liberty to do what they list for the Laws by which they Govern do fence in the rights and properties of men and Princes do find so great conveniency ease and security in their Government by Law that the sense of that will keep them far better within the compass of Laws than the Peoples holding a Rod over them which the best Princes are like to suffer the most by and bad will but grow desperate by it Good Princes will never need such a curb because their oaths and promises their love and tenderness towards their people the sense they have of a Power infinitely greater than theirs to which they must give an account of all their actions will make them govern as the Fathers of their Countrey and bad Princes will never value it but will endeavour by all possible means to secure themselves against it So that no inconveniency can be possibly so great on the supposition of this unaccountable Power in Soveraign Princes taking it in the general and meerly on the account of reason as the unavoidable mischiefs of that Hypothesis which places all power originally in the people and notwithstanding all oaths and bonds whatsoever to obedience gives them the liberty to resume it when they please which will alwaies be when that Spirit of Faction and Sedition shall prevail among them which ruled here in Corah and his company 2. Another pretence for this Rebellion of Corah was the freeing themselves from the encroachments upon their spiritual priviledges which were made by the usurpations of Aaron and the Priesthood This served for a very popular pretence for they knew no reason that one Tribe should engross so much of the wealth of the Nation to themselves and have nothing to do but to attend the service of God for it What say they are not all the Lords people holy Why may not then all they offer up incense to the Lord as well as the Sons of Aaron How many publick uses might those Revenues serve for which are now to maintain Aaron and all the sons of Levi But if there must be some to attend the service of God why may not the meanest of the people serve for that purpose those who can be serviceable for nothing else Why must there be an order of Priesthood distinct from that of Levites why a High-Priest above all the Priests what is there in all their office which one of the common people may not do as well as they cannot they slay the sacrifices and offer incense and do all other parts of the Priestly office So that at last they make all this to be a Politick design of Moses only to advance his own Family by making his Brother High-Priest and to have all the Priests and Levites at his devotion to keep the people the better in awe This hath alwaies been the quarrel at Religion by those who seldom pretend to it but with a design to destroy it For who would ever have minded the constant attendance at the Temple if no encouragements had been given to those who were imployed in it Or is not Religion apt enough to be despised of it self by men of prophane minds unless it be rendred more mean and contemptible by the Poverty of those who are devoted to it Shall not God be allowed the priviledge of every Master of a Family to appoint the ranks and orders of his own servants and to take care they be provided for as becomes those who wait upon him What a dishonour had this been to the true God when those who worshipped false Gods thought nothing too great for those who were imployed in the service of them But never any yet cryed but he that had a mind to betray his Master to what purpose is all this waste Let God be honoured as he ought to be let Religion come in for its share among all the things which deserve encouragement and those who are imployed in the offices of it enjoy but what God and Reason and the Laws of their Countrey give them and then we shall see it was nothing but the discontent and saction of Corah and his company which made any encroachment of Aaron and the Priesthood any pretence for Rebellion But all these pretences would not serve to make them escape the severe hand of divine justice for in an extraordinary and remarkable manner he made them suffer the just desert of their sin for they perished in their contradiction which is the next thing to be considered viz. 2. The Judgement which was inflicted upon them for it They had provoked Heaven by their sin and disturbed the earth by their Faction and the earth as if it were moved with indignation against them trembled and shook as Josephus saith like waves that are tossed with a mighty wind and then with a horrid noise it rends asunder and opens its mouth to swallow those in its bowels who were unfit to live upon the face of it They had been dividing the people and the earth to their amazement and ruine divides it self under their feet as though it had been designed on purpose that in their punishment themselves might feel and others see the mischief of their sin Their seditious principles seemed to have infected the ground they stood upon the earth of a sudden proves as unquiet and troublesome as they but to rebuke their madness it was only in obedience to him who made it the executioner of his wrath against them and when it had done its office it is said that the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation Thus the earth haveing revenged it self against the disturbers of its peace Heaven presently appears with a flaming fire taking vengeance upon the 250 men who in opposition to Aaron had usurped the Priestly office in offering incense before the Lord. Such a Fire if we believe the same Historian which far outwent the most dreadful eruptions of AEtna or Vesuvins which neither the art of man nor the power of the wind could raise which neither the burning of Woods nor Cities could parallel but such a Fire which the wrath of God alone could kindle whose light could be outdone by nothing but the heat of it Thus Heaven and Earth agree in the punishment of such disturbers of Government and God by this remarkable judgement upon them hath left it upon record to all ages that all the world may be convinced how displeasing to him the sin of saction and sedition is For God takes all this that was done against Moses and Aaron as done against himself For they are said to be gathered together against the Lord v. 11. to provoke the Lord v. 30. And the fire is said to come out from the Lord v. 35. And afterwards it is said of them This is that Dathan and Abiram who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Corah when they strove against the Lord. By which we see God interprets striving against the
Government for that which they cannot enjoy and the preservation of themselves together Which alone makes the desire of Power reasonable and if the preservation of our selves in our rights and properties may be had without it all that the want of Liberty signifies is that men have all the conveniences of Power without the trouble and the cares of it And if this be not a more desirable Liberty than the other let any rational man judge The pretence of Liberty then in this sense against Government is that men are Fools in taking the best care to preserve themselves that Laws are but instruments of Slavery and every single man is better able to defend himself than the united strength of a people in Society is to defend him And this kind of Liberty we may justly think will be desired by none but mad-men and beasts of prey It follows then that what Liberty is inconsistent with all Government must never be pleaded against any one sort of it But is there then so great a degree of Liberty in one mode of Government more than another that it should be thought reasonable to disturb Government meerly to alter the form of it Would it have been so much better for the people of Israel to have been governed by the 250 men here mentioned than by Moses Would not they have required the same subjection and obedience to themselves though their commands had been much more unreasonable than his What security can there be that every one of these shall not be worse in all respects than him whom they were so wiling to lay aside and if one be thought troublesome what Liberty and ease is there when their name is Legion So that the folly of these popular pretences is as great as the sin in being perswaded by them And it may be they have not thought amiss who have attributed a great part of that disturbance of the Peace of Kingdoms under a pretence of popular Government to an unjust admiration of those Greek and Roman Writers who have unreasonably set up Liberty in opposition to Monarchy But some of the wisest of them have given us a truer account of these things and have told us that it was impossible the Roman State could have been preserved longer unless it had submitted to an Imperial Power For the popular heats and factions were so great that the annual election of Magistrates was but another name for a tumult and as Dio goes on the name of popular Government is far more plausible but the benefits of Monarchy are far greater it being much easier to find one good than many and though one be accounted difficult the other is almost impossible And as he elsewhere well observes the flourishing of a Common-wealth depends upon its poverty that being alone able to unite the minds of the Governours who in a plentiful state not set about with enemies will be grasping at their own private interests and fall naturally from thence into divisions and animosities but the flourishing of the Monarchy lyes in the riches of it the Prince and the People having the same interest and being rich or poor together So that we see the notion of Liberty and exercise of power in Government is so far from being an inseparable property of the people that the proper notion of it is inconsistent with Government and that which lyes in the enjoyments of our Rights and Properties is so far from being inconsistent with Monarchy that they are more advanced by that than by any other way of Government 2. Another principle which tends to the subverting Government under a pretence of Liberty is that in case of Usurpation upon the Rights of the People they may resume the exercise of Power and punish the Supreme Magistrate himself if he be guilty of it Then which there can be no principle imagined more destructive to civil Societies and repugnant to the very nature of Government For it destroys all the obligations of Oaths and Compacts it makes the solemnest bonds of obedience signifie nothing when the people shall think fit to declare it it makes every prosperous Rebellion just for no doubt when the power is in the Rebels hands they will justifie themselves and condemn their Soveraign And if Corah Dathan and Abiram had succeeded in their Rebellion against Moses no doubt they would have been called the Keepers of the Liherties of Israel It makes all Government dangerous to the persons in whom it is considering the unavoidable infirmities of it and the readiness of people to misconstrue the actions of their Princes and their incapacity to judge of them it not being fit that the reasons of all counsels of Princes should be divulged by Proclamations So that there can be nothing wanting to make Princes miserable but that the people want Power to make them so And the supposition of this principle will unavoidably keep up a constant jealousie between the Prince and his people for if he knows their minds he will think it reasonable to secure himself by all means against their Power and endeavour to keep them as unable to resist as may be whereby all mutual confidence between a Prince and his People will be destroyed and there can be no such way to bring in an arbitrary Government into a Nation as that which such men pretend to be the only means to keep it out Besides this must necessarily engage a Nation in endless disputes about the forfeiture of Power into whose hands it falls whether into the people in common or some persons particularly chosen by the people for that purpose for in an established Government according to their principles the King himself is the true representative of the people others may be chosen for some particular purposes as proposing Laws c. but these cannot pretend by vertue of that choice to have the full power of the people and withall whatever they do against the consent of the people is unlawful and their power is forfeited by attempting it But on the other side what mighty danger can there be in supposing the persons of Princes to be so sacred that no sons of violence ought to come near to hurt them Have not all the ancient Kingdoms and Empires of the world flourished under the supposition of an unaccountable power in Princes That hath been thought by those who did not own a derivation of their power from God but a just security to their persons considering the hazards and the care of Government which they undergo Have not the people who have been most jealous of their Liberties been fain to have recourse to an unaccountable power as their last refuge in case of their greatest necessities I mean the Romans in their Dictators And if it were thought not only reasonable but necessary then ought it not to be preserved inviolable where the same Laws do give it by which men have any right to challenge any power at all Neither doth this give Princes the
here charged with a sin of the same nature with the gainsaying of Core and a judgement of the same nature as the consequent of the sin for they perished in the gainsaying c. And therefore we shall consider the words 1. As relating to the fact of Corah and his company 2. As implying as great displeasure of God under the Gospel against the same kind of sin as he discovered in the immediate destruction of those persons who were then guilty of it 1. As relating to the fact of Corah and his company and so the words lead us to the handling 1. The nature of the Faction which was raised by them 2. The Judgement that was inflicted upon them for it 1. For understanding the nature of the Faction we must enquire into the design that was laid the persons who were engaged in it the pretences that were made use of for it 1. The design that was laid for that and all other circumstances of the story we must have resort to the account that is given of it Numb 16. Where we shall find that the bottom of the design was the sharing of the Government among themselves which it was impossible for them to hope for as long as Moses continued as a King in Jesurun for so he is called Deut. 33. 5. Him therefore they intend to lay aside but this they knew to be a very difficult task considering what wonders God had wrought by him in their deliverance out of Egypt what wisdom he had hitherto shewed in the conduct of them what care for their preservation what integrity in the management of his power what reverence the people did bear towards him and what solemn vows and promises they had made of obedience to him But ambitious and factious men are never discouraged by such an appearance of difficulties for they know they must address themselves to the people and in the first place perswade them that they manage their interest against the usurpation of their Governours For by that means they gain upon the peoples affections who are ready to cry them up presently as the true Patriots and defenders of their Liberties against the encroachment of Princes and when they have thus insinuated themselves into the good opinion of the people groundless suspicions and unreasonable fears and jealousies will pass for arguments and demonstrations Then they who can invent the most popular lyes against the Government are accounted the men of integrity and they who most diligently spread the most infamous reports are the men of honesty because they are farthest from being Flatterers of the Court The people take a strange pride as well as pleasure in hearing and telling all the faults of their Governours for in doing so they flatter themselves in thinking they deserve to rule much better than those which do it And the willingness they have to think so of themselves makes them misconstrue all the actions of their Superiours to the worse sense and then they find out plots in every thing upon the people What ever is done for the necessary maintenance of Government is suspected to be a design meerly to exhaust the people to make them more unable to resist If good Laws be made these are said by factious men to be only intended for snares for the good people but others may break them and go unpunished If Government be strict and severe then it is cruel and tyrannical if mild and indulgent then it is remiss and negligent If Laws be executed then the peoples Liberties be oppressed if not then it were better not to make Laws than not to see them executed If there be Wars the people are undone by Taxes if there be Peace they are undone by Plenty If extraordinary Judgements befall them then they lament the sins of their Governours and of the Times and scarce think of their own If miscarriages happen as it is impossible alwaies to prevent them they charge the form of Government with them which all sorts are subject to Nay it is seldom that Governours escape with their own faults the peoples are often laid upon them too So here Numb 16. 14. Moses is charged with not carrying them into Canaan when it was their own sins which kept them thence Yea so partial have the people generally been against their Rulers when swayed by the power of Faction that this hath made Government very difficult and unpleasing for what ever the actions of Princes are they are liable to the censures of the people Their bad actions being more publick and their good therefore suspected of design and the wiser Governours are the more jealous the people are of them For alwaies the weakest part of mankind are the most suspicious the less they understand things the more designs they imagine are laid for them and the best counsels are the soonest rejected by them So that the wisest Government can never be secure from the jealousies of the people and they that will raise a faction against it will never want a party to side with them For when could we ever have imagined a Government more likely to be free from this than that which Moses had over the people of Israel He being an extraordinary person for all the abilities of Government one bred up in the Egyptian Court and in no mean degree of honour being called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter one of great experience in the management of affairs of great zeal for the good of his Countrey as appeared by the tenderness of his peoples interest in their deliverance out of Egypt one of great temper and meekness above all the men of the earth one who took all imaginable care for the good establishment of Laws among them but above all these one particularly chosen by God for this end and therefore furnished with all the requisites of a good man and an excellent Prince Yet for all these things a dangerous sedition is here raised against him and that upon the common grounds of such things viz. usurpation upon the peoples rights arbitrary Government and ill management of affairs Usurpation upon the peoples rights v. 4. the Faction makes a Remonstrance asserting the priviledges of the people against Moses and Aaron Ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them Wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord As though they had said we appear only in behalf of the Fundamental Liberties of the people both Civil and Spiritual we only seek to retrench the exorbitances of power and some late innovations which have been among us if you are content to lay aside your power which is so dangerous and offensive to Gods holy people we shall then sit down in quietness for alas it is not for our selves that we seek these things what are we but the cause of Gods people is dearer to us than our lives and we shall willingly sacrifice them in so