people are their enemies, and are against their interest and honour, and that they are a turbulent, seditious sort of people, unfit to be governed (because they will not be false to God, nor take part with the devil, nor be friends to sin). When once Nebuchadnezzar hath set up his golden image, he thinks he is obliged in honour to persecute them that will not bow down, as refractory persons that obey not the king. When Jeroboam is once engaged to set up his calves, he is presently engaged against those that are against them; and that is against God, and all his servants. Therefore as rulers love their souls, let them take heed what cause and interest they espouse. _Direct._ VI. To love your neighbours as yourselves, and do as you would be done by, is the infallible means to avoid the guilt of persecution. "For charity suffereth long, and is kind, it envieth not, it is not easily provoked, it thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; it beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things," 1 Cor. xiii. 4-7. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law," Rom. xiii. 10. And if it fulfil the law, it wrongeth no man. When did you see a man persecute himself? imprison, banish, defame, slander, revile, or put to death himself (if he were well in his wits)? Never fear persecution from a man that "loveth his neighbour as himself, and doth as he would be done by," and is not selfish and uncharitable. _Direct._ VII. Pride also must be subdued, if you would not be persecutors. For a proud man cannot endure to have his word disobeyed, though it contradict the word of God: nor can he endure to be reproved by the preachers of the gospel; but will do as Herod with John the Baptist, or as Asa, or Amaziah, by the prophets! Till the soul be humble, it will not bear the sharp remedies which our Saviour hath prescribed, but will persecute him that would administer them. _Direct._ VIII. Passion must be subdued, and the mind kept calm, if you would avoid the guilt of persecution. Asa was in a rage when he imprisoned the prophet (a fit work for a raging man). And Nebuchadnezzar was in a rage and fury when he commanded the punishment of the three witnesses, Dan. iii. 13. "The wrath of man worketh not the will of God," Jam. i. 20. The nature of wrathfulness tendeth to hurting those you are angry with. And wrath is impatient, and unjust, and will not hear what men can say, but rashly passeth unrighteous sentence. And it blindeth reason, so that it cannot see the truth.