well-nigh one thousand six hundred years, and are yet extant in very legible characters, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the end of the fourth, and the beginning of the fifth chapter.

To come a little nearer to the business of our times, the chief actors in this bloody tragedy, which is now upon the stage, who have robbed our Sovereign Lord the King of his forts, towns, treasure, ammunition, houses, of the persons of many of his subjects, and (as much as lies in them) of the hearts, of all of them; is it credible they know, and remember, and consider the example of David, recorded for their instruction? Whose heart smote him, when he had but cut off the hem of Saul's garment.

They that made no scruple at all of fighting with his sacred Majesty, and shooting muskets and ordnance at him, (which sure have not the skill to choose a subject from a king) to the extreme hazard of his sacred person, whom by all possible obligations they are bound to defend; do they know, think you, the general rule, without exception or limitation, left by the Holy Ghost, for our direction in all such cases: *Who can lift his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be innocent?" Or do they consider his command in the Proverbs of Solomon: † "My son, fear God, and the king, and meddle not with them that desire change?" Or, his counsel in the book of Ecclesiastes: "I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God?" Or, because they possibly may pretend, that they are

* 1 Sam. xxvi. 9.

Eccles, viii. 2.

+ Prov. xxiv. 21.

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exempted from, or unconcerned in, the commands of obedience delivered in the Old Testament, do they know and remember the precept given to all Christians by St. Peter; "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?" Or, that terrible sanction of the same command, "They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation," left us by St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, who then were the miserable subjects of the worst king, the worst man, nay, I think I may add truly, the worst beast in the world; that so all rebels' mouths might be stopped for ever, and left without all colour of pretence whatsoever, to justify resistance of sovereign power? Undoubtedly, if they did know, and consider, and lay close to their hearts, these places of Scripture, or the fearful judgment which befel Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, for this very sin which they commit, and with a high hand still proceed in, it would be impossible but their hearts would smite them, as David's did upon an infinitely less occasion, and affright them out of those ways of present confusion, and eternal damnation. And then, on the other side, they that maintain the King's righteous cause with the hazard of their lives and fortunes, but by their oaths and curses, by their drunkenness and debauchery, by their irreligion and profaneness, fight more powerfully against their party, than by all other means they do or can fight for it, are not, I fear, very well acquainted with any part of the Bible but that strict caution, which properly concerns themselves, in the book of Leviticus, I much doubt they have scarce ever heard of it

"When thou goest to war with thine enemies, then take heed there be no wicked thing in thee:" not only no wickedness in the cause thou maintainest, nor no wickedness in the means by which thou maintainest it, but no personal impieties in the persons that maintain it. Beloved, for the former two, we have reason to be full of comfort and confidence for what is our cause? What is that which you fight, and we pray for? But to deliver the King and all his good subjects out of the power of their enemies, who will have no peace but with their slaves and vassals; and for the means by which it is maintained, it is not by lying; it is not by calumnies; it is not by running first ourselves, and then forcing the people, to universal perjury; but by a just war, because necessary; and by as fair and merciful a war, as if they were not rebels and traitors you fight against, but competitors in a doubtful title. But now for the third part of the caution, that to deal ingenuously with you, and to deliver my own soul, if I cannot other men's, that I cannot think of with half so much comfort as the former; but seeing so many Jonah's embarked in the same ship, the same cause with us, and so many Achans entering into battle with us against the Canaanites; seeing publicans and sinners on the one side, against scribes and pharisees on the other; on the one side hypocrisy, on the other profaneness; no honesty nor justice on the one side, and very little piety on the other; on the one side, horrible oaths, curses, and blasphemies; on the other, pestilent lies, calumnies, and perjury: when I see among them the pretence of reformation, if not the desire, pursued by antichristian, Mahometan, devilish means; and

amongst us little or no zeal for reformation of what is indeed amiss, little or no care to remove the cause of God's anger towards us, by just, lawful, and Christian means; I profess plainly, I cannot without trembling consider, what is likely to be the event of these distractions; I cannot but fear, that the goodness of our cause may sink under the burden of our sins; and that God in his justice, because he will not suffer his judgments to achieve their prime scope and intention, which is our amendment and reformation, may either deliver us up to the blind zeal and fury of our enemies; or else, which I rather fear, make us instruments of his justice each against other, and of our own just and deserved confusion. This, I profess plainly, is my fear, and I would to God it were the fear of every soldier in his Majesty's army: but, that which increaseth my fear is, that I see very many of them have very little or none at all; I mean not, that they are fearless towards their enemies, (that's our joy and triumph) but that they shew their courage even against God, and fear not him, whom it is madness not to fear. Now from whence can their not fearing him proceed, but from their not knowing him, their not knowing his will, and their own duty? Not knowing how highly it concerns soldiers, above other professions, to be religious? And then, if ever, when they are engaged in dangerous adventures, and every moment have their lives in their hands, when they go to war with their enemies, then to take heed there be no wicked thing in them.

You see, beloved, how many instances and examples I have given you of our gross ignorance of what is necessary and easy for us to know; and

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to these it were no difficult matter to add more: now from whence can this ignorance proceed, but from supine negligence? And from whence this negligence, but from our not believing what we pretend to believe? For, did we believe firmly and heartily, that this book were given us by God for the rule of our actions, and that obedience to it were the certain and only way to eternal happiness, it were impossible we should be such enemies to ourselves, such traitors to our own souls, as not to search it, at least with so much diligence, that no necessary point of our duty plainly taught in it, could possibly escape us. But it is certain and apparent to all the world, that the greatest part of Christians, through gross and wilful negligence, remain utterly ignorant of many necessary points of their duty to God and man; and therefore it is much to be feared, that this book, and the religion of Christ contained in it, among an infinity of professors, labours with great penury of true be'lievers.

It were an easy matter (if the time would permit) to present unto you many other demonstrations of the same conclusion; but to this, drawn from our willing ignorance of that which is easy and necessary for us to know, I will content myself to add only one more, taken from our voluntary and presumptuous neglect to do those things which we know and acknowledge to be necessary.

If a man should say unto me, that it concerns him as much as his life is worth, to go presently to such a place, and that he knows but one way to it, and I should see him stand still, or go some other way, had I any reason to believe, that this man believes himself? Quid verba audiam, cum