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
can in the ordinary establishment of things teach to do Whatsoever therefore has been impiously pretended to the contrary 't is evident that the Original of Sovereign Power is Divine and consequently if our Religion be so too it must teach a reverence and submission to those that have their Powers delegate from the Great Governor of the World Fourthiy If it be considered that Obedience to Magistrates and the not resisting their Authority be absolutely necessary for the Peace of the World and to secure the undeniable Interest of all Mankind it will from thence I think clearly follow that 't is a necessary portion of Christian Religion For I think 't is a Proposition Universally true That whatsoever is truly necessary for the Interest of Mankind in their several Societies and Relations to each other is in the Moral Obligations to it effectually provided for and secured by the Laws of the Blessed Jesus Now 't is impossible but all must own that nothing can be more absolutely and immediately destructive to the Interest of all Societies of men than disobedience to and resisting of the Governors of them and consequently upon that very account it must be repugnant to the Laws of the Gospel There is nothing the whole World has more entirely agreed in than the absolute necessity of Government without which all those intolerable mischiefs would ensue which every gratification of a private Humour or Eust could Produce And Obedience to Governours stands upon the same invincible Necessities that Government it self does for without this the other is but a name and a speculation impossible to subsist or to serve any of the needs of Mankind I will name a few of those horrible mischiefs that would certainly destroy the Peace of the World if the resisting Governors were upon any pretext allowed lawful And first Every private mans Rights Liberty and Property would be exposed to every Invasion and could not possibly be fixed with any sort of certainty or safety Search the Annals of the World and see if these darlings of Mankind were not always exposed to Rapine and Ruin whenever the Sovereign Power has been resisted 't is the natural and certain Consequent of a Rebellion against the Supreme Governor to spoil and oppress particular Persons The stories of our own Late Horrible Confusions are fresh enough in mens memories to prove this to be true Liberty and Property has been the cry of the Faction a long time It was to secure these as they pretended that they raised that Horrid Rebellion during the Reign of that Royal Martyr of Blessed Memory the Father of our present Glorious Monarch and the remaining Ruins of many Families and Estates can witness how well they did it And the Present Rebellion will give a good account no question of the preservation of the Liberties and Properties of men when we shall know how many honest People are undone by their Violences and Outrages besides what the Actors in it have exposed themselves to from publick Justice which if God be merciful to us will shortly overtake them And moreover if one Traytor succeeds in his Attempts the same or better Principles will induce others to disobey him and so there is no end of Confusion and Disorder Secondly If it might be admitted lawful on any Pretext whatsoever to resist Governors unless the reserved cases were effectually stated published and owned which I think is not possible to be supposed the mischievous effects would be the same as if it might be done on any account without reserve And if this were done yet we know that the Populace is so easily wheadled by the Heads of a Faction with the noise of a few taking words and are so ready to receive any impressions that may prejudice them against their Governors and so easie and forward to determine in favour of those that dare to oppose them that if there should have been but one reserved case in which it were lawful to resist 't is no hard thing to believe that all and every thing would have been drawn to it and one such exempted case would have rendred all Government unable to preserve it self and liable to be unhinged by every Designing Rebel that has but cunning enough to manage the Many Headed Beast into the clamouring up of his Pretences and abetting his Designs than which nothing can sooner or more certainly destroy the best and wisest establishments of any Society of men in the World Thirdly Another mischievous effect of opposing Magistrates is the Letting and Disturbing the course of publick Justice in all its Branches which thing alone necessitates the decay of a Community and which naturally results from that evil I am disswading from For when Governors are forced to take care to secure themselves against Rebellion and Invasion of their Authority how can they be at Liberty or indeed have the Power if the Party that opposes them be Formidable of securing the Rights of their Subjects by the peaceable Administrations of Justice For then Malefactors that are single escape from Justice to make up the force and numbers of them that Invade it And indeed of such Dregs of Mankind do such Tumults generally consist Then private differences about Property must be delayed 'till it be seen whether the Government be able to support itself and secure the execution of its own most just Determinations And in the mean time 't is not unlikely that all that do wrong will be at least abettors of those that oppose Authority if it be but that they may the longer continue their Vsurpations upon the Rights of their Neighbours and the injured Person has his wrong greatned to him by the delay and is discouraged too in his Obedience to those that should and can't relieve him Lastly That I may Epitomize the proof of this whole matter It shall be sufficient to add the consideration of the sad stories of our Late Confusions How many are there still among us that need no more than their own Memory and Observation to convince them that nothing can be a greater plague to a Society of men in every respect than a Popular Rage And those of us that did not live in those days yet cannot sure be altogether ignorant of the wretched effects of that Vnchristian Anarchy if we have but a little considered the occurrences of our own time We can never be so liable to be injured by the worst of Monarchy as by the Invasions of Government under any pretence whatever And moreover every man I think can bear a wrong or injury from his Prince with more patience and less vexation than he can from the unruly Rage of his Inferior or Servant or those that he has maintained by his Charity and yet these we must expect and suffer whenever Rebellion breaks out as is evident from the History of the Late Times as we call them in very many Examples Tragical enough I am persuaded that I am not mistaken when I affirm that there
our eternal safety I must certainly appear to you to serve the Interests of your Immortalities when I persuade and exhort you to avoid that which does so greatly endanger them and this is what you have been taught to call Soul-saving Doctrine Lastly I have opportunity here to present you as I do with a most hearty and persuasive Address that might induce you from the consideration of your Religion to resolve upon a firm steady and unstained Loyalty to his Majesty that now is Our Lawful and Vndoubted Sovereign whom God long preserve that we may none of us so much as seem to wish well to those that are doing what in them lies to hurry us into the most miserable Anarchy and Confusion Consider how contrary to the Religion we all Profess such Accursed Practises are and let us by all means avoid the encouraging any such Designing and Restless Heads as can never so much as pretend to protect our Religion 'till they have first violated it in the most necessary parts of it Never say to them God speed lest if we partake with them in their Sins God give us to partake with them in their Plagues But amidst all the Tragical noises with which evil men would Alarm our fears to desperate Actions let us be persuaded to calm our minds with the remembrance of the watchful and wise Conduct of Divine Providence which superintends all affairs below and peculiarly those of his Church let us not forget the experiences of Divine care for our Religion which has been gloriously discovered for it in all the necessities it has been in Psal 22. 4 5. Let us abide upon the Gracious and Repeated Promise of as Just a Prince as ever swayed the Scepter over us But then let us be faithful to the Government that that may not be uneasie to us And that we may be the more engaged to practise what I exhort to consider we all that Hereby we shall create to ourselves strong and sure titles to the Divine Protection for God did never for sake or forget those that in Piety and Charity submission to his own Appointments and Obedience to his Deputies in the World and perseverance in well-doing have committed their causes to him Hereby we endear ourselves to our Prince who will always value Loyal and Obedient Subjects and Protect that Religion that teaches men to be so Hereby we add a Lustre to our Profession while we walk worthy of that Holy Name that is named upon us And render that and ourselves truly Honourable to all Mankind and especially to those that Govern us And let us never forget That amending our lives and living strictly according to the rules of our Religion is the best and only way to Protect that and ourselves in the peaceable enjoyment of it To Conclude and to give you a short but full direction how you may accomplish all these blessed and happy purposes I exhort you in the Name of God that you go on heartily to espouse and steadily to persevere in the Communion of the Church of England to revere her Governours to value her Teachers and to practise her Doctrines By so doing you will be sure to tread aright and be out of danger of being beguiled by any false pretences or insinuations into any actions that may become hurtful to yourselves or your Religion Here you will find to be taught unspotted Piety towards God firm Loyalty to our Prince hearty and extensive Charity to one another and if we do and persevere in doing these things we shall never fall But amidst all the Changes and Vncertainties of an uneasie World shall be supplied with the fresh assistances of God's Holy Spirit proper to our states and so guided by the particular care of his wakeful Providence that we shall at the last attain the accomplishment of all our Desires and the reward of all our Labours in portions of an endless and unconceivable Bliss Which God of his Infinite Mercy Grant to us All through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Eternal Comforter be Glory and Honour and Praise Now and Ever Amen FINIS