A SERMON Preached at CHARD, JUNE 21. 1685. Before the Right Honourable JOHN Lord CHURCHILL, And His MAJESTIE'S Forces.  
By S. RICH, A. M. Rector of Stalbridge, in the County of Dorset; and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of ALBEMARLE.  ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ, Pag. 177. 
I am sure the right methods of Reforming the Church cannot consist with that of perturbing the Civil State, nor can Religion be justly advanced by depressing Loyalty, which is one of the chiefest Ingredients and Ornaments of true Religion; for next to Fear God, is, Honour the King.  
LONDON, Printed by R. N. for Charles Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1685.   

To the Right Honourable JOHN LORD CHURCHILL of AYMOUTH, BARON of SAND RIDGE, One of the most Honourable Lords of His MAJESTIE'S Bedchamber, MAYOR GENERAL of all His majesty's FORCES both Horse and Foot, and Captain of the Third Troop of His majesty's Guards, etc.  
MY LORD,  
AS His most Sacred MAJESTY (whose Life and happy Reign God long preserve) did very Providentially make Choice of Your Lordship, as a signal Instrument in that great and glorious Action; which under God was the Preservation of His MAJESTY and His Kingdoms: So was Your Lordship's readiness as Eminent in the performance of all His Sacred commands; insomuch that by the Loyal obedience, the Conduct, Care and Courage of Your Honourable self, together with Your Illustrious Associates, there was a short end put to the raging torrent of an unparallelled Rebellion; wherein the influence of Your Lordship's examples wrought Miracles never to be forgotten.  
My Lord,  
As I had often the Honour to be a witness of Your Lordship's brave and generous behaviour towards His MAJESTIE'S Forces, so I had the further Honour of being commanded by Your Lordship into the Pulpit, and afterwards to commit that to the Press, which I had delivered before to the Army, which could I with modesty have declined, had been.  
But since the Discourse was chief upon Nonresistance, I aught not to be the first that should dare oppose Your Lordship's commands in that particular, being resolved to be obedient in all others.  
And though I know the following Discourse may upon the reading of it, be subject to the Censure of some, who I believe will not be backward to asperse even Majesty itself; yet I am the more at ease, because I reckon myself to be under the Protection of a person whose Character gives a reputation to all that have the Honour to serve him.  
Nor can I, My Lord, but be sensible of Your Lordship's Candid acceptance of the little Service I did in my happy Intercepting the two Posts and Letters of the Rebels, and bringing them to your Lordship; which was the occasion of Your Commands on me, to Preach the next day; and having therein obeyed Your Lordship's Command, Your Goodness hath given me some sort of Title to presume upon this Dedication, which begs only Your Pardon for the confidence of a Loyal Subject; and a person otherwise at Your Lordship's devotion, by all the ties that can oblige an honest man, and,  
My Lord, YOUR LORDSHIP'S most Obedient Servant, S. RICH.   

A SERMON Preached before His majesty's Forces.  ROM. XIII. 2. 
And they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation.  
AS there are some ages and times, that are more infested with unhappy Influences from the heavens, and noxious Reeks from the earth, which by poisoning the air, roots, and herbs, propagate that deadly venom into men's bodies that even wearies death, and gluts the grave with its slaughters. In like manner there are poisonous Lectures in the Conventicle, and malign humours in the Populace, which infect the public air, & spread a fatal contagion into men's Principles and Manners, which flies like infection, and destroys like the plague: And if ever times were under cross and unlucky Aspects, if ever there were a spirit of frenzy and mischief in the world in any days since the first, certainly the Lot is fallen on ours; wherein men's Principles and Practices contend which shall outdo each other in degrees of evil, and 'tis hard to say which are worse, men's actions or opinions: we are fallen into times, wherein among some 'tis a piece of gallantry to defy God, and a kind of wit to be an Atheist: among others 'tis Religion to be fantastic, and Conscience to be turbulent and ungovernable, nor have men's practices come short of the malignity of their belief, but if possible have outdone it. Atheism hath not rested in the Judgement, but proceeded to all enormities and debauches, and we had not been here at this day, upon this occasion, if Rebellion had slept in Opinion. But alas, the venom of the Asp hath swollen into deadly tumours, and those Seditious Principles which bred the last Civil war, have again shot their poisonous arrows into the Vitals of the public body. We yet feel the smart of those wounds, and the generations to come will wear the Scars and the marks of that Rebellion. What is past we may lament, but can't remedy. What we may do, and what we aught, is to inform ourselves better of the duty we own to God, and those he hath appointed over us, and to endeavour the suppressing of those principles which breath the plagues that destroyed the Nation, and would again burn us up in hotter flames than those. And if that fatal fire which than preyed upon our Peace and our Properties, our Religion and our Government, our Persons and our Friends, hath not yet convinced the world of the evil and danger of a Resistance; yet there is another, and a greater as certain and more fatal, threatened by the Apostle, damnation: For they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.  
Which Words were spoken in the days of Nero, who, besides that he was a Heathen, was a Persecutor and a Tyrant, and the most infamous instance in nature; and yet this Miscreant is not excepted as to the tribute of Obedience. Whereas had this been said in the days of such a Prince as ours, it might have been supposed that the virtue of the person claims the reverence and subjection, and not the character of the Prince; and that 'twas damnable to Resist because he was good, not because he was supreme: 'twas a happy concession therefore to secure the Authority of the Magistrate, which answers the greatest pretensions of Rebellion; if Religion be pretended, an Heathen must not be Resisted. If Tyranny, 'tis damnation to resist a Nero; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the wrath and judgement of God, which implies the guilt, and expresseth the danger.  
To resist the AUthority Providence hath set over us, is so sinful and so dangerous principally on these Three accounts: That it First Affronts the Authority of God; Secondly, 'Tis contrary to the Spirit of Religion; Thirdly, Destructive to the Interest of Societies. The Two former express the guilt, and the latter both the sin and the punishment.  
First, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith the Heathen; and a greater than both acknowledgeth Pilat's power to be from above. The Holy Scripture entitles God to all the Royal Adjuncts, and both Christian and heathen Antiquity symbolise in these with the Sacred Oracles, which hath been largely proved by an excellent Prelate, as an instance in some of his particulars: First, the King's person is said to be Gods. 2 Sam. 22.51. he is the tower of Salvation for his King, and 1 Sam. 2.10. and he shall give strength unto his Kings, and exalt the horn of his anointed. I have said, ye are gods; and Plato calls the King, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: God's name is called not only on's person, but Secondly, on's Throne, 2 Chron. 9.8. blessed be the Lord thy God who set thee on his throne to be King for the Lord thy God. So Homer of Agamemnon: Jove lent thee thy Sceptre and Jurisdiction. Thirdly, the King's Titles also relate him to God— Gods anointed, his servant given to Saul, 1 Sam. 12.3. behold here I am before the Lord and before his Anointed: To Cyrus, Isa. 45.1. Thus saith the Lord unto Cyrus his anointed. To Nabuchadnezzar, Jer. 25.9. Behold I will sand and take all the families of the North, saith the Lord, and Nabuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, my servant: the same Athanasius gives to Constantius the great favourer of the Arrians. Fourthly, The King's power is from God, to whom alone he is accountable: an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unaccountableness, or impunity being a necessary attendant on his Royal function. A Kingdom, Plato calls, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God's gift. 2 Chron. 36.23. Thus saith Cyrus' King of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me. Dan. 2.37. O King, thou art a King of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. Athanasius proves by testimonies sufficient that the King wears God's image and Authority: therefore called by Meander, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The figure of God among men; by the Pythagorean. And there's evidence in the nature of the thing to prove that Kings are no substitutes of the people, God having made the world, 'tis his, and his alone, the Right to govern it: but being of such immense perfection, that our frailties can't bear his immediate Rules; 'tis a mercy that he rules us by men like ourselves, and puts the sword into the hands of creatures of our own make; this he doth. Therefore they that Rule are God's Substitutes, and no creatures of the people; for the people have no power to govern themselves, and consequently cannot devolve any upon another; therefore the same authority and commands that oblige us to obey God, bind us to reverence his Viceroy.  
Secondly, Resistance is opposite to the Spirit of Religion; Religion is of a calm and pacific temper, like the Author, whose voice was not heard in the street; it subdues our Passions and restrains our Appetites, it destroys our Pride and sordid selfishness, it allays the Tempests and speaks down the Storms of our Natures; it sweetens our Humour, and polisheth the roughness of our Tempers; it makes men gentle and peaceable, meek and compliant: this was the Spirit of the great Exemplar of our Religion; this was the Sense of his doctrine and his practice: He commands duties to be paid to Caesar, acknowledgeth Pilat's power to be from above, commands the Disciples to pray for their persecutors, permits them to fly, not to oppose, rebukes Peter's violence to the High Priest's servant, and the Disciples revenge in calling for fire; he paid tribute, submitted to the Laws of the Sanbedrim, and to the unjust sentence of his Life. This was his temper, and the Apostles who lived among his enemies and theirs, and met with severity enough to sour their Spirits, and exasperated their pens to contrary resolutions and instructions; yet as true followers of their dear Lord, they faithfully transmit to us what they had learned from him, viz. that we should obey those that have the Rule over us, submit to every ordinance of man, pray for Kings and all in authority, submit to Principalities and Powers, and obey Magistrates: And those Spirits of the first ages after, who began to be Martyrs as soon as to be Christians; who lived in the fire, and went to heaven wrapped in those flames that had lesle ardour than their Love; those amidst the greatest and fiercest fires that cruelty and barbarism had kindled, paid the tribute of a peaceable and quiet subjection to their murderers, and make enforced acknowledgements of the Right they had to their obedience: nor do we read they made any attempts to free themselves by Resistance; though as Tert. saith, they were in powerful numbers mingled in their Villages, Cities, Castles, Armies: An Illustrious instance of passive obedience in the Thebeian Legion, submitting peaceably to a first and second decimation, making way to heaven not by their swords but another warfare. And now if after all this, and infinitely more on this Subject that might be said, to pretend Religion, and pled Scripture for Rebellion, is impudent and shameful; an affront to Religion and a lie in the face of Christ: and those that cannot discern those great lines of their duty, which are set upon the high places, and illustrated with a full beam, and yet can found sin in little harmless circumstances, which nothing hath forbidden but the coyness and perverseness of their own humour, are like him that could see the Stars at noon, but not the Sun, and could spy the shadows made by the mountains in the Moon, but not the greater spots in its visible surface. And for men to strain at the decency of a habit, or the usage of a Ceremony, when they can swallow Rebellion without chewing: is to be like him who durst not eat an Egg on Saturday, but made nothing to kill a man. Had the Holy Scripture said by 1000 part so much for the Jus divinum of Presbytery, as it hath for obedience to Authority; had there been one plain word against Conformity, as there are many against Rebellion, that would have been worn bore upon the tongue, and have filled the world with endless importunities. But the Injunctions and commands of Obedience are against our humours and opinions, against the darling of our fancies, and the interest of our parties, and therefore here we must shuffle and evade, cog and interpret by Analogies of our own making, by the rules of our Sect and the Authority we worship, by necessity and providence, and every thing that will colour sin, and cousin Conscience, that will turn Religion into the current of our Appetites, and make Scripture speak the language of our humours. Thus Religion and divine Authority shall be reverenced and pleaded when they agreed with men's own measures, and sand any light or advantage to the favourites of their Affections; but when they cross their models, oppose their imaginations, and call them upon duties that are displeasant, the case is altered, the great motives of persuasion have lost their power and influence, and Religion can do nothing with them. So I come to the Third, which makes Resistance both a great sin and punishment.  
Thirdly, It's Ruinous to the interest of Societies. These I must more largely prosecute, because it will lead me into the sad occasion of our present meeting. Man is a Creature made for Society, and what is against the interest of Societies is destructive to human nature; and if the greatness of a sin, and the mischiefs are to be measured by its reference to the public, for aught I know, Rebellion will be the next sin to that which is unpardonable in the degree of guilt, as well as itis near it in the penalty threatened. Now there are two great Interests of Societies, viz. Government and Religion, to both which Resistance both in doctrine and practice is fatal.  
1. To Government, for if Subjects may resist the power over them, no Government in the world can stand longer than till the next opportunity to overthrew it; every man will resist what he doth not like, and endeavour to pluck down what comports not with his humour: thus every fit of discontent will stir up the various and inconstant people to seek an alteration. And there was never any Government so exactly framed in the world, but in the manage and administration of it many things would displease. Now the generality of men are led by their present senses, and if they feel themselves pained by any thing, (and it may be too the grief is but in the imagination) they are for present deliverance from that evil by any means, never considering whither the cure of that evil draws; though to greater evils after it than the distemper, and so upon every discontent the people are inflamed, and upon every occasion Rebel: and thus is a Kingdom laid open to inevitable devastation and ruin; and by a dear experience we have learned, that it is better to endure any inconveniences in a settled Government, than to endeavour violent alterations. When the Sword is drawn, no man knows when and where it will be sheathed; when the stone is out of a man's hand, he can't direct it as he pleaseth: men with Swords by their sides will do what liketh themselves, and not what is enjoined by those that employ them; or could we suppose, what our own unhappy experience in the old Rebellion hath confuted, that Armies would be obedient; yet the Murders and Rapes, the Spoils and Devastations, which are the natural issues of a Civil war, are worse than any inconvenience in any Government possible. And though foreign war is like the heat of exercise, good and healthful for the body, yet civil war is like the heat of fire; Lord Bacon. Besides, They that resist, either overcome the Supreme power, or the contrary; if the first, than their instruments in all likelihood conquer them as well as those they secured them against; and so from the Just Authority of their Lawful Rulers, they fall under the Insolence of their Licentious Vassals: or suppose they get the Government to themselves, all the evils will follow which usuallay do upon Competitions and variety of Claims, which will breed everlasting disturbance and eternal fears. If the Resisters be overcome by the Power they oppose, they can expect nothing lesle than to be Crushed and ruined. Thus either way they draw inevitable Ruin upon themselves, and probably on the common body. For Laws and Government are the great Charters of our Lives and Liberties, our Properties and our all: whereas Murder, Rapes, Violence, and all kind of mischief invade the world with Anarchy and disorder.  
And how far all this hath been verified in our borders, a little recollection will inform us.  
For when fair weather and a warm Sun, the indulgence of heaven, and a long tranquillity had made us fat and frolic, rich and full; our prosperity made us wanton, and our richeses insolent; we began to murmur we knew not why, and to complain because we had nothing to complain of. Resistance grew upon the stock of our ill nature, and the perverseness of our humours, and every little occasion was fuel to the fire that was kindled in the distempered body; Than it was the Government was invaded with malicious whispers, and Conventicle preachments, with Libels and invectives, with insolences and tumults; and when Sedition strengthened itself by noise and numbers, and by popular zeal, and talk of Reformation, it broke out into the highest irreverencies against the King of ever blessed memory, and the most violent proceed towards his Ministers; to the end, that the nearest trees being removed, they might have a full stroke at the Cedar. Nor did things stop here, but sparks grew into mighty flames, and small vapours into Thunders and Tempests: murmur passed into the noise of a Camp, and the clamours of the street came to be proclaimed by the found of a Trumpet: the Cloud like a hand quickly overspread the Heavens, and our new lights set us all on fire. The Pulpit sounded as much war as the Drum, and the Preacher spit as much fire as the Cannon: Curse ye Meroz was the Text, and blood and plunder the Comment and the Use; Thus began our happy Reformation, and proceeded from Law to Licentiousness, from Religion to Frenzy; from an happy Government to a wretched hurry and confusion, and the progress and the end were suitable to these beginnings. God was worshipped with the Devils sacrifices, human blood and slaughter; and glorified by being affronted in his authority and laws. The King was honoured by the persecution of his person, and murder of his friends; submisly addressed to in the stile of the Rabble, and petitioned in humble form of Drums and Granades; welcomed at his Cities by the shutting of their Gates, and entertained in the Country with the glittering of Swords and the noise of War; fought against for his defence, and his life fought for the preservation of the King. Thus happy were our Reformers in the twisting contradictions; and they would be so indeed, could they reconcile one more, viz. that they are the good people, and sure heirs of heaven, because that the Apostle saith, that they that Resist, shall receive to themselves Damnation.  
But we are not yet at the end of the line, the most fatal part of the story is to come. Therefore after 10000 Butcheries and Devastations, miseries and disorders which cannot be described, but are always the events of a Civil war. Prosperous wickedness finally prevailed, the friends of Loyalty and Justice were scattered and destroyed: Majesty is made a prey to the sons of a Dunghill, and afflicted innocency falls into the hands of the hunters: and after he had been infamously sold like a slave, and imprisoned like a vile malefactor; after that he had been ravished from his friends, blasphemed in his name, and rob of the Ensigns of his dignity: after he had been tossed up and down from one place to another, according as the designs and insolences of his cruel Jailers should call him: after he had been mocked by conditions of peace and terms of accommodation that were never meant; after that he had made concessions to all their demands, and for the sake of peace and settlement of his Kingdoms, had granted things that Subjects had never the insolence to ask: after these, and 1000 instances of barbarism and indignities more, that his cruel Persecutors might transcend all examples of wickedness, that generations to come might honour them, as they did the High Court of Justice whereof Pontius Pilate was Precedent; and that they might deserve a deeper damnation than that threatened to bore Resisters, they summon their Sovereign to their Bar, and Try him by a company of petty fellows that called themselves by a great name: they buffet him with their insolent taunts, and bait him with the mercenary noise of Justice; like Crucify him: they upbraid him with their own faults, and charge him with the guilt of that blood which themselves had spilt: that they might add the guilt of his to all the rest. Which black Treason not to be thought on without horror, nor named without a tear, they than accomplished beyond any Precedent of former times, and perhaps belief of the future: contrary to their Allegiance and their duty to God, and their profession to the people, to the obligation of Laws and common Right.  
Therefore let the blackest grief be upon the remembrance of these works of Darkness, because, thus fell a Prince; one of the best, the wisest, and most generous, and the most gracious that ever swayed these Sceptres; he fell, and fell by violence, and the violent hands of his own, who aught to have sacrificed their lives to the preservation of his: He fell to the dishonour of God, to the grief of good men, to the scandal of Religion, to the shame of Protestantism, to the overthrow of Government, and ruin of the Nation. This is a Lamentation, and to all generations shall be for a Lamentation: But O heavens, O Providence, must virtue be dethroned, and villainy be crowned? must victory and success wait on Treason and Parricide, while infamy dogs innocence to the grave? must the most righteous of Princes be the most miserable of men? and Religion and a good cause be the only way to be unfortunate and undone? will the searcher of hearts abet Hypocrites, and Providence suffer itself to be made an argument to legitimate Rebellion? shall the Pharisee pray and prospero, and the righteous cry and be forsaken? shall Treason carry Religion in Triumph upon its gilded banners; and shall the wicked lift up their hands in an appeal to heaven, and bring them down to the destruction of the Just? shall villainy raise its head to the clouds and meet no thunderbolts there; while the devotions of the innocent return upon him in storms and flames? Thus Sense and Nature would complain on this occasion. But Providenoe is Just, though we are blind, prosperous villainy crows and triumphs for a moment, but is covered with shame and perpetual darkness in the issue, the end of things will disentangle Providence, and rectify all disorders: than shall we see that afflicted virtue shoots up on the other side the grave, and sends its branches into a flowing Paradise, where they shall be green and verdant in an eternal Spring; while every tree that virtue hath not planted, shall be rooted up and whither in a moment. This I thought fit to suggest as an Apology for Providence, jest the successes of the wicked and misfortunes of the Just in instances so great and near might be Atheistically abused. Thus I am arrived at the first period of the miseries the nation was than brought into by Resistance, which concluded in the ruin and desolation of Government; and this run into all the mischiefs to which human nature is obnoxious. For Government is the great interest of mankind; that which bounds our Passions, and secures our Rights; prevents confusion and that deluge of debauches that Anarchy lets in upon the world. And how far we felt this would be considered.  
When the Nation than had lost its Head and its Glory, 'twas turned with its heels upwards, and governed by a thing as Infamous in its quality as its name; the dregss of the Populacy, the creatures of a Sectarian Army, the worst part of a body that was bad enough in its best: these were our Senators and our Patriots; the Preservers of our peace, and the Keepers of our liberties: and keep them they did, but not for us but from us; and was not this a liberty worth the blood and treasure that was spent to purchase it: O the blessed Reformation that filled the Pulpit and emptied our Purses! that quickened our endeavours and inspired our zeal! and that was so glorious in our mouths and so pleasant in our hopes! were not all miscarriages in Government well mended, when Government was thrown up by the roots? and was not the disease well cured, when the body was destroyed? were we not well freed from evil Counsellors, when we made Kings of the worst we had? and was not Tyranny well extirpated, when we were under an Army of Tyrants? But the Glorious things are to come, and we must be cast into new models; and when the birds of prey have divided the spoil, and satisfied the cravings of their appetites and ambition, the nation shall be made happy with new nothings, and golden mountains, with Chimeras of Commonwealths, and fine names for slavery. In the mean time Loyalty must be scourged with the Scorpions that are due to Rebellion. And they that feared the damnation of the Apostle, shall be sure to incur the damnation of the Reformers. And they that would not hazard their souls, must compound for their Estates. But when the Juncto had run to the end of their line, 1. as far as their Master would permit them, when they were as odious as they deserved, and his designs as ripe as he could wish; than up steps the single Tyrant, kicks them out of their seats, and Belzebub dispossesseth the Legion. He engrosseth the prey to himself, and assumes the sole privilege of completing our miseries. He made himself after the Image of a King, and invested his Sword with the Authority of Law; he ruled us with the rod of Iron we deserved, and made us feel the difference between the silken reinss of a Lawful Authority, and the heavy yoke of an insolent usurpation: and when Providence had freed us from this plague, and called him to an account for his villainies, we fell back into our old disorders; we reeled to and from, and staggered like a drunken man, and were at our wit's end: we knew not this week who would be our Lords the next, nor did our Lords themselves know to day, by what laws they would rule to morrow. Confusion was in their Councils, as well as Tyranny in their actions; and there was but one thing they seemed to be agreed upon, which was to 〈◊〉 the nation; and if we would not believe that this was Liberty, we must be knocked on the head with our Chains; if the Sheep would not take Wolves for their Guardians, 'twas fault enough, and good reason why they should be devoured. And were not things come at length to a pretty pass, when men in Buff durst proclaim themselves the only Legal Authority of the Nation; when our armed Masters murdered men in the streets, and threatened the ancient Metropolis of the Nation, with Gunpowder and Granades: Fire and Sword must be our portion if we would not be in love with infamous Usurpers; and a worse Powder-plot than Fauxe's was acting in the face of the Sun: The Strength, Richeses, Beauty, the almost all of the nation was designed for a Sacrifice to the rage and revenge of our opposers; and Plunders and Massacres were even the lest evils we feared: thus were we tossed up and down from one war to another, and made the sport of the proud and insulting billows, till Almighty goodness settled us again on our old basis, and by a miracle of Providence restored us our Prince and our Government, which our sins had deprived us of; to re-establish us on the sure foundations of Righteousness and Peace; these are some sprinklings of that deluge of woe that we brought on ourselves by resistance, which I have briefly described to this purpose, that the remembrance of these miseries may beget a sense of the greatness of the sin of Rebellion, and the truth of the particular proposition I have been discoursing under this head, that Resistance is fatal to Government, and draws temporal and eternal shame and confusion on the Resisters.  
And though Government may be fixed again upon its foundations, and Laws turned into their Ancient Channel after the violence they have suffered, yet they loose much of their reverence and strength by such dissettlements, and the people that have Rebelled once, and successfully, will be ready to do so often: as water that hath been boiled will boil again the sooner.  
Secondly, Resistance is Ruinous and destructive to Religion; for its contrary to the Spirit of Religion, and therefore destructive of its being, for enemies destroy one another. Rebellion lays the Reinss on men's necks, and takes of the restraints of their appetites; it opens the floudgates of impiety, and let's lose the brats of extravagant imagination, it destroys the reverence of all things sacred, and drives virtue to corners. Religion can't be heard in the noise of battle, but is trampled under foot in the hurry & the tumult; Faith and Love, Humility and Meekness, Purity and Peace, are overcast and silenced by Atheism and Cruelty, Pride and Barbarism, Lust and Revenge. Thus Rebellion by breaking up the foundations of the earth lets in a hell upon us, and brings in a kind of present damnation on the world; and that this is another fatal mischief of Resistance, we have felt also by an experience that will keep it in our memories what execution it hath done on Religion.  
But now this is a tender thing, and I am willing to keep myself within bounds that are charitable and sober, and therefore must premise what I have to say about it; that I charge not the whole body of the people of those times with the guilt of all the follies and corruptions I describe. I profess universal Charity, and have perhaps more for the worst of them, than they generally will own for any that are not of their own party or opinion. Therefore at present I shall say no more than what the sober and intelligent among themselves will acknowledge to be justly chargeable upon some or other of the Sects bred by those disorders: And this will be enough for my purpose, which is only to prove by near and deplorable instances, that Resistance brings mischiefs on Religion, and not to expose to hatred or contempt the persons of any that are serious in the way of their profession, though I judge it never so obnoxious and mistaken. And having said this out of a tender Charity, that none may be wronged by misinterpretation, nor any offended that are not concerned; I come with freedom to describe some of the Injuries their unhappy Resistance hath done Religion, notwithstanding that both arms and tongues so highly pretended its defence. And indeed men fought for Religion till they had destroyed it; and disputed about it till they had lost it. Multiplicity of Opinions had quite confounded the Simplicity of Life and Faith; and 'twas most people's business to chatter like Pies, rather than to live like Christians, or like men: as if Religion had been computed by men's talk and disputes about it, and those latter days of the declining world had been its best, and this in its growth and ways of highest improvement, when all things else were verging to their fatal fall and period. But alas, the Tongue was the most, if not the only Religious member: and many of the Pretenders, like the Egyptian Temples, were fair without, but Beasts and Serpents and Crocodiles within; or like the Bird of Paradise, they had wings to fly in the clouds of Imagination, but no feet to walk on the ground of a virtuous practice. Yea, some had found the way to swim to heaven in the current of their appetites, and to reconcile Covetousness, Rapine, Cruelty, and Spiritual pride; to the glorious virtues of the Elect, the people of God, the chosen of Christ, and the good party. Religion with Rebellion, and Sacrilege with Saintship; these had learned to be godly without goodness, and Christians without Christianity; these were lovers of God, yet were haters of their Brother: haters of open profaneness, but not of Spiritual wickedness: very pious, though cruel and unjust: true penitents, though they returned to their sins as soon as they had complained and wept: their hearts were good, though their actions were dishonest: and they had the root of the matter in them, though that root were a dry stump, and had no branches: they were regenerated, but not reform: converted, but not a jot the better: devout hearers, but bad neighbours: lovers of God, but no haters of Covetousness: had power in heaven, but none over themselves: they were God's servants, though they obeyed their appetites, and his children, though no better than those that they accounted of their father the Devil.  
Thus had men got the knack to be Religious, without Religion; and were in the way to be sacred without Salvation. This was one of the grossest abuses of Religion, that those disorders brought upon us: whereby it was taken from its foundation of virtue and holy living, and placed in emotions, raptures and swelling words of vanity: and when these had kindled the Imagination, and sent the Fancy into the clouds to flutter there in mystical nonsense; and when 'twas mounted on the wings of the wind, and got into the Revelations to lose the Seals; pour out the Vials, and fantastically to interpret the falls of Kingdoms: when it flew into the Tongue in an extravagant Rabble, and abused the name and word of God, mingling it with canting unintelligible babble: when the diseased and disturbed fancy thus variously displayed itself, many made themselves believe, that they were acted by the Spirit; & that those wild agitations of sick imaginations were divine motions: & when this fire was descended from the Fancy to the Affections, and these being exceedingly moved by those vain and proud conceits, caused Tremble and Foaming, Convulsions and Ecstasies in the body (all which are but natural diseases, if not worse, and just like those odd ecstatical motions of the Devils Priests when they come foaming from his Altars) these the wild Phantasticks had learned to ascribe to the blessed and Adorable Spirit: and when their Fancies being full of rugged notions, and their bodies in an ecstasy, they dreamed of strange sights, voices, and wondered discoveries, which were nothing but the unquiet agitations of their own disordered brains: these also were taken for divine Revelations, and the effects of the Spirit of God, showing itself miraculously in them. Briefly, and in sum; Every humour and fantastic unaccountable motion was by some represented as the work of that Spirit, to which they are most opposite. Thus when warm and brisk sanguine thoughts presented a cheerful Scene, and filled the Imagination with pleasant dreams, these were divine illapses, the Joys and Incomes of the Holy Ghost; when heated melanlancholy had kindled the busy and active fancy, the Enthusiast talks of Illuminations, new lights, Revelations, and many wondered fine things, all ascribed to the same Spirit: when phlegm prevailed, & had quenched the fantastic fire, rendering the madman more dull and in active; than the Spirit was withdrawn, and the man under spiritual darkness and desertion: when again, choler was blown up into rage and fury against every thing which was not of the fond cut and measure: This also was presumed to be a fervour kindled by that Spirit, whose real fruits are gentleness and Love; yet none here, I hope, will be so uncharitable and unjust as to think I go about to disparage the Spirit of God and its Influence, which as I aught, I adore and reverence; therefore I think it fit to represent and shame the blasphemous abuses of it, which would expose the most divine things to scorn, and make them ridiculous: and that the blessed Spirit hath been thus traduced and injured, and is still by great numbers among us, it would be shameful not to acknowledge, and therefore my zeal and reverence for the Realities makes me thus sharp and severe to the Counterfeit. Nor do I think that folly and phantastry is to be spared, because they wear the stolen Livery of things Venerable and Sacred: Therefore to go on, this was a kind of Religion that the corruption of it bred among us, a Religion conceived in the Imagination, and begot by Pride and Self-love, which gilded the profession of it with all the glorious names and privileges of the Gospel; and when they had encircled their heads with their own fantastic rays, and swollen their Imaginations into a Tympany of ridiculous greatness, they scornfully contemned all but their darling selves, under the notion of the formal, the moral, and the wicked; and proudly pitied the poor and carnal world, viz. all that were not of their conceited pitch and elevation. And having thus dignified themselves, and debased others, they herded together, drew the Church into their little corners, and withdrew from the Communion of others, who had lesle conceit though more Christianity; they bid us stand of, jest we should have polluted them by our unhallowed approaches; and having made us as the Heathen and the Publican, they cried, Come out from among them. The True Church, soundness of Judgement, purity of Doctrine and of worship (if men would believe them) was confined to their Gang, just as they were to the corners of Asrica of old, when their friends the Donatists were there; thus did they swell and swagger in their Imaginations, till some other Sect as well conceited as themselves endeavoured to take their plumes from them and to appropriate their glorious prerogatives to their own party; and than they bustled and contended: Here's the Church, saith one; nay but 'tis here cried another, till a third gave a Lie to them both; and than the scuffle grows warm of pride against hypocrisy, the self-conceit of one Sect against the pride of another, and all against sobriety and truth. This among some was the power of godliness, this the spirituality of Religion, under pretence of which all reverence to things Sacred was destroyed; for when this Spirit was got into the Pulpit, and set up the cry of the purity & spirituality of Worship, it never left Canting on the Subject till men's tongues and minds were fired against every matter of decency and order, as formal and Antichristian. And so far had it prevailed, as to drive those of warm affections and weak heads, from all due external reverence to God and all holy things: and these well-meaning people being frighted with the terrible noise of Popery, Superstition, and Antichristianism (things they had learned to hate, but not to understand) boggled and flew of from every thing their furious guides had marked with these abhorred characters, though it were never so innocent and becoming. And thus a rude and slovenly Religion made its way into the world, and such a sordid carelessness in matters of Divine worship, that should a stranger have come into the Assemblies that were acted by this Spirit, he would not have imagined what they had been doing; and that they were about holy offices would perhaps have been one of the last things in his conjecture. Thus bold and saucy talk crept into men's prayers, under pretence of holy familiarity with God; nauseous impertinent gibberish, under the notion of praying by the Spirit; and all kind of irreverences in external demeanour, under the shelter of a pretended supernatural worship. Thus had men subtilised Religion till they had destroyed it, made it first invisible, and than nothing.  
And now to gather up all, Religion being thus multiplied, corrupted and debauched, being made the game of the Tongue, and the frolic of Imagination; fantastic in its Principles, sordid in its Practices; separated from the form of a virtuous life, and made to serve the ends of Pride and Avarice; what was like to follow, according to the nature and order of things, but Atheism and contempt of all Religion? and when one saith, Here's Religion, and another, There's Religion, and a third will certainly ask, Where's Religion, and what's Religion. When the heathen deities were so multiplied that every thing was made a God, Protag. Diagoras. and others first began to question, and next to affirm that there was none. Religions have been multiplied in our days, as much as gods in theirs; and we have seen much of the same fatal event and issue; they made their gods contemptible and vile by deifying things that were so, and we had not lesle detracted from the credit of Religion by bringing it down to things of the lowest and vilest rank and nature; our Idolized opinions were no better than their Garlic and Onions; the diseases of the mind, frenzy and Enthusiasm, which our days have worshipped, were no better than those of the body which they adored, and they never raised Altar to worse vices than Rebellion, fraud and violence, which our age hath hallowed and made Sacred, and that notwithstanding all the glorious pretensions of those times, Religion was among many taken of all its foundations, and the world prepared for Atheism. The follies and divisions of one Age, make way for Atheism in the next. Thus also briefly of the condition of our Religion.  
And thus I have shown how much Resistance of the Authority that is over us is against our Duty and our Interest, the former God hath plainly told us, and the latter we have sadly felt: It remains now, that I add a word or two to the present occasion and so conclude. And have these very men, and this very Faction, drawn the Sword of Rebellion upon the same pretences, fears and jealousies of Popery, and a Reformation in matters of Religion, and to fight for the Protestant Religion? What! fight for what we already enjoy, and blessed be God, in all its glorious privileges, in its Doctrine and in its Discipline? Our Church doors stand wide open, and Aaron's bells Ring all in: we enjoy it, and we shall enjoy it, we have the word of a King for it: and of such a King whose veracity we may boast of to all nations in that he was never lesle than his word: and we have the word of God for it, who is King of Kings, who will never forsake that Church and People who are truly Loyal to him, and his Vicegerent. Let your Courage than be answerable to the Justice of your Cause: with what heart can a Traitorous Rebel appear in the Field, who dying without repentance sinks immediately into eternal flames? when to those that fight the Lord's battle (that is, for their King, their Lawful Sovereign who is his Viceroy, his Anointed, his Servant, as I have showed you) Death to them the harbinger of their happiness, their souls winged with Loyalty and Obedience fly into the Arms of an infinite Mercy. God never standeth Neuter, in every fight his Sword is drawn, and that Army is sure to carry the victory wherein Heaven hath its Auxiliaries; if God be for us who can be against us? if Omnipotence lead the Van, victory must needs bring up the Rear. Let this than be your comfort and cause of rejoicing, that your cause is God's cause; be not than dismayed at their power and malice, but stand up against them with a good courage. For he that helpeth you is infinitely stronger than they; you fight under his Colours, his Banners, and shall enjoy his Protection, and not only escape the cruel darts of your adversaries, but even tread them under your feet. The Lord will fight for us, we shall not go with haste and disorder against our enemies, nor fly from them, Isa. 52.12. None shall stand against us and prospero, their secret Counsels shall be confounded, they shall fear us and fly from us, we shall chase them, five of you shall chase a hundred, an hundred of youshall put ten thousand to flight, Leu. 26.7, 8. The wicked fly when no man pursueth. And thus it is, that God entereth into a League Offensive and Defensive with his people. Let us than by our earnest prayers for his Assistance, and our courage and undaunted resolution in our Sovereign's cause engage God in our Quarrel; that he may say to us, as Ruth did to Naomi, Wither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; Thy Armies shall be my Armies, and thy enemies shall be my enemies. When thou interest the Lists with thine enemies, I will come down and be thy Second, when thou marchest into the battle, I will be thy Captain General, I will make bore mine arm to save thee, and arm Omnipotence to secure thee, I will arm myself with Thunderbolts of vengeance to discharge upon the heads of thine enemies; let us thus engage God to become our Confederate, our friend and Ally; and than will all his Attributes be up in arms against them that fight against us; his All-sufficiency that fed and clothed them, will strip and starve them; his Providence that was their Caterer shall turn their destroyer, and his Omnipotence their Lifeguard become their Executioner; he will turn their wisdom into folly, and their Courage into Cowardice: and thus will he dismantle all bloud-guilty Rebels, and lay them open to the just fury and revenge of his friends, and their enemies; disarming their Courage, and disappointing their cunning, and making the strong to turn their backs, or sink down at the feet of his and their enemies; making their own Swords to pass through their own bowels, that we may all join with the Kingly Prophet, Psal. 3.6, 7. Arise, O Lord, save me O my God, for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the Cheekbone, thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about. And remember this, above all, that he abhors Neuters or indifferent persons, my people shall come willingly: and our blessed Saviour saith, he that is not for us is against us. So that here's no room for a passive Loyalty, but only an active Obedience. When the flames of a civil war broke out in Rome, Pompey said, that he would reckon Neuters and indifferent men in the number of his enemies, and deal with them accordingly. And those that do not actually appear against the Rebels as well as they can, but wait to fall in with them if they prevail, are Rebels already: They would think the Preacher rude, if he should say they are not Christians; when there are not more disloyal Christians in the world, than there are honest felons, or innocent murderers. And is not this the very season for every man that fears God and honours his King, to show his readiness and courage, his Loyalty and his Love to his Prince; (who is the care of heaven) and whom God long preserve in peace and prosperity to Rule and to Reign over us, and strengthen him that he may vanquish and overcome all his enemies: and let us bless God, that he hath thought us worthy of so gracious a Prince: a Prince who is every way great and good; and who is kind to us to the utmost of our wishes, which past ages have not known, and future will sooner admire than believe: and whose Wisdom, Justice, and Mercy (to those that endeavour to deserve it); whose Munificence and Magnanimity; whose Bravery and Conduct, in a thousand occasions hath been shown at Land. Those terrible actions upon the British Ocean, voluntarily exposing his illustrious life to the most hazardous and dreadful of all combats and dangers, to preserve, not only the reputation, but the just dominion of the Sea, for the interest and glory of the English name and nation. A Prince whose Royal virtues, and Royal merits entitle him to the Crown above all others; if he had not been born to it. All which his Excellencies, and infinitely more, illustrate themselves to the world, and need no recounting. But because the Rebels now in arms, colour their horrid Treason, and animate the giddy multitude, by poisoning their Affections with cursed Insinuations; and by blackening their Lawful Sovereign with unjust reflections, and most false and most injurious Aspersions; I think it my duty to refel and explode the monstrosity of their Treasonable pretensions and practices: which Clouds of Rebellion can be no way better dispersed, than by the Sunbeams of Majesty itself.  
And thus let us show our love to the King, and our readiness to serve him in this great action, by subjecting ourselves first unto God whose Viceroy he is. And we may be assured, that they that will not be Loyal to the universal Lord of all the world, can scarce possibly be so to their particular Sovereign. And 'twill need a great deal of Charity to help us to believe that they who make no Scruple to stand Neuters in God's cause, and to break even the plainest and most earnest, and most express of his Laws, which command to secure and defend the Rights of our Prince, will be withheld by considerations of Duty or Conscience from Rebelling against their King, or affronting his, when there's any powerful interest to oblige them to it.  
If therefore we would give any evidence of a thorough obedience at present, or any security of a future Loyalty; let us do so by using all holy endeavours in the sincerity of our souls, to engage heaven on our side; and than there will be hope that the Authority of God may oblige us to Sacrifice our lives and our fortunes in the defence of his Minister, wholly aiming to make his Reign, safe, easy and prosperous; and in doing so we shall be blest with his Influence, and deserve his Protection.  
And thus behaving yourselves with Bravery, Courage and Conduct, answerable to the goodness and justice of your great Master's cause; your Enemies shall be subdued under ye, or fly before ye, and peace shall be again established in our Borders, and God, even our own God shall give us his blessing; his blessing of peace; And thus fight for peace, demeaning ourselves like Professors of the Gospel of peace, and Subjects of the Prince of peace; the peace he left with his Disciples, will be with us here, and everlasting peace will encircle our heads with rays of Glory in the Kingdom of Peace.  
And so the Peace of God which, etc.  
FINIS.   

BOOKS PRINTED For CHARLES BROME.  
THE Method and Order of Reading both Civil and Ecclesiastical History, by Edmund Bohun, Esq Author of the Address to the Freemen and Freeholders.  
Bishop Lloyds Historical account of Church Government.  
Bona's Guide to Eternity.  
— his Precepts and Practical Rules for a truly Christian life.  
Camfield's Sermon preached at Leicester on Proclaiming King James the Second.  
A Serious Apology for the Laws Established.  
All Sir Roger L'Estrange's Tracts in quarto, and his Translations in octavo.  
Several Sermons both at Court and other places.  
A Narrative of the principal Actions occurring in the wars betwixt Sweden and Denmark.