The Originals of Rebellion: Or, the Ends of Separation.  
A SERMON PREACHED On the Thirtieth of January, 1682. IN THE PARISH-CHURCH OF GREAT-YARMOUTH.  
By Luke Milbourne, Curate there.  
LONDON: Printed by J. Wallis, for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Churchyard. 1683.   

For the Right Honourable ROBERT Earl of Yarmouth, Lord Lieutenant of His Majesty's County of Norfolk.  
Right Honourable,  
'tIS not the Excellence of the Discourse but its Honest Design that emboldens the Author to Prefix Your Name to it. The Death of Charles the First (of ever blessed memory) was too Cruel a Blow to these Nations not to be seriously Lamented. The Doctrines in those days Preached, and now Revived to encourage Schism, Faction and Rebellion, too Hellish not to be opposed by all who have any sense of Christianity, to Condole the one, and to stay the Progress of the other, this Sermon was Preached: what its success may be I know not, but if it serve to undeceive any who have been seduced from their Duties to their Prince, or their Church-governors, my good Intentions will be highly recompensed. Your Honour who is so Eminent an Assertor of Majesty, and the Religion of the Church of England as by Law Established, has obliged yourself, in some measure, to Protect the meanest Person who sincerely intends the same thing, Among whom I hope Your Honour's Charity will place me, and on that Account favourably Patronise the mean endeavour of  
My Lord, Your Honours most obliged, most Humble and most Faithful Servant, L. M.   
ACTS xxix. Vers. 8. 
While he Answered for himself, neither against the Law of the Jews, neither against the Temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.  
ST. Paul, after some years' absence, returning again into his Native Country, found the malice of the Jews, who neither would embrace the Gospel themselves, nor suffer the Gentiles to be partakers of it, strong and active as possible to his Ruin: his turning his Back upon them in so public a manner, Acts xiii. 46. And his care to deliver to all Churches of the Gentiles, the Decrees of the Council of Jerusalem, Acts xuj. 4. had filled 'em with so inveterate prejudices against him, that altho' in Compliance with them, he himself submitted at his return to the Ceremonies in the most solemn way, yet they surprise him in that very Action, and in the Temple itself with such Clamour and Violence, that had not the chief Captain of the Roman Garrison, then in Jerusalem, interposed and with his Soldiers overawed 'em, they had soon dispatched their formidable Enemy. He, the faithful servant of Almighty God, found more favour and justice from the hands of Claudius Lysias an inferior Commander, from Covetous Felix, and too Popular Festus, tho' strangers to true Religion, than he could from his own Countrymen, Gods peculiar People, who boasted themselves of their Zeal for the Name and Commands of the same Divinity he Preached, the Jews prosecuted him with their virulent and improbable slanders, and their desperate and bloody Associations, while Heathens, persons of a very Moderate Virtue, gave him Protection and Security. Nor could all St. Paul's sacred Eloquence, the dictates of the everlasting Spirit, quell their Fanatic Rage; nor his baffling their absurd Accusations, in spite of their Mercenary Orator's Assistance, alloy their Malice; tho' he could prevail upon King Agrippa so far as to persuade him almost to be a Christian, and upon Festus the Roman Goverour to pronounce him Innocent, and not to have merited any restraint but for his Appeal to Caesar, Acts xxvi. 28.31, 32.  
Festus indeed gave the Jews all the advantage imaginable against St. Paul, had they had any proof of what they Accuse him for: he invited the ablest of 'em to go down with him from Jerusalem to Caesarea, where the Apostle was Prisoner, and there to Accuse him if there were any Wickedness in him, vers. 5. of this Chapter, he makes no long delays, but, after a short time, sits in the judgement Seat, and commands Paul to be brought to the face of his Accusers; who standing round about him, strove to render him as black as they could: they laid many and grievous Complaints against him, but, alas! they were clogged with an unhappy circumstance, for of all the Crimes they impeached him, they could not prove one, v. 6, 7. And Paul Answered their Charge with a more probable Plea for himself, That neither against the Law of the Jews, nor against the Temple, nor yet against Caesar had he offended any thing at all, that is, That he had neither transgressed those settled Laws whereby the Government of their Nation was regulated in temporal Affairs, nor had he slighted, vilified or made any Schism in their Religion, nor had he despised or profaned that magnificent Temple, built and dedicated among them to the Worship and Honour of the true God; neither yet had he entered into any Plots, Confederacies, or Associations against the Person or Government of the Roman Emperor; their then Lawful and Undoubted Sovereign, nor refused Obedience to his Laws, nor Rebelled against him.  
This Apology which S. Paul makes for himself, seems little agreeable to the Practice of those bloodthirsty Saints, whose Barbarous Piety broke the Church of England to pieces, profaned all the Houses of God in the Land, overturned all Laws of God and Man; and dipped their cruel hands in the Sacred Blood of their Lawful Prince, the Lords Anointed: A Crime of so horrid a Complexion, as (though too true some few years since) was beyond all the Ideas of Impiety in the former, and will be almost too great to obtain Credit in all future Ages. If I be an Offender, if I have really contracted that Gild which the Jews pretend only to prosecute in me with so much zeal and eagerness, if I have committed any thing worthy of Death (and Sins against just Laws, pure Religion, and Lawfully acquired Sovereignty are truly such) if I have done any such thing, says our great Apostle, I refuse not to die. Death is justly due to such Criminals; and tho' perhaps Humane Justice may oversee some of the foulest actions, Divine Vengeance is guided by an Allseeing Eye, and sooner or later will give them their just Reward: So far was he from excusing, and much farther from glorying in such cursed Actions. Nay, he was willing in his case to Appeal to the Justice of Cesar, where the Murderer of his Father would scarce have expected Pardon, from whose Presence our great Patriots laboured to fly as far as they could.  
From the Accusation of the Jews, (which of what nature it was we may conjecture from the Speech of Tertullus ch. 24. and from St. Paul's Defence,) we may learn what are the Beginnings, what the Increase, and what the End of Troubles and Disorders in a Church or State. The Jews had a great Veneration for the Temple of God and those Laws by which the Worship of God in that Temple were Regulated, those Rites and Ceremonies which attended their Religious Constitutions, they justly condemn St. Paul, had he been guilty, of profaning their Temple, preaching down their Ceremonies, and breaking those Rules delivered to them by God himself: He answers for himself that against their Temple, against their Religion he had committed no offence. They accuse him as a Pestilent fellow, a mover of Sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, so a breaker of their Country Statutes, and their Politics, having had the Sanction of Almighty God himself (for what Nation was there so great, who had God so nigh unto them, and what so great that had Statutes and Judgements so Righteous, as that Law which Moses in the Name of God set before them, Deut. 4.7, 8.) if it were true, they had reason for their Impeaching him, Impunity giving the greatest encouragement to Factious Spirits. He replies that he had not offended against the Law of the Jews; His enemies taking the two former Articles for granted, make their Third a necessary and rational Inference from them, that he was an Enemy to Cesar, and so whosoever was a mover of Sedition or Division among his Subjects must unavoidably be. But the Apostle by taking his Innocence in the former respects to be evident and granted, there being no tolerable Proof offered to the Contrary from thence (yet more justly) concludes that neither against Cesar had he offended any thing at all. The Jewish Accusation than amounts to this, Where Ecclesiastical Injunctions are broken, there the breach of Laws Temporal is a present Protection, and Rebellion against the Lawmaker the Sovereign, supposed a more lasting security; and this Politic Axiom they apply to the Prisoner. St. Paul acknowledges the truth of that Proposition, but denies the Application, tho' they had asserted what was true in itself; yet their Assertion could not reach him, tho' he insinuates at the same time that nothing but an Universal Innocence, could be a sufficient Defence against such an Accusation, having such a Precedent as this, I shall endeavour from hence to evidence that indissoluble Connexion there is between these Crimes, which St. Paul so industriously in the Text and elsewhere Vindicates himself from, or that a Contempt and breach of Laws Ecclesiastical, introduces consequentially the Contempt and breach of Laws Temporal, and that Rebellion against the Lawful Supreme Powers, which what success it may sometimes have, this days sad Solemnity sufficiently informs us; and  
1. Let us duly consider the Trespasses committed against the orders of a true Church, those Canons and Rules appointed for its better Government, which Trespasses soon break out into endless Schisms and Separations.  
That there is indeed some such thing necessary as Ecclesiastical Polity for the Government of the whole Body of Religious Professors within such or such a district, is acknowledged by the express Consent or open Practice of all Churches whatsoever; and the end prescribed to all Religion whether true or false being the Honour of the Supreme Being, and the securing a perfect and substantial Happiness to Man, all Ecclesiastical Constitutions, according to the various Capacities of men's understandings are adapted to that end, all concurring as much as possible with that Apostolical Canon, that all things should be done to Edifying, 1 Cor. 14.26. that is, that all Particulars or Circumstances whatsoever may be so contrived, all Laws so framed, as to confirm and strengthen as well as instruct the Professors of such a Religion, in those principles which the first Advancers of that Religion endeavour to inculcate into their Followers as most directly tending, according to their best apprehensions, to those great ends before named. Thus whatsoever God prescribed in the Government of the Judaic Church, all those Ceremonial Appendages of it aimed at this, to make the Natural Jews or those Proselyted to them, to have a due respect and Honour to that Religion he had settled among them, to acknowledge the infinite wisdom, goodness and absolute Dominion of God to and over them; that so they, sensible of the difference between God's wisdom and their own, and of his favour to them in condescending to be their Lawmaker and Counsellor, might acquiesce in his Commands, and study to act and live accordingly. In the same manner that infamous Impostor Mahomet, contriving a motley Religion, such a Hotchpotch of Fooleries as best might suit to the variable tempers of Men, for the more sure irradicating it into their minds, gave such Laws to his deluded Disciples, that a due Obedience to them must of necessity make their Errors the more inveterate, and possess them with an invincible Bigotry for that Religion by which alone they hoped to attain to their truly ridiculous Paradise.  
If we take a view of the Church of Rome and that adulterated Religion it holds forth, we find its Canons and Constitutions very numerous and always increasing considerably with those new Superstitions invented and entertained by it. And as that Church lays a great deal of weight upon that straw and stubble which they have raised upon the more excellent and solid foundation of the Gospel, as it recommends all its Superstitious and Idolatrous Innovations to its Members as the best and most ready means for the gaining everlasting Salvation; so that prodigious heap of Ceremonies, with which its Divine Worship is encumbered, far more than ever the Jewish Church was before, are employed to make their Novelties the more valuable, and that large Body of the Canon Law there received as the standard of Ecclesiastical government, obliges all Persons in that Communion to such a method of Practice, as cannot but agree with, and gradually instill, such Principles into their minds, as may make them exactly conformable to even the grossest Errors which may be imposed upon them, under the notion of assistances to Heaven.  
Let us but consider the Case of those great disturbers of the Peace of the Church of England in the Days of Queen Elizabeth, when they had picked what faults they could with the public and Authentic Constitution of its Government, when they called aloud for greater Purity in Religious Ordinances, and a more thorough Reformation, to that end they were very active to contrive a form of Discipline, which they called the Discipline of Jesus Christ, which all who were true Professors were to submit themselves to: which Discipline was of such a Nature, as that the deeper impression it made upon the minds of Men, the more violent prejudices would it fill them with against the Orders of our Church as by Law established, the more inflexible would it make them to all motions to quietness and submission, the more closely would it knit and unite them in one society, and all under the plausible pretence of pleasing God and securing their own Happiness the better.  
And the wretched Successors of that unhappy ancestry, in the times of our late Troubles, when they had by their treacherous practices Confounded all things Sacred and Civil, and had settled themselves in the Supreme Power among us, for the support and defence of themselves were necessitated to make a Directory for the worship of God, and to endeavour the settlement of a Classical Presbytery, for the due Execution of such Laws as should be necessary for the establishment of their Confused Church; and the Independents or Congregational Men where they bear the Sway, as in New England, are forced to settle certain rules of government in their Churches, nay the Quakers themselves are not without some Methods of Policy in their Conventicles. All these, agreeing as far as possible with those fond and Sceptical principles the several Factions have studied to advance; and to do thus, in the sense of all those I have instanced in, is to do what tends in their several ways to Edification: and indeed this course seems agreeable to Natural Prudence tho' we had no Divine Command for it.  
This then being a Method so universally agreed to, it seems very obvious, that a breach made upon it, must necessarily tend to the dissolution of that Society wheresoever it is admitted; and yet a nicety or tenderness of Conscience, as it is abusively called, is as good a Plea for allowance of such a breach in one Church or Religious Society, as in another. He who has scruples against the Jewish Church-Laws, may have scruples too against Mahometism, against Popery, against Presbytery, Independency, nay, against all the Religion in the World, if a pretence to such a tenderness and scrupulosity be enough to lose every Bond, and to break every Yoke; and it must needs procure Contempt to the best and purest Religion, if it be not thought worth the while to oblige men by all just ways to those Laws whereby it is guided and established. When Sects and Heresies were permitted among the Jews notwithstanding the Fundamental Constitutions of their Church, the solid Doctrines of Truth delivered to them by the Divinely inspired Prophets, dwindled away into nice and useless Speculations, obscure glosses and uncertain and Heretical Traditions: Sincere Piety gave place to the transitory flashes of Hypocrisy, and Intestine Broils and Divisions, in the Heat of which God's Honour was forgotten, contributed largely to the utter ruin and subversion of their Nation; which was indeed no wonder, Vengeance commonly taking place where Faith is banished; and so low was that grown among them, that a poor Proselyted Centurion expressed more of Faith to our Saviour than he could find in Israel, Matth. 8.10. And since the time that the Followers of Mahomet gave way to new Prophets and Expositors of the Originals of their Profession, their zeal is extremely abated, and much of that debauchery and irreligion, which the very Alcoran forbade, has gotten ground and favour among them, and the Papacy has lost as much almost of its power and Interest in these parts of the World by the relaxation of its Discipline and Indulgence to Contradictory Doctrines and Practices, as it has gained by all its Legendary Miracles and new-fangled Arts and Stratagems, assisted with the extraordinary activity of its most zealous Agents and Emissaries.  
Thus Puritanism in our Forefathers days, through its ineffectual attempts to settle the Holy Discipline, prepared the way to Brownism and separation; a little loosening the Golden Reins of Government in the Church of England, gave entrance and increase to super-Puritanical Presbytery; and that, not being sufficiently guarded by Directories and Ordinances, introduced Independency, Quakerism, Familism, Libertinism, and all the Sects and Heresies, and more than ever the Christian World had been acquainted with before.  
When Humane Politics first took place, and men united themselves into regular Bodies, it was presently found that the wisest and most rational Laws could not restrain the extravagancies of the multitude, unless some penalties were annexed and a Power settled in some particular persons to execute those penalties upon offenders; the same was proved true in Religious affairs also; for though the ground and reason of all commanded or forbidden was never so plain and notorious, yet Corrupt Man was ungovernable by pure Reason and wisdom; so that some punishments were as necessary among Ecclesiastical as among Civil Criminals; and this necessity has always made a necessary Connexion between the Temporal and Spiritual Laws, that one might be Assistant to the other; that Religion might oblige men obedience to the Civil Powers, and Corporal punishments compel them to submission to the Church. Thus God himself in the Jewish Government joins the Judge and the Priest together, Deut. 17.8,— 13. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgement, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, being matters of Controversy within the gates, than thou shalt arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, & thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those days, and inquire, and they shall show thee the sentence of judgement and the Man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest, that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the Judge, even that man shall die and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel, and when the Law was completed by Moses, we are told that he wrote this Law and delivered it unto the Priests, the Sons of Levi, which bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and to all the Elders, i. e. the Princes and Civil governors of Israel, Deut. 31.9. so making the Priests and the Princes joint Commissioners in the encouraging moral virtue and devotion, and in repressing irregularity and disobedience, and though the sentence of Excommunication denounced only by the Pastors and Governors of the Church be really the most dreadful of all others, yet so much quicker generally is Man's sense of bodily than of spiritual pain or danger, that the Temporal Magistrate is frequently forced, for the keeping Men in the better awe, to make the Execution of National Laws, the best evidence of the inconveniences attending of the anathemas of the Church; those who are willing enough to quit for ever God's service, being very loath to lose the smallest temporal Revenue or Privilege.  
This mutual Assistance which Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws give to one another, has at all times been found of so good effect for the keeping Men in due bounds of sobriety and obedience, that so soon as there were any Christian Princes, they presently set the Seal of their Authority to the Canons and Rules made by Church Governors for the use of Christians: So the Imperial constitutions gave security to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, that men might know there was a Coersive Authority invested in their spiritual Superiors, and that such a one, as from which there could lie no advantageous appeal; and on the other Hand Church Censures gave a strong confirmation to Imperial Sanctions, evidencing the Consistency of Supreme Dominion and the power of Sword with the fundamentals of Christianity, from which to the great satisfaction of temporal Princes, it must notoriously appear that no Insurrection, Conspiracy, Rebellion, or the like, could be commenced for Conscience-sake, but that Conscience indeed under the Conduct of the Divine Law, would oblige men to fidelity and subjection to their Rulers, not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward, and hence it is that tho' there be a power inherent in the Fathers of this Church of ours and that derived from Christ himself, by which they may Anathematise Sinners and suspend unworthy persons from Church Communion, or admit Converts to it; yet their Government is made the more easy and successful, by having the favour of our National Statutes the Common Laws of the Realm; by which while they meddle only with such things as are under their Cognisance, they are protected from the malice and Revenge of Atheistical and unreasonable men.  
Had the Apostles been blest with the same Assistance, it is no doubt but the Gospel might have made at least more seeming Converts to it; the power of working Miracles, the striking of guilty persons dead with a word, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, did indeed in some measure supply that want and yet even then, much more in the time of the next Successors, whosoever thought himself not honoured according to his merit, could make a defection from the Church and contrive and propagate Heresies to ruin that Church, if possible, which had rejected them; of which Simon Magus was a remarkable instance, or if any were excommunicated for the foulest Crimes, they could but turn Heathens again, and in revenge use their interest to raise a persecution against or to blaspheme Christianity, and all this without any fear of being punished by the Civil Magistrate. But tho' men had then those ways of evading punishment for the present, that subtlety was no alleviation but an aggravation of their Sin: and though upon a Church-Censure denounced against them, they flew in the face of their Censurers in confidence of their impunity, those first and Master-builders of the Church were not so frighted from their duties, well knowing that tho' they escaped here, they would find the dreadful weight of a justly inflicted Anathema hereafter.  
But from a transgression of these Rules of Church Polity innumerable Sins take their original, the precepts of Christianity are severe and mortifying, and corrupt men are loath to be compelled to take such pains for Heaven, which makes them oppose and vilify such Sanctions with the utmost vigour, and resolve frequently never to submit to them unless upon their own terms, which gives ground for separation. So the brutish Gnostics of old, cavilled at the imperfection and impunity of Church Discipline even in the Apostles time, and under pretence of greater Holiness and knowledge, receded from the faithful Believers; and what seminaries of filth and impiety their Conventicles proved upon it, Church History sufficiently informs us. Upon the same reasons have all those Schisms in the several Ages of the Church been made; when the severity of Discipline pinched them, they have cried out for want of it, and under that pretext have made a shift to live without any at all. Nor can we in this present Age upon the strickest Enquiry, find more looseness, falsehood, selfishness, or uncharitableness among any people whatsoever, than among those, who upon pretence of Conscience, make fractures in the Church of God; nor can that pretence extenuate the Sin of Separation▪ unless one Sin, be the best Argument to excuse another by, or an Error in Opinion the best plea for an Error in Practice; and the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church being both built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Cornerstone, it can appear strange to none, if they respect one another, and concur to the building up and confirming men in their most holy Faith; nor can any wonder at our Churches censuring those persons, who can no way prove any Divine Command evacuated by her Laws, nor show any thing derogatory in its Constitution from the Honour of God, and that reverence due to his Sacred Word, nor find any impediment in its tendries to that Spirit and Truth required in the worship of God, and yet with an empty cry against it of Popery and Superstition, to which It of all other Churches is the most irreconcilable Enemy, divide themselves from its Communion, labour night and day to enlarge that division, encourage obstinacy in that practice from the Pulpit and from the Press by the blackest Calumnies the Devil can suggest against its Members, Pastors and Governors, as if it were of the essence of true Protestant Religion, as well as that of the Jesuits, to lie stoutly, that somewhat may stick to their purpose. St. Paul's practice was not such, the Jewish worship and Doctrine was Corrupted indeed, and he endeavoured to reform them according to the appointment of the Saviour: but he represents them not worse than they were, by fictitious Stories, he sowed no divisions among them; nay, we find not that among them he endeavoured to persuade any to reject the Ceremonial Law of Moses, though he would not admit of it among the Converted Gentiles; nor against their Temple did he commit any offence whatsoever; and if it be alleged that he preached against their Commands and in private, the Objection answers itself; they would not give way to Christ's Doctrine, therefore Paul and the rest of the Apostles must preach, or the World must still have continued in Darkness: but we preach Christ and him Crucified as well as the Objectors, we hope to be saved by his Merits and Mediation as well as they, we forbidden them not to speak in the name of Christ when they are lawfully called to it; but we forbidden them to Preach up their own fancies and ill-grounded opinions, to fill men's heads with useless, idle and confounding scruples, to instil a Pharisaical pride and uncharitableness in the minds of weak, but well meaning Christians; and here the Civil Power strikes in with the Prohibition, and they incur the Penalties of the National Laws, who employ themselves so: those are to us, as the Rabbins say the Masorah is to the Mosaic Law, the Hedge and sense of our Church power; which keep the wild Boars, the Wolves and Foxes from breaking in upon us, and happy sure are we to whom God has given such Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers, who have that care to protect from growing and encroaching Enemies. But Hinc illae Lacrymae, hence all those tears, those sad complaints of persecution, were but the Cherubins and flaming Sword the Government and Laws removed from the gates of our Paradise. How soon would our Enthusiastic and Tender-Conscienced Saints rush into all places of Power and Profit, seize the Tree of Life itself, and once more glut themselves with the Blood of the Slain. But now, alas! the edge of that fatal Sword is turned upon them every way, the Garden of God is not to be rooted up by them; other Arts therefore must be tried, embroil the State and Church disorders shall escape unpunishment; and this hint brings me to the next degree of wickedness, which the Apostle in the Text purges himself from, i.e.  
. From any offence committed against the Law of the Jews, those Politics whereby their State was governed, the natural Consequence of troubling and dividing the Church; the Gnostics the Spawn of Simon Magus, were the first Heretics that Broke the peace of the Church, and the first pretenders to Christianity that appeared in opposition to the Caesarean Laws, engaging even in Rebellions contrary to that Doctrine they professed to own. Nor did those zealots among the Jews who thought the rest of their own Nation too impure for their Society, transgress less when they sent for the Edomites to assist them in ruining their Native Country and oppressing those who were better than themselves, and how frequently the Edicts of Christian Emperors were slighted by the Arrians, Eutychians, Donatists, and other Heretics and Schismatics, we may learn from the most Authentic writers of Church History, and indeed this Crime seems inevitable where the former is admitted; since those who separate from others on account of purer administrations, and so make a Schism in the Church, must of necessity hold meetings of their own Associates, to make a show of Divine worship and so break the Edicts of the State.  
It is plain that Unity in the Church and State, both carrying on the same good design, must needs be the most happy and desirable thing in the World; but if every one be permitted to act according to this own apprehension in the one, it must unquestionably produce confusion and have a fatal influence on the other. Thus if a man be permitted to separate from the Church of God, and to enjoy his own way quietly in that state of separation, if he believe the end of Church Discipline and Laws generally to be the good of his Soul, his better part, he may reasonably conclude he may as well and upon as good grounds withdraw his obedience from the Laws temporal, which only concern his Body, his meaner part, or his estate and Fortunes; and this principle once entertained, what the Consequences of it may be, a very ordinary Capacity will soon discover. So we see it has been questioned by Anabaptists, Socinians, and others, whether it be lawful for a Christian to exercise the Authority of a Magistrate, or to assume to himself, though enabled by never so many humane Laws, the power of Life and Death; now what trouble such Sectaries and Heretics have given to the Churches of Christendom we all know: but may they not as justly question whether it be lawful for a Christian to submit to any such Authority as he concludes unlawful and an usurpation; and if they may not submit to Laws, and if they may not be compelled by punishments, extending to Life and Limb, to that submission, the Legislative power must be of small value, it being a mere Scarecrow at which none but Fools can tremble.  
I am ready as any Man to Believe, that were all men as sincerely Religious as they ought to be, Laws without penalties or bare directions from their Superiors, would be enough to govern them by: but the World is acquainted with no such perfection, and therefore that burden which men by Sins have brought upon themselves, they must submit to; and as self-preservation will engage a man who has several enemies to secure himself from their attempts by all means imaginable, the same reason obliges Princes and other Public persons, who are the constant objects of Envious and Ambitious Spirits, to fortify themselves by the best Laws and those by the best Alliances they can find out. Now tho' Heathen Princes, out of a distrust of that Religion, with whose Principles they were utterly unacquainted, were afraid to expect security from their own Christian Subjects, and therefore rather chose foreign Confederacies and Leagues whereby they might be able to depress those whom they always suspected (tho' unjustly) ready for a Rebellion; Yet Christian Princes have insisted on contrary Methods, and have endeavoured, by Unity and mutual Confidence in their Subjects, to secure themselves against Foreigners, for which end they have advanced uniformity in sacred Worship as well knowing, that Nothing can create a more complete Love and Union among men than a close agreement in the weightiest actions of this life: and this agreement at home once well settled, a Confederacy abroad against their own Subjects, if they be Christians indeed, is altogether needless. But this Uniformity must be established and imposed by Law: for we sinned sew Subjects so submissive to their Rulers, as for their bare desire to agree to any such thing; and by this means it comes to pass that Church Uniformity cannot be interrupted, but Civil Constitutions must be broken at the same time; that a Schism cannot commence in the Church, but it will produce a faction in the State; every one concluding it their Interest to cry up those of their own opinion, and they, if in power, making a retribution of encouragement and protection. While the Constituent Members of the Church and State are but Men Subject to mistakes and Errors, it can be no hard matter, for malicious Wits to find several imperfections in both. The most pious and wise among Church-governors and State-Politicians may take wrong measures of things, and ordain sometimes such things, as, though Lawful, may upon trial be found inconvenient, or though their Ordinances may be proper for the present Juncture of Affairs, yet they may be impracticable afterwards: So the Canons of the Apostles concerning abstinence from things strangled and from blood, though absolutely necessary to prevent giving Scandal to the Believing Jews at that time, and though Dictated by the Holy Ghost, yet when the reason of that Canon ceased, was soon antiquated and laid aside by the Churches in General: So we in this Kingdom have had several Statutes made only upon probation for a term of years, which expired, as they were found profitable or otherwise, they were renewed or repealed: now this argues an acknowledgement of imperfection on both sides, but is no reason for the disobedience of private persons on either. It is the Apostles command, Heb. 13.17. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your Souls, as they that must give Account, that they may do it with Joy and not with grief; and it is a command backed with the same authority, 1 Pet. 2.13, 14, 15. Submit yourselves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake, Whether it be to the King as Supreme, or to Governors as those that are sent by him, for the punishment of evil doers, but for the praise of them that do well, for so is the will of God, that with well doing we may put to silence the Ignorance of foolish Men. Now these commands being of the same Authority and force, being both absolute and illimited, and respecting both our Temporal and Spiritual Governors, he that can dispense with his respect for one, may as warrantably absolve himself from the obedience due to the other: nor can it be imprudence in any Prince to believe with Constantius the Father of Constantine the Great, that those who are undutiful to their God, can never be faithful Subjects to their Sovereign.  
The Author of the Life of Julian the Apostate, has had the Impudence to tell the World, That the Christians summitted to the Heathen Emperors of old, merely because they were unable by reason of their small numbers to resist, which contradicts the opinion of Tertullian, who even in persecuting times assures us, that the Christians were so numerous that a bare quitting the Roman territories had been revenge enough against their persecutors (In Apologet.) 'tis strange he did not give them the same reason of Christ's yielding himself to that infamous Death of the Cross; but it happens unfortunately, that our blessed Saviour, the Captain of our Salvation, tells Peter, that he could pray to his Father, and he should presently give him more than twelve Legions of Angels, Matt. 26.53. Assistants enough to baffle the utmost force of the Jews, and it seems as Cross to his Assertion, that St. Peter himself tells us, that, if we do well, if for Conscience-sake toward God we suffer though wrongfully, and suffer patiently, not because we cannot help it, this is acceptable with God, For even hereunto were we called, because Christ also, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, threatened not; he suffered for us, leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps. 1 Pet. two. 19, 23. And St. Paul commands Every Soul to be subject to the higher Powers, not because they were too weak to rebel, but because those that resisted, resisted the Ordinance of God, which no strength or multitude could justify, and they that resisted should receive to themselves damnation, Rom. xiii. 1. Now he who could think a Rebellion against a Lawful but persecuting Prince consistent enough with Christian Patience and Meekness, if there were but Force enough to carry it on, would never scruple if his tender conscience were disturbed by Canonical Impositions, to revenge himself on that Government as soon as possible, which should dare to Countenance the Imposers, of which Truth this day has given us a dreadful instance.  
But since the Power of the Civil Magistrate, is the defence of Church Government, and that the same Civil Magistrate is obliged, by long settled Laws and Statutes, to the protection of it, the best means as yet found out to help this Grievance has been to get those Laws Repealed by which Sectaries and Schismatics suffer. Now when we consider that even the most Arbitrary Monarches have their Counsellors, of whose Advice they make use in all difficulties, and by whose Advice the standing Laws are framed, and that the same Power which Enacts Laws is required for their Repeal; the design of discontented persons is, to procure the advancement of men like-minded with themselves to the Cabinet Counsels of Princes, that so, by their Assistance, they may procure the disannulling or at least the suspension of Pinching Statutes. Or if, as in this Nation, the Prince calls together the Representatives of his People, chosen by their own Suffrages, to consult de arduis regni negotiis, about the most weighty Affairs of the Kingdom, by whose Authority, enlivened by the accession of the Royal Consent, Acts are composed and made public, whereby such or such a party of men are restrained from that Liberty they imagine themselves born to, it is the employment of the same Malcontents, by fair and plausible pretences, and sometimes unjustifiable subtleties, to make the Votes of the populace concur with their own desires in the Election of such persons for the great Council of the Nation, who have nothing less than the Good of the Nation in their thoughts, who only serve the Interest of that Party who chose them, by restless endeavours to enervate established Laws, or wholly to lay them aside: of this the Late Times give us too plain Examples.  
The Puritans as they were then styled, that busy and indefatigable Party, while they were but few in number, and so not likely to prevail in a public Choice, endeavoured by their Admonitions and Advices to the Members of Parliament as already chosen, to allure or to affright them into an Agreement with that Holy Discipline they then laboured Night and Day to set up: but when they found those worthy Patriots more Prudent, and Resolute than to take any notice of their Flatteries or of their Threats, that their Paper pellets could make no impression on them, they straight pursued another Method; they tried all ways possible to curry favour with Men capable of serving in that Great Senate, they courted the good opinion of the Multitude by exclaiming against the Vices of the Age, especially against those of the Court, and of the best affected to the Established Government, by declaiming loudly against the Excesses committed under the Protection of Episcopal Government, by professing the greatest aversation possible to the Usurpations, the Superstitious and Idolatrous Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome, the Commonalty apprehending nothing more Terrible than that Bloody Inquisition necessarily (as they supposed) admitted with the Romish Religion, they ripped up all the Immoralities of the Conformable Clergy, and added their own Fables to the Tale, showing themselves in the mean time very precise and demure in public. By these and other Artifices their Strength increased, several openly owning them, and great numbers encouraging and favouring them privately: Nay many very sober and conformable persons were so far deceived by a gay outside, as to conclude it impossible for men of so much seeming Innocence and Holiness to carry on any Ill Designs, on which account not giving them so vigorous an opposition at first as was needful, they easily gained and made so considerable a Party in the Great Council of the Land, as first was able to give Check to their Prince, afterwards to embroil him in several Wars, and at last to deny him all Supplies for the carrying those Wars on, unless at the Price of breaking his Coronation Oath, quitting the Protection of the True Church of God, reversing those Laws which under God secured the Crown on his own Head, Dethroning himself, and putting the Reins of Government into the hands of a few Arbitrary and Domineering Demagogues. And this is the short and true Scheme of those Hellish Politics by which Three Kingdoms were almost brought to Desolation.  
And who can wonder at that dismal event of things? from those who enter into courses of Separation out of Spleen or Revenge, every one knows what is to be expected; and as for those who follow them from motives which they imagine to proceed from Conscience, their Zeal is commonly so hot and furious, that being Confident of the Divine Obligation and nature of those Rules they walk by, and of the desperate and damnable Errors which those who agree not with them in all things run themselves into, they conclude the utter Extirpation of all such to be the doing the work of the Lord hearty: they think no means too violent to propagate their Opinions, nor that any kind of Cruelty which compels men whether they will or not to go to Heaven. If such imagine the Established Church to be that Babylon so much condemned in Scripture, 'twill not be enough for them the People of God, to come out of her, but the Daughter of Babylon being destined to destruction, Happy shall he be that takes and dashes her little ones against the stones; according to the Psalmists expression, Ps. 137.8, 9 Nay what can it be accounted but the most complete Charity for me, when I am sure I am in the way to Happiness myself, to do the utmost to bring all others into the same Blissful Condition?  
About 600 Years after the building of Rome, some tell us that the Institutes of Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome were found, which being inspected by the Quindecemviri appointed for such purposes, and found to contain a far different Scheme of Religion from what was then used among the Romans, the Senate ordered them to be burnt (Lactan l. 1. c. 22.) so fearful were that People of Creating general disorders by permitting Innovations in the Sacred Rites. But that Religion they so carefully defended being false and Idolatrous, How much more reason have Christian Princes and Governors to secure theirs, which is founded upon the Infallible word of God, from the encroaching Impertinencies of froward Schismatics; that Law which forbids Conventicles of Separatists, is grounded upon that reason that in those Meetings Seditions and Treasons had frequently been, and at any time might be contrived; the reason is good and true, and in Venner's Case was proved, and where Men can have the confidence to break the Statute by meeting in unlawful Assemblies, 'tis mere Cavilling to question whether they could not with as good a Conscience make Good the reason of it. Some from Scotland in the Days of Queen Elizabeth, endeavoured to commend the new-fangled Reformation, as no Enemy to Government; and yet even in that very discourse Penned for the purpose, They charge the Judges and Lawyers, a Company of Godless Men, as they call them, with having made it a Common and long practice, to make of the Statutes ordained for the maintenance of Religion and Common quietness, a Pit wherein to catch the peaceable of the Lord, (See Bancroft ' s English Scottizing, p. 54.) and this when they acted justly according to Law and the true meaning of it, by which words they plainly express their hatred to the common Laws, which yet they own at the same time to be the bonds of peace and quietness. But Authority sleeps not all this while, the Sword is often and justly drawn to quell these dividing and seditious Spirits. King's cannot see Religion ruined and their Laws trampled upon without a deep resentment; which the most factious persons are very sensible of, but that Consideration is so far from quieting their turbulent Humours, that it rather drives them on to more desperate and impious actions. If they may not separate from the Church without disturbance, nor break the Laws of the Nation without punishment, the next Blow shall be at the Lawgivers Head, the very foundations of the Government shall be overturned, and that by the  
3d. Thing St. Paul clears himself in the Text from, viz. by treachery and Rebellion, by flying in the face of Cesar himself, the best security a Delinquent in the former respects pretends to. It was doubtless a very happy time, in the opinion of such, among the Israelites, when there was no King in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes, Judg. 21.25. and yet some, and upon very good grounds, have imagined that that very circumstance, the want of a King or Supreme Governor, was the cause of such deeds, as never had been seen, from the day that the Children of Israel came up out of Egypt, to that time, Judg. 19.30. and had almost procured the utter excision of one of their Tribes, ch. 21.3. But this is not always a security sufficient for a Malefactor. Cain, when he had murdered his Brother, feared no Superiors animadverting upon him; and yet that guilt which lay upon his mind told him, that every one that found him should slay him, and when the Jews by slighting their own Religion and by breaking God's Laws, had provoked him to bring the Chaldean army to scourge them, they hoping that the Egyptian power would secure them, the Chaldeans having already raised their siege that was laid against. Jerusalem, the Prophet Jeremiah assures them, That though they had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans, so that there should remain none but wounded men among them, even those wounded men should rise up every one in his Tent and burn Jerusalem with fire, Jer. 37.10. from both which instances it appears that even where there are no higher powers to call Men to an Account for Crimes, their very equals, or it may be their Inferiors will be their punishers.  
But though this be indeed true, yet the way of opposing the higher powers in a covert or open manner, by Treachery or Rebellion, is the best help guilty persons can find out. By so doing they stand upon their guard, and challenge Justice if it dare to attack them. But that is not enough, such men as have outlawed themselves by their disobedience, are too distrustful to keep themselves only in a defensive posture; a single person seldom is a Rebel; if there be Confederates, there must be some rule of maintaining that Confederacy; and those who have transgressed just and justly imposed Laws, may as readily, upon a fair opportunity offered, break those unjust articles, by which Conspiracies are holden together. So Sheba the Son of Bichri, the Ringleader of the Rebellion against David, had his Head thrown over the Walls of Abel by his own party, when that Sacrifice might divert a storm from their Heads. Therefore such persons are generally the Aggressors in a Civil War, hoping by activity and a full employment, to engage all their Party so far in the displeasure of their Superiors, that mere despair of Pardon shall make them saithful and resolute in their perfidious undertake. To this purpose it was subtly enough advised by Achitophel in the Rebellion of Absalon, That Absalon should go in to his Father's Concubines, one of the foulest actions he could possibly be guilty of; the reason of which he gives, all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy Father, then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong, 2 Sam. 16.21. for when the People had once seen Absalom's resolution by that unpardonable Villainy, and made themselves his Accomplices by being Spectators and Approvers of it, it was not questioned but that they would rather die valiantly fight in the defence of their Leader, than submit to the barbarous usage of a common Executioner. Now a concurrence in wickedness being the only bond in such associations, it proves sufficiently the wickedness of that end aimed at by them.  
But if the hopes of impunity be so great an incentive to an open Rebellion in Common temporary cases, what shall we imagine of such persons, who when they rebel think they do God good service, who think they have an extraordinary call from Heaven to bind their Kings in chains and their Nobles in links of Iron, that so the Kingdom of Jesus Christ may be advanced in this World? Other Malefactors own the Execution of Laws, but the Execution of Justice; and did they not reach their lives, would possibly endeavour to appease their incensed Governors, by a quick submission and promises of amendment: but these act upon other principles, they tell us of the Fanatic suggestions of a melancholic Daemon within them, which they Nickname Conscience, which assures them they are then in the most excellent way, when they tread in Contrary paths to all the Powers of this world, whether Christian or Heathen; that all those Laws whereby their designs are crossed are wicked and Antichristian, whosoever was the Author of them; that Christian Princes are bound to favour and encourage them, in setting Jesus the everlasting King upon the holy hill of Zion, though they be never so much dissatisfied in the Methods pursued to that purpose; that by persecuting and rebelling against Princes, who impede them in their attempts, and forcing them to lay their Crowns at the footstool of Christ's throne, they acquire the Crown of Martyrdom to themselves, if they fail, and of Saints Triumphant if they accomplish their Intentions. While this Frenzy and these gay hopes predominate in the heads and minds of men, all their undertake must consequently be violent in extremity: 'tis hard to make them listen to the words of truth and soberness, the zeal of God's house eats up their very Intellectuals, and makes them like insensible Machine's, move either by prescription or not at all.  
Of this Humour the Scribes and Pharisees in our Saviour's time seem to have been; their Religion altogether vain and superstitious, yet they so persuaded of its perfection, and so bewitched into an inordinate Love of it, that their Saviour the everlasting Jesus, who came to rectify their misapprehensions, to turn the Hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just; was looked upon but as an inconsiderable Fellow, a mere cheat and Impostor? they built so much upon misinterpreted Prophecies and the Infallibility of their own Judgements, that though their Forces were weak, their Interest contemptible and their Case desperate, they ventured to provoke the Roman power, till they had indeed made good their own Imprecation, and brought the Innocent blood of the Son of God upon themselves and upon their Children. 'Tis this Conceit of themselves, which makes the Turks to this day expose their Lives so prodigally to the Christian Swords, not doubting either of Conquest, or if they die, but that they shall be, with open Arms, received by their great Prophet Mahomet into the joys of his sensual Paradise: 'Tis this opinion which gives the Jesuited Proselytes of the Church of Rome courage enough to traverse unknown Countries by Sea and Land, as the Pharisees of old, to make one Proselyte, though they have little reason to hope for Life among those barbarous strangers; and the same makes them so ready to contrive and to engage in Treasons, Insurrections and Assassinations, hoping that by such adventures they should either enlarge the bounds of their Idolatrous Religion, or exalt themselves beyond the danger of a terrible Purgatory: and those who remember the ordinary applications, of Curse ye Meroz, etc. in former times, or have taken notice of Mr. Baxter 's Calendar of Saints in the first Editions of his Saints everlasting Rest, may have reason to believe, that some in our own Nation have been intoxicated with the same damnable opinions, by which they have been hurried on to folly and wickedness beyond expression or conception.  
I never yet heard an Instance of the good settlement of Religion by the Sword, nor can I believe an attempt to that purpose consistent with the Spirit of Christianity; Nor do the Ringleaders of Heresy or Schism believe any such thing themselves. Ambition and Pride are the Beginners of them, though sometimes very Sober and mortified Men may be deluded so far as to carry them on; Had Valentinus or Martion been made Bishops 'tis possible they had never been Heretics, but when their expectations of that kind failed, as Julius Cesar thought it more honourable to be the first Man in a little Village, than to be the second in Rome, so they thought it better to be the Heads of a miserable Party of seduced Wretches, than to manage an inferior office in the Church of God: Hence they bad defiance to the truths of the Gospel, making good thereby the assertion of St. James 4.1. that Wars and fightings, Heresies and dissensions, arise from men's lusts that war in their Members. Now the Leaders, though they regard not the Dictates of Conscience, or act not according to their knowledge, they strive by false notions of Conscience instilled into the minds of others, to make them believe they act so, even when they run into the greatest Errors in Religion, and the greatest dangers in their worldly concerns: but how easy is the work from this false ground laid, to make even wise Men mad? What, is not life and liberty dear to us, will we not run the extremest hazards for their preservation, are not our temporary priveleges of the highest value, and will we not keep them at the expense of our estates? is not our Country the object of our most passionate Love, and will not we expose our Lives themselves for its defence? but what are our Priveleges, our Lives, our Liberties, or our Country to our Religion; our Priveleges may be lost and we yet thrive and prosper; our Liberties may be retrenched and we yet have diversion in a Prison; our Country may be Conquered and yet our Concerns secured; our Liveslost, and yet eternal Happiness gained; but when our Religion goes, Prosperity here, and the hopes of Happiness hereafter are for ever lost. 'Tis true, Religion is indeed of greater worth than any thing we can enjoy here below, but must we therefore do evil that good may come of it? must we forfeit one part of our Religion for the maintaining the other, advance the service of God by rebelling against his Substitutes? God forbidden! 'tis a part of our Religion that we should Believe in God and serve him through Jesus Christ our Lord; and rather than quit this belief we should suffer the Gibbet, Axe, Wheel or Rack, or whatsoever inventive Malice can make use of to our Terror; but it is withal a part of our Religion, to be subject to the higher Powers, not only for wrath, but for Conscience-sake, and rather to bear the Effects of all those suspicions Jealous heads can entertain of their designs against our Profession, than to lift up rebellious Swords against the Gods of the Earth our Lawful Superiors.  
It is generally supposed that Princes and Governors have a severe eye upon all Innovators, and that they cannot contentedly endure those who are of a different Religion from themselves, but that one time or other they will revenge that affront put upon them by dissenters. This supposition is laid hold on by Ill men, Enemies to the Church and State; for first they study to draw others off, under a pretence of some great deficiency, from the public National Profession; then they encourage to a perseverance in their separation; then persuade them they have by so doing exasperated the Civil Magistrate beyond hopes of reconciliation; and last, to add Sin to Sin, teach them to rise against their Lords, and to extort that liberty of Conscience they cry out for, from their Superiors by force of Arms; and whereas well meaning persons may possibly scruple to lift up their Hands against the Lords Anointed, Knox, and Buchanan and others of that Leven, have given out a relaxing Doctrine, That Princes for just causes may be deposed. That the People have the same power over the King, the highest Governor, that the King hath over any one Man. That the Commons of any Kingdom may lawfully require of their King to have true Preachers, of which the same Commons must be the ultimate Judges: and if he be negligent, than they, the Commons, themselves may justly provide them, maintain them, defend them against all that persecute them, and may detain the profits of Church-living from those Preachers whom they approve not of, all Laws, Ordinances, Statutes, to the contrary notwithstanding. And now where these or the like Doctrines obtain credit, where so much power is put into the hands of the People, what Church can be at Unity long within itself, what Laws of any effect or Validity, what Governors can be secure from the violence of the giddyheaded, changeable and easily deluded Populace?  
Had the Apostles and other the first Preachers of the Gospel advanced such odious Doctrines as these, they would soon have brought the World about their Ears, and Pliny would have found something else to have informed the Emperor Trajan about than their Honest mutual Engagements, their early Prayers and inordinate Superstition, nor would Providence have been concerned in defence of an armed Gospel; such discoveries were reserved to the news lights of our times, who else would have had nothing to have recommended themselves to the World by. One main reason of St. Paul's speaking so much against divisions and breaches in the Church of Christ was, that by unity and peace among themselves Christians might become the less obnoxious to the State: For, since it pleased God sometimes, even under Heathen Kings and Emperors, to give the Church's peace on every side, and the uninterrupted protection of the Laws, he would not have them by Schisms among themselves drive one another to a necessity of trespassing upon those Laws they were Protected by, nor to exasperate the higher Powers so far as to reduce themselves to the sad choice of Perfecution or Rebellion. He had given them a better example by his own Carriage toward the Jews, when he could truly plead for himself against them, that neither against the Law of the Jews, nor against the Temple, nor against Cesar, had he offended any thing at all; and happy had we in this Nation been, had those great pretenders to Holiness and Reformation, who caused all our woes and miseries some years since, followed this great Apostle's pattern, but the Act of Parliament for the observation of this Day, informs us of the impossibility of such a thing; It tells us They were a party of wretched Men desperately wicked and hardened in their impiety, who having first plotted and contrived the ruin of this Excellent Monarchy, and with it of the true Reformed Religion, which had been long protected by it, and flourished under it.; found it necessary in order to the Carrying on their traitorous and pernicious Designs, to throw down all the bulwarks and fences of Law, and to subvert the very Being and Constitution of Parliament, that so they might at last make their way open for any farther Attempts upon the sacred Person of his Majesty himself, they then began at the destruction of the Church, proceeded to subversion of the Laws, ended in an Horrid Rebellion and the Barbarous murder of their Sovereign. Many perhaps in those black days had no prospect of those damnable Consequences; learn from thence then the folly of those who dare engage themselves in separating and Schismatical Courses, how God in them punishes one sin by another commonly, till their damnation is irremediable; but who could have suspected such Cruel Wolves under their Sheep's clothing, who could have believed such plausible pretences had veiled such devilish Treachery and Hypocrisy? or indeed who could but suspect them if their first motions were but rationally balanced? This Nation, nor any of its Neighbours were ever blest with a Prince of more Prudence, Goodness, or Exemplary Piety, than Charles the first of glorious Memory; No Church since the time of our Saviour and his Apostles themselves, was ever reform to a higher or more Apostolical Purity in Doctrine or Discipline: No greater or more faithful Lights shone in the whole Christian world at that time, than the Fathers of our Church the Priests attending at God's sacred Altar: Our National felicity, our plenty, riches, prosperity were the Envy and Wonder of all the Nations round about us. Now when men begin to cry out for Reformation in such a juncture of Affairs as this, it looks like earnest seeking for a reason of Quarrelling; it argues a Capricious and discontented Humour to complain without cause, and a foul Stomach to nauseate the descending Manna the food of blessed Angels. When the Malicious Heads of the Age had Caballed together, to render the Government as obnoxious as possible, when they had made all the bitter reflections imaginable upon the Prelates of the Church, the Counsellors of the State and the King himself their Head, when they had searched the very Cabinet of their Prince and exposed his most reserved Secrets to the View of the World, even than all their Charges were proved by the clearest reasons to be, nothing but Slanders, Calumnies, Lies, and the most gross absurdities that united Hell could ever invent; How often then were the traitorous Swords of his sworn Subjects lifted up against the sacred life of their gracious Sovereign, and yet at that very time, In what charming terms did that Gentle Prince woe his stubborn and obdurate Rebels but seriously to weigh and examine the truth of things before it was too late! in how pathetic terms did he set before them the dangers they exposed themselves to both in this and the future World by setting themselves against the ordinance of God How did his tender Soul relent for those unhappy Wretches whose zealous Ignorance hurried them to death in so cursed a Cause! but alas, the hardest Rocks, the very Walls that held him a Prisoner to his Rebels, were not more insensible than those remorseless Villains, who by Treasons had got the greater power, and were resolved to abuse it to his destruction, for whose sacred life millions of such Hellish Souls had been but too mean a Sacrifice: Our Saviour once told Pilate, that, If his Kingdom had been of this world, than his servants would have fought that he should not have been delivered to the Jews, John 18.36. The Case was altered now, our Saintlike Rebels thought the Kingdom of Charles the First, not to be of this World, else would they never have been so unnatural to have fought against, to have condemned, to have murdered him. Jews indeed they were in wickedness, and laboured hard to copy out Jewish treachery and cruelty to their Messiah the ever blessed Jesus, in their false and bloody Dealing with his Vicegerent the Anointed of the Lord. It was an ill sight in the judgement of Solomon, to see Servants on Horseback and Princes like Servants walking upon the Earth, Eccl. 10.7. but how much more dismal was the sight to see, a great Monarch led by a company of brutish Guards, as his Saviour had been before, as a Sheep to the slaughter; to see awful Majesly appear by compulsion before those persons his pretended Judges, whose Fathers he would have disdained to have set with the Dogs of his flock; Who were children of fools, yea, children of base men who were viler than the earth, as Job 30.1.8. expresses it; there to hear himself vilified and belied by the impudence of a Mercenary Wretch; to hear the sentence of Death pronounced upon him by those who owed their own lives to the protection of his Laws, even then when they broke them desperately to his ruin! But what Adamantine Heart but would bleed, to see that Sacred Head struck off by an execrable Villain, and showed to the Astonished Multitude under the scandalous Name of the Head of a Traitor! Such as this surely was a throughly reforming Practice, well becoming those Bloodthirsty Saints, whose Devilish achievements we this day sadly Commemorate. Thus Jesuitism and Separation go hand in hand, both hold Princes responsible to their Subjects as Superiors; both hold them liable as well as others to Excommunication; both hold the Subjects absolved from their sworn Allegiance to that Prince, whom they judge an Enemy to God; both hold it lawful to oppose him by force of Arms; and both conclude in Murder: and I make no question but the same Heaven which received St. Garnet, St. Fawx, St. Clement, St. Ravilliac, and their Followers, may equally contain St. Cromwell, Bradshaw, Corbet, Peter, and the rest of that Hellish fraternity, who all died impenitent in the same damnable faith, if their own Friends belly them not.  
But the Sun is risen again, God has visited us in Mercy beyond our deserts, and we see the Gracious Son of Charles the Martyr seated on the throne of his Father: May his Reign be prosperous and his Days many; ready has this incorrigible Nation been to run headlong again into its former woes; Antimonarchical Doctrines walk abroad again in open day; Suspicions and Jealousies are reentertained; the busy Separatists active to buoy up their Party, and to make an Interest once more great enough to reverse those Laws which justly take notice of them as Hypocritical and Seditious, rather than true Protestants: The old Steps had been so far traced again, that had not Almighty God inspired his Vicegerent among us with wisdom from above to crush those Basilisks in their early motions, the Kingdom, in all probability, had e'er this been made an Acel-dama a field of Blood. But thanks be to God at last the Snare is broken and we in some measure delivered; God of his mercy direct our Sovereign still, and confound the subtle and incessant Devices of his Enemies; God grant that we may know in this our day the things that belong to our Peace, that we may sincerely pray for and obey our Prince, that we may contend earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints; that laying aside all Malice and Hypocrisy, we may serve the Lord our Defender and the Restorer of our breaches, with fear, and rejoice before him with reverence, that his blessing may ever rest upon us and upon our King, for Jesus Christ's sake; To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, etc.  
FINIS.