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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	honourable_a	house_n	petition_n	3,157	5	9.0634	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77859	The necessity of agreement with God: opened in a sermon preached to the Right Honourable the noble House of Peers assembled in Parliament, upon the 29th of October, 1645. being the monethly fast. / By C. Burges, D.D. preacher of the Word to the city of London. Published in obedience to an order of their Lordships.	Burges, Cornelius, 1589?-1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing B5673; Thomason E307_19; ESTC R200347	36,324	55

seas of Pirates and did what they list at land too in behalf of the oppressed Therefore the Romanes erected but one Temple for both that none might honour the one but he must honour the other When but one of their starres appeared without the other they who beheld it especially Mariners were stricken with such fear upon it that they presently fell to their superstitious devotions and apprehended it as a very bad Omen and would never give over sacrificing till they had obtained sight of both together again Let either of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Tyndarides our Gemini our two Houses of Parliament begin I will not say to part asunder but only to shine weakly or to dipp in or suffer an eclypse and farewell all our happinesse and hopes our Government Religion safety and whatever is justly precious and dear unto us in this world 4. Have there been any conscionable observation of our Covenant in the faithfull discovery of Incendiaries Malignants and evil Instruments that hinder Reformation of Religion that make divisions among our selves or between the two Kingdoms that contrive and raise factions and parties among the people contrary to our League and Covenant and hath there been due care used to bring them to publike triall and condigne punishments Have we not rather forgotten that ever we covenanted with the great and dreadfull God to do any such thing Are there not found among us concealers harbourers yea abettors of such vipers Did never any escape publike punishment who have been upon publike triall and conviction condemned Is there no where the price of blood to be found If there be hear what God doomed Ahab unto 1 King 20.42 Because thou hast let go out of thine hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people This the Lord made good upon him For how ever Benhadad crouched to Ahab at that present and was content to buy his life at any rate restoring all the Cities that he or his fathers had taken from Israel and promising all peaceablenesse and good neighbourhood towards Ahab for all time to come Yet at three years end another battell is fought at Ramoth Gilead fatall to Ahab who by the speciall direction of the same Benhadad to his Captains to fight neither with small nor great save only against the King of Israel t 1 King 22.31 was there singled out and slain Thus God oftentimes makes them who are unduely spared to be the destruction of those who did not execute justice upon them Again is there no labouring to gain proselytes to a party among the people no pleading by word and writing against what we have bound our selves by Covenant to promote no brow-biting blasting and slandering of men of honour and approved fidelity if they stand in their way no artifices to ingage all men against what ever shall be setled by Parliament touching matters of Religion as if the best keeping of Covenant did consist in the strongest opposition against it Shortly after the beginning of this Parliament there was tampering with our Army in the North to march Southward with a Petition but the meaning was to force the Parliament I hope it will not so soon be forgotten but that the wisedom of the Honourable Houses will be vigilant and carefull to prevent like tamperings in all time to come 5. As for the preservation of that League and unity so happily setled between the two Kingdomes and the bringing to punishment all that sowe division betwixt them what shall we be able to answer either to God or men for the daily neglect hereof yea for the manifest endeavours of too too many to set them at variance for causes known best to the contrivers of such a wicked and pernicious designe Albeit some speak their fears thereof with grief yet when such a question as this What shall we and our Brethren of Scotland fall out is made but the occasion of a further discourse against them and to open a way to some confident slander or backbiting of our Brethren in common discourse and that by those who have neither certain intelligence of their actions nor commission to call them to account thereby to worke them out of the hearts of so many as they can not so much to reforme things amisse between us as to be rid of them putting not any difference between the acts done or avowed by the Nation or by their Commissioners and those faults that are made by some particular persons among them this can be no other then a breach of our Covenant by a cunning artifice of telling news and a manifest endeavour to make a quarrell between the two Nations And therefore if they who have power do not punish and suppresse this unsufferable liberty God must needs visit for such hypocrisie and avenge the quarrell of his Covenant upon all such miscreants who will rather mingle Heaven and hell together and break thorow all bonds that very Heathens have ever held sacred then misse of their own ends and wills what ever become of the publike in respect of Religion or Government These these be the men that will destroy all if your wisedom and justice do not seasonably prevent it although the Lord should give us to tread on the necks of all other enemies 6. And as for assisting and defending all that enter into this Covenant in the maintaining and pursuit thereof not suffering our selves to be by any means drawn from it either to a defection to the other side or to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this Cause of God I report me to you how this hath been performed Have not many brave and gallant spirits received discouragements been many wayes traduced and at length cast aside as broken bottles Nay is there not an endeavour in some so farre to exasperate Authority and the whole Kingdome to break if it were possible with a whole Nation that for our sakes entred into this Covenant Are they few that have made defection to the other side and are there none who were once very hot for the Covenant even to the punishing of those who truly out of conscience scrupled any thing in it at first that are now grown cold and remisse yea are gone beyond neutrality or indifferency therein But to conclude this part of our Triall by the particulars of the Covenant Let all whom this may concerne no longer flatter themselves with vain imaginations that God and they be agreed but know for certain that there are none in the world further off from agreement with him For he puts Covenant-breakers in the number of those who are given up by him to their own lusts and to the most vile and outragious abominations that can be committed by persons incurable and ordained to everlasting destruction Rom. 1.31 So farre our fourth generall head of Trial. Rule 5 5. Lastly they who are at agreement with God agree with

THE NECESSITY OF Agreement with GOD OPENED IN A SERMON Preached to the Right Honourable the Noble House of PEERS assembled in PARLIAMENT Vpon the 29th of October 1645. being the Monethly Fast By C. BURGES D. D. Preacher of the Word to the City of London Published in Obedience to an Order of their Lordships LONDON Printed by G. Miller for Philemon Stephens at the Signe of the golden-Lion in Pauls Church-yard 1645. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE HOVSE OF PEERS Assembled in PARLIAMENT Most Noble LORDS THE main designe of this plain Sermon is to awaken men not yet agreed with GOD out of their golden dreams of nothing but Halcyon dayes and mountains of perpetuall prosperity which the almost innumerable glorious Victories heaped on your Armies seem to promise To effect this I have endeavoured to put all upon the Triall of their Agreement with GOD which being the soul of my Text ought to be the chief subject of my Discourse I have therein insisted most upon the examining our performance of the Nationall Covenant which notwithstanding your pious command to whet the people upon it every Fast day is so much neglected yea despised that he is by some ranged among the dissolute that now will take it and it is made one character of the godly party which they who say stand apart appropriate to refuse it Uniformity which we have Covenanted to promote is become a scorne And they who being sensible of the mischiefs of no Government in the Church presse the setling of a Discipline according to our Covenant do every where hear Rigid Presbyterians Persecutours worse than Bishops and what not but what they are None know now how to Time things but they who while out the times to prevent the setling of any thing at all My Lords it is our happinesse and your honour that you have continued with Christ in his temptations and remained faithfull in the midst of a perfidious generation when the enemy had his hour For what Tiberius once spake to Nero and Drusus in the Senate Tacit. Annal. lib. 4. Ita nati estis ut bona maláque vestra ad Rempublicam pertineant may be much more said of you who are so borne for the Publike that you are engaged in honour to promote that what ever become of your selves There is no Publike act of yours if good but the whole Kingdom fares the better for it no evil that you commit but all the Nation suffers by it Be faithfull unto Christ who had never more need of your Zeal and let him alone with your safety and honour untill he give you a crown of life It is not enough that you act when acted unles you also quicken others to more expedition in that great busines of the Government of the Church It is not sufficient that your selves come up to an Agreement with God unlesse as Josiah you do your utmost with all vigour to draw others into the same also Nor will it suffice that you do good your selves if you wittingly suffer others to do evil against God and Christ without exercising that authority which God hath put into your hands against them You remember Galba who though innocent of much harm which passed under his name yet because he permitted them to commit it whom he ought to have bridled or was ignorant of that which he ought to have known lost reputation and opened a way to his own destruction The Lord of Lords guide quicken and prosper you in all the great affairs which are under your hands make you more and more zealous for Jesus Christ that he may yet further honour you above all your Noble Progenitours and give you hearts so to improve this homely piece that it may further your Account and not rise up in judgement against you in the great day of the Lord Jesus in whom I am and ever shall be Your Lordships most humble servant C. BURGES THE NECESSITY OF Agreement with GOD. AMOS 3.3 Can two walke together except they be agreed I May begin my Sermon with the words of Cyril a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyr. Alex in loc This is a deep Riddle and a darke speech For better unfolding of it be pleased to cast your eyes on the first verse of this Book which will afford some light to these words and to the whole Prophecie There you shall first meet a poor Herdsman of Tekoah a City of Judah six miles south from Jerusalem to wit our Prophet a man bred up among Cattle and a gatherer of sycomore-trees b Amos 7.14 15. suddenly * Amos ruborum mora distringens repentè Propheta effectus est Hieron ad Heliodor called of God as he followed the flock and sent unto Israel yea to prophesie even at Bethel the Kings Chappel and Court and there to denounce destruction to the King and Kingdome by the Assyrian as he after c Amos 7.9 10 11. did There also shall ye discover the People to and against whom he prophesied namely Israel not the whole progeny of Jacob but only the ten Tribes revolted from Rehoboam These being the major part of Israel carried with them that Name Sometimes they are called Ephraim from Jeroboam their first King who was of that Tribe as that party which adhered to the House of David was named Judah because that was the Family from whence sprang their Kings That these Prophecies were directed to these ten Tribes is further manifest by that of Amaziah the Chief Priest of Bethel Chap. 7.12 13. O thou Seer flee thee away into the Land of Judah and there eat bread and prophesie there but prophesie not again any more at Bethel c. which shews plainly that he prophesied only to Israel in that place where Jeroboam the first had erected one of his Calves There Amos for his boldnesse against the Calves received many affronts from Amaziah the Priest and at length a mortall blow with a Club on his head by Amaziahs sonne after which he was carried home to Tekoah where he soon died of that wound as we have it from Epiphanius d In vit Prophet and sundry others e Hieron Doroth. Isidor alijque In that first verse thirdly may you perceive the time when he prophesied It was in the dayes of Vzziah King of Judah and in the dayes of Jeroboam the sonne of Joash King of Israel two years before the earthquake a most remarkable circumstance The mention of those two Kings discovers Amos to have been contemporaneous with Hosea and Joel yea with Isaiah too whose Father he was not although some have so conjectured albeit he began somewhat after them and finished his course many years before them by means of that untimely death but now expressed These Kings reigned long Jeroboam 41 years Vzziah 56 years computing from the 16th year of his age only To the end therefore it might be more exactly known about what time of their severall reignes Amos prophesied it is said two

study how to promote and carry on Gods work whatever become of our owne Thus Saul afterwards a Paul before he was agreed with God crossed and persecuted Gods designe of spreading the Gospel but once humbled and converted he layes aside all his own project and is wholly for God Lord what wilt thou have me to doe Act. 9.6 He is now no longer for persecution of the Gospel which was his own busines but for the propagation of it which was Gods Trial. Let us then consider whose worke ends and interests we endeavour most to promote Are we for God for Christ for his maine designe in all we doe Can we be content to perish so Gods cause and counsells may prosper Is it our meat and drink to doe his will although his will should thwart our own c. Are we willing to adventure our selves and all we have for Christ not counting estates honours families no nor our very lives deare unto us so we may set forward his Gospel and the power of Godlines then take comfort But if we make use of God as cunning Polititians do one of another pretending a great deale of respect and service meerly to out-wit each other and to drive on their own ends as Tiberius and Sejanus of whom Suetonius reports That Tiberius in favouring Sejanus had one designe and Sejanus in serving Tiberius had another Tiberius meant that his affection to Sejanus should be of use to himself and Sejanus in obeying the Emperour aspired to the Empire Tiberius intended to serve him of the craft and subtilty of Sejanus to ruine the house of Germanicus and to raise his own Sejanus resolved to make his way to the Empire by the ruine of them both If it be with us as with God and Jehu God meant to exalt Jehu for the ruine of Ahabs house for Idolatry and Jehu made use of Gods commission and providence to raise his own family and to keep up Idolatry God will search this out and at length as Tiberius was the ruine of his great Favourite Sejanus so will God be of us how much so ever he make of us at the present Rule 4 4. Where there is an Agreement with God to purpose it is firmed and established by a Covenant I have sworne and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgements Psal 119.106 David had two things equally in his heart the entring into a Covenant and the keeping of it and he bindes himself by an Oath unto both alike He will not only vow but pay Nor will he content himself to doe so for a while so long as he is in a distresse and then when his own turne is served study to cast it off by degrees putting new glosses and senses upon it to elude and evade the true meaning of it or laying aside the vigorous execution of it first for a season and then altogether upon politique pretences But he will keep it alwayes even unto the end It is with him an everlasting Covenant that shall never be forgotten r Jer. 50.5 as well knowing that God hath no pleasure in fooles and that it is better not to vow then to vow and not pay Å¿ Eccles 5.4 5. Yea so punctuall was David in keeping Covenant that he would never forget that which once he had made but to a man to Jonathan his friend not only when he had need of Jonathan and Jonathan able to serve him but after Jonathan was in his grave not only when Sauls house was yet strong and David but low and weak and needed the favour and aid of the people but after Sauls house was wholly reduced and broken and David established in the Kingdom and had the remainder of them under his absolute power to save or destroy them 2 Sam. 21.6 7. This will try us indeed For first Trial. it may perhaps be demanded of some Have ye at all taken the National Covenant Have all in power and place done their duty in taking sufficient course that it may be administred unto all according to the resolution and Ordinance of Parliament in that behalf There was great forwardnes and shew of extraordinary zeale in some to enter into that Covenant and to presse it upon others when we were low and needed the assistance of our Brethren of Scotland but when we had once ingaged them and they were come into this Kingdome I know not how it comes to passe but so it is that the pressing of the Covenant have been by degrees laid aside even where there was most need of administring it as if it were not only safe but profitable for honourable I think none do account it to prostitute a solemne sacred Ordinance of God to corrupt ends and to be prosecuted or cast aside as the occasions of state or the private designes of some Projectours shall suggest or require what ever the piety and zeale of both the Honourable Houses of Parliament have ordayned to the contrary But either the National Covenant was evil or good If evil why is it not so declared by Authority that we may all shake it off and be deeply and publikely humbled for our great rashnesse and sinne in entring into it If good why do not all take it or if it be not a duty why should any be bound by it whiles others are at liberty and act contrary to it every day Do you think God will put up such trifling with him in a matter so serious and sacred Be not deceived God will not so be mocked his right hand will find out all those seeming Angels of light who thus promote workes of darknesse and make such use of such a solemne Religious act of Divine worship tendred to the most high God as no honest ingenuous Heathen durst to make of any solemne piece of Idolatrous service tendred to their Idols Will ye say such as these have agreed with God that thus dally with God in the most solemne action that can possible passe between God and man There is no man so impudent as to affirme it so silly as to imagine it But to leave them have they who have taken the Covenant made any conscience to keep it Give me leave to insist upon this for it is a principall duty of the day to consider our breaches and to renue our Covenant for which end it is commanded by Authority that the Nationall Covenant should be publikely read in every Congregation on every Fast day Are there not too many among us who care no more for a Covenant with God after they have taken it then Mahomet the second regarded his Leagues and Confederacies with any neighbour Nation which he would observe strictly while the observation of them would advance his own ends but deride all men as fools and idiots that thought him bound any further Are there none that have strained not only their wits but their consciences too to enervate and anull it by forced glosses and interpretations None that dispute