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A30640 Englands bondage and hope of deliverance a sermon preached before the honourable House of Parliament at St. Margarets in Westminster / by Mr. Henry Burton ... Iune 20, 1641. Burton, Henry, 1578-1648. 1641 (1641) Wing B6162; ESTC R5904 17,112 32

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crave pardon J speake the word of God and therefore you must pardon me if J use those termes which are fitting to expresse it Well now we have taken a short view of the severall branches as it were of the linkes of the chaine wherein we were held in bondage Now in a word that J may conclude turning my selfe to the worthies of our Israel let me desire your patience in a word for confirmation who must doe it what must be done for the freeing of the Gospell of God first who who but those whom God hath called who but the noble house of Parliament and those that have interest in this great businesses they must doe it who but they and therefore wee must pray that God would put it into your hea●●s most noble Senators That God would enflame your hearts with the love of the Church with the love of Christ and of his Kingdome and zeale of his glory and that no one man may usurpe and sit upon the Throne of Christ and that you would free the people of God from this bondage wherein they have been so long holden Secondly what we must doe 〈◊〉 knocke off the Bolts and Shackels of the godly Set them 〈◊〉 liberty and cast off those Shackels wherein the people of God hath beene so holden and when this is done may some say shall wee take away the Government What! shall wee have no Government Surely most Noble Senators give mee leave to present unto you a notable example worthy of all your imitations even from this very Jsland of ours It is recorded in Stories that this Island was the first Province that ever received the faith of Christ an honour to England and God grant that wee may walke worthy of his honour and maintaine it and vindicate it Now in Hollinshed you shall find that when the Faith of Christ was first received in this Province it was preached by Ioseph of Arimathea But now what ordering was there of the Church here in England Hereupon King Lucius taking Counsell for this did not as Ieroboam set up his owne devises but he sent to the Bishop of Rome for to desire him to send him a patterne or modell of such Government which hee thought fit to bee set up in the Church of God The Bishop of Rome sent him this answer as appeareth by the Letter at large You have received the Gospell of Christ you have set up the Gospell of Christ goe to the word of Christ for Christ hath left the two Volumes of the Scripture the Old and the New Testament out of which you and your Counsell may take a Rule not onely for the Government of the Church but of your whole lives This was the briefe summe of his answer to that King Lucius and thereby wee may see that at that time the Church of Rome was in her Infancy for even the Bishop of Rome did acknowledge the word of God the Scripture to containe a Rule for all things done in the Church of God for Government and Discipline and what ever else in the service of God So then beloved we may stand upon good reason who is this Law-giver of the Church of God who is the Law-giver under the New Testament is it not hee that is the Law-giver under the Old what did Christ there did hee not set up a forme of Government and service as hee pleased that hee might make the Oeconomie of that Mosaicall service agreeable to those times He hath now abolished all those Rites of the Old Testament This Christ did so exactly that there was not so much as the Pin of the Tabernacle left for us So then for the patterne of Christ in the New Testament left for us wee must goe by that which Christ hath set up in his word and what is the summe of it the very summe of the service of God is that which Christ saith in the 4. Iob. The time was that you worshipped in Ierusalem and in this Mountaine but the time shall come that they that worship God shall worship him in Spirit and in Truth Christ hath tyed the Church to no Ceremony to shew that all our service and worship of God it must be in Spirit and Truth it must not be in shadowes and types in imitation of the Jewes in their Leviticall services but it must be in spirit and truth But here some will say and J remember that one hath in a written Booke called the Relation of a conference betweene him and Fisher The Bishop of Canterbury I meane pleading for Ceremonies if there be to few saith he they will leave the Service of God naked Naked why beloved are we to dispute or discerne the service of God which Christ hath left without any command from him T is true beloved t is naked and it is in Spirit and truth when it is naked when it is in its owne naked truth Adam and Euah were never more glorious then in their naked innocency when they put on fig-leaues to cover them it was onely a badge of their shame so it is in this respect The Church of God is the spouse of Christ the spouse of Christ must not put on a Babilonish garment lest she be taken for a whore it is a shame for a spouse to be in a whores garment she must be ruled by her husband and therefore we must not goe about to paint the service of God with our colours nor with the colour of our devotion ye fairest face by nature if painted the beauty will be quickly eaten out the painting decking adorning colouring ye complexion of the service of God with mans devises it disfigures the faire and beautifull face of Gods service and makes it seeme like a hag in the eyes of God and indeed there is nothing did destroy religion more then when men began to set up service of God of their owne devising Thus did the Popes from time to time from age to age bring in that masse of Superstition and Idolatrous service So that it is rather the service of man or rather the service of the divell now you must know beloved that Jesus Christ thtt is our Lawgiver that is our Prophet he knew what was to be done in matters of worship who is the onely King over our Consciences as well as our high Priest to sacrifice for us and to make attonement for us we must hearken unto him for he hath done all exactly he hath beene as exact a Lawgiver in the new Testament as in the old will you aske then what service he hath left he hath taught us to pray in the Church of God to preach the word of God he hath taught us to expound the Scripture to old men and yong and for to spend their time in the Church of God he taught Ministers not onely to Preach but also to pray we must give our selves to prayer and the word that is prayer and Preaching But some will say hath he left no other
discipline in the Church no forme of Praier nor Litturgy where shall we get Ministers to supply all the parishes in England men that are able to pray and able to Preach T is true we are in a miserable condition many of our good Ministers have beene sent away and many scandalous Ministers put in their places The Universities have beene corrupted exceedingly and Schooles corrupted bad men put in and good men put out therefore what is to be done in this case why the Lord strenghten this Parliament the Lord strenghten them to worke a Reformation which though it cannot be done suddenly for the Vniversities must first be purged schooles of learning purged good governors set up that there may be a nursery of good Ministers that so in the end the Church of God may be furnished with able Ministers able to pray and able to Preach and in the meane time what is to be done Surely if there be a toleration of the booke of Common Prayer which is a weakning to the people dulling their Spirits wearying the Minister making him unable to goe on in his Preaching exhausting of their Spirits c. yet bind it not upon those Ministers that are able to pray and able to Preach To conclude all in one word with this earnest desire and Petition unto you the worthies of our Parliament that for the better setting up of the Religion of Jesus Christ and the true worship of God you would seperate the uncleane from the cleane by casting out those things that are offensive That you would cleanse Churches of all their abhominations not onely of what hath been set up of late but also of former times As all Images and Crucifixes and also Organs let them be silent brought in by Antichrist in imitation of the Jewish Organs shall Organs be blowing in the Tēple when the Spirit should be taken up in the service of God give mee leave to use my owne President when I was in prison I found more comfort in singing one Psalme with my single voice then ever I did in all those Psalmes upon my Jnstrument formerly J say the Spirit of God had the heart of it which is taken away by mingling it with any Instrument and certainly Christ left no Musick unto the word of God onely that of the heart and to sing Psalmes So Paul and Silas in the prison they sung a Psalme which brake open the Prison doores So our Saviour himselfe left the same example in singing of Psalmes wherein the Spirit of man is taken up and not distracted by the sences of the body And beloved J beseech you give me leave to exhort you that there may be no Monuments of Superstition and Jdolatry that are set up in our times that have bin the objects of Jdolatry that is all crosses in high-wayes and I beseech you that for an example you would begin with the golden Jdoll in Cheap-side that hath been an occasion for many Papists to commit spirituall Fornication J remember in a former Parliament there was a Committee sent to view the Crosse with a purpose to take it down I beseech you doe the like and cast downe all those abhominations that there may be nothing left as an abhomination to the Land in the Lords sight you are the worthies and you must doe it J draw to an end and desire to put you in mind though J know you are not forgetfull of that noble Protestation that you have made for your selves the Protestation is against all Popery and Popish Innovations Popish Jnnovations what are they not onely those that have crept in of later times by the presumption of busie-bodies but those that have bin in the Church of God ever since the Apostles whatsoever any man hath set up in the Church of GOD since the Apostles that are in the sight of God Idolatrous and against ye Scripture that is Popish Innovations J beseech you when you cleare the Currents of Gods service set up Christ in his Throne give him the honour of being our King let us live under his subjection That we may rejoyce in the truth of God and Beloved your Protestation is not made as thornes under a pot to give a crack and away or like a Bee without a sting or a Leaden dagger in a golden sheath having a show and yet is nothing let not the order for banishing of Iesuites and for the disarming of the Papists passe without execution pray God ●here are ●ot more come in since I beseech you that ●ll these may incite you to put in execution those good Lawes and good Orders of this Parliament ●hat which was protested against all Popery and Popish Innovations not to defend any forme of worship or service or government as in the Declaration so then as you may not defend them God forbid so you would cast them out in generall J beceech you make one law for all That if any Minister shall doe any thing in the Church of God which he is not able to prove out of the Scripture if he preach otherwise If he use any manner of Ceremony administer the Sacrament which he cannot prove make a law that they may be punished there are a great many Ministers that are not resolved what to do they would keepe their Ceremonies still and they will wait for what the Parliament will doe you may set up what Religion you please they will be of your religion still There are many Ministers that are of this mind that have related the same before you and as one saith The Bishops they are all for the Pope and the Ceremonies but beloved I hope wee shall have good Lawes made for the punishing of all abuses and to breake off all the yokes from the necks of Gods people labour to throw all offensive things out of the Church of GOD Thus have I done pray you pardon mee if J have Transgressed In the meane time let 's call to God for a Blessing on that which hath beene spoken c. FINIS Obj. Answ. Obj. Ans.