Reformation and Refining was that they made The Church which in their Language was the bodie of the Clergie A body Politick or kingdom distinct from the body of the Layetie holding even Christian Kings and Emperours to be Magistrates meerly Temporal or civil altogether excluded from medling in affairs Ecclesiastick Now this being granted the Supream Majestie of every kingdom State or nation should be wholly seated in the Clergie The greatest Kings and Christian Monarchs on earth should be but meer vassals to the Ecclesiastick Hierarchie or at the most in such subordination to it as Forraign Generals and Commanders in chief are to the States or Soveraignties which imploy them who may displace them at their pleasure whensoever they shall transgresse or not execute their instructions or Commissions For this reason as in the handling of the first verses of the 13. Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans hath been declared unto you before All the disputes or Lawes concerning the Supremacie of Kings or Free States within their own Dominions were to no purpose unlesse this Root of mischief and Rebellion be taken away which makes the Clergie a body politick or Common-weal Ecclesiastick altogether distinct from the Layetie-Christian Now this erroneous Root of mischief hath been well removed by the Articles of Religion established in this Church and Land Article the 37. wherein The same authoritie and power is expresly given to the Kings of this Realm and their successors which was in use and practise amongst the Kings of Judah and the Christian Emperors when kingdoms and Common-weales did first become Christian The Law of God and of nature will not suffer the Soveraign Power in Causes Ecclesiastick to be divorced from the Supream Majestie of any Kingdom or free Soveraigntie truely Christian But what be the contrary Errors into which such as take upon them to be Reformers of the Reformation already made have run headlong Or how do they the same things wherein they judge the Romanists The Romanists as they well observe deserve condemnation by all Christian States for appropriating the Name or Soveraign Dignitie of the Church unto the Clergie and by making the Prerogative of Priests and Prelates to be above the Prerogatives of Kings and Princes The Contrary faction of Reformers not content to deprive the Clergie of those civil Immunities and priviledges wherewith the Law of God the Law of Nations and the Fundamental Law of this Kingdom have endowed them will have them to be no true members of the Common-weale or Kingdom wherein they live Or at the best but such Inferior members of the Common-weale as the Papists make the Layetie to be of the Church men that shall have no voice in making those Coercive Lawes by which they are to be governed and to govern their flocks yea men that shall not have necessary voyces in determining controversies of Religion or in making Rules and Canons for preventing Schisme I should have been afraid to beleeve thus much of any sober man professing Christianitie unlesse I had seen A book to this purpose perused as is pretended in the Frontispice by the Learned in the Laws But the Author hath wisely concealed his own name and the names of those learned in the Lawes which are in grosâ—â— pretended for its Approbation And therefore I shall avoid suspition of ayming at any particular out of mis-affection to his person in passing this general Censure No man could have had the heart to write it no man the face to read it without blushing or indignation but he that was altogether unlearned and notoriously ignorant in the Law of God in the Law of nature and in the Fundamental points of Christianitie 6. All Errors in this kind proceed from these Originals First The Authors of them Charitie may hope by Incogitancie or want of consideration rather than out of Malice seek to subject the Clergie unto the same Rule unto which the Church was subject for the first 300. years after Christ during which time the Kings and Emperours under which the Christians lived were Heathens And whilst the chief Governours were such no Christians could exercise Coercive Authoritie as to Fine imprison or banish any that did transgresse the Lawes of God or of the Church The Apostles themselves could use no other manner of punishment besides delivering up to Satan Excommunication or inhibition from hearing the word or receiving the Sacraments Secondly the Authors of the former Errors consider not That whilest the Church was in this subjection to meer Civil and not Christian Power the Lay-Christians of what rank soever though noble men by birth were as straightly confined and kept under as were the Clergie Yea the Clergie in those times had greater authoritie over Lay-Christians then any other men had Authority much greater over the greatest then any besides the Romish Prelates do this day challenge over the meanest of their flocks But after Kings and Emperors and other supream Magistrates were once converted to the Christian Faith their dignities were no whit abated but gained this Addition to their former Titles that they were held supream Magistrates in Causes Ecclesiastick That is they had power of calling Councils and Synods for quelling Schisms and Heresies in the Church power likewise to punish the Transgressors of such Laws or Canons as had been made by former Godly Bishops or Prelates which lived under Heathen States or of such as the Bishops or Clergy which lived under their Government should make for the better Government of Christs Church Unto punishments meerly spiritual which the Apostles and Bishops had formerly only used Christian Emperors added punishments temporal as imprisonment of body loss of goods exile or death according to the nature and qualitie of the transgression But that any Laws or Canons were made by Christian Kings or Emperors for the Government of the Church or that any Controversies in Religion were determined without the Express Suffrages and Consents of Bishops and Pastors though all wayes ratified by the Soveraigntie of the Nation or State for whom such Canons were made no man until these dayes wherein we live did ever question 7. And of such as question or oppose Episcopal Authoritie in these Cases I must say as once before out of this place in like case I did If Heathen they be in heart and would perswade the Layetie again to become Heathens their Resolutions are Christian at least their conclusions are such as a good Christian living under Heathens would admit But if Christians they be in heart and profession their Conclusions are heathenish or worse For what Heathen did ever deny their Priests the chief stroke or sway in making Lawes or ordinances concerning the Rites or service of their Gods or in determining Points Controverted in Religion To conclude this Point The men that seek to be most contrary to the Romish Church and are most forward to judge her for enlarging the Prerogative of Priesthood beyond its ancient
Kiriath-jearim who for prophesying against Hicrusalem was put to death 240. years after Zechariah by Jehoiachim King of Judah and by his Council of State and of Warre and was fetcht back from Egypt whither he had fled for refuge by Elnathan the son of Achbor a great Counsellor of State and other Commissioners for this purpose unto Iehoiachim who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people And this Prophets blood and other indignities done unto him and to his Calling after his death were Required of that Present Generation of the King especially For as Ieremie perhaps taking his hint from this Bloody Fact had foretold so it came to pass that Iehoiachim was cast out of Ierusalem not into the Graves of the Common people but into the Open Fields for he had no other burial then the Burial of the Ass or other like contemptible creature But however the blood perhaps of this Prophet amongst many others was to be further Required of this Present Generation Yet Zacharias was the Last and I think the First of all the Prophets which at the moment of his death did beseech God to Require his blood and to revenge his death And this I take is the true Reason why Our Saviour after he had indicted the Jews of the blood of all the Prophets and righteous men shed from the foundation of the world should instance only in Abel the son of Adam and Zacharias the son of Iehoiada or Barachiah Christs Instance in Abel literally and punctually referres to that Dialogue betwixt God and Cain Gen. 4. 10. The Lord said unto Cain where is Abel thy Brother And he said I know not Am my brothers keeper And he said what hast thou done The voyce of thy brothers blood cryeth to me from the ground and now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy hand But did the voyce of Zacharias his blood cry in like manner unto the Lord after his death or sollicit the like Curse or vengeance upon them which shed it or their posteritie as Abels did yes besides the fore-mentioned Imprecation Lord look upon it and Require it which was uttered by him after a great part of his blood and Spirits were spent his blood spake as bad things as that of Abels For so the Iewish Rabbins besides that Cluster of seven deadly sins committed by their fore-fathers at once in the murther of Zacharias mention another Circumstance subsequent not recorded in Scripture or not so plainly as a Christian Reader without their Comment or Tradition would take notice of it which in my Opinion doth better illustrate that passage of Scripture whereon they ground or seek to countenance it then any Christian Commentator hath done Our Fathers say they in shedding Zacharias's blood did not observe the Law of the blood of the Deer or Hart For so it was commanded Levit. 17. 13. Whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel or of the strangers that so journ among you which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten he shall even pour out the blood thereof and cover it with dust But Zacharias blood though shed in the Temple was not so covered it was apparent To this purpose they allege that of the Prophet Ezekiel chap 24. 6. Wo unto the bloody City Her blood is in the middest of her she set it upon the top of a rock she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance No question but the Prophets entire purpose was to indict Jerusalem as our Saviour doth in my Text of all the Innocent blood that had been shed before his time within her Territories and withall to note her Impudence in committing such foul sins so openly without care to cover the conspicuous marks of her own shame Yet this no way argues that the Prophets did not point out some Memorable and Prodigious Fact which might serve as an Emblem of her shameless carelessness in all the rest Such Allusions to particulars sufficiently known in their own times are very usual in the Prophets This is the special Reason why their Writings in General are so obscure to us why some of their Metaphors seem harsh or farre fetcht because in truth their speeches in these Cases are not meerly Metaphorical but include Historical References to some famous Accidents present or fresh in memory From the same Cause all antient Satyrists or such as tax the capital vices of their own times are hardly understood by later Ages without the Comments of such as lived with them or not long after them as our Posterity within few years will hardly understand some passages in the Fairie Queen or in Mother Hubbards or other Tales in Chaucer better known at this day to old Courtiers then to young Students It may be these murtherers sayd of Zachariah as their posteritie said of our Saviour His blood be on us and on our Children It is not likely they would be careful to cover it with dust or wipe the stain of it whilest fresh out of the wals or stones of the Temple because they had solemnly forsaken the House of the Lord and made a league to serve Groves and Idols willing perhaps to let the Print of his blood remain to terrifie others from beeing too forward in reproving the King and His Council for their offences against God But whether the marks of it were left on purpose or through mere forgetfulness of this people God in his Providence as the Prophet intimates suffered it so to remain To cause fury to come and to take vengeance For whereas this fact or forgetfulness to cover it was in the words before attributed to Jerusalem Her blood is in the middest of her she set it up on the top of the Rock she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust The Prophet after intimation of the Cause why it so remained To cause fury c. Immediately adds in the Person of God I have set her blood upon the top of a rock that it should not be covered Of these words no meaning can be rendred more natural then This To wit That God did suffer the print of Zachariah's righteous blood to remain in the Temple as it were to sollicit vengeance for all the rest that had been or should be shed in Jerusalem to crie unto him as Abel's did from the earth which as it seems was not covered certainly the voice of it was not smothered with dust How long the stain of blood especially dashed out of the body by violence will be apparent upon stones or moist wals experience doth not often teach because it is usually covered or wiped off whilest it is fresh Yet some prints of blood have longer remained unless Domestick Traditions be false on stones then the blood it self could have done by course of
the whole Latitude of his lawful wonted liberties were to transgress the bounds of Religious discretion yea to outrage in licentiousness So heavie were the burthens which the Lord had laid upon the mothers neck that for her best born sons not to stoop at her dejection bewrayes in them a stubborn spirit of untimely ambition 2. The least quantitie of food that could be assigned was more then this people might lawfully take during the time of their solemn fasts And the meanest external contentments which Baruch at this instant could affect must needs be deemed A great matter because too much in these dayes of publick sorrow and discomfort All he sought for was to be freed from the danger disgrace and scorn of Great Ones in whom he saw matter store of Just reproof but little hope of amendment And who will be forward to procure his own harm by free speeches without probabilitie of doing others good Baruch had once adventured to read all the Woes of this Prophecie in a solemn assembly of all sorts A task which with fair pretence of conscience might easily have been avoided by him If reading the word of God as he found it penned by others might in no Case go for preaching Unless the Lord had hid them he for reading and Jeremy for indicting had been used perhaps as the Roll was wherein this burthen was written Now the Roll Jehoiakim King of Judah did cut with his penknife and after cast it into the fire till it was consumed Jeremie 36. 23. But though the paper were subject to the flame as Christs body to use Theodorets application of this Type was unto death yet the word of the Lord endures for ever And this is the word of the Lord which came to Ieremie and which Baruch was to preach after the King had burnt the Roll and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremie Take again another roll and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll which Iehoiakim the King of Iudah burnt And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim the King of Judah Thus saith the Lord Thou hast burnt this roll saying why hast thou written therein saying that the King of Babel shall certainly come and destroy this land and shall take thence both man and beast c. 3. Baruch's late persecution and hard escape for being the imprisond prophets hand and mouth in notifying the Contents of the former Rolles unto Prince and People might well make him shrink at writing or preaching this latter being purposely replenished with the addition of many like words to the former because more personally directed to Jehoiakim Out of the abundance either of grief and sorrow during the time of his Latitation from the Kings Inquisitors or out of present fear least the Tyrants rage might be inlarged against him for undertaking this second Charge imposed upon him by Jeremy or as it is likely upon both occasions did he utter those Complaints registred in the third verse of this Chapter Wo is me now for the Lord hath laid sorrow unto my sorrow I fainted in my mourning and I can find no rest But why should it grieve him not to find what the Lord had commanded him not to seek for this is the Tenor of the message which Jeremy was to deliver unto him The Lord saith thus Behold that which I have built will I destroy and that which I have planted will I pluck up even this whole Land And seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not c. 4. The sum of what I principally have or would have observed out of the words of this Text may be comprised in these Two Propositions 1. The desire of a faithful man specially of a publick Minister must alwayes be suited to the condition of the times wherein and of the parties with whom he lives 2. In times of publick calamitie or desolation the bare Donative of life and libertie is a priviledge more to be esteemed then the prerogative of Princes Or in other Terms thus Exemption from general plagues is more then a full recompense for all the grievances which attend our ministerial charge or service in denouncing them Unto the Former the truth of whose Doctrine must be the principal subject of my present meditations I shall add or annex this Useful Corollarie As the intemperate desire of myrth of pleasure or preferment in the dayes of publick Calamitie is in every private man preposterous So where the humor is general it is the usual Symptom of a forlorn or dying state or fearful sign that God hath forsaken the land and people wherein it raigneth Seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not c. What were the great things which Baruch sought Excessive pleasure wealth or honour Any positive delight more then ordinary or solace greater then could agree with his calling Any exemption from tax or trouble common to all The principal if not the only fault for which he was taxed by the Prophet was his untimely desire of ordinary ease of freedom from extraordinary and thankless pains in service distastful to the present State and therefore dangerous Did ever the austerest Founder of most superstitious strict Orders tie their Followers to a more rigid Rule then Baruch here is bound unto The Predicant or begging Frier may interpret his ministerial Commission in the strictest sense He does not ride but go as bare footed as he was born to Preach the Gospel unto every Creature under heaven unto stocks and stones as St. Francis his Father they say hath fondly taught him But unto which of them was it by Rule of Founder enjoyned Or what monkish Votary did ever voluntarily undertake to proclaim Romes final desolation in St. Peters Church in the year of Jubily Or menace downfal to red Hats and the triple Crown in the Consistory Yet all together such no easier was the task which Jeremy had enjoyned Baruch Was this Injunction then given him by way of Counsel or necessary Precept Did he super-erogate ought in undertaking Or had he not grievously sinned in refusing this necessary but hard and dangerous service Surely a Necessity not from the General Law but from the particular Circumstances of the time was laid upon him and a Woe had followed it if he had not read the Prophet Jeremies Prophecie The Scholar was not greater then his Master nor his liberty more Both their liberties were alike great yet both subordinate both subject to the diversitie of times and seasons Both were free in their persons both free in their actions and choise of life yet both absolutely bound to walk as they were called 5. Had not Jeremy as good authority as Isaiah and his fellow Prophets had to have taken a Wife of the Daughters of his people Doubtless the Law was one to Both and Matrimony alike lawful to Both What then did restrain Jeremy of that liberty which Isaiah used Nothing but instant necessitie
entertained with battel invade the borders of any Nation In such a Case t is held a point of politick husbandry to waste the Country round about them least it might maintain their Armies But heretofore I have had and elsewhere shall have occasion to decypher all the symptoms of a dying State either set down by the Word of God or observed by the expert Anatomists of former dead bodies politick 14. My message unto you my Brethren the Sons of Levi is briefly this Add not Gods anger to our Countries Curse which at this day whether just or no is bitter and rife against us as if we were all or most of us like the companions of Jesus the son of Josedech persons Prodigious but in a worse sense then they were Persons that had procured her much and did yet portend her greater sorrow partly by our Dastardly silence in good causes but especially by our prophesying for Rewards and humoring the great Dispensers of those dignities on which our unsatiable desires are now unseasonably set It was a saying amongst the Ancient Romans Qui Beneficium accipit libertatem vendit It is thus far improved in true modern English He that will purchase preferments Ecclesiastick especially must adventure to lay his soul to pawn What remedie Only this to make a virtue of necessitie For so must every one do that means to live as a Christian ought Let us not look so much upon the sinister intentions of corrupt minds as upon the purpose of our God even in mens most wicked projects And who knowes whether The Lord by acquainting us with mens bad dealings in dispensing Ecclesiastical honour do not lay the same restraint upon us his children which he did upon Baruch Without all question he absolutely forbids us to seek afer great matters in this age in that he hath cut off all hopes of attaining them by means lawfull and honest And all this he doth for our good that using Baruchs freedom or Jeremies Resolution in our ambassage we may be partakers of their Priviledge in the Great day of visitation wherein such as in the mean time crush and keep us under by their greatness will be ready to give their wealth for our poverty and change their honor for our disgrace upon condition they might but enjoy life with such libertie and contentments as we do Or in Case they shorten our dayes by vexation or oppression yet faithfully discharging our duties whether we live or die we are the Lords And though they out live us an hundred years yet shall they be willing to give a thousand yea ten thousand lives if so many they had so they might be but like us for one hour in the day of death We need not search forain Chronicles nor look far back into ancient Annales The registers of our own memories and our fathers relations may afford examples of some sons of Levi men if we rightly value their admirable worth of place and fortunes mean in respect of our selves which after their death hastned perhaps by hard usage have fild both this and forrain Lands with their good name as with a perfume sweet and precious in the nostrils of God and man whilst those great lights of state so they seemed whilst parasitical breath did blaze their fame which had condemned them to privacie and obscuritie were suddenly put out but with an everlasting Stinch God grant their successors better successe that a precious well deserved fame may long survive them For our selves Beloved as we all consort in earnest desires and hearty prayers that the Lord would renew his Covenant made with Levi his Covenant of life and peace so let us joyn hearts in this meditation The only way to derive this blessing from this our father unto us his sons must be by arraying our selves with Phineas our eldest brothers integritie by putting on his zeal and courage to walk with the Lord our God in peace and equitie and to turn many away from iniquitie And now remember them O my God that defile their Priesthood and break the Covenant of the Priesthood and of Levi Smite them through their loyns that make a prey of his possessions and grinde their heads as thou didst Abimelechs with broken milstones from the wals or with the reliques from the ruinated houses yea grinde all their heads O Lord to powder that grinde the faces of his poor and needy children But peace be upon all such as walk according to this Rule here set to Baruch and upon all those that Love God To this God The Father The Son and the holy Ghost be ascribed all honour and glory now and ever Amen Imprimatur Ric. Baylie Vicecan Oxon. The Publisher To the Readers of these two last Sermons WHo may see That this great Author was not affraid Most aculâ—atly to reprove the sins of his own Time nor is The Advertiser ashamed to set his seal to the justnesse of them by a full and true Publishing his Reproofes Let the Lord be glorified though with our shame and justified when he speaketh Judgement And to Gods glory be it spoken This word hath prospered in the thing where unto God sent it in some of the Gentrie and Clergie Yet can it not be denied but there is still too great store of matter of Reproof in the same kinde Many whose estates are sore diminished have minds still set upon Great Things what ever they have lost they find pleasure Had The Author lived to this day I am perswaded he would have gone on with The Holy Bishops complaints Perdidere tot calamitatum utilitates Pacem et divitias priorum Temporum non habent Omnia aut ablata aut imminuta sunt sola tantum vitia creverunt nihil de Prosperitate pristina reliquum nisi peccata quae prosperitatem non esse fecerunt c. These are wracks indeed To Misse the Good which may be got by suffering evil is the worst of evils To lose that gain which should be gotten by losses is of losses the greatest But to grow worse with suffering evil is perdition it self Now if any one of Prosperous condition when he reads this shall triumph and bless himself in his heart saying We have not sinned in devouring these men I beg his Pardon and beseech him to read on if he saw our faults in the last he may perhaps see his own in the next And humbly desire leave to say 1. A man may punish sin and yet inter puniendum Commit a sin greater then that be punisheth 2. In these times and among the persons promising Reformation there hath been Greater seeking after great things and that with greater Inordination too then was in former Times Our Author complained that the Baruchs of his Time sought great things by the Art of Philip of Macedon Would God my Clergy Brethren so I do esteem such and none but such as were begotten to our mother by the R. R. Fathers of the Church had not used
Actual Transgressors deceased unto the whole living Hoast and be propagated from posterity to posterity though no personal Actors It is matter of death to be meer Spectators or Idle By-standers where all are bound to take their Censers and make Atonement 8. But I have gone farre enough in this narrow Passage for Clearing the Difficulties which concern the Doctrinal part of my Text so farre that we may without the help of Perspective or spectacles discover the point where it opens it self into a wide Sea or Ocean of useful Applications for all Times Places and Persons Especially for such as sit at the Stern or are any way interested in the Government of the great Ship of State But the time will not serve me or if it did I never had list to become the States-mans Remembrancer out of the Academical Pulpit not to exhort or reprove Academicks in the Court or Presence of States-men The residue of my message for this present is to you Men Fathers and Brethren to you especially unto whom the Lord hath delegated the Government or over-sight of others including my self in the number My message shall be very brief only This That we never seek to maintain either the dignitie of our places or means of private gain or advantages by the examples or practises of our Fore-fathers or Predecessors For this would be the most compendious way by which the old wily Serpent could either lead or drive us to make up the measure of our Fore-fathers or Predecessors sins As common charitie binds us to hope the best of their estate or persons and not to speak the worst of their proceedings so True Charitie towards our own souls permits us to suppose that many things have been done so farre amisse by them as by the fore-cited Laws of God will bind us whilest we beseech him to forgive us our own sinnes so to forgive us also the sinnes of our Fore-fathers or Predecessors that if they have oppressed any by fraud or violence or by unconscionable using advantages of human Laws that he would give us Grace to deal our bread unto the hungrie to cover the naked with a garment That if they have dishonoured Gods Name by intemperance or other impure manner of living he would grant the assistance of his Grace unto our Endeavors for glorifying his Name by sanctitie of life in his sight and by integrity of conversation amongst men That if they have offended him by superstition by false doctrine or heresie he would so bless our ministerial function or other endeavors in our several Callings that we may lead others in the wayes of truth from which they have erred or caused others to erre To the C. Reader An Advertisement of the Publishers THis Great Author as may be seen Fol. 3728. and 3729. had raised Six Questions out of the Text and in the Two last past Sermons or Chapters had spoken to Four the first four of those Six Questions To the Sixth or last of them he intended not to say any thing there because he had spoken thereto in divers places of his Writings and namely in the fourteenth and fiftteenth Chapters of the seventh Book and in his First Sermon upon 2 Chronicles 6. 39. But he hath neither as yet here I mean in the two last Sermons nor elsewhere that I can referre the Reader to spoken any thing concerning the Fifth Question Which is One Reason why I subjoyn the ensuing Fragment or Appendix having something in it relating to That And that I may give the Reader a punctual Account of every particular It comes to be as a Fragment or Appendix Thus. The Author had written a very Large Tractate upon Matth. 23. 34 c. Out of this Tractate upon Occasion himself had excerpt the Two next fore-printed Sermons Leaving out such things as I esteem so will the Reader I hope very worthy to be inserted And I chuse rather to prejudice the Author by Publishing them in this way then by stifling them to deprive the Reader of the Benefit and delight of them In sum What follows in this Appendix may by easie observation be referred either 1 To our Authors Opinion declared in answering the Third Question which I confesse was New to me and may perhaps seem to others A Paradox viz. That our Saviours Transcendent Goodness so interposed That His own and His Apostles Blood was not required of them that shed it Or 2. To the Fourth Question How Fathers sins are visited upon the Children Or to the Fifth Question Is it lawful for any of Christs followers in Zacharias his Case to use the like Imprecation Lord look on it and require it Or lastly to the Sixth Question With what Intent God sent Prophets c. which is proved To be out of mercie and to recal them from sin By two very apposite Texts The One 2 Chron. 24. 19. The other 2 Chron. 36. 15. An Appendix to the two next precedent Sermons 1. VVE do not God forbid we should deny This last Generations personal offences against our Saviour to have been most heynous most meritorious of exemplary punishment in this life But I know not how it comes to pass that many Christian Writers partly by measuring the greivousness of the Jews offences amiss partly by deriving their plagues from a wrong root do nurse such security in their hearers as was in these Iews And occasion them to make up the measure of these later Jews sins as they did the measure of their fore-fathers In civil Justice we know the same abuse is much greater and more greivously punished whilest offered to an Officer though but a Petty Constable then to a meer private man greater to a Justice of Peace then to a Constable though greater to a Justice of Assise then to an ordinary Justice but Greatest of all unto the Prince himself Thus we imagine the punishment inflicted upon those Iews for their offences against our Saviour to have been so much more grievous then any punishment for the same offence against the Prophets or any Temporal Prince as Christ was greater and better then the Prophets or earthly Princes In this short Collection notwithstanding there be three grosse Inconsequences First Admitting that every degree of dignitie in the party offended as much as can be demanded brings forth a correspondent degree of excesse in the offence supposing the matter of the offence to be quoad caetera equal Yet what proportion one degree hath to another or unto what height any personal offence though against our Saviour Himself could by this reckoning amount is only possible for Infinite Wisdom to determine Secondly Admitting every personal offence against Christ to be infinite in all such as believe him to be truly God yet the Jews Case may differ because they took him to be but Man Thirdly admitting their personal offences against him to have been the most greivous sins that ever were or could be committed This will not inferre the Conclusion