That which brings on my Text, and gives it its rise, is this,

THE Jewish Rabbins long ago have observed, That there were three Crowns indi­spensably requisite to make a Nation happy; [...] The Crown of the Judge, the Crown of the Priest, and the Crown of the King: that of the Judge, for the Peace and Happiness of the State; that of the Priest, for the Welfare and Establishment of the Church; that of the King, for the Prosperity and Flourishing both of Priest and Judge, of Church and State. And the Graecians have luckily lighted upon an Etymology for the same, [...] quasi [...], as if he were the People's only basis and support; pinning them up, and keeping them together, that they drop not into a confusion like a tottering Wall, whose [Page 2] foundation is sunk and gone. For if there be no Magistrate (no King) [...] one man will eat up another alive, the rich will op­press the poor, and the poor devour the rich, every one bidding battle and defiance to their Neighbour, till they have turned our Cities into Dens, and our Villages into Forests for Wolves and Tigers to in­habit; Creatures, less ravenous and much more or­derly in themselves, than unruly Man (that ravenous Creature Man) when let loose into the World, and without a King to govern Him. This the Jews full well experienced; for in those Days when there was no King in Israel (and it seemeth there had been such days there, as well as here) every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

We may call this the Crown-Text, a Text Royal; not only tacitly adjusting the right of Kings, but openly shewing the grand inconveniences and mis­chiefs that arise from want of their Inspection and Government. We may talk of Arrows by day, and of Pestilences by night (of wasting and con­suming judgments) judgments! that leave not one stone upon another, but turn Cities of men into Golgothas and places of Sculls; Fruitful and Plea­sant Vineyards into barren and naked Wildernesses for the Ostrich and the Owl to dwell in; but of all the fatal boding Calamities that ever happened to a Nation, or indeed can, there is not (nor ever was) any like that of Anarchy: for if there be no King, every man will play Rex, and be a Lord of Misrule, and do whatsoever his Lusts, his Interests and Passi­ons (which are always prone to be wild and extrava­gant) shall say, will be good for him to do. So that we have the Commonwealth of Israel,

• [Page 3]1. Labouring under great and manifold Dis­orders; Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
• 2. We have the true Reason and Cause of those Disorders; In those days there was no King in Israel. Look we,

1. Into the Disorders that then, and at that time infected and infested the Land; Every man did that which was right in his own eyes: [...] what seemed right and good to him, from [...] rectum esse vel videri: To him, and in his own eyes good; but bad, stark naught in themselves and in the eyes of God; so bad, that (as at that time there was no King in Israel, so) if there had been no God in Heaven, they could not have been much worse. And let but men (I mean the generality of men, the [...], the rude and ungovernable Multitude) once arrive at that which they call Liberty and Freedom, to do what pleaseth them and what seemeth good in their eyes; and the Land (within as few Days perhaps as it was with Noahs flood) will be overrun with an Inundation and Deluge of Impiety, In­justice, Villany. We shall be nothing but Teagues and Toryes, Banditti and enleagued Borderers; no Society or Company of Men, but an Herd of Wolves and of Bears; a Band and Fraternity of Schismatical Furies, Atheistical Debochees, Bloody and inhu­mane Cannibals; Legion will be the Name, the Prince of the Air the General, and the House divided against it self our Rendezvouze and Castle. And if our eyes be our own, we may take the truth of what is offered from the Jews before us; they were all for that which was right in their own eyes, and what [Page 4] was that? but to make themselves Idols and to Con­secrate their own Priests; to spoil Houses of their Goods, and Women of their Chastity; to cut poor innocent mens Throats, and to depopulate as well as deflower a Nation; Israel no longer, but a Bethaven and a Babel; a Stage of wickedness, and a Theatre of Confusion. The Landskip whereof cannot be over-pleasing to the Spectator; and yet to do right unto my Text, it will be requisite to make a further enquiry

• 1. Into the nature of the Disorders;
• 2. Into the number of the Offenders.

1. Into the Nature of the Disorders; all Mon­strous, Horrid, Prodigious: There were no such deeds done or seen from the day that the Children of Israel came up out of the Land of Egypt, unto those Days (Chap. 19.30.) Put all the provocations that had any where happened in the Wilderness together, add to them the many prevarications that had been acted in the time of Joshua, and no such Crimes (none so lewdly vile) had ever all that while been perpetrated, as in those days when there was no King in Israel. Would you have a Catalogue of them? Then hear O Heavens, and be astonished O Earth! Schism and Idolatry (those cursed abominations) begin them; Sacriledge and Theft follow; then marches Whoredom, Rape, Adultery; after these, Murder, Bloodshed, Civil War; then Parents kill their Children, and Children their Parents; one part of the Land riseth up against the other; Tribe setteth against Tribe, City against City, all embroiled (and eagerly concerned) to undo, destroy and root [Page 5] out each other. Such lewdness in Israel, and so generally, so warmly pursu'd (as you may see in this, and the ensuing Chapters to the end of the In­terregnum) that Hell it self with all her black inhabi­tants in so short a time could not well be supposed to have outdone them: Sine Rege, sine Lege, sine Fide; without King, without Law, without Religion. Loth I am to make England the after-scene, or to run a parallel of her disorders with those of Israels; for though in our late Anarchy we were as bad as any (as the Jews themselves, even in those days when there was no King; nay, as in those days when they Crucified and Murdered their King) yet Cham was accursed for exposing his Parents naked­ness; and I had rather you should make the Jews your spectacle, and from them and their miscarri­ages, learn to be more Loyal, and henceforth to love a King (your King) the better. But to make up the measure of their iniquity, we must consider

2. The Number of the Offenders; Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Some (no que­stion) there were who had not bowed their knee to Baal, that even in those days did, and would do what was right in Gods eyes and not in their own; and were as good as others could then be bad: But as for the generality of the land, they were utterly corrupted; Ephraim, Dan, Manasseh; Ephraim in the midst, Dan and the men of Gibeah in the two ends thereof; so that this [ every man] is expressive of the greatest part; for not only the more loose and pro­fane, but the more precise and religious too were thus wickedly given; not only thieving Dan and adulterous Gibeah, but devout Micah, the young man his Priest, [Page 6] the old Saint his mother; every one of these did what was right in their own eyes; which brings on my Text (three times in this, and the ensuing Chapters set down, but in this first and) upon occasion of this Micah's self-instituted Place and Worship; for The man Micah had an house of Gods, and made an Ephod and Teraphim, and consecrated one of his Sons, who became his Priest. Where we have the whole of his iniquity displayed; and if we will but take in what was said of him in the preceding verse, that he had before this a Graven and a Molten Image by him for the said House (which according to Grotius was an Altar with other the Utensils thereunto be­longing) we have then all the prime and chief fur­niture of the Tabernacle, that was by God himself appointed for the Service thereof: and yet it was an evil,

1. That he had an house of Gods; [...] (the word is altogether Plural, but used mostly Singular) an house of God, a Bethel, a separate place of his own setting up: Aediculam sive capellam, as some in­terpret it, a Chappel of ease, a Religious place of his own, distinct and separate from that of publick assignation at Shiloh, whereunto all were bound to resort. Neither can this interpretation be quarrelled, provided you will but consider that place in the Twelfth Chapter of Deuteronomy, which is the first place, (if I be not mistaken,) wherein this phrase of Every mans doing right in his own eyes, is used, You shall not do after the things which we do here this day, every man what is right in his own eyes, (that is, worship where, and in what place you please, as hitherto hath been done in the Wilderness) but when you go over Jordan, and dwell in the Land which the Lord your [Page 7] God shall give you to inherit, then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there, thither shall you go: So that Micah's House, and Micah's Separation, was one of those Evils that then pestered the Land. Nay, for the palliation of this Evil, and to make the Service (therein per­formed) look more innocent, and more like the Service of the Tabernacle,

2. He made him an Ephod. Now an Ephod was a Sacerdotal Garment, proper for the Tabernacle and the use of the High Priest, never to be used but in Divine Worship and at the most solemn services of the Tabernacle. A Garment designed by Micah, that the Priest of his House might every way be clad like one of Gods Priests; and appear not only Grave and Sacred in his Habit, but as Jure divino, like as the very best of those, who were of Gods nomination and appointment. Most evident it is, that when the Danites went up to surprise Laish (Chap. 18.5, 14.) they consulted this Ephod; and that too, with as much Veneration and Devotion, as if it had been the very Ephod of the Sanctuary, which had the Ʋrim and the Thummim, and from whence (as from be­tween the Cherubims) God was pleased to give forth his Answers. He had also,

3. His Teraphim. What this Teraphim was, whe­ther loquens imago, a blearing bleating Image, craf­tily set at work by the Incantations and Charms of the Knavish Priest its Familiar, to give out its Mysterious Oracles and Unintelligible Answers to the over-credulous unwary Multitude; or whether an Astrological Engine shaped and figured like unto the Cherubims of the Tabernacle, to discover the Planetary Motions and Aspects of the Heavens [Page 8] (whereby a Guess and Prediction was to be made of things that were to come) is not much to our present concern: Certain it is, they were used [...] for the foretelling of future Events, and in all proba­bility designed to Cap and Supply not only the want of the Ʋrim and the Thummim, but the very Cheru­binical voice it self, which was confined to, and went along with the established Priesthood. The word it self is used in a good, as well as in a bad sence; particularly Hos. 3.4. it being there threatned as a judgment upon Israel, that they should abide many days without a King, and without a Sacrifice, and without an Ephod, and without a Teraphim. But this also became an evil to him, for so it is recorded among other his evil deeds, that he made him a Teraphim. The last thing mentioned of him is,

4. That he consecrated for himself a Priest; his own Son first, (one neither of Aarons Lineage nor of his Tribe) willing that any one should be his Priest, rather than not have one of his own; after­wards (for the more Solemnity of the thing, and to seem more Conformable to the Divine institution) a Levite; one in Holy Orders, but of the meanest rank, and no less irregular and unlawful than the former, it being permitted to none to take the Priests Office upon them, but who were Descendents of Aaron: though indeed not much matter who it be, nor how dressed, nor if at all consecrated, provided he will but usurp the Priesthood and give out his Edicts to the Brotherhood of the Gild, as his in­spired brain and the home-made Teraphim shall dictate to him. I know there are some, that make this Micah's Religion to be perfect Idolatry, and down­right Apostasie from the Religion that Almighty [Page 9] God by his Servant Moses had established among the Israelites; but if so, what made him so fond of the Ephod, the Altar, the Cherub, the Levite, and every thing else that did but so much as Ape the re­ligion of the Tabernacle? Nay, what made him so joyful that he had got one of Gods Levites to be his Priests? or to make so many applications to the true God as he did? for my part I do (and thereunto I am obliged by Vatablus, Grotius and many others, to) think that he was veri Dei cultor, a worshipper of the True God, though (Puritan like) in a sepa­rate way; insomuch, that howbeit he might have a tincture of Idolatry in his worship, yet it was a fault in him, and a very great one too, that he had set up an house of his own; and therein an Ephod, an Al­tar, a Teraphim, a Priest in contradiction to the Ta­bernacle, the Ephod, the Altar, the Cherubims, and the established Priests of God. In short, a Will-worship, [...], a self-pleasing devotion; a separate house, a separate Priest, a separate Religion (howbeit of the same God) from the regular natio­nal establishment. A thing very pleasing to man! and so pleasing, that if left unto himself, because there is no King to restrain him, every man will think himself as good as Micah, and set up an house and a Priest of his own, and there do whatsoever shall seem right in his own eyes. Thus it fared of old with Israel, and thus of late with England; for no sooner began we to grow mad, and to bethink our selves of no King, but immediately (as if Hell it self had broke loose) all the worm-eaten exploded heresies, from the very days of Christ, began to make head again; and there came upon the stage a revived rabble of Gnosticks, Arrians, Macedonians, Novati­ans, [Page 10] Enthusiasts, and whatever else seemed right to any; every one calling (as it seemed good to them) for their own Priest, and their own house; till not a Mountain, not a Grove, not a City, scarce a street but had an house, a God, a Priest of their own. And if we do but consider how some men of late (good friends, no doubt, to Micah) to give ease to tender Consciences would have eased us of our religion; and out of kindness to a little uncouth Protestantism to come into the Church, would have thrust out the Reformation (nay Christianity it self) out of the Church, we may say, it was well for us then, that we also had a King. Doubtless a most sad complaint and account of things! But it leads me from the mis­chiefs and disorders that happened in those days,

2. To the Cause thereof; there was no King, no [...]

1. None of Regal Soveraign authority to su­perintend and command the rest.

2. None of inferiour Jurisdiction and govern­ment, that had resolution and courage (suita­ble to the power they were invested with) either to see the Laws executed, or the Offenders thereof punished: the want of which (as well as of the other) will soon fill a land with all manner of disor­ders, and run it into Ataxy and confusion. Their misery was

1. That they had no King; no [...] none of Su­periour Soveraign authority to superintend, over-aw and set the rest at work. Now this [...] denotes a government

• [Page 11]1. In its nature Monarchical;
• 2. In its authority Soveraign;
• 3. In its continuance Hereditary.

All which conveniencies and advantages were wanting at that time in the government of Israel (as shall more at large be made to appear out of the history of those days;) from the want of which, those evils (so much complained on) came upon them. And if I make these three particulars out, I shall settle the thing, what their [...] was to be; and what indeed they wanted, when they were so unhappy as to have no [...] no King.

1. It supposeth a government truly Monarchical. It hath been concluded by many, That these words [of having no King] bear a particular regard to the first forty years that the Children of Israel had been in possession of the Promised land from the death of Joshua; the one part whereof, was under the go­vernment (as some say) of the surviving Elders, which came into the land with Joshua; as others say, under the Sanedrim or Senate of Elders as they were at first established by Moses, and afterwards renewed by the people; The other part under Oth­niel their Judge, to whom though usually the whole forty years be ascribed, yet it is certain that many of them were pass'd and gone afore ever he took the office of a Judge upon him ( ch. 3.8.); and it is no less certain, that the abuse done to the Levites Con­cubine (which is one of the last recited Villanies committed in those days) was acted in the time of Phineas ▪ the High Priest ( ch. 20.28.), who came into that office upon the death of Eleazar about the death of Joshua, and continued in it (as Chronologers [Page 12] compute) all the years ascribed to Othniel, dying with or about the same time as Othniel did. How­ever in those days there was no King; Elders there were (as you have heard) of the Tribes, and every Elder (as some conceive) governing his own Tribe; There were moreover the Elders of the Sanedrim su­perintending and governing the whole Nation of the Israelites; Nay, as for part of those days, there was a Judge among them; and yet great oppression, fre­quent disorders, and all occasioned by the want of a King. Which shews, That neither Aristocracy nor Democracy, the Rule of the Nobles, nor the Rule of the People (be it by themselves or their Repre­sentatives) was able of it self, or indeed capable to secure them from confusion, impiety, oppression. And therefore you shall find them endeavouring, and upon all occasions labouring after a King; calling first to Gideon, Do thou King us ( ch. 8.22.); afterwards to Samuel, to make them a King (1 Sam. 8.5.) And its observable, that the nearer they approached to this kind of government, the better they were; but if at any time the Judge dy'd (who was instead of a King,) or the government came to be devolv'd upon their Sanedrim, all things presently went to confusion, and they reinforc'd to chuse them a new Judge. And thus it is recorded of them in general ( ch. 2.18, 19.) That when the Lord raised them up, Judges, the Lord was with the Judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies: but if the Judge dy'd, then it came to pass, that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers had done. And in particular, thus it was when Othniel dy'd ( ch. 3.12.), thus when Ehud dy'd ( ch. 4.1.), thus when Deborah dy'd ( ch. 6.1.) thus when Gideon dy'd ( ch. 8.33.), and thus, and [Page 13] almost always thus to the end of the whole govern­ment of the Judges: which argues, that the nearer the advance is made to Kingship, the nearer people get to Order and good Government; and the further any stand off, still the worse, and every day worse; for when there was not so much as a Judge among them, they fell not only into sin but into slavery. So it hap­ned in the Interregnum between Joshua and Othniel, they were oppressed by Cushan eight years ( ch. 3.8.), by Eglon upon the death of Othniel eighteen years ( ch. 3.14.), by Jabin upon the death of Ehud twenty years ( ch. 4.2.), by Midian upon the death of Debo­rah seven years ( ch. 6.1.), by Ammon upon the death of Jair eighteen years ( ch. 10.8.), by the Philistines upon the death of Abdon forty years ( ch. 13.1.), In all an hundred and eleven years; slavery enough (if people would be taught any thing) to convince them of the necessity of a King and Kingly government, as likewise of the defects, imperfections, calamities of all other rule, though it be that of a Senate or a Sanedrim.

2. A King supposeth a power Soveraign; One of a Supreme and indefeisable authority; Superiour to all, to the very Senate and Sanedrim: To whom the appeal must lye, and from whom the final and decretory Sentence must come; accountable to none but to God, who is the King of Kings, and the last Judge of men, though in Conscience oblig'd to do no evil himself, nor to suffer others to do it; as knowing that he must one day account to the God who first made him a man, and then gave him his authority. A person (I say) of superiour and un­controllable authority, for otherwise he is not Su­preme, and no better than one of the Judges of the [Page 14] land; for the Judge was the Leader, the Prime and Principal of the rest, had the chief honour and con­duct, but always subservient to, and controllable by the Sanedrim; which bred mighty delays, huge in­conveniencies, many and lasting confusions: where­upon being wearied and tired out by the defects of that kind of government, they say to Samuel, Give us a King; and to Gideon, Be thou a King (a Sove­raign) to us, who by an inherent supercommanding authority may in times of necessity and danger not only silence the Faction of Tribes, but the heat of Senators; for they also may be faulty, as in the case of Korah, where no less than two hundred and fifty Princes of the Assembly rose up against Moses (Num. 16.2.). Nay, probably this was the reason why they said to Samuel, Give us a King like other Nations (1 Sam. 8.5.); not as if they were desirous to be ty­rannized over, or made slaves as other nations too too often were; that's a thing they were resolved to ven­ture rather than endure the known mischiefs and barbarisms, that the jealousies, delays, factions, of the Demagogues and men of renown in the Sane­drim used to expose them unto. And what if the Prince should be personally wanton, by nature cruel, upon experience covetous, designing, seeking his own and his family concerns, and thereupon pervert justice, take illegal occasions to oppress and revenge? Nay, what if Naboth's Vineyard be to be had, or the Vessels of the Temple to be rifled, or religion it self to be altered? If these doings are so criminal, so out­rageous, so formidable, when confined to one, what will they be when they are the espoused Sentiments of many? nay, made their interests and acted in all the corners and quarters of the land? Put the case as [Page 15] bad as you can; and what if this be the manner of the King (as Samuel tells the people, 1 Sam. 8.11.) That he will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots and his horsemen; and set them to ear his corn, and to make his instruments of war? and what if he take your fields, your vineyards, and your oliveyards, and give them to his officers and Servants? This is the worst that the very worst of them will do: But put the case that this be done; yet if there be a Decem­viri as at Rome; if thirty Tyrants, as at Athens; if two hundred and fifty, as in the Assembly of the Is­raelites: These may all (and every one of them) be as bad, as lascivious, as covetous, as oppressive, as designing as that One; and so the Tyranny, oppressi­on, impiety be much greater and more spreading, but not so easily cur'd, nor so well endur'd. I am apt to think, that if our late Calamities (which last­ed not full twenty years) were well reflected upon, there would be found more Tyranny to have been exercised, more outrages to have been committed, more injustice to have been done by the Assemblers and Senators of those days, than ever there can be found among all our Kings since we have had a Mo­narchy, or (what's altogether the same) since we have been a Nation.

3. A King supposeth one Hereditary; a King with an Heir and known Successor at hand to step into his place as soon as ever he himself is gone. Hence the Israelites (full sensible of the want of such a King) call unto Gideon, rule thou over us, thou and thy son, and thy sons son, (ch. 8.22.) profering thereby an en­tail and inheritance; and intimating, that they should never be well, nor out of danger, till they had a King; not a Judge (for so Gideon was, and had [Page 16] done as great and as valiant things as ever any Judge had done,) but a King; and a King, with Off-spring and Progeny to succeed and to rule without any in­terregnums or new choice, which had too too often proved factious and tedious, and mostly fatal. Thus the loosness of Laish was ascribed to this inconveni­ence, there was no Magistrate, [...] no heir of restraint, no certain and apparent Successor to the Throne (ch. 18.17.) And indeed interregnums are always pregnant of mischief and of misery; never any of them hapned in Israel (and yet happen they did, and ever will, where there is not a certain Heir to succeed) but they brought along with them all manner of Confusion and Oppression: which very thing made the Israelites so eager to have a King with Posterity and Succession attending; never happen­ing till King Davids time, and from the reign of Solomon (his Son and Successor) never put by as to Judah from the Primogeniture and right Heir. This is a most certain truth, that none illegitimately born could inherit, Thou shalt not inherit in our fathers house, (say the Gibeonites concerning Jephtha, ch. 11.2.) for thou art the son of a strange woman: but if legiti­mate and first born of the family, there was no pro­scription (no Bill of Exclusion) to be made; no­thing being ever accounted more horrid and vile among the Israelites than to snarl, disturb, interrupt or displace the Inheritance. Nay, though there had been more wives in the case (the wrong loved, and the right hated) yet the first-born of the hated was to have the Inheritance; the right of the first-born is his, (Deut. 21.17.) So that to set limits to the Mo­narch, or to minorate and depress him in his Pre­rogative, Supremacy, Succession, is to rob Israel [Page 17] of her King; and in truth to put no difference be­tween a King and an Elder of the Sanedrim, or at the best, between a King and an ordinary Judge, put on and off according to the humor and insolence of every designing, prevailing Faction. Certainly it is not a Purple Robe, nor a Reed put into the hand, that will make Israel a King; the Jews so served our Saviour, and withal bowed the Knee unto him, saying, Hail King of the Jews: but (says the Text) they first stripped him, and then they mocked him: and in sooth if Kings come once to be stript of their own Robes (I mean their Jura regni, their Preheminences, Rega­lities, Dignities, whereby they come to be Kings and to excell others) I cannot see but they are worthily made the People's scorn; and though Princely clad, yet no better than a Supposititious Perkin, or a bare King of Clouts. Nay, I cannot see, but that if King Adonibezek (notwithstanding his eight Kings prostrated and captivated by him) be himself to be bound and shackled at the will, and by the Votes of his Subjects, He must be adjudged to be himself en­slav'd, and as far (in reality) from being a King in Israel's sence, as those very Captivated Kings were, who lay gathering their Meat under his Table with their Thumbs and their Toes cut off. But to end this; The Rabbins have a saying, that there were three things enjoyned the Israelites (whilst they were in the Wilderness) to be performed by them when they entred into Canaan; [...] to root out the memory of Amalek, to choose them a King, and to build them an House for a Sanctuary; the first whereof (if they had proceeded regularly, as Scickard upon Maimonides observes) was to choose [Page 18] them a King. Its true they displeased Samuel in doing it (1 Sam. 8.6.); nay, God tells them, that by so doing they had rejected him also, (vers. 7.); from which and other like places the Rota-brained Repub­lican takes an occasion to Blaspheme God and the King, and to decry their Government as if it were not only Tyrannical but Antitheocratical; and yet God promised Abraham (soon after that he promised him the Land) that Kings should come out of his Loins (Gen. 17.6.); and by prediction from Jacob, that the Scepter should not depart from Judah till Shiloh came, Gen. 49.10. and as they were going to the Land, he informed them what manner of King they were to choose, when they came thither ( Deut. 17.15.); Yea, and when choice was made of Saul, God owned him, and promised blessings along with him, provided they would but fear God and walk in his ways (1 Sam. 12.14.); nay, the Scripture brands all the Male contents and those who refused to congra­tulate his Choice, for Sons of Belial (1 Sam. 10.27.). So that if the Israelites offended in asking a King, it was in formâ non jure petendi, in the manner of ask­ing, and not in the thing it self: either because they did it in a Seditious Tumultuating manner, affecting Innovation in the Government as some do conceive; or in an affrontive way to Samuel their present Judge, as others imagine; or to a wrong and evil design, hoping thereby to make an alteration in the esta­blished Religion of the Land, as a third sort think. All which were not only evil in themselves, but very culpable, and justly provoked God to say, that He would give them a King in his Anger: however the desiring or having a King was not evil in it self; for God gave them one upon their request, and [Page 19] when that Person was dead, he appointed them another (even David, a man after his own heart;) and under that kind of Government he continued them so long as he continued them in Canaan. Which intimates, that the having a King in Israel ( [...] one of a Soveraign power, with a [...] with an Heir of restraint at his back) was one of the blessings of the Land of Canaan; and the most proper Government that a Nation can wish for or have, which endeavours after a peaceable and happy settlement. Judges will not do alone; neither Joshua nor the High Priest must presume too far; nay, the Sanedrim it self must be modest and humble; these and every one of these in their proper Spheres may help on the blessing, but to make a Nation perfectly happy ( Canaan like) God must give them a King. For though he had often changed their Government before, from Cap­tains to Judges, from Judges to Priests, yet having once given them a King, he there rests; as having brought all to perfection, and never changed any more. Which argues, that Kings are not only Divine, but the best if not the only means to main­tain the peace, and to propagate the welfare of a Nation. And so we pass from the first cause of those mischiefs that befel the Israelites, they had no [...] no King; unto the Second, and that was,

2. Because the Magistrates and Judges (who then had the Rule) neglected their office, and neither suppressed sin, nor punished the offender, which was all one as if they had had no King in Israel. It is said of the inhabitants of Laish (afterwards Dan) that they lived careless, and after the manner of the [Page 20] Zidonians; in Lust and Luxury, in Vice and Idle­ness, in Idolatry and Prophaneness; and the reason given for it is ( Chap. 18.7.) that there was no Magi­strate in the Land to put them to shame in any thing: Magistrates there were, but none that would enforce the Laws, or prosecute the offenders; none that would restrain them in their Vices, or be (as the Apostle phraseth it) a terror to evil doers. The very case of the Israelites before us, for Magistrates they had, as the Jewish Writers themselves confess; but withal so backward and tardy in acting like Magi­strates, as if they had been afraid to be Gods Depu­ties; so shy of executing the Laws, as if (like Dra­co's) they had been wrote in blood; and again so fearful of punishing, as if the whipping a Micah had been the Martyring a Saint; whereas Magi­strates ought not to prevaricate in their office. St. Paul expresly tells them, they must not bear the Sword in vain; not hold it in their hands as if it were a bare Scepter of ornament for themselves, but use it as a Sword to be a revenger, and to execute wrath upon them that do evil. Neither ought the wholsom precept of Charity and forgiveness (which our blessed Saviour so often, and so earnestly inculcates) ener­vate, much less evacuate this power; for it doth not hinder Parents from chastising their offending Children, nor Masters from correcting their rebelli­ous Servants; this were to licentiate Disobedience, and to give a toleration to Disorder. Suffer but this, and the Parent shall not rule his Child, nor the Master his Servant, no more than the Prince his Subject; nay, suffer but this, and the Child will soon make his Parent pass through the fire for him to Moloch; the Servant will soon bore the ears of [Page 21] his Master; and the Subject get into the Throne of his Soveraign, and be a thousand times more inso­lent than He. Let but this immunity be proclaimed as a voice from Heaven, and the world will soon be in flames about our ears. The children of God will fall in Love with the daughters of Men, and the daughters of Men as soon produce a race of strong and mighty Giants; (a Crew of stubborn, wilful, disobedient men) so mighty, that neither Reason shall perswade, Kindness oblige, nor Government hold; Men of renown and famous in their Generations (such as Korah, Dathan, and their accomplices were said to be); Giants Non tam corporum mole, quam latrociniis & grassandi libidine, Mighty not so much in bulk as in Will, not in body as in Humour; Mighty by their Stubbornness and Faction, by their Wickedness and Villany, to overthrow and confound a Nation. Wherefore let me perswade you (You who are the present Guard of our Country; the eyes to find out, and the hands to punish Offenders) that as you have a King Enthron'd, so you would use your endeavours (as in Duty and Conscience you are bound) to keep and preserve him on his Throne. Let not the mighty Giants nor their Weavers-beams scare you; think not that Dan and Benjamin (the Ravishers of Women, and the Riflers of Houses) are our only Malefactors; but let Ephraim and his Idols, Micah and his House of Gods be alike enquired into, and punished; Practices suiting only Anarchy, and the worst of Days when there is no King! and therefore since we have a King, let these practices (I pray you) have an end, that it may not be said of us that we live as we did, or indeed as if there were, or rather as if we would have it so, that there should [Page 22] be no King in Israel. There will be a Micah if there be no King; and therefore if there be a King, there ought to be no Micah, nor no House of his in Israel. And here (that I may not seem Splenetick, nor too much exasperated against a sort of Men under the name of Malefactors, when Religion is in the case; but rather do the duty of a good Levite as be­comes the Establishment) be pleased to consider with me,

1. That Micah's House and Religion is an Evil in the Land;

2. That it is an Evil to be enquired into by the King and the Judges of the Land;

3. That when no care is taken thereof, it is usually the Mother Evil of the Land. But I know before I proceed, that I shall be accounted (for what I have to say) no friend to the Religion now on foot called Protestantism; however I am sure, that I am serving the Church of England, nay, disserving the Church of Rome, as much as if I were unreeving the Conclave, or pulling the Trentine Fa­thers out by the ears. For would we be perswaded to keep to the Fold, and the Shepherd appointed us (be he on the Mountain or in the Planes) to the Shepherd whom God, his Church, and the lawful Presidents thereof have set over us; the Wolves may howl for want of prey, the greedy Itinerant return a perfect Mendicant, the Seminaries abroad be forced to keep the brood they have hatch'd, and the Roman Eagle never more take pleasure to quarry upon our English shore: for it was Micah's House, and the High-places afterwards (like places of Se­paration) that first brought Idolatry into Israel; and I am as confident that if it ever be brought into our [Page 23] English Churches again, these are the Houses that must dress up the Idol, these the Seminaries that breed the Shavelin who will say Mass afore it. But the Enditement is fram'd and drawn, come I there­fore briefly to prove the particulars of it; and,

1. That Micah's House and Separation (though never so near a kin to the Religion of the Sanctuary) is one of the Evils of the Land. Thus it was in our Micah's days: and thus no less in the days of Gideon; for ( Chap. 8.27.) He made him an Ephod, and put it in his City (even in Ophra) and all Israel went thither a Whoreing after it. Now the Ephod (as you have heard) was one of the Garments that God had ap­pointed for his own Priests; and his making an Ephod denotes, that he was resolved to turn back upon the Tabernacle, and to have a Priest and an House of his own; which was no sooner effected, but (as if they were as naturally given to Faction, as to Lust) all the lascivious Saints and the wanton Satyrs, both He's and She's of the City and the Country round, went a Whoreing to it; But this (as it there follows) became a snare (an evil) to Gideon and to his house, and was (as some conceive) the provoking cause why God suffered the Sons of the said Gideon to be slain in the self same City, where this Ephod had its entertainment. The like we read of Judah, that they did evil in the sight of the Lord; nay, they provoked him above all that their Fathers had done, for they built them High-places and Groves (1 Kings 14.22.); not contented with the places erected for them (such at that time were the Temple, the Synagogues, the Sanctuaries of the Land) they would have Places of their own, High-places and Groves; where the fault (as I conceive) [Page 24] was not, because a Place of Worship was erected, for that Land was accounted unclean which had no Sacred place in it ( Josh. 22.19.); nor because they were built on High, for the Temple was so, if not the Synagogues too ( Prov. 8.2.); nor because near unto or within a Grove, for the Sanctuaries were so ( Josh. 24.26.); nor altogether because polluted with Idola­try, for (as Menochius observes) many of them (those especially in the Land of Judah) had little else in them but the Service of the Temple. So that the Evil (so much cryed out upon) must be centred in this, and in this mainly, that they (not God, or their Governors for them, but they) for themselves built to themselves places of Worship, wherein con­trary to the Sanctions and decrees of their guides and Governours they would serve the Lord. The next thing to be proved upon them is,

2. That this Micah's House and Worship is an Evil to be enquired into by the King, and the Judges of the Land; such an Evil as is fit only for those days when there was no King; and therefore if there be a King in the Land, there ought to be no such Evil there. Thus it is added amongst many other the good deeds of Jehosophat, and as no small commen­dation to his Reign, that he took away the High-places and Groves out of Judah (2 Chron. 17.6.); but charged to the account of Asa his Predecessor (1 Kings 15.14.) that though his heart was perfect with the Lord, and though otherwise he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet he suffered the High-places, (those Assemblies and Meeting-places of Faction, Sedition, Contradiction) to remain in the Land: He otherwise did that which was right; intimating that he had done much better and more like a King, [Page 25] if he had put down those supernumerary and by-pla­ces of worship, and reduced the Service of God unto the Temple, which was the place of Gods own chusing. And doubtless if it be an unexceptionable prerogative of the Kings of England to have the same power from God as the godly Princes in Scripture had (and as our Church asserts;) it will inevita­bly follow, that they must have the same power to restrain and suppress the irregular conventions of the Land, as the Kings of Judah had, these being (some of them) the very best of Kings that the Scripture makes mention of; and upon that account so far to be esteemed from doing evil thereby, or being them­selves irreligious for doing it, or indeed from having it done by others their Judges and Officers, as that God doth highly own and applaud the action, and will one day Crown them (both principal and instru­ment) with a reward for it. The last thing prove­able upon them is

3. That when no care is taken of this House of Micah, or of the Ephod and the Teraphim therein, it is usually the mother Evil of the Land; the Shore, the Chanel into all which the nasty, loathsome draughts of the Land empty themselves. Is there any in distress, in debt, discontented? hither (as they did to David, hoping to be armed against their Soveraign) they all fly: Men ever ready at their Quiver and their Bow, resolv'd to be gratified with the prey they aim at, or otherwise to prey upon their Prince, at least to make Scepters and Crowns stoop unto their ambition and humour. What is the trans­gression of Israel (saith the Prophet, Mic. 1.5.)? Is it not Samaria, the Schismatical Temple there? And what are the high places of Judah, are they not Jerusa­lem, [Page 26] the Schismatical houses there? Certainly these were the forges wherein all the Weapons of our late War were form'd; these the Cabals wherein the Leagues, the Covenants, the Associations were fram'd; these the Chappels that Consecrate all Mis­prisions, Treasons, Conspiracies into holiness to the Lord: the erecting and keeping up of which, was thought a fitting project for rebellious Jeroboam (that disgrac'd, disgusted Officer) to keep up the Faction he had raised, Jeroboam! that son of Nebat, who taught Israel to sin: For (says he, 1 Kings 12.27.) if this people go up to do Sacrifice in the house of the Lord, then shall the heart of this people turn again to Rehobo­am their Lawful King; whereupon he made him two Calves (two Teraphims) and Consecrated Priests thereunto, and said, it is too much for you to go up un­to Jerusalem, behold your gods (or your house of gods) O Israel. Places eminent at home as well as abroad for Faction and Sedition, and upon known record for being enemies to Kings and Princes. You may talk of foreign Seminaries and Jesuitical Societies, and de­servedly esteem them the Pests and the bane of the Na­tion, (Sodalities erected on purpose to confront Kings, disturb peace, and confound Government;) but be­lieve me, a Conventicle at home, or in the City of Ophra is as bad; nay considering the Principles they manage (every way as pernicious to Government and to the welfare of the land, as any Jesuits Col­lege in the world; Doway or St. Omers have not been more fatal to us than Micah's house or Gideon's City; I speak not this to excuse the Jesuite or his Faction, but to alarm and caution all good Christians and Sub­jects against such places and persons, and their (as they would have us formidably believe) invincible [Page 27] Armado; for be assured, that as long as these are kept up and suffered to be frequented, it will be a thing impossible for us (who live on the top of the Mountain where Micah hath his house, or within five miles of the City or Corporation where Gideon hath his Ephod, though we study the peace of the Taber­nacle and of the Temple never so much) to keep up either Loyalty in our neighbourhood, or Conformity in our-Churches. I am not ignorant that there are other enormities whereunto my Text (as afterwards reiterated) bears a relation, and whereupon I might seasonably animadvert; for ( ch. 18.) there is Bur­glary, Felony, Sacriledge; ( ch. 19.) there are Riots, Rapes, Adultery, Murder; ( ch. 20.) there is Civil war, a great deal of Bloudshed, Firing of Cities, in­sufferable depopulation of all that comes to hand; ( ch. 21.) there is Spiriting of Women, enforced and unlawful marriages, (enough for the charge of a Judge, or the Inquest of a Jury;) and all this for want of a Judge to punish and restrain them: But these are matters of daily infliction, it is Micah and his house that is most apt to escape and be pitied. And hence you may observe how forward the Israe­lites were to blame, yea, to revenge the outrage committed on the Levite's Concubine, The like (say they) was never seen in Israel; nay, they were for the excision of a whole Tribe to expiate it; But as for this Micah and his house, no man said a word against it, but passed it over as if it had not been an evil in Israel; though as injurious to God, and as prejudicial to Society as any other evil of the land can be, and indeed is the motive why I would have you so earnestly to fix your eye upon it: Nay, I am prone to think, that though you should rout the [Page 28] whole Confederacy besides, yet if you let this escape (with a Touch me not, for I am holier than thou) there will never be want of work for the Judges, nor the worst of their Executioners, as long as the world endures. I confess their is another sort of men among us, not altogether of Micah's house, but of Micah's principles and acquaintance, perfidious, false-heart­ed Conformists; Men that can gorge themselves upon the fat of the Altar, and yet for a fuller meal let out their barns to a Conventicle, and their Vicarages to the Preachers of them; that can with the Apostate Apostle take the Sop (the maintenance of the Church) from the hands of Christ, and yet at the same time have it in their hearts to betray him; known by their Lisping to be Ephra­mites; Men that have the lingua and holy dialect of Israel, but withal an accent, a Sibboleth and twang of their own; who BLOOD-like take to themselves the Priests habit, but upon no other design (nor for no other end) than to steal away the Crown: In­nocent Church-men in shew, but downright Pensi­oners to the Faction; dealing through their Traite­rous practices and deceitful behaviour with the poor Church their Mother, as the Priest did ( ch. 19.) by his abused Concubine, hew her to pieces (limb from limb, bone from bone) and then send them to all the Tribes (the several parties and factions of the land) to make Protestants of them. This is also an evil in the Land, and if not looked after and restrained (how right soever it be in some mens eyes) they'l soon fill Micah's house with their neighbourhood, and in a little while more turn Priests themselves unto him. I might be as long winded in the cause as one of Micah's Priests, but my time and your business for­bids. However

[Page 29]You are called hither to see what Evil is done in the Land, be perswaded therefore (I pray you) nei­ther to be Ignoramus's nor Gallio's in the case; a like resolv'd not to see, or not to care for these things. Not as if I would have you to deal by those Ephra­mites of the Mountain, as Herod did by the Baptist of the Wilderness, cut off their heads to oblige every idle dancing daughter; much less to think that no atonement (nor settlement) is to be made without the fore-skins of all the Philistins of the Land: This looks too much like a Presbyterian root and branch, or (what is much the same) an Independent Wallin­fordian Massacre; A debate! so horrid and barba­rous, that it made the very Atheist (who records the story) to quake and tremble. A little severity, and rigor (Juridically apply'd) is enough, and most becoming the gentleness, the Candor, the Ingenuity of the Church of England; whose Mercies are not Cruel, whose Hands are not Bloody, whose neither Principles nor Temper ever lead further than to Conquest or to Peace; always hating to hew Agag to pieces, or to destroy the Amalekites (as the Israe­lites were forc'd to do) till not one of them be left alive; never aiming at more than to Humble or to make Tributary; to provide that her Adversaries be modest or tractable, Obedient or submissive, which indeed is the End and design both of Govern­ment and Law: and without doubt to blindfold the one, or to cramp the other (when open and notori­ous malefactors are concern'd) instead of righting you'l injure us; and instead of keeping us in Peace, Love and Unity (as the Law and the Makers thereof [Page 30] design) you'l expose us to all the malice and peevish­ness of a perverse and froward generation. To day made Execrable, and to morrow a Victime; now Condemned, and anon Executed; every way ex­pos'd to insolence and humor, to parties and factions, to violence and oppression, and (in short) to what­soever seemeth right to them that are resolv'd to do wrong. I have but one word more, and that is to provoke you to a constancy in this your care; That you may not do, as some are observ'd and said to do by the Venemous creatures of the Land where they live; set a day to destroy them, and rid their land of them; which they observe with the greatest strictness and severity imaginable, searching all their holes, destroying all their nests and harbors, and sparing neither young nor old; but if once that day be over, they suffer them ever after freely to en­crease and breed; nay, to abide under their very thresholds, and to crawl into their chambers, never after minding nor concerning themselves with them, till the year be out, and the day again return upon them. Sirs! it is not the time of an Assize, a day when you are instigated by a Sermon, or a charge that will destroy this sort of Vermin, or rid our land of their breed; it must be your daily Vigilance and care, otherwise afore the next return, the Nation will be as full, and as much over-run with them as ever it was; and the brood as numerous, as vipe­rous, and as difficult to Master as now it is.

And thus have I shewn you, That when there is no King in Israel, nor no Subordinate Magistrate there; or they neither willing nor ready to punish the Offenders in Israel, every one will do everything, [Page 31] and all will come to confusion. Wherefore from those days wherein such evil is done; from the Evil that is done in those days; and from the Curse and Plague of having no King at all, or none under him to punish Offenders in Israel; let all those who wish well to Sion (to the Church and the State there) say, Now and ever, good Lord deliver us. To whom (Father, Son and Holy Ghost; Three persons, One God;) be a­scribed, all honour, glory, power, and dominion now and for ever, Amen.

IT hath been observed by no inconsiderable, nor unconsidering Man among us, That the first Authors and Beginners of the grand Mischiefs and Disorders among Men, have been ever as to their Persons remarkably punished in this Life; and I think I may (without presumption) add, that as to their Memories they have no less been stigmatized to Posterity for ever after. And this emi­nently appears in the instance of the three great Sin­ners afore us (the first Publick Mutineers against Kingship and Priesthood that we meet with in the world) Korah the Author and Leader, Dathan and Abiram his Seconds and Followers; the one a dissatisfied aspiring Levite, the other disobliged dis­gusted Reubenites. A sin perhaps not so timely born into the world as some other sins, but every way as luscious and pleasing to some sort of Men; nay, as taking and as likely to last and to abide in the world as any one sin, that the Scripture hath any where took notice of, or the great God at any time puni­shed: [Page 38] a sin attended with the greatest prosecution of vengeance from Heaven, and charged upon the Memories and Names of the Acters thereof with the greatest and most durable marks of infamy. An argument certainly, that how sweet and palatable, how popular and plausible a thing soever Rebellion and Sedition may seem to be, yet they must be crimes highly displeasing to Almighty God, ever to be shun'd and hated by the Sons of Men as very great Enormities; so great and so detestable, that they are not to be thought on without abhorrence, nor men­tioned without disgust and disgrace. We have the whole story of the matter in the Sixteenth of Num­bers, at the beginning of the thirty eighth Lecture of the Law, which the Hebrews entitle Korah, because the Mutiny and Rebellion, wherein this Korah, Da­than and Abiram were engaged, is the principal and most remarkable matter there treated of. We meet with them again in my Text, then in Deuteronomy, then in the Psalms, and so on to the Epistle of St. Jude, but never without their sin and their punish­ment annexed; God being unwilling that such for­ward and notorious Malefactors should be had in remembrance without Dirt and Infamy to attend them: that which brings them upon the Stage here, is the muster that was made for the distributing the Land among the Israelites, whereunto they were now got; a time certainly to take notice of Rebels and of Schismaticks in, yea, and of their Posterity too (if the earth hath not swallowed them up, or they re­pented them of their fathers sins) lest too much of the Land be given them, and they put into a capacity to rebel and to mutiny again: in this muster the preference is given to the Tribe of Reuben, the [Page 39] First-born of Israel; and among other the descend­ants thereof Dathan and Abiram are found; where­upon a stop is put, and the muster not suffered to go on, till their Names and Villanies are enrolled for a Sign and Memorial to all after Ages, (to the Reube­nites from whom they descended in particular, to the whole Nation of the Israelites to whom they be­longed in general) thereby hanging them up in Effigie, though otherwise destroyed, and leaving them to be pointed at by all that survive or come after (so odious must Schism and Rebellion for ever be) with a This is that Dathan and Abiram, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the Company of Korah, when they strove against the Lord.

So that my Text singles out a sort of Sinners above all that then were, or ever had been sinners in Israel; for we shall not find throughout the whole Muster-Roll besides, that any one was seized upon, or so much as Chronicled for his misdeeds, these and these only (besides Nadab and Abihu, Persons much of the same guilt with themselves) excepted; as being (without doubt) sinners above others, notoriously and eminently so; or rather such sinners that the Earth must not bear, nor the Land be divided unto. Please you upon this small alarm to examin the mat­ter how they come to be so culpable; and in order thereunto look we,

• 1. Into their Crime; They strove against Moses and against Aaron.
• 2. Into the shame they were thereupon exposed unto; they were made a sign, and set up for Poste­rity to behold, with a This is that Dathan and Abiram.

[Page 38]I confess a charge of this nature is an invidious distasting thing; men though they be actually en­gaged in rebellion against their King, or in Sedition against their Priests, yet they care not to be stared in the face, and call'd Rebels for it. Though of them­selves as bloody as Cain, as imposing as Nimrod, as Sanctimoniously wicked as Dathan and Abiram, and altogether as resolved to follow their steps and ways (to the dethroning of Moses, to the unpriesting of Aaron); yet the gaping earth is not more horrid and scaring than the mouth of the Priest when opened upon them; they love to act, but they hate to hear, and though none more despicable to them than the Sons of Aaron when distant, and apart; yet an Army of Banners is not more terrible than the meanest of them, when got into his Ebal, or begirt with his linnen Ephod, he thunders out his Anathemas and execra­tions against them. Wherefore since it is my Task to day (if not to preach) at least to point with my finger, it were folly in me to expect much kinder usage (provided they be the inflicters) than what the earth and the fire afforded, even to be swallowed up and consumed by them; especially when there are so many undevoured Dathans and Abirams in the land, yea, and so many of their sons too, who, instead of repenting them of their fathers sins, go on in their fa­thers ways. Hence their Censures and their Censers: their Censures to defame and bely our Persons; their Censers to confront and disturb our Office: However when the Muster's made, these are to be made a sign. Look we therefore

1. Into the nature of their Crime; They strove against Moses and against Aaron; against Moses their [Page 39] King, against Aaron their Priest; persons nominated and appointed by God himself to be their Leaders and Governours; The one as to their concerns in State; The other as to their concerns in Religion, yet at all times envy'd and accounted the worst of men, no better than Buchanan's wild beast, that must be hunted down, and at length made a Prey to the Leaders of them, men famous in the Congregation. Hitherto (say the Jews) all Dominion and Govern­ment from the very days of Adam (to whom it was first given) had gone along with the first-born; whose Priviledges, Pre-eminences, Prerogatives the Law declareth to be very great, in that they were peculiarly given and consecrated to God, (Exod. 22.29.) were next in honour to their parents, ( Gen. 49.3.) had a double portion of their fathers goods, ( Deut. 21.17.) succeeded them in the government of the family or kingdom, (2 Chron. 21.3.) and in the administration of the Priest-hood and service of God, ( Num. 8.17.) Neither was ever any of them (for ought that I can find) disseiz'd of that his right, but by special appointment from God, and only for some greater faults, as in the case of Reuben (from whose loins this our Dathan and Abiram descended); but was not to excel, because he went up to his fa­thers bed ( Gen. 49.3, 4.). And thus it continued till such time that the Israelites were to be led out of Aegypt by the hands of Moses and Aaron (where they had been captives and slaves) to be a Nation of them­selves, and to have a land of their own to dwell in; for the better accomplishment whereof the Govern­ment was given by God to Moses, the Priesthood to Aaron and his Sons, adding the whole Tribe of Levi to them (whereof this Korah was one) to be aiding [Page 42] to them in all their ministrations ( Num. 8.18.); and this I take to be the first occasion of the Mutiny and Insurrection here made. However let not private persons (though as Sacred in their function as Korah, as great in their places as Dathan and Abiram) here­upon presume to dispose of birth-rights, or displace either Mitre or Crown; such things are not to be touch'd, much less transferr'd, but by the special appointment of God. Nay, had Moses and Aaron of themselves attempted the dislocation and change, and without immediate authority from above, they must have made themselves criminals, and been every way as liable to punishment for striving against the first-born to dispossess them of their wonted birth-right, as this Dathan and Abiram afterwards were, when they strove against Moses and against Aaron, to dispossess the first of his Diadem, the second of his Ephod, after God had so visibly established the one and the other upon them: Nothing but heaven (and by a voice of its own, thundring as it did from mount Sinai) can make such an undertaking innocent. Wherefore for Subjects to beleaguer and beset their King, as if like Moses he were fitter to be wrapt up in Bulrushes and thrown into the Sea, than pre­serv'd upon his Throne; for them to Combine and Conspire not only against his Servants (to stone and abuse them) but against his Heir to seize his Inhe­ritance and deprive him of his Birth-right, with a Come, This is the heir, let us kill him, and take the inhe­ritance to our selves; for them over and above, not only to defie and supplant the High-Priest and his Sons, but the whole Tribe of Levi (howbeit they have reconciled themselves by their after Zeal) as if they were still to endure the first curse, and to be di­vided [Page 41] a new in Jacob, and scattered afresh in Israel; doubtless it must be a sin so transcendently sinful and provoking to God (who hath set them up and owns them) that both his Heaven and his Earth must be too hot, the one to bear, the other to receive them. Nay, what can such sinners expect, since they have been so industrious to divide the Earth, and make Schisms among the inhabitants thereof, but that the Earth in return should divide and open upon them? what can they hope for but as they have been the Incendiaries among men, and set the Earth on fire (ever delighting like so many Salamanders to dwell in the flames) but that they should live and die in the said flames? why should not their Perishings as well as their Gainsayings be the same with Korahs? or why should they not down to the Gulph with Dathan and Abiram, when (whilst living) they would have no Tents but theirs? such another Cri­minal we read of ( Mark 15.7.) who for the Insur­rection by him made, and the Murder thereupon com­mitted was cast into Prison and bound for Executi­on, and yet you shall find that when it was moved by Pilate whether Jesus or He should suffer, the People as one (well wishers all to the proceedings of the man) cried out, not Barabbas but Jesus: and I am very apt to think, that if it were left unto the People still to give their Vogue who are the sinners of the Day (so poisoned have they been of late) that it would not be Dathan nor Abiram, no nor any of the Sons of Korah (all, and every one of them God wot are Holy, Ignoramusly Holy) but Moses and Aaron (Gods King and Gods Priest) that would be brought in for Guilty. However that we may be throughly informed and acquainted with the na­ture [Page 42] of the Crime (an Horrid Traiterous Conspira­cy, it seems, it was) look we,

• 1. Into the Persons engaged therein;
• 2. Into the Motives that induced them to it;
• 3. Into the Judgment passed upon the Action.

1. Into the Persons engaged, which were Dathan and Abiram; the only persons nam'd as being the Ringleaders and Generals of the Faction, and pro­bably more fully set and resolved to go on with the Mutiny and Insurrection they had made, than many others that were seduc'd and decoyed into the quar­rel: for I find Korah and his Company submitting to a Peaceable debate with Moses, though it ended not so ( Numb. 16.8.); and whereas On the Son of Peleth took men, no less than others ( Numb. 16.1.) yet we hear of him no more, probably desisting upon what Moses had said in the case; but as for this Da­than and Abiram they would no such thing, We will not come up (say they, verse 12.) resolving to stand to their Arms, and to keep both their Post and Par­ty; Men under Solemn Covenants and Engage­ments never to yield whatever others might do; insomuch that henceforward no Moses and Aaron, or no Dathan and Abiram; no Sons of Amram, or no Sons of Eliab. Two only named, and yet the Facti­on Great and Prevalent! Consider we therefore,

• 1. Their Quality,
• 2. Their Confederates and Party.

1. Their Quality, they were famous in the Con­gregation; said ( Numb. 16.2.) to be Princes of the [Page 43] Assembly, and Men of renown: Primores & Senatores, States-men and Senators, called to the Parliament or Great Council of the Nation; from their Place therein said to be Princes of the Assembly, and from the Bustle and Stir they there made, to be Men famous in the Congregation, Men of renown: [...] Men of Honourable Note and Name, like those Giants (those mighty Men of Old) who having got power into their hands, turned Apostates from God, and fell upon others with Violence and Oppression, exer­cising an unlimited Tyranny over all that would be under or less Princes than themselves. One of the Assembly speaking of them says, that they were men of Note and Fame both for Parentage and Parts, but grown Notorious and Infamous for the abuse of them, through an Impious Conspiracy and Rebel­lion; it being almost impossible to be Men of Name (Popular and Cried up States-men, the Demagogues and Demigods of the Mobile) but in some measure or other to be given and addicted to Mutiny and Faction. Some mistake this Assembly for the Sane­drim wherein the Seventy sat to assist Moses in his matters of Judicature; but altogether against reason, in regard they consisted but of Seventy in Number ( Numb. 11.16.); whereas the Assembly before us had many Hundreds in it; no less than Two Hun­dred and Fifty of them took part with our Dathan and Abiram, and probably as many (if not more) might adhere to, and go along with Moses their King; (for it is not to be supposed, that all of them like the Apostate Angels should quit their Loyalty and fall together; or like the mighty Men afore spoken of become Giants in a day) a Proof, that it was the National Senate made up (as Abulensis and [Page 44] others averr) of all the Governours and Heads of the People throughout the whole Nation of the Israelites. Howbeit if such do Apostatize and de­cline, turn Mutineers and Rebells, make or espouse a Faction, its a Thousand to one but (like Lucifer) they draw a Train (a great part of the Congrega­tion) after them; the truth whereof England suffici­ently knows, having been once quite shatter'd and undone, and sithence almost broken to pieces again by such Factious Unruly Senators, Princes of her Assembly, Men of renown. However I do not find that the Cause was ever the better, or the more favoured for such Senators being in it; nay, in all probability it sped the worse; for whereas Moses had hitherto overlooked Korah and his Conventicles (pitying their simplicity, and seemingly indulging their mistaken Zeal, as if their Separation had been Conscience not Design) He no sooner hears of the perversion of his Senators, and how the Conven­ticle influenced the Assembly, but he immediately calls for Vengeance, and God executes it; deeming it high time to put a stop to both (by making examples of some, even of some of the very Princes of the Assembly) lest Church and State, Priesthood and Government, Religion and Commonwealth be ruined and fall together. The Apostle speaking but of one unruly Member, in the body Natural, the Tongue, saith ( James 3.6.) that if it be not re­strained, it will set the whole course of nature (the whole wheel of affairs) into combustion; and what then (do you think) will become of the body Politick, if Two Hundred and Fifty of them be let alone? especially when to every Tongue there are Two Hundred Hands, and in every Hand a Granado. Consider we,

[Page 45]2. Their Confederates and Party, It was in the Company of Korah; This is that Dathan and Abiram, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the Com­pany of Korah. There must (it seems) be an Assembly of Divines to sanctifie Rebellion, as well as an Assembly of Princes to carry it on; Korah and his Company to Preach and to Pray, as well as Dathan and Abiram to Fight; State Designers can never prosper, if there be not Church Revolters; Come now I pray thee (saith Balak to the Prophet Balaam) and curse me this People, for they are too mighty for me, and peradventure I shall prevail. It was upon this design that Korah first went out, ( Korah the princi­pal and prime Incendiary who inflam'd the rest) for it is said of him ( Numb. 16.1.) that he took men, that is, (according to the Chaldee Translation) That he separated and withdrew himself aloof and apart from the rest of the Congregation, taking along with him such as were as ready as himself to cast off the Priesthood and Ministration of Aaron, and to have Meetings and Conventicles of and by themselves; said therefore for ever after, to be of the Company of Korah. Whither having once got them, then (according to the Septuagint's Translation) [...], He Preached unto them; took them by his Sediti­ous Discourses and Sermons, filling their Ears with noise and clamor, their Hearts with fears and jealousies, their Souls with Religious fury and En­thusiastical madness, till he had fitted them for what ever the Ringleaders of the Faction should prompt them to. To this Company of Men the discontent­ed Reubenites at length joyned themselves, as know­ing that if a Crown be to be won, or a Birthright [Page 46] regain'd, the separated Levites must be aiding and assisting to them in it: enough certainly to make both Moses and Aaron to beware, left by conniving too long at Korah, Dathan and Abiram (those State Engineers) give rout unto them both. However he took, and he took, till he had took some of the chief Princes of the Land; no less than Two Hundred and Fifty of them that were within the walls of the Senate, Princes of the Assembly (Numb. 16.2.), more (as it may be presumed) infinitely more, in and among the Families and Tribes whom they represented, and for whom they served; questionless being Men of renown and name, they could not be without a Faction to cry them up, and (if need were) to follow them: neither indeed durst they have been so bold and daring, in the very Assembly, where Moses himself sat, had they not had, and been secured of an interest suitable to their am­bition and designs. However I cannot but remark, that they were all (every one of them) of the Company of Korah; Men addicted to Separation and Faction, having Tents, Conventicles, Levites of their own, in opposition to Aaron, the Tabernacle, and the Priesthood of God. And therefore you shall find, that though the Censer and the burning of incense properly belonged to the Priest and to his Office (2 Chron. 26.18.); yet there was not one of those Factious Princes but had a Censer belonging to him, Two hundred and fifty Censers, for the Two hun­dred and fifty Princes: ( Numb. 16.18.); and I am apt to think, that if ever a Rebellion be kindled again in our Israel, it must be by such Separatists, and through the Fire of their Censers. Its certain, that the only Mutineers here mentioned (the Aposta­tized [Page 47] Levites excepted) were the disgusted Reube­nites, whose Tribe was situated next unto the Ko­hathites (of whose family this Korah was) as they were lodg'd about, and surrounded the Tabernacle, ( Num. 2.10.) and thereby influenced by those con­ventions of theirs to be of their party and faction. And I dare say, if there be a Rebel, or one that wishes well to rebellion in England, he is to be met with-in, or upon the borders of such Tents and places. For my part, were I, for a tribute upon me, to bring forth one or more of them to my King, I would go but to the next Conventicle, and the man that I saw first come out, should be he that I would seize upon, as knowing that if he be found in the Company, he must have the gainsayings of Korah, and wish well to the Tents of Dathan and Abiram. And so we pass from the persons engaged in the mutiny unto

2. The Motives that induc'd them to it; which were either

• 1. Secret and concealed, and not so much as mentioned by them in the fray, or
• 2. Divulg'd, and made the common argu­ment and pretence.

1. Secret and conceal'd, which (for ought that I can find) was their ambition and discontent; in­wardly repining at the grandeur of Moses and Aaron, and fretting at their own disappointments, looking on themselves (through, and by reason of that esta­blishment) as for ever lost touching all future hopes of greatness. Now this Korah was of himself Cousin German to Moses and Aaron, the eldest son of Izhar, [Page 48] brother to Amram their father ( Exod. 6.18.); A Le­vite of the family of the Kohathites, to whom be­longed the charge of the most holy things within the Sanctuary, and the chiefest place next unto Aaron and his Priests about it ( Num. 3.19.31.), which one would have thought might have been preferment enough for the man: But because the first-born of Izhar, and moreover Cousin German to Moses and Aaron, who then had the power and the government in their hands, he thought his birth-right and blood might have been better consider'd, at least so far forth as not to have had himself and his family thrust down for ever into the rank and class of ordinary petty Levites; much less to have Elizaphan the son of the youngest family of the Kohathites, made Prince over the sons of Kohath, even over this very Korah who was of the elder house, and himself in the interim neglected ( Num. 3.10.): all which put together raised his indignation and spleen, and set him first against his King, and then against his Priest (who should not have degraded, if they had not preferr'd him) and was the first occasion (as the Rab­bins say) that caus'd him to take men. Of the like nature was the disgust that Dathan and Abiram had taken; for they were of the posterity of Reuben, (Num. 16.1.) who was the first-born of Israel (Gen. 49.3.), but forasmuch as he defiled his fathers bed, his birth-right was given from him, (1 Chron. 5.1.), that is to say, the Government to Moses, the Priesthood to Aaron, the double portion to Joseph; all lost in Reuben: but by his sons sought to be recovered, which was the occasion also of their taking men, and joyning themselves with Korah; hoping by him and his Company, to re-enstate themselves and their [Page 49] posterity into that Power and dignity (that Empire, Priesthood, Estate) that originally and of old be­long'd unto them. And I am apt to think, that if all after-Mutinyings and Rebellions were look'd into, (yea, that of this very day) the like disappoint­ments, disgusts, degradations would be found at the bottom of them all. But Rebellion hath always a mask and vizard, a Samuel's mantle to cover its ug­liness; Look we therefore

2. Into the reason pretended, and spread abroad to draw in the populacy after them; which was Usurpation in Aaron, Tyranny and breach of trust in Moses: the popular and usual pretence that hunts down government, and gives birth and encourage­ment to all manner of anti-regal, anti-priestly facti­ons; and perhaps hath caused more Properties to be alter'd, more Birth-rights to be lost, more Liber­ties to be invaded, more Religion to be defaced, yea, and more Arbitrariness and Tyranny to be set up and exercised in the world, than any one thing else besides. Hence says Korah to Aaron in behalf of himself and his Company, you take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation is holy, and the Lord is among them (Num. 16.3.); and hence again, Dathan and Abiram with their company in reference to Moses, Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, unless thou make thy self Altogether a Prince over us, a Prince absolute and uncontrolable ( Num. 16.13.), which if either of them be your design, (of you Aaron to appropriate the Priesthood, or of you Moses to engross the Government to your selves) then farefall Pharaoh and his Kingdom; may Aegypt [Page 50] have us before Canaan, the land of thraldom before the land of promise; if we must be slaves and tyran­nized over, then to our furnaces again, where we had Patriarchs to govern us, and Priests of our own to rule us; where as we were slaves to others, we were Princes our selves. And how of late did the like, but false, pretensions prevail with, and befool us? whither did the out-cries of an Arbitrary Go­vernment, of a proud and usurping Priesthood hurry us? As for the Church, her Beauty was defaced to have her Purity restored; they prophan'd her Tem­ples, plunder'd her Revenues, destroy'd her Disci­pline, poisoned her Proselytes with a thousand follies and phrensies (call'd indeed New Lights, but the black Enthusiasms of the Prince of darkness) and all to reform her; so they murdered the best of Kings for the good of Subjects; wrung the Scepter out of his hand, and tore the Crown from his head to make him a great and a glorious Prince; so were we slaves to our own slaves, a company of Tagaroons hired with our purses to command our persons, and whatever else was ours; many were no better than Servants, and Prisoners in their own homes, than Tenents and Farmers to their own estates, and this to preserve the Rights and Liberties of the good People of England, the right forsooth of Plundering, Oppressing, Murdering. But for my part I wonder, that the good people of England did not all as one man rise up in rage, and stone those notorious impu­dent Impostors, who so long abused their credulity, cheating them of their goods, and inthralling their per­sons, and (as much as in them lay) damning their Souls; I wonder (I say) that the English Nation should be so dispirited and crest-faln (as like Izzachars [Page 51] Ass) to be daily loaden with blows and burdens, and tamely to couch under them; that they should be so stupid and insensible, of such intolerable wrongs, and oppressions; but more, that any of us all (after such sad and woful Tragedies acted) should be for the Furnace and Thraldom of Aegypt again; ever any more doat upon the holiness of the Party, or the sweet Song that the Syren makes. And so having considered the Motives, that induced them to the Conspiracy, look we into,

3. The Judgment passed upon it, This is that Da­than and Abiram, who strove against Moses and against Aaron, when they strove against the Lord; in shew no more than a striving against them, but by inter­pretation, and in guilt, a striving against the Lord. The iniquity whereof appears,

1. In that it was a striving against his right and power, to make an establishment among them; as if the setting up of Moses and Aaron over them (the one in the Government, the other in the Priesthood) had been an invasion upon the peoples right, and not in the power of any, no, not of the great God himself to do it: which opposition (in as much as it was against the decrees of Heaven) is said (in my Text) to be striving against the Lord, and ( Numb. 16.11.) to be a gathering together against the Lord. Thus when the people grew weary of Samuel, and threw off his Government, saith God in the case, They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me (1 Sam. 8.7.), intimating, that the Government, in whose hands so ever regularly it be, is still Gods; and that the striving against, or op­posing [Page 52] of them that have it, is a striving against and opposing of him; and will as severely and surely be punished, as if it were acted, or designed against his very Person and Throne. The like our blessed Saviour declares concerning his Ministers, He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me (Luke 10.16.); intimating, that he that casts off, or rises up against his Priest, doth in effect cast off, and rise up against God, whose Priest he is, and whose Priesthood he exercises. And indeed it is not for Subjects to trouble themselves about their Governours, whether Sacred or Civil, farther than to see that they be Gods off-spring, and are sent by him; the rest of their work is to obey and follow, yea, and with as much readiness, regard, venerati­on (if God be with them) as if the very Gods them­selves were come down from Heaven among them. Now that Moses was thus appointed (for we have spoken of Aaron before) is plain from the Com­mission given him, which was first sealed ( Exod. 3.10.), afterwards ratified and confirm'd unto him (Exod. 4.) by a power to work Miracles, for the con­vincing gainsayers, which was fully done, by turn­ing his Rod into a Serpent, and back into a Rod again; by making his hand Leprous, and then clear­ing it of that Leprosie; by causing the water in the River to become blood upon the ground; though had there been neither Commission at first, nor ratification afterwards, yet the works he had done, and the mighty deliverances, he had wrought for them (that especially of raising them into a Nation by themselves, when they were, and had been slaves to others) might have caused not only all the Tribes and Families, but all the first-born of Israel, [Page 53] to have surrendred their birth-rights, and become Subjects to him. The Government (thus transferr'd) was afterwards by a gift of the like nature, setled upon Joshua, then upon the Judges, and then upon Kings, and at length appropriated, and entail'd, upon the Descendants and Line of David (2 Sam. 7.12.) which shews, that whatever alteration God is pleased to make, he is always pleased, with the thing called Succession; for he setled his Priesthood in it, afterwards the Government, and from thence never made nor suffered a deviation; and in truth is a most evident and plain demonstration, that if God entails, none but God must cut off; and that every striving afterwards against it, is a striving against the Lord.

2. This striving against Moses and Aaron appears to be a striving against the Lord, in that it was prose­cuted against his declared resolution to defend the establishment he had made. One should have thought, had they not been a Rebellious gain saying People indeed (a People, who like the Sons of Zerviah were resolved to be too hard for Govern­ment, and to die every one of them in the cause, rather than to give out) that the fire which broke out to consume some of them, and the earth that opened its mouth to devour others of them, should have enlightned the eyes, and stopt the mouths of all the survivers of them from all after Murmurings. But no sooner is the punishment over and they safe, but they grow as Mutinous as ever, enter upon new consultations and fresh complaints; and thereupon gather themselves the second time together, and are a second time punished; a Plague from Heaven [Page 54] devouring no less than Fourteen thousand and seven hundred of them ( verse 49.); neither stay they here (so hard is it to put a stop to Faction), but un­less a Miracle be further wrought for the particular vindication of Aaron and his Priests, they'l die on, and stand the other and the other judgment; which in the last place was finished and effected in the bud­ding and blossoming of Aarons Rod, amidst the Rods of the several Tribes of Israel (laid by it) to confront and prove it; and because it did so, (the other remaining sapless and dry) it became a token against the Rebels, and so their Murmurings ended ( Numb. 17.10.). And I am apt to think, that if ever a Mutiny or Rebel­lion be to be taken away, it must be by the budding and blossoming of Aarons Rod; for it was by Korah that the Faction began, and by his Company that it was carried on; and therefore by the Rule of con­traries, it must be by Aaron and his Priests defeated. Hence saith God to Moses (when he would have declined his office for want of an Assistant) Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know he can speak well, and he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of a God (Exod. 4.16.) intimating, that if Moses do but interpose, and by his Authority protect Aaron, to keep him safe in his Office and Duty that the Faction disturb him not; Aaron and his Priests will do the like for Moses, by Preaching up the Doctrine of Obedience, and upon all occasions shewing the People, that they must be subject to Principalities and Powers, or else purchase to themselves Damnation, and be thrown for ever, after Dathan and Abiram into the Fiery Association of Rebells. My Prayer therefore shall be, that the Rod (which hath been so long taken from Aaron, may be restored [Page 55] to him again; and when restored) that it may for ever blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit; and then I doubt not, but (as it hap­pened to the Isralites, so) it will be to the Inhabi­tants of England, a lasting token against Rebels, and their Murmurings thereby be quite taken away. And so we pass from their Crime,

2. To their Punishment; This is that Dathan and Abiram who strove against Moses and against Aaron; and who for their so striving (as in the succeeding verse) were sent quick to destruction, and thereby made a Spectacle and sign to all after Ages. To this judgment the Prophet hath reference, when praying against his enemies, he saith, Let them go down to Hell (Psalm 55.15.); Now these things were our examples (saith the Apostle) and were written for our admonition; that we remembring what was done by and upon these sinners here, may take care of doing and becoming like them: every one of them (by the Sign and Spectacle they are made) Preach­ing this Lession to all that come after, [...], Let every one that looks up unto me (be he a Levite as was Korah; a Layman as were Dathan and Abiram; famous or infamous in the Con­gregation) for ever beware of being Seditious against their Priests, or of being Rebels against their Prince, lest the earth open, and the fire in like man­ner consume them. But passing by the punishment which seized upon their Persons, look we only at present (as much more proper to our purpose) to what happened to their Names and Posterity; a Consideration perhaps no less influential with some, to deter from the sins than the former. And in order hereunto remark we,

[Page 56]1. That Sedition and Rebellion, are two such sins, that they deservedly stain the memory of the engagers in them with perpetual Infamy, and dis­grace; their Names must never after be mentioned without their Crimes; their Escutcheons must have their blot, their Arms a bar, their greatness an al­lay; something or other to make them infamous, for having once been famous. This, this is that Dathan and Abiram! This by way of contempt and disgrace; This whom all Records must stigmatize, all Chronicles defame, all good men loath; This who if but casually nam'd, must be spat at, spoke against, and made odious to Posterity, for the crimes they have been guilty of. The like may every way be observed of Jeroboam, who for turning Rebel to his Lawful Soveraign, and for renouncing and casting off the Priesthood, and Service of the Temple, to become a King himself. And to have Service, and Priests of his own, (sins scarce ever forgiven, but never in History to be forgotten) is said to have taught Israel to sin; and for his so doing can never after be mentioned (though often and often in Scripture nam'd) without a record of that his wick­edness affixt, with a This is that Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who taught Israel to sin. Customary it was among the Jews, at the naming the name of Haman, to beat their fists upon the Planchers where they were, as if it had been upon Haman's head; not willing that such an enemy to Religion, and one that had deserved so ill of it, should have a naming among them, without a blow at the same time (if possible) to brain him. Now the rest of the Acts of Zimri, and his Treason that he wrought, are they not [Page 57] written in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (1 Kin. 16.20.); such sort of sinners must not off the stage and have their memories preserved, unless it be to keep up their wickedness, and therewith their pu­nishments, for an admonition to us that we be not in our generations like unto them. And wherefore then is it, O Son of Dathan! that thou canst glory in thine or thy fathers shame? That thou canst boast of the mutinies thou hast made, of the battels thou hast been engaged in, of the murders thou hast therein committed? Dost thou think that those arms (those Spears, which hang up as Trophies by thee of thy wickedness) do, or can give lustre to thy name, or add any merit to thy family? Nay, canst thou imagine, that those sinners upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, or rather those sinners whose limbs are yet upon the Tower, were sinners above all other men? I tell you nay, but except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Remark we

2. That Sedition and Rebelion are two such sins, that God usually punisheth unto the third and fourth generation, unless by their posterity they be repented of. Here you shall find the whole family of Dathan and Abiram to be cut off; they and all that apper­tain'd unto them, their wives, and their sons, and their little children, (Num. 16.27.) Insomuch that when the land was to be divided among the respective fa­milies of Israel, there was not one of the families either of Dathan or Abiram to be found ( Num. 26.); which shews, that they all dyed with, for, or under their fathers sins. Nay, look into the next Chapter, and you shall find the daughters of Zelophehad (though [Page 58] their father was dead) pleading for his inheritance, and using this for an argument why they should not be overlook'd nor pass'd by in the division, because though dead, yet he dyed in his own sin and not in the company with Dathan and Abiram; Our father dyed in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of Korah, but dyed in his own sin (v. 3.); intimating, that if he had been guilty of the Treason, or had been in the Conspiaacy with those Traitors and Re­bels, his name had worthily been struck out of the genealogy, and his posterity justly disinherited, and made objects of scorn, contempt and poverty to all after ages. The sons indeed of Korah either were not ingag'd in, or at least repented them of their fa­thers sin; and therefore it is sad (in the verse save one succeeding my Text) that the children of Korah dyed not: nay, they not only surviv'd the desolation, but they kept their office in Israel; for their genealo­gy is reckoned, their posterity appointed by David to be Singers in the house of the Lord, they had many Psalms dedicated to them, of them came Samuel the Prophet, and Heman who with his off­spring were singers (1 Chron. 6.); and I dare say there is no man living who wisheth well either to Moses or to Aaron, that envies theirs or any other man's reconciliation or preferment. We know, and we desire that the sons integrity may expiate for their fathers sedition, and their after Loyalty for all for­mer Rebellions; there is joy in heaven (as our Saviour telleth us) over one sinner that repenteth, and our trouble rather is, that there are not more, as great an appearance of them as ever march'd against their King, or quarrel'd their Priests: I should then turn [Page 59] my Sword into a Plough-share, my Steleteuticks into Euges, my reproofs into Paeans; I would bless the day, and enter it not into my Rubrick (that perhaps may seem too bloody) but into my Calendar (which hath its atros as well as albos dies) that ever I saw such a reformation; and instead of rearing up gib­bets with Haman, I would venture my life with Hester (were my interest like hers) to lead such Mordecaies to the King: but since I see, that the dog returns unto his vomit, and that not only the pa­rents have eaten sowre grapes, but that their childrens teeth are set on edge by them, I hope it will not be amiss to call unto such to repent lest the tower of Siloam fall also upon them, and they likewise perish in the gain saying of Korah. For my part, had I been the son of a Korah, of a Dathan or Abiram, and had not repented me of my fathers sins, yea, and given a suffi­cient demonstration to the world of that my repen­tance, I should dream of nothing but of murdered Bishops and of martyr'd Kings, of Whitehal Scaffolds and of Edghill fights; Cromwel and Bradshaw in their blood and armour would be all I should see; Cer­tainly the most miserable Caitiff whom the earth hath not as yet swallowed, or whose limbs the justice of God hath not exalted to be a spectacle to Angels and men; I should fansie every corps I touch, would bleed; every grave I tread upon, would cry out like Abel's against me; I should conclude an host of Loyalists and Churchmen always behind me, chace­ing me to the judgment-seat to give an account of my actions; but how others do or can harden themselves, unless they be their fathers own sons in principles as in blood, I know not, may perhaps pity, but (I am [Page 60] afraid) never reform. And yet verily there is a ge­neration of men in the world who need none of this repentance; who have been neither enemies to their King nor opposers of their Priests; who in the heat of the mutiny have been neither Schismaticks with Korah, nor Rebels with Dathan; but fidi Achates, trusty and Loyal Subjects; good old Barzillai's, who are feign (God knows) to be content with their olim meminisse, their wounds and scars, and dy'd gar­ments from Bozrah; the services they have done, and the sufferings they have undergone; yea, and others who following their fathers steps, have fought with beasts at Ephesus, ventur'd at the dens of Lyons, stood the shock of Schismatical envy and Democra­tical fury; and whenever the records be search'd, I wish their names and their merits may not be over­look'd. But and if this be that Dathan and Abiram, or if these be the sons of that Dathan and Abiram, whose names are to be branded to all posterity for their Schismatical rebellious doings, what ought to be done to those that have been thus faithful and loyal, valiant and serviceable, ever striving against the strivers, and (as need requir'd) resisting the re­sisters unto blood? Verily, Silver and Gold I have none, but what I have, give I heartily unto you; may the blessing therefore of Aaron and of his rod fall upon you, and follow you; may the King of Je­shurun (whose Champions and worthies you have been) with his oyl and his fatness reward you, and (when the day of account comes) may you never be found Rebels to your God, more than you have been unto your King. Remark we

[Page 61]3. That Sedition and Rebellion are two such sins that will destroy the whole fabrick of Government though never so well rear'd, and run it eftsoon into confusion and slavery, if not timely and carefully pre­vented. They'l divide the house, and if the house be divided, truth it self will tell us, that it cannot stand. Humanity will turn into cruelty, nature and friendship into Faction and fury; to kill one ano­ther will be called valour, to disobey the King ac­counted loyalty; plain robbery and oppression the best of zeal and Religion; the Sword (the bloody, heedless, devouring Sword) the only Lord Chief Justice of the Land. We shall soon see an over­throw of all order and Law, a confusion in our duties both to God and man, and a Kingdom (which for its pleasure may be a Paradise, for its Light a Goshen, for its plenty a Canaan) chang'd into a Chaos, a worser Chaos than that which the world came out of; for a word put an end to that ( God spake, and the world was made, Psalm 38.9.); nay, God divided the light from the darkness, and he called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the Eve­ning and the Morning were the first Day: (Gen. 1.5.) But if these take place, Evening and Morning will be both alike, we may know their beginning, but never their ending; darkness and horror of darkness! till we our selves (if we be not careful) fall thereby into the pit of darkness. Wherefore let me per­swade you (you who are this day to number the people, and to view the several inheritances among us, that there be no Mutineer nor Rebel in our Tribes or families.)

[Page 62]To be careful and jealous in that your enquiry, that none such pass your Tribunal; much less go off from you with Ceremony and Complement (too customary a thing with some) as if you were lovers of their Nation, and would build them Syna­gogues. It is not their being an holy Congregation that will make them (when they are Seditious) Holy; neither will your punishing them be a slay­ing the people of the Lord. We live (you see) in an age full of Sedition and Conspiracy, where nei­ther our Moses can well keep his Crown upon his head, nor our Aaron his Ephod upon his breast; the Seditious Levite on one hand, the Rebellious Reu­benite on the other, are so industriously concern'd in the undermining and supplanting them both, that if heaven interpose not to defend the one and to root out the other, both Moses and Aaron, Priest­hood and Government must sink and fall together. Wherefore to your respective Stations and Charge; and know

1. That Dathans Conspiracy is still on foot in the land, alive and alive like to be. The Cause (saith one of our late Regicides) lies in the bosom of Christ, and as sure as Christ arose, the Cause will rise again: I believe (saith another of them, no less Prophet than the former) that at long run­ning there is not a man that fears the Lord, will have any reason to be sorrowful for engaging in the Cause; for though the Lord hath been pleased to let it be as it were the Sun-setting for a night, yet it will certainly arise next Morning very glo­riously [Page 63] again. Neither was it (for ought that I cand find) ever thorowly brow-beaten, or hiss'd off the stage; These (saith the publishers of their death) all dy'd in the Faith; Saints who through Faith of the Gospel have entered into rest. Nay, who of the Company of them (especially if they were famous either in the Assembly or in the Con­gregation) ever went unto their graves (from that day to this) without an Herse full of Scri­pture Scutcheons, and Religious Labels? The me­mory of the Just is blessed, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints; enough to give credit to the worst of Causes, and to draw all the Saints of the land after them: And yet (with hor­ror be it spoken) some of them have had their bowels burnt alive, and went down into the earth like Dathan; others of them liv'd and dy'd in the company of Korah, and never repented them of their sins though stained with the blood of the best of Kings, and the devoutest of Prelates. Shall I re-mind you of what one of the Korathites still living hath said of himself? That he hath often searched into his heart whether he did lawfully engage in the late War against the King, or did well to encourage so many thousands to it, and that he cannot as yet see that he was mistaken in the Cause, neither dares he repent of it, nor for­bear to do the same if it were to do again. And yet this man lives and repents him not; nay, hath his Company with him still, to whom he preaches Sedition as of old, and with whom thousands of the Dathanites and Abiramites of the land do Confederate; whereby you may see the stubborn­ness [Page 64] and hopes of the Faction, and how the good Old Cause will go on, if God by his judgments, and the Magistrate by his care and severity prevent it not. Awake and know,

2. That the Cause not only lives, but there are multitudes in the Land, ready fixt and prepar'd to carry it on: dissatisfied Reubenites, who for their own, or their fathers sins have lost their offices, their honours, their birth-rights; and perhaps not a few of them neither even among the very Senators of the Land, who (by their having been there) gather hopes to recover the greatness they have lost; at least to make themselves too great ever after to be crushed, or degraded again. But lodge they where they will, I will be bold to say, they are all of the Company of Korah, frequenters of his Tents, or lovers of his Company; let but his Conventions be searched, and you will find them all; for of this sort are they which creep into houses (2 Tim. 3.6.). However of such pernicious influence they have been, that it will be difficult to say whether the Bar­rels of Powder once under the Senate, or the Con­venticles afterwards adjoyning, have been the most fitted and adapted to blow it up; or indeed whether Faux with his Dark Lanthorn and his Match in his hand, or these with their New lights and their white and black Caps on their heads, are the most likely to do the mischief; pardon the expression, but assuredly I my self in my days of Curiosity, have heard such dangerous Positions, such Fiery conclusi­ons, such Flambeau Divinity vented in those Assemblies, that I never read nor met with the like [Page 65] in Bellarmin, Mariana, Reynolds, nor the worst of Jesuits. Let the Pillar then stand for a lasting Monument, to instruct all that pass by where the Fire (that consumed the City and impoverished the Nation) first began; but there are and have been of late so many incendiaries (Firers of the City and Country) for I look upon every Conventicler to be one, that if a Column were to be erected at every place where the Nation hath been enflam'd, we should not have Purse nor Piety enough to erect them. Habent & Vespae favos, It seems Wasps as well as Bees have got their hives; but if they be suffered to breed, and to plant new Colonies, the Hony of the Land will soon be eaten up, and the Bees that should gather new destroy'd. Wherefore awake, awake, you Sampsons of the Age, (you men of Loyalty and of strength) and know that the Phili­stins are upon you; think not that to Address your selves to your King, to Congratulate his late pre­servation is Loyalty enough; the better way in these times of Conspiracy to express it, will be to Address your selves unto his business; to seize the Tents of Dathan, and to scatter the Company of Korah: for assuredly, if Korah hath his Company, Dathan will have his, and it shall not be long ere both of them take Men. May the God therefore of Peace, who stilleth the raging of the Sea, and the madness of the People, whose is the Kingdom and the Power, and who sent his Son to reconcile the world unto himself, and each one therein unto the other, make us all to be of one mind and of one tongue; and through the assistance of his holy Spirit, to live in the true faith and fear of God, in humble Obedience to our King, in [Page 66] brotherly love and Charity one to another, that there may be no more Schisms nor Conspiracies among us, but that we may (all and every one of us) obey them that have the rule over us, and submit our selves to them who watch for our souls. To whom three Per­sons, one God, be ascribed all Honour, Glory, Power, Adoration now and for ever. Amen.