indented with his obedience HE knoweth that Epitome's have been the bane of Arts and Sciences and injurious to the Professors thereof usefull rather for the memories of those who have learned then for the understandings of those who are to learne necessitating the Compilers to make use of words of the largest capacity which not coming within the reach of presumers Qui continuò se putant in Helicona pervenisse they embrace the empty cloud of their owne easie and hasty misprisions in stead of truth's substance and the Encyclopaedeia which full of fancy they arrogate to have attained Others whose modesty is more fit for learning are thrust upon despaire while they are not willing to think they know more then they doe and are intelligent of what they do not know And a third sort despise for ever what they comprehend not at the first Yet the Author depriv'd of the meanes of his subsistency and therefore of the encouraging accommodations of books and friends having as he could passed through the difficulties of the labour and at last not finding the like aid which was afforded to the Hebrew women in bondage by their Aegyptian Midwives is notwithstanding contented in zeale to God and his native countrey to adventure the breviary of the first part of his works concerning the grand external cause ofs Dominion to wit the Efficient hoping for better times for the bringing forth of that which he intended for the general benefit But confesseth that it cannot be thus done for the good of many in this greatest of Gods controversies with earth it being concerning his Soveraignty over the earth which being set upon the right basis the rock of Gods Word will stand against the oppositions of all encroaching intrenchments built upon the sard of humane machinations and requireth for the salvation of all that Christ hath bought compasse as well as strength But in all brothâ—â—ly concertations there must be a set rule of decisions In his Preface to the Reader he supposed as a principle between him and those with whom he would dispute That a man may be assured by an infallibly divine faith that the received Scriptures are the dictates of Gods Spirit this he attempted not to prove afresh it being already done in our Church even unto astonishment and in ever living cedar written in the Book of Jasher wherein the great Author though dead yet speaketh The Conclusions which he proved and which there as here he desired to have admitted were First that the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament acknowledged by the Church of England as dictated by the Spirit of God are to be held the Magisterial rule of all controversies and doubts in points of Religion for so long as the world shall endure containing all things necessary to salvation so as all those who with humility and sobriety will make use of the meanes therein expressed may attaine unto sufficient direction for the same through the Vrim and thunnus covenanted in them to be left unto Gods Church for ever And that other revelations are not now to be expected and different revelations to be abhorred Secondly that every good translation is according to the Word of God but no translation is the Word of God Thirdly that the Spirit of God hath not throughout the Book of God one word or tittle which hath not its own proper and beneficial weight neither is there in any particle thereof any thing savoring of humane frailty either in deficiency or superfluity for the just expression of the matter therein proposed Fourthly that the great Creator of Names hath not himself given a name to any thing but so that his name is a complete character of the nature of the thing it selfe which humane ability joyned with modesty and industry may in a competent measure discerne There be who with great probability affirme thus much of the names which Adam gave the beasts in Paradise Fifthly that where the Spirit of God makes use of a word of different significations they were all intended by God and are applicable to man as usefull for some conditions and times Sixthly that no place of Scripture being of private interpretation the obscure Texts are according to the analogy of faith to be expounded by those which are cleare and those which seem to goe alone by those which are more And that according to that of Psal 119. 130. it is Pethach Devarecha apertio verâ—orum tuorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the opening anatomising and looking into the entrals and vital principles of his mysterious words which give light and learning unto otherwise ignorant or simple mankind These things he justified from several plates of Scripture and all of them from that particular Text of Deut. 29. 29. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God and revealed things to us and our children for ever that we might doe all the words of this Law Which will be evident unto every man who shall look understandingly and seriously into the words in the original of that Text. To these were added the ensuing Cautions First that unto him who in points of difference adventures alone to expound Scripture no caution no modesty can be too much one side or the other of us having run upon the rock of perdition in the Exposition of Rom. 13. and 1 Pet. 2. 13. Secondly that in matters of moment such are the controversies which have drawn so much bloud amongst us great heed is to be taken how we depart from the interpretations recorded by the ancient Fathers and received by the whole Catholique Church That thus to doe is an argument of an evil cause or of an evil man in as much as they who were the Schollers of the inspired Apostles who were careful dispensers of all saving truths or the schollers of them who were so cannot but be surer masters of the Apostles meanings then we of the last age And they cannot but with serious men disgrace themselves what ever they may fasten upon weak and wilful capacities who deny the uniforme practice of all ages to be the best Expositor of what was decreed at first Thirdly that the Plea used by many but most of all by those who least reverence the Fathers that a dwarf set upon the shoulders of a gyant sees further then the gyant himself may be dangerously fallacious it holds not if the dwarf be pur-blind and cannot see what is afar off if his sight cannot reach to the gyant whom he tramples on if of his own or other mens prejudicial choosing he weares false spectacles which make that look blew which is white If he have an evil heart which will not give him leave to see what he does and report what be sees he cannot be a just witnesse Concerning the judgment of the one Catholique Church to wit which hath been in all ages and places and which none can contemn but to the infamy of the age and nation which doth or suffereth it what honourable
they must end as indeed they did begin with the world Yet since a multitude of men led on by those who with most applause subtily strike at Moses through Aarons sides who are in themselves more equall to the Regal Power doe not at all take into their thoughts the poor despised Priesthood or if they doe they thinke it rotten together with Aarons in the same grave Let me have leave onely to lay downe few Grounds for that whose fuller proofe belongs unto another place 24. That the Platforme of that Government which should be in the Church on Earth is set us in the Church in Heaven and the onely Exemplification thereof in the Book of GOD is the formal Rule which all Ages must apply themselves unto of which the Legal Institutes were the transitory Shadow the Evangelical the more substantial Image the Celestial the eternal Verity as Heb. 10. 1. Of which hereafter 25. That the Priesthood of Aaron is not Dead but Changed as these our bodies and the Corn to multiply the same Grain since it was honoured with the Name of Elohim and Vnction and withall with the Promise of Perpetuity in sundry places of Scriptures Particularly these two last conjoyned together Num. 18. 8. And againe the Lord spake unto Aaron Behold I have given thee the keeping of my Offerings of all the Hallowed things of the Children of Israel I have given them unto thee for the Anointings sake and to thy Sons by an everlasting Ordinance Since also Priesthood was a Twin of the same womb with Regality Born with the World it self and went along with the First-born in all Successions untill GOD thought sit to separate them by selecting a peculiar Tribe in stead of the First-born Num. 3. 45. before which time it is apparent unto all that is Understanding that they were united as in the Person of Melchisedec 26. In whose Priesthood briefly and onely was the Precellency of the Christian Deputy of Christ therein but pointed at in its perpetuall Patrimony to wit Tythes in his Benediction of him who was the Father of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levi In the Antiquity of our grand Sacrament preceding Levi's birth 14. 18. He brought forth Bread and Wine for for Vau is causal there as necessarily elswhere in Scripture he was a Priest of Ghnelion the most High God Gen. 30-27 who is called by that Name with relation to those in Subordination under him 27. The Preceptive Exemplification of personall Order for the Church of God on Earth derived from the Constitution of his Church in Heaven is no where described but in the three Orders of Aarons Priesthood according to these did our Saviour and his Apostles most exactly Form the Christian Triplicity of Bishop Priest and Deacon under the Gospel which coming from the Law and being ratified in the Gospel as shall be fully manifested is an evident Argument of its for ever Inalterability And especially since it was done without further precept it is easily visible that there needed none it being a point of most high concernment For at the Churches Foundation the Materials being provided nothing could be so necessary as the choyce of Builders and the Application of them to their severall Taskes the Master Builder being the eternall God one and the same for ever whose Ends were the same when he built the private Synagogue which now are for the Catholick Church whose Wisdom is no elder now then it was at that time whose Workmanship in this particular of these three Orders hath stood till this Age throughout all Christendome without either Renovation or Innovation Nor did the Primitive Church arriving at a flourishing Subsistency designe a new Order when answerable to Aaron who Typified Christ before he came they decreed semblably to represent him being come by Archbishops or Patriarchs which was onely to keep in Order what the Apostles had ordered Whereupon my fifth Quaere is How without the danger of Korah's Punishment the People or Inferior Magistrates or Ministers may assume unto themselves or Violate the Power of the Name of Elohm given away from them to the Ordinary Supreme Gods immediate Deputy overy them in relative Opposition to them I confesse that the Power which Moses had with relation to Pharaoh was indeed Extraordinary and that in respect of the Power it self for that God had given the Name of Elohim and by consequence the Ordinary Supreme Power thereof unto Pharaoh I confesse secondly that the Power of Dominion which Moses had over Aaron and all the rest of Jesurun his Subjects was extraordinarily given for he had it not by the Ordinary Title of Primogeniture but by the Donation of Him who only hath Power to transfer those Powers which are his and to create Titles But so far as concerns our Question in consideration of the Power it self it was ordinary Which I thus prove That Power which Moses by the virtue of Gods Donation and the Name of Elohim had over Aaron over his seventy and two Inferior Judges and all the People of Israel in commune with all other Kings who have indifferently that Name of Power communicated unto them by the Donation of God over all their Liege Subjects Was in regard of the Power it selfe Ordinary and not Extraordinary But the Power of not to be Invaded or Resisted Jurisdiction and all other the Rights of Majesty now in Question amongst us Moses by virtue of Gods Donation and the Name of Elohim had over Aaron over his seventy and two Inferior Judges and all the People of Israel in commune with all other Kings who have indifferently that Name of Power communicated unto them by the Donation of God over all their Liege Subjects Therefore the Power of not to be Invaded or Resisted Jurisdiction with all other the Rights of Majesty now in Question amongst us which Moses had c. was in regard of the Power it selfe Ordinary and not Extraordinary Secondly from the Inferiority of the High Priests Power and Title That Power and Title which the High Priest the next under the Prince though Head of a distinct Order had from God with relation to those under his Jurisdiction but never had it with relation to his Prince under though not from whom he had his Power and Title but had an Inferior Power and Title to wit of Angel in relative Opposition to him No man or men in relation to such a One may presume to challenge But the Power and Title of Elohim the High Priest viz. Aaron the next under the Prince though Head of a distinct Order had from God with relation to those under his Jurisdiction but had not with reference to his Prince under though not from whom he had his Power and Title but had an Inferior Power and Title in relative Opposition to him Therefore the Power and Title of Elohim in relation to the Prince no man or men may presume to challenge Thirdly concerning the dangerous hainousnesse of deserting our
it CHAP. X. The Contents Kings are Gods chiefe Debters for the sinnes of the People not the High Court or High-priest The King to command others what he may not execute himselfe Kings the Protectors of Religion and Religion of them The celebrated Precedents of good Jewish Kings the best Commentary upon the Precepts of God for Kingship This was accounted Argument enough while we had to doe but with the Faction of Rome Reverence to the incomparable Works of Bishop Andrewes restraines the needlesse pressing of this invincible Argument His irrefragable Exemplification of Jehoshaphat's severalizing the matters of Ecclesiasticall and Politicall Cognizance And his constitution of the High Priest his chiefe Commissioner in Ecclesiasticals 1. THat which needeth not to be shall be short it being sufficiently proved that the Power of the King is the Irresistible Supreme earthly Power of GOD. Which Power Religion is so farre from lessening that it addes both Honour and strength thereunto and is the strongest of Obligagations to re-enforce that which the iniquity of the times makes it to impeach 2. Now for as much as throughout the Sacred Story GOD ever reckons unto the Kings the sinnes of the Times and never unto the Sanbedrin the highest of all Courts established as hath been shewed from the first beginning of any such with Power derived from the Prince and that meerly for the ease of the Princes burden no nor yet unto the High-priest the visible Head of a distinct Subordinate Power answerable unto the Maternal without which helper meet for him the Christian King cannot be well alone and whose Office is to traine up the Children begotten in Politicall Nature in his Image by Religious nurture for the making them morigerously conformable unto their Fathers Likenesse whom the Husband is to command though not to repudiate to enjoyne that she doe that which he is enjoyned not to doe himselfe witnesse the Exauctorating of King Saul by GOD and the Leprosie of Vzziah 2 Chron. 26. 21. 3. Neither of these to wit the High Court or High-Priest were ever blamed by God for their Non-resistance or not stirring up the People to make Resistance nor yet the People for sitting still and suffering the King uncontrollably to run his wicked race into Superstition and Idolatry so far forth that the change of the Kings mind was still the cause of the change of the Peoples Religion and the Peoples sinne herein throughout the whole Sacred Story was ever laid upon the King Which is an invincible Demonstration from the Effect that the King was the onely He entrusted by God with his Earthly Power for the restraining of such wickednesses and for the Protector of Religion the greatest and justest Adversary of those as well as of Resistance against the onely Supreme Ordinary Power by God set up to pull downe them and to set up and protect Religion 4. This Argument in the hands of our Worthies was ever accounted impregnable while we had to doe but with the opposing Roman Party in the more colourable Non-Supremacy of the King in Ecclesiasticalls The other part to wit in Temporals being never denyed by men accounted serious till now But this being proved will also carry the other along with it for feare of failing both are already done by the Precepts of God And that the Covenant of God between Him and Christian Princes was one and the same in and with the Contract plighted with the former People and the Kings thereof So that the Presidents of good Kings recorded in the Booke of God are for us for whom certainly they were written Declarations given us from God of what was meant in his compact between him and Kings amongst us 5. And certainly I shall never meet with any who will affirme and appear in it when he hath so done that we challenge more for Christian Kings who had the better part of the Charter then what in matter of Fact was apparently exercised either in Individuo or in Specie by the commended Kings of that Nation which is so discernable by all men that I will spare my Proofs till I see some need of them 6. Especially since in the maine concludent Part the worke is already done so that herein there is no need of any thing to be further added by one now asleep in the Lord and in the land of the Living not alive amongst the Dead to behold with heart-beheading sorrowes the shame and deaths of the present age The most Reverend and Incomparably Learned and Prudent Head which the latter times have brought forth that hath gone to peace Integro Funere the late Bishop of Winchester in his Tortura Torti A Booke as most worthy of the Publike view so no lesse with Scholler-like insight might it finde admittance made ready for it in our English Tongue 7. But I desire not to urge other mens Arguments and dare not out of Reverence which also will restraine mine hands in the next Chapter doe injury unto his by my weaknesse I shall only produce an observation of his 2 Chron. 19. upon which Kings ought to looke as upon a direction sent from GOD to them alone and all others to let it alone in their hands It is the pious Act of Jehoshaphat Ver. 5. constituting Judges who though amongst men were not to judge for man but for Jehovah those Judgements being the Lords and not the Peoples So also Ver. 8. his appointing of the sons of Levi for the dispatch of all differences in Points of Religion Between bloud and bloud as Deut. 17. 8. between Law and Commandement Statutes and Judgements And in Ver. 11. his distinguishing of their charges and sâ—tting Amariah the High-priest over all in all matters concerning the Lord and Zebadiah the Ruler of the House of Judah for all the Kings matters There being in Ecclesiasticals some things wherein all mankind besides have not so much to doe as the King alone and others wherein the King hath nothing at all to doe but onely to see them done as shall be justified in the second Book when I come to speake of the sin of Jeroboam in the handling the Power of Gods Likenesse CHAP. XI The Contents No new Light after the New Testament What was both before and under the Law dyed not with the Law but was confirmed by the Gospell Evangelicall Rules and Examples in this particular followed by Primitive Doctrine and Practice abundantly justified by others The Divine Power of Kings Saint John 10. 34. not sequestrable away by distinction from their Persons but to the prejudice of the Deity of Christ The Text of Psalme 82. 6. I my selfe have said You your selves are Gods and all of you the sons of Gnelion further cleered Our Saviours owne Argument from that Text. Further manifestations amply performed elsewhere not needed here Christs owne Assertion that Tributes and Customes were payed unto God in Caesar Neither Livelihood nor Life it selfe can countenance Self-preservation by Resistance of lawfull Princes in
those who assume the name of Christians if the Doctrine and Example of Christ be onely that which can denominate Christians 1. ANd now having given a briefe Map of the Longitude and Latitude of such places of Scripture in this Point as my weak observation was able to describe and this small modell would permit In which description I have as occasion required still had recourse unto the New Testament the last of Lights that unaccursed man may expect Christ Jesus being the true light who lighteth every one that cometh into the world either this present or that to come and in the golden Candlesticke or holy Bush of the sacred Scriptures ever burning but never consuming either himselfe or it Who himselfe came downe from Heaven unto the last alive of his blessed Secretaries his beloved Saint John and set his conclusory Seale unto the last written Book of all the 27. of his last Testament And in the last clause thereof affixed his Commination accursing all those who adde new Lights to or take the true Light from the therein sealed Canon 2. I shall not spend time in doing what is done These being undeniable Principles That whatsoever with the approbation of GOD hath been continued from the beginning of the world and hath remained ever in and under the Law dyed not with the Law but is of the perpetuall Law of Nature Secondly That Christ came not to dissolve any part of the Law of Nature neither doth it need any particular ratification in the Gospel though ex Abundanti this great Point is impregnably fortified in that unalterable Covenant 3. But in this particular there is no need were there no more written then that most incomparable forementioned Tract against Resistance of the lawfull Magistrate under colour of Religion with the Appendents thereof Unto which some have now for a long time been indebted for ought that I could heare I being a man who for these late years have still lived in the greatest throng of the Disturbances of this world and in the greatest solitude of Bookes as having ever been out of their acquaintance or â—ode Quando fieâ— Aâ—ite Liber 4. In the New Testament invincible it is and cleerly deduced thence That Monarchicall Power is immortall as being the Power of GOD and that in opposition to any other Forme As also that paid Obedience is perpetually from all due unto that One both by the Injunction of the ever-living Evangelicall Precepts of Christ himselfe and his Apostles and by the ratification of the dying never dying Examples of Christ himselfe and of his Apostles 5. Which was received for Catholike Doctrine in the purer Ages which he hath proved and hath continued in all times which are worth a Livelihood in any vindicative Record by the Religious therein who accordingly have embraced Death it selfe rather then for quick ending Ends They would make abatement in either those Rules or Examples by their Resistance of that Power which Doctrine had its instauration when the Roman Monarchy was both Pagan and by force newly erected while the Senate was ready upon every overture to pull down the Monarchy Yet then neither they nor we have ever found any Appeale to have been made from any Injustice or Persecution to either the Senate or the People nor yet their names so much as comparatively thought worth the mention but suffering under the Tyrant Cui celsior ira nefásque Justius being made the Glory of the Gospel-Doctrine 6. But lest I should seem to talke of Precedents and forget Didactically to bring one Proofe of mine owne I shall justifie all that hath been concluded with the recapitulation of a few words from the mouth of Christ himself John 10 34 35. I have said you are Gods and this Scripture cannot be evaded or plaid fast and loose with at any time or dissolved while there is time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is the Principle whereby our Saviour proveth his Divinity to wit the knowne Divinity of those which have Regall Power not as vainly now sequestred by distinction from their Persons which if it were admitted would destroy the Vniversality of our Saviours Medium take away the strength thereof whereby he proved his own Personall Deity and make the best Logicians that ever were Christ and his Apostles inferior in that Art to this after-birth newly enlightned into the world who might better have distinguished for their lives against the Pagan persons of Tiberius and Nero but either knew not or abhorred this knack The least of all that hath been said in the cause deserving an Answer 7. Which upon the search of the Record will further appeare it is as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath been shewed Psal 82. 6. Ani Amarti Elohim Atem Ipse dixi Dii vos I my selfe have said it in mine owne Person you are Gods in your Persons or your selves First I my selfe Ani exclusively of all others for none but he himselfe could create man or any thing else much lesse onely by saying the word and it is not barely expressed thus by the forming of the Verb but by particular Article I my selfe So is the other by Article also Atem vos ipsi you your selves exclusively of all others those who tell you you are seduced by evill Counsell and unfit to governe are in respect of them Elohim as in your Persons 8. And this was done as hath been shewed by the operative Word which effected every thing that was made and that so soone as it was uttered And againe Amarti I have said it from the first Article of time that was so that there was no time wherein this was not true of this his speech who operateth not in time but in himselfe who was before all time And in the instant formally effected that in actu Signato which in actu exercito is daily produced When he said in himselfe Let us make Man in our own Image after our Likenesse and let them have Dominion the just Right of Elohim 9. Both these the Articles and the Power of this word Amarti our Saviour tooke care to expresse in the Greek John 10. The accusation of the Jewes was Ver. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That thou being a man makest not barely thee but thy selfe in thy Person to be GOD. He returneth upon them that Divinity is annexed not solely to the Office but also to the Persons of those to whom this Effective Word of GOD was imparted therefore certainly he was such in his Person really who was the Word that made them so truly in their Persons and so that this Act cannot be abstracted or distinguished away by Sophistry from their very Persons For his words upon which he inferreth that no robustuous ignorance or strength can loose this Scripture from them are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he calleth them Gods to whom the making Word of God was made for this is the English of the word and not barely came as a stranger to a stranger