should marry and how he should be esteemed in his place According to the which though I say it for my selfe I was taken froÌ„ the middest of my people as one worthelie esteemed and honoured in my place for the tokens of my graces then I was straitly viewed and throughlie examined wherein I was found cleane and free from euery one of those blemishes with the which whosoeuer was touched was forbidden to prease forth to do the priests office Leuit. 21.17.18.19.20 I was wel tried to be neither blind nor lame nor brused or flat of nose nor mishapeÌ„ in my meÌ„bers nor brokeÌ„ in my féet nor brokeÌ„ in my haÌ„ds nor crooked in my back nor bleared in mine eyes nor eyes webbed or blemished nor skiruy nor scabbed nor broken in the stoanes The blemishes for the which a man was vnfit for the priesthood yea I was found frée of those imperfections or blemishes which our Elders haue gathered and noted out of that place of the law which disabled the priest for they noted in the head eight in the necke two in the ears twelue in the eye-browes and eye-lides fiftéene in the eyes ninetéene in the nose sixe in the lips and mouth nine in the belly thrée in the backe thrée in the priuities sixtéene in the handes and féete twelue in the leges fiftéene and in all the body foure the which being taken away the naturall body appeared sound faire and perfect in all partes that by the same not onely the puritie of the mind might be signified but also the person of the Messiah truely prefigured Then was I consecrated to the Lord according to the law The consecration and ornamentes of the priest then was I cloathed in the holy garments as namely the Breastplate the Ephod the Tunicle the broadered Coate the Mytre the Girdle which were according to the commaundement garnished and beautified with gould blew-silke purple scarlet white twyned silke and brodered worke also with Owches Chaynes pretious stoans other such things with Vrim and Thumim in the which are expressed not onely spiritually the seuerall graces of a godly minde but also mistically the heaueÌ„lie vertues of the holy Messiah the finall obiect of our loue To this I was annointed with the holy oyle and had mine handes filled for the sacrifices The duties of priesthood performed Thus haue I béene furnished and approued for the Priestes office Now to this haue I beene willing and ready to doe my duety in the execution of my function I haue offered the sacrifices to the Lord for my selfe and the people and haue prayed for them in the which I haue beene mercifully heard and regarded of the Lord as Aaron was I haue taught the people and instructed them in the feare and lawes of the Lord I haue iudged and discerned according to equitie and as placed ouer the priests and ministers in the Lords house I haue regarded therein not only the conuersation and behauiour but also the order of the ministeries and seruices of the persons in the same for the better seruice of God the preseruation and maintainance of the ornaments of the Lords house and the benefit of the Lords people And this the better to performe I haue ruled my selfe and liued according to the law in my place and for my comfort I haue taken to me a cleane Vâ—rgin to wife Moreouer I haue serued and honoured next vnto my God my Lord the King in all dutiful thankfulnesse without giuing him any iust offence to my knowledge And therfore as the King is most wise and will not take an offence being not offered him I am sure he is not afflicted or grieued for any cause of mine as I perswade neither for any thing he hath noted or conceited in any of you But I know well there be other causes things whereof he hath taken this sorrow the which also may bee knowne to some of you and yet are yee most vnwilling to reveile or make knowne but would rather if it might be conceale and couer them for it is the part of a friend to couer the fault of his friend much rather then ought a true Subiect for the loue and honour of his Prince rather modestly to forbeare then to aduenture the display of any his faultes or imperfections They that obserue not this rule resemble shamelesse Cham one of the sonnes of Noah Gen. 9.22 who most vnreuerently both discouered and derided the nakednesse of his father This being said Zadok sighed déepely and made as a proffer to further speeches Neuerthelesse hee refrained for this time for he well knew the causes of the Kings griefe although it pleased him not as yet to vtter it partly for the reuerence he yeelded the kings honour partly for his owne modesty as also for that he was verie vnwilling to be the vnfolder of that which hee was sure the Princes and all the Kinges friendes would be very sory and loath to heare albeit they were so redy to inuestigate that whereof being once certified they did much maruaile at greatly lament and could scarsely ease or mitigate much lesse salue and recure howbeit they endeuoured their best and thought it bootelesse for them to stand wondering and reasoning longer then they might set on and spéedily assay which way to bring ease or comfort to their Soueraigne Lord the which they wel knew could not be effected till time they had found out and considered of the true causes of the kings affliction Therefore though much against their wils yet vrged by the present necessitie they presume on the king in this examination CAP. IX The Lordes are resolved to examine and consider of the King and his actions but note by what occasion in what sort and to what end Of Solomons birth WHen euery one of the Lordes had perused himselfe cleared his owne conscience and approued his words and actions towards the king Azariah Azariah the chiefe Lord replied againe and said Now that wee haue in this sort submitted our selues to the iust triall in all modestie and no lesse faithfulnes to our Lord K. Solomon and so cleared our selues of any iust offeÌ„ce offered him which bringeth no small comfort to our heartes in the time of this our trouble and trial Let vs aduenture to behold the king himselfe in whome it may be that the cause of his owne sorrow may be found Therfore let vs consider of his person actions and his manner both of entrance and life Indéede I confesse as Zadok hath before intimated that it may be thought a thing too malepert in Subiectes to censure the Prince or to pry too narrowlie into his actions and dealings or to discouer any his faults or imperfections especially to this end to diffame or deride him for this was Chams offence against his father for the which he was reproued and his posteritie cursed Neuerthelesse I thinke it not vnlawful nor amisse that the kings Princes and Priuie Counsellors seeing the kings
volume of the booke it is written of mee that I should fulfill thy will O my God I am content to doe it Thus was the most holy sonne and worde of God brought in talking with his father touching mans redemption and shewing both his willingnes and obedience to relieue the state of mankind Hereof it was that the Lord God decreed and said that the womans seed should tread on the serpents head Gen. 3. which signified that one should be borne of the womans body the which the Serpent had corrupt that should not onely purifie her and all mankind but also confound the Serpent and all his power From the which time our fathers haue expected we as yet expect and waite for the comming of that holy Seede Now here by the way wee may consider that albeit the Lord God be wonderfull mercifull vnto mankind he doth not ouerthrow therin his Iustice How the Lord was both iust and mercifull but obseruing either he expresseth great Equitie in a wonderfull for t For beholde hee laid that on his sonne which was due vnto man and againe hee gaue that vnto man which was onely proper to his sonne hee laid mans sinne and faults on his sonne hee imputed the righteousnes of his sonne vnto man In th' one appeared his iustice in th' other his mercy And in them both conioyned equitye That which was due vnto man the holy seed taketh on himselfe namely mans punishment which mans nature could not beare that which the holy seede merited namely eternall life the Lorde gaue vnto man for the sinne of man which deserued death was imputed vnto this seede and the Iustice of the holy seed which deserued Heauen was imputed vnto man I meane vnto them onely that by faith depend on that promise and those be the same whom the Lord God had before loued elected and predestinated to eternall glory and whome hee would not by any meanes permit to perrish and dye for euer This is the onely recouery of mankind and hope of his health This is that eternall verity and obiect of our faith This is the same whereunto all the law and the Prophets and all the tipes and figures both of them before vs and of them now in daily vse do aime point Promises of the Messiah Gen. 6. Gen. 22. Gen. 22.18 and direct vs for all succour helpe comfort and reliefe The decree and promise of this seede was after this confirmed to Noah to whome the Lorde said With thee wil I make my covenant thou shalt come into the Arkè But more plainly to our father Abraham to whome the Lorde declared this Sauiour and said of him In thy seede shall all the nations of the earth bee blessed The same which was called the seede of the Woman is now called the seede of Abraham for the Lorde woulde that hee shoulde come of Abrahams Seede after the flesh Prophesies of Messiah Gen. 49. Exod. 4.13 This is that whome Iacob our Father called Shilo and prophesyed that he should come in the tribe of Iudah And to him should be the gathering of the people This is that same to whome Moses pointed in the booke Velleschemoth when he saide to the Lord. Send I pray thee by the hand of him whome thou wilt send Deut. 18.15.18 and in his booke Haddebarim the Lorde himselfe calleth him a Prophet saying thus vnto Moses I will raise them vp a Prophet from among their brethren like vnto thee This is the same the holy man Iob calleth his Redeemer whome hee knewe to liue Iob. 19. Num. 14.17 This is that bright Starre and Scepter of the which Baalam did prophesie in Moses Booke Vaiedabber saying there shall come a Starre of Iacob and rise a Scepter in Israel 2. Sam. 7.12.13 14. This is that true King of peace promised to David the Kinges Father in 2. Schemuel 7. that Seede of David and Davids Lorde whose throne shall bee established for euer To bee short this is that lively Image of God and King of glory without all spot or blemish most mightye wise and excellent which shall in his time new builde Heirusalem and prepare himselfe an holy Temple and house for his worshippe therein I meane a Church spiritually framed and gloriously garnished after that proportion and forme which David the Kinges Father gaue and prescribed him according to the writing thereof which hee had receiued from Iehovah his God and the which the King hath in his time of peace builded and perfected accordingly Therefore of this holy Seede sang the Princely Prophet in many Psalmes calling him sometimes Gods Sonne sometimes a King psal 2.45.110 sometimes the King of glory sometimes a Priest eternall after the order of Melchisedek sometimes his Lorde sometimes his God sometimes his Redeemer sometimes his Saviour sometimes the Messiah or Annointed of Iehovah And as this holy Seede hath beene thus promised and foretolde of and belieued to come into the worlde Shadowes tipes and figures of Messiah The tree of life in paradise Abel Abraham Noah so hath hee beene shadowed typed and prefigured As first by the tree of life in Paradise of the which if our first parentes had taken and eaten they had neuer dyed but should haue liued foreuer Next by the Sacrifices of Abel Abraham others in the which it pleased God to declare himselfe gratious This Noah also prefigured when the Lord made him the finisher of the old world and the beginner of the new To the same pointed Melchisedek and Melchisalem Melchisedek to shew that he was a King and a Priest A King of peace and righteousnes and a priest of the highest God for euer as without beginning and without ending for the number of his daies may not bee reckoned or knowne The same was signified in the ladder our father Iacob saw Iacobs ladder Moses Iosuah by the which the angels did ascend and descend to and from heauen He was fore-shewed a deliuerer from thraldome in Moses and a Sauiour in Iosuah for Moses brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt and Iosuah conducted them inherited them and preserued them in the promised land Also Aaron the priest of the Lorde prefigured him with his Vrim and Thumim Aaron The pascall Lambe c To the same also serued the vse of the Pascall Lambe and those other symboles and sacraments in the Wildernes as the Manna from heauen the Water from the rocke Iudges and such like In the booke of * Shophtim is mention made of many bodily Saviours by the which was mistically shewed the person and office of Messiah There was Sampson Gedeon Othoniel Ieptha Samuel And within our age Sampson Gedeon Othoniel Ieptha Samuel David the calling annointing and manner of the raigne and condition of David foreshewed the same For all these things my Lordes haue and do rightly aime to that most holy Messiah whome the Lord God would that men should belieue and expect and
hope to come and at his comming loue and embrace as the onely person in and through whome the diuine Iustice is satisfied the heauenly will fulfilled the Serpent and all his fiery darts quenched and mankind pardoned healed recouered and blessed for euer Now this being said as an introduction to that which followeth we will come to speak of our Soueraign Lord K. Solomon whom I trust to proue and declare a Saint of the Lord and a right worthy member in his Church and so consequently no reprobate nor prophane nor damned person for if the former be proued wee shall by the same easily cleare him of the latter as before I haue said The Princes at this word seemed much comforted and shewed their willingnes yet further to heare what Zadoke would say For this saide they shall not onely please and satisfy vs but all others aswell they which now liue as they which shall come after vs. Therefore proceede most reuerend Father to proue that which ye haue assumed for the king And we will gladly giue both an attentiue eare vnto your words and vnto you condigne thankes CHAP XXVI Zadoke preveth that K. Solomon is a Saint of the Lord. THen Zadok proceeded reasoned for the King saying Whosoeuer is made and ordained by the will wisedome and providence of God a most lively and excellent figure of that holy Messiah the sonne of God the same is not a damned or reprobate or prophane person but he is a Sainct of the Lord But our Lord King Solomon is made and ordained by the will wisedom and providence of God a most lively and excellent figure of that holy Messiah the sunne of God Therefore our Lord K. Solomon is not a damned reprobate or prophane person but he is a Saint of the Lord. Now although no man may iustly deny either the first or the second proposition in any thing whatsoeuer yet as I perceiue ye are willing to listen ye shall heare mee to declare and proue either and so concludet or the King Surely my Lords it were not onely a great absurdity to hold it but an horrible thing to imagine that the most holy Messiah the sonne of the everlasting God that bright morning Starre that right holy Seede that high diuine Priest that excellent prophet and king of Glory so well resembling the almighty in holines beauty and in all perfection should be prefigured and declared by a prophane and vnholy person and that the excellency of his high dignity and royall gouernment should be typed by any thing common or vncleane Neither haue we found such inequalities in the proportions of the law of the Prophets and holy writings especially touching the promised and expected Messiah But this we finde that as the best things be best figured and declared in and by that which is most like or neere in nature kinde and qualitie so is the dignity person and function of the most holy Messiah prefigured and foreshewed according to the wisdome and prouidence of the Almighty where the types agree well with the things typed Therefore it was commanded in the lawe that the Lambes which were taken for the sacrifices should be cleane without all blemishes Exod. 12.5 Gen. 4.4 Aaron a figure of Messiah Exod. 28.30 Levit. 8. 21.6.18 as such as Habel offered vp to the Lord of the best of his flocks Therefore Aaron the Lords Priest who in his body prefigured the body of Messiah and in his garments expressed the excellency and perfection of his graces and vertues was a person without defectes or blemishes of body and glorious in his beautifull ornamentes according to the commandement the which also my selfe being the present high Priest am holden to retaine and vse and the which for that Abiather my predecessor vsed not but abused he was iustly depriued Moses also who brought our fathers out of the house of bondage and the same whome that prophet should resemble was a man welbeloued of God wel learned sanctifyed and made like vnto him in the glory of his Angels Likewise the Captaine Iosuah whome the Lorde appointed enabled to lead our fathers into this promised land was a man full of the spirit of wisedome the Lord his God both strēgthned and encouraged him whereby hee might be made a meete figure of the true Iehosuah our leader and guide into the land of the liuing To bee briefe David the Kings father who in his time bare an excellent figure of that Messiah both in his annointing nature raigne exaltation and humiliation was a man after Gods owne heart and euery way furnished with divine graces and right princely vertues meete for the same The like may be said of our forefathers Adam Enoch Noah Abraham Isaack Iacob Ioseph Sampson the Nazarite others in and by whome the Lord our God wold tipe and foreshew his deare sonne the Messiah notwithstanding all their humane imperfections and fleshly infirmities All these things saide the Princes haue we hearde with great delight and that to our full satisfaction in that part The princes For indeede such is the nature of the diuine proportions in the lawe in the Prophetes and in the psalmes And therefore he which by the wisedome will and prouidence of God is made a liuely excellent figure of that holy Messiah must of necessitie be a Sainct not a damned wretch reprobate or prophane But now what will ye produce for the proofe of this that our Lord King Solomon among those blessed Fathers is by the same wisedome Solomon is a figure of the holy Messiah will and providence or dained and made a right figure of that most holy Messiah This proposition saide Zadok can neither bee denied nor abandoned but confessed and receiued aswell of them now liuing as of al them that shall come after vs in all posterities who in the due consideration thereof with the circumstances shall grant and conclude with vs in the same And this may easily be gathered and proued to put all men out of doubt First in that according to the diuine prouidence and direction he hath built and garnished that right glorious Temple in Ierusalem Solomon in the building of the Temple figured the Messiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house dedicated to the name of the Lorde the which doubtlesse standeth for a perfect figure of the holy Koheleh or Church of the Lorde our God whether misticall in the Congregation of them that serue God after his will declared in his worde or spirituall in the heart and minde of all the faithfull where it pleaseth the holy spirite of discipline to dwell or glorious in heaven of all them that be deliuered from hence and translated into the societie of the celestiall angels An house indeede The Church figured Gen. 3. which none either in heauen or in earth can or must builde or garnish but onely that most holy Messiah and promised Seede And this was prefigured by the womans body betweene whome
to the tyranny of the Serpent which had deceiued them Adams sinne Gen. 3. Iudah Gen. 38.26 Lot Aaron Exo. 32.2 Gen. 34.25 Simeon and Levi. Ruben Gen 49 4. The Israelites Sampson Iudg 2.11.13 3.6 16.18 Laban Gen. 31.30 for the which they were iustly driuen out of Paradise and made subiect to misery and death notwithstanding it pleased the L. God as ye haue heard to forgiue them and to gather to himselfe an holy church euē from among them which had sinned We read that Iudah tooke his daughter in law Thamar lay with her contrary to the law and acknowledged that he had sinned therein Lot was made drunke and lay with both his daughters Aarō the Lords priest yeelded to the making of a molten calfe which the people worshipped VVe read that Simeon and Levi the sonnes of Iacob dealt deceitfully with Hemor Sichē his son and murthered them and their people against the will of their father who in his last words cursed their wrath which was shameles their rage which was cruel As for Rubē Iacobs eldest sonne he defiled his fathers bed distained his dignity Our fathers in the time of the Iudges were carried away to serue Baal Astaroth and they were cōioined with the Cananites against the law of the L. Sampsō the Nazarite combined himselfe with a strange woman yea and in the end yeelded his power to the harlot Dalila Laban the father in law of Iacob was a worshipper of strāge Gods Terah the father of Abrahā was not free frō the like offence And are the sinnes of those our fathers especially the greatest of these sins inferior to the K. sins Notwithstāding it is testified that the L. pardoned thē restored thē to his fauor But ye say that the K. hath turned away his heart form the Lord. Indeede of all others his sins this is the greatest Howbeit I say not therefore that hee hath vtterly turned away his heart as that hee hath quite forsaken God and by wicked apostasy fallen away from him for euer for had it beene so we should not haue seene him in this his estate And as I well remember I heard the king himselfe to say and wee cannot denye it when we well consider thereof and of him in this his estate that in the depth of those his sinnes and vanities he perceiued that yet his wisedome remained with him psal 51.11 1. Sam. 16.14 2. Sam. 7.15 How Solomon is said to turne away his heart from God by the which he ment the graces of that diuine spirit which King David praied that the Lorde would not vtterly take from him being indeed an effect of that mercy which the Lord his God said he would not take from him as he toke it from Saul whom hee had cast off before him But I say the King hath turned away his heart in this sense first in that he hath sinned against the Lorde his God secondly in that he hath yeelded to his lusts and thirdly in that he fainted in his holy zeale For there is no sinne whatsoeuer which a man committeth wherein there is not a turning away of the sinner from the Lord for sinne is contrary to the law of God and argueth a contempt of his iustice neglect of his graces therefore the Lorde requireth in them whom he recoureth and pardoneth a faithful returne in humble contrition Next it is true that euery man is led away from God of his owne concupiscence or naturall lusts and thus the King doting ouermuch on his strange Woemen hath been enflamed ouercome in affection seduced and led away from the Lordes righteousnes Thirdly the king by those former occasions had forsaken his first loue was waxen more colde or luke-warme in that holy religion and godly zeale with the which his heart hath been wonderfully enflamed in his youth But yet I remember what the Lord said I will shew mercy to whome I will shew mercy The same said to Hagar Returne againe to thy mistris Exo. Gen. 16 9. though thine heart was turned from her Againe he saith to the sinner ' Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do those good workes which thou hast vsed to doe when I was well pleased with thee Againe Remember thy maker So I confesse though with sorrow of heart that the king in that his estate hath not so zeolously set foorth and maintained the glory and seruices of God as he was wont to doe for whosoeuer is addicted to the former is defectiue in the latter but he neglected a great part of his office and duty But yet the Lord bee thanked we know that the state of religion was neuer altered or changed The holy religion neuer altered but continued the same in Solomons time 2. Chro. 11.16.17 but that hath and yet doth remaine the same as in the time of David notwithstanding the idolatries superstitions and prouocations of his strange women which is a notable argument that yet thee helde the sure foundation of his saith vnshaken And therefore let vs not presume either to say or to thinke that King Solomon is fallen vtterly away from the Lord his God who hath so wonderfully loued beautified and blessed him It is one thing to offend God by euill thoughts euill wordes or wicked deedes another thing to deny God and to forsake him vtterly He that sinneth and offendeth God and yet beleeueth in God he is by his repentance reserved for saluation but who so doth deny God and vtterly apostate from him there remaineth vnto him not so much as one little shell wherewith he may drawe a very small measure of the water of life It is not one and the same thing to turne frō the Lorde and to turne vtterly awry from him without retyre or returne The former of these faults is often seene in Gods owne children when like prodigall and disobedient sonnes they bee tempted to depart from their most louing father and yet do returne home againe are renued by repentāce as were Aaron Moses David the latter is seene in the reprobates only which fall away and neuer returne and therefore are not renued by repentance for they cannot truely repent The reprobates cannot truely repent because the Lord giueth not repentance vnto them as it was apparant in Cain in Lots wise in Saul whom the Lord cast away frō before him But this falling away from God wee haue not found nor shall perceiue in K. Solomon the Lorde bee blessed therefore Neither may wee thinke that howsoeuer he is saide to followe after Astaroth Milcom Molock Camos such others the Gods of the heathen that therefore he was so grosse an Idolator as he did adore and worshippe those strange Gods no more then we may thinke Solomon did not worship Idols Exo. 32.2 that Aaron the Priest did adore and worship the golden Calfe which himselfe had made at the importunacie of our Fathers in the wildernes And I knowe
thought it good and no lesse their duties not onely to collect and preserve them but to commit and commende them with the like authoritie to the holy Church Now it remaineth that we also heare and consider what hath beene else resolved concluded and testified by the godly learned and wise men aswell hebrewes as others succeeding them of that age and that not onely before but also sithence the birth death and ascention of the most holy Messiah concerning King Solomon and those his wordes First the auncient hebrewes and Rabins of the Iewes have delivered that Solomon did so much dislike his lustfull delightes and chiefly that sinne of Idolatrie impuâ—ed to him Jn vita pat lib. 7. in prologo in Cap. 1. in that hee tolerated and maintained his strange wives in their abhominations that hee willingly exposed himselfe in person a publike example of repentance throughout the streetes of Ierusalem and woulde also have beene whipped with seaven roddes in that Temple which himselfe had builded had not the learned doctors of the lawe withstood it holding it vnlawfull for them or any others to laye their handes on the Lordes Annointed as David had taught esteeming him not onely their true King but a divine Prophet and holy man of GOD and at this time a person truly repentant for his sinnes whereof they presumed of his pardon and eternall health Next wee finde it testified by the Author of the latter booke of the Chronicles of the kinges of Israel and Iudah Chap. 11. verse 17. that after king Solomon was laide to his fathers Iudah for the time of three yeeres following pleased GOD walking in the waies of David and Solomon not onely of David but also of Solomon noting that although king Solomon walked not perfectly with the Lorde in the time of his trespasses as David walked when hee pleased GOD yet neverthelesse in his latter time hee was reclaimed and walked againe with David as himselfe did in his youth when they both together pleased the Lorde GOD and so in th' end resigned both himselfe repentant and holy vnto God Nota. and the kingdom in the same estate wholy to his sonne Rehoboam for neither was the kingdome as yet divided nor the state of religion altered during the daies of SolomoÌ„s governmeÌ„t according as the L. had de creed promised 1. King 11.12 saying I wil not do it in thy daies Therefore not onely Solomon is combined with good David touching the state of religion the manner of his walking but also it is testified that Rehoboam his son followed the L. also together with theÌ„ of Iudah that scared the L. in the same way full 3. yeeres after Solomons death within the which time it pleased God to fortify the kingdom of Iudah therin to make Rehoboam strong After this the wise Syracides chap. 47.12 among others in his time conceiving wel of this excelleÌ„t person whoÌ„ he esteemed an excelleÌ„t sainct of the L. from whose wise sayings his graÌ„dfather Iesus had collected many his sentences hath carefully and reverently named numbred him among those holy Patriarches fathers of the old testameÌ„t so worthy of praise wherewithall although as a true historiographer in that parte hee hath laide open his sins which els were so apparant as they coulde not be covered yet he extolleth him with many admirable coÌ„meÌ„dations in right consideratioÌ„ giveth not so much as the least aime to any doubtfulnes of either his holines or salvation yea rather he omitted not to say and protest that God forsooke not his mercy meaning that which was promised to David concerning SolomoÌ„ confirmed to SolomoÌ„ accordingly as 1. King 11.39 Neither that he was vtterly destroyed because of his works that he should leaue him no posteritie Fourthly Saint Matthew the Evangelist bringeth in King Solomon in the genealogie of Christ our Saviour together with his mother among those holy fathers of the olde Testament Matt. 1.6 But chiefly the Lorde Iesus himselfe in his profound doctrines and sermons hath not disdained this person but vouchsafed to name him and there-withall to remember not onely the wisdom of King Solomon but also that holy House which he built to the Name of the Lord. And to declare how well he liked the same house he daily taught the people therin shewed them the right vse therof yea hee much disliked that the same should be prophaned by vngodly sinful men therfore assayed to reduce it to his pristin purity when with a whip he drave out both the buyers and sellers saying My house is the house of Prayer for all Nations it was indeede all vnmeet that the thing which was ordayned for a figure of his Church and prepared to so holy an vse should be stayned with mens prophanitie so long as the vse of the figure endured which was vntill the time of the comming of the holy Ghost vnto the Apostles after Christs ascension into the heavens After this that holy Protomartyr Steuen in his answere to the high Priest Actes 7. speaketh right reverently both of Solomon and of his worke and to testifie that the same had yet a further aime then to the ordinary personage or to the worke of other men he addeth But hee that is the highest of all dwelleth not in the Temples made with mens hands alluding to Solomons wordes in the dedication of that house 2. Chro. 6.18 For right well is it said that the very person whome that holy king prefigured dwelt not in that house made with handes howbeit as concerning his power and th'excellent graces of his spirite he is ever present in and with that holy church which Solomons Temple hath prefigured and expressed After all this to passe over the Apostles and their worthie estimation of this person and his workes from the which they have taken and cited argumentes to confirme their doctrins all the ancient fathers of the Nicen Concil Aug. in lib. 17 de civit dei cap. 20. Idem in 2. lib. de doct Christian Ioh. Driedo de Catalo sacr script lib. 2. vide Hieron in extrema visione Ezechiel Ambros super Ecclesiast et in Apolog. David and others both holy and learned in the church have not only gathered received aswel froÌ„ hence as from others monumeÌ„ts of their elders Solomons holines and true repentance but also have esteemed him for a Prophet and in their writings have called him the most wise holy Solomon But were it so that those things did not so plainly appeare in the holy scriptures nor could it be founde in any word or writing of antiquity that Solomon after his transgressioÌ„ did repent coÌ„vert himselfe to the L. what reasoÌ„ what charitie or what wisdom would yet cast into suspeÌ„se the holines salvation of so rare excelleÌ„t a persoÌ„ when there is not extaÌ„t any sufficieÌ„t scripture or warraÌ„t to prove his final prophanity eternall perdition or that hee continued irrepentant vntill his death
Nay we ought not to be such sharp cēsorers as either to deny or to bring into doubt the salvation of all thē whose sins have bin made manifest in the holy scriptures albeit of their finall repentance we finde no mention in plaine forme of wordes If it were not so what shoulde wee iudge of Adam and Hevah which hearkened to the Serpent and fell from their obedience of Noah which beeing drunken with wine lay vncovered of Lot which was overcome and committed incest of Iudah which lay with Thamar his daughter in law of Sampson the Nazarite who dallied with Dalila slew himselfe with the Philistines of Iosiah which attempted an vnnecessary battaile against Neko the K. of Aegypt died in the same of the man of God which cōtrary to the L. commādement did eat bread in the old Prophets house was slaine of a Lyon and of many such others both before and sithence the time of Christ of whose salvatiō there is no doubt or questiō Neither may we think howsoever Solomon offēded as he did offēd that hainously that yet his sins were irremissible not to be pardoned or by nature such as passed the sins of those others of whō wee read and belieue that God pardoned them Amongst others look on David the King look on Manasses look on Paul and consider Peter Was not David both an adulterer a murtherer for he tooke Bethsabe caused Vriah her husband for her sake to be slain howbeit he was not shut out frō repentāce so neither from remissiō as the scriptures testifie What was Manasses the scriptures report that he did evil in the sight of the L. even after the abhominatiōs of the heathēs whō the L. cast out before the childrē of Israel for hee built vp all the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroied he reared vp altars for Baal made groaves as did Achab K. of Israel worshipped al the hoast of heavē served thē he built altars for al the hoast of heavē he offered his own Son in the sier gave heed vnto witchcraft sorcery and maintained workers with spirits and tellers of fortunes wrought much wickednes in the sight of the L. to anger him Againe he led the people out of the way to do more wickedly thē did the heathē people And he slew Isaiah the L. prophet shed much innocent bloud till hee replenished Ierusalem from corner to corner besides his sinne wherewith he made Iudah to sin and to doe evill in the sight of the Lord. Lo such an one was Manasses and such were his sinnes farre beyonde that wee reade of Solomon Further what was Paul was he not a Saul a blasphemer a persecutor of Christ and his Saintes and finally did not Peter 3. times not onely deny his Maister Christ after he had believed and confessed him but also did sweare that hee knew him not yet lo Manasses is witnessed to repent and to finde mercie Peter goeth out and weepeth and the Lord looketh on him and sheweth him mercie Paul hath also obtained mercie as himselfe testifieth and such indeede is the mercie of our good God to penitent sinners Note this Now let no man thinke that this hath bin spokē to encourage men in their sins God forbid Nay rather let men by these fearefull examples feare to sinne and not presume on Gods mercie knowing that presumptuous sinnes shall not be freed of plagues when even those sinnes which are done of ignorance of feare of frailtie or natures imperfections are not left without some measure of punishmentes But this hath bin said partly to arme all men against despaire but chiefly to banish out of mens hearts that deep suspicion of Solomons finall Repentance and the doubtfulnes of his eternall health with that holy Messiah whome he so worthily prefigured in his life Secondly as wee have saide of Solomons person so may wee say resolve of his Books Sermons and Songs chiefely of his Proverbes his Preacher and his Song of Songes as of perfect veritie consonant in all thinges to the legall propheticall and Apostolicall Scriptures And therfore howsoever some persons either malicious or ignorant would obiect and except against any of those by reason of the persons transgression or of his strange phrases farre passing the vulgare and ordinarie manner of speech or the reach of their knowledge or otherwise wee find neverthelesse that as both the author and his workes and wordes have beene reverently esteemed and worthily admired of those wise and honourable personages who lived in his time and so neare him that they both beheld him with their eyes and heard him with their eares and from his wisdom collected and preserved that which they esteeme worthie the holy register as most divine Oracles prophesies sentences and doctrines so necessary and profitable for the Church so also have those wise learned Hebrues and others of regarde which succeeded them resolved of the same which therefore they have likewise esteemed and embraced accordingly Pro. 25.1 Aug. de civ dei lib. 17.20 Io. Driedo in Catalog sacr script Therfore the godly affected Servantes of the right worthie King Hezekiah admiring the one and well affecting the other did carefully copie out for their better solace and instruction many of his wise parables and grave sayings Therefore also Esra the right learned Scribe who collected and restored the written lawe sacred prophesies dispersed in the vnhappy time of the Babylonicall captivitie gathered and placed those 3. former Bookes in the Canon of the holy Scriptures Therefore the Synagogue of the Iewes after him and that aswell before as sithence the time of the Lordes nativitie accepted and received those his Bookes in the number of the 22. which they proportioned to the letters of the holy tongue Therefore the Chaldean translators of the holy scriptures have both regarded entituled his sayings songs Prophesies Therfore Iesus or Iosua the high priest being in Aegypt Eccles 1. in Prolog August de civit deilib 17. cap. 20. Et lib. retract 1. cap. 4. Hieron in lib. de viris illustrad Chromat Hag. 1.1 Zach. 3.1 Io. Driedo in Catalog sacr script Damas lib. 4. cap. 18. finding there many Books writtē in the hebrew tōgue left there of the Iewes among them all copied out collected and comprised in a book many of Solomons wise words sentences divine prophesies the which afterward that is to say in the raigne of Ptolomy Euergetes the Aegytian K. a little before the daies of Iudas Macchabeus and about 200. yeeres before the birth of Messiah one Iesus the sonne of Sirach which was the son of the same Iosuah affecting that which his grandfather had collected did interpret or translate the same frō the hebrew into the Greeke tongue acknowledging himselfe therin to bee not the Author but the translator Therefore Philo the learned Iewe who lived in the time of Onias the high priest beeing about an hundred
wherof Good counsell for them that liue in this world men should not so much marvaile at the sodaine chaunges of others and at the inconstancy of these worldly things as they should endeuour to learne to beware that they depend not on the deceaveable vanities of this life and to take héede that they waxe not proud nor forgetfull of their maker and of their owne estate and condition in the fond abuse of the things which are not their owne but as lent vnto them to be vsed to the honor of God their owne necessities Lastly séeing that these things be so vncertaine they should in time prouide to lay vp for themselues those treasures which are permanent and many stéede them to their highest content in the feare and loue of him that blesseth and prospereth all them that neuer turne their faith from him The second Chapter King Solomons Lordes perceiuing the strange alteration of their Soueraigne waxe very sorowfull they enquire for the cause and endeuour to preuent the future inconveniences WHilest all those thinges were in action apparent euen before Strangers talked of openly and laid in the common ballance to be peazed and censured of euery man King Solomons noble Princes and chiefe Lords were assembled in the Councell Chamber there partly to conferre of the affaires of the kingdome for the high glory of Iehouah their God the benefite of the common-wealth and the right honour of their Soueraigne Lord partly to inuestigate and search for the causes of this the kings sorrow and sodaine alteration the which they wold assay to remoue or mitigate according to their wisdom knowledge and best habilitie Wherein they manifested themselues dutifull to their God profitable to the weale-publique and regardfull of their kings health and prosperity The duty of noble Counsailors to their King which are the principall things that noble Counsaylors and the worthy seruants of such Soueraignes should in their supreame places respect with all fidelitie Now vpon a sodaine Zabud the priest the sonne of Nathan and the kings familiar friend who had béene with his highnes for his better comfort in affliction all that night before issued forth of his priuy Chamber entred the assemblie of those Lords and although with an heauie heart mestiue mind and sadde countenance by reason of the Kinges great perplexitie and troubles he saluted them in these words Iehovah our God saue you my Lords all both Honourable and Reuerend the right happy princes of king Solomon To whome they all as with one mouth resaluting him answered the same Power blesse prosper and preserue you Reuerend Zabud the right trustie Secretarie and familiar good friend of our Soueraigne Lord King Solomon And whence come ye now my Lord an what is the cause if it please you that ye be so pensive and heavy to day Is all thing well To his Zabud replied My Lords all I am presently come forth of the Kings privie Chamber where I haue béene all this last night watching and attending on his most royall person the Lord God saue keep his grace howbeit there haue I found little or no comfort as God knoweth for much griefe and sorrowe hath betided the king which encreaseth yet more and more without mitigation and the like acreweth towardes vs and the whole kingdome as farre as I can gather by that which I haue both heard with mine ears and seene with mine eyes of and in him Vpon this saying in this manner deliuered before them such a strange terror and dread assayled the hearts of those Lords that being throughly astonished they neither were able to answer him The trouble of the King is a griefe to his Subiects nor wist they what to say For there can be no greater grief and discomfort to true hearted subiects especially to the faithfull Counsaylors of happy kings then when they shall either see or heare of the hurt sorrow or discontent of their Soueraigne Lord at the alteration of whose prosperous estate both Nobles and the Commons are sodainly moued much disquieted as that body which féeleth the distemperature of his proper head fearing the ensewing of such plagues troubles and vexations as are wont to follow and succeed the sodaine losse and departure of such heroicall persons by whose good gouernment and valour their Realmes and Common-weales haue bin right happily maintained in peace and tranquillitie Neither at the least should either the Nobles or the common people be merry or pleased in the sadnesse trouble or vexation of their Soueraigne Lord knowing well that natures of that grade and apprehension will not shew themselues heavie hearted and mestive for any light or meane causes At the length after long expectation silence pawzes and eagre looking one on another of them with deppe sighes pitifull groanes and cheekes watred with weeping eyes a principall Lord Azariah sheweth the good opinion loue and affection of a good Subiect whose name was Azariah though scarcely able for sorrow of mind to vtter with his trembling tongue his hearts conceit spake thus in effect Alas alas and how fareth then his most royall person how doth our good Lord king Solomon the most famoust most wise and most glorious King in all the world The God of heauen graunt his most princely grace both along life and a wished prosperity to liue raigne ouer vs and this people For I assure you my Lords as ye will know and must in equitie confesse that next and immediately vnto Iehouah our God hee is the approved stay of our house the lightsome eie of our body the resplendent glory of our kingdome the happy peace of our people the comfortable ioy of our heartes the glad solace of our soules the right guide of our gouernment the diuine wisedome of our nation the manifest maiestie of our God and the blessed preservation of Israel But how fareth the Kinges most sacred person In all this and other his speeches and gestures did this noble Azariah expresse the good opinion conceiued the right loue the godly zeale the faithfull mind the true affection and right worthy nature of a wise faythfull and obedient Subiect to his most gratious Soueraigne I will now tell you my good Lords saide Zabud how the king fareth I am well assured zabud sheweth the Kings alteration and present estate as ayming to his Repentance there is not any one of you all but hath plainely perceiued that his Grace is most strangely and sodainely altered of late from both his wonted constitution of mind and his common order of life and that his wordes also sauour now much other wise then they haue sometimes heretofore savored to our audience and vnderstanding For behold whereas he vsed to be gladsome and merily conceited now is he rauished with heavie dumpes and oppressed with ladâ—es wheras heretofore he accustomed to talke with a right lovely and lively voice now we heare nothing besides a voice of lamentation from him tending to mortification and
farther it went from him yea and so far that he might not reatch vnto her In this sort whiles hee would expresse the profoundnes of wisedome hee abased himselfe beyond all mens expectation for there is no man which knoweth the king but esteemeth him most wise I haue also lately heard him to speake much against Women so farre that whiles hee found the wisemen to be so rare Scarcitie of wisemen and wise women as one to a thousand in comparison He found not so much as one woman among them al. Further he speaketh much of this that euery thing wil haue an oportunitie and iudgement Euery thing will haue his iudgement which causeth mee to dread what he thereby entendeth towardes any of vs and the sooner because he added That one man hath lordship or rule ouer another man to his owne hurt which seemeth to touch vs and others which are placed in authority There be which iustifie the vngodly which are dead before any of them which are yet liuing and the more because he saith that some are contented to commend them which are deade and gone before them which be yet liuing Yea they praise such as were in their liues distained with vngodlinesse and sin for the which they were worthily condemned and executed accordingly being such as iustifie Adoniah and his cause Shemei and his cause and Ioab and his cause against the king notwithstanding that euery one of them were both execrable wicked and their workes abhominable before the Lord his holy annointed for the which they were iustly brought into iudgement and died without honour * But after that Zabud had a little paused and none of the rest had interrupted him he procéeded and shewed that the King declared the occasion of such rash Censores and the boldnes of malepert persons Because that euil workes are not speedily punished the heart of man giueth over himselfe vnto wickednes And yet it cannot be denied but that there bee some iust to whome it befalleth as vnto the wicked in this life The confusion of worldly thinges in the which many thinges be carried confusedly to mans vnderstanding for hee cannot comprehend eyther the thinges themselues or the causes and occasions of them by any his wit wisedome study or endeuours and therefore by any thing which is done vnder the Sunne and so in the kingdome of vanity No man knoweth whether he be beloued or hated of God for it often happeneth to one man as it doth vnto another yea to the good as to the euill to the righteous as to the vngodly to the cleane as to the polluted to him that offereth as to him that offereth not to the vertuous as to the sinner to the periured as to him that is afraid of an oath whereof there ariseth great enuy of one against another that the heartes of men are ful of wickednes and madde foolishnes as long as they liue vntill they die I haue heard him also to say that it helpeth not to the swift in running nor to the strong in battell Thinges happen to men by chance as touching their foreknowledge or forecast therefore men should be euer prouident and prepared Mans ingratitude Cap. 10. Ignorance of princes nor to the wise in feeding nor to the vnderstanding man in enriching nor in finding fauour to be cunning but that all lieth in time and fortune And that a man knoweth not his time but he is taken in the perilous season as the fishes are taken with the angle the birdes in the snare But he complaineth much and that daily of the great ingratitude of worldly men which doe not onely not care to requite but also do forget the greatest benefites of their bountifull benefactors Yea they cease not malitiously to slaunder and defame them that haue worthily merited honour in their liues hee greatly lamenteth the palpable ignorance of Princes which before all others should bee wise learned and well nurtured thereby the better able to perform their duties in their places he yerneth in his bowels to behold how seruants ride on horses and Princes goe on their feete princes abased seruants exalted as it were servants And that whoseeuer assaieth to redresse this monstrous abuse of the worlde is hurted and annoyed by them that striue to maintaine such abuses hee hath vttered and dayly vttereth many parabolicall sayinges and darke sentences and I haue much pondered of the sense thereof Cast forth thy bread saith he on the face of the running waters Cap 11. Geue a part seuen dayes when the cloudes be full they powre down raine where the tree falleth there it lyeth he that regardeth the winde soweth not he that respecteth the cloudes reapeth not Theis and many such other thinges haue I heard the kinges Grace to vtter in this time of his contrition and sorrow Cap. 12. Aboue all he hath exhorted men to remember God in the dayes of their youth before the times of affliction ouertake them and therin hath made a right excellent description of mans Old age with all mans infirmities being as preambles to his natural death Here hee telleth of the (a) A description of mans old age miseries and death dayes of aduersitie of the yeares of displeasure of the darkening of the sunne the moone and the starres of the turning againe of the cloudes after the raine of the (b) Hands and armes trembling of the house-keepers of the bowing of the (c) The legs strong men of the standing still of the (d) The teeth grinders (e) The eyes of the dimnesse of the windowes of the shutting of the (f) The mouth street dores of the silence of the (g) The great chaw teeth Milner of the waking vp at the (h) Watchfulnes in old men Cocke-crowing of the abasing of the (i) The cleare voice or throat the hearing Musicall daughters of the dread of high (k) Fearing to climb or stooping as if they feare climbing of the flourishing of the (l) gray haires Almond tree of the Grashoppers (m) Sharpe shoulders in age vnable to beare loading of the passing away of (n) The heate or the strength of nature Concupiscence of mans trauaile towardes his (o) The pit or graue long home of the (p) Lamentatiō ouer the dead Mourners which goe about the streetes of the taking away of the (q) The marrow of the backe bone or vitall spirite siluer lace of the breaking of the (r) The braine enclosed in a yellow skinne golden Ewer of the breaking of the (s) the veines pitcher at the (t) the liuer well of the renting of the (v) Heade wheele vpon the (w) Heart Cisterne of the turning of (x) the naturall death dust into dust from whence it came and of the (y) the immortality of the soule Euery man in such cases should first examine himselfe and his owne waies Ascension of the Soule
in life and behauiour and not to be perfect within as to make shew without and not to be in either conformable to the office and place I haue especially regarded the maner of my walking that it might bee honest worthie and wise that so I might teach both in doctrine and life and not destroye in th' one Psal 109.7 whiles I would seeme to build in the other accounting them that offend herein worthy of that censure which David gaue on such saying His office let another take Moreouer whereas it was the good pleasure of my Lorde the King and the will of my Lorde Zadoke that I should at times minister for my Lorde Zadoke in the seruice of God the King It is well knowne that I haue not presumptuously vsurped nor intruded nor thrust my selfe into presence but being called and commanded beeing well mindfull of the kinges words writtē amōg his wise prouerbs pro. 25.5.6 Put not forth thy selfe in the presence of the King and prease not into the place of great men for better it is that it be said to thee come vp higher then that thou shouldest be placed lower in the presence of the Prince whome thou seest with thine eyes Therefore I haue not béene of that ambitious and arrogant minde But howsoeuer I might bee suspected as faultie or imperfect in place and time I appeale to the Lord and mine owne conscience as yee my Lords haue done If I be guiltie against the king to my knowledge then would I wish that the one might accuse me and the other condemne me in the presence of you all Howbeit letting passe this examinatiō I presume there is some other cause whereof the kings affliction springeth the which I doubt not will in time appeare in the clearing of vs al. For time is that which discloseth secrets reuealeth the truth therefore is worthily called the mother of truth Nor do I thinke that the king suspecteth any of vs in this case for if he did his iealousie would not haue forborne to disclose and vtter the same to any of vs all for he respecteth neither persons nor power nor wealth nor policie such is his wisedome wealth power and the glory of the fearefull God in him zadock the high priest putteth forth his Apology and sheweth what is the function duty of his place Abiather hauing thus spoken for himselfe he at the last giueth place to Zadoke perceiuing how ready willing also he was to say sōwhat in the presēce of the lords * Zadock was a uery graue and reuerend Father and a faithfull Priest of the Lord doing according to his heart and mind in whome the bright Vrim Thumim so shined that no man either suspected him of any fault towardes the king or doubted of his diuine wisedome and singular perfection and therefore neither the Princes required either any examination or further triall of his integritie howbeit the most reuerend father in all humilitie neither refused nor disdained to doe as they had before done in this respect Therfore stāding vp in the midst of thē he spake with great grauity deliberation to this effect My Lords all although it be so that neither any of you hath giuen this offence vnto the king nor may it be that he holdeth any of you faultie in this matter yet am I glad to see and heare how willing and readie ye haue béene with all submission to examine and cleare your selues in this presence And truely howsoeuer ye bee sory for the kings affliction as indéed ye cannot be glad thereof yet may ye reioice in this that ye haue had this fit opportunity by this confession and trial both to cleare your selues of guilt to manifest your integritie and dutifull heartes towardes his Maiestie But howsoeuer it be that any suspicion or surmises may spring of any of your wordes or dealinges ye are happy in this that ye retain a good consiēce to testify in for your selues to the ease and ioy of your heartes then the which there cannot be a greater treasure in this life The guiltie man proposing to his vnderstanding the law which he hath broken The guilty cōscience and transgressed and withall the iudgement and paine ensewing the same being rightly concluded and applied to himselfe hath alwayes dreade carefulnes and sorrowe of heart as who might thus argue Thus saith the lawe but thus haue I done and so transgressed the lawe Ergo I stand to bee iudged and condemned by the same as who shoulde saye shall not that iust God deale with me as I haue deserued and shall not I be plagued in the end for my desert offending against the law of God as others haue beene plagued for the like and shoulde I promise vnto my selfe safetie any way in this my guiltinesse Thus argued Adam when he had broken the law of the Lord thus also Cain when he had murthered his brother Thus the brethrē of Ioseph who had abused and solde him away Thus argued Pharao after that he had threatned Moses and Aaron and would not let the people go thus Saul when hee perceiued Davids innocencie and his owne malice against him and thus Achitophel and such like who in the knowledge of their owne sinnes and the sense of the diuine Iustice concluded a iust condemnation on themselues Adam fearing what wold ensewe hid himselfe in the bushes and yet hee coulde not bee safe opposed as it were to the diuine wrath and all miseries and therefore confessed Gen. 4. that hee was naked and was afraide at the sounde of the Lordes voyce Cain confessed that his sinne was greater then that hee coulde bee pardoned and that the punishment thereof shoulde bee farre beyond his habilitie to beare yea hee saide vnto the Lord Beholde thou hast cast mee out this day from the vpper face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid fugitiue also and a vagabond shall I bee in the earth and it shall come to passe that every one that findeth mee shall slay me * The sonnes of Iacob seeing they could not bee hidden Gen 42.21 confessed at length their sinne against their brother saying we haue verily sinned against him and therefore are we now troubled And againe fearing what Ioseph woulde doe vnto them after his fathers funeralls they in the terror of minde come and beséech him to forget their iniury against him The king of Aegypt at length confessed and saide vnto Moses and Aaron Exod. 6.27 Indeede the Lord is righteous and I and my people are vngodly On the which he would conclude his conscience condemning him Therefore shall both I and my people be plagued Saul in the agonie of his heart slew himselfe with his owne sworde and Achitophel who had béene a Counsaylor and prouoker of Absolon against his Father his owne conscience condemning him went and hanged himselfe Surely of all the torments vnder the Sunne there is none comparable to an euill
conscience which aggrauated by his owne sting or pricke doeth euer accuse condemne and wring mans heart If publique fame neither condemne nor accuse nor suspect yet the guiltie conscience within a mans selfe forceth the same to the vttermost neither can it be that he which liueth faultie shall escape the torment and terror thereof nor therfore can hee be happy in his life be he neuer so rich The comfort of a good conscience so honourable so strong so mightye so glorious in the worlde but blessed is the man that feareth God and walketh in his waies as David the Kinges Father hath modulated For this is that which in the lawe is required of him as the King hath saide This man concludeth to himselfe Ioy and gladnes Iob. 23.3.4.5.6.7 when that which hee hath done shal be well approued by the lawe This cheared Iob in the middest of his afflictions notwithstanding that his wife and his thrée friendes hardly charged him with folly So was Ioseph holde in Aegypt when his integritie cleared him So Moses and Aaron were not discouraged Gen. 40.41 Exod. 10. notwithstanding the threates and hard dealinges of Pharao and thus the Kinges father with a cleare conscieÌ„ce protested before King Saul Behold this daye thine eyes have seene 1 Sam. 24.10 how that the Lord hath delivered thee this daye into mâ—ne hand in the caue and some bad mee to kill thee but I had compassion on thee and saide I will not lay mine handes on my Maister for he is the Lords annoynted c. And this to expresse the innocencie of his heart hee feared not to protest before the Lord in his prayer O Lord my God If I haue done any such thing Psal 7.3.4 or if there bee any wickednes in mine handes If I haue rewarded euill vnto him that dealte srowardly with mee yea I haue deliuered him that without any cause is mine enemy then let mine enemy persecute my soule and take mee Yea let him treade my life downe vpon the earth and lay mine honour in the dust Lastly I cannot but remember that worthie example of Samuel the Lords Prophet who was occasioned through the disobedience of the people before King Saul and them to pleade for himselfe to defende his integritie 1. Sam. 12.3 And thus hee saide with a good conscience and boldnes of Spirit Beholde here I am Beare record of mee before the Lorde and before his Annointed Whose Oxe haue I taken Or whose Asse haue I taken Whome haue I done wrong to Whome haue I hurt or of whose hand haue I receiued any bribe to blinde mine eyes therewith and I will restore it you They said their own conscience prouoking them thou hast done vs no wrong nor hurte neither hast thou takeÌ„ ought of any maÌ„s hand Lo my lords here is ioy gladnes the greatest coÌ„fort in this life for the good Conscience hath with it a thousand witnesses and as many pleaders to testifie for his owners integritie and to defend the same before the throne of Iustice This therefore is the swéetest and most wholsome rest of mans soule the title of Religion the spirituall Temple the blessed field the pleasant gardin the golden peace the Angelicall ioy the holy Arke the Kings treasure the house of the spirit and the glasse wherein a man both séeth ordereth and confirmeth himselfe to the liuely image of his maker Though the flesh oppresse vs the world allure vs the Diuel terrifie vs yet is this treasure safe and sure within vs from all daunger of euill Therefore I hold that in this life there is nothing more pleasant more swéet more profitable and more to be desired and reteyned then a good conscience both towards God and man Wherefore my Lords as ye haue very well done in that ye haue submitted your selues to this present examination and tryal so are ye happy in this that ye are iustified in conscience for hereof ye haue and shall find the highest comfort and gladnesse And now I beséech you to permit me to do as ye haue done The high priest is willing to ease himselfe in shewing forth his integritie with the rest that thereby I may not onely expresse mine owne integritie so cleare my selfe of all offence and suspicion of the same but also reioyce together with you though in the middest of mine affliction for the kinges trouble And that the sooner because whiles I stand an hearer and a iudge of other men in their examination and triall I might not séeme to disdaine mine owne 1. Kings 2.35 Abiather was before this time high priest howbeit his cause and dealing concerning both God and the king came into question before the king and his princes and being found guilty against either in his triall he was worthelie deposed and the priestshood translated Then why should I imagin my selfe frée from censures the rather in respect of my place and why should I not abide the hammering of that which should be obiected against me and my maÌ„ner of procéeding towards God the king and his people And if I shall be found guiltie as Abiather was why should not I be remoued as he was another man put in my place more worthy And now my Lords although I may not say whether in my person or in my ministerie and behauiour wherin I am to prefigure the holy Messiah in his priesthood or whether in that Abiather the priest attended sometimes for me in the kings presence any contempt or abuse hath béene taken or suspected to his highnesse offence yet I know well that for mine owne part I here safelie protest from my conscience before the Lord of heauen and earth and before you all that according to that trust which the kinges father reposed in me when I was to annoint and proclame my Lord King ouer Israel and after that good opinion which the king himselfe conceiued of me in the day when he tooke me to him to be the Lords high priest in the place of Abiather whom he put away I haue performed the first and expressed the second whithout any deceit in the one or iust offence in the other and that after my state and dignitie so farre forth as a mortall man could possibly extend himselfe therein And of this as of my calling I hope ye doubt not Neuerthelesse let me be heard I beséech you a few words concerning both this and that seing that the Priesthood was ordayned to foreshew and signifie the office and dignitie of that highest Priest which is to come as vnto whoÌ„ all the types and shadowes of the law do point it hath beene both prouided and commaunded by the Lord himselfe that the Priest might haue his lawfull calling and therewith not onely in bodie but in habites and ornamentes should be pure holy and glorious in all pointes To the which it was aduised how he should be consecrated what he should doe how he he should liue what wife he
present affliction and extremitie the which they should regarde to mitigate and withstand and whose health and safetie they should tender and maintaine How subiectes may consider of their princes in all loue duty and reuerence of his honor not onely modestly to search out and to know but also wisely to endeuour to remoue or withstand the causes that the vnhappy effects might cease and the dangerous incōueniences be vtterly preuented onely in such sort to that end as the faithfull Phisicians accustome to deale with their pained Patientes or as they which desire to know the griefe of their distressed friendes to the entent either to prouide remedies or to ease them of their griefes for although we know the Kinges misery to be great heare his complaint very wofull ringing in our eares do condole with him with sorrow of mind yet vnlesse wee seeke for the cause consider well thereof and labour with wisedome and that spéedily to ease him of his affliction we shall do iust nothing but shall be rightly likened vnto them which stand gaping and gazing on the prisoners in bandes but neither goe about to deliuer them or to comfort them or like vnto those which seeme to visite the sicke and behold their deadely maladies but purpose neither to helpe or ease them There bee many more which accustome this then that performe the former in our dayes Helioreph * Indeed said Helioreph men should much rather in the sense of their owne faultes be penitent and in the kings offences be silent for as it is against humanity and good maners either to enter into another mans house not inuited or too curiously to obserue another not occasioned so is it much against the duty of a Subiect eyther too narrowly to note the kinges life and behauiour or to talke rashlie of his actions Notwithstanding we sée this that as Kings and Princes liue not so angelically but they offend in some things grieuously and offēding they cannot so conceale all thinges but they are seene noted and the more because they be Kings and Princes so their actions and maners with the behauiour of the whole Court are often more spoken of and censured in the Country among the Commons then either regarded or obserued amongst our selues But as ye haue well saide as cures cannot easily be wrought without first knowledge of the cause of-the griefe so I see not how we may ease the King of this his affliction except wee were certaine how it was occasioned Therefore with the consideration of the present necessitie and fearing the future inconuenience both to the king and to all his people which wee must speedily regarde to preuent in this case and time I thinke that wee his Princes and Counsellors so neare vnto him may lawfully aduenture as yee haue saide without all iust offence to his honor disgrace to his persō hurt to his people glory to his enemies sin against God or danger to our selues Gen. 21.14 Exod. 18.24 Iob. 31.13 1. Sam. 25.18 32 Abraham as we reade hearkened to his wife Sarah Moses gaue eare to his father in law Iethro Iob heard the complaint of his seruants against himselfe Abigail listned to her poore boy and David refused not them that at any time spake to him either for his or their owne good So I trust will the King giue vs audience in this case and the sooner because we are his Counsellors who as hee may well perswade do tender his safetie and haue a desire to counsell aduise endeuor the best in all things * And I remember said Ahiah the David the kinges father was not onely contented Ahiah but also acknowledged it right profitable for his safety that Nathan should both enquire and examine his life and actions 2. Sam. 12.13 also reproue and correct that which he found faulty in him yet say I not that it is meete for euery man to looke into those matters or to meddle in the Princes affaires but for such onely as are especially elected and called and authorized as Nathan was or be in place to consider aid and counsell the king as we are Neither thinke I the kings Maiestie will be exaspered or displeased with any of vs if wee doe the like for the better preseruation of his honor and credit for being wise he will consider the reason and ponder all things indifferently 2. Sam. 16.7 Againe I remember for it is noted in the kinges Annales that Shimei railing on David the kings father called him bloud sucker and man of Belial At the which although David might iustly haue striken him because hee cursed the Lordes Annointed David considering vpon those reprochful wordes what himselfe had before done in the case of Vriah and thereby condemning himselfe as guilty in his owne conscience and withall willing to shew a token of his owne wisedome and clemency would not suffer him to bee striken for his malepertnesse but he said in the anguish of his soule Let him alone for he curseth euen because the Lord hath bidden him curse David who dare then say wherefore hast thou done so How much rather then will the king content himselfe that we his Counsellors doe with a farre better mind and purpose for the honour and health of his Maiesty and preseruation of his people consider of the thinges that bee his and séeke to redresse or amend that which is amisse But therein let vs follow the example of Shem and Iaphet Shem Iaphet Gen. 9.23 the sonnes of Noah when they perceiued that Cham had vncouered him mocked him for they turning their faces from their fathers nakednes came towards him as backward and couered the same with their owne garments For it is not entended that the Kings secrets be displayed or published to his ignomy for it is not good to vtter the secrets of a Prince but onely that they may be knowne to our selues for the causes premised and that those thinges which are either knowne abroad already or may be knowne hereafter and whereof his aduersaries beholding and obseruing the same may giue their sharpe censures against his Maiestie and his wordes and works with maligne and malitious mouthes may be wisely considered of well construed reconciled resolued and salued or at the least the extremitie of those inconueniences ensuing these vnhappy causes may bee in some sort preuented * And verily I suppose there is somewhat conceited of himselfe and his owne workes for it is not long sithens I heard him to say and that with great wofulnes that hee loathed his owne life and then looking on the workes which his hands had wrought being indeede many and mighty and on the trauels that hee had taken the which yet farre passed the labours of other men hee confessed that all was but vanitie and vexation of the spirite whereby I was presently moued to suspect something in the kinges owne person and to doubt of some of his workes and deedes the
kingdome of Israel and that also not Absolon nor Adoniah nor Amnon nor any other of Davids sonnes begotten and borne before this time but only Solomon his sonne borne of Bethseba after the pardon granted him should build an house for his name vnto whō he would be as a father to his sonne * Al these things the princes gladly heard to the same subscribed most willingly knowing well both the truth of the kinges petigree and the honour of his noble birth zabud And thereupon spake Zabud and said It séemeth good to me The seuerall names of the King that with this which hath beene saide wée regard those titles and names by the which it pleased the Lord that the king should be called knowne and honoured the which truly haue not bin imposed rashly as many which giue names without respect of the Natures dignity or qualityes of the persons but with great wisedome iudgement and prouidence as were those names of Adam Havah Noah Abraham Lot Abel Sarah Isaack Israel Samuel David and such other which haue had their approbation from the Lord and expressed or taught or remembred some worthy thing In this sort the King hath had and enioyed fiue particular names and names of honor two of the which were imposed by the Lord himselfe the third by Nathan the fourth by his Mother and the last hée resumed by th'approbation of his Lordes In or concerning any of the which names he hath no cause ministred him to be displeased except onely in this that he hath tried himselfe bring a mortall man not answerable in all points to the same knowing it a thing most ridiculous for any person whatsoeuer to bee noted or called by such a title or name of the which hee shal bee found most vnworthy For the first we haue it recorded what the Lord God said to David concerning him he shal be my sonne Secondly he said againe touching him his name is Solomon 2 Sam 7.14 1. Chro. 22.9 Thirdly the prophet Nathan called him Iedid-iah The sonne of God Fourthly his Mother called him Laemuel and fifthly he is called Koheleh In that he is called the Sonne of God and that by God himselfe it giueth vs to consider in him somewhat beyond that which is found to be in other men For they are not of the common sort to whome the Lord vouchsafeth this high title Such are they which resembling the holy Angels haue not only the brightnes of the diuine glory apparāt in them but also are euer willing and ready to execute his pleasure In that he is called Solomō 2. Solomon it noteth the peace of his gouernmēt ouer Gods people according to the reason which the Lord added saying he shal be a man of rest and I will send peace and rest vpon Israel in his dayes In the third name the prophet would expresse not only the loue of God vnto him 3. Iedid-iah but also the loue of God his diuine graces in him to the which alluded the Arabian Quéene at her being here when shee said blessed be the Lord thy God which loued thee hath set thee on the throne of Israel In the fourth his Mother beeing a wise and rare Princesse 4. Laemuel 5. Coheleth woulde by that name signifie the glory of God in him and by him in the people In the last is testified the diligence and desier that the king hath not onely to search out and gather together for his owne further instruction the auntient monuments and holy bookes but also a people vnto the Lord to bee instructed and taught in the holy Religion for the glory of God and their owne health Teaching withall what should be the desier of all Princes in their places namely in this sort to tend to the end of their gouernment and rule Therefore finding rather an honour then an ignomy to grow from hence vnto the king Wee say as the kings daughter said in that excellent song Thy name is a sweet smelling oyntment when it is powred foorth Therefore do the virgins love thee CAP. X. Of Solomons person and estate forme beauty education wisedome c. wherof the cause of his griefe could not rise THen stoode foorth Ahishar and saide Truely my Lordes whatsoeuer hath beene here produced and spoken in the premisses maketh very much euery way for the kings honour and estimation Ahishar and therfore I perceiue not what shoulde thereof be gathered to offende him Neither can I finde any thing worthie dislike in any other points which concerne either his person or his estate for his forme and beautie his education his wisdome his iudgements his words his riches his works his peace his orders of house his pleasures his power his marriage his blessinges his fame his glory c. the king is most excellēt Solomon his beautie Homer singularly renowned as al men wil confes I remēber that looking on a certaine Booke of the Poet Melesigenes who liued and wrote in the time of our iudges among the Greekes I found where he had giuen an exceeding high praise to the forme and beautie of Priamus the Troyan Priamus the which in him as he saide was wel worthy a kingdome so faire was he The same Poet hath also spoken largely of one Nireus Nireus being the fairest of all them which came to Priamus his Pallace though hee had scarcely any worthy quality either of body or mind And in our own Records we haue the praise of the form and beauty of Saul the sonne of Cis whom Samuel annointed King ouer Israel Saul 1. Sam 9.2 that he was a goodly youngman and faire So that among the chidren of Israel there was none goodlier then he from the shoulders vpward he was higher then all the other people And we here present for the most part can say much of Absolon the kinges brother namely that in his time there was none in all Israel so much to bee praised for beautie Absolon 2. Sam. 14.25 from the seale of his foote to the top of his head there was no blemish in him And had his qualities beene to the same correspondent oh God how glorious might he haue beene And further we finde that Ioseph and Moses and Aaron and David haue beene praised in this respect But yet beyond them all looking with iudgement on our Lord the King and seeing howbewty is displayed in his royal person we cannot but acknowledge that for truth which the kings father said to him when he beheld him in his beautye Farre fairer then the sonnes of men art thou Cant. 5.9 Although all these things did properly belōg so were to be referred to the holy Messiah yet were they first spoken as of Solomon who in his person prefigured him as it is more fully declared hereafter And this the noble Princesse considered and sung of him He is both white ruddy the chiefest of thousands ten His head is as fine gold his
greater that way then all his Predecessors hauing a dominion ample and large with a princely prouision of all sorts of things both for the defence and maintenance of the same in all partes And for the better guard of his Royal person as the young Princesse noted when shee beheld and wisely considered in her Cant. 3.7 About the bed of Solomon there stand Ful threescore valiant men of sturdiest might Of Israel with glittering swords in hand Expert in warre him to defend by right Therein alluding to that which the kinges Father had modulated for the king in that swéete psalme 45. Gird now thy sword vpon thy thigh O prince of fame According to the worship and the glory of thy name And prosper in thy glee ride forth with glad successe Because of that thy word of truth meekenes and righteousnes Thy right hand forth shall tell the things of dreadful strength Thy sharpened shafts the people shall to thee subdue at length Yea though that they for safety should themselues bring Into the midst inuiron'd with th' enemies of the king To be briefe His blessings wonderfull are the blessinges wherewith the almighty hath graced our King for hee hath beene blessed beyound all other kinges on the earth aswell with thinges spirituall and heauenly as with those which are temporall and terrene according to that promise in the law made for such as be obedient Deut. 28. 2. Sam. 7. 1. King 3. according to that word of the Lord giuen to David concerning him and according to the that the Lord his God granted him when he had praied for wisedome to go out and in before his people In a word his blessinges are an astonishment to all the nations of the world vnto whom the fame of his Excellency hath gone forth This conioyned him in amitie with K. Hyram of Tyre His fame and glory and with Pharao king of Egypt this brought vnto him from the vttermost partes of the earth the famous Quéene of Arabia and many others and hee was in glory resplendent before all the kinges or Princes that euer raigned before him whereby many seeing and bearing of him thinke that they see or heare not a terrene or mortall Creature but a celestiall and diuine power And what should the king desire more Gen. 3. nothing at all except he would bee God as Adam thought to be But I am sure the king is not of that haughtie conceite of himselfe yea I haue obserued this that howsoeuer all these thinges haue beene excellent and aboundant in him as a Crowne of gold beset with pretious stones Solomon was not proude of his gifts and graces on the head of a most beautifull body yet did he neuer waxe proud or vaine glorious thereof as worldly men accustome when hauing a little beyond the ordinarie measure of some others of wisedome riches pleasures power policie or prosperitie do loue and like to sooth prayse and commend themselues resēbling the Pecocke which swelleth in the view of his painted plumes notwithstanding their humaine imperfections yet this is not al but thinking so highly of themselues they contemne others and endeuour in loath and disdaine to treade them vnder their feete Thus I say hath not the king at any time done but rather hee acknowledged his mortall humanity and his great ignorance and want of wisedome yea his base séely glory in respect of the supreme excellency eternity knowledge wisedome and glory of the almighty with the which when he had compared himselfe all his noble endewmentes hee found himselfe with the same iust nothing To this assented the Princes and found no cause in those thinges premised whereof the king should be offended CHAP. XII Of Solomons comming to the kingdom of Israel his proceeding against Adoniah and Abiather the priest is iustified AFter this Zadok the Priest who had thus farre listened to the wordes of the Princes stoode vppe and spake to this effect Indéede my Lords I sée not as yet that from any of those thinges whereof yee haue spoken to be in the king and his Estate any iust occasion is ministred him of his present affliction except it be in this that knowing the largenes of Gods bounties towardes him he either hath not satisfied the Lords expectatiō in the vse of those thinges or cannot as hee would shew himselfe gratefull enough And it may be that besides the premisses some question hath been or may be moued touching the kinges entrance into the kingdome of Israel wherein some especially they which stand to defend the cause of Adoniah Abiather and Ioab with others their confederates against the king imagine that he hath and doth rather vsurp and tyranize then that he hath lawfully attained and raigned and therin not answered to his name Solomon which is to say peaceable or a peacemaker But howsoeuer it be surmised or imagined by such kind of persons it is most certaine that the kings entrance with the meanes and manner thereof was both lawfull right and his gouernment therein may be neither condemned nor iustly reproued but rather iustified and commended of all wise and discreet persons King Solomon although he had a promise of the Soueraignty both of the Lord and also of his father he did not presume to vsurpe on the kingdome as Absolon wold haue done when aspiring he lifted vp his hand against his owne father the Lords Annointed Nor would hee do as Adoniah did Sol. was not an vsurper on the kingdome who was extolled and proclaimed king euer Israel in the life time of his father without the consent goodwill or knowledge of the king or of the Quéen The king our Soueraigne Lord knew better what was meet to be done bee remembred how his father dealt towards Saul the king namely that albeit hee knew Saul to bee reiected of the Lord and that himselfe was already annointed to succéede him in the kingdome of Israel he would dot preuent the time that God had appointed nor would he lay his hand on him beeing in his place the Lords annointed although he had many opportunities offered him therto for hee might easily haue slain him both in the Caue and in other places without his owne bodily danger But the king as hee was ordained for the kingdome by the diuine prouidence and the discretion of his father so also he entred by a lawfull and worthie meane and in the due time For King David knowing well the mind of the Lord who had promised him that there shoulde one of his seede sit on his Seate after him and his name should bee Solomon made a faithfull promise vnto Quéene Bethseba the Kinges mother 1. King 1.11.30 that according to the word of the Lord this his Son which was called Solomon should surely raigne after him and shoulde sit vpon his throne therfore as it is also recorded in the kings Annales when that king David being waxen olde and enféebled had heard by the report of the
the sooner Solomon came to the royall Seat the which he Adoniah had so ambitiously and eagrelie affected and vnlawfully vsurped in his fathers life-time Whereat notwithstanding that she was as betwene hope and dispayre when she saw him sodenlie to enter her chamber she asked him if he came to her in peace and he answered yea whatsoeuer he meant and he said that he had a certaine petition vnto her which was that she would be a meane for him to the king that he would giue him to wife Abisag the Sunamite who had beene sometimes king Davids bedfellow to warme and nourish him in his weake old age In the which practice he had a purpose to aspire to the kingdom not onely for that though he were the fourth yet the eldest of king Davids sonnes then liuing but also combined with her who was estéemed as king Davids wife he might the sooner in his owne conceite and by the suggestion of the kinges enemies haue obtained the soueraigntie The which deceit and pretence of his the Quéene as yet perceiued not and therefore partlie for dread and partlie for good-will she bare him for king Davids sake she condiscended to his desire and made request for him vnto the king But the king being right wise soone espied this to be a suttle deuise of Adoniah for his owne aduancement The nature manner of the ambitious hee knew well that the ambitious are euery way ready to insinuate themselues into fauour before they be preferred they will faine humilitie lowlines honestie affabilitie and all benignitie they will follow and obey at a becke they will flatter and giue applause to all mens doings fearing to offend any yea and as is the common prouerb they will brush off the dust from the coate which hath no dust at all But being once aduanced exalted they begin to change their opinions and soone alter their manners for now they are become proud and glorious boasters they neuer care to profit but are glad of prefermēt they thinke themselues far better then others because they be placed higher then others their former friends they disdaine know not their old acquaintances they contemne their benefactors and bee vnthankefull to them which haue done them the highest good To let passe other things they be burthensom to their subiects hateful to al men headstrong troublesom arrogant gréeuous and importune This I say the king knew wel and that Adoniah was swolne with this humour Moreouer he perceiued that this matter did doth proceed and was furthered by two others his deadly foes namely Ioab and Abiather who thereby intended to supplant the king and to set vppe Adoniah And therefore when Queene Bethsabe requested the king for Adoniah according to her promise he answered her And why doest thou aske Abisag for Adoniah aske for him the kingdome also for he is mine elder brother and hath for him both Abiather the the priest and Ioab the sonne of Zerviah for he knew that if Adoniah had once gotten Abisag who was so deare and neere vnto his father he would also with her haue sought for the Crowne Therefore he sware and pronounced a sentence against Adoniah to recompence his wicked ambition and iniquitie saying God do so to me and more also if Adoniah hath not spoken this against his owne life Therefore the king being well aduised for he did euery thing with iudgement sent and commanded me to smite him that he might die thereby the sooner to establish the gouerment according to the will word of the Lord the which Adoniah his counsailors had practised to hinder ouerthrow Therfore this actiō of the king neither may be reproued nor may occasion him now after so many yeares of peace to be offēded with himselfe therefore Abiather * Thus haue yee saide quod Abiather and your wordes in mine opiniō may not be iustlie reproued The dealings of Solomon against Abiather the priest for yee haue spoken nothing but truth But what shall we say to this that the king at his entrance did both depriue Abiather then the Lordes priest of his office and expelled and bannished him the Lordes house Although I haue the like name my Lordes I neither propose this question nor speake as if I would defēd the cause of the Abiather against the king and his proceedinges therein but because I haue heard some opposition to the same by others and I would willingly they should be resolued zadok To this answered Zadok As I may not condemn that Abiather my predecessour because I woulde my selfe as Primas should be aduāced and approued in the place so neither may I dislike in equity the kings proceedings against him For firste it is certayne that Abiather behaued not himselfe worthely in his place and therefore was iustly depriued For albeyt my-selfe am now high Priest yet if I should not answere to my calling and name I allow the verification of that sentence of the kinges father on my selfe Let his daies be few and his office let another take And as cōcerning Abiather it became him not to counsaile Adoniah and to confederate with him in that he vnlawfullie couetted to be king both without the consent of his father and against the rightfull honor of king Solomō * Next it is most apparant how the Lord would that now by this occasion that word of his should be performed which was sometime spoken to Eli the priest 1 Sam. 2.32 that for the high dishonor and contempt of Godes seruice in his children and by him permitted the priesthood should be taken away from him and his house and another should be preferred in the same This was brought to passe when Abiather was reiected and zadocke taken to be the high priest 2 Sam. 2 32 The which the King béeing wise and indowed with a principall spirit did in time wisely consider and iustlie performed in the depriuing of Abiather and placing me in his office for there is not any word of the Lord which shall fall to the ground but shall be performed in the appointed time Howbeit the king according to the exellencie of his wisedome would neither slay nor cruellie torment or vexe that vnfaithfull Abiather because he had béene the Lordes higd priest and had beene a companiō a fauourer of his father David in all his afflictiōs Wherein he expressed a right sober mercifull and gratefull minde for he reuerenced the Lords ordinance and lawfull function of the person albeit the person was vnworthie he shewed lenitie where rigour was deserued and he would not that his hatefull enemie should be occasioned either iustlie to comdemne him or at the least to accuse him of any sauour of oppression tyrannie cruelty or vnkindnesse towardes him which had béene kind to his father in his afflictions though now after his fathers departure And surelie these are the virtues which are not common or vsuall among the men of this life especiallie among Princes and
Rezon an adversary to Solomon 2. Sam. 8.3 namely Rezon was the sonne of Eliada who fled sometimes from his Lord Hadadezer king of Zoba when David smote him as he went to enlarge his border at the riuer Euphrates who also gathered men vnto him and became captain ouer the company when David slew them and they went to Damascus the Metropolitan cittie of Syria and dwelt there where he also raigned king Therefore is hee an aduersary to Israel retaining his minde of reuenge and denying to pay tribute And this is the mischiefe of Hadad and the hatred against Israel Hadad now raigneth in Edom and Rezon in Damascus ouer all Syria to the great griefe of the king and his people Howbeit all this doth not somuch vex him as that his late seruant Ieroboam the sonne of Nabat the Ephrathite of Zareda whose Mother was Zarviah this kings aunt is now lately stept forth Ieroboam the servant is an adversary 1 King 11.26 and lifteth vp his hand against him For when the king built Mello and amended the broken places of David and saw that this Ieroboam was a man of strength and habilitie for the worke he made him ruler ouer all the charge of the house of Ioseph whereby Ieroboam getting courage credit fauour and power is now waxen proud obliuious of duty and presumptuous wherin he opposeth himselfe against his Soueraigne Lord whereat the king is not a little troubled the more indeede for that he nothing thought much lesse suspected such a thing to be wrought by his seruāt Ieroboam whom he had trusted and obliged by fauour and many singular benefites to be faithfull and obedient vnto him Sodain tidings of vnkindnes trouble wise men much But it is no meruaile though the king be a wise man that hee should be hereat trouble for we know that gentle heartes do much alter when they sodenly heare any hard and strange tidings Thus David the kings father though a man valiant in warre and strong in heart was not a little grieued when he heard that Absolon his owne son had conspired against him but yet more when tidinges came to him that Absolon was slaine hee was likewise sore moued when Ioab had killed Abner a Prince in Israel when hee hearde that Amnon had defiled Thamar his sister that Absolon had killed Amnon and that Adoniah did aspire to the kingdome against his will in his life time * Howsoeuer the prouidence of God had decreed appointed that Ieroboham shoulde thus be exalted Ieroboham his vnkindnes it is cereaine that Ieroboam hath pretended mischiefe in his heart against the king and therfore most wickedly and rebelliously hath lifted vp his hand to hurt his highnes vs. A note of most beastly vnkindnes in him who forgetting the kings gratious fauours and large bounties towardes him vndeserued hath attempted the kings ouerthrow and destruction to aduance himselfe But such is the pride insolency ambition and ingratitude of many whom the fauour and benignitie of good Princes hath vnworthily exalted and honoured that forgetting both themselues their places al the goodnes of their gratious princes and their duties do eagerly seeke to attaine to the very places and honours of their Princes and benefactors by wicked and vngodly meanes Howbeit they find in the end that lot of the Eagle that carried fier to her nest together with her pray which consumed both it and her yong ones for God which bringeth downe all stony mountaines and all high rocks to fill the vallies to make them euen with the ground calleth their impiety vnfaithfulnesse and rebellion into remembrance before him yeelding vnto them in the iust iudgemēt that which they haue worthily deserued * But Ieroboham hauing found that the King vnderstandeth his purpose and practises against him Traitors and rebels live ever in feare and that he seeketh to bridle his insolency durst not to abide the hammering and tryall thereof for traitors and rebels hauing guilty consciences liue euer in fear of the diuine reuēge he is therefore fled into Aegypt vnto Sysar the Egyptian king and there continueth gaping for and expecting to heare of the kinge death when he mindeth with a fresh courage to giue the onset to his sonne Rehoboam which shall succeede in the kingdome whome hee knoweth hath neither the like wisedom to gouerne his people nor will haue sufficient power to resist his enemies and to defend himselfe And yet wel I wot that these things being ordinary troubles which happen to realms prouinces and nations and therefore whosoeuer bee a Prince must settle himselfe armed against them in his time and place our Lord King Solomō wel knoweth both how to beare thē and wade through the middest of themal with a right valiant mind as David his Father hath full often in his daies done Lo thus haue ye heard the declaration of sixe causes of the kings sorrow all which indeede could he wel enough digest were there not yet a farre greater and more dangerous then any of the former For the seuenth beyond all the rest pierceth and griueth the very ground of his heart and that riseth of the great displeasure of the Almighty conceived against him his people Alas said the Princes then may the King be worthily sad indeede when the Lord of heauen looketh so wer vpon him and vs. For dreadfull is the angry face of the almighty The princes especially towardes them that haue iustly prouoked him and his wrath is a very consuming fier who is able to abide it But now let vs heare the declaration of this cause also if it be your good plesure most reuerend Zadoke to whom he answered zadoke although I am not only most sory to heare thereof but very loath to relate it yet to satisfy your importunity for the former causes I am ready to do it according to your desire And I pray God that neither the sin The princes nor the occasion therof be in the Lords iustice laid to our charge To the which said the Lords that God forbid but howsoeuer it be the Lord for his holy annointed be yet mercifull vnto our King vnto vs and the whole common-wealth of Israel that he may be glorified not in our destructiō but in our preseruatiō and prosperitie as in times past he hath beene glorified in the pardon recouery and prosperity of Adam of Abraham of Iacob of Moses of David and others our godly forefathers in their times So be it good Lord we pray and beseech thee CHAP. XIX Zadoke declareth the seventh cause of Solomons sorrow which is the sinne of Solomon NOw will I endeuour saide Zadoke to satisfie your request I will declare the seventh cause Yea I will shew you the last and greatest cause of the Kinges sorrowfull heart And well is this called the greatest For were it not thereof the King might well resolue as he knoweth best how to resolue that euery thing whatsoever might or should
betide him could not so much hurt or annoy either him or his people as it shal be for his and their good so long as both he and they shal feare God The safety of them whome God preserveth howsoeuer it should seeme hurtful and loathsome in the eyes of men See therefore what a soueraign good thing it is to feare the Lord for such as feare him the Lord loueth thē whom he loueth he safely protecteth and for that their protection he hath a speciall care and regard This David considered found in triall to be true and therefore did sing as in the Psalme psal 91.11 For why vnto his Angels bright a speciall charge gives hee In all thy waies for to protect preserve and prosper thee And that they beare thee in their handes and waite still thee vpon That not vnwares thou fall nor bruse thy foote against a stone Thus are they happy which feare the Lorde because the Lord blesseth and preserueth them But now the king perceiueth that the Lord hath turned away his gratious countenāce looketh sternly angerly vpō him vpon his people and that the fierce wrath of God is bent and now comming vnto him and vs the force whereof no man liuing is able to resist or to withstand For who can beare the matchlesse power of the Almightie A description of God being angry God in his anger is as a ramping Lyon as an hungry Beare as a consuming fire as a mightie storme as a waliant warryer as a cruell tyrant as a mighty Gyant as a terrible Iudge If hee touch the high mountaines they shall tremble and smoke as David did sing And this to confirme the king hath placed before his eyes the fearefull Iudgements of God which in his wrath were executed on the old rebellious people he remembreth that when the Lord God was prouoked to anger by the disobedience of our first parents Adam Gen. 3.24 and Hevah though they were his beloued and the first that hee had created in his owne Image hee looked sternely on them and withall hee delayed not to call them into iust iudgement nor spared he to punish them Therfore he sent thē both out of pleasant Paradize opposed them to all miseries and barred the gate that they might not enter into that blessed Tabernacle which was appointed not for the polluted but for cleane and holy persons The king also remembreth the example of Gods heauy wrath against Cayn Gen. 4. whom he reprobated punished and banished from his fathers house and made a vagabond on the earth and that iustly because he had sinned against the Lorde in killing of his brother He setteth also before his face the example of Gods fierce anger on the olde worldings in the time of Noah whom hee destroyed without mercie with the flood of waters Gen. 6. hee calleth into memory the example of the diuine wrath executed on the filthy Sodomites Gen. 19. whom the Lord burned with fire and brimstome Hee is not vnmindfull Exod. 32.28 how the Lord vexed and afflicted our Fathers in the wildernesse when they had angred him with their sinnes of whom onely two of them which came out of Egypt being aboue twentie yeares of age could recouer possession in the promised land Neither is he forgetfull how terrible the Lord shewed himselfe to king David and his people not onely then 2. Sam. 12. when David had transgressed in the case of Vriah but also when he had numbred the people For the one offence the Lord stirred vp his owne sonne and them of his owne house against him and for the other threescore and ten thousand perished with pestilence and had not David repented and entreated mercie he had likewise perished in that high displeasure Sin is odious to God For sinne is that which the Lord abhorreth and as odious as is a Toade or serpent to a man so is the sin that men commit against the Lord vnto him so that as they are contemned and abandoned of men which nourish and foster vp such venemous beasts they are no lesse loathsome to God which commit sin and wallow and tumble in the filthinesse of that which God abhorreth Therefore vpon such as David said the Lorde raineth haile fire and brimstone which is their portion in his wrath neither is there any thing els due vnto them but death shame and confusion againe praying against such hee saith to the Lord Set thou an vngodly man to be Ruler over him and let Sathan stand at his right hand psal 109. When sentence is given vpon him let him bee condemned let his prayer bee turned into sinne Let his dayes be few and let another take his office Let his children bee fatherles and his wife a widow let his children be vagabonds and begge their bread let them seeke it also out of desolate places Let the extortioner consume all that he hath and let the stranger spoile his labour let there be no man to pittie him nor to haue compassion vpon his fatherles children Let his posteritie be destroyed and in the next generation let his name bee cleane put out let the wickednes of his fathers be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord and let not the sinne of his mother he done away c. Now of such things feareth the king and therefore is waxen very pensiue and heauy not able to withstand the strokes of Gods anger conceiued against him and his people The fiercenes of Gods wrath * Alas Alas then sayd the Princes it is a most fearefull thing to prouoke the Lord to fall into his hands with guiltie consciences for wonderfull and terrible is the Lord in his wrath as ye haue well sayd For though the Lord be slow to anger when hee looketh for mans repentance amendement of life yet is he of great power and will in no case acquit the wicked Though he be most mercifull being pleased yet being prouoked he is most terrible and cruell to them that prouoke him His dealing will be with blustring stormes high tempests and whirle-winds and the cloudes of the ayre are the dust of his feete he will rebuke the raging sea and dry it vp with all the famous riuers of the land yea Basan and Carmel shall shrinke the spring also of Libanus shall be destroyed and the faire trees thereof shal be burnt with fire The great mountaines shall quake at his mighty power and the hils shal be dissolued the earth also shall burne at his sterne countenance with the worlde and all that dwelleth therein What man is hee that is able to stand before his fierce wrath or who can rise vp before the dreadfull anger of his countenance his fiercenesse is powred foorth like consuming fire yea the hard Rocks cleaue in peeces at his might the strong pillars of heauen tremble and all the kindreds of the earth weepe and waile before him when hee beginneth to appeare to visite
indeede a degree higher then the former albeit the former was abhominable and dangerous to his body life fame soule and glorie And that is the king hath combined himselfe with strange women for hee hath taken the daughter of Pharaoh Strange women and the women of the Moabites Ammonites Edomites Sydonites and Hethites whereas yet concerning those Nations the Lorde sayde vnto our Fathers zabud obiected Goe yee not into them nor let them come into you els will they turne your hearts after their gods To this obiected Zabud for the king But yet it hath beene permitted in the Lawe that such women might neuerthelesse bee taken accepted and vsed of our Nation with certaine prouisoes and conditions For the Lorde saith by the hand of Moses Deut. 21.11 If thou seest among the captives taken in warre a beautifull woman and hast a desire vnto her that thou wouldest have her to thy wife thou shalt bring her home to thine owne house she shall shaue her head and pare her nailes and put her rayment that she was taken in from her and let her remaine in thine house and bewayle her father and her mother a moneth long and after that thou shalt goe in vnto her and mary her and she shall be thy wife In this sort David the kings Father tooke one of his wiues namely the mother of Thamar whom he had captiued in his warres And thus did our king take and accept Pharaohs daughter of whom his father spake in the Psalme Hearken O daughter and consider encline thine eare forget also thine owne people thy fathers house so shall the king have pleasure in thy beautie for he is thy Lord God and thou must worship him And truely howsoeuer the Quéene did dissemble her owne former Religion and made shewe of loue vnto that which we loue and imbrace the king so accepted her and thought nothing lesse then of any hypocrisie in her And therefore in his integritie he imbraced her and tooke her as his owne All this I grant sayd Zadok And I will not denie zadoke answereth the obiection that the king did obserue the like according to the Lawe in all other his wiues and Concubines But why should not such as are receiued on conditions be retained on the same conditions and not otherwise for the meaning of the Lawe is that if such a woman albeit she be Pharaohs daughter or the daughter of any other Prince or person shall not hold and obserue the conditions touching the Religion and peace of Israel but apostate and turne away from the Lord and daily endeuor and study to pollute the honour of our king and contemne the religion of our God that thereupon she be abandoned reiected sent away from the Common-wealth of Israel much sooner from the kings societie yea rather then that societie should he continued to the danger of those inconueniencies Exod. 34.16 Deut 7.3 the parties should bee reduced and committed to the censure of the generall Lawe as when the league is infringed by the breach of the conditions the parties stand as in their former estate any thing to the contrary thereof notwithstanding And this is the Lawe to the children of Israel touching the abandoning of this kinde of societie with any of those seuen execrable Nations as the Hethites the Hevites the Gergesites the Amorites the Chananites the Pherezites and the Iebusites Thou shalt make no marriages with them neither shalt thou give thy daughter vnto his sonne nor take his daughter vnto thy son The reason is added whereunto this prouiso or condition hath respect For they will deceive thy sonne that hee should not follow the Lord and they shall serve strange gods and then will the wrath of the Lord waxe hote against thee and destroy thee This thing Abraham our father both considered and respected long before the Law giuen by Moses for hee had seene the inconuenience of such coniunctions in the old time when by the same the sonnes of God were polluted and the whole earth destroyed in the dayes of Noah Gen. 24.3 therefore hee gaue his seruant a speciall charge for the match of his sonne Isaak with a mate of a faithfull Family The like also Isaak respected when hee disliked the mariage of his sonne Esau with the Hethites and charged his sonne Iacob not to take him a wife of the daughters of Chanaan Gen. 26. 27. but that hee should repayre to his Vncle Laban and take from thence of his daughters But howsoeuer such coniunctions might be tolerated or winked at vpon occasions in some others what needed Solomon the sonne of David to haue lusted after the women of a strange Natition Are not the daughters of Zion faire and beautifull and wise and vertuous yea are they not preferred in honour to all the women in the worlde And did Solomon feare of any heathen Potentate that hee would in this sort be lincked vnto him in amitie for the retayning of peace Yea is hee not stronger and more wise and politicke then any of them all And doe they not more dread and admire him then hee hath neede to doubt what they are able to doe against his Maiestie But alas lust is blinde and many wise men as I said before bee led blindfolded into the pitte of preuarication and woe by such women as being of an euill opinion and like Religion will receiue no kinde of Counsaile which withstandeth or hindereth their fonde lustes and vanities And thereof it is that the King so prudent wise and famous hath beene bewitched enchaunted and besotted so farre that in the lightnesse of voluptuousnesse he hath altered his single minde and distained his honour * These be great faults my Lords but yet hee is much more blameable and guiltie of iudgement no lesse of punishment The third sin of Solomon though hee bee a king because that in his lustes hee hath turned away his heart from the Lorde his God which hath appeared to him at two sundry times For beholde the king hearkening vnto those his strange Wiues which had nowe at length apostated and turned backe againe to the Religion of their Fathers and Countrey hee hath followed after Asteroth the God of the Sydonians and after Melcome the abhomination of the Ammonites and he hath built an high place for Chamos the abomination of Moab euen in the hill that is before Hierusalem and vnto Moloch the abhomination of the children of Ammon and the like hath hee done for other his outlandish Women which burnt incense and offered diuers sacrifices to their sundry Gods Neither seemed the king then touched with any remorse of conscience but cleane contrary to the Lawe of God the charge which his father gaue him the lessons his mother taught him and that which his owne wisedome should perswade in him he hath fowly prostituted himselfe to their lewdnesse and disgraced his Nobilitie Yea all this hath the king done even in his elder years
polluted with any strange Gods when as they came to Bethel to sacrifice vnto Iehovah and should then king Solomon not only permit those horrible Idolatries and loathsome superstitions of Idols but also exhibit them maintenance in the same that follow such thinges so neare the Temple and the holy Cittie of God This thing is not hidden from the Lord who seeth and wil be auenged on the same Howbeit the King most vnhappily doting on those profane women his wiues and concubines which are now reuolted from the Lord and his religion and turned backe vnto their fathers and their Gods hath beene contented to conniue and beare with them in such their abhominations euen before his face and in the open sight of the Lorde people yea and rather then he would diuorce them or deny them or reproue them or correct them or displease them therein as he might haue don and indeede should haue done in this case he hath both appointed and commaunded many great summes of mony and treasure to be paied and giuen forth from his owne treasurie both to the building of certaine houses and places for such their Gods and also for the daily maintenance of their seruices in the same Therof it is before al other things that Iehovah his God is prouoked and waxen angry with him with vs and his people and hath thereon not omitted to threaten him and vs with many mighty plagues and punishments to ensew yea such as neither he we nor our posteritie shal be able to beare thereof as I vnderstand the Lord hath lately spoken by his prophet and messenger vnto the King himselfe saying Forasmuch as this thing is done of thee and thou hast not kept mine appointment and my statutes which I commanded thee 1. King 11.11 I will rent the kingdome from thee and wil giue it to thy Seruant Notwithstanding in thy dayes I will not do it because of David thy Father but I will take it from the hand of thy sonne Howbeit I will not take away all the kingdome but will giue one Tribe to thy Sonne because of David my Seruant and because of Ierusalem which I haue chosen Now here I call to remembrance what the Lorde our God hath resolued in such a case by the consideration of his words once spoken to Eli the Priest in the daies of our iudges 1. Sam. 2.25 I will worship them saith he that worship me but they which despise me shall come to shame Moreouer I remember what the King himselfe hath said in his wise Prouerbs The turning away of the vnwise shall hasten his owne destruction And well I wot therefore that of all the creatures in the world pro. 1.32 the impious and wicked person is most vnhappy that not only in respect of his sinnes and condition of life but in regard of his end and conclusion for as the end of much eating is sicknes the end of pleasure is paine the end of this life is death and corruption so the end of the Sinner is extreame anguish and miserie both in this worlde and after his death For being iustly sequestred from the societie of the Saintes and so shut out from the diuine protection he is euen whiles he liueth molested with an vnquiet conscience an aking heart feareful cogitations and dreames and many afflictions both of body and mind the hand of God being streatched foorth against him from aboue and the instrumentes of wrath tormenting him from beneath Finally this life finished hee broyles and toyles in bitter tormentes for euer more In the which he may be compared to those flying fishes which being in the waters are persecuted by other fishes for their pray springing vp with their finnes into the aire they are followed and deuoured of the cormorants and Sea-meawes or to that bird which being on the ground is hunted by dogs and flying aboue the earth is taken by the vultures for true it is that the man of impietie and sinne hath neither peace nor safety either in this world or in the world to come This thing the kings father well knew and considered of in the depth of his heart therfore when he was remembred of his transgressions and faults by Nathan and by Gad the Lordes prophets and messengers to him in that respect feeling the true sense of Gods angry coūtenance iustly bent against him and his people for the same the perilous estate both of himselfe and his dominions by and by although a chosen magnanimious puissant and valorous minded King comming to answere before the highest God hee sodainly cast himselfe downe to the earth as a base caitiffe hee repented him of his sinnes and in the fearefull agony of his afflicted soule he cried out I have sinned I haue sinned Mercy Lord mercye nor would be leaue off crying and repenting nor any otherwise estéeme of himselfe then a sinfull guilty and condemned wretch vntill he perceiued that the Lord was willing to be appeazed and of his mercie to turne his gratious face towards him as in times past resembling the bird of Paradise which beeing taken in a snare is neuer quiet nor leaueth crying and flittering till time he either dye or be deliuered And thus behoveth it our Lord the King to esteeme of himselfe vnder those his transgressions this to respect and the same to performe which in this desperate and dangerous case is the best counsail we may giue him for remedy and ease For surely surely God being thus prouoked and that iustly he will not be appeazed nor will he surcease to streatch forth his hand of iustice against him so offending vntill that he meekly acknowledge his offences before him repent and seeke him with sorrow and singlenes of heart as we may see in th'examples of our forefathers both in the wildernes vnder the conduct of Moses and Aaron and in this land vnder the gouernment of our wise and valiant Iudges Now my Lords hereof is it that Iehovah our God being most iustly displeased with our Lord the King hee hath in iustice stirred vp and prouoked against him besides the two former enemies which much troubled him that Ieroboam who thirsting for the soueraignity of Israel now especially opposeth himselfe in might and policie against the King Neither may wee thinke but howsoeuer those persons especially Ieroboam are maliciously bent and prouoked against the king and his gouernment The kings enemies are the very instruments of Gods wrath appointed to vex the king and his people and do of themselues little respect or consider the prouidence and working of the most high in this his displeasure that yet they be the very instruments and ministers of Gods iudgements as those other aduersaries of Israel haue beene in the times past against our fathers when as they forgetting God did rebell against him and his holy servants And therefore the onely way to resist them is not the wisedome power policie or arme of man but the grace of our mercifull
was annointed King in the place of David his Father did sit on his throne by his fathers goodwill The charge that David gave to his sonne Solomō 1. King 2. aduise consent and direction David seeing the day to draw neare that he shold rest with his fathers he called Solomon and charged him saying I go the way of all the earth be thou strong therefore shew thy selfe a man keepe thou the watch of Iehovah thy God that thou walke in his wayes keepe his statutes and precepts his iudgements his testimonies as it is written in the law of Moses that thou maist prosper in all that thou doest in every thing that thou medlest withall That the Lord also may make good his word which he spake vnto me saying If thy children take heed to their waies that they walk before mee in truth withall their hearts withall their soules thou shalt not be without a man on the seate of Israel And all this the kings Father tooke from that holy Oracle which Nathan had before that time brought him Wherein the Lorde had certified David 2. Sam. 7. that Solomon his sonne should build an house for his name and hee saide he shall build an house for my name I will establish the throne of his kingdome for ever I wil be his father he shal be my sonne And if hee sinne I will chasten him with the rod of men with the plagues of the children of men but my mercy shall not depart away from him as I tooke it from Saul whome I have put away before thee And thine house shal be established thy kingdome for ever before thee even thy throne shal be established for ever * After this I find it recorded againe that the Lord appeared in Gibeon to King Solomon in a dreame by night Whiles he yet walked in the ordinances and waies of David his Father And the Lord said Aske what I shall give thee the King said Thou hast shewed vnto thy servant David my father great mercy when he walked before thee in truth 1. King 3.5 How David walked with God in righteousnes in plainnes of heart with thee And thou hast kept for him this great mercy that thou hast givē him a son to sit on his seat as it is come to passe this day And now O Lord my God it is thou that hast made thy servant King in steed of David my Father And I am but yong wot not how to go out in And thy servāt is in the middest of thy people which thou hast chosen verily the people are so many that they cannot be tolde nor numbered for multitude Solomons request Give therfore thy servant an vnderstanding heart to iudge thy people that I may discerne betweene good evill For who it able to iudge this so mighty a people And this pleased the Lord well that Solomō had desired this thing Therefore God said vnto him because thou hast asked this thing hast not asked for thy selfe long life neither hast asked riches for thy selfe nor hast asked the life of thine enemies but hast asked for thy selfe vnderstāding discretion in iudgement beheld I have done according to thy wordes Lo I have given thee a wise vnderstāding heart The Lorde granted him his request moreover of his louing mercies so that there hath beene none like thee before thee neither after thee shull any arise like vnto thee And I have givē thee that which thou hast not asked evē riches honour so that there shal be no King like vnto thee in al thy daies * And if thou wilt walke in my waies to keep mine ordinances my commandements as thy father David did walke I wil prolōg thy dayes c. Againe I find it recorded that when the King had builded the Temple and had prayed to the Lord that it would please him to sanctify the same for his name c. 1. King 9.2 The Lorde appeared vnto him the second time and said I have heard thy praier thine intercession that thou hast made before mee For I have hallowed this house which thou hast built to put my name there for ever And if thou wilt walke before mee as David thy father walked in purenes of heart in righteousnes to do all that I have commanded thee wilt keepe my statutes my lawes then will I stablish the seate of thy kingdome vpon Israel for ever as I have promised to David thy father saying Thou shalt not be without a man vpon the seate of Israel zadoke sheweth how gratious the Lord hath beene to Solomon and his people 1. King 10. To what end God giveth good princes * Lo said Zadok ye see how gratious the Lord our God hath shewed himselfe to the King and by him vnto the people of Israel whom the Lord hath chosen and to whome therefore it was his pleasure to giue vs such a King as the Queen of Saba in the due consideration thereof said for godly kings are adorned and giuen of the Lorde for the prosperity and peace of them whome his grace loueth And as by him they raigne so is hee carefull to defend them from euil and to leade them foorth in all goodnes by his wisedome and prouidence Moreouer this is an especiall grace of God bestowed on such Princes For without this the wisest man liuing can neither follow the good nor eschew the euill in this flattering and guilefull world * But read on gentle Iehosophat Is there not somwhat els Yes quod Iehosophat and thus the Lorde added on the contrary part But if ye your children turne away from me will not keepe my commandements my statutes A commination on the Apostates and disobedient 1. King 9.6 which I have set before you but go serve other Gods worship them then will I weed Israel out of the land which I have given them this house which I have hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight Israel shal be a proverb fable among all nations this house shall be takē away so that every one that passeth by it shal be astonished shal hisse they shal say why hath the Lord don thus vnto this land to this house they shal answere because they forsooke the Lord their God which brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt have taken hold vpon other Gods have worshipped them and served them therefore hath the Lorde brought vpon them all this evill * Then aunswered Zadoke ye haue reade enough of this Argument Loe my Lordes as in the former member the Lorde hath declared his diuine loue and great mercies both to the King and his people and generally to all them that belieue in him and walk in his waies so in this latter he sheweth how much he hateth and abhorreth them that apostate from him follow after other
promises before made doe pointe and belong properly to the most holy Messiah 2. Sam. 7.12 and not to any man besides him as they doe indeede yet to declare that David the Kinges Father did not wholy exclude Solomon his Sonne borne of Bethsabe but did so vnderstand the wordes spoken in this case as that literally the same Solomon was the persō especially chosē and appointed to build that materiall house therefore he said I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the Arke of the covenant of the Lorde for the footestoole of our God 1. Chro. 28.2 had made ready for the building But god said to mee thou shalt not build an house for my name because thou hast beene a man of warre and hast shedde bloud Againe And he said vnto mee Solomon thy Sonne Verse 6. he shall build me an house courtes for I have chosen him to bee my Sonne I wil be his father Then turning himselfe to Solomon Verse 9. hee saide And thou Solomon my Sonne know thou the Lorde of thy fathers serve him with a pure heart with a willing minde Againe Take heede now for the Lord hath chosen thee to build him an house of a Sanctuary be strong therefore shew thy selfe a man Verse 10. And in this sense did K. Solomon also take the wordes of the Lord which Nathan the prophet brought him as himselfe testified when sending to Hyram the Tyrian king for further provision he said 1. King 5.2 Thou knowest that David my father could not build an house vnto the name of Iehovah his God for the warres which were about him on every side vntill the Lorde put them vnder the soales of his feete But not Iehovah my God hath given me rest on every side so that their is neither adversary nor evil to resist And behold I am determined to build an house vnto the name of Iehovah my God as Iehovah spake vnto David my father saying Thy sonne whome I will set vpon thy seate for thee he shall build an house vnto my name 2 Chro. 6.10 And that Solomon did this performe accordingly himselfe testified againe saying I am risen vp in the roome of David my father am set on the seat of Israel as Iehovah promised have built an house for the name of Iehovah the God of Israel For indeed 1. Kings 6.1 2. Chro. 3.1 in the fower hundreth and fower-score yeer after that our fathers came out of the land of Aegipt and in the fowrth yeere of the raigne of King Solomon vpon Israel Aprill 1. Kings 6 38. October in the moneth * Ziff which is the second in our accoūt he began to build this house and in the eleuenth yeere in the moneth * Bul which is the eight was the same house finished throughout all the partes thereof according to the fashion of it and so was hee seuen yeeres in the building of it that in the mount Moriah in the place where first Cain and Abel and afterward Noah offered their sacrifices yea and in the Alley of Arnon there wherein David when hee saw the Angell with his drawne Sworde was commaunded to reare his altar Neuerthelesse to signifie that both this person and his worke had a further and higher aime then either wee coulde see with the eye or comprehend in thought much lesse vtter with the tongue as the thinges of God are such as passe all mens vnderstanding wee hearde what the King himselfe saide when hee dedicated the house vnto God And will God in very deede said hee dwell with men on earth Beholde heaven 2 Chro. 6.18 and the heaven above all heavens may not containe him How much lesse the house which I have built For the King as hee had the wisedome of the holy Spirite knew right well that this shoulde prefigurate the Church of the holy Messiah and that not onely the same which is or shal bee militant on earth but that spirituall Temple of God in the soule and minde of man yea and also shoulde expresse as by a liuely Simbole the societie triumphant and glorious in heauen Gen. 6.15 Exod. 25 26 Therefore as hee alluded therein to Noah in the building of the Arke and to Moses in the framing of the Tabernacle 2. Sam. 5.8.9 1. Chro. 28.11.19 and to David in the institution and disposing of the Tower of Zion and followed the proportion which his Father David had plotted and prescribed so hee expressed not onely his earnest loue and heartie zeale that hee had to his God but his desire to display and set foorth the wonderful perfection and excellent glory of that Church Neither yet did hee shewe himselfe either too curious or too costly or ouer glorious or superstitious or superfluous in any one ornament or in the least title or thing whatsoeuer in and about the same house albeit both the worke was magnificent of great charge and labour and the ornamentes in and about the same rare pretious and many in number For truely as this materiall Temple signifieth that Temple of Messiah whether misticall in the Congregation or spirituall in the faithfull soule or glorious in heaven so the ornamentes and diuers and sundry functions and garnishings and glory of the same expresse and declare vnto vs the noble personages functions orders ministeries vertues of and in the same For there bee godly Kinges and Princes Prophets Priestes Ministers Iudges Magistrates and many wise and holy persons both men and women there is the wisedome the iudgement the iustifications the sanctifications the perfections and in a word all the graces of the Saincts and there are the angels heauenly spirites Abraham Isaak Iacob Moses Iosuah and other with the glory of the children of God But ye happily desire that some certaine particulars might be produced in this comparison To speake of all it wold both weary me cōfound your hearing they are so many wonderful yea beyond the knowledge of man as yet neither is it meete that wee should * inuestigate ouer curiously Deut 29 29. and sift out too precisely that which is laid vp in the diuine counsail vntil the happy time of the Messiah who then and not before shall tell vs al thinges yea things hidden from the beginning In the meane time it is enough that we belieue this that the law shall go foorth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem The Church is like an house And first as ye haue heard and doe perceiue the Church of the Messiah is prefigured and expressed wholy by an house and that conueniently in regarde of the partes orders and vse thereof But this house hath two generall partes whereof the one is that in the which aswell the people as the priestes do enter wherein they pray they teach they heare they offer sacrifice they praise God they talke and declare their holy deuotion and obedience to God
am not able they are both so many and wonderfull much lesse to apply them in euery point to him whome with his vertues these things doe fore-shew and teach vnto men Solomon a figure of Messiah in his birth And first touching the honor of the kings birth and acceptation with the Lord It is true that Solomon is the sonne of David as before it hath beene said concerning whom the Lord made a faithfull promise saying Of the seede of thy bodie will I set vpon thy seate Howbeit 2. Sam. 7.13 the Lord also saide to David concerning him I will bee his father and hee shall bee my sonne Surely this properly fits the Messiah who is to come of the séede of David and yet hee is that naturall Sonne of God Thereof spake the kings father Iehovah sayd to my Lord sit thou on my right hand Againe Thou art my sonne this day have I begotten thee This is he indeed to whom the stabilitie of the kingdome of Israel is promised Where the Lord said I will establish the throne of his kingdome for euer Solomon as yet sitteth on the throne gouerneth his kingdom but the time will come that as the tipes must cease when the things typed come in place our Lord K. Solomon shal yéeld and giue his place to the holy Messiah that true Sonne of God when he shall begin to raigne in mount Zion Therefore let vs conclude that the king prefiguring also in this point the holy Messiah is a Saint of the Lord. Secondly the Lord hath imposed Solomon in his Names a figure of Messiah ordained such titles and names to and for the king as might no lesse expresse and set forth the same thing We heard before that the king had such Names as tended to th'exemplification of his honor but yet it was not then considered of euery one of vs to what certaine person or thing those names properly pointed for it is very certain that euery of those names are more proper to the Messiah then to the king albeit they were on him iustly imposed and of him at the first literally vnderstood The Lord God himself speaking vnto David of this person yer euer he was borne or begotten said His Name is Schelomon which is Peaceable 1. Schelomon 1. cho 22.9 or a maker of peace And the Lord shewed the reason thereof saying For I will giue him rest from his enemies round about him I will send peace quietnes vpon Israel By this he foresheweth the true Melchisalem that king of peace the right reconciler of his elect vnto himselfe who without this noble Prince are at wars with Lord opposed to the intollerable strokes of his Iustice But heereof it is that they haue quiet consciences peace with God and finally eternall rest and safetie in the most glorious kingdome of the King of peace To this also aymeth the blessed peace and tranquilitie that the Lord hath giuen the king and through him vnto vs from our bodily enemies on euery side in those the happy dayes of his gouernment Next when the Lorde would expresse his loue and affection towards him and againe the loue and affection that hee had and should haue to the Lorde his God thereby the sooner to foreshew the mutuall loue and delight betweene God and that holy Messiah he sent the Prophet Nathan as some of you yet remember who according to the diuine pleasure 2 Iedid-iah 2 Sam 12.25 called him Iedid-iah Beloued of God For so it is written that the Lord loued him therefore he called his Name Iedid-iah of the Lordes-behalfe Indeede it pleased the Lorde in this sort to declare his Ioue to the king Howbeit the Name properly fitteth that person Psal 2. to whom the Lord said as before Thou art my beloved sonne this day haue I begotten thee And the same which the Arabian Queene did mystically point vnto when in the spirit of Prophesie she said to the king Blessed be the Lord thy God which loved thee * After this the kings mother namely Queen Bethsabe that not without the instinct of the heauenly spirit perceiuing the maiestie feare of God in him 3 Laemuel pro. 31.1 withall knowing him to be made a liuely figure of the holy Messiah called him Laemuel that is God with him or God with them meaning that God was with him that he was as God vnto the people as Moses was sometimes said to be The which tittle therefore fitteth none so properly as it doth that bright Starre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Balaam descried and spake of in his prophesie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num. 24 the which as we haue obserued containeth both the nuÌ„ber of the name ineffable and the number of the Divine law for the two former letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make in number 26. the which also the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yeeldeth and the two latter letters make 22. in which number of letters is written the whole lawe the which onely in the time of the right Laemuel shall bee performed and throughly affected in him by whom there shall be but one Lord and one Law one faith and one religion one sheepheard Gen. 49 â—0 4 Koheleth Eccles. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and one sheepefold Lastly he hath another Name which no lesse indeed appertaineth to that right Shilon vnto whom the gathering of the people shall bee That is Koheleth which signifieth a Congregator or a Preacher or a builder of a Church The King had this Name worthily imposed partly in regard of his wisedwne which was in him wonderfull beyond al others as if in one and the same person should be heaped and layd vp together all the wisedom and knowledge both diuine and humane which not onely any other one man but which all men together at the same time liuing had or could containe or comprehend partly in regarde of his Office and ministerie by the which he did not onely builde the materiall house which should prefigurate both the mysticall spirituall and eternall but also did preach and indeuor to call into the same and to instruct and conforme all others aswell Gentiles as Iewes in the true Religion of the most holy and euerlasting God But the effecting of all this properly belongeth to that holy Messiah who hath and shall haue in his time all wisedome and all knowledge without measure and thereof shall giue and dispose aboundantly to others and by his proper ministerie gather together the out-casts of Israel bring home them that bee and shall be scattered abroad by his wisedome iustifie the multitude in bearing their misdeedes and not onely builde of diuers stones and sundry things a Church and holy Congregation to himselfe but also defend foster susteine and preserue the same foreuer Nowe my Lordes in all these things hath our Lorde the King right worthily prefigured the holy Messiah to the which I hope yée will willy subcribe and thereof
righteousnes his annointing his apparell his marriage his royaltie his Godhead his praise his eternitie and everlasting glory For all these things are found and shall for euer be well approued and highly praised in that holy Messiah Solomons prayers and sacrifices which the Lord accepted 1. king 8.22 to whom onely the king by the letter pointeth as the figure to the thing figured Nowe with this wee may not forgette that the king hauing finished the Lords house stood before the Altar of the Lord in the sight of all the Congregation of Israel and stretched out his hands towards heauen and blessed the Lord and praised him and his truth yea he knéeled also on his knées and prayed vnto him that the word might be verified which hee spake vnto David his father and that it would please him to haue respect vnto his prayer and supplication as well for himselfe as for the people praying in that house Also he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel verse 56. with a loude voyce saying Blessed bee the Lorde that hath given rest vnto his people Israel according to all that hee promised c. The Lord our God bee with vs as he was with our Fathers and forsake vs not nor leave vs but that hee may bowe our hearts vnto him that wee may walke in all his wayes and keepe his Commandements his statutes and his Lawes which hee commanded our Fathers And those my words that I haue prayed before the Lorde bee nigh vnto Iehovah our GOD day and night that hee defend the cause of his servant the cause of his people Israel at all times as the matter shall require that all nations of the earth may knowe that Iehovah is God and none but hee Moreuer the King offered Offrings before the Lord yea peace-offrings in great aboundance and therewithall dedicated the house which he builded to the Lord with great ioy and gladnesse In all the which things Iehovah his God was well pleased with him yea and with the people through him heard his prayers receiued his requests graunted his petitions and apeared vnto him in Gibeon with this comfortable saying I have heard thy Prayer and thine intercession that thou hast made before mee For I haue hallowed this house which thou hast built to put my name there for ever and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually Now consider I pray you what K. Solomon is with the Lorde will the Lord heare and accept the reprobate and prophane persons or will he honour and esteeme their works although they séeme glorious to the conceits of worldly men No surely What saith the Kings father touching their prayers The prayer of vngodly men is turned into sinne Psal 100.6 And thus I haue heard him to modulate concerning himselfe and his estimation with the highest The Lord I know wil not vouchsafe my praier or words to heare If vnto sinne mine heart I should encline and him not feare But if I come into his Courts with offerings worthie praies And pay the vowes I promised in mine afflicted daies If on him with my mouth I call and with my tongue him blesse And offer him the sacrifice of thankes and righteousnes Then will he heare my praiers and consider of my case And my request will graunt in time of his aboundant grace In al these things therfore the king is declared to be not only holy and approued of God but also a perfect figure of that most holy Seede who in his time shall pray shall offer shall please God shal be heard shal be accepted and all his desires performed to the satisfying of his soule to the health of his people Finally The pluralitie of Solomons wiues the very pluralitie of the kings Wiues his Concubines on whom he was enamored and dishonoured howsoeuer vnlawfull offensiue to God and a disgrace to himselfe shall not be reckoned as a thing vnnecessarie in this comparison seeing that the most holy Messiah in his ardent zeale for mans recouery will be contented that the serpent shall trippe on his heele Gen. 3. whereby he will be dishonored and abased whiles he taketh on himselfe mans ougly deformities and sinnes being so willing through his owne humiliation and ignominie to ease man so burthened and to bring him home againe vnto him from whom hee had farre wandered and to reconcile him with him against whom hee had monstrously transgressed And therefore as his Proverbes the which for the most part hee vttered in his florishing and perfect estate are applicable as chiefly appertaining to the gouernment of a godly family as these his * Wordes That is his Ecclesiastes 1. now daily and ordinarily vttered and ruminated are applicable as especially belonging to the ordering of a godly Common-wealth So also those his Loue-songs and Ballads entituled * Schir-hasschirim The Canticles of Solomon The Song of songs composed in his yonger dayes yea before the twentieth year of his age shall not be reiected or abandoned but esteemed and properly applied both to that mysticall and spirituall woowing espowsing combination and familiar societie communication of the holy Messiah with his elect and faithfull Saints of the which hee gathereth and garnisheth a Church as a chaste Wife to himselfe Loe my Lordes in these and many other such notable things is our Lord K. Solomon by the will wisdom and providence of God made an excellent figure of that holy Annointed and therefore he may not bee esteemed a naughty or prophane person but to bee taken as hee is indeede a Saint of the Lorde Neither doe I any thing doubt but that the best learned and godly that either now liue or shall come after vs will so iudge and esteeme of him when they shall heare and well weigh not onely of that which hath beene said heretofore concerning him his words actions and estate but also shall plainely beholde the verification thereof in the very person and perfect beautie of that promised Schilo the King of righteousnesse and highest peace at his happy comming in the world into the appointed time This being sayd all the Princes were much comforted although in this their kings affliction and gaue thankes to Zadok who yet seemed further to resolue and satisfie them in any thing whereof either any question might bee mooued or any doubt iustly arise concerning the kings holines CAP. XXVIII Zadok argueth for the King concerning his repentance and remission after his Transgressions ZAdok hauing thus farre pleaded for K. Solomon and with many substantiall Arguments proued him a Saint of the Lorde and therefore that hee could not bee either a damned soule or a reprobated wretch or a prophane person as some haue or might ouer harldy rashly censure him the Princes shewed themselues both ioyfull and thankefull But after a whiles Prince Azariah in the behalfe of the rest stood foorth opened his mouth and sayde Most reuerende Father wee all confesse with thankefulnes that yee
tree The definitions of repentance And truely those are notable Arguments of the Kings true Conversion and Repentance For whether Repentance bee defined * that affection and passion of the minde by the which any person being touched with the sense of Gods anger conceiued for his sinne committed is most heartily sory with an humble and earnest desire of mercie and amendement of life * Or the loathing of sinne and thirsting after mercie and righteousnesse * Or the bewayling of trespasses with a full purpose thence-foorth to amend leade a godly life * Or the turning againe of man vnto his Maker with hope of mercie by faith in the holy Messiah * Or a changing or a renewing of the minde or opinion with a due consideration and better aduise * Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the turning about or changing of both the mind and body and so of the whole-man * Or after the common receiued opinion touching the parts therof the Contrition of the heart the Confession of the mouth the tempering of the flesh the amendement of the worke and the continuance in vertues * Or howsoeuer els it be defined described or declared according to the analogie or proportion of our religion we may gather out of those premised testimonies and examples both a true Repentance and the ripe fruites and notes of the same A conclusion for Solomons Repentance and so conclude that Solomon our King is truely repentant For were hee not a true repentant person wee should neuer haue found such wholsome fruites on this tree Signes and tokens of true Repentance nor such soueraigne treasures to be drawne foorth from his humble heart Neither may we thinke those fruites and treasures are of that nature as they can bee found in that person especially towards the ende of his life of whose true conuersion and faithfull repentance it may iustly be doubted no more then sweete waters are expected from a bitter fountaine or Figs to grow of Thistles Iob. 27.10 For why the Hypocrite hath never such a delight in the Almightie Nor can it possibly come to passe that the persons in whome these and such vertues are found resident dwelling or springing so proper to the Lordes chosen shoulde be vtterly shut out from a godly repentance and so debarred of the mercie of that most mercifull God who vouchsafeth both to call sinners vnto him and promiseth them mercie that truly repēt Note this For as the Lord being ielous of such his graces hath not bin willing that the damned Reprobates should be seised of the same or so much as handle them with their prophane and sinfull hands so hath he been and is most glad and right well pleased that those graces be powred out as proper to them whom it pleaseth him to renewe by repentance and to bring with great honour to his eternall glorie * Therefore as wee know that the King is Repentant so wee also beleeue he hath eschewed the danger of Gods wrath obtained mercie and pardon of his sins Solomons pardon and saluation This cure is wrought of Gods mercie and reteineth hope of his eternall health But this wee acknowledge to bee wrought not by the trust wee haue in that his repentance but in that sweete mercie of God which draweth men to Repentance in comparison whereof all his sinnes and all the sinnes of men in this life are not so much as one droppe to the Sea The Sea is great so is his sinne but the sea receiueth yet a measure so doth his sinne but the mercie of GOD is beyond all measure Therefore although men should bee ashamed to sinne yet should they not be ashamed to repent them of their sinnes as I sayde before and to hope for mercie Neither let any man say Obiect I haue sinned much how should I finde mercie for my sinnes for though a man cannot vnderstande the reason thereof yet the Lord God well knoweth it he worketh it and he pardoneth sinners in such sort as neither their sin no nor any scarre and shew of their sins remaineth This is strange to vs The nature of this cure and not séen in the curing of the wounds of a mans bodie wherin though wee haue a thousand cunning Physicians or Chirurgians the scarres of the soares remaine to be seene an argument of the wound for why the infirmitie of a mans nature and the imbercillitie of Art and medicine are repugnant to it self but when God pardoneth he blotteth sins out in such sort as not so much as any scarre or signe of the wound remaineth to be séen but together with the healing there is giuē perfit beautie after the pardoning of the paine he powreth out righteousnesse and he maketh the sinner equall with him that neuer sinned This the Kings father testified in himselfe when he said to his soule The Lord hath forgiven all thine iniquitie and healed all thine infirmitie he saveth thy life from destruction psal 103.3 Arguments for Solomons Pardon crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindnesse * But howsoeuer it bee there is no reason why we should doubt of the assurance of the loue of God to him whom he vouchsaueth to entitle his Son Neither should we suspect the happy continuance of Gods loving mercie on him which of his owne worde was both promised and warranted him when we finde neither testimonie nor sufficient presumption of his finall apostasie and reprobation Nay we shall both decipher our want of loue in iudging so rashly and vnreuerently of the king and of the generation of the righteous whom the Lord wil not suffer to fall for euer as K. David saide and our want of wisedome against our God whom therein to our power wee should make a lyar and vnfaithfull in not performing that his word promise made concerning him in the figure as it concerneth the Messiah indeed Who said He shal be my son I will bee his father If he sin 2. Sam. 7 I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the plagues of the children of men but my mercie shal not depart from him as I tooke it from Saul Which words are to be vnderstood not only nor wholy of the Messiah but also partly of Solomō the childe of God by adoption grace to whom the L. would continue mercifull and not vtterly cast him off els why should Saul with his apostasie reprobatiō as by way of a cōparison be here brought in And this not only the K. himself hath often both said declared that yet His wisedome did remaine with him that is that Spirit of God and the mercy of God Eccles. 2. which was taken away from Saul in the Lords anger for his rebellion but also all we are able to testifie for him in whom wee haue discerned and doe yet approue the excellency of the Spirit and mercie of the Almightie * Moreouer Another Argument for Solomons Pardon although the Lorde by his
or endeuour to finde out wee shoulde reuerently admire and in all things iustifie them for it is true that Moses sayde Deut. 3 2.4 Perfect is the worke of the most mightie GOD for all his wayes are Iudgement Hee is a GOD of trueth without wickednesse righteous and iust is hee Deut. 29.29 Those secret things belong to GOD aboue and they are not for a man to knowe or finde out nor shall hee bee able in any other sorte then hee is able to finde out the circle of a Ring Iob. 28.7 This is that way whereof Iob spake the which the birdes haue not knowne the Vultures eye neuer sawe wherin the Lyons whelps walke not and into the which no Lyon euer came It is farre easier to knowe the way of an Eagle in the Ayre of a Serpent vpon a stoane of a shippe in the Sea and of a man with a yong-woman which yet passed the kings vnderstanding then to finde out the reasons and causes of the Lordes secret iudgements and hidden wayes Therefore when the wisest men in the worlde haue presumed this enterprise they haue beene compared to the hungry man which dreameth that hee is eating and beeing awaked out of his sléepe findeth himselfe emptie Thus are they fedde with winde in steede of woordes they take the shadowe for the bodie they finde wandering cloudes whiles they seeke for rayne and for substances they take holde of accidentes onely The causes of Gods secret iudgements are not to be found out But the better to suppresse the curiositie of mans minde let vs consider certaine examples of the workes and wayes of God the causes and reasons whereof we could neuer as yet finde out In the dayes of Iosuah the Captaine of the Lordes Hoaste wee finde that one Achan sinned against the Lorde Achan Ios 7.25 in that hee had contrary to the commandement taken among the spoyles a certaine Babilonish garment and two hundred sickles of siluer and a tongue of golde and conveyed and hidde them away for the which the whole Hoaste was troubled and fledde before the enemie and afterwarde not onely Achan but also his Familie and all the hee had was destroyed Nowe if Achan onely sinned why did the people flye and fall Againe why were his sonnes and Familie punished and what had his children and cattle deserued that they all perished with him was it not commanded before Deut. 24.16 The fathers shall not bee put to death for the children nor the children for the fathers Chorah Num. 16.13 but euery man shall bee put to death for his owne sin Also in the rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram why were the people plagued for these mens offences and wherefore dyed their Wiues and children and seruantes Abraham and Sarah Gen. 18. and cattle together with them * Also we finde that Abraham being fore-folde that hee should haue a sonne of Sarah his wife laughed aswel as did Sarah and yet Sarah was reprooued and not Abraham We may imagine that the one laughed for ioy and the other in scorne but wee haue no such cause deliuered vnto vs for they both beleeued God Moreover Adam Gen. 3. why did God permit Adam to fall and Hevah to be tempted Why was Abraham our Father made a soiorner in a strange land Abraham Iacob Pharao Why was Iacob vexed and afflicted with so many euils in his dayes why did God harden the hart of Pharaoh Why did the Lord plague thréescore and ten thousand of Davids people for his sin In all these things David let vs as I said wonder and iustifie the Lord knowing Iob. Gen. 18. that as no kinde of iniquitie dwelleth in the most high so beeing the Iudge of all the world he iudgeth according to right as Abraham saith and would that men should content their minds only with that which it pleaseth him to reueale vtter vnto them The generall cause of all But thus wee may say that in all those things the Lord hath respected his owne glorie and the benefite of his children and that as his will is in all things performed it was his will that among others the King should fall and shew his imperfections and that as I can gather besides the former for these foure causes Certain particular causes of Solomons sin First that the people which beheld his wonderfull wisedome wealth prosperitie and glory wherein hee hath as by way of symbole expressed the spirituall and heauenly vertues and glory of Messiah might not estéeme or thinke of him more then it is conuenient For indéed they haue for the most part taken him rather for God then for man and others haue taken him for the promised Messiah and not for the Figure of the same wherein they began to derogate from the Lorde and his Annoynted by giuing of his glory to a mortall man And surely for this cause hath the Lord often suffred the right worthy vessels of his grace to fall and to be noted in the holy Scriptures with their imperfections and imfirmities as were Adam Noah Abraham Lot David and such like Next the king hath in this sort fallen that as in his wisedome and diuine vertues he did prefigurate the holy Messiah so by those his slidings and the sinnes of his wiues and strange women imputed also vnto him in that he both affected maintained them notwithstanding their blemishes in religion hee might foreshew the burthen of mans sinnes layd and imputed to the holy one on whose héele therefore the Serpent was to treade in the regard whereof hee shall bee both reputed and esteemed vile and of no reputation among the children of men and shall be punished for their transgressions as David hath prophesied thereof Besides that in this declination of the Kings honor is noted the renting and finall dissipation of our Nation and gouernment in time to come Thirdly the Lorde God will that this example of the Kings fall should bee a terrour and document to all others in posteritie how prosperous or glorious soeuer they shall bee in this worlde full of Vanitie that they beware how they presumne on any ornament either of body or minde or any thing else of this present life and that they promise not to themselues the assurance and continuall vse of that which is but lent them and not their owne to retaine or dispose for if God hath suffered the king who enioyed all these things at his full pleasure to fall yea and to worke wickednes against his owne honor for these his sinnes hath laden him with a measure of his iudgements why should any other man assure himselfe the continuall possession of the like which yet come farre behinde the King in all things Lastly by this the Lord would schole and teach the king as wise as he is that hee presume not to enter into iudgement with him which is most iust and will not acquite a sinner in his sinnes nor to iustifie himselfe
and dissolute wasting away of their wealth God forbid foe he hath no such meaning But he exhorteth men to be liberall and charitable two excellent vertues he would that therein they should extend of their welth in either parte without respect of persons or of reward or hope of gaine or glory that men should help such as be in néed trouble misery that cannot recōpence or requite and to commit the successe and the regarde of all retribution to the Lord without all feare or distrust In the doing whereof is shall come to passe that men shall find againe that which they had laid out in one sort or other For such thinges are but as lent to him that will in due time repay The Lord himselfe will augment and blesse the basket and the store as Moses hath saide to them that keepe the Lordes commandementes Deut. 28. Therfore according to this saying men in the bestowing of benefits or in the giuing of their Almes should do like vnto those which cast foorth their things on the fleeting streame the things are throwne foorth and they bee carried away and there is no care taken thereof nor hope of recouery againe So men ought to giue and dispose of their riches in this life especially to the poore and needy without hope of recompence or reward knowing wel that the reward thereof is with the Lorde who forgetteth not them that haue thus bestowed of their wealth and thinges that the LORD hath giuen them and in the due time wil duely recompence them Psal 103.2 This the Kinges Father remembred whem hee saide Blesse the LORD O my soule forget not all his retributions Moreouer by the face of the waters wee may not vnaptly vnderstand the wet faces or weeping eyes and namely the poore the needy the miserable which in regarde of their harde lotts and afflictions are constrained to mourne And further to shew that the ende of our good worke or charitable action should be the beginning of another that shold succéed he willeth men to giue and bestow a part not onely the 7. day which is the end of one wéek but also the 8. day which is the beginning of another so forth Wherein also hee woulde that men which haue abundance shoulde resemble the full cloudes which poure downe the raine without any respect of places or hope of receiuing therof again and shoulde be also like the trées which in the autumne or harvest time let fall their fruite for such as will gather thereof and regard not the returne of the benefit Lo this is the meaning of the king in his wordes which are indeede right worthy the memory and praise Then replied Abiather In truth most reuerende Father ye haue also in this fully satisfied mee and I trust that ye haue no lesse contented al these the Kings Princes and seruantes And wee said the Princes are very wel pleased in these resolutions But if there be any thing els to be obiected we would that ye did now remember it that it may bee in like sort answered for our hearty request is and the same shal be continued that it woulde please this most reuerend Father in presence to answere and resolue the doubtes that aswel the posteritie and others as our selues hearing both th' one and th' other may bee the better instructed occasioned to thinke ruerently both of the King and of his words And truly we esteeme him a meete defender of the truth who when he thinketh well doth neither feare nor is ashamed to speake CAP. XLI Zadok answereth to the three last obiections 15. of the difference betweene good and evill 16. mans power of life 17. the young-mans lesson Moreover Solomons words are approved for veritie Obiection 15 of the holy and prophane ABiather proceeded to ratify his obiections and said But wherefore I pray you hath the king put no differēce between the righteous and the wicked betweene the holy and the prophane I might peraduenture answere you saide zadok if ye coulde certify me from the which of all his wordes they haue taken this to be obiected They haue taken it said Abiather from those his wordes where yee haue hearde him say without retractation or correction Eccles. 9.2 It happeneth to the one as to the other it goeth with the righteous as with the vngodly with the good and cleane as with the vncleane with him that offereth as with him that offereth not like as it goeth with the vertuous so goeth it also with the sinner as it happeneth vnto the periured so it happeneth also to him that feareth an oath Among all thinges that come to passe vnder the Sunne this is a misery that it happeneth to al alike Answere And this is a cause that the hearts of mē are ful of wickednes madnesse is in their mindes as long as they live vntill they die To this answered Zadok Truely wisedome would perswade that before they had conclude against the King they had wisely considered one thing with another Cap. 7.25 as the king hath also counsailed For he hath often said to ouerthrow the strength of their argument that he thinketh in his minde that God shall separate the righteous from the vngodly then shal be the iudgement time of al counsails works Again he saith Cap. 3.17 Cap. 8.12 I know that it shal be wel with thē that feare God do reverēce before him But it at shal not be well to the wicked neither shal he prolōg his daies but even as a shadowe shal he be because he feareth not God Wherin he speaketh much like his father who said the L. knoweth or approueth the way of the righteous he shal prosper but the way of the vngodly shal perrish now shal he be able to stād in iudgemēt nor in the cōgregatiō of the iust Now therfore Abiather let these things places be cōsidered together and ye shal find that the K. hath a double purpose therin as els where he hath said Answer not a foole after his foolishnes again answere a foole after his foolishnes wherein he wold that an answere be made méet for the questiō but not according to the fools expectatiō so the K. hath said the iust is as the vniust again the iust is not like the vniust for in somethings they be cōpared in this world but not in al things As touching either mans mortalitie or the sundry accidēts euēts of this life they are not much vnlike For as it was before said touching the cōparisō of man with the beast or the wise mā with the foole so may it be said in this that it happeneth to the iust as to the vniust Iob. 21.23 And in this hee séemeth to allude to that saying if Iob One man dieth in his full strength beeing in all ease and prosperitie his breastes are full of milke and his bones runne full of marrow Another dieth in the bitternes of his
my Lordes that ye haue not seene any such thing in the king nor do ye imagine as I suppose that the king at any time was so foolish as to adore or worship such kind of Gods of the which his father David deciding the grosse Idolatrie of the heathen thus sang Their Idols both of silver golde and mens hand worke they be They mouthes have but do not speake and eies but cannot see They have eke eares but do not heare senseles noses so They have handes but they handle not feete but cannot go Doubtles answered the Princes we perswade as yee haue said yea said Azariah and wee haue often heard the K. himselfe to blame and reproue such kind of Idolatry and thus hath he said whose wordes for wisedome and grauity are copied out and divulged euen among the Gentiles Sap. 13.10 14.8 15.3 Miserable are they and among the dead that call them Gods which are but the workes of mens hands Againe deriding the folly of those Idoll-worshippers he saith he is not ashamed to speake to that which hath no soule for health hee makes his petition to that which is sicke for life he humbly praieth to him that is dead Againe cursed be the Idoll that is made with handes yea both it and he that made it he because he made it and it because it was called a God whereas it is but a fraile thing for the vngodly and his vngodlines are both like abhominable vnto God euen so the worke and he that made it shal be punished together Againe To know the Lord God is perfect righteousnesse yea to know his power is the root of immortality As for the thing that men haue found out through their euill science it hath not deceiued vs nor the painters vnprofitable labor namly an image spotted with diuers colors whose sight inticeth the ignorāt to lust after it and he desireth the picture of a dead image that hath no breath Both they that make them they that desire them and they that worship them loue euill thinges and merite to haue such thinges to trust vpon Againe the enemies of Israel that worship those Idols are most vnwise more miserable thē very fooles For they iudge of them to bee Gods which neither haue eyes to see nor noses to smell nor ears to heare nor hands nor fingers to grope and as for their feete they are too slow to goe Lo those and such like wordes hath the king his wisedome vttered touching those heathen Gods and the worshippers of thē euen publikely and in presence of all them to come to him to heare his wisdome that thereby the sooner he might withdraw them from that grosse error and impious abhomination and bring them to the right worship of Iehovah the God of Israel Ye haue truly spoken in this matter said Zadok for in truth I haue not knowen any one man of life that hath more disliked and derided this kind of Idolatry that hath more sharply reprehended them that haue followed after strange Gods then the K. himselfe Neither did he thinke that any man which either knew Iehovah our God or had any wisedome or reason or iudgement or humaine wit wold acknowledge such a senseles image for a God and worship it much lesse himselfe woulde either aduenture or attempt a thing so heinous shamefull and dangerous against the law of God reason and good conscience being a man so wise holy and zealous for the L. his God Therfore let vs not imagine that the K. was so perswaded to prostrate himselfe before those vaine images of the heathen to adore or worship them as Gods or that he did inuocate or pray to them or trust in thē for any aid or comfort seeing that both he knew the abhomination of such vain things In what sense it is said that Solomon followed after strange Gods felt the goodnes of the living God at al times so gratious towards him but indeede this is true that the K. hath in his fond loue and carnall affection to his wiues being Idolators and Apostats from the true religiō so doted besotted himselfe that he hath winked at such their abhominations yea hee hath permitted them to vse their strāge religiōs more yet he hath caused to be built for thē houses high places in the face of all Israel in the sight of Ierusalē hath allowed thē great sums of money maintenance out of his treasurs to for the same wherof it is well said indéede that he followed after their abhominatiōs for being both the K. of Israel the husband of those his wiues he should rather as he might wel do haue restrained punished such horrible abuses of the name honor of God But howsoeuer it was seing we haue not séen such palpable idolatry in the K. as that he did worship their idols nor cā we see into the K. heart as God séeth him Gods secret waies are such as no vultures eie did euer see as Iob said the bottōles profunditie therof we may not attempt to sownd let vs here content our selues with so much thereof as it hath well pleased him to reueale vnto vs iudge iustly and soberly of God and his waies constre the best of his Saintes thinke honourably of this chosen person and his actions and words not rashly censuring the one nor indiscreetely condēning the other And out of all question if in this resolution and minde wee duly search and wisely examine and consider of all thinges we shall find and confesse that howsoeuer it bee K. Solomon did not onely turne away from God and endangered himselfe as all other sinners do but that also he is returned againe and assured of safetie King Solomon did turne again to the Lord. as those which truly repent them of their sinnes that he had not onely his heart seduced and corrupted as his Father David had when he cōmitted murther adultery but hath also a new heart created and a right spirit renewed in him as the same David had after that hee repented psal 51. praied and founde grace with the Lord that he did not only deny the Lord wherby God was exasperated against him as our forefathers both in the wildernes and in the time of the Iudges haue don but also hath acknowledged his power Num. 21.8 and confessed him and therein eschewed his owne destruction as many of our fathers did which beheld that brasen serpēt in the wildernes and wept before the Lord and were preserued and comforted he did not only sin to prouoke the Lord but also he did repent and well pleased the Lord. Exo. 10.17 2. Sam. 12.13 Gen. 4.14 1. Sam. 13.4 Gen. 3.20 38 26. Exo. 32.22 And this he hath done not with his mouth onely as Pharao did but with his heart as K. David did he dispaired not as did Cain and Saul but he sorrowed and repented in hope as did Adam and Iudah
Prophet Ahiah the Silonite hath for the Kings offence threatned punishment to the Seede of David as wee haue heard to our greife and sorow yet being mindefull of his promise and mercy made and shewed to David concerning Solomon to our great comfort hee hath in his grace stayed himselfe there and added this restraint 1. king 11.39 But not for ever or In all his dayes Whererin wee see that mercie is reserued and the punishment is determined in time which may not be vnderstoode of the paine of the reprobates and damned in hel the which is neither a punishment but a torment or plague and that not determinable but without and beyond all time Therfore we conclude that Solomon is not fallen for euer nor shall be punished for ever nor is deprived of the divine mercy but repenting being so well-beloved of God he is pardoned by him who hath commanded the woods and al pleasant trees to over shadow them that be his from this time foorth for ever more * And perswaded thereof Solomons salvation Object we may neither cast into doubt the hope of his eternal Saluatiō with the Lord for though I haue heard one to obiect Can a sinner be saved It is yet certaine as I saide that as such obtaine mercy which repent so shall they bee surely saued which obtaine mercie This the kings father testified when he modulated thus Blessed are they whose vnrighteousnes is forgiven Who are blessed and whose sinnes are covered Blessed is that man to whom the Lorde will not impute sinne And who are indeed blessed euen they to whome the kingdome of God belongeth and which are appointed to eternall happinesse Thus the first man Adam thus Abel the second man that feared God thus Abraham the father of true beleeuers thus Moses the Lords seruant and thus David the kings father and other the Lordes Saints were pardoned of their sinnes and blessed of the Lord. And therefore the King being the Lordes chosen and by his wisedome knowing the excellent effects of repentance and the sweetnesse of Gods louing mercies is doubtlesse happy and expecteth his rest and glorie with those Saints which hauing been wise and turned many vnto righteousnes doe and shall shine and glister as the brightnes of the firmament and as the starres for euer and euer Therefore howsoeuer it hath beene obiected against the King as neither the Egyptians for the heate Solomons defence nor the Scythians for the colde doe feele the terrible clappes of thunder So shall our Lord King Solomon partly by his excellent holines and glorie and partly by his true Repentance and forgiuenes of sinnes besides this our testimonie touching him be protected and defended against all reproches and obloquies of slanderous and enuious tongues aswell in this age as in all the ages that shall follow and succeed in the world yea and as he that casteth his darts against a rocke or other sound thing doeth sometimes hurt himself by the sodaine rebound of the same so whosoeuer shall hencefoorth ayme so contumeliously to the Kings person being a man so holy and glorious may paraduenture be perced himselfe by the inexpected rebounde of his owne dart and so they which haue beene glad of his sorrow and reioyce at his fall shall mourne in their owne destruction as a iust reward of their malitious censures and vngodly glory when on the other side they which loue the Lord and his Saintes shall be glad and reioyce in the sense of his louing mercies CAP. XXXI Why God permitted Solomon to fall Why Solomon now vseth not the Name Tetragrammaton The preservation of Solomons Sermons THE most reuerende Zadok hauing made the former Apologie for the K. and thervpon taken a pauze yet as not willing to giue ouer but as after a little breathing to proceed the Princes tooke an occasion of applause wherein they both approued and commended all those things which had beene sayde for the King The Nature of good subiects as right glad of that which might be iustly found and spoken in his defence being such persons indeed as wished him no euill but all good in their hearts But Zadok to preuent them who might of any his words take an occasion to presume in their sinnes zadok by defēding the king would not offer an occasion to any man to presume too farre vpon the divine mercies said I haue not produced the former arguments for the king nor spoken any thing my Lordes whereby I would animate or encourage men to presume vpon the diuine mercies and so to sinne that mercy might be powred out The Lorde forbid that any man should of this take that occasion Nay rather euery man might beware and take heed that he fall not then whiles he thinketh himselfe to stand most assured For as the most righteous man is not without his sinne and so prouokes the Lorde to anger and deserues damnation so shall not hee escape some measure of punishment Sinnes shall be punished aboue all hainous sinnes shall be horribly punished euen here in this life as it hath been apparant in David when he offended in the case of Vriah also in this our king of whom the Lord said before 2. Sam. 7. If he sinne I will beat him with the Rodde of men and with the plagues of the children of men thus did God beat euen him whom hee had made a man after his owne heart And thus he threatned euen the same whom hee named his Sonne If hee hath thus done on those greene and flowrishing branches what will he doe on the dry and withered stubbes surely whereas hee pruneth and correcteth the former to amend them for their good hee will cut off and destroy the other from among his people for though as a father he pittieth his owne yet as a iust Iudge hee will condemne and as a tyrant will rent a sunder the sonnes of Beliall Deut. 32. neither desist or spare vntill that in them hee hath filled vp the measure of his wrath according to the measure of their transgressions The which thing if the vngodly the féede dayly on mischiefe as on bread and drawe sinnes vnto themselues as with strong ropes duely considered and regarded they would haue lesse courage to flatter themselues in their manifold impieties and to promise peace to their soules in the depth of those their dangers Azariah * Then spake Azariah for the Princes saing Well sayd most reuerend father But wee beseech you wherefore did the Lord God permitte and suffer our noble King not onely to slide but also to sinne yea and to transgresse so horribly before the Lorde and his people zadok Gods secret iudgemēts are beyond the reach of man Shoulde godly sobrietie licence vs answered Zadok to sounde the profunditie of the divine thoughts or to enter into the bowels of his secretes or to searche out the causes of his hidden and vnknowen wayes no surely but rather then to search