WE do not in any of the Apostles Epistles meet with any particular Addresses to the Magistrates of the Age they lived in; yet the Duty of Subjection unto Magistrates is frequently enjoyned all Christians whatsoever. Husbands and Wives, Parents and Children, Masters and Servants, have all the special Duties of their several Callings taught them in the Apostles Writings: but for Magistrates, though their Office is no-where so vindicated as by the Apostles, yet the Persons under Subjection are the persons onely who are taught their Duty; which is Subjection: A Duty our Apostle (as also the Apostle S. Paul) is very earnest in the pressing upon the Christians of that Age; and the more earnestly (as is thought) for these two Reasons.

And in the Verses before my Text he calls for this Subjection to Authority, of whatsoever Rank or Degree; whether it be to the King, as Supreme; or unto Governours, as unto them that are sent by him. And having thus laid before them their Duty unto Magistracy; in the words of the Text, and in the following Verses, he enforceth it, First, by laying down the strongest Argument that can be alledged for it, this in the Text: and then, by removing the great Objection made against it by Libertines, of whom the Apostles had then a great Jealousy. They would needs fansy themselves to be made so free by their Religion, that they were now no longer to be the Servants of Men. As to this Objection, suggested in the words, as free, in the next Verse, the Apostle answers it, by giving them to understand, that Christ's Free men are still God's Servants: so that their Liberty could be no Cloak for them to be Seditious and Malicious; for why? it was onely a Liberty to serve God. And how it is the Will of God, that we express the Fear we have of him in the Honour we have for our King, and in the Love we have for our Brethren, we are acquainted in the seventeenth Verse, where they are enjoyned all together: Love the Brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the King.

The Text is plainly an Exhortation to primitive Christians, so to behave themselves towards their Superiours, as to keep up the Reputation of their Religion, and disperse the Scandals cast upon it by Ignorant and Foolish men.

In the whole Verse we have these things considerable.

I. For the First, the Persons that were to silence others, and that consequently were apt to be traduced by the World, they were the Christians of the purest Age of the Church; Infant-Christians, as I may call them with respect to the Age of the Gospel-Church at that time; Christians almost always under the Lash of Persecution, and so, for that reason, besides the indispensable obligation which Christianity laid upon them to secure their innocence, could not chuse but be very innocent, and far from daring to intermeddle with the Affairs of those Powers that kept them so much in Slavery. Poor Doves! the Roman Eagle kept them too much in awe to venture, if they had been willing, upon tampering with State-affairs: and yet all the Tumults and Seditions of the Times were sometimes fathered upon them. Nero sets Rome on fire; and the poor Christians, as Tacitus in his Annals tells us, (in usum nocturni luminis) must be made Bonefires of, as the Authours of it. Whence we learn, that Innocency is no security from Infamy, and that the Best of men are not exempt from the basest Calumnies. No: it hath ever been the Fate of the best Religion, and the zealousest Asserters of it, to undergo the World's harshest Censures. But one righteous man in Sodom, and he was accounted the Trouble-town. He had the Zeal to oppose their not-to-be-named Lewdness; and thus they deride him for his pains,Gen. 19. 9. This Fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a Iudge. The great Prophet Elijah, that alone asserted the Worship of the true God in the time of an universal Defection from his Worship to Idolatry,1 King. 18. 17. was therefore called the Troubler of Israel. And how doth good Ieremiah bemoan himself on this Account?Jer. 15. 10. Woe is me, my Mother, that thou hast born me a man of Strife, and a man of Contention to the whole Earth. I have neither lent on Vsury, nor have men lent to me on Vsury, yet every one doth curse me. And when the Lord of the Vineyard last of all sent his Son into the World, the very Original of Innocency, who, as in the twenty second verse of this Chapter, did no Sin, neither was Guile found in his mouth; how was it the World esteemed of him? no otherwise then it was long before prophesied by Isaiah;Isa. 53.3. He was despised and rejected of men, we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. He was accounted a Wine-bibber, nay a Sorcerer, a man that cast out Devils by the help of the Prince of Devils. And if the great Master of the whole family of Heaven and Earth was thus aspersed, it is not to be imagined, that his Servants after him should fare any better at the World's hands.Matth. 10. 25. And he himself tells them so beforehand; lest, when they met with this Usage, they should think it very strange, to be so requited for their labour of Love unto the World. How basely do the Iews abuse the great Apostle of the Gentiles by their Oratour Tertullus, calling him a Pestilent fellow, a mover of Sedition, Acts 24.5. and a Ring-leader of a Sect? And S. Paul himself at large tells us, how himself and the rest of the Apostles were accounted of in the World:1 Cor. 4. 13. We are made as the Filth of the world, and the Off-scouring of all things unto this day. So far hath Innocency and Integrity ever been from exempting the best of God's Servants from the World's harshest Censures.

II. Now in the next Particular, which is, the Persons who are to be silenced, we have the Reason whence it is that Good men cannot have the World's good word. The Persons to be silenced are, Ignorant and Foolish men. And this gives us the true account of it, and plainly tells us, that it is the Ignorance of Evil men that makes them speak evil of those that be Good. Fools, who know least, are usually given to speak most, and oftenest, and what comes next the tongue's end. And indeed the words of Fools come no farther off then from whence you hear them, being in labris nata: whereas the words of Wise men are said to come è sulco pectoris, from the ground of the Heart. And therefore no wonder if Fools speak so readily, and so at random as they do, of things and persons that oft-times they have no knowledge of: which thing is not onely their Folly, but their Shame also, in the opinion of Solomon, Prov. 18. 13. who tells us that he that answereth a matter before he hear it, it is a Folly and a Shame to him.

Now this being the Cause why Evil men speak evil of those that are Good, their Folly and Ignorance, we may lawfully infer these two things from it.

First, That it is certainly not the Wisedom of those that would be accounted wise men, to receive and harbour, or at all to hearken to the Reports of such persons. It argues an empty hollowness of Mind in men, like Echo's to catch at, and to return every noise and sound they hear; or a Mind full, if of any thing, of mischievous sly intents. And indeed, even all the Mischief of evil Reports happens from such persons: the Clamours of foolish persons generally doing no hurt, till persons in repute for Wisedom and Worth begin to listen to them. The Receiver here is as bad, if not worse then the Thief. When one officiously told Simonides how evil things men spoke of him, he made him this Answer; Et quando tu tandem desines me auribus calumniari? And when wilt thou leave slandering me with thy Ears? Most excellent and highly worthy our imitation was the way of Constantine the Great in this point, who burnt the mutual Accusations of his Clergy, telling the Complainants, he wished his Cloak large enough to cover all their Faults. Were all men of his humour, the Devil's work of raising and spreading Slanders would go but slowly on in the world: were there no Receivers, there would be fewer Thieves. Let such then as would go for understanding men and sober Christians,Prov. 25. 23. put on the angry Countenance at the hearing of all slanderous Reports, which, as the Northwind drives away Rain, repells the Calumnies of a Backbiting tongue.

Secondly, We learn here what little Cause they have to be troubled, who make Conscience to discharge the Duties of their several Callings conformably to the Laws of the Church and Kingdom they belong unto, (whether Subordinate Governours in the Church and State, or such as be in Subjection onely,) if now and then they meet with some harsh Censures for so doing; considering what it is they are to be imputed to, the Ignorance of Foolish men. Nemo patitur Praejudicium ab iis quibus non est Iudicium: Can we suffer by their Opinion who have no Judgment? Let no man's heart fail him then, nor encline him to a poor pusillanimous Compliance with the Humours, to avoid the Clamours, of Foolish men.

That of S. Ambrose is Encouragement enough against all their scornfull Censures.Amb. de Interp. Lib. 2. Ca. 2. Si fuerit Praejudicium in seculo, non erit in judicio Dei; The Prejudices of the World prejudice us nothing before God. No Wind shakes the Earth but the Wind within it. If we keep our Consciences calm and clear concerning our due Subjection to God's Law and Man's, we need not fear the shaking by any Wind without us: and what shaking happens, a good Conscience will so recreate us therein, that we shall not need at all to value it.

III. Now for the Third thing, the Duty of those who are evil spoken of towards them who speak evil of them, which is, to silence them; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , os occludere, to shut the Mouths of evil speakers. In 1 Cor. 9. 9. it is rendered muzzle: Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn. But now may some say, Who is sufficient for this thing? Is it not a kind of impossibility that is here put upon us? Were foolish Men as tractable as Oxen, the matter might be thought feasible: But Solomon represents them for persons wholly untractable;Prov. 27. 22. Though thou bray a Fool in a Mortar, among Wheat with a Pestill, yet will not his Foolishness depart from him.

In Answer; Here we are to distinguish of Fools according to the Distinction we have of Ignorance. There is Ignorantia purae privationis, and Ignorantia pravae dispositionis, an Ignorance of Weakness, and an Ignorance of Wilfulness: So there is the weak Fool, and the wilfull Fool. Now the weak Fool is the reputed Fool, but the wilfull Fool is the Fool; the Fool that Solomon found would take no impressions. None so blind as they that will not see. Some are blind through Ignorance, some through Interest; in whom the God of this World (to use the Apostle's words) hath blinded their Eyes; being preingaged by their Interests, they will not judge sincerely of Things and Persons. Malunt nescire, (as Tertullian in his Apology hath it) quia jam oderunt. Now to stop the mouths of such from speaking evil of us, is a very hard task. To stop the mouths of such from speaking evil of us, who stop the mouths of their own Consciences whilst they speak evil of us, is a work that never was nor will be done, nor is it expected from us. All that is required of us here, as at all practicable by us, is, that, with the Apostle, we so demean our selves, that we commend our selves to every man's Conscience in the sight of God; and this is practicable: to order our selves so, that whereas wilfully Ignorant men speak evil of us, as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed and confounded, at least in their Consciences, when they accuse our good Conversation.

To put the case in their Compliance, who are Magistrates or Ministers, with the Commands of their Superiours; Can we imagine that any in their Consciences do blame them for it? especially when they shall consider that the Oath of God is upon them, whereby they have solemnly bound themselves to the Obedience of those Commands? No, they doe it not: and onely in a consciencious observing such Commands shall they stop the mouths of mens Consciences. And if by not observing of them, out of a poor pitifull cringing to be popular, they study to stop mens mouths from hard words, they shall therein open the mouths of their own Consciences, and the Consciences of others, justly to accuse them: and they are onely weak Fools, who will not account them for very Hypocrites and Dissemblers with God and the World.

But now for such whose Ignorance hath not this tang of Malice in it, and who indeed know nothing of Things and Persons, but as they have seen them at a distance, and through the Prospective of other mens Prejudices, and the Misrepresentations of their partial Guides; it is possible by degrees to stop the mouths of such: as the same Tertullian in his Apology, Simul ac desinunt ignorare, desinunt odisse: The Cause being meer Ignorance, as the Cause is taken away, the Effect ceaseth; and the silencing of them then is feasible. And where it is but possible, we are to endeavour it, as the Apostle counsells;2 Tim. 2. 25. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if peradventure God will give them Repentance.

But now here the Question will be, How must we doe it? Suppose they accuse us for our good Conversation towards our Superiours, our peaceable Subjection to their lawfull Commands, what Expedient is there in this Case? The Text tells us, it is Well-doing. We are never while we live to expect it in that way, that some would have men to believe to be the Meekness and the Moderation the Apostle requires, viz. by forbearing our selves the doing our several Duties conformably to the Commands of our Superiours; and by the allowing, the coaxing and applauding those who oppose themselves, in their Prejudices and Misapprehensions. For why? this doth not remove the Cause of their Prejudices, their Ignorance; and so is no more the way to cure them of their Prejudices, then it is the Rider's way to make his Horse leave starting at the things he is afraid of, by running him away from them; which the Rider never doth, but brings him nearer to them. In like manner, that they who speak evil of us may neither accuse us, nor the things they are so apt to take offence at, it must not be our way, to humour them in their Shiness and Dislikes, but in all the ways of Peace and Meekness, to persuade them wishly to see into the inoffensiveness of the things, and the little cause they have to startle at them: and then, which is the Expedient of the Text, to set them an Example for their Duty in our own Well-doing, which is the Fourth Particular.

IV. This is the way the Apostle prescribes; a way so clearly the onely way to return wicked mens Reproaches to the best advantage to our selves, that very Heathens have hit upon it. Diogenes being asked by one, how he might best revenge himself of an evil Tongue; he makes this Reply, Si teipsum quàm maximè Bonum & Honestum virum praestiteris: Thou wilt best acquit thy self of his Reproaches, if in all things thou shalt behave thy self as becomes an Honest and an Upright man. Now, Well-doing is a very comprehensive word, as the Psalmist saith of its Rule, the Command of God; it is exceeding broad, and may be thought to put upon us the whole Duty of Man. And indeed, without walking so as the Grace of God teacheth us, righteously, godly and soberly in this evil World, we do not come up to the Duty of Well-doing, nor shall we silence Gainsayers; especially such of us as through our Callings are more in the Eye of the World, and who are sure, though but Earthen Vessels, to have fewest Grains of allowance given us. But of Well-doing taken in this Latitude, Well-doing in the Text onely means a Branch, our walking righteously towards our Superiours. For the Apostle having immediately before commanded them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of Man, he here tells them, that in so doing they would put to silence the Ignorance of Foolish men. The thing plainly meant then, is Submission to Authority, according as he had directed them. And calling this, as he doth, Well-doing it self, we may well account it a considerable part of it: and we may lawfully infer upon it, that it is very much our Duty to give this Subjection to our Superiours. And that it is so, we have this farther in the Text to assure us of it, That it is God's will we doe it: which is the Fifth and last Particular in the Text.

V. It is the Will of God we submit our selves to Authority. And this I called the grand Motive of this Well-doing: for it is that, beyond which we are not to enquire for any other; God's Will being, as the onely Rule, so the onely supreme Reason of our Obedience. And upon the account of this Motive alone, we are sufficiently assured, that it is not left to our Wills as an Arbitrary thing, and in our Choice whether we will doe it or no: but that it is a matter of necessity, as the Apostle S. Paul is most express in it, Ye must needs be subject. Rom. 13.5 This is such a Motive, that as there can be no higher assigned, so there needs no other. Onely we are in such an Age, wherein (for want of good Discipline) Disputing hath turned Obeying out of Doors; so that, except God reveal his Will in the terrible way he did upon Mount Sinai, we are not carefull to hearken to it; especially if our Wills be crossed by it. But, as our Saviour hath told us long since, We have Moses and the Prophets, the ordinary way; and other Revelation there will be none, till God reveal himself from Heaven in flaming Fire, taking Vengeance upon the Transgressours of his Will.

Let this then satisfie us to persuade us to Obedience, that it is the Will of God, and thus revealed to us. But if this will not prevail with us, let it serve for a farther Motive, to consider, that in the great Day, when God will reveal himself in that terrible manner, of which the Apostle tells us 2 Thess. 1. 8. it shall then go hardest with Despisers of Government, as S. Peter tells us, 2 Ep. 2.9, 10. where he saith that chiefly Despisers of Government, among others, are reserved to the Day of Iudgment to be punished. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The Simple Verb ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) in Scripture is rendred to mind, to savour, to affect; so that the Compound may well be rendred persons that do not mind, that will not relish, that do not affect Government, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The same word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is used by S. Iude, when in the same manner he denounceth Judgment (in the eighth Verse of his Epistle) against such persons; which we render there Dominion: but there we have another word for despise, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which word, saith Beza, signifies to depose or remove a thing out of its place. But the same Persons are meant in both places; and there is no more difference between S. Peter's Despisers, and S. Iude's Deposers of Government, then between brute Beasts, (to which S. Iude in the tenth Verse compares them) when under restraint, and when at liberty, which then shake off the service they had no mind to before. They who are S. Peter's Despisers, no Relishers of Government, will, when it lies in their way, (as Experience hath shewn this Nation) be S. Iude's Deposers, Deposers of Government and Governours too: but both shall be reserved unto Punishment; chiefly such, saith S. Peter; and saith S. Iude, to the Vengeance of eternal Fire.

And the case being thus with Despisers of Government, it would be well done by Governours, not to give them the least occasion for it. This is according to S. Paul's advice to Timothy: 1 Tim. 4. 12. in stead of exhorting the People not to despise Timothy, he advises Timothy not to let them doe it: his meaning is,1 Tim. 3. 15. that he would have Timothy so to behave himself in the House of God, as not to give them the least occasion for it.

Well, the Despisers of Government bringing that Mischief they do to the Societies they belong unto, and heaping to themselves such Wrath against the Day of Wrath, it is an Office of Mercy to them (besides what it is to the Government) in Governours, to their power to restrain them: which they may doe, (and I think are bound to doe, as they would not partake in their Sin) in looking after the Execution of the Laws. For were Laws duly executed, men durst as well eat Fire, as affront Authority, and play with Penal Statutes. Witness how tame, not long since, England, Ireland, and Scotland too, were made and kept by a small number of the Inhabitants, without a Toleration of Popery or Prelacy.

Well, if this will not prevail with us, to make us submit unto Authority, that it is the Will of God we doe it; Consider we within our selves of this other Motive, How we shall be able, if we will not doe his Will, to endure his Wrath, which we see Despisers of Authority have no hopes of escaping, but upon these Presumptions, that there is no Credit to be given to the Holy Scriptures, no Life to come, nor Day of Judgment to be hereafter.

The Duty of Subjection is thus enforced: and there are but few who do not, at least in words, own it to be due to Magistrates: but, how far, and wherein, lies all the Controversy.

Some there be who are against the Magistrate's meddling at all in Matters Ecclesiastical. Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia? was the Objection of Donatus, an old Separatist; What hath the Emperour to doe with Matters concerning the Church? To which Objection the Reply Optatus made was then judged fully sufficient, The Commonwealth is not in the Church, but the Church is in the Commonwealth; and consequently, the Governour of the Commonwealth is Governour also of the Church.

But that which meets with greatest opposition at this day is this, That the Magistrate should give Commands in things indifferent pertaining to the Worship of God. But this men quarrel at without any colour of Reason for the same: For these things are the peculiar Province, as to Church-concernments, wherein the Legislative and Executive Power of the Magistrate is exercised. Things of Divine Institution do require our Submission by warrant from a Superiour and Paramount Injunction, and cannot be accounted Humane Ordinances or Things indifferent: But as to these other things, we have sundry Ordinances in the Holy Scriptures. Esther 9. 20. we find a religious Festival appointed by Mordecai, without any Command from God for it. And in the Book of the Maccabees we reade of another Festival instituted by Iudas Maccabaeus and the Iews, which was afterwards approved of by Christ's presence at it. And in the New Testament we find the Rulers of the Church imposing their Commands in things indifferent,Acts 15. 20. as they thought expedient for the present good of the Church. The things indeed are called necessary: Vers. 28. but considering what some of these things were, it is plain they were onely called so, with relation to their End; being at that time judged necessary, though not in their Nature, yet in their Use, for the present quiet and composure of Differences in the Church. And as soon as the black Cloud of Persecution was dispersed by Constantine the Great, this Authority, in matters Ecclesiastical, was assumed by the Monarchs of the Christian World, and very much to the Satisfaction of the Fathers of the Church in those times. Felix est necessitas (saith S. Augustin) quae nos cogit ad meliora. And thus he adviseth the Powers then in being, Forìs inveniatur necessitas, & intus nascetur voluntas; Let there be a Power without, and there will be a Will within.

And what is very considerable here, The Injunctions of Superiours in these things have never been disliked, but by the Factions they have run cross to. If Calvin's Opinion will weigh any thing with the Men who now oppose themselves, and scruple in these matters, we have it at large in his Epistle to the Duke of Somerset, the Protectour in the days of Edward the VI. where he adviseth the Protectour in these words: Statum esse Catechismum oportet, statam Sacramentorum Administrationem, publicámque Precum formulam; There ought (saith he) to be a set Catechism, a set Form for Administration of Sacraments, and a set Form of publick Prayers, from which it may not be lawfull for the Pastours of the Church to depart and vary as they please. And that, (as he tells us) for these Ends: That the Ignorance of some may hereby be relieved, the wanton Lightness of others in affecting and meditating Novelties restrained; and then, that the Agreement among your selves, and with other Reformed Churches, may be known to the World. Which be all very good Ends; and the bare mentioning of them is enough to satisfie any, that Calvin did not think the Forms usefull onely for those Times, and as things then stood, (as Separatists at this day persuade their Proselytes) but for succeeding Ages also. For in what Age may it not be necessary to have these good Ends looked after? And in the same Epistle he tells the Protectour, he understood there were two sorts of Seditious persons in this Kingdom then, (who have continued ever since, and been as very Thorns in the side of the Government from that time to this, as ever the Canaanites were to the Israelites.) The one sort (he tells him) were those, who would by no means forgo the Superstitions of Rome: the other sort he styles Cerebrosi and Phrenetici, Brain-sick Phreneticks, who, under a pretence of Gospel-Liberty, endeavoured the introducing 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all Disorder and Confusion into the Church; wherein (to use his own words, though something harsh) excitantur à Satana nominatim, they are prompted by the Devil himself, that the World may take offence at the best Religion, as the Fomenter of Rebellion in the State, and Confusion in the Church. This is his Censure: and as severe is his Direction; (but it's Calvin's) Merentur quidem tum hi tum illi Gladio ultore coërceri, Both these sorts of Seditious persons deserve to be restrained by the Sword which God hath put into thy Hand. And Beza's Opinion is the same also in these matters:Beza Epist. 24. ad Peregrinarum in Anglia Ecclesiarum Fratres. What Laws the Magistrate makes in things indifferent, for the sake of Order and Decency in the Church, they are to be observed of all Godly men; and they so far bind the Conscience, that no Knowing and Understanding man can, without Sin, either doe what is forbidden, or omit what is commanded.

And after the Copy of these great Men, did the Presbyterians of the late Times write; The bare Injunctions of Parliament were held Canonical in these Matters when time was. They are the words of a known Tractate Licensed by Mr. Downham; No man that is endowed with right Reason, but will acknowledge there is a Necessity of a Government. If of a Government, then, of Vniformity; else it will be confused. Therefore there is a Necessity of suppressing all Conventicles, and that all men should observe such Order, Time, and Place, and publick Gesture, as the Parliament, by the Advice of the Assembly, shall appoint, And no man that hath any use of Conscience in any thing, but must acknowledge that he is to obey the Laws of the Land in which he lives in all indifferent Things, or else he is Turbulent and deserves Censure, even for matters concerning Worship.

Thus far that Authour, who was not alone in the opinion, in the late Times, that the Supreme Power may give Command in these things. Whence it appears, That they who could not endure the Constitutions of their Superiours in these Matters, could (when they became Superiours themselves) call for Constitutions agreeable to their own Minds in the same Matters: and consequently, (as Mr. Ienkins expresseth it in a Sermon before one of the Vsurper's Parliaments) That the reason why men cry out against Government, is not, because they would have no Government;Policy of Princes, pa. 37. but, because they would have it in themselves; or they desire to burn the Rod, that they may play the Wantons the more freely.

Now if the Magistrate hath power to command in these things, it is our Duty to observe their Commands: and the common Objections many make to excuse themselves, can have no weight in them. And here it may not be amiss to take notice of two Objections against this Obedience.

1. It is objected, That Obedience in these things hath ever given Offence; and therefore we are at liberty, and freed, by the Example of S. Paul, to obey, or not to obey, who in 1 Cor. 8. 13. tells us, If meat make my Brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my Brother to offend. This is much insisted on; but very weakly, if the Magistrate have power to command, and if it be our Duty to obey. For thus there is a great deal of difference between the Apostle's eating Meats sacrificed to Idols, and our obeying our Superiours in these things. The Apostle by eating might offend some of the weaker sort; but by not eating he could offend none. Now this holds not in our observing the Commands of our Superiours. By observing of them we may indeed offend some weaker ones, (who could never yet tell us what would please them;) but it cannot be said, that by the not observing of them we shall offend none: for our Obedience being thus grounded, we thereby give just Offence to the greater sort of men, and the more considerable, to the King and his Council, by whom these Injunctions have been established: and so in being pleasers of some men, we shall be found the Enemies of Christ, in whose name we are commanded this Submission; and in the conclusion we shall really offend our Brother, by not obeying our Governours, so as the Apostle was resolved he never would. For thus we become a Stumbling-block to him, the thing the Apostle cautions against by his own Example, Verse 9. of that Chapter; we shall endanger the emboldening of him by our Example, (as the Apostle's words are;) we shall encrease his Dislike of his Duty, and confirm him in his Disobedience. And this is Vrsin's Opinion,Ursin. loc. Theol. in 3. praecept. Scandalum datum est, in rebus adiaphoris Errores in animis infirmorum confirmare. To adde Confirmation to erroneous Opinions in the Minds of the weak about indifferent things, is giving Offence.

2. Again, it is objected, We must not doe the things we doubt of; so that we are discharged and excused, while we doubt of the Lawfulness of our Obedience.

Now, here two things would be considered. First, whether the Doubting that in these days is alledged, is not pretended onely. Secondly, whether Doubting here is any Discharge or no.

1. It would be considered, whether the Doubting that is now alledged, is not onely pretended; and the rather, because Beza himself suspected it,Beza Epist. 8. ad D. Edm. Grindallum Episc. Lond. when he writ to Bishop Grindall, then Bishop of London, in the Year 1566. Having a little before told the Bishop, that it was very much his Judgment, that the Rites necessary for the sake of Order and Decency ought to be retained; he farther tells him, that Infirmity at that time must needs be pretended onely, when the Gospel had then for so many years been preached and received, and confirmed by the Bloud of so many excellent Martyrs. But to lay down some Rules, whereby we may give some Judgment in the thing, whether the Doubting men alledge, to excuse themselves, be sincere or no.

First, The words of Beza offer one Rule to us, and question the sincerity of those Doubtings, where men have had sufficient opportunity of being fully instructed in the things they doubt about. He thought Eleven years a fair time: and what may we think of Ten times as many more years, that have passed since those illustrious Martyrs (as he duly styles them) confirmed what they preached, and the Orders they legally obtained in these things, with their Bloud? At the time the Gospel was first divulged by the Apostles, untill such time as the Iews might be satisfied concerning the Liberty of Christians from the Rites of the Law of Moses, with consideration to their Weakness, the Apostles did not presently use their Liberty: but S. Paul circumciseth Timothy; and, by the advice of the Apostles, Acts 21. 23, 24. he went into the Temple, to purifie himself according to the Law of Moses. But when sufficient Means and Opportunity was once enjoyed, they doe no such thing; but Saint Paul withstood Saint Peter to the face for doing it, Gal. 2. 11. And we do not reade that Saint Peter did justifie to Saint Paul's face his fear of the Use of his Liberty.

Secondly, Men may, if they will, examine themselves in the Sincerity of their Doubtings, by the care and pains they have used (according to the time they have had for it) to get their Doubtings resolved: which thing, if their Doubtings be sincere, they will force them to; and if they do not, there is not one dram of Sincerity and real Tenderness belonging to them. For Doubting, and forbearing Obedience here, is a kind of Murmuring against our Superiours, as if they commanded us that whereby we might sin in obeying them. And will any sincere honest man think so evil of his Governours, and their Predecessours, without enquiring what cause he hath for it? especially when he shall consider, that the greatest gain his Governours can have by his Obedience, is the Peace of the whole Society, in whose common Welfare the Loyal Subject shall have his equal Share with the Magistrate who commands.

Thirdly, Whereas they pretend they are full of Doubting in yielding Obedience to these Commands, to assure themselves they are sincere, they may examine themselves by this Rule, which is truly taken from the nature of Doubting, By considering what the thought, and care, and fear is, they have had about refusing Obedience. For, Doubting onely on the one side, is no real Doubting: For in such Doubting the Mind is in bivio, uncertain, and in suspence, and questions the one side as well as the other, not knowing which to take; but fears sinning by Obeying, and fears sinning by not Obeying. So that if men onely doubt Obedience to their Superiours Commands in these things, and never doubt on the other side, their Doubting is onely Pretence; they are determined, fixed, and set, say what they will; their Doubtings are onely Prejudices, taken up on trust from their partial Guides, who, for gainfull Ends, may cherish them in their Doubtings; their Craft by which they live being in danger to be set at nought, should their Proselytes once be cured of their Doubtings. And were they not blinded by their Prejudices, in stead of Doubting, where they pretend they do, they would have a suspicious Eye on the other side rather, where private Interest is the Directour.

But, 2. It would be considered, whether, if men do really doubt, their Doubting is an Excuse for their Disobedience.

Now as to this, We may conclude, from the nature of Doubting, that it doeth no such thing. For of Doubting, here it must be granted, that the summe of it is this, I may probably sin in this Submission: (probably, I say; for Certainty it cannot be, and Doubting too.) Now Submission being stated and agreed, as I have shewn you, to be the Magistrate's Due, and our Duty, bare Doubting cannot discharge us from it: a Probability of sinning cannot discharge a man from obeying a plain Precept. A thing indeed meerly arbitrary and in my power, (as to recreate my self with any lawfull Game,) if I doubt about it, or offend others with it, I must forbear; there is onely the crossing of my own Fancy and Will therein, of which no evil can come: But in things commanded, and so taken out of my power by the intervening Command of Man, and by the Command of God that backs that, requiring our Obedience for his sake, my Doubting, or the Offence others may take, is no Excuse here; for, thus we should oppose Liberty to Necessity, Charity to Duty, the bare fear of offending the weak, to the certain offence of the higher Powers; nay, we should doe more for Man's sake, then for the Lord's.

Now to come to a Conclusion. A Duty thus grounded, and against which so little is to be objected, ought chearfully to be observed by us: And being proposed, as it is, for a thing whereby we shall credit our Religion, those words of the Apostle, Philip. 4. 8. Whatsoever things are of good Report, if there be any Vertue, if there be any Praise, suffice to persuade us to it. Let who will expect, by their Scruples about this Duty, and their Shiness of it, to gain the name of men of stricter Sanctity, and men of Conscience; let us seek the Honour that cometh of God onely, and doe the Honour we can to our Religion, onely in the way that God in his Word directs us.

It is descending to lower Motives, to mention the Honour we ought to have to the Memories of the Religious Governours of our Church, who were the worthy Instruments in our Reformation. But I am unwilling to pass it by, because they who at this day are the greatest Sticklers against the Subjection I have been speaking of, do all pretend to have a great Veneration for them.

Now, how was it our Saviour advised the Iews to shew the Honour they had for Abraham and Moses, but in the approving of their Works and Sayings? Well, the things our Submission is required in, are their Works, and such, as we may confidently affirm this of them, that they were not devised nor enacted rashly, but upon good Deliberation, and out of pure Design to settle us in Unity. Nor were they ushered in by Rebellion, as were the Covenant and the Directory: and they had the Approbation of all the Reformed Churches then in being. Calvin did pass upon them his Valde probo. And if we may expound one Epistle of his by another, what he calls tolerabiles Ineptias, in his Epistle to the dissenting Exiles at Frankford, without mentioning what they were, are the things that in his larger Epistle to the Duke of Somerset he finds fault with particularly, and they are, Prayers for the Dead, Exorcisms, the use of Chrism in Baptism, and Extream Unction; which since the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth have been left out of all our Common-Prayer-Books. I say, the Injunctions of our first Reformers were not mutinous, nor the Product of hasty inconsiderate Zeal; but enacted as soberly and as regularly as could be imagined, and with good Design to settle us in Unity and Peace, which then was, and at this day can be our onely Countermine under Heaven, against all the Plots and Policies of them who (ever since the time our Princes have rightfully enfranchised themselves from the Usurpations of the Court and See of Rome) have sought our Ruine by all Arts and Methods, but chiefly by Dividing of us.

Again, we ought not to forget what the Apostle minds us of in the following Verses, the Honour we are owing our present Governours: and wherein do we so shew it, as in submitting in this manner to their Ordinances?

And here it would be considered, that as at first these Injunctions were wisely established, and with good Design for the securing of the Peace of the Church and State; so, they have not been re-inforced since His MAJESTIE's happy Return, but upon the experience of an Inundation of Misery and Confusion, wherewith we were overflowed through the pulling down of the Wall these Laws were to us. In the pulling down whereof, they who had the next hand in it to the Iesuits, the Presbyterians, were soon made sensible of the Oversight they had committed. I am apt to believe, they never repented them of it. For Mr. Love, upon the Scaffold, justified what he had done that way. And Mr. Ienkins, some years after, in the Sermon before mentioned, praised God for it in these words,Policy of Princes, pa. 33. Praised be that God who hath delivered us from the Imposition of Prelatical Innovations, Altar-Genu-flexions, and Cringings, with Crossings, and all that Popish Trash and Trumpery. And truly, (I speak no more then I have often thought and said) The removal of those insupportable Burthens countervails for the Bloud and Treasure shed and spent in these late Distractions. (And the King's Bloud, and the King's and Churche's Revenue were part.) Nor did I as ever yet hear of any Godly men that desired it, were it possible, to purchase their Friends or Money again at so dear a rate, as with the return of these, to have those Soul-burthening Antichristian Yokes re-imposed upon us: and if any such there be, I am sure that desire is no part of their Godliness; and I profess my self in that to be none of the number. And Mr. Faircloth, in one of his Sermons before the Parliament upon the seventh Chapter of Iudges and the twenty fifth Verse, intercedes with the Parliament for the laying of the Wall down, even with the ground, in these words; Extirpate all Achans with Babylonish garments, Orders, Ceremonies, Gestures, let them be rooted out from among us: We, even all the godly Ministers of the Country, will be with you. But, though they repented them not of the pulling down of the old Wall, they were extreamly troubled they had not secured their own Inclosures from succeeding Tides; and great was their fear of farther Breaches, through Toleration, as their many solicitous Applications to the Powers then in being, to prevent them, do declare. Which because they carry in them an Acknowledgment of the Confusion they had brought these Kingdoms into, by laying wast the ancient Government in Church and State, I am fully assured, that it was not their opinion then, that Toleration would be the means to deliver us out of those Confusions. And it may not be amiss to remember them of some of them.Policy of Princes, pa. 33. Mr. Ienkins, in the Sermon before mentioned, having observed, that it was looked upon as a Blessing, that they were in Days that men might be as good as they pleased, (which had then been lately Dr. Iohn Owen's words in one of his Sermons) he intreats the Parliament in these words, I beseech you, as you love your own Souls, and as you dread the Anger of him, whose Anger if kindled but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him, let not men be suffered to be as wicked as they please. Verse 3. Page 117. And in his Commentary upon S. Iude, he thus contends with Magistrates: They who reign by God, should reign for him. How unreasonable is it, that people should be Lawless onely in Religion? Shall it not be indifferent whether men will pay a Tax, and shall it be indifferent whether they will ever hear a Sermon? And then he mentions Artaxerxes his Decree, Ezra 7. 26. as if he would have had it decreed after the manner of the Medes and Persians, that men should be confined to hear him and his Brethren, upon the penalty of Death, Banishment, Confiscation of Goods, and Imprisonment; for so runs that Decree. And lest they should boggle at these things, in any sense of their Obligation to Moderation, he thus cautions them as to this: Pag. 121. How soon learned is the Wisedom of shunning Troubles, of Self-preservation, and tame Silence, when Religion is endangered? (i.e. when Presbytery was in danger of being worsted by the After-Subdivisions) and how easily, but, alas! how falsely, is this called Moderation? And in his Sermon before mentioned he hath these words: Page 23. Because no Conscience can be touched, must all Practices be suffered? And Dr. Manton, at the same time, in his Comment upon the eleventh Verse of S. Iude, Page 402, and 403. warning Magistrates to be aware of the followers of Corah, (to use his own words) of Factious and Seditious persons, compared to Cain, as he observes well, because of their Cruelty, and to Balaam, because of their Covetousness; he assures the Magistrates, That the Danger of the latter Times would not be so probably from a second Deluge of Antichristians, as from Seditious Insurrections of Sectaries, who, though they seem to be meek and full of Love, while their Party is contemptible; yet when they grow considerable, they appear in their Colours. The Antichristian Party carrieth things by Power, and Worldly Greatness: but this Party is a creeping Party, that gets into Houses. This is the Party from whence I fear such Danger and Disturbance. And the same sense and fear of Toleration and Sectaries had the Ministers of the Province of London; witness their Subscription to a Book called, A Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ; and to our Solemn League and Covenant: in which Book, this is mentioned, among others, for one abominable Errour, viz. Page 22. That little can be done, unless Liberty of Conscience be allowed, for every man, and sort of men, to worship God in that way, and perform the Ordinances of Christ in that manner, as shall appear to them most agreeable to God's Word. And the Trouble they had, to think what other Reformed Churches would say of them, should this take place, they thus expressed: Is this England, which Covenanted to Extirpate Popery, Prelacy, Superstition, Schism, &c? and after so long Travail, hath she now brought forth an hideous Monster of Toleration?

In these, and many the like Expressions that might be alledged, we see that, how little soever it was the Presbyterians repented them of the first Breach they themselves had made, they were yet so sensible of the Confusion they had brought upon this Nation by it, that they were utterly against Toleration, as that which would certainly endanger more Breaches. But all their Applications to the Usurpers, and all their Endeavours this way, were no better, nor other, nor less vain, (till God, by restoring us our KING, built up the old Wall again for us) then theirs, who take no care to secure their Lands from an Inundation, till the Sea hath made a Breach into them. A Neighbourly Agreement before-hand, to put to all hands, where there was the greatest appearance of Danger, might have prevented the Mischief; but the Breach once made, he onely who sets Bounds to the Sea can help here. Well, this was our Condition, by Breach after Breach we were overflown with Confusion, in the words of the Psalmist, we were brought very low; and God helped us, when we were very hopeless of it from any other hand; and, in a manner even miraculous, he hath made up our Wall again for us, by giving us our Iudges as at the first, and our Counsellours as at the beginning.

Now, as Samuel exhorteth the Israelites, Let us fear the Lord our God, considering what great things he hath done for us; and let us honour the Authority by which he hath done it, and express it in the Honour we are ready to pay to all their Commands in the observing of them, and to their Commands in the things I have been speaking of in particular; and the rather, because we cannot be truly accounted any other then Despisers of Authority, if we oppose our selves here: for the things most of them are such, as it is very likely we should doe them of our own heads, were there no Appointments about them. What other are, Kneeling at Prayers, Kneeling at the Sacrament, and the having our Heads uncovered in the time of Divine Service and Sermon, and the like? For men to oppose themselves in such things, they will never satisfie any rational person, that they object and scruple and disobey upon a Consciencious Account; but out of an untoward Principle of Opposition rather, whereby some men are inclined to dislike some Circumstances in Religion, meerly upon the account of their Establishment by Authority: which surely is despising of Authority, and argues a very cross and sullen temper of Mind, and such as is not to be humoured; especially when we shall consider how great a matter a little Fire did here kindle. It is not long since these Kingdoms were all in a Flame, and here it was they took fire first, in these Chips, the Dissatisfactions of men about these Indifferent things; many persons very inconsiderately preferring a little Pleasing of themselves, a small portion of private Satisfaction, in being admired for persons of a Purer way, and having many Followers, before the publick Peace and Safety of the Church and State. Let the burnt Child dread the Fire. Take we warning henceforth, never to be so far wedded to our own private Persuasions, as not to consider, that where the publick Peace and Safety of the Church and Kingdom are concerned, it is most meet for us to strike Sail, and to give place, and above all things,Rom. 14. 19. to follow after the things which make for peace, as the Apostle counsels, even concerning these Indifferent things; for of them had he been discoursing; as the observing of Days, and the eating of Meats. In these things we are so to order our selves, as to endeavour the promoting of the publick Peace, by reasoning with our selves, about these things, in this manner, and behaving our selves accordingly: I am of this Opinion, but my Brother is of another; but by whose Opinion the publick Peace shall be best promoted, let that Opinion by all means have the place, and be yielded to. For what thing in this World is comparable to universal Peace and Accord amongst Christians, who have one God, one Faith, one Hope, one Baptism; so many Obligations to be at one amongst our selves? Next to Glory to God on high, in the estimation of the blessed Angels, comes Peace on Earth. The sweet Singer of Israel, as wanting words to express its Excellency, breaks out into this Admiration of it,Psal. 133.1. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is, for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity. Let those who have the like Esteem for it, follow the things that make for it, by submitting to the wholsome and innocent Constitutions that were devised purely for the conserving of it. Which that we may all of us doe, and so by our Peaceable Conversation put to silence such as speak evil of us, as of evil-doers, The God of Peace give us his Grace to enable us thereunto, for the Merits and sake of Iesus our Peace-maker, the Prince of Peace, to whom, with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost, be all Honour and Glory, Adoration and Thanksgiving, henceforth and for ever.