Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	kingdom_n	law_n	parliament_n	3,975	5	6.2994	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78018	Conformitie's deformity. In a dialogue between conformity, and conscience. Wherein the main head of all the controversies in these times, concerning church-government, is asserted and maintained; as without which, all reformation is headlesse, and all reconciliation hopelesse. Dedicated by Henry Burton, to the honour of Jesus Christ, as the first-fruits of his late recovery from death to life; as a testimony of his humble and thankfull acknowledgement of so great a mercy: and published for the service of all those, that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity ...	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.	1646 (1646)	Wing B6160; Thomason E358_20; ESTC R201164	26,532	40

CONFORMITIES DEFORMJTY In a Dialogue between CONFORMITY and CONSCIENCE Wherein the main Head of all the Controversies in these times concerning Church-Government is asserted and maintained as without which all Reformation is headlesse and all Reconciliation hopelesse Dedicated by HENRY BURTON to the honour of Jesus Christ as the first-fruits of his late recovery from death to life as a testimony of his humble and thankfull acknowledgement of so great a mercy And published for the service of all those that love the Lord Iesus Christ in sincerity Scripture-Warnings for England if not too late ESA. 1. 5. Why should you be stricken any more Ye will revolt more and more the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint ESA. 29. 9 10. Stay your selves and wonder Cry ye out and cry They are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not with strong drink For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes the Prophets and your Rulers the Seers hath he covered EZICH 22. 23 c. Son of man say unto her Thou art the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation There is a conspiracie of her Prophets in the midst thereof like a roaring Lyon ravening the prey Her Priests have violated my law and put no difference between the holy and profane Her Princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood and to destroy souls to get dishonest gain And her Prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar seeing vanity and divining lies saying Thus saith the Lord when the Lord hath not spoken The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery And I sought for a man to stand in the gap that I should not destroy the land but I found none HOS. 7. 11. Ephraim so England London is like a silly Dove without heart they call to Egypt they go to Assyria ESA. 1. 21. How is the faithful City become an harlot It was full of Judgement Righteousnesse lodged therein but now ●●●●●erers Thy silver is become drosse thy wine mixt with water thy Princes are rebellious and companions of theeves O homines ad servitutem parati Tacitus O men fitted for slavery said Tiberius of the Roman Senate so yielding he found their degenerate spirits to become slaves to his tyranny As Rome was in Livies time of which he said That neither the Maladies nor Remedies could be endured So is England now London Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread-Eagle neer the West end of Pauls 1646. To the Right Honourable The LORD MAIOR of the City of LONDON Right Honourable THis Title salutes you as Lord Major in relation to your Place Office which being Honourable then much more when true worth and vertue makes the Person Right Honourable as in title so in reality Otherwise such usual Titles are but empty founds being but Civil complements and not of any Moral notion As it was the custome of the Heathen to style those their Benefactors who were their Oppressors Christians should not use such flattery For my part I have taken this boldnesse to salute your New Lordship without giving flattering titles lest as Elih● said my Maker should soon take me away And in truth such Places and Titles of Honour as these being well weighed do somewhat resemble the Crown which Henry the 7. of this Realm finding at Bosworth field to be flung in a Thorn-bush said He that knew the weight and cares of a Crown would not stoop to take it up And though your Cap of Maintenance come short of a Crown yet into such times are we fallen as may make your Cap to your self at least being truly sensible of it as heavy as a Crown And if I may speak plainly my apprehensions the well-being and safety not only of this City but even of our fair England claimeth and loudly cals for of you an honourable wise and faithfull execution of your Majoralty this very year all mens expectations being erect some with hope and some with fear according to their severall interests But with what minds soever and for what ends Men made choice of you at this time this we are sure of That Jesus Christ the Lord of heaven and earth who hath all power in his hands as King of Kings and Lord of Lords who raiseth up and throweth down again hath in his wisdome called you to this place at this time to do his will and not your own And therefore in this high and important office and this juncture of time what need have you of another heart and another spirit then your own it being dangerous especially in steep and slippery places to be led by Mens spirits and of new principles from heaven to be put into you as we read of Saul who had another heart given unto him so as he was turned into another man so soon as he was annointed King and all to furnish you with such qualifications of wisdome understanding and the fear of God as may in the due execution and faithfull discharge of your office declare to all the world that your main aimes and ends are more for Gods glory then your own and more for the publike good then for your own private and more to gratifie good men then others though never so high or great and whose designs drive at nothing more then ruine confusion For we are not ignorant what diabolical plots are on foot and how ripe for execution and what kind of Counsellers and active Spirits your Chair and Table yea and Bedchamber too will be haunted withall if experience deceive us not And you shall find their ordinary counsels to drive at two main things yet both reduced under one head to wit Tyranny the one Tyranny over our Bodies Estates Freeholds Liberties Lawes and Birth-rights of all English free-born Subjects the other Tyranny over our Soules and Consciences which are CHRIST's peculiar freeholds and purchase and subject to no other Law Lordship or Kingdome but Christs alone And in truth my Lord in this respect you are in a hard condition in case you should by any importunity be perswaded to interpose as a Judge in the matter of Religion and especially in the point of Church-Government the main controversie of these times as wherein you have been little versed considering how few there be that come to preach before you who set themselves to open unto you this great mysterie of Christs Kingly office and government over Consciences and Churches But on the contrary such as Ignorants most admire and adore as gods upon earth do withhold this truth of God concerning his Sons Kingly government from you nay though under other terms do publikely in your solemn assemblies exclaim against it shut it out of their churches will not suffer others to preach or print it with their good wils but do exasperate and incense you against all those that hold forth this

they give to their General or National Assembly supreme power not only over their Parochial Classical and Provincial assemblies but even over the Parliament it self For not only they take the power to appoint both time and place for the convening of their Ecclesiastical assemblies as 2. Book of Discipline chap. 7. But they say moreover in the same chap. For this Orders cause they may make certain Rules and Constitutions appertaining to the good behaviour of all the members of the Kirk in their vocation And this they do without the Civil Magistrate Nay more chap. ibid. They have power also to abrogate and abolish all Statutes and Ordinances concerning Ecclesiastical matters that are found noysome and unprofitable and agree not with the time or are abused by the people And again in the same book chap. 12. The National Assemblies of this Country called commonly the General Assemblies ought alwayes to be retained in their own liberty and have their own place with power to the Kirk to appoint times and places convenient for the same And all men as well Magistrates as Inferiors to be subject to the Judgement of the same in Ecclesiastical causes without any reclamation or appellation to any Judge civil or Ecclesiastical within the Realm Thus in reference to the Spiritualty or the Church they make no bones to set up in their National Assembly the same Papal power which the Pope himself claimeth over Kings Princes States Kingdoms Commonweals And Mr. Rutherford in his * Government of the church of Scotland chap. 20. p. 312. tels us That though none in this grand assembly have decisive voyces save only Commissioners yet the Acts of the Assembly oblige all the absents not present in all their members and that because whatsoever is by those Commissioners determined and concluded is matter necessary and agreeable to Gods word as being no lesse infallible then those decisions of the Apostles Act. 15. All which Conformity I commend to thee when in thy best senses And because thou art apt to be overtaken with a supine drowsines pleasing thy self with thy dreams of becomming a King when once thou art gotten up into the saddle or throne of a Kirk National-Assembly let me awaken thee by pricking thy dull sides that thou mayest be at least convinced of that spirit of Antichristian pride and tyranny of rebellion and treason in lifting up a Papal throne above the Kings and Kesars above Kingdoms and Commonweals to the enslaving of the whole Nation in their souls bodies and estates For whosoever shall not in all things conform to the constitutions of that generall Kirk assembly when once the horn is blown then ipso facto imprisonment confiscation of goods banishment and what not Now Conformity doth Gods word hold forth any such Kirk fashions What To overrule Civil States and Kingdoms What That all Kirk laws and constitutions mustneeds be such as are both necessary and agreeable to the Word of God What To set up in the Kirk an Oracle of Infallibility and a Pontifician supremacy and Antichristian tyrannie and all under the name of a Christian Presbyterian Kirk-government But because this perhaps moves thee not I will remit thee to the supreme Bar of this Kingdom there to receive thy doom in case thou dost obstinately and madly persist in thy importunate clamours to have that Presbyterian government set up and thereby our fundamental lawes priviledges and power of Parliaments liberties and freedom of all true bred English subjects brought under perpetual bondage worse then that either of Egypt or Babylon But I passe on 2. For us You may know Conformity that we are not the setters up of that Religion you charge us with but it is that which we find to be set up by Christ and his Apostles which they did without leave from the Civil power or from the Ecclesiastical or mixt Synedrion as before Secondly though the Kingdom of Christ be indeed over all the kingdoms of the world yet all the subjects of this kingdom as they are the subjects of this or that civill State so they owe civill obedience thereunto but as they belong to Christs kingdome they are free from the civil power in point of religion owing subjection only to Christ and if the civil power usurp over any of them they yield themselves to suffer with patience without resistance Conf. Conscience I like thee well for this yet But you tell us strange things of Church-assemblies Consc Not more strange then true Read their books and be wise And for our suffering which thou likest so well it is no more then what Christ and his Apostles both taught practised and wherein all the Martyrs followed them Conf. I will better consider of what you say But do you not condemn the Magistrate when you say he usurps over you Consc No I condemn him not that is for God to do who is the supreme Judge of the world Conf. Why what limits hath God set to the Magistrate Consc Read Deut. 17. 18 19. and that from v. 13. to the end of the chap. to wit the whole law of God So also what bonds and bounds their own conscience and the terror of the great Judge and their sacred oath and solemn covenant and stipulation with the people and not only Gods law but the civil lawes of the kingdome do put upon them you cannot be ignorant Conf. But what if the Civil state hath made a-a-law to inhibi● and restrain all men and that under severe penalty from the observation of any other form of Religion and Church government then that which it hath established by law with a necessity of uniformity and conformity thereunto imposed upon all the subjects of the kingdom Doth the Magistrate sin in seeing this law executed And without such a government what Order will you have in your Churches or what coercive power in the case either of heresie or schisme Consc Do you question the Magistrates sin when his law is against the law of God and the liberty of a Christian who is the subject of Christs kingdom For here we are to distinguish between a subject of Christs spiritual kingdom and a meer subject of the civil State He that is a meer subject of the civil state acknowledging no superior power above it his conscience though blind bids and binds him to obey but he that is a true subject of Christs kingdom being also a subject of the civil State owes a twofold obedience one to the Civil State another to Christ According to that of Christ Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods Nor doth the order or disorder in churches as churches put any difference between the having or not having of a civil power In the Apostolick churches there were both heresies and schismes 1 Cor. 11. 18 19. 1 Joh. 2. 19. whith the civil power took no cognisance of Nay it was and may be as apt to persecute the

us which the only terrour of our Army hindreth holding them at a bay apply it Thirdly Let all those who with such violent and potent importunity do presse the Parliament for an Ordinance to bring themselves and the whole Land under the greatest sin of unnaturall inhumane and more then heathenish ingratitude impiety injustice cruelty by not only dishonouring discountenancing abasing as the vilest our-casts those men who have not only freely laid out their estates but even prodigally if not prodigiously to wonderment hazarded yea poured out their dearest life-blood but also as if they would despight God by trampling upon those whom he hath highly honoured and not suffering them to breathe in their native aire by whom we yet breathe and by making them underlings and off-scourings of the land who have been the preservers of it and that they should be despicable in their own mother countrey whom so many glorious victories have made admirable to the neighbour Nations yea to the whole world and terrible to their professed enemies and ours yea and to pretended friends too who would master us at home were not these masters of the field So as God having thus made them the great instruments of the preservation and deliverance of our Countrey and City from the most desperate bloody and bestiall enemies that ever the Earth bred or Hell hatched enough to have for ever ever obliged a people of any ingenuity not wholly given up to testifie their approbation at least and congratulation of that great favour honor God hath vouchsafed to cast upon them and that as he hath crowned them with so much glory and they have cast their crowns at the feet of the Lambe that sits upon the throne So these should come and first giving all the glory to God gather up those crowns and set them upon the heads of those their preservers and deliverers and put chains of gold about their necks so far off should they be from trampling such Pearls under feet or casting them out of our gates and ports that they might Solum vertere spend the remainder of their life in some inglorious exile to the eternall infamy of our English Nation Let these apply it Fourthly let all those who endeavour by their strong factions to make wide breaches between Parliament and City between House and House yea between Gods blessing and this Land which was wont of old to be called Gods kingdom and so by these breaches would let in again our bainfull enemies Let all these these I say make the application to themselves while as they have wrested out of the Magistrates hand a form of worship and government and so as it is established by the precept of men so God hath deprived them of wlsdom and understanding while they would pull upon their own heads and upon the Land the guilt of so much innocent blood of so many hundred thousands both in Ireland and England to be made the footstooll of a bloody Tyranny and while their eyes are so closed up as no charme be it never so wise can make them either to hear or see or understand or their brains or bowels to be sensible of all those notorious and palpable outrages rapes and robberies violence and oppression extortion and exaction in the land even at noon day unworthy affronts done to our Parliament by seditious spirits or of all those cryes and complaints of sundry Countries and Counties and no redresse no justice as if God had now forsaken us left us as a silly Dove without heart full of slavish and degenerous fear of shadows forgetting the mighty God that hath done so great things for us and will do more if we by faith still depend upon him And although the faction is still working and machinating the ruine of this Nation if our God miraculously prevent not yet the god of this world hath so blinded the eyes of these men through the just judgement of God that they see nothing at all hereof but are themselves the main fomenters abettors countenancers promoters advancers encouragers and helpers on of those that hope to be the instruments of our ruine So strong is the poyson of this one sin hypocrisie and Idolatry in teaching and setting up a fear or worship towards God by the precept of men which as it is a removing of the heart from God so it causeth him to remove his Spirit from us and to give us up to such a fearfull * dementation as is the forerunner of destruction And Conformity if thou hast any of thy right senses left consider seriously with thy self what that religion is which turns men out of their very naturals to become brutish and worse then Heathens and which the Holy Ghost brands for hypocrisie then which nothing is more abominable in the sight of God Certainly the true Religion and Doctrine of Christ produceth no such fruits as those fore-mentioned are as Treason against the State unnaturalnesse towards our native countrey unthankfulnesse towards our best deserving friends our Benefactors our Preservers yea injustice and cruelty towards them factious plottings and underminings hatred of those that be good enmity against those that are the friends of Christ and so persecution of the way of Christ destroying of Christs kingdom by setting up a worldly kingdom of men * having a form of godlinesse but denying the power thereof yea and seeking to overtop the Supream Power Are we not then as the Apostle admonisheth and commandeth to turn away from such Conf. Nay here Conscience I have you upon the hip For First how do we seek to overtop the Supream Power And Secondly who doth more go about to overtop the Civil power then you while you set up a Religion without it and above it Consc First For you Do you not seek to overtop the Supreme Power whilst you would have your Church-government to be framed after the pattern of that which sets up a Power called a Generall Assembly above the Power of Parliaments Now the supreme power in England is the Parliament so as to set up a superior power over this is to overturn the very Fundamental laws of the Kingdom And this you labour tooth and nail to do while nothing will serve you but the Scotish church-government I wish you would all consider well of it and beware of falling into a Premunire if you be not deep in it already And I could wish it were well weighed by the wisest and those in highest place of authority whether the importunate pressing of the Covenant for Uniformity in the Scotish sense tend not to undermine and overthrow the liberty and priviledges of the subjects of England when once a superior power therein consisting of more Clergy men then of Lay is predominant over the Parliament of England And so much the rather when we read and consider their own publique and authentique Books of their Kirk government Orders Discipline Confession of faith c. wherein