Church is now no babe Augustine in his time complained of the unreasonable burden of Ceremonies saying That the condition of the Jews was more tollerable in this respect than of Christians But alas how much is the burden encreased beyond that it was in his time so that the little finger now is heavier than the whole body was then Jer. 3.16 Jeremiah hath a Prophecy of Gospel-times that then the Jewes should forget the Ark i. e. all those external Symbols and Ceremonies which were in use before the Ark was laid aside and they should now be Spiritual worshippers The Antichristian Faction as if these were not Gospel-times have received many Jewish and Paganish rites and with those hypocrites which the Prophet Esay speaks of Isa 66.5 insult over the true Spiritual worshippers despising them and their plain simple Gospel-worship saying Let the Lord be glorified let him be honoured with a more decent splendid Worship such as we give him But men shall one day find that God will give them no thanks for going about to honour him with their gawdy Ceremonies Well beloved If this be a note of the true Gospel-worship that it shall not be Ceremony but Spirit then surely the Popish Ceremonious Worship and all Worship that is modell'd in imitation thereof cannot be true worship And I pray let this be considered which I have formerly hinted to you that they who burden the Church with a multitude of Ceremonies go about to destroy Gospel-worship which must not be Ceremonious and do what in them lieth to cast Christ out of the Church and to bring in Moses again and they who affect and plead for and delight in and practise a Ceremonious Worship seem to forget that these are Gospel-times And if men shall alleadge that many of the vulgar sort have as much need of such helps as the Jewes had surely this is a vain plea for we must alwayes consider how God will have his Worship to be managed surely he knows what is best and what is necessary and expedient Infer 3 If Gospel-worship be a Worship in Truth i. e. that which is consonant to the Word of God according to the true revelations of his Will that which is commanded and ordered by Christ and exercised according to the simplicity of Gospel-Intitution then all devised Wil-worship wherein there is an adding to the Word of God or a mingling of mans inventions with God's Institutions must needs be excepted against as no true Gospel-worship All Gospel-worship is built upon the sure pure foundation of Divine Gospel-institutions The Word of God doth appoint and order the Worship which he will have in every Essential part of it and it is a general Rule for Circumstantials It doth not indeed particularly command and order every circumstance but the Church must take heed that under the name of Circumstances and under pretence of Church-power herein she do not bring in Worship Meer Circumstances belonging to religious Actions are left to Humane determination but it is not left unto men to appoint any kinds parts or means of Worship Now Ceremonies properly sacred and significant by Humane Institution are judged to be more than Circumstances to be indeed parts of Worship to be Ceremonial Worship and that Worship which is not commanded by God is not warrantable approved Worship We have in the Scripture strict prohibitions of adding to the Word of God Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not adde to the word which I command you Deut. 12.32 Whatsoever thing I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not adde thereunto These Texts forbid all Humane Ordinances and establish God's Word as the onely Rule we must attend unto in his Worship Every word of God is pure Prov. 30.5 6. saith Agur. Adde thou not to his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a lyar Here is a prohibition to keep men from corrupting or adulterating the Name of God in his Word by an addition of mens inventions and traditions when they are imposed as if they were the express Will of God Then there are two great Considerations to enforce this Prohibition 1. God will reprove such Adders to his Word 2. God who is Almighty and infinitely wise and holy and just will take in hand such Corrupters of his Name and Word so that he will demonstrate to them and convince them of their horrible wickedness in adding to his Word by foysting in mens inventions and he will make them to bear their iniquity with terrour And they shall be convinced that they have lyed against God and shall be made to bear the guilt of such lying and shall suffer the punishment shall receive the doom of lyars These are weighty Considerations to deter men from corrupting the Word of God There is another terrible Text to this purpose in the close of all the Scripture Rev. 22.18 If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this Book Thus you see how the Word of God witnesseth against all devised Will-worship which is not Worship in truth Now surely if men did look at God as God and look upon the Scriptures as his Word owning the Soveraign Authority of Scripture they would then be fearful to corrupt the Worship of God seeing God in his Word doth so strictly prohibit and so earnestly testifie against such Corruption But here is the mischief that however men may say that they believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God yet they are indeed no better than Infidels concerning the Scripture and the Name of God in it Jer. 6.10 The word of God is to them a reproach they have no delight in it Men think that they have as good words as the Word of God is and that they have Traditions which are of as great Authority as God's Revelations Now when Scripture is slighted so that it lays no awe upon mens spirits no marvel that men follow their own inventions Well Beloved Gospel-worship is a Worship in truth Regular worship which hath its foundation in the Word and is ordered according to the Word of God VVe read in Scripture of pure Religion certainly Jam. 1.21 that Religion is most pure which hath its foundation and dependence upon the VVord of God and this Religion stands for ever will stand in the Judgement-day when all other Religions will be condemned to Hell The VVord of God endures for ever and so do they that conform themselves to it Now for such as slight Divine Institutions and cast off the onely sure Foundation they make other Rules to themselves and ground their Worship upon other rotten Foundations As 1. The imagination of their own hearts Me thinks saith one and another this is very good Worship this is decent and this is good order But God often forbids the setting up of such a Rule telling us that we must not follow our own hearts we must not go in the way
2. As our Father as Our Father loving Us as sons and so we are to come to him with an humble boldness as his children crying Abba Father If we cannot say Our Father we cannot worship God Thus have I answered a second Question arising from the 21th Verse Quest 3 Quest 3. How doth Christ say that they should no longer worship the Father in Jerusalem when God saith of Jerusalem Psal 132.14 that it is his Rest for ever Answ Answ That spoken in the Psalm is true especially of the Church signified by Jerusalem it is true likewise of Jerusalem the type in a limited sence Jerusalem Circumcision Legal Worship were to be for ever i. e. until Christ and the beginning of the new world in him till the coming of the Messiah Gen. 17.13 Thus the Covenant of Circumcision is called an everlasting Covenant and so it is said that the feast of the Passover should be kept by an Ordinance for ever Exod. 12 14 17 24 Exod. 40 15. and so the Levitical Priest-hood should be for ever Well this is that which our Saviour teacheth in this one and twentieth Verse That in the new Testament distinction of place for the worship of God is taken away and that the Temporary Priesthood and External Rites are abolished by Christ his coming In the Old Testament God revealed himself in the Temple over the Mercy-seat but now Christ is the true Temple and the true Propitiatory The Body being come the Shadows are vanished I pass on to the two and twentieth Verse Vers 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye worship ye know not what or that which ye know not This is spoken by way of anticipation Per praeoccupationem a Figure in Rhetorique very common Christ is here aforehand with the woman giving an Answer to a Question which she might be ready to propound having occasion given her by his former Answer She might say Though neither of these Worships must long continue yet at present one onely of them is right or one is better than the other I would know which that is Not yours saith Christ for ye worship ye know not what but ours for we worship that we know Though Christ had told the woman that both these Worshippers both of the Samaritans and the Jews should cease so that neither of them was that which shortly he would have to be yet he doth not equal them in his censure of them accounting one as good as the other but he condemns the Samaritan worship and approves of the Jewish worship viz. that which the godly among them performed As for you Samaritans ye worship ye know not what nor how though you will say you have a good meaning and direct your worship unto God and pretend the example of your fathers yet forasmuch as your worship is not directed or warranted by the Word of God Custus Dei astimandus est qui verbo Dei nobis praescribitur but taken up by you without this Rule and Foundation it is indeed an ignorant foolish worship which cannot please God but now as to the Jews while they have God his Word for their Rule and Warrant their worship is with knowledge and judgement and that which God approves of But in as much as the time is at hand when the Levitical Priest-hood and Worship shall be abolished if any Jew after such abrogation shall worship with observance of Levitical Rites his worship will then be as bad as yours is now Now let us see what Christ here teacheth Ye worship ye know not what The Samaritans in their meaning did worship a Deity yea the God of the Jews and their Worship was somewhat refined from that gross state in which it was at first yet because they did not conceive aright of God nor worship him in the appointed place and appointed mode but had another Temple and another Priesthood and Ceremonies of their own devising for this reason they are said to worship they know not what i. e. a fancy of their own brain an Idol not the true God Hence we may conclude Doctr. That it is but an idle and Idol-worship which is not directed to the true God rightly conceived of as he hath revealed himself in Scripture and which hath not Gods Word for its Foundation and Rule God himself is turned into an Idol when people have false gross apprehensions of him and worship him with any other than Scripture-worship such as is ordered or allowed by the Word of God I say when people have carnal gross unsuitable apprehensions of God or do not conceive of him aright in his Attributes Properties and Relations as he hath revealed himself in his Christ they worship an Idol in stead of God and it is vain idle worship when people follow their own or other mens inventions in stead of God his prescriptions Who but God himself can tell what worship that is with which he will be pleased Therefore hath he in the Old Testament declared his mind from time to time concerning this with many strait prohitions of adding or altering any thing In nothing substantial or circumstantial must we make our own fancies or mens inventions or prescriptions the Rule of our worship but we are tied strictly to the Word of God for the kinds and parts of Worship to have them determined by God and we are also tied in circumstanstances of worship not to act in particulars contrary to the general Rule of Scripture The matter of God's worship whatsoever is acted as a part of worship must be something commanded by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the modifying of worship we must see that nothing be done contrary to the Word or unworthy of God The Heathens grosly fancied a plurality a multitude of ridiculous gods and they tell us that each god is to be worshipped and served according to his own directions So Socrates can teach us that God is to be worshipped as he himself will And what doth the Scripture teach us why this That the Lord our God is one God and that him we must fear and keep his statutes and his commandments which he commands us God often calls upon men to take heed that they follow not their own hearts that they go not in the way which themselves shall chuse that they do not what seemeth stood in their own eyes The scope and summe of the Second Commandment is to order us in the solemn Worship of God in Religious exercises and therein under an express prohibition of Image-making and Image-worship which was the cheif invention of men for corrupting of Divine worship I say under that one instance God flatly forbids all mens devices and inventions about his Worship For this is a Rule to be observed for the understanding of the Commandments that where any sin is expresly forbidden under that general expressed all the species and individuals and degrees of that finne together with all the causes and means
Name and worship him and trust in him so that it is not in vain to serve the Lord There is profit in keeping his Ordinances Though our Worship must not be mercenary we must not look only or chiefly at the reward serving God for our selves for our own advantage yet having looked at God his Glory and aimed at a conformity to his Will we must go on in God's way looking to the reward for our support and encouragement The Apostle presseth this Argument upon himself and others Heb. 12.28 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear and this he illustrateth by insinuating the danger of not worshipping and serving God for our God is a consuming Fire And with this Argument Moses presseth the people of Israel to a care of true Worship and due Obedience Take heed unto your selves lest ye forget the Covenant of the Lord your God Deut. 4.23 24. c. for the Lord thy God is a consuming Fire even a jealous God God hath power to destroy those that despise his Worship and he will not spare in the day of Vengeance but will pour out his Wrath upon the Families that call not upon his Name upon the people that will not worship him They that will not worship God but sleight and despise all Counsels and Exhortations thereunto shall perish as the Enemies of Christ that will not have him to Reign over them In Isa 65. we may read severe threats against those that would not worship God according to his Will and sweet Promises to his faithful Servants and true Worshippers Ye are they that forsake the Lord Isa 65.11 12 13 and forget my holy Mountain c. Therefore will I number you to the Sword c. Behold my Servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my Servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed c. God Mal 3.16 17 18. by the Prophet Malachy tells us that he will own true Worshippers those that fear him and serve him they are dear and precious to him his Jewels and he will deal Fatherly and lovingly with them Then shall ye return and discern between the Righteous and the Wicked c. It shall one day clearly appear what difference there is between the godly and the wicked what difference God puts between the one and the other when he shall deal with the one as a tender Father and in great Mercy save him and with the other as a severe Judge and in great fury destroy him I will add but one word more to excite you to a care of worshipping God aright Look again into the Scripture and you shall find that God hath engaged his Name and his Truth to save the people that call upon his Name that worship him in Truth See for this Rom. 10.13 Rom. 10.13 The former verse endeth thus The same Lord over all is Rich unto all that call upon him Now he doth by Scripture confirm this that God is rich in Mercy to all true Believers and holy Worshippers he calls in the Prophet Joel to attest this For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Here is a promise of Temporal and Eternal Salvation to such as in Faith worship God with a holy Worship They shall be saved with a temporal Salvation saved in trouble i. e. supported under it and saved from trouble in due time delivered out of it and they shall be Eternally saved delivered from the Wrath to come and received up to Glory to live with God for ever Now let this be the great Argument to perswade you to become Worshippers of God to acquaint your selves with God and give your selves up to him to search out and to study his Will and to give him the Worship and Service of the inward and outward man performing all outward Worship regularly according to the Scripture-Rule The Text last mentioned tells you who shall be saved viz. They that call upon the Name of the Lord. i. e. such as know and acknowledge God and believe his Word and believe in his Son and love and fear God and strive to please him and worship him in Spirit and in Truth You can have no hopes to be Saved as long as you are ignorant and unbelieving and fearless and graceless and dutyless while you continue to be of such a gain-saying spirit that you will not be called off from sinne and the world unto God so long as you continue despisers of God his Ordinances and Worship or while your Worship is carnal and superstitious as long as it is thus with you you are far from Salvation Therefore my beloved let us call upon the Name of the Lord let us become true Worshippers of God that we may lay hold upon this Gospel-promise and may have some well-grounded hope of Salvation through Christ Jesus Thus I have dispatched the first Point which is implied in the Text viz. That all right Gospel-professers true professors of the Christian Religion are true Gospel-worshippers worshippers of the true God according to the Principles and Rules of the Religion which they profess Real Christians do indeed Worship the Father Now I come to handle the second Doctrine which is the substance and express matter of the Text. Doct. 2 True Gospel-worship is a Worship in Spirit and in Truth This Proposition requires Explication I shall therefore explain both the Subject and the Predicate First Explication Here is the Subject Gospel-worship What is Gospel-worship 1. I take the term Worship here in a stricter sence than in the former point understanding it of Instituted Worship that which depends on and is consonant to the Revelation of God his Will any way or means appointed by God for the excercising of natural Worship which is due to God as God any Religious work or duty of Divine appointment to be performed unto God directed more immediately to him 2. Gospel-worship is a Worship suitable to Gospel-times and agreeable to the Gospel-rule Secondly Now to open the Predicate that you may see what it is to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth I shall not trouble you with the various significations of these tearms Spirit and Truth but only shew you what is the proper notion of them in our Text and Doctrine I have already told you that our Saviour here opposeth Gospel-worship to both the former Worships spoken of in the Context that of the Samaritans and that of the Jewes The Samaritan Worship was Hypocritical and Counterfeit invented worship not that which God had appointed either for the internals or externals of it It was heartless Devotion and uninstituted Worship The Jewish Worship as to the External part of it as Instituted by God stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and legal purifications and in offering sacrifices of Beasts and fruits and such like things carnal Rites and Ordinances Heb.
is the destruction of good order and a breach of the publick peace and matter of scandal or an occasion of sinning unto others A very learned and Orthodox Writer hath these distinctions among others in the discussion of this great question which we are now in hand with Well Determ now to conclude something in Answer to this Inquiry Whether humane Laws or the Commands of men do bind the Conscience Concerning which I lay down this in General Humane Laws do and do not bind the Conscience For the understanding of this we must with Aquinas distinguish of Laws he tells us That Laws of humane Position or Sanction are either Righteous or Vnrighteous and thus he concludes Justae leges humanae obligant in soro Conscientiae ratione legis aternae c. The righteous Laws of men have a binding power in the Conscience as they are grounded upon derived from and agreeabe to the Eternal Law the Law of God and no further for only God's Laws do simply and per se bind the Conscience But unrighteous Laws saith he bind not in the Court of Conscience Leges auteminjustae non obligant c. unless in some cases as for the avoiding of scandal and with respect to the publick peace c. Yea saith he f those Laws of men be unrighteous per contrarietatem ad bonum Divinum as contrary to Divine good or the Law of God as if Rulers should make Laws binding to an Idolatrous Profession or Worship or to any thing contrary to the Law of God We are bound in Conscience not to obey such Laws it is meet that we should obey God rather than men And in another place he hath this conclusion 2da 2dae qu. 104. Art 5. Subditi in iis tantummodo Superioribus suis obedire tenentur in quibus ipsi Superioribus subjiciuntur in quibus ipsi Superiores sublimioris potestatis praecepto non adversantur This in General Particularly for a full determination of the Question there might be many distinct conclusions laid down according to the diverse distinctions of Persons or Powers that make Laws or give Commands with respect to the diversity of the Subject about which they are as relating to the matters Civil or Ecclesiastical but I shall adde only a few words 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively Negatively I lay down these three Positions 1. Mens commands oblige not the Conscience directly and immediately as God's Commands do but by the intervention of God's Command It is the command of God that binds my Conscience to observe any command of man Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man 1 Pet. 2 1â— Eccles 8.10 for the Lord's sake saith the Apostle Peter Keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God i. e. not onely for fear of man but also and chiefly for fear of wronging thy Conseience toward God 2. Humane Laws bind not the Conscience universally and unlimitedly as the Laws of God do I must examine the constitutions of men by the Laws of God and see whether they be righteous or no whether they be not contrary to God's Law and if I find them so I am bound in Conscience to deny active obedience 3. The Commands of men do not bind absolutely as the Laws of God do There may be a due subjection in some cases unto man by suffering the penalty though obedience be withholden The result of all is this That no voice but the Voice of God must be heard in the Conscience as commanding there and binding indispensibly to obedience and let me add this That it is antichristian for men to set up their own Will as a rule of sin and duty to take it upon them to give Laws to the Conscience This is St. Paul his Character of Antichrist that he as God 2 Thes 2.4 sitteth in the Temple of God i. e. in the Church he sitteth as God i. e. saith Diodate making himself absolute Lord of Consciences bringing them to his obedience The setting up of another Law-giver then Christ is properly Antichristianism What saith Calvin As long as the Pope exerciseth Tyranny over the Conscience we shall not cease to call him Antichrist nay we shall go further saith he and call them members of Antichrist who take such snares upon their Consciences Now Affirmatively and positively concerning this question of the binding power of humane Laws in the Conscience I conclude thus That all Laws and Commands of men in Power to which the order of the Power doth rightfully and duly extend it self are to be obeyed for Conscience sake and all such constitutions of men as are fundamentally or reductively and interpretatively the Commands of God or which enjoyn that which hath allowance from the Word of God all such have a binding power in the Court of Conscience not directly and immediately indeed upon account of man's ordination as they are humane Ordinances but as they are God his Laws propounded and enforced by a civil sanction and as they fall in duty under that general Command of obeying those that are over us in the Lord. Prop. Now I come to prove and demonstrate the point which hath been opened That every soul must be subject to the higher powers i. e. every person must reverence and obey Rulers and Magistrates Proof This duty lies clearly and fully in the Text but see further proof My Son fear thou God Prov. 24 2â— Tit. 3.1 and the King Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to reverence and obey Magistrates 1 Pet. 2.13 14. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supream or unto Governours as to them that are sent by him and to this subjection God boweth the hearts of Subjects God saith David Psal 144. subdueth my people under me Thus the people of Israel were subject to Joshua their cheif Magistrate Josh 4.14 They reverenced him They were obedient to him All that thou commandest us Josh 7.16 17. we will do and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go as we bearkned to Moses in all things so we will hearken unto thee onely the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses This last clause only the Lord c. seems to be a restriction and wary honest interpretation of their promise and engagement to Joshua Junius reads it thus Tantum videto Videto ut Deus tibi adsit sicut Moschi tu ab eo non recedas c. c. only see that God be with thee as he was with Moses guiding thee and dictating commands to thee and that thou depart not from God but keep close to his Commands as Moses did They would have Joshua to know that they were not so rash as to engage themselves unlimitedly to obey him in all things in case he should command any thing according to his own will and lust but so farre forth as
once enjoyn and earnestly press subjection to Magistrates There is a wide difference betwixt that liberty which Christ hath purchased for us and that libertinism which Fanatical spirits plead for And as to that other Text which they urge 1 Cor. 7.23 Ye are bought with a price be ye not the servants of men To this I Answer that the Apostle there speaking of the subjection of Servants to their Masters forbiddeth sinful subjection and not civil subjection By Servants of men he meaneth not those that do civil service to their Superiours he forbids not Christians thus to be servants but he speaks of an inclination to gratifie their finful desires and a readiness to obey their wicked Commands for servants were then forced by threatnings and strips and by the terrours of death to obey all the Commands of their unbelieving Masters were they never so dishonest and wicked therefore the Apostle gives this admonition to believing Servants that were under the power of such Masters to take heed that they be not terrified into wickedness that they so serve men as not to offend God and wrong their own Consciences Thus Pareus interprets the place and so Chrysostome Noliâ—e eis parere si impia praecipiant Obey not their ungodly Commands And this admonition is very suitable with respect to the subjection and obedience of Subjects to their Rulers and Magistrates I may and must serve and obey the Magistrate but I must not sin at his Command * Major erga Deum obligatio quam erga homines illa absoluta haec conditionalis Supremae majestati debetur major reverentia Domino quam servo major obedientia When men command what God forbids in such a case God must be obeyed rather than men Walk ye not in the Statutes of your Fathers Ezek. 20.18 19. c. Walk in my Statutes I wish saith Calvin that these things were deeply printed in the minds of all men then would not so many serve the lusts of men as if they themselves were to be bought and sold Well here is the point They whom Christ makes free are free indeed but it is from bondage to their own and other mens lusts not from obedience to the honest Commands and righteous Laws of their Superiours Divers other frivolous objections and absurd pleas there are which have been fully answered over and over again and the Answers are in Print Obj. In Christ say they all are equal there is no distinction of Superiours and Inferiours Gal. 3 28. all are one in Christ Sol. To this it is Answered That politick inequality is not against Spiritual equality Obj. And whereas it is alleadged That Christ is the Christians only King therefore Christians must be subject only to Christ. Sol. The Answer is That though Christ be the sole King of the Church yet he is not the only King in the Church nor is his Kingdom contradictory to or destructive of civil Powers and Government Subordinata non pugnant There is no repugnancy where there is a subordination Kings in the Church serve Christ the great King of the Church and Christ keepeth up Order and maintaineth Government in the Common-wealth for his Church's sake for his own Kingdom 's sake I shall go no further in this Use of Confutation nor shall I stay much longer in the Application of the point only I shall add one word for Information and another of Exhortation Vse 2 We see here Information that Piety is not opposite to civil Authority that true Christianity opposeth not Magistracy that Religion maketh not Rebels but Subjects for subjection and obedience to Magistrates is one of the Principles of true Religion Indeed this is the common slaunder raised by the Devil and his Instruments against Christ and his Kingdom and Servants as if the true Religion and Professors of it were most dangerous to civil States as if the best men were the worst Subjects as if those that are most Religious were worst to be trusted as if there were most need to watch them and keep them under See what an Oration Haman made against God his people stuffing it with malignant Criminations Est 3.8 See what a pestilent Letter Rehum and Shimshai wrote against the Jews sending it to the King Artaxerxes Ezra 4.11 Was not Christ himself accused and condemned as an Enemy to Caesar and a mover of Sedition was it not laid to Paul his charge once and again that he was a pestilent fellow and a mover of Sedition and a Sect-master And thus Popish and profane and Atheistical malignant Spirits have been alwayes ready to cast such aspersions upon sincere Professours of the Gospel upon the most Religious and Conscientious and faithful Ministers and people Oh! they are Factious and Fanatical they are troublers of the Church and State they have a Spirit of Rebellion in them it is not fit they should live Thus the Devil would scare men from embracing the Truth and the Ordinances of Christ and from all forwardness in professing Religion But doubtless the godly Preachers and sincere professors of the Gospel are so far from denying the right of Princes and from a Spirit of Rebellion as that the Doctrine which they bring and which they entertaine and desire to hold fast establisheth the power of Rulers in their hands They are as one saith like Solomon his Workmen that built the Temple and built the Kings's Throne too And surely the more that any man takes in the Principles of the Gospel and of a Christian and the more power Religion hath upon his heart the better Subject will he be The Gospel commandeth all lawful obedience even to Infidel Magistrates such as were when Paul wrote this Epistle to the Romans and the more that the Doctrine of the Gospel comes in power upon the heart the more and better obedience there will be Rulers have no better friends than such as make Conscience of their wayes they are the best subjects to Princes on earth that do truly fear the God of Heaven These pray for Rulers while others do Curse and Swear and drink Healths as they call them thus constantly breaking the Kings Laws and by their wickedness provoking God to bring Judgement upon King and people These that fear God obey for Conscience sake and so as to keep a good Conscience when others obey onely for fear or according to their humour and without Conscience and however such talk of Loyalty and boast themselves the only Loyalists it would I think be no hard matter to demonstrate that none can be truly and certainly Loyal but such as are truly religious They that do not truly fear God do not truly Honour the King Though they may flatter Rulers for their own ends and be ready to serve them in many things so farre as they may serve themselves upon them and carry on their own designes and in those matters that may suit with their own humors yet to serve their lusts