more pleasing vnto God or more cōmodious to men then that whē hee hath executed iudgement it should be seene and wondred at for therefore he strikes some that he may warne all Aaron and Miriam THe Israelites are staied seuen daies in the station of Hazzeroth for the punishment of Miriam The sinnes of the Gouernors are a iust stop to the people all of them smart in one all must stay the leasure of Miriams recouery Whosoeuer seeks the Land of Promise shall finde many lets Amalek Og Sehon the Kings of Canaan meet with Israel these resisted but hindred not their passage their sinnes only staie them from remoouing Afflictions are not crosses to vs in the way to heauen in comparison to our sinnes What is this I see Is not this Aaron that was brother in nature and by office ioynt-commissioner with Moses Is not this Aaron that made his brother an intercessor for him to God in the case of his Idolatry Is not this Aaron that climbd vp the hill of Sinai with Moses Is not this Aaron whom the mouth and hand of Moses consecrated an high Priest vnto GOD Is not this Miriam the elder sister of Moses Is not this Miriam that ledde the triumph of the vvomen sung gloriously to the Lord Is not this Miriam which laid her brother Moses in the Reedes and fetcht her Mother to bee his Nurse Both Prophets of GOD both the flesh and bloud of Moses And dooth this Aaron repine at the honour of him which gaue himselfe that honour and saued his life Dooth this Miriam repine at the prosperitie of him vvhose life shee saued Who vvould not haue thought this should haue beene their glorie to haue seene the glorie of their owne Brother What could haue bin a greater comfort to Miriam then to think How happily doth hee now sit at the steine of Israel vvhom I saued from perishing in aboat of bulrushes It is to mee that Israel owes this commander But now enuy hath so blinded their eyes that they can neither see this priuiledge of nature nor the honour of Gods choice Miriam and Aaron are in mutiny against Moses Who is so holy that sinnes not what sinne is so vnnaturall that the best can avoide without God But what weaknes soeuer may pleade for Miriam who can but grieue to see Aaron at the end of so many sinnes Of late I saw him caruing the molten Image and consecrating an altar to a false GOD now I see him seconding an vnkinde mutinie against his brother Both sinnes finde him accessarie neither principall It was not in the power of the legall priesthood to perform or promise innocencie to her ministers It was necessary we shold haue another high Priest vvhich could not be tainted That King of righteousnes was of another order Hee being without sinne hath fully satisfied for the sins of men Whom can it now offend to see the blemishes of the Euangelical priesthood when Gods fyrst high priest is thus miscaried Who can looke for loue prosperity at once when holy and meeke Moses finds enmity in his own flesh bloud Rather then we shall want A mans enemies shal be those of his own house Authoritie cannot faile of opposition if it be neuer so mildly swayed that common make-bate will rather raise it out of our owne bosome To doe well and heare ill is princely The Midianitish wife of Moses cost him deare Before shee hazarded his life now the fauour of his people Vnequall matches are sildom prosperous Although now this scandall was only taken Enuy was not wife enough to chuse a ground of the quarrell Whether some secret emulatorie brawles passed between Zipporah and Miriam as many times these sparks of priuate brawles grow into a perilous common flame or whether now that Iethro his family was ioyned with Israel there vvere surmises of transporting the gouernment to strangers or whether this vnfit choice of Moses is now raised vp to disparage Gods gifts in him Euen in sight the exceptions were friuolous Emulation is curious and out of the best person or act will raise something to cauil at Seditions do not euer look the same way they mooue Wise men can easily distinguish betwixt the visor of actions and the face The wife of Moses is mentioned his superiority is shot at Pride is lightly the ground of all sedition Which of their faces shined like Moses Yea let him but haue drawen his vaile which of them durst look on his face Which of them had fasted twise 40. dayes Which of them ascended vp to the roppe of Sinai and vvas hid with smoake and fire Which of them receiued the Law twise in two seuerall tables from Gods own hand And yet they dare say Hath God spoken onely by Moses They do not deny Moses his honour but they challenge a part with him and as they were the elder in nature so they would be equall in dignity equall in administration According to her name Miriam would bee exalted And yet how vnfit were they One a woman whom her sex debarred from rule the other a Priest whom his office sequestred from earthly gouernment Selfe-loue makes men vnreasonable and teaches them to turne the glasse to see themselues bigger others lesse then they are It is an hard thing for a man willingly and gladly to see his equalls lifted ouer his head in worth and opinion Nothing wil more try a mans grace then questions of emulation That man hath true light which can be content to be a candle before the sun of others As no wrong can escape God so least of all those which are offred to Princes He that made the eare needs no intelligence of our tongues Wee haue to doe with a GOD that is light of hearing wee cannot whisper any euill so secretly that hee should not cry out of noyse and what need wee any further euidence vvhen our Iudge is our witnesse Without any delation of Moses GOD heares and challenges them Because he was meek therfore he complained not Because he was meek complained not therefore the Lord struck in for him the more The lesse a man striues for himselfe the more is GOD his Champion It is the honour of great persons to vndertake the patronage of their clients How much more vvill GOD reuenge his Elect which cry to him day and night Hee that said I seeke not mine owne glorie addes But there is one that seekes it and iudges GOD takes his part euer that fights not for himselfe No man could haue giuen more proofes of his courage then Moses Hee slew the Egyptian Hee confronted Pharaoh in his ovvne Court Hee beat the Midianite Shepheards Hee feared not the troopes of Egypt Hee durst looke GOD in the face amiddst all the terrours of Sinai and yet that Spirit vvhich made and knevv his heart sayes Hee vvas the mildest man vpon earth Mildnesse and Fortitude may vvell lodge together in one breast to correct the misconceits of those men
to reuenge this impietie because the sons of Aaron did it God had both pardoned graced their father he had honored thē of the thousands of Israel culling them out for his altar and now as their father set vp a false God so they bring false fire vnto the true God If the sonnes of Infidels liue godlesly they doe their kinde their punishment shall be though iust yet lesse but if the children of religious parents after all Christian nourture shall shame their Education GOD takes it more haynously and reuenges it more sharply The more bonds of duty the more plagues of neglect If from the agents we looke to the act it selfe set aside the originall descent vvhat difference vvas there betwixt these fyres Both lookt alike heated alike ascended alike consumed alike Both were fedde with the same materiall wood both vanished into smoake There was no difference but in the commandement of God If God had inioyned ordinary fyre they had sinned to look for celestiall now he commaunded onely the fire which hee sent they sinned in sending vp incense in that fire which he commaunded not It is a dangerous thing in the seruice of God to decline from his owne institutions vvee haue to do with a power which is wise to prescribe his own worship iust to require what he hath prescribed powerfull to reuenge that which he hath not required If God had strooke them with some leprosie in their forehead as he did their Aunt Miriam soon after or with some palsy or lingering consumption the punishment had been grieuous but he whose iudgments are euer iust sometimes secret saw fire the fittest reuenge for a sin of fire his owne fire fittest to punish strange fire A suddaine iudgement fitte for a present and exemplary sin Hee saw that if hee had winkt at this his seruice had been exposed to profanation It is wisedome in Gouernours to take sinne at the first bound and so to reuenge it that their punishments may bee preuentions Speed of death is not alwaies a iudgement suddennes as it is euer iustly suspicable so then certainely argues anger when it findes vs in an act of sin Leasure of repentance is an argument of fauour when God giues a man lawe it implyes that hee would not haue iudgement surprise him Doubtlesse Aaron lookt somewhat heauily on this sad spectacle It could not but appall him to see his two sonnes dead before him dead in displeasure dead suddenly dead by the immediat hand of God And now hee could repent him of his new honor to see it succeed so ill with the sonnes of his loines neither could he chuse but see himself striken in them But his brother Moses that had learned not to knowe either nephews or brother when they stood in his way to God wisely turned his eies from the dead carcasses of his sonnes to his respect of the liuing GOD My Brother this euent is fearefull but iust These vvere thy sonnes but they sinned it vvas not for GOD it is not for thee to looke so much who they were as what they did It was their honor and thine that they were chosen to minister before the Lord Hee that called them iustly required their sanctification and obedience If they haue profaned God and themselues can thy naturall affection so miscary thee that thou couldest wish their impunity with the blemish of thy Maker Our sons are not ours if they disobey our Father to pitty their misery is to partake of their sinne If thou grudge at their iudgement take heed least the same fyre of GOD come forth vpon this strange fyre of nature Showe now whether thou more louest GOD or thy sonnes Show whether thou be a better father or a sonne Aaron weighing these things holds his peace not out of an amazement or fullennesse but out of patient and humble submission and seeing Gods pleasure their desert is content to forget that he had sons He might haue had a silent tongue and a clamorous hart There is no voice lowder in the eares of GOD then a a speechless repining of the soule Heat is more intended with keeping in but Aarons silence was no lesse inward Hee knew how little hee should get by brauling with GOD. If hee breathed out discontentment hee saw GOD could speake fire to him againe And therefore he quietly submits to the will of God and held his peace because the Lord had done it There is no greater proofe of grace then to smart patiently humbly and contentedly to rest the hart in the iustice wisdome of Gods proceeding and to be so far from chiding that we dispute not Nature is froward and tho she well knowes wee meddle not with our match when wee striue with our Maker yet she pricks vs forward to this idle quarrell and bids vs with Iobs wife Curse and die If God either chide or smite as seruants are charged to their Maisters we may not answere againe when Gods hand is on our backe our hand must bee on our mouth else as mothers do their children God shall whippe vs so much the more for crying It is hard for a stander by in this case to distinguish betwixt hard-hartednes and pietie There Aaron sees his sons ly hee may neither put his hand to them to bury them nor shed a teare for theyr death Neuer parent can haue iuster cause of mourning then to see his sons dead in their sinne if prepared and penitent yet vvho can but sorrow for their end but to part with children to the danger of a second death is woorthy of more then teares Yet Aaron must learne so farre to denie nature that hee must more magnify the iustice of GOD then lament the iudgement Those vvhom GOD hath called to his immediat seruice must knowe that hee will not allow them the common passions and cares of others Nothing is more naturall then sorrow for the death of our owne if euer griefe bee seasonable it becoms a funerall And if Nadab Abihu had died in their beds this fauour had been allowed them the sorow of their father and brethren for when GOD forbids solemne mourning to his Priests ouer the dead he excepts the cases of this neerenesse of bloud Now all Israel may mourne for these two onely the father and brethren may not God is iealous least their sorow should seeme to countenance the sinne which he had punished euen the fearfullest acts of GOD must bee applauded by the heauiest hearts of the faithfull That which the father brother may not doe the cozens are commanded Dead carcasses are not for the presence of GOD His iustice was showne sufficiently in killing them They are now fit for the graue not the sanctuarie Neither are they carried out naked but in their coats It was an vnusuall sight for Israell to see a linnen Ephod vpon the beere The iudgement vvas so much more remarkable because they had the badge of their calling vpon their backs Nothing is either
a feare least the two brethren should cunningly ingrosse the gouernment to themselues If they hadde done so what wise men would haue enuied them an office so little worth so dearely purchased But because this conceit was euer apt to stirre them to rebellion and to hinder the benefit of this holy soueraintie therefore God hath indeuor'd nothing more then to let them see that these officers whom they so much enuied were of his owne proper institution They hadde scarce shut their eyes since they saw the confusion of those two hundred and fifty vsurping sacrificers and Aarons effectuall intercession for staying the plague of Israell In the one the execution of GODs vengeance vpon the competitors of Aaron for his sake In the other the forbearance of vengeance vpon the people for Aarons mediation might haue challenged their voluntary acknowledgement of his iust calling from God If there had been in them either awe or thankfulnes they could not haue doubted of his lawfull supremacy How could they choose but argue thus Why would God so fearefully haue destroyed the riualls that durst contest with Aaron if hee would haue allowed him any equall Wherefore serue those plates of the Altar which wee see made of those vsurped Censers but to warne all posteritie of such presumption Why should God cease striking whiles Aaron interposed betwixt the liuing and the dead if he were but as one of vs Which of vs if wee had stood in the plague had not added to the heap Incredulous mindes will not bee perswaded with any euidence These two brothers had liued asunder forty yeers GOD makes them both meet in one office of deliuering Israel One halfe of the miracles were wrought by Aaron he stroke with the rodde whiles it brought those plagues on Egypt The Israelites heard GOD call him vppe by name to mount Sinai They saw him anointed from GOD and least they should thinke this a set match betwixt the brethren they saw the earth opening the fire issuing from GOD vpon their emulous opposites they saw his smoke a sufficient antidote for the plague of GOD and yet still Aarons calling is questioned Nothing is more naturall to euery man then vnbeleefe but the earth neuer yeelded a people so strongly incredulous as these and after so many thousand generations their children doe inherit their obstinacy still doe they oppose the true high-priest the anointed of GOD sixteene hundred yeers desolation hath not drawen from them to confesse him whom God hath chosen How desirous was GOD to giue satisfaction euen to the obstinate There is nothing more materiall then that men should be assured their spirituall guides haue their commission and calling from GOD The vvant whereof is a preiudice to our successe It should not be so but the corruption of men will not not receiue good but from due messengers Before GOD wrought miracles in the rod of Moses now in the rodde of Aaron As Pharaoh might see himselfe in Moseses rod who of a rodde of defence and protection was turned into a venomous serpent So Israel might see themselues in the rod of Aaron Euery Tribe and euery Israelite was of himselfe as a sere stick without life without sap and if any one of them had power to liue and flourish he must acknowledge it from the immediate power and gift of God Before Gods calling all men are alike Euery name is alike written in their rod there is no difference in the letters in the wood neither the characters of Aaron are fayrer nor the staffe more precious It is the choise of God that makes the distinction So it is in our calling of Christianity All are equally deuoid of the possibility of grace all equally liuelesse by nature we all are sonnes of wrath If we be now better then others who separated vs We are all crab-stocks in this orchard of God hee may graffe what fruit he pleases vpon vs onely the grace and effectuall calling of God makes the difference These twelue heads of Israel would neuer haue written their names in their rods but in hope they might be chosen to this dignitie What an honour was this Priesthood whereof all the Princes of Israel are ambitious If they had not thought it an high preferment they had neuer so much enuyed the office of Aaron What shall wee thinke of this change Is the Euangelicall ministration of lesse worth then the Leuiticall Whiles the Testament is better is the seruice worse How is it that the great thinke themselues too good for this imployment How is it that vnder the Gospell men are disparaged with that which honoured them vnder the Law that their ambition and our scorne meete in one subiect These twelue rods are not laid vp in the seuerall cabinets of their owners but are brought forth layd before the Lord. It is fitte God should make choyce of his owne attendants Euen wee men hold it iniurious to haue seruants obtruded vpon vs by others neuer shall that man haue comfort in his ministery whom God hath not chosen The great Commander of the world hath set euerie man in his station To one hee hath said Stand thou in this tower and watch To another Make thou good these Trenches To a third Digge thou in this Mine Hee that giues and knowes our abilities can best sette vs on worke This rod was the pastorall staffe of Aaron the great Shepheard of Israel God testifies his approbation of his charge by the fruit That a rod cut off from the tree should blossome it was strange but that in one night it should beare buds blossoms fruit that both ripe and hard it was highlie miraculous The same power that reuiues the dead plants of winter in the Spring doth it heere without earth without time without sunne that Israel might see and grant it was no reason his choyce should be limited whose power is vnlimited Fruitfulnesse is the best argument of the calling of GOD Not only all the plants of his setting but the very boughes cut off from the body of them will flourish And that there may not want a succession of increase heere are fruite blossoms buds both proofe and hope inseparably mixed It could not but bee a great comfort vnto Aaron to see his rodde thus miraculously flourishing to see this wonderfull Testimony of Gods fauour and Election Sure hee could not but thinke Who am I O GOD that thou shouldest thus choose mee out of all the Tribes of Israel My weakenesse hath been more worthy of thy rodde of correction then my rod hath beene worthy of these blossoms How hast thou magnified mee in the sight of all thy people How able art thou to vphold my imbecillitie with the rodde of thy support how able to defend me with the rodde of thy power who hast thus brought fruite out of the saplesse rod of my profession That seruant of GOD is worthy to faint that holds it not a sufficient encouragement to see the euident proofes of his Maisters
are not your selues Ere-while yee were strangers now ye are Hiuites borne and dwelling in the midst of Canaan wee will therefore destroy these Citties neare hand and doe you saue your people a farre off It would seeme very questionable Whether Ioshua needed to hold himselfe bound to this oath for fraudulent conuentions oblige not and Israel had put in a direct caueat of their vicinity yet dare not Ioshua and the Princes trust to shifts for the eluding their oath but must faithfully performe what they haue rashly promised Ioshuas heart was cleare from any intention of a league with a Canaanite when hee gaue his oath to these disguised strangers yet hee durst neither repeale it himselfe neither doe I hear him sue to Eleazar the high Priest to dispense vvith it but takes himselfe tyed to the very strict words of his oath not to his own purposes His tongue had bound his heart and hands so as neither might stirre lest while hee vvas curious of fulfilling the will of GOD hee should violate the oath of GOD. And if these Gibeonites hadde not knowne these holie bonds indissoluble they neither had beene so importunate to obtaine their vow nor durst haue trusted it beeing obtayned If either dispensation with oathes or equiuocation in oathes had beene known in the world or at least approoued these Gibeonites had not liued and Israel had slaine them without sin Either Israel wanted skill or our reseruers honestie The multitude of Israel when they came to the walls of these foure exempted Cities itched to be at the spoile Not out of a desire to fulfill Gods commaundement but to enrich themselues would they haue falne vpon these Hiuites They thought all lost that fell besides their fingers The wealthy Cittie of Iericho was first altogether interdicted them the walls houses either fell or must be burnt the men and cattell killed the goods and treasure confiscate to GOD. Achans bootie showes that Cittie was both rich and proud yet Israel might be no whit the better for them carying away nothing but empty victory and now foure other Cities must be exempted from their pillage Many an enuious looke did Israel therefore cast vpon these walls many bitter words did they cast out against their Princes the enemies of their gaine whether for swearing or for that they would not forsweare But how-soeuer the Princes might haue said in a returne to their fraud We swore indeed to you but not the people yet if any Israelite had but pulled downe one stone from their walls or shed one droope of Gibeonitish blood hee had no lesse plagued all Israel for periury then Achan had before plagued them for sacriledge The sequel showes how GOD would haue taken it For when three hundred yeeres after Saul perhaps forgetting the vow of his fore-fathers slew some of these Gibeonites althogh out of a wel-meant zeale all Israel smarted for the fact with a three yeares famine and that in Dauids raigne who receiued this oracle from God It is for Saul and for his bloudie house because he slew the Gibeonites Neither could this wrong be expiated but by the blood of Sauls seuen sonnes hanged vp at the very Court-gates of their father Ioshua and the Princes had promised them life they promised them not libertie no couenaunt was past against their seruitude It was iust therefore with the Rulers of Israel to make slauery the price both of their liues and their deceit The Israelites had themselues been drudges if the Gibeonites had not beguiled them and liued The old ragges therefore wherewith they came disguised must now be their best suites and their life must bee toylesomlie spent in heawing of wood and drawing of water for all Israel How deare is life to our nature that men can be content to purchase it with seruitude It is the wisdom of Gods children to make good vse of their ouer-sights The rash oath of Israel prooues their aduantage Euen wicked men gaine by the out-side of good actions Good men make a benefit of their sinnes FINIS Faults of the Presse thus to be corrected Read Yea for yet page 55. line 5. Adoring for adorning pa. 78. l. vlt. Contentments for contemners p. 396. l. 3.