her husband upon other men this provokes him to jealousie and fills him with anger and indignation against her and her lovers Here God compares himselfe to such a person saying I am a jealous God which is all one in effect as if hee had said I am the Lord the Creator of all things there is no God besides me no religious or divine worship is to be given to any but to me alone and therefore whosoever gives such honour to any besides me and doth breake any of my Commandements out of feare love or other affection and respect to any creature whatsoever hee provokes me to jealousie And then what followes I will saith he visit the sinnes of the Fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that thus hate me Now the meaning of these words is not that hee will punish the innocent children for the Idolary of the Parents For hee is the righteous Judge of all the earth hee will not destroy the righteous and innocent with the wicked and the guilty Gen. 8. 25. He himselfe protesteth with an oath That the Father shall not dye for the Child nor the Child for the Father for all soules saith hee are mine the soule of the Child as well as the soule of the Father Ezek. 18. How then can this saying stand that he will visit the sinnes of the Fathers on the Children to the third and fourth generation Surely the meaning is That because men often times live to see their Children and their Childrens children to the third and fourth generation and if they be wicked Idolaters haters of the true God they are examples of evill to their Children and by exhortations commandements and examples draw such Children to commit the same sinnes and their Children are led by affection and respect of their evill wayes And hence it is that the Fathers sinnes becomes the sinnes of their children and the sinnes which the Children commit in imitation and by the perswasion of their Fathers are called the sins of the Fathers And it is no excuse of the Children that the example and their respect of their Parents did draw them to follow their wayes but the Lord in fury and jealousie will proceed against them as hatefull sinners and will visit their sinnes upon them And least any should thinke or imagine that the justice of God is not so strict in this point now under the Gospel but the rigour thereof is much remitted Wee have a most cleare testimony from the mouth of the chiefest Evangelicall Preachers and Publishers of the Gospel the holy Apostles wherewith joynt consent and one voyce they protest that they might not for feare of men nor upon the commands and threatnings of the chiefe Rulers in the Church and State of Israel transgresse the Commandement of Christ and by obeying men disobey God Acts 4. 19. and 5. 29. Yea though their preaching of the Gospel publikely in the Temple as the Angel commanded them from God Acts 5. 20. and to all the people in all publike Assemblies and their proclaiming of the Lord Christ whom Pilate by instigation of the High-priests and Elders had condemned crucified and slaine and their declaring of him to be the just and holy one of God and the Redeemer promised to the Fathers was no lesse then Scandalum Magnatum in the highest degree for hereby they brought the bloud of Christ on Pilate the Chiefe Governour of the Romans and on them the chiefe Rulers of the people and in that respect they did out of State-policie charge them and straightly command them not to preach any more in the Name of Christ as our Saviour had commanded them Matth. 28. 19. Yet Peter and the rest of the Apostles answered resolately We ought to obey God rather then you and they appealed to themselves though most unjust adversaries to judge whether it were not right so to doe And therefore it is as great a sinne now under the Gospel as it was under the Law to breake Gods Commandements for feare or any other affection or respect of men or upon the commandements and threatnings of the greatest Kings and Potentates If you will yet see this Truth made more cleare and manifest look into the examples of those severall persons and also of those multitudes of people which are noted for great sinners and were most severely punished for doing wicked acts contrary to the Law of God out of obedience to their Rulers and at the commandement of their Kings who had power and authority over them the holy Scriptures afford many examples of this kind in severall places where they commend Subjects and Children for refusing to obey their Superiours and Parents in things which they commanded against the Law of God and condemne others for obeying such wicked commandements out of Feare or for any other respect When King Saul commanded Ionathan his sonne and all his servants that they should wait for an opportunity to slay David his innocent servant and sonne in Law and Gods great and Noble Champion he had a faire pretence of State-policie for it to wit that David did steale away the hearts of his people and aspired to the Kingdome and sought to depose him and to disinherit his sonnes But because Ionathan feared God hee would not obey his Father in murthering an innocent contrary to Gods Law but used all meanes that he could devise to discover his Fathers wicked purposes to David and to reserve him out of his cruell hands and this disobeying of the word and threatnings of the King his Father commanding him to slay an innocent is highly commended in Ionathan and recorded for his praise and honour in the Holy History I Sam. 19. So likwise we read that Ionathan did ignorantly breake his Fathers rash and foolish vow before he knew it by eating honey which God unexpectedly offered to him when hee was faint and weary in his pursuit of the Phihstines whom hee and his Armour bearer had rowted and put to flight and thereby brought great deliverance to Israel and when King Saul his Father for this act done out of inuicible ignorance adjudged him to death and swore with a great oath that hee should dye the people of Israel his Subjects fearing God more then his anger did not onely abhorre the act and refuse to yeeld to his commandement which had some shew and pretence of Religion but also did stand out and oppose themselves against it and did save and rescue Ionathan out of his hands saying God forbid that Ionathan should dye As the Lord liveth there shall not one haire fall from his head to the ground for hee hath wroughe with God this day I Sam. 14. 45. Which speech of theirs implies that it had been a great sinne to slay Ionathan as Saul their King commanded or to suffer him to dye for such a cause But the most pregnant example of all is that of Doeg the Edomite Sauls chiefe Heards-man I Sam. 22. where wee read
of God If Kings and great Potentates command them under great penalties as losse of goods liberty or lives torturing imprisoning and death to make Images of God and to bow down to images and Altars of wood and stone and to practice superstitious will-worship or to do as proud and potent Nebuchadnezar commanded all his people to worship his Image under paine of burning to ashes in an hot firie Furnace Or if a law and decree were made like that which Darius made by the advice of his wicked and malicious Princes for a snare to Gods people forbidding the true worship of God It is the common opinion of self-conceited wordlings abundantly wise and politick in their own opinion that there is no danger in obeying no feare of unexcusable sin and that they who are afraid to obey such commands and to stirre their consciences with guilt of sin by breaking Gods Law are too scrupulous worthy of contempt yea that they are mad men who in such cases wil hazard their lives goods or liberty But the 3. faithfull servants of God full of the holy Spirit were of a contrary opinion and resolution as Dan. 3. Though Nebuchadnezar was a mighty Potentate and had highly promoted them to honour and dignity and the thing which he commanded was only to fall downe and worship his golden Image yet they utterly refused to doe such an act forbiden in Gods Law and did rather chuse to yeeld their bodies to death and to be burned in his hot fiery Furnace And so likewise Daniel that holy seruant of God so famous in his time for learning wisdome and favour with God he regarded not the Decree of the wicked Princes which restrained him from the worship of his God and from praing to him for the space of thirty dayes under paine of being cast into the den of Lions but notwithstanding it was confirmed by his great Lord and King Darius and sealed with his Seale he would not refraine from his constant course custom of prayer and worship of his God wich he knew to be a duety daly and continually required by the divine Law and did chuse rather to forgoe all the honours and promotions which the King had bestowed on him and to be cast into the den of Lions then to disobey Gods Commandement by obeying the Kings decree and such hath the opinion resolution and practice of all Gods noble Wortheys and faithful serevants been in all ages Wherefore let me here be bold to spend some few words in arguing against and conuincing the blind carnal wicked world and in discovering that wisdome which is commonly callen State-policy to be folly and enmity against God which I wil do very breifly by answering and taking away those foolish excuses of carnal men which are as vaine and unable to shroud and defend them from the staine of sin and Gods just wrath as the fig-leaves patched together by our first parents were unfit to cover their nakednesâ— Some when they are commanded by great Potentates cruell Tyrants to worship God in Images and in Altars of wood and stone or the like or are forbidden to professe the truth and true religion and to practice the holy worship of God that under pain of death persecution imprisonment spoyling of their goods and losse of all worldly substance they are very fâ—â—ward and earnest to plead that authority must be obeyed the powers must not be resisted and that it is no wisedome to undergoe losse of goods liberty and life for conscience and needlesse fear of breaking Gods Commandements But let me tell such pleaders that Ephraim the Israelits of the ten Tribes had as good a plea and the same excuse for their forsaking of the Covenant of the Lord for worshipping of Baal Calves Idols Groves in the daies of Ieroboam Ahab other wicked kings their Kings did comaund them so to do for a politike reason of state even to keep them from going up to worship God at Ierusalem lest by that means they might be drawne away and revolt to the house of Dauid and reunite themselves to the Kingdome of Iudah Also some of their Kings were cruell Tyrants which persecuted the true Prophets and worshippers of God and by feare of death and other great penalties forced and compelled men to commit Idolatry as we read in the dayes of Ahab and Iezabel and as appeares by Eliahs complaint unto God 1 King 19. And yet this was no excuse of the peoples Idolatry and sinne for Ephraim was oppressed and broken in judgement because hee willingly walked after Ieroboams commandement as Hosea testifieth Hos. 5. 11. And because they kept the Statutes of Omri doing the workes of the house of Ahab and walking in their counsels the Lord gives this sentence against them by the Prophet Micha That he will make their land a desolation and them an hissing and reproach Micha 6. 16. Our Saviour in the Gospel discovers to us how vaine and frivolous all such excuses will be found before his Tribunall where hee saith that whosoever loves houses lands goods or life it selfe more then him insomuch that they will rather deny and not confesse him before men then indanger or lose their life liberty or wordly goods they are not worthy to be counted his Disciples and hee will deny them in the presence of his Father and before his holy Angels and as they feared them who could kill the body only and were not able to kill the soule more then God who could destroy both soule and body in hell so they shall lose their life which they loved more then him they shall also be excluded from life eternall and so cast wholly both soules and bodies into hell into the fire which never shall be quenched and dye and perish eternally Matth. 10. 28 Mark 8. 35. Luk. 9. 24. Secondly whereas oathes are to be given and taken in truth in judgement and righteousnesse Ier. 4. 2. That is men must not sweare any false thing but onely what is true neither to raise up strife nor to doe injury or to hurt any man but to put an end to strife by laying open in judgement things as they are neither must they bind themselves by oath to doe any vain unjust or wicked against Christian charity or to execute any unlawfull office Now there are and have beene in all ages divers politick worldlings and cowardly Hypocrites who when vaine or sinfull oathes are imposed on them such as the Elders and Nobles of Iezrael imposed on the wicked men whom they set up to sweare falsely that Naboath blasphemed God and the King or such as the Iewes tooke to kill Paul Act. 23. 12. or such as Traytors take to conceale or act Treasons or as many corrupt men take to execute unlawfull offices and unjust designes which are hurtfull and injurious to divers others either in Church or Common-wealth If these oathes be imposed by men of authority who rule over them or under great
that when King Saul commanded the men of his Guard whom hee had obliged to him by many preferments and gifts as his upbraiding words in the seaventh verse seeme to imply that they should slay the Lords innocent Preists whome he out of false and unjust suspition and jelousy supposed to conspire with David against him they would not put forth their hands to fall upon them as the Text saith verse 17. and Doeg the Edomite who at the Kings Commandement slue the Preists and mangled and murthered their wives and children and innocent Sucklings and like a bloudy oppressing Tyrant spoyled their City and all their substance is by the Spirit of God in the mouth of David cursed with most dreadfull curses though hee did these things in obedience to the King his Lord upon whose favour all his preferment did depend the sentence of judgement passed upon him Psal. 52. that God would destroy him for ever pluck him out of his dwelling and root him out of the Land of the living doth most plainely shew that his Act was a most heinous sinne and wickednesse In like manner when Ieroboam commanded the Israelites who had chosen him for their King to worship God who brought them out of Aegypt in the Images of golden Calves such as Aaron had before made at Mount Horeh it is said in the Text that he made them to sinne his Commandâ—ment did not excuse them and their worship of Images neither did God spare to punish them for it but as the Prophet Hosea testifieth cap. 5. 11. Ephraim that is the Israelites of the ten Tribes was oppressed and broken in judgement because he willingly walked after the Commandement that is of Ieroboam and also of Baasha and other wicked Kings who walked in the wayes of Ieroboam and made Israel to sinne And although Omri Ahab and Iezabel were cruell Tyrants and by Statutes tyrannicall commands terrours threatnings and slaughter of the Lords Prophets teachers of Gods true worship did not onely draw but drive and force Israel their people and subjects to worship Baal yet this excused not the peoples Idolatry but the Lord threatens them by the Prophet Micha 6. 16. that because they kept the Statutes of Omri and walked in the counsels and wayes of the house of Ahab therefore hee will make the Land a desolation and an hissing and reproach and for their forsaking of Gods covenant and worshipping of Baal Idols and Groves Eliah the man of God accuseth them all as great offenders deeply guilty saying The Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant and broken downe thine Altars 1 King 19. 14. And God in his answer to Eliahs accusation exempts none from the guilt of these sinnes in all Israel but onely those seveven thousand men who had not been drawne by the terrours threatnings and cruell commands of Ahab and Iezabel to worship Baal but had kept their knees from bowing to him and their mouthes from kissing him as we see vers. 18 What man can plead more plausible for any disobedience to any Commandement of God then the man of God which came from Iudah to Bethel to prophesie against Ieroboams Altar might plead for his eating bread and drinking water in that wicked Idolatrous place contrary to Gods particular Commandement given to him First the thing forbidden was a matter in it selfe very indifferent there was no appearance of any evill in it so long as he did not eate and drinke with infectious and infamous Idolaters which might be a snare and scandall to him Secondly his resolution and endeavour to keep this Commandement was such that when King Ieroboam thankfully invited him to eate and drinke out of kindnesse for healing his withered hand he could not be overcome with any intreaty nor promise of great gifts and rewards Thirdly when he was seduced and drawne to eate and drinke in the place forbidden it was the authority of the old Prophet and his respect to his words which he confidently affirmed to be the words of God which perswaded him to returne with him and to eate bread with him and yet all this could not excuse this man of God from sinne in doing contrary to Gods Commandement given to him for God presently makes the old Prophet which deceived him a Messenger of death to declare unto him his untimely death for his disobedience and that his dead carkasse torne by a Lyon should not come to the Sepulchre of his Fathers 1 King 13. Whereby it is manifest that no power or authority of any man how fairely soever it is pretended to be from God can excuse any act done against any knowne Commandement of God though it be a Commandement of a small indifferent thing given onely to try mans obedience but whosoever upon any respect to any creature or by any perswasion doth transgresse any Precept or word of God he is guilty of sinne and worthy of death before Gods just Tribunall Sauls letters from the High-priests which gave him a Commission and authority to persecute Christians did not excuse him from sin though he did it in ignorance and blind zeale for he calls himselfe the greatest of sinners for that act of persecution 1 Tim. 1. 15. But I hold it needlesse to spend time in rehersing more examples to prove this doctrine though it is of all Doctrines the chiefest and most necessary to be beleeved continually kept in mind and observed of all Adams posterity I will onely adde one strong and invincible argument and demonstration to convince all men of the truth thereof grounded upon divers solid principles of Reason and Religion First it is a thing which none but Atheists can or will deny that when any creature stands in competition with God and seekes to bee respected and obeyed before God and to have his demands and commands yeelded unto which are contrary to the will and Law of God as he in that case seekes to rob God of his due honour and glory and to exalt himselfe above God which is Luciserian pride rebellion so they who in such a case obey him whether for feare or love or any respect and affection in a thing contrary to any Word or Commandement of God they do undobtedly rob God of his glory and of the honour which properly belongs to him for God as the Creator of all things and giver of being life and breath to all creatures severally who also upholds and preserves them all in being and well being and sustaines them by his providence so he is the chiefe Father of all worthy to be respected loved and obeyed above all other Parents and Benefactors who are but instruments of his bounty and subordinate meanes of our being and other benefits He also by the right both of Creation and also of redemption is the chiefe King Lord owner and possessor of all things in heaven and earth to whom all hearts hands wills desires and affections ought to be subject and obedient in all things and at all times Besides