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A67326
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A second Christian warning-piece wherein is shewed the first and chief cause of England's present misery, proved to be the chief magistrate's neglect, in not fully doing that work God hath commanded, that must yet be done, because God hath said it, before this nation can expect deliverance. Humbly presented to the Parliament.
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Wall, Thomas.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing W487; ESTC R218348
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8,614
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8
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A Second CHRISTIAN WARNING-PIECE wherein is shewed the first and chief Cause of England's present Misery proved to be the Chief Magistrate's Neglect in not fully doing that Work God hath commanded that must be yet done because God hath said it before this Nation can expect Deliverance Humbly presented to the PARLIAMENT Right Honourable THe most wise God who useth the Ministry of his glorious Angels in the Government of the World hath also ordained some Men to be Governours in the Nations in which weighty Work that wise King Solomon had some of the prudentest Men in his Kingdom to give counsel in times of greatest danger for the Preservation and Peace of his People 2. Your Honours by the Providence of a gracious God are the King's Majesty's most grave Counsellors in Parliament gathered together at such a time when this if not three Protestant Nations are in most apparent danger of Desolation not only by the many Judgments of Plagues and Fires already come but many more threatned by reason whereof the Nation as it is a Body Politique its whole Head is sick and Heart faint so that from head to foot there is nothing but Wounds and Bruises and putrified Sores full of Corruption which in the eye of Reason cannot be cured only by cutting off some dead fleshly Traitors and so think thereby to heal the Nation 's Wound when as the chief Cause hath not yet been look'd into not known and so cannot be removed therefore it still breaketh out afresh more dangerous than at former times as hath been proved by many years wofull experience Therefore it is the opinion of the ablest Physicians when a Body is desperately diseased the Cause must be enquired into and when known the Means ordained of God used for removing it before there can be a Cure either in the Body of a Man or a Nation 3. The truth of this your Honours may see in Holy Writ that the Lord in the days of David King of Israel sent a sore Judgment on that Land of three years Famine and so long it continued until the Cause was inquired into by the King and his Council and when it was known to be for the sin of King Saul's bloody house for destroying the Gibeonites his Subjects whom by Oath according to the Covenant made with them by Joshua and all Israel before the Lord he ought to have defended and preserved But so soon as King David gave order that Judgment should be executed God was immediately entreated for the Land O that this may be well minded by your Honours 4. Because the Lord sendeth not his sore Judgments either of Famine Sword or Pestilence on a Nation especially on his own People without a just Cause as is proved by another President When God commanded King Saul utterly to destroy Amaleck because he murdered the Lord's People when weary and faint in the Wilderness as they journied to the promised Land and for the neglâ—ct hereof God suffered an Amalekite to kill King Saul and also by reason the Lord's Work was done so negligently the whole People of the Jews in King Ahasuerus his Country were near to be destroyed in a day by the Plottings and Contrivances of that wicked Haman the seed of Agag the King of Amaleck had not the Lord marvelously prevented it And whether these things in a figure are not the cause of the present Misery and Danger this Nation is in let your Honours be Judges 5. Because the Lord having commanded the Kings of the Earth especiâ—lly Protestant Kings to hate the Whore to wit of Rome utterly to make her desolate according to Rev. 17. because she as a second and spiritual Amaleck murdered the Lord's People making her self drunk with the Blood of Saints as they are travelling in the Wilderness of this World towards their everlasting Rest so that because a part of this Work was done by King Henry the Eighth K. Edward the Sixth and Q. Elizabeth of happy memory when they abolished out of this Nation the Lord Abbots Cardinals Jesuits with some other of her Abominations and is not fully finished but neglected by the King and his Parliament God had almost suffered the Kings Majesty whom God preserve to be murdered by four Ruffians the seed of the spiritual Whore because all the Romish Inventions either in Ministry or other of her yet remaining Abominations imposed by Law of oversight on the Consciences of the King's Subjects in Protestant Churches is not abolished and for this same Neglect whether the whole Nation is not in as much danger to be destroyed as the Jews were in Mordiea's days by the Plottings and Contrivances of the wicked Hamans of that Popish blood-thirsty Generation your Honours can best judge Lastly Because the King's Majesty together with your Honours will not bear with such an affront from any foreign Princes or States to impose upon you some of their Laws and Officers to be joyned with yours in any of the Offices Customs or Orders in Government of the Nation No more will the Lord Jesus have imposed on him in the spiritual affairs of his Church any of the Offices or Traditions of the Popes Prelats or any other not warranted by the Word of God without incurring his high displeasure And for Confirmation hereof I shall make bold to lay before your Honours these four Reasons 1. As light and darkness can have no communion together no more saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. can Christ and Belial that is Christ in his Ordinances and the Pope or his Prelats in their Traditions and Inventions joyn'd in Worship together but as the Lord destroyed them that set the Ark of God and Dagon together and consumed his own People in his Anger that saith the Lord Ezek. 43. 8. set my Threshold and theirs Me and Them mine Ordinances and their Abominations together in Worship How can Protestants for these things think to fare any better than those Idolaters afore-mentioned let the wise in heart judge 2. If God made the Canaanites as thorns in the eyes and sides of the Children of Israel because they defiled themselves with their Abominations and made a breach in the Covenant made between the Lord and them who commanded them not to meddle with their Inventions in Worship nor make Marriages with them May it not be even so with these Nations because Protestants have defiled themselves with many Popish Inventions in Worship and also because many do make Marriages with the Papists hath not God since the Reformation began even for these things made the Papists as thorns in the eyes and sides of this Protestant Nation I leave to your Honours to judge 3. If the Lord did vex the Children of Israel with all Adversity so that there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in because they worshipped God with another Ministry and Inventions of King Jeroboam's making and because they kept the Statutes of Omri and the manner of the house of
Ahab walking in their Counsels in Worship contrary to the Law of God given by the hand of Moses for which the Lord threatned to make them desolate how shall such Protestants believe any other that worship God by a Ministry of Man's making with many Popish Inventions also but for it God will still vex this Land with all Adversity as by woful experience is seen this day and if we be not warned in the end the Lord may justly make this Land desolate as when no means would cause Israel to return to the Lord 's true Worship the Land did spue them out 4. Because the Lord's People of old by Covenant made between him and them were his espoused Wife and he their Husband and the fellowship and communion they spiritually had together was as in a Bed of Love so long as she as an obedient Wife yielded obedience in all things that appertained to his Worship and to no others Commands and Directions either in Ministry Ordinances Time or Order but when Judah did defile her self with the Babylonish Inventions in Worship the Babylonians were said to come in to her into the Bed of Love Ezek. 23. 17. for which God threatned them as a Woman that brake Wedlock to give them into the hands of the Babylonians her Lovers Even so under the Gospel the Lord's People by the Covenant of the Gospel are espoused or married to one Husband Christ Jesus who is the Head of the Body his Church and so long as she obeys the Commands of her Lord the only Arch-Bishop and Pastor of his Flock she is said in the performance of his holy Ordinances to have fellowship together with him as in a Bed of Love But when those Protestants that so account of themselves that they are the Lord's People by Covenant and Christ their Head and Husband do yeeld obedience to the Commands of Popes Prelats or any other mortal men in the Worship of God she as an Harlot is said with Antichrist to take their fill of Love together as in a Bed Prov. 7. 18. Now if no honest Man will endure that his Wife should yield obedience in Marriage-duties to another Man because Jealousie is as the Rage of a Man that he will not spare in the day of his Anger how then shall the Lord because Marriage is honourable and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge so that the Lord will not spare in the day of his Anger O that these things might be well minded by all good Protestants Now Right Honourable and Noble Patriots seeing for the Evils aforesaid first for the King's Majesty together with the Parliament's neglect to obey the Commands of God in making the Whore to wit of Rome desolate in abolishing all and every thing that hath but the smell scent or taste of Popery either in Place of Trust in the Nation or in Place and Office with their Traditions in Worship set up by former Kings by Law of oversight in Protestant Churches for which the Lord is angry not only with the King and your Honours but also with the whole Nation And for the doing of this glorious Work that there be no erring on the right hand nor on the left I humbly beg leave to lay before your Honours these three Observations 1. The wise God hath given the King's Majesty together with his Honourable Council most perfect Directions in this his Work of Reformation about the Worship of God by example of the Godly Kings of Judah who had no power by their Civil or Kingly Authority to add to or diminish from the Worship of God but to remember the Law of Moses as a most perfect Direction for all things in Worship so that when any King by the counsel of false Prophets and Teachers together or in his own heart did devise or set up in Worship to God or to the worship of Idols any thing either by way of a false Ministry or Altars or Sacrifice or any other thing aforesaid contrary to God's Law the Godly Kings of Judah Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah and Josiah by the Command of God did demolish it and destroy it out of their Dominions and did call the Lord's People by all loving means to the Service and Worship of God according as it was found written in the Law of Moses And thus they were as God had promised Kings should be Nursing Fathers not such Nurses to give the Lord's Children Milk the sincere doctrine of his Word as is the Ministers work the Breasts of his Church for Consolation but as Nurses that look after with care to defend and preserve the Church from all enemies at home or abroad that Dragon-like are ready to devour her Children which the Church in her painful Ministry and Preaching travelleth in pain till Christ be formed in them begotten by the seed of the immortal Word that so as the Psalmist Prophet and others say this and that Man was born in her Psal 87. Isa 66. Rev. 12. Gal. 4. And this is still the duty of Christian Kings under the Gospel not to add or diminish but to preserve the Church while she followeth her Head and Husband CHRIST in all his Directions in Worship and to demolish all Images and false Inventions and Traditions set up by other Kings in Worship to God that so the Romish Whore may be made desolate and the Anger of the Lord turned away from this Nation as it was when the good Kings of Judah did the same work from that Nation For what a shame is it to see in the Cathedrals in England how the Clergy bow and cringe themselves to a wooden Altar Papist-like 2. There is no King nor other mortal Man hath power over the Conscience of any of his Subjects in spiritual things as saith the Apostle we have no dominion over your Faith Therefore when Joshua conquered part of Canaan and the Nations became tributary to Israel as their Subjects and Servants they forced them not to be of their Religion because they and all Kings should know that it is a work belonging to God only to perswade Japhet or the Gentiles to dwell in the Tents of Shem so that to force any man after that persecuting manner as do the Pope and his Prelats to worship before they have faith or be born again is to force blind men to the Kingdom they see not and to make a Church of Hypocrites bringing men into a snare even to their Condemnation to devour that which is holy and after that saith Solomon they must with sorrow enough make enquiry what they have done Therefore the work of Kings is only to take off all the yoke of Popish Bondage so that their Subjects may be free seeing saith the Prophet every Nation will walk in the name of his God that so Protestants as true Christians may walk in the Name of the Lord their God whose Name is his Law the Gospel that so as Christians they may do their duty to God and