profit of the difference and laugh at the follies and credulity of the appellants The Supremacy of the King in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal being that which hath been learnedly evinced by our Writers and is solemnly recogniz'd every day in Gods presence in Prayers and Oaths according to the settlement of our Laws by the Wisdom of the Nation But though this inside of the Church be properly Secular and Temporal because visible yet the Secular Causes which belong to the determinations of Christian Secular Authorities are well and orderly distinguishable into Ecclesiastical and Christian or Temporal and Civill as the whole Commonwealth may be considered either as a Society of men or a Society of Christian men or Church In the first respect as men all are Subject to their own Kings and Laws in matters of life limb and property whether they be Christian or Holy or Heathen and Antichristian as they were before Christ came into into the World and must be to the Worlds end For Magistracy is Gods Ordinance whom all men therefore are to be subject to from the heart which alwayes attends what God appoints though manag'd by a Claudius who was weak and infamously credulous or Nero who for his cruelty was believed by many to be Antichrist for to such the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul command obedience and subjection not only for fear of wrath and power but for Conscience sake and the fear of God Rom. 13.5 1 Pet. 2.14 16. For they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 Yet on this undoubted unforfeitable right of Earthly Kings and Governours according to their several Constitutions by the Laws of their Kingdoms the Pope like a fift Monarch hath ever and still doth affect and design new incroachments as before upon the King of Heaven and spiritual pretences of Superiority Not only by exempting his Subjects and Clergy from secular subjection assuming to be the mother of the Child that 's not her own but also through his Emissaries and influence in the time of his Reign and Power in bringing the Lives of Subjects to the Stake and their States into Forfeiture from their Posterity for Opinions and the Heads and Crowns of Kings themselves to the like danger for the like insufficient cause Absolving Subjects of their Allegiance which Christ binds on every Soul and leading them into perjury and Rebellion which God forbids and damns being not only Traytors against Heaven and Earth therein but which is infinitly worse Traitor-makers as Satan is worse than a sinner and as many Traitor-makers by their Doctrine and what lyes in them as there are Subjects or Polls in any Kingdom they would absolve and seduce Which made the Nation joyn unanimously against their methods not only by Acts of Treason since the Reformation but of premunire long before A very Apostolical and comely deportment in a chief Professor of Christian Holiness and vertue that he and his Missionaries should deserve to be thrust and shoulder'd out like Pests by a wise and a Religious people and their Friends and the door made fast against them with the strongest Barricadoes that could be thought of Hanging and Drawing and Quartering Yea many of his own Confessors and Martyrs our Native Roman-Catholicks to this day who sincerely adhere to all his other Doctrines though Flead Alive with penalties and inconveniences for it yet disclaim and desert his infallible guidance in this particular and would be ready to venter Lives and Fortunes for their Laws and Countrey against any Invasion of the Land though countenanc'd or authoriz'd by the Pope for though such Loyalty be looked upon at Rome with an evil eye as hath lately appeared in the Irish Excommunications for the like principle and profession of Allegiance yet they are resolved to be true to their King let who will call them Hereticks for being honest Subjects And this their Resolution must be grounded either upon Policy or vain glory to avoid the danger as well as the Infamy of Rebellious principles or upon Conscience to God which only is true honour I am apt if I do no wrong to believe the last and to acknowledge and own all such by Consequence as true English Protestants as any in our own Church for preferring Conscience before the Pope which as I have proved is the chief point in difference between Papists and Protestants And the rather if they deal alike with the rest of their opinions which set us at distance from one another by the same rule which if it be good and right must hold in the rest as well as this dismissing all other Tenets that are excepted against and have no support from God or Conscience or the Scripture but the bare Authority of the Pontifical Chair For being so dangerously and perfidiously deceived while trusting to its judgement and of right interpreting in a case so evident and plain and Important as Neck and Estate and Salvation can amount to If they will suffer themselves again to be over-rul'd to differ from their Brethren upon no reason of Conscience but this bare Authority alone whereof they have had tryal of its fidelity and the old sophisme of believing as that Church believes This cannot be counted worthy and filial piety and well weighed Religion in them but a negligent unadvisedness equivalent to plain fault and folly especially there being present suffering and future hazard in the Case according to the known Proverb The Friend that deceives me once it is his fault twice it is my own All differences in our Religion being thus easily compos'd between us if they stand constant to their good principle throughout its consequences as reason binds them to and there will be no reason else to believe or trust their Loyalty what a day of bliss would it be to them and us to go hand in hand together like Christian as well as English brethren to their Churches and ours what peace to themselves in their concerns both within and without what tears of joy would it cause in their Protestant Tenants and dependants who would willingly resigne their lives to see that blessed day what acclamation and bone-fire throughout the Nation for the restoration of its strength and Union what Ecchoes and Halelujahs amongst the Angels of Heaven that delight in mens Salvation and return from Errour But should they offer to make themselves and us and the Nation happy with such a Festival How must they expect to be well lash'd for this by their Old Friends for Hereticks and Schismaticks and Apostates from the Holy See besides the ignobleness of changing and being unconstant to which I shall not now reply But those of them that through Gods Grace assisting them nowithstanding such discouragements and obstacles that will be leaders and examples to their brethren in such paths of Peace and Life and count it Glory and magnanimity to adhere to truth through shame and calumny and but an Heathenish
So then due separation and distinction is to be made now between the parts and degrees of liberty and Captivity and how much of the Talent these laid out they may be computed to have had from Brittain and how much from Rome It was demonstrated before from their own exceptions that the Brittains had the Christian Catholick Faith Entire and Complete amongst them saving the Easter Calendar and the Roman Tonsure and Baptism-spittle and subjection to the Pope and the love of lyes and Legends and growing superstition which followed the hearts resignation from God to man and this was the case of Bede and all his Disciples as well as of Willibrord and Winifrid yea of all the Plantations in the Churches of England and Germany who had the substantial part of Catholick Religion entirely derived to them and undeniably from the Brittains as from the fountain head but as for the mud and mire and misery of Idolatry Superstition and spiritual bondage and slavery which they received by way of Augmentation to it none can deny but that solely and Eternally all that is owing to the Church of Rome Schismatically disturbing the Plantations of Brittain If it be an obligation that the Enemy hath sowen his tares in the same feild where the Master sowed good seed Math. 13.28 Therefore all English and Germans were true and perfect Christians as many as were ever so upon the score of the Brittains only but Roman-Catholicks upon the score of Rome But it is replyed if they had not their learning nor Doctrine yet nothing is more express in the History but that they had their License and Authority to Preach the Gospel to the German-Heathens from the Pope by which Wilfrid was made a Bishop and Winifrid Legate of Germany with the honour of the Pall which also was conferred on Egbert Archbishop of York who first set the others on For answer it were hard if settled Churches could not obey Christ in Converting Souls or confirming Brethren by the obligation of charity without particular leave and License from the Pope or that Ignorant souls must perish Eternally upon any neglect in procuring or unreasonableness in the vending and price for such a License Can Antichrist be far from such Merchandizing besides the two Ewaldi d Bede l. 5. c. 11. Spondan An. 694. 696. began and ended their Ministry without such License and their Martyrdom was honoured with Miracles e Ubbo Emm. lib. 4 p. 131. Bed 5. c. 11. And Suidbert took no mission but from Wilfrid in England There is some further mystery to be found in this License office we 'le search into it by degrees we meet in the story three helping hands which contributed their several assistances to the German Conversion The Kings and Major-Dome's of France the English at home the Pope at Rome f Ibidem Magdeb. Cent. 8. c. 10. p. 822. Pipin and Martel and Charlemain did good service with Armes and bounty subduing the Heathen obstructors and founding Bishopricks to encourage the promotors The g Bonifacij Epistl English at home had publick fasting and prayer that God might bless their Ministry upon the Saxons and Germans their own flesh and bloud themselves besides their labour and pain hazarded their lives daily in the work and several perished out-right in it But the Pope assisted only with his License and Aurhority and Letters of recommendations and Palls which with Romanist is more than all yet he spared them little Money for Winifrid h Spondan A. 724. n. 2. had his necessaries towards cloths and Books and subsistence supplyed and sent him out of England the Pope cannot be therefore justly said to do much more herein than Poets towards Heroes by extolling their noble works at home with pleasure which the other did abroad amidst dangers and difficulties many have praised Robin-Hood who never shot in his bow but unless he had parted with treasure as did Charlemain or taken part of the labour he could do no more nor so much for he was not skilled in the German Language as our English or Saxons were but he had as great an aim to their subjection as we had for their Salvation i M. Westm A. 609. Phocas his Patent for the Universal Bishop was not to lye Idle And when as they win many sincere and unwary souls to this day to surrender themselves to serve their ends how much more might they then when their Arts were less detected and Politicians love to have holy and sincere men for their Instruments to work with and the ambitious shal be tamper'd with according to their inclination to set such on and preferments and Palls shall begin all as Egbert for such service as also for bringing over the Scots and Irish from their Brittish Traditions to Subject themselves to Rome k Baron Tom. 9. p. 110 hath a Pall conferred upon him at York which from Paulimus his departure for about 30 years that See had wanted l Usher p. 87. H. Lhuyd frag p. 55. Elbodus was wrought off to betray North-Wales to be under Rome with the like bait of honour to be made Archbishop there and they are never weary at these temptations And so through m Bede lib. 5. c. 11 Pipin the Popes great favourite Willibrord is brought to Rome for his Consecration there and likewise Winifrid is prevailed upon by such encouragements to sow Rebellion having Ments conferred upon him over the head of the lawful Bishop of the place because given to hunting and raised into an Arch-Bishoprick and Primacy which may not seem strange when the chief Master of this part of the confederacy the Pope himself arrives at his Grandeur for him and his successors through acting and encouraging Rebellion n Magd. c. 8. c. 9 p. 544. Math. Westm An. 726. seque Pope Gregory the third Excommunicates his Liege Sovereign Leo Isaurus and forbids him Tribute and subjection in the West upon a difference between them in the point of worshiping Images wherein yet the Pope was in the wrong and the Emperour in the right but the true reason was the Pope was weary of his Exarchs at Ravenna and he had now an interest and a back with the Major-Dome's of France to secure his Treason o Baron Tom. 9 p. 79 Magd. cent 8. c. 10 p. 684. by entring into a League with them while the Emperours subject who shall be well rewarded and exalted in time for it for Chilperick and the Royal line of Clodoveus the first Christian King of France shall be deposed by the next p Spondan A. 751. Pope Zacharia for no cause but Innocence and dulness to make Rome for Pipin to be not a Protector but a perjur'd Usurper of the Throne wherein our q Ubbo Emm. Coronam Septrumque Pipino c. Spond 75 752. Boniface and r Magd. Cent. 8. c. 10. p. 725. Burchard Å¿ Spond A. 791. n. 3. though Sainted at Rome were equally
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
World it seem'd agreeable to Ministerial obligation as well as Loyal Reputation to communicate my satisfactions to the World in the view of your R. H. that all might see that nothing else was able to make a Loyal Brittain shrinke from the steps of his Prince but a greater Loyalty to the manifest rights of God and the King and the Truth Which I trust will not be construed Contempt but Constancy nothing being more the duty of every Loyal Servant and a Minister especially than to be as faithful to his Prince and consequently to God and the Nation as Conscience is in every breast which will never approve or agree to any disloyal revolt from Heaven and Truth but will chuse rather to be silenc'd for a time than consent and with patient agony refer the matter to God himself Nor are any to be reckon'd straight-way unfortunate as is the manner of some weak and Carnal reasons and Turba Bemi and also the Divinity of some grave Deacons of the belly and present ease and greatness for any wound or inconvenience they may bring upon themselves for such fidelity to the Temporal and Eternal Interests of their Master either from declar'd which is more faire or undeclar'd and invisible Hostilities which is less For such suffer in their manifest duties which is therefore to be presum'd to be their choice by consequence when such need require and their right and best self-preservation if they be right men or Christians for if we are bound to love our Neighbours as our selves at the least so much more our Prince and Countrey above our selves as the hand doth the head And greater and truer love cannot be express'd than by long misery and durance for the Truth like an Anchor under Waves to hold fast the great Soul of one's Prince compos'd of Grace and Mercy and the fear of God by his bowells and compassion stronger than any Cable from running against Eternal Rocks and clashing with his Heavenly Sovereign which is the first and Original disloyalty and insurrection against the Chief whereof the Tumults of Subjects against Secondary Mortal Soveraigns are usually but copies and fatal consequences by man's manifest fault but Gods secret righteous judgement as the fear and subjection of the Creature is observ'd by Divines to be abated and impair'd towards Adam after his fall And no Prince can more deserve such Martyrial fidelity from Servants and Subjects than your R H. not only upon the score of Loyalty and Conscience common to all Princes but of personal and peculiar merit and exemplary frequent fatigues and hazards and lovely deportments on the confines of life and death for the glory of your Country which your R. H. valued above your life and present and hereditary greatness as much as many mean and vulgar spirits do below their petty self-ends and differences And that great fight cannot easily depart from my remembrance of your serene Magnanimity and cheerful unconcernedness on Quarter Deck June 3d. 1665. which betoken'd to my hopes a great distance of dangers from your R. H. even then when Roaring deaths hail'd thick about your R. Person and besprinkled your Buff with the bloud of your ever memorable Companions that fell by you Such contempt of death and the Pomp and Glory of this World for the defence of your King and Country being a lively resemblance of that true Christian Charity which doth the like for Christ and souls and fits the understanding to receive and embrace the truth And I have just cause often to bless God for a kind of Publick reward then of my many Prayers in private for your R. H. which was my chief and sole Armour in your defence that your R. H. should observe and declare it as an Omen of Victory annext to the publick Service and Exhortation performed by me the even before the fight by your R. H. appointment that one of the greatest Ships of the Enemy should take fire in that moment in the fight of both Fleets reported to be one of the member that were particularly bound to destroy you And why should I distrust in God or the power of truth or the success of sincere love and loyalty but that these my prostrate sentiments proved and preferred through much patience before all the offers of this World may not contribute with the Prayers of all good Christians and far greater Abilities and Counsels and the consideration and candor of your R. H. own breast and Princely Loyalty to God and Truth the greatest of all to beget that satisfaction and stability in your R. H. as may kindle more Bon-fires in our Streets than did that your Renowned Victory Quinctius the Roman General proclaiming in the name of the Senate by sound of Trumpet unexpected Liberty to all the Cities of Greece then newly Conquered as the Nation met to begin their Olympick games did so discompose and lick up all their inclinations after their sports with the suddainness of the good tydings that when they could believe it to be true they could think on nothing else And rushing one upon another with excess of joy and thankfulness to kiss his hands and to cast their Crowns and Garlands at his feet went nigh to put him in manifest danger of his life with their Crowd and immoderate Transports that forgot all manâ—rs and distance had not his great strength of body and the Vigour of his years being 33 saith Livy and some content and satisfaction to observe whence their Rudeness sprang served to Rescue him from the danger of too great love Such a Jubile to our Brittain and such a lovely danger to your R. H. as may be gather'd from the General pulse the dismission of some scruples would soon produce which many suspect and fear but I never did nor can before a special declaration being so over-ruled to the contrary by your Princely wisdom and justice for what greater violation of the Law of Nations can there be to the dissolution of all Faith and Truth among men whereon Allegiance to Princes and the peace of the World hang than openly or secretly to oppose or prejudice a Religion professed before it be Renounced or wherein can the Catholick plaister of dispensation to equivocate mend the matter with Generous and sober understandings whereby the soul is licens'd to be damn'd to save the skin Least therefore by any pretence or whisper of Right or colour of Conscience wherein all the fear can lye your R. H. should be mis-led to espouse unnaturally a Forreign and wrong Superiour to the manifest dethroning of our Right Mother-Church of Brittain more Ancient as well as more sound and Orthodox than the other I have leaving all speculative Controversies and hard questions to Scholars and Students throughly handled one Practical point of plain Right and Title or meum and tuum or the Pretences and Immunities of both Churches which will give great light if not a final end to all the rest and which all sorts of
Soveraigns have reduced the one the other and be first at peace till either the Pope conform to the will of Christ which we expect which would beget an unity of Spirit and Truth between us in the bond of peace or Christ to the mind and will of the Pope and have no Scriptures that shall signifie any thing contrary to his sense but that the Popes will shall be taken to be Christs Will where they interfere which is their aim in their engrossing the right of interpreting the Scriptures to their Church alone that is their Pope which would produce peace and union its true but such a carnall peace and slavish union as were worse than any War or Captivity or desolation whatsoever Purgatory indulgencies image worship Transubstantiation blind obedience Universal Monarchy over the whole Church c. let them be never so false or unreasonable or scandalous or absurd not only with all learned and sober men but with many of themselves in their secret thoughts and retirements yet because they support the Kitchin and adorn the Hall and carnal state and esteem of their Apostolick see they shall and must be owned and defended forever as Infallible Doctrines De fide more unalterable than the Laws of Medes and Persians by all her Catholick Sons as they tender their continuance within her Pale out of which with them there can be no Salvation and our worship and Liturgie shall be condemned as Impious and prophane till upon obedience and Submission to their Chair as was offered in Queen Elizabeths days they shall permit it to be Orthodox and Holy and to be used in our Churches without any alteration or further trouble and all our Protestant Doctrines which are the same in effect with Gods Holy Scriptures out of which they are drawn and built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner stone yet because they comport not with their carnal designs and greatness shall be condemned to be abjur'd as false and Heretical though the Authors of them Christ and his Apostles and his purest Church be involved with us in the same sentence and themselves in Gods wo and curse in the Prophet upon those that call good evil evil good light darkness and darkness light Esa 15.20 What Law of Nature or Nations or Conscience or Honour or Humanity or Civility or Faith or Plain-dealing which are indelible imbred instincts in Vulgar and Heathen Breasts much more in Christian and Generous will not the guides of that Church direct their charge to break and violate with assured hopes of Salvation and Immortal Glory for the feat so it tend to promote and advance their Holy Catholick cause which is with them as it were Gods last will and Testament which Abrogates and annuls all precedent wills the Eternal Laws of God and conscience being but obsolete or Corporation orders when they clash against the Infallible Bulls and paramount Oracles of his Holiness yea the contradiction shall be salved and heal'd and Christ by Interpretation which belongs to them is brought to say and sign their draught to be his own Will and meaning and their Atheime shall be fac'd with his Authority as Hypocrites do their Villanies with the cover of Religion as King Philip of Macedon is said to have made the Oracles to Phillipize and Prophesie for him What Civil War and combustion must this make in English and honest hearts who though they have a respect for Rome think fit nevertheless to reserve due Loyalty towards God and their Redeemer and their Country to be thus necessitated to offend against God and man to save their souls who in compliance with that Church and obedience to its commands and dictates upon perill of damnation must shocke the wise and settled Laws of their Nation and disturb publick peace and Union and bring fear and consternation upon their fellow Subjects that desire to live in quietness and slight and disparage the learned and Religious Clergy of this land and our unparallel'd Vniversities and disobey glorious and Paternal Counsels seal'd in bloud for Gracious Kings are Fathers to all their Subjects next to their own begotten and shame the cause of friends and fellow-sufferers loyally and sincerely defended to the last gasp in bloud and ruine and to give just cause of boast and triumph to others for early and wise fears and jealousies and fore-sight and at last reconcile the Nation by a secret judgment against themselves and profess the true Religion before men believed in the heart to be false by humane Patent and dispensation against Conscience And conceal a false Religion believed in the heart to be true And act to the prejudice of the professed before declaring for the intended like giving Hostile broadsides without an Hostile Flag against the Law of Nations and continue or forbear vitious living according to humane Indulgence and tedder above the fear of God Such twisted Arts and servile postures of the Soul set by God above humane reach and power such chymical sublimated hypocrisie and doubling to which all the Swords and Artillery of the World pointed and planted against a single breast ought not to be able to force a Coward to all Politicians and Head-pieces and Whisperers to gull and seduce a fool to though they may go down with more ease with French and Italian tempers innur'd by ill fate to absolute governments and cringes and Slavery how loathsome and repugnant and against the grain must they prove to any honest and generous and freeborne English spirit And whence can this Civil War and distraction arise but from some failer and breach and division of the allegiance of the heart in admitting some up-start usurper or Impostor to be co-ordinate and equal if not Superiour to Christ its natural Liege Lord and Soveraign which the Loyal part of the Soul will never be flattered or frighted to agree or yield to Thus the heart through its own folly suffers it self to be ever disturbed and racked between two contrary Potentates within its bowells God and Old Conscience command and approve of natural affection and truth and peace and love to Countrey and obedience to Parents and Kings and Mercy and Civility to all in Misery and Anxiety The Anti-god or New Conscience commands the contrary as a piece of Catholick zeal and Glorious hazard and self-denyal under pain of displeasure of the Holy See and St. Peter and St. Paul and exclusion out of the Pale of the Church and the like usual forms Plain therefore and evident it is that the whole Controversy between us and Papists is reduceable to one point touching the Right and Soveraignty of the heart and Conscience whose it is and ought to be whether the Lord Christ in my Text as we hold with St. Paul or the Pope and Successor to St. Peter as they maintain at Random If the Pope be God and Lord of the Soul and not Christ then we Protestants are much to blame in
obedience and submission to Heathen Magistrates do command the same much more to Christian And manifestly condemn the Pope as Antichristian in denying it And as in the World or the Kingdom of God they were Gods Deacons or Liturgists as they are stiled Rom. 13.4 6. or his Ministers for the encouragement and discouragement of Vertue and Vice v. 4. So in the Church or the Kingdom of Christ they are Christs Ministers to serve him with their Authorities in maintenance of Holiness and Order which is vertue in its highest degree and extirpation of Scandals which is Vice and Confusion under greatest aggravation Which trust and supremacy they bore in the Church of God in all Ages under all dispensations in Old Israel or the Jewish Church and New Israel or the Christian Gal. 6.16 For so Aaron gave place to Moses and Nathan though inspir'd counts himself but the servant of his King nevertheless bowing himself with his face to the ground when he came into his presence as his deportment is recorded not for naught by the Spirit of God 1 King 1.23 27. And such was the power and influence of the Kings of Israel in matters Ecclesiastical that the whole state and face of the present Church and the fate and destiny of the land it self is usually comprised by Scripture in one word in the Character of the Kings heart that reigned whether it was right with God or not When it sayes that such and such Kings did that which is good or that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and what was like to follow from such example for no face or figure of Heaven can be more benigne or fortunate No Comet so portending and ill boding to a Nation as a wakeful or a supine Prince in Mercy or Judgment appointed over it that eyes all himself in his Charge or trusts too far to others The Prince is the first and Master wheel even in the Church that gives motion and Order to all the rest all will be at a stand or out of order when this is He is the Architect in the building and ordering both of Tabernacle and Temple according to his Pattern from God he sets all to their proper work and erects and dedicates both the one and the other and places Aaron and Levi in their several Stations each one afterwards to look to their own work and duties of Instructing Sacrificing attoning interceding that God may dwell in the Camp or State as the Life and Soul and Strength there of And their care of Gods Church was not a free will Offering or a generous work of Super-erogation in the Kings of Israel which was their praise and honour to mind and attend and not their guilt to neglect and leave to others but it was the principal indispensable point of their trust and charge For Old Israel might be said to be more a Church than a Kingdom being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lot and Inheritance the Clergy or spiritual Kingdom of God The rest of the Heathen World being revolted from him and kept in slavery under the Prince of the power of the Air Ephes 2.2 And therefore the Governour of such a Nation was more the head of a Church than the King of a Countrey being truly both the one and the other the one supremacy being common to every Heathen Prince but the other proper and peculiar to Rulers in Israel For God himself by particular condescention was King of Israel 1 King 8.7 And men came to be Kings by his permission and allowance as his Vicars and Lieutenants to maintain his Worship and Honour wherein the peoples happiness as well as their Prerogative did consist In the World he was the best and completest Prince that had most of the Councellor or Captain in him to suppress all disorder and violence at home by Laws and all invasions and dangers from abroad by Arms and Courage But in Israel he was the best King that had most of the Priest and Bishop in him to win God of his side They conquered their enemies in the field then best when they served God best at home Their Victories and Successes depended not so much upon their Bow and Chariot or the Conduct of their Generals or the Courage and Number of their men as upon having the Lord of Hosts on their side to go along with their Armies which Blasphemous Lives never had the Happiness to procure that Rule of our Saviour that directs how to prosper in the World being true as well before as since his coming But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Rightousness and all things shall be added unto you Mat. 6.33 For it was their sins that gave valour and prevalence to their enemies and despondency to themselves Then was there War in the gate when they sought after new Gods Jud. 5.8 The children of Ephraim carrying Bowes turn'd their backs in the day of Battel because they kept not the Covenant of God Psal 79.9 And it was their Piety and Repentance made them miraculously Victorious when over-match'd Yea the Heathen Historian observes and confesses the like touching the Roman Empire that its progress and success was founded in sincere zeal for their Gods as its decayes and overthrow to arise from profane remissness and easie Luxury Upon good reasons therefore as well of Conscience and Equity to approve themselves Faithful and Loyal to Gods Honour and Interest to whom Kings are immediate Subjects as they expected the like Fidedelity and Loyalty from their people appointed to be their Subjects as of publick wel-fare and prosâ—erity to their Nation obliging Arguments with riâ—ht Princely dispositions We find the best Kings of Israel and even Heathen Kings when sober chiefly to imploy their Royal Authority and Power about matters Ecclesiastical to suppress Idolatry to reform Abuses to settle wholesom Laws and Fences about Doctrine Worship and Discipline in Gods Church To put down high places Groves Idolatrous Altars Sodomites-houses and all strange Religion as did Josia 2 Kings 23.4 5 6 7. And other Kings to break in pieces the Brasen Serpenâ— though made by Moses when abused to Idolatry as did Hezechia 2 King 18.4 To send able Teachers throughout the Land as did Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 2.8 to Dedicate and Repaire and Purifie the Temple as did Solomon 1 King 8.29.6 and Joash 2 Chron. 24.4 and Hezechia 2 Chron. 5. To institute the Feast for the Dedication of the Temple as did the Macchabees 1 Macch. 4.56.59 which our Saviour honour'd with his presence Joh. 10.22 To restore the celebrating of the Passoever to its Ancient Rite 2 King 22.21 To appoint a Faâ—r to save his Nation as did the King of Niniveh with success Jon. 3.7 10. To decree Blaspheming Hectors to be cut in pieces as did the King of Babylon when converted Dan. 3.29 To appoint Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal 2 Chron. 19.8 Amaria the Chief Priest in all matters of the Lord and
well as Apostatical from its right Guide and Rule as hath been shewed And the Elder and the Healthy hath some pretence to Govern the Younger but the Younger and Sickly no manner of colour to Govern his Sound and Elder Brother which brings me to the Third and Last Point to prove That the Church of Rome hath no Superiority or Mother-hood over our British Church in respect of its Extraction or first Plantation of the Gospel SECTION IV. Rome no mother Church to Brittain in respect of Extraction or Plantation of the Christian Faith but much Junior to it WHich it never had from Rome nor by its means but without it altogether and for a good space of time before it had any Chair to boast of Our Brittish Islands by remarkable Providence being exempt and distinct from all the world as to subjection though not to Communion (a) Ms. Bernesii Doctoris Pontificii apud Spelman Concil p. 28. not only in respect of its seperate scituation and the Supremacy of its Crown but the Antiquity and Independancy of its Sees But rather than to be dumb and confess and yield the cause the Romish Advocates will stand up and pretend some out of Simeon Metaphrastes that St. Peter himself made a long abode in Brittain and converted many and ordained Bishops Priests and Deacons amongst us and at the founding of Westminster his apparition and Ghost appeared to direct the Builders which Legend is not worth an answer not only for its suspected Author but for its ill conduct against its own Interest and forgetting its cause making Brittain no more Inferiour but equall and co-ordinate to Rome and Sisters from the same Spirituall Father St. Peter But others with more colour will object did not Augustine the Monk sent from Rome about the year 600 convert this land and especially the English to the Christian Faith Had they not quiet possession of their plantation for about a thousand years till they were wrongfully justled out by King Henry the Eighth in a Rebellious manner Is not the Chair of Canterbury which derives its descent from Rome and Austine Superiour by publick allowance to all the Chairs of Brittain besides to ascend higher to stop the mouths of the Ancient Brittains that plead more Antiquity in this Island than the English or Saxon can or do whose first landing here was not till about the year 449 Did not the Pope Eleutherius through Faganus and Dwywanus he sent hither with others Christen their King Lucius about the year 170 and convert and Baptize the rest of the Nation and settle Bishops and Arch-Bishops amongst them where Flamins and Arch Flamins were before as appears by their own Histories And is not this a sufficient Title that is 1500 years standing to prove the Church of Rome the fountain and Mother Church to Brittain and if a Mother where is the honour and Obedience that is due unto her But if it shall more fairly and truly appear 1 That the Church of Brittain was planted by the Immediate followers of our Saviour either Apostles or Apostolical men shortly after his Resurrection and before St. Peters Arrival at Rome whether that tradition be true or false and the same seed though sometimes in some parts of the Nation mixt with tars in other parts more purified from them continued among us without failer especially in the Northern and Western Parts of this Island from that day to this 2 If the whole passage by consequence between Eleutherius and King Lucius cannot be allowed for true which Savours of the latter Arts of Rome to compass Sveraignty contrary to the express words and tenor of Eleutherius his Epistle and answer to the King and the subsequent Practice of the Bishops of Rome for some hundreds of years after him while they continued good 3 If Augustine the Monks arrival here was a manifest Intrusion upon anothers Province without Invitation or consent of the Christians of the place to Invade and subjugate and destroy the Brittish Church by the help and means of Pagan Enemies then making War upon them as Jackcals and Vulturs follow Camps for Prey whereby he and all his Clergy stood depos'd and degraded of their Orders and all his party of Christian communion by the concurrent suffrages and Canons of all the Generall Counsels of the whole Catholick Church that went before him 4 If the Controversie between the Church of Brittain and Rome in those Early times was the same that is now maintained against it by the Protestant Church of England at this day touching its Superstitions and Arrogated Supemacy with this difference that there was no roome nor place then for those Sophismes now us'd where was your Church before Luther or Henry the Eighth but both still agreeing in their manner and temper of Proceeding now as then and then as it is now on the one side great learning and Truth and piety on the other as great Ignorance and Arrogance with lying wonders and Massacres 5 If the Gospel was Providentially planted amongst the English or Saxons by Brittish Ministry and not by Romish and the Church of Rome by its bewitching Power and Grandeur in degenerare times over all this part of the world did but invade and disturb both the English and Brittish Church and ravish their Sees and disorder their Consecrations and successions and Vnchurch it self thereby and attempt to enslave our Crown as well as Mitre 6 if Henry the Eights relief of both Crown and Church was just and Providentiall and also Brittish and not the unsettling of a Right Possessor but the lawful ejection of an old Intruder And the peace and Interest and Glory of this Nation is fairly pointed out by Providence to consist in pursuing this design 7 If the Primacy of the See of Canterbury be from the Grace and pleasure of our Kings and Laws who can alter it as they think fit and not from any Ecclesiastical Right of the Pope according to the Laws and Canons of the Universal Church but rather in contrariety unto them And Christian Subjects ought to submit to the supreme Magistrates Right and pleasure in ordering such external matters about the Church as clash not with Salvation If these seven points shall appear as clear from proof and evidence as they are in the model and supposition will it not inevitably follow that no English much less Brittish Christian subject of what perswasion soever can with any conscience or thankfulness to God renounce his Mother of Brittain to own a Forraign Church for his Mother or desert his Colours to list himself under the Conduct and Supremacy of Rome to Act against his own Church and Country without being apparently convict before God and the world as well as his conscience of being a Renegade to his Church and false unnatural to his Country and as our wise Laws upon good grounds declare and define a Perfidious Traitor against his Soveraign First then it may be affirmed what cannot and is not
were the more lov'd and embrac'd for it by several of them returning as did Constantine the Son of Cador c Usher 540. Prince of Cornwall who upon Gildas his rebuke became a zealous Preacher of the Gospel from a bloudy Debauch and Mouric and Morcant Princes of Southwales became great Patrons and Benefactors to the Church for its fidelity to their Souls against their vitious humours both securing and gaining Heaven to themselves thereby the one by their Integrity the other by their Repentance But as to their blameless and more worthy Princes the Brittish Bishops were never distant from them neither in their d H. Spelmen Council p. 64. danger nor joyes nor deaths Eldad e Histor Brit. lib. 8. Bishop of Gloucester followed King Ambrose in all his Wars and Victories f Usher p. 1128. Dubritius Archbishop of St. David encouraged King Arthur's Army against the Infidels in his Badonic Victory The whole Clergy of the land alwayes assembled to interre g Hist Britt l. 8. c 12 16 24. their Princes at Stonehenge Cowardize in any of their Souldiers in the Cause of their Prince and Countrey h Concil Arelat praesentibus Episcopis Brittanniae can 3. was Excommunication with them The root of Brittish Valour was Conscience and Loyalty according to that Canon of the i Conc. Arausic c. 17. Council of Orange Fortitudinem gentilium mundana cupiditas fortitudinem â—utem Christianorum dei charitas facit Heathens are valiant for some lusts sake Christians for Conscience And it appears by good confession they never were reduc'd for want of Valour or Loyalty to their Prince k Cambrensis Descript Cambr. c. 8 Henric 2. à â—secretis Pitseus p. 276. Emmanuel Emperour of Constantinople requesting of King Henry the Second an account of his Kingdom and Rarities was returned this for one In quadam Insulae parte sunt Gentes quae Wallenses dicuntur tantae audaciae ferocitatis ut nudi cum armatis congredi non vereantur adeo ut sanguinem fundere pro patriâ promptissimé vitamque velint pro laude pacisci In a certain place of this Island there is a Nation called the Welsh of such bold and daring Spirits that they 'l make nothing to cope with Armed men though naked and to spend their bloud for their Countrey their lives for Honour is what they most desire and wish for Newbrigensis delivers the same Character in effect though not with the same Candour Barbaros Audaces alieni sanguinis z Newbrigensis l. 2. c. 5. avidos proprii prodigos And if they had not been not only overpowred but outwitted by Edward the first by a mercyful Providence they had sought it out to the last man with disadvantage rather than survive their Prince Rege incolumi mens omnibus una amisso rupâ—re fidem And since they came under the English Crown they have acted and greatly suffered in several Civil Wars but never against the Right Soveraign A fair Inducement to our Royal Princes of Wales not to rest content with the bare title but to be better acquainted with their people for their encouragement as we find Prince Arthur of late to have kept his Court amongst them for the best bloud will clot if never cherished by the heart Nor were the Princes and Gentry and People inferiour in their respects and honour to their Church which with Tertullian is a great sign and Character of the true and Orthodox By the Law of Howel Dha l Leges Howel Dha apud Spelman c. 29 Of the three that were of the Quorum to make a Court the Clergy man ever was one and the alone custos rotulorum The Ancient Princes never feasted nor consulted nor went to m Histor Brit. lib. 8. c. 7.8.12 l. 29. c. 4.14 â—5 War without their Bishops as before Ethelfred's cruelty towards the Monks of Bangor went soon to all their hearts which cost him above 10000 of his men upon the place and the loss of his Kingdom shortly after their common respects to the meanest of their Clergy appears out of Cambrensis n Câ—mbrens descript Cambr. c. 18. viro cuilibet Relligioso monacho vel clerico vel cuicunque Religionis habitum praeferenti statim projectis armis cernuo capite benedictionem petunt any Church-man they met whether Monk or Minister that wore the habit of Religion they threw aside their arms and with humble bow and Reverence asked his blessing the greatest Gentry for Birth and quality of right Brittish education and Principles are observ'd to our days not to take the right hand of any Minister minding him by their respect which they count no disparagement to mind himself and his coate the better The Church of Rome procures the like Reverence from the greatest of her Grandees but by Romish Arts and Indirect sollicitations as 40 dayes pardon of venial sins for kissing the Garment of him that celebrates with other secular contrivances and Inducements But the Brittish Church hath respect from her own and others of high degree and Dignity without such bribes and politick encouragements The Churches of Scotland and Ireland her Daughters sided with her against Popery about a 1000 years ago with utmost zeal and vigour when she was desolate and over-powr'd The greatest Pillars of our Church in latter years the renowned Arch-Bishops Vsher and Parker and Bramhall with others bestowed learned pains in her particular honour and defence when she had but small power to requite their Love not to mention the like esteem in the breasts and mouths of many if not all our Reverend and learned Mitres both dead and living Nor were nor are their People that retain their right Brittish principles less wanting in mutuall Charity and respects to one another and especially in compassion towards the weaker and poorer sort for in such kind of charity and succour none perhaps came nearer to the Primitive Christians who had all in o Act. 4.35 Common amongst them than our Right Ancient Brittains of whom saith Cambrensis p. Cambrens descript Camb. cap. 18. Nemo in hac gente mendicus omnium enim c. though they were poor yet none was in want amongst them if any had it to give de q ibidem Usher p. 364. quo libet pane apposito primum fractionis angulum pauperibus dant of every loafe set upon the their table the first cut was laid aside for the poor their frequent meetings prohibited by the severe Laws of Henry the fourth therein called Cymmorthaes were clubs of the Richer sort amongst themselves to relieve their poor friends and neighbours as the word imports being comportations or Collections to set up the poor not wholly out of use to this day Largitatem p. Cambrens descript Camb. cap. 18. dapsilitatem cunctis virtutibus anteponunt Lberality and Hospitality for others to farewell by them they fancied above all other vertues whatsoever I suppose he alludes to
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
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
attended but with one Clerk or two at the most and after a little refection he hastened presently away to read to his Disciples or to his private prayers after whose pattern and example in that time all devout men and women every where made it a Custom to fast every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year till three a clock afternoon except the 50 dayes between Easter and Whitsontide He never spared for fear or honour to reprove the Rich when ever they did amiss but corrected them especially with great severity He never us'd to give away Money or presents to the Rich and Great in this World but only a kind entertainment when ever they came to visit him but what ever such bestowed upon him he soon imployed it either for relief of the Poor or redemtion of Captives admitting them his Scholars and Disciples whom he so redeemed and fitting them by his pains and Instructions for the Priestly dignity Not a word of Vests and Ornaments or Palls or Crucifixes or Holy Water or Indulgencies or toyes or lyes or Prophetick Murders for they were no Roman-Catholicks but only good Brittish Christians The Right Pictures of Gildas who loved best and truest when they were most troublesom to offenders being lively Instances to guess at this distance at the spirit and efficacy of St. Patrick's Ministry upon the Ancient Irish and Scotch by the Apostolical stamp of such self-denial and contempt of this present World in their hearts and affections out of love to Christ and that to come This worthy Bishop Aidan as his name imports in the Brittish and Holy King Oswald were the Chief Authors and Instruments under God of the Conversion of the English to the Christian Faith over all the Land not only in Northumberland where they Reigned and resided but over the rest of the English Heptarchies by their Influence and good example for Oswald did not only the part of a King in the first Invitation and continual encouragement maintenance Protection of those men of God but bore a great share with them in their Ministry for as Aidan delivered Gods mind in his Doctrine and Preaching so h Bede l. 3. c. 3. 6. l. 3. c. 5. Oswald out of great zeal and humility to the better edification of his Subjects vouchsafed in his Royal Apparel to be his Clerk or Deacon interpreting Aidan's mind to the People wherein he was defective or unready for want of more skill in the tongue and which gave the greatest life of all to his endeavours exemplifying all his precepts by a leading conversation and holiness of life and largeness of Alms and charity hardly to be parallel'd parting with his meat out of his mouth with his dinner set before him to his poor Christian Subjects without that Aidan once wishing this unwearied Arm and liberal hand of his might never fail but be ever supplied by God with heart and substance for it gave occasion to Monkish Historians of the superstitious Letter wherein Bede himself was no mean proficient i Bede lib 3. c. 6. to fain and believe that his arm never rotted or decayed in the Grave forgetting or taking in the better to frame the Legend those Posts or Town Gates whereon King Penda hanged it For as by the Grace of God he exceeded all other Kings in Religion and vertue so in Gods just and unsearchable judgements he no less out went them in the disaster of his end being conquered in Battel by Penda King of Mercia his Enemy who quartered and hang'd up his head and arms for scorn and terrour to all about of which direful end of so good a Christian no conjecture can be made out of Bede of the cause but from the place of the Fathers murders and the Sons sufferings for Bede saith he was kill'd at a place call'd by the English k Math. Westm Marels-feild Bede lib 3. c. 12. Hen. Huntingdon Mesa-feild Locus conterminus Walliae Armonicae 7 millibus a civitate Schrowsbury versus Walliam Monastic Anglic. pars 1. p. 38. Maser-feild not expressing where it lay but Heaven-feild the place he Conquered and killed Cadwalhan about 46 years before Cadwalhan dyed by rearing the Cross he assigns to be about the Picts wall in the North But most probably the place of his Cross and Death was one and the same As Cambden more rightly guesses by several Circumstances to which I have particular reason to add one for at Oswestree where Oswald was kill'd by Penda thence called Oswaldsstree and in the Brittish Croâ—s Oswalht or Oswalds-Cross is to be found Cae-Nef as it is called to this day or Heaven-feild in the English which I have often gone over adjoyning near to the feilds where the ruins of Oswald's Chapel remain by a Well l Ibid. called Ffynnon-Capel-Oswalht where the late Noble Lord Capel drawing his Forces in a body was answered touching the place in my hearing that it was called Cae-Capel or Capel-feild by that famous and strong Warriour Mark Trevor Viscount Dungannon bred and born there and there abouts whom Cromwel had ever a great honour for being the only man that wounded and worsted him in the face of his Brigades which never had been known because concealed by his Armour but by Cromwel's own Ingenious Confession and kindness towards him for his Valour after the Loyal party was reduc'd as I have heard his Royal Highness relate the Story in publick Within 8 or 9 Miles of this place stands Bangor-îs-y coed whose Religious Monkes were so barbarously Murthered by his Father Ethelfred in such numbers as before By the Ministry of Aidan the m Bede lib. 3. c. 3. 6. M. Westmin A. 635. Nullus incredulus tempore Oswaldi in Northumbriâ Idem A. 634. whole Province of York this side Scotland and its English Inhabitants was restor'd to the Brittish Church that is the two Provinces of Bernicia and Deira as that Metropolitan See was divided into were entirely converted such as needed n Usher p. 1004. Bernicia containing in it Eastward the whole County of Northumberland and part of Durham On the West the North-Cumbrian Kingdom erected by the Brittains between the Rivers Derwen and the Friths upon the ruines of the Northumbrian n Usher p. 1004. And Deira the other part comprehending the Counties of York and Westmerland and Lancashire and the South part of Cumberland below Derwen Cheshire about this time being in great part within the Principality of Powys and Brochwael Scythrawg its Prince residing at West-chester as other times at Shrewsbury and there assaulted by King Ethelfred Bede lib. 2. A goodly part of the English Nation especially if we add thereunto the large Kingdom of Mercia where all the English according to Bede lib. 3. were Converted and brought up in the Faith by Finan a who was Discipulus Nennii Bannachorensis Cestriâ Elapsi Nennius his Disciple who escap'd from Chester saith Pitzeus but according to Bede both he and Diuma the other
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
Popes exclusion must be acknowledged to commence with Henry the Eight Executing divers Wills at once His Own will apparently or as his Enemy say his lust the presumptive Will of Henry the Seventh the longing Will of groaning Brittain and the foretold Will and providence of God whose Divine Will and Power alone could make it possible to be effected against all human probability And the favour and frown of God upon this Nation followes remarkably its disposition towards Popery either for or against it The entrance and re-entrance whereof was ever fatal to Brittain and inauspicious to our lawful Princes Popery came first in as was observ'd when our Brittish Crown began to decline in 600. and when it recover'd in 1500. went soon out as it is observable further that then our Nation most flourished in Glory and Renown and addition to its Territory when our Princes were most watchful and resolute against Romish encroachments and as soon began to moulder into confusion and contempt and loss of strength when ever they began to connive and fall in love with Rome Who more Magnificent than King Henry the 8th who gave the first fatal blow to the Popes Supremacy in England which never could recover from that time to this Some say the Title of Majesty began to be given to our Kings in his time which was highnâ—ss or Grace before for he from first to last was indeed more like an Emperour of the West in his time than King of England Francis of France a Hall 24. H. 8. fo 207. acknowledg'd his own and his children's liberty to be chiefly his favour and b Idem paid 20000 l. per annum tribute to him for his Kingdom and its defence c Idem Charles the fifth his Nephew was made King of Spain in his Mothers life time being an Inheritrix and also Emperour after that by his means and interest which could not be denyed d Idem The Pope Imprison'd in Castel St. Angelo could never get his liberty till he interposed with Purse and men King Edward the Sixth though his Reign was short as that God in him let England see saith one what a blessing sin and Iniquity would not suffer it to enjoy yet Historians observe his victory against the Scots at Musckleborrow to have been obtain'd the same day that Images were pulled down at London by his injunction Queen Mary went against fate with great trouble to her self and People and the loss of Callice which broke her heart Queen Elizabeth who was Sincere and zealous to the utmost in the defence of our Brittish Liberties against Rome what Prince his Reign from Brute was here more glorious and successful with Peace at home and victories abroad and an Addition of Forreign Colonies to her Territories and a free Trade over all or most part of the World who lives more to this day in all English hearts of all ranks and degrees as the example and measure they pray and wish all their Princes to follow to the like honour and blessing from God and their people Who had more the purses of her people or better heads and hearts and Arms at Her command and service Her Divines were Jewels Hookers Whittakers Her Courtiers Sidnyes Her Commanders Veres Drakes Norrices Rawleighs Her States-men Walsingham's and Cecils and Her Merchants Cresham's Cloughs c. our debauch Gentry and frantick Wits whose souls are too narrow and pusilanimous to bear their fortunes without transport had been clapt up in Bedlam in her days for Lunaticks and our envyed Courtezans who are said to blind our Princes and disturb our Counsels and touch our dignities and consecrations and pollute our land would have been then preferr'd to Bridewell e 1 Cor. 5.5 for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. Her own Epitaph best shewes Gods blessing on Her sincere Reign Religio Reformata Pax fundata c. Religion Reform'd Peace settled Money recovered to its own value a formidable Navy prepar'd Our Naval honour restor'd Rebellion extinct England for 40 years prudently Govern'd Enrich'd and Fortified Scotland deliver'd from the French France relieved the low Countrys supported Spain curb'd Ireland appeas'd the whole World once and again sail'd round King James whose heart was deep met with troubles and dangers near his first entrance f Tortura Torti p. 190. Apologizers for the Powder Plot taxing him of breach of some promise of tolaration as a Provocation who reign'd however after he began to appeare but with his Pen in earnest for Protestantism in more peace and love to him and his till he ran Counter to that Profession and the Brittanick Stars and fate in his eager Ambition after Romish Matches the Pandora's box of all our evils ever since and as cold an Espousall of the Protestant Interest in the Palatinate His glorious Son had the fate of King Oswald to lose his life and three Kingdoms by the faults of others and to gain Heaven and Immortal honour by his own Innocence and vertue For it is too much to be fear'd if events may be read in their causes that Edgehill and Newbery and Maston Moore c. bloody fights and the ruin of our late Soveraign and the Exile and troubles of his children and the soyling of our restoration fell out in the days of Gondomar in our own days we might have observ'd invincible Fleets the security and glory of our Nation strangely defeated with Mists and divided Counsels Emblemes as well as blasts of dark designs God who seeth in secret disappointing openly what was contriv'd in private Conclaves against his will and attesting his displeasure by unparallel'd judgements signs and disasters Fire Plague Comets c. So that to prosper and be victorious Courage and preparations are not more necessary than sincerity and plain-dealing And to make use of a Congruous instance in an Enemy Oliver Cromwell who had here a very jarring ruffled Government to tune and order during his Usurpation the Loyal party not to be won over to him either by feare or love his own betrayed and deceived several times over yet when all parts failed by acting a Protector of the Reformed Churches against Popery especially those abroad and harping upon that string the children of this world being wiser in their Generations than the children of the Kingdom he gave that strange content to the Body of the Nation that he lull'd them into sleep and trust and too much forgetfulness of their Exil'd Princes whom he kept out all his time and made the greatest States and Monarchs of Europe unworthily desert them likewise and stand in fear of him and brought wealth besides and great trading to the Nation and strength to its Navies and additions to its Territories As if Providence had raised him on purpose to upbraid and chastize our errours about the Britannick Fate and Interest himself being discovered likewise to be of that extraction which he disgraced
And so much for the fift The 6th and last head and supposition propos'd is SECTION XIII That the Primay of the See of Canterbury as it is setled by our own Kings and Laws is Canonical and Regular THat the Primacy of the See of Canterbury is from the Grace and pleasure of our Kings and Laws who can translate it when they see fit for good and honourable ends and causes or unite it to London whence it was wrongfully torn away by Rome which requires the clearing of these three points 1. Touching the Old Metropolitan Sees of the Brittains where they were before Monk Augustine 's entry What makes a Metropolitan See and which had the chief Primacy whether London or York or Caerleon 2. How these or any of them ceas'd and discontinued and how Canterbury came to be erected continued and confirm'd 3. That the Protestant Confirmation of the See of Canterbury is according to the Canons of the Church as well as the Law of this Land Touching the first Some hardly will allow that the Brittains had any Archbishops at all as a Histor proaemio Newbrigensis or if they had that there is little or no certainty where they b G. Malmesbury prolog l. 1. de Gestis Anglorum Pontificum stood as Will. of Malmesbury yet this last amongst others that write of Glastonbury mentions that the great St. David c Usher p. 98. Archbishop of Menevia or St. David came with seven Bishops whereof he was Primate to the Dedication of that Church And Bede mentions d Bede lib. 2. c. 2. seven Bishops of the Brittains that gave Augustine a meeting about Worcester And the Brittish History and Hoveden e Hoveden pars poster p. 454. mentions the Archbishop they had over them and their continuance under the Archbishoprick of St. David without any subjection to Canterbury or Rome till the time of Henry the first Naming the Suffragan Sees Llandaff Llanbadern Bangor St. Asaph Hereford Worcester Chester But the Archbishops of London and York were forc'd from their Sees long before about the Arrival of Augustine which two great Cities that they were Archeipiscopal Sees is gatherable not only from the Brittish History and the passage therein received amongst their e Plat in Eleuth Historians as well as ours touching King Lucius erecting those three Archbishopricks here in the place of the Archflamins over the rest of the Bishops And also from Pope Gregory's sending his f Bede lib. 1. c. 29. Palls to these two and no other Cities that lay open to them for Usurpers follow the track of the right owners But also the appearance and subscriptions of the three Archbishops at the Council of g Concil Arelat apud Spelm. Arles from the Province of Brittain Anno 314. puts the matter past doubt Eborius Bishop of York Restitutus of London Adelphius of Caerleon for their Title of Bishops there hinders not but that they were Archbishops and Metropolitans for other known Archbishops and Pope Sylvester himself are therein mention'd with the Title of Bishops only or how else could Dole eclipse the Archbishoprick of Tours upon Sampsons score from hence If Sampson had been no Archbishop here And whereas Ecclesiastical Sees are observ'd to take their Division and Order from the Civil Dioceses and Provinces which is no just exception against that Government as if it were further from God or a jus Divinum because it follows Order therein which is from God saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.33 It may be a little doubted whether the Church was guided in the establishment of these Sees by the Roman or by the Brittish division of this Land For if by the Roman the Sees must be more or less according to the number of Provinces h Usher c. 5. p 95 96. Brittain at first and in the time of Lucius being but one Province made two in the time of Severus the upper and the lower Brittain four in the time of Constantine Britannia prima Britannia secunda Maxima and Flavia Caesariensis and Valentia the fifth added in the time of Valentian whereby it should follow to which opinion Cambrensis was once inclin'd that there were not under five Archbishopricks in this Isle And if by the Brittish division of Provinces in use before the Arrival of the Romans whereof mention is left in the remainders of our Moelmutian Laws or Dunwallo Moel-mûd who flourished Anno Mundi 3529. York had been to stand out and to give place to Edenburgh The words of that Law being these i Fragm legum Moelmut apud G. Moris de Llansilin Vn goron Arbennig a gynhel-hir yn ynis Brydain ac yn Lhundain Cadw'r goron a thair talaith a gynhel-hir dani un ynghymrhu ben Baladr arall yn nhîn Eidhin yn y gogloed ar drydedh yngherniw That is there is one Imperial Crown maintain'd in the Isle of Brittain and that Crown to be kept at London And three Princely Coronets are contain'd under it One in Wales of the chief Line the other in Edenburgh in the North and the third in Cornwall whereby a fourth Metropolitical See at Cornwall or Caer-eske or Excester should have place whereof in Story there is no mention but only the three Archbishopricks of York and London and Caerleon ar-wysc which division and number Archbishop Vsher proves by a cloud of 20 or 30 Authors Brittish English and Forreign It being probable that York in those first times supplied the place of Edenburgh because that it was Constantine's place of birth and because Edenburgh was out of the Roman World and Severus his wall in the beginnings of Christianity here That which constituted Metropolitan Sees Originally and before the Magistrate became Christian was the Necessity of Order which cannot be where there is a multitude without some Union by a kind of predicamental subordination among the parts under one chief which the light of nature suggests in Families and Armies and Nations and Notions that particulars should be rank'd under Generals as are the Creatures under God And Magistracy was constituted to follow and improve this order of Gods Original founding as Artificial Logick to improve natural being both in effect the same And therefore mention is made in the Council of Nice about 300 years after Christ of Patriarchal Sees in use and Ancient Custom long before Constantine or any other Magistrate became Christian the Church supplying that defect by the instinct of order as nature supplyes the want or breaches in our bones by a callus or hardness of the like kind and St. Paul was of opinion that the law and instinct of nature was jure Divino and from God Rom. 2.14 But when Magistrates became Christian to them it ever afterwards belong'd as the Lords and moderators of order by Divine constitution Rom. 13. to found and constitute and translate Metropolitical or Patriarchall Sees as they saw good and convenient for their Territories Upon this score it might justly seem hard and strange
his Native Countrey had stronger and more undoubted obligations upon him upon the like score having his birth and second birth and Conversion from the one and but the Instituted Ceremony if true and certain from the other so that upon the self same reason and merits of this pretended Charter that all other Churches were declared Subject to it it is to be believed in all justice and equity that Brittain was declared Exempt For if the Emperour Justinian was so kind and noble towards the place of his birth and Conquest in Dacia and Africa as by his imperial Prerogative to exalt them into absolute Primacyes freeing them from the obedience and subjection they formerly paid to other superiour Chairs how can it be imagined that the Generous Spirit of Constantine compounded of Roman and Brittish Honour should forget the place where he was Born and Re-born which all men remember to their last Gasp as Poets paint it both Human and Divine Nescio quâ natale solum dulcedine cunctos saith one Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos r Virgil. saith another And the Prophet more Divinely If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee left my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Psalms 137.6 7. For what is more remember'd and tender'd from first to last by all men and Christians than their Countrey the type of God whence they had their being or what is more every one 's Jerusalem on Earth than his Church the type of Christ where he had his better and Eternal being How unthankful therefore and perfidious to the honour of their Countrey and of their Prince the representative and type thereof must they needs appear that for any present Interest and private advantage or unaccountable Custom and Education shall go about to advise or perswade him to yield against Princely trust and honour and obligation of descent and birth this most Ancient free-born Church of Brittain to be a slave and Captive a fresh to Rome after her miraculous rescue and deliverance by the hands of Princes the heads of States-men the hearts of Divines the finger of God the Acclamations of all good men and at such a time the one being in its greatest Degeneracy with neither Truth nor Empire of its side to make it lovely or considerable as heretofore and the gall and soreness on the Neck of the other from its former yoak not yet fully healed nor forgot Neither are the pretences of London or ſ Lhûn Effigies Dain Diana Brittain Brit. Prydain Pryd forma vultus Diana was a great Goddess in Asia Act. 19. as also in Brittain agreeing with the East in Idolatry as afterward in Religion Lhundain in the Brittish .i. Diana's shrine Acts 19.24 to the Brittish Primacy Inferiour to those of York being for populousness and wealth and Situation the knowen Metropolis of this land all along from the Resurrection and before and by consequent presumption our Patriarchal See as our t Math Westm An. 601. 604. Usher 66.67 p. 127. Ancient Historians are generally of Opinion Founded by King Lucius at St. Peters Cornhill as most believe or St. Peters Thorney or Westminster according to D. Heylin's conjecture which likewise u Polyder Virgil lib 4. p. 71. had its first building from the same King who according to our Brittish Chronicles was Baptized x Idem p. 56. at Troynovant or London with all his Family where according to the Moelmutian Laws was the Imperial Crown of this Island kept and in all probability the Residence of King Lucius and the first Metropolitan y Usher 68.69 Chair by consequence long before the time of Constantine well nigh two hundred years and Pope Gregory sending his chief Pall for London proves as much by his following the track And accordingly we find Arch-Bishop Guitelin or Cyhelyn to Crown King Constantine and to have the charge z Histor Brittannic lib. 6. c. 4.5 of his children Aurelius Ambrosius and Vther Pendragon the priviledge of the chief Primate of England to this day And Fitz Stephen a Londoner will have Constantine the Great to be born at London and her Walls to be built by him at the request of a Usher p. 175. Helena And though he resided at York as other Emperours before him for greater watch and terrrour on the Frontiers of the Empire and was forward enough to honour and exalt the See of York into high dignity and Priviledge yet not to the wrong and prejudice of the Ancienter Arch-Bishoprick of London in the same Countrey and that his own and Eborius of York might take place of Restitutus of London in the Council of Arles by reason of his years as the Elder man and not by reason of his See And if the See of London was thus above the See of York which had as a fore such good right and merit to be above any other See in Christendom whether Constantinople or Rome it self how Ancient and Sacred must the Primacy of London then be And yet this See we find Rome to have used her greatest Power to suppress and keep under from first to last York continuing an Archbishoprick to this day But London the Original Primacy of Great Brittain swallowed up by the pride of Popish Canterbury for about a thousand years together And Caerleon upon Wysc now St. David had no less a right than the other two to chief Primacy here in Brittain by that dear title of Redemption as it were being the Royal seat of King Arthur who by his zeal and valour in the Cause of Christ and his Countrey was the Saviour of the Brittish Church and Monarchy in his time as such deliverers are term'd in Scripture Obadiah v. ult from the Pagan-Invasion of the Saxons rebuilding their Churches Monasteries Nunneries saith Geoffrey restoring their Clergy and Orders and setling Bishops and Pastors in their several Sees and charges as his Chaplain Pyramus made Archbishop of York by him a Histor Britt l. 9. c. 8.14 15. l. 11. c. 3. convocato clero populo in a full Parliament and Convocation held at York the Feast of Christmass As at his great and solemn Feast held in the time of Pentecost at Caerleon at the like assembly of the Clergy and Laity David a Histor Britt l. 9. c. 8.14 15. l. 11. c. 3. was made Archbishop of Caerleon Maugan of Silcester Dwywan of Winchester Eledanius of Alcluid or Dunbritton as we find Theon Bishop of Gloucester translated to the Archbishoprick of London shortly after his death In a word he either clear'd the land after several great Fights of all the enemies of his Countrey and Religion or gave them terms wresting the sword out of their hands and b Apud Usher 1129. Hist Britt l. 8. c. 8. Ubbo Emmius l. 3. p. 107. recommending the Catechism instead As did his Uncle b Apud
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
Church and their own rules and principles first it is several wayes against the Canons in respect of their Invasions of the rights of other Metropolitans which was adjudg'd a Photii Nomoc. Tit. 1. p. 20. infamous and mulctable before that in the Council of Chalcedon and in Trullo power was yielded to the Emperours to erect or to translate Metropolitical Chaires and also against the Canons in respect of many Illegal Ordinations which made the Romish Church null in Law in England several wayes besides those nullities in fact and event we have before instanc'd Many are the Canons of the best and Ancientest Councils and the most general and Oecumenical that the Church of Christ ever had which condemn the first Entrance of Augustine and his Pope Gregory and the Re-entrance of Archbishop Theodore and his Successors upon our Brittish Church and Provinces under no less penalties than deposition or degradation of their Clergy from their several States and Dignities and Excommunication of their Laity from Christian Fellowship besides the making all their Ecclesiastical Acts and Ordinations to be utterly void and null to all intents If this were of any value or moment with them of the Church of Rome who boast and crack of a great respect they have above others for Fathers and Councils and Ancient Traditions but experience too much discovers it is all with Reservations and Provisoes that they offer not to touch or reflect upon their Church in any of its grossest errours or most enormous misdemeanours for if they do it in the lest the Canons of the Universal Church shall have no more respect at their hands than the Canonical Scriptures which are not allowed to have any sound or sense where they cross and disagree from the private interpretation of their Church I say private and suspicious because notoriously savouring of private ends and carnal designes and Worldly ambition and self-love above any Church or Haeresie whatsoever in all their Commentaries and Expositions and every point and Article of their Faith and Government wherein they differ from us Or they shall be openly disown'd and rejected for no lawful Councils either in whole or in part according to their liking or disliking of particulars who yet call for implicit obedience to their own petty Authorities and decrees how contrary soever to Common sense or reason while themselves dispute and contradict the power and jurisdiction of far greater Superiours acting and decreeing with the special assistance of the Spirit of God So that as to such Roman-Catholicks who are wedded and guided by their wills and Idols more than Truth or Conscience the Testimonies and Canons I shall produce will prove but Pearls ill cast yet with this advantage and satisfaction that they shall drive and force them either to submission or to rebellion either to confess and acknowledge themselves to be convict Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Robbers and Oppressors and their Popes and Missionaries depos'd and condemn'd in all their Titles Holy Orders and pretences by the Holy solemn Laws and Canons of the Universal and undoubtedly Catholick Church of Christ or manifestly detect themselves to be Antichrist in this as in their other practices and the Invaders of Gods Regiment and power in all its formes and varieties of of appearance as of God the Creator in disposing the Kingdoms of the World of God Redeemer in Lording over Souls and Consciences so of God the Holy Spirit and Sanctifier in slighting Scriptures and General Councils Which last part it is to be fear'd they 'l chuse to take as being thereto too much inclin'd by their Principles being one main cause if not perrhaps the principal that the spirit of truth and concord hath withdrawn it self in lamentable manner from Christian Churches and Councils these several last hundreds of years in whose Assemblies it cannot well appear with liberty and without diminution of its Divine Honour and Glory when its promis'd assistance to Gods Church gathered together in his name must be eftsoons check'd and controll'd by the Negative will and lust of one man that sets up himself above Both and the Interest of Rome made the mark to steer by instead of Truth and Holiness and Gods holy spirit thereby necessitated either to countenance Errour and Tyranny by its presence or to stand out whereby is left but a Carcass of a Church and not a Church for a Church without Gods spirit is but as the body without the Soul the one as ready moulders into errour and corruption as the other into stench and rottenness as is the condition of the Modern Roman Church too visibly The first Canon I shall instance in shall be the third General Council held at Ephesus than which hardly any president can be more apposite to the Case of Rome and Brittain and that Councill's determination upon the complaint of Cyprus against Antioch where three points may be observ'd 1. The state of their case and grievance 2. The sense and resentment of the Council 3. The decree and redress 1. Their complaint to the Council by Declaration and the Affirmation of their Bishops then and there present was that the Bishop or Patriarch of Antioch did send and Consecrate Bishops for the Isle of Cyprus in violation of their Ancient Rights and Customes The occasion of this encroachment was as is noted by Balsamon and Zonaras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon a pretence and imitation of the Duke of Antioch under the Romans sending thence a Deputy Governour for this Isle The plea of the Cypriots was as is imply'd in the Canon an Ancient immemorial right of chusing and consecrating their own Bishops among themselves On the other hand the Bishop of Antioch had his Patriarchal dignity and the Supremacy of St. Peters Chair to insist on from whom he deriv'd by undoubted Lineal Succession Now if this Controversy had come before the Pope of Rome and his Conclave or Lateran or Tridentine Council it is easie to coniecture who had gone by the worst but not so easie to know whom the prey should have been adjudg'd to whether to Antioch or rather to Rome her self although the other were the acknowledg'd Chaire of St. Peter establish'd for 7 years at Antioch at the lest before ever he arriv'd at Rome 2. But the sense and resentment of their wrong by this great Council is very remarkable who took this matter into their cognizance and Judicature though no lesâ— than the Patriarch of the East and as great as the Pope takes himself to be was one of the parties to aâ—ide their censure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus they represent the mischief and consequence of this encroachment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A new kind of Schismatical attempt in defiance of the Apostolical Laws of the Church and Canons of the Holy Fathers and striking at the common Liberty of Christendom yea the Spiritual Spiritual Liberty of men Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ himself by his bloud hath purchas'd for us
or quicken either or like Pipes in an Organ Dead and Dumb as of themselves yet sounding out aloud the high praises of their God in his Church when they are filled with his Breath and Holy word and spirit However when these inward conceptions of mens spirits bud and break out in Births James 1.15 and land in another World in the Territories of Earthly Soveraigns who like God are both Omniscient and Omnipotent in their own Dominions and precincts Here the case is far otherwise Here Earthly Magistrates have their free Liberty and Authority to arrest and take as in the out-side and purliews of the soul whether they be Christian or Heathen as well the one as the other in their several capacities and Characters Heathen Kings being Gods Deacons Rom 13.4 or his Ministers in the State to preserve the peace of God and man by frowning upon all vice and sin and wicked lewdness Act. 18.14 which is spiritual Idolatry and War against God in the heart provoking his vengaence and judgement against a land and to Protect and praise them in every good work and vertue which is the amicable and loyall deportment and worship of righteous souls towards God whereby he is won to be favourable in his blessings and protections not only to them and their seed but to the whole land though less deserving for their sakes Gen. 18.32 And Christian Kings being the Fathers and Bishops of the Church and Christs undoubted Viccars on Earth in all the outward affairs of that Holy Polity to preserve its beauty and order and the holiness of its Communion against blemishes and scandals according to the Rules of Christ Christian Kings I say cannot be denyed to be the Fathers of the Church according to Gods own mind in Esa 49.23 Prophecies like to Faith being the evidence of things not seen given their right stiles and Titles to persons and degrees as yet not in being as if they were And as they are Fathers so they are Bishops and Overseers of Christs Flock the Church in things without as other Holy Bishops are in things within as it was declar'd by our Constantine the first Christian Emperour in the first and great general of Counsel of Nice of 318. Primitive and the best tried Bishops the Church ever had Nemine contradicente not one dissenting or disliking the expression either then or since but our Romish Popes of late after the Church began to slumber and degenerate And Viccars on Earth they all are severally in their own Kingdoms by the Popes own confession for so Eleutherius early declares in his Epistle to our Lucius the first Christian King in the world about the year 170. if it were the Act of Eleutherius or about the year 110. if the Act of Evaristus according to a. Usher de Britan. Eccles Primordiis p. 34. Ninius or sooner according to b. Usher de Britan. Eccles Primordiis p. 34. Paulus Jovius which though it be not Authentick in all its parts and purposes yet because some of our Kings might send to some of the Popes of Rome then Famous in the world for their uprightness to be Brotherly advised about some points of their Government unless our difference from them about Easter as well as the East might interrupt such correspondence or Communion and the Epistle passes for true and Authentick amongst many of our Romanists therefore the Testimony and citation in it touching Kings being Gods Vicars in their Territories is firm however and binding against them to the full And St. Paul doth no less in the Principles he layes down in my Text by which every master is Christs Vicar to his own Servant and by consequent proportion every King is Christs Vicar to his own Subjects for the Apostle would have tied obedience upon Subjects toward Christians Kings if they had been in his time in being in the same from and tenour as upon Christian Servants here towards their Christian Masters as is observed by a right learned Person towards whom they are to do all from the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as unto Christ himself this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as implies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as the master is is over the Servant in his Civil capacity his Civil Lord and Master so is he over him in his Christian capacity a Christian Servant as Christ is over Christians and Subjects Masters and Kings by consequence being Christs Image or similiude or Lievtenants or Viccars as the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies The same Apostle exhorting every soul to be subject to the higher Powers Rom. 13.1 amongst whom are comprehended Ecclesiastical persons as well as lay saith St. Chrysostom If those Powers become Christian as they are now with us they become the Vicars of Christ by consequence to all their Christian Subjects of the Clergy as well as Laity and were his Holiness a liege Subject of this Kingdom our King would be inevitably Christs Vicar on Earth unto him as he is undoubtedly to all English or Brittish Roman Catholicks who yet suffer themselves to be seduced by him who is no Viccar of Christ to them as such to withdraw their Christian obedience from him who truly is and Unchristianly and disloyally to disown his Supremacy over them who is as truly Christs Vicar over them in this world as he is their Christian King or they his Christian Subject Which is also agreeable to right reason as well as Scripture for there is a great difference between the Inside and the Outside of any Church or particular Christian which are in two several Kingdoms under two distinct Governments the one Heavenly and Eternal as is the soul the other Earthly or Temporal as is the body of which two they are severally made For such actions of the Soul as are concrete to the body and of use and moment in this present world only and not contrariant to Divine Institution and are circumstantiated with time and place whereby they become visible facts preceptible by mens senses and open to the view and cognizance of humane Authority though they be concerning matters Christian or deportments and behaviours and wears to be used within the Church and in time of service the same are not properly Spiritual as they are vulgarly call'd especially with them at Rome whose whole Religion is about the outside or Heavenly or Eternal and Invisible and belonging to Salvation which is equivalent but they carry a Temporal or Secular or Carnal nature in them and belong therefore to Temporal Jurisdiction to each Crown they are under and by no pretence to Rome but where Rome hath a temporal Authority to order them in her own Subjects but with us they belong to our Brittish Thrones and Tribunals and to Ecclesiastical Courts where they concern Christian and Temporal where they concern Civil Society and to the Kings Subjects as witnesses and Juries upon the place and not to any Forraign Chair or Rota or Pack of strangers to make
Nice upon which the Rights of London stood founded when they were Schismatically Invaded by a high hand from Rome and for many years wrongfully detain'd and usurp'd Or 2. to cut off all pretence and colour of subjection or dependance of this Church upon Rome and all occasion of stumbling to the weak Sons of the Church of England and Ignorant in History who are misled to believe that Rome is the Mother Church of Brittain because it was undoubtedly of Canterbury which is now the reputed Mother Church of all England And by consequence that our Reformation was Schismatical and scandalous the Daughter judging and rejecting the Mother the Inferiour the Superiour and of ill consequence to be approved by Princes Whereas Rome Originally never came to be a Mother to our Brittain so much as in pretence but only by Schisme and incroachment most fit and just to be remedied by Princes in discountenance of wrong and disobedience Because 3. The Learned of the Church of Rome dayly hit our Prelates of that See in the Teeth and the Unlearned likewise harbour evil opinions and surmises concerning them and forbear not to vent and utter them as if they were Vngrateful and Parricidial in their Actings against their first Founder and Maintainer whereby some of themselves also might be discourag'd and cool'd in their zeal against the Romish Vsurpation to which their honour'd predecessors owed Allegiance Whereas Augustine the first founder had his maintenance and dignity and ways of acquisitions from the Brittish See of London whereof Canterbury is parcel or the same and owed Canonical obedience and the rights and fortunes of his Successors to the Brittish Church to whom they are ultimately to refund if these are to refund to them as to the right and first owners Because 4. it would be a great strength and but a due and just vindication of Protestantism or the Apostolical Ancient Brittish Church after such long abuse and wrongful suffering by Rome and a New face and reviving glory to old Brittain to recover its Pristine right and condition in Church as well as State and Name and worthy of a share in those Solemn Consultations appointed as it were by providential instinct for its further Union in Laws and Government to the everlasting honour of that Prince in whose Reign it should be recorded to be accomplished Or 6. to make our chief See in Brittain hold some better proportion with the like in Neigbouring Kingdoms as Remes or Toledo whom in Universities and Colledge Endowments we far exceed to our Glory to be a fit preferment for some of our Princes or chiefest Nobles hereafter for the great support of the Church Or at least 7. that the name and memory of Monk Augustin the first Author of this disorder by his Infamous Schisms and murders which Reign'd so many hundreds of years in such glory under the darkness of Popery should set at last in due obscurity under the Sun-shine of Protestantism Which considerations are recounted not out of any design or desire of Innovation though into a Pristine right or to restore the bone into its due place with pain and danger that hath been so long out of joynt and well serves for use though not rightly set Though the whole design and plea of the Church of Rome be that a bone rightly set and settled and fully useful ought to be dislocated to the hazard and cripling of the whole to be in the wrong posture it once was for a time for their advantage and benefit But to solve scruples and unravel scandals and pluck up all misapprehensions by the roots whereby any might be deluded by any pretences of Equity or conscience or filial Reverence for a Mother-Church into a favourable opinion of Romish slavery Or if any be prick'd in conscience for the wrong done to Rome at the Reformation let the same prick reach to the wrong done before to Brittain by Romes Schismatical Invasion which no prescription of time or years could give right to and then all will be in right order as at first they were and ought to be and the first right owners shall have their due and old Trepassers their censure and rejection yea as by good providence they now are and stand for it ought to be well known and understood that the See of Canterbury as it stands Established is not a Roman but a Brittish See and consequently Exempt from all Romish Superiority or dependance by an Original Birth-right and Immunity and therefore forbiden by our Laws and Synods to use or wear any Pall or Liâ—â—â—y or Legatine power of Rome's bestowing and settled by our Brittish Soveraigns in Christ-Church Canterbury as effectually and Canonically as at St. Pauls in London which all Christians of Brittain whether of Protestant or Catholick stamp and Character may now with a safe and good conscience pay due submission and obedience to as they ought without Schism or scandal or forfeiture of their Christian Dignities and Orders and Communion by the Canons of the Universal Church hereafter to be recited which before they could not For though Schism be objected by the Romanists to the Episcopals as by the Episcopals to the Presbyterians and Non-conformists yet the Pope in Brittain and his Romish Convâ—â—â—clâ—s set up by craft or â—iolence over our Churches which lay out of his Jurisdiction ever were the Original Schismaticks and the first Patterns and ill examples of disobedience against Right Superiours against so many good Laws of the Catholick Church that do Excommunicate and depose them for it And nothing in all likelyhood hath or doth more foment and châ—â—ish our remaining divisions in the Land and Sâ—â—â—s in the Church than Jealousie of Popery and it spâ—â—ted hankerings and designs to reduce men again under the old yoak of Rome so much dâ—restâ—â— and justly abhorr'd by the whole Nation If All in Trust and Eminency could fully satisfie men's fears and Suspitions of their unfeigned adherence under God and the King to their Brittish Mother-Church in opposition and detestation of all Forreign Corrivals for Superiority It were strange and justly unexpected if all parties throughout this miserably divided Nation would not soon joyn hearts and hands and Church-meetings with one another in an entire and indissolvable Union and Brotherhood to the Infinite joy and happiness of Prince and People SECTION XIV That the Primacy of Canterbury as by the Pope and Monk Augustine is Schismatical and against the Canons of the Vniversal Church and of the several Nullities of the Church of Rome in England And how their Clergy Intruding here stand depriv'd of their Orders by the Canons of all the Ancient General Councils and their Laity that abet them of their Christian Communion by the same Authority BUt the Supremacy of the See of Canterbury by the Popes Authority alone as our Romanists would have it without the Authority of the Kings of England is Infamously Schismatical and irregular and against the Canons of the universal