Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
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A51220
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The banner of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, display'd, and their sin discover'd in several sermons, preach'd at Bristol / by John Moore ...
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Moore, John, b. 1621.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing M2544; ESTC R16818
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58,646
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155
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flourish and spread it self in the sight of all the Redeemed Tribes of Israel that they could not see nor perceive the Serpent at the Root Israel was Gods chosen People above all Nations upon the face of the Earth and these Men the choisest of all Israel Psal 78. 31. Having now considered them in their Generations and Qualifications it remains that we consider them in their Estimation in what Esteem they were both with God and the People And 1. That they were once in high Esteem with God Moses himself acknowledgeth it in ver 8 9. And Moses said unto Corah Hear I pray you ye Sons of Levi Seemeth it a small thing to you that the God of Israel hath separated you from all Israel to bring you near to himself to do the Service of the Tabernacle and to stand before the Congregation to Minister unto them And that they werein great Credit and Esteem with the People we have their own words for it in ver 41. But on the Morrow all the Congregation of Israel Murmured against Moses and against Aaron Saying ye have Killed the People of the Lord. How strong were the delusions of these Men When notwithstanding the visible and unheard of Judgments which the Lord Plagued them with In causing the Earth to open her Mouth and swallow up some of them and Fire from Heaven to consume the rest Yet on the Morrow whilest these things were fresh in their sight and memory they could tell Moses and Aaroâ— with murmuring Words that they were guilty of Murder in the the Death of these Men Ye have Killed the People of the Lord. Ye have not only lifted up you selves and made your selves Lords over Gods Heritage but Treacherously and Cruely Murdered the Saints and People of God Thus did they by way of Recrimination charge the Meekest and Faithfullest Man upon the face of the Earth with the Guilt of the greatest Wickedness that could possibly be Committed And doubtless had they had an Armed Power answerable to their Envious and Arrogant Hearts they would have Erected a Sanedrim of their own and Arraigned him as Guilty of the Death of all the Israelites that dyed for their Wickedness in the Wilderness since the Day that they came up out of the Land of Egypt till then Just so the worst of Hellish Villanes except Judas and Julian the Apostates Araigned the best of Kings Jesus Christ excepted King Charles the First I mean as Guilty of all that Blood that had been shed in the three Kingdoms of England Ireland and Scotland in the time of those unnatural and Bloody Wars continued for so many dreadful Years of that Pious Prince's Raign And here I could willingly make a Digression from my matter in hand by saying That I could wish that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes Fountains of Tears that I might Weep Day and Night not only for the Sins of mine own unstable Heart but for the ensuing Miseries which without speedy and unfeigned Repentance will certainly fall upon the Church of God in these Kingdoms the Lord hath shak'd his Rod at us for several Years past nor hath he yet laid it aside for the noise of it is still in our Ears and we seem to take little or no notice of it as if we did either stop our Ears at it and so refuse to hear it or by a careless slighting of it make a puff at it or were wholly void of Sence and Reason not to understand the meaning of it like those whom the Prophet Isaiah exclaim'd against chap. 1. ver 3. The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider I must confess it is very sad to think that when God condescends to speak to poor Mortal Creatures in so many different ways as he hath done to the People of these Kingdoms and so few of us understand his meaning in any of them That we should be so destitute of Evangelical Wisdom that we should neither Hear nor See nor Tast nor Feel God in the various Dispensations of his Providences but continue in a senceless stupid dull frame of Spirit as if we resolved to walk contrary to his Providences be they what they will But least a larger Digression should divert your Thoughts from the Subject I am discoursing of I will immediately return to them where I left them and shew you more of their Sin and Wickedness for so strangly and so strongly were these Israelites ensnared and bound with the Cords and Chains of this spiritual Delusion and so cheated by the seeming Holyness of these eminent and famous Men that they adventur'd to Canonize them for Saints after they were dead altho' they died Impenitent Rebels And a probable Reason why they had such an esteem for them after they were dead was either because the Two Hundred and Fifty Men Confederates with Corah Justified their doings to the Face of Moses in the Tabernacle of the Lord and in the presence of God and died with Censors in their Hands and Incense burning thereon Or else it was because they intended to play over again the same Game that their Brethren had lost and so prove a second Brood of Religious Rebels That this is more then probable the words in ver 42. do plainly demonstrate for do but mark the Words And it came to pass when the Congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaroâ— that they looked toward the Tabereacle of the Congregation and behold the Cloud covered it and the Glory of the Lord appeared Hence it is very evident that these Chips of the old Block were resolved to revive the good old Cause of their deceased Friends and had not the Lord again Graciously preserved his Church this last Seditious Commotion might have been worie than the former For Corah and his Company did but charge Moses and Aaron with the Sin of self-promotion But these Off-spring of theirs charge them with the shedding of Innocent Blood even the Blood of the People of the Lord and so might pretend that God had put into their Hand the Sword of Vengeance for Innocent Blood These things being well weighed and considered without doubt this was the Root and Rise of their Sin The high conceit which they had of their own Knowledge and Holyness together with the Applause and Estimation which they had with the People had so lifted them up with Pride that they thought themselves so full of Knowledge and so Holy and in both so perfect that their Consciences would not suffer them to live any longer in obedience to a written Law that is to such a Law or to such Rules and Orders as should be delivered to them by any other hand then their own And this is clear if we consider the time of their publick discovering of it and we shall find that it was immediately upon Moses's pressing them to a strickt Observation of an harmless Ceremony for Decency and Order to
upon him for it as Aaron here did but as for Miriam she neither Confest her Sin nor shew'd any Sorrow for it but stubb rnly persisted in it For notwithstanding God Arraigned her himself and sate himself as â—udge in Moses's Cause and ask'd her why she was not affraid to speak against his Servant Moses she made no Reply by an humble Plea for Mercy but stood as a sullen Mute and so God recorded her and left her to Judgment and departs from her in great Fury Num. 12. 9. 2. The second Infectious Disease is the Pestilence which prevails mightily by Infection killing Thousands in a short time So doth the Plague of Spiritual Delusions Infect and Destroy many Thousands of Souls in a very few Days And that these Mens Principles in my Text had the same Effect it was too apparent in their Punishment and one may read their Sin in their Punishment And that there was a Spiritual Plague fore broken and running upon these Mens Spirits It is evident by the Injunction which God laid upon the rest of the People to depart from them and not to come near them nor touch any thing of theirs least their Sin should Infect them and they perish with them in their Sins And so Infectioâ—s was it to many Thousands in Israel that it brake forth upon them on the Morrow and in a Congregated Assembly Murmured against Moses and told him he had Killed the People of the Lord. How nearly doth Heresie in the Soul resemble the Pestilence in the Body for as fast as that lothsom Disease cleaves to the Body so fast doth Heresie stick in the Soul and Heart of a Man For as it is a very difficult thing and almost Impossible for a Phisttian to heal the Plague of Pestilence in the Body So it is a very hard and difficult thing for the best Majestrate or the best Minister in the World to reclaim any Man or Woman from the Error of their way that have forsaken the Publick Service of God the High-way of Salvation and betook themselves to the By-paths of a Pestilential Conventicle one Year Hence it is that the Apostle St. Paul Exhorts Titus to Reject A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition And subjoyns this Reason Knowing that he that is such is subverted and Sinneth being Condemned of himself Titus 3. 10 11. Now you may happily ask what an Heretick is I Answer A Heretick is one that obstinately Defends and Maintains an Opinion contrary to the Faith Practice and Profession of the truely Antient Catholick and Apostolick Church But ye may happily say why doth the Apostle Exhort Titus to be so quick and brief in Admonishing such an one and upon a second Contempt imediately to reject him I Answer Answer Because they have refused the way of Truth and chosen and prâ—fer'd an Erronious Opinion be ore it and obstinately reâ—use to return again This assâ—ion iâ— verified by the Testimony of the Prophet Jeremâ— Chap. 6. ver 16. Thus saith the Lord Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old Paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find Rest for your Souls This was the first Admonition the Prophet gave them aâ—ter their Revolt unto which they obstinately answered We will not walk therein The second word of Admonition is in ver 17 Also I set Watchmen over you saying Hearken to the sound of the Trumpet Unto which they made this stubbora Answer We will not Hearken Upon this their refusal after their second Admonition to return to the antient ways of God the Prophet proceeds in the name of the Lord to give Judgment upon them in ver 18. 19. Therefore hear ye Nations and know O Congrâ—gation what is among them Hear O Earth behold I wâ—ll bring Evil upon this People even the Fruit of their Thoughts because they have not hearkned unto my Words nor to my Law but rejected it Twice did those Men in my Text return a stubborn Anâ—wer to Moses that they would not return to their former Conformity but deâ—perately resolved to stick close to their former Remonstrance for when Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram the Sons of Eliab to come to him doubtless to perswade and advise with them to forbear the further Prosecution of their wicked Designs and to consider the manifold mischiefs that would unavoidably follow such wicked enterprizes as they were now begining to prosecute then they returned this resolute Answer We will not come up and aggravated it with this Expostulation Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a Land thâ—t floweth with Milk and Honey to kill us in the Wilderness except thou make thy self altogether a Prince over us ver 13. and then in ver 14. They follow their blow with a Moreover thou hast not brought us into a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey or given us Inheritance of Fields and Vineyards Wilt thou put out the Eyes of these Men We will not come up Upon this second Repulse of theirs to Moses's Admonition he utterly Rejects them and now will have no more to do with them but turns his Prayer directly against them And in the Indignation of his Spirit said unto the Lord Respect not thou their Offering And what the Effect of such a Prayer was like to be may be easily read in the Judgment that followed for the Earth opened her Mouth and swallowed them up with all that appertain'd to them and I wish with all my Heart that these Mens Principles had sunck into the Ground with them and never appear'd again upon the face of Earth but vae mihi 3. A third Infectious Disease in the Body of Man is the Cancer a sore fretting Disease very small in the beginning dangerous in growth and pernitious in the end Such is all Scismatical and false Doctrine in the beginning scarcely discern'd but by degrees it eats so far into the Soul that it destroys both Faith and Practice We have this confirm'd by the Apostle St. Paul in an Epistle of his to the chief Pastor of the Church of Ephesâ—s 2. Tim. 2. Cap. 16. 17. 18. ver But shun prophane Bablings for they will increase unto more Ungodliness And their Word will eat as doth a Canker of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus Who concerning the truth have erred saying That the Resurrection is past already and overthrow the Faith of some O Lord for thy Mercy sake save and deliver thy Church and People in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Religion Established by Law therein from the fly insinuating creeping Soul-infectious Diseases of Sediton Privy Conspiracy and Rebellion false Doctrine Heresie and Scisme and work in us such a Reformation in all our Lives that our Conversations before God and Man may be such as may beautifie and adorn our most Holy Faith and demonstrate to the World that we are living Members of Christ's Body I have now finished my third