An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters…

First, Because that Jeroboam had in the defection of these ten Tribes of Israel, set up the lowest of the people in the place of the Priests Office. Any man that desired to be a Priest though never so base and vile, Jeroboam would set him up. In the 1 of King. 12.31. there you shall find it, He made an house of high, places, and made Priests of the lowest of the people which were not of the sons of Levi; no marvel then they had not the knowledge of God amongst them. Thus it hath been in Ireland, and therefore no marvel so little knowledge of God there, any tradesman that scarce understood right reason, les• divinity, he was set up there to be a Priest, and what horrible cruelty hath been there! So in England: howsoever some of them complain of ignorant men that are in the Ministry, the truth is they have set up men of far less understanding in former times: for a little money to a Bishops Clark might not any tradesman, any cast butler from a gentleman's house, any cast servingman, might they not come into orders and read their prayers and so become a Priest? This hath been the cause of much ignorance. How many cast Servingmen have had places in doing what they can do, when as learned and godly Divines must be cast out of the Kingdom and denied to have any liberty to preach the knowledge of God unto his own people! Here is the reason of our ignorance ⟨p. 36⟩even that which was Jeroboam's sin, the letting of the lowest of the people in the Ministry; And now that there is an examination of men, we find what abundance of vile men there are in places, and those people in those places are alike to them, such Prophet such People, and the truth is people love to have it so. That which is complained of, in 2 Chron. 15.3. that for a long season Israel had been without the true God, and without a teaching Priest. This Israel includeth both Judah and Israel, for sometimes it doth so in Scripture. Israel had been (saith he) without the true God and without a teaching Priest: thi• was a sad condition indeed that Israel should be without a teaching Priest, and without the Law; And mark how they are joined, and without God; A people are without God that are without a teaching Priest, without the Law. If they have not means to instruct them in the knowledge of God they are a people without God. But now ma•k what follows upon this, ver. 5.