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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

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CONFORMITIES DEFORMJTY 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 Iesus Christ in sincerity Scripture-Warnings for England if not too late ESA. 1. 5. Why should you be stricken any more Ye will revolt more and more the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint ESA. 29. 9 10. Stay your selves and wonder Cry ye out and cry They are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not with strong drink For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes the Prophets and your Rulers the Seers hath he covered EZICH 22. 23 c. Son of man say unto her Thou art the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation There is a conspiracie of her Prophets in the midst thereof like a roaring Lyon ravening the prey Her Priests have violated my law and put no difference between the holy and profane Her Princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood and to destroy souls to get dishonest gain And her Prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar seeing vanity and divining lies saying Thus saith the Lord when the Lord hath not spoken The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery And I sought for a man to stand in the gap that I should not destroy the land but I found none HOS. 7. 11. Ephraim so England London is like a silly Dove without heart they call to Egypt they go to Assyria ESA. 1. 21. How is the faithful City become an harlot It was full of Judgement Righteousnesse lodged therein but now ●●●●●erers Thy silver is become drosse thy wine mixt with water thy Princes are rebellious and companions of theeves O homines ad servitutem parati Tacitus O men fitted for slavery said Tiberius of the Roman Senate so yielding he found their degenerate spirits to become slaves to his tyranny As Rome was in Livies time of which he said That neither the Maladies nor Remedies could be endured So is England now London Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread-Eagle neer the West end of Pauls 1646. To the Right Honourable The LORD MAIOR of the City of LONDON Right Honourable THis Title salutes you as Lord Major in relation to your Place Office which being Honourable then much more when true worth and vertue makes the Person Right Honourable as in title so in reality Otherwise such usual Titles are but empty founds being but Civil complements and not of any Moral notion As it was the custome of the Heathen to style those their Benefactors who were their Oppressors Christians should not use such flattery For my part I have taken this boldnesse to salute your New Lordship without giving flattering titles lest as Elih● said my Maker should soon take me away And in truth such Places and Titles of Honour as these being well weighed do somewhat resemble the Crown which Henry the 7. of this Realm finding at Bosworth field to be flung in a Thorn-bush said He that knew the weight and cares of a Crown would not stoop to take it up And though your Cap of Maintenance come short of a Crown yet into such times are we fallen as may make your Cap to your self at least being truly sensible of it as heavy as a Crown And if I may speak plainly my apprehensions the well-being and safety not only of this City but even of our fair England claimeth and loudly cals for of you an honourable wise and faithfull execution of your Majoralty this very year all mens expectations being erect some with hope and some with fear according to their severall interests But with what minds soever and for what ends Men made choice of you at this time this we are sure of That Jesus Christ the Lord of heaven and earth who hath all power in his hands as King of Kings and Lord of Lords who raiseth up and throweth down again hath in his wisdome called you to this place at this time to do his will and not your own And therefore in this high and important office and this juncture of time what need have you of another heart and another spirit then your own it being dangerous especially in steep and slippery places to be led by Mens spirits and of new principles from heaven to be put into you as we read of Saul who had another heart given unto him so as he was turned into another man so soon as he was annointed King and all to furnish you with such qualifications of wisdome understanding and the fear of God as may in the due execution and faithfull discharge of your office declare to all the world that your main aimes and ends are more for Gods glory then your own and more for the publike good then for your own private and more to gratifie good men then others though never so high or great and whose designs drive at nothing more then ruine confusion For we are not ignorant what diabolical plots are on foot and how ripe for execution and what kind of Counsellers and active Spirits your Chair and Table yea and Bedchamber too will be haunted withall if experience deceive us not And you shall find their ordinary counsels to drive at two main things yet both reduced under one head to wit Tyranny the one Tyranny over our Bodies Estates Freeholds Liberties Lawes and Birth-rights of all English free-born Subjects the other Tyranny over our Soules and Consciences which are CHRIST's peculiar freeholds and purchase and subject to no other Law Lordship or Kingdome but Christs alone And in truth my Lord in this respect you are in a hard condition in case you should by any importunity be perswaded to interpose as a Judge in the matter of Religion and especially in the point of Church-Government the main controversie of these times as wherein you have been little versed considering how few there be that come to preach before you who set themselves to open unto you this great mysterie of Christs Kingly office and government over Consciences and Churches But on the contrary such as Ignorants most admire and adore as gods upon earth do withhold this truth of God concerning his Sons Kingly government from you nay though under other terms do publikely in your solemn assemblies exclaim against it shut it out of their churches will not suffer others to preach or print it with their good wils but do exasperate and incense you against all those that hold forth this
* The Holy Ghost shall lead you into all truth Therefore the Apostolick Chair at Rome cannot erre Here Mr. Conformity cast your eye a little upon the Scripture and see there what one place you can finde to serve your turn that hath any more likenesse or probability in it for what you claim then those places which the Papists are not ashamed to build their Babel-Towre upon You have talked much of Jure Divino but are not able to crane it up higher then to Jure Humano and therefore I suppose it is that of late dayes since the House put their nine Queres to the Synod the mention of Jure Divino is quite husht And now Conscience challengeth you to produce but one testimony from Scripture for you which will not make you as ridiculous as the forenamed Scriptures do the Pope And for Synods they have no such authority as you speak of Give us one Scripture That in Acts 15. will not serve your turn And the Apostles sought not to humane authority and laws to confirm the Gospel or to give power to the exercise of their ministery Conf. Why Mr. Conscience you your self cannot shew us from Scripture a model of your way though promised and long expected and therefore why should you require one of us Consc We do not require so much of you but to shew us one only place of Scripture for you which you cannot do And for us though we do not give you such a model as you desire or rather dream of for no such model is left in the New Testament as was given to Moses and David in the Old which consisted altogether of externall things being shadows of the spirituall now under the Gospel the pattern whereof was Christ But this we both have done and yet further are able to do to prove our way with all our practises in every particular out of Gods Word which you are not able to do for any one of your practices much lesse for the whole way of your Classicall Presbytery as which hath no footing in Scripture For because you thus urge me shew us if you can in all the New Testament any one Nationall Christian Church Or shew us any one ground for either Nationall or Parochiall Christian Churches or yet any Church fixed to a place so that all people successively comming to dwell there be they what they will godly or prophane Protestants or Papists because inhabitants there must therefore make up the Church there whether Nationall or Parochiall Or shew us that Churches should come by naturall propagation or locall habitation and succession and not by spirituall generation only Or shew us in Scripture either rule or example for a Classicall Presbytery Or shew us in the whole Scripture a State church government allowed of God Or shew us out of the Word that the Apostles constituted no Churches without leave obtained from the civill State Or whether those Christian Jews that constrained the Galatians to be circumcised for the avoiding of persecution did well or no so to constrain and that only to avoid persecution or whether this example will warrant you to constrain all to conform to you either because conformity is free from persecution or because all must be persecuted that conform not Or lastly shew us what better rule or example the Scripture affords for wresting from the Magistrate through the force of importunity by men both many and mighty stirred up and egged on by a Colledge of Priests to reject Christ and his government and deliver him up to their wils to be crucified then that Colledge of Priests in Jerusalem who so incensed the people against Christ that nothing would satisfie them but he must be crucified so as the Magistrate is necessitated even against his conscience what through fear of Caesar on the one side and what for favour of the people on the other to gratifie them with a Barabbas in stead of Christ Now to all or any of these we desire your answer Conf. Sir I only urge this for the present that though the Scripture hath not expressed a power given to men by Christ yet we finde examples of it in the Old Testament as Jehosaphat Ezekiah Iosiah Asa Kings of Judah who reformed Religion and are commended for it as good Kings for their labour Consc They did not set up any new forms of Religion of their own head but they commanded the Priests and Levites to restore and repair Religion in all things according to the prescript and precise pattern given by God himself And note withall that the kingdom of Iudah or of David was a type of Christs spiritual kingdom and all the Kings of Judah were types of Christ So as no other Kings or States are to be paralleld with them But yet I say for all that they went not beyond the precise rule of Gods law as you may see by all those examples you alledge For Christ gave those Kings though types of himself no such power as you pretend Yea the Scripture every where in both the Testaments hath punctually preserved inviolate and entire that Kingly prerogative of Christ as being as incapable of being communicable to any humane power as his omnipotency is or his other offices as High Priest and Prophet For proof hereof Moses for all his wisdom and learning and piety though he were a great Prophet and a type of Christ yet had not this power granted unto him to frame the Tabernacle with all things pertaining thereunto as himself pleased but a strict charge God gave unto him saying See thou do all * things according to the patterne shewed thee in the Mount So David though a King and a man after Gods own heart yet was not entrusted for the framing of the pattern of the Temple for his son Solomon but * God gave him the pattern thereof both by the Spirit and in writing so carefull was God lest David should forget any thing which he delivers to his son Solomon to do in all things accordingly So in Ezekial we reade where the reformation of the Church under the Gospel is typed there is a pattern to be measured as Ezek. 40. 5. to which answereth that in Rev. 11. 1. a place worthy our best observation as pertinent to these times of Reformation which must be measured by the golden reed of the Word of God And for any the least dominion over the conscience by any humane binding law in matters of faith Christ would no more entrust the Apostles themselves then he did Moses and David And therefore * Paul disclaimed it And * Peter disswaded it to the Presbyters or Elders being himself an Elder And herein even servants must not be servants to men as being bought with a price and so Christs free-men And remarkable is that * Scripture where Christ speaking to the multitude and to his Disciples he tels them of the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses chair and so to
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