which is against the Law of Nations in the treachery and of common sense and reason in the contradiction But the errour in extream that I would warn you of hath the face of sincerity and Christian honour and perfection maintaining the soul to be all in all and the body or outside of our duties to be nothing and not worth the ordering or regarding who therefore seldom or never open their hands in charity to their brethren in distress but think it enough to pity and relieve them in their hearts that think good works needless least they justle out Faith which is the heart of all Religion that think decent ceremonies and habits in Gods service lawfully ordain'd and answering but to the body to be slighted as Inconsistent with the worship of God in Spirit and Truth which answers to the Soul and that there are to be no Masters or Superiours according to the flesh whatsoever St. Paul saith here to the contrary v. 22. but all to be thou'd with Hat on as equalls because the Soul hath but one Superiour to it that is God The root of such mens mistake lies in this that they conceive Subordinates to be contrary and comparatives wholly to destroy the positive that heart and hand cannot go together that the body and the soul and God and man and Heaven and Earth be inconsistent because the one doth so far excell and out-go the other Two errors there are Antient and modern contrary to one another yet twins of the same womb that have much annoyed and moth-eaten the beauty and glory of the Christian Church in its severall ages all along and brought needless straits and troubles upon many a well-meaning Christian 1. That of Monkery 2. that other of Nonconformity the root and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of both being in the one a Melancholly in the other a willfull Imagination of Inconsistency where there is none for the soul may be saved without going a begging and God may be worshipped as well as Idolatry incurr'd by the reverence of the knee For though this present World compared to that to come be nothing with the Monk as the knee compar'd to the heart is nothing with the Non-conformist wherein both be very right and Orthodox yet considered apart and by themselves out of such comparison they recover again their positive necessary and convenient beinâ— and their use and goodness with their being by consequence As the Earth is nothing in respect of Heaven and England therefore so small a part of the Earth is less than nothing in all reason However by it self positively considered it is a large Territory of many dayes Journey consisting of several Counties and famous Towns and Cities affording large materials for Laws and Government and Order But if Monk and Seperatist be compar'd as to the consequence of their principles or the sincerity of their Discipline the one is found to wrong himself only the other publick peace and order The one to despise the World which agrees with a Christian the other to despise Government which too much agrees with Antichrist Jud. 8. 2 Thess 2.4 withall it 's far easier to flesh and bloud to abstain from bowing or kneeling or capping than to wear Sack-cloath or to live on Bread and Water all ones life It s easier I say and less subject to taking cold to change you into thou than to walk bare-foot all the year therefore the Monk stands further off from the Hypocrite than the Quaker though from the unwise both much at equal distance To place all Religion and Service of God in opere operato or the work outwardly done though without the heart or understanding is Idle and Popish To place none in the outward Reverence of the body before Angels and men is Rude and Fanatical and Scandalous To perform all the parts of our outward duties with care and Reverence but to judge them as nothing and as meer formality compared to the truth and sincerity of our hearts to Christ this is Orthodox and Regular Religion and well pleasing in the sight of God and Reason For great is the natural greater or more sensible is the moral difference between our Bodies and Souls The Body like matter in Plato is a vast spungy dull Earthly lump and substance without any life or spirit But the Soul is a contract and strong and indivisible divine and lively essence and spirit being that in the Body what God is in the World tota in toto Giving life and motion and vigour to all its parts minimum maximi mâ—jus maximo minimi a Mole-hill of Gold is worth a Mountain of Oare But the moral difference between them currant in Conversation and the esteem and value of God and man seems much greater Five words of real English truth from the heart are better received with all men than ten thousand Complements and Grimaâ—ces Though a vast Estate be greatly valued in the World for the port and respect that attends it yet health and life have far the pre-eminence when ever they stand in Competition Yet the one and the other both Estate and life set against the Soul become so little worth that they both must expose themselves at its beck into Martyrdom and Sequestration and the Canons mouth to defend and make good but any one Article of Faith any one Principle of Honour and Loyalty in the heart And your Hectors bid higher who by their Hair-brain Duells and sickly Luxuries and hazardous and ignominious Lusts do loudly maintain that an erroneous thought or fancy of the Soul is of more value and price than health and life and all the World What then must be the worth and value of thoughts sober and wise and true What of the Soul it self the Matrix and mother of them all Therefore God who understands the nature of the Soul takes it for no service at all but rather a contempt which is offered to him by the lip without the heart Mat. 15.8 Ones whole life spent in his service without the heart is not one hour or minute spent therein If I speak with the Tongue of men and Angels and have not Charity that is do it not for the Glory of God and the Edification of men from my heart I am but as sounding-brass and a tinckling-cymbal If I bestow all I have to the poor and give my body to be burnt and have not Charity that is do it for a vain Glory or for some other respect than from my heart to God it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. But this second and principal part of my Text touching the Heart and Soul of our Actions may for distincter method be further explained and illustrated two ways By shewing 1. The Quomodo 2. The Quare The Quomodo how we are to Act is expressed in those words 1. From the heart 2. To the Lord. 3. Not to men 2. The Quare why we are so to Act is insinuated in those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
is transacted here on Earth between man and man the Inside is performed in Heaven through Faith between the Soul and God The height and stature of a Right Christian reaches from Earth to Heaven pedibus terram terit caput inter nubila condit The Originall Model and Truth of all his actions is order'd and contriv'd in his upper-man in his Sanctum Sanctorum where there is access to none but God and his conscience Christ and his heart his outward Actions in his lower man or outward court of the body are but Copies and Proclamations of those Rules from above and are all executed by and towards deputies our hands being the Proxies of our Souls and our Neighbours and Superiours the Proxies of Christ And should a lust or Idoll or Self-interest or Carnall fear steal in or usurp like Lucifer or Antichrist the Throne of Christ in the upper man the Soul the Inferiour faculties below will serve and worship this Impostor or Usurper with the same Allegiance the same fear and trembling as Christ himself which is an abominable Idolatry and confusion and a vile and treasonable Prophanation and subversion of Christs Honour and Soveraignty in us together with that of our own Liberty and felicity Therefore the heart is to be always watch'd and guarded against invasions Prov. 4.24 and kept free and entire for Christ and whatsoever we do we are to do it for no other end or respect and for no mans sake but Christ which is the benefit and Interest of the superiour and Inferiour too The Master or Superiour is happy in the fidelity and Religion of his Servant who is now as diligent in his work behind the back as before the face directing his service not to man who cannot always see him but to Christ from his heart present at all times and places to him in his heart and faith And the servant is much more happy not only in his Immense and Infinite reward for his labour above what his Earthly Lord or Master could ever reach to give but in the glorious liberty and dignity of his condition being not so much Servant as brother to his own Lord and Master in Christ whose Servants both are alike and the chief Rulers of the Earth and the Angels of Heaven count it their chief honour and glory so to be The text as we all men consists of two parts Body and Soul The Body in those words whatsoever ye do ye that is ye Servants which takes in all ranks and orders and degrees of men all from the Plow to the Throne being but Servants Servants either of man or God or both and the word whatsoever comprehends all the duties and Actions of them all The Soul or the heart of my text in the other words do it from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men where there are two parts of this the heart the right ventricle and the left the right or positive part in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Lord and the left or Negative part in the other and not unto men 1. In the right part the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quatenus ipsum as Logicians say between the Lord and the heart whatsoever is done or not done from the heart is done or not done to the Lord in effect and whatsoever is or is not done for the Lord is or is not done from the heart because of the concatâ—nation or eternall correlation between these two for ever Inseparable Liege and Subject God and the Soul for though a sincere Heathen and a carnall Christian seem both miserably out the one for want of God the other for want of the â—earâ— in worship yet in neither where one is present iâ— the other correlative really ever wanting and Socrates and Cicero who serv'd false Gods actually did design the true God in their hearts and will rise up in judgement against such nominall Christians oâ— Catholicks who actually worship Christ but design another end in their hearts their Backs or Bellies or secular conveniences by him and whatsoever is the aim of our heart is our God And this chief end and treasure at the bottom of the heart and intention which as our Saviour notes Math. 6.21 goes ever with the heart is that which as the Soul of the action gives life and formality to it and denomination to the worshipper either of a true worshipper or true Christian where the chief end at bottom is the true God or Christ or of an Idolator or Atheist where the chief end in the heart is the world or self which God well knows and every mans conscience can best tell him which it is 2. The negative part not unto men yea to men as secondary Masters by the order of Christ the chief to Masters according to the flesh v. 22. but not from fleshly motives or worldly respect or fear that were contrary to the nature of the Soul and the faith of Christians for the Soul knows none to be loved or feared but God alone or in reference to him and faith sets us above the world and consequently above all wordly fears or ends in our actings if our actings be Christian and our Christianity be true To dwell on the first part or body of the text and to enumerate all the fair limbs and lineaments of duty belonging to all sorts of men in their severall ranks and orders were in effect to sum up to you the whole duty of man which yet without the second part or the heart in my text would prove but a meer Anatomy or Skeleton the shell without the kernell the body without the soul And though the outside of our duties be nothing if compar'd to the inside or heart therereof and the latter is to be chiefly done yet the former is not to be left undone for how can that be done from the heart which is not done at all or well done before God which is ill done before men before whom we are bound to glorifie God as well as within our hearts I shall therefore fall to the heart and life of my text after warning and detection given of a great and dangerous errour among Christians which lies in the extreme where faults use to lie Not theirs do I mean with whom their body and its wellfare are all in all with them and their immortall Souls but as ciphers out of sight out of mind which is a very Catholick Irreligion not to be refuted here because such cannot pretend to be Christians because they are no men and no men because they deny their Souls falling short of nobler Infidels and Heathens in Wit and Spirit and Religion and hearding themselves unworthily with the beasts that perish having no signs of manliness left but the false magnanimity of wounding and damning there no Souls and vilifying the Lord Christ his Scriptures and Ministers and that before any open renunciation of their Christianity
obedience and submission to Heathen Magistrates do command the same much more to Christian And manifestly condemn the Pope as Antichristian in denying it And as in the World or the Kingdom of God they were Gods Deacons or Liturgists as they are stiled Rom. 13.4 6. or his Ministers for the encouragement and discouragement of Vertue and Vice v. 4. So in the Church or the Kingdom of Christ they are Christs Ministers to serve him with their Authorities in maintenance of Holiness and Order which is vertue in its highest degree and extirpation of Scandals which is Vice and Confusion under greatest aggravation Which trust and supremacy they bore in the Church of God in all Ages under all dispensations in Old Israel or the Jewish Church and New Israel or the Christian Gal. 6.16 For so Aaron gave place to Moses and Nathan though inspir'd counts himself but the servant of his King nevertheless bowing himself with his face to the ground when he came into his presence as his deportment is recorded not for naught by the Spirit of God 1 King 1.23 27. And such was the power and influence of the Kings of Israel in matters Ecclesiastical that the whole state and face of the present Church and the fate and destiny of the land it self is usually comprised by Scripture in one word in the Character of the Kings heart that reigned whether it was right with God or not When it sayes that such and such Kings did that which is good or that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and what was like to follow from such example for no face or figure of Heaven can be more benigne or fortunate No Comet so portending and ill boding to a Nation as a wakeful or a supine Prince in Mercy or Judgment appointed over it that eyes all himself in his Charge or trusts too far to others The Prince is the first and Master wheel even in the Church that gives motion and Order to all the rest all will be at a stand or out of order when this is He is the Architect in the building and ordering both of Tabernacle and Temple according to his Pattern from God he sets all to their proper work and erects and dedicates both the one and the other and places Aaron and Levi in their several Stations each one afterwards to look to their own work and duties of Instructing Sacrificing attoning interceding that God may dwell in the Camp or State as the Life and Soul and Strength there of And their care of Gods Church was not a free will Offering or a generous work of Super-erogation in the Kings of Israel which was their praise and honour to mind and attend and not their guilt to neglect and leave to others but it was the principal indispensable point of their trust and charge For Old Israel might be said to be more a Church than a Kingdom being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lot and Inheritance the Clergy or spiritual Kingdom of God The rest of the Heathen World being revolted from him and kept in slavery under the Prince of the power of the Air Ephes 2.2 And therefore the Governour of such a Nation was more the head of a Church than the King of a Countrey being truly both the one and the other the one supremacy being common to every Heathen Prince but the other proper and peculiar to Rulers in Israel For God himself by particular condescention was King of Israel 1 King 8.7 And men came to be Kings by his permission and allowance as his Vicars and Lieutenants to maintain his Worship and Honour wherein the peoples happiness as well as their Prerogative did consist In the World he was the best and completest Prince that had most of the Councellor or Captain in him to suppress all disorder and violence at home by Laws and all invasions and dangers from abroad by Arms and Courage But in Israel he was the best King that had most of the Priest and Bishop in him to win God of his side They conquered their enemies in the field then best when they served God best at home Their Victories and Successes depended not so much upon their Bow and Chariot or the Conduct of their Generals or the Courage and Number of their men as upon having the Lord of Hosts on their side to go along with their Armies which Blasphemous Lives never had the Happiness to procure that Rule of our Saviour that directs how to prosper in the World being true as well before as since his coming But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Rightousness and all things shall be added unto you Mat. 6.33 For it was their sins that gave valour and prevalence to their enemies and despondency to themselves Then was there War in the gate when they sought after new Gods Jud. 5.8 The children of Ephraim carrying Bowes turn'd their backs in the day of Battel because they kept not the Covenant of God Psal 79.9 And it was their Piety and Repentance made them miraculously Victorious when over-match'd Yea the Heathen Historian observes and confesses the like touching the Roman Empire that its progress and success was founded in sincere zeal for their Gods as its decayes and overthrow to arise from profane remissness and easie Luxury Upon good reasons therefore as well of Conscience and Equity to approve themselves Faithful and Loyal to Gods Honour and Interest to whom Kings are immediate Subjects as they expected the like Fidedelity and Loyalty from their people appointed to be their Subjects as of publick wel-fare and prosâ—erity to their Nation obliging Arguments with riâ—ht Princely dispositions We find the best Kings of Israel and even Heathen Kings when sober chiefly to imploy their Royal Authority and Power about matters Ecclesiastical to suppress Idolatry to reform Abuses to settle wholesom Laws and Fences about Doctrine Worship and Discipline in Gods Church To put down high places Groves Idolatrous Altars Sodomites-houses and all strange Religion as did Josia 2 Kings 23.4 5 6 7. And other Kings to break in pieces the Brasen Serpenâ— though made by Moses when abused to Idolatry as did Hezechia 2 King 18.4 To send able Teachers throughout the Land as did Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 2.8 to Dedicate and Repaire and Purifie the Temple as did Solomon 1 King 8.29.6 and Joash 2 Chron. 24.4 and Hezechia 2 Chron. 5. To institute the Feast for the Dedication of the Temple as did the Macchabees 1 Macch. 4.56.59 which our Saviour honour'd with his presence Joh. 10.22 To restore the celebrating of the Passoever to its Ancient Rite 2 King 22.21 To appoint a Faâ—r to save his Nation as did the King of Niniveh with success Jon. 3.7 10. To decree Blaspheming Hectors to be cut in pieces as did the King of Babylon when converted Dan. 3.29 To appoint Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal 2 Chron. 19.8 Amaria the Chief Priest in all matters of the Lord and
men as well lay as Clergy are bound to know upon their duty and Allegiance to God and their Country and Justice and Civility to their Neighbours least they be betrayed by willful Ignorance to aid an Usurper against the Right Heir wherein no more learning or Logick is required to master and understand the point but so much temper and Judgement as serves to hear an evidence and discern between soul and body or God and Creature or Christianity and Heathenism or Loyalty and Treason and to lay hand upon heart and to follow either the Laws of God and man whereby all men are Rul'd or fate and Providence whereby they are Over-ruled But whether in Gods mercy or Judgement we are to be freed or continued under our fears and anxieties to the fixed and resolved in faith it signifies no more than putting on a Winter or a Summer habit either the militant Garb of Patience to our great reward and comfort and your great account which alone can abate it or the Triumphant of thanksgiving to the mutual solace and bliss of both But as for the weaker flock whereof Paternal Princely bowels and pastoral charge are ever the most tender with what security and content will they lye down beside the still waters in green Pastures when they shall have such a Shepheard to be their guard and back and a terrour much less a harbour to the Roman Wolves that would devoure them How will the Mountains skip like Rams and our little Hills like Lambs Great and unparallel'd was our joy for your R. Brothers Restoration and your own together to your Ancient Rights and Dignities over us that the whole Nation seem'd like unto men that dream'd but so great is the sence and fear of Spiritual Slavery upon them and their children more insupportable than any Temporal which it also may draw along with it that the joy of that day is like to be but a dream indeed compared to those exultations and full content and streins of hearty Triumphs if heart-strings can hold that shall break out in every street and corner of the whole Nation with Bon-fires and Feasts and praises reaching up to Heaven and thence to earth again in the responses of Angels to our Anthems at the day of your return from the danger of errour to our Church and our blessing and the truth That your R.H. will be more glorious in the end than in the beginning after your Victories over temptations and deceitful guides like the Sun after an Eclipse which is the present trust or shall ever be as it ought the daily prayer and study and Patience of Your Royal Highness most humble most dutyful and faithful Servant T. JONES TO THE READER THe first part of this discourse being deliver'd before a worâ—… City Company and for reasons conceived just to be published comes forth with the addition of what was omitted out of regard to the limits of the time and the order of their feast and with a large corroboration of the chief exhortation therein against Popery Which Controversie is here reduced to one point whereon all the rest depend The Soveraign Authority arrogated by the Bishop of Rome and yielded to by many either more grossly over men's hearts and Judgments whereby many Surrender their reasons to him or to that Church by implicit Faith to Act many things out of Roman-Catholick obedience which the Laws of God and man and Truth and Honour and Conscience and natural affection directly forbid where therefore the dispute will lye between Christ and his high pretended Vicar which of them is God and the chief Sovereign and Legislator of the heart and the measure of good and evil and Judge of quick and dead an Argument of our Romanists being under a manifest curse and blindness to doubt or deny his Soveraignty either by word or deed whom all Christians in their Creeds do and are to recognize for their Lord upon the Peril of Eternal Damnation Or more plausibly claim'd upon some colourable pretences in reference to this Island where the Controversie then must lye between the Forreign claim and yoak of the Triple Crown who had nothing to do here Originally more than any other Bishop and the native rights and Immunities of our Brittish Crown and Mitre which all Inferiours are bound to defend and maintain not out of Conscience or Allegiance only but for fear or upon the Peril of Damnation Temporal and our Superiours also upon their honour and trust and account to God being no less a tye and their own self-preservation likewise it being their essential Prerogative to have none here before them which no chief Superiour can quit without a contradiction and dangerous diminution of his Soveraignty And the first of these pretences is Antiquity whereby some Illiterate amongst our Ancient Brittains are led to believe and stile the Modern Roman Religion the old Faith as if Ancienter than their own true which is 600 years Senior to Apostatical Rome which prevailâ—d here for 700 or 800 years and not a few years elder to Rome Orthodox and Apostolical if not its first Mother and planter before the real Arrival of St. Paul or the doubtful of St Peter amongst them The second is a belief or inconsideration of some few of our Learned English that the English Nation receiv'd their first Faith from Rome by Augustine the Monk and others intruding here whereby Rome can be conceiv'd by such no less than a Mother-Church to England by consequence the third a consequent stumbling block hereupon that our Reformation was Schismatical or the Daughter Correcting of her Mother which were inconvenient for Generous Princes to countenance least they give an example thereby of like disobedience and Insurrection against their own Authority All which pretences being false and groundless in themselves are herein revers'd and pluck'd up by the roots And the true Original Arch-Schismatick and sire of the brood and example is fully detected and unkennell'd the peculiar game and Sport of our Brittish Princes of most Renown and spirit and success Cadwalhan ap Cadvan Henry 8th Q. Elizabeth And not only the Right and Title of our Brittish Church in each respect asserted but the truth of Christian and natural Religion in General is also resolv'd into first and proper Principles of fact or Faith or Reason a Method well agreeing with the Soul and understanding which in all men are stamp'd with the same Divine broad Seal and natural Allegiance to God and Truth The chief principles made use of if heeded being two the difference between the Soul and Body and between God and Creature or between Creatures themselves in their several parts and Characters personating the Rule of the one or the subjection of the other which are ingredients that pervade all duties as 24 Letters all Words and Syllables or 7 Notes all variety of Musick or Black and White all Colours and are themselves resolv'd into their first Authour and Founder in whom alone we live
he was to expect from any who had been Elder If the Gospel be true and Christian this Doctrine of blind obedience which is one of the chiefest pins or props that supports the Fabrick of that Church is false and Antichristian If God be in the World this pernicious Hellish Model that is so contrary thereunto ought to be hiss'd and exploded out of it with zeal and indignation by all Generous and Religious Princes and by every honest man that loves God or his Saviour or mankind But when the Inferiour obeys his Superiour from the heart as unto Christ the one commanding the other observing not what his own heart doth prompt or lead him to but what a conscientious heart directed by Christ gives leave to either and expects not from any other either observance or obedience further than usque ad Aras as far as Christs Law permits then all are right and happy in this Regular obedience in the Lord As I have already and may further shew And indeed without this Rule in my Text to regulate and enliven Quod tibi fieri non vis it self which is the Rule of Rules and the sum of the Scriptures all Societies and enjoyments all converse and friendship would be false irregular and degenerate Friendship it self would be Hollow-hearted Counsels treacherous Promises wind mens tongues full of nought but lyes their hearts of uncleanness and their hands of bloud and unrighteousness Their Justice would be Cruelty their Wealth an Idol their Power Tyranny their fears wild and causeless their Joys and pleasures mean and sordid their desires Feavers their mirth madness their Sorrows Apoplexies their Reasons Vagabond their best works but outward shew their Vertues Scene and Hypocrisie For when the Soul is out of Christ every Action is out of Tune and order and account for as our outward Acts without the heart are frigid and dead and null so the Actions of the Soul it self without an aim after Christ are all impure and illigitimate and null But Christ and the heart super-added to every Action shall give it Truth and Rectitude and life and permanency every thing becomes true and lovely by agreeing and answering to its proper Rule and measure When the heart agrees with Christ its rule and Judge all Hypocrisie and impurity departs when our thoughts agree with such a heart they are cur'd of their vanity when our lips agree with such thoughts and such a heart such a rule and Judge there will be no deceit in them when every Action of our whole man copies out our heart as our heart copies out Christ we recover our Original perfection which consists in agreement to that Idea and Image of God in Holiness and true Righteousness according to which we were created by him and were restored to it by Christ as we fell from it in the fall This is Truth throughout the whole man and Christian and that Truth perhaps which Pilate desired but did not deserve to know from our Saviour For in such Acts and converse which have life in them as from the heart and Sincerity and Holiness as unto Christ the Souls of all men upon trial and experience find Truth and satisfaction and peace of conscience in them and but disappointment and vexation and lies ever in the contrary And Praise and Honour and shame and Infamy from men and Life and Death Eternal from God following close upon the heels of the one and the other are suffrages for this Truth beyond exception And what makes good men makes good Subjects and Rulers by easie consequence Out of Christ all would be uppermost and Supreme and none a Servant or Subject to another from his heart and with his good will whence arise Wars and Rebellion and poysons and steelettoes at opportunities whereof Histories especially Heathenish are so full and some Christian to their greater shame But in Christ our subjection being transferr'd over from men to the Lord our slavery is extinguish'd and our service enobled and made agreeable to our Souls which know no Lord over them but God and Christ and all pride and stubborness and secret murmuring is now turn'd into good will from the heart towards our Superiours whether mild or hard As is expresly taken notice of by the Apostle and with care recommended to Inferiours in a parallel place Ephes 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good will doing service to the Lord and not to men The Church makes no alteration in properties Luk. 12.14 or mens vocation 1 Cor. 7.20 much less in Constitutions of Governments or Civil Rights either of Kings or people but leaves all to the Reiglement of Municipal Laws and publick Contracts and local Customes which are secular things to which the Church is dead saving any thing of Conscience or duty to Christ or justice and mercy that may arise in and from them the Alteration therefore the Church makes is in the hearts and Souls of men and not in the outward things themselves It binds all rights and Duties established by Law upon any manner of persons with the bond of Conscience additional to that precedent bond of Law and Civil fear And humane Laws be they never so provident will have their oversights and holes for trangressors to escape if Conscience be not kept up in men which makes that which was a trespass in the outside against the Law to be treason in a Christian in the heart against Christ his Lord and he suffers for his offence not only as a Malefactor before men but as a Reprobate and Rebel in his Conscience to his Saviour Thus St. Paul states the matter of Christian obedience Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake For whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 5. If therefore Inferiours would obey their Superiours from the heart as unto Christ according to my Text would there be such fraud in Servants or any sedition or Rebellion or Non-conformity in Christian Subjects towards their Christian Masters and Governours Could they have the heart or Conscience thus to fight against Christ out of a tender Conscience What else is it to be Antichrist and visible Terrene Atheists against visible and Terrene Gods Nothing gives a greater blow to the order of the Universe and more provokes God to try his title of Soveraignty against men to the certain misery of the weaker side than Disobedience and Rebellion to Parents and Princes that on Earth do represent him next to Tyranny and ill example in Princes and Parents themselves It being more stupendiously monstrous and irregular to find Kings that stand for Christ to be Merciless or unholy than Subjects that represent the Creature to be frail and froward More contrary to the course of nature and experience for Parents to be unnatural than Children to be undutiful or Masters to be unjust and cruel than Servants to be false or
negligent Therefore the inspired King recommends it as their wisdom to all Earthly Kings To kissâ— the Son lest he be Angry and so they persh from the right way Psal 2.10 12. This Son is the Messia the Lord Christ in my Text whom to kiss is to submit to his Laws to love his nature and to imitate his way and example to win the hearts of the World And to chuse rather to die as he did for the liberties of their people than devour their Birth-rights or Sacrifice their Lives in whole â—hecatombs and Myriads to their pleasure and ambition Full Dominion and full Liberty which both covet Governours and Governed are both obtain'd when both observe this Rule in my Text Governed obey from their hearts as unto Christ and Governours rule from their hearts according to Christs mind and will for the same Gospel which binds the one to submit binds the other to protect and to be compassionate tender Fathers as well as the other dutiful and mild Children That the Prerogative of the Prince should be preserv'd by the people as their own Interest and Glory and the liberty of the people preserved by the Prince as his chief trust and honour Even as the Church loves Christ above its own life and Christ his Church in like manner and that they preserve not each themselves apart which would tend to coldness and alienation and trespass and removal of bounds in the party unreasonable but that they mutually transplant and place their own preservation and Interest in the maintenance of each others right as it were forgetting their own and this begets endearment and firm trust and union and peace between both parts and the contrary tends to separation and to divide the Nation and Kingdom against it self especially when the one or the other part shall plead themselves free from their duty jure divino and the other bound which suggestion cannot be from the God of peace and order but from Satan and Antichrist the contrivers of Confusion But when both are as they should be that is both discharge their duty from the heart as unto Christ which is all that the Church meddles to direct in state matters then both should have their wills and great peace and blessing from God besides the soul best directs the body and the body best obeys the soul when both are as they should be and enjoy their several healths natural and moral being free from all Disease and Vice but let the one be Sottish or the other Hydropical and be enclined to neglect or over-reach the one the other they shall observe no bounds but covet on Insatiably against one another to the burden and ruine at last of both The happiness and bliss of a Nation consists in this when the Prince who is the soul and the people who are as the body enjoy both their several healths Mens sana in corpore sano which all good Subjects ought and will ever pray and wish for and is only attainable when both observe and follow the directions and Prescriptions of this Text. Thirdly this Text is of use to discover and confute false Doctrines that creep in among us some more covertly others more openly and with a high hand threatning the utter Subversion of the Church It serves first to convince Socinians or Modern Arrians and Anabaptists who labour to suppress and overthrow and deny the Divinity of our Saviour God blessed for ever For if the Lord in my Text who is in the following verse expressly affirm'd to be the Lord Christ be not the High and true God then to do all from the heart as unto him were flat Idolatry in us Christians which yet our Inspired Apostle prescribes and binds upon us all as our indispensiable duty and that in contradistinction to men do it saith he to the Lord and not to men manifestly owning thereby his God-head besides there are two Attributes implied in this and another parallel Paragraph Eph. 6 5.-8 belonging to this Lord. 1. First that he is the searcher of the heart 2. That he is the Judge of of the world according to the secrets of the heart which are not communicable either of them to any Creature in Heaven or Earth neither to Angels nor Archangels but to him alone who is the true God Christs Divinity which these dangerous Hereticks would overthrow is the main Pillar and Foundation of all our Christian comfort For because he was truly God that was it gave price and Infinite value to his death for our Redemption whereby he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soveraign Lord of Christians as our Creeds acknowledge And because he was the eternal Son of God that also was it that gave beauty and exstasie to his unparallel'd astonishing humility and love in condescending to take our nature upon him to die in it for us when we were his enemies whereby he became Lord of Hearts and all knees in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth bound to bow unto him and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2 6-11 Rom. 5.10 This merit and humility of his death is that which is recommended in Sacraments to our remembrance and in Brotherly Charity towards one another to the Worlds end And the impudent imitation of Antichrist is not the least proof amongst many of Christs Divinity as St. Chrysostom well observes who would not have acted his part so forgetfully as falsely to assume to be God 2 Thes 2.4 if Christ had not been truly so SECTION I. The Controversie reduced to one single point in General of Obedience to the Right Soveraign of the heart and Protestancy found Loyal and Popery the contrary in its principles and Practice BUt in the Second place I shall chuse to enlarge and insist upon a more necessary Exhortation because the danger of seduction grows daily greater that you and all other Christians here in Britain would be carefull to preserve your selves true and stedfast members in the day of tryal of an higher Society into which you were early enrolled for more Holy and Eternal purposes and to be obedient to your own good Laws and the Governours that are over you by Providence and by consequence to God himself in them and not to fall off as many false hearts are like to do like leaves in Autumn upon a cold nip or trial into forraign Dirt and Captivity and imposture from which the Wisdom and zeal of your Progenitors have set you free for Originally as the learned on both sides know our Brittish Church never was a Daughter of Rome nor Subject to its See being Ancienter in Christ and Seniour to the Church and Chair of Rome it self or the first arrival of St. Peter there were the Tradition or Legend true But what availeth it to have been unless we still be a true Church agreeing with the mind of Christ which some will by no means allow Take therefore for some instance the
Fathers and Governours within their several Families depending on them for Education life and maintenance Invict Christian Princes and Holy Bishops in their several distinct Provinces and Kingdoms in matters of peace and order and external Ceremony being publick Consciences in their several Dominions which are so many larger Bodies or Families yet none of these are absolute or infallible any further than they agree with a Superiour Soveraign will which alone being such is their Rule and guide communicating its Infallibity to them that follow it which all are bound to do Now who this Infallible Soveraign guide and judge is whether the Pope in his Chair and Bulls or Christ and his Scriptures written in the Bible and mens hearts and Consciences seems to be the Question between Rome and us The Roman Church affirms it belongs to the Pope being near and visible on Earth The Reformed will have it to belong to Christ who is far nearer to mens Souls though in Heaven With Protestants the Invisible Soul is correlate with God its Invisible Lord where is its rest and satisfaction With Papists it must be correlate to the Pope a visible judge and guide else it wanders in uncertainties like a lost sheep Or though both agree perhaps that Gods mind and will is the Law and Rule of the Soul yet they vastly disagree about its promulgation That is Gods will say the Papists what the Pope defines to be his will that his Scripture and sense thereof what he allows and nothing but the sense of the Pope must be the sense of God though never so sensual and Carnal or contrary to truth and to common sense But Protestants hold Gods mind and will to be and to have been knowable by men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at several times and several wayes Heb. 1.1 Not only in the time of the Old Testament and before by the light of nature and the Law and the Prophets and Angelical Revelations and Vrim and Thummim and Visions and Dreams But also in the last dayes by his Son in his Holy Gospel and other inspired Writs delivered to his Church and sufficiently attested to the sense and Conscience by Miracles and right Catholick Tradition And that it is the first and proper work and duty of all mankind as soon as they come out of their Infancy and Non-age as on the one hand to know the difference between God and the Creature and the right and wrong Soveraigns and Legislators of their Souls and to follow truth and vertue which are ever the Laws of the one and to shun vice and lyes which are the dictates and Impostures of the other so also carefully to discern between the Authority of the Master and the Servant or the Prince and his Officer between the Canonical Scripture which is the Divine will and Testament of Christ and humane Tradition which is the Testimony of his Ministers subject to and controllable by and by no means Superiour to the other for next to the confounding of God and Idols in our values who are so infinitely contrary The levelling of all distance and degrees between Master and Servant though subordinate and friendly is most absurd and abominable with all sober Christians saving them at Rome with whom the Authority of their Church or the Pope which with them is equivalent is usually exalted above the authority of the Holy Scriptures though the will and mind of Christ the undoubted and confessed Lord and Master And we also hold that truth in the General which is ever Gods will and mind may be well known by men divers wayes without the Pope As matters of fact and Tradition by the Testimony of honest men of good lives and clean hands and Holy minds and Inclinations free from all worldly ends and designes in their report For where God alone doth rule and possess the heart there we may be sure of truth and sincerity where any Carnal interest or Idol prevails instead there we are to expect lyes Legends and Impostures which are the Dialect of false Gods as truth is of the true God dwelling in the heart And in like manner by the Oaths of Credible Neighbours wherein God is called present to the heart and mouth and by the decrees and sentences of Magistrates and just Judges who in Scripture are called Gods and the General consent of Nations vox populi vox dei and by every mans diligence and search after Truth as after hid Treasure which God rewards and prospers Prov. 2.4 5. and his pains and study in History Languages Customs Criticism c. As in the use of means without which God is tempted But instead of all these methods with Papists the sole report and decision of a Pope though unlearn'd or swayed perhaps by Interest or Avarice or Ambition or Fear which mislead the heart and tongue from God and Truth shall nevertheless be relyed on as an Oracle Infallible more conclusive than the famous Delphick and the heart and Conscience in every man which were made to indent with God and truth be totally excluded and silenc'd in that Church under the notion and bear-skin of private Judgment and opinion which endangers all Yet Protestants resolve to follow the former methods in whole or in part let the Pope contradict or Curse as much as he please So Papists are led by Authority Forraign and often false Protestants by Truth Domestick and more sure They follow the Doctrines of men as did the Scribes and Pharisees heretofore we the voice of Christ and the Commandments of God as all Christs sheep ought to do Herein I say lyes the main difference between us and not so much in those other many points and and Articles wherein we are divided As Image-Worship Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Purgatory Indulgences c. Which are and will be Learnedly and voluminously defended on each side to the Worlds end while each party resolves firmly to adhere to the God or Idol that either have chosen for their guide to the last gasp with stedfast zeal and constancy For if Protestants as well as Papists could believe the Pope or the Papists as well as Protestants did once believe Christ to be this Infallible Judge and guide all Controversie between us would soon cease and be laid asleep The whole Controversy lyes therefore in the choice or rejection in obedience or disobedience to the right guide or immediate Soveraign of the heart whether Christ or the Pope And exact obedience to the wrong becomes perfect disobedience to the right Superiour And that the Issue will lye here may further appear from each ones case stated by himself and their charge and imputation each against the other and from the state of the question naturally arising hereupon For the Protestants say they take Christ and Scripture and Conscience and what agrees thereto for the guide and rule of their hearts and judgments And that the Papists take the Pope and hold opinions and practices upon his Authority against
or transgressors of that Law and Law-giver there is but one who can save and destroy James 4.12 The blessed Lord Jesus Judge of quick and dead at the last day whose deputies on Earth in the Interim are consciences in Private souls and Magistrates and Governours in publick bodies who are as the souls of such bodies whether Temporall in Externall or Ecclesiastical in more Internall matters and concerns who are all both Private and publick conscience Subject and accountable unto him who alone is Judge and Soveraign And therefore we can do nothing against Christ upon any mans Authority whatsoever and being found faithful to him the sole and Supreme Judge and Soveraign of our souls we trust to be found Gods Catholicks though we are but Hereticks to the Pope who is not our Judge rejoycing in mans aspersion while we have Gods Absolution to wipe it off for not he who commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor. 10.8 SECTION II. Of the true Mother Church in particular to all Christians in respest of their In-side and RomesVsurpation HAving shewed that no Christian Churches or persons are subject to the Pope while himself is not subject to Christ the right Superiour and Soveraign over all nor bound to offend against Christ to please his pretended Vicar all being bound to withdraw their Communion from him who shakes off the undoubted Soveraign over all I will further shew that though the Church of Rome were sound and un-corrupt in its Doctrines and Loyalty which it is very far from yet it neither is nor was ever any mother Church to our British Church nor can have any right or title to its subjection or obedience It never had any Original motherhood or superiority over us of right nor in fact at any time but by the Concession of our Princes imposed upon by its arts which they may justly recal and take away at their pleasure as hath been done So it appears it's themselves that necessitate us to desert their Communion out of Christian Loyalty to our Saviour by them first deserted and deposed in a treasonable manner and his glorious Majesty chang'd into the similitude of a Calf or a Mortal Creature that perisheth which is the first spring and root of the rest of their desperate and monstrous Errours which bear the manifest spots and tokens of Antichristianism in the strength and infallibility of their Delusions Though we can and ought to bewail and compassionate their condition and slavery yet to return to their bosome as to a Mother Church we understand not how it is our duty or sober obedience were it sound or healthy yet we doubt not but she hath angl'd several sincere and ignorant and unwary Sons of this Church with that bait We confess we have been pin'd and stary'd under her for hundreds of years as under a hard and cruel Stepmother while harbour'd by the Fathers of our Countrey imposed upon by her inchantments whose issue by her as by a second venter upon her divorce became appurtenant to the Father and are incorporated with the first stock and Family but sure we are she never teemed of our Brittish Churches who never were the Daughters of her womb nor sucked our first milk from her breasts For whether their inside or their outside or extraction be consider'd they appear to have no descent from Rome Neither can they instance or insist upon any other point or manner of Pedegree and derivation of one Church from another For as it is with every private man if his inside and Soul and Spirit be examined whence it came it came from above from the Father of our Spirits Heb. 12.9 and to return in peace to him that gave it is its utmost aim and bliss Eccles 12.7 If the outside or his body it came from the Earth whence it was first taken and whither it must return If his intermediate descent he springs and proceeds from Fathers and progenitors of the Flesh and owns their superiority and Discipline and honours their names and memories So it is with all Churches and Christian Societies By our inside we are not from below or from beyond the Sea but from Heaven Jerusalem above being our mother and Jesus our King the King and Lord of Souls By our outside we are under our own Kings and Governours on Earth as our Nursing Fathers and Mothers according to the Holy Prophecy As to our descent Old Christian Britannia is our Mother to whom the Antient Church of Rome is Junior in the Faith and much more any of her Perking Daughters or Clergy which shall be further proved in every particular And first as to the inside of all Christian Churches and of the Church of Rome it self if she will be a Church of Christ and of thousands in her that have not bowed the heart to any but to Christ known to God There is no Mother-Church to be accounted of but one only the Spouse of Christ expressed by name in Scripture Heb. 12.22 Not the City of Rome who rather is under ill report in them but the City of the living God The Heavenly Jerusalem which Gal. 3.26 is by the Apostle Stil'd the Mother of us all and which is free and answering unto Sarah whereas Jerusalem on Earth answers Hagar in her servitude and yet Jerusalem below is more a Mother of all Christian Churches than Rome it self or any other here below for Rome her self had her extraction thence her St. Peter and his Chair and the Gospel and Christ himself she and all must derive originally from Sion And if the Mother be not free much less her Daughters for no Soul or Church can be said to be free in her exile and servitude whiles she serves any other but her own natural Prince who is Christ alone the High Priest and Bishop of our Souls who is at the right hand of God in that Heavenly City and Assembly of the Faithful For Christ is the sole Monarch and Legislator in this Spiritual Kingdom and none are free Subjects here but those who obey him alone and no other Controller His will alone is the Law and measure of good and evil and duty and transgression He enacts and repeals and dispenses and absolves he alone can search and reward and punish Souls The everlasting concerns of Eternity and the secrets of mens hearts transcend all humane authority and cognizance and reach No secular Powers are to tread within this Temple but are to stand without in the Court though Christians and in the further Court of the Gentiles if Heathen or Antichristian Christs Deputies and delegates in this Heavenly work and Province are all Bishops and Curates who by their life and Doctrine set forth his true and lively word and rightly and duely Administer his Holy Sacraments who yet have no power or property or Authority but from him Neither is the word they preach 2 Thes 2.13 nor the Sacraments they administer 1 Cor. 4.1 nor the Absolution they
vain glory to be constant to Antient Errour and will accept to be Gods Catholicks although they may be branded for being Hereticks to the Pope therein may the blessings of Heaven be multiplyed upon every one of them and their Posterity for ever according to the numbers and Myriads of hearts in Heaven and Earth they shall with their own refresh thereby In the second respect as the Church is a Society of Christian men standing in need of Government and Peace and Order and outward decency and Regulation in its publick Worship and Communion against scandalls from within 1 Cor. 5.11 or tongues and censures from without 1 Cor. 14.23 Authority and power must of necessity be allowed in such external matters to those that are Superiours and Governours in such a body without whom it were as impossible for it to be kept in any order as for an Army to subsist without any Officers or Commanders And here if any where the Pope is to put in his plea and claim for Supremacy which cannot be well denyed him at Rome and his Suburbicarian Territories where he hath the Power both of Prince and Bishop but he never originally had over (a) Praefat. Monastic Anglican part 1. Millain and his next neighbours the seven Provinces of Italy heretofore under their own peculiar Jurisdiction without appeal to Rome or conformity with it in several of its Catholick Ceremonies and ways of Devotion particularly the Roman Fasting upon Saturday much less over our British Isles which never were within the Diocess or Bayliwick of Rome by any right besides its new exclusion by the Supremacy of our Kings becoming Christian the rising of the one being the setting of the Glory of the other like the Baptist giving place to Christ For though before Kings be Christians the Bishops and Officers of the Church were Supream in their several limits It being equally incongruous and inconvenient for the Church in Church Affairs to be under Heathen Government as under none at all Yet Bishops themselves though of Christs own appointment and Institution gave place and precedence to Kings and Emperours becoming Christians who are Lords of our outward-man and Gods of the outside in all communities allowing them to be now Christian heads of their Christian as they were Civil heads before of their Civil Dominions and Territories And contenting themselves to be eyes to these Christian heads and not the head it self their Counsellours under them and not their Lords above them under any colour or pretence The Bishops of the Church being to resemble the Stars in the Firmament of the Church as they are stil'd by our Saviour Revel 1.10 who are to Rule by night as chief when there is no Sun to shine but as soon as the Sun appears who resembles Christ and Kings his proper Deputies and Vicars then though never so fixt they withdraw their splendor and dis-appear as to Lustre but not as to influence and assistance being ready in case of any Antichristian Ecclipse to peep and shine at mid-day as the dotage of Parents manumits the Sons and in case not only the Sun be overcast but the Stars also with it by some Carnal Sympathy and compliance or thick storm and cloud be intercepted from us why may not private Souls below take each Gods word and will in the Bible or Conscience in the Creed or Babtismal vow as a Lamp to their feet and a guide to their path when there is no other light Ps 119.105 Why not beg the guidance of the Holy Spirit that leads to all truth which is not denyed to fervent prayer 1 Joh. 2.20 27. Luc. 11.13 The Cessation of Fathers and guides on Earth doth not dissolve the Allegiance or hopes of Orphan Christians from their Heavenly Father but very commonly makes the dependance nearer and closer and the assistance wonderful as in the Case of the late glorious King deprived of his Chaplains of numbers of Religious Christians such as St. Bernard Gerson and others under the darkest times of Popery and many British Families in England deprived of their Teachers in the Pagan Invasion of the Saxons The right Christian Soul neither is nor can be deprived of Christ her best self whether her guides on Earth remove or stay Rom. 8.38 39. where she hath Superiours left she obeyes them in Christ which is the best obedience on Earth where none are left Christ alone hath her whole heart and immediate service which is the obedience that 's paid in Heaven as Noah is said to walk with God the times being so corrupt he had none else to walk with here Gen. 8.9 But when God doth bless a Nation with guides and deputies under him the chiefest heed and duty of the Soul wherein her wisdom or folly before God and man and her self appears is in her chusing and cleaving to her true guide and superiour and not the wrong for by mistake herein the rights and honour of the true Superiour and representative of Christ shall be Sacrilegiously with-held and prophanely conferred on the false which is her case and fate in every sin that engrosses her affections where the honour that 's due to God alone is paid to an Idol for want of heed and difference to be made between what is her real and that which is only her seeming good and lure to deceive her And the Errour that may be commited in the Recognition of wrong Superiours over us under Christ in External matters of Religion For in Internals or externals there is none to be over us but himself is twofold either 1 In specie in kind or 2. gradu in degree The first is a mistake in the whole as if a Subject of France should take the King of Spain for his Soveraign in such a case his obedience to the wrong is Treason against the right Superiour and is not his obedience but his sin the mistake in degree is between Superiour and Subordinate where respect and obedience is due to both but the respect that 's due to the Master is given to the Servant and the Steward honoured above the Lord and the Officer above the Prince that Authorizes him which is the usual honour of those that make blind obedience and advantage more than conscience the measure of their duties The last is more absurd and faulty for the first is liker madness and distraction one purblin'd in his Intellects may be guilty of the one but none can be guilty of the other but him who is wholly blind and mad For God and nature directs men and Christians and Irrational Creatures themselves to make a difference between Friends and strangers and though to be civil to all yet not to rely and trust on those we know not as much as on those we know The word Hostis for an Enemy at first did signifie a stranger so easy is the transition that is between them and in Church dependance which is our present case God hath given great Instances to the world
recover the spirits but they shorten life Da Kelwidh tra' coelir Od eir ymhelh gwelh iw'r gwîr saith the Brittish Proverb A Lye may do while it is believed but at long running Truth is better But this whipping story was not well feigned and designed to be believed for true by wiser posterity however it might for the present delude an ignorant Heathen For we seldom or never read that separated souls but only Christ or Gods Angels appear'd to men to direct them at a stand saving in one case where it is hard to determine what appear'd to Saul whether the Ghost of Samuel or the Devil in his shape withall this action more fitted a Town Beadle than a glorified Apostle or if St. Peter must be so severe and Butcher-like it might rather be not for his departing but his staying behind the rest of his Companions to disturb good Christians and corrupt poor Infidels with a false and bloudy Religion or if there were any reality in it beyond Melancholly or Art it might rather be the wrath of a tormenting spirit for deserting his cause or if done upon himself with his own hands we have presidents of Crafty criples b Cooke's Inst part 1. p. 127. endicted for the like stratagem to move compassion before some of our sage Judges But Mellitus his rushing c Bed lib. 2.7 into the midst of flames to quench a great fire in Canterbury with his Prayers looked more like a true wonder especially in one of his race and Principles who if not belyed are better skill'd in burning Cities than saving and blowing up States and Kingdoms as is too well known What Religion can that be or what obligations can it tye of obedience and gratitude upon Intelligent minds and consciences that 's supported and Propagated by Divine lies and Impostures so hateful to God and conscience and honour every lye as Cicero could observe carrying d Cicer. off l. 3. Perjury and Atheism in it in its defyance and slight of God and conscience which it sees and knows to contradict it and the lye that quotes God for its Author being the most abominable and worst of lyes No less were the converting Miracles of Augustine himself the chief Thaumaturgus which imposed upon the belief of venerable Bede and much more upon the less descerning multitude not only in restoring sight to the e Bed lib. 2. c. 2. blind Saxon he brought Punteus-like with him for to have tryed it upon an honest Brittain if there had been any at the disputation might have prov'd as difficult if not as impossible as his more necessary guift of tongues and that not about any point of Salvation or the extraordinary Glory of God but after miracles had long ceas'd in the Church designed only for the unbelieving about a trifle about some scruples or minutes of the Calendar in a Gamster-like wager and imitation of Elias the main juggle and drift being to discredit and subvert an Ancient Church in their well built Faith and Customs with Legerdemain But more especially and most abominably in his Enthusiastical Prophecy of f idem War and ruin to the Brittish Doctors and their People by the Arms of their Enemies for not joyning their assistance with him to Preach the Gospel to the English Quibus vir Domini Augustinus fertur minitans praedixisse c. to whom Augustine the man of God is reported to Prophecy by way of threat that if they refus'd Peace from Brethren they should receive War from Enemies and suffer a revenge of death by the hands of the English to whom they refused to Preach the word life Wherein he entitles God himself to all the lyes and mischiefs and spoils and murders and massacres that were contriv'd to attend this prediction which he grounded upon three false Assertions First that the Brittains envyed the Gospel to the English 2 That he good man came hither from Rome for no other end but to Preach it to them 3. That because they refused to joyn in that Ministry with him for the Salvation of their Souls therefore God had reveal'd unto him a Mene tekel or a suddain destruction to come upon them by their Enemies 1. And the first is the strongest exception or Quo Warranto to overthrow the Christianity of the Churches of Brittain to the just forfeiture of their Sees to rhe greater zeal and diligence of Rome that we hitherto met that against the chief precept and example of their Saviour to love their Enemies the badge of true Christians they should have that living sence of the loss of this present world to which they were dead by their Faith and Baptism as out of Satanical discontent to let go their hold of the other likewise and suffer themseves to be beaten out of their charity and duty as well as their Country and to revenge to Eternity a wrong of time But that experience daily imforms that doing of a wrong more dissolves all charity in the soul than suffering it and that men usually hate where they hurt though they be forgiven and secur'd by a Christian temper against the suspition of revenge and repercussion for he that wrongs another fights and assaults the Almighty in whose hands and Laws all mens persons and beings and consequently all mens rights are preserv'd and kept Act 17. and every conscience upon its reflection and sence of such a War is either presently smitten into Infinite repentance and restitution or becomes harden'd diabolically in its Rebellion and cannot rest till it finish its hatred and destruction of the Innocent without cause as it first began but it is not so in suffering wrong especially with Patience and forgiveness wherein we become liker to Christ and every loss in this is gain in the other world and a manifest token according to St. Paul Thess 1.5 6 c. of just fear and hope of damnation or Salvation respectively to the one or to the other and the Brittish Apothegme Duw a ro Imi fymhenid yn y bid yma God grant me all my pain and Penance in this world will well agree with the Apostolical Triumph we glory in Tribulations wherein we are more than Conquerours and beholding through him that loved us to them that hate us Rom. 5 3.-8.37 So that it is more in reason to be suspected and fear'd the Saxons were more averse to hear the Gospel from them as Hector Boethius well observed h Invisae Gentis magis quam Disciplinae de quâ multa atque praeclara frequentius Audiverant odio permoti lib. 9.171 § 10. than the Brittains to Preach it to them who brought it to their doors as Bede covertly and loathly intimates and maintained their Cross and Church at Canterbury in the Metropolis and Capitol of their Enemies where they were disabled to keep their Colours and when through pride of Victory some af the Saxons Heptarchs scorn'd Salvation from the hands of their Masters whom they had made their Vassals
only is an acknowledg'd duty and an indelible behaviour and Instinct in the Souls and Consciences of Heathens as they may be satisfied at large by Seneca without fear of any Heretical Pravity But seeing it is made evident they did not receive their Religion from the Romanists but from the Brittains or Irish and Scotch of Brittish Institution and extraction and what they did receive was not Corn but Tares not sound food of the Soul but poison rather That they nevertheless against truth and modesty and Breeding are ever minding and upbraiding our English Nation with this no Courtesie of theirs or their Progenitors and calling for everlasting Tribute and perpetual obedience and subjection from us for their endless molestations and corruptions This use however may at lest be made of this their disingenuity and impatience That as on the one hand they through folly and impertinence Cancel their own supposed merits by their minding and dunning and that with such frequency and loudness enough to make men deaf with such depredations and reprisals and plagiums or Soul-stealing and other revengeful attempts and distresses upon us for want of their supposed due Rent enough to make the meekest their enemies out of Indignation being guilty thereby of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Self-felony against themselves and their Interest overthrowing their title of Supremacy by their own Act through unskilful management so on the other it is matter of much content and gladness and ease of heart unto us that our Ancestors some descents agoe have return'd back unto them all the Errours and Superstitions we ever here received or had them thrust upon us to silence the cause if not the impudence and conscience if not the cry And if I rightly guess at the minds of our Superiours by their designes and the profession of some of our late chiefest a Dr. Hammond of Shism p. 160. Pillars we will give them leave to search every Corner of our Church and where they find any one Doctrine or Rite or Article that hath not a Brittish Apostolical stamp and mark upon it but bears the mark or Armes of the Goods and Chattels of Monk Augustine on them or any of his intruding Successors we are content for quietness sake for who can endure everlasting dunning and upbraiding and that without any cause or colour that they seise and take them to themselves with all our hearts and we shall not think our selves poorer or further from Salvation by it but pray God that they may be nearer Neither is it very advisable in them to keep such a din with the little or noe merits of their Ancestors lest they become thereby responsible in all equity for their great wrongs and mischiefs for reparations of injuries may be demanded where returnes for Courtesies cannot as it is more consonant to nature for Creatures to complain than for God to upbraid or for weak Children to cry upon the least cause than for Parents to complain for the greatest and for their monstrous pride and hypocrisie and scandalls and murthers and Schismatical usurpations and the utter destruction what in them lay which ill became Christians and Catholicks of the Ancient Orthodox Apostolical Faith among the Brittains and of the same afresh after replanted among the English or Saxons by Brittish Ministry and the Corruption of our Rites Customes Ordinations Manners with their Roman-Catholick mixtures and Superstitions The Invasion of our Brittish Sees Dignities Monasteries and Ancient Ecclesiastical endowments b Apud Usher p. 125. by our Brittish Kings though the preheminence and influence of their New See of Canterbury settled and continued here by force and Schism as to them against all Laws and Canons and Civilities and Christian same to the extinction or suppression of our Ancient Archiepiscopal Brittish Sees of London and York and St. Davids at last which kind of attempt upon their Ancient Chaire of Rome would they have brooked with patience And not rather attempted the removal or prevention by any means though indirect and Rebellious and Hellish to the endangering of all Christendom rather then fail as is too well known by experience And which further aggravates their Diabolical Impudence and unconscionable Antichristian encroachments is their pretending at last their unjust usurpations which every day and year they continued were multiplied into new wrongs by time and Age to have changed their Nature and to be become a righteous title Bonae Fidei of unquestionable Supremacy which for the oppress'd to shake off by lawful means and the miraculous assistance of Divine Providence respecting in his own time the groans and cryes of harrass'd Innocence is no less than the great Crime of Schisme and Ecclesiastical Rebellion and Pollution of our Land in departing from the Catholick Faith And that a Thief by smothering his light and holding fast his Stollen Goods against his Conscience becomes an Honest-man at last and the Honest-man a Villain for challenging or recovering his own by just and lawful means That Mahomet by so many years prescription by his Sword and Imposture hath now good right and title to his Domination and Tyranny over the Eastern Churches and that it were an ungodly Schisme in the poor Graecians to accept of any deliverance from their long and miserable slavery either from Cod or man For we do not and cannot deny Romes Intrusion and inroads upon our Brittish Church and the consequent corruption of several of our Traditions and Ancient Rites in publick at lest and for a time when they swayed our Chairs and soil'd and disturb'd our Ordinations and Successions with their Roman mixture for well it was if our Ancestors were able within door then and in their hearts to retain their Ancient Rites and principles by Orall Tradition as they term it from devout Parents to their Sons yet our Ordinations received from them in such times were as good and as valid as any they had or now have amongst themselves but we have reason to count them our ill fate and grievance for otherwise our own had continued pure and regular and Brittish from the Resurrection to this present And yet their violent Imposition of hands in those dayes in the place and right of our Brittish Bishops was their guilt not ours who resisted it while we were able and greatly rejoyce at our deliverance from it and by no means if it be Gods will would return under it any more And God measures all by the heart especially in matters of Church and Religion according to my Text it s the sincerity and untaintedness of the heart makes the best Catholick 1 Tim. 1.5 And what was done unjustly stands undone and what by force and necessity was yielded to against the heart and will was not yielded to in reason For id sit quod jure fit is a Law Maxime and Tyrants are but great Lords of Nullities by the exemption of the will and Soul from and the frown of Heaven upon all bruitish unjustice and
children before his face as it were by a just Judgement of God wherein it is likely the Popes had no more hand in the contrivance than Monk Augustine a few years after in the bloud of Bangor though some while after we find them openly and Traiterously destroying not Emperours only â—at the Empire of the East it self and despising and chopping the Kings and Emperours of the West as fast as Tarquâ—n did Poppies till they stumbled upon a Brittain And Holy Gregory kept fair Communion with this bloudy Phocas in Letters full of Honour and Respect nevertheless and his next or next Successor saving one who sate not half a year Boniface the third obtain'd from the Grant of Phocas that Universal Primacy wherewith they have troubl'd the World to this day which in others was Antichristanism by confession and yet themselves are the men A Phocâ obtinuit Bonifacius magna tamen contentione ut sedes B. Petri Apostoli que caput est Omnium Ecclesiarum ita diceretur haberetur ab omnibus He obtain'd with much ado of Phocas that the See of St. Peter which is the head of all Churches in their fansie should be so esteemed and accounted of by all d Platina in Bonifacio tertio They were and still are long studying and hammering for a square and proportionable Title and Foundation to bear this grand Fabrick of Universal Monarchy in the Church The house of Pudens and our Ruffina their Ancientest and Truest was too narrow The undoubted residence of St. Paul in their City was their most Honourable and Glorious Title but more serviceable for Salvation than for Supremacy for it made them but co-ordinate yea Junior to several Churches of Greece Athens Ephesus Thessalonica of the same Plantation Constantine's Imperial Graunt was Subject to change of time and Emperours to change of mind therefore no shoulders seem'd broader and fitter than St. Peter's to be their Atlas who yet if ever he came to Rome came thither upon the score of the Jews who were his peculiar charge as the Gentiles were St. Pauls as is plain from Scripture and their own e Spondan An. 51. n. 4. confession according to the appointment of God Gal. 2 7. and the decree of the Hierosolymitan Synod and their particular respective undertaking lest therefore by this they were at best but Popes of the Jews they 'l borrow help from St. Paul and both shall be their founders together in despite of God who made them Separate but then there are other Prerogatives since assum'd by that See of deposing Kings and Emperours and transferring Kingdoms which cannot be well derived from Fishermen and Tent-makers and Subjects Therefore it is a more adequate Title to be Christs Vicars by whom Kings Raign but because his Kingdom was not of this World nor his Mission while on Earth but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel The Roman Parasites discern that the Plaister is never broad enough for the sore till he is Vice-Deus or e Torturi Torâ—i p. 361. Vice-God on Earth as they begin to stile him in their dedications And this comes nearest to the Scriptures 2. Thes 2. Now it is not my design at present to display the great mischief and bloud-shed and confusion that did arise to Christian Kingdoms and Churches from this groundless Primacy nor the Enchantments upon souls by this Castle in the Air nor to examine whether Turcism or Popery have been the greater Nusance to Christendom or which was the greatest wrong to the spouse of Christ to be slain or defil'd to be pillag'd or divided For all Churches heretofore from one end of the Earth to the other were all as loving Sisters of one and the same Family under one and the same roof tyed to one another in a lovely knot and Union of mutual charity and preference and still might be if by the mercy of God and zeal of Christian Princes this common disturber were raised from being Servus Servorum an Hebraism for a great slave to be equal in Vote and Authority in Publick Councils to other Metropolitans and Primates his Reverend Brethren who otherwise hinders all with his proud humility and detestable Union of slavery But my scope and purpose only is to vindicate our own Rights and Liberties and to unmask this Bishop and his Clerks who come as thieves in the Coat of Christ and St. Peter to steal away our Crowns and Mitres and to seduce wel-meaning people and unwary Grandees to assist them in the Robbery out of Conscience and to burn and destroy us as Hereticks out of zeal for keeping our own against this their Phocacian Monopoly and Usurpation which c Whâ—lock not in Bed l. 2. c. 8. Monk Augustine and his Successors were sent hither to execute amongst as many as they could abuse and deceive For what fair obligation upon Conscience which is ever correlative and corresponding with Gods will can this Intrusion on the Fights of Neighbouring Kingdoms and Churches have which is so expresly forbidden by the Laws of God and Nations and the Canons of the Universal Church Can God be contrary to himself or one Catholick Church to another or the same Lord Christ be both the Avenger and Patron also of such as over-reach their Brethren or remove bounds and Land-marks Doth not Conscience bind them rather to aid their injur'd Neighbours against these holy Robbers and to study reparations wherever they were miss-led to be accessory and assisting to such Burglaries upon the Innocent If it be good Catholick Religion and Conscience to swallow hand over head any Tradition oâ— gloss that shall produce a Commission from God against his express Will and Precept to the contrary Then Adam and Eve were commendable Catholicks in hearkning to the Serpent to the ruine of themselves and their posterity and we in protesting from plain Scripture against such glosses and suggestions culpable Protestants Protestancy is not a name of Schism but of Duty and eternal Allegiance of the Soul to God and Truth against Atheism and falsehood and the works and words of the Devil in any shape The Act that pass'd at Germany about an 100 and odd years ago in protesting from manifest Scriptures against gross Errours counterfetting Divine authority was a duty in general 1500 years before and more and will be still to the Worlds end The vow of Baptism makes every Christian a Protestant from the Font. Nothing more makes Roman-Catholicks and Cardinals and Popes than a Carnal forgetfulness and abhorrence from such Protestantism It is not believing as men would have but as God in his word and will would have us to believe that makes true Catholicks and Christians for Christians are to resist temptations whereof the most prevalent love to be cloathed with God and Religion fatuus the Latine for a fool is conjectur'd to be deriv'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perswade one that is easily won to believe any Lie or Legend or Imposture Old Adam and
succeeded the Roman should be Antichrist yet none must be Catholicks and right Christians but they alone How far they may prevail on any of our Great ones with their tale and story I cannot tell yet the generality of the Nation God be praised are not so forsaken by him as to love to be so deluded but are as deaf as Vlysses against such charms what attempts soever have been used to prepare and mollifie them by debauchery for the Imposture and ready to answer these Impostors as did the Neighbour-hood in the fable the beggar at Towns-end with his counterfeit Lame legg Quaere Pergrinum vicinia tota reclamat go to Japan or Hispaniola to set up your Stage and boast your receipts In England mens eyes are open and the mystery too well known yea the Wisest and Stoutest and most Prosperous of our Kings and Princes in former Ages our Renown'd Edwards and Henries and Elizabeth have sufficiently unkennel'd these Foxes and hunted them and their craft and their stink and their fire-brands and their trouble far out of our Church and State But when ever by a Judgement upon a Nation they light upon any that are more tractable and credulous their first attempt will be immediately like that of a Crow setting upon a young Lamb for prey to play first at the eyes to peck them both out to sink and fix Implicit Faith and blind obedience like two hollow pits instead And then the rest of the design shall be finish'd with less disturbance and every blow and Inconvenience never seen till it light and then also Conscience and Honour and Publick Peace and Truth and the Allegiance of the soul to Christ must make no objections after the Judgement is once Idolatrously resign'd yea should they offer to draw back when they see their errour and danger for to err is human to recover is Angelical to persevere is Diabolical How will these false guides grinne and shake their heads if not brew worse things in them at their departure or their return from Forreign cheats to God and their Country and the Truth How will they rip up and wound his name and honour with the Imputations of Inconstancy Weakness Apostacy Perjury and what not as the unclean Spirit tore the man in the Gospel when he was to quit possession for doing no more but what themselves as they are men and Christians ought to do in point of duty and safety upon the Eternal Allegiance of their Souls to Christ and the Truth and count it high honour and glory in great ones to lead It being in reason a greater Arrival and perfection to be wise and holy against the deceitfulness of sin and Satan than to be couragious amidst dangers Scipio and Alexander being more admir'd in Story for their Continence than for their Conquest for their Victories over Beauty than over Enemies If our Romish Pretenders had any the least descent or resemblance in bloud or temper or Spirit with the Ancient Roman Worthyes or any drop of Camillus or Scipioes bloud in their Veines who valued the honour and Sanctity of their false Gods above their lives and Empire could their great and clear Spirits thus descend to pervert the Gospel into matter of Trade and Merchandize or truel and plaister their mean and unworthy ends with the bloud of the Son of God And make his Glorious Resurrection and Ascention a Varnish for their secular usurpations And his chief Apostles and Holy Catholick Church complices and Vouchers of all their Frauds and Tyrannies and Treasons Which is manifestly done when any wrong to men or Churches as the Case was made plain in our Brittish are palliated with their Sacred Names and Authorities as the practice is as plain and common in their Romish Church towards us and all Christendom besides If it be counted miserable Ignominious Harlotry corpore questum facere how much more abominable is it to make the like Trade and sinful gain of the Gospel and Christ and their own Souls as well as those of their Brethren It were far more fair and generous in them and the lesser of the two evils to renounce and deny Christ and his Religion outright than so to profess it and to spit in the face of their Redeemer than thus to kiss him and to abuse without ceasing his most Holy Name and Faith to â—oâ— and deal and cheat and disturb the World as it were a less indignity to a person of honour to be denyed Quarter than preserv'd alive to tread Morâ—eâ— or to gâ—ind in a Mill. Tolerabilior esâ— qâ—â— morâ— jubet quam qui turpiteâ— vivere Can any sort of Christians be more realâ—y Heathens saving such Ambidextrous Protestants who for their present advantage and Interest can promote Popery in their Countrey though they believe it to be a false and a dead Religion and betray their own which they possess and know to be most Orthodox and sound preferring madly a superlative Carnal self before both Religions and their own truth But though those of Rome are far from Old Romans either in Faith or Fame or Bloud yet so are not we in England from the Old Brittains in either of these respects But far ouâ—â—oing both in another good quality of containing our selves within the bounds of our Isle without great and just cause to sally out and not coveting turbulently other mens rights or their Kingdoms or Churches which is true past doubt of the Brittains in Wales and was prov'd before at large as to the English In the great and as it were second Deluge of Christendom for their Gygantick sins by Goths and Vandalls and Normans and Saxons for inundations of Nations in Mystical Scriptures are compar'd to those of Waters Rev. 17.15 wherein most other people were swept away and drown'd and their Languages and names obliterated and Scepters and Churches overturn'd our Brittains alone charg'd through and surviv'd the brunt of all Invasions and swame to Land through all those Billowes alive and safe with their Bibles in their hands and their Creed in their hearts and their own Language in their mouths living to see their Church restor'd to its old liberty and purity their Crown to their own Flesh and Bloud and the divided Island to great Brittain again Before their nunc Dimiâ—â—is and dissolution by Incorporation with the English Nation or rather Re-union with their Loeâ—â—â—a Brethren recovering themselves through Gods wonderful mercies and Resurrections to innocent and long sufferers and his blasts and periods upon Lines of Bloud and violence in 〈◊〉 Princes and Nobles and Generality into Oâ—a 〈…〉 again as was prov'd before diâ—â—câ—ing perhaps in names and Dialect but not in Nature and Humour and Succession to the like generous defence of their Faith and Glory being â—oth observâ—d in their Dispositions for the most part to be alike Fearless and Harmless and Warlike and Liberâ—l and Religious and subject to Indignation and neither the one nor the other our Modern or Middle or most
and that promise to be believ'd and relyed on and God to proceed to his Creation upon that belief or performance in fiction of the condition so insisted on The Red Earth being as much qualified to pass its word for human performance at mans first Creation as Corrupt nature to pass its word for Christian performances upon our Regeneration by Grace which is the root and venom of Pelagianism if Pelagius himself went so far 3. It greatly soyles and wrongs unworthily the noble spring and genuine clearness of Evangelical obedience which must now begin to arise and proceed from Interest and self-ends within us which before did spring from gratitude and Gods grace without us constraining us to give the whole glory to him and leaving nothing to our selves to boast off these two obediences differing from one another as the obedience of a Servant upon the score of Salary and contract which is necessary and servile from the obedience of a child upon the score of duty and nature which is also necessary but more Generous or the mutual love between hearty friends from that which is between Politicians to one another both proceeding as all our Actions do from self-preservation the one Immanent and sordid the other between true friends Transitive and Divine The one loves himself in his Friend where by the mutual Transmigration of love each conceives himself to be the other The other loves his friend in himself and for his own Immanent ends that is he loves himself but not his friend It is a great slavery and grievance to be tyed up to Act towards God upon low and selfish Principles when we may and ought to move upon Generous and Transitive to Act as children as it were upon childish motives when we may and ought as men to appear before a Prince in old Rags when we may in good Apparrel To have no other Opinion of Christian Heroes but that they were chiefly guided by self-interest That St. Paul loved himself as much or more than Christ or King Arthur his skin above his Church and Country than which what greater Indignity can be offerâ—d to their memories 4. It curtails the rewards of the other life which will be scanter to those that were Religious for their own benefit and Interest only than to those that acted out of thankfulness to their Redeemer above any private ends whatsoever for the one serv'd Christ the other themselves the ends of the one was duty and service more than reward of the other reward and benefit more than duty The one shall have more in the end of what was less in his Intention the other no more by his bargain than what he aim'd at The one obtains Heaven as a Gracious recompence for the improvement of his Morality the other a Heaven of Heavens above his contract or expectation for walking answerable to his High Calling and Dignity 5. It s a weaker tye and engagement â—o Holiness of Life this principle I say of Grace in suspence than freely bestowed and absolute under the one men act by option and choice under the other by obligation and necessity It is in mens power juri suo cedere to dispense with their option and to quit their felicity for a lust or as they please but it is not in their power to dispense with their obligation or deny the truth and its equitable consequence withall the one strives to arrive to spiritual greatness upon the stock of nature the other to maintain it in himself already had by walking answerable to himself Failer in the one is the loss of what he never had in the other an Infamous degradation from the highest Dignity enjoyed The fall of the one is like that of Adam from Paradice to wrath of the other like the fall of Angels from Heaven And the greater is the precipice the greater is mens fear and caution about their Station 2. Whether Ministers of the Gospel may not press to Christian duties upon the principles of Morality and Philosophy as well as upon supernatural principles of Faith seeing the same God is the Author of Nature and Reason as well as of Grace and Faith For answer sure both may be us'd in their place for both work upon the Soul in the strength of self-preservation which necessitates to Action but the self-preservation driven at by the one is immanent and homely by the other transitive and generous and Heavenly But they than prefer the one and condemn the other method mutually censure and traduce one another as the Corrupters of the Faith or depravers of mens Manners and fasten odious characters of Calvinists or Puritans or Pelagians or Arminians upon each other For many by Preaching unconditional Grace are observ'd to beget a Sect of Libertines and Hypocrites instead of Christians who let them never so much forget the duty of Justice and Charity and Truth to their Neighbours or of Obedience and Loyalty towards their Christian Governours though none more selfish and censorious and covetous and proud or more contrary to the meek and self-denying Heavenly temper of our Saviour yet none must be more Gods people or greater Saints in his Church because of a dexterity they have above others to give him the honour of his free Grace by fervent Complement and a wordy profession whilst others must pass but for Moral men or meer Heathens in Civil termes that live better and Prate less Others on the other side to prevent such unworthy abuse of Grace as to make it a cloak for maliciousness or to turn it into wantonness mould the Gospel anew by strong Parts and stick it all over with Provisoes and Conditions as Tyrants their Acts of Oblivion and make a New Moral Phylosophy of Christian Divinity with some Scripture leaves spread for Ornament about the Corners but the substance of the Aliment being from the breast of Nature And that Rock of free-Grace whereon so many stumbled and fell is far remov'd out of all sight and mention that Christians shall be as free and faâ—e hereafter from the danger of its influence as Heathens ever were and shall no more be abus'd or lull'd into Vice or immortality upon hopes of a Saviour to bring them off but they must bring themselves off or Christ shall serve them in little stead which the other traduce as an Arminian or manifestly Pelagian method of Salvation contrary to the mind of Christ and his Apostles and the Holy Scriptures For the Solution of this difficulty and to contribute endeavours to reconcile the well meaning sort of either side Men are to be consider'd and distinguish'd into several degrees and orders into Heathens or Christians which differ in kind and these again into Babes or Perfect men in Christ which differ but in degree for all are either wholly selfish and worldly and Carnal as are all out of Christ or highly Spiritual and self-Annihilated and Heavenly as are those within the School of Christ as are of the highest form
s insensibly received and admitted into its rest at last and then and there lost forever and found forever in the Bosom of the Immense Ocean so is it most an end with every Christian soul at the beginning and progress and end of his Christian Race who is as sure to reach to his rest and glory in the bosom of God forever as Rivers to reach the Sea which they are reaching every day nearer and nearer as they move towards it in the channel that leads unto it and is the very same Element with it To conclude if all could be perswaded and won to walk up to this short and Catholick Rule which reaches all Nations and Churches and Conditions and Vocations and degrees to discharge all their duties to one another from the heart as unto Christ there would be more truth and veracity in the World not only towards Brethren but towards enemies and strangers who have Christ in mens hearts to hold in their behalf any promise pawn'd and made unto them the violation whereof carries as much of Atheism and contempt of Christ within the heart as dishonesty without towards him it wrongs There would be more meekness and patience towards enemies and persecutors if not for their sakes yet for Christs who commands forgiveness and love to enemies More obedience or submission to all Governours to the best for Christ's sake and their own to the worst for Christ sake however being our necessary duty and their due Almes There would be more love and readiness to help one another by Counsel or Purse or Prayer instead of eating and devouring one another by Craft and Power when it shall be consider'd that every benefit or wrong we do to our Neighbour without we do both in a higher degree and greater edge to Christ himself within our hearts to our Eternal reward or reckoning This would make men true Christians and Loyal Subjects and tender Fathers and Governours and just Masters and right members in their respective Communities and Societies and trusts and Genuine Sons of the Church not only of England our Mother on Earth but of Jerusalem above the Mother of us all in Heaven to the saving of our Souls Infallibly when the whole stock of Mountebank Indulgencies shall faile to effect the Cure This little Commandment well observ'd would be the Harmony of the World set Heaven and Earth in Tune again and God at peace with his Creatures and plant joy and concord and the peace of God which passeth all understanding in every Kingdom in every City in every Family in every Breast And that Angelical Prophetical Anthem at our Saviours Birth would recover its Truth and Power in the World And Glory should be to God on high and on Earth peace and good will towards men FINIS A Particular Table of the Contents PART I. MOral experiments proving the Body to be as nothing in comparison of the Soul pag. 1 2 11. Masters and Princes Symbols of Christ how 4. How the Stature of a Christian reaches from Earth to Heaven p. 5. The Heart is never without its God p. 7. 20. Sincere Heathens and Carnal Christians compar'd and which preferr'd 7. Outside Duties in Religion necessary though nothing when compar'd to the Inside p. 8. None ought to vilifie their own Faith before a fair and open Renuntiation ibid. Sincere and dangerous mistakes arising from the comparative excellency of the Soul above the Body p. 9 Monkery and Non-conformity compar'd p. 9 10. How a thought of the Soul true or false is preferr'd before Estate Health and Life p. 11. Three properties requir'd to Act from the heart p. 12. Of force about Religion p. 13 14. Both good and bad men are for pleasure and the difference and the necessity of Divine Grace to set the will free p. 14 15. The Heart is for God and Christ and none beside why How p. 16. seqq Two reasons why the heart is so and how the Soul is Correlate to God p. 19. seqq An Irrefragable proof of the Deity from wicked mens experience and why it operates not upon some p 20 21. The Scheme and Hypothesis of the Christian Faith out of St. Paul and Creed and Fathers and Baptismal Vow p. 21 22. The right rule to chuse or avoid Communion with Churches p. 23. The Christian Hypothesis the best foundation and support of Societies p 23 24. A description of a true and right member of a Society p. 25. seq Honour is more than Life Conscience more than Honour what more than Conscience p. 27. Of a false member and of self-love how sordid and destructive of it self p. 28. seqq What makes good Men good Subjects good Rulers p. 31. seqq The great Rule of doing as we would be done by fenc'd and exalted by the Text p. 32. seq Blind obedience and implicit Faith in the Church of Rome to Superiours fairly examin'd and found unsound and unworthy p. 32. 33. seq What is Truth p. 37. Which the greater sin Tyranny or Rebellion p. 38 39. Plenitude of Soveraignty and Liberty consistent p. 40. Christs Divinity prov'd against Socinians p. 41 42. SECT I. An Exhortation to adhere to the Church of England against Rome p. 43. seqq The way to be Infallible p. 44. Worship in an unknown Tongue excludes the heart p. 44. seq Men are to be Infallible for themselves first for their Brethren next p. 47. The Controversy consists in the Election of a right or wrong Infallible guide p. 47. This Question stated in the sense of both parties p. 48 49 51. All other Controversies would end if this were decided p. 51. Obedience to the wrong is disobedience to the Right Soveraign ibid. Three Questions propos'd to find out the true p. 52. The heart cannot be without a guide Christ or sin or man of sin p. 53. The Principles of Government with the last p. 54 55 No Law of Christ or Conscience or Countrey must be heeded against his Authority and Interest p. 56 57 The Soul is Gods Temple and the Pope instead of Christ affects to be Soveraigâ— there p. 61 62. Great folly and danger to hearken to a Perkin Warheck p. 63 64. The Principles of Protestants how they prove the uniform Loyalty of the heart to Christ as the right Soveraign p. 63 64. How the Brittish Church knowes the Scriptures to be Gods word p. 64. How our Controversies about things indifferent are decidable by these Principles p 65 66. Christ is the Judge of quick and dead and who are his Depuâ—â—â—â—on Earth 47 67. And nothing to be acted against him by â—â—â—s Authority p. 67. Such as be Hereticks with the Pope but Catholicks with God are in no danger p. 67. SECT II. Rome no Mother Churâ—h to us not Loyal to Christ her Soveraign p. 68 69. Every Church may be consider'd three wayes 1. According to its Inside 2. Outside 3. Or extraction p. 69. Jerusalem above not Rome is the Mother Church to all Christians in respect of their inside