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A04378 The height of Israels heathenish idolatrie, in sacrificing their children to the Deuill diuided into three sections: where is shewed in the first, the growth and degrees of this, and generally of other sinnes and idolatries. In the second, that the Deuill was the god of the heathen; with the meanes by which he obtayned that honour. With a large application to our times, against popery, shewing the pride thereof, and malice both against soule and body; together with the meanes, sleights, and policies by which it seduceth, killeth, and in the person of the Pope, raiseth it selfe to its present height. In the third, the blinde zeale of idolaters. Deliuered generally in two sermons preached at S. Maries in Cambridge: the first whereof is much inlarged: by Robert Ienison Bachelor of Diuinitie, and late Fellow of S. Johns Colledge in Cambridge. Jenison, Robert, 1584?-1652. 1621 (1621) STC 14491; ESTC S107702 160,311 208

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him in the wildernesse and grieue him in the desert yea they turned backe and tempted God 2. Measure Secondly for quality manner degree and measure of sinne thus Hebr. 11.36 Others haue beene tried by mockings and scourgings of wicked men yea moreouer by bonds and prisonment For this is such a sin for height Luke 3.20 3. Impudency as Herod added aboue all his sinnes when hee shut vp Iohn in prison Thirdly for impudency Esay 3.9 Yea they declare their sinnes as Sodome they hide them not Fourthly for defence and iustification of them 4. Defence whereby in a manner merit is ascribed to them Iohn 16 2. Yea the time commeth that whosoeuer killeth you shall thinke he doth God seruice Fifthly for delight in sinne Isay 66.3 Yea 5. Delight they haue chosen their owne wayes and their soule delighteth in their abominations Lastly for resolution Zach. 7.12 Yea 3. Of resolution they made their hearts as an Adamant stone lest they should heare the law Now surely if such was the generall ouer-flowing of sinne when these things were written what may wee thinke is it now in these last dayes of the world wherein Saint Paul hath told vs Perillous times shall come 2 Tim. 3.1.2.3.4.5 for men shall be louers of themselues couetous boasters proud blasphemers c. We need not seeke farre to finde many amongst vs on whom we might instance all the former complaints of God and his Prophets which we might iustly take vp against the prophane miscreants of our times But leauing this generall consideration who feeles not in himselfe and sees not in others each sinne without timely resistance made growing to an height by the same degrees that man himselfe from nothing growes to his perfection This resemblance I follow the rather because it is vsed by S. Iames ch 1. v. 14.15 and Saint Paul Rom. 7.4.5 For sinne is a bastardly brood hauing the Deuill to its father and our corruption to the mother which is the Deuils concubine First Lust Eleuen degrees by which each sinne growes to its height concupiscence and the corruption of our nature is as the prostitution of the soule by which it lyeth open to the Deuils suggestions Secondly wicked thoughts whether steaming vp thence or cast in by Satan are as the seed in the wombe Then sudden delight is as the retention of the seed in the wombe Fourthly Consent is the conception of sinne Fifthly a more permanent and enduring delight vpon consent is as the fashioning and articulation of it Then Sixtly purpose to commit sinne is as the springing of the child in the wombe hastning the birth and egresse Then seuenthly followes the act it selfe as the birth of sinne These are the degrees about the breeding and hatching of sinne Yet foure more there are about the growth of it to be gathered out of Hebr. 3.8.12 which are as the increase perfect stature decaying and death of man First by iteration of the act of sinning the heart is hardened Secondly it becomes an euill heart then an vnfaithfull heart And Lastly it departs from the liuing God by vtter falling away from God grace and goodnesse Now that which will follow vpon all these is that one sinne perfited will draw on and make way for other greater sinnes so that without repentance men shall proceed from euill to worse till at the length they be tied and bound in infinite chaines and therein kept for the day of destruction Oh therefore that men out of the former considerations would but lay to heart this mysticall working of sinne that with feare they might either watch against the first motions of sinne or with speedy repentance but winde themselues out of the snares of the Deuill as knowing that otherwise God will one day wound the hairy scalpe of him that goeth on in his sinne We must resist sinne at the beginning What is then to be done Surely this should cause vs earnestly to intreat by daily and vnfained praier that we be not lead into tentation seeing there is no sinne so great into which we may not in time fall especially if God leaue vs to our owne corruption and Satans politique stratagems or otherwise in his iustice giue vs ouer from one degree of sinne to another This we may iustly feare when we are not carefull to resist sinne at the first If we giue entertainment to euill thoughts and lodge them 〈◊〉 our hearts Satan seeing how kindly we receiue and intreat his harbingers will come himselfe attended with legions and take vp the best roome in our hearts out of which he will not be dislodged till we seeke to and giue welcome to Christ and his spirit a stronger then Satan Here then is vse and need of our diligence watchfulnesse and wisdome Oh that we could be but as wise in this kinde as others are wicked Harlots which prostitute their bodies to filthy lusts labour by all meanes they can either to hinder the conception or to kill the childe in the wombe or to drowne it or otherwise to make away with it afterwards that so they may auoid the shame of the world and charge of bringing it vp When Pharaoh would hinder the multiplying of the children of Israel in Aegypt Come on Exod. 1.10.16.22 saith he to his people let vs deale wisely with them lest they multiplie Hereupon as he set hard Taske-masters ouer them so he commanded the Hebrew Midwiues when they did the office of a Midwife to the Hebrew women to kill all the males Which when it tooke not effect he then charged all his people saying Euery sonne that is borne ye shall cast into the riuer Happy we if we were so wise in dealing thus with the children and fruit of our concupiscence either to hinder the conception of them by not consenting or the birth by not committing sinne or being borne to dash these little ones the children of confusion against the stones Psal 137.9 or rocke Christ Iesus But alas sinne and Satan are too wily for vs and our owne hearts too treacherous and our nature weake so that in this state of mortalitie we cannot possibly hope to be free of sinne Humanum est labi errare decipi we must cease to be men before we can hope to cease from sinning To sinne is inseparable from mans nature and that man doth sinne it must be ascribed to humane frailtie as it s said of Ephraim and Iudah Hos 6.7 But they like men haue transgressed the couenant What then Seeing we cannot but sinne shall wee delight in sinne God forbid Thus of men we should become beasts namely filthy dogges and swine 2 Pet. 2.22 whose propertie it is to returne to the vomit and to wallow in the mire Much lesse then must we become deuils by defending knowne sinne or being enemies of righteousnesse or resisting the good motions of Gods Spirit or the truth for which Elymas deserued the name of childe of
the deuill Act. 13.8.10 Our onely way then is to be as zealous in good We must shew a proportionable zeale against sinne as euer wee haue beene forward in euill and whereas perfection in this life is to be measured rather by our desires affections resolutions and indeauours then by performance to shew our zeale first by our hatred of euill 1 By our confession and our confessing and bewailing of sinne aggrauating it against our selues by the same degrees by which we trespassed against God Dan. ●5 and 7. saying with Daniel for himselfe and the people in captiuitie We haue sinned and haue committed iniquitie and haue done wickedly yea we haue rebelled and departed from thy precepts c. 2 In our new obedience and willingnesse Secondly by being ready and willing to our power yea beyond our power to yeeld obedience to Gods Commandements that so for our readinesse and resolution to obey we may say with Dauid Psal 40.8 Psal 11● 34 I delight to doe thy will O my God yea thy law is within my heart and pray with him Giue me vnderstanding and I shall keepe thy law yea I shall obserue it with my whole heart that so it may be said of vs generally in respect of all good duties what Paul said of the Macedonians in the matter of almes 2 Cor. ● 2 To their power I beare record yea beyond their power they were willing This resolution to obey God euen in his hardest commands whether by obedience actiue or passiue our Sauiour Christ would haue to be in vs all Luke 14 20. saying If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his owne life also he cannot be my disciple This affection was in S. Paul and should be in vs when for Christs sake and the Gospels he said to the Philippians Yea Philip. 2. ●● and if I be offered vpon the sacrifice and seruice of your faith I ioy and reioyce with you all 3. In our sorrow for sinne Thirdly by our sorrow for sinne committed and by the fruits thereof that so also it may be said of vs as S. Paul said of the Corinthians 2 Cor. ●●● Behold this selfe-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulnesse it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selues yea what indignation yea what feare yea what vehement desire yea what zeale yea what reuenge Such Yeaes as these would eccho well to this Yea in my text where it is said Yea they sacrificed their sonnes and their daughters vnto Deuils THE HEIGHT of ISRAELS Heathenish Jdolatrie PSAL. 106.37 Yea they sacrificed their sonnes and their daughters vnto Deuils SECTION II. CHAP. I. Wherein is proued that the gods of the Heathen were Deuils NOw let vs consider this sinne in particular and because it is a sinne of this nature belonging to Idolatrie and false worship Of the Idoll gods of the Iewes and Heathen let vs first take a view of these Idoll gods Secondly of the sacrifices and seruice done vnto them It s here said They sacrificed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deuils or to destroyers and spoilers so called from the effect not to any Platonicall or good Daemon but to the deuill himselfe our malicious aduersarie If wee compare this place with Deut. 12.31 we shall see that these deuils were the gods of the Heathen There the Lord forbids his people to doe vnto him as the Heathen did to their gods for they saith the text haue euen burnt in the fire their Sonnes and Daughters to their gods and Deut. 32.17 Moses in his Song complaines of the Israelites that they sacrificed vnto deuils not to God to gods whom they knew not to new gods that came newly vp These gods were the Idols of Canaan verse 38. of this Psalme and the Idoll Moloch whereof in particular God gaue his people caueat Leuit. 18 21. which Idoll was the Image of a Calfe vast and hollow hauing seuen chambers or roomes in it according to the variety of seuerall gifts and sacrifices which were to be consumed in it whereof one was appointed for a sheepe another for a lambe a third for a calfe but the last was for children who by their parents were cast in and burnt quicke ●hat they were Deuils ●●oued ● From Scrip●●●● Here wee will shew first that the gods of the Heathen were indeed Deuils Secondly How Deuils came to bee acknowledged and worshipped for gods That they were Deuils will plainly appeare if first we consult with the Oracles of God Saint Paul tels vs 1. Cor. 10.20 that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Deuils and not to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies euill spirits and the very Deuils according to the vse of Scripture which by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnderstands diabolos Deuils as 1. Tim. 4.1 where mention is made of doctrines of Deuils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Leuit. 17.17 God chargeth his people that they shall no more offer their offerings vnto Deuils after whom they that is the Gentiles haue gone a whoring And so is Rehoboam said 2 Chron 11.15 to haue ordained him Priests for the high places and for the Deuils and for the Calues which he made and my text is plaine which saith They sacrificed their Sonnes and Daughters vnto Deuils ● From their accepting of sacrifice See Baruch chap. 6. A further proofe hereof is that they were neither the true God for Saint Paul tels the Galathians ch 4.8 that when they knew not God they did seruice to them which by nature are no gods neither good Angels for they both require and accept sacrifices which good Angels know to be due to the true God onely and so indeed they are for saith Saint Augustine a August de Civit. Dei lib. 10. cap. 19. As when we pray to or praise God we direct our words to him onely to whom we offer in our hearts the thing signified by our words so in our sacrifices we offer not any visible sacrifice but to him b Non altere quam illi cuius in cordibus nostris invisibile sacrificium nosipsi●sse debemus onely to whom we owe the inuisible sacrifice of our owne hearts and selues Therefore the good Angels being perfect in charity both towards God and man will neither by accepting any sacrifice dishonour God which euen good men Paul and Barnabas Acts 14.14.15 refused to doe nor seeing they loue vs as themselues will they haue vs to attaine happinesse by other meanes then they themselues doe so that seeing as the same Father saith August ut supr lib. 10. cap. b. 4.7.19.25.26 The summe of both Tables is fulfilled in this that we should c Et a quibus diligimur duci quos diligimus ducere both be gained to God our selues by such as loue vs and
against the Iewes who daily went about to kill him thinking and alledging that otherwise their kingdome could not stand thus seeking by his ruine to establish their owne kingdome saying If we let him thus alone all men will be e●n● in him and the Romanes will come and take away both our place and the Nation Hereupon they sought to kill him both they and the Deuill by them But our Sauiour concludes that euen in this regard they were the sonnes and children of the Deuill saying If ye were Abrahams childr●n as yee pretend y●…●oul● doe the workes of Abraham But now yee seeke to kill me ●a man that hath told you the truth which I haue heard of God this did not Abraham ye doe the ●eed of your father ye are of your father the Deuill and the lusts of your father ye will doe he was a murtherer from the beginning c. And surely we may as firmely conclude against all such as vpon like grounds goe about to establish and vphold their kingdome of Antichrist by shedding the innocent blood of harmelesse Protestants and especially of religious Kings thinking that both Kingdomes cannot stand together theirs and Christs Practising 〈◊〉 Hereupon they most deuilishly practise and most shamelessely by writing excuse yea warrant and giue allowance to the murthering of Christian Kings and Princes witnesse that bloody butchery not long since practised vpon the persons of two Kings of France successiuely Henry the third and Henry the fourth who both being popish were not thought popish enough and their Apologies written in excuse of Iohn Chastel who attempted to kill Henry the fourth which after villanous Rauiliac performed Instances of Popish practises cruelties and attempts in this kind there might be giuen many not onely in forraigne nations but euen in our owne witnesse their Spanish nauy which in the yeare 1588. was sent to subdue the whole nation and came prouided of all cruell instruments of death and dolour which could be imagined Witnesse also their many attempts vpon the person of the late Queene Elizabeth of happy memory as also of our gracious Soueraigne King Iames. But that which swallowes vp the mention and remembrance of al the rest was the Pouder-plot such a strange and malicious plot as for strangenesse could neuer haue by any Poets faigned inuention beene imagined and for maliciousnesse neuer haue proceeded from any mans soft harmelesse and relenting heart From whence then but from that subtile Serpent and deuouring Lyon great Beelzebub our vtter enemy their great god for so we may conclude against them as our Sauiour before against the Iewes in like case that herein they doe not the workes of Iesus whose name they take vpon them but the workes of their father that is of him whose lusts they do and who hath bin a murtherer of the Saints from the beginning that is the Deuill whose instruments herein they were in which regard I may say and conclude of the first inuenter of that plot which was Catesby in regard of his designe and attempt that which Socrates writes of Nestorius that he was Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 29. totius diabolicae nequitiae capax instrumentum vereque totius Ecclesiae Anglicanae incendium a large receptacle and instrument of all deuilish wickednesse and the very firebrand of the whole English Church And thus haue we seene how Satan is still himselfe and cannot forget to be cruell and that now he reignes as god also in this regard as well as in former times Heretofore indeed he by Oracle publikely commanded the killing of men and was obeyed but God be thanked our Sauiour Christ by his comming hath put him to silence in his person yet now he teacheth the same lesson and is also obeyed in this as in many things else For we know there are doctrines of deuils whereof these last times are in danger and there are Doctors of deuils which say they are Christians and Iesus his disciples calling themselues Iesuites yet are they not but the Synagogue of Satan These are they by whom especially Satan exerciseth his malice both against mens soules by seducing and their bodies by killing them by both Satan goes about seeking whom he may deuoure and that not only in his owne person but in the person of his instruments especially Iesuites and generally the popish faction These seeke first to seduce and where they speed not so they proceed to the second They first compasse sea and land to make proselytes to withdraw men from their obedience and loyaltie to God and their lawfull Kings if they preuaile not thus then presently they proceed either to fire and fagot if power and authoritie be in themselues or else to secret practises tending to no lesse then death and destruction And here we may obserue the rage and zeale of the wicked which is not zealous enough vnlesse it end in blood Thus the Iewes dealt with our Sauiour Christ who not content that he should be whipped by Pilate and mocked by themselues they must needs crye Away with him and againe away with him Iohn 19 1-6-15 crucifie him and againe crucifie him So they dealt with Saint Paul Philip 3 6. Acts 21.4 who himselfe while he was a blind Pharisie persecuted the Church yea vnto the death but being once a true conuert he was persecuted himselfe and oftentimes whipt Yet this being not enough see the rage of the Iewes against him Acts 22 ● for more then forty men bound themselues with a solemne oath that they would neither eat nor drinke till they killed Paul So now adaies cursing with Bell Booke and Candle disgraces wrongs iniuries and excommunications are not enough our enemies crie still for fire and faggot This our Sauiour hath foretold vs of Iohn 16.2 They call presently with the rashly zealous disciples of Christ for fire from heauen to consume vs at once and when our Sauiour denies them this they will fetch it from the vaults of hell it selfe but they will haue it Herein plainely manifesting whose children they are for euen so doth their father and master for whom he hath any hand ouer he labours to serue as he did that Lunatick whom he possessed whom oft times he cast into the fire Ma●●●●● and into the water to destroy him And as he did with the Heathen and Israelites in my text nothing could please him vnlesse they made away with and sacrificed themselues and children to him From this raging and furious malice of the Deuill in his owne person and in his instruments we may yet make further vse And first if the Deuill bee now so maliciously bent against mankind 〈…〉 Satan 〈…〉 and with such sauage crueltie vse them now that euen professe his seruice as did the Heathen and these Iewes what shall we then thinke will be his furious rage when in hell he shall haue full power ouer the damned when his fury shall be exasperated with the present sence of Gods
listen to Saint Gregory his lesson Greg. 〈…〉 which is Iniustum est seruire diabolo qui nullo placatur obsequio We haue no reason to doe the Deuill seruice when nothing we doe can make him propitious He then that thus seekes heauen shall come as short of it as did those Carpocratian heretikes of whom Saint Austen August de haeres cap 7. who professedly taught the practise of all filthinesse that so by pleasing wicked Fiends in whose power they were they might be suffered to passe quietly without disturbance through their aery regions to the celestiall But for the true God God was much displeased therwith Deut. 12.31 Ier. 29.5 this kind of seruice could neither please him nor appease him he condemnes it here and elsewhere and his wrath was kindled against them for it verse 40. Yet might they say they intended nothing but well by it and if they erred it was an error of loue not loue of error seeing for his sake they spared not their dearest children Truth if Intentions without or against Gods word would excuse But wil-worship with disobedience is no plea at Gods bar Abrahams example doth not iustifie it Yet Abrahams zeale was commended true because it was cōmanded But Agamemnons was condemned because by the law Thou shalt not kill it was forbidden And was not Abrahams Yet is not the others zeale hereby warranted God who is aboue his Law tried Abraham by a special command dispensing with the general vnto which the other still stood bound as hauing no speciall Abraham obeyed while he disobeied if disobeyed not so the other Abraham was not blamed for his butchery but praised for his pietie A cult de ciuit 〈…〉 2● saith S. Augustine Quòd voluit filiū nequaquàm scelerate sed obedienter occidere Inasmuch as hee was ready to haue slaine his Son not scelerously but in obedience Abrahams readinesse being from diuine instinct is imitable of none who haue not the like Heroici motus non sunt imitandi Diuine and extraordinary motions are not to be imitated Wee are bound to the common rule but these diuine instincts are farre aboue it One particular Heroici motus sunt suprare●ulam saith Logicke is inferred proued or warranted by another onely where the cause and reason is alike in both but here the facts were not more like then the causes different But the truth is Abrahams obedience pleased God and not his sacrifice or rather his obedience was his sacrifice God is not delighted simply in our bloud no not of Martyrs but in our obedience whether actiue or passiue In Abraham wee see it Nam Deus qui iusserat vt id fieret Pet. Martyr in locis ne fieret prohibuit God who commanded the act yet forbade the acting of it Euen so though without iniury yea also iustly hee might require our bloud in ordinary sacrifice yet did hee require onely of the Iewes for it the bloud of beasts Thus both shewing them and vs our sinnes and death deserued by them and yet his readinesse to receiue an atonement yea the atonement of another for vs. Yet could not these outward sacrifices simply eyther appease his wrath as holding no proportion with the infinitnesse thereof or of our guilt or yet so much as please him without some better and more pleasing sacrifice August de ciuit Dei lib. 10. ca. Thus euen the Heathen Non boue mactato coelestia numina gaudent Sed quae praestanda est sine teste Fide Ouid. ep 19. Sacrificium enim visibile saith Saint Austen invisibilis sacrificij sacramentum hoc est sacrum signum est For the outward visible sacrifice is a sacrament that is a holy signe of an inuisible sacrifice If God then from thence smelled a * Gen. 8.20 Act. 20.28 Sauor of rest it was from the sacrifice of our Sauiour Christ For as it by the rest was typified so the rest by it were sanctified and accepted This hath so sufficiently alone reconciled God to vs and satisfied his iustice as being the shedding of the bloud of God that to offer any other eyther sacrifice or seruice or yet this againe to that end were as to derogate from the sufficiency thereof so to make God as implacable as we haue shewed the Deuill to be CHAP. III. An application of the former point THus haue wee seene Idolatry zealous though it reape no acceptance nor yet good fruit of its zeale Though it lose yet may wee gaine from it this profitable and vsefull consideration Idolaters more zealous in their kinde then the children of light That the children of this world are not onely more wise but more zealous also in their generation then the children of light Whose zeale therefore if it expell not our coldnesse shall condemne both it and vs. Religion sailes and holds her course betweene two dangerous rockes of Superstition and Impiety On the one side saith Plutarch In Camillo there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superstitious vanity on the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Negligence and contempt of heauenly things And such saith he is mans infirmity that keeping no bounds it is hurried sometime to the one and sometime to the other Both are euill but yet the second iustifies the first as Ierusalem did Sodome Superstition at the least in shew and pretence bordering nearer to true piety Wee may see and yet shame to see our selues so farre behinde the zealous affections and practises of Heathen Heretikes Idolaters and generally of the wicked Wee may see in Scripture Samaria doting on her louers Ezek. 23.5 Isa 57.5 or set on fire with them and the Iewes inflamed or inflaming themselues with Idols and yet our selues like Moah through our ease and long peace setled on our lees Ier. 48.11 Zeph. 1.12 and like Ierusalem curded and frozen in our dregs In my Text wee haue seene children sacrificed by their Parents to the deuill and yet see professed Christians vnwillingly if at all eyther to chastise their children doing amisse or to consecrate them to the seruice and honour of God or their Country yea impatiently to take their death when God himselfe cals them away Anno 1293. Apud Laps Monit Exe. polit Yet wee reade of one Alphonsus Peresius Gusmanus a Spaniard who holding the Citie Tariffa for the King his Master was threatned by the enemies that vnlesse hee yeelded vp the Towne his onely sonne whom they had taken should be miserably mangled in his sight No said hee betray my trust I will not for an hundred sonnes of mine if you had them and if you will needs doe it loe here is a sword and so casting his owne sword vnto them his sonne therewith was barbarously murthered himselfe nothing appalled thereat Strange also it is Idolaters zeale in not sparing themselues 1 Kings 18.28 what butchery men haue executed on themselues for the pleasing pacifying and honouring of their Idols You shall