wherewith they are Intrusted by God for the defence of his and their People than Popes ever could or can unsheath their Spiritual Weapons in defence of Pride and ambition and scandalous Encroachments Excommunication being intended by Christ and his Apostles to better ends than they apply it to separate between the precious and the vile between scandalous and holy Christians and to cut off putrid parts with grief and compassion to preserve the Communion of Saints and the health and honour of the whole and not to defend proud and ambitious heights and sacrilegious invasions and Usurpations over Churches more Orthodox and more ancient than themselves with Unevangelical revenge and recalcitration after fair eviction Which is the abusing of Christs Ordinance to ends contrary to what he intended and the taking of Gods name in vain for which they will not be held guilt-less yea to have Excommunicated themselves rather by humble acknowledgements and reparations to their power for their wrongs and oppressions to Christ and souls and Churches had been the right Catholick use of their keyes and the surest sign of Salvation to the best and chiefest of their Church Neither is it needful by our Hypothesis and state of our case to defend the Reformation from the charge of Schism and departure from the Catholick Church thereby as they suppose and cry aloud against us for the alteration made by Henry the Eight cannot be called the Reformation of a Religion we derived from Rome by Inferiour Authority against superiour by the daughter correcting the Mother Church Irregularly but our lawful Restoration rather to our Ancient Rights and possessions from which we were wrongfully disseis'd and barr'd The deliverance of our Brittish Church after long captivity and disfiguration to its primitive liberty and health and beauty by just means from the violent hands and Spiriting Arts of Rome much Junior to it in faith and much impurer and unsounder than the true Church of Rome for these last thousand years Our Case I say is not so much Reformation as Restoration which no man of sence or honesty or conscience can find fault with and much less they at Rome who are pleas'd with their deliverance from the long Tyranny of their Exarchs though procur'd by unlawful and pernicious means as before but we had ours through lawful Authority without any wrong or hurt to others or our Superiours and with much right to our selves much less can we be tax'd or blam'd by any at home that have been long kept out from their own rights by Tyrants or Rebels or Oppressors who are bound in all Equity and Honour and Compassion to espouse rather and Assist so just a Cause before any others whatsoever according to Dido's temper in the Poet making the Case of Aeneas in Exile her own Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco The Pope had no more Original right and title to our Brittish Sees how long soever Usurped than Cromwell had to the Brittish Crown Whoever else may envy or hinder or undermine our recovery of our just freedom and liberty they that through Gods mercy have had the like Restoration and deliverance ought not either in Honour or Civility or Humanity to do it nor if themselves appear to have the greatest share and benefit therein without manifest hazard of their Judgement for by revolt to Popery Princes quit no less their external Supremacy in holy Church the choycest Jewel in their Crown than by Apostacy to Heathenism not more by the parity of the Idolatries than by their own Act and Resignation For they cannot longer hold the same in the Catholick-Roman without being Excommunicate as undutyful and they let go their hold thereof in the Protestant Christian by Excommunicating themselves as unkind and unwise Nor if after all this they be found to Act both against Gods revealed will and fate therein or the secret Decrees and discernable purposes of his Providence against it whereof the one was made as clear as the Sun before and the other will afterwards appear as clear as the Moon which is next unto it can they ever be thus unnatural to their own Church and Nation out of vain glorious kindness to forreign cheats without fighting against God as well as their friends to the certain overthrow and ruin either Temporal or Eternal or both of the weaker side Therefore the sharp and searching judgement of the great Arch-Bishop Bramhal could soon espy that the plea of the Antiquity and Independancy of our Brittish Church in the Controversy between us and Rome strikes the cause dead forever at one blow Not that being exempt from the pretences of a Junior Church once animated with Empire to step before her betters we are not bound nevertheless to hold Communion with every good Church of Christ where and when we may yea with Rome it self if it return'd to its Ancient purity and subjection to our Saviour as on the other hand to shun others as we do Rome that were guilty of the like Corruption and Apostacy which flight and distance we are wont to observe in our moral and natural Communion and converse as well as Christian embracing or shunning good or evil Company for our safety or credit as wholesome or Pestilential Air for Health as well as sound and unsound Churches out of Allegiance to Christ our common Lord or fear of scandal and partaking in their sins and judgments by our Complyance For our Communion though it be our great duty as Schisme is a great sin yet it is not in our absolute power and dispose in the general without any other Rule or reason to incline us to be of this or that Church but our own fancy and humour no we are acted by necessity in great part therein for it is a necessary tye upon us to embrace good and relinquish evil and corrupt Communion and to be guided by Christs will and not our own as our rule and standard and to shun all whom his word Excommunicates and to communicate with all whom his word approves For to approve whom Christ condemns or condemn whom Christ approves is not in the power of any Christian that ownes Christ for his Soveraign All the part that we have in our own power is the exercise of every mans Conscience and private judgment under the guidance of Christs rule which they hate the least mention of at Rome as impious and Haeretical and leading to a private spirit the root of all evil errours in the Church and comparing the lives and state of Christians and Churches by this general rule of Christ and this particular eye of our Souls to put our Communion in execution according to Christs mind and to embrace his friends and to shun his enemies and to like and dislike as we are to do all our other Affairs in him from our hearts according to my Text. For let there be no private judgment to distinguish between private good or evil or between the guides themselves we are
sight and hearing when the Christian Soul comes upon the Stage to Act its part before its God alone like a Nightingale in a still calm it being below the Soul to sing her part to any other ear neither can the heart own any competent spectator of its Actions but Him alone who can search and judge it And what is more agreable as with this text so with the great care of our Saviour also in the right ordering of our Religious Actions our Alms and Fasting and Prayer that we do all to Gods eye alone and not to be seen of men Math. 6.1 2 3. For if we do the same for men we have our reward that is they must pay us who set us on work or for whom we chuse to work but if for God in secret then God who seeth in secret shall reward us openly If we pray in our Closets it must be to God alone intirely being more seen and heard by him alone than if we prayed in the sight and hearing of the whole world If we pray in the Church where we are seen of men we are not so to pray that men may praise our devotions but that God may approve our hearts we are to Pray in private between God and our heart in the midst of the congregation as in a desert In duties of the Pulpit Bench or Shop our chief aim must not be lucre or vain glory the fear or the favour of any but the approving of our hearts and consciences to Christ which will make us just and bold and sober and tender We are not to be dejected or cast down for any loss but the loss of Christs favour by our sins which sorrow is its own cure we are not to esteem our selves better than others in any thing but where we can out-go them in conformity to our meek and humble Saviour which kind of humility is true and Divine Grandeur nor to count our selves at ease amidst our ease and plenty till we find it to go well with Christ and his Church which is our zeal and Loyalty The Christian that Acts all in Christ and through Christ and for Christ super-induces Christ upon himself and upon every other person he hath to do with as the colour of the glass shall colour all the objects the eye sees through it even as envy and malice on the contrary sees the Devil in every Brother and finds him in it self His hope of life and Salvation ebbs and flows according as he finds himself in or out of Christ Rom 8.1 and he finds himself in or out of Christ according as his thoughts words or actions agree or disagree with the person of Christ which as a Christian he hath put on for his rule and measure Gal. 3 27.-5.24 He dares not approach his Neighbours bed because he earries Christ in him and upon him wheresoever he moves shall I take a member of Christ to make it a member of an Harlot God forbid 1 Cor. 6.15 He preferrs every Brother or Sister in humility before himself against his pride because Christ to his Faith is in every Brother or Sister Rom. 12.10 1 Cor. 8.12 He is faithfull and diligent in his Masters business against his sloath and temptations considering with himself he serves not man but Christ as in my Text. In a relation of husband or wife Christ and his Church are to be acted betwen them the one is to love his wife for all her frailties as Christ loved his Church the other is to honour her Husband against her discontents as the Church honours Christ Eph. 5.22 25. He obeys his Superiors in all lawfull injunctions against his scruples because Christ in his Faith rules in them who is worthy to be submitted to Prov. 8.15 Rev. 1.5 He forgives his enemies against his stomach because Christs will is now his will and not his own Math. 5.44 He is liberal to the poor against his avarice because Christ to his Faith is in the poor as really saith St. Chrysostome as in the Sacrament Math. 25.40 He neither wrongs nor imposes on nor scandalizes any man with his good will that to his Faith were to wrong or impose upon or scandalize Christ himself 1 Cor. 8.12 as much as in him lyes which he abhorrs and trembles at Neither is he weary of praying or doing good as his flesh would suggest because to his Faith it s the same to him as being in Heaven with Christ all the while 1 Cor. 15.58 Heb. 11.1 he startles at the first step or motion to any sin because to his Faith which makes the threats of Christ ever present to him as well as his rewards it signifies here to him the same with departing from Christs presence into everlasting flames with the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 Good God! what an Heaven upon Earth it were to live among Christians if all that were Christians by name were Christians indeed and in truth And none can be truly saved but those alone who are truly Christians in heart to Christ and not in appearance to men only And so much for the Quomodo how we must do all from the heart to Christ and not to men Next follows the Quare or the two reasons why we are so to act the first implyed in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 1. Soul and 2. the Lord. 1. The first is from the fundamental nature and fabrick of our Souls which bear a connatural imbred allegiance and subjection to God and no other to whom they are as Unisons or Correlates as the eye was made to answer the Light or the herb Heliotropium to move at the motion of the Sun or as your common Daisies that as it were with mourning and joy shut and open according as they lose or enjoy the Sun Our Souls are not sui juris independant unaccountable beings that were for a Creature to be the same as God is but are subject and responsible for all their most inward designs and actions and that to God alone and no other All Earthly powers and their threats and bonds they flight and defie as Sampson did his Wit hs and Cords or Leviathan doth Iron and Brass to him but as straw and stubble But God or Christ they will own as their Leige who governs them by a Vice-Roy I mean Conscience which is the same with the heart in my Text which seems to be no other than the Soul it self made an Officer or Register both for and against it self to view and record and report all passages impartially against the great Tribunal being a manifest demonstration of the immense power of that Almighty Soveraign who thus controlls and rules this potent and lofty spirit the Soul of man and all for its good Rather than to be without a God to Worship by way of virtue and Religion the Soul will chuse an Idol to serve by way of Vice and Idolatry There are two experiments to
useful to all and to one another when united and confederated together in lawful bands and Brother-hoods as I need not prove your vocation and establishment to be which is founded not only upon the indispensable needs of men but the express allowance also and the approbation of Laws both Humane and Divine It is not Wealth or Gold or Purse makes Interest and Power but men and friends as Cicero observes in his offices for those without these would little avail to our aid or comfort neither are we ever sure of men to be on our sides or fully to be trusted in till first we are sure of their hearts and nothing more wins and binds the hearts of men unto us than our hearts to them whether with our gift or without nothing so charms the heart of another as a heart to meet it as no loss more weakens and dethrones than the loss of hearts Now this communion and fellowship of hearts and souls is no where so to be learnt or acquired as in the School of Christ who is the sole legislator and judge of Souls and hearts I 'le Instance therefore in a concise description of a true and false Brother or member of this or that Society whether greater or smaller according to the Christian pattern and the Apostical rule of my Text to point but at the one or the other is sufficient praise and reproof for either A right Brother then of his Society is him in a word that is true hearted which no man ever was or will be without discharging every duty that lies upon him out of conscience to God and his Saviour he considers aright his livelihood and priviledge his love and honour from that Company or Charter to which he relates and his duty arising from his priviledge and the blessing of Heaven showring upon him and his while he conscientiously performs his duty He considers that by being of a Society he hath a new and a larger self than before being co-extended and co-multiplied according to the number and considerableness of the whole Brotherhood whereof he is and with this new-self a new-self preservation by consequence and a larger care doth grow upon him before he was but one and had but one to care for now he is grown into hundreds and hath hundreds therefore to love and tender even as he is tendered by them For it 's manifest the whole body owns the concerns of every the least member belonging to it and if a toe be but crushed the pain goes to head and heart and all He conceives it therefore but equity and reason that he should answer love with love that his gratitude should indent with his advantage from his Society yea that his returns of love should exceed his receipts like the good ground that repairs an handful of seed with an Harvest He loves therefore every Brother of his community equall yea above himself or his own single concern therein being thus match'd and exhausted in his disbursments and duty towards any one what stock hath he left to answer the love of the whole community who are hundreds of friends and defenders of him who is but one against them here he finds himself insolvent and over match'd with love and studies to get out of debt but cannot and gladly would he meet some streit or tryal or expence some happy kind of prejudice or honourable undoing of himself to do them some publick good and to testifie his preference of them by prostration and an humble annihilation of himself before them this is but the temper and due disposition of every member towards the publick good and preservation of that Body or Community whereof he is all true and Generous Spirits have their greatest wish and bliss when an opportunity is offered them to preserve and defend their Country though with the manifest hazard of their lives Dulce decorum est pro patriâ mori and so it is and ought to be in some parallel proportion in every lesser Corporation It is not only the duty but the delight of every genuine member thereof to Sacrifice his whole private interest therein for its publick welfare when necessity shall require and a greater allegiance to a greater Society or stronger relation shall not countermand him Thus he lives and thus he dies and when he dies his whole Society die with him in grief and sorrow for the loss of so dear a Brother so true a heart yea they will not suffer him to die nor his name to see corruption but attend him solemnly to his grave loaded with respect and mourning What to leave him there behind them No but to combat death for his rescue and to raise him from the dead in the strength of their love to which nothing is impossible and to bring him back into a life of honour and immortality in their hearts and memories this life of honour and good name being a new life and better than natural life it self in the sense of civilized mankind But he is before-hand with them being pre-embalm'd and secur'd against all assaults of death by his brazen wall the Testimony of a good conscience for a good conscience is infinitely better and more durable than a good name This is the Original life of honour to which that from our neighbours is but the Counterpart and eccho subject to mistakes both of love and malice But his blessed Saviour who is greater than his conscience is as much before-hand with him in point of life to be restored as he was with them his merciful Saviour graciously considers this poor man in all his toyl and imployment his heart did ever aim at me and shall I do nothing for him in his low condition now he is given by all for lost he considers when his feet travell'd toward his Patients his heart the same time travell'd towards Heaven and God that he tender'd the lives and purses of his charge the bills and reputation of his directors the orders and weal of his Society either his obedience to it or place of trust in it which all carry some equivalence to life all from his heart and conscience doing as he would be done by in the sight of Christ his Lord and Judge extracting by Divine Chymistry some service and worship to his Saviour out of every imployment on Earth Christ therefore owns him to have been his Minister and Servant all the while and not the Communities Now to be provided for and considered by a bountiful Master who hath ability and inclination to effect it to some purpose and this good and faithful Servant shall now enter into his Masters joy and be crowned with that astonishing bliss and Immortality to which all honour and good name here below so much valued in the world were but empty shadows and chances and peace of conscience it self which passeth all understanding but a short glimpse and fore-tast Dearly beloved and honour'd let me leave this lesson in your mind In
he was to expect from any who had been Elder If the Gospel be true and Christian this Doctrine of blind obedience which is one of the chiefest pins or props that supports the Fabrick of that Church is false and Antichristian If God be in the World this pernicious Hellish Model that is so contrary thereunto ought to be hiss'd and exploded out of it with zeal and indignation by all Generous and Religious Princes and by every honest man that loves God or his Saviour or mankind But when the Inferiour obeys his Superiour from the heart as unto Christ the one commanding the other observing not what his own heart doth prompt or lead him to but what a conscientious heart directed by Christ gives leave to either and expects not from any other either observance or obedience further than usque ad Aras as far as Christs Law permits then all are right and happy in this Regular obedience in the Lord As I have already and may further shew And indeed without this Rule in my Text to regulate and enliven Quod tibi fieri non vis it self which is the Rule of Rules and the sum of the Scriptures all Societies and enjoyments all converse and friendship would be false irregular and degenerate Friendship it self would be Hollow-hearted Counsels treacherous Promises wind mens tongues full of nought but lyes their hearts of uncleanness and their hands of bloud and unrighteousness Their Justice would be Cruelty their Wealth an Idol their Power Tyranny their fears wild and causeless their Joys and pleasures mean and sordid their desires Feavers their mirth madness their Sorrows Apoplexies their Reasons Vagabond their best works but outward shew their Vertues Scene and Hypocrisie For when the Soul is out of Christ every Action is out of Tune and order and account for as our outward Acts without the heart are frigid and dead and null so the Actions of the Soul it self without an aim after Christ are all impure and illigitimate and null But Christ and the heart super-added to every Action shall give it Truth and Rectitude and life and permanency every thing becomes true and lovely by agreeing and answering to its proper Rule and measure When the heart agrees with Christ its rule and Judge all Hypocrisie and impurity departs when our thoughts agree with such a heart they are cur'd of their vanity when our lips agree with such thoughts and such a heart such a rule and Judge there will be no deceit in them when every Action of our whole man copies out our heart as our heart copies out Christ we recover our Original perfection which consists in agreement to that Idea and Image of God in Holiness and true Righteousness according to which we were created by him and were restored to it by Christ as we fell from it in the fall This is Truth throughout the whole man and Christian and that Truth perhaps which Pilate desired but did not deserve to know from our Saviour For in such Acts and converse which have life in them as from the heart and Sincerity and Holiness as unto Christ the Souls of all men upon trial and experience find Truth and satisfaction and peace of conscience in them and but disappointment and vexation and lies ever in the contrary And Praise and Honour and shame and Infamy from men and Life and Death Eternal from God following close upon the heels of the one and the other are suffrages for this Truth beyond exception And what makes good men makes good Subjects and Rulers by easie consequence Out of Christ all would be uppermost and Supreme and none a Servant or Subject to another from his heart and with his good will whence arise Wars and Rebellion and poysons and steelettoes at opportunities whereof Histories especially Heathenish are so full and some Christian to their greater shame But in Christ our subjection being transferr'd over from men to the Lord our slavery is extinguish'd and our service enobled and made agreeable to our Souls which know no Lord over them but God and Christ and all pride and stubborness and secret murmuring is now turn'd into good will from the heart towards our Superiours whether mild or hard As is expresly taken notice of by the Apostle and with care recommended to Inferiours in a parallel place Ephes 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good will doing service to the Lord and not to men The Church makes no alteration in properties Luk. 12.14 or mens vocation 1 Cor. 7.20 much less in Constitutions of Governments or Civil Rights either of Kings or people but leaves all to the Reiglement of Municipal Laws and publick Contracts and local Customes which are secular things to which the Church is dead saving any thing of Conscience or duty to Christ or justice and mercy that may arise in and from them the Alteration therefore the Church makes is in the hearts and Souls of men and not in the outward things themselves It binds all rights and Duties established by Law upon any manner of persons with the bond of Conscience additional to that precedent bond of Law and Civil fear And humane Laws be they never so provident will have their oversights and holes for trangressors to escape if Conscience be not kept up in men which makes that which was a trespass in the outside against the Law to be treason in a Christian in the heart against Christ his Lord and he suffers for his offence not only as a Malefactor before men but as a Reprobate and Rebel in his Conscience to his Saviour Thus St. Paul states the matter of Christian obedience Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake For whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 5. If therefore Inferiours would obey their Superiours from the heart as unto Christ according to my Text would there be such fraud in Servants or any sedition or Rebellion or Non-conformity in Christian Subjects towards their Christian Masters and Governours Could they have the heart or Conscience thus to fight against Christ out of a tender Conscience What else is it to be Antichrist and visible Terrene Atheists against visible and Terrene Gods Nothing gives a greater blow to the order of the Universe and more provokes God to try his title of Soveraignty against men to the certain misery of the weaker side than Disobedience and Rebellion to Parents and Princes that on Earth do represent him next to Tyranny and ill example in Princes and Parents themselves It being more stupendiously monstrous and irregular to find Kings that stand for Christ to be Merciless or unholy than Subjects that represent the Creature to be frail and froward More contrary to the course of nature and experience for Parents to be unnatural than Children to be undutiful or Masters to be unjust and cruel than Servants to be false or
Fathers and Governours within their several Families depending on them for Education life and maintenance Invict Christian Princes and Holy Bishops in their several distinct Provinces and Kingdoms in matters of peace and order and external Ceremony being publick Consciences in their several Dominions which are so many larger Bodies or Families yet none of these are absolute or infallible any further than they agree with a Superiour Soveraign will which alone being such is their Rule and guide communicating its Infallibity to them that follow it which all are bound to do Now who this Infallible Soveraign guide and judge is whether the Pope in his Chair and Bulls or Christ and his Scriptures written in the Bible and mens hearts and Consciences seems to be the Question between Rome and us The Roman Church affirms it belongs to the Pope being near and visible on Earth The Reformed will have it to belong to Christ who is far nearer to mens Souls though in Heaven With Protestants the Invisible Soul is correlate with God its Invisible Lord where is its rest and satisfaction With Papists it must be correlate to the Pope a visible judge and guide else it wanders in uncertainties like a lost sheep Or though both agree perhaps that Gods mind and will is the Law and Rule of the Soul yet they vastly disagree about its promulgation That is Gods will say the Papists what the Pope defines to be his will that his Scripture and sense thereof what he allows and nothing but the sense of the Pope must be the sense of God though never so sensual and Carnal or contrary to truth and to common sense But Protestants hold Gods mind and will to be and to have been knowable by men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at several times and several wayes Heb. 1.1 Not only in the time of the Old Testament and before by the light of nature and the Law and the Prophets and Angelical Revelations and Vrim and Thummim and Visions and Dreams But also in the last dayes by his Son in his Holy Gospel and other inspired Writs delivered to his Church and sufficiently attested to the sense and Conscience by Miracles and right Catholick Tradition And that it is the first and proper work and duty of all mankind as soon as they come out of their Infancy and Non-age as on the one hand to know the difference between God and the Creature and the right and wrong Soveraigns and Legislators of their Souls and to follow truth and vertue which are ever the Laws of the one and to shun vice and lyes which are the dictates and Impostures of the other so also carefully to discern between the Authority of the Master and the Servant or the Prince and his Officer between the Canonical Scripture which is the Divine will and Testament of Christ and humane Tradition which is the Testimony of his Ministers subject to and controllable by and by no means Superiour to the other for next to the confounding of God and Idols in our values who are so infinitely contrary The levelling of all distance and degrees between Master and Servant though subordinate and friendly is most absurd and abominable with all sober Christians saving them at Rome with whom the Authority of their Church or the Pope which with them is equivalent is usually exalted above the authority of the Holy Scriptures though the will and mind of Christ the undoubted and confessed Lord and Master And we also hold that truth in the General which is ever Gods will and mind may be well known by men divers wayes without the Pope As matters of fact and Tradition by the Testimony of honest men of good lives and clean hands and Holy minds and Inclinations free from all worldly ends and designes in their report For where God alone doth rule and possess the heart there we may be sure of truth and sincerity where any Carnal interest or Idol prevails instead there we are to expect lyes Legends and Impostures which are the Dialect of false Gods as truth is of the true God dwelling in the heart And in like manner by the Oaths of Credible Neighbours wherein God is called present to the heart and mouth and by the decrees and sentences of Magistrates and just Judges who in Scripture are called Gods and the General consent of Nations vox populi vox dei and by every mans diligence and search after Truth as after hid Treasure which God rewards and prospers Prov. 2.4 5. and his pains and study in History Languages Customs Criticism c. As in the use of means without which God is tempted But instead of all these methods with Papists the sole report and decision of a Pope though unlearn'd or swayed perhaps by Interest or Avarice or Ambition or Fear which mislead the heart and tongue from God and Truth shall nevertheless be relyed on as an Oracle Infallible more conclusive than the famous Delphick and the heart and Conscience in every man which were made to indent with God and truth be totally excluded and silenc'd in that Church under the notion and bear-skin of private Judgment and opinion which endangers all Yet Protestants resolve to follow the former methods in whole or in part let the Pope contradict or Curse as much as he please So Papists are led by Authority Forraign and often false Protestants by Truth Domestick and more sure They follow the Doctrines of men as did the Scribes and Pharisees heretofore we the voice of Christ and the Commandments of God as all Christs sheep ought to do Herein I say lyes the main difference between us and not so much in those other many points and and Articles wherein we are divided As Image-Worship Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Purgatory Indulgences c. Which are and will be Learnedly and voluminously defended on each side to the Worlds end while each party resolves firmly to adhere to the God or Idol that either have chosen for their guide to the last gasp with stedfast zeal and constancy For if Protestants as well as Papists could believe the Pope or the Papists as well as Protestants did once believe Christ to be this Infallible Judge and guide all Controversie between us would soon cease and be laid asleep The whole Controversy lyes therefore in the choice or rejection in obedience or disobedience to the right guide or immediate Soveraign of the heart whether Christ or the Pope And exact obedience to the wrong becomes perfect disobedience to the right Superiour And that the Issue will lye here may further appear from each ones case stated by himself and their charge and imputation each against the other and from the state of the question naturally arising hereupon For the Protestants say they take Christ and Scripture and Conscience and what agrees thereto for the guide and rule of their hearts and judgments And that the Papists take the Pope and hold opinions and practices upon his Authority against
or transgressors of that Law and Law-giver there is but one who can save and destroy James 4.12 The blessed Lord Jesus Judge of quick and dead at the last day whose deputies on Earth in the Interim are consciences in Private souls and Magistrates and Governours in publick bodies who are as the souls of such bodies whether Temporall in Externall or Ecclesiastical in more Internall matters and concerns who are all both Private and publick conscience Subject and accountable unto him who alone is Judge and Soveraign And therefore we can do nothing against Christ upon any mans Authority whatsoever and being found faithful to him the sole and Supreme Judge and Soveraign of our souls we trust to be found Gods Catholicks though we are but Hereticks to the Pope who is not our Judge rejoycing in mans aspersion while we have Gods Absolution to wipe it off for not he who commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor. 10.8 SECTION II. Of the true Mother Church in particular to all Christians in respest of their In-side and RomesVsurpation HAving shewed that no Christian Churches or persons are subject to the Pope while himself is not subject to Christ the right Superiour and Soveraign over all nor bound to offend against Christ to please his pretended Vicar all being bound to withdraw their Communion from him who shakes off the undoubted Soveraign over all I will further shew that though the Church of Rome were sound and un-corrupt in its Doctrines and Loyalty which it is very far from yet it neither is nor was ever any mother Church to our British Church nor can have any right or title to its subjection or obedience It never had any Original motherhood or superiority over us of right nor in fact at any time but by the Concession of our Princes imposed upon by its arts which they may justly recal and take away at their pleasure as hath been done So it appears it's themselves that necessitate us to desert their Communion out of Christian Loyalty to our Saviour by them first deserted and deposed in a treasonable manner and his glorious Majesty chang'd into the similitude of a Calf or a Mortal Creature that perisheth which is the first spring and root of the rest of their desperate and monstrous Errours which bear the manifest spots and tokens of Antichristianism in the strength and infallibility of their Delusions Though we can and ought to bewail and compassionate their condition and slavery yet to return to their bosome as to a Mother Church we understand not how it is our duty or sober obedience were it sound or healthy yet we doubt not but she hath angl'd several sincere and ignorant and unwary Sons of this Church with that bait We confess we have been pin'd and stary'd under her for hundreds of years as under a hard and cruel Stepmother while harbour'd by the Fathers of our Countrey imposed upon by her inchantments whose issue by her as by a second venter upon her divorce became appurtenant to the Father and are incorporated with the first stock and Family but sure we are she never teemed of our Brittish Churches who never were the Daughters of her womb nor sucked our first milk from her breasts For whether their inside or their outside or extraction be consider'd they appear to have no descent from Rome Neither can they instance or insist upon any other point or manner of Pedegree and derivation of one Church from another For as it is with every private man if his inside and Soul and Spirit be examined whence it came it came from above from the Father of our Spirits Heb. 12.9 and to return in peace to him that gave it is its utmost aim and bliss Eccles 12.7 If the outside or his body it came from the Earth whence it was first taken and whither it must return If his intermediate descent he springs and proceeds from Fathers and progenitors of the Flesh and owns their superiority and Discipline and honours their names and memories So it is with all Churches and Christian Societies By our inside we are not from below or from beyond the Sea but from Heaven Jerusalem above being our mother and Jesus our King the King and Lord of Souls By our outside we are under our own Kings and Governours on Earth as our Nursing Fathers and Mothers according to the Holy Prophecy As to our descent Old Christian Britannia is our Mother to whom the Antient Church of Rome is Junior in the Faith and much more any of her Perking Daughters or Clergy which shall be further proved in every particular And first as to the inside of all Christian Churches and of the Church of Rome it self if she will be a Church of Christ and of thousands in her that have not bowed the heart to any but to Christ known to God There is no Mother-Church to be accounted of but one only the Spouse of Christ expressed by name in Scripture Heb. 12.22 Not the City of Rome who rather is under ill report in them but the City of the living God The Heavenly Jerusalem which Gal. 3.26 is by the Apostle Stil'd the Mother of us all and which is free and answering unto Sarah whereas Jerusalem on Earth answers Hagar in her servitude and yet Jerusalem below is more a Mother of all Christian Churches than Rome it self or any other here below for Rome her self had her extraction thence her St. Peter and his Chair and the Gospel and Christ himself she and all must derive originally from Sion And if the Mother be not free much less her Daughters for no Soul or Church can be said to be free in her exile and servitude whiles she serves any other but her own natural Prince who is Christ alone the High Priest and Bishop of our Souls who is at the right hand of God in that Heavenly City and Assembly of the Faithful For Christ is the sole Monarch and Legislator in this Spiritual Kingdom and none are free Subjects here but those who obey him alone and no other Controller His will alone is the Law and measure of good and evil and duty and transgression He enacts and repeals and dispenses and absolves he alone can search and reward and punish Souls The everlasting concerns of Eternity and the secrets of mens hearts transcend all humane authority and cognizance and reach No secular Powers are to tread within this Temple but are to stand without in the Court though Christians and in the further Court of the Gentiles if Heathen or Antichristian Christs Deputies and delegates in this Heavenly work and Province are all Bishops and Curates who by their life and Doctrine set forth his true and lively word and rightly and duely Administer his Holy Sacraments who yet have no power or property or Authority but from him Neither is the word they preach 2 Thes 2.13 nor the Sacraments they administer 1 Cor. 4.1 nor the Absolution they
Zebadia the Ruler of the house of Juda for all the Kings matters v. 11. To assemble Synods and Councells about Sacred Affairs for settling the Ark as did David 1 Chron 13.2 For dedicating the Temple as did Solomon 1 Reg. 8. and reforming the Nation and bringing them back unto the Lord God of their Fathers as did Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 19.4 To maintain their Command and Soveraignity in such matters not only over all the people in general 1 King 23.21 but over the High Priests themselves in particular by assigning their work and duty 2 King 22.8 12. Where Jehoshaphat layes command upon Hilkiah the High-Priest thrusting them out of their High-Priesthood for their Disloyalty as Solomon did Abiathar 1 King 2.27 And sparing them their Lives in courtesie to their Coat v. 26. And this their pious care and zeal for God and Religion which in the Popes account were little less than intermeddling in other mens rights is recorded in Gods account as their Eternal praise and honour and good service to their Countrey And like Josiah was there no King before him that turn'd to the Lord with all his heart and with all his Soul and with all his might Neither arose there any like him 2 King 23.25 And Jehoshaphat sought to the Lord God of his Father and walked in his Commandments and not after the doings of Israel Therefore the Lord established the Kingdom in his hands and all Juda brought to Jehoshaphat Presents and he had Riches and honour in abundance 2 Chron. 17.5 And the contrary neglect about the Worship of God in their wicked Kings and making their people to sin by their defection or ill example was the ruine of their Land 2 Chron. 36.17 And a Brand of Infamy upon their names in particular forever as the followers of Jereboam the Son of Nebat which made Israel to sin and therefore liker to Satan therein than to Gracious Kings and Fathers And what was thus their bounden duty and honour in the Kings of Israel to imploy their Authority and Government for God and his Church upon the like ground and proportion is the duty and interest of all Christian Kings for a Kingdom that becomes Christian becomes a Church thereby or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 3.5 the Heritage and Clergie of God a Christian Kingdom is a new Israel of God Gal. 6.16 and Christian Kings by consequence are heyres of the same Prerogative and Supremacy that did belong in Israel to the Kings of Israel where the High-Priests were subordinate in externals to the Kings and not the Kings to the Priests It is a contradiction to be a King and to be Subject wherein Popes are made Supreme Kings are made Subjects there cannot be two Supremes in the same Church or Kingdom and it were a great snare and Spiritual misery to be subjects under two contrary Soveraigns and to be bound in conscience to obey contrary injunctions and commands whereby inevitably their obedience to the one becomes their sin and transgression against the other Soveraign which is the condition of Roman Catholicks who own the Pope for supreme to the wrong of those Christians Soveraigns over them whose right it is whereby their conscientious Catholick obedience becomes unconscionable disobedience to their right Superiour It concerns and behoves them therefore and every other Christian subject in whom the word of Christ ought to dwell richly in all wisdom Col. 3.16 to be fully satisfied who is to rule them He that mistakes his Soveraign will mistake his Loyalty The Old and New Testament knows but two Soveraigns God or the King Christ or Caesar 2. Chron. 19.11 Math. 22.21 so the Jewish so the Ancient Christian Church so the Church of England held upon the Reformation when the whole Nation both Parliament and Convocation unanimously agreed that the Pope had no more to do in England than any other Bishop The Soveraignty of the Lord the Pope starting up when the Church began to degenerate strongly savours of a fifth Monarchy or an Antichristian erection Christ only is the Immediate Soveraign of the Inside of men in his Church Kings the Immediate Soveraigns of the outside in their Dominions the Pope or Prelate is Soveraign in neither Pet. 5.3 Rom. 13.1 therefore there is no obedience due from the heart and conscience to spirituall Governours but wherein they agree in their Doctrines with Christs mind and clash not in their outward order and Discipline with the rights of Christian Kings for delegates are to be obeyed in and for and not against their Principals and the soul is subject to none but to a supreme either the Lord Christ who is absolutely such or our Lord the King who is such in externals by Christs concession Prov. 8.15 subject also it is to Governours but for his sake and by his command that is to say it 's subject not to them but to him But it will be still objected what have Kings to do with Religion that wholly belongs to Spiritual persons and the Clergy and to the Pope the Patriarch in such matters and by consequence Supreme and it must still be answered and acknowledged That the substantial part of Christian Religion lyes out of the Horizon and Territory of Kings in another world as it were where yet none is Soveraign but Christ alone Popes and Bishops and Inferiour Priests being all officers and Ministers under him in this Kingdom all of equal degree and power without difference in their Authorities or Keys saving that in equity and merit they are foremost and chiefest who are most painful and faithful in this trust Kings well observe their bounds therein they do not as they ought not intermeddle in such matters between the soul and God as are of divine Institution or immortal importance they meddle not with the Priestly office and great would be the peace of Churches and of the world if the Pope did as little meddle with the Kingly they take not upon them to preach and publish the Laws and mind of Christ in his name and Authority nor to denounce wrath and War against offenders high or low nor of themselves to Excommunicate the unworthy from the Holy Society of Christs Church and all hopes of mercy till they repent and change nor to arbitrate as for Christ who are fit and worthy of Grace or pardon neither do they travel between Heaven and Earth upon messages between Christ and souls as the Angels upon the ladder being now Gods mouth to the people in wholsom Counsels and Instructions anon the peoples mouths to God in humble confessions or thanskgivings as neither did the Kings of Israel ever offer to enter the holy place or order the Shew Bread or Sacrifice or incense which might have been done with the same skill though not with the same Authority by Common persons as by Priests and hath been attempted by one or two but to their wo No under both Law and Gospel these offices did solely belong to
ordinary prudence exactly gratifying the Italian sagacity by such useful Hostilities And contriving on the other hand to cut down all fences and securities of this Church and repeal its penal Laws out of generous Charity and for more free commerce with Ingenuous Roman Catholicks Whereby their numerous and Industrious Emissaries may over-run the Land and disturb and seduce our people with greater safety Where a Protestant may be discern'd at the Elbow of the Jesuite and a Jesuite at the Elbow of the Protestant in every page both contriving to assist one another against a Sun-shine or a Rainy day by betraying this Church for clear it is that the Italian out-wits the Jew in his part and the lurch befalls the English side For though the Protestant Vulgar think their cause well defended yet the more discerning Conclave finds its designs more Effectually promoted by such Arts. How do such deserve to be admir'd and noted for their Wit that can serve two contrary Masters with success and bid fair to be uppermost let what party that will prevail and be rewarded by both as the open Champions of the one and the secret Factors of the other Neither do they yet less deserve to be scorn'd and detested by all wise and true hearted English-men and Protestants for such scandalous wiles and abominable doubling and betraying their Mother Church with a kiss Others of duller studies and Epicurean Inclinations judge no method better than that of Balaam at Baal Peor Numb 24.15 2 Pet. 2.15 Whose stratagem according to the Chaldee Paraphrast was thus laid with Balak That the people of Israel could not be curs'd or weakned but by dividing them from their God That this was to be best effected by bringing the fairest Daughters of Moab into the field instead of an Army to allure them to their Embraces which soon took effect For the People began to commit Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab And the Anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel Till the zeal of Phineas put a stay unto it Numb 25.1 2 8.11 To the like kind of Prophets and Romish suggestions and connivance we owe the present deluge of Debauchery amongst our Gentry and Superiours whereby men are fitted by Spiritual wounds and servitudes for Romish Plaisters and our Church and its guides disgraced and a greater deluge of judgment and destruction is hanging over us unless God grant us Grace timely to repent out of love and commiseration to our selves and Countrey as well as duty to God whom we have so unthankfully provoked And least Kings themselves who can have no ends but God and the publick should bring too great an happiness upon a Nation by taking the charge thereof themselves They suggest the management of the Reins of Government to be difficult and toilsom for Princes to tire their Arms or Brains with and that others may be better trusted with such fatigues and Princes to take their pleasure and if trusted than trusted for good and all by all means for to trust and suspect were disingenious and contradictory whereby the Prince shall be divested and depos'd from most of his Authority and a Juncto of petty Tyrants raised and multiplied to act under the shelter of the Government against its Interest and honour like unskilful Mountebanks that take liberty to kill under the colour of a License Whereas in truth nothing is more easie and plain especially in some Nations than the Rulers work and office For what more easie than to know good from evil which a Child will soon arrive to in difficult and knotty points they have Counsels and Tribunals to assist as Moses had his Exod. 18. And what more Divine than to be an encourager of the one and a Terrour to the other Or can be more their Interest and strength and blessing and Acclamation and praise from God and men Provided that they take a Text or two for their direction as my present Text to do all from the heart as to the Lord For none are able to Act Christ to the full both in the temper of his first and second coming as Princes may by Meekness in the first place towards such as are tractable by Resolution and severity in the next towards such as prove Incorrigible And that other Text Rom. 12.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that ruleth let him do it with diligence not consuming his time and thoughts upon mean and and common Recreations much less on scandalous and sinful pleasures but to make his Government his entertainment and pastime For what can be more the sport and health of a Prince than the prosperity of his people And what Musick more delighting in a Generous Eare than the Te Deums of Orphans and Widows and the Oppressed for their rescue and Protection Any Squire or lusty Clown can equal a Prince in skill and content at Hunting of a Fox or Deer But to detect and hunt Wolves in Sheeps cloathing out of the Church or the wild Bore out of Christs Vinyard and Foxes from Publick Tribunals and Sees and noisom Vermin that prey upon their innocent Neighbours out of every corner of the Land This is Game for a Prince wherein no Subject can be his Rival or share or partake in his Delight and Glory And what a glorious happiness doth it ever prove to a Nation when Kings inspect their own Affairs and trust not too far to others and are led by the heart more than by the ear by God more than by Man by Conscience and Christ its rule which can never deceive them than by Man who is a lyar which can and often doth deceive and betray them into manifold unworthiness and inconvenience The Proverb saith the eye of the Master feeds the Horse But it is far more true that the eye of the King will beatifie a Nation According to that of Solomon The King sitting in his Throne of Judgment scattereth away all Iniquity with his eye Prov 20.8 The Sun it self cannot be more useful to the world by its Beams and Influence nor less be spared than a diligent and wakeful Prince to his People for he is more than a Sun being as God and Christ amongst them not in Title only but in Efficacy and Benefit when by Precept and Example he acts all in conjunction with him and subservience to him and Christ is ever where he is and He is ever where Christ is What an eye-sore would this prove but to none other but to Flatterers Hypocrites Pimps Oppressors Atheists Epicures but to Satan and his Pope who envy every Kingdom the Divine and Fatherly care and inspection of its respective Kings and is ever incroaching for a share in every Crown by the pretence of his Chair though he hath no more right or authority to meddle here than the Lord Mayor of DVBLIN to Govern the City of LONDON or our British Church to rule and controll the See of ROME and not so much because junior in the Faith to Us as
order and subserviency thereunto and no further so in the true Christian Religion Christ is all in all and all things besides of this World are dead things to a Christian that cannot help him forward towards Christ and the other life as the other World and Religion is an insipid story to a false Christian where they are useless to serve his ends in this Any Christian may and ought to observe and regard time as well as other things of life or death but to Christ who died and rose again that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14.6 8. much more may he observe time when commanded by Christian Governours to whom he is subject in the Lord more yet a time of Apostolical Institution to whom he and his Christian Governours are subject to obey such is that singular Lords-day mentioned in St. John Rev. 1.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of our Lords Resurrection or Easter which Christ himself by his own example hath recommended to his Church for perpetual observation as the lasting practice proves the first direction For on that day Christ rose from the dead founding his new Creation in one day as God did the old in a week and instructed Mary Magdalen touching the Communion and participation of Christians in his Resurrection and Adoption by it which constitutes the Christian Church and the substance of its Catechisme Say to my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. 20.17 On the Octaves of the same day carefully noted v. 19. he appeared to his Disciples met together and Instituted the Governours of his Church with a Consecration Sermon ad clerum touching their Authority and duty As my Father hath sent me even so send I you and breathing on them said receive ye the Holy Ghost whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins ye retain they are retain'd v. 21 22. And after eight dayes again or a Disdiapason or the third day from the Resurrection he met his Disciples again and preach'd a Sermon ad populum containing the chief fundamental principle of Christianity and the blessedness of those that have not seen and yet shall believe mildly reproving the foreseen Curiosity and Infidelity of Christians in the person of St. Thomas v. 29. Expressing hereby his leading will and example for the observing of Sunday forever as a Holy day for Worship and Instruction upon the score of the Resurrection or as 51 Octaves of Easter day as the subsequent Apostolical practice of the Church hath prov'd this first Institution Act. 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 The Jewish Sabbath being dissolved with the old Creation by Faith and the Christian Sabbath erected in its stead the new Creation requring its Sabbath as well as old because a Creation And the Church or Spiritual Israel bound by the decalogue to the observation of it in remembrance of its deliverance from Spiritual Aegypt and bondage as the Jews or Carnal Israel to the other in remembrance of such deliverance in the letter Besides the Law of Constantine and other godly Kings of New Israel for observing of the same And not against but according to our Saviours Intimation Mat. 9.15 That the Disciples should fast when the Bridegroom was taken away Wednesday and Friday preceding his passion and from thence all the Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year saving the time of Pentecost when the Bridegroom returned to his Spouse in the Comforter have been observed by the Ancient Catholick Church as a Fast in reference to his Cross as Easter and thence all the Sundays in the year as a Feast in reference to his Resurrection both the one and the other being regarded to the Lord The Church particularly training it self to the conformity of Christs death to to this World in the one as of his life in the Heavenly joyes of the other Christ in his Cross and Christ in his Resurrection being the whole lesson and both side of the leaf to the Christian Church 1 Cor. 2.2 Philip. 3.10 The Charter of Easter and its weekly repetitions or Sundays which some prefer in honour before Easter it self the Copy before the Original being so clear in Scripture in its first Institution of so great importance is Charity and condescention to the frailties of our Christian Brethren that the great Lords-day or Easter as well as the Sabbath was by Christs mind to give place unto it in some places and for some time Accordingly we find the Eastern Churches adioyning to Jerusalem to observe Easter out of its time the same day as the Jews did their Passover what day of the Week soever it fell on whether Sunday or not and also to observe Saturday as a Holy-day as well as Sunday throughout the year in complyance with the Jews But the Western would by no means yield or approve thereof but thunder'd against it with the same zeal as St. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles did against the introduceing of Circumcision amongst the Gentiles Gal. 25.5.2 Phil. 3.2 which yet was tolerated in the Christian Jewish Church Act 21.20 21 25. And therefore St. Peter the Apostle of the Jews Gal. 2.7 is more complyant with the weak Jews in their Ceremonies whom he fear'd to offend than St. Paul who did as much fear to scandalize his weak Gentiles and reproved St. Peter to his face upon that score Gal. 2.11 and yet both the one and the other in their zeal and moderation were acted by a diversified charity but the same inspir'd directions Gal. 2.8 And the true Reason in all probability of the Roman Fast on Saturday so contrary to the Apostolical Tradition of the rest of the Christian Church what other plaister soever many may invent for this notorious Non-conformisty was the zeal of St. Paul's successors after his example and steps Gal. 2.5 strictly to assert the Christian liberty of the believing Gentiles in the West from the yoak of the Law and all seeming Judaical observation of the weekly Saturday with equal respect to the weekly Lords-day As they would by no means before veile their Annual Easter to the Annual Passover upon the like score wherein St. Peter and all Christians of the Circumcision would not have been so precise and strict as it is well known they were not to keep such exact distance from the Synagogue nor needed they at Rome to have been after the limited time of toleration to the weaker Jews was expir'd as it was no less than Schisme and disobedience in them to continue in this their needless singularity though originally generous after the Catholick Church in General Councils had declared its dislike against it Now if the first Popes of Rome as Victor with others had believed themselves to be the Successors of St. Peter they would not have raised such a bitter quarrel against the Eastern Church about the time of observing Easter for this had been to have made St. Peter fight
the Lords-day least good-friday should thereby be observ'd of necessity before the 14th day against the Law of Moses but differ'd it to the following Sunday being the 22th but if the following Sunday was on the 16th day after the full Moon or 14th the former Inconvenience was prevented So the Latines before they were rectified from Alexandria observed their Easter on such Sundayes as fell out between the 16th and 22th never went so far as 23 nor began at 14 or 15. y Usher p. 321. Sulpitius Severus of France about the year 410 to amend the errour and overplus of about two dayes which he observ'd invents another new way of observing Easter between the 14 th and 20th which the Brittains are taxed in Bede for observing likewise whereby when Easter is kept the 14th the Evening of the 13th preceeding is taken into it against the limits of the Law which confines the beginning of the Passover ever to the Evening of the 14th and not before or latter So the Roman Church having for about 100 years laid aside her wonted Cycle and rule of 84 and from 16 to 22 to follow the exacter tables of Dionysius and the Church of Brittain for about the same space of time following the Gallican method of Sulpitius from 14 to 20 being more intent upon the sincerity of their duty than exactness in hours and scruples and seconds this gave occasion to Augustine the Monk and his followers to espy a mistake to raise a quarrel upon to disturb z Bed l. 2. c. 2. our Churches for they confidently affirm'd that their Alexandrine Calandar was a tradition deriv'd from St. Peter who kept the keyes of Heaven upon which a Bed l. 3. c. 25. Oswi King of Northumberland was deterr'd from his Brittish institution to follow the Roman Church for fear of being shut out Colman being discredited quitted his Bishoprick and went back into Seotland and the spotless Church of Brittain had a fowle imputation fastened upon it of being no less than Heretical for want of better skill or heed in Almanacks and Accounts and trusting too much her Neighbours of France to tell the Clock whilst she was busie With the like Ignorance though not with the same mischief and scandal a gifted Preacher preferring the Illumination of the spirit before all human learning whatsoever being ask'd by a grave Divine to expound the meaning of Arcturus Orion and the Pleiades Job 28.31 comparing them with Leviathan thereabouts that was as hard a word in his phancy answers presently they were Sea-Monsters and earnest he was the learned Minister should veyle and submit to his Ignorant inspirations Consent and Harmony among Churches were to be wish'd in every rite and truth however to be followed in points that are least considerable but of the two it is easy to believe God is better pleased with Sincerity than Punctillioes and that a clean heart stylo veteri is far more acceptable with its searcher than an old heart puffed with pride and malice stylo novo the Virgins saith St. Chrysostom were shut out for want of Oyle Math. 25.11 another for not having his wedding garment Math. 12.12 13. but we read of none that were arraign'd or punished for mistaking the Month of the Passover The Church of Rome therefore its Adversary largely proves our Brittish to be Orthodox in Doctrine in that she had no more but this Easter difference to lay to her charge or to justifie her self above her And as her Doctrine throughout was sound and Scriptural so was her Government Ancient and Primitive by Bishops who were chosen by their b Usher p. 81. Godw. Catalogue in Bernard St David Clergy and People as their Arch-Bishops c Convocato clero populo Pyramo Archiepiscopatûs Eborac sedem concessit M. Westm de Arthuro An. 522. Spelman Conc p. 60. Hist Brit. l. 8. c. 12. l. 9. c. 8. by their Kings and Synods and Parliaments to Rule at home and to appear a broad in General Councils Nice Sardyca Ariminum as there be Instances That there were here 28 Bishops and three Arch-Bishops erected over the rest by King Lucius and the d Usher p. 125. Revenues of the Druides tranferr'd from Idolatry to endow the Church and so kept still sacred fot the use of Religion in general as Geoffrey of Monmouth and e in Eleutherio Platina intimate and is prov'd as to London by the early Simony of Wini Bishop of Winchester buying the same of King Wolfer is not the less improbable because some learned men are offended with the newness of the word Arch-slamins us'd by the Interpreter who writ in an ignorant Monkish age when the thing meant thereby and that there was subordination and one set over the rest is expressly affirmed by Caesar in his Account of their Discipline and Order yet others are inclin'd with Baleus and and Powel and Sir H. Spelman to believe that the Church of Brittain took her pattern from the East and from Scripture rather than Idolatry in the founding of her Bishopricks And that f Usher p. 90 the 7 Bishops of Wales under the Arch-Bishop of St. David who are recorded to meet Monk Augustine were founded and erected after the g Idem p. 800. Spelm. Conc. p. 107. number and example of the 7 Churches of Asia and their Angels Revel capp 1.2 3. as those Churches likewise after the like remarkeable number in the Angelical Hirarchy Zach. 4.10 Rev. 1.4 5. which opinion Arch-Bishop Vsher recites without any censure or dislike Accordingly h Usher p. 73. we meet with 7 Bishops in the North under the Arch-Bishop of York in like manner And twice 7 under the Arch-Bishop of London being twice as large as the two other Provinces or 7 only perhaps but each of those of larger extent than now they are as was i Heylin help to History p. 115. Lincolne before Eli Peterburgh and Oxford were taken from it or Lichfeild Sidnacester Dorchester Legecester and Worcester when all made but k Monast Angl. part 1.137 Spel. Concil p. 27. one Bishoprick and whereas Rome had 10 suburbicarian Provinces under it l Praesat Monast Angl. Millain which was more Oriental in her Customs had but 7. But one discord note we may find in the Brittish Doctrine touching persons Ecclesiastical which yet well agrees with St. Paul disallowing any to be fit guides that did not follow his example in living as he followed Christ Phil. 3.17 though not so well with Roman practice or profession where Bishops may be holy maugre all their scandals and impieties and Infallible in their monstrous errours because they sit in the Chair of St. Peter whereas in the sence of m Epist Gildas and consequently of our Brittish Church all holy Ministers are the successors of Peter in his Chair and they that are otherwise are Judas his successors being not Ministers of Christ but of the Devil and their bellies who
Pagans against Christians and to erect a private Church before the Publick Cathedral the Daughter before the Mother yea to set the Church of Canterbury before all our Ancient Metropolitans Sees then in being and several Arch-Bishops residing in them if our Roman Christians had been as kind as their Pagan Eenemies were towards them And it could not be a wreck while there was so much Christianity to be found alive in the Island neither was Augustine Lord of the Escheate To erect I say an Inferiour Church in opposition and Precedence to all its Superiours was a manifest scandalous schism in our Agustine to attempt and begin in all Roman-Catholicks to approve and promote for after Ages Though not so in Protestants to submit to by their Principles after the chief Magistrate and our Laws to whom such rights belong to here and not to the Pope had interpos'd an Establishment and Translated their Obedience from one Metropolis to another whether before in being or a new erected by them But our Roman-Catholicks are Fanaticks or schismaticks unavoidably in this point as well when they disown a Protestant or own and acknowledge any Arch-Bishop of their own Church and perswasion in that See They are Fanatically disobedient by their own Principles in the first case for to reject and disown a Protestant Arch-Bishop settled by Law as their Governour out of duty to the Pope whom they presume and believe to disallow him this is like in all proportion to the Protestant's rejecting the Pope out of duty and Allegiance to Christ the chief Soveraign of all which Papists esteem Fanatical in Protestants Though Protestants believe that Christ is to be obeyed as much before the Pope as the Pope according to them above the Archbishop or our Laws and also that the Pope in several Doctrines clashes against Christ as manifestly as any Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury can ever clash against the Pope But to take Christ's will and private conscience to judge of the Pope is absolutely Fanaticall in Protestants say the Papists therefore for dissenting Papists out of their Private conscience according to the Popes will to judge and reject any Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury their lawful Superiour is absolutely Fanaticall by their own Principles and sayings and opening a gap for Inferiours to judge their Governours And that they are as apparent Schismaticks in the sence of the whole Christian Church in obeying or approving any Roman-Catholick Arch-Bishop of Canterbury usurping Jurisdiction in the Diocess of others against their wills and Rights shall in due place more fully appear whereby it is manifest that our Romanists who are first at accusing cannot stir or move out of the Schismaticks themselves untill they become Brittish Protestants Neither was our Augustine and his followers guilty of Schism only but of Hostility and invasion made upon the Rights of Christian Brethren which is more than Schism as much as War and clashing is more than bare and harmless distance between Friends which should be one and the same and a War of a scandalous Insolence and a more scandalous confederacy not to be countenanced by any Prince in the first respect because commenced without provocation and tending to level all Superiority in the World making a Subject Superiour to his Soveraign the Younger to preceed the Elder the little Daughter of Canterbury to command their Greater and Ancienter Mothers of York and London but the scandal of the confederacy exceeded the Insolence and the Spiritual confusion the Temporal that was attendant to it such was his combination with Pagans against Christians to promote his wordly Pride making himself worse than a Pagan thereby to any sober judgement as if the Rector of Otranto or a Greek Priest sojourning there should combine to betray the Town to the great Turk on terms that not only that Church should be made equal to the See of Rome as was Ravenna but Metropolis to it and himself Superiour to the Pope when it and all Italy were reduc'd by Turkish Arms who could soon silence all Christian Priviledges and prescriptions for the contrary title It s in vain to make application for the Idolatrous Pride and madness of them at Rome scorns to be reduc'd and shakled by the Laws of Nations or common band of Christendome or the great Law of doing to others as they would be done by what promotes their Church and its Grandeur is Right Christianity be the means never so Turkish or Heathenish or unconscionable and what abates it in the least is Heresie or Turcism be they never so Christian or Regular All Laws and Canons and Bibles themselves are to be interpreted and regulated by their own becks and Interests according to the like character Busbeqius gives of the great Turk a Partner Antichrist nil aequum putat quod nolit nil iniquum quod velit nothing with him is just or unjust but his own will and pride The Brittains could easier brook rapacious Heathens to Rob them of their Country than holy Christians holpe by Heathens thus to Rob them of their Sees and Churches But their wonder and regret is answered in their own Proverb that reports a Gentleman who became a Highway-man when a near kinsman Rob'd by him minded him of his Birth and consanguinity for better usage to have return'd this answer to that Plea Na choelia dy gi dy hun pan gyndheiriocca trust not thy own Dog when he runs mad 2 The Btittains were not backward therefore but forward enough to Preach and promote the Gospels among their Enemies though not all so forward as the zeal of Gildas did wish by reason of their many discouragements and Impediments from Hostilities especially from Augustine and his party who 2ly came not over hither to Preach the Gospel as he pretends but to fish in troubled waters and to raise his fortune out of the misfortunes and calamities of the Brittains like those that come to steal goods when mens houses are on fire for as he could do but little good by his coming for want of learning and the Language so there was no need at all of his coming for Queen Bertha had prepar'd her Husband for Baptism as Pope Gregory intimates in his Epistle to her d Spelman Concil p. 85. Polydor Virgil lib 4. p. 63. comparing her to Queen Helena Mother of Constantine the Great for her zeal and endeavours in this affair Where by the way it is observable by the confession and tradition of Popes themselves who was the chief Instrument under God in preparing and converting the first Christian Emperours Constantius Chlorus her Husband and Constantine the Great her Son and the rest of the Emperours by consequence after their example to the Christian Faith If Rome had the like to say of any of her Daughters as Brittain of her Helena to have given the like overthrow to the Heathen World the like encouragement and exaltation to the Christian who could stand before her brags And what Queen
to trust then Mahomet shall pass for as good a Prophet as St. Peter and the Alcharon be equal to the Bible for to the blind all colours are the same But regulated Conscience is not a private Spirit wherein God himself speaks who is greater than all the World where it is kept pure from Worldly ends and Idols for nothing is more publick and Catholick than Conscience or reason or right or duty or holiness or justice which are synonymous and carry universality and eternity in their conceptions by reason of the Divine Impression and Authority they partake and answer to And nothing constitutes more a private Spirit than private ends and carnal designs and self advantage and profit and filthy lucre made chief ingredients in duties Doctrines and Religions with which Worldly and sordid mixtures the Roman Faith in all its parts is too well known to abound which unworthy copulations are discernable by the weakest judgments and condemn'd and hated by the most universal suffrages and censures of God and men An Infant can discerne them in his neglectful Nurse an Elephant in his unjust Feeder Clownes in States-men and Politicians and are abhorr'd and declaim'd against by Heathen Philosophers in their Schools and Christian in Pulpits and are those moral wild beasts that all Laws humane and Divine and right Discipline and education and all rules of honour are mainly bent to discover and hunt and chase out of all Societies and converse and hearts Besides a private Conscience proceeding in all its converse according to Christs mind Interest and direction and doing nought that is disallowed by him is Christ himself by fiction personated and acted and defended which is as far from a private Spirit as the East is from the West or the will of God from the ends and lusts of man It being not more natural and congruous in Christ himself to delight in good men and to abhorre the Congregations of the wicked and carnal and scandalous than it is for his faithful Servants and Trustees and Representatives who bear their Masters person and concern and holiness upon them by such a fiction to express and imitate by their own Communion and election of Societies the mind and Inclination of their Lord and soon to discern who are his Friends or Enemies or Traitors and Loyal Subjects in his Kingdom and vigorously and and indispensably to embrace the one and shun the the other for Servants act according to an accountable trust the Master being Lord of his own rights to remit or indulge out of favour as he pleases which is not lawful for the Servant to presume And this skill and instinct and shadows of private judgment to discerne friends from strangers to their Masters is visible in Domestick Creatures emblemes of fidelity who are Courteous to acquaintance but severe and unsociable to such as are not so till by converse and familiarity they prove their unity and friendship and take away private judgment and discretion the distinction and difference between faithful and unfaithful Servants Subjects Christians Churches wholly falls to the ground and Christians and Catholicks are set below the Irrational Creatures And for the Church of Rome to blast good Consciences that find out its faults as private Schismatical Spirits and to extol their own Carnal designes and Trade and Merchandize of godliness as Catholick Religion holy pure and publick and eternal is too visibly one of the uniform symptomes of their Antichristianism whereby they confound Heaven and Earth the Church and the World and reconcile yea change Mammon into Christ and Christ into Mammon Withall equal and coordinate Churches or Christians as we now suppose Rome and Brittain to be are not judges of one another where they separate from one another for Par in parem non habet potestatem is a rule in Law but act severally therein according to their respective duties and allegiance to their own liege and Superiour who is Christ the head and judge of both in the other World and in this also by a free and general Council which both parts ought for peace and unity to submit to which thereby becomes Superiour to both either by Divine Institution and custom Ecclesiastical or by their own consent and agreement as in the Case of Arbitrators And accordingly such general Synods have censur'd and sentenced and Excommunicated persons Churches Provinces Priests Bishops Patriarchs and Popes themselves when they walk'd awry from Christ's Rule As the first General Council at Nice against Arrius Priest of Alexandria The second at Constantinople against Macedonius Arch-Bishop of that See The third at Ephesus against Nestorius another Constantinopolitan Arch-Bishop the fourth at Chalcedon against Eutyches Dioscorus c. Priests and the fift at Constantinople against Diodorus and Theodorus Bishops reviving Origens errours and the sixth Oecumenical or general Council in Trullo at Constantinople against other Bishops and amongst them against the whole Church of Rome its Clergy and Laity for departing from the Catholick tradition of the Church about their Saturday fast wherein the Brittish Church was ever Orthodox with the rest of the Ancient Christian World as was shewed But the Church of Rome will allow of no Council or Canons or Fathers that shall offer to check its errours nor Scripture it self but with its own sence and Interpretation thereof whereby it shall be sure not to cross its Interest Being a manifest and notorious example therein of disobedience and Irregularity to all its Superiours and the most Schismatical Church in the Christian World for Baronius a Spondan An. 692. n. 5. cannot deny that the Greek writers declare their sence that the breach of Communion between the Greeks or Eastern and the Latine or Western Church of Rome was upon the disobedience of the Popes to yield and submit to the Council in Trullo wherein it had all other Churches of the World and the Canons of the Apostles of its side and undoubted Apostolical tradition mentioned in most of the Ancient Fathers as b Idem An. 34. n. 47. Baronius cannot and doth not deny A Church therefore that deserves to be shun'd and disown'd as scandalous for that and its other innumerable corruptions and infamous Usurpations and gross Idolatries and particularly its Blind Obedience and Implicit Faith that allows and directs to put confidence in man the head and fountain of all its damnable errours and superstitions whereof all that communicate with it must be approvers and partakers by the terms and Injunctions of its Communion which requires them to be all receiv'd as Catholick Articles and Doctrines and all contrary Truths to be abjur'd as Heresies whereby it becomes impossible for any understanding sober Christian to be at the same time within her Communion and pale and out of the curse of God Esa 1.5 20. Therefore it were lost and needless labour as to them or our selves to go about to disprove all their imputation and charge of Schism against us or to prove on the
worldly design and private ends shall be most Uncatholick and so the Catholicism of their Church is more like to fall and vanish likewise But if they call themselves Catholicks for distinction from Protestants who pass with them but for Hereticks they are again very grossly mistaken in their Criticism For Orthodox b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. tit 12. c. ◠is contrary to Heretick and Catholick to Jew which was the first and Original sense of this word upon the Gentiles being taken into the Church as well as Jews And Protestants are no more Jews than themselves as is not doubted Nor perhaps so much for they are liker to the Jews in confining Gods Church within the Roman Pale as the other did within their Palestine But we Protestants Catholickly extend and enlarge it to all Nations according to the promises made to Abraham the Catholic◠Fathe◠of many Nations as the name God gave him imports as well as the particular Father of the Jews Therefore the Title Catholick more belongs in Truth and reason to Protestants than to our Romanists who are so restrain'd and Vncatholick and Jewish-like in the bounds of their Church which they so confine to Rome And by their waving the Title Orthodoxe which had been more proper for their distinguishing design they fatally allow Protestants for such and disallow themselves They therefore are in Truth neither Orthodox nor Catholick but only New Roman or a private Earthly Church below or a modern Italian Jerusalem that is in exile and bondage with her Children Not favouring either of the Apostolical purity of the right Christian or the Orthodoxy of the Ancient Roman or the Heavenliness and Spirituality of Jerusalem which is above the Mother of all true Christians who are in Heaven by Faith They are therefore in Truth but New Roman-Catholicks as who should say an Old-New a Particular-universal a Spiritual-carnal a Heavenly-earthly Church made up of Contradiction and Hypocrisy and Earth Whose chief end and Interest is the Advancement and glory of Rome not of Christ high like Kites in their soring pretences to eye Dunghills for prey the better making silly Souls to believe the only way to be saved is to become their Spiritual Slaves and Tributaries and to go to Rome and Heaven to be all one Which with an answerable personal Holiness of life without which none can see God might well be true of the old Apostolical Rome and any other Church agreeing with it in the like sound Rule and Doctrine but it is far from true as to the Modern Apostatical for it is a great and a gross mistake to take or imagine the Church of Rome Ancient and present to be one and the same because of the same Sirname and patch'd Succession for it is not name-sake or Succession which yet goes far with superficial judgments unlike to God that by their principles neglect and lay by the heart but the same soundness of Life and Doctrine or hearts in the same Heaven not feet in the same house or Countrey that make Churches to be the same and true the want whereof or any notorious corruption in Faith or Manners by the rules of Christianity cuts off and debars the Communion of Christians Members much more the Succession of Christian Governours For how can any succeed to be Heads where by the Apostolical Law they are out of capacity to be members of a Christian Church 1 Cor. 5.11 The old Roman Church for the first 400 years before Rome was burnt and several times sack'd and brought to the dust as before did disapprove the wayes and Doctrines of the Modern and consequently its Communion as much as we Protestants for she did not Worship Saints or Images nor slight and suppress the Scriptures under colour of respect nor curtayle Sacraments and Divine Institutions Nor usurp'd upon Christ nor Crowns nor Churches nor Consciences nor upon the liberties of our Brittish Church in particular as they cannot Instance in one Pall or appeal in any Age or History Pope Gregorie's account upon diligent search above 1000 years agoe to omit other Arguments is abundant proof and certainty there was none nor endur'd to carry God about in a Cage and to create as many Christs and Saviours as there be Wafers in Churches and Cities and Altars and every one of equal Deity and Worship to our Saviour in Heaven God blessed for ever which amongst them cannot otherwise fall out as we have shewed but that a Wafer should be Christ and Christ but a Wafer by their Hypothesis which excludes the heart whereby Christ by consequence is excluded and a gross Capernaitical sense of such Spiritual Mysteries as necessarily introduc'd nor made the Authority of man more than that of Scripture the Rule of Faith and Heresie nor burnt fellow Christians for their Errours much less for the same Truths which themselves maintain'd as Protestants are or are in danger dayly to be serv'd by the present nominal Church of Rome with other innumerable Superstitions and Unchristian cruelties and loathsome Fraud and Legends and Infernal Dispensations for sins and duties But was Orthodox in her Faith and Regular and sober and Christian like in all her Church-Rites and Practices and well approved of and acccorded with by this and all Christian Churches by all brotherly love and Communion as the distance of places did permit yea with some preference of honour before many other lesser and obscurer Churches for its Imperial situation and numerous Martyrs yet without any danger of being caught in any Noose by such respect or honourable Appellations which no doubt were return'd to every Church though lesser with the like or greater humility and respect than they were given In which Christ-like victories and contests between Brethren and Churches the Christian ambition did heretofore consist but the present Church of Rome abuses and converts the Christian honour of her equals into aliment and fuel for her Pride not exalting others for their humility as God doth but concluding against them from it through the barbarous forgetfulness of her own mutual Divine and Christian part and no Eulogy shall occur in History but must bespeak Supremacy to her alone and Slavery and Subjection to the rest of Christendom like the Wolf going to School who could discern nothing but Agnus in every word and Syllable and letter pronounced unto him No this Church of Rome is no more the old than a Cock is a French-man because both are Gallus in Latine than there City or their People or their Language is the same being all of a new and a different Situation and dialect and descent The Race of Old Romans are sooner to be met and found in Venice and else-where than in Gothick Rome where more inclination not only after Roman civility but also after Ancient Roman or Protestant Orthodoxy doth appear as some of their wisest Clerks and later Historians have given a tast And the parties in this Bill and Plea for this Roman Supremacy
s insensibly received and admitted into its rest at last and then and there lost forever and found forever in the Bosom of the Immense Ocean so is it most an end with every Christian soul at the beginning and progress and end of his Christian Race who is as sure to reach to his rest and glory in the bosom of God forever as Rivers to reach the Sea which they are reaching every day nearer and nearer as they move towards it in the channel that leads unto it and is the very same Element with it To conclude if all could be perswaded and won to walk up to this short and Catholick Rule which reaches all Nations and Churches and Conditions and Vocations and degrees to discharge all their duties to one another from the heart as unto Christ there would be more truth and veracity in the World not only towards Brethren but towards enemies and strangers who have Christ in mens hearts to hold in their behalf any promise pawn'd and made unto them the violation whereof carries as much of Atheism and contempt of Christ within the heart as dishonesty without towards him it wrongs There would be more meekness and patience towards enemies and persecutors if not for their sakes yet for Christs who commands forgiveness and love to enemies More obedience or submission to all Governours to the best for Christ's sake and their own to the worst for Christ sake however being our necessary duty and their due Almes There would be more love and readiness to help one another by Counsel or Purse or Prayer instead of eating and devouring one another by Craft and Power when it shall be consider'd that every benefit or wrong we do to our Neighbour without we do both in a higher degree and greater edge to Christ himself within our hearts to our Eternal reward or reckoning This would make men true Christians and Loyal Subjects and tender Fathers and Governours and just Masters and right members in their respective Communities and Societies and trusts and Genuine Sons of the Church not only of England our Mother on Earth but of Jerusalem above the Mother of us all in Heaven to the saving of our Souls Infallibly when the whole stock of Mountebank Indulgencies shall faile to effect the Cure This little Commandment well observ'd would be the Harmony of the World set Heaven and Earth in Tune again and God at peace with his Creatures and plant joy and concord and the peace of God which passeth all understanding in every Kingdom in every City in every Family in every Breast And that Angelical Prophetical Anthem at our Saviours Birth would recover its Truth and Power in the World And Glory should be to God on high and on Earth peace and good will towards men FINIS A Particular Table of the Contents PART I. MOral experiments proving the Body to be as nothing in comparison of the Soul pag. 1 2 11. Masters and Princes Symbols of Christ how 4. How the Stature of a Christian reaches from Earth to Heaven p. 5. The Heart is never without its God p. 7. 20. Sincere Heathens and Carnal Christians compar'd and which preferr'd 7. Outside Duties in Religion necessary though nothing when compar'd to the Inside p. 8. None ought to vilifie their own Faith before a fair and open Renuntiation ibid. Sincere and dangerous mistakes arising from the comparative excellency of the Soul above the Body p. 9 Monkery and Non-conformity compar'd p. 9 10. How a thought of the Soul true or false is preferr'd before Estate Health and Life p. 11. Three properties requir'd to Act from the heart p. 12. Of force about Religion p. 13 14. Both good and bad men are for pleasure and the difference and the necessity of Divine Grace to set the will free p. 14 15. The Heart is for God and Christ and none beside why How p. 16. seqq Two reasons why the heart is so and how the Soul is Correlate to God p. 19. seqq An Irrefragable proof of the Deity from wicked mens experience and why it operates not upon some p 20 21. The Scheme and Hypothesis of the Christian Faith out of St. Paul and Creed and Fathers and Baptismal Vow p. 21 22. The right rule to chuse or avoid Communion with Churches p. 23. The Christian Hypothesis the best foundation and support of Societies p 23 24. A description of a true and right member of a Society p. 25. seq Honour is more than Life Conscience more than Honour what more than Conscience p. 27. Of a false member and of self-love how sordid and destructive of it self p. 28. seqq What makes good Men good Subjects good Rulers p. 31. seqq The great Rule of doing as we would be done by fenc'd and exalted by the Text p. 32. seq Blind obedience and implicit Faith in the Church of Rome to Superiours fairly examin'd and found unsound and unworthy p. 32. 33. seq What is Truth p. 37. Which the greater sin Tyranny or Rebellion p. 38 39. Plenitude of Soveraignty and Liberty consistent p. 40. Christs Divinity prov'd against Socinians p. 41 42. SECT I. An Exhortation to adhere to the Church of England against Rome p. 43. seqq The way to be Infallible p. 44. Worship in an unknown Tongue excludes the heart p. 44. seq Men are to be Infallible for themselves first for their Brethren next p. 47. The Controversy consists in the Election of a right or wrong Infallible guide p. 47. This Question stated in the sense of both parties p. 48 49 51. All other Controversies would end if this were decided p. 51. Obedience to the wrong is disobedience to the Right Soveraign ibid. Three Questions propos'd to find out the true p. 52. The heart cannot be without a guide Christ or sin or man of sin p. 53. The Principles of Government with the last p. 54 55 No Law of Christ or Conscience or Countrey must be heeded against his Authority and Interest p. 56 57 The Soul is Gods Temple and the Pope instead of Christ affects to be Soveraigâ— there p. 61 62. Great folly and danger to hearken to a Perkin Warheck p. 63 64. The Principles of Protestants how they prove the uniform Loyalty of the heart to Christ as the right Soveraign p. 63 64. How the Brittish Church knowes the Scriptures to be Gods word p. 64. How our Controversies about things indifferent are decidable by these Principles p 65 66. Christ is the Judge of quick and dead and who are his Depuâ—â—â—â—on Earth 47 67. And nothing to be acted against him by â—â—â—s Authority p. 67. Such as be Hereticks with the Pope but Catholicks with God are in no danger p. 67. SECT II. Rome no Mother Churâ—h to us not Loyal to Christ her Soveraign p. 68 69. Every Church may be consider'd three wayes 1. According to its Inside 2. Outside 3. Or extraction p. 69. Jerusalem above not Rome is the Mother Church to all Christians in respect of their inside
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
men as well lay as Clergy are bound to know upon their duty and Allegiance to God and their Country and Justice and Civility to their Neighbours least they be betrayed by willful Ignorance to aid an Usurper against the Right Heir wherein no more learning or Logick is required to master and understand the point but so much temper and Judgement as serves to hear an evidence and discern between soul and body or God and Creature or Christianity and Heathenism or Loyalty and Treason and to lay hand upon heart and to follow either the Laws of God and man whereby all men are Rul'd or fate and Providence whereby they are Over-ruled But whether in Gods mercy or Judgement we are to be freed or continued under our fears and anxieties to the fixed and resolved in faith it signifies no more than putting on a Winter or a Summer habit either the militant Garb of Patience to our great reward and comfort and your great account which alone can abate it or the Triumphant of thanksgiving to the mutual solace and bliss of both But as for the weaker flock whereof Paternal Princely bowels and pastoral charge are ever the most tender with what security and content will they lye down beside the still waters in green Pastures when they shall have such a Shepheard to be their guard and back and a terrour much less a harbour to the Roman Wolves that would devoure them How will the Mountains skip like Rams and our little Hills like Lambs Great and unparallel'd was our joy for your R. Brothers Restoration and your own together to your Ancient Rights and Dignities over us that the whole Nation seem'd like unto men that dream'd but so great is the sence and fear of Spiritual Slavery upon them and their children more insupportable than any Temporal which it also may draw along with it that the joy of that day is like to be but a dream indeed compared to those exultations and full content and streins of hearty Triumphs if heart-strings can hold that shall break out in every street and corner of the whole Nation with Bon-fires and Feasts and praises reaching up to Heaven and thence to earth again in the responses of Angels to our Anthems at the day of your return from the danger of errour to our Church and our blessing and the truth That your R.H. will be more glorious in the end than in the beginning after your Victories over temptations and deceitful guides like the Sun after an Eclipse which is the present trust or shall ever be as it ought the daily prayer and study and Patience of Your Royal Highness most humble most dutyful and faithful Servant T. JONES TO THE READER THe first part of this discourse being deliver'd before a worâ—… City Company and for reasons conceived just to be published comes forth with the addition of what was omitted out of regard to the limits of the time and the order of their feast and with a large corroboration of the chief exhortation therein against Popery Which Controversie is here reduced to one point whereon all the rest depend The Soveraign Authority arrogated by the Bishop of Rome and yielded to by many either more grossly over men's hearts and Judgments whereby many Surrender their reasons to him or to that Church by implicit Faith to Act many things out of Roman-Catholick obedience which the Laws of God and man and Truth and Honour and Conscience and natural affection directly forbid where therefore the dispute will lye between Christ and his high pretended Vicar which of them is God and the chief Sovereign and Legislator of the heart and the measure of good and evil and Judge of quick and dead an Argument of our Romanists being under a manifest curse and blindness to doubt or deny his Soveraignty either by word or deed whom all Christians in their Creeds do and are to recognize for their Lord upon the Peril of Eternal Damnation Or more plausibly claim'd upon some colourable pretences in reference to this Island where the Controversie then must lye between the Forreign claim and yoak of the Triple Crown who had nothing to do here Originally more than any other Bishop and the native rights and Immunities of our Brittish Crown and Mitre which all Inferiours are bound to defend and maintain not out of Conscience or Allegiance only but for fear or upon the Peril of Damnation Temporal and our Superiours also upon their honour and trust and account to God being no less a tye and their own self-preservation likewise it being their essential Prerogative to have none here before them which no chief Superiour can quit without a contradiction and dangerous diminution of his Soveraignty And the first of these pretences is Antiquity whereby some Illiterate amongst our Ancient Brittains are led to believe and stile the Modern Roman Religion the old Faith as if Ancienter than their own true which is 600 years Senior to Apostatical Rome which prevailâ—d here for 700 or 800 years and not a few years elder to Rome Orthodox and Apostolical if not its first Mother and planter before the real Arrival of St. Paul or the doubtful of St Peter amongst them The second is a belief or inconsideration of some few of our Learned English that the English Nation receiv'd their first Faith from Rome by Augustine the Monk and others intruding here whereby Rome can be conceiv'd by such no less than a Mother-Church to England by consequence the third a consequent stumbling block hereupon that our Reformation was Schismatical or the Daughter Correcting of her Mother which were inconvenient for Generous Princes to countenance least they give an example thereby of like disobedience and Insurrection against their own Authority All which pretences being false and groundless in themselves are herein revers'd and pluck'd up by the roots And the true Original Arch-Schismatick and sire of the brood and example is fully detected and unkennell'd the peculiar game and Sport of our Brittish Princes of most Renown and spirit and success Cadwalhan ap Cadvan Henry 8th Q. Elizabeth And not only the Right and Title of our Brittish Church in each respect asserted but the truth of Christian and natural Religion in General is also resolv'd into first and proper Principles of fact or Faith or Reason a Method well agreeing with the Soul and understanding which in all men are stamp'd with the same Divine broad Seal and natural Allegiance to God and Truth The chief principles made use of if heeded being two the difference between the Soul and Body and between God and Creature or between Creatures themselves in their several parts and Characters personating the Rule of the one or the subjection of the other which are ingredients that pervade all duties as 24 Letters all Words and Syllables or 7 Notes all variety of Musick or Black and White all Colours and are themselves resolv'd into their first Authour and Founder in whom alone we live