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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

truth in the glory and excellency of it this being that very Kingdom of which Christ said Woe be to you Soribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men for ye neither go in your selves nor suffer ye them that are entring to go in But my Lord you are a lover of Peace as that part of your Speech upon your Election in the Hall declared and we all believe it when you said That you would endeavour to have Vnity for which you propounded two wayes either by Intreaty or by Force Indeed in such a case and for your place Intreaty is very commendable but if you think by Force to compose the differences that will prove none of Gods wayes nor to lie within your sphere as I dare say you abhorre to be a persecutor of those that are the promoters of Christs honour And being a thing not pertaining to the office especially of a Christian Magistrate I need not tell you what befell Vzzah for stretching out his hand to stay the trembling Ark And now that I have been thus far bold with your Lordship which hath proceeded meerly from a hearty desire that you may not be carried with the strong tide of the times by any malignant spirit filling your sailes through many under-water Rocks and Shelves endangering not only the splitting of your own Vessel but the total ship wrack of this floating State Give me leave further to beseech you that as you love your own self and soul and family and posterity your native Country the Honour of this City and Nation you would improve the whole power of your Office among other evils for the not only suppressing but utter obliterating out of all records of memory or mention that late Remonstrance of London which like the Trojan horse is stuffed with such matter as if the importunity of some might have its desire would unavoidably hale in ruine both to City and Country Nor doth any thing more clearly demonstrate that spiritual Judgement of blindnesse and hardnesse of heart to be upon all those who have their heads and hands in that Remonstrance and wilfully still persist in the prosecution of it now in cold blood Than the unnaturall hating and hunting after the destruction of those very men as our mortal enemies who have with the extreme hazard of their lives been honoured of God to be the Preservers both of Them our City and Country and on the other side the high esteem and honouring of those as our faithfullest friends who are part-takers with Murtherers with Rebels with Traitors Incendiaries Underminers of our Parliaments and consequently of the State of the Kingdom Dividers between the Parliament and City that themselves may reigne whose violent and fraudulent practises proclaim them to be not friends but such as in whom to put the least confidence is to trust in the Reed of Egypt whereon if a man lean it will pierce him through And therefore for these many and weighty considerations both in a due respect to your Lordship and hearty zeal for the honour and safety both of Parliament City Kingdome fuller of dangers and enemies at this day then by reason of that spirit of blindnesse and deep sleep wherein our City hath of late been sweetly lulled by the strong charms of fair false friends flatteries we are aware of I have in the name of Jesus Christ humbly commended this small Book to your Lordship that therein I might discharge the duty of a poor Watchman to awaken you in the first place and consequently all of that Court and Counsel with you to look out and inward too for the speedy preventing of all those imminent dangers which otherwise will suddenly surprise us and take us napping in the deep of our too credulous security For the Spirit of that Ten-horned Beast is now making war with the Lamb which is likely to be his last war Babylons fall following in the next chap. this Spirit warreth under new colours not red but white whose Word is REFORMATION and this under a fair colour of a Covenant by vertue whereof pretending a just title to the War he hopes by the help of the Remonstrance and the prime authors thereof and their adherents to erect a new Bestial tyrannie over souls bodies estates under new names and notions But the issue is The Lamb shall overcome them for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are with him are called Chosen and Faithfull And my Lord you shall find in this Book Conformity to be the Mystery of iniquity the mother of all mischief the cause of all our present calamities and the forerunner and hastener of our ruine if we repent not if our Lord Iesus Christ prevent not which certainly he will because himself is the Great and Almighty General whose Cause and Name is mainly engaged in this warre Now the Lord Iesus Christ give you the Spirit of wisdom well to consider and lay to heart these things which that you may do is and shall be the hearty prayer of Your Lordships most humble servant HENRY BURTON A DIALOVGE Between CONFORMITY and CONSCIENCE Conformities Soliloquie Conformity Who is this that comes along Surely by his habit and gate it should be one that according as I have often heard him described by many is called Conscience And to be sure I will be so bold as to salute him and ask his name And if it be indeed that Conscience I mean and that he will afford me so much patience I will enter into further discourse with him Conformity YOu are well met Sir Conscience And you also Conf. Sir I pray you pardon my boldnesse to crave your Name For as I came along I conceived from what I had heard that you should be the man called Conscience Consc My name is Conscience Conf. Now I am glad of this happy opportunity to meet you of whom I have heard so much talk abroad in the world Consc Why what talk hath the world of me Conf. Sir I pray you be not offended and I will tell you The World generally saith of you that you are the only troubler of the State Consc Is it therefore true because the world saith it So Ahab called the Prophet Eliah the Troubler of Israel so the Jewes said of Christ that he was a perverter and stirrer up of the people So when this Lambe of God the King of the Jewes was born Herod and all Jerussilem were troubled at it Why so Was it this King that troubled them or their own guilty consciences in usurping this Kingdom Alas Sir this is no news that where ever the fame of this King and of his kingdom commeth in the powerfull preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom it brings with it trouble and terrom to the world or to any State And as it was with Herod and the Priests at Jerusalem at the birth of this King so at his death they could

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-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