Argument is taken from the evil of punishment that is incurr'd by disobeying They that resist shall receive to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.2 judgment or as we render it damnation i. e. according to the ordinary course of Gods Providence they shall receive some grievous punishment here in this World Prov. 17.11.24.22 A cruel Messenger shall be sent against them and their destruction shall come suddainly God for the most part being more quick and more severe in revenging those Injuries and Indignities that are offered to his Deputies his Lieutenants his Vicegerents here on earth than those greater and more hainous crimes that are committed more immediately against Himself He has declared it to be his will Deut. 17.12 13. that if any man will do presumptuously and will not hearken to the Priest and to the Judge that man shall die and so evil shall be put away from Israel and so the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously We now live in an Age when 't is scarce thought to be a sin not to hearken to the Judge or to the Priest but you see how God accounts it and what provision he has made for such sinners even temporal destruction that man shall die i e. he ought to be put to death And since God has declared it to be sin he that dies in it without repentance shall in the world to come suffer death everlasting that 's the full import of the phrase They shall receive to themselves damnation An instance whereof we have in Corah and his Complices who for their stubborn and seditious carriage towards Moses and Aaron Num. 16.30 Psal 55.15 went down quick into Hell 5. A fifth Argument is taken from the end for which Magistracy was ordained viz. the benefit of Humane Society the good of all Mankind that by an equal distribution of rewards and punishments Peace may be preserved Mens rights defended Religion protected Vertue incouraged and Vice supprest This is what 's contained in the two Verses next immediately preceding my Text Now from all these several reasons we have here the Apostles conclusion in my Text That Subjection to Authority is the Christians Duty All these things considered we must needs be subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a necessity of being subject The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies to be subordinate It extends both to the State of Subjection and to the exercise of the Subjects Duty as St. Chrysostom well observes And as to Duty it includes whatsoever Duty or Service may be challenged by Superiours at the hands of Inferiours It is required that we observe the order wherein God has set us and that we walk orderly that we keep to the station of Subjects and that we do as does belong to Subjects But to speak more distinctly these particular Duties are included in this general In the first place 1. Being a Subject to keep the rank of a Subject to be content with our own station cheerfully to submit our selves to that state and condition of life to which God in his good pleasure has designed and appointed us Phil. 4 11. I have learnt says holy Paul in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content 1 Cor. 7. And Let every man abide in that calling wherein he is called with God says the same Apostle two or three times in one Chapter The better to understand his meaning there you may do well to observe that the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1.3 being as yet but Carnal as the Apostle tells them having generally more of the Flesh than of the Spirit more of lgnorance and Corruption than of Grace and Knowledge mistook their Christian Calling to be an exemption from the Duties of other Callings as if their Liberty in Christ Jesus had cancelled all precedent Obligations both of nature and voluntary agreement 'T is that which I intimated before in the entrance of this Discourse The Husband would put away his Wife the Wife reject her Husband Children disrespect their Parents Servants disregard their Masters and themselves become too masterly In a word all persons of what rank or condition soever were apt to break the bonds of those relations in which they stood obliged one to another all under this pretence and on this ground that Christ by the introduction of his Gospel and their reception of it had made them free Now in this passage the holy Apostle St. Paul does designedly correct this errour principally indeed and as the present Argument led him in the particular of Marriage but with a further and more universal extent to all states and conditions of life The sum of what he says is this that they who are any way related unto others notwithstanding that they are Christians must still own their relations and continue to perform all Offices suitable though the persons to whom they bear those relations are meer Pagans Infidels Heathens and Unbelievers The Wife must be contented with the condition of a Wife and as a Wife she must behave her self to her Husband though an Infidel The Servant must content himself with the condition of a Servant and as a Servant must behave himself towards his Master though an Unbeliever And in like manner a Subject must content himself with the condition of a Subject and as a Subject must behave himself towards his Sovereign though a Pagan though a Tyrant though a Persecutor the relation which they had to Christ being not designed to weaken and make void but to strengthen those relations in which they stood obliged one to another whether natural or induced by contract and agreement The general Rule to this purpose he conceives in form of an Exhortation That every person whatsoever notwithstanding that relation which he bears to Christ and the freedom which he has by him should abide in that station wherein God has placed him keep himself within the bounds and limits thereof and with a quiet and religious care cheerfully and contentedly undergo the Duties that pertain thereto 1 Cor. 7.17 In few words As God has distributed to every man and as he has called every man so let him walk And for fear lest his Exhortation to this purpose being unsuitable to what they were very much inclined to might be less heeded than 't was necessary it should that he might recommend it so much the more both to their observation and practice he does inforce it a second time 1 Cor. 7.20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called And again once more Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God 1 Cor. 7.24 This the Learned and most Judicious Dr. Sanderson has observed to be the scope and drift of the place and the design of all these several Instructions Precepts or Exhortations You have the like Precept from the Apostle elsewhere Study to be quiet and meddle with your own business
A SERMON Preached at Reading Feb. 25. 1672. AT THE ASSIZES There holden for the County of BERKS Before the Right Honourable Sir EDWARD TVRNER Knight and Baronet Lord Chief Baron And Sir EDWARD THURLAND Knight One of the Barons of His Majesties Court of Exchequer By JOSEPH SAYER B. D. Rector of NEWBVRY LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls MDCLXXIII Rom. 13. part of the 5th Verse Wherefore ye must needs be Subject IT was not without great cause that the first Preachers of the Gospel viz. the blessed Apostles did insist so very much upon and did press with so much earnestness the Inferiours duty to his Superiour For they having preached a liberty in Christ Jesus some licentious Spirits began thereupon to think themselves free from all acts of service and obedience to their Governours thus abusing their Christian freedom to the great scandal and reproach of the Christian Faith by making it a pretence for the flesh Hence the Apostle St. Peter gives a large Exhortation in these words 1 Pet. 2.12 13 14 15 16. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well that in so doing you may have your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may by your good works which they shall see glorifie God in the day of visitation For so is the will of God that by well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God In which words the Apostle plainly insinuates that there is no such inconsistency between the Magistrates Authority and our Christian Liberty as some might think there was That they might yea and ought to maintain the one and yet withal submit to the other That it were a shameful abuse of our Liberty and a very great dishonour to our Christian Profession under pretence of being Christians to refuse to do the duty of Subjects That Christ meant not to erect a Kingdom that should destroy or but disturb the Kingdoms of this World but to confirm them rather by injoyning Obedience upon stricter obligations and severer penalties than were formerly thought of such as are the declared will and pleasure of Almighty God under the penalty of his eternal wrath and damnation That the Liberty to which he calls the Subjects of his spiritual Kingdom is a Liberty like his Kingdom 't is a spiritual not a sensual freedom 't is a freedom to serve God not a freedom from the service of men That Christians as being all spiritual Kings are to rule over their own lusts and not live according to their lusts denying Subjection and Obedience unto Temporal Princes for that were to make their Liberty become a cloak for their maliciousness or their covetousness or licentiousness And as the Apostle St. Peter so his dear Brother this most blessed Apostle St. Paul not only charges it on his son Titus that he should put men in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates Tit. 3.1 but he does it also himself in this Chapter Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers And not only minds them of their duty but presses it with such variety of Arguments that in the whole Book of God there is scarcely any one duty that is prest with so much instance and importunity as this is Which does argue both the great necessity of the thing and our averseness thereunto that by Nature i. e. Nature corrupted we can brook no Government for who is willing to be ruled and yet bear it we must a necessity is laid upon us we must needs be subject and that for these reasons Because 1. If we respect the Original Fountain or Efficient Cause of Government it has God for its Author That 's the Apostles first Argument for Subjection and Obedience to all Humane Authority taken from the Author Founder Instituter and Ordainer of such Authority Rom. 13.1 There is no Power but of God The person ruling may be sometimes such a one as that we cannot say he is of God God by his Prophet Hosea does complain of some Rulers They are set up Hos 8.4 but not by me their way of coming to the Government is by such means as God prohibits And the use of the Power may be as bad as the coming by it as in King Jeroboam who abused his Authority in making Israel to sin 1 Kin. 14.16 14.16 But the Power it self is always of God and he that comes to it lawfully is sent of God and therefore to such we must needs be subject For shan't we own that Power that has God for its Author Rom. 13.4 Magistracy is the Ordinance of God Magistrates are the Ministers of God therefore it is our duty to be subject to it and them This is the Apostles first Argument for Subjection and Obedience to Authority taken from the Author of it 2. A second Argument is taken from the advantage and comeliness of order whence God himself has his Title 1 Cor. 14.33 40. He is the God of order He is the Author not of confusion but of peace And he has declared it to be his will that all things be done decently and according to order which is the beauty of Nature the ornament of Art and the harmony of the World without which it can no more subsist than the body can without a due temperament of the humours Now the Powers that be Rom. 13.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordained of God God has ordered them as they are He has not only ordained them i. e. instituted and appointed them as we commonly understand the word but by him they are set in order and disposed into several ranks as it more properly signifies He sets up Kings in the highest place giving them the Supremacy and under them he sets up Judges Governours 1 Pet. 2.13 and subordinate Officers to facilitate that work by the assistance of many which would otherwise prove too heavy for any one mans undertaking 3. A third Argument is taken from the evil of sin that is contracted by disobeying Not to obey the Power is to sin against Almighty God 'T is a violation of the Command of the Supreme Law-giver Whosoever resisteth the Power Rom. 13.2 resisteth the Ordinance of God In opposing the one he rebels against the other He is a Rebel against God that rises up against his Prince or makes any opposition to the Governours that are sent by him The confederacy of Corah and his Complices against Moses and Aaron Num. 16.11 is called a gathering of themselves together against the Lord. 4. A fourth
1 Thes 4.11 Let every man attend that work to which the great Disposer of all things has been pleased to set him Let him carefully contain himself within the limits of his own calling without aiming at high things or intermedling with that which is the Province or concern of other men 2. A Second special Duty included in this general is to render all due Honour and that in thought word and deed both to the Power and to the Person of our Superiour For these two Power and Person cannot be divided distinguish them we may so we do it to better purpose than some have done it in our days I say distinguish them we may but sever them we may not The Power exists in the Person and we are to honour the Person with respect to his Power as St. Peter teaches us Fear God honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 not the Power abstracted from the Person but the Person for the sake of his Power And so here in the seventh Verse of this Chapter Rom. 13.7 Render unto all their dues says the Apostle speaking to Subjects with respect to those that have Authority over them particularly Honour to whom Honour is due Now in the first place 1. One part or branch of this Duty is to honour these in our thoughts By thinking honourably of their Persons By judging charitably of their Actions 1. We must have honourable thoughts of what they are What the Apostle sometime said to his Corinthians with respect to himself and other Preachers of the Word 1 Cor. 4.1 So account of us as of the Ministers of Christ may be said to every Subject with respect to Kings and such as bear the Sword You are to account of them as of the Ministers of God Rom. 13.5 for so the Scripture calls them in the Verse before my Text. You are to esteem of them as of those that are ordained of God for the good of Humane Society as in the same Verse You must not look on them as meer men Psal 82.1 6. but as Humane Gods Psal 82 1 6. as the Deputies Lieutenants and magnificent representations of the Divine Majesty as those whom God hath intrusted to supply his room to represent his Person and to execute his Judgments 2 Chron. 9.8 and again 2. Chron. 9.8 19.6 Chap. 19.6 2. We must have charitable thoughts of what they do put the best and not the worst construction on the Laws they make and the execution of those Laws If any thing seem harsh and inconvenient in their menage of affairs we must give them their due honour by judging candidly and favourably of it considering with our selves that they have reasons of State for what they do whereof we are ignorant 'T is injoined us Eccl. 10.20 Not to curse the King in our thoughts i. e. neither to wish ill to him nor to think ill of him This Negative does include an Affirmative that we are therefore to entertain good thoughts of the King and of his Government If every thing does not go as we would have it If other Laws be enacted or Laws otherwise executed than according to our phancy or judgment we are apt presently in our secret thoughts to condemn our Rulers of imprudence insincerity injustice partiality cowardize or the like when in the mean time the greatness of their Authority and our necessitated ignorance and unacquaintance with State-Affairs should restrain our thoughts from such harsh and hasty censures in things we do so little understand It being as unfit for private persons to censure their Governours as it is for little Children that have newly learnt their Primer to take upon them to correct the learnedst Scholar Let me give you but one instance and I beseech you note it Suppose you had been present when King Solomon was deciding the controversie between the two Mothers about the dead and living Child When he called for a Sword to have the living Child divided in two that so each Mother might have a part would you not have thought him a very rash cruel inconsiderate Prince Would you not have said within your selves What will this young King now do Will he cut this knotty cause in pieces because he can't untie it And for as much as there is no evidence unto which of the two Mothers the Child belongs shall the Child be therefore slain and because one Murther was committed accidentally shall another be done purposely What a miserable people are we like to be that are to live under such a Prince Thus perhaps you would have thought whereas if you had staid the issue of things you would have seen his prudence and admired it and have changed your mind of him as the Barbarians did of St. Paul when they saw the Viper on his hand Act. 28.4 they concluded that he was a Murtherer whom though he had escaped the Sea Vengeance would not suffer to live but when he shook the Viper without hurt to himself from his hand into the fire they straight changed their mind Acts 28.6 and said that he was a God The King gave order for that which he had no desire should be done only to find out that which could not otherwise be discovered as you may see at large in the third Chapter of the first Book of King 1 Kin. 3.16 to the end of the Chapter This may warn us not to entertain hard thoughts of our Governours when at first blush we are unable to reconcile their Actions or Expressions to the strictest rules of Piety Justice Prudence or Charity Prov. 25.3 The Kings heart is a depth unsearcbable Prov. 25.3 The Actions of wise Princes are meer Riddles to vulgar apprehensions neither is it for the shallow capacities of the multitude to fathom the deep projects of Sovereign Authority And as they cannot fathom them so they ought not to censure them If Charity thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13.5 7. but doth hope all things even of all sorts and conditions of men then certainly it should most of all do so by Kings who ministring for our good do deserve the greatest measure of our love 2. A Second part or branch of this Duty is to honour them in our words both when we talk to them of them 1. When we talk to them our words must make it appear that we respect and honour them We must give them their due Titles and we must speak to them after a different manner from our way of speaking to other men Take an instance of it in holy Paul when Festus upbraided him with madness he did shew how much he honoured him for the sake of his Authority he did make no unhandsom no uncivil retort to that severe and groundless imputation but addrest himself thus Acts 26.25 with an humble reverence I am not mad most Noble Festus but I speak forth the words of soberness and truth We have a like instance in Mephibosheth speaking to David
shall shew thee and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee according to the sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand or to the left And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken to the Priest that standeth there to minister before the Lord thy God or unto the Judge that man shall die and thou shalt put away evil from Israel and all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously Nay we are not only bound to yield Obedience in all those thing which we know to be lawful and in all those things which we know not but only suspect to be sinful but even in those things which being lawful in themselves holy Scripture not forbidding them we do verily think by reason of some mistake and errour of judgment to be sinful We are still under an Obligation of obeying though in such a case Obedience cannot be yielded without sin We are bound to obey because God commands it The mistake of our Judgment cannot disoblige us from nor dispense with the sacred bond of Gods Precept Sin can never free from Duty The errour of our judgment is a sin and that can never change the nature of a sinful omission making that which is sinful in its self become safe for us Innocently impotent to his duty 't is impossible any man should be and yet obeying in this case we are sure to sin against God because we do that which we verily take to be sinful which does argue that we would have done it had it been really such as upon mistake we apprehend it to be and that therefore we have no fear of God before our eyes in as much as we durst adventure on that which we verily thought would be a violation of the Divine Law and a provocation of Gods displeasure against our selves and therefore it is the same thing to us as if it had been really sinful a transgression of the known Law of God so that in such a case doing or not doing obeying or not obeying we are sure to sin against God that 's the great unhappiness of an erring Conscience And yet there is no absolute perplexity for there is a third thing required and to be done and that is deponere erroneam conscientiam to lay aside ones erroneous Conscience and mistaken Conceptions That is the remedy in such cases to endeavour by an humble diligence in the use of all proper and proportionable means to be truly and rightly informed that so the Judgment may be purged from errour and the Conscience thereby freed from this desperate necessity of sinning But what if after serious endeavours a man cannot be convinced of the truth cannot shake off his erroneous and mistaken conceptions cannot extricate himself from the snare in which he is engaged What is to be done in such a case He is to endeavour it still having been serious in some degree already he must be yet more serious in his search and study after the truth Hos 6.3 Hos 6.3 Then shall a man know when he follows on to know the Lord when he seeks it again and again seeks for it as for silver and searches for it as for hid treasure Prov. 2.3 Prov. 2.3 When he does persist in the use of means is exceeding earnest in prayer to God for it constant and indefatigable in his endeavours after it He must be more willing to understand and embrace the truth than he is willing that what he errs in should prove true He must lay aside all prejudice and prepossession and must read and hear what 's written and may be said on the one side as well as on the other And if he be biassed in any thing it must be in an humble jealousie and mistrust of himself and according to Saint Pauls direction Phil. 2.3 in esteeming others better than himself and then Joh. 7.17 according to our Saviours promise he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or not God will instruct and teach him though not by immediate revelation that is not to be lookt for now yet by a particular secret and unknown assistance The humble man shall have grace 1 Pet. 5.5 1 Pet 5.5 The meek shall be guided in judgment and shall be surely taught Gods way Psal 25.9 Psal 25.9 But the man that will not take this course his continuance in errour becomes his greater condemnation and may be lookt on as Gods judgment on him for his pride and partiality for his negligence disrespect to Authority and for his want of care to be rightly informed But what if a man has bound himself by Oath to do contrary to what the Law of his Prince Commands Let Mr. Perkins be heard in the case An Oath does not bind says he against the wholsom Laws of the Commonwealth Rom. 13.1 because God hath commanded that every soul be subject to the Higher Powers it is in his Cases of Conscience concerning Oaths this being the second of those six Cases wherein he tells us that an Oath doth not bind An Oath ought to be kept with all imaginable care and strictness and that in all things whatsoever that are not contrary to a Christians Duty but the intervention of a Duty supersedes the Obligation of an Oath The voluntary Obligation which a man lays upon himself cannot vacate that precedent Obligation that is laid upon him by the Lord. Surely God never meant that his Name should be made use of in an Oath to oblige mens Consciences to a violation of his own Commands Let this horrible thought be once admitted and men are at liberty to do what they list they may change the nature of things and may make it lawful yea necessary to break all the Commands of God and to commit all the sins in the World If a man be unwilling to perform some necessary Duty as to pay his Debts to relieve the Poor to sustain and honour his Parents to keep the Lords Day holy to frequent the place of Gods Publick Worship to partake of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper or the like 't is but binding himself by Oath to the contrary and he is discharged from what before was his Duty And as for the omission of Duties so for the executing of a mans Lusts If a man scruple at Adultery Incest Theft Murder Sacriledge Idolatry Schism Rebellion or the like 't is but binding himself by Oath to do these things and their nature being immediately changed he is to press them upon his Conscience as obliging necessary Duties Once admit this errour and you are furnished with an excuse for whatsoever wickedness you have a mind to commit 'T will instruct you how to justifie all the sins in the World to the utter extirpation