to purpose as in the nature of those Symboles Figures Types and shadowes which teach and put vs in minde of things aswell spirituall and eternall as future of the which wee haue and retayne many at this time yet will I not beginne with those externall things lest peraduenture any man shoulde saye that the King is not therefore the better in the spirit nor the more acceptable to God because he is outwardly glorious no more then he is a good king that raigneth in a wealthy country or he a wise gouernour which is placed in a goodly ship or he a worthy man who weareth a faire Coate or that a perfect Steed which is arraied with a golden Saddle Solomon is a figure of Messiah But I wil aspire higher in the consideration of our king to expresse and confirme vnto you his excellency aswell before the Lord as before mortall men And namely and chiefely in that whereby it pleaseth the Lord his God that he should prefigurate and foreshew that holy Messiah whom wee do verily belieue to come into the worlde and doe daily expect But first of this most glorious Person I mean the Messiah it may please you to heare me a few words for they shal be both sweete and comfortable to the true hearted Isralites that from thence I may the better argue for the Kinges holinesse to your content To this the Princes gladly accorded The comfort of the tidings of the Messiah being most willing to heare tell of that most holy and sweete Messiah of Gods mercy promised so long ago typed shadowed prefigured and now so earnestly expected For as their is nothing more pleasing to the prisoner then to heare of his libertie more wished for to the hungry then meate more comfortable to the sicke then the comming of a cunning Phisician and more ioyfull to the condemned to death then the glad tidinges of pardon life so what should be more pleasing more desired more comfortable and more ioyfull to vs which are captiued to the Serpent starued for want of graces sicke and sore in sinne and by a iust sentence condemned to death yea to eternall death then to heare the glad tidings of the coÌ„ming of the most noble Prince the carefull pastour that faithfull Phisician and that mighty Saviour which wil as he is best able release vs refresh vs heale vs pardon and saue vs Say on therefore most reuerend Father for we long to heare of those chearefull things zadoke telleth of mans fall and misery Gen. 3. * Then hearken said he I know it is not hidden from you for Moses hath plainely written thereof in the booke Berescith and it is often read vnto you that our first Parents by the Serpentes subtiltie tooke the forbidden fruit in Paradise therein breake the commandement the paine and inconuenience thereon threatned for the same was that they should dye the death that same day Therfore it followed that they were exiled kept out from the presence of God they were wounded with the act of their transgression they were captiued in the Serpents bands they became odious to their maker they were dispoiled of all their diuine vertues they were opposed to all miseries and lastly subdued vnto ghastfull death and hell torments Lo such was the wofull condition of those our first parents Howbeit this had not beene so intollerable and grieuous vnto vs had not the effect of this transgression beene extended and propagated by nature on all Adams children and posterity but it is too true that all men are thereby holden guilty as the naughty children of like parents and as vnwholesome fruites of the same tree This David the kinges father hath considered and acknowledged Psal 51. in Mismor Ledavid Behold I was shapen in wickednes and in sinne hath my mother coÌ„ceived me yea and when the Lord looked downe from heauen he saw that all were gone out of the waye and were become abhominable and that none of them did good no not one The recovery of man by Messiah But yet seeing Iehovah our God was most willing to recouer and recure man I meane those whome he had in his loue fore knowne for his owne elected to life and appointed for his glory he did in wisedome deuise and prouide a wonderfull meane therevnto wherein his mercy striuing with his Iustice might yet in the ende conclude for Equitie by the which this man who was indged and iustly condemned should be pardoned and yet the diuine iustice not infringed How this could bee compassed by Gods wisedome and prouidence ye shall hereafter vnderstand Here let vs consider in the nature of the diuine goodnes that God is more ready to pardon and to saue then to iudge and destroy the children of his election and grace and the rather for that he loueth them hath created them in his owne image hath appointed them for his glory and would not they should be lost for euer Againe hee considered mans frailtie and pittied it he was mercifull and expressed it he was liberall and extended it he was the best father and declared his affection he was willing to saue and performed his will Therefore hee would neither suffer sin either to ouerthrow him or to raigne or to rest on him but hating and abhorring sin from his heart he did destroy the same by his grace he had compassioÌ„ on mans miserable condition therefore he little waighed yea hee forgat the iniury that man did him hee shewed himselfe ready both to satisfy for his guilt to heale his paine he was more ready to pardon man then man was to aske mercy and finally when in iustice he should and might if he would haue thrown him down into the depth of the nethermost hell he neuerthelesse after his mercy recouered him restored him to grace and raised him vp into the highest heauen And this to effect when neither angels nor powers either in heauen or earth or vnder the earth could do the deede he proposed his owne Sonne euen that most holy and eternall worde of God by whome all thinges were made Gen. 1.1 whom he appointed to deale for mans guilte to satisfy the diuine Iustice and to compasse and effect the most excellent worke of mans redemption by and in the which hee might gather and ioyne againe vnto himselfe a chaste spowsesse as vnto whome he might expresse the greatnes of his loue and continue as an husband or head to defend preserue maintaine and beautify the same for euer The obedieÌ„ce of Messiah Therevpon the Almighty was not so ready that man by this meane should be recouered but that sonne also himselfe as an earnest wower that seeketh for her whome his soule loueth was also willing obedient to doe and performe all things conuenient therein According to the which the Kinges Father did sing in his person Burnt offeringes and sacrifices for sinne thou hast not required psal 40. â—â— Then saide I Lo I come in the
God the which we must seeke by godly repentance obtaine by faithfull praier vnto God in the trust of Messiah vntill which time the Lord will neuer be perswaded to draw in his hand which is stretched forth Solomon repenteth This the King himselfe well knoweth and therefore he is humbled on the ground he bewaileth himselfe hee weepeth hee lamenteth hee abandoneth the vaine things of this world and he turneth himselfe both body and minde as in the best sort of pennance vnto his God who I doubt not but wil be mercifull vnto him as he was merciful vnto his father David when he so repented * But yet in this interim to the aggrauating of the kinges griefe it is fallen out of late whereof the King is also certified for what can be hidden from his eyes that when this fellow Ieroboham departed from Ierusalem the Prophet Ahiah the Sylonite found him in the way hauing a new garment on him and they two being alone in the field the Prophet caught that new garment and rent it in twelue peeces The Lord threatneth Solomon to punish him for sin 1. King 11. and said to Ieroboham Take vnto thee ten peeces for thus saith the Lord God of Israel behold I will rent the kingdome out of the handes of Solomon and will give ten tribes to thee and thou shall raigne according to all that my soule desireth and shalt be King over Israel Againe I will for this offence which Solomon hath committed punish the seede of David but not for ever Now the consideration of this being added to the former hath caused the kings eies to faile through weeping his bowels to swell his liuer to be powred out on the earth and himselfe to swoone in the middest of his house Neither shoulde we also in the regard of this his great sorrow and the miseries imminent on him on vs and on the people but wéepe and howle with him and repent and cry to the Lord for mercy CAP. XXII Zadoks Reede is approved and secunded touching the cause of K. Solomons trouble And it is so recorded THe former speeches being well heard considered accordingly by the Lords assembled Prince Zabud the kings familiar friend answered My Lord Zadoke I suppose ye haue fully pierced the centre and haue plainely reuealed though in secret vnto vs the highest cause of this so strange metamorphosis and alteration of the king Your words so graue and right reuerendly disposed on this occasion wee allow as wel worthie and commend your plaine manner of dealing in this matter though of such waight for howsoeuer it bee honourable to conceale the Kinges secrets as my Lorde the Kings secretarie will confesse yet in this case I hold it necessarie that those things bee manifested to vs of this assembly no lesse then it shal be needfull that the sicknesse and griefe of the languishing patient with the causes thereof bee made knowen to the faithfull Phisician who at the least howsoeuer he may be able or not able to cure the malady wil neuerthelesse extend his good wil endeuour his best and wish the patient health And out of doubt as ye haue said so may I say what I likewise haue obserued being ordinarily so neere his grace as any one els in his Court that he hath had very lately a message sent him from God containing both a sharpe reprehension and a fearefull commination The message was therefore irksome to him for who may but bash when God reprooueth him and who should not tremble at the sentence of punishment The reproofe toucheth to the quicke but the threate dawnteth the guiltie conscience for as the one argueth a displeasure for a fault committed so the other awardeth iudgement for the same But yet what the very cause thereof was I could not vnderstand vntill now for ye haue said it to be besides all other causes the high displeasure of God iustly conceiued against the King and his people for that the King hath contrary to the diuine law multiplyed wiues to himselfe in a great number that he hath also combined himselfe with strange Women yea such as are strangers in Religion to vs and that by their societie and temptations he hath beene allured and turned his hart from Iehovah his God then the which alas what can be more reprehensible horrible and fearefull * The King himselfe said Zadok will not at the least he should not dissemble this matter zadoke proceedeth to tell what the prophet said to K. Solomon for the Prophet who brought him this Embassady from God deliuered it not in a corner nor staggered he to tell it to the Kings face and that with wonderfull audacitie For so God commaunded him to doe and neither to feare nor dissemble nor conceale any thing of that he had in charge and he had his authoritie and power then from God which emboldned him Therefore the holy Prophets whom God authoriseth and sendeth forth into the world The boldnes of the prophets setting God before their eyes and their duty nothing dread the faces of mortall men in their holy ministry and seruice vnto whose aspect the greatest potentates of the earth which feare not the Lord of heauen appeare but as sauage beasts or base things that perrish howsoeuer glorious they seeme to the conceits of prophane men So the Prophet beholding the King charged him and said without feare that he had transgressed and not obserued that which first David the Kings father receiued from the Lord and had giuen him in charge to performe nor that which Iehovah his God appearing to him at two sundry times willed him to obserue keepe as he was willing to enioy and retaine his blessings bee shadowed vnder the safe wings of his protection possesse the peace both of mind and body and thenceforth prosper in his place M. Recorder ye know well where the words be recorded I pray you to turne over the Annales till yee finde the place and then let vs heare the wordes read openly before vs all that we may the better consider and compare the same with the Kings dealings Iehosophat the Recorder findeth the record of the matter in the Annales Psal 102.18 for thus must one thing bee considered with another if we thinke to vnderstand that which we desier and to effect the thing which to our duty belongeth * I am here ready said Iehosophat the Recorder and I know very wel where this matter lyeth written Oh how necessary and profitable is the true record of things in writing And this is written for them that come after that they thereof may learne to bee wise as we are taught by the writings of Moses Iosuah Samuel and others both learned godly that liued before our daies And now my Lords all hearken what I haue founde written by Nathan the Prophet in the Kinges Annales Most willingly said the Lordes therefore read on in the name of God I finde said Iehosophat that after the time Solomō
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
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
the aduersary hath beset them and battered their faith with sinne and thereby occasioned them to be beaten with the rod of men which is yet so necessary in them that fall that therefore they should not be ashamed to repent but ashamed to sinne Neither doth the king despaire of mercie * Lorde God sayd Benaiah and could it be that so wise a person should so fall May it bee lawfull for vs to inuestigate the causes of this thing Benaiah * It hath beene already sayd answered Zadok that the king was yet but a man zadok telleth the causes of the kings fall If hee had been God as hee is not he would not haue fallen in this sort Other causes of this declination in the king are knowne onely to the Lorde who wil◠hereafter I doubt not also reueale the same in the due time And yet it may be howsoeuer wee haue cleared ourselues of all heynous crimes and offences Sometimes the sinnes of the people are the cause of the trouble and plague of their princes both against God the king in those our owne conceits that the cause of the kings fall hath risen partly from some of vs partly by some thing committed in and among the people in whom are oftentimes found that which prouoketh the Lorde in displeasure to take away those blessings which in his louing mercies he had bestowed on them and so such kings and Princes by and vnder whose gouernment they haue and might haue inioyed long peace and prosperitie But for this time let vs in all sobrietie cease to search after those hidden things too curiously remembring that the king himselfe lately aduised Search not out the things which are aboue thy reach and capacitie And let vs commit this with the successe therof vnto God wha hath appointed these and all things else to succeed and come to passe by his Providence after his owne will for his glorie and the good of his chosen howsouer it appeareth vnto vs that the King hath therein offended and in whatsoeuer sorte they appeare vnto men And let vs haue a chiefe care that our Willes bee made and conformed here in earth to his will in heauen in all things Praye for the king and speake well of him * Furthermore as we be bound both by the law of God and a good conscience let vs neither forget nor omit to pray and make intercession vnto God for the King both daily and hourely and therewith both commaund excite the Congregation people to doe the like It may be the Lorde our God will heare vs and be mercifull Let vs also speake well and the best of the King euen in our priuy chambers and with him good in our hearts and so much the sooner because hee is the Lordes annointed and at this present setteth not himselfe in wickednesse nor maketh a mocke of Religion and good admonition as did Pharaoh when hee saide Who is the Lord or as those vngodly which iest and contemne correction and haue a delight in their sinnes But rather he is contented to heare to bee ruled to be reclaymed and to be directed by the wisedome of that divine Spirite as himselfe hath sayd the wise-man is wont to doe pro. 10.23 Solomon hath declared many arguments of his repētance And therein as vnto vs it appeareth hee hath expressed many arguments of a true repentant heart both in his gesture and manner of life Neither are his Sermons words and speaches to be neglected or forgotten being right worthy the noting obseruation and memorie of all men For as they sauour of the holy spirit so are they vttered with such wisedom discretion grauitie and deepe affects of the soule vpon this occasion that they doe not onely argue and declare the Kings true repentance but shall also teach instruct admonish and mooue the heartes of all Gods people to feare God and serue him with reuerence and therfore shall be right profitable for the holy Congregation and worthy preseruation for all posterities Solomons wordes and sermons are meete to bee collected and preserued Let vs therefore call those his Wordes and sermons into remembrance let vs collect and write them in a Booke and let vs after our power conserue them or some part of them in the sacred Register among other the kings wise parables Prouerbs graue sentences Prophesies and holy songs Let vs neither defraude the King of that he hath deserued nor withhold from the holy Congregation that which to the same belongeth nor appeare negligent in our dutie to bee performed to either of them And as in this wee shall serue the Lorde honour our King and benefite the Church so by those his words and sermons being thus exemplified he shall be more commended and praysed of the Saints then by the worldly glory of his Throne no lesse wise then those wise Princes Patriarks Sages Seers which are much more esteemed for their graue sayings words writings Elioreph the Notary then exalted for their great conquests and worldly riches * Then said Elioreph the kings Notarie right worthily spoken reuerend father for indeed the words of the king are such as are in all things consonant to the veritie and shall witnesse for euer the kings cōtrition and true conuersion vnto Iehovah his God after his sinne committed Moreouer they shall be preached as fruitefull and godly sermons in the Church to teach admonish exhort reforme conforme comfort instruct them that come after vs in the feare of God and the obseruation of his Lawes Eccles. 12. the which is as the King hath often and yet dayly teacheth that which chiefly appertaineth to euery man and is required of all men that liue in this world Therefore my selfe with the conuenient help of Ahia my fellow Notary and with the aduise of my Lord the kings Recorder will gladly endeuour this thing to effect In the Name of God whom we beséech to looke vpon the King and vpon his people in the aboundance of his louing mercies CAP. XXIIII Obiections and exceptions against Solomon and his words and deedes the which the Princes endeuour to defend AFter that the whole assembly of king Solomons Lords were thus disposed and agreed in counsaile that the kings Words which hee in this time of his troubled spirits and thencefoorth did vtter and speake before them should be called into remembrance considered of and kept in the holy Register among other the diuine monuments of the Church ad it in before declared Abiather Abiather the priest which sometimes had ministred before the king in the steede of Zadok stood foorth and obiected to the decree Obiections against Solomon and his words after this manner But my Lords all said hee I am much afraid of this that many in the posteritie will the lesse esteeme or at the least doubt of some other things which are noted in the holy Register when vnto the same wee shall adde and combine as of