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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60294	Sions groans for her distressed, or Sober endeavours to prevent innocent blood, and to stablish the nation in the best of settlements Grounded upon scripture, reason, and authority. Proving it the undoubted right of Christian liberty under different perswasions, in matters spiritual, to have equal protection as to their civil peace. Unto which is added the testimony of fifteen antients. Humbly offered to the Kings Majesty, Parliament and people, and left unto their serious view. By Tho. Monck, Joseph Wright, Fran. Stanley, &c.; Sions groans for her distressed.	Monck, Thomas. aut; Wright, Joseph, 1623-1703. aut; Stanley, Fr. (Francis), d. 1696. aut; Hanson, Geo. aut; Reynolds, William, 1625-1698. aut; Jeffery, William, 1616-1693. aut	1661 (1661)	Wing S3870; ESTC R220545	19,156	24

Magistrate power to remove those out of the World that God would have permitted to live How soon may a Magistrate if guided by such Doctrine bring the blood of the Innocent upon himselfe and Nation and innocent blood the Lord will not pardon 2 King 24.4 It therefore highly concernes all Magistrates before they persecute any for matters of Faith or Worship to see they have a better warrant for so doing than the word of men which will not secure them at that day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel which will bee found to be the Book that shall be opened when the dead both small and great shall stand before God to be judged by what is written therein according to their works as the Lord Jesus saith The Word that I have spoken the same shall judge you at the last day and this is his word to Let both Tares and Wheat grow together in the Field of the World until the Harvest 4 It can in no wise be safe for Magistrates in the dayes of the Gospel to persecute and destroy those that are contrary minded in Religious matters because of their fallibility and that is the very reason why the Lord Jesus in the fore-mentioned Parable forbids gathering up the Tares lest the Wheat be rooted up along with them That Magistrates may erre in Spiritual and Religious matters woful experience hath taught the world in all ages the Lord of Life himself was put to death for supposed blasphemy and wickedness and accused for being an enemy unto Cesar which great mistake was committed through ignorance as Peter saith And now Brethren I not that through ignorance ye did it as also did your Rulers And at this day what mistakes are continued in Magistrates about Religion some being Calvinists as in Holland and Geneva more Lutherans but the greatest part Papists and each of these condemneth and many times persecuteth the other for Heresie or Superstition unavoydably therefore it follows that some of these must erre but we need not go far for the proof of this in one and the same person who receives that at one time for truth which at another time must be persecuted for error this appeared notably in King Henry the Eighth who persecuted the Protestants to death and writes against Luther for which the Pope gives him the Title of Defender of the Faith and yet a while after receives some of Luthers Doctrine and rejects the Supremacy and Authority of the Pope and serves the Papists as he did the Protestants nor will Magistrates be the more free from mistakes by relying on the Authority of Synods Popes or General Councils because such eminent contradictions and oppositions have appeared amongst each of them that nothing is more uncertain than their conclusions As for General Councils whose Authority is in the greatest estimation of the three it is plain they are so far from being infallible that their Decrees have been not only directly opposite to plain Texts of Scripture and the practice of the Primitive Church but also against each other which appeared first in the Council of Constantine the Thirteenth Session where it was Decreed that the Lords Supper should be given but in one kinde when nothing is more plaine than that the Lord Jesus instituted it the Apostle Paul afterwards delivered it to the Corinths and the Primitive Church received it with both the Bread and the Cup. So for the Council of Trent to Decree that the Service in the Church should be performed in Latine how contrary is it to the Doctrine of Paul who said in the Church He had rather speak five words with understanding that he might teach others than ten thousand words in an unknown Tongue So also have they clashed one with another the Council of Trent allowing Picturing of God the Father the Councel of Nice altogether disallowing of it and in the great Arrian Controversie which was no circumstantial business how many Councils and Conventions were both for and against it As little reliance can be put on any supposed infalibility the 〈◊〉 may have there having been two or three at one time each rageing against the other with their censures and decrees and notorious it is what descention there was amongst the Popes and Cardinals about Pope Formosus who being first Bishop of Pontiniake was degraded by Pope Iohn the 8 th and made to take an oath to lead a secular life al his daies yet by Pope Martin that succeeded Iohn was Formosus released from his Oath restored to his Bishoprick and afterwards came to be Pope so continued 5. years making several Decrees but Stephen the 6 th coming to the Popedome abrogates the decrees of Formosus takes up his body cuts off two of his fingers throws them into the river Tiber then buries him in a laymans Sepulchre Next to Stephen succeeded Romanus who on the other hand repeals the Acts and Decrees of his Predecessor Stephen against Formosus Pope Iohn the 10 th in a Synode at Ravena ratifies all the decrees and doings of Formosus yet after all this comes Pope Sergins digs up again Formosus cuts off his Head and 3 more of his fingers and throws his body into Tiber likewise deposed all such as had been consecrated by him Al which Schismes and discensions makes it plain to the World that there is nothing of infallibility in the Popes And for National Conventions and Synods they are so far from any shew of infallibility that the same complexion and temper the Nation is of wherein they are called and have their promotions you shall be sure to find them of because they have their dependency on the Authority that calls them together So that although the last National Synod in this Nation would have established Presbytery because that then was most like to take yet it is very questionable if now a Convention be called whether it will be much talked of amongst them Then this must be concluded from all that seeing Magistrates themselves General Councils Popes or National Synods may erre in judging and determining the most weighty Controversies in Religion there can therefore be no security for a Magistrate that he doth well in persecuting or putting to Death the contrary minded in religious matters seeing thorow mistake he may as soon persecute or put to death the true followers of the Lord Jesus or any other yea in likelihood much sooner because they in conscience towards God cannot receive the inventions and traditions of men in the Worship of God but must be a witness for the eternal God against them for which they are accounted as the Saints of old pestilent fellows movers of sedition turners of the World upside down enemies to Cesar and upon this account persecuted when the greatest part of men being unregenerate and have no other Spirit in them but what is of this World there is

Sions Groans for her Distressed OR Sober Endeavours to prevent Innocent Blood and to stablish the Nation in the best of SETTLEMENTS Grounded upon Scripture Reason and Authority Proving it the undoubted right of Christian Liberty under different perswasions in matters Spiritual to have equal Protection as to their Civil Peace Unto which is added the Testimony of fifteen ANTIENTS Humbly offered to the Kings Majesty Parliament and People And left unto their Serious View By Tho. Monck Ioseph Wright Fran. Stanley c. Matth. 7.12 Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you do you even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Mat. 13.28 29 30. The servants said unto him wilt thou then that we go and gather them up but he said nay lest while ye gather up the Tares ye root up also the Wheat with them let both grow together in the field the world until the Harvest which is the end of the world Act. 5.38 And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this Counsel or Work be of man it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found to fight against God London Printed for the Authors and are to bee sold in London and at Westminster 1661. TO THE READER Courteous Reader WIth burthened hearts as once the two Disciples travelling unto Emaus spoke to Christ a supposed stranger so speak we unto thee Art thou a stranger in our Island and hast not known the things that have come to pass in these daies while the father hath been divided against the son and the son against the father three against two and two against three Even a mans foes they of his own houshold so great have been our Divisions like Reuben that no sooner light hath been by Gods grace manifested to the begetting Children of the Free-woman but presently they are persecuted by the Children of the Bond-woman and how unpleasing this is to Iesus Christ and how unlike his golden Rule that saith And all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets We say how unpleasing this is to him judge upon thy serious perusal of this following Treatise which we commend to thy perusal in thy most retired consideration when thou canst read with thy thoughts least cumbred with other business our design in what we beg may be perused is general good in setting at liberty that which God made free even the Conscience Thou canst not bee ignorant of the great Contriversie that now is on foot as to uniformity in Worship to impose by violence where they cannot perswade under seeming pretence of Scripture warrant and antiquity the contrary to which is asserted in the words of truth and soberness by Scripture reason and practice of the Primitive times And lest violence and oppressing of conscience should run up to that height till it terminate in the blood of some who are dear and their blood precious in the eyes of the God of all the Earth therefore have we committed this unto the view of all men as part of the work of our Generation in singleness of heart and remain lovers and prayers for all men that we might live a peaceable and a quiet life in all godliness and honesty Farewel Tho. Monck Ioseph Wright Geo. Hamon Fran. Stanley Will. Reynolds Will. Ieffery The eight day of the 3 Month 1661. Sions Groans for her Distressed OR Sober Endeavours to prevent Innocent Blood and stablish the Nation in the best of Settlements AS all the holy Scriptures have been written afore-time for our learning and admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come So that particular Book of the Revelation is of such excellent worth That blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophesie and keep those things that are written therein for the time is at hand In which Book in no less than three several Texts it is testified that the Nations of the world and inhabiters of the Earth with their Kings would drink the wine of the fornication of that abominable Harlot that sitteth upon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues and by her sorceries deceiveth all Nations until they become drunk and altogether uncapable in that condition to receive the pure waters of life tendred to them in the plain way of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus This with grief of heart we see too visible for the Doctrine and Traditions of Rome who is mystery Babylon and since her Apostacy the Mother of Harlots For the woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth have so corrupted the earth and clouded the understandings of the sons of men that the great and most important truths of God cannot bee received or beleeved The reason why the Nations are so generally beguiled in the concernments of their souls is because the greatest part being carnal and unregenerate persons they are naturally inclined to such wayes of worship as are accompanied with external pomp and glory and therefore the Spirit of the Lord testifies that the great Harlot filleth her abominations and filthy fornications in a golden cup like the Physitian that guilds his bitter Pill that his Patient may the better swallow it Thus doth the Romish Church and her followers who to make their carnal Ordinances finde the better reception deliver them to the inhabitants of the earth by such as are honourable amongst men in worldly Sanctuaries most magnificently built and adorned endowed with Lordly Revenues accompanied with Musick and Voyces and Pontificial Vestments yea many Superstitions and Customes meerly earthly and sensual if not worse which we say so pleaseth the earthly and unregenerate man that he is ready to say This is the best Religion which is of most esteem in the Nations and accompanied with all earthly glory and delights altogether forgetting that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that finde it And that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God And if it had been the minde of the Lord Jesus that the Gospel should have been recommended unto the world and accompanied with these Ceremonies and Formalities that are practised in the worship of the Nations or were used amongst the Iews it is very strange we should not have one word for it in all the Scriptures of the New Testament when Christ was as faithful over his house as Moses was over his and is to be heard in all things as Moses himself commanded and there will be little encouragement to touch with the Gentile Nations in their superstitious Ceremonies when it shall be considered that the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical law being once the appointments of God did far exceed in glory what

the shallow inventions of the Romish or any of the National Churches are able to produce yet wholly taken away which the Author to the Hebrews notably proves saying Then verily the first Covenant had also Ordinances of Divine service and a worldly Sanctuary for there was a Tabernacle made the first wherein was the Candlestick and the Table and the Shew-bread which 〈◊〉 called the Sanctuary and after the second vail the Tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all They had also their High-priest and offerings and linnen Ornaments belonging to this Covenant but saith our Author If that first Covenant had been faultless then no place had been sought for the second and he taketh away the first that he might establish the second And now under the second Covenant which is the Gospel the Romish Bishop or any man on earth cannot be our High-priest For we have such an High-priest who is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the heavens a Minister of the Sanctuary and of the Tabernacle which the Lord pitcheth and not man And under this second Covenant God hath not promised his presence to any Temple built of wood and stone as of old For now the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands as the superstitious Clergy would perswade us but where two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ there is he in the midst of them although it be in a House by a Rivers side on a Mountain or in a Wilderness such little respect hath he to place As little respect hath God to persons because of any honour or esteem they may have in the world either for birth or natural endowments but such as usually are foolish weak and base in the eyes of the world doth he make use of in the work of the Gospel that so the learned Doctors and Masters of Arts may not have wherewithall to boast Which despised way of the Gospel we well know becomes a great stumbling block to the Gentile Nations as in the first delivery of it it did unto the Iews who would not receive the Lord of life nor his Doctrine because not accompanied with that earthly glory which their corrupt hearts affected and rather would retain that exploded dispensation of the Law which God had departed from than they would receive the glorious Gospel by those hands the wisdome of God thought fit to tender it for which obstinacy as the Apostle Paul saith The wrath of God is come upon them to the uttermost even to the laying waste their Temple and Cities the great slaughter of their persons and captivating their posterity as at this day Let therefore the Gentile Nations fear but more especially this Nation for some such spirit seems to appear amongst those that would retain their empty and dead forms of worship which God hath shewed his displeasure against and have no footing in the whole Book of God rather than they will receive the pure way of God without the mixture of humane Inventions and Traditions But the bare rejection of Truth and imbracing of error is not all the evil that the Nations generally are ingaged in by the Church of Rome and her followers but for to compleat and fill up the measure of their iniquities like Nebuchadnezzar nothing less must be inflicted on the servants of the most High God that cannot bow down to the golden Image of their Inventions than the fiery furnace of Persecution many times unto death it self And this the people of the Lord must endure it being as certain their portion to be persecuted as it is the practice of the false Church to persecute who build their superstructures of Will-worship on no other foundations but Violence and Cruelty else what mean these imprisonments banishments wars and massacres which have been made in Europe for Religion what troubles and desolations in Germany civil commotions in France cruelties exercised in the Netherlands by that Darling of the Romish Church the Duke of Alva others what M●ssacres in France Piedmont and Ireland to carry on the business of Religion for the satisfaction of a blood-thirsty and insatiable Clergy when the Disciples of the Lord Jesus were to use no other violence against those that rejected them than to shake the dust from their feet which should be a witness against them at the Tribunal of Jesus not Cesars yea this Popish principle of propagating Religion by the Sword hath reached the poor Americans many hundred thousands of them having been destroyed because they would not be Proselites no other cause being to be given for it cannot be supposed those remote and simple people had so much as known the Spaniard much less done any injury unto him our own Nation hath also felt the rage of this fury both before and in the Reign of Queen Mary and the wise may judge whether the Bishops endeavours to impose their Liturgy in Scotland with their cruelties in England did not contribute much to our late unhappy troubles But certainly if the Romish and National Clergy were guided by the Spirit of God the Authority of Scripture or force of Argument to support their forms of worship they would not then impose them by external force when by such proceedings they render themselves altogether unlike the Lord Jesus the Prince of peace who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them But on the contrary it will evince to all that have their eyes open how like they are to that woman which is drunken with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus in whom will be found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain on the earth Although as our Lord and Master hath foretold in killing others she may think she doth God service Lest therefore those unchristian principles of persecution for conscience which troubleth the world should take root in this Nation to the stirring up mens mindes to shed the blood of the innocent the guilt whereof is able to sinke the most flourishing Kingdomes into an ocean of misery and calamity we have here following written some arguments which we humbly offer to all men to prove how contrary to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus and good reason it is for any Magistrate by outward force to impose any thing in the worship of God on the consciences of those whom they govern but that liberty ought to be given to all such as disturb not the civil peace though of different perswasions in Religous matters In which Discourse we neither desire nor design to diminish any of that power which God hath given to the Kings Majesty that now Reigneth whom we own to be chief Magistrate and Governour of these Nations over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal and to all his Commands that do not oppose the Scriptures of 〈…〉 we yeeld active obedience not only for wrath but