Ruler is like a Diamond in a golden Ring which shines radiantly but there are few Jewels so set Among all the Kings of Israel not one godly man Among the Kings of Judah very few * Men in high places are apt to have their heads giddy and thereby are in great danger of falling Of one only Roman Emperour Titus it is said that he was the better for his honour most are worse The Spirit of God calleth you the children of God And all of you are children of the most High Now how exactly how circumspectly should the children of God walk Much obedience may be expected from servants but more from sons their preheminence is more and therefore their obedience should be more The fathers of the flesh look for much dutifulness from their children but surely the Father of Spirits may look for more from his children Phil. 2.15 That ye may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom ye shine as lights in the world Ye that are Gods sons are appointed to blame others that do evill and therefore it behoveth you to be blameless your selves Qui alterum accusat probri c. but blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke The sons of great men should be without riotousness or rebellion but the sons of God should be without suspition or rebuke that is walk so strictly as that they should do nothing blame-worthy If God be your Father where is his honour Mal. 1.6 Do you honour him in your hearts by giving him your superlative love and fear and trust and esteem Do you honour him in your houses by causing all within your charges to worship him according to his Word Are your houses houses of holiness praying reading singing catechising houses are they examples of Religion to your neighbours Is holiness to the Lord written upon your selves your children your servants your estates and upon all the belong to you Do you honour God in your lives by walking as he walked Are ye followers of him as dear children Ephes. 5.1 Do you resemble him as children their Father Are you holy as he was holy in all manner of conversation Was your everlasting Father when he walked in your flesh upon earth ever guilty of cursing or swearing or lying Did any rotten communication ever drivel out of his lips Was he ever guilty of oppressing the poor or despising the needy of seeking himself or of doing his own will Did he ever neglect praying and instructing his Family of the Apostles or supplication by himself Was not he at prayer early in the morning a great while before day and was not he up at it all night Was it not his meat and drink to do the will of his Father and to finish his work Did not he go about doing good glorifying God upon Earth and doing what was well pleasing in his sight Surely ye that are the sons of God by nature and office should resemble the Son of God by nature O Sirs Think of it ye that are the sons of God by deputation should resemble this Son of God by generation Be not as Eli's and Samuel's and Davids children a disgrace to your Father But as Constantines sons resembled their Father in his good parts and practices so be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect Mat. 5. ult. Davids daughters were known to be his children by their garments 2 Sam. 13.18 Do you make it known to others that you are the children of God by not defiling your garments by keeping your selves unspotted from the world by looking to your cloathes that they be not defiled though ye walk in dirty streets be as the children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Consider the Devil is ever watching for your halting and like some unkind servant he blabs presently to the Fathet what a dirty pickle his children are in Suppose he seeth the dirt of drunkenness of uncleanness of squeezing tenants of prophaning the Sabboth of scoffing at godliness of irreligion and atheism in your houses and immediately carryes your cloaths to God as the Patriarchs did Joseths coat For he accuseth men before God day and night Revel. 12.10 Saying Lord is this thy sons coat Know now whether it be thy sons coat or no Gen. 37.32 Do thy children use to carry themselves as my children Surely these are of their father the Devil Can you imagine that God should own you No certainly as the Pope disowned the Bishop when the Emperour had sent the Buffe-coat in which he was taken prisoner and delivered him up to justice he will not dishonour himself by owning you Nay how can you expect but that Jesus Christ who sitteth by and heareth the indictment against you who useth to appear as an Advocate for others when the Accuser of the Brethren pleadeth against them should even second the Bill against you and say to God as Moses Deut. 32.5 They have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of Gods children they are perverse and crooked persons Father these are sins not of weakness but wickedness they are not infirmities but enormities they are not the spots of thy children Those that cast thee out of their hearts and let the flesh have the Supremacy there that cast thee out of their houses and let the world have the Superiority there Those that make no conscience of thy day and their duties whose whole care is to be honoured and enriched whose heat and fervour is for credit and profit and put thee off with a few fragments of time and a few scraps of their estate which they can spare from the world and flesh those sin like wretches like rebels not like Saints like sons Their spots are not the spots of thy children There are spots which may be and spots which cannot be the spots of Gods children All sins are unsutable to but some sins are inconsistent with sonship yea the preheminence of Adoption doth absolutely deny the predominancy of any corruption When Antigonus was to go to a place that might probably prove a temptation to sin he asked counsel of Menedemus what he should do He bade him only remember he was a Kings son So say I to you that walk every day in the midst of many snares of temptations and therefore should have the greater care and circumspection Remember that ye are the sons of the King of Kings and do nothing unworthy of the name by which he calleth you or the place to which he hath called you It might have been a cutting word to the heart of Brutus whose hand was then stabbing Caesar What thou my son Brutus I could not have expected better from a slave but little looked for this from a son How think you can the Lord take it that you who are his children should wound the Body of his Son with oaths and curses his sacred laws by
Gods attributes He hath a Mercy-seat to note that he sitteth at ease when he is shewing mercy Whereas judgement is his strange work Isa. 28.21 we read likewise that mercy pleaseth him Mica 7.18 Thus the God should be mercifull men your hearts should be full of mercy and pitty to the sinner when your hands are executing justice against the sin The Bee doth not sting till provoked God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 There should be bowels of compassion in him than pronounceth sentence of condemnacion Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferooe Augustus never pronounced a deadly sentence without deep sorrow Our Laws forbid Butchers to be Jurors because it is supposed they will be hard-hearted Among several qualifications which the Jews required in their Judges these were two 1. That they should be Fathers of children hoping that their paternal affection would incline them to commiseration 2. That they should not be Eunuches for they concieved such very cruel It is a bestial cruelty to delight in blood The laws of Draco are generally condemned for they were written in blood and the offender was sure to die of what nature soever his offence was A. Gell. Our English Deborah Queen Elizabeth did not without cause exceedingly prize Seneca's first book of Clemency because it treated of that which is so needfull to a Prince It is the Devils work to be Abaddon a destroyer It is Christs work to be Goel a Redeemer Mercy and truth preserve the King his Throne is established by mercy Prov. 20.28 Mercy sometime to them that sin through weakness may be as profitable as severity to them that sin through wilfulness It was certainly a cursed speech of that man or rather Monster whom the Italian Orator mentioneth that being a Judge said To hang many is my Jubile and a great execution is my great recreation The expression of the Roman Emperour is worthy of imitation That he had rather save the life of one of his Subjects then take away the lives of a thousand of his enemies Life is a precious jewel more worth then all this world Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Job 1. It is not therefore to be taken away for every trifle I do not now dispute the question Whether any Theft may lawfully be punished with death but I am sure every Theft ought not The Romans had their Axes and Rods carried before their Consuls to shew that if the lesser punishments as of the rods would serve the greater of the Axe should not be used And they did justly lament the cruelty of those tribunals where the cheap prescription of lives made the Judgement-seat differ little from a Shambles 3. Work as Gods among men in promoting piety to your power The great design and work of God is to promote holiness in the world This was his aim in his internal work or his decree Ephes. 1.4 This is the great end he drives at in his external works As in the work of redemption Tit. 2.14 Luke 1.92 In bestowing his word The precepts in it are the perfect rule of godliness Gal. 6.16 the promises are pretious encouragements to godliness 2 Cor. 7.1 the threatnings are like the Angel with a drawn sword in his hand to deter men from the way of ungodliness Rom. 1.18 And his works of providence are to the same purpose Afflictions are like the fire to consume the dross and purifie the gold Heb. 12.6 Mercies are like the warm influences of the vernal Sun to draw forth the Sap of grace and hasten mens growth in holiness Thus should the Gods promote godliness as the chief business which the most high God hath given them to do Other things of what nature soever which come within the reach of their care are questionless much inferiour to this And this they should do Partly by their patterns in being examples of godliness to their people Their lives should be so exact that they should be able to say as Gigeon Judges 7.17 Look on us and do likewise or as Paul Walk as ye have us for an example Partly by your precepts your edicts and commands should be like those of Asa 2 Chorn. 14.2.4 Asa did that which was right in the sight of the Lord He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their Fathers and to do the Law and the Commandment Mark upright Asa did not leave men to choose their religions nor to live as they listed but he commanded them to obey Gods Law He did not strictly enjoyn the payment of Taxes or Customs and such civil things and leave it as a matter of indifferency whether men would mind religion or no but his Laws did enforce and confirm the Laws of God as far as he was able Partly by countenancing maintaining and providing able Ministers 2 Chron. 19.8 1 Cor. 9.13 for the Church as also by taking care that they discharge their trusts faithfully 2 Chron. 29.3 4 5.1 Chron. 16. It is observed of Julian the Apostate that to root up Christianity he disgraced the Orthodox Ministry took away Church maintenance and forbad Christian Schools and places of learning so Sozomen lib. 5. cap. 5. This very course is now cryed up the Lord prevent it The Prince indeed is not called to be a publike Preacher but he hath a call to see that none abuse that calling to the hurt or poyson of his people Partly by suppressing and discountenancing them whose doctrines or lives hinder godliness Suppressing evil is necessary for the promoting good Holy Asa removed his Mother from being Queen upon this very account 1 Kings 15.12 13. The toleration of any in such sins is an intolerable sin And the jealous God will one day make Magistrates know that they shall bear his anger for bearing such evill doers as blasphemers and Hereticks are I speak not against a true Christian liberty in things that are indifferent or in things that are not fundamental but I cannot but speak against this Antichristian licentiosness which is though under other terms so much pleaded for It may well make a dumb child speak when his Father is so deeply wounded in his Word Honour People and Ordinances as he is in our dayes If State-reason compel men to suffer it they must know that it will prove State-ruine Shall it be treason and death to speak thus and thus against men that are mortal weak Gods and shall it not at all be penal to blaspheme the Almighty and Everliving God in denying his Truths which are more worth then the whole world Surely Blasphemies Idolatry and Heresies sins against the first Table are greater as being more directly and immediately against God then sins against the second Table and therefore deserve punishments vide 1 Kings 18.18 Exod. 21.17 Levit. 24.10 to the 17. v. Job 31.25 26 27. Deut. 13. per totum though care should be first
consume but confirm Magistracy As a man I obey and honour the Magistrate for fear as a Christian for conscience sake so that Religion addeth a stronger tie and obligation The Scepter in Christs hand doth not strike the Crown of the Mastrates head No it maketh it sit the faster especially where their person is crowned with grace and the power improved for the glory of Christ One Ordinance of God doth not weaken but strengthen another I shall inquire a little and very briefly into the reasons which some urge against Magistracy and Order 1. Say some We are the Lords Freemen and and therefore should not be servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 Ye are bought with a price be not the servants of men Answer That place indeed forbiddeth sinful subjection to men but not civil subjection to men I may serve a Prince but I may not sin at his precept and command If men command what God forbiddeth I must disobey men to obey God Or that Text may import that I must give no man liberty to give my conscience laws No my absolute dependance for soul-direction must be only on Christ and his Word Those whom Christ makes free are free indeed but it is from bondage to their own and others lusts not from obedience to others righteous laws Objection 2. Some tell us They are just and need no law for they are a law to themselves Now laws say they are for them that are wicked 1 Tim. 1.9 The law is not made for the righteous but for the wicked Answer They that are so good that they need no laws for their correction live among the wicked and therefore need laws for their protection That forecited place in Timothy is meant of the Moral Law of which the Apostle testifieth that believers are free from its curse or malediction but surely not from it as a rule for their conversations The hearts of the best are bad enough and apt to wander therefore they need all means the hedge of mans laws as well as of Gods laws to keep them in Laws are hedges both to fence them in from others violence and to prevent their their wandering out Objection 3. Paul forbiddeth going to law 1 Cor. 6.1 2. therefore no use of a Magistrate Answer The Apostle doth not absolutely forbid going to law But 1. before Heathen Judges when godly Christians might have decided their differences and ended their controversies They that deny to refer their lighter causes to honest understanding persons give occasion to others to suspect both their causes and Christianity v. 1 3 4 5.2 Among brethren the very name of brethren should allay heats and charm discords v. 8. The nearer their relation though spiritual was the dearer their affection should have been and therefore the sinfuller their division 3. About trivial and small matters If Mahometans go to law for mean toys they are punished 4. With vindictive spirits whereas a Christian should go to law with a meek mild Gospel spirit without either hate or heat as Tilters break their spears on each others brest yet without wrath or intention of hurt So then it is not simply unlawfull to go to law before Heathen if right cannot be had elsewhere and the matter be weighty and we do it not out of spleen or malice but with meekness and quietness of spirit Objection 4. They tell us God is their Keeper therefore they need neither Law nor Magistrate for their defence Answer God is the good mans Keeper but how not immediately in an ordinary way but mediately As trust in God doth not consist with trust in means neither without use of means where God doth afford them for then Christ might have taken the Devils Counsel and have thrown himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple when God had afforded him stairs for his safe going down Saints are under the shadow of Gods wings principally He is their chief Sun and Shield Gen. 17.1 but they are under the shadow of the Gods wings subordinately they are the instrumentall shields of the earth Psal. 47.9 God can in regard of his absolute power protect his people without the shields of the earth against all the opposition from men as he can defend immediately from all the fiery darts of the Devil without the shield of faith or the sword of the spirit He needeth not the agency either of Magistrates in civil things nor Ministers in spiritual things but he hath ordained both It is his pleasure that both should in subordination to him be used and therefore neither can without sinning against him be neglected Objection 5. Say they we may not avenge our selves we must not render evil for evil but overcome evil with good Rom. 13. Answer Though a Christian must rather suffer then offer injuries yet he may nay must mind his own safety He may not unjustly offend his Brother but he may justly defend himself All private revenge is forbidden but the Magistrate is Gods Minister therefore as vengeance belongeth unto God so the Magistrate may in Gods place take revenge and one may implore his help as he may commit his cause to God so it be not done with a revengefull mind The meaning of the holy Scriptures is far different from the sense which the Apostate Julian put on them When he had taken away their estates he put them off with a mock Your Master said Blessed are the poor and when he had sorely beaten them with his hands he would wound them with his tongue saying Your Master said If one beat you on one cheek turn to him the other The Gospel certainly was never intended for a cross but a comfort to a Christian and though its principal aim be to further him spiritually yet it never designed to hinder him corporally by any of those commands Christ is more tender of his people then to thrust them into the world like sheep among ravenous Wolves and to deny them leave of calling to those civil shepherds to take care of them God hath for that end appointed Magistrates to be nursing-Fathers and nursing-Mothers to the children of God to be as tender of them as provident for them as helpfull to them as Parents to their children as Nurses to their Babes They are set up by God himself to be a wall upon which the weak Ivie of the Church may lean and by which it may be supported Thus we see that piety is not opposite to authority though that false surmise that Christians were enemies to the policy and government of Kingdoms was the cause of several of the Persecutions in the Primitive times And indeed the Devil and his agents suggest to Princes so much to alienate their affections from religious persons But though some monstrous bodies have brought forth such an hideous birth That Religion denyeth all Rule yet you see how far the Gospel is from being the Father of such a Child when it commandeth lawful obedience to Infidel Magistrates It establisheth
the first Table and surely doth not abolish the second And Calvin thinks that least believers should think themselves free from that yoak Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans to inform them of the contrary For it is very strange to conjecture that that God which is the God of order in the Churches should be a God of confusion in the Common-wealth No but the Original of this error is mans corrupt nature which hateth inclosures and banks and would have all common and level that he might run to excess of riot without any rubs or hinderances And thence it is that like waters stopt at a Bridge he roareth and maketh such a noise As the mad dog is enraged because of the chain that tieth him and the unruly Horse foameth and fretteth because of the Bridle that curbeth him So these men mad upon lust cannot endure to be chained by laws these furious Horses would have the reins on their own necks Secondly Those that in their practices contemn Magistracy sin against this ttruth discovered in the Text for they despise an Ordinance of God Rom. 13.2 Some sin in their words by uncivil disrespectfull language The corruption of their hearts breaks out of their lips These filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise dominions {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they opposed not so much the Officers as the Office not so much the Magistrate as Magistracy speak evil of dignities Jude ver. 8. they blaspheme glories It is blasphemy against the second Table Our wicked times are a wofull Comment on that Text Those persons and places which are honoured by the Spirit of God with glorious Titles are bespattered by them with dirty disgracefull language Because they could not by the power of their hands displace the Magistrate therefore with the poison of their tongues they did disgrace Magistracy These men begin to speak evil of the Gods and ordinarily end in speaking evil of God himself As Aretine by libellous and contumelious speaking against Princes came at length to disesteem God himself Observe how express the command of God is Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor speak evil of the Rulers of thy people Exod. 22.28 This text is quoted by Paul Acts 23.2 3.5 where he called the High Priest whited wall and afterwards said he wist not that he was the High Priest which words are very much controverted by Expositors Some think he spake Ironically because he saw nothing in him worthy of that office and because the Priesthood was now determined in Christ he did usurpe that Office which did not belong to him and probably he was some Surrogate brought in through the disorder of the times by some sinister practices Others and that to me more likely expound it thus I wist not I considered not I heeded not in my haste in heat I took not sufficient notice but termed him whited wall which words I acknowledge might well have been spared The opinion of Junius is that Paul did not know him to be the High Priest and therefore pleadeth his ignorance as at least an extenuation of his offence But whatever the sense of the words is this is clear that such as revile Princes disobey Gods precept Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor speak evil of the Rulers of thy people that is thou shalt not speak evil of them by reproach or calumny nor wish any evil to them by imprecation or curses Nay the Holy Ghost speaketh the persons guilty of this sin to be impudent audacious sinners 2 Pet. 2.10 They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities as if he had said If they had feared either God or man they would not have dared to commit this sin They were bold sinners indeed that durst spit their venom in the faces of the Gods and with the sword of their mouths adventure upon the mouth of the sword O to what an height of unholiness are they arrived that bring railing accusations against the Gods when the Arch-angel durst not bring one against the Devil Jude ver. 9. But their tongues are set fire on hell James 3.6 therefore no wonder if they are set against heaven Psal. 73.9 Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked and to Princes Ye are ungodly Job 34.18 The interrogation is a strong negation Kings must be courted with soft and silken language If Elias and Isaiah do otherwise they being moved extraordinarily are no copies for us to write after As some sin in their words by uncivil language so others in their works by their unseemly carriage towards the Magistrate Surely the world is near its end that there are so many dregs appearing such brutish persons in it that have not only banished piety but humanity They neither reverence the rulers nor honour the ancient How many are in their principles antiministerial and in their practices antimagistratical As Nazianzen observeth of the Arrians they began in blasphemous language against the Deity of Christ but ended in tumultuous carriage against the peace and tranquillity of the Common-wealth They plead for a Christian liberty with their mouths but the vote of their hearts carrieth it for an Antichristian licentiousness The time was when a Magistrate came by the young men that saw him hid themselves either for reverence of Jobs person or least they should fail in their respectfull behaviour towards him or least he should spie somewhat amiss in them and the aged arose and stood up in token of honour and to shew respect to him Job 29.8 but now the tide is turned We are fellow-creatures say some and therefore we must be fellow-beasts taking no notice of nor shewing any respect to one more then another But now saith Job they that are younger then I have me in derision whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flocks and now I am their Song yea their by-word they abhor me they flee from me they spit in my face Job 30.1 9 10. So low indeed are they whom God hath set on high through the pride and prophaneness of mens hearts One observeth of the Persians that when they came into the presence of their Prince they drew their hands into their sleeves in token of reverence and loyalty But how many Christians come short of heathen and that which is saddest of all under the pretence of religion But such must know that by contemning such men they contemn God They have not rejected thee saith God to Samuel but they have rejected me 1 Sam. 8.7 not so much thee who art but my Minister as my self who being their Supream Lord do rule by thee as my Deputy As Magistracy is Gods Ordinance by despising this order which is by divine appointment they despise its author as Magistrates are the resemblance of his glory Gods Glories by contemning the picture they contemn the person and they that thus dishonour God shall belightly esteemed by him They