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A66361 The chariot of truth wherein are contained I. a declaration against sacriledge ..., II. the grand rebellion, or, a looking-glass for rebels ..., III. the discovery of mysteries ..., IV. the rights of kings ..., V. the great vanity of every man ... / by Gryffith Williams. Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672. 1663 (1663) Wing W2663; ESTC R28391 625,671 469

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the building of his Temple by Solomon was to be Hierusalem and no where else to perform the commanded Publick Service of God under the punishment of cutting off that soul from his people that should do otherwise Yet the hour cometh and now is that is coming or beginning to come that the partition-Wall betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles shall be broken down and the bounds and borders of Gods Church and the true worshippers of God shall be inlarged and they may lawfully without offence worship God not only in Jury where God was only formerly known aright but also in all the Nations and in any Kingdom of the World so they worship him in spirit and in truth as they ought to do But here is not one syllable intimating that they should not or needed not to meet to serve God in the Publick Church but that whensoever and wheresoever in any Kingdom of the Earth they should gather themselves together in the Publick Church to worship God they should worship him in spirit and in truth otherwise their worship is to no purpose and will avail them nothing though they should do i● publickly in the Church This is the true meaning of our Saviours words 2. We have another sort of Sectaries that yield it requisite and convenient Obj. 2 for the Saints and servants of God to meet and gather themselves together for the Service of God and do acknowledg the great benefits that may accrew and be obtained in a Congregation rather than by any single person but they think there is no necessity of their meeting in a Material Church or a Steeple-house as they call it rather than in a house or a chamber or a barn or any other place where they shall appoint to meet because God hath made all places and there is no reall Sanctity in any one place more than in any other but the sanctity or holiness must be in the hearts of the men and not in the place which is not capable of any sanctity and therefore it is rather our superstition than Gods injunction to require and command men to come to such Material Churches as to the more sanctified places rather than to such private houses where these Saints do publickly meet to serve God To make a full Answer to this their Objection you must understand Sol. that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy is derived from the privative particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the Earth as if to be holy were nothing else but to be pure and clean and separated from all earthly touch And it is taken two wayes 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simply Holiness taken two wayes 1. Way 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In some respects And 1. Way God only is Holy and the Author of all Holiness and as the Blessed Virgin saith Holy is his Name And therefore those Seraphims which Esaias saw and those wonderous creatures which S. John saw did Esay 6. 3. Apoc. 4. 8. cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts three times together which we do not read of any other Attribute of God And the Lord himself in that golden Pla●e that was to be on Aarons forehead caused these words to be ingraven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness is of the Lord as Tremellius reads it or Sanctum Domino Holiness belongeth to the Lord as the Vulgar hath it 2. Way Many other things are stiled holy by communication of holiness 2. Way and receiving their holiness from this Fountain of Holiness And so 1. The Man Christ Jesus 2. The faithful Members of Christ 3. The Outward Professors of the Christian Religion 4. All things Dedicated and that have relation to God Service as Times Persons Places and Things are termed holy sanctitate relativa 1. The Man Christ is perfectly and singularly Holy as Beda saith And that 1. By reason of his Hypostatical union with the Godhead 2. By reason of the most perfect qual●ity of Holiness impressed by the Holy Ghost into his Humanity 2. The true Members of Christ are truly styled holy by reason of that holiness which the Holy Spirit of God worketh in them and they practise in their lives and conversations 3. All those that do outwardly profess the holy Religion of Jesus Christ are called Saints by the holy Apostles and so they are in respect of all Rom. 1. others that either do prophane abuse or neglect the same 4. All the things that are Consecrated by the prayers of the Bishop for the Service of God and those things that are Dedicated and given for the furtherance and maintenance of God's Worship as Lands Houses and the like are by a relative sanctity rightly termed holy things because they are separated and set apart as S. Paul saith of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for holy uses to bring men to holiness to honour serve and worship God that is Holiness it self And in this respect we say that the very ground walls windows and timber of the Material Church that are set forth Dedicated and Consecrated for God's Service are holy things not by any inherent reall sanctity infused into them but by a relative holiness ascribed and appropriated unto them by their Dedication and Consecration for God's Worship which makes them more holy and so to be deemed than all other earthly things whatsoever And though I will not lose my time and waste my paper to shew the folly and vanity of that ridiculous deduction of the Confuter of Will. Apollonius Grallae pag 29. in the 29. page of his Grallae against secondary or dependent holiness yet I will justifie the holiness and religious reverence that we owe and should render unto all the Material Churches that are Consecrated for Divine-Service against all prophaners of them Independents and Fanaticks whatsoever And for the satisfaction of every good and sober man that is not drunk with a prejudicate conceit against God's House I shall desire him to look into 2 Chron. 3. 1. and chap. 6. where he may find the Consecration of God's House and the prayer that Solomon made at the Consecration of it and the benefits the manifold benefits that they should reap which served God in that House And if he reads over that Chapter at his leisure and read it often and then seriously consider it and withal remember that of this House and the like Consecrated places that are Dedicated for God's Worship the Lord himself saith My House shall be Esay 56. 7. Matth. 21. 1● Jerem. 7. 10. Psal 132. 15. called the House of prayer for all people and our Saviour Christ confirmeth the same that the Church which is the Publick place or place of Publick Prayers is rightly called the House of God and the House which is called by his Name and of which he saith This shall be my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have a delight therein Will he not confess that Gods House
keep and look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God which is as God himself expoundeth the meaning thereof unto Moses saying Put off thy shooes from thy Exod. 3. feet that is to make clean thy waies and bring no filth nor any carnall affections nor worldly desires into the House of God because The place whereon thou standest is Holy ground that is by reason of Gods gracious and speciall presence in that place where Moses stood and where God is prayed unto and praised by the Minister and Worshipped by the rest of his faithfull servants And if any man desires fuller proofs of this truth I refer him to Cardinall Bellarmin and to that excellent and Learned Sermon of Master Mede upon the 1 Cor. 11. 22. Yet I deny not but the prime Primitive Christians and the Church The prime primitive Christians had no stately Churches and why which was at Jerusalem and received that Religion that is the Faith of Christ which the Scribes and Pharisees and their laws did not allow of were constrained many times to hide their heads in desolate places and were inforced by stealth to exercise and discharge the duties of their profession in vaults and private houses where they might be most safe though the places were not sutable to their service the swords of their enemies were so sore against them But at length between times by sufferance and connivency and sometimes through favour and protection they began to be imboldened and to reare up Oratories and Churches though but simple and of mean aspect because the estates of most of them were but mean and very low as S. Paul sheweth Not many Rich not many Noble are called which was indeed a 1 Cor. 1. 26. good way to suppress the danger of malignity that looks not so much after poor estates and a good way to increase their number and propagate their design with more safety And as by this means the Church began to take root and to grow stronger and the wealthier nobler and wiser men began to be in love with the Christian Religion So then they loved nothing more than to build Churches answerable for their beauty to the d●gnity of How zealously the fi●st Christians were affected how bountifully they contributed towards the building of their Churches their Religion and for their greatness to the number of their Professors And the devotion of these Christians was so large and did so liberally contribute towards the erecting of their Churches as the Israelites in the dayes of Bezaliel did chearfully present their Gifts and Free-will-offerings towards the setting up of the Tabernacle no man was backward and no man a niggard in this work which they conceived to be so profitable and so necessary for them to do and that in two special respects 1. The good that is effected 2. The evils that are prevented by the publick meeting of the people in these Churches 1. The meeting of the Congregation publickly in a lawful place and a The double benefit that we reap by our coming to the Publick meeting in the Church 1. Benefit consecrated Church assures them they offend not the Laws either of God or man and so secures them from all blame and prevents the occasion to traduce and to suspect the lawfulnesse of the holy Duties that we perform when as Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth and the performance of just things and holy actions need not run and hide themselves in private hidden and unlawful places but may shew themselves and appear so publickly as they might not be subject to any the least unjust imputation 2. The meeting in a publick consecrated Church and not in a private 2. Benefit Conventicle escapes those dangerous plots and machinations that are very often invented and contrived in those Conventicles that are vailed for that purpose under the mantle and pretence of Religion And it freeth the comers unto the Church from those seditious Doctrines and damnable Divinity which the Sectaries and Hereticks do scatter and broach in those unlawful Conventicles which are the fittest places for them to effect their wicked purpose and must needs be sinful and offend both God and man because they are contrary to the Laws both of God and man Whenas the coming unto the Church quits my conscience from all fear of offending because that herein I do obey and do agreeable to the Laws both of God and man And who then that hath any dram of wit would not avoid private and forbidden meetings and go to serve God unto the publick Church which is the House of God erected and dedicated for his Service CHAP. X. The Answer to the Two Objections that the Fanatick-Sectaries do make 1. Against the Necessity And 2ly against the Sanctity or Holiness of our Material Churches which in derision and contemptuously they call Steeple houses ANd yet for all this and all that we can say for the Church of God I find Four sorts of Objections that are made by our Fanaticks and 4 Sorts of Objections against our Material Churches Skenimastices against our Material Churches As 1. Against the Necessity 2. Against the Sanctity 3. Against the Beauty Glory 4. Against the impurity Impiety of them 1. They do object there is no Necessity of any Material House or Church 1. Objection against the necessity that we have no need of Churches of God for his servants to meet in to serve God because the woman of Samaria discoursing with Christ about the place where God would be worshipped Whether in that Mountain where the Fathers worshipped or in Hierusalem which as the Jews said was the place where men ought to worship Our Saviour tells her plainly They worshipped they knew not what for the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet in Hierusalem worship the Father but the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth because God is a Spirit and they that worship John 4. 20 23. him must worship him in Spirit and in truth and such worshippers the Father seeks and such he loves And therefore so we have clean hearts and pure consciences and worship God with our souls and spirits faithfully to pray unto him and to praise his Name it is no matter for the place where we do it in a Church or in a Barn because God looks rather to the inward heart than to the outward place where we stand To this I answer Maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum and our Saviours Sol. words gives them no colour to extort such consequences and to draw such conclusions from them for the words are plain enough that although formerly before Moses his time Jacob had a Well near Sichar and he with the other Fathers worshipped God in that Mountain and afterwards God required them to worship him in the place that he should chuse to put his Name there which after the time of David and
was in Saint Bernard who saith If all the world should conspire against me to make me complet any thing against the Kings Majesty yet I would fear God and not dare to offend the King ordained of God I might fill a Volume if I would collect the testimonies of our best Serenissimus Rex Jacobus de vera lege liber● Monarchiae Writers I will adde but one of a most excellent King our late King James of ever blessed memory for he saith The improbity or fault of the Governour ought not to subject the King to them over whom he is appointed Judge by God for if it be not lawful for a private man to prosecute the injury that is offered unto him against his private adversary when God hath committed the sword of vengeance onely to the Magistrate how much l●sse lawful is it think you either for all the people or for some of them to usurp the sword whereof they have no right against the publique Magistrate to whom alone it is committed by God This hath been the Doctrine of all the Learned of all the Saints of The obedient example ●f the Martyrs in the time of Queen Mary God of all the Martyrs of Jesus Christ and therefore not onely they that suffered in the first Persecutions under Heathen Tyrants but also they that of late lived under Queen Mary and were compelled to un dergoe most exquisite torments without number and beyond measure yet none of them either in his former life or when he was brought to his execution did either despise her cruell Majesty or yet curse this Tyrant-Queen that made such havock of the Church of Christ and causelesly spilt so much innocent blood but being true Saints they feared God and honoured her and in all obedience to her auth●rity they yielded their estates and goods to be spoyled their liberties to be infringed and their bodies to be imprisoned abused and burned as oblations unto God rather then contrary to the command of their Master Christ they would give so much allowance unto their consciences as for the preservation of their lives to make any shew of resistance against their most bloody Persecutors whom they knew to have their authority from that bloody yet their lawful Queen And therefore I hope it is apparent unto all men that have their eyes Numb 24. 15. Gen. 19. 11. open and will not with Balaam most wilfully deceive themselves or with the Sodomites grope for the wall at noon-day that by the Law of God by the example of all Saints by the rule of honesty and by all other equitable considerations it is not lawfull for any man or any degree or sort of men Magistrates Peers Parliaments Popes or whatsoever The conclusion of the whole you please to call them to give so much liberty unto their misguided consciences and so farre to follow the desires of their unruly affections as for any cause or under any pretence to withstand Gods Vice-gerent and with violence to make warre against their lawful King or indeed in the least degree and lowest manner to offer any indignity either in thought word or deed either to Moses our King or to Aaron our High Priest that hath the care and charge of our souls or to any other of those subordinate callings that are lawfully sent by them to discharge those offices wherewith they are intrusted This is the truth of God and so acknowledged by all good men And what Preachers teach the contrary I dare boldly affirm it in the name of God that they are the incendiaries of Hell and deserve rather with Corah to be consumed with fire from Heaven then to be believed by any man on Earth CHAP. X. Sheweth the impudencie of the Anti-Cavalier How the R●bels deny they warre against the King An unanswerable Argument to presse obedience A further discussion whether for our Liberty Religion or Laws we may resist our Kings and a pathetical disswasion from Rebellion I Could insert here abundant more both of the Ancient and Modern Writers that do with invincible Arguments confirm this truth But the Anti-Cavalier would perswade the world that all those learned Fathers Anti Cavalier p. 17 18 c. and those constant Martyrs that spent their purest blood to preserve the purity of religion unto us did either belye their own strength * Yet Tertul. Cypr. whom I quoted before and R●ffi● hist Eccles l. 2. c. 1. and S. August in Psal 124. and others avouch the Christians were far stronger then their enemies and the greatest part of Julians army were Christians or befool themselves with the undue desire of over-valued Martyrdome but now they are instructed by a better spirit they have clearer illuminations to inform them to resist if they have strength the best and most lawful authority that shall either oppose or not consent unto them thus they throw dirt in the Fathers face and dishonour that glorious company and noble army of Martyrs which our Church confesseth praiseth God and therefore no wonder that they will warre against Gods annointed here on Earth when they dare thus dishonour and abuse his Saints that raign in Heaven but I hope the world will believe that those holy Saints were as honest men and those worthy Martyrs that so willingly sacrificed their lives in defence of truth could as well testifie the truth and be as well informed of the truth as these seditious spirits that spend all their breath to raise arms against their Prince and to spill so much blood of the most faithful subjects But though the authority of the best Authours is of no authority with them that will believe none but themselves yet I would wish all other men to read that Homily of the Church of England where it is said that God did never long prosper rebellious subjects against their Prince were they never so great in authority or so many in number yea were they never so noble so many so stout so witty and politique but alwayes they came by the overthrow and to a shameful end Yea though they pretend the redresse of the Common wealth which rebellion of all other mischiefs doth most destroy or reformation of religion whereas rebellion is most against The Homily against rebellion p. 390. 301. all true religion yet the speedy overthrow of all Rebels sheweth that God alloweth neither the dignity of any person nor the multitude of any people nor the weight of any cause as sufficient for the which the subjects may move rebellion against their Princes and I would to God that every subject would read over all the six parts of that Homily against wilful rebellion for there are many excellent passages in it which being diligently read and seriously weighed would work upon every honest heart never to rebell against their lawful Prince And therefore the Lawes of all Lands being so plain to pronounce them Traytors that take arms against their Kings as you may see in
Statute 25 Hen. 8. Ob. But then it may be demanded if this be so that the Laity hath no right Ob. in making Lawes and Decrees for the government of God's Church but that it belongs wh●lly un●o the King to do it with the advice of his Bishops and the rest of his Clergy then how came the Parliament to annul those Canons that were so made by the King and Clergy because they had no vote nor consent in confirming of them Sol. Truely I cannot answer to this Objection unless I should tell you what Sol. the Poet saith Dum furor in cursu currenti cede furori D●fficiles aditus impetus omnis habet They we●e furiously bent against them and you know furor arma ministrat dum regnant arma ●lent leges all Lawes must slee● while Armes prevaile besides you may finde those Canons as if they had been prophetically made fore-saw the increasing strength of Anabaptisme Brownisme Puritanisme most likely to subvert true Protestantisme and therefore were as equally directed against these Sectaries of the left hand as against the Papists on the right hand and I think the whole Kingdom now findes and feels the strength of that virulent ●action and therefore what wonder that they should seek to break all those Canons to pieces and batter them down with their mighty Ordinances for seeking to ●ubdue their invincible errours or else because as they say the E●clesi●stical State is not an independent society but a member of the whole the Parliament ●●s not so to be excluded as that their advice and approbation should not be required to make them obligatory to the rest of the Subjects of the whole Kingdom which claim this priviledge to be tyed to the observation of no humane Lawes that themselves by their representatives have not consented unto 2. As the King is intrusted by God to make Lawes for the government of 2. To grant dispensations of his own Lawes the Church of Christ so it is a rule without question that ejus est dispensare absolvere ●njus est condere he hath the like power to dispense with whom he pleaseth and to absolve him that transgresseth as he hath to oblige them therefore our Church being for reformation the most famous throughout all the parts of the Christian world and our King having so just an authority to do the same it is a most impudent scandal full of all malice and ignorance not to be endured by any well affected Christian that the new brood of the old Anabaptists do lay upon our Church and State that they did ve●y unreasonably and unconscionably by their Lawes grant Dispensations both for Pluralities and Non-residency onely to further the corrupt desires of some few to the The scandals of the malicious ignorants against the worthier clergy infinite wrong of the whole Clergy besides the hazard of many thousands of souls the intolerable dishonour of Gods truth and the exceeding disadvantage of Christ his Church for seeing God hath principally committed and primarily commended the care of his Church and service unto Kings who are therefore to make Laws and Orders for the well governing of the same I shall make it most evident that they may as they have ever done most lawfully and more beneficially both for Gods Church and also for the Common wealth do these three things 1. To grant that grace and favour unto their Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Three special points handled persons as to admit them of their counsel and to undertake secular authority and civil jurisdiction 2. To allow dispensations of Pluralities and Non-residency which they may most justly and most wisely do without any transgression of the Law of God 3. To give tolerations where they see cause of many things prohibited by their Law to dispence with the transgressions and to remit the fault of the transgressours For 1. Though the world relapsed from the true light and declined from the sincere 1 Point Religion to most detestable superstition yet there remained in the people certain impressions of the divine truth that there was a GOD and that this The great respect of the Clergy in former ages Saravia l. 2. c. 2. p. 103. 1. Among the Gentiles Osor p. 231. De tota Syria Palestina refert Dion l. 37. quòd rex summi Pontificis nomen habeat Strabolib 2 Apud Tertul. advers Valent. Hermetem legimus appellari M●x sacerdotem maximum regem Cicero l. 2. de legibus Diotogenes apud S●ob●d cit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aethiope● reges suos del gebant er numero sacerdotum Diodor l 3. c. 1. Titus Vespas Pontificatum maximum i●ed sese professus est accipere ut puras servaret manus Sueton i● Tito cap. 9. In Aritia regnum erat concretum cum sicerdotio D●anae ut inn●it Ovid De arte amandi lib. 1. Ecce suburbanae templum nemorale Dianae Par●áq●e per g●adios regna nocente manu Strabo lib. 5. God was religiously to be worshipped and those men that taught the worship of that God how fowly soever they did mistake it were had in singular account and supereminent authority among all Nations and as Saravia saith they were compeers with Kings in their Government so that nothing was done without their counsel and consent and as Theseus was the first that Cives Atticos è pagis in u●bem compulit and put the difference betwixt Nobles Husbandmen and Artificers so the Priests were always selected out of the noblest families and were ever in all their publick counsels as the Divines sate among the Athenians and the South-sayers sate with the King among the Lacedemonians in all their weightiest consultations and Strabo tells us that the Priests of Bellona which were in Pontus and Cappadocia for that Goddess was honoured in both places were regarded with the greatest honour next to the King himself and the Romans that were both wealthy warlike and wise did almost nothing without the advice and counsel of their Priests I will omit what Valerius Maximus setteth down of their care of Religion and their great respect unto their Priests and religious persons and I will refer you onely to what Tully writeth of this point where he saith that the greatest and worthiest thing in their Common-wealth was the priviledge and preheminence of the Divines which was joyned with the greatest authority for they dismissed the companies and the Councels of the chiefest Empires and the greatest Potentates when they were proposed they restrayned them when they were concluded they ceased from the affaires which they had in hand if but one Divine did say the contrary they appointed that the Consuls should depose themselves from their Magistracy and it was in their intire power either to give leave or not to give leave to deale with the people or not to deal to repeal Laws not lawfully made and to suffer nothing to be done by the Magistrate in peace or war without
time here how their dayes do pass away like a Weavers shuttle or like a Post that ●arrieth no● will alwaies be such a corrasive to their Souls as will put an end to all their earthly Comforts whenas nothing in the world is left us to rejoyce in but in that thing only which is perpetual and remaineth ours for ever But then here you must understand that besides the prime Eternity which is God there is a twofold perpetuity of men 1. The one by our Unition with God which is perfect felicity That all men both good and bad shall remain and be perp●tually 2. The other in our Separation from God which is the Extreamest Misery And Seeing the Souls of men are immortal and do naturally affect Eternity as not only Divinity sheweth but also the soundest Philosophers have sufficiently attested and every mans Conscience in the expectation of his reward for his Actions be they good or bad perswadeth him to believe it is most certain that those wicked worldlings which desire nothing but the Honours and the Prosperity of this present Life and those incredulous Hereticks both of the former times and of this present Age which against their Consciences do withstand this Truth shall notwithstanding be perpetu●l either in their Union with God or in their Separation from God and as it is the greatest Comfort of a Christian man to believe that he shall be everlastingly with God in all happiness so it is not the least torment unto a damned soul to consider that he shall be for ever and ever in Torments separated from God And therefore the Errour is not that men do seek for perpetuity which they shall be sure to have but that they seek the same amiss Either not that which is with their Union and Fruition of God or if that then either not as they should or not where they should seek it that is either not in The twofold erro● of men in seeking perpetuity 1. Seeking it too late the due time or not in the right place where it may be found as 1. For the time many seek it but too late and so they miss it because that now is the time acceptable ex hoc momento pendet aeternitas and our perpetuity either with God or without God either in Joy or in Torments dependeth upon our demeanour in this present and little short time that we have here to live 2. For the Place you may see how most men purchase Lands build Castles gather Riches heap up Treasures and so lay down such Foundations of perpetuity 2. Seeking it in the wrong place here on earth as if they were to live here for ever and they do so rely upon these transient things and mortal men as if they were immortal Gods and so they seek for their perpetu●●y in the Regions of Vanity and they would find perfect Felicity in this Valley of Misery but as the Israelites by joyning themselves to Baal-peor separated themselves from El shadai the Almighty God so these men by seeking Eternity in these vanities shall never be able to find it and to be united with it because Eternity and Felicity are not to be found here on earth For as the Apostle saith we have here no continuing City and we are but as Pilgrims and strangers here in this world and our perpetuity is to be expected not in this life but in the life to come And so by this large Introduction that I have made you see that these words of the Prophet are not to be understood of man simply considered but of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of his State and Condition in this life for though man be to abide for ever yet as he is in this life verily every man And to prove this unto you you shall find the wisest King and the most learned Preacher that ever Israel had assuring you that there is nothing here in this world but vanity and ve●ation of Spirit and that you might the sooner believe this Truth he doubleth and trebleth his words saying Vanity of Vaniti●s all is Vanity that is nothing else but meer vanity And lest proud man should think that this is meant of Gold and Silver and the like inanimate things of this world or of the irrational Creatures whose Souls do perish with their bodies and not of man which is the Prince and Lord of all Gods Creatures the Glory of all Gods works and the Image of God himself the Prophet David that was both a great King and a great Prophet tels you plai●ly that you need not doubt of it Verily every man living is altogether Vanity Sela. Touching which words I beseech you to consider of this Text. 1. The va●ious Lections Two things to be considered about these words 2. The chiefest Observations 1. For the diversity of Reading it 1. The diversity of reading them 1 Word The first word according to the Septuagint is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which S. Hierons translateth ●nim For as the Cause of the brevity and shortness of mans life that it should be but a span long as the phrase signifieth pal●ares fecisti dies meos because every man is vanity therefore my life is so short Others as Tremelius do render it profecto or certe surely or verily that we might assure out selves and make no doubt of the truth and certainty of this point that every man be he what he will never so strong never so wise and never so wealthy yet is he but vanity But others would have both the Hebrew word and the Greek Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie solum sive tantum duntaxat only as if the Prophet meant that of all Gods Creatures only man or man alone is the receptacle of all vanity and besides man there is nothing else wherein the signs of all vanity are to be found so evidently as they are in man because nothing in the world hath so far deviated and started away from the end for which it was appointed as man hath done whenas all other creatures stand according to Gods Ordinance the Stars keep their m●tions the Moon observeth her Seasons and the Sun knoweth his going down only man knoweth not his duty and so Esayas testifieth The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel hath not known my people doth not consider Es 1. 3. and therefore only man deserv●dly and signally is vanity The second word which is used in the Original is Chol and it is a word of both Numbers and of all Genders and the Sept●agint read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which S. Jer●me 2 Word translateth omnia all the vulgar Latine renders it universa and Tremelius reads it omnimod● and if I rightly understand them they all mean that man is all 〈◊〉 of vanity and that there is no vanity in the world and no foolery in the world but you shall find the same in man The third