A WORD in SEASON: OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE Three Estates: TO WIT, The Truly Civil, Truly Spiritual, AND FALSE Ecclesiastical Estate: SHOWING, That this Last, or Third Estate, is a Remainder of Popery, and aught to be taken away.  
Presented to the King and Queen's most Excellent Majesty, Together with the Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS Assembled at Westminster.  
Printed in the Year 1689.   

TO THE King and Queens Most Excellent Majesty: Together With The Right Honourable THE Lords and Commons Now Assembled at WESTMINSTER.  
May it Please Your Most Excellent Majesties, and You Right Honourable Patriots,  
THE Civil State being the Power and Sword of the Lord, to do his Commandments: Therefore when GOD commanded King Saul utterly to Destroy Amalek, 〈◊〉 did it not fully, but spared Agag their King, and the best of the Cattle to Sacrifice to the Lord: The evil effect that befell Saul for doing the Lords Command negligently; was first to himself; God Rend the Kingdom from him; and then to the whole house of Israel, Haman one of the seed of Agag the Amalekite, sought the Destruction of all Israel, had not the Lord by a miraculous Providence prevented it.  
Now, Why must Amalek be utterly destroyed? Because when God had Delivered his People out of Old Egypt, and they were Travelling Peaceably, Faint and Weary, through the Wilderness, to the Promised Rest, the Land of Canaan, a Type of Heaven; Amalek destroyed some of them: Even so the very reason is, why the Lord hath said, The Kings of the Earth shall hate the Whore, eat her Flesh, and burn her with Fire, even these Spiritual Amalekites, the destroyers of the Lords People, that are come out of the Spiritual Egypt, Travelling to the Heaven of Everlasting Happiness and Rest with Christ in Glory, through the Wilderness of this World.  
Now then, because when this Work was begun by former Kings in this Nation, as after is showed, and not yet fully done (in utterly destroying these Spiritual Amalekites, not in their Persons, but out of Church and State, so that they might bear no Office of Trust there,) but have Retained them still; see what had like to have been the effects thereof; their Elder Brethren were coming in a pace to possess their old Places, and had so far prevailed with the King (to his great ruin) to destroy the Nation out of their Rights and Privileges, and perhaps out of their Lives at length, if the Lord had not by his miraculous Providence wrought our Deliverance; so that the Lord hath once more put into the hands of You the Supreme Powers of this Nation, to do the work the Lord hath commanded, fully: Pardon my boldness, There is a time to speak, if fitly spoken, how good it is; which may serve but as a Candle to your Sun-light, in the due sense of these things; therefore this may only serve to stir up your minds by way of Remembrance, That if this work be fully done by You, a Blessing will be upon all your good works, in settling this Nation in Peace; as saith the Scriptures, When the Lord giveth Quietness, who can make Trouble? And when he hideth his Face, who can behold him? whether it be done against a Nation or a Man only, Job. 34.29.   

A WORD in SEASON: OR A DISCOURSE OF THE Three Estates.  
THE Lord God Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and Sea, with all the plenty therein, hath made of one Blood all Mankind to dwell one the face of the Earth, and hath disposed unto them the bounds of their Habitations; according to his Wisdom hath appointed but two State-Pillars or Legs for the Nations to stand upon, the one Civil, the other Spiritual; the Civil State is God's Ordinance of Magistratical Government under divers Titles, as the Lord disposeth, and the Civil State see best, as Princes, Senators, Judges, Kings, for all Powers are of God, whatsoever be their Titles, Dignities or Forms of Government: In respect whereof, they are called humane Creations or Ordinances, and are to be submitted unto for the Lord's sake, for as much as there is given them an Excellent Majesty, being next under God, Head of the Commonwealth, the Lords Lieutenants on Earth, and for their perfect Rule and Guide in Government is given them the second Table of the Royal Law of God, as a most sure Foundation to square all their Laws by to govern their people, who are not to judge for Man, but for the Lord, so shall they not bear the Sword in vain, but use it to the Glory of God, in punishing Evil-doers (without respect of Persons) and for the praise of them that do well, of which Trust or Stewardship committed unto them, they must shortly give an account to the great Judge, the Lord Jesus, at the last day.  
The other State or Pillar, is the Spiritual Rule or Government of the Lord Jesus now in the Kingdom of his Mediatorship in his Church on Earth, whose Kingdom is not of this World, neither are the Weapons thereof Carnal, but Spiritual, and mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down Imaginations, and every high thing that Exalteth itself against the Knowledge of God, bringing into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ; so differeth it from the Civil State: Unto this Spiritual Government is given the first Table of the Royal Law; according thereunto, are all the Laws given by Christ to his Subjects in his Kingdom, his Church; in all things they are to do, or keep in the Worship and Service of God his Father, written in his last Will and Testament, sealed with his precious Blood, unto which nothing may be added to, or taken from by any mortal upon pain of all the Curses written in the Book of God.  
These being the two only States ordained of God on Earth, for all mankind to be subject unto in the Lord, and the nature of them being so different the one from the other, as the nature of a thing Civil and Spiritual, so that they may not be mixed together in their Offices nor Administrations; therefore the Lord constituted the Civil State in the Tribe of Judah, and the Spiritual State in the Tribe of Levi, so that it is and ever was a Sin of High Nature, for the Civil State's Office to do the Work which properly belongeth to the Spiritual States Office; but when King Vzziah presumed to break God's Order, in doing the Work which belonged to the Spiritual States Office to do, the Lord smote him with Leprosy to the Day of his Death, and dethroned him from his Kingly Office, and separated him from Communion with his Church or People.  
Therefore, the Lord Jesus, (who only without Blasphemy, can bear that Title of Archbishop, or Chief Bishop of our Souls; who is the only Lord Spiritual, and Overseer of his Churches, walking in the midst of his Golden Candlesticks) would not meddle with the Work which properly belonged to the Civil State's Office, to give Judgement on a Woman taken in Adultery, no nor divide Temporal Inheritances between Brethren; so that when there arose Strife among his Apostles, which of them should be accounted the Greatest; Christ the Lord reproved them, and said unto them, the Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them, and they that exercise Authority upon them, are called Benefactors, but ye shall not be so; That is, to take on you the Title of Politic Princes, neither to be Lords Spiritual in nor over Churches: Thus we may clearly see, why the Lord divided his Law into Two Tables, because the One appertaineth to the Spiritual State in those things which belong to the Kingdom of Christ in his Worship and Government, and the Other is as a perfect Rule to all Civil State's Government, teaching all thereby, that the Civil and Spiritual States, neither in their Offices nor Administration, may be joined together in One Person; so that the Offices being so different, they may not meddle with the Work in Government, that belongeth to the Other, because it is forbidden, not only by God's Word, but also it is against the very light of Nature, as the Philosopher saith: It cannot stand with the Actions of these Two Offices, namely the Civil and Spiritual; so different the One from the Other, that one Man should perform both Works together, but must needs fall out; when both Duties are to be done, the one would be omitted; so either God is not duly Served, or the Civil State must suffer Damage.  
Seeing then that these are the Two States ordained of God, and that they may not be mixed together without the breach of God's Order; How cometh it to pass, that there is a Third State in the Nations never Ordained of God, nor found to be approved of God by his Word, which is a State partly Civil, and partly Spiritual; under the Tides of Arch Bishop, Lord-Bishop, who fit in the Civil States Privy Councils, and in their great Council of Parliaments, and also they sit as Lords Spiritual, in and over many Churches or Congregations? Now from whence took this State its Original or Beginning, who sit as Lawmakers' in the Civil States Councils, and also do sit as Lawmakers' in Worship to God in their Ecclesiastical Assemblies? surely this is a Monster of a State, partly Civil and partly Spiritual, yet neither really Civil nor Spiritual, but a counterfeit compound of both, first brought forth in its infancy among the old Heathenish Egyptians, who would have their Priest Princes, and the Scripture is witness to it, as it is written Priest of On., Prince of On, Gen. 41.45. so when the Church of God at Rome fell into deep Apostasy from Christ soon after she was delivered from the cruel rage of the Heathen Roman Emperors, Constantine the Emperor being converted to the Faith, under whom great comfort and peace was enjoyed by the Church of God, so that then the Bishops were Bishops of particular Congregations as their name signified, so was their charge, an Overseer to so many as could meet in one place, and communicate together in partaking of the Ordinances of the Gospel; but in a short time, about the middle of the fourth Century, Bishops of particular Congregations, were not contented to be an Overseer to One, no nor to Two nor Three Cities, but Diotrephes-like, strove to have the Preeminence over all the Congregations, which at last was obtained by Sylvester the first, Pope; and hereupon saith John, There arose another Beast out of the Earth, having two horns like a Lamb; So as Horns signifieth Power, so this beastly third State, the Pope, the head of the Clergy, of his own making, was proclaimed, as Writers say, for a Vice God, the Invincible Monarch of the Commonwealth, and vehement Conserver of the Popish Omni-potency: So that although by his two Horns like a Lamb (he pretended Power from Christ) he began to speak like a Dragon against the sealed number of God's Elect, which departed from the iniquity of his invention in Worship and Ministry, and so refused to receive this Beasts mark in their right hand or forehead, that is privately or publicly to submit to his decrees in Worship; so that the Beasts decree was so hot against the Godly, as by the like High Commission Court in England of the same Authority, some time past, that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark of this beastly Clergy, or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name; now what is the Beasts name or mark, but his Law, Decrees and Orders he commanded to be obeyed in Worship, for so the name of Christ is his Law & Power, that all his People are commanded by their Obedience, to set their seal, that Christ is the True God, and the only Lawgiver in Worship: so that hereupon we read, that the Dragon was wroth with the Woman, and went to make War with the remnant of her Seed, which keep the Commandments of God (in worship) and have the Testimony of Jesus; yea, so enraged was one of the Limbs of this beastly Clergy, as he raileth against the Laws and Ordinances of Christ in his Testament, which Christ hath commanded to be observed in the Worship of God to the World's end; namely, T. C. the then esteemed Bishop of Winchester, in his answer to Martin Marprelate, saith, That the Orders and Ordinances Christ hath in his Testament left to his Church, were but temporary, while the Church was under heathen Tyrants; and where the Gospel is embraced by a Christian Prince, they are not only not necessary, but inconvenient, yea intolerable, as bringing in the subversion of the Land, raising up tumults and uproars, and withdrawing the People from obedience to their Magistrates; by this we see how this beastly Clergy inveigheth against Christ's holy Orders and Ordinances in Worship; and do not the same Clergy in this our day, by their actions speak the same words; so long as the Service-Book, taken out of the Pope's Mass-Book, is obeyed, and the Holy Orders and Commands the Primitive Christians obeyed in the Worship of God, is not suffered to be practised in Protestant Churches according to Christ's Testament; so that as the Civil State hath their Books, Statutes and Records, (Esther 6.1.) Charters, together with the Second. Table of the Moral Law, to instate themselves in their Civil Rights and Privelidges, under their Supreme Head and Governor: The true Ecclesiastical State have Laws and Statutes contained in the Old and New Testament, to be observed under the Government of Christ their Supreme Head, in these the Charter of the Rights and Privileges of the Citizens in the New Jerusalem are found.  
The false Eclesiastical State under their head the Pope, Apollion, that Destroyer, together with their Arch and Lord Bishops, they have Books of Cannons and Articles, Book of Ordination, Book of Homiles, and Book of Common-Prayers; so that the Citrizens under this State, are strictly commanded to keep and observe them; so that as one of their Clergy complained in their second Admonition to the Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's time, no Preacher may without danger of the Laws utter all the Truths comprised in the Book of God; it is so circumscribed within the compass of such Statutes, Advertisements, Articles, Cannons; the Book of Common-Prayer, the Bishop's Cannons, every Bishop's Articles in his Diocese may not be broken or offended against, but with more danger than to offend against the Bible.  
Now, shall we ever live to see the day when there shall be obeyed but one Lawgiver in Worship, and the Word of God, the only Judge to teach who is this only Lawgiver, namely, the Lord Jesus, as it is written, The Lord is our Lawgiver (or Statute-maker) in Worship; and again, saith the Apostle, There is one Lawgiver who is able to save, and to destroy; to wit, Christ, who hath all Power in Heaven and in Earth given unto him, therefore he commandeth his Servants, the Apostles, to Teach all Nations; only what he hath commanded to be obeyed in Worship; and hereupon saith the Apostle Paul, He that is a Prophet, or Spiritual, let him acknowledge the things I have written to you; namely, to the Churches, are the Commandments of the Lord; and he that will pot hear that Prophet Christ Jesus, shall be destroyed from among his People: And again, saith the Lord Jesus, Bring these mine Enemies that would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before me.  
Now therefore be Wise, O ye whom the Lord hath put in Authority, kiss the Son lest he be angry; give no longer your Power to the Beast aforesaid, and no longer let the Romish Service and devised Worship, be confirmed by Law in Worship; but let the commands of the Lord Jesus be Exalted only, remembering God's Promise, that you may do his Work, as he hath said; The Horns or Powers that did support the Whore, shall hate her, and shall make h●r Desolate and Naked; Eat her Flesh, and burn her with Fire: This Work was well began by King Henry the 8th. and King Edward the 6th. when they abolished out of their Dominions, the Pope's Supremacy, the Lord Abbots, Cardinals, Monks and Friars; and dried up a great part of the River Euphrates, which brought in the Gain to these spiritual Babylonians, and convened their Revenues to civil Uses, and gave much thereof to charitable Uses; and because these Kings did not the work of the Lord throughly, as God hath commanded to be done, and was done on Old Babylon, a figure of the Spiritual Babylon; as it is written, The Lord would cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, Son and Nephew, and sweep it with the besom of Destruction; and this is not fully done yet on the Spiritual Babylon as it must be done, so long as the Office of Arch and Lord Bishops, Arch-Deacons, Parsons, Vicars, Curates, and many other of that Brood, remain in Office in Church and State, which Christ's Testament maketh no mention of: And that this must be done, is showed by a Mighty Angel, who took a stone, like a great Millstone, and cast it into the Sea; saying, Thus with violence shall this great City Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more, because in her was found the Blood of the Prophets and of Saints, and of all that were slain upon the Earth:  
Now, this City Babylon, Mystery-Babylon, the Mother of Harlots and Abomination of the Earth, which Reigneth over the Kings of the Earth; is not contained within the natural walls of Rome's City, but this City reacheth so far, as her Rules and Orders and Commands in Worship is obeyed, in what Nation soever; so then Babylon the City, will not be destroyed out of England, so long as by Law, her Ministry which is derived from the Pope and his service in Worship, is Obeyed, Practised, or Observed in England.  
Now, therefore hath the Lord by his wonderful Providence put an opportunity in the hand of the Supreme Authority of this Nation, to Abolish all that hath but the scent of Romish Invention in Worship; when as by the example of the Godly Kings of Judah, You are called upon by the Lord to do as they did, to wit, Jehosaphat, Ezekiah, but more especially, that young King Josiah; who so soon as he heard of the Judgements of God denounced against his Land and People, called for the Book of the Law to be read before him, and by it comparing the acts of his Forefathers, and present state of his Kingdom, Rend his ; and for fear of the Judgements of God, in the Sixteenth year of his Age, and Eighth year of his Reign, begun to seek the Lord, and in the eight year begun to purge out of his Dominions the Relics of Idolatry, to wit, all the Devices or Inventions of Men set up by former Kings in the Worship of God, and Abolished the false Ministry called Chemarims▪ so called, either for the black Garments they wore, or for being smoked in offering Incense to the Idols (See the Margin in the Bible in Folio in 1 King 22.5. and Zeph. 1.4.) Now the like must be done in removing the remaining part of the Popish Ministry out of Office, either in Church or State, in the Nations, together with all the devised Service in Worship; so shall the Kings or Civil State, dry up the remaining part of the River Euphrates, and take the Lordly Prelatical Revenues into their hand, to be converted to Civil Use; and likewise to make void that Law which confirmeth the decree of Pope Pascales, that Tithes should be given to the Priest, that so Tithe (that Jewish Heau-offering under the Law) may no more be imposed upon the Conscience of the People of God in this Nation, which Law hath undone many thousand Families, that in Conscience to God could not pay Tithes, because the paying of Tithes, is to deny Christ to become in the Flesh, who was the end of the Ceremonial Law, the paying of Tithes being a part thereof; no man that Truly feareth God, aught to pay it, so that the Tithes may return to every Owner, unjustly exacted from them whose they are, as well that as the rest of their Estate, out of which the Tithes was exacted, by Pope Pascales decree; so that as the Gospel is Free, God's gift to poor Sinners, apprehending Christ by Faith therein to be their Redeemer, Prophet and King, may by a free and willing Covenant join themselves to the Lord, to walk in his ways, and as God shall bestow his gifts on them, they may by a free choice among themselves choose such for to be Pastors, Teachers, Elders and Deacons, as they judge meet; who are to be fed by the free gift of the Flock they feed, while they watch for their Souls, and by the Vineyard they dress, while they see the garden of his Church be weeded, that no Briers or Thorns grow there; but all live in the unity of the Spirit, and bond of Peace, standing fast in the Liberty, that Christ hath made them free, and be no more entangled with the Yoke of Bondage.  
Now, to help forwards this glorious Work in this day of so great Deliverance already begun, that God would be pleased to put into the hearts of the Supreme Power in this Nation to make the People Free, Freeing them from the Yoke of Spiritual Bondage, that we may see in this our day, that word fulfilled, that Kings shall be Nursing Fathers, as was King Jehosaphat, King Ezekiah, and that young King Josiah, and in so doing will bring their Glory and Honour to Christ in his Church, which is Christ's Mystical Body; who hath the Sun for her Clothing, the Moon for her Footstool, and the Twelve Stars for a Crown upon her; She having by Faith and Holiness put on Christ the Son of Righteousness that is risen unto her, as she hath learned him of his Apostles, so is she hereby advanced to heavenly Dignity, her Conversation being in Heaven, She loveth no more this world, of which herself is not, but Traveleth with pains of Childbirth, that Christ may be formed in his Elect, calling them out of Babylon, this false Ecclesiastical State of Egyptian Darkness, into his Marvellous Light, to show forth the Praises of the Lord in Zion, where the Lord God is a Sun and Shield, the Lord will give Grace and Glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk Uprightly.  
Therefore, Oh that all would lay to heart these things, and examine themselves, whether they are in the Broad Way that leadeth to Destruction, or the Straight and Narrow Way, that leadeth to Everlasting Life; seeing how many sorts of People do plead that they are worshippers of the living God, not considering (as every one ought) by whose appointment and directions they do worship God; for the Turks boast, how that they worship the Living God, and concerning Christ (as one saith) the Turks are well contented, that Christ be a Holy Prophet and a most Worthy Creature, yea, the Word of God, the Soul of God, and the Spirit of God conceived of the Holy Ghost, and Born of Mary the Virgin, but will in no case grant him to be the Son of God, therefore no Lawgiver to them in Worship; so that they worship God, by the directions or appointment of Mahomet, according to his wicked Koran; therefore both they and their Service or Worship is not accepted of God.  
Secondly, The Papal Religion boast, That they are Worshippers of the Living God, and do in word, Profess Jesus to be the Son of God; yet they by no means will acknowledge in Works, that Christ is the Son of God, Lawgiver to them in Worship, but do Worship God, by the Counsel and Direction of sundry Popes and Prelates, as Lord-Bishops; so that for this reason among others, neither themselves, nor their Worship can be accepted of God.  
Thirdly, And will not Protestants consider then, that as aforesaid, there is but one Lawgiver in Worship, that is, Jesus Christ, the Prophet, Priest and King in his Church, who was Faithful as a Son over his own House; if he be so, why then is the Service Book, the whole form of Worship in Protestant Churches, which Christ hath not given for directions in Worship in his Testament, but is taken out of the Pope's Mass-Book, as when it was translated into English, the Men in Devonshire Rebelled, supposing their Service was altered, to whom King Edward answered, If the Service in the Church was good in Latin, it remained good in English; for nothing is altered, but to speak with knowledge that which was spoken in Ignorance; and to this agreeth the words of the Papists in their Supplication to King James the First, Anno. 1604. Reasons of Religion.  
They insult against Protestants, saying. That from their Treasure-house, the Religion now Established hath learned the form of Christening, Marrying, Churching of Women. Visiting the Sick, Burying, and sundry other like, as the Bocks Translated out of theirs, do declare.  
These being so gross, that the Lord Jesus should be so despised, who is the Wisdom of God, that Protestants should despise-the Holy Order of Worship in Christ's Testament, and so deny him to be the Son of God, Lawgiver in Worship, which the Primitive Christians walked in for the first three hundred years, un●ill about the middle of the fourth Century, until Pastors or Bishops sought after Dignities to be Church Princes as aforesaid, they about that time begun to take upon them the office of Christ, to be Lawmakers' in Worship; Oh therefore that the Lord would open the Eyes of all Protestants to consider these things before it be too late, and c●st off from them the Romish Service-Book, together with that Prelatical Priesthood, whose Ordination successively they have received from the Pope, as well as that Jewish and Ceremonial Heav Offering of the Law of Tithes, remembering what the Lord said to Israel, when they came out of old Egypt, left Written for our Admonition, that are come out of the Spiritual Egypt, After the do of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelled, shall ye not do, neither walk in their Ordinances; my Judgements shall ye do, my Ordinances shall ye keep to walk in them, I am the Lord your God. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the World, are ye Subject to Ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using after the Commandment and Doctrine of Men, and as a warning to all, Christ saith, In vain do such Worship God, whose fear towards God is taught by the Precept of Men; so than the sure Rule is given by Christ, who saith, Blessed are they that do his Commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and enter in through the Gates into the City.  
Seeing then all men's Traditions in Worship it Idolatry, and no Idolater shall inherit the Kingdom of God, etc. as there is Men Idols, as well as Idols made of other matter: For when Israel had made to themselves a new Ministry in Worship to God, not mentioned in the Law of Moses: These were called by the Word of the Lord, Hol-Shepherds, Zach. 11.17. even so, whatsoever People shall make to themselves now in days of the Gospel, if another Ministry than Christ hath appointed in his Testament, in the Breach of the second Commandment, they are Idol Shepherds; so that hence it is, saith John, Many Deceivers are entered into the World, and the World heareth them; so that after many Exhortations to the Churches of God, one was, Little Children, keep yourselves from Idols, Amen, 1 John 5.2.  
FINIS.