THE SAMARITAN REVIVED: AND The course he then took to cure the wounded Traveller, by powring in Wine and oil.  
Historically applied for the sound and speedy Healing of our present dangerous Distractions.  
With a Sermon preached by the same AUTHOR upon  PROV. 24.21. 
My Son, fear God, and the King, &c.  
By MATTHEW GRIFFITH, D. D. and Chaplain to the late King.  
LONDON, Printed for Tho: Johnson at the Golden Key in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1660.   

The Samaritan revived.  
AS it is a truth generally received, That no state or condition on earth is absolutely perfect and happy; so it hath been the unwearied endeavour of all that are wise and good, to attain unto happiness and perfection in every kind, as near as human frailty would admit. And because nothing contributes more to happiness then Government, which by kerbing the unruly passions of men, doth both help to safeguard their persons, and distinguish their interests, so as they may freely and quietly enjoy what the Law calls their property; therefore the ancient Sages have taken a great deal of pains to find out, not onely what kind of Government is best in it self, but also what is most suitable and agreeable to the natural complexion, and constitution of each particular country, and accordingly our British Ancestors( so renowned in History for their piety, prudence, courage, and loyalty) pitched at last upon Monarchy, as not onely acknowledged on all hands to be the best form of civill government, but as most proper to the humour, and most proportionable to the temper of this ancient and formerly flourishing Nation.  
And because they observed that the best things corrupted, do commonly prove worst, and that it is possible that Monarchy may degenerate into Tyranny; therefore they provided that our Government( though monarchical) should be so contemper'd, that no Law should be imposed by the King upon the people, exacting their obedience, without their consent given by their Representatives assembled in Parliament( consisting of the three Estates) that as a threefold Cord is not easily broken: so if any of the three should become eccentric, the other two by their mutual concurrence, and seasonable interposition, might evenly bound and balance it. And we have felt of late by woeful experience, that when the House of Commons grew so predominant, as first to vote down, and then quiter take away the other two estates( which were of old more rightly, and more essentially interested in the Legislative power then themselves; and accordingly by assisting his Majesty should have restrained them) into what an Ilias of evils we have ever since been plunged, and how sharply we have smarted for this their usurpation and intrusion.  
And because what is said of that Person that travailed between Jerusalem and Jericho, is too true of this Nation, which, to speak plainly, is fallen into the hands of Thieves, that have robbed, and spoiled it, and by so often wounding it, have now left it half dead, therefore how e're others of known abilities, do account it good sleeping in a whole skin( passing by, like the Priest and the Levite branded in that Parable) and will take no cognizance of our lamentable case; least they should be engaged in, and either indamag'd or endangered by undertaking the cure; yet by Gods grace I am resolved( with the good Samaritan) to poure in both Wine and oil; that first by thoroughly searching the deep, if not deadly wounds of this Body politic with my Wine; and then gently suppleing it with my oil; I may do my utmost endeavour to heal and recover it.  
And here, affecting brevity, I will pass by all such infirmities as a quick sight might have discerned in the first ten years of the late Kings reign; and I will take my rise no farther then an ordinary Politician might have easily observed, viz. That the Kings of France, Spain, and the States of the Low Countries, growing at that time daily more and more potent by Sea and Land; and some of them not onely threatening invasion, but also year after year, and almost daily committing upon the Narrow Seas, such out-rages and insolences as could not well be any longer endured: His Majesty( not only to support his own just greatness, and the Honour of the Nation, but also both to secure his Subjects at home, and to give check to the neighbouring Princes abroad;( all which without far greater supplies then the ancient revenue of the Crown, could not possibly then be done to any purpose) raised shipmoney; yet not until such time as divers of the Judges had freely delivered their Opinions, that in such Articles of necessity he might lawfully do it. Now grant that the King had therein extended his prerogative a little too far( though when the case was argued, the Judges were divided about it, and one half of them stoutly& stiffly maintained it to be Law) yet in regard first he was in some sort then necessitated to do what he did, for the weighty reasons praealleadged; Next in regard it was all the tax which was then yearly paid: To both which let me add, that in regard it was but a flea-bite to each particular man, in comparison of those insupportable pressures, under which we have lain groaning and gasping ever since; all sober and unbiased men must, and will confess, that it had been a great deal better for us to have patiently endured that single inconvenience, then so many mischiefs as have since befallen us; and that had the shipmoney been illegal, yet the Remedy hath been far worse then the Disease.  
The shipmoney was no sooner assessed, but strait start up a discontented party, which( having learned out of Machiavil, that it is best fishing in troubled waters) greedily laid hold upon that obliquity, to render his majesty odious: for they not onely denied the payment, but fell down right into seditious and tumultuous courses: for the effectual composing whereof his majesty thought that the speedy calling of a Parliament would be the most likely expedient; and accordingly of his accustomend grace and clemency, he issued out his writs to convene such a great Council as by their wisdom and Moderation might wholly salue up what was past, and secure us from all Innovations for the future. But the Tribunes of the People by ill Arts had so embittered and exasperated the several Counties and Corporations, that instead of grave, able, and worthy Patriots, few or no Knights and Burgesses were chosen but of the old puritan Faction, whom this Church and State, ever since the Reformation, have found to be inveterate and irreconcilable Enemies to Peace and Truth; Both which though they seemed to cry up in the Beginning of the late Troubles; yet it appeareth at this day that they will not lay down their Arms, that they may have Peace; nor yet leave their lying, that they may have Truth. These tender conscienced Men( so they called themselves) had then an Opportunity put into their hands to actuate, what in Corners they had so many Ages together aforehand designed; viz. not onely the regular Alteration, but utter Abolition and Extirpation of the so truly ancient and every way excellent Government both of Church and State; though the poor People that choose them, and many of them in the Simplicity of their Souls, neither did, nor indeed could give them any such unlimited, and extravagant Power, as that Conventicle( being fleshed with improbable successses) did afterwards by degrees assume to Themselves; And I call it a Conventicle in the same sense that the Trent-Council was so called, and because there was packing in Both much alike before the prevailing Faction in either could accomplish their Designs. The Members being met, after an hearty Thanksgiving among Themselves, that their Party was so numerous; and an hypocritical Humiliation for the Evils they intended; they fell close to work; and the better to carry on their Designs, they published a Remonstrance to the Kingdom, in which( with accursed Cham) they laid open their Civil Fathers nakedness( such as it was) and to render Him not onely odious, but ridiculous, they affixed some personal faults upon Him, which He was in no wise guilty of. And his over-sights( if He had any) they did aggravate and embroider with such malicious rhetoric, that they did thereby guile the well-meaning People into a kind of Credulity, or at least Anxiety; and so by little and little they did estrange and alienate their former good Opinions, and dutiful Affections from their lawful and gracious sovereign: a Practise treasonable in itself, and so confessed to be in any others; yet, they not onely connived at it in themselves, and absolved themselves for it; but justified it as a virtue both needful and commendable; which it is confessed by their new Legislative Power they might both as colourably and warrantably do, as 〈◇〉 Lord 〈◇〉 in the House of Peers did professedly maintain that we may do Evil that good may come thereof; and they had no other ground but his bare word( and that expressly contrary to Gods Word) whereon they built the whole fabric of their Utopian Reformation: of which we can yet see no other Fruits but the profanation of Churches, yea, even of Saint Pauls the renowned Mother-Church of this City and Nation, which is not onely turned into a Den of Thieves, but a Stable for Horses; which seem to have as much Religion and Christianity, as some of the Menbeasts that ride them: and more horrid Oppressions by High Courts of Justice, and other arbitrary Impositions, then ever were done by colour of Authority in the Reign of all the Kings since the Conquest. These and worse are the visible Fruits of their pretended Reformation, as you shall see ere I have done. The Foundation whereof being laid in such rotten Principles, the Structure( though like the City-Pageants, it was somewhat specious at first, as being richly gilded, and fairly painted) was not likely to prove much better; yet they carried on that which they called the Cause( for they were ashamed to call the Rebellion by its proper Name) vigorously, and brought it by Degrees to that goodly Babel, and confused Chaos that now it is: For first they contrived a Protestation, which( like a Viper) had its teeth so buried in its gums, that it seemed at first blushy an harmless beast, though the bite thereof was deadly: for though the Protestation had divers plausible Pretences interwoven in it, and was made, as they said( like our ordinary almanacs) onely for the Meridian of the House; yet as soon as the Members had taken it, it was imposed upon the People; and the chief ends of it were; first, to cement the Factions fast each to other: Secondly, like a Shibboleth to distinguish an Ephramite from an Israelite. Thirdly, to fortify themselves against the King and all his Adherents; And fourthly, to bear them out against the Reach and Lash of all penal Laws, to which they might possibly become obnoxious in their future arbitrary Proceedings. And having thus prepared the Way, they fell to purging the House of all such as they called and counted ill-affected, and Malignants; that is, in plain English, they expelled all such conscientious Persons, as either out of the Fear of GOD, or Fidelity to His Anointed, would not concur in their dangerous Votes, and detestable Resolutions: and they purged it so often, and made their Potions so strong and fulsome, that ere long they had not left any considerable Number of honest and upright Men among them. And the Purgative physic having wrought as well as they could wish, the next thing they Voted was the securing of some of his Majesties ablest, and faithfullest Counsellors( as my Lord of Canterbury, and the Earl of Strafford, and others) whom they afterwards( as my Lord Digbie truly phras'd it) murdered with the Sword of Justice: for my Lord of Strafford lost his Head onely for high misdemeanours, as they called them; and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury suffered martyrdom, onely to gratify the People of the city; which either out of Malice or Ignorance had petitioned that he should suffer for their Sins( it seems) for he was charged with none that were mortal; and the diary of his Life which they published to detract from his good Name, and famed, shall keep both upon Record to sweeten his memorial to all succeeding Generations. And when the Members had thus shaken, if not shattered these two pillars, they caused others of His Majesties Friends in Order to Self-preservation to withdraw and conceal themselves seing that by their Stay, though they might have hazarded themselves, yet they could not have helped Him who must no longer( forsooth) be trusted with the Militia( one of the fastest and fairest Flowers of the Crown, and without which a monarch is a king and no King) but it must be put into suchhands as they could confided in: and that being taken away, A Vote or two stripped Him of all Power, in a trice, both by Sea, and Land. All his Forts and Ports, Castles, Magazines and Ships, were not onely seized by them; but both man'd, and kept, and turned, and fortified against Him. And about that Time Sir Richard Gournie Lord Mayor of London.( a Man of so singular Integrity, that the whole City for the time stood upright in him) was committed to the Tower; and isaac Penington substituted; whose Name more properly should have been julian; For the Church of England never had so damned an Apostate, and fiery a Persecutor of her faithful Sons, the loyal Clergy, as this Penington; during the time of whose Mayoralty most of the Orthodox Ministers were sequestered, and many of them clapped a Shipboard, and thrust into prisons, that their churches might be filled with such schismatics and Sectaries, as would cry down the King and the Church, and bawl up the Cause; 
Mr. Till at Saint Olives in Southwark, 1642.  and some of them came to such an height of Blasphemy, that they blushed not to preach to their amazed congregations, that this Parliament had done more good for us by their Reformation, then CHRIST had done by his passion. And as it is observed in the body natural; that a raw stomach makes a rheumatic head, and a rheumatic head makes a raw stomach: So it proves no less true in the body politic, that a factious Church-man makes a seditious commonwealths-man; and a seditious commonwealths-man makes a factious Church-man: For the new Lay-Levites showing the way, soon after, some of the members fell from whispering, to speak open Treason in the House: And when his Majesty in his own Person, attended with some few of his menial servants, required those five might be delivered up to a legal trial, the House,( by the help of the City) not only protected the Traytors; but also Voted the Kings demand of them to be a high breach of the privilege of Parliament: and I believe, the Pope will as soon give us in a certain List of apostolical Traditions, as the Parliament will do of their privileges; all which it is not held safe, for either Prince or People to know: These are Arcana imperii, and will help both Pope and Parliament out in all Exigences, and upon all Emergences whatsoever. The King being thus stripped out of all power, and cheated out of the good affection of his liegepeople; it was then but ask and have: The Kings Negative voice was voted down, and he now neither may, nor must deny the Members any thing. Then they petitioned for a Triennial Parliament, and it was granted; yet that did not satisfy; for the truth is, they made use of the triennial, as a stalking horse to a perpetual Parliament; for which they had the confidence, or rather the impudence, to petition too, though they knew that the King could not justly grant it,( as tending to the inevitable destruction of himself, and the people committed to his Trust;) yet they resolved, though the King could not grant it, yet he should not deny it: For while this hung in suspense, the Members tampered with Venne, Manwaring, and other zealots( Citizens of desperate Opinions, and despicable fortunes) to sally with their Mirmydons down to White-hall in great numbers,& greater disorder; whereas many Sea-men of the same strain were hyr'd under-hand to meet them by water; that so, what with their huge numbers, and their hideous noise, they might at last intimidate the Court; and having thus first extorted from the King his consent to an Act for a perpetual Parliament, they might soon after induce, if not enforce him, by withdrawing himself from the imminent danger of a popular fury, to provide, as well as possibly he could in such straits, for his present and future preservation. The King being thus forced to absent himself, the Members laid about them lustily; passing Vote after Vote, and Order upon Order; though I cannot stand to recount( neither is it much material if I could to say) either by what Artifice, or in what Order they passed them.  
But to be short and plain; A new broad seal was made; and by virtue thereof Commissions were issued forth to raise Forces by Sea and Land against the King, and his evil Counsellors( as they styled all that in the integrity of their hearts did adhere unto him:) Open War was proclaimed,& the zealots brought in to make that calf: Their plate, jewels, ear-rings, thimbles, and bodkins, which were first melted and then coined with the Parliaments stamp: Fears and Jealousies were created, and fomented: new dangerous plots were daily discovered by the authors and contrivers of them: All known or suspected Loyallists were banished out of the line of communication: The companies of the City took their turns to march down to Westminster daily to guard the House; and the city for the time seemed to all sober men but a great Bedlam, in which, like so many mad men, they rattled with their chains, and hollowed, yea, and laughed, when in truth they did but help to hasten and lengthen their own misery. The Scots were called in to lend their brotherly assistance, and to this end a solemn League and Covenant was equivocally penned, and taken; and imposed as a snare, to entrap all conscientious Subjects: A Directory was published for Uniformity in Doctrine and Worship, which had neither the Lords Prayer, nor any of the three Creeds, nor the Decalogue in it: A Synod, or Assembly of Divines was chosen to do their jobs of Journeywork: The Bishops were first clapped in the Tower, and then voted down root and branch, and so was the house of the Lords temporal afterwards: A disgraceful Hue and Cry was sent after his majesty, and his Royal Consort, and his no less innocent, then illustrious Progeny were all stigmatized: All that engaged with, or but seemed to favour Him, and his righteous Cause, were voted Delinquents, and Malignants: The Church of England( without any trial at all) was cast, and condemned: The observation of holidays, yea of all the Feastivals kept in commemoration of Christ himself, was swep't away with an Ordinance: The Orthodox Clergy were sequestered: sacrilege was justified to be no sin; and then the lands both of K. and Church were all sold: The Presbytery was set up for three years: Weekly Fasts and Humiliations then were continued from morning to night, which they used onely( as the friar spread his net) till they had caught the fish: Not onely Popish, but Jesuitical positions were preached, pressed, and practised: as killing, yea, King-killing is no murder: Curse ye Meroz, then rung aloud in every Pulpit. triers appointed to keep all right men out of the Church; and Committees authorised in all Cities and Counties, as an Inquisition to exercise the faith and patience of the cavaliers. Great was the number of the Preachers; for a lying spirit made both some Lords, and their Coach-men; some mechanics, and their Apprentices; yea, some Mistresses and their Maid-maukins, all gifted in that kind; which were not able to discern and distinguish between faith and faction; reformation, and rebellion; conscience, and conspiracy; holiness and hypocrsie; yea, Jesuits disguised like several sorts of Handicrafts men in corners and Conventicles were encouraged to sow the seeds of Sedition and Rebellion, whilst the poor people were seduced to follow them,& to cry them up for gifted men, and so induced to believe that there is no such need of preaching Ministers, since God in these reforming times has poured out his Spirit upon all flesh. And all men are taught of God both to pray and prophesy, if they would but stir up the grace that is in them, as these did who seemed to have no other calling or enabling then they themselves had. The schism was dilated; Conventicles countenanced; The Scriptures maimed and mangled, whilst they made use of the word of Christ, to betray the cause of Christ; divers battles fought with various success. Some Treaties pretended by the House, but no accommodation ever intended; For he that draws his sword against his Prince, must cast away the scabbard, &c. In fine, his Majesties forces were totally routed at Nazeby, and he being in a very great straight, put himself into the hands of his native countrymen, the Scots; who treacherously sold him to the goodly Members sitting at Westminster, who after they had caged him a while, and hurried him from post to pillar( as we say) I mean from one prison and Jaylor to another; and finding that they held him like a Wolf by the ears; whether they held him, or let him go, they were still in danger; as not being able to satisfy and secure their own Guilt; they at last set up a mock-Court of Justice, in which they formally arraigned and condemned him; and then most inhumanly murdered him before the Gates of his own Palace, and usual place of residence. Hic Finis CAROLI Fatorum, &c.— And here observe by the way, that though the Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and all other schismatics and sectaries, may well be called LEGION, for they are many; yet though they be never so many, and never so far differing, and disagreeing each from other, in their heads; yet like Samsons Foxes, they are tied together by the tails: and like Simeon and Levi, they agreed like brethren in actuating this, which was as capital a crime, and as horrid an iniquity, as ever the Sun beholded. And( which I may not pretermit in silence) when the zealots first took up Arms, they pretended that they did it not against the KING, but his evil Counsellors: But God( who is the trier and Searcher of the Heart and the Reins) knew full well, that it was the Kings Person,& Office that they rebelled against; and therefore his Providence protected Him in the day of battle, and put Him safe and sound into their hands: that all the World might see by their actual murdering Him at last, that they had intentionally murdered Him from the first rise of the Rebellion: Thus what they did with the full sway and swinge of their Wills, did even against their Wills conduce towards their making good in His Exit, what they had often promised in the Entrance of their damnable Undertakings; viz. That they would make Him a Glorious King, meaning a King in glory. To which let me add, that had the Sectaries been then subdued, they would then have ever hanckered after Rebellion, and cried what glorious things they would have done, had they prospered in their pretended Reformation. And therefore Divine Providence so ordered the business, that the worse Cause for the time got the better, to stop their Mouths, and let them see that their so head-strong and brainsick Undertakings( though seemingly prosperous for a time) tended only to, and ended only in their own Confusion.  
The King being thus translated, and all His Royal Progeny being banished for the present, and by an Act of this perpetual Parliament, for ever disabled from swaying the three sceptres of their Birthright; and the Kingdoms themselves being strangely metamorphosed into a Common-wealth, as some are pleased to call it( The 
The name of the beast, 666.  public WeaLth of engLanD) though all the natural Subjects, and free-born Inhabitants, find it in Truth to be a Common, or public Woe; for all things are now so far out of course, that we can neither well endure the Disease nor the remedy; and so it seems to fare with us at this day, as once it did with GODS own people, of whom it is said, That when there was no King in Israel, every one did that which seemed right in his own Eyes; and consequently, few, or none did that then which was right in GODS eyes. And this being just our Case in this Interregnum; The Factions that were so combined in prosecuting, and persecuting of the King, began to fall asunder in dividing the Spoil, and each set up for itself.  
The Presbyterians, as they had the largest share in the Plunder at first( and so were best able to purchase the Lands lately belonging to the King and the Church) so had they then the greatest power; for the general, and the admiral, Essex and warwick were both theirs. But after Essex his death ( whether it were natural, as some say he dyed of a Surfet, he being a noted Epicure that served no other God, but his own belly; or as others say, it was violent, and that he was poisoned; which if true, was the just Reward of his Rebellion) the morally Jacobite Independents outwitted their Brethren, and their Elders too, I mean the Esauite Presbyterians, and got for a time both the Birthright, and the Blessing of the Civill Power, and conduct of the army into their hands, till e're long the Lieutenant General O. cronwell( a man fast to no Religion, but Interest) by his Absalom-like Insinuation with the Commanders, and by his preaching, praying, and other Gifts in canting, had so gained the general good Opinion of the Common Souldiers, that he was on the sudden proclaimed Protector: And though all men looked upon him as a mere Usurper, and Intruder; Yet he did so shuffle and pack the Cards( sometimes making Friends, otherwhiles preventing Enemies) that what between Love and fear, Rewards and Punishments, he held rast what he had so unjustly seized on, so long as he lived; And if any wonder how he first got, and then held the imperial Dignity? Let me tell them, that this brave Oliver, besides that he was a Gentleman born, and so had liberal Education at Home in Peace, and abroad in the Wars; he was also a man of excellent natural Parts, and so through a Politician, that he checked at nothing which was ill: He paved his way to Preferment, through Blood, Perjury, &c. And having got the Power, he laid aside the golden sceptre, as an insignificant bauble for legimate Princes to play with, and please themselves; and ruled this( which he observed to be a stirring, and a headstrong people) with a Rod of Iron: If, with Alexander the Great, he met with such a Gordian knot, as he could not well untie, he straight cut it in two with his sword: And when the pummel was too blunt, then( with Charles the fifth) he turned the Point, which he kept sharp, and speedy in the Execution of Justice, be it right or wrong, as we say: And though our former Princes looked upon Parliaments with some dread; and both King and people have of late smarted under them: Yet this Oliver called, and broken them up when he pleased. He played with Parliaments, as Ladies do with Serpents without stings, and made their power fruitless, their Malice toothless. Briefly, he made Spain, France, and Holland, for the Time like the Sect we call Quakers, and to stand in fear of Him, whom they did not, could not love.  
Richard the eldest son of Oliver was( as Thurloe said) designed to succeed his Father in the Protectorship; and accordingly declared by the then Council of State: and his second son Henry continued a while his Vicegerency in Ireland; but the Members of the perpetual Parliament( having an aching tooth against Oliver, for expelling them the House, and taking them from the Receipt of custom( which was indeed but a customary Deceit, feeding themselves fat by starving of us, and filling their own purses by emptying, and exhausting ours) observing the said Richard& Henry, for want either of Reason or Resolution, to be altogether unfit to rule; and taking advantage of their manifold wants and weaknesses, I say, the said Members then( being countenanced by some of the chief Officers of the Army) re-entered the House, as their ancient Inheritance and Free-hold: and between Hopes and fears prevailed with those two Novices, to quit their places and power, without any Bustle, or visible Reluctation; And the two tame Creatures being gone, the beasts of Prey( which had been so long kept fasting) grew the more keen and ravenous, swallowing all they could seize upon, by deglution: But the poor Members were much deceived in looking for an abiding city here, and to sit down& rest; for e're they were well warm'd in their Seats Lieut. Gen. Lambert( a Prince of Oliver's Faith, who had learned of his great Lord and Master, to keep no Oaths, or Engagements, Covenants, vows, or Promises, but what he wanted either Opportunity, or Power to break) routed them again, and put them on the sudden to seek out new Habitations. And the nine dayes wonder was hardly over, ere Lambert and his Confederates found that their Head-pieces were sounder and better then their Heads; and that they had made a great deal more hast, then good speed: for upon mature deliberation, they could not but be sensible, that the common Souldiers were then ready to mutiny for want of pay; and that the Officers, had neither ready moneys to stop their mouths; nor any possible way whereby to raise them. Besides the Day of our Redemption drawing near; and the people being wearied, if not worried, by such choppings and changings, as they had observed in Church, and State,( which had run through all Forms of Government, without any present satisfaction, or hopes of future settlement) and that after so prodigal an effusion of Time, Treasure, and blood, they had done in effect nothing all this while, but undone themselves: then as( if GOD had put a new Spirit into the old Britains, which had opened their eyes) it seems that all Counties, and Corporations, and this City above the rest, had, underhand promised to rise as one man; and to stand for a free Parliament,( which they knew could not legally be called without the King) as the onely visible means to redeem us, and our Posterity, from the House of Bondage; in which we have been constrained so many years to make the full tale of Bricks, though our hard-hearted Taskmasters would not allow us the usual proportion of straw. But however this Animosity, and undertaking was concluded on to be universal throughout the Kingdom; yet the rest being prevented, and for the time disappointed, Sir George Booth and his party in Cheshire, were the first, if not the onely men,( beside Sir Thomas Middleton, with some few of the Welsh) that took the Field in a considerable Body: The Report whereof had no sooner alarmed these Southern parts, but a Council of war was called; and Lambert was appointed to march North-west, to quell the Rebels( as they called them) yet he did not set forward till such time as the Anabaptists, and( their spawn) the Quakers, and all other Sectaries were put into Arms here; as the onely godly party, in which, both the Army, and Ireton( then Lord Mayor) and Titchborn, with some other prime Citizens of the Faction, could then confided. And general Fleetwood undertaking to keep all quiet here, his Lieutenant General( with such Forces as could well be spared) did advance towards Cheshire: whose expectation being foiled by the not timely rising of the Associated Counties; the Cheshire-men were dispersed without any great dispute; and Lambert, without a blow, had soon return'd victorious; but that foul-weather out of the North compelled him to make an halt, and to put on new resolutions: for that general Monk had taken the Field, and was marching Southward; though whether as a voluntary, or as invited by the Presbyterians hither; it is not yet discovered. While Lambert was absent, he dispatched several Missives to Fleetwood, as so many Cautions, to keep the Members from re-admission into the House; which though he Religiously observed, as far as he was able, yet Hazlerigge, Morley, and the rest of the Rump,( for so they were abusively then called between the scorn and hatred of the common people) outwitting and overpowering the phlegmatic general, did by such power as they brought with them from Portsmouth, force their re-entry into the House; and did, Spider-like, eviserate and spin out themselves, and their time, that so they might not want new Cobwebs( such as the Oath of Abjuration, and the Assessment of an hundred thousand pounds a month, and such like trifles) wherein to entangle and engage us. As the House sate, hatching these cockatrice Eggs, they cast Lambert such a bone to pick, as beat out all his teeth, and left him no more power, then ordinarily the prince of this world gives to the children of disobedience, whom he strips and whips at last, as the Guerdon of their former service: and Lamberts forces being dispersed by an Order of the House, general Monk marched on hitherwards without the least opposition; and which is more, all the Counties which lay in, or near the way, as he marched, did unanimously petition him( as if he had been some petty Prince, and Saviour of the people, as we hope he will prove, ere he hath done) for a free Parliament; promising withall, that in order thereunto, they would stand to him with their lives and fortunes; but both his carriage and expressions, were then so reserved and doubtful, that the Petitioners were dismissed with little satisfaction, save that the man is eminently civil. Among which Petitioners, there were divers honest men, both of the Aldermen, Common Council, and young men of the City; who( for showing their good affections to such a free Parliament) were secured in the Tower, and other prisons: for though the Members used to give thanks to such as presented them with Petitions, framed in the House, and subscribed both in City and country, according to their direction( which decoy was grown stale, and almost out of fashion) yet now, when they saw all parts petition for a free Parliament,( which they resented as destructive to their new modeled Common-wealth) they grew more impatient, and insolent, then ordinary; especially when upon general Monks first approach, they observed his fair compliance, and forward observance of the council of States extravagant Order; To break down the City gates, and to pull up their posts, and chains, a violence so unexpected, that it did not onely startle the honest Common-Council for the present; but it so extremely disgusted the Citizens in general, that though soon after he laboured to salue up the matter by some healing plasters; yet they did not forget, that he had not onely broken their heads, but had with some dishonour made them, for the time, to pull in their Horns; with which they had( like so many mad Oxen) gored the King and his party during the continuance of the War; which as it took its first rise thence, so God grant it may not end there, as the just punishment of their factious forwardness.  
To sweeten them again, he scattered a few sugar-plums among them, promising that they should have a Free Parliament: and thereupon the giddyheaded multitude strait made great acclamations, some of them openly in the streets, crying God bless King CHARLES, God sand us a King again; and others drank healths to the King and to the General, as they were then well warmed with strong drink, as well as with the flamme of the Bonfires: And you will easily believe, that all the bells in London rung for joy; though the more grave and sober sort saw not then any great reason why: Yea to this day, the Rump is so far from being routed, that they are rather recruited: and so onely enabled to do more mischief, unless many of the secluded Members( which are lately introduced) are become Real Converts( as it is not without some good grounds generally hoped) though for the present, the Qualifications which they prescribe to all Counties and Corporations to be duly observed in the Election of the new Knights and Burgesses, give the whole kingdom just cause to suspect, that the intent and meaning of the House, is to have no free choice at all, because they will not allow any to be chosen as Members of the next, but onely such as have signally testified their good affections to this: and( if I may deliver my mind without offence) I cannot see( as things now stand) how they can legally issue out Writs to call a new Parl. without the Kings consent; Or grant they could, why the Members now assembled, should not have altogether as much power and will to redeem their poor bleeding country which they have thus imbroil'd, as the next can have, supposing it to be as good as possibly can be chosen.  
Thus with the good Samaritans wine, I have searched the yet festering sores of the Body-Politicke; I have lanc'd them to the quick, and not only let out the impostumated matter, but taken away the proud, and dead flesh; for God knows that it is the humble, and earnest desire of my heart and soul rather soundly to heal our wounds, then onely superficially to skin them over; lest if they break out again, the parts that are ill-affected, should gangrene, and so the whole body perish. Now I come with the Samaritan to pour in my oil, and to apply an healing Balsam; to which do you join with me in prayer, that God would be pleased to give his blessing.  
The most authentic Physitians say, that the exact knowledge of any Disease, is the first step to the Cure: and that the next is a velliety in the Patient to be made whole: The former( by Gods assistance) we have attained unto by that discovery, which hath hitherto been made; and that the latter is no less necessary, may be gathered from that unexpected question, which our blessed Lord himself started to the man that had lain so many years crippled at the Pool of Bethesda; Wilt thou be made whole? which had been supervacaneous, but that some will not; as the Prophet Jeremy speaks of Babylon; We would have cured Babylon, but she would not be healed. And Christ bemoans Jerusalem, saying, How often would I have gathered thee, even as an hen gathers her chickens under her wings? But thou wouldst not.  
Thus at this day we see some of our ordinary beggars go about with scaled heads, and running sores upon them; who might be cured in our Hospitals, and cost them nothing; yet they will not; partly, that they may have the more plausible cause to beg, and partly that they may beget more compassion in the spectators; but principally, that these visible griefs may be a supersedeas against the Statute, that provides such Vagrants should be set in the stocks, or sent to the House of Correction: And the truth is, that there be divers members at this day, both of Church, and State, that will by no means endure to hear of any healing Balsam, or so much as the least overture of an accommodation; because they are afraid, that if the times should turn, and the Law( which is the rule of Right) should take place; they should then not only lose the sweet liberty, or rather licentiousness, to say, and do what they list, but also be constrained to refund by Restitution, and vomit up e're long all such goods, or lands, as they have( against law and conscience) already swallowed.  
And to such particular cases( of which there is no end) it is impossible for any man to apply so many proper Remedies: All such must be relieved by some special Act of Parl. provided, when there is cause: My scope is to heal the body politic, and so many members thereof( as being become truly sensible of the mortal disease in which they have so long lain languishing) are willing to be restored to their former health and happiness; as the three nations( formerly swayed by one gracious Monarch) do jointly and severally now profess themselves to be.  
And as our first distemper grew into a formed disease, and that pestilential, because when things were out of order, we did not humble ourselves before God in prayer, quickened with fasting( prayers and tears being all the weapons that God allows Christians to take up against their lawful Princes) but made our addresses onely to a Parliament, in which alone we did then put all our belief, and confidence: so God hath now severely scourged us with that arm of flesh, which as an Idol we set up in his stead( and so we can justly blame none but ourselves, for we reap but what we sowed, and drink but what we brewed) and he hath turned that which we looked upon as our onely remedy, into an Epidemical, and almost incurable malady; to bring us at last to aclowledge ingeniously, that as neither power nor policy can prevail against Gods institution: so we must depend upon him alone for safety, and salvation. King Asa was onely troubled with a disease in his feet( one would think it was far enough from his heart) and yet because he sought to the Physician for help in the first place, when as he should have gon unto God, it proved mortal. And as the woman of Syro-phaenecia, that so many years was troubled with an issue of blood, though she spent all she had upon Physicians, yet was not cured till she came to Christ: So howe'er it must be confessed, that a Parliament rightly constituted, be a proper Physician for the body-politic, yet it cannot cure our present Bloody-flux, without the special concurrence and benediction of the Almighty; for it is most certain that no second Cause can work to any purpose, without the influence, and assistance of the first.  
The Law both of God, and this Land, run all upon the right, and power of Kings, under whom( as Gods Ordinance) we have not onely lived, but flourished many hundred yeares: All the free-born people of these three Kingdoms, are bound not only by the former oaths of Allegiance, and Supremacy; but also by the Protestation, and the Solemn League and Covenant, to endeavour by all means the preservation of the King, and his Successors, and consequently of Charles the Second, who is the undoubted Heir of his Fathers rights, and our hopes; without whose gracious concurrence no Law can be binding to us, and during whose exile, we have lived onely under Usurpation and Tyranny, enmity and animosity, poverty for want of trade, and continual excessive assessments to pay the Souldiers, who can never have all their arrears before we have a King: neither can we expect to see any end of War and Blood-shed, and all the mischiefs and miseries which now lye so heavy upon us, till our lawful King be reduced and restored. As when a bone is broken, or out of joint, the Patient can never be freed from exquisite pain, till it be not onely set, but set right again: so though we have been long not onely out of joint, but even broken in pieces; and have suffered inexpressible pangs and pains; yet to this day we feel little or no ease, because none have had us in hand, but such empirics and Mountehancks, as( wanting either skill or fidelity) have in stead of healing our wounds, inflamed the distemper. None can set us right again, but only He, who is( under God) our proper physician, and Father of our country. Then a King we must have, for none can extricate us out of all those difficulties and dangers in which we have so deeply involved ourselves; none can give just and full satisfaction to all Factions and interests, but a King. And He, not a Perkin Warbek, nor yet a baffled Richard, but our lawful King, CHARLES; without whom we are now convinced, that we can neither enjoy our birth-right in this world, nor Gods blessing in the world to come; notwithstanding all the former or later blasphemies of our Rabshekehs: After that Saul was anointed King, he was despised by some, as we red in the 10th Chapter of the first Book of Samuel: but it is to be noted, that God there calls those that despised the King, sons of Belial;( as having cast off the yoke, for so the Hebrew word signifies.) Now you know it was the Devil who first cast off Gods yoke, when affecting equality, he said, I will be like the most High. And they are called the sons of Belial, that did then and there cast off the Kings yoke: but those that cast off the yoke of God, and the King; and of God in the King;( yea, though it were but king Saul) were themselves but so many cast aways; for they were of their father the Devil, saith our Saviour; there's their Pedigree. But the Text I quoted out of Samuel, adds withall, that the band of men of chivalry, whose hearts God had touched, followed king Saul home to Gibeah; whence I necessary infer, that those which in this general desire and endeavour fairly to compose things in difference, do not follow God and the King, show plainly, that God hath not yet touched their hearts; which as soon as he hath done effectually, they will be brought to confess, that without the restitution of King CHARLES to his native rights, we can in reason look for no solid settlement of Religion, or Law, liberty, or property, Peace or plenty, honour or safety. To all these we can never be firmly restored but by the King; and the King not forced to come by his birth-right as a Conqueror, but fairly called in, either by this or the next Parliament: That as our sins in choosing heretofore, and hitherto cleaving to a factious Parliament, have almost utterly ruined us, so this, or a free Parliament( upon their and our serious repentance) may be instrumental( under God) to make us speedy reparation.   

THE FEAR OF GOD AND THE KING. pressed in a Sermon, preached at MERCERS chapel, on the 25th of MARCH, 1660.  
TOGETHER WITH A brief Historical account of the Causes of our unhappy Distractions, and the onely way to Heal them.  
By MATTHEW GRIFFITH, D. D. and Chaplain to the late King.  
LONDON, Printed for Tho: Johnson at the Golden Key in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1660.   

TO HIS EXCELLENCY, George monk, CAPTAIN GENERAL of all the land forces of England, Scotland and Ireland; And one of the Generals of all the Naval-forces.  
MY LORD,  
IF you will be pleased to allow me to be a physician in the same sense that all moral Divines do aclowledge the body-politic( consisting both of Church and State) to be a Patient, then I will now give your Highness a just account, both how far, and how faithfully I have practised upon it, by virtue of my Profession. When I first observed things to be somewhat out of order, by reason of a light distemper, which then appeared by some infallible indications; I thought it my duty, to prescribe an wholesome Electuary,( out of the 122. Psalm, at the 6. verse, in a Sermon which I was called to Preach in the Cathedrall Church of Saint Pauls, Anno, 1642. and I soon after published by command, ander this Title, A pathetical persuasion to pray for the public peace) to be duly and devoutly taken every morning next our hearts; hoping that by Gods blessing on the Means, I should have prevented that distemper from growing into a formed disease; yet finding that my preventing physic did not work so kindly, and take so good an effect as I earnestly desired; but rather that this my so tenderly beloved Patient grew worse and worse; as not only being in process of time fallen into a fever, and that pestilential, but also as having received divers dangerous wounds, which rankling and festering inwardly, brought it into a spiritual Atrophie, and deep Consumption; and the parts ill-affected( for want of Christian care, and skill in such mountebanks as were trusted with the cure, while myself, and most of the Ancient Orthodox clergy were sequestered and silenced) began to gangrene: and when some of us became sensible therof, we took the confidence,( being partly emboldened by the connivance of the higher Powers that then were) to fall to the exercise of our ministerial Function again, in such poor Parishes as would admit us: then I saw that it was high time, not onely to prescribe strong purgative medicines in the Pulpit,( contempered of the myrrh of Mortification; the Aloes of Confession, and Contrition; the rhubarb of Restitution and Satisfaction, with divers other safe roots, seeds and flowers, fit and necessary to help to carry away by degrees, the incredible confluence of ill humours, and all such malignant matter as offended) but also, to put Pen to paper, and to appear in Print( as in this imperfect and impolish'd piece, which as guilty of an high presumption, here in all humility begs your Lordships Pardon) wherein my chief scope is to personate the good Samaritan; that as he cured the wounded Traveller, by searching his wounds with wine, and suppleing them with oil: so I have here, both described the Rise, and Progress of our national malady, and also prescribed the onely Remedy; that I might be in some kind instrumental under God and your Highness, in the healing of the same.  
And for both my present undertaking, and dedication, St. Luke( Chap. 1.3.) makes an apology; It seemed good unto me, having had perfect understanding of things from the very first, to writ unto thee in order( most excellent Theophilus) that thou mightst know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. And because we are now upon the point of recovery, and there is little visible cause of danger, save onely by relapsing: therefore in a Sermon( which I was very lately called to preach at Mercers chapel) I have prescribed an wholesome diet( approved of in Prov. 24.21.)& which I have here also published; and I make no question but if it be conscientiously observed, it will serve to prevent all relapsing in this kind for the future. Yet because Gods word is never more lively and mighty in operation, then when it is countenanced, and assisted with the power of the Sword; give me leave not onely to crave your Lordships patronage to this poor Vade-mecum; but also your gracious concurrence,& courageous carrying on of what you have already so happily begun in the name and cause of God, and his Anointed, till you have finished this great, and good work, and brought it to perfection: That we, and our children( among whom your name will be for ever precious) may truly say of you, as the Roman Histories do of Fabritius, The Sun may sooner be brought to alter his course, then you to alter your most heroic Resolution. My Lord, as it must needs grieve you to see these three distressed kingdoms lie, like a Body without a Head: so it may also cheer you to consider that the Comforter hath impowr'd you,( and in this nick of time, you onely) to make these dead and dry bones, live; You may by this one Act ennoble and aeternize yourself more in the hearts and chronicles of these three Kingdoms; then by all your former Victories, and the long line of your extraction from the Plantagenets, your Ancestors, which gave names to the Kings of England for many generations. It is a greater honour to make a King, then to be one. Your proper name minds you of being St. George for England: your surname prompts you to stand for order: then let not panicke fears, punctilio's of human policy, or State-formalities, beguile you( whom we look upon as Jethro's Magistrate, who was a man of courage, fearing God, dealing truly, and hating covetousness) of that immarcescible Crown of Glory due to you, whom we hope that God hath designed to be the repairer of the breach, and the temporal Redeemer of your native country. The case of Rome differs so much from our present condition; that what prudent Fabius restored by cunctation, you cannot now possibly compass without expedition. All our hopes( under God) depend upon your skill at the helm. Give me leave to conclude( as Mordecai closed with easter( 4.13.—) Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the Kings house, more then the rest: for if thou forbearest at this time, then shall our enlargement and deliverance rise from some other place; but thou, and thy house shall be destroyed: And who knows whether God hath reserved thee for such a time as this? thank God for the power and opportunity you have now in your hands; and pardon the seasonable application by Him; who( as he is too old to fear, and too great a sufferer to flatter) hath no other ambition, but to deliver his own soul, and the Nation, by sincerely approving himself  
The humblest of your Lordships servants, and truest honourers, MAT: GRIFFITH.   
PROV. 24.21. 
My son, fear God, and the King, and meddle not with them that be seditious, or desirous of change, &c.  
GOD, and the King, at the first blushy, seem to stand in the Text, like those two Cherubims on the Mercy-seat( Exod. 37.9.) looking on each other: yet with this difference, That God is an heavenly King, and eternal, 1 Tim. 1.17. but the King is an earthly, and dying God, Psal. 82.6.— And yet in a qualified sense, they are both Gods, and both Kings, and therefore both to be feared, as you are exhorted in the Text; My son, fear God, and the King, and meddle not, &c.  
In which words( for my more orderly proceeding, and your better profiting) be pleased to observe with me these four principal parts, viz. A Preacher, and his Auditory; His Doctrine, and his Use.  
The first, viz. This Preacher is a Prince too; and in both a transcendent.  
The second, viz. His Auditory, are Sons; and therefore reverend, and obedient.  
The third, viz. His Doctrine is, fear God, and the king; a Doctrine at all times most expedient.  
The 4th. viz. His Use is, meddle not with them that be seditious, or desirous of change: An Use at this time not impertinent. And therefore—  My son, fear God, and the King, and meddle not, &c. 
This Preacher, Solomon, and his Auditory, Sons; I will touch onely( as a preface to my ensuing discourse) in a word or two; for no preface should be long.  
We find upon record( in the 16. chapter of St. Luke) that Rich man suing to Father Abraham, sub forma pauperis, that one might be sent from the dead to preach to his five surviving brethren: And though his Petition was denied upon an aequitable reason, yet it seems here to be granted: For if there be any virtue more then ordinary in the Sermons of the dead, I hope there will now some good be wrought on, and in you; for here is one that preaches to you from the dead; and this Ecclesiastes was a Non sicut; for whilst he lived, he was confessed on all sides to be the wisest Preacher, and the wealthiest Prince that ever spake out of a pulpit, or swai'd a sceptre: and he that is both wise, and wealthy, can never want an Auditory: It is King Solomon that preaches here; I am but his echo; the plain song is His; mine's but the descant; the Text is His, mine's but the Paraphrase, gloss, or commentary: yea, should I repeat but onely his Text once more, you must aclowledge it to be an excellent Sermon, and a seasonable one too: and God grant it may work kindly upon you at this time, as it hath in the worst of times done on me, I thank the grace of God for it; and here I openly and ingenuously profess for my own part, that I never heard a better Sermon then this which wise Solomon preaches and presses here, My son, fear God, and the king, and meddle not, &c.  
And as the Sermon is his, so I trust I may truly say that his Auditory is mine: for though men were never of more different persuasions in this City, and Nation, then they have been of late; yet such is my christian charity, that there is not any one person in this great Assembly, to whom in truth and tenderness of my particular affection, as well as in King Solomons genuine acception of the term, I may not say, My son: For( as the learned observe) the son he speaks to here was not his son by natural generation( as the term is ordinarily used elsewhere) but only by paternal good affection: and so you are all my sons; and so you shall be, not only whether you will, or no, but also whether I will, or not: for long since have I bound myself to you( as St. Bernard speaks, ad Abbatem praemonstratensem) in holy charity, even that love which never fails; and therefore no miscarriage of yours can make me cancel this bond of perfectness( as the Apostle dignifies it) but as an old( though unworthy) Minister of the gospel of Christ I must own, and call each of you, my son. though some Interpreters( I must tel you) make no more of this loving compellation, then that Solomon( being an exact Preacher) useth here, what Rhetoricians call Captatio benevolentiae; and so he saith, my son, when he would gently persuade his Auditory to fear God, and the King: As if he had said ( as it was his full intent and meaning) He that fears God, and the King, as he should and ought, shall no longer be my subject or servant onely, but he shall be henceforward my son, by my gracious acceptation, and adoption: And you all know well that it is no mean honour to be the reputed son of such a King, as King Solomon; or rather of a greater, better King then he, even of God himself, whose sons you are, if you fear him, as he exhorts in the Text: And not only his sons( saith S. Paul in the 8. to the Romans) but heires too: Heires of God, and joint heirs with Christ; and that of no less then two incomparable Kingdoms, viz: The kingdom of grace in this life, and the kingdom of glory in the life to come.  
Hitherto, of the Preacher, Solomon; and his Auditory, Sons; which however they deserve to be amplified, and embroidered with variety of the most orient colours, yet I have purposely forborn, because I  told you that for this once, I would use them onely as preface; and I hope you will the rather pardon me, because by this means I am enabled to make the more hast to the Doctrine of the Text, fear God, and the king: which is a doctrine at all times most expedient: and herein let me again commend to your christian observation, both a single Act, fear, and a double Object, God, and the king.  
And because these three terms, Fear, God, King, are better understood in the Theory, as notions; then observed in our practise, and conscientiously obeyed; therefore in stead of spending so precious time in opening the terms, and of telling you what you know well enough already; I shall onely entreat you to take special notice of two things therein, which I believe to be most material:  
One is, the conjunction and combination of these terms; for it is not, fear God alone; or fear only the King: but it is, Fear God, and the King, both together.  
The other is, the right order and disposition of them; for it is said here, first fear God; and then fear the king, My Son, fear, &c.  
And now, If in the first place we ●ave regard to the conjunction of these terms, we cannot but observe, that God and the king are coupled in the Text; and what the Holy Ghost hath thus firmly combined, we may not, we must not dare to put asunder: for in the seventh Chapter of Judges, at the 20. verse, The sword of the Lord and Gideon, is spoken of as but one two-handed sword; the Lord gives it, and Gideon girds it to himself Gideon gives the blow,& the Lord gives the blessing; and Kings at their Coronation, have a sword given them; the Militia; the power of life and death is put into their hands; for the King is Gods Sword-bearer, and he bears not the sword in vain, saith the Apostle Rom. 13.4. And therefore he bear it not in vain, because God hath put it into his hands; and bears it with him▪ And there is no fighting against God but they fight against God, who resist his Ordinance, and go about to wrest the sword out of the hands of his anointed; whom( in the 105. Psal. 5.) he hath fenced about with a Nolite tang● re, &c. Touch not mine anointed; for they that touch him, in the sense there prohibited, offer violence to God himself: as he tells Samuel; They have not resisted or rejected thee, but me: so indissoluble is the conjunction of God and the King, and therefore, my Son, saith Salomon, fear both.  
And this I press the rather, because too many of late, and some to this very day, that are great pretenders to the fear of God, do not in truth fear the King at all: and having for the present divested him of all his native and legal rights, one of which is his power; they look upon him( as the Philistines did upon Samson without his hair, in which his strength lay) with scorn and contempt, as if he were as weak and worthless as other men: but let them remember how God renewed Samsons strength, to revenge himself at last. Others( on the contrary) have seemed so to fear the King, that they did not set the fear of God before their eyes; but as Ephestion said to Alexander, An nescis te Imperatorem esse,& leges dare non accipere? So these were ready to maintain that Paradox, or rather Heterodox, viz. That Kings may do what they list, and that they are to give Laws, but to live under none.  
The plain truth is, both these are dangerous extremes; for he that in fearing God, excludes the King, is a pure hypocrite; and he that to promote the fear of the King, excludes the fear of God, is a profane Parasite: and therefore, that you may the better avoid both these dangerous rocks, on which so many have made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, let me entreat and exhort you, ever to join the fear of God and the King in your practise, as here Salomon doth in his Precept, My Son, fear God and the King for this is the right combination and conjunction.  
And if, in the next place, we have regard to the order and disposition of these terms in the Text, we shall soon observe how God is first to be feared and then the King: As Saint Peter reasons, Whether it is meet to obey God, or man? judge ye. If God command one thing, and the King should command the contraay, then I say, Gods command is to be preferred; and yet let me tell you, that the King is not to be disobeyed: for a true Christian is obliged to a two-fold obedience; active, and passive: where the King commands things lawful, there yield active obedience, and know that it is your duty to do them: but if he should command such a thing as you may not lawfully do, then you must not resist, but suffer patiently for your not doing it, and this is your passive obedience: and in both these you may still keep a good conscience: for as I said but now, though God be to be preferred, yet God will not have his anointed to be disobeyed.  
Indeed, some of the Heathens deified their king, as Belus, Saturn, Jupiter, &c. And the men of Tyre( Act. 12.) deified king Herod, crying out, The voice of God, and not of man. But I must tell you, that the same spirit of truth that bids you both to fear, and honour kings, forbids you to adore them. The surest and safest way is this which Salomon chalks out in the Text, viz. First, to fear God, and then the King: whose sacred Person, and Function( as Gods Ordinance) merits at our hands, so much honour, fear, and reverence, from our outward and inward man, as can possibly stand with the due fear of God: and to speak freely, I shall hardly be brought to believe, that he doth make a conscience of fearing God, as he ought, who doth not for Gods sake( being so frequently and so strictly commanded thereunto in both the Testaments,) make a conscience also of fearing the King, as the express image, and anointed of God himself. Then, My Son, fear God, and the King; and in thy fear, observe both the fast combination and conjunction; and also the right order and disposition of them.  
And so I have soon done with the doctrine, which being so clear in itself, and( like a mathematical Principle) shining by its own light, needs no farther demonstration: and give me leave to tell you, that hitherto I have contracted myself on purpose, that I might have somewhat the more time to spend on the fourth and last part of my Text, which in the distribution of the words into parts, I called the Use and Application, in these words; And meddle not with them, &c. And herein I shall a little enlarge my discourse( according to the mode of these reforming times, which commonly insists most upon Use and Application) and for this once I shall do it the rather, because both the simplo necessity of pressing this so seasonable a point, and also because I am convinced in reason that your Christian expectation calls upon me for it; and you shall have it fully and faithfully God willing.  
The words in the original are of a large extent, and accordingly rendered by divers of the learned, diversely. For Pagnin out of the Hebrew reads it, Et cum iterantibus iniquitates suas, ne misceas te: that is, mingle not thyself with such as iterate their iniquities.  
The chaldee paraphrase hath it, Et cum stultis ne miscearis: that is, Be not thou mixed with fools.  
Cardinal Cajetan, and divers others translate it, Et cum mutatoribus, &c. that is, Have thou nothing to do with such as are changelings: and to show that by changelings he doth not mean such silly souls, as this too censorious, and over-credulous age calls Pure naturals; Vatablus renders it, Et cum rerum novarum studiosis, &c. Meddle not with such as are desirous of change: for all such for want of the true fear of God, do commonly prove most unnatural to their king, and country, by inwardly and inordinately affecting, and outwardly praeposterously effecting innovation, which is the greatest boutefeu in a settled estate; and accordingly rendered Socrates so odious to Athens; Caesar to Rome; and Christ himself to the Jews, who generally looked upon him as an Innovator, though God knows, and bears him witness, that he came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it.  
Our best and last Translation reads it, Meddle not with them that are seditious. Here then we have divers learned men of divers mindes, in rendering the words out of the Hebrew context. Each of them abounds in his own sense; and each of these sences may be true; sure I am they want not good authority to justify their several readings. And think not this strange; for I must tell you that the Holy tongue is but a very narrow language; and so one word in Hebrew ordinarily signifies divers things; as I could give you many instances, but that this in the Text is sufficient. And sure I am, that very good use may be made here of the several readings; and since we are now upon that which I call the Use of my Text, it will I hope be well worth the while to see and observe what wholesome Lessons we may learn from all, and every of these four Translations. The first whereof reads it, Keep not company with customary sinners: and if you say, why not with them? The princely Prophet David tells you the reason( Psal. 1.1.) where he saith, Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sate in the chair of the scorner; which are but so many degrees of sin: And it is most certain, that he who walks in the counsel of the ungodly, and stands in the way of sinners, will e're long come to complacency in sin, and so to take up his seat in the chair of the scorner. Or as Pagnin renders it, In cathedra pestilentiae, to signify, that as an habituated sinner becomes at last a scorner; so a scorner like a pestilential chair, will mortally infect all that come near him: Then my son come not in his walk; stand not in his way; sit not in his seat; at least keep not unnecessary company with him; if either thou wouldst be safe here, or saved hereafter.  
He that touches pitch( saith Solomon) shall be defiled. And as that proverb is true of material pitch, so it is much more of the moral: for some of the Ancients usually resemble a customary sinner to pitch, if he touches, he smutches you: then foul not your fingers with him; or which is worse, your souls. We red that as soon as the children of Israel were mingled with the Heathen idolaters, they learned their works. And elsewhere the Text saith, that of the froward thou shalt learn frowardness. But all customary sinners are froward, and that from their youth up: and we use to say, that the cloath that is dyed in the wool, will never lose it's colour: but all habituated sinners are dyed in the wool, if I may so speak; my meaning is, they will hardly be reclaimed:— Didicit nebulone parent, &c. Like rotten apple they infect the sound: Then say of them as Jacob did of Simeon and Levi, brethren in evil; Into their secret let not my soul enter; My glory, be not thou joined to their assembly, lest you become as wicked and fanatic as themselves; for in this sense that of Saint Cyprian is undoubtedly true; Discit facere dum consuescit videre: Here each Spectator becomes an Actor, and acts a part by seeing others play. The company and congregation of the wicked is the Devils kingdom: and take heed what is said in Ecclesiastical history( that the devil finding a pure Virgin in an impure place; he entred into her, and really possessed her, giving this reason to the Exorcist, Inveni eam in regno meo) be not true in you, that if the Devil find you in some corner-creeping Conventicle, or in any other evil company, or unwarrantable place, he do not( as Lord of the soil) seize on you as so many straies; and enter you in his black book as his proper goods and chattels; and so your latter end prove worse then your beginning.  
Divines well observe that some sins are common to all, as Anger; some proper to some natures, as Ambition: and to some ages, as lust to youth, avarice to old age; some sins are neither natural, nor unnatural, as swearing; and some are against nature, as gluttony and drunkenness: But of all sins it is most certain, that an habit once gotten, is seldom lost: and therefore the Cretes used this as that which they conceived to be the heaviest curse, O may he fall into an ill habit! presuming that out of this, as it is the strongest snare of the Devil, so it is extreme difficult to extricate ones self; for the devil hath prescription against all such; and Lawyers say that prescription hath the force of a Law: and S. Chrysostome saith, that it was much for Jonas to recover out of the belly of that fish: but it is a great deal harder to recover out of a long custom of sin; which in some respects is held morally impossible. And therefore I say with Solomon in the Text, My son, fear God, and the King, and meddle not with them that iterate their iniquities; so Pagnin reads it out of the Hebrew; and so you have the first Use.  
But what Pagnin renders customary sinners, the Chaldee paraphrast reads, Fools; Et cum stultis ne miscearis; that is, Blend not thyself with fools: So that all such as for want of the fear of God, and the King, keep ill company, and live in any ill custom, are stark fools: and though they be wise in their own eyes; yea, and pass in this world for great Politicians, as Achitophel in his time was called and counted an Oracle: yet as Thamar  told Amnon, sin will make them to be numbered among the fools of Israel: for they that are wise to do evil( as the Prophet speaks) but to do well have no understanding, are Solomons fools; and that I may not seem to say it only, I will prove that they have all the characteristical notes, and remarkable properties of fools. For  
1. They are as ignorant, and indocible as any fool: The ox knows his owner, and the ass his Masters crib( saith the Lord in Isaiah 1.3.) but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider. The Apostle saith, that they are always learning, yet never come to the knowledge of the truth. And as Militides of Athens could not tell whether his father or his mother brought him forth: So these know not, aclowledge not their holy Mother, the church, which was the womb that bare them, and whose paps gave them suck. And it is well if they aclowledge their father.  
Secondly, They are as self-willed, and self-conceited, as any fool; tell them of their schism, sacrilege, sedition, rebellion, and any other crime of which they stand guilty by the Law of God, and the King: and they will not be convinced of their wickedness; and as Salomon speaks of a fool; they fear not till they feel the rod upon their own backs. And elsewhere the same Salomon saith, Seest thou a man that is wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool then of him; for of a natural fool God requires no more then he gives: but of these wilful fools, he will exact a reason, and a rockoning of all their misdoings. And let me add, He that is wise in his own conceit, is both a wise man, and a fool; a wise man in his own opinion, and a fool in all mens else.  
Thirdly, Like fools, they are all for the present: as the Epicure cried, Utere temporibus, praesentibus utere rebus; they neither foresee, nor fear a change: they slight Christs counsel, Make unto you friends with the unrighteous Mammon, that they may receive you, failing, into their everlasting habitations. Though they cannot but be sensible, that daily and hourly, some of their boon-companions fall, yet they will not believe that they shall fail; And whereas Salomon sends such foolish idlesbies to the Ant or Pismire,( Prov. 6.) to consider her ways, which hoards up provision in Summer, to support her in Winter: yet these use a foolish Proverb, Spend, and God will sand; and so like grasshoppers, they sing, and sport away their precious time, which the Apostle exhorteth all that are wise, by all means to redeem: And( as in the days of Noah) they sit down to eat and drink, till the main flood of Gods judgements overtakes, and overturns them.  
Fourthly, Like fools, they prefer trifles before treasure: It is well observed by Saint Augustine, that there is nothing truly good, but what we cannot lose against our wills: such are God himself, and the good things which he hath prepared for us in his kingdom, where neither moth can consume, nor rust canker, nor thieves break in and steal: and accordingly it is our Saviours counsel: Lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth, because all earthly treasures are subject to one, or more of the mischiefs which I hinted but now: and yet these fools prefer a smoke of honour, a blast of famed, a dream of pleasure, a wedge of gold, a Babylonish garment, and the like transitory trash, before blessed Eternity. As when the French Cardinal was  told by his ghostly father of the fullness of joy which is at Gods right hand, and pleasures for evermore; he fond replied, that if he might choose, he would not leave his part in Paris for his part in Paradise: so these fools,( with that wealthy young Ruler, which our Lord advised to sell all, and give it to the poor, promising him treasure in heaven, but he went away sorrowful, saith the Text) will not leave that on earth, which they cannot long keep, to receive that in heaven which they can never lose.  
Fifthly, and lastly, they are as malicious, and mischievous, as any fools: It is pastime to a fool to do mischief, saith Salomon,( Prov. 10.23.) Sin is his babble, he makes himself merry with it; and laetantur cum malefecerint, saith David; they rejoice when they have ruined others; and laugh to see them lament. Belshazzars sumptuous feast was heightened by the Hogo of his delicious meats and drinks, as they were served in the vessels of the Sanctuary: No bowls to such Atheists, like a consecrated chalice to carovie in; and no flesh so sweet, as that which the Eagle robbed the Altar of: Money gotten by stinking means( as the Roman Emperour  told his son) smells as sweet as honest gain: Lucri bonus est odour ex re qualibet; what care such fools, to rend and tear the Churches garments, so their own may be whole! or to build up their Babels, with the ruins of Sion; So that we may justly cry out with Tertullian, Nostra suffodiunt, ut sua aedificent. And when they have robbed the Church of her patrimony, and the whole Kingdom of her ancient plenty, then a self-denying Ordinance( when there is no more left to be taken away) not only makes satisfaction for the sacrilege, but justifies it to be no sin.  
And how severely so ever Divine and human Laws censure oppression, extortion, homicide, murder, schism, sedition, rebellion, treason; and if there be any thing worse, that these miscievous fools have omitted, yet it is now but wiping their mouths( with the Harlot in the Proverbs) and then they may say as truly as she doth, that they have done no wickedness. And the Prophet David assigns the undoubted cause of all these and all other evils, where he saith, That God comes not in all their thoughts; that is, they never think upon God as a just Judge: and so they fear not him; for if they did, they would fear the King too; for they that flatter themselves that they do fear the one, when yet they live in open opposition, and actual rebellion against the other; are such fools in the Text, as you are charged not to mingle with: My Son, fear God and the King, and mingle not with fools; and so you see what use are you to make of the Chaldee Paraphrase, reading of the words out of the Hebrew context; and I call the second Use.  
But, in the third place, I  told you that Cardinal Cajetan, and Vatablus, render the words both to one sense; for cum mutatoribus, saith the one, Cum rerum novarum studiosis, saith the other: My son, fear God and the King, and meddle not with them that are desirous of change; and so one of our English translations reads it: and this by degrees brings the Text somewhat nearer to the Times, and more home to our selves; who( out of a desire of change) have of late run through all forms of Government; and yet we have done nothing all the while, but what in us lay undone ourselves, yea, they that took most delight in ringing of these changes, cannot yet give any satisfaction to themselves for the present; and much less can they assure themselves of any sound settlement for the future in the way they took; for as Tacitus( an excellent Historian, and great Statesman in his Time) gravely observes, All changes in Government commonly do, cheat them most at last, who at first, did most desire them.  
True it is, that this desire of change is in all by nature corrupted by the fall of our first parents, yea, even before the fall, the desire of change was the very first bait, with which the Devil angled for Adam and Eve in Paradise; who, though they were created so holy and happy that they could not well be better; yet as soon as the Serpent, or the Devil, or rather the Devil in the Serpent had suggested to them( Gen. 3.5.) Ye shall be as gods, &c. they fell strait to nibbling; and so by eating of the forbidden fruit, they have ever since set all their childrens teeth on edge, as the Prophet speaks.  
It is hard for a good Historian to say on the sudden, how many several kinds of government were successively introduced among the Romans, by this insatiable desire of change: It is notorious that they had Kings, Senators, Dictators, Tribunes, Consuls, Caesars, &c. of some of which that jeer was started Vigilantissimum habuimus Proconsulē, &c. We have now had a most vigilant Proconsul, for during the whole time of his Consulship, he never slept, meanig that he was elected at noon, and discarded before night. And by name, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, three of their noted Emperors, enjoyed their Dignity so short a space, that Apollonius wittily termed them Theban Emperors; whereby he did insinuate, that as the Thebans were Lords of Greece but a short time; so these three continued Emperors of Rome but a few Moneths: so inconstant was the humour of the gyddi-headed Romans in those days, that whom they had but newly set up, without any other reason then a more affectation of novelty, and desire of change, they soon after pulled down. And no marvel, though the luxuriant Romans, that then knew little of God, were so desirous of change, when as we find Gods own people, the Iewes, not onely troubled with a spice, but desperately sick of this vertiginous disease: for they had their Dukes, or Leaders; their Judges; their Prophets; their High priests, their Kings; and for a time they had an Inter-regnum, and no king in Israel, beside divers other horrid jawfalls in government.  
And if we draw nearer home, we cannot but take notice how predominant in all ages this desire of change hath been in all parts of christendom. What chopping and changing hath there been in Bohemia, Portugall, Polonia, Suevia, &c. To which I might add the Low Countreys. And the Kingdom of Naples hath so often changed their Governours, that at last their Estate was represented in an ass, that having cast his Rider, turned his head back, to see who would be so mad as to bestride him any more.  
And even at this day the old proverb ( Mens humana novitatis avida) is in nothing truer then in the point of government: for all States have their policies, and rule by laws: So it hath been, so it should be with us; and so it shall be I hope e're long: For a man were better to live among the most barbarous people under heaven, then under an absolute Tyranny, or arbitrary government. laws there must be; and lex à ligando, saith the Etymologer: It is called a law from binding; all laws are like yokes: and this it was that formerly rendered this Monarchy, though never so gracious in the public administration of justice both commutative, and distributive, yet to seem so grievous to them that feared neither God, nor the King: These( like so many beasts) finding themselves pinched with a yoke, I mean that of Gods Law, and the Kings, did never lin wincing and flinging, till they had cast it off; though by divine dispensation it hath since come to pass, that while they would not submit themselves to Gods Ordinance, but went about by unlawful means to extricate themselves out of one pressure, they fell still into an heavier; like the fish in the proverb, that leaps out of the frying-pan into the fire. Just as Philip of Macedon  told certain grecians that had revolted from him to T. Quintus, the Roman Commander; Commutastis vestram catenam politiore quidem, said longiore: that is, You have exchanged your chain( meaning their servile condition) for one that at first sight seems a little better polished, but you will find it in time to be much more heavy, and lasting. And this was in effect the genuine meaning of Rehoboams answer to his discontented Petitioners, viz. That they should feel his little finger far heavier then his fathers loins; for whereas his father had onely whipped them with scourges yet, he meant to scourge them with scorpions. Do you help me out in making the application, which the exigency of time constrains me to contract.  
And as when Jehoiakim( in the 36. chap. of Jeremy) had with a pen-knife cut the roll of parchment, which Baruch wrote from the mouth of the Prophet, and cast it into the fire; then the Prophet Jeremy took another roll, and gave it to Baruch the Scribe, and he wrote therein all the words of the book which jehoiakim burnt in the fire; and there were added besides unto them many the like words; so that all he got by cutting and burning Gods will revealed in writing against both him, and his people, was onely to have more judgements first denounced, and then inflicted upon him, and his: So all they that fight against God, and his Anointed, in stead of disingaging, do the more entangle themselves: and, like so many unruly Colts, get nothing by their disorderly desire of change, but onely to have the brand of Gods indignation fastened so much the deeper in their flesh. Thus they that witting and wilfully resist Gods Ordinance, turn that which they reli'd upon as their likeliest remedy, into the worst of mischiefs that could have befallen them.  
And yet as the Spies that were sent to search the land of Canaan, reported that it was a land that did eat up the Inhabitants thereof. So it is pregnant in History, that very few Nations( out of the mere desire of change) will long endure any government, no nor scarce any governor. The Belgicke Commonwealth, the kirk of Scotland, the Geneva discipline, the New-Englanders Utopia, nor yet any settled in this Nation can please us long( who are yet in our wits) how then shall it satisfy the two Arch-enemies of all rule& government, the anabaptistical Independents, and( the last extract of our Reformation) the Nonsensical Quakers, who would( if they had power to their wills) soon lay the axe to the root of all Magistracy, and Ministry whatsoever.  
And what the prudent Italians say by way of proverb, that the life of man is short, of Kings shorter, and of Popes shortest of all: is now generally true of all forms of government; they are looked upon as short-lived, and short lasting; and all, and onely because of this inordinate desire of change, especially in the Anabaptists and the Quakers, whose principles are destructive of rule and settlement; in which both our being, as men, and our well-being, as Christians, do under God, and his Christ, chiefly consist. Yet I will be bold to say, that if those very gives, who are now so greedy of parity, and so fond of Anarchy, could be made sensible of the many miseries and mischiefs, which naturally sprout from that bitter root, and were bound to live any considerable time in such a confusion, as they would bring us into; They would soon become more weary of that calf which now they do so unreasonably idolize, then ever any men were of the worst form of government that yet hath been heard of in any part of the habitable world.  
Little do these men understand the deceitfulness of their own hearts, which like Africke, is ever producing new monsters: and the God of this world hath so blinded them, that they do little perceive the corruption of their own nature; which( like some women with child) often longs for such things, as being had, would destroy them. I cannot more fitly resemble these poor seduced souls then to sick folks, labouring of a malignant fever; who by reason that their palates are vitiated, are not able to distinguish, during the time, sweet from sour, with whom nothing relishes, and to whom nothing is pleasing that the physician prescribes; because though the physic he administers be proper and wholesome, yet they cannot be persuaded to think it so, having lost their taste.  
Then that I may a little open their eyes, I will show them out of Gregory Nazianzen( in his excellent oration of Moderation to be used in divine matters) what intolerable mischiefs are engendered by confusion, viz. In the air thunderings; in the earth tremblings; in the sea storms, and shipwrecks; in Cities and Families, strife and contention, Diseases in the body, death and damnation in the soul; for the head of this Monster is the devil; the heart is discontnt; the eyes, envy; the ears, evil reports; the tongue, sedition; the hands, rapine and bloodshed; and the feet woe, and destruction. Then my sons, fear God, and the king; and meddle not with them that are desirous of change; because you are now convinced that they are like the fruit we call meddlers, which are never good, till they be rotten.  
The Mythologist appositely illustrates this ill affection in a fable to this effect: Upon a time the Frogs petitioned Jupiter to grant them a King; in condescension whereunto he tumbled among them a Log: and after they had leaped a while both on it, and about it, and found it to be insensible; then they petitioned again for a King that should be active and stirring; and thereupon he sent them a Crane, which straight fell to pecking them up: The moral whereof shows plainly, that nothing can long give satisfaction to this natural desire of change; whether the governor, and government be a log, or a Crane; passive or active; clement or cruel; grievous or gracious; yet such as desire change will soon disrelish both him and it; not so much because he is unfit to rule, as because they are unwilling to obey, either him, or any other: and though they sometimes are so well that they know not how to better themselves, and their condition, yet will they leave no ston unmoved to unsettle and alter it: and rather be enslave by a bad, then constantly endure a good.  
And, as in the poetical fable, Mercury could never fit a garment to the body of the Moon, because she is ever waxing or waning: so neither can any form of government long svit with the humour of the people, whose restless desire of change is such, that( like so many children) they commonly cry loudest for they know not what; and being rebellious by nature since the fall, they rise up against all Power, as it is power; not considering that all power is of God; and therefore is to be submitted to, not only for fear( as the Apostle speaks in the 13. Chapter to the Romans) but even for conscience sake.  
Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,( saith God by his Prophet) and mankind being bewitched with it; it falls out for the most part with us, as it doth with Witches; that chain( saith Delrio) which the Devil makes the Witch believe to be of gold, she finds( when the mist is dispersed to be but copper and counterfeit; and seeing her self deluded, she grows discontented; yet for want of Grace, goes on still, as the Devils drudge, to the utter undoing of her self and others: Thus, what some few yeares ago we set up, and both approved and applauded; yet now, when we have even tired ourselves in the ways of wickedness, and affliction hath given us understanding; we do justly both reject, and resist, as finding ourselves cheated, beggared, and utterly ruined by our own inventions, I mean, this desire of change: but the Lord in mercy change our desires before it be too late; and give us all grace conscientiously to follow wise Salomons counsel in the Text, viz. To fear God and the King; and not meddle with them that are desirous of change. And thus I have done with the third reading of the words out of the original, and the Use you are to make of it.  
But our last Translation runs, Meddle not with them that are seditious; for all such, qua such, fear neither God nor the King; and therefore were there no other reason, yet this one is enough to deter you from meddling with them: but there be many more, as you shall see ere I have done, which I will touch onely with a light Pencil, and so conclude.  
Sedition is defined to be an insolent declination of self-conceited subjects, from such lawful power as God hath set over them. Saint Paul( in the 13. Chapter to the Romans, 2.) hath this apostolical Canon, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers; where speaking in the plural number, of powers, he implies, that there be more then one; divers forms of government, and all of them are powers: And the {αβγδ} in each, hath an {αβγδ}, to its correlative; and the higher the power is, the more is our subjection obliged thereunto: But by our fundamental Laws, The King is the highest power, and all others that bear any rule among, and over us, are subordinate unto him: and St. Peter,( in the second Chapter of his first Epistle general) asserts positively, that the King is Supreme; and the Philosopher will allow in unoquoque genere, but unum summum. So that the co-ordination which some seditious persons have so fiercely mantain'd of late, is point-blanck against, not onely Religion, but right reason. And as for the new coined distinctions of the consistorian schismatics, whereby they have done their utmost to enervate the Kings Supremacy; and with the cardinal in King Henry the 8. dayes, who set up his Cap above the Crown; these would set up their Kirks above the King; Popery and presbytery, both in opinions and practise, differ in many things onely in terms) by a jesuitical evasion of coordination, and suhordination; of the Kings politic capacity, and his personal; of mayor singulis, and minor universis, &c. These, I say, and such like distinctions, are but the brain-sick fictions of seditious malcontents, who cast off the fear of God and the King, and when they have wounded their own consciences, and all theirs, whom by such decoys they have drawn in to side with them, in stead of seriously repenting, they laugh out some such new-fangled distinction, and think therewith to salue up the matter. But the Casuists say peremptorily, Non est distinguendum, ubi lex ipsa non distinguit: we must not distinguish, where the law itself distinguishes not. But the Law in this case distinguishes not, as they know very well; and now you know it too, Meddle not with them; whom you have, and will find like the Trojane Horse, whose belly was lined with armed men, who first surpized, and then sacked Troy: Et ab uno disce omnes. And that I may the better take you of from meddling with the seditious hereafter, give me leave to use and urge two sorts of Arguments: the one I will draw from the due consideration of the bad causes; the other of the sad consequences of sedition.  
The former, which I take from the causes of sedition looks upon them either as primary and efficient, or secondary and subservient. The primary cause of sedition, is the Devil; who as he works effectually in all the children of disobedience: so he ceaseth not to stir them up continually by his perverse and pestilent suggestions, and infusions sometimes secretly and unsuspectedly to undermine, and sometimes openly and impudently to rise up against the civil Magistrate, who is Custos utriusque tabulae; and whom God hath so often expressly commanded us to love, honour, serve, fear, obey, defend, preserve, maintain, fight for; and in a word, To render unto him all his deuce, as the Apostle expresseth it, and presseth us, in the 13. to the Romans 7. Render therefore to all their deuce, Tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour; but both, tribute, and custom, and fear, and honour are the Kings due; God himself, who is Lord paramount, and the onely great proprietary, hath made and declared them so. And so we must not think in any of these kinds, that we give the King some-what that we may justly keep, as if it were ours; but we must pay them unto him, as a debt due unto him: And to signify this the more plainly, St. Paul there doth not say Date, but Reddite. And our Saviour himself, to show that Christian liberty will stand well enough with civill subjection, useth the self same term( in Matth. 22.21.) Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesars, and unto God the things that are Gods: where he joins God and Caesar together, to show that both of them have their distinct rights; and that we must pay them to both accordingly: and that if we defraud, or detain the deuce of the one, we must be responsible to the censure and vengeance of the other; which I earnestly entreat the seditious to chew upon.  
The later, viz. the ministerial causes of sedition are many and many: and therefore for brevities sake I will hint but some few of them, which I conceive to be the chief, that you may know them to avoid them. And such are  
1. evil company, and counsel; these the Devil useth as his bellows to blow the coals into a flamme, which he first kindled, and set on fire. Tully( in his 3d. Oration against Verres) gives him this ill character, viz. That he was Malus civis, a bad Citizen; improbus consul, a worse Consul, because like Sylla, he looked more at his own private gain, then on the public good; and seditiosus homo, a seditious man, that is, one that loved to engender strife, and raise tumults by ill arts among the people, then which nothing is more dangerous and destructive.  
Plato( in his fifth book De republica) makes both luxuriancy in wealth to be one procreating cause of sedition:( as when horses are pampered, and provender pricked, they grow head-strong and unruly) And extreme poverty and begging necessity to be another. For Durum telum necessitas: and our Proverb is, that Necessity hath no law: which holds not onely in this, that poor folkes seldom have the benefit of the Law for want of moneys to fee the Lawyers( among whom might commonly overcomes right. Absque dativo accusativo, Roma favere negat) But it holds in this respect too, because when men are in so low a condition, that they cannot possibly live in a worse, then they grow malcontent, and seditious, that by imbroiling all they may enrich themselves; what care they in such a desperate humour to set other mens houses on fire, while they by the help of the light can see the better how to run away with their goods?  
To which three, I might add innovation in government; when it meets with faction, self-conceit, prejudice, and ●n embittered stitch and contempt in the common people of the Higher powers; are so many procreating causes of sedition, which like an unlucky constellation ever portends evil, and never produces any good in a settled State: Wherefore since all the causes of sedition are so evil and ominous, My son, meddle not with them that are seditious.  
And yet let me tell you, that the consequences of sedition are far worse: For  
1. Sedition is ever turbulent, it sets all in an uproar; as you may observe( in Acts 19.) when Demetrius, and the Craftsmen, who were their Crafts-masters, saw their gain by Diana's silver shrines go down, by St. Pauls preaching that they were no Gods which are made with hands; they straight rose up and like mad men ran to and fro, crying Great is Diana of the Ephesians, till they had soon put the whole city in combustion and confusion.  
2ly. Sedition fills all places with war and bloodshed; as both Homer illustrate in his {αβγδ};& Josephus( de Be●● Judaico) shows at large the barbarism and bloody-mindedness of the factious and seditious.  
Thirdly, the needless quarrels, and groundless contentions of the seditious, how slight so ever they seem at first, yet many times they( like snow-balls by long rolling) grow vast and formidable: and the incredible Story which Paulus Jovius tells of the one, became authentic and demonstrable, both formerly in the City of Jerusalem, and Syracusa; and of late, in the Fisherman of Naples; not to instance our own sad experience at home, which can hardly be paralleled.  
Fourthly, Sedition many times ends in the conflagration of whole Towns and Cities, as Virgil Elegantly portrays it in that of Troy; Jamque faces,& Saxa volant, furor arma ministrat.  
Fifthly, howe'er the seditious commonly work like so many Moles, and Pyoners under ground; and like the Cunpowder-Traytors in Vauts,( as by jealous whispers, adle shakings of the head, shrugs and other discontented postures; scattered libels, scandalous invectives, puritan Pasquils, ambiguous answers to Statedemands; and a thousand other ways of undermining) yet at last they blow up all with a furiousness, surmounting that of Gunpowder.  
Sixthly, The plausible Prologues and pretences of the seditious, do usually determine in a tragical Catastrophe, as the factions between the Guelphs and Gibelines, though at first but personal( those engaging on the one side, these on the other) over-ran almost all Italy in the conclusion.  
Seventhly, Sedition is most impetuous;& accordingly compared to such things as are most active& destructive: as to the Sea breaking in, which carries all before it. So to a fire breaking out, and a plague of pestilence; Incipit ab uno, inficit omnes.  
Lastly, Sedition is a pernicious evil; Thucidydes stiles it, All kind of evils. And nullam malum perniciosius, saith Plato in his book last quoted; There is no evil more pernicious then sedition; for this divides, yea, and discorps a City: Division commonly ushers in destruction. And accordingly, when the Prophet David would curse the professed enemies of God, he began there Divide, Destrue; Divide their tongues, and destroy them, O Lord, for I have seen violence and strife in the City. And all these evils of punishment have in one part or other in some measure befallen us, in one or other of the three Kingdoms; since so many of us for want of the true fear of God and the King, meddled with those whom we could not choose but know to be seditious, by their first kindling the coals, and their blowing up the quarrel betwixt King and Parliament: till to gratify their own factions, and satisfy themselves and their own friends, they had brought us to this general want,& woes, through want of Religion,( I mean the true Protestant Religion, as it was here established in the Church of England, the soundest in Doctrine, and nearest in Discipline to the Primtive, of all the Reformed Churches in Christendom; and in stead of this one, which was truly ancient, catholic and apostolic, we are now like Corinth, where any Religion under heaven may be found, save only the true.  
Secondly, Of Law, for we have had for many years, no benefit of the old and well known Laws of the Land, but only an Arbitrary government, changed like an almanac, from year to year, at the will of our new Lords pro temporum ratione.  
Thirdly, Of liberty; which hath been no other of late, but mere vassalage, for if we did not what out Task-masters listed to impose upon us, bonds and imprisonments waited for us,( as Saint Paul speaks of himself in the 20. of the Acts) in every place.  
Fourthly, Of Property, for no man all this while, could with any assurance, call any thing he had his own; It was but starting up a Covenant, engagement, or an Oath of abjuration for all; or picking a quarrel with any particular person, and then he must be imprisoned, pillaged and plundered without bail or main-prize.  
Fifthly, Of peace; for when we did but pursue in our actions, or but petition and pray for public peace out of never so good affection, we were voted Delinquents, Malignants, Ill-affected.  
Sixthly, Of plenty, for this City and Nation, which for affluence in all kinds, was the envy& admiration of the whole earth, are now reduced to such extreme necessity through the continuance of the war, and maintenance of the Army, that had no enemy; and the general decay of trade,( there being no considerable importation or exportation of goods for many years,) that the rich are not able to succour and support the poor which are become innumerable, quo ad nos; and the poor must, e're long, either fall upon the rich mens coffers, or eat up one anothers carcases.  
Seventhly, Of Truth, Justice, Charity, King, and God himself; all which( save that there be a few names in Sardi's; and that God hath an election of grace in all places and ages) seem among us, like materia prima, at this day, to have no other being then in terms. Indeed, all this while, the prevailing factions have taken the Name of God into their mouths( as the Prophet speaks in the 50. Psalm) though the love of their interest made them hate to be reformed: and they had some forms of godliness, though in their works they denied the power thereof. And now, if you inquire how, and why all these, and divers other unspeakable evils have lain upon us so heavy, and under most of which we languish at this day? you are fully answered in the Text: It is first for your customary sins yet unrepented of; secondly, for your fooling, as Solomon useth the term in this book of the Proverbs;( Some mens success in their sins hath fooled them into down-right atheism): thirdly, for you exorbitant desire of change, which hath thus by degrees allayed your pure wine with water, and turned all your ancient treasure into trash and trumpery; and especially, for your meddling with the seditious, whom you first encouraged, countenanced, assisted, protected, and sided with, against all that was called God among us:& now you reap the fruits, and eat the earnings of your own heads, hearts, and hands; which I hope will be a fair warning to you, and all generations yet to come, to fear God and the King, as you are here exhorted, and to meddle no more with the seditious, for the many, weighty reasons already alleged. And yet, if we look well upon the words, we shall find all these, and more, and worse, partly expressed in the close of the Text, which urgeth this; For their destruction comes suddenly; and therefore my son, meddle not with them; and partly implied, when he queries thus, And who knows the end thereof? Of either of which give me leave to speak but a word or two more, and no more.  
It is observable that the Scripture seldom speaks of the death of Gods servants, but either with some alloy of the bitterness, and acrimony thereof; and thus it is called not a death, but a departing, a dissolution, a sleep, a resting under hope, a refreshing, &c. Or with some addition either of honour, as Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints: Or of happiness, as Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, &c. But when it speaks of the death of the wicked( such as are all customary, obstinate, and impenitent sinners; All atheistical fools; all Innovators that are desirous of change; and all schismatical and seditious persons) then it useth for the most part some terms of horror and torment by way of aggravation: And so they are said not to die the common death of all men; but to be drowned in destruction and perdition; to be swept away with the besom of destruction; to perish in the gainsaying of Core: And here their destruction comes suddenly; which shows that there is both violence in the motion, since it is not death, but destruction; and also celerity in the execution of it; Since their destruction comes, it's spoken in the present tense, and comes suddenly, and shall both take them away unprepared, and leave them no way to escape. As I might instance first in the general, in Cora, Dathan, and Abiram, and the two hundred and fifty Princes of the congregation, men of renown, and all that sided with them in that sedition which they raised against Moses and Aaron,( Gods Magistrate and High priest) who were all swallowed up quick by the earth opening; as we red in Numb. 16. which may serve as a warning piece to us, &c.  
And next in many particulars; for fair-spoken Absolom( who seditiously assembled the mighty men of Israel together against his natural and Civill father, King David) was sodainy twitched up in the fork of a three, and so left hanging between heaven and earth.  
So Zimri who at first conspired against, and then slay his Master,( King Elah( in 1 King. 16.) soon after burnt himself to death in the close of the same Chapter.  
So Sheba, a man of Belial, for blowing the trumpet of Sedition, saying, We have no part in David, every man to his tents, O Israel( in 1 Sam. 20.1.) was soon aster beheaded by the men of Abel; and his head was cast over the walls to Joab, in the end of the same Chapter. Not to multiply Scripture instances; how e're they that are desirous of change, and seditious men, may flatter themselves in a seeming impurity; yet our own Chronicles, yea our own sad experience abundantly testify this truth, That their destruction comes suddenly: How many memorable and fearful examples of divine justice in this kind have we seen of late, whose punishment was as notorious as their sin. Then my son, meddle not with them; for( whether you look into the Law of God, or into the Civill Law, which is the law of Nations; or into the Common Law of England) still you will find, that their destruction comes suddenly: and one would think that is bad enough; and yet I must tell you, or rather the Text itself tells you, that there is a great deal more and worse behind: For my Text is like a Bee that hath both honey and a sting. It begins( as you have heard) with the fear of God, and the King, which is all honey: but if changelings and seditious persons ( of which the world is too full) will none of this sweet and sovereign honey, I mean the fear, which I spake of but now; yet whether they will or no, they shall feel the sting; for their destruction comes suddenly; there is their temporal death: And who knows the end thereof( saith Solomon.)  
This Quis scit is a Nemo scit: This interogation is aequipollent to a simplo negation: as if he had said, No man knows it while he lives here; though this Quis scit hath begotten infinite and intricate questions; yet no man alive is able to unriddle and resolve them; but the seditious, nor they neither till( as it is said of Judas, Act. 1.) they go to their own place; and that you may not go thither for company, let me counsel you, as Moses doth the Israelites( Numb. 16.) Depart from the tents of these wicked men,& touch nothing of theirs, lest that you perish in all their sins.  
And( which I must not forget) this question of Solomon, Who knows the end thereof? implies that there is more in the destruction of the seditious, then a mere temporal death; for all men know the end thereof; it hints what St. John calls the second death, viz. Condemnation, or in plain English, Damnation, which is eternal, à parte post, as the learned speak: and who knows the end thereof? The worm( saith the Prophet) never dyes, and the fire never goes out. Then as you love your lives, and the life of your lives, your dearest souls; and the soul of your souls, salvation itself, meddle not with them: and so I conclude as I began, My son, fear God, and the King, and meddle not with them that are customary sinners, foolish Atheists; desirous of change, and seditious; for their destruction comes suddenly,& who knows the end thereof. And that we may never know it, the Lord by his spirit of grace work in us the true fear of God, and the King.  
FINIS.