flourishing? did they suffer any thing in their own estates; unless it were a dangerous surfeit of ease, wealth, and plenty ? did they suffer in their conscience; except it were a tormenting regret, that they could not model the government of the Church according to their own fancies? were they not permitted their own liberty, both as to their way of discipline and worship? › did the open doors of their meetings, and the vast numbers within those doors, make them look like a persecuted people? were they a persecuted people, when it is sufficiently known that many joined themselves to them merely for their interest and their own advantage; and, in many places, those, who cleaved to the communion of the Established Church, suffered the persecution of revilings and bitter mockings? What sufferings then can we imagine they lay under, unless it be an insupportable suffering to tender and generous spirits to enjoy all this licence merely upon sufferance? The laws and statutes were against them, it is true: but if this be such a dreadful persecution, surely they are men of a very delicate sense, who can feel the letter of a law, when they never felt the execution of the penalty. In fine, let any rational man soberly consider the illegality and destructive tendency of their ways, and then withal the great condescensions of the government to them; and let him impartially pronounce, whether they were any otherwise persecuted than that they could not persecute, or any otherwise oppressed than that they were not uppermost. For this it is that they struggle. And, when they had long since gotten an uncontrolable power into their hands, we then sadly found, that the injustice and tyranny of those, who pretended they were set up by God on purpose to punish the faults of others, only justified and acquitted them; so that the greatest crimes and miscarriages, which envy could ever object against those, whom they called the ungodly and malignant party, were innocence and virtue, in comparison with the enormous villainies of those saints, who were sent to correct them.

4

But, however, suppose all their exclamations to be true and well grounded: suppose them, first, to be as just as they suppose themselves: suppose, secondly, that, for this their justice and righteousness, they are most cruelly and inhumanly punished; the first of which I wish were as true, as the second is certainly false: suppose, thirdly, that the magistrate is extremely to blame, and guilty of a great sin before God and man, to punish such innocent and righteous persons: Yet, after

all this, the question is, Whether it be lawful for such persecuted subjects to revenge themselves upon their persecuting rulers: whether they may not, for the sake of piety and religion, for the preservation of the true profession and professors thereof, for the maintenance and administration of justice and equity, repel force with force, and strike at those princes, who so injuriously strike at them: to this my text answers, No, they may not for, though it be not good for princes to punish the just, neither is it good to strike princes, no not for equity.

And this is that part of my text, on which I intend chiefly to insist.

And here it is necessary briefly to open the words; wherein we have,

The Action condemned: which is, to strike princes.

The Cause, Motive, or Provocation to this action: for equity.

The Censure and Doom passed upon it by the wisest of men, guided by the Spirit of the all-wise God: It is not good.

I. I shall begin with this last, the DOOM and CENSURE: which, though it be mild in terms, is yet very heavy and tremendous in sense: It is not good.

It speaks only dislike, but means detestation: and, by a meiosis frequent in Scripture, carries the signification much farther than the expression; and declares that it is a crime most impious in itself, and most odious and abominable to God. So Prov. xvi. 29. A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into a way that is not good: i. e. a way, that is most baneful and pernicious. And, most fully, Ezek. xxxvi. 31. Ye shall remember.....your doings that were not good; which he there interprets to be their iniquities and their abominations.

II. Let us consider the ACTION, which is thus condemned to be not good; i. e. to be extremely heinous and impious; which is, to strike princes.

Neither must this be understood precisely according to the literal and proper signification of it; as if nothing else were forbidden but a rude and boisterous wounding of them: but, hereby, the Holy Ghost prohibits also whatsoever may be an injury, either to their persons or to their authority; for both are sacred.

i. WE MUST NOT STRIKE PRINCES WITH THE TONGUE, IN THEIR FAME AND REPUTATION; any more than with the hand, in their persons: nor, by reviling or diminishing whispers, fly-blow the ears of their subjects: nor, by little arts, and suspicious intimations, and sly conveyances of shrugs, aposiopeses, and half sentences, seek to undermine and lessen them in the affections of their people.

We have already both seen and felt the fatal consequents of such methods of insinuating politic jealousies into the minds of men: first, by supposition, what if such things should be, till the seditious humour growing stronger, they come to bold affirmations that they are; and, then, with an affected sadness, bidding us prepare for sadder times, for greater sufferings and calamities which are yet to ensue. And, so, the vulgar are possessed with nothing but fears and dismal apprehensions, of what miseries are coming upon them, and what they are like to undergo from the power and authority of their rulers: which all tends to produce that hate, which naturally follows upon fear; and so to shake the very roots and foundation of government, which are firmest settled in the love and cheerful obedience of the subjects. We have already felt, I say, the sad and bitter consequences of this artifice, of striking princes with the tongue: which hath been but the prologue to a sad tragedy; and made way to all the extremities of blood, rapine, and violence, under which these three unhappy kingdoms for many years miserably groaned. And I pray God we may not again find the fatal effects of it: for every discerning person may evidently see that we are treading in the very same tracks, which before led us to death and ruin. Certainly, those, who will draw their tongues against their prince to lessen his authority, would, if they had opportunity, draw their swords too to cut it quite off. Such whisperers, who make it their business to go about with sad news; and, with instructed sighs, instil into the people groundless reports and false surmises, giving out blind and ambiguous speeches, as if they would be thought to understand much more than they dare relate, that religion is in danger, and Antichristianism will doubtlessly be established, making the poor amused people believe that none are true Christians nor true Protestants but themselves: these are the very boutefeus of the nation, and their breath hath blown up the coals in one civil war already; and, if the same arts have the same success

upon the minds of the people, I see not how we can avoid another. Indeed, God hath at this time wonderfully blasted their wicked counsels; and delivered us from a ruin, which, by these _cunning wiles, they had been long preparing for us: and, for so great a rescue, we bless his holy name. And, oh! that we might ever be so wise as to avoid the entanglement of these snares. Beware, O Christians ! upon your fidelity to God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; beware that you do not, by misrepresentations or misinterpretations, traduce the actions of your lawful governors; nor lend your ears, or assent, to the calumniating suggestions of a company of men, whose words, though they are smoother and softer than oil, yet be they drawn swords. - Beware what air you breathe, what converse you keep : suffer none of those leeches to fasten on you, whose very mouths will draw blood. The Apostle has given them their right character: 2 Pet. ii. 10. Presumptuous are they, self-willed: they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

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ii. WE MUST NOT STRIKE PRINCES IN THEIR AUTHORITY, NOR THE EXERCISE OF IT OVER US.

Which is done Two ways:

Either by refusing to be subject to their laws,
Or by deposing them from their dominion.

1. We must not refuse subjection and obedience to their Laws ; for this is a striking, yea a maiming a prince, in his authority. This is so often pressed and inculcated on us in Scripture, that scarce have we more precepts for any one duty to God, than we have express commands for our general subjection and obedience to our magistrates and rulers : 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14, 15. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him, for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God. Rom. xiii. 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers: and, v. 2. Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God : and they, that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation : and in many other places, too numerous to be now cited. And, here, we are not to choose our subjection; and elect what laws we please to obey, and reject others: for this is to make ourselves our sovereigns, and to acknowledge no validity in the ordinances of the magistrate till we enact them. Believe it, it

is not little inconveniences, or prejudices, or secular interests and advantages, which can supersede the obligation, by which I am bound to obedience. It is not enough to say, "I do not like such a thing; and, therefore, I will not do it:" no; God hath not left you at such liberty. There lies a necessity upon you, in point of conscience, and as matter of eternal salvation or damnation, if not for the fear of the wrath of men yet for fear of the wrath of God, to yield ready obedience to every law and ordinance of man, which doth not contradict the law and command of God. And those, who think it no great matter to fail in their duty towards their governors, if so be they carefully perform their duty to God, do grievously delude themselves for our obedience to them is a great part of our duty to God; and he hath as strictly enjoined it, under as great penalties and severe threatenings, as any other duty whatsoever which immediately concerns himself. Yea, our obedience is so absolutely required, that it is not left to our liberty to choose the penal, before the preceptive part of the Law; to choose to suffer the punishment, rather than to fulfil the precept: unless it be in one case, which I am sure no faction among us can with any reason alledge; and that is, when the laws of the magistrate do contradict the express laws of God: then, indeed, subjects are bound to yield submission only to the penal part, and willingly to undergo the punishment threatened in it, but by no means to obey the precept; for, in such cases, it is a stated and unvariable rule, that we must obey God rather than man. therefore is the subjection, which we owe to the Supreme Authority and whosoever refuseth to be actively obedient, when nothing is required against the Law of God; or passively obedient, in case it should be so; he strikes his prince, wounds him in his authority, and takes away a subject from him by turning him into a rebel.

This

2. Much less must we strike them in their authority, so as to attempt to depose them from their Rule and Government.

The crown doth not precariously depend upon the people; to be worne, and then laid aside again, as they shall please: nor can the dominion, with which a sovereign prince is invested, be abrogated by the consent of the people; although it might, perhaps, be first given by their consent because, as there was the voluntary concurrence of both to assume it, so there must be again the voluntary concurrence of the prince at least to lay.