Impostures are less tolerable than the open Treason of a Cromwell or the Tyranny of the Turk because men may easier endure to be robbed than to be cheated and deprived of their purses or Estates against their will than of their Honour and understanding with consent And as it hath been largely proved that Popery consists in evident disobedience and Rebellion against the Right Heir and Soveraign of the heart And Papists in a greater concern to jump exactly with the old Sexton whose Clock went truer than the Sun so positively also further to clear and evince the Truth to be on the Protestant side in this main point and Issue which is the hinge of the Controversie between us I shall also instance how we Protestants Loyally adhere to our Right guide and Judge and how the heart in all our principles relies on God and none else and on Christ who is the sole foundation of the Church 1 Cor. 3 3 11. and the Rock whereon it is built against which the gates of Hell can never prevail Math. 16.18 We build our Faith upon the Holy Scriptures which are Gods word for hearts to rest on whose Divine Authority themselves dare not deny without being the most convicted Hereticks that ever disturbed Gods Church in any age however they Blaspheme and traduce them before the Vulgar We come to know the Scriptures to be Gods word being not present our selves at passages by the Testimony and tradition of others such a Testimony as is also Divine or nearest to Divine to be relied on by the heart Not upon the Testimony of the Church of Rome by any means who hath so much cracked her credit by legending forgeing expurgating c. for it were a great fault as well as folly in us who profess our Devotion to God and the Truth to confide in the Father of lies or such his followers but upon our own honest Christian Ancestors with other Churches especially the Primitive when most pure and Holy and therefore likest to God and to be believed by consequence from the heart and the rather when seconded with the Testimony of the Holy Spirit to Holy Livers who is God We believe our sences in their own Sphere in many points against the whole world because we believe God in them with our hearts who made our sences and speaks through them Prov. 20.12 We believe beyond sence and can see things absent as if they were present to us when we have Gods word to assure the same to our Faith and consequently to our hearts and can discern Christ present in the blessed Sacrament and the Bread to be present nevertheless in different respects and be assured of both in our hearts through the evidence and strength of God in whom our Faith and sences act and move But in a Religion without the heart as is the Roman It is hard if not impossible to conceive or imagine how any Sacrament of Bread can be at all amongst them without Transubstantiation in the Elements who will not and cannot admit of any other change by the heart and Faith which are not much in use in that Church in this or any other part of worship which shews the root and occasion of that monstrous errour in that carnal Catholick Church which cannot distinguish between the objects of sence and Faith and is observ'd to Apostatize herein from their own Antient Mass which doth We believe plain and manifest Truths of Scripture without need of guides against the Glosses or Sophistry or Authority of the whole world to the contrary for we believe God himself in them with our hearts who requires and deserves to be so believed because God himself leads us by the hand as it were yea with both hands in plain Texts of Holy writ on the one side and his manifest Instincts of good and evil on the other in such manifest duties And when God himself doth speak all the world must hold the tongue while the Sun is above the Horizon Stars and Candles which answer to guides and supplies abscond and give way Hawks and all other Birds quit the Air where the Eagle Towres what Stupidity were it in a man of years and knowledge of the City to ask the way from Charing-Cross to Temple-bar out of Reverence to his guide and distrust of himself in things obscure and Controversiall wherein neither we nor others can clearly and assuredly discern Gods mind and will for the heart to acquiesce in here we make use of Candles and guides and especially our lawful Superiours who are Gods deputies to direct us and all others that resemble God in their gifts or years or places or Major vote For the next to God is as God unto us when God himself cannot be heard and our hearts can rest on them but not with equal assurance as on plain and manifest duties as their importance also is not equal for there is a greater respect of the two due to the Principal than to his deputy In like manner in all Indifferent matters which are the proper Province of the Magistrate for where Scriptures end there humane Laws begin where God withdraws there his Deputies step in we submit to the determinations and publick orders of our lawful Governours as to Gods voice and Authority out of the obedience of our hearts to Christ present in our Superiours to our Faith and regard to the Churches peace which is his image and darling And they that refuse to submit and conform do it in adherence to their conscience as they pretend now conscience without a Rule is an Atheist as is the heart without the Lord and of no use like a Sun-diall in the dark It is not conscience but the Quakers dark-light within and the Rule is Christs Will or to come nearest to his Will which is the utmost satisfaction of the heart now whether we keep nearest to Christ in adhearing stiffly to private fancy or submitting modestly to publick Authority and Major vote is the Question which St. Paul puts of question 1 Cor. 14.33 For Christ is where peace and humility and order is and not where pride and strife and division are and are ever like to be while each prefer themselves not only before their equals which is pride but their Superiours likewise which is disobedience and contempt of Christ in his Magistrates added to it which all true Christian hearts will avoid more than death as being not from God as Papists truly object And so we Protestants hold no Principle or Opinion but what agrees with the mind of God and Christ which was the Rule and measure that was to be agreed upon by both to arrive at Truth and endeavour always to approve our hearts to Christ who alone is their Judge and Soveraign and no mortal man whatsoever believing and considering that as there can be no sin or vertue where there is no Law so a Law were to no effect or purpose without a Judge to reward and punish the observers
him in the following year 634. Calwalhan is kill'd by d Idem l. 3. c. 1. Oswald or though he lived many years after according to Geoffrey and M. Westminster as before yet according to them also his Son Cadwaladr lived not beyond the year 688. whereof the last eight are supposed to be spent in Rome out of his great devotion to that place and Church and whence his bones were to be brought back when the Brittains were to recover their Ancient Rule over this whole Isle But others will have him to go to Rome sooner in the time of the great Plague whâ—ch fell out in the year 664. saith Bede and if he lived 8 years longer to die in 672. But had he lived to an 100 years of Age or more if possible to the year 731. being the year Bede e Idem l. 5. c. 24. pen'd his History yet it is not to be believed that Cadwaladr went to Rome in all that time or that he or his Countrey-men had any more respect then for the Religion of Rome than for Heathenism For Bede expresly affirms the Brittains to have continued their enmity to Rome to the time he was f Ibid. writing his History and as appears elsewhere much longer For whereas the Irish and the Picts and Monastery of Hy it self were reduced sooner Anno 716. g Usher 702. by Egbert to conform to Rome in the Controversy about Easter and other Rites by Consequence yet the Brittains saith Bede never would yield nor did in all his time who long surviv'd Cadwaladr whom for their obstinacy in refusing the Roman Tonsure and the other Rites of Rome he stiles h Bede l. 5.23 Capita sine Coronâ heads without Crownes a signe they were not Block-heads without Brains to be so imposed upon by Rome as he and others were Now to reconcile this pilgrimage of honour and devotion with that contempt and enmity that was in all our Brittains towards them of Rome who were but as Church Robbers and Murderers and Schismaticks i Idem l 2. c. 20. Conc. Sardyc can 1. 2. and Pagans in their sight the same time passes any ordinary skill without the help of a strong implicit Faith that can swallow and believe Contradictions The Brittains and all sound Christians measur'd Religion not by the Sanctity of places but the purity of the heart and mind And good lives and examples wheresoever they were met Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt change of Air doth not change the mind St. Paul best tells what will change the mind if it be set on things above and not on things below Col. 3.2 on God and not on the World which is done by Heavenliness of mind and constant hearty Prayer and sincerity to God in all our Actions This was Davids Art to lift his Soul to Heaven Psal 25.1 That was by the means of Prayer saith the Chaldee Paraphrast upon the place And Prayer without the heart is no Prayer but as a body without the Soul which is their prime devotion at Rome whereby distance from Cod is professed as it were on purpose for by the exclusion of the heart and understanding they come not near him when they pray and if they are far from God in that means which sets other men nearest how far must they be from Heaven at Rome in the rest of their Actions that are not so Divine The next Imposture on men and Churches and Princes by the help of Ignorance is not unlike the former whereby the man arrogantly passes for his Master the pretended Vicar of Christ for Christ himself or more the lusts of the Pope for the Laws of God and Material Churches and their Rights and Revenues are the same with the Spiritual Church and Temple where none are to be concern'd but the Priesthood and none are Priests but the Pope alone or those that have their Mission from him And therefore when our Princes insisted upon any Ecclesiastical Right or Investiture of Bishopricks they were scar'd with his Holiness Letters k Eadmer Hist Nov. l. 3. p. 50. minding them to know the right difference between a Pallace and a Church And no wonder their Impostures and encroachments prevail'd so much being carried on jure divino and people kept in Ignorance and not suffered to espy any difference between the will and displeasure of the Pope and the will and displeasure of God Almighty And who could withstand him that had the Authority and power of God and Christ for all he did Though he had not them in truth yet having them in the opinion or the belief and fear of the parties deceived it was equivalent And so they rob'd our English Kings of their Prerogatives and well nigh of their Crownes and made them their Instruments to wrest their Sees and Churches from the Brittains It sometimes falling out between these great Combatants the Pope and the Prince as between two Cockes in fight whereof the one having blinded the other never ceases pecking at his Crown and brains till he receive from him an unexpected fatal blow raising himself up thereto by the hold and wrong of his Adversary such were our Statutes of Premunire Mortmain and Provisors wherewith Rome had been long before stagger'd before Henry the Eight appearâ—d to clear the pit This counterfeiting and changing of Heaven and Earth and Christ and man and Scripture and Craft to compass wordly ends and designs much resembles their evil Art who counterfeit the coyns and great Seals of Princes for the like ill purposes if high Treason against man with high Treason against God might so much as be compared And so I pass to the fift general head and supposition delaying the proofs of the nullities of the Church of Rome in her orders and Communion for her Intrusion here to its proper place SECTION XII The change in Henry the Eight rather a Restoration than Reformation and how commencing in Henry the Seventh and of the Inauspiciousness of Popery to the Brittish Crown and the success and blessing of Protestant Counsels to this Nation THat King Henry the eighth his relief and redress both of Crown and Church from Popish Usurpation and Enchroachment was just and providential and likewise Brittish and that the Prosperity and glory of this Nation is remarkably pointed out by the finger of God to any that will attend to ly and consist in the pursuite of the like defence and vindication of our Brittish Church from the attempts of Rome wherein I intend not to be so large as upon the former heads or to take upon me the defence of the Ecclesiastical rights of our Crown which is fully done by abler Pens And indeed our Kings themselves are best able to defend themselves as well as others in their Rights with that Sword which was not given them to bear in vain which they can draw out with a far safer conscience against the Invaders of their Prerogatives and power
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
Gods Truth resisting God therein and preferring man before him which is Papistry or making the Pope an Idol And the Papists on the contrary say they obey the Pope as Christs Infallibe Vicar on Earth in his decisions and thereby Christ himself by consequence and enjoy Peace and Union agmonst themselves as the reward of this Submission And that Protestants are guided by a Private spirit which cannot be seen or met under the colour of Christ and Scripture and are led and Imbroyled by it in Eternal Sects and Divisions which is a Fanaticism that cannot be of God And I suppose both sides will easily subscribe this repetition of their Case and main exceptions against each other to be faithful and true and agreeing with their minds Now there are Three Questions to be run over to find out the true wherein we differ The first of Right the second of Opinion the third of Fact The first or Questio juris whether in the General or the Abstract without relation to parties or circumstances whether I say by way of Major Proposition Truth as Gods mind is to be follow'd by the heart and errour to be shunned as contrary to his mind and the nature of our souls is out of question and by both agreed to The second that each side believe and suppose in their minds and perswasions their own Opinion to be Truth and their Adversaries to be an errour is also yeilded to and that the Opinion of the one or the other that is Gods mind too as well as mans mind is not the Private Opinion of man but the absolute Catholick Truth of God to be followed by all hearts which is a rule and measure to end the controversie by the Question therefore between us is of Fact or the Assumption and Minor Proposition What parties Opinion is the mind of God too whose Facts and principles agree with the right rule and guide who do as they should do or to put it in the words of my Text which party doth whatsoever it doth from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men or who to men and therefore not from the heart unto the Lord or by way of Simile which Dyall most agrees with the Sun it being pre-allowed 1. That the Sun goes right 2. That the Dyall which best agrees with it is truest For the further clearing hereof the heart as I have shewed cannot be alone without its guide and confident to advize it no more than Ivie without an Oak or Wall to bear it or a stone without its weight and Bias towards its Center As of solitary persons it 's said they are either Angels or Beasts because of the objects the soul is sure to entertain though solitary so the heart can never be alone but through heed or heedlesness and want of grace will of necessity chuse a God true or false either Christ or bosom sin or a man of sin to be led by The will and design of the first if chosen for an head and Soveraign will be Gods glory and the souls bliss of the second the desires and satisfactions of the flesh of the third Secular Power and Authority over every thing that is called God 2 Thess 2.4 The Laws of Christ are in holy Scriptures of sin In the carnal fancy of the man of sin in blind obedience and strong delusions The force and Co-ercive Power of the first lyes in life and Death Eternal of the second in carnal joyes and sorrows which in fleshly minds make Jubiles and Earth-quaks equal to Heaven and Hell as to them of the third in false Salvation to his Catholicks and false damnation to his Hereticks as Satan was ever the Ape of the Almighty Christ will not admit of any Soveraign in the heart before or beside himself which is observed to be the reason he could not be received according to the desires of the Senate in the days of Tiberius into the number of their Gods at Rome for all were to be quitted to admit him but bosom sin is more Civil will allow of Religion to co-habit with it but if it offers to contradict or controul it must quit and pack the man of sin will admit both of sin and Christ will indulge and dispense with sin that may advance his Grandeur and by all means admit of Christ for Interest and Lustre to his designs and ambition but if sin or Truth shall offer to clash with or Impede his secular ends and Master Interest the one shall be discontinued the other excluded for expedience and all to give place to the Soveraign who is own'd To let pass the servitude and slavery of the heart to sin Rom. 6.12 Against which as our greatest misery and Captivity we stand upon our Christian Watch and Warfare throughout our whole life I 'le Instance in the slavery of the heart to a man of sin which is like unto the former and is the everlasting breach and difference between Protestancy and Popery and will fully discover and prove the point in Question who obey the right or the wrong Superiour of the heart who Christ and who a man that is contrary unto him The true Christian Church in her Christs Cross and her Baptismall vow doth bind and teach her Children to die to this world and its Pomps and Vanities and to live to Heaven and Christ But the Romish Church or its Rulers which is the same with them insists on nothing more than secular Grandeur and domination in this present world and on nothing less that on Christian Truths when they stand in contrariety to the former The first fundamental Article in the Popes Religion is Romes greatness and his own Supremacy and Perogative over all orders of men guarded with spirituall Lightning and Thunder-bolts as Paradice with a flaming Sword with the motto Noli me Tangere any Article of the Creed or precept of the Dialogue or Institution of Christ himself shall be sooner spar'd or dispensed with or dismissed yea Heaven and Earth shall pass away with them before any one jot of the Rights and acquisitions of the Triple Crown whether rightly or wrongly come by shall be curtailed or diminished in the least All Errours that favour this Interest must be believed to be Orthodox Truths all wickedness that promotes it Meritorious all Truths that oppose it to be Heretical and damnable by those that have surrendred that intire obedience and submission of heart and Judgement to a mortall guide which was due to none but the immortall Lord in my Text For as where sin rules the heart all virtue and sobriety shall be judged folly and Impertinence And miserable debauchery true Liberty and pleasure so where the man of sin gets into the same Throne all Truths that cross him shall be Heresies all errours that please him and advance his Interest shall become Orthodox Truths and Catholick traditions and no truce or accommodation can be settled between the subjects of either till such Antagonist
Soveraigns have reduced the one the other and be first at peace till either the Pope conform to the will of Christ which we expect which would beget an unity of Spirit and Truth between us in the bond of peace or Christ to the mind and will of the Pope and have no Scriptures that shall signifie any thing contrary to his sense but that the Popes will shall be taken to be Christs Will where they interfere which is their aim in their engrossing the right of interpreting the Scriptures to their Church alone that is their Pope which would produce peace and union its true but such a carnall peace and slavish union as were worse than any War or Captivity or desolation whatsoever Purgatory indulgencies image worship Transubstantiation blind obedience Universal Monarchy over the whole Church c. let them be never so false or unreasonable or scandalous or absurd not only with all learned and sober men but with many of themselves in their secret thoughts and retirements yet because they support the Kitchin and adorn the Hall and carnal state and esteem of their Apostolick see they shall and must be owned and defended forever as Infallible Doctrines De fide more unalterable than the Laws of Medes and Persians by all her Catholick Sons as they tender their continuance within her Pale out of which with them there can be no Salvation and our worship and Liturgie shall be condemned as Impious and prophane till upon obedience and Submission to their Chair as was offered in Queen Elizabeths days they shall permit it to be Orthodox and Holy and to be used in our Churches without any alteration or further trouble and all our Protestant Doctrines which are the same in effect with Gods Holy Scriptures out of which they are drawn and built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner stone yet because they comport not with their carnal designs and greatness shall be condemned to be abjur'd as false and Heretical though the Authors of them Christ and his Apostles and his purest Church be involved with us in the same sentence and themselves in Gods wo and curse in the Prophet upon those that call good evil evil good light darkness and darkness light Esa 15.20 What Law of Nature or Nations or Conscience or Honour or Humanity or Civility or Faith or Plain-dealing which are indelible imbred instincts in Vulgar and Heathen Breasts much more in Christian and Generous will not the guides of that Church direct their charge to break and violate with assured hopes of Salvation and Immortal Glory for the feat so it tend to promote and advance their Holy Catholick cause which is with them as it were Gods last will and Testament which Abrogates and annuls all precedent wills the Eternal Laws of God and conscience being but obsolete or Corporation orders when they clash against the Infallible Bulls and paramount Oracles of his Holiness yea the contradiction shall be salved and heal'd and Christ by Interpretation which belongs to them is brought to say and sign their draught to be his own Will and meaning and their Atheime shall be fac'd with his Authority as Hypocrites do their Villanies with the cover of Religion as King Philip of Macedon is said to have made the Oracles to Phillipize and Prophesie for him What Civil War and combustion must this make in English and honest hearts who though they have a respect for Rome think fit nevertheless to reserve due Loyalty towards God and their Redeemer and their Country to be thus necessitated to offend against God and man to save their souls who in compliance with that Church and obedience to its commands and dictates upon perill of damnation must shocke the wise and settled Laws of their Nation and disturb publick peace and Union and bring fear and consternation upon their fellow Subjects that desire to live in quietness and slight and disparage the learned and Religious Clergy of this land and our unparallel'd Vniversities and disobey glorious and Paternal Counsels seal'd in bloud for Gracious Kings are Fathers to all their Subjects next to their own begotten and shame the cause of friends and fellow-sufferers loyally and sincerely defended to the last gasp in bloud and ruine and to give just cause of boast and triumph to others for early and wise fears and jealousies and fore-sight and at last reconcile the Nation by a secret judgment against themselves and profess the true Religion before men believed in the heart to be false by humane Patent and dispensation against Conscience And conceal a false Religion believed in the heart to be true And act to the prejudice of the professed before declaring for the intended like giving Hostile broadsides without an Hostile Flag against the Law of Nations and continue or forbear vitious living according to humane Indulgence and tedder above the fear of God Such twisted Arts and servile postures of the Soul set by God above humane reach and power such chymical sublimated hypocrisie and doubling to which all the Swords and Artillery of the World pointed and planted against a single breast ought not to be able to force a Coward to all Politicians and Head-pieces and Whisperers to gull and seduce a fool to though they may go down with more ease with French and Italian tempers innur'd by ill fate to absolute governments and cringes and Slavery how loathsome and repugnant and against the grain must they prove to any honest and generous and freeborne English spirit And whence can this Civil War and distraction arise but from some failer and breach and division of the allegiance of the heart in admitting some up-start usurper or Impostor to be co-ordinate and equal if not Superiour to Christ its natural Liege Lord and Soveraign which the Loyal part of the Soul will never be flattered or frighted to agree or yield to Thus the heart through its own folly suffers it self to be ever disturbed and racked between two contrary Potentates within its bowells God and Old Conscience command and approve of natural affection and truth and peace and love to Countrey and obedience to Parents and Kings and Mercy and Civility to all in Misery and Anxiety The Anti-god or New Conscience commands the contrary as a piece of Catholick zeal and Glorious hazard and self-denyal under pain of displeasure of the Holy See and St. Peter and St. Paul and exclusion out of the Pale of the Church and the like usual forms Plain therefore and evident it is that the whole Controversy between us and Papists is reduceable to one point touching the Right and Soveraignty of the heart and Conscience whose it is and ought to be whether the Lord Christ in my Text as we hold with St. Paul or the Pope and Successor to St. Peter as they maintain at Random If the Pope be God and Lord of the Soul and not Christ then we Protestants are much to blame in
the Lords-day least good-friday should thereby be observ'd of necessity before the 14th day against the Law of Moses but differ'd it to the following Sunday being the 22th but if the following Sunday was on the 16th day after the full Moon or 14th the former Inconvenience was prevented So the Latines before they were rectified from Alexandria observed their Easter on such Sundayes as fell out between the 16th and 22th never went so far as 23 nor began at 14 or 15. y Usher p. 321. Sulpitius Severus of France about the year 410 to amend the errour and overplus of about two dayes which he observ'd invents another new way of observing Easter between the 14 th and 20th which the Brittains are taxed in Bede for observing likewise whereby when Easter is kept the 14th the Evening of the 13th preceeding is taken into it against the limits of the Law which confines the beginning of the Passover ever to the Evening of the 14th and not before or latter So the Roman Church having for about 100 years laid aside her wonted Cycle and rule of 84 and from 16 to 22 to follow the exacter tables of Dionysius and the Church of Brittain for about the same space of time following the Gallican method of Sulpitius from 14 to 20 being more intent upon the sincerity of their duty than exactness in hours and scruples and seconds this gave occasion to Augustine the Monk and his followers to espy a mistake to raise a quarrel upon to disturb z Bed l. 2. c. 2. our Churches for they confidently affirm'd that their Alexandrine Calandar was a tradition deriv'd from St. Peter who kept the keyes of Heaven upon which a Bed l. 3. c. 25. Oswi King of Northumberland was deterr'd from his Brittish institution to follow the Roman Church for fear of being shut out Colman being discredited quitted his Bishoprick and went back into Seotland and the spotless Church of Brittain had a fowle imputation fastened upon it of being no less than Heretical for want of better skill or heed in Almanacks and Accounts and trusting too much her Neighbours of France to tell the Clock whilst she was busie With the like Ignorance though not with the same mischief and scandal a gifted Preacher preferring the Illumination of the spirit before all human learning whatsoever being ask'd by a grave Divine to expound the meaning of Arcturus Orion and the Pleiades Job 28.31 comparing them with Leviathan thereabouts that was as hard a word in his phancy answers presently they were Sea-Monsters and earnest he was the learned Minister should veyle and submit to his Ignorant inspirations Consent and Harmony among Churches were to be wish'd in every rite and truth however to be followed in points that are least considerable but of the two it is easy to believe God is better pleased with Sincerity than Punctillioes and that a clean heart stylo veteri is far more acceptable with its searcher than an old heart puffed with pride and malice stylo novo the Virgins saith St. Chrysostom were shut out for want of Oyle Math. 25.11 another for not having his wedding garment Math. 12.12 13. but we read of none that were arraign'd or punished for mistaking the Month of the Passover The Church of Rome therefore its Adversary largely proves our Brittish to be Orthodox in Doctrine in that she had no more but this Easter difference to lay to her charge or to justifie her self above her And as her Doctrine throughout was sound and Scriptural so was her Government Ancient and Primitive by Bishops who were chosen by their b Usher p. 81. Godw. Catalogue in Bernard St David Clergy and People as their Arch-Bishops c Convocato clero populo Pyramo Archiepiscopatûs Eborac sedem concessit M. Westm de Arthuro An. 522. Spelman Conc p. 60. Hist Brit. l. 8. c. 12. l. 9. c. 8. by their Kings and Synods and Parliaments to Rule at home and to appear a broad in General Councils Nice Sardyca Ariminum as there be Instances That there were here 28 Bishops and three Arch-Bishops erected over the rest by King Lucius and the d Usher p. 125. Revenues of the Druides tranferr'd from Idolatry to endow the Church and so kept still sacred fot the use of Religion in general as Geoffrey of Monmouth and e in Eleutherio Platina intimate and is prov'd as to London by the early Simony of Wini Bishop of Winchester buying the same of King Wolfer is not the less improbable because some learned men are offended with the newness of the word Arch-slamins us'd by the Interpreter who writ in an ignorant Monkish age when the thing meant thereby and that there was subordination and one set over the rest is expressly affirmed by Caesar in his Account of their Discipline and Order yet others are inclin'd with Baleus and and Powel and Sir H. Spelman to believe that the Church of Brittain took her pattern from the East and from Scripture rather than Idolatry in the founding of her Bishopricks And that f Usher p. 90 the 7 Bishops of Wales under the Arch-Bishop of St. David who are recorded to meet Monk Augustine were founded and erected after the g Idem p. 800. Spelm. Conc. p. 107. number and example of the 7 Churches of Asia and their Angels Revel capp 1.2 3. as those Churches likewise after the like remarkeable number in the Angelical Hirarchy Zach. 4.10 Rev. 1.4 5. which opinion Arch-Bishop Vsher recites without any censure or dislike Accordingly h Usher p. 73. we meet with 7 Bishops in the North under the Arch-Bishop of York in like manner And twice 7 under the Arch-Bishop of London being twice as large as the two other Provinces or 7 only perhaps but each of those of larger extent than now they are as was i Heylin help to History p. 115. Lincolne before Eli Peterburgh and Oxford were taken from it or Lichfeild Sidnacester Dorchester Legecester and Worcester when all made but k Monast Angl. part 1.137 Spel. Concil p. 27. one Bishoprick and whereas Rome had 10 suburbicarian Provinces under it l Praesat Monast Angl. Millain which was more Oriental in her Customs had but 7. But one discord note we may find in the Brittish Doctrine touching persons Ecclesiastical which yet well agrees with St. Paul disallowing any to be fit guides that did not follow his example in living as he followed Christ Phil. 3.17 though not so well with Roman practice or profession where Bishops may be holy maugre all their scandals and impieties and Infallible in their monstrous errours because they sit in the Chair of St. Peter whereas in the sence of m Epist Gildas and consequently of our Brittish Church all holy Ministers are the successors of Peter in his Chair and they that are otherwise are Judas his successors being not Ministers of Christ but of the Devil and their bellies who
blessed Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and Divine Truths to the contrary reproached as Heresies and all wayes and Arts yea fire and faggot us'd to â—ar them out least their slaves and captives should be undeceived and set free by them and so become unmanageable whereby their Conquest over Souls shall be at peace and the misery and slavery of mens immortal Spirits turn to account and the enriching of their Holy Church A provocation against Heaven of long continuance enough to raise new Goths and Vâ—â—â—â—â—s against their Church and State but that the prosperity it enjoyes is a greater plague and desolation than the Sword can bring The Spiritual servitude of the Soul under Idols far exceeding the outward slavery of the body under Conquerors as much as Apoplexy exceeds sleep or the pangs of Conscience the pain of the Teeth To live in the causes of damnation being a greater misery in reason than to endure the execution there being nothing of Gods hand or justice in the one being our own mala culpae as there is in the other being Gods mala penae or the correction which he sends and inflicts and therefore the less tolerable evil of the two if properly evil Further correction therefore can do little good upon them It must be the Infinite mercies of God and the zeal of Christian Princes that must do good upon them against their wills as it is expected by diligent a Divine Dialogues p. 226. searchers into Divine Prophecies that some great Prince will be shortly rais'd by God to cast a Vial of wrath upon their glory And they have a common Tradition in France saith b Review of the Council of Trent by W R. a French Roman-Catholick Writer that some of the Carolingians of the Race of Charlemaigne shall have an Emperour of France Charles by name who shall be Prince and Monarch over Europe and shall reform the Church and State But the Glory of such a Cure and Deliverance being as it were the Redemption a new of those whom Christ redeem'd from Spiritual slavery seems more probably reserv'd for this Isle above any other whatsoever as before And so since our Island is become Great Brittain again and the true Religion is recovered with our Brittish Line and Monarchy which were fallen together it is to be conjectured from foregoing Instances of Providence upon this Monarchy that such of our Princes as will appear favourers of Popery are like to be the most unfortunate and inglorious and unbelov'd acting therein against the grain and fate of this Empire as those of the contrary design and activity as having Providence of their side the most successful and renowned and the darlings of God and men SECTION XVI What the Roman-Catholicks truly mean by the term Heretick they so liberally bestow on others And that none are greater Hereticks in Truth and reality than themselves and of their Title Roman-Catholick which they so well like And Old Rome and Brittain both Heathen and Christian compar'd with the Modern And that the yoak of Rome is not better to us than our present condition BY their condemning Protestants so confidently for Hereticks because they believe not after the manifest errours of their single Church though they profess to believe after Christ and his Scriptures and his true and purest Catholick Church they do but call others such what they make and convict themselves to be thereby It hath been ever the Custom or craft of men when sin or Satan or any vile design hath possess'd the Throne of their heart instead of Christ to imploy his Name and Laws and Power against not the enemies of Christ and the truth but the opposers of that lust or private Interest which succeeds him Upon which score the Soberest and Holiest Protestants though Catholicks with God are Hereticks with the Pope for opposing his Christ that is his Carnal Will and Grandeur which rules his heart instead of its right Soveraign For if Christ and his mind did reign therein such Hereticks as right Protestants are would soon be embrac'd for Christian Brethren And he that judges of Heresie contrary to Christs mind and will finds the first Heretick in himself The right method heretofore to judge of Heresie was the Holy Scriptures for a rule and holy Churche's Authority proceeding by such a rule or Scriptura animatae or Christ himself speaking in men But with some now a dayes one mans absolute will and pleasure and his worldly concerns and acquisitions a Haereticus arguitur qui monitus non restituit bona Ecclesiae Spondan Anno 794. n. 6. whether just or unjust or Libido Sainct fiâ—ata or a speaking Antichrist is the only rule and touchstone for to run cross to the one out of Allegiance to the other shall more involve in Rebellious Heresie than the other Install in Orthodox Loyalty and this in uniform agreeableness to the Hypothesis touching the right and wrong Soveraign we are upon And the reason in Scripture why a Heretick is to be finally avoided is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.11 or the condemnation of his own heart in changing his Soveraign which is manifestly discernable in his Conversation by all Christians that hold to their Heart-Loyalty and by the sleepy Intoxicated party it self if of a loyal inclination after two or three admonitions or else belike never The Portuguees General us'd the like Divinity in the Field in a passion as these do in their Schools and Pulpits who when the Auxillary English too tamely suffered as he conceived the advance of the Enemy towards them cry'd out in indignation the English Hereticks have betrayed us But when after a suddain Volley three stories high they clear'd the field with but-end he then confessed and vowed with as great content that the English Hereticks were excellent Christians So that Protestants by dexterous application are not out of hope but that they may retain their Heresies and be Catholicks nevertheless upon an Orthodox Tribute to an indulgent Pope who is not averse to tolerate publick Stews and License Incest c. upon the like terms But in several respects and considerations none are gâ—eater Hereticks in all desert and reason than our Roman Catholicks who are first at criminaâ—inâ—â— who in the first place slight the whole Canon of Scripture and forbid it to several as a dangerous book next to Heretical which no Father 〈◊〉 â—he Church oâ— any Council ever did and the gâ—eatest Hereâ—icks that ever were have been bâ—â—ded and condemned for no more but clashing against a few certain Texts and parcells thereof Who next renounce the whole Catholick Church which all Christians in their Creed profess to believe saving that degenerate rump and shadow thereof they at Rome have to shew Allowing none to be Metropolitans without their Palls c Concil Lateranens Can. 18. none to be Bishops or Ministers any where without Ordination deriv'd from them c Concil Lateranens Can. 18. none to have Authority to
Church above any other 1. It s Addiction and delight in fictions and pious frauds and officious lies and equivocations and mental Reservations and Stolid Insipid Legends and Infamous unconscionable forgeries and falfifying of the Living and the dead both persons and Records and Histories Fathers Councils Saints Apostles Angels Virgin Mary and Christ himself as well when there is no need of such Arts as when there is out of meer delight in this ugly sin as it were to keep their hands in whereby few Ecclesiastical Authors saving the Bibles have escaped their forgeries and their Histories where they are worth the reading are scarce to be believed but where they speak against them and their Interest now a lye is a slight or repugnancy to the heart and to God present in it or to Ciceroe's Divine mind and by consequence never without a kind of perjury in its train But when the heart is with Christ Christ is with that heart by consequence and he that speaks with and from his heart never lies for Christ speaks through him by fiction and he in whom Christ speaks cannot lye for Christ is Truth and Truth is only that which God saith or approves And God can neither lie himself nor approve it in any others where lyes are in common request and vogue it 's a sign God and the heart are departed and the Dialect of Satan who is a lyar becomes the Language of that Country The Innundation of Legends and Fables that over-spreads the service and Religion and Profession of that Church manifestly proves that its banks are broken that there is little or nothing of the heart or Christ or Conscience left amongst them as the sole and proper walls and fences against all untruth and falshood for regard to the heart alone will keep out lyes as in Generous Heathens and all persons of true honour and honesty much more to the heart and Christ as with all true Christians there is an Antipathy and inconsistency between every Ly and Christ and the heart and Conscience and Honour Where lying and Legending and dissimulation before God and man are easily dispensed with as no where more than at Rome there Christ and the heart are but cashier'd Soveraigns and stand for Ciphers And in what Church or Profession soever Christ goes off the stage Antichrist soon comes on the Father and Patron of Lyes who primarily and originally sure is Satan Revel 2.9 c. 13.4 or the great Dragon and old Serpent in Paradice the first Anti-god that destroyed mankind with a Lie seducing them from their Allegiance to God and substituting his own will to be observ'd instead by interpretation from Gods Authority against his mind Whereof the Science and Mystery is retain'd and profess'd in the Academy of Rome but the common practice and lying Dialect of his Kingdom is to be met in other Apostatical places and Ages co-dispers'd with the Church like Tares among Wheat to destroy and choak it And though the Jewish Turkish and Popish Apostacy use different Dialects the Hebrew the Arabick and the Latine yet they understand one another and exactly agree in their common Mother Tongue of vain lying For our Popish Legends and Alcharon Dreams and Talmudical Dotages wherein differ they but in the Garb and Masquerade of different Languages being all three a breed of the same womb and the Genuine off-spring of the Father of Lyes strongly retaining as bred in the bone the humour and special faculty of vending their own Errours for Gods Truths whose Interpreters they pretend each to be but the Pope and Mahomet more especially 2ly The Unchristian Cruelties of that Church proves it to be an unconscionable Church without a heart and nearly Allyed to Antichrist For by the Heart and Conscience we carry all other men about us in our breasts and our Souls are the Armory and Magazines of Modells and Suppositions by which ouâ— Inward Actions are first form'd and conceived whereof our Outward are but Copies and Counterparts And no man can wrong another outwardly without wronging him in himself to the wounding of his own Conscience in the first place The hurt in both is to himself in the one to the life and quick in the inward guilt in the other in the outward effigie to his own flesh By our unconfin'd Souls whereby one man is all mankind by fiction we are naturally fram'd and dispos'd to compassion and justice and doing as we would be done by As by our confin'd bodies on the other hand or the existence of no more but our bodily life and concerns in the conceptions of the Soul which is our narrowest being and measure of self-preservation we become mean and solitary Individuals and prompted thereby to the sole care and defence of our skin and property and often betrayed to insatiable deceitful appetites after Luxury which more tire and disappoint than satisfie the immense desires of the Soul aiming at the beatifical enjoyment of its God in every lust and pleasure it blindly stumbles upon The whole Creation being not a sufficient meal and the narrow brittle Vessel of the body not large and tight enough to contain and digest its vast draughts and ingestions but in a bounded love or Mortification rather of its Carnal self and unbounded Charity and preference of God and Countrey and mankind iâ— finds a Divine and honourable repast to its full â—atietie and true content yea our Souls were made to be not only receptacles and Synods of mankind but the Temples of God and Christ and all Christians And where the Heart is given Christ Christ a Eph. 3.17 1 Cor. 6.20 in MS. Alexandr in his Law and Nature resides and acts in that heart As such a heart also by its inspir'd Commands and dispositions rules its own body and members whereby every Christian carrying Christ about him by his Faith or Christian supposition is partaker of his Divine Nature and become an inspir'd Actor of his Saviours Vertues meek and merciful to enemies as Christ himself was and kind and tender hearted b Jac. 3. â—7 and peaceable and gentle and easie to be entreated as he hopes to find Christ to himself from an assurance from and in himself of his Infinite and unbounded goodness A right Catholick Christian is angry aâ— Hereticks and transgressors with the same zeal and dislike as Christ is who delights not in their death and ruine but their repentance and return yea he had rather dye for them than be the death of any of them though his enemies Mercy therefore and mildness and compassion from the heart to erroneous fellow-Christians is a great demonstration of true Catholick Christianity where ever it occurres or shines as merciless hostilities and zealous killing and burning all Dissenters of the contrary and of the Eclipse of the heart and Conscience and Christ by consequence in such a Church or Christian Whereby the Protestant Spirit is justified to the World to be right Christian and that in
who ever was uncircumcised was to be cut off from his people so all among Christians that live to their flesh in luxury and uncleanness in wordly pride and vain-glory and carnal security and give their heart from Christ to his Enemy to sin and Satan and the World contrary to the Christian vow cannot belong to Christ but are spiritually uncircumcised and to be for ever cut off from the hopes and priviledge of a Christian Israelite Some strongly led by their Carnal will which easily believes what it loves think their lusts and their Lord may agree and Salvation and a sinful life stand well together what advantage else hath a Christian by having a Saviour above a Heathen who hath none and is not this an honourable requital then to make Christ who came to destroy the works of the Devil a greater Patron for them than the Devil himself and to fortifie his temptations to sin with Indemnity Such suggestions and delusions are not to be answer'd but abhorr'd Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid Rom. 6.1 2. or to be seriously warn'd and monish'd with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have a care be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolators nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with mankind nor Theeves nor Coveteous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6 9 3. To live with Christ in Heaven or to have our affection and Conversation in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3.20 Col. 3.2 For his affections cannot chuse but be with Christ if his heart be with him but his heart can never be with him till it be seâ—sible of his grace nor be sensible of his 〈…〉 see its danger and deliverance by him and 〈◊〉 he can never see without hearing Gods word and believing his Gospel Clear therefore it is Conscience it self being judge that where there is no pulse of Heavenly life and concomitancy of the heart after Christ in his Exaltation there is no belief and who hath no belief is no Christian He may pass for a Protestant or Catholick for his profession before men but God and his heart will pronounce him to be an Infidel and out of Christ at the last day and here great is the usefulness and service of a wary Conscience and a faithful Pastor to be its Adjutant and guide The second question is who are in Christ with a stronger title and firmer possession than others of their Brethren Or who they be that be no punies but compleat Graduates and of the highest form and degree in the Church of Heaven All men are ambitious of excelling their Brethren either in Riches or Honour or Precedency or Parts or Learning or Activity or Beauty or in their very Clothes And no where is their more scope or encouragement or praise and honour from God and man and Conscience and less danger of wrong or envy than in the honest ambition of being the greatest man with God in Heaven and surer of being saved than many others to be a Christian not in the Positive degree only but also in the superlative according as the Apostle Beseeches and exhorts all by the Lord Jesus that as they have received how they ought to walk and to please God so they would abound more and more 1 Thess 4.1 And Heroes and Worthyes and men taller than others by the Head belonging to the Heavenly Kingdom may be met and found on Earth amongst all Ages and Conditions and Degrees High and Low Young and Old Rich and Poor For Instance he is Princeps Civitatis a Grandee of this Heavenly City who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first mark with the Apostle to qualifie a man to be a Bishop 1 Tim. 3.2 there translated blameless but may well signifie one that is unsurprizeable in his Christian principles and profession and watch by any lust or temptation or worldly Allurement alwayes retaining his Baptismal vow and love and Allegiance and fear of God in his remembrance and esteem and that in all times and places and companies by an uniform healthy victorious sobriety and vigilance over his heart and fancy and senses subject to no Convulsion-fits or Spiritual Epilepsies or scandalous fallings But having Heaven ever present in his eye to the life to cure all weariness and fainting and to out-bid all Worldly and Carnal Allurements Keeping himself altogether with God or as near as may be to Him having no end or design ever in his heart that doth not finally reach his Lord no thought therein that his God doth disallow or take unkind no word in his mouth to be publish'd without His License no bargain or sale without his God to approve and supervise it to be just and keeps no Company but with the living Images of his God for every vertue Is inseparable from Church and Sacraments where he is sure to meet with his God by special promise and appointment And either Reads or Prayes without ceasing at all Intervals of business that he and his God may be ever within hearing of one another which is effected with success while God is ever speaking to him or he to his God Which is an infallible method to be ever with God that is to be in the Church of Heaven while he is on Earth by prefruition He is another great Prince or Peer that bears great sway and rule and hath large and fair Possessions and domaines in this Heavenly Territory that bears a Martyrial breast and a fixt Resolution to come off with Faith and a good Conscience in all his Tryals though not with life Being never touch'd or hurt but where his Interest and adherence to Christ where he computes his self and being wholly to be comes to be shaken and assaulted And feels no heat in flames no rubs in Persecution to prove his love and to make good his March and Progress under his Saviour's Flagg but dants all that stand in his way with his immoveable Innocence and Heavenly unconcernedness And makes all Tyrants and Atheists confess they have not strength and power enough to shock his constancy nor the whole World wrongs and vexations enough to overwhelm his patience and forgivenness For the World with all its terrours and preparations is but a dead Host already subdued and crucified to his hand in the Cross of his General through whom he is more than Conquerour and altogether inseparable from him by that love in his heart Which neither Tribulation nor distress nor Persecution nor Famine nor Nakedness nor Peril nor Sword nor Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature can divide from God but maintains his ground though but one against the whole World who may perhaps prevail to seperate his Body from his Soul but never his Soul and Heart from Christ nor from his love or Laws