CONFIRMED CHRISTIAN. 541 viii. 15. Acts xxüi. 4, 5. Eccles. x. 4. 20. He knoweth that evélÿ stiul must be subject to the higher powers, and not resist; and that there is no power but of God. " Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; andhe that re- sisteth shall, receive to himself damnation;" Rota. xiii. 1 -6. Therefore in all things lawful he obeyeth them. And though he mustnot, nor will not obey them against God, yet will he suffer patiently when he is wronged by them ; and not only forbear re- sistance by arms or violence, but also all reproachful words, as knowing that the righting ofhimself is not so necessary to the pub- lic order and good as the honor of his rulers is. Usurpers may probably chargehim to be a traitor, and seditious and rebellious, because he dare not approve of their usurpations"; and when sev- eral are contending for the government, and in a litigious title the lawyers misleadhim, when the controversy is only among them, and belongs to their profession, it is possible he may mistake as well as the lawyers, and take him to have the better title that bath the`worse. But in divinity he knoweth there is no controversy whether every soul must besubject 'to the highest power, so far as he can know it ; and that prayer and patience are the subject's arms ; and religion is so far from being a warrant to resist, that it plainly forbiddeth disobedience and resistance'; and none are more obliged to submission and quietness than Christians are. The Spirit of Christianity is not of this world; their kingdom and their hopes are not of this world; and, therefore, they contend not for dignities and rule ; much less by, resisting or rebelling against their lawful governors. But they are resolved to obey God, and secure their everlasting portion, and bear allthe injuries which they meet with in the .way; especially from those whom God hath set over them. There is no doctrine that ever was received in the world, so far from befriending seditions and rebellion, as the doc- trine of Christ; nor any people in the world so loyal as Christians, while Christianity retained its genuine simplicity; till proud, domi- neering, worldly ménc'for carnal ends, pretended 'themselves to be Christians, and perverted the doctrine of Christ to make it warp to their ambitious ends. Suffering seemeth not so great a matter to a holy, mortified', heavenly mind, as to tempt hitn to hazard his salvation to resist it. No man is so likely to be true to kings as he that believeth that his salvation lieth on it, by the ordinance of God ; Rom. xiii: 3. And princes that are wise and just, do always discern that the best Christians are their best subjects ; though those that are unbelieving and ungodly themselves, have ever hat- ed them as the greatest 'troublesof the 'earth. And it hath ever' been the practice of the enemies of Christ and godliness to do all they can to engage the rulers of the earth against them, and to
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