then are bound upon us by the power of God put into the hands of man The consequent is this that whatsoever is commanded by our Superior according to the will of God or whatsoever is not against it is of necessity to be obey'd 3ly But what if our Princes or our Prelates command things against the Word of God what then Why nothing then but that we must obey God and not man there 's no dispute of that But what then again Why therefore saies the Papist I will not obey the Protestant Kings because against the Word of God they command me to come to Church where Heresy is preached and I will not acknowledge the Bishops saith the Presbyterian because they are against the discipline and scepter of Iesus Christ and the Independent hates Parochial meetings and is wholly for a gathered Church and supposes this to be the practice Apostolical and I will not bring my Child to Baptisme saith the Anabaptist because God calls none but believers to that Sacrament and I will acknowledge no Clergy no Lord no Master saith the Quaker because Christ commands us to call no man master on the earth and be not called of men Rabbi And if you call upon these men to obey the Authority God hath set over them they tell you with one voice with all their hearts as far as the Word of God will give them leave but God is to be obey'd and not man and therefore if you put the Laws in execution against them they will obey you passively because you are stronger and so long as they know it they will not stir against you but they in the mean time are little less then Martyrs and you no better then Persecutors What shall we doe now for here is evidently a great heap of disorder they all confess that authority must be obey'd but when you come to the trial none of them all will doe it and they think they are not bound but because their Opinions being contrary cannot all be right and it may be none of them are it is certain that all this while Authority is infinitely wronged and prejudiced amongst them when all fantastick Opinions shall be accounted a sufficient reason to despise it I hope the Presbyterian will joyn with the Protestant and say that the Papist and the Socinian and the Independent and the Anabaptist and the Quaker are guilty of Rebellion and Disobedience for all their pretence of the Word of God to be on their side and I am more sure that all these will joyn with the Protestant and say that the Presbyterian hath no reason to disobey Authority upon pretence of their new Government concerning which they do but dream dreams when they think they see visions Certain it is that the biggest part of dissenters in the whole world are criminally disobedient and it is a thousand to one but that Authority is in the right against them and ought to be obey'd It remains now in the next place that we inquire what Authority is to doe in this case and what these Sectaries and Recusants are to doe for these are two things worth inquiry 1. Concerning Authority All disagreeing persons to cover their foul shame of Rebellion or Disobedience pretend Conscience for their Judge and the Scripture for their Law Now if these men think that by this means they proceed safely upon the same ground the Superior may doe what he thinks to be his duty and be at least as safe as they If the Rebellious Subject can think that by God's Law he ought not to obey the Prince may at the same time think that by God's Law he ought to punish him and it is as certain that he is justly punished as he thinks it certain he reasonably disobeys Or is the Conscience of the Superior bound to relaxe his lawes if the inferior tells him so Can the Prince give Laws to the peoples will and can the people give measures to the Princes understanding If any one of the people can prescribe or make it necessary to change the Law then every one can and by this time every new Opinion will introduce a new Law and that Law shall be obey'd by him only that hath a mind to it and that will be a strange Law that binds a man only to doe his own pleasure But because the King's Conscience is to him as sure a Rule as the Conscience of any disobedient Subject can be to himself the Prince is as much bound to doe his duty in Government as the other can be to follow his Conscience in disagreeing and the consequent will be that whether the Subject be right or wrong in the disputation it is certain he hath the just reward of Disobedience in the conclusion If one mans Conscience can be the measure of another mans action why shall not the Princes Conscience be the Subject's measure but if it cannot then the Prince is not to depart from his own Conscience but proceed according to the Laws which he judges just and reasonable 2. The Superior is tied by the laws of Christian Charity so far to bend in the ministration of his Laws as to pity the invincible Ignorance and Weakness of his abused people qui devoratur à malis Pastoribus as S. Hierom's expression is that are devour'd by their evill Shepheards but this is to last no longer then till the Ignorance can be cured and the man be taught his duty for whatsoever comes after this looks so like Obstinacy that no Laws in the world judge it to be any thing else And then secondly this also is to be understood to be the duty of Superiors only in matters of mere Opinion not relating to Practice For no mans Opinion must be suffer'd to doe mischief to disturb the Peace to dishonour the Government not only because every disagreeing person can to serve his end pretend his Conscience and so claim impunity for his Villany but also because those things which concern the good of mankind and the Peace of Kingdomes are so plainly taught that no man who thinks himself so wise as to be fit to oppose Authority can be so foolish as in these things not to know his Duty In other things if the Opinion does neither bite nor scratch if it dwells at home in the house of understanding and wanders not into the out-houses of Passion and popular orations the Superior imposes no laws and exacts no obedience and destroies no liberty and gives no restraint This is the part of Authority 2. The next enquiry is What must the disagreeing Subject doe when he supposes the Superiors command is against the Law of God I answer that if he thinks so and thinks true he must not obey his Superior in that but because most men that think so think amiss there are many particulars fit by such persons to be consider'd 1. Let such men think charitably of others and that all are not fools or mad-men who are not of the same
speaking against the spirit and the laws of the Church In heaven and in the air and in all the regions of spirits the spirit of a lower order dares not speak against the spirit of an higher and therefore for a private spirit to oppose the publick is a disorder greater then is in hell it self To conclude this point Let us consider whether it were not an intolerable mischief if the Judges should give sentence in causes of instance by the measures of their own fancy and not by the Laws who would endure them and yet why may they not doe that as well as any Ecclesiastic person preach Religion not which the Laws allow but what is taught him by his own private Opinion but he that hath the Laws on his side hath ever something of true Religion to warrant him and can never want a great measure of justification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Laws and the customes of the country are the results of wise counsels or long experience they ever comply with Peace and publick benefit and nothing of this can be said of private Religions for they break the Peace and trouble the Conscience and undo Government and despise the Laws and offend Princes and dishonour the wisdome of Parliaments and destroy Obedience Well but in the last place if we cannot doe what the Laws command we will suffer what they impose and then all is well again But first who ever did so that could help it And secondly this talking of passive Obedience is but a mockery for what man did ever say the Laws were not good but he also said the Punishment was unjust And thirdly which of all the Recusants did not endeavour to get ground upon the Laws and secretly or openly asperse the Authority that put him to pain for doing that which he calls his duty and can any man boast of his passive Obedience that calls it Persecution he may think to please himself but he neither does or saies any thing that is for the reputation of the Laws Such men are like them that sail in a storm they may possibly be thrown into a harbour but they are very sick all the way But after all this I have one thing to observe to such persons That such a passive Obedience as this does not acquit a man before God and he that suffers what the Law inflicts is not discharg'd in the Court of Conscience but there he is still a sinner and a debter For the law is not made for the righteous but for sinners that is the punishment appointed by the Law falls on him only that hath sinned but an offending subject cannot with the fruit of his body pay for the sin of his Soul when he does evil he must suffer evil but if he does not repent besides a worse thing will happen to him for we are not tied to obey only for wrath but also for Conscience Passive obedience is only the correspondent of wrath but it is the active obedience that is required by Conscience and whatever the Subject suffers for his own fault it matters nothing as to his Duty but this also God will exact at the hands of every man that is placed under Authority I have now told you the summe of what I had to say concerning Obedience to Laws and to your own Government and it will be to little purpose to make laws in matter of Religion or in any thing else if the end of it be that every man shall chuse whether he will obey or no and if it be questioned whether you be deceiv'd or no though the suffering such a question is a great diminution to your authority yet it is infinitely more probable that you are in the right then that the disobedient Subject is because you are conducted with a publick spirit you have a special title and peculiar portions of the promise of God's assistance you have all the helps of Counsel and the advantages of deliberation you have the Scriptures and the Laws you are as much concerned to judge according to truth as any man you have the principal of all capacities and states of men to assist your consultations you are the most concern'd for Peace and to please God also is your biggest interest and therefore it cannot be denied to be the most reasonable thing in the world which is set down in the Law Praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis the presumption of truth ought to be on your side and since this is the most likely way for Truth and the most certain way for Peace you are to insist in this and it is not possible to find a better I have another part or sense of my Text yet to handle but because I have no more time of mine own and I will not take any of yours I shall only doe it in a short Exhortation to this most Honourable Auditory and so conclude God hath put a Royal Mantle and fastned it with a Golden Clasp upon the shoulder of the KING and he hath given you the Judges Robe the King holds the Scepter and he hath now permitted you to touch the golden Ball and to take it a while into your handling and made obedience to your Laws to be Duty and Religion but then remember that the first in every kind is to be the measure of the rest you cannot reasonably expect that the Subjects should obey you unless you obey God I do not speak this only in relation to your personal duty though in that also it would be consider'd that all the Bishops and Ministers of Religion are bound to teach the same Doctrines by their Lives as they do by their Sermons and what we are to doe in the matters of Doctrine you are also to doe in matter of Laws what is reasonable for the advantages of Religion is also the best Method for the advantages of Government we must preach by our good Example and you must govern by it and your good example in observing the laws of Religion will strangely endear them to the affections of the people But I shall rather speak to you as you are in a capacity of union and of Government for as now you have a new Power so there is incumbent upon you a special Duty 1. Take care that all your power and your counsels be imploy'd in doing honour and advantages to Piety and Holiness Then you obey God in your publick capacity when by holy Laws and wise administrations you take care that all the Land be an obedient and a religious People For then you are princely Rulers indeed when you take care of the Salvation of a whole Nation Nihil aliud est imperium nisi cura salutis alienae said Ammianus Government is nothing but a care that all men be saved And therefore take care that men do not destroy their Souls by the abominations of an evil life see that God be obey'd take care that the breach of the laws of God may not be
avoided much more that which offends the strong for this is certainly really criminal but for the other it is much oddes but it is mistaken And when the case is so put between the obedient and the disobedient which shall be offended and one will I suppose there is no question but the Laws will take more care of Subjects then of Rebels and not weaken them in their duty in compliance with those that hate the Laws and will not endure the Government And after all this in the conduct of Government what remedy can there be to those that call themselves Tender Consciences I shall not need say that every man can easily pretend it for we have seen the vilest part of mankind men that have done things so horrid worse then which the Sun never saw yet pretend tender Consciences against Ecclesiastical Laws but I will suppose that they are really such that they in the simplicity of their hearts follow Absolom and in weakness hide their heads in little Conventicles and places of separation for a trifle what would they have done for themselves If you make a Law of Order and in the sanction put a clause of favour for tender Consciences do not you invite every Subject to Disobedience by impunity and teach him how to make his own excuse is not such a Law a Law without an obligation may not every man chuse whether he will obey or no and if he pretends to disobey out of Conscience is not he that disobeyes equally innocent with the obedient altogether as just as not having done any thing without leave and yet much more Religious and conscientious Quicunque vult is but an ill preface to a Law and it is a strange obligation that makes no difference between him that obeyes and him that refuses to obey But what course must be taken with tender Consciences Shall the execution of the Law be suspended as to all such persons that will be all one with the former for if the execution be commanded to be suspended then the obligation of the Law by command is taken away and then it were better there were no Law made And indeed that is the pretension that is the secret of the business they suppose the best way to prevent Disobedience is to take away all Laws It is a short way indeed there shall then be no Disobedience but at the same time there shall be no Government but the Remedy is worse then the Disease and to take away all Wine and strong drink to prevent Drunkenness would not be half so great a folly I cannot therefore tell what to advise in this particular but that every Spiritual guide should consider who are tender Consciences and who are weak brethren and use all the waies of piety and prudence to instruct and to inform them that they may increase in knowledge and spiritual understanding But they that will be alwaies learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth they that will be children of a hundred years old and never come to years of discretion they are very unfit to guide others and to be Curates of Souls but they are most unfit to reprove the Laws and speak against the wisdome of a Nation when it is confessed that they are so weak that they understand not the fundamental Liberty which Christ hath purchased for them but are servants to a scruple and affrighted at a circumstance and in bondage under an indifferent thing and so much Idolaters of their Sect or Opinion as to prefer it before all their own nobler Interests and the Charity of their brother and the Peace of a whole Church and Nation To you my Lords and Gentlemen I hope I may say as Marcus Curius said to a stubborn young man Non opus Vos habere cive qui parére nesciret the Kingdome hath no need of those that know not how to obey But as for them who have weak and tender Consciences they are in the state of Childhood and minority but then you know that a Child is never happy by having his own humor if you chuse for him and make him to use it he hath but one thing to doe but if you put him to please himself he is troubled with every thing and satisfied with nothing We find that all Christian Churches kept this Rule They kept themselves and others close to the rule of Faith and peaceably suffered one another to differ in Ceremonies but suffered no difference amongst their own they gave Liberty to other Churches and gave Laws and no Liberty to their own Subjects And at this day the Churches of Geneva France Switzerland Germany Low Countries tye all their people to their own Laws but tye up no mans Conscience if he be not perswaded as they are let him charitably dissent and leave that Government and adhere to his own Communion If you be not of their mind they will be served by them that are they will not trouble your Conscience and you shall not disturb their Government But when men think they cannot enjoy their Conscience unless you give them good Livings and if you prefer them not you afflict their Consciences they do but too evidently declare that it is not their Consciences but their Profits they would have secured Now to these I have only this to say That their Conscience is to be enjoyed by the measures of God's Word but the Rule for their Estates is the Laws of the Kingdome and I shew you yet a more excellent way Obedience is the best security for both because this is the best conservatory of Charity and Truth and Peace Si vis brevi perfectus esse esto obediens etiam in minimis was the saying of a Saint and the world uses to look for Miracles from them whom they shall esteem Saints but I had rather see a man truly humble and obedient then to see him raise a man from the dead said old Pachomius But to conclude if weak brethren shall still plead for Toleration and Compliance I hope my Lords the Bishops will consider where it can doe good and doe no harm where they are permitted and where themselves are bound up by the Laws and in all things where it is safe and holy to labour to bring them ease and to give them remedy but to think of removing the Disease by feeding the Humor I confess it is a strange cure to our present Distempers He that took clay and spittle to open the blind eyes can make any thing be collyrium but he alone can doe it But whether any humane power can bring good from so unlikely an instrument if any man desires yet to be better informed I desire him besides the calling to mind the late sad effects of Schisme to remember that no Church in Christendome ever did it It is neither the way of Peace nor Government nor yet a proper remedy for the cure of a weak Conscience I shall therefore pray to God that these men who separate
A SERMON PREACHED At the opening of the Parliament of IRELAND May 8. 1661. Before the right Honourable the Lords Justices and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons By JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor Salus in multitudine consulentium LONDON Printed by I. F. for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred MAJESTY 1661. To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of Ireland Assembled in PARLIAMENT My Lords and Gentlemen I Ought not to dispute your commands for the printing my Sermon of Obedience lest my Sermon should be protestatio contra factum here I know my Example would be the best Use to this Doctrine and I am sure to find no inconveniency so great as that of Disobedience neither can I be confident that I am wise in any thing but when I obey for then I have the wisdome of my Superiour for my warrant or my excuse I remember the saying of Aurelius the Emperor AEquius est me tot talium amicorum consilium quam tot tales meam unius voluntatem sequi I could easily have pretended excuses but that day I had taught others the contrary and I would not shed that Chalice which my own hands had newly filled with waters issuing from the fountains of Salvation My eyes are almost grown old with seeing the horrid mischiefs which came from Rebellion and Disobedience and I would willingly now be blessed with observation of Peace and Righteousness Plenty and Religion which do already and I hope shall for ever attend upon Obedience to the best KING and the best CHURCH in the world I see no objection against my hopes but that which ought least of all in this case to be pretended Men pretend Conscience against Obedience expressly against Saint Paul's Doctrine teaching us to obey for conscience sake but to disobey for Conscience in a thing indifferent is never to be found in the books of our Religion It is very hard when the Prince is forc'd to say to his rebellious Subject as God did to his stubborn people Quid faciam tibi I have tried all the waies I can to bring thee home and what shall I now doe unto thee The Subject should rather say Quid me vis facere What wilt thou have me to doe This Question is the best end of disputations Corrumpitur atque dissolvitur Imperantis officium si quis ad id quod facere jussus est non obsequio debito sed consilio non considerato respondeat said one in A. Gellius When a Subject is commanded to obey and he disputes and saies Nay but the other is better he is like a servant that gives his Master necessary counsel when he requires of him a necessary obedience Utilius parére edicto quam efferre consilium he had better obey then give counsel by how much it is better to be profitable then to be witty to be full of goodness rather then full of talk and argument But all this is acknowledged true in strong men but not in the weak in vigorous but not in tender Consciences for Obedience is strong meat and will not down with weak stomacks As if in the world any thing were easier then to obey for we see that the food of Children is milk and lawes the breast-milk of their Nurses and the commands of their Parents is all that food and Government by which they are kept from harm and hunger and conducted to life and wisdome And therefore they that are weak brethren of all things in the world have the least reason to pretend an excuse for disobedience for nothing can secure them but the wisdome of the Laws for they are like Children in minority they cannot be trusted to their own conduct and therefore must live at the publick charge and the wisdome of their Superiors is their guide and their security And this was wisely advised by S. Paul Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtfull disputations that 's not the way for him Children must not dispute with their Fathers and their Masters If old men will dispute let them look to it that 's meat for the strong indeed though it be not very nutritive but the Laws and the Counsels the Exhortations and the Doctrines of our Spiritual Rulers are the measures by which God hath appointed Babes in Christ to become Men and the weak to become strong and they that are not to be received to doubtful disputations are to be received with the arms of love into the imbraces of a certain and regular Obedience But it would be considered that Tenderness of Conscience is an equivocal terme and does not alwaies signifie in a good sense For a Child is of a tender flesh but he whose foot is out of joint or hath a bile in his arme or hath strained a sinew is much more tender The tenderness of age is that weakness that is in the ignorant and the new beginners the tenderness of a bile that is soreness indeed rather then tenderness is of the diseased the abused and the mis-perswaded The first indeed are to be tenderly dealt with and have usages accordingly but that is the same I have already told you must teach them you must command them you must guide them you must chuse for them you must be their guardians and they must comport themselves accordingly But for that tenderness of Conscience which is the disease and soreness of Conscience it must be cured by anodynes and soft usages unless they prove ineffective and that the Launcet be necessary But there are amongst us such tender stomacks that cannot endure Milk but can very well digest Iron Consciences so tender that a Ceremony is greatly offensive but Rebellion is not a Surplice drives them away as a bird affrighted with a man of clouts but their Consciences can suffer them to despise Government and speak evil of Dignities and curse all that are not of their Opinion and disturb the peace of Kingdomes and commit Sacrilege and account Schisme the character of Saints The true Tenderness of Conscience is 1. that which is impatient of a sin 2ly it will not endure any thing that looks like it and 3ly it will not give offence Now since all Sin is Disobedience 1. it will be rarely contingent that a man in a Christian Common-wealth shall be tied to disobey to avoid sin and certain it is if such a case could happen yet 2ly nothing of our present questions is so like a sin as when we refuse to obey the Laws to stand in a clean Vestment is not so ill a sight as to see men stand in separation and to kneel at the Communion is not so like Idolatry as Rebellion is to Witchcraft and then 3ly for the matter of giving offences what scandal is greater then that which scandalizes the Laws and who is so carefully to be observed lest he be offended as the KING And if that which offends the weak brother is to be
in simplicity may by God's mercy be brought to understand their own Liberty and that they may not for ever be babes and Neophytes and wax old in trifles and for ever stay at entrances and outsides of Religion but that they would pass in interiora domûs and seek after Peace and Righteousness Holiness and Iustice the love of God and Evangelical perfections and then they will understand how ill-advised they are who think Religion consists in zeal against Ceremonies and speaking evil of the Laws My Lords and Gentlemen what I said in pursuance of publick Peace and private Duty and some little incidences to both I now humbly present to you more to shew my own Obedience then to re-mind you of your Duty which hitherto you have so well observed in your amicable and sweet concord of counsels and affections during this present Session I owe many thanks to you who heard me patiently willingly and kindly I endeavoured to please God and I find I did not displease you but he is the best hearer of a Sermon who first loves the Doctrine and then practises it and that you have hitherto done very piously and very prosperously I pray God continue to direct your Counsels so that you in all things may please him and in all things be blessed by him that all generations may call you blessed Instruments of a lasting Peace the restorers of the old paths the Patrons of the Church friends of Religion and Subjects fitted for your Prince who is Iust up to the greatest example and Merciful beyond all examples a Prince who hath been nourished and preserved and restored and blessed by Miracles a Prince whose Vertues and Fortunes are equally the greatest 1 SAMUEL 15. latter part of the 22th verse Behold to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of rams First part of the 23th For Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry IN the world nothing is more easy then to say our Prayers and to obey our Superiors and yet in the world there is nothing to which we are so unwilling as to Prayer and nothing seems so intolerable as Obedience for men esteem all Laws to be fetters and their Superiors are their enemies and when a command is given we turn into all shapes of excuse to escape from the imposition For either the authority is incompetent or the law it self is Statutum non bonum or it is impossible to be kept or at least very inconvenient and we are to be reliev'd in equity or there is a secret dispensation and it does not bind in my particular case or not now or it is but the law of a man and was made for a certain end or it does not bind the conscience but 't was only for Political regards or if the worst happen I will obey passively and then I am innocent Thus every man snuffes up the wind like the wild asses in the wilderness and thinks that Authority is an incroachment upon a mans birth-right and in the mean time never considers that Christ took upon him our Nature that he might learn us Obedience and in that also make us become like unto God In his Justice and his Mercy he was imitable before but before the Incarnation of Christ we could not in passive graces imitate God who was impassible But he was pleased at a great rate to set forward this duty and when himself became obedient in the hardest point obediens usque ad mortem and is now become to us the author and finisher of our Obedience as well as of our Faith admonetur omnis aetas fieri posse quod aliquando factum est We must needs confess it very possible to obey the severest of the divine laws even to dye if God commands because it was already done by a man and we must needs confess it excellent because it was done by God himself But this great Example is of universal influence in the whole matter of Obedience For that I may speak of that part of this Duty which can be useful and concerns us Men do not deny but they must obey in all Civil things but in Religion they have a Supreme God only and Conscience is his interpreter and in effect every man must be the Judge whether he shall obey or no. Therefore it is that I say the Example of our Lord is the great determination of this inquiry for he did obey and suffer according to the commands of his Superiors under whose Government he was placed he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to the nippers he kept the orders of the Rulers and the customes of the Synagogues the Law of Moses and the rights of the Temple and by so doing he fulfilled all righteousness Christ made no distinctions in his Obedience but obeyed God in all things and those that God set over him in all things according to God and in things of Religion most of all because to obey was of it self a great instance of Religion and if ever Religion comes to be pretended against Obedience in any thing where our Superior can command it is imposture For that is the purpose of my text Obedience is better then Sacrifice Our own judgment our own opinion is the sacrifice seldome fit to be offered to God but most commonly deserving to be consumed by fire but take it at the best it is not half so good as Obedience for that was indeed Christ's Sacrifice and as David said of Goliah's sword non est alter talis there is no other sacrifice that can be half so good and when Abraham had lifted up his sacrificing knife to slay his Son and so express'd his obedience God would have no more he had the Obedience and he cared not for the Sacrifice By Sacrifice here then is meant the external and contingent actions of Religion by Obedience is meant submission to Authority and observing the command Obedience is a not chusing our Duty a not disputing with our Betters not to argue not to delay not to murmure it is not this but it is much better for it is Love and Simplicity and Humility and Usefulness and I think these do reductively contain all that is excellent in the whole conjugation of Christian Graces My Text is a perfect Proposition and hath no special remark in the words of it but is only a great representation of the most useful Truth to all Kingdomes and Parliaments and Councels and Authorities in the whole world It is your Charter and the Sanction of your authority and the stabiliment of your Peace and the honour of your Laws and the great defence of your Religion and the building up and the guarding of the King's Throne It is that by which all the Societies in heaven and earth are firm without this you cannot have a Village prosperous or a Ship arrive in harbour It is that which God hath bound upon us by hope and fear by
wrath and conscience by duty and necessity Obedience is the formality of all Vertues and every Sin is Disobedience There can no greater thing be said unless you please to adde that we never read that the earth opened and swallowed up any man alive but a company of rebellious disobedient people who rose up against Moses and Aaron the Prince of the People and the Priest of God For Obedience is the most necessary thing in the world and corruptio optimi est pessima Disobedience is the greatest evil in the world and that alone which can destroy it My text is instanced in the matter of Obedience to God but yet the case is so that though I shall in the first place discourse of our Obedience to man I shall not set one foot aside from the main intention of it because Obedience to our Superiors is really and is accounted to be Obedience to God for they are sent by God they are his vicegerents his Ministers and his Embassadors Apostolus cujusque est quisque say the Jewes Every mans Apostle is himself and he that heareth or despiseth you said Christ heareth or despiseth me And the reason is very evident because it is not to be expected that God should speak to us by himself but sometimes by Angels sometimes by Prophets once by his Son and alwaies by his Servants Now I desire two things to be observed First We may as well perceive that God speaks to us when he uses the ministry of men as when he uses the ministry of Angels one is as much declared and as certain as the other And if it be said a man may pretend to come from God and yet deliver nothing but his own errand that is no strange thing but remember also that S. Paul puts this supposition in the case of an Angel If an Angel preach any other Gospel and we know that many Angels come like Angels of light who yet teach nothing but the waies of Darkness So that we are still as much bound to obey our Superior as to obey an Angel a man is paulò minor angelis a little lower then the Angels but we are much lower then the King Consider then with what fear and love we should receive an Angel and so let us receive all those whom God hath sent to us and set over us for they are no less less indeed in their Persons but not in their Authorities Nay the case is nearer yet for we are not only bound to receive God's Deputies as God's Angel but as God himself For it is the power of God in the hand of a man and he that resists resists God's ordinance And I pray remember that there is not only no power greater then God's but there is no other for all Power is his The consequent of this is plain enough I need say no more of it It is all one to us who commands God or God's Vicegerent This was the first thing to be observed Secondly there can be but two things in the world requir'd to make Obedience necessary the greatness of the Authority and the worthiness of the Thing In the first you see the case can have no difference because the thing it self is but one There is but one Authority in the world and that is God's as there is but one Sun whose light is diffused into all Kingdomes But is there not great difference in the Thing commanded Yes certainly there is some but nothing to warrant disobedience for whatever the thing be it may be commanded by man if it be not countermanded by God For 1. It is not required that every thing commanded should of it self be necessary for God himself oftentimes commands things which have in them no other excellency then that of Obedience What made Abraham the friend of God and what made his offer to kill his Son to be so pleasing to God It had been naturally no very great good to cut the throat of a little child but only that it was Obedience What excellency was there in the journeys of the Patriarchs from Mesopotamia to Syria from the land of Canaan into Egypt and what thanks could the sons of Israel deserve that they sate still upon the seventh day of the week and how can man be dearer unto God by keeping of a Feast or building of a Booth or going to Ierusalem or cutting off the foreskin of a boy or washing their hands and garments in fair water There was nothing in these things but the Obedience And when our blessed Lord himself came to his Servant to take of him the Baptisme of Repentance alas he could take nothing but the water and the ceremony for as Tertullian observes he was nullius poenitentiae debitor he was indeed a just person and needed no repentance but even so it became him to fulfil all righteousness but yet even then it was that the Holy Spirit did descend upon his holy head and crown'd that Obedience though it were but to a ceremony Obedience you see may be necessary when the law is not so For in these cases God's Son and God's Servants did obey in things which were made good only by the commandement and if we doe so in the Instances of humane Laws there is nothing to be said against it but that what was not of it self necessary is made so by the authority of the Commander and the force of the Commandement But there is more in it then so For 2ly We pretend to be willing to obey even in things naturally not necessary if a divine command does interpose but if it be only a commandement of man and the thing be not necessary of it self then we desire to be excus'd But will we doe nothing else We our selves will doe many things that God hath not commanded and may not our Superiors command us in many cases to doe what we may lawfully doe without a commandement Can we become a law unto our selves and cannot the word and power of our Superiors also become a law unto us hath God given more to a private then to a publick hand But consider the ill consequents of this fond opinion Are all the practices of Geneva or Scotland recorded in the Word of God are the trifling Ceremonies of their publick Penance recorded in the four Gospels are all the rules of decency and all things that are of good report and all the measures of prudence and the laws of peace and war and the customes of the Churches of God and the lines of publick honesty are all these described to us by the laws of God If they be let us see and read them that we may have an end to all questions and minute cases of Conscience but if they be not and yet by the Word of God these are bound upon us in the general and no otherwise then it follows that the particulars of all these which may be infinite and are innumerable yet may be the matter of humane Laws and