that thinke none valiant but those that are fierce and cruell No sooner is the word out of Miriams mouth then the word of Gods reproofe meets it How he bestirres him and will be at once seene and heard when the name of Moses is in question Moses was zealously careful for Gods glory now God is zealous for his The remuneratiōs of the almighty are infinitely gracious Hee cannot want honour and patronage that seekes the honour of his Maker The ready way to true glorie is goodnesse GOD might haue spoken so loud that heauen earth should haue heard it so as they should not haue needed to come foorth for audience but now he calls them out to the barre that they may be seene to heare It did not content him to chide them within doores the shame of their fault had beene lesse in a priuate rebuke but the scandall of their repining was publique Where the sinne is not afraid of the light God loues not the reproofe shold be smothered They had depressed Moses GOD aduaunces him They had equalled themselues to Moses God preferres him to them Their plea was that God had spoken by them as well as Moses Gods reply is That hee hath in a more entire fashion spoken to Moses then them GOD spake to the best of them but either in their dreame sleeping or in vision waking But to Moses hee spake with more inward illumination with more liuely representation To others as a stranger to Moses as a friend GOD had neuer so much magnified Moses to them but for their enuie Wee cannot deuise to pleasure Gods seruants so much as by despighting them God was angry when he chode them but more angry when hee departed The withdrawing of his presence is the presence of his wrath Whiles he staies to reproue there is fauour in his displeasure but when he leaues eyther man or Church there is no hope but of vengeance The finall absence of GOD is hell it selfe When hee forsakes vs tho for a time it is an introduction to his vtmost iudgement It was time to looke for a iudgement when God departed so soone as hee is gone frō the eies of Miriam the leprosy appears in her face her foul tong is punished with a foul face Since she would acknowledge no difference betwixt her selfe and her brother Moses euery Israelite now sees his face glorious hers leprous Deformity is a fit cure of Pride Because the venom of her tongue wold haue eaten into the reputation of her brother therefore a poysonous infection eates into her flesh Now both Moses and Miriam neede to vveare a vayle the one to hide his glory the other her deformity That Midianite Zipporah vvhom shee scorned was beautifull in respect of her Miriam was striken Aaron escaped both sinned his priesthood could not rescue him the greatnesse of his dignitie did but adde to the haynousnes of his sinne his repentance freed him Alas my Lord I beseech thee lay not this sin vpon vs which we haue foolishly committed I wonder not to see Aaron free while I see him penitent This very confession saued him before from bleeding for Idolatry which now preserues him from leprosie for his enuious repining The vniuersall antidote for all the iudgements of God is our humble repentance Yea his sad deprecation preuayled both to to cleare himselfe and recouer Miriam The brother sues for himselfe and his sister to that brother whom they both emulated for pardon from himselfe and that God which was offended in him Where now is that equalitie which was pretended Beholde hee that so lately made his brother his fellow now makes him his God Lay not this sinne vpon vs Let her not be as one dead As if Moses had imposed this plague and could remoue it Neuer any opposed the seruants of GOD but one time or other they haue been constrained to confesse a superiority Miriam would haue wounded Moses with her tongue Moses would heale her with his O Lord heale her now The wrong is the greater because his sister did it He doth not say I sought not her shame she sought mine if God haue reuenged it I haue no reason to looke on her as a sister who lookt at mee as an aduersarie But as if her leprosie were his Hee cryes out for her cure O admirable meeknesse of Moses His people the Iewes rebelled against him GOD profers reuenge Hee would rather die then they should perish His Sister rebells against him GOD workes his reuenge Hee will not giue GOD peace till she bee recured Beholde a woorthy and noble patterne for vs to followe How farre are they from this disposition who are not onely content GOD should reuenge but are ready to preuent GODs reuenge with their own GODs Loue to Moses suffers him not to obtaine presently his sute for Miriam His good nature to his Sister made him pray against himselfe If the iudgement had beene at once inflicted and remoued there had beene no example of terrour for others God either denies or differs the graunt of our requests for our good It were wide for vs if our suites should be euer heard It was fit for all parts Miriam should continue some-while leprous There is no policy in a sudden remouall of iust punishment vnlesse the raine so fall that it lie and soke into the earth it profits nothing If the iudgements of God should be onely as passengers and not soiourners at least they would be no whit regarded The Searchers of Canaan I Can but woonder at the counsell of God If the Israelites hadde gone on to Canaan without inquiry their confidence had possessed it now they send to espy the Land sixe hundred thousand of them neuer liued to see it And yet I see GOD inioyning them to send but inioyning it vppon their instance Some things GOD allowes in iudgement Their importunitie and distrust extorted from God this occasion of their ouerthrow That which the Lord mooues vnto prospers but that which we mooue him to first seldome succeedeth VVhat needed they doubt of the goodnesse of that Land which God tolde them did flowe with milke and hony What needed they to doubt of obtaining that which God promised to giue When we will send forth our senses to be our scouts in the matters of faith and rather dare trust men then God we are worthy to be deceiued The basest sort of men are commonlie held fit enough for intelligencers but Moses to make sure work chooseth forth the best of Israel such as were like to be most iudicious in their inquirie and most credible in their report Those that ruled Israel at home could best descry for thē abroad What should direct the body but the head Men can iudge but by appearance It is for him onely that sees the euent ere hee appoint the meanes not to be deceiued It had beene better for Israel to haue sent the offal of the multitude By how lesse the credit of their persons is by so much
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
It deuoures the carcasses of men but bodies informed with liuing soules neuer before To haue seene them struck dead vpon the earth had been fearfull but to see the earth at once their executioner and graue was more horrible Neyther the Sea nor the Earth are fit to giue passage The sea is moist and flowing and will not be diuided for the continuitie of it The earth is dry and massie and will neither yeeld naturally nor meet againe when it hath yeelded yet the waters did cleaue to giue way vnto Israel for their preseruation the earth did cleaue to giue vvay to the Conspirators in iudgement Both Sea and Earth did shut their iawes againe vpon the aduersaries of GOD. There vvas more vvonder in this latter It was a maruell that the vvaters opened it vvas no wonder that they shutte againe for the retyring and flowing was naturall It was no lesse maruell that the earth opened but more maruell that it did shutte againe because it had no naturall disposition to meet when it vvas diuided Now might Israel see they had to doe with a GOD that could reuenge with ease There were two sorts of Traytors the earth swallowed vp the one the fire the other All the elements agree to serue the vengeance of their Maker Nadab and Abihu brought fit persons but vnfit fire to GOD These Leuites bring the right fire but vnwarranted persons before him Fire from GOD consumes both It is a dangerous thing to vsurpe sacred functions The ministery will not grace the man The man may disgrace the ministery The common people were not so fast gathered to Corahs flattering perswasion before as now they ran from the sight and feare of his iudgment I maruell not if they could not trust that earth whereon they stood whiles they knew their harts had bin false It is a madnesse to runne away from punishment and not from sin The end of the sixt Booke Contemplations THE SEVENTH BOOKE Aarons Censer and Rod. The Brasen Serpent Balaa◠Phinehas The death of Moses At London printed by H. L. for Samuel Macham are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Bull-head 1614. TO MY RIGHT HONOVRABLE RELIGIOVS AND BOVNTIFVL PATRON EDVVARD Lord DENNY BARON of WALTHAM The chiefe comfort of my labours I. H. wisheth all true happines and Dedicates this part of his Meditations CONTEMPLATIONS THE SEVENTH BOOKE Aarons Censer and Rod. WHen shall we see an end of these murmurings these iudgmēts Because these men rose vp against Moses and Aaron therefore GOD consumed them and because God consumed them therfore the people rise vp against Moses and Aaron and now because the people thus murmur God hath againe begun to consume them What a circle is here of sinnes and iudgements Wrath is gone out from God Moses is quick-sighted and spies it at the setting out By how much more faithfull and familiar we are with God so much earlier doe we discerne his iudgements As those which are well acquainted with men knowe by their lookes and gestures that which strangers vnderstand but by their actions As finer tempers are more sensible of the changes of weather Hence the Seers of God haue euer from their watch-tower descryed the iudgements of God afarre off If another man had seene from Carmel a cloud of a hand breadth he could not haue tolde Ahab he should be wet It is enough for Gods messengers out of their acquaintance with their maisters proceedings to foresee punishment No maruell if those see it not which are wilfully sinfull wee men reueale not our secret purposes either to enemies or strangers all their fauour is to feele the plague ere they can espie it Moses though hee were great with God yet he takes not vpon him this reconciliation he may aduise Aaron what to doe himselfe vndertakes not to act it It is the worke of the Priesthood to make an atonement for the people Aaron was first his brothers tongue to Pharaoh now he is the peoples tongue to God He only must offer vp the incense of the publique prayers to God Who would not thinke it a small thing to hold a Censer in his hand yet if any other had done it hee had fallen with the dead and not stood betwixt the liuing and dead in stead of the smoke ascending the fire had descended vppon him And shall there be lesse vse or lesse regard of the Euangelicall ministery then the Legall When the world hath powred out all his contempt we are they that must reconcile men to God and without vs they perish I knowe not whether more to maruell at the courage or mercy of Aaron His mercy that hee vvould yet saue so rebellious a people his courage that hee would saue them with so great a danger of himselfe For as one that would part a fray he thrusts himselfe vnder the strokes of God and puts it to the choise of the reuenger whether hee will smite him or forbeare the rest He stands boldly betwixt the liuing and the dead as one that wil eyther die vvith them or haue them liue vvith him the sight of fourteene hundred carcasses dismayd him not hee that before feared the threats of the people novv feares not the strokes of GOD It is not for Gods ministers to stand vpon their owne perils in the common causes of the Church Their prayers must oppose the iudgements of the Almighty When the fire of Gods anger is kindled their Censers must smoke with fire frō the altar Euery Christian must pray for the remouall of vengeance how much more they whom God hath appointed to mediate for his people Euerie mans mouth is his owne but they are the mouthes of all Had Aaron thrust in himselfe with empty hands I doubt whether he hadde preuailed now his Censer was his protection When wee come vvith supplications in our handes vvee neede not feare the strokes of GOD. We haue leaue to resist the diuine iudgements by our prayers with fauour and successe So soone as the incense of Aaron ascended vp vnto God he smelt a sauour of rest hee will rather spare the offenders then strike their intercessor How hardly can any people miscarry that haue faithfull ministers to sue for their safetie Nothing but the smoke of heartie prayers can cleanse the ayre from the plagues of God If Aarons sacrifice were thus accepted how much more shall the hy-priest of the new Testament by interposing himselfe to the wrath of his father deliuer the offenders from death The plague was entred vpon all the sonnes of men O Sauiour thou stood'st betwixt the liuing and the dead that all which beleeue in thee should not perish Aaron offered and was not striken but thou O Redeemer wouldst offer and be strooke that by thy stripes wee might be healed So stood'st thou betwixt the dead and liuing that thou wert both aliue and dead and all this that wee when wee were dead might liue for euer Nothing more troubled Israell then