Casuistical morning-exercises the fourth volume /

Rom. 13.3. For Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.

Rom. 13.3. For Rulers are not a terrour to good works, but to the evil.

Religion, if right, doth excel all other things in the world upon the account of its universal usefulness, and the powerful influences it hath upon them that are true to it, for the promoting of their present, future, and everlasting happiness. Of all other the Christian Religion, which we own and profess, is the best and most worthy of our engaging in and immovable cleaving to, being pure and undefiled before God and the Father, as the Apostle James speaks, Chap. 1.27. v. Unspeakably profitable it is and advantageous to the Kingdoms that receive it, and to the Persons who are sincere in it, and studious of conforming themselves to its holy Precepts and Rules. The sacred Scriptures drawn up and left by men divinely inspired and infallibly assisted, from which alone we fetch it, (not from Fathers or Councils, whatever esteem and Veneration we have for them,) do commend themselves unto the judgments and consciences of men, who have not shaken hands with reason, and fetch so great a compass as to contain and reveal, either in particular or general directions, all that which is necessary for us to believe or do in order to our full satisfaction and endless felicity in the next world, and our present safety, peace and comfort in this foolish and troublesome one. David tells us, Psal. 119.96. The Commandment is exceeding broad. It is long for its duration, being aeternae veritatis, of everlasting truth, not any thing shall be diminished or cut off from it, not any thing shall be changed or altered in it, and it is broad for its usefulness, extending to and spreading it self over all the occasions of men, for it hath comforts Sovereign and proper in all distresses though never so pinching, together with ⟨p. 337⟩