for as has been our Moderation our Love and Charity one to another so shall be at that dreadful day our Final Doom Ye have not cloathed nor fed nor visited nor Ministred to the necessities of the afflicted therefore Go ye Cursed And this brings me to the Second and last observable that the coming of Christ to judgment as it shall be a General Vniversal and a Final Doom is an argument unto us that our Moderation be known unto all men So that what the Apostle useth in another Place as a Motive to constancy in the Faith is here an incitement to Unity and to Peace in Conversation 2 Thess 2.1 We beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him that you be not soon shaken in your Mind yea and by the same coming of our Lord Jesus Christ by the same collection of the Saints together in one unto him we beseech you Brethren be pitiful be courteous And is it not high time that we should cease from wrath and anger from evil speaking and from evilthinking from backbiting and back-sliding since that our Great and common Salvation is now nearer than when we first believed Rev. 16.15 Behold saies Christ I come blessed is he that washeth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame would we put on the garment of praise at that Day let us be clothed with humility now though humility be modest and bashful yet it is Covering and Fence sufficient against everlasting shame and contempt They who do abuse this Christian Grace of Moderation are great pretenders unto Liberty but as for us in the Love of men and in the fear of God let us so speak and so do as those who shall be judged by a Law that so the Law by which we shall be judged may be to us what really it is in it self a Law of Liberty A Law of Liberty when we shall be delivered from our earthly Prisons and without obloquy shall be brought out of those Prisons to Reign in the more glorious Liberty of the Sons of God The Sum Conclusion and Application of all is briefly this Let your Moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand That is the Celebration of his Nativity is now approaching and his Coming unto Judgment is every day hastning let us so commemorate the First that we have all the while a continual Remembrance of the Second our Moderation let it be known be in perfect Charity with all men The Constitutions of our Church oblige us to begin that solemnity with a Sacrament and that is a feast of Love again our Moderation let it be known even in our pleasures and our recreations twelve dayes are allotted us for rejoycing not one of them for chambering or wantonness for riot or excess is not this the Feast which God has chosen to deal our Bread unto the hungry to give gifts unto the poor a portion to six and to seven to have our hearts and our hands open to the needy not to throw away that substance which God has given us by the shaking of our elbows I do confess that we serve no hard Master and times of joy are times of indulgence too we may eat our bread with chearfulness and drink our wine with a merry heart yet let the World see that we can be Moderate let the B. Sacrament which we shall receive upon the first day be a restraint upon us that we run not out to excess in any of the rest Oh! Why should we entertain the holy Child Jesus yet once again in a stable with our filthy lusts and our beastly sins about us This is to celebrate his Birth and at the same time to renew his Death Crucifie the Lord of Life again a fresh and put him to an open shame whatever therefore may be the Ecstatical raptures either of serious Melancholy or profuse Joy let us be careful that they do not degenerate either into Prophaneness or Enthusiasme a Moderation betwixt both will do well that so neither a morose reservedness a grim presciseness on the one hand a debauched licentiousness a drolling rude Atheisme on the other do transport us to do those things which are not convenient in a word while we keep Christmas we are to think upon the Advent just gone before upon the Lent presently to follow after the Feast shall be no sooner over but the Church will call us to Sorrow Mourning and Penance Oh! that we could be sober and watchful that the reckonings betwixt God and our own Souls may be kind and easie the Feast we see is ushered in with the Apprehensions of future judgment let therefore our Celebration of the first Coming of Christ in the time of this Mortal Life in great Humility be no other than our pious and earnest expectation of his second appearance when in the Last Day he shall Come in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the Dead that so this may be the result of all our pious Festivals and Festival Solemnities especially this of the Nativity Christ as it were New-borne formed in us and we Regenerate and Born again to him and so this to be unto us the Hope of Glory whilst our fruit is unto Holiness The end of all will be Everlasting Life Thus our Blessed Apostle has backed his advice in the Text with a Promise Let your Moderation be known unto all Men ver 7. And the Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your Hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus our Lord who is the Prince of our Peace who with the Father of all Mercy and the Holy Ghost the Eternal Comforter Liveth and Reigneth One God even the God of Consolation now and ever To whom be Glory Dominion and Adoration given throughout all Ages in the Church by Christ Jesus Amen Amen FINIS ERRATA PAge 40. diligent p. 48. dele Secondly p. 51. Vpper-Chambers p. 54. Vers Aethiopic p. 69. recover our first Love p. 71 dele destructive c. p. 75. heard ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 82. persecution p. 84. their backs p. 87. caetum exert p. 107. reception of the Gospel p. 108. Orders of Men. p. 118. were there not p. 120. visibly terrible p. 127. Boar out of p. 139. against Providence p. 143. heel ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 160. exclude you or us that p. 162. two such potent p. 166. dele affected p. 169. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 176. dele as p. 180. wish that they would p. 186. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 205. serve our God p. 209. then it is bad p. 211. pretend the impulse ibid. or ruling p. 213. dele 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 216. they left p. 217. received from p. 220 the Multitude p. 227. our thoughts p. 236. dele 2 p. 139. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. Hesych p. 247. reception p. 248. endangering
their shame upon this Msoes was not so well advised when he brake the two Tables of both which he should have been the Keeper and it was some aggravation of his Passion in that he brake them at no other place but the Mount of God notwithstanding this sore Provocation he must be ready to defend Aaron against the Sedition of Corah and the Rebellion of the Congregation of Abiram We do not read that Moses did ever personally offend Aaron we have heard sufficiently both of his meekness and faithfulness but alas Aaron once and again unhappily miscarried both in the business of the Golden Calf and in the matter of Miriam and notwithstanding both these the sin being justly reproved and in some sort punished the Vnion in my Text was preserved Aaron though the Saint of God did not in one or two instances as he should Oh that he had been careful rule his tongue yet Moses must be cautious that he do not shut his Mouth he is still the Ordinance of God and therefore not to be infringed the Order is to be secured setting aside all personal offences the errour was no sooner acknowledged then forgiven and passed by and all that God's Institution between Both might be observed inviolable Aaron is still to Moses instead of a Mouth before the People and Moses in this like unto God that had appointed him Merciful and Gracious nor easily provoked nor long angry he is yet to Aaron instead of God Si non errassent fecissent minus upon a miscarriage humbly acknowledged and the penalty obediently submitted to on the one hand and the same as frankly pardoned as generously remitted on the other the Obligation is hence the stronger between Both even thus much good out of what might have been so great an evil a firmer reconciliation a surer establishment from a little shaking whilst all animosities being laid aside the Vnum necessarium that One thing necessary Vnion is preserved because in that Vnion is involved and wrapped up the security and safety of Both. And so I pass to the Third and last observable in the Text the utmost bounds of your Patience which is A Promise of Success and Prosperity unto Both an assurance that God will not be wanting where this Vnion is continued and that taken from the manner of expressing the Phrase in the Text as it relates to the last words of the foregoing verse the words are spoken by God himself as a Precept and a Promise the Precept He shall be and Thou shalt be the Promise I will be with thy Mouth and with his Mouth and will teach you Both what you shall do Blessed of the Lord is that People yea Happy is the Nation which is in such a Case where Aaron is Spokesman for Moses no other then his Mouth and Moses is to Aaron instead of God Aaron's Mouth that implies all manner of gifts and graces by which he is of God duly furnished and rightly qualified for his Office Moses being as God that denotes the Highness of his Calling the excellency of his Majesty and the Certainty of his Defence he being thus the Signet upon the Arm set there to be a Protection to the Stars that are in the right hand of God and through the tender mercy of the Most Highest they shall none of them be removed cap. 7.1 to which I cannot too often recurr it being the Parrallel to my Text the Promise which is here made is there endowed the Office which is here designed is there conferred The Lord said unto Moses See I have made thee to be as God and Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet Nothing is in the Text promised or there performed or if it be more agreeable to the scope in both places nothing is commanded or required either in one or in the other but reciprocally and with a mutual respect that so the supplement of all defects in either Government might be one of another in love and good will the complement of all from God himself the merciful Maker and Appointer of them Both might be a Blessing of Peace Plenty and Prosperity I will teach you and so be with you in whatsoever ye shall do The word in the Septuagint v. 12.15 is very Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will go along with you in every thing that you shall speak I will tread an even pace with you in every thing you shall do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symach I will be a Light and so a sure Direction to you that you do not in the least miscarry This is the sum of the whole That the Priest's mouth shall be opened in Righteousness because his words are given forth from the King The Mouth is but One and the same unto Both because so is the Ordinance of God thereupon this is the Blessing of Heaven for Both that the Word shall not return in vain untill it accomplish the Work for which it was sent God will prosper the words of his Mouth to the One the Work of his Hands to the Other he will establish the Work and the Word to them Both in Righteousness The Mouth that may imply Eloquence as we may gather from the want of it verse 10. Lord I am not Eloquent Being as God that signifies Power and Dominion Te illi Praeficiam ut sis Princeps Judex Fagius Magistratus ejus I have set thee above him as his Prince whom he must honour before all the people as his Judge and an upright Magistrate for whom thou must do Justice be sure to do him right in the sight of that People whose honour he is to bespeak for Thee Now what is Eloquence without Authority to back it it is not a Word with Power What is all Power and Dominion without a Voice to proclaim the Majesty as most excellent it is at the best but a Dumb-shew Both these being upheld together as the Ordinance of God no question that God will secure a Blessing unto that which is his own appointment He will be with the Priest because his Mouth is no other than the Mouth of God He will be with the Prince because he hath made him to be as himself instead of God but still his Presence with Both is the result of Vnion because the God of Israel which as a Common-Wealth is to be in subjection unto Both hath declared himself that he is but One God How can Moses be the Fear and the Dread of Pharaoh unless he be the Love the Choice and the Desire of Aaron How can Aaron be as he proved afterwards cap. 10.7 a Snare unto Pharaoh and his servants at the opening of whose Mouth Egypt was to be destroyed unless he hang upon the lips the words which he speaks be a faithful and distinct Eccho to the Voice of Moses without Aaron's Mouth the meekness of Moses will be soon despised and without the Arm of Moses stretched out in defence the Voice of Aaron will be
〈◊〉 or some such word to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to warrant me this or the like Division Of the rest No one or as we Translate it No Man durst joyn hmself to them First Not the new convert Disciples though if any surely they might take the confidence but ver 11. Great fear came upon the whole Church We read in the fore-going Chapter ver 32. That the multitude of those that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the goods which he possessed was his own but they had all things common as many as had possessions of lands sold them and laid down the price of what was sold at the Apostles feet And in the beginning of this Chapter we find some retaining part of the accursed thing of that which was devoted and dedicated unto God ver 4. whilst it was whole it was in the power of him that possessed it and after it was saâ—d still it was intirely in his power but being once Consecrated and separated from common use the property and propriety is then altered God doth vindicate the right of Possession to himself the sin was therefore the greater the more immediate against him in that there were some who gave indeed as others did for companies sake a certain curtailed portion to God and to his Church but not with a willing mind not as cheerful givers keeping back part of the price a wedg of Gold it may be to buy a Babylonish garment and presenting the remainder to the Apostles as the result of the whole sale this is the instance of Sacriledge even in the New Testament Satan thus hiling the hearts of wicked persons that they should lye against the holy Ghost not against Men but against God That therefore the Church be not troubled for this destructive sin of Sacriledge these two must fall a Sacrifice as Joshua of old to Achan and his House Thou hast troubled Israel and God shall trouble thee this day So the Apostles here to Ananias and Sapphira for the same sin since you have done wickedly this your oblation is abhorred both sin and death lye at the door Behold the feet of those who are to carry you forth are without ready for to bury you These two are to be cut off from the land of the living like Corah and his Company they went almost quick into hell Sacriledge whither it be under a legal or under an evangelical Dispensation is an invasion of that which God has claimed to himself for his own inheritance and it is a Sin which shall in no wise go unpunished it brings ruine and desolation wheresoever it is admitted Write such a one childless his name no more to be remembred unless for a terror unto others Corah Dathan and Abiram their wives their sons and their little ones and all that appertained unto them swallowed up alive in the pit Numb 16 33. Father Son and Daughter yea the whole House of Achan Oxen and Asses and Sheep first stoned with stones and then burnt with fire even in the Valley of Achor from this fore judgement thus severely executed upon the sin of Sacriledge this was the onely door of Hope Josh 7.18 Husband and Wife that so there might not be a Generation of Vipers to inherit their parents curse are both at once cut off in the instance before us root and branch in one day ver 10. the young men came in and found her dead and carrying her forth buried her by her husband Alas who can live when God doth thus well might the New Convert Disciples be terrified and affrighted lest that they also should not have been sincere in their Oblations lest that God should not accept the labour of their love by reason of some secret leaven of Hypocrisie that might lurk within them though they had sold their goods yet they might want charity and then they should be nothing worth wherein were they to be accounted of To see how severe an Avenger that God was with whom they had to do was cause enough of terror even to the Church it self every one of them smiting upon their breasts not daring to look up to Heaven standing afar off each one communing with his own heart and saying Lord be merciful unto me yea unto me a sinner we are all of us dead we are all of us sinful men O Lord Purior ex hoc tempore erat Ecclesiae coetus in quem multi dolose irrepserant Calv. From this time every man prepared himself for the publick Assemblies as near as he could according to the preparations of the Sanctuary they set their whole hearts to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with Reverence and with fear the terrors of the Lord in his Judgments did perswade them and do they go up unto the Temple to Solomons Porch to pray and to hear yet with the Penitent Devout Publican they must stand afar off and hence it was that they did return each man to his own house justified Thus when God is pleased to arise in the vindication of his service by his judgments upon the wicked and prophane to declare that he will be sanctified in all those that draw nigh unto him then should they who presume to tread his Courts look unto their feet when they come unto the House of God lest they offer the sacrifice of fools Would David bring up the Ark of God to his own City and to his own House and in the mid-way is Vzzah smitten Perez-Vzzah this Breach upon Vzzah makes David to smite upon his thigh lest that his way also should be found perverse before the Lord and God might find out some secret iniquity in him and so withhold good things from him 1 Chron. 13.22 David was afraid of the Lord that day saying How shall I bring the Ark of God home unto me Surely there is some iniquity or other that I do regard in my heart or it may be the sons of violence are too near about me and therefore at this time God will not not be intreated of he will by no means accept me upon this occasion it 's thought that he did pen the hundred and first Psalm in which he dedicates himself and his House to the service of his God Psal 101. Sing I must yea and so I will both of Mercy and Judgment unto thee O Lord will I sing of judgment because thy ways are terrible of Mercy because all thy paths are Peace first for himself he begins I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way Oh! when wilt thou come unto me why should the Ark of God now be carried aside from me I will walk in my House with a perfect heart Neither was this proposition like Joshua's of old Josh 24.15 Chuse you whom you will serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord No like a supreme Magistrate he resolves not to bear the sword in vain he is
a publick spirit as publick as is their sedition in some sort delivered my own soul and they shall not perish without warning and that repeated with as much vehemency as are their Divisions God in mercy give a Blessing And so may they see yet again how I do set before them fire and water and will they chuse the water alas the waters of Separation are waters of bitterness Massah and Meribah be their name and Marah is their tast they are themselves as it were baptized strife and contention and so noisome loathsome and every way unsavory is their rellish But the Fire is from the Lord in the Sanctuary it is a Refiners fire and a coal from the Altar that so all iniquity may be done away Blessing and a Curse and will they chuse the curse it is Anathema Maranatha A curse untill Christ come against all those who love not the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Communion of his Saints But this the Blessing when the Spirit shall say come and the Bride shall say come and the Church shall say come and every one that has set heart to seek the Lord the Lord God of his Fathers shall also come that so God may translate his Church which is here terribly Militant as an Army with banners in good order and in due aray unto Trophies and Triumphs in that glory which shall be everlasting And so look they once more and behold and chuse they whether they will Life and Death and will they chuse Death Death which shall never have an end the reward of those who do wilfully reject the means and the passage unto Life Oh! that at length they would believe schism and separation to be a damning Sin that they would not place the worship of God in the ways and amidst the sons of perdition I 'le leave a Text or two for them to urge upon themselves and can there be plainer words than these Rom. 13.2 They that resist that power which is the Ordinance of God or which is all one that Power which commands Obedience unto Gods Ordinance shall receive unto themselves Damnation 2 Pet. 3.1 3. False Prophets and false Teachers bring upon themselves swift Destruction whose judgment of a long time lingreth not and their Damnation slumbereth not Epist of St. Jude v. 13. These are wandring stars not keeping within their proper and appointed Orbs in order to a regular and an equal revolution Vnto whom is reserved the Blackness of Darkness for ever But after all this Life and Peace to those that seek and keep peace in the fear and love of God and of those that are set over them To conclude Let us be perswaded as we are men and Christians to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace considering that God is terrible in his judgments against the Rebellious and Sacrilegious he is wonderful in his providence for the defence of those that wait and call upon him his wrath is dreadful unto Death his loving kindness is surpassing and in his favour is Life The Assembling together of his Saints is Venerable and Awful God is honoured in the midst whilst due Reverence is paid to those that are round about him considering all these things what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness we should be no longer faithless but believing may we the more and the rather be added to the Church as Believers in the Lord and may this number increase to Multitudes of every age and of every Sex both Men and Women our Churches Prayer shall with little alteration be the close of all We Pray thee O Lord Help thy Servants whom thou hast redâ—emed with thy most Precious Blood Make them to be numbred with thy Saints here in a holy Communion and hereafter in glory everlasting To which God of his infinite Mercy bring us all to whom be ascribed Honour Praise and Adoration to Father Son and Holy Ghost One God and three Persons and that of all Ages in the Church by Christ Jesus world without end Amen Lord Mercifully receive the Prayers of thy Church that all troubles and errors being quenched it may serve thee in quietness and grant us peace in our days Amen A BAD AND A Good Zeal DESCRIBED and LIMITED Gal. 4.17 18. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that you might affect them or us 18. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing and not only when I am present with you IT was even in our Saviours time the Hypocritical Devotion of the Pharisees and is at this day the Pharisaical Hypocrisie both of the Conclave and the Consistory to compass Sea and Land to make one Proselyte and when he is gained they make him two-fold more the child of Hell then themselves so that the last estate of the poor man is worse than his beginning But as for us Woe unto us unless that our Religion do exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees their industry was both commendable and imitable if we could abstract their Labour of Love as they call it from the malice of their intention we may hear them both while they sit in the Chair of Moses but not when their design is to tumble Moses out of his Chair not when they rebell against Moses the Servant of the Lord and vex Aaron the Saint of God their long Prayers were not amiss no though they were in the Markets and the corners of every street when they made their great solemn and pompous Processions that they might be seen of men and so give an example of Devotion unto the World but we must beware of them when we find that upon this pretence they devour Widdows Houses when they commit a rapine upon the portion of the Widdow and of the Fatherless their long Robes were no such hainous crime nor their Phylacteries upon their Garments in which are supposed to have been written in Capital Letters the Ten Commandements of God to put the People in mind of their Duty but this was their fault when they proposed the Law as a Precept of obedience unto others and most shamefully and wickedly broke it in every Precept themselves in a word it is an Evangelical Precept the command of Christ himself with which Holy Church begins and exhorts to her offertory That we let our Light shine before men even the Light of our Profession in the publick attestations of our Religion we may be both burning and shining Lights but we must be careful that there be the oyl of good works to feed the flame lest men rejoyce in our Light only for a season and because they cannot behold a pious and a holy conversation directed by the fear of God therefore they do not glorifie our Father which is in Heaven we are to be watchful then that we try the hot Spirits of zeal that are abroad inthe world whether they be