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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	law_n	subject_n	time_n	2,041	5	3.3961	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01735	A short reply vnto the last printed books of Henry Barrow and Iohn Greenwood, the chiefe ringleaders of our Donatists in England VVherein is layd open their grosse ignorance, and foule errors: vpon which their whole building is founded. By George Gyfford, minister of Gods holy worde, in Maldon.	Gifford, George, d. 1620.	1591 (1591)	STC 11868; ESTC S118836	80,934	106

this booke agaynst me Master Greenwood sayth that Master Caluin would but diuide the soule and the bodie in ciuill causes but I would goe a note further Thus farre be your wordes How shall Master Caluine doo that is thus set vpon by such great diuines which haue so pursued him that he hath lost himselfe and they haue snared him in his owne wordes Alas poore soules I cannot but lament with pitie to see your blindenes for I knowe this is of meere ignorance that ye cannot vnderstand Master Caluine in a doctrine which yet is cleare by the Scriptures Ye say he inuented this politique distinction of the ciuill court and the court of conscience least he should keepe Princes back from the Gospell Then by your owne words it doth follow that if it be prooued that Princes haue power in such matters to make lawes ye do fouly abridge their sacred power by denying it And for that Master Greenwood saith I go a note further then M. Caluine it is his ignorance for let him reade well the fourth booke of his institutions and he shall finde hee holdeth this distinction not onely in ciuill causes but in ecclesiasticall canons And now to the matter I would I were able though in neuer so rude speech to lay it so open as that a childe might vnderstand I will doe the best I can and I will come vnto it by degrees Ye cannot see how there should be such a distinction of an externall action to respect men and not to binde the conscience before God Mark well and see There bee sundry sortes of cloath of sundry colours and there be sundry fashions of garments I am a minister of the Gospell I haue by mee a yelow gowne a gréene hat white hose a tawny coate I doo for some néede secretly where no man seeth me vse them my conscience is not polluted by them I sinne not But now I come with these garments into the publique assemblie I sinne grieuously What is the reason of this It is because the garments themselues the colours or fashions which were before God to the conscieuce of man indifferent are now altered and become not indifferent to the conscience before God In no wise For betwéene God and the conscience they remayne as they did But now the whole matter lyeth in this it is vncomely and offensiue before men Who cannot here see the distinction betweene the ciuill courte that is for the action before men and the court of conscience before God Will ye say because it is euill for a man to doo thus before men therefore it is euill to his conscience before God euen for the very dooing not respecting men Might I not alleadge a thousand things of this nature which I may doo and no sinne betwéene God and my conscience but the sinne commeth by the sight and view of men Nowe when the sight and view of men doth restraine me from dooing them openly the fréedome of my conscience in them is not taken away before God or my conscience is not bound by them before God but I am restrayned in the externall vse of them before men because they be not expedient they be lawfull but not comely We see how Saint Paul speaketh about this matter 1 Cor. 10 ver 23. 24. All things are lawfull for me but all things are not expedient all things are lawfull but all things doo not edifie This is meant onely of things indifferent for all which are in their owne nature euil be vnlawfull and all things simply good are expedient and doo edifie Then we sée by this there are things which are lawful vnto our conscience before God and in which our concsience retayneth still her fréedome before God euen when we are restrayned the outward vse before men This we may sée further in the same Chapter eate what is set before ye asking no question for conscience But if any say this was offered to Idoles eate not of it for conscience Conscience I say not thine but of that other When he sayth not thine doth hee not shew his conscieuce remayneth free before God euen when he is restrayned before men And when he sayth All things are lawfull but I will not be brought vnder the power of any thing 1. Cor. 6. vers 12. doth he not shew it is some bondage if a man haue not freedome to refrayne the vse of a thing lawfull This is one steppe towards our matter But what is this for making lawes either politique or ecclesiasticall to inioyne men to doo that which God hath left free or to restrayn the vse of the creatures which hee hath graunted libertie to vse This is your mayne reason Master Barrow I haue already shewed that he which shall enioyne or restrayne to lay it vpon the conscience before God committeth high sacriledge But the vse of things may be enioyned or restrayned in respect of men as shall bee profitable or vnprofitable comely or vncomely c. A good part of a kingdome doth consist of Cappers The people are giuen all to weare Hats and by this meanes those subiects doo fall into pouertie The Prince maketh a law that all his subiects shall at certaine times not weare Hats but Capps If the subiect shall now stand vp say to weare an Hat or a Cappe is frée before God and séeing God hath giuen mee fréedome of conscience to vse or not to vse no mortall creature hath power to binde my conscience Will not the Prince make answere thou foolish man I doo not binde thy conscience in the thing before God but I enioyne it as a thing expedient and profitable to my common wealth It is free for a man to eate any kinde of meate The Prince doth see it profitable that some kindes of meate should be spared and therfore doth make a law that at some times men shall abstayne from the same The Subiects shall make aunswere GOD hath giuen vs fréedome of conscience to eate no power can binde our conscience from it GOD hath made it lawfull and frée Will not the Prince make answere and say ye Annabaptists doo ye not knowe that there bee many things lawfull and frée to the conscience before God which yet are not expedient among men I doo not restrayne ye to take away the freedome of your conscience in it before God but it is profitable to my kingdome It is free for a man that hath grounds to sowe or to graze but if men be giuen wholly to grazing and corne waxe deare and the Prince maketh a law that whosoeuer occupieth such a quantitie of ground shall plow thus many acres doth he now binde the conscience or onely seeke the publike profite There he thousands of such like matters Master Barrow and therefore consider how foully ye doo abridge the power of Princes to the ouerthrowe of Common wealths in denying them authoritie to make permanent lawes in things indifferent But ye make one obiection more which is of some shewe and that

thee that I may not cut thee off vers 9. It were too long to repeate all the Scriptures where the Lord pronounceth that he chose them for his owne names sake that they dealt vnfaithfully and yet he kept them as his people and forgaue their iniquities euen for himselfe You will say that Gods couenant was to the elect among them but the rest were not vnder the couenant nor the visible Church This is your grieuous blindnes that you cannot see that many stand outwardly vnder the couenant and are the visible Church which yet receiue no benefite thereby being wicked euen voyd of faith And for this cause although the great swarme of the Israelites were wicked reprobates and as the Prophet sayth but a remnant saued yet for their outward profession the whole Nation was euer sayd to stand vnder the couenant Otherwise how could it be sayd That Christ came among his owne and his owne receiued him not Ioh. 1. How could these wicked infidels be called his owne in any other respect but that they stood outwardly vnder the couenant and were the visible Church And therefore when the bodie of that people should stand no longer vnder the couenant to be the visible Church but as our Sauiour sayth the kingdome of God should be taken from them Math. 21. The Lord to shew that he had still kept his couenant with them euen vntill that time in which they now breake off themselues and that hee had giuen their mother no bill of diuorse asketh where the bill of diuorse of their mother is by which he had put her away Esay 50. vers 1. The tenne Tribes which fell from the house of Dauid and worshipped Idols were yet in some sort euen the whole bodie of them vnder the Couenant and were so farre the visible Church for otherwise how should the Lord bee called their God For when Benhadab made warre agaynst Achab and tooke the foyle and his seruants counselled him to enterprise the warre agayne and to fight with them in the valleyes saying That the God of Israel was the God of the mountaines the Lord tooke it agaynst himselfe and gaue them the ouerthrow the second time 1. King 20. Achazias K. of Israel being sicke vpon a fall he had taken sent his messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the God of Ekron Elias the Prophet is sent to meete them and to say Is it not because there is no God in Israel that you goe to enquire of Baalzebub the God of Ekron 2. King 1. Now for the places which you alleage that they became not his people you doo but peruert them For the song Deuteron 32. vers 5. If you will vnderstand it so as you here apply it how should they after bee called his people and his seruants in the same song vers 36. The breuitie and the placing of the words in that sentence doo make it darke This is the sense That the peruerse generation corrupt themselues by their owne vice which is not of his children For the holines of Gods children is from him but when they transgresse and corrupt themselues it is from their owne vice And hee calleth all the whole people his sonnes and daughters not in respect of some former estate as you vainly imagine seeing that very fewe of them were his sonnes and daughters indeede in their best estate but in respect that they stood outwardly vnder his couenant and professed his name And that the Lord sayth Yesterday which was my people is risen as an enemie Mich. 2. vers 8. is not to shewe that they were now quite remooued and cast off by the Lord from being vnder his couenant though the multitude were the Church but in name but their hostilitie among themselues both in Iuda and Israel The ende which God sayd was come to his people Amos. 8. is meant of their subuersion and captiuitie Will you say that they were neuer after nor no longer Gods people If you dare not say this why doo you alleage that place You would haue me shewe some place in the Scriptures where God maketh his couenaut without this condition that they shall bee his people and obey him That is not the question Master Barrow but this whether when men breake couenant and promise with God by disobeying him whose couenant yet they chalenge his couenant be broken and abrogated towards them And for this I shewed you the plaine Scripture Psalm 89. where the Lord saith If they should for sake his law he would visite their offences or defections with the rod but he will not disanull his mercie towards them nor falsifie his fayth That he will not prophane his couenaunt nor alter the thing which is gone out of his lippes Master Barrow what can be more expresse then this to shew the stablenes of Gods souenant dependeth not vpon our obedience or vpon that condition which you speake of and say the couenant standeth no longer then they stand obedient Why did you not answere this place but require still to haue that shewed which is playnly shewed you before Solomon on his part brake couenant with God will you say he did forfeyte the couenant I conclude therfore with the saying of Saynt Paul where hee speaketh of the Iewes what preferment they had aboue other What if some of them were vnfaythfull shall their vnbeliefe make the fayth of God of none effect God for bid Yea let God be true and euery man a lyer Rom. 4. Cease therefore Master Barrow to hang the stablenes of Gods couenant vpon the obedience of man and do not so peruersly reason against the truth in affirming that the couenant of God was disanulled toward the Iewes not to stand as the visible Church before such time as they had reiected Christ The next thing is that I say eyther wee are within the couenant from our Aucestors and haue the seale thereof euen Baptisme or else your selues are without Baptisme and so must either with the Catabaptists rebaptize or else holde the couenant without a seale Neyther of these you will doo and yet stand in it that we haue no true Church nor true Sacraments This therefore is your answere The Israelites in their Schisme and the Iewes in their Apostasie still had and vsed Circumcision This Circumcision was no true Sacrament vnto them neither sealed the Lords couenant vnto them in that estate Yet was this circumcision true Circumcision concerning the outward cutting and was vpon their repentance and returne neither defaced nor reiterate but they were restored to the Temple and receiued to the pasouer In like manner in this generall Apostasie and defection from the Gospell the Baptisme continued in these Apostaticall and false Churches cannot in this estate thus administred be sayd a true Sacrament or seale of Gods couenant vnto them Yet concerning the outward washing it is true Baptisme the outward action neede not and ought not to bee againe repeated after the abuse thereof in the false Church is purged away