THe Title of this Book suits ve­ry well with the Contents of it, being for the most part made up of Proverbs or Sen­tences, short and sweet, such as are the de­lights of the sons of men. The word from which they are translated signifies Rule, Superiority, or Excellency; because these of all other Speeches challenge the [Page 2] preheminence. Such as for their brevity may be retained in a shallow Memory; and for their plainness may be apprehended by a Vulgar capacity. And without con­troversie, these are some of those three thousand which Solomon spake; the major part whereof (as it is probably conjectu­red by learned Authors) perished in the Babylonish Captivity. 1 King. 4.42.

But as a man might judge of the pro­portion of Hercules his body by the im­pression of his foot; Ex pede Hercu­lem. and as by those love­ly Clusters of Grapes which the Spies brought from the Land of Canaan, the Israelites might satisfie themselves of the fruitfulness of that Soil from whence they were taken; so by these, as a taste, we ghess at the excellency of the rest. In the reading whereof, we shall find that veri­fied, which his Subjects upon his first piece of Justice did acknowledge, that the Wisdom of God was in him. 1 King. 3.28. There are enough of them yet left to make up a compleat Epitome of the whole Scri­pture: So that it is hard to say, whether we ought most to blame the malice of the Churches Enemies for the loss of the rest, and of other choice pieces; or to praise and extol the most wise Providence and great love of God, for reserving a sufficiency in [Page 3] these and the rest of the sacred Canon, to guide his Elect to their future bliss and happiness.

Among these Proverbs of King Solomon, which are not a few, I have made choice of one which contains in it a Subjects duty to his Soveraign. A Doctrine which for some years was too great a Stranger to many of our English Pulpits, and as great an one to the practice of English Sub­jects. The one thundring out Curses a­gainst Meroz, for not coming in freely and fully enough to the pretended help of the Lord against the Mighty. The other thereby either awed, or cheated into a hor­rid Rebellion against the Lords Annointed; as if it were a thing impossible for that man which feared his King to fear his God; whereas this Text tells us in effect the contrary, and that that Subject whoever he be, or whatever he pretends to, that hath shaken hands with the fear of his King, hath also at the same instant bid fare­well to the fear of his God, This Scri­pture hath joined God and the King to­gether; and I dare boldly proclaim him an enemy to both, that shall presume to sever or put them asunder.

The Text minds us of three things: Division.

• [Page 4]1. Of a Duty that is owing, and that is Fear.
• 2. Of the Subject, by whom it must be paid, My Son.
• 3. Of the Object to whom it is due, and that is two-fold, God and the King. And, which shews that their interests are so interwoven, that he that fears one fears both, and he that fears not both, fears neither.

When the stately Fabrick of our English Monarchy was undermined and blown up by Anarchy, this Doctrine was buried in the Rubbish of its Ruines.Before I enter upon the parts, accord­ing to that order which I intend, by Gods assistance to bound my discourse with, I conceive it very requisite to clear the Text of that Rubbish which the late loose and licentious Times have cast upon it; that so I may proceed with the less interruption in the erection of such a structure, as I hope will bear some proportion to this Royal Foundation, which was laid by him whom Wisdom it self commends for the wisest of Kings. This cast up in two Heaps, in order to its removal. In order whereunto, I have thought it the best way for its quic­kest dispatch out of the way, to gather it up into two Heaps.

The first heap Obj.1. Some there have been in the World possessed with a Spirit of Anarchy, who have assumed to themselves the boldness to draw up a Charge against this Charge, [Page 5] or rather against the Author of it, K. Solomon ac­cused of Self-ends. as that he aimed too much at self; that this Les­son which he would have his Subjects to learn, savours more of Interest than of E­quity: and that little regard is to be had to what a King shall say in such a case, who if allowed to be his own Carver, will not fail to cut large Morsels to feed his own insatiable Prerogative: Let God al­low him but an Inch, and he will take an Ell. God gives him his name, Psal. 82.6. (I said ye are Gods) therefore he thinks it no robbery to be equal with God, or at least to go halfs with him in his Worship. Such black dirt they fear not to cast in the face of Majesty; as if what he had written had been from his own private motion, and not from Divine Inspiration; although they cannot but know, if they know any thing, that this whole Book and every part and parcel thereof, is of as much Autho­rity with their holy Mother the Church, as any of the other which are reputed Ca­nonical.

Those who make this Objection, Sol. The Character of the Obje­ctors, and their design detected. are such for the most part, whose judgments have been sowred with the Leaven of Le­velling Principles, that would advance the Shrub to the height of the Cedar, or bring down the loftiest Cedar to the estate of the [Page 6] lowest Shrub: Who if they may not be all Kings, will allow of no Kings at all. Their endeavours are to bring all to an Anarchy, and to the end of that Anarchy, viz. a Parity, which in effect makes a Kingdom a Monster, a Body without a Head: 1 Cor. 14.33. Opposing therein all Order, and by consequence him, His Right pleaded. who is the God not of Confusion, but of Order. The same God that made all Men, made all Degrees and Orders of Men; some high, others low; some Kings to govern, others Sub­jects to obey: as he hath put a difference in the Coelestial Lights, 1 Cor. 15.41. so that there is one glory of the Sun, another glory of the Moon, and another glory of the Stars; and these glorious Stars differ from one another in glory: so hath he put the like among the chiefest of all his subcoelestial Creatures, Men, both as to their external condi­tions, and their internal qualifications. And so I might pass over this without any further trouble, having given this short Character of these mens Faction, Opinion, and Design; which of themselves without any further Argument, are a suffi­cient Confutation. But to convince such (if possible) of their errour, and to confirm others in that Allegiance which they owe, and desire as good Christians, and good [Page 7] Subjects to pay to Gods Vicegerent, their Lord and King. It will not be amiss to take a little pains to discover the igno­rance or malice of those that make this Objection.

Certainly they can have no just cause to accuse Solomon of Self-ends, sith in that Precept of his in the Text, he requires no more as a King, then what God who is the King of Kings gave him, in giving him a Kingdom. And if they think him, be­cause a Party concerned, no fit Judge in the case, surely we have as much reason to refuse to admit them, who are Plain­tiffs, to the Umpirage. In all judicial proceedings, especially about meum & tuum, there is a Plaintiff, a Defendant, and a Judge who hath a determining Power, having heard both Parties; so that nei­ther of them shall be their own Carvers; but are to acquiesce in the decision of that third person. Here are the Plaintiffs, namely, these Objectors; and here is the Defendant, viz. Solomon, in the just de­fence of his own Rights: the Question is, who shall be the Judge? None so fit, I conceive, The Decis [...]on of the Contro­versie refer­red to the blessed Tri­nity. to decide this Controversie be­tween the King and his Subjects, as he who made both King and Subjects: whom the Holy Spirit of God in the [Page 8] mouth of good Jehoshaphat, 1 Chron. 19.7. proposeth as a pattern for all Judges to imitate. Nei­ther need they fear that in his Court, which is made up altogether of equity, Might will overcome Right, for with him is no respect of persons; or that a Gift will blind his eyes, and cause him to pervert Justice: if any were so wicked as to offer it, yet God is more righteous then to accept it. If you would know his mind in the Case, you must have recourse to his infallible Oracles the Holy Scri­ptures; which judge it for Solomon, con­demning the other for injuriously detain­ing his right. These will tell you how unanimously the holy, blessed, and undi­vided Trinity, concur in that Decision; that God the Father hath given us a Law, God the Son hath set us a Pattern, and God the Holy Ghost hath inspired the Prophets and Apostles in the Times of the Old and New Testament, to call upon all Subjects to pay this duty to their Princes.

I. God the Fa­ther.1. I suppose few, unless they be pro­fessed Atheists, will dispute the Divine Institution of that Law which Moses re­ceived on the Mountain to deliver to the People; but subscribe to its Preface, as a truth which they are very well satisfied [Page 9] in, that God spake all those words; and if all, then those, Honour thy Father and thy Mother, which in order in our com­mon account is the fifth, but in St. Pauls the first with promise; that is, Ephes. 6.2. with a particular promise, or promise made to the obedience of that particular com­mand. The second hath a promise anne­xed, but that is more general, not restraind to that single precept, but is extended ge­nerally to the obedience of the whole Law, shewing mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments. We usually reckon it the first of the second, but Philo the Jew the last of the first Table. Philo Jed. As though men had never performed their whole duty to their Father in Heaven, unless they give the honour there requi­red to their Fathers here on Earth, which bear his Image: therefore he joined them both together in the same Table, as Solo­mon doth God and the King in the same precept here in the Text.

But some perhaps will be apt to que­stion, Quest. what a King can challenge from his Subjects, by virtue of that Command now under consideration; wherein neither King nor Subject are so much as named? These are to consider, Answ. that the word Fa­ther is not of so narrow a Construction as [Page 10] they would seem to conceive; yet that (it may be) too large for their duty too; but it is to be understood of all who are called by that name, Natural Fa­thers. or which for their Fatherly care deserve to be so called. Besides Natural Fathers from whom we have our being of Nature, Spiritual Fa­thers. there are which are so called in a Spiritual sense; that is, Ministers; from whom, under God, we have our being of Grace, without which it would be better if we had never been at all. Saint Paul tells the Corinthians, which is not a syllable more then what another Minister may say of any, where his labour hath found the like success, though you have many Instructors, yet ye have not many Fathers, 1 Cor. 4.15. for in Christ Jesus I have be­gotten you through the Gospel.

Oeconom. Fa­thers.Moreover there be Oeconomical Fa­thers, such as are Masters to their Servan [...]s; [Father if the Prophet had commanded thee some great thing, 2 Kings 5.15. wouldst thou not have done it] say Naamans Servants to their Lord, when they heard him dispute so passio­nately against the means of his cure.

Fathers by Age. 1 Tim. 5.12.There are also old men, whom for their Age we ought to reverence as Fathers. In former Times those persons were loo­ked upon with an eye of respect by all who pretended to civility, although their out­ward [Page 11] condition were never so mean; who had outlived the sight of their eyes, or the taste of their palats, on whose head the Almond Tree did flourish, and on whose foreheads Age had plowed her deepest furrows. It was noted as an ill Omen, and a sign of great confusion, when the Children presumed against the Anti­ents; Isa. 3.5. Lament. 5.12. and when the faces of the Elders were not had in honour.

Shall these, and several others be thought for more particular care, Fathers of their Country. (the Fa­ther of his Children, the Minister of his Flock, the Master of his Servants, the Tu­tor of his Pupils, the Schoolmaster of his Scholers, &c.) worthy; and do not Kings much more deserve it, if faithful in the discharge of their trust, that have the care of all their Subjects incumbent upon them? Adrian. Non mihi seit Populo Rex [...]. Adrian the Emperour was wont to say he was a King, not for himself, but for his People; conceiving himself obliged by virtue of his Office, to mind more the common good of his Subjects then the particular good of himself. Such mens honours are not (if deserved) without their burdens: Honos Onus. and though the outsides of their Crowns be set with precious stones, which make a glorious shew, da­zling the eyes of their Spectators, yet they [Page 12] sit very uneasie upon their heads; being lined with the pricking Thorns of those daily cares, which do attend them. Nei­ther are their temples so compassed with the one, as their minds are besieged with the other. That King in Homer, com­plained that great Jupiter in that respect, had made but little difference between him and a Prisoner, accounting his Cares his Prison. Augustus. And it is storied of Augustus a Roman Emperour, that hearing of a Ro­man Knight who was imprisoned for debt, and yet slept as sweetly as if he were at liberty and owed no man the value of a penny; he sent after his death to buy his Bed, conceiving there must be something more then ordinary in it. If so, Princes more then any have need of such Beds; because they of all men have most cares. And the same Author relates a saying of the same Emperour to his Livia, [...]. Dio. Cass. Numb. 11.12. Had we not businesses, and cares, and fears, above any private persons, we should be equal to the gods: their breasts are as the Ocean, whereinto the cares of private men do empty themselves. And their affection is excellently exprest by that Phrase of carrying their Subjects in their Bosome: and little do they know the tender bowels there are in their Governours towards [Page 13] them, borrowing time from their own rest to plot and contrive for their good; if they did, they would value them at a higher rate then most of them do.

When Julius Caesar had overcome Pom­pey, Julius Caesar. at that fatal Battle fought between them in the Pharsalian Fields, and had pursued his Victory so far as Egypt, whi­ther he fled, and where he was basely murdered; his two Sons Sextus and Cneius, heirs of their Fathers Valour and Misfortunes, one of them being slain at Munda in Spain, the other forced to shel­ter himself in Celtiberia; Sextum fortuna in Celtiberia abscondit. Florus de Gest. Roman. in so much that an end was generally conceived to be put to those Civil Wars, which owed its rise and original to the stout Spirit of the one, and the haughty Courage of the other; or rather to the boundless ambition of both: the one brooking no Superior, the other no Equal. The Senate at his return, the bet­ter to express their gratitude for their de­liverance from the miseries of that War, welcomed him home with new invented Titles of Honour; stiling him among o­thers, The Father of his Country, Pater Patriae. and the same was afterwards conferred upon ma­ny that succeeded him: yea, Roma Patrem Patriae Cice­ronem libera dixit. Juvenal. Sat. 8. the Romans thought they could not give an higher to those who deserved the highest, for their care of the Commonwealth.

[Page 14]Several hundreds of years before this, we find it in use in other Nations. Orus. Orus the third of the Pharaohs or Kings of the Egyptian Rule, who swayed the Scepter of that Kingdom about two thousand and two hundred years after the Worlds Cre­ation, was that Pharaoh which advanced Joseph to be his Vice Roy, changing his Iron Fetters into a Chain of Gold, his Rags, into Robes, and his Stocks into a Chariot, wherein he rid in State, with a multitude of Attendants, and an Herald proclaimed before him Abrech, Gen. 41.43. that is, say some, the Kings Father. An interpre­tation that sutes exactly with his own ex­pression, Gen. 45.8. when he made himself known to his brethren, God hath made me a Fa­ther to Pharaoh, Lord of all his house, and Ruler throughout all the Land of Egypt. But whether it agrees so well with the Original, I have not skill enough in that Language to determine. According to St. Jeroms translation, St. Jerom. it sounds as much as a tender Father, as having a tender care both of his and his Subjects weal, contri­ving and advising an effectual way in a te­dious Famine, to supply them with ne­cessaries for the support of their lives; and when the management of it was com­mitted to his trust, he discharged it with [Page 15] that prudence and integrity, that he gained the love both of Prince and People. What respect the first had to him, we may ga­ther from the name which he imposed on him, viz. Saviour of the World. Zaphnathpa [...] ­neah. Gen. 41.45. Julius Fir­micus. And what an high veneration the other had for him, an ancient Ecclesiastical Author informs us, that the Egyptians finding themselves infinitely obliged for his care and provi­dence, consecrated him under the name of Serapis, that carried a measure of Corn upon his head, to signifie that he was the god who had given them bread.

Once more, This Title applied as afore­said, pleads a longer prescription yet a­mong the Philistines, who were governed at first by one King, sometimes by five, according to the number of their princi­pal Cities, but always united in the time of any approaching danger; and whatever was the name of the King his title was Abimelech. The King of Gerar, when A­braham went to sojourn there, Gen. 21.1, 2. is called A­bimelech. Chap. 26.26. So likewise is he that came to Beersheba desiring a League with Isaac, sup­posed (by the distance of time) to be a­nother of the same name, it being by com­putation fourscore years between his first sojourning there with his Father, and this which was after his Fathers death; and [Page 16] questionless they kept the same so long as it was a Kingdom, till they lost both their power and their reputation too: For that King before whom David, many hundred of years after that, feigned himself mad, is (in the Inscription of that Psalm, Psal. 34. which he penned upon that occasion in testimony of gratitude to the Author of his delive­rance) called Abimelech; 1 Sam. 21. it is confest in the History of it, to which that refers us, we find his name to be Achish: and the reason why Achish in the one should be Abimelech in the other, is not because he was binominis, Aben Ezra. as one would have it, but because the first was his Name, the other his Title of Honour: which was common to all the Philistin Kings, as Pha­raoh was to the Egyptian, and Caesar to the Roman: Quod Achish hoc loco dicitur Abimelech, Ba­silius ex tradi­tione majorum & alii existi­mant nomen il­lud Regibus Palaestinae fuisse commune, &c. Mollerus in loc. 1 Sam. 24.11. 2 Chron. 29.11. Job 29.16. and this in the true signification of it is neither more nor less then My Fa­ther the King. And that they may not think this a Title given only to Heathen Governours by their Subjects, out of a blind devotion; or that it is a stranger as to this sense in the Sacred Dialect, unless when they are mentioned; let them con­sult these Quotations in the Margent, and that promise made by God himself to his Church, which hath respect to the times of the Gospel, and tends very much to its [Page 17] propagation and advancement in the ac­complishing and fulfilling thereof, viz. Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers, Isa. 49.23. Quest. and Queens shall be thy Nursing Mothers. If they desire to be satisfied, why God useth the names of Father and Mother to signifie the rest? Answ. It is because that Government justly challengeth the precedency in re­spect of Antiquity; that of Father and Mother over their Children taking place so soon as they had Children to govern; at least so soon as they were in a capacity to be governed. And it is from this that all others are to take their rule and dire­ction.

And it is no difficult matter to give a satisfactory answer to them who will submit their judgments to Reason, Quest. why all the above named particular Cal­lings are comprehended under this as the general?

And that is, Answ. Because they perform such duties as belong to Parents. It belongs to them to instruct their Children, there­fore Pastors and Teachers are our Fathers, who do that good Office for us in their stead; in a better manner possibly then they can do it in their own persons: ma­ny Parents being so ignorant, that they have need to be taught themselves. The [Page 18] Father is to provide for his Child, there­fore Patrons and Benefactors are our Fathers, who take that Fatherly care of us,; which the other would willingly do, but cannot; having it may be, no more Water then what will serve to drive their own Mill. It belongs to them to procure the good of their Children, therefore Kings are called Fathers, because they mind and endeavour the good of their People. And although the duty owing to each of these in their respective capa­cities are comprised under one and the same word Honour, yet the plus or minus of that honour must be according to the degree and measure of those benefits that their Relations reap by them. Pharisees. The Pha­risees preferring their spiritual before their natural Parents, had been the more justi­fiable, had they not made their pretended respect to the one, a colour for their un­natural neglect of the other. Saint Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles, Mat. 15.4, 5. and one of the same Sect (according to his own ac­count which he gives of himself, while in the state of his unregeneracy) lived a Phari­see. Acts 26.5. Philemon v. 18. He, when in his Epistle to Philemon he pleaded for the reception of his runnagate Servant Onesimus (as light it seems of fin­ger as of foot, as appears by his expression, [Page 19] where he sweetly mitigates his shameful escape by the name of wrong, and his theft by that of debt) among other Arguments minds him of the obligation of his Con­version, which he owed next under God to him, and for that, himself. Philemon v. 19. And S. Ber­nard sweetly contemplating the mercy of God to him, both in respect of his first and second birth, thankfully acknowledg­ed him as the principal efficient of both: but withal that his obligation is the grea­ter from the latter; saying, Si totum me de­beo pro me facto, quid debeo pro me refecto? nec enim tam facile refectu quam fa­ctu; in primo opere me mihi dedit, in secun­do se. Bernard. de diligendo Deo. If I owe my self to God for making me, what do I owe to him for renewing me, or making me a new creature when I had marred my self? there was more concurring to the work of my Re­demption then to that of my Creation; in the one he gave me to my self, in the other he gave himself to me: therefore I owe my self for the one, and (if possible) more then my self for the other. Alexander. Alexander the Great would commonly say he owed more to Aristotle that taught him, then to Philip that begat him. Gracchus. Tu solum novem mensibus me ge­stasti in utero haec vero me tri­bus annis inte­gris in ulnis & amplexibus fi­delissime nutrivit, negasti id mihi quod Planta ramis, quod Simea catulis non negavit. Jun. Rusticus, lib de Educatione. And Gracchus shewed more respect to his Nurse that fed him with her brest, then to his Mother that bare him in her womb; opposing the carefulness of the one, to the carelessness [Page 20] of the other, who denied him that, that sensless Plants afforded to their tender branches, and the brute Creatures to their shiftless young. Is there not then as much or more honour due to Kings, both for their Government and Protection; without which the one could not do their duty, nor the other receive the benefit? When Jeremiah in his Lamentations, Lam. 4.20. stiled Josiah the breath of his Subjects nostrils, he gave them thereby to understand that they were indebted to him for that com­mon benefit of the Air to breath in; and that the breath which they drew, they drew in a sense through and by him.

Except. Ex M [...]sculo.But probably these will except against what hath been said to clear these several interests in that precept, and oppose the authority of Musculus, a man pious in his life, and eminent for his Learning, pub­lick Reader of Divinity in the City of Berne in Helvetia; who in his Common Places treating of the fift Commandment, saith it needeth no declaration who are meant by Father and Mother, it being known to all men that they be our Pa­rents of whom we are born and bred; and accounting the including in them the Ma­gistrates and Ministers, &c. a Vulgar Er­rour, affirming that there is nothing there [Page 21] commanded of them; and that there are other places in the Scripture which admo­nish us to honour our Governours, Civil and Ecclesiastical, Ministers, Tutors, Ma­sters and Elders.

Answ. There are so indeed, Concess. and withal this liberty granted to prove all things; 1 Thess. 5.21. which implies a Rule by which they are to be tried; To the Law, Isa. 8.20. and to the Testi­mony. Whatsoever that commands is a duty, and whatsoever that forbids is a sin, though never so curiously flourished over by the sleights of a subtle adversary that lies in wait to deceive us. E contra, No­thing is a sin but what is there forbidden; nothing is a duty but what either in ex­press terms, or by direct inference is there commanded; otherwise that Sweet Singer of Israel had gone a Note above Elah (as the Musicians say) when he gave this Epi­thite to this very Law, perfect; Psal. 19.7. which it cannot be said to be if any thing be want­ing. And it this and those other several Callings should not in that Precept be understood, the Law should be defective in omitting many principal duties. David indeed had ground sufficient for that ex­pression, from those words of that great God who was the Law giver; Deut. 12.32. which re­quires so exact a compliance to that Law [Page 22] so given, as that a man can neither fall short nor fold over, do either less or more then it injoins, without sin. Therefore whatsoever I command you take heed you do it; thou shalt put nothing thereto, nor take ought therefrom. Rom. 1.1. So that if when St. Paul commanded subjection to the Soveraign Powers, giving to them, those impowered by them, Verse 7. Tribute, Custom, Fear, Honour; when he will to double their honour, to those that rule well, especially if they la­bour in the Word and Doctrine; 1 Tim. 5.17. or that they think them worthy of double ho­nour; when he would have those that are Servants to obey their Masters according to the flesh, they had asked what ground he had for so doing? without all question he would have referred them to this pre­cept, which injoins all to honour their Parents. Concess. It is confest a Subject might well dispute his Princes interest in that fear which the Text calls for, were he bound to look no further then into the Letter of the Law, where is no mention made ei­ther of the one or of the other. But as he cannot be a good Lawyer who never stu­died the meaning of the Law in the Com­mentaries of such as are learned in the Law, who have taken much pains for their own satisfaction, and their Readers profit; [Page 23] so that man can be no expert Christian that doth not search the Scriptures of the Pro­phets and Apostles, which are authentick Comments upon that Law, and allowed Interpreters of the same. So then what­ever we read of Fear, &c. it is upon the account of that command, Honour thy Fa­ther. The King is a Father, so called not only by man, but by God himself, who made him a King; therefore he must be honoured, so runs the Precept; he must be feared, so saith the Text. In a word, 'tis worth your observation, that this King calling upon his Subject for it, speaks un­to him as a Father to his Child, My Son; as if on purpose by that endearing appel­lation, to lead him as it were by the hand to that very commandment, that so he might convince him of the necessity of the Duty.

2. God the Son, II. God the Son. when he came out of the bosom of the Father to take mans na­ture upon him, Deut. 18.18. and to execute the office of a Prophet (under which notion he was promised long before to his Church) he came not (as he himself saith) to destroy, Mat. 5.17. but to fulfil his Fathers Law; not to con­found, but to expound it; not to give us a new Law, but to instruct us in the mean­ing of the old. And therefore when he [Page 24] saith, John 13.34. A new commandment give I unto you; either by novum we are to understand renovatum; not a new addition, or addi­tion of a new Law to the Old, Deut. 4.2. expresly prohibited; but a new edition of a Law which was given of old, or because it is urged upon a new account, [...]. [as I have lo­ved you] proposing himself as their great Exemplar, in imitation of whom, and in some cases, if need required, they should die for their brethren. This is according to the sense judicious Hammond gives of it. Dr. Hammond in John 13. Being now to take my last leave, I give you this special new Command, that from the manner and degree of my love to you expressed, in venturing, nay, losing my life for you, ye also learn and practise the same degree of loving one another: that is, that all Christians abound one to­wards another in all Charity, and venture their lives for the good of others, espe­cially for the propagating of the Gospel, doing good to their souls. This is to write after that matchless Copy which Christ hath set us in his own example, Ephes. 5.2. who loved us and gave himself for us to be an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God: so that what he did was upon the account of his free and undeser­ved love: but what we must do and suffer [Page 25] for one another is upon the score of boun­den duty, 1 John 3.16. [...]. implied by that expression which the Apostle St. John makes use of when he presseth the practice of this very duty to the highest pitch, we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren. The manner then, and the degree is all that can be said to be new in that Com­mandment.

If you would know what care he had of the Magistrates Interest? Christ his care of the Magi­strates Inte­rest shewed. both his do­ctrine and his practice which was exactly suitable to it, sufficiently testifie, that he came not to pluck them out of their Thrones, but to fix them more firmly in them: not to countenance the clamours of the covetous rabble, who are ready to cry out Tyrant when they call for what they are loth to part with, though no more then what they may justly challenge as their own. 1. In his doctrine Matth. 22. But to press the Subjects compliance with their Princes in their just claims, without regret or opposition: we have in the Gospel a case of this nature brought before him to decide, Question a­bout Tribute. by some cunning Snaps of two different Sects, and in the matter in question of different opi­nions, Pharisees and Herodians. The first looked upon the Romans as Usurpers, and forcible possessors, the other acknow­ledged [Page 26] and adhered to it as a lawful Au­thority. The question which they propose is, whether it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not? Divided judg­ments uniting in a design. these though divided in their judgments, yet can unite in their design, The Snare laid. or rather down right flattery; either seeking thereby to work him to a compliance, and to give in his judgment in favour of their Party, or both, to draw him into a snare. Which is observed by the Evangelist, Verse 15. and both discovered and disgusted by our Saviour, who perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, Verse 18. Mel in ore ver­ba lactis, Fel in corde, fraus in factis. John 2.24.25. ye Hypocrites? why endeavour ye to ensnare me, under pretence of reverencing me? but he was too wise to be surprised with such chaff; for he knew all men, and had no need that any should testifie of man, for he knew what was in man: his all-seeing eye could easily espie under that alluring bait a deadly hook; Discovered. and therefore to that subtle question he re­turns them a discreet answer, whereby he secured himself, and astonished his Ene­mies. Mat. 22.20, 21. Shew me (saith he) the tribute money and they brought him a penny; and he saith unto them, whose image and superscription is this? they say unto him, Caesars: Then saith he unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, and unto [Page 27] God the things that are Gods. Their ensna­ring question discreetly sta­ted. So that he stated their Question by their very Coin, the image on it, and the inscription about it were records of the Conquest of the Romans over their Nation. And herein appeared the prudence of our Savi­our: Christs Pru­dence.

1. He might have taken a piece of mo­ney of his own, but he rather bids them to shew him a piece of theirs.

2. Not of any of their money neither, but of that of which they paid their tri­bute, which was of the Roman Stamp, which for that purpose was the onely mo­ney that was accepted for current; the Roman Emperour requiring this at their hands, as a token of their subjection to his Power and Dominion. The coining of money hath ever since money was first in­vented, been accounted a part of the su­pream Power, or Regal Prerogative, yea, so properly his, that it is incommunicable to any other; and their acknowledgment of that to be so current a Coin, supposeth him whose Signature it had, to be their lawful Prince.

3. And therefore as he might justly challenge it upon the score of his just due; so they ought to pay it upon the account of their bounden duty, the Law of God [Page 28] requiring that every man should have that which belongs to him, and so consequently Kings their due acknowledgments. Rom. 13.7. [...], si­gnificat debi­tum quoddam inexcusabile subditis imposi­tum esse. Marlo­rat. The word in the Original, is englished in the latest and exactest Translations, render; which signifies that the payment of it lies as an inexcusable duty upon the Subject. And where it is in some others rendred Give, we are not to understand it of a vo­luntary giving, as of curtesie; but of a necessary giving or paying of a due debt. As we are said to give our Creditors their due when we pay what we owe them; or to teach us (in opposition to that mur­muring and repining humour of the most) that it should be as willingly and readily paid, as if it were a free gift.

Caesars right vindicated, and their de­sign frustratedThis was the sum and substance of his wary and circumspect answer to that sub­tle and ensnaring question; such as they could take no hold of to intrap and intan­gle him as they desired. Whereupon St. Luke saith, Luke 20.16. Matth: 22.22. Caution to his Ministers. they held their peace; St. Matthew, they left him and went their way. Ministers have need of the Wisdom of the Serpent, when they have to deal with such subtle Foxes; and if they su­spect any of their Auditors to come (as these did to the best of Teachers) with Nets in their Ears, they should make it [Page 29] no small part of their care to carry nei­ther Fish nor Fowl in their Tongues, Fullers Contempla­tions. lest they ensnare themselves. A Lesson which the great Prophet of Prophets, and Tea­cher of Teachers, hath not only comman­ded us in his preaching, Matth. 10.16. but commended to us in his practice, in this very in­stance.

What issue this answer had in reference to the satisfaction of these that were im­ployed in this trepanning errand, What to judge of the issue of his Answer. or to that of those that sent them, the Scripture mentions not, but is as silent as them­selves. Yet if that silence of theirs were an unquestionable Argument of an impli­cite consent, according to the old Proverb, we might give a favourable ghess of a satisfactory issue. But sith it appears so plainly by uncontrollable evidence, that the ones sending and the others coming was to feed their malice rather then to inform their judgments, both that and their after practice give us greater grounds to suspect the contrary; Non persuadebis etiamsi persua­seris. Simil. and that they came with a resolution not to be resolved. He that is prepossessed with that prejudice, is like a man that useth Spectacles made of green Glass, which representeth every object, unless Green, in a false colour. And wherever we find malice to be the [Page 30] Master, we may safely conclude Reason to be the Slave: and to let us see how sadly the clouds of their passions had ob­scured the light of their Reasons, his very prudence not long after was by some of those very persons improved into a formal accusation against him. We found (say they) this fellow perverting the Nation, Luke 23.2. and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar. Then which nothing could be more no­toriously false, or a fuller evidence against them that they sinned against the light of their Consciences.

Zach.. 11.13.The Prophet Zachary speaking in a way of prophesie of the thirty pieces of silver which Judas received as the reward of his treason in the sale of his Master, personates Christ by an Irony, upbraiding them for the mean esteem they had of him, a good­ly price that I was valued at of them. But whosoever hath read what Christ foretold in the Scripture relating to their punishment for their barbarous and inhu­mane usage of him; and how exactly it was accomplished and in what dreadful manner executed (as it is recorded by their own Historians, who sealed the truth of his Prophesie by their writings, as millions of his implacable enemies did with their bloud) cannot think that to be [Page 31] the total sum of what was paid for that bloudy purchase. Their low va­lue set upon Christ punish­ed and reta­liated by a far lower set upon themselves. Hegesip. de ex­cid. Hierosol. p. 680. And yet for the most part accessaries. And for that low va­lue they set upon him; by the just hand of God who loves to retaliate, that the guilty offender may see his sin written in his punishment, they were valued a great deal lower, when thirty of them were bought and sold for a penny. And if those (for the major part but accessaries) were so severely handled for abetting the ma­lice of others, who (animated by their superiours, who should have taught them better) cry in their blind zeal, crucifie him, crucifie him; what may we think became of those that were the principal contrivers who causlesly conceived both the malice and the mischief of it in their hearts, a­gainst that innocent person? who rather then fail to bring their cursed design to effect, run themselves headlong into the guilt of that unpardonable sin. Mat. 12.32. The Ring-lea­ders charged higher. If he that sins against his knowledge hath made a considerable step towards it, he that hath added malice to it hath compleated it.

St. Paul when a Saul, Acts 9.4. persecuted him in his members, and that maliciously, 1 Tim. 1.13. The ingre­dients in the sin against the Holy Ghost, secundum Ja. Armachan. yet he found mercy, because he did it ignorant­ly. St. Peter denied him thrice in the High-priests Hall successively, and that a­gainst his knowledge most apparently; but [Page 32] though he did it knowingly, Matth. 26.34. he did it not maliciously; and being minded by the crowing of the Cock of that sad foretold issue of his rash confidence, Verse 75. he went out and wept bitterly; and questionless he that steeped his godly sorrow in these briny tears, could not fail to reap in joy. Had Paul had Peters knowledge joined to his malice, and Peter Pauls malice joined to his knowledge, both had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. If then these be the ingredients that make up that sin, and when in sin they are apparently in the same persons, prosecuting the same design, in persecuting the Professors of the Truth, how can these be acquitted as not guilty of it, who with such wicked malice against so clear a knowledge, de­fame, prosecute, persecute even to the death, him that was truth it self? who though his answer be so clear as nothing can be clearer in favour of the Roman Em­perour in that Case of Tribute, yet falsly and most maliciously accuse him as a dis­countenancer of the Payment of it.

2. Christ his pra­ctice.But though they would not satisfie them who resolved to be satisfied with nothing but his bloud; yet all that own and ho­nour him truly, cannot upon the serious consideration thereof, but be throughly [Page 33] convinced that the Doctrine of Christ taught in the Gospel, is no doctrine of Se­dition or disobedience to Princes and o­ther Magistrates; but on the contrary, a doctrine that teacheth obedience, and all other duties due unto them. And what he bids them do, is no more then he himself did, who being God and Man, subjected himself to the Laws both of God and man; thereby shewing what respect he did bear to Magistracy, which was his Fathers Ordinance. And that he might avoid offence, and set a Copy for all Chri­stians to write after him, he wrought but one Money-miracle, and that was to pay his own and Peters Head silver, Mat. 17.27. Go to the Sea, and cast in an hook, and take the first fish that cometh up, and when thou hast o­pened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of mo­ney, that take and give unto them for me and thee.

Lastly, The Prophets and Apostles, III. God the Holy Ghost, which will be more fully cleared in the third part of the Text. in­spired by the Holy Ghost, do in their Wri­tings press this and such like duties, even in the worst of Times, to be paid to the worst of Kings, because they were Kings; yea, to some Kings that were the worst of men, as shall be made more fully to appear in its proper place.

And thus I hope, by what hath been al­ready [Page 34] offered, I have sufficiently cleared the Text of the first heap of Rubbish, and wiped off that aspersion cast upon the Author thereof of being selfish; because he demands no more then what God him­self commands: and to require less, were to betray that Majesty which the Most High hath placed in him, to the scorn and contempt of the lowest of men.

The second heap of Rub­bish. Obj. 2.Others there are that charge this and such like subjects, as useless to edification; and those Sermons preached upon them, in their best construction, Court Divinity. There are some yet alive, who preaching upon such Theams in an Auditory made up of persons of different perswasions; some whereof possessed with a spirit of Opposition, as well against all Ministers that are not of their own Faction, as Ma­gistrates that are not of their own Ele­ction; have been much incensed either at the Preachers, at their Texts, or at their Doctrine; at one or all: and have when opportunity served, accosted them in some such like language as this; What is all this to edification? ye might have made choice of Subjects of a more Soul-saving concern, and much more fitter and proper for a Pulpit discourse, the main design whereof should be to discountenance sin, [Page 35] and to encourage a holy life. The acco­sted were not much startled at it, because it proceeded from the mouths of such as lay under an apparent guilt; and there­fore could expect to be no more grateful to them, then a heavy burden to a galled back.

Being therefore upon this clearing de­sign, Sol. First by way of Concession. I shall spend a little time in exami­ning their pretences; and do in the first place ingeniously confess, that had their Objection as much of real ground for it, as it seems to have of solid weight in it, it were well worth our most serious thoughts. It is a considerable truth which the Philosopher long since spake, Vita brevis ars longa. Senec. Man hath a great deal of work to do, and but a little time to do it in; and therefore hath all the reason in the World to embrace Solomons counsel, as of great concern­ment, All that thine hand shall find to do, Eccles. 9.10. do it quickly; for there is neither work, nor invention, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the Grave, whither thou goest: and are not men as much concerned in the choice of their work? that they spend not that short and precious time of theirs in pick­ing Rushes; about Mint, and Annis, and Cummin, those low things; I mean, that meerly concern the support of an earthly [Page 36] Cottage: which with our greatest care cannot long be kept from falling about our ears; and in the mean time neglect a far more weighty matter. Judgment and Mercy, those things which concern their precious and Immortal souls which shall live for ever, either in weal or woe, and must receive their reward hereafter, ac­cording to the works which they have done in their bodies here, whether they have been good or evil. It concerns them therefore, as to their choice chiefly, though not only, to apply themselves to, and imploy them­selves in those things which will bring most glory to God and benefit to them­selves. Inference.

If those are concerned in both these whom God hath charged with the care of their own souls: Serva depositum can any man think them concerned in neither, who are char­ged with the souls of others? Acts 20.28. Take heed to your selves, and to the flock of which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own bloud. Sith this is properly their work which they are called to, and set apart for, [...]. and which their ministerial Commission leaves not as arbitrary to them, Rom. 1.14. but lays as a debt upon them, [I am a debter to the Graecians, yea a necessity is [Page 37] laid upon me, 1 Cor. 9.16. and woe is to me if I preach not the Gospel.] Rom. 1.16. The chief end of their Preaching is the salvation of their Hearers souls; 1 Cor. 1.21. and the Word preached is the or­dinary means that God hath appointed for that end: therefore they must up and be doing, and have a care (as to the choice of their Work) that they spend not their time, nor abuse their Auditors ears and patience with unprofitable impertinen­cies.

The Apostle instructing Titus, and in him all Ministers in the faithful discharge of their trust, wills them to avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and brawlings about the Law, upon this very consideration, that they are un­profitable and vain: having little or no­thing in them tending to that, Tit. 3.9. which he would have such men to drive at as their scope, viz. Edification; 1 Cor. 14.26. and on the other side is as careful to inform them what doctrines they should preach, insist, and dwell upon.

1. These things I will thou shouldst affirm, Tit. 3.8. that they which have believed in God, might be careful to shew forth good works; these things are good and profitable unto men. The Inference is clear, that though they must teach every truth, and hold nothing [Page 38] from their people that is profitable for them; yet some truths there are that must be more inculcated then others, Pro hic & nunc viz. those that are most necessary, and most opposed, either through the corruption of the Times, or the malice of Heretical depra­vers of the truth. As that which the Apostle gives in charge, was in that Age wherein he lived; which abounded with men of two contrary Opinions, and neither of them Orthodox, Nullifidians and Soli­fidians; the one laying the whole weight of their eternal salvation upon their own mi­serably imperfect Works without Faith, and therefore dead works; these are large­ly confuted in his Epistle to the Galatians: the other wholy neglecting works, rely wholy upon their pretended Faith, which without Work is dead also. This is that which he would have Titus teach, because so much by those mens principles and pra­ctices gainsaid?

2. This being granted, as indeed it can­not be denied; the former Objection hath much, yea, very much of weight in it, in respect of the matter of it. But what it hath of worth, as to the ground of it, comes in the next place to be considered. The falsehood of this second Objection de­tected. Should we gratifie their humour so far, as to yield that to them for true, which they [Page 39] object, which we neither shall, nor safely can; have not we as much reason to quarrel with the holy Scriptures, (which God forbid) for imposing this subject on us to preach, as they with us for pressing it on them to practice? If it be demanded what authority we have to preach such Doctrines now in the time of the Gospel; since Christ came into the World to pur­chase liberty, and to proclaim that liberty so purchased; and the Apostle St. Paul after his Ascention into Heaven, wills all Christians to stand fast in that liberty so purchased and proclaimed? We can with as much facility produce, as they ask it. If they will but take the pains to read what that Chosen Vessel of the Lord charged on his beloved Son, The Ministers Authority to preach this Doctrine. Tit. 3.1. according to the common Faith, which: is here word for word faithfully transcribed, Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers, and to obey Magistrates: where we are to weigh the manner of delivering, as well as the matter delivered. [...]. Suggere. Piscator. Non mala qui­dem sed pericu­losa quadam ambiguitate se. Beza Annot. Some render it suggest, to which Beza gives only a negative approbation, that it was not erroneous, and finds this fault with it, that it carried too much of ambiguity in it: which is dangerous in respect of the doctrine, which had so many opposers; [Page 40] and withal subjoins a sufficient reason to justifie his exception; because those things also are said to be suggested, which before were never heard of. But here the Apo­stle speaks of that which was no new or strange doctrine, The reasons which prove it necessary. but that which they had often heard and well enough understood, but did not so carefully remember, and therefore as he feared, would not so im­moveably adhere to, Libertines. when their Loyalty should be assaulted, Commonefacito. Junius in lo­cum. and themselves tem­pted to contrary practices by men of con­trary principles.

Therefore he and others have commen­ded this as the better, being more signifi­cant, and more agreable with the mind and meaning of the Author, put them in mind; thereby manifestly implying, that this was not a new, but an ancient doctrine, he might say of this to the Cretians, as of Brotherly Love to the Thessalonians, they had been taught it before. And though it were old, it was not obsolete, or like an Almanack out of date so soon as the year is done; The inference from both. a Doctrine never out of season; and because so much opposed, there was the more reason it should be the oftner preached.

A two-fold ac­count how re­quisite it is it should be so.And that, as I apprehend, upon a two-fold account.

[Page 41]1. Of Nature; 1. Of Nature. Luke 15.12. which desires nothing more then liberty, Father give me the por­tion of good that falleth to me, so saith the Prodigal: his desire was to be altogether at his own disposing; and like a young Horse newly backed, strives hard to get the reins out of his Riders hands, and would fain be his own guide before he hath been wayed. We are all one mans children, Her Objection or Plea. why not one as good as another? why must some be Kings to make Laws, and others Subjects to obey them? this is the language of Nature, and from these self-flattering premises, it makes this stub­born and rebellious conclusion: Psal. 2.3. Let us break their bonds in sunder, and cast away their cords from us.

2. 2. From Grace. Rom. 6.14. Her Plea. Upon the account of real or suppo­sed Grace. We are not under the Law, but under Grace. Under Grace, therefore under no Law: not under the Laws of men, so the Anabaptists; no, nor under the Law of God himself, so the Antino­mians. We are all the adopted children of one and the same God; all brethren of one and the same Christ our elder bro­ther, all coheirs with him to one and the same inheritance; why should we King it one over another here? that distinction shall cease; yea, it seems already taken a­way [Page 42] by that levelling position of St. Paul, We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; Gal. 3.26, 28. there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

The antiquity of it.This objection is no novice, but may plead a very considerable prescription, bearing date the same day with the Rebellion of Corah and his complices, who gathered them selves together against Moses and Aaron, Numb. 16.3. and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you see­ing all the Congregation are holy every one of them; and the Lord is among them, where­fore then lift you up your selves against the Congregation of the Lord? very requisite therefore it is in both the aforesaid re­spects, that this doctrine should be fre­quently preached, and the practice of it as earnestly pressed, to pull down the pride of Nature, and to confine the priviledges of Grace within their proper limits.

Solut. 1 Concess. Acts 17.26.1. True it is that we have all one com­mon Father by creation, viz. God, who made of one bloud all Nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, who did in the beginning create all things, as by an Al­mighty Power: So also in a most excellent [Page 43] order he created man in his own image, Gen. 1.27, 28. in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them, and God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. The same God when man by venue of that blessing did multiply, and the earth by that mul­tiplication was replenished with men and women, to prevent confusion which inse­perably attends multitude without order, placed them under such and such distin­ctions. Cujus jussu na­scuntur homines ejus jussu con­stituuntur Prin­cipes. Ireneus. So that we may say truly both of King and Subject, God which made Kings men, made men Kings; and God which made Subjects men, made men Subjects.

2. It is as true in the second place, 2 Concess. that Believers are all one in Christ Jesus, be they for Sex male or female, for Nation Jew or Greek, for Condition bond or free; all alike dear to him, being redeemed with the same price, and all equally near to him, as members of that body of which he himself is the head. From whence we may safely infer, Inference up­on both these Concessions as safe as true. that we ought not to car­ry our selves proud and disdainfully one towards another, upon these outward dif­ferences and distinctions, seeing that Cyrus and Irus, King and Beggar, are made of the same mold, and to God are both alike; [Page 44] yea, all one in Christ Jesus. And as he hath given the King a Kingdom to rule in, Deut. 7.18, 19, 20. so hath he given him a Book to read in for this very purpose, that he should fear his God, and that his heart should not be lifted up above his brethren. Job who was conceived by some to be a King, from a more inconsiderable Topick, Jobs Argu­ment. argues himself into a posture of humility towards the meanest of his menial servants. If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, Chap. 31.13, 14, 15. or of my maid-servant, when they did contend with me, what then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? Sol. 2. By negation. Theirs un­sound ad dan­gerous. did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fa­shion us in the womb? But because Belie­vers are all one in Christ, therefore either all must be Kings, or none must be Kings, is a plain wresting, St. Pauls words wrested, him­self grosly a­bused. and not the proper meaning of the Apostles words in that place: and a sense that makes him most absurdly contradict himself in that pre­cept of his now under consideration, put them in mind that they be subject to prin­cipalities and powers. Indeed it could amount to no less then a very great absur­dity to press that as a duty in one place, if before he took away that distinction that made it so in another.

[Page 45]One thing more I have yet to offer from the words of the same Apostle in another place upon the same Subject, A further con­sideration of­fered for our vindication. though written to another people; and whatso­ever was written to either of them, was written for our learning, Rom. 15.4. Chap. 13.1, 2. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers, for there is no Power but of God, the Powers that be, are ordained of God; whosoever therefore resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. From whence I inferr by the rule of contraries, One inference A sufficient warrant for us to preach, and as great a dan­ger to them if they do not practise it. that Do­ctrine cannot but tend to edification, whose contrary tends so certainly to de­struction. A sad judgment it draws upon the guilty in their temporal, in their spi­ritual, and in their eternal concerns.

First, In their temporal; 1. In their tem­poral concerns Ezra 7.26, &c. Their cala­mity shall arise suddenly, in the very next Verse to the Text, and whosoever will not do the Law of God and the King, let judg­ment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death; or to banishment? or unto confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment. A Law not peculiar to the Persians, but common to all other Nations that are un­der Kings, whether Christians or Hea­thens; without which indeed it were im­possible to preserve their Authority in­violable. [Page 46] How many in our own time, and of our own Nation have been deservedly ruined, imprisoned, executed, upon this very account. And in the Scripture, be­sides particular persons that were con­trivers of the Rebellion against Moses and Aaron, Numb. 16.32. which with their Families and goods, were swallowed up of a miracu­lous and most remarkable judgment, to the horrour and astonishment of all that beheld it; they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the Pit, and the earth closed upon them; Verse 35. two hun­dred and fifty Princes of the Assembly are consumed by a fire from the Lord as they were offering incense: Verse 49. and fourteen thousand and seven hundred were swept away with the Plague.

2. In their spiri­tual. E. g. David.Secondly, In their spiritual: When David, that man after Gods own heart, had but cut off the skirt of Sauls garment, his Conscience flies in his face, and his heart smote him, for that he shewed so little reverence and respect to the Lords Anointed; though he did it not with the least intent to injure his person, but to testifie his own innocency, and to convince him of his errour in causlesly pursuing him from place to place, that he aimed not at his life nor kingdom; but that not­withstanding [Page 47] God who is the great dispo­ser both of Kings and Kingdoms had re­jected him, and anointed himself, he had been, and was resolved to be his most loyal Subject. 1 Sam. 24.5. In clearing his innocency he drew a guilt upon his Conscience, which once wounded denied him all peace, till he had first made his peace with God. How many have we read and heard of, whose troubled Consciences have been in­strumental to the discovery of those trea­sons wherein both themselves and others have been concerned either as principals or accessaries?

Thirdly, In their eternal concerns: 3. In eternal. They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation; which some understand of the temporal punishment inflicted by the Magistrate; Peter Martyr, Junius, and Tremel. or by God himself punish­ing the contempt of his own Ordinance on the contemners thereof. Some of eternal damnation not excluding the other; some judgment in the general, without specifi­cation of any particular kind or sort; lea­ving the Reader to his liberty to chuse which he pleaseth: because indeed this sin exposeth those that are guilty of it to all sorts of judgments, both corporal, spiritual and eternal. The Apostles reason acquits Gods justice. And the Apostle gives a reason sufficient enough to acquit [Page 48] the justice of God in the severest punish­ment he can inflict upon them, because they resist the Ordinance of God, He that resists the King, re­sists God. 1 Sam. 8.9. As those that rejected Sa­muel are said to reject him. and so consequently God himself. As God some­time told Samuel much troubled at, and grieved with the peoples base ingratitude, They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

Calvin though different in point of Church Go­vernment, yet sides with us in this point, to clear us, and to confute our Adversaries. Calvin, whose authority with some is very great in the point of Church Govern­ment, to the disquiet both of Church and State, in his Book of Institutions placeth Magistracy under the general head of ex­ternal means necessary to salvation; ranking it with the doctrine of the Church, of the Sacraments, of the Ministery, &c. intimating that it is as necessary in its kind or way, as any of the other; and by put­ting it in the last place, as it were to bring up the Reer, he seems to me to hint thus much to his Readers, that they cannot be compleat Christians, though they are Members of the Church by outward pro­fession, though admitted her Members by the Sacrament of Initiation, and may seem to have attained some strength by the often hearing of the Word, and receiving the Lords Supper, which is the Sacrament of Confirmation; yet if they fail in their [Page 49] duty to the Magistrate, Simile. they are but like the sullen Cow that yields a considerable quantity of Milk into the Pale, but as if the unthankfully grudged it to her deser­ving owner, kicks it all down with her un­lucky heels; and this one ill Weed like, those wild Gourds, 2 Kings 4.39. spoils the whole Pot of Pottage. And thus I have with as much brevity as well I might, The Text cleared of its Rubbish. cleared the Text of that rubbish which hath been cast upon it; keeping my self as close as I could to the matter in hand, neither run­ing into extravagances, nor cloying the Reader with impertinencies, to fill up Pa­per or spin out a Discourse; but have offered what I conceive is very useful and necessary both, to convince the gain­sayers, and to prepare attention to what I have further to impart upon the several parts of the Text in the method before proposed; and that first of the duty, Fear, Of the Duty Fear, as it re­lates to the second Object; with the rea­son why the first is not in­sisted on sepe­ratim & per se, but as implied in the other. which I shall handle both in its strictest and largest acceptation, as a particular duty, and as comprehending under it all those other which every man owes to God and the King upon the same account.

And here I shall bend my discourse chiefly to the last of these; not because the other is less necessary, but because this is most opposed, and their interests are so [Page 50] conjunct. Neither will God accept of that Subjects fear as a discharge of his du­ty, which doth not proceed from the fear of himself, or that doth not fear the King for the Lords sake. That person lies under the repute of a practical Atheist, that pro­fesseth there is a God with his lips and yet will shew no reverence to him in his life. But those have passed in these late Times for the best of Christians, which have shewn none to their King; who with their specious pretences of Piety and Religion, have staggered some and made others a­fraid to fear their King; fearing if they should fear him, they should not fear their God.

1. Of Fear as a particular du­ty. Gods Image. [...]. Gave his name to them. In iis relucet Majestas ejus cujus nomen & vicem gerunt, &c. The honour of his own Laws to theirsThis Fear in its first acceptation, is that free and voluntary reverence and respect which Subjects shew to their Princes for the Lords sake, as being the lively Images of his Power and Soveraignty over man­kind: therefore he hath put his own name upon them, [I said ye are Gods] his Maje­sty shines forth in them, whose name and office they bear and execute: and in that so many millions of men are subjected to the Power and Government of one, and the good estate of all his Subjects depends upon him. Yea he hath communicated part of the honour of his own Divine Law [Page 51] to their Civil Laws, in that they do (though not directly, yet) indirectly bind their Subjects consciences; that is to say, so far as theirs are agreable, or not repug­nant to his. Who requires them to be subject, Rom. 13.5. Hath anointed them. Oleo sanctitatis suae ad designa­tionem & qua­lificationem de­notat. Mollerus. Put his Spirit into them. not only for wrath but also for con­science sake; he hath anointed them with his holy oil, or the oil of his holiness, signi­fying thereby their designation to, and qualification for their Office. As it is said of Saul, when God made him a King, he tur­ned him into another man, and gave him another heart, 1 Sam. 10.6, 9. And when upon Moses his complaint God divided his burden among the seventy Elders, he tells him withal, Numb. 11.17. that he would take of the spirit which was upon him, and put it upon them: Crowns on their heads, Robes on their backs, Scepters in their hands. Cultus magnifi­cus addit homi­nibus authori­tatem. Quintil. he hath set Crowns of gold upon their heads, put Royal Robes upon their backs, and placed Scepters in their hands, to draw a reverence to their persons, and to daunt offenders. Magnificent attire works a kind of awe, in the heart of the inferiour towards his superiour, and adds in the estimation of the people, both glory and honour, and majesty to their persons. Dr. Prideaux in orat. inaugural. de vestibus Aa­ronis. Which is one reason of the High Priests costly garments, that they might draw the greater reverence both to his person and to his Ministry. To this purpose it [Page 52] is storied of Alexander the Great, Josephus. that when the High Priest met him in his Pon­tificalibus, he reverenced him, and adored the God of Heaven in him, whose Priest he was.

Given them Thrones for judgment, and sits in the Congregation among these Gods. Psal. 82.1.He hath given them Thrones for judg­ment, and though he hath Heaven for his Throne and Earth for his Footstool, yet he vouchsafeth to stand in the Congregation of the mighty, and to judge among these earthly Gods. This representation of him standing in such a place, among such persons, Sundry instru­ctions from it. admonisheth us of sundry things worthy of our observation.

1. That Empires and Kingdoms were not constituted at the first, neither are they since gotten or kept by the strength, pru­dence, or craft of men; but by his divine wisdom, and almighty power, who said of himself, Prov. 8.15. Psal. 82.6. By me Kings raign; and of them, Ye are Gods.

2. Secondly, That he so judgeth among these Gods, that if they either through negligence, or out of favour and affection do not execute justice, in the relieving the oppressed, and in punishing offenders, he himself will undertake the execution of it. And when he remembers the guilty Ma­lefactors, he will hardly forget their cor­rupt and partial Judges.

[Page 53]3. Thirdly, This well weighed and throughly considered, would make even Princes themselves, afraid to abuse their power and authority to tyranny and op­pression; sith they were set in those places for other ends, by that God of Gods to whom they are accountable: and

4. Fourthly, Did their Subjects believe this to be a truth, they would not dare to judge those Gods, whom the Great God vouchsafeth to judge among: and to whom alone if belongs to be their Judge.

It is furthermore well worth our notice what course he hath taken to secure Ma­gistracy from contempt. As, The means which God hath used to keep them from con­tempt.

1. First, By prohibiting such things in them which may occasion it; not allow­ing in their Election any thing which might bring the least blemish upon it. He that was wounded in his stones, Deut. 23.2, 3. Ne venito, i. e. ne administrato q.d. munus pub­licum in populo Dei ne ge [...]ito. Junius in locum or had his privy members cut off, was not to enter into the Congregation of the Lord: such an one was not to be admitted into the place of Government. And why not? The same Author tells us, such for the most part are slothful, and of too low a spirit for so high a place, which requires men of courage and resolution, and such as fear not the face of any.

[Page 54] Hi fere ignavi & fracto animo esse solent.Also a Bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord, even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the Congre­gation of the Lord; i. e. neither he nor any descending out of his loins, because he is a Bastard. Nullus descen­dentium ex eo quia spurius est propter infa­miam. And why not a Bastard? be­cause such a person is infamous. When the H. G. would brand the Israelites with a mark of the greatest reproach; he calls them the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Names given to Bastards. The Greeks call the children which come of such a sinful copulation [...]. from [...], because they are subject to contu­melies. The Hebrews call them Bram­bles. Judg 9.14. Abimelech was a right Bram­ble. Such an one was Abimelech, who by the assistance of vain and light persons that he had hired, assassinated his brethren to prevent competitors: resolving to suffer never a rub in the way to hinder the run­ning of his Bowl to the Jack which he aimed at. A right Bramble indeed, who grew in the base hedge-row of a Concu­bine, and scratched and drew bloud to purpose. Mamzerim, spots abroad; Shatakim, such as must say nothing when others are praising their Parents, because they are the reproaches of those that begat them, Jeptha an ex­ception from that general rule. and the usual objects of other mens reproach also. Jeptha, though otherwise a very good man, was upbraided with this [Page 55] note of Infamy, Judg. 11.2. Reason of it. Thou shalt not inherit in our fathers house, for thou art the son of a strange woman, or a harlot; which was all one as if they had called him Bastard. He was made afterward a Judge, and proved to be a Deliverer of the People. Necessity hath no Law. But it was in case of necessity, otherwise by the Law he was uncapable. Another end of that Law, beside the for­mer. A Law not made to punish the guiltless child, who shall ne­ver be called to an account for his Parents sin, as it is their sin, but to secure his own Ordinance from contempt, and for an ad­monition of chastity in regard of the in­famy and contempt of such a polluted po­sterity.

2. Secondly, Requires that from them, as well as puts that into them, which may be attractives of this from their Subjects. As they are called to a more eminent place, so their conversation should exceed the vulgar and common sort. What an undervaluing censure did Michal pass upon David dancing before the Ark? and with what reproachful lan­guage doth she accost him? though he did it to testifie his religious joy: the on­ly thing that could excuse him, and all that he had to say to stop the mouth of Calumny: 2 Sam. 6.20. How glorious was the King of Israel to day, who uncovered himself in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelesly uncovereth himself! Bathshebas ad­vice. Bathsheba giving good advice to [Page 56] her Lemuel, i. e. her son Solomon, tells him, Prov. 31.3, 4, 5. Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways unto that which destroyeth Kings. It is not for Kings, O Lemuel, it is not for Kings to drink Wine, nor for Princes strong drink; lest they drink and forget the Law, and pervert the judgment of any of the af­flicted. What Gods expectation is from their place and edu­cation. It is expected from their advan­tage they have from their place and edu­cation, to transcend all others; that they should live and converse among men like Angels. If they (as one saith) should play the Hogs and Monkeys, abasing themselves to childishness of spirit, and to a life corrupted with the curious de­lights and voluptuousness of the body; this would be a thing as unreasonable in its nature, Caussin's Holy Court. Chrysost. in Po­lycrat. lib. 4. Principatus non tam sanguine quam meritis debetur & inu­tiliter regnat, qui Rex nasci­tur sed non me­retur. Rabanus in Prov. 25.5. Reges à recte agendo vocati sunt ideoque rectè faciendo Regis nomen tenent, peccando amittitur. as it is prodigious in its effects. Principality is due rather to deserts then birth; and he raigns unprofitably, who is born, but doth not deserve to be a King. The very derivation of their stile, minds them of performing actions that are suita­ble, which is, from doing good; and so long as they do so, they keep up their title: whereas in doing the contrary, in the ac­count of their people they lose it.

[Page 57]And as God by these and the like provi­sions, As he would not have them deserve it, so he will not allow their Subjects to of­fer it. hath bound Kings from occasioning it from their Subjects, so hath he by strict precepts tied Subjects from offering it to their Kings: imposing a restraint upon their actions, upon their words, yea upon their very thoughts.

1. First upon their actions; Restriction on their actions. Psal. 105.15. Dr. Westfield Bishop of Bri­stol his Sermon on Psal. 105.15. Touch not mine anointed: which though some are pleased to think mis-applied to Kings, yet a learned Divine of late Times undertakes to prove, that in that place and all others, where mention is made of the Lords a­nointed, it is to be understood of Kings, and no others; to whose works I refer the Reader for further satisfaction. This con­sideration startled David, and makes him stay Abishai's hand; who tells him that he hath his enemy now in his power, and at his mercy; that God had delivered him up to him by an extraordinary provi­dence, profers himself freely to be the executioner to give the fatal stroke, which should put an end to Sauls life and his own troubles. And David said to Abishai, 1 Sam. 26.7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Destroy him not; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guilt­less.

2. Secondly upon their words; Exod. 22.28. Thou shalt not revile the gods, not the gods of the [Page 58] Heathens; which were so only in their own foolish imaginations. God himself hath set us a pattern what we ought to speak and think of such; For all the gods of the Hea­thens are Idols of silver and gold, Silver Gods. Psal. 95.5. & 115.4, 5, 6. the works of mens hands, which have mouths but they speak not, eyes have they but they see not, &c. upbraiding them in another place, Wooden gods. of the goodly matter whereof they are made, and the common use which the remainder of it was put to. He burneth part thereof in the fire, Isa. 44.16, 17. with part thereof he eateth flesh, he roasteth roast and is satisfied: yea, he war­meth himself; and saith, ha, ha, I am warm; (speaking of the Chips that were hewen from those Blocks which these Block­heads adored.) Had they not been so, they would never have made gods of the residue, and resolve with as much zeal as if they had been the God that made them, to fall down before them, and wor­ship, and pray unto them, and say, Deli­ver us, for ye are our gods. And when his own people for their sins in general, but especially for this sin of Idolatry in parti­cular, had provoked him to wrath, so that he delivered them up into their enemies hands, and they thereupon implore him as their last refuge for deliverance; he Iro­nically bids them go to the gods whom [Page 59] they had chosen, and cry to them. The most to­lerable were the men gods. It is true, some of their gods were of better ranke and quality, viz. their Men-gods; who had they been immortal or immacu­late, without father or mother, without beginning or end of days, as Melchisedec is described, it had been the more tolera­ble: but they were so well known, that one of their own Authors hath written their Genealogy, or a Book of the gene­ration of their gods. Some whereof were so notoriously wicked, that a good man would have scorned to accompany them when alive, and spit at the naming of them when dead. And yet such sots were they to worship these for gods, which scarce deserved the names of men: and to weep, and lament, and howl for that which others made an argument to convince them of their folly, and to prove them the greatest Fools in nature. If they are gods, why do ye weep for them? If they are men, why do ye worship them? Their mortalities confuted their deities to all but such who had abandoned both sense and reason. And though in a way of comparison, we grant these to be better gods then the other, which were worse themselves; yet they were guilty of wor­shiping others which were worse then [Page 60] these: The worst were their stinking Gar­lick gods. O sanctas gen­tes quibus haec nascuntur in Hortis. Numina. such were there stinking Onion and Garlick, Garden gods. Of which one (by way of jeer) Holy Nations ye must needs be that have such gods growing in your Gardens. God by his own practice hath taught us that we cannot have too low thoughts, nor speak too contempti­bly of such gods as these. And as it is re­lated of the Lyndans, Lyndans. Those gods may be revi­led. a People that wor­shiped Hercules, who thought that then they did their god the best service, when they railed most against him. So I am confident the more we slight all false Gods, the more respected we are of the true.

Quest. What Gods. Answ. Ut manifestam faceret dicti vim subjungit, &c. Cyril contra Julian. These must not.These are not the God that must not be reviled; the following words in the former place, explain the first; and that we might understand the true sense there­of, it is added by way of explanation, nei­ther speak evil of the Ruler of thy People. When St. Paul was sent by the chief Ca­ptain to the Sanhedrim to be examined about something whereof he was accused, as better understood by them then him­self; declaring the manner of his life, the High Priest commands some that stood by to smite him on the mouth; whereupon he calls him Whited Wall. Some whose curiosity had brought them thither to hear [Page 61] his examination, thought him in an er­rour, and rebuked him for it, Acts 23.1, 2, 3. Revilest thou Gods High Priest? In his Apology for himself, he pleaded Ignoramus, I wist it not that it was the High Priest: For it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ru­ler of thy People. Implying a confession that he had sinned, if he had said it know­ingly. Yet it is conceived by some, who give it as the best answer against those who object his allegation against his own words, to prove him a transgressor; that he did not revile him, but sharply reprove him for commanding an unjust act to be done when he sate in the seat of Justice. Though these gods are not to be reviled, yet they are not to be flattered; Quasi honor quo praediti sunt esset vitiorum integumentum. Calvin in loc. The Tongue is not to be set at liberty which God hath restrai­ned. as if their place were a priviledge to them to do what they list.

Considering therefore the Subject we are upon, the fear of the King; and what a restraint God hath laid upon his Sub­jects to bind their tongues to their good behaviour, that they should not trans­gress by such unbecoming language, alto­gether inconsistent with that reverend re­spect we owe unto them. I cannot ap­prove of that saying of Augustus, In libera Civi­tate liberas o­portet esse lin­guas. that in a Free City mens tongues ought to be free: nor of that liberty under Nerva's Go­vernment, [Page 62] called, Ubi & sentire quae velint & quae sentiunt lo­qui liceat, rara temporum feli­citas. Tacitus. The liberty of every ones thinking what they would, and of speaking what they thought: which one that wrote of it, calls it a rare felicity of those Times, but ours have found it o­therwise. And as little do I commend of their clemency, who have proclaimed the like to theirs, though they speak plausibly enough, Theodosius. Honorius. Arcadius. and well becoming Christians as they were, who should for­give injuries; Si ex levitate contemnendum; si ex insania, commiseran­dum; si ex in­juria, remitten­dum. Gullas. saying, if it proceeded from levity, it was to be contemned; if from madness, it was to be pitied; if of wrong, to be remitted. Yet (as Kings) they ought to have made better provision for the securing their own rights. For if it behoves natural Parents to maintain and uphold their authority over their children, Nimia familia­ritas paret con­temptum. and not fool it away by too much indulgency, which marrs many a child, and does invite them to a slight­ing, first of their precepts, and then of their persons: how much more the Fa­thers of their Country, lest they expose theirs and themselves to the contempt of their Subjects; whereby they will do a very ill office both to God and themselves, and to that authority which he hath given them; as undoubtedly they must needs do, who set at liberty those tongues which God hath confined.

[Page 63]Such a melting spirit we find to have been in David toward Shimei, Shimei's case examined at large, because misunder­stood by some, and a­bused by o­thers. who little deserved it; a person that by his deport­ment shewed as much of malice, scorn, and contempt, as ever Rebel could do to a Prince: both in picking out a time for his mischief, (when his bitter tongue, compared to a sharp sword, might give him the deeper wound) 'twas when his own son had raised an unnatural Rebellion against him; which could not but be a great affliction to such an indulgent fa­ther; and so consequently this no small addition to it. Job 6.14. To him that is afflicted pity should be shewn, but 'tis clear this miscreant had forsaken the fear of the Lord in that he shewed none to the Lords Anointed; treating him with language fitter for a Dog then an ordinary Man; Come out, come out, (being himself more like one in his deportment, who mad with malice, flies in Davids face, and as mad dogs fall upon all in their way, and con­vey their venome where ever they fasten their infectious teeth; so he by his mis­chievous tongue, the poison of his malice, fetching every word as far as Hell, from whence 'twas fired. 2 Sam. 16.5, 6.) He came forth and cursed still as he came, and cast stones at him, and that which was worse then [Page 64] stones, An high af­front. bitter words, more piercing then the sharpest pointed arrows, Thou bloudy man, thou man of Belial: such an affront as might well provoke the greatest Saint, try the patience of the meekest man upon earth, and exasperate him to take the next opportunity of revenge. And how easily might he have done it? it had been but one word speaking, How resented by Abishai. Go, and Abishai, whose fingers itched to be doing, would in a trice have taken his head from off his shoulders; Verse 9. Why should this dead dog curse my Lord the King? let me go over I pray thee, and take off his head. Had David been of a revengeful spirit, he would have rea­dily embraced the motion, and seconded the offer with his Fiat. A matchless meekness. But behold! in stead of a Command, a severe check, and a strict prohibition; What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zerviah? uttering words sounding rather of encouragement then of punishment; as if he had been pleased with it, rather then provoked to the least displeasure by it; Let him alone, let him curse. O altitudo pru­dentiae! O al­titudo patien­tiae! O devo­randae contu­meliae grande inventum! Ambros. St. Ambrose pondering up­on this answer, after a little silence, breaks out into these words of admiration: O the height and depth of his prudence, and of his patience! what a grand matchless invention is here to swallow contumely, and to turn [Page 65] hurtful poison into wholesome nourish­ment! this is far beyond the invention of Mithridates, from whom came that Con­fection that bears his name.

This, Ex Vipera The­riacam. Piscator. this is the best receipt to make a sovereign Treacle of this Venomous Viper. The Lord (either by the secret impulse of some evil spirit saith one, or by a se­cret command of his most wise provi­dence) hath bid him curse David say others, who shall say then why doest thou so? bid him he might, without any im­peachment of his justice, sith his will is the rule of right; and his judgments, though they may be sometimes secret, are always just. Yet this not so secret neither, but that himself and others might by the punishment easily discern his sin that cau­sed it. That sin which in the prohibition before quoted, goes under the name of Reviling, and speaking evil, in another place is called blaspheming; and as Da­vid confesseth, it came from the Lord, so he might well think God permitted Shi­mei to blaspheme him; because he by committing those great and scandalous sins of Adultery and Murder, gave an oc­casion to others to blaspheme his God. A Copy for the best of men to write after.

A Copy this is, yea, such a Copy that I may safely commend to the greatest and [Page 66] best of men to write after, which would calm their spirits, and preserve them in a smooth and even temper; and they would not (as too too many do) when afronted by the brawling of these dogs in the Me­taphor, imitate that foolish custom of these dogs in the Letter, Vent their anger at the sensless stone, never regarding the hand that sent it.

Shimeis sin no whit extenua­ted, either by what David discreetly said, or meek­ly suffered.But was Davids patience, or that con­sideration that caused it, any extenuation of Shimei's sin? No certainly, his malice was no whit the less against him for the one, nor his sin against God for the other. He himself not long after confesseth upon his knees, His politick confession, and feigned sor­row. that he had done wickedly, yea very wickedly; and fearing justly his de­served vengeance for those monstrous ex­cesses of his intemperate tongue, depre­cates the imputing his iniquity unto him. His Petition was as well timed as worded, which was a hopeful Omen of a happy success. It was just upon the time of his new election and inauguration into the Kingdom; which he auspicates with an Act of Oblivion; of which he as well as others reaped the benefit, which secu­red them from the punishment of their former Treasons: There shall not any man be put to death this day, for do not I know [Page 67] that I am this day King over Israel? Yes I do, and am resolved to exercise my kingly Prerogative in pardoning whom I please, and thee in particular, Thou shalt not die. He is par­doned. 2 Sam. 19.22, 23. A pardon to any mans thinking as full as free.

And yet there are some that do limit and qualifie it in their Paraphrases upon it; thereby signifying he intended no more then thus; I pardon thee for my part, Quod me attin­git tibi con­dono, & facti judicium aliis relinquo, &c. Piscator. and leave others to deal with thee as is meet for thy future offences: thou shalt not die by my command at this time. A sense I cannot disapprove, considering a passage that fell from his own mouth a little before his death; who apprehending, as I conceive, the ill use that might be made of such pre­sidents by men of rugged and perverse dis­positions (who presuming of the like leni­ty, might when occasion was offered, David on his Death-bed troubled at it, and the sup­posed reason of it. ease their spleen by the like scurrilities) ex­presseth somewhat of trouble and pressure of spirit, not for his own sins mentioned before; for he had made his peace with God for those in his life time, and recei­ved his pardon from Heaven by the hand of Nathan his Seer. It was the Cases of those two Capital Delinquents, whose indempnity lay upon his Conscience, Joab and himei; the first for the murther of [Page 68] Abner and Amasa; 1 Kings 2.8. Giveth his son Solomon a charge con­cerning him. He is jealous of him. the other for cursing himself; Thou hast with thee (saith he to his son Solomon that was to succeed him) Shimei the son of Gerah, which cursed me with a grievous curse, and I sware unto him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death by the sword; now therefore thou art a wise man, and knowest what to do unto him, hold him not guiltless, but bring thou his hoar head to the grave with bloud: i. e. when he shall have added iniquity to iniquity, pay him home for new and old together. This item made him look more narrowly to his water, Commands him from Ba­hurim to Jeru­salem, and there to build a house, alias a Kings Bench, and confines him to it, en­gageth his life for his true imprison­ment, forfeits his bond, is charged with it, minded of his Trea­son, justly sen­tenced, and deservedly executed. and to prevent any future insurrections through his means against himself, he confines him upon pain of death to his own house, which he was to build in Jerusalem, as a suspi­cious person, no further to be trusted then he might be seen; and when he had forfeited his life by transgressing his bounds, he is not only charged with a clausum fregit, a breaking his prison, but thou knowest all the wickedness that thine heart is privy to, and what thou didst to Da­vid my father; therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head, and Benaiah by his command went out and fell upon him that he died. An act he knew so far from displeasing God, that he con­fidently [Page 69] promiseth himself Gods blessing for such due execution of justice.

Thirdly, God lays a restraint upon the very thoughts of their hearts, Eccles. 10.20. Curse not the King, no not in thy thoughts; threat­ning a strange detection, and by conse­quence a condign punishment. This dif­ference we ought to observe between the Laws of God and Men. The diffe­rence between the Laws of God and Man. The first lays an obligation upon the inward man, that hidden man of the heart, the other only directly upon the outward man.

As for instance, In two instan­ces. Thou shalt not commit adultery is a Law both of God and man; but the question is, who is an Adulterer? 1 The Law of God saith, Matth. 5.28. whosoever hath looked upon a woman to lust after, hath com­mitted adultery already in his heart; so that this brings under the guilt of that sin, not onely him that defiles his neighbours bed; but him also that hath eyes, and an heart full of adultery. But the Law of man calls him onely an adulterer that is con­victed of the act, either by his own con­fession, or other sufficient evidence, he may look on whom he will, and lust after whomsoever he liketh, that reacheth nei­ther the eye nor the heart.

Touch not mine anointed, and thou shalt 2 not revile the Gods, these are Laws of [Page 70] Gods own making, to secure his Ordi­nance from injury and contempt. The Laws of men have made a like provision, though not in those very words; that whosoever shall speak such and such words, and do so and so, is guilty of high Treason, and upon conviction by due course of Law, shall suffer as a Trai­tor. Men may think what they will not­withstanding these Laws, which lay no hold of thoughts, as to them they are free enough; but the Law of God tells thee, thou art a Traitor to thy Prince, and a Rebel to thy God, if thou cursest his Vice­gerent in thine heart.

The Doctrine applied, first to confute the old Proverb, and to con­vince them who think it true, that thoughts are free.Thou therefore that art resolved to pay it with thinking, being confident that these gods by name understand not thy thoughts, which is peculiar to him alone who is a God indeed; and by nature this God who is the searcher of the heart, and the trier of the reins, will pay thee one day for thy thinking, when he shall bring every work into judgment, Eccles. 12.14. with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. It is an obser­vation of one, whose rash zeal for the Ge­neva Discipline, hath kindled such a fire of Contention in the bowels of this Churh and Nation whereof we are members, as is not yet, and God alone knows when it [Page 71] will be throughly quenched; he endea­vouring to suppress all extravagancies of this kind, and to keep mens thoughts in a due decorum towards those that are set over them; Chap. 12.1. Chap. 13.1. Cum de Dei cul­tu sermonem fa­cit corporis ve­nerationem exi­git; ad subje­ctionem Princi­pis delapsus a­nimae submissio­nem postulat, non quod utri­que tum Deo tum Principi utriusque tum corporis tum animae subjectio & obsequium debitum non sit, &c. Cart­wright in Ec­cles. takes notice of a remarka­ble passage of St. Pauls Epistle to the Ro­mans compared with another in the very next Chapter of the same. When in the first of them he calls for the reverence we owe to himself, he bids us offer our bodies to him. When for that subjection which is due from us to his substitutes, he will have every soul to be subject to them; not but that the reverence and subjection of both is due to both; that of the soul as well as that of the body, to God; and that of the body as well as that of the soul to the higher Powers. But to meet with that foolish conceit of some, who think this a safe Plea, when they go into Idol Temples and perform outward acts of worship as others do; that when they prostrate their bodies to Idols, they re­serve their hearts to God; and also of those, who because they deny not the chief Magistrate the service of their bodies, would under that colour, exclude him from that reverence and respect that is due to him in their hearts.

He that hideth hatred with lying lips, Prov. 10.18. is [Page 72] a fool. And what is he better, or how ma­ny removes is he from one that honoureth his King with his lips, and despiseth him in his heart? although he think himself a great deal wiser then those that speak what they think, to the hazard of their lives and fortunes; whereas he lives with­out fear of either, being taken by those who are strangers to his thoughts, for as good a Subject as the best, yet he is no better then a fool; who in the mean time forgets a God above him, who under­stands the most secret thoughts of his heart, and will manifest his folly to his shame and confusion before Men and An­gels, when he shall be summoned to ap­pear at Gods dreadful Tribunal, where (if he prevent it not by a true repentance) he shall be impleaded, convicted, senten­ced, and condemned with all that rout of notorious Rebels and Traitors which have been since the beginning of the World to that day. 2. Against those which slip Gods bri­dle, or run away with the bit between their teeth, like those Psal. 12.4. Quis ta­lia fando tem­peret à lachry­mis?

And sith I am entered upon the appli­cation, I shall take leave to prosecute it against those in the next place, who in those times wherein mens tongues were lawless, took the liberty to spit their ve­nome into the face of Gods Anointed, our martyred Soveraign; slandering his foot­steps, [Page 73] and aspersing the best of Princes with the worst of crimes; crying out upon him as Shimei did against David, for a man of Belial, a man of bloud, charging all that was shed in our uncivil Civil Wars upon him, as the Author; this out of the abun­dance of their mouths have they spoken. Cor enim felle livoris amarum per linguam in­strumentum spargere nisi a­mara non potest. Bernard. For it is impossible their tongues could vent such loud lies, and such notorious slanders, were not their hearts overcharged with the gall of envy and spight.

Others who would be thought more modest, begged of God in their publick devotions, that he would not charge that bloud upon his head, but upon his heart. And these seem to have more of charity, but whether they really had so, I leave to them to judge, who have so much of di­scretion, and so little of prejudice against so deserving a Prince, They charge the War on the King as the Author. as to discover in it an implicit concession, if not an apparent charge of a horrid guilt upon a guiltless person: and whether it had not been more proper for them, Laid at the right dore. who were the con­trivers and promoters of that War which produced those bloudy effects? He vindicates himself: 1. By a serious appeal. How se­riously (in those Meditations and Prayers which he composed in his solitude and sufferings) did he invoke the great and omniscient God to witness his endeavours [Page 74] for the diverting of the necessity of that War, which some mens ambitions first raised, and then falsly fathered upon him? And yet the confidence of some mens false tongues was such, that they would almost make him suspect his own innocency: that he could be content (by his silence at least) to take upon himself so great a guilt before men, 2. By his wil­lingness to a­vert the ne­cessity, and redeem his Subjects from the misery of it. 3. By his Speech on the Scaffold. if that would allay the ma­lice of his enemies, and redeem his people from the miseries of War, sith God knew his Innocency. Follow him to the Scaffold, where he was brought to take his farewel of the World; and from whence he was within a few minutes to go to give his ac­count to God (and therefore no fit time nor place to dissemble with either) how solemnly doth he disclaim it? 4. By his in­fallible Argu­ment. And for the fuller satisfaction of all his Subjects, (many whereof had been so miserably deluded) he referrs them to those Commissions on both sides for raising their Armies; and wills them to take notice of their several dates, They proved the aggressors, and what he did to be in his own de­fence. and they would find those of his Enemies had the precedency, which ani­mated and armed so many of his subjects against him. And from thence they might easily resolve themselves in that question, who were the Aggressors? and that what he raised was upon the score of self-defence, [Page 75] which the Law of God, of Na­ture, and of Nations allows, not only to Princes, but also to their meanest Subjects. He was brought to a sad Dilemma, A sad Dilem­ma. and professeth, himself put to a hard choice, (having such a love for his People, and so earnestly desired theirs) either to kill his Subjects, or to be killed by them.

If I am violently assaulted, and can ap­prehend no possibility of saving my own life but by taking away his, Rather kill then be killed is the Law of Nature, and is allowed by the Law of Nati­ons. who other­wise is resolved to deprive me of mine, God dischargeth me of the guilt of it, and chargeth his bloud upon his own head. If men will raise an Army, and therewith hunt after the precious life of their lawful King; and if they by the just hand of God perish in that rebellious pursuit, where can any rational man think will that bloud lie as to the guilt, or be visited as to the punishment of it, but on themselves?

Some have proceeded farther yet, 3. Against those who have broken his manacles with as much ease as Sam­pson did the 7 green Withs, Judg 16.9. even to imbrew their hands in the bloud of the Lords anointed; who (for the most part of them) have not been so sensible of cut­ting off the thread of his life, as David was for the cutting off the lap of Sauls gar­ment; who was a Prince that exceeded Saul in his extraction, in his life and con­versation, as much as Davids sin fell short [Page 76] of theirs; Their sin con­sidered in the nature of it, and the most favourable construction put upon it. Clamitat ad coelum vox san­guinis, &c. 2. In the de­grees of it. who had his own innocence to extenuate it, besides the inconsiderable­ness of his crime in comparison of theirs, which by many aggravating circumstances is so heightned, that all the Records, sa­cred and prophane, from the beginning of the World to this day, cannot afford its parallel.

It is a fearful, yea a crying sin to shed the bloud of any person, and so tender is God of the precious life of man, that he will not hold those guiltless that strip him of the comforts of it, which are the very life of that life; but hath prohibited it, and will punish it as a degree of murder. The life of man in the best sense, is but a dying life, but such a life is so in a worse: and there is little difference between that and laying violent hands upon him; onely that they grant this favour (it it be a favour) to die by degrees. If there be any mercy in murder, —proh saevior ense Parcendi rabies concessa (que) vita dolori. Claud. I should think it lies in that (supposing his Peace to be made with God) that gives a man the quickest di­spatch, and puts him soonest out of his pain. Tristior est le­tho lethi mora. To grant a man a life to live in misery, is less eligible with some persons then death: and in some cases, the lin­gring delay of death is worse then death it self.

[Page 77]It is a Law long since enacted in the Parliament of Heaven, Gen. 9.6. Exod. 21.28. that whoso shed­deth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed: yea if an Ox gore a man or woman that he die, he shall be stoned to death. In which Law God the Law-giver disco­vered such a detestation of that sin, 3. In the sub­ject. The bruit Beast not exempted, much less man. that he would not suffer murther to go unpu­nished, no not in the bruit Creatures which understood neither precept nor threatning, to shew how severely he would punish it in men that are endued with reason, and know what is good and evil. And what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of a sin-revenging God, if they shall break through both of those strong fences to sacrifice their Brothers bloud to their own malice, or to right their injured Reputation, which would gain more by passing by, then by punish­ing an offence; especially, when there is so great a disparity between the satisfa­ction and the provocation; and that there will certainly be a day of reckoning, which is most commonly in this life, when bloud will have bloud, which is the common price of bloud; The greatest sin we can commit a­gainst our bro­ther. and when for the taking away their Brothers life, they will be en­forced by the hand of Justice to lay down, or rather pay down their own: this there­fore must be a very great sin.

[Page 78] 4. In the Ob­ject: and ag­gravated by his innocency, Exod. 22.2. &c. Killing in some cases, and of some persons, permitted, yea commanded: and the rea­son why.And yet to shed the bloud of an innocent person, is of the two a far greater, and cries louder in the ears of God for ven­geance then the former. For though God doth prohibit killing, yet in some cases he doth permit it, and in others doth command it; Witches, Conjurers, In­chanters, Idolaters, false Prophets, Sab­bath-breakers, disobedient Children, Adulterers, all these have been sentenced to death by Gods own mouth. And how many have been sent out of the World before their time (according to the course of Nature) and have come to an untimely end, guilty of such crimes which makes them liable to death by the Laws of men? Every part was ordained for the good of the whole, and though God doth not al­low any man to macerate, or mutilate his body out of humour or superstition; yet if any part be mortally infected which threatens the endangering of the whole, it is then both lawful, and a piece of di­scretion to take our Saviours advice ac­cording to the letter of it, which he inten­ded in another sense, If thy right hand offend thee cut it off: with which agreeth that of the Poet.

[Page 79]What this or that member is to the body natural, that is such and such a per­son to the body politick. Josh. 7. Achans sin troubled all Israel so that they could not stand before their enemies. He was by Gods own direction first discovered, and after executed and cut off like a gangrened member, to prevent the ruine of all the rest. And without the execution of such severe Laws, no man could be secure ei­ther in his goods or life.

But God doth no where allow the slay­ing of an innocent person. But of inno­cent persons never allowed to any. Arguments to prove the ex­ceeding sin­fulness of it. sins more against Charity? because such an one hath more of the image of God in him, which is the chiefest motive to it, against community, to which he is most profitable: either for his presence the Sun would not shine so merrily on the High-way, were it not for the bordering Fields sake: neither would God have so prospered Laban and Potipher, but for good Jacob and Josephs sake. Or for his Piety, in which respect he is very benefi­cial, not onely to that Family, or to that City wherein he lives; but to that whole Kingdom whereof he is a member; The whole Kingdom at a great loss by it. Job 22.30. The innocent shall deliver the Island, and it shall be preserved by the pureness of his hand. The Kings of Persia, and of other Nations, [Page 80] had their Mazkirim Remembrancers, They are Gods remem­brancers, as the Persian Mazkirim were to their Kings. to mind them of those matters that con­cerned the Weal publick. Such are these to God, and blessed are the people that have such friends of God to befriend them: but wo be to those that injure them, for he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his own eye. Argumentum à minori. Among those many qualifications required of those who desire to dwell in Gods holy Moun­tain, Psal. 15.5. this is one; he must not take a re­ward against the innocent, whether it be by the way of bribery, as Tertullus did against St. Paul; Acts 24. or to give in false evi­dence, as those suborned witnesses did against Naboth; or by way of treachery to betray innocent bloud, as Dalilah did her own husband, for an hundred shekels of silver; Judas, his Lord and Master for thirty pieces of the same metal; and the Scottish Army their King for two hundred thousand pound; thinking themselves by so much the wiser Merchants, Dr. Heylyn's Aerius rediv. p. 468. by how much more they had made the better Market. Which several sums were the price of in­nocent bloud, and pity it is that all those purchases which such Merchants make of all such money, are not called by their proper names, Acheldama's Fields, or Purchases of Bloud.

[Page 81]We may read Gods displeasure against this bloudy Sin, written in letters of Bloud, Argumentum ab Exemplis. in those severe judgments recorded in Sa­cred Writ, to have been most impartially executed, even upon Kings themselves, Exemplified upon Kings punished for killing their guiltless Sub­jects. when they have practised the like upon the lives of their guiltless Subjects. Two of this nature we find in the Old Testa­ment; The first is the avenging the inno­cent bloud of Nabaoth, On Ahab for Nabaoth. when Ahab was going to take possession of his Vineyard, God sent Elijah to him with this Message, Hast thou killed and also taken possession? 1 Kings 21.18, 19, &c. In the place where the Dogs licked the bloud of Nabaoth shall the Dogs lick thy bloud, even thine. I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, as well him that is shut up, as him that is left in Israel. And also of Jezebel the contriver of his death spake he, saying, On Jezebel the contriver. The Dogs shall eat Jezebel by the Walls of Jezreel. And although God did not bring all this to effect in Ahabs time, be­cause he had humbled himself, yet if we compare the several Executions with their Sentences, we shall find them to ac­cord very exactly. In the very next Cha­pter Ahab himself is slain as he fought against the King of Syria, and his bloud [Page 82] ran out of his wound into the Chariot, Chap. 22. which when one washed in the Pool of Samaria, the Dogs licked his bloud. Jehoram his son was slain by Jehu, On Jehoram. 2 Kings 9.24. and his body cast out in the open Field. And in the self-same Chapter, Jezabel was cast out of a Window, V. 32, 33. and her Carcass de­voured by Dogs, excepting onely her scul, her Feet, and the Palms of her hands. Chap. 10.10, And the rest of the chil­dren for their Parents sake. The next gives you a sad account of the rest; so that there fell nothing to the earth of the Word of the Lord, spo­ken concerning Ahab and his house, by his servant Elijah.

2. On David for Uriah. 2 Sam. 12.The other concerns that of Ʋriah whom David is said to have slain with the Sword of the Children of Ammon; because the design which brought him to his end, was laid by him, to cover his Adultery committed before with his wife. Where­upon it follows immediately, Now there­fore the Sword shall never depart from thine house. I will raise up evil against thee, out of thine house, Vers. 10. He is severely punished in his children. &c. How God punished him in his children, the following Cha­pter, with several others, will satisfie a­ny, who have a desire to inform them­selves. Though by repentance he escapes as to his person. He himself indeed died in peace, because by his unfeigned repentance he had made his peace with God; in testi­mony [Page 83] whereof, Psal. 51. he hath left a Copy of it upon record, that those who stumble at his Fall, might be directed to rise a­gain by his Example. But whoso se­riously weighs some of those expressions, intimating the difficult recovery of Gods favour, which by those sins he had justly forfeited, will think it a point of sound discretion, rather to take the more dili­gent heed to their own standing.

If it be so heinous a sin to take away the life of the body, Inference a­gainst Soul-Murderers. Tot occidimus quot ad mortem ire quotidie te­pidi & tacentes videmus. Greg. in Ezech. Homicida dici­tur Diabolus non gladio ar­matus, non ferro accinctus; ad hominem venit verbum semina­vit & occidit, noli ergo putare te non esse homi­cidam quando fratri tuo mála persuadeas. Aug. in Joh. 8. a far greater and more heinous it must needs be to destroy the life of the soul. When we see men post­ing to destruction, and endeavour not to stop them by a seasonable reproof, we are after a sort guilty thereof. The De­vil is called a Murderer from the begin­ning; not that he set upon our first Pa­rents with a Sword, or any other mur­dering weapon; but with seducing words (saying, In the day that ye eat thereof your eyes shall be open, and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil) he procured their fall: and questionless he is no less guilty that lies in wait to deceive and draw o­thers into Schism, Heresie, Rebellion, and such lik fruits of the Flesh; which had their beginning from Hell, and will have their end in damnation.

[Page 84]Yet how many have this to answer for, who as yet go as upright under their guilt as Sampson under the Gates of Gaza? Not that I take upon me peremptorily to cen­sure, or finally to determine the future e­state of any; Inter Pontem & Fontem. God might shew them mer­cy between the Bridge and the Water: and with as much ease save a Souldier ga­sping upon the ground, as he did the Thief dying upon the Cross. But suppose (the best) that he did give to many that fell in that unjust quarrel, that mercy first to see their sin to repentance, and that next to pardon it; yet, no thanks to those who did engage them: who were so far from sounding a retreat to countermand their Proselites, that they have given but small evidence to the World of their own re­pentance. Yet notwithstanding this, if we grant (which is too possible) that some of those poor seduced souls did die in their sin; God will re­quire the bloud of the Seduced at the hands of their Seducers. Ezek. 3.18. it is easie to read at whose hands God will one day require their bloud. The inference is genuine though some­what beside my purpose, I shall therefore insist no further upon it, but leave it with this hearty wish to those, An Apology for the digres­sion. for whose sakes I have made this short digression that they may be as sensible as it self is seasona­ble.

[Page 85]My business is (as a Solicitor for the King of Kings) to draw up a Charge a­gainst a rebellious Nation, Rebellion ar­raigned with her chief A­ctors and Ac­cessaries. or rather a rebellious Faction in the Nation; for that (not having the fear of God before their eyes) have traiterously and wickedly imagined, conspired, and compassed the death of the Lords Anointed. The charge enforced, and her crime ag­gravated from the quality of the Object Regicide. 2 Sum. 18.3. I have shewed already how God detests that crying sin of Murther, and with what dreadful fury the Avenger of bloud did pursue the Murtherers. But alass! those instances fell as far short of this, as there is of difference betwixt the Objects on whom the murthers were perpetrated. Those were Homicides acted on Subjects, this a Regicide committed upon the per­son of Gods Vicegerent, and their lawful King: who in the ballance of the Sanctua­ry, which is exactly even, outweighs ten thousand of the other. Wherein this resembled those before mentioned. Some thing of resemblance to this I find in both the for­mer; namely, in the close and cunning contrivance; more yet between this and the former of them, in that both that and this were carried on under the same colours of Religion and Justice [Proclaim a Fast:] so these under a pretence to seek God, most blasphemously intitling him to the worst of Villanies. Had they indeed [Page 86] when first ingaged in that design, searched the Scripture, as good Christians should daily do, which conteins in it the revealed mind or will of God, to which all are bound to apply themselves for resolution in all their doubts. Their eyes would have dropped out of their heads, ere they could have found so much as the least colour of a Precept, or warrantable Pre­sident for their proceedings, had they consulted the thirteenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, Rom. 13. which troubles a Rebel as much to read, as (some say) it doth a Witch to say the Lords Prayer; it would have put a bar to all further attempts, and in stead of taking away their Soveraigns life, Benhadads Po­licy if practi­sed, might have saved his life, secu­red their own, and prevented the loss of ma­ny thousands of their fellow Subjects. would rather (as Benhadads Ambassadors) with badges of their deserts have implored his pardon to secure their own. And this they might have done upon as firm a ground of hope to speed; because that King was as mer­ciful as ever was any of the Kings of Israel.

But that is not the onely fence that God hath made for the safeguard and security of Princes. I have before quoted other places which speak their Authority to be so sacred, that God will not allow their Subjects so much as the liberty of their thoughts against them.

[Page 87]We read indeed of many Regicides in Sacred Writ and prophane Story, Last Argu­ment aggrava­ting it above all Murthers of the same kind as with­out parallel. That of our Saviours by the Jews, his own Subjects, came nearest to it. but they acted it privately, these in the face of the Sun.

One instance there is indeed in the New Testament, and but that one, the murder­ing of a King too, and he higher then the highest Monarch upon Earth, the Lord Jesus Christ, that Prince of Peace; barba­rously crucified between two Thieves, as if he had been, yea, the greatest of the three: to whom as few Kings ever came so near in their lives, so none ever did in so many circumstances of his death. Yet this even this instance of this King, In some things exceeds it. though it doth even in many things exceed ours as far as Heaven exceeds Earth, and God exceeds Man, in this one circumstance falls short; that those that were the Contri­vers and Promoters of his death, never did, But in one circumstance falls short, and that a very material one too. nor never would, from first to last, own him for their King: but when Pilate asked that question, Shall I crucifie your King? they returned this answer, We have no King but Caesar; and when he had caused this Superscription to be written in three several Languages, which sounds thus much in ours, Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews; they abhorring to own the crucifying him under that title, desire him [Page 88] to alter it, Joh. 19.19, 20, 21. Write not the King of the Jews, but that he said, I am the King of the Jews.

Obj. The greatest part of the Nation plead Not Guilty to the Indict­ment.It may be some will object in the words of the Disciples to the Woman in the Go­spel, pouring that costly ointment upon our Saviours head; What needed this waste of words, sith the greatest part of the Kingdom had neither hands nor hearts engaged in it? Sol. Those were guilty that in­gaged not for him, though not in so high a degree as they that fought against him. Hinc illae la­chrymae. He that fights against him with his purse, if a Volunteer, is as bad as he that fights a­gainst him. Our Laws say Rex non mori­tur, which is always true quoad jus, not so always quoad potesta­tem, exempli­fied in our late Interregnum. To these I have to answer, that David was at a great distance from Ʋriah when he received his deaths wound, and yet he prays apparently in reference unto that, Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness, O God. Whence I infer that a man may be guilty of anothers bloud never shed; if so, though but few principals in the shedding of this, there were very many accessaries; either by actually opposing, or not personally assi­sting him according to our bounden du­ty, either by their persons, or by their purses.

Moneys are the sinews of War, and had not they so readily sacrificed their Wealth to the pleasure of their Grandees, their design must have been nipt in the Bud, and proved rotten ere it had been ripe. This, this is that that suborned the Witnesses, that feed the Counsel, that [Page 89] bribed the Judge, that paid the Execu­tioner for striking that fatal stroke which made the body both of our King and King­dom headless.

All this that I have said to aggravate the crime, The Authors Apology for his severe ap­plication. is not (God knows) out of any delight I take to rake in those rotten Ul­cers and festered Sores; but in order to that which follows, and which our sin calls upon us loudly for out great humili­ation. To which purpose our Anniversa­ry Fast enacted on that sad occasion, re­news the memory of our guilt, Infandum— jubes renovare dolorem. and di­rects us with renewed Repentance to de­precate the punishment; lest we forget­ing it to God, God should remember it to us, in such a way as we would not willingly hear of it.

The Prophet Jeremiah hath written a whole Book of Lamentations for the death of good Josiah, Judah had great reason to lament the loss of their good Josiah; but we greater for the death of ours. which was the fore-runner of those many miseries to the Jewish Church: and his Subjects expressed the sense of their loss by his fall, so deeply and pathetically, that it was made for an Ordinance unto Israel, and proposed as a Pattern for future times in their most important occasions. Zech. 12.11. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley [Page 90] of Megiddon. Surely it behoves us in our mourning (if possible) to exceed them. Their King Josiahs fall was an effect of his own rashness and folly; but the fall of ours was both by, and for our sins. This (in short) I commend as reflecting upon what is past, Wholsome advice. and propose this as a proper expedient for the time to come, to break off our Sins by Righteousness, our former Rebellion by our future Fidelity. And sith all our tears (were every one of our Eyes Fountains) would prove inef­fectual to restore to life, him whom some have been so eminently instrumental, and all have been one way or other accessary to bring him to his end; what we fell short in duty to the dead Father, let us make up in love and loyalty to his living Son, his rightful Heir and Successor; whose unparallel'd act of Grace (when we lay under the danger of so great a for­feiture) cannot but indear him to all his rational Subjects; The benefit whereof I envy to none, but do heartily wish that some would study better to deserve it. And so I pass from this fear, here strictly taken, as it signifies a particular duty which every individual Subject ows to his Prince; and come to consider it in its latitude as more comprehensive, including [Page 91] all other duties payable to him upon the same account.

It is not unknown to any that study the Sense as well as the Letter of the Scri­pture, that Fear, Fear a very comprehen­sive Duty. when it relates to God as its Object (as it doth here in the first place) oftentimes signifies his whole Worship; Deut. 6.13. Psal. 112.1, 128.1. Acts 10.35. Qui timet Deum nihil negligit; timere Deum est nulla quae fa­cienda sunt bo­na praeterire. Greg. Moral. as it doth in all those places in the Margine. The Fear of the Lord makes a man very diligent and careful that he leaves no good duty undone which God would have him do; and it is as common in the Scripture, when he in­tends to press the whole duty of Inferiors to their Superiors; to name onely some one leading duty, which being expressed, the rest which are as it were under its command, must be understood; as ho­nour to Parents, submission to Husbands, obedience to Masters, as here Fear to Kings and Princes.

This (whether ye refer it to God or the King) is to all other Duties, It is like the Heart. as the Heart is to all the other parts of a man; and when God calls for that, Prov. 23.26. My Son give me thine heart, he leaves not the rest to our own disposing. He made man, that is, the whole man, and every part of man for himself, 1 Cor. 6.20. and purchased both body and Soul at a price: there is great reason [Page 92] that the Workmanship should serve to the use of the Workman; and that which was bought at so dear a rate, should be serviceable to him that bought it: in cal­ling for that, he calls for all; and he that in answer to that call of his, presents him with that gift, he together with that gives him all. Like the Centurion in the Go­spel, Like the Cen­turion. Matth. 8.8. it is in great Authority, it hath all the rest as Servants at its beck: it saith to one go and it goes, to another come and it comes, to another do this and he doth it. If God have the Heart, the Tongue will shew forth his praise, the Ear will be open to his Word, the Eye will be turned away from Vanity, and behold the wonderful things contained in his Law; the Hand will do the thing that is good, and the Feet will run the way of his Commandments. Even as it is with the great Wheel of a Clock or Watch, Like the great Wheel of a Clock. if that be at fault, the rest cannot be regular in their motion; if that be right the rest will answer it: so if God hath this, or have it not, he hath either all or none at all. Its Attendants as it refers to the second of these Objects, the King. And so it is with this Fear of the King; where this is seated in the heart, all other duties will accompany it: they will be subject to his Laws, loyal to his Person, make a charita­ble construction of his failings and infir­mities, [Page 93] pray for him, and pay unto him what is legally charged upon them for the support of his Grandure, and to de­fray the charges of his Government. Of all which in their Order.

First, Subjection. They will submit themselves to those Governours that are set over them in the Lord, and honour them by performing all dutiful obedience to them, according to that general rule given by the Apostle to all that are under Government; Rom. 13.1. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers, the original word signifies an or­derly subjection, or the placing, or set­ting one thing under another in due or­der. As amongst the Elements, the Wa­ter under the Earth, the Earth under the Air, and the Air under the Element of Fire. In the Body Natural, the severai parts of it under the Head, and each of those parts one under another. In the Family, the Wife under the Husband, the Children under their Parents, Chrysost. in Po­lycrat. Tunc totum Reipubli­cae corpus vige­bit si singula quaeque loca te­neant, mem­bra si fuerit of­ficiorum non confusio sed distributio. the Ser­vants under their Masters. In the Com­mon-wealth, which is a Body Politick, the Subjects under their Princes. The whole Body of that Common-wealth will then flourish, when every one of its Members acts vigorously within its pro­per sphere; when there is an order­ly [Page 94] distribution; and not a wild confusion of Offices.

The Seeds of which Subjection the God of Order hath sown among those Creatures which are without Reason, Bees, Cranes, Fishes, &c. which have one above them, under whose conduct they go forth to feed, and so return. And although it be no Miracle, yet it is a won­der which is noted of the Pismire, Prov. 6.6. Chap. 30.27. which hath no Guide nor Governour; and of the Locusts, which have no King, and yet go forth all by Bands, flying in Troops, some turning one way and some another, like divers Squadrons of an Army; and men may be as well sent to them to learn Concord, as to the Ant for Industry and discreet Providence. Yet this is no dispa­ragement to Government, which the sad effects of the want of it, commends and cries up for necessary, and that among ra­tional men, who have Reason to guide them; yea, among those men which were acted by a higher principle then that, Judg. 17.6. Chap. 18.1. Chap. 21.25. viz. Religion. When there was no King in Israel, every one did that which was good in his own eye. How doth Piety and Religion languish, Idolatry and Pro­phaneness flourish? And if there be confusion, as there must be when there is [Page 95] no order: The Scripture tells us what will follow upon it, every evil work.

God hath ordained Government and Governours as a Hedge, James 3.16. Government a Hedge. or Fence to keep men secure in their Religion, Lives, Li­berties, Estates, and Proprieties. And the blessed Apostle exhorting to pray for Kings, gives this as a chief Argument to enforce it, 1 Tim. 2 1, 2. that under them we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. That pulled up, all goes to ruine. This Hedge being once re­moved, all goes to rack. It hath been suf­ficiently observed by several sad experien­ces, where God hath suffered the Ene­mies of it so far to prevail; and those who have designed to prey upon either or all of these, have levelled their Batteries against Magistracy, as the chiefest fortress of their security.

What a bloudy Tragoedy doth Germa­ny and some parts of the Netherlands present us with, Exemplified by the Ana­baptists pro­ceedings in Germany, &c. acted by the Anabaptists in their several Scenes of Mischief? To which this was preached by their Ring-leaders, as the most proper Prologue; and that pretended as a Revelation from Heaven too; that the Empire and Prin­cipalities of this World, were to be ex­tirpated; and that the Sword of Gideon was put into their hands to be employed [Page 96] against all Tyrants for the assertion of true Liberty, and the restauration of the King­dom of Christ; by whom Religion it self is brought upon the Stage in a strange dis­guise, and made to act her part in what was most contrary to her nature; J. D. his Epi­stle to his Apo­calypsis, or Hi­story of the Anabaptists. im­bruing her white and innocent hands in Bloud and Massacres? What strange pre­tences are here? as if those had not been Christians to whom St. Paul gave that precept; yes certainly they were so; and he in that doth as certainly imply, they being such, that nothing in Christianity ought to be pretended, or made use of to give any man immunity from his obedi­ence to the Higher Powers.

In the Kingdom of Christ this is won­derful, Their grosse Error refuted. Za [...]ch. Misc. Epist. Dedic. saith a learned Author, that he wills and commands all Princes and Po­tentates to be subject to his Kingdom, and yet he wills and commands likewise, that his Kingdom, that is, the Subjects of his Kingdom be subject to the Kingdoms of the World: intimating that their spirirual freedom which they have, and do enjoy under him, from Sin, Satan, and Damna­tion is not repugnant to the corporal sub­jection due to them: and that the same person may be both a Christian and a Sub­ject, as well as a Christian; and yet not­withstanding [Page 97] a Wife, and must be subject to her Husband; a Child, and must obey his Parents; a Servant, and so consequent­ly must do service to his Master. Yea fur­ther, Subjection an essential part of the Chri­stian Religion. Their obedience and subjection is a part of their Religion; and so essential a part, that he that is not a good Subject, cannot be a good Christian.

And however all that go under that name are not subject as they should be, I must tell them, that neither Christ, neither any good Christians can account them so; but spots and blemishes of that glorious Profession, exorbitant persons that make themselves a Dispensation, and take liberty to do what they list, without any regard to what their Superiours com­mand them; making it only a matter of complement, and no concern at all of Con­science; Rom. 13.5. though afterward urged by the same Apostolical Authority, upon that very account.

How loth are some to stoop to Autho­rity, Applicat. 1. Non est vilis & abjecti animi indicium, sed generosi & à lege Creatoris, non deviantis promptè & lu­benti animo sub­jici melioribus. B. Davenant in Coloss. 3. and to submit to the practice of so indispensable a duty? As it it were in it self a thing too much beneath a free and ingenious spirit. Whereas in truth it is rather an argument of a generous mind, not deviating from the Law of Creation, willingly to subject it self to its betters. [Page 98] Insomuch that the very Heathens could say, Facile imperium in bonos: pes­simus quisque asperime recto­rem patitur. It is an easie matter to govern such as are good, but a difficult task to govern such as are bad, who account submission a yoak too strait and uneasie for their stiffned necks.

2. Non-confor­mists appa­rently defe­ctive in this duty.Others, who seem willing to comply with the commands of their Superiours in matters of civil concernment; yet fain would be their own carvers, and be left to their own liberty in Ecclesiasticals; espe­cially in those things which are adiapho­rous (i. e.) of a middle and indifferent na­ture; as if that God who is the God of Order, and both commands and approves of it in all other Societies of men, would allow of, or excuse confusion in his own House.

In what the power of Kings chiefly consists.The power of Kings consists chiefly in things of that quality, which if they are a­bridged of, they are in effect but meerly ti­tular, and signifie as little as so many Cy­phers without a figure. Whatsoever comes within the compass of the Moral Law, ei­ther as a Duty to be done, or as a Vice to be eschewed; the one must be done, and the other left undone, whether or no the Magistrate second it with his command or prohibition: What needed then that Precept of obeying Magistrates? he that [Page 99] will not obey God, will not obey Man commanding the same thing with God freely and willingly; and he that obeys what God commands, being awed there­unto by the Precepts of men, Isa. 29.13. the Prophet hath left us ground enough to judge by, what approbation, or acceptation that obedience is like to find at the hands of God.

Every Duty which falls under a Moral Precept, Circumstances as inseperably linked to Du­ty, as those ac­cidents, so called, are to their subjects, which cannot be parted without the apparent de­struction of both, exem­plified in the gesture of Prayer. hath some Ceremony or other necessarily accompanying it, as the Sha­dow doth the Substance in the clearest day. I instance in a mans gesture in Prayer, whether it be standing, walking, leaning, kneeling, lying, either upon the back, sides, or prostrate, or any other way, (if there can be any other) as we read of several men that have used several of these, which the Scripture rather de­scribes then prescribes, and it is impossi­ble he should do it but in some of these, or such like: but in which of these he shall pray, there is not one word of com­mand for this, or that, or any; yet not­withstanding, it is very requisite that they which meet together in the same place, to serve the same God, should be both una­nimous and uniform, joyn together in the same mind, and in the same form; as it [Page 100] is noted in the people in Ezra's time, when he opened the Books to read, Nehem. 5.6. all stood up; but when they praised the Lord, The ill conse­quences of lea­ving every man to his li­berty. they all bowed themselves. Di­versities of gestures cause distinction, and hinder devotion, being usually attended with preposterous censuring one of ano­ther, to prevent which the Apostle hath left a standing rule to order all things of this nature by: Let all things be done decently and in order. A general A­postolical rule for ordering things of this nature by. And the next best rule that we can observe to uphold and maintain that order, is to comply with that Church wherein we live, and whereof we are members, in such commendable gestures as she prescribes and practiseth. It can­not but be looked upon as a thing very in­decent and disorderly, when in compli­ance with that Catholick and Apostolick Constitution, Who have power to re­gulate those things. the Governours of our Church (among whom we acknowledge the King, next under Christ, to be Su­pream) have ordered this or that, for private men in their practices to control their publick judgment: Besides, what it argues of pride and singularity, from which their own fairest pretences cannot clear them; nor the greatest charity of others excuse them. So heinous a thing in the judgment of that very Apostle was [Page 101] Violation of Church Orders; that Con­tumacy therein deserved a censure little less then Excommunication, commanding to withdraw from every brother that walk­eth disorderly, 2 Thess 3.6. and not after the instructions which they had received. What hath been said of Gestures in Prayer, Vestures in the publick Ad­ministration under the same rule. might have been said of Vestures in the publick Administration: which come under the same consideration, and belong to the same general Rule.

But what if a lawful Power command an unlawful thing, Quest. what must the Subject do in such a case? Answ. The Question carries its answer within it self; the Command is unlawful therefore it must not be o­beyed, i. e. actively:. the Power com­manding it, is lawful, therefore must not be resisted. The common Case falling under this Head, resolved Princes have not an absolute and unlimited Authority over their Sub­jects; neither must they give an absolute and universal obedience unto their Prin­ces. We are bound to obey those that are set over us by the Lord, only in the Lord. He that made such a one a King, Propter quod unumquodque est tale idipsum est magis tale. Aristotel. Acts 4.29. is more a King himself, then he is whom he made so; being King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,: therefore when he shall com­mand contrary things, Whether it be right in the sight of God, to obey man rather then [Page 102] God, judge ye. Surely, as Peter and others of the Apostles said in such a case, We ought rather to obey God then men. Acts 5.29. Ex quo docemur quatenus se ex­tendit officium Magistratus, deinde quanta obedientia est à nobis colendus idque loco Dei. Denique quan­do licitum ab eo discedere. Aretius in Act. Apost. Absolute obe­dience not safe either in Kings com­manding, From whence we may learn how far the Office of the Magistrate doth extend, what re­spect we ought to shew towards him, as being in Gods stead: and how far we must follow his Command with our obe­dience. No farther then he therein follows the commands of God; where he leaves God, there we must leave him. Such an absolute obedience, stretched to things re­pugnant to the Word of God, can neither be safe for that King that shall require it, nor for that Subject that shall give it. Happy had it been for Jeroboam, had not his idolatrous Decree met with such an easie compliance in his People: their magnifying him above what was meet, brought destruction upon him and his; and hath left such a blot upon his name, as shall never be taken off so long as the Scripture continues that records his Hi­storie, which stigmatized him to all po­sterity, in this reproachful character, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 2 Kings 10.31. who made Israel to sin. Or in their Subjects obey­ing. Neither will the Princes command be of any force to extenuate his Subjects sin before God; nor take off so much as an unite in the number of his decreed [Page 103] stripes. Those Executioners of the three Children could have produced Nebu­chadnezzars Commission for casting them into the Fiery Furnace; Dan. 3.19, 20, &c. and yet within two Verses ye may find them consumed to ashes with the very flame of that Fire which they had kindled, and into which they cast those innocent persons. It is the Remarque of a learned Expositor upon the very instance, Dr. Willet in loc. because they did yield obedience to the King in so wicked and unjust a Decree; therefore they were worthily destroyed. Unlawful Com­mands must not be obeyed

In such a case the Subject must fly to his Arms, such as are Prayers and Tears; What to do in that case? Ad preces & lachrimas quae sunt arma Ec­clesiae. which are all the Weapons that his holy Mother the Church will allow him upon such an account. As to any other, our Saviour Christ hath given a very strict in­hibition with a menacing sub poena: he that taketh up the Sword, Mat. 26.52. Pugna Petri à Christo repre­hansa monet non esse praetextu Evangelii ra­piendum gla­dium, &c. Chytreus in lo­cum. shall perish by the Sword. Christ reprehending that rash act of Peter admonisheth us, that we ought not to take up the Sword under pretence of the Gospel; but in times of Persecution to encounter all difficulties, armed only with Prayer and Patience. This was the pra­ctice of those Primitive Christians, who lived under the Government of Heathen [Page 104] Emperours, notwithstanding they wanted not a considerable Party to have made re­sistance.

Tertull. Apol.How basely then do they detract from the deserved praise of those glorious Mar­tyrs, who willingly offered their bodies as a Sacrifice to their Persecutors rage, rather then to transgress the commands of God. Which some have imputed ra­ther to their want of Power then Will, that they did not repel one force with another; Vim vi repellere as if they had made a Vertue of Necessity: A base con­struction made of the patient suffer­ings of the Pri­mitive Chri­stians. and that if they had been fur­nished with men and Arms, they would have resisted rather then have suffered. A great Promoter of our late Divisions, pinched as it seems with the force of the forecited allegation out of that learned Father, Nodus Gordia­anus. very nimbly cuts asunder that knot which he saw with all his skill he could not untie; so as to give satisfaction to any ingenious Reader, who was willing (as all should be in a business of that con­sequence) to try before he trusted, 1 Thess. 5.21. censu­ring the Author of that Apology for a bad Statesman, Tertullians Er­rours disco­vered, to in­validate his Authority. and a worse Arithmeti­cian; and at length musters up his er­rours to overthrow his authority; charg­ing him with Montanism. True it is, he did so strangely admire that blasphemous [Page 105] Heretick, Nec mihi per­suadere potest hominem tam acris judicii sic in divinis lite­ris exercitatum credidisse Montanum fuisse Sp. Sanct. that Erasmus could not per­swade himself that he was in earnest. As dead Flies cause the Ointment of the A­pothecary to send forth a stinking savour, so doth a little Folly him that is in reputa­tion for Wisdom and Honour.

But though this Anti-Tertullianist in his Anti-Cavileerism, A pestilent Pamphlet Printed in the times of the Rebellion. is pleased to slight the Works of that Author upon the former, and some few other considera­tions; yet as profound Divines as him­self have as highly prized them. In what e­steem he was with S. Cyprian. Vincent. Lyran. Not a day passed Cyprian but he read something of them. Vincent. Lyran. assigned him the first place among the Latine Fathers; as I think I may safely do to him among those (if there be any such besides him­self) that have ranged Tertullians Apolo­getical Orations among his Errours; and may not we with the same Tool as easily dissolve his Gordian Knot? and answer those Authorities which he produceth in oppo­sition to the former, 1 Sam. 14.43, 44, 45. Chap. 22. 1, 2. viz. that of the Peoples rescuing Jonathan Sauls son from the destructive consequence of his Fathers rash Oath: and that of David his raising an Army to defend himself? A pretty way to evade the force of an Argument, which we can­not answer. Sith both the one and the other were guil­ty, questionless, of several miscarriages, and therefore might possibly err in those, [Page 106] as well as in other of their actions. But I conceive it may be done in a great deal fairer way, by making it appear these in­stances are not so parallel as he would make the World believe they are to his business there in hand. The first in­stance misap­plied, as ap­pears by the sense com­monly given of it, which hath a great deal of proba­bility to se­cond it. The first instance is brought (so far as my memory serves me) to justifie that affront put upon the King, when he demanded those impeached Members to be delivered up to Justice. These agree like Harp and Harrow; if the one were by Arms, the other only by Arguments. Jonathan's rescue by a dis­swasive intercession, theirs by a forcible opposition. The last cannot be denied by any, the other is affirmed by many; and those of no small esteem in the Church: whose judgments seem to be very much favoured by the Context: And the People said unto Saul, 1 Sam. 14.45. shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? 1 Sam. 21.9. God forbid: as the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he hath wrought with God this day. Here are words spoken, no swords drawn: unless as Goliahs sword lay wrapt up in a cloth behind the Ephod, so these should lye concealed in the word Rescue. But if this rescue might be made without force, (as it is possible it might) [Page 107] and very probable it was so; and Chari­ty enjoyns us to make the most favoura­ble construction) where then is the force of this instance? One indeed that sided with the same Party, is of that mind with himself; but then he is so far from ap­proving it, that he dislikes and condemns it. They should not have done it by force, but by humble supplication. Trapp in locum, à facto ad jus non valet ar­gumentum, no more in that case then this, J. G. was a Rebel there­fore, J. H. might be so too. And if he blame those for doing that, he could not commend these for doing this.

And for the other, viz. David's raising an Army in his own defence, is no argu­ment for Subjects to take up Arms against their King; to pursue him from place to place, to sequester, plunder, imprison, arraign, sentence, and in fine to murther him. As these were the steps of their March, The second urged to as lit­tle purpose. or of the March of their Army which were raised (as he pretends) for the defence of their Country. If he call this a defensive, I confess, I am yet to learn what an offensive War is. In a sense indeed it may be called so, Scelera sceleri­bus tuenda. Tacit. Catalines and their War a­like defensive. as Cata­line, so famous in History for Treason and Conspiracie; proceeded still further, heaping up Treason upon Treason, (the last to defend and secure himself from the deserved vengeance of the first) whose saying it was, The mischiefs [Page 108] I have done, cannot be safe, but by attempt­ing greater; so these by the Conscience of their guilt (which in their conceit was beyond all hope of pardon) were hurried on from bad to worse; conceiving them­selves still unsafe; so long as there was one alive of that Royal Race, that might bring them to an account, and adjudg them the reward of their Treason and Rebellion.

One example of more force then all his al­legations, had he made use of a thousand more.To these examples, which I may justly except against, (as to the purpose for which they are brought) I shall purpose one which is beyond all exceptions, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ blessed for ever, who submitted to the execution of a most unjust sentence, without the least opposi­tion or resistance; whereas he might have commanded more then twelve Legions of Angels for his rescue: Mat. 26.53. who was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, Isay 53.7. and as a Sheep before the sharer is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, &c. whose suffer­ings were not only meritorious, but also exemplary, leaving us an example there­by, that we that bear his name, should tread in his steps, and suffer any thing ra­ther then resist Authority. In imitation of whom, and for whose sake, those good Christians of old were killed all the day [Page 109] long, Occidebantur sine reluctatio­ne. and were accounted as sheep for the slaughter, as sheep indeed they were; because slain without resistance: whose examples, if we oppose in our practice, Mat. 16.25. in seeking to save our lives by such unwar­rantable ways we may well expect to lose them. He that resisteth, Rom. 13.2. resisteth the Or­dinance of God, and shall receive to himself damnation. Whereas if we lose our lives for his sake, we shall save them; if our temporal lives, we shall be savers, yea great gainers, we shall have eternal life for them; which is so far from being a loss, that it will prove an happy exchange.

Where there is this fear, 2. Duty com­prehended in this of Fear, Fidelity. there will be also fidelity, in defending and maintain­ing the life, state, dignity, and honour of the King: and in discovering Treasons and Conspiracies against him. Mordecai a Loyal Subject. Mordecai was a true pattern of Loyalty, who over­hearing Bigthan and Teresh muttering out some treasonable intentions against Aha­suerus their Liege Lord and King, incon­tinently made a discovery of it. Delay he knew well in a business of that nature, might prove very dangerous, and every minute it had been concealed, would have administred to the ripening of their de­sign, and the endangering the Kings life. The thing being known to Mordecai, he [Page 110] told it to Hester the Queen, and she cer­tified the King; Hester 2.22, &c. who making inquisition, found it to be true, and gave them the pro­per reward of Traitors, hanged them both on a Tree.

So was Abishai when Shemei affronted Da­vid.This made Abishai so ready to revenge Shimei his reproachful language against his Lord and Master King David, Suffer me to go and take off the head of that dead dog. And the men of Judah in Sheba's insur­rection a­gainst him li­sting them­selves under Joah, and ad­venturing their lives to bring that Traitor to Ju­stice. This made the men of Judah cleave so fast to him, when Sheba the son of Bichri made an insurrection, headed a Party, and at length drew all Israel after him; these willingly offer themselves, and are listed under the conduct of Joah his General: who by their help pursued the Traitor to Abel, sets before it batters the Walls, and denies all peace to the Inhabitants, till they had taken off his head, and sent it by him to David for a Present. A man of Mount Ephraim hath lifted up his hand against the King: deli­ver him only, and I will depart from the City, &c.

2 Sam. 20. Jehosheba in securing Joash from that A­thalian Massa­cre.This made Jehosheba to secure Joash the son of King Ahaziah, when Athaliah to make way to, and confirm her self in the Throne, made away all the rest of his off-spring. This heir apparent he hides six years in the House of the Lord, at the [Page 111] end of which time (when that she Tyrant thought all had been her own) he assem­bles the Governours and Captains, ac­quaints them with the unexpected news of a young King, preserved by a strange kind of providence, placed a strong guard about his person, set the Crown upon his head, and secured him in his Throne: which when that bloudy Hell-hag and Fury saw, she cries out Treason, Treason; he well knew who was the Traitor, and ac­cordingly gave order to the Captains and Officers for her execution, who soon put a period both to her claim and life. Chrysostom sends Rebels to the Bees to learn Loyalty. Chry­sostome tells us no Nation is so careful of their King as are the Bees; if he be safe they all agree, but if he miscarry they fall all into confusion and devour their honey: when either Age or Accident hath taken him from his wings, he is carried up by the crowd, and when he dies his Subjects die also.

Fidelity is a duty of that consequence to the safety of a King, A Duty neces­sary to the Kings safety. and so consequent­ly of his whole Kingdom, which is at a great loss in the loss of a good King; that to ensure it, they used in the times of the Old Testament, Oath of Alle­giance no late invention. to tie their Subjects with the sacred bond of an Oath; which is at this day in use both in our own and other [Page 112] Nations: which was thought a sufficient security, when Oaths were made more conscience of. Ferrum tuetur Principem. Some have thought po­tent Arms the best, as Nero in Seneca's Tragedies. But 'tis not with men as a­mong Beasts, where the strongest head the Herd, and bear the sway; 'tis Vertue not Violence establisheth a Princes authority, whose best and most faithful Guard, are his own Innocence and his Subjects Bene­volence; without which the greatest they can place about their persons, will hardly exempt them from perpetual fears, and renders them more like Prisoners then like Princes. As Plato sometime said of Dionisius the Tyrant, Quid tantum mali fecisti, ut ità à multis custodiaris? when he saw him environed with his, What evil hast thou done, that thou hast so many Keepers?

He that is truly Loyal will not stick to hazard his own, if that he can preserve his Soveraigns life. Like that noble Hubert of St. Clare mentioned in our English Chronicles, Hubert of St. Clare. who at a Siege interposed his own person between his King and danger: and lodged that deadly Arrow in his own breast, which was levelled at that Royal mark.

It was our Saviours inference upon that supposition, which both were occasioned by Pilates question, Art thou the King of [Page 113] the Jews? John 18.33. V. 35. This nulls the pretended Commission of those Mille­naries of the last Edition, who have li­sted them­selves of his Life-guard, under pre­tence of set­ting him on his Throne, who profes­seth himself no temporal Prince, and disclaims all title to an earthly King­dom. My Kingdom is not of this World: if it were then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to mine enemies: which if well weighed, would stop the mouths, and tie up the hands of those who are so apt to rebel against the Kings of this World, under pretence of enlarg­ing the Kingdom of Christ, which is not of this World, and therefore needs none of its weapons, either to support it, or to augment it. God would not allow Da­vid (because a Souldier, a man of bloud, though all that he shed was by virtue of Gods Commission, and in fighting his battels (except that of Ʋriah, which he be­fore repented of, and had received his par­don for it) to build him a Temple, which was but a type of that spiritual Kingdom. That was a work reserved for Solomon that peaceable King, and so the fitter to typifie the Prince of Peace. Christ had an Army, What Army this King had. but it was made up of Mar­tyrs; Subjects that did strive to defend him and his Kingdom: but they did this by laying down their own lives, not by taking away the lives of others; who fought with weapons, not carnal, What wea­pons they fought with. but spiritual; such as were mighty through God for the pulling down the strong holds that Sin and Satan had erected in the hearts of men.

[Page 114] His Conquest great, and yet without Sword or bloud.It was the singular glory of that Kingdom of his, that it planted it self without a Sword, and made a conquest of the World without bloud. It was his Fathers pro­mise, that upon his Sons as king, he would give him the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts for his possession. A large proffer of vast Territories, of a Crown and Kingdom worth the having; but he must win them before he can wear and enjoy them. How unlikely, when so many opposers. When he came into the World to take possession of this gift, he found all its inhabitants ranked under two heads of distinction, Jews and Gen­tiles. The first refused him, owning no King but Caesaer, Joh. 19.15. Joh. 19.15. The other storm and rage at him, The Kings of the Earth set themselves together, Psal. 2.2. and the Rulers take Council together against his anointed: and it was almost the ge­neral cry, We will not have this man to reign over us. So that in the judgments of men, it was a thing impossible for him to erect such an universal Monarchy, when there were on all sides such great oppositions; what were his first followers and afterward co-workers, A short Cha­racter of his Life-guard. Potius Arato­res quam Ora­tores. but poor simple illiterate men, fitter for Plough-men then Orators.

When Absolon sought to wrest the Scepter out of his Fathers hands, he de­praved [Page 115] and maligned his Government, Absolons fawn­ing policy. and with subtil promises, and courteous deportment, insinuated himself into the affections of his Subjects. O that I were made Judge over Israel, that every man which hath any suit or cause, 2 Sam. 15.3, 4, 5, 6. might come unto me, and I would do him justice: and when any man came nigh unto him to do his obeysance, he put forth his hand, took him and kissed him: so Absalon stole the hearts of the children of Israel. And when Cyrus the Persian designed to subdue the Lacedemonians, Cyrus his large promises to his Souldiers. he promised large rewards to his Souldiers. He that will serve me in this expedition, Quicumque mi­hi militabit, si pedes est fa­ciam equitem, &c. if he were a Footman I will make him an Horseman; and he that had an Horse, shall have a Chariot; if he were owner of a Village, I will give him a Town; if of a Town, I will give him a City, yea a whole Country, besides Gold in abundance. Plutarchs A­potheg. Christs to his. Cujus pollicita­tiones minae, cujus suasiones dissuasiones. But what were the Arguments that this King gives to his? They must forsake Parents and Children, Lands and Livings, Life and all. Who could expect that ever he should gain a Subject, whose promises were threatnings, and his perswasions dis­swasions? What Arguments can we use more effectually terrifying to a per­son that values his Friends, his Livelihood [Page 116] or Life? Or what could he have threat­ned worse to his greatest enemies? Yet notwithstanding their zeal was strangely fired by a kind of Antiperistasis, and they boldly set upon the work, and after they had made some small beginning, their King is betrayed into the hands of his mortal enemies, arraigned, condemned, crucified, and themselves dispersed and hid, and scarce any one of his Subjects durst to own him; so that in all outward appearance his life and kingdom had both the same period.

Vincendo mo­riantur, morien­do vicit. Du. Plessis.Some pay dear for their Victories, pur­chasing them with the loss of their lives; but this King conquered by dying: who (maugre the malice of his adversaries) raiseth himself from the dead, according to his promise; rallies his routed Disci­ples, gives them a new Commission, and within the space of a few years extends his Dominion from Sea to Sea, He conquered by dying. and from one end of the Earth unto the other. He did, doth, and shall reign, till he have made all his foes his footstool. That learned Au­thor proving his Deity against both Jews and Gentiles who opposed it, waving se­veral other Arguments makes use of this chiefly; so that he being such a King, had no need of armed Subjects to fight in his [Page 117] defence, who could, and did, without a Sword drawn, only by a word or two spoken, make his enemies give back, and fall as dead men on the ground, as if some Thunderbolt from Heaven had smitten them. Neither was it any terrifying Ana­thema, but only a short and plain ac­knowledgment, I am he. John 18.6. I cannot well pass by Calvins application of those his words, and of their strange effects: Hic colligere oportet quam horrenda & for­midabilis fu­tura sit impiis vox Christi quando tribu­nal ad judican­dum orbem a­scenderit. Stabat tunc agnus paratus ad victimam, &c. viz. Hence we may collect how horrid and terrible his voice shall be to the wicked, when he shall ascend his Tribunal to judge the World. He stood then as a Lamb to be sacrificed, and as to outward appearance had emptied himself of all his Majesty; and yet with a word speaking, his enemies though many, and armed with swords and staves, fall to the ground. If so terrible now, how terrible then, when he shall come again, not to be judged, but to judge! not in an abject and contemptible manner, but in his heavenly glory, atten­ded with his holy Angels, when his heart-breaking, Go ye cursed, shall tumble them, not onely to, but also into the Earth, (if Hell be in its center) and that irrecoverably. Those recovered their fall again, Ab inferno no [...] datur redemptio but when this doleful sentence is once passed, it shall never be revoked. [Page 118] When once in Hell there is no redem­ption. What needed either Legions of armed men, or of Angels to defend such a Kings person; who as he made all, was able to destroy all with a word. Such a Kingdom (as was his) needed no such means to support it. A Christian and a Souldier may meet in the same per­son. But suppose my Kingdom were as other Kingdoms are, then would my Subjects fight? They would, not of courtesie, but of bounden duty. It is but equity that the hand which receives direction from the head, should (if need requires) yield protection to the head; in the body natural, it is so, and should be so in the body politick. Yea, how many loyal hearts have hazarded, and some of them lost their lives and fortunes upon this very account: who though they suc­ceeded not in their aims, have not failed of their reward.

Anabaptists Arguments against Oaths and Arms o­verthrown by their own practices.I shall not waste time in answering their Arguments against the Doctrine of Oaths and Arms, requisite for the testifying and engaging a Subjects Fidelity to his Prince, of which he cannot have too great assurance, who have opposed the pretended unlawfulness of both: be­cause they are sufficiently answered by more able Pens, but best of all by their own practices; who were very free to [Page 119] give the best assurance, and to proffer their best assistance for the support of an usurped Power in liew of that accur­sed toleration they enjoyed under it; and questionless would be as free again if occasion served upon the same account: So that these scruples now appear clearly to proceed rather from Design then Con­science; Latet anguis in herba. the pretended tenderness where­of, ought rather to be prudently suspected, then charitably indulged. Pearls must not be cast before Swine, which prefer husks to trea­sure.

Neither shall I spend any upon those, who scrupling neither, and making no conscience of either, care not to whom they swear, nor for whom they fight: but will as soon, or sooner engage against their lawful King for half a Crown in silver, then with him for a whole Crown of Glory. These have little of the fear of God before their eyes; and there is little hope they will entertain loyal thoughts in their hearts towards his Vicegerent.

What I have to say more of this Duty, I shall direct to those with whom my ad­vice may probably find a more effectual acceptance; such as fear both, that they take care, and make a conscience of their Fide­lity. And though some cannot, others may not (unless upon very urgent neces­sity) fight for him; yet all may, yea all [Page 120] ought to be faithful to him in their seve­ral and respective stations. Non licet Mi­nistris Ecclesiae arma gerere; in castris esse possunt & de­bent, non ut pug­nent sed ut do­ceant milites, P. Martyr Loc. Com. Pulpits turned into Canons. His safety con­sists as much in a multitude of faithful Counsellers, as of valiant Souldiers; and as much in some mens words as in others swords.

Our late pious King of blessed Memo­ry, was first preached to death in the Pul­pit, before he was put to death on the Scaffold. Had not the tongues of some Jesuited Incendiaries been so sharply in­vective, the swords of their Proselites had not proved so fatally keen, as first to sub­due his Power, and afterwards to assas­sinate and murder his person.

Good Coun­sellors.Those Counsellors that would bring joy to their Prince, Prov. 12.20. Youngsters too rash for so grave an im­ployment. themselves, and their Fellow-Subjects, must be Counsellors of Peace. The Counsel which those Young­sters gave to Rehoboam when his Subjects petitioned for a relaxation from his Fa­thers former heavy impositions: (Thy Father made our Yoak grievous, 1 Kings 12.3, 4, 9, 10, 11. now there­fore make thou the grievous service of thy Father, and his heavy yoak which he put up­on us lighter, and we will serve thee. The young men which were brought up with him, spake unto him, saying, thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker then my Fathers loins; and whereas my [Page 121] Father did load you with an heavy yoak, I will add to your yoak. My Father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with Scorpions.)

Such counsel as this I say might proba­bly fill his own Coffers; but withal em­pty his Subjects Purses of their Coin; and, which was worse, their hearts of all true affection towards him. A sad conse­quence of evil Counsel. For the very next piece of news we hear, is of a sad re­volt of ten of the twelve Tribes; who no sooner had received their answer, but they shew their dislike, first by a seditious murmur, and then by a rebellious mutiny, and lastly by a final resolution to cast off his Government: V. 16.19. What portion have we in David? neither have we any inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your Tents, O Israel; so Israel rebelled against the house of Israel unto this day. A more pernicious piece of Counsel they could not have given, had they been deliberately resolved upon his ruine.

A like rash piece I have read of, given to Frederick the 2. Emperour of Germany, when distressed for want of money to pay his Army; Petrus de Vi­neis his Coun­sel to Frede­rick the Em­perour. who thereupon sends for Pe­trus de Vineis, an able Statesman, to ad­vise with him about an expedient to re­cruit his Treasury. Who counselled him [Page 122] to seize into his possession the Plate belong­ing to the Churches and Religious Hou­ses, to melt it down and coin it into mo­neys. This he did accordingly, but it proved very fatal, answerable both to the subtle design and hearty desire of him that gave it; who studied more his own re­venge then his Princes good, as appeared clearly by his own confession. It seems that this person had been formerly his Se­cretary, and for some misdemeanour had his eyes bored out by his command. This he resolved with himself, Revenge wit­ty. so soon as op­portunity should offer it self to be his Se­cond, effectually to requite: and meeting with this so fit for his purpose, makes this Devillish use of it, and returning home to his Wife with a great deal of joy, told her, now I am even with the Emperour for putting out mine eyes; having put him upon such a project which I hope he will pursue to his own destruction; he hath made me a spectacle unto men, The fruit of Sacriledge. but I have made him a Monster unto God. The Treasures of such sacrilegious wickedness profit nothing: Prov. 10.2. C. 20.25. Dan. 5.25, 30. Acts 5.5, 10 1 Machab. 9. 2 Machab. 3. &c. and holy things greedily devoured will prove a snare, and those that have made trial of it, have to their cost found all the properties of a snare in it: It hath surprized suddenly, held them [Page 123] surely, and destroyed them certainly.

The Magistrates, I mean inferiour ones, Magistrates. must execute Justice impartially, lest he that is the chief suffer through their corru­ptions: Prov. 16.12. For the Kings throne is established by righteousness.

The Minister must be a publisher of Peace, and not a Trumpet of Sedition, Ministers. a Repairer not a Promoter of the Breaches in his Native Kingdom; a Restorer of Apostates to, not a Seducer of Loyal Sub­jects from their Allegiance. And all his Liege People, All good Sub­jects, Ittais. must resolve with faithful Ittai, in what place their Lord and King shall be, whether in life or death, 2 Sam. 15.21. there to be also. This is to discharge the duty of faithful Subjects, and no more then what the Text in effect enjoyns, when it calls upon us to fear the Lord and the King; where there is fear there will be fide­lity.

Secondly, There will also be Charity, The second Duty, Charity. Christian and Charitable are termini conver­tibiles. Other Duties compared with it, but fall short of it. An upper gar­ment for largeness. in extenuating, hiding, and covering their faults and infirmities. And this is a Duty so essential to Christianity, that a Christian and Charitable are termini convertibi­les. And whereas all other Vertues are compared unto clothing, this is resembled to the upper garment for its largeness. For others are not so ample, some concern [Page 124] only our selves, as Faith, &c. The just shall live by his Faith, (i. e.) his own not by ano­thers: they may possibly fare the better in externals for the righteous mans sake. Christ in his Form of Prayer hath taught us to pray for others. His Apostles in their Symbol or Creed, that each man must believe for himself. There are some of a larger extent, as Patience, and Long-suffering, &c. but these relate only to per­sons injuring and provoking; this to all persons, of all conditions, ranks, qualities, and qualifications whatsoever.

For OrnamentOther Garments are used for necessity, to secure the body from parching heat and piercing cold, some for decency and or­nament, to cover the shame of our na­kedness; For distin­ction. but oftentimes the uppermost is used for distinction; so this of all other Graces, distinguisheth a Christian from him that is nothing so, or from him that is so only in profession. Joh. 13.35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples, if ye love one another. Multa miranda possunt in ho­mine reperiri quae sine chari­tate similitudi­nem pietatis ha­bent, sed non veritatem. Prosper in E­pist. lib. de lib. Arbit. Many admirable things may be found in a man, which without this have only the shadow, not the substance of Vertue, and make them that have them only nominally not really such: and so consequently nothing worth in them­selves, nor to them. O how great a [Page 125] Vertue is Charity! whose absence fru­strates the presence of all others; and from whose presence it is that they have the proof of their truths and substance, as St. Austin excellently. It is that which sets the rest a working, as the Spring of a Watch sets all the Wheels a going; it will make men patient and bountiful, 1 Cor. 13. Ut multi arbo­ris rami ab una radice prodeunt, sic multae virtu­tes ex una cha­ritate generan­tur. Greg. Hom. to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things; and as many branches proceed from one root, so many Vertues from this one of Charity.

A Garment of that largeness as that it will cover a multitude of sins, and makes the strong to tolerate the infirmities of the weak, and to bear one anothers burdens. Certainly he that laid this precept of Cha­rity upon all, God hath al­lowed Kings their share of it as men; and their con­dition requires a very large one; as Kings they have more tempta­tions. Simil. with directions to practise it towards all, without either exception or distinction; would have them to be free towards those, whose conditions re­quire the greatest share; such as have most temptations, and fewest restraints. When our Saviour was upon the Pinacle of the Temple, the Devil tempted him to cast himself down headlong: and the higher a mans standing is, as to Power and Autho­rity, the more earnest is that subtil enemy to procure his fall. The Rich live in con­tinual danger of the Spoiler, whereas the [Page 126] Poor sleep securely. Princes and Com­manders are chiefly aimed at in the Bat­tle, because they yield the higher ransom; and the loftiest Mountains are most expo­sed to the violence of boisterous Winds and Storms. The old Ser­pents subtilty. Satan that envious man, as he is stiled in the Scripture, lays closest Siege there, where his hoped for suc­cess will yield him the greatest advan­tage.

Regis ad Ex­emplum, &c.The example of a King is of great force to work his Subjects into a compliance with his practices. Such lofty Cedars fall not usually alone, but drive down be­fore them such lower, lesser, and weaker Trees as grow up under them. If he be any ways noted for Vice, they will look upon his example as a licence to do the like. 1 Kings 14.16. It is said of Jeroboam, that he made Israel to sin, and yet we read of no Furnace erected, nor of any affrighting torments threatned to make them fall down and worship the golden Calves which he had set up. Indeed there was no need of any such; How Jeroboam made Israel to sin. They have fewest reme­dies of any men. his own exemplary practice was as forcible as any poenal Law, to sway them to the same idolatry. And for re­medies, who sees not that their Subjects are better supplied then themselves, ha­ving the benefit of Discipline and whol­some [Page 127] Laws as a Bridle to keep them from stumbling, and as a Curb to check them when they are ready to fall: whereas they have riches, and honors, which by one are very aptly stiled faculties of misdoing. And many insnaring Parasites, Many Para­sites. who like those about Dionysius, will even lick up their spittle, and proclaim it to be as sweet as Honey. Who for a reward will bestow the guilding of the rottenest Post: Adulatio blan­da omnibus ap­plaudit, omni­bus salve di­cit: prodigos vocat liberales, &c. Cassiod. in quadam Epist. and though wicked Ahabs will make them seem to themselves to be faithful Abra­hams. Fair-spoken Flattery highly ap­plauds, and kindly salutes all, cries them up for eminently vertuous, that are transcen­dently vitious; calls prodigal persons libe­ral, and covetous sparing and wise; Lasci­vious, Courtlike, &c. whose tongues are as charms and chains to bind men in their sins: when they are so far from being re­buked, that they are praised, and so con­sequently incouraged. Few faithful Monitors. Few there are of that undaunted courage, as to tell Ahab that his sin troubled Israel; or David, Job 34.18. Thou art the man. Is it fit to say to a King, thou art wicked? and to Princes, ye are un­godly? Where the word of a King is, Eccles. 8.4. there is Power, and who may say, why dost thou so? Insomuch that it is a special mercy of God to many Princes, and to their Sub­jects [Page 128] in them, that they do so well, ha­ving no more to withstand temptations then the fear of God.

What use Princes should make of this.The consideration of all which, as it should provoke them to double their circumspection, because Satan against them doubles his diligence; well know­ing that a single fall may run them into a double guilt, a guilt of sin, and of evil example; by the first whereof they in­terrupt their own peace; and by the other possibly may ruine thousands: so it should teach this charitable Lesson to the other, What their Subjects. Christianly to compassionate, and not maliciously to upbraid their infirmities: weighing their temptations with their con­ditions.

It is confest the Law was given to, and hath as great an obligation on them, as on their meanest Vassals; and the swer­ving from it, either in omitting what that requires, or in committing what that for­bids, is as much, and in some sense more a sin in such, then in ordinary persons; yet being compared in the aforesaid re­spects, their plenty of solicitations and scarcity of restrictions; we may safe­ly extenuate that in them, which we may freely aggravate in others. As those that are great in Power shall be [Page 129] greatly tormented, Sicut Potentes potenter tormen­ta patientur; sic & justitiae praemiis fruentur plenius, si recte exercuerint po­testatem & tan­tam in futuro prae subditis ha­bebunt gloriam quanta virtute eos in magna delinquendi li­centia praeces­serunt. Chry­sost. lib. de Curia. This applied to the shame of Chams black Issue. especially when they abuse that Power of theirs, to sin with the greater freedom; so their reward shall be the greater if they rightly use it: and shall as far excel their Subjects in glory hereafter, as they do in Vertue here, where (being accountable to none under God) they might take to themselves so much li­berty to sin.

So that I must ingeniously confess, I have scarce charity enough to judge cha­ritably of those who were so uncharitable to their Soveraign, as we have lived to see a generation of Chams black Issue, unco­vering their Fathers nakedness. So dealt they with our martyred King, slandering the footsteps of Gods Anointed, putting the worst construction upon his best a­ctions, turning every stone almost that lay between his Cradle and his Grave, ran­sacking all the transactions of his life, that related to his Government, and blazing them abroad, exposing his personal infirmi­ties to publick view on purpose to render him odious to his people. He himself full well foresaw whitherto all this tended, Kings Medita­tions. when he tells us it was a necessary prepa­ration to the taking away his life. For where that is the end which is aimed at, those usually are the means by which it is [Page 130] brought to pass. And yet for all this, his name lives, and his memory is pre­cious, when that of his implacable ene­mies stinks and rots with their Car­kasses.

P. 194. Noahs infirmity (as he very excellent­ly) was no justification of Chams impu­dence. And as that unnatural fact of his rendred him accursed, both in himself and his posterity; and should terrifie all from doing the like, and being the chief de­sign of Gods recording it in Sacred Writ; Better Pat­terns for us to follow, Shem, Japheth, Con­stantine. so hath he proposed that of his two other sons to our imitation; that when by any sin (as who lives and sins not) these Fathers of ours expose their nakedness to publick view, to turn away our eyes, and going backward, cover it with the mantle of Charity. As that good Emperour Constantine sometimes said of Bishops, the spiritual Fathers of the Church, that if he should find one of them committing Adultery, he would ra­ther cover that unclean act with his Royal Robe, then that others should be­hold it.

The Common practice of some, taxed as unchristian.How ill becoming is this to confessed Christians, to over-look their Vertues, and fix their eyes only on their Infirmities; enquiring into, and making so narrow a [Page 131] search after their failings, and rejoice as much therein, as those that find the grea­test spoil. Thus while they behold the mote that is in their eye, they consider not the beam that is in their own; and while their Oar is in anothers Boat, they run the hazard of splitting their own bot­tome.

That observation of a learned Father hath very much of truth in it: Qui curiosi sunt ad investigan­dam vitam a­lienam plerum­que desidiosi sunt ad corri­gendam vitam suam. Austin Confess. lib. 10. c. 3. They that are still curiously prying into the lives of others, are for the most part very negli­gent in reforming their own. How un­like are these mens actions to Charities description? which neither thinketh nor wisheth evil. And had they but the least grain of that which every true Christian ( quatenus he is a Christian) should be ful­ly fraited with; Psal. 146.3. in stead of preying upon the frailties of their Governours (the best whereof are but men, Humanum est errare. and therefore sub­ject unto errours, as the best of men are) they would pray for them, yea and be­come most importunate suiters at the Throne of Grace, for Gods continual pre­sence and assistance, without which they cannot stand upright. Which leads me to the next, which is,

The third Duty, The third Du­ty. viz. To pray for them.

[Page 132]In those constant publick Offices of Devotion, which St. Paul wills Timothy to be careful of, and to see all the Clergy under his jurisdiction should be so too; he puts in his Bill of remembrance, to mind them for whom he would have them pray.

First, For all men in general, i. e. for all sorts and conditions of men; but more especially for Kings, and all that are in au­thority. How we must not pray for them. Not in hypocrisie, as the Magi­cians did for their Nebuchadnezzar, O 1 King live for ever; when questionless they wished in their hearts that he, and all such Tyrants as he was, were rooted out of the earth.

2 Nor out of flattery, as those Chaldeans that accused Shadrach, Meshac, and Abed­nego, who prayed for the same King in the same words.

Such Prayers fruitless, as to their matter.For however to pray for Kings is said to be acceptable to God, yet these are not the prayers that God will accept of; and that upon this very account, because they are the prayers of such and such, those of the first; Sinful as to their subject. he hath professed they are an abo­mination unto him. And the other there is as little of probability that he will hear their prayers, Abominable as to God. when he hath threatned to destroy their persons. But such as come [Page 133] from the heart out of conscience, How we must. Vitam proli­xam, imperium securum, domum tutam, exercitus fortes, Senatum fidelem, populum probum, orbem quietum. Tertul. Apol. c. 30. Reasons. Prov. 21.1. upon the score of Duty: as Daniel prayed for Da­rius, who but a little before had cast him into the Den of Lions. So did the Primi­tive Christians for Heathen persecuting Emperours; that God would grant them a long life, a firm Empire, a safe House, strong Armies, a faithful Council, a good People, and a quiet World.

The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will: as men by Art can turn water out of its proper channel, The Meta­phor explai­ned. and make it run against its ordinary course in nature, so God with ease through his Al­mighty power, can incline the hearts of Kings to this or that, and make them pliable to his pleasure. Exemplified in Esau. Such a work he wrought upon the heart of Esau, who had vowed the death of his brother Jacob; insomuch that at their next meeting, his threats are beyond expectation turned into kind embraces; and in stead of a stab, which he feared, he received kindnesses, which he admired: confessing freely (as well he might) that he saw the face of God in his brothers countenance; Gen. 33.10. owning that happy reconciliation as the work of God alone; and a convincing Argument of his, as well as of his Brothers favour towards him.

[Page 134] Practised with good success.Upon this very account Gods own people, whose lot it was to live some­time under the Government of Pagan Princes; when they attempted any thing of concernment, wherein the consent and assistance of the Higher Powers was re­quired, importuned God to give them flexible hearts, as the only way to make their designs successful. So did Nehemiah for the repairing of Jerusalem, whose Prayer is recorded in these words, O Lord I beseech thee let now thine ear be at­tentive to the prayer of thy servant, Nehem. 1.11. and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name, and prosper I pray thee thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. What wonderful successes have we read of their fervent and effectual prayers, in their strange e­scapes from those destructions they have been doomed to, by such decrees as by custom of that Nation wherein they lived were unalterable.

A wonderful effect of it, in the defeating Hamans De­crees.The Jews were so by the false and ma­licious accusation of Haman, in point of revenge for Mordecai's disrespect; who when he heard of it, applies himself pre­sently to Hester, who was highly in the King her husbands favour, Mordecai con­ [...]res Hester. and conjures her with promises and threats to improve [Page 135] the utmost of her interest. A business of a high concern it was, and such as car­ried in it a great deal both of difficulty and of danger. Of difficulty in it self, Hesters discou­ragements from two con­siderable To­picks, difficul­ty and danger. in regard of the immutability of that Commission, which under the Royal Signet was issued out against them; of danger to her, if her endeavours succeeded not; there being a Law in force to put any to death that should come unto the King, who was not called. And what ground could he have to build any hopes upon an appa­rent hazard, and a very improbable and unlikely means to compass his project? Yet notwithstanding all this, he knew that nothing was impossible to God; and that if he pleased, he was able to incline the heart of the King toward them for good; and to direct him to the use of such means as whereby they might be de­livered, and the bloudy design of their enemies frustrated.

Upon this ground questionless it was, that one so earnestly proposed it, and the other so readily and resolutely undertook it. Her couragious resolution. Hester 4.11.16. Only as a preparative she wills him to gather the Jews together, and fast and pray for her and her good success, and so resolves to go to the King, which was not according to the Law, and if she pe­rished [Page 136] she perished. The prepara­tive Prayer, &c. Which she did ac­cordingly, and finding him in a pleasant humour, she looked upon it as a good omen, and a fit opportunity to de­liver her Petition in behalf of her di­stressed People. Which he no sooner read, but granted; (God putting into his heart) he now passeth a Decree for them, as he had done before against them; and thereby commissioned them, who by the first were designed for ruine, The happy consequence of it. to take up Arms in their own defence. So that al­though the first was not, nor might not be revoked; yet by granting the latter, it frustrated the execution of the former; and being published in every Province, their enemies were possessed with such a Panick fear, that in stead of destroying the Jews, many of them turned Jews to se­cure themselves: and others that attem­pted to slay them, were in great numbers slain by them, Hest. 8.17. Chap. 9.1.2. This recorded as other Scri­pture, for our Learning, and what is the Lesson it teacheth us. to the great joy of the Jews, and the terrour of their Enemies: teaching us that are Christians, and subject to Christian Magistrates, if at any time we lie under fears and pressures: not to be our own carvers, or to fly to the use of unlawful means, but to wait upon God by faith, and ply him with our Prayers, who hath the hearts of Kings in his hands, [Page 137] and will order and dispose them so, as shall make most for his own glory and our good.

An example that will one day rise up in judgment against the men of this Gene­ration, and condemn it: What to be expected by them that re­fuse to learn it. who like Gun­powder, are ready to take fire from every little spark of discontent that falls upon their spirits, and to flame out into open Rebellion. Which it seems hath been for many Years, if not Ages, the custo­mary sin of this Nation. Maximilians censure. Insomuch that Maximilian the Emperour passing his censure upon four great Kingdoms, Ger­many, Spain, France, and England, Rex Regum. Rex Hominum. Rex Asinorum. Rex Diabolo­rum. he sti­led himself a King of Kings; the King of Spain, a King of Men; the King of France, a King of Asses; and the King of England, a King of Devils; because of their readi­ness to rebel upon the least occasion, which they learned from the Devil, who was the first Rebel in the World, and the father of all the rest, which have been since the beginning of it to this very day. The last which concerns ours the worst, but too true to be denied. So that were it only to avoid the scandal, and to prevent the dishonour, and to escape the curse which Rebellion bringeth with it, and draws after it; an ingenious peo­ple would rather suffer any hardship then take up Arms against their King.

[Page 138] Prov. 18.10. The name of the Lord is a strong Tower, the righteous runneth to it and is safe: whereas they that stand upon their own guard, and are resolved to make their own Swords the only remedy of their con­ceited grievances: Timidis & ig­navis opus esse auxilio divino. saying with the Heathen, Cowards and slothful people only need Gods assistance; may justly expect to pe­rish in their unwarrantable ingagements: especially against such a Prince who was so far from passing a decree for their ruine, that he gave all the security they could desire (yea much more then what many of them did deserve) to ensure them the free enjoyment of their Religion, Lives, Liberties, and Estates.

Besides the ground before mentioned, and upon which the persons aforesaid acted this duty, and by its Virtue and prevalency so happily succeeded and pro­spered; there are several other very ma­terial and weighty considerations which call upon us for the constant and conscio­nable practice of this duty: as,

2. Reason.Secondly, The burden that lies upon them in respect of their Calling and Office. A burthen which Jethro saw lay too heavy upon Moses his shoulders, Exod. 18.18. Thou wilt (saith he) surely wear away, for this thing is too heavy for thee: thou art not able to [Page 139] perform it thy self alone: Therefore ad­viseth to chuse such and such persons, so and so qualified, V. 20.21. and place them to be Ru­lers over thousands, and Rulers of hundreds, and Rulers of fifties, and Rulers of tens, that they may judge smaller matters, and so bear the burden with thee. Magnae vires gloriae decori­que sunt si illis salutaris po­tentia est, nam pestifera vis est valere ad nocendum. Senec. de Cle­mentia, &c. A great power and command they have indeed, which is honourable and glorious; but it is so on­ly, and then, and no otherwise makes them which have that power so, when they use it to the benefit, safety and wel­fare of those for whom they have recei­ved it. That is a pernicious power that is only used, or rather abused for the inju­ry of others; I say abused, [...]. Aristot. ad Alexand. M. for as the Phi­losopher hath it, Government was not ordained for injury, but for benefit. The cares of Government are so many, great, and weighty, that many have voluntarily sequestred themselves from those publick imployments, to enjoy the quiet of a pri­vate life.

Pericles the Athenian, after he had go­verned forty years, exchanged his Court for a Cottage: and having obtained his quietus est, he wrote over his Portal this Distich in the Margine: Inveni portum, spes & fortuna valete, nil mi­hi vobiscum, ludite nunc a­lios. which sounds thus much in our Language, I have found an harbour, adieu hope and fortune, Ile have [Page 140] no more to do with you: make your sport now of whom you please.

Their Titles speak their Cares, viz. Fathers, Shepherds.Their very Titles hint unto them what they must expect, and what will be ex­pected from them. Fathers of their Coun­try, which calls upon them for care, as well as upon their Subjects for respect. Shepherds, to feed, defend, watch over their Subjects: for these are proper a­ctions that have such under their charge. In the day the drought consumed me, Gen. 31.40. in the night the frost; and my sleep departed from mine eyes: so said Jacob when he kept the sheep of Laban. Agamemnons vigilancy. [...]. Homer. Iliad. Io. The very same com­mendation that Homer gave to Agamemnon for his care of those rational sheep which he governed, that his sleep was never sweet, pleasant nor quiet. They are Heads, and we know that the head, as it is the emblem of Government, so it is the seat of care. Heads of the People. Watchmen. Keepers, &c. They are Watchmen, Kee­pers, &c. all importing the very same, their care therefore being so great, and their burden so ponderous; they have need of other shoulders then their own to bear it. yea, all must some way or other put to their helping hand: Judges and inferiour Magistrates by way of par­ticipation upon their authoritative dele­gation; and every one by way of sympa­thy, [Page 141] and by the united strength of their fervent Prayers.

And methinks the common interest that their Subjects have in that care, Subjects have the benefit of their cares, and are con­cerned in all those things which they take the care of. should enforce this as a common duty incumbent on all who are concerned; as all are in those things which they are chiefly to take care of.

As first, of Religion, that we may lead godly lives; 1 Tim. 2.3. As first Reli­gion. Solomons Vine­yard a type of the Church. Cant. 8.11. this is a chief part of the Magistrates care. Solomon had a Vineyard in Baal-Hamon, which he hath let out to husbandmen; among which Kings are the chief. 'Tis hedged about by their autho­rity and power, and the strength of their wholsom Laws; whereby the Evil are awed, the good encouraged, and the in­terest of the true Religion promoted, The sad in­fluence our confusions had upon our Re­ligion, repre­sented by way of allusion. which suffered sadly in the times of our Confusions, fell into so many pieces, and those pieces into so much dirt and rub­bish, that it requires an industrious and exquisite Artist, first to gather up each piece, and to joyn it into one whole and entire substance. So many Harlots there were that laid claim to that lovely Babe, each one crying, it is mine, that he had need of the wisdom, as well as the power of Solomon, to find out the true Mother. Such havock the wild Bores and subtle [Page 142] Foxes made in the Vineyard, when God for our Sins was so far incensed as to re­move its Fence, and lay it waste; that it will require a great deal of time and pa­tience to brink it into its former order, and as much of pains and care to reduce it into its ancient beauty and fertility. So many Sanballats and Tobias's, some se­cretly undermining, others openly oppo­sing the repairing the Walls of our Jeru­salem, that our builders had need be men of courage, and to hold their Trowel in one hand and their Sword in the other: and while those who have evil will at Sion, Nehem. 4.2. are some of them repining, and o­thers scoffing at it, What do those feeble folk do? will they sacrifice? will they re­vive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burnt? 'Tis requisite all good Christians and good Subjects should be upon their knees, praying God to streng­then their hands, and prosper their work, and turn the reproaches of our enemies upon their own heads. Except the Lord build the house, Psal. 127.1. their labour is but in vain that build it.

Secondly of Justice. Job 29.14, 15, 16, &c.The second is the care of Justice; He must put on righteousness as a garment, and judgment must be as his robe and diadem; he must be eyes to the blind, and feet to the [Page 143] lame, a Father to the Poor; must search out the cause that he knows not, must break the jaws of the wicked, and pluck the spoil from between his teeth. A King com­pared to Ne­buchadnezzars Tree. Dan. 4.11, 12. He must be like the stately Tree in Nebuchadnezzars dream, the leaves whereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and it was meat for all; the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it. Davids Prayer for, and ex­lent descri­ption of Ju­stice, both as to the efficient cause, and the effects of it. How heartily doth David pray for himself and his son Solomon? that God would give his judgments to himself, and his righteous­ness to his son: then shall we judge the people with righteousness, and the poor with judgment; the Mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righte­ousness; he shall judge the poor of the peo­ple, he shall save the children of the needy, and break in pieces the oppressors, he shall come down like rain upon the mowen grass, as the showrs that water the earth. An ex­cellent description of a King, and an enco­mium of Justice, Justitia Regis pax est populo­rum, tutamen pa­triae, immunitas plebis, muni­mentum gentis, cura languorum, gaudium homi­num, temperies aeris, &c. from the happy fruits of its faithful and impartial administra­tion.

Much like unto it, if not borrowed mostly from it, is that of Cyprian, The justice of the King is the peace of his Subjects, the safeguard of his Country, the Franchess [Page 144] of his Cominalty, the rampire of his Kingdom, a sovereign remedy of all grie­vances, the joy of men, the temperature of the Air, the serenity of the Sea, the fer­tility of the Earth, and the hope of his own future bliss and happiness.

That Prayer an implicite Confession.And is not that Prayer of his an impli­cite confession, that he can neither do it, nor his Subjects reap the benefit of it, un­less God give him his judgments. This granted, then, and not untill then he shall do as he said he would do. So is his son Solomons, for Wisdom a­bove all. And doth not Solomon acknowledge as much, when God put him to his choice, and promised him whatsoever he would ask? if it were long life, riches, or the lives of his enemies? He waves all these, and pitcheth upon Wisdom; 1 Kings 3.5. Thou hast made thy servant King, and I know not how to go out, or come in, and thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people which cannot be numbred, nor counted for number; give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge so great a people? The ground of that choice. The ground of his choice was the difficulty of managing the Regal Power, to those ad­vantages as would best answer Gods trust, and his Peoples expectations.

[Page 145]It is questionless (as Nazianzen long since observed) an Art of Arts, Revera mihi vi­detur esse ars artium, & di­sciplina disci­plinarum regere hominem, qui certe est inter omnes animan­tes maxime & moribus varius & voluntate diversus. M. Apol. and a Di­scipline of Disciplines, to govern Man­kind; in whom there is such variety of manners, and diversities of wills above all other creatures in the World besides. And if justice be not duly administred, what horrid consequences will there un­avoidably follow upon its neglect? Dis­orders would be countenanced which should be suppressed, Oppression thrive and prosper, which should be extirpated; Peace banished, which should be cherish­ed; and Gods judgments pulled down upon our heads, which might be diverted. Therefore we had need take to our selves words, and go to God for them: and we cannot make use of more concise and pithy ones for them, then those of David, where­with he prayed for himself in that Psalm before mentioned.

Thirdly, Thirdly, Peace. The care of their Subjects peace and quiet lies upon them: [That we may lead quiet and peaceable lives.] End of Civil Government. Indeed the very end of Civil Government is the peace and prosperity of the Subject, which is very much secured by their careful en­deavours to prevent inbred tumults and commotions, and foreign incursions and invasions; whereby it comes to pass [Page 146] many times that their Subjects are enforced to eat the food both of their souls and bo­dies, with the peril of their lives. Now as the Pilot propoundeth to himself the pro­sperous course of his Ship, Simil. the Physician the health of his Patient, the Captain vi­ctory over his enemy; so the good Go­vernour seeketh the welfare and prospe­rous state of those under his Govern­ment: to which that blessing of Peace hath such a direct tendency, that all out­ward blessings are usually wished under the name of it, as being virtually com­prehended in it. The excellen­cy of that blessing. Such is the good of Peace, that among all created things, no news is more pleasing, nothing more de­sireable, nothing more profitable can be possessed and enjoyed. And as the soul of man doth not enliven the members of the body, unless they be united to the body; so neither doth the spirit of God (which is the very soul of the Church) enliven any member of it, that is not united to the rest in the bond of peace and love. A blessing which this Nation for many years enjoyed under several of her peace­able Princes, That of En­gland the ad­miration and envy of other Nations. even to the admiration and envy of her neighbours, who were forced to cry Miserere with a doleful voice, when she might sing Te Deum with a chearful [Page 147] heart. Which had she done, she might have had continued unto this very day, without the least interruption. But be­cause she did not, but abused her peace, by using it as a weapon wherewith to fight against the God of her peace, he taught her by many years sad experience to know the worth of it by the want of it, and how for the future to value the mer­cy of Peace by the misery of War. She unthankfully bestrid, and unworthily slighted a peaceable Prince, and therefore deserved to be doomed by an irrevocable decree to the Government of devouring Storks: Aesops Fable of the Frog morallized. Our Jehovah more merciful then their Ju­piter. as Jupiter did the Froggs in the Fable. Yet God in mercy hath heard her Petition, and contrary to her deservings, hath removed those Birds of prey, and hath sent a Dove, a Solomon to reign over her, who hath had just cause to take up the complaint of David, Psal. 120.6, 7. My soul hath long dwelt with them that hate peace; I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war. Let them prosper that love and seek the peace of Jerusalem: and scatter thou the people that delight in war. These three blessings are the ground upon which the Apostle presseth this duty of Prayer for those that are in Authority: and if they flow down from Heaven upon us through their care, [Page 148] as the fruits of our Prayers, and our Prayers be seconded with a life answera­ble to those mercies, we may conceive the firmer hopes of their continuance.

3. Reason from their tempta­tions; where­in their Sub­jects are con­cerned either,Now because these Guardians of our blessings are so liable to so many tempta­tions, and amongst the rest to those sins whereby they may forfeit these blessings from us, and to those oppositions and stri­vings of wicked covetous and ambitious men, who will not stick to trample all these under their feet to advantage them­selves, and work their own sinful ends and interests; it behoves us to pray as zea­lously against these, as for the other.

1. As to their Cause.Against their temptations, and the ra­ther because we may possibly be concer­ned in them, either as to their cause, or as to their effects; Subjects are many times the causes of their Sovereigns temptations. This is clear in the history of Davids num­bring the People, Exemplified in Davids sin, 2 Sam. 24. and the sad consequents of that rash and unadvised act; which was so, in that he did it without any law­ful cause; as two there were, upon which it was justifiable.

Two cases in which lawful. Exod. 30.12.First upon an Ecclesiastical account, as that which ye are directed to in the Mar­gine, which was commanded by God himself in memory of his blessings, and [Page 149] tended to the redemption of their souls; In memoriam beneficiorum Dei. Gallus in locum. as it served for the maintenance of the Ta­bernacle, and the Ministry thereof, which was instituted for that very end and pur­pose.

Secondly Political in a way of prepara­tion to a War offensive or defensive; that so by numbring those that are fit to bear Arms, Princes may be the better satisfied of their Subjects strength, and furnish themselves out of those numbers with such supplies as are suitable to their occa­sions. A device that always was, is still, and ever will be lawfully enough made use of upon that occasion. But Da­vid did it upon neither of these accounts; neither for the glory of God, that seeing his Subjects increase and multiply, and his own honour thereby advanced, he might give God his due praise, who was the au­thor of it; nor for the safety of his King­dom, which was then in no danger, being at peace both at home and abroad; but rather for ostentation sake, rejoicing, and which was worse, placing his confidence in them. This sin (whatsoever was the ground of it) highly offended God, and is severely punished with a sweeping Plague, which in the space of three days destroyed threescore and ten thousand people.

[Page 150] He sinned and his Subjects are punished for it.The sin was the Kings, the punishment falls heavy upon the Subjects, who for ought we read to the contrary, did not so much as desire it. His General shewed his dislike, and desires him by all means to desist from his purpose. Is not this accor­ding to the Proverb, Ezech. 18.2. The Fathers have eaten sowre Grapes, and their Childrens teeth are set on edge, Ezech. 18.2? and to that of the Poet, Quicquid deli­rant Reges ple­ctuntur Achivi. Kings dote and do amiss, and their Subjects suffer for their miscarria­ges. David who was eminently (if not solely guilty) is not so much as touched in that Plague. The sin being his, in equity the punishment should have been so to. This is according to that ruled case, the soul that sinneth shall die. V. 12. Yea, David himself, as conscious to himself, cries, These Sheep, David excu­seth them, and takes the blame upon himself. what have they done? Done! Enough questionless, the most innocent of them, not only for God to plague him here, but to damn him forever hereafter. Sins though sometimes they may not be the moving cause, yet they are always a meritorious cause of judgment. Gods justice acquitted. 1. By a distin­ction. No man lives and sins not, and the wages of the least sin is death: if any be pardoned, it argues the mercy of the forgiver, and not the quality and quantity of the sin forgiven.

But we need not fly to this distinction [Page 151] in this case; for if we read the History deliberately, we shall soon be satisfied, 2. By a disco­very of the cause of the sin. that though David occasioned that Plague by his sin, yet their own sins were the cause of it. And that according to both these heads of distinction meritorious and moving too: 2 Sam. 24.1. the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, to say, go number Israel and Judah. By which it appears clearly that their sins (whatever they were that provo­ked God to anger) were the cause why God permitted Satan to tempt David, and with-held his restraining grace which should uphold him: so that he was both led into temptation, and left in temptation upon the account of their sins: and what influence theirs had upon him, that may the sins of any other Subjects have upon their Princes. Applicat. Therefore it is equity as well as Piety, that they which lead them into temptation by their transgressions, should help them out by their supplications.

Secondly as to their effects. 2. As to the effects. 1 Sam. 8.11, 17 Samuel describing the manner of a King to the Israelites, tells them he will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots, some he would have to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest: [Page 152] their daughters to be confectionaries, and for cooks, and bakers, and would take their fields, and vineyards, and olive yards, even the best of them, and give them unto his ser­vants, &c. By which description he in­forms them, not what they should do ac­cording to their institution, but what they would, following their own corrupt incli­nations. The Prodigal had several temptations, but the grea­test was his youth. The Prodigal in the Gospel had many temptations to that loose and vi­tious kind of life to which he addicted himself, which brought him from his Fa­thers plentiful Table, to enter himself, first into the servile imployment of a Swine­herd, and at last to enter himself a Fellow-Commoner with the hogs, and to feed with them upon husks, as this estate he was born to; for though he was not the heir, yet an expectant, though not of his lands, yet of his goods; whose share might amount to a considerable value: then his Fathers indulgence, it was but ask and have: but the greatest of all was his youth. So among all those that Kings are subject to: this is none of the least, that God hath made them Kings: Kings have many more, but the most powerful is that of their Kings place. who being subordinate to none other beside them­selves, are accountable to none other but himself. If therefore they should de­generate from Nursing Fathers into op­pressing [Page 153] and cruel Tyrants; Sic valo, sic ju­beo, stat pro ra­tione voluntas. and make their own Wills their Law to govern by: like Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is said, Whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down; whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; A supposition grounded up­on a possibili­ty. If he should apostatize from the true Religion and right Worship of God to Idolatry, as did the wisest King that ever swayed a Scepter, what a sad influence would the effects thereof have upon their Subjects Estates, And on that, sad effects prognostica­ted. Liberties, Lives, and what to a good man is more precious then any one of these singly, yea then all of them jointly, viz. his Re­ligion. And therefore it behoves them as they tender their own good in the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of all these, Inference. to intercede as powerfully as they can for Gods presence with them, and for his grace which may be sufficient for them, to incline their hearts unto his testimonies and not unto covetousness: and always to mind them, that as they received their power from him, so they must assuredly one day give an account unto him; that so their studies and endeavours may be daily to improve it to Gods honour, their own comfort, and their Subjects benefit.

Lastly, Consider the perils and dangers their persons are exposed to; upon whose [Page 154] well-being and well-doing, A reason from external op­position. Omni populo in­est aliquid que­rulum & mali­gnum in Impe­rantes. Quamvis id a­gas Princeps ut nequis merito te oderit; erunt tamen semper qui te oderint. Sen. ad Neron. their Subjects depend for all these. Plutarch tells us the People for the most part are malignant and querulous against their Governors, yea though they carry themselves never so un­blameably, that none can have any just cause to hate them; yet there are some of that base nature that will do so, resem­bling the Dog which barks at the Moon in the clearest night, which proceeds from an innate enmity against all restraint; and no marvel, sith naturally men are very un­willing that God himself should reign over them. The Lord reigneth, saith the Psalmist, Contremiscunt. Calvin. Commoventur. Fl. Jun. & Tremel. Irascuntur, fre­munt. and what follows? the People are stricken with a fear, (so one) they are mo­ved with fear, and so by that means are brought to own and acknowledge his power and soveraignty, (so others.) They are angry, and fret at it, (so Mollerus) quo­ting the sense of all the rest before his own, 1. They are in a great deal of danger from that innate dislike that is naturally in all men against Government. and leaving the Reader to take his choice of which of these he liketh best: So that I have liberty to take that which will serve as the best proof of my present assertion; which is safe enough and sufficiently justi­fied by another place in the same Book: where we find the very same sort of people raging against the same thing, viz. Go­vernment, against the same Governor the [Page 155] Lord Jesus Christ. And how do they plot and consult, confederate, and all in opposition to his Laws, because somewhat harsh to flesh and bloud; enjoyning the mortification of all their evil and corrupt affections, newness of life and conversation, commanding the use of a good conscience in all their actions, and not allowing them to do the least evil for the greatest good: therefore they hate them, as men that prize their liberty hate bonds and imprisonment. And how easily men of this temper are to side with Rebellion, and to promote any traiterous or mischievous design, expe­rience testifies.

Great danger they are likewise in by reason of the covetousness and ambitious­ness of men, which as a pair of Spurs, 2. From Cove­tousness. prick those that are possessed therewith forward against all lets, makes them leap over all blocks, strain at no guilt, nor dread the threatning of any punishment. 1 T [...]m. 6.10. St. Paul saith, The love of money is the root of all evil. And the Poet in his Satyrs inveighs against the covetous person that respects no Law, Quis metus aut pudor est un­quam properan­tis avari. Juvenal. neither is there any fear or shame in him. Those wicked Husbandmen in the Gospel resolve upon murdering their Masters son, because he was an heir to a good estate: This is the heir, come let us kill him, Luke 20.14. and then the inheritance shall be ours.

[Page 156] 3. From ambi­tious men. Potestatis ambi­tio Angelica felicitate An­gelum privavit. Scientiae appe­titus hominem immortalitatis gloria spolia­vit. Evam promissi honoris ambitio illecebrosa dece­pit. Epist. 116.The like may be said of Ambition, which is but a furious avarice. Of which St. Bernard notably, The Angels ambitious of power and soveraignty, deprived them­selves of Angelical felicity. Adam desirous to know more then his Creatour thought good to reveal to him, spoiled himself of the glory of immortality: and Eve was deceived with the bewitching ambition of promised honour; In the day that ye eat thereof ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. And all that they for the most part get for themselves, and the World by them who are infected with this incu­rable itch, is lively represented unto us in their Tragical History of ambitious Phae­ton, Phaeton the proper em­blem of an ambitious person. whom nothing would satisfie but to guide the Chariot of the Sun; the conse­quences of whose rash and indiscreet at­tempt, were the turning of his brain, the overturning of his Chariot, putting the World into a flame, and was himself tum­bled down headlong by a Thunderbolt in­to a River to cool his hot head, and teach him more wit. The common fate of such is, that when the wind of their ambition hath mounted them up to the top of For­tunes Wheel, they never descend but by a break-neck precipice. Haman. Haman tried it, and found it true to his cost; in one Cha­pter [Page 157] we find him promoted and advanced by his King to great honour, who had set his seat above all the Princes that were with him; in another he is fallen into his Lord and Masters displeasure; and at the end of that, we find him at the end of his ambitious race; fallen from honour to dishonour, from his Princes love into his hatred, from glory to shame; he lived the life of a Prince, but died the death of a Dog; being sentenced to be hanged upon that very Gallows which he had prepared for an honester man then himself; whom he while he was in his Ruff, deigned not to ranke among the number of his Slaves. Thus the righteous is delivered, Prov. 11.8. and the wicked brought into his stead, he dug a Pit for his innocent brother, and is fallen into the midst of it himself. This is cal­led a righteous thing with God, 2 Thess. 1.6, 7. Nec lex est ju­stior ulla, Quam necis ar­tificem lege per­ire sua. and is the same in the apprehensions of all rational men. Indeed that attribute of his is in matters of that natute highly concerned; and rather then an unnatural, aspiring, Absolon. am­bitious Absolon should scape unpunished (which his Fathers indulgence might sug­gest some hopes to him, that after he had plaid all his mad pranks he might do so, and from the charge which he gave his General concerning him when he marched [Page 158] against him to reduce him, deal gently with the lad, together with the sad Lamenta­tion he made at the news of his death, gives us sufficient cause to think that he would do so) the divine Nemesis will it self pursue the guilty Rebel, and make a snare with the hair of his own head in stead of an hempen halter, to truss him up to the fatal Tree, where he paid down his life for his ambition, and all its miserable at­tendants.

Ambition a strange dis­ease.A strange kind of disease surely this must needs be, whose malignity in some degree or other, is so epidemically infe­ctious, and whose cure was thought by no mean or heady Physician, Hippocrates. to be so difficult, that he projected a consultation of all the Physicians in the World to advise upon the means thereof; and yet he himself was a man so famous in his generation for his great skill in that noble Science, that Arta­xerxes hearing of it, His fame. sent for him, and pre­mised him great honours to live with him in the Persian Court. He practised his own skill so successfully upon his own self, Lived to a great Age. Could not cure this feaver by his Physick, nor all the Philosophers with their Mo­ral Rules. that he lived to a great age, having passed his hundred and fourth year: yet neither this Master of his Art, Faculty, or Science, (call it what ye will) no, nor all the Philoso­phers 2000 years since him, could by all [Page 159] their learning have found out an effectual expedient for this pestilential Feaver; in all they prescribed they have but lost their labour. Some diseases Medicorum lu­dibria. Some Diseases make mocking-stocks of their Physicians, of which sort this is undoubtedly one which encreaseth under its prescribed remedies. One would have thought that if Cambyses had stu­died all his life time, Cambyses his project. and called in all the learned Counsel of the Sages then li­ving in the World, he could never have found by his own reading, nor they have suggested by their advice, a more effectual means to keep that young President uncor­rupt in that very place of Judicature, in the which he before had placed his Father, which he so lately by his miscarriages had forfeited together with his life then to keep that sad instance always fresh in his me­mory, and for this purpose commanded him to cover his Chair with his Fathers skin; who was executed and excoriated or flayed, because he was so ill a Judge; that being seated in that woful tribunal upon the bloud of his Father, might learn more wit and honesty by a dreadful experience. What influence this politick, more then Christian project had upon him, my Au­thor mentions not. But this we see too commonly, that some mens eys are so blin­ded, [Page 160] and their hearts so hardned through the deceitfulness of their sin, Examples of others take so little with some, that they look on them as ina­nia puerorum terriculamenta. Exemplified in our common Cutpurses. that others examples make no impression of terrour upon them. Have we not often heard of Cutpurses and Pickpockets, that have ex­ercised their Art under the Gallows, where some before their eyes are ending their days for as inconsiderable a crime? And do we not ever and anon in our reading, both in Divine and Humane Story, meet with the like? who have had items enough by o­thers harms to make them cautious, and yet have pursued the same ways, without fearing the like event: As that in the Book of the Kings, The second Captain of 50. 2 Kings 1.10, 11. of the second Captain of fif­ty, sent with his Party to apprehend Elijah, more impudent and obstinate then the first, who he could not but know had a little before perished by a dreadful, and mira­culous judgment from Heaven by fire con­suming him and his to ashes; and there­fore more deservedly underwent the same fate, and made an example; because he would take none.

In the Annals of our own Kingdom we have the History of Richard 3. Richard 3. his Character. who by common report was a Monster in Nature, born with his teeth, and exceedingly de­formed in the composure of his body, which was a prognostick of what he would [Page 161] prove in his life, a monster in wickedness. And so he did. Into what a Sea of mis­chiefs did his boundless ambition carry him? Vilifying the honour of his own Mother, accusing her as unchast; and that she prostituted her body to strangers in the conception of his two elder Brothers, to make himself more legitimate then they. We find him there stand indicted of seve­ral Murders, Charged with murder. taking out of the way all that opposed his desires, either by death, or safe and severe imprisonments. Of Fra­tricide, With Fratri­cide. consenting at least to the death of his elder Brother. Of Regicide, George D. of Clarence. With Regi­cide. stabbing K. Henry 6. when a Prisoner in the Tower. Besides the bastarding, deposing, murder­ing his two innocent Nephews, whose Guardian (by wicked Policy) he had made himself, by the enforced consent of those who were concerned in the choice (they being in their minority) but durst not op­pose him. I call this Regicide, because the elder was a King in re, the younger in spe, as being heir apparent to the Crown, had his Brother died without issue male before him. But this Monster of men had usurped the throne in their life time; and conceiving he could never be reputed, nor truly ho­noured as a King, so long as these were in his way, he sent them out of this Kingdom [Page 162] into a better. Conceits him­self firmly e­stablished. But is much mistaken. Haunted with the terrours of an accusing Conscience. And now he thinks himself firmly seated, but he reckons without his host; and whoever peruseth the latter part of his History, will find his sin lying at his dore, yea following him at his heels, his Conscience facing him with a fresh re­presentation of his guilt at every turn; and his disturbed fansie with terrifying visions and apparitions; so that while he lived he was as it were in Hell upon Earth. He had shed much bloud, and at last his bloud was shed in that Battle fought between him and his Successor, who had more right to the Crown then himself; wherein he fell a sad victim to his ambition, and a monument of Gods impartial justice to the World; Slain and his dead Carkass slighted, and dishonourably interred. whose Carkass being found na­ked in the Field, wounded, and filthily polluted with gory bloud, was cast upon a horse-back behind a Pursuivant at Arms, with his hands hanging down on the one side, and his legs on the other, like a Calf, and interred with as base a Funeral as he had bestowed upon his Nephews. Martins Histo­ry. Yet for all this I suppose none capable to read that History, can be so great strangers to the late transactions in our Israel, Rich. matched with an Oliv. both Prote­ctors, and both Usurpers. but may find his parallel in the bloudy Chronicle of our late Usurper; who though he drank not so large a draught of Royal [Page 163] bloud, (no thanks to his want of will, but opportunity) yet what he fell short in that, he made up as near as he could in noble and loyal bloud. Whom I cannot more fitly compare then to our desperate He­ctors, who meeting with a rich booty, A fit compa­rison. re­solve to make a ful prey; and finding a ring that is unwilling to part with its right owner, cut off finger and all. So this blou­dy miscreant aiming at the Crown, and supposing it impossible by any other means to make a Divorce between it and its Royal Master, traiterously took off that head that wore it. That bramble kingdom which he was about to erect, could not (as he supposed) thrive, unless watered with the Kings bloud. He that sometime used that expression, was not only so, but a Prophet also. And blessed be God that we have lived to that day, to see that those his following words have proved him so: The Kings Meditations▪ God will not suffer those men long to prosper in their Babel, who build it with the bones, and cement it with the bloud of their Kings. How many upon this very account have been hurried out of the World by stab­bings, poisonings, and other arts of Mur­der, both in our own and other Nations? besides those many Plots and Conspiracies, by the divine providence strangely disco­vered, [Page 164] and through his blessing happily prevented, and made abortive; and that against such a Prince, whom God hath so manifestly owned, so miraculously preser­ved, and (to the admiration of his Friends, and the envy of his Enemies) setled in the Throne of his Fathers. This was the Lords doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. It is he that giveth salvation unto Kings, and hath delivered his anointed from the hurtful Sword. Therefore not unto us, O Lord, not un­to us, but to thine own most glorious Name be all the thanks and praise ascribed. This very consideration now in hand, Tiberius refu­sed the stile of Pater Patriae, upon this ve­ry account. made Tiberius the Emperour refuse the stile of Pater Patriae, saying, all mortal mens estates are uncertain: and the higher their standings are, the more slippery and dangerous are their conditions. Infer. Therefore being so invi­roned and surrounded with dangers, they have the more need of their Subjects pray­ers, that God would protect their persons, blast the designs, discover the Plots, and defeat the attempts of theirs, and therein their own enemies.

The fourth Duty compre­hended in this of fear. Rom. 13.7. Pay him his due.There is yet a fourth Duty remaining, namely this, To pay readily and chearfully what they are legally charged with, [ren­dring tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom is due.] These are ordinary. Some [Page 165] are called extraordinary, required upon urgent and pressing necessity. I say neces­sity, for good Princes will not impose un­necessary payments upon their Subjects, but delight to have them rich and wealthy, rather then poor and needy. The Sove­raignty of all appertains to Kings, Distinction. but the propriety to private men: So that they have no power in justice and equity, to take away, or to seize any of their Estates, unless justly forfeited by their Delinquen­cy. Nabaoths case. As appears clearly in the case of Na­baoth, who refused to part with his Vine­yard. What arts were used to possess Ahab with it, are not unknown to any that have read the Scriptures; but when God called him to an account, he reckoned with him not only for a bloudy Murder, but also for an unjust possession: Hast thou killed, 1 Kings 21.19. and also taken possession? Their right of Sove­raignty gives them a claim to so much as will supply their ordinary and extraordi­nary occasions; what they require more, is not equity, but exaction. And as on the one side God will not allow the Subjects upon such occasions to rebel against their Prince; so on the other, Deut. 17.17. he forbids them to enrich themselves by impoverishing their Subjects. Let it suffice, O Princes, Ezech. 45.9. re­move violence and spoil, take away your exa­ctions [Page 166] from the people. This hath proved the root and fountain of many inconveni­ences. This made that rent in Rehoboams Kingdom, which all his policy and strength could never heal again. God hath made them Shepherds not Butchers; and allows them for their care over his flock to fleece, but not to flay them.

St. Lewis his prudent ad­vice to his son.St. Lewis that good K. among other grave exhortations to his son a little before his death, chargeth him never to crave any Tax or Subsidies from his Subjects, but upon a very just cause and urgent necessity; and that if he did otherwise, he would not be repu­ted a King, but a Tyrant. What is requi­site and necessary upon the former ac­counts, the Apostle calls their due: and Christ himself the things that are Caesars: and Ʋlpian that famous Lawyer, Ner [...]i Reipubli­cae sine quibus non potest admi­nistrari nec con­sistere. Ulpian. the sinews of the Common-wealth, without which it cannot be governed, nor subsist. They are granted to them by the Laws of all Na­tions, and therefore the Duty calls more for practice then for proof. For notwith­standing they may challenge these by their Charter granted to them by the great God and K. of heaven and earth, Applicat. yet many there are that part with what is required of them upon that score, as unwillingly as with their bloud: yea, when they were inevitably [Page 167] necessary, and that too by a necessity of their own creating, to satisfie those debts which their former Rebellion, and the fruit thereof had contracted upon their banished Soveraign; yet these were not paid without a great deal of murmuring and repining. England in the time of the late Usurpati­on, like Issa­cher, and he like an Ass. Time was when England (like Issacher) was as an Ass couching between two burdens, and contentedly bore them, plying her provender without noise or groaning; and seemed willing to purchase her quiet at any rate, under a Tyrant who made his Lust his Law; but now snuffs at what is imposed, not by a boundless Prerogative, but by that very authority which was of their own free election: like an ungrateful Beast, But now like a proud pam­pered Horse. which being eased of a great part of his burden by the mercy of his owner, kicks and lashes to quit himself of the rest, being very willing that he should bear it himself. All that goes this way is set down upon the account of their losses, Good Princes like trusty Fa­ctors. whereas good Princes are like skil­ful and trusty Factors for their Subjects, expending their moneys to their own best advantage, and returning them trebly the worth of it in such commodities which most wise men value. Or like the Sun, Aptly compa­red to the Sun which by its attractive heat draws up va­pours from the Earth (which may well be [Page 168] spared) and returns them in fruitful showers: Custom, Tri­bute, &c. to Vapors. So the Tribute and Custom, the Taxes, and Impositions which the Higher Powers exhale as Vapours, by the force of urgent necessity, are richly ex­changed into the sweet refreshing Rains of Peace and Plenty. And thus I have gi­ven an account of the particular Duties included and implied in this general one of Fear, as I found dispersed here and there in the holy Scripture. The next piece of work which I have to do, is to enquire after the subject, by whom it must be paid; which is every one that comes under the name of a Subject, whom Solomon here calls his son.

2. Part of the Text, viz. the Subject. My son fear thou the Lord, and the King; who in a political sense is a Father; and in the same, his Subjects are his children: So that every one whom the King in that sense may call his son, he may upon that very account call upon him for this fear. The Apostles rule is general, Rom. 13.1. Qui tentat ex­cipere conatur decipere. Origen his strange sense of the word soul. For what ta­ken in the Scripture. and admits of no exception. He that goes about to except, endeavours to deceive; and where there is none excepted, there can be none exempted; unless that strange sense which is fathered upon Origen, concerning the word Soul, be Orthodox, namely, a fleshly and carnal person; which is a sense (of which I think I may safely say) that is ne­ver [Page 169] used in Sacred Writ. It is used indeed properly for the noblest part of man, which is of a divine extraction, and stamped with the glorious image of him that did infuse it. Sometimes for the will and affections, by a Synecdoche of the whole for a part; and by the same figure the Soul, which is a principal part, is put for the whole man. God saith to the Prophet, Ezech. 18.4. that the soul that sinneth, that is, that man or woman, who­ever it be that sinneth (if he repent not) shall die, which includes all; and so it doth here in the Text, Carnal and Spiritual, Saint and Sinner, and never is used to signifie a carnal in opposition to a spiritual person.

We read in one of the Epistles of St. Pe­ter, 1 Pet. 3.20. of eight souls that were saved in the Ark which Noah by Gods direction had provided against that Deluge, which he threatned to bring upon the old World for its daring impieties. Should we under­stand by those eight souls, eight carnal persons, (as we may upon as good a ground as in the other place) we should make that which was one of the most re­markable pieces of Justice that ever was executed upon the World, the greatest example of injustice. To destroy all the righteous, and let such a number of wick­ed persons escape; to send a Floud to [Page 170] drown the one, and to provide an Ark to save the other.

Some put that sense upon it here, and of­fer their rea­sons.I know there is a generation of men in the World, that are very willing to em­brace that sense there, where subjection is required so universally without exception; and offer their ground for the exemption of themselves and others, which are at least in their own conceits the holy and redeemed of the Lord. 1. Sublata causa tollitur effectus. Subjection say they came in by sin, but they are freed from sin, and so consequently from subjection; take away the cause and the effect must cease: Christ having freed them from the one, he hath freed them from the other also. Disproved. By the same Argument they may as well dispute them­selves out of the reach of death; for by one man sin entered into the World, Rom. 5.12. and death by sin; so death hath seized on all for that all have sinned. Yet let them live as blame­lesly and as innocently as they can, What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? No man can attain to a life of sinless perfection till he is dead. Velis nolis in­tra fines tuos habitabit Jebu­seus subjugari potest, extermi­nari non potest. Willing or nilling, this Jebusite will continue with­in thy borders: thou mayest keep it under, but canst not root it out. We may give sin its mortal wound, but its full and final expiration is reserved for the stroke of [Page 171] death. Religio peperit divitias, & f [...] ­lia devoravit matrem. As it was said of Riches the daugh­ter of Religion; Religion hath brought forth Riches, and the Daughter hath de­stroyed the Mother; so Sin brought forth Death, and Death destroyed Sin. But al­though the reign of Death be universal, both over Saints and Sinners; Distinction of death in refe­rence to the righteous and wicked. yet there is a vast difference between death, as a curse, which is properly the punishment of sin; (and so it is to all impenitent sin­ners,) and death as it is by Christ altered, and changed from a curse into a blessing (as it is to the righteous) being a happy passage from a Vale of tears to a Paradice of joy. The like of their Subje­ction. Formidine poe­nae. So is there between that servile subjection of the wicked for fear of punish­ment, from him who should not bear the Sword in vain, (which is a fruit of their sin) and that civil subjection of the righteous upon the score of Conscience, which is a blessing to that King that hath such Sub­jects; and will draw down the blessings of God upon themselves. Did every Subject carry such a Conscience in his breast, what quiet and peaceable lives should we live in all godliness and honesty!

But these men tell us further, Their 2. Rea­son. That they are governed by the Spirit of God, there­fore they need no other government; they are a Law to themselves, wherefore then [Page 172] should they be under the Laws of men? We have a usual saying, Refuted, and the grand cheat disco­vered. All is not Gold that glisters, neither all men what they pretend to be. And most commonly they that are the readiest to make their claim, are the backwardest to prove their Title; where­as the greatest Saints have always acknow­ledged themselves the greatest Sinners. In the time of our Civil Wars, when the Canon Law was lowdest, Inter arma si­lent leges. and our Com­mon Law was almost silent, these mens actions proclaimed them to the World, to be far from righteous persons; plun­dering, or in plain terms robbing others to enrich themselves: So that none stood more in need of Laws, then those that sti­led themselves The Godly Party, and all others Reprobates. The best that are, or ever were upon the face of the earth since mankind was multiplied, could not but be sufficiently convinced of the necessity of good and wholsom Laws, both for them­selves and others; for although they for their own part are guided by the free Spi­rit of God, and so want not the Laws of Men to compel them, yet they have need of them to secure them. We may safely suppose that they would not willingly wrong others; but cannnot but also ima­gine that others would wilfully injure [Page 173] them: and whoever he be that wrongs them, God hath tied up their hands fast enough from righting themselves; that is Gods prerogative, and by his designation the Magistrates office. And surely they have little reason to expect protection from them, St. Austins cen­sure of such. Si quis putat quia Christia­nus est non sibi esse vectigal reddendum aut tributum, aut non esse exhi­bendum honorem debitum, de eis quae haec curant potestatibus in magno errore est. Aust. in loc. Colimus Impera­torem ut homi­nem à Deo se­cundum, & sola Deo minorem. who will yield no subjection to them. I shall therefore leave these Anarchical and Antinomian Spirits to the censure of S. Aust. writing upon those very words. If any man thinks because he is a Christian, that he is not bound to pay tribute and taxes, and yield due honour to the higher Powers, he is in a great errour. So then by every soul is meant every person. Time was when this exposition was admitted for Orthodox, and the duty accordingly own­ed and practised. So it was in Tertullians time; We reverence the Emperour as next to God himself, and inferiour to none but him­self, there is none above him but he that made him so. Yea even in Rome it self, by its chief Bishop Agatho, who wrote in this stile to Constantine the then Emperour; Secundum piis­simam jussionem mansuetudinis vestra pro obe­dientia, quam debuimus diri­gimus presentes confamulos no­stros. As your Clemency hath godly commanded us, according to the obedience we owe, we have sent these our fellow-servants. But since they have pluckt their own necks out of the yoke, and set their feet upon the necks of Princes; they have found out a way, [Page 174] not only to exempt themselves, but others also from their due obedience; pronoun­cing them excommunicate, and thundring out anathema's against any that dare to own or assist them; proving himself to be the An­tichrist, 2 Thess. 2.4. as S. Paul describes him; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple of God, shewing him­self that he is God: subjecting all Laws both of God and Man, of Nature and of Nations, to his own interpretation, dispen­sation, abrogation, how, to whom, and when he pleaseth. The close of this second part. I shall conclude this with the saying of Frederick the Emperour to that proud Pope Adrian 4. whom he checks for his insolence, and sends him to Christ (whose servant he pretends himself to be) to learn him better manners. Cum Christus noster & vester institutor nihil à Rege accipiens tamen pro se & Petro censum persolvit exem­plum vobis de­dit ut vos ita faciatis. See­ing Christ, both our Founder and yours, did take nothing of the King, but did pay tribute to Caesar for himself and Peter, he gave you an example to do the like. Every soul, or every one that hath a soul, so long as that soul is in his body (death only can give him a discharge from that obligation) must be subject to the higher Powers; so the A­postle. Every soul that is a son, and every son that is a subject, is the subject of this fear in the Text; he ows it, and must pay [Page 175] it, both in the strictest and amplest acce­ptation to the King, who (next under God) is the object of it, and comes in the next place briefly to be considered.

My son fear thou the Lord, and the King. The 3. part of the Text, viz. the Object. The King without any Epithite, good or bad; implying we must fear him, whether good or bad. On what his Title ground­ed, both ne­gatively and affirmatively. His Title to this fear depends upon no other Title but that which he hath to his Crown. Not because he is religious, wise, just, potent, and for­midable, but because he is a King; which he may be without any of these qualifi­cations: and if he be so, whether he have any or none, he must be feared. Cogitet quaeli­bet uxor viri dignitatem su­amque inferio­ritatem non ae­stimandam esse ex virtutibus, forma, nobilita­te, divitiis, sed ex sola ordina­tione divina, in hac fundatur mariti authori­tas & subjectio uxoris quae ab­rogari & mu­tari ex causis istis accidenta­libus nec debet nec potest. Bishop Dave­nant in Coloss. 3.18. They that honour him only for his own personal excellencies, honour him chiefly, not as a King, but as an ordinary person. The foundation of all that Duty which a Subject owes to his Prince, is not a perso­nal, but a relative excellency; which is not confined to this or that King so or so qualified; but essential and common to all Kings, as they are Kings. It is not founded in themselves, but in the relation they have to God. What a learned Di­vine said of the Wives subjection to their Husbands, may be very well applied to the Subjects subjection to his Prince. She whoever she be, that is a Wife, must know [Page 176] that her Husbands dignity, and her own inferiority, take not their estimate from Vertue, Nobility, or Riches, but from the Ordinance of God alone. The authority of the Husband, and the subjection of the Wife, is founded upon that, and may not, nay must not be abrogated or changed upon any of those accidental accounts. There is indeed no other foundation that will support the honour due unto Kings firm and unshaken: for had it been said Fear the King, (i. e.) the King so and so qualified; if such qualifications be want­ing, or be supposed to be wanting (as it always will be by some or other that are disaffected to his Person or Government) they would hereupon cancel all obliga­tions of duty and respect to him, as we have found by late and sad experience. Therefore the most wise God foreseeing the mischievous consequences of such con­ditional Laws among men (who for the most part make not their own or others eyes, but their partial affections Judges in the case) hath enacted an absolute Law without any provisoes or exceptions, to prevent all occasions of publick disturban­ces, St. Paul and St. Peter call for it to all Kings. and pretences for rebellion. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers, so S. Paul: Fear God, honour the King, so S. Peter. [Page 177] And I am confident there is no other place of Scripture concerning this subject, but what is of the same nature with those, and this in the Text, which are as absolute and free from all conditional limitations, or restrictions, as possibly can be.

Neither can it be imagined by any that have read any thing of Ecclesiastical Hi­story, Who reigned when they wrote their Epistles. that those Governours, whom they themselves, and those to whom they wrote their Epistles lived under, were every way so well qualified, that such proviso's were needless. Claudius or Nero, a short Character of both. They were penned when Claudius or Nero swayed the Scepter; the first of the two was the best; and that best bad enough: a Pagan, and an enemy to Christ and all true Christians. The last the Monster of mankind for all manner of wickedness; who set Rome on fire, and charged it upon the Christians: first making, and then ta­king this occasion, he persecuted them, and put them to sundry kinds of torments, causing some to be covered with Beasts skins, and to be worried by Dogs, others to be nailed to Crosses, others to be burned in the night, that the light of of those cruel Bonfires might qualifie the darkness thereof. And so unsatiable was this matchless Tyrants thirst after bloud, that he spared not his nearest relations, but [Page 178] put to death his Sister, his Wife, his Grand­mother, yea his own immediate Mother Agrippina; whom after three several at­tempts by poison, proved insuccessful (by reason of her Antidotes and Preservatives, which continual suspition caused her to take) he sent Anicetus a Centurion to mur­der her; who with his companions brake open first the Gates of the City, and next the dore of her Chamber where she lay. It is reported of her, that when she saw there was no remedy but death, she pre­sented her belly to the Murderer, and desired him to kill her in that part which had most deserved it, by bringing into the World, so vile a Monster. In a word, he was a professed enemy to God and all goodness, famous for nothing but for infamy. Yet this one benefit the Chri­stians reaped from this Viper, they looked upon his cruelty towards the professors of the Gospel, as a strong testimony of the truth of that Doctrine they professed, and he persecuted: Tertull. in his Apol. c. 5. We boast and brag of such a famous persecutor, for they which know him may easily perceive that this our Doctrine had never been condemned by Nero, had it not been passing good.

Yet as bad as he was (as worse he could not well be) those blessed Apostles call [Page 179] upon his Subjects, Christians as well as Infidels, to honour him, and to be subject unto him. But upon what account? Sure­ly not upon a score of gratitude for any fa­vour received from him formerly, nor out of policy, hoping thereby to insinuate themselves and their fellow-christians into his favour for the future; if they did, they fell short of their expectations; receiving from him a sad requital for so great loyal­ty, so clearly manifested, not only by their personal and particular practice; but also by their general precepts, whereby they endeavoured to make all others of his Subjects as loyal to him as themselves. For not long after, under the self-same Nero, one of them was beheaded, and the other crucified. Questionless they saw so much of his wickedness with their own eyes, that they must needs think that God had given him to a reprobate mind, to commit all iniquity even with greediness, and to proceed from bad to worse, till he had filled up the measure of his sin: So that there can be no other reason given, why they should fear such a King, who was so wicked a King, the worst of Kings, yea the very worst of men, but this, because he was a King; and the reason of that, Rom. 13.1. because there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God.

[Page 180] Rex semper ho­norandus est si non propter se, tamen propter ordinem. S. Aust. de quest. V. & N. Testam. De Civitat. Dei lib. 5. c. 21.The King is always to be honoured, if not for himself, yet for order sake; and for that Kingly Government is the Ordi­nance of God, though the Governour be never so wicked. He that gave a Kingdom to Constantine the Christian, gave a King­dom also to Julian the Apostate: If there­fore he gave a Kingdom to an Infidel, his Subjects cannot with any colour of rea­son withdraw their obedience for his Infi­delity. Davenant in Col. 4. v. 5. Which are the words of the same Father in another Book of his; and the hypothesis and inference are a deserving Prelates of our own Church. The Duty ap­plied against Papal Pride. What a Spirit of Pride then rules in the heart of that man of sin, who over-rules the Princes of the Earth, and takes upon him to ex­communicate them at his pleasure; and to absolve their Subjects of their Oaths of Allegiance to them; yea, to depose and damn them to the pit of Hell, for preten­ded heresie. Who sees not how dissonant their Doctrines and Practices of this kind are to those Apostolical rules, which were the undoubted off-spring of divine inspira­tion! which tell us in effect, that no vio­lence is to be used against the Supream Power; and that evil Princes are not to be curbed and restrained by Arms taken up against them, but by Prayers offered up to [Page 181] God for them. And their Subjects in such cases should arm themselves, not with weapons to oppose them, but with Argu­ments (if the will of God be so) to suffer by them; of which there is a great plenty in the Scripture, which might have been very well spared, if God had allowed them any other remedies. That tells us if we suffer in a good cause, we suffer for a Kingdom. And although all the afflictions of this present life, are not worthy of that glory which shall be revealed (it were high pride and presumption to lay claim to it upon that account) yet God is plea­sed to account such sufferers worthy of that Kingdom for which they suffer; which is such a Kingdom as will sufficiently coun­tervail all the losses that we can possibly undergo it. Hic ure, hic se­ca ut in aeter­num parcas. Let me be hackt and hewed to pieces, burned and consumed to ashes, so that I may escape suffering hereafter, (said a Martyr.) If for being spared, how much rather upon condition of being crowned for everwith glory: he would be a gainer to purpose by his sufferings, if when his Persecutors took away a temporal life from him, God should give an eternal life unto him. Seneca said, Si longae leves, si graves bre­ves. Seneca. Of all that we can suf­fer here, if they seem long, they are but light; if they are grievous, they can be but short, sith [Page 182] life it self cannot be long. And one of better principles (that was his contemporary, and as some affirm, of his acquaintance also) saith the same, but with a great deal more of comfort and encouragement, viz. That our light afflictions which are but for a mo­ment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4.17, 18. S. Paul that once rebuked S. Peter, brought in as questioning his pretended Successor. And he that once rebuked Peter to his face, cannot (I con­ceive) be guilty of any great presumption, if he question his pretended fuccessor, what he hath to do to judge anothers ser­vant, sith he stands or falls to his own Lord? especially such a servant as was his rightful Soveraign; servant in a Scri­pture sense, only to him who is Lord of Lords. Let him search the whole New Testament over and over again, and when he hath done it twice, let him do it ten times more; and let him shew if he can, where any of that rank and condition have been excommunicated: they may be ad­monished, rebuked, advised, and that with discretion too, observing their di­stance, not otherwise. And those whom Christ the King of Kings hath placed in [Page 183] his stead on Earth, he hath reserved their final sentence to his own more righteous judgment.

The matter being so clearly stated, by such infallible Authorities as aforesaid, what may we think of that great Diana of our late Reformers, The Solemn League and Covenant ex­amined. the Solemn League and Covenant? one of the chiefest limbs whereof, concerning the Civil Magistrate, is so down right lame, and so suitable to those Romish principles, that were we not well satisfied in what part of the World it had its original, we might sooner have guessed it to have been contrived rather by a Conclave of Popish Rabbies, then by those who pretended themselves Divines of the more refined and reformed Religion. It makes provision for the Kings Person, The Article which con­cerns the Kings preser­vation, condi­tional. Crown, and Dignity, as to the security thereof; but how, or how far? Quam­diu bene se gesserit; so long as he behaves himself well, and no longer. He must stand to all intents and purposes in the nature of a Probationer, durante vita; and if they dislike him, he is a King but durante bene placito, during their pleasure; or at least till they can find an opportunity to unking and dethrone him. In the defence of the Protestant Religion, there is the condition; so that if the King [Page 184] be wanting, or be supposed to be wanting in the defence thereof (as he will always be supposed to be by some Sect or Fa­ction) they then conceive themselves (as well they may) from that condition, ab­solved from any obligation that that Co­venant lays upon them (as Subjects) to protect and defend him as their Sove­raign; because it binds them so to do, only upon that condition and not other­wise. Yea, they will be ready to think themselves thereby firmly engaged to their utmost to oppose him. To honour him for fear is servility, to do it for our own benefit, to work our ends upon him, is self-love; and to do it with a reserve or an implicite condition, is in plain terms, no other then implicite Rebellion. The Authors actions the best Com­ment upon their own Act. The acti­ons of its Authors, were the most authen­tick Comment upon their own Act; who had no sooner brought his Subjects into that snare, but they basely defamed the King as favourer of Popery; and an Army is levied to force him to a redress of their pretended grievances; which a­mounted to no less then the unkinging of himself; the rooting out (so far as they could) that ancient Government of Epi­scopacy, and the introducing a Linsey-Woolsey one in its stead, (as a learned Pre­late [Page 185] sometime called it, Bishop King in his Sermon before King James at Ham­ton-Court, Cant. 8.11.) which when he preached that Sermon, had not seen the age of a man, threescore and ten; and the delivering all those to the spoil, who meerly out of Conscience adhered to him.

From whom they learned this, or what hand guided that pen, or what head-piece inspired that Party that inserted that Clause, is easie to guess; not Christ but Antichrist; not Paul one of his Apostles, That clause taken out of Bellarmin. but Bellarmine one of the Popes Cardi­nals; who tells us in plain terms and down right language; If Princes endea­vour to turn their people from the faith, they may and must be deprived from their Government: and Christians are bound not to suffer such a King to rule over them. And that his Doctrine might be swallowed with the more ease, and the less straining, he way-lays that objection, grounded upon the contrary practice of the Primi­tive Christians; telling us (but most falsly) upon what ground they did it; Anticavalee­rism. which the Author of that pestilent Pam­phlet (fit only to make Subjects for the Prince of Darkness) hath borrowed from him, and made use of it upon the like account, viz. If the Christians of old did not depose Nero, Dioclesian, and others like to them, it is because they wanted [Page 186] power. And this that Author calls a suffi­cient answer.

It is a thing more facile then proper for this my purpose, to discover more then this one flaw in that Politick Engine; which some have chosen rather to part with their livelihoods then renounce; though enjoyned to do it by a more law­ful Authority, and upon far better grounds, then that by which, and those upon which it was first imposed. It is the joint resolution of all sound Casuists, The resolution of the best Casuists con­cerning un­lawful Vows, &c. that sinful vows are more safely broken then kept; and being rashly and unad­visedly made, they bind to repentance, not to performance: which if our dissent­ing Brethren of the Clergy, had well well weighed and considered, the Church might have received more benefit by their labours, and themselves more comfort by their obedience. For how much soever they seem by their selected Texts for their Farewel Sermons, to please and solace themselves in their sufferings upon such and such accounts (as if they had left all to follow Christ) yet they cannot but know, that such Texts have no more of comfort in them (at least will yield no more unto them) then their sufferings have of compliance with their Texts. [Page 187] What a sad mistake will it be, if it should prove in the winding up, that in stead of leaving all to follow Christ, they have left Christ to follow their fansies, or the dictates of an erroneous Conscience; and have opposed, yea preferred their own private reputations to the publick peace of the Church. For mine own part I do much more commend the prudence of those Noble Senators, who (in regard it had bewitched so many Subjects into a Rebellion against their Soveraign) have passed upon it its proper doom, to be bur­ned to ashes.

But I leave them and come to our selves, This applied to rectifie our judgments. who are instructed from this part of the Text, that all the fore-mentioned Duties which Subjects owe to their Princes, are due and payable to them, as they are so. A Lesson very necessary for us all to learn exactly, to remember it carefully, and to practise it conscionably. Many are throughly convinced that they are justly due to, and highly deserved by good Princes, that are tender Fathers of their Country, indulgent Nurses of the Church, faithful Shepherds of the People, vigilant Keepers of the Peace, careful de­fenders of Justice, and impartial prote­ctors of innocency▪ They readily pay [Page 188] them to the fruitful Vine that delights them with her lovely clusters, Arbor honoretur cujus nos umbra tuetur. to the be­nefical Olive that enricheth them with its pleasing fatness, to the spreading Tree that yields them shadow from the heat, and fruit for their hunger; but to do it to the scratching Bramble, that fleeces and draws bloud from them, to a Ty­rant that turns Justice into Wormwood, that persecutes and dismembers, that pulls down and destroys at pleasure, that makes a Land an Acheldama, a Field of Bloud. This is a hard saying, who can bear it? Malis domi­nandi potestas non datur, nisi summi Dei pro­videntia quan­do subditos ju­dicat talibus Dominis dignos. De Civit. Dei lib. 5. c. 21. But what saith St. Austin, Go­vernment is not put into such mens hands, but by the providence of the most high God, when he judgeth them for their great im­pieties to deserve such Governours. God hath an especial providence in appointing Kings, and disposing of Kingdoms; Pro­motion is neither from the East, nor from the West, nor yet from the South; but God pulleth down one, and setteth up ano­ther. Psal. 75.6. The God of Heaven gave Nebu­chadnezzar a Kingdom, Dan. 2.37. Power and Glory. And what a King that was, I think none can be ignorant that are not strangers to the holy Scriptures; which describe him to be a cruel enemy to Gods people, spoiling them of their substance, plucking [Page 189] them out of their habitations, and carrying them into a miserable and tedious captivi­ty. He was the rod of Gods anger, where­with he scourged that sinful People the Jews, together with their Kings and Prin­ces; commanding them that they should serve him, and pray for him; and if they did not so, Jer. 27.6.29.7. he would visite them with Sword, Famine, and Pestilence. He gives good ones in love, evil ones in anger; they all come under that distinction: if they are of the first sort, we must honour and obey them chearfully; if of the wor­ser sort, we must endure them patiently. Per loci deser­tionem ab offi­cio defectionem intelligit. Cartwright in locum. If the spirit of him that ruleth rise up against thee (whether thou give him any just cause for it or not) leave not thy place. By which Phrase we are to understand defection from the duties of our place; meaning, that Subjects may not for any injuries received, from him with-hold any thing that is due unto him; though he should cease to do the duty of a King, they must not cease to do the duty of Subjects.

This what I have here imparted with a great deal of weakness (as to the ma­naging of it) is with as much sincerity as to the truth of it. The conclu­sion of the Treatise. Neither have I herein designed any secular advantage to my self, but have faithfully revealed what hath [Page 190] been taught by Solomon, yea by Christ a greater then Solomon, viva voce, when he was on Earth; and by his Apostles since his ascension into Heaven. I know there have been some who have perverted this piece of Gospel Doctrine, which St. Paul so clearly taught, not dreading in the least his Apostolical Anathema. I have a great deal of confidence that this may come in­to the hands of some that are not other­wise minded. And for those that are, and seek to pervert others, Gal. 5.10. they shall bear their judgment whoever they be. And so I shall close with that caution which the Author gives in the latter part of this, and in the ensuing Verse; to avoid familiarity with, but more especially, seduction by the seditious that are given to change; for so they are described by their levity that makes them so; and with his argument drawn à malo poenae, from the evil of pu­nishment; which usually attends both the seducers and the seduced, which is both sudden and severe; it begins in calamity, and ends in the ruine of both: My son fear thou the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change, for their calamity shall rise suddenly, and who knoweth the ruine of them both?