her chief and Soveraign end being chang'd her work of reason and Religion and Allegiance is changed by consequence and the Communion between the heart and Christ in Heaven turn'd out of doors and giving place to another between the soul and its new Soveraign the Pope It is still as busie and zealous as before but in a more confin'd sublunary sphere far out of Gods presence in the Pristrinum of this present World as a broken Shoomaker sets up for a Cobler or a fallen Angel to be a Devil And perhaps the necessary errours of the Roman Church can never be more clearly detected and satisfactorily solv'd than by this Hypothesis and fiction new for its name but old and too Common for its nature and practice of a Roman-Catholick Apshychite or Catholick Christians without souls for great must the Spiritual and Internal deadness be and as great and busie the external formality and heartless ceremonies of a Religion so condition'd Our Learned Divines who by invincible Arguments convince them of Idolatries in their Invocations and worship of the Hoast and of Images do but fall upon the branches which necessarily spring and grow from the evil root untouch'd for such must be the Fruit as is the Tree Math. 7 18. St. Paul and Christ and God himself the best Judges of Religion place it all in the heart and it's purity as doth our Brittish Proverb ffydh pawb yn ei galon as did all sober Heathens The end of the Commandment is charity out of a Pure heart 1 Tim. 1.5 Blessed are the Pure in heart for they shall see God Math. 8.8 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind which is the first and great Commandment And the Heathen from Deus est animus could infer pur â mente colendus even as Christ himself doth God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth that is with the heart without which all Worship is a lie Gratior diis existimatur qui delubris eorum a Plin. Panegyr puram castamque mentem quam qui meditatum carmen intulerit A mind holy and pure is the best Anthem with God If the truth and life of all Religion by the consent and suffrage of God and men consist thus in a Pure heart what Religion can they have whose Principles exclude and annihilate the heart and the Purity thereof by consequence for where the substantive is barr'd out the Adjective must stand out for company Therefore not this or that part or tenet or Article but the whole Religion of such a Church is Idolatrous or the worshiping of God with the body only without the soul whereby men necessarily frame Corporeal Anthropomorphitical sentiments to themselves of God and of all parts of his Worship for as without the Spiritual mind and soul there could be no conception of God who is a Spirit no more than of light without eyes so a Corporeal Religion requires a Corporeal Deity to answer it and a Carnal service to answer him for all worship true or false consists in likeness and conformity in the true men become pure and holy as God is in the false God and Religion are made Gross and Carnal as the men are which is an highly Idolatrous mistake of the true God against the first and second Commandment And Spiritual Rational Religion shall be traduc'd and slighted by such men for its contrariety and dislikeness to their tempers as the Moors hate heretical white Rivers cannot ascend higher than their springs nor an Absychitical Religion higher than the body and Carnal apprehension and outward frame and appearance or a form of godliness without its power and truth which is not therefore Religion but somthing outwardly like it no more than is a dead picture a true man though like in shape unto him Heaven and Hell to a Beast can never signifie more than the pain and pleasure of the body nor human words with Parrots than the outward syllables and sound nor Religion to Carnal minds but their Carnal Interests and conceptions This supposition shews the errours of Rome to be necessary consequences to the exclusion of the heart in the first place and Christ in the second throughout their Doctrines and Practices congruous to this Propheticall Character and that in such a condition and temper they can do no less than place their chiefest worship and Devotion in the outward parts and surface of Religion that hold the nearest resemblance to it in their Carnal conceipts This makes prayers in an unknown tongue without the heart and understanding a reasonable worship with them This makes transubstantiation both natural and necessary for Christians so described cannot conceive any otherwise than Corporeally and Grossly that Christ is in the Sacrament and to be worshipped there by consequence for Sursum corda to lift up the heart where there is no heart is but a lesson to the deaf but Metaphysicks to Moles This makes them so easily leave the invisible General so unlike their new beings to invocate an host of frail Creatures more like themselves and to find great resemblances to the deity in Images made by hands and much Grace and Spiritual refreshment and Protection in holy Water and great Salvation in a material Cross to which they 'l apply that of the Apostle God forbid that I should glory saving in the Cross of our Lord Jesus as much as to him that suffered on it as Pope Adrian to the Empress Jrene finds grounds for Image-worship in those passages in the Psalms Seek ye my face thy face O Lord will I seek and signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui Ps 26.4 This hath given that Christian virtue and reputation to Beads Crucifixes's Agnus Dei Christ-Mass-Babes new born Good-Friday-loggs interr'd Palls Saints Couls c. and the rest of their sacred shows not short of Bartholomew Fair in their number and congruity to weak and carnal fancies A most lamentable Profanation of our Spiritual and Heavenly worship to be bewail'd by all sincere and tender Christians with grief and tears and confuted by the Learned and suppressed by the Magistrate and prayed against by all A mock Religion carried on by great and strong numbers and Councils with a high face of Authority and Catholick truth on its side and more considerable for duration and combination than all other Heresies whatsoever both Ancient and Modern put together which bespeak it to be some thing more being the Blasphemy of them which they say are Jews that is Christians and Catholicks or new Israelites and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan carrying on his Kingdom with the same dark Arts and Eternal perdition to themselves and others as he himself doth Rev. 2.8 With whom Christianity consists not in a meet Marriage between the heart and Christ to bring forth Heavenly off-springs to God Rom. 7.3 even the divine and lovely fruits
Soveraigns have reduced the one the other and be first at peace till either the Pope conform to the will of Christ which we expect which would beget an unity of Spirit and Truth between us in the bond of peace or Christ to the mind and will of the Pope and have no Scriptures that shall signifie any thing contrary to his sense but that the Popes will shall be taken to be Christs Will where they interfere which is their aim in their engrossing the right of interpreting the Scriptures to their Church alone that is their Pope which would produce peace and union its true but such a carnall peace and slavish union as were worse than any War or Captivity or desolation whatsoever Purgatory indulgencies image worship Transubstantiation blind obedience Universal Monarchy over the whole Church c. let them be never so false or unreasonable or scandalous or absurd not only with all learned and sober men but with many of themselves in their secret thoughts and retirements yet because they support the Kitchin and adorn the Hall and carnal state and esteem of their Apostolick see they shall and must be owned and defended forever as Infallible Doctrines De fide more unalterable than the Laws of Medes and Persians by all her Catholick Sons as they tender their continuance within her Pale out of which with them there can be no Salvation and our worship and Liturgie shall be condemned as Impious and prophane till upon obedience and Submission to their Chair as was offered in Queen Elizabeths days they shall permit it to be Orthodox and Holy and to be used in our Churches without any alteration or further trouble and all our Protestant Doctrines which are the same in effect with Gods Holy Scriptures out of which they are drawn and built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner stone yet because they comport not with their carnal designs and greatness shall be condemned to be abjur'd as false and Heretical though the Authors of them Christ and his Apostles and his purest Church be involved with us in the same sentence and themselves in Gods wo and curse in the Prophet upon those that call good evil evil good light darkness and darkness light Esa 15.20 What Law of Nature or Nations or Conscience or Honour or Humanity or Civility or Faith or Plain-dealing which are indelible imbred instincts in Vulgar and Heathen Breasts much more in Christian and Generous will not the guides of that Church direct their charge to break and violate with assured hopes of Salvation and Immortal Glory for the feat so it tend to promote and advance their Holy Catholick cause which is with them as it were Gods last will and Testament which Abrogates and annuls all precedent wills the Eternal Laws of God and conscience being but obsolete or Corporation orders when they clash against the Infallible Bulls and paramount Oracles of his Holiness yea the contradiction shall be salved and heal'd and Christ by Interpretation which belongs to them is brought to say and sign their draught to be his own Will and meaning and their Atheime shall be fac'd with his Authority as Hypocrites do their Villanies with the cover of Religion as King Philip of Macedon is said to have made the Oracles to Phillipize and Prophesie for him What Civil War and combustion must this make in English and honest hearts who though they have a respect for Rome think fit nevertheless to reserve due Loyalty towards God and their Redeemer and their Country to be thus necessitated to offend against God and man to save their souls who in compliance with that Church and obedience to its commands and dictates upon perill of damnation must shocke the wise and settled Laws of their Nation and disturb publick peace and Union and bring fear and consternation upon their fellow Subjects that desire to live in quietness and slight and disparage the learned and Religious Clergy of this land and our unparallel'd Vniversities and disobey glorious and Paternal Counsels seal'd in bloud for Gracious Kings are Fathers to all their Subjects next to their own begotten and shame the cause of friends and fellow-sufferers loyally and sincerely defended to the last gasp in bloud and ruine and to give just cause of boast and triumph to others for early and wise fears and jealousies and fore-sight and at last reconcile the Nation by a secret judgment against themselves and profess the true Religion before men believed in the heart to be false by humane Patent and dispensation against Conscience And conceal a false Religion believed in the heart to be true And act to the prejudice of the professed before declaring for the intended like giving Hostile broadsides without an Hostile Flag against the Law of Nations and continue or forbear vitious living according to humane Indulgence and tedder above the fear of God Such twisted Arts and servile postures of the Soul set by God above humane reach and power such chymical sublimated hypocrisie and doubling to which all the Swords and Artillery of the World pointed and planted against a single breast ought not to be able to force a Coward to all Politicians and Head-pieces and Whisperers to gull and seduce a fool to though they may go down with more ease with French and Italian tempers innur'd by ill fate to absolute governments and cringes and Slavery how loathsome and repugnant and against the grain must they prove to any honest and generous and freeborne English spirit And whence can this Civil War and distraction arise but from some failer and breach and division of the allegiance of the heart in admitting some up-start usurper or Impostor to be co-ordinate and equal if not Superiour to Christ its natural Liege Lord and Soveraign which the Loyal part of the Soul will never be flattered or frighted to agree or yield to Thus the heart through its own folly suffers it self to be ever disturbed and racked between two contrary Potentates within its bowells God and Old Conscience command and approve of natural affection and truth and peace and love to Countrey and obedience to Parents and Kings and Mercy and Civility to all in Misery and Anxiety The Anti-god or New Conscience commands the contrary as a piece of Catholick zeal and Glorious hazard and self-denyal under pain of displeasure of the Holy See and St. Peter and St. Paul and exclusion out of the Pale of the Church and the like usual forms Plain therefore and evident it is that the whole Controversy between us and Papists is reduceable to one point touching the Right and Soveraignty of the heart and Conscience whose it is and ought to be whether the Lord Christ in my Text as we hold with St. Paul or the Pope and Successor to St. Peter as they maintain at Random If the Pope be God and Lord of the Soul and not Christ then we Protestants are much to blame in
Theon out of York and London Congersbury or Wells being a member of the Brittish Arch-Bishoprick of London and barring thereby the title of Occupancy which was Augustine's beatifical aim and giving edge to the Canons of General Councels against him for this forcible entrance neither is it at all improbable that the Brittains should affect here to mingle Rights and Protections by Intermarriages with the Saxons after they became Christian who were so culpably forward to be unequally yok'd before and be inclin'd to relinquish all notes of destinction apace the old style of Easter and their Brittish names and dialect and change Lhoid into Grey and Winn into White c. which signifie the same and though some sturdily retain'd their Brittish names of Dunne and d ee and Gough and Moyle and Trever yet others chang'd perhaps Trewen Trevechan Trene widh c. into Whittington Littleton Newton c. of the same signification for their convenience as upon like imitation now in Wales Powell Prichard Progers Jones c. are become standing Sirnames of Families which before with the old Brittains were but the Christian names of the Fathers ap Howel ap Risiart Roger Joan c. yea perhaps to disown all alliance with the Brittains in Wales standing out in War partly for security to themselves as the heard forsake a Deer that is pursued or Courtiers a fallen favorite partly out of modable conformity to the prevailing party as in a great part of Devonshire or Duffneint and Cornwall which are old Brittish Territories where it is freshly known the same Ancient people remain but their Language much worne out and giving place to another like as in little Bittain the whole entire Countrey are old Brittains whether some old Legions of Maximus settled there under c Several Dukes of Brittain were afterward so called Conâ—n Merriadoc d Hist Brit. Galsr as saith the Brittish Histories or new exiles forc'd thither as elsewhere by the Saxons e Usher 421. 422. as the Learned Primate guesses because he meets no mention in Authors of them abiding there till the Invasion of Gallia by the French which is near Cotemporary to that of Lhoegr by the Saxons though it is hard to imagine how they should win their Country from others who failed to defend their own But though they be undoubted Brittains in their origen yet now there is little or no difference between them and the meer French in appearance especially on that side of the Country towards France or High Brittain where the Brittish Language is wholy forgot and extinguished as amongst the Brittains of Lhoegr So in Gallia or France it self though the old Inhabitants the Gaules or Galli seem quite consumed every Mothers Son since the modern French or Franci out of Germany invaded their Land chang'd and suppressed their Language Names and Laws yet nothing is more evident by Historical character than that the Nation is still the same though the name and dress be alter'd and what by the nature of the Air and what by Inter-marriages with one another and what by Divine mercy relieving right owners at last on the one hand and vengeance on the other cutting off the lives and lines of men of bloud and violence the French are still the same Old Gauls of whom f M. Florus lib 2 c. 4. Florus his character about 2000 years ago is found true to this day primus impetus major quam virorum sequens minor quam faeminarum above men at first assault below women at rally Neither have our modern French the zeal and humour of the old Franci after liberty from whence they had that name In like manner in several Counties of Wales especially amongst several of the Gentry all is alter'd since the time of Henry the seventh who broke the middle wall of Partition and united in himself both Nations into one and the Councel settled in the marches not only in taking new and single Sirnames after the English manner instead of their Ancient and Brittish stile compounded of Progenitours as the modern Christian names of Europe's Grandees are with friends and Patrons which us'd to puzzle the English Judges of that Court in their Circuits and occasion a mistake of one man for 3 or 4 but in the total disuse of the Brittish tongue and using the English instead in several of their Families whether to follow the English as many of the English do the French or to avoid the burden and Inconvenience of being singular and distinct in so small a number against so great a body as is now the English Nation or because of their Intermarriages with the English in civility to their consorts which example of theirs were stronger than any Law to abolish and destroy the Brittish tongue forever but that it is mainly preserv'd upon the score of Religion in Pulpits between the Clergy and communalty who have a great and dear esteem of the Gospel Preached and are they that chiefly support the tongue and retain the Customs and Traditions and Principles and proverbs of their Ancestors and some novel Popish rites besides which have crept in amongst them as their praying at cross ways before their Corps which are tolerated by their guides least they should be unsettled and scandalized in their more Ancient and Catholick observations by abrupt disuse till by knowledge they come to leave them off of their own accord Neither are the Gentry of Wales the less Brittains as neither the old Brittains in Lhoegr for conforming daily to the English manner nor the French less Gauls for the loss of their Gallic tongue as the Brittish Language is in like danger to be wholly worn out also as was said unless the Chiefs of the Nation our Princes or Senate out of Generous filial honour to Antiquity and Truth think it fit and expedient and for the glory of the Nation which is ambitious of recovering as by some secret instinct the old Name of Great Brittain to give some support and life to the Language of Great Brittain likewise not yet incurable or exstinct A Language so Ancient and venerable in the first professing the true Religion immediately and all along from the Resurrection and in the first opposing of false Religion and Popish abuses above a 1000 years ago the mother-tongue of Lucius and Constantine the Great the first Princes of the Christian Church so useful to the Antiquities not only of our Btittish Isles but the greatest part of Europe that Forreigners have Printed our Dictionaries as the Origen of Gallic Antiquities under other names out of learned ambition Oriental in its Grammar copious as the Greek for compositions as elegant the more old as is the English the more new it is For the Rule and structure of its Poesies and the Awen or inspiration of its Poets hardly to be parallel'd in any Nation whatsoever that Augustus could not be more divertis'd with Horace c. than our Princes and Gentry were in ample manner
confidence in their Cut-throate-fathers and are call'd to severe and sharp account for the errours of their teachers and their own yet most clear and undeniable it is that the People have a good zeal in General for the true God and Religion yea are more sincerely stedfast in their errours amidst poverty and torture and double Tithes and payments and death it self than many knowing Protestants are for the true Religion which they shrink from and change upon any appearance of advantage or disadvantage as often as the Moon he that is sincere and earnest in a false Religion aims at the true in the General and in his conscience But he that lives contrary or slights the Religion which himself professes and believes to be true declares himself of no Religion or understanding for contradiction added to Atheism is the Outlary of all reason and honour The Irish therefore are the more to be regarded and tender'd by us under their Ignorance and spiritual disorder because curable and not to be neglected for what wrong or temporal mischief soever they have done to us or themselves in the time of their blindness and seduction lest we be justly guilty of the unjust calumny against the Ancient Brittains towards the Saxons but we are to be zealous of their Reformation whether we be English or Brittains if English we are their debters their Learned and Pious Ancestors have done the like and more for many of ours whom they taught the first Gospel when they lay in Heathenish Ignorance and the shadow of death And much more if we are Ancient Brittains for our Ancestors taught theirs and love descends and it belongs to a Husbandman to be more careful of his plantation than to a stranger therefore we are bound to intreat and beseech them especially their Learned and sincere Clergy that love the Salvation of their charge more than absolute Dominion over them and their remaining afflicted Gentry and Nobility in the name of God and the bowels of Christ and that we may the better prevail even upon our knees before them that they will be merciful to their land and to their own souls and Posterity and as they have of late to some trouble own'd our Soveraign in Temporals that they would also own Christ in Spirituals instead of the Pope and holy Scriptures instead of lyes and Bulls and Legends and conscience more than deceitful guides and Popery will have its end in Ireland and the Ignorance and misery of that poor Nation in soul and body and Estates together with it as we hope and trust They are as able to overthrow the pretended Infallibility of the Pope in the latter and grosser errour as they have done effectually in the first And they 'l meet their old Religion which St. Patrick taught in the Protestant Church of Ireland and England Protestant truth and Irish sincerity will make excellent Christianity The Learned and Pious Dr. Sall is worthy of everlasting honour amongst all good Christians for his great and leading example in this point amidst great discouragements And as for some other of their guides who are like to be most cross and averse against this Petition of truth and love who if they are not fowly belyed delight in the Impliciâ— saith of their Female charge as well as their Male the chastity of the soul and body from God and purity being the chief sacrifice and triumph that Satan and his Ministers delight in we are not so desirous of their company or Communion till by better reformation they assure us of their belief of any God which we doubt not in the least of the rest of their seduc'd Brethren And by this second Instance appears the difference between the Religion of the Irish under its first Plantation by the Brittains and it s after Cultivation by the Romanists by the one they became the Glory of Western Christendom for Christian life and Learning by the other the reproach and scorn of the World and Pitty of all good men for their Ignorance and wildness And the English from the time of King Ina and the Brittains while under their Power till the Reformation were well nigh as much beholding to Rome for their like improvement in knowledge And Rome hath accomplish'd most of her Conquests over Churches and Souls by this mist of Ignorance to set off mistakes and cheats Adimit rebus nox atra colorem darkness destroys differences a Serpent shall be taken for a Rope a Pool for a Meadow a Statue for a living man an enemy for a Friend a King for a Subject in the dark And so the first currant mistake by the help of this politick Ignorance that hath advanc'd and supported the Empire and credit of that Church to this day is that they make their Proselytes believe that their Church is the same with Jerusalem wich is above descended down to Rome the Mother of us all the Church of the living God out of whose Pale or Bosome there is no Salvation to be expected For so all degrees and Converts to that Church by the Bull or Test of Pius quartus must profess and swear the Holy Catholick Church in Heaven and Earth mention'd in Creeds to be their particular Roman Church which begets it great Authority and veneration from those which can believe this to be true and heretofore brought great resort and Treasure and Honour to that City several Kings and Princes leaving their Crowns and Kingdoms to end their dayes at Rome as it were in Heaven or Abraham's bosom So Bede saith of a Bede lib. 4. c. 5. Oswi that he was grown so perfect a Catholick that had not his Disease prevented he resolved to go to Rome to leave his Bones there to be sure of Heaven Which the Monkish corrupter of the Brittish History directly affirms of Cadwaladr last King of the Brittains the absurdity of which dream and forgery tending to exalt the Honour of Rome and the abuse of our Saints and worthies most evidently appears by comparing Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth together For he with all others allows Cadwaladr to be the Son of Cedwalla or Cadwalhan King Edwins Chrony and Antagonist born the same day and brought up b Hist Britt l. 12 c. 1. in the Court of Northwales to years of manhood together That Edwin recovering Northumberland by the defeat and death of Edelfred after long exile and falling out with Cadwalhan who would not allow him to wear a Crown beyond Humber but at peril of his head and then siding with the Roman faction conquer'd Wales and drove out Cadwalhan beyond the Seas holding the Countrey in subjection for 17 years but was overthrown at last and kill'd by Cadwalhan in the year 633. being the 47 year of his Age c Bede l. 2. c. 20. saith Bede as Cadwalhan was of the same Age by consequence and Cadwaladr his Son born and in being about this time or else according to Bede he never could be born For according to
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
the faith by Brittish Ministry before the arrival of Monk Augustine p. 255. 256 seq King Aurelius Ambrosius and Arthur zealous in propagating the faith amongst them p. 256. 257. How zealous Etbelfred was for Heathenism p 259. How God moulded the Brittains into several conditions for the Conversion of the Saxons p 260. 261. Bede taxed of partiality p. 261. 214 215 2â—8 The remainder of the English converted by Brittish Ministry proved out of Bede himself p. 263. By the assistance of King Cadwalhan or Cedwalla and Oswald and miraculous Providences regarding the Innocent bloud shed at Bangor p. 264 265 Of Oswalds Bishops Aidan Finan and Diuma and their Countrey and Principles and Brittish names p. 266. seâ—q The place of Oswald's death how remarked by providence p 2â—â— 271. 26 Counties of the North and â—â—â—rcia and East Saxon with the City of London entirely recovered to the faith by the Oswaldian Clergy and the Church of Rome had not the least hand nor finger nor pretence to offer for their conversion p. 271 seq 276. The English and Brittiâ—h Princes after some descents became friendly till Rome and Auâ—ustine interposed p 273 27â— Great numbers of Brittish Christians in the West-Saxon Kingdom conceal'd by Bede That Territory recovered to the faith by them and by Irish ann French Ministry agreeing in faith and communion with the Brittains and by Oswald's Interest and how Rome's help was nothing p. 277. seqq The like of the 4 Counties of the East-Angels p. 280. seq and South-Saxons and the Isle of Wight p. 284. seq The Roman faith in England reduced within the bounds of Kent and thence eradicated p. 286 287 205 207. The Romish Church with its See of Canterbury exstinct for 15 years till the entrance of Theodore a Graecian to be Archbishop there p. 289. The Ptimacy in Licbfeild p. 290. Archbishop Parker's Argument from old Saxons Laws and Homilies of the English having their first faith from the Brittains and not from Rome p. 291. seq To which the Brittish intermarriages with the Saxon Infidels which was their sin was by Providence made useful p. 204. SECT X. Augustine but Rector of Christ Church Canterbury or at best a naturalized Brittish Bishop by their own Principles p. 295. 296. a President of the Pope's over-ruling for the right of a Native against a Forraigner after 600 years possession p. 297 This Controversie at an end if popes would do as they would be done by or stand to their own Decisions p. 298 Brittain how great a Mother Church in Europe p. 298. The Northern Nations converted by the Germans the Germans by English and Irish all from Brittain and God's regard to the Martydom at Bangor p. 299-305 Rome had its first faith from Brittain before the arrival of the Apostles thither p. 306. seq The first Christian Congregation was in our Claudia Ruffina's House converted into a Temple which is therefore their Mother Church and not St. Peters built afterwards by our Constantine p 313 Alcuinus and Rabanus Maurus Charlemagne's Doctors their Brittish Names p. 305 315. The French if not the Gauls owe their Faith and Learning to Brittain p. 315 317 318. What words the Brittains borrowed from the Latine and what the Latine from the Brittains and why p 316 317. The Modern Roman Faith is from the Goths and why 3â—8 The resort was from Gaul to Brittain heretofore for Philosophy and Religion as much as now from England to France for meaner Accomplishments p. 318 319. Exceptions against our plantation of the Faith in Germany answered and that Rome more hinder'd than help'd p. 31â— seq The Saxons had their Learning and Characters from the Brittains p 320. Three marks of nearer Cognation to the East in our Brittains than other Western Nations p. 321. Evidences that the Ancient Greeks had their Philosophy and Letters from this Isle p. 320 3â—â— Of the Original of Peter-pence and the Colledge of Rome least the Saxons should be further instructed by the Brittains and the dismal Ignorance that ensued p. 325 326. Where was the Roman Church in England for 600 years before Monk Augustine What Rome contributed to the German Conversion p. 329 332. If Popery be a good Religion Rebellion is no great sin p. 331 332. What was true and sound in Religion Germany had it from Brittain p. 332. Charlemagne in the Franckford Council against the second Council of Nice and Pope Adrian condemned Image Worship and owed his Orthodoxy therein to Brittain p. 332 333. The Canons of that Council imbezeld and suppress'd by the Roman Hereticks as they did other Records p 333 334 335. Saxons more mild to the Brittish Clergy in Lhoâ—gr after the first Brunt till Rome's entrance p. 334 How Nations â—avour of the Faith of first Planters p. 335. How Brittain was like to the great Primitive Church in being dayly kill'd by Heathens and defil'd by Hereticks p. 336. The Agreement of the Roman Principles with Audius the Apostle of the Goths p. 336. The Female Sex have a right to Supremacy over most Churches by the Roman plea p. 337 Upbraiding Cancels Courtesies why and the Romanists destroy their pretended merits a clear offer made to them p. 338 339 340 341. The Romanists insisting upon the merits of Monk Augustine become responsible for his wrongs to this Church p. 341. How disingenious and unreasonable they are in their imputation of Schism to us p. 342. How under the Roman Usurpation Ordinations here were valid to the Brittains and yet Schismatical and null as to the Romans p. 343 344. No slavery to be shaken off by indirect means the benefit and reward of Patience p. 345. How unworthy it were to return voluntarily under the yoak of Rome ibid. SECT XI Rome promotes its Dominion 1. By giving away the rights and Kingdoms of others p. 346. 2. By politick Matches Popery recovered in England by Oswi's marrying K. Edwins Sister p. 347. seq 3. And Archbishop Theodore introduc'd p. 349 350. How he us'd Archbishop Ceadda p. 351. 4 By preferments to Ambitious parts and of Wilfrid's ill end and faults and omen at his Birth p. 349 351 352. 5. By Ignorance conâ—rary to its first pretences p. 352. seq An address to the Irish wherein they are to be commended and wherein bewail'd 354 355 356 357 358. The Papists ascribe the Priviledges of Jerusalem above to their own Church p. 359 King Cadwaladrs going to Rome out of Devotion a Monkish sorgery and fully refuted p. 359 360. Bede averse to the Brittains 361. 6. How they defeated our Princes of their Church Rights p. 362. Their opposition from our Norman Kings and from Henry the 8th set out in a comparison p. 363 SECT XII Kings can better assert their Rights with the Sword than Popes their Usurpations by Excommunication p. 364. None ought to envy our Restoration nor especially any that have suffered by Tyrants p. 365. More of the Rule of Communion and separation p. 367. Regulated Conscience is no private
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Apostolical Rule in my Text in your own hands to measure and Judge as Solomon once did between two Mothers the true and the pretended For a Private Person with God to guide him may judge Infallibly which Church most agrees with God for a wavering eye and a trembling hand having a streight and a stable rule and line to guide it partakes of the stability and streightness that directs it the guide and guided being one and the same person by fiction and agreement And the Roman Catholick themselves as they love to be called cannot be denied to be every Mothers Son as Infallible as the Judge himself or their Church is to whom they give themselves entirely over to be guided by them take therefore in Gods name Gods clear mind and measure and judge impartially with the heart and soul and in the strength of him that guides you Your Holy Mother the Church of England hath nourished you up in a Sound and Orthodox Religion and Worship which you and your Prosterity can understand and therefore say Amen to it from your hearts because you understand it The great pretender of Rome starves her Children at Nurse and all their life time in their own Territories by Politick Ignorance and binds and enslaves their stoutest Champions in chains of darkness and of implicit faith and blind obedience the better to keep them under in Captivity and slavery to serve her unworthy and unnatural designs and to fight against the Truth as the Turk breeds up deluded Janizaries to War and subdue their own Fathers and Mothers and people which absolute and blind subjection of the heart to any man on Earth is Idolatry in the giver and the taker Is it not lamentable to consider how prophane and perfidious the guides of the Church of Rome are towards God and their people committed to their charge and in deceiving the one and mocking the other with a worship in an unknown tongue without the heart and understanding which is therefore a meer nullity by the Divine Doctrine of my Text and by common sense and therefore no worship at all but Idleness and â—â—â—â—ccation approaching to Idolatry Religion without the mind is not Religion or Worship but a shew or Stage-Play or a Counterfeit of Religion as the Scene is of Truth and History where an Actor or a Mimick stands for a Prince as here the shadow for the substance or crossing of the body for the contrition of the soul and all are able to know and understand very well the whole management in both to be a meer divertisement of the fancy only more sufferable on the Stage than in the Church in Gods presence where more sobriety and seriousness of mind is required and nothing else in point of Truth and reality because the Original Persons and parties are absent and wanting there the true Hero and here the Truth of the heart A sincere Protestant is grieved and troubled at every straggling thought and the least deviation of his heart at Prayer in Gods presence as a great and griveous affront and contempt of the Divine Majesty like turning our backs to a Prince while we are speaking to him But our confident Bigots of Rome by their Publick and common pactice maintain and defend that God is best worshipped when he is so affronted and despised and that the total absence of the heart and understanding so there be an outward Opus operatum with lip and breath is no sin at all but right Catholick Devotion most agreeing with the Deity If mumbling Pater Nosters and Ave Maries whether at Church or Closet or at Cards or Plays as Witches do Charms without knowledge or Attention or meaning make good and current Roman-Catholick Devotion then Parrots and Magpyes and Apes may commence Catholick Disciples of the Roman-Catholick Salvation And upon this score perhaps it was that one of the great and Sainted Patriarchs of an order amongst them began to bestow his pains and zeal in Preaching to Birds When men in contrariety to the Apostle in my Text judge it fanatical Innovation to Worship God as Protestants do with the heart and understanding They that so exclude the heart in the first place as needless will they not exclude the Lord likewise in the second place for these two are Correlates take away the one and take away the other also where the heart and the Lord are shut out in the first and second place will not the fear of the Lord be excluded likewise though the beginning of wisdom in the third place And where the fear of the Lord is once banisht from Religion is there any sin or Villany in Soul or Body that such Religious Atheists will boggle at to act and prepetrate at opportunity or temptation when it may with safety be committed and with impunity from the Laws of man It s well that Church exceeds all others in Pardons and Absolutions if such seives hold water for their Principles cut out work enough for Pardons and if their own allowed and best Historians are to be believed the practices of their chiefest Popes come not short of their Principles How deplorable and sad is the condition of such a Church to which no further degree of disorder and misery can be added or imagin'd Nor the Devil drive this nail further to the head than that they should strongly believe themselves to be the sole and only Catholicks salvable and infallible in such gross and damnable Errours And yet upon such holy guides such infallible Rocks the Roman-Catholick Church is built For all with them are bound to believe as the Church that is the Pope believes whom they believe to be infallible For though their lives are often frail and vicious yet their Doctrines or Testimonies for God say they are ever firm and true As if a Vicious life were not an effectual quenching and renouncing of the whole Faith of such a person during such impenitence or as if a Debauch'd person or Atheist were a fit witness for the Christian Faith much less the Judge thereof He that will be Infallible for another ought first to be Infallible for himself and his own Salvation And every man is bound upon his everlasting Peril to be as Infallible as he can for himself and his Brethren But as a Creature no man is or can be Infallible nec vox hominem Sonat but more or less he may be Infallible by help from without according as he is guided wholly or in part by God who is alone Infallible And the issue and whole state of the cause and difference between Protestants and Papists lyes in the right choice and election of their Infallible guide and judge Who this is being the great Question There is no judge under God and Christ the sole judge of quick and dead but the invict Supream Powers himself hath appointed in all Kingdoms and Churches and private breasts Invict Conscience in every private man in all Private and all Eternal concerns Invict
example before men belongs to Christian Kings to regulate by discretion with the advice of their Clergy Numb 27.21 Mal. 2.7 for their Transitory Nature makes them more allyed to this present world where Kings are Soveraigns than their bare Connexion to Holy duties doth make them appurtenances to the other immortal world where Christ only Raigns and Rules For Instance whether it be more decent to perform Divine service in a Gown or Surplice or in a Cloak or Querpo whether with the people having all their Hats on as do the Jewes or the Minister as the French or all bare both Minister and People as usually amongst us whether kneeling or sitting be the best and seemliest postures at several Offices before men for it is clear before God that the heart is all in all whether a Bason at the Ministers Elbow be more comly than a Font or whether the Font stand best in the Chancel with the other Table for the other Sacrament or at the Church door in token of our entrance by it Whether the Cross may be used in Baptism or the Ring in Marriage Whether the King have not power to found and endow Churches and to alter Sees and to translate the Metropolitan from one place to another as he thinks fit for any new convenience or redress These things are nominally spiritual but really secular and belong to Christian Temporal Jurisdiction which no way intrenches herein upon Divine Institution or Soveraignity which hath left out such matters and causes free for Christian Kings to regulate even in the Church and Temple as did the Kings of Israel The Church being part of their state and Province where Kings and Subjects are Christian and the one to order every thing to the Lord Christ whose Deputies and Vicars now they are and the other to obey them in all such their Orders from the heart as to the Lord Neither is there any peril of Soul or Salvation by such transitory matters as wears and postures of the Body where they are not ordained for to honour or acknowledge Idols and false Gods there may be great danger in contention 1 Cor. 11.16 and disobedience to those Divine and Eternal Laws which command obedience and Conformity to humane Neither are the Circumstances of Religion made equal hereby to the substantial parts thereof being observed to such several Ends and intents sufficiently distinct and different as are the Authorities that appoint both the one and the other God himself in those and Kings as his Deputies and delegates in these though many mens too much placing their Heaven and zeal and humour and scruples upon Ceremonies and shadows make them substances as to themselves For the difference between Time and Eternity or the Body and the Soul or sense and faith or word and sword or Heaven and Earth or peace of Conscience and the peace of the Kingdom is not more fixt and manifest and unconfounded than is that between the inside and outside of the Church the one lying within the Perambulation and Jurisdiction of Divine Soveraignty the other of humane neither of the Popes over us in England nor the latter but only there where he is a Temporal nor the former even at Rome it self where so he is And O! the Unchristian Arts and Methods that have been us'd by Popery all along both above and under-board according as it was high or low to wrest this Ecclesiastical Supremacy and Prerogative from Christian Kings which is their manifest and undoubted right and chiefest Glory in their Temporal Crowns and a peculiar Talent for their management in order to an Eternal Sometimes openly and above-board by an impudent pretence of Plenitude of Power when they had none at all they have eagerly endeavoured to hook unto themselves our Kings Royal Priviledges about Investures and nomination of Bishops and the Crowns off from their heads which is too well known For any ones Temporal right that had any reference or Relation towards the Church was straightway the undoubted Appurtenance of St. Peters Chair under that pretence they caus'd King Henry the Second in the Controversie about the exemption of the Clergy which was an absolute invasion of his Royal Government and Authority to be whipt and stript by his Subjects like a Malefactor in Bridewell for the good of his Soul and in breach of his Royal Trust and Dignity to allow Appeals to Rome to heal his wounded Conscience Their poisoning Attempts and Invasions and Powder-plots against Queen Elizabeth and King James are fresh in Memory When open Arts can do no good they 'l work their Ends in Masquerade and smaller undertakings Here possessing Quakers and raising Sects to resist and Blaspheme our Religion and Government There endeavouring to get more considerable Instruments into power to promote their Romish Interest in Protestant Shapes with greater succcess and lesser noise because less discern'd to corrupt our hopeful Clergy and destroy honest men under-hand and imbroile the Nation by widening the differences between Protestants which were ready to close and multiplying Non-conformists whether they would or not For it is obvious and easie to observe that all or most of our Presbyterian Dissenters of the younger sort throughout the Nation did see their Errour and desert their Party upon the Restauration of our Church And that the Elder sort were no less convinc'd from the experience of late confusions but that it was harder for the one than for the other in point of Reputation to change and walk contrary on a suddain to their former Actings And the secret enemies of our Protestant peace and union laid hold of this advantage as Non-conformists alledge and cast in politick Provisoes and obstructions to make their Repentance harder still if not impossible to the trouble of our Government and the joy of Rome Some ambodextrous Pens like Mountebanks upon a Stage shall publickly wound and confute and presently heal and defend the Church of Rome as faithfully as any of her own Inquisitors and as safely as any of our own Authors by this double stile falling fiercely upon their first Deserters and such as begin to espy and loath any of its grosser Errours enough in time if not so carefully prevented and discourag'd to cause a general defection throughout the host because they are not perfect Protestants in a moment able to see and relinquish all her Corruptions at first waking And therefore the sincere Irish Clergy shall be rigorously chid for beginning an Orthodox Allegiance in disobedience to their Church and violation of their Oaths And the Jansenists for defending Catholick Doctrines with the like sincerity to Christ and dis-rellish to the Pope And the Distinguishers of the Church of Rome from its more corrupt Court as Pestiferous and rash beginners or some Ho-body Hoyes and no right Sons of the one Church or of the other against all Principles of Christian Charity which forbids to quench the smoaking Flax or break the bruised Reed as also against common humanity and
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
order and subserviency thereunto and no further so in the true Christian Religion Christ is all in all and all things besides of this World are dead things to a Christian that cannot help him forward towards Christ and the other life as the other World and Religion is an insipid story to a false Christian where they are useless to serve his ends in this Any Christian may and ought to observe and regard time as well as other things of life or death but to Christ who died and rose again that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14.6 8. much more may he observe time when commanded by Christian Governours to whom he is subject in the Lord more yet a time of Apostolical Institution to whom he and his Christian Governours are subject to obey such is that singular Lords-day mentioned in St. John Rev. 1.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of our Lords Resurrection or Easter which Christ himself by his own example hath recommended to his Church for perpetual observation as the lasting practice proves the first direction For on that day Christ rose from the dead founding his new Creation in one day as God did the old in a week and instructed Mary Magdalen touching the Communion and participation of Christians in his Resurrection and Adoption by it which constitutes the Christian Church and the substance of its Catechisme Say to my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. 20.17 On the Octaves of the same day carefully noted v. 19. he appeared to his Disciples met together and Instituted the Governours of his Church with a Consecration Sermon ad clerum touching their Authority and duty As my Father hath sent me even so send I you and breathing on them said receive ye the Holy Ghost whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins ye retain they are retain'd v. 21 22. And after eight dayes again or a Disdiapason or the third day from the Resurrection he met his Disciples again and preach'd a Sermon ad populum containing the chief fundamental principle of Christianity and the blessedness of those that have not seen and yet shall believe mildly reproving the foreseen Curiosity and Infidelity of Christians in the person of St. Thomas v. 29. Expressing hereby his leading will and example for the observing of Sunday forever as a Holy day for Worship and Instruction upon the score of the Resurrection or as 51 Octaves of Easter day as the subsequent Apostolical practice of the Church hath prov'd this first Institution Act. 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 The Jewish Sabbath being dissolved with the old Creation by Faith and the Christian Sabbath erected in its stead the new Creation requring its Sabbath as well as old because a Creation And the Church or Spiritual Israel bound by the decalogue to the observation of it in remembrance of its deliverance from Spiritual Aegypt and bondage as the Jews or Carnal Israel to the other in remembrance of such deliverance in the letter Besides the Law of Constantine and other godly Kings of New Israel for observing of the same And not against but according to our Saviours Intimation Mat. 9.15 That the Disciples should fast when the Bridegroom was taken away Wednesday and Friday preceding his passion and from thence all the Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year saving the time of Pentecost when the Bridegroom returned to his Spouse in the Comforter have been observed by the Ancient Catholick Church as a Fast in reference to his Cross as Easter and thence all the Sundays in the year as a Feast in reference to his Resurrection both the one and the other being regarded to the Lord The Church particularly training it self to the conformity of Christs death to to this World in the one as of his life in the Heavenly joyes of the other Christ in his Cross and Christ in his Resurrection being the whole lesson and both side of the leaf to the Christian Church 1 Cor. 2.2 Philip. 3.10 The Charter of Easter and its weekly repetitions or Sundays which some prefer in honour before Easter it self the Copy before the Original being so clear in Scripture in its first Institution of so great importance is Charity and condescention to the frailties of our Christian Brethren that the great Lords-day or Easter as well as the Sabbath was by Christs mind to give place unto it in some places and for some time Accordingly we find the Eastern Churches adioyning to Jerusalem to observe Easter out of its time the same day as the Jews did their Passover what day of the Week soever it fell on whether Sunday or not and also to observe Saturday as a Holy-day as well as Sunday throughout the year in complyance with the Jews But the Western would by no means yield or approve thereof but thunder'd against it with the same zeal as St. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles did against the introduceing of Circumcision amongst the Gentiles Gal. 25.5.2 Phil. 3.2 which yet was tolerated in the Christian Jewish Church Act 21.20 21 25. And therefore St. Peter the Apostle of the Jews Gal. 2.7 is more complyant with the weak Jews in their Ceremonies whom he fear'd to offend than St. Paul who did as much fear to scandalize his weak Gentiles and reproved St. Peter to his face upon that score Gal. 2.11 and yet both the one and the other in their zeal and moderation were acted by a diversified charity but the same inspir'd directions Gal. 2.8 And the true Reason in all probability of the Roman Fast on Saturday so contrary to the Apostolical Tradition of the rest of the Christian Church what other plaister soever many may invent for this notorious Non-conformisty was the zeal of St. Paul's successors after his example and steps Gal. 2.5 strictly to assert the Christian liberty of the believing Gentiles in the West from the yoak of the Law and all seeming Judaical observation of the weekly Saturday with equal respect to the weekly Lords-day As they would by no means before veile their Annual Easter to the Annual Passover upon the like score wherein St. Peter and all Christians of the Circumcision would not have been so precise and strict as it is well known they were not to keep such exact distance from the Synagogue nor needed they at Rome to have been after the limited time of toleration to the weaker Jews was expir'd as it was no less than Schisme and disobedience in them to continue in this their needless singularity though originally generous after the Catholick Church in General Councils had declared its dislike against it Now if the first Popes of Rome as Victor with others had believed themselves to be the Successors of St. Peter they would not have raised such a bitter quarrel against the Eastern Church about the time of observing Easter for this had been to have made St. Peter fight
That she was believing is presuppos'd and in case she had been delivered that she had been so many days as her child proved Male or Female Levitically unclean and consequently uncapable of Baptism by his Romish Divinity which at this time like the Alcharon was a mixture of Judaism and Christianity was with him out of question but what was to be done before her delivery and pollution in child bearing was his great doubt to be sent as far as Rome for an answer which argued him to be wary and of a very tender Ignorance in the Christian Faith he was now to plant and cherish as the chief Husbandman and the great Arch-Bishop of these Churches instead of its Brittish Governours that were now to be laid aside and depos'd out of their own Sees and Chairs for being so unlike to him Neither will I hear repeat the resolution of the Pope which is at large in Bede to this point much less his elaborate carnal theories and endless impure speculations wherewith his Holiness entertains his Grace in Probation upon that other question whether an Husband having known his wife may enter into the Church before he be wash'd with Water verifying an Aphorism and observation of St. Paul between them that where the conjunction of God and the heart is not heeded and maintained men become Fools and senceless Rom. 1 22-28 1 Tim. 1.5 6 7. for the Soul that hath its face towards God in uncessant Prayer or any honest imployment in his sight hath its back ever upon such impurities as when its face is towards them its back is ever towards God And they are better kept wholly out of the fancy than order'd and stated never so well in it wherein the Casuists or Scavangers of the Church of Rome to this day exceed all other writers in the Critical ordering of this Mahumetan filth Neither was it out of dis-respect to such Fathers that Bede thought fit to set down such passages as sober Heathens Livy or Tacitus would not have defil'd their Histories or their Honour in recording but from a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mind ignorant of what was becoming or unbecoming by a Romish taint and fleshliness of the soul which kept in its purity Superiority and distance from things below is our right person and Honour and our Sobriety and our measure to discern good from evil Decorum from absurdity as Cicero sets forth in his Offices which the Roman Principle aim'd at the Christian attains the Romish chiefly neglects and swerves from But that other direction of Pope Gregory to our Augustine b Bed lib 1. c. 29. fana Idolorum non demoliantur sed aquâ benedictâ c. that IdolTemples were not to be demolished but to be purified and consecrated to Christian use with holy Water savours of an Ignorance and frailty in both which is less pardonable because more than humane or Christian not excusable in any Age or Condition Por it allows Idols and Elements a greater power to defile or Sanctifie than the light of nature or Faith can admit of decent dedication of Churches to Gods service may agree with reason and Religion but such Superstitious Sanctifications discover too great a crack in both For neither is an Idol any thing where there is knowledge 1 Cor. 8.4 7. nor can any thing defile but what comes from the heart that is the impure assents of the Soul Math. 15.11 But where the Soul is made nothing of an Idol becomes considerable and dreadful And its External impurity requires much external Element to wash it off with those whose Religion consists wholly in the outside wherein the Pharisie and the Papist Jump and our Saviour having refuted the one refuted the other by the same Text and argument But supposing sin could cleave to wals can Water wash it off from walls or souls If it can it must be in the vertue of Divine blessing and Institution or without it That Water alone is ineffectual to wash a Moor much less a Spirit or spiritual stain Heathens had Divinity enough to assure them That with it it can and doth in baptism was never doubted among Christians Now to raise this dead Element to work other effects supernatural and miraculous without Divine Commission or Authority is to equal and Rival God For to transfer and apply the holy Water of his Institution and blessing to other Creatures than whom he redeemed with his precious bloud for whom they were by himself peculiarly design'd is such an abominable prophanation and taking Gods name and his ordinances in vain such a charm and witchcraft and mingling light and darkness holy and prophane together as none could be the first Author and Inventer of but Satan the Father of Antichrist whose known practice of old was to revile and libel Religion by mock-Sacraments and Sacrifices and Ephods to bring it into contempt as it were by Travesty and Burlesque and Ape God Almighty as drones build cels like to hony combs Whose methods they of Rome have all along filially observed and imitated above any other Heresie new or old saveing the impure Gnosticks who very probably are the same with our Romanists As by their descent from the same place and Father Simon Magus their exact agreement in character with the false Apostles in St. Pauls time who exalted themselves above him non ovum ovo similius their affecting the best Christian titles amidst Antichristian hellish Practices and Customs might be fairly evinc'd for where are Gods ordinances more daily prophan'd by mocke imitation holy Baptism applied to Bells and stone Walls preaching to the fouls of the Air as before and to shame them to amendment more than to dishonour a contrary Religion though they have not yet arriv'd to that abominable prophaness as actually to feed other domestick Creatures with the Eucharist they so much worship yet they have already done it by their Principles and Customs it 's frequent with them in the Egge though not in the Serpent And these are they who must now be own'd as the Apostles of our Religion and Patriarchs of the English Faith to whose successors for ever all obedience and worship and submission must be paid in all gratitude for their sake and not a few deserted by God for not loving the Truth 2 Thess 2.10 already begin to bow the knee to Satan and corrupt Nature in weak and simple and childish judgements and debauch'd persons the weakest and simplest of all for nothing eats out the heart more than vice helping on the Apostacy according to the Brittish Proverb Gwaith hawdh iw methu It is an easie work to fail or Socrates his answer to fair Lais the famous Courtesan bragging as she met him that she had more that followed her than he had who replied that her Disciples went down the Hill to her S◠but his came up Hill to him But Augustine though he was Bare and Poor for Inward Principles and Endowments yet he was not so ill
recover the spirits but they shorten life Da Kelwidh tra' coelir Od eir ymhelh gwelh iw'r gwîr saith the Brittish Proverb A Lye may do while it is believed but at long running Truth is better But this whipping story was not well feigned and designed to be believed for true by wiser posterity however it might for the present delude an ignorant Heathen For we seldom or never read that separated souls but only Christ or Gods Angels appear'd to men to direct them at a stand saving in one case where it is hard to determine what appear'd to Saul whether the Ghost of Samuel or the Devil in his shape withall this action more fitted a Town Beadle than a glorified Apostle or if St. Peter must be so severe and Butcher-like it might rather be not for his departing but his staying behind the rest of his Companions to disturb good Christians and corrupt poor Infidels with a false and bloudy Religion or if there were any reality in it beyond Melancholly or Art it might rather be the wrath of a tormenting spirit for deserting his cause or if done upon himself with his own hands we have presidents of Crafty criples b Cooke's Inst part 1. p. 127. endicted for the like stratagem to move compassion before some of our sage Judges But Mellitus his rushing c Bed lib. 2.7 into the midst of flames to quench a great fire in Canterbury with his Prayers looked more like a true wonder especially in one of his race and Principles who if not belyed are better skill'd in burning Cities than saving and blowing up States and Kingdoms as is too well known What Religion can that be or what obligations can it tye of obedience and gratitude upon Intelligent minds and consciences that 's supported and Propagated by Divine lies and Impostures so hateful to God and conscience and honour every lye as Cicero could observe carrying d Cicer. off l. 3. Perjury and Atheism in it in its defyance and slight of God and conscience which it sees and knows to contradict it and the lye that quotes God for its Author being the most abominable and worst of lyes No less were the converting Miracles of Augustine himself the chief Thaumaturgus which imposed upon the belief of venerable Bede and much more upon the less descerning multitude not only in restoring sight to the e Bed lib. 2. c. 2. blind Saxon he brought Punteus-like with him for to have tryed it upon an honest Brittain if there had been any at the disputation might have prov'd as difficult if not as impossible as his more necessary guift of tongues and that not about any point of Salvation or the extraordinary Glory of God but after miracles had long ceas'd in the Church designed only for the unbelieving about a trifle about some scruples or minutes of the Calendar in a Gamster-like wager and imitation of Elias the main juggle and drift being to discredit and subvert an Ancient Church in their well built Faith and Customs with Legerdemain But more especially and most abominably in his Enthusiastical Prophecy of f idem War and ruin to the Brittish Doctors and their People by the Arms of their Enemies for not joyning their assistance with him to Preach the Gospel to the English Quibus vir Domini Augustinus fertur minitans praedixisse c. to whom Augustine the man of God is reported to Prophecy by way of threat that if they refus'd Peace from Brethren they should receive War from Enemies and suffer a revenge of death by the hands of the English to whom they refused to Preach the word life Wherein he entitles God himself to all the lyes and mischiefs and spoils and murders and massacres that were contriv'd to attend this prediction which he grounded upon three false Assertions First that the Brittains envyed the Gospel to the English 2 That he good man came hither from Rome for no other end but to Preach it to them 3. That because they refused to joyn in that Ministry with him for the Salvation of their Souls therefore God had reveal'd unto him a Mene tekel or a suddain destruction to come upon them by their Enemies 1. And the first is the strongest exception or Quo Warranto to overthrow the Christianity of the Churches of Brittain to the just forfeiture of their Sees to rhe greater zeal and diligence of Rome that we hitherto met that against the chief precept and example of their Saviour to love their Enemies the badge of true Christians they should have that living sence of the loss of this present world to which they were dead by their Faith and Baptism as out of Satanical discontent to let go their hold of the other likewise and suffer themseves to be beaten out of their charity and duty as well as their Country and to revenge to Eternity a wrong of time But that experience daily imforms that doing of a wrong more dissolves all charity in the soul than suffering it and that men usually hate where they hurt though they be forgiven and secur'd by a Christian temper against the suspition of revenge and repercussion for he that wrongs another fights and assaults the Almighty in whose hands and Laws all mens persons and beings and consequently all mens rights are preserv'd and kept Act 17. and every conscience upon its reflection and sence of such a War is either presently smitten into Infinite repentance and restitution or becomes harden'd diabolically in its Rebellion and cannot rest till it finish its hatred and destruction of the Innocent without cause as it first began but it is not so in suffering wrong especially with Patience and forgiveness wherein we become liker to Christ and every loss in this is gain in the other world and a manifest token according to St. Paul Thess 1.5 6 c. of just fear and hope of damnation or Salvation respectively to the one or to the other and the Brittish Apothegme Duw a ro Imi fymhenid yn y bid yma God grant me all my pain and Penance in this world will well agree with the Apostolical Triumph we glory in Tribulations wherein we are more than Conquerours and beholding through him that loved us to them that hate us Rom. 5 3.-8.37 So that it is more in reason to be suspected and fear'd the Saxons were more averse to hear the Gospel from them as Hector Boethius well observed h Invisae Gentis magis quam Disciplinae de quâ multa atque praeclara frequentius Audiverant odio permoti lib. 9.171 § 10. than the Brittains to Preach it to them who brought it to their doors as Bede covertly and loathly intimates and maintained their Cross and Church at Canterbury in the Metropolis and Capitol of their Enemies where they were disabled to keep their Colours and when through pride of Victory some af the Saxons Heptarchs scorn'd Salvation from the hands of their Masters whom they had made their Vassals
Boethius l. 9. p. 171. That because they deserted the Religion of their Fathers and violated the Worship of their Gods perinde atque Brittannis atque Scotis se hostem futurum that he would be their enemy no less than to the Brittains and the Scots And lost his life at last in his Holy War against the East-Angles having lost an eye before in Scotland and a great Army at Bangor where he was also wounded breathing out his impious Soul like Julian only better for his constancy but not inferiour for his Heathenish Cruelty Deorum Religionis Protector Christiani Nominis Hostis ut vixi morior m Ibid. p. 172. I dye as I lived the Protector of the Religion of the Gods and the enemy of Christ and all his Christians who therefore was a very fit and useful Instrument for Monk Augustine to comply with for the destruction of the true Christian Religion here in Brittain that opposed the Roman and to plant his Popery instead and accordingly made use off If therefore the English were not all converted in their Hearts under Arthur and Aurelius because of the force It may well be presumed from the contrary reason that the Heart it self did not hold out against the Divine power of the same Ministry acting in its external weakness and exinanition God by his great Providence having us'd all means both harsh and easie to soften and chafe the hard and stubborn hearts of the English to receive his Gospel and shap'd and cast the Brittish Nation for their use and the use of all Germany through them into the mould as it were of Christs first and second coming to work and make impression upon them if it were possible either of the two wayes With this difference that here Humility came after Power to to win by Intreaty what it could not compass by command and force as there Power will come after Humility to bruise with irresistable destruction what it could not prevail upon by Grace and love And when all would not do delivered them over to Popery as it were to Satan or Antichrist to be chain'd in spiritual slavery and darkness with many other Nations for about a thousand years And then visited them again in mercy with the comfortable light and Glorious Liberty of the Reformation handed also to them by their Kings when they came to be of Brittish race to try their love to truth once more before his last stroke and Eternal destruction of the Impenitent and Incorrigible But nothing of the former passages though the truth thereof hath left sufficient markes and effects behind it in Saxon Laws and Homilies extant quite dissonant to Popery in several principles as shall hereafter be mention'd how remarkable soever occurrs in Bede's Popish History not a word of n Munster Cosm p. 552. Offa the Son of Ethelfred preaching the Gospel to the Germans beyond the Rhine Anno 603. and building Offenburg and Schuttern as Munster Notes nor o Ibid. p. 580. St. Columbanus our Irish Monk of whom the same Munster saith Certò Constat We have certain knowledge of his propagating the Gospel far and wide through Germany the passages being within the time and business of his History and for the Honour of this Land only tending too much to discover that the Gospel was preached by the Brittains to the Saxons in the houses of their Fiercest Kings which Right to that Nation was against Bede's Theme and humour to acknowledge But Ethelfred and Oswald being both Princes of his Countrey and Climate he is Civil to them and endeavours to do Right to both respectively in Magnifying the Vertues of King Oswald which are undenyable to Superstition And Palliating and lessening the wickedness of Ethelfred which was as notorious to Indignity seldom doing the least Right to the Brittains the enemies of his Nation and of his Catholick Faith as he openly stiles them lib. 5. c. ult Saving sometimes out of unavoidable necessity and for other ends and Interests as where he is to commend the way and Religion of the Scots and Irish for whom he had greater kindness The Brittish Faith whence the other deriv'd and stifly kept to is inevitably extoll'd by consequence Or when he mention'd the good work of Augustine in repairing Canterbury Church whither Queen Bertha resorted he had like to have betrayed and discovered to a sagacious smell how all then stood How much the Christian Brittish Religion was received and flourished in Kent before the coming of Augustine So the West Saxon Kingdom shall be all in darkness p Bede lib. 3. c. 7. Paganissimi when Birinus comes to convert it but when Aldhelmus is to do exploits in bringing them over to the Roman Easter it shall be very q Idem lib. 5. c. 19. full again of Brittish Christians whom he is to reduce and such is his Conversion of all Mercia by Diuma and but two or three more and the like of the other Heptarchies yet no Ecclesiastical Writer is now more Classic and Authentick than Bede nor any passage of Church Antiquity to be well credited without his attestation so beneficial was his Partiality to the Roman-church to his Reputation and Authority in the World Therefore the other mixt Conversion of the English and full completion or confirmation of the former by Brittish Ministy and Doctrine but not all Brittish persons shall be clear'd out of Bede their own Author against our Romanists and irrefragably evinc'd by cross examination of his History whereby it will appear that the English under God owe their Conversion to the Brittains and others and not to Rome And that Augustine came hither to no better end than to destroy the true Religion like a messenger of Antichrist or at least miserably to corrupt it with adulterate mixtures and Superstitions And the positive proofs out of Bede of the Gospel being preached and planted among the English upon mixt account and especially Northward where the English did most abound and the Brittains were least intermixt amongst them are not so much Proofs and undenyable Instances as Divine Miracles and over-ruling Providences and the manifest Finger of God calling not only for Assent but Astonishment and Admiration That not only Augustin's plantation at York and Kent should be totally extirpated as it were by Divine Retaliation by the same means and method himself contrived and set on foot to destroy our Brittish Church But the Sons of Edelfred swho was Augustine's Executioner to Massacre the Brittish Clergy are made by Gods controlling power the chief Patrons and Propagators of the Brittish Faith over most part of England and Oswald the best of them who for his own virtues was no doubt rewarded with rest and Glory permitted by Gods severity and hatred of his Fathers Murders at Bangor to be slain and mangled and quarter'd by his enemies in view well nigh and sight of that very place And the Brittains by excess of wrong and cruelties from their enemies
entangled in the Treason by their obedience to Apostolical orders which deposed God as well as the Prince and the allurements of guifts and honours to the one and the other Very ill Presidents to Princes and from Ecclesiastics who pretend in their Church to extol obedience to Superiours above any other whatsoever Whereas their whole establishment consisted in rejecting their right Soveraign both of Heaven and Earth If Popery then be a good Religion Rebellion must be no great Crime For Rebellion upon the pretence of Religion had its first rise and example from that Infallible Chaire It cannot therefore be denyed but our German Apostles took Commission from Rome being impos'd upon as several dayly are by Antichristian arts which was their great Ecclipse and Infelicity enough to blast all the Glory of their other good work But then it is to be considered that though it was an Ecclipse it prevail'd but so many Digits The foul spot of expedient Rebellion being added to the other obscurations from Superstition It was not a total Ecclipse of the whole Luminary which still retain'd a competency of light sufficient to direct dark Heathenism but far better if the Popish fog which they term help had been further off What was clear and sound Religion Germany had from Brittain what was unsound and Superstitious it had from Rome as appears not only in reason because the Roman Religion found no exceptions against the substance of the Brittish as before but only that it wanted some of their Catholick Ceremonies and additions which the Brittains looked upon as suspicious Innovations but also most irrefragably by Charlemagne's condemnation of image-Image-Worship in the Councel of Francofurt against both the Church of Rome and Greece degenerating into that gross errour by the advice of a M. Westmin 793 Spelm. 218. Alguinus and the Catholick Brittish Orthodoxy shining and surviving then in England solely when the cloud had gone over all the rest Alguinus by his b Idem p. 307. Epistle to Charlemagne who sent the 2d Nicene Decrees to England as Pope c Magd. Cent 8 c. 9. p 626. seq Adrian sent them him for his Approbation did so d Spelman Concil p. 307. shake and rouse him by the Scriptures that in full Synod the Nicene Decree was condemn'd but the e Idem p. 308. Decrees of that Synod wherein were 300 f Spondanus Anno 794. Bishops assembled out of Italy France Germany and Brittain and so great and Learned an Emperor as Charlemagne present are all suppress'd with that e Idem p. 308. Epistle of Alguinus his other works remaining Spondanus confesses the reason Ingenuously that Image Worship was then condemned in the Council not by the Council g Ibid. n. 3. Non accessit consensus corum quorum fuit statutum firmare ut non mireris si quae sint de eà re tunc Acta conscripta nusquam appareant utpote abolita quod ea non probassent legati Apostolicae sedis nec qui eos miserat Hadrianus Papa For their consent was wanting to whom it belong'd to pass that Decree That it is not to be wonder'd if what was voted touching that Controversy is not to be met extant any where neither in Baronius nor Crabbe nor Binius c. for it was abolished and suppressed because the Legates of the Apostolick See did not approve thereof nor Pope Adrian himself that sent them Lo now If these Roman-Catholick-Hereticks serv'd so great and venerable a Council in that course manner together with the Emperors Authority though their great friend and Patron and more a Schollar than any of their pack perhaps for clashing against their infallible Idolatries in the defence of Gods second Commandment as if Catholick Religion depended upon the Negative voice of one Pope against God and the Church which is not only a contradiction in it self but contrary to the course and custome of all general Councils of the Church where one though Pope or Patriarch was condemned by the Community for his Errour and not the Community by any one It s the less wonder if our Brittish Histories and Records were serv'd in the like sort as was all along suspected and far worse The Adulteraing with Legends being worse than burning and suppressing as King Lucius his Baptism Dubritius the Popes Legate King Cadwaldr's Pilgrimage to Rome the Brittish Communalty in Lhoegr all destroyed by the Pagan Saxons and their Clergy quite banish'd which might be true in many places at the first perfidious Insurrection as with Sampson at York till mollified by Ambrosius and Vortimers moderation in their Victories and a tast of Christianity they were afterwards tolerated amongst them to Augustine's coming and h Monastic Angl. par 1. p. 55. Usher p. 755. Diana Worship'd at London and Apollo at Thorney or Westminster instead of Christ as if the English during their Heathenism had preferr'd the Idols of the Brittains before i Munster l. 3. 718. Irmensul and Woden and Mars their own or the same Hostility had spar'd Diana or Apollo who were as great strangers to them as Christ perhaps whereby it is evident the Authors of Romish Histories and Legends have not alwayes present memory and their wits much less their honesty about them in their zealous tales for their Church But to return to our Argument It is clear that the Orthodoxy of Charlemagne and the Franckford Council was not from Rome or the Pope with whom they clash'd which right descendants from Monk Augustine would hardly have done nor from Greece whom they condemn'd nor from the Learned Emperor himself whose feet had well nigh slipt till our Alguin recovered him but therefore solely from Brittain So that our German Apostles being sound at heart against Idolatry upon the score of their Ancient Britttish derivation and Institution though in many parts Leprous upon the score of their new Roman Communion they were still sufficiently accomodated to encounter the Heathenism of Germany with the Remainder of their sound Brittish Faith but had been far more successful and spotless in their proceedings if Rome had stood far enough off And if as living Springs soon work off their mud and trouble which corrupt Lakes and Boggs can hardly do The Protestancy of England and Germany and Sweden and Denmark c. be ascrib'd to the Vigour and Fermentation of their first Brittish Seed strugling after its Original Pristin purity in good soil and erect minds and to early help from England and Wickliff before k Munster lib. 3. p. 800. Baleus of the Life and Tryal of Sir John O'd Castle Luther's appearing I shall not be a dissenter to the conjecture as the like may be observed in our Romanists some reviving the way of Simon Magus a great man heretofore at Rome others of their Gothic Ancestors and Audius their Apostle who is remarkable for three Roman parts 1. In leaving l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the title of
being not the same what need more answer to it but a motion to be dismissed because the Plaintiff against us is not the same with the old Roman Church and if he were neither hath It nor ever had nor pretended any right of Supremacy over us in Brittain This I say was never the claim of old Christian Rome but the sally and invention of the Antichristian which are as much the same Church as a Wolf and a Lamb are the same Creature It cannot be denyed but that they have still amongst them the ruins and rubbish of old Christianity as well as the other of old Rome and both under like defacement And severall good Creeds and Canons of Councils and Scriptures it self if men were suffered to come at it conveyed unto them from the former Inhabitants or from St. Paul or from Brittain which with the sincerity of the heart may serve we trust to the Salvation of many thousands under that captivity as the wardrob of Comedians might serve honest men for good warmth and covering however by them imployed but to counterfeit persons and passions for a Livelyhood by the Hypocrisie to use that word in his Original and first notation For though Christ and Trinity and other Orthodox Articles of our Faith have place and mention amongst them yet it is not for their sakes so much as in order to their own Carnal designs to give them better countenance amongst deluded Christians what more then is their credit or respect thereby than of parcels of our Scripture standing in the Alcharon and as the Creatures groaning under the bondage of corruption Rom. 8.22 and longing to be deliver'd into Christian and Protestant Libertie and true sacredness from serving or countenancing the lusts and Impostures of Tyrants and false Prophets where Christ it is true is named with no less respect than at Rome but Mahomet among them as the Pope amongst these preferred before him in which preference the essence of Popery and its difference from Protestantism doth consist as before was proved Not to descant more on the servitude of the rest of their Christian Doctrines the Worship and Mass-Book of Modern Rome is not the same as was in use before with the Old but strangely altered and depraved with innumerable Superstitious additions and vain Repetitions Prohibited by our Saviour Matth. 6. Begun particularly and most remarkablely of any another by Pope Gregory who sent Augustine and Vitalian who sent Theodore hither but consummated at last by several Popes into a perfect Oglio and mixture of Judaism and Christianity such as the Alcharon it self was fram'd to be by the heads of Sergius and Mahomet And which is also as remarkable our Gregory pretended extraordinary assistance of Gods Spirit in the recourses of a Pigeon at his ear a Math. West An. 605 Spondan An. 604. n. 5. no less than Mahomet by which allegation in his behalf his Books escaped being burnt and served as he had served the old Statues and Monuments of Rome And for the alterations of their Mass by these two Popes particularly we have the Testimony of their own Platina in the lives of the one and the other b Platina in Gregorio prime Antiphonarium diurnum quam nocturnum composuit Introitum litanias stationum quoque magnum partem c. ejus quoque inventum ut novies Kyrie Eleeson caneretur Haleluja He composed their Antiphonary for day and light the Introitus their Lettany and a great part of their Stations the Repetition of Kyrie Eleeson and Halelujah nine times over was his patticular invention and whereas their Liturgy now requir'd to be us'd in their Vulgar tongue as it had been before the Latine tongue being disused at Rome from about the year 580. he so delighted to continue their service in the Latine now unknown to the vulgar and far therefore from the heart and understanding which is the true genius of Popery that he hides and cramps it further from them with unintilligible charms and Repetitions in Greek and Hebrew And in a Solemn Synod of 25 Bishops Establishes his Superstitious Innovations in sustulit quae nocitura multa etiam addidit quae profutura fidei nostrae videbantur He laid aside much of the Ancient formes as contrary and destructive and added many new in their place as more agreeable to their Modern Faith For how could their Ancient Sober and Orthodox Liturgy well agree with his Heathenish conceptions touching purifying Idol-temples with holy water as we heard before out a Bede l. 1. c. 30. of Bede And his Intercessions for Trajan's Soul in b M. Westm An 592. Hell which perhaps brought Purgatory in time in request and fashion in that new Church and with his new stress laid upon the great vertue of Wollen Palls whereon all their Ordinations and Consecrations and Archiepiscopal and Patriarchal Authorities and consequently their whole New-Roman Church depends Non bene conveniunt c. Sober and grave Religion and Worship and such unjustifiable Doctrines and pueril Infatuations how could they well agree Neither was Vitalianus the other great Restorer of the Romish Religion in England wanting in the like humour to alter and change the simplicity of their Roman Service which before kept close to the Scriptures chiefly for themselves acknowledge this their new mode of Liturgy had not been before in use c Platin in Caelestimo 1 mo ante fieri non consuevit perlectâ enim Epistolâ Evangelio finis Sacrificio imponebatur So that nothing by consequence can be imagined to be more the Liturgy of Ancient Rome than our own common Prayer as it is reformed out of the Mass by retaining the Old-Roman flower and casting away the New-Roman-Catholick bran and trash So that the Popish Religion ought not in any right or reason to be call'd Roman but a new Gothic Church as we find about this time their Ancestors and Founders the Gothes to agree and Symbolize with them Gothi d Platin. in Gregr. 1 mo Gregoâ—â— opera rediâ—re ad unionem Catholicae Ecclesiae or indeed the Gregorian Religion as they also term their Calender as well in respect of the great alteration made thereof at Rome by Pope Gregory both in Doctrine and Worship from the Ancient and Orthodox Roman Church as also of its propagation throughout Churches by his means and missions to the great e Antiquiâ— Eccles p. 42. corruption of Christendom and particularly amongst us in Brittain to the great wrong of the English who before had been rightly grounded and principled in the right and truly Catholick Faith by Brittish Ministry And here we have the Incunabula the first spring and beginning of Popery whose first entrance through Monk Augustine by Commission from this Pope Gregory was under no good Planet or Circumstances being near about the time that Pope Boniface was declar'd the Universal Bishop oâ— Antichrist in the sense of Pope Gregory in the Case of another as before and
succeeded the Roman should be Antichrist yet none must be Catholicks and right Christians but they alone How far they may prevail on any of our Great ones with their tale and story I cannot tell yet the generality of the Nation God be praised are not so forsaken by him as to love to be so deluded but are as deaf as Vlysses against such charms what attempts soever have been used to prepare and mollifie them by debauchery for the Imposture and ready to answer these Impostors as did the Neighbour-hood in the fable the beggar at Towns-end with his counterfeit Lame legg Quaere Pergrinum vicinia tota reclamat go to Japan or Hispaniola to set up your Stage and boast your receipts In England mens eyes are open and the mystery too well known yea the Wisest and Stoutest and most Prosperous of our Kings and Princes in former Ages our Renown'd Edwards and Henries and Elizabeth have sufficiently unkennel'd these Foxes and hunted them and their craft and their stink and their fire-brands and their trouble far out of our Church and State But when ever by a Judgement upon a Nation they light upon any that are more tractable and credulous their first attempt will be immediately like that of a Crow setting upon a young Lamb for prey to play first at the eyes to peck them both out to sink and fix Implicit Faith and blind obedience like two hollow pits instead And then the rest of the design shall be finish'd with less disturbance and every blow and Inconvenience never seen till it light and then also Conscience and Honour and Publick Peace and Truth and the Allegiance of the soul to Christ must make no objections after the Judgement is once Idolatrously resign'd yea should they offer to draw back when they see their errour and danger for to err is human to recover is Angelical to persevere is Diabolical How will these false guides grinne and shake their heads if not brew worse things in them at their departure or their return from Forreign cheats to God and their Country and the Truth How will they rip up and wound his name and honour with the Imputations of Inconstancy Weakness Apostacy Perjury and what not as the unclean Spirit tore the man in the Gospel when he was to quit possession for doing no more but what themselves as they are men and Christians ought to do in point of duty and safety upon the Eternal Allegiance of their Souls to Christ and the Truth and count it high honour and glory in great ones to lead It being in reason a greater Arrival and perfection to be wise and holy against the deceitfulness of sin and Satan than to be couragious amidst dangers Scipio and Alexander being more admir'd in Story for their Continence than for their Conquest for their Victories over Beauty than over Enemies If our Romish Pretenders had any the least descent or resemblance in bloud or temper or Spirit with the Ancient Roman Worthyes or any drop of Camillus or Scipioes bloud in their Veines who valued the honour and Sanctity of their false Gods above their lives and Empire could their great and clear Spirits thus descend to pervert the Gospel into matter of Trade and Merchandize or truel and plaister their mean and unworthy ends with the bloud of the Son of God And make his Glorious Resurrection and Ascention a Varnish for their secular usurpations And his chief Apostles and Holy Catholick Church complices and Vouchers of all their Frauds and Tyrannies and Treasons Which is manifestly done when any wrong to men or Churches as the Case was made plain in our Brittish are palliated with their Sacred Names and Authorities as the practice is as plain and common in their Romish Church towards us and all Christendom besides If it be counted miserable Ignominious Harlotry corpore questum facere how much more abominable is it to make the like Trade and sinful gain of the Gospel and Christ and their own Souls as well as those of their Brethren It were far more fair and generous in them and the lesser of the two evils to renounce and deny Christ and his Religion outright than so to profess it and to spit in the face of their Redeemer than thus to kiss him and to abuse without ceasing his most Holy Name and Faith to â—oâ— and deal and cheat and disturb the World as it were a less indignity to a person of honour to be denyed Quarter than preserv'd alive to tread Morâ—eâ— or to gâ—ind in a Mill. Tolerabilior esâ— qâ—â— morâ— jubet quam qui turpiteâ— vivere Can any sort of Christians be more realâ—y Heathens saving such Ambidextrous Protestants who for their present advantage and Interest can promote Popery in their Countrey though they believe it to be a false and a dead Religion and betray their own which they possess and know to be most Orthodox and sound preferring madly a superlative Carnal self before both Religions and their own truth But though those of Rome are far from Old Romans either in Faith or Fame or Bloud yet so are not we in England from the Old Brittains in either of these respects But far ouâ—â—oing both in another good quality of containing our selves within the bounds of our Isle without great and just cause to sally out and not coveting turbulently other mens rights or their Kingdoms or Churches which is true past doubt of the Brittains in Wales and was prov'd before at large as to the English In the great and as it were second Deluge of Christendom for their Gygantick sins by Goths and Vandalls and Normans and Saxons for inundations of Nations in Mystical Scriptures are compar'd to those of Waters Rev. 17.15 wherein most other people were swept away and drown'd and their Languages and names obliterated and Scepters and Churches overturn'd our Brittains alone charg'd through and surviv'd the brunt of all Invasions and swame to Land through all those Billowes alive and safe with their Bibles in their hands and their Creed in their hearts and their own Language in their mouths living to see their Church restor'd to its old liberty and purity their Crown to their own Flesh and Bloud and the divided Island to great Brittain again Before their nunc Dimiâ—â—is and dissolution by Incorporation with the English Nation or rather Re-union with their Loeâ—â—â—a Brethren recovering themselves through Gods wonderful mercies and Resurrections to innocent and long sufferers and his blasts and periods upon Lines of Bloud and violence in 〈◊〉 Princes and Nobles and Generality into Oâ—a 〈…〉 again as was prov'd before diâ—â—câ—ing perhaps in names and Dialect but not in Nature and Humour and Succession to the like generous defence of their Faith and Glory being â—oth observâ—d in their Dispositions for the most part to be alike Fearless and Harmless and Warlike and Liberâ—l and Religious and subject to Indignation and neither the one nor the other our Modern or Middle or most
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