rebellion for most clement Princes must needs with a severe hand chastise rebellion such is the vile nature of rebellion that found in children against the Parents by Gods Ordinance among the Jewes the subject of it must be stoned with stones Deut. 21.18 19 20. And when Moses would exalt Gods mercies to Israel he aggravates their unworthinesse by charging them to have been a stiffe-necked and rebellious people Deut 9.6 23 24. And Samuel charging Saul with this guilt asserts rebellion to be as the sin of witchcraft for its vile nature And when Jerusalems enemies would make her vile they wil denominate her a rebellious City Ezra 4.12 15. And did ever any yet rebel against the Lord and prosper let the severe judgements of God upon Judah and Israel for their rebellions witnesse Whil'st then this sin of Altar-building appears so vile not only in the ground but also the acts thereof let all sincere worshippers at Gods Altar consider whether their loyalty to their great Creator and gracious Redeemer do not engage them in their places to see to so great and crying a sin The third thing that may evidence building Altars beside the Altar of God to be a sin exceeding sinful is the sad effects thereof which we cannot but expect to be exceeding sad and bitter whilest the root and branches thereof are so exceeding vile for the fruit must needs be suitable to the tree that beares it and those are these foure 1. A rending from the body of the Church a withdrawing from the communion God himself hath set us in a making a schisme and rent in the Church of God as Diodate notes a severing our selves from the communion of the Church in which alone is the true service of God and the participation of his grace and Covenant that sad effect of sins Soveraignty among the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.4 which is so evil that the Propagators thereof are to be declined Rom. 16.17 which violates unity and deprives the Church of that blessed fruit of the Spirit this is that which as nature condemnes in the body so the Gospel in the Church 1 Cor. 12.25 which when making factions and parties in the Church as sedition in a Common-weale is dangerous and many times destructive being attended and seconded with envies strifes hatred and the like yet this evil fruit springs from Altar-building as its sad effect as is evident in the story under consideration wherein it is clear that the two Tribes suspected the act in hand to be to this end to withdraw from any longer communion with their brethten and to worship God distinct and by themselves which they desire to prevent by rather giving them inheritances on the same side of the river with them See more of this schisme Mr. Hollinsworths Rejoynder to Mr. Eaton and Mr Tailors Reply then the division of portions should divide their piety and joynt attendance on Gods Altar So Corah and his company did rend themselves from the body of the Church and make a fearful division in refusing to keep communion with the people of God according to his appointed administration in Numb 16. when they were about to erect their Altar against Gods what a sad rent from the Church did Ieroboams Altar-building make not to this day semented though sought after by such as earnestly supplicate the accomplishment of the gracious Promise of God that the stick of Ephraim and the stick of Judah shall become one in his hand in Ezek 37. from 16 to 21. In which is to be noted that the accomplishment thereof is promised to be accompanied with the abolishment of their Altar-building sin and unity in Gods wayes and worship v. 22 unto the end of the chapter which grievous rent from the communion of the Church a burden not to be borne by the sincere worshippers at Gods Altar provokes as I before noted out of Mr. Cotton * His Exposition on Canticles that pathetical prayer to be directed to the true Church and Altar of Christ in Cant. 1.7 that they might be delivered from the danger thereof nay it perswaded not only the Priests and Levites to prefer the Altar and Church of God above their suburbs and possessions but also all such as set their heart to seek the Lord to run the hazard of going to Ierusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord with their brethren 2 Chron. 11.13 14 16. This sad effect doth the Spirit witnesse to follow this sin nay flow from it under the Gospel The Apostle Paul Acts 20.30 foreseeing the appearance of seducers Apostate-Altar-builders that would innovate doctrines and formes of worship contrary to Christs institution chargeth the Elders of the Ephesian Church to see to this sin at least that their members be not seduced urging this sad effect as a swaying reason They shall draw aside many disciples after them from the communion of the Church * Ut abducant ab Ecclesiastica unitate post se ad inhaerendum eorum erroribus Dyonys Carthus in loc Abstrahere autem significat inani gloria tumidos compellere sectatores in sua nomina jurare Aret. in loc as did Novatus vid. Euseb l. 6. c. 4. Religionum Confusio dissipat Ecclesiae consensionem Mas in Text. saith one or make sects saith another and the Apostle Peter in the second Epistle the second chapter the third verse prophesies false teachers should be in the Christian Churches which building their owne Altars of damnable doctrines many should follow their pernicious wayes speaking evil of the way of truth for the confusion of Religion must needs be destructive to the concord of the Churches which God witnessed by constituting one only Altar for all his peoples attendance with one only forme of administration and this cannot but be seen in the Apostles dayes by such as shall seriously observe the Apostolical redargution of schismes and seducers characterizing false apostles charging the Churches to observe and decline them as those that make divisions and trouble them frequent commendations of the union and communion of the Church and disciples and fervent perswasion to and prayers for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace which all suggest to us and clearly imply that this sin of Altar-building by will-worshippers was in act to the dividing of the members from the body in their very dayes and who is there that looking into Ecclesiastical story Dyonys Bishop of Aleaxndriâ— his Epistle to Novatus recited by Eusebius Pamphil l. 6. c. 45. or translat 44. sees not the sad rentings from and confusions in the Church effected by the Altar-building of doctrines dissonant to truth and the Altar of Christ propagated by the many hereticks of the primitive times as Novatus whom Dionysius in his Epistle to him chargeth with a renting and dividing from the Church as a sin most grievous counting the suffering for the unity of the Church a more glorious martyrdome then the sufferings for not sacrificing to devils for this is suffered for one
backsliding from the worship and Altar of God by such as were joyned under the visible administration of his Covenant was with a Spirit of zeal and a strong hand to be restrained Is not this in this very story so very clear that he that runs may read See we not the people of the ten Tribes generally assembled with power in hand and purpose in heart to impede the suspected sinne and so to keep in due order of attendance on Gods Altar Is it not to this end that God hath invested his Church with authority and censures and requires the due execution thereof that by fear men may be forced from sinne Is not the cutting off the troublers of Gods Church rejection of hereticks casting off and delivering up to Satan for the buffetting of the flesh the very act of this resistance Was it not the discharge of this duty that emulated the Apostles in their dayes 1 Cor. 5. and succeeding faithful Ministers of the Gospel by the Authority of Christ to withstand the false Apostles Gal. 5.12 Tit. 3.10 and seducing teachers of their times as sinful Altar-builders that this lies as a duty on the authority of the Church is generally granted by all even by such as deny the same to be a duty in the Magistrate which at this time is not my part or purpose to dispâ—re having been done by more able men and that very fully that onely which I would dictate is that in general every professed sincere worshipper of God is to approve himself such not onely by cautionating against or counselling from but also in his place and according to his capacity in contending against the sinne of Altar-building as private Christians by friendly objurgations and discountenancing the same even by drawing from communion and otherwise when duly called Ministers of the Church by reproving condemning and censuring nay if thereunto called defending the place of Gods worship against their entrance into the same to correct their sin as did Alexander that famous Bishop of Constantinople and undergoing not onely censures of bitternesse and violence but even banishments and saddest sufferings as did Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria in withstanding the Arrians and when I consider Christian Magistrates waiting on the Altar of God by the fulnesse of their power and influence of their authority on the sons of men to be in the sittest capacity to manage to the purpose this resistance I cannot see whatever others say to the contrary how to exempt them from the approving themselves sincere worshippers at Gods Altar by the faithful and zealous discharge of this duty Thus then I have done with the second thing to be illustrated and have shewed you what duties he on the sincere worshippers of God in seeing to the sin of Altar-building and you see they must 1. See it 2. Be sensibly affected with it 3. Speedily cautionate from it 4. Seasonably remove accidental occasions as farre as may be 5. Zealously resist when other means will not availe that so they may not share in their guilt I now come to the confirmation of the Point thus illustrated by giving the reasons of it The reasons why the building of Altars besides the Altar of God is to be so seasonably seene unto by the sincere worshippers of God I shall briefly comprehend under one general head and that is this To build Altars besides the Altar of God is a sinne exceeding sinful it is sufficient to emulate a sanctified heart against it to assert it simply to be a sin though of the lowest order for saving grace doth militate against sinne as such not as it is more or lesse grievous yet how much more fervently and fully will it bend it self against sinne as it appears aggravated vile and exceeding sinneful more eminently and immediately dishonouring God provoking fury scandalizing religion and sadly dividing the Churches of God of which nature to the emulating of zeal and engaging the strength of sincere worshippers of God against it I shall labour to let the people of God see this sinne of Altar-building to be and that in the consideration of the grounds actings effects and sad aggravations thereof F rst Altar-building besides the Altar of God will appeare a sin exceeding sinful if we consider the sinneful grounds from whence it springs and ariseth amongst others we may specially take notice of these three common causes thereof First shameful novelty that frame Ground 1 of spirit which for its vilenesse is noted to be the effect of idlenesse and want of serious imployment which might six * Variam dant otia mentem the soul this is that frame of Spirit which renders a man weary of every thing though in it self never so good whereby men become Athenians to give up themselves to things as they are new rather then as they are good and enquire after Pauls Doctrine as new Acts 17.19 and so suitable to their curiosities rather then as true and saving to their souls the which although noted as an occasion of Pauls preaching yet is taxed as an evidence of their vanity who minded nothing else but novelties which might be vanities according to the Greek proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Novelties commonly are vanities This is that shameful sinne which brings a distaste on the most pleasont object * Apparet etiam quare tantopere novae res placeant quoniam mens cum primum quippiam nobile ac pâ—aestans affert se contemplandum acriter attente ipsum intâ—â—etur quo cognito de studio remittit ideo voluptas definit verum si priori objecto aliquid recens supponatur denuo intelligentia contendit studium ea contemplando voluptas redit atque hoc pacto semper rebus novis obiectamus Pet. Mart. loc com p. 330. and placeth affection on that which is more base a disposition more fit for babes and children then men of discretion who should embrace by reason this novelty is the mother of sedition in States and Republicks which a wise Lycurgus will labour to anticipate by his perpetual absence from his Lacedemonian subjects engaged to constancy of obedience till his return and chiefest polliticians by assenting to Plato his directions and seeing that ne quid in rebus ad religionem attinentibus innovetur that novelties in religion be not admitted In a word such is the vilenesse of this novellous temper that Satan cannot endure his wayes and doctrines to be charged with novelty which he therfore cloaks with the plea and brings in with the loud cry of Antiquity whilest he makes the truths and wayes of God distastful with the charge of * Paulus Samosatenus cast the Psalmes out of the Church as new found figments of late Writers Euseb Hist lib. 7. cap. 29. novelty which need no clearer proof then the Papists contention for their shameful absurdities and horrid innovations with the pretence of antiquity whilest their common captious calumniating question against the true Churches doctrine and
authority of the Scriptures With the Arians to deny Christ his divine nature With the Seekers to deny Gospel-Ordinances in the matter or with Anabaptists in the manner of their administration With the Separatists to teach that pollutions are sufficient ground of separation from true Churches though retaining fundamentals that Baptisme is not sufficient to admission to Church-membership without the Congregational Covenant that the holinesse of men as Saints meerely Saints is a sufficient authority to invade the Ministerial function and the like there we may see and with sorrow say Altars are in building against the Altars of God for these principles being oppugnant to the rules of the Lords worship must needs lead to practices opposite to his prescribed performances this Character is so commonly the concomitant of Altar-building that many times the professors of this sinne conceale from their disciples the absurdest of their doctrines till by some of lesse concernment they are made Skepticks in Religion and so capable of admitting any doctrines and when they dictate any it is only as present light which they may oppose shortly as much as may be declining the teste and trial of the Word that they may be usually and well called by the epithete Tertullian gave them Lucifugae Scripturarum shunners of Scriptures light The second Character of Altar-building as many times it 's concomitant 2. Charact. and indeed cause t is the publike exhibition of Astrological predictions a religion amongst the Heathen whose Altars stand opposite to the Altar of God and willing to be received as an Art among Christians and professed people of God but could never finde entertainment but under the defection from Gods true worship and the erection of Idolatry and Superstition Starrie prophecies were ever more suitable for Egyptian and Babylonish idolaters then Israel-worshippers at Gods Altars never shall we read the same acted or allowed in Israel but in Altar-building dayes and by Altar-building Princes and as it rose with this sinne it fell with the same being both together removed by religious Altar-reforming Princes and usually the Prophets of God were found in Jerusalem the place of Gods Altar whilest Soothsayers and false Diviners were in Samaria the Altar-building Citie the Prophet Isaiah joynes Iacobs being full with the manners of the East Deute 18.10 11 12. Isa 44.25.57.12 13 14 and Sorcerers of the Philistines with their being full of Idols as the causes of Gods desertion of them Isa 1.6 Not to stand upon the several upbraiding expostulations of God with his owne people and other Nations for attending to the divined lies of their Magicians Soothsayers Star gazers and monethly Prognost cators I shall only desire you to observe that which seemes a very observable evidence of this concomitant Character viz Gods promise in the restoration of his Church by Christ to cut off Enchanters and that they should have no more Soothsayers is joyned with the reforming of his owne Altar by cutting off their Idols and turning them from worshipping the workâ— of their owne hands Mic 5.12 13. Not only under the Law was this found to be a concomitant if I may not say cause of the many Altars against God but also under the Gospel Soothsaying Starrie Prediction Astrological Prophecies will appeare an attendant on or indeed rather a preparer and precuâ—sor of Errors Heresies Schismes and saddest corruptions in the doctrine and worship of God that Gospel Altar at which we worship a witnesse hereof may be the Jewes who in their blindnesse retaining Moses against Christ are by the Apostle hinted to be opposite to the Altar of God Heb. 10.13 Do not the dictates of their Starre-numbring Cabalists obdurate them in their superstitious way Their false Prophets sometimes heighten their hopes of the approach of their fantastical Messiah as did Abraham the Jew assuring them that the time of his coming should be in 1464. to the hardening their of hearts against the true Messiah already come unto which we may adde the experiences of the Primitive Church in the Hereticks that rose up to corrupt the Word of truth if we consider those sorts of Hereticks viz. Simonianists Cleobianists Dositheans Gortheans Menandranists Carpocratians Marcionists Valentinians Basilidians and Saturnilians in the Primitive times noted to bring in the false Christs false Prophets false Apostles renting asunder the Church with their false doctrine against God and Christ which Thebulis at Jerusalem received and began to propagate Euseb Eccl. hist l. 4. c. 21. What a line of Astrology may be seene in their principles attributing the production of many and various things to many and various powers advancing their owne divinations above Scripture-Divinity and their Magical practices and enumerations to the astonishing of their auditors nay this line is not only to be seene in but as it were to lead unto their corrupting principles and practice Euseb Eccles hist lib. 4. c. 21. Socra Sch. lib. 1. c. 27. Euseb in Eccles hist lib. 4. c 11. We might hereunto adde Manes the author of the Manichees the founder of the Heresie of two beginnings who taught the worshipping of the Sunne and the like principles properly flowing from starrie divination and Marke the knowne Magician confuted by Jrenaeus who baptized in the name of the unknowne father of all things and in the truth mother of all things c. A clear Altar against Gods Altar But to what purpose should we send so farre to finde Heresie attended with Necromancie when nearer home in later years it hath beene and is the great instrument to advance the Mahumetan and Popish superstition who knowes any thing of the Papal stories that knowes not this to have beene the step to advance the man of sin and that Astrological conclusions starrie predictions and magical actions have not only beene countenanced and allowed but also studied and advanced in their order of exercises To the further evidencing its existence in the Church we might muster up the censures of free Councels and Ecclesiastical Assemblies the condemnations of it by the Primitive Fathers the wholesome Lawes Imperial Civil Ecclesiastical against Diviners Astrologers and the like the variety of punishments as banishment imprisonment confiscation death to the professors or indulgers of starrie predictions and confessions of some of their owne professors all which do not only evidence its existence in but also danger to the Christian Churches in the fulnesse of what is reported to have beene confessed by one Cornelius Agrippa once an Arch-Magician who bewailing his mis-spent youth in this Art saith They that professe to it feare not to teach most pernicious Heresies and Infidelities whilest they professe with impious temerity that the gift of Prophecie the power of Religâ—on the secrets of conscience the command over Devils the vertue of miracles the efficacie of supplications and the state of the life to come do all depend on the Starres are vouchsafed by them and may be knowne by them But thus much may be
ground of suspition at the least of building Altars besides the Altar of God The fifth Character as the concomitant of building Altars besides the Altar of God is the dispensation of divine worship without the divine stamp of a due Call and Ordination God never yet appointed Altar-worship without an Altar-office which might not be common to every one nay which no man must take upon him but he which is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5.4 If Ministery be as it cannot be denied a distinct Office under Law or Gospel it must needs have a due Inauguration thereunto for as in a State an every mans Magistracie is a no Magistracie so in the Church an every mans Ministery is no Ministery a sinful seeking of the Priests Office upon the pretence of the peoples holinesse to be witnessed against by the plates of their censers and the budding of Aarons rod is suitable to Corahs separate rebellion a Whosoever will let him bring a bullock and consecrate himself a Priest is a fit Canon of Jeroboams constituted Altar-worship at Dan and Bethel the high-way to bring the lowest of the people into the Priests Office When did false Prophets run so fast unsent by the Lord but when the Altars of Israel were increased like the streets in Jerusalem Not to multiply needles instances in this clear case let the observation of the Churches of God in al ages witnesse the usurpation of the Ministerial Function never to be found in the Church whilest the doctrine and worship of Christ was preserved pure and uncorrupted and never out of the Church when and where false doctrines and superstitious innovations did abound the promise of Christ concerning the restoring of his Altar and worship came not without a promise to vindicate this Office from the invasion of the uncalled trades-man to the shameful conviction which shall extract his owne confession I am no Prophet I am an husbandman men taught me to keep cattel from my youth Zâ—ch 13.5 If therefore we would finde who they are that sinfully build Altars we must consider who they are that preach and practise ministerial discharges without due Ordination who they are that countenance and contend for this usurpation counting it a glorious liberty that every man may lay his hand on his own head and speak in the Name of the Lord were the Lord as eminent and immediate in his vindicative stroaks for this sin under the Gospel 2 Sam. 6.8 as under the Law how many Vzzahs would be found dead for their uncalled setting hand to hold the Ark of Gods worship notwithstanding the pretence of necessity How many Vzziah-like leprous foreheads would be found amongst us 2 Chr. 26.17 18 19. of such that by at least eighty Ministers of the Lord have beene warned it is not for them but for the Ministers of the Gospel to offer unto the Lord. But I shall conclude this Character as a just cause to irritate our humiliation before the Lord with that observation of reverend Doctor Hall upon a case not much unlike this though something different It is a dangerous thiâ—â— in the service of God to decline from his owne institutions we have to do with a power which is wise to prescribe his owne worship in matter and forme just to require what he hath prescribed and powerful to revenge what he hath required The sixth and last Character which I shall note to you Blow at the root Observ 8. p. 157. and I will but briefly note it is doleful contests for universal Tolerotion of all religions which a wiâ—e observant notes is nothing else but the putting of the true Religion out of all protection whilest therein Satan labours to exempt priviledge and for ever to secure his Agents and Brokers the Seminaries and Teachers of soul-murthering doctrines from being molested discouraged and disturbed in his work by any Government and Discipline Ecclesiastical or Civil whereby the hands of all in power are bound up or rather cut quite off that they may never be able to serve God as they ought in the protection and propagation of his Gospel and worship who seriously considers the strict Lawes the Lord left the Jewes for the keeping of them to his true Altar and sees not universal liberty leading from the same to be sinful nay who considers mans novellous nature and sees not a necessity of being kept to some one Religion by authority knowing men are naturally bent to mint Gods services in their owne braine and to go a whoring after their owne inventions to the building of Altars beside the Altar of God Was this sinne ever acted in Israel where the sword was sharp and severe against innovations The same may be demanded concerning the Christian Churches and upon the contrary was not this impiety evermore the effect of impunity and universal liberty I have done with the first part of the enquiry whether in the midest of us Altars may not be seene besides the Altar of God which we have too much cause to conclude in the affirmative I have also noted the concomitants as Characters of this sin so that the subjects of dangerous doctrine of divining predictions of dangerous separations of deadly enmity to Gospel-Altar-Ministery of dispensing divine worship without due call and of doleful contests of Toleration of all religions may justly be more then suspected abettors advancers if not actors of Altar-building and who those are I leave to the observation of the wise whose eyes are in their head and passe forward to the second matter of enquiry in order to our humiliation The second thing to be enquired for the defect of which we are to be humbled in the presence of a God of jealousie is Whether the sincere worshippers have or do according to their duty see to this sinne of Altar-building wherein we might enquire after their sensible observation of and affectation with the sin their seasonable caution and serious counsel to desistance their speedy accommodations of their brethren in matter of accidental temptation and their zealous resistance of the sin according to their places which was before noted to be acts of this duty in the religious Israelites but instead of a spirit faithfully discharging these duties it were well if to our griefe and Gods great dishonour some that have and eminently do professe to the worship of the true God in truth and whose places more eminently engage their priority in suspecting and seeing to innovation superstition Altarbuilding were not to be seene First staid by their self-interest from furious driving with a seeming zeale for the Lord of Hosts against the Altars and Priests of Baal suffering Jehu-like Jeroboams Calves at Dan and Bethel and the high places thereof to stand unremoved and unrebuked if not unobserved as to their sinful nature so soone as the house of Ahab is subverted and themselvs established in the high places of the Kingdome as if Prelatical innovations and superstitious ceremonies were to be