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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A51220 The banner of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, display'd, and their sin discover'd in several sermons, preach'd at Bristol / by John Moore ... Moore, John, b. 1621. 1696 (1696) Wing M2544; ESTC R16818 58,646 155

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that are in the Earth Now when the Spirit of Sedition shall possess the Minds of Men and prompt them not only to dislike but speak Evil of such Dignities and those that enioy them and to assemble in Companies to Assault their Governours as these Men in my Text did Moses and Aaron whom they knew God had set over them and frequently acknowledged it No wonder the Psalmist in Psal 119. 126. said It was time for God to work when Men went about to undermine the Laws of God to make them void The Translation of our Church Psalms reads it thus It is time for the Lord to lay to thy Hand for they have destroyed thy Law When these Men in my Text had gathered the Congregation together against Moses and Aaron what to do Why to cut them off and Subvert the Government both of Church and State It was high time for God to appear in flaming Fire to take Vengeance upon them and pluck of the Crown of spiritual Pride from their haughty Heads Which he did as you have heard and so rejected their Confidences and blasted their intended Proceedings 4. They were of an envious Spirit they envied the State and Dignity which God had conferred upon Moses and Aaron in Constituting them their Governours in the Church This ill Quality Cooperated with the rest to provoke them to a Commotion and civil Discord amongst themselves And that the old Serpent had shed the Spawn of Envy into their Spirits the Kingly Propet affirms it with a sad Memento 106. 16. 17 18. They envied Moses in the Camp and Aaron the Saint of the Lord. The Earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the Congregation of Abiram And a Fire was kindled in their Company the Flame burnt up the ungodly By the last words in ver 17. viz. The Congregation of Abiram It is very probable that Abiram had a gathered Church which some of our Modern Dissenters call the Congregational or Independent way of gathering Churches And if so as it is very likly then he was the first that ever I read of who gathered a false Church out of a true one And so by the Text it is clear that whilst Corah and his Confederates were affronting Moses and Aaron in publick Dathan and Abiram were at a private Meeting in their Tents Praying for their good Success or waiting for a Watch word from them when they should rush forth with Weapons to Assault their Rulers For when Moses gave a charge to the rest of the People to come away from their Tents they came forth and stood in their Tent-doores with their Wives and Children with brazen faced Impudency as if they would outface God and all just Authority I did not know till after more than Forty times reading this Antient Record of Holy Writ and an exact Inspection into the Design of the Seditious Party with a deligent Observation of their prerended Holiness grounded upon false Principles Their gathering the Common People like Herds of Goats in a Tumultuous manner against their Rulers their crying them down to get into their places I say till I had diligently consulted the Record of this lamentable History I did not know that Presbiter● and Independency were of so long a standing in the World For Chorah an inferior Levite contends with Aaron to level the Office of an High-Priest to that of a Levite and flatly tells him that he takes too much upon him to lift up himself above them being all of one Tribe he sawnoreason there should be any difference in Dignity and therefore he resolves to Conform no longer but set up for himself and have Elders under him of his own choosing And as for Dathan and Abiram they defi● all Superintendency for it were they as well as Corah that told Moses and Aaron That they took too much upon them to lift up themselves above them They were able of themselves to give Laws and Orders to their Congregated Proselites without their Lordly ●urisdiction and in this State of Independency they died Impenitently How fitly may we apply the Words of Solomon to the Former and Latter Troubles of the Church Eccle. 1. 9 10. The thing that hath been is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall bedone and there is no new thing under the Sun Is there any thing whereof it may be said see this is new It hath been of old time before us And whence is it but from the Envy and Malice of the old Serpenr who is called the Devil and Satan Who as our Saviour saith John 8. 44. Was a Murderer from the beginning and abode not in the Truth And so became an Enemy to all Government above himself which Practice he continues still in the World by seducing the Sons of Men into his old Principles of Disobedience 'T is true indeed this old Serpent doth often renew his Shape but never alters his ill Qualities he often changeth his Habit but not his Disposition alters his name but not his Nature shifts places but retains still his old Principles I will conclude this Branch with the Sacred Caution of the Apostle St. Peter 1. Eph. 3. 17 18. Therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware least ye being lead away with the Error of the Wicked fall from your own Stedfastness But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom be Glory both now and for ever Amen 5. They were of a sullen selfwill'd Spirit nothing would please them but what proceeded from their own Wills They answeared Moses as some of their Successors did the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 19. 11. Return ye from the Evil of your ways They said Ver. 19 There is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the Imagination of his evil Heart Yea when they were in Captivity in Babilon they would not be Reclaimed from their own Wills but they made him this desperate Answer As for the Word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken to thee but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own Mouth Jer. 44. 14. Spiritual Wickedness doth not only blind but bind the Spirits of unstable Men with strong Cords of selfwill'dness It is a hard thing to recover any one out of any Error that hath laid the Reins of his own will into the neck of his own Judgment Sic volo sic Jubeo stat proratione voluntas His own Will is the Rule he resolves to walk by and to any other Persuasion he is like the deaf Adder that stops her Ear at the Voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely One of the sorest Plagues that God can inflict on any Man is to leave him to his own Will and the Councils of his own Heart which must needs destroy him Some do think that Liberty of Conscience is the only way to propogate the