Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A17300
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For God, and the King. The summe of two sermons preached on the fifth of November last in St. Matthewes Friday-streete. 1636. / By Henry Burton, minister of Gods word there and then.
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Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.
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1636
(1636)
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STC 4142; ESTC S106958
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113,156
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176
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hath to Pauls and that the daughter may be somewhat like the mother Ezech. 16. 44. As is the mother so is the daughter though the table doe not stand end-wayes an as Altat but with the end to the wall Well yet a rayle must be made about it to infinuate into the peoples mindes an opinion of some extraordinary sanctity in the Table more then in other places of the Church as the Pew Pulpit or Font. Yet all this may seeme tolerable and without danger Well the like is done in other places But this growes further on in many places adorations practised to this new Altar-God yea pleaded for in pulpits and in printed books yea that in sundry Colledges in the Universities the seminaries and seed plotts of learning and Religion so farre pressed as the exemplary practises of those that bee the Heads or Superiors there may any way draw and induce the inferior Students to their imitation either through feare of displeasure or for hope of preferrement Which how perillous it is tending to corrupt the whole land with superstition and Idolatry every one may see Well now what 's the next Thus farre wee now see Popery like a thiefe stollen in upon us step by step when wee as men asleep in our beds suspected no danger And perhaps the next degree will bee the placing of their God-Almighty in the Host or Pix visibly and conspicuously upon the Altar and a Masse with the piping of the Organs chanted unto it as the Israelites did about their Calfe Exodus 32. Therefore doth it not concerne Gods Ministers and people too even from the highest to the lowest as one man to stand out against this creeping gangrene that having begun but in the least member never ceaseth creping till at length it hath prevailed over the principall parts so brought death to the whole body and this such a death as kills the soule and bringe us all backe againe under the most intollerable yoake and bondage of Satan and Antichrist from the which the Lord had so mightily and mercifully delivered us Thus much of the feare of the Lord. Come we now to the next point which is the feare of the King In which we are to observe 1. The kind of this feare 2. The order of it next to the feare of the Lord 3. The Connexion of it with the feare of the Lord being so combined that the one cannot stand without the other First then for the kind of this feare I told you in the opening of the text that it is a Civill feare differing from the feare of the Lord which is a religious feare and so a part of his worship and consequently incommunicable to any creature Yet so as I told you there is a similitude betweene this Civill feare to the King and that religious feare of the Lord. As 1. as the true feare of the Lord comprehends in it all duties and services due from us to God so the feare of the King contaynes all duties due from Subject to their King 2. as the feare of the Lord is a filiall feare so the feare of the King 3. As the feare of the Lord is a feare of adherency so the feare of the King Of these in order and of the points of instruction thence arising Every true Subject and every true servant of God ought to feare his King that is performe all duties and offices whatsoever due from a subject to his Prince For the opening hereof wee must know that the feare of the King containes all duties of a Christian Subject to his King For that which is sayd here Feare the Lord and feare the King is expressed by Peter thus Feare God Honour the King As in the fifth Commandement Honour thy Father and thy Mother Here as by Father and Mother all Superiors that stand in a bond of relation to inferiours as Parents Masters Magistrates Ministers and above all the chiefe Magistrate the Prince is meant so under this word honor all kindes of duty and service due from all inferiours to their Superiours respectively are comprized This is expressed also by Peter Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whither it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evill doâ—rs and for the prayse of them that doe well This is yet more fully and amply set downe by the Apostle Paul Rom. 13. Where this doctrine is not only prooved but pressed and confirmed by many strong reasons First the doctrine is propounded in the duty injoyned vers 1. Let every soule bee subject to the higher powers The Precept is universall to every creature not Pope nor Cardinall nor Prelate excepted All living under the Kings Dominion must bee subject to the King And the reasons are there rendred 1. Because those higher Powers are of God So as hee that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God Secondly the penalty upon rebells They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rebells shall not escape eyther the just hand of man or of God whose ordinance is resisted in resisting of the power Thirdly from the excellent office that the Powers doe beare which is to execute justice and judgement betweene Subjects For Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to the evill And as he rewards the evill with punishment so the good with prayse For wilt thou not be affrayd of the power Doe that which is good and thou shalt have prayse of the same For hee is the Minister of God to thee for good but if thou doe that which is evill bee affrayd for hee beareth not the sword in vaine for hee is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill Fourthly there is a necessity of this subjection vers 3. Wherefore ye must bee subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake So as if feare of wrath be not a bond strong enough yet conscience is which will dispense with no man For Gods ordinance bindes the Conscience Fifthly from the end of paying tribute vers 6. For for this cause pay yee tribute also For what cause That is for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing That is for the execution of justice in punishing the evill in praysing and countenancing the good And hereupon the Apostle reinforceth his exhortation as an use of the point Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome feare to whom feare honour to whom honour Againe to the former reasons expressed by the Apostle wee may adde one more answerable and correspondent to that fore-alledged of our obedience unto God for as I said in all things the feare of the King holds a resemblance with the feare of the Lord as being the most exact and perfect patterne of it even as God is the best patterne for a King and
against his King or lifted up a hand against his Sacred Person But wee can fill large volumes of Examples if need were of Iesuites Priests and Prelates that have beene notorious traitors to their Emperours and Kings and some of them that have laid violent hand upon the Lords anointed And howsoever they cry thiefe first and their cry being lowder prevailes most especially being ushered in with the very name of Puritan as of old the very name of Christians was crime enough yet they which thus abuse the eares of pious Princes both by base flattery and mallicious traducing of good men the Kings good Subjects unto His Majestie incensing him against them that so they may more easily worke their owne mischievous ends these will be found to bee the great theeves as will appeare by that which now followeth in these words And meddle not with them that are giuen to change These words are an admonition to all that feare the Lord and the King not to meddle with them that are given to change that is not to have fellowship or partnership with them as before was opened The point we learne hence is That the true servants of the Lord subjects of the King ought not to joyne with those that are given to change whither it bee in the State of Religion or of the Common-weale This is confirmed first with sundry places of Scripture As Prov. 22. 28. Remove not the ancient Land-marke which thy Fathers have Set. This alludes as Divines interprit to the alteration of the State of the true Religion of good Laws So Eccl. 10. 8. Who so breaketh an hedge a Serpent shall bite him An hedge is a bounder or fence betweene man and man This is forbidden with a curse Deutr. 27. 17. And the Princes of Iuda were reprooved as those That remooved the Bound to wit of the Lawes Hose 5. 10. Which Zanchie expounds as the other And the Ordinary Glosse expounds it of Trelates which would be accounted Princes that remoove the bounds that is Preach other doctrine then they have received from the Apostles So as the Doctrines of the Apostles are the ancient Bounds which must not bee remooved Now with Innovators such as feare the Lord and the King must not meddle nor pertake and that for sundry waighty reasons 1. Because the accessory is equall with the principall both in fact and punishment As Obad. 11. Edom is as deepely charged as the Heathen actors for but looking on while they spoiled his brother Iacob and took no compassion on him much les ayded him against his enemies And in our Law misprison of Treason that is concealement of it is punishable as treason So when wee see wicked men goe about by their Innovation to undermine and overthrow the State of Religion and of the Common-weale if wee be silent and doe not detect them nor labour to defeate them but out of a base feare hold our peace when the State of things cal upon us to speak we shal be found guilty before God though the State take no notice of it of the same Sinne with them and so pertake of the like punishment 2. Because Innovation of Religion and the Republike is and ever hath beene held dangerous to a State especially when the change is for the worse As 1. in point of civill government to change a Kingdome setled on good Lawes into Tirany is very dangerous And ever States have beene wary hereof Insomuch as the Locrians ordained that who so would moâ—ion a nâ—w Law should come with an halter about his necke that is it were not liked hee should be hanged in his halter And it was the speech of Heraclitus Ephesius That Citizens ought to fight no lesse for their Lawes then for their walls Because a City may stand without walls but without Lawes it cannot For a State can no more stand without good Lawes as it were the Soule of it then the body can live without the soule Lycurgus therefore to preserue his Lawes unto perpetuity covenanted with his Citizens that they should alter nothing till his returne whereupon he voluntarily became a perpetuall exile from his Countrey Aristotle compares changes in a State which at first seeme but small and insensible to the expenses of a howse and the wasting of a mans substance by little and little which in a short time consumes all And in his Third Booke ibid. Shewing the difference betweene a King and a Tyrant hee saith The Citizens defend with Armes their King but Strangers a Tyrant For Kings doe rule according to Law and over willing Subjects But Tyrants against their wills So as Kings have a Guard of their people but Tyrants against them So hee Whereby we see the usefulnesse of good Lawes as combining King and peoples as the head and members Secondly in point of Religion A notable example hereof we have in Deut. 13. Where if Sonnes of Belial have drawne a City of Israel to Idolatry upon the inquiry of the Truth all Israel is to smite the Inhabitants of that Citie with the sword destroying utterly all therein both man and beast with the edge of the sword and the whole City with all the spoile therein shall be consumed with Fire and made a heape for ever that so Israel may be guiltlesse and blessed of God So for all Ieroboams policy which yet to carnall judgement seemed very subtily and safe for his Kingdome the erecting of his Calues proved the bane of his House and Kingdome for ever And the like ruine fell upon Ierusalem afterward with the Babilonian Captivity for 70. yeeres And the cause was partly changing of the Lawes whereof before and partly and especially changing of Religion as these two changes goe commonly hand in hand together So Iere. 2. 36. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way So vers 11. Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods But my people have changed their glory for that which doeth not profit And Esay puts all together Saying The earth is befiled under the Inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Lawes changed the ordinance broken the Everlasting Covenant Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein c. Innovation in Religion breeds oftentimes troubles and distractions especially after a long settling And for this cause the first Reformers of our Religion were very tender of settling such an exact reformation in all things as perhaps they desired As the Lord Cromwell having set forth the Psalter in English with omission of the Letany there was such discontent about it as hee was forced to put it in againe Some indulgence must be given According to that observation of Beatus Rhenanus upon Tertullian it was needfull saith hee in ancient times to give indulgence to Christians in many things who commonly when they were old were converted from Paganisme to our Religion with great difficulty relinquishing