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Whether Gentlemen have been more beholding un∣to Divines, or Men in Or∣ders, or Divines more be∣holding unto Gentlemen, or such as have not been in Orders, for the know∣ledge which we have of the Commonwealth of the Hebrews? or who of each sort have written best upon that Subject?
COmparisons being Odious, I onely say, Divines have cause to give learned Gentlemen their due, and thanke for their labours, but also cause to complain when they are too bold with holy things: not onely with the Commonwealth of the Hebrews, the Forme that God then appointed, but also with the Government of the Christian Church, the form and fun∣ctions left by Christ and his Apostles, according to which the Church acted three hundred years before the Civil power became Christian.
DIvines have cause to com∣plain when Gentlemen are too bold with holy things, as with the Commonwealth of the He∣brews; but if you ask, who of each sort have written best upon this Subject, Comparisons aae odious; here you can be modest; for no body hath written in this kind, but Carolus Sigonius, Buxtorfius, Cornelius Bertramus, Hugo Grotius, Selden and Cunaeus, all which were Gentlemen, or such as were not in Orders. Nor can it be gathe∣red from any thing now extant, that any Divine understood this Government. But if Divines can∣not deal with this Government and Gentlemen may not, how should it be known? or if Di∣vines understand not this, why do they meddle with others?