such love as that which Christ shew'd to the world and was there ever any carriage so unworthy and so unsufferable as that which Christ receives from the World We have the Type of this in the Nation of the Jews You know God did wonderfully for that people brought them out of Egypt by an out stretched arm and carried them through the wilderness by a continual miracle and then setled them in a pleasant land such a land as could not for all things be matched by any upon earth might not now God expect think you eminent love and service from such a people but when they come into the good land they presently defile it with their Idolatries they forget the workes of God and as the Prophet Jeremy expresseth it They say not where is the Lord that brought us out of the Land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness c. So after all the wonderfull works of power and love that Christ hath wrought for the redemption of man and for the setling him in an heavenly inheritance Oh how much is this Christ forgotten How few are there that say where is this Jesus that hath done these things Oh where is he that we may adorn him that we may embrace him that we may devote our selves and all that we are and have to him Ah must not this be for a Lamentation this day may we not lament upon Christs account that he should be so much despised and his service neglected and upon the worlds account that they should no better understand their own Interest then to be serving other Masters and cast him off But to come a little nearer home May not we particularly mourn over our selves and the Nation this day Oh the mercies that England hath received But have we not too soon too soon forgotten them Hath God been served under his mercy and served with his mercy as he should have been Do we ask after the God of our mercies and say Where is the God of all these mercies Where is that God that delivered us from the Bondage of Popery and Superstition in Queen Marys days and from those ensnaring Ceremonies and superstitious Innovations in the late Prelats days Where is that God that appeared for us at Keintâ—n Newberry Naseby Dunbar Worcester c Might not God promise himself that when he had delivered us out of the hands of our enemies we would serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life But do we so And that when he had delivered us from those innovations that were intruded into his Worship he should have a pure worship and pure Ordinances set up amongst us and a joyful and holy walking in them But is it thus And that when once the danger of Saints meeting together called Conventicling was removed they would fall into a sweet and blessed communion and fellowship among themselves But alas is it thus As also might not God expect that those which suffered together and were delivered together should joyn heart and hand together to promote the common Interest of Christ against the Common Enemy But is this found amongst us God told the Jews Zach. 8. 19. that he would deliver them and turn the Fasts of the fourth fifth and seventh moneth into joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts and that therefore they should love the Truth and Peace God hath done much toward our deliverance we must not we dare not deny it we inherit the fruit of the Prayers and blood of many of his precious Saints But after all Do we love the Truth and Peace Is Truth embraced Is Peace preserved Nay Is not the light of Truth darkned by pernicious Errors and the beauty of Peace sadly defaced by unhappy divisions And must not these things be for a Lamentation this day I remember when the Book of Sports came out in the late Kings days there was a general lamentation among the good people of the Land and a holy zeal for the spiritual observation of the Christian Sabbath But now How many have set their Consciences free from any such duty and others are running back to the Jewish Sabbath and that more then every one is aware of And the first step to fall to the latter must be the casting off the former Vse 3 That which I shall next infer from the Truth in hand is with all seriousness to exhort and beseech that that which is our greatest work may be most minded And seeing that Honoured in the Lord you have appointed us to be this day your SPEAKERS to speak to God for you and to speak from God to you give me leave to enjoy that which is the Priviledge of this House to speak freely And I shall be bold to speak to you as standing before the Lord this day in a threefold capacity 1. As Men. 2. As Christians 3. As Magistrates and the TRVSTEES of the three Nations First I shall speak to you as men and as men you are engaged to serve the Lord For First Have you not received your Beings from him Hath not he made you and not you your selves Doth not then the Law of Creation engage you to serve him by whom you are or else you had never been There are certain Duties which Divines call Natural Worship which the light of Nature doth dictate to men and are due to him by the very Law of Creation as to love God fear him trust him so also to serve him and refer our actions to him which God never did nor never will dispense with to the sons of men So that he that lives in the world and is not truly serving God in the world this man sins against the very Dictates of natural light and against the Original and Fundamental right which God claims to us as being his creatures and the work of his hands Shalâ— the thing that is formed say to him that formed it What hast thou to do with me And wherein am I indebted to thee Shall not God enjoy his own Creature And doth he enjoy it if it is not serving him Secondly As man was made by the Lord so he was made peculiarly for the Lord He made the rest of the Creation to serve man but he made man to serve himself He furnish'd him with such Faculties of mind that rendred him capable of knowing praising and serving his Creator and is there but this one creature in this lower world that God made peculiarly to serve him and shall he be disappointed in that one Nay shall the rest of the Creatures keep their station and serve their end and man not serve his When God would Arraigne a people that was rebellious against him he calls Heaven and Earth to hearken Isa 1. 2. Hear O Heavens and hearken O Earth Why What strange thing hath God to bring forth Why this I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me As if he had said Is there such a thing to be
Lord where we have first the Act serve and the Object about which it is conversant The Lord. The Act Serve The word Service as applyed to God or Christ is taken either more strictly for that service we perform when we are upon some part of his instituted worship as prayer hearing c. and so is enjoyned in the second Commandement and is so taken Acts 26. 7. Or else it is taken more largely for any duty of Christianity any action of mans life which he performes in obedience to the will of God and subordination to his glory and so it takes in all the other 9. commandements and is thus used Rom. 12. 11. And as I conceive also in the Text. Then for the Object The Lord. In the Heb. Jehovah And whether it is God the Father here spoken of or Christ who is the King mentioned before that was set up and the Son that is to be kissed though it is somwhat controverted among Expositors yet I think it not material to spend time about it seeing we cannot serve one aright but we must serve both the Son as in the Father and the Father as in the Son And then for the persons that are thus more particularly admonisht to serve the Lord they are Kings and Judges men that sit at the upper end of the world The eminency of their place doth not the more acquit them but rather the more ingage them to service Though they be Kings yet there is a King eminently above them from whom their power is derived upon them and therefore they must serve If they be Judges yet there is a Judg higher then they before whose tribunal they must stand and be judged and therefore they must be serving So that the main propositions from hence resulting which I shall insist upon is this Doct. That the great work that every man hath to do in this world especially those that are set down in places of power and seat of judgement is To be serviceable to the Lord. This is the work we come into the world for and if this be not done we shall give but a sad account of our lives to the Lord. God made all creatures for service the Sun Moon and Stars for service the Clouds the Air the Fire the Earth for service c. but much more Man And it is a monster in nature for the creature not to serve its end As for the Sun and Stars above to confine their light within themselves and not to send it down upon the world for the clouds to hold in their moisture and not to resolve it upon the earth for the earth to imprison its fatness and virtue within its selfe and not send it forth in grass corn and fruit for the use of man and beast would not this be a monstrous thing in the world So for man to be serving himself with those powers and abilities that God hath put into him and not the Lord is a thing as absurd and anomalous Look through the whole Creation you shall not find any creature that was made for it self every creature is serving some end without it self So is man much more made for an end without himself which is to serve the Lord. So that Right Honourable my work I come upon this day amongst you is to put you in mind of your Debt I mean that Homage Duty Service and Subjection which you all do owe to the Lord and which must be paid by every one of you for though the Debt of Satisfaction which through sin we owe to the justice of God he remit it for Christs sake to his people yet the Debt of Service which we owe to his glory he neither hath remitted it or ever will remit it to any of the sons of men But that we may a little understand what it is to serve the Lord take this twofold distinction There is a serving God either mediately or more immediately First As to the Mediate Service The whole Creation serveth God by and through man the creatures without reason without sence and without life do serve their Creator as they hold forth to man such footsteps of his glory wherein he may admire praise and glorifie him The greatness of the works of God shew forth his greatness their beauty his beauty their perfection his perfection their order and workmanship his infinite wisdom their course and motion his providence in the world Or else they serve God through man as they serve to maintain him in his Life and Being which being maintained are to be subordinated to the Lord and to his service The Sun sends down its influence that man might live the clouds distil their moisture that man might live the Sea sends forth its waters that man might live the Earth brings forth its fruit that man might live all do serve the life of man that the life of man might serve the Lord. 2. There is a more immediate serving God and so there are but two sorts of creatures Angels and Men whose service can immediaâ—ely refer to God For no other creatures are capable of an immediate application of themselves to him They have not understanding to know him Wills to close with him and so not capable of applying themselves to him or looking at him in any thing they do The second Distinction is this There is a serving the Lord ex Intentione and praeter Intentionem 1. Praeter Intentionem or accidental as to him that serveth and so wicked men who thought of nothing less then serving God yet have eminently served him As Nebuchadnezar King of Babylon served a great service for God against Tyrus Ezek 29. 18 19 20. and God gave him the land of Egypt for his wages though he intended nothing less then to serve God in that Designe And so the King of Assyria was employed by God to execute his vengeance upon the hypocritical Nation of the Jews Howbeit saith the Text he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so as you read Isa 10. 6 7. And so when Baasha executed the vengeance threatned upon the house of Jeroboam 1 King 15. 29. and when Zimri executed the vengeance threatned upon Baâ—sha 1 Kings 16. 12. and when Jehu executed the judgement of God upon the house of Ahab it was service done for God though they did not do it with an intention of serving him yea the most eminent Prophesies upon Record have been fulfilled besides the intention of the instruments As that of Christ's being crucified for the redeeming of the world Pilate and the Jews thought of nothing less then the fulfilling the counsel of the Lord in what they did or in serving his decrees or his glory therein though they were eminently served hereby 2. There is a serving God ex Intentione when the mind and heart of man respect God in what he doth And this is the service that God calls for and the Text calls for and doth alone find acceptance with God Now to this
found out in the whole Creation that any creature which God had made maintained and shewed his power and goodness in should rebel against him O Heavens Is there any such thing to be found with you O Earth Is there any such thing to be found in thee May not the Heavens and the Luminaries above rise up against man and say We have observed our place kept our distances runs our race poured down our influences according to the Law set us in our Creation May not the Earth rise up and say I have stood firm upon my Basis I have brought forth my increase I have been serviceable to man's being and man's dâ—light by those varieties of fruits I have brought forth to him sweet to his taste fragrant to his smâ—ll and beautiful to his fight and that with a new Edition every year Here are now the creatures serving thee O man and what art not thou serving the Lord Do they hand up that service which they owe to thee and wilt not thou hand up that service which thou owest to God Shall the work stick at thee What at thee It is observable that which we read in Gen. 1. That God did not say of the works that he had made that they were very good until he had made man he saw them to be good before but now very good for God had now made a creature that was to be the lord of the Creation and that was made capable of bringing in to him the glory of his works and so took the greater pleasure in them upon that account and therefore man ought to be careful that God be not disappointed in him Thirdly It is mans Excellency and Glory to serve the Lord. The excellency of every thing lies in its serving its end as of a knife in cutting a pen in writing c. Now man being made for the Lord as his end it is his excellency to be serving him It is natural to man to seek after Excellency Omne desiderium ad superiora tendit Some men seek for it in a great estate others in Rule and Dominion others in Wisdom and Learning c. according to mens several Constitutions and Apprehensions so they seek after several excellencies but true excellency consists in a mans upright and faithful serving his End He that doth most eminently serve the Lord in his generation this man doth most excel Solomon saith Prov. 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent thâ—n his Neighbour and this is the thing wherein he excels because it is he only that is serving the Lord. In other things his neighbour may excel him The commendation that God gives to Moses at his Funeral was this that he was the servant of the Lord Gen. 34. 5 6. So Moses the servant of the Lord died and he buried him in a Valley in the land of Moab c. The Spirit of God might have stiled him Moses the Honourable Moses the Prince Moses the Scholar Moses the Beautiful But this was Moses his chief excellency that he was the Servant of the Lord. Though other excellencies may commend man more to the world yet this is that which commends man to God Fourthly Consider this not to serve the Lord is the highest Injustice We with-hold that from God which is his Due For service is a debt that we owe him and shall we dare to rob God What saith the Prophet Malachy chap. 3. ver 8. Will a man rob God Scarce could there be found among the Heathen any so profane and sacrilegious as to dare to rob their gods though they were but dumb Idols and shall any man dare then to rob the living God To give away that service to Mammon to Satan to encroaching lusts which of due belongs unto him Give unto Caesar the things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods Caesar expects to have his due if men do not give it Caesar will take it and what then shall not God much more have his due And will he not severely require it at their hands that do with-hold it Parliaments are the Supreme Courts of Justice the Fountains from whence Justice and Judgement are to run down like a stream throughout the Nation and shall you Right Honourable you that are Fountains of Justice be guilty of that high Injustice your selves as not to resign up your selves and all that you are and have to the service of God which is the debt you owe him and the Due he expects from you Fifthly Again Consider this for I yet speak to you as men if ye do not serve the Lord this is that which will destroy you for if a thing will not serve its end we cast it away If a Pen will not write if a Knife will not cut if a Needle will not sowe we cast them away for what are they good for when they do not serve their End So when we plant a Tree to bring forth Fruit and it become barren we cut it down and make fuel of it for the fire it doth not answer our end So hath God made man to be as a Tree of Righteousness to bring forth the fruit of service and obedience to him and if he proves barren and serves not God's end Will he not say as Christ of the barren Fig-tree Cut it down Why cumbreth it the ground Luke 13. 7. Those men shall become fuel to God's Justice that will not be servants to his will and glory Was not this that which destroyed the old World The Lord had made man to serve himself but when the Lord saw that mankind was degenerated and that they were become a generation of Rebels the Lord repented that he made him as we repent of any work we have done when therein we do not attain our end And hereupon it was that God destroyed him from off the face of the Earth It is a true saying In nihilum valet quod non valet in finem suum That is good for nothing that doth not avail to its end So that as we would not be cast away and cut down and destroyed it doth concern us to be careful that we serve our end which is to serve the Lord. Sixthly In the next place consider If a man doth not serve the Lord he is spending his money for that which is not bread and his labour for that which satisfieth not For if a man doth not serve the Lord the fruit that he will reap of all his other service will not satisfie him Every man expects when he comes to receive the fruit of his travel to find somthing that may be as bread for his foul to feed upon and be satisfied now no travel no labour but that which is expended in serving God will bring in that fruit which may give rest to the soul of man because it can fetch him in but some Finite good which is too narrow to satisfie the soul Solomon in the Book called the Ecclesiastes gives us a Catalogue
in your own eyes and the lower you are thus the more will God delight to honour you and the more honour he puts upon you the lower be you still As we read of Moses Gideon David Salomon yea and Saul when the Lord came to call them forth to publick work and put honour upon them then were they lowest in their own eyes God delights to work by such Instruments that are low in their own eyes yea that may be low in the eyes of others that glory may bee his alone And to be serviceable in your Generation to Christ his People and the Nations whereof you are the Messengers if you please at your leisure to peruse the following Discourse you shall find it to be your greatest Interest â—nd your Truest Wisdom and as I have in my Sâ—â—â—on endeavoured to discover it so that you may eminently attain it shall be the earnest prayer of him who would fain approve himself to be the Faithful Servant of Jesus Christ and of Your Honours in him MATTHEW BARKER THE FAITHFUL And VVise Servant Delivered in a Sermon preached before the Parliament at their late Fast January 9. 1656. From Psal 2. 10 and part of Vers 11. Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth Serve the Lord with fear c. THis Psalm is an eminent Prophesie of the Kingdom of the Messiah and so acknowledged by the Jews themselves although it agree to David's Kingdom in the letter yet David's Kingdom was not set up so much for it self as to be a type and shaddow of another Kingdom to be set up after it in the world And though it be the most blessed Kingdom that ever arose and set up on purpose for the delivery and salvation of man yet when it came to be set up the whole world in a manner rose up against it In the Psalm we have 1. A Distribution of the persons the several sorts of men that stood up in opposition to it As first The common people and that both of Gentiles Why do the Heathen rage and of Jews And the people imagine a vain thing verse 1. And secondly The Kings and Rulers of the earth The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed v. 2. 2. He shews implicitely at least wherein they do especially oppose it viz. in the Laws Statutes and Ordinances of it Let us break their Bands asunder and cast away their Cords from us verse 3. This Kingdom comes to lay bands upon men to lay Laws and yokes upon the lusts and licentious nature of man which he cannot bear 3. He shews what success they meet with in their opposition as it is a bad work so it meets with as bad success for it is said 1. God laughs at them As a company of mad-men busying themselves about their own ruine vers 4. He that sits in the Heavens shall laugh at them 2. He speaks to them and that in his wrath he gives them warning to forbear as in vers 5. Before he falls upon them he doth admonish them of several things As 1. That it was his King they oppose a King that he himself had set up as in vers 6. 2. A King also setled and established by his Decree as in vers 7. 3. The King also was his own Son Thou art my Son And he tells them the particular time of his Instalment to day This day have I begotten thee Which the Apostle applies Acts 13. 33. to the day of Christs resurrection for though Christ was anointed before yea he was born a King yet he came not into the full possession and execution of his Kingly office until his Resurrection As the Apostle asserts Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of quick and dead Yea and Christ himself attests it Matt. 28. 18. where he speakes after his resurrection All power is given me both in Heaven and Earth 4. He tels them he was a King that he had given universal Lordship and dominion to I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession vers 8. These things they are told by way of admonition but when this prevailes not then Lastly he falls upon them and he breakes them in pieces Thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel as vers 9. Now in the three last verses of the Psalm he makes application of the whole preceding discourse and applies it particularly to the Rulers and Governours of the Earth either because they are the most likely to oppose the Kingdom of Christ as fearing it might clash with their earthly and secular interests as Herod did Or else because their subjecting to it is likely to make a fair way for its entertainment throughout the world And he applies it by way of serious advise and counsel to them 1. First he adviseth them to be wise and well instructed as it behoves men in power to be men of wisdom Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth vers 9. 2 He tels them wherein they are to declare their wisdom Serve the Lord with fear rejoyce with trembling Kiss the Son which he presseth by a double argument 1. Ab incommodo from the great evil and mischief that was likely to ensue in case they did not thus Least he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little 2. Ab utili from the great and blessed advantage that would follow upon it in case they did Blessed are all they that put their trust in him Thus you have in brief the Analysis of the Psalm But I must go back to my Text which is nothing else as I said but a piece of serious and wholsome Counsel administred to the Rulers and Governours of the world whether higher or lower more fixed or transient about their comportment towards Christ and his Kingdom when he is setting it up in the world And though this word was spoken by David many hundred yea thousands of years ago yet it speaks now as much as ever and is this day brought though by a mean instrument within your walls and speakes to you In the Text we have considerable 1. The matter or the substantial part of the Counsel which is Serve the Lord. 2. Here are the persons to whom it is particularly directed the Kings and Judges of the Earth they are the persons especially admonisht to serve the Lord. 3. Here is the manner how the Lord is to be served Serve the Lord with fear 4. Here is the motive or argument whereby this Counsel is enforced And that is This will be their Wisdom hereby they will shew themselves wise men men well instructed 1. First I shall speak to the matter or substance of the Counsel which is serve the
the World may offer yet God doth infinitely out-bid them what they offer is but a piece of light and fading vanity but what God offers is a weight an eternal weight of glory The Reward must needs be great because God rewards not only according to mans work but according to the riches of his own grace and bounty A great King accounts it his shame to give a mean reward he must do all things like himself It is said Heb. 11. 16. of those believing Patriarchs God was not ashamed to be called their God why for saith the Text he hath prepared for them a City that is if God had not well provided for them if he had not prepared a glorious habitation for them somewhat like himself he might have been ashamed to be called their God so This Reward excels in the sureness of it It will certainly come Though we may fail of success in our work yet we shall not misse the reward of it as the Prophet Isaiah speaks Isai 49. 4. I have laboured in vain there he mist his success yet my judgment is with the Lord and my works with my God there he finds the reward And it is the Apostles argument 1 Cor. 15. ult let us abound in the work of the Lord and the Argument is not only because there is a reward but the reward is sure as knowing that our labour is never in vain in the Lord. It is true God doth defer it at least the greatest part of it but why is it that he might learn us to live upon Trust He having given us such a sure promise he may presume that we have enough to support and encourage us though the reward be for a season deferred Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 10. 35 Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward Oh but we do not see the recompence we possess it not therefore he adds yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry and the just shall live by faith 2. The second work of the spirit is a work of mortification Mans selfish nature must be mortified else he will be serving himself and not the Lord. That life in a believer that serves the Lord springs out of the death of his carnal life as man ceaseth to be his own so doth he come to serve the Lord and live to him The message that Moses carried to Pharaoh from the Lord was this Let my people go that they may serve me they must go out of the Land of Egypt and from under the power of Pharaoh that they might serve the Lord. So must man go out of that selfish nature that keeps him in bondage and out of the power of the infernal Pharaoh before he can be capable of serving God And this is done in us by the Spirit that smites those enemies that held us in bondage that we might go forth into the liberty of serving God pride must be smitten and self-love must be smitten and unbelief must be smitten c. before any man doth indeed enter into the Lords service No man saith Christ can serve two Masters especially two Masters whose commands are contradictory now every lust is a Master which man is serving and till the Spirit crucifie them man cannot be serving Jesus Christ 3. The third work is a work of renovation The faculties of the soul must pass under a spiritual renovation before they can be fit to serve the Lord. For I am not of their opinion who think that if lust be mortified the soul would of it self return into its primitive course as a river that is stopt if you remove the dam it runs of it self or a stone that hangs in the ayr by a string if you cut the string of it self it falls to the centre but there must be aliquid divinitus infusum a principle infused from above to act it towards the Lord and in his service Lust it is a confining thing it makes man dwell at home and serve himself but grace is enlarging it lets man out of himself and brings him home to the Lord and to the service of the Lord. He that is a fit servant for a Prince must have many accomplishments to fit him for it And so would I dwell here I might shew you how many things are necessary to accomplish a man for the Lords service as Faith Love Hope Humility Self denyal c. are all necessary that he may be a vessel of honour prepared for his Masters 2 Tim. 2. 21. use For natural accomplishments may fit a man for the service of man but man must be accomplisht from Heaven to fit him for the Lords service But I passe Use 2 That which I infer next from the Doctrine as more suitable to the day is matter of Lamentation Ah may we not mourn over our selves mourn over the City mourn over the Nation yea mourn over the world that that which is mans great work is laid aside as if it was none of his work at least other work hath the praeeminence Oh that the Devil that hath no true right to us for he neither made us nor bought us and that payes no wages but death and misery and that the lusts of the flesh to which as the Apostle saith we are no debtors yet these should have more real more free more chearful service then God then Christ to whom we are indebted by so manifold ingagements and obligations This is true but ah is it not sad Hath not Christ think you better deserved of the World Hath he not Might not Jesus Christ promise himself that after he had manifested such stupendious love as to lay down his life for an undone world that they should be so amazed so ravisht with this love as to be ambitious who should love him most and honour him most and serve him most that the very naming the name of Christ should be argument enough to provoke them to ingage in any service for him Yea and after he had laid down the price of his blood the greatest price that Heaven or Earth could give to purchase us might he not promise himself that the Sons of men would no longer be their own but his wholly his But alasse we see nothing lesse then this in the world Men after all this are their own live to themselves serve themselves and Christ and his service both are despised and rejected of men may not Heaven and Earth even tremble and be astonisht at this Or when men are serving Christ do they serve him with the best do they serve him with such life and vigour as they serve themselves and the world do not they bring him the lame the blind the torn the maymed as if any thing was good enough for Christ as Jeroboam made Priests of the lowest of the People so do men think the lowest of their affections the very dreg of their time and strength good enough for God Was there ever
disturbances Yea if the people will not come to hear it preached but be spending their time in drinking and revelling and the like when they should be attending upon it he may command them to give their attendance upon it at least in one place or another especially such as own the Christian profession as we do generally in this Nation 3. He is not only to remove obstructions but he ought to countenance and encourage the true Preachers and Ministers of the Gospel in their preaching and the Professors of the Gospel in their profession He is to take them under the wing of his Government and to protect them in their just Liberties against all opposers and to furnish them with convenient places for their meetings and publique Worship and to provide what maintenance may be necessary for the furtherance of the preaching the Gospel and spreading of it as Constantine did in his time And all this he is to do because of that Supream Right that the Gospel hath from him that is the King of the Earth to be published in the world 4. But lastly He may also upon the same account inhibite the divulging and propagating of any principles opinions or religion so called which will directly tend to the undermining and subverting of this Gospel For it is only the true Gospel that hath a right to be propagated and received in the world So that the Magistrate is under no ingagement to any Religion but the true Religion any Gospel but the true Gospel any profession but the true profession for that only hath a right as I said to be propagated and entertained So that if any man will come and preach another Gospel then what the Apostles had a commission from Christ to preach and will preach such Doctrine as will tend to the undermining of it The Magistrate is under no ingagement to give to that liberty much lesse countenance but rather to restrain it because it is not that Gospel and that true revelation of the mind of God which he hath decreed to be entertained of men If a man will come and preach up Paganisme Turcisme Judaisme Papisme yea and to go farther Pelagianisme Socinianisme or Arminianisme in the grosser points of it and claim liberty and protection from the Magistrate in so doing let him shew by what right he would claim this liberty for where can he shew that ever any man had a commission from Christ to preach up these religions or opinions in the world I would be understood to speak only of those opinions that do undermine the true Gospel and that way of truth which God hath revealed for the salvation of the world and which may be accounted in the number of those Heresies that are damnable and not of lesser mistakes either in point of Doctrine or Discipline wherein the godly both have and may differ for in things that are doubtful or not fully certain there ought to be a forbearance least the truth be restrained in stead of errour Neither have I pleaded for the punishing of any mans person meerly because he holds this or that opinion what I have said is that the Magistrate is under no ingagement to errour as errour or to give liberty to the spreading of those opinions that rase the Foundation of our Christian Religion Object 1. But there are such câ—ntroversies in religion that we know not how to be sure what is a truth or what is errour and so we may oppose truth in stead of errour and make way to errour in stead of truth Answer Are we not sure that the Christian Religion is the true Religion if we are not sure of that we leave our soules in a desperate hazard and lie sadly open to the snares and temptations of the Devil and of men Cunning to deceive But if you say you are sure the Christian Religion is the true Religion may you not then be sure also of those great truths which are as the pillars upon which it stands May we not be sure that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah and that he was really in the nature of man and that in that nature he suffered death for the Redemption of the world May we not be sure that he is risen from the dead and lives for ever making intercession in that nature wherein he died and that he will come again to judg the world May we not be sure that the Scripâ—ures are the written word of God and the rule of our Faith and obedience by which all light in the hearts or Doctrines of men is to be examined Again may we not be sure that we are justified by Faith and not by the works of the Law May not we be sure that there shall be a Resurrection of mens bodies at the last day and that some shall rise to eternal life and others to go into everlasting fire c. If we cannot be sure of such things as these my preaching may be vain and your Faith also vain Object But the Magistrate is not to determine what is truth and what is errour Answ 1. I do not say he is â—o determine yet I say he is to be instructed as the Text speaks and to know which is the true Religion and the great truths upon which it is built and when he knows them he is to give freedom countenance and what furtherance he may to them And if some Magistrates have through ignorance or prejudice turned their power against the truth yet it was their duty to have improved their power for it in those wayes and upon that ground that I before mentioned His ignorance and inability to discharge his duty doth not at all exempt him from it Thus I have shewn briefly and I hope clearly wherein the Magistrate may befriend the Gospel and the true Religion and so upon that account be serving the Lord. There are other things also of another nature wherein he may serve the Lord As in suppressing open vice and wickedness putting down those houses that are the nourishers and maintainers of them I mean disorderly Ale-houses and Taverns whereof we have yet too too great a store every where Something I perceive hath been done upon that account in the Countries and I could wish they were a little more narrowly lookt after in the City God had a sad controversie with Eli though a good man that when his Sons did wickedly he restraind them not He 1 Sam. 3. 13. was a Magistrate and though he could not change their hearts yet he might have restraind their practise And I think this will somewhat befriend the Gospel and the passage of it among us And then as for other things wherein you may serve the Lord as Enacting righteous Laws doing justice and judgment relieving the opprest establishing the Liberties of the Nation so far as may consist with the just liberties of the people of God and the security of that cause wherein the godly of the Nation have been and yet are