in honour for the works sake about which it doth converse I dare not in the least venture to give directions here he must not presume who is the meanest and unworthiest of all the sons of Aaron who hath not been Eloquent neither heretofore nor since the Word of the Lord came unto him but humbly beg we may and heartily in all Duty and Submission invoke we must the Assistance of the Secular Arm lest both our Message and our Persons be altogether despised Did I say our Message or our Persons alas we can easily venture both these through a bad or through a good report and be unconcerned But sad it is to behold that amongst those that are baptized Christians Atheism and Profaneness should so strangely overspread it self yea and that notwithstanding so many popular Discourses every where made about the Reasonableness of Religion hence it is that the Offerings of the Lord have been abhorred amongst us whilst irreligion and a licentious Libertinisme doth exalt it self above all that is called God or Good in the midst of us what means else the bleating of the Oxen of the Beasts of Bashan in our ears the continued murmurings and gainsayings of Core strange fire every where offered up whilst the Lamp burning bright in the Sanctuary is neglected and all this mischief from some of the sons of Levi pretended ones at least fomented by the dissentions of false Brethren men that cannot be contented with their present station but they lead aside the simple and the ignorant into Houses Oh! may our new Laws for which we bless God and have more and more cause to honour and obey Authority may these be executed and may our old Ones not quite antiquated be seasonably re-inforced and shall I humbly make one
serve me and if thou refuse to let him go behold I will slay thy Son even thy first-born Moses the meekest man in all the earth does mistrust his own ability who is sufficient for these things It is indeed the good will of him who dwells in the Bush to send unto and to work a deliverance for his people But who am I that I should go in unto Pharaoh or bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt I am a man of slow speech and of a slow tongue Surely Moses does not consider the great sight before him the Bush burning and not consumed a lively representation to him in the very figure of it that the more the people were afflicted the more they did multiply and grow notwithstanding the Egyptians made their lives bitter to them with hard bondage in Mortar and in Brick all their service wherein they made them to serve was with rigour yet cap. 1.20 the people multiplied and waxed very mighty and the Egyptians were grieved because of the children of Israel And doth Moses know and see all this the green tree before him encompassed with flames and still alive the people labouring as it were in the fire in the furnace of affliction growing out of weakness and so from strength to strength under the weights of all their pressures and yet is he diffident and distrustful because of some personal infirmities as if that God could not make his strength perfect in weakness Moses had best be careful lest his humility and meekness degenerate into pusillanimity and fear and so the Lord be provoked unto anger for God will send by the hand of him whom he will send and that is by the hand of Moses yea though he be a man of a slow speech and of a stammering tongue even hence has God ordained and perfected his praise that he may still the enemy and avenger what though his lips are not touched with a coal from yet one that waits at the Altar shall be his Mouth Is not Aaron the Levite thy Brother I know that he can speak well ver 14. and cap. 7.1 I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet So long as you two keep together so I am with you Both and that to supply all manner of defects in either of you my word is a sure word of promise if so be that you two are as one ye put your selves out of my protection if in the least you sever but whilst Vnion is promoted neither of you shall fail and as a most certain indication that you are like to stand and fall tog ther so this is my everlasting ordinance betwixt you Both v. praeced Thou shalt put words into his mouth which shall no longer be his Mouth but thine who hath made it so have not I the Lord And lest his message should be despised his person hated because of the truth which he is to speak Lo thou art to defend him to be on his side to withstand Pharaoh see thou to that have not I said it nay I have set thee so Thou art unto them both instead of God Thou art as God to Aaron to protect him thou art as God to Pharaoh to execute wrath and vengeance upon him and therefore upon this double account shall Aaron be thy Spokesman to the people his office is again renewed upon and confirmed unto Him He shall be even He shall be unto Thee instead of a Mouth because that Thou on all accounts and upon every occasion shalt be to him instead of God The words as you hear having this relation to the Context are in themselves an account given us of the two standing Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry a King as Supreme and an High Priest both constituted by God himself to live to love and to rule together and this institution confirmed and settled by way of supply to something that was wanting an amends made for a personal insufficiency whilst Moses out of a principle of self-denial would not ambire Magistratum be too hasty in taking upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the burden of this honour since he was conscious to himself of his own inability ver 10. O Lord my God I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant This humility and modesty in Moses at the first was commendable but honour follows those who shun it especially where so exemplary a meekness goes before it God therefore renews his command with a promise of assistance in the work drawn from his own Omnipotence ver 11. who hath made mans Mouth have not I the Lord now therefore go and I will be with thy Mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Yet this would not do the meekness of Moses hath betrayed him to diffidence and distrust fain would he be rid of the imployment fearful he is that he shall not go through with it but sink under the weight of it ver 13. O my Lord send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send In which words whether Moses requested that his brother Aaron might be joined as a fit companion with him or whether he had an eye to the promised Messiah Him whom thou wilt send Christ in the fulness of time to be sent to work a great Redemption of which this present Deliverance was to be but a Type and therefore none like Him to accomplish Type and Anti-type at once I say whether it were one or other is not much to our purpose further then the just naming of it to inquire This we are sure of that Moses's unbeleif was reproveable his sin of distrust aggravated because he could not take heart from Gods express Promise Notwithstanding the wonderfull fight which he saw the gracious words which he heard still he was faithless and not believing hence verse 14. the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses However to make way for an all-sufficient supply both the Humility of Moses and his Diffidence was not unfitly urged his Humility which God encourageth with a gracious Promise of a ready help from himself his Diffidence which God convinceth against all Objections by promising an assistance most effectual even from his own experience of it ver 14. Is not Aaron the Levite thy Brother I know and so dost thou that he can speak well He will be glad to meet thee and thou must rejoice to go with him This is the supplement of all defects from you two one with another and here is the Completion of your Commission My assistance to you both So that the verse before the Text is a supply to both from God which denotes to us the Divine Ordinance and Institution and that First Verbal Thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his Mouth and I will be with thy Mouth and with his Mouth Secondly Real I will teach you what you shall do The Text is the mutual supply as consequential
Temporal I pass by this double honour possibly some think it too much for those that labour in the Word and Doctrine and I follow that which is the great designe of the Text the Vnion that is here fixed and everlastingly to be promoted and therefore the Word is singular Regis Sacerdotis unum est Os there is but one Mouth assigned both to King and Priest the one is to think the other to speak the same thing Moses and Aaron to go hand in hand together Hence it is observable that they were Both of the Tribe of Levi verse 14. Is not Aaron the Levite thy Brother The Levite and thy Brother and his Mouth to be thy Mouth to speak the words which thou shalt put into it Why then should there be any difference betwixt Moses and Aaron since they are Brethren They are Both of the same Tribe which the Lord had chosen out of all the Tribes of Israel to come and Minister before him the One was to deliver the Other to teach and instruct Both together to establish and confirm in a perpetual and never ceasing Oeconomy what are the judgments and the statutes of God and Man And all this not to Jacob and Israel onely but to Pharaoh and the Egyptians also 1. Aaron is the Mouth of Moses to the People that is to Israel to tell them that they are the Visited and Beloved of the Lord to proclaim to them the Royal Law of liberty out of the house of bondage from their slavery to wish them to follow the directions of their Law-giver Moses who will rule them according to the integrity of his heart and guide them with the skilfulness of his hand with the skilfulness of his hand with great and wonderfull Dexterity will he extricate them out of all their miseries remove their shoulders from the burdens and their hands from making the pots 2. And so Aaron to be the Mouth of Moses to Pharaoh and his fervants to denounce and execute as many Plagues on him and his people as are the Tribes of Israel if you reckon the plagues and signs together from first to last a Plague for each Tribe because of the hard and cruel bondage wherein he made each of them to serve neither would he permit them to depart in peace from amongst them that they might worship the Lord their God And here by the way we may take notice how necessary is this Vnion betwixt King and Priest how comfortable is their mutual assistance then especially when there is danger of a common enemy both to Church and State when there are a Generation of Men like Pharaoh who will not permit the people to be at quiet onely because Moses and Aaron would have them to serve the Lord how should Moses at such a time stand at the door of the Tabernacle with the Rod of God in his hand for the defence of Aaron and how should Aaron lift up his voice in the behalf of Moses hold up his hands lest that Amalech prevail In a word The Commandment is to go forth from Both to restore and to build the Temple the One must stand like stout Nehemiah with his Sword in his hand that so the work be not hindred the Other not unlike holy Ezra a Prophet of the Lord with the Sword or the Keys of the Kingdome in his Mouth that so it may be perfected in righteousness great is the care which Both together must take for many are the kindnesses which Both together must do unto the House of God and the Offices thereof O then may Aarons Bells never ring backward if ever let it be to call the people as One man to the quenching of a common flame let it be to stand between the living and the dead when a Plague is begun that it may be staid pro Te loquetur He shall speak for Thee to the people surely then he is not so to speak as to inveigh against him to aggravate his failings to exasperate and calumniate his Person before the people he may lift up his Voice like a Trumpet but it must not be the Trumpet of sedition the Alarm of War sounding to battel from the Pulpit let him cry aloud yea and he may not spare to tell Judah and Israel of their sins but it is not fitting to say to a Prince that he is wicked Such language as this does least of all become the Mouth of Aaron Much more unseemly is it for him to say before the People be they Israel it will increase their murmurings be they Egyptians it will add to their hard-heartedness that Moses is ungodly God doth hear the blasphemy of those who do in the least though it be but in a thought slander the footsteps of his Anointed Aaron himself was too sad an instance of this when he murmured against Moses saying Numb 12.2 Hath the Lord indeed spoken onely by Moses hath he not also spoken by us Yes he hath spoken by you Both and yet the Leprosie upon Miriam's forehead may be an intimation unto Aaron that he do cover his Mouth and shut his lips such language as this hath defiled them Vnclean unclean But the meekness of Moses was soon intreated and the God of mercy did accept of his intercession so that immediately there was a healing of this breath and Aaron is still continued to be the Mouth of Moses to the People To the People if to Moses surely much more to them and the People are to attend to him with reverence upon this treble account because that he is the Mouth of God of the King and also of the People Heb. 5.1 Every High Priest is ordained for men that is is set over men in things pertaining to God the manner of expression in the Original is the same with the Septuagint in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every High Priest is set over men as concerning those things which are to God-ward that is the interpretation may fairly be admitted without any great stress upon the words set over the ordinary sort of men to tell them with Authority and with power what is their duty either to God or his Vicegerent to the Lord of Lords or to those who are instead of God and they who do resist or despise either One or the Other do not despise or resist the Man in either of them but the God that is in them Both. And this brings me to the Second thing I observed from the Text which is the due Execution firm Establishment and sure Administration of both these Authorities together and that no otherwise then by a Divine Dispensation Whilst the Prince doth defend the Priests of the most High God he doth so stand by himself the Throne is thus established to him in Righteousness the Kingdome confirmed in the hands of Moses whilst he is unto Aaron and to his sons instead of God Instead of God in his quae ad Deum that is in the Letter of the Text
Vulg. in those things which pertain to God Tu eris illi in Principem quaerentem Doctrinam à facie Domini Targ. Jonath Thou shalt be a Prince to him a Prophet as well as he yea and somthing more then a Prophet he shall seek the word which he is to speak from thee and that as it were from the face of God Numb 12.6 9. If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known to him in a Vision or I will speak to him in a dream but my servant Moses is not so this is the difference betwixt him and Aaron with him will I speak Mouth to Mouth even apparently not in dark speeches and the Similitude of the Lord that is of God man to come in the flesh this Similitude of the Lord as praelusory to the reality of his Incarnation shall he behold So that what was Jethro's counsel betwixt Moses and the People seems here to be Gods institution betwixt him and Aaron cap. 18.19 Moses was to be to Aaron to God ward to bring the causes unto and to receive the Law from God and Aaron being to be his Oratour or his Herald was to make Proclamation of the Divine Law unto the People and upon all occasions to consult the Face of Moses the Face which did shine because of the Divine Glory on it and was therefore to be consulted as an Oracle This Paraphrase though it may be true in the Letter of the Text yet to take in the scope of the whole Paragraph which is a Vnion fixed by God himself betwixt these two we must as to this expression further improve our search Instead of God that is to defend him that so he may speak boldly for thee as he ought to speak that his Mouth which is no longer his but Thine may be opened for Thee in confidence We find in this book of Exodus that Princes and the chief Ministers of Justice amongst men are first called Gods cap. 21.6 the servant that had a mind to continue with his Master for ever was to come unto the Judges that is unto the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original and before them was the perpetual service to be ratified and again cap. 22.8 The thief was to be brought to the Judges that is to the Gods the same word in the Original to see whether he had put his hands to his neighbour's goods and vers 28. such Magistrates are secured from all manner of slander that may be cast upon them by malice of evil speaking Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor speak evil of the Ruler of thy people They are called Gods upon several accounts I briefly instance but in two the Vbiquity of their Presence the Omniscience of their Knowledge 1. The Vbiquity of their Presence they are every where their influence is unlimited the fancy is not new antienter then a modern Poet and I hope may now be better applied that Kings and Princes do in this resemble the Deity being like a Circle whose center is every where and whose circumference is no where God and the King can do no harm says our Law the reason is that Diffusive influence that is from Both directing manageing swaying and conveying all the good and all the happiness that is felt or enjoyed by the lower world or the inferiour sort of mankind all which is purely the product of Providence from the One and Government from the Other and if the Sun shining upon a Dunghill doth exhale vapours that are offensive it is not because there are spots in the Sun in Heaven but there is corruption in the Dunghill upon earth 2. The Omniscience of their knowledge they do as it were know every thing Prov. 16 10. A Divine sentence is in the lips of the King His Mouth erreth not in judgment Who could have thought that the way to find out the bowells of a Mother was to make the Child a sacrifice till King Solomon as the first effort of his Princely Spirit tried the experiment but says the Text 1 King 3 28. The wisdome of God was in the King to do judgment And this kind of Omniscience is a gift bestowed upon Judges and other Ministers of Justice when they execute the Laws of God and the King upon Capital offenders the indictment against whom is that they have not the fear of God before their eyes our Law taking special notice of the malice of the heart and proving that by some Overt-act whilst many times the Judge upon the Bench to the admiration of the standers by through a little very little glimpse of a most improbable circumstance doth unravel a whole mystery of iniquity so that on a sudden the Prisoner stands self-condemned at the Bar he might spare both Judge and Jury the trouble of bringing in and pronouncing their Verdict since the sentence of Death is to be read in his countenance and his face gathers blackness what can all this be but an immediate assistance a special illumination from God himself in the moment of judgments Psal 82. God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty he judgeth among the Gods ver 6. I have said ye are Gods Grotius upon these and the like expressions in Scripture tells us that wherever the name of God is given unto men significat judiciariam potestatem jus vitae necis it implies a judiciary power and that no less than of life and death Our blessed Saviours Comment upon the compellation which certainly is the best runs thus Saint John 10.35 he called them Gods D. Ham. unto whom the Word of God came It is observed by a learned Paraphrast of our own that the coming of the Word of the Lord signifies Gods appointing a Man to some particular Office and giving him power and ability for the performance of that Office to which he is appointed and so it is constantly used in the writings of the Prophets who do most of them begin their Prophecies with this solemn form of Words The Word of the Lord came unto me saying which is no more then as it were the Opening of their Commission the Reading of their Patent the first shewing and vouching of that Authority by which they act all which is an intimation unto us that the Supreme Magistrate and other subordinate Rulers and Governours sent by Him for the punishment of wickedness and vice and the praise of those that do well have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something of Divinity stampt both on their Persons and their Office and consequently that Both are Sacred This account you have of the Compellation as it may be applicable either to King Priest or any Ministerial Dispensour of Publick Justice whence by the way it is again observable That the Priest had all along from the beginning his share in Civil Government if the Word of God came to Moses in that he was instead of God yet it was to be spoken or published from the Mouth of Aaron
their shame upon this Msoes was not so well advised when he brake the two Tables of both which he should have been the Keeper and it was some aggravation of his Passion in that he brake them at no other place but the Mount of God notwithstanding this sore Provocation he must be ready to defend Aaron against the Sedition of Corah and the Rebellion of the Congregation of Abiram We do not read that Moses did ever personally offend Aaron we have heard sufficiently both of his meekness and faithfulness but alas Aaron once and again unhappily miscarried both in the business of the Golden Calf and in the matter of Miriam and notwithstanding both these the sin being justly reproved and in some sort punished the Vnion in my Text was preserved Aaron though the Saint of God did not in one or two instances as he should Oh that he had been careful rule his tongue yet Moses must be cautious that he do not shut his Mouth he is still the Ordinance of God and therefore not to be infringed the Order is to be secured setting aside all personal offences the errour was no sooner acknowledged then forgiven and passed by and all that God's Institution between Both might be observed inviolable Aaron is still to Moses instead of a Mouth before the People and Moses in this like unto God that had appointed him Merciful and Gracious nor easily provoked nor long angry he is yet to Aaron instead of God Si non errassent fecissent minus upon a miscarriage humbly acknowledged and the penalty obediently submitted to on the one hand and the same as frankly pardoned as generously remitted on the other the Obligation is hence the stronger between Both even thus much good out of what might have been so great an evil a firmer reconciliation a surer establishment from a little shaking whilst all animosities being laid aside the Vnum necessarium that One thing necessary Vnion is preserved because in that Vnion is involved and wrapped up the security and safety of Both. And so I pass to the Third and last observable in the Text the utmost bounds of your Patience which is A Promise of Success and Prosperity unto Both an assurance that God will not be wanting where this Vnion is continued and that taken from the manner of expressing the Phrase in the Text as it relates to the last words of the foregoing verse the words are spoken by God himself as a Precept and a Promise the Precept He shall be and Thou shalt be the Promise I will be with thy Mouth and with his Mouth and will teach you Both what you shall do Blessed of the Lord is that People yea Happy is the Nation which is in such a Case where Aaron is Spokesman for Moses no other then his Mouth and Moses is to Aaron instead of God Aaron's Mouth that implies all manner of gifts and graces by which he is of God duly furnished and rightly qualified for his Office Moses being as God that denotes the Highness of his Calling the excellency of his Majesty and the Certainty of his Defence he being thus the Signet upon the Arm set there to be a Protection to the Stars that are in the right hand of God and through the tender mercy of the Most Highest they shall none of them be removed cap. 7.1 to which I cannot too often recurr it being the Parrallel to my Text the Promise which is here made is there endowed the Office which is here designed is there conferred The Lord said unto Moses See I have made thee to be as God and Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet Nothing is in the Text promised or there performed or if it be more agreeable to the scope in both places nothing is commanded or required either in one or in the other but reciprocally and with a mutual respect that so the supplement of all defects in either Government might be one of another in love and good will the complement of all from God himself the merciful Maker and Appointer of them Both might be a Blessing of Peace Plenty and Prosperity I will teach you and so be with you in whatsoever ye shall do The word in the Septuagint v. 12.15 is very Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will go along with you in every thing that you shall speak I will tread an even pace with you in every thing you shall do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symach I will be a Light and so a sure Direction to you that you do not in the least miscarry This is the sum of the whole That the Priest's mouth shall be opened in Righteousness because his words are given forth from the King The Mouth is but One and the same unto Both because so is the Ordinance of God thereupon this is the Blessing of Heaven for Both that the Word shall not return in vain untill it accomplish the Work for which it was sent God will prosper the words of his Mouth to the One the Work of his Hands to the Other he will establish the Work and the Word to them Both in Righteousness The Mouth that may imply Eloquence as we may gather from the want of it verse 10. Lord I am not Eloquent Being as God that signifies Power and Dominion Te illi Praeficiam ut sis Princeps Judex Fagius Magistratus ejus I have set thee above him as his Prince whom he must honour before all the people as his Judge and an upright Magistrate for whom thou must do Justice be sure to do him right in the sight of that People whose honour he is to bespeak for Thee Now what is Eloquence without Authority to back it it is not a Word with Power What is all Power and Dominion without a Voice to proclaim the Majesty as most excellent it is at the best but a Dumb-shew Both these being upheld together as the Ordinance of God no question that God will secure a Blessing unto that which is his own appointment He will be with the Priest because his Mouth is no other than the Mouth of God He will be with the Prince because he hath made him to be as himself instead of God but still his Presence with Both is the result of Vnion because the God of Israel which as a Common-Wealth is to be in subjection unto Both hath declared himself that he is but One God How can Moses be the Fear and the Dread of Pharaoh unless he be the Love the Choice and the Desire of Aaron How can Aaron be as he proved afterwards cap. 10.7 a Snare unto Pharaoh and his servants at the opening of whose Mouth Egypt was to be destroyed unless he hang upon the lips the words which he speaks be a faithful and distinct Eccho to the Voice of Moses without Aaron's Mouth the meekness of Moses will be soon despised and without the Arm of Moses stretched out in defence the Voice of Aaron will be
heaven the Blessed of the Lord even amongst Indians and Armenians those that sate in darkness and the shadow of death unto them by this Apostle was preached the word of life and that life was the Light of God and last of all how he seal'd the Doctrine which he deliver'd with his Blood his skin flay'd off and so he was exposed like his Master a man of sorrows neither was he in his death unlike unto him being nailed to a cross he committed himself and his cause to God that judgeth righteously All this it may be piously received and entertained from a literal and oral Tradition but ignorantly enough God knows how true fides penes sit Authores let those who have a more easy faith believe whose main business it is to gain credit to such things of which they are not themselves overmuch perswaded Our Church therefore having little or no regard to all these has rather chose to celebrate this Apostle as one of the Twelve without any particular specifications concerning him save only that he was Brother and Companion with the rest in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of our Lord Jesus Christ Accordingly the Gospel for the Day St. Luk. 22.24 is our Saviours Determination of that perplexing Question which so much troubled the Disciples at first among themselves and has since been no small cause of Division in the Christian Church Which of them should be the Greatest not St. Bartholomew himself should we grant him right Noble by his Birth yet he must not pretend here to a Priority therefore in the Gospel the words run thus The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship and they that exercise authority are called Patrons and Benefactors But ye shall not be so not so untill that Kings be your Nursing fathers and Queens your Nursing Mothers in the mean while let no one vindicate to himself Power and Prerogative amongst you over the rest of his brethren But he that is greatest among you let him be as the Younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve And the Epistle for this Day part of which is the Text was the happy effect and result upon this Determination The Apostles agreeing together amongst themselves the Gospel of Jesus did run and was glorified their Unity was causal of respect from those who were without whilst they kept together with one accord even the place where they met was an an indication both of their piety and their prudence in or about the Temple in Solomons Porch and as an ancient Gloss upon the Text fuerunt simul sapientes in domo sapientis The wisdom of God was here justified by the children of Wisdom and that in no other place then in an House of Wisdom whilst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the rest whither they were Friends or enemies seeing and observing their Unity ecce ut seinvicem deligant they could not but keep their distance no man durst to joyn himself to them and yet notwithstanding this awe upon their spirits the Apostles wanted neither Praise nor Admiration But the People magnified them and upon the whole the word of God grew and was multiplied Believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes both of men and women Well therefore has our Church in her Divine Service furnished us at this time with a Prayer for the continuance of that Vnity and Vniformity which beares its later date from this Festival to wit that it would please Almighty God to grant unto his Church to love that Word which this Apostle in the Communion of the rest believed that both those who Minister may preach and the people may receive the same in the fear of God in the love of those truths and of one another through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen The words of the Text having thus given you an account of our Churches choice in the selection of them for the Epistle at this time which I could not well omit partly out of a respect to the Festival and chiefly out of a design to speak a word in season too much and sadly in season even all the year long because of these days of error schism and sedition in which we live are in themselves a Parenthesis and so an Historicall observation made in the midst of a continued Narration A Descant made of what effect the judgment of God had upon the sin of sacriledge in the verses before to wit what influence the punishment of this sin in the sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira had upon the Church as also what was the effect of Gods Providence in the verses following how that God was with his Apostles to deliver them from the expectation of those who sought their lives he sent his Angel to open the prison door and out of prison they were sent to reign in the hearts of all that heard them and at length by the counsel of their enemies they were acquitted God over-ruling in those Determinations also so that this seems to be the Historical though Parenthetical observation of St. Luke writing the whole story That the Apostles and new convert Disciples being altogether with one accord in Solomons Porch of the rest durst no man joyn himself to them but the People magnified them and Believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes of men and women Observe with me in the whole Parenthesis as the limits to what may be Discoused from it these four things 1. A Holy Convention They were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch 2. A Due Distance observed in that Convention Of the rest durst no man joyn himself to them 3. An awefull Reverence exhibited upon that Distance But the People magnified them 4. A Great Benefit redounding to the whole Community upon that Reverence or rather upon the whole present Dispensation Believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes of men and women Of these in their order 1 A Holy Convention They were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch in which words we may observe 1. The Persons convening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all of them 2. The Place of their meeting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Solomon's Porch 3. Their Behaviour at their meeting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together with one accord These Three the Subject of the first Discourse 1. The Persons convening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all of them Whether with the Apostles the new Convert Disciples or the multitudes called together at the noise of the wonders that were wrought or it may be amongst so many some out of curiosity to pry and observe and others out of evil will to seek and occasion against them that so they might deliver up these Apostles to the Rulers Thus might these multitudes at this time have been divided The Apostles were there labouring in the Word and Doctrine the new Converts were there receiving as new born babes the sincere milk of the word that they might grow thereby those who were curious and inquisitive came
thither having heard of the signes and wonders only by the hearing of the ear they came and when they saw they both magnified and believed even the Adversary himself though he had malice enough yet he wanted power such durst not make too near approaches to them I cannot but here take notice of the Courage of these Apostles that in no wise they were dismayed or terrified even amidst the concourse of the people they were not affrighted their business was to save not to fear multitudes to convince mightily and with power not to dread the powers of the most or the mightiest of men men whose power consisted onely in their numbers 29. We ought to obey God rather than men The judgment of God upon Ananias and Sapphira might have been imputed as murder to these Apostles might not the people of the Jews here have cryed out as they did formerly against Moses upon the destruction of Corah and his Accomplices for a sin of much the like nature with this neither was the punishment unlike unto it they died not the common death of all men neither were they visited after the visitation of all men Numb 16.41 and all the Congregation murmured saying Ye have killed the People of the Lord Why might it not have been so with this mixt Assembly However the Apostles could expect no other then what did afterward really happen 17. That the High Priest and those that were with him should he filled with indignation Why should they therefore thus expose themselves to danger amidst the multitudes The answer to all is That they knew Jesus on whom they believed and whom they preached and it was with their joy 41. in that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of the Lord Jesus Courage and Resolution are vertues truly Apostolical it is beneath the dignity of a Priest to fear the People some come in humility to receive the Ingrafted word with a spirit of meekness and these are a joy to those that are set over them Some expect Signs and Wonders every day some new thing they are for the inticing words of mans Wisdom and he must work a miracle upon them that would perswade them though they are themselves the greatest Prodigy in that since the word of Salvation is come amongst them in the plainess of its Demonstration they will by no means submit the obedience of their faith to those Truths which in a Visible outward Oeconomy they cannot but profess neither dare take so much confidence to themselves as to deny them and after all these there are another sort who lie at the catch like the Pharisees and the Herodians St. Luke 11.54 Seeking something out of our Saviours Mouth to accuse or mis report him such whose business it is to carp at what they will not understand such who that they may bring an evil report upon the way of Godliness take every little or no occasion to traduce the Dispencers of it But whether they will hear or whether they will forbear the Prophets of the Lord are to come amongst them through good report and through bad report by honour and dishonour are we to approve our selves the Ministers of Christ and of his Gospel in much patience yea with the Apostles here in tumults and in labors as deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet well known and that they might be the better known frequenting those places where the greatest gathering of the people is like to be that so the word preached may have the more universal influence the very Place of their meeting was a Place of general and known concourse and so much the better because it was a part of the Temple see where they are assembled an intimation both of their Fortitude and Devotion even there where the thickest of the thronged multitudes were wont to gather with these we find the Apostles and the Convert Disciples at this Holy Convention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Solomon's Porch which is the Second thing I observed to you The place of their meeting in a place consecrated and separated for the Service of God in Solomons Porch Solomon's Porch The History of which place I shall not here spend to give you those that have opportunity and ability may consult Jos Antiqu. lib. 7. cap. 2. lib. 8. cap. 11. lib. 20. cap. 8. Where we have the description of it at large in all its Dimensions from which we conclude it capacious enough to receive so great an Assembly as we suppose at this time to have been there that it was part of the Temple is evident enough to us all from our Saviours presence in it St. John 10.23 Whilst he was celebrating the Feast of Dedication which by the way was an Apocryphal Feast instituted 1 Mac. 4.59 and our Saviour honoured such a Solemnity with his company Jesus walked in the Temple in Solomons Porch which was also a place of publique worship 2 Cron. 8.12 Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord on the Altar of the Lord which he had built before the Porch from all which and from the Text I gather as a word in season That our Lord and Blessed Saviour and from his example and precept the Apostles with the Primitive Christians did not usually assemble for the Worship and Service of God in private Houses or in solitary places if so be that any the outmost part of the Temple was allowed them to meet in First Our Saviour's Practice was most exemplary in this Whilst a Child he was the Holy Child Jesus early after his Birth so soon as the days of Purification according to Law were accomplished presented in and by the yearly Devotion of his Mother brought up unto the Temple where he soon exercised and delighted himself in the beauties of holiness The Days for Publick Worship were too soon accomplished for him St. Luc. 2.43 He must stay behind the rest of the Company some time longer and after three days sorrowful search where could they expect to find him though a Child of twelve years age but in the House of God and there about his Fathers business even in the midst of the Doctors hearing them and asking them questions in the midst of the Doctors and hearing them as if the Blessed Child would have been catechised by them and taught the way of God more perfectly this was his humility and yet asking them questions and so putting them to silence this was his authority whilst all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and his answers This was the first onset of our Saviour in his Prophetick office and that in no other place then in the Temple True indeed afterward in the Course of his life he consecrated every place by his presence and therefore wherever he found the Multitudes still he taught them and yet we meet but with two notable instances of such an administration once by the Lake of Gennesareth when he taught the people out of the Ship and the other
Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the rest Such as might have evil will against and an evill eye upon such Dispensations in Solomons Porch No man durst to joyn himself to them That which wrought thus upon the Adversary that he durst not stretch out his hand to smite was either the Judgment of God upon Ananias and Sapphira or else the Wonders that were wrought amongst the people 1 As for the judgment upon Ananias and Sapphira for their Sacrilegious with-holding part of the price of their Land Paena istius modi non parum valabat terrendis impiis ne temere prorumperent in eorum coelum ubi Deus tam severum vindicam se ostenderet Calv. in loc This sort of sudden and unexpected punishment was caution enough to those who were froward and disobedient that they should not venture to disturb those Solemnities in which God had manifested himself so severe in taking vengeance If for such a small thing might they think as Sacriledge onely for purloyning a little money God would evert so great a Displeasure of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy who commit a Sacriledge upon in offering to do violence unto the Persons of such who are exercised in the Solemn Administration of a strict and a most holy Religion 2 The Wonders and Signes which were wrought among the people these did work upon and steal away the hearts of all that saw them So that v. 26. the enemy durst not be too boistrous against them lest the People as one Man should rise up against them and stone them and at length from their own consultations they were forced to dismiss them in peace they begin to doubt amongst themselves whitherto this would grow They suspect their own jurisdiction lest it should be exercised without fear or wit and in the end ver 38. that they be found to be fighters against God v. 35 39. Ye men of Israel take heed to your selves it is you that are in the greatest danger what you intend to do as touching these men Refrain from them and let them alone for if this Work or this Counsell be of Men it will come to nought but if it be of God you cannot overthrough it and this Work and Counsel was not of men but of God and therefore the Enemy could by no means hinder it I might here observe to you the constant the special care and providence which God has for his Church how that the fury of man doth often turn to his Praise in the deliverance of his People he restraineth the remainders of wrath also he bringeth to naught the designes of the Heathen and maketh the devices of the Aliens to be of no Effect should they rage yea and that furiously yet they would imagine but a vain thing let them take counsel together with one accord yet he that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision Psal 2.6 I Know that Second Psalm is litterally spoken of our Saviours Person and yet it is also applyed by the Apostles to the propagation of his Gospel in the Chapter before the Text ver 27. This was at that time the Churches Prayer when they prayed with one heart and with one voice Of a Truth Lord against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and People of Israel were gathered together And now Lord behold their threatnings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy Word Surely the Sons of Thunder were amongst them whilst the Word of God went forth from them like Lightning the place was shaken where they were Assembled ver 35. With great power gave they witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the result of all was the wonderful effect in the Text that of those that were adversaries durst no one joyn himself unto them May I not apply the same Providence of Almighty God comfortably to our selves to this once afflicted and despised Church of ours if she be not yet despised and afflicted made a by-word and a reproach to her own Children no wounds like those which are given in the house of Friends However for our comfort Hell and Death have not yet prevailed Not Rome whose mouth was wide as Hell nor the more secret contrivances of Schisme which like the Grave never hath enough our God has been a God both of the Hills and of the Valleys and through the power of his Might over both we have been more than Conquerours Rome upon its seven Hills animated from an aspering conclave could not over-see us and the Consistory in a seeming self-denyal making it self low as the Valleys could not over-reach or Vnder-mine us neither the Infallible Chair nor the Stool of wickedness could awe us or controul us Nay though for a while we might seem to be forsaken yet God gave us beauty for our ashes he restored our Captivity and put upon us the Garment of joy instead of a Spirit of heaviness So that to the one Adversary which in our heaviness asked us Where is now your Church sing us one of the Songs of your Sion We can now return this answer That the Tears which we shed at the Rivers of Babylon have caused Jordan it self to over-flow its banks Persecuted we were but not utterly cast off our God has provided us still a Name in the earth and when the Succession of an Apostolical Ministry was almost cut off quite in the midst of us our extremity was Gods opportunity for mercy See we yet once more the fire of the Sanctuary hid in its own embers and almost extinct during the Captivity again brought forth restored to its wonted lustre the flame yet again bright upon the Altar so that our Miraculous Restauration is to them an abundant Demonstration that we were and still are continued a Church according to ancient and Primitive Constitutions truly Apostolical But as for that other Adversary the Viper in our own bosom who both contributed unto and then upbraided us with our afflictions who because of the troubles which they brought upon us thence made an argument to reproach our Holy Constitutions as if they were in themselves unlawful because of Gods Displeasure against those who did not live up closely and severely to them thus whilst they have been the Rod of Vengeance in the hand of God they have talked to the grief of such whom God has wounded And why will not these persons now be as exact interpreters of Gods Providence against themselves is not the Scene again shifted and are we not I am sure if we understood either Gods glory or our own happiness we should be where we were before and have we not this to say for our Church even according to their way of argumentation that God who restored it was not against it We are not at this day without a Priest or without an Ephod And yet still with
our Apostles we are sent unto our Prayers Behold O Lord the threatnings of the Sons of Belial who are still against thee all the reflections they make upon these latter Providences is they repent that they have done no more mischief and all the sin they acknowledge in their blasphemous allusions is that they were false to their Covenant in that the Amalakites were not utterly destroyed let us betake our selves to better Devotions than these that God would abate their pride asswage their malice and confonnd their Devices but then as for their Persons He brings into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived Put them in fear O Lord that they may seek thy name Forgive our enemies persecutors and slanderers and turn their hearts Forgive them for they know not what they do Oh! That even this might not be laid to their charge how that they still have recourse to their old designes of Mischief though hitherto in the course of the Divine Providence they have proved so ineffectual May the God of Heaven yet laugh them to scorn and he confirm his King upon the hill of Sion Deliverance shall arise one way or other the God who is worshiped in will take care of the service of the Sanctuary he who hath and who doth we trust that he will still deliver us they that hate us shall see it and be ashamed because the Lord hath holpen us and comforted us But as for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are of the rest they have estranged themselves and gone out from us because they were not of us neither shall they dare God will restrain their fury they shall not presume to approach and hurt us which is the Second thing observed in this second part of the Text to wit what was the present frame and temper of their minds by whom this due distance was kept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No one durst That is there was an unaccountable surprise and dread upon their Spirits which as to the persons affected might be divers and various they did not dare some kind of awe there was which was a curb and a restraint upon them 1. In the Disciples it might be modesty and humility 2. In those from amidst the multitude a timorous misgiving 3. In the Adversary Terrour Amazement and Astonishment Thus one way or other the Gospel of Jesus was glorified it had diversly but surely its desired effect upon all this is that word which cannot return in vain but will accomplish the thing for which it is sent First In the Disciples who took heed how where and what they did here who frequented Solomons Porch that they might observe the out-goings of the Lord in his Sanctuary in them their Modesty was exercised and their Humility was increased with meekness they received the ingrafted word and yet jealous enough of themselves that they did not grow as they should thereby to them the immortal seed was sown in an honest and in a good heart and yet the Fruit which they did bear was with patience their heart was raised at the contemplation of God and of his holiness but at the same time broken in a sorrowful reflection upon themselves and their own unworthiness though they did believe yet almost with tears in their eyes this was the Prayer of their Faith Lord we believe help our unbeliefe in them an humble and a lowly expectancy as well as a fiducial recumbency had its perfect work they are ready to give up themselves and their substance to the service of God and of his Sanctuary and yet considering that God expects both heart and hand together piously they examine their own integrity throughout all they know that their good things do not extend to God therefore their delight is with such as are excellent in the Earth and when they have done all that they can they are far from vaunting a State of Perfection they acknowledge themselves to be unprofitable Servants and Miserable Sinners they make this their humble and hearty recognition saying We have done or rather Would we had done what was our duty to do Secondly In those from amidst the multitude it was a Timorous Misgiving their hearts failed them for fear of what might become of them in another world and yet they were loth to let go their interest in this upon what they heard and saw they made some heavy steps toward happiness but alass they looked back and they gave back the one returns to his honours and the other to his great Possessions Oh the deceitfulness of riches and of power how hard is it for those who trust in either to enter into the Kingdom of God with the Disciples upon the like occasion we may cry out Lord increase our Faith yes in the Text here is an argument to settle us in our Faith in that the wisdom of God was here justified in the hearts of the children of this World in the midst of all their wealth and their greatness the convictions that are within them are a damp upon their Spirits Thus St. Paul cannot reason of righteousness of temperance and of judgment to come but Felix must needs tremble and does Agrippa know the Scriptures does he believe the Prophets and will he not resign the obedience of his Faith to what he does know and cannot but believe however as stout and resolved a sinner as he is against God and his own Soul laught heartily and entirely to embrace this way least he lose something of his outward Pomp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest the retinue that is about him should withdraw and refuse any longer to be of his train yet to hear St. Paul Preach will he will he he cannot but confess to him and all the World however his misgiving thoughts perplex him and he will not be perswaded yet he is almost perswaded to be a Christian Virtutem videant how strangely is the self-condemning Worldling or Voluptuary infatuated only that he may perish the more dreadfuly under the clear apprehensions of his approaching and yet wilfully neglected happiness Alas poor silly wretch who against himself and his own resentments prefers this World to a better in a moment he and his thoughts perish and in the end he proves a fool 3. In the Adversary it was terrour amazement and Astonishment to observe the courage and boldness of these Apostles though they were ignorant and unlearned men the wonders which they wrought and the judgments which were inflicted they could not but be surprised and fall backwards like the Officers which came to apprehend our Saviour so is it here with the Disciples as it was formerly with their Master Never men surely spake or did like these men what do we do the finger of God is here in vain do we strive we shall not prevail like the Egyptian chariots in the Red Sea all our designs go on against them but heavily in vain do we strive against them and at the same
fear came on them all and the Name of the Lord Jesus was Magnified many of them that believed came and confessed and shewed their deeds they were not ashamed to declare their sin by an open acknowledgment in Confession in order to a Ministerial and so more than a Declarative Absolution they would no longer have to do either with the work or with the wages of iniquity those that used curious Arts brought their Books and burnt them whereof the price valued came to Fifty thousand pieces of Silver may all this wealth perish so they may but save themselves and then ver 20. as the consequence upon so remarkable a judgment The Word of God grew mightily and prevailed One instance more The eyes of Sergius Paulus were not opened until that upon St. Paul's invocation Elymas the Sorcerer was struck with blindness for that he sought to turn away the Deputy from the Faith the hand of the Lord was upon him that he should not see the Sun for a season in that he so wickedly stood both in his own and in others light not ceasing to pervert the right wayes of the Lord Act. 13.12 Then the Deputy when he saw what was done Believed lying as it were in a Trance his eyes were open being astonished at the Doctrine of the Lord. The Doctrine of the Lord accompanied with Astonishment Wrath being executed in its just vindication doth thereby ingage to it self Proselyts of all sorts first soberly to admire and then most heartily to embrace it but on the contrary when judgment against the evil works or the evil speeches of wicked men is not executed speedily then a general remissness invades the most it is set in the hearts of the Sons of men to do mischief however God is not slack in the Defence of his Church as some may count it slackness but is long-suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come unto repentance especially such who are within the compass of an Evangelical Dispensation who have given up their names to Christ in a solemn profession It might be requisite amongst Heathens and Infidels at the first to be swift in avenging all manner of despites or affronts done to the way of Godliness but since that Christianity is our badge and livery and the Cross is the banner we do fight under its universal Administration should render it Sacred and Venerable to all its Professors that they do not despise Gods Service amongst them which has so long been to say no more the Religion of their Countrey and if no other this reason may prevail a little that they do not abhor that Worship which is the Worship of the God of their Fathers however these Mockers and Scoffers may please to behave themselves whether they will hear or whether they will forbear they must be told that because God is silent he is not therefore consenting to their impieties Epistle of St. Jude ver 14.15 The Lord cometh with Ten thousand of his Saints the affronts done to those holy ones he reckons as done to himself he cometh to execute judgment upon all to convince all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches those words of bitterness and hatred which ungodly sinners have spoken against him in the mean time Gods judgments are round about them and they do not regard they die daily in their sins and those that survive do not lay it to heart nay their Posterity a wicked off-spring praise their sayings should one arise to them from the dead they will not believe yet they have Moses and the Prophets those that sit in the Chair of Moses those who declare unto them how and in whom the Prophecies are fulfilled let them hear these Oh! that they would at length see and be ashamed considering the Solemnities of holiness in spite of men and Devils still appearing glorious whilst the Dispensation of life is in any measure Beautiful even this has its due influence on the lives of men be they many and numerous in order to a great Salvation especially when the word of Life thus delivered is confirmed by Miracles be they of what sort soever and that is the Second thing occasional of this great benefit here bestowed upon the Church because of the Signes and Wonders wrought which were terrible Therefore Believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes of men and women Though Faith be the evidence of things not seen as it is an inhaerent Theological grace yet in the first reception of the Gospel God was pleased so to order it that seeing should be the occasion of Believing had not Christ and his Apostles wrought those Works never such before and never to be the like again the question might have been peremptorily answered in the negative When the Son of man cometh shall he find Faith in the earth So true it is that the report of God himself is not readily believed unless the Arm of the Lord be also revealed in works of Wonder And still unto this day the first reason which we do properly give of our Christian Faith and of the hope that is in us is the firm belief that the Gospel at the first was delivered by Miracles and Signes following it and those Miracles all and each of them Demonstrative of a Deity God thus Redeeming the World with a stretched out Arm and with great and mighty judgments judgments which if we consider with all their circumstances attending them we needs must confess to have been remote from all manner of Imposture not in the least to be compared or mentioned with Legendary Fictions they do not at all conclude absurdly but evidence an Omnipotent Power and so are not unfit arguments for Faith Thus as it was with Israel of old in that Deliverance of which this great Redemption was the Antitype they could not perswade themselves that God would visit them without a Miracle Exod. 4.8 9. It shall come to pass if they will not hearken to the voice of the first Sign that they will beeieve the voice of the latter Sign and if they will not believe those two Signes yet a third shall convince them and the third Sign was typical of a more desirable happiness it was Water turned into Blood an intimation that Blood it self in order to Redemption should have a cleansing vertue So that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses the Word of Salvation whether in the Type or in Antitype was established God Almighty all along providing for the satisfaction of common sence that men might receive the Truths published upon the credit of their eyes and of their eares as well as they do of other things which are conveyed to them by the help of their outward senses and hence a thorow Conviction is wrought upon the very Conscience which works of Wonder though done so long since may still have an influence upon us in that
gladness Act. 2.41 The same day the General reception of the word was already past and in the same day the Seal of the Covenant was conferred in that there were added to them as they were an Apostolick Church about three thousand souls and to warrant me this remark upon the Addition here in the Text and those other places we have it expressly Chap. 2.47 The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved from all which this inference is obvious That out of the Church we are not to presume for Salvation or to give it you in as modest terms as may be and those naturally deduced from the Text They that shall be saved with the Lord are first of all supposed to be added by the Lord to the Church Faith though it be the gift of God in the Heart unto Salvation yet he giveth unto every man a certain measure no otherwise than by an Ecclesiastical Dispensation For to make a summary rehersal of that Creed into which we are Baptized this is the compendium of the whole The Creed which with good reason we call the Apostles Creed or at least Apostolical is in our Church-Catechisme distinguished and divided into the Belief of the Father our Creator of the Son our Redemer and of the Holy Ghost the Comforter ruling in all our hearts in order to a thorow Sanctification now in the assurance of this Holy Ghost as he is a Spirit of Prophesie we do believe a Catholick and Apostolick Church in that Church as it is Apostolick and Catholick we must acknowledge a Communion of Saints the result of which Communion in this Church from the Holy Ghost is the forgiveness of our Sins whatsoever is loosed on Earth is loosed also in Heaven whence we do further believe and hope for the Resurrection of our flesh and the Life in the World to come And therefore to the Doctrine of the Trinity the Father Creating the Son Redeeming and the Holy Ghost Purifying as also to those Articles of the Church Administring in a visible holy Communion the Remission of Sins unto all such as look for the Resurrection to eternal Life we in the assurance of our Faith are to say Amen I would at length fain put it to the question what people generally have in their thoughts when they stand up at their Creed and say that they Believe a holy Catholick and Apostolick Church in effect it should be thus much that they do confess there is a Congregation and Corporation of Christian people though dispersed throughout the whole world that this society is united in a holy Communion under Christ the supreme and onely Head that it is assisted moved and directed by the Holy Ghost that it is Matriculated as it were into one holy Congregation and fraternity by Baptisme sustained by the word of Catechising which is milk for babes nourished by the Lords Supper which is meat for stronger men that it is continued by an holy Apostolical Succession by which the Keyes of the Kingdom are faithfully administred whatsoever is bound on earth is ratified in heaven and after all this does the promise of Christ signifie nothing that he will be with his Church so universally and every way holy that so whither he as the Head is gone the Members may follow after every one in his own order Christ the first afterward those that are Christs both before and at his coming And if this be the meaning of the Article as had I time might soon be proved from several Scriptures and our Separatists themselves do not deny but that this Summary Compendium of Faith is both antient and a sound Confession we thank them that at the same time when they thrust it out of our Churches they were pleased to annex it to the close of their Calvinistical Catechism I would demand of them and put it to the Conscience of those who are deluded by them how they can expect salvation in another world when they avoid the communion of the Saints in this and that against their vow in Baptisme against their solemn Profession of Faith I might I perswade my self urge it against their own inward sentiments whenever they do seriously think upon it what this Article of their Creed does mean or else they must be notoriously hypocritical before God against their own reason somthing or other they must believe when they do confess that there is such a thing as a holy Catholick and Apostolick Church and what can they believe to their souls good but that in the Communion of this Church they do expect salvation Let them if they are so fool-hardy excommunicate themselves and so put themselves into the condition of Heathens to be saved without a law and beside the Gospel if God so please to be sure there is great safety in the Christian institution as the Church is a holy society if with our hearts we believe and with our mouths we make confession of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints to wit that there is a Holy Catholick Church and in that Church a Holy Communion of Saints and the result of both these is the forgiveness of sins and that because of the Churches Catholick Faith that there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead for unless it be so we are still in our sins when both soul and body are to be united together in order to be made partakers of everlasting life undoubtedly we shall be saved I know there are some who quarrel at the Athanasian Creed though they have subscribed to it for these words in it however I am not afraid to cite them to our present purpose whosoever will be saved that is in the unity of the Church before all things he must be careful that he hold the Catholick Faith for the Church is Catholick which faith except he keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly And so I pass to the Second instance of this great Benefit here accruing from the present Dispensation and that is a due qualification internal in the heart but still in order to an outward profession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were Believers in the Lord which were now added to the Churches Communion holding the Faith as from the Apostles at this time it was delivered By Faith here not to spend time in the ordinary Definitions of it we may securely understand the pious and fiducial application of all the circumstances of this outward administration to each mans particular and private concerns whatsoever was publickly dispensed was in the heart of those that were assembled digested in an humble assurance of salvation there-from So that upon this account Schism from a Visible Communion is the result of Infidelity it is an evil heart of Unbelief that departs from God our Father or the Church our Mother in that whosoever he be that separates he cannot or he will not make due and sober reflections upon outward services in order to his own private
which drives is like the Driving of Jehu somewhat too furious though the cause of God be pretended for it we may examine it by these particulars 1. Consider we the Object of such a Zeal certainly it is then reprehensible when it is of persons not of things of Men and not their Graces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do zealously affect you you your very selves not any good that is in you or any good that is toward you A zeal of Persons and those may be of these three sorts The Clergy The Laity or Persons in a more mixed and refined Relation neither one nor the other particular so considered but a certain juncto or a knot of acquaintance First A Zeal of Persons that is of the Clergy of Ministers and Pastors just as it was in the Church of Corinth notwithstanding their so many Religious heats too certain a sign of Divisions and Schismes amongst them when some of them were for Paul some for Apollos and some for Cephas without any regard to God that gave the increase This was an argument that they were not Spiritual but Carnal It is a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mark by which we may know those that will not indure sound Doctrine when 2 Tim. 4.3 after their own lusts they heap up Teachers to themselves having itching ears Here a giddy-headed Generation of men were to be reproved who look so much upon the Preachers countenance that they have no regard unto his message who cannot be contented with what whole some food is provided for them at home but they seek out delicacies abroad Nay many a Pastor has been prejudged before he has been heard to speak to see his first behaviour and reverential address is enough to scare a wicked sort of People out of the Congregation and then they wander after whom they tell you they can profit most by Oh! This is a formal heavy and a superstitious fellow but such a one is a precious Soul-searching Preacher as if they were the proper judges of what is best and fittest to be spoke to them and though it may be the same word of Truth which is delivered by both yet the word of God must be restrained as if it hung only at such or such a persons Lips It is an avouched Maxime in the Practice of Medice's that if we do but Fancy the Physician the Physick will work kindly but this proceeds rather from the Patients Distemper and misapprehension of things than either want of skill in the Physician or of approved vertue in the Medicine prescribed They who are able to make so exact a judgment upon the abilities of their Teachers would do well if out of a Principle of humility and self-denyal they would look more at home and examine their own hearts and not so unreasonable accuse either the Word of God or his Messengers lawfully sent unto them because they cannot as they phrase it profit under the means when the ears do itch more than they tingle it is a sign the brains are not setled and the heart is not sound there may be a zeal to heap up Teachers but such a zealous Affection in having mens persons in admiration to the Disparagement of others of the same order is not well They zealously affect you you the Clergy but not well Secondly A zeal of Persons that is of the People and that is chiefly blamed in this Text They who would have the Precepts of Moses observed to the subverting of the Christian Institution They zealously affect you you the People but not well Here we may take cognisance of the perfect humour and Design of all hot-headed Schism and Sedition it is that they may be with the Multitude and that the Multitude may follow them to do evil hence some are neither affraid not ashamed to court and complement the vices and the Factions of the People and secretly they insinuate unto them that their zeal for the purity of Religion is commendable that they do not tie themselves up too closely to humane observances is but the just vindication of their Christian Liberty and they are to stand fast to that Liberty in which Christ hath made them free forgetting all this while that our Saviours Discipline is a Yoke although it be light and though it be easie yet still it is a burden and we are to be meek and lowly and learn of him to take this yoke and this burden upon us in the sustaining of which yoke in the chearful bearing of which burden we shall find rest to our Souls It was one and the chief moral cause of the Gospel thriving so much in the World at first that the Professors of it though of different Perswasions were subject to their Heathen Emperours and Governours in the love of them and in the fear of God But a lass now the Design is quite another thing lean we but bring the People into a dislike of the Rulers that are set over them in Church or State by pretending a love and an affection for them a tender regard forsooth to the Liberty of the Subject pittying them because they are held in durance we shall soon find though not sinking under our weights and pressures that we have strength enough to break off the Yoak and cast away the Burthen nay to spurn at those who would lay it upon us But let us not be deceived such evil words and unworthy practices do corrupt good manners this is not a love to the Souls of the People but a designed drawing them into temptation and a snare notwithstanding the kindness such persons may pretend their great zeal for the People of the Lord I appeal to our own late sad experience whether the chief aim be not that they may get up themselves and ride and then most cruelly and disdainfully they trample all under foot Rohoboam's little Finger was heavier than the Loyns of Solomon we might possibly once have been chastned with Rods but they vexed us with Scorpions while they broke our easie Yokes of Wood they made for us heavy Yokes of Iron and the Iron entred into our very souls No Men they are the words of out late Martyred Soveraigne are prone to be greater Tyrants and more rigorous exacters upon others to conform to their illegal Novelties then such whose pride was formerly lest disposed to submit to the obedience of lawfull constitutions when their licentious humour most pretended a Conscientious Liberty It is not therefore for any good that is in you or to you that they are so kind they zealously affect you you the People but not well 3. A Zeal of Persons may be reprehensible when it is of Persons in a more mixed and refined relation neither Clergy nor Laity particularly so considered but a certain Junctoe or a Knot of acquaintance whose name may be the very same with those who are blamed in the Text Gnosticks that is Sciolists great pretenders to and proficients in knowledge though
from Erasmus I learn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Tremellius renders it includere they would include they would comprehend both you and us and yet their zealous affection upon this account is not well And here zeal is reprehensible in those who care not much what a medly there is in Religious Observances so they and their party be included who are for meeting us half way in hopes to pull us after them a Generation who will never be contented with whatsoever Concessions are made them till they have again extirpated both root and branch Vt iis placeat quibus satis nihil est that they may be satisfied who will never have enough as the Orator These can be contented that there should be a halting betwixt God and Baal Baal-Berith that is in the signification of the Word a Seditious Covenant so long as they may be permitted a fire be it never so strange to consume their Sacrifice who are so indifferent in the Service of God that if they may be but Tolerated they care not how many Religions or wayes of worship there are besides These are such who tell us that their Moderation must be known unto all men but like the Devil they quote but half the Text it is not the Lord at hand For in God his Vnity is his Essence and as there is but One Lord so but One Faith One Church One Baptisme Speak they of an Accommodation what fellowship has light with darkness the Light of our Religion shining in the Candlestick of the Church by a glorious open and publick Profession of it With Darkness the hidden Mysteries of iniquity the cunning close contrivances of Schism and Sedition is there any Communion betwixt Christ and Belial that is as the words in their Etymology do import between Christ the Anointed of the Lord and Belial the Sons of violence and Disobedience It was an undeniable argument unto Solomon who had a most quick sagacious and discerning Spirit for the wisdom of God was in the Determination that the woman who was for Deviding the Child so that both might be sharers of it could not be the true Mother of it The Church of England like a pious and a holy Mother shews the truth of her affection whilst her bowels yern upon her Children in that she would by no means have them divided they prostitute both their Religion and Devotion neither have they the Bowels of a Mother who are so willing and sollicious that a Comprehensive Bill like a decisive Sword should sever their Profession in order to make an equal separation and so in any wayes to part stakes with those that are of another Perswasion True indeed difference in opinion should not breed difference in affection neither doth it in the Constitutions of our Church whilst we have a Brotherly Compassion for those that are seduced and do heartily pray that God would bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived But when Schism and Sedition once begin to pretend friendship with us and offers to shake hands without giving the Church any satisfaction for those sad Divisions which it hath already made so far from confessing or acknowledging what is past that it begins to plead its Merits that it has been so long quiet and has done no more mischief like that wicked Villain who when he had set a Temple on fire had the impudence to plead for himself that his Judges would be pleased to consider how many Temples he had left standing I say when once it comes to this that Faction must go hand in hand with nay demand the right hand of fellowship of Discipline Order and Vniformity farewel then the face of a Church in he midst of us and I pray God that be not the consequence upon such wicked Designs should our Candlestick be removed though our misery would be exceeding great yet our sin not so hainous as that now while it is fixed amongst us the Taper burning in it should be mangled and divided In the mean while let us not deceive our selves neither God nor his Church is to be mocked they who would divide the seamless coat of Christ are for a linsey-woolsey party-coloured Service amongst us what ever zeal they may pretend to Comprchension that they would take in all parties and make us so at Vnity amongst our selves certainly their Design is nothing but that approaching so near they might with the greater violence justle others down and so get up themselves and ride it is not so much a zeal for God and for his glory nor for the purity of the Reformed Religion as they would have us to believe but it is that they might ingross all respect and applause to themselves as if they only were left alone in the Kingdom who do sincerely serve the Lord they zealously affect but not well they would for a while include that so at an opportunity they might altogether exclude you or us that is separate you from us and us from you for in truth the whole Conspiracy is that you might affect them which is the Fourth and Last Observable wherein zeal is reprehensible and that again in relation to the zealots themselves when they would set the Church on fire to warm themselves by the flames of it by gaining Disciples not so much to their Cause as to their Party yea chiefly in this every private zealot may play a Game by himself alone distinct from the rest of his Company while they do many times supplant one another in gaining Proselytes to themselves being exceeding zealous that the People might affect them And this is the most remarkable Criterion as well as the truest impulsive cause of a bad zeal self-love and desire of applause together with an eager affectation of having many followers will transport a man that is Popular to many things that are not convenient and this is a Temptation to which the best of us all may be incident without a great measure of humility and self-denial But when this Spiritual Pride doth puff up a particular sort of men or in the same rank one man against another so that Simon Magus-like Act. 8.13 There should be here and there one and another whose business it must be to bewitch the people with their Sorceries whilst each one gives himself out to be the onely Power of God what is this but an overweaning Zeal that the people might affect and follow after them from the least of them to the greatest Nay as I have already hinted it is observable that seditious persons do many times supplant one another while some have a more winning that is whining way to out act the rest and are more crafty in stealing away the hearts of the unsettled and unstable multitude more out of a love to their persons than their own espoused Cause and this is chiefly then visible when the gap is made so wide by Division that the entrance is open though all hands were united
care not much to be contained within the limits of their Duty the Boundaries that are set them for a holy life in an exact obedience to government both sacred and civil however that zeal which is not only for but according unto Godliness is no enemy unto Charity it beareth all things and it believeth all things till it find it self to be miserably deceived and then zeal being provoked to shew it self is honest still just and upright in the sight of God and Man it rejoyceth not in iniquity but persisteth in the truth exhibiting it self chiefly in vertuous and holy Actions spending it self upon the ingenuous arts and contrivances of love that so it may be Profitable unto all which is the Third Thing In which Zeal manifests its self as Good it is Bonum Vtile a most profitable good it is profitable for example and imitation like the Holy Scriptures the Rule by which it acts it is profitable for correction and reproof and for instruction in righteousness who will ever take that man for his pattern who is unconstant to himself he is shrewdly to be suspected for a double-minded man who is unstable in his ways But he that sets himself against all opposition to persevere in the way of truth who hath made his face like a flint in the Prophets phrase neither will he be ashamed one that will not give himself the least ease or relaxation from the performance of that which he has learnt to be his Duty one that has no Latitude as to those things in which both Law and Conscience do oblige him such a one is a successful example of courage and constancy unto others that they do not fall away from their own stedfastness whilst Daniel prayes in Babylon with his window open to Jerusalem notwithstanding the danger he was in for so doing though the Children of the Captivity were in a strange Land yet having so good a president they could not but think of the songs of Sion Some are like the Fish Polipus of the colour of the Rock unto which they cleave and because so they are in the common Proverb neither good fish nor flesh they tell us that we must comply with present circumstances it is disputable whether God does and it 's certain Man does not know future contingencies and whatsoever they be by a fatal necessity we must yield to them the God of Nature does not command that we should make our lives a snare to our selves a prudential un-vexatious obedience is all that he requires and this is to be perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect This indeed were good Divinity were a Politician the Dr. of the Chair but how it will consist with the plain and simple Dictates of Christianity we want a Machiavel or his soul by an unheard of Metempsychosis actuating a Leviathan one who resolves all anorality either into positive Laws or into present local though contingent circumstances to determine the controversie But a resolved generous Soul is not of so temporary a Spirit his zeal is profitable unto others because good in it self every way and at all times good good because it is pleasant even the peace of God unto the pious soul and good because it is honest it thinks no evil but rejoyceth in the truth and good because it is a steddy example of holiness of purity and constancy unto others without being puffed up in prosperity terrified in adversity It remains therefore that this Apostolical Approbation have both an honorable mention and an hearty entertainment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is good to be zealous And so I proceed to the Second part of the Text Ratio Approbandi The Reason of this Approbation and that First Taken from the Object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be in a good thing In qualifying and distinguishing the Passions by their Objects some are good when their Objects are bad such is anger and hatred which are only then good when they are vented against Sin Be ye angry and sin not some are Bad when their Objects are but semingly good such is Love and Desire for it is possible and we find it often by sad experience that we do affect that which is in it self really evil only because it presents it self to us sub specie Boni jucundi under the specious pretence of a pleasurable Good But after all this zeal is a kind of more mixed Passion in reference to its Object take it for envy when it is bad when the Object is Good it is like the unhappy Locusts that cannot endure to see a green Leaf on the Trees take it for imitation or emulation only when the Object is Good is that Good also bonum est ut invideamini in bonis rebus semper Vars. Syr. It is Good either that you should be envied at by others or that you should have some kind strivings amongst your selves concerning things that are Good there is a pious kind of envy a holy zeal and emulation when we do strive and provoke one another in love unto Good Works To be a little more close and particular Zeal is good in relation unto a good Object upon these three accounts 1. Because it is there directed by a good rule the Word of God 2ly Managed upon a good Matter which bears a due proportion to that Rule 3ly Guided by a good intention not being over-byassed or over-ballanced by any sinister and by-respects A word or two of each of these First Zeal is good in relation to the Object if it be directed by a good Rule the Word of God The truly pious Zealiot in all his heats and ardors for the cause of God is to be very careful lest he should in any wise transgress that Rule of Righteousness which is prescribed to him as the revealed Will of that Master to whom he serves though Jehu drove furiously yet he was not to be blamed when he had this fixed resolution That there should fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord which the Lord had spoken There is a thing which is called a sure Word of Prophecy to which we shall do well that we take heed in meekness and in fear that we do not in the least prevent the impulse of the Holy Ghost within us moving us to do that which is contrary to the dictates of the Spirit either speaking in his Word ruling in the sanctions and determinations of the Church They then who talk big words of an illumination or a Light within them and yet regard not the Law of God which should be a Light unto their feet and a Lanthern unto their paths whilst they offer up strange fire to the Lord they and their Sacrifices are abhorred and God seems thus to speak to them in the Language of his Prophet Isaiah 50.11 All you that kindle a fire that compass your selves about with sparks walk you in the light of your fire and in the sparks which you
have kindled this shall you have of my hand you shall lie down in sorrow Would we examine and try our own or the spirits of others whether they be of God or no the Word of the Lord is sharp and piercing it divides betwixt the marrow and the bones it searcheth out the depths and secrets of the heart That fire cannot be a flame of holy incense to consume the Sacrifice and to render it acceptable which has no regard to the Holy Oracle of God Here that zeal is reproveable which spends it self either in decrying the sacred Scriptures as useless or in preverting the Scriptures making them of private interpretation to speak what they never intended such who wrest them to their own destruction First They that decry the Scriptures as useless since we are now not to be directed by a line or by precept but we are all to be taught of God of this sort are they who think themselves above Ordinances waiting only for some secret instincts some impetuous raptures to carry them they know not whither to do they know not what such who have laid aside the first Principles of Godliness they are not to be dealt with you shall never argue them into a better temper so long as this melancholy dumpish humour doth transport them they have this still for a refuge that they are not free to hear or to answer you But as for our selves that we be not led away by the errour of these wicked men it may be urged and I cannot urge it too often the Articles of our Creed into which we were baptized that as in our Profession we do believe the Holy Ghost to be the Lord and giver of Life and so a spirit of illumination unto the Sons of Men so we do believe that he the same Spirit spake by the Prophets He the same Spirit does assist in the Communion of Saints and therefore we are not to neglect the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is Secondly As for that other sort who have made themselves the only perpetual Dictators in Religion whose humour is the only Light they have for the interpretation of the Scripture who make the Scripture to be of a private interpretation speaking what it never intended who have against the continued practices of Christianity in all ages found out a new clew of thread to extricate themselves and others out of some Labyrinths of controversie of their own devising and do thus betray the simple and ignorant into not onely foolish but dangerous errors these men act as if they had forgot those Scriptures which they pretend for to interpret those that tell us that the Spirits of the Prophets must be subject to the Prophets especially when they are met together in a holy Communion They who would take heed to a sure word of Prophesie must know this first of all 2 Pet. 1.20 That no Prophesies of Scripture are of private interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of a mans conceited enthusiastical and sudden explication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Mar. 4.34 It was the onely prerogative of Christ himself when he was alone for to interpret but as to us the word of Prophesie is not thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the will of man we must take in along with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Analogy of our Common Faith and the sacred authority of the Catholick Church as knowing that whatsoever seemed good unto the Holy Ghost as it is revealed in the word seemed good likewise to the same Spirit as it is explained by the Church and proposed to those who will receive the truth in the love of it to be matter for their Faith wherefore the Scripture hath said I mean St. Paul in whose writings there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some things hard to be understood which the Pride and Tyranny of the Church of Rome on the one hand and the unstable peevishness of our Classical Brethren from their Consistory on the other have wrested two contrary ways yet between them both the word of God abideth sure to wit that Scripture which refers us to an Interpreter for all the rest 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church of the Living God in all things necessary to salvation as the words following do imply is the onely pillar and ground of truth and then he adds the fundamental articles of our Christian faith without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels c. That zeal then is truly commendable just holy and good which is a Zeal according to the Scriptures a contention for the Faith of God in them revealed as they are by the Church delivered to the Saints which whilst it doth coufess the Holy Ghost to rule in the hearts of all Believers does not too hastily pass over the two next Articles of our Christian Faith in which we also do believe a Holy Catholick Church and in the Vnity of that Church do joyn with the Communion of Saints such a Zeal as this is good that is guided by a good rule by the word of God as it is proposed and said open by the Church to be a perfect Canon an exact prescription to tell us what ought to be our Faith and to guide us in our manners in all holy Conversation and Godliness Secondly Zeal is good in Relation to the Object of it if it be managed upon a good matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon a good thing which bears its due proportion to that rule This is that which St. Paul tells us is the result of the Grace of God bringing salvation and appearing unto all Tit. 2.14 In that our Saviour gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works The people are then peculiar and the zeal is singular when by the blood of Christ we are cleansed from all iniquity so that our works are good Having once submitted our selves to the obedience of Faith and publickly owned it in the Unity of the Church every man has so far a Judgment of private Discretion and possibly not in many cases besides as to examine his own Actions by that Rule of Righteousness which he hath received and the rectitude of which he must not in the least dispute Saul forgot himself and God also when in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah he slew the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21.2 These Gibeonites though but hewers of wood and drawers of water in the sanctuary were to be preserved because of the Oath of God Joshuah 9.3 17. They who were for exterpating root and branch amongst us though they had formerly given up their names to God and to his Church in their Promissory Subscriptions that they would conform to and not endeavour the alteration of the Religion established and yet after all this in their zeal unto the people did lift up
shall be our satisfaction nothing else but Complacency our Delight To which place of Bliss and Contentment God of his infinite mercy bring us all for Jesus Christ his sake who is gone before to prepare those Mansions for us To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God be ascribed Honour and Glory and Blessing with Adoration World without end Amen MODERATION AS AN APOSTOLICAL COUNSEL Explained Philip. 4.5 Being part of the Epistle for the fourth Sunday in Advent Let your Moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand OUr Lord and Blessed Saviour being to come into the world and to appear a Minister of Reconciliation to the People sent his Messenger before his face to prepare the way of the Lord and to make his paths strait and the voice from God at that time in the mouth of his Prophet crying in the Wilderness of Judea was this St. Mat. 3.2 Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Afterward John being cast into Prison Jesus himself went forth and began to teach in every City and he was as it were the Eccho to the voice foregoing the message he delivered being the very same St. Matthew 4.17 Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand This John who came neither eating nor drinking sequestring himself from the World and denying himself the pleasures of ordinary Converse our Blessed Master Jesus Christ the Righteous who came eating and drinking who lived after the common manner of men the one in every crowded City and the other in a waste howling Wil derness Both have the same Lesson to teach and the same Argument to inforce it Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and though from the dayes of John the Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force that is the fruit of Repentance is not only carefulness but Indignation likewise and a holy zeal though our Saviour himself too as meek and lowly as he was came to send Fire upon the Earth and before his departure hence what if it were already kindled Yet Jesus being risen and Ascended sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on High his Gospel being strangely propagated he having given to such as shall be saved by Faith in his name and Repentance towards God Love and Charity is now the Law by which he will rule and govern in the hearts of all Believers the feet of those that follow him or expect his coming again must be shod with the Preparation of his Gospel as it is a Gospel of Peace Et speciosi Pedes and these feet are to appear Beautiful that so all may see them Brotherly Love was the precious Legacy which he left behind him and this to continue till he come again so that the same Motive which gained Proselites at first to embrace the Christian Doctrine with Repentance and godly sorrow is an Apostolical incitation to the several Churches as they were Planted that they continue in the Faith which they had received as knowing on whom they Believed the Product of Repentance now is not only to be Indignation Zeal and a holy Revenge but also the Peaceable fruit of Righteousness whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise they who embrace Christianity must think upon and follow those things and that because of Christs Coming whether in the Flesh or unto Judgment in the Flesh in our Flesh with which he was cloathed The Lord of Heaven is at Hand and with him the Kingdom of Heaven also he being himself the King and the Kingdom too he is at Hand not far from every one of us carrying our Nature and our Constitution with him Sanctifying our Inclinations and Affections whilst he subjected himself unto all our Passions unto judgment the Kingdom of Heaven the Lord from Heaven is at Hand to call the World to an account if for their idle words surely for their hard speeches their heart-burning thoughts their uncharitable Actions against such as are quiet in the Land not suffering their Brethren for whom Christ died to live securely by them therefore considering these things that the Man Christ Jesus who came in the fulness of time shall come again at the end of all time after which time shall be no more to judge both the quick and dead and withal lifting up our heads in a comfortable expectation that our Redemption draweth nigh and our Salvation is nearer than when we first believed what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy humble affable Conversation and Godliness Let our Moderation be known unto all Men the Lord is at Hand You see that our Church has furnished me with a Text every way suitable not only as to the present time but consequential upon my former Discourses though I have already I hope sufficiently set bounds to a holy zeal that it do not transgress the law of Love and Charity yet since nothing is more usual than to urge this portion of Scripture now read in Defence of Luke-warmness and since likewise nothing is more incident to our Natures than that we deceive our selves mistaking our Passions many times too too often uncharitableness it self for a holy zeal therefore as a restriction in the one case and a due information in the other following the Churche's prescription the Text is every way suitable and a word in season Let your Moderation be known unto all Men the Lord is at Hand The parts of the Text are Obvious these Two 1. A Duty injoyned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let your Moderation be known unto all men 2. An Argument to inforce it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord is at Hand 2. The Duty is not only injoyned but recommended also it is not only to be an inherent quality or a Disposition within us that is Our Moderation but so Ours that it may be known yea and known not here and there to one or two but indifferently as the circumstances of our Conversation ingage us unto all Men whereupon the Argument to inforce the Duty may be urged this being the scope of the Text either in our Churches Selection of it as part of the Epistle for this day or in the Apostles intention as it is wholesome counsel given to these Philippians The Lord is at Hand that is appearing in the Flesh and whilst so going about and doing good proposing himself a pattern of Moderation unto all Again the Lord is at Hand coming to be our Judge when the secrets of our hearts shall be laid open not only before the eyes of him with whom we have to do not only before our own Consciences when our own sin shall it self reprove us and the iniquity of our heels shall compass us about but likewise as a further aggravation either of our shame or glory we shall be made
a spectacle unto Angels and to Men since the children of darkness have loved darkness rather than light therefore to heighten there calamity and enhance their misery before their portion of utter darkness shall be assigned them they and their deeds of darkness shall be brought unto the Light that we may therefore stand in that day upright in judgment lift up our heads then with joy it will be our prudence as well as our Piety now in this time to let our Moderation be known unto all Men That I may not in too nice a Division loose the whole scope of the Text I shall confine my Discourse to these three particulars 1. Consider we what this Christian grace of Moderation is that we be not mistaken about it in our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your or Our Moderation 2. How and in what particular circumstances this Grace is to be Manifested unto others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be known and that although unto all Men yet it is not said at all times 3. How the Coming of Christ either in the Flesh or unto Judgment is an argument that we should improve this Grace in our selves and manifest it to all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord is at Hand This is the Sum of the Text and the Design of the ensuing Discourse from these words Let your Moderation be known unto all Men the Lord is at Hand First What this Christian grace of Moderation is that we be not mistaken about it in our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your or Our Moderation And here I shall propose to your Consideration Three Things 1. What the word Moderation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in its signification doth most properly import 2. Consider we it as good Counsel given to these Philippians and compare we it with the other Apostolical advices scattered throughout the whole Epistle 3. How this Vertue may be considered as it was eminent in our Blessed Saviour who is here proposed the great Exemplar for Moderation First What this Moderation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in its signification doth most properly import The word being an Adjective Neuter put for a Substantive and the Article emphatically praefixed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to denote to us that whatever it may import it is already supposed to be the fixed habit and unalterable Disposition of the Mind and in this place advised to be something more exerted that so others may be the better for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Favorini Lexic it signifies the well ordered Disposedness of the trational Soul when the apprehensive faculties are neither too slow nor yet too hasty but the wiseman has his eyes in his head and his wits about him neither doth prejudice possess him interest blind him or any by-respect ballance him on either side but in aquilibrio he is courteously ready to speak and act so as becometh prudence modesty and sobriety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Critick the moderate man is meek and humble he doth recede and give way he doth not stand too much upon his termes capitulating either with his betters or his equals but being called forth unto company as our Saviour adviseth he takes the lowest Seat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych Favorin It is a vertue proper to young men or persons in a middle station whose best breeding is their Humility and the sweetness of their Conversation is their Meekness if we ascribed to the Aged and the Honourable to those that are in Dignity and in Power then it signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych It is the promoting of that which is decent and convenient it is affability in those that are conspicuous and withal it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besych In a Magistrate or a Dispenser of Justice it is a courteous impartiality without being prepossessed an even and indifferent behaviour in passing sentence it is what Tertullus the Orator requested of Felix the Governour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A patient and an attentive hearing of the whole matter what can be said on either side and then as the business under debate requires giving the sentence according to equity in a word in Scripture we find it alwayes joyned with meekness and opposed to strife and contention 1 Tim. 3.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patient not a brawler to which the Parallel place is 2 Tim. 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men to which I add as exegetical to all the former and a paraphrase upon my Text Titus 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be no brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness unto all men In all this search in which I hope I have been indifferent and impartial and shall again have occasion presently to improve it we do not find either in the signification or use of the word that the vertue here injoyned doth in the least imply such a frame or habit of mind as is a complyance with all men and all humours especially in things sacred as well as Civil Moderation is that which we call Love and Charity and Love is the fulfilling or keeping of the whole not the breaking of any of the Laws of God or Man A man may yield indeed his own personal right as far as his own particular interest or profit is concerned but it is a great piece of injustice and as the circumstances may be laid an injury unto a whole Community tending to the utter Destruction and Dissolution of it if under the specious pretence of a good nature and a sweet disposition a man should dispence with himself or be he in Power with others as to that obedience which is strictly due and peremptorily required in a Legal Constitution it is true Moderation is the result of Wisdom and of an honest prudence but then it should be that wisdom which is from above which if it be peaceable amongst men yet it is pure in relation unto God in the Epistle of St. James Chap. 3.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is gentle and easie to be intreated and yet though readily perswaded it changeth not it is not unconstant to it self as it is full of mercy unto others so it is likewise of good fruits at home as it is without partiality in affection so it is without hypocrisie in intention this is the fruit of Righteousness sown in peace of all those who make peace Secondly Consider we this vertue Moderation as it was good and wholesome Counsel given to these Philippians and as it may be compared with those other counsels scattered throughout the whole Epistle To these Philippians it was a vertue recommended after they had newly embraced the Faith of Christ and were to meet with sundry afflictions and various troubles Chap. 1.29 Vnto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake they lived amongst those of whom the Apostle had told them formerly
made manifest unto all there are mollisma tempora certain times and seasons in which it is most amiable and it is part of Christian prudence so to exert it that it may appear beautiful and lovely unto all in its proper season the present circumstances are to be consulted seriously least our Moderation do degenerate into a sordid and a sneaking compliance an Holy Zeal must sometimes have its perfect work as well as Patience when once Remissness gets the upper hand of Order God himself is neglected whilst his Divine Offices are perfunctorily carelesly and slubberly performed when the publike Solemnities of Religion are if not laid aside yet so managed as if they were altogethar needless and to no purpose the Moderate Man may mourn in secret and by his silence at such a time manifests his prudence because it is an evil time but this seems to be rather an opportunity for courage and constancy in the Resolute that the world may see that we are neither afraid nor ashamed of that which some count madness and folly that we are neither to be complemented by the sly Polititian nor Hectored by the prophane Atheist out of that Faith which we have professed and wherein we stand In a word this is our Moderation when in affliction we are not froward under discouragements we are not discontented when we can love those who persecute us and are ready to do good to those who do despightfully use us when we count it all joy that for righteousness sake we are evil thought of or evil spoke of when we are not over-sollicitous of every ones good word but should God and his Truth require it we can venture through a bad report to shew our Constancy and Perseverance and though the Moderate Man walks circumspectly not as a fool but as wise endeavouring to approve himself to the Consciences of those with whom he has to do yet his heart doth neither mis-give him nor reproach him as his humility is conspicuous so his integrity is solid if he does approve himself it is that the Lord may commend the singleness of his heart and the integrity of his Soul even the Lord who is at Hand And so I press to the Third and Last thing propounded to wit How the Coming of Christ either in the Flesh or to Judgment is an Argument to us to improve this Grace of Moderation The Lord is at hand just now gone from us lately appearing in our Flesh And he is at hand in like manner to come again the day is approaching in which God will Judge the World by the Man whom he hath ordained even the Man Christ Jesus and the Apostle doth in another place joyn both these together to wit that the consideration of Christs first Coming should have this effect upon us that we live in a continual expectancy of his Second Tit. 2.11 12. The Grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present evil world Moderation is but one comprehensive word for all these looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious appearance of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ First Let your Moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand not far from every one of us lately appearing in our flesh having Sanctified our inclinations and affections whilst he was subject unto like Passions with us being in every thing tempted as we are yet without sin we might indeed sometime have been foolish deceived by and deceiving one another Status Naturae status Belli in this sense we were by Nature the Children of Wrath not only in relation to God whom we had provoked but also in relation to each other delighting in violence and oppression But Tit. 3.4 After the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Man appeared we are freely justified by his Grace and made Co heirs together according to the Hope of Eternal Life and this is that which we must Persevere in since we have believed on God that we be alwayes careful to maintain good works and those such which are not in the least Destructive but every way profitable unto men let every one that nameth the Name of Christ Jesus our Lord depart from all iniquity Our Saviour in the Flesh God incarnate in his Birth throughout his Life but chiefly at his Death was not only a most successful example but a prevailing argument for our Moderation First His Birth was the Son of Righteousness arising with healing in his wings it was through the tender Mercies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the Bowels of the mercy of our God that the Day-spring from on high did visit us and this is our Happiness consequential hereupon that being delivered from our Ghostly and our carnal Enemies we may serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the daies of our lives this was the Angelical Hymn at his Birth that as his coming into the World was Glory to God in the highest so it was in Earth Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and good will towards Men nay further that our Love upon this occasion might be raised to its due pitch those words are not unfitly rendered by the Vulgar In terris pax hominibus bone voluntatis On earth Peace unto Men of Good will And now shall our Saviour empty himself of his honour that he may accommodate himself unto us and we be puffed up one against another are we not all of us now Brethren doubtly dear unto each other both in the Flesh and in the Lord or rather in the Lord who was made Flesh Secondly Nay yet again not only the fruit of his holy Mothers Womb at his Birth but the whole course of his Life was nothing else but a continued labour of Love could he do any good were it to the poorest and the meanest to the basest and unworthiest it was his meat and his drink he loved much and therefore all along though loaded with indignities he forgave much he had not where to lay his head and yet he wrought Salvation wheresoever he came how glad was he though in a crowd that vertue wentout of him in this chiefly was his humility conspicuous in that he confessed and he denyed it not that He though the Son of Man and so the first born of the whole Creation came not to be Ministred unto but to Minister and to give his Life a Ransome for many And are not we likewise to tread in his steps is not this the Lesson which hence we are to take out that the greatest amongst us be in all good and vertuous offices as it were a Servant unto all remembring alwayes the words of our Lord Jesu Christ that it is better to give than receive we should therefore from his example be ready to give and willing to communicate Thirdly Yet once more and chief of all his Death was
the Reconciling of the World unto God and to himself all enmity was slain when he hung upon the Cross though bleeding and dying he was the Prince of Peace herein the love of God toward man appeared in that while we were yet sinners and enemies Christ died for us And shall we be froward and peevish against one another vexing and fretting our Brethren for whom Christ died the Legacy that he left us the Boon that he procured for us was Love and Peace he could not die till he had expressed his Charity to the worst of his enemies pitying their ignorance and praying against their malice Father forgive them for they know not what they do And shall we live in contention and in strife as if we had no interest in this common Salvation this unspeakable great Redemption what shall I say To observe the strange animosities and fewds the contrivances and intreigs of Malice and of anger by what arts they are industriously promoted and wickedly fomented even amongst those who yet profess their Faith and Hope in one and the same Saviour would make a man sometimes sadly to conclude that such men are so desperately at variance amongst themselves that they are loth to be reconciled in Heaven it self these little think upon a Saviour who has made an attonement for them yea and though he be sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high yet he is rising out of his place to judge the World for their iniquity Oh! why then is not our Moderation known unto all men since the Lord coming to be our judge is at hand Secondly Christ coming to Judgment to take vengeance of all ungodly sinners for their wicked deeds which they have ungodlily committed is an argument unto us that if we would then behold our Lord in Righteousness and with comfort be satisfied when we shall arise in his likeness now in this time we must tread the paths which he has traced for us follow Peace with let our Moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand The Lord is at hand either in a particular or in a general judgment for I find the Text Commented upon in both respects First In a particular Judgment that is the Lord is at hand to visit upon the City Jerusalem all her iniquities whose sad Desolation was to be not only a fore-runner but a clear Type of the last dreadful Doom And this is the Paraphrase which the most litteral and verbal Interpreters of the New Testament-Text doe give upon this and the like expressions scattered and dispersed especially throughout 〈◊〉 Epistolical writings Christ had fore-told the Destruction both of the City and the Temple and this was the expectation of the Christians looking for the accomplishment of that Prophecie assuring them that true was the word which their Lord had spoken and that with so much vehemence and eagerness that when he foretold the thing he said That Heaven and earth possibly might but not a little an iota of the word which he had spoken should pass away and verily faith our Saviour This Generation shall not pass away until that all these things be fulfilled this therefore being the general expectation of the New Converts unto Christianity amongst the Gentiles that Jerusalem's extirpation was nigh at hand and that their Destruction was to be a day of Retribution wherein God would recompence unto the People of the Jews all those injuries and Persecutions which they had raised against Christ and his Apostles in the Plantation of the Gospel When you see these things come to pass lift up your heads with joy said our Saviour for the day of your Redemption draweth nigh that is in the Letter you shall be Redeemed not unlike Israel of old from Egypt and the House of Bondage God shall render tribulation to those that trouble you and my Gospel shall run and be glorified it shall be Salvation to the ends of the earth And so the Advice in the Text is very much a word in season that the Christians be not high-minded but fear lest they likewise perish let their Moderation their universal Love and Charity their impartial pitty and compassion be known and extended un to all Men yea though they have been violent enemies and cruel bitter Persecutors for the Lord in his particular judgment to the City and Nation of the Jews which they all so much look for is even now at hand And is not this Lesson a suitable serious and seasonable advice to us likewise The Lord is at hand Nay his hand has been hard upon us in the day of his fierce anger he opened all his hand How has the City of David amongst us even the City of our Fathers Sepulchres been laid waste and our Jerusalem been made an heap of stones The Fire of God has burnt and it has consumed God spared not so much as his Foot-stool in the day of his wrath not his Temple nor his foot-stool there not the places where the steps of a Divine presence meght be traced were we not almost set forth like the Cities of the Plain which the Lord destroyed for an example of terrour and astonishment to the world round about us suffering in the Type and the Representation of it the Vengeance of Eternal Fire surely except the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant we should have been as Sodome and we should have been like unto Gomorrah And now after all this sore evil which is come upon us would we have our breaches made up and places restored unto us to dwel in would we have the Walls of our City and of our Temples raised again Love and Charity is the best Cement in the Mortar this is the bond of all perfection even of the Perfection of beauty and of safety Our Hope is that the Line of Confusion is not utterly stretched out upon us and our care must be that in our compassionate sorrows on the miseries of the afflicted without an evil eye either upon injuries received or sins committed which we are too willing to remove every one from himself our Bowels be inlarged impartially and indifferently to any object of mercy which Providence shall offer to us what is judgment begun at the house of God and in the City of David laying aside all animosities uncharitable surmises and wicked speaking let every one put to his helping hand that so the City may once more be called Bethlehem an House of Bread because of the Shew-bread even the Bread of our God continually to be offered up and dispenced in it for unless such be our Moderation and it be made known unto all men we have just cause to fear that our God is still at hand his hand not turned away from us but his Arm of Vengeance stretched out still or if Wrath overtake not our hard-hearted uncharitableness here the Day is coming in which it will be too late to ask neither can we presume upon any pitty
their people for without a little Dissimulation their could be neither Living nor Livelinood But certainly God has no need of such mens Hypocrisie to Manifest his Glory nor the Church of their Dissimulation to preserve its peace He that is a Friend to all Religions or to all perswasions in Religion so far that according to the circumstances of his life he can ingage in or defend any of them is in truth of no Religion at all he is ready to Apostatize with Julian and should there arise an eleventh Persecution against Christianity he is never like to be either a Resolute Confessour for the truth he has own'd or a Faithful Martyr for the Faith into which he was baptized but this will be his sad Conversion quite contrary to the blessed alteration which was in St. Paul Is not this he that preached Christ but now he destroys all those who call upon that name delivering them up to bonds and imprisonment even to death it self God grant that we may never know such times as will put these men to their tryal and he preserve and continue his Church in Unity and Uniformity amongst us that it never stand in need of them to be Champions for its Faith or Discipline But whither such an eager industrious sollicitude of being indifferent of appearing all things to all men wresting St. Pauls practice as bad as they have done his writings out of a desire not to gain Proselytes but credit and profit to themselves I say whether such a zealous studious luke-warmness in things sacred and holy is not in the direct consequence of it a pre-requisite disposing a man to turn Jew Turk Pagan Infidel any thing does not in the formal notion of it promote Atheisme both in practice and speculation I leave this to the Disputers of this World to the curious speculative heads of our times seriously and soberly to consider But as for us let us be careful of a Temporary Faith of a Religion ours in the profession of it only because suited to the Climate we live in and the air we breath in to the popular breath we daily suck to the soil of the Countrey to the humours of Multitude Let us be stedfast in our holy Profession persevere in the way of Godliness as knowing that Pure Religion is to keep our selves unspotted from the World it is Heaven-born God on high is Worshiped and man upon Earth is saved in the celebration of it this being our Assurance that we are accepted and a comfortable satisfaction to us that our zeal is rightly qualified when in the integrity of our hearts and the uprightness of our soul it is as permanent as it is passionate it is the same continued flame bright and pure to the last bending it self one way tending upwards though it be fire it is not seated beneath the concave of the Moon I mean spent upon sublunary changing perishing Designes but it is cherished by influenced upon and clothed with the Sun of Righteousness and the reward of its Constancy shall be Everlasting Felicity for him who is thus piously zealous unto Death there is laid up a Crown of Life And so I pass to the 2. Reason of this Apostolical approbation and that Taken from the habit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be alwayes And here as in the Application of the first Discourse was mentioned we must be careful that we distinguish the habit of zeal from the constitution of the Body whether it be not the overflowing of the Gall rather than the result of Grace from the heart True indeed being called unto Grace and Holiness whatsoever were our passions before they are Crucified now with Christ in mortification and with him they are risen again and sanctified unto his service and so our zeal may at the same time be in some sort the natural temper of our Bodies and the pious frame of our Minds but then in other circumstances of life our zeal for Charity must alwayes take place of Passion neither must the Sun at any time set somnum nec rixa facit nor are the shadows of the night to be spread over our wrath So then be our Constitution what it will if in the personal occurrences of our lives our Moderation be known unto all men our zeal for God and Religion because perpetually the same is therefore Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be Alwaies Thunder does root up Foundations the effects of it are as dreadful as the noise is terrible but then the Lightning which doth accompany it is momentany it is but a sudden flash and we see it again no more There is a Madzeal or a Phrenzy rather like Thunder it pretends that it will clear the air when it makes the earth to tremble nothing but Desolation and overturning where-ever the Bolt lights it makes havock of all before it be it never so pleasant or desireable but the Lightning transcient the promising overtures are but some sudden glances which have more of terror and amazement than of comfort and refreshment we see them indeed or hear of them no sooner are they seen or heard but no where are they to be found whereas a Holy zeal is like the Sun breaking through a cloud though intercepted with the mists and foggs of errour and seduction yet it will make its way and spread the day where e're it comes it ariseth in its strength and in its beauty and rejoyceth to run its course it s going forth is from Heaven and its Circuit to the end of it again and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof such a thing is a pious zeal like unto the Ordinances of Heaven abiding the same for ever day after day tells the World its Piety and night after night in a satisfactory contemplation upon its own constancy sheweth unto the Devout Soul that such a zeal thus fixed and unalterable is according unto Godliness True zeal is not like Herods Devotion who sometimes heard John Baptist gladly and for his sake when the humour took him did many things that were good it is not like Agrippa's half Perswasion and yet not perswaded to be a Christian very near and so the farther from the Kingdom of Heaven it is not like Felix his pannick fit of trembling while he hears St. Paul reasoning of Temperance of Righteousness and of Judgment to come soon shaked off in a colder Dismission go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient season I will send for thee it is not a sudden motion an ecstatical rapture an impetus that may cast Saul himself amongst the Prophets it is not a hot burning fit which comes and goes as some unhealthy humours ferment more or less in the Body or wild fancys work disturbedly and confusedly in the brain such a zeal as this which is not constant to it self is not unlike to Sauls evil Spirit when the Lord was departed from him it wants Davids Harp the sweet Singer of Israel the
Musick of the Sanctuary and the Songs of Sion to lay it nay and as the fit may take him the Javelin may be cast at David himself because of his Musick though a watchful eye and a speedy flight may prevent the danger whilst the hole out of the Wall is indication sufficient of the madness of the thrower This is the unaccountable Phrenzy of some whose zeal for they know not what would knock a mans brains out only for a wen in his fore-head who drive furiously like Iehu not at all considering what they trample upon or Desolations they leave behind them and then when it is too late they bethink themselves and look backwards they tell us they never thought it would have come to this they confess that they have done a great deal more then ever they intended and at length after all this mischief they will now sit down and be quiet never thinking of asking God forgiveness or giveing the Church satisfaction for the Schisms they have made now they are in the other extream as indifferent as before they were violent luke-warm indeed the heat if any is spent the wrong way But on the contrary that zeal which is Good is with Reverence be it spoke like unto Jesus the Author of its Faith it is the same Yesterday to day and for ever the same yesterday when it was cherished and countenanced in prosperity and the same yesterday too when it was threatned and frowned upon in adversity the same to day being restored to honour and to favour and the same to day too should it be laid aside as useless or troublesome whilst Schism and Rebellion is to be cajoled if not rewarded the same for ever owning the Axiome to be true though the deduction somewhat hard and disingenuous that They who have already been approved in Affliction and Tribulation so manifesting their Piety to God their Allegiance to their Prince and their Devotion to the Church act by one and the same Principle still and this Principle will keep them honest must therefore the constant performance of their Duty be the only reward of their zeal and that zeal is yet again the same for ever ready to incounter all manner of difficulties as if it had never been disobliged such a zeal is good which is thus permanent it is like the fire upon the Altar a constant flame of love before it s kept alive whilst hid in the Embers of its own loyalty and fidelity under it breaks forth to its wonted brightness and lustre after Captivity though it consumes the Zealot yet it changes not and after all that has been said the word in the Text is emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Always one and the same and though sometime reflecting upon it self with comfort it may innocently and justly have an eye to the recompence of reward whether temporal or eternal yet it is not an eye service as before Men it is a holy zeal out of singleness of heart as pleasing God which is the Third and Last Reason of this Apostollical approbation taken from the occasion of expressing it not only when I your Apostle am present with you That zeal which is Good though its habit be as constant as is the Object of it universally good it is alway the same temper and frame of mind yet withal it is discreet as well as vehement it will then chiefly take occasion to shew it self when there is most need of it when the Spiritual Apostle or Pastor is out of the way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only out of fear because of my Authority and jurisdiction when I am present but out of love to the thing it self should I be absent from you This is that which our chief Apostle as having the care over all the Churches the great Doctor of the Gentiles did give in charge in most of his Epistles to the several Churches which he had planted That they should be careful to manifest unto all the World that they had received the Truth of the Gospel in the love of it in that their stedfastness to the Faith be one and the same though he should not be locally present with them shaking the Rod of his jurisdiction over them thus were the Churches Centures to be managed at Corinth upon the incestuous person 1 Cor. 53. I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan and to the same Corinthians who took it for granted that the Apostle had a coercive power over them he gives them their option that according to their Behaviour during his absence so should his Presence with them be 1 Cor. 4.21 What will ye it is in your own power to make me welcome at my coming shall I come unto you with a Rod that is in the severity of Discipline over you or in the spirit of Meekness in the affability and courteousness of conversation with you and what was wanting in the Corinthians this same Apostle commends as praise worthy in his Colossians Chap. 11.5 Though I be absent in the flesh yet I am with you in the spirit joying and beholding your Order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ It was the same Caution which he gave to the Philippians Chap. 1.27 Let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit striving together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is contending with eagerness and zeal for the faith of the Gospel and to these Philippians also with this caution he gives them witness bearing Testimony for them that they had been constant thereby to incourage their future perseverance Chap. 2.12 Wherefore my beloved as ye have alwayes obeyed not in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling By all which it is evident that that zeal is to be suspected for Hypocrysie which is only suited to time place and person which is then exerted when such persons are present who either have a power over or an influence upon us but these being withdrawn immediately we grow as cold and as indifferent as ever the Ruler having turned his back the Servant presently alters the Copy of his Countenance It was an Heathens advice that we should imagine our selves in the presence of Socrates or some other rigid exemplar of vertue which may be a restraint upon us that we do not at any time transgress the Rule of our duty but that Philosopher came nearer the Dictates of Christianity who gave us this in Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag. Aur. Carm. That above all things we have a Reverence for our selves