a course of sin w Isa 1. 8. Defendendo For he that defends or maintains a bad Cause or Action espouseth the guilt of it in that He that justifyeth the Wicked or condemneth the Just is abominable before or unto God x Prov. 27.15 and becomes the greater sinner in that it hath more of deliberation and perhaps less of Temptation in it than the other had 9. Praecedendo By giving ill example For if I pluck up the first pale in anothers Inclosure and engage others by my Example to lay it waste and common I am guilty of their Trespass as he that wilfully makes or inlarges any cuts in a Sea-bank is liable to repair the damages any receives by those Waters For thus Jeroboam made Israel to sin saith the Text even exemplum dando as well as imperando and Peter the Jews y Gal. 2. And to these I might add many other ways as a learned Divine hath observed to me by which we derive others sins upon our selves but is not this enough to make us vigilant over our Souls since there are so many Avenues for sin to approach us and that it is of so subtil and insinuating a nature as tho the Guards be never so well kept it will sometimes enter by a false pass or glide in by the advantage of that gloomy darkness that over-shadows the best men So as we need add ballast to our sail Examination to every Action to poise and prove it by it being a safe and noble no melancholy thing as one wittily observes to be always in ploughing weeding and worming a Conscience in removing Straws as well as Loggs occasions of Temptations by trying and testing every thought word and work to make them currant by filing the Iron and melting the Ore to clear and smooth the greatest difficulties lest our spungy souls apt to receive any Liquor suck in and embrace any sin swell us into such an immense body of sin as through custom or impenitency should become too big to enter into the Bethesda of Christ's Blood when what comes there is ever cleansed and cured And therefore though prudence in declining evils of punishment be commanded z Mat. 10.16 it must always be with Innocency So as prudens simplicitas is the greatest Policie and best Fort to retreat to in all dangers when the least ungirting a man's self or allowed liberty in any thing evil by outward complyances or disguises is but a prostitution of him to contempt and would insecure the Interests of all men and make all things uneasie to them in matters of Trust and Confidence the period as one saith of cares and only Pillow of rest for man's Spirit when a pleasing entertainment to the Senses may as a Chamber of death and Magazine of Corruption become by its stench Poyson to the Brain and surely no man is the better for anothers artificial sweetness that feels the noisomness of his putrid and corrupted Lungs break in upon him through the thin Cloud of a perfumed breath And he that strowes a Pits mouth with Flowers and covers it with an Icy-crust instead of a Cristal Pavement for others fall and ruine hath but more of Artifice not less of Malice than a professed Enemy but is more dangerous and destructive to all Humane Society so as dissimulation is in no case to be allowed being ill in it self and the parent of so many mischiefs Quest 1. But admit God should for our Sins give us up for a time to the Arbitrary Tyranny of our State-Deformers and permit de facto a change in the face or rather a total Metamorphosis in our Government how far may we obey Answ Why then men may in reference to their Power while it continues and they command lawful things obey but not to the Authority For once admit of a Conscientious Obedience as due to an Usurped Power no State in the World shall ever be free from the Treacherous Practises and daring Attempts of ambitious Spirits or be left means to recover their just Rights if lost when Power of Arms ought only to support the just Power of Princes and not by Power to set up an Illegal and Usurped one Yet Conquest sometimes if grounded upon a just War which cannot be between King and Subjects may challenge a Conscientious Obedience as well as a King that comes to a Crown by a just descent as ours yet the persons of such many times raise a Title from common Humane and Municipal Laws also to their Subjects Obedience and many times by a mixture of both Humane and Divine weave the strongest Thread men being always more ready and prone to conform to their own than God's Laws And therefore it was the wisdom of our former Monarchs comprehensively to engage their People in the several Representatives to all those Statutes they were to be governed by constituting their Parliaments of the three Estates of Men Clergy Nobles and Commons by that temper and even poyse of Power in regard of the exercise of it to bring in all to a chearful Obedience when their known Laws were the known Boundaries and middle things between Supreme Power and Common Right By this exrtacting as it were the purest Essence and Spirits out of all other Forms of Government to make one perfect one including the rest as man doth the Inferiour Creatures having reason proper to himself sense common with Bruits and Vegetation with Plants for thus we have Monarchy in our King Aristocracy in the House of Peers and Democracy in the House of Commons And to prevent any exorbitancies in any one all must concur to the making any Law with the King's assent not otherwise and let him that affects either Arbitrary Power or Parity but begin it in his own house and he will never wish it should spread into the State of which he is a Member Quest 2. But may I not act under an Vsurped Power or a Power I conceive to be so nor seemingly comply to preserve my self Answ No not in any case to own the Authority but Power I am passive under some compulsion and that in lawful things OBJECTION II. Object 2. But if a People depose their lawful King for a Tyrannical and exorbitant use of a just Power or to preserve Religion it self be it by War or otherwise and by assuming the Power place it in many or one that wholly imployes it for the maintenances of the true Religion and just exercise of the known Laws may I lawfully and conscientiously obey him Answ That it is not lawful to acknowledge such an Authority just and in that notion to obey it because the Supreme Power in any one Person is derived from God and is Paternal founded in Adam upon Natural and Paternal Principles never collated by man but is absolute and unlimitted in regard of Humane Influences upon it in its first collation c 1 Sam. 8. though limited in respect of Divine Precept d Deut. 17. in regard of
or any other Form When instead of a Mushroom the growth of one night that springs perhaps out of the basest Excrements and of such a lazy despondency of Mind as sinks him into the next degree to a Beast making him to have no designs generous and noble to carry him beyond his own felicity we shall have one whose blood is derived to him through the Veins of many Noble Heroick and Vertuous Progenitors who becomes all Spirits refined from those marish and terrene parts which weigh down or raise Vapours to eclipse others of a more base Extraction when they aspire to great and generous actions Nay this makes Princes live in their Posterities when dead and brings reverence to the very Swadling-Cloaths and Cradles of their Successors as if they might Command Obedience before they could speak as Barclay observes Nor can it be imagined but that their high and vertuous Educations should infuse a Gallantry into them above Pride saith the same Author having been always used to the greatest outward Observances and by being so placed above all Contempt so as it cannot but nourish in them higher thoughts than either Hatred Emulation or Avarice produces and free them from those self-reflections private Families are subject to as I have touched before because they are secured against the fears of Competitors in rule and have setled supplies for their wants enjoying in the Stream what others have but in the Cistern and conveying it to their posterity as their Patrimony and Inheritance making them many times Heirs of the Goods of their minds as well as Bodies and to reap the Harvest and crop of all their noble and growing Designs which as Seed sown by them will not perhaps ripen into Fruit in many years after For it is probable such will manure and nurse up with Industry and Care what their Predecessors planted Nor can the Infancy and weakness of a Prince be of so bad a Consequence as a Popular State because he is then in Guardian to the most able and faithful Great Ones or the great Council of the Kingdom it self which the wisest and best of Kings do always make use of to steer their Actions by Nay if that Government should for a time degenerate it is more likely soon to recover and unite again in one when broken into many Interests equally tainted with malignant Influences and self-seeking designs But not with the Mole to lose my self upon the face and superficies of things when I may make my Habitation safe by digging deeper the best Foundations being lowest laid I shall return to my first design and go to the Root of all endeavouring to show that Regal Power was a Plant of Paradise of God's own setting and so of Divine Right and that the Sword which contends with the Scepter and raises it self upon the ruines of just Power cannot be free from all the fore-mentioned sad Effects which must eclipse the Glory of every Nation and leave it no Trophies but such as Pyrrhus once said of his Victories as would undoe the Conquerour and appear best when shrouded under the Vail of true Repentance and offered up again by a holy Restitution to the Altar from which they were sacrilegiously taken Such successes being our greatest vanquishments and leaving us no just Title to make other use of our unjust acquisitions Though Abishai would have preached David into a Murder and Rebellion at once upon no better grounds than Gods delivering Saul into his power o 1 Sam. 26.9.10.24.12 had he not learnt a better Divinity measuring his Actions by Gods revealed Will not outward Events knowing he there writes in Characters shewing us his hand only but not letting us at all read his meaning in them p Deut. 9. 2 Chron. 13.8 But to be a little more plain and perspicuous in so necessary a Truth I shall endeavour as in an Epitome or Index to those many large and learned Discourses that have been written upon this subject to sum up the best Collections I can and to digest them into this Method First To shew that Kings are the Ordinance of and hold their Supreme Power from God not Man and that they are only accountable to him for the use of it Secondly What that Power is and how limited Thirdly That resistance in the Subject against that Power is in no Case warrantable Fourthly What Duties Kings owe to their Subjects Fifthly What the Subject's Allegiance consists in to them First That Kings are the Ordinance of God contrary to that of the Romanists and our new Statists Reges coronas sceptra ab hominibus recipiunt ad eorum placita tenent q Bellarm. lib. 5. de Rom. Pon. cap. 7. So Buchanan r De Jure Reg. apud Scotos Populus Rege praestantior etiam major Rex igitur cum ad Populi Judicium vocatur minor ad majorem in jus vocatur For they are called God's by Institution and Appropriation from God For By me Kings reign saith he s Prov. 8.15 Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Jo. 14.30 Hos 13.11 Wis 6.13 and with my holy Oyl have I anointed him t Ps 89.20 not only to rule by but for God too as the most express Character of him upon Earth Which made him lead his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron one Chief in Civil matters the other in things concerning the Priest's Office though with subordination Not one People by many Rulers much less the Ruler by the People but by one in Chief under the conduct of God himself and by his Authority as may appear in that and all other Instances of Regal Power So as Kings are to be reverenced and distinguished from others in regard of that Natural and Paternal Power God planted in Adam and caused immediately after to derive from many Heads into one Chief in one place a cause of the division of the Nations amongst the Sons of Noah as Monarch of the whole Earth after the Flood u Gen. 10.32 So as Kings are Gods and to be obeyed First In regard of their Attribute of Power For where the word of a King is there is Power w Eccles 8.4 that he might be feared x Pro. 24.21 and who may say unto him what dost thou Secondly In that of Mercy For there is Mercy with him that he may be feared in that he beareth not the Sword in vain y Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. but doth whatsoever pleaseth him z Eccle. 8.3 1 Sam. 8. in giving gracious Indulgences Thirdly In regard of Majesty and Soveraignty For God expresseth them by those highest Titles saith Calvin a Inst 4. l. cap. 20. to affect us with the awful sence of the Divinity it self and our Duty to them in putting the Glory of his own name upon them For b Ps 82.6 I have said ye are Gods and not only so but decreed and ordained it it shall be so even Gods before Men though Men before God 1st
of little sins as they make little or no account of great ones and yet assume the disguise of Piety as the hating of Idolatry when they commit Sacriledg i Rom. 2.22 by it and their Hpocrisie making themselves more guilty than they could be in the thing they abhor For as one says wittily the Idolater is but mistaken in his God the other thinks God is mistaken in him the one dishonours the other undeifies his God Yet the men of our times who make themselves the only Church of God and reprobate those who are of the true Church are not only guilty of this but many other crying sins which they not only Act but Enact as a Law as Blood-shed Oppression Prophanation of God's Rights and Ordinances by which you may know them not to be yet born of God k 1 Joh. 3. for those sin not not such great known sins not with a deliberate purpose to sin And therefore let us neither adhere to their Persons how seemingly holy soever they are in other things nor countenance that Cause that causes so many crying Disorders and Impieties For as St. Cyprian saith ea non est Religio sed dissimulatio quoe per omnia non constat when as Religion teacheth us to walk in an orderly sincere universal and uniform observance of all God's revealed Will and so walking to persevere For they and they only who are constant unto death shall enjoy a Crown of Life which I heartily wish to the greatest Enemies of God our just Cause and our Persons beseeching God that though they send us through a red Sea of our own Blood to our Heavenly Canaan and with Mahomet's Tomb hang us between Heaven and Earth as unworthy of either they may yet become Instruments of restoring Peace and Truth in this Kingdom and account those fair and spotless Lillies greater Ornaments to thâ—iâ— Garlands than all their Roses of Bloody Trophies And that they may make God and the Kingdoms good the only Centre and Circumference of all their Thoughts Words and Actions truly repenting of their Sins that by Gods Mercy they may obtain Pardon for them and not be left in hardness of Heart Blindness and Impenitence a Judgment beyond all Judgments as it is a Judgment that hath no sense of Judgment and yet hath both Sin and Punishment in it And though they have resolved all Law into the Sentence of the Sword and almost all Gospel into the private whispers of a seducing Spirit God in Mercy keep them from the destruction of the one and afford them Mercy in the other for their Conviction and Amendment and let not the Spiritual Lethargy of Sin any longer stupifie their Consciences but awaken them to an active endeavour of repairing their Errours and restoring of God's Truth that their Souls may be saved 5. Lastly Prayer is the great Out-rent and Homage the Subject as a duty ows his Soveraign Now as Prayer is the top-Branch of all our Duties to God and the most prevailing Oratory for his Blessings upon a Nation we must pray for them as men but first as Kings that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life under them in all Godliness and Honesty l 1 Tim. 2. And therefore in the practice of that Duty I shall wind up my Discourse Humbly beseeching God that as he hath given us a Caesar for Piety exemplary for Prudence as an Angel of God knowing both good and evil who by day as a Cloud and as a Pillar of Fire by night doth go before us to direct comfort and refresh us in all our wearisom marches and hard sufferings not refusing to wade through another red Sea though tinctured with his own Blood for the regaining and maintaining of Truth and Peace amongst us that God would give us Grace truly to value so great a Blessing in our King and for his Fatherly Kindness to us to pay all filial Obedience to him And let us never cease humbly to pray thee O Lord still to establish the Crown upon the Head of him and His Posterity till Shiloh come Plead thou this Cause of our King O Lord or rather thine own Cause and fight against those that fight against Him hate them not so much as not to seem to hate them at all by letting them still prosper in their Wickedness but correct them to amend them here that they may not be condemned hereafter and make Him the more Pious by His Pressures the more just by their Oppressions and every way the better for and more glorious by His Sufferings Make His Enemies as the Dust before the Wind and the Angel of the Lord scattering them but upon His Head let His Crown ever flourish And thou who art the Supreme Goodness so temper thy Justice we beseech thee as to make thy Strokes become Mercies to Him that He may read thy favour in thy frowns and not turn thy Rod into a Serpent thy Antidote into Poyson but make thou it like Aaron's in the end to bud and bring forth the blessing of a happy Peace to Him and us Yet let Him not so value Peace as to prefer it to Truth for a just War is better tban an unjust Quiet but as His and our Sins have let in one so make our Sufferings by and Sorrows for them to fit us for the Blessing of the other and us by following Righteousness to find a happy rest In the mean time sanctifie and preserve Him from all the Artificial Vnderminings and open Violence of Bloody and Wicked Men prepare him for all Events and give him an holy use of all thy varied Judgments and make Him to make a pious advantage of His Enemies and they to become His best Friends when by sucking the Venom and Poyson out of their Injuries He can by a charitable forgiveness turn them through God's Mercies into the richest Cordial Spirits to refresh His Soul with in His greatest Conflicts and Faintings And ever give Sentence with Him O God and defend His Cause against the Vngodly Let not the Justice of it sink under the weight of the Sins of His Party nor the not only acted but enacted Rebellion Sacriledge and Oppression of His Enemies separate any longer betwen them and thee nor us from one another but unite us all in inward Affections and the Bond of an outward Peace and that we may maintain truly zealous hearts to our God Loyal to our Soveraign and loving one towards another Protect Him by thy Power against all His Adversaries guide Him by thy Grace in all His Actions bring him to His Throne again with Happiness Safety and Honour re-establish Him in all His iust Rights and grant that all those committed to His charge may lead a peaceable and quiet life under Him in all Godliness and Honesty and that as He hath always defended thy Faith so thy Faith may still defend Him and He make it His Endeavours to restore thy Worship to its ancient Purity thy Church and Ministers to their ancient Glory and Himself and Kingdom to a happy and established Peace And for this end calm O Lord the raging of the Sea and the madness of His Pepole bound their Passions turn their outward Form into the substance of Religion let all their Schisms end in a Charitable Accord their Errours in Truth their Rebellion in Loyalty that as they have requited Him Evil for Good and Hatred for His Good-will they may now have hearts to repent of their Evils done and he one to forgive those he hath suffered by them Still preserve Him a Faithful Servant to thee though His Subjects be false to Him and ready to undergo the greatest Injuries rather than to consent to the least Sin Give Him a heart to part with all for thee but nothing of thine and though they would Vn-King Him by their Demands let Him not Vn-man Himself in His Condescentions depose the just Soveraignty of Reason in Himself nor prefer any preservation to that of His own Conscience but in all things to preserve His Subjects just Rights without enslaving Himself or His. Make thy Will O Lord the Rule of His and thy Glory and thy Self the Centre and Circumference of all His Thoughts Words and Actions Give Him a free submission to thee in all Events extricate Him from all His troubles carry Him through all Difficulties increase in him all saving Graces subdue in Him all Corruptions pardon all His Sins sanctifie unto Him all Afflictions guide him in all His wayes supply Him in all His wants lay no more upon Him than He may be able to bear but with the Temptation give Him a means to escape even the Snares of Sin and Malice of His Enemies and make Him not only be ready to suffer but to dye for the name of JESUS in Affections and Habit ever yet never in Act a Martyr unless for the advancement of thy Glory and His by one dying Man to make many living Saints to encrease the joyes of the Saints in Heaven though it would take from us the greatest upon Earth Give Him O Lord a dry Victory over all His Enemies and not the Temptation of a Bloody Conquest But if by those Issues thou wilt recover our weak and dying State come again with healing in thy Wings and once more restore what we have lost and give what is wanting to the manifestation of thine own Glory So be it Lord JESVS Amen Amen FINIS