a high degree who serve not their enemies with that measure as they have been and would again be serv'd by them had they power but though Papists are as Antichristian Idolators to them for a Christian Brother may be an Idolator according to St. Paul 1 Cor. 5.11 and they but as stubborn Hereticks at worst to Papists yet they have been never brought to the stake for their unsound opinions and practice by the writs of their own Invention nor to Tyburn ever but for their Treasons against the State They look upon Protestants but as Dogs though far better Christians than themselves But Protestants take them for what they are but have no malice to their persons though they abhor their errours and the severity of our Laws against them is only to secure our selves from their cruelties and unquietness For where Christ and the heart are excluded as in the Romish Church too much naught but burning and destroying all dissenters as Hereticks serves the turn when it is within their power and is never out of their Study and Inclination when it is not And O the malice they shew towards those that revolt from them to the Truth And this wisdom and temper descends not from above but is Earthly Sensual and Devilish as before Jac. 3.15 And what can be the cause of this Hellish Inhumanity towards Christian Brethren but the want and absence of the heart and Conscience or which equally destroys it the giving of it to the Pope instead of Christ whereby a Papist is of a piece with the Pope in all things which yet adds not one Cubit to his Stature nor to his virtue or Graces or humanity or Eternal Protection but he is still on Earth as he was before as a Christian is one with Christ in Heaven and partaker on Earth of his meek and gratious and Heavenly dispositions It 's another-guess perfection to be United to Christ than to the Pope which is the true difference between a Protestant and a Papist the one puts on Christ the other puts on the Pope by their several resignations of their private Wills and Judgements It 's more Heavenly and Divine to be of Christs mind and disposition than of the holy inquisitions ' A mans heart or his Will or his end aâ—e much allyed and ever go together and it ever chuses and adheres either to God or to an Idol And such is the man as his choice of his Lord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He whose heart and end is joyn'd to Christ and Heaven is Holy and Heavenly as Christ is if to any Creature such as is the Will of the Master will be the Will of his Man also To be a Roman-Catholick therefore makes not a Disciple of Christ but a Mute or a resign'd Vassal of the Pope whose Will and height and carnal Interest must therefore be the Law of Heresie and distance and hatred and damnation with such a one And what crosses the Pope's gain or Authority is laesa Majestas or Ecclesiastical Atheism or high Treason against the Roman Heaven to be vindicated and destroyed by the Angels of that Heaven with utmost zeal and fury And BABYLON is observ'd more zealous and severe for its Idol than SION for its God the reason is for where Christ is out of the heart Offenders find no Mediator or mercy And herein the Popish far out-does the Turkish zeal in cruelty Truth can better breath in Turkie than at Rome and the horns of the Mahometan Antichrist are less curst in this respect than those of the Roman Satan was not a Lyar but a Murderer also from the beginning from whom the Romanists prove their descent as well by their stakes and fire-piles as by their Legends and dispensations And it is remarkable to use conjectures with submission on mystical Scriptures Of the Beast with two horns like a Lamb and speech like a Dragon that its special mark and Character was to make fire come down from Heaven Revel 13.12 13. as of the other Beasts with 7 heads and ten horns to overcome Gods Servants with the Sword v. 1.7 And which of these Beasts is Antichrist and who meant by either is the question 1. It s out of question that with the Ancients the Empire that should succeed the Roman should be Antichrist whether it be the Popish which takes place and precedence of the German or Turkish or both for both de facto have in great part succeeded it 2. That the number 666 pointed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as clear from Jreneus who lived near a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan the Apostolical times to know their key and secret tradition about this mystery Now there are three parts to be considered in the old Roman Empire The Magistracy Militia and the Mitre or its civil Authority its Military Conquests its Heathenish Idolatry It s civil Authority wherein several Kings succeeded it or rather were restored to their own by its fall cannot be Antichristian because Ordain'd and approved by God To be a terrour to evil workers and encouragement to the good Rom. 13.3 But the other two parts of Imperator and Pontifex Maximus might well descend to Antichristian successors by Gods just Judgement to be both a scourge and an intoxicating Cup for degenerate and divided Christians The first probably falling to the share of the Turk who hath made such Conquests over the Saints by his Sword such havock in the Churches of Christ by his Victories v. 7. being the same Beast with the Roman Heathen Empire in effect which Conquered all in like manner with the Sword but was wounded by Constantine and other Christian Emperours but afterwards is heal'd again of that deadly wound v. 3. to whose recovery the â—ope did contribute v. 12. The residence of both being Rome new and old And the special confidence and Character of the Turk being his Sword where with he does all And their Priests never read nor expound their Alcharon in their Mosch's but with a naked b Ricold contra sect Mahomet c. 10. Sword in their hands or hanging by for Terrour And Mahomet Prophesied his Sect should last as long as it could keep the Sword and no longer But the Popes bid as fair to the succession and reviâ—ing of the Heathenish Pontificat of Rome as well as of the Apostate Jewish as both were Enemies tâ— Christianity in the garb of Religion anâ— Ecclesiastical Authority For they wave the name of Bishop used amongst Christians and chuse that of Pontifex in 〈◊〉 with Heathen's only and never met in any Canonical Scripture neither are they deficient in Heathenish Polytheism having errected a Pantheon of as many tutelar Saints and Patrons to be call'd on as there were Gods at Rome withal as the Turk is the Heathen-Roman Power recovered so the Pope is the Image of both v. 15. as well in Empire and Dominion far and wide as in cruelty and shedding the bloud of Christians And yet this Infernal
Argathelia i. e. Ar-gwyahel contra Hibernum Glasco olim Glasghu Usher p. 684. p. 684. i. e. viridis dilecta aut forsan Glasgoed viridis Sylva Aher Ostium fluvii Dyglas Dylas fl sive Duglas Dû nigrum Glâs viride unde forsan nomen Familiae Illustris Ar-cluid Urbs super cluid sive Glottam nunc Dunbritton c. Edenburgh and both the Friths down to the Rivers Derwen or b Tervyn Britt Terminus Derwen Britt Quercus Tervyn or the c Ravon-glas fluvius Caerulens Morlas in Syntaxi Mor-glas mare Caerruleum Avonlas in Syntaxi Vide Gram. Cambro-brittanicas Ravonglas or further in Cumberland and over all Scotland and Ireland and the Isle of man where it is clear against all Arts and Inventions and Legends and dreams that the first planting of the faith amongst them people was by Brittish and not by any Romish Mission or Ministery from the difference Augustine met and found here between these Churches and the Roman upon his arrival not only in several Customes and observations which savour'd of the East more than Rome but in the most material characteristical distinction that can be imagin'd or conceived between Churches that pretend to hold the same Faith that of Subjection and Ordination which the Brittish Churches never acknowledged nor received from Rome but from themselves or from Jerusalem whence Rome it self must derive as from the common mother of Christendom or it is no Church of Christ Isa 2.3 2. That the Communalty of the Brittains in Lhoegr and Alban or England and Scotland Cittizens Shop-keepers Farmars Peasants and their Wives and Daughters and Servants and little Children which were a considerable part of that as they are of every Nation were not totally put to the Sword by the Conquering Party nor expell'd their Borders nor consum'd by Plague as some vulgarly dream and believe The Trunk and body of the Brittish Nation continuing still the same under the successive yoakes of Romans and Saxons and Danes and Normans whose War was ever against the Lords and Nobility for the dominion and Tribute of the Populacy These submitting successively to the most prevalent party and in their turnes producing great Spirits for their Countrey while the others circularly degenerated and strangely vanish'd and digesting and assimilating in time their Conquerours and men of War into their own substance and temper unless abundantly and constantly recruited from their first Homes There was a particular precept and exception for the Anathema or excision of all the old Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan to secure Gods Israel against Heathenish mixtures and impurities yet how many Perizzites and Jebusites and Canaanites escaped notwithstanding from being cut off But no such command from Heaven was ever given against the Brittains nor did the Interest of the Conqueror require the desolation of the Land Neither were the Pagan Saxons so zealous before for the removal of the Brittish Clergy out of Lhoegr into Wales as after the arrival of Monk Augustine upon them When the Picts from the North Scoti à Circio saith Gildas that is the Irish from the West began to Invade and overpower the naked Brittains being a little before drain'd by Maximus making for the Empire of all their Armes and Treasure and Fighting men who never return'd home but were for some space a terrour d Pont. Verunnius l. 5. p. 110. to the whole Roman Empire it was not out of Antipathy to these Nations that they made such Inroads being themselves Colonies that time had greatly incorporated into the same bloud and Language with the Brittains as appears by the names of places to this day over Ireland and especially the North-east of Scotland the Station of the Picts being very much Brittish as in Wales But out of Revenge against the Roman power here who forced the Brittains to serve under them to fight and gall them being neighbours and flesh and bloud which made some great Spirits amongst the Brittains to fly over to the Picts as did Cremus by name or Graham their Chief leader and Father they say of the Noble Montrossian Family whom the Scottish e Cremus Grym Britt Robur Buchanan Spotswood Hist Histories confess to be a Brittain And when the Saxon Auxiliaries instead of marching against the enemy turned their Armes against their Masters upon f Usher p. 410. Gildas Epistl pretence of want of pay and the opportunity of their weakness killing all before them from one end of the Land to the other as Gildas very querulously exaggerats all that stood in their way to be killed Nevertheless the Brittains soon after recovered in Numerous and Regular Armies under Heroick Princes to call their bloudy Mercenaries to a strict account for this by the care and means chiefly of g Guitelinus Archbishop of London of Irish extraction as is conjecturable from his name to whom the Brittains did owe Aurelius Ambrosius and Vther Pendragon and consequently Arthur his Son preserved from the hands of the Usurper Vortigern who had procured Constans the Elder Brother being under his tuition to be made away and hanged the Murderers for a colour of his Innocence for as soon as they had War-like Leaders they soon became Souldiers to vindicate their wrong animated with Guiteline's exhortation of the vicissitude between the Sword and the Spade So that the destruction and slaughter could not be so universal especially upon the common sort as it is render'd For it appears further by our English Histories that their Counties and Cities in North and South and East and West were generally gain'd by grant and Composition and Treaty and fair usage of those that yielded as well as by Sieges and Battles and ruine to such as stood out which cannot well consist with that weak conceit of total extirpation So h Guitelin diminitive Gwydhel sing Hybernus Gwydhelod plur Gwydhelun diminit u pronounced as y But in the Brittish M. S His name is Cyhelin which hath no affinity with Gwydhel i◠G. Malmesb. de Gestis Anglorum c. 3. Octa and Ebusa the Son and Brother of Hengist reduc'd the North profligatis qui resistendum putaverant reliquos in fidem acceptos placidae quietis gratiâ mulcebant Breaking such as made resistance the rest upon surrender they allur'd with good usage to rest quiet And Kent is well known not to have been conquer'd but bestowed as a present for Rowenna i M. Westmin A 489. 462. Usher p. 1114. as before Queens bring their portions with them but Misses are dear bought And i M. Westmin A 489. 462. Usher p. 1114. London a great and populous Emporium at that time as appears from Marcellinus and Bede and our Pope Gregory with neighbouring Counties for the Kings liberty And which was the stoutest though not the largest Kingdom and Conquer'd and swallowed the rest of the Heptarchyes and gave the first name to England the seven Counties of the West Saxons were first yielded over to
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
her chief and Soveraign end being chang'd her work of reason and Religion and Allegiance is changed by consequence and the Communion between the heart and Christ in Heaven turn'd out of doors and giving place to another between the soul and its new Soveraign the Pope It is still as busie and zealous as before but in a more confin'd sublunary sphere far out of Gods presence in the Pristrinum of this present World as a broken Shoomaker sets up for a Cobler or a fallen Angel to be a Devil And perhaps the necessary errours of the Roman Church can never be more clearly detected and satisfactorily solv'd than by this Hypothesis and fiction new for its name but old and too Common for its nature and practice of a Roman-Catholick Apshychite or Catholick Christians without souls for great must the Spiritual and Internal deadness be and as great and busie the external formality and heartless ceremonies of a Religion so condition'd Our Learned Divines who by invincible Arguments convince them of Idolatries in their Invocations and worship of the Hoast and of Images do but fall upon the branches which necessarily spring and grow from the evil root untouch'd for such must be the Fruit as is the Tree Math. 7 18. St. Paul and Christ and God himself the best Judges of Religion place it all in the heart and it's purity as doth our Brittish Proverb ffydh pawb yn ei galon as did all sober Heathens The end of the Commandment is charity out of a Pure heart 1 Tim. 1.5 Blessed are the Pure in heart for they shall see God Math. 8.8 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind which is the first and great Commandment And the Heathen from Deus est animus could infer pur â mente colendus even as Christ himself doth God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth that is with the heart without which all Worship is a lie Gratior diis existimatur qui delubris eorum a Plin. Panegyr puram castamque mentem quam qui meditatum carmen intulerit A mind holy and pure is the best Anthem with God If the truth and life of all Religion by the consent and suffrage of God and men consist thus in a Pure heart what Religion can they have whose Principles exclude and annihilate the heart and the Purity thereof by consequence for where the substantive is barr'd out the Adjective must stand out for company Therefore not this or that part or tenet or Article but the whole Religion of such a Church is Idolatrous or the worshiping of God with the body only without the soul whereby men necessarily frame Corporeal Anthropomorphitical sentiments to themselves of God and of all parts of his Worship for as without the Spiritual mind and soul there could be no conception of God who is a Spirit no more than of light without eyes so a Corporeal Religion requires a Corporeal Deity to answer it and a Carnal service to answer him for all worship true or false consists in likeness and conformity in the true men become pure and holy as God is in the false God and Religion are made Gross and Carnal as the men are which is an highly Idolatrous mistake of the true God against the first and second Commandment And Spiritual Rational Religion shall be traduc'd and slighted by such men for its contrariety and dislikeness to their tempers as the Moors hate heretical white Rivers cannot ascend higher than their springs nor an Absychitical Religion higher than the body and Carnal apprehension and outward frame and appearance or a form of godliness without its power and truth which is not therefore Religion but somthing outwardly like it no more than is a dead picture a true man though like in shape unto him Heaven and Hell to a Beast can never signifie more than the pain and pleasure of the body nor human words with Parrots than the outward syllables and sound nor Religion to Carnal minds but their Carnal Interests and conceptions This supposition shews the errours of Rome to be necessary consequences to the exclusion of the heart in the first place and Christ in the second throughout their Doctrines and Practices congruous to this Propheticall Character and that in such a condition and temper they can do no less than place their chiefest worship and Devotion in the outward parts and surface of Religion that hold the nearest resemblance to it in their Carnal conceipts This makes prayers in an unknown tongue without the heart and understanding a reasonable worship with them This makes transubstantiation both natural and necessary for Christians so described cannot conceive any otherwise than Corporeally and Grossly that Christ is in the Sacrament and to be worshipped there by consequence for Sursum corda to lift up the heart where there is no heart is but a lesson to the deaf but Metaphysicks to Moles This makes them so easily leave the invisible General so unlike their new beings to invocate an host of frail Creatures more like themselves and to find great resemblances to the deity in Images made by hands and much Grace and Spiritual refreshment and Protection in holy Water and great Salvation in a material Cross to which they 'l apply that of the Apostle God forbid that I should glory saving in the Cross of our Lord Jesus as much as to him that suffered on it as Pope Adrian to the Empress Jrene finds grounds for Image-worship in those passages in the Psalms Seek ye my face thy face O Lord will I seek and signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui Ps 26.4 This hath given that Christian virtue and reputation to Beads Crucifixes's Agnus Dei Christ-Mass-Babes new born Good-Friday-loggs interr'd Palls Saints Couls c. and the rest of their sacred shows not short of Bartholomew Fair in their number and congruity to weak and carnal fancies A most lamentable Profanation of our Spiritual and Heavenly worship to be bewail'd by all sincere and tender Christians with grief and tears and confuted by the Learned and suppressed by the Magistrate and prayed against by all A mock Religion carried on by great and strong numbers and Councils with a high face of Authority and Catholick truth on its side and more considerable for duration and combination than all other Heresies whatsoever both Ancient and Modern put together which bespeak it to be some thing more being the Blasphemy of them which they say are Jews that is Christians and Catholicks or new Israelites and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan carrying on his Kingdom with the same dark Arts and Eternal perdition to themselves and others as he himself doth Rev. 2.8 With whom Christianity consists not in a meet Marriage between the heart and Christ to bring forth Heavenly off-springs to God Rom. 7.3 even the divine and lovely fruits
constantly present in his heart and mind As he is ever the vainest that hath him least This presence of Christ in the Soul being its chief life and sobriety or preservation of the mind as the Greek imports and begetting that syberwid wherein the Brittish Ethicks did and doth consist And our Laws which are the wisdom of the Nation Endite none but Rebells against God who for not setting his fear alwayes before their eyes become injurious to their Brethren The great Apostle of the Gentiles comprizes the Disease of the Heathen world in one like word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 their averseness to eye God ever in their minds and the health of the Christian World to be in this when the Grace of our Lord Jesus was alwayes with them which was ever his last wish and prayer And the Cure of the Antichristian to be herein for when he had forwarn'd of the Pest that was to overspread the Christian Church in future Ages for their want of love to the Truth 2 Thess 2.9 10 11 12. he there names the best Amulet and Antidote against it again and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 3.16.18 The Lord of Peace give you peace The Lord be with you all The Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all Amen For they alone should escheat to Antichrist who cast off Christ and Christ them and those fall into the pit of the one whore and the other that in the Proverbs and the other in the Revelation who are abhorr'd of the Lord Prov. 22.14 And so much shall suffice by way of Exhortation to all Loyal Christians true to Christ their King and Countrey to adhere to our own good Mother-Church of Brittain in opposition to the pretences and inveiglements of the Modern Roman whom we leave as we found as Epaminondas is said to leave a sleeping Centinel whom he run through without a heart and Soul and Life through their taking man and not Christ who is the truth and the life for the Lord and Soveraign of their hearts and judgment SECTION XVII Where the place of the undoubted true Church is out of whose Pale there is no Salvation And how to be of the Church in Heaven while we are on Earth THe Brittish Church of England is a good and a true Church and so are many others but before men the Church of Christ that is in Heaven by true Faith is the true Church before God and the heart And certain Salvation is annext to the Church of Hearts and Faith For according to St. Paul every true Christian who is a Mystical Jew or Israelite is to be tryed by this Rule For he is not a Jew saith he which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.28 29. An unblamable outward profession constitutes us Sons of this or that Church before men but the sincerity of the heart to God sets us in the true Church before God for as he were not a right Son of this Church that should only observe Rubricks and Ceremonies and Consormity and neglect Temperance and Charity and Truth and Honesty which are greater so where both these are outwardly observ'd and kept as the Laws of God and the Customes of the place are the measures of all wise and sober men yet not from sincere love and obedience in the heart to Christ but for impunity from human Laws or vain-glory or some other secret end and purpose of the mind it is that end we thereby serve and not the Lord and by our out-side and the charitable estimation of men who are deceiveable we may be true Sons of the Church of England but our Inside or our souls which truly are our selves will be found out of the Church of Christ in Gods account who Judges by the heart and cannot be deceived And this Church of Christ is in Heaven where Christ is at Gods right hand and men become of it by saith and the sincerity of the heart which alone can reach it while in the body they remain on Earth This is the true Catholick Church whose Silver Rome borrows to cover its Brass with out of whose pale there can be no Salvation nor Condemnation ever to any that are found within it Rom. 8.1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus If a man were Excommunicated by Rome and England and be of this Church he were safe being Christianus in occulto as St. Augustine stiles such a one in his Book de verá Religione cap. 6. and miss of Salvation though in the bosom of both Churches if he be not in his heart of this A Christian who is inwardly by his heart in Heaven with Christ Christ and Heaven are present to his heart by Consequence and such a one is as it were Christ Incarnate as every one who is out of Christ in his heart and wedded to other ends or Idols is a Devil incarnate more or less And this new Celestial person which he puts on becomes the standard of his Interest and the Rule of his deportment whatsoever he doth agreable to Christ thus in him is his honour and newself-preservation and peace and whatsoever unbecoming the contrary For Cicero would allow that the person we sustain by nature or by calling and by Grace by Consequence becomes the Rule and measure of men's duties and obligations so that there is a vast and an infinite difference between one in Christ and out of Christ between a Christian and no Christian as much as between Heaven and Earth Flesh and the Spirit God and a Creature And St. Paul reduces the whole to this point They only that are in Christ can be Justified and Sanctified and Saved and no other and their Natures are chang'd and exalted by this conjunction and consequently all their Actions and affections which answer to the nature they arise from as the fruit to the tree And they that are out of Christ are out of all hopes and possibility of Justification or Sanctification or Salvation and the old man or Nature continues in them and the mortal inclinations and deeds thereof by Consequence And this change of mens state in respect of dignity as well as safety to be freed from wrath and made as second Sons to God is not from any human merit or power but only from the Infinite and free grace of Christ By whom we have access by Faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5.2 Our Justification and happiness by this new state is attributed by the Scriptures to Christ and to Faith and to his Resurrection to Christ without us as to the Purchaser and Founder and Finisher To Faith within us as to the Counterpart Instrument of our acceptance and the
effectual appearance and existence of the Truth and reality of this high mercy and its Obligations in our minds and perswasions for what is not known or own'd and received in the soul is as was said before with all men of no account as to them no more than if it had never been and we move and Act in our souls and in the conceptions and models thereof as our souls in God or Idols for we walk not in the Streets and stairs without us but in the Streets and stayers within our brain and count for let the last be mistaken or out of order men shall stumble and stagger though the first be never so true and right And to the Resuâ—â—ection Rom. 4.25 or Ascention into Heaven above 〈◊〉 as to the livery and seisin of this blessed State into which Christ enter'd for us in our Name and Naâ—â—â—â— drawing all hearts after him to Heaven by this 〈◊〉 and obligation as to a new center Wherebâ— the Sâ—â—â—â— of the Christian Church to use the 〈◊〉 of the World or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Country-Ship of every Christian is laid and fix'd in Heaven with Christ our of himself and this Transitory World And the nature of our fall in Adam understood by the cure and reparation to have been our departure far from God and Paradice into flesh and self and death for out of Christ in the fallen State the natural man is neither dead to this World in his Cross nor exalted to Heaven in his Resurrection nor United by love and the holy spirit to his person nor dead to himself but stands upon his own Leggs and Power against all opposition upon his own righteousness and Impeccability against Divine Justice upon his own strength and Grace against Infernal Powers and the deceits of the Flesh and the World upon the love of himself as the spring and end of all his Actions and designs above the love of God being his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in enmity with God by setting up Rebelliously himself Instead being miserably beside himself because so totally in for and to himself man's bliss and rest being not immanent but transitive not in himself but in God his Centre for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Rom. 11.36 And the return of the soul to God by love in the extinction of all enmity on either hand is wrought alone by Christ our Mediator satisfying Gods Justice by his death for us when we were Enemies and swallowing all our lives and hearts into himself by the obligation infinitely surpassing all comprehension or requital And we are not lost but perfected by this our Transmigation into Christ by love and gratitude lost indeed to our selves and to this World but found in Christ in Heaven each part being the health and perfection of the soul For so the Apostle understood this mystery None of us liveth to himself and none dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords For to this end Christ both dyed and â—ose and reviv'd that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14.7 8 9. And in another place The love of Christ constraineth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath our beings wrap'd up together with him because we thus Judge that if one dyed for all than were all dead And that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again we are to follow him in his Resurrection by our Conversation in Heaven and affections set on things above and in his death by mortification and self-denyal as dead men by construction and entendment to all things here below for the Laws and fictions of reason well supported are as much to guide and conclude us as outward reality the Mathematicks the most certain of Sciences have no other foundation The Church bids farewell to the present World as if it were already dead and buried and lives by its Faith and love in Heaven as if it were already ascended thither and its life hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 or as we said Christ and Heaven descend to abide in every Christian that thus ascends by his holy Spirit and the consequence of this union for they never are in Heaven with him without his being on Earth in them Withall Christ is never backward at Redamation to prevent the delinquiums and deadly fits of his sincere lovers for want of being re-loved and those Eli Eli Lamma Sabacthani's which himself felt and underwent for us out of Love The Aire is not more at watch and readiness to break in at the place a Vessel is flowing out to prevent a Vacuum than Christ by holy inspirations to replenish that heart that expires after him in zeal and love and by that to prevent its dissolution Yea Vessels though never so full will not and cannot flow without such vent nor the Aire step through for relief but where the Vessel is in a posture and inclination to run out But Divine Inspirations far out do and super-repair human expirations yea sometimes shoot out by their force the all that is within even life it self into Martyrdom and repair it with a stronger life in the midst of death According to the Aphorisms or Paradoxes of Christ himself the first Author of this Divine Art of loving and mutual dying and living in one another He that findeth his life shall loose it and he that looseth his life for my sake shall find it Mat. 10.39 And the reason assign'd why Christians are able to count death and Tribulations as nothing yea to Glory in them is Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us Rom. 5.5 Because love delights and glories to prove it self by tryals especially when rais'd and elevated by a divine life and mixture And if crosses become easie and glorious and acceptable to Christians by this mystery of spending how much more will their prosperities and favours He that can rest on Thornes may much more on Downe There are many and familiar Instances in the World of these mutual transmigrations between lovers and Benefactors as well as between Christ and Christians Vendidit libertatem qui beneficium accepit Obligations exhale mens liberties and a courtesie from the Heart of the Giver steals away the heart of the Receiver But what Grace or obligation can be compar'd to Christs Grace to men The Servant upon the score of a little Salary in his want ceases to be his own man and becomes swallowed in reason into the person of his Master and who more deservedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord and Master of all men than our for ever blessed Redeemer Right love in Matrimony and Friendship is mutually
This Caelestial Champion is hardly to be exceeded oâ— out-done by any but by â— Joseph encountring flames burning not only his flesh but his very Soul and outgoing all other Martyrs that keep the Field by running away from his enemy and his thoughts and from himself into the bosome and protection and fear of God transforming the flattering visage of his lust into deformity and flat Rebellion against Heaven by the glass of consideration or consultation with his Heavenly Interest and gratitude How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 Chastity and purity of Soul and Body being a Divine transcendent vertue in every Age and zone but in the torrid zone of youth lovely and admirable beyond measure where the storm is greatest and the walls weakest there to make good one's post against all the Arts and Fireworks of Satan or his blandishments and deceitful Treaties and Counsels wherein he ever was stronger than in the Field or storm This is such a proof of victorious loyalty and courage and grace and wisdom all in one part as is hardly to be parallell'd or exceeded either in Earth or in Heaven It is doing Gods will on Earth not as but in some manner above what it is done in Heaven by those Glorious beings who are not infested with that war and contagion and clog of flesh and blood that may give greater lustre and merit to there obedience from its difficulties How much is he in Heaven while on Earth who is in a manner more than in Heaven by the Glory of his highly rewardable service and loyalty Yet the conflict of this Heavenly Victor seems as easie as shutting the eye or turning away the face from beholding vanity if compared to the archievements of another great Peer not to be estimated or understood by Carnal judges the contentment and serenity of a Lazarus at Dives his gate pin'd with hunger and thirst macerated with Sores and Boiles and tempted the more to unevenness by the Pride and Inhumanity of Dives more unnatural and merciless and Ansyber than his dogs who came and lick'd his sores A poor man in the eye of this World is like a wither'd plant out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness or desirable beauty in him but is despiz'd and rejected of men and shunn'd by friends and slighted in his Vote and Testimony by the Law which was ordain'd to do right to all men And forsaken as it were by God himself who seems more bountiful to the wicked that Blasphem his name who yet fare deliciously and are fill'd with his hid Treasures while the poor mans portion is short of the Fowls of the Air or the Rich mans Kennel enough to subdue the strongest Spirit and to bring down the stoutest heart to be without heart or life not only by the unsupportable pressure and discouragement but by the endless continuance of such a life-less life without all prospect of relief A condition that Agur prayed against least I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain Prov. 30.9 And all the World shunnes like paena damni and finds not that evil in perjury or perfidiousness or the Gallowes or Hell and damnation it self as in a poor and narrow fortune which sets one out of the World while it disables him to be of the fashion in it or to live up to his quality and degree He therefore that can be thankful to his God in poverty as well as plenty and bless him upon a Dunghill no less than on a Throne and though his outward man perish hath his inward man renewed day by day and is rich in Faith though poor in Pence and alive in Heaven while dead on Earth and viewing his condition with the right end of the prospective finds his poverty to be his riches and his misery to be his felicity and himself to be in the midst of Heaven when he was thought out of World for what else is it to be a perfect Christian than to be dead to this World and alive to Christ wherein a poor man hath the advantage above the Rich Carrying his Mortification ever in readiness about him while the Rich are to fetch it far off with labour and cost and much Discipline and difficulty and to strive against pride and intemperance and the snares and temptations of wealth wherewith the poor is seldom troubled but is strong in God who is his trust while Mammon is the strength and trust of the other and is cloth'd with Graces while the other with but Wormes and Clay and hath the feast of a good Conscience to match the other's surfets and the roomes of his understanding clear'd from all Childish conceptions by a manly Faith and looks upon fashions to be but stage appearances and Earthly dignities to be but bubbles and delicious fare but the Dainties of the dead and stately Mansions but as Childrens Turretts rear'd with Cards and this World to that to come to be but as the Earth is to Heaven for quantity and his Heavenly condition not to grow greater by addition or lesser by substraction of the goods of this World to or from it He I say that can thus live in death by his Faith and is hearty and contented amidst wants and honest and true in Rags is that Christian Phenix which the Psalmist conceived was hardly to be met with Who O Lord shall give thee thanks in the Grave or declare thy loving kindness in Destruction Lo the man is found that shall It is the poor that receive their evil things in this World yet praise God continually for his goodness nevertheless and are full of heart though not of present pay in his service and resolve to trust in him though he kill them These that are full of Halelujahs in their pains and wants how fit are they already to be of the Quire of Glory Therefore in the Sermon in the Mount where several of the blessed Citizens and chief Peers in this Heavenly Kingdom are recounted by our Saviour in their several ranks and orders the place of Primier Nobles and chief Probationers of Glory is remarkably assigned to the poor the really poor in Fortune expresly Luc. 6.20.16.25 Blessed be the poor for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are ye that hunger now for ye shall be filled blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh As well as the poor in Spirit or humble in heart amidst their greatest affluence wherewith they are not puffed as if it were their own but are diligent Stewards thereof under God for their poorer Brethren and Neighbours whose needs with their Compassion entitles them to an equal share The Rich that are humble and liberal the Poor that are thankful and contented act both equally above this World in the Society and view of God in Heaven Which points and discovers one other order in the Heavenly City that are to â—it above them also for these Stars of the