in general and to all Nations in particular that it is not his will we should be led by strangers more than by guides of our own flesh and bloud for this cause Christ took upon him humane nature when sent by God John 17.3 to direct the world For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels for this purpose Heb. 2.16 which though greatly Holy is yet Forraign to ours and as it were of another Country and their best messages seldome received by the best Christians without fear and horrour and suspition Luk. 2.9 Math. 28.45 But he took upon him the seed of Abraham being sent unto his own John 1.11 And in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren to be the better fitted for Sympathy towards us on his part and the belief thereof on ours Heb. 2.17 18. In like manner in sending his Apostles for the conversion of Nations the first fruits in every Nation that were converted to Christ were appointed for Bishops and Teachers as soon as might be to convert their Brethren and the Supemacy over the Gentile Churches not entail'd upon a Jewish line and succession forever as our first Teachers but upon the Natives themselves in every City and Country when fitted for it to Govern and direct their people and every Province to have its own Metropolitan chief within it self and unsubordinate to Foreigners And it is likewise observed that the needs of every Country in point of food and Raiment and Physick is best supplied from within it self and whether it be for the health or interest of this Nation to delight to wear forraign Liveries above its own I shall not now dispute and but that the Witchcraft and fascination that is in errour doth Seal up the Intellect it deludes less dispute there would be with all sober minds but that we have Governours of our own Nation praised be God fitted as likely for ability and compassion to be faithful guides to their Inferiour Brethren as the greatest Angels of the Church of Rome to whom were it alwayes certain they would prove good Angels we are not so near and dear as to our own Pastors who are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh And that our own wise Kings and Parliaments have and can make as wholesom Laws for this Church and State as the Conclave ever can or did how far and how dear soever fetched and bought To alledge as the Romanists do that Christ had his fix'd Officers his Apostles and Bishops in his Church before there were any Christian Kings which cannot be denyed that St. Peter was the chief of these Apostles which also may be granted for peace-sake as to his precedence but not any Jurisdiction that the present Popes are the successors of St. Peter in all his Authority and Holiness whether they follow him as he followed Christ or not and therefore are Superiours to all Christian Kings and Princes in their own Teritories as well as at Rome in all affairs relating to Religion is such a broken Title such a far-fetch'd Etymology and derivation of Authority as only fully proves the Antichristian humour of exalting themselves above every thing that is called God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Majesty as the word may imply which is the Jaundize that overspreads the face and vitals of that Church all over but cannot satisfie the conscience of any sober English Christian to relinquish and renounce his manifest allegiance and Subjection to his own Prince and Church to whom it is due to bestow the same to his own wrong and Spiritual danger as well as Temporal upon a forraign Power to whom it is not due and to rob his King to maintain a cheat For neither are our Brittish Churches more Subject to the Chair of Rome than is the Crown of France to the Crown of Spain which it had long a mind to but never any right neither if degrees and dignities be compared are Crowns to be Subject to the Mitre but the Mitre to the Crown For Kings if Heathen are without the Church and therefore not Subject to the Pope were he a lawful Vicar of Christ for what have I to do to judge them that are without them that are without God judgeth 1 Cor. 5.12 13. neither do they forfeit their Soveraignty by being Christian Kings by any colour or pretence of St. Peters supremacy St. Peter himself being judge who writes to his fellow Elders to feed the flock of God which was among them 1 Pet. 5.1 2. and to be subject for the Lords sake to the King as supreme for so is the will of God 1 Pet. 5.1 2. There is no where less love and honour from the heart to that blessed Apostle St. Peter no not perhaps in Hell than amongst them at Rome an out-side love or Philauty for Secular ends and designs they may have for him beyond any such as the Ephesian Silver-smiths had for Diana by which they had their wealth Act. 19.24 25. or Turks for Christs Sepulcher which turns to account unto them which is not their love to St. Peter but to themselves and bellies for if they had the least love and honour from the heart in Christ to his name and dignity they would rather chuse to starve or beg than face their frauds and cheats upon all degrees of men with his name and Authority or make him a complice or an Author to all their impious Usurpations and Rebellions against the Kings both of Heaven and Earth against his mind and principles as before For St. Peter himself from whom Popes derive all the power over Kings they can pretend to yea Christ himself from whom St. Peter had his and the whole Christian Church in his divine person while he was on Earth did submit to Magistrates and Presidents acknowledging their Power to be from Heaven John 19.11 and his Kingdom not to be of this world Joh. 18.36 as his pretended Vicars cannot also be by consequence for a Deputy cannot have more Power than his Soveraign St. Paul commands every soul to be Subject or subordinate to the higher Powers Rom. 13.1 which St. Chrysostom upon the place as before extends to Apostles and Ecclesiasticks as well as Lay and with good reason for no Crime can be Treason where is no Subjection and gives the title of excellency to Festus an Heathen President Act. 26. as St. Luke to Theophilus a Christian Luk. 1.3 an evident argument that neither would have denied the title of Majesty to a King and much more to a Christian King for as Servants gained no outward liberty by becoming Christians but continued Servants after as well as before their conversion 1 Cor. 7 20 21. So neither do Kings lose their Prerogatives or Supremacy by being Christians but are to be received into the Christian Society or Church in the same degree and quality they had in the Civil or State Superiour to all Inferiour to none And the Texts therefore that command
peculiar Ministers and Levites set a part by Gods Institution on purpose who were and are the Clergy of his Clergy and Heritage and the Priests to those in speciall that were and are his peculiar people and Priest-hood Exod. 19.6 Revel 1.6 The Church it self being Laick and common compar'd to these as was the World to the Church For no less is implied in the reason of those expressions where both the Christian and Jewish Church are said to be a Kingdom of Priests as in Exodus or Kings and Priests to God as in the Revelation they being in special manner Kings and Priests and Clergy from whom the name and title is deriv'd to others for some likeness and comparison for what the Copy is that is the Original much more And if Christs mission was not from Secular but Divine Authority so neither is the Institution of the Evangelical Priesthood from man but from God being sent from Christ as he was sent from God Joh. 20.21 Bishops and Presbyters being equally from Christs own Ordination and appointment though not of equal order and degree between themselves but in several respects the one Superiour and which may seem strange inferiour likewise to the other For the better understanding whereof the distinction between Spiritual and Temporal is to be remembered and considered in its Primitive and Apostolical acception and not the modern Roman sense who confound Heaven and Earth in their notions as they do in their values and affections the one referring to the present visible world the object of sense the other to the Church or Invisible world to come wherein Christians live here by Faith the Church being more excellent than this world as eternity is more than time and yet this world more excellent than the Church which is dead unto it in the estimation of sense as is the living more excellent than the dead Eccles 9.5 whereby is discoverable the several Superiorities between Episcopacy and Presbytery in the same person in whom both are co-incident as they are in every Bishop and those Elders in Timothy who for Ruling well and labouring also in the word and Doctrine were counted worthy of double honour 1 Tim. 5.17 where in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have a clavis to decide this difference for the habitude and Character of a Bishop is that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ruler or Prince as the Brittains term their Arcsh-Bishop of Carleon to Monk Agustine but that of a Priest or Presbyter is the form and quality of a Subject or Servant or Labourer which two notions greatly differ like God and Creature But then their several allotments or respective worlds are to be considered wherein the one and the other are said to labour or bear Rule And clear first it is that the Presbyters labour as a Servant under Christ in his word and Sacraments is within the Vineyard of the Church and therefore belonging to Eternity as the Church it self doth and that the Rule of the Bishop in the second place is Temporal by consequence and about order in this present world and the better preservation of the Temporal out-side of the Church for to affirm it to be a Spiritual Rule over the Church in its in-side which is Eternal and Christs own Peculiar Jurisdiction were very inconvenient and unsound And this Temporal Superiority over the Temporal part of an Ecclesiastical Community as to all Causes and persons that be within it for any Society whether Sacred or Civil can no more subsist or fare well without a Governour or a Chief than a body without a head continues in Bishops by Christs establishment till the rising of the Sun that is till the Civil Magistrate of that Province become Christian whose defect they before supplied as Guardians and then it doth set or cease but Heliacally as the Stars set in the morning in deference to a greater lustre that is better able to do their work continuing still in the same firmament and Sanhedrin under his Rayes and bound nevertheless by their office and duty to be ready to shine again without him as before in case of darkness or Eclipse as was said before And it well appears how the Christian Temporal Magistrates and the Church have understood one another in reference to their several bounds and limits by those parcels of Ecclesiastical Authority the one hath resum'd as his right and the other willingly quitted and yeilded thereunto as just upon his arrivall to Supremacy in Church as well as state For we never find him offering to touch any part of the Priestly office or the Power of the Keys nor to preach or Baptize or absolve or consecrate which acts and Authorities belong to another Spiritual Kingdom farr enough out of his Temporal Dominion and Jurisdiction But several parts of Episcopal Rule and Government have been rightly assum'd and yielded to him in Generall Counsels and in our Church of England in particular wherein he is declared supreme in all Causes and over all persons Ecclesiastical which was the Original Right of Metropolitans but since held by them as was fit not as Soveraigns any more but as subordinate to their Christian Magistrates And by this Hypothesis is resolvable whether Bishops ordain Priests as they are Priests or as they are Rulers which would make for the strength and re-allyance of the Protestant Interest For Bishops cannot Ordain of themselves without Priests to assist much less can Priests Ordain without a Bishop to preside where he may be had and Christian Kings offer not to resume as their temporal right any part of the Ordination or Consecration of either sort but only nominate our Bishops in the right of Patrons or Founders or as representers of the whole Community by whom they were in the Primitive Church elected as likewise in the Brittish Therefore the Priest who is but a Labourer is Inferiour and subordinate in this World to the Bishop who is a Ruler by Divine Order and designation not to be violated by any without the guilt and scandal of being Rebells against Superiours And the Bishop in his Chair as a Ruler is Inferiour to himself in his Pulpit as Christs Labourer and Preacher in reference to the other World For it is a higher excellency to be the least in Eternity than the greatest in time to subdue sin than to subdue the World Psal 84.11 Which yet is so as to Faith and reason and the Consciences of all sober men with their own yet not as to sense or the Law and course of this present life and general Practice whereby through humane infirmity very few yet not wanting in our times have been observed to be as ambitious of the labour of Converting Souls as of the honour and command of a Rich Bishoprick though the worst and Welsey himself at their dying hour have yielded to this Truth Whereby no Inferiour Minister that is diligent in his work and calling can have
want that make it their blind study and zeal to enslave this Ancient free Church and Nation with their own Souls and judgments and likewise their posterity to a titular degenerate Church that stands depos'd and Excommunicate in all their Clergy and Laity for disobedience to Christian Laws by all the general Councils that have met both the best and worst by 1. Nicenum Concilium Can. 6. Anno Christi 325. 2. Constantinopol 1 um Can. 2. Anno Christi 381. 3. Ephesinum Can. 8. Anno Christi 431. 4. Chalcedonense Can. 12. Anno Christi 451. 5. 6. Quini-sextum in Trullo Can. 55. Anno Christi 681. 7. Nicenum secundum Can. 3. Anno Christi 788. 8. Constantinople 4 tum Can. 1 12. Anno Christi 871. Besides Nullities from Invasion which the true Catholick Church of Christ in all Ages hath so much abhorr'd The Roman-Catholick Church in England hath several Nullities in the Ordinations of her chief Clergy all along had their entrance been Caanonical and with Invitation Not to mention Monk Augustine's own Ordination the first pretended Archbishop which against so many Councils he went over Seas to receive from the hands of Etherius Bishop of Arles by the order of his Pope when there were Bishops enough in Brittain who had right to do it and without whom the Ordination was invalid and of no effect by the Canons as well as his whole clerical degree and all his Christian capacity was under disability by his Intrusion unless c Concil Arelat Can. 2. he had remain'd in France in the Province wherein he was Ordain'd Therefore Mellitus and Justus whom he ordain'd alone the one for London the other for Rochester were no Bishops in Law because ordain'd by him that was none himself and by him d Concil Arelat Can. 20. alone without other Bishops to assist which was also against the Canons as shall further appear Laurentius his Ordination the next Archbishop of Canterbury after Augustine was null and void several wayes because Ordain'd by Augustine himself for his Successor in his life-time which Act of his was contrariant to the 23th Canon of the Council of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That a Bishop ought not to ordain and constitute his own Successor after him in his life-time for if any such thing be done such Act or constitution is void and null but let him rather observe the Laws of the Church which prescribes such promotion to be no otherwise legally made but by a Synod and the suffrages of Bishops who after the death of the Predecessor have power and Authority to chuse for successor him they shall esteem most worthy The 76 Canon of the Apostles is interpreted by Scholiasts to the same effect And this Act was the more inexcusable in our Puny Augustine because the great St. Augustine to whom it was a grief to be chosen Bishop of Hippo in the life-time of his Predecessor through Inadvertence or Ignorance of the Canon had provided a Canon in the Council of Carthage confirm'd afterwards in a general Council that the Decrees of Councils should be read at all Ordinations for the future to prevent the like Inconvenience It was likewise void because done by Augustine who himself was no lawful Archbishop and also done by him alone which was a further Illegality as before Neither could Mellitus who was no Bishop because ordain'd by Augustine be a lawful Archbishop in the third place nor Justus in the fourth by the same reason nor Paulinus Archbishop of York because ordain'd by Justus Nor Honorius a fift Archbishop of Canterbury because Ordain'd by Paulinus nor Felix Bishop of the East-Angels if Ordained by Honorius which is an Additional Argument for the ascribing of the Conversion of that Province to Brittish Ministry Thus having prov'd the Ordinations of such Archbishops of Canterbury as were Italians to be nul and void which was the first foundation of the Romish-Catholick Faith in England Adeodatus the 6th Arch-Bishop who was an English-man but not of the Brittish or Oswaldian Northern Ordination which was the same but of the Romish being Ordain'd by one single Bishop Ithamar Bishop bf Rochester as before because there were no more left of the Roman way throughout the Isle his Ordination was also void as well as the rest by several Canons of the Church whereof I shall recite a few in such Order as shall give a further sight and prospect of the Government and Ordinations of the first Primitive Church followed by no Church more exactly than by our own Ancient Brittish the first Canon shall be the fift of Sardyca by which it appears a Bishop was to be chosen by the People and all the Bishops of the same Province meeting Synodically and what care is there taken least any one should be unsummoned or unacquainted with an Ordination that was to ensue as if all were void if any one were neglected or passed by And the description 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a lawful Synod for such a purpose in the 16 Canon of Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so to be understood that then and there a Synod is Right and Perfect were the Metropolitan himself is present as well as the rest of his Brethren For neither were to Act without the other by the 34 Canon of the Apostles before Cited which Orders the Bishops of every Nation to know their Metropolitan and Chief on the one hand and to esteem him as their head or their Ecclesiastical Prince And on the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that the Metropolitan should do nothing without their advice and liking for so Concord and Unanimity should be Established and God should be glorified through Christ in the Holy Spirit Which is all comprizâ—d in the 4th Canon of Nice A Bishop ought to be Ordain'd by all the Bishops of his Province if it be possible but if this be Impracticable through some urgent necessity or two great distance of place there must certainly be three Bishops at the least gather'd together at the place and they to have the Proxies of those that are absent and so to Proceed to Ordination but the Confirmation of the Elect must ever belong in every Province to the Metropolitan By which is understood the Right Original meaning of the first Canon of the Apostles generally practiz'd at this day whereby a Bishop is to be Ordain'd by two or three Bishops And that Originally Bishops were to be Chosen and Consecrated and Confirm'd by the whole Communalty of their Province as well Lay as Clergy as is evident out of Cyprian and the 13 Canon of Laodicea which altered that custom and is acknowledged by the Scholiast upon this Canon and by the Principal parts of the Community which answer to the whole and by the King and Head of the Community which represents them all so our Brittish Bishops were chosen in a Synod saith Cambrensis and we have shewed before that our Metropolitans were David by King Arthur Dubritius
by Ambrosius in a solemn Assembly Cleri Populi of Parliament and Convocation to express this matter in modern Terms By which may be guessed the irregularity and invalidity of Adeodatus his Ordination which was Ordain'd only by one Bishop of his Province who had received his own from such as were no lawfull Bishops as before and of Theodorus Arch-Bishop the Restorer of the Romish Religion in England who was Ordain'd by none in all this Province and came hither with Tyrannical Power against the will of the Bishops of this Province and to displace such as were regularly Ordain'd and Consecrated by the Bishops of this Territory who had lawful Power as Ceadda Archbishop of York by name whereby himself in the sence of the Catholick Church in the Canons before recited was neither Bishop nor Priest nor within Christian Communion whereby the Authority of the rest by and after him Ordain'd and the nature of the whole roman-catholick-Roman-Catholick-Church built in this land upon such rotten Pillars may be scann'd and judg'd of with trust that there is mercy and compassion with God for the sincere in heart and Vengeance and Indignation against insolent disturbers and Tyrannical Hypocrites Which by the way might be the occasion that our Politick Popes in the Controversies heretofore berween the Sees of York and Canterbury for Priority after both sides were craftily well squeezed and lurch'd in their Purses referr'd this matter out of their moderation to be ended and detetmin'd by our own Kings as Edward the third did it under his great Seal as before whereby some Authority was by the way acquir'd to his Romish See of Canterbury which before he well knew had none at all by Church Canons by the Royal Patents of our Soveraign Kings which are favour'd by General a Con. in Trul. Can. 38. Chalc. Can. 17 Councils else for Kings to meddle in such Ecclesiastical concerns had been to touch the Apple of the Popes eye and to incurr the displeasure of St. Peter and St. Paul forever to the manifest hazard of their Crowns and Souls as there are Instances good store in matters of less offence and far more Temporal in their natures But our Popes will not stand to any Council but take themselves to be above them all which is the true reason of the Schism between the Eastern and Western Church or indeed of the Schism and departure of Rome from the whole Christian Church the true Catholick being ever govern'd by Laws and Canons but the Roman-Catholick affecting to be absolute and to Rule all Churches by its own Arbitary Will and Lust The former Arguments from General Councils though they are sufficient to satisfie all honest and right Christians yet our Popes are no more concluded by them than was Cromwell by Magna Charta unless therefore the Nullities of the Romish Church in England be prov'd from their own Rules and Principles and from their own mouths against themselves they are not prov'd home enough as to them to instance in two or three So tender are they and averse from shedding of bloud or would at least somtimes be so Accounted that their Clergy cannot be present b Con. Lateran Can. 18. at a Sanguinary Tryal but if they have the ill fate to kill a man though through mistake and chaunce they become Irregular for it and depriv'd of their holy Orders irrecoverably Much more then are they forever unclerk'd by Murder whereof if our Augustine the Monk was manifestly guilty in principal manner not towards one but towards one or two thousand Innocents no men of Arms but of the Book and Gown and Prayer then the Orders he had or conferr'd after that on others as on Justus and Mellitus made Bishops by him after this fact came all to nought as to them in fact or desert and their whole Romish Church and Ministry by consequence but that he was principally guilty of the barbarous Murder and Massacre of our Brittish Monks at Bangor as before c Juell 5 part defence 438. who by good Relation came out Bare-foot and Bare-head to beg their lives and was present at the place to encourage the slaughter for the better propagating of the Romish Faith or at the least had a great hand in this bloud is not denyed by impartial Antiquaries yea those methods us'd by Romish forgeries to palliate his crime by corrupting Bede's text and also by Enthusiastical Hypocritical praedictions to father this execrable massacre upon the Spirit of God these Arts and devices are so far from excusing that they prove and fasten it the more upon him and in a very high and nefarious manner His Orders therefore and his after Actings in the See of Canterbury were all null by their own Rules And his Communion and much more his Fatherhood in the Christian Faith to be disown'd and detested by all English Christians and true Catholicks forever in their own defence Besides Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury at a Council at Herutford pass'd this Canon which ownes and espouses the like Canons of the Ancient Church with their penalties d H. Spelman Concil p. 153. Vt nullus Episcoporum c. That no Bishop Invade the Diocess of another but rest content with the Government of his own charge But such was Brittain towards Theodore and to the Pope that sent him as well as to his Successors that followed him as before is largely and fully prov'd the Faith here being planted by the Apostles or their followers among the Brittains and by the Brittains amongst the English Therefore Theodore the restorer of the Romish Faith in England stands condemn'd he and his new Church and Successors by his own Law and sentence as well as Augustine its first founder Withall Pope Gregory himself who was the first root and contriver of our English Popery allowes not his Augustine to entrench upon the Gallican Church or the Bishop of Arles his Jurisdiction because saith he that were against Scripture and the Ancient Institution of the Fathers pointing at the several Canons of Councils before recited and to thrust one's Sickle into another mans Harvest But Brittain was a Province ever more distinct and exempt from Rome than Gallia as before is prov'd Therefore Augustine for his Intrusion stands condemn'd by his Pope And his Pope by himself for sending him And Theodore and his Successors by the same definition Withall it is observable why yet Pope Gregory subjected our Brittish but not the Gallican Church to the Romish Jurisdiction of Monk Augustine because saith he e Bede lib. 1. c. 28. ab Antiquis praedecessorum meorum temporibus Pallium Arelatensis Episcopus accepit I find the Bishops of Arles to have had their Pall from Rome in the times of my Ancient Predecessors that is because France was subject to Rome Brittain before was not Now this modest and humble Pope declares in several of his lib. 4. Epist 76 83 178. 194. Antiquitates Eccl. p. 43 45. Epistles extant
or transgressors of that Law and Law-giver there is but one who can save and destroy James 4.12 The blessed Lord Jesus Judge of quick and dead at the last day whose deputies on Earth in the Interim are consciences in Private souls and Magistrates and Governours in publick bodies who are as the souls of such bodies whether Temporall in Externall or Ecclesiastical in more Internall matters and concerns who are all both Private and publick conscience Subject and accountable unto him who alone is Judge and Soveraign And therefore we can do nothing against Christ upon any mans Authority whatsoever and being found faithful to him the sole and Supreme Judge and Soveraign of our souls we trust to be found Gods Catholicks though we are but Hereticks to the Pope who is not our Judge rejoycing in mans aspersion while we have Gods Absolution to wipe it off for not he who commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor. 10.8 SECTION II. Of the true Mother Church in particular to all Christians in respest of their In-side and RomesVsurpation HAving shewed that no Christian Churches or persons are subject to the Pope while himself is not subject to Christ the right Superiour and Soveraign over all nor bound to offend against Christ to please his pretended Vicar all being bound to withdraw their Communion from him who shakes off the undoubted Soveraign over all I will further shew that though the Church of Rome were sound and un-corrupt in its Doctrines and Loyalty which it is very far from yet it neither is nor was ever any mother Church to our British Church nor can have any right or title to its subjection or obedience It never had any Original motherhood or superiority over us of right nor in fact at any time but by the Concession of our Princes imposed upon by its arts which they may justly recal and take away at their pleasure as hath been done So it appears it's themselves that necessitate us to desert their Communion out of Christian Loyalty to our Saviour by them first deserted and deposed in a treasonable manner and his glorious Majesty chang'd into the similitude of a Calf or a Mortal Creature that perisheth which is the first spring and root of the rest of their desperate and monstrous Errours which bear the manifest spots and tokens of Antichristianism in the strength and infallibility of their Delusions Though we can and ought to bewail and compassionate their condition and slavery yet to return to their bosome as to a Mother Church we understand not how it is our duty or sober obedience were it sound or healthy yet we doubt not but she hath angl'd several sincere and ignorant and unwary Sons of this Church with that bait We confess we have been pin'd and stary'd under her for hundreds of years as under a hard and cruel Stepmother while harbour'd by the Fathers of our Countrey imposed upon by her inchantments whose issue by her as by a second venter upon her divorce became appurtenant to the Father and are incorporated with the first stock and Family but sure we are she never teemed of our Brittish Churches who never were the Daughters of her womb nor sucked our first milk from her breasts For whether their inside or their outside or extraction be consider'd they appear to have no descent from Rome Neither can they instance or insist upon any other point or manner of Pedegree and derivation of one Church from another For as it is with every private man if his inside and Soul and Spirit be examined whence it came it came from above from the Father of our Spirits Heb. 12.9 and to return in peace to him that gave it is its utmost aim and bliss Eccles 12.7 If the outside or his body it came from the Earth whence it was first taken and whither it must return If his intermediate descent he springs and proceeds from Fathers and progenitors of the Flesh and owns their superiority and Discipline and honours their names and memories So it is with all Churches and Christian Societies By our inside we are not from below or from beyond the Sea but from Heaven Jerusalem above being our mother and Jesus our King the King and Lord of Souls By our outside we are under our own Kings and Governours on Earth as our Nursing Fathers and Mothers according to the Holy Prophecy As to our descent Old Christian Britannia is our Mother to whom the Antient Church of Rome is Junior in the Faith and much more any of her Perking Daughters or Clergy which shall be further proved in every particular And first as to the inside of all Christian Churches and of the Church of Rome it self if she will be a Church of Christ and of thousands in her that have not bowed the heart to any but to Christ known to God There is no Mother-Church to be accounted of but one only the Spouse of Christ expressed by name in Scripture Heb. 12.22 Not the City of Rome who rather is under ill report in them but the City of the living God The Heavenly Jerusalem which Gal. 3.26 is by the Apostle Stil'd the Mother of us all and which is free and answering unto Sarah whereas Jerusalem on Earth answers Hagar in her servitude and yet Jerusalem below is more a Mother of all Christian Churches than Rome it self or any other here below for Rome her self had her extraction thence her St. Peter and his Chair and the Gospel and Christ himself she and all must derive originally from Sion And if the Mother be not free much less her Daughters for no Soul or Church can be said to be free in her exile and servitude whiles she serves any other but her own natural Prince who is Christ alone the High Priest and Bishop of our Souls who is at the right hand of God in that Heavenly City and Assembly of the Faithful For Christ is the sole Monarch and Legislator in this Spiritual Kingdom and none are free Subjects here but those who obey him alone and no other Controller His will alone is the Law and measure of good and evil and duty and transgression He enacts and repeals and dispenses and absolves he alone can search and reward and punish Souls The everlasting concerns of Eternity and the secrets of mens hearts transcend all humane authority and cognizance and reach No secular Powers are to tread within this Temple but are to stand without in the Court though Christians and in the further Court of the Gentiles if Heathen or Antichristian Christs Deputies and delegates in this Heavenly work and Province are all Bishops and Curates who by their life and Doctrine set forth his true and lively word and rightly and duely Administer his Holy Sacraments who yet have no power or property or Authority but from him Neither is the word they preach 2 Thes 2.13 nor the Sacraments they administer 1 Cor. 4.1 nor the Absolution they
Zebadia the Ruler of the house of Juda for all the Kings matters v. 11. To assemble Synods and Councells about Sacred Affairs for settling the Ark as did David 1 Chron 13.2 For dedicating the Temple as did Solomon 1 Reg. 8. and reforming the Nation and bringing them back unto the Lord God of their Fathers as did Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 19.4 To maintain their Command and Soveraignity in such matters not only over all the people in general 1 King 23.21 but over the High Priests themselves in particular by assigning their work and duty 2 King 22.8 12. Where Jehoshaphat layes command upon Hilkiah the High-Priest thrusting them out of their High-Priesthood for their Disloyalty as Solomon did Abiathar 1 King 2.27 And sparing them their Lives in courtesie to their Coat v. 26. And this their pious care and zeal for God and Religion which in the Popes account were little less than intermeddling in other mens rights is recorded in Gods account as their Eternal praise and honour and good service to their Countrey And like Josiah was there no King before him that turn'd to the Lord with all his heart and with all his Soul and with all his might Neither arose there any like him 2 King 23.25 And Jehoshaphat sought to the Lord God of his Father and walked in his Commandments and not after the doings of Israel Therefore the Lord established the Kingdom in his hands and all Juda brought to Jehoshaphat Presents and he had Riches and honour in abundance 2 Chron. 17.5 And the contrary neglect about the Worship of God in their wicked Kings and making their people to sin by their defection or ill example was the ruine of their Land 2 Chron. 36.17 And a Brand of Infamy upon their names in particular forever as the followers of Jereboam the Son of Nebat which made Israel to sin and therefore liker to Satan therein than to Gracious Kings and Fathers And what was thus their bounden duty and honour in the Kings of Israel to imploy their Authority and Government for God and his Church upon the like ground and proportion is the duty and interest of all Christian Kings for a Kingdom that becomes Christian becomes a Church thereby or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 3.5 the Heritage and Clergie of God a Christian Kingdom is a new Israel of God Gal. 6.16 and Christian Kings by consequence are heyres of the same Prerogative and Supremacy that did belong in Israel to the Kings of Israel where the High-Priests were subordinate in externals to the Kings and not the Kings to the Priests It is a contradiction to be a King and to be Subject wherein Popes are made Supreme Kings are made Subjects there cannot be two Supremes in the same Church or Kingdom and it were a great snare and Spiritual misery to be subjects under two contrary Soveraigns and to be bound in conscience to obey contrary injunctions and commands whereby inevitably their obedience to the one becomes their sin and transgression against the other Soveraign which is the condition of Roman Catholicks who own the Pope for supreme to the wrong of those Christians Soveraigns over them whose right it is whereby their conscientious Catholick obedience becomes unconscionable disobedience to their right Superiour It concerns and behoves them therefore and every other Christian subject in whom the word of Christ ought to dwell richly in all wisdom Col. 3.16 to be fully satisfied who is to rule them He that mistakes his Soveraign will mistake his Loyalty The Old and New Testament knows but two Soveraigns God or the King Christ or Caesar 2. Chron. 19.11 Math. 22.21 so the Jewish so the Ancient Christian Church so the Church of England held upon the Reformation when the whole Nation both Parliament and Convocation unanimously agreed that the Pope had no more to do in England than any other Bishop The Soveraignty of the Lord the Pope starting up when the Church began to degenerate strongly savours of a fifth Monarchy or an Antichristian erection Christ only is the Immediate Soveraign of the Inside of men in his Church Kings the Immediate Soveraigns of the outside in their Dominions the Pope or Prelate is Soveraign in neither Pet. 5.3 Rom. 13.1 therefore there is no obedience due from the heart and conscience to spirituall Governours but wherein they agree in their Doctrines with Christs mind and clash not in their outward order and Discipline with the rights of Christian Kings for delegates are to be obeyed in and for and not against their Principals and the soul is subject to none but to a supreme either the Lord Christ who is absolutely such or our Lord the King who is such in externals by Christs concession Prov. 8.15 subject also it is to Governours but for his sake and by his command that is to say it 's subject not to them but to him But it will be still objected what have Kings to do with Religion that wholly belongs to Spiritual persons and the Clergy and to the Pope the Patriarch in such matters and by consequence Supreme and it must still be answered and acknowledged That the substantial part of Christian Religion lyes out of the Horizon and Territory of Kings in another world as it were where yet none is Soveraign but Christ alone Popes and Bishops and Inferiour Priests being all officers and Ministers under him in this Kingdom all of equal degree and power without difference in their Authorities or Keys saving that in equity and merit they are foremost and chiefest who are most painful and faithful in this trust Kings well observe their bounds therein they do not as they ought not intermeddle in such matters between the soul and God as are of divine Institution or immortal importance they meddle not with the Priestly office and great would be the peace of Churches and of the world if the Pope did as little meddle with the Kingly they take not upon them to preach and publish the Laws and mind of Christ in his name and Authority nor to denounce wrath and War against offenders high or low nor of themselves to Excommunicate the unworthy from the Holy Society of Christs Church and all hopes of mercy till they repent and change nor to arbitrate as for Christ who are fit and worthy of Grace or pardon neither do they travel between Heaven and Earth upon messages between Christ and souls as the Angels upon the ladder being now Gods mouth to the people in wholsom Counsels and Instructions anon the peoples mouths to God in humble confessions or thanskgivings as neither did the Kings of Israel ever offer to enter the holy place or order the Shew Bread or Sacrifice or incense which might have been done with the same skill though not with the same Authority by Common persons as by Priests and hath been attempted by one or two but to their wo No under both Law and Gospel these offices did solely belong to
Bede lib. 3. c. 25. Key upon him in-displeasure and shut him out of Heaven whereupon Bishop Colman Wilfrids Respondent and the third from Aidan being discountenanced in his tradition by the Kings revolt retired with most of his Brittish Disciples to Ynis-bo-find in Ireland the Authority of his other Doctrines being much weakened and several scandalized at this victory of confident Ignorance over godly sincerity So well do our Romanists agree with their predecessors in Titus c. 1. v. 9 10. vain talkers and deceivers who subvert whole Houses Churches for filthy Lucres sake The Brittish planters however had continued in the North 30 years Aidan 20 Finan 7 Colman 3 a sufficient time and space for the sowing of the everlasting Gospel amongst those Nothern English throughly which continued as to its substance amongst them from that time to this But it was not enough thus to wound the Brittish Church but they had breaches in their own to heal and make up their Roman Plantion was so decayed and extirpated even in Kent its last retreat and their successions and Ordinations so fully defeated and interrupted that as we had occasion often to observe there was but one Bishop in all the k Bed l. 3. c. 28. Isle of Brâ—â—tain then and he afterwards a Simonaick that was not of Brittish Ordination A full demonstration of the recovery of the whole Brittish Church from the Roman yoak at that time before Theodore's arrival to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Anno 668. And herein Bede's disingenuity appears out of wonted envy to the Brittains that he hath not discovered who consecrated these new English-Brittish-Bishops over all the land whether Aidan or Finan who were Metropolitans of York all the while though they us'd no Pall and chose their residence in Lindisfarn or Helyge or Holy Island as the learned l Usher c. 5. p. 78. Vsherâ— proves out of Stephanus Bedes Cotemporary in Wilfrids life or whether they were Consecrated by Ced at London the old Metropolitan See which Canterbury had for some time invaded Therefore a new consultation is now to be taken for Rome's revival in England Oswi being now fully of the Roman way and Egbert King of Kent m W. Malmesbury de Gestis Angl. c. 3. Bed lib. 3. c. 28. lib. 4. c. 1. advise together and send to Rome for help to procure an Archbishop thence for Canterbury to ordain other Bishops throughout the Land of a Roman Race and Stamp Wiggard is sent as was said and never returned Then Wilfrid after him who is ordained by Agilbertus Archbishop of Paris bred in Ireland as afore who making too long a stay The meek and humble Ceadda Brother of Ced is sent to Deus Dedit at Canterbury to take his Ordination such as it was being himself Ordained and Consecrated but by one Bishop as afore who being dead before Ceadda could arrive at Canterbury he is over-rul'd to go to Winchester to Bishop Wini who though of the Roman way but French takes two Brittish Bishops to joyn with him in the Consecration of Ceadda to be Archbishop of York n Bed lib. 3. c. 23. there being no other Roman Bishops left then in the land Therefore the Pope makes hast to raise the Tabernacle of the English-Roman-Church which was quite fallen to ground Adrian a Roman is pitch'd upon but refuses out of modesty but inward motives are as well discover'd by subsequent events as Italian pretences then Theodorus a Graecian of Tarsus St. Paul's City is pitch'd upon and Consecrated by Pope Vitalian which argued him to be wise in his Generation and design for all England receives and submits to him o Idem lib 4. c. 2. say our Histories and to none that came from Rome in like manner Eastern Theodore better suiting with the humour and hopes of the Brittish Chuâ—ch than Roman Adrian who comes to England nevertheless along with Theodore and is made Abbot of Reculver to be a Spy upon our Greek Archbishop lest he should comply too much with the Brittains who liked and used Greek Customs But Theodore forgets his own Church and Country which all men love for the sake of dignity and takes Roman Tonsure which occasioned his stay at Rome for some Months for the growing of the Hair on the forhead which the Greek Tonsure shav'd off and as it were to remove all suspition of his Inclination after Greek rites more than Roman becomes the fiercest persecutor of any other of our Brittish Customs and Ordinations sends for Ceadda before him questions him for his Consecration as unlawful because not from Rome But he meekly answers p Bed lib. 4. c. 2. Voce humillimà saith Bede si me inquit nosti Episcopatum non ritè suscepisse libenter ab Officio discedo quippe qui neque me unquam hoc esse dignum Arbritrabar sed obedientiae caus jussus subire hoc quamvis indignus consensi If you know saith he that I have not been made Bishop Arch-Bishop in right manner I am ready and willing to quit the Office for indeed I never judg'd my self worthy of it but out of meer obedience being commanded to under take it I yielded thereto though unworthy whereupon Theodore would not depose him but only complete his ordination after the Roman manner But Bede delivers not the truth therein for it s known to himself he was laid aside for this and q lib. 4. c. 3. Wilfrid put in his place to be Archbishop of York and he retir'd to his Monastery in the North from whence he was invited by Wolfer to be Jaruma's Successor at Lichfeild where a magnificent Church as likewise at Shrewsbury in the same Diocess bears his name and memory to this day But to observe the proportions of this Roman Reformation here pride overcomes humility and a slavish Forreigner turns an upright Native out of his Right and dignity by his holiness order and justice But Wilfrid was scarce warm in his seat but he was outed by Egfrid Oswi's Svccessor his Queen and the Clegy all joyning against him for his a G. Malmesb. de Gestis Pontific lib. 3. de Episc Eborac Spelm. Concil p. 157. avarice and pride and pompous retinue and pluralities of Abbeys and Gold and Silver Plate c. and Theodore his Creator joyning with the stronger side against him which shewed the root of his Apostacy and by what Lust and humour he was prevail'd upon by the Arts of Rome to trouble and subvert the Brittish Church and himself Heaven frowning upon this unhappy Revolution Anno 664. with Comets and total b Usher p. 1164. Bede lib. 4. c. 13.5 20. Eclipses and unheard of b Usher p. 1164. Bede lib. 4. c. 13.5 20. Plagues and Sickness and Famine 40 or 50. together b Usher p. 1164. Bede lib. 4. c. 13.5 20. tumbling themselves from Rockes into the Sea out of weariness of such a life And though Will. Malmesbury saith that England was c G.
29. Usher p. 69. Paulinus for York and to r Bede l. 1. c. 28 29. Usher p. 69. Siagrius of Augustodunum or Autun advancing his Seat thereby to be next in Dignity to Lyons And in like manner to several other with Canting Epistles touching their use and the Office of them that are exalted to wear them at proper seasons The first conditions that attend it were 1. It was to be given to none but first upon the score of Å¿ Greg. lib. 7 Epist 5. c. 5. Epist 114. high merit 2. Nor without great t Ibid. entreaty 3. And without u Ibid. Platina in Leone secundo all Fee which last came to be dispens'd with after it was well rung into credit by other Arts and divine additional definitions of it that it was taken from x Pontif. Rom. Clem. p. 8. 86. off the body of St. Peter having vertue in it y Innocentius â—tius de Officio misse l. 1. c. 51. Pontif Rom. Ibid. to give plenitude of Archiepiscopal power to the wearer And by this time lest the cheapness should bring it into contempt it was not parted with but for a great and round sum and an Oath z Antiq Eccl. in Deneo p. 302. of Allegiance and particular fidelity to the Pope and to be a Pontif. Rom p. 89. buried with every Archbishop and purchas'd b Gratian distinct 100 a new within three Months upon pain of suspension and deprivation Thomas c Eadmer Histor Nov. lib. 4. p. 98. Archbishop of York half broak himself in the time of Henry the first to gain it to have his will against the Archbishop of Canterbury Walâ—er Grey d Math. Paris 1215. p. 463. Bishop of Worcester laid down 10000 l. Sterling now 30000 l. to be translated by it to the See of York The Bishops of Mentz e Fox Acts and Mon. vol. 1. p. 223. used to purchase it at 1000. then 20000 25000 and 27000 Florens Our Archbishops of Canterbury and York came at last to a certainty of f Godwin Catalog p. 133. 5000 Duckets and the rest of the Bishops to a known proportion for their Investitutes which in 40 years compass were computed in Henry the 8th's time g Antiquitates Ecclesiasticae p. 326. to amount to one hundred and sixty thousand pounds Sterling Now this last Title by Pall the Ancient Brittish Church never heeded as appears by Pope Gregory's Confession upon search of his h Bede 1. 28. Registers before and therefore that allegation in i Girald Cambrens Itinerarium Cambr. lib. 2. c. 1. Cambrensis and Hoveden of 25 Archbishops of St. Davids who succeeded St. David and used a Pall till Sampson who carried it to Dole is inconsistent with that utter enmity that continued some hundreds of years between the Romish and the Brittish Church unless as the Learned Vsher k Usher p. 74 75. proves it be understood of Sampson of York that went over to Dole as Pope Innâ—cent himself could tell k Usher p. 74 75. and not of Sampson of St. David who might have had a Pall remaining at York from the guift of Emperours as usual and not of the Pope whose Supremacy here was not then acknowledg'd Neither were our Metropolitans the less Metropolitans for the want of the Roman Pall for they had all other requisites saving l that one which is sufficient and the rather because they were as Perfect Metropolitan Bishops as the Pope himself before the time of Pope Marcus who first us'd a Pall because upon the Summons of Constantine the great they Sate as Archbishops and were so allowed of by the great Council of Arles and by Pope Sylvester himself or his Deputies who made no exceptions then against their dignities and sitting as we can read or hear of which was several years before the time of Pope Marcus the first Founder of the Pall And therefore their Metropolitan rights which were firm and valid so long before in the esteem of those two great powers who were able to create and abrogate such dignities Emperours and great Councils could not be infring'd in after Ages for want of that suspicious new mark and Livery Apoc. 13.16 17. that was to be far fought and dear bought and after all impertinent and Insignificant for the Brittains had not Faith or Brains to believe all the Lyes and false suppositions that are required to support the Credit and Veneration of this Pall. 1. That it was taken from off the body of St. Peter as is alledg'd by the Pope m Antiq. Eccl. 302. in Deneo or his Deputy for him at the Altar that being moulder'd into dust and ashes so long time agoe Nor 2. that his dead body were it in visible being could by this contact communicate such sanctity and authority to a patch of Wollen Cloth 3. That this Cloth sanctified by such Contact can alone conveigh to Archbishops their lawful power of Ordination and the rest of their Archiepiscopal Authority 4. That it cannot invest the Successor with the same power but by a Canonical Flannel Act must be buried out of the way as useless For a touch of a Loadstone serves to attract many needles one after another and the Father's Cloak may serve his Child or some poor body after his death 5. n Pontific Rom p. 68. That all Consecrations of men and Sacraments are void and useless without this ragge upon which the Authority of the Archbishop depends as the Ordinations of Ministers and Bishops upon the Authority of the Archbishop and all their lawful Consecrations of Sacraments upon the Authority and validity of their Ordinations Nor 6. That the Primitive Church for the first three hundred or five hundred years was no Church and had no lawful Governours nor Metropolitans nor Bishops nor Ministers either to Ordain or Consecrate Successors or to Preach the Word or to administer Sacraments with a right Calling because they had not this Roman Pall. All these fundamental points of the new Roman-Catholick Faith could not go down with our Orthodox and sober Ancestors But since the Church with them at Rome hath got new marks and definitions and Palls and Fees are now its measures aâ—â—Touchstones instead of Christ and the Heart This Controversy is now reducible to a narrower compass to a Dilemma and a short Issue The Dilemma this The Brittish Churches and their Metropolitical Sees and Authorities upon Monk Augustâ—â—â—'s Arrival hither were for want of Palls which 〈◊〉 implyed against them by Pope Gregory either all null and void and vacant or not If the latter then Pope Gregory and Augustine his Missionary were manifest Schismaticks and worse as shall be furher shewed for Invading Sees and Consecrating and Ordaining Ministers and Bishops in other 〈◊〉 Dioceses against their wills and rights and the Canons of the universal Church But if the former be true that they were no Churches of Christ nor lawful Sees nor Metropolitans whatever was
Church and their own rules and principles first it is several wayes against the Canons in respect of their Invasions of the rights of other Metropolitans which was adjudg'd a Photii Nomoc. Tit. 1. p. 20. infamous and mulctable before that in the Council of Chalcedon and in Trullo power was yielded to the Emperours to erect or to translate Metropolitical Chaires and also against the Canons in respect of many Illegal Ordinations which made the Romish Church null in Law in England several wayes besides those nullities in fact and event we have before instanc'd Many are the Canons of the best and Ancientest Councils and the most general and Oecumenical that the Church of Christ ever had which condemn the first Entrance of Augustine and his Pope Gregory and the Re-entrance of Archbishop Theodore and his Successors upon our Brittish Church and Provinces under no less penalties than deposition or degradation of their Clergy from their several States and Dignities and Excommunication of their Laity from Christian Fellowship besides the making all their Ecclesiastical Acts and Ordinations to be utterly void and null to all intents If this were of any value or moment with them of the Church of Rome who boast and crack of a great respect they have above others for Fathers and Councils and Ancient Traditions but experience too much discovers it is all with Reservations and Provisoes that they offer not to touch or reflect upon their Church in any of its grossest errours or most enormous misdemeanours for if they do it in the lest the Canons of the Universal Church shall have no more respect at their hands than the Canonical Scriptures which are not allowed to have any sound or sense where they cross and disagree from the private interpretation of their Church I say private and suspicious because notoriously savouring of private ends and carnal designes and Worldly ambition and self-love above any Church or Haeresie whatsoever in all their Commentaries and Expositions and every point and Article of their Faith and Government wherein they differ from us Or they shall be openly disown'd and rejected for no lawful Councils either in whole or in part according to their liking or disliking of particulars who yet call for implicit obedience to their own petty Authorities and decrees how contrary soever to Common sense or reason while themselves dispute and contradict the power and jurisdiction of far greater Superiours acting and decreeing with the special assistance of the Spirit of God So that as to such Roman-Catholicks who are wedded and guided by their wills and Idols more than Truth or Conscience the Testimonies and Canons I shall produce will prove but Pearls ill cast yet with this advantage and satisfaction that they shall drive and force them either to submission or to rebellion either to confess and acknowledge themselves to be convict Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Robbers and Oppressors and their Popes and Missionaries depos'd and condemn'd in all their Titles Holy Orders and pretences by the Holy solemn Laws and Canons of the Universal and undoubtedly Catholick Church of Christ or manifestly detect themselves to be Antichrist in this as in their other practices and the Invaders of Gods Regiment and power in all its formes and varieties of of appearance as of God the Creator in disposing the Kingdoms of the World of God Redeemer in Lording over Souls and Consciences so of God the Holy Spirit and Sanctifier in slighting Scriptures and General Councils Which last part it is to be fear'd they 'l chuse to take as being thereto too much inclin'd by their Principles being one main cause if not perrhaps the principal that the spirit of truth and concord hath withdrawn it self in lamentable manner from Christian Churches and Councils these several last hundreds of years in whose Assemblies it cannot well appear with liberty and without diminution of its Divine Honour and Glory when its promis'd assistance to Gods Church gathered together in his name must be eftsoons check'd and controll'd by the Negative will and lust of one man that sets up himself above Both and the Interest of Rome made the mark to steer by instead of Truth and Holiness and Gods holy spirit thereby necessitated either to countenance Errour and Tyranny by its presence or to stand out whereby is left but a Carcass of a Church and not a Church for a Church without Gods spirit is but as the body without the Soul the one as ready moulders into errour and corruption as the other into stench and rottenness as is the condition of the Modern Roman Church too visibly The first Canon I shall instance in shall be the third General Council held at Ephesus than which hardly any president can be more apposite to the Case of Rome and Brittain and that Councill's determination upon the complaint of Cyprus against Antioch where three points may be observ'd 1. The state of their case and grievance 2. The sense and resentment of the Council 3. The decree and redress 1. Their complaint to the Council by Declaration and the Affirmation of their Bishops then and there present was that the Bishop or Patriarch of Antioch did send and Consecrate Bishops for the Isle of Cyprus in violation of their Ancient Rights and Customes The occasion of this encroachment was as is noted by Balsamon and Zonaras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon a pretence and imitation of the Duke of Antioch under the Romans sending thence a Deputy Governour for this Isle The plea of the Cypriots was as is imply'd in the Canon an Ancient immemorial right of chusing and consecrating their own Bishops among themselves On the other hand the Bishop of Antioch had his Patriarchal dignity and the Supremacy of St. Peters Chair to insist on from whom he deriv'd by undoubted Lineal Succession Now if this Controversy had come before the Pope of Rome and his Conclave or Lateran or Tridentine Council it is easie to coniecture who had gone by the worst but not so easie to know whom the prey should have been adjudg'd to whether to Antioch or rather to Rome her self although the other were the acknowledg'd Chaire of St. Peter establish'd for 7 years at Antioch at the lest before ever he arriv'd at Rome 2. But the sense and resentment of their wrong by this great Council is very remarkable who took this matter into their cognizance and Judicature though no lesâ— than the Patriarch of the East and as great as the Pope takes himself to be was one of the parties to aâ—ide their censure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus they represent the mischief and consequence of this encroachment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A new kind of Schismatical attempt in defiance of the Apostolical Laws of the Church and Canons of the Holy Fathers and striking at the common Liberty of Christendom yea the Spiritual Spiritual Liberty of men Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ himself by his bloud hath purchas'd for us
either in Scripture or Ancient Fathers or Councils is it express'd that the Pope of Rome is this Chief that all Churches and Provinces are Bound to know and own for such for then this controversy of Supremacy were decided past all further dispute But what Metropolitan or Patriarch then is recommended to us in Scripture or Tradition to know and obey for such My Text and the 34 Canon of the Apostles answers this Question and resolves us whom we are to look upon as our chief both in Heaven and Earth For Christ is that Invisible Chief in Heaven we are to know and serve in all we do from the heart And on Earth the Primate of every Province and not the Pope over all was Him that all Christians in the Ancient and truly Catholick Church were bound to Know and own and obey as their head before Magistrates became Christians And the Pope of Rome is there quite forgot and not mention'd in the lest and at such a time as his Authority and Supremacy had been by all means to be salv'd or heeded if it had been then but a point of any right or order in the belief of the Apostolical Church which is now so great a point of Faith in the Roman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Bishops of every particular Nation ought to Know Him who is Chief amongst themselves and to count Him as their Head And to do nothing beyond their particular concern and duty without Him nor he either to do any thing without the advice of them all for so peace and concord shall be attain'd and preserv'd and God shall be glorified Whereby is evident that the Primitive Ecclesiastical state of Christendom was as its present civil is Aristocratical and not Monarchical where several Provinces had their several Bishops or Primates for their Ecclesiastical Princes As now-a-dayes several Kingdoms are under their own several Kings and States and no one Prince Supream or as a civil Imperial Pope over all the rest But in comparison of one another all were equals and unsubordinate to one another as to power and subjection though not to order and precedency And in their own Territories Monarchical or supream within themselves And if the State of the Church was so and so to be preserv'd by this Canon although the state civil was different and Monarchical all Christian Kingdoms and Provinces being then under one Emperour as he that hath read St. Cyprian or St. Hierome can make but little doubt what reason is there that the State Civil and Sacred being now equally Aristocratical the harmony should be dissolv'd and all should become slaves against right and Laws and Canons to please the Pride and sin of one He that drives at an Universal Monarchy is and ought to be taken by every Prince and State as a publick enemy The reason is the same in Church as well as State Yea there is president for Universal Monarchy in States but none in the external Church but only Prophecyes and warnings of Antichrist that should be such Now for Rome to be Soveraign as she pretends and every Metropolitan Church to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Chief and unsubordinate within its own Province according to right and Ancient customes is a manifest contradiction and inconsistency Both cannot be true together but the last was proved to be most true by as great a testimony and suffrage as Earth can afford the consent of several General Councils the greatest that ever met and in the best and purest times And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Per omnia autem manifestum est This is universally manifest is the manner of wording of this point in this Canon as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manifestum namque est quod per singulas quasque Provincias in the other like unto it both in the Originals and their own Roman Translations Therefore if the one be so manifestly true the other of Rome's Supremacy is as manifestly false Let them shift off the consequence of Antichristianism as they can Yet Baronius a Spondanus An. 325. n. 32. would prove the Supremacy of Rome out of this very Canon as what will they not venter before they 'l part with their chiefest Idol but his offers are meer Cavil and Petitio Principii or begging of the Question contrary to the context and the design of this great Council and contrary also to the text in whole and in part The design being to strengthen the Authority of the Bishop of Alexandria against Meletius and Arrius who ordain'd Bishops for themselves within his Province against his will and consent which Consecrations were as Schismatical being done against his License in Egypt as the like were if done at Rome or Italy against the Authority of the Pope Both of Ancient custom having the like Authority within their proper Province and the Foundation of the Decree being the equality of Alexandria with Rome as likewise with Antioch in this respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where equality is suppos'd its absurd to imagine the same in the same respect to be subject and supream for that were inequality and contradiction Besides the union and strength of the Churches Government and Discipline that whosoever is excommunicate in one Province should stand so with all the rest is not grounded upon the necessary Dominion of One over all the rest which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Popery and one of its Master errours against the mind of our Saviour and the known state of the Primitive Church and the union and the peace of all Christendom but upon the Brotherly love and communion suppos'd amongst all Christian Churches in the 5th Canon of Nice wherein appears the difference between Ecclesiastical and Civil Polities of those times and this The Laws and Sentences of these being of force only within their own Territories by right of Empire but of those every where without through the bond and union of love And they at Rome bound to observe the decrees of their neighbouring Churches as well as these of It which imports mutual subjection to one another by mutual humility and excludes the proud conceit of Soveraignty in any one over the whole The whole Church in this respect being as one Province by the fiction of love and unity which in other respects was several and distinct by local limits as before One not by the dominion and supremacy of any one over all the rest which is the Carnal aime and Antichristian Tyranny of Rome but by the submission of all the parts to the Interest of the whole which is right Christian liberty and the harmonious Communion of Saints The act and deed of one being as the act and deed of all where the publick weal of the Church of Christ was concern'd And the ambitious swelling Supremacy of Rome is as much contrary to the Text of this Canon both in whole and in its parts as it was to the connexion and
Bishop in a Diocess belonging to another whereby it should fall out that two Metropolitan Bishops should be in one and the same Diocess though he effect his purpose not by the help of Heathens or Tyrants as did Augustine but by the Royal Patent and Authorities of Christian Kings and Emperours who had greater Power allowed herein by Christian Councils by the 12 Canon of the General Council Chalcedon he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Balsamon a Balsamon Zonar in Can. 12. Concil Chalcedon explains it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was to be deposed and laid aside from his degree and any Bishop that was so made before the ratifying of this Canon were to be Nominal and Titular only and the whole Right and Power to remain in the Ancienter Metropolitan who was also to Ordain and Judge the other as the Arch-Bishops of Constantinople were Ordain'd notwithstanding their Grandeur by the Bishops of Heraclea where the See had been before though they through their Vicinity and Interest in Court were freed from this necessity by the favour and Prerogative of after Emperours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their Power given them from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many are the Canons that Prohibit one Bishop to enter upon the Bishoprick of another saith the Scholiast upon the second Canon of the second General Council in Constantinople To pass by the 12 Canon of the second general Council of Carthage confirm'd in the general Council in Trullo and the 37. of the third confirmed in like manner and the third Canon of the 7th general Council or second at Nice which though it deviated in other points is firm in this and nulls the Election of Bishops made by secular power and not by the Bishops of the Province according to the mind of the first Council of Nice though it decreed awry touching the Adoration of Images in detestation of those that like Jews abus'd them too far on the other hand I shall content my self in the last place with the Decrees of the Council of Sardyca the most favourable to the Church of Rome and to the memory of St. Peter there of any other Council whatsoever whose judgment therefore it may be justly hoped they will stand to as they tender their own Interest which is wrap'd up in the same third Canon that secures our liberties Where in the case of a Bishop condemned by all his Brethren of the same Province from whose Sentence there was no Appeal by the 15th Canon of Antioch who yet believing his cause to be right was allowed this remedy that upon a state of his case to be transmitted from the Bishops that were Judges to Pope Julius their fellow Bishop of Rome Canon 10. the Pope had power repos'd in him either to order a re-hearing of the cause by other Bishops of the next Province saith the Scholiast a Balsamon in Can. 3. Concil of Sardic else the Bishop of Thessalonica might be summon'd to appear at Rome or by one sent from himself to represent his person and to joyn with them or else to confirm the former sentence according as he thought good Which Inch was made an Ell by the wonted ambition of the Roman See and two pretences for Rome's Soveraignty fram'd there from First that by this Canon all Bishops whatsoever throughout the World were to appeal to Rome Whereas it was only intended for such Provinces as were subject to Rome as several were in the West saith another Scholiast and what is said of Rome belong'd as well to the Archbishop of Constantinople for the Provinces under it a Scholia in Can. 3. Sardyc 31 Carthag apud Synodicon Edit Beveregii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its equal Priviledges with Rome by several Canons Secondly that this Canon was one of the famous Council of Nice that went some years before to give it greater Authority which gave occasion to the Council of Carthage to examine this high Allegation and to send to the East for the Original Records of Nice and to detect the forgery in the face of the whole Council as afore where the Popes Legate was present and to decree against all Transmarine Appeals from Africa under pain of Excommunication through all the Churches of that Province as before Nor could Africa be more exempt from Rome than was our Brittain was also shewed Yet supposing Rome's right of Arbitration were no way hurt or forfeited by this device as good Titles may be lost when forgeries are us'd to support them and what was done out of choice and honour to the excellent Popes that Rome had in those dayes must be done to its modern Monsters forever by Authority of this Council yet themselves must own its Canons to be in force if they insist that others should and if so by the third Canon which contains this grant of honour to them Monk Augustine's entrance and setlement here in Brittain is greatly unsetled unless he had been call'd and invited hither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Bishops of this Province and their Brethren that is by the unanimous desires of the Brittish Clergy for want whereof see his danger Canon 1 and 2. He was to be depos'd from his Episcopal dignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Balsamon as a very impudent person for this Intrusion and to be denyed all Christian Communion not only amongst the Clergy but also amongst them of the Laity and his pretence of being invited by the people to serve him in no stead and finally not to be capable so much as of Lay-Communion at his death the highest deprivation of a mans Christian state that could be worded A severity the Church never us'd but towards the highest misdemeanours against Christ and his Church that could be imagin'd or conceived If therefore they claim the benefit and priviledge design'd for them by this Council they must first quit all pretences to this Province and make what reparations they are able for their long and unjust usurpations maintain'd by their several Popes as Principals as well as by Augustine and his Successors as Instruments and Legates who else by this Canon are not to be reckoned amongst Christians as the old Brittains urg'd much less amongst Bishops or Popes For what impudence were it otherwise for persons who stand Excommunicate by a general Council which themselves most approve to clamour for obedience and subjection where none is due yea when no Christians can afford them so much as their Communion under such faults by the Canons of the Church for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the 10th Canon of the Apostles if a man pray with a person outlawed from Communion so much as in his house himself is to be excommunicated and Clergy also that shall do the same with Clergy depos'd are themselves to be depos'd from their Ministry together with them Canon 11. Or where is their honour and fidelity to their Countrey which vulgar breasts seldom
blessed Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and Divine Truths to the contrary reproached as Heresies and all wayes and Arts yea fire and faggot us'd to â—ar them out least their slaves and captives should be undeceived and set free by them and so become unmanageable whereby their Conquest over Souls shall be at peace and the misery and slavery of mens immortal Spirits turn to account and the enriching of their Holy Church A provocation against Heaven of long continuance enough to raise new Goths and Vâ—â—â—â—â—s against their Church and State but that the prosperity it enjoyes is a greater plague and desolation than the Sword can bring The Spiritual servitude of the Soul under Idols far exceeding the outward slavery of the body under Conquerors as much as Apoplexy exceeds sleep or the pangs of Conscience the pain of the Teeth To live in the causes of damnation being a greater misery in reason than to endure the execution there being nothing of Gods hand or justice in the one being our own mala culpae as there is in the other being Gods mala penae or the correction which he sends and inflicts and therefore the less tolerable evil of the two if properly evil Further correction therefore can do little good upon them It must be the Infinite mercies of God and the zeal of Christian Princes that must do good upon them against their wills as it is expected by diligent a Divine Dialogues p. 226. searchers into Divine Prophecies that some great Prince will be shortly rais'd by God to cast a Vial of wrath upon their glory And they have a common Tradition in France saith b Review of the Council of Trent by W R. a French Roman-Catholick Writer that some of the Carolingians of the Race of Charlemaigne shall have an Emperour of France Charles by name who shall be Prince and Monarch over Europe and shall reform the Church and State But the Glory of such a Cure and Deliverance being as it were the Redemption a new of those whom Christ redeem'd from Spiritual slavery seems more probably reserv'd for this Isle above any other whatsoever as before And so since our Island is become Great Brittain again and the true Religion is recovered with our Brittish Line and Monarchy which were fallen together it is to be conjectured from foregoing Instances of Providence upon this Monarchy that such of our Princes as will appear favourers of Popery are like to be the most unfortunate and inglorious and unbelov'd acting therein against the grain and fate of this Empire as those of the contrary design and activity as having Providence of their side the most successful and renowned and the darlings of God and men SECTION XVI What the Roman-Catholicks truly mean by the term Heretick they so liberally bestow on others And that none are greater Hereticks in Truth and reality than themselves and of their Title Roman-Catholick which they so well like And Old Rome and Brittain both Heathen and Christian compar'd with the Modern And that the yoak of Rome is not better to us than our present condition BY their condemning Protestants so confidently for Hereticks because they believe not after the manifest errours of their single Church though they profess to believe after Christ and his Scriptures and his true and purest Catholick Church they do but call others such what they make and convict themselves to be thereby It hath been ever the Custom or craft of men when sin or Satan or any vile design hath possess'd the Throne of their heart instead of Christ to imploy his Name and Laws and Power against not the enemies of Christ and the truth but the opposers of that lust or private Interest which succeeds him Upon which score the Soberest and Holiest Protestants though Catholicks with God are Hereticks with the Pope for opposing his Christ that is his Carnal Will and Grandeur which rules his heart instead of its right Soveraign For if Christ and his mind did reign therein such Hereticks as right Protestants are would soon be embrac'd for Christian Brethren And he that judges of Heresie contrary to Christs mind and will finds the first Heretick in himself The right method heretofore to judge of Heresie was the Holy Scriptures for a rule and holy Churche's Authority proceeding by such a rule or Scriptura animatae or Christ himself speaking in men But with some now a dayes one mans absolute will and pleasure and his worldly concerns and acquisitions a Haereticus arguitur qui monitus non restituit bona Ecclesiae Spondan Anno 794. n. 6. whether just or unjust or Libido Sainct fiâ—ata or a speaking Antichrist is the only rule and touchstone for to run cross to the one out of Allegiance to the other shall more involve in Rebellious Heresie than the other Install in Orthodox Loyalty and this in uniform agreeableness to the Hypothesis touching the right and wrong Soveraign we are upon And the reason in Scripture why a Heretick is to be finally avoided is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.11 or the condemnation of his own heart in changing his Soveraign which is manifestly discernable in his Conversation by all Christians that hold to their Heart-Loyalty and by the sleepy Intoxicated party it self if of a loyal inclination after two or three admonitions or else belike never The Portuguees General us'd the like Divinity in the Field in a passion as these do in their Schools and Pulpits who when the Auxillary English too tamely suffered as he conceived the advance of the Enemy towards them cry'd out in indignation the English Hereticks have betrayed us But when after a suddain Volley three stories high they clear'd the field with but-end he then confessed and vowed with as great content that the English Hereticks were excellent Christians So that Protestants by dexterous application are not out of hope but that they may retain their Heresies and be Catholicks nevertheless upon an Orthodox Tribute to an indulgent Pope who is not averse to tolerate publick Stews and License Incest c. upon the like terms But in several respects and considerations none are gâ—eater Hereticks in all desert and reason than our Roman Catholicks who are first at criminaâ—inâ—â— who in the first place slight the whole Canon of Scripture and forbid it to several as a dangerous book next to Heretical which no Father 〈◊〉 â—he Church oâ— any Council ever did and the gâ—eatest Hereâ—icks that ever were have been bâ—â—ded and condemned for no more but clashing against a few certain Texts and parcells thereof Who next renounce the whole Catholick Church which all Christians in their Creed profess to believe saving that degenerate rump and shadow thereof they at Rome have to shew Allowing none to be Metropolitans without their Palls c Concil Lateranens Can. 18. none to be Bishops or Ministers any where without Ordination deriv'd from them c Concil Lateranens Can. 18. none to have Authority to
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
promoted by and promoting that Authority here in contempt and breacâ— of all the Laws and Canons of the Catholick Church and the rights of this particular And attended in the Heavens above with dismal signes and prodigies as the like was never seen before Tanta hoc â—eâ— pore prodigia f Platina in Gregor 1 mo quanta nunquam antea Comeâ—es perlucidus puer quadrupes c. which last might serve as a significant Emblem of this new Religion which serv'd to make men Babes in knowledge and Beasts in heart and conscience And accompanied on Earth below so uniform are its Antichristian Symptomes with another parallel Deceiver in the East the prophet Mahomet both alike feigning the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost by a Pigeon at the Ear wherein Gregory was not taught by Mahomet who was Junior to him and born in the year of Monk Augustine's landing here But rather Mahomet might have heard or borrowed it from Gregory or both perhaps been taught the Art by one and the same Tutor But both Reignes the Mahometan and the Gregorian have much the same Epocha and Horoscope And both began to prevail the one in the West the other in the East in the duske and twilight of that long and Greenland night that was to prevail by Gods permission and secret judgement over the whole face of the Christian Church for the space and duration of eight or 900 years or more to count from the year 600 when the Western part thereof first began to the dawning of our Restoration in Henry the seventh as before The success of this Romish Plantation among us being answerable to its first manner of entrance and proving in the end the Eclipse of the true Religion before in the Land and it self a degenerate sort of Christianity falling short of sober Heathenism in many respects Of which that of St. Paul may be rightly applyed And the times of this Ignorance God wincked at but now Commandeth all men every where to repent Act. 17.30 About the dead time of this dismal long night of Popery that is about the years 900 to 1300. answering to the hours from 12. to 3. in the morning The dreams of Purgatory and Transubstantion first possess'd mens fancies and dead Ghosts and Specters and Hobgoblins began to fry and skreek in Purgatory and to cry for help from private Masses And the Franciscan and several other Melancholly Orders to walk bare-foot up and down like Noctambulon's or night walkers in their sleeps and shirts And men stumbl'd upon many Tutelar Gods and Patrons groping in the dark for the true and still us'd Candles at Noon-day throughout their Worship without any need as it were further to prove that it is a time of night amongst them And the Dreams of Nunnes and Monks were rehears'd in Pulpits instead of godly Sermons as the g Bradwardin in Prefat in lib. de causâ Dei Deriving his name or descent I suppose from Brordordhun Castle in Herefordshire belonging to the Family of the Vaughans Profoundest and greatest Clerks then hardly abstain'd from their own in their Writings and the eyes of all both Clergy and Laity sealed up in a deep sleep of implicit Faith And the Host went from Street to Street with a Bellman and the Popes Rid sleepy Kings and Emperours For in the year eleven hundred Hildebrand or Pope Gregory the seventh depos'd the Emperour Henry the fourth And another took his Crown from King John while he was nodding About the same time Canterbury oâ—erlay St. Davids and in Thomas Becket began to sting our Princes that had given it warmth and being But the Fornications and other works of darkness in that time are not to be nam'd or number'd the peculiar concomitant of this fleshly Haeresie as they say to this day scarce reckon'd or censur'd for a sin for its commonness amongst the chief Saints of this dark perswasion And this dark season serv'd as well for Robberies of all sorts of Goods Lands Houses Churches throughout the Isle which were secur'd and appropriated to Sanctuaries and Monasteries by the same dark Arts they were committed till about the time of Ricâ—ard the second several were awakned out of their first sleep with the â—â—r as was Wickliff and Sir Joâ—n Old-Castle Lord Cobham and the Lollâ—rds who were desirous to rise before it was day and to reform these abuses before it was Gods appointed time But all between that and morning fell asleep again as fast as ever till dawning of day in the Henryes 7. and 8. of Brittish race which last finding himself thin and unattended expected more respect and observation for saith he in a speech h Hall 24. H. 8 fo 205. We thought that our Clergy of our Realm had been our Subjects wholly but now we have well perceived that they be but half our Subjects for all the Prelates at their consecration make an Oath to the Pope clean contrary to the Oath they made to us so that they seem to be his Subjects and not ours And began then to take course to recover his Spiritual Subjects whom the Pope stole from him and to rouse and awaken both Court and Kingdom against the Burglaries they committed upon others in the dead of night anâ— to seize upon the stolen Gooâ—â— which in England seldom â—evert to the right owners and to Discipline the whole Fraternity into better dependance upon their Soveraign burning several in the hand to make them cry God save the King instead of the Pope and as i Sinnych Saul â—x Rex some affirm arraigning Thomas â—ecket of high Treason against Henry the second after he had been prayed to in Heaven for about 400 hundred years to heal his people of the seditious influence of his Canonization By this time it was Sun-rising and the Gospel appear'd in our Horizon and in the English tongue and in Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth and King James after some Eclipse encreased in ful lustre to a perfect day that all eyes were open and sluggards began to rise and understand themselves and to be asham'd of their somnolent Religion yea the chief Calebs and Spies and Writers of the Roman Church by peeping into our Hemisphere and reading our Heretical Books as they reproach them became strangely alter'd and enlightened ever afterwards in stile and learning as well as our selves for the Polite World ows all its knowledge to Protestantism as it former Barbarous Ignorance to Popery but to their greater guilt and Condemnation with those in the Gospel That had eyes and would not see and ears and would not hear their hearts through love of its Idol more than God and the Truth being out of order But since the weather in our English Church hath been dark and cloudy for some years through the contrivance and malignity of some evil spirits Infesting our Air and troubling our Elements recommending poison to Grandees in Marriage Wine and Treaties to dispose them to old drowsiness and a far