affirm there is no day-light before Sun-rising It s more agreeable to reason therefore to date it à priori from its first discernible causes and designs and dawnings The change being manifest the question is about the circumstances of time and Persons and first Authors or who were the first Instruments either knowingly and designedly or without their knowledge or intent that were primarily subservient to providence in this work For that God himself in his providence was the first cause and Author of our Restoration not in general as he is the cause of all events he permits in the World but by particular purpose and design appears by this that it was not the first design or purpose of any other that were imployed as chief Instruments in it And what men vigorously promote beside their intention and above their own belief of the possibility cannot be attributed to themselves but to that fatall power that controll'd and pushed them on For that King Henry the Eight had neither an Original inclination nor any full confidence of Power to make such a stupendious change in the World is evident from History and reason and more from this consideration that though himself have given proof and example when Popery was infinitely stronger then now it is and its Divine Impostures not so much detected as since they have been by Protestant light whereby its reputation and main strength and Authority is slighted and under-valued in the World yet there is no Christian King or Emperour this day in Europe how high or great soever of power or Spirit that if he had a mind and perswasion or provocation to do the like that can or dare think himself able to follow King Henry by his own single power to shake off a new Roman Empire revived in Popes by a mystery of iniquity or an Antichristian Maskerade and to Combat Spiritual wickednesses in Heavenly places as it were as he did without the special aid of Heaven Besides Henry the Eight never departed from the Roman Church or Religion but from its Court and secular Supremacy over Kings which could never belong to Religion nor to Church-men miserably chastizing his Subjects the last ten years of his life on either hand Papists for adhering to the one and Protestants for departing from the other But the Pope for all this Excommunicates him with that zeal and severity as if he had rejected both for he best understood his own Religion and mystery and that both were contained in that one which he deserted so we see the Roman Religion which King Henry professed in all its Points and Doctrines was condemn'd as Heresie in him for his denyal of subjection to the Papall Vsurpation though it became better a Vicar of Christ to wave his personal heights and Punctillioes out of Christian humility and self-denyal rather than banish so Orthodox and Catholick a King from the Church of Christ And the rather he being in the right wherein he differ'd from his holiness whereby it clearly appears that the best Roman Catholick is but a Heretick at Rome if he cross the Popes Interest and Supremacy as doth the King and Church of z Ranchin Review of the Council of Trent France to this day in great part And indeed there is no bar to mens souls from embracing Truth and Protestancy but this spiritual Tyranny of the Supremacy for being entirely set free from this the soul returns to Truth in time even against the Power of Custom and Education as the Pope well perceived and is known by experience and hath before been touch'd As the change could not be attributed to any first design in King Henry much less to Wolsey than whom perhaps none yet Contributed more to the destruction of Popery nor intended less Nor to Bishop Fox of Winchester that introduc'd him through his great favour in Court for siding with the Incestuous Marriage which was more a cause of the Restoration than either enabling Fox to raise Wolsey to destroy Popery against both their Wills Nor did Henry the Seventh in the least intend this change as may be presum'd when he directed this Marriage which the Pope for a large Sum approv'd and dispensed which was his fault and overthrow and not so much the Kings who by the Customs and insuperable ignorance of the Age might sincerely believe that the Pope had really such a Power as he assumed and Father'd upon God himself for his Author seeing therefore there is so little of man's design for this Restoration in the very men themselves that were the Insturments but all appears to proceed from fate and Providence the first Epocha and beginning and shore thereof is there best fixed where the Salt waters and fresh first meet where the hand from Heaven first layes hold on Instruments and Tools on Earth to begin its work And there are three Rules or postulaâ—'s to direct our observation about this to more certainty and steddiness 1. The Reference between the Model and the building or the Prophecy and the Issue for a house or an event there begins where these two begin to meet 2. A general belief that the Prophecy of the Restoration of the Brittish Crown was accomplish'd in Henry the Seventh and not so much in any other 3. The Sympathy and concomitancy ever between the Brittish Church and Crown in their standing and fall and rise The first Instrument and instance therefore was in K. Henry the Seventh his own Person in whom the Brittish line return'd the Mitre hastning after the Scepter he landed in Wales but with 2000. and fought against King Richard but with 5000. men The next appearing pulse of some change for Brittish advantage was the Person of Prince Arthur and the design of his name as the Historian observ'd but God chose another Instrument and occasion to bring this work to pass Prince Arthurs wife a weaker vessel and the Permission of her unlawful Marriage which proved the main downfall of Popery The fourth and fifth might be Henry the eight and Wolsey the one designing a Marriage of the King with the King of France's Sister to be revenged of the Emperour hindring his design to be Pope in Catherin and therefore contriving the scruple about Incest And King Henry readily embracing it out of conscience and prevention of more York and Lancaster breaches in the Royal line as he publickly avowed or love to Anne Bulleigne but with no design or intention towards the Reformation in either That is first observed to begin with Colet propagating it in Oxford and City and Court for Warner had that from him who promoted the same Principles in Cambridge where Cranmer had them who was the first that perswaded Henry the Eight to follow them which he said had saved him much charge if he had known them sooner and with Colet's Preaching none was better pleased than Henry the Seventh to whom therefore we Ascribe the dawning of our Reformation though the actual completion as to the
half a word spoaken to any of our Gracious Princes by our Reverend Bishops in behalf of a long oppressed Church would make Wales also a full sharer in the Common liberty and benefit of the Reformation They being the first sufferers in Europe for their early opposition against the Supremacy and Superstitions of Rome several hundreds of years before Martyn Luther was born or heard off and therefore more fit to be considered notwithstanding former enmities who ever was in fault in a Protestant Church and a Polite and curious Nation that hath a fam'd regard for Antiquity in stones and marbles The visible and distinct Remnant of the Ancient Brittains in Wales whom Rome hath endeavoured these 1000 years to suppress and destroy in their fortunes and faith and fame and value and love with several of the English being the most Ancient standing and living Monument and Record against Popery in this our Western World Must that Ancient leaven that gain is godliness and Superiority hook or by crook over Ancienter Churches be retained with scandall for ever in the best of Reformed Churches Is there none that will speak but for themselves none against themselves and purse and pride for conscience Justice and the interest of Protestantism And yet I believe the Brittish Church had rather rest in Patience as they are than arrive at any deliverance or redress or liberty by any means unpeaceable or unamicable much less indirect Neither can their rights and Priviledges be further withheld from them without deserving and Incurring the Censures and Anathemaes of General Councils manifest and unanimous in their defence which if they are not to be regarded wherefore are they Read or Printed and not without some defiling approbation of a most unrighteous and an unconscionable Popish Sentence past against them and their Successors without cause and with as little colour against all faith and Truth and promise of Protection leaving them in the Lurch in the midst of their trust and submission against the use and Custom and Instinct and honour of all Patrons and Creatures whatsoever but his Holiness alone Withall hard usage is more tolerable from an Enemy than from a friend and from the corrupt Roman Church where tyrannical and ambitious principles are so openly professed and own'd than from a neighbouring Orthodox Church of Christ who suck'd the breasts of the Brittish or others at least who had been nurs'd and nourished by her Milk Neither was it the Intention or practice of the Roman Court that Churches should remain concluded for ever by any of its Sentences whether just or unjust as appears in the frequent contests heretofore between the Arch-Bishops of York and Canterbury for Primacy where after both parties were well spunged and squeezed by decrees and Sentences for each the right of precedency reverted after all where it ran before in its former Channell If a Pope predecessor exempted York from Canterbury upon a considerable feeling The Next Pope his Successor who had no share in that Boon is troubled in Conscience if well illuminated by a splendid present from the adverse side till Canterbury were righted and the Ghost of Austin appeas'd At last this Controversy was referr'd by the Pope to the pleasure and decision of our own Kings whose Original right to judge of this Cause was now remarkably estabished in the Crown by this concession and president from what motive soever it proceeded for it thwarted two of their chiefest fundamentalls their Profit and their Incommunicable Judicature of Church matters which they seldom quit where they have either cowardly or credulous Kings to deal with And so we find that the wise and valiant King Edward the third put an everlasting period to that Controversy under his great a Sr. Roger Twisden Histor Vindicat. p. 21 22. Seal As any of his Protestant Successors being better enlightned and Brittishly allyed may give due redress to the Ancient See of St. David in like manner if they please and also unite Canterbury to London as it was ever at first The Extinction of great and Ancient Sees being Sacriledge but their Translation from that place to this the undoubted right of Princes which is the third point That the Protestant Constitution and Confirmation of the Primacy of Canterbury is according to the b Photii Nomocanon Tit. 1. c. 20. Concil Eph. Can. 8. Concil in Trullo Can. 38. Concil Chalced. Can. 12. 17. Canons of the Universal Church as well as the Law of this Land which is sufficiently cleared before and hereafter and more at large and irrefragably by several great Writers of our Church particularly Dr. Hammond and Archbishop Bramhall to whom they are referred who have a mind to meet more Instances and Presidents on this point And our Romanists of any men should not except or regret at the Constitution of our chief Chairs by the Authority of our lawful and Brittish Kings whose first power and footing here was by the aid and assistance of Conquerours and Invaders to the wrong of this Church For though the Pope first pointed out London who had the same right to dispose of the Crown as of the Chaire yet the Influence of King Ethelbert settled the Primacy at Canterbury as some of the Norman Kings wrested that of St. David to it by meer force and power If therefore they believe in behalf of themselves that Kings may constitute or translate Metropolitan Sees against old Right and Canons much more may they do the same with Right and Canons of their side For lawful Kings in their own Territories succeed in that power which was given or restor'd by General Councils to Christian Emperours to make what Alteration and translations of Sees and Primacies as they should see cause The Emperours and Metropolitans both agreeing and consenting that before any new Metropolitan See should be alter'd that the Mother Church should be satisfied and understand from his Majesty under his hand that he was not surpriz'd or sollicited or misled by others in what he did as well might be the Case of Canterbury in its Confirmation by our English Kings in the darkness of Popery before the Reformation but that he did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his own accord and choice and for a just and convenient cause either out of respect to the Dignity of the new place or City or out of particular honour to the personal vertue and merits of its present Prelate or for some publick benefit and advantage to the Church in general as Balsamon Notes on the 38 Canon of the General Council in Trullo whereby it appears that it is still in the power and Authority of the Kings of Great Brittain to settle continue or translate this Primacy by their Laws to what place they please and to restore the same to London where it formerly was if by any just cause they shall be mov'd thereunto Either 1. out of respect to the 6th Canon of the great and venerable Council of
denying our implicit obedience and submission to him But if Christ be God than we are safe and have the truth of our side and their errours are the more dangerous And both these Masters especially of contrary wills as it evidently appears cannot be obeyed together for there cannot be two Kings in the same Kingdom nor two Suns in the same Firmament nor two immortal Souls in the same man But it will be alledged as a Salve 1. That Gods commands in Scripture or Conscience bind not Christians but through the Pope who is to interpret them for us least we mistake and where they seem to cross his will to explain them otherwise to us or to dispense with our obedience in that Case which is an usual practice at Rome though it makes but one Master out of two and the Pope to be chief alone and Christ to stand but for a Cypher or as a Minor whose will is involv'd in his Guardian Viccar hereby the Sun is measured by the Dyal and not the Dial by the Sun It makes Conscience and Scriptures the greatest gifts of Heaven useless to Christians unless the Pope stand by in every place of the World to be consulted with by every Soul which is Christs mind in all cases and scruples And sets up man instead of Christ and confesses the Idolatry and gives up the Cause This contrivance of assuming power to interpret the mind and word of God against the plain sense thereof being the first known invention of Satan in Paradice who was the Father of Antichrist for which our Romanists ought to suspect themselves in the Imitation least they discover themselves too much 2. The second Salve will be that out of obedience to Christ who is in Heaven afar off they yield this obedience to the Pope as his Viccar on Earth as a more near and visible officer under him over them supposing not granting this feigned trust and Deputation It 's against the nature of any trust for him that is trusted to act contrary to the Interest of him that trusted him and to be followed against his Principal St. Paul would be followed by others as far as he followed Christ and no further 1 Cor. 11.1 The Radical cause of Popery lyes in the exclusion of the heart and Judgment and taking the outside to be the man and the measure of all concerns and values which by consequence must be Earthly and Carnal and answering only to the outward man But where the heart which is the man is the chief measure and faith in the heart the only evidence to judge by Christ in Heaven in his Majesty is more near and visible to such a Soul than his Holiness on Earth can be to any Roman Catholick doing Reverence to his Toe for the private end or principle that suggests this respect is nearer to his Soul than his person is to whom it is performed For our Conceptions within are nearer to us than the objects without and our actions proceed immediatly from our conceptions Princes respects and dread would be scant and inexpedient if their persons were no greater in our reasons and conceptions than they are to the eye and sense And were it true and certain that if such a Vicar were set by Christ over his whole Church which can never be proved yet out of obedience to the Soveraign we ought not to obey but shake off such an Officer that should lead us to Rebellion against him that is over him and us The Souldiers under command ought not to obey that General that went about to depose his Prince But if it could be supposed that a Prince did or could intrust any Officer with such absolute power as to interpret all commands and orders directed to him in his own sense against their plain and common meaning and to over-rule all his subjects against all the parts of their Allegiance at his pleasure to act against the known will of his Soveraign and neither to be accountable for such Treasons then the case were much altered for such a King had resigned his Crown in effect to such an Officer who were now to be absolutely obeyed without reservation of Allegiance to another And in such manner the Pope becomes Soveraign to such instead of Christ who believe he is to be obeyed against the Laws of God and men And St. Paul was mistaken in his Doctrine that Christ alone was that Lord and Soveraign and no other man but not mistaken however in his early praediction and warning that the time should come when there should be a falling away and a man of sin revealed who should exalt himself above all that is called God and as God sit in the Temple of God whereof every Christian Soul wherein Christ dwells by his Holy Spirit is so much the more for that the body of a Christian is Gods Temple 1 Cor. 6.19 and more yet the Christian Church which comprizes both And he manifestly St. Pauls Antichrist who sits and Lords it in such a Temple To trample under feet the Glories of this present World to despise the frowns and favours of Princes to adhere to God and Truth all must allow and confess to be highly pious and praise worthy and superlatively Heroick but to hazard all upon a Religion that is a manifest Irreligion and to make Conscience to act against Conscience and Truth to jar with Truth and God to be contrary to himself This were to fall into the like detestable abominations with them of old in St. Paul Who did evil that good might come of it whose damnation is just saith he Rom. 3.8 A fearful sentence from so mild a mouth or of some late zealots in our days who subverted our Laws and Government to exalt Christs Kingdom This were not courage or magnanimity but inconsiderate ignominious rashness condemnable in Shops and Markets This were not Catholick zeal or good Conscience but liker the strong Delusion of Antichrist 2 Thes 2.11 An Omen and fore-runner of further wrath and destruction to be inflicted by the jealousie and indignation of Heaven upon such as forget their Allegiance to their Redeemer preferring a deceiver before him who ought not to have been compared to the Son of God at all or the first mention of his blasphemous pretences to the Perogatives of Christ and his Soveraignty in mens hearts ought to have been attended rather with renting of cloaths and a suddain horrour and indignation and-a-God-forbid but that the needs of deluded souls which himself Redeemed with his precious bloud required the matter to be laid open and enlarged for their rescue and undeceiving but that daily experience teacheth as well as Antient memories that any lust or Avarice or Ambition or revenge or self end or the Sun and Moon or stocks and stones without keeping due watch and ward upon our hearts may and have often invaded and domineer'd in Christ Throne in the soul when deserted by God as much as this Romish perkin Warbeck whose
Apostolical Rule in my Text in your own hands to measure and Judge as Solomon once did between two Mothers the true and the pretended For a Private Person with God to guide him may judge Infallibly which Church most agrees with God for a wavering eye and a trembling hand having a streight and a stable rule and line to guide it partakes of the stability and streightness that directs it the guide and guided being one and the same person by fiction and agreement And the Roman Catholick themselves as they love to be called cannot be denied to be every Mothers Son as Infallible as the Judge himself or their Church is to whom they give themselves entirely over to be guided by them take therefore in Gods name Gods clear mind and measure and judge impartially with the heart and soul and in the strength of him that guides you Your Holy Mother the Church of England hath nourished you up in a Sound and Orthodox Religion and Worship which you and your Prosterity can understand and therefore say Amen to it from your hearts because you understand it The great pretender of Rome starves her Children at Nurse and all their life time in their own Territories by Politick Ignorance and binds and enslaves their stoutest Champions in chains of darkness and of implicit faith and blind obedience the better to keep them under in Captivity and slavery to serve her unworthy and unnatural designs and to fight against the Truth as the Turk breeds up deluded Janizaries to War and subdue their own Fathers and Mothers and people which absolute and blind subjection of the heart to any man on Earth is Idolatry in the giver and the taker Is it not lamentable to consider how prophane and perfidious the guides of the Church of Rome are towards God and their people committed to their charge and in deceiving the one and mocking the other with a worship in an unknown tongue without the heart and understanding which is therefore a meer nullity by the Divine Doctrine of my Text and by common sense and therefore no worship at all but Idleness and â—â—â—â—ccation approaching to Idolatry Religion without the mind is not Religion or Worship but a shew or Stage-Play or a Counterfeit of Religion as the Scene is of Truth and History where an Actor or a Mimick stands for a Prince as here the shadow for the substance or crossing of the body for the contrition of the soul and all are able to know and understand very well the whole management in both to be a meer divertisement of the fancy only more sufferable on the Stage than in the Church in Gods presence where more sobriety and seriousness of mind is required and nothing else in point of Truth and reality because the Original Persons and parties are absent and wanting there the true Hero and here the Truth of the heart A sincere Protestant is grieved and troubled at every straggling thought and the least deviation of his heart at Prayer in Gods presence as a great and griveous affront and contempt of the Divine Majesty like turning our backs to a Prince while we are speaking to him But our confident Bigots of Rome by their Publick and common pactice maintain and defend that God is best worshipped when he is so affronted and despised and that the total absence of the heart and understanding so there be an outward Opus operatum with lip and breath is no sin at all but right Catholick Devotion most agreeing with the Deity If mumbling Pater Nosters and Ave Maries whether at Church or Closet or at Cards or Plays as Witches do Charms without knowledge or Attention or meaning make good and current Roman-Catholick Devotion then Parrots and Magpyes and Apes may commence Catholick Disciples of the Roman-Catholick Salvation And upon this score perhaps it was that one of the great and Sainted Patriarchs of an order amongst them began to bestow his pains and zeal in Preaching to Birds When men in contrariety to the Apostle in my Text judge it fanatical Innovation to Worship God as Protestants do with the heart and understanding They that so exclude the heart in the first place as needless will they not exclude the Lord likewise in the second place for these two are Correlates take away the one and take away the other also where the heart and the Lord are shut out in the first and second place will not the fear of the Lord be excluded likewise though the beginning of wisdom in the third place And where the fear of the Lord is once banisht from Religion is there any sin or Villany in Soul or Body that such Religious Atheists will boggle at to act and prepetrate at opportunity or temptation when it may with safety be committed and with impunity from the Laws of man It s well that Church exceeds all others in Pardons and Absolutions if such seives hold water for their Principles cut out work enough for Pardons and if their own allowed and best Historians are to be believed the practices of their chiefest Popes come not short of their Principles How deplorable and sad is the condition of such a Church to which no further degree of disorder and misery can be added or imagin'd Nor the Devil drive this nail further to the head than that they should strongly believe themselves to be the sole and only Catholicks salvable and infallible in such gross and damnable Errours And yet upon such holy guides such infallible Rocks the Roman-Catholick Church is built For all with them are bound to believe as the Church that is the Pope believes whom they believe to be infallible For though their lives are often frail and vicious yet their Doctrines or Testimonies for God say they are ever firm and true As if a Vicious life were not an effectual quenching and renouncing of the whole Faith of such a person during such impenitence or as if a Debauch'd person or Atheist were a fit witness for the Christian Faith much less the Judge thereof He that will be Infallible for another ought first to be Infallible for himself and his own Salvation And every man is bound upon his everlasting Peril to be as Infallible as he can for himself and his Brethren But as a Creature no man is or can be Infallible nec vox hominem Sonat but more or less he may be Infallible by help from without according as he is guided wholly or in part by God who is alone Infallible And the issue and whole state of the cause and difference between Protestants and Papists lyes in the right choice and election of their Infallible guide and judge Who this is being the great Question There is no judge under God and Christ the sole judge of quick and dead but the invict Supream Powers himself hath appointed in all Kingdoms and Churches and private breasts Invict Conscience in every private man in all Private and all Eternal concerns Invict
and taken for granted out of Bede that the Scottish and Pictish and Irish Churches were then one and the same exactly in Principles and Customes with their Mother the Brittish Church and what is delivered of the one belongs to the other yea the Daughters were more hot and zealous in the Cause of their Mother against Rome's Invasion than the Mother it self For the Brittish Bishops agree to give Augustine a fair meeting to dispute their Rights and Pretensions a Bed lib. 2. c. 4. but Daganus and Columbanus though Courted and respected would neither eate nor drink with those of Augustines party nor lye in the same house To give therefore a brief Character of both Churches as to their Principles its worth observing what Bede delivers of both b Usher 129. though no great favourer of the Brittains as the Learned have observed And first of the Brittains next of Augustine and his Religion The Brittish is represented to be a Church Scriptural for for its Doctrine Episcopal for its Government Primitive and Oriental for its Customes and Traditions And Augustine himself to have nothing to object against it for his quarrel but these three pretences 1. c That she observed not Easter after the way of Rome 2. Nor Baptism with Roman Ceremonies 3. And refus'd to preach the Gospel to the Saxons And the great sore of all at the bottom because they would not owne Augustine himself to be an Archbishop denying by consequence the Popes Supremacy who sent him Bede out of his moderation conjectures the cause of their Errour about Easter to be this d ut pote quibus longe ultra orbem positis c being situated out of the rest of the World the decrees of Councils about the observation of Easter had not reach'd them only what works of Piety and Purity were to be learnt out of the Writings of the Prophets and Evangelists and the Apostles they made it their chief care and diligence to observe and practice And we are not to this day in Brittain out of love with this Errour as were none of the Ancient Fathers or Councils who took Scripture for their only Rule and Gildas after their manner hath scarce one Paragraph in his Epistle unstor'd therewith and one of his chief lamentations in Diocletian's Persecution is for their Bibles being burnt in the publick Markets which kind of sight our Apostate Modern Roman-catholicks would have been content to behold in larger manner with dry eyes And that they were not in any Errour or ignorance of the Decrees of Synods about this point appears from Constantine the great his Epistle and Certificate in their behalf before mention'd and the presence of the Brittish Bishops in the great Council of Arles determining this particular Controversy about Easter e Concil Arelat can 1. The next Doctrine of our Ancient Brittains included in the former was the example of our blessed Saviours meekness and humility as the rule of imitation and Communion Mat. 11.29 so the famous Abbot Dunawd f Bed lib. 2. c. 2. or Dionothus resolved his Countrey-men upon their question whether they should give Augustine another meeting or hearken to him for in a former he had staggerd them as Bede believed not so much with Argument as with a Miracle by restoring a Blind man one of his own Company to his sight before them all but the Brittish Doctors for all this would not f Bed lib. 2. c. 2. Priscis abdicare moribus relinquish their Ancient Customes as then above a thousand years past they stil'd them without further advising with their Brethren g Ibid. Here the Brittains term their own Faith and Customes Hên ffydh counting Popery then at its first entrance here but an Innovation which is a note for our Brittains to consider who vulgarly call Popery Hên ffydh or the Old Faith whereupon Dunawd being consulted with at Bangor advised them to be guided by Christs example more then deceitful miracles give him the meeting saith he and regard his messages if he be a man of God But how may that be known say they do not you read what our Saviour saith take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart If he be meek and lowly it is very likely he bears that yoke himself and would have you to bear the same but if he be rigorous and proud it 's manifest he is not of God and you need not care for his message But how shall this also be known let him come first to the place and if when you arrive who exceed in number and other respects he arise to meet and honour you as his Christian Brethren it 's some sign he belongs to Christ you are to hear him with all respect and deference but if not but with State and distance he think to reduce and over-aw you and your People you are to defend the Liberties of your Church and disappoint him of his carnal expectation which last took place in a high degree on both sides eum notantes superbiae cunctis que dicebat contradicere laborabant neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habituros respondebant they own'd him for no Arch-Bishop but taxed him for his pride who might have had their honour by humility and contradicted and baffled him in all he had to say for they were 7. Bishops plures viri Doctissimi many very learn'd men as Bede there observes where upon he Prophesied their destruction which shortly fell out in Barbarous manner more by Instigation than prescience to the ruine of that Kings Kingdom who did execute his Prophecy and providentiall planting of the Gospel among the Saxon or English by Brittish Ministry without the help of the Romish as will further appear To these two Catholicks principles and Doctrines touching the word of God written and Incarnate best leading them to Holiness and the life of the other world they added a third that brought them peace in this obedience to Superiours or theit Gods on Earth and their Temporal and Spiritual Governours in their several districts and submission to the Synods and Councils of the Church about doubts and Controversies hapning in Religion upon this score the above said Dunawd saith the Brittish History g Histor Brittan lib. 11. c. 12 Miro modo liberalibus artibus Eruditus Augustino petenti ab Episcopis Britonibus subjectionem diversis monstravit Argumentationibus ipsos ei nulla◠subjectionem debere cum suum Archipraesulem haberent being wonderfully learned clear'd by diverse Arguments the Brittish Bishops owed him no subjection as he and his Pope expected and particularly by this because they had an Arch-Bishop of their own and were not to disobey their lawful Superiour to please an Usurper for it is the chiefest part of obedience to know ones right Superiour and to own none besides wherein lyes the first perversion of every English Subject that followes Rome and its Forreign Father against the inward
in that Church for sincere and true members of Christ by the searcher of their hearts and ours we trust by mutual offices of Prayer and Charity we hold Communion in the General And a particular rent or schism cannot be conceived without some particular Vnion or Subjection preceeding and it sufficiently appears â—ow little there was of old between Rome and Brittain for how can an Arm be out of joynt from that part with whom it was never In. They themselves who accuse first are Schismaticks unavoidably especially our deluded English and Brittish and Irish Roman-Catholicks born under the same Allegiance believing in the same Christ that refuse to joyn in communion and worship with their own Mother Church much more Ancient and pure than that of Rome which were it less corrupt than it is they unworthily prefer before her against proverb and practice for home is homely be it never so homely and you shall not meet a child of that folly that will prefer a pompous Countess before his poor Mother But so truly Catholick and Apostolick and free from all foul and loathsome Idolatries and Superstitions are the Sacraments of our own Church that if they once tasted with us the milk of their own chast Mother they would never covet Forreign breasts that have an ill name any more nor be so earnest with us to prefer manifest poison before it And the cause of their delusion that should nevertheless be so zealous to persevere in such unnatural ignoble obstinacy and disobedience so destructive to themselves must needs be more than humane 2 Thess 2.11 But our Communions and separations are not in our own power but we are to take and leave as God directs and God directs to hold the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 The unity of the Spirit and not the unity of the Flesh that is to select such for our Christian Brethren to associate with them in dear fellowship who express by their Conversation that they are dead to this present World and self ends by their Faith and conformity to the cross of Christ and live in Heaven by their holy conformity to his Ascention which is a state of the Spirit and Grace and the right Catholick Church But to avoid and separate as much as may be in this World from such as are Earthly carnal sensual selfish scandalous and especially if such by their Doctrine policy profession designe and principle for such are enemies to the cross of Christ and a state of confederacy with the flesh wholly asymbolical and contrary to the nature of such a Church a Christian is to hold Communion with so St. Paul explains and expressly decides this case Phil. 3.17 18 19. shewing that such whose God is their belly whose Glory is their shame who mind Earthly things are not to be followed but shunned be their brags never so Christian and Catholick and why are they to be shunn'd because they are enemies to the Cross of Christ which they abuse and profane to compass Worldly ends and grandeur and Christs subjects ought not to correspond with his enemies not only upon the score of Loyalty but Interest and safety for the end of both will be destruction v. 19. And the reason why he and such as walk'd as he did were to be followed and embrac'd is because he followed Christ in his Cross as is implyed by the contrary Antithesis v. 17 18. because he also followed him in his Resurrection and Heavenly life as it is expressed in these words v. 20. For our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour This is the Catholick Church where all that will joyn with it shall be sure to find Salvation by it And in like manner he directs the Romans 16 17 18. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the heart of the simple A prophetical Description of the Roman Church Apostatizing into Roman Catholick and preferring Titles befere Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good words presignifiing their meek and holy and publick pretensions and title of servant of servants Fathers Confessors Apostolick See c. and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faire speeches or rather blessings their easie Absolutions and innumerable Indulgences Ceremonious crossings of all things and persons The like rule is given to Timothy and to all Bishops and every Christian in him If thou observe any make a Trade and Merchandize of the Gospel Supposing gain to be godliness from such withdraw thy self 1 Tim. 6.5 Which markes and characters of true or false Christians though they are less heeded and regarded by the guides of the Church of Rome and their credulous Disciples than by their more observing neighbouring Churches who know that Simon Magus the Father of the old Gnosticks pointed at by the Apostle v. 20. was more certainly at Rome and left his successors behind him than Simon Peter The wonder is the less because gifts and lusts more blind the eyes of the receivers and Actors than the standers by Neither do these Apostolical warnings alone but the woful experiences that back them deterr us from their communion above any other We held communion heretofore with the Eastern Church and that of Jerusalem without spiritual hurt or damage to our selves and our communion with the Ancient Gallican Church in the West added strength and comfort to us The Churches of Scotland and Ireland though by Civil Governments they were under different Kings and them not often friends yet by the Christian faith they were one piece with our Brittish Church defending our cause against Rome and Augustine with equal concern But when we began to acquaint our selves with Rome when it was better than now it is we gain'd nought but wounds and defilements and misfortunes by it There Pelagius with Celestius had his fall and ruine when with like good intentions as some other learned men in after Ages he went about to alter Divinity into a moral Philosophy to fit the needs of Christians there who lived short of men and were but hardned the more in their sins by the Evangelical Doctrines of free grace an evident symptom of their ripeness for Divine vengeance as appeared by the dismal sacking of Rome shortly after Anno 410 †Inter Augustinianas Epist 142. Hieronymianas which he elegantly describes in his Epistle to Demetriades There Wilfrid imbib'd the principles of avarice and ambition wherewith he corrupted his Brittish Institution and brought troubles upon himself as well as others and more disturb'd than promoted the plantation of the Gospel amongst the Saxons carried on then by Brittish industry There St. Patrick and Palladius Sons of the Brittish Church and of contrary Doctrines and Customes to Rome as appeared in their plantations yet
from God and they that take this Augustine to be the Father of their Faith had need beware whom they take for Grandfather The names of his fellow workmen that were more eminent than the rest but Inferiour in parts in all probability to him their leader were Mellitus Justus Paulinus and whereas ignorance usually is as harmless as it is dull and flegmatick theirs was high and pernicious active and politick and Harpy-like inferiour to none in the dextrous suiting of their temptations to the several inclinations of the party who was to be brought about to serve their turnes His insolent swelling pride as Mr. l Perambulation of Kent p. 79 Lambard taxes it appeared towards the Brittish Bishops who intended him a respectful meeting beyond what he could merit for his honesty going about to erect a new Bishoprick in a Diocess that did not belong unto him as an Altar against Altar and upon another Altar against all Laws and Canons Being sure of one Archbishorick by the Conversion of Ethelbert King of Kent carrying a great stroak in it who was as good as preconverted by others m Polyd. Virg. lib. 4. p. 63. ministry before he sent for Augustine though Bede conceal that matter The next mark was another Archbishoprick for Paulinus that of the York where Elthelfred and Edwin the one elder the other younger are to be won to serve their Church by different Lures Old Ethelfred is toll'd out by his ambition and zealous enmity against Christianity to seise and destroy the borders of the Brittains in the first place and himself in the next Young Edwin is brought over to the Christian Faith by carnal attraction and a n Bed lib. 2. c. 9. marriage with King Ethelbert's Daughter and the addition of pre-acquaintance in dreams between him and Paulinus to dispose him to Christianity not unlike those between o Ibid. Paul and Ananias Act. 9. but in their Truth for Edwin could be no stranger to the Christian Faith being brought up from the Cradle to ripe years as p Histor Britt Galfr. the Brittish History relates Bede not disagreeing l. 2. c. 12. with Prince Cadwalhan of the same Age whom Bede calls Carduella or Cedwalla furious enemies afterwards to one another thanks to Augustine to the loss of many thousand lives sometimes the one and sometimes the other prevailing and killing and burning all before them Edwin in the end going by the worst and Paulinus q lib. 2. c. 20. forc'd to quit his new Archbishoprick and return with young Edwin's Queen to Canterbury q lib. 2. c. 20. Carduella non pepercit religioni eorum exortae jam c. Cadwalhan not sparing to root up his new plantation Northward for the reason before cited out of Bede And yet this old part of their Ministry in match-making and bestowing mens Kingdoms from them upon others to the disturbance of Nations and sometimes of themselves the Church of Rome is not out of love with to this day And had it not been for a subtile r Bed l. 2. c. 2. Miracle of Laurentius the whole plantation of these Italian adventurers had gone presently to wrack For London soon expell'd these Forreign propagators with Mellitus their new Bishop who never durst return any more Bede smothers the true reason of this usage and sayes in one place that Seberts Children then the Princes of London did it because Mellitus denyed them being unbaptiz'd the pure white ſ Idem c. 5. bread of the Eucharist which their eye long'd for to tast as if they had been inur'd but to brown-bread before In †Idem c. 6. another place Londonienses excludunt Mellitum Idololatris pontificibus servire gaudentes The Londoners sent him away preferring Heathenish Idolatry before the Roman Religion As if the Saxon Pagans of London had not the like noble disposition for the Truth as the Kentish but those had more Grace than these But takes no notice of the Majority of the people of London being Ancient Brittains reduc'd by treaty and Christians therefore by consequence which was a reason they had a Brittish Archbishop and Clergy residing amongst them from the beginning of Christianity and after the Saxon Invasion for an Age or two till they were †M. Westmin 586. expell'd to make room for Monk Augustine Who did not welcome Augustine himself though coming with his Pall from the Pope to be an Archbishop amongst them which is the reason Malmsbury intimates of his setling at Canterbury u G. Malmesb. de Gestis Pontif lib. 1. where he was better welcome and very probably was the fear and jealousy that mov'd him to make Laurentius his successor at Canterbury in his life time against the Canons to secure the succession least the Primacy after his death should devolve where it was before and who but London could raise this fear because of old Right Much less therefore would they welcome Mellitus as a bare Bishop over them or contribute to their own degradation as well as the Sacriledge and Schisme Bede therefore is right as to the fact though not the cause that the Londoners sent him on going which is confirmed by Malmesburie's x Idem Epis◠Lond. lib. 2. Penu◠ria Potestatis that Ealbald had not power enough to keep him there which cannot be understood of the opposition of the Sebarets who were his Cousins y Ibid. and at his Devotion but more probably of the body of the City as Christians better principled But then Eadbald who succeeded Ethelbert apostatizing from his Fathers Faith had like to have blasted the remaining part of his Nursery left at Canterbury had not Laurentius I say step'd in with a miracle being sorely z Bed l. 2. c. 6. scourg'd all over black and blew by St. Peter as he lay in Church the whole night before for having some thoughts himself to follow Mellitus and Justus Bishop of Rochester his Companions who in despair of doing any good here were resolv'd to go for France The sight and story whereof made a new alteration and a present compassion in the well meaning King and Justus and Mellitus to return to England shortly after but all to little purpose Edilred King of Mercia not many years after viz. Anno 676. coming upon them Maligno a Idem lib. 4. c. 12. exercitu with a Malignant Army for Mercia had now and before received the Christian Faith from Brittish Teachers laid all Kent wast saith Bede and demolish'd b Idem Ibid. all their Churches and Monasteries to the ground with the like irreverence to their Italian Religion as Carduella or Cadwalhan had in the North and the City of Rochester was destroyed in the same common ruine and calamity b Idem Ibid. Putta its Bishop retiring and ending his dayes with Sexwulf Bishop of Mercia His Church being destroyed and plunder'd of all it had Feigned Miracles like hot waters with the intemperate may a little
A. 586. Math. Westminster being 10 years before Augustin's setting out according to Bede and him in 596. whereby it is clear the Brittish Archbishops of London as also of York notwithstanding all Pagan stormes and Invasions kept their Sees nevertheless from the entrance of the Saxons till Rome's entrance after them for about 150 ſ Idem A. 596. years which implyes they had a Lay-charge still left to govern And though Bede disingenuously conceals Who they were least Monk Augustine should appear guilty of too much Schisme and violence and Sacriledge yet it is easie to conjecture who they were as well because the Kentish Brittish Christians were not forc'd to quit their Countrey which was amicably surrendred as also because of their Intermarriadges with the Saxons which brought many of them to the Faith of their own accord which in King Arthur's time they were all necessitated to embrace or profess or quit the Land and when that necessity and force was over and all was in the power of the Saxon Pagan Kings again King Jurminricus Father to King t Hector Boethius Hist lib. 9. p. 166. § 20. Bed lib. 2. ◠5. Ethelbert Monk Augustines convert Christi doctrinam haud vetuit inter Anglos propalare saith t Hector Boethius Hist lib. 9. p. 166. § 20. Bed lib. 2. ◠5. Hector Boethius out of Turgottus and who was then to propagate it amongst them but the Brittains whereby Bedes faith appears and false charge against the Brittains Who were the men that assembled and kept up this Church till Augustine came And that Rome through Augustine did more michief in one year toward the subverting the Christian Churches and Sees of Brittain than the Saxon Pagan cruelty had done in 150 years before And that the Saxon Communalty were tractable and willing to receive the Faith from the Brittains and it was only their Kings and chiefs that through their pride were averse thereunto and not all of them but some gave leave however and toleration to their people and Subjects to become Christians through the Ministry of the Brittains It is I say to be considered that Kent was reduc'd not by conquest but by grant and courtesie in consideration u M. Westm A. 486. to Hengist for his Daughter Rowenna to be King Vortigerns second unlawful wife whereby the people continued in their habitations and rights and the Christian Faith in the Countrey with them though the King yielded his Royalties to strangers as himself to stranger lusts And their tenures of Gavel-kind in that County is a further pregnant proof which some derive from give all Kyn or give all Kind others with more reason and colour from a Brittish Etymology from Gevelh twinne because of the equal division of Lands between the Children of that Tenure or from Gavel which signifies a hold or Tenure forming the word Gavel-kind therefrom by a mixt composition of English and Brittish answerable to that of the people who are half English half Brittains or Gavel-kenedl the Tenure by Families and Kindreds as others more probably or which may seem the most probable of all because furthest from any streine and agreeing as well with the nature of this Tenure as the first occasion for the phrase Gavelcynt the Tenure heretofore in Syntaxis and right Brittish structure Gavel-gynt by turning c into g which kind of Shibboleth or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and change of Initial letters the English that live together and speak the Brittish are seldom known to Master whereby the people newly reduc'd under Forreign Government and Customes did notifie and plead their former Rights and Tenures when any wrong or Cam was offer'd them as they use this x Rich. Hooker Sermon of Pride p. 517. Brittish word amongst them to this day Which kind of Tenure is known to have been the same which was in common usage amongst the Brittains y Cambrensis Itinerarium p. 564. of old in Wales whereby they weakned their houses by this equality to make good their natural affection and justice And though after the death of young Vortimer the Hopes of Brittain poison'd by his Mother-in-Law Rowenna who had beaten the Saxons in several Battells out of the Land into the Isle of Thanet and their Ships they returned again and finding access to Vortigern through his Heathen Mistress that bewitch'd him they obtain'd a meeting for a Treaty and watching their time and z Usher 415. Stabbing about 300 or 400 Brittish Nobles with long Knives they forc'd the King for his Ransome and Liberty a M. West 462. Usher 1114. to quit Essex Sussex and Midldesex as he had done Kent before through easiness it is not probable they did or could use the whole City of London with those neighbouring Countries as they did the soft King and his unwary Nobles but that they had their Terms as well as Kent and preferred the profession and Tenure of their Christian Faith before any other right or liberty which is the cause their Archbishops were able to continue their several Sees till Augustines arrival as before whose chief aime was for their dignities and as one said the Bees must first be destroyed to come at their Honey which is also the reason of the continuance of the Brittish Church in Canterbury which Bede slubbers over resorted to by the Brittish Christians of Kent co-habiting with the Saxon Pagans to whom this is an Argument that they envyed not the Gospel because they envyed not their Daughters in b Histor Brit. lib 6. c. 13 Marriage and their own flesh and bloud unto them as they did c Idem lib. 4. c. 17. to the Picts and to several of them while unconverted Vt b Histor Brit. lib 6. c. 13 nesciretur quis Christianus quis Paganus ob mixturam Matrimoniorum multudinem Saxonum it was hard to distinguish Christians from Pagans which was one of the greatest sins and chiefest provocation in all probability of the Ancient Brittains because as is usual found to be the Instrumental as well as the meritorious cause of their ruin and destruction as in the Instance of Rowenna into which they fell partly by the ill example of their Prince and partly perhaps by regard to outward shapes and lineaments which no less prevail in the weak and infirm World that chuses sence before Faith and the Presidents of frail Superiours before the Eternal Laws of Christ and conscience for its Rule and guide But as Queen Bertha on the one hand shewed her self rightly instructed in the Principles of Christianity and communion of Saints while she chose rather to Assemble her self with fellow Christians in affliction than to perform her worship with less envy perhaps in the private Closet of her Palace So nothing appears more then the contrary in the Actions of our Augustine sufficiently Vnchristian in their present and much more pernicious in the design'd perpetuity of their Irregularity for to joyn in designs with
only is an acknowledg'd duty and an indelible behaviour and Instinct in the Souls and Consciences of Heathens as they may be satisfied at large by Seneca without fear of any Heretical Pravity But seeing it is made evident they did not receive their Religion from the Romanists but from the Brittains or Irish and Scotch of Brittish Institution and extraction and what they did receive was not Corn but Tares not sound food of the Soul but poison rather That they nevertheless against truth and modesty and Breeding are ever minding and upbraiding our English Nation with this no Courtesie of theirs or their Progenitors and calling for everlasting Tribute and perpetual obedience and subjection from us for their endless molestations and corruptions This use however may at lest be made of this their disingenuity and impatience That as on the one hand they through folly and impertinence Cancel their own supposed merits by their minding and dunning and that with such frequency and loudness enough to make men deaf with such depredations and reprisals and plagiums or Soul-stealing and other revengeful attempts and distresses upon us for want of their supposed due Rent enough to make the meekest their enemies out of Indignation being guilty thereby of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Self-felony against themselves and their Interest overthrowing their title of Supremacy by their own Act through unskilful management so on the other it is matter of much content and gladness and ease of heart unto us that our Ancestors some descents agoe have return'd back unto them all the Errours and Superstitions we ever here received or had them thrust upon us to silence the cause if not the impudence and conscience if not the cry And if I rightly guess at the minds of our Superiours by their designes and the profession of some of our late chiefest a Dr. Hammond of Shism p. 160. Pillars we will give them leave to search every Corner of our Church and where they find any one Doctrine or Rite or Article that hath not a Brittish Apostolical stamp and mark upon it but bears the mark or Armes of the Goods and Chattels of Monk Augustine on them or any of his intruding Successors we are content for quietness sake for who can endure everlasting dunning and upbraiding and that without any cause or colour that they seise and take them to themselves with all our hearts and we shall not think our selves poorer or further from Salvation by it but pray God that they may be nearer Neither is it very advisable in them to keep such a din with the little or noe merits of their Ancestors lest they become thereby responsible in all equity for their great wrongs and mischiefs for reparations of injuries may be demanded where returnes for Courtesies cannot as it is more consonant to nature for Creatures to complain than for God to upbraid or for weak Children to cry upon the least cause than for Parents to complain for the greatest and for their monstrous pride and hypocrisie and scandalls and murthers and Schismatical usurpations and the utter destruction what in them lay which ill became Christians and Catholicks of the Ancient Orthodox Apostolical Faith among the Brittains and of the same afresh after replanted among the English or Saxons by Brittish Ministry and the Corruption of our Rites Customes Ordinations Manners with their Roman-Catholick mixtures and Superstitions The Invasion of our Brittish Sees Dignities Monasteries and Ancient Ecclesiastical endowments b Apud Usher p. 125. by our Brittish Kings though the preheminence and influence of their New See of Canterbury settled and continued here by force and Schism as to them against all Laws and Canons and Civilities and Christian same to the extinction or suppression of our Ancient Archiepiscopal Brittish Sees of London and York and St. Davids at last which kind of attempt upon their Ancient Chaire of Rome would they have brooked with patience And not rather attempted the removal or prevention by any means though indirect and Rebellious and Hellish to the endangering of all Christendom rather then fail as is too well known by experience And which further aggravates their Diabolical Impudence and unconscionable Antichristian encroachments is their pretending at last their unjust usurpations which every day and year they continued were multiplied into new wrongs by time and Age to have changed their Nature and to be become a righteous title Bonae Fidei of unquestionable Supremacy which for the oppress'd to shake off by lawful means and the miraculous assistance of Divine Providence respecting in his own time the groans and cryes of harrass'd Innocence is no less than the great Crime of Schisme and Ecclesiastical Rebellion and Pollution of our Land in departing from the Catholick Faith And that a Thief by smothering his light and holding fast his Stollen Goods against his Conscience becomes an Honest-man at last and the Honest-man a Villain for challenging or recovering his own by just and lawful means That Mahomet by so many years prescription by his Sword and Imposture hath now good right and title to his Domination and Tyranny over the Eastern Churches and that it were an ungodly Schisme in the poor Graecians to accept of any deliverance from their long and miserable slavery either from Cod or man For we do not and cannot deny Romes Intrusion and inroads upon our Brittish Church and the consequent corruption of several of our Traditions and Ancient Rites in publick at lest and for a time when they swayed our Chairs and soil'd and disturb'd our Ordinations and Successions with their Roman mixture for well it was if our Ancestors were able within door then and in their hearts to retain their Ancient Rites and principles by Orall Tradition as they term it from devout Parents to their Sons yet our Ordinations received from them in such times were as good and as valid as any they had or now have amongst themselves but we have reason to count them our ill fate and grievance for otherwise our own had continued pure and regular and Brittish from the Resurrection to this present And yet their violent Imposition of hands in those dayes in the place and right of our Brittish Bishops was their guilt not ours who resisted it while we were able and greatly rejoyce at our deliverance from it and by no means if it be Gods will would return under it any more And God measures all by the heart especially in matters of Church and Religion according to my Text it s the sincerity and untaintedness of the heart makes the best Catholick 1 Tim. 1.5 And what was done unjustly stands undone and what by force and necessity was yielded to against the heart and will was not yielded to in reason For id sit quod jure fit is a Law Maxime and Tyrants are but great Lords of Nullities by the exemption of the will and Soul from and the frown of Heaven upon all bruitish unjustice and
wherewith they are Intrusted by God for the defence of his and their People than Popes ever could or can unsheath their Spiritual Weapons in defence of Pride and ambition and scandalous Encroachments Excommunication being intended by Christ and his Apostles to better ends than they apply it to separate between the precious and the vile between scandalous and holy Christians and to cut off putrid parts with grief and compassion to preserve the Communion of Saints and the health and honour of the whole and not to defend proud and ambitious heights and sacrilegious invasions and Usurpations over Churches more Orthodox and more ancient than themselves with Unevangelical revenge and recalcitration after fair eviction Which is the abusing of Christs Ordinance to ends contrary to what he intended and the taking of Gods name in vain for which they will not be held guilt-less yea to have Excommunicated themselves rather by humble acknowledgements and reparations to their power for their wrongs and oppressions to Christ and souls and Churches had been the right Catholick use of their keyes and the surest sign of Salvation to the best and chiefest of their Church Neither is it needful by our Hypothesis and state of our case to defend the Reformation from the charge of Schism and departure from the Catholick Church thereby as they suppose and cry aloud against us for the alteration made by Henry the Eight cannot be called the Reformation of a Religion we derived from Rome by Inferiour Authority against superiour by the daughter correcting the Mother Church Irregularly but our lawful Restoration rather to our Ancient Rights and possessions from which we were wrongfully disseis'd and barr'd The deliverance of our Brittish Church after long captivity and disfiguration to its primitive liberty and health and beauty by just means from the violent hands and Spiriting Arts of Rome much Junior to it in faith and much impurer and unsounder than the true Church of Rome for these last thousand years Our Case I say is not so much Reformation as Restoration which no man of sence or honesty or conscience can find fault with and much less they at Rome who are pleas'd with their deliverance from the long Tyranny of their Exarchs though procur'd by unlawful and pernicious means as before but we had ours through lawful Authority without any wrong or hurt to others or our Superiours and with much right to our selves much less can we be tax'd or blam'd by any at home that have been long kept out from their own rights by Tyrants or Rebels or Oppressors who are bound in all Equity and Honour and Compassion to espouse rather and Assist so just a Cause before any others whatsoever according to Dido's temper in the Poet making the Case of Aeneas in Exile her own Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco The Pope had no more Original right and title to our Brittish Sees how long soever Usurped than Cromwell had to the Brittish Crown Whoever else may envy or hinder or undermine our recovery of our just freedom and liberty they that through Gods mercy have had the like Restoration and deliverance ought not either in Honour or Civility or Humanity to do it nor if themselves appear to have the greatest share and benefit therein without manifest hazard of their Judgement for by revolt to Popery Princes quit no less their external Supremacy in holy Church the choycest Jewel in their Crown than by Apostacy to Heathenism not more by the parity of the Idolatries than by their own Act and Resignation For they cannot longer hold the same in the Catholick-Roman without being Excommunicate as undutyful and they let go their hold thereof in the Protestant Christian by Excommunicating themselves as unkind and unwise Nor if after all this they be found to Act both against Gods revealed will and fate therein or the secret Decrees and discernable purposes of his Providence against it whereof the one was made as clear as the Sun before and the other will afterwards appear as clear as the Moon which is next unto it can they ever be thus unnatural to their own Church and Nation out of vain glorious kindness to forreign cheats without fighting against God as well as their friends to the certain overthrow and ruin either Temporal or Eternal or both of the weaker side Therefore the sharp and searching judgement of the great Arch-Bishop Bramhal could soon espy that the plea of the Antiquity and Independancy of our Brittish Church in the Controversy between us and Rome strikes the cause dead forever at one blow Not that being exempt from the pretences of a Junior Church once animated with Empire to step before her betters we are not bound nevertheless to hold Communion with every good Church of Christ where and when we may yea with Rome it self if it return'd to its Ancient purity and subjection to our Saviour as on the other hand to shun others as we do Rome that were guilty of the like Corruption and Apostacy which flight and distance we are wont to observe in our moral and natural Communion and converse as well as Christian embracing or shunning good or evil Company for our safety or credit as wholesome or Pestilential Air for Health as well as sound and unsound Churches out of Allegiance to Christ our common Lord or fear of scandal and partaking in their sins and judgments by our Complyance For our Communion though it be our great duty as Schisme is a great sin yet it is not in our absolute power and dispose in the general without any other Rule or reason to incline us to be of this or that Church but our own fancy and humour no we are acted by necessity in great part therein for it is a necessary tye upon us to embrace good and relinquish evil and corrupt Communion and to be guided by Christs will and not our own as our rule and standard and to shun all whom his word Excommunicates and to communicate with all whom his word approves For to approve whom Christ condemns or condemn whom Christ approves is not in the power of any Christian that ownes Christ for his Soveraign All the part that we have in our own power is the exercise of every mans Conscience and private judgment under the guidance of Christs rule which they hate the least mention of at Rome as impious and Haeretical and leading to a private spirit the root of all evil errours in the Church and comparing the lives and state of Christians and Churches by this general rule of Christ and this particular eye of our Souls to put our Communion in execution according to Christs mind and to embrace his friends and to shun his enemies and to like and dislike as we are to do all our other Affairs in him from our hearts according to my Text. For let there be no private judgment to distinguish between private good or evil or between the guides themselves we are
other hand the lawfulness of our Restoration and recovery of those Rights and Truths whereof we were in just possession heretofore but were kept out for some hundreds of years by force and fraud and its Un-christian confederations with Infidels against us It is as hopeless and ungrateful a labour as to them I say as to read Lectures of honesty and restitution to Thieves and Robbers Willful Schismaticks being as Averse to have their Idol errours crossed and dishonour'd as right Christians their God and their Truth blasphem'd Neither were it wisdom or Prudence or right thankfulness to God in our selves by such discourses to bring into doubt our manifest Rights and Duties and Gods mercy and deliverance being all as clear as the Sun Such a foolish undertaking this were as for the Royal party as before was instanc'd to make Apologies for his Majesties return and his right to reassume his Crown against those that kept him out for so many years Or for Jews to justify their return to Jerusalem upon King Cyrus his Proclamation after the prescription of 70 years Captivity against them or their Fathers the Israelites in Egypt their departure from under Pharaohs Government after 430 years subjection or the Heathen world to justify their shaking off Satans yoak to take Christs instead after they had layen under the other well nigh 4000 years for no errour or wrong of how long time soever it be can prescribe or compare with truth and right which are Eternal Neither can we find that our Romanists themselves could be easily perswaded or inclin'd to return under their Constantinopolitan Exarchs though their lawful Governours were they yet in being nor under the Turk their Masters successor by right of Conquest to whom themselves did contribute their scandalous assistance who yet hath far more right to their subjection and return than they to ours who never were our just and rightful Superiours If they would have us return under an unjust yoak they ought to give first an example by returning themselves under one more just Else how can they expect their Counsels or Challenges to be regarded whilest themselves count it ridiculous to do that right to others which they expect from us to be done to them to our own wrong Therefore instead of proving the legality I shall chuse rather to admire the wonderful Providence of our Brittish Restoration And how God hath blessed such our Princes with great success and Glory that have sincerely advanc'd the same spiritual freedom of their Church and Countrey and hath blasted and mulcted others with trouble and disaster and loss of strength and Territory and honour and publick love that have openly or clandestinely gone about to overthrow this great blessing of our Restoration whose beginning many ascribe to the time of Henry the 8th as its accomplishment and perfection in great part to that of Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth But if the Restoration of the Brittish Church and Nation be consider'd in his first root and cause as all certain Science is ever by the cause The day-break of our deliverance and reformation began in the miraculous and fatal entrance of our Great and Wise and Magnificent Prince King Henry the 7th For then properly was this Church restored when according to Ancient hopes and expectations the Ancient Brittains were in him restor'd to their Crown and Countrey Who no doubt were Gods Ancient Church and first new Israel within this Isle the seed and Reliques of the first Apostolick Plantation who amidst so many stormes and Invasions that have drown'd the names and memories of other Nations were kept up a distinct people by his Providence amidst prevalent enemies round about as it were by Antiperistasis till the arrival of Henry the 7th For ever since the distinction of that people in Names Language Tenure Manners Laws Customes vanish'd by degrees and the English and Brittains are dissolv'd into one and the same Nation and the charge and right of preserving and enjoying their liberty and Reformation devolv'd on both alike For it cannot be well unobserv'd how in the deep Counsels of Gods Providence true Religion and the Brittish Monarchy like twins have fallen and risen up together hand in hand being partners by a kind of Sympathy in the wounds and prosperity of one another For when Popery and Augustine the Monk first came in the Brittish Monarchy was declining And no sooner this was up again in King Henry's Person but Popery like a Bucket was to go down and vanish as it never could since Clandestinely attempt to get up without great Convulsions and hazards and weakning of this Monarchy So that this Nation had the honour and singular mercy to be the first of all Nations especially Western in receiving the first Life the first Wounds the first Cure in its Religion It being the first Province that welcom'd Christian Religion into its own Throne under its Kings the first that exalted it into the Throne of the Roman Empire when her Kings grew Emperors The first opposer of Antichrist to its wound and glory in the beginning of its dark Raign which lasted about 900 years and the first partaker and chief cause under God in the Reformation and deliverance from it Henry the 7th being the morning Star and tydings of this day-break not only to Brittain but to the rest of Europe For King Henry came in 1485. and Martyn Luther began to shine in Germany about thirty years after As there were Prophesies and Visions to King Cadwaladr 797 years before believed saith our c Edward Hall Union of York and Lancaster 1 Hen. 7. f. 2. English Historian to be verified in his exaltation For the d Hist Britt l. 12. c. 17. Brittish story mentions an Angelical Vision to King Cadwaladr to this effect populum Britonum merito suae fidei insulam adepturum c. That the Brittains for their Faiths sake should recover this Island and their Kingdom which they had lost but the Condition of bringing Cadwaladr's bones from Rome whither we proved he never went may well be look'd upon as a Fabulous Addition of the Monks This is said to agree with other Prophesies of e Piâ—seus p. 63. Aquila of Caer-septon or Shaftsbury and other Traditions they had in both Brittains Not of Merlin only which yet are commonly cited as authorities touching the change of the Sees from London to Canterbury by our English Historians W. Malmesbury Mat. Westminster c. delebitur Relligio Dignitas Londoniae adornabit Doroberniam spoken about 150 years before it took effect But other Brittish Authors without blemish as f Apud Usher 567. St. Kentigern to his Scholars on the day his Kinsman St. David departed about the year of our Lord 544. Tradet Dominus Brittanniam exteris Nationibus deum ignorantibus c. God will deliver Brittain over unto Foreign Nations that know not God The Law of Christian Religion shall be abolished therein for a prefix'd time but it
shall through the mercy of God be again recover'd and repair'd to its former state yea into a better condition than before And the fam'd g Dr. Davies Preface to Welsh Grammar for part thereof Taliessin to the same effect about the year 580. Which for several considerations are believed to come to pass in Henry 7th not only by others but by himself as may be conjectur'd from his Order h Powel Annot. in cap. 3. Descriptionis Cambriae Giraldi and Commission to the Heralds in Wales to give account of his Pedigree from the said King Cadwaladr and his designe to revive the name and memory of the renowned Arthur King of Brittain to the great joy of our own and the terrour i Hall 1 Henry 7. f. 5. of Foreign Nations saith an English Writer In him the Union of the Roses and in the Provident Marriage of his Daughter Margaret to James the fourth of Scotland from whom our King James descended the Vnion of the Kingdoms and the old Name of Great-Brittain early Commenc'd as it were in its causes In his time the several persons first appear'd who before they went off were the causes or great occasions of our Reformation or the Restoration of our Brittish Church to follow that of the Crown In his time and by his Order Catherine of Castile Prince Arthurs Dowager was design'd Wife for the second Brother by which Incestuous Marriage confirm'd by the Pope for k Antiquitates Eccles p. 316. a round sum both he and his Successors lost their credit and Supremacy in England ever afterwards It was his provident husbandry rais'd a Purse for Henry 8th to effect this change In his time was l Idem p 309 Fox Bishop of Winchester a Promoter of that Incestuous Match who by his favour thereby first Introduc'd Wolsey m Ibid into Court in whom Popery received its mortal wound both in Effigie as it were and in the Cause He being both the lively Type and Image of Rome and her Religion for pompous vain glory and pride and falshood and luxury and likewise the main cause of her fall and ruine through the match aforesaid which he first contriv'd to be scrupled n Idem p. 316. for other ends and his Romish Legatine power o Idem p. 325. which brought him and the whole Popish Clergy involv'd in the same guilt of Praemunire to the mercy of the King and to renounce the Pope and to acknowledge him for the head of the Church in his stead In his time to instance in more direct and positive causes and first glimmerings of our Reformation Dr. p Idem 306. Collet Founder of St. Pauls School q Pitzeus 691. where W. Lilly was his first Schoolmaster whose father was twice Lord Mayor of London appear'd zealous in his Divinity Lectures at Oxford for Scripture and Antiquity against Images and Legends and the two great Authority r Antiq. Eccles 306. of Scotus and Aquinas and the Schoolmen the great Pillars of Popery being followed in his Principles ſ Ibid. by Dr. Warner and others in that of Cambridge and especially in Court and City for his eloquent Sermons to the same effect And though Articled against as an Heretick †Ibid. Pitzeus 693. by Fitz James then Bishop of London yet King Henry the Seventh esteemed him before any other Let others chuse what Doctor they list u Antiq. Eccles 307. I am best pleased with Doctor Colet was that wise Kings saying whereby it is inferrible that the one being a Protestant in his Principles and tendency the other could be no less by his Approbation For all great Actions have smal beginnings like other things and are not in their perfection the first instant The first Alienation of Henry the Eight from depending so much on the Popes judgement and Authority to follow that of his own Clergy and Universities together with the judgement of others in Points and Cases of Religion and Conscience and particularly that of his mariadge is observ'd to be wrought by x Ibid. Cranmer afterwards Arch-Bishop at Waltham whither he retired from Cambridge where he read Divinity after the steps and Principles of y p. 323. Ibid. p. 331. Colet and Warner that went before so that if Cranmer who enlightened and Converted Henry the Eight had his first light from Colet the first motion and beginning of the Reformation must in all reason be referr'd to the time of Colet and Henry the Seventh for then I say Scripture and Fathers began to be regarded and followed before Schoolmen and Legends which is the nature and design of Protestancy And the instinct hath continued to our days amongst the learned who are restless till this Church become wholy Primitive and Apostolical and Orientall in its Doctrines and Discipline and Customs such as our Brittish Church before the mixtures of Popery appears from Records to have ever been In his time in a word it might be said Aspice venturo laetentur ut Omnia Saeclo The Nation had a manifest new Date and Epocha in respect of Church and Laws and Tenures and Fines and the Alteration of interests amongst all degrees Commons and Nobles as well as the Union of all Royal blouds and the end of former Wars and Divisions and the beginning and fair hopes of more blessed days in his time the Crown and Scepter of Brittain began after long shiverings to have its first rest as in its proper Centre from the time it was wrested from the right owners for it never rested with the Saxons who soon to quarrel about their prey being divided into seven or eight Kingdoms or Heptarchies in perpetual Wars and Jarrs with one another for about 270 years till the West-Saxon Kingdom where the Loegrian-Brittains were best us'd swallowed all the rest under King Egbert and Alured The Dane being upon their heels without above 9 years respite to swallow them The Norman afterwards swallowing both in one day and they soon after divided into bloudy Wars between Kings and Barons and especially the long contest between the two houses of York and Lancaster which never could be extinguished till Henry the Seventh and the right and Ancient owners or the Brittish line was found uppermost The Restoration of the Brittish Religion hastening after that of its Monarchy as it were by providential fate and consequence for where else better to fix the beginning of our Reformation as it is generally stil'd is hard to calculate To make those conspicious events and Audible stirrs that first accompanied it in the World by which the vulgar that are led by sence are most guided the standard of its Originals were to begin at the streame and not at the spring to place it in the visible alteration it self made by Laws in Parliament against Bulls and Palls and Supremacies and Appeals in 22.23 24. Henry Eight by which Popery in England was quite knocked in the head were to
by his high disloyalty though not by his resolution and many other great parts if rightly used And what makes our Frustrations to be Panegyricks in many mouthes of his Attainments but that having the same men and courage and preparations and more we take not the same method to prosper in a good cause as he did in a bad And to borrow light from vanity what can the skill of the best Player avail if the Dice be altogether against him For some will say that Interest and reason of State all may see that the temper of the whole Nation and the wise may observe that Heaven and fate forbid the banes and realliance of this Land with Popery For who are more miserably rent and divided then we now of this Nation are though restor'd Our people distrusting their Princes and our Princes their people whereby our strength and glory by mutual subductions is brought to nothing like a Merchant that hath 10000 l. Stock and is 20000 l. in Debt and all this only by striving against fate And making Popery and our selves the weaker by favouring it against Profession Interest Duty Oaths Trusts halting between God and Belial between Christ and the Pope between Protestant and Papist being as they say neither good fish nor flesh but deservedly weak and improsperous and contemptible and acting all in the dark like men under fear or guilt or self condemnation yet a sincere Resolution to be firm and true to God and Protestant truth without further doubling Cures the whole Nation in an Instant clears all Debts dissolves all jealousies and fears strengthens all Interests opens all hands and hearts and purses and makes us Brittains again happy and united within our selves and serviceable to our friends and formidable to our enemies and acceptable to God All our Divisions in this Nation for these 1600 years and upwards were ever rais'd and fomented by harbouring Rome within our bowels either with or against our wills The Picts from the North and the Scots or Irish from the West were enemies heretofore to the Brittains though much their flesh and bloud solely upon the score of Rome upon the like inducement as Roman-Catholicks at this day are enemies to our peace and Nation the one gnawing our bowells as the other did Infest our borders upon the same score of Rome For the Roman power ruling here while Picts and Scots were unreduc'd forc'd the Brittains to serve and fight against them whether they would or not and them to fight against us by consequence and Provocation The Roman cheat since prevailing upon many through their want of love to the truth makes men enemies and Spies and Traitors to their own Countrey not through force but by their own choice and zeal to serve and promote the ambitious ends of Forreigners which less intoxicate than mens own personal lusts and passions and renders them therefore more inexcusable and despicable than any other Traitors or Malefactors whatsoever that set up for themselves An hearty embraceing of the Ancient Apostolick Brittish Faith which the Scotch and Irish defended with us heretofore against Monk Augustine and planted amongst the English before he and his Successors sowed their Tares amongst them which our Roman-Catholicks are so fond of would unite these three Nations as one man in mutual love and peace and truth and prosperity and renown and strength and Gods blessing which was the whole aime and designe of this discourse and an effectual care taken against Roman seducers on the one hand and compassion towards the seduced on the other and the exemplification of our own right faith by an answerable good life would under God easily effect this reduction They are unnaturally unkind to their own Countrey that take part with Rome against it which was ever a bad neighbour to our Brittain returning us evil for good It destroyed our Empire through the ambition of Maximus our Church through Monk Augustine whereas we ever did but Cures upon it Planting the first Gospel amongst them before the arrival of St. Peter or St. Paul Ridding their Roman World of the remainders of their old Pagan Idolatry which there was in great power and value by the zeal of our Great Constantine and healing their new Christian Idolatry in good part wherewith it was as much enamour'd by our Henry the 8th his President Let them beware of the Repentance of another Generous Prince descending together from the same Royal Brittish stock and of no less a spirit who being once fully undeceived shall see great wrongs to the Innocent to be repair'd great indignities to his own Interest and honour to be reveng'd and chastiz'd as King Henry did his Incest great oppression to patient Protestancy both at home and in Neighouring Kingdoms yea and great abuse to all Christendom in general by Holy frauds and Impostures and abominable Idolatries to be reliev'd and redress'd to whom Cromwel their Terrour was but a Blazing-warning Meteor who shall unite to himself both the heart of God and of the three Nations by his zeal for his cause and glory against such Hypocrites and everlasting troâ—â—â—â—ers of Kingdoms and Churches and judge it a design commensurate to his Princely Grandeur and Renown to go along with Fate and Providence to put a period to their Kingdom of Lyes and Forgeries and Profanations and begin the overthrow of Turkish by suppressing Christian Antichrist the great enemy of Souls and Truth which gave the other its chief rise and growth and was the first president in Christian Kingdoms of Rebellion against lawful Soveraigns upon the pretence of Religion the only obstacle of the Union of all Christian Churches by his Pride and usurpations And the most dangerous enemies to all humane Society and Government and to all Faith and Truth among men and Christians which support them by Dispens'd Perjuries Licensed Dissimulations Equivocations Mental Reservations Canoniz'd Tteasons c. The like practices being never known or heard of in the World before amongst sober Heathens nor the most wild and barbarous much less amongst the Primitive Christians and Martyrs but only the Gnostick Disciples of Simon Magus If it be the Fate of Brittain to give Rome another Cure and Castigation without which neither England nor Christendom are like be at rest And none are easier and sooner reduc'd than such whose principles and practices have long warr'd against Heaven and the Brittish Proverb saith Drwg y Ceidw Diawl ei wâas The Devil ill brings off his Servant It were to be wish'd and prayed it might please the Almighty to effect it mildly by the Authority and power of a generous and lawful Prince like as Constantine was from hence and not for our neglect raise a Tyrannical Cromwel for the scourge and ruine of their Degenerate Church as he did Ruffinus heretofore for the overthrow of their Degenerate Empire who is a Balaus Cent. 1.42 reported to be a Brittain born and his name greatly proves his Original were he born elsewhere
Holy Ghost so here above the Holy Catholick Church which in the belief of Christendom comes next to the blessed Trinity but in the Creed of Rome must give place to the Pope to go before it to whom all Ancient Churches must vail their Soveraignty as Kings their Crowns as well as private consciences their Divine Allegiance and Subjection which they ow to God and truth and no other but for his sake And as the case is brought to a short and plain Issue so to this hazard and inconvenience to proud Rome that when the Immunity and freedom of any one single Church is proved and evinced Irrefragably their Universal Supremacy is overthrown and wrested from them and nothing left in their close possession but Antichristian guilt by such pride and and Arrogance Incurred This Ancient and Sacred Canon for more satisfaction runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let Ancient Customs be firmly observed those in Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria should have the command and power over all those for to the Bishop that is at Rome this is likewise usual in like manner at Antioch and in the other Provinces their several honours and Primacies are to be preserved safe and entire to each Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this Custom is to be mark'd as Universally manifest and acknowledged in the Churches that if any one be ordain'd a Bishop against the will and likeing of the Metropolitan This great Synod hath decreed and resolvâ—d that such a one ought not to be taken to be a Bishop Which is explained and confirmed in the second General Council held at Constantinople in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not Forreign Bishops approach those Churches that are without their a Concil Constant 1 Can. 2. 3. bounds and Jurisdiction nor blend and confound the Churches which the Canons made distinct Let the Bishops of Alexandria have the charge of the East only always reserving the due honours of Primacy to the Church of Antioch as they are allotted to it in the Nice Rules And let the Bishops of the Asâ—â—n Diocess govern such places as are in Asia and concern themselves in no other that are out of it And the Bishops of Pontus rule only in the Pontic Province And of Thracia in Thracia only and not further and let no Bishops without Invitation come out of their own Diocess to confer Orders or to dispose and rectifie any matters Ecclesiastical but by the rule above written to be observ'd in every Diocess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For this is manifest and out of doubt that in every particular Province the Synod of that Province ought to administer and govern all throughout according as the Synod of Nice hath decreed in such matters Now by these two great Councils and that of Ephesus together being the three first general and Oecumenical as in the mouth of two or three witnesses or rather of all Christendom it stands decided and established that the Church of Cyprus is not subject to any Church no not to Rome but is Sovereign within it self There being no reason why it should be subject to Rome more than to Antioch both deriving from St. Peter Christs Vicar alike If therefore free and exempt from the one she is alike free and exempt from the other by the same sentence and for the same cause of having power and Authority within it self by Ancient custome which frees it from all Forreign Sovereignty whatsoever by necessity for the contradiction that is between being under and not under any other because absolute and free within it self as the Council did adjudge both the right and fact Therefore Rome cannot be Supream to Cyprus whereby her universal Superiority is manifestly overthrown and she bound to suspect her self of Antichristian Arrogance And if not Supream to Cyprus much less to Antioch which is Ancienter in Christ than both For from Antioch the Gospel came to Rome and Câ—prus by St. Peter and St. Paul as is confess'd by themselves which therefore had a Chaire and the rights of a Chaire by consequence before Rome had being I will not here take upon me to enumerate all Provincial Churches of Ancient Apostolical foundation or Imperial exemption that by this and other Canons of General Councils were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chief within themselves as were Bulgaria Iberia and Cyprus as Balsamon notes on the second Canon of Canstantinople and Carthage after mature debate and tryal for its Title with Rome which was discovered to have no right of Supremacy or Appeal and what she alleadg'd out of the Nice Canons was found in open Council after perusal of Records sent for on purpose from the East to be meer b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zonar in can 31. Conc. Carthag cheat and forgery and all transmarine Powers and consequently that of Rome were barr'd out by strong c Conc. Carthag c. 31. c Conc. Milevit c. 22. Canons that no Bishop might go out of the Land beyond the Sees without the special License of his Metropolitan That no appeals should be pursued to transmarine Tribunalls but only to the Primates of their Provinces under pain of being Excommunicate throughout all the Churches of Africa Such immunity had the Church of Alexandria which in that respect is equall'd to Rome by the words of this Canon For Rome it self was chief in like manner and unsubordinate to any other in her own Province though not Superior to all the Churches of Europe as she vainly pretends And if any had this immunity and chiefty within it self the Church of Brittain had it beyond all doubt or question and that by the express letter and intendment of this Nice Canon which confirms such rights to all Metropolitan Bishops that were before in being As our Metropolitans of York and London and Caerleon manifestly were as appears by the Records and Subscriptions of the Council of Arles which was as great a Council in the West as Nice was in the East and held about 14 or 15 years before the other Besides its Seniority to Rome in the Faith and its distance and separation by Sea as well as Carthage and its pre-eminence in first Kings and Emperors and being known at Rome when Gregory was about sending Monk Augustine hither to have no Pall from Rome by his own confession upon search Yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saith Balsamon upon the said second Can. of Constantinople From the beginning all Metropolitans of Provinces were chiefs within themselves and ordain'd by their own Synods which is much confirm'd by that Ancient MS. Carranza mentions which renders that passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Quoniam quidem Metropolitano Episcopo hoc idem moris est c. And as all Subjects in the State are concern'd and bound to know who is their right Ruler and proper Superiour so is it in the Church men are Commanded to know their chiefs But no where
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
president of a Holy Pope or Prelate promoting his privare lusts and Interest jure Divino shall affect and Assimilate whole Kingdoms Provinces Churches and all degrees of men both Secular and Spiritual all Politicians Libertines Rebels and Carnal Christians whether within or without his Holiness obedience to take after the example and Pattern when once known to become their Own Popes to License their own Crimes and Cruelty and Treachery for their gain and advantage as well as He having so great an example for Apology and excuse and the like deceitful heart to prompt them to it and under the shelter of Sola fides as well as that of Sola Ecclesia both of the same mould and spring both shall drive on their ungodly designs and be justified Saints and good Catholicks in their own esteem and vote amidst all their Hypocrisie and Rebellion nevertheless whatever they be in Christ's who is their Judge And the end of Christianity is hereby defeated and the Gospel and Baptism reversâ—d and every mans Will is his own Bible and the Rule of his Neighbours Rights and his Soveraigns duty self-love his wisdom and Religion and Charity and Loyalty gon out of fashion and request and all are Popes but none are Christians whereas Christ neither in his own person nor his Disciples nor his Laws gave the least Countenance or example for such Encroachments upon Kingdoms or Brethren He allowed his rights to Caesar and consequently his external Supremacy to every Prince in his own Territory his greatest Apostles kept their own bounds and line and did not build upon their Neighbours foundations Rom. 15.20 2 Cor. 10.16 Gal. 2.7 Thou shalt not Covet thy Neighbours House c. is is one of his greatest Laws and Maxims daily inculcated upon all his Christians without exception And his Apostles forwarn and testifie That he is the avenger of all such that oppress or over-reach their Brethren in any matter 1 Thess 4.6 But nothing is more the Profession or Custom of Rome than over-reaching and Intruding into other mens rights and building upon other's foundations and Senior Churches and thrusting their Sickle into other mens Harvests rather then keep honestly and peaceably at home within their appointed bounds and want their Peter-Pence Yea rather then fail by any sinfull ignoble Arts whatsoever confederating with Pagans against Christians setting on Subjects against their Princes and Princes against Subjects and the People against one another not to mention poisons secret murders Massacres Powder-Plots c. And which is the greatest violence to mens faculties and common sence and makes mens ears to tingle at the Blasphemy and hearts to tremble at such Atheistical Insurrections and contempt of the Soveraigns of Heaven and Earth This invasion of Neighbours must be the Catholick Cause this wrong and injustice must be Gods own Will and Commission and St. Peters Charter the chief Robbers and Rebels in the design the choysest Saints and Catholick Champions of Christ who according to St. Paul was the Avenger of all such but according to our Popes is made the Patron and approver Whereby their Repentance and Cure becomes morally impossible not only because recovery with them were disease or their departure from the Faith and their amendment after Christ's mind a damnable State and Condition but also because Reason and Conscience are gagg'd and the faculties of their soul wholly lockâ—d up from helping to their Conversion Heathens were easier recoverable than Papists from their Idols because in the one there was a reserv'd Allegiance to God and the Truth left in their souls for Arguments to work upon but in the Roman Heathenism that Allegiance is so fix'd and settled in the Pope as God that the soul is to regard no Truth or Oracle whatsoever of God himself against him Papists are more Pope's people than God's people and their reasons and Consciences by consequence bound more to follow guides and the Will of the Pope than to follow Truth or the Will of God Socrates is my Friend and Plato is my Friend but Truth is more my Friend than either was the Heathen Liberty Truth is my Friend and Conscience is my Friend but my Ghostly Father and Guide is more my Friend then all is the Popish slavery In the Roman Religion man is to be regarded above God yea most are not allowed to give any hearing to God at all who speaks in his Scriptures which ever were and are esteem'd Gods Word in all Christendom whatever they be at Rome Papists to our sight are Gods rational Creatures as other men and Christians be but in reason they are but parcells of the Pope detach'd from God As Tangier to the eye is in Africa but by fiction of reason in England to whom it is subject A Papist therefore being more the Popes subject than Gods is hardly reclaim'd by any Truth which is but the voice or will of God as of a Potentate more Forreign and remote and weaker as to him than God who is the strongest of all to all the World besides Esdr 4. And his rational faculties ordain'd to take the part of truth are kept prisoners from doing it any service yea are listed and impress'd to obstruct and batter it as Canons taken and master'd by an enemy and turn'd to do execution upon Friends whereof the Divines and Parasites of that Church in many voluminous learnedly vain Discourses in defence of gross Errours against plain Truths have given a considerable instance to the World Now how this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or falling away from God and truth 2 Thess 2.3 came first to pass and that once great and glorious Church and its Angels to leave their first Station and to be tumbled down into their Papal pit of darkness and seduction next to the Infernal where in the one as in the other both sorts take a miserable pleasure to continue according to the Brittish saying y cyw y fegur yn Vffern yn Vffern y myn ef fôd but a far greater pleasure and triumph to ensnare as many Souls as they can to bear them company and participate in their plague is sufficiently clear in History and strangely describ'd to the life in Prophecy And to begin with the first Pride and a high stomack had a chief hand in both the falls and founder'd patience in the latter with an insatiable avarice and ambition in the Fathers of this Church after the vain pomp and glory of this world which the children of Christs School are instructed early to renounce that it pleased God in his deep wisdom and Justice to deliver them over to a reprobate sense and an infatuated mind to be a curse and plague to themselves and the rest of Christendom for many years for their sterility and ungratitude under the Gospel of his Son And as it was with the Fox in the Fable who long strove in vain to repass out of the Granary through the same hole with a full belly through which he had entred in
blessed Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and Divine Truths to the contrary reproached as Heresies and all wayes and Arts yea fire and faggot us'd to â—ar them out least their slaves and captives should be undeceived and set free by them and so become unmanageable whereby their Conquest over Souls shall be at peace and the misery and slavery of mens immortal Spirits turn to account and the enriching of their Holy Church A provocation against Heaven of long continuance enough to raise new Goths and Vâ—â—â—â—â—s against their Church and State but that the prosperity it enjoyes is a greater plague and desolation than the Sword can bring The Spiritual servitude of the Soul under Idols far exceeding the outward slavery of the body under Conquerors as much as Apoplexy exceeds sleep or the pangs of Conscience the pain of the Teeth To live in the causes of damnation being a greater misery in reason than to endure the execution there being nothing of Gods hand or justice in the one being our own mala culpae as there is in the other being Gods mala penae or the correction which he sends and inflicts and therefore the less tolerable evil of the two if properly evil Further correction therefore can do little good upon them It must be the Infinite mercies of God and the zeal of Christian Princes that must do good upon them against their wills as it is expected by diligent a Divine Dialogues p. 226. searchers into Divine Prophecies that some great Prince will be shortly rais'd by God to cast a Vial of wrath upon their glory And they have a common Tradition in France saith b Review of the Council of Trent by W R. a French Roman-Catholick Writer that some of the Carolingians of the Race of Charlemaigne shall have an Emperour of France Charles by name who shall be Prince and Monarch over Europe and shall reform the Church and State But the Glory of such a Cure and Deliverance being as it were the Redemption a new of those whom Christ redeem'd from Spiritual slavery seems more probably reserv'd for this Isle above any other whatsoever as before And so since our Island is become Great Brittain again and the true Religion is recovered with our Brittish Line and Monarchy which were fallen together it is to be conjectured from foregoing Instances of Providence upon this Monarchy that such of our Princes as will appear favourers of Popery are like to be the most unfortunate and inglorious and unbelov'd acting therein against the grain and fate of this Empire as those of the contrary design and activity as having Providence of their side the most successful and renowned and the darlings of God and men SECTION XVI What the Roman-Catholicks truly mean by the term Heretick they so liberally bestow on others And that none are greater Hereticks in Truth and reality than themselves and of their Title Roman-Catholick which they so well like And Old Rome and Brittain both Heathen and Christian compar'd with the Modern And that the yoak of Rome is not better to us than our present condition BY their condemning Protestants so confidently for Hereticks because they believe not after the manifest errours of their single Church though they profess to believe after Christ and his Scriptures and his true and purest Catholick Church they do but call others such what they make and convict themselves to be thereby It hath been ever the Custom or craft of men when sin or Satan or any vile design hath possess'd the Throne of their heart instead of Christ to imploy his Name and Laws and Power against not the enemies of Christ and the truth but the opposers of that lust or private Interest which succeeds him Upon which score the Soberest and Holiest Protestants though Catholicks with God are Hereticks with the Pope for opposing his Christ that is his Carnal Will and Grandeur which rules his heart instead of its right Soveraign For if Christ and his mind did reign therein such Hereticks as right Protestants are would soon be embrac'd for Christian Brethren And he that judges of Heresie contrary to Christs mind and will finds the first Heretick in himself The right method heretofore to judge of Heresie was the Holy Scriptures for a rule and holy Churche's Authority proceeding by such a rule or Scriptura animatae or Christ himself speaking in men But with some now a dayes one mans absolute will and pleasure and his worldly concerns and acquisitions a Haereticus arguitur qui monitus non restituit bona Ecclesiae Spondan Anno 794. n. 6. whether just or unjust or Libido Sainct fiâ—ata or a speaking Antichrist is the only rule and touchstone for to run cross to the one out of Allegiance to the other shall more involve in Rebellious Heresie than the other Install in Orthodox Loyalty and this in uniform agreeableness to the Hypothesis touching the right and wrong Soveraign we are upon And the reason in Scripture why a Heretick is to be finally avoided is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.11 or the condemnation of his own heart in changing his Soveraign which is manifestly discernable in his Conversation by all Christians that hold to their Heart-Loyalty and by the sleepy Intoxicated party it self if of a loyal inclination after two or three admonitions or else belike never The Portuguees General us'd the like Divinity in the Field in a passion as these do in their Schools and Pulpits who when the Auxillary English too tamely suffered as he conceived the advance of the Enemy towards them cry'd out in indignation the English Hereticks have betrayed us But when after a suddain Volley three stories high they clear'd the field with but-end he then confessed and vowed with as great content that the English Hereticks were excellent Christians So that Protestants by dexterous application are not out of hope but that they may retain their Heresies and be Catholicks nevertheless upon an Orthodox Tribute to an indulgent Pope who is not averse to tolerate publick Stews and License Incest c. upon the like terms But in several respects and considerations none are gâ—eater Hereticks in all desert and reason than our Roman Catholicks who are first at criminaâ—inâ—â— who in the first place slight the whole Canon of Scripture and forbid it to several as a dangerous book next to Heretical which no Father 〈◊〉 â—he Church oâ— any Council ever did and the gâ—eatest Hereâ—icks that ever were have been bâ—â—ded and condemned for no more but clashing against a few certain Texts and parcells thereof Who next renounce the whole Catholick Church which all Christians in their Creed profess to believe saving that degenerate rump and shadow thereof they at Rome have to shew Allowing none to be Metropolitans without their Palls c Concil Lateranens Can. 18. none to be Bishops or Ministers any where without Ordination deriv'd from them c Concil Lateranens Can. 18. none to have Authority to
succeeded the Roman should be Antichrist yet none must be Catholicks and right Christians but they alone How far they may prevail on any of our Great ones with their tale and story I cannot tell yet the generality of the Nation God be praised are not so forsaken by him as to love to be so deluded but are as deaf as Vlysses against such charms what attempts soever have been used to prepare and mollifie them by debauchery for the Imposture and ready to answer these Impostors as did the Neighbour-hood in the fable the beggar at Towns-end with his counterfeit Lame legg Quaere Pergrinum vicinia tota reclamat go to Japan or Hispaniola to set up your Stage and boast your receipts In England mens eyes are open and the mystery too well known yea the Wisest and Stoutest and most Prosperous of our Kings and Princes in former Ages our Renown'd Edwards and Henries and Elizabeth have sufficiently unkennel'd these Foxes and hunted them and their craft and their stink and their fire-brands and their trouble far out of our Church and State But when ever by a Judgement upon a Nation they light upon any that are more tractable and credulous their first attempt will be immediately like that of a Crow setting upon a young Lamb for prey to play first at the eyes to peck them both out to sink and fix Implicit Faith and blind obedience like two hollow pits instead And then the rest of the design shall be finish'd with less disturbance and every blow and Inconvenience never seen till it light and then also Conscience and Honour and Publick Peace and Truth and the Allegiance of the soul to Christ must make no objections after the Judgement is once Idolatrously resign'd yea should they offer to draw back when they see their errour and danger for to err is human to recover is Angelical to persevere is Diabolical How will these false guides grinne and shake their heads if not brew worse things in them at their departure or their return from Forreign cheats to God and their Country and the Truth How will they rip up and wound his name and honour with the Imputations of Inconstancy Weakness Apostacy Perjury and what not as the unclean Spirit tore the man in the Gospel when he was to quit possession for doing no more but what themselves as they are men and Christians ought to do in point of duty and safety upon the Eternal Allegiance of their Souls to Christ and the Truth and count it high honour and glory in great ones to lead It being in reason a greater Arrival and perfection to be wise and holy against the deceitfulness of sin and Satan than to be couragious amidst dangers Scipio and Alexander being more admir'd in Story for their Continence than for their Conquest for their Victories over Beauty than over Enemies If our Romish Pretenders had any the least descent or resemblance in bloud or temper or Spirit with the Ancient Roman Worthyes or any drop of Camillus or Scipioes bloud in their Veines who valued the honour and Sanctity of their false Gods above their lives and Empire could their great and clear Spirits thus descend to pervert the Gospel into matter of Trade and Merchandize or truel and plaister their mean and unworthy ends with the bloud of the Son of God And make his Glorious Resurrection and Ascention a Varnish for their secular usurpations And his chief Apostles and Holy Catholick Church complices and Vouchers of all their Frauds and Tyrannies and Treasons Which is manifestly done when any wrong to men or Churches as the Case was made plain in our Brittish are palliated with their Sacred Names and Authorities as the practice is as plain and common in their Romish Church towards us and all Christendom besides If it be counted miserable Ignominious Harlotry corpore questum facere how much more abominable is it to make the like Trade and sinful gain of the Gospel and Christ and their own Souls as well as those of their Brethren It were far more fair and generous in them and the lesser of the two evils to renounce and deny Christ and his Religion outright than so to profess it and to spit in the face of their Redeemer than thus to kiss him and to abuse without ceasing his most Holy Name and Faith to â—oâ— and deal and cheat and disturb the World as it were a less indignity to a person of honour to be denyed Quarter than preserv'd alive to tread Morâ—eâ— or to gâ—ind in a Mill. Tolerabilior esâ— qâ—â— morâ— jubet quam qui turpiteâ— vivere Can any sort of Christians be more realâ—y Heathens saving such Ambidextrous Protestants who for their present advantage and Interest can promote Popery in their Countrey though they believe it to be a false and a dead Religion and betray their own which they possess and know to be most Orthodox and sound preferring madly a superlative Carnal self before both Religions and their own truth But though those of Rome are far from Old Romans either in Faith or Fame or Bloud yet so are not we in England from the Old Brittains in either of these respects But far ouâ—â—oing both in another good quality of containing our selves within the bounds of our Isle without great and just cause to sally out and not coveting turbulently other mens rights or their Kingdoms or Churches which is true past doubt of the Brittains in Wales and was prov'd before at large as to the English In the great and as it were second Deluge of Christendom for their Gygantick sins by Goths and Vandalls and Normans and Saxons for inundations of Nations in Mystical Scriptures are compar'd to those of Waters Rev. 17.15 wherein most other people were swept away and drown'd and their Languages and names obliterated and Scepters and Churches overturn'd our Brittains alone charg'd through and surviv'd the brunt of all Invasions and swame to Land through all those Billowes alive and safe with their Bibles in their hands and their Creed in their hearts and their own Language in their mouths living to see their Church restor'd to its old liberty and purity their Crown to their own Flesh and Bloud and the divided Island to great Brittain again Before their nunc Dimiâ—â—is and dissolution by Incorporation with the English Nation or rather Re-union with their Loeâ—â—â—a Brethren recovering themselves through Gods wonderful mercies and Resurrections to innocent and long sufferers and his blasts and periods upon Lines of Bloud and violence in 〈◊〉 Princes and Nobles and Generality into Oâ—a 〈…〉 again as was prov'd before diâ—â—câ—ing perhaps in names and Dialect but not in Nature and Humour and Succession to the like generous defence of their Faith and Glory being â—oth observâ—d in their Dispositions for the most part to be alike Fearless and Harmless and Warlike and Liberâ—l and Religious and subject to Indignation and neither the one nor the other our Modern or Middle or most
many years set at naught the Power of the Roman Empire which induc'd Josephus c Apud Camden Ibid. being further off to be believe that Brittain could not be much less in bigness and number of men than the other World beside Vocatus ut ad insigne spectaculum populus The Citizens were invited and call'd together as to no ordinary sight and the Pretorian Cohorts made a Guard And the Empress her self which before was never known Novum sanè moribus veterum insolitum could not forbear to be absent And the Senate afterwards met Et multa magnifica super Captivitate Caractaci disseruére and had many discourses and high resentments of the reducing of P. Cradoc Judging it no less a Victory than Scipio's over Syphax or Paulus over Perses or over any other Kings that ever were led in Triumph by the Romans And when he was to speak before them in this condition nec c Tacit. Ann. lib. 12. vulta demisso nec verbis misericordiam requirentibus Neither with dejected looks nor precarious style he boldly deliver'd his mind to this effect Sâ—â—ing it was in fate that the Romans were to be 〈…〉 in necessity that others must be un … 〈…〉 … ey had an opportunity now to shew their 〈◊〉 and being observ'd to be near of Kin in spirit he was presently received into singular favour and honouâ— which might well conduce to the promotion of Christianity there by his Visitants from Britâ—aiâ— Not 〈◊〉 was the deportment of another Aged Gentleman d Dr. Davis Praefat. Gram. Cambr. ex Camden 〈◊〉 â—â—e same Countrey and in the like condition about 1100 years after before K. Henry the second who being ask'd whether he conceived his handful of Brittains were able to withstand or hold out against his Royal preparations now against them made answer with equal unconcernedness and Faith superlative This Nation O King may now as heretofore and often be overpowr'd and in great part ruin'd by your Armes and others but totally destroyed root and branch which was the design of this powerful and bloudy expedition and Allyance unless the wrath of God concurre with man they will never be And I trust for this Corner of the Earth however it may happen with the rest of the World that before the Supream Judge at the last day no Nation will be found to survive here to answer for themselves but Brittains and in no other Language but their own But to pursue the Comparison of Brittish and Roman Valour after our Reduction there appears a manifest difference in their own sense and styles of their Armies and Legions after they were animated with Brittish Levies from what they were before For before they were distinguish'd with numerical names only of first second third ninth tenth fourteenth Legion c. But their Cohorts and Legions rais'd out of Brittain ever bore the Plume and additional style of Victorious a Cambden p. 571. 458. Pancirol c. 35. p. 236. in â—â—e their Fields and Musters so the sixt Legion that lay at York a Cambden p. 571. 458. Pancirol c. 35. p. 236. was called Sexta Brittannica Victrix or Victorious the 20th at a Cambden p. 571. 458. Pancirol c. 35. p. 236. Chester was vicesma Brittannica Victrix or Victorious also the third at Caerleon-ar-Wysc higher yet being styl'd Augusta or the Imperial Legion And accordingly the Emperours themselves finding their greatest safety to be near them removed their Imperial Seat to this Island Which at first sight might not seem the best way to keep the rest of the World under them in peace to translate their habitation so far into a Transmarine excentric Corner Great Kingdoms like the dryed Oxe-hide being best kept even from Risings and Insurrections of every side by Treading in the middle But they looked upon their abode to be in the heart and Centre of the Empire when they had their Brittish Legions about them for their Life-guard judging their Brittish Forces to be the most Fighting and Faithful of any other besides And this difference between their several Legions in point of Valour came to be more distinctly perceived upon tryal and experience upon one another in their Civil Wars The Illyrick Legions in the Wars of Severus for b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herodian lib. 2. in Juliano 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Severo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid The Brittains for valour and warlike rage are no way short of the Illyrians strength of Body and Military Skill and Courage carried the Fame above any other Nation of the East or West beside not only the Roman which was now much degenerated but the German likewise which was in its prime yet these Hand to Fist were worsted by the Brittannic and the Emperour who trusted in them put to his disguise and shift Till they also were forc'd to give way when assaulted with fresh Legions By them Constantine the Great their flesh and bloud overthrew the Western and Eastern Forces of Maximus and Licinius setling himself and Christian Religion in the event in the Throne over Tyrants and Heathens by mighty Battles was it for this service that Brittain was made subject forever to the Roman Church and to forfeit all the liberty and honour they had either by their own Seniority or His Nativity and Christianity from among them And when their half Countrey-man Maximus drain'd and expos'd our Land to ruine with his numerous Levies how soon did he over-run and subdue all France Germany Spain Africa Italy and Rome it self with two of its Emperous instar fulguris like lightning saith one and was foil'd at last his cause being also not good by a third Emperour Theodosius not so much by Armes as the Prayers of all the Churches and Monasteries of the East and c Spondan Ann. 3888. n. 5. Aegypt and the victory ascrib'd to God alone at Rome by d Spond Ann. 388. n. 7. an Anniversary thanskgiving for their great deliverance whereby may be gather'd how considerable Great Brittain still is consisting of the same people and Courage when well united in perswasions as it is in its Monarchy and upon a good cause Is it fit then this Ancient Apostolick free-born Church Subject never to any Senior to all the Churches of Europe and dignified by Providence with several Preheminences of the first Christian King Emperour Reformer and the honour of first conveying and reconveying Arts and Religion and light to most Nations of this part of the World that now at last it must not only become a Pupil to its Junior but all its Sons become Slaves and Tributaries forever in their Bodies and Souls and Understandings and Purses and Posterity to a Novel Pseudo-Catholick Church no more to be compar'd to the old Roman Heathens than Foxes to Lyons nor to the Old Roman Christians than Apes to Mankind to neither whereof Brittain in her Sons was in any Age ever
dyed in their hope and trust for us for whose sake he 'l continue his goodness to their seed but though his wrath ebb'd 800 years his Grace and mercy wherein he delights to abound and exceed hath not stowed yet full 200 years or is he unable to perfect what he hath begun He that can work a Resurrection from the dead cannot he accomplish a Restoration to a living and surviving People yea and great confusion to all opposers of it No good man ought to envy or hinder the longed for mercies of God to a Nation no great man can and if having his descent alike from the same People how can such be deem'd either good or great but rather miserably unnaturall and deservedly unfortunate and improsperous Earthly Potentates may not give stop to God's tides King Edgar tryed but fail'd their timely retreat will be their greatest safety and Wisdom how many mistaken Politicians have been drowned and Shipwrack'd in such clandestine contrary Councils No Emperour on Earth can command it to be night after the Sun is risen where God is for us we need not fear any seduc'd Dust and Ashes that may appear against us It is likewise most impossible in reason unless in case of Gods great desertion and extraordinary curse The radical difference between Protestants and Papists as was Stated from the beginning and Instanc'd in all along lyes herein that the one take Christ the other the Pope or his pretended Vicar for their Messia or the Lord of their Hearts and Judgements The Protestants who live by faith as all true Christians do and ever did hold firm their Allegiance to their invisible Soveraign in Heaven The Papists who love to live more by sence and show through dis-regard to Faith and the Heart change their Heavenly Soveraign for a visible Christ on Earth which Rebellion can never succeed nor be done no not when it is done already Should not be in the holy Language is shall not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thing shall not be done say the Sons of Jacob touching the Ravishment of their Sister Dina already committed Gen. 34.7 The Soveraignty of Christ and the Allegiance of the soul to God and the Truth are Divine Eternal Establishments not to be alter'd by human pleasure they can no more be changed by the corruption of men or the combination and Clandestine Counsels of Conclaves and Politicians and seduced Grandees than the Constitution of Kingdoms or the Laws of Nations be repealed and changed by Conventicles of Pismires some rash attempt may be made while mens souls are besides themselves or drunk and intoxicated with Idols and vitious Customs but to no more effect than casting caps against the Moon which can never reach it or spitting against the wind which returns into the face or defiance of the Laws and Government by a strong Knot of High-way-men whose end in all likely-hood must be Repentance or Hell and Tyburn Which is further confirm'd by good Authorities the King of Prophets within the Church Psal 2. Why do the Heathens or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2.12 rage and the People Imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed or Messia saying Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us away with these invisible fanatick Lords and Laws of Souls and Consciences Let none in Heaven or Earth be obeyed in matters of Religion or Conscience but a Pope in Temporal matters but a Prince He that sitteth in Heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision to shew the Pittiful ridiculousnes and vanity of such void attempts And the Prince of Philosophers without the Church in his Golden Book of vertue and vice perceiv'd and affirm'd this Truth that the one is in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commendable and lovely and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternally deformed and censurable let men or Laws conspire what they can to the contrary And the unanimous consent and suffrage of all mens Souls and Counsciences to this particular points at the true cause hereof an indelible immediate Allegiance in every heart to God and the truth alone and a deafness to all other Forreign power whatsoever against him Yea and an accuser of it self under any such delinquency For Children and Clownes shall discern and condemn such disloyal deviations in their Prince whom they reverence and the Prince in himself being above all but not above the Soveraign of his heart Men of Honour or Reverence arriveing or supporting their Grandeur by the means and countenance of Vice upon the like Loyalty shall be despis'd by every mouth in the Streets and the Consciences of troubled silent Servants at home that dare not and of their own that dare and will reprove This loyalty and disloyalty against Heaven is such an eternal unalterable measure of mens Misery and bliss that Chast rags will not envy the condition of unclean Silks and Sattin but those shall often wish for the peace and pure content of these The Soul till drown'd in Lusts or gagg'd by Antichristian Tyranny never skrinks from its Heavenly Loyalty while it is a Soul it is for Christ It never deserts this Soveraign till it morally ceases to be a Soul Which is the reason a priori that Popery or the seduction of men from their Loyalty to Christ to slavery to a Mortal can never be well promoted without Debauchery which must first precede to extinguish the Soul Its obedience afterwards shall be blind implicit and servile like that of beasts that have no understanding nothing shall be its Conscience and Religion more but its Carnal Interest and gain and pleasures and complyance with its new false Christ for a false Salvation for human Nature cannot dispense to be without all Religion and Superstition too Its state and condition therefore is a state of enmity and rebellion against God whose Laws it neither is nor can b◠subject to Rom. 8.7 And therefore all its Actions and designes are null and void and damn'd in Law and also in Fact when Gods patience is out either by its timely or eternal Recantation either by Repentance here or durance hereafter for all cross and Irregular wills must at last come up to Christs will the judge of quick and dead either with or against their wills and know their true Soveraign at last either by life or death Rom. 8.6 13. Whereby the true ground appears for our Reduction of this Controversy from the beginning to one single point of obedience or disobedience to the right Soveraign of the heart For so doth the wisest of Kings reduce all Divine and human concern and wisdom into one Principle of Loyalty to God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1.7 And not only the beginning but complement and perfection For he is the wisest and soberest Christian who hath not the Pope but Christ most
vain glory to be constant to Antient Errour and will accept to be Gods Catholicks although they may be branded for being Hereticks to the Pope therein may the blessings of Heaven be multiplyed upon every one of them and their Posterity for ever according to the numbers and Myriads of hearts in Heaven and Earth they shall with their own refresh thereby In the second respect as the Church is a Society of Christian men standing in need of Government and Peace and Order and outward decency and Regulation in its publick Worship and Communion against scandalls from within 1 Cor. 5.11 or tongues and censures from without 1 Cor. 14.23 Authority and power must of necessity be allowed in such external matters to those that are Superiours and Governours in such a body without whom it were as impossible for it to be kept in any order as for an Army to subsist without any Officers or Commanders And here if any where the Pope is to put in his plea and claim for Supremacy which cannot be well denyed him at Rome and his Suburbicarian Territories where he hath the Power both of Prince and Bishop but he never originally had over (a) Praefat. Monastic Anglican part 1. Millain and his next neighbours the seven Provinces of Italy heretofore under their own peculiar Jurisdiction without appeal to Rome or conformity with it in several of its Catholick Ceremonies and ways of Devotion particularly the Roman Fasting upon Saturday much less over our British Isles which never were within the Diocess or Bayliwick of Rome by any right besides its new exclusion by the Supremacy of our Kings becoming Christian the rising of the one being the setting of the Glory of the other like the Baptist giving place to Christ For though before Kings be Christians the Bishops and Officers of the Church were Supream in their several limits It being equally incongruous and inconvenient for the Church in Church Affairs to be under Heathen Government as under none at all Yet Bishops themselves though of Christs own appointment and Institution gave place and precedence to Kings and Emperours becoming Christians who are Lords of our outward-man and Gods of the outside in all communities allowing them to be now Christian heads of their Christian as they were Civil heads before of their Civil Dominions and Territories And contenting themselves to be eyes to these Christian heads and not the head it self their Counsellours under them and not their Lords above them under any colour or pretence The Bishops of the Church being to resemble the Stars in the Firmament of the Church as they are stil'd by our Saviour Revel 1.10 who are to Rule by night as chief when there is no Sun to shine but as soon as the Sun appears who resembles Christ and Kings his proper Deputies and Vicars then though never so fixt they withdraw their splendor and dis-appear as to Lustre but not as to influence and assistance being ready in case of any Antichristian Ecclipse to peep and shine at mid-day as the dotage of Parents manumits the Sons and in case not only the Sun be overcast but the Stars also with it by some Carnal Sympathy and compliance or thick storm and cloud be intercepted from us why may not private Souls below take each Gods word and will in the Bible or Conscience in the Creed or Babtismal vow as a Lamp to their feet and a guide to their path when there is no other light Ps 119.105 Why not beg the guidance of the Holy Spirit that leads to all truth which is not denyed to fervent prayer 1 Joh. 2.20 27. Luc. 11.13 The Cessation of Fathers and guides on Earth doth not dissolve the Allegiance or hopes of Orphan Christians from their Heavenly Father but very commonly makes the dependance nearer and closer and the assistance wonderful as in the Case of the late glorious King deprived of his Chaplains of numbers of Religious Christians such as St. Bernard Gerson and others under the darkest times of Popery and many British Families in England deprived of their Teachers in the Pagan Invasion of the Saxons The right Christian Soul neither is nor can be deprived of Christ her best self whether her guides on Earth remove or stay Rom. 8.38 39. where she hath Superiours left she obeyes them in Christ which is the best obedience on Earth where none are left Christ alone hath her whole heart and immediate service which is the obedience that 's paid in Heaven as Noah is said to walk with God the times being so corrupt he had none else to walk with here Gen. 8.9 But when God doth bless a Nation with guides and deputies under him the chiefest heed and duty of the Soul wherein her wisdom or folly before God and man and her self appears is in her chusing and cleaving to her true guide and superiour and not the wrong for by mistake herein the rights and honour of the true Superiour and representative of Christ shall be Sacrilegiously with-held and prophanely conferred on the false which is her case and fate in every sin that engrosses her affections where the honour that 's due to God alone is paid to an Idol for want of heed and difference to be made between what is her real and that which is only her seeming good and lure to deceive her And the Errour that may be commited in the Recognition of wrong Superiours over us under Christ in External matters of Religion For in Internals or externals there is none to be over us but himself is twofold either 1 In specie in kind or 2. gradu in degree The first is a mistake in the whole as if a Subject of France should take the King of Spain for his Soveraign in such a case his obedience to the wrong is Treason against the right Superiour and is not his obedience but his sin the mistake in degree is between Superiour and Subordinate where respect and obedience is due to both but the respect that 's due to the Master is given to the Servant and the Steward honoured above the Lord and the Officer above the Prince that Authorizes him which is the usual honour of those that make blind obedience and advantage more than conscience the measure of their duties The last is more absurd and faulty for the first is liker madness and distraction one purblin'd in his Intellects may be guilty of the one but none can be guilty of the other but him who is wholly blind and mad For God and nature directs men and Christians and Irrational Creatures themselves to make a difference between Friends and strangers and though to be civil to all yet not to rely and trust on those we know not as much as on those we know The word Hostis for an Enemy at first did signifie a stranger so easy is the transition that is between them and in Church dependance which is our present case God hath given great Instances to the world
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