it hath them in so strait a custody, they hate the means of their recovery. They have many masters, Quot habet dominos qui unum habere non vult? "For we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures" (Titus iii. 3). And, "Whence come wars and fightings amongst you? come they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members?" (James iv. 1.) One lust draweth one way, another another way; covetousness, voluptuousness, ambition, uncleanness, as when two seas meet. We have little reason to envy them for their free life, pity them rather. How do their brutish affections hurry them? What pains, aches in the body, wounds in the conscience, how many secret gripes and scourges? No such subjection, no slave so subject to the will of his lord, as a man to his lusts and sinful desires, will speak, think nothing but what sin commands. It is a besotting slavery; wicked men remain in this bondage with a kind of pleasure. Galley-slaves would fain be free, wish for liberty; Israel was in bondage in Egypt, but they groaned under it: "The cry of the children of Israel is come up to me." Here men loath to come out of their slavery, and are enemies to those that would help them out. Their work is hard and oppressive, loss of name, health, estate; they tire their spirits, rack their brains, and after all their drudging are cast into hell.

USE II.-Do we walk at liberty?

1. There was a time when we served sin; but, being converted, we change masters: "Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" (Rom. vi. 18). If there be such a change it will discover itself. (1.) You will do as little service for sin, as formerly for righteousness: "When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness" (Rom. vi. 20); righteousness had no share in your time, thoughts, cares; you made no conscience of doing good, took no care of it; so now you do as little for sin. (2.) Positively do as much for grace, as formerly for sin: "As you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness" (verse 19); as watchful, as earnest, as industrious to perfect holiness, as formerly to commit sin. It is but equal. He that hath been servant unto a hard and cruel master, is thereby fitted to be diligent and faithful in the service of a loving, gentle, and bountiful master. You can judge what a tyrant sin was; shall not grace have as much power over you now, and will you not do as much for God as for your lusts?

66

2. What do you complain of as the task and yoke, the strictness of the law, or the relics of corruption? The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. viii. 7), compared with, "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous" (1 John v. 3). What is a bondage, sin or duty? Is the commandment grievous, or indwelling sin? The Apostle was complaining; but of what? the purity of the law? No; but the power of in-dwelling corruption, the body of death: "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" (Rom. vii. 24.) Which do your hearts rise against?

3. What freedom? "That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life" (Luke i. 74, 75). If you are enslaved to any one lust, you cannot walk at large. Are your gyves and

"Cast me not away

fetters knocked off? Have you that free spirit? from thy presence, take not thy Holy Spirit from me; restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me by thy free Spirit" (Psa.li. 11, 12).

SERMON LII.

VERSE 48.-I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.

The man of God had prayed (verse 43) that God would not take "the word of truth utterly out of his mouth;" that is, deny him the liberty, or the grace, the opportunity, or the heart, to make an open profession of his faith and respect to God and his ways. This suit he backeth with sundry

arguments.

1. From his hope: "For I have hoped in thy judgments" (verse 43). He had placed all his confidence in them, and therefore would openly profess what rule he lived by, and what expectations he had from God.

2. His resolution to persist in this course, whatever befell him: "So shall I keep thy law continually, for ever and ever" (verse 44); it would engage him to constancy to the end of his life.

66

3. From the alacrity and readiness of his obedience, as well as the constancy: And I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts" (verse 45); then we have true liberty.

4. That no worldly splendour or terror should take him off from making this confession, if God would give him liberty and opportunity. Two things hinder a free confession of God's truth, carnal fear, and carnal shame; both are obviated by the resolution of the man of God; he would neither be afraid nor ashamed to recommend the ways of God to the greatest princes of the world.

(1.) The terror of kings, or men in power, may be supposed to be a hinderance to the free confession of God's truth; therefore he saith, "I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings."

(2.) Carnal shame may breed a loathness to own God's despised ways; therefore he addeth, "I will not be ashamed." David would neither be afraid nor ashamed, if called thereto, to make this open confession, to own God and his truth.

First, His resolution against fear deserveth a little opening: "I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings." The words may be looked upon as a direction for them who are called to speak before kings. Men may be supposed to be called,

1. Either by the duty of their office, to speak to them in a way of instruction; or,

2. As convented before them in a judiciary way, to give an account of their faith.

1st, In the first sense, those who are called to instruct kings, ought with the greatest confidence to recommend the ways of God to them, as that which will enhance their crowns and dignity, and make it more glorious and comfortable to them and their subjects, than anything else. And so David's resolution showeth what faithfulness becometh them who live in the courts of princes. It concerneth princes to be instructed: "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth" (Psalm ii. 10). Few speak plainly and sincerely to them, as Nathan to David,

"Thou art the man" (2 Sam. xii. 7), and Gad to David: "Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in the land?" (2 Sam. xxiv. 13;) John Baptist to Herod, "It is not lawful for thee to have her" (Matt. xiv. 4); Jehu to Jehosaphat, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord" (2 Chron. xvii. 2). Many times they are impatient of truth, as Ahab could not endure Micaiah: "And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil," &c. (1 Kings xxii. 8).-Josephus, lib. viii., cap. 10; Theodoret, lib. iv. c. 30. 2ndly, If convented before them in a judiciary way, as the three children were before Nebuchadnezzar: "Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought those men before the king" (Dan iii. 13); and, "They answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up" (verses 16-18). "Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them" (Matt. x. 18). There are some kings that have not submitted their crowns and sceptres to the King of kings: so, Pagans and wicked princes, who can neither endure the truth, nor those which profess it. 'O Kaivikoi μáptvpeg τῶν δυσσεβῶν κατεφρόνησεν Βασιλέων. The children of God ought not to be daunted by any power and fear of princes; their power may be a terror to us, and in other cases ought to be reverenced by us; but it should not be a snare to us, to make us desert our duty to God; they bear his image, and in all lawful cases we acknowledge God's authority in them; they are those by whom God will govern us; but if anything be decreed against God, we only urge our obedience to the Lord paramount: "Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than God judge ye" (Acts xxi. 19); "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts v. 29).

Secondly, The latter branch needeth little explaining.

What shall we observe?

1. If I should take the first reference, and urge the duty of kings and princes, that would be unseasonable for this auditory. It is a preposterous solecism, to preach to the people the duty of kings, and then to kings the duty of their people; as foolish a course, as to make fires in summer, and adorn the chimney with herbs and flowers in winter.

2. If I should speak of the second reference, the clemency of the government we live under maketh it unreasonable also: for our king (whom God preserve) hath often avowed his resolutions against persecution for conscience' sake. Therefore, waving all other things, I shall only insist upon two points, which are necessary, partly to show the excellency of our religion which we profess, partly to guide our practice.

I. That nothing is so necessary for kings, princes, and magistrates to know, as God's testimonies.

II. That God's testimonies are so excellent, that we should not be afraid

or ashamed to own them before any sort of men in the world. Of the first briefly.

DOCTRINE I.-That nothing is so necessary for the potentates of the world to know, as God's testimonies. The king of Israel was to write a copy of the law of God in a book, and to have it ever before him, that he might read therein, and learn to fear the Lord his God (Deut. xvii. 18, 19). And therefore Josiah, one of the good kings which God gave unto his people, searched for the book of the law. The reasons concern them, if con

sidered both as men, and as potentates.

1. As men.

(1.) They are upon the same level with others, and are concerned to understand the way of pleasing, glorifying, and enjoying God, as much as their meanest subjects; for it is said, "He accepteth not the person of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor; for they are all the work of his hands" (Job xxxiv. 19). God dealeth with them impartially, respecting the greatest no more than the meanest, He hath an equal interest in all, and therefore doth command and dispose of all; for all are his creatures, not exempted from being subject to his dominion as the potter is not more obliged to vessels of honour, than of dishonour. As his law bindeth all, so all that continue in impenitency, and the neglect of his grace, are obnoxious to the curse of the law. It is general to all transgressors; "Cursed is every one," &c. And if God should lay their sins home to their consciences, and speak to them in his wrath, they can stand before him no more than the meanest: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev. vi. 15, 16).

(2.) The higher their station, the greater is their obligation. No sort of men more obliged to God, than those that are advanced by him to rule over his people; therefore their ingratitude would be greater, if they should sin against God: "I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hands of Saul; and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given thee such and such things: Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight?" (2 Sam. xii, 7-9.) Their sins do more hurt, because of their example and authority (Job xxxiv. 20). 2. As rulers and potentates they are concerned to be acquainted with God's testimonies.

(1.) That they may understand their place and duty. They are first God's subjects, then his officers. They have their power from God: "For he is the minister of God to thee for good" (Rom. xiii. 4). They hold their power in dependence on him; both natural, their strength and force; "Thou couldest have no power, unless it were given thee from above" (John xix. 11). Legal: their authority or governing power, they hold it in dependence upon the absolute and heavenly sovereign, who is the Lord of lords, and King of kings: "By me kings reign, and princes decree justice; by me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth" (Prov. viii. 15, 16), And as they hold it in dependence on him, they must use it in subordination to him: God who is the beginning, must also be

the end of their government.

They are not officers of men, but ministers of God, from whom they have their authority; and therefore must rule for God, and seek his glory.

(2.) That they may be carried through their cares, and fears, and snares, and may know what reward to expect from the absolute sovereign, who is the great patron of human societies. It is trust and dependence upon God that maketh good magistrates: "He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him (2 Kings xviii. 5). Oh, it is a blessed thing when they can go to God for direction, and depend upon God for success. Great are the cares and fears which belong to a governor; and who can ease him of this burthen but the Lord, who hath showed in his word how far he is to be trusted? It is not carnal policy which helpeth them out in their work, but trust in God in their high calling. Whosoever will improve his power for God, will meet with many discouragements: now that which supports his heart in his work, is this holy trust: "The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe" (Prov. xxix. 25). Every public calling hath its snares and temptations, from the fears of men. A minister, if he doth not trust God to bear him out in his work, he will do nothing with that courage which becometh a minister but comply with the lusts of men, grow lukewarm, and prostitute the ordinances for handsful of barley, and pieces of bread, and family conveniences. The magistracy is a higher calling, which is more obnoxious to temptations, from the different humours of men who are to be governed: nothing will carry a man through it, but this holy courage and dependence on God. The fear of man brought a snare to Jeroboam, that he perverted the worship of God: "And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan" (1 Kings xii. 30). So Jehu; so others, for their cares. But he that trusts in God in his discharge of this public office, though many difficulties interpose, finds the blessed experience of the Psalmist verified: "In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul."

3. As to success and acceptance. Obedience to God makes them a double blessing to the people; as governors, as holy. As they have the natural image of God in dominion and authority: "Forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God" (1 Cor. xi. 7); which must be reverenced and respected, not resisted; so the spiritual image of God in holiness: the people doubly see God in their rulers. And besides, it bringeth down God's blessings, while they command and the people obey in the Lord: "And the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth" (2 Kings xviii. 7). Good magistrates are usually more prosperous than good men in a private condition, because they are given as a public blessing.

USE I-Is to inform us, that religion hath a great influence on the welfare of human societies; for it equally respects governors and governed, carving out their respective duties to them, causing the one to rule well, and the other to obey for conscience' sake. The testimonies of the Lord prescribe the duty of rulers: "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God" (2 Sam. xxiii. 3). There is a word belonging to either table; justice to the second, fear of God to the first. Now, all this duty is best learned out of God's testimonies. For the governed, it interposeth express rules for their obedience: "Let every soul be subject