Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A30511
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The case of free liberty of conscience in the exercise of faith and religion presented unto the King and both Houses of Parliament ... / by ... Edward Burroughs.
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Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662.; Charles II, King of England, 1630-1685.; England and Wales. Parliament.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing B5986; ESTC R5152
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10,124
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15
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will be laid to your charge and such who cannot deny their Principles and conform will be destroyed and their death will be accounted against you in the day of the Lord and therefore if ye do not allow Liberty of Conscience many grievous evils will infallibly follow both to your selves and your people And what advantage of honour will such be to God and your Church that are against their Consciences and light forced into a conformity for fear and terrour of men it makes them manifold more the Children of the Devil and time-servers and Hypocrites and destroys their souls and such can be no true members of the true Church of Christ but are Reprobates and a dishonour to God and your Church 8. Consider if ye constrain and compel in matters of Religion and do not allow liberty of Conscience it is unreasonable and unequal and down-right contrary to the Holy and pure Law of God which saith ye shall do unto all men as ye would that men should do unto you and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and this is the fulfilling of the Law But to be imposed upon and persecuted for the cases of Consciences and for the matters of Worship of God your selves would not willing be against your light and knowledge and then it is unequal and unjust and contrary to the Law of God for ye to do the same to others which your selves would not be done unto And do not you to this day cry out against the Papists in Queen Maries daies and at this day in other Nations and condemn them as Tyrants and Oppressors for Persecuting Killing and Destroying the Protestants for the matters of their Conscience and difference in Opinion and Judgment And will you do the same at this day as they do to others and follow their example of cruelty and persecution and break the Law of God and walk contrary to it in doing to others what you would not be done unto And seeing you condemn the late foregoing Powers in these Kingdoms for Tyrants and Usurpers and Oppressors for prohibiting your way of worship and commanding the contrary and disanulling so much as they could your service Book and Ministry how can you justly do the like to others as to force waies of Religion upon them and prohibit theirs and command the contrary if you do it ye condemn your selves by judging of others in the like case 9. Consider if ye do not allow liberty of Conscience but impose Church Government and Religion by paines and penalties then ye will fill the land with Hypocrites and force people into time-serving obedience and into formal waies of worship some against their Consciences and some in the ignorance thereof which is great abomination unto the Lord and such will neither be true and faithful in Church nor State but will seek advantages against you if they are forced by violence in the cases of their Consciences and it will beget great contentions and hatred in the minds of men and divide them into heart-burnings one against another and against you and your Government for if men become Hypocrites for your fear and terror and deny their professed principles and conform they will be false-hearted and envious and malicious and attempt any thing to be freed from bondage and impositions of Conscience and their hearts will be disengaged in love and affection to you-wards and this will be infallibly the effect of persecution for Conscience sake as King Charles the I. saith in his Meditat. A charitable connivance and Christian toleration often issi pates their strength whom rougher opposition fortifies and puts the dispised and oppressed party into such combinations as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their persecutors c. 10. Consider if ye force Worship and Religion and cause men to conform against their Judgements how dangerous is this to destroy mens souls and to lead them even to destruction For seeing ye affirm not the Infalibility of your Worship and Religion and yet will impose them and so engage mens souls in dependancy for Salvation upon things and waies uncertain and which God gives not the Faith to believe in I say how dangerous is this to ruin souls for in no way can the soul be secure but in the faith which God works in the heart in the Obedience of infallible Truth So ye run mens souls upon a Rock and it is unreasonable as before mentioned that men should be forced into the profession and practice of uncertain and fallible Religion and that they should be forced by you into that which may be evil for which not you altogether but themselves must bear the punishment in the day of the Lord and except ye could affirm and prove the Infalibility of your Church which is impossible there is no equity nor right reason for it that you should impose upon others any more then others should impose upon you for as King Charles the I. said in his Medit. He desired not any should be further subject unto him then he and all of them might be subject unto God c. 11. Consider if ye alow not liberty of Conscience but persecute about the same ye walk in the way and after the example of some of the Heathen Rulers and of the false Christians and shews that ye allow of the cruel persecutions by the Church of Rome and ye follow their example who persecutes unto death such as they call Hereticks and if ye do persecute for matters of Conscience then ye allow the very deeds of the Heathens who persecuted the Christians for their Religion sake and ye justifie the Papists in persecuting the Protestants and ye plainly demonstrate unto all the World by your works and fruits that ye are of Antichrist if ye impose on mens Consciences by force in the matters of Religion and persecute good Conscience about the same for it was the Antichrist and the Beast that first forced all to worship and violently engaged all into a conformity and killed and persecuted all that would not worship according to the Image Rev. 13. as ye may read And it was not Christs way nor the practice of any his Primitive Churches to impose and force on the persons and Consciences of men concerning their Church and Religion to cause all into a conformity thereunto and destroy and persecute all that would not This was not the way of Christ and his Apostles in their daies but they left Religion free and said they were not lords over mens faith nor lords over Gods Heritage neither did impose upon any in doubtful cases of conscience much lesse compel against mens Consciences for the Apostle left the practice of doubtful things as every one was perswaded in his own mind to do or not to do without imposing by force or directions of persecution about the same Therefore if ye do not allow free liberty of Conscience ye are out of the Doctrine and Example of Christ and his
ye allow not the free exercise of Conscience in Spiritual matters but do take Dominion over mens faith and impose by violence in the cases of Conscience about Religion and do not suffer the Lord to enjoy his onely right to be King in the matters of his own Kingdom then ye divert the end of just rule and government among men and perverts the end of Gods great love and favour shewed unto you in restoring of you to the place of Authority and Judgment for the end of just Government upon earth by Kings and Rulers is to exercise Justice Truth and Righteousnesse among men and over the outward man and to be a praise to all that do well and walks uprightly and to be a terrour to all transgressors and them that do evil in their outward man and to keep the outward man in good order by just Judgment in all cases between man and man This is only the extent of your Authority over the outward man and to your Jurisdiction only this belongs to judge in Truth and Righteousness to make Laws and execute them between man and man to preserve mens persons and estates from the wrong one of another but not at all to make Laws and execute them between God and mens Consciences in the cases of his Spiritual Kingdom this power belongs to God and he hath not committed it to you to exercise and therefore let justice equity and mercy be exercised by you among men and over the outward man and in all cases between man and man but meddle not in the cases of mens faith to God and their Consciences to him but leave that unto him alone whose right it is for it is dangerous and will bring wofull effects if ye intrench on Gods Soveraignity and if ye divert the proper end of just Government and of the Love of God in restoring you into Authority and Power 4. Consider if ye allow not free Liberty of Conscience in the profession and practice of spiritual things but will compel by violence about Religion then this will inavoidably produce and bring forth cruel persecution in the Kingdoms imprisonment banishment and death and all the evil effects of persecution will fill the Nations for though never so forceable impositions be laid on the persons estates and consciences of men for the cause of difference in Judgment and practises of Religion and to compel into Conformity yet it cannot be supposed that all will bow and conform to the denying of that way which they are perswaded in Conscience to be right and to the embracing of what they cannot in Conscience believe is of God but will rather suffer the cruelest death then conform to any thing contrary to light and knowledge and if free Liberty of Conscience be denied many such must needs be exposed to persecution even to death though they may be peaceable people and profitable inhabitants of the Kingdoms and in the things between man and man and in all matters temporal pertaining to the King may be just and righteous and unreprovable yet because of difference in judgment and opinion exposed to be destroyed in person and estate and such effects will not be of honour nor safety to these Nations if innocent and just men be destroyed and their relations ruined onely for their Conscience and Religion sake by persecution 5. Consider if ye do impose one way of worship by force and persecute all that are contrary-minded to prison and death then how shall your Names and memorial be left a reproach to generations after you in dayes to come who shall repute you cruel men and persecutors and such as destroyed your people for difference in matters of Religion and without just cause and thus will your names be a curse and not a blessing to your Children and their Children to all ages if that ye make Laws and execute them to the persecution and destruction of people for Conscience sake and for difference in Religion for persecution was never of God nor ever justified in succeeding ages but persecutors alwaies were rendred Tyrants and cruell in the ages succeeding them for do not you condemn the Papists as oppressors and cruel persecutors in Queen Maries daies for their persecuting your Fore-fathers And King Iames said it was usually the condition of Christians to be persecuted but never to persecute c. in his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance pag. 4 And indeed they are no true Christians that persecutes for matters of Conscience and difference in Opinion but the false Christians that have a form of godliness but are without the power and out of the Doctrine of the Scriptures who saith love your enemies and render to no man evil for evil but over come evil with good 6. Consider If ye do impose upon the Conscience and persecute about Religion ye can never effect your end thereby as to force all into a conformity and uniformity to your Church and Religion but though death and banishment and the loss of all be inflicted yet such a thing cannot be effected neither is it the way of Christ to promote his Church and to convert the contrary-minded by such means as force and violence exercised on mens persons and estates As K. Iames said in his speech in Parliament 1609. That it is a sure rule in Divinity that God never loves to plant his Church with violence and bloud and if ye do persecute to the heighth in the case of Religion ye will weaken your selves and cause the love and good affection of people to die towards you and the persecuted will grow and their cause be made honourable and many will be increased unto it for it is usual in ages that the way and Religion which hath been most persecuted hath most grown and thus it must infallibly be at this day and ye can never effect your end by persecution nor promote your own Church nor destroy all the contrary-minded As a Privy Counsellor to K. Iames the 5th of Scotland advised in counsel about the year 1539. upon the occasion of diversities of opinions then in that Kingdom said he It is an errour of State in a Prince for an opinion of piety to condemn to death the adherers to new Doctrines for the constancy and patience of those who voluntarily suffer all temporal miseries for matters of faith stir up numbers who at first and before they had suffered were ignorant of their faith and doctrine not onely to favour their cause but to embrace their opinions pity and commiseration opening the gates and thus their faith is spread and their number daily increaseth c. 7. Consider If that ye do not allow Liberty of Conscience but do impose and persecute as aforesaid though some for your fear and terrour and force against their Consciences should deny their Principles and conform to your Church such ye cause to sin for whatsoever is performed by force and not of faith is sin as it is written and such their sin