from the sins of Jeroboam, that corrupted God's worship, and put forth his hand against the prophet that spoke against it. Whereby God will be engaged to be their protector in peace and war. When princes and people that fall out with holiness and take part with the flesh, and set themselves against the servants, the worship, and the ways of Christ, do put themselves from under his protection, and put themselves under the battering and piercing strokes of his displeasure. And woe to him that striveth with his Maker, and that kicks against the pricks of his severity; Isa. xlv. 9. Acts ix. 5. xxvi. 14. The fatal ruin of the kingdoms of the world, or at least the final ruin of the persons, is from their enmity and rebellion against the Lord, and because they will not be his kingdoms, but hate and quarrel with his ways, and persecute his servants. And godliness preserveth princes and magistrates from this sin and ruin.

(4.) Holiness will cause the rulers to hate sin in themselves and others, and to remove the abominable thing from before the eyes of God's jealousy, and to "drive away the froward; and not to know the wicked and the proud, and to cut off the slanderer, and the wicked doers, and to set no wicked thing before their eyes;" Psal. ci. "In their eyes a vile person will be contemned, but they will honour them that fear the Lord." By this means their kingdoms may be holy, and God will delight in them, and dwell among them, and it shall be said of them, as Jer. xxxi. 23. "The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness." And when Israel is "holiness to the Lord, all that devour him shall offend, evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord;" chap.ii.3. The holy examples, and holy government of godly kings and magistrates, will draw the hearts of the people to holiness, and cause it to flourish in the land. Whereas the wicked examples and government of the ungodly tendeth to make all about them wicked. For as Solomon saith, Prov. xxix. 12. "If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked." And then they are fuel for the wrath of God, both as offenders, and as enemies. For they will be still rebelling and opposing him and carnal interests and enmity will pervert them to use the reprovers as Asa, and Amaziah, and Jeroboam, and Jezebel, and Joash did; and to think with Saul that Doeg was the best subject that would kill the priests at his command, and those the worst that would not

betray them or destroy them; and to say to false accusers, as he did to the Ziphites, (1 Sam. xxiii. 21.) "Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have compassion on me." And saith the Lord, (Isa. xxvii. 4.) "Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together."

(5.) Holiness will save princes and rulers from the great and dangerous temptations of their riches, and honours, and power, and pleasures, and will teach them to mortify the flesh, and live after the Spirit (Rom. viii. 1. 6. 13.), and will keep them hereby from those sins that would subject them to the consuming wrath of the impartial God, and will bring them to heaven notwithstanding all the impediments of the world, even as a camel through a needle's eye, by the Power to which all things are possible. And doubtless that which maketh men most acceptable to God, and tendeth to the everlasting happiness of the persons, must needs be better for all societies than that which prepareth them for damnation, and keepeth them here under the indignation of the Lord. See 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. Lev. xxv. 43. 46.53, Isa. xxxii. 1. Rom.

iii. 4-6. xii. 8.

II. And as holiness thus maketh the most excellent princes and happy governors, so it maketh the most loyal and obedient subjects, and is the most powerful preserver of peace in all societies.

If any shall say, that the people that are accounted holy have caused as great contentions and rebellions in the world as any other, witness the wars in France, Savoy, Bohemia, Scotland, England, &c. I shall first prove undeniably from the nature of the thing, that true godliness must needs make the best subjects, and tend to the happiness of commonwealths, and then I shall more nearly answer the objection.

1. Holiness effectually teacheth subjects to know themselves; to know their weakness, and meanness, and unworthiness, and to know their places and their proper work. It kills that pride that makes men think that none are so fit to rule as they; and it makes them so humble as to think themselves unworthy of protection in the meanest station. And also it so takes them up with a higher ambition, and sets their hearts on the greater things, that they are dead to the ambition of the world, and can easily leave these things to

others. Their kingdom is not of this world. They are taught to expect affliction and persecution, and not aspire after crowns. No man can deny that this is the lesson set them by their Lord, and the covenant which they make with him when they become his servants. Whereas the ungodly having their portion in this life, and relishing and minding most the things of the world, will snatch, and scramble, and turn every stone, and do any thing within their reach for worldly honours.

2. Holiness teacheth subjects to see God in their rulers, and honour and obey them as his officers, even with an honour and obedience participatively divine. And no men can give them a higher honour than they that thus honour them on God's account; and no men can give them so full, and firm, and constant obedience, as they that obey God in their governors. No man can give them higher titles than they that take them to be the officers of God. Carnal men obey their governors merely as men that are able to do them good or hurt. If they were sure to receive no damage by contemning them, they cared not to trample them in the dirt. Though that people sinned in desiring a king, yet when they had chosen that kind of government, and Saul was set over them, those that went with him were such "whose hearts God had touched; but the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? and they despised him and brought him no presents;" 1 Sam. x. 27.

3. Holiness causeth subjects to obey and submit for conscience sake. They do it because God himself hath commanded them to do it. They pay tribute, and give honour and obedience because it is part of their obedience to God, required of them in the fifth commandment, which is the first with promise. Outward prosperity is especially promised to them that honour their parents and superiors. And the commands and promises of God, with the bonds of conscience, do tie men faster to their duty, and restrain them more effectually from disobedience than the words of men alone can do. Conscience holdeth strongly and constantly; and it holdeth as well in secret as in public; so that if a man were sure to do a mischief and never be discovered, he would nevertheless abhor it, as being not unknown to God and conscience. A man that feareth not God and conscience, will never stick to do a mischief, if he may escape the eye and revenging hand

of man. Faux will set fire to the train to blow up king and parliament, if he see but a probability of escape. But he that feeleth the bonds of God upon him, dare not rebel.

4. Holiness destroyeth self-love which is the spring of all discontents and disobedience; and teacheth a man to own no ends or interests but what stand in due subordination to the honour of God and the common good; and in due co-ordination with the welfare of our neighbours. Whereas, the ungodly are every man of them an idol to himself. Selfis the only lord and law, set up against God, and king, and country. And if God, or king, or country be served by them, it is but in subserviency to themselves, as they look to attain some wealth, or dignity, or honour by it. The selfseeking man is faithful and trusty to no man but himself. And the self-denying man hath no great temptation to be unfaithful.

5. Holiness doth partly consist of charity, and teacheth men to do as they would be done by. And how can it go ill with any societies where love prevaileth, and men are as loath to wrong as to be wronged, and to do hurt to others as to themselves?

6. Holiness brings down God's blessing on each particular subject; and maketh a people the delight of God: and brings them under the promise of his favour. "Godliness is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come;" 1 Tim. iv. 8. What abundance of promises are there to the obedient! Isa. i. 19. Deut. iv. 30. Exod. xxiii. 22. Deut. xi. 27. xiii. 4. xxx. 2.

7. Holiness maketh men meek and patient, and teacheth subjects not to make too great a matter of any injury that is done them; nor to censure unwarrantably the actions of their superiors; nor to murmur and stir up discontents, but quietly to bear all in obedience to God, and for the common good.

8. Holiness disposeth men to unity and concord, and is as much against discord and division as healthful nature is against wounds and sickness. "Whence are wars, but from the lusts that war in your members?" James iv. 1. The ser vant of the Lord must not strive. The new command of special love to one another, and the strange forbearance, con

VOL. X.

cession, condescension, forgiving, and loving enemies themselves, required in the Gospel, must needs do much if truly practised to preserve the peace of any nation.

9. Holiness assureth us of so great a reward to those that obey their superiors in things lawful, and offers us so much better things upon our patience and submission, than ever disobedience or rebellion can attain, that hereby it must needs tend to the quiet and benefit of societies. He that is bound to " rejoice and be exceeding glad" in his " persecution, because his reward in heaven is great," hath small reason to contrive, or fight, or sin to escape the persecution together with the reward; Matt. v. 11, 12.

10. Holiness teacheth men both to continue obedient and faithful against all temptations, and also to propagate the same resolutions, and to draw all others to obedience with us. It was the excellency of Christ's example, that he would be obedient even when he was fully accused of treason, and charged as an usurper of Cæsar's right. If we should be called seditious, disobedient, and rebellious when we are most loyal, it must not move us from our loyalty at all. In all these ten particulars I have shewed, that in the nature of the thing, it is undeniable that godliness is the strength and beauty, and safety of kingdoms, and of all societies; in that it engageth the subject as well as the governors, in all that tendeth to their peace and welfare.

And now you may see by what is said, that there can be no weight in the objection which pretendeth from the case of the Waldenses, Albigenses, Bohemians, French, &c. to produce experience against what I am proving. Health may as truly be said to be the cause of sickness, as godliness to be the cause of treachery, rebellion, or disloyalty; there being nothing in all the world except God himself, so contrary to these as godliness is.

But you will ask, Whence is it that we have the aforesaid instances? I answer, sometimes not authority, but malice and cruelty driveth poor Christians to a stone wall, and if they turn again when they can fly no further, accuseth them of rebellion; as it was with the Waldenses, the Bohemians, &c. Sometimes princes and states fall out among themselves, and cannot agree about their titles, and the bonds and degrees of their power. And then whoever the people are against, they are sure from that side to hear the