all that I have offered you by it in the following Inferences And First It appears from this whole Discourse what sort of men those are that make Religion a pretext for Rebellion When yet it does altogether and upon unalterable foundations condemn it and by all its Powers fortifie Princes in their Governments over their Subjects And has made a better provision for the true performance of all Allegiance and Homage to Princes than any other Religion has offered or can ever furnish the World withall For Christianity has Adopted the Dnties of Subjects to their Sovereigns as also those of all other Relations among men and made them part of itself and has charged all that Profess it upon the same Penalties which are the threats of an endless misery in a future state with which it establishes all its other Doctrines and which no other Religion in the World can justly awe the minds of its Followers with to see to the Pious and Sincere performance of all the Duties they owe one to another and to those above them in the several capacities they are considered in in the World So that Loyalty to our Prince stands upon the same bottom in our Religion with Piety to God nay God Almighty has declared he will never accept any pretended Worship to himself from such as are unfaithful in the Duties of their Relations to men For our hands must be lifted up in Prayer to God without wrath 1 Tim. 2. 8. And if we have any prejudice or discontented malicious or furious thoughts the sources of all Rebellion against any man much more if they be against God's Vice-gerent on Earth we must not come near his Altar and if we do 't is upon our utmost peril for we have reason to expect nothing but a Curse How wretchedly wicked then are those that Preface their Rebellions with that Glorious Name that condemns them to Hell and how wilfully blind must they be that believe them For can we think that the Devils Instruments will ever help to maintain God's Kingdom or that that Religion can be protected by Impiety and Disorder whose Principles Proclaim the strictest Holiness and most entire Peace Is Divine Power so weak that it must call in the Foreign supplies of the Kingdom of Darkness to maintain its own Gospel Or shall any of us be so gull'd as to take part with or wish well to those that pretend indeed the safety of our Religion but in good earnest design only the gratifying of their own Ambitious and Discontented Humours though it be in the ruin of all that should be dear to us No! Let us oppose to all the false Colours with which they would Honest their wicked Actions That they that do evil that good may come their damnation is just Secondly This Gospel Doctrine of submission to Princes proves to us that a Rebel to his King and Sovereign can never be a good Christian towards God Sedition is one of the fruits of the flesh and lodges where the Spirit of Jesus enters not What fellowship has Light with Darkness Christ with Belial or Religion with Rebellion 'T is the evil and foul Spirit that foments such a temper as this comes from in the minds of men to disturb and ruin Goodness and Piety under the name of Protecting it For most certainly he that nourishes Hatred or Cruelty Rancour or Revenge in his heart against man but especially against his Sovereign never felt to be sure never complyed with the motions of the Soft and Charitable Humble and Holy Spirit of Jesus He that despises his Duty to man can never value his Obligations to God for so one of the Holy and Infallible Writers has proved by undeniable Argument as well as determined by unerring Authority 1 John 4. 20 That he who loveth not his Brother whom he has seen i. e. He that does not with Charity and Sincerity carefully perform all the Duties required of him For Love is the fulfilling of the Law to his Brother i. e. to his Superiors Inferiors of Equals whom he has seen i. e. with whom he is conversant in the World and to whom he is bound by so many sensible Obligations which are most like to prevail upon men How can he Love i. e. be Dutiful and Obedient to God whom he has not seen with whom he is not conversant or acquainted And the whole force of the Argument is this That he that is not lead by the motives of his Interest for this World and the opportunities of constant conversation and experience of the benefits of it to do his Duty to man will never be influenced by the motives of another World which address only Faith and Reason and to sence appear at a great distance and to have but little or no force to move him to be truly Obedient to God a Being that he never said his eyes upon and has but very small and imperfect notices of And so that I may apply it to my present scope 't is evident that he that has seen and conversed with his Prince and beheld his Glory and Power and those emanations of Mercy and Justice that flow from his Throne and has had the opportunities of sharing in the Honours and Advantages that attend such as are near it and yet has so little sence of all as to be a Traytor to him must needs have less Reason and Faith in which only the force of Religious Obligation do consist and so must unavoidably be false to his Religion and his God whom he never saw and whose Glory and Majesty fall not within his consideration Thirdly I gather hence that Preaching of Loyalty to our King is Soul-saving Doctrine for not to say that Rebellion is as damnable a sin as Witchcraft and stubbornness as Idolatry That Sedition does as certainly lead to Hell as any other of the Works of the Flesh that are ranked with it Gal. 5. I thus make it appear that Disloyal and Trayterous Practises are one of the shortest cuts to an Eternal Misery For It will be allowed me that Traytors seldom live long they are those bloody and deceitful men that shall not live out half their days Psal 55. 23. They do rarely escape the hands of Justice and when they are in them it is not fit they should long be there to occasion any further Convulsions in the Body Politick now when a vicious and a bad life towards God ends in a Rebellion against his Prince and the Traytor is blasted in his Designs and the Law has seized him and within a few days he must conclude his miserable life in a more miserable death Must we not all acknowledg that 't is mercy miraculous in the proper sense of that word that shall receive a few Prayers in lieu of the Obedience of a whole Life and that shall consign him to a happy Eternity that perseveres in his sin 'till he comes to dye for it Since then resisting of Government does so apparently hazard
and necessarily enjoyned by Christian Religion And because I remember to whom I am speaking I will not therefore enter into any tedious debates of the measures of this Obedience and how far it ought to be extended For though it is most true that some Persons have used their utmost care to perplex this Doctrine with all imaginable difficulties and the Casuists of both extremes from us have equally conspired it and to that purpose have clog'd it with a whole number of Limitations and Proviso's and will be putting of Cases of Conscience they call them some hugely false others silly and impertinent that never did and 't is but just possible to suppose that ever they should need a Resolution while the World endures under any sort of Government whatever yet most certainly this Duty of Loyalty and Subjection to Governours as all other Lines of Practical Religion is in it self direct and easie to be drawn hugely intelligible and obvious to the meanest capacity difficult to none but those that are loth to practise it and in this also it agrees with the rest of those incomparable Virtues in the Christian Institution that are of equal Necessity and Glory with it self And we need nothing more to prove how easie this Duty is to be understood than to consider the meek and obliging temper of mind that Christian Religion requires in all its Votaries and which it does also where Men are truly seized with the powers of it most effectively produce and also what every one of us in all cases where we have authority expect from those that depend upon us and so are subject to us I will therefore in few words give you the sum of this whole Duty of Religion and it comes to thus much That that Obedience which by the Laws of Christianity we owe to our Governours must be Active in all cases whatsoever where we are not certain that the same Laws have laid upon us any prior Obligation to the contrary for then the Apostles St. Peter and St. John have answered for us to the Council that commanded them to preach no more in the name of Jesus Acts 4. 18 19 Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than unto God judg you But we must be certain then for we all know that a doubting conscience is no Judg neither lays any Obligation for it passes no sentence And further the safer side must be chosen which is that we do not make our selves guilty of a certain sin by declining Obedience to the Magistrate upon the score of avoiding that which we cannot affirm to be evil And moreover in such cases where 't is most plain that the Laws of our Religion will not allow us to be Active in our Obedience to the Commands of our Governours yet then the same Laws oblige us to be Subject i. e. to withdraw our positive Obedience in such cases where because of our Obligations to a greater Authority we dare not comply with theirs with Modesty Meekness Respect and Reverence to their Persons and Authority and if they please to punish us for so doing to bear it patiently and without reproaching or resisting So that this is the sum of all Our Religion obliges us actively to obey our Prince in every of his Commands where God has not interposed his Authority and to resist in no case whatsoever There are only two things that are material to be observed before I enter upon the proof of the Proposition I named The first is that when I affirm the Doctrine of Loyalty and Obedience to our Prince to be Essential to Christianity I do not intend to be understood that it is peculiar to that body of Laws or that it was first made a Law by Christ but that 't is strictly provided for by his Religion so that he cannot be a good Christian that is not a Loyal Subject nay I am sure 't is no venture to affirm That this Doctrine is better taught and more strongly enforced by the Laws of the Gospel than by those of any other Religion in the World Secondly I would have it be observed that I reckon and take it for granted that all the Laws of common Reason and Equity and such as are the foundations of all Humane Societies are part of the Laws of the Gospel so that whatever Duty we owe to Governours by virtue of any of the Laws of Nature or Society that we must acknowledg to be part of our Christian Duty And now I shall consider our Obligations to the performance of this Duty of Subjection to our Governours in the following Particulars And first Nothing can be more proper to begin with in this case than the Determinations of our great Law giver the Author and Founder of our Religion And he while he was upon Earth did with great clearness of Doctrine assert the Obedience that was due to Magistrates and did deliver it as a part of that Religion he came to establish in the World When the Question was put to him to know his Judgment about one part of the subjection we owe to Governours he delivers his mind in an Vniversal Axiom establishing all the Royal Prerogatives of a Prince commanding all his followers that they should Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars Luk. 20. 25. Though there were found those that were so impudent as to accuse him of the contrary Luk. 23. 2. And we find that he puts the Case of Persecution to his Disciples and foretells them what sufferings they should undergo for the Preaching of his Religion from the Rulers of the World and gives them directions proper to that state but all of them of a complexion utterly contrary to resisting or despising Magistracy urging upon all occasions to his followers the quite different Doctrines of denying themselves taking up the Cross losing their lives in this World that they might save them in the other and every-where establishes both by Precept and Example the state and temper of Christians after him to be that of suffering and sorrow of patience and meekness and praying for their Enemies under it And there is no greater evidence of the truth of all this than that remarkable place Matt. 26. 52. Locus notandus omnibus subditis as Musculus How he reproved the eagerness of St. Peter in resisting those that came to apprehend him though it was an act sure of the greatest Violence and Injustice in the World and designed by them for the utter ruin of himself and the total suppression of his Doctrine and Religion yet he positively forbad him to proceed in what he attempted and establishes the contrary Doctrine with a minatory Prediction against all those that should dare to do otherwise All they that take the sword i. e. to whom the jus Gladii does not belong shall perish with the sword Which abundantly proves that the most innocent Person or the best Cause must not be defended by force of Arms against
were more Acts of Violence Rapine Cruelty Injustice and Irreligion committed in this our Nation during the few years of the prevailing of that Fatal and Execrable Rebellion over us than can be found in all our Histories to have been done by all the Male-Administrations of Government though surveyed with never so much prejudiced Judgments How many among us both in their Persons and Estates do bear those scars that are at once the loud Proclaimers of the Loyalty and Glory of them that wear them and also of the Tyranny and Rage of them that gave them If then it be evident as I think 't is from all has been offered on this particular that Obedience Loyalty and Submission to Governors is the undeniable Interest of Mankind it follows strongly that 't is effectually provided for and secured by the Doctrines of Jesus For the Son of God when he founded his Church by the delivering his Religion to the World that all men and particularly Princes and Governors might not want any sort of motives that might be proper to recommend it to their Love and Protection of it took effectual care by establishing the Duties of men one to another and of all men to their Rulers upon the same forcible Obligations and Penalties that he did those to God himself to secure so persuasive an Argument as that of the Interest of all Societies and Relations of men on the behalf of the Doctrine he was then to establish Fifthly I will go on to prove the truth of my Proposition from one of the Grand Designs and Intendments of Christian Religion in the World to which resisting of Governors is utterly contrary Now one of the great purposes of the Gospel was the establishing of Peace and Charity among men See how it was Prophesied before of the days of the Messiah Isa 11. 6 7 8 9 The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid And the Lyon shall eat straw like the Oxe And the Reason is given Ver. 9 For the Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the Waters cover the Seas The Author of our Religion is called The Prince of Peace was born in a time of Vniversal Peace and at his Birth the Heavenly Anthem sung by Angels was Peace on Earth Good Will towards or among men When he was going out of the World his Blessing was Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you Joh. 14. 27. And while he conversed with his Disciples he makes Charity to become the very Character of a Christian Joh. 13. 35 Hereby shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another The whole Institution that he left I mean the Gospel is called the Gospel of Peace He that sent him to reveal it is the God of Peace the Message and Commands it carries do correspond Live peaceably with all men Follow Peace without which no man shall see God is the one half of that which is of so absolute necessity to happiness that it can never be attained without it But how effectually and summarily all this is defeated by resisting of Governors is so plain that it needs no Proof And moreover which was hinted before 't is utterly inconsistent with that temper of mind that Christianity requires in all that pretend to espouse it even Meekness Charity Gentleness and the like All which it requires so strictly and absolutely so universally and without the least colour of exception that 't is impossible for him to be a Hypocrite I mean to be able to pretend to the least shadow of Piety that acts contray to such a temper for he is a notorious opposer of the Religion of Christ in its greatest Fundamentals and in despight of all other Varnishes and Pretences whatever this alone pulls of the Vizard and presents him to the World as a stranger to the efficacy of Christian Principles if he be a Contentious and Vncharitable man Gal. 5. 22 23 The fruit of the spirit i. e. what it certainly works in that mind where it inhabits is Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness c. so many several names being given to the same Essential Virtue of Charity does easily teach us how it delighted the holy kind and charitable Spirit of Jesus to impress such Characters upon all that should own and believe its Revelations And again Col. 3. 12 13 Put on therefore as the Elect of God i. e. as become those that are dear to and highly valued of God bowels of Mercies Kindness Humbleness of mind Meekness Long-suffering these are those parts of our Religion that are so closely recommended to us and that render us highly beloved and esteemed of God because they do constitute in us a God-like temper of mind and make us the Children of our Father which is in Heaven and because the Practise of them renders our Religion truly Glorious and Lovely in the World Now Rebellion and Disobedience to Governors must needs be wholly inconsistent with this temper of mind that is before described forasmuch as it arises from Rancour Discontent Malice Ambition Cruelty Impatience Pride Peevishness and the like evil habits of mind which how well they agree with what the Evangelick Institutes do require and promote in us let all men that know them judg Sixthly Another thing that inevitably concludes for what I have been so earnestly exhorting you to and is a result of what I last named is the consideration of that due submission to and acquiescing in the disposals of Divine Providence concerning us and all we have which we are bound to both by Natural and Revealed Religion I shall not suspect that you do so little understand your Religion as to go about to prove that contentment or a patient abiding the Will of Heaven concerning us is our Duty And a very little of Discourse will shew you how contrary resisting of supream Powers is to all that For Put the case that we be under all the Ills Hardships and Calamities that can be supposed nay and more and greater than can be supposed from our Governors is it not still the Great Ruler of the World that has appointed us this state and if we Contrive and Endeavour to free our selves from it by force of Arms what is it but violent and desperate resisting the Ordinance of God concerning our selves 'T is Rebellion against the Great Monarch of the Vniverse and declining that service he enjoyns us What is it but a wicked Resolve to break the Mighty Course of his Counsels or at best but a fruitless Attempt to free our selves by our own force from that condition of life which not so much his Vice-gerent as he himself has disposed to us 'T is telling the World and God Almighty to his face we will not be as he would have us 'T is a Gyant-like War and no less than an endeavour to fling his Providence out of the Earth which is