very for ease and expedition, branched into the middle offices, and they again as fingers into others under them. But the meanest of them all, is a joint of some finger of this hand of God. Nazianzen, speaking of rulers as of the images of God, compareth the highest to pictures drawn clean through, even to the feet; the middle sort to half pictures drawn but to the girdle; the meanest to the lesser sort of pictures drawn but to the neck or shoulders. But all in some degree carry the image of God. Out of which term, of "the hands of God," the people first are taught their duty, so to esteem of them, as of God's own hands; that as God ruleth them by "the hands of Moses and Aaron," that is, by their ministry, so Moses and Aaron rule them by the hands of God, that is, by His authority. It is His name they wear, it is His seat they sit in, it is the rod of Ged that is in Moses' and Aaron's hands. If we fall down before them, it is He that is honoured; if we rise up against them, it is He that is injured; and that peccavi in Cœlum et in te, must be our confession, "against Heaven and them," but Lu. 15. 21. first against Heaven and God Himself, when we commit any contempt against Moses or Aaron. 1. And the rulers have their lesson too. First, that if they 1. be God's hands, then His Spirit is to open and shut them, stretch them out, and draw them in, wholly to guide and govern them, as the hand of man is guided and governed by the spirit that is in man. Heavenly and divine had those hands need be, which are to be the hands and to work the work of God. 2. Again, they be not only hands, but manus per quam, that is, hands in actu. Not to be wrapped up in soft fur, but by which an actual duty of leading is to be performed. Moses' own hand, in the fourth of Exodus, when he had lodged it in his warm "bosom, became leprous;" but being stretched out, Exod. 4.6. recovered again. Hands in actu then they must be; not loosely hanging down or folded together in idleness, but stretched out; not only to point others but themselves to be foremost in the execution of every good work. 3. Thirdly, manus per quam ducuntur; that is, as not the "leprous hand" of Moses, so neither the "withered hand" of 1 Kings 13. Jeroboam stretching itself out against God, by misleading His * 4. II. Deu. 17.16. SERM. people and making them to sin. "Leading back again into Egypt"-a thing expressly forbidden; either to the oppression and bondage of Egypt, or to the ignorance and false worship of Egypt, from whence Moses had led them. For as they be not entire bodies of themselves but hands, and that not their own but God's; so the people they led are not their own but His, and by Him and to Him to be led and directed. much for "God's hands." Moses and Aaron. So This honourable title of the "hand of God," is here given to two parties, Moses and Aaron, in regard of two distinct duties performed by them. Ye heard how we said before, The people of God were like sheep in respect of a double want; 1. want of strength by means of their feebleness; 2. and want of skill by means of their simpleness. For this double want here cometh a double supply, from the hand 1. of strength, and 2. of cunning; for both these are in the hand. 1. It is of all members the chief in might, as appeareth by Ps. 20. 6. the diversity of uses and services it is put to. In potentatibus dextræ, saith the Prophet. 2. And secondly, it is also the part of greatest cunning, as appeareth by the variety of the works which it yieldeth, by the pen, the pencil, the needle, and instruments of music. In Ps. 78.72. intellectu manuum, saith the Psalmist, in the end of the next Ps. 137. 5. Psalm; and, "let my right hand forget her cunning." 17. This hand of God then by his strength affordeth protection to the feebleness of the flock, and again by his skill affordeth direction to the simpleness of the flock. And these are the two substantial parts of all leading. These twain, as two arms, did God appoint in the wilderness, to lead His people by. Afterward over these twain did 1 Sam. 15. He yet set another, even the power and authority regal, in place of the head, as Himself termeth it; and to it, as supreme, united the regiment of both. The consideration of which power I meddle not with, as being not within the compass of this verse, but only with the hands of regiments Ecclesiastical and Civil. Which, as the two Cherubims did the ark, overspread and preserve every estate. One, saith 2 Chron. Jehoshaphat, dispensing res Jehova, "the Lord's business," the other dealing in negotio regis, the affairs of estate.' One, saith David, intending "the worship of the tribes,” the other, 19. 6. Ps. 122. 4,5. the "thrones for justice." One, saith Paul, being for us in Tà πpòs eòv, "things pertaining to God;" the other in Tà Rom.15.17. Birika, "matters of this present life." The one pro aris, the 1 Cor. 6. 3. other pro focis, as the very heathen acknowledge. 1. These two are the hands, necessary to the body, and necessary each to other. First, they be both hands; and the hands, we know, are pairs. Not Moses the hand, and Aaron the foot, but either and each the hand. As they be the pair of hands, so be they also a pair of brethren. Not Moses de primis, and Aaron de novissimis populi; not Moses the head, and Aaron the tail; not Moses a quis, as St. Hierome speaketh out of the twenty-second of Esay, and Aaron a quasi quis; but both of one parentage, both one man's children. 2. Secondly, being both hands, neither of them is superfluous, no more to be spared, than may the hands; but both are absolutely necessary, and a maimed and lame estate it is, where either is wanting. The estate of Israel, in the seven- Judg. 17.6. teenth of the Judges, without a civil governor proved a very mass of confusion. The very same estate, in the second of Chronicles, chap. 15. sine sacerdote docente, no less out of 2 Chr. 15.3. frame. Miserable first, if they lack Joshua, and be as "sheep Nu. 27. 17. wanting that shepherd." And miserable again, if they lack Jesus, and “be as sheep wanting that Shepherd." Moses is Mat. 9. 36. needful, in the want of water, to strike the rock for us, and to procure us supply of bodily relief. Aaron is no less. For he Ex. 17. 6. in like manner reacheth to every one food of other kind, which we may worse be without, even "the Bread of life," and water Joh. 6. 48. out of "the spiritual Rock," which is Christ Jesus. Moses we Cor. 10. 4. need, to see our forces led against Amalek, for safeguard of Ex. 17. 8, that little we hold here in this life; and Aaron no less, to preserve our free hold in everlasting life: for the great and mighty коσμокρáторes, the legions of our sins, the very Eph. 6. 12 forces of the prince of darkness are overthrown by the spiritual weapons of Aaron's warfare. Moses may not be spared from sitting and deciding the causes which are brought before him. No more may Aaron, whose Urim giveth answer in doubts no less important; and who not only with his Urim and Thummim giveth counsel, but by his incense and sacrifice obtaineth good success for all our counsels. In a word, if Moses' rod be requisite to sting and devour the wicked, Ꭰ 51. &c. SERM. Aaron's is also to receive the good and to make them to frucII. tify. If Moses' hand want with the sword to make us a way, Aaron's hand wants too, with the key to give us an entrance. And thus much will I say for Aaron-for the devil hath now left to dispute about Moses' body, and bendeth all against him -that the very first note of difference in all the Bible to know God's people by, is, that as Cain and his race began at the city walls first, and let religion as it might come after, any it Gen. 4. 26. skilled not what; so the posterity of Seth, the people of God, begun at the Church, et cœptum est invocari, at the worship of God and His Tabernacle; as the point of principal necesLu. 10. 42. sity in their account, and as Christ reckoned it, unum necessarium. And truly if we be not populus, "a people,” but populus Tuus, "God's people," we will so esteem it too. For as for justice and law, and execution of them both, taliter fecit omni populo, it is every where to be had, even among the very Heathen and Turks themselves. So is not God's truth and Ps. 76. 1. religion, and the way of righteousness. No; notus in Judæâ Deus, saith the Prophet in the last Psalm;-that is only to be had in the Church, and Non taliter fecit omni populo, hath not dealt so with every people." Every "people have not knowledge of His laws." So that if the governor be not merely pastor agrestis, a rural shepherd,' such as are in the fields, and the people of God in His eyes no better than pecora campi; so that if he keep them one from goring another with their horns, and one from eating up the other's lock of hay, all is well and no more to be cared for of Gallio; but that he be like the great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the Prince of 1 Pet. 2,25. Shepherds, Who was Pastor animarum, as St. Peter calleth Him, [Ps. 147. 20.] "He "a Shepherd of souls ;" to see also that they be in good plight, that they be led in the way of truth. It will easily be yielded to, that per manum Mosis is no full point, but needeth an Aaron to be joined to it. Moses himself saw this, and therefore in the fourth of Exodus, when he had divers times shifted off this sole leading, while God stood still upon ecce mittam te; Ex. 4. 14. at last when God came farther and said, ecce Aaron frater tuus, mittam eum tecum, that contented him, and then he undertook it; as knowing these were like hands maimed, the one without the other, but that Moses and Aaron make a complete government. 3. And what should I say more? They be hands, and the body needeth them both. They be hands, and they need each other. Moses needeth Aaron, for Moses' hands are heavy and need a stay; and Aaron it is that keepeth them steady, by continual putting the people in remembrance that they be subject to principalities; by winning that at their hands by his continual dropping his word upon them, which Moses, for the hardness of their hearts, is fain to yield to. By strengthening mainly Moses' debita legalia, duties of Parliament and common law,' by his debita moralia, duties of conscience and divinity.' And whatsoever action Moses doth imprison, Aaron imprisoneth all the thoughts any ways accessary to the action. Which thoughts if they may run at liberty, the action will surely be bailed or make an escape, and not be long kept in durance. And so many ways doth Aaron support, and make both more easy and more steady, the hands of Moses. And Moses, for his part, is not behind, but a most jealous preserver of Aaron's honour and right every where. Every where mild save in Aaron's quarrel, and with those only that murmured against Aaron, and said he took too much upon him. Take but his prayer for all, because I would end, his prayer made for Aaron by name, in the thirty-third of Deuteronomy, and these three points in it. "Bless, O Lord, his substance;"- Deu. 33.11. therefore he would never have heard, ut quid perditio hæc ? that all is lost that is spent on Aaron's head. Then, "accept the work of his hands ;"-therefore he would never easily have excepted to, or with a hard construction scanned all the doings of Aaron. Last of all," Smite through the loins of them that rise up against him;"-therefore he would never have strengthened the hand of his evil willers, or said with Saul to Doeg, "Turn thou and fall upon the Priests." 1 Sam. 22. 17. To conclude, Moses and Aaron both have enemies. As Aaron hath Korah and Dathan that repine at him, so hath Moses 2 Tim. 3. 8. too Jannes and Jambres that would withstand him. And he that at one time disputes about the body of Aaron, may also Jude,ver.9. hereafter, for he hath done it heretofore, dispute about the body of Moses. It is good therefore they be respective each to other; Aaron help Moses in his lot; and Moses, Aaron in his; that they stand in the gap one for another; that so their |