the Lord answer you both not according to the righteousness of the best of you but according to his infinite love and mercy Have you love to your own fellow-members why behold him more Christian-like flowing in bowels of love and care of all Saints as Saints yea in in pity and admirable patience towards you forbearing to revenge injuries upon you and retort your own unkinde dealings bearing with your imprudencies and stopping his ears at the report of your disorders Which puts me in mind of what I have read of Augustus the Emperour That when the Senate informed him of what some had said of him Tush said he Non tantum habemus otii We are not at leisure to listen to every slander that is raised against us So bad reports like the mis-haps of Job seldome freeing his Threshold in these latter times of the sad and unchristian invectives because they come from such as call themselves good men are slighted away by him ever being as 't is said of Severus another Emperour more carefull of what is to be done by him then of what is said of him Let me ask you Would you demean your selves so towards such as should so bitterly oppose you were you in his place and power Truly I fear you would not Let me offer you Chrysostomes Lesson for your edification herein who in an Homily upon those words Chrysost 13 Hom. ad pop Antioch Mat. 7.12 thus descants Those things ye would have others do to you do ye to them q. d. There needs not many words let thine own Will be thy Law would you receive benefits bestow benefits would you have mercy be mercifull would you be commended commend others would you be beloved then love Be you the Judge your self be you the Lawgiver of your own life That which you hate do not to another Cannot you endure reproach do not you reproach others Cannot you endure to have others envy you do not you envy others c. But to return These wonders of the Lords mercies were neither done in a corner nor out of memory For as Moses said to the Children of Israel Deut. 11.2 so may I say to you I speak not with your Children which have not known and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God his greatness his mighty hand and his stretched out arm 3 and his miracles and his acts which he hath wrought for you c. 7. But your eyes have seen them c. Deut. 5.3 Therefore are you bound in a more especial manner to return love obedience and thankfulness to him for the same as it follows in the Chapter because you are not onely Eye-witnesses but living Monuments of his mercy Engl. Annot in locum Psal 148.13 14. your fathers being cut off for their murmuring Oh! let not your teeth be set on edge with your fathers sowre grapes but offer him a willing sacrifice of praise and due acknowledgement as I doubt not many a serious heart doth at this day who have all these mercies fairly written on their hearts in an indelible character and send up many a secret return to God for them and do not cease to pray that the Lord will mercifully incline the heart of our conquering Governour as an instrument in his place to be conquered by the perfect way of his blessed Rule and therein by the Law of Love still and make him still as singular for moderation and tenderness as his success hath proclaimed him famous for Valour And as it is our duty to wish and desire this for him so we are bound to give thanks to the Almighty Lord for his great mercy in so ordering his heart for the time past and giving hopes for the future that our Liberty if we use it not as an occasion to the flesh may be still preserved by him and that we and all that desire to live a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty under him may be encouraged protected and countenanced and so by the special direction of God in his pious choice under others until he please to come whose right it is to Govern and take the Diadem as in order thereunto he hath promised Ezek. 21.27 who when he comes will chain up Satan burn up our dross and make us free indeed And therefore O my discontented Friends you that have nor one good thought for the Power that God hath placed over you in the midst of this great Liberty and Peace which you now enjoy under it and could not a few years since so much as hope it Deut. 8. Beware lest while you thus quarrel with your mercies you forget not also the Lord your God that hath done these great things for you Truly Isa 1.3 4. Many favors which God bestows upon us ravel out for want of hemming by thankfulness for though Prayer purchaseth Blessings giving Praise doth keep the quiet possession of them Fuller I am afraid to think how soon we can forget the Lords goodness deliverances gracious dealings towards us ah how quickly are they put behinde our backs slighting them lessening them or at least in such hands even while they are yet as it were between our teeth expecting new even while we are exceedingly on the score to God for the old How Jesurun like do the rich mercies of our dear Lord wantonize rather then humble Deut. 32.15 while rage in the unlimited reyns of our wills disturbs the heads and hearts of our Neighbours O! how froward and peevish are we with Gods blessed all-wise dispensations if God will not go our way or our pace act as we dare even in our pitifull dark narrow conjectures chalk out the truth how angry are we presently with second Causes as the main obstruction O! will ye live and die in base ingratitude to God and Man Once give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods due acknowledgements to both The Jews have a saying That the World stands upon three things the Law Holy Worship and Retribution and if these things fall the World will fall If the murmuring ungratefull Jews shall exceed Christians nay if herein they shall turn Christians who should be ever humble and thankfull and the Christians turn Jews stiff-necked and murmurers we may say either the World is falling or turning up-side-down It is said Judg. 2.7 That the people served the Lord in all due acknowledgements and fear not onely all the days of Joshua but also all the days of the Elders that out-lived Joshua who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel But alas we forsake our own mercies Jonah 2.8 even while we enjoy them are we not then worse then Jews So much dishonouring the God of our mercies and weakning what in us lies his faithfull Instrument that formerly did so freely venter life and limb and what was dearest to him to purchase this your liberty and
thiâ— censure upon had not the honour of God and truâ— Christian duty more then ambition to have beeâ— this way taken notice of thus exposed it My purpose therefore was not if I could to compose affectedly but plainly which the truly Christian a whose like I chiefly aim will best like and yeâ— with Augustine I can say Ita stylo moderabor ut huic operi in Dei voluntate peragendo nec eaâ— quae supersint dicam l. 17. de Civit. Dei cap 1. nec ea quae satis sunt prae termittam My care hath been according to mâ— ability so to temper my style that neither thing superfluous should be inserted Si cui legere non placet nemo compâ—lliâ— inviâ—um was Hierom's mind Jul Caesar nor things necessaâ—â— omitted For the Critical and Captious I nevâ—â— yet thought them worthy the notice there are Booâ—â— enough already extant that will fit their humouâ— of less importance but if they will needs be barâ—ing at me let them know I am professedly a straâ—ger to them and therefore I neither care nor woâ—der Jacta est alea as the Emperour said I haâ—â— put it to the hazard I value their applause a censure alike Jewel against Harding faults will escape a man betwixt his fingers let him look to it never so narrowly said a worthy Defender of the truth Some plain Soloecisms and harsh expressions have been found in Tullies own works Aug. and many more no doubt in mine which is not written to teach but to practise more But lest I should be upbraided most of all with the City of Myndus for making my Porch too big I conclude assuring thee Reader that all these things were duly weighed before hand and how I should incur almost every mans displeasure and * Viz. That I am a Court Sycophant That I cite Popish and Prophane Authors That I am fallen from my Profession That I write this to get Honours and Riches and an hundred such uncharitable imputations But O! my God I appeal to thee who hast given me mercy to be faithfull 1 Cor. 4.3 Job 34.29 censure But while I was musing hereon the fire brake out it was so much on my heart lest I should be sinfully silent in this general distemper that I could no ways longer conceal it and be faithfull The Lord Jesus for whose sake I am now entred upon the Stage in this Iron Age bless these my unbyassed endeavours to the honour of his Name the taking off some unchristian imputations which by imprudence and lustfull exorbitancies have sullied the bright face of Religion and the settlement of some sober heart or other in their most Christian duty towards Authority Amen C. D. Vindiciae Magistratuum OR A sober Plea for Subjection to the present Governours and Government NOt Syllogistically to enwrap my Grounds and Reasons for submission to present Authority In legendis libris non quaeramus scientiam sed saporem saith Beru from the understanding of the meanest capacity nor with flowers of Oratory strains of Wit or elaborated Sentences to deck the Truth whose nakedness is beauty far above all give me leave immediately to aver which surely were enough if I should say no more Argu ∣ ment That it is our Duty to obey the Powers and Authorities under whom we live Because it is the Lords express will and command that we should do so For proof of this I find the Holy Ghost in his declarative will the holy Scriptures thus energetically delivering it Rom. 13. Let every soul be subject unto the higher Powers 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 and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Wherefore ye must needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake vers 1 2 3 c. Let me crave your patience a little in the breaking open this Text and see how each word affords us a most manifest proof of our assertion In these verses c. the Apostle having before forbidden to recompence evil and to avenge our selves V. 12. teacheth that Magistrates are set up of God to be his Ministers for that end and therefore we ought to reverence and obey Governours which are so helpfull to mankind Wilson Now the reasons that moved Paul to make as it were a set Treatise touching the honour due unto Rulers are First to stop the mouthes of such as affirm the Gospel of Christ to be an enemy to Authority Pet. Martyr as Christians were slandered in the Apostles time Secondly in respect of the Jews who being free-born of Abraham and Gods peculiar people did seek to shake off the yoke of the Romans that were now their Lords Thirdly Because it might seem to be far unmeet for the faithfull who are governed by Gods Spirit to be ruled by heathenish Governours And Fourthly to meet with such as imagine that Christian liberty and civil Magistracy could not stand together and that we need not be subject to politick Laws because Paul had written before that we are not under the Law c. Therefore that God might have his glory before the face of the world by his professing people that publickly owned his Son the Lord Jesus Christ Mayer in his Preface to Rom. who was every where so much contemned his suffering at Jerusalem fresh in their memories Suetonius Dr. Lightfoot Harmony fol. 122 c. Willets Synop. q. 3. an 1. Afflicti suppliciis Christiani genus hominum superstitionis nova maleficae Tacitus Annals lib. 15. cap. 10. his doctrine called Nova malefica by the Rabbins and Philosophers of that idolatrous time And Nero then Emperour of Rome seeking to cast infamy upon the Professors thereof when he had wearied himself in tormenting them by fathering on them many most false imputations and aspersions as his own most cruel firing the City of Rome giving out to take off the general murmur and suspicion of the people That it was the Christians whose seditious principles saith he is that no Jurisdiction on earth is to be owned c. Our most prudent and wary Apostle sends this Epistle to the converted Romans and Jews then in Rome with this especial direction and caution as to their deportment towards the civil Authority which he imperatively delivers Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers This as to the occasion Let every soul be subject Every soul It is an Hebrew Synecdoche as some observe the Soul for the whole Man Leigh Wilson so Gen. 46.26 Acts 27.37 which word our Apostle doth use rather then man to teach us that the subjection required must be voluntary Note and not of compulsion And every soul without exception of what condition sex or age soever Dutch Annotat. even as many as have souls must yield this subjection Origen would by a nice distinction except
the flesh of Captains and mighty men were given to the fowls of the Air and to the fish in the Sea Yea the great Whore in her Deputies and Agents sitting as Queen of Consciences in this Island decked in superstitious trinkets and drunk with the bloud of the Saints in the height of pride when she promised to her self all felicity is taken with her false Prophets which deceived them which received her Mark in their Foreheads and Hands and that bowed down before her Images while the remnant the Lord hath brought into subjection exalting his Mountain upon the top of their Mountains so that his poor despised ones that were before as it were wandring in sheep-skins and goat-skins hidden in Dens and Caves of the Earth not suffered to have a being as the troublers nay abjects of the World banished into far Countreys among the Heathen afflicted imprisoned tormented put to death seeking out private places and corners to worship God in from the molestation of their wicked Enemies who in all places were breathing out threatnings and slaughters against them sending out their Paritors and Pursivants with Letters to their Surrogates and Officials that if they found any of this way whether men or women they should either punish them in their own Courts or bring them bound to the Metropolis where the great Beast sat as Lord over the Consciences of men Insomuch as truly when the Lord had brought back again the Captivity of Zion we were like Men in a Dream Now O! blessed now he hath swallowed up Death in Victory he hath wiped tears from our faces yea the rebuke of his people he hath in a great measure taken away according to his promise Isa 25.8 that we may in the face of the world say Come and let us go to the House of the Lord. Now the doors of the Sanctuary are open and the Lords People may serve him freely in a Gospel way and there is none to make them afraid In Psa 88. Concion 2. And as Augustine said of his time Modo nemo insultat Christianis aut si insultat non publice insultat sic loquitur mala ut plus timeat audiri quam velit credi Now no man insulteth against Professours or if he insult he insulteth not publickly so that he is more afraid to be heard than willing to be believed c. That Christians may walk as strictly and sincerely with God as the Lord shall enable them and the more the power of God is seen in their orderly conversations the more cherished and esteemed And now what shall I say Psa 107.8 O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderfull works to us Children of Men. O give thanks unto the Lord ye English Saints for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Psal 136.1 To him who alone doth great wonders for his mercy endureth for ever 4. Who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever 23. And hath redeemed us from our Enemies 24. for his mercy endureth for ever 26. O give thanks unto the God of heaven for his mercy endureth for ever And that the Lord hath eminently used the Person in present Authority as his Moses his Joshua his principal Conductor I may say though we have had others in their parts to lead his people into Canaan who will be so maliciously disingenious as not to acknowledge it May I beg your patience a little to look back upon his former deportments and consider how the Lord hath framed him for this great work Was not always his heart knit to the interest of Gods people How industrious was he in the beginning of our troubles to get an honest Regiment even then when the power of Godliness was almost a Crime in the Army such an earthly and scandalous rabble by the wisdome and providence of God who rules all things to his own purposes Revel 12.16 was then gotten together to help the Church how did he punish Drunkenness and Prophaneness in the Souldiers under his Command that he was a wonder to the wicked of the Army and an ensample and encouragement to the good And afterwards in his place and station was he not a principal Instrument in the modellizing of an honest Army under the Lord Fairfax at least in the placing in of honest Officers how did he invite and encourage Gods people from the several Churches of the Nation to come in and countenance and stand by them upon all occasions when they are in against the proudest of their opposers How did he make the profane tremble at his presence and cashiere themselves in apprehension of their own guilt and deserts I remember well his very name to me was a dread while I under the captivation of Satan endeavoured to keep my idle courses together with my Commission And how did he encourage meetings for Prayer and mutual edifying in the most holy Faith and all this to honest men as honest men without exception Let them that had the honour to serve the Lord and their Countrey in the year 1645. witness the truth with me And is not he at this day a protection to us all doth he not preserve us from our selfish zeal against one another hath he not the same tenderness to all Saints as ever It is said of Cato that no man saw him changed though he lived in a time when the Common weal was so often changed he was the same in every condition though he run through varieties of conditions And he that saith otherwise of our Governour though they may have the confidence to object it can never prove it he of all men now living that so eminently have had to do with all overtures as he hath had is said by such as have all along had the nearest acquaintance with his judgement and practise to succeed that excellent Queen as in her other Vertues so in desert of that most Christian Motto semper idem to be always the same Brethren I beseech you bear with me a little since you have taken so much freedome on the contrary seriously for my part I cannot see any thing that is praise-worthy in you that is not so in him Have you the gift of Gods Spirit It is a saying That they that stand in slippery places as all in high places do had need be much on their knees and then they are in no great danger of falling at least of falling dangerously If this be truth then the present Governor persisting in accustomed duties is happy maugre all his Enemies Rom. 12.12 hear him in the Duties of Gods Worship and Service and judge your selves Are you frequent in the exercise of your gifts and graces having leisure enough so is he amidst the multiplicity of distracting affairs Do you appeal to God in the integrity of your hearts as to your profession and aims hear his earnest and solemn appeals likewise and
demeanours in the presence of it as that we should rather hide our selves in self-abasement until we come forth in the wisdome purity and spirit of the Lord with meekness righteousness and patience shining in the very face of gain-sayers as Stephen Act. 7.55 and 6.15 with the reflection of Christs beholded splendor Otherwise whatever we may perswade our selves others will fear that when this glorious Kingdome shall come forth in truth and power we shall not be able to stand before it And truly this I do verily believe That had we all had hearts to have â—ightly tendered Isa 59.12.3 4 5 8.10 and Christian-like made use of as became a people of such mercies the Lords gracious beginnings towards us we had not stuck in the birth as we do at this day of far more glorious Receptions Jer. 5.25 I beseech you friends suffer me out of the abundant trouble of my heart to tell you that which the world are ready upon all occasions in a triumphing manner to throw into your faces Instead of a greater measure of Gods Spirit poured out upon you and a more full and clear Revelation of Divine purposes seasoning the heart with abundant holiness and integrity for such manner of persons the Scriptures say 2 Pet. 3.11 shall they be that truly wait and expect the coming of the Lord Jesus Alas what pride envy covetousness * gluttony censoriousness reigns among us Amos 5.18 comp with 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Naz. While we would have Charity we study hatred while we seek to set up the corner-stone which unites the sides together we are loosened our selves we are for Peace we say and yet we prepare for War Naz. Orat. 12. that highly condemn it in others What neglect of Duty to God and to our Neighbour yea to our Brother for whom Christ died insomuch that if they are but thorowly enough engaged if but bitter enough against the present Powers and can but declaim high enough against them no matter how scandalous in conversation those matters will be passed over well enough I speak not without too evident proof but I forbear the mention By this means instead of searching again the good old way of faith and repentance mortification of corruptions and the means thereto conferring experiences in communions of Saints fasting prayer c. whereby the deceipts of our own hearts and the redoubled and * Among the which I am perswaded this is none of the least To put the people of God a quarrelling about that which least concerns them thereby to prevent them from doing greater and more glorious works for God refined wiles of Satan in this his last season Rev. 12.12 might by the Lords blessing be discovered and suppressed Now what have we but views and reviews of State-miscarriages Anti-Magistratical Lectures designs and contrivances against the Civil Peace of the Nation inviting men to leave their Trades and Callings and take part with them c. that your Societies which use to be more Evangelical are turned into meer Cabals But blessed be God! the Churches of Christ do at this day with heart and hand abhor these practises while they can faithfully love your persons By which means ah how many disponded and bewildred souls are there who when they repair at any time to your Assemblies cannot meet with one word in a whole days exercise that may tend to binding up or suppling such wounded spirits nay do they not rather tend to the further distracting and confusing the weak heads and hearts of such And how many others have we of those Auditories that can give a better account of Court-failings and Councils then distinctly I fear of the Fundamentals of Religion or much less of the present state of their own hearts Thus God is in the mean time wonderfully dishonoured enquiring hearts after the ways of God obstructed and prejudiced wicked men in their ways of sin and malignity encouraged and hardened and all some way or other damnified Alas are we fit to bear rule with Christ that cannot rule our selves Jam. 3. Do we indeed look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord Tit. 2.13 when we are thus unruly in our speeches v. 8. and deport our selves so disorderly unrighteously and unholily Isa 33.15 Psal 15. v. 12. Let me tell you my Brethren It is those that walk uprightly that backbite not with their tongue nor take up a reproach against their neighbour Mat. 10. v. 16. That are Doves and Sheep meek harmless inoffensive without rancour Luk. 6.28 That bless them that persecute and do good to them that despightfully use them That do not behave themselves unseemly 1 Cor. 13. Rev. 14. v. 3 4. seek not their own That are Virgins not defiled with the World or the lusts thereof following the Lamb in truth and holiness Mat. 5.14 v. 16. Mat. 25. v. 4 10. It is these that do glitter with the lustre of the Spirit amidst the dark world with whom my soul covets to joyn her glimmering Lamp in the waiting for our Lords coming as being assured they shall enter with him into his Joy To conclude in a word Brethren the Scriptures were written for our Rule also Rom. 15.4 and there is no different Priviledges to the Saints of our Age more then before onely in this a breaking forth of more light for which God expects we should be more humble and more thankfully holy Argument 4 Say that were truth that is so passionately asserted That the person in Authority is as you would make folks believe he is an Usurper Oppressor c. Yet that hinders not but that the Godly called to places under him may lawfully serve him and their Generation without infringement of Conscience or blemish to Religion My Reasons are briefly these 1. First Because the people of God in places of power and trust the Lord strengthening them and giving them a heart to improve it rightly may shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation as a Beacon set upon a hill that others seeing their good works may glorifie God directing and provoking others to the same laudable practise 2. They may hereby have a more eminent occasion not onely to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men according to 1 Pet. 2.5 but also be as a bridle and awe upon their spirits to deter and restrain them from that excess of riot into which they would otherwise with more freedome run 3. It is a good means to keep good men more closely and heedfully in the ways of God so David Psal 39.1 and Nehemiah cap. 5..9 lest by them occasion be given for the ways of God to be evil spoken of 4. They thereby keep out worse that by wicked Magistrates would surely be preferred and possibly by mis-information and confident insinuations may supply their rooms even under the best and most carefull Prince 5. They are hereby more
Ahab and thereby had the opportunity to shelter the Lords people unsuspected from the fury of their Oppressors 1 Kin. 18.3 4. And so did Elijah Object But I know you will be ready to retort Elijah served Ahab indeed as a most faithfull untainted Christian I wish we had more servants of his temper at this day that would tell their Master in Power as roundly of his evils as he did to Ahab Thou and thy fathers house are the troublers of Israel 1 Kin. 18.18 Answ It would be very well indeed if such Subjects under this present Power as presume they have the Spirit and Call of Elijah would be so orderly as to go and tell their Magistrate what they conceive they have against him and not utter their discontents at this distance behind his back for in so doing there would be some hopes of begetting a right understanding of things which at second hand are so pitifully depraved and mistaken Insomuch that it is no great wonder men run on so erroneously that take up the câ—y more from others then a due proof they have made of it themselves Which the better to prevent I have known the present Governour lay aside very important affairs to spend some hours not refusing patiently to hear the most incongruous objections and scruples that any dissatisfied person that would come to him could propound that had the least seriousness in them or the least repute for conscionable and I well remember what good effect it wrought upon some that had before suffered for open contests against him and were as high as any therein who as themselves confessed went away so fully satisfied after such a conference that they resolved to be more heedfull for the future and did afterward keep to their good resolutions though sometime after by the instigation of some eminent discontents they a little deviated 2. But to return to your Objection since you mention Elijah I call to mind your eighth Objection as here you seem to hint how you bemoan therein the number at this day that are carried away by self-ends and flatteries in the stream of this present tide and how few stick close to the interest of the Lord c. I find in 1 Kin. 19. formerly cited Elijah just thus complaining I onely am left alone c. Elijah thought there remained none that adhered faithfully to the Lord but he and a few more that kept with him because they did not appear in that vigor of spirit It is said that Luthers hot spirit was calmed by Melancton in the repetition of this Verse Vince animos iramque tuam qui caetera vincis Manlii loc com p. 248. Elijah a man subject to like passions c. Jam. 5.17 Vide Trap in locum Amos 5.13 and heat as he was in yet you know there were thousands to whom God himself did bear witness They had not bowed the knee to Baal yea and whose mouths by flattery had not kissed him v. 18. though Elijah could not so interpret by them it may be because they were silent in that evil time there might not be that occasion to take notice of them And so I may return to you that make this Objection It may be however thou mayest judge of them and what slight thoughts soever thou mayest have of many silent Christians in these times and of such as out of conscience adhere to present Authority The story of Pendleton and Saunders is very applicable here so wel known that it needs not be related Act. and Mon. fol. 1363. One saith of Peters self-confidence Mat. 26.34 That he was melius semper animatus quam armatus that through the strength and assistance of him alone who judgeth righteously they may as soon and as chearfully suffer for the sake of the Lord Jesus if the Lord should see it fit to turn our present mercies into such trials as he that makes a louder Bravado for the Lord and his interest Further as to Elijah what strange work the Lord set him upon I believe few of you would chearfully obey had you the same command v. 15 16. See also 2 Kin. 10.29 30. which I would desire you to consider But if we will be sincere as we pretend for the Lord we must learn to submit our wills and wisdomes to him who is the onely wise God I might have been here very pertinently enlarged as in some other places of the latter end of this Discourse but that I find my self happily prevented by a more ready Pen whose thoughts The Animadvertor on the Welsh Papers since I had the comfort to peruse them have been no small encouragement to my far weaker that yet they have borne any similitude with them truly to my admiration which yet if I had been before acquainted with in the least I think would well have put a stop to my mean endeavours But not so much as hearing of it Did obscure it for some moneths as in the Preface being in another Countrey when I wrote this until I had almost finished it together with some important Reasons have prevailed thus to expose my first assay to do my Countrey service in this kind to their candid censure Nevertheless before I leave this instance give me leave to mind you That Elisha having the Spirit of Elijah redoubled on him was so much the more meek and temperate Gal. 5.22 23. which denotes thus much that the more we abound with the spirit of meekneess and love the more like unto God the more we partake of his Spirit the more meek and humble we are But to return to our Scriptural Ensamples We find Jeremiah counselling Zedekiah King of Israel and his people the Children of Israel to be obedient to the King of Babylon Jerem. 21. and for disobedience thereto they came to great misery 1 Chron. 36.10 13 17 c. Daniel the man greatly beloved Dan. 10.11 Dan. 6.2 5. served the Chaldean Persian Tyrants cap. 249 c. whereby besides the opportunity he had to do for those blessed ones Shadrach Meshach Abednego c. the Lords captived people he and they by their righteous and most eminently faithfull walking with God put to silence the worst of their Enemies wrought great deliverances and by their blessed convictions the Lord working with their Doctrine and Ensample the proudest of those Monarchs were wonderfully brought down to acknowledge the great King of Kings and make Edicts to the honour of his Name and welfare of his People And likewise in the New Testament we find Paul most eminently for this practise as all along hath been shewed notwithstanding he was a sufferer under one or other of those Roman Tyrants Sueton. Tacit. Euseb tells us there were many Christians in the Emperor Alex. Mammaeaes family Eccle. Hist lib. 6. Tertul. Apologet c. 5. Euseb Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 24. Mali corvi malum ovum Suet. above the rest of the Apostles and faithfull servants of the Lord Jesus