most opprobrious titles, and be used accordingly if it be in their power. Sometimes the right of government is not easily or generally known; as in the contention between the houses of York and Lancaster here. And then as one party conquereth one year, and another the next, so the people must be called traitors and rebels by each party that prevaileth, if they obeyed and served the other party against them. And if they refuse to obey and defend either of them, they will be condemned by both. Sometimes the polity of empires and commonwealths is so imperfect and obscure in the constitution, that the several parties that pretend to interest, cannot agree about their rights, nor the lawyers agree among themselves. And the people cannot be thought to be wiser than the lawyers in the affairs of their profession. If Nero and the senate of Rome had each of them commanded the Christians to aid them against the others, it would not have been easy for the wisest and holiest of the Christians then to know which part they should have adhered to and assisted. Paul thought not meet to decide any such controversy. He commanded every soul to be subject to the higher powers, and not resist; but he tells them not whether Cæsar or the senate was the higher powers in a case of contest and division. Sometimes a traitor usurpeth the government, and Christians think when they see him settled and in possession, that, though they hate his usurpation, yet they are bound to honour and obey him as being possessed of the government. Thus Gregory the great too hastily and flatteringly owned and applauded Phocas; and the Christian bishops ordinarily subjected themselves to the emperors that came in by blood and violence. Thus the bishops of Rome, and of other churches in Italy and the adjacent parts, submitted themselves (I think too soon) as soon as they perceived him to be conqueror, to Theodoricus; and so they did to other conquerors. Sometimes, as the general councils of Basil, Constance, &c. determined that a council is above the pope, and declared the contrary to be a damnable heresy, and commanded the bishops and people to obey them against the pope; so senates, and parliaments, and the majority of statesmen and lawyers may tell the people that are unacquainted with such law cases, that in this or that they are bound to obey them, upon highest penalties, and that they shall receive to themselves condemnation if they resist

them; and so may mislead such as intend nothing but to obey the higher powers for conscience sake. And though the error and commands of councils and parliament excuse not 'a toto' an illiterate laic that understandeth not those matters, yet surely a tanto' it is some excuse.

And sometimes oppression maketh a man mad; Eccles. vii. 7. And sometimes impatience prevaileth with the weak to do things unwarrantable; and human passion blindeth reason, and sometimes temptations prevail in this as in other cases. And sometimes hypocrites, that never had any true religion, do shew their carnal disquisitions, and unmortified lusts, and passions, and pride, by their rebellion against their lawful governors; and then religion must bear the blame of the actions of that counterfeit religion, and of those crimes which it doth most prohibit and condemn.

In a word, Be the accusation against any particular person just or unjust, nothing is more sure and clear than that he is most unjust that will charge the Christian religion as guilty of countenancing any rebellions, conspiracies, sedition, disobedience, faction or divisions. Christ went before us in his own example to pay tribute to Cæsar; and commanded us to give to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's; and their false accusing him and condemning him as an offender against Cæsar, did no whit move him from the duty of his state of humiliation. What can be more against all treason and perfidiousness, than that holy doctrine which commandeth us the most exact performance of every lawful promise, much more of our oaths, and duties of allegiance? What can be more against rebellion than that holy doctrine which teacheth us a life of patience and meekness, condemning private revenge, and commanding us rather to turn the other cheek to him that smiteth us, and to give our coat to him that taketh away our cloak, and to go two miles with him that would compel us to go one; that is, to suffer yet more, rather than revenge ourselves, or break peace, or order or raise wars, to escape such injuries. It is a crucified Christ that conquered by suffering, that is our example. And our religion is but our conformity to him in his sufferings and his holiness. He hath made it part of our duty to himself to obey kings and rulers, and all superiors, not only the good but the froward, and to take it patiently if we suffer for welldoing, and not to return so much as a reviling dishonouring

word, or murmuring, rebellious thought. It is not fighting for ourselves, but following him with the cross, and forsaking all that we have, that Christ hath made the work of his disciples, and the necessary condition of his promise of salvation; Luke xiv. 33. There is no master in all the world, that so strictly commandeth patience and forbearance, and forgiving, and love, and peace, and submission to one another as Jesus Christ doth. He sets the hearts of all his servants on another kingdom, and tells them they have greater things to mind than riches, or honours, or domination upon earth. He taketh the bone of contention from before them, and bids them leave such things as these to the men of the world, that have their portion in this life. You may as honestly say that the sun is the greatest cause of darkness, as that Christ and holiness are the cause of seditions, rebellions, treasons, or perfidiousness in the world. All the world set together hath not done so much as he hath done against them. If men threaten hanging and quartering to such of fences, Christ threateneth damnation in hell-fire to them. And would you wish him to inflict a sharper punishment, or more severely to manifest his hatred of the crimes?

I am

I tell you therefore if you should find rebellion and sedition among Christians, it is but as you may find corruption in the bodies of the living, which is contrary to life and health, and to be found much more among the dead. not here pleading for individual persons, but for Christianity and godliness. If any professed Christians forsake the way of patience and subjection, and turn to rebellion and disloy alty, they do so far forsake religion and godliness, and much more wrong and offend their heavenly master, than their king and governors. Plead who will for the wickedness of such men, for my part I will not. I am sure Christ will not plead for their sin which he condemneth. He may justify them from it, upon repentance; but he will never justify them for it and in it. It is not because they are godly, but for want of godliness, that any men have ever been guilty of rebellions, or resisting lawful powers: as Dr. Ward hath fully proved in his sermon on Rom. xiii. 2. Nothing more tendeth to the ruin of rulers and people, than to hearken to the devil and the enemies of holiness, that would persuade the world into a conjunction with them in the enmity against the way of godliness and the faithful servants of the Lord, upon pre

tence that they are adversaries to the governors and government. It is a weighty truth that the foresaid doctor begins his sermon with: 'Among all the stratagems of the devil, tending to the undermining of religion, and the subversion of the souls of men, though there cannot be any more unreasonable, yet there was never any more unhappily successful than the creating and fomenting an opinion in the world, that religion is an enemy to government, and the bringing sincerity and zeal in religion into jealousy and disgrace with the civil powers. It was by this jealousy blown into the heads of the high-priests and the Sanhedrim amongst the Jews, and of Herod and Pontius Pilate, that Christ himself was accused, condemned, and executed on a tree. By this the apostles were haled before the governors of provinces; forced from one city to fly to another. For this they endured bonds and sundry kinds of death. It was through this fancy that the Christians for three hundred years together, endured the rage of heathen emperors, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. Our Lord Christ was traduced as an enemy to Cæsar, a man refractory to the Roman laws, and a nonconformist to the religion and law of his country.' Thus and more that author. So that it is no new thing for the most innocent, and holy, and excellent persons to suffer as enemies of the government where they lived; nay, it hath been the common case; nor is it strange to hear religion and holiness charged with these crimes which they are most against.

As for the malicious slanders of the Papists against the reformed churches, as if they had promoted all their reformations by rebellion, they have been confuted sufficiently by many. At this time, I shall only desire the reader that would be satisfied in this, and understand the Protestant doctrine in these points to read Bishop Bilson's "Difference between Christian Subjection, and Unchristian Rebellion." Especially p. 382, and from 494 to 522. Also "Hooker's Eccles. Polit. the last book (lately published).

And if he would know whether it be an article of the very religion of the Papists, that the pope may give away the dominions of temporal lords that deny transubstantiation, or hold such like points which he calleth heresy, or that will not exterminate all that hold them, out of their dominions, and that he may discharge their subjects and vassals from their allegiance, I only entreat him with his own eyes to read

the decrees of their approved general council at the Lateran under Pope Innocent III. and let him but believe his eyesight. And for their case and confutation, let him also read King James's Answer to Perron's Oration.

Having thus interposed an answer to their objection, that say religion hath brought forth rebellions (which I confess that religion which teacheth rebellion hath done; but the Christian religion which condemneth it, and engageth men against it as aforesaid, doth not), I now proceed to some other proofs, that godliness is the greatest security and establishment to kingdoms and all societies.

12. Godliness above all things engageth men to be true to their covenants: to keep all their oaths and promises of obedience to kings and other superiors; and to be faithful and trusty in all their duties to one another. So horrid is the sin of perjury and covenant-breaking, that God hath condemned it, not only in the holy Scriptures, but also in the law of nature. He will not bear with it in the greatest princes; how then shall perfidious subjects escape? What fair excuses had Saul for his breaking the vow and covenant with the Gibeonites? He might have said, 1. They procured it from Joshua by a mere cheat, and therefore no benefit belonged to them from their own sin and fraud. 2. That Joshua not knowing who they were, 'ignorantis non est consensus.' 3. That God had forbid to spare any of these nations. 4. That it was not Saul that made this oath and covenant, but Joshua. 5. That Saul did it in zeal for the people of Israel. Yet for all this in David's days there was a famine in the land for this sin of Saul, which was not expiated till seven of his sons (or posterity) were hanged at the Gibeonites' request. And though David might well see that he might be censured as contriving all this himself for the extirpation of the line of Saul, yet would he not forbear the execution; 2 Chron. xxi. And when the people murmured at Joshua, and the heads of Israel, for sparing them at first, they are answered with the obligation of the invisible oath ; Josh. ix.

So though Zedekiah was the king of Babylon's captive, force could not excuse his perjury and covenant-breaking, but God severely condemned and avenged it.

So that every subject that hath but bound himself in allegiance to his sovereign, is under such an obligation as to a