Ohs. 5. Prom that despise dominion. Observe that errors, espe- cially such as tend to sensuality, make men unruly and anti-magistra- tical. Dreamers that do ' defile themselves,^ do also ' despise dominion.' Now this Cometh to pass, partly from the permission of God's wise and just providence, who suffiereth such miscarriages to awaken the magis- trate to a care of truth, if not in zeal for God's glory, yet out of a sense of his own interest, and upon reason of state, the commonwealth being troubled by those who first began to trouble the church, ol Trepl ra 6ela ^evii^ovre^ 7roXkov<; avaireidovaiv dWorpLOvofietv ; new doctrines put men after an itch upon new laws, and false religions are usually turbulent ; partly because persons loose and erroneous would free themselves from all awe, both of God and man, as it is said of the unjust judge, that he 'feared neither God nor man,' Luke xviii. So with those men. Error taketh off the dread of God, and sedition the dread of the magistrate, that so they may more freely defile the flesh. God hath two deputies to keep a sinner under awe — conscience and the magistrate. Now false doctrine benumbeth conscience, and then that all authority may be laid aside, the rights of the magistrate are in- vaded, that as conscience may not stand in the way of their lust, so not the magistrate in the way of their sin. That there were anciently
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such libertines in the church appeareth by Gal. v. 13, and 1 Peter ii. 16, and 1 Cor. vii. 20-23. Vain man woukl fain be free and yoke- less, neither would he have his heart subject to God, nor his actions? to man's censure. Partly because all errors are rooted in obstinacy, and that will bewray itself, not only in divine and spiritual, but in civil things : see 2 Peter ii. 10, ' But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. Presumptuous are they and self-willed ; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.' Usually errors sear the conscience, and give the sinner a front and boldness, so that God is not only dishonoured, but civil societies disturbed, as Nazianzen observeth of the Arians. They began in blasphemous language against Christ, but end in tumultuous carriage against the peace of the commonwealth ; for, saith he, how shall we hope that they will spare men that would not spare God ? ^ Often it falleth out that they that ' please not God' are also ' contrary to all men,' 1 Thes. ii. 15. Tully, a heathen, ob- serveth the same, Fiefate adversus Deos sublatd , fides etiam et societas humani generis, &c. Partly because opposition to magistracy is a kind of indirect blow and aim at God, and that either as it is his ordin- ance, Kom. xiii,, or a kind of resemblance of his glory : * I have said you are gods,' Ps. Ixxxii. 6. So that it is a contempt of God in his image and picture. Look, as under the law God forbade men cruelty to the beasts, as not to destroy the dam from the young, to seethe the kid in the mother's milk, and that such kind of prohibitions might be as a fence and rail about the life of man, so respect to magistracy is a kind of fence about his own dignity and divine glory. Magistrates being representative gods, eUcov he j3aai\ev<; eanv efiyp-vyp'? Qeov ; therefore through their sides they strike at God himself. Partly be- cause the end of magistracy is to suppress evil, Rom. xiii. 5. An inde- finite speech is equivalent to a universal in a matter of necessary duty, and the universal particle is expressed elsewhere : Prov. xx. 8, ' A king that sitteth upon the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes' — cdl evil that falleth under his cognisance, whether it be of a civil or spiritual concernment. We must not limit and distinguish where the word doth not. I know there be some that do defalcate and cut off a great part of that duty which belongeth to the magis- trate, confining his care only to things of a civil concernment, but pre- posterously, truths according to godliness belonging also to his in- spection, upon which ground we are bound to pray for them, that * they may come to the knowledge of the truth,' 1 Tim. ii. 2, and under them ' we may lead a quiet life in all godliness and honesty,' where it is plainly implied that the converted magistrate is to look to the coun- tenance and maintenance of godliness as well as honesty. Well, then, sensual heretics being doubly obnoxious, as sensual, as venting errors, no wonder that they rise up in defiance of God's ordinance.
Use 1. It showeth us the evil of inordinate lustings. We may learn hence whence they proceed and whither they tend ; they pro- ceed from the pride and obstinacy of error ; men dream, and are then licentious ; and it tendeth to the casting off of all duty to God and man. Nip this disposition in the bud ; it is in all our natures : * Man is born like the wild ass's colt,' Job xi. 12 ; not only for rudeness of