philosopher answered it fully and shortly, by rising up and walking. If thou wouldst pay them home, this is a kind of revenge not only allowed thee, but recommended to thee--be avenged on evil-speakings by well-doing; shame them from it. It was a king that said, “It was kingly to do well and be ill spoken of." Well may Christians acknowledge it to be true, when they consider that it was the lot of their king, Jesus Christ; and well may they be content, seeing be hath made them likewise kings, to be conformable to him in this too, this kingly way of suffering, to be unjustly evil-spoken of, and still to go on doing the more good; always aiming in so doing, as our Lord did, at the glory of our Heavenly Father.

III. This is the third thing; that they may glorify God in the day of their visitation. He says not, They shall praise or commend you, but, shall glorify God. It is this the apostle still holds before their eyes, as that upon which a Christian, doth willingly set his eye and keep it fixed, in all his ways. He doth not teach them to be sensible of their own esteem as it concerns themselves, but only as the glory of their God is interested in it. Were it not for this, a generous-minded Christian could set a very light rate upon all the thoughts and speeches of men concerning him, whether good or bad, and could easily drown all their mistakes in the conscience of the favor and approbation of his God; but considering that the religion he professes, and the God whom he worships in that religion, are wronged by these reproaches, and that the calumnies cast upon Christians, reflect upon their Lord-this is the thing that makes him sensible; he feels on that side only. The reproaches of them that reproached thee, are fallen upon me, says the psalmist; and this makes a Christian desirous to vindicate, even to men, his religion and his God, without regard to himself; because he may say, The reproaches of them that reproach only me, are fallen upon thee. This is his intent in the holiness and integrity of his life, that God may be glorified; this is the axis about which all this good conversation moves and turns continually. In all, let God be glorified, says the Christian, and that suffices; that is the sum of his desires.

In the day of visitation. The beholding of your good works may work this in them, that they may be gained to acknowledge and embrace that religion and that God, which for the present they reject; but that it may be thus, they must be visited with that same light and grace from above, which hath sanctified you. This, I conceive, is the sense of this word, though it may be and is taken divers other ways by interpreters. Possibly in this day of visitation is implied the clearer preaching of the gospel amongst those Gentiles, where the dispersed Jews dwelt; and that when they should compare the light of that doctrine with the light of their lives, and find the agreement betwixt them, that might be helpful to their effectual calling, and so they might glorify God. But to the end that they might do thus indeed, there must be along with the word of God and the good works of his people, a particular visiting of their souls by the Spirit of God. Your good conversation may be one good means of their conversion, but to make it an effectual means, this day of gracious visitation must dawn upon them; the day-spring from on high must visit them.

Ver. 13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king,

as supreme,

14. Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well.

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Ir is one of the falsest, and yet one of the commonest prejudices that the world hath always entertained against true religion, that it is an enemy to civil power and government. The adversaries of the Jews charged this fault upon their city, the seat of the true worship of God, Ezra iv, 15. The Jews charged it upon the preachers of the Christian religion, Acts xvii, 7, as they pretended the same quarrel against Christ himself. And generally the enemies of the Christians of primitive times, loaded them with the slander of rebellion and contempt of authority. Therefore our apostle, descending Div. No. VI.

U

to the particular rules of Christian life by which it may be blameless and silence calumny, begins with this, not only as a thing of prime importance in itself, but as particularly fit for those he wrote to, being at once both Jews and Christians, for the clearing of themselves and their religion; Submit yourselves, &c.

There are in the words divers particulars to be considered, all concurring to press this main duty of obedience to magistrates, not only as well consistent with true religion, but as indeed inseparable from it. Not to parcel out the words into many pieces, they may, I conceive, be all not unfitly comprised under these two; I. the extent of this duty; II. the ground of it.

I. The extent of the duty, namely, to all civil power, of what kind soever, for the time received and authorised; there being no need of questioning what was the rise and original of civil power, either in the nature of it, or in the persons of those that are in possession of it. Nor is it a question so to be moved as to suspend or at all abate our obedience, what form of government is most just and commodious. God hath indeed been more express in the officers and government of his own house, his Church; but civil societies he hath left at liberty in the choosing and modelling of civil government, though always, indeed over-ruling their choice by the secret hand of his wise and powerful providence. Yet he hath set them no particular rule touching the frame of it; only the common rule of equity and justice ought to be regarded, both in the contriving and managing of government. Nevertheless, though it be some way defective in both, those that are subject to it are, in all things lawful, to submit to its authority, whether supreme or subordinate as we have it here expressly, Whether to the king as súpreme, or unto governors sent by him. And whatsoever is their end who send them, and their carriage who are sent, that which the apostle adds, expresses the end for which they should be sent to govern, and at which they should aim in governing, as the true end of all government. And though they are not fully true to that end in their deportment, but possibly do many things unjustly, yet, as God hath ordained authority for this end, there is always so

much justice in the most depraved government, as renders it a public good, and therefore puts upon inferiors an obligation to obedience.

II. And this leads us to consider the ground of this duty. The main ground of submitting to human authority, is the interest the divine authority hath in it, God having both appointed civil government as a common good amongst men, and particularly commanded his people obedience to it as a particular good to them, and a thing very suitable with their profession: it is for the Lord's sake. Although civil authority, in regard of particular forms of government and the choice of particular persons to govern, is but a human ordinance or man's creature, as the word is, yet both the good of government and the duty of subjection to it are God's ordinance; and therefore for the Lord's sake submit yourselves.

God hath in general instituted civil government for the good of human society, and still there is good in it. Tyranny is better than anarchy.It is by his providence that men are advanced to places of authority; Psal. lxxv, 6, 7; Dan. iv, 25; John xix, 11. It is his command, that obedience be yielded to them. And the consideration of this ties a Christian to all loyalty and due obedience, which, being still for the Lord's sake, cannot hold in any thing that is against the Lord's own command; for kings and rulers, in such a case, leave their station. They that obey the unlawful commands of kings, do it in regard to their god, no question; but their god is their belly, or their ambition, or their avarice.

But not only ought the exercise of authority and submission to it, to be confined to things just and lawful in themselves; but the very purpose of the heart, both in command and obedience, should be in the Lord and for his sake. This is the only straight and the only safe rule both for rulers and for people to walk by. Would kings and the other powers of the world, consider the supre macy and greatness of that King of whom they hold all their crowns and dignities, they would be no less careful of their submission and homage to him, than they are desirous of their people's submission to themselves. But it is an evil too natural to men, to forget the true end and use of any good the Lord confers on them. And thus

kings and rulers too often consider not for what they are exalted; they think it is for themselves, to honor and please themselves, and not to honor God and benefit their people, to encourage and reward the good and to punish the wicked. They are set on high for the good of those that are below them, that they may be refreshed with their light and influence; as the lights of heaven are set there in the highest parts of the world, for the use and benefit of the very lowest. God set them in the firmament of heaven, but to what end? To give light upon the earth. And the mountains are raised above the rest of the earth, not to be places of prey and robbery, as sometimes they are turned to be, but to send forth streams from their springs into the valleys, and make them fertile. These mountains and hills, greater and lesser rulers, higher and lower, are to send forth to the people the streams of righteousness and peace; Psal. Ixxii, 31. But it is the corruption and misery of man's nature, that he doth not know, and can hardly be persuaded to learn, either how to command aright or how to obey; and no doubt many of those that can see and blame, the injustice of others in authority, would be more guilty that way themselves, if they had the same power.

It is the pride and self-love of our nature, that begets disobedience in inferiors, and violence and injustice in superiors; that depraved humour which ties to every kind of government a propensity to a particular disease; which makes royalty easily degenerate into tyranny, the government of nobles into faction, and popular government into confusion.

As civil authority and subjection to it are the institution of God, so the peaceable correspondence of these two, just government and due obedience, is the especial gift of God's own hand, and a prime blessing to states and kingdoms; and the troubling and interruption of their course is one of the highest public judgments by which the Lord punishes oftentimes the other sins both of rulers and people. And whatsoever be the cause and on which side soever be the justice of the cause, it cannot be looked upon but as a heavy plague and the fruit of many and great provocations, when kings and their peo ple, who should be a mutual blessing and honor to each