VII. Be sure that you maintain due honour and subjection to your Governors: Fear the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change, Prov. 24.21. and that in regard of the Oath of God, Eccl. 8.2. Curse not the King, no not in thy thought, and curse not the Rich in thy Bed-chamber; for a Bird of the Air shall carry the voice, and that which hath Wings shall tell the matter, Eccl. 10.20. Obey God with your first and absolute obedience, and no man against him, but obey the just commands of Magistrates, and that out of Obedience to God; and suffer patiently when you cannot obey. And if God should ever cast you under oppressing and persecuting Governors, in your patience possess your Souls; trust God and keep your innocency, and abhor all thoughts of Rebellion or Revenge: He that believeth will not make haste: Do nothing but what God will own, and then commit your selves and your way to him: Repress wrath, and hate unpeaceable Counsels: Our way and our time must be only Gods way and time. Self-saving men are usually the destroyers of themselves and others: Peter that drew his Sword for Christ, denied him the same Night with Oaths and Curses. Fools trust themselves, and Wise Men trust God: Fools tear the Tree by beating down the Fruit that's unripe and harsh; and Wise men stay till it is ripe and sweet, and will drop into their hands: Fools rip up the Mother for an untimely Birth; but Wise Men stay till Maturity give it them. Fools take red hot Iron to be Gold, till it burn their Fingers to the Bone: They rush into Seditions and Blood, as if it were a matter of jest; but Wise Men sow the fruit of righteousness in peace, and as much as in them lieth live peaceably with all men. All men are mortal, both oppressors and oppressed: Stay a little and mortality will change the Scene; Gods time is best. Martyrdom seldom killeth the hundredth part so ⟨p. 41⟩many as Wars do. And he is no true believer, that taketh Martyrdom to be his loss: And Christ is more interested in his Gospel, Church and Honour than we. Queen Mary's cruelties, and the Bishops bonfires, made Religion universally received the more easily when her short Reign was ended. We may learn wit of the Fool, that seeing great Guns, and Muskets, asked what they were to do; and the answerer said, to kill men, saith he, Do not men die here without killing?
VII. Be sure that you maintain due honour and subjection to your Governours: Fear the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change, Prov. 24.21. and that in regard of the Oath of God, Eccl. 8.2. Curse not the King, no not in thy thought, and curse not the Rich in thy Bed-chamber; for a Bird of the Air shall carry the voice, and that which hath Wings shall tell the matter, Eccl. 10.20. Obey God with your first and absolute obedience, and no man against him, but obey the just commands of Magistrates, and that out of Obedience to God; and suffer patiently when you cannot obey. And if God should ever cast you under oppressing and persecuting Governours, in your patience possess your Souls; trust God and keep your innocency, and abhor all thoughts of Rebellion or Revenge: He that believeth will not make haste: Do nothing but what God will own, and then commit your selves and your way to him: Repress wrath, and hate unpeaceable Counsels: Our way and our time must be only Gods way and time. Self-saving men are usually the destroyers of themselves and others: Peter that drew his Sword for Christ, denied him the same Night with Oaths and Curses. Fools trust themselves, and Wise Men trust God: Fools tear the Tree by beating down the Fruit that's unripe and harsh; and Wise men stay till it is ripe and sweet, and will drop into their hands: Fools rip up the Mother for an untimely Birth; but Wise Men stay till Maturity give it them. Fools take red hot Iron to be Gold, till it burn their Fingers to the Bone: They rush into Seditions and Blood, as if it were a matter of jest; but Wise Men sow the fruit of righteousness in peace, and as much as in them lieth live peaceably with all men. All men are mortal, both oppressours and oppressed: Stay a little and mortality will change the Scene; Gods time is best. Martyrdom seldome killeth the hundredth part so ⟨p. 41⟩many as Wars do. And he is no true believer, that taketh Martyrdom to be his loss: And Christ is more interessed in his Gospel, Church and Honour than we. Queen Maries cruelties, and the Bishops bonefires, made Religion universally received the more easily when her short Reign was ended. We may learn wit of the Fool, that seeing great Guns, and Musquets, ask'd what they were to do; and the answerer said, to kill men, saith he, Do not men die here without killing?
