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A44334 The works of Mr. Richard Hooker (that learned and judicious divine), in eight books of ecclesiastical polity compleated out of his own manuscripts, never before published : with an account of his life and death ...; Ecclesiastical polity Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600.; Gauden, John, 1605-1662.; Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; Travers, Walter, 1547 or 8-1635. Supplication made to the councel. 1666 (1666) Wing H2631; ESTC R11910 1,163,865 672

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ended their days did not yet live himself to see the Presbyters of Alexandria othewise then subject unto a Bishop So that we cannot with any truth so interpret his words as to mean that in the Church of Alexandria there had been Bishops indued with Superiority over Presbyters from St. Marks time only till the time of Heraclas and of Dionysius Wherefore that St. Ierom may receive a more probable interpretation then this We answer that generally o● Regiment by Bishops and what term of continuance it had in the Church of Alexandria it was no part of his mind to speak but to note one onely circumstance belonging to the manner of their election which circumstance is that in Alexandria they used to chuse their Bishops altogether out of the colledge of their own Presbyters and neither from abroad nor out of any other inferior order of the Clergy whereas oftentimes elsewhere the use was to chuse as well from abroad as at home as well inferior unto Presbyters as Presbyters when they saw occasion This custome saith he the Church of Alexandria did always keep till in Heraclas and Dionysius they began to do otherwise These two were the very first not chose out of their Colledge of Presbyters The drift and purpose of S. Ieroms speech doth plainly show what his meaning was for whereas some did over-extol the Office of the Deacon in the Church of Rome where Deacons being grown great through wealth challenged place above Presbyters S. Ierome to abate this insolency writing to Evagrius diminisheth by all means the Deacons estimation and lifteth up Presbyters as far as possible the truth might bear An attendant saith he upon Tables and Widows proudly to exalt himself above them at whose prayers is made the body and blood of Christ above them between whom and Bishops there was at the first for a time no difference neither in authority nor in title And whereas after schisms and contentions made it necessary that some one should be placed over them by which occasion the title of Bishop became proper unto that one yet was that one chosen out of the Presbyters as being the chiefest the highest the worthiest degree of the Clergie and not out of Deacons in which consideration also it seemeth that in Alexandria even from St. Mark to Heraclas and Dionysius Bishops there the Presbyters evermore have chosen one of themselves and not a Deacon at any time to be their Bishop Nor let any man think that Christ hath one Church in Rome and another in the rest of the world that in Rome he alloweth Deacons to be honoured above Presbyters and otherwhere will have them to be in the next degree to the Bishop If it be deemed that abroad where Bishops are poorer the Presbyters under them may be the next unto them in honour but at Rome where the Bishop hath amplereven●es the Deacons whose estate is nearest for wealth may be also for estimation the next unto him We must know that a Bishop in the meanest City is no less a Bishop then he who is seated in the greatest the countenance of a rich and the meanness of a poor estate doth make no odds between Bishops and therefore if a Presbyter at Engubium be the next in degree to a Bishop surely even at Rome it ought in reason to be so likewise and not a Deacon for wealths sake only to be above who by order should be and elsewhere is underneath a Presbyter But ye will say that according to the custom of Rome a Deacon presenteth unto the Bishop him which standeth to be ordained Presbyter and upon the Deacons testimony given concerning his fitness he receiveth at the Bishops hands Oraïnation So that in Rome the Deacon having this special preheminence the Presbyter ought there to give place unto him Wherefore is the custom of one City brought against the practice of the whole World The pancity of Deacons in the Church of Rome hath gotten the credit as unto Presbyters their multitude hath been cause of contempt Howbeit even in the Church of Rome Presbyters sit and Deacons stand an Argument as strong against the superiority of Deacons as the fore-alleadged reason doth seem for it Besides whosoever is promoted must needs be raised from a lower degree to an higher wherefore either let him which is Presbyter be made a Deacon that so the Deacon may appear to be the greater or if of Deacons Presbyters be made let them know themselves to be in regard of Deacons though below in gain yet above in Office And to the end we may understand that those Apostolical Orders are taken out of the Old Testament what Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple the same in the Church may ● Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge unto themselves This is the very drift and substance this the true construction and sense of St. Ieroms whole discourse in that Epistle Which I have therefore endeavoured the more at large to explain because no one thing is less effectual or more usual to be alledged against the antient Authority of Bishops concerning whose Government St. Ieroms own words otherwhere are sufficient to show his opinion that this Order was not only in Alexandria so ancient but even an ancient in other Churches We have before alledged his testimony touching Iames the Bishop of Ierusalem As for Bishops in other Churches on the first of the Epistle to Titus thus he speaketh Till through instinct of the devil there grew in the Church factions and among the people it began to be profest I am of Paul I of Apollos and I of Cephas Churches were governed by the common advice of Presbyters but when every one began to reckon those whom himself had baptized his own and not Christs it was decreed IN THE WHOLE WORLD that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest to whom all care of the Church should belong and so the seeds of schism be removed If it be so that by St. Ieroms own Confession this order was not then begun when people in the Apostles absence began to be divided into factions by their Teachers and to rehearse I am of Paul but that even at the very first appointment thereof was agreed upon and received throughout the world how shall a man be perswaded that the same Ierom thought it so ancient no-where saving in Alexandria one only Church of the whole world A sentence there is indeed of St. Ieroms which bring not throughly considered and weighed may cause his meaning so to be taken as if he judged Episcopal regiment to have been the Churches invention long after and not the Apostles own institution as namely when he admonisheth Bishops in this manner As therefore Presbyters do know that the custom of the Church makes them subject to the Bishop which is set over them so let Bishops know that custom rather then the truth of any Ordinance of the Lord maketh them
labouring and suing for Places and Charges in the Church is not lawful Further whereas at the suit of the Church some of your Honours entertained the Cause and brought it to a near issue that there seemed nothing to remain but the commendation of my Lord the Archbishop of Canterbury when as he could not be satisfied but by my subscribing to his late Articles and that my Answer agreeing to subscribe according to any Law and to the Statute provided in that Case but praying to be respited for subscribing to any other which I could not in Conscience do either for the Temple which otherwise he said he would not commend me to nor for any other Place in the Church did so little please my Lord Archbishop as he resolved that otherwise I should not be commended to it I had utterly here no cause of offence against Mr. Hooker whom I did in no sort esteem to have prevented or undermined me but that God disposed of me as it pleased him by such means and occasions as I have declared Moreover as I have taken no cause of offence at Mr. Hooker for being preferred so there were many Witnesses that I was glad that the place was given him hoping to live in all godly peace and comfort with him both for acquaintance and good-will which hath been between us and for some kinde of affinity in the marriage of his nearest kindred and mine Since his comming I have so carefully endeavoured to entertain all good correspondence and agreement with him as I think he himself will bear me witness of many earnest Disputations and Conferences with him about the matter the rather because that contrary to my expectation he inclined from the beginning but smally thereunto but joyned rather with such as had always opposed themselves to any good order in this Charge and made themselves to be brought indisposed to his present state and proceedings For both knowing that God's Commandement charged me with such Duty and discerning how much on peace might further the good service of God and his Church and the mutual comfort of us both I had resolved constantly to seek for Peace and though it should flye from me as I saw it did by means of some who little desired to see the good of our Church yet according to the rule of God's Word to follow after it Which being so as hereof I take God to witnesse who searcheth the heart and reins and who by his Son will judge the World both quick and dead I hope no charitable Judgement can suppose me to have stood evil-affected towards him for his Place or desirous to fall into any Controversie with him Which my resolution I pursued that whereas I discovered sundry unsound matters in his Doctrine as many of his Sermons tasted of some sour leaven or other yet thus I carried my self towards him Matters of smaller weight and so covertly discovered that no great offence to the Church was to be feared in them I wholly passed by as one that discerned nothing of them or had been unfurnished of replies for others of great moment and so openly delivered as there was just cause of fear left the Truth and Church of God should be prejudiced and perilled by it and such as the Conscience of my Duty and Calling would not suffer me altogether to pass over this was my course to deliver when I should have just cause by my Text the truth of such Doctrine as he lead otherwise taught in general speeches without touch of his Person in any sort and further at convenient opportunity to conferr with him in such points According to which determination whereas he had taught certain things concerning Predestination otherwise than the Word of God doth as it is understood by all Churches professing the Gospel and not unlike that wherewith Coranus sometimes troubled his Church I both delivered the truth of such points in a general Doctrine without any touch of him in particular and conferred with him also privately upon such Articles In which Conference I remember when I urged the consent of all Churches and good Writers against him that I knew and desired if it were otherwise What Authors he had seen of such Doctrine He answered me That his best Author was his own Reason which I wished him to take heed of as a matter standing with Christian modesty and wisdom in a Doctrine not received by the Church not to trust to his own Judgment so farr as to publish it before he had conferred with others of his Profession labouring by daily Prayer and Study to know the will of God as he did to see how they understood such Doctrine Notwithstanding he with wavering replyed That he would some other time deal more largely in the matter I wished him and prayed him not so to do for the peace of the Church which by such means might be hazarded seeing he could not but think that men who make any Couscience of their Ministerie will judge it a necessarie dutie in them to teach the truth and to convince the contrarie Another time upon like occasion of this Doctrine of his That the assurance of that we believe by the Word is not so certain as of that we perceive by sense I both taught the Doctrine otherwise namely the assurance of Faith to be greater which assured both of things above and contrarie to all sense and human understanding and dealt with him also privately upon that point According to which course of late when as he had taught That the Church of Rome is a true Church of Christ and a sanctified Church by profession of that Truth which God both revealed unto us by his Son though not a part and perfect Church and further That be doubted not but that thousands of the Fathers which lived and dyed in the Superstitions of that Church were saved because of their ignorance which excuseth them mis-alledging to that end a Text of Scripture to prove it The matter being ofset purpose openly and at large handled by him and of that moment that might prejudice the Faith of Christ encourage the ill-affected to continue still in their damnable ways and others weak in Faith to suffer themselves easily to be seduced to the destruction of their Souls I thought it my most bounden duty of God and to his Church whilst I might have opportunitie to speak with him to teach the Truth in a general speech in such points of Doctrine At which time I taught That such as dye or have died at any time in the Church of Rome holding in their ignorance that Faith which is taught in it and namely Iustification in part by Works could not be said by the Scriptures to be saved In which matter foreseeing that if I waded not warily in it I should be in danger to be reported as hath fallen out since notwithstanding to condemn all the Fathers I said directly and plainly to all mens understanding That it was not indeed to be
travels sufficiently cleared the truth no less for the Deity of the Holy Ghost then for the compleat Humanity of Christ there followed hereupon a final conclusion whereby those Controversies as also the rest which Paul●n Samosatenus Sabellius Phatinus A●tius Ennomius together with the whole swarm of pestilent Demi-Arians had from time to time stirred up since the Council of Nice were both privately first at Rome in a smaller Synod and then at Constantinople in a general famous Assembly brought to a peaceable and quiet end Sevenscore Bishops and ten agreeing in that Confession which by them set down remaineth at this present hour a part of our Church Liturgy a Memorial of their Fidelity and Zeal a soveraign preservative of Gods people from the venemous infection of Heresie Thus in Christ the verity of God and the compleat substance of man were with full agreement established throughout the World till such time as the Heresie of Nesterius broached it self Dividing Christ into two Persons the Son of God and the Son of Man the one a Person begotten of God before all Worlds the other also a Person born of the Virgin Mary and in special favor chosen to be made intire to the Son of God above all men so that whosoever will honor God must together honor Christ with whose Person God hath vouchsafed to joyn himself in so high a degree of gracious respect and favor But that the self-same Person which verily is Man should properly be God also and that by reason not of two Persons linked in Amity but of two Natures Humane and Divine conjoyned in one and the same Person the God of Glory may be said as well to have suffered death as to have raised the dead from their Graves the Son of Man as well to have made as to have redeemed the World Nestorius in no case would admit That which deceived him was want of heed to the first beginning of that admirable combination of God with Man The Word saith St. Iohn was made flesh and dwelt in us The Evangelist useth the plural number Men for Manhood us for the nature whereof we consist even as the Apostle denying the Assumption of Angelical Nature saith likewise in the plural number he took not Angels but the Seed of Abraham It pleased not the Word or Wisdom of God to take to it self some one Person amongst men for then should that one have been advanced which was assumed and no more but Wisdom to the end she might save many built her House of that Nature which is common unto all she made not this or that Man her Habitation but dwelt in us The Seeds of Herbs and Plants at the first are not in act but in possibility that which they afterwards grow to be If the Son of God had taken to himself a Man now made and already perfected it would of necessity follow that there are in Christ two Persons the one assuming and the other assumed whereas the Son of God did not assume a mans person into his own but a mans nature to his own Person and therefore took Semen the Seed of Abraham the very first original Element of our Nature before it was come to have any Personal Humane subsistence The Flesh and the Conjunction of the Flesh with God began both at one instant his making and taking to himself our flesh was but one act so that in Christ● there is no Personal subsistence but one and that from everlasting By taking onely the nature of man he still continueth one Person and changeth but the manner of his subsisting which was before in the meer glory of the Son of God and is now in the habit of our flesh For as much therefore as Christ hath no personal subsistence but one whereby we acknowledge him to have been eternally the Son of God we must of necessity apply to the Person of the Son of God even that which is spoken of Christ according to his Humane nature For example according to the flesh he was born of the Virgin Mary baptized of Iohn in the River Iordan by Pilate adjudged to die and executed by the Jews We cannot say properly that the Virgin bore or Iohn did baptize or Pilate condemn or the Jews crucifie the Nature of Man because these all are Personal Attributes his Person is the subject which receiveth them his Nature that which maketh his Person capable or apt to receive If we should say that the Person of a Man in our Saviour Christ was the subject of these things this were plainly to intrap our selves in the very snare of the Nestorians Heresie between whom and the Church of God there was no difference saving onely that Nestorius imagined in Christ as well a Personal Humane subsistence as a Divine the Church acknowledging a substance both Divine and Humane but no other Personal subsistence then Divine because the Son of God took not to himself a mans person but the nature onely of a man Christ is a Person both Divine and Humane howbeit not therefore two persons in one neither both these in one sense but a Person Divine because he is personally the Son of God Humane because he hath really the nature of the Children of Men. In Christ therefore God and Man There is saith Paschasius a twofold substance not a twofold Person because one Person distinguisheth another whereas one nature cannot in another become extinct For the Personal Being which the Son of God already had suffered not the Substance to be Personal which he took although together with the Nature which he had the Nature also which he took continueth Whereupon it followeth against Nestorius That no Person was born of the Virgin but the Son of God no Person but the Son of God baptized the Son of God condemned the Son of God and no other Person crucified which one onely point of Christian Belief The infinite north of the Son of God is the very ground of all things believed concerning Life and Salvation by that which Christ either did or suffered as Man in our behalf But for as much as St. Cyril the chiefest of those Two hundred Bishops assembled in the Council of Ephesus where the Heresie of Nestorius was condemned had in his Writings against the Arians avouched That the Word or Wisdom of God hath but one Nature which is Eternal and whereunto he assumed Flesh for the Arians were of opinion That besides Gods own Eternal Wisdom there is a Wisdom which God created before all things to the end he might thereby create all things else and that this Created Wisdom was the Word which took Flesh. Again for as much as the same Cyril had given instance in the Body and the Soul of Man no farther then onely to enforce by example against Nestorius That a visible and an invisible a mortal and an immortal Substance may united make one Person the words of Cyril were in process of time so
taken as though it had been his drift to teach That even as in us the Body and the Soul so in Christ God and Man make but one Nature Of which Error Six hundred and thirty Fathers in the Council of Chalcedon condemned Eutiches For as Nestorius teaching rightly That God and Man are distinct Natures did thereupon mis-infer That in Christ those Natures can by no conjunction make one Person so Eutiches of ●ound belief as touching their true Personal Copulation became unsound by denying the difference which still continueth between the one and the other Nature We must therefore keep warily a middle course shunning both that distraction of Persons wherein Nestorius went awry and also this latter confusion of Natures which deceived Eutiches These Natures from the moment of their first combination have been and are for ever inseparable For even when his Soul forsook the Tabernacle of his Body his Deity forsook neither Body nor Soul ● it had then could we not truly hold either that the Person of Christ was buried or that the Person of Christ did raise up it self from the dead For the Body separated from the Word can in no true sense be termed the Person of Christ nor is it true to say That the Son of God in raising up that Body did raise up himself if the Body were not both with him and of him even during the time it lay in the Sepulchre The like is also to be said of the Soul otherwise we are plainly and inevitably Nestorians The very Person of Christ therefore for ever one and the self-same was onely touching Bodily Substance concluded within the Grave his Soul onely from thence severed but by Personal Union his Deity still inseparably joyned with both 53. The sequel of which Conjunction of Natures in the Person of Christ is no abolishment of Natural Properties appertaining to either Substance no transition or transmigration thereof out of one substance into another Finally no such mutual infusion as really causeth the same Natural Operations or Properties to be made common unto both Substances but whatsoever is natural to Deity the same remaineth in Christ uncommunicated unto his Manhood and whatsoever natural to Manhood his Deity thereof is uncapable The true Properties and Operations of his Deity are To know that which is not possible for Created Natures to comprehend to be simply the highest cause of all things the Well-spring of Immortality and Life to have neither end nor beginning of days to be every where present and inclosed no where to be subject to no alteration nor passion to produce of it self those effects which cannot proceed but from infinite Majesty and Power The true Properties and Operation of his Manhood are such as Irenaus reckoneth up If Christ saith he had not taken flesh from the very Earth he would not have coveted those earthly nourishments wherewith bodies which be taken from thence are fed This was the Nature which felt hunger after long fasting was desirous of rest after travel testified compassion and love by tears groaned in heaviness and with extremity of grief even melted away it self into bloody sweats To Christ we ascribe both working of Wonders and suffering of Pains we use concerning him speeches as well of Humility as of Divine Glory but the one we apply unto that Nature which he took of the Virgin Mary the other to that which was in the beginning We may not therefore imagine that the properties of the weaker Nature have vanished with the presence of the more glorious and have been therein swallowed up as in a Gulf. We dare not in this point give ear to them who over-boldly affirm That the Nature which Christ took weak and feeble from us by being mingled with Deity became the same which Deity is that the Assumption of our Substance unto his was like the blending of a drop of Vinegar with the huge Ocean wherein although it continue still yet not with those properties which severed it hath because sithence the instant of their conjunction all distinction and difference of the one from the other is extinct and whatsoever we can now conceive of the Son of God is nothing else but meer Deity Which words are so plain and direct for Eutiches that I stand in doubt they are not his whose name they carry Sure I am they are far from truth and must of necessity give place to the better advised sentences of other men He which in himself was appointed saith Hilary a Mediator to save his Church and for performance of that Mystery of Mediation between God and Man is become God and Man doth now being but one consist of both those Natures united neither hath he through the Union of both incurred the damage or loss of either lest by being born a Man we should think he hath given over to be God or that because he continued God therefore he cannot be Man also whereas the true belief which maketh a man happy proclaimeth joyntly God and Man confesseth the Word and Flesh together Cyril more plainly His two Natures have knit themselves the one to the other and are in that nearness as uncapable of confusion as of distraction Their coherence hath not taken away the difference between them Flesh is not become God but doth still continue Flesh although it be now the Flesh of God Tea of each Substance saith Leo the Properties are all preserved and kept safe These two Natures are as causes and original Grounds of all things which Christ hath done Wherefore some things he doth as God because his Deity alone is the Well-spring from which they flow some things as Man because they issue from his meer Humane nature some things joyntly as both God and Man because both Natures concur as Principles thereunto For albeit the Properties of each Nature do cleave onely to that Nature whereof they are Properties and therefore Christ cannot naturally be as God the same which he naturally is as Man yet both Natures may very well concur unto one effect and Christ in that respect be truly said to work both as God and as Man one and the self-same thing Let us therefore set it down for a rule or principle so necessary as nothing more to the plain deciding of all doubts and questions about the Union of Natures in Christ that of both Natures there is a Co-operation often an Association always but never any Mutual Participation whereby the Properties of the one are infused into the other Which rule must serve for the better understanding of that which Damascene hath touching cross and circulatory speeches wherein there are attributed to God such things as belong to Manhood and to Man such as properly concern the Deity of Christ Jesus the cause whereof is the Association of Natures in one Subject A kinde of Mutual Commutation there is whereby those concrete Names God and Man when we speak of Christ do take
what it is to sit in the shadow of death A grieved spirit therefore is no argument of a faithless minde A third occasion of mens mis-judging themselves as if they were faithless when they are not is They fasten their cogitations upon the distrustful suggestions of the flesh whereof finding great abundance in themselves they gather thereby surely unbelief hath full dominion it hath taken plenary possession of me if I were faithful it could not be thus Not marking the motions of the Spirit and of Faith because they lye buried and over-whelmed with the contrary when notwithstanding as the blessed Apostle doth acknowledge that the Spirit groaneth and that God heareth when we do not so there is no doubt but that our Faith may have and hath her private operations secret to us yet known to him by whom they are Tell this to a man that hath a minde deceived by too hard an opinion of himself and it doth but augment his grief he hath his answer ready Will you make me think otherwise than I finde than I feel in my self I have throughly considered and exquisitely sifted all the corners of my heart and I see what there is never seek to perswade me against my knowledge I do not I know I do not believe Well to favour them a little in their weakness let that be granted which they do imagine be it that they be faithless and without belief But are they not grieved for their unbelief They are Do they not wish it might and also strive that it may be otherwise We know they do Whence commeth this but from a secret love and liking which they have of those things that are believed No man can love things which in his own opinion are not And if they think those things to be which they shew that they love when they desire to believe them then must it needs be that by desiring to believe they prove themselves true Believers For without Faith no man thinketh that things believed are Which argument all the subtilty of infernal powers will never be able to dissolve The Faith therefore of true Believers though it hath many and grievous down-falls yet doth it still continue invincible it conquereth and recovereth it self in the end The dangerous conflicts whereunto it is subject are not able to prevail against it The Prophet Habakkuk remained faithful in weakness though weak in Faith It is true such is our weak and wavering nature we have no sooner received Grace but we are ready to fall from it we have no sooner given our assent to the Law that it cannot fall but the next conceit which we are ready to embrace is that it may and that it doth fail Though we finde in our selves a most willing heart to cleave unseparably unto God even so farr as to think unfeignedly with Peter Lord I am ready to go with thee into Prison and to death yet how soon and how easily upon how small occasions are we changed if we be but a while let alone and left unto our selves The Galatians to day for their sakes which teach them the truth of Christ are content if need were to pluck out their own eyes and the next day ready to pluck out theirs which taught them The love of the Angel to the Church of Ephesus how greatly enflamed and how quickly slacked the higher we flow the nearer we are unto an ebb if men be respected as mere men according to the wonted course of their alterable inclination without the heavenly support of the Spirit Again the desire of our ghostly enemy is so incredible and his means so forcible to over-throw our Faith that whom the blessed Apostle knew betrothed and made hand-fast unto Christ to them he could not write but with great trembling I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie for I have prepared you to one Husband to present you a pure Virgin unto Christ but I fear lest at the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ. The simplicity of Faith which is in Christ taketh the naked promise of God his bare Word and on that it resteth This simplicity the Serpent laboureth continually to pervert corrupting the mind with many imaginations of repugnancy and contrariety between the promise of God and those things which sense or experience or some other fore-conceived perswasion hath imprinted The word of the promise of God unto his People is I will not leave thee nor forsake thee upon this the simplicity of Faith resteth and is not afraid of famine But mark how the subtilty of Satan did corrupt the mindes of that Rebellious generation whose Spirits were not faithful unto God They beheld the desolate state of the desart in which they were and by the wisdom of their sense concluded the promise of God to be but folly Can God prepare a Table in the Wildernesse The word of the promise to Sarah was Thou shalt bear a Son Faith is simple and doubteth not of it but Satan to corrupt this simplicity of Faith entangleth the mind of the Woman with an argument drawn from common experience to the contrary A woman that is old Sarah now to be acquainted again with forgotten passions of youth The word of the promise of God by Moses and the Prophets made the Saviour of the World so apparent unto Philip that his simplicity could conceive no other Messias than Iesus of Nazareth the Son of Ioseph But to stay Nathaniel left being invited to come and see he should also believe and so be saved the subtilty of Satan casteth a mist before his eyes putteth in his head against this the common conceived perswasion of all men concerning Nzaareth Is it possible that any good thing should come from thence this stratagem he doth use with so great dexterity that the minds of all men are so strangely bewitched with it that it bereaveth them for the time of all perceivance of that which should relieve them and be their comfort yea it taketh all remembrance from them even of things wherewith they are most familiarly acquainted The people of Israel could not be ignorant that he which led them through the Sea was able to feed them in the Des●rt but this was obliterated and put out by the sense of their present want Feeling the hand of God against them in their food they remember not his hand in the day that he delivered them from the hand of the Oppressour Sarah was not then to learn That with God all things were possible Had Nathaniel never noted how God doth chuse the base things if this World to disgrace them that are most honourably esteemed The Prophet Habakkuk knew that the promises of Grace protection and favour which God in the Law doth make unto his People do not grant them any such immunity as can free and exempt them from all chastisements he knew that as God said I will continue for ever my