IT is the peculiar Excellency and Perfection of the Christian Re­ligion, beyond any other Institution that was ever set up in the World, that, what-ever corner of it we shall turn about, it does still show it self to be of a piece, to be throughly adapted for rendering Mankind compleatly happy, both as to this life, and as to that which is to come. For Peace and Felicity are but two diffe­rent words for the same thing; as might largely be demonstrated throughout all the several instances that relate to the divers Aspects of it under those two denominations: And our most holy Religion does not only secure to us the peace of our Consciences toward God, and the inward peace of those Powers and Faculties that are lodg­ed within our Beeings amongst themselves; but also that outward peace and tranquillity, whereby, as we are Members of Societies and Common-wealths, we are Cemented together, are Incorporated into one accomplished Body and Constitution. So that whoever frames himself according to the Genius of true Christianity, cannot but be at peace with his God, with Himself, and with all Men too; and so of necessity he must be entirely happy and blessed also.

This indeed is the great and noble design of our Reason. And what-ever that has suffered since the Fall, yet it has always preserved so much strength as was sufficient to pursue, in one degree or other, such an Universal Peace. And therefore, in order to that end, some kind of Religion has ever been retain'd in all Ages, and by all sorts of Men; as the only Mean immediatly Dictated by the Light of Nature to compass it. For the apprehension of some Supream Beeing never fail'd to possess their Minds, nor some secret pangs [Page 2] and horrour upon any vitious Neglect or Performance to cruciat and torment them; nor yet the jealousie of Privat Security in a Common-wealth, out of which none could live, to molest and dis­quiet them. And so they always found Religion to be the only way to appease their God, to calm and compose their Consciences, and to settle their Interest in the World. And upon that account the design of Reason and Religion has been still so much of a side, that, as God had blended these two together in the first Composi­tion of our Nature, so what-ever progress the one made, the other followed closs upon it. And hence also it has come to pass that no­thing was ever Adopted to be Religion, even by the wildest Sal­vages, which attempted to set loose the old Chaos upon the World, as if to recover its ancient Spoils; or to involve all Mankind into Discord and Bitterness, Wrath and Violence, both toward them­selves, and toward all other Beeings whatsoever. An Hobbesian state of Nature it may perhaps be dream'd to be. But as it acts the Giant against Heaven, and the mad Dog against it self; so it does the Wolf and the Tiger against its Fellows. And consequently the best Character it ever attain'd to, went no higher, than to be construed, as well as call'd, Impiety, Fury, and Cruelty. Such ingenuous and proper accounts of things has the very remotest, the very obscurest instinct of Religion, that is essentially interwoven with the Reasonable Minds of Men, obliged them, notwithstand­ing all their acquired fierceness, to entertain. Wherefore as inno­cent Nature shrinks even at the apprehension of all manner of un­godliness, insobriety, and unrighteousness; so no spurious or pretended Religion can be more convincingly upbraided as such, than when it is redargu'd of owning any such Principle or Tenet as in its consequence introduces any of these; or when it is hiss'd off the Stage for maintaining what at long run comes forcibly to contradict the most Vulgar Notion, that ever was imagin'd of Reli­gion by any of the Sons of Men.

Yet nevertheless it cannot be denyed but that such hath been the degeneracy and corruption, and such the odd mistakes and fond [Page 3] delusions of the most part of Mankind, that in stead of performing those suitable Duties which are incumbent from Religion, when they said, and it may be thought too, that they were going about them; They have made the very Name of Religion to truckle to the ugliest Profaneness and Vice, to the most infamous Barbarity and Wickedness; and have perverted it unto a Mask, to serve the turn of those Designs that thwarted most the signification of it, and cast the fulsomest Scandal even upon Humane Nature it could be reproached with. But no more can be gathered from this, but that there is no small inconsistency betwixt the Reason and Frailty of Mankind; and that things may be imployed in a Relative Sense, when they cannot in an Absolute one. For however much men may swerve from the Native Dictats and Suggestions of their own Souls, when they are to reduce them to practice, yet nothing can be more certain than that none ever promiscuously us'd, either the Titles, or the Conceptions, they had of Religion, with those they had of Sacriledge, Debauchery, or Murder, as both Religion and they are viewed in their Genuine Colours.

But as on the one hand, there has ever appear`d such a Dawn, and Sparkling Glimmerings of Religion among Men; So on the other, they have never been able so to come up to the most re­sin'd and sublimated Notion of it, but that they have bungled ex­treamly in their most elabourated Contrivances, and have sadly blurr'd over that Copy, they endeavoured to draw from so Di­vine an Original. Their nearest Resemblances were still Faint, and the liveliest, vividest Representations they could form, bore but rudly the Picture of the Beauty of Holiness. As their thoughts were narrow and cloudy; so their Religion was always puddled and impersit; it savoured more of the polluted Subject, than of the brightest Object of one; and at best, it was but the Dwarfe and Abridgement of their own Aims. Their Fears prompted them to snatch hold of the first Crocodile they could get by the Tail, to be the Divinity, which they should adore, Their Shame chiefly restrain'd them from those outward Enormities, which rais'd Ver­milion, [Page 4] and the Blush in a Modest Face; And it was mostly their In­terest, that mounded them within certain confines they saw were not to be transgressed without engaging a Pother about their ears. And thus all the while their Devotion was really, but the result of an Adventure; their Vertue the limits of a moderat Extravagance; and their Humanity and Alledgance the Police of Craft and Suttle­ness. And even as to all this they had no solid ty upon them, no sufficient Basis upon which to setle their Model: Nothing was want­ing to make them over-leap all the bounds of their Religion, but only such convenient occasions, as the Secret Benfil of their Ap­petit, was constantly springing out after.

It is true, the Jews had a Religion, which, having proceeded from the Almighty himself, could not but have many such Polish­ed Strokes in it, as did abundantly attest by whose Finger it was fashioned. But as they were a rugged and peevish People, so there was a certain exigence, that their Dispensation should be cal­culated, and proportion'd to the grain of their Temper. And therefore, as their Worship of the Deity was heavily loaded with a croud of carnal Observances, and as the Defilement that had crept over their hearts, was much to be purged away by bodily ablutions; so their Kindness to all the World: besides those of their own Nation, was shrivelled up into a very little Sphere; and the Obedience they were to pay to their Governours (as that Word is to be taken in the General, for all those under whose Yoke they should happen to fall) was but built on Wrath, on that dastardly awe which the dread of Temporal Punishment compels unto; they having no special Obligation upon their Consciences from any Law, that particulary related to that Duty.

Wherefore it was by the Divine Providence reserved to our Blessed Saviour, to bring from Heaven with him, the exactest Form that could best qualifie Mankind for that Fellowship with God, with the Holy Angels, and among themselves, which is to make up the Glory of that Place. And the fulness of time, at which he took upon him the form of a Servant, was little less so upon the ac­count [Page 5] of our need of a Preacher of Righteousness, than of a Redeemer to be crucified for our sins. Then were we instructed to worship God in Spirit and in Truth, to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, to follow peace with all men, and to be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake.

I had not insisted so long upon that eminent advantage our Re­ligion carries over any other, either Profession, or Religion, that ever went before it; nor had so fully run the parallel betwixt those two Branches of it, that relate to our God, and our Selves, and That which concerns our Neighbours, and our being Subject to a Su­pream Power; but that thence I have laid much of the Founda­tion of what I intend by this Discourse. And certainly such a Sub­jection as is the Drift of this, and all other Texts in the New Test­ament to this purpose, cannot but be highly endear'd to us Chri­stians, by its being so very peculiar to that Holy Faith upon which we rest all the Hope of our Immortal Souls, as to have kept an equal pace with all those Fundamental Excellencies of it, which rais'd it so far above, either the attempts of the greatest Philoso­phers, that shone most conspicuously in the Heathen World; or even those Sublimer Communications, that God himself conveyed to his chosen People, by the Administration of his grand Prophet Moses.

But now I come to speak more closely to the Theme of my Text. And therefore I shall, through the assistance of God, shew

• First, That the Christian Religion does, not only engadge us to be subject unto Soveraign Authority, but also enforce it by the most prevalent Motives, that can work upon the Minds of Rational Men.
• Secondly, That those Motives by which it recommends such a Sub­jection unto us, do fix the most immoveable Hinges, upon which any Government can sureliest turn.
• Thirdly, What the Nature and Extent of that Subjection is.
• Fourthly, What are those Errours which stand in the directest op­position to the design of our Saviour, and his Apostles in their enjoyning of it.
• [Page 6]And Lastly, I shall apply all to the occasion of this Day.

To begin then with the first; Were there no more in all the New Testament but this Text, and the four foregoing, with the two subsequent Verses, to devolve the obligation of this Subjection upon all Christians; none of them would ever find a shift whereby to divert it, unless they should furnish themselves at the same time with such a store of Evasions and Subterfuges as might quite baffle and evacuate the entire scope of the whole Book. For what can be more pat and express for any thing, than is here the Apostles command for this Duty? Not only does he directly condescend upon the Matter it self, be subject to the higher Powers; Not only does he spread the Bond of it over the whole Race of Mankind in whatever condition or circumstances, let every soul be subject; Not only does he back his Command with the most irrefragable Arguments, 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; Not only does he declare the end for which these Powers were appointed by God, and consequently press home the Reason why we should be subject to them, for they are the Mi­nisters of God to us for good; and bear not the Sword in vain, but as revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil; Not only does he thence infer the Title that these Powers have to our Subjection e­ven upon the point of the strictest Justice, Render therefore to them their dues, for they are Gods Ministers, attending continually upon this very thing; Not only does he animate all with the most cogent Peswasives, they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation, wherefore he subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake; But does also in the most peremptory terms show from all this the absolute and indispensible necessity of being subject, wherefore ye must needs be subject. So that we shall hardly find any other Precept in all the Christian Law, either more particularly determined, or more ear­nestly impos'd, than this of being subject to the Higher Powers.

But that God, who attests all his Works towards Mankind e­ven [Page 7] with a Cloud of Witnesses, has by his Providence ordered that to the Apostle of the Gentiles, that of the Jews should be joyned in laying on this Duty of Subjection. And he has no less punctu­ally set it forth in his first Epistle and second Chapter, and 13, 14, 15, and 16 Verses, Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake; whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governours, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well; For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. These words of St. Peter are so very plain that scarcely any Comment upon them could make them more so.

There could have been but one step more; namely the imme­diate Confirmation of our Lord Jesus Christ himself; which in all matters depending so much upon his Authority, as this does, gives the last touch and finishing to them. And this too we have so ful­ly, that He, not only made a peculiar Response on the Head; but al­so, which was a signal Accession, set all his Followers an Exam­ple, as much fraughted with his Doctrine, as this was with his Di­vinity. The Rise then he got to the first, was when the Hero­dians upon a very insidious design asked him, St. Mark chap. 12. ver. 14. Is it lawful to give tribute to Cesar, or not? shall we give, or shall we not give? And for answer; He first calls for a peice of their Money, that by their acknowledging, from the Image and Superscription it carried, that the Original was their Cesar, their Soveraign, he might out of their own Mouths establish their being Subjects unto him: and then he tells them they should render to Cesar the things that are Cesars, and to God the things that are Gods; as if he had said, whatever belongs of right to your Prince by the Laws of his Dominion over you, be sure to detain nothing of it from him; and therefore if upon this respect you owe him any Tribute, forbear not to pay it to the last Farthing. So that our Saviour propos'd to them the general Principle of Subjection accor­ding to his Gospel; and left no more to them to do, but only to [Page 8] subsume and infer in a Case that admitted of no doubt or scruple. But it is further observable, that he subjoyns these words, and to God the things that are Gods; as to let them understand that no obe­dience to their Cesar ought to entrench upon that which God exacts of them; So to state the Comparison betwixt the Obligation from his Doctrine to perform their bounden Duty to Cesar, and that from Religion in the general to be subject unto the Rights God has over his Creatures. For the whole complext of the Sentence im­ports, that they were no less conscienciously to acquit themselves in all respective points to the Former, than they were to the Latter: since such an immediat Position of any like two Clauses together, naturally suggests, a mutual reference of Analogy from each other, where the Matter can bear it.

And what he taught, he examplified in an instance so very deci­sive, that if any thing of that nature can be allowed to Preach, it cannot be denyed a most eminent share of that. And this was when he himself payed the Tribute-money, lest he should have offended the Governours that were then in the Land, Matth. chap. 17. vers. 27. He reasoned the Case with St. Peter about the priviledge and ex­emption of the free-born Subjects; Strangers being then only obno­xious to that Taxation. And tho none could have a better title upon which to plead his liberty from it, than he had; yet He rather choos'd even by a Miracle to satisfie the utmost exaction that was impos'd upon him, than to give any ground for jealousie unto the Govern­ment under which he was living, as if he had in any manner of way seem'd to have call'd the Power of it in question. But whoever shall consider the whole Series of his Conversation among men, will find the most perfect Patern of Submission to the higher Powers, that the very nicest fancy could imagine to it self: So that these must not at all be acquaint with the mere History of his Life and Death, who are yet to learn any thing in that point. And, as he came to fulfil the Law, by undergoing all the external Purifications of it, tho he had no Sin; So, tho he had all Power in Heaven and in Earth given to him, yet he never stepped but one Hairs-breadth be­yond [Page 9] the borders of that private Station, as a Subject, he had re­stricted himself unto: not medling so far with any thing that look­ed like Civil Authority, as even to umpire a small Contest be­twixt two Brothers, Luke 12. ver. 13, 14.

Thus we see, both how very positive the New Testament is in binding this Subjection upon us, as well by Precept, as by Example; and also that to all the Obligations to it, either from the Law of Na­ture, or the Policy of an established Common-wealth, the Chri­stian Religion superadds that of Conscience, and of obeying for the Lords sake. I might bring down the Argument to the Lives of the Apostles, and to the Doctrine and Practice of the first and purest Lights of the Christian Church throughout those Centuries, where­in our Holy Faith flourish'd in its greatest glory and perfection. But that were to launch out into an Ocean too vast for a Volum, and much more for a Sermon. And besides, if what I have al­ledged already be not sufficient to convince any Mind, that is not hardned into Marble by its Obstinacy, and then not I, but the Grace of God, must deal with it; I know not what else I could say, would do that. I have purposely forborn to take notice of those ex­centrical Debates to my Subject, that are eagerly bandied by some, as naturally arising from those Texts I have cited: Since my pre­sent business calls for no more, but only to clear the Point I have in hand from express and uncontrovertible Scripture. Neither have I taken to Task any of these exceptions that men of several Per­swasions offer to those Quotations; because it cannot yet appear whether or not they meet with that Sense and Meaning of these, which I am perswaded is the only true one; and because too it were an endless labour to answer all the vain Quirks and Whimsies that Prejudice thrusts into an easie Brain. Wherefore I go on to the second thing propos'd;

That the Obligation from Conscience to be subject to the Su­pream Authority, layes the surest foundation that can be for sup­porting the whole weight of Government from crumbling down in­to pieces. It is the very Rock upon which the House is built; where­as [Page 10] all other engagments are but the rolling Sand, which every Wind of Tumult, and every Floud of Rebellion, drives from under the tottering Fabrick that leans upon it. The Law of Nature indeed were fully sufficient to consolidat the whole Structure; were it now capable to exert that entire vigour which is originally entwisted with its very beeing. For that Law is sober and unbyass'd Reason, sug­gesting all requisite Means toward our Preservation and Felicity: And all Governments owe their first rise, to such an end; & are only yielded unto, as the most universal way to obtain it. And so where­ever the unadulterated Principles of pure Reason were exactly ob­served, there would be no possibility there for any such Invasions upon the Government, as would in the event come to subvert it. Because every individual Member of it acting rationally, and there­fore conform to the Genuine Designs of his own Interest, all would unanimously conspire in promoting what all were equally concer­ned in. But however much these plausible Schemes may tickle and please the Fancy, when they are only considered by a Speculative Mind; yet they are no sooner applyed to the Matter of Fact of all the present Governments in the World, than they vanish into meer Plat-forms for an Ʋtopian Common-wealth. Then they are found too Thin and Aerial to underprop so huge a Load as is the whole bulk of a Government. And we may think as soon to rear a Castle upon our Summers Breath, as to put the stress of Government upon the Reason and Ingenuity of Mankind in that deprav'd estate it now wallows in. I told you before how much the Reason of Man is dimm'd and weakned since Sin got the Ascendant over it; and how little competent Forces it is endowed with for atchieving so great an Affair, as is the settling the unalterable Poles of Govern­ment. And I presume I need not tell you too, how much the whole Herd of boisterous and unruly Passions grazes upon his Soul, and al­most devours all the remaining Sprouts of Reason in it, that still are growing up, tho leasurly, in spight of every Tusk that would grubb it out, and every Hoove that would trample it under. What haugh­ty and aspiring Ambition puffs up the lofty Imaginations of some [Page 11] People so, as nothing can put a stop to their climbing Designs, till either a Crown, or a Halter do it? What sour Malice, What cankering Envy, Levell'd, either at a Disappointment from the Throne, or the swoll'n Courtship of a happy Competitor, so em­bitters the Gall of others, that nothing can allay its Venom, but the Swilling up the sweet, because satiating Blood of those from whom such an offence took its Birth? What unbounded Avarice and Co­vetousness so Widens the desires of others, as nothing can tollerably fill them, unless it be the whole Revenue of a Kingdom, and the expectation of what can be squeezed from the Subjects to Boot? And what Medling and Pragmatical Humor so busies the Vani­ty of others, that their Volatile and Mercurial Disposition can never be fixed till it be tempered with the Gold of the Diadem, or the Lead upon the Block? Would to God this day had never prov'd the fatal Demonstration how sadly such unweildy Passions can triumph and vapour it over all the Rational Powers of Mankind! But I am not to forestall the allotted part of my Discourse to this. Only how feeble were the Sinews of that Government, which deriv'd all their strength from such a defeated, such a baffled, such an emasculated Reason?

And as these fiercest Passions do thus transport the Olivers, the huge Leviathans that swallow up the Soveraign Power: So do they furiously set a-work these Underling Scramblers, whose only Game it is to Angle in troubled Waters; Whose condition is already so low, that any Revolution may happen to improve it, but which none can render worse; Or whose Piques and Animosities against their Neighbours are so inveterate, and yet so cowardly, that, as it is only in a Confusion they dare give the Stab, so they never fail to thrust it home when they can have That; Or yet whose Itch and Affectation of being men of Intrigue and business makes unces­santly to gape after Changes and Novelties, that may afford Im­ployment enough to their restless, their impatient Fingers. Now when the Mobile, when the unthinking Multitude, is either put on the Wheels, and set a-going by those more designing States-men, [Page 12] who take advantage of its Temper, to bring about their own Turn; or else when it breaks out of its own accord into Sedition or Rebel­lion, and involves all a-round into almost unquenchable Combusti­ons: Then must the Government, not be disturbed, not shaken, nor endangered, but wholly un-hing'd and overturn'd; Unless that God who calms the roaring Billows of the raging Sea shall lend his Omnipotence to rescue the sinking State. And thus Reason is al­ways at such a loss in all kinds of men, that a Supream Power that would lean upon it, would find it that bruised Egyptian Reed, which at once disappoints, and wounds too.

Shall we then think that the terror of Civil Sanctions can do the Feat? 'Tis true indeed that few considerations seldom constrain our obedience more, than those apprehensions and fears which the grim Aspect of Death, of Poverty, or of Infamy, shoots into us: As also, we are not much wont to be allured unto our Duty by any Bait so forcibly, as by the Prospects of Honour and Riches. And so, the Supream Governours having all these, as well on the one side, as on the other, much at their Disposal; they may be pro­bably enough concluded to have such a hank upon our hands, as will sufficiently keep us within a full subjection to them. And the preference we daily give to the enjoyments of this World before our biggest hopes of all that Eternity can bestow upon us, does not a little confirm it. But yet, as you have freshly heard, the Passions of Men are violent and head-strong; and like some Rapid Torrent, can overflow all Banks, and impetuously bear down all the Ob­stacles, even of Danger, or of Interest, they shall find in their way; but especially when Both is but at the Venture, and This at a certain Remove has a more promising countenance than their pre­sent Possession makes a shew of. There are besides so many strange Vicissitudes and Alterations incident to Humane Affairs, as frequent­ly afford occasion to those who are lying in wait for it, to set their fore-thought Conspiracies a-work, and to burst out into all the In­solence that is needful for, first disturbing, and then overturning, those who are above them. Now the secret Thoughts, and un­der-hand [Page 13] Clubbings and Caballings of Men, are not immediatly ex­pos'd to the Lash of the Law; and all the Insurrections in any Na­tion spring from Plots and private Intrigues. Wherefore, as there will ever be those whose Passions will instigate to mischief, and whom favourable Conjunctures will invite to it; So that Govern­ment can never be sufficiently provided for, which has not Shakles upon the very Minds of Mankind, as well as upon their Hands, and Locks no less to the Doors of their Retirements, than to those of their Prisons. And therefore unless a Civil Constitution could reach further than the Publick and notour actions of Men, it must be acknowledged to come vastly short of what we are seeking. Add to all this, that every villany, every stroak at the Government, would be no less lawful, than it was prosperous. And so nothing could Cajole and Flatter to the hope of Success, but what would proportionably encourage the blackest designs and undertakings.

Wherefore without Conscience all must depend upon a meer May-be, and good luck. But that once concurring with the Law of Nature, and that of the Government, the Hell it self within us must break forth, and its Furies carry along its Confusions with them, before ever the Soveraign Power can be shaken, and far less trip'd up. For Conscience makes us content in every Condition, and not to be still at Grasping more than is convenient for that Station Providence has assigned us. It ingadges us to put off all manner of Wrath, Anger, and Malice, to forbear one another, and to forgive our very Enemies, to do good for evil; And so Transforms us from the Vulture to the Dove, sets our over-boiling and fermented Blood into an orderly Motion, and Suppresses all those Storms within us, that are so apt to bluster out in Tempest & Thunder towards others. It teaches us not to care for the morrow, and to take no thought what we shall eat, drink or put on; and thereby contracts those desires which push us on to the most irregular Methods for satisfying them. And it confines us to our own business at home, that we be not Bussie-bodies, or medale in other mens affairs; And therefore checks all those first inclinations to vanity, that turn us out a ram­bling, [Page 14] and let us seldom return, till we have gone about some ha­zardous Exploit or other. And thus it prevents the earliest be­ginnings of those Passions, that are wont to shock Common­wealths; and upon that account, it gives more security to These▪ than any after Remedies can well be suppos'd to do.

But it is also Conscience that penetrats into the very inmost cor­ners and recesses of our hearts; that not only Prescribeth to, but also over-awes all our thoughts, and most obscure Actions. And there­fore it straitens us so, that we must, either manage our selves ac­cording to the Rules set to us by our Religion, and so according to the Eternal Measures of Justice and Righteousness; or else de­sie God Almighty, and all the Devils in the Bottomless▪ pit too. And however many Men may dare to out brave the utmost Ven­geance that can threaten their Bodies from the torturing Instruments of an Executioner; Yet few are to be found of such a Sanguine Tem­er, but that the fearful expectation of Judgement from Heaven upon their Souls, will Damp and Appal them, will make their honest Blood to shiver, & shatter all their Bones upon one another; provided their carreer be not so very Furious, as not to allow them one moment for a Serious and Sedate Reflection. Now the great business of all Supream Power, is to procure Obedience and Submission; and the great Springs upon which that moves, are Hope and Fear: And consequently that will always prove most effectual to all the De­signs of Government, which proposeth the most transcendent Re­wards, and Punishments; and which extends those most to all the Capacities we possess, as to all the Faculties by which we can ei­ther Merit, or become Guilty. And so when Conscience obliges to no more, but a short, and yet peaceable and quiet life, in all godli­ness and honesty, under those whom Providence has plac'd over us; and when it ensures a Crown of Glory afterwards, for an orderly Subjection here, and a Lake of Fire and Brimstone in the World to come, for having embroil'd and confounded the Affairs of this; when, I say, Conscience does so, what can be more proper to answer the end of Government, than it is? In a word, by Conscience our [Page 15] Alledgance is equally secured to our Soveraign, and to our God; and we cannot Rebel against the Powers on Earth, but we must Flie in the Face of Those in Heaven also. Our Souls are the Pawn of our Subjection; and we cannot incroach upon This, but we must forefeit That, with all the Felicity we can ever lay claim to, when this World, and all the Glory of it, has drawn its Skreen upon us. And beyond this, the Wit of Man cannot in­vent any more pressing, and inviolable [...]ty. But as Conscience does thus restrain us from all Assaults upon the Soveraign: So when one has fortun'd to prevail over him, to Justle him out of his Rightful Possession, and to usurp all the Power himself; even then Conscience will attack him. It will force the Scepter from that hand, that has unjustly snatcht hold of it, that it may be return­ed to the true Owner. At least it will convert that Scepter unto a Mace of Iron, to break his Sleep who violently retains it, to powder his pleasantest Dreams, and to crush his quiet in pieces. And this was the Fate of that horrid Usurper Oliver Cromwel, after he had Seized the Inheritance of the Royal Martyr of this day. For it was observed by all about him, especially that year before his death, what Quackings and Convulsions he suffered in his Consci­ence, and under what dreadful terrours he laboured; doubling and re-doubling his Guards, as if he had felt himself under Cains fears, that every one that should find him, would kill him. And such Palpable Indications there were, that the Worm that never dies, had already begun to gnaw upon his soul, to torment him before hand; That our most extended Charity toward him, will allow him no milder thoughts, than that his Resigning the Power he had Sacrilegiously made himself Master of on Earth, was at once to leave it for him to whom it did justly belong, and to undergo the Slavery of another Region, more suiteable to his Crimes, and to his Genius too: This, I say, we must con­clude of him; unless that Mercy, which is infinite, did vouchsafe such a Wretch Repentance, like that of the Theif upon the Cross, to prove a second evidence what Mercy can do, and how [Page 16] Hell when it gapes widest can be frustrated. And hence Consci­ence stricks as much against all the flattering hope of Success, and even Success it self; as against any of those unlawful Passions, which either prompt, or carry foreward the Attempts of Rebelli­ous Subjects upon their Soveraign. And so it secures the Govern­ment on all hands; because it universally reaches everything that may execute a Design against it, or even may keep it under, when it has unfortunatly come to be so.

Wherefore it was the Policy, tho not the Religion, of Numa Pompilius, that made him lay the first Stones of his Empire upon the belief of the Gods. And Matchiavell himself could invent no more suitable Maxime for the security of his Prince, than Si vis de­cipere Plebem, finge Deum. And upon this accompt it was that Maxi­milian the first, was once of the design to have added the Papal Miter to the Imperial Diadem. Therefore also did Mahomet ren­der it Sacriledge to attempt the Throne, and entail his Paradise upon those who should enslave themselves to it. And hence it is, that the stoutest calumny that was ever fixt upon Conscience by those that had gone farthest into Athiesm itself, never mounted higher, than that it was but a certain Tool and Wheedle for advancing the Interest of the State; all kinds of Men, however familiar they made them­selves with Conscience, being still conscious of it's Subserviency to the Common-wealth.

But here it must be observed, that what I have said of Consci­ence in the general, must be understood of such a one, as is only founded upon a true Religion. I deny not that a blind and false Zeal may produce the same Effects for a while, which the most well grounded Conviction can do. Yet, if the Bottom be weak, the Superstructure cannot be strong. And a false Religion is so far from being a sufficient security for any Government, that it is the only wonder why it does not always redound to the greatest pre­judice to it, that it can suffer. For nothing bolsters up any Reli­gion that is not true, but, either Ignorance, or Passion. But the first step from being deceived in any thing, is to learn that we were [Page 17] so: and we can no sooner do this, than we must reject and cast off that. Passion also is but the sudden Flash of an unsteady Mind, and is as lyable to vary, as the Wind is to vere about from all Quarters▪ And so that Religion which goes no deeper than these two, may indeed chance to continue a long time; but if it do so, it is only by Chance that it does it. And therefore all Governours whose Subjects were in a wrong Perswasion, had need in time to cast about for some other more permanent Basis upon which to build their Security, than the Consciences of their People in that estate could afford. And, unless upon the very first detection of the Error, the Truth shall also be discovered; and 'tis many an odds to one if it happens so; the having been cheated by a pretended Religion were enough to make all those Bonds it impos'd, as well as to the Magistrat, as to any other Being, be flung away▪ and not without a certain disdain and rage for having ever been so miserably gull'd and befool'd. But whatever a false Conscience can do, yet it can ne­ver be controverted but that a True one can do as much, and some­thing more too.

I might now from all this draw several Inferences, which tho a little out of my Road, might not be thought wholly impertinent▪ I shall only mention this one; That therefore it is the Interest of all Government to settle and establish the true Religion by the most sacred and inviolable Laws that possibly can prove effectual to such a purpose. And tho there were nothing of Interest in all this; yet by the very Rules of Justice and Gratitude no less could be retur­ned by any Government to that which tends so much to uphold and preserve it; unless it should not do, as it is done by. And this I leave to the Sense of all the World.

But now an Objection to what I have been saying, and which lyes heavily upon the Minds of many, offers it self in our way. And it is, That indeed this Draught about Conscience is very agreeable and taking; But yet nevertheless, when all the Con­stitutions in the World are impartially viewed, it appears that there happens as few, and as little strange Revolutions in those, [Page 18] who either have no Conscience at all, or at best but a very Er­ronious one, whereupon to settle their Foundations; as among us, who make the most Flourishing and Splendid Pretentions to the best Form of Religion, that ever went under that Title.

I must confess that our Christianity has been so ill abused by us, that instead of our being conformed by it, to the Image of its Bles­sed Author, the event has rather Metamorphos'd us to that hor­rible Shape, which ends in a cloven Foot. And thus, tho none have ever gloried more in any thing, than we have in our Pro­fession; yet were our Lives and Practises throughly Examined by any Stranger, they could not but be a shrewd Temptation to him to conclude, that all the glittering shew our Religion makes amongst us, serves only the most sinistrously to guild over as ill, if not worse Vices, as the very Heathens are blackened with. And no doubt it will the more Amazingly confound us one day, when we shall be so far from having those excuses, the Pagans will then have, to shroud ourselves from the Dregs of the Cup of Wrath and Indignation; nay when the Hills and Mountains will not cover nor shelter us from them.

But however, nothing follows upon all this, but that our Reli­gion, notwithstanding all its intrinsecal perfection, has not yet prevail'd over that stubborness of our Nature, which, not Religi­on, but Miracle, can only overcome. And of all the fallacious consequences imaginable, none can be more unworthy, than those by which the genius of Principles is inferr'd from that of Practice. Upon whom ever then the reproach lies, sure it is, the least Um­brage of it can never reach our Christianity. And this, as I have shown, is so fully accommodated to settle the Interest of Govern­ment upon the most unmoveable Foundations, that it fears not to be outvyed by any other Scheme the greatest of its Enemies can set in competition with it. And since the thing is sufficiently ac­complished for such an end, who knows how soon it shall please God, in his infinite mercy, to make it take effect upon our most Reluctant, most Obstinate Hearts and Temper. But I am not a [Page 19] little afraid, that the greatest of all our mischiefs, have took their Rise from the mistaken design of our Religion in some, and the perverse Interpretation of it in others. What if the Supream Powers should have ventured too far out upon the Confidence of that Doctrine about Subjection, which perhaps was scru'd up by some till it left Christianity to become a Complement? What if too many Subjects have so pared and minced their Subjection, as hardly to have retain'd the very Name of it; And even set up Religion itself, as the great Warrant to baffle the Speculation of it, and the no less ground of Quarrel to do so with the Practice of it too. Must true and undefiled Christianity be accountable for all this? Or shall Men be so disingenuous as to cropt the ears of some of their own kind, because an Ape has done some trick or other? shall they be-spatter Christianity, because the Mis-representations of it have occasioned such wrong Steps? But that Objection will best be unravelled by what I am further to say. And therefore I pro­ceed to the third Particular of my Design.

We have seen how peremptorily our Christian Religion obliges us to be Subject to the Higher Powers; and also how very much the Obligation from it is necessary to any solid being and subsist­ance of Government. It cannot then but nearly concern us rightly to know what the Nature of this Subjection is, and how it is just­ly to be limited, for answering the end for which it was ap­pointed.

But before I can enter upon this, I must first tell you, That our Blessed Lord, foreseeing what vast Confusions any Alterations in any of the Governments in the World would produce, did at­temperate his Religion, so to all of them, that none could have but reason to thank him for that Great Accession to all their for­mer Constitutions, which the Obligation from Conscience added; and as few could have pretence to blame him for any innovation he had introduc'd upon the Ancient Terms of Subjection, where­by each individual Form subsisted before. We all know that the matter of the Angelical Hymn at his Nativity was Peace on earth, [Page 20] and good will toward man. And this was so true, even in that sense which most obviously suites the present purpose, that, as I told you in this beginning of the Discourse, there never was any Insti­tution so throughly accommodated to the Peace of the World, as that Religion which he imparted to Mankind. But if he had taken upon him to change the External Forms and Polities of civil Governments, he had done a thing so far from establishing Peace on the Earth, that he had intentionally done what was to be but an accidental event of his coming▪ he had sent fire on the earth; had not given peace on earth, but rather division, had not sent peace, but a sword. For if the Christian Religion had invaded the Rights of the Supreme Powers, had curtail'd any of those Royalties that were inherent in their Crowns, by the Laws of Nature, as they were Soveraigns, or by Those of the Nations over which they rul­ed; Then it could not but have given such Scandal and Offence to all the Princes of the World, as had no less inevitably, than Literally, made them upon that very sence, accomplish that of the second Psalm, The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the Rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed; saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. Because, as all men are wont to the utmost of their Power to be tenacious of their Rights; so none have more reason to be so, than those who have them in the Title of Soveraignity. On the other hand, if Christianity had entrenched upon the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject, or had impos'd Slavery, where there was no more but Subjection, Then had it given so much preju­dice to, and rais'd such an excusable aversion in all those, whose Lot had been so good, as not to be sunk into the lowest conditi­on Mankind can be depress'd into, and yet so moderat, as to be invi­olably bound to aninferior Station, that Chains, and It had been equally inviting to them. Since there are such Charmes and Allure­ments in the very remissest degree of Liberty and Property, that no consideration can be able to dull or blunt them, but of that Necessity, which is only tollerable, because it cannot be resisted. [Page 21] Our Saviour therefore (as the excellent Doctor Sherlock sayes in his Case of Resistance, Pag. 46.) Left the Government of the World, as he found it: he has indeed given such admirable Laws, as will teach Prin­ces to govern, and Subjects to obey better; which is the most effectual way to secure the Publick Peace and Happiness, to prevent the Oppression of Subjects, and Rebellion against Princes: but he has not interposed in new Modelling the Governments of the World. And so he did no more but enforce that obedience to Princes which was antecedently due by the Law of Nature, or the Civil Constitution of the Common-wealth, by the prevalency of Conscience; without laying any further tye upon Subjects, as to the Matter of their Duty; the Motive to it being the only thing he was concerned in; as not sustaining the Person of a Temporal, but only of a Spiritual Prince.

Neither is there any thing to the contrary in all the New Testa­ment, either from any Sentence our Saviour is recorded to have spoke, or any Action he did that is transmitted unto us, or yet from any Doctrine his Apostles ever Taught or Practised; as will appear to every one who shall most narrowly go over that Book. And if a Negative Argument can have any force at all, it must un­doubtedly be allow'd to have it here; when it can never be sup­posed that an Affair so very important to the World, as would have been the setting a new Pattern for Government upon the Obliga­tion from Conscience, would have been past over in silence by those inspired Writers, who were only so, to leave sufficient Rules for every thing that concerned the substance of our Religion.

Nay, there are great hints toward the Positive; as is manifest by that fore-cited Passage touching our Saviours answer to the He­rodians: And I shall not need to say more to it upon the present oc­casion, than what Doctor Sherlock inferrs in his lately cited Book, Pag. 55, 56. First, sayes he, That our Saviour did not intend to make any alteration in the Rights of Soveraignty, but what Rights he found Sove­raign Princes possest of, he leaves them in the quiet possession of; for had he intended to make any change in this matter, he would not have given such a general Rule, To render to Cesar the things which are [Page 22] Cesar's, without specifying what these things are. Secondly, And there­fore he leaves them to the known Laws of the Empire to determine what is Cesars Right. Whatever is essential to the notion of Soveraign Power, whatever the Laws and Customs of Nations determine to be Cesars Right, that they must render to him; for he would make no alteration in this matter. And Thirdly, That when our Saviour joyns our duty to our Prince, with our duty to our God, he excepts nothing from Cesar's Right, which by the Laws of Nations is due to Soveraign Princes, but what is a violation of, and an encroachment on Gods Right and Sove­raignty. Now what he sayes here of the Rights of Princes, is by consequence the same, as to the Rights of Subjects. For, as he him­self, Pag. 45, reasonably concludes, our Saviour could not alter the duties of Subjects, but he must alter the Rights of Princes too: And therefore in the Reverse, he could not have diminish'd or aggran­diz'd the Rights of Princes; but he must have done so with the Duties or Rights of Subjects also; the Rights of Princes and of Sub­jects being Correlatives to one another. This also will be found evident enough by any who shall impartially consider the answers our Lord gave Pilate when he was arraign'd before him.

This then, as it is a general Principle about our Saviours Do­ctrine concerning Subjection, is quite out of doors as to any debate, either among the Divines of our own, or among those of our Neigh­bour Church. And from this Principle the Nature and Extent of Subjection is to be deduced. So that now the only difficulty con­sists in drawing such plain and natural consequences from it, as ea­sily flow without any force or compulsion.

First then, all Subjects are upon their Conscience to yield their Soveraign all those Rights and Dues which by the peculiar Consti­tution in which they live, He can Legally exact of them▪ Otherwise our Saviour had Abridg'd the Rights of the Supream Powers. On the contrary, the whole Body of the Subjects is not obliged by Consci­ence to give the Soveraign more than what by the established Form of the Government he has a just Title to; all that is more than this being wholly left to their choise and discretion; I mean that since [Page 23] they are not obliged to more upon the point of strict Justice and Right, so neither are they upon the point of Conscience by any tye from the Christian Religion. Otherwise our Saviour had encroach­ed upon the Rights of the Subject. I said The whole Body of the Sub­jects; because no private man has any Right by vertue of the Con­stitution of the Government, but only as he is a Member of the Com­mon-wealth, under that Reduplication; and so 'tis properly and originally the whole Body only in which any single Subjects Right is lodged.

Secondly, The Soveraign is, either invested with such an Ab­solute Power, as leaves the whole Body of the Subjects no Right at all, nothing that is further their own than as he pleases; Or he is not, and the Subjects have an entire and uncontrovertible Right to such and such things as by the Constitution of the Government are reserved to them so, that the Fundamental Constitution must be violated by every attempt the Soveraign makes upon them. If the former; then Subjects are not to deny their Soveraign any thing, but what interferes with the duty they owe their God; And by Conscience they are bound to this. If the latter, then there must be fixt and settled Laws whereby the Rights betwixt the Soveraign and the Subject are contradistinguished from each other; and these Laws must be mutual evidence of the Rights of both; so that so long as they stand in force and unrepealed, neither the One, nor the Other, can transgress them, without invading the opposite Right. For where there is no Law, there by the common Law of Nations all falls to the Soveraign; as where there is Law, the Rights are divided betwixt him and the Subject. Now the Subjects are to learn their Rights from the Laws of the Land wherein they live; nothing else being competent to afford them instruction in that mat­ter. And what these Laws bind them to, they are upon their Con­science to perform. But if more be required, they are not obliged by Conscience to yield it; according to what I shewed before.

Thirdly, There must always be some kind of undefineable Power lodged in the Soveraign, which no Laws can express, but [Page 24] which only certain extraordinary Emergenciés in the State can bring out. For it is quite impossible for the greatest and most combin'd Wisdom, that is but Humane, to provide sufficiently for all that may happen. And therefore the exertion of that Power must in the construction of the Law be interpreted to be legal, when those Occurrences that call for it, do in a just Analogy to the whole Body of the Law, sufficiently appear to be such, as presumably would have been determined by the Law to have required such an interposition of the Soveraign, had they been thought upon when Laws were a making. And even as to this the Subject is tyed by Conscience to submit. Since otherwise the obligation from it would directly con­tradict that Trust, or essential ingredient of the Soveraignty, which the not prognosticated exigencies of the Common-wealth do ren­der necessary to be repos'd, or involved, in the Supreme Power. But on the other hand, there is something included in the Liberty of the Subject that fully corresponds to that Prerogative Power in the Soveraign. For wherever there are Laws, there is a mutual Right betwixt the Soveraign and the Subject; else why a Subject, and not a Slave? according to the immediatly preceeding Point. When therefore that eminent exercise of the Subjects Liberty happens to become indispensable, unless he should suffer himself to degenerate below that Title; Conscience does not interess it self to restrain him from his native Priviledge. Otherwise the Obligation from it would plainly contradict that Right he has to the end of the Govern­ment, or to the Laws settled by it; and so our Saviour had inno­vated upon the Subjects Right. And indeed whenever the Prero­gative is stretched so far as to be made a Pretence for overturning the Subjects Right, or introducing such an illimited Power in the Soveraign as wholly evacuats the Property and Priviledge of the Subject, so as upon the matter to change his state of Subjection in­to that Slavery; Then, if the Constitution under which the Sub­ject lives does allow it, the Subject may by all the just Means he can be master of, vindicate his own Right, and ridd himself from all those incroaching usurpations upon it, which give him suffici­ent [Page 25] ground of being allarmed. It cannot indeed be easily conceived how the Subject can have Right in the Laws, and not have Right to all those necessary Means by which he can secure his Right in the Laws. For otherwise his Right in the Laws were essentially fru­straneous; since every End is so, that cannot be attain'd by any requisite Means. And so it were the same thing upon the event to him, whether he had any Right in the Laws, or not; as seems palpable. But whatever be in this, Conscience is not at all con­cerned since it lays no check upon the Subject from making use of that Civil Right he can claim by the Laws of that Government of which he is a Member. In short then, whatever Subjects can law­fully do by vertue of the special Constitution in which their lot is cast, that Conscience permits unto them, without any restriction or limitation.

Wherefore Fourthly, Those Subjects who have Right in the Laws, have also Right to be Judge when their Laws are attack­ed; or when the Soveraign is embarked in a Design to enslave them. Otherwise all their Right in the Laws, and all their Right to Means whereby they may possess themselves of what the Laws provide for them, were necessarily incapable of bettering their estate, more than when they were under the most absolute and illimited Government. Because Right without a Judge, to determine where, and when it belongs, and when it is violated or invaded, is all one as no Right at all. Since before any Right can take place, there must be the Decision of a Judge that it ought to do so. And con­sequently where there can be no Decision in the Case, there the Right must absolutely be ineffectual; that is, it must be the im­mediate consequent of mere Slavery, or an empty sound without any import or signification. Now there can be no other Judge had in this matter, than the Body of the Subjects; as is clear. For there is no other that could be so, but the Soveraign; and it could not be expected that he would condemn himself; and besides, if to pass the Judgment were referred to him, he would no less be Judge in his own Cause. The advantage then that here the Subject has [Page 26] over the Soveraign, is founded in the original end of the Govern­ment; which is the Right and Property of the Subject; who can have no benefite by either, unless in such an extraordinary case he could be his own Judge; as is just now shewed. Neither can the Soveraign be justly aggrieved hereby: since, as to point of Con­science, his Subjects must first attempt God, before they can him, without just ground; and without Conscience nothing but mere Force and Power can preserve him at all, and so long as he has this, he can be in no danger at any rate. But in all this we must not forget that it is only the whole Body of the Subjects that is to be understood. Now Conscience does not meddle further as to this, than only to in fluence the Subjects, that neither Passion nor Interest act them, when they are constrain'd to Judge, when the So­veraign has broke through all the Hedges whereby their Liberty was preserved; and that they should deal impartially, as those▪ who must one day answer before the Tribunal of the Judge of the Quick and the Dead, for what they have pronounced in an affair of the highest concernment and importance. For they had need to ob­serve a due Caution; and they ought still to choose the safest side, and that too with such a latitude as does not manifestly infer some most considerable prejudice to the primitive design, why the Go­vernment was so or so constituted at first: So that when the Pre­rogative is exerced, the Subject must not without great ground pre­tend that it goes without its Sphere; and when the Subjects Li­berty takes place, he must not without certain, and imminent, and extraordinary danger threatning him, adventure to assert it. Since by Conscience the Subject is obliged to be submissive to the Higher Powers; and in so nice a business it is but to fall over the Precipice, to ride closs upon God Almighties Marches.

Lastly, I shall add as a certain Conclusion from what has been Discoursed, That where the Subject has any Right, or is necessari­ly required, either as a Condition, or a Constitutive Part, to the making the Laws; so that both the Prince and the People have a Ne­gative [Page 27] Vote upon each other: There the Supreme Power, in the ut­most extent of that Term, is only lodged in the Prince and People together, as composing that entire Body from which the Soveraign Authority does flow; the Princes Sanction being materially no more but the expression of his Consent. For if the Subject has right to the Laws, either it lyes in his option to consent to the cancelling and ab­rogating them, so that they cannot be really annulled without he him­self shall Vote for the annulling of them; or else his Right in them would be but a Sham one, and he needed expect no further Protection from them, than what, and so long as the Princes Humor should list▪ and so in effect he were but a Slave, whatever pretence he had to be a Subject. Supposing therefore that, neither old Laws can be repealed, nor new ones made, without the consent of the Subject; It is evident that, whatever eminent Power the Prince is invested with, yet that which is entirely Absolute and Supreme, in the pre­sent Sense, does not wholly reside in his Person. Otherwise, why were the Subjects Consent so indispensaby necessary in the most important matter that concerns the Government? and why would not the Princes mere Arbitrary Will be as valid, as the most solemn­ly approved Laws can be? The great difference then between a li­mited and an illimited Soveraignty is, that in the former the Prince has no more but a certain share of the Supreme Power, whereas in the latter he has it all solely to himself; and in the former the Prince and the People together have but just so much among them as in the latter the Prince has alone. But tho such a limited Prince can claim but partially the Supreme Power, as to the abrogating or making of the Laws; yet as to the putting those that are made in Execu­tion, the whole Supreme Power may be in his hands; and is actually so in those of the most Princes that are undenyably under Limita­tion upon the other respect. It being essential, at least very re­quisite to the Being of a Monarch, to have the Government to de­pend so far upon him, as his being invested with this Power implyes it should. Yet notwithstanding, the Exercise of this Power ought to be regulated and measured according to the Laws; so as that [Page 28] whenever it tends to subvert the Constitution, and trample the Laws under-foot, and consequently to assume to it as Absolute a Power in Making Laws, as it self is in Executing them; then an obsequiousness to it is not so incumbent upon the Subject, but that he may assert his own Right and Property the best way he can. Otherwise a limited Monarch were a mere contradiction; and what he wanted in the one hand, he would have fully recompensed in the other; And therefore, according to all said before, he could not have Subjects, but only Slaves. Now what Conscience ob­liges unto, with relation both to the Legislative Power, and to the Executive, needs not any further be told.

Thus I have endeavoured to resolve the Point of Conscience in this Affair about Subjection. And, as far as I could, I have only carried along with me the Threed of those Consequences which freely arise from that general Principle told you before, and which is acknowledged by all; together with what is obviously suggested by the common Dictates of our Natural Reason. I have not pre­sumed to condescend upon the particular Constitution of our own Nation; that being none of my Province, and not thinking it per­tinent at this time to mingle the Minister and the Lawyer to­gether. Nevertheless it may be easie for every body concern­ed, to compare what has been said with our special Form; and so to satisfie their Consciences as to all the Rencounters they may meet with upon this head.

I shall now show, First, That this Doctrine is so far from being derogatory to any Prince, that it serves mightily to Enhance and Aggrandize all, and especially those who are so, over Subjects, and not Slaves; Secondly, That it is consonant to the design of my Text, and those other Scriptures that I adduced for proving in the general, that our Religion imposes upon us the duty of Subjection to the Higher Powers; And then, That those Exceptions that may be made to it, are founded upon sad mistakes, both as to the inten­tion of our Saviour and his Apostles, in commanding that Duty, and as to the nature of the thing it self.

[Page 29]First then, If any Prince be an illimited Soveraign, what can re­dound more to his Glory, than to have a whole Empire of Slaves cringing to his nod, more because of the impulse of Conscience, than of Fear and Awe? But a King that rules over Subjects and Free­men, cannot but gain proportionably more by their being oblig'd from Conscience to pay their Duty to him; than can the Great Turk or Mogull, by having such a tye upon their Slaves, tho they have all to expect that perhaps their Caprice can demand. For then an Emperor and his Slaves makes the nearest resemblance to a Shep­herd and his Flock. They look like two different kinds of Crea­tures; and are driven assunder to the utmost Extreams: So that the pleasure of the Government must be derived from some thing else than Reason; it must be the necessary result of a blind Ambition, of an extravagant Humour and Vanity. Neither can there ever be those franker communications betwixt such a Prince, and such a People, which might treat him with the satisfaction of a Man, and rationally sweeten all the Cares that attend a Scepter. Besides, there lies no fewer nor lighter burdens upon the Conscience of such Slaves to choak and stiffle it, than there does upon themselves, to bear down and suppress those Inclinations to Liberty, which are in­separable from all men, that had ever the least glimpse of what it was. And therefore, tho they are bound by Conscience to obey; yet, considering that Oppression makes wise-men mad, and that our frail Nature seldom bears much and long out against violent Temptati­ons, even when it is assisted by all the forces of Conscience; con­sidering this▪ I say, that Government must be but weakly suppor­ted, which has but so little of Conscience in it to Cement its Founda­tions; as will not be questioned by those who have given an impar­tial ear to what was said on the second Head of this Discourse, or who shall peruse the History of the Turkish Empire. But when we turn over the Medal, then do we see the best Land-skip of Heaven that any thing on Earth can afford. A King seated on a Throne a­mong Subjects, that want only Sin enough to be Kings themselves; that at once Love and Adore Him whose Commands are their Glo­ry; [Page 30] that envy Him nothing but a share of his Troubles by the Crown; and that have their Lives and Fortunes, not only a readier, but a surer Sacrifice to be offered up to His Service, than are those of the profoundest Slaves, whose eyes dare not look above the Foot-stool of their Soveraign. It were easie for a florid and pathetick Elo­quence to set forth this Subject with such lively, but deserved, Charms, as might enamour the most obstinate hearts against Monarchy with it, and ravish their Admiration, and their Affection too, in spight of all their Reluctancies and Prejudices. But if the very nature of the thing be so enticeing; What must it be when Conscience im­proves all? When Inclination has it to second its influence? And when it has no just provocation to graple with it? Let the most Spe­culative Wits, let the best contriv'd Romances, now compear, and in their highest Vies, show us any thing, that can make a King so truly Great and Splendid. Wherefore it is a King of Men, and not of Cattel; a King that has free Subjects left to the swing of their Con­science, and not Slaves, in which hardly the Embers of Conscience can sparkle through those Ashes of Illimited Power by which it is smothered; It is only such a King that has the justest claim to so proud, so pompous a Title. And hence it has frequently come to pass that those, whose first Right to it was only that of Conquest, have been so sensible of this, that they have voluntarily granted to their People such Rights and Priviledges, as might elevate them to the Degree of Subjects, above that most contemptible Depression of Slaves. And this they sound the properest method to promote their Glory, and settle their Interest; reckoning it below their Ge­nerous Minds to trample upon the Necks of those who could wil­lingly crouch to the Foot that did so; and too ticklish for their se­curity to vapour it over those who could not. For whatever they saw was to be reposed in Force, and Conscience, when abstractly viewed; yet they concluded it was much more safe to take off all those weights from their power by which it was most grievously felt, and not to load Conscience too heavily with Rigid and Arbi­trary Impositions; when these are so very irritating to flesh and blood, as the practice of the World goes.

[Page 31]And we have an eminent instance of this in the Emperour Theo­dosius, Cod. Lib. 1. Tit. 14. Leg. 4. Digna vox est Majestate reg­nanis, legibus allegatum se principem profiteri. Adeo de authoritate ju­ris, nostra pendet authoritas: & revera majus imperio est submit [...]ere le­gibus principatum. Et oraculo praesentis edicti, quod nobis licere non p [...]tiniur, aliis indicamus. As, Leg. 8. Humanum esse probamus, si quid de caetero in publica privatave causa emerserit necessarium, quod for­mam generalem & antiquis legibus non insertam exposcat, id ab omnibus antea tam proceribus nostri palatii, quam gloriosissimo [...]aetu vestro▪ Patres conscripti, tractari: & si universis tam judicibus▪ quam vobis placueri [...] ▪ tunc legata dictari: & sic ea denuo collectis omnibus recenseri: & cum omnes consenserint, tunc demum in sacro nostri numinis consistorio recitari, ut universorum consensus, nostrae serenitatis auctoritate [...]i [...]metur. S [...]itote igi­tur, Patres conscripti, non aliter in posterum legem à nostra clementia promulgandam, nisi supradicta forma fuerit observata. Bene enim cog­noscimus, quod cum vestro consilio [...]uerit ordinatum, id ad Beatitudinem nostri Imperii, & ad Nostram Gloriam redundare.

It is therefore the advantage of all Supreme Powers, to under­stand that their Humour is not to be their Law; and that they are never with a sufficient Ray about their Heads, nor have their Thrones fastned with Chains enough Adamantine for their establish­ment, but when their Subjects Rights are as Sacred to them, as is their own. Neither have ever any Vermine holl'd the Throne more, than these flattering Parasites, that, contrary to the inward Sentiments of their own Minds, contrary to the Dictats of their Consciences before God, and as much contrary to the true Interest of the Monarch, as of the Subject, have laid themselves most out to in­fuse the biggest, the most swoln thoughts of the Soveraign Au­thority into his Imagination who possest it. And the experi­ence of all Ages furnishes us with sad attestations to this. But to make Religion a pretence for all, and under the colour of it to steal in the deadliest Poyson into the heart of a King, is to vouch Wic­kedness by Almighty God, and to injure Heaven as much as Earth: Besides that, Religion is one of those Strings, which too much bending will crack; and besides too, that nothing gives a [Page 32] more amazing disappointment, than when a stress was put upon some fond Excess of Religion, and all other things failing, that be­gun most totally to do so. By this time then, I hope none will think that those Measures to which I have fixt our Subjection up­on the point of Conscience, are not fully more Loyal, because more solid; than the highest Stretches ever were, or ever shall be made, by the most sneaking Sycophants for insinuating themselves upon their Princes Favour.

Now that These are not the design of my Text, or any other in the New Testament, needs not much pains to be made clear. For it is palpable by what S. Paul sayes in those preceeding and following verses, and by that Passage I cited from St Peter, that the Question among those to whom they Wrot was not, Whether or not Subjects were bound by their Consciences to be subject to the Higher Powers beyond those Limits which the Constitution under which they lived set them; but only, Whether Christianity loos'd all the bonds of Sub­jection from those that profess'd it, and proclaimed to them an absolute and universal Liberty from all submission to those Powers that Govern'd at the time? Otherwise S. Paul had argued very impertinently, when he endeavoured to perswade the Romans to Subjection, be­cause Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil; Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; For he is the Minister of God to thee for good; But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the Minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath to him that doth evil. It were to suspect a strange want in my Hearers, to offer at any more, besides the repeating these Words over. Saint Peter also had struck very wide, had he intended to ex­hort unto such a submission, when he gave no other reason for That he was pressing, than that the Governours are for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well; and therefore no liberty was to be used for a cloke of maliciousness. The truth is, the most probable Conjecture that can be made of the occasion, why these two Apostles wrot upon this Point, is, that the believing [Page 33] Jews, who were mingled among the Gentile Converts, had made it their business to draw over These to that Doctrine concerning Subjection to the Supreme Powers, which themselves, when Jews, had been train'd up in, and which, now when they were Christi­ans, they had not abandon'd, nor laid down. We are not igno­rant, how tenacious that People was of every Circumstance, every Punctilio of their old Religion, that was not Diametrically op­posite to the bare Profession of the Christian. It was therefore a most peremptory Maxime among the Jews, that their Government was an immediate Theocracy; and that, since Gods Exchequer need­ed no Tribute Money to be payed to it, they were not to condescend to such an exaction by any other Power, but because such a Force lay on them, as they were not able to resist. And so we may ra­tionally conclude, that they had set about the perverting their fel­low Proselyts to the same Belief, and the prevailing with them not to yeild any further to the Roman Yoke, under which they were then, but in so far as they could not with any tollerable safety help it: And that these Apostles, foreseeing how injurious such a Tenet was to the true design of Christianity, and what sad consequences it might be the source of to those who should embrace it; did ve­hemently use their Authority, to stiffle it in the Bud, and to rea­son those out of it, whom it might have tainted. Neither shall we find many Texts that do more palpably suggest the circumstances in which they were written. Nay further, S. Paul seems directly to touch this by the first, and so most apposite Argument he im­ployed, for there is no Power but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God, whosoever therefore resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God: As if he had said, All that stumbles you is, because you think no Power can be lawfully submitted to, but the Power of God; Why then do you refuse Subjection to Higher Powers, for there is none of them, but whom God has Authoriz­ed in their Office, and invested with Power by his Sanction.

However, it is manifest to the half of an eye, that no such Sub­jection can be meant by those Apostles, as is inconsistent with those [Page 34] Rights the Subject has in vertue of that Constitution in which he lives, as they are considered antecedently to any Obligation from Conscience. At least those who will be of the contrary Opinion must first prove that Our Saviour did really alter the Rights of So­veraigns and Subjects, and make all Those unboundedly Absolute Powers, and These entirely and irreservedly Slaves. For the Word Subjection, or that Submission, or that Resistance, is too General and Equivocal to infer any such thing of it self; especially when it is to be Interpreted only with regard to the Correlative Matter to which it is applyed. And if such a Subjection had been then in either of these Apostles view, they had certainly been more Express and Particular in Determining the Extent of it; Since it would have been a thing wherein the whole Body of Mankind could not but have been most nearly concerned; and which all would have expounded in the most favourable Sense that could have been contrived, and that even when the most punctual caution had been used, to render the odious one beyond the hazard of being contro­verted.

Yet I know there has no small pretences been made to the con­trary. And first it is said, That the very notion of a King does especially imply such an Absolute Power, as is quite irreconcili­able with any other Obedience in the Subjects, than what is such, that the greatest wrongs they can suffer, can never justifie their not behaving Passively at least: And that therefore Our Saviour, and his Apostles, could not but mean such a Subjection, when they recommended any at all. To this I answer, That it is plainly false that the Notion of a King involves any such thing, as the Word King, is generally taken; unless it shall be granted, that there is no possible distinction upon the Matter betwixt a subject and a Slave. And it is an infinite Error for one to let his thoughts pore constant­ly upon the Notion of a King, without allowing some cool ones to reflect what kind of Creatures a King is to Rule over. If therefore it shall not be denyed, that Subjects have a true and real and practi­cal Right in the Laws, and not only such an Imaginary and Spe­culative, [Page 35] and Ineffectual one, as some please themselves with; Then either a King may have a limited Power, or, if it must be so, none is a King, but who is it at the rate the Grand Signor is so. And yet if that be only to be a King, those who are mostly Kings, be­cause over Subjects, need not grudge Him the Monopoly of the Title; and whatever other they shall assume, as their peculiar, will sound as much more big, as its being Special to them, will render it more deserving that it should. Wherefore there was no necessi­ty upon Our Saviour to calculate the Measures of Subjection unto this Notion of a King.

In the next Place, it is Alledged, That without an absolutely irresistible Power in the Soveraign, the peace of no Nation can be preserved; Because no Government can be so very exactly well bal­lanced, but that there will always be many discontented Persons under it, either because things do not answer their own expecta­tions, or because of those other Passions which are wont, not more to ferment Mens Minds, than to raise Commotions in the Common­wealth. And therefore, if Subjects had the Liberty to start a Quarrel with their Soveraign, and then to Judge of the sufficiency of that themselves, and after all to frame a new Model after their own Humor; there could be no settled quiet in any State at all, but one Confusion would still succeed upon the neck of another, and no­thing could put an end to them, but that which would do so to this World. Now Our Saviour must needs have, either done very little or no good to Mankind, by all that he taught concerning Subjecti­on; or else laid bonds upon all Subjects to carry patiently under all the injuries they could suffer from their Princes, this being the only way possible to prevent such disorders, and perpetual Insur­rections. But still I answer, That this▪ either proves that a Sub­ject and a Slave is the very same thing, or else it proves nothing at all; as is manifest by what was said in these Inferences, by which I deduc'd that, against which this Objection is Levelled, upon the meer supposition of a certain Right and Property lodg­ed in the Subject. Therefore I doubt not, but all will acknow­ledge [Page 36] that, if it proves a Subject to be the same with a Slave, it proves too much▪ and this ends in a short way of Arguing. But not barely to cut the knot; It is not every Picque or Grievance that will infer such a wrong from the Soveraign, as can justifie so high a Redress. And I told you before, that the Subjects are obliged by Conscience not to bestir themselves till a most import­ant and impendent Danger should threaten the Subversion of the Government it self. And since the Laws of a Nation, and the Essentials of its Constitution, are patent to every body; It is not moral­ly presumeable, that the most considerable Part of the Subjects, will in spight, not of their Honour, but their very Consciences, concur in an attempt, where the mistake cannot but be as evident, as they must know it will be fatal, tho none but God should pu­nish it. Where ever then Conscience gets freedom to work, it will undoubtedly secure the peace of any People, whose Soveraign has not been so excessively unjust unto them, that if a storm falls upon him, he has only himself to blame for it. And that Our Saviour, should have rais'd such a Fence about those, who could so little merit it at his hands (when they must first violate their Consciences, before they can give any provocation of that nature to their Sub­jects, by endeavouring to tyrannize it over them); were too odd to imagine of him, who was the Preacher of Righteousness. Besides, if Con­science cannot keep the Peace of a Nation, when there can be no just temptation to break it; certainly it would far less do so, when the in­stigations that flow from Self-preservation would drive on our de­prav'd Natures to gagg it for a while, till we should put our selves in the condition of being more at Gods mercy, than at Mans. For the greater the Temptations be, the less proportionably of vigour & force has Conscience in the most part of men. And when there would be so great a struggle to be made by Flesh and Blood, against Violence and Oppression; Conscience would much sooner succumb and quite the Field; Than when we were only to deal with those impatiencies and frettings, with this ambitious temper, or that soure thought, which we could not but be ashamed of, when ever we returned again to our selves. And upon this account Our Saviour has better con­sulted [Page 37] the Security of Kings, and the tranquillity of Subjects: than if he had carried the Obligation of Conscience to such an unmea­surable length, as some would be at thinking it should go to. For if we were implicitly upon all emergencies to submit, 'twere many to one, but that at long run, we would come to be so despair'd of our estate, as rather to choose once for all to give our Conscience a pull, and to attempt a Freedom, which needed not occasion its be­ing so troublesome to us any more. And we know already what a sandy Foundation the best formed Government would have, if Conscience did not Support it. It is true, God in his Provi­dence does sometimes permit a Nation to be its own Scourge, by persecuting a Prince which is its Glory and Happiness; and need­lessly, nay wantonly embroiling it self, when it wallows in Plenty and Prosperity. And this day furnishes us with as deplorable an Instance of that, as ever any other day did any other Nation. But as that is owing to a Peoples own Sins; so as they would never re­peat the Mischief, let them beware not to reiterate the Causes of it▪ And at least this advantage may be gathered from it, that the most foreward and heated People have an example before their eyes, how much Conscience can be trampled under, and how much the most sober Principles can be misapplyed and abused. But I shall have occasion afterwards to speak some-what more to this.

But further it is Objected, That a King may be any thing else, if he be inferior to his People: And if he be their Superior, then it is manifest that he cannot be accountable to them; it being repug­nant to the very beeing of a Superior, to be subject to those, who are subject to him. And therefore a King is loosed from all Laws; neither can any bind him; These being his Laws, and appointed only for tying the Subjects. And hence our Saviour must, either have not understood the Power and Dignity of a King; or else de­sign'd to oblige all Subjects to what That imports. But still the Sub­ect and the Slave are confounded, and mixt together. However, I ask those who depend upon this, whether or not the Subject has such a Right in the Laws, that the Prince cannot make, or repeal any without him? If he has, as he must have, if he be a Subject; then the Laws are not so entirely the Kings, but they are the Subjects [Page 38] too. It is indeed the Kings Glory and Advantage to Rule his Sub­jects by Laws; But it is also the Subjects Priviledge and Security to be ruled by them. And if the eminency of Splendor, which re­dounds from the Laws, falls to the Kings share; and if also That be sufficient to sound the common denomination of Property: Then no Subject can reasonably envy his Soveraigns ascribing the Property of the Laws to himself. Yet I doubt if there will many be found who shall willingly acknowledge, that the Laws are so much the Kings, that he may make, and un-make them, at his pleasure. This then being without question, it naturally follows, according to the Con­sequences I drew before, that the Subject may justly vindicat his Right in the Laws, if it be attempted. Tho then the King be Su­periour to the whole Body of the Subjects, when he Rules accord­ing to Law; Since both he has a transcendent kind of Power in the making of the Laws, and an intire one for putting them in Executi­on: Yet when he deserts the Laws, and takes up his own Arbitrary Will in lieu of them; then the Subjects may look to themselves, whatever be in the Character of his being King, to state them as his Inferiours. So that a Limited Monarch, is but a Limited Superi­our. And they, who drive any issue of the Matter upon a King's being Superiour over his People, seem only to be fondly possest with the abstract Notion of Superiority, without considering that his Power, whom they stile Superior, is really confin'd within certain bounds. It must nevertheless be confest, that a King is so far above the Laws, that his Person ought always to be Sacred to his Subjects. The cutting off the very Skirt of a Kings Rob, wrought a very sensible remorse upon the Man after Gods own heart; for his heart smote him for it, 1 Sam. 24. ver. 4. 5. And it is the duty of every Subject to say with him, vers. 6. The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master the Lords anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seing he is the annointed of the Lord. And there is still such a silial regard to be had to the Person of a King, that nothing less than the Barbarity, of which a Son that would cut his Fathers Throat could not but be horridly guilty, could suffer any [Page 39] Subject, to put hand in the Father of his Countrey; however much he had forefeited that Title, by the violent Invasions he had made upon his own Children. And in this sense only, can the Solutus Legibus, that is so much talkt of, be understood; unless it shall only be appropriated to those Monarchs, who have form'd their Copy after the Model of the East.

To all this it is added, That if the whole Body of the Subjects can oppose themselves to their Prince, can rise up against him, and assert their Right in the Laws whether he would or not; Then every single Subject is hereby allowed to resist his Soveraign, when-ever he is unjustly attacked by him. For all the Individuals of a Com­mon-wealth have a-part as much Right in the Laws, as the Whole has; and on the other hand the whole Body can never combine to­gether against the Soveraign, unless the particular Members shall in their private capacity work the Design against him. And of how pernicious consequence this were to any State, is easie to be told? Neither could any Subject be justly brought to Punishment for entering into Conspiracies against the Government, if he could make it appear that he was only endeavouring to free the Subjects from Tyranny & Oppression. So that our Saviour must either have thought that every private Subject might thus preserve himself, or else have intended that his Doctrine should Militate against such a method when used by the Whole. But it is still forgot that therefore every Subject must reckon himself to be even naturally a Slave. Never­theless I answer directly, That indeed no private Subject ought to resist the Government under which he lives, even when he suffers the most injuriously by it; provided there be no more but a meer transient and private Act of Injustice in it, without tending to the common prejudice of the Government, or to the Subversion of the Right of the whole Subjects in the Laws. For, tho he has Right in the Laws, yet his whole Right in them is founded in his being a Member of the Common-wealth▪ as I told you before. And there­fore he has no other Right to the Means whereby he ought to, or can justly assert his Right in the Laws, but only in so far as the whole [Page 40] Common-wealth is concerned: Since in the first constitution and end of all Common-wealths the Publick Good is chiefly aimed, and the Private comes in only by way of Result; And therefore no Means can be Legittimate to any individual Person, that can clash with the general interest of the whole Body; And consequently the Means that any single Subject can pretend to for making his Right in the Laws to be effectual to him, must have a special regard, in the very nature of the thing, to the publick advantage of the Com­mon-wealth. Now when, as things stand in the World, it is ab­solutely impossible for Subjects to Cope with their Soveraign, with­out the greatest danger to the Common Good of the Common­wealth: every single Subject that meets with an injury, however atrocious, is obliged by his being a Member of such a Body, not to attempt any thing, because of his own private concern, that may set his whole Fellow-subjects and the Soveraign by the Ears toge­ther. And the hazard of the Publick Damage, does sufficiently preponderate all the wrong that he can actually suffer; to wit, as he is comprehended in the Original Design of the Society. Indeed if he shall lay aside his Title to his own Preservation, upon the Prin­ciples of being a Member of the Common wealth, it is palpable, that if any other ground justifie him to shift the best way he can for him­self, he must do it, not as a Subject, but meerly as a Man. And then the case becomes quite impertinent to our Affair. But not­withstanding all this, there must other thoughts be taken up, when the Subjects Right in general is Invaded, and the Injustice reaches the Publick Interest of them all. Then every particular Subject not only may, but, by the terms of his being a Member with the rest of the Subjects, ought to do whatever he can contribute to the relieving the whole Subjects Right in the Laws, from that Tyranny and Oppression it is falling, or fallen under▪ Otherwise it were non-sense and contradiction to say that Subjects have Right in the Laws; Because, according to the ground this Objection went upon, the whole Body of the Subjects can never, Morally speak­ing, jump out at once into a common Vindication of their Right, [Page 41] without matters had been previously concerted by single persons. 'Tis true, if a private Subject be of a publick Spirit, he must do it at his perill. And there were no glory nor merite in the thing, if he did it not so. And tho his best intentions should happen to be defeated, and he to fall in the hands of the Prince; Yet then, if the Prince be a good one, and can be prevail'd with to mend what has been done through mistake, or by evil Counsel; he will be so far from looking upon such a man as his enemy, that he will reckon him a­mongst his sincerest friends, for having given him occasion to un­derstand that the true interest of a Monarch, is not to suffer such a diminution of his Character, as the violenting his Subjects Rights carries alongst with it. And supposing the Prince to be engaged in a desperate resolve to break through all difficulties, rather than not possess himself of an, as mistaken, as illimited Power; and so that he who was endeavouring to stand in the way of it, must suf­fer as a Traitor and a Rebel; Yet in the sight of God, and of all honest Subjects, his reputation will be as much without stain, as his Conscience will be without guilt; and his Death, when the most cruel, will be so much the more glorious Martyrdom for his Coun­trey. And the Providence of the great Disposer of all mens lives, must be reverenc'd in all. I confess that the evidence of Oppressi­on had need be very great and common, before one apprehended in any design against the Soveraign, can be presum'd to have been about the Publick, and not his own Private, Concern. Otherwise this would never fail to be perverted unto a pretence for the most villanous and wicked Plots against the Government, that the most furious Traitors can Embarque into. Wherefore I must here again inculcate, that all along in what I have been saying upon this Head, I have walked upon this supposition, That the Princes invasion of the Subjects, strikes manifestly at their Right in the Laws, and does visibly appear to the World to be a robbing them of their Privi­ledges as Subjects, and an enslaving them to all the miseries of an Arbitrary Power. For when the wrongs done by the Prince a­mounts not to this, and when the evidence of these wrongs is not [Page 42] without question; then all must go in his favours, and the Subjects Conscience must quitt the cost.

But now in fine, all these, and other Objections of this na­ture, can never come home to the main Point in hand. For in so far, as they proceed upon Reasons of an antecedent consequence to the Institution of the Christian Religion, they cannot be brought against this Principle, That our Saviour never meant by his Doc­trine about subjection to alter the Rights of Soveraigns, or of Subjects, as they are stated by the several Constitutions of different Nations. And in so far as they leave out the consideration of the Subjects Right in the Laws; they are impertinent against this Supposition; That he has really such a Right. The only thing therefore that such Ob­jections ought to be adduced for, is, That whoever is a Monarch, cannot but be Invested with such an Absolute and Illimited Power as the Great Turk enjoys: And that there can be no Real Subject, but that all under any Soveraign Power whatsoever, are effectual­ly Slaves. Truly, if there could be a midle Estate found out be­twixt such a Subjection, (as envolves the Right, I have inferr'd all I have spoke from,) and Slavery; it may be that hitherto I have been talking in the Air. But if men have strength of thought enough to search into things as they tend to Practice, and the event; and shall not amuse themselves with empty sounds of Words, or Metaphysical Speculations, and abstract confus'd Ideas: They will send, after an impartial enquiry, that▪ Contradictions, and Sub­ject and Slave, do equally admit of a Mean betwixt them.

I am not ignorant that there is a Salve offered, whereby a limited Monarchy, and Subjection without such a Right, as I have ascribed to it, may be reconciled together. It is therefore said, That a Slave is the Correlative only of such an Absolute Monarch, as is under the Government of no Law; but a Subject is of such a limited Mo­narch, as has his Soveraign Power regulated by known and stand­ing Laws, which indeed he cannot make nor repeal without the con­sent of the People. And tho the People are tyed to mere passive Obedience, even when he breaks these Laws, and Governs by an [Page 43] Arbitrary and Lawless Will; yet they are not to be accounted Slaves, there being notwithstanding a vast difference between an Ab­solute and a Limited Monarchy. For first, a Limited Prince, tho he may make his Will a Law to himself, and the only Rule of his Government; yet he cannot make it the Law of the Land: he may break Laws, but he can neither Make nor Repeal them; and therefore he can never alter the Frame and Constitution of the Go­vernment, tho he may at present interrupt the Regular Admini­stration of it: and this is a great Security to Posterity, and a pre­sent Restraint upon himself. Secondly, It is a mighty uneasie Thing to any Prince, to Govern contrary to known Laws. He offers as great and constant Violence to himself, as he does to his Subjects. The breach of his Oath to God, and his Promises and Engagements to his Subjects, makes the Exercise of such an Arbi­trary Power very Troublesome; and tho his Subjects are bound not to Resist, yet his own guilty Fears will not suffer him to be Secure. Thirdly, Tho Subjects must not Resist such a Prince who Violats the Laws of his Kingdom; yet they are not bound to Obey him, nor to Serve him in his Usurpations; as being only bound to yield an active Obedience only according to Law. And it is a mighty uneasie thing to the greatest Tyrant, to Govern always by Force: and no Prince in a Limited Monarchy can make himself Absolute, unless his own Subjects Assist him to do so. Hence it is dange­rous for any Subject to serve his Prince contrary to Law, all the Mi­nisters of a Prince being accountable; and therefore all of them are wary how they serve their Prince against Law. Fourthly, It is the greatest Temptation to a Prince that is but Limited, to do all he can to make himself Absolute, when he knows that his Sub­jects pretend he is accountable to them for any wrong Administra­tion of the Government. And therefore it is the surest way for Subjects to preserve their Liberty, to be tyed not to attempt any thing against their Prince, even when he sets himself most to In­vade it. Lastly, It is the Interest of the Common-wealth, rather that Subjects should patiently endure the greatest Out-rages of a [Page 44] Tyrant, than be engaged in a Civil War. And tho a People should prove Fortunate against their Prince; yet even then the In­conveniences of the Common-wealth, would be so far from being redress'd, that on the contrary, all would be expos'd a Prey to Fa­ctious and Designing men: and then Divisions, and Sub divisions would harrass all, till either the Strength of the whole Common­wealth were so exhausted, that the extreamest Misery should only give Quiet and Peace to it; or else till some Forraign Power should take Advantage of such Intestine Bustles and Confusions to bring it under a heavier Yoke, than that it had shook off. Thus Doctor Sherlock, Case of Resistance: from Page 207, to 217.

But all this is so far from militating against what I have said, that it really supposes it. For the first is express, that the Subjects have an entire Right in the Laws. And all that I infer is, that a Right in the End, without a Right in the Means, is a ridiculous Right. And there can be no Security against any interruption the Prince shal make of the Regular Administration of the Government, unless that Secu­rity be founded in such a Right in the People as is manifest. The se­cond must suppose, that all the uneasiness a Prince may meet with in ruling contrary to the Laws, flowes merely from his being conscious that the People has Right to vindicate their Right in the Laws. For what else should trouble him, more than the Grand Seignior? Besides the Question is, what the Subjects may justly do for them­selves, when a Prince breaks through all the reluctancies of his Con­science, and his Honour, and falls head-long upon the Rights of his People. The third also does yet more directly show the Subjects Right. Otherwise why should there be such Bonds upon the Mi­nisters of State? But when a Prince gets himself furnished with such Parasites, who will not stick upon any Considerations to embark their whole Fortunes into that Bottom wherein their Princes is Aboard; Must therefore all the Right of the Subjects ly as so much dead un­active Lumber beside them? Moreover, such corrupt Ministers will endeavour to make Hay while the Sun shines, and therefore will put all to the hazard, rather than not see that Government entirely [Page 45] Subverted, which they have so great reason to be afraid of; that the People may have, whatever Good-will they please, but not withall Teeth, to bite them. The fourth likewise goes upon the same Foundation on the one hand, since why should the Subjects be ob­liged to such a politick Method, as not to owne their Right to pre­serve themselves from Tyranny, if they had not such a Right? And on the other hand it supposes such an Ambition in all Princes to be Absolute, as may rather provoke all Subjects to Assert their Right to the utmost of their Power, than not to express their Senti­ments about it. And it is worth Consideration, whether it is not a more forcible Temptation to any Prince that can aspire after an illimited Power, to adventure upon Subjects that he knows before hand will go like Sheep to the Slaughter, than to assault those who he is sure will use all just means to secure themselves? And the last only poizes the Inconveniencies of Tyranny and of a Civil War together. But Subjects may think upon that accordingly as they see their Circumstances. And it is only Prudence then that is to ma­nage their Business. For as to point of Right, they may choose as they please which side appears most convenient for them, and the publick Interest of the Common-wealth. But I am not to an­swer for what factious and designing men may do, and occasion. It is only those that are guided by a true and sincere Conscience, that I am concerned in. And as a vertuous and conscientious Prince needs never fear those; so a Common-wealth can never suffer by them. Now when Doctor Sherlock has not said more on this Head, it is not like that more could have been said on it. And so I go to what comes nearer to the purpose.

And that is, That Our Saviours Example does expound his Doctrine, in a Sense very contrary to what I have given it. That he might have, not aspir'd unto, but obtain'd the universal Mo­narchy of the World, none can doubt, who confessh [...] was God Almighty, as well as Man, like unto us in all things, sin only except­ed. And therefore he checked St. Peter, when officiously inter­posing in his Quarrel, with this, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to [Page 46] my Father, and he shall give me more than twelve Legions of Angels Math. 26. vers. 53. But let him be suppos▪d to be quite strip­ped of his Omnipotency, and shrunk into as much meer Humani­ty, as the whole tenor of his Life made a shew of. Yet still we shall find he lacked only Ambition, and not Opportunity, for pos­sessing himself of the whole Power of his Nation. The groanings of the Jews under the Roman Yoke, then vyed with their languish­ing pantings after their Messias, to restore the Kingdom again to Is­rael, even in their own fulsome sense. Nothing therefore was more acceptable to them, than was He, who, by the many Signal Prodigies he had wrought, and the no fewer palpable accomplish­ments of Prophesies in his Person, had gain▪d so far already, ei­ther upon their Understandings, or their Inclinations, that num­bers of them began to aver, he was the Prophet that should come into the world, John 6. vers. 14. And all of them had done so, had he but bestowed that single instance, of pretending to the Crown, to have vouched himself according to their earnest ex­pectation of the Man they imagin'd should be that second Moses, greater than was their First. For then their affairs was in such a posture, that, as well their Necessity, as their Temper, prompted them to discard the Roman Government, and re-establish their own ancient one, wherein they might have had a King who was their Brother; Deut. 17. vers. 15. And all things concurr'd so mightily for an Universal Insurrection from the Highest to the Lowest, from the Priests to the Pharisees, and from these to the very meanest of the People, that there was no more needfull for it's violent eruption, but such a plausible Head, as sparkled all a­round with the most refulgent Marks of their long'd for Deliver­er. Hence it is manifest, that Our Saviour would have had but to lay hold on those Importunat Invitations, wherewith he was dayly throng'd, for mounting the Throne of his Royal Ancestor, David. And yet we know that he stole away from the Multi­tude, that would have made him King; John 6. vers 15. And as solicitously declin'd the Highest Elevation among Men, as others [Page 47] Court and Fight for it; Nay, as he himself was preparing immortal Crowns of Righteousness, for all those that should walk in those Paths he had so clearly chalked out unto them. Besides, his interest among the People was such, that, not only the Priests at several times durst not set upon him, for fear of them; but even when he was in their Clutches, when Pilat had him at his Mercy, he was in a capacity of getting himself rescued, and that by ordinary means: If my kingdom were of this World, said he, then would my ser­vants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews, Joh. 18. vers. 36. So that if he had thought it lawful for Subjects▪ either to shake off their Governours, or to resist them, when they fall to oppress them▪ he had never cast such a Copy to his Followers, who could not but be presum'd not to follow the Actions of their Master, as much as his Words. Yea further, He not only would not suffer St. Peter to de­fend him in an hostile manner, but also up-braided the rashness of his undertaking, with this smart rebuke, Put up thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword; Mat. 26. vers. 52. And thus he did at once condemn the Doctrine of its being lawful for Subjects to resist the Supreme Authority▪ even when they suffer the most unjustly by it; and also furnisht us with the most eminent Instance of non-resistance, that the vio­lentest Attack could give us occasion for.

But, however much this has been urged, I would fain know whether or not our Saviour design'd by such an Example to en­trench upon the Right of the Subject. Yet to answer by piece­meal; I say to his refusing to be King, That then Jacobs Prophecy was fulfilled, and the Scepter was departed from Judah, because Shi­lo was come. And so that Constitution which was appointed by God to be peculiar to that People, was then expir'd: And the Ro­mans were become their lawful Governours, not only by their right of Conquest, but even by their own Sollicitation of the Pro­tection of their Power, as Josephus reports. Unless therefore it could be made out, that the Romans were then usurping over them, by violating the fundamental Constitution of their new Govern­ment, [Page 48] our Saviour acted but conformably to the Principles I have laid down about Subjection; neither would he have yielded to the desire of the People to be their King, without overturning those Mea­sures and Rules of Government, which were then established both by the Law of Nature, and of Nations. Yet moreover, it was totally inconsistent with our Saviours design, to have ever assum'd any other Principality to himself, but what tender'd him to be the Prince of our Peace with God his Father, and the Cap­tain of Eternal Life and Salvation unto us. And when he only departed alone into the Mountain, to escape the design of making him King, without reproving it of injustice, as wronging the right­ful Soveraign; there are thoughts suggested thereby to us of a far different nature from those, in behalf of which such a Passage is al­ledged. For he who taught openly in the Temple those things that were most distasteful to the Jews, cannot reasonably be con­strued to have dar'd in the Mountain to have expos'd such a wicked Error, as the People then shew they entertain'd. It seems then that it was sufficient to his Purpose to let them understand, that whomever they designd to make their King, 'tis like (because of the Oppressions they were lying under), he was not the Person that could embrace it, his Errand to this World being only to dis­pose them for a Kingdom in that which is to come.

Then, as to our Saviours Behaviour in the Presence of, and Answer to, Pilate, He both shew▪ he was not to go over the limites of that Pri­vate Station he had confin'd himself unto; and that he had not set up for any Temporal Monarchy; his Kingdom being a Spiritual one, that involved quite other Rights, than those that were repugnant to the Subjection, he as a Member of the Common-wealth, was ob­lig'd to pay. Wherefore, tho nothing could have been more bar­barous and unjust, than was the Treatment he met with, first from his Accusers the Jews, and then from the Governour Pilate; yet, in the capacity of a single Subject, he reckoned it unlawful to gain­stand such an act of Oppression, as extended not, immediatly in its own nature, to endanger the Common-wealth; but only fell hea­vily [Page 49] upon his individual concernment. But there is something shrewdly imported in these words, then would my Servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. For it were blasphemous to think that our Saviour, under any kind of Supposition about him­self, would have given his Verdict to what in it self was unjust and unwarrantable.

And as to the Reprimand St. Peter got, it is palpable that our Saviour only intended by it, to show, that altho the Sword was law­ful against the Assaults of privat Invaders; since he had given Com­mission even to barter ones Garment for one upon that account: Yet no private Quarrel was sufficient ground for drawing it against the publick and lawful Authority; and that neither He himself, nor his Doctrine, however sacred both were, was to be defended against Persecution by such carnal Means. It is also observable, that the Verse 54, But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? denotes that there was something particular in that whole Affair relating to his Person; and that in a certain Subordi­nation to the End why he took our Nature upon him, he was ne­cessitated to submit to the Governing Power that then was in the Nation, notwithstanding it was infinitely abus'd in its management toward him. It cannot indeed be denyed but that St. Peter, in his first Epistle, Chap. 2. Verse 21. tells us that one end of his suffering was for our Imitation; having, says he▪ suffered for us, to leave us an ex­ample that we should follow his steps▪ But then our Sufferings must resemble the Motives and Limitations of his▪ And it were very odd to Dream, unless it were by Dreaming indeed, that the Copy ought to contain more than was in the Original. But where our Saviours Doctrine and Example obliges us to suffer, will more fully appear in the ensuing fourth Part of this Discourse. And now I am naturally brought to it;

Namely, I am to take notice of those Errours that most com­monly [...]pp [...]s [...] themselves to our Christian Doctrine about Subjecti­on, [Page 50] and which do little better than entirely evacuate the whole design of it.

And First, There want not those who pretend to such Original liber­ties from the Lawof Nature, as upon every disgust they conceive at the Governmēt, affords them some title or other for rising up against it.

But, to go to the bottom of this, tho I should repeat something I have said before; It is certain that by the Law of Nature there is not one special Form of Government constituted, more than ano­ther. For that Law does not inferr any dependence of one man upon another, or of a whole Body of Men upon one single, or more Persons; but in so far as the Relation betwixt Children and their Parents is considered: Since all men are of the same Kind, and are consequently equal in all respects to each other. Whence it is that all Governments arise, either from a voluntary concession of one Parts natural Right over into the hands of the Other; or from the One Parts having by force wrested that Right which the Other had by Nature. For now there is no immediate Appointments from Hea­ven: And as the World is stated at this day, the Paternal Right for that of a Monarch, is but an empty and Chymerical Notion.

For all men, ever since the Fall of their first Fore-father, are over-ruled with such devouring Passions, as render them dangerous Neighbours to one another: and Self-preservation is the immediate off-spring of their Reasonable Natures. That therefore they may be able to resist all violence endeavoured against them; and to se­cure themselves in the possession of those things which may at once preserve their lives, and make them as comfortable as the present condition of Affairs will allow: They have been warranted by that God, from whom they derive their Beeings, and the rational con­sideration of their own interest has also prompted them, to enter into mutual Compacts and Agreements; The one part resigning up such a proportion of their Primitive Right to the Other, as may sufficiently empower this Other to adjust all matters of difference that shall break out among them; and this Other Part, upon whom such a Power is devolved, promising faithfully to discharge the Trust committed by the Other, and never to invade that rema­nent [Page 51] Right which they have retain'd to themselves. Now when any Government takes Birth upon these Terms, there are Laws con­descended to by both Parties, as the Articles of Engagement be­tween them. And these Laws are on the One hand so many A­bridgments of the Natural Liberty of that Part which is subjected by the Constitution; and on the other, are so many Securities of the Rights which they have not delivered up. And whatever is not contain'd in those Laws is essentially presum'd to continue still with the Subjects; but in so far as it is indispensably requisite to the very beeing of that Soveraignty which is transferred by them. Because no man can be justly construed to have denuded himself of any Right, unless a positive evidence to the contrary be produced: And also, there is always a necessary construction of the direct and un­forced Consequences, where-ever there is that Principle from whence they do spring. All then depends upon the entirely voluntary con­sent of every one of those Persons who are concerned in that Go­vernment so framed.

The other Modell goes upon the Right of Conquest. And even this falls at long-run into a voluntary condescention; tho at first not so absolutely so, as when there is no other constraint in the case, than what the necessity of Humane Affairs does occasion. For when one by a prevailing Power overcomes another, the competition that he, who is worsted has to make his choise in, is whether or no he will loss his Life for good and all, or have it vou­chaf'd him upon those conditions his Conqueror is pleased to pre­scribe. It is indeed a hard pull to have nothing else but Slavery to exchange for ones Life. But yet when one values his Life so much more than his Freedom, that he will purchase the one at the total expence of the other; he cannot have him to blame who accepts of that which is least dear to himself, but only because he put him in a condition, wherein he could not refuse both. 'Tis true, such a rigorous measure will provoke one to retrieve his li­berty too, when ever he shall have it in his Power to do it. And if Providence shall favour him with an opportunity for that end, [Page 52] before that which is an oppression in his Conqueror, has by time grown to be a Right; I cannot blame him, if he make the best use of it he can. For the Law of War denyes nothing to the Man that has Power enough, but only the not managing it according to the Rules of Honour, and Honesty. But when once such a long fruition of that Soveraignity, that even is so illimited, as to have nothing but Slavery below it, comes up to a Prescription; Then by that very tract of time, in which it has endured, from a questionable Title, it advances to the contrary. And also those who have trudg'd under the Arbitrary Nod of it, have either, like those Gally-Slaves, who have declin'd a manumission when it was offered them, found satisfaction in their Chains, and therefore have, with a resolute acquiescence in their Lot abandon'd all further pretence to liberty; or else are justly to be reputed, not to deserve that greater Enlargement, which their Courage and Conduct was not for many Ages able enough to procure them. And thus by the Law of Nature it self, which binds every man to what himself has consented to, or which bestows not that upon him whereof he is unworthy; the Title of Conquest upon the Event, is no less good and valid, than that of Compact.

There may also be a mixt Government as to its Original, tho as it actually stands, it differs not much materially from the former of these two. As when a Conqueror, either thinks it his Glory, or his Security, to Restrict himself in that Power which he has ac­quired by Force, and to grant such Rights and Immunities to the People he has overcome, as may make them Love, when they would only Fear him; according to what I said before. Then such a condescention is to be Interpreted a voluntary yeilding of that Right which by the Law of Arms was obtain'd. And there­fore, tho such a Soveraign might at first have triumphed over his People as Slaves, and kept them under the Terror of that condition; Yet now he ought not to treat them but as Subjects, and to let them possess those Freedoms, which himself was content they should enjoy. Only whatever is not included in the Laws, that [Page 53] are made between them, that is to remain with him; since all was his before: And so without a positive Evidence that he past from it, his Title thereto must still continue valid. Yet it lyes al­ways at his door, to prove the Conquest, even as to this; because a Natural Right cannot be taken away, without a Positive One be brought against it, And these Subjects, who are thus gainers by this Constitution, cannot but be thought to have given a hearty consent to it, and that they have reckoned themselves obliged by their Prince when he dealt so generously with them.

Wherefore, now to return to the matter in hand, it is palpable that nothing can be brought from that Prior Estate to any Positive Constitution, wherein Men are by Nature, to overturn This, or That Government. Because every Man has full Right in that, which another, who had Right to it before, tranferr'd the Right of to him: And because no Right can more validly pass from one to another, than when he who acquires it, has it by the Consent of him that transmits it. Now the Law of Nature oblidges every body to make good and effectual, as far as they can, that Right which they bestow. And therefore the Law of Nature, or of Self-preservation, can never take place in any Government, till once the very Fundamental Constitution of that Government shal be attacqued by him, to whom the Consent of being Soveraign was yeilded. However then it shall be pretended, that the Con­stitution of any Government contradicts the Law of Nature: Yet (since it must necessarily contradict that Law, in as much as it puts Bonds and Restraints upon the Natural Liberty, and Right of the greatest Part, and proportionably encreases That of the least) nothing can be gathered from thence, but that the Subjects were perhaps Fools, that at first submitted upon such or such Terms, and that now they are to keep themselves to their bargain.

And were it otherwise, no imaginable kind of Government could be Long-liv'd, or Lasting. Because every man almost has a Pecu­liar Inclination after this or that degree of Liberty; and what has a strong Inclination to back it, seldom fails to be resolved in­to [Page 54] a Right by Nature; and so there would be as many Systemes of Laws of Nature in a Nation, as there would be Heads in it. And consequently nothing could terminate those discords, but a meer State of Nature, wherein every Individual Person were to shift for himself. At this rate therefore the very design and end of Govern­ment would entirely be defeated, and none could be kept under, further than as there were an over-awing force hanging over them, to compel them to their Duty; and the bare principle of fear, with­out some other of a more ingenuous kind, uses not to hold out long, and even when it does it, all things are necessarily in a posture of War. So that, if pretexts from the Law of Nature, could just­ly take effect, all Government were really but a Sham; and the common honesty of the World, which Nature dictates to reason­able Creatures, were but of the same Stamp. For the first Obliga­tions from Consent could be retracted when the Consenters humor took them; and every new Caprice would beget a new Mutiny, whereby Government, and no Government, would become the very same thing. Now all that can be objected to this will come more pertinently afterwards to be considered.

Whence it was that Our Apostle enjoyns Subjection, because all powers are ordained of God; That is, God confirms the Titles which Soveraigns have to rule over their People, and sets his Seal to those Consents upon which all Government at first took Birth; so that none can resist the Powers, but he must receive to himself damnation, but he must have the Almighty to revenge those in­juries which he shall be guilty of toward them. It is also remark­able, that Our Saviour, when he ordered the Herodians to Render to Caesar the things which were Caesars, made no search at all in the Right that Caesar had to Rule over the Jews; but suppos'd that, whether it was by Compact, or Conquest, yet it was a good Right, not to be quarrelled by those who were now Subjects to him. The same does in like manner flow from St. Peters Words, as any that shal consider them will see. Wherefore the Christian Religion height­ned Consent unto Conscience. And that was the great advan­tage that all Governments received from it.

[Page 55]But there is another Error much more pernicious than this, which has, alas! sadly prevail'd over the most part of the Christian World. An Error that has Sown more Serpents Teeth in Christendome, than ever the Sons of Draco did in Thebes, after his defeat by Cad­mus. An Error that has been the Source of more mischief to the Christian Religion, than all the Heresies that it was ever pestered with could have been, without it. An Error that has more serv'd the Devils turn to ruine Christianity, and to Act his Master-Plot against it, than any other Engine that Infernal Fiend ever did, ever could, employ. An Error that has at one dash sent hundreds of thousands to their Graves in the most Barbarous manner, and has hallowed, has christened Murder, Parricide, Sacriledge, Mas­sacre, Treason, Rebellion, and what not? And an Error that by the Effect, tho it should not by the Principle, has fill'd Hell with more Christians, than ever it was so by Witch-craft, Adultery, Drunkenness, or those other Sins of the Flesh, that abound most among Men. These sure are Lineaments of the Picture black enough to make it be understood. And now the Art of Limning is more accomplished, than that we need Paint A Sathan over the Head of what naturally resembles one. Yet if we must needs have the Name of a thing told us, before we can learn what it is, however genuinly it be painted forth; It is that Error by which it is thought lawful to spue out the most furious Zeal, not only against all that shall be reputed Heretickes, but even against all those Magistrats, and Soveraign Princes, that shall not give full scope and range to whatever shall be pretended to be for God, and for Religion, or for holy Church.

Now that it is as repugnant to the genius of our holy and peace­able Religion, as any thing can be, will appear, tho we should only carry the matter home from that Principle that was laid down before: Namely, That Our Saviour never design'd that his Reli­gion should create disturbance in the World, or should deprive Princes of those Rights which belong to them by the Civil Consti­tutions of those Nations over which they Rule. But if he had Au­thorized [Page 56] his Followers to assert their Religion, perchance Whim­sies, by the Sword, to propagate their Faith by Carnal Wea­pons, and to invade Soveraigns when they would not comply with them; Then had he made the most intollerable encroachments upon the Rights of Princes, that possibly they could have suffer­ed. For whenever any Cluster of Subjects should be gained to an Opinion, however absurd and monstruous, the State would then be obnoxious to be embroil'd, and to be hurried into Confusion and Tumult; the Prince would either be constrain'd to defend himself against the growing Insolencies of a Party so principl'd, or else to espouse its quarrel, and swear to its Dictats; and thus upon every Wind of new Doctrine (which never fails to justifie its Title, by its sudden going to and fro, so that none can know when it shall arise, nor how long it shall continue) he should be blown, either from the Rational Liberty of every Mans Soul in choosing a Religion, or else from the Throne he sits on. But to endeavour to discourse this, were to suppose that we were living sixteen, but especially six, hundred years ago; and that we were only to talk of the natural tendencies of things, without reflecting upon what has happened in the World, with so much Noise and Thun­der, that no Eare could now be one, and yet not have been al­most deaf [...]ed with that too. And therefore, if Our Saviour had allowed Christians so to maintain, or to ab [...] their Religion, he had Acted the highest contradiction possible to himself, when he commanded all manner of Subjects to be submissive to their So­veraigns, without disquieting them in the just Possession of their Rights and Prerogatives. Neither shall any be able to show us what could more effectually shake all the Monarchies on Earth, than this damnable Principle, of sighting meerly for Religion, has done.

It is indeed pretended, that since Subjects are not allowed to assert their Right in the end of the Government, but when they are to deal Conscientiously with the Higher Powers; and are not denyed to lo [...]k to their Interest, when they Act at that Rate: So [Page 57] if Conscience be permitted impartially to govern Men, there can be no hazard of such disturbance to the Government; tho Subjects should have the Liberty to compel the Magistrat both to profess the true Religion himself, and to encourage the profession of it in others. For there being only but one Religion that is not false, there can no more prejudice flow from the Subjects being permit­ted to assert That, than from their freedom to vindicat the Right they have, as they are Subjects. So that the same things may here be Argued, if in stead of the Word, Right, that of, Religion, shal be used. Especially when the true Religion is as obvious to every Body, as the Constitution of this or that Nation is; Since the Ho­ly Scriptures are acknowledged, by all Protestants, to be both a plain and a sufficient Rule of Faith; and no Laws are more, as to any special Constitution whatsoever: And when it is chiefly upon Conscience that all Government does depend; and no Conscience is absolutely sufficient for that end, but in so far as it is [...]ottom'd upon the true Religion. And thus the true Religion being the best Means to secure the Government, the Subjects, by their hav­ing Right in the End of the Government, have also Right in the surest Means that can advance it. It seems therefore consequential­ly to follow, that Our Saviour, by settling the sixtest Foundation of Government, and not prejudging the Subjects Right in the End of it, did, in pursuance of his Design, lay a necessity upon all Prin­ces, either to Resign their Thrones, or embrace his Religion, whenever their Subjects should once do it.

This I think is the most that can be said in behalf of this Plea. But yet there are several things to be urged against it. As first, That the whole Scheme of it is founded upon this supposition; That the Bible being a plain and sufficient Rule of Faith, there is there­fore as little reason to suspect that Men, notwithstanding the pre­sent depravation of their Nature, will mistake or err in Matters of Religion, as there is, that they will be deluded in things relating to the Constitution of a Nation. It is easily yeilded that the Scrip­tures are clear and perspicuous in all necessary Points of Faith, to [Page 58] every sober and ingenuous Enquirer. But when the Doctrine of the Cross is so expresly set down in Scripture, as shall by and by be shewed, and yet nevertheless is controverted so vehemently on all hands; Is it not a shrew'd indication that the plainest things about Religion are not, cannot be, so very plain, but that they may be call'd in question? And this were enough, were there no more to demonstrate what is the influence of Education, or Pre­judice, or Bigottry, or a Maggot, or Interest, &c. when there is only palpable Evidence to ly in the other scale against them. It were not pertinent here throughly to unravel this Mystery of un­godliness; or to show why it is that the most of Men are so seduced, so bewitched and infatuated, as in spight of the brightest Light, to bewilder themselves in the gloomiest Shades, and to love darkness ra­ther than light. It shall suffice to tell you, that the Articles of our Religion are of a Speculative and Abstruse nature; and principally do employ our Faith, and not that practical Knowledge, which we use to have of those things that concern the affairs of this life. And how sadly That can be impos'd upon, the World is not now, after so much experience, to learn. And in contemplation of this it was, that Our Saviour foretold, that Heresies mustneeds come. But the case alters quite, when we are to take up measures about the Constitution of a Government. Since there is no People in the World, but can make the distinction between their being Subjects or Slaves: And who­soever are the former, do at least understand so much of their Con­stitution, that they cannot but be sensible, when, and when not, there is a certain and great and imminent danger of their being rob'd of their Freedom, and reduced to Fetters. For the Legal Security that Subjects are wont to have for their Religon, their Lives, and Li­berties, never was yet but so manifest and conspicuous, that the very Understandings of Men must lose their Names, before any consideration whatsoever can prevail over them in such a point. And tho that all this can be said in favours of Religion also; yet the difference is, as to the Constitution of a Government, that This is no more obnoxious to be mis-construed; than is the common Trans­actions [Page 59] that ordinarily pass betwixt Man and Man. And there­fore, when the Event is the thing mainly aimed at, it is very fallaci­ous to argue from the Evidence it self that the Scriptures give us of the true Religion, to that which Subjects have of their Consti­tution. 'Tis indeed not to be denyed, but that those who most un­justly clamour out against the Government of any Nation, never fail to Load it the most heavily with Tyranny, Oppression, and Arbitrary Power; and have still such a store of Grievances hanging at their Tongues End, as if the Constitution were Violated, and all the Rights of the Subject broke and overturned. And we have a fatal example of this from this Day. And so it would seem, that even the Constitution of a Nation is as lyable to be made serve the factious Designs of ill Men, as the most difficult Points of Religion are. The truth is, nothing can be so ingenuously done by the best of Governours, but there will always be some found to Calumniat and Wrest it. But yet when those who do so, fall in the hands of Justice, the Defences they use to make for themselves, do suffi­ciently betoken the guilt that hovereth over their Consciences; and they do seldom die, more regrated by all good Christians, than the worst of Criminals are wont to do. And even when a powerful Party gets the uppermost, and God permits them to scourge a People, yet all their Arguments depend upon their Swords; and, however much they may force Men outwardly to assent to the Justness of their Cause, yet all the Violence wherewith they can harrass them, reaches not the inward thoughts of their Minds, and they will there condemn what elsewhere they must approve. And hence it is, that the Administration of the Government can never be so unjustly complain'd of, but that the eyes of all the World will be open to the wrongs it shall sustain. But you may also remember what was said as to this already.

The only difficulty therefore that arises from this Competition, is, That Conscience is still but a crazy foundation for any Govern­ment, when the true Religion is so ready to be worsted by Passi­on and Interest. But all that I have alledged upon this Head, [Page 60] goes no further, than that in the nature of the thing it self, nothing can be so proper for the security of any Government, as Conscience rooted in the true Religion; And that Subjects must first be, either Hereticks, or Debauchees, before their Prince can have ground to misdoubt them; And consequently that, since the true Religion has all the Evidence for it that can work with sincere and rational Men, it highly concerns all Princes to use their utmost endeavours that Prejudice, or Superstition, or the Designs of this World, do not prosper too much in the hearts of those over whom they Reign; as on the other hand it is the interest of the Subjects to do all that can be lawful for them, to prevent that their Soveraign be not gain'd over to a Religion, from whence they cannot reasonably expect that full security to themselves, which the Profession of the true Religion would afford them. So that happy is that people whose God is the Lord. But that Providence, without which the smallest hair of our heads falls not to the ground, is mostly to be lookt to, and depended upon, in all this. And in this matter, neither the Prince, nor the People, can be too cautious in what they undertake; lest a wrong step in the Means, bring on an End of Ruine and Confusion.

But, waving all this; If Christ had allowed Subjects to force their Prince, either to lay down his Crown, or to profess that which they should think to be the true Religion, even when they should not be deceived in it; Then he had manifestly made an al­teration in the Rights of Princes. Because now they were not to hold their Dominions upon the ancient terms of the Constitutions of their several Nations; but also upon this new supervenient con­dition of being of the true Christian Religion. And there is nothing more clear, than that his Right is invaded, who cannot justly main­tain it, without performing more, than what by the first Articles of obtaining it, he was obliged unto. None will doubt but that our Saviour might have laid this new tye upon all Soveraigns, if he had pleased: and thereby have made Infidelity, or Heresie, a suffici­ent ground for their Orthodox Subjects to Depose them. But then he had assum'd to himself a Civil Power and Authority; and had [Page 61] new Modelled the Governments of the World; contrary to what I shewed before, and to what this Objection I am Answering pre­supposes.

Wherefore in the third place, tho our Saviour did not meddle with the Civil Rights of Subjects, yet he bestowed no such Right upon them as might overturn that of their Soveraign. And so, however much the true Religion contributes to the advantage of the Government; yet, since it cannot be imposed upon the Prince without encroaching upon his Right, no warrand can be presum'd from any thing our Saviour ever taught, or did, to dethrone Princes meerly for the sake of their Religion. Besides, Religion is no Civil, but only a Spiritual Mean, for promoting the Interest of the Govern­ment. And therefore it cannot accresce to the Subjects Right in the Means requisite for that end. Otherwise it might as well be said, that Subjects have Right, that the Grace of God should work power­fully upon the Soul of their Prince, that he never but act con­scientiously in his administrating the Power he is vested with. And thus we should fall into that old exploded opinion, That Dominion is founded in Grace. No Subject therefore can have reason to com­plain, as if our Saviour had not dealt kindly enough with him, be­cause he has not put a Sword in his hand, whereby to rob his So­veraign of his Crown and just Right. Certainly all Subjects owe him the humblest resentments of gratitude, that he settled all the Governments in the World more firmly upon their wonted Pillars and Foundations, than ever they were before; Tho he did not in­terweave his Religion with their Political Constitutions and Esta­blishments.

But, last of all, Subjects must cease to be Christians before they can think upon Fighting at any rate for their Religion, merely as it is such. For, whether the Doctrine, or the Example, of our Saviour be considered; It appears manifest to all sober and unprejudic'd men, that nothing can be more repugnant to the design of the Christian Re­ligion, than that it should be fought for, as if it were some Prize or Bootie. And as to the former, What can be more express, Than, [Page 62] Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake. Rejoyce, and be exceeding glad; for great is your re­ward in heaven: for so persecuted they the Prophets which were be­fore you: Matth. 5. vers. 10, 11, 12. I say unto you, that ye re­sist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also; vers. 39. I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; vers. 44. Judge not, that ye be not judged; For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again; Chap. 7. vers. 1, 2. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves; Chap. 10. vers. 16. You will be delivered up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governours and kings for my sake; and the brother shall deliver the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against the parents, and cause them to be put to death; and ye shall be hated of all men for my Names sake; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved; but when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another; the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord; it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord; if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his houshold? Fear them not therefore; and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell; whosoever there­fore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven; from vers. 17. to 33. Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me; for whosoever will save his life, shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and [Page 63] the Gospels, the same shall save it; for what shall it profite a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul. Mark 8. vers. 34, 35, 36. If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple; whosoever he be of you that for­saketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14. from vers. 26. to 33. And in consequence of this Doctrine, he se­verely rebuked the two Disciples, James and John, when they would have had him command fire to come down from heaven to consume the greatest Hereticks and Schismaticks that were then in the Jewish Church, and who denyed him enterance in their Vil­lage, and would not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem; Luke 9. vers. 51. to 54. Telling those Apostles, vers. 55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; for the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives, but to save them. Therefore also did he use the gentlest method of enforcing his Re­ligion upon his Followers, If any man will be my disciple; If any man will come after me. And when the Jews did persecute him, and sought to slay him, (John 5. vers. 16. and forward), He took no other course to oppose them, but only to justifie himself by the most convincing Arguments and Demonstrations, from the Power of working Miracles that was so visibly lodged in him, from the excellency of his Doctrine, and from his having accomplished the Prophesies that the Scriptures of the Old Testament contain'd of the Messias to come. Thus the Apostle St. Paul recommendeth to the Galatians, Chap. 6. vers. 1. To restore those that have been overtaken in a fault, in the spirit of meekness; considering them­selves, lest they also be tempted. But we shall hardly cast up any place of the New Testament, even at random, but we shall find something to this purpose; there being nothing that goeth more universally through the whole Doctrine of Christianity (as a Gold Vein doth through the Ore), than that Christians should suffer any thing for their Religion, before they should take up Arms in defence of it.

[Page 64]Yet lest Precept and Teaching had not been enough to have born in this Christian Duty upon us, we have the most uncontro­vertible Pattern set before our eyes, that can possibly take with those, who are not resolved, in spight of all the methods of Con­viction, to stand out in behalf of their own Opinion and Humour. And whatever has been said hitherto of our Saviours Example, does in an eminent manner speak to the purpose in this place. And here the only proper and true gloss can be given of those words, which were before cited from St. Peter, For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suf­fered, he threatned not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. St. Peter 1 Epist. Chap. 2. vers. 21, 22 23 Nei­ther can any tollerable Sense be put upon that Rebuke this Apostle got, for offering to defend his Master by the Sword; nor upon that Answer our Lord gave Pilat, My kingdom is not of this world, Unless, besides all the respective Circumstances our Sa­viour stood in, it shall further be granted, that he was bound up by the very tenor of his own Religion neither to call for Legions of Angels, nor yet to command Troups of his Servants, to fight in his defence. For it is quite unaccountable, how one that can rescue himself by a proportionable force, can with any justice yield up himself to a cruel and barbarous Execution, tho inflicted by the Magistrat; if there were not some other more sacred tye upon him to do so, than what can flow from the Civil Constitution of any Nation. And there is as little ground to think that the Son of God would, merely to undergo a Death for Mankind, have choos'd to do it in a way, that had made it look so much like a Self-Mur­der, that the most ingenious Wit of this World could not have even plausibly excus'd it from being one; without his Sufferings had at once been in conformity to his Religion, and to set a Copy to his Followers too. Wherefore, as he submitted to an unjust Sentence, because he would not step out of the Circle of his Pri­vate [Page 65] Condition; and as at that time he did this to fulfil the Scrip­tures; So that which then rendered this to be lawful in him, was only the Doctrine which himself had taught, the suffering for Righteousness sake. And tho the great Errand for which he came into the World, was to redeem the Inhabitants of it, and so to die for them; Yet all things relating to his Crucifixion were so brought about by the Providence of God, that the King of Kings died as a single Subject, and the Author of our Faith, as a Chri­stian. And thus his not resisting the most violent Oppression and Tyranny that ever was acted upon the Earth, when it was in his Power to have done it; became to be lawful in him, or rather to be agreeable to that Holiness which was essential to his Person; tho otherwise we had been left, either to search out an Apology for it, but in vain; or else profoundly to adore those hidden Coun­sels, which Angels could never have pryed into. And certainly ei­ther of these, seems not well to quadrate with those Scriptures that have been Cited, and many others also, which are obvious to eve­ry Body, that is but moderatly conversant in the Volumn of them.

Nothing then can be more contradictory to the true Spirit of our Christian Religion, than is that fierce, that virulent, that furious, that persecuting, that destructive, that exterminating, that bar­barous, that assassinating, that bloody, and that hellish zeal, or rather rage, whereby some men are egg'd on to the greatest Villa­nies and Cruelties, both against their Neighbours, and their So­veraigns also, merely for Conscience sake, falsly so called. But, I shall conclude this (it being a Matter so fully handled by the ablest Pens, and which I had not said so much to, but that my Text obliged me to it, and that it requires Preaching in season and out of season as much as any thing can do so) in the words of the never enough admired Doctor Tillot son, Vol. 3. of his Sermons, Page 15. The Christian Religion, says he, does as plainly teach the contrary as it does any other matter whatsoever; and it is not more evident in the New Testament that Christ died for sinners, than that [Page 66] Christians should not kill one another for the misbelief of any Article of revealed Religion; much less for the disbelief of such Articles as are invented by men, and imposed as the Doctrines of Christ. Now if the hands of all Christians be so tyed up, when Religion only is the Quarrel; What kind of Christians must those Subjects be, who think they do God good Service, when they Rebel against their Soveraign, merely because he will not, both profess himself what Religion they would prescribe to him, and suffer them to over­turn the whole Common-wealth, that they may get such a Reli­gion, as humours them, introduc'd into it? Certainly they can be of no other Rank, than were those, of whom our Saviour fore­told, that they would value themselves upon that score, for hav­ing savagely butchered his own Apostles, and those who were en­trusted by him, to preach his Religion to the Infidel World. And hence, tho the Story of Mahomets Pigeon had been true, yet it had been as much discovered to be a Trick and Imposture, by fixing up­on the Pommel of his Sword, as by picking Pease out of his Ear.

It is therefore quite another thing for Subjects to vindicate the Legal Right they have to profess their Religion, from their sighting for it purely upon its own account. For as Religion is the thing in the World that men ought to be most concerned in; so none can doubt, but that it is very just and lawful for any People, to place the liberty of professing and owning their Religion, among the first and most Essential Priviledges, they as Subjects, are to derive from the Constitution of that Government under which they live. And indeed when any Government is a constituting, nothing can be more incumbent upon the Subjects, than to pro­vide sufficiently for the free exercise of their Religion: As when it is constituted, they ought not to be wanting in all the due and lawful means they can employ for securing that to themselves by Law. Hence the Religion of no Subjects that is established in this manner, can ever be invaded, without the Constitution of their Government to be so too. And so the suffering meerly for Reli­gion, can only be in those Nations, where it is not the Subjects [Page 67] Right to profess their Religion, in the virtue of their Constitution. And in those Nations, where the Religion of the Subjects is fen­ced by the Law, however much they shall be persecuted for their Religion; Yet, besides what the Prince is guilty of upon this ac­count as a Persecutor, he must also be so, upon that of a Tyrant and Oppressour; in as much as he must break through all the Boun­daries betwixt him and his People, before he can trouble them be­cause of their Religion. So that the Subjects have equal Right to vindicate any encroachments attempted upon their Religion, when the Profession of it is embodied with their Constitution, to that they have to assert their Lives and their Fortunes. And in this case Re­ligion is only to be considered as it has become a Civil Right and Property; being here no more, formally, but a thing wherein the Interest of the Subjects is most deeply engaged.

But it must not here be pretended, That no Government can be erected upon such a Constitution, as does not interpretatively at least, leave Subjects Right to exercise their Religion: Because, forsooth, all Government owes its Institution to Almighty God; and there­fore cannot be reputed to have any other Sphere wherein to exert its Power, but what he has chalked out unto it, first by the Law of Nature, and then by those Revelations he has been pleas'd to im­part to the World; and consequently must always act in a subser­viency to the promoting that great End and Design for which he created Mankind, and Government among them too; which the Profession of the true Religion is. And thus the Subjects must al­ways be presumed to have reserved to themselves the Right of Pro­fessing that Religion, which they shall think to be true; since, nei­ther it lyes at their door to transfer any such Power upon their Go­vernour, as shall contradict that Right which essentially belongs to them, as they are the Creatures and Servants of God; nor yet can any Monarch assume to himself a power, which the Soveraign Lord of Lords has originally precluded him from in the first Ordination of Government. This, I say, is not to be alledged; Because, we have seen already how expresly God has reveal'd himself upon the point [Page 68] of assertng the Christian Religion by Arms. And what the mind of God was in the first Appointment of Government, we can only learn from the nature of the thing, and from those lively Oracles which are the only Standard of his revealed Will toward Men. None will deny that no Magistrate can justly persecute any Peo­ple, meerly for their Religion, provided it include nothing that tends to the disturbing the Government, and to encourage those Moral Vices which are a Scandal to all Religion, because so to Hu­mane Nature it self; and that by no Compact made betwixt him and them, he can lawfully compel them to violate any of the Laws of God, whether they be dictated by Nature, or by Religion. And so upon this respect it must be granted that Subjects have a certain Right founded on their dependence upon God, to do nothing but what is consonant to the Laws of Nature and Religion. But yet this Right is only Equivocal to That, which we have all along been discoursing upon: Because it does not but remotely regard the Political Constitution of Government; in so far, that the pri­mary design of this goes no further, than where mutual Com-pro­promises and Agreements are settled between a People and their Governours, for their publick safety and peace, in the enjoyment of those things, which they condescend upon, as the matters they are especially concerned in. And such Compacts being necessary that Men should live together like Men, and not like Beasts in a Wilderness; God by instituting Government, ratified them, and gave his Sanction to that Politick Right, which both the Prince and the People do obtain by them. But it is a great fetch to draw in other things to those Rights, than were at first presum'd to be involved in them. For thus there would be, upon the event (as the World now goes) an Arbitrary Power lodged in the Subjects; whereby upon every Caprice about the Law of Nature, or the true Religion, the whole Settlement of the Government would be sub­verted; since still it might be pretended that, tho such and such things had been at first agreed upon at the establishing of the Con­stitution, yet it was not in the Subjects Power to divest themselves of such a Right, nor in the Soveraigns to receive it from them; as [Page 69] was sufficiently demonstrated before in this Head upon which I now am. Wherefore all the interpretative Right that Subjects have up­on the account of their Constitution, must only be so, as it bears a full Analogy to the very Being and Nature of the Constitution it self; as you see those things this Objection goes upon cannot do. God therefore, for the security of Government, has not allowed Subjects to vindicate any other Rights, than what they possess in a just conformity to the Constitution in which they are; and has ob­liged them to suffer patiently, and with a Christian Spirit, when-ever they shall be persecuted by a lawful Authority (tho then acting un­justly) because of not complyance with those things that he has com­manded the contrary of; promising to all that shall do so in obedi­ence to his will, that all their light afflictions in this life, that endure but for a moment, shall be recompensed with an eternal weight of glory. And I doubt not but all those, who use seriously to think two or three consequences off, will find, that nothing can be a sufficient foundation for any Government, but meer Force and Power; un­less those Principles, I have been refuting, be once disowned; as being of the most dangerous tendency to shake all Governments loose, that any can be.

Yet we must carefully observe, That all Subjects are notwith­standing bound, both by the Law of Nature, and of Religion, not to concurr actively with their Prince, when he would be at perse­cuting any of his People, for not doing those things that are forbid­den by these Laws. For in all cases whatsoever God is rather to be obeyed, than Man: And such an obedience to a Princes command, is so far from being Legittimated by the Shroud of his Authority, that it shares the Guilt betwixt him that performs it, and him that enjoyn'd it. However there is great circumspection to be used even as to this; that a Princes Commands be not wholly frustrated by groundless pretensions of their being unjust; and so that the whole end of the Government, which depends entirely upon these, be not evacuated and disappointed. And every man is to be guided here by his Discretion, and Conscience; and that at his utmost ha­zard, both as to this, and the next World; according to what has been said already in the foregoing Head, and This.

[Page 70]Having thus abundantly clear'd this matter about fighting merely for Religion; there remains now for me only to lay the charge of the contrary rebellious Doctrine to their door, to whom it does justly belong; I mean those of the Church of Rome. I am sensible enough how very invidious it may be thought in me, to fall upon them at this time, and especially for such a Tenet. 'Tis true, I was laid aside from my Charge, from February 1686, to December 1687; meerly for Preaching from this Pulpit a Sermon against Popery; and how all that while I was treated, the whole Nation knows. And so I may be reputed to vent those resentments, which before I durst not adventure upon. But I bless God, I can heartily for­give my greatest enemies. And tho the malice of the Papists have harrass'd me as much, as with any tollerable countenance they could put a face upon it; Yet the utmost of my revenge goes no higher, than that it may please God in his mercy to them, and to me, to bless my poor endeavours so far, that they may prove ef­fectual to their Conviction, and so to their abandoning those Errors, that must be Errors, if Christianity be not one. And it is my na­ture, to hate more to insult over misfortunate Adversaries, than to be oppress'd by them for a thing that becomes a man to do, to owne his Religion▪ Neither have I any design, as God can bear me Wit­ness, to expose them to those severities from the Government, which, if they were not at the mercy of Protestants, they might perhaps justly enough be afraid of. It is not the person of any man I have a quarrel with. And the more I labour to discover any mans mis­takes, the more thanks he owes me. But I am not the first that has been accounted an enemy for telling the truth.

But in the mean time, it cannot be construed impertinent to the present occasion, to Stage the Popish Religion for such mischievous Principles; when it is considered, that it was only a Popish Inte­rest that prevail'd for getting Du Moulin's Book suppressed; and when several Memoires and Collections shall be impartially lookt into. And I doubt if the Papists of that time, could (were they yet living) cleanly wipe off the guilt of King Charles the First's Troubles and Murder. It is indeed the highest calumny to say▪ that all of that Profession had an accession to them. No certainly; [Page 71] there was many, whose Honour and Humanity was too strong for the Bigottry of their Religion; and who therefore shew as redoubt­ed a Fortitude and Honesty, in their Masters behalf, as they were of a Religion, that in it self was base and treacherous. And if any thing could justifie men against the violation of what was so Sacred, as is the very Name of Religion; These deserved to be Crown'd with more immortal Lawrels, than ever Encircled the Heads of such, as had their Religion, and their Duty and Generosity, of a side. And this, I say, not to detract from their Personal Worth, but only to put us in mind what bad influence so ill a Religion can have upon the best Actions; when They must degenerate, by their very co­habitation with That. But still they were Persons of the best Qua­lity and Rank that withstood, that overcame the Dictates of Rome. And we shall not need to multiply Figures for the whole Number of Priests and Jesuites, that own'd any further concernment in that Royal Martyr, than as the Conjunctures gave them a favourable Prospect. Thus the men that had that Religion mostly for their Trade, and their Temper too, made the best advantage they could of all our confusions; hoping in the event to manage them so, that out of a blind zeal for Protestancy, Popery should spring forth. And upon this account, neither King, nor People, was Sacred to them, but in as much, as they saw Holy Church was to result from their Ruines. But still I will say with Cicero (tho adding a word to him), Me Natura misericordem, Patria & Reli­gio severum, crudelem nec Religio nec Patria nec Natura esse voluit.

Wherefore I shall only let all Papists see, that by the very Te­nor of their Religion, they ought to be of such a damnable Opini­on, as leaves nothing, no Prince, inviolable, when Popery comes in Competition. I know it were needless to run to the Practice, and Bulls of their Popes; to the Doctrine of their greatest Doctors; to the Books of their Cannon Law; or even to the Decisions of their Councils, for proving this. For a Courtly sort of Papists set up in France and Brittain within some years ago, have made it their great business to contradict these with a down-right impudence, as [Page 72] manifestly, as they use to do Sense and Reason in the point of Tran­substantiation. Had there been no more writ against them, than what the Bishop of Lincoln has done, one would think, that either such Principles must be rejected by them, or else Popery it self. But some People know how to be Proof against all manner of evi­dence. Peter Welch has indeed writ well against that Doctrine, tho not against that Bishop. He has clearly made it to appear, that by universal Tradition, nothing ought to be admitted by Chri­stians, that savours in the least of such a Treasonable tendencie: As Mr. Allix has demonstrated, that Transubstantiation was not the belief of the Romish Church before the Council of Trent. And the great thing I admire in the Man, next to his ingenuous following the Truth in it self, is, that he never understood he was pursuing a Protestant Tenet, upon a Protestant Principle. And I'll engadge to refute all the Heresies of the Church of Rome, as effectually as he has done That one of it, by the same method he has taken in this affair. And when he has, for upwards of sixteen years, been excommunicated by the Pope for such pranks, we may look upon him as a Man of any other Religion, rather than the Popish, even when he stretches himself most to vindicat it from the most absurd, and most gross of its Errors; as you shall just now see by what I am to say.

It is then a short course I am to take with them; being to Argu­ment ad hominem. And so in the first place, I lay down this gene­ral Principle of theirs; Namely, That there is no Salvation out of the visible Communion of the Church of Rome. I need not of­fer to prove that they own this. For if they deny it, Mr. Nicol may put up his Pen; and I'll ask no more for overturning St. Peters pretend­ed Chair. But none can be in visible communion with the Church of Rome, but these who are in visible Communion with the Pope. Be­cause, according to the Papists, the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, and so the Head of the Catholick Church, and the Center of Catholick Uni­ty. Hence the common definition that their Divines give of the Ca­tholick Church, is, That she is a Society of Men joyned together by the [Page 73] Profession of the same Faith, and by the Communion of the same Sa­craments, under the Government of their lawful Pastours, and especially of the Roman Pontife, Christs only Vicar upon Earth. And it were wholly unaccountable how the Pope could be Head of the Church; and yet one might not be in visible Communion with him, and nevertheless in visible Communion with the Church; that is to say, in visible Communion with the Body, and not in visible Com­munion with the Head of that Body, which is so indispensably its Head, as that it could not be a Body, unless it had that Head. I love not alwayes to reproach the Papists with Transubstantiation. But bating that, I know few contradictions they could be more coursly guilty of, than they would be, should they attempt to de­fend, that one might be in visible Communion with the Church of Rome, and yet not in visible Communion with her Head, the Pope. But further; all Papists must either understand by that governing Power, which, they say, is inherent in the Pope, as he is Pope; as im­mediat a Jurisdiction over the whole Catholick Church, and all its Members, as any particular Bishop has over his own Diocess; Or else they must acknowledge him to be no more, but only a certain Patri­arch at best. And I would fain have any Papist state me any Midle Power of Primacy and Head-ship, betwixt such a Jurisdiction, and such a Patriarchal Priority. They must speak sense closely to the point, and not meer words. But why am I pleading only for an equal Jurisdiction in the Pope, over the whole Church, to that which privat Bishops have over their respective Flocks? For that of Primacy must go much higher. And if his Holiness be a Holiness at all, he has committed to him the Superintendency of the Faith and Manners of the whole Church, not only in as immediat a manner as any other Bishop has of that special portion of Christians which is alloted to his Care; but also with a more Authoritative Force, suitable unto such a transcendent elevation, as is the Papacy. Be­cause (not to speak yet of any infallibility residing in him, when he Acts under the full extent of his Character) he who can im­mediately [Page 74] command, both those whom another commands, and that other too, who commands them, can much more powerfully by himself immediately command them, than can he who is also subject to be commanded by him. As the Authority of a chief Stewart is much more prevalent, than is that of those Inferiour ones, who, tho constituted also by the Master of all, are yet account­able to that grand Fellow-servant. And all this is manifest from the Popes assuming a Power to hear, and Judge all Causes Ori­ginally; and his reserving many Cases to himself, which the Or­dinary dares not meddle with. Now it is without all doubt, that any ptivate Bishop may, in virtue of that Power he has over his Diocess, not only inflict Censures upon the Persons of those who broach, or maintain things prejudicial to the Faith; but also con­demn, or approve Propositions, as contrary to, or consistent with it; and annex Anathema's to those Definitions, so that thereby they become Terms of Communion with him. And this is the known Practice of the Bishops throughout all the Roman Church. And whoever conforms not to their Definitions, are actually excluded Communion with them, and are no more Members of that Body (namely their Diocesian Church) of which they are the Head. From all which it is easie to infer, that the Pope may, and does, deal so as to the whole Roman Church; and that those who do not sub­mit to his Definitions, are consequently exterminated that visible Communion with him, which is as essentially necessary to the be­ing a Member of that Church, as visible Communion with an in­feriour Bishop, is to the being a Member of his particular Church. And this was very palpable in the fate of the Jansenists, who were forc'd, either to renounce and abjure those Propositions which the Pope had condemn'd, or else to suffer the infamy, and other Pu­nishments, which the Church of Rome uses to pour out upon all those she calls Hereticks. Hence the Popes Faith must, either be the chief standard of the Faith of that whole Church; or else (con­trary to what I have now so irrefragably proved) one may be for­mally [Page 75] a Papist, or in visible Communion with the Roman Church, and yet not in visible Communion with the Pope. Because, if what the Pope has defin'd, may be rejected and laught at, without break­ing visible Communion with that Church; one may be out of vi­sible Communion with her Head, and notwithstanding in visible Communion with her self. And that in plain terms is, to be a Member of that Church, and not a Member of her; since according to the Power, (all Papists contend) is in the Pope, it is absolutely necessary for being a Member of her, to be in visible Communion with him. Or, God would require a condition of being a true Member of that Church, which, that one might be so, he were obliged not to perform; to wit, in case the Pope should define contrary to the true Faith; which undoubtedly he can do, if he be not infallible: Since even then, one were obliged to be a Member of the Catholick Church; But he could not be that, un­less he were in visible Communion with the Pope; But now he could not be in visible Communion with the Pope, and a Mem­ber of the Catholick Church too; because, if he were in visible Communion with the Pope, of necessity he must outwardly pro­fess a Doctrine inconsistent with the true Faith, and so with being a Member of the Catholick Church; And consequently, contra­dictory obligations were exacted of all Christians, if the Pope could be fallible in his Definitions; and if a necessity of conform­ing to them were requisit for being in visible Communion with him; and visible Communion with him, were essentially necessary for being a Member of the Catholick Church. All Papists there­fore must acknowledge that, either the Popes Definitions are uni­versally to be acquiesced in, or that the being in visible Communi­on with him, is no Essential Constituent of being a Member of their Church. And if they cannot deny the latter, as certainly they cannot; then it evidently follows, that his Authority is infallible, in deciding any thing he shall take under his cognizance; and that all his Thunders are the Thunders of Heaven indeed.

It is therefore undenyable, that every Papist is bound by his [Page 76] Principles to be of the Popes Faith; and to Pin his Salvation up­on his Holinesses Sleeve. Neither can any thing be objected to the least Sentence of all this; unless it be, That, since private Bi­shops are not infallible, tho they Excommunicate with an Anathe­ma; so the Pope may be both fallible, and yet have Power to Ex­communicate with such a heavy Curse too. But there is a great disparity between the case of private Bishops, and that of the Pope. For however much they may be in the wrong, there is always Re­dress, and place for an Appeal. And before one, or his Doctrine, be condemn'd by the Supreme Judge, tho that private Communion were broke, yet the Catholick would be entire. And God has not absolutely requir'd the one, as he has done the other. So that the Argument I have here adduced, depends upon no more from the case of private Bishops, than this; That, as they can condemn Propositions, and therefore all those in their Diocesses, who do not embrace their Condemnation, becomes formally thereby to be ex­cluded visible Communion with them; so it fares betwixt the Pope, and the Roman Church in general. And I did not infer, that, as therefore those Bishops ought to be infallible, the Pope is so too. For the consequence of that Antecedent from which this last Consequent is brought, is altogether false. But the Popes Infallibility is deduced as a Result from these three, the first, that as privat Bishops can exclude from Communion with them, those of their Diocess who submit not to their Definitions, so the Pope can do those of the whole Church; the second, that it is essenti­ally requisite for being a Member of the Catholick Church, to be in visible Communion with the Pope; and the third, that it is absolutely necessary to the having of the true Faith to be a Mem­ber of the Catholick Church. Now it not being so requisite for being a Member of the Catholick Church, and so for having the true Faith, to be in visible Communion with any privat Bishop; the Popes Infallibility can never be denyed, because no privat Bi­shop pretends to it, whatever Power of making Definitions he is invested with: since thus one part of my Argument is only [Page 77] considered, without reflecting upon the rest. And here I defie the whole Papists in World to give me any solid Answer to it.

What else then remains for demonstrating that all Papists, either are, or ought to be, of that Opinion, whereby it is held lawful for the Pope to Excommunicate all those Princes he shall reckon for He­reticks, and to loose their Subjects Oaths of Allegiance to them, But only to make it manifest, that the Pope, and the Court of Rome, has declar'd, that the contrary Tenet is Erroneous and He­retical, and robs him of that Power, he, as Christs Vicar, has be­stowed upon him? Now what Popes have done, and what Stile they have used in their Bulls toward Princes, since Pope Hilde­brands time, all the World knows: As also how Cardinal Bel­larmine treated our Country-man John Barclay, as a Heretick, for maintaining the Interest of Princes against the Usurpations of the See of Rome; and how this poor mans Circumstances obliged him to Retract at Rome what he had Printed at London, and that in as publick a manner, if a Preface to his Paroencsis can be accounted to be such. But I shall only Appeal to all those Witnesses by which the Matter of Fact of this can be Attested. I my self in­deed have been call'd a Liar to my Face for having said, last when I preached in this place, That the Pope is as tenacious of this Do­ctrine as ever he was. I shall say no more, but that I might have been allowed as much common Honesty at least, as not to be thought impudently to Averr those things in a Pulpit, which all that have ever been at Rome cannot but understand, if they can understand any thing there at all. And truly, the very nature of the Tenet renders it a matter of such Vulgar knowledge, that it cannot be less notour at Rome, than the great Points of Treason are here; it being as hazardous there to question the Popes Power over Kings, as it is here to question the Kings just Power over his People. One therefore might with equal Confidence Averr at Rome, that Scot­land has no other Government than what is Democratical; as he might pretend here, that the Sentiments of the Court of Rome are, that St. Pauls Sword as well as St. Peters Keys, was delivered o­ver into the Popes hand, if they were not truly such. And what­ever [Page 78] is of such a Consequence, as these things are, use still to be no less publick in their respective places, than are the Churches and Crosses that are mostly so in them; the great danger of con­troverting them, rendering them to be so. And the fear of the Inquisition had made me learn so much when I was at Rome, tho nothing else had done it. Wherefore, tho the Credit of Travel­lers is sometimes wont not to be too much lean'd upon; yet it must have sunk to a very low Character, if what they say shall be disbeliev'd, merely because they say it. And my Assertion nei­ther needed to, nor did actually, depend upon my Testimony. There are Histories, and Bulls enough extant to clear the bu­siness. Neither is the Holy League, nor the Gunpowder Plot forgot; not to speak of so many horrid Massacies as the Popes Fingers were not clean of. And we are not ignorant how the pre­sent Pope has resented the late Decisions that were made against him by the Clergy of France, at that Temporal Anti-Popes, its Kings Command: besides what has been Father Maimbourgs case. So that it must be desperata causa Papatus (as indeed it is however), if this Affair can make no other Shift for it self, but to set up upon such a down-right brazen Face, as the denyal of the Matter of Fact will amount to.

I shall now only, as humbly, as earnestly recommend to all of the Church of Rome, that are especially Persons of any Quality, (for perhaps their Clergy will think themselves obliged by what I have advanced, to prove the Pope Infallible, according to the Prin­ciples of the Popish Religion) seriously to consider upon what Bottom they have settled themselves. I am very much perswaded that many of them have naturally so much Honour, and such a ge­nerous Sense of things, that they would not like their Religion the better, that it obliges them to such rebellious, such destructive Principles, and (unless they be Atheists, which God forbid I should think any of them is) to Practices too consonant unto these. If they will but impartially lay to Heart what I have said, I doubt not but they will find that their Pope is as absolute and illimited a [Page 79] Monarch in Religion, as ever was any Grand Signior in Turkey. And I have much better thoughts of them, than to imagine, that they look upon themselves as mere Arbitrary Slaves to the Pope, as to their Religion. But the great mischief of most mens Er­rours, proceeds from their not pondering sufficiently, what Con­sequences the general and confus'd Principles they entertain, are originally the Source of.

But, what-ever Papists have done, or may do; Would to God that many who have call'd themselves Protestants had not writ too much, and too frequently after their Copy. And would to God that none of these, for the like Principles, could be charged for being the Executioners of the Martyrdom of this Day. And so (having fully discust all that chiefly concerns this famous Text, I thought most suitable to be pitcht upon on such an occasion) my next work is to speak to the Text of the Day.

But first, I must tell you, that I doubt not but my Discourse hi­therto will by some be thought to be like a Quarter-Staff, that strikes at both ends; and by others to be exact Trimming all out; to wit, as they stand, who look upon it. But that has ever been, and ever will be, the Fate of all those Truths that happen to be owned, first after they were prevail'd over by those Errours that were of the utmost contrary Extreams. And I thank God I have endea­voured as much, as I could, to exercise my self, as to all I have said, in a Conscience void of offence, both toward God, and to­ward all men. Neither have I suffered my self to fall under any byass or prejudice from the Writings of other men; having only made use of the Great Doctor Sherlocks Book of the Case of Resist­ance to the Compiling this Discourse; and never having in all my life read any of those Authors that are commonly said to be of the Republican Stamp. So that the only Guide I have followed is the Holy Scriptures, together with those Suggestions of my own Rea­son, that needed little or no pains to force them out. All the fa­vour then that I crave is, that none would make any Application [Page 80] of the least Syllable I have spoke, but in so far as I have done so my self. For I have uttered absolute Verities absolutely; without de­signing to touch any of those Persons that may be concerned in them, but in as much as the Tenor of my Discourse did oblige me to it. And if Intention comes to be quarrelled, I cannot see how others can better judge of mine, than my self. And having thus a little obviated those Calumnies that none can promise he shall be secure from, I proceed in my Design.

But now a Subject offers it self to me, that requires such equal and suitable advantages, as I dare not presume to think I am suffi­cient for handling it with. Now I should lay forth the Perfections of a Man; that Heaven had resolved should be more than a King, a Martyr, both for his Religion, and his Countrey too. Now it lyes upon me to expose the greatest Villany, and Wickedness, as well in its Formalities, as in its Substance, that ever the Sun be­held: For its Creators Sufferings made it shrink in its Head; and here it had also done it, but that there was such a distinction to be made by it, when, not the God of Nature, but the best King in the World, was Butchered by the bloody hands of impious Men, or rather incarnate Furies. And therefore now I must draw a Cur­tain over that, which I have not skill enough to adorn, with the live­liest, with the most deserved, Colours. And it is only EIKON BA­ZILIKH that is most proper to make us understand both what that King was, and how barbarously he was treated by his ungrateful Subjects.

Wherefore I shall only in a few words, put you in mind, that in King Charles the First's case, the Constitution of our Govern­ment was infinitly broke on the Subjects side; And that it was they which, in the most unjust manner that was possible, did Invade the Rights and Royalties of that King, and not He that did so with theirs. For so many of both Nations have already been so much before hand with me, as to this point, that for me to go particular­ly to task with it, were to suppose we had all been sleeping these 50 years bygone. And besides, the unanimous Laws both of [Page 81] Scotland and of England, have not left us the power of doubting what the nature of that Rebellion was. Neither can I perswad my self that there is any hearing me, who will not readily assent to the justness of them. I take this then for a thing so universally granted by all the World, that it were as much to bewray my self, as to encroach upon others, should I any further attempt to prove it.

Perchance it will here be said, That it was the Body of the Na­tion that rose against that King: And that, since the Body of the Nation was the only competent Judge whether or not he had mal­verst, and violated his original Contract with his People; There­fore, they having Judg'd him to suffer justly, He must needs have done so. But we all know against whom it was alledg'd, We have a Law, and by our Law he ought to die, (Joh. Chap. 19. Ver. 7). And this was the only one instance wherein these words could have been more unjustly applyed, than they were against our Roy­al Martyr. Neither will any ever pretend that the Body of any Nation is infallibly just, when they oppose themselves to their Prince. Otherwise all Rebellion were but a meer Chymera, a thing absolutely impossible and contradictious. Since no kind of men will ever be so infinitly gross, as to act at that rate against their Prince, without some Varnishing Colours to what they do. At least nothing were Rebellion, unless there were no more but such or such a proportion of the Subjects concerned in it. And then adieu to all the Rights of Princes. But, if you'll reflect upon what I said before, you cannot but necessarily see, That God some­times permits a People to scourge themselves for their sins, by scourging their Prince; And that even then the injury they do him, is palpable and manifest. And indeed in the present case, not only was the King acquitted from those aspersions that had been cast upon him, and the Rebellion against him condemn'd as such, by the unanimous Vote of the most solemn Representatives of both Nations, after they had been, first wearied with the misery, and then remors'd for the guilt, of their Error: But also we may suf­ficiently [Page 82] remember by what steps and degrees that Rebellion came to its height and full pitch; and that the Redress of a few imaginary Grievances began that work, which the too great confidence the King plac'd in his Subjects on the one hand, and their no less un­generous insolencies (which proportionably swell'd as the Kings good nature was express'd) on the other, brought to such an end as happened to it. I must needs confess that his circumstances had look'd somewhat ill favoured, had these Nations on the sudden broke out universally against him, For then there had been so much of a Moral Evidence in the matter, as presumably could not have fall'n out, without some correspondent ground in the Object it self. But that nothing such was then, I referr to the Matter of Fact, as it is to be canvass'd by their own Memories who were then, and are yet, living; and by the Histories of that time, by those who have only grown up to be men since. Yet after all, I am not to deny, but that King was so much a Man, and not an Angel, as to have had his own infirmities, and been of like Passions with us. But still I'll avow that he had only so much of our frail temper a­bout him, as was necessary for leaving something for Heaven to do on his account; and that we must go there, before we can find a greater Saint.

But when the King of Heaven has, by his Providence, so visibly interposed himself to justifie that as holy a King as ever swayed Scepter upon Earth, against the malicious slanders of his enraged and treacherous Subjects, that we must either make no Arguments from Providence at all, or else be convinced by those which here are manifest and irrefragable; When, I say, God has taken the vindication of that quarrel upon himself, we must have, as little Religion, as Sense or Reason, if we shall any more be to seek in this matter. Now it is the observation of the Great Doctor Til­lotson, upon that Text, Righteousness exalteth a Nation: That Na­tional sins are only punisht in this World; Because they must ei­ther be so, or not at all; Since in the World after this, there will be no Nations, or Bodies and Corporations of Men. It is also the [Page 83] Observation of all Divines, That God does frequently accommo­date and proportion his temporal Judgments to those Sins that pro­voked him to pour them out; so that face uses not more to answer face in the water, than the one does the other. And thus Adonize▪ besek had his great Thumbs and Toes cut off, because he had dealt so with Seventy two Kings. If therefore we have felt great and remarkable Judgments; and if these have traced the very footsteps of those iniquities we were guilty of toward that Royal Martyr: Must we not conclude that he, who doth all things in number, weight, and measure, has been displeased with us, because of those very sins which then we committed; and that our National Punishment reads to us a Lecture of our National Wickedness.

And that thus it has been with us, not only much in Cromwells time, (tho I fear too many look upon that Usurpers Loins, as lighter than the litle finger of the gentlest Monarch,) but even in these last days, is but sadly palpable to all considering Men. And I shall only instance it in the first considerable assault we made upon the Majesty of Our Royal Martyr; which was, because of his endea­vouring to set up that Worship in his Chappel-Royal here, which from his Infancy he had been inured unto. And for this, that Church whereof he was so zealous a Member, was branded as a Limb of Antichrist; and he himself was clamour'd against, as, either down right Popish, or else very much inclined to be so; and to have lanched forth into a design of introducing that Religion into this, and all his other Kingdoms. But have we not had the most Pom­pous and Magnificent Preparations made for the Mass it self, in that very place where we would not suffer the Ordinances of the Protestant Religion to be celebrated with a decent Solemnity, as little Popish, as the Fury that rose against it was the contrary. Nay; has not the Mass it self been as publick, in spight of our Noses, as Sermons even from this Pulpit have been. Whereas, never Man did more firmly, or with greater Constancy and Chri­stian Resolution, adhere to the true Protestant Religion, than Our Glorious Martyr did to his last breath: And whereas too, [Page 84] that Church, to which he wish'd ours to be conformed, has alwayes prov'd to be the Bulwark and just pride and glory of the whole Protestant Side. Neither has ever any Protestant Church in the World been so much the Envy of the Church of Rome, as that of England has been, and will ever be, if our repeated, resolute Provocations, do not at last overcome that Mercy, which hitherto has preserv'd her in so much Purity and Splendor. And even the most bigotted Enemies she was wont to have, do now by the publick acknowledgements, all Protestants owe to her Bishops, (that have born an eminent Testi­mony to the Protestant Cause, and have been vouchaf'd upon these dreggs of time, to preserve us from utter darkness, both here and hereafter) confirm that there was never a Church less infected with Popery, nor more genuinly Christian. And who were the Men that these four years by gone have so demonstratively baffled all the Champions and Emissaries of Rome; that, as never was there any Truth more triumphant, than in that time the Protestant has been over the Popish Religion, so never was there greater advan­tage obtain'd over all the subtilties of those cunningest Sophisters, than themselves were forc'd, only not to confess? Surely none other can lay the remotest claim to this, but the Divines of the Church of England. And all this, we all know; we have all magnified and ex­toll'd, with raptures, not altogether unproportionable to the Me­rites that extorted them from us. God grant that we may never afterwards prove so unjust and ungratefull, as to undervalue or des­pise that Church we have so lov'd, so much admir'd, for the bene­fits we have received from her, when we shall come to think that we stand not so much in need of her assistance. However, let the oc­casion of this Day make us, Remember Lots wife. In the mean time, has not God, no less Particularly, than Sufficiently, revenged those injuries that Church has suffered from us, and those our Royal Martyr did for her sake?

It is but too easie to draw a further Parallel. And therefore let me ask you, if you think God is an idle Spec­tator of all Humane Affairs? Or that when such sins went before, [Page 85] and such Judgements followed after; there was no more but meer Chance in all this? Or shall we fondly imagine, that the Fates and Revolutions of Nations are matters so very triffling, that he con­cerns not himself in them, without whose special Providence a Sparrow is not sold at such or such a price in the Mercat? We must then conclude that the Nation was horridly guilty in what they did toward this Royal Martyr, were there no other thing to make us do so, but such a comparison of what he suffered from us, and what we have suffered by the permission of God since.

These things indeed are become now to be in the mouths of all Men. But, alas! they are as little considered as they ought to be, as they are much talkt of. And we rather seem to be itched with them, because of their oddness; than to make that Spiritual Improvement of them, which, as we are Christians, we should, and which God expects we will, and for which we must one day be answerable before his Tribunal. What! Is our conversati­on so little in heaven, that the greatest of its Providences work no Heavenly Impression upon us? Or are we so engrost with the in­terests of this World, that we cannot spare one sober thought to re­flect upon those of that to come? Good God! Is it possible that rational men, who believe they have immortal Souls within them, can so squander away such excellent Beings in the drudgery of low and vulgar considerations, as not to make the least suitable regard of thy most signal and extraordinary Dealings toward them? But I leave this to the Consciences of all Men, as they shall find them­selves able to be accountable to that Vicegerent God has planted in their Bosoms.

Since therefore the Rebellion against King Charles the First has been condemn'd by the greatest Authority, both in Hea­ven, and in Earth; let us now lay the Line to the Plummet, and measure how hainous the Sin of it was in it self. And this we can­not better do, than by making a serious review of the foregoing Parts of this Discourse. And first; If Subjection to the Higher Powers be so directly commanded in the Scriptures: then must [Page 86] not Rebellion be the most contradictory thing to them imaginable? Secondly, Did our Saviour lay the surest Foundations for Govern­ment upon the Principle of Conscience; must not therefore the tearing up a Government by the roots in despight of him, in the very face of Conscience, be an iniquity not to be thought of with­out horrour and detestation? Thirdly, Has our Saviour been so very careful of the Rights of Subjects, as to leave them entire with­out any the least encroachment made upon them; Are not then the violences of Subjects against their Soveraign, aggravated by all the black circumstances that can render Rebellion abominable? Surely, 'tis a thousand times more intollerable for Subjects, whose Rights are not invaded, and who consequently enjoy all the ad­vantages of Humane Life that the state of this World can allow; I say, it is infinitely more inexcusable for Subjects to run head-long upon such a Wickedness, than it can be for Slaves to do it; these having all the Temptation possible that Reasonable Creatures can have, for prompting them to rise up against that Power, by which they are depressed. And Lastly, Has our Saviour superad­ded the Obligation of Conscience to that of the Law of Nature, in repressing Subjects from disturbing the Government under which they live, upon the account of that innate Freedom, which after­pretences would strive to Assert; Is not therefore a Rebellion founded on imaginary Complaints about the Subjects Right by the Law of Nature, equally against all the Natural, and Reveal'd Re­ligion in the World? And has our Religion bound us up not to think it strange concerning the fiery tryal, as though some strange thing happened; but to rejoyce in as much as we are partakers of Christs sufferings (1 Pet. chap. 4. vers. 12, 13.); And is not a superstitious rebelling for this or that Pin of the Tabernacle, the most repugnant Sin to the nature and genius of Christianity, that can be next to the shaking it self off for good and all; nay, in a manner worse, by how much to act with the greatest contradiction possible to a fixed Principle, is more impious, than first to believe nothing, and then to do every thing? And does the Doctrine of [Page 87] Overturning States and Empires, of Deposing Soveraign Princes, &c, merely for the sake of Religion, owe its original to the Popes and Church of Rome: And can there be any more insufferable Scandal upon Protestants and the Protestant Religion, than to out-do Po­pery in its livelyest Colours, and when it acts most like it self, and to play the Boute-feu and Incendiary more violently, than ever the Consistory inspir'd its Votaries to be? I know I need not tell you that the Rebellion against our Holy Martyr, had all these malig­nant Ingredients in it, to enhanse it unto as terrible a Crime as ever a Nation was guilty of.

But if our Sin has been great, let our Repentance be no less. We may flatter our selves with the vain imagination that now we are not concerned in what was done almost in our fore-fathers days, and by a few leading Men, that then had a privat Interest to pro­mote. But you have heard how God has made it a National Quar­rel with us, and has to this very day been resenting it as such. It is remarkable that the Angel commanded St. John, Rev. 3. v. 19. to tell the Church of Laodicea, that as many as God loves he rebukes and chastens, and therefore all should be zealous and repent. We have been sadly rebuked; God has given us great and manifest Warnings; and has not only tryed what our Ingenuity, but what our Fears can work upon us. And that, not only because we have not throughly enough laid to Heart how unworthy we shewed ourselves to be of so good a King, and so great a Christian; but also because our temper, as to our Religion, has been but Laodicean, but luke-warm, neither hot nor cold. And indeed we have served our Designs much more with our Religion, than our Religion with our Designs; and it must be confess'd, that either Pique, or a certain mistaken Point of Honour, or this or that Interest, has been the great Springs upon which the Religion of the Nation (as to the universality) has chiefly mov'd, ever since the late Troubles began. I say God has sufficiently rebuked us for this. But if now we shall not be truly zealous and repent, we may expect the Chastening is yet to come; and that God will not be mocked any [Page 88] longer with us, but will either give us up to that reprobate mind we seem so much to court, or else to pour out Plague upon Plague upon us till we shall be utterly destroyed, and become a hissing to the whole Earth.

But now to conclude, Let us learn from this Day to beware of rebelling against those lawful Princes whom God places over us. We have a sad Example before our Eyes, and sad Judgments too. And if we love our Peace and Felicity, our Religion and our Con­science, and so our God and our Saviour, let us never bring a Dis­grace and Reproach upon our Holy Profession, by doing those things whereof the Heathens are ashamed, and which are the foulest sulliage and pollution upon Christianity that it can be prophaned with; I mean, let us always be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

Now unto the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; unto him by whom Kings Reign, and Princes decree Judgment; be all Praise, Honour, and Glory, from this time forth, and for evermore. Amen.