SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST. 317 wise too late. Those that now they esteem but precise fools, will then be acknowledged. blessed men. Bear with their scorns, Christians, in themeantime; they will very shortlywish themselves in your stead, and would give all that ever they were masters of, that they had sought and loved Christ as earnestly as you, and had a little of your oil when they find their lamp, are out; Matt. xxv. 8. And now, hearers, what is your resolution ? Perhaps you have been enemies to Christ, under the name of Christians: will you still be so? Have you not loathed this busy, diligent serving of him, and hated them that most carefully seek him, more than the vilest drunkard or blasphemer? Have not his word, and service, and Sabbaths, been a burden to you ? Have not multitudes ven- tured their lives against his ordinances and government? Nay, is it not almost the common, voice of the nation in effect ' Give us our sports, and liberty of sinning; give us our readers, and singing men, and drunken preachers ; give us our holydays and ceremonies, and the customsofour forefathers : away with these precise fellows ; they are an eye-sore to us: these precise preachers shall not con- trol us this pprecise. Scripture shall be no law to us ;' and, conse- quently, this Christ shall not rule over us ? How long bath England rebelled against his government ! Mr. Udal told them, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, ' that if they would not set up the discipline of Christ in the church, Christ would set it up himself in a way that would make their hearts to ache.' I think their hearts have ached by this time ; and as they judgedhim to the gallows for his prediction, so bath Christ exe- cuted diem by thousands' for their rebellion against him ; and yet they are as unwilling of his government as ever. The kings of the earth are afraid lest Christ's government should unking them ; the rulers are jealous lest it will depose them from their dignities ; even the reformers that have ventured all to set it up, are jealous lest it will encroach upon their power and privileges; kings are afraid ';of it, and think themselves but half kings, where Christ doth set up his word and disciplines parliaments 'are afraid of it, lest it should usurp their authority; lawyers are afraid of it, lest it should take away their gains, and the laws, of Christ should over- top the laws of, the land ;-. the people are afraid of it, lest it will compel them to subjection to that law, and way, which their souls abhor: indeed, ifmen may be their own judges, then Christ hath no enemies in England at all ; we are his friends, and all good Christians. It is precisiaus and rebels that men hate, and not Christ: it is not the government of Christ that we are afraid of, but the' domineering, of aspiring, ambitious presbyters, (viz. that generation of godly, learned, humble ministers, who have done
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=