be remarked in the worst of sinners that irrefragably prove a God The first is their infinite insatiable appetite after their peculiar Lusts which is that true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Avarice which Scripture stiles Idolatry Col. 3.5 The second is that forlorn guilt and anguish that the Conscience ever meets with criminibus peractis as the Poet said as soon as the Commission of the sin is over which no Creature for the present can allay or still without either Gods pardon upon Repentance and amendment or the help of time at least to forget it whereby the heart like the skin grows more hard and senseless by its wounds ill Cur'd These two effects very evidently prove it was a Divine and an Infinite Bliss and Happiness the Soul did aim at and forfeit in all its wicked fruitions and disappointments such an unbounded manner of Pursuing and Ruing being as clear an argument as ten thousand miracles to prove the existence and nearness of the deity to mens Actions but that Vicious Souls by the habit and Custom of vice become Callous and Bedlam-like insensible and so wholly brutal and un-attentive after God as the very beasts that perish in whom we commonly observe several shadows and resemblances of our own Reason in some degree but not the least sense or footstep or inclination after Religion or Altars or Sacraments This being the peculiar imploy and prerogative of Immortal Spirits Seeing therefore our Souls cannot be without either God or Idol to serve and fear and cannot serve both or neither it is not only our duty but necessity to chuse to do all we do rightly from the heart to the true God alone to our unspeakable comfort and reward than erroneously to Worldly and private ends or Idols to our everlasting misery and ruine This is the first reason from the fundamental constitution and Genius of our Souls which were made from the beginning as Adam in Paradice to walk and converse only with God and the good lives of the best Patriarchs are remarkably compriz'd in Scripture in a phrase to the same effect That they walked with God And our own Law resolves all Crimes in her Indictments into one Cause The want of the fear of God before mens eyes And why is it that peace of Conscience can defie the frowns of the whole World and all the favour and affluence of the World cannot quiet a disturb'd mind but that the entire concern and interest of man is found by all experience to be solely and immediatly in God The second reason is implyed in the word Lord who is Christ For Christ became Lord of Christians by purchase and merit by dying for them as the Apostle Argues 2 Cor. 5.15 In whose Death and Cross this present World hath its end and period by Faith as the Old World in the deluge by Gods judgments And the Christian Church is a New raised people a new Creature springing out of the Grave of the second Adam as Eve the type of the Church from the first Adam fallen asleep and following Christ in heart and faith to the right hand of God where now he is For the Church of Christ is supposed and laid according to the Scriptures in Heaven above More fully shewed in another Discourse on Phil. 3.20 Col. 3.1 Heb. 12.22 23. and not in any Corner or City or Chair on Earth here below as some Modern Donatists or Romanists strongly fancy for their gain deceiving and being deceived And this present World with its pomps and concerns which used to allure and detain the Soul from God to be withdrawn and vanished and dead and gone Col. 3.3 1 Cor. 7.31 And all the Cob-webs of Worldly ends and lusts and transitory designes which used to bind Carnal hearts like strong Cords swept and removed out of the way and none left but Christ and the Soul alone upon the pit None for it to love or converse or set its heart upon but Christ alone Christ Personal or Christ Mystical Christ in himself or Christ in his living Images in being or to be that is his Church So like is our Restoration by Christ as Christians to our Creation at first by God as men by both we were made to converse with God alone all other things being set below us under our feet by subjection or by death By subjection by the law of the Creation and by death by the designe and fiction of the Regeneration So true is that of the Apple 1 Joh. 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ for as the Soul could not stir out of God so neither hath the Christian any life or motion or being out of Christ Whatsoever he doth he must do it according to that general Rule of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 Christ hath the heart of a Christian in the first place next those that are likest in their lives and places to him He joynes in Communion with this or that Church as far as they keep Communion with Christ and no further He 'l joyn in Communion with St. Peter that Christ is the Son of the living God he 'll separate from St. Peter himself in his Abnegation and return again to his Communion upon his Repentance with bitter tears for that his Abnegation being still constant to Christ though Peter not constant to himself And no other Inferiour Pope or Church on Earth can claime Communion with or submission from us upon any other terms than as our Prime and Eternal Allegiance to Christ will give leave and permit without the guilt of Treasonable Idolatry against Heaven in our selves to give and yield it in them to take or arrogate it For whether we serve a Master or obey a Governour or chuse or approve a Church or Marry or live single or eat or drink or celebrate a Festival or whatsoever else we are to do we are to do all from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men And so much of the Doctrinal part of my Text. Which in the first place is of infinite use and influence to the right ordering and prosperity of Societies and Communities whether those Majorum Gentium of the greater size and sort that of Church and Common-wealth or mankind in General or other particular Fraternities of a lesser compass formed after the mould and imitation of those greater For nothing ever was given more useful to the World to sodder and strengthen Societies and Corporations than Christian Charity or Love from the heart towards one another for Christs sake which adopts and Incorporates all both small and great to its Heavenly community all the members of any Company all the Companies of any City and all the Cities and States and Kingdoms of the world into an unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Men are weak and comfortless and of a narrow sphere while alone but grow strong and goodly and formidable and
Soveraigns have reduced the one the other and be first at peace till either the Pope conform to the will of Christ which we expect which would beget an unity of Spirit and Truth between us in the bond of peace or Christ to the mind and will of the Pope and have no Scriptures that shall signifie any thing contrary to his sense but that the Popes will shall be taken to be Christs Will where they interfere which is their aim in their engrossing the right of interpreting the Scriptures to their Church alone that is their Pope which would produce peace and union its true but such a carnall peace and slavish union as were worse than any War or Captivity or desolation whatsoever Purgatory indulgencies image worship Transubstantiation blind obedience Universal Monarchy over the whole Church c. let them be never so false or unreasonable or scandalous or absurd not only with all learned and sober men but with many of themselves in their secret thoughts and retirements yet because they support the Kitchin and adorn the Hall and carnal state and esteem of their Apostolick see they shall and must be owned and defended forever as Infallible Doctrines De fide more unalterable than the Laws of Medes and Persians by all her Catholick Sons as they tender their continuance within her Pale out of which with them there can be no Salvation and our worship and Liturgie shall be condemned as Impious and prophane till upon obedience and Submission to their Chair as was offered in Queen Elizabeths days they shall permit it to be Orthodox and Holy and to be used in our Churches without any alteration or further trouble and all our Protestant Doctrines which are the same in effect with Gods Holy Scriptures out of which they are drawn and built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner stone yet because they comport not with their carnal designs and greatness shall be condemned to be abjur'd as false and Heretical though the Authors of them Christ and his Apostles and his purest Church be involved with us in the same sentence and themselves in Gods wo and curse in the Prophet upon those that call good evil evil good light darkness and darkness light Esa 15.20 What Law of Nature or Nations or Conscience or Honour or Humanity or Civility or Faith or Plain-dealing which are indelible imbred instincts in Vulgar and Heathen Breasts much more in Christian and Generous will not the guides of that Church direct their charge to break and violate with assured hopes of Salvation and Immortal Glory for the feat so it tend to promote and advance their Holy Catholick cause which is with them as it were Gods last will and Testament which Abrogates and annuls all precedent wills the Eternal Laws of God and conscience being but obsolete or Corporation orders when they clash against the Infallible Bulls and paramount Oracles of his Holiness yea the contradiction shall be salved and heal'd and Christ by Interpretation which belongs to them is brought to say and sign their draught to be his own Will and meaning and their Atheime shall be fac'd with his Authority as Hypocrites do their Villanies with the cover of Religion as King Philip of Macedon is said to have made the Oracles to Phillipize and Prophesie for him What Civil War and combustion must this make in English and honest hearts who though they have a respect for Rome think fit nevertheless to reserve due Loyalty towards God and their Redeemer and their Country to be thus necessitated to offend against God and man to save their souls who in compliance with that Church and obedience to its commands and dictates upon perill of damnation must shocke the wise and settled Laws of their Nation and disturb publick peace and Union and bring fear and consternation upon their fellow Subjects that desire to live in quietness and slight and disparage the learned and Religious Clergy of this land and our unparallel'd Vniversities and disobey glorious and Paternal Counsels seal'd in bloud for Gracious Kings are Fathers to all their Subjects next to their own begotten and shame the cause of friends and fellow-sufferers loyally and sincerely defended to the last gasp in bloud and ruine and to give just cause of boast and triumph to others for early and wise fears and jealousies and fore-sight and at last reconcile the Nation by a secret judgment against themselves and profess the true Religion before men believed in the heart to be false by humane Patent and dispensation against Conscience And conceal a false Religion believed in the heart to be true And act to the prejudice of the professed before declaring for the intended like giving Hostile broadsides without an Hostile Flag against the Law of Nations and continue or forbear vitious living according to humane Indulgence and tedder above the fear of God Such twisted Arts and servile postures of the Soul set by God above humane reach and power such chymical sublimated hypocrisie and doubling to which all the Swords and Artillery of the World pointed and planted against a single breast ought not to be able to force a Coward to all Politicians and Head-pieces and Whisperers to gull and seduce a fool to though they may go down with more ease with French and Italian tempers innur'd by ill fate to absolute governments and cringes and Slavery how loathsome and repugnant and against the grain must they prove to any honest and generous and freeborne English spirit And whence can this Civil War and distraction arise but from some failer and breach and division of the allegiance of the heart in admitting some up-start usurper or Impostor to be co-ordinate and equal if not Superiour to Christ its natural Liege Lord and Soveraign which the Loyal part of the Soul will never be flattered or frighted to agree or yield to Thus the heart through its own folly suffers it self to be ever disturbed and racked between two contrary Potentates within its bowells God and Old Conscience command and approve of natural affection and truth and peace and love to Countrey and obedience to Parents and Kings and Mercy and Civility to all in Misery and Anxiety The Anti-god or New Conscience commands the contrary as a piece of Catholick zeal and Glorious hazard and self-denyal under pain of displeasure of the Holy See and St. Peter and St. Paul and exclusion out of the Pale of the Church and the like usual forms Plain therefore and evident it is that the whole Controversy between us and Papists is reduceable to one point touching the Right and Soveraignty of the heart and Conscience whose it is and ought to be whether the Lord Christ in my Text as we hold with St. Paul or the Pope and Successor to St. Peter as they maintain at Random If the Pope be God and Lord of the Soul and not Christ then we Protestants are much to blame in
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
That she was believing is presuppos'd and in case she had been delivered that she had been so many days as her child proved Male or Female Levitically unclean and consequently uncapable of Baptism by his Romish Divinity which at this time like the Alcharon was a mixture of Judaism and Christianity was with him out of question but what was to be done before her delivery and pollution in child bearing was his great doubt to be sent as far as Rome for an answer which argued him to be wary and of a very tender Ignorance in the Christian Faith he was now to plant and cherish as the chief Husbandman and the great Arch-Bishop of these Churches instead of its Brittish Governours that were now to be laid aside and depos'd out of their own Sees and Chairs for being so unlike to him Neither will I hear repeat the resolution of the Pope which is at large in Bede to this point much less his elaborate carnal theories and endless impure speculations wherewith his Holiness entertains his Grace in Probation upon that other question whether an Husband having known his wife may enter into the Church before he be wash'd with Water verifying an Aphorism and observation of St. Paul between them that where the conjunction of God and the heart is not heeded and maintained men become Fools and senceless Rom. 1 22-28 1 Tim. 1.5 6 7. for the Soul that hath its face towards God in uncessant Prayer or any honest imployment in his sight hath its back ever upon such impurities as when its face is towards them its back is ever towards God And they are better kept wholly out of the fancy than order'd and stated never so well in it wherein the Casuists or Scavangers of the Church of Rome to this day exceed all other writers in the Critical ordering of this Mahumetan filth Neither was it out of dis-respect to such Fathers that Bede thought fit to set down such passages as sober Heathens Livy or Tacitus would not have defil'd their Histories or their Honour in recording but from a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mind ignorant of what was becoming or unbecoming by a Romish taint and fleshliness of the soul which kept in its purity Superiority and distance from things below is our right person and Honour and our Sobriety and our measure to discern good from evil Decorum from absurdity as Cicero sets forth in his Offices which the Roman Principle aim'd at the Christian attains the Romish chiefly neglects and swerves from But that other direction of Pope Gregory to our Augustine b Bed lib 1. c. 29. fana Idolorum non demoliantur sed aquâ benedictâ c. that IdolTemples were not to be demolished but to be purified and consecrated to Christian use with holy Water savours of an Ignorance and frailty in both which is less pardonable because more than humane or Christian not excusable in any Age or Condition Por it allows Idols and Elements a greater power to defile or Sanctifie than the light of nature or Faith can admit of decent dedication of Churches to Gods service may agree with reason and Religion but such Superstitious Sanctifications discover too great a crack in both For neither is an Idol any thing where there is knowledge 1 Cor. 8.4 7. nor can any thing defile but what comes from the heart that is the impure assents of the Soul Math. 15.11 But where the Soul is made nothing of an Idol becomes considerable and dreadful And its External impurity requires much external Element to wash it off with those whose Religion consists wholly in the outside wherein the Pharisie and the Papist Jump and our Saviour having refuted the one refuted the other by the same Text and argument But supposing sin could cleave to wals can Water wash it off from walls or souls If it can it must be in the vertue of Divine blessing and Institution or without it That Water alone is ineffectual to wash a Moor much less a Spirit or spiritual stain Heathens had Divinity enough to assure them That with it it can and doth in baptism was never doubted among Christians Now to raise this dead Element to work other effects supernatural and miraculous without Divine Commission or Authority is to equal and Rival God For to transfer and apply the holy Water of his Institution and blessing to other Creatures than whom he redeemed with his precious bloud for whom they were by himself peculiarly design'd is such an abominable prophanation and taking Gods name and his ordinances in vain such a charm and witchcraft and mingling light and darkness holy and prophane together as none could be the first Author and Inventer of but Satan the Father of Antichrist whose known practice of old was to revile and libel Religion by mock-Sacraments and Sacrifices and Ephods to bring it into contempt as it were by Travesty and Burlesque and Ape God Almighty as drones build cels like to hony combs Whose methods they of Rome have all along filially observed and imitated above any other Heresie new or old saveing the impure Gnosticks who very probably are the same with our Romanists As by their descent from the same place and Father Simon Magus their exact agreement in character with the false Apostles in St. Pauls time who exalted themselves above him non ovum ovo similius their affecting the best Christian titles amidst Antichristian hellish Practices and Customs might be fairly evinc'd for where are Gods ordinances more daily prophan'd by mocke imitation holy Baptism applied to Bells and stone Walls preaching to the fouls of the Air as before and to shame them to amendment more than to dishonour a contrary Religion though they have not yet arriv'd to that abominable prophaness as actually to feed other domestick Creatures with the Eucharist they so much worship yet they have already done it by their Principles and Customs it 's frequent with them in the Egge though not in the Serpent And these are they who must now be own'd as the Apostles of our Religion and Patriarchs of the English Faith to whose successors for ever all obedience and worship and submission must be paid in all gratitude for their sake and not a few deserted by God for not loving the Truth 2 Thess 2.10 already begin to bow the knee to Satan and corrupt Nature in weak and simple and childish judgements and debauch'd persons the weakest and simplest of all for nothing eats out the heart more than vice helping on the Apostacy according to the Brittish Proverb Gwaith hawdh iw methu It is an easie work to fail or Socrates his answer to fair Lais the famous Courtesan bragging as she met him that she had more that followed her than he had who replied that her Disciples went down the Hill to her S◠but his came up Hill to him But Augustine though he was Bare and Poor for Inward Principles and Endowments yet he was not so ill
furnish'd for Outward Appearance a true type of his Roman Church to this day gay without to the eye but naked and bare walls within to reason as appears from the Inventory of his furniture and Utensils c Bed lib. 1. c. 29. vasa sacra vestimenta altarium Ornamenta quoque Eeclesiarum Sacerdâ—talia Clericalia indumenta Sanctorum Apostolorum martyrum reliquias nec non codices plurimos in the last place and almost forgot and without the Epithite sacros to assure us they were Bibles Outward and decent Ornaments and Ceremonies in the worship and service of God cannot be justly tax'd or censured unless the whole stress and substance of Religion be placed therein and not in the heart which is much the humour of that Church and was so much the Principle and composition of our Augustine that though the Churches of Christ in Brittain were never so confessedly Ancient and Catholick as to all the Articles of their Faith or unblameable in their Discipline or eminent in their Clergy yet because they differed from Rome about Easter in the manner as before or in not using spittle or the like nasty Ceremony in Baptism perhaps as they do or had not their locks order'd after the like bald-pate manner for the pretence of not Preaching to the Saxons was but a meer artifice and colour nothing would serve the turn or allay his zeal and wrath but their total subversion and dissolution by the help of Pagan Arms and Gods name brought in to abett and countenance this Barbarâ— design and malice by Hypocritical Prophesies anâ— counterfeit Revelations If one using the name of the King of Spain should make an Embassy from that Crown to this now at peace with one another that if the English conform not forthwith to the Spanish mode not only in their habit but the cut of their Hair and the form of their mustachioes they must expect nothing less than the utter destruction of their Church and state from God and man though such a message might justly be look'd upon as the frensy of a mad-man would they be free from censure if they neglected their own security however if it was well known by experience that the like threats had been by dark means executed before their own doors within remembrance of their own History But the Learning and Doctrine of this Pretended Apostle was not more Weak and Rotten in the heart than the right means of propagating it with the mouth was proportionably defective and wanting and had it been sound and Christian if Faith comes by hearing how could he preach to English ears when neither understood the other no more than Duck-Chickens their Hen-dam recalling them from their connatural Element Neither is there any Sermon or Homily of his on record that might worthily entitle him to our conversion as is urg'd by the d Antiquitates Ecclesiast p. 35. learned and judicious in both particulars The guift of tongues and power of miracles here fail'd him where it was most requisite and necessary though else-where where they were frivolous and needless he abounded with them in so much that his careful Pope writes an Epistle to him on purpose not to be e Bed lib 1. c. 31. transported above measure with the many miracles he wrought which yet might be of the same nature with his own Divine Revelation f M. Westm An. 605. and Gods answer in a dream to his Prayer for Trajan to rescue him out of Hell which God had granted with this proviso that he should trouble him no more with his Prayers of that nature for Heathens and who were like to be his Interpreters whilst the Neighbouring Ministers of France were back-ward g Spelman Concil p. 77. in this work as Pope Gregory himself complains judging them unworthy of Christian Communion in the posture they stood to the Brittains that had hir'd them for Auxiliaries as is conjectur'd g Antique Eccles p. 35. by another the terms of repentance and restitution being like to be as much insisted by the one as rejected by the other therefore some French Merchants skill'd in the English through their commerce and Ignorant of the Canons or some mean Minister that might be won to Act for Gaine and Interest against the Rules of the Church and the Principles of his more conscientious Brethren must be the Interpreters and immediate Ghostly Fathers in the English conversion according to this state till in its proper place it shall be proved that the Brittains themselves who best could forgive their own injuries and the Disciples of their Institution were by a reconciling Providence Gods Instruments in this conversion and not our Augustine though it must needs have gone somewhat against the grain with their Chiefs to hold the Brittain's lands from them by the Sword and Heaven by their courtesie which the Intelligence and Avarice of Rome soon found out and is the true reason and not the Jingling Legend of the fair English Slaves sold at Rome in the market that some of the Haughty Saxon â—eptarchs when it was a shame to stand out while most of their subjects were converted and no less an Inconvenience to be introduc'd by the Brittains whom they forc'd from their Inheritances were first set on to send their desires to Rome to have it done by the Pope as appears by h Spelman Concil p. 77. Pope Gregory's Epistle to the King and Queen of France which he readily complied with aspiring to be Universal Bishop about this time by the help of i M. Westm A. 609. 605. Wheeloc in Bed lib. 2. c. 8. Tyrant Phocas and therefore sent Augustine in all hast hither both bethinking of the Worldly purchase of Supremacy and dominion that was to be gain'd right or wrong thereby according to the eternal principles and bent of that degenerate Church carnal ends requiring carnal means as suitable to promote them which is the second point to be cleared in this state 2. By what means our Augustine propagated his equivocal Gospel so far as it was propagated amongst the English It was not by the light of Gods word and the power and demonstration of the spirit approving it self to every ones Conscience which out of its eternal Allegiance to God admits of no Truth without it produce a Divine Ticket along with it which carnal Evangelists and selfish Apostles find too difficult exactly to coin and counfeit Neither was it with the enticeing words of human wisdom and eloquence whereof there was now little cause of fear from our Augustine the one being a Human the other the right Christian method of preaching the Gospel which St. k 1 Cor. 2.4 compared with 2 Cor. 4.2 Paul preferred But his method had several effects to prove it was rather Satanical and Antichristian being carried on with carnal Arts and Craft and Pride and Lying wonders and Blasphemies and Sacriledge and Robbery and Massacre and Murder which cannot be
Episc Lond. l. 2. p. 134. c. Confession of all our Historians that this Wini became a Simonaick and therefore no Bishop in Law by their own Principles A remarkable vindication of the Innocent Bloud of our Bangor Martyrs through Gods wonderful Providence who is wont to give a Victory and a new Resurrection to his Church after mortal wounds and to confound its enemies For Augustine and his Italian Successors as they never had Right so neither had they any long continuance here notwithstanding all their craft and cruelty Honorius Å¿ Idem lib. 3. c. 7. was the fift and the last of their race and number from Augustine who died Anno 653. Then the Chair began to receive most an end †Mat. Westmin A. 666. English Successors such was Deusdedit a West-Saxon d G Malmesb. de Episc Lond. l. 2. p. 134. c. whose English name was Fridona whose Ordination was void by the Canons of the Church as well as his Chair For he was not Consecrated by any Archbishop in in due manner Paulinus being dead and gone but by one single Bishop †Bede l. 3. c. 20. Ithamar Bishop of Rochester who had no more power to make an Archbishop than hath a single Presbyter to Ordain and Consecrate his Superiour Bishop Therefore all his Acts and his whole sitting for 9 years were Void and Null And Will of Malmesburie's reason e Guil. Malmesbury de Gestis Roffens for their not calling the Northern Oswaldian Bishops to their assistance is very disingenious in one that had read their Principles in Bede to be so averse against Communion with the Romish See of Canterbury Cavebant Romanorum apud Cantiam Reliquiae Ordinationes erroneorumsequi The Reliques of the Roman Church in Kent saith he were shy to admit them that err'd about Easter to have an hand in their Ordinations whereas the shyness was on the other side shunning all Communion with them as Schismaticks and Intruders upon the Brittish Church So that there was no Archbishop at all in Canterbury from the time of Honorius 653. the See continuing actually Vacant for a year and a half to Deusdedit and also Deusdedit's nine years sitting being null in Law and a while after to the time of Theodorus of Tarsus in Cilicia his coming to the Chair in 668. Of which contrivance of Rome to begin a second Usurpation over the English Brittish Church as well as their first over the Brittains more shall be observed in proper place Therefore the Church of Canterbury was manifestly extinct for those 15 years between Honorius the last Italian and Theodorus the first and last Graecian Archbishop there And we have heard before of the extinction of the See of Rochester under Putta and Willelm besides the Archbishops that succeeded Theodore seem Brittish by their Countrey and Institution Birthwaldus his next successor Anno 692. was Brothers Son to Ethelfred King of Mercia x Antiquitates Eccles p. 55. where their Faith was right Brittish Tatwin after him in 731. was likewise of y Usher p. â—055 Ex Will. Malmesbury Mercia And three of his Bishops that ordain'd him Ingwald of London Aldwin of Lichfield Daniel of Winton were not of Roman but of Brittish Sees And the last ordain'd by Birthwald z Antiquit. Eccles p. 58. Nothelmus after Tatwin 736. had been Bishop of London where he was born Cuthbert after Nothelm came from the Chair of Hereford an Ancient Brittish See belonging to the Archbishoprick of Caerleon in Wales And not to mention Bregwin a Nobleman of Saxony who succeeded Cuthbert Lambert the thirteenth Archbishop was wholly depriv'd of his Primacy by the means of Offa King of Mercia who withdrew all his Revenues and Churches in Mercia from him and got the Pope to assent thereto misit nuntios donativis conferendis praemunitos b Spelman p. 302 303. Noverat enim Rex Offa desideria Romanorum for he had treated him according to his humour with great guifts And so Aldulphus Bishop of Lichfield was made Archbishop during the Reign of Offa. The Pope notwithstanding through the great darkness that was to be for several Ages in the Church restor'd the See and maintain'd his usurpation at Canterbury to the time of Henry 8. a Brittish King who putting a full end and period to all Popish powers and pretences continued here against the Laws of the Land and the Canons of the universal Church And judging fit to continue the Primacy of Canterbury upon a new and better Authority his own pleasure and the strength of the Law the Superiority of that See became lawful ever afterwards to be submitted to in Brittain according to Church Canons Which from the suppression of the old Archbishoprick of London was all along before a manifestly uncanonical and Schismatical usurpation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Photii Nomocanon Tit. 1. c. 20. infamous to boot in the sense of the Ancient Canons Usurpation and force and Conquest right or wrong being more comely in the field than in the Church and better to be legitimated by descent and time And this Argument of the English or Saxons receiving their first Faith from Brittain and not from Rome is further corroborated by that notable observation of the Reverend and Eloquent Archbishop Parker sometime Queen Elizabeths Latine Tutor as I am informed upon several Old d W. L'isle divers Ancient Monuments Antiquitates Ecclesiasticae p. 35 -to 47. Saxon Laws and Homilies containing several points and Articles and Suppositions in them quite contrary to those Doctrines that Augustine and his Romish successors endeavoured to sow and propagate as the Faith of Rome in England 1. Against Transubstantiation 2. For Communion under both kinds 3. And the Translations of Scripture into the Vulgar Tongue and Instances thereof before the time of Wicleff 4. Laymen to study and read the Scriptures and to learn Creed and Decalogue and Lords Prayer in the Vulgar Tongue 5. Against Invocation of Saints e Wheeloc not in c. 9. lib. 4. Bedae Antiquae Homiliae Saxonum nunquam sanctos invocant c. Worshiping of Images 6. Marriadges to be free 7. Kings to be Gods Vicars in their Kingdom 8. The Legislative Power to be in King and people Quae quidem veteris Ecclesiae Brittannicae dogmata c. Which verily saith he being the Tenets and Doctrines of the Old Brittish Church and long retain'd amongst the Ancient Saxons notwithstanding the influence and successions of their Roman Guides and Teachers to the contrary how agreeable they are both to to the word of God and our Modern Laws and Constitutions and how diametrically contrary in all respects to their way at Rome any one may with ease discern that will For as the same learned prelate again what Author did ever in his works report that Augustine did ever Preach to the English that they might come to believe by hearing that he was not capable to do it his own Pope
Gregorie's Epistles extant plainly shew he verily was an Apostle of Roman rites and ceremonies not of the Christian Faith or the word of God to the English Nation he taught them how to be Romans and Papists more than to be Christians or Believers And by the points in such hot and bloudy contest between him and the Brittains where there was little or nothing insisted on touching soundness of Doctrine or purity of life but all touching the domination and power of Rome and Romish rites and tonsures it plainly appears he was but a meer man of straw and f Ceremoniosus non relligiosus ceremony more than of God and Religion Where to stop the mouths of Ignorant Romanists that make a brag as if the English had received their faith from Rome he likewise shewes at large that Pope Gregory himself was no better than his Apostle Augustine for that he was not so good a man for life and pen as the Papists would pretend And g Antiquitates Ecclesiasticae p. 36. g Ibdem p. 36. again valde dolendum Anglorum conversionem in ista tempora incidisse in quibus collapsa Ecclesiae Doctrine atque disciplina c. It was a great misfortune that the English conversion fell out to be at such a time wherein the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church was quite fallen to the ground and wholly degenerated from its primitive purity and sobriety into vanity of errour and superstition and the matter it self proclaims too loud let Bede say what he please to the contrary that Augustine's chief work and business here was to instill some Roman Ceremonies amongst our Ancestors and not the Christian Faith yea Rome it self about that time and by the particular influence and endeavours of Pope Gregory was the spring and fountain of all such superstitions not only among us in England but in the rest of the World beside of which he makes a large proof with Instances Irrefragable of their superstition and ambition their Holy Water and Dreams and Legends and Divine lyes and Golden Vessells and a wooden Priesthood not that decent ceremonies that take not the heart from God are in themselves unlawful in Gods service as Christ himself hath shewed in the Institution of visible Sacraments as also of their pride and Antichristian design to enslave Kings and Churches and Nations under them and when all was done and they mounted themselves as high as they would or could the effect and product of all was no more but that ambition outed all good rule and Government Luxury good living Dreams and legends the Preaching of the word lamentable superstition Catholick Religion And that their first adventure and attempt to erect their Roman supremacy over souls and Churches was here in England and Augustine the Monk their forlorn hope that their ungodly success and Victory was about its height about the time of Charlemain about 140 years after lasting about 800 years to the the time of our Henry the eight h Antiq. Eccles p. 37. Et sane illa prima de Romanis ritibus per Augustinum excitata contentio quae non nisi clade sanguine Innocentium Britannorum poterat sedari ad nostra recentiora tempora cum simili pernicie eladeque Christanorum pervenit And verily that first and early contention and strife for rites and ceremonies begun here by Augustine which could not be exstinguished or abated but with the bloud and desolation of the Innocent Brittains is evidently carried down to our own times with fresh and daily tydings at our doors of the like destruction and Massacre of Christians for the like cause Thus that Eloquent and Judicious prelate an i Norwich Antiq. Eccl. p. 39. East-Angel by birth and a chief Father of our Church by place and merit And it is additionally remarkable that several of those Saxons Laws and Homilies bore date before the arrival of Augustine to this Land there being k M. Westm Anno 596. about 147 or 150 years from the Saxon invasion to his coming as before was said which is an invincible Argument that the Brittains as they had any opportunity Preach'd the Gospel in those dayes to the Saxons though their bloudy and perfidious Enemies to which those alliances and Intermarriages with them in their infidelity for which they stand blamed in story might by the ordering of Providence be Instrumental yet are taxed by Gildas if the passage be Authentick for neglect that they were not more vigorous and diligent in Communicating the Gospel to them whereby may be conjectured how great the Christian zeal of Gildas was and the Brittish Ministers of his stamp and Inclination as he confesses there were several who were so thirsty for the Salvation of the souls of their Enemies who thirsted for nothing more than their Lands and bloud SECTION X. That all or most of the Kingdoms and Churches in this part of Europe and Rome it self received their first Faith from Brittain yet Brittain pretends to no Supremacy over them upon that account and the Romanists Feloes de se in that kind of Plea IF the Church of Rome hath no better evidence for her propagation of the Faith and Supremacy thereby over other Churches of the world than is produc'd for Brittain it is plain and easy to discern its title is not founded in any reality or merit but a disease of the fancy only and that high-mindedness whereof she was early forwarn'd by her rejected Apostle Rom. 12.3 or a malady like that of the Athenian Merchant who imagin'd all the Ships that arrived at Harbour to be his own whose cure from this distemper had been their imaginary beggery and undoing The French Church at the Savoy or the Lutheran amongst us might far better pretend to a Primacy over York and Canterbury being more Orthodox and Learned and better understood by several that resort to them and acting with the leave of our Province and its Lawful Governours and not siding Barbarously with Pagan Enemies against Christian Brethren to destroy or adulterate the true Faith as did Monk Augustine who at least could be but Rector of Christ-Church Canterbury under his mighty Patron Ethelbert in defiance of his rightful Metropolitan Theonus which yet he could not supply himself for want of the tongue nor by any other by reason of the Schism and Irregularity Or to suppose more than can be asked or expected that Ethelbert who was King of Kent only was King also of Mercia and the East and the South and West-Saxons and compleate Lord over the whole Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury or London which then reached from Humber to Severn and Cornwall and now further over Wales and that he in such a right had lawfully nominated and elected our Augustine for his Arch-Bishop who thereupon had been regularly Consecrated and Install'd by the Clergy of the Province according to the Canons of the Church and by the consent and voluntary Cession of Theonus his predecessor without the help of Heathen
entangled in the Treason by their obedience to Apostolical orders which deposed God as well as the Prince and the allurements of guifts and honours to the one and the other Very ill Presidents to Princes and from Ecclesiastics who pretend in their Church to extol obedience to Superiours above any other whatsoever Whereas their whole establishment consisted in rejecting their right Soveraign both of Heaven and Earth If Popery then be a good Religion Rebellion must be no great Crime For Rebellion upon the pretence of Religion had its first rise and example from that Infallible Chaire It cannot therefore be denyed but our German Apostles took Commission from Rome being impos'd upon as several dayly are by Antichristian arts which was their great Ecclipse and Infelicity enough to blast all the Glory of their other good work But then it is to be considered that though it was an Ecclipse it prevail'd but so many Digits The foul spot of expedient Rebellion being added to the other obscurations from Superstition It was not a total Ecclipse of the whole Luminary which still retain'd a competency of light sufficient to direct dark Heathenism but far better if the Popish fog which they term help had been further off What was clear and sound Religion Germany had from Brittain what was unsound and Superstitious it had from Rome as appears not only in reason because the Roman Religion found no exceptions against the substance of the Brittish as before but only that it wanted some of their Catholick Ceremonies and additions which the Brittains looked upon as suspicious Innovations but also most irrefragably by Charlemagne's condemnation of Image-Worship in the Councel of Francofurt against both the Church of Rome and Greece degenerating into that gross errour by the advice of a M. Westmin 793 Spelm. 218. Alguinus and the Catholick Brittish Orthodoxy shining and surviving then in England solely when the cloud had gone over all the rest Alguinus by his b Idem p. 307. Epistle to Charlemagne who sent the 2d Nicene Decrees to England as Pope c Magd. Cent 8 c. 9. p 626. seq Adrian sent them him for his Approbation did so d Spelman Concil p. 307. shake and rouse him by the Scriptures that in full Synod the Nicene Decree was condemn'd but the e Idem p. 308. Decrees of that Synod wherein were 300 f Spondanus Anno 794. Bishops assembled out of Italy France Germany and Brittain and so great and Learned an Emperor as Charlemagne present are all suppress'd with that e Idem p. 308. Epistle of Alguinus his other works remaining Spondanus confesses the reason Ingenuously that Image Worship was then condemned in the Council not by the Council g Ibid. n. 3. Non accessit consensus corum quorum fuit statutum firmare ut non mireris si quae sint de eà re tunc Acta conscripta nusquam appareant utpote abolita quod ea non probassent legati Apostolicae sedis nec qui eos miserat Hadrianus Papa For their consent was wanting to whom it belong'd to pass that Decree That it is not to be wonder'd if what was voted touching that Controversy is not to be met extant any where neither in Baronius nor Crabbe nor Binius c. for it was abolished and suppressed because the Legates of the Apostolick See did not approve thereof nor Pope Adrian himself that sent them Lo now If these Roman-Catholick-Hereticks serv'd so great and venerable a Council in that course manner together with the Emperors Authority though their great friend and Patron and more a Schollar than any of their pack perhaps for clashing against their infallible Idolatries in the defence of Gods second Commandment as if Catholick Religion depended upon the Negative voice of one Pope against God and the Church which is not only a contradiction in it self but contrary to the course and custome of all general Councils of the Church where one though Pope or Patriarch was condemned by the Community for his Errour and not the Community by any one It s the less wonder if our Brittish Histories and Records were serv'd in the like sort as was all along suspected and far worse The Adulteraing with Legends being worse than burning and suppressing as King Lucius his Baptism Dubritius the Popes Legate King Cadwaldr's Pilgrimage to Rome the Brittish Communalty in Lhoegr all destroyed by the Pagan Saxons and their Clergy quite banish'd which might be true in many places at the first perfidious Insurrection as with Sampson at York till mollified by Ambrosius and Vortimers moderation in their Victories and a tast of Christianity they were afterwards tolerated amongst them to Augustine's coming and h Monastic Angl. par 1. p. 55. Usher p. 755. Diana Worship'd at London and Apollo at Thorney or Westminster instead of Christ as if the English during their Heathenism had preferr'd the Idols of the Brittains before i Munster l. 3. 718. Irmensul and Woden and Mars their own or the same Hostility had spar'd Diana or Apollo who were as great strangers to them as Christ perhaps whereby it is evident the Authors of Romish Histories and Legends have not alwayes present memory and their wits much less their honesty about them in their zealous tales for their Church But to return to our Argument It is clear that the Orthodoxy of Charlemagne and the Franckford Council was not from Rome or the Pope with whom they clash'd which right descendants from Monk Augustine would hardly have done nor from Greece whom they condemn'd nor from the Learned Emperor himself whose feet had well nigh slipt till our Alguin recovered him but therefore solely from Brittain So that our German Apostles being sound at heart against Idolatry upon the score of their Ancient Britttish derivation and Institution though in many parts Leprous upon the score of their new Roman Communion they were still sufficiently accomodated to encounter the Heathenism of Germany with the Remainder of their sound Brittish Faith but had been far more successful and spotless in their proceedings if Rome had stood far enough off And if as living Springs soon work off their mud and trouble which corrupt Lakes and Boggs can hardly do The Protestancy of England and Germany and Sweden and Denmark c. be ascrib'd to the Vigour and Fermentation of their first Brittish Seed strugling after its Original Pristin purity in good soil and erect minds and to early help from England and Wickliff before k Munster lib. 3. p. 800. Baleus of the Life and Tryal of Sir John O'd Castle Luther's appearing I shall not be a dissenter to the conjecture as the like may be observed in our Romanists some reviving the way of Simon Magus a great man heretofore at Rome others of their Gothic Ancestors and Audius their Apostle who is remarkable for three Roman parts 1. In leaving l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the title of
by Ambrosius in a solemn Assembly Cleri Populi of Parliament and Convocation to express this matter in modern Terms By which may be guessed the irregularity and invalidity of Adeodatus his Ordination which was Ordain'd only by one Bishop of his Province who had received his own from such as were no lawfull Bishops as before and of Theodorus Arch-Bishop the Restorer of the Romish Religion in England who was Ordain'd by none in all this Province and came hither with Tyrannical Power against the will of the Bishops of this Province and to displace such as were regularly Ordain'd and Consecrated by the Bishops of this Territory who had lawful Power as Ceadda Archbishop of York by name whereby himself in the sence of the Catholick Church in the Canons before recited was neither Bishop nor Priest nor within Christian Communion whereby the Authority of the rest by and after him Ordain'd and the nature of the whole Roman-Catholick-Church built in this land upon such rotten Pillars may be scann'd and judg'd of with trust that there is mercy and compassion with God for the sincere in heart and Vengeance and Indignation against insolent disturbers and Tyrannical Hypocrites Which by the way might be the occasion that our Politick Popes in the Controversies heretofore berween the Sees of York and Canterbury for Priority after both sides were craftily well squeezed and lurch'd in their Purses referr'd this matter out of their moderation to be ended and detetmin'd by our own Kings as Edward the third did it under his great Seal as before whereby some Authority was by the way acquir'd to his Romish See of Canterbury which before he well knew had none at all by Church Canons by the Royal Patents of our Soveraign Kings which are favour'd by General a Con. in Trul. Can. 38. Chalc. Can. 17 Councils else for Kings to meddle in such Ecclesiastical concerns had been to touch the Apple of the Popes eye and to incurr the displeasure of St. Peter and St. Paul forever to the manifest hazard of their Crowns and Souls as there are Instances good store in matters of less offence and far more Temporal in their natures But our Popes will not stand to any Council but take themselves to be above them all which is the true reason of the Schism between the Eastern and Western Church or indeed of the Schism and departure of Rome from the whole Christian Church the true Catholick being ever govern'd by Laws and Canons but the Roman-Catholick affecting to be absolute and to Rule all Churches by its own Arbitary Will and Lust The former Arguments from General Councils though they are sufficient to satisfie all honest and right Christians yet our Popes are no more concluded by them than was Cromwell by Magna Charta unless therefore the Nullities of the Romish Church in England be prov'd from their own Rules and Principles and from their own mouths against themselves they are not prov'd home enough as to them to instance in two or three So tender are they and averse from shedding of bloud or would at least somtimes be so Accounted that their Clergy cannot be present b Con. Lateran Can. 18. at a Sanguinary Tryal but if they have the ill fate to kill a man though through mistake and chaunce they become Irregular for it and depriv'd of their holy Orders irrecoverably Much more then are they forever unclerk'd by Murder whereof if our Augustine the Monk was manifestly guilty in principal manner not towards one but towards one or two thousand Innocents no men of Arms but of the Book and Gown and Prayer then the Orders he had or conferr'd after that on others as on Justus and Mellitus made Bishops by him after this fact came all to nought as to them in fact or desert and their whole Romish Church and Ministry by consequence but that he was principally guilty of the barbarous Murder and Massacre of our Brittish Monks at Bangor as before c Juell 5 part defence 438. who by good Relation came out Bare-foot and Bare-head to beg their lives and was present at the place to encourage the slaughter for the better propagating of the Romish Faith or at the least had a great hand in this bloud is not denyed by impartial Antiquaries yea those methods us'd by Romish forgeries to palliate his crime by corrupting Bede's text and also by Enthusiastical Hypocritical praedictions to father this execrable massacre upon the Spirit of God these Arts and devices are so far from excusing that they prove and fasten it the more upon him and in a very high and nefarious manner His Orders therefore and his after Actings in the See of Canterbury were all null by their own Rules And his Communion and much more his Fatherhood in the Christian Faith to be disown'd and detested by all English Christians and true Catholicks forever in their own defence Besides Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury at a Council at Herutford pass'd this Canon which ownes and espouses the like Canons of the Ancient Church with their penalties d H. Spelman Concil p. 153. Vt nullus Episcoporum c. That no Bishop Invade the Diocess of another but rest content with the Government of his own charge But such was Brittain towards Theodore and to the Pope that sent him as well as to his Successors that followed him as before is largely and fully prov'd the Faith here being planted by the Apostles or their followers among the Brittains and by the Brittains amongst the English Therefore Theodore the restorer of the Romish Faith in England stands condemn'd he and his new Church and Successors by his own Law and sentence as well as Augustine its first founder Withall Pope Gregory himself who was the first root and contriver of our English Popery allowes not his Augustine to entrench upon the Gallican Church or the Bishop of Arles his Jurisdiction because saith he that were against Scripture and the Ancient Institution of the Fathers pointing at the several Canons of Councils before recited and to thrust one's Sickle into another mans Harvest But Brittain was a Province ever more distinct and exempt from Rome than Gallia as before is prov'd Therefore Augustine for his Intrusion stands condemn'd by his Pope And his Pope by himself for sending him And Theodore and his Successors by the same definition Withall it is observable why yet Pope Gregory subjected our Brittish but not the Gallican Church to the Romish Jurisdiction of Monk Augustine because saith he e Bede lib. 1. c. 28. ab Antiquis praedecessorum meorum temporibus Pallium Arelatensis Episcopus accepit I find the Bishops of Arles to have had their Pall from Rome in the times of my Ancient Predecessors that is because France was subject to Rome Brittain before was not Now this modest and humble Pope declares in several of his lib. 4. Epist 76 83 178. 194. Antiquitates Eccl. p. 43 45. Epistles extant
p 70. Magistrates have no Supremacy here neither Bishops and Curates who are only Ministers and Stewards p. 71 102. The Harmony between Christ in the hearts of Preachers and of Hearers p. 72. The conscience of another is not our Rule but our own p. 72. Every conscience is to judge for it self of truths and guides p. 73. So many Souls so many Kingdoms Ibid. Atheism destroys God 〈…〉 himself but in the soul of the Atheist Ibid. God 〈…〉 … rserces and consciences p. 74. The Apostles app … d to conscience in every man which the Pope would â—eign suppress p. 73. 74. How Rome invades Christ's Soveraignty herein and neglects its own duty p. 74. 75 76 77 78. SECT III. Christian Kings are the Sovereigns of the out-side of the Church though not of its inside p 78.79 And Vicars of Christ in their Territories and Fathers of the Church p. 80. The outside of the Church is secular p. 82. 83. Of the Pope's encroachment upon Kings both in their Temporal are Ecclesiastical Supremacy p. 83. 84. seq Several Roman Catholick Gentlemen disclaim the first p. 85 an address to such p. 86. The Pope hath no Ecclesiastical Supremacy in Brittain but only our Kings and they as Christians p. 87. seq The Pope Originally had no Supremacy over the Church of Millain so near his own doors p. 88. The Original Supremacy of Christian Bishops sets as do the stars in the day when Kings become Christian like the Suns rising p. 88. 89. Yet keep still in the Firmament and shine in the day in case of an Eclipse or Antichristian Apostacy p 89. A soul depriv'd of Superiours is under Christ alone Ibid. Great Loyalty and disloyalty in chusing right or wrong Soveraigns p. 90 and the errour therein greater or lesser Ibid. Instances of Gods mind that men should be under Rulers of their own flesh and bloud rather then under Forreigners p. 91. Mitre Subject to the Crown not the Crown to the Mitre p. 93. And St. Peter no where more abused than at Rome ibid. p. 191 Kings loose no Supremacy or Prerogative in becoming Christians p. 95. Kings Supreme in the Jewish Church p. 95. 96. seq and by consequence in the Christian which is New Israel p. 94. 100. Of the Limits of Temporal and Spiritual Governours and whether Bishops are greater in their chairs or Pulpits p. 102 seq of maintenance due to the Clergy and the difference of tâ—mes and dispositions when God or the World is in the heart p. 107. seqq How great a bâ—essing from God Kings are to moderate between the excesses of the Roman Clergy and the defects of Protestant Laity p. 112. In the World there is difference of degrees in the Church all are fellow-servants under Christ their Lord. p. 113. How St. Ambrose and Theodosius did both the parts of Servants in suspending and submitting Ibid. Kings have power to regulate the outside of the Church And the Divine Law commands obedience to their human p. 114. 115. The manifest difference between the Internals where Christ alone is Legislator and the Externals of Religion where Kings have Jurisdiction p. 115 116. Romish Arts to wrest the Ecclesiastical Supremacy from our Kings p. 116. 117. seq Deserters of Romish errours though but in part are not to be discouraged p 118. Israel could not be cursed nor weakned but by dividing them from God How Balaams method hath been used in England p. 119. The true recreation of Princes p. 120. 121. SECT IV. The sum of Rome's pretences and Brittain's defences being the chief heads of the subsequent discourse p. 123. seq The Brittish Church proved to be Ancienter than the Roman from the confession of their own Writers and by better Arguments p. 127. and how many years Senior to it p. 136. The Gospel planted at Rome from Brittain before the Arrival of the Apostles or any other Christians and the tradition of Joseph of Arimathea corroborated p. 312. 313. Of precedence claimed in General Councils by our Embassadors upon this Seniority p. 1â—9 SECT V. Scotland a gainer in their Faith by Dioclesian's persecution here p. 136. Ireland and Germany by the Saxon Invasion p. 141 Sect. 10. The Brittains ever kept their Religion amidsts Persecutions and Invasions p. 423. and propagated it a broad amongst their Enemies p. 137. 138. The yoak and errours Rome thrust upon us were restored to it again at the Reformation when we were at the worst we were as Orthodox as Rome which corrupted us p. 142. SECT VI. Eleutherius his Epistle pre-supposes Christian Religion to be in this Isle p. 143. It is not in the least probable the Brittains received any Baptism froâ— Rome why p. 144. 145. Rome vainly ambitious of the Honour of Baptizing the first Christian King and Emperour p 146. Of Geoffry of Monmouth and the Welsh M. S. whence he Translated his History both corrupted by the Arts of Rome p. 146. Buchanan's zeal in vindicating the same of King Arthur p. 147. K. Lucius very probably was Baptized by Timotheus the Son of Claudia Ruffina p. 147. and of her Brittish name The Religion of Rome to be suspected why an Intimation to the Irish p. 149. 150. SECT VII The Scottish and Pictish Churches agreed with the Brittish in all Doctrines and traditions and opposition to Rome's Innovations p. 151. The Brittish Church was Scriptural in its Doctrine Episcopal in its Government Oriental in its traditions p. 152. Whether Popery be Hên-Fsydh p. 15â— Abbot Dunawd and the Brittish Clergy give a meeting to Monk Augustine p. 153. Christs example and submission to Superiours and General Councils a further Rule with the Brittains p. 153. 155. Of Pelagius or Morgan His heresie spread here not by him but from France Lupus and Germanuâ— serviceable by â—heir Neutrality to suppress it amongst the Brittains remaining in England under the Saxons p. 157. but fully suppressed in Wales by St. David p. 157. The Easter Controversie consisted of two parts Doctrinal and Astronomical How days and months are and are not to be observed by Christians p. 158. 159. Easter the first Lords day other Sundays 52. Octaves thereof by Christ's Institution p. 160. 161. Wednesdays and Fridays fasts upon the score of the Passion as Easter and Sundays Festivals upon the score of the Resurrection p. 161. The Church or New Israel bound by the decalogue and other reasons to observe these Christian Sabbaths Ibid. Why the Eastern Churches conform'd with the Jews in the observation of Easter p. 162. The stiffness of the Roman to the contrary proves their first Popes to have derived their succession from St. Paul and not from St. Peter p. 162. 163. A conjecture of the true reason of the Roman fast on Saturday contrary to Catholick tradition Ibid. The Bishops of Jerusalem had more to pretend from Antiquity to be Judges of Controversies in the Christian Church than Rome p. 164. Brittain more a follower of St. Peter and the East than Rome p. 165 Constantine in