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
in general and to all Nations in particular that it is not his will we should be led by strangers more than by guides of our own flesh and bloud for this cause Christ took upon him humane nature when sent by God John 17.3 to direct the world For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels for this purpose Heb. 2.16 which though greatly Holy is yet Forraign to ours and as it were of another Country and their best messages seldome received by the best Christians without fear and horrour and suspition Luk. 2.9 Math. 28.45 But he took upon him the seed of Abraham being sent unto his own John 1.11 And in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren to be the better fitted for Sympathy towards us on his part and the belief thereof on ours Heb. 2.17 18. In like manner in sending his Apostles for the conversion of Nations the first fruits in every Nation that were converted to Christ were appointed for Bishops and Teachers as soon as might be to convert their Brethren and the Supemacy over the Gentile Churches not entail'd upon a Jewish line and succession forever as our first Teachers but upon the Natives themselves in every City and Country when fitted for it to Govern and direct their people and every Province to have its own Metropolitan chief within it self and unsubordinate to Foreigners And it is likewise observed that the needs of every Country in point of food and Raiment and Physick is best supplied from within it self and whether it be for the health or interest of this Nation to delight to wear forraign Liveries above its own I shall not now dispute and but that the Witchcraft and fascination that is in errour doth Seal up the Intellect it deludes less dispute there would be with all sober minds but that we have Governours of our own Nation praised be God fitted as likely for ability and compassion to be faithful guides to their Inferiour Brethren as the greatest Angels of the Church of Rome to whom were it alwayes certain they would prove good Angels we are not so near and dear as to our own Pastors who are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh And that our own wise Kings and Parliaments have and can make as wholesom Laws for this Church and State as the Conclave ever can or did how far and how dear soever fetched and bought To alledge as the Romanists do that Christ had his fix'd Officers his Apostles and Bishops in his Church before there were any Christian Kings which cannot be denyed that St. Peter was the chief of these Apostles which also may be granted for peace-sake as to his precedence but not any Jurisdiction that the present Popes are the successors of St. Peter in all his Authority and Holiness whether they follow him as he followed Christ or not and therefore are Superiours to all Christian Kings and Princes in their own Teritories as well as at Rome in all affairs relating to Religion is such a broken Title such a far-fetch'd Etymology and derivation of Authority as only fully proves the Antichristian humour of exalting themselves above every thing that is called God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Majesty as the word may imply which is the Jaundize that overspreads the face and vitals of that Church all over but cannot satisfie the conscience of any sober English Christian to relinquish and renounce his manifest allegiance and Subjection to his own Prince and Church to whom it is due to bestow the same to his own wrong and Spiritual danger as well as Temporal upon a forraign Power to whom it is not due and to rob his King to maintain a cheat For neither are our Brittish Churches more Subject to the Chair of Rome than is the Crown of France to the Crown of Spain which it had long a mind to but never any right neither if degrees and dignities be compared are Crowns to be Subject to the Mitre but the Mitre to the Crown For Kings if Heathen are without the Church and therefore not Subject to the Pope were he a lawful Vicar of Christ for what have I to do to judge them that are without them that are without God judgeth 1 Cor. 5.12 13. neither do they forfeit their Soveraignty by being Christian Kings by any colour or pretence of St. Peters supremacy St. Peter himself being judge who writes to his fellow Elders to feed the flock of God which was among them 1 Pet. 5.1 2. and to be subject for the Lords sake to the King as supreme for so is the will of God 1 Pet. 5.1 2. There is no where less love and honour from the heart to that blessed Apostle St. Peter no not perhaps in Hell than amongst them at Rome an out-side love or Philauty for Secular ends and designs they may have for him beyond any such as the Ephesian Silver-smiths had for Diana by which they had their wealth Act. 19.24 25. or Turks for Christs Sepulcher which turns to account unto them which is not their love to St. Peter but to themselves and bellies for if they had the least love and honour from the heart in Christ to his name and dignity they would rather chuse to starve or beg than face their frauds and cheats upon all degrees of men with his name and Authority or make him a complice or an Author to all their impious Usurpations and Rebellions against the Kings both of Heaven and Earth against his mind and principles as before For St. Peter himself from whom Popes derive all the power over Kings they can pretend to yea Christ himself from whom St. Peter had his and the whole Christian Church in his divine person while he was on Earth did submit to Magistrates and Presidents acknowledging their Power to be from Heaven John 19.11 and his Kingdom not to be of this world Joh. 18.36 as his pretended Vicars cannot also be by consequence for a Deputy cannot have more Power than his Soveraign St. Paul commands every soul to be Subject or subordinate to the higher Powers Rom. 13.1 which St. Chrysostom upon the place as before extends to Apostles and Ecclesiasticks as well as Lay and with good reason for no Crime can be Treason where is no Subjection and gives the title of excellency to Festus an Heathen President Act. 26. as St. Luke to Theophilus a Christian Luk. 1.3 an evident argument that neither would have denied the title of Majesty to a King and much more to a Christian King for as Servants gained no outward liberty by becoming Christians but continued Servants after as well as before their conversion 1 Cor. 7 20 21. So neither do Kings lose their Prerogatives or Supremacy by being Christians but are to be received into the Christian Society or Church in the same degree and quality they had in the Civil or State Superiour to all Inferiour to none And the Texts therefore that command
OF THE HEART AND ITS Right Soveraign AND ROME no Mother-Church to ENGLAND OR AN HISTORICAL Account of the TITLE of our BRITTISH CHURCH And by what Ministry the Gospel was first Planted in every County With a Remembrance of the Rights of JERVSALEM above in the great Question Where is the true Mother-Church of Christians By T. J. of Oswestry in the County of Salop sometime Domestick and Naval Chaplain to His Royal Highness the Duke of York Rom. 8.31 If God be for us who can be against us London Printed for Edw. Foulkes and are to be Sold by T. Basset at the George in Fleet-street 1678. To His Royal Highness JAMES Duke of York and Albany c. May it please your Royal Highness AS the Peace of Kingdoms which your Royal Highness excellently knows and the duty and safety of Subjects together with the great ease of Princes consist in one short easie rule and equitable well maintain'd and practic'd The submission of the Creature to its Creator or the Obedience of Inferiours in the low condition of the one to their respective Superiours over them in the Authority and high Character of the other so it may be affirm'd that the Peace and welfare of the Church depends no less upon the like lesson and method For what are Conventicles Schismes Heresies Idolatries which disturbe the Peace and destroy the being of the one but like so many Riots Factions Seditions Treasons which alike undermine and overthrow the Constitution of the other so that in short the Disturbers of the World are those alone who disobey Superiours Who in the time and under the covert of Peace are of two sorts such as undutifully despise the right or treacherously erect a wrong Sovereign over themselves The first are those who from Avarice or Pride or Ambition by craft or force disobey the Laws and usurp and encroach upon the Rights and Prerogatives of their lawful Governours where every inconsiderable Inceptor and Puny Recusant is a Cromwel or Lucifer in his path and tendency The next those who through fear or easiness will admit or submit to any wrong pretender in his usurpations and believe the Serpent against God And then it cannot be expected but that they who mistake their Sovereign in the first place will mistake their Loyalty in the next And Allegiance misplac'd shall make men Rebels as much as the failer or subduction The prime indispensable â—charge therefore first of Heaven's King next of every King on Earth that represent him is that known Commandment Thou shalt have none other Gods but me The Peace therefore of Churches and States manifestly consists in two points 1. In the exact knowledge and discovery who are our right and lawful Superiours on Earth 2. In exact obedience perform'd to their Laws and wills and no other Nor to them acting beyond their Sphere and usurping upon Gods Rights in Heaven under whom all Earthly Superiours and Inferiours are equally fellow-subjects And not to be allowed the liberty of eyes and understanding or private judgment to discerne between right or wrong Leaders which is of such temporal concern and preservation to every man in this World nor between the will of God and his Creature where they interfere which is of such Eternal moment in the other wherein lyes the Radical errour of some Modern Christian Heathenism were to be depos'd from being men any more or reduc'd to an Eternal non-age and inability to discern between good and evil and fitter therefore to be governed than to govern either themselves or others Having therefore for the establishment of Friends and the comfort of Regular and recovery of Irregular and seduc'd sufferers for Religion bestowed endeavours to distinguish the several parts of Divine and Human Soveraignty whereon the Peace of Communities and the Salvation of Souls depends being as manifestly distinguishable as Heaven and Earth or Soul and Body and stated also and evinc'd the Title of Right Mother-Church to our own Brittain though it s known a Harlot can bid fair for a true Mother where she lights not on Solomons for Judges and where she does be willing the Child be divided into Sects and parcells which she is not like to enjoy to her self entire and sufficiently demonstrated to any whose invincible minds and Spirits are unreduc'd from their Loyalty to God and truth That Popery in its Leaders is an uniform invasion and in its followers a necessary disobedience to right Soveraigns in Heaven and Earth and Protestancy in its Principles to be safe and clear from such disorders I judg'd fit to dedicate the Argument to whom it was duty to present the first Copy to your Royal Highness my Gracious Prince and Master having afore-hand weighed and consider'd as I ought it would make for your Highness Honour and publick love either at home or abroad in the disjunctive whatever were its resentment or success At home with God and the Countrey if it serv'd in the least to fortifie your Royal Breast against temptations or at least with Forreign Lords of Celestial Crowns and Canonizations against whose Sacred Avarice and Catholick canting for Tribute and subjection and other Politick Arts which are not unknown and infallible errours and Idolatries which are not unconfuted such plain and manifest Truths from clean hands and ends could so little prevail though seconded with the sense of the whole Nation and the rights of this ancient Apostolical Church undoubtedly Senior if not Mother to Rome it self Withall the Subject being of the Heart and Conscience and comprizing as the heart doth in a narrow Room a competent stock of Divine Rules and measures to judge of Truth and about Church matters seem'd therefore the fitter present for a Prince so nigh to Soveraign who is a Nation contracted in one man And Princes like God whom they represent delight in hearts And no Prince in Story was ever the Darling of more English Hearts than your R. H. and strange and unjust it were you should suffer any abatement of that Glory for no other reason but your exalted superlative zeal for God and your Conscience above Crowns or Kingdoms being the highest strein and pitch of sublime and transcendant Honour that Mortality could ever exert or phancy and higher still if that zeal were well guided with discretion as the Apostle requires and not taken upon undue trust whereof if there were not some manifest cause to doubt or fear none were more inexcusable and worthy to be deserted forever by Your R. H. than him who having had once the honour to adhere to you in your military dangers should want a heart at last to follow you in your Ecclesiastical motions after truth my more proper Element and Profession Having therefore as I ought doubted my self not a little and reviewed my Principles upon this occasion and with best endeavours of Brain and Knee studied to know the Truth and Gods mind herein with a heart resolv'd to be of its side to my power against the
move and have our being The first and last part of the Discourse are Unison and both practical and of more general use the midle Historical and Polemical and of no less use to several in these unsetled times to have the evidences of their Faith and Church as their Writings for their Lands to lye by them and their Children against any question that shall arise about the title Where known passages of History were necessarily to be rehears'd all possible conciseness is us'd which makes that part of the stile more obscure without a deliberate reading which yet is remedied by the Citations in the bottome of the Page referring to the Authors themselves And sometimes indignation against inclination rais'd the stile where the adverse objections or practice seem'd highly unreasonable or greatly pernicious having no enmity or disrespect to any person or party high or low but to their sin or ill example for their Recollection to prevent God's wrath and out of fidelity to the common Lord and judge of both The word Protestant is us'd as now it notes the Scriptural Apostolical Faith in opposition to Rome's corrupt Innovations and humane Inventions and in the sense explain'd page 488. Else it were very improper to stile our Brittish Faith Protestant which flourished here 1500 years before Luther was born The great and memorable Archbishop Vsâ—er whose memory ought ever to be especially dear to Brittains is often cited in His Book de Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Primordiis which after once naming is not repeated Which he writ at the command of King James as a Collection on purpose for such an use with great pains and judgment and truth and helpes several wayes and partilarly from the late chief Antiquary of Wales Mr. Rob. Vaughan of Hâ—â—-gwâ—â— with whom he corresponded It is not to be said that all is new or old either which is here deliver'd and intended for a compact systeme of satisfactions on this point under one view which before lay more dispers'd and undiscern'd and as some account also of innocence and patience in their defence which have not escap'd the censure of Improvidence and harder speeches and passages there being a Scaffold Priviledge ever due to Sufferers but this may be safely said that though the Notes were old and standing and ought so to be yet the Tune and management is wholly new and sincerely endeavour'd and design'd for the peace and concord of our Church and the stength and glory of our Nation and in all humility submitted to the candid eare and judgment of all Right Fathers and Sons of our Brittish Church of England Farewel A General Table of the Contents PART I. A Sermon touching Christs immediate Soveraignty over the heart and the usefulness of the Christian Doctrine to Societies being the occasion and foundation of the ensuing Argument SECT I. p. 43. The Controversie reduc'd to one single point in General of obedience to the right Soveraign of the heart and Protestancy found Loyal and Popery the contrary in its Principles and Practice SECT II. p. 68. Of the true Mother-Church to all Christians in respest of their In-side and of Rome'sVsurpations SECT III. p. 78. Of the true Mother Church to every Christian in respect of the Out-side and Rome'sVsurpations SECT IV. p. 123 Rome no Mother-Church to Brittain in respect of extraction or first Plantation of the Christian Faith but much Junior to it and more probably its Daughter SECT V. p. 134. The faith never fail'd in Brittain from the Resurrection to this present SECT VI. p. 143. Brittain had not the faith from Pope Eleutherius SECT VII p. 151. The description of the Old Brittish Church in its Doctrine and Discipline and Government and Traditions when Augustine the Monk made his Impression here SECT VIII p. 194. The face of the Roman Church about the same time and of Augustine's qualification and method for his pretended Propagation of the Gospel amongst the English And that the Nation are under no obligation to Rome for his work here but bound by their Christianity to abhor and detest it SECT IX p. 231. That the Gospel was planted among the English throughout their Counties by Brittish Ministry And that Augustine's Roman Plantation here came to nothing and no Bishop left in all this Land of Rome's Ordination but one and he a Simonaick and that the body of the Nation are old Brittains and our Princes especially and therefore by honour and nature bound to maintain the Rights of our Brittish Church against Forreign Enchroachments SECT X. p. 295. That all or most of the Kingdoms and Churches in this part of Europe received their first faith from Brittain yet Brittain pretends to no Supremacy over them upon that account and the Romanists â—loes de se in that kind of Plea SECT XI p. 346. Of the indirect methods of Rome in subjugating this and other Churches under it SECT XII p. 363. The change in Henry 8th rather a Restoration than Reformation and how commencing in Henry 7th and of the Inauspiciousntss of Popery to the Brittish Crown and the success and blessing of Protestant Counsels to this Nation SECT XIII p. 392. That the Primacy of the See of Canterbury as it is settled by our own Kings and Laws is Canonicall and Regular SECT XIV p. 436. That the Primacy of Canterbury as by the Pope and Monk Augustine is Schismatical and against the Canons of the Vniversal Church And of the several Nullities of the Church of Rome in England And how all their Clergy intruding â—here stand depriv'd of their Orders by the Canons of all the Ancient General Councils and their Laity that abet them of their Christian Communion by the same Authority SECT XV. p. 475. A short disquisition into the Cause and Character of the Roman Apostacy in its Leaders and Followers from History and Prophecy and Practice SECT XVI p 503. 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 Christians compar'd with the Modern and that the yoak of Rome is not better to us than our present condition SECT XVII p. 562. Where the place of the undoubted true Church is out of whose Pale there is no Salvation And how to be of the Church in Heaven while we are on Earth Page 23. l. 24. read outside p. 177. l. 18 dele as p. 184. ult r. source of p. 204. l. 18. â— the p. 21 â—… l. 29. r. out of p. 237. l. 18. r. after aâ—lin 1â— d. a p. 29â— l. 10. r. of his p. â—08 l. 5. d. say p. 315. l. 18. r. at p. 319 l. 30 r. of Bede p. 358. l. 13. r. of a God p. 379 l. 21. r. soon began p. 392 l. â— r. like to p. 420. l. 10. r. and from p. 468. l. 2. r. where p. 482.
be remarked in the worst of sinners that irrefragably prove a God The first is their infinite insatiable appetite after their peculiar Lusts which is that true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Avarice which Scripture stiles Idolatry Col. 3.5 The second is that forlorn guilt and anguish that the Conscience ever meets with criminibus peractis as the Poet said as soon as the Commission of the sin is over which no Creature for the present can allay or still without either Gods pardon upon Repentance and amendment or the help of time at least to forget it whereby the heart like the skin grows more hard and senseless by its wounds ill Cur'd These two effects very evidently prove it was a Divine and an Infinite Bliss and Happiness the Soul did aim at and forfeit in all its wicked fruitions and disappointments such an unbounded manner of Pursuing and Ruing being as clear an argument as ten thousand miracles to prove the existence and nearness of the deity to mens Actions but that Vicious Souls by the habit and Custom of vice become Callous and Bedlam-like insensible and so wholly brutal and un-attentive after God as the very beasts that perish in whom we commonly observe several shadows and resemblances of our own Reason in some degree but not the least sense or footstep or inclination after Religion or Altars or Sacraments This being the peculiar imploy and prerogative of Immortal Spirits Seeing therefore our Souls cannot be without either God or Idol to serve and fear and cannot serve both or neither it is not only our duty but necessity to chuse to do all we do rightly from the heart to the true God alone to our unspeakable comfort and reward than erroneously to Worldly and private ends or Idols to our everlasting misery and ruine This is the first reason from the fundamental constitution and Genius of our Souls which were made from the beginning as Adam in Paradice to walk and converse only with God and the good lives of the best Patriarchs are remarkably compriz'd in Scripture in a phrase to the same effect That they walked with God And our own Law resolves all Crimes in her Indictments into one Cause The want of the fear of God before mens eyes And why is it that peace of Conscience can defie the frowns of the whole World and all the favour and affluence of the World cannot quiet a disturb'd mind but that the entire concern and interest of man is found by all experience to be solely and immediatly in God The second reason is implyed in the word Lord who is Christ For Christ became Lord of Christians by purchase and merit by dying for them as the Apostle Argues 2 Cor. 5.15 In whose Death and Cross this present World hath its end and period by Faith as the Old World in the deluge by Gods judgments And the Christian Church is a New raised people a new Creature springing out of the Grave of the second Adam as Eve the type of the Church from the first Adam fallen asleep and following Christ in heart and faith to the right hand of God where now he is For the Church of Christ is supposed and laid according to the Scriptures in Heaven above More fully shewed in another Discourse on Phil. 3.20 Col. 3.1 Heb. 12.22 23. and not in any Corner or City or Chair on Earth here below as some Modern Donatists or Romanists strongly fancy for their gain deceiving and being deceived And this present World with its pomps and concerns which used to allure and detain the Soul from God to be withdrawn and vanished and dead and gone Col. 3.3 1 Cor. 7.31 And all the Cob-webs of Worldly ends and lusts and transitory designes which used to bind Carnal hearts like strong Cords swept and removed out of the way and none left but Christ and the Soul alone upon the pit None for it to love or converse or set its heart upon but Christ alone Christ Personal or Christ Mystical Christ in himself or Christ in his living Images in being or to be that is his Church So like is our Restoration by Christ as Christians to our Creation at first by God as men by both we were made to converse with God alone all other things being set below us under our feet by subjection or by death By subjection by the law of the Creation and by death by the designe and fiction of the Regeneration So true is that of the Apple 1 Joh. 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ for as the Soul could not stir out of God so neither hath the Christian any life or motion or being out of Christ Whatsoever he doth he must do it according to that general Rule of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 Christ hath the heart of a Christian in the first place next those that are likest in their lives and places to him He joynes in Communion with this or that Church as far as they keep Communion with Christ and no further He 'l joyn in Communion with St. Peter that Christ is the Son of the living God he 'll separate from St. Peter himself in his Abnegation and return again to his Communion upon his Repentance with bitter tears for that his Abnegation being still constant to Christ though Peter not constant to himself And no other Inferiour Pope or Church on Earth can claime Communion with or submission from us upon any other terms than as our Prime and Eternal Allegiance to Christ will give leave and permit without the guilt of Treasonable Idolatry against Heaven in our selves to give and yield it in them to take or arrogate it For whether we serve a Master or obey a Governour or chuse or approve a Church or Marry or live single or eat or drink or celebrate a Festival or whatsoever else we are to do we are to do all from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men And so much of the Doctrinal part of my Text. Which in the first place is of infinite use and influence to the right ordering and prosperity of Societies and Communities whether those Majorum Gentium of the greater size and sort that of Church and Common-wealth or mankind in General or other particular Fraternities of a lesser compass formed after the mould and imitation of those greater For nothing ever was given more useful to the World to sodder and strengthen Societies and Corporations than Christian Charity or Love from the heart towards one another for Christs sake which adopts and Incorporates all both small and great to its Heavenly community all the members of any Company all the Companies of any City and all the Cities and States and Kingdoms of the world into an unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Men are weak and comfortless and of a narrow sphere while alone but grow strong and goodly and formidable and
perpetuam rei memoriam that no man is happy or unfortunate but he alone that hath Christ the judge of Quick and Dead to be his Friend or Enemy his Friend by loving Christ his Enemy by wounding Christ in any Brother Act. 9.4 Math. 25.39 and bless ye his Holy name and serve him from the heart for ever who doth so espouse each your concerns and Protection as to count your Friends his Friends your Enemies his Enemies yea your selves his Friends or Enemies according as your selves either love or hate your Brethren and love or hate Christ by consequence in them And as for the false Brother of his Society I am loath to rip him up before you though contraries serve to Illustrate one another for fear of offence to any of your sences though he be yet above ground yet seeing many of you perhaps have been well innur'd to such hardships for the benefit of the living I 'le dissect and open his breast only to convince you manifestly that his disease lies where the others health and soundness lay in the heart I mean a rotten heart base and Hypocriticall and false and stuffed with nothing else but sordid self-love and private ends that engrossed all his concern and care either for his Brethren or Superiours or Country inverting and confounding the order and course of nature in him setting the toe above the head the Subject above Soveraign the weal of one member above the weal of the other or the safety of the whole or principal though the decay of the one involves in it of necessity the decay of the other likewise and his folly returns upon himself being served by others as he served them all caring as little for him as he cared for them and his self-love at long running found to be self-loss and to devour it self as well as its neighbours for want of a right rule to guide it For this self-monarch loves neither part nor whole neither his equal nor Superiour with the love of charity or equality and honour according to the Rules and Laws and rewards of Christ and Conscience but as a Gentleman loves a good Horse or a Hector his Mistress in reference only to his Saddle or his Lust his Courtesies are but his chaffe to cover his Nets wherewith he is invegling He studies to bring all about him and the whole community to serve his ends that is in plain terms to become his servants for a Servant is he who is gratiâ— alterius to serve the ends and purpose of another and not his own in plainer terms his study is how to swallow and devour their persons for he that is a Servant in Law and reason is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Civilians say without a Poll of his own being swallowed up in fiction in the person of his Master he barbarously makes all about him though as free as himself to enter into his service without their consent or any fair contract how much will you take per annum to be daily led by me by the Nose and abused every hour to serve my turn He makes them his Slaves and Captives before Declaration of War which is against the Law of Nations This man is not a right man but a Wolf in Sheeps cloathing whom our Saviour bids beware of not a Brother but a Rebel to his Society in the shape of a Brother He is a Pike in a Pond a Moral Cannibal that eates up his Neighbours alive without cracking of their bones and Spirits them into slavery before they know it A Faux with a dark Lantern lighting none but himself blowing up the Community whereof he is out of zeal to his holy Catholick self There is nothing that stands in its way or makes for its turn but this devouring lust of self-love would swallow against all tyes and principles It will sell Father and Friend Society and City Conscience and Christ Cant Religion Pimp his Prince betray its Countrey and Laws and Church and all private and publick Trust and Honour and pawn God and Oaths and Salvation to bring about its little ends This Immanent intransitive self-love that corrupts and stagnates at home and never runs out in any clear stream of Charity or Conscience or Honour or Compassion towards God or man its Fellows or Inferiours or Superiours either is that which infects and depraves all orders and degrees of men breeds a Thief in a Servant a Dog in a Master a Cut-throat in a Friend a Rebel in a State an Heretick in a Church a Knave upon the Bench a Tyrant in a Throne an Antichrist in a See And yet for all this this Alchymist proves a Beggar in the end And he that was no mans friend but his own fails to be his own being left by all as he left them and having none to help or comfort him becoming the scorn of his Neighbours the shame of his Society the scandal of his Church a burden to the Earth and Fuell for Hell-fire For it may well be affirmed that nothing is punished in Hell but Philauty nothing in Heaven rewarded and refreshed but Charity or transitive love towards God and man more than himself the end and fruit of Faith This worm therefore of self-love in the heart of our false brother that prays and devours all before it and at last it self is not his health but his disease not his policy or cunning as he thinks but his unconscionable Atheism and madness The poor man is manifestly out of order and beside himself because besides his right self and out of capacity to love another as himself because he loves not himself as he ought For it is perfect madness to love ones self above all like minding to save ones Cabin more than the Ship or Cicero's Piscinarii that believed their Fish-ponds could escape when the Ocean overflowed the Land A member to his Society is as a Cabin to the whole Ship and any one Society to its City and any City to the whole Community or to the Prince that represents it and the Countrey it self to the law of nature or the universe and God its Sâ—veraign who are not to be violated or offended to preserve a Nation for the law and will of God is Solus publica the weal publik of the World as the will of Christ of his Church and the Standard and measure of self-preservation to all Creatures whom they are to observe and tender in the first and chiefest place and their own affairs and concerns and lives but in the next For whosoever loves not God and the publick above himself in the first place neither understands nor loves himself or any other in the next For if his immortal Soul and the God that made him and the Saviour that redeemed him and the good land wherein he was born and Holy Church wherein he was re-born if these cannot deserve his first love I would forever despair to win his second It directs in the second place to make all 1. good
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
or transgressors of that Law and Law-giver there is but one who can save and destroy James 4.12 The blessed Lord Jesus Judge of quick and dead at the last day whose deputies on Earth in the Interim are consciences in Private souls and Magistrates and Governours in publick bodies who are as the souls of such bodies whether Temporall in Externall or Ecclesiastical in more Internall matters and concerns who are all both Private and publick conscience Subject and accountable unto him who alone is Judge and Soveraign And therefore we can do nothing against Christ upon any mans Authority whatsoever and being found faithful to him the sole and Supreme Judge and Soveraign of our souls we trust to be found Gods Catholicks though we are but Hereticks to the Pope who is not our Judge rejoycing in mans aspersion while we have Gods Absolution to wipe it off for not he who commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor. 10.8 SECTION II. Of the true Mother Church in particular to all Christians in respest of their In-side and RomesVsurpation HAving shewed that no Christian Churches or persons are subject to the Pope while himself is not subject to Christ the right Superiour and Soveraign over all nor bound to offend against Christ to please his pretended Vicar all being bound to withdraw their Communion from him who shakes off the undoubted Soveraign over all I will further shew that though the Church of Rome were sound and un-corrupt in its Doctrines and Loyalty which it is very far from yet it neither is nor was ever any mother Church to our British Church nor can have any right or title to its subjection or obedience It never had any Original motherhood or superiority over us of right nor in fact at any time but by the Concession of our Princes imposed upon by its arts which they may justly recal and take away at their pleasure as hath been done So it appears it's themselves that necessitate us to desert their Communion out of Christian Loyalty to our Saviour by them first deserted and deposed in a treasonable manner and his glorious Majesty chang'd into the similitude of a Calf or a Mortal Creature that perisheth which is the first spring and root of the rest of their desperate and monstrous Errours which bear the manifest spots and tokens of Antichristianism in the strength and infallibility of their Delusions Though we can and ought to bewail and compassionate their condition and slavery yet to return to their bosome as to a Mother Church we understand not how it is our duty or sober obedience were it sound or healthy yet we doubt not but she hath angl'd several sincere and ignorant and unwary Sons of this Church with that bait We confess we have been pin'd and stary'd under her for hundreds of years as under a hard and cruel Stepmother while harbour'd by the Fathers of our Countrey imposed upon by her inchantments whose issue by her as by a second venter upon her divorce became appurtenant to the Father and are incorporated with the first stock and Family but sure we are she never teemed of our Brittish Churches who never were the Daughters of her womb nor sucked our first milk from her breasts For whether their inside or their outside or extraction be consider'd they appear to have no descent from Rome Neither can they instance or insist upon any other point or manner of Pedegree and derivation of one Church from another For as it is with every private man if his inside and Soul and Spirit be examined whence it came it came from above from the Father of our Spirits Heb. 12.9 and to return in peace to him that gave it is its utmost aim and bliss Eccles 12.7 If the outside or his body it came from the Earth whence it was first taken and whither it must return If his intermediate descent he springs and proceeds from Fathers and progenitors of the Flesh and owns their superiority and Discipline and honours their names and memories So it is with all Churches and Christian Societies By our inside we are not from below or from beyond the Sea but from Heaven Jerusalem above being our mother and Jesus our King the King and Lord of Souls By our outside we are under our own Kings and Governours on Earth as our Nursing Fathers and Mothers according to the Holy Prophecy As to our descent Old Christian Britannia is our Mother to whom the Antient Church of Rome is Junior in the Faith and much more any of her Perking Daughters or Clergy which shall be further proved in every particular And first as to the inside of all Christian Churches and of the Church of Rome it self if she will be a Church of Christ and of thousands in her that have not bowed the heart to any but to Christ known to God There is no Mother-Church to be accounted of but one only the Spouse of Christ expressed by name in Scripture Heb. 12.22 Not the City of Rome who rather is under ill report in them but the City of the living God The Heavenly Jerusalem which Gal. 3.26 is by the Apostle Stil'd the Mother of us all and which is free and answering unto Sarah whereas Jerusalem on Earth answers Hagar in her servitude and yet Jerusalem below is more a Mother of all Christian Churches than Rome it self or any other here below for Rome her self had her extraction thence her St. Peter and his Chair and the Gospel and Christ himself she and all must derive originally from Sion And if the Mother be not free much less her Daughters for no Soul or Church can be said to be free in her exile and servitude whiles she serves any other but her own natural Prince who is Christ alone the High Priest and Bishop of our Souls who is at the right hand of God in that Heavenly City and Assembly of the Faithful For Christ is the sole Monarch and Legislator in this Spiritual Kingdom and none are free Subjects here but those who obey him alone and no other Controller His will alone is the Law and measure of good and evil and duty and transgression He enacts and repeals and dispenses and absolves he alone can search and reward and punish Souls The everlasting concerns of Eternity and the secrets of mens hearts transcend all humane authority and cognizance and reach No secular Powers are to tread within this Temple but are to stand without in the Court though Christians and in the further Court of the Gentiles if Heathen or Antichristian Christs Deputies and delegates in this Heavenly work and Province are all Bishops and Curates who by their life and Doctrine set forth his true and lively word and rightly and duely Administer his Holy Sacraments who yet have no power or property or Authority but from him Neither is the word they preach 2 Thes 2.13 nor the Sacraments they administer 1 Cor. 4.1 nor the Absolution they
the Brittish is the most faithful and motherly in the education of her Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord 1 Pet. 5.1 3 4. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder or Fellow-Presbyter and witness of the sufferings of Christ Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being examples to the flock and when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory Now the Popes are so far from feeding Christs flock by their Doctrine or example that no Pope was ever seen in a Pulpit these many hundred years and sometimes are no Divines but Canonists most an end or States-men or Nuncio's better vers'd in the Mysteries of the World than of the Soul And as to the other part of being Holy examples to Christs flock which is as necessary to edifying as preaching they do not so much as pretend to it but instead of morall attraction by the Heavenliness of their doctrines or lives wherewith souls can alone be won which close with nothing but God or what most resembles him in light and holiness they use ignorance and blind obedience and force and Fagot and Inquisition which are secular and temporal weapons and methods to work upon Beasts and Malefactors and the body only and not Spiritual or Ecclesiastical or Heavenly and proportionable to mens souls which are Inhabitants of Heaven But if the guides of their Church have neither the Truth nor pretence and colour of Holiness the whole mystery of iniquity would go to wrack therefore Holiness shall be arrogated as peculiar to them not in respect of heart and life before God and men which would prove a hard lesson and an unstable title but in the Right and Prerogative of the Apostolick chair what ever be their lives or examples vertuous or vitious exemplary or scandalous and Atheistical which is but a wooden title and would be as unstable as the former without the strong supports and butresses of blind Faith and the slavish and bestiall ignorance of their Disciples to acknowledge and bear it up But though our Popes do fully quitt and resign their Ministerial Superiority over the Inside of Churches which was all that could in this respect belong unto them were they extraordinary and inspir'd Apostles from this or their own Inferiour Churches Subject to them and therefore we need not be troubled in conscience for detaining this Right and priviledge from them which they never lawfully had here or if they had they do and have for many ages voluntarily and heartily and in the face of the world quitted and relinquished it for ages immemorial both at home and a broad Yet as to the rights and Prerogatives of the Soveraign or chief Shepheard of this Heavenly Jerusalem as St. Peter calls him which never belong'd to them nor to St. Peter himself their pretended founder none are more for them than they be nor more daring and greedily encroaching and usurping daily upon them a Symptome of the old Disease we are like to meet in every one of their practices and opinions What Christ enacts to be sins of everlasting stain and pravity to depose lawful Kings to Massacre and murder Nations shall be no sins in Roman Catholicks when their Soveraign the Pope shall insinuate to the contrary Orthodox Christians in Christs esteem keeping to his word and will shall be but Hereticks and Dogs with the Pope for the same reason Christ ordained Bread and Wine for the Sacraments the Pope is for Wine only to the people He 'l forbid like Murder or Treason Communion with Protestants whose Sacraments are much purer than his own and dispense and connive at stews which Christ abhors Allegiance to Kings and Faith and Civility to men are duties with Christ but sins with the Pope at his pleasure The Orthodox and penitent whom Christ absolves the Pope will bind he 'l dispense with Hypocrisie and License incest and absolve Impenitence and imploy debauchery and vice in men and women to promote the Interest of Holy Church though means and ends are Homogeneous in their natures and as it were of a piece And men shall be flatter'd in sin for gain and cozen'd into damnation for filthy Lucre which God and Angels and all good men abhor and Scripture detests and no honest or wise man would be seen in none but a Cain or Satan or a Pimp or a Pope And thousands more of the like Abominations and controlling of Christs will and Law too much in request and daily practice enough without repentance to invite and hasten a Turkish Rod upon them and to make the Earth weary in bearing and Heaven in forbearing such scandalous impieties under the name of Christ and mask of Religion SECTION III. Of the true Mother Church to every Christian in respect of the out-side and RomesVsurpations ANd as Churches by their In-side are under the King of Heaven alone so by their out-sides they are under their respective Earthly Kings and not the Pope in either what ever his incroachments are or have been against the one or the other Soveraign against either of whose Authorities and Prerogatives a strong man cannot a good man that bears any Character of Christ as Popes pretend highly to do will not offer to plead prescription Though no Secular power have eyes sharp enough to search or discern the secret Communion of mens hearts and spirits either rightly with God that made them or vilely with an Idol which they have made unto themselves nor hands rich and Liberal to out-bid the deceitful promises of the flesh or buy them out from a fancy or zeal that 's false nor arm or strength or sufficient terrour to wrench them from a Martyriall truth and therefore are insignificant in all their inquests or attempts upon mens thoughts which are as it were in another world far out of their reach and view and subject to no King but Christ who by beatificial Visions and Eternal torments and which is more forceing the immense Humility and kindness of his death and power of his Resurrection checks and reduces all the Idols of mens hearts with all their train and deceits and contumacy and keeps his Assises in every corner of those Intellectual Regions through the Ministry of his Holy word which Heb. 4.12 Is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword pierceing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do His Ministers like men in Virginals raising an Heavenly Harmony upon the dead strings of mens hearrs when the finger of the living God is pleased to touch
Zebadia the Ruler of the house of Juda for all the Kings matters v. 11. To assemble Synods and Councells about Sacred Affairs for settling the Ark as did David 1 Chron 13.2 For dedicating the Temple as did Solomon 1 Reg. 8. and reforming the Nation and bringing them back unto the Lord God of their Fathers as did Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 19.4 To maintain their Command and Soveraignity in such matters not only over all the people in general 1 King 23.21 but over the High Priests themselves in particular by assigning their work and duty 2 King 22.8 12. Where Jehoshaphat layes command upon Hilkiah the High-Priest thrusting them out of their High-Priesthood for their Disloyalty as Solomon did Abiathar 1 King 2.27 And sparing them their Lives in courtesie to their Coat v. 26. And this their pious care and zeal for God and Religion which in the Popes account were little less than intermeddling in other mens rights is recorded in Gods account as their Eternal praise and honour and good service to their Countrey And like Josiah was there no King before him that turn'd to the Lord with all his heart and with all his Soul and with all his might Neither arose there any like him 2 King 23.25 And Jehoshaphat sought to the Lord God of his Father and walked in his Commandments and not after the doings of Israel Therefore the Lord established the Kingdom in his hands and all Juda brought to Jehoshaphat Presents and he had Riches and honour in abundance 2 Chron. 17.5 And the contrary neglect about the Worship of God in their wicked Kings and making their people to sin by their defection or ill example was the ruine of their Land 2 Chron. 36.17 And a Brand of Infamy upon their names in particular forever as the followers of Jereboam the Son of Nebat which made Israel to sin and therefore liker to Satan therein than to Gracious Kings and Fathers And what was thus their bounden duty and honour in the Kings of Israel to imploy their Authority and Government for God and his Church upon the like ground and proportion is the duty and interest of all Christian Kings for a Kingdom that becomes Christian becomes a Church thereby or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 3.5 the Heritage and Clergie of God a Christian Kingdom is a new Israel of God Gal. 6.16 and Christian Kings by consequence are heyres of the same Prerogative and Supremacy that did belong in Israel to the Kings of Israel where the High-Priests were subordinate in externals to the Kings and not the Kings to the Priests It is a contradiction to be a King and to be Subject wherein Popes are made Supreme Kings are made Subjects there cannot be two Supremes in the same Church or Kingdom and it were a great snare and Spiritual misery to be subjects under two contrary Soveraigns and to be bound in conscience to obey contrary injunctions and commands whereby inevitably their obedience to the one becomes their sin and transgression against the other Soveraign which is the condition of Roman Catholicks who own the Pope for supreme to the wrong of those Christians Soveraigns over them whose right it is whereby their conscientious Catholick obedience becomes unconscionable disobedience to their right Superiour It concerns and behoves them therefore and every other Christian subject in whom the word of Christ ought to dwell richly in all wisdom Col. 3.16 to be fully satisfied who is to rule them He that mistakes his Soveraign will mistake his Loyalty The Old and New Testament knows but two Soveraigns God or the King Christ or Caesar 2. Chron. 19.11 Math. 22.21 so the Jewish so the Ancient Christian Church so the Church of England held upon the Reformation when the whole Nation both Parliament and Convocation unanimously agreed that the Pope had no more to do in England than any other Bishop The Soveraignty of the Lord the Pope starting up when the Church began to degenerate strongly savours of a fifth Monarchy or an Antichristian erection Christ only is the Immediate Soveraign of the Inside of men in his Church Kings the Immediate Soveraigns of the outside in their Dominions the Pope or Prelate is Soveraign in neither Pet. 5.3 Rom. 13.1 therefore there is no obedience due from the heart and conscience to spirituall Governours but wherein they agree in their Doctrines with Christs mind and clash not in their outward order and Discipline with the rights of Christian Kings for delegates are to be obeyed in and for and not against their Principals and the soul is subject to none but to a supreme either the Lord Christ who is absolutely such or our Lord the King who is such in externals by Christs concession Prov. 8.15 subject also it is to Governours but for his sake and by his command that is to say it 's subject not to them but to him But it will be still objected what have Kings to do with Religion that wholly belongs to Spiritual persons and the Clergy and to the Pope the Patriarch in such matters and by consequence Supreme and it must still be answered and acknowledged That the substantial part of Christian Religion lyes out of the Horizon and Territory of Kings in another world as it were where yet none is Soveraign but Christ alone Popes and Bishops and Inferiour Priests being all officers and Ministers under him in this Kingdom all of equal degree and power without difference in their Authorities or Keys saving that in equity and merit they are foremost and chiefest who are most painful and faithful in this trust Kings well observe their bounds therein they do not as they ought not intermeddle in such matters between the soul and God as are of divine Institution or immortal importance they meddle not with the Priestly office and great would be the peace of Churches and of the world if the Pope did as little meddle with the Kingly they take not upon them to preach and publish the Laws and mind of Christ in his name and Authority nor to denounce wrath and War against offenders high or low nor of themselves to Excommunicate the unworthy from the Holy Society of Christs Church and all hopes of mercy till they repent and change nor to arbitrate as for Christ who are fit and worthy of Grace or pardon neither do they travel between Heaven and Earth upon messages between Christ and souls as the Angels upon the ladder being now Gods mouth to the people in wholsom Counsels and Instructions anon the peoples mouths to God in humble confessions or thanskgivings as neither did the Kings of Israel ever offer to enter the holy place or order the Shew Bread or Sacrifice or incense which might have been done with the same skill though not with the same Authority by Common persons as by Priests and hath been attempted by one or two but to their wo No under both Law and Gospel these offices did solely belong to
one of St. Pauls Disciples one of his own bloud and extraction being the Son of Claudia Ruffina f Martial Fpigr lib. 11. Ep. 53. lib. 4. Ep. 13. a Brittish Lady admired by f Martial Fpigr lib. 11. Ep. 53. lib. 4. Ep. 13. Roman Writers for her Accomplishments not short of any then in Rome or Athens e Usher cap. 3. p. 31. seq the Wife of Pudens and Mother of Linus in whose house at Rome Baronius saith g Anno Christi 44. the Tradition goes St. Peter had his abode in Converted afterwards into a Temple but which is more certain and generally agreed on by their Writers and ours and the exceptions of one e Usher cap. 3. p. 31. seq Dissenter sufficiently answered by the most Learned Vsher they both were the same persons who are mention'd e Usher cap. 3. p. 31. seq in St. Paul's 2 Epistle to another Timothy 4.21 Pudens and Linus and Claudia greet thee and all the Brethren Who after acquaintance with St. Paul in all Probability was more instrumental to conveigh and promote more and more the Gospel into her Countrey than before pieces of Roman Wit as she was wont as is rightly inferred by the Polite and Reverend Author of Antiquitates Ecclesiasticae who yet is more industrious than need in the derivation and Roman forming of both her names Claudia from Claudius Caesar and Ruffina from Pudens Rufus a Roman Knight her Husband when her own h Hist Britt l. 2. c. 2. Brittish name might easily and without such streining be formed after the Latine Mode common with it to other Tongues to make some alterations in Forreign names which they are to pronounce in their own who being Young and newly Married with Pudens Martialls Patron stil'd Sanctus by the Poet in his Epithalamium for his Modesty and Vertue might well be the Mother of a Son that might be fit for time as well as mutual affection to Baptize our Brittish King coming over to be a Christian and probably by his means and influence for K. Lucius or Lhês lived not at that distance of time but that this might be well Effected in Anno 156. saith Geoffry h Hist Britt l. 2. c. 2. of Monmouth and sooner say Ninius and P. Jovius as before Withall there was but his Father King Coillus and Marius or Meirig his Grandfather between Lucius and Aruiragus mention'd in Roman Writers who was Contemporary with Joseph of Arimathaea and g Gwladys Ruffydh or Gryffith whence Ruffinus Ruffina Griffin The old Brittains retain'd their Maiden surnames though Married and do still amonst the communalty and pronounâ—e u as y and melt away g. bountiful to him at Glastonbury say our Histories and Lucius might be called Arviragus or Apviragus for his name in Brittish form was Lhês Coel ap Meirig i Usher p 18 And were it true that Lucius of a King became a Preacher before his end and Converted to the Faith Bavaria k Usher p 31. and Switzerland as several Authors report out of the Annals of those places as our English k Ubbo Emmius Reâ— Frisicarum Willibrord and Suidbert and Wilfrid did Holland and Frizland and Boniface or Winfrid did the Thurmgi Suevi Franci l Munster Cosm l. 3. p. 323. doth it follow they must owe an Eternal Subjection to the Church of Brittain upon that score Or did the Ancient Brittains ever pretend to a Supremacy or Jurisdiction over Ireland upon the pretence of its Conversion by their St. Patrick as is the way at Rome to insist Or were it lawful for them and in their own power to pav us or another that should upon such a score expect it such their subjection and obedience against their due Loyalty and Allegiance to their own Soveraign whose right it is but though we pretend to no rule over them nor expect any more but their love and kindness which is mutually due we may justly take it ill and unkind at their hands that they chuse rather to be guided in their Faith by Forreign Deceivers to their Misery than continue their Communion with their Ancient Christian Friends and Brethren Branach to their great felicity in Soul and Body and the happy peace of both Nations Where Christian Religion is wholly imployed and adapted to compass Worldly ends and Temporal Superiority its dignity is embased and its nature really chang'd into another kind or species and ought not by consequence to be call'd Religion For the end is better than the means and the Master than the Servant and the Building than the Scaffold And this present World Satans Kingdom is more excellent than such a Church which is wholly designed and dedicated to serve and gain it with all the end gives name and being and definition unto the means as a sum of Money imployed to relieve the poor is Charity to pay Debts Justice to Bribe an Evidence Perjury to hire an Assasinate Murder or a Building made to dwell in is a House to Grind Corn a Mill to keep off Enemies a Fort to serve God in a Church to buy and sell in a Shop and by consequence that Religion that hath Earthly Rule and advantage for its chief end and professes Earth thereby to be better than Heaven and Gospel good for nothing more than to fill Coffers cannot be call'd Christian or true Catholick Religion for the chief aime of such is the World to come but rather an Antichristian trade or craft which sets Conscience and Truth and Sacraments all at sale to make sure of this And so much may suffice touching the second point to shew that Rome is no Mother Church to Brittain neither by Conception or Education for she was neither conceived in her womb nor nourished on her breast but was a Virgin of full Age when her pretended Mother was but in her Swadling Clouts and Cradle SECTION VII The Description of the Old Brittish Church in its Doctrine Discipline and Goverment and Traditions when Augustine the Monk made his Impression here IN the third place to come to Augustine the Monkes Impression upon our Brittish Church we are to examine whether being free born she forfeited that liberty by any foul Heresie or Schisme Or the Church of Rome at that time merited Superiority over her by being a more Excellent and purer Church Or by any Act of redemption or unrequitable Courtesie which swallows liberty hath won or oblig'd it in justice and equity to be subject to her Or wherein her Title to this Supremacy lay in its first advance and setting out before any pretence or colour from prescription or possession The Face therefore and Physiognomy of both Churches at that time is to be viewed and examined in its lines and features which of the two for Doctrine and Discipline and Traditions was most Catholick and Apostolick and Primitive and Merited supposing their years and standing equal to Rule and give Law to the other Where it is to be premised
are more intent for peferments in the Church than for the Kingdom of Heaven or adorning such dignities with life and Doctrine who can hold their peace at the abominable sins of men whereby God is offended and roare to purpose at the least injury done to themselves as if done to Christ such are Gods Enemies and not his Priests the Ringleaders of the wicked and not Popes of the Church traitors not succcessors of the Apostles Rebels not Ministers of Christ And for our Brittish Customs they were and are Primitive and Catholick and Oriental and not Roman We observe with solemn fast the holy week in Lent called Grawys from n Leges Howeli Dha apud Spelman quasi garw-wysg different and rough attire as is conceived then us'd especially therein Dydh Mercher y Brà d and Dydh Gwener y Croglith that is as we term those two days Wednesday wherein he was betrayed and Friday with the lessen of the Cross and from thence all the n Usher 882. Baronius An. 34. n. 47. Wednesdays and Fridays of the year saving Pentecost as Bede confesses of us and the strict practice rhereof with the devouter sort is fresh in memory this and other Brittish Customs having escaped better under Popery than under the pretended Reformation of the late War whereas its well known the Church of Rome stands condemn'd and censur'd in her Clergy and laity the one to be depriv'd the other to be excommunicate by the 6th o Conc. in Trull c. 55. c. Plin. lib. 10. Epist 97. Generall Council for fasting upon the Saturdays 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrary to the Ancient tradition of the Church and the Apostolical Canon of like severity It 's no wonder therefore if the Church of Rome denies the Authority of this Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p Scholiast in loc For it went like a Sword through their heart to find themselves charg'd and impeached of going contrary to the Apostolical Canon And though the Church of Brittain in the West and of Africa in the South and of Millain at her doors agreed with the Eastern and Apostolick followed by this Council yet this Universal consent must not prevail the single Church of Rome Schismatically dissenting from the whole Church in her traditions must be Catholick nevertheless and her Customs to be observed equally with the Scriptures The Asiatic custome of singing a Carol to Christ about Cock-crowing mention'd in Plinie p L. 10. Ep. 97. in his Epistle to Trajan the Emperour in the first Age of the Church is retain'd amonst us to this day in our Plygains or Pulgains as we term them Though we look upon the material Cross as a great rarity which at Rome they Idolize and are beholding to our St. Helena for any naile or part thereof they have to shew and honour that bearing as the Church's Coat of Arms yet our true sense and Religious use thereof appears in our Remembrances and obligations by it to brotherly love and charity having no other word to express welcome which ought to be from the heart but Croeso which is deriv'd from the Cross mae chwi groeso you are welcome in the Cross Though they believe no Purgatory yet at the death of their Friends it is usual with them to wish the party Deceas'd a good Resurrection Duw a Ro iddo Ailgyfodiad da God grant him a good Resurrection an Ancient q Epiphanius in Aerio practice in the Eastern Church much abus'd by them at Rome to their secular profit as usual None have firmer beliefs of the Immortality of the Soul and of the other World than the Ancient Brittains nor greater detestation and Dicipline against lying even in Children which the Roman Church indulges in her Records and Liturgies and chiefest Saints r Cyn gywired a'r Ancor Brittish Proverb as honest and true as an Anchorite Eremitas Anachoretas abstinentioe majoris magisqve spirituales alibi non videas Grald Cambr. Descript Cambr. c. 18. They had likewise besides Eremites and Anchorites of the stictest sort their Nuneries for Christ's Virgins and Abbeyes for Monkes not such as our Western Modern Orders of St. Benedict St. Francis or St. Domnick but far Ancienter and after the Rule in the East and Å¿ Usher p 110. Aegypt so much extoll'd in in the Ancient Fathers and especially in St. Chrysostom's Homilies all along not begging their Bread or being a burden to others but earning their Livelihood with the work of their hands and spending the rest of their time in Study and mutual Edification renowned in History for their great Sanctity and Learning yet it was not counted unlawful for any of their Clergy to Marry for St. Patrick was the Son of †Idem p. 818. Calphurnius a Deacon who was the Son of †Idem p. 818. Potitus a Presbyter And u Spelm. Concil Arelat Restitutus the Brittish Archbishop at the Council of Arles was a Married man and so was St. Hilarie his friend as well as St. Philip and St. Peter In their Tonsures which is also an x Bed l. 3. c. 25 exception by Augustin's party against them if they had any they followed the manner of the East which shaved the forehead not the Crown as did our Romanists who were as much dissatisfied with Theodorus of Tarsus St. Paul's City who being design'd Archbishop of Canterbury to revive and promote the Roman Interest in Brittain quite lost well nigh was y Bed lib. 4. c. 1. fain to stay four Months at Rome before his setting out into his dignity that his Haire might grow fit to be shaved after the Roman mode being well contented to part with an old lock for a new Throne which proves the Greeks to be as far different from the Romans as our Brittains in this Rite Episcopalem vero Confirmationem prae alia gente â—otus populus magnopere petit x Cambrens Descriptio Cambr. c. 18. no Nation had Episcopal Confirmation more in esteem and so desired by all as the Brittains saith Cambrensis whose Archbishops did Consecrate their Suffragans and were Consecrated by them in their own Province And never sought to Rome for their Pall as did several other Nations as Pope Gregory did a Cambrens Itmerar Cambr. lib 2. c. 1. acquaint his Augustine in answer to his 7â— Question directing to take no Superiority over Arles because ab Antiquis praedecessorum meorum temporibus pallium accepit that Archbishop did use to receive his Pall from Rome and therefore was not to be depriv'd of the Authority which once he had obtained a Cambrens Itmerar Cambr. lib 2. c. 1. Britanmarum vero Omnes Episcopes tuae fraternitate committimus But he 'le give leave to his Augustine to bring all the Bishops of Brittain under him who by consequence and in the Popes opinion and diligent search never had any Pall from Rome which by the Principles of the b Bed l. 2. c. 28. 7 â—
were the more lov'd and embrac'd for it by several of them returning as did Constantine the Son of Cador c Usher 540. Prince of Cornwall who upon Gildas his rebuke became a zealous Preacher of the Gospel from a bloudy Debauch and Mouric and Morcant Princes of Southwales became great Patrons and Benefactors to the Church for its fidelity to their Souls against their vitious humours both securing and gaining Heaven to themselves thereby the one by their Integrity the other by their Repentance But as to their blameless and more worthy Princes the Brittish Bishops were never distant from them neither in their d H. Spelmen Council p. 64. danger nor joyes nor deaths Eldad e Histor Brit. lib. 8. Bishop of Gloucester followed King Ambrose in all his Wars and Victories f Usher p. 1128. Dubritius Archbishop of St. David encouraged King Arthur's Army against the Infidels in his Badonic Victory The whole Clergy of the land alwayes assembled to interre g Hist Britt l. 8. c 12 16 24. their Princes at Stonehenge Cowardize in any of their Souldiers in the Cause of their Prince and Countrey h Concil Arelat praesentibus Episcopis Brittanniae can 3. was Excommunication with them The root of Brittish Valour was Conscience and Loyalty according to that Canon of the i Conc. Arausic c. 17. Council of Orange Fortitudinem gentilium mundana cupiditas fortitudinem â—utem Christianorum dei charitas facit Heathens are valiant for some lusts sake Christians for Conscience And it appears by good confession they never were reduc'd for want of Valour or Loyalty to their Prince k Cambrensis Descript Cambr. c. 8 Henric 2. à â—secretis Pitseus p. 276. Emmanuel Emperour of Constantinople requesting of King Henry the Second an account of his Kingdom and Rarities was returned this for one In quadam Insulae parte sunt Gentes quae Wallenses dicuntur tantae audaciae ferocitatis ut nudi cum armatis congredi non vereantur adeo ut sanguinem fundere pro patriâ promptissimé vitamque velint pro laude pacisci In a certain place of this Island there is a Nation called the Welsh of such bold and daring Spirits that they 'l make nothing to cope with Armed men though naked and to spend their bloud for their Countrey their lives for Honour is what they most desire and wish for Newbrigensis delivers the same Character in effect though not with the same Candour Barbaros Audaces alieni sanguinis z Newbrigensis l. 2. c. 5. avidos proprii prodigos And if they had not been not only overpowred but outwitted by Edward the first by a mercyful Providence they had sought it out to the last man with disadvantage rather than survive their Prince Rege incolumi mens omnibus una amisso rupâ—re fidem And since they came under the English Crown they have acted and greatly suffered in several Civil Wars but never against the Right Soveraign A fair Inducement to our Royal Princes of Wales not to rest content with the bare title but to be better acquainted with their people for their encouragement as we find Prince Arthur of late to have kept his Court amongst them for the best bloud will clot if never cherished by the heart Nor were the Princes and Gentry and People inferiour in their respects and honour to their Church which with Tertullian is a great sign and Character of the true and Orthodox By the Law of Howel Dha l Leges Howel Dha apud Spelman c. 29 Of the three that were of the Quorum to make a Court the Clergy man ever was one and the alone custos rotulorum The Ancient Princes never feasted nor consulted nor went to m Histor Brit. lib. 8. c. 7.8.12 l. 29. c. 4.14 â—5 War without their Bishops as before Ethelfred's cruelty towards the Monks of Bangor went soon to all their hearts which cost him above 10000 of his men upon the place and the loss of his Kingdom shortly after their common respects to the meanest of their Clergy appears out of Cambrensis n Câ—mbrens descript Cambr. c. 18. viro cuilibet Relligioso monacho vel clerico vel cuicunque Religionis habitum praeferenti statim projectis armis cernuo capite benedictionem petunt any Church-man they met whether Monk or Minister that wore the habit of Religion they threw aside their arms and with humble bow and Reverence asked his blessing the greatest Gentry for Birth and quality of right Brittish education and Principles are observ'd to our days not to take the right hand of any Minister minding him by their respect which they count no disparagement to mind himself and his coate the better The Church of Rome procures the like Reverence from the greatest of her Grandees but by Romish Arts and Indirect sollicitations as 40 dayes pardon of venial sins for kissing the Garment of him that celebrates with other secular contrivances and Inducements But the Brittish Church hath respect from her own and others of high degree and Dignity without such bribes and politick encouragements The Churches of Scotland and Ireland her Daughters sided with her against Popery about a 1000 years ago with utmost zeal and vigour when she was desolate and over-powr'd The greatest Pillars of our Church in latter years the renowned Arch-Bishops Vsher and Parker and Bramhall with others bestowed learned pains in her particular honour and defence when she had but small power to requite their Love not to mention the like esteem in the breasts and mouths of many if not all our Reverend and learned Mitres both dead and living Nor were nor are their People that retain their right Brittish principles less wanting in mutuall Charity and respects to one another and especially in compassion towards the weaker and poorer sort for in such kind of charity and succour none perhaps came nearer to the Primitive Christians who had all in o Act. 4.35 Common amongst them than our Right Ancient Brittains of whom saith Cambrensis p. Cambrens descript Camb. cap. 18. Nemo in hac gente mendicus omnium enim c. though they were poor yet none was in want amongst them if any had it to give de q ibidem Usher p. 364. quo libet pane apposito primum fractionis angulum pauperibus dant of every loafe set upon the their table the first cut was laid aside for the poor their frequent meetings prohibited by the severe Laws of Henry the fourth therein called Cymmorthaes were clubs of the Richer sort amongst themselves to relieve their poor friends and neighbours as the word imports being comportations or Collections to set up the poor not wholly out of use to this day Largitatem p. Cambrens descript Camb. cap. 18. dapsilitatem cunctis virtutibus anteponunt Lberality and Hospitality for others to farewell by them they fancied above all other vertues whatsoever I suppose he alludes to
Kerdick by k Idem p. 520. Stowes Annals p. 65. Mordred Arthurs Nephew and Vice-Roy in his absence to assist his Title to the Crown against Arthur who was not so near by strict and Legitimate descent as by his Election for his Valour and merit wherein then the Princes Rights in Brittain were chiefly founded and therefore l Usher p. 514. liber Triadum this Mordred or Medrod with Vortigerne who delivered this Land to the Saxons and Androgeus or Avarvy or Mandrubatius who betrayed it to Caesar are recorded as the three disgraces of Brittain yet all the people were not consumed when they were thus surrendred and betrayed How else could they serve them in their Armies and Legions And upon King Arthur's return after several wearisome and Bloudy Contests Kerdick was Re-invested and m Usher p. 468. confirmed by Arthur in several of those Southern Counties upon his swearing m Usher p. 468. Allegiance to him for them and m Usher p. 468. toleration of Christian Religion in them as Vsher proves out of Rudborn Polychronicon and others so Bath Cicester and Gloucester n Idem 569. were surrender'd after long and formal Sieges and many sharp fights preceding And where o Usher 515 516. M. West 537. M. Westm speaks of the East-Angels invading Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge c. Counties and destroying all the Christians that were in them the clause Omni crudelitatis genere Christianos affecerunt Is observ'd by Vsher to be wanting in the Manuscript and the slaughter which Gormund made in conjunction with the Saxons upon the Brittains in the time of King Careticus which was their greatest overthrow and destruction is word by word Gildas p Idem 568. dis description of Hengist's first Irruption and slaughter So that in every Heptarchy though all were reduc'd and conquered yet all the Brittish Inhabitants were not destroyed or expell'd but only such as were in Arms and had Estates And as for destruction by Plague the English and Irish as well as the Brittains equally felt the smart thereof as Bede q Bed lib 4. c. 14. 3 c. 27. is witness And the Streets of London after great a Plague have been seen as ful next year as before Withall this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or totall destruction of the Brittish communalty in England was against the mutual Practice of the combatants who gave Quarter to such on both sides and against the Interest and benefit of the Conquerour It was Ethelfreds method stil'd Ferus the bloudiest of the Saxon Kings to make all Countreys he conquer'd aut Tributarias aut Inhabitabiles r Idem l. 1. c. 34. saith Bede either Tributary or wast to hurt them further had been to hurt himself and deprive himself of his Rent and Contribution when Hengist and his Saxons were driven to quit the land by young Vortimer who was the first made Hengist ever turn his back in Battel said M. Westminster the English and Scottish History agree with the Brittish that their wives and children were left behind and ſ M. Westm An. 456. Hector Boethius l 8. spar'd from the Sword and Quarter given well doth prove Quarter to have been before received And when Aurelius Ambrosius totally defeated and reduc'd Hengist his numerous Army his Son †M Westm 489. Usher 446. 450. Octa forc'd to surrender York and himself and Ebyssa Dunbritton and Hengist cut off u Histor Brit. l. 8. c. 7. for example or kill'd by Ambrosius in pursuite x Hector Boethius l. 8. p. 150. saith the Scottish History and the most Warlike banished into their own Countrey yet the rest of their Commons were permitted to live together with the Brittains in the lower parts of Scotland upon terms of Allegiance y Histor Brit. l. 8. c. 8. Hector Boethius ut supra and their embracing Christianity as was observ'd before So that the destruction of all the Brittains out of England is like that story of the z Usher p. 718. Picts who are reported to be destroyed all in one day both meer fables though they lost their Kingdom in the Battle yet the communalty still remained being the Major part of the Scottish Kingdom and their after Kings using still the stile of Kings of Picts as well as Scots as the Learned Arch-Bishop z Usher p. 718. Vsher largely proves The Brittish Christians therefore remaining behind in Brittain under the Power of the Enemy were not the less a Church of Christ than was the Primitive Church by being under Persecution for the first 300 years or than now are the Greeks under Infidel or the Roman Church it self under Gothish Conquerours Lazarus belongs to Heaven as well yea more than Dives afflictions being assistant mortifications helping us to dye to this world in our affections and Values wherein consists the Heart and Inside of the Church and those Spiritual Leaders that stayed behind with their charge for about 150 years before Augustine arrived to expel them became the more Supreme over them under Christ upon the Remove all of their Christian Temporal Magistrates It s true not to appear and not to be are alike in some sence as to man not as to God And the invisibility of the Brittains in Lhoegr was more for want of History and evidence either concealed or destroyed by the envy and malice of Adversaries than for want of Existence and being yea mention shall be made of them in their obscurity and invisibility when it serves the turn of the adverse Part. Bede mentions a Bede lib 5. c. 19. multos Brittonas Occidentalibus Saxonibus subditos reduced by Aldhelmus to follow the Roman Easter which proves there were numbers of them remaining in the Country some reduced and some still unreduced And it is probable more Brittish Christians were in this West-Saxon Kingdom than any other part because of the Vicinity of Glastonbury and b H. Seplman Concil p. 442. Caer Went or Winchester and its Ancient Monastery and large possessions and the example of Amphibalus the Brittains receiving great encouragement from the Neighbourhood of their Martyrs to persevre in their Faith The Chronicle of Glastonbury mentions the residence of Brittish Bishops in their Sees in those parts as Bede their People for when King Ina about the year 700 Translated the See of c Usher p 65. Congersbury to Wells adjoyning in the time of Daniel the last Bishop of the Brittains there it affirms the same so to have continued a succession of Brittish Bishops for 600 years and above till that time which is about 500 years together before the arrival of Monk Augustine and about an 100 years after which proves either strict observations of Mordred and Arthur's Articles with Kerdick or great consanguinity and kindness amongst them that the zeal and Interest of Augustine could not prevail with the Pagan Saxons to hunt this Bishop out of Congersbury as well as Thadioc and
entangled in the Treason by their obedience to Apostolical orders which deposed God as well as the Prince and the allurements of guifts and honours to the one and the other Very ill Presidents to Princes and from Ecclesiastics who pretend in their Church to extol obedience to Superiours above any other whatsoever Whereas their whole establishment consisted in rejecting their right Soveraign both of Heaven and Earth If Popery then be a good Religion Rebellion must be no great Crime For Rebellion upon the pretence of Religion had its first rise and example from that Infallible Chaire It cannot therefore be denyed but our German Apostles took Commission from Rome being impos'd upon as several dayly are by Antichristian arts which was their great Ecclipse and Infelicity enough to blast all the Glory of their other good work But then it is to be considered that though it was an Ecclipse it prevail'd but so many Digits The foul spot of expedient Rebellion being added to the other obscurations from Superstition It was not a total Ecclipse of the whole Luminary which still retain'd a competency of light sufficient to direct dark Heathenism but far better if the Popish fog which they term help had been further off What was clear and sound Religion Germany had from Brittain what was unsound and Superstitious it had from Rome as appears not only in reason because the Roman Religion found no exceptions against the substance of the Brittish as before but only that it wanted some of their Catholick Ceremonies and additions which the Brittains looked upon as suspicious Innovations but also most irrefragably by Charlemagne's condemnation of Image-Worship in the Councel of Francofurt against both the Church of Rome and Greece degenerating into that gross errour by the advice of a M. Westmin 793 Spelm. 218. Alguinus and the Catholick Brittish Orthodoxy shining and surviving then in England solely when the cloud had gone over all the rest Alguinus by his b Idem p. 307. Epistle to Charlemagne who sent the 2d Nicene Decrees to England as Pope c Magd. Cent 8 c. 9. p 626. seq Adrian sent them him for his Approbation did so d Spelman Concil p. 307. shake and rouse him by the Scriptures that in full Synod the Nicene Decree was condemn'd but the e Idem p. 308. Decrees of that Synod wherein were 300 f Spondanus Anno 794. Bishops assembled out of Italy France Germany and Brittain and so great and Learned an Emperor as Charlemagne present are all suppress'd with that e Idem p. 308. Epistle of Alguinus his other works remaining Spondanus confesses the reason Ingenuously that Image Worship was then condemned in the Council not by the Council g Ibid. n. 3. Non accessit consensus corum quorum fuit statutum firmare ut non mireris si quae sint de eà re tunc Acta conscripta nusquam appareant utpote abolita quod ea non probassent legati Apostolicae sedis nec qui eos miserat Hadrianus Papa For their consent was wanting to whom it belong'd to pass that Decree That it is not to be wonder'd if what was voted touching that Controversy is not to be met extant any where neither in Baronius nor Crabbe nor Binius c. for it was abolished and suppressed because the Legates of the Apostolick See did not approve thereof nor Pope Adrian himself that sent them Lo now If these Roman-Catholick-Hereticks serv'd so great and venerable a Council in that course manner together with the Emperors Authority though their great friend and Patron and more a Schollar than any of their pack perhaps for clashing against their infallible Idolatries in the defence of Gods second Commandment as if Catholick Religion depended upon the Negative voice of one Pope against God and the Church which is not only a contradiction in it self but contrary to the course and custome of all general Councils of the Church where one though Pope or Patriarch was condemned by the Community for his Errour and not the Community by any one It s the less wonder if our Brittish Histories and Records were serv'd in the like sort as was all along suspected and far worse The Adulteraing with Legends being worse than burning and suppressing as King Lucius his Baptism Dubritius the Popes Legate King Cadwaldr's Pilgrimage to Rome the Brittish Communalty in Lhoegr all destroyed by the Pagan Saxons and their Clergy quite banish'd which might be true in many places at the first perfidious Insurrection as with Sampson at York till mollified by Ambrosius and Vortimers moderation in their Victories and a tast of Christianity they were afterwards tolerated amongst them to Augustine's coming and h Monastic Angl. par 1. p. 55. Usher p. 755. Diana Worship'd at London and Apollo at Thorney or Westminster instead of Christ as if the English during their Heathenism had preferr'd the Idols of the Brittains before i Munster l. 3. 718. Irmensul and Woden and Mars their own or the same Hostility had spar'd Diana or Apollo who were as great strangers to them as Christ perhaps whereby it is evident the Authors of Romish Histories and Legends have not alwayes present memory and their wits much less their honesty about them in their zealous tales for their Church But to return to our Argument It is clear that the Orthodoxy of Charlemagne and the Franckford Council was not from Rome or the Pope with whom they clash'd which right descendants from Monk Augustine would hardly have done nor from Greece whom they condemn'd nor from the Learned Emperor himself whose feet had well nigh slipt till our Alguin recovered him but therefore solely from Brittain So that our German Apostles being sound at heart against Idolatry upon the score of their Ancient Britttish derivation and Institution though in many parts Leprous upon the score of their new Roman Communion they were still sufficiently accomodated to encounter the Heathenism of Germany with the Remainder of their sound Brittish Faith but had been far more successful and spotless in their proceedings if Rome had stood far enough off And if as living Springs soon work off their mud and trouble which corrupt Lakes and Boggs can hardly do The Protestancy of England and Germany and Sweden and Denmark c. be ascrib'd to the Vigour and Fermentation of their first Brittish Seed strugling after its Original Pristin purity in good soil and erect minds and to early help from England and Wickliff before k Munster lib. 3. p. 800. Baleus of the Life and Tryal of Sir John O'd Castle Luther's appearing I shall not be a dissenter to the conjecture as the like may be observed in our Romanists some reviving the way of Simon Magus a great man heretofore at Rome others of their Gothic Ancestors and Audius their Apostle who is remarkable for three Roman parts 1. In leaving l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the title of
Bede lib. 3. c. 25. Key upon him in-displeasure and shut him out of Heaven whereupon Bishop Colman Wilfrids Respondent and the third from Aidan being discountenanced in his tradition by the Kings revolt retired with most of his Brittish Disciples to Ynis-bo-find in Ireland the Authority of his other Doctrines being much weakened and several scandalized at this victory of confident Ignorance over godly sincerity So well do our Romanists agree with their predecessors in Titus c. 1. v. 9 10. vain talkers and deceivers who subvert whole Houses Churches for filthy Lucres sake The Brittish planters however had continued in the North 30 years Aidan 20 Finan 7 Colman 3 a sufficient time and space for the sowing of the everlasting Gospel amongst those Nothern English throughly which continued as to its substance amongst them from that time to this But it was not enough thus to wound the Brittish Church but they had breaches in their own to heal and make up their Roman Plantion was so decayed and extirpated even in Kent its last retreat and their successions and Ordinations so fully defeated and interrupted that as we had occasion often to observe there was but one Bishop in all the k Bed l. 3. c. 28. Isle of Brâ—â—tain then and he afterwards a Simonaick that was not of Brittish Ordination A full demonstration of the recovery of the whole Brittish Church from the Roman yoak at that time before Theodore's arrival to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Anno 668. And herein Bede's disingenuity appears out of wonted envy to the Brittains that he hath not discovered who consecrated these new English-Brittish-Bishops over all the land whether Aidan or Finan who were Metropolitans of York all the while though they us'd no Pall and chose their residence in Lindisfarn or Helyge or Holy Island as the learned l Usher c. 5. p. 78. Vsherâ— proves out of Stephanus Bedes Cotemporary in Wilfrids life or whether they were Consecrated by Ced at London the old Metropolitan See which Canterbury had for some time invaded Therefore a new consultation is now to be taken for Rome's revival in England Oswi being now fully of the Roman way and Egbert King of Kent m W. Malmesbury de Gestis Angl. c. 3. Bed lib. 3. c. 28. lib. 4. c. 1. advise together and send to Rome for help to procure an Archbishop thence for Canterbury to ordain other Bishops throughout the Land of a Roman Race and Stamp Wiggard is sent as was said and never returned Then Wilfrid after him who is ordained by Agilbertus Archbishop of Paris bred in Ireland as afore who making too long a stay The meek and humble Ceadda Brother of Ced is sent to Deus Dedit at Canterbury to take his Ordination such as it was being himself Ordained and Consecrated but by one Bishop as afore who being dead before Ceadda could arrive at Canterbury he is over-rul'd to go to Winchester to Bishop Wini who though of the Roman way but French takes two Brittish Bishops to joyn with him in the Consecration of Ceadda to be Archbishop of York n Bed lib. 3. c. 23. there being no other Roman Bishops left then in the land Therefore the Pope makes hast to raise the Tabernacle of the English-Roman-Church which was quite fallen to ground Adrian a Roman is pitch'd upon but refuses out of modesty but inward motives are as well discover'd by subsequent events as Italian pretences then Theodorus a Graecian of Tarsus St. Paul's City is pitch'd upon and Consecrated by Pope Vitalian which argued him to be wise in his Generation and design for all England receives and submits to him o Idem lib 4. c. 2. say our Histories and to none that came from Rome in like manner Eastern Theodore better suiting with the humour and hopes of the Brittish Chuâ—ch than Roman Adrian who comes to England nevertheless along with Theodore and is made Abbot of Reculver to be a Spy upon our Greek Archbishop lest he should comply too much with the Brittains who liked and used Greek Customs But Theodore forgets his own Church and Country which all men love for the sake of dignity and takes Roman Tonsure which occasioned his stay at Rome for some Months for the growing of the Hair on the forhead which the Greek Tonsure shav'd off and as it were to remove all suspition of his Inclination after Greek rites more than Roman becomes the fiercest persecutor of any other of our Brittish Customs and Ordinations sends for Ceadda before him questions him for his Consecration as unlawful because not from Rome But he meekly answers p Bed lib. 4. c. 2. Voce humillimà saith Bede si me inquit nosti Episcopatum non ritè suscepisse libenter ab Officio discedo quippe qui neque me unquam hoc esse dignum Arbritrabar sed obedientiae caus jussus subire hoc quamvis indignus consensi If you know saith he that I have not been made Bishop Arch-Bishop in right manner I am ready and willing to quit the Office for indeed I never judg'd my self worthy of it but out of meer obedience being commanded to under take it I yielded thereto though unworthy whereupon Theodore would not depose him but only complete his ordination after the Roman manner But Bede delivers not the truth therein for it s known to himself he was laid aside for this and q lib. 4. c. 3. Wilfrid put in his place to be Archbishop of York and he retir'd to his Monastery in the North from whence he was invited by Wolfer to be Jaruma's Successor at Lichfeild where a magnificent Church as likewise at Shrewsbury in the same Diocess bears his name and memory to this day But to observe the proportions of this Roman Reformation here pride overcomes humility and a slavish Forreigner turns an upright Native out of his Right and dignity by his holiness order and justice But Wilfrid was scarce warm in his seat but he was outed by Egfrid Oswi's Svccessor his Queen and the Clegy all joyning against him for his a G. Malmesb. de Gestis Pontific lib. 3. de Episc Eborac Spelm. Concil p. 157. avarice and pride and pompous retinue and pluralities of Abbeys and Gold and Silver Plate c. and Theodore his Creator joyning with the stronger side against him which shewed the root of his Apostacy and by what Lust and humour he was prevail'd upon by the Arts of Rome to trouble and subvert the Brittish Church and himself Heaven frowning upon this unhappy Revolution Anno 664. with Comets and total b Usher p. 1164. Bede lib. 4. c. 13.5 20. Eclipses and unheard of b Usher p. 1164. Bede lib. 4. c. 13.5 20. Plagues and Sickness and Famine 40 or 50. together b Usher p. 1164. Bede lib. 4. c. 13.5 20. tumbling themselves from Rockes into the Sea out of weariness of such a life And though Will. Malmesbury saith that England was c G.
confidence in their Cut-throate-fathers and are call'd to severe and sharp account for the errours of their teachers and their own yet most clear and undeniable it is that the People have a good zeal in General for the true God and Religion yea are more sincerely stedfast in their errours amidst poverty and torture and double Tithes and payments and death it self than many knowing Protestants are for the true Religion which they shrink from and change upon any appearance of advantage or disadvantage as often as the Moon he that is sincere and earnest in a false Religion aims at the true in the General and in his conscience But he that lives contrary or slights the Religion which himself professes and believes to be true declares himself of no Religion or understanding for contradiction added to Atheism is the Outlary of all reason and honour The Irish therefore are the more to be regarded and tender'd by us under their Ignorance and spiritual disorder because curable and not to be neglected for what wrong or temporal mischief soever they have done to us or themselves in the time of their blindness and seduction lest we be justly guilty of the unjust calumny against the Ancient Brittains towards the Saxons but we are to be zealous of their Reformation whether we be English or Brittains if English we are their debters their Learned and Pious Ancestors have done the like and more for many of ours whom they taught the first Gospel when they lay in Heathenish Ignorance and the shadow of death And much more if we are Ancient Brittains for our Ancestors taught theirs and love descends and it belongs to a Husbandman to be more careful of his plantation than to a stranger therefore we are bound to intreat and beseech them especially their Learned and sincere Clergy that love the Salvation of their charge more than absolute Dominion over them and their remaining afflicted Gentry and Nobility in the name of God and the bowels of Christ and that we may the better prevail even upon our knees before them that they will be merciful to their land and to their own souls and Posterity and as they have of late to some trouble own'd our Soveraign in Temporals that they would also own Christ in Spirituals instead of the Pope and holy Scriptures instead of lyes and Bulls and Legends and conscience more than deceitful guides and Popery will have its end in Ireland and the Ignorance and misery of that poor Nation in soul and body and Estates together with it as we hope and trust They are as able to overthrow the pretended Infallibility of the Pope in the latter and grosser errour as they have done effectually in the first And they 'l meet their old Religion which St. Patrick taught in the Protestant Church of Ireland and England Protestant truth and Irish sincerity will make excellent Christianity The Learned and Pious Dr. Sall is worthy of everlasting honour amongst all good Christians for his great and leading example in this point amidst great discouragements And as for some other of their guides who are like to be most cross and averse against this Petition of truth and love who if they are not fowly belyed delight in the Impliciâ— saith of their Female charge as well as their Male the chastity of the soul and body from God and purity being the chief sacrifice and triumph that Satan and his Ministers delight in we are not so desirous of their company or Communion till by better reformation they assure us of their belief of any God which we doubt not in the least of the rest of their seduc'd Brethren And by this second Instance appears the difference between the Religion of the Irish under its first Plantation by the Brittains and it s after Cultivation by the Romanists by the one they became the Glory of Western Christendom for Christian life and Learning by the other the reproach and scorn of the World and Pitty of all good men for their Ignorance and wildness And the English from the time of King Ina and the Brittains while under their Power till the Reformation were well nigh as much beholding to Rome for their like improvement in knowledge And Rome hath accomplish'd most of her Conquests over Churches and Souls by this mist of Ignorance to set off mistakes and cheats Adimit rebus nox atra colorem darkness destroys differences a Serpent shall be taken for a Rope a Pool for a Meadow a Statue for a living man an enemy for a Friend a King for a Subject in the dark And so the first currant mistake by the help of this politick Ignorance that hath advanc'd and supported the Empire and credit of that Church to this day is that they make their Proselytes believe that their Church is the same with Jerusalem wich is above descended down to Rome the Mother of us all the Church of the living God out of whose Pale or Bosome there is no Salvation to be expected For so all degrees and Converts to that Church by the Bull or Test of Pius quartus must profess and swear the Holy Catholick Church in Heaven and Earth mention'd in Creeds to be their particular Roman Church which begets it great Authority and veneration from those which can believe this to be true and heretofore brought great resort and Treasure and Honour to that City several Kings and Princes leaving their Crowns and Kingdoms to end their dayes at Rome as it were in Heaven or Abraham's bosom So Bede saith of a Bede lib. 4. c. 5. Oswi that he was grown so perfect a Catholick that had not his Disease prevented he resolved to go to Rome to leave his Bones there to be sure of Heaven Which the Monkish corrupter of the Brittish History directly affirms of Cadwaladr last King of the Brittains the absurdity of which dream and forgery tending to exalt the Honour of Rome and the abuse of our Saints and worthies most evidently appears by comparing Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth together For he with all others allows Cadwaladr to be the Son of Cedwalla or Cadwalhan King Edwins Chrony and Antagonist born the same day and brought up b Hist Britt l. 12 c. 1. in the Court of Northwales to years of manhood together That Edwin recovering Northumberland by the defeat and death of Edelfred after long exile and falling out with Cadwalhan who would not allow him to wear a Crown beyond Humber but at peril of his head and then siding with the Roman faction conquer'd Wales and drove out Cadwalhan beyond the Seas holding the Countrey in subjection for 17 years but was overthrown at last and kill'd by Cadwalhan in the year 633. being the 47 year of his Age c Bede l. 2. c. 20. saith Bede as Cadwalhan was of the same Age by consequence and Cadwaladr his Son born and in being about this time or else according to Bede he never could be born For according to
to trust then Mahomet shall pass for as good a Prophet as St. Peter and the Alcharon be equal to the Bible for to the blind all colours are the same But regulated Conscience is not a private Spirit wherein God himself speaks who is greater than all the World where it is kept pure from Worldly ends and Idols for nothing is more publick and Catholick than Conscience or reason or right or duty or holiness or justice which are synonymous and carry universality and eternity in their conceptions by reason of the Divine Impression and Authority they partake and answer to And nothing constitutes more a private Spirit than private ends and carnal designs and self advantage and profit and filthy lucre made chief ingredients in duties Doctrines and Religions with which Worldly and sordid mixtures the Roman Faith in all its parts is too well known to abound which unworthy copulations are discernable by the weakest judgments and condemn'd and hated by the most universal suffrages and censures of God and men An Infant can discerne them in his neglectful Nurse an Elephant in his unjust Feeder Clownes in States-men and Politicians and are abhorr'd and declaim'd against by Heathen Philosophers in their Schools and Christian in Pulpits and are those moral wild beasts that all Laws humane and Divine and right Discipline and education and all rules of honour are mainly bent to discover and hunt and chase out of all Societies and converse and hearts Besides a private Conscience proceeding in all its converse according to Christs mind Interest and direction and doing nought that is disallowed by him is Christ himself by fiction personated and acted and defended which is as far from a private Spirit as the East is from the West or the will of God from the ends and lusts of man It being not more natural and congruous in Christ himself to delight in good men and to abhorre the Congregations of the wicked and carnal and scandalous than it is for his faithful Servants and Trustees and Representatives who bear their Masters person and concern and holiness upon them by such a fiction to express and imitate by their own Communion and election of Societies the mind and Inclination of their Lord and soon to discern who are his Friends or Enemies or Traitors and Loyal Subjects in his Kingdom and vigorously and and indispensably to embrace the one and shun the the other for Servants act according to an accountable trust the Master being Lord of his own rights to remit or indulge out of favour as he pleases which is not lawful for the Servant to presume And this skill and instinct and shadows of private judgment to discerne friends from strangers to their Masters is visible in Domestick Creatures emblemes of fidelity who are Courteous to acquaintance but severe and unsociable to such as are not so till by converse and familiarity they prove their unity and friendship and take away private judgment and discretion the distinction and difference between faithful and unfaithful Servants Subjects Christians Churches wholly falls to the ground and Christians and Catholicks are set below the Irrational Creatures And for the Church of Rome to blast good Consciences that find out its faults as private Schismatical Spirits and to extol their own Carnal designes and Trade and Merchandize of godliness as Catholick Religion holy pure and publick and eternal is too visibly one of the uniform symptomes of their Antichristianism whereby they confound Heaven and Earth the Church and the World and reconcile yea change Mammon into Christ and Christ into Mammon Withall equal and coordinate Churches or Christians as we now suppose Rome and Brittain to be are not judges of one another where they separate from one another for Par in parem non habet potestatem is a rule in Law but act severally therein according to their respective duties and allegiance to their own liege and Superiour who is Christ the head and judge of both in the other World and in this also by a free and general Council which both parts ought for peace and unity to submit to which thereby becomes Superiour to both either by Divine Institution and custom Ecclesiastical or by their own consent and agreement as in the Case of Arbitrators And accordingly such general Synods have censur'd and sentenced and Excommunicated persons Churches Provinces Priests Bishops Patriarchs and Popes themselves when they walk'd awry from Christ's Rule As the first General Council at Nice against Arrius Priest of Alexandria The second at Constantinople against Macedonius Arch-Bishop of that See The third at Ephesus against Nestorius another Constantinopolitan Arch-Bishop the fourth at Chalcedon against Eutyches Dioscorus c. Priests and the fift at Constantinople against Diodorus and Theodorus Bishops reviving Origens errours and the sixth Oecumenical or general Council in Trullo at Constantinople against other Bishops and amongst them against the whole Church of Rome its Clergy and Laity for departing from the Catholick tradition of the Church about their Saturday fast wherein the Brittish Church was ever Orthodox with the rest of the Ancient Christian World as was shewed But the Church of Rome will allow of no Council or Canons or Fathers that shall offer to check its errours nor Scripture it self but with its own sence and Interpretation thereof whereby it shall be sure not to cross its Interest Being a manifest and notorious example therein of disobedience and Irregularity to all its Superiours and the most Schismatical Church in the Christian World for Baronius a Spondan An. 692. n. 5. cannot deny that the Greek writers declare their sence that the breach of Communion between the Greeks or Eastern and the Latine or Western Church of Rome was upon the disobedience of the Popes to yield and submit to the Council in Trullo wherein it had all other Churches of the World and the Canons of the Apostles of its side and undoubted Apostolical tradition mentioned in most of the Ancient Fathers as b Idem An. 34. n. 47. Baronius cannot and doth not deny A Church therefore that deserves to be shun'd and disown'd as scandalous for that and its other innumerable corruptions and infamous Usurpations and gross Idolatries and particularly its Blind Obedience and Implicit Faith that allows and directs to put confidence in man the head and fountain of all its damnable errours and superstitions whereof all that communicate with it must be approvers and partakers by the terms and Injunctions of its Communion which requires them to be all receiv'd as Catholick Articles and Doctrines and all contrary Truths to be abjur'd as Heresies whereby it becomes impossible for any understanding sober Christian to be at the same time within her Communion and pale and out of the curse of God Esa 1.5 20. Therefore it were lost and needless labour as to them or our selves to go about to disprove all their imputation and charge of Schism against us or to prove on the
Usher 1129. Hist Britt l. 8. c. 8. Ubbo Emmius l. 3. p. 107. Emrys or Aurelius Ambrosius before him Here that Archbishop had his Residence that sent seven of his suffragan Bishops to meet the said Augustine near Worcester to defend their Brittish rights and Customes against Rome's Invasion Neither is Cressy's exception against the Welsh Epistle in Sir H. Spelman of any validity because it mentions the Archbishop of Caerleon to be their proper Superiour when as at this time saith he the See was at St. David and not at Caerleon c Usher p. 1132. p. 83. Quanquam ipsius Augustini temporibus inurbe Legionum sedem Archiepiscopatûs adhuc haesisse cum ab aliis tum ab Authore Chronici quod Brutus appellatur proditum inveniam unde ijdem Legionenses Menevenses Antistites Giraldo because though it were it was still the same See and the names were promiscuously us'd and there is nothing in that Epistle but what is in effect contain'd in the Narrations of Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth who is no where more fabulous than for the Interest of Rome or the discredit of our Brittish Worthyes and both Authors appear more their Friends than ours And where Geoffrey Stiles Dubritius without any colour of Truth Britanniae Primas Apostolicae sedis legatus The Pope's Legate and Primate of Brittain though it was as absurd then as to fancy General Montecuculi now to be a Turkish Bashaw yet it serves very well to confirm that this Archbishop of Caerleon was the undoubted Primate at that time and not York or London because Lyes and Legends that expect any belief are ever fastned to some Truth And there this Primacy continued amongst the Brittians till sometime after the Norman Conquest But if the Question be of right Where the Primacy of Brittain ought of right to be and to be by all right English and Brittish-Christians obeyed from the heart as unto Christ The Resolution is far more easie For this Church may be considered as to its Inside or the heart and inward man or the Outside or its outward man As to the first the Primacy is solely in Heaven the heart being subject to no Pope nor Prelate but to Christ alone and to all lawful Governours for his sake Neither is this Primacy local or confin'd and limited to any place on earth either Rome or Canterbury as neither is the Soul or its thoughts but in all places of Europe and Asia Africa and America we are to obey and follow Christ the Soveraign of the Soul before any other whatsoever God before man Conscience before Interest Truth before Authority the Laws of God befere the Doctrines of men Duty before Fancy Honesty before Advantage Heaven before Earth and Everlasting Concernments before any Temporal whatsoever But if the Church be considered in its Outside the Case is in another World that is in this present World where the Civil Magistrate is Supream in all Temporal Concerns and Causes As in all Ecclesiastical are Ecclesiastical Magistrates and Governours and that two wayes 1. Originally 2. Eminently Originally the rightful Bishops of Brittain before the time of King Lucius and Constantine being of Apostolical descent and Institution and the chief of their Order were the chief and Prime Governours of this Church by right for the first Bishops are certainly known to be appointed by the Apostles themselves as James at Jerusalem c. And the Magistrate while Heathen had no right to controle them in any part of their Commission that was from Christ for the propagation of his Gospel or the publick weal and preservation of his Church in truth and order and regular Communion in this world therefore in that respect alone they were exempt and not subject to any human Laws and Authorities whatsoever which liberty hath been scandalously abus'd and extended by the principles of Popery to exemption from Christian Magistrates As if they had been equally as opposite and asymbolical with the Gospel as Heathen But when the Magistrate became Christian in Lucius and Constantine c. And were received into the Church according to their quality and station before in the World of Gods Erection the Case was otherwise again for now they were Ecclesiastial Magistrates as well as Civil and if Ecclesiastical therefore Supream in Ecclesiastical causes referring solely to this present life as well as Temporal that is Supream Primates and defenders of the Temporal concerns of the Eternal Church of Christ Therefore as the Supremacy of the Church was Originally in our Brittish Bishops so it came afterwards Eminently to be lodged and vested of right in our Brittish Christian Magistrates Christian Bishops giving place to Christian Kings like the lesser to the greater Lustre who yet acted little or nothing without their advice and counsel as we found King Arthur a little before chusing his Bishops and Archbishops with the advice of Synods Therefore as we say where the King is there the Court is so it may as well be said and justified where the Christian King of Brittain is there is the Primate of Brittain and head of this Church Notwithstanding as our Kings in their Civil Capacities have their standing Courts and Tribunalls for Habitation or Justice by Law and custome as well as Ambulatory and Personal so likewise in their Ecclesiastical their standing Primacyes where they pleased by Law to fix them as did King Lucius perhaps at London and Constantine at York and Arthur at Caerleon and others at Canterbury which they or their Successors may adjourn and remove elsewhere in like manner when they see good reason The vulgar practice of common Seamen penetrates and decides this point For with them at the motion of the Prince or Admiral from a first to a second or third Rate Ship the Flag shall follow by consequence and desert that Ship whatever be its Rate the Prince deserts and hover only there where he hath chosen to abide In like manner it is with the Primacy which answers to the Flag as Ships at Sea answer to Cities on Land It doth and alwayes ought to follow the will and Law of the Prince and any Forreign Pope hath as much to do to order and dipose of a Flagg in our Fleet by his Bulls and Canons as of a Primacy in our Kingdom There is an old appetite in Mitre and Crown to Re-unite and to be together as they were Originally in the same Persons in the Patriarchs yea in Heathen Kings and Emperours Holy and Publick signifying the same our English Primacy which travelled heretofore from London to Canterbury to be near King Ethelbert is since crawl'd back as far as Lambeth to be near White-hall The Christian Mitre attends the Crown the Antichristian would Controle it Both would have it near the one goes to it the other would have it to come to him Christian Bishops count themselves Subjects to their Kings Antichristian would have Kings to be Subjects unto them â—ea and
president of a Holy Pope or Prelate promoting his privare lusts and Interest jure Divino shall affect and Assimilate whole Kingdoms Provinces Churches and all degrees of men both Secular and Spiritual all Politicians Libertines Rebels and Carnal Christians whether within or without his Holiness obedience to take after the example and Pattern when once known to become their Own Popes to License their own Crimes and Cruelty and Treachery for their gain and advantage as well as He having so great an example for Apology and excuse and the like deceitful heart to prompt them to it and under the shelter of Sola fides as well as that of Sola Ecclesia both of the same mould and spring both shall drive on their ungodly designs and be justified Saints and good Catholicks in their own esteem and vote amidst all their Hypocrisie and Rebellion nevertheless whatever they be in Christ's who is their Judge And the end of Christianity is hereby defeated and the Gospel and Baptism reversâ—d and every mans Will is his own Bible and the Rule of his Neighbours Rights and his Soveraigns duty self-love his wisdom and Religion and Charity and Loyalty gon out of fashion and request and all are Popes but none are Christians whereas Christ neither in his own person nor his Disciples nor his Laws gave the least Countenance or example for such Encroachments upon Kingdoms or Brethren He allowed his rights to Caesar and consequently his external Supremacy to every Prince in his own Territory his greatest Apostles kept their own bounds and line and did not build upon their Neighbours foundations Rom. 15.20 2 Cor. 10.16 Gal. 2.7 Thou shalt not Covet thy Neighbours House c. is is one of his greatest Laws and Maxims daily inculcated upon all his Christians without exception And his Apostles forwarn and testifie That he is the avenger of all such that oppress or over-reach their Brethren in any matter 1 Thess 4.6 But nothing is more the Profession or Custom of Rome than over-reaching and Intruding into other mens rights and building upon other's foundations and Senior Churches and thrusting their Sickle into other mens Harvests rather then keep honestly and peaceably at home within their appointed bounds and want their Peter-Pence Yea rather then fail by any sinfull ignoble Arts whatsoever confederating with Pagans against Christians setting on Subjects against their Princes and Princes against Subjects and the People against one another not to mention poisons secret murders Massacres Powder-Plots c. And which is the greatest violence to mens faculties and common sence and makes mens ears to tingle at the Blasphemy and hearts to tremble at such Atheistical Insurrections and contempt of the Soveraigns of Heaven and Earth This invasion of Neighbours must be the Catholick Cause this wrong and injustice must be Gods own Will and Commission and St. Peters Charter the chief Robbers and Rebels in the design the choysest Saints and Catholick Champions of Christ who according to St. Paul was the Avenger of all such but according to our Popes is made the Patron and approver Whereby their Repentance and Cure becomes morally impossible not only because recovery with them were disease or their departure from the Faith and their amendment after Christ's mind a damnable State and Condition but also because Reason and Conscience are gagg'd and the faculties of their soul wholly lockâ—d up from helping to their Conversion Heathens were easier recoverable than Papists from their Idols because in the one there was a reserv'd Allegiance to God and the Truth left in their souls for Arguments to work upon but in the Roman Heathenism that Allegiance is so fix'd and settled in the Pope as God that the soul is to regard no Truth or Oracle whatsoever of God himself against him Papists are more Pope's people than God's people and their reasons and Consciences by consequence bound more to follow guides and the Will of the Pope than to follow Truth or the Will of God Socrates is my Friend and Plato is my Friend but Truth is more my Friend than either was the Heathen Liberty Truth is my Friend and Conscience is my Friend but my Ghostly Father and Guide is more my Friend then all is the Popish slavery In the Roman Religion man is to be regarded above God yea most are not allowed to give any hearing to God at all who speaks in his Scriptures which ever were and are esteem'd Gods Word in all Christendom whatever they be at Rome Papists to our sight are Gods rational Creatures as other men and Christians be but in reason they are but parcells of the Pope detach'd from God As Tangier to the eye is in Africa but by fiction of reason in England to whom it is subject A Papist therefore being more the Popes subject than Gods is hardly reclaim'd by any Truth which is but the voice or will of God as of a Potentate more Forreign and remote and weaker as to him than God who is the strongest of all to all the World besides Esdr 4. And his rational faculties ordain'd to take the part of truth are kept prisoners from doing it any service yea are listed and impress'd to obstruct and batter it as Canons taken and master'd by an enemy and turn'd to do execution upon Friends whereof the Divines and Parasites of that Church in many voluminous learnedly vain Discourses in defence of gross Errours against plain Truths have given a considerable instance to the World Now how this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or falling away from God and truth 2 Thess 2.3 came first to pass and that once great and glorious Church and its Angels to leave their first Station and to be tumbled down into their Papal pit of darkness and seduction next to the Infernal where in the one as in the other both sorts take a miserable pleasure to continue according to the Brittish saying y cyw y fegur yn Vffern yn Vffern y myn ef fôd but a far greater pleasure and triumph to ensnare as many Souls as they can to bear them company and participate in their plague is sufficiently clear in History and strangely describ'd to the life in Prophecy And to begin with the first Pride and a high stomack had a chief hand in both the falls and founder'd patience in the latter with an insatiable avarice and ambition in the Fathers of this Church after the vain pomp and glory of this world which the children of Christs School are instructed early to renounce that it pleased God in his deep wisdom and Justice to deliver them over to a reprobate sense and an infatuated mind to be a curse and plague to themselves and the rest of Christendom for many years for their sterility and ungratitude under the Gospel of his Son And as it was with the Fox in the Fable who long strove in vain to repass out of the Granary through the same hole with a full belly through which he had entred in
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
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
promoted by and promoting that Authority here in contempt and breacâ— of all the Laws and Canons of the Catholick Church and the rights of this particular And attended in the Heavens above with dismal signes and prodigies as the like was never seen before Tanta hoc â—eâ— pore prodigia f Platina in Gregor 1 mo quanta nunquam antea Comeâ—es perlucidus puer quadrupes c. which last might serve as a significant Emblem of this new Religion which serv'd to make men Babes in knowledge and Beasts in heart and conscience And accompanied on Earth below so uniform are its Antichristian Symptomes with another parallel Deceiver in the East the prophet Mahomet both alike feigning the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost by a Pigeon at the Ear wherein Gregory was not taught by Mahomet who was Junior to him and born in the year of Monk Augustine's landing here But rather Mahomet might have heard or borrowed it from Gregory or both perhaps been taught the Art by one and the same Tutor But both Reignes the Mahometan and the Gregorian have much the same Epocha and Horoscope And both began to prevail the one in the West the other in the East in the duske and twilight of that long and Greenland night that was to prevail by Gods permission and secret judgement over the whole face of the Christian Church for the space and duration of eight or 900 years or more to count from the year 600 when the Western part thereof first began to the dawning of our Restoration in Henry the seventh as before The success of this Romish Plantation among us being answerable to its first manner of entrance and proving in the end the Eclipse of the true Religion before in the Land and it self a degenerate sort of Christianity falling short of sober Heathenism in many respects Of which that of St. Paul may be rightly applyed And the times of this Ignorance God wincked at but now Commandeth all men every where to repent Act. 17.30 About the dead time of this dismal long night of Popery that is about the years 900 to 1300. answering to the hours from 12. to 3. in the morning The dreams of Purgatory and Transubstantion first possess'd mens fancies and dead Ghosts and Specters and Hobgoblins began to fry and skreek in Purgatory and to cry for help from private Masses And the Franciscan and several other Melancholly Orders to walk bare-foot up and down like Noctambulon's or night walkers in their sleeps and shirts And men stumbl'd upon many Tutelar Gods and Patrons groping in the dark for the true and still us'd Candles at Noon-day throughout their Worship without any need as it were further to prove that it is a time of night amongst them And the Dreams of Nunnes and Monks were rehears'd in Pulpits instead of godly Sermons as the g Bradwardin in Prefat in lib. de causâ Dei Deriving his name or descent I suppose from Brordordhun Castle in Herefordshire belonging to the Family of the Vaughans Profoundest and greatest Clerks then hardly abstain'd from their own in their Writings and the eyes of all both Clergy and Laity sealed up in a deep sleep of implicit Faith And the Host went from Street to Street with a Bellman and the Popes Rid sleepy Kings and Emperours For in the year eleven hundred Hildebrand or Pope Gregory the seventh depos'd the Emperour Henry the fourth And another took his Crown from King John while he was nodding About the same time Canterbury oâ—erlay St. Davids and in Thomas Becket began to sting our Princes that had given it warmth and being But the Fornications and other works of darkness in that time are not to be nam'd or number'd the peculiar concomitant of this fleshly Haeresie as they say to this day scarce reckon'd or censur'd for a sin for its commonness amongst the chief Saints of this dark perswasion And this dark season serv'd as well for Robberies of all sorts of Goods Lands Houses Churches throughout the Isle which were secur'd and appropriated to Sanctuaries and Monasteries by the same dark Arts they were committed till about the time of Ricâ—ard the second several were awakned out of their first sleep with the â—â—r as was Wickliff and Sir Joâ—n Old-Castle Lord Cobham and the Lollâ—rds who were desirous to rise before it was day and to reform these abuses before it was Gods appointed time But all between that and morning fell asleep again as fast as ever till dawning of day in the Henryes 7. and 8. of Brittish race which last finding himself thin and unattended expected more respect and observation for saith he in a speech h Hall 24. H. 8 fo 205. We thought that our Clergy of our Realm had been our Subjects wholly but now we have well perceived that they be but half our Subjects for all the Prelates at their consecration make an Oath to the Pope clean contrary to the Oath they made to us so that they seem to be his Subjects and not ours And began then to take course to recover his Spiritual Subjects whom the Pope stole from him and to rouse and awaken both Court and Kingdom against the Burglaries they committed upon others in the dead of night anâ— to seize upon the stolen Gooâ—â— which in England seldom â—evert to the right owners and to Discipline the whole Fraternity into better dependance upon their Soveraign burning several in the hand to make them cry God save the King instead of the Pope and as i Sinnych Saul â—x Rex some affirm arraigning Thomas â—ecket of high Treason against Henry the second after he had been prayed to in Heaven for about 400 hundred years to heal his people of the seditious influence of his Canonization By this time it was Sun-rising and the Gospel appear'd in our Horizon and in the English tongue and in Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth and King James after some Eclipse encreased in ful lustre to a perfect day that all eyes were open and sluggards began to rise and understand themselves and to be asham'd of their somnolent Religion yea the chief Calebs and Spies and Writers of the Roman Church by peeping into our Hemisphere and reading our Heretical Books as they reproach them became strangely alter'd and enlightened ever afterwards in stile and learning as well as our selves for the Polite World ows all its knowledge to Protestantism as it former Barbarous Ignorance to Popery but to their greater guilt and Condemnation with those in the Gospel That had eyes and would not see and ears and would not hear their hearts through love of its Idol more than God and the Truth being out of order But since the weather in our English Church hath been dark and cloudy for some years through the contrivance and malignity of some evil spirits Infesting our Air and troubling our Elements recommending poison to Grandees in Marriage Wine and Treaties to dispose them to old drowsiness and a far
constantly present in his heart and mind As he is ever the vainest that hath him least This presence of Christ in the Soul being its chief life and sobriety or preservation of the mind as the Greek imports and begetting that syberwid wherein the Brittish Ethicks did and doth consist And our Laws which are the wisdom of the Nation Endite none but Rebells against God who for not setting his fear alwayes before their eyes become injurious to their Brethren The great Apostle of the Gentiles comprizes the Disease of the Heathen world in one like word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 their averseness to eye God ever in their minds and the health of the Christian World to be in this when the Grace of our Lord Jesus was alwayes with them which was ever his last wish and prayer And the Cure of the Antichristian to be herein for when he had forwarn'd of the Pest that was to overspread the Christian Church in future Ages for their want of love to the Truth 2 Thess 2.9 10 11 12. he there names the best Amulet and Antidote against it again and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 3.16.18 The Lord of Peace give you peace The Lord be with you all The Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all Amen For they alone should escheat to Antichrist who cast off Christ and Christ them and those fall into the pit of the one whore and the other that in the Proverbs and the other in the Revelation who are abhorr'd of the Lord Prov. 22.14 And so much shall suffice by way of Exhortation to all Loyal Christians true to Christ their King and Countrey to adhere to our own good Mother-Church of Brittain in opposition to the pretences and inveiglements of the Modern Roman whom we leave as we found as Epaminondas is said to leave a sleeping Centinel whom he run through without a heart and Soul and Life through their taking man and not Christ who is the truth and the life for the Lord and Soveraign of their hearts and judgment SECTION XVII Where the place of the undoubted true Church is out of whose Pale there is no Salvation And how to be of the Church in Heaven while we are on Earth THe Brittish Church of England is a good and a true Church and so are many others but before men the Church of Christ that is in Heaven by true Faith is the true Church before God and the heart And certain Salvation is annext to the Church of Hearts and Faith For according to St. Paul every true Christian who is a Mystical Jew or Israelite is to be tryed by this Rule For he is not a Jew saith he which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.28 29. An unblamable outward profession constitutes us Sons of this or that Church before men but the sincerity of the heart to God sets us in the true Church before God for as he were not a right Son of this Church that should only observe Rubricks and Ceremonies and Consormity and neglect Temperance and Charity and Truth and Honesty which are greater so where both these are outwardly observ'd and kept as the Laws of God and the Customes of the place are the measures of all wise and sober men yet not from sincere love and obedience in the heart to Christ but for impunity from human Laws or vain-glory or some other secret end and purpose of the mind it is that end we thereby serve and not the Lord and by our out-side and the charitable estimation of men who are deceiveable we may be true Sons of the Church of England but our Inside or our souls which truly are our selves will be found out of the Church of Christ in Gods account who Judges by the heart and cannot be deceived And this Church of Christ is in Heaven where Christ is at Gods right hand and men become of it by saith and the sincerity of the heart which alone can reach it while in the body they remain on Earth This is the true Catholick Church whose Silver Rome borrows to cover its Brass with out of whose pale there can be no Salvation nor Condemnation ever to any that are found within it Rom. 8.1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus If a man were Excommunicated by Rome and England and be of this Church he were safe being Christianus in occulto as St. Augustine stiles such a one in his Book de verá Religione cap. 6. and miss of Salvation though in the bosom of both Churches if he be not in his heart of this A Christian who is inwardly by his heart in Heaven with Christ Christ and Heaven are present to his heart by Consequence and such a one is as it were Christ Incarnate as every one who is out of Christ in his heart and wedded to other ends or Idols is a Devil incarnate more or less And this new Celestial person which he puts on becomes the standard of his Interest and the Rule of his deportment whatsoever he doth agreable to Christ thus in him is his honour and newself-preservation and peace and whatsoever unbecoming the contrary For Cicero would allow that the person we sustain by nature or by calling and by Grace by Consequence becomes the Rule and measure of men's duties and obligations so that there is a vast and an infinite difference between one in Christ and out of Christ between a Christian and no Christian as much as between Heaven and Earth Flesh and the Spirit God and a Creature And St. Paul reduces the whole to this point They only that are in Christ can be Justified and Sanctified and Saved and no other and their Natures are chang'd and exalted by this conjunction and consequently all their Actions and affections which answer to the nature they arise from as the fruit to the tree And they that are out of Christ are out of all hopes and possibility of Justification or Sanctification or Salvation and the old man or Nature continues in them and the mortal inclinations and deeds thereof by Consequence And this change of mens state in respect of dignity as well as safety to be freed from wrath and made as second Sons to God is not from any human merit or power but only from the Infinite and free grace of Christ By whom we have access by Faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5.2 Our Justification and happiness by this new state is attributed by the Scriptures to Christ and to Faith and to his Resurrection to Christ without us as to the Purchaser and Founder and Finisher To Faith within us as to the Counterpart Instrument of our acceptance and the
effectual appearance and existence of the Truth and reality of this high mercy and its Obligations in our minds and perswasions for what is not known or own'd and received in the soul is as was said before with all men of no account as to them no more than if it had never been and we move and Act in our souls and in the conceptions and models thereof as our souls in God or Idols for we walk not in the Streets and stairs without us but in the Streets and stayers within our brain and count for let the last be mistaken or out of order men shall stumble and stagger though the first be never so true and right And to the Resuâ—â—ection Rom. 4.25 or Ascention into Heaven above 〈◊〉 as to the livery and seisin of this blessed State into which Christ enter'd for us in our Name and Naâ—â—â—â— drawing all hearts after him to Heaven by this 〈◊〉 and obligation as to a new center Wherebâ— the Sâ—â—â—â— of the Christian Church to use the 〈◊〉 of the World or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Country-Ship of every Christian is laid and fix'd in Heaven with Christ our of himself and this Transitory World And the nature of our fall in Adam understood by the cure and reparation to have been our departure far from God and Paradice into flesh and self and death for out of Christ in the fallen State the natural man is neither dead to this World in his Cross nor exalted to Heaven in his Resurrection nor United by love and the holy spirit to his person nor dead to himself but stands upon his own Leggs and Power against all opposition upon his own righteousness and Impeccability against Divine Justice upon his own strength and Grace against Infernal Powers and the deceits of the Flesh and the World upon the love of himself as the spring and end of all his Actions and designs above the love of God being his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in enmity with God by setting up Rebelliously himself Instead being miserably beside himself because so totally in for and to himself man's bliss and rest being not immanent but transitive not in himself but in God his Centre for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Rom. 11.36 And the return of the soul to God by love in the extinction of all enmity on either hand is wrought alone by Christ our Mediator satisfying Gods Justice by his death for us when we were Enemies and swallowing all our lives and hearts into himself by the obligation infinitely surpassing all comprehension or requital And we are not lost but perfected by this our Transmigation into Christ by love and gratitude lost indeed to our selves and to this World but found in Christ in Heaven each part being the health and perfection of the soul For so the Apostle understood this mystery None of us liveth to himself and none dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords For to this end Christ both dyed and â—ose and reviv'd that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14.7 8 9. And in another place The love of Christ constraineth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath our beings wrap'd up together with him because we thus Judge that if one dyed for all than were all dead And that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again we are to follow him in his Resurrection by our Conversation in Heaven and affections set on things above and in his death by mortification and self-denyal as dead men by construction and entendment to all things here below for the Laws and fictions of reason well supported are as much to guide and conclude us as outward reality the Mathematicks the most certain of Sciences have no other foundation The Church bids farewell to the present World as if it were already dead and buried and lives by its Faith and love in Heaven as if it were already ascended thither and its life hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 or as we said Christ and Heaven descend to abide in every Christian that thus ascends by his holy Spirit and the consequence of this union for they never are in Heaven with him without his being on Earth in them Withall Christ is never backward at Redamation to prevent the delinquiums and deadly fits of his sincere lovers for want of being re-loved and those Eli Eli Lamma Sabacthani's which himself felt and underwent for us out of Love The Aire is not more at watch and readiness to break in at the place a Vessel is flowing out to prevent a Vacuum than Christ by holy inspirations to replenish that heart that expires after him in zeal and love and by that to prevent its dissolution Yea Vessels though never so full will not and cannot flow without such vent nor the Aire step through for relief but where the Vessel is in a posture and inclination to run out But Divine Inspirations far out do and super-repair human expirations yea sometimes shoot out by their force the all that is within even life it self into Martyrdom and repair it with a stronger life in the midst of death According to the Aphorisms or Paradoxes of Christ himself the first Author of this Divine Art of loving and mutual dying and living in one another He that findeth his life shall loose it and he that looseth his life for my sake shall find it Mat. 10.39 And the reason assign'd why Christians are able to count death and Tribulations as nothing yea to Glory in them is Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us Rom. 5.5 Because love delights and glories to prove it self by tryals especially when rais'd and elevated by a divine life and mixture And if crosses become easie and glorious and acceptable to Christians by this mystery of spending how much more will their prosperities and favours He that can rest on Thornes may much more on Downe There are many and familiar Instances in the World of these mutual transmigrations between lovers and Benefactors as well as between Christ and Christians Vendidit libertatem qui beneficium accepit Obligations exhale mens liberties and a courtesie from the Heart of the Giver steals away the heart of the Receiver But what Grace or obligation can be compar'd to Christs Grace to men The Servant upon the score of a little Salary in his want ceases to be his own man and becomes swallowed in reason into the person of his Master and who more deservedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord and Master of all men than our for ever blessed Redeemer Right love in Matrimony and Friendship is mutually
therein or of a mixt sort between both on the frontiers between the flesh and spirit an unpeaceable station subject by turnes to the inroads and prevalence of both being mortal enemies to one another The Truth also is to be considered either absolutely in it self or in its due and suitable application to these several capacities and tempers Of which distinctions we find Christ himself to be a great approver who would not have his little ones offended Mat. 18.6 Nor his Pearles cast before Swine Mat. 7.6 Nor his bread given to Dogs nor denyed to Children c. 15.26 And no Rule was more exactly observ'd by his Apostles especially St. Paul wherein he is most carefully noted by St. Cbrysostom wherein lyes also the excellency of those Commentaries Now he argues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasoning after the manner of men or human reason Rom. 3.5 assigning the cause to be their Infirmity Rom. 6.19 as who would hardly believe any further than they were convinc'd by reason At other times when he hath to do with more perfect Christians more strongly establish'd in the faith He warnes and minds them of a higher rule to walâ—â— by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.8 according to Christ in his death and exaltation to the right hand of God Col. 3.1 2 3. and not according to the weak and beggarly Elements of this transitory World or the Philosophy of human model and Tradition which differs from the wisdom that is in Christ as Earth from Heaven or Death from life Here he speaks to his Auditors as to Babes or Carnal men And I Brethren could not speak to you as unto Spiritual but to you as unto Carnal even as to Babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you are not able to bear neither yet now are you able In another place saith he Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full Age or of perfection Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection Heb. 5. ult 6.1 c. Therefore the primitive Church divided her Disciples into several formes and degrees Catechumens and Believers c. some higher than others who were to be differently instructed with weaker or stronger aliment according to their several tempers and capacities At Athens St. Paul reasons with Philosophers from the light of nature at Ephesus and Philippi from the Creed and the Cross and the Resurrection St. Chrysostom in his great Christian Auditory uses an Apology for quoting Heathen Testimony before them where the matter seem'd to require it upon the like account Aristotle conceived young men by reason of their heady passions to be unfit Auditors of his Ethicks Which Considerations being premised and proved This Controversy may be decided in three Conclusions 1. Grace is to be affirmed to be free and unconditional and not to depend upon human merit and performance which it infinitely surpasses as well in point of time as of love undeserved and that Divinity which degenerates into a meer Moral Philosophy is to be suspected as unsound and far short of their Orthodoxy who assert and maintain the free love and Grace of God in Christ The principles of the one going no higher than immanent and Carnal self-preservation which the old man and Heathenism could reach the other to transitive and Divine proper to Christians or the new-man in Christ 2. That Christian edification which is to be heeded next after absolute Truth is most with them who attemper their Doctrines to the several maturities of their hearers Being all things to all men that they may gain some convincing natural men with natural light and those that are Spiritual with the demonstration of the Spirit and Truth For the glorious light of free grace which drinks up the pure soul in gratitude and redamation is too strong a lustre for weak and Carnal eyes enough to blind them into security and libertinism the soil being not fully fitted for this Heauenly seed such are better manur'd and prepar'd by rational culture to become right men in the first place to the end they may become right Christians in the next and their false health and confidence to be cast down with the discovery of their natural Disease and danger that their Cure and their Physitian may be rightly valued by them the servile spirit of bondage is best tamâ—d by a suitable terrour and Discipline The Husbands of the Amazons conquer'd their servants who had married their Wives in their absence when they brought their whips into the field against them who proved too hard before for their Masters at Weapons of War Divinity in the form of Philosophy may edifie Heathens that are in the form of Christians but Christians that are sincere and able to know Christ's voice from anothers are scandaliz'd and troubled at nothing more than at the change of of their Gospel and the return of Heathenism which is then intended when the milk is maintain'd to be strong meat and what served for edification to some is raised to be an absolute Law of Truth for all and grace to give place to morality Which is manifest Palagianism or Heathenism reviv'd which the Church hath been so careful to condemn though Pelagius himself perhaps intended his Principles no further than to the edification and conviction of corrupt and carnal Christians who walked short of the light of Nature as some Pious and great Diâ—ines have in other times and not for an Vniversal standing Truth throughout the Church of Christ which had been absolute Heresie As in a-like instance though eyes and ears be attributed to God by his own word for the sake of our weak capacities to infer from thence that God is really Corporeal as other mortals be were to run by such mistake into the Blasphemous Heresie of the Anthropomorphites 3. That in our Christian Congregation which consist of mixt tempers some perfect Christians some but Babes in Christ some meer Heathens in the shape of Christians A right Minister of God may and ought to be stor'd with varieties with Milk and Strong Meat Divinity and Philosophy in his Sermons according to mens several needs Nor are the defenders of free Grace and the truth to reproach him streight for an Arminian or Pelagian or our Conditionalists or Moralists for a Puritan as long as he obtrudes not his expedients of Edification as Articles of Faith as long as he keeps himself within St. Paul's distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I delivered as a Philosopher for some mens satisfaction but not as a Christian for a General rule of Evangelical Truth to all resolving to take nothing for such against the Scripture or his Creed or his Church The third Question is more Practical and to the point What sets the soul within the Church of Christ in Heaven out of which none can be ever saved nor in it ever lost A Roman Catholick if asked will say To be
within the Pale of the Church of Rome or to be subject to the Pope and to believe as the Church believes will do it and nothing else without it For let a man be never so vitious and Ungodly if he stick close to their Church which is allowed to be consistent provided he have the Absolution of a Priest at the last gasp upon his sorrow and condition or if this be wanting upon his attrition or fear of Hell he shall not miss Eternal Salvation nor ever attain the same if he be a Protestant though never so holy or charitable or Penitent and believing so are such Casuists for their want of love to the truth delivered over to deceive both themselves and others But to wave all parties and to give a plain and clear answer according to the truth or the mind of God in his word which is the same which the soul and Conscience loves to believe and build upon before any human Authority whatsoever This question may be divided into two points or Issues Stricti juris largi 1. What that is that makes one a Member of that Heavenly Church which if he wants he is none 2. What makes him more assuredly of it than many others that yet be in it The first question is best answer'd in St. Paul's Phrase in one word in the sence of that Phrase in three By the first he is of this Salvifical Church who is in Christ he is not of it who is out of Christ Rom. 8 1. Here the issue is short and clear with St. Paul Not to be In or out of the Church of Rome this he never saith but in or out of Christ which he affirms throughout Neither Jew nor Gentile nor Greek nor Barbarian nor Brittain nor Roman nor English or Scot or Irish are nearer or further from Salvation by their Countrey but their conditions Not by their first birth which is Temporal but their second which is Celestial and Catholick and one and the same to all true Christians stilâ—d for this Originally the Brethren Neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision nor the skin Black or White nor a Pall from the body of St. Peter nor the Vest of St. Francis to be buried in nor dispensations Seal'd in Lead more lasting than Wax nor sprinkling nor bathing in Holy Water can avail any thing to save the soul or to purifie the heart but only faith which worketh by love Act. 15.9 Gal. 5.6 Nor the sign of the Cross alone nor the very nails and wood of the Cross it self were they to be seen and touch'd nor any other contact or show or specious title nor the entring in at Porta Caeli at a Jubile nor the Popes Canonization nor the name and title of Roman-Catholick nor the Holy Roman Church like the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord with them in the old Testament Jer. 7.4 or saying Lord Lord with them in the New Math. 7.21 can give entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven but the doing the will of our Father which is in Heaven And did not this old anile faith of Modern Rome which serves to make so many Catholick Sons of their Church serve as much to make them children Universally in understanding also which the Apostle dislikes 1 Cor. 14 20. their practices would have more of their own suspition and less of their Neighbour's Censures What can any mortal excellency that hath visibility and hic nunc or perishing Temporality stamp'd upon it signifie to Christians who are not of this World as Christians but of the World to come by faith And look not at the things which are seen but at the the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal It 's true as men we are to prefer and provide for the nearest in flesh unto us before others or else we are worse than Infidels and prefer our Country and our Prince before our own flesh and life or else we fall short of Noble Heathens but as Christians who is to be nearest to us but he that is holiest and likest to God and Christ How unlike Christians therefore are they in their estimates and measures who think any man is a better or worse Christian or more capable or incapable of Salvation for being of this or that place or City or Nation on Earth rather than for having his affection with Christ in Heaven at Gods right hand Col. 1.3 In whom is neither Greek nor Jew Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3.11 2 Cor 5.16 Math. 12.50 Act. 10.34 35. But how Antichristian is it to make a contrary measure of Salvation to curse them as Hereticks though they be in Christ that be not of their way and Communion and bless them as Catholicks though out of Christ if they be According to the sence of that Phrase it may be further answer'd in three words 1. To be Christ's and not his own 2. to dye in his death to Earth 3. to live in his life to Heaven 1. To be Christ's and not his own All are yours and ye are Christ's 1 Cor. 3.22 23. and 2 Cor. 5.15 Christ dyed for all that none should live unto themselves No Christian is to live unto himself but unto Christ He is to eat and drink and converse and rise and lye down and labour and rest and study and serve and obey and command and rule and to bring up or provide for children and relieve the poor and poor friends every thing as to Christ as guided by his Law and accountable to his Judicature For he cannot be said to be a Servant to another that minds his own affairs or pleasure altogether and never his Master's but when himself pleases for a spurt or humour Neither is any selfish person a Servant of Christ nor a true salvable Christian by consequence but is one that sets up for himself And is not under Christ's Law and will but his own Neither shall be under his pay but must must expect his reward and Salvation from himself as he lived wholly to and for himself and his Conscience cannot gain-say this Law for such a one never hath Communion with God as all true Christians have but only with himself like a Rebel Mock-god ordering all things in the World for his own ends as God doth all for his own glory and never durst trust God so far as to go out of himself for his sake In himself shall he therefore ever remain and out of Christ forever because he never had the honesty to give God his glory nor the faith to give his heart that is himself to his Redeemer 2. To dye in Christs death to the Pomp and vanity of the World which according to St. Paul's comment is the mystical Christian meaning and fulfilling of the Ancient Circumcision Col. 2.11 12. Phil. 3.3 Gal. 6.14 16. That as amongst the Jews
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
first Magnitude must give place to the Sun and Moon these Primier Peers must yield precedence to the Royal bloud to the exact and lively Images and descendants of the Son of God who being light of light very God of very God yet left his Glory to express his Charity and for us men and for our Salvation came down from Heaven and made himself to be of no Reputation a man of sorrows and contempt to exalt others from misery to rest and honour such his Genuine off-springs and special Images are they only for no other in this World are dignified to such a singular capacity who most resembling the Eternal Son in the height of their birth and Power and Wealth and Wisdom and Authority and Command and trust in their several Spheres and Neighbourhoods yet delight to transfer their Wealth and Honour from themselves upon others upon their poorer Brethren that are in want and weakness and to copy out the Divine humility of the Incarnation and to quit their glory as Christ did to put on the griefs and wants and the miseries of others to make them happy and ful and become eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and Fathers to Orphans and Husbands to Widows and Champions for the oppressed and Gods on Earth to the Poor and weak And consume the least share of their estate upon themselves much less ignobly upon their Lusts and Luxury but in the return after others have been serv'd receive them again entire and doubled and trebled with the hearts of the refreshed along with them and the Acclamations of their Country and the blessing of their Church and the reward of God in the Establishment of their houses and the Salvation of their souls for both Exinanitions upon the score of charity in the Copy as well as in the Original end in highest Glory to have a name above every name in Heaven or Earth that all hearts and tongues should confess and praise them to the honour of the Lord Jesus whom they so Imitate and the glory of God the Father whom they so please The Heavenly Magnanimity and Serenity of the contented poor is out-done in several features of divine lovelyness by the Exinination of the Rich and liberal not only in the exact likeness to Christ in his humility and Exaltation and the transitive love and preference of others before themselves but in the difficulty of the Victory and conflict it being easier to bear Poverty than Riches as Winter is more healthy of the two than Summer hard Frosts pinch but excessive heats Intoxicate sometimes exhale the strength at all times and more souls miscarry under wealth than under want and our Streets are fuller of the Blasphemies of the Rich than of the Poor These give Divine honour to their bags and put their trust Idolatrously in uncertain Riches and say unto their Gold thou art my confidence others take and receive Divine honour to themselves and the fears of the Poor and the admiration of the sensual and childish upon the score of their wordly power and pomp and glory till an Angel sometimes smite them for example that they be eaten up of Worms Acts 12.23 Others though of private condition think nothing too much to be spent in Luxury and Liveries nothing too little on Alms and Charity to attract mens eyes to see their power which they value above all blessings a fashion more currant in civitate mundi then in civitate Dei more suitable to vain Heathens than sober and Baptiz'd Christians The middle condition excels both extreams in safety but not in honour and reward the Poor for his Patience and the Rich for his sobriety and bounty shall have higher Thrones in the other World with this pre-eminence that the Patient Poor shall have life Eternal hereafter Luke 16.25 the communicative Rich have it delivered to their hands to lay hold off here as the Apostles affirms laying up in store a good foundation for themselves against the time to come that they may lay hold on Eternal life 1 Tim. 6.9 But though none have properly this singular opportunity and Priviledge of resembling their Lord in such a depth of love and height of Glory but those alone to whom it is given to be Great and Rich in this present World who have much wealth and greatness to quit and leave for the relief of the Needy as Christ did great Parts to prostrate great State and Dignity to undervalue for Christ and his poor Members Yet every charitable Christian hath this capacity and Priviledge in the Kingdom of his heart and in the sight of God though not in the Kingdom of the World and in the sight of men for so the Widows mite was her Exinanition and is in proportion of every liberall giver of a narrow Estate and Fortune in our Saviours Book of Rates wherein all mens Actions and Persons are Rated and computed by the heart And the true Church is a Kingdom of hearts where all we do is to be done from the heart as unto the Lord and he is in Heaven whose heart is in Heaven and with Christ at Gods right hand whose heart is there with Christ though he be on Earth in the flesh The Christian begins to be in Heaven in this World wafted beyond all the dangers of Fabulous Purgatory when he begins to converse entirely from his heart with Christ in Heaven for non ubi animat sed ubi amat there all men are where there hearts are their hearts being with Christ the men themselves are by consequence with him wheresoever else they may be in their mortal Bodies Heaven there begins where this Christian conversation begins that leads to Heaven and is already in it as the Ocean in reason many be said to begin not at the Rivers mouth but from the first spring of the River that Travels towards it for means are the beginnings of those ends for which they serve and similar parts thereof And every step from our home in the right way is more or less an entrance into our Journie's end The Christian's first setting forth for Heaven is like the beginning of a small Rivulet which many a time a hot Summer or sharp Winter of temptation wholy dries up and stops but recovering it self again by the Influence and pity of Heaven in Dew and Rain and falling in with other Rivers that speed towards the same Sea either they into it or it into them it grows bigger and stronger by the Communion and drawing towards its latter end and hoping to be disembogued at last into its rest it finds it self repell'd again and again with a kind violence and an useful growth and Sea-like largeness and swelling so that it becomes hard to distinguish where the River ends or where the Sea begins and being rewarded and comforted for these frequent stops and interruptions with Divine foretasts of that finall brackishness into which it is to be in the end dissolv'd and season'd with it
s insensibly received and admitted into its rest at last and then and there lost forever and found forever in the Bosom of the Immense Ocean so is it most an end with every Christian soul at the beginning and progress and end of his Christian Race who is as sure to reach to his rest and glory in the bosom of God forever as Rivers to reach the Sea which they are reaching every day nearer and nearer as they move towards it in the channel that leads unto it and is the very same Element with it To conclude if all could be perswaded and won to walk up to this short and Catholick Rule which reaches all Nations and Churches and Conditions and Vocations and degrees to discharge all their duties to one another from the heart as unto Christ there would be more truth and veracity in the World not only towards Brethren but towards enemies and strangers who have Christ in mens hearts to hold in their behalf any promise pawn'd and made unto them the violation whereof carries as much of Atheism and contempt of Christ within the heart as dishonesty without towards him it wrongs There would be more meekness and patience towards enemies and persecutors if not for their sakes yet for Christs who commands forgiveness and love to enemies More obedience or submission to all Governours to the best for Christ's sake and their own to the worst for Christ sake however being our necessary duty and their due Almes There would be more love and readiness to help one another by Counsel or Purse or Prayer instead of eating and devouring one another by Craft and Power when it shall be consider'd that every benefit or wrong we do to our Neighbour without we do both in a higher degree and greater edge to Christ himself within our hearts to our Eternal reward or reckoning This would make men true Christians and Loyal Subjects and tender Fathers and Governours and just Masters and right members in their respective Communities and Societies and trusts and Genuine Sons of the Church not only of England our Mother on Earth but of Jerusalem above the Mother of us all in Heaven to the saving of our Souls Infallibly when the whole stock of Mountebank Indulgencies shall faile to effect the Cure This little Commandment well observ'd would be the Harmony of the World set Heaven and Earth in Tune again and God at peace with his Creatures and plant joy and concord and the peace of God which passeth all understanding in every Kingdom in every City in every Family in every Breast And that Angelical Prophetical Anthem at our Saviours Birth would recover its Truth and Power in the World And Glory should be to God on high and on Earth peace and good will towards men FINIS A Particular Table of the Contents PART I. MOral experiments proving the Body to be as nothing in comparison of the Soul pag. 1 2 11. Masters and Princes Symbols of Christ how 4. How the Stature of a Christian reaches from Earth to Heaven p. 5. The Heart is never without its God p. 7. 20. Sincere Heathens and Carnal Christians compar'd and which preferr'd 7. Outside Duties in Religion necessary though nothing when compar'd to the Inside p. 8. None ought to vilifie their own Faith before a fair and open Renuntiation ibid. Sincere and dangerous mistakes arising from the comparative excellency of the Soul above the Body p. 9 Monkery and Non-conformity compar'd p. 9 10. How a thought of the Soul true or false is preferr'd before Estate Health and Life p. 11. Three properties requir'd to Act from the heart p. 12. Of force about Religion p. 13 14. Both good and bad men are for pleasure and the difference and the necessity of Divine Grace to set the will free p. 14 15. The Heart is for God and Christ and none beside why How p. 16. seqq Two reasons why the heart is so and how the Soul is Correlate to God p. 19. seqq An Irrefragable proof of the Deity from wicked mens experience and why it operates not upon some p 20 21. The Scheme and Hypothesis of the Christian Faith out of St. Paul and Creed and Fathers and Baptismal Vow p. 21 22. The right rule to chuse or avoid Communion with Churches p. 23. The Christian Hypothesis the best foundation and support of Societies p 23 24. A description of a true and right member of a Society p. 25. seq Honour is more than Life Conscience more than Honour what more than Conscience p. 27. Of a false member and of self-love how sordid and destructive of it self p. 28. seqq What makes good Men good Subjects good Rulers p. 31. seqq The great Rule of doing as we would be done by fenc'd and exalted by the Text p. 32. seq Blind obedience and implicit Faith in the Church of Rome to Superiours fairly examin'd and found unsound and unworthy p. 32. 33. seq What is Truth p. 37. Which the greater sin Tyranny or Rebellion p. 38 39. Plenitude of Soveraignty and Liberty consistent p. 40. Christs Divinity prov'd against Socinians p. 41 42. SECT I. An Exhortation to adhere to the Church of England against Rome p. 43. seqq The way to be Infallible p. 44. Worship in an unknown Tongue excludes the heart p. 44. seq Men are to be Infallible for themselves first for their Brethren next p. 47. The Controversy consists in the Election of a right or wrong Infallible guide p. 47. This Question stated in the sense of both parties p. 48 49 51. All other Controversies would end if this were decided p. 51. Obedience to the wrong is disobedience to the Right Soveraign ibid. Three Questions propos'd to find out the true p. 52. The heart cannot be without a guide Christ or sin or man of sin p. 53. The Principles of Government with the last p. 54 55 No Law of Christ or Conscience or Countrey must be heeded against his Authority and Interest p. 56 57 The Soul is Gods Temple and the Pope instead of Christ affects to be Soveraigâ— there p. 61 62. Great folly and danger to hearken to a Perkin Warheck p. 63 64. The Principles of Protestants how they prove the uniform Loyalty of the heart to Christ as the right Soveraign p. 63 64. How the Brittish Church knowes the Scriptures to be Gods word p. 64. How our Controversies about things indifferent are decidable by these Principles p 65 66. Christ is the Judge of quick and dead and who are his Depuâ—â—â—â—on Earth 47 67. And nothing to be acted against him by â—â—â—s Authority p. 67. Such as be Hereticks with the Pope but Catholicks with God are in no danger p. 67. SECT II. Rome no Mother Churâ—h to us not Loyal to Christ her Soveraign p. 68 69. Every Church may be consider'd three wayes 1. According to its Inside 2. Outside 3. Or extraction p. 69. Jerusalem above not Rome is the Mother Church to all Christians in respect of their inside
481. How they have been hammering for a fit title to their Supremacy p. 486. What would mildly cure Christendom of the Nusance of Popery p. 487. Protestancy no name of Schism but of Eternal duty p. 488. The first Adam the example of Credulous Papists the second Adam of wary Protestants ibid. The description of this Apostacy in Prophecy p. 491. The Roman Heathen Empire a greater blessing to the World than the Christian Papal how signified by the number of Hornes ibid. Rome's character in Modern blazonry ibid. Why the Roman may be said to be a Religion and no Religion p. 492. Of the Moral annihilation of the Soul by Romish Principles p. 49â— And how equivalent in its effects to a real ibid. Whereby all their gross Errours in Doctrine and practice are demonstrated to be necessary and unavoidable while they continue their Principles p. 493 494 495 497. The Characteristical difference between Protestant and Papist wherein lyes it p. 498. The Pope a God without Divine Attributes 498. How fit to be a Judge of Controversy for Integrity p. 499. The followers of Popery as inexcusable as the Leaders p. 499 500. Of what sort and tempers and how misled p. 500. The misery of Spiritual slavery exceeding Temporal and Hell it self p. 501. Who must do good upon them ibid. Divine and National Prophesies of an impending alteration upon Rome p. 502. SECT XVI The right râ—le of Heresie 504. The Roman-Catholick rule thereof ibid. Illustrated by a passage of a Portugues General p. 503 504. None are greater Hereticks than our Roman-Catholicks why p. 505. seqq 333. The pregnancy of their Heresie in excluding the heart 507. Papists honour Christ upon the score of the Pope why p. 508. Form of Godliness no where more than where the life is wanting p. 508. Being as the Maggots of a dead Corps p. 509. Several Antichristian effects of the exclusion of the heart in that Church 1. Lying and Legending and forging p. 509 510. Popish Legends Alcharon dreams Talmud dotages how near a kin 2. Unchristian Cruelty God and Christ and all mankind in the heart p. 511. seq Our different beings in respect of Souls or Bodies ibid. How Protestants put on Christ and Papists the Pope and their different tempers thereby p. 513 514. Where Christ is out of the heart Dissenters find no Mediator p. 515. How the Turk was to rage by the Sword Rome by Fire according to Prophecy p. 515 516 517. 3. Carnal Impurities not much reckon'd for sins at Rome p. 518. 4. Accusers of Brethren p. 519. Catholick and Orthodox belong better to Protestants than Papists p. 520 521 522. Abraham the first Catholick p. 522. The Old Church of Rome differ'd from the Moderne as we Protestants in Doctrine p. 523. It s a Gothic Church or Gregorian p. 525 529. Old Romans more in Venice c. p. 525. Rome made up of the dregs of mankind after the ruine of the old according to Platina p. 483 484. What is to be thought of the Christian Articles there still profess'd p. 525 526. Their Worship and Masse alterd from the Old Worship and by whose means remarkably 526 527 528. Our Common Prayer far nearer to the Liturgy of Old Rome p 528. The beginning and first start of Popery when and with what omens p. 526. Pope Gregory and Mahomet equally pretended to Divine Inspirations by a Pigeon at their Eare p. 530. Popery compar'd to a long night and in what hour of that night Purgatory and Transubstantiation c. began to possess mens fancies p. 530. 531. Europe owes its Knowledge and Learning to Protestancy and Ignorance and Barbarism to Popery p. 533. Rome Heathen and the Modern Christian compar'd p. 534. seqq The Roman Art to secure their Converts p 538. The Old Romans respected their Heathenism more than the Modern their Christianity p. 539. Modern and Middle and Ancient Brittains compar'd with the Romans for Armes and Arts and Altars p. 540. seqq Invasions of Nations a mystical deluge and how the Brittains alone like Noah surviv'd and communicated the Old World to the New ibid. p. 541 542. How the English and the Old Brittains agree in humour and defence of their Faith p. 541. The German had their first Chymistry from the Brittains and Poetry and Rhetoric how inseparable from the Brittish Nation and Language p. 543. Julius Caesar repuls'd by Gaswalhan p. 544. Unpeaceable Divisions the blind-side of Ancient and Modern Brittains p. 545. Of the Female Brittish Valour p. 546 Of the Reduction of Caractacus his Teritory and Fame p. 547. seq A bold Speech and strange Faith of an Aged Brittain before K. Henry 2d The Fame of our Brittish Legions in the Roman Wars and Musters p. 551. How unworthy it were to subject this Church to Rome p. 409 474 553. An addition to the Princely Charge since the time of Justinian p. 554. It is more disgraceful to be overseen than overcome p. 555. The loss and detriment by Popery and guilt therewith p. 555 556. The Incongruity by it p 556 557. The impossibility how probably in fate 557 558. How manifestly in reason without a curse p. 558. The reason why Popery and Atheism must have Debauchery to precede p 560 All in the end must acknowledge or feel Christs Soveraignty p 561. The connexion of the end of this Discourse with its beginning or reduction of the Controversie to one point ibid. SECT XVII How a man may be of the Church of Rome or England and not of the Church of Christ contra p. 564 How we are justified c. p 565. Of being in or out of Christ p. 564 595 Of Immanent and transitive self p. 566 seq St. Pauls Conversion and the greatness of his love to the Church p. 570 571. What ensures Salvation to every man p. 57â— A new self-preservation belonging to the new Creature p. 573. Christians to be mutually loved above our selves p. 575. Three Questions resolv'd 1. Whether Grace be free and absolute or Conditional p. 576. 2. Whether Philosophy may be used in the Chruch p. 579. What sets the Soul within the Church of Heaven strictly and largely p. 585. Selfish persons are not salvable Christians p. 588. The Worthyes of the Church of Heaven p. 550 591 seqq Easier to bear poverty than riches p. 598. The man is where his heart is 599. The conclusion of this Section in a similitude 600. The Conclusion of the whole 600 601. Some lesser Litteral Escapes Page 9. line 31. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 22. l. 31. r. Apostle p. 24. l. ult r. Apostolical p. 31. l. 20. r. Salus p. 34. l. 27. r. Rom p. 81. l. 26. r. form p. 155. l. 3. r. Catholick l. 28. r. Conscience p. 165. l. â— r. despised p. 203. l. 17. r. counterfeit p. â—94 l. 3. r. cladéque p. 318. l. 3. r. through p. 336 l. 33. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 378. l. 4. r. too p. 34â— 3. l. 3. r. Plantation p. 401. l. 31. r. Missae p. 445. l. 7. r. to p. 475. l. 22. r. Disciples p. 505. l. 12. r. p. 569. l. 27d p. 521. l. 34. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 552 l. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A lesser yet in these words here set down right and Alphabetically Archiepiscopal Beneficence Concatenation degenerate deliqiums fashion General Grimaces herding indispensable Metropolitical mimical Nunneries perceptible permanency persevere practices preceded Toleration ungodly ansyberwyd brodordhun cylhelh dyffneint fegir fymhenyd gogledh Mae i chwi pylgains o'r o fwystfiledh Syberwyd ynys yw yw'r
men 2. good Subjects 3. good Rulers which were a Heaven upon Earth to see and find The great Rule of Moral honesty and doing as we would be done by which is the sum of the Law and the Prophets is highly improv'd and fenc'd by this Text. For men shall be more Heavenly and steddy in doing as they would be done by when they make Christ together with themselves their standard and measure than when themselves alone for the one or the other self ever is and must be the foundation of that Rule Now abuses and mistakes can creep in by the one none by the other at all One may do foolishly and unjustly that should do as he would be done by in his own heart but never if he do as he would be done by in Christ the first makes an act the second makes it right For instance Intemperate persons will commonly press their dearest friends to excess of Drink and pleasure by this Rule and Standard of equity because they do nothing herein but as they would be done by by them under which deceitfulness of sinning this Nation groans Did they take Christ along with their own heart and will they would will nothing to themselves and others but what were Regular and comely and befitting Christ For our own will without Christ to Rule it is false and unjust and Atheistical And if the standard be false what a false Edition will it produce of things measur'd by it If the light that is in us be darkness how great must that darkness be And so it is in the Case and expectation of implicit obedience without regard to Christ or Conscience The chiefest lure and bait Popery hath for some Princes humours which otherwise is so contrary and Ecclipsing of their supremacies is the Device and Iron yoak of absolute and unconditional obedience to Superiours let the cause be right or wrong or the Command and design manifestly just or unjust the Inferiour is not to judge nor inquire unto it For so if the Pope shall be absolutely obeyed by Secular Princes which is the key of this design those Princes by the same equity shall be so obeyed by their Subjects as it seems but just to expect to find the same measure that one is ready to give And Subjects among themselves Master by his Servant the Officer by his Souldier though the Laws of War and Peace carry not the same reason or mildness the Ordinary by his Clerk the Clerk by any in subjection under him shall be absolutely and quietly obeyed without dispute or scruple Then peace and order and Harmony shall take place in all Kingdoms and Governments and amongst all Ranks and degrees of men instead of discord and War or fanatical suspition of Superiours And probably some Rulers are won to entertain a fair opinion of the Roman-Catholick Religion for the inventing or maintaining of so Ingenious and Divine a Model for the unity and peace of the World wherein yet the species infima or lowest rank of men is left infinitely more low and comfortless than they were as not having any Inferiours under them to wreak and ease themselves by retaliation of the hard usage they received from their Superiours which this Hypothesis ligitimates under the false colour of equity and serving others as themselves have been served but which is never to be endur'd deprives them and all other degrees also of their God And under colour of honouring his Deputies wrests an Idolatrous Recognition and engagement from them inconsistent with their Allegiance to Gods Soveraignty For to be the absolute rule and measure of good and evil which these vest and lodge in mortal Governours is one of the absolute prerogatives of the immortal God alone incommunicable to Creatures without Idolatry in the compliers as well as contrivers nor allows them the liberty to distinguish between God and his Creatures which is the essential priviledge and work of their reason and the imbred Allegiance of their nature And the Catholick Charter both of Jew and Gentile and Christian early and plainly avowed by the Apostles in the face of the Jewish Magistrate at the Councel-table Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye Act. 4.19 This cruel unnatural method takes care for the strong but none at all for the helpless but suffers the weakest to go to the wall which agrees neither with real Honour which inclines noble breasts to take the part of the weaker nor Romantick which encounters Monsters to rescue the distressed which Paternal Bowels Gods Patterns for the Regal never practice being ever fond of the youngest and most helpless Civil Justice and equity wholly excludes where the nature and Case and mould for all men is the same the Vulgar Proverb before disdains and Censures as ignoble and unconscionable as what usually is but should not be the fashion Our Blessed Saviour never thought of it when in due time he dyed for us when we were without strength and is still specially tender of his little ones Rem 5.6 Mat. 18.10 who own'd Caesars Image and Conquest but still that men should give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God But this Model will not allow the heart to God though it belong to Him alone and no other but Sacrilegiously divides and imbeazles it between the Pope and Caesar By the Christian Hypothesis this World and the Princes thereof are as nothing set against God by this God is nothing compared to Princes Where is the Loyalty or Consistency much less the Wisdom or Modesty of this method which so eagerly insists upon obedience to Superiours and leaves out God Unless it would have us look upon men as perfect and unerrable as God only is or that he hath cashier'd himself and resign'd his Glory and the Regiment of the World to Earthly Princes or Canton'd the Empire of the Universe amongst a handful of Mortal Rulers stepping in not as his Deputies and Vicegerents but as his Successors This were to depose and annihilate God what in them lyes and by consequence to overthrow the whole World that is supported by him and themselves likewise together with their Authority in the common ruine with the Parricidial guilt and weight of Heaven and Earth destroyed upon their backs This is not the obedience of a man or a Christian but of a Beast which a generous Superiour would scorn to accept and an Inferiour that fears and trusts in God would never give And savours of Idolatry in taker and giver it is not Christian obedience but a confederacy of Apostates and Rebels against Heaven combining together to dethrone Christ out of the heart and God out of the World And to expect from others the like sinful and shameful obedience they are free to shew upon the like barbarous equity as Selymus murdred all his Brethren assigning this for a reason that he did no more to any of them then