Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	church_n	government_n	monarchy_n	1,173	5	9.8725	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88272	Lilburns ghost, with a whip in one hand, to scourge tyrants out of authority; and balme in the other, to heal the sores of our (as yet) corrupt state; or, Some of the late dying principles of freedom, revived, and unvailed, for the lovers of freedome and liberty, peace & righteousness to behold. By one who desires no longer to live then to serve his country		1659 (1659)	Wing L2202; Thomason E988_9; ESTC R208068	6,586	11

LILBVRNS GHOST With a Whip in one hand to scourge Tyrants out of Authority And Balme in the other to heal the Sores of our as yet Corrupt STATE Or Some of the late dying principles of freedom revived and unvailed for the Lovers of Freedome and Liberty peace righteousness to behold By one who desires no longer to live then to serve his Country London Printed for Livewell Chapman at the Crown in Popes-Head-Alley 1659. Lilburns Ghost MUST we continue for ever in the Wilderness and not obtain our Promise viz. the possession of Canaan nor yet return to our Egyptian servitude Surely a Divine Hand hath kept us from our possession and made us know the time was not yet come till the Lord hath cut off the murmuring self-seeking and perfidious Israelites from amongst us the same Hand also hath kept the faithful ones from turning to the Egyptian flesh-pots and forsaking the Cause of God for which we have so long contended How near we are to our desired Haven we cannot precisely fathom or how many of our Civil and Martial Grandees loaded with the ruines and spoils of the People and gorged with pride covetousness self-seeking and all manner of filthiness which can in no wise enter the promised Land must be first thrown by before we come to enjoy our promised and much desired possession time will shortly discover The Lord hath in some measure returned to our Camp and with a strong hand hath thrown down the Mighty from his Throne overthrown his Chariots and put a Bit in the mouth of his unruly and pampered horses and hath raised a spirit among the people to cry up the Cause of God and the liberties of the People both which to our great grief and sorrow had like to have been violently and barbarously buried alive at White hall Rouze your selves O ye Free-born people of England and make it appear that de jure the Original of all just Power and Government is and ought to be in you Be no longer cheated of your right nor let the Parliament and Army saddle you with slavery The Scripture clears the point that you are the Original of all power the Apostle Peter calls it The Ordinance of Man When the murmuring Israelites cryed out for a King God bid Samuel hearken to their voice as if he should have said Let them make use of their natural Rights in making choise of the form of Government and after God had nominated the person he left the confirmation and ratification of the Government to the people to shew that the Right was in them and to that end Samuel calls them together and with shouts and acclamations they proclaim him King an evident Testimony that the validity of the Government depended wholly upon the peoples consent and confirmation And indeed the acts of all Tyrants and Usurpers do evidence the same who to make their Actions as just as they can do alwayes endeavour the consent and ratification of the people and to enter into some compact with them and to establish themselves with a shew of Legality which if seriously considered is a manifest confession of what I here affirm I shall insist no longer upon this subject for I hope we may take it for granted on all sides that the Original of all just power is in the people but proceed to the removal of all such blocks which have lain in the peoples way and hindered them of the possession of their just rights and Liberties 1. The first foundation of Tyranny and hinderance of the peoples just rights is the division of a State into Ecclesiastical and Civil It is true the Commonwealth of Israel was thus constituted by God himself but to say that there is the least ground or reason for such a division under the Gospel or for congregating national Churches to be drawn from the Scripture is more then the Learnedst or Gravest of the Orthodoxal train can produce It is clear that Christ came to put an end to the administration of the Jewish form and to take away the pale which confined the Church to a particular nation that all nations might be taken into the Church I mean here and there a few whom the Lord should chuse his Church now is not National it is not a political but a spiritual Body according to the saying of Christ himself My Kingdom is not of this world This division of State is the right hand of Antichrist which hath built up and nourished the man of sin from an infant to a perfect man and hath in all ages persecuted the people of God and been the cause of mo●● of the blood that hath been shed in the world For whatever Reformation or change happeneth either in Church or State the Clergy can soon transform themselves into that shape joyn Issue with the present power and under pretence of errour and heresie binde men to believe their arbitrary Dictates Traditions Errours and blasphemies or persecute them to the death Therefore O Parliament of England whom the good people are pleased at present to own as the supreme Authority and will do so provided you own them and do their wills and fulfil their intents beware you suffer not the Ecclesiastick power to twist it self with yours but on the contrary to prevent making of parties and factions upon a religious accompt and all broils and jars in the Nation declare to the Nation that yen have nothing to do in matters of Religion as you are the civil Authority labour to make good Laws for the punishing of sin and vice and keeping all men civil peaceable and quiet and let Christ alone with his Church whose work it is not yours 2. Secondly that which hitherto hath smothered our declared-for free-Free-State in the very birth was want of care upon the alteration of Government to hinder the passage of Tyranny out of one form into another the affairs of past ages and nations and not onely so but the late actions in this Commonwealth do fully demonstrate that the interest of Monarchy and its inconveniencies have been fatal to other forms and are undenyable proofs that they may reside in the hands of many as well as in a single person We might here for illustration sake produce the case of Athens after they had laid aside their King the Kingly and Tyrannical power sprang up among their Decimal Governors and their Thirty whom the people commonly called Tyrants and not onely so but crept among the popular form who were elected by the Commonalty for want of a strict watch over them to prevent their acting more for their own then the peoples interest Not much unlike this was the State of Florence the Kingly interest sprang up alwayes in one upstart or other in advancing his ambitious ends stept up into a Kingly posture and robbed the people of their right Even so fared Rome with the Tarquins Consuls Senates Decemviri Triumviri Dictators and Tribunes all whom acted the flagitious enormities of an