pronounce Joh. 20.23 nor the flock they feed 1 Pet. 5.2 their own but all is Christs own Mat. 28.18 1 Cor. 3.23 And they are but Earthen Vessels and meer Instruments and Ministers under Christ and Stewards of his Mysteries and Oracles 2 Cor. 4.7 The lustre of his own Power and presence obscures the Authority of these his Officers as the Sun doth Mercury by nearness who yet doing their duty aright and from the heart in his sight whether in preaching or threatning or absolving do all with his full Authority and what they bind upon Earth is bound in Heaven and whom they absolve upon Earth are absolved in Heaven and who Honours and despises them doth Honour and despise Christ himself to his high reward or peril 1 Thess 4.8 For the power and splendor of a right Minister of Christ lyes in being one and the same and incorporated together with his principal which is effected by the sincerity of his heart performing every part of his duty as in his sight and for his approbation only whereby his preaching shall become powerful and victorious and his Counsels Oracles and his threats thunders and his comforts present health and Salvation as if Christ himself spoke in him for then his sheep hear his voice Joh 10.3 There is not that sympathy and intelligence and corresponding responses between unisons of two Instruments when only one is touch'd as there is between Christ in the heart of sincere hearers discerning Christ in the hearts of sincere Preachers O the Glorious Enterviews and Heavenly contentions and killings of Grace and gratitude that occurr between two Christs in Master and Disciple in several respects and habitudes Speaking and hearing the words of Christ between them meek Majesty in the one lowlily imploring prostrate extasie in the other lovelily adoring and yielding For the Apostles had a regard to Christ as the judge of their preaching in the Consciences of their hearers as well as in their own Christ in both observing and overseeing the one and the other in their duties Therefore the Bereaens are commended by the Holy Ghost as Noble and Generous in that they did not receive with implicit Faith what St. Paul preached unto them but weighed and examined his Doctrine with their Consciences and Scripture as it were with eye and rule searching the Scriptures dayly whether those things were so Act. 17.11 For the Conscience of another is not our rule but our own neither shall we be judg'd hereafter according to the cure and sincerity of our Teachers but according to what was to be our own care and duty Therefore the Spirits of Prophets though inspir'd were to be tryed and judged by Rule or Christ in the Scripture by other Prophets and Christians that had not the same numerical inspiration 1 Cor. 14.29 32. And the Prophet of Juda was slain by God by a Lyon 1 King 13. for believing Gods word in another Prophet against Gods word to himself St. Paul considered that Christ had a throne in every Soul and accordingly addressed his preaching to stand or fall by it as that which could easily discern and judge between craft and truth 2 Cor. 4.2 We have renounc'd the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftyness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God for every mans Conscience ought to judge for it self of the Truths it hears and of the guides it trusts and chuses else truth and errour to be sav'd or damned by the one or the other were indifferent were one and the same unto us Therefore how many Souls there are so many Kingdoms there are and so many Christs in them to govern them here because he is their judge hereafter And nothing without us how right or good soever hath validity or being or naturalization in us till it be received and approved and re-enacted in every Soul for Atheism doth not annihilate God in himself but in the Soul of the Atheist As Faith doth not give being to Christ and Christian Truths but only in Believers hearts And the Soul can enact nothing rightly without the advice and Councel of its Superiour God and Christ in the heart which is its rule and in whom it lives and moves and acts And nothing can it act with right and validity nor satisfaction itself or safety from the sword of the Magistrate without or besides this rule For Rulers were ordain'd to be a terrour to evil works and not to good to correct the whoredoms and Idolatries of the Soul breaking out into vicious bastard Acts concieved by Idols and lusts admitted into those affections which were due to none but Christ her husband and guide And no Child is so lovely in the eye of a fond Parent as are the thoughts words and actions of Christians conceived between the Soul and Christ guiding her self by his word and Ministry and that not only in the sight of God and Governours and good men but to the Consciences of the worst sinners and much more to their own It 's a natural instinct in the Souls of all men good or evil which laughs at all humane Laws to the contrary to admit of nothing into their Creed or practice without consulting with the Rule that guides the heart whether it be Christ or Worldly Interest Neither would men at first have believed the Miracles of of Christ or his Apostles or received the Scripture without consultation first had by every one with God speaking to him in his senses or in his Conscience But the Church of Rome expects that Christians though subjects of Christs Heavenly Kingdom should receive her Laws and dictates implicity and without scanning or recourse had to Christ in the Conscience or private judgment which they utterly disallow and discountenance in diametrical opposition to Apostolical practice and common sense and instincts and the nature of the Soul and the Soveraignty of Christ the King of Souls which therefore is a manifest Antichristian invasion upon the Liberties of Jerusalem which is above our true Mother and the temple of the Lord Eph. 2.21 22. wherein we every where find Popes intruding If the inside of our British Churches that is our Souls owe Daughterly subjection to them at Rome It is either as they are Soveraigns of this Heavenly Jerusalem or as they are Ministers and Pastors If they arrogate the first then the charge of Antichrist against them is acknowledged and confessed with some ingenuity appearing in the Blasphemy If their pretended power over our spirits be only Ministerial and St. Paul and St. Peter never did nor could claim more over the inside of any Church 1 Pet. 5.3 why are not our Popes painful preachers to the Consciences of men If not ours yet of their own Italians Let that Rule and Canon of St. Peter whom they so much own for their Founder Judge between them and us which Church the Romish or
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
is transacted here on Earth between man and man the Inside is performed in Heaven through Faith between the Soul and God The height and stature of a Right Christian reaches from Earth to Heaven pedibus terram terit caput inter nubila condit The Originall Model and Truth of all his actions is order'd and contriv'd in his upper-man in his Sanctum Sanctorum where there is access to none but God and his conscience Christ and his heart his outward Actions in his lower man or outward court of the body are but Copies and Proclamations of those Rules from above and are all executed by and towards deputies our hands being the Proxies of our Souls and our Neighbours and Superiours the Proxies of Christ And should a lust or Idoll or Self-interest or Carnall fear steal in or usurp like Lucifer or Antichrist the Throne of Christ in the upper man the Soul the Inferiour faculties below will serve and worship this Impostor or Usurper with the same Allegiance the same fear and trembling as Christ himself which is an abominable Idolatry and confusion and a vile and treasonable Prophanation and subversion of Christs Honour and Soveraignty in us together with that of our own Liberty and felicity Therefore the heart is to be always watch'd and guarded against invasions Prov. 4.24 and kept free and entire for Christ and whatsoever we do we are to do it for no other end or respect and for no mans sake but Christ which is the benefit and Interest of the superiour and Inferiour too The Master or Superiour is happy in the fidelity and Religion of his Servant who is now as diligent in his work behind the back as before the face directing his service not to man who cannot always see him but to Christ from his heart present at all times and places to him in his heart and faith And the servant is much more happy not only in his Immense and Infinite reward for his labour above what his Earthly Lord or Master could ever reach to give but in the glorious liberty and dignity of his condition being not so much Servant as brother to his own Lord and Master in Christ whose Servants both are alike and the chief Rulers of the Earth and the Angels of Heaven count it their chief honour and glory so to be The text as we all men consists of two parts Body and Soul The Body in those words whatsoever ye do ye that is ye Servants which takes in all ranks and orders and degrees of men all from the Plow to the Throne being but Servants Servants either of man or God or both and the word whatsoever comprehends all the duties and Actions of them all The Soul or the heart of my text in the other words do it from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men where there are two parts of this the heart the right ventricle and the left the right or positive part in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Lord and the left or Negative part in the other and not unto men 1. In the right part the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quatenus ipsum as Logicians say between the Lord and the heart whatsoever is done or not done from the heart is done or not done to the Lord in effect and whatsoever is or is not done for the Lord is or is not done from the heart because of the concatâ—nation or eternall correlation between these two for ever Inseparable Liege and Subject God and the Soul for though a sincere Heathen and a carnall Christian seem both miserably out the one for want of God the other for want of the â—earâ— in worship yet in neither where one is present iâ— the other correlative really ever wanting and Socrates and Cicero who serv'd false Gods actually did design the true God in their hearts and will rise up in judgement against such nominall Christians oâ— Catholicks who actually worship Christ but design another end in their hearts their Backs or Bellies or secular conveniences by him and whatsoever is the aim of our heart is our God And this chief end and treasure at the bottom of the heart and intention which as our Saviour notes Math. 6.21 goes ever with the heart is that which as the Soul of the action gives life and formality to it and denomination to the worshipper either of a true worshipper or true Christian where the chief end at bottom is the true God or Christ or of an Idolator or Atheist where the chief end in the heart is the world or self which God well knows and every mans conscience can best tell him which it is 2. The negative part not unto men yea to men as secondary Masters by the order of Christ the chief to Masters according to the flesh v. 22. but not from fleshly motives or worldly respect or fear that were contrary to the nature of the Soul and the faith of Christians for the Soul knows none to be loved or feared but God alone or in reference to him and faith sets us above the world and consequently above all wordly fears or ends in our actings if our actings be Christian and our Christianity be true To dwell on the first part or body of the text and to enumerate all the fair limbs and lineaments of duty belonging to all sorts of men in their severall ranks and orders were in effect to sum up to you the whole duty of man which yet without the second part or the heart in my text would prove but a meer Anatomy or Skeleton the shell without the kernell the body without the soul And though the outside of our duties be nothing if compar'd to the inside or heart therereof and the latter is to be chiefly done yet the former is not to be left undone for how can that be done from the heart which is not done at all or well done before God which is ill done before men before whom we are bound to glorifie God as well as within our hearts I shall therefore fall to the heart and life of my text after warning and detection given of a great and dangerous errour among Christians which lies in the extreme where faults use to lie Not theirs do I mean with whom their body and its wellfare are all in all with them and their immortall Souls but as ciphers out of sight out of mind which is a very Catholick Irreligion not to be refuted here because such cannot pretend to be Christians because they are no men and no men because they deny their Souls falling short of nobler Infidels and Heathens in Wit and Spirit and Religion and hearding themselves unworthily with the beasts that perish having no signs of manliness left but the false magnanimity of wounding and damning there no Souls and vilifying the Lord Christ his Scriptures and Ministers and that before any open renunciation of their Christianity
which is against the Law of Nations in the treachery and of common sense and reason in the contradiction But the errour in extream that I would warn you of hath the face of sincerity and Christian honour and perfection maintaining the soul to be all in all and the body or outside of our duties to be nothing and not worth the ordering or regarding who therefore seldom or never open their hands in charity to their brethren in distress but think it enough to pity and relieve them in their hearts that think good works needless least they justle out Faith which is the heart of all Religion that think decent ceremonies and habits in Gods service lawfully ordain'd and answering but to the body to be slighted as Inconsistent with the worship of God in Spirit and Truth which answers to the Soul and that there are to be no Masters or Superiours according to the flesh whatsoever St. Paul saith here to the contrary v. 22. but all to be thou'd with Hat on as equalls because the Soul hath but one Superiour to it that is God The root of such mens mistake lies in this that they conceive Subordinates to be contrary and comparatives wholly to destroy the positive that heart and hand cannot go together that the body and the soul and God and man and Heaven and Earth be inconsistent because the one doth so far excell and out-go the other Two errors there are Antient and modern contrary to one another yet twins of the same womb that have much annoyed and moth-eaten the beauty and glory of the Christian Church in its severall ages all along and brought needless straits and troubles upon many a well-meaning Christian 1. That of Monkery 2. that other of Nonconformity the root and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of both being in the one a Melancholly in the other a willfull Imagination of Inconsistency where there is none for the soul may be saved without going a begging and God may be worshipped as well as Idolatry incurr'd by the reverence of the knee For though this present World compared to that to come be nothing with the Monk as the knee compar'd to the heart is nothing with the Non-conformist wherein both be very right and Orthodox yet considered apart and by themselves out of such comparison they recover again their positive necessary and convenient beinâ— and their use and goodness with their being by consequence As the Earth is nothing in respect of Heaven and England therefore so small a part of the Earth is less than nothing in all reason However by it self positively considered it is a large Territory of many dayes Journey consisting of several Counties and famous Towns and Cities affording large materials for Laws and Government and Order But if Monk and Seperatist be compar'd as to the consequence of their principles or the sincerity of their Discipline the one is found to wrong himself only the other publick peace and order The one to despise the World which agrees with a Christian the other to despise Government which too much agrees with Antichrist Jud. 8. 2 Thess 2.4 withall it 's far easier to flesh and bloud to abstain from bowing or kneeling or capping than to wear Sack-cloath or to live on Bread and Water all ones life It s easier I say and less subject to taking cold to change you into thou than to walk bare-foot all the year therefore the Monk stands further off from the Hypocrite than the Quaker though from the unwise both much at equal distance To place all Religion and Service of God in opere operato or the work outwardly done though without the heart or understanding is Idle and Popish To place none in the outward Reverence of the body before Angels and men is Rude and Fanatical and Scandalous To perform all the parts of our outward duties with care and Reverence but to judge them as nothing and as meer formality compared to the truth and sincerity of our hearts to Christ this is Orthodox and Regular Religion and well pleasing in the sight of God and Reason For great is the natural greater or more sensible is the moral difference between our Bodies and Souls The Body like matter in Plato is a vast spungy dull Earthly lump and substance without any life or spirit But the Soul is a contract and strong and indivisible divine and lively essence and spirit being that in the Body what God is in the World tota in toto Giving life and motion and vigour to all its parts minimum maximi mâ—jus maximo minimi a Mole-hill of Gold is worth a Mountain of Oare But the moral difference between them currant in Conversation and the esteem and value of God and man seems much greater Five words of real English truth from the heart are better received with all men than ten thousand Complements and Grimaâ—ces Though a vast Estate be greatly valued in the World for the port and respect that attends it yet health and life have far the pre-eminence when ever they stand in Competition Yet the one and the other both Estate and life set against the Soul become so little worth that they both must expose themselves at its beck into Martyrdom and Sequestration and the Canons mouth to defend and make good but any one Article of Faith any one Principle of Honour and Loyalty in the heart And your Hectors bid higher who by their Hair-brain Duells and sickly Luxuries and hazardous and ignominious Lusts do loudly maintain that an erroneous thought or fancy of the Soul is of more value and price than health and life and all the World What then must be the worth and value of thoughts sober and wise and true What of the Soul it self the Matrix and mother of them all Therefore God who understands the nature of the Soul takes it for no service at all but rather a contempt which is offered to him by the lip without the heart Mat. 15.8 Ones whole life spent in his service without the heart is not one hour or minute spent therein If I speak with the Tongue of men and Angels and have not Charity that is do it not for the Glory of God and the Edification of men from my heart I am but as sounding-brass and a tinckling-cymbal If I bestow all I have to the poor and give my body to be burnt and have not Charity that is do it for a vain Glory or for some other respect than from my heart to God it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. But this second and principal part of my Text touching the Heart and Soul of our Actions may for distincter method be further explained and illustrated two ways By shewing 1. The Quomodo 2. The Quare The Quomodo how we are to Act is expressed in those words 1. From the heart 2. To the Lord. 3. Not to men 2. The Quare why we are so to Act is insinuated in those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heart and the Lord and of these in Order 1. For the Quomodo in the first place Whatsoever we do we must do it from the Heart which requires these three properties at least 1. That we do it with Knowledge 2. With Freedom 3. With Conscience to God and no other The Will and Vnderstanding being the two parts of the Soul require the two first and the natural bent and verticity of the Soul after God its only center and rest requires the last For nothing is or can be said to be done from the heart which is not done for God and before him An honest hearty man doth all that he doth as it were upon his oath because he doth every thing from his heart and Conscience in the presence of God 1. In the first place what is done from the heart must be done with knowledge and attention which is the wakefulness of knowledge For where there is no understanding there can be no will or rational consent as in Beasts Idiots Lunatiques Minors and persons cheated surpriz'd miss-led and where no will then no heart heart will Soul and understanding being all the same Therefore St. Paul decides it to be Idolatry to worship even the true God ignorantly as in the Case of the Athenians Act. 17.23 And our Saviour Christ gives a reason for it Joh. 4.22 in the Case of the Samaritans Ye worship saith he you know not what In our Saviours account God is not reckoned to be worshipped by those that worship him ignorantly or blindly hit or miss whether him or an Idol or Usurper in his stead 2. With freedom which implies two things 1. The exclusion of force and fear 2. Necessity of Grace and Gods assistance For force and fear destroy the will and all hearty consent and delight as much as ignorance and errour did for what we do by force and fear we do it from a principle without to save our skins but what we do from the Heart we do it from a principle within in complyance with truth and justice or Gods mind wherewith the heart complies of its own accord These being so diametrically contrary to one another therefore freedom and force can never stand well together If Religion is to spring from the heart as saith my Text its absurdity and contradiction to propagate it by force Governours may and perhaps ought to use the discipline of the Rod and power paternally towards obstinate and froward Subjects to create Attention and respect in them towards the truth but to use Axe or Fagâ—ot to burn and destroy the Lives of all Dissenters is far from the spirit of Christ Luk. 9.55 Which method began to be in practice when Religion without a Heart and consequently without God began to be in fashion in the World and Corpus Christi worshipped and reverenc'd above Christ himself and the Wood of the Cross above the Mystery of the Cross and a frail Father on Earth above our Father in Heaven And as the growth and prevalence of the true Church over Idolatry and Heresie was by truth and meekness and benificence which tended to win the heart like the Suns victory over darkness which it early dispells with its light and rayes without noise or bloud-shed yet with a sufficient Glorious alteration in the World So the growth of the false hath mostly ever been by ignorance and Fire and Gun-powder which quench and alienate mens hearts and spirits or like the March of the Grand Seigniour which burns and destroys all that stands in its way 2. The necessity of the Assistance of Gods spirit obtainable by servent Prayer to renew and make us truly free and right without whose Illumination and renewing of our minds and hearts we can neither know nor love what is truly good nor in our hearts be affected towards it The carnall man who is blinded with lusts and suffers his affections which are the wings of the Soul to be intangled and fettered with the bird-limâ— of sensual pleasures and wordly delights and your glory hath neither heart nor power lâ—â—t him â—o 〈◊〉 up towards Heaven oâ— to quiâ— his sâ—eming g◠〈…〉 in hanâ— to purifie the savour of an◠〈…〉 â—hom he knows in his conscience to 〈…〉 to his present ways and practices 〈◊〉 wâ—en through the Cross and death of Christ and the mortification of his flesh by Fasting and Prayer the Soul dies to this present world and the lusts thereof and by that death of Faith is set at liberty and detach'd as men say from such snares and fetters then it can soar as an Eagle and ascend in its affections in the power of Christs ascention towards Heaven its true rest and center with delight and ease All are for ease and rest both godly and ungodly the rest and pleasure of the just and unjust differ from one another but by truth and appearance both pursue their vices and virtues from the heart the one with a false the other with true delight and satisfaction Wine and Women and the like which take away the heart Hos 14. are pursued from the heart by their several followers but with a void and dead consent because of the deceit and disappointment they meet in them thus all sinners tire themselves forever in a maze of contradictory and absurd elections and short-liv'd joyes soon repenting and hating that bliss they eagerly chuse and pursue because they put up false Coyn for true through want of skill and care and take their counsels and measures from sense and the flesh and not from the Soul or renewed mind to chuse objects for their hearts to rest on as shall never deceive or disappoint their expectation none being such but God or Christ alone Which is the third property requir'd in our doing whatsoever we do from the heart and contains the remaining parts of the Quomodo To the Lord and not to men which may be spoken to together The heart of man is not for two contraries at once God and Mammon Christ and a lust together the Soul abhors all such Polygamy it is either wholly and undividedly for God and all else for his sake or wholly for its prime lust and Idol which thereupon becomes as a God unto it For out of a God in generall true or false the Soul can neither Act nor move nor stir therefore the verse before the text requires Christ to be served and obey'd with singleness of heart which if it be done for any wordly end or design as the chief motive of the heart the heart is divided or doubled between them and a double heart is no heart the division of the heart and will destroys it and Christ is not serv'd or obey'd at all but rather Irritated and provok'd to enmity against us by our making other ends partners in our hearts of that glory and worship which is due to him alone whereby you may perceive the world is to withdraw and depart out of
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
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
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
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
profit of the difference and laugh at the follies and credulity of the appellants The Supremacy of the King in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal being that which hath been learnedly evinced by our Writers and is solemnly recogniz'd every day in Gods presence in Prayers and Oaths according to the settlement of our Laws by the Wisdom of the Nation But though this inside of the Church be properly Secular and Temporal because visible yet the Secular Causes which belong to the determinations of Christian Secular Authorities are well and orderly distinguishable into Ecclesiastical and Christian or Temporal and Civill as the whole Commonwealth may be considered either as a Society of men or a Society of Christian men or Church In the first respect as men all are Subject to their own Kings and Laws in matters of life limb and property whether they be Christian or Holy or Heathen and Antichristian as they were before Christ came into into the World and must be to the Worlds end For Magistracy is Gods Ordinance whom all men therefore are to be subject to from the heart which alwayes attends what God appoints though manag'd by a Claudius who was weak and infamously credulous or Nero who for his cruelty was believed by many to be Antichrist for to such the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul command obedience and subjection not only for fear of wrath and power but for Conscience sake and the fear of God Rom. 13.5 1 Pet. 2.14 16. For they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 Yet on this undoubted unforfeitable right of Earthly Kings and Governours according to their several Constitutions by the Laws of their Kingdoms the Pope like a fift Monarch hath ever and still doth affect and design new incroachments as before upon the King of Heaven and spiritual pretences of Superiority Not only by exempting his Subjects and Clergy from secular subjection assuming to be the mother of the Child that 's not her own but also through his Emissaries and influence in the time of his Reign and Power in bringing the Lives of Subjects to the Stake and their States into Forfeiture from their Posterity for Opinions and the Heads and Crowns of Kings themselves to the like danger for the like insufficient cause Absolving Subjects of their Allegiance which Christ binds on every Soul and leading them into perjury and Rebellion which God forbids and damns being not only Traytors against Heaven and Earth therein but which is infinitly worse Traitor-makers as Satan is worse than a sinner and as many Traitor-makers by their Doctrine and what lyes in them as there are Subjects or Polls in any Kingdom they would absolve and seduce Which made the Nation joyn unanimously against their methods not only by Acts of Treason since the Reformation but of premunire long before A very Apostolical and comely deportment in a chief Professor of Christian Holiness and vertue that he and his Missionaries should deserve to be thrust and shoulder'd out like Pests by a wise and a Religious people and their Friends and the door made fast against them with the strongest Barricadoes that could be thought of Hanging and Drawing and Quartering Yea many of his own Confessors and Martyrs our Native Roman-Catholicks to this day who sincerely adhere to all his other Doctrines though Flead Alive with penalties and inconveniences for it yet disclaim and desert his infallible guidance in this particular and would be ready to venter Lives and Fortunes for their Laws and Countrey against any Invasion of the Land though countenanc'd or authoriz'd by the Pope for though such Loyalty be looked upon at Rome with an evil eye as hath lately appeared in the Irish Excommunications for the like principle and profession of Allegiance yet they are resolved to be true to their King let who will call them Hereticks for being honest Subjects And this their Resolution must be grounded either upon Policy or vain glory to avoid the danger as well as the Infamy of Rebellious principles or upon Conscience to God which only is true honour I am apt if I do no wrong to believe the last and to acknowledge and own all such by Consequence as true English Protestants as any in our own Church for preferring Conscience before the Pope which as I have proved is the chief point in difference between Papists and Protestants And the rather if they deal alike with the rest of their opinions which set us at distance from one another by the same rule which if it be good and right must hold in the rest as well as this dismissing all other Tenets that are excepted against and have no support from God or Conscience or the Scripture but the bare Authority of the Pontifical Chair For being so dangerously and perfidiously deceived while trusting to its judgement and of right interpreting in a case so evident and plain and Important as Neck and Estate and Salvation can amount to If they will suffer themselves again to be over-rul'd to differ from their Brethren upon no reason of Conscience but this bare Authority alone whereof they have had tryal of its fidelity and the old sophisme of believing as that Church believes This cannot be counted worthy and filial piety and well weighed Religion in them but a negligent unadvisedness equivalent to plain fault and folly especially there being present suffering and future hazard in the Case according to the known Proverb The Friend that deceives me once it is his fault twice it is my own All differences in our Religion being thus easily compos'd between us if they stand constant to their good principle throughout its consequences as reason binds them to and there will be no reason else to believe or trust their Loyalty what a day of bliss would it be to them and us to go hand in hand together like Christian as well as English brethren to their Churches and ours what peace to themselves in their concerns both within and without what tears of joy would it cause in their Protestant Tenants and dependants who would willingly resigne their lives to see that blessed day what acclamation and bone-fire throughout the Nation for the restoration of its strength and Union what Ecchoes and Halelujahs amongst the Angels of Heaven that delight in mens Salvation and return from Errour But should they offer to make themselves and us and the Nation happy with such a Festival How must they expect to be well lash'd for this by their Old Friends for Hereticks and Schismaticks and Apostates from the Holy See besides the ignobleness of changing and being unconstant to which I shall not now reply But those of them that through Gods Grace assisting them nowithstanding such discouragements and obstacles that will be leaders and examples to their brethren in such paths of Peace and Life and count it Glory and magnanimity to adhere to truth through shame and calumny and but an Heathenish
vain glory to be constant to Antient Errour and will accept to be Gods Catholicks although they may be branded for being Hereticks to the Pope therein may the blessings of Heaven be multiplyed upon every one of them and their Posterity for ever according to the numbers and Myriads of hearts in Heaven and Earth they shall with their own refresh thereby In the second respect as the Church is a Society of Christian men standing in need of Government and Peace and Order and outward decency and Regulation in its publick Worship and Communion against scandalls from within 1 Cor. 5.11 or tongues and censures from without 1 Cor. 14.23 Authority and power must of necessity be allowed in such external matters to those that are Superiours and Governours in such a body without whom it were as impossible for it to be kept in any order as for an Army to subsist without any Officers or Commanders And here if any where the Pope is to put in his plea and claim for Supremacy which cannot be well denyed him at Rome and his Suburbicarian Territories where he hath the Power both of Prince and Bishop but he never originally had over (a) Praefat. Monastic Anglican part 1. Millain and his next neighbours the seven Provinces of Italy heretofore under their own peculiar Jurisdiction without appeal to Rome or conformity with it in several of its Catholick Ceremonies and ways of Devotion particularly the Roman Fasting upon Saturday much less over our British Isles which never were within the Diocess or Bayliwick of Rome by any right besides its new exclusion by the Supremacy of our Kings becoming Christian the rising of the one being the setting of the Glory of the other like the Baptist giving place to Christ For though before Kings be Christians the Bishops and Officers of the Church were Supream in their several limits It being equally incongruous and inconvenient for the Church in Church Affairs to be under Heathen Government as under none at all Yet Bishops themselves though of Christs own appointment and Institution gave place and precedence to Kings and Emperours becoming Christians who are Lords of our outward-man and Gods of the outside in all communities allowing them to be now Christian heads of their Christian as they were Civil heads before of their Civil Dominions and Territories And contenting themselves to be eyes to these Christian heads and not the head it self their Counsellours under them and not their Lords above them under any colour or pretence The Bishops of the Church being to resemble the Stars in the Firmament of the Church as they are stil'd by our Saviour Revel 1.10 who are to Rule by night as chief when there is no Sun to shine but as soon as the Sun appears who resembles Christ and Kings his proper Deputies and Vicars then though never so fixt they withdraw their splendor and dis-appear as to Lustre but not as to influence and assistance being ready in case of any Antichristian Ecclipse to peep and shine at mid-day as the dotage of Parents manumits the Sons and in case not only the Sun be overcast but the Stars also with it by some Carnal Sympathy and compliance or thick storm and cloud be intercepted from us why may not private Souls below take each Gods word and will in the Bible or Conscience in the Creed or Babtismal vow as a Lamp to their feet and a guide to their path when there is no other light Ps 119.105 Why not beg the guidance of the Holy Spirit that leads to all truth which is not denyed to fervent prayer 1 Joh. 2.20 27. Luc. 11.13 The Cessation of Fathers and guides on Earth doth not dissolve the Allegiance or hopes of Orphan Christians from their Heavenly Father but very commonly makes the dependance nearer and closer and the assistance wonderful as in the Case of the late glorious King deprived of his Chaplains of numbers of Religious Christians such as St. Bernard Gerson and others under the darkest times of Popery and many British Families in England deprived of their Teachers in the Pagan Invasion of the Saxons The right Christian Soul neither is nor can be deprived of Christ her best self whether her guides on Earth remove or stay Rom. 8.38 39. where she hath Superiours left she obeyes them in Christ which is the best obedience on Earth where none are left Christ alone hath her whole heart and immediate service which is the obedience that 's paid in Heaven as Noah is said to walk with God the times being so corrupt he had none else to walk with here Gen. 8.9 But when God doth bless a Nation with guides and deputies under him the chiefest heed and duty of the Soul wherein her wisdom or folly before God and man and her self appears is in her chusing and cleaving to her true guide and superiour and not the wrong for by mistake herein the rights and honour of the true Superiour and representative of Christ shall be Sacrilegiously with-held and prophanely conferred on the false which is her case and fate in every sin that engrosses her affections where the honour that 's due to God alone is paid to an Idol for want of heed and difference to be made between what is her real and that which is only her seeming good and lure to deceive her And the Errour that may be commited in the Recognition of wrong Superiours over us under Christ in External matters of Religion For in Internals or externals there is none to be over us but himself is twofold either 1 In specie in kind or 2. gradu in degree The first is a mistake in the whole as if a Subject of France should take the King of Spain for his Soveraign in such a case his obedience to the wrong is Treason against the right Superiour and is not his obedience but his sin the mistake in degree is between Superiour and Subordinate where respect and obedience is due to both but the respect that 's due to the Master is given to the Servant and the Steward honoured above the Lord and the Officer above the Prince that Authorizes him which is the usual honour of those that make blind obedience and advantage more than conscience the measure of their duties The last is more absurd and faulty for the first is liker madness and distraction one purblin'd in his Intellects may be guilty of the one but none can be guilty of the other but him who is wholly blind and mad For God and nature directs men and Christians and Irrational Creatures themselves to make a difference between Friends and strangers and though to be civil to all yet not to rely and trust on those we know not as much as on those we know The word Hostis for an Enemy at first did signifie a stranger so easy is the transition that is between them and in Church dependance which is our present case God hath given great Instances to the world
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
natural Allegiance of his consciâ—nce towards Christ and the Truth and his outward duty to his Governours and Fathers at home violating the fift commandment with a Pharisaical corban saying to their peculiar Fathers it 's given to Rome whatsoever you might be profited by us following uncertain traditions before Gods express Law and teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men as our Saviour himself hath timely detected and forwarn'd against this Holy fraud Math. 15.5 for by the same reason that every good wife is to know her own Husband from another and every good Subject his own King from a Forreigner or Usurper and every Souldier his own Commander and Colours by the same duty and conscience every English Christian is to follow his own Church in Christ before another for obedience misplac'd is but Godly transgression or Traiterous Loyalty to the disturbance of the publick besides its own shame and prejudice And by submission to Governours and Synods they were heal'd of the Pelagian Heresie which most annoyed this Church next to Romish Inroades that trode down the whole field and sowed their tares and superstitions from year to year among our best corn this made also our Church to under go several variations about the observation of Easter as times required As for the Arian Heresie and venome which began to Breath a little in these parts upon h Usher p 197. Gratians toleration of divers opinions in Religion it found not the air to agree with it neither did Pelagius or Morgan though born in Brittain and as it is said i idem p. 207. the same day St. Augustine was born in Africk suck k idem p. 215. 224. Pelagii Epist ad Demetr or Propagate his Heresie here but fell into it at Rome by finding Christians to come short of Heathens and abusing Grace to Libertinisme and Wantonness for otherwise he was in great esteem and veneration for his learning and Sanctity with the chief l Usher 221.214 Fathers of the East and West St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom and in the East m Usher p. 215. ended his days having never return'd to his own Country but his Heresie came to be spread here nevertheless in those parts especially that were reduc'd by the Saxon Conquerour by the means of n Bed lib 1. c 17. Agricola a French man the Son of Severianus a Pelagian Bishop and in the rooting of it out amongst the Brittains left behind in Lhoegr Germanus and Lupus French-men likewise did good service as by Neutrality they were better fitted as for instance their first and main success in disputation was about o M. Westm p. 446. St. Albans where Gildas and such as he durst not approach for the Enemy as his complaint is taken notice of by p Camden in St. Albans Camden there being their chiefest Champions sent hither from the Gallican at the request of the Brittish Church signifying her distemper and troubles quaâ—primum fidei Catholicae debere succurri that the Catholick Faith should be assisted as soon as might be such was the loving Communion then between this and that Church and still might be especially with the soundest and learned'st part thereof under frown for Orthodoxy if he who now letteth were once taken fully out of the way 2 Thess 2. But it recover'd it self again after Germanus his time till St. David newly ordained Bishop by the Patriarch of Jerusalem in a publick Synod whereto he was invited held in Wales against it gave it q Usher p. 474. its final overthrow and was made Arch-Bishop of St. David in the same Synod thereupon For the Easter Controversie which was the only materiall point Augustine had to object for the other about Baptism was meer Ceremony and since lost in oblivion it consisted of two parts Doctrinal and Astronomical Doctrinal as in the early Controversie between the Churches of East and West wherein it is most probable the Brittains followed the East before the Synod of q Concil Arelat Can. 1. Arles and Nice determined otherwise and Astronomical between Augustine and the Brittains at this time being much the same difference between stylo veteri stylo novo in our days which the Ignorance of Augustine made to be a Catholick tradition derived from St. Peter and the chief ground and pretence of quarrel to disturb our Churches St. Paul dehorts Christians from observing dayes and Months and times and years Gal. 4 10 very agreeably to the Christian Hypothesis whereby this present world or the old Creation hath its end and period in the death of Christ Sacramentally to our Faith and r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys T. 5. Edit Savil. Hom. 53. p. 357. time its Concomitant twinne hath the like end and period with it by consequence Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye Subject to Ordinances for properly a Christian as a Christian lives not in this world but in Eternity or to use the Apostles expression his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Conversation and Scene of living is not on Earth but in Heaven with Christ at the right hand of God Phil. 3 20. Col. 3.1 Which Doctrine highly Suits with the nature and genius of the immortal Soul all whose Acts of vice or virtue though as born in the body within the virge of time and place they are Temporal and transitory yet as they are the free-born off-springs of the Soul they carry the features and signatures of Eternity upon them being Eternal as their Parent in the memory of their guilt or merit Not as if the old Creation wherein we still live in the flesh 2 Cor. 10.3 were wholly consumed and transubstantiated in the sight of our rational faculties which a moral Philosopher would justly deride as madness in those that should maintain it but that the whole sublunary and moral nature of all its parts is to be elevated and consecrated to Heavenly uses in this state of Grace and nearer access to God wherein the Church as a new Creature by faith now stands Rom. 5.21 2 Cor. 5.17 Therefore old things are passed away behold all things are become new We Christians eate and drink and obey and rule and mourn and rejoyce and observe dayes and times and feasts as well as the Jews or Heathens did but in another World by faith between the heart and the Lord in whom times persons and degrees and differences of persons meet in one as the whole Hemisphere in the candle of the eye or Diameters in their Center In the World men are Greeks or Barbarians bond or free Male or Female but in the Church Christ is all and in all For as in a degenerate Church or false Christian the present World or his Interest and profit is all in all and Holy Church and Religion and God and Christ and Faith and Sacraments are all Hypocritically and profanely named and used in
either in Scripture or Ancient Fathers or Councils is it express'd that the Pope of Rome is this Chief that all Churches and Provinces are Bound to know and own for such for then this controversy of Supremacy were decided past all further dispute But what Metropolitan or Patriarch then is recommended to us in Scripture or Tradition to know and obey for such My Text and the 34 Canon of the Apostles answers this Question and resolves us whom we are to look upon as our chief both in Heaven and Earth For Christ is that Invisible Chief in Heaven we are to know and serve in all we do from the heart And on Earth the Primate of every Province and not the Pope over all was Him that all Christians in the Ancient and truly Catholick Church were bound to Know and own and obey as their head before Magistrates became Christians And the Pope of Rome is there quite forgot and not mention'd in the lest and at such a time as his Authority and Supremacy had been by all means to be salv'd or heeded if it had been then but a point of any right or order in the belief of the Apostolical Church which is now so great a point of Faith in the Roman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Bishops of every particular Nation ought to Know Him who is Chief amongst themselves and to count Him as their Head And to do nothing beyond their particular concern and duty without Him nor he either to do any thing without the advice of them all for so peace and concord shall be attain'd and preserv'd and God shall be glorified Whereby is evident that the Primitive Ecclesiastical state of Christendom was as its present civil is Aristocratical and not Monarchical where several Provinces had their several Bishops or Primates for their Ecclesiastical Princes As now-a-dayes several Kingdoms are under their own several Kings and States and no one Prince Supream or as a civil Imperial Pope over all the rest But in comparison of one another all were equals and unsubordinate to one another as to power and subjection though not to order and precedency And in their own Territories Monarchical or supream within themselves And if the State of the Church was so and so to be preserv'd by this Canon although the state civil was different and Monarchical all Christian Kingdoms and Provinces being then under one Emperour as he that hath read St. Cyprian or St. Hierome can make but little doubt what reason is there that the State Civil and Sacred being now equally Aristocratical the harmony should be dissolv'd and all should become slaves against right and Laws and Canons to please the Pride and sin of one He that drives at an Universal Monarchy is and ought to be taken by every Prince and State as a publick enemy The reason is the same in Church as well as State Yea there is president for Universal Monarchy in States but none in the external Church but only Prophecyes and warnings of Antichrist that should be such Now for Rome to be Soveraign as she pretends and every Metropolitan Church to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Chief and unsubordinate within its own Province according to right and Ancient customes is a manifest contradiction and inconsistency Both cannot be true together but the last was proved to be most true by as great a testimony and suffrage as Earth can afford the consent of several General Councils the greatest that ever met and in the best and purest times And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Per omnia autem manifestum est This is universally manifest is the manner of wording of this point in this Canon as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manifestum namque est quod per singulas quasque Provincias in the other like unto it both in the Originals and their own Roman Translations Therefore if the one be so manifestly true the other of Rome's Supremacy is as manifestly false Let them shift off the consequence of Antichristianism as they can Yet Baronius a Spondanus An. 325. n. 32. would prove the Supremacy of Rome out of this very Canon as what will they not venter before they 'l part with their chiefest Idol but his offers are meer Cavil and Petitio Principii or begging of the Question contrary to the context and the design of this great Council and contrary also to the text in whole and in part The design being to strengthen the Authority of the Bishop of Alexandria against Meletius and Arrius who ordain'd Bishops for themselves within his Province against his will and consent which Consecrations were as Schismatical being done against his License in Egypt as the like were if done at Rome or Italy against the Authority of the Pope Both of Ancient custom having the like Authority within their proper Province and the Foundation of the Decree being the equality of Alexandria with Rome as likewise with Antioch in this respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where equality is suppos'd its absurd to imagine the same in the same respect to be subject and supream for that were inequality and contradiction Besides the union and strength of the Churches Government and Discipline that whosoever is excommunicate in one Province should stand so with all the rest is not grounded upon the necessary Dominion of One over all the rest which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Popery and one of its Master errours against the mind of our Saviour and the known state of the Primitive Church and the union and the peace of all Christendom but upon the Brotherly love and communion suppos'd amongst all Christian Churches in the 5th Canon of Nice wherein appears the difference between Ecclesiastical and Civil Polities of those times and this The Laws and Sentences of these being of force only within their own Territories by right of Empire but of those every where without through the bond and union of love And they at Rome bound to observe the decrees of their neighbouring Churches as well as these of It which imports mutual subjection to one another by mutual humility and excludes the proud conceit of Soveraignty in any one over the whole The whole Church in this respect being as one Province by the fiction of love and unity which in other respects was several and distinct by local limits as before One not by the dominion and supremacy of any one over all the rest which is the Carnal aime and Antichristian Tyranny of Rome but by the submission of all the parts to the Interest of the whole which is right Christian liberty and the harmonious Communion of Saints The act and deed of one being as the act and deed of all where the publick weal of the Church of Christ was concern'd And the ambitious swelling Supremacy of Rome is as much contrary to the Text of this Canon both in whole and in its parts as it was to the connexion and
a high degree who serve not their enemies with that measure as they have been and would again be serv'd by them had they power but though Papists are as Antichristian Idolators to them for a Christian Brother may be an Idolator according to St. Paul 1 Cor. 5.11 and they but as stubborn Hereticks at worst to Papists yet they have been never brought to the stake for their unsound opinions and practice by the writs of their own Invention nor to Tyburn ever but for their Treasons against the State They look upon Protestants but as Dogs though far better Christians than themselves But Protestants take them for what they are but have no malice to their persons though they abhor their errours and the severity of our Laws against them is only to secure our selves from their cruelties and unquietness For where Christ and the heart are excluded as in the Romish Church too much naught but burning and destroying all dissenters as Hereticks serves the turn when it is within their power and is never out of their Study and Inclination when it is not And O the malice they shew towards those that revolt from them to the Truth And this wisdom and temper descends not from above but is Earthly Sensual and Devilish as before Jac. 3.15 And what can be the cause of this Hellish Inhumanity towards Christian Brethren but the want and absence of the heart and Conscience or which equally destroys it the giving of it to the Pope instead of Christ whereby a Papist is of a piece with the Pope in all things which yet adds not one Cubit to his Stature nor to his virtue or Graces or humanity or Eternal Protection but he is still on Earth as he was before as a Christian is one with Christ in Heaven and partaker on Earth of his meek and gratious and Heavenly dispositions It 's another-guess perfection to be United to Christ than to the Pope which is the true difference between a Protestant and a Papist the one puts on Christ the other puts on the Pope by their several resignations of their private Wills and Judgements It 's more Heavenly and Divine to be of Christs mind and disposition than of the holy inquisitions ' A mans heart or his Will or his end aâ—e much allyed and ever go together and it ever chuses and adheres either to God or to an Idol And such is the man as his choice of his Lord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He whose heart and end is joyn'd to Christ and Heaven is Holy and Heavenly as Christ is if to any Creature such as is the Will of the Master will be the Will of his Man also To be a Roman-Catholick therefore makes not a Disciple of Christ but a Mute or a resign'd Vassal of the Pope whose Will and height and carnal Interest must therefore be the Law of Heresie and distance and hatred and damnation with such a one And what crosses the Pope's gain or Authority is laesa Majestas or Ecclesiastical Atheism or high Treason against the Roman Heaven to be vindicated and destroyed by the Angels of that Heaven with utmost zeal and fury And BABYLON is observ'd more zealous and severe for its Idol than SION for its God the reason is for where Christ is out of the heart Offenders find no Mediator or mercy And herein the Popish far out-does the Turkish zeal in cruelty Truth can better breath in Turkie than at Rome and the horns of the Mahometan Antichrist are less curst in this respect than those of the Roman Satan was not a Lyar but a Murderer also from the beginning from whom the Romanists prove their descent as well by their stakes and fire-piles as by their Legends and dispensations And it is remarkable to use conjectures with submission on mystical Scriptures Of the Beast with two horns like a Lamb and speech like a Dragon that its special mark and Character was to make fire come down from Heaven Revel 13.12 13. as of the other Beasts with 7 heads and ten horns to overcome Gods Servants with the Sword v. 1.7 And which of these Beasts is Antichrist and who meant by either is the question 1. It s out of question that with the Ancients the Empire that should succeed the Roman should be Antichrist whether it be the Popish which takes place and precedence of the German or Turkish or both for both de facto have in great part succeeded it 2. That the number 666 pointed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as clear from Jreneus who lived near a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan the Apostolical times to know their key and secret tradition about this mystery Now there are three parts to be considered in the old Roman Empire The Magistracy Militia and the Mitre or its civil Authority its Military Conquests its Heathenish Idolatry It s civil Authority wherein several Kings succeeded it or rather were restored to their own by its fall cannot be Antichristian because Ordain'd and approved by God To be a terrour to evil workers and encouragement to the good Rom. 13.3 But the other two parts of Imperator and Pontifex Maximus might well descend to Antichristian successors by Gods just Judgement to be both a scourge and an intoxicating Cup for degenerate and divided Christians The first probably falling to the share of the Turk who hath made such Conquests over the Saints by his Sword such havock in the Churches of Christ by his Victories v. 7. being the same Beast with the Roman Heathen Empire in effect which Conquered all in like manner with the Sword but was wounded by Constantine and other Christian Emperours but afterwards is heal'd again of that deadly wound v. 3. to whose recovery the â—ope did contribute v. 12. The residence of both being Rome new and old And the special confidence and Character of the Turk being his Sword where with he does all And their Priests never read nor expound their Alcharon in their Mosch's but with a naked b Ricold contra sect Mahomet c. 10. Sword in their hands or hanging by for Terrour And Mahomet Prophesied his Sect should last as long as it could keep the Sword and no longer But the Popes bid as fair to the succession and reviâ—ing of the Heathenish Pontificat of Rome as well as of the Apostate Jewish as both were Enemies tâ— Christianity in the garb of Religion anâ— Ecclesiastical Authority For they wave the name of Bishop used amongst Christians and chuse that of Pontifex in 〈◊〉 with Heathen's only and never met in any Canonical Scripture neither are they deficient in Heathenish Polytheism having errected a Pantheon of as many tutelar Saints and Patrons to be call'd on as there were Gods at Rome withal as the Turk is the Heathen-Roman Power recovered so the Pope is the Image of both v. 15. as well in Empire and Dominion far and wide as in cruelty and shedding the bloud of Christians And yet this Infernal
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
dyed in their hope and trust for us for whose sake he 'l continue his goodness to their seed but though his wrath ebb'd 800 years his Grace and mercy wherein he delights to abound and exceed hath not stowed yet full 200 years or is he unable to perfect what he hath begun He that can work a Resurrection from the dead cannot he accomplish a Restoration to a living and surviving People yea and great confusion to all opposers of it No good man ought to envy or hinder the longed for mercies of God to a Nation no great man can and if having his descent alike from the same People how can such be deem'd either good or great but rather miserably unnaturall and deservedly unfortunate and improsperous Earthly Potentates may not give stop to God's tides King Edgar tryed but fail'd their timely retreat will be their greatest safety and Wisdom how many mistaken Politicians have been drowned and Shipwrack'd in such clandestine contrary Councils No Emperour on Earth can command it to be night after the Sun is risen where God is for us we need not fear any seduc'd Dust and Ashes that may appear against us It is likewise most impossible in reason unless in case of Gods great desertion and extraordinary curse The radical difference between Protestants and Papists as was Stated from the beginning and Instanc'd in all along lyes herein that the one take Christ the other the Pope or his pretended Vicar for their Messia or the Lord of their Hearts and Judgements The Protestants who live by faith as all true Christians do and ever did hold firm their Allegiance to their invisible Soveraign in Heaven The Papists who love to live more by sence and show through dis-regard to Faith and the Heart change their Heavenly Soveraign for a visible Christ on Earth which Rebellion can never succeed nor be done no not when it is done already Should not be in the holy Language is shall not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thing shall not be done say the Sons of Jacob touching the Ravishment of their Sister Dina already committed Gen. 34.7 The Soveraignty of Christ and the Allegiance of the soul to God and the Truth are Divine Eternal Establishments not to be alter'd by human pleasure they can no more be changed by the corruption of men or the combination and Clandestine Counsels of Conclaves and Politicians and seduced Grandees than the Constitution of Kingdoms or the Laws of Nations be repealed and changed by Conventicles of Pismires some rash attempt may be made while mens souls are besides themselves or drunk and intoxicated with Idols and vitious Customs but to no more effect than casting caps against the Moon which can never reach it or spitting against the wind which returns into the face or defiance of the Laws and Government by a strong Knot of High-way-men whose end in all likely-hood must be Repentance or Hell and Tyburn Which is further confirm'd by good Authorities the King of Prophets within the Church Psal 2. Why do the Heathens or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2.12 rage and the People Imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed or Messia saying Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us away with these invisible fanatick Lords and Laws of Souls and Consciences Let none in Heaven or Earth be obeyed in matters of Religion or Conscience but a Pope in Temporal matters but a Prince He that sitteth in Heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision to shew the Pittiful ridiculousnes and vanity of such void attempts And the Prince of Philosophers without the Church in his Golden Book of vertue and vice perceiv'd and affirm'd this Truth that the one is in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commendable and lovely and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternally deformed and censurable let men or Laws conspire what they can to the contrary And the unanimous consent and suffrage of all mens Souls and Counsciences to this particular points at the true cause hereof an indelible immediate Allegiance in every heart to God and the truth alone and a deafness to all other Forreign power whatsoever against him Yea and an accuser of it self under any such delinquency For Children and Clownes shall discern and condemn such disloyal deviations in their Prince whom they reverence and the Prince in himself being above all but not above the Soveraign of his heart Men of Honour or Reverence arriveing or supporting their Grandeur by the means and countenance of Vice upon the like Loyalty shall be despis'd by every mouth in the Streets and the Consciences of troubled silent Servants at home that dare not and of their own that dare and will reprove This loyalty and disloyalty against Heaven is such an eternal unalterable measure of mens Misery and bliss that Chast rags will not envy the condition of unclean Silks and Sattin but those shall often wish for the peace and pure content of these The Soul till drown'd in Lusts or gagg'd by Antichristian Tyranny never skrinks from its Heavenly Loyalty while it is a Soul it is for Christ It never deserts this Soveraign till it morally ceases to be a Soul Which is the reason a priori that Popery or the seduction of men from their Loyalty to Christ to slavery to a Mortal can never be well promoted without Debauchery which must first precede to extinguish the Soul Its obedience afterwards shall be blind implicit and servile like that of beasts that have no understanding nothing shall be its Conscience and Religion more but its Carnal Interest and gain and pleasures and complyance with its new false Christ for a false Salvation for human Nature cannot dispense to be without all Religion and Superstition too Its state and condition therefore is a state of enmity and rebellion against God whose Laws it neither is nor can b◠subject to Rom. 8.7 And therefore all its Actions and designes are null and void and damn'd in Law and also in Fact when Gods patience is out either by its timely or eternal Recantation either by Repentance here or durance hereafter for all cross and Irregular wills must at last come up to Christs will the judge of quick and dead either with or against their wills and know their true Soveraign at last either by life or death Rom. 8.6 13. Whereby the true ground appears for our Reduction of this Controversy from the beginning to one single point of obedience or disobedience to the right Soveraign of the heart For so doth the wisest of Kings reduce all Divine and human concern and wisdom into one Principle of Loyalty to God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1.7 And not only the beginning but complement and perfection For he is the wisest and soberest Christian who hath not the Pope but Christ most
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
and that promise to be believ'd and relyed on and God to proceed to his Creation upon that belief or performance in fiction of the condition so insisted on The Red Earth being as much qualified to pass its word for human performance at mans first Creation as Corrupt nature to pass its word for Christian performances upon our Regeneration by Grace which is the root and venom of Pelagianism if Pelagius himself went so far 3. It greatly soyles and wrongs unworthily the noble spring and genuine clearness of Evangelical obedience which must now begin to arise and proceed from Interest and self-ends within us which before did spring from gratitude and Gods grace without us constraining us to give the whole glory to him and leaving nothing to our selves to boast off these two obediences differing from one another as the obedience of a Servant upon the score of Salary and contract which is necessary and servile from the obedience of a child upon the score of duty and nature which is also necessary but more Generous or the mutual love between hearty friends from that which is between Politicians to one another both proceeding as all our Actions do from self-preservation the one Immanent and sordid the other between true friends Transitive and Divine The one loves himself in his Friend where by the mutual Transmigration of love each conceives himself to be the other The other loves his friend in himself and for his own Immanent ends that is he loves himself but not his friend It is a great slavery and grievance to be tyed up to Act towards God upon low and selfish Principles when we may and ought to move upon Generous and Transitive to Act as children as it were upon childish motives when we may and ought as men to appear before a Prince in old Rags when we may in good Apparrel To have no other Opinion of Christian Heroes but that they were chiefly guided by self-interest That St. Paul loved himself as much or more than Christ or King Arthur his skin above his Church and Country than which what greater Indignity can be offerâ—d to their memories 4. It curtails the rewards of the other life which will be scanter to those that were Religious for their own benefit and Interest only than to those that acted out of thankfulness to their Redeemer above any private ends whatsoever for the one serv'd Christ the other themselves the ends of the one was duty and service more than reward of the other reward and benefit more than duty The one shall have more in the end of what was less in his Intention the other no more by his bargain than what he aim'd at The one obtains Heaven as a Gracious recompence for the improvement of his Morality the other a Heaven of Heavens above his contract or expectation for walking answerable to his High Calling and Dignity 5. It s a weaker tye and engagement â—o Holiness of Life this principle I say of Grace in suspence than freely bestowed and absolute under the one men act by option and choice under the other by obligation and necessity It is in mens power juri suo cedere to dispense with their option and to quit their felicity for a lust or as they please but it is not in their power to dispense with their obligation or deny the truth and its equitable consequence withall the one strives to arrive to spiritual greatness upon the stock of nature the other to maintain it in himself already had by walking answerable to himself Failer in the one is the loss of what he never had in the other an Infamous degradation from the highest Dignity enjoyed The fall of the one is like that of Adam from Paradice to wrath of the other like the fall of Angels from Heaven And the greater is the precipice the greater is mens fear and caution about their Station 2. Whether Ministers of the Gospel may not press to Christian duties upon the principles of Morality and Philosophy as well as upon supernatural principles of Faith seeing the same God is the Author of Nature and Reason as well as of Grace and Faith For answer sure both may be us'd in their place for both work upon the Soul in the strength of self-preservation which necessitates to Action but the self-preservation driven at by the one is immanent and homely by the other transitive and generous and Heavenly But they than prefer the one and condemn the other method mutually censure and traduce one another as the Corrupters of the Faith or depravers of mens Manners and fasten odious characters of Calvinists or Puritans or Pelagians or Arminians upon each other For many by Preaching unconditional Grace are observ'd to beget a Sect of Libertines and Hypocrites instead of Christians who let them never so much forget the duty of Justice and Charity and Truth to their Neighbours or of Obedience and Loyalty towards their Christian Governours though none more selfish and censorious and covetous and proud or more contrary to the meek and self-denying Heavenly temper of our Saviour yet none must be more Gods people or greater Saints in his Church because of a dexterity they have above others to give him the honour of his free Grace by fervent Complement and a wordy profession whilst others must pass but for Moral men or meer Heathens in Civil termes that live better and Prate less Others on the other side to prevent such unworthy abuse of Grace as to make it a cloak for maliciousness or to turn it into wantonness mould the Gospel anew by strong Parts and stick it all over with Provisoes and Conditions as Tyrants their Acts of Oblivion and make a New Moral Phylosophy of Christian Divinity with some Scripture leaves spread for Ornament about the Corners but the substance of the Aliment being from the breast of Nature And that Rock of free-Grace whereon so many stumbled and fell is far remov'd out of all sight and mention that Christians shall be as free and faâ—e hereafter from the danger of its influence as Heathens ever were and shall no more be abus'd or lull'd into Vice or immortality upon hopes of a Saviour to bring them off but they must bring themselves off or Christ shall serve them in little stead which the other traduce as an Arminian or manifestly Pelagian method of Salvation contrary to the mind of Christ and his Apostles and the Holy Scriptures For the Solution of this difficulty and to contribute endeavours to reconcile the well meaning sort of either side Men are to be consider'd and distinguish'd into several degrees and orders into Heathens or Christians which differ in kind and these again into Babes or Perfect men in Christ which differ but in degree for all are either wholly selfish and worldly and Carnal as are all out of Christ or highly Spiritual and self-Annihilated and Heavenly as are those within the School of Christ as are of the highest form
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
This Caelestial Champion is hardly to be exceeded oâ— out-done by any but by â— Joseph encountring flames burning not only his flesh but his very Soul and outgoing all other Martyrs that keep the Field by running away from his enemy and his thoughts and from himself into the bosome and protection and fear of God transforming the flattering visage of his lust into deformity and flat Rebellion against Heaven by the glass of consideration or consultation with his Heavenly Interest and gratitude How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 Chastity and purity of Soul and Body being a Divine transcendent vertue in every Age and zone but in the torrid zone of youth lovely and admirable beyond measure where the storm is greatest and the walls weakest there to make good one's post against all the Arts and Fireworks of Satan or his blandishments and deceitful Treaties and Counsels wherein he ever was stronger than in the Field or storm This is such a proof of victorious loyalty and courage and grace and wisdom all in one part as is hardly to be parallell'd or exceeded either in Earth or in Heaven It is doing Gods will on Earth not as but in some manner above what it is done in Heaven by those Glorious beings who are not infested with that war and contagion and clog of flesh and blood that may give greater lustre and merit to there obedience from its difficulties How much is he in Heaven while on Earth who is in a manner more than in Heaven by the Glory of his highly rewardable service and loyalty Yet the conflict of this Heavenly Victor seems as easie as shutting the eye or turning away the face from beholding vanity if compared to the archievements of another great Peer not to be estimated or understood by Carnal judges the contentment and serenity of a Lazarus at Dives his gate pin'd with hunger and thirst macerated with Sores and Boiles and tempted the more to unevenness by the Pride and Inhumanity of Dives more unnatural and merciless and Ansyber than his dogs who came and lick'd his sores A poor man in the eye of this World is like a wither'd plant out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness or desirable beauty in him but is despiz'd and rejected of men and shunn'd by friends and slighted in his Vote and Testimony by the Law which was ordain'd to do right to all men And forsaken as it were by God himself who seems more bountiful to the wicked that Blasphem his name who yet fare deliciously and are fill'd with his hid Treasures while the poor mans portion is short of the Fowls of the Air or the Rich mans Kennel enough to subdue the strongest Spirit and to bring down the stoutest heart to be without heart or life not only by the unsupportable pressure and discouragement but by the endless continuance of such a life-less life without all prospect of relief A condition that Agur prayed against least I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain Prov. 30.9 And all the World shunnes like paena damni and finds not that evil in perjury or perfidiousness or the Gallowes or Hell and damnation it self as in a poor and narrow fortune which sets one out of the World while it disables him to be of the fashion in it or to live up to his quality and degree He therefore that can be thankful to his God in poverty as well as plenty and bless him upon a Dunghill no less than on a Throne and though his outward man perish hath his inward man renewed day by day and is rich in Faith though poor in Pence and alive in Heaven while dead on Earth and viewing his condition with the right end of the prospective finds his poverty to be his riches and his misery to be his felicity and himself to be in the midst of Heaven when he was thought out of World for what else is it to be a perfect Christian than to be dead to this World and alive to Christ wherein a poor man hath the advantage above the Rich Carrying his Mortification ever in readiness about him while the Rich are to fetch it far off with labour and cost and much Discipline and difficulty and to strive against pride and intemperance and the snares and temptations of wealth wherewith the poor is seldom troubled but is strong in God who is his trust while Mammon is the strength and trust of the other and is cloth'd with Graces while the other with but Wormes and Clay and hath the feast of a good Conscience to match the other's surfets and the roomes of his understanding clear'd from all Childish conceptions by a manly Faith and looks upon fashions to be but stage appearances and Earthly dignities to be but bubbles and delicious fare but the Dainties of the dead and stately Mansions but as Childrens Turretts rear'd with Cards and this World to that to come to be but as the Earth is to Heaven for quantity and his Heavenly condition not to grow greater by addition or lesser by substraction of the goods of this World to or from it He I say that can thus live in death by his Faith and is hearty and contented amidst wants and honest and true in Rags is that Christian Phenix which the Psalmist conceived was hardly to be met with Who O Lord shall give thee thanks in the Grave or declare thy loving kindness in Destruction Lo the man is found that shall It is the poor that receive their evil things in this World yet praise God continually for his goodness nevertheless and are full of heart though not of present pay in his service and resolve to trust in him though he kill them These that are full of Halelujahs in their pains and wants how fit are they already to be of the Quire of Glory Therefore in the Sermon in the Mount where several of the blessed Citizens and chief Peers in this Heavenly Kingdom are recounted by our Saviour in their several ranks and orders the place of Primier Nobles and chief Probationers of Glory is remarkably assigned to the poor the really poor in Fortune expresly Luc. 6.20.16.25 Blessed be the poor for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are ye that hunger now for ye shall be filled blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh As well as the poor in Spirit or humble in heart amidst their greatest affluence wherewith they are not puffed as if it were their own but are diligent Stewards thereof under God for their poorer Brethren and Neighbours whose needs with their Compassion entitles them to an equal share The Rich that are humble and liberal the Poor that are thankful and contented act both equally above this World in the Society and view of God in Heaven Which points and discovers one other order in the Heavenly City that are to â—it above them also for these Stars of the
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