worldly design and private ends shall be most Uncatholick and so the Catholicism of their Church is more like to fall and vanish likewise But if they call themselves Catholicks for distinction from Protestants who pass with them but for Hereticks they are again very grossly mistaken in their Criticism For Orthodox b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. tit 12. c. ◠is contrary to Heretick and Catholick to Jew which was the first and Original sense of this word upon the Gentiles being taken into the Church as well as Jews And Protestants are no more Jews than themselves as is not doubted Nor perhaps so much for they are liker to the Jews in confining Gods Church within the Roman Pale as the other did within their Palestine But we Protestants Catholickly extend and enlarge it to all Nations according to the promises made to Abraham the Catholic◠Fathe◠of many Nations as the name God gave him imports as well as the particular Father of the Jews Therefore the Title Catholick more belongs in Truth and reason to Protestants than to our Romanists who are so restrain'd and Vncatholick and Jewish-like in the bounds of their Church which they so confine to Rome And by their waving the Title Orthodoxe which had been more proper for their distinguishing design they fatally allow Protestants for such and disallow themselves They therefore are in Truth neither Orthodox nor Catholick but only New Roman or a private Earthly Church below or a modern Italian Jerusalem that is in exile and bondage with her Children Not favouring either of the Apostolical purity of the right Christian or the Orthodoxy of the Ancient Roman or the Heavenliness and Spirituality of Jerusalem which is above the Mother of all true Christians who are in Heaven by Faith They are therefore in Truth but New Roman-Catholicks as who should say an Old-New a Particular-universal a Spiritual-carnal a Heavenly-earthly Church made up of Contradiction and Hypocrisy and Earth Whose chief end and Interest is the Advancement and glory of Rome not of Christ high like Kites in their soring pretences to eye Dunghills for prey the better making silly Souls to believe the only way to be saved is to become their Spiritual Slaves and Tributaries and to go to Rome and Heaven to be all one Which with an answerable personal Holiness of life without which none can see God might well be true of the old Apostolical Rome and any other Church agreeing with it in the like sound Rule and Doctrine but it is far from true as to the Modern Apostatical for it is a great and a gross mistake to take or imagine the Church of Rome Ancient and present to be one and the same because of the same Sirname and patch'd Succession for it is not name-sake or Succession which yet goes far with superficial judgments unlike to God that by their principles neglect and lay by the heart but the same soundness of Life and Doctrine or hearts in the same Heaven not feet in the same house or Countrey that make Churches to be the same and true the want whereof or any notorious corruption in Faith or Manners by the rules of Christianity cuts off and debars the Communion of Christians Members much more the Succession of Christian Governours For how can any succeed to be Heads where by the Apostolical Law they are out of capacity to be members of a Christian Church 1 Cor. 5.11 The old Roman Church for the first 400 years before Rome was burnt and several times sack'd and brought to the dust as before did disapprove the wayes and Doctrines of the Modern and consequently its Communion as much as we Protestants for she did not Worship Saints or Images nor slight and suppress the Scriptures under colour of respect nor curtayle Sacraments and Divine Institutions Nor usurp'd upon Christ nor Crowns nor Churches nor Consciences nor upon the liberties of our Brittish Church in particular as they cannot Instance in one Pall or appeal in any Age or History Pope Gregorie's account upon diligent search above 1000 years agoe to omit other Arguments is abundant proof and certainty there was none nor endur'd to carry God about in a Cage and to create as many Christs and Saviours as there be Wafers in Churches and Cities and Altars and every one of equal Deity and Worship to our Saviour in Heaven God blessed for ever which amongst them cannot otherwise fall out as we have shewed but that a Wafer should be Christ and Christ but a Wafer by their Hypothesis which excludes the heart whereby Christ by consequence is excluded and a gross Capernaitical sense of such Spiritual Mysteries as necessarily introduc'd nor made the Authority of man more than that of Scripture the Rule of Faith and Heresie nor burnt fellow Christians for their Errours much less for the same Truths which themselves maintain'd as Protestants are or are in danger dayly to be serv'd by the present nominal Church of Rome with other innumerable Superstitions and Unchristian cruelties and loathsome Fraud and Legends and Infernal Dispensations for sins and duties But was Orthodox in her Faith and Regular and sober and Christian like in all her Church-Rites and Practices and well approved of and acccorded with by this and all Christian Churches by all brotherly love and Communion as the distance of places did permit yea with some preference of honour before many other lesser and obscurer Churches for its Imperial situation and numerous Martyrs yet without any danger of being caught in any Noose by such respect or honourable Appellations which no doubt were return'd to every Church though lesser with the like or greater humility and respect than they were given In which Christ-like victories and contests between Brethren and Churches the Christian ambition did heretofore consist but the present Church of Rome abuses and converts the Christian honour of her equals into aliment and fuel for her Pride not exalting others for their humility as God doth but concluding against them from it through the barbarous forgetfulness of her own mutual Divine and Christian part and no Eulogy shall occur in History but must bespeak Supremacy to her alone and Slavery and Subjection to the rest of Christendom like the Wolf going to School who could discern nothing but Agnus in every word and Syllable and letter pronounced unto him No this Church of Rome is no more the old than a Cock is a French-man because both are Gallus in Latine than there City or their People or their Language is the same being all of a new and a different Situation and dialect and descent The Race of Old Romans are sooner to be met and found in Venice and else-where than in Gothick Rome where more inclination not only after Roman civility but also after Ancient Roman or Protestant Orthodoxy doth appear as some of their wisest Clerks and later Historians have given a tast And the parties in this Bill and Plea for this Roman Supremacy
Christians for another surname as is the stile of all Roman-Catholicks And 2 likewise for no m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinary voluntary Austerity of life which is most of the Religion of the best of them Col. 2.23 And 3. n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan in Audianis for separating from the communion of their betters which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most grievious and dreadful miscarriage of all So that Brittain the Mother Church to Europe was made like in several parts both for sufferings and relief to Sion the Mother Church of the whole World as small circles have the genius and similitude of the greater for as the opposition and greate Combate of the one was from the Sword of the Heathen World resolving to destroy it from without and the leaven of Nicholaitans and other Hereticks combineing from within to defile and shame it which was the greater molestation and Indignity so in like manner was the Case of the other for the Primitive Brittish was permitted to be kill'd all the day long by Pagan Saxons on the one hand and hindred and pestered all along in all its good works with Roman-Catholick Gnosticism on the other which was the greater and the unworthyer Nusance yet both prevailing through their oppression The death of Brittain bringing life and Salvation to English and Germans as the seed grows by dying or as the Jews rejection was the Gentile's reconcilation in some likeness of Christ himself their first Pattern who became the life of all the World by his death and as the one had its Constantine after some time and Theodosii to vindicate and take its part so had the other it s Arthurs and Charlemagne and Henry the eight in some like proportion aâ—d Christ himself in the end to make it alike partaker in glory with him as it was in sufferings and in the mean while to live in them for whom it dyed as he doth in his Church and as Fathers live in their posterity that take their place Neither is it hence Inferrible according to Roman Logick and Sophistry that Europe therefore ought to pay such obedience for ever to Brittain upon this spiritual score as the Roman expects from other Churches which were against the Law of Nations and the Rights of Kings in their several Dominions whose respective subjects are to own and regard no other Superiour but their own Prince and as much against the Laws and Canons of the Catholick Church and the Immunities of Bishops and Metropolitans within their several Provinces by them and as much against the Law of nature likewise and the express ordinance of God himself who hath placed the woman in subjection under the man and yet by the strength and consequence of this Argument that order must be Inverted And where women have had the first hand in the Conversion of Kings and Kingdoms to the Faith there they ought by this Roman Topick to be Supreme in spirituals if they have impartial right and justice done them as they must of necessity be in England in several respects either in the right of Queen Bertha who first disposed her Husband Ethelbert to the Faith whereby Monk Augustine and Popery had their first entrance Or of Eanfled Oswi's Queen by whose zeal and diligence Theodore and Popery had its re-entrance and more durable establishment after it had been once banisht and extinct Or Anne Fulleâ—gne to whom according to the Romanists is owing its mortal wound and total overthrow and the setting up of Protestancy instead Or in France to Queen Clotildis who brought Clodoveus their first Christian King to embrace the Faith or to Mâ—esâ—o's Queen who did the like in Poland c. Or over the whole Christian World in the right of Mary Magdalen who brought the first tydings of the Resurrection to the Apostles themselves which would be a great relief to the fame of Pope Joan and the credit of her History so unjustly question'd No the English who are nearer home were they now a distinct People from the Ancient Brittains as it hath been proved they are not ow not such a debt or Tribute to the Posterity of the Ancient Brittains by whose Ancestors we have likewise prov'd they were undoubtedly fiâ—st Converted For such kind of Preaching of the Gospel on the side of the Brittains and such believing and complying with the grace of God for Salvation on the side of the English or Saxon were the personal duties and merits of both Progenitours for which both have had their full reward and payment from God long ago in rest and glory and both posterities mutually acquitted and released and remitted to seek after the like glory by the like means for indeed the just retribution and compensation for the unvaluable benefit of Gospel and Salvation belongs to God alone both to discharge and to receive instead of the one and the other party because two great a debt and obligation for a Creature to undergo or the hearer to requiâ—e or the â—reaâ—â—er to demaund and insist on besides the mâ—â—dâ—â— and telling another of our good turns towaâ—ds him Cancels Courtesies especially those between Souls because it bankrupts and annihilates by fiction him whose requital we expect For the giver representing God the receiver a Creature unless Gods proxy absent and hide his glory by a fiction of forgetfulness the Creatures proxy will appear to be nothing and consequently insolvent so near his rayes as the Sun must set that Stars may shine for while too near the presence and comparison of the greater obscures and destroys the weaker light If therefore the Generous posterity of the Saxons on the one hand believe kindness to be due to the posterity of the Brittains on the score of first Faith the Brittains on the other dare not own any such debt to be due unto them lest they wrong the merits and duties of their Progenitors but what honour or favour is forced upon them they will acknowledge it free guift without any previous merit calling for a requital and return with due increase and multiplied proportion where there is power and where that is wanting for a constant acknowledgement and rememberance and repayments in the heart through the aid of God by prayers and blessings And this were as much the duty of the Roman Church towards the English were it true that their Ancestors had received their Faith from Rome and that Faith had been pure and sound and right according to that of our Saviour freely ye have received freely give Math. 19.8 If they intend to act as men and Christians and Gentlemen of education and breeding and not as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that had their hearts or their minds and consciences putrified and corrupted 1 Tim 6.5 as too many of their principles and practices afford apparent Symptons of such a malady For in the matter and commerce of Courtesies that forgetfulness should be the part of the Giver and remembrance of the Receiver
reason to envy the higher condition and temporal honours of Superiours in this World having such great reward and honour in reserve from God for his own work And we see the Soul it self though never so excellent or extensive to be content in this life with less room and port than the body and an Idiot may have a greater presence than a Rabbi though the one have its name from restraint and narrowness the other from Amplitude of person and endowments and Davids great spirit which encountred Bears and Lyons and Goliah's had but a narrow Case And St. Paul who overcame the world by his Ministry is said by some To be weak in presence and in his speech Contemptible 2 Cor. 10.10 And were not Christ the only Master and Rewarder and Judge and King and his Priesthood but in the Character and Condition of Labourers and Stewards under him and not the Lords and proprietors of his blessed word and Mysteries who were able or sufficient to requite their spirituals Is the tenth of an Estate or thousands of Rams or ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl or the whole World were one sole owner of it a sufficient price or present for the Gospel or for Christ or for pardon of sins and peace of Conscience and the Souls Salvation What Kings or Emperours were too good to bow and prostrate themselves before Popes if they preach'd or any right Minister of the Gospel were their comfortable messages their own and not their Heavenly Masters Yet though they are but Instruments and servants under Christ are they not to be left without honour and esteem and maintenance from men and that not mean or scant for their work sake though they be to expect their full reward and portion from none but God For the reason and Civility of Nations though they reserve the Glory and honour to the chief Authors of their deliverances and victories yet leaves not the Messengers of good Tydings without their due respect and presents God alone is our supream King and Father preserver and our Earthly Superiours and Benefactors and Delieverers are but Instruments under him And though the respect that is due and congruous to the principal be not payable to the Instrument yet by all Laws and Instincts of Gratitude and Conscience and Customes of Nations Instruments under God of Benefits Kings Fathers Conquerours Benefactors receive that proper and meet acknowledgment and return that is their due yet Instruments are by no means to step into the Throne or usurp or arrogate the Royalties of their Principals but must rest content with that Tribute of respect and honour that is due to their subordinate Ranks and Stations though they are the Conveyers under God of Spiritual which infinitely exceed all temporal benefits and mercies And great and remarkable is the difference between the Pains of the Clergy and the payments and rewards of the Laity in the Ancient and Primitive times when Christ was more in the heart and the World less towards what it is and hath been in the degenerate times of Christianity when the World began to have more of mens hearts than Christ St. Peter though the Prince of the Apostles and Founder of our great and Wealthy Popes was not worth a Groat upon the score of his Function for so is his answer to one begging his Alms Silver and Gold have I none but such as I have give I thee Act. 3.6 And yet all Rich Christians then that had either Land or Houses sold and parted with all and laid them at his feet c. 4.34 35 37. so great was the clearness of the one and the gratitude of the other and the care and preferrence of the Community and of the poor in both And St. Paul laboured night and day to get his living while he preach'd the Gospel of God unto others 1 Thess 2.9 Yet bears them record That they were ready to pluck out their eyes if possible to give them to him Gal. 4.15 A good Argument that they that would not spare their Eyes much less would spare their Purses for his sake as others more remote cannot erect Temples though miracles of the World for magnificence sufficiently answerable to the merits of his memory And the Apostolical abstinence was closely followed by the succeeding Heroes of the Primitive Church As Origen and others who preferr'd Hearts before Purses and fared hard and went barefoot while they had Nobles for their Converts which is not to be attributed to Sullenness or Melancholly or Vain-glory but either to the strict observation of our Saviours Rule Freely have you received freely give more binding in those times of Miraculous assistance Or to an aime of trampling this present World under their their feet and encouraging their Christian followers in their poverty and persecutions as the Emperour Severus us'd to walk bare-head in snow and rain to hasten the tardy March of his Armies Or to the Eternal Rules and decencies of giving and receiving which require the one part to forget their merits the other never to forget their benefits more lively exerted in them who by extraordinary Grace were better fitted to represent the several parts of God to the life whereof the Giver is ever one as the Receiver is of the Creature and the Receiver when he requites and repayes puts on again the Giver and the Giver becomes as a Creature to be in a capacity to receive which is a remarkable shadow and footstep in nature of the Incarnation and both parts of God could not be acted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by such unbounded zeal and thankfulness in both in imitation of Gods bounty who giveth liberally and is so far from upbraiding that he hazards the denyal of his existence and being with the inconsiderate for his silence and withdrawing But extraordinary times being not presidents for ordinary that the Clergy now should labour Gratis or the Laity hold all in Common as then they did as the manner of living in a Siege not a Rule for the manner of living when God sends Peace and plenty This noble strife and generous contention between Liberality and Refusal in Primitive Hearers and Teachers was stated afterwards and compos'd by Divine and Apostolical intimations not only That of the Labourer being worthy of his hire but that more express establishment Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should have by the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.14 Where the Evangelical maintenance is equall'd if not indentified with the Levitical which is known not to have been scant and prosperity and a Curse annex'd from God besides upon all that were just or unjust in paying or withholding their Tithes and Offerings Mal. 3.8.9 10. And further yet We wish you did reign that we also might reign with you 1 Cor. 4.8 Where it is implyed that it is but just and fit that the Ministers of the Gospel should partake and share in its highest prosperity and advancement who are sure to smart
Inferiour either in Piety or Parts or Prowess And change their Truths for Lyes their Bibles for Legends and Christ for a Pope and the Creator for a Creature Can any of our Gracious Princes and Defenders in whose protection under God we trust suffer their people while not backward to assist them with their Prayers and Lives and Fortunes both them and their posterity to be thus enslav'd under a Forreign yoak which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear and so long strugled against and in the end not without success And such an indignity and violence to be offer'd to the Ancient honour and rights of this our Brittish Church and Nation For manifest it is that the remnant in Wales are the undoubted Heires and Successors of the Ancient Brittains who since their Incorporation are in all reason and honour to be defended in their Priviledges and immunity by the whole English Nation for in a body the right or wrong of any part is within the sense and concern of the whole and the weaker it is the more and especially by our Princes and chief Nobles being of the same descent Yeâ— the Body and Major part of the English themselves were proved to be descendants from the Ancient Brittains and by right of Bloud and Faith as well as Armes to succeed into their places and possessions and priviledges and aire and humour and their Infirmities and divisions in some part as their vertues in most and bound therefore to repel these Roman encroachments from themselves by self-preservation which is a strong â—ye upon all mankind and from their Children by Paternal trust which is stronger as the same obligations upon our Princes in whom all rights and trusts of private men and Fathers concenter is strongest of all And this new Roman Catholick Faith or Fraud rather hath enlarg'd the Royal Office and duty to one part of Princely care and circumspection which Justinian never dream'd of For besides the defence of their people from Forreign Invasion and Captivity by their Armes and Puissance and from Domestic broiles and disorder by their Laws and wisdom in which two parts the Emperour compriz'd and circumscrib'd the Imperial charge There is a third Protection of their flock now incumbent upon them upon the same equity and reason their preservation from Forreign Imposture which contains both the other evils in its womb and draws home-bred confusion and hostile Subjugation and slavery along with at its heels and therefore in point of necessity fit for Princely encounter and prevention but in point of Honour much more it being a greater excellency to be wise than to be strong and couragious for the Souldier gives place to his General and our Sheriffs obey our Judges and of the two miseries it is more Ignominious and disgraceful to be over-seen than overcom as they are ever like to be who will be guided by any Mortals here-say against their knowledge and regulated Conscience And it may wonder'd what good is to be seen or gain'd by our return to Popery so destructive of Publick Peace and Eternal Salvation and so derogatory and disloyal towards Divine Soveraignty as well as human as hath been prov'd all along to whom Princes themselves ow an Original exemplarâ—y obedience and fidelity as Subjects ow to them a secondary by way of consequence and Copy There is much manifestly to be lost by the change of inestimable Knowledge and pretious Liberty and valuable Wealth and Treasure great will be the damage and detriment the Incongruity greater The Impossibility to sober men and Christians the greatest of all What though every man be Lord of his own Purse to give away what is his own how and to whom he pleases yet he cannot be thus Liberal in the encouragement of Vice and Imposture without a blot and censure upon his understanding Nor betray and necessitate his fellows for condition though not for folly to the like contribution and disbursement without great dishonesty and sacriledge if he be private person or if a Superiour in Publick trust without High and Blasphemous Perfidiousness for to explain these Epithites the wrong of private men upon others of the same condition is not an assault on their rights alone but on God whose they are and all their rights by consequence whom they mutually represent to one another 1 Cor. 8.12 as they undergo the correlative habitude and fashion of Creatures upon themselves by consequence like their faces Gods Images seen by one another but out of sight unto themselves But the wrongs and breach of trusts in Superiours towards their Subjects trusting under the shadow of their wings is like the case of God proving untrue to his Creatures whereof there can be no conception made without Blasphemy nor is there any manner of Instance or track to be found thereof throughout the whole regular Creation neither the weakest nor wildest Creatures being ever found false or unnatural to their own dependants only miscreant Tyrants and Parents and Governours without bowels are they alone who Blaspheme the Divine Character they bear by being as God in their persons but as Satan in their deportment Acting a Deity that hath neither Grace nor Goodness nor Truth which is the highest Abomination and stupendiously monstrous Blasphemy that can be conceiv'd or represented which God will rebuke But the Incongruity increases further for what were such a change but selling our Birth-right for a mess of Catholick poison and preferring Italian Hypocrisie before English and Brittish Truth a rotten Disease before sound Health a Painted Face before a natural Beauty or for chast and Noble Matrons to become Hand-maids to Courtezans or Grave Judges to be Secretaries to Theives or Gentry and great Nobles to be Pages to Mountebanks or Kings and Emperours a Life Guard to Rebels and High-way-men Xanthe retro propera versaeque recurrite limphae the World will be as orderly when Rivers flow back to the tops of Mountains and the Globe of the Earth enlightens the Sun and the Stars and the Beasts of the Field who are without heart or understanding are to Instruct mankind And the Impossibility to the sober is yet greatest of all such a change being very improbable in fate and most impossible in reason God who is Irresistible in his Judgements is as Omnipotent in his mercies towards his People His Church flourish'd here in Brittain more or less and without Romish defilement for 600 years that is from the Resurrection to Monk Augustine's entrance It was afterwards sorely visited and condemn'd to Popish darkness and Captivity for great sins for the space of 800 years and visited again in mercy at the Reformation God's departure upon displeasure Ebbs according to hundreds but his return in mercy flows according to thousands to those that love him or whom he loves though we are unworthy yet he is all mercy and Truth and it is not to be doubted but we have had our Abrahams Isacks and Jacobs in our Brittish Israel who
different Liquor unto others in Synods and Conventicles to make them turbulent and frantick and to worry their Rulers and destroy their Kings several have been so weary and tyred what with the noyse and scandal on the one hand what with the Narcotick steam and Operation on the other that they are ready to slumber and sleep at Noon-day and like sick men can find no rest but by changing their Religion as they do their Beds a deadly Symptom in both and to Rome they will go where they may sleep to purpose while their eyes are resign'd to their guides and their trust to man instead of God and never waken till the Trumpet and last Judgement to their Eternal wo. If it were to return to Rome Heathen in its glory and to change their Bibles for Tully or Seneca rather than for Lyes and Legends men might have some excuse for their intoxicated love of slavery which all free Spirits abhor and especially Spiritual slavery which is so contrary to the soul the freest of beings For there we should meet with Caesar and Cicero and Virgil and many other Heroes of several endowments we should light if not upon Christ yet upon the other part of my Text the Heart and Soul in that perfection and improvement by knowledge and virtue and valour as fully answer'd the Poets Character which compriz'd the utmost that men could do or Pen describe Imperium terris animos aequavit Olimpo they match'd the Gods with their parts and over-match'd the World with their Prowess And where the heart is well preserv'd and enlightened Christ is never far off even as Antichrist is never nigh but where the heart is first darkned and resign'd For the Sun of Righteousness was rising to the World about this time that Rome was so clear'd and enobl'd in heart and Spirit and mens souls were so awakned and sitted with Liberty and honour to receive his Truths The Roman Empire being raised and imployed in St. John Baptist's work as it were to prepare the way of the Lord and to train mens souls to value truth in the General above sordid self-love and to clense the eye in part to behold its lustre For as the Sun were of little use to people that had no eyes or were blinded with cataracts and scales so also is the Sun of righteousness to blind and servile and seal'd understandings and Christ to any heart that is muffled with Idols or enslaved to another Supremacy But in Popery neither Christ nor the Heart can well be met with both are so engrossed and devourâ—d by his Vicaâ— it is highest Honour there not to be true to Honour or Conscience which passes for a dangerous private Spirit against their Church and to quit on 's self of his soul and Heart and Judgement is the method to be a right Roman Catholick and Christ and the soul like correlates ever stand and fall together where the one departs the other seldom stays behind Which is the reason that Popish Rome in its highest manhood and perfection had little to shew of either for when it arrived to its highest pitch and all Crowns were Subject to its Mitre all Laws to its Canons where was its glory compar'd to the other Rome but in a Herd of Monkish-Blockheads to be set against the others Divine Classick Authors Bede Geoffrey Comestor or the Golden Legend against Livy and Tacitus and Plutarch c. Epistolae obscurorum virorum against those of Cicero or Seneca And who against Virgil and Juvenal and Horace Poetry was so Ingenious and true to human nature in whose exaltation it ever chirps as down in the mouth in its fall also that where the Heart was excluded it turn'd Protestant and never shewed more its head What they had left to boast of were men without souls Arguments without sence Sermons without Scriptures or Fathers Authors without the stile and dialect of men cloysterd Epicures fat and trading Monks Cardinals without Christian Lives and Popes without Faith or Religion In a word Christianity without a soul or Saviour the Image of Religion to mans eye without the life and truth thereof to God's The Pope and the Virgin Mary instead of Christ and blind Obedience instead of the heart that no time or Age since the Floud or Fall can be parallel'd to that of Popery in its full reign and adâ—ption for a total degeneracy of human and Christian nature in point of Morality and Grace and Learning and Knowledge and Pen. It were better to have our sight and Judgement and but Stars to guide us than to have a blind heart with such a Sun and Gospel It were more eligible to be Cicero â—s Servitour than a King of such Christian Cattel And this was the state of Popery in his highest culmination and plenitude of growth and Lustre And which it is still at to recover for Popery is not to be heeded by its present pretences but its known ends and humour when it hath attain'd its ends which of all things hates nothing more than eyes and private Judgement and light which Inseparablâ— accompany the heart for thieves are best at thâ—iâ— work in the dead of night and Kings are best gullâ—d of their Soveraignties and Subjects of their Câ—yn and Liberty by Ignorance and a scale or Ointment to blind their eyes and all are better cramped and confessed when they are asleep For to appeal to any mans sence or Conscience or observation is there any thing more experimentally manifest to the World in every Age than that the chief design of Popery as to its Leaders is to promote and compass secular ends and Grandeur and Wordly power upon what hazard soever to souls or disgrace to Christ and his Religion and that Mammon is as Catholickly servâ—d at Rome as God and that its main design is to have the Crowns of Kings and Purses of Subjects in its power and the Consciences of both in order thereunto Quae regio in terris c. What Territory or Kingdom can be nam'd in Europe whose Scepter it hath not made Feudatary and Tributary to St. Peters Chair by its Faith-craft as the Ancient Romans did more nobly and Lyon-like by their Arms and Manhood what hide of good land without the fence of mortmain had escap'd the Plow of mortified Monks what Chimney was in all the Kingdom without a Peter-pence what is more confessed and gloried in by our Modern Popes in their stamps and meddals wherein St. Peter is represented lifting up an old Woman from the ground with this motto Roma resurgens a fair and lucky Comment under their own Hand and Seal upon Rev. 13.12 And he exerciseth all the Power of the Beast before him and causeth the Earth and them that dwel therein to worship the first Beast whose deadly wounds was heal'd whereby is prov'd as by their own confession the Succession of Rome-Papal to Rome-Imperial it being the sence of the Ancient Fathers as before that the Empire which
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