Selected quad for the lemma: duty_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
meanes it was raked out of the Ashes I know not but this I am sure of that the republishing of it with some addition was the first remarkable worke which was done presently after the Lord of Canterbury tooke possession of his Grace-ship Which done his Grace was very zealous for the pressing of it to be read in all the Churches of his Province so as the vnwary and hasty reading of it hath caused the dignity of some to kisse the dust and the not reading of it hath cast some out of their livings by suspension yea and out of the Church too by Excommunication though blessed be God their dignity shineth the more gloriously So as the violent and furious pressing of it by the Prelates and their instruments hath proved a most pernicious snare to all the Ministers in England And though the Prelates with their Learned Doctors and heires apparent have pulled their wits broken their braines and sleep spent many precious howers and dayes and moneths in compiling and setting forth Treatises Histories Sermons and such like and all to ouerturne the fourth Commanndement with the Sanctification of the Sabbath day and so bring in Libertinisme and all profanesse into the Church thereby exposing our Religion to the reproch and scorne of the Papists themselves the learnedst of them confessing that their profanation of Holy-dayes caused their Catholick Religion to be Scorned of the very Turkes and hindred their Conversion so farre are we from all hope of converting Papist to our Religion by vsing the Liberty of our vaine and madde fooleries on the Lords Holy day which they detest on their Festivall dayes Yet all their sophistry decurtations of authorities wrestings wrangling windings contradictions vaine distinctions and bold asseverations will never be able to abide the test or yet the light when their drosse and false visard shall come to be puld off Againe besides the dishonour of God and of his word the violation of his holy Commaundement the precipice and downfall of the peoples soules into perdition and the reproch of our Religion and Ministry all which the publick reading of the Booke draweth after it the least whereof were cause sufficient to deterre stay Ministers from reading of it besides many other reasons there is one more and that of no small consequeÌ„ce which makes me treÌ„ble with the very thought of it namely that Ministers in reading this booke to the congregation should declare how the Iustices of Aâ—…s in their severall Circuits are commanded thâ—t no man to trouble or molest any in or for their lawfull recreation such as are there specified Alas then what shall Parents and Masters doe when their Sons or daughters and servants will abroade and take their liberty of Sports at least wise after evening prayer every Lords day and will stay out as long as they please when in the meane time their Parents or Masters being godly disposed would haue them to spend the time at home in the private duties of the day for the good of their soules Gladly would they restraine them but they may not dare not for feare of being brought before the Assises there to bee punished for their Sons or Servants offences And what 's the issue of this Doth it not ingender in youthes mindes too prone to run riot without a spurre contempt of their Parents or Masters being freed by the booke to follow their pastimes on the Lords-dayes after evening prayer so as they will attend upon no private family dutie either requisit for their soules or necessary about the house And though this liberty be dispensed only upon the Lords-dayes and their holy dayes yet it is sufficient to breed in them and traine them up to such a habit of contempt and so of a rebellious humour toward their Parents and Masters as they wil be ready to fly out upon all occasions they wil be contained within no bounds of their obedience Of this how many Masters do complaine but the Iustice that should bright them must for sooth punish those Masters if their servants complaine of restraint And among many other examples of youthâ—… Contempt and rebellion against their Masters and that upon the occasion of the Ministers reading of the said booke in the Congregation I will alledge one related to me in a letter by a reverend Minister of good credit so as no doubt is to be made of the truth of it In October last 1636. the said booke for Sports being publickly read by the minister one Master Hubberd of S. Stephens Parish upon the Lords day three Apprentises being present at the reading of it were so overjoyed at the Liberty dispensed in it as that they spent six shillings that same day at the Taverne concluded to run from their Masters hired horses on the Lords daye 3. weekes ensuing executed their plot rode away towards London were pursued overtaken and two of them brought home made this Confession O coÌ„sider this al ye my brethreÌ„ that have read the booke how many soules you have indangered if not destroyed hereby So as this is a trenching or rather a violent inroade upon the fifth Commandement which saith Honor thy Father and thy Mother c. Thus the reading of this booke to the Congregation teacheth them at once to breake two great Commandements in the Decalogue the last of the first Table and the first of the Second and so cutting in sunder the very sinewes not only of Religion but of all Civill Society at one blow And by this occasion what Ministers instructions Exhortations reprofes of youth in this kind will be of any authority with them when they teach them how to sanctify the Lords day according to his word how to feare God and to honour and obey their owne Parents and masters in the Lord as well upon the Lords dayes as upon other dayes Who then seeth not here a most dangerous overthrow of those two great Commaundements in the Law which are the very pillars both of Religion and of Civill Society and which be ing pulled downe the whole house must needs become a ruinous heape of all confusion And doth not this tend to the inuring and training up of all unbridled untaught and unseasoned youth by degrees to such a height of insolency as that upon some discontents or other occasions as Iesuites baites and seducements they are easily drawne to advance their rebellious lusts against those that bee higher in authority then their Masters and Parents which the Lord prevent Yet such like Souldiers trained up in such a licentiated disorderly campe as that of Venus or the Lady May in their sportfull intertainments are those like to prove who when they should fight for their King and Countrey will bee ready either to take their heeles as not knowing how to keepe ranke or because effeminate Sports and warlike encounters will not suite together Our Homily against wilfull Rebellion noteth how Rebels and Sabbath-breakers goe hand in hand together For there