Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A00901
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The fall of Babylon in vsurping ecclesiastical power and offices And the miserable estate of them that pertake of her fornications.
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1634
(1634)
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STC 1101; ESTC S101521
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80,856
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offer to him that overcommeth and that questionles as well by war as spirituall weapons He that is called faithfull and true Chap. 19. doth in righteousnesse judge and make war against her that sitteth on many waters and so doe these that fight his battails To them that voyce crieth Reward her as she hath rewarded you and double vnto her double according vnto her works In the cup c. For she saith in her heart I sit as a Queene and am no widdow and shall see no sorrow Therefore shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine and she shall be vtterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord who judgeth her Notwithstanding that she seemeth daily to strengthen her selfe by plots devises and friends by Iesuiticall and Spanish practises yet fall she must Many thinke this cannot yet be because England doth not yet set against her as if God could not fulfill his worke without the ayde of lukewarme helpers Ioh. 18. and newters Christ saith Euerie one that is of the truth heareth my voyce Therefore if English Prelates and others that beare sway there doe not heare it in theese things they haue cause to doubt that they are not in all things of the truth nor quite come out of Babylon I wonder how they can evince vnto themselves that they are not of Babylon the greate nor pertake of her sinnes who haue no more zeale against her Marvaile not that they doe not desire to have swords drawen against her who scarce endure that the sword of the Spirit should be vnsheathed against Babylon much lesse against those tenets of theire owne which are Romish and Antichristian The ministers of the french and dutch churches though they be not wholly excercised in points controverted which were no wisdom seeing there are many other points of faith and salvation wherein the people are also to be built vp and fortified yet they scarce make a Sermon but in somthing or other they confute poperie and establish the people in the truth as God requireth If English Prelates have not made this course to be in a sort forbidden yet men say that by discountenancing of such preaching they have at least put it out of fashion as foolish and vnproffitable while in the meane they are contented and desirous that men should preach and contend for the authority of theire hierarchie traditions and ceremonies if not for Arminian tenets A thinge that pleaseth papists who looke for fruite of them knowing them to be popish yea many are so foolish as to love and praise this kinde of preaching and to loath the confutation of it as God complained of the Iewes Ier. 5.31 The prophets prophecie falsly and the Priests beare rule by theire meanes and my people love to have it soe and what will ye doe in the end thereof That is when destruction comes on you for it It is strange that men will not see that this theire preaching and contending for humane inventions and errours is to offer strange fire and the entrance way to all corruption as it was in the Church of Rome whose superstition errours crept in by degrees by degrees did eate out true Religion It will be saide it hath not yet donne so in England both the citie and countrie haue many zealous Christians yea many that are conformable I answer true yet they are verie few in respect of the rest and such as beare the Sway who count zeale against poperie puritanisme and are ready to say with them in the Gospell Ioh. 7.48 Act. 28.20 Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharises run this course but this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed Because they walke not after the high Priests the Bishops For as concerning this sect wee know it is every where spoken against And howsoever these called puritans whether they be conformable or peaceable reformists are such as will be religious whether the Bishops like it or noe as som Iewes would be Disciples for all the high Priests Elders and Pharises therefore this is no thanks to Bishops no fruite of theire government who like better of civill and ceremonious men such as pretend love of common prayer though they haue neither knowledge true loue of the word nor affection to defend religion against Papists and theire practises and like hypocrites doe but pretend a love to prayer For in those prayers they say that in knowledge of him standeth our eternall life Graunt vs in this world knowledge of thy truth And yet are enemies to this knowledge and the meanes of it preaching hearing conference and reading of some good bookes They pray for increase of grace to heare meekely his word receive it with pure affection and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit Yet theire life and actions shew that they are so far from loveing these things that they mock and persecute all those that doe as knaves and hypocrites Yet in some cases as God saith of such men Isa 58. they seeke me daily and delight to know my wayes as a nation that did righteousnes and forsooke not the ordinance of theire God they aske of me the ordinance of justice they take delight in approching to God They fast and like the Bishops looke God should regard them for it But though men be never so religious in observing some of Gods ordinances if they despise or neglect the rest or any of them Deut. 15.21 chap. 17.1 the Lord hateth that Religion as a lame sacrifice Theire hands were full of blood and in other things they had transgressed the Lawes changed the ordinance and broken the everlasting covenant Isa 1.11.12.13.14.15 therefore he saith to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me I am full of the burnt offerings Bring no more vaine oblations incense is abhomination vnto me New Moones Sabbaths and appointed feasts my soule hateth And when ye make many prayers J will not heare He counteth all this but complement all religion and would not heare them in these things though he had commanded them who would not heare him in others Like the Prelates who say well that in baptisme wee promise to forsake the world and all the pompe and vanitie thereof Yet can not be perswaded by Gods word to cast theire crownes theire offices and the pompe and vanitie of them at the feete of Christ though it be proved that they are not of God but of men of the world Romish and doe much mischiefe but insteade of confuting they persecute such as pleade Christs cause in proveing these things terryfying all men of that profession more then any other with theire power in the high commission as the Papists doe Protestants with the iniquisition striveing to make them hatefull to Princes and yet keepe theire proofes from theire eyes as if they were worse then the tenets of Papists and Arminians which are not so straitly prohibited nor so narrowly looked vnto B. London
THE FALL OF BABYLON IN VSVRPING ECCLESIASTICALL POWER AND OFFICES AND THE MISERABLE ESTATE of them that pertake of her fornications Revelation 18.4 Come out of her my People that ye be not pertarkers of her sinnes and that ye receyve not of her plagues Imprinted in the yeare of our Lord. 1634. THE PREFACE TO THE Reader IT was a question prophetically asked of those times wherein the Church and truth of God should suffer greatest persecution and opposition why doe the Heathen rage Psa 2. and the People imagine a vaine thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves the Rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his Christ saying Let us breake theire bands asunder and cast theire cords from us But for all these forces and devises of men who are not Iewes indeed Christians indeede but Gentiles and Heathen Yet saith God have I set my King upon my holy hill of Syon and that as he saith to have the Heathen for his inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his possession eyther to rule them by the rod of his power by the revealed word or to break them in pieces like a Potters vessel â—or it had beene sâ—yde He shall judge among the Nations Isa 2. Well therefore is it added Be wise now therefore o ye Kings be instructed ye Iudges of the earth Serve the Lord with feare c. For as the Church of God in generall so every true member of it will be ready to say Chap. 33. The Lord is our Iudge the Lord is our Lawgiver the Lord is our King and that therefore it were a happy thing if Princes and States would be pleased to consider that they are onely Lords over men properly and directly as they are theire subjects and not as they are Christs Disciples Christians and spiritually his subjects withall that God is not pleased with unwilling worshippers whereby neyther Christian societies are bettered nor the persons themselves For while all are compelled to a conformitie especially if it be in things not according to the word of God many haveing presently theire Religion in respect of mans authority not of Gods become Hypocrites Timeservers and a kinde of Atheists which is worse such men by theire formalitie though they have litle else in them doe oft attaine authority in such Churches and thereby get dominion over mens faith in other things For though in the primitive times the Bishops of Rome had no such ample power yet the fi st step to it was that of imposing conformitie in things devised by men by them counted indifferent and innocent if not proffitable and necessary which power beeing graunted them they soone got authority over all Ministers and People and then so much over Kings that in verie pollicie they thought it theire best course to hold all theire subjects in matters of Religion to the obedience of the Church of Rome rather then to adventure the danger of her displeasure whereby they brought both themselves and theire subjects into a far worfe thraldom then that of the Aegyptian bondage What reason then is there that this power thus Popishly taken up should still be maintayned against the poore subjects From the beginning it was not so For the Ancients finding the burden imposed by Heathen Tyrants to be intollerable sayde Tertull. that it is no propertie of Religion to compell to Religion which ought to be taken up freely that no man is forced by the christians against his will Lactanc seeing he that wants faith and devotion is vnserviceable to God and that God not beeing contentious would not be worshipped of the vnwilling And in deede after he had manifested his whole truth the new Ierusalem his true church if these things would not serve to convince men he saith He that is vniust let him be vniust still and he that is filthie Rev 22. let him be filthie still and he that is righteous let him be righteous still Yet doe I not denie all compulsion to the hearing of Gods word as the meanes to worke religion common to all sorts good and bad much lesse excuse civill disobedience palliated with religious shewes and pretences vsed by Annabaptists others or condemne necessarie restraint of publik idolatrie the excercise of all erronious religions So as these rules of reason be held inviolâ—ble That the bond betweene Magistrate and subject is essentially civill but religious accidentally only th ugh eminent So that he is only to hinder and punish that which God would have hindred and punished and to cherish that only which God would have cherished and not by the cunning of prevaricators who serve not the Lord Iesus but theire owne bellies to be drawne either to hold them guiltie that follow Gods Testament or those guiltlesse who erre in theire hearts practises because they have not known his waies nor indeede will know them whence it may come to passe that he that persecutes the chu ch of Christ defeÌ„deth the Synagogne of Satan may thinke he doth God service when he hath rather cause to feare that he helpeth his grand enemie the devill I have therefore endeavoured to shew these things in the fall of Babylon and withall that as the christian Magistrate hath his power of Magistracie from God which his Christianitie serves to sanctifie and direct so vndoubtedly he is to vse it for God and his honour and that in his true worship in which he is espetially honoured and only against the contrarie The world doth ring of three complaints 1. When a State professeth the reformed Religion hath Churches governed by Elders as neere as it can to the practise of the primitive Churches yet by a tolleration or connivance gives leave to Annabaptists Arminians Lutherans Papists and others to have Churches in the same Cities 2. When a State is of the Popish Religion and maintaynes it yet both gives absolute tolleration to the reformed Religion and contemnes it as in France 3. When a State professeth the Protestant Religion and withall a hierarchie traditions and Ceremonies which are Romishe commanding all to a conformitie in them and forbidding all confutation of them and of some other Popish Arminian tenets and practises much connived at In the two first men say if Sathan have a Synagogue or Throne in the one ende of a Citie yet Christ hath a Throne in the other his Temple is open and his Servants have libertie to serve him as the primitive Churches did neyther is any man compelled to other they may freely preach write against all errours This cannot be sayde of the third and therefore if a poore Christian that would flie out of Babylon be forced to dwell in one of them let him learne by Christs word in which he ought to take up his habitation THE FALL OF BABYLON IN VSVRPING ECCLESIASTICALL POWER AND OFFICES And the miserable estate of them that pertake of her Fornication THE church