but such with whom he may safely trust his People and it is well known with what sort of Teachers he dares not trust them and therefore justly forbids their appearing to speak to Multitudes of People unlawfully got together But if nevertheless there are yet any that will disturb the Government and put it into fears of them by getting into separate meetings and there venting their Doctrines to unlawful Assembles in defiance of the Laws and Authority of the Realm and that too when there is no need of their Teachings His Majestie recommending his People to other and better Instructers whom he can trust and who are Lawfully called to the Ministry what can we think of such men as these and of the crouds that go after them but that they have learnt habitually to despise the Authority of the Government and consequently that they are too ready in any thing they can do to contribute to the prejudice of it For there can be no care or studying to be quiet under the Government where there is not a due Reverence and awful Respect to it and they are past pretending to that who do any apparent despite to the Government to disturb and molest it Lastly Disloyal Principles dispose men to be unquiet Subjects viz. such as these That all Power is from the People and is put into the Kings hands upon trust That it is lawful for Subjects to enter into Covenants and Associations for the Defence of themselves and their Religion against the command of the Prince That Princes must submit their Scepters to the Eldership and to the Church That Heretical Princes being excommunicate are to be Deposed and may be killed by their Subjects That when a King is excommunicate by the Kirk and cast into Hell he is not fit to live upon the earth and the like which are the Doctrines of Jesuits and Fanaticks Doctrines of so pernicious a consequence to the publick Peace that it is enough to make us reject them as false without examining them further and upon men of such Principles the Advice of the Text is but thrown away and it can do no good upon them there being no possible security of their being quiet Study it then by a care not to be debauch'd by such impious Doctrines and Principles as are destructive of the quiet of the State and do leave Governments and Governours insecure And thus having reckon'd up those several things which dispose men to unpeaceableness under the Government we may see that to be quiet Subjects we must study to be meekly minded to be content with our private circumstances and with the publick Administration of Affairs to be duly thankful to God for publick Blessings to conside in him for the future to regulate our Zeal to revere the Authority of the Government and to be peaceably and loyally principled 2. Next we are to consider what ought to be our care in our Carriage towards Others for the preservation of Quiet And we must be careful that nothing come from us which tends to have so ill an influence upon men as to render them disaffected towards the Government and less contented to be quiet We must avoid all murmuring and repining at the present days as if the former were better than these For when people hear this from us they are apt to be put out of humour and to be left the more dissatisfied at the present constitution of things and so may in all likelihood be stirred up to be unquiet It should be our practice to study and promote Quiet by representing the publick Blessings and Advantages God affords us in so lively a manner as to beget rather peace and contentment nay thankfulness in Mens minds But let us be very wary how we suggest our discontents or whisper our dislikes of the Government or talk of Grievances and take heed withall that we put not Men into causeless Fears and Jealousies as if ill things were in hand and bad days were a coming through an ill management of Publick Affairs lest by our means People come to be startled and disquieted and then remain Enemies to the Government tumultuously given and inflamable to Rebellion To study to be Quiet and to keep men so is rather to do all we can to reconcile Men to the Government who it may be are apt enough of themselves to fly out against it and to complain where there is no Cause and to fear where there is no Reason and to find flaws where there are none And then it must be our care likewise that we do not lessen Peoples inclinations to live as peaceble Subjects should do by our exposing any ways or reflecting contemptuously upon the Prince by dwelling upon his private failings and infirmities by attributing Publick Judgments to him or the like the consequence whereof is likely to be this That Men will be the more disposed to slight his Authority The Student of Quiet will not speak evil of the Ruler of his People but is of a Loyal Disposition like to that of the Old Testament Saints who thought Job 34.18 not fit to say to a King Thou art wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly or Ps 89.51 to reproach the foot-steps of Gods Anointed Consider we further how we are to do if we study to be Quiet and would continue so that others may no ways incline us to the contrary and here these Advices will not be improper 1. Decline to the utmost all occasions of danger in this matter and shun those places where you are like to meet with temptations to unpeaceableness and go not to the Schools of unquietness where you may chance to find your Prince abused and his Ministers of State traduced and his Government defamed and the Church railed at and the gross Ignorance and blind Zeal of poor People practised upon for the stirring them up to Sedition and Rebellion And indeed it is not likely that you should meet with any Doctrines of Obedience in such Assemblies where their very meeting together is an act of Disobedience or that Loyalty should be taught where Conventicling is practised And therefore your Loyalty and Peaceableness will be much hazzarded if you venture amongst People got together in Crowds contrary to the Law and Establishment for when you happen to hear canting Reflections upon the Government in great Assemblies you know not how far they may work upon you especially if all the while you perceive the Rabble about you are deeply affected therewith and that Seditious Complaints from the Speaker are seconded with groans from the Hearers 2. Do not easily believe or hear with pleasure any scandalous stories concerning your Prince and his Government and be not carried away presently with News Pamphlets or Libels that revilingly reflect upon both We should not too credulously hear ill things of one another in common Conversation much less of the King and Government St. Paul would not have an Accusation lightly received against an Elder
of a Treasonable Success when by Gods permission a Plot takes effect and the Blow is given and the Land put into Confusion Roil the Water and what gets up to the top but Mud and Filth So in the late times when the Land was roil'd the very Mud of the people got highest and to the place of Rule And had this detestable Conspiracy succeeded and the Waters of our Israel been troubled some of the filth of the Land would soon have been uppermost and instead of a most Gracious and Prudent Prince a Renowned Clergy Reverend and Learned Judges and the like Blessings which we now enjoy what a strange new set of Governours and Teachers and Managers of Affairs were like to have come in their room It is sure wholesom Advice of Solomon Prov. 24.21 Fear God and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For when a Change in the Government is once begun men do not know when or where to make an end having gone from better to worse they still go on from worse to worse till either they return thither again from whence they have wandered or stick fast in the Mire and continue in a remediless Confusion Study therefore to be quiet and peaceably to submit to the Government not foreseeing the Consequences of the success of a Traiterous Design lest you see your Folly in the end and with too late a Repentance share in those miseries you have brought upon your selves 9. From its being the very first thing insisted on in the Proverbial Instructions of the wisest of meer men that we would be persuaded to have no hand in wicked Conspiracies This you see in the first Chapter of the Proverbs where the Wise Man desiring a due attention to his Instructions Hear my Son the Instruction of thy Father v. 10. speaking as a Wise and Grave and Experienced Person to a young beginner in the World His first Advice is this which immediately follows My Son if sinners entice thee consent thou not v. 10. What Sinners in particular Bloody Associators as appears by what follows If they say come with us let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause let us swallow them up alive as in the Grave and whole as those that go down into the Pit we shall find all precious substance we shall fill our Houses with spoil Cast in thy Lot amongst us and let us all have one purse My Son walk thou not in the way with them refrain thy foot from their path So he advises at the very first which makes me wonder that Men of any Prudence or Gravity at all should be found in an horrible Conspiracy contrary to the ancient Advice of the Wise Man who was so much against bloody Confederacies that he begins his Instructions with expressing his great detestation of them And surely what was Wisdom and what was Folly in those Elder Ages of the World and in the days of the Wise-man is so now When therefore they say as in the Parable Come let us Kill the Heir that the Inheritance may be ours Consent thou not and in abhorrence of their Treasonable Consults let every one of us say in particular O my Soul come not thou into their secret 10. From the absurdity of the usual pretences that are made to cast some colour upon a Treasonable Design And now Gods Glory and the good of the Publick never fail coming in to be part of the Design when any great Villany is moved or set on foot And is Religion and Gods Cause a pretence for Treason and Rebellion This is next to Blasphemy and is an impious Reflection upon the Wisdom or Power of God as if to bring about his own Designs he stood in need of our Devilish Devices And this is yet more absurdly pretended when by those who have no Religion at all and while they tell you of Gods Glory aim only at their own not serving God but their own Bellies and a wicked Conspiracy seldom wants the help of some plausible Atheists to carry it on Or must men undertake to be Traytors in defence of the Rights and Liberties of the People and upon pretence to put by Arbitrary Dominion That Evil is like to be removed by a Treasonable success when the Government is quite unhing'd and all Laws turn'd out of doors and the Foundations of Property taken away and people are at their Liberty to scramble for what they can get and the Party that happens to be the Power shall enslave all the rest And yet the strangest thing of all is that the best of Churches must be destroyed for the interest of Religion and the happiest of Governments for the good of the People and the most gentle and merciful of Princes to be delivered from Tyranny But I suppose the case is this The Prince is a Tyrant meerly because he is a Monarch and restrains unruly Subjects that threaten his Throne and the Clamour for Religion is because men have not their full liberty to be of any Religion or of none and the Government is a Grievance and Bondage because not fix'd in the People and mens Rights are invaded because they are Govern'd and they are Slaves only because they are not Kings themselves and if it be so God keep us in our Happy Slavery and from the Grievances of Liberty and Property which our wretched Conspirators would have procured for us The good Lord deliver us I argue yet further to perswade men to quietness under Government 11. From those heavy Punishments in the other world of a seditious and Treasonable unquietness in this which will follow without repentance This I speak with the greatest seriousness For can it be imagined that they who are the Turbulent men in this world and would overthrow States and Kingdoms here will be ever reckoned meet to be admitted into a Heaven of eternal Quiet and Serenity hereafter no a miserable Hell of Havock and Confusion is a place more proper for them and there if they repent not they are like to be In the Parable of the Lord and his Servants we read Matth. 24 that he came and found some of them smiting their fellow Servants and had not this Plot been detected what smiting work would there have been of fellow-servants and fellow-subjects And the Lord commanded that these Smiters should be cut asunder where their punishment in the other world is threatned to be very Grievous as it is represented bearing some Analogy to that Temporal punishment which the Law here inflicts upon Traitors which is Quartering of them a Punishment they justly deserve who go about to tear whole Societies and Kingdoms to pieces 12. From the little likelihood that such should escape the hand of Justice in this world For what Design is more foolish or what Attempt is more unlikely to take effect than a Treasonable Confederacy especially when many are engaged in it And whereas infinite are those
against Treason and Rebellion forasmuch as they strike at the Publick quiet and undermine the very foundation of Government And St. Paul in the Text where he exhorts us to the study of quiet seems chiefly to respect quietness under Authority and Government For whereas the Apostle and they that were with him were reported of as troublesome men that turn'd the world upside down upon which a Tumult began he makes away to Athens begging of the Thessalonian Converts he had left for that very reason to study to be quiet that so they might wipe off from themselves the reproach of being a disorderly people But we had need put men in mind of their duty to Principalities and Powers and exhort them to be quiet subjects in these Dayes wherein unpeaceable and ill-affected men have attempted to cut off the most Gracious of Princes and to destroy the best of Religions the best of Governments the compleatest Constitution in Church and State that the Christian world knows and to have involv'd us all in a National confusion Now therefore in persuading men to the study of the Politicial quiet to study to be quiet as they are Subjects these Two things are to be done First I am to shew how we may best follow this Advice of studying to be quiet Subjects under Government Secondly I am to lay down several motives to enforce our care and study so to be As to the first how the Apostles Advice here may best be followed by us and what is studying to live peaceably under Government I shall insist upon four Particulars and shew 1. What we are to be in our Selves if we would be rightly disposed to be thus Quiet 2. What ought to be our care in our carriage towards Others for the Preservation of this Quiet 3. What Rules of Prudence are to be observed that we may not be influenced by others to be unquiet 4. Why the Apostle prescribes this Expedient in particular that we would mind to do our own business 1. Let us consider what we are to be in our selves if we would be rightly disposed to be quiet under Government and by that we may understand partly what it is to study to be so Now there are several things which dispose men to unpeaceableness under Government and make them ready for Sedition and Treason though they be not actually engaged in any design against the Government For as all the Confederates in an Horrid Conspiracy do not propound the same Ends to themselves but some one some another so of those who are seditiously and treasonably disposed some come to be so upon one account some upon another Wherefore that we may be qualified aright to be peaceable Subjects I shall take notice of those things which dispose men to unquietness under Government and prepare them to be in a Plot when occasion serves And here studying to be quiet is labouring to remove far from our selves all such Causes of unpeaceableness which are these that follow 1. Ambition for that is a restless thing and will not suffer those to be quiet in whom it is predominant where any thing is to be done in the prosecution of its own designs it will make way and break through where it can stopping at nothing nor regarding at all the Rules of Religion the Good of the Publick or the Sacredness of Soveraignty When a man resolves to be some body he is as resolute to care for no body that stands in the way of his design if he can but effect his business When the Bishops of Rome began to grow to that vast Ambition that nothing would serve them but the Imperial Crown and the Temporal Power no wonder that there followed immediately Combustions Rebellions and many a bloudy Enterprize When Absalom had set his heart upon being King he soon disturbs the Publick quiet and raises a Rebellion against his Father As also aspiring Adonijah got a Seditious Party to himself when he set up for the Kingdom against his Brother The Government is not secure of those that would fain be uppermost themselves Ambition always inclines me ntobe troublesom to the State and they who are thus disposed if they do but serve their own designs matter not though it be done by subverting of Governments and unhinging of the World Study then to be quiet under Government by endeavouring to keep your selves meekly minded and to subdue all ambitious inclinations and to check all motions of that sort when you find them stirring in you and learn to be easie and satisfied in that state and place wherein God hath set you 2. Private Discontent For that is another thing disposing men to be restless and unquiet especially when it happens to be their condition who are Great Persons and so more able than others to be troublesome and to contrive and carry on a mischievous design against the State Perhaps things do not go with the man just as he would have them peradventure he hath not the Favour of his Prince so much as he thinks he deserves and then the next thing is he is ready to be engaged in a Party against him and because he is crost in some particulars and imagins himself not respected enough he resolves to take his fill of Revenge though he makes the whole Body Politick shake for 't and hurles the world into confusion or at least he will seek to mend his Condition by trying to dethrone that Power which he judges is not favourable enough to him and by venturing what may happen upon a Change and new Scene of things And no doubt where the Devil finds Male-contents of this sort and sees how they are disposed he takes advantage against them managing his Suggestions accordingly to push them forward to the most desperate attempts Study then to live quietly under the Government by studying contentment in your private Circumstances though they be not just as you would have them and herein imitate St. Paul who as he advises us in the Text to study to be quiet so he studied it himself this way for he tells us of himself Phil. 4.11 I have learnt in whatever state I am therewith to be content 3. The discontents of a Party do likewise dispose them who are of it to be unquiet and turbulent and to be engaged in most horrid Enterprizes especially when Affairs are in such a posture and condition that their great Designs are bafled and all their Hopes at an end For when a Party is discontented and there is a common dissatisfaction amongst a great many people they will often rage together against the Government and by this means hearten and encourage one another in mischief and when it is come to that pass that their ends cannot be obtained from the Government and nothing is to be done by gentle and slow methods they are for trying to dispatch their business more effectually a quicker way and their last desperate remedy is overturning the Government to set up for Governours
how we are to study or what is studying to be quiet Subjects and to live peaceably under the Government What remains in the second place is to persuade men to this study of Quiet and that by arguments from sundry Considerations which however I shall put all together at this time that being jointly considered they might have the more force to check and correct the unquiet and disloyal humours of the present times As 1. From the common and known advantages of quiet to Humane Society which are better enjoyed than described Things are at best in the fair temperate Climate and flourish most when we are all at quiet for then Arts and Sciences are improved Traffic and Trade goes on Riches increase and so doth Religion too St James telling us that James 3.18 the fruits of righteousness are sown in peace and Psal 85.10 righteousness and peace kiss each other James 3.16 but where strife is there is not only Confusion but also every evil work 2. From the nature of God to whom Peace is so frequently attributed in the New Testament as the great Lover and Author of it For he is stiled Heb. 13.20 the God of peace Rom. 1.7 peace is said to come from him and James 3.17 the wisdom from above is peaceable and our Saviour pronounces them the beloved and Math. 5.9 blessed children of God that are peace-makers and so do resemble their Heavenly Father as his true Sons And therefore methinks they cannot well pass for the Godly Party or the people of God that are the unquiet Troublers of our Israel and are the Children of Sedition and Rebellion 3. From the nature of the Religion we profess which is an Institution of Peace all the Gospel Doctrines of Humility Meekress Patience Contentedness and Contempt of the World being calculated for the making men quiet From the manner of its entring into the world which was not by Treasons and Tumults but in Silence and Peace there were no Risings or Mutinies at the first appearance of its Author but a Song of Peace was sung by Angels at his Birth and His voice was not heard in the streets And we know what was the Legacy he bequeathed to his Disciples and in them to all Christians when he left the World My PEACE I leave with you and therefore it is strange that Christians should be the turbulent Men that Christians should be Rebels and Traytors and Troublers of the World 4. From Rom. 13.1.2.4 Tit. 3.1 1 Pet. 2.13.17 our being required in the Doctrine of the Gospel more especially to live quietly as we are Subjects and under Government as not to resist the Power because it is the Ordinance of God to be subject to Principalities and Powers to Honour the King to submit to him as Supreme and as the Minister of God next under him and instead of making quick work with our Soveraign and them that are next him in the Government by hasty Assassinations our Religion bids us pray for Kings and all that are in Authority that under them we might lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty We are to be quiet towards them and are to pray to God for them that we may live quietly under them 5. From the examples of the first Christians who were the famed men of their Time for Meekness and Quietness and under very severe usage from the Government but yet could never find in their hearts to engage in any Treasonable Design against it nor ever lookt upon their Numbers as an encouragement to Rebellious Insurrections but without giving any disrepect to Authority or disturbance to the Government were resolute and patient sufferers for Christ and that was all 6. From the great injury we do our Religion and the reputation of our Profession in the world by unquietness under Government nothing being more likely to render it odious in the eyes of others and to cause it to be ill spoken of especially amongst the Princes of the Earth Plots and Rebellions are things that sound very ill in the world and cast an horrid reproach upon the Religion they are of that practise such Villanies For which reason in particular as we see in the verse after the Text the Apostle counsels the Thessalonian Believers to study to be quiet viz. That they might walk honestly towards them that are without If then you have any regard to the honour and reputation of that Christianity you profess and would not have the name of the Lord blasphemed nor the best and most Divine Religion and Institution of our dear Saviour suffer amongst Turks and Inâ—idels Study to be quiet and let not the world hear of Conspiracies and Treasons amongst Christian People let no such thing be told in Gath or published in the streets of Askelon 7. From the nature of unquietness and plotting against Princes and Governments as it is the Devils great work and his business to study it and carry it on in the world God Almighty is the great Monarch of the world to govern it by a wise and good Providence The Devil is the God of this world to roil and disorder it to confound all things in it and to put them out of course as much as he can 1 Kings 22.22 Ahab's overthrow was contrived by evil Spirits John 13.27 Judas was spurr'd on by the Devil to betray his Master 1. Chron. 28.1 Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel in order to their common ruin and in our days I suppose it is he that hath moved a Party of men to take a survey of their Numbers and to examine their strength in order to Insurrections a Rebellion and National Desolation And though the Devil no doubt be very busie in contriving and bringing about private mens harm yet the sport that pleases him best and which he loves and seeks most is the destruction of whole Communities and Bodies Politick and whatever some may happen to gain by a publick Tumult and Confusion and the ruin of a Government the Devil is sure to get most by it and therefore to me nothing appears to look more like the Devil and his handy-work than Seditious Unquietness and a Plot Treasonable Conspiracies are of that Nature that he is in nothing if not in such things Study then to be quiet Subjects if you study the contrary you are the Devils Students if your minds be upon disturbing the publick Quiet and overthrowing Governments you are Scholars managed by his suggested Instructions and if you be in a Plot you are his Vassals and Tools and upon his work Blessed saith our Saviour are the peace-makers for they shall be caled the children of God And it may be said Cursed are the Peace-breakers those chiefly that disquiet Governments those yet more especially that Conspire against the best of Kings and Governments for they shall be called the Children of the Devil 8. From the fearful Consequences