flesh. If he be rich, and it inclines him most to sloth, he maketh small conscience of living in idleness, under the pretense of his gentility or wealth. But if the flesh incline him more to covetousness, he will be laborious enough; but it shall not be to please God by obedience, but to increase his estate, and enrich himself and his posterity, whatever better reason he pretend.

XLVII. 1. A Christian indeed is exactly conscionable in the duties of his relation to others in the family and place of his abode. If he be a husband, he is loving, and patient, and faithful to his wife; if he be a father, he is careful of the holy education of his children; if he be a master, he is just and merciful to his servants, and careful for the saving of their souls; if he be a child or servant, he is obedient, trusty, diligent, and careful, as well behind his parent's or his master's back, as before his face. He dare not lie, nor steal, nor deceive, nor neglect his duty, nor speak dishonorably of his superiors, though he were sure he could conceal it all. For he knoweth that the fifth commandment is enforced with a special promise; Eph. vi. 2. 5. 9. And that a bad child, or a bad servant, a bad husband or wife, a bad parent or master, cannot be a good Christian; Col. iii. 18, 19, &c. iv. 1. 1 Pet. ii. 18.

2. But weak Christians, though sincere, are ordinarily weak in this part of their duty, and apt to yield to temptations, and carry themselves proudly, stubbornly, idly, disobediently, as eye-servants that are good in sight; or to be unmerciful to inferiors, and neglecters of their souls; and to excuse all this from the faults of those that they have to do with, and lay all upon others, as if the fault of husband, wife, parent, master, or servant, would justify them in theirs, and passion and partiality would serve for innocency.

3. And the hypocrite ordinarily showeth his hypocrisies by being false in his relations to man, while he pretendeth to be pious and obedient unto God. He is a bad master and a bad servant, when his filthy interest requireth it, and yet thinketh himself a good Christian for all that. For all men being faulty, it is easy to find a pretense from all men that he doth abuse, to cover the injury of his abuse. Cain, Ham, Eli, Absalom, Judas, &c., are sad examples of this.

XLVIII. 1. A Christian indeed is the best subject, whether his prince be good or bad; though by infidel and ungodly rulers he be oft mistaken for the worst. He obeyeth not his rulers only for his own ends, but in obedience to God; and not only for fear of punishment, but for conscience sake. He looketh on them in their relations as the officers of God, and armed with his authority, and therefore obeyeth God in them. He permitteth not dishonorable thoughts of them in his heart; much less dare he speak dishonorably of them; Exod. xii. Prov. xxiv. 21. 1 Pet. ii. 13. 17. Prov

viii. 15. Acts xxiii. 4, 5. Eccles. x. 4. 20. He knoweth that every soul must be subject to the higher powers, and not resist; and that there is no power but of God. "Whosoever therefore

resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; and he that resisteth shall receive to himself damnation;" Rom. xiii. 1-6. Therefore in all things lawful he obeyeth them. And though he must not, nor will not obey them against God, yet will he suffer patiently when he is wronged by them; and not only forbear resistance by arms or violence, but also all reproachful words, as knowing that the righting of himself is not so necessary to the public order and good as the honor of his rulers is. Usurpers may probably charge him to be a traitor, and seditious and rebellious, because he dare not approve of their usurpations; and when several are contending for the government, and in a litigious title the lawyers mislead him, when the controversy is only among them, and belongs to their profession, it is possible he may mistake as well as the lawyers, and take him to have the better title that hath the worse. But in divinity he knoweth there is no controversy whether every soul must be subject to the highest power, so far as he can know it; and that prayer and patience are the subject's arms; and religion is so far from being a warrant to resist, that it plainly forbiddeth disobedience and resistance; and none are more obliged to submission and quietness than Christians are. The Spirit of Christianity is not of this world; their kingdom and their hopes are not of this world; and, therefore, they contend not for dignities and rule; much less by resisting or rebelling against their lawful governors. But they are resolved to obey God, and secure their everlasting portion, and bear all the injuries which they meet with in the way, especially from those whom God hath set over them. There is no doctrine that ever was received in the world, so far from befriending seditions and rebellion, as the doctrine of Christ; nor any people in the world so loyal as Christians, while Christianity retained its genuine simplicity; till proud, domineering, worldly men, for carnal ends, pretended themselves to be Christians, and perverted the doctrine of Christ to make it warp to their ambitious ends. Suffering seemeth not so great a matter to a holy, mortified, heavenly mind, as to tempt him to hazard his salvation to resist it. No man is so likely to be true to kings as he that believeth that his salvation lieth on it, by the ordinance of God; Rom. xiii. 3. And princes that are wise and just, do always discern that the best Christians are their best subjects; though those that are unbelieving and ungodly themselves, have ever hated them as the greatest troubles of the earth. And it hath ever been the practice of the enemies of Christ and godliness to do all they can to engage the rulers of the earth against them, and to

persuade them that the most godly Christians are persons of disloyal and unquiet minds; and by vexing and persecuting them, they do their worst to make them such as they falsely called them. Even Christ himself was crucified as an enemy to Cæsar, and Pilate driven to it by the noise of them that cried out, that if he let them go he was not Cæsar's friend; John xix. 12. They first tempted him with the question, "Whether it were lawful to pay tribute unto Cæsar;" Matt. xxii. 17. Luke xx. 22. And though they could this way take no hold of him, yet this was the first article of his accusation: "We have found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar;" Luke xxiii. 2. And how loyal would those rebellious Jews seem, when they thought it the only way to engage the Roman power against Christ! Then they cry out, "We have no king but Cæsar;" John xix.

15.

And this was the common accusation against the Christians both by Jews and Gentiles. The language of the Jews you may hear from Tertullus: "We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes;" Acts xxiv. 5. And at Thessalonica, the charge against them was, that they "turned the world upside down, and did all contrary to the decrees of Cæsar;" chap. xvii. 6, 7. And thus the best Christians have by such been slandered from age to age; because the devil and his instruments know not how sufficiently to molest them, except they engage the rulers against them. But yet all this doth not conquer the patience and loyalty of confirmed Christians. They are wiser than that wise man that Solomon saith," Oppression maketh mad;" Eccles. vii. 7. If usurpers or malicious liars shall a thousand times call them rebellious and seditious, it shall not drive them from their due subjection. They can patiently follow their Lord and the ancient Christians, in the enduring of such slanders, and suffering as enemies to Cæsar, so they do but escape the sin, and be not such as malice calleth them. They had rather die as reputed enemies to government, than to be such indeed. They prefer subjection before the reputation of it; for they look not for their reward from princes, but from God. If they can preserve their innocence, they can bear the defamation of their names, being satisfied in the hopes of the joyful day of the judgment of Christ, which will fully justify them and set all straight. Indeed, they know that a state of subjection is easier and safer than places of command, and that it is easier to obey than govern. And so far are they from envying men's greatness, and from desiring dominions, that they pity the tempted, and dangerous, and troublesome state of those in power, and are thankful to God for their quieter and safer station. They heartily pray for kings and all that are in authority; not that by their favor they may rise to

CONFIRMED CHRISTIAN.

places of wealth and honor, but "that under them they may live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty; 1 Tim. ii. 2. Yea, though infidel princes hate and persecute them, they continue to pray for them, and to honor their authority, and will not thereby be driven from their duty. If God cast their lot under infidel, ungodly, and malicious governors, they do not run to arms, to save themselves, or save the gospel; as if God had called them to reform the world, or keep it from the oppression of the higher Nor do they think it a strange, intolerable matter for the powers. best men to be lowest, and to be the suffering side, and so fall to fighting that Christ and the saints may have the rule. For they know that Christ's kingdom is not of this world, (John xviii. 36.) that it is not a visible monarchy, as his usurping vicar doth pretend; and that Christ doth most eminently rule unseen, and disposeth of all the kingdoms of the world, even where he is hated and resisted; and that the reign of saints is in their state of glory; and that all God's graces do fit them more for a suffering life than for worldly power. Their humility, meekness, patience, self-denial, contempt of the world, and heavenly-mindedness, are better exercised and When promoted in a suffering than a prosperous reigning state. they think of the holy blood which hath been shed by heathen Rome, from Christ and Stephen, till the days of Constantine; and the far greater streams which have been shed by the bloody papal Rome; wherever they had power, in Piedmont, Germany, Poland, Hungary, in Belgia, England, and in other lands; the thirty or forty thousand murdered in a few days at the Bartholomew massacre in France; the two hundred thousand murdered in a few weeks in Ireland,-they are not so unlike their suffering brethren as to think that striving for honors and command is their way to heavWhen Christ hath foretold them that self-denial under the cross, tribulation, and persecution, is the common way, (Luke xiv. 26, 27. 29. 33. Acts xiv. 22. John xvi. 33. Rom. v. 3. viii. 35. 2 Tim. iii. 12. Matt. v. 10-12. 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7. 10. Mark x. 30.) so far are they from fighting against the injuries and cruelties of their governors, that they account the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than all their treasures, (Heb. xi. 25, 26.) and think they are blessed when they are persecuted, (Matt. v. 10.) and say with Paul, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world Gal. vi. 14. and 2 is crucified to me, and I unto the world;' Cor. xii. 19. "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." "Nay, in all these things, when persecuted and killed all the day long, and counted as sheep to the slaughter, they are more than conquerors through

en.

Christ;" Rom. viii. 35-37. They obtain a nobler conquest than that which is obtained by the sword.

2. But the weak Christian, having less patience, and more selfishness and passion, is more easily tempted to break his bounds, and with Peter run to his unauthorized sword, when he should submit to suffering; Matt. xxvi. 51, 52. And his interest and sufferings cause his passions to have too great a power on his judgment, so that he is more easily tempted to believe that to be lawful, which he thinks to be necessary to his own preservation; and to think that the gospel and the church are falling, when the power of men is turned against them; and therefore he must, with Uzzah, put forth his hand to save the ark of God from falling. He is more troubled at men's injustice and cruelty, and maketh a wonder of it to find the enemies of Christ and godliness to be unreasonably im pudent and bloody; as if he expected reason and righteousness in the malicious world. His sufferings fill him more with discontent, and desires of revenge from God; Luke ix. 54. and his prosperity too much lifts him up; 2 Chron. xxxii. 25. And in the litigious titles of pretenders to supremacy, he is oft too hasty to interest himself in their contentions, as if he understood not that whoever is the conqueror will count those rebels that were on the other side; and that the enemies of Christ will cast all the odium upon Christianity and piety, when the controversy is only among the statesmen and lawyers, and belongs not to religion at all.

3. The seeming Christian will seem to excel all others in loyaly and obedience, when it maketh for his carnal ends: he will fater rulers for honors and preferment, and always be on the rising side, unless when his pride engageth him in murmurings and rebellions. He hath a great advantage above true Christians and honest men, to seem the most obedient subject; because he hath a stretching conscience, that can do any thing for his safety or his worldly ends. If he be among the Papists, he can be a Papist; if among Protestants, he is a Protestant; and if he were among Turks, it is likely he would rather turn a Mahometan than be undone. No prince or power can command him any thing which he cannot yield to, if his worldly interest require it. If there be a law for worshiping the golden image, it is the conscionable servants of God, and not the time-servers, that refuse to obey it; Dan. iii. If there be a law against praying, (Dan. vi.) it is Daniel, and not the ungodly multitude, that disobey it. If there be a command against preaching, (Acts iv. 17, 18.) it is the holy apostles and best Christians that plead the command of God against it, and refuse obedience to it; ver. 20. 29. The self-seeking, temporizing hypocrite can do any thing; and yet he obeyeth not, while he seemeth to obey; for it is not for the authority of the commande