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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	church_n	part_n	visible_a	1,675	5	9.3112	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47083	Of the heart and its right soveraign, and Rome no mother-church to England, or, An historical account of the title of our British Church, and by what ministry the Gospel was first planted in every country with a remembrance of the rights of Jerusalem above, in the great question, where is the true mother-church of Christians? / by T.J.	Jones, Thomas, 1622?-1682.	1678 (1678)	Wing J996_VARIANT; ESTC R39317	390,112	653

Impostures are less tolerable than the open Treason of a Cromwell or the Tyranny of the Turk because men may easier endure to be robbed than to be cheated and deprived of their purses or Estates against their will than of their Honour and understanding with consent And as it hath been largely proved that Popery consists in evident disobedience and Rebellion against the Right Heir and Soveraign of the heart And Papists in a greater concern to jump exactly with the old Sexton whose Clock went truer than the Sun so positively also further to clear and evince the Truth to be on the Protestant side in this main point and Issue which is the hinge of the Controversie between us I shall also instance how we Protestants Loyally adhere to our Right guide and Judge and how the heart in all our principles relies on God and none else and on Christ who is the sole foundation of the Church 1 Cor. 3 3 11. and the Rock whereon it is built against which the gates of Hell can never prevail Math. 16.18 We build our Faith upon the Holy Scriptures which are Gods word for hearts to rest on whose Divine Authority themselves dare not deny without being the most convicted Hereticks that ever disturbed Gods Church in any age however they Blaspheme and traduce them before the Vulgar We come to know the Scriptures to be Gods word being not present our selves at passages by the Testimony and tradition of others such a Testimony as is also Divine or nearest to Divine to be relied on by the heart Not upon the Testimony of the Church of Rome by any means who hath so much cracked her credit by legending forgeing expurgating c. for it were a great fault as well as folly in us who profess our Devotion to God and the Truth to confide in the Father of lies or such his followers but upon our own honest Christian Ancestors with other Churches especially the Primitive when most pure and Holy and therefore likest to God and to be believed by consequence from the heart and the rather when seconded with the Testimony of the Holy Spirit to Holy Livers who is God We believe our sences in their own Sphere in many points against the whole world because we believe God in them with our hearts who made our sences and speaks through them Prov. 20.12 We believe beyond sence and can see things absent as if they were present to us when we have Gods word to assure the same to our Faith and consequently to our hearts and can discern Christ present in the blessed Sacrament and the Bread to be present nevertheless in different respects and be assured of both in our hearts through the evidence and strength of God in whom our Faith and sences act and move But in a Religion without the heart as is the Roman It is hard if not impossible to conceive or imagine how any Sacrament of Bread can be at all amongst them without Transubstantiation in the Elements who will not and cannot admit of any other change by the heart and Faith which are not much in use in that Church in this or any other part of worship which shews the root and occasion of that monstrous errour in that carnal Catholick Church which cannot distinguish between the objects of sence and Faith and is observ'd to Apostatize herein from their own Antient Mass which doth We believe plain and manifest Truths of Scripture without need of guides against the Glosses or Sophistry or Authority of the whole world to the contrary for we believe God himself in them with our hearts who requires and deserves to be so believed because God himself leads us by the hand as it were yea with both hands in plain Texts of Holy writ on the one side and his manifest Instincts of good and evil on the other in such manifest duties And when God himself doth speak all the world must hold the tongue while the Sun is above the Horizon Stars and Candles which answer to guides and supplies abscond and give way Hawks and all other Birds quit the Air where the Eagle Towres what Stupidity were it in a man of years and knowledge of the City to ask the way from Charing-Cross to Temple-bar out of Reverence to his guide and distrust of himself in things obscure and Controversiall wherein neither we nor others can clearly and assuredly discern Gods mind and will for the heart to acquiesce in here we make use of Candles and guides and especially our lawful Superiours who are Gods deputies to direct us and all others that resemble God in their gifts or years or places or Major vote For the next to God is as God unto us when God himself cannot be heard and our hearts can rest on them but not with equal assurance as on plain and manifest duties as their importance also is not equal for there is a greater respect of the two due to the Principal than to his deputy In like manner in all Indifferent matters which are the proper Province of the Magistrate for where Scriptures end there humane Laws begin where God withdraws there his Deputies step in we submit to the determinations and publick orders of our lawful Governours as to Gods voice and Authority out of the obedience of our hearts to Christ present in our Superiours to our Faith and regard to the Churches peace which is his image and darling And they that refuse to submit and conform do it in adherence to their conscience as they pretend now conscience without a Rule is an Atheist as is the heart without the Lord and of no use like a Sun-diall in the dark It is not conscience but the Quakers dark-light within and the Rule is Christs Will or to come nearest to his Will which is the utmost satisfaction of the heart now whether we keep nearest to Christ in adhearing stiffly to private fancy or submitting modestly to publick Authority and Major vote is the Question which St. Paul puts of question 1 Cor. 14.33 For Christ is where peace and humility and order is and not where pride and strife and division are and are ever like to be while each prefer themselves not only before their equals which is pride but their Superiours likewise which is disobedience and contempt of Christ in his Magistrates added to it which all true Christian hearts will avoid more than death as being not from God as Papists truly object And so we Protestants hold no Principle or Opinion but what agrees with the mind of God and Christ which was the Rule and measure that was to be agreed upon by both to arrive at Truth and endeavour always to approve our hearts to Christ who alone is their Judge and Soveraign and no mortal man whatsoever believing and considering that as there can be no sin or vertue where there is no Law so a Law were to no effect or purpose without a Judge to reward and punish the observers

peculiar Ministers and Levites set a part by Gods Institution on purpose who were and are the Clergy of his Clergy and Heritage and the Priests to those in speciall that were and are his peculiar people and Priest-hood Exod. 19.6 Revel 1.6 The Church it self being Laick and common compar'd to these as was the World to the Church For no less is implied in the reason of those expressions where both the Christian and Jewish Church are said to be a Kingdom of Priests as in Exodus or Kings and Priests to God as in the Revelation they being in special manner Kings and Priests and Clergy from whom the name and title is deriv'd to others for some likeness and comparison for what the Copy is that is the Original much more And if Christs mission was not from Secular but Divine Authority so neither is the Institution of the Evangelical Priesthood from man but from God being sent from Christ as he was sent from God Joh. 20.21 Bishops and Presbyters being equally from Christs own Ordination and appointment though not of equal order and degree between themselves but in several respects the one Superiour and which may seem strange inferiour likewise to the other For the better understanding whereof the distinction between Spiritual and Temporal is to be remembered and considered in its Primitive and Apostolical acception and not the modern Roman sense who confound Heaven and Earth in their notions as they do in their values and affections the one referring to the present visible world the object of sense the other to the Church or Invisible world to come wherein Christians live here by Faith the Church being more excellent than this world as eternity is more than time and yet this world more excellent than the Church which is dead unto it in the estimation of sense as is the living more excellent than the dead Eccles 9.5 whereby is discoverable the several Superiorities between Episcopacy and Presbytery in the same person in whom both are co-incident as they are in every Bishop and those Elders in Timothy who for Ruling well and labouring also in the word and Doctrine were counted worthy of double honour 1 Tim. 5.17 where in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have a clavis to decide this difference for the habitude and Character of a Bishop is that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ruler or Prince as the Brittains term their Arcsh-Bishop of Carleon to Monk Agustine but that of a Priest or Presbyter is the form and quality of a Subject or Servant or Labourer which two notions greatly differ like God and Creature But then their several allotments or respective worlds are to be considered wherein the one and the other are said to labour or bear Rule And clear first it is that the Presbyters labour as a Servant under Christ in his word and Sacraments is within the Vineyard of the Church and therefore belonging to Eternity as the Church it self doth and that the Rule of the Bishop in the second place is Temporal by consequence and about order in this present world and the better preservation of the Temporal out-side of the Church for to affirm it to be a Spiritual Rule over the Church in its in-side which is Eternal and Christs own Peculiar Jurisdiction were very inconvenient and unsound And this Temporal Superiority over the Temporal part of an Ecclesiastical Community as to all Causes and persons that be within it for any Society whether Sacred or Civil can no more subsist or fare well without a Governour or a Chief than a body without a head continues in Bishops by Christs establishment till the rising of the Sun that is till the Civil Magistrate of that Province become Christian whose defect they before supplied as Guardians and then it doth set or cease but Heliacally as the Stars set in the morning in deference to a greater lustre that is better able to do their work continuing still in the same firmament and Sanhedrin under his Rayes and bound nevertheless by their office and duty to be ready to shine again without him as before in case of darkness or Eclipse as was said before And it well appears how the Christian Temporal Magistrates and the Church have understood one another in reference to their several bounds and limits by those parcels of Ecclesiastical Authority the one hath resum'd as his right and the other willingly quitted and yeilded thereunto as just upon his arrivall to Supremacy in Church as well as state For we never find him offering to touch any part of the Priestly office or the Power of the Keys nor to preach or Baptize or absolve or consecrate which acts and Authorities belong to another Spiritual Kingdom farr enough out of his Temporal Dominion and Jurisdiction But several parts of Episcopal Rule and Government have been rightly assum'd and yielded to him in Generall Counsels and in our Church of England in particular wherein he is declared supreme in all Causes and over all persons Ecclesiastical which was the Original Right of Metropolitans but since held by them as was fit not as Soveraigns any more but as subordinate to their Christian Magistrates And by this Hypothesis is resolvable whether Bishops ordain Priests as they are Priests or as they are Rulers which would make for the strength and re-allyance of the Protestant Interest For Bishops cannot Ordain of themselves without Priests to assist much less can Priests Ordain without a Bishop to preside where he may be had and Christian Kings offer not to resume as their temporal right any part of the Ordination or Consecration of either sort but only nominate our Bishops in the right of Patrons or Founders or as representers of the whole Community by whom they were in the Primitive Church elected as likewise in the Brittish Therefore the Priest who is but a Labourer is Inferiour and subordinate in this World to the Bishop who is a Ruler by Divine Order and designation not to be violated by any without the guilt and scandal of being Rebells against Superiours And the Bishop in his Chair as a Ruler is Inferiour to himself in his Pulpit as Christs Labourer and Preacher in reference to the other World For it is a higher excellency to be the least in Eternity than the greatest in time to subdue sin than to subdue the World Psal 84.11 Which yet is so as to Faith and reason and the Consciences of all sober men with their own yet not as to sense or the Law and course of this present life and general Practice whereby through humane infirmity very few yet not wanting in our times have been observed to be as ambitious of the labour of Converting Souls as of the honour and command of a Rich Bishoprick though the worst and Welsey himself at their dying hour have yielded to this Truth Whereby no Inferiour Minister that is diligent in his work and calling can have

Inferiour either in Piety or Parts or Prowess And change their Truths for Lyes their Bibles for Legends and Christ for a Pope and the Creator for a Creature Can any of our Gracious Princes and Defenders in whose protection under God we trust suffer their people while not backward to assist them with their Prayers and Lives and Fortunes both them and their posterity to be thus enslav'd under a Forreign yoak which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear and so long strugled against and in the end not without success And such an indignity and violence to be offer'd to the Ancient honour and rights of this our Brittish Church and Nation For manifest it is that the remnant in Wales are the undoubted Heires and Successors of the Ancient Brittains who since their Incorporation are in all reason and honour to be defended in their Priviledges and immunity by the whole English Nation for in a body the right or wrong of any part is within the sense and concern of the whole and the weaker it is the more and especially by our Princes and chief Nobles being of the same descent Ye● the Body and Major part of the English themselves were proved to be descendants from the Ancient Brittains and by right of Bloud and Faith as well as Armes to succeed into their places and possessions and priviledges and aire and humour and their Infirmities and divisions in some part as their vertues in most and bound therefore to repel these Roman encroachments from themselves by self-preservation which is a strong ●ye upon all mankind and from their Children by Paternal trust which is stronger as the same obligations upon our Princes in whom all rights and trusts of private men and Fathers concenter is strongest of all And this new Roman Catholick Faith or Fraud rather hath enlarg'd the Royal Office and duty to one part of Princely care and circumspection which Justinian never dream'd of For besides the defence of their people from Forreign Invasion and Captivity by their Armes and Puissance and from Domestic broiles and disorder by their Laws and wisdom in which two parts the Emperour compriz'd and circumscrib'd the Imperial charge There is a third Protection of their flock now incumbent upon them upon the same equity and reason their preservation from Forreign Imposture which contains both the other evils in its womb and draws home-bred confusion and hostile Subjugation and slavery along with at its heels and therefore in point of necessity fit for Princely encounter and prevention but in point of Honour much more it being a greater excellency to be wise than to be strong and couragious for the Souldier gives place to his General and our Sheriffs obey our Judges and of the two miseries it is more Ignominious and disgraceful to be over-seen than overcom as they are ever like to be who will be guided by any Mortals here-say against their knowledge and regulated Conscience And it may wonder'd what good is to be seen or gain'd by our return to Popery so destructive of Publick Peace and Eternal Salvation and so derogatory and disloyal towards Divine Soveraignty as well as human as hath been prov'd all along to whom Princes themselves ow an Original exemplar●y obedience and fidelity as Subjects ow to them a secondary by way of consequence and Copy There is much manifestly to be lost by the change of inestimable Knowledge and pretious Liberty and valuable Wealth and Treasure great will be the damage and detriment the Incongruity greater The Impossibility to sober men and Christians the greatest of all What though every man be Lord of his own Purse to give away what is his own how and to whom he pleases yet he cannot be thus Liberal in the encouragement of Vice and Imposture without a blot and censure upon his understanding Nor betray and necessitate his fellows for condition though not for folly to the like contribution and disbursement without great dishonesty and sacriledge if he be private person or if a Superiour in Publick trust without High and Blasphemous Perfidiousness for to explain these Epithites the wrong of private men upon others of the same condition is not an assault on their rights alone but on God whose they are and all their rights by consequence whom they mutually represent to one another 1 Cor. 8.12 as they undergo the correlative habitude and fashion of Creatures upon themselves by consequence like their faces Gods Images seen by one another but out of sight unto themselves But the wrongs and breach of trusts in Superiours towards their Subjects trusting under the shadow of their wings is like the case of God proving untrue to his Creatures whereof there can be no conception made without Blasphemy nor is there any manner of Instance or track to be found thereof throughout the whole regular Creation neither the weakest nor wildest Creatures being ever found false or unnatural to their own dependants only miscreant Tyrants and Parents and Governours without bowels are they alone who Blaspheme the Divine Character they bear by being as God in their persons but as Satan in their deportment Acting a Deity that hath neither Grace nor Goodness nor Truth which is the highest Abomination and stupendiously monstrous Blasphemy that can be conceiv'd or represented which God will rebuke But the Incongruity increases further for what were such a change but selling our Birth-right for a mess of Catholick poison and preferring Italian Hypocrisie before English and Brittish Truth a rotten Disease before sound Health a Painted Face before a natural Beauty or for chast and Noble Matrons to become Hand-maids to Courtezans or Grave Judges to be Secretaries to Theives or Gentry and great Nobles to be Pages to Mountebanks or Kings and Emperours a Life Guard to Rebels and High-way-men Xanthe retro propera versaeque recurrite limphae the World will be as orderly when Rivers flow back to the tops of Mountains and the Globe of the Earth enlightens the Sun and the Stars and the Beasts of the Field who are without heart or understanding are to Instruct mankind And the Impossibility to the sober is yet greatest of all such a change being very improbable in fate and most impossible in reason God who is Irresistible in his Judgements is as Omnipotent in his mercies towards his People His Church flourish'd here in Brittain more or less and without Romish defilement for 600 years that is from the Resurrection to Monk Augustine's entrance It was afterwards sorely visited and condemn'd to Popish darkness and Captivity for great sins for the space of 800 years and visited again in mercy at the Reformation God's departure upon displeasure Ebbs according to hundreds but his return in mercy flows according to thousands to those that love him or whom he loves though we are unworthy yet he is all mercy and Truth and it is not to be doubted but we have had our Abrahams Isacks and Jacobs in our Brittish Israel who

Apostolical Rule in my Text in your own hands to measure and Judge as Solomon once did between two Mothers the true and the pretended For a Private Person with God to guide him may judge Infallibly which Church most agrees with God for a wavering eye and a trembling hand having a streight and a stable rule and line to guide it partakes of the stability and streightness that directs it the guide and guided being one and the same person by fiction and agreement And the Roman Catholick themselves as they love to be called cannot be denied to be every Mothers Son as Infallible as the Judge himself or their Church is to whom they give themselves entirely over to be guided by them take therefore in Gods name Gods clear mind and measure and judge impartially with the heart and soul and in the strength of him that guides you Your Holy Mother the Church of England hath nourished you up in a Sound and Orthodox Religion and Worship which you and your Prosterity can understand and therefore say Amen to it from your hearts because you understand it The great pretender of Rome starves her Children at Nurse and all their life time in their own Territories by Politick Ignorance and binds and enslaves their stoutest Champions in chains of darkness and of implicit faith and blind obedience the better to keep them under in Captivity and slavery to serve her unworthy and unnatural designs and to fight against the Truth as the Turk breeds up deluded Janizaries to War and subdue their own Fathers and Mothers and people which absolute and blind subjection of the heart to any man on Earth is Idolatry in the giver and the taker Is it not lamentable to consider how prophane and perfidious the guides of the Church of Rome are towards God and their people committed to their charge and in deceiving the one and mocking the other with a worship in an unknown tongue without the heart and understanding which is therefore a meer nullity by the Divine Doctrine of my Text and by common sense and therefore no worship at all but Idleness and ●●●●ccation approaching to Idolatry Religion without the mind is not Religion or Worship but a shew or Stage-Play or a Counterfeit of Religion as the Scene is of Truth and History where an Actor or a Mimick stands for a Prince as here the shadow for the substance or crossing of the body for the contrition of the soul and all are able to know and understand very well the whole management in both to be a meer divertisement of the fancy only more sufferable on the Stage than in the Church in Gods presence where more sobriety and seriousness of mind is required and nothing else in point of Truth and reality because the Original Persons and parties are absent and wanting there the true Hero and here the Truth of the heart A sincere Protestant is grieved and troubled at every straggling thought and the least deviation of his heart at Prayer in Gods presence as a great and griveous affront and contempt of the Divine Majesty like turning our backs to a Prince while we are speaking to him But our confident Bigots of Rome by their Publick and common pactice maintain and defend that God is best worshipped when he is so affronted and despised and that the total absence of the heart and understanding so there be an outward Opus operatum with lip and breath is no sin at all but right Catholick Devotion most agreeing with the Deity If mumbling Pater Nosters and Ave Maries whether at Church or Closet or at Cards or Plays as Witches do Charms without knowledge or Attention or meaning make good and current Roman-Catholick Devotion then Parrots and Magpyes and Apes may commence Catholick Disciples of the Roman-Catholick Salvation And upon this score perhaps it was that one of the great and Sainted Patriarchs of an order amongst them began to bestow his pains and zeal in Preaching to Birds When men in contrariety to the Apostle in my Text judge it fanatical Innovation to Worship God as Protestants do with the heart and understanding They that so exclude the heart in the first place as needless will they not exclude the Lord likewise in the second place for these two are Correlates take away the one and take away the other also where the heart and the Lord are shut out in the first and second place will not the fear of the Lord be excluded likewise though the beginning of wisdom in the third place And where the fear of the Lord is once banisht from Religion is there any sin or Villany in Soul or Body that such Religious Atheists will boggle at to act and prepetrate at opportunity or temptation when it may with safety be committed and with impunity from the Laws of man It s well that Church exceeds all others in Pardons and Absolutions if such seives hold water for their Principles cut out work enough for Pardons and if their own allowed and best Historians are to be believed the practices of their chiefest Popes come not short of their Principles How deplorable and sad is the condition of such a Church to which no further degree of disorder and misery can be added or imagin'd Nor the Devil drive this nail further to the head than that they should strongly believe themselves to be the sole and only Catholicks salvable and infallible in such gross and damnable Errours And yet upon such holy guides such infallible Rocks the Roman-Catholick Church is built For all with them are bound to believe as the Church that is the Pope believes whom they believe to be infallible For though their lives are often frail and vicious yet their Doctrines or Testimonies for God say they are ever firm and true As if a Vicious life were not an effectual quenching and renouncing of the whole Faith of such a person during such impenitence or as if a Debauch'd person or Atheist were a fit witness for the Christian Faith much less the Judge thereof He that will be Infallible for another ought first to be Infallible for himself and his own Salvation And every man is bound upon his everlasting Peril to be as Infallible as he can for himself and his Brethren But as a Creature no man is or can be Infallible nec vox hominem Sonat but more or less he may be Infallible by help from without according as he is guided wholly or in part by God who is alone Infallible And the issue and whole state of the cause and difference between Protestants and Papists lyes in the right choice and election of their Infallible guide and judge Who this is being the great Question There is no judge under God and Christ the sole judge of quick and dead but the invict Supream Powers himself hath appointed in all Kingdoms and Churches and private breasts Invict Conscience in every private man in all Private and all Eternal concerns Invict

Fathers and Governours within their several Families depending on them for Education life and maintenance Invict Christian Princes and Holy Bishops in their several distinct Provinces and Kingdoms in matters of peace and order and external Ceremony being publick Consciences in their several Dominions which are so many larger Bodies or Families yet none of these are absolute or infallible any further than they agree with a Superiour Soveraign will which alone being such is their Rule and guide communicating its Infallibity to them that follow it which all are bound to do Now who this Infallible Soveraign guide and judge is whether the Pope in his Chair and Bulls or Christ and his Scriptures written in the Bible and mens hearts and Consciences seems to be the Question between Rome and us The Roman Church affirms it belongs to the Pope being near and visible on Earth The Reformed will have it to belong to Christ who is far nearer to mens Souls though in Heaven With Protestants the Invisible Soul is correlate with God its Invisible Lord where is its rest and satisfaction With Papists it must be correlate to the Pope a visible judge and guide else it wanders in uncertainties like a lost sheep Or though both agree perhaps that Gods mind and will is the Law and Rule of the Soul yet they vastly disagree about its promulgation That is Gods will say the Papists what the Pope defines to be his will that his Scripture and sense thereof what he allows and nothing but the sense of the Pope must be the sense of God though never so sensual and Carnal or contrary to truth and to common sense But Protestants hold Gods mind and will to be and to have been knowable by men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at several times and several wayes Heb. 1.1 Not only in the time of the Old Testament and before by the light of nature and the Law and the Prophets and Angelical Revelations and Vrim and Thummim and Visions and Dreams But also in the last dayes by his Son in his Holy Gospel and other inspired Writs delivered to his Church and sufficiently attested to the sense and Conscience by Miracles and right Catholick Tradition And that it is the first and proper work and duty of all mankind as soon as they come out of their Infancy and Non-age as on the one hand to know the difference between God and the Creature and the right and wrong Soveraigns and Legislators of their Souls and to follow truth and vertue which are ever the Laws of the one and to shun vice and lyes which are the dictates and Impostures of the other so also carefully to discern between the Authority of the Master and the Servant or the Prince and his Officer between the Canonical Scripture which is the Divine will and Testament of Christ and humane Tradition which is the Testimony of his Ministers subject to and controllable by and by no means Superiour to the other for next to the confounding of God and Idols in our values who are so infinitely contrary The levelling of all distance and degrees between Master and Servant though subordinate and friendly is most absurd and abominable with all sober Christians saving them at Rome with whom the Authority of their Church or the Pope which with them is equivalent is usually exalted above the authority of the Holy Scriptures though the will and mind of Christ the undoubted and confessed Lord and Master And we also hold that truth in the General which is ever Gods will and mind may be well known by men divers wayes without the Pope As matters of fact and Tradition by the Testimony of honest men of good lives and clean hands and Holy minds and Inclinations free from all worldly ends and designes in their report For where God alone doth rule and possess the heart there we may be sure of truth and sincerity where any Carnal interest or Idol prevails instead there we are to expect lyes Legends and Impostures which are the Dialect of false Gods as truth is of the true God dwelling in the heart And in like manner by the Oaths of Credible Neighbours wherein God is called present to the heart and mouth and by the decrees and sentences of Magistrates and just Judges who in Scripture are called Gods and the General consent of Nations vox populi vox dei and by every mans diligence and search after Truth as after hid Treasure which God rewards and prospers Prov. 2.4 5. and his pains and study in History Languages Customs Criticism c. As in the use of means without which God is tempted But instead of all these methods with Papists the sole report and decision of a Pope though unlearn'd or swayed perhaps by Interest or Avarice or Ambition or Fear which mislead the heart and tongue from God and Truth shall nevertheless be relyed on as an Oracle Infallible more conclusive than the famous Delphick and the heart and Conscience in every man which were made to indent with God and truth be totally excluded and silenc'd in that Church under the notion and bear-skin of private Judgment and opinion which endangers all Yet Protestants resolve to follow the former methods in whole or in part let the Pope contradict or Curse as much as he please So Papists are led by Authority Forraign and often false Protestants by Truth Domestick and more sure They follow the Doctrines of men as did the Scribes and Pharisees heretofore we the voice of Christ and the Commandments of God as all Christs sheep ought to do Herein I say lyes the main difference between us and not so much in those other many points and and Articles wherein we are divided As Image-Worship Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Purgatory Indulgences c. Which are and will be Learnedly and voluminously defended on each side to the Worlds end while each party resolves firmly to adhere to the God or Idol that either have chosen for their guide to the last gasp with stedfast zeal and constancy For if Protestants as well as Papists could believe the Pope or the Papists as well as Protestants did once believe Christ to be this Infallible Judge and guide all Controversie between us would soon cease and be laid asleep The whole Controversy lyes therefore in the choice or rejection in obedience or disobedience to the right guide or immediate Soveraign of the heart whether Christ or the Pope And exact obedience to the wrong becomes perfect disobedience to the right Superiour And that the Issue will lye here may further appear from each ones case stated by himself and their charge and imputation each against the other and from the state of the question naturally arising hereupon For the Protestants say they take Christ and Scripture and Conscience and what agrees thereto for the guide and rule of their hearts and judgments And that the Papists take the Pope and hold opinions and practices upon his Authority against

pronounce Joh. 20.23 nor the flock they feed 1 Pet. 5.2 their own but all is Christs own Mat. 28.18 1 Cor. 3.23 And they are but Earthen Vessels and meer Instruments and Ministers under Christ and Stewards of his Mysteries and Oracles 2 Cor. 4.7 The lustre of his own Power and presence obscures the Authority of these his Officers as the Sun doth Mercury by nearness who yet doing their duty aright and from the heart in his sight whether in preaching or threatning or absolving do all with his full Authority and what they bind upon Earth is bound in Heaven and whom they absolve upon Earth are absolved in Heaven and who Honours and despises them doth Honour and despise Christ himself to his high reward or peril 1 Thess 4.8 For the power and splendor of a right Minister of Christ lyes in being one and the same and incorporated together with his principal which is effected by the sincerity of his heart performing every part of his duty as in his sight and for his approbation only whereby his preaching shall become powerful and victorious and his Counsels Oracles and his threats thunders and his comforts present health and Salvation as if Christ himself spoke in him for then his sheep hear his voice Joh 10.3 There is not that sympathy and intelligence and corresponding responses between unisons of two Instruments when only one is touch'd as there is between Christ in the heart of sincere hearers discerning Christ in the hearts of sincere Preachers O the Glorious Enterviews and Heavenly contentions and killings of Grace and gratitude that occurr between two Christs in Master and Disciple in several respects and habitudes Speaking and hearing the words of Christ between them meek Majesty in the one lowlily imploring prostrate extasie in the other lovelily adoring and yielding For the Apostles had a regard to Christ as the judge of their preaching in the Consciences of their hearers as well as in their own Christ in both observing and overseeing the one and the other in their duties Therefore the Bereaens are commended by the Holy Ghost as Noble and Generous in that they did not receive with implicit Faith what St. Paul preached unto them but weighed and examined his Doctrine with their Consciences and Scripture as it were with eye and rule searching the Scriptures dayly whether those things were so Act. 17.11 For the Conscience of another is not our rule but our own neither shall we be judg'd hereafter according to the cure and sincerity of our Teachers but according to what was to be our own care and duty Therefore the Spirits of Prophets though inspir'd were to be tryed and judged by Rule or Christ in the Scripture by other Prophets and Christians that had not the same numerical inspiration 1 Cor. 14.29 32. And the Prophet of Juda was slain by God by a Lyon 1 King 13. for believing Gods word in another Prophet against Gods word to himself St. Paul considered that Christ had a throne in every Soul and accordingly addressed his preaching to stand or fall by it as that which could easily discern and judge between craft and truth 2 Cor. 4.2 We have renounc'd the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftyness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God for every mans Conscience ought to judge for it self of the Truths it hears and of the guides it trusts and chuses else truth and errour to be sav'd or damned by the one or the other were indifferent were one and the same unto us Therefore how many Souls there are so many Kingdoms there are and so many Christs in them to govern them here because he is their judge hereafter And nothing without us how right or good soever hath validity or being or naturalization in us till it be received and approved and re-enacted in every Soul for Atheism doth not annihilate God in himself but in the Soul of the Atheist As Faith doth not give being to Christ and Christian Truths but only in Believers hearts And the Soul can enact nothing rightly without the advice and Councel of its Superiour God and Christ in the heart which is its rule and in whom it lives and moves and acts And nothing can it act with right and validity nor satisfaction itself or safety from the sword of the Magistrate without or besides this rule For Rulers were ordain'd to be a terrour to evil works and not to good to correct the whoredoms and Idolatries of the Soul breaking out into vicious bastard Acts concieved by Idols and lusts admitted into those affections which were due to none but Christ her husband and guide And no Child is so lovely in the eye of a fond Parent as are the thoughts words and actions of Christians conceived between the Soul and Christ guiding her self by his word and Ministry and that not only in the sight of God and Governours and good men but to the Consciences of the worst sinners and much more to their own It 's a natural instinct in the Souls of all men good or evil which laughs at all humane Laws to the contrary to admit of nothing into their Creed or practice without consulting with the Rule that guides the heart whether it be Christ or Worldly Interest Neither would men at first have believed the Miracles of of Christ or his Apostles or received the Scripture without consultation first had by every one with God speaking to him in his senses or in his Conscience But the Church of Rome expects that Christians though subjects of Christs Heavenly Kingdom should receive her Laws and dictates implicity and without scanning or recourse had to Christ in the Conscience or private judgment which they utterly disallow and discountenance in diametrical opposition to Apostolical practice and common sense and instincts and the nature of the Soul and the Soveraignty of Christ the King of Souls which therefore is a manifest Antichristian invasion upon the Liberties of Jerusalem which is above our true Mother and the temple of the Lord Eph. 2.21 22. wherein we every where find Popes intruding If the inside of our British Churches that is our Souls owe Daughterly subjection to them at Rome It is either as they are Soveraigns of this Heavenly Jerusalem or as they are Ministers and Pastors If they arrogate the first then the charge of Antichrist against them is acknowledged and confessed with some ingenuity appearing in the Blasphemy If their pretended power over our spirits be only Ministerial and St. Paul and St. Peter never did nor could claim more over the inside of any Church 1 Pet. 5.3 why are not our Popes painful preachers to the Consciences of men If not ours yet of their own Italians Let that Rule and Canon of St. Peter whom they so much own for their Founder Judge between them and us which Church the Romish or

are more intent for peferments in the Church than for the Kingdom of Heaven or adorning such dignities with life and Doctrine who can hold their peace at the abominable sins of men whereby God is offended and roare to purpose at the least injury done to themselves as if done to Christ such are Gods Enemies and not his Priests the Ringleaders of the wicked and not Popes of the Church traitors not succcessors of the Apostles Rebels not Ministers of Christ And for our Brittish Customs they were and are Primitive and Catholick and Oriental and not Roman We observe with solemn fast the holy week in Lent called Grawys from n Leges Howeli Dha apud Spelman quasi garw-wysg different and rough attire as is conceived then us'd especially therein Dydh Mercher y Bràd and Dydh Gwener y Croglith that is as we term those two days Wednesday wherein he was betrayed and Friday with the lessen of the Cross and from thence all the n Usher 882. Baronius An. 34. n. 47. Wednesdays and Fridays of the year saving Pentecost as Bede confesses of us and the strict practice rhereof with the devouter sort is fresh in memory this and other Brittish Customs having escaped better under Popery than under the pretended Reformation of the late War whereas its well known the Church of Rome stands condemn'd and censur'd in her Clergy and laity the one to be depriv'd the other to be excommunicate by the 6th o Conc. in Trull c. 55. c. Plin. lib. 10. Epist 97. Generall Council for fasting upon the Saturdays 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrary to the Ancient tradition of the Church and the Apostolical Canon of like severity It 's no wonder therefore if the Church of Rome denies the Authority of this Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p Scholiast in loc For it went like a Sword through their heart to find themselves charg'd and impeached of going contrary to the Apostolical Canon And though the Church of Brittain in the West and of Africa in the South and of Millain at her doors agreed with the Eastern and Apostolick followed by this Council yet this Universal consent must not prevail the single Church of Rome Schismatically dissenting from the whole Church in her traditions must be Catholick nevertheless and her Customs to be observed equally with the Scriptures The Asiatic custome of singing a Carol to Christ about Cock-crowing mention'd in Plinie p L. 10. Ep. 97. in his Epistle to Trajan the Emperour in the first Age of the Church is retain'd amonst us to this day in our Plygains or Pulgains as we term them Though we look upon the material Cross as a great rarity which at Rome they Idolize and are beholding to our St. Helena for any naile or part thereof they have to shew and honour that bearing as the Church's Coat of Arms yet our true sense and Religious use thereof appears in our Remembrances and obligations by it to brotherly love and charity having no other word to express welcome which ought to be from the heart but Croeso which is deriv'd from the Cross mae chwi groeso you are welcome in the Cross Though they believe no Purgatory yet at the death of their Friends it is usual with them to wish the party Deceas'd a good Resurrection Duw a Ro iddo Ailgyfodiad da God grant him a good Resurrection an Ancient q Epiphanius in Aerio practice in the Eastern Church much abus'd by them at Rome to their secular profit as usual None have firmer beliefs of the Immortality of the Soul and of the other World than the Ancient Brittains nor greater detestation and Dicipline against lying even in Children which the Roman Church indulges in her Records and Liturgies and chiefest Saints r Cyn gywired a'r Ancor Brittish Proverb as honest and true as an Anchorite Eremitas Anachoretas abstinentioe majoris magisqve spirituales alibi non videas Grald Cambr. Descript Cambr. c. 18. They had likewise besides Eremites and Anchorites of the stictest sort their Nuneries for Christ's Virgins and Abbeyes for Monkes not such as our Western Modern Orders of St. Benedict St. Francis or St. Domnick but far Ancienter and after the Rule in the East and ſ Usher p 110. Aegypt so much extoll'd in in the Ancient Fathers and especially in St. Chrysostom's Homilies all along not begging their Bread or being a burden to others but earning their Livelihood with the work of their hands and spending the rest of their time in Study and mutual Edification renowned in History for their great Sanctity and Learning yet it was not counted unlawful for any of their Clergy to Marry for St. Patrick was the Son of † Idem p. 818. Calphurnius a Deacon who was the Son of † Idem p. 818. Potitus a Presbyter And u Spelm. Concil Arelat Restitutus the Brittish Archbishop at the Council of Arles was a Married man and so was St. Hilarie his friend as well as St. Philip and St. Peter In their Tonsures which is also an x Bed l. 3. c. 25 exception by Augustin's party against them if they had any they followed the manner of the East which shaved the forehead not the Crown as did our Romanists who were as much dissatisfied with Theodorus of Tarsus St. Paul's City who being design'd Archbishop of Canterbury to revive and promote the Roman Interest in Brittain quite lost well nigh was y Bed lib. 4. c. 1. fain to stay four Months at Rome before his setting out into his dignity that his Haire might grow fit to be shaved after the Roman mode being well contented to part with an old lock for a new Throne which proves the Greeks to be as far different from the Romans as our Brittains in this Rite Episcopalem vero Confirmationem prae alia gente ●otus populus magnopere petit x Cambrens Descriptio Cambr. c. 18. no Nation had Episcopal Confirmation more in esteem and so desired by all as the Brittains saith Cambrensis whose Archbishops did Consecrate their Suffragans and were Consecrated by them in their own Province And never sought to Rome for their Pall as did several other Nations as Pope Gregory did a Cambrens Itmerar Cambr. lib 2. c. 1. acquaint his Augustine in answer to his 7● Question directing to take no Superiority over Arles because ab Antiquis praedecessorum meorum temporibus pallium accepit that Archbishop did use to receive his Pall from Rome and therefore was not to be depriv'd of the Authority which once he had obtained a Cambrens Itmerar Cambr. lib 2. c. 1. Britanmarum vero Omnes Episcopes tuae fraternitate committimus But he 'le give leave to his Augustine to bring all the Bishops of Brittain under him who by consequence and in the Popes opinion and diligent search never had any Pall from Rome which by the Principles of the b Bed l. 2. c. 28. 7 ●

Interrog New Roman Church is Essentially requisite to constitute an Archbishop because it brings a round sum of Money to their Coffers and dependance and Canonical obedience to their See and the disowning the Supremacy of Temporal Soveraigns by Consequence But whether the Archbishops of Brittain so esteem'd for several Primitive Ages by Emperours and the great Councils of the Ancient Church who summon'd and own'd them under that dignity and Charter must lose their Ancient right and priviledge at the pleasure of a younger Church because it never complyed with its new and sordid devices b Innocentius 3 tius de Officio Misse c. 51. for gain and Lucre is justly a question of which more hereafter but their diminution in fact upon the reason that is implyed to occasion it sets it out of question that by the confession of the Popes themselves Brittain never own'd or acknowledged any Superiority that Rome pretended over it But though our Bishops never went to Rome for their Pall or Consecration yet they us'd not to stand upon such terms of distance from the Asiatic Churches nor the Church of Jerusalem though for some Ages by reason of the destruction of that City truckling under Daughter Cities that were of greater note and fame but really and originally the Mother of all Churches and particularly respected by the Church of Brittain upon that score For thither they us'd from hence to flock and resort as is observed by St. Hierome c Tom. 1 Epl. 17. Usher p. 202. thither d Idem ● 177. St. Helena repaired with her Retinue building and enriching Churches Thither Pelagius went and was cleared in their Councils explaining his own sense in e Idem 248. Greek before them against his Errours Whether it was his care and Interest to speak more warily or whether as one defends Calvin against a Jesuite charging him with Atheism that he read Calvin in Bellarmines Works and not in his own but it is rather to be supected that Pelagius was more truly guilty of his dangerous Heresie than that the Synods of his own Countrey should so explode him without cause or St. Augustine his honourer write so well in vain against him But not to digress but to speak more directly for Pelagius had he been Orthodox was but a f Idem p. 210. Layman thither our chiefest Brittish Doctors are recorded to repair St. David Paternus Elius or Teilaw and to be Consecrated Bishops by that Patriarch in order to to their return which the Brittish Church was so far from dis-rellishing that the first of them in full Synod was translated to be Archbishop of Menevia called afterwards by his Name upon the score of that Consecration together with his parts as before was mentioned out of e Usher p. 210. Idem p. 474. Girald vita S. David Giraldus Cambrensis whose aime was as himself declares to be another Gildas in delivering nothing but the Truth f Idem Pre●at Cambriae Descript Many other Rites and Customes there were in use among the Brittains as Bede observes that were contrary to the unity of His Catholick Church g Bed lib. 2. c. 2. plurima alia faciebant unitati Ecclesiasticae contraria which took up a long dispute at the Synod of Streanshall from which the Brittains would by no means recede but preferr'd their own Traditions as well as they might before all that were followed by the Roman Church at that time which Bede calls the whole World whereby it appears that though our Brittish Antiquities are many of them lost and perished through Wars and desolations and the special malignity of the Church of Rome to suppress the memory and honour of so emulous a Church as this of Brittain was in its eyes and Abbot Dunawd's Books of the priviledges of the See of St. David and of the Ancient Rites and Customes of the Brittish Church mentioned in Pitseus were destroyed with many other at Bangor with its Monks and Monastery and h H. Lluid Fragm p. 58. Library and I pray God to preserve our English Libraries from the like rude zeal yet the account of its Customes and Antiquities is sufficiently preserved and contain'd in the first best Councils o● the Primitive Church and the Learned Orthodox Fathers of the East with whom it so entirely and exactly agreed and concurr'd in all sound Traditions as appears by the tast and instances I have already given from which Rome very much departed and stands notoriously censur'd by the Catholick Church as Schismatical for the same which abundantly proves the Brittish Church never was any Daughter of Rome nor could be not only because of Ancienter years and standing than her supposed Mother but because as wholly dislike to her in every line and feature and humour and Ceremony as are the Spaniards to the French though both Christians in their kind I shall add but two or three of their Homilitical Customes and Principles and pass on to the Characters of their Antagonists from Rome such I mean as had more influence upon their Converse with one another whether the respect of the Church to the Prince or the Prince and people to the Church or the people to one another As to their respect and Loyalty to their Prince There are no footsteps in the Primitive Church nor the Ancient Brittish for deposing Kings for Heresies or Scandal Spiritual Dicipline is not to alter or unsetle Civil rights It 's an Antichristian fift Monarchy Principle that offers at it If Rome be a Mother Church in any thing it is in this Whoever us'd it here had it from her forge Mens several rights as they are men and as they are Christians are as different as peace of Conscience and the peace of the Kingdom as the law of the land and the law of God as the Body and the Soul as Outlary and Excommunicat●on which the Church of Rome confounds together But the Brittish Clergy knew how to pay their several rights to God and Caesar to be faithful Servants to Christ and Loyal Subjects to their King they boldly reproved and censur'd the enormous vices of their Princes out of love to God and them and Countrie as appears by a Godwin Catalog Hector Boethius Hist lib. 8. Voadin Archbishop of London reproving King Vortigern for marrying Hengist's Daughter a Pagan when he had a lawfull Queen slain for it by the procurement of her Father not by Vortigern though a very ill man and more happy in such a Martyrdom than in a perfidious connivance in a whole skin and a ragged Conscience and also by Gildas his sharp reproofs remaining to this day against several of their chifest Princes for which not an hair of his head was touch'd by any of them as can be heard or read as likewise by b Bed lib. 3. c. 5. Aidanus his special severity against great offenders They severally reprov'd but never rebell'd against their Princes nor encourag'd any to it and they

the great esteem and contempt that Syberwid and Ansyberwid was and is in still amongst them that have kept their Language and Ancient Customs most free from Forreign mixtures for with such no man can fall under a worse or better character them of Syberw or Ansyberw no greater commendation have they for any man or woman than gwr or gwraig Syberw no greater note of Infamy and unworthyness than Ansyberw which they pronounce as Suber and Ansuber though writ with y which words whatever is their Etymology in their common acception carry a comprehensive signification of several good and evil qualities as ingredients And 1 it is manifest Syberw in the first surface denotes liberality as Ansyberw niggardness but then further it points at the cause and reason of both for 2 such a man is to be allowed Syberw that doth by all men as he would be done by and the contrary is Ansyberw so is he that takes greater measure to himself than he will afford to others so are all that can endure to fare richly while their Neighbours starve by them and Syberw is he that is watchful and resolute against all avaritious inequality and overreaching or unconcernedness for others that be in want and misery so that Syberw is just and mercyful as well as Liberal and Ansyberw unjust and merciless 3 It implies some inequality when a man strives to be kinder ro another than to himself and pinches himself in back and belly to be kind and liberall to many as I have known vety good Women who went habited scare above beggars and of proportionable abstinence in their diet who if they had worn all their large almes upon their backs from year to year which they valued above all gayety and good fare might have appear'd and far'd as splendid as any of their rank and know by this time they made a better choice and herein is the essence and formality of Syberwid and such an engrafted traditional honour and esteem there is for such amongst the Brittains that their names are mentioned with great and cordial dearness as if this were to be a Saint for faith and all vertues are presumed to be in that man or woman where this temper is found and though it may seem unreasonable or at least a work of Superogation to love another above himself yet they judge nothing to be a greater duty and content and blessing as indeed what is more Divine and Honourable and the source all noble actions and rewards exposeing life for Country c. and in their common bargains and measures they abhorr and dread precise and exact equality without some addition or voluntary overplus of kindness to another they deal with above the strict contract and they had rather abate of the price agteed than be disabled to give the said addition as their free guift over and above their bargain which they proverbially call rhád-duw or Gods Grace and Blessing And the giver is as Willing or rather more to give his Rhad-duw into the bargain than the other to receive it 4 It takes in conscience and the heart above all they 'l hardly receive it if it comes not from the heart and from no ends but as a free guift and he that is Ansyberw is therefore hateful with them because esteemed to have no conscience and he that is Syberw from the heart is call'd glan ei galon or clear spirited which is the loveliest Character they judge any man can deserve or receive and probably Syberw comes from Sobrius and Sobrius from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Etymology of it whereby it signifies the preservation of the mind and heart which is done they conceive by nothing more than Syberwid as the mind and soul is destroyed and corrupted by nothing more than Ansyberwid which is the same with Philau● or self love as appears by the premises so hateful with St. Paul and our Brittans and with all good men so that by this their imbred tradition received amongst all undegenerate Brittains both high and low they judge honesty and mercy and love to others above themselves as in the case of humility to be their self-preservation and chiefest Interest and surest method to prosper And no wonder they preferr'd this hearty Syberwid before all other vertues it being nothing else but that love which is the fulfilling of the Law or that charity from a pure heart which is the end of the commandment and the total of all Religion for what excellency or degeneracy is there in human or Christian nature that is not contain'd in Syberw and avoided in Ansyberw What is honour in Nobles honestum with Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Greeks humility and charity with Christians is all comprehended in Syberw And this Brittish Principle and Custom is so undoubtedly Apostolical and Primitive that nothing more is the root and cause of the Arrogance and troublesomness of Popery or of that hollowness and Hippocrisie that hath too much prevail'd in Modern Protestancy and Puritanism it self than the manifest want thereof Some of our degenerate Gentry ought to compare their ignoble and sinful constant healthing and swilling while they can hardly spare a glass of Water to Christ in their poor Neighbour with this sober and salvifical principle of their Progenitours who it is to be believed never met to r Gyrald Cambrens descript Camb. c. 9. drink but in relation to Cymmortha and these are so much Brittains they say in their servile imitations of forreign vitious Customs that the health of an Ansyberw or nigga●dly selfish person was never known to go round amongst them but only of the Syberw and generous This character of our Brittish Church in her Doctrines and Rites is exactly the same with that which ſ Epiphanius lib 3. in sine Epiphanius gives of the Primitive Catholick which the Church of England this day professes to follow and to retrive which is the same Church with the Ancient Brittish Church the Brittains and the English being the same People not only in Faith and worship but in Laws and bloud and greater alliance in Doctrine and Consanginity to be found between them than between Alexander and Clement modern Italians and Linus and Anacletus their predecessors Ancient Romans as may further appear The Brittish Church therefore appearing from undoubted evidence and their adversaries exceptions to be so sound and Ancient in the substance of her Orthodox Faith to impute schism to it for her distance or departure from the Roman her Junior or to ask where was your Church before Luther is a cavil not only ignorantly groundless but inpudently ridiculous if they pretend to be in their Sences that urge it They may with as much colour of reason object a separation in us from Prester-John or the Church of the Abyssines well known perhaps to our Fore-Fathers when they met at Jerusalem whither both resorted with whom as with all other Churches of Christendom and as many as are allowed

recover the spirits but they shorten life Da Kelwidh tra' coelir Od eir ymhelh gwelh iw'r gwîr saith the Brittish Proverb A Lye may do while it is believed but at long running Truth is better But this whipping story was not well feigned and designed to be believed for true by wiser posterity however it might for the present delude an ignorant Heathen For we seldom or never read that separated souls but only Christ or Gods Angels appear'd to men to direct them at a stand saving in one case where it is hard to determine what appear'd to Saul whether the Ghost of Samuel or the Devil in his shape withall this action more fitted a Town Beadle than a glorified Apostle or if St. Peter must be so severe and Butcher-like it might rather be not for his departing but his staying behind the rest of his Companions to disturb good Christians and corrupt poor Infidels with a false and bloudy Religion or if there were any reality in it beyond Melancholly or Art it might rather be the wrath of a tormenting spirit for deserting his cause or if done upon himself with his own hands we have presidents of Crafty criples b Cooke's Inst part 1. p. 127. endicted for the like stratagem to move compassion before some of our sage Judges But Mellitus his rushing c Bed lib. 2.7 into the midst of flames to quench a great fire in Canterbury with his Prayers looked more like a true wonder especially in one of his race and Principles who if not belyed are better skill'd in burning Cities than saving and blowing up States and Kingdoms as is too well known What Religion can that be or what obligations can it tye of obedience and gratitude upon Intelligent minds and consciences that 's supported and Propagated by Divine lies and Impostures so hateful to God and conscience and honour every lye as Cicero could observe carrying d Cicer. off l. 3. Perjury and Atheism in it in its defyance and slight of God and conscience which it sees and knows to contradict it and the lye that quotes God for its Author being the most abominable and worst of lyes No less were the converting Miracles of Augustine himself the chief Thaumaturgus which imposed upon the belief of venerable Bede and much more upon the less descerning multitude not only in restoring sight to the e Bed lib. 2. c. 2. blind Saxon he brought Punteus-like with him for to have tryed it upon an honest Brittain if there had been any at the disputation might have prov'd as difficult if not as impossible as his more necessary guift of tongues and that not about any point of Salvation or the extraordinary Glory of God but after miracles had long ceas'd in the Church designed only for the unbelieving about a trifle about some scruples or minutes of the Calendar in a Gamster-like wager and imitation of Elias the main juggle and drift being to discredit and subvert an Ancient Church in their well built Faith and Customs with Legerdemain But more especially and most abominably in his Enthusiastical Prophecy of f idem War and ruin to the Brittish Doctors and their People by the Arms of their Enemies for not joyning their assistance with him to Preach the Gospel to the English Quibus vir Domini Augustinus fertur minitans praedixisse c. to whom Augustine the man of God is reported to Prophecy by way of threat that if they refus'd Peace from Brethren they should receive War from Enemies and suffer a revenge of death by the hands of the English to whom they refused to Preach the word life Wherein he entitles God himself to all the lyes and mischiefs and spoils and murders and massacres that were contriv'd to attend this prediction which he grounded upon three false Assertions First that the Brittains envyed the Gospel to the English 2 That he good man came hither from Rome for no other end but to Preach it to them 3. That because they refused to joyn in that Ministry with him for the Salvation of their Souls therefore God had reveal'd unto him a Mene tekel or a suddain destruction to come upon them by their Enemies 1. And the first is the strongest exception or Quo Warranto to overthrow the Christianity of the Churches of Brittain to the just forfeiture of their Sees to rhe greater zeal and diligence of Rome that we hitherto met that against the chief precept and example of their Saviour to love their Enemies the badge of true Christians they should have that living sence of the loss of this present world to which they were dead by their Faith and Baptism as out of Satanical discontent to let go their hold of the other likewise and suffer themseves to be beaten out of their charity and duty as well as their Country and to revenge to Eternity a wrong of time But that experience daily imforms that doing of a wrong more dissolves all charity in the soul than suffering it and that men usually hate where they hurt though they be forgiven and secur'd by a Christian temper against the suspition of revenge and repercussion for he that wrongs another fights and assaults the Almighty in whose hands and Laws all mens persons and beings and consequently all mens rights are preserv'd and kept Act 17. and every conscience upon its reflection and sence of such a War is either presently smitten into Infinite repentance and restitution or becomes harden'd diabolically in its Rebellion and cannot rest till it finish its hatred and destruction of the Innocent without cause as it first began but it is not so in suffering wrong especially with Patience and forgiveness wherein we become liker to Christ and every loss in this is gain in the other world and a manifest token according to St. Paul Thess 1.5 6 c. of just fear and hope of damnation or Salvation respectively to the one or to the other and the Brittish Apothegme Duw a ro Imi fymhenid yn y bid yma God grant me all my pain and Penance in this world will well agree with the Apostolical Triumph we glory in Tribulations wherein we are more than Conquerours and beholding through him that loved us to them that hate us Rom. 5 3.-8.37 So that it is more in reason to be suspected and fear'd the Saxons were more averse to hear the Gospel from them as Hector Boethius well observed h Invisae Gentis magis quam Disciplinae de quâ multa atque praeclara frequentius Audiverant odio permoti lib. 9.171 § 10. than the Brittains to Preach it to them who brought it to their doors as Bede covertly and loathly intimates and maintained their Cross and Church at Canterbury in the Metropolis and Capitol of their Enemies where they were disabled to keep their Colours and when through pride of Victory some af the Saxons Heptarchs scorn'd Salvation from the hands of their Masters whom they had made their Vassals

Kerdick by k Idem p. 520. Stowes Annals p. 65. Mordred Arthurs Nephew and Vice-Roy in his absence to assist his Title to the Crown against Arthur who was not so near by strict and Legitimate descent as by his Election for his Valour and merit wherein then the Princes Rights in Brittain were chiefly founded and therefore l Usher p. 514. liber Triadum this Mordred or Medrod with Vortigerne who delivered this Land to the Saxons and Androgeus or Avarvy or Mandrubatius who betrayed it to Caesar are recorded as the three disgraces of Brittain yet all the people were not consumed when they were thus surrendred and betrayed How else could they serve them in their Armies and Legions And upon King Arthur's return after several wearisome and Bloudy Contests Kerdick was Re-invested and m Usher p. 468. confirmed by Arthur in several of those Southern Counties upon his swearing m Usher p. 468. Allegiance to him for them and m Usher p. 468. toleration of Christian Religion in them as Vsher proves out of Rudborn Polychronicon and others so Bath Cicester and Gloucester n Idem 569. were surrender'd after long and formal Sieges and many sharp fights preceding And where o Usher 515 516. M. West 537. M. Westm speaks of the East-Angels invading Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge c. Counties and destroying all the Christians that were in them the clause Omni crudelitatis genere Christianos affecerunt Is observ'd by Vsher to be wanting in the Manuscript and the slaughter which Gormund made in conjunction with the Saxons upon the Brittains in the time of King Careticus which was their greatest overthrow and destruction is word by word Gildas p Idem 568. dis description of Hengist's first Irruption and slaughter So that in every Heptarchy though all were reduc'd and conquered yet all the Brittish Inhabitants were not destroyed or expell'd but only such as were in Arms and had Estates And as for destruction by Plague the English and Irish as well as the Brittains equally felt the smart thereof as Bede q Bed lib 4. c. 14. 3 c. 27. is witness And the Streets of London after great a Plague have been seen as ful next year as before Withall this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or totall destruction of the Brittish communalty in England was against the mutual Practice of the combatants who gave Quarter to such on both sides and against the Interest and benefit of the Conquerour It was Ethelfreds method stil'd Ferus the bloudiest of the Saxon Kings to make all Countreys he conquer'd aut Tributarias aut Inhabitabiles r Idem l. 1. c. 34. saith Bede either Tributary or wast to hurt them further had been to hurt himself and deprive himself of his Rent and Contribution when Hengist and his Saxons were driven to quit the land by young Vortimer who was the first made Hengist ever turn his back in Battel said M. Westminster the English and Scottish History agree with the Brittish that their wives and children were left behind and ſ M. Westm An. 456. Hector Boethius l 8. spar'd from the Sword and Quarter given well doth prove Quarter to have been before received And when Aurelius Ambrosius totally defeated and reduc'd Hengist his numerous Army his Son † M Westm 489. Usher 446. 450. Octa forc'd to surrender York and himself and Ebyssa Dunbritton and Hengist cut off u Histor Brit. l. 8. c. 7. for example or kill'd by Ambrosius in pursuite x Hector Boethius l. 8. p. 150. saith the Scottish History and the most Warlike banished into their own Countrey yet the rest of their Commons were permitted to live together with the Brittains in the lower parts of Scotland upon terms of Allegiance y Histor Brit. l. 8. c. 8. Hector Boethius ut supra and their embracing Christianity as was observ'd before So that the destruction of all the Brittains out of England is like that story of the z Usher p. 718. Picts who are reported to be destroyed all in one day both meer fables though they lost their Kingdom in the Battle yet the communalty still remained being the Major part of the Scottish Kingdom and their after Kings using still the stile of Kings of Picts as well as Scots as the Learned Arch-Bishop z Usher p. 718. Vsher largely proves The Brittish Christians therefore remaining behind in Brittain under the Power of the Enemy were not the less a Church of Christ than was the Primitive Church by being under Persecution for the first 300 years or than now are the Greeks under Infidel or the Roman Church it self under Gothish Conquerours Lazarus belongs to Heaven as well yea more than Dives afflictions being assistant mortifications helping us to dye to this world in our affections and Values wherein consists the Heart and Inside of the Church and those Spiritual Leaders that stayed behind with their charge for about 150 years before Augustine arrived to expel them became the more Supreme over them under Christ upon the Remove all of their Christian Temporal Magistrates It s true not to appear and not to be are alike in some sence as to man not as to God And the invisibility of the Brittains in Lhoegr was more for want of History and evidence either concealed or destroyed by the envy and malice of Adversaries than for want of Existence and being yea mention shall be made of them in their obscurity and invisibility when it serves the turn of the adverse Part. Bede mentions a Bede lib 5. c. 19. multos Brittonas Occidentalibus Saxonibus subditos reduced by Aldhelmus to follow the Roman Easter which proves there were numbers of them remaining in the Country some reduced and some still unreduced And it is probable more Brittish Christians were in this West-Saxon Kingdom than any other part because of the Vicinity of Glastonbury and b H. Seplman Concil p. 442. Caer Went or Winchester and its Ancient Monastery and large possessions and the example of Amphibalus the Brittains receiving great encouragement from the Neighbourhood of their Martyrs to persevre in their Faith The Chronicle of Glastonbury mentions the residence of Brittish Bishops in their Sees in those parts as Bede their People for when King Ina about the year 700 Translated the See of c Usher p 65. Congersbury to Wells adjoyning in the time of Daniel the last Bishop of the Brittains there it affirms the same so to have continued a succession of Brittish Bishops for 600 years and above till that time which is about 500 years together before the arrival of Monk Augustine and about an 100 years after which proves either strict observations of Mordred and Arthur's Articles with Kerdick or great consanguinity and kindness amongst them that the zeal and Interest of Augustine could not prevail with the Pagan Saxons to hunt this Bishop out of Congersbury as well as Thadioc and

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 ſ 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. ●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

force yet Theonus in that case could but resign his Term but not the rights of his Church forever and Augustine became thereby but a more lawful Brittish Bishop of an Intruding Roman Monk For such a settlement by the Principles of the Church of Rome and all common sence did not change the See to be Roman but constitute Augustine and his successors to be rather Brittish Bishops It 's a whole Kingdom that naturalizes one Forreigner and not one Forreigner a whole Kingdom for so at Rome let him that is Elected to that Chair be French or German or Greek or Barbarian or which were enough to stupifie and unsanctifie any head of a Church let him be a Witch or a Sodomite or an Atheist the vertue of the Roman Chair nevertheless shall naturalize and Purifie and Petrifie this strange man into a right Roman-Catholick Pope and successor of St. Peter Holy and Infallible notwithstanding those forreign disabilities Therefore by their own rule Augustine and his successors were frail Brittish Bishops at best and and hell'd all their Priviledges and Precedencies in that See in the right of their Brittish Chair and not their Roman Mission And what attempts soever they made de facto to erect and prefer that See in Roman Right before all the Ancient and standing See's of Brittain they were all Null and Void and of such Schismatical Malignity and impossibility as were the like Act of any French or Spanish Pope that should go about to raise the Chair of Paris or Toledo from whence he came above the See of Rome and Order appeals from this to those than which in their Principles nothing could be more Heretical and sinful saving perhaps the sin against the Holy Ghost If it be offer'd that the Superiority here acquir'd by Augustine was acquir'd for Rome from whence he came by the same reason the Supremacy at Rome was acquir'd for Jerusalem from whence St. Peter came and that Church to be reviv'd and Rome and all other Churches alike descending to be made subject to it and by consequence to be a Sister not a Mother to our Brittain and a younger Sister too under their common Mother of Sion But this point hath been solemnly determined by Popes themselves in the Controversy between Dole and Tours Which last from the beginning was the acknowledged Metropolis of Little-Brittain till Sampson Archbishop of York or St. David a Itinerar Cambr l. 2. c. 1. saith Cambrensis was driven thither for his refuge by the Saxons about the b Mat. Westminster 561. year 561. who being chosen Bishop of Dole rais'd that See not only to be an Archbishoprick but Superiour likewise to Tours the Original Primate whether by the Priviledge of the Ancient and Imperial See from whence he came and of the Pall he thence brought with him or as Pope Innocent judge afterwards in the Case suggests which makes this President more to fit because the Brittains having about that time erected a new King to themselves against France they took the occasion of Sampson's arrival to erect a new Archbishoprick likewise But this Vetustissima Controversia as d Hoveden Hist part 2. p. 453. Hoveden stiles it came at last to be decided before Pope Innocent the third who out his moderation first propos'd an expedient wherein we may be sure Rome was to be no looser That Dole should continue an Archbishoprick with two suffragans only and receive a Pall from Rome by the hands of Tours whose right it was to be Primate but the Dolensians refusing this offer the Pope in the second year of his Papacy Anno 1199. determin'd for the Ancient Right of the Native against 600 years prescription and above back'd with Princely Authority for the Forreigner So that if our Holy Bishops of Rome would suffer themselves to be guided either by that Golden Rule of doing as they would be done by whereby all reasonable and good men are governed or stand to their own Principles and Decisions whereby the worst and most unreasonable are concluded they would no longer own this so weak and infirm pretence for Supremacy over our Brittish Churches but suffer the Consciences of their obedient Catholicks to be undeluded from this Imposture forever But they ought to be told that the Church of Brittain hath propagated the Faith over more Kingdoms and States of Europe by her own or by Disciples of her own School and Institution than c Usher p. 530. ever Rome did yet never pretended as before was Intimated to any claim of Ecclesiastical Supremacy over other Churches much less Temporal over any Crowns in order to the other upon that account but only maintained her own Soveraignty within her own Province under her own Rightful Governours for the peace and order of her own people that she is Mother Church to Scotland and Ireland is apparent and confessed and no less to England or to the English or Saxons prevailing in Lhoegr was sufficiently proved And it is as manifest she is Mother Church to Germany both High and Low and Grand-Mother to the Churches of its Propagation by consequence What Bede affirms of e Bede l. 3. c. 4. St. Egbert and St. Willibrord f Idem l. 5. c. 10 11 12. both from our Brittish g Usher p. 398. p. 730. Bede l. 5. c. 10 Irish Schools to have first planted the Gospel over Holland and Frizeland and Low Countries acknowledged by the Historians of those parts out of their own h Ubbo Emmius lib. 4. 124. l. 3. p. 99. Usher 398. Annalls and Records For England was the Academy and Nursery of the Gospel to Holland as Vtrecht afterwards by that means to the rest of Germany For hither at there need they sent for a supply of Teachers i Idem p. 127. Quae tum saith Vbbo Emmius of England propter excitata illic Literarum studia viris doctis abundabat ob nuper rcceptum Christi cultum ceu fieri solet caeteris ferè provinciis vicinis in Pietatis zelo erat ferventior quod plurimum hanc ad rem pertinebat eadem fere cum Frisiis adhuc linguâ utebatur Which then abounded with learned men because of the several Schools of Learning there set up and encouraged and were more zealous and Industrious in propagating Piety as is usual than the other neighbouring Provinces because they had then but newly received the Christian Faith themselves and which was very Material to help on their work spoke the same Language with the Frizelanders at that time which we observ'd before to be a great bar and exception throughout against the Legend of the Conversion of the English by Monk Augustine and his Italian followers And in another l Ubbo Emmius l. 3. c. 109. place Religio nova studium literarum c. The English people who before were Barbarous and skilful only in Armes when upon their embracing the Faith they addicted themselves to the study of Learning

wherewith they are Intrusted by God for the defence of his and their People than Popes ever could or can unsheath their Spiritual Weapons in defence of Pride and ambition and scandalous Encroachments Excommunication being intended by Christ and his Apostles to better ends than they apply it to separate between the precious and the vile between scandalous and holy Christians and to cut off putrid parts with grief and compassion to preserve the Communion of Saints and the health and honour of the whole and not to defend proud and ambitious heights and sacrilegious invasions and Usurpations over Churches more Orthodox and more ancient than themselves with Unevangelical revenge and recalcitration after fair eviction Which is the abusing of Christs Ordinance to ends contrary to what he intended and the taking of Gods name in vain for which they will not be held guilt-less yea to have Excommunicated themselves rather by humble acknowledgements and reparations to their power for their wrongs and oppressions to Christ and souls and Churches had been the right Catholick use of their keyes and the surest sign of Salvation to the best and chiefest of their Church Neither is it needful by our Hypothesis and state of our case to defend the Reformation from the charge of Schism and departure from the Catholick Church thereby as they suppose and cry aloud against us for the alteration made by Henry the Eight cannot be called the Reformation of a Religion we derived from Rome by Inferiour Authority against superiour by the daughter correcting the Mother Church Irregularly but our lawful Restoration rather to our Ancient Rights and possessions from which we were wrongfully disseis'd and barr'd The deliverance of our Brittish Church after long captivity and disfiguration to its primitive liberty and health and beauty by just means from the violent hands and Spiriting Arts of Rome much Junior to it in faith and much impurer and unsounder than the true Church of Rome for these last thousand years Our Case I say is not so much Reformation as Restoration which no man of sence or honesty or conscience can find fault with and much less they at Rome who are pleas'd with their deliverance from the long Tyranny of their Exarchs though procur'd by unlawful and pernicious means as before but we had ours through lawful Authority without any wrong or hurt to others or our Superiours and with much right to our selves much less can we be tax'd or blam'd by any at home that have been long kept out from their own rights by Tyrants or Rebels or Oppressors who are bound in all Equity and Honour and Compassion to espouse rather and Assist so just a Cause before any others whatsoever according to Dido's temper in the Poet making the Case of Aeneas in Exile her own Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco The Pope had no more Original right and title to our Brittish Sees how long soever Usurped than Cromwell had to the Brittish Crown Whoever else may envy or hinder or undermine our recovery of our just freedom and liberty they that through Gods mercy have had the like Restoration and deliverance ought not either in Honour or Civility or Humanity to do it nor if themselves appear to have the greatest share and benefit therein without manifest hazard of their Judgement for by revolt to Popery Princes quit no less their external Supremacy in holy Church the choycest Jewel in their Crown than by Apostacy to Heathenism not more by the parity of the Idolatries than by their own Act and Resignation For they cannot longer hold the same in the Catholick-Roman without being Excommunicate as undutyful and they let go their hold thereof in the Protestant Christian by Excommunicating themselves as unkind and unwise Nor if after all this they be found to Act both against Gods revealed will and fate therein or the secret Decrees and discernable purposes of his Providence against it whereof the one was made as clear as the Sun before and the other will afterwards appear as clear as the Moon which is next unto it can they ever be thus unnatural to their own Church and Nation out of vain glorious kindness to forreign cheats without fighting against God as well as their friends to the certain overthrow and ruin either Temporal or Eternal or both of the weaker side Therefore the sharp and searching judgement of the great Arch-Bishop Bramhal could soon espy that the plea of the Antiquity and Independancy of our Brittish Church in the Controversy between us and Rome strikes the cause dead forever at one blow Not that being exempt from the pretences of a Junior Church once animated with Empire to step before her betters we are not bound nevertheless to hold Communion with every good Church of Christ where and when we may yea with Rome it self if it return'd to its Ancient purity and subjection to our Saviour as on the other hand to shun others as we do Rome that were guilty of the like Corruption and Apostacy which flight and distance we are wont to observe in our moral and natural Communion and converse as well as Christian embracing or shunning good or evil Company for our safety or credit as wholesome or Pestilential Air for Health as well as sound and unsound Churches out of Allegiance to Christ our common Lord or fear of scandal and partaking in their sins and judgments by our Complyance For our Communion though it be our great duty as Schisme is a great sin yet it is not in our absolute power and dispose in the general without any other Rule or reason to incline us to be of this or that Church but our own fancy and humour no we are acted by necessity in great part therein for it is a necessary tye upon us to embrace good and relinquish evil and corrupt Communion and to be guided by Christs will and not our own as our rule and standard and to shun all whom his word Excommunicates and to communicate with all whom his word approves For to approve whom Christ condemns or condemn whom Christ approves is not in the power of any Christian that ownes Christ for his Soveraign All the part that we have in our own power is the exercise of every mans Conscience and private judgment under the guidance of Christs rule which they hate the least mention of at Rome as impious and Haeretical and leading to a private spirit the root of all evil errours in the Church and comparing the lives and state of Christians and Churches by this general rule of Christ and this particular eye of our Souls to put our Communion in execution according to Christs mind and to embrace his friends and to shun his enemies and to like and dislike as we are to do all our other Affairs in him from our hearts according to my Text. For let there be no private judgment to distinguish between private good or evil or between the guides themselves we are

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

shall through the mercy of God be again recover'd and repair'd to its former state yea into a better condition than before And the fam'd g Dr. Davies Preface to Welsh Grammar for part thereof Taliessin to the same effect about the year 580. Which for several considerations are believed to come to pass in Henry 7th not only by others but by himself as may be conjectur'd from his Order h Powel Annot. in cap. 3. Descriptionis Cambriae Giraldi and Commission to the Heralds in Wales to give account of his Pedigree from the said King Cadwaladr and his designe to revive the name and memory of the renowned Arthur King of Brittain to the great joy of our own and the terrour i Hall 1 Henry 7. f. 5. of Foreign Nations saith an English Writer In him the Union of the Roses and in the Provident Marriage of his Daughter Margaret to James the fourth of Scotland from whom our King James descended the Vnion of the Kingdoms and the old Name of Great-Brittain early Commenc'd as it were in its causes In his time the several persons first appear'd who before they went off were the causes or great occasions of our Reformation or the Restoration of our Brittish Church to follow that of the Crown In his time and by his Order Catherine of Castile Prince Arthurs Dowager was design'd Wife for the second Brother by which Incestuous Marriage confirm'd by the Pope for k Antiquitates Eccles p. 316. a round sum both he and his Successors lost their credit and Supremacy in England ever afterwards It was his provident husbandry rais'd a Purse for Henry 8th to effect this change In his time was l Idem p 309 Fox Bishop of Winchester a Promoter of that Incestuous Match who by his favour thereby first Introduc'd Wolsey m Ibid into Court in whom Popery received its mortal wound both in Effigie as it were and in the Cause He being both the lively Type and Image of Rome and her Religion for pompous vain glory and pride and falshood and luxury and likewise the main cause of her fall and ruine through the match aforesaid which he first contriv'd to be scrupled n Idem p. 316. for other ends and his Romish Legatine power o Idem p. 325. which brought him and the whole Popish Clergy involv'd in the same guilt of Praemunire to the mercy of the King and to renounce the Pope and to acknowledge him for the head of the Church in his stead In his time to instance in more direct and positive causes and first glimmerings of our Reformation Dr. p Idem 306. Collet Founder of St. Pauls School q Pitzeus 691. where W. Lilly was his first Schoolmaster whose father was twice Lord Mayor of London appear'd zealous in his Divinity Lectures at Oxford for Scripture and Antiquity against Images and Legends and the two great Authority r Antiq. Eccles 306. of Scotus and Aquinas and the Schoolmen the great Pillars of Popery being followed in his Principles ſ Ibid. by Dr. Warner and others in that of Cambridge and especially in Court and City for his eloquent Sermons to the same effect And though Articled against as an Heretick † Ibid. Pitzeus 693. by Fitz James then Bishop of London yet King Henry the Seventh esteemed him before any other Let others chuse what Doctor they list u Antiq. Eccles 307. I am best pleased with Doctor Colet was that wise Kings saying whereby it is inferrible that the one being a Protestant in his Principles and tendency the other could be no less by his Approbation For all great Actions have smal beginnings like other things and are not in their perfection the first instant The first Alienation of Henry the Eight from depending so much on the Popes judgement and Authority to follow that of his own Clergy and Universities together with the judgement of others in Points and Cases of Religion and Conscience and particularly that of his mariadge is observ'd to be wrought by x Ibid. Cranmer afterwards Arch-Bishop at Waltham whither he retired from Cambridge where he read Divinity after the steps and Principles of y p. 323. Ibid. p. 331. Colet and Warner that went before so that if Cranmer who enlightened and Converted Henry the Eight had his first light from Colet the first motion and beginning of the Reformation must in all reason be referr'd to the time of Colet and Henry the Seventh for then I say Scripture and Fathers began to be regarded and followed before Schoolmen and Legends which is the nature and design of Protestancy And the instinct hath continued to our days amongst the learned who are restless till this Church become wholy Primitive and Apostolical and Orientall in its Doctrines and Discipline and Customs such as our Brittish Church before the mixtures of Popery appears from Records to have ever been In his time in a word it might be said Aspice venturo laetentur ut Omnia Saeclo The Nation had a manifest new Date and Epocha in respect of Church and Laws and Tenures and Fines and the Alteration of interests amongst all degrees Commons and Nobles as well as the Union of all Royal blouds and the end of former Wars and Divisions and the beginning and fair hopes of more blessed days in his time the Crown and Scepter of Brittain began after long shiverings to have its first rest as in its proper Centre from the time it was wrested from the right owners for it never rested with the Saxons who soon to quarrel about their prey being divided into seven or eight Kingdoms or Heptarchies in perpetual Wars and Jarrs with one another for about 270 years till the West-Saxon Kingdom where the Loegrian-Brittains were best us'd swallowed all the rest under King Egbert and Alured The Dane being upon their heels without above 9 years respite to swallow them The Norman afterwards swallowing both in one day and they soon after divided into bloudy Wars between Kings and Barons and especially the long contest between the two houses of York and Lancaster which never could be extinguished till Henry the Seventh and the right and Ancient owners or the Brittish line was found uppermost The Restoration of the Brittish Religion hastening after that of its Monarchy as it were by providential fate and consequence for where else better to fix the beginning of our Reformation as it is generally stil'd is hard to calculate To make those conspicious events and Audible stirrs that first accompanied it in the World by which the vulgar that are led by sence are most guided the standard of its Originals were to begin at the streame and not at the spring to place it in the visible alteration it self made by Laws in Parliament against Bulls and Palls and Supremacies and Appeals in 22.23 24. Henry Eight by which Popery in England was quite knocked in the head were to

Church and their own rules and principles first it is several wayes against the Canons in respect of their Invasions of the rights of other Metropolitans which was adjudg'd a Photii Nomoc. Tit. 1. p. 20. infamous and mulctable before that in the Council of Chalcedon and in Trullo power was yielded to the Emperours to erect or to translate Metropolitical Chaires and also against the Canons in respect of many Illegal Ordinations which made the Romish Church null in Law in England several wayes besides those nullities in fact and event we have before instanc'd Many are the Canons of the best and Ancientest Councils and the most general and Oecumenical that the Church of Christ ever had which condemn the first Entrance of Augustine and his Pope Gregory and the Re-entrance of Archbishop Theodore and his Successors upon our Brittish Church and Provinces under no less penalties than deposition or degradation of their Clergy from their several States and Dignities and Excommunication of their Laity from Christian Fellowship besides the making all their Ecclesiastical Acts and Ordinations to be utterly void and null to all intents If this were of any value or moment with them of the Church of Rome who boast and crack of a great respect they have above others for Fathers and Councils and Ancient Traditions but experience too much discovers it is all with Reservations and Provisoes that they offer not to touch or reflect upon their Church in any of its grossest errours or most enormous misdemeanours for if they do it in the lest the Canons of the Universal Church shall have no more respect at their hands than the Canonical Scriptures which are not allowed to have any sound or sense where they cross and disagree from the private interpretation of their Church I say private and suspicious because notoriously savouring of private ends and carnal designes and Worldly ambition and self-love above any Church or Haeresie whatsoever in all their Commentaries and Expositions and every point and Article of their Faith and Government wherein they differ from us Or they shall be openly disown'd and rejected for no lawful Councils either in whole or in part according to their liking or disliking of particulars who yet call for implicit obedience to their own petty Authorities and decrees how contrary soever to Common sense or reason while themselves dispute and contradict the power and jurisdiction of far greater Superiours acting and decreeing with the special assistance of the Spirit of God So that as to such Roman-Catholicks who are wedded and guided by their wills and Idols more than Truth or Conscience the Testimonies and Canons I shall produce will prove but Pearls ill cast yet with this advantage and satisfaction that they shall drive and force them either to submission or to rebellion either to confess and acknowledge themselves to be convict Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Robbers and Oppressors and their Popes and Missionaries depos'd and condemn'd in all their Titles Holy Orders and pretences by the Holy solemn Laws and Canons of the Universal and undoubtedly Catholick Church of Christ or manifestly detect themselves to be Antichrist in this as in their other practices and the Invaders of Gods Regiment and power in all its formes and varieties of of appearance as of God the Creator in disposing the Kingdoms of the World of God Redeemer in Lording over Souls and Consciences so of God the Holy Spirit and Sanctifier in slighting Scriptures and General Councils Which last part it is to be fear'd they 'l chuse to take as being thereto too much inclin'd by their Principles being one main cause if not perrhaps the principal that the spirit of truth and concord hath withdrawn it self in lamentable manner from Christian Churches and Councils these several last hundreds of years in whose Assemblies it cannot well appear with liberty and without diminution of its Divine Honour and Glory when its promis'd assistance to Gods Church gathered together in his name must be eftsoons check'd and controll'd by the Negative will and lust of one man that sets up himself above Both and the Interest of Rome made the mark to steer by instead of Truth and Holiness and Gods holy spirit thereby necessitated either to countenance Errour and Tyranny by its presence or to stand out whereby is left but a Carcass of a Church and not a Church for a Church without Gods spirit is but as the body without the Soul the one as ready moulders into errour and corruption as the other into stench and rottenness as is the condition of the Modern Roman Church too visibly The first Canon I shall instance in shall be the third General Council held at Ephesus than which hardly any president can be more apposite to the Case of Rome and Brittain and that Councill's determination upon the complaint of Cyprus against Antioch where three points may be observ'd 1. The state of their case and grievance 2. The sense and resentment of the Council 3. The decree and redress 1. Their complaint to the Council by Declaration and the Affirmation of their Bishops then and there present was that the Bishop or Patriarch of Antioch did send and Consecrate Bishops for the Isle of Cyprus in violation of their Ancient Rights and Customes The occasion of this encroachment was as is noted by Balsamon and Zonaras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon a pretence and imitation of the Duke of Antioch under the Romans sending thence a Deputy Governour for this Isle The plea of the Cypriots was as is imply'd in the Canon an Ancient immemorial right of chusing and consecrating their own Bishops among themselves On the other hand the Bishop of Antioch had his Patriarchal dignity and the Supremacy of St. Peters Chair to insist on from whom he deriv'd by undoubted Lineal Succession Now if this Controversy had come before the Pope of Rome and his Conclave or Lateran or Tridentine Council it is easie to coniecture who had gone by the worst but not so easie to know whom the prey should have been adjudg'd to whether to Antioch or rather to Rome her self although the other were the acknowledg'd Chaire of St. Peter establish'd for 7 years at Antioch at the lest before ever he arriv'd at Rome 2. But the sense and resentment of their wrong by this great Council is very remarkable who took this matter into their cognizance and Judicature though no les● than the Patriarch of the East and as great as the Pope takes himself to be was one of the parties to a●ide their censure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus they represent the mischief and consequence of this encroachment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A new kind of Schismatical attempt in defiance of the Apostolical Laws of the Church and Canons of the Holy Fathers and striking at the common Liberty of Christendom yea the Spiritual Spiritual Liberty of men Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ himself by his bloud hath purchas'd for us

design In whole for how can the Supremacy of Alexandria and Antioch and other Metropolitans which it establishes consist with their subjection For so they were Supream and absolute within themselves and not Supream And likewise in its parts as appears from the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for likeness in priviledge and customes implyes equality in that respect for if Rome had the Supremacy then they were not like neither would the example and Instance fit Withall the Bishop of Rome is mention'd in the Canon with no more respect or character of dignity and Superiority than the Bishop of Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is set as equal and parallel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this not from forgetfulness or Irreverence in the Council towards the Bishop of Rome but from Truth and Justice as appears when in the following Canon it establishes Priviledges to Aelia being as much old Jerusalem as modern Rome is old Rome though neither the one nor the other built upon the place and ground the former Cities stood on yet there the Council is very careful to remember and salve the rights and Superiorities of the Metropolitan of Caesarea which was Soveraign to it yet mentions Rome the Soveraign of all Churches according to our Romanists without any such proviso or distinct respect at all which argues either that the Council were not of the same sentiment with our Romanists touching Rome's Supremacy so much pretended or that the Council was unjust and unmannerly towards Rome and her Rights but Civil towards Caesarea yea it is much rather to be thought that the Arrogant pretences of Rome are vain and groundless if not mad and ridiculous For if the sence of the Romanists were true it would follow thereupon that Alexandria and Antioch and all other Metropolitans should be Soveraign to all the Churches in the World as well as Rome yea to Rome it self as much as It to them For Rome is Soveraign of all say they but several others are as Rome saith the Canon therefore equally Soveraign to all other Churches in the World and to Rome it self by consequence whereby Rome by their gloss becomes both Supream and not Supream to other Churches such absurdities they will rather force upon the Canon and themselves than allow it to be understood in its natural plain and genuine sense that all Metropolitans are equally Soveraign and unsubordinate each in their several Provinces Alexandria in the South Antioch in the East Rome in the West over such places as are subject to it a Scholiast in Can. 3. Concil Sardyc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Scoliast not over Millain b Praefat. Monastic Anglic. part 1. next door unto it much less over Brittain so far out of its reach or knowledge but as c Ruffin lib. 1. c. 6. Ruffinus hath it about 12 or 1300 years ago together with another most Ancient Edition Et ut apud Alexandriam in urbe Româ consuetudo servetur ut vel illi Aegypti vel hic Suburbicariarum Eccliarum sollicitudinem gerat that the one should rule all in Egypt and the Bishop of Rome over the Suburbicarian Churches that is over the Territories within the Liberties of the Praefect of Rome and his deputy which some say were these four Picenum Tu●cia Latium Valeria others that they were 10. comprehending the South of Italy with Sicilia which last by Imperial prerogative was for a while taken from it and added to the then Patriarchat of Constantinople with several others it had gain'd in Greece as an accession Neither had Baronius reason to be so angry with Ruffinus for his gloss whom he scarce forbears to call a Heretick and Schismatick there being no signes of spite or want of Authority and skill and sufficient information in this his assertion and he was both d Non minima Pars doctorum Ecclesiae Gennad de Ruffino an Ancient Father and an Historian of the Church lived at Aquileia in the neighbourhood spent e Hierom Apol. adv Ruffinum l. 2. c. 1. 30 years in the East having his birth or extraction f Idem Proaem in Jeremiam from our Brittish Isles as St. Hierom affirms as his name and intimate acquaintance c. with Caelestius and Pelagius further imports which made him more fit and qualified to answer for Brittain as well as for East and West As his suspicious opinions less fit to provoke the Pope whom he is rather g Usher p 204 205. accused by St. Hierom to have flatter'd for protection and to clip his Holiness Title and pare his dominions in a matter of fact and practice where the falshood if any had been soon hiss'd at by thousands was not the right way to insinuate into his Holiness favour or to maintain his own repute Rome being thus reduc'd within her due bounds and limits and Brittain with other Churches restor'd to her rights and priviledges according to best and Ancient Canons Apostolical and Oecumenical and the Bishops of Brittain being as was shewed before in the possession of their Sees as the 7 Bishops of the Brittains in Bede or forc'd out by Heathen Invasion and Roman craft and cruelty conspiring together against them as in the Case of Theonus h Hierom Apol. Cont. Ruff. l. 2. Thadioc and Ceadda The several Nullities of the Roman-Catholick Church in England will the easier appear in order The first Nullity is from this 6 Canon of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is an universal manifest principle that if any one be made a Bishop without the consent of the Metropolitan of that Province this great Synod decrees such a one to be no Bishop But Augustine took upon him to be a Bishop here in Brittain without and against the consent of our Brittish Metropolitans as he was told to his face Synodically and the Case is sufficiently evident by his Forreign Ordination and forcible intrusion Therefore he was no Bishop by this Law and his Consecrations of Mellitus and Justus Bishops of London and Rochester were void and null yea such Consecration and Ordination was a second nullity of the orders and dignities of all three by the 35 Canon of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A Bishop is not to presume to confer Orders out of his own Diocess in Cities and Villages that are no way subject to him And if he shall appear to have done so against the mind and will of them to whom those Cities and Villages do belong let him be depos'd for the same and all them likewise who were ordain'd by him which reaches in equity to Etherius Bishop of Arles who by Pope Gregorie's Orders ordain'd Augustine a Bishop for this Isle against the consent of the Bishops in it as well as to Augustine and his several Bishops ordain'd here by him who were all no Bishops and the Priests ordain'd by them no Priests with other scandalous consequences and further nullities

president of a Holy Pope or Prelate promoting his privare lusts and Interest jure Divino shall affect and Assimilate whole Kingdoms Provinces Churches and all degrees of men both Secular and Spiritual all Politicians Libertines Rebels and Carnal Christians whether within or without his Holiness obedience to take after the example and Pattern when once known to become their Own Popes to License their own Crimes and Cruelty and Treachery for their gain and advantage as well as He having so great an example for Apology and excuse and the like deceitful heart to prompt them to it and under the shelter of Sola fides as well as that of Sola Ecclesia both of the same mould and spring both shall drive on their ungodly designs and be justified Saints and good Catholicks in their own esteem and vote amidst all their Hypocrisie and Rebellion nevertheless whatever they be in Christ's who is their Judge And the end of Christianity is hereby defeated and the Gospel and Baptism revers●d and every mans Will is his own Bible and the Rule of his Neighbours Rights and his Soveraigns duty self-love his wisdom and Religion and Charity and Loyalty gon out of fashion and request and all are Popes but none are Christians whereas Christ neither in his own person nor his Disciples nor his Laws gave the least Countenance or example for such Encroachments upon Kingdoms or Brethren He allowed his rights to Caesar and consequently his external Supremacy to every Prince in his own Territory his greatest Apostles kept their own bounds and line and did not build upon their Neighbours foundations Rom. 15.20 2 Cor. 10.16 Gal. 2.7 Thou shalt not Covet thy Neighbours House c. is is one of his greatest Laws and Maxims daily inculcated upon all his Christians without exception And his Apostles forwarn and testifie That he is the avenger of all such that oppress or over-reach their Brethren in any matter 1 Thess 4.6 But nothing is more the Profession or Custom of Rome than over-reaching and Intruding into other mens rights and building upon other's foundations and Senior Churches and thrusting their Sickle into other mens Harvests rather then keep honestly and peaceably at home within their appointed bounds and want their Peter-Pence Yea rather then fail by any sinfull ignoble Arts whatsoever confederating with Pagans against Christians setting on Subjects against their Princes and Princes against Subjects and the People against one another not to mention poisons secret murders Massacres Powder-Plots c. And which is the greatest violence to mens faculties and common sence and makes mens ears to tingle at the Blasphemy and hearts to tremble at such Atheistical Insurrections and contempt of the Soveraigns of Heaven and Earth This invasion of Neighbours must be the Catholick Cause this wrong and injustice must be Gods own Will and Commission and St. Peters Charter the chief Robbers and Rebels in the design the choysest Saints and Catholick Champions of Christ who according to St. Paul was the Avenger of all such but according to our Popes is made the Patron and approver Whereby their Repentance and Cure becomes morally impossible not only because recovery with them were disease or their departure from the Faith and their amendment after Christ's mind a damnable State and Condition but also because Reason and Conscience are gagg'd and the faculties of their soul wholly lock●d up from helping to their Conversion Heathens were easier recoverable than Papists from their Idols because in the one there was a reserv'd Allegiance to God and the Truth left in their souls for Arguments to work upon but in the Roman Heathenism that Allegiance is so fix'd and settled in the Pope as God that the soul is to regard no Truth or Oracle whatsoever of God himself against him Papists are more Pope's people than God's people and their reasons and Consciences by consequence bound more to follow guides and the Will of the Pope than to follow Truth or the Will of God Socrates is my Friend and Plato is my Friend but Truth is more my Friend than either was the Heathen Liberty Truth is my Friend and Conscience is my Friend but my Ghostly Father and Guide is more my Friend then all is the Popish slavery In the Roman Religion man is to be regarded above God yea most are not allowed to give any hearing to God at all who speaks in his Scriptures which ever were and are esteem'd Gods Word in all Christendom whatever they be at Rome Papists to our sight are Gods rational Creatures as other men and Christians be but in reason they are but parcells of the Pope detach'd from God As Tangier to the eye is in Africa but by fiction of reason in England to whom it is subject A Papist therefore being more the Popes subject than Gods is hardly reclaim'd by any Truth which is but the voice or will of God as of a Potentate more Forreign and remote and weaker as to him than God who is the strongest of all to all the World besides Esdr 4. And his rational faculties ordain'd to take the part of truth are kept prisoners from doing it any service yea are listed and impress'd to obstruct and batter it as Canons taken and master'd by an enemy and turn'd to do execution upon Friends whereof the Divines and Parasites of that Church in many voluminous learnedly vain Discourses in defence of gross Errours against plain Truths have given a considerable instance to the World Now how this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or falling away from God and truth 2 Thess 2.3 came first to pass and that once great and glorious Church and its Angels to leave their first Station and to be tumbled down into their Papal pit of darkness and seduction next to the Infernal where in the one as in the other both sorts take a miserable pleasure to continue according to the Brittish saying y cyw y fegur yn Vffern yn Vffern y myn ef fôd but a far greater pleasure and triumph to ensnare as many Souls as they can to bear them company and participate in their plague is sufficiently clear in History and strangely describ'd to the life in Prophecy And to begin with the first Pride and a high stomack had a chief hand in both the falls and founder'd patience in the latter with an insatiable avarice and ambition in the Fathers of this Church after the vain pomp and glory of this world which the children of Christs School are instructed early to renounce that it pleased God in his deep wisdom and Justice to deliver them over to a reprobate sense and an infatuated mind to be a curse and plague to themselves and the rest of Christendom for many years for their sterility and ungratitude under the Gospel of his Son And as it was with the Fox in the Fable who long strove in vain to repass out of the Granary through the same hole with a full belly through which he had entred in

empty with ease till the Wesel advised from a loof si vis effugere istinc Macra cavum repetas c. The way to get out is to be as lank and empty as you came in So if Rome could have proceeded with that moderation and comport with the variety of its fortunes that was prescribed in the morality of this Fable It might had retain'd its Christian though not its carnal glory to this day But for the first three hundred years her condition without being lank and narrow though healthy and glorious within and being highly feasted by Constantine and some succeeding Emperours with the affluence of the Roman Empire in its height it began to grow big and corpulent and require more room that when the Empire began to decline it was a hard lesson to decline with it and return from a Pallace to its first Cell Therefore here thoughts came in how the Ecclesiastical Grandeur of Rome might be supported and kept up amidst the falls and ruine of its secular So that the sacking of Rome in the year 400 and 500. and the declension of the Empire especially in the West thereupon or the removing of that which letted out of the way as the Fathers unanimously interpret that expression 2 Thess 2.7 was both a Prophetical mark and an operative occasion of the conception and forming of Antichrist Here the Inch of respect given to the Popes at the Council of Sardyca began to be stretched into an Ell of Primacy and Empire for a taste by fathering it upon false Canons of Nice Council till the forgery in the Council of Carthage was publickly detected as before And the Dog that began to lick ashes early discover'd what his appetite was after meal wherewith the Italian saying would not have such to be trusted But the long Insolencies and exactions of the Exarchs of Ravenna from the year 500. till their deliverance by Rebellion against Leo Isaurus by whom every Pope was to be confirmed and for a large Fee a Platina in Severino 1 mo Vana erat cleri populi Electio sine Exarchi Confirmatione else the Election to be null was a large tryal likewise and fatigation of patience to those that could never forget their once high nor ever remember their low condition which else would have been their Cure and Grandeur in imitation of their too much neglected Apostle I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and suffer need Phil. 4.12 And the Ecclesiastical ambition of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchs after all aiming at priority to of Rome which disdain'd to admit them into equality did more discompose than the Civil Tyranny of the Exarchs for Pride had rather lose its Purse than its Plume by this their patience was set on the tenter Caesar and Popes being alike in their setting up on the ruin of the Liberties of others the one of his Country the other of their Church and both from a punctilio and sense of Diminution not in their being and subsistence but their quality b Sueton in Julio Caesare § 29. Difficilius se Principem Civitatis a primo Ordine in secundum quam ex secundo in novissimum detrudi It was harder for him being a chief Citizen to be made a second of the first than the last of a second were Caesars words and the thoughts of our Popes the fall being greater from the imaginary condition of a God into that of a Creature than from one Creature into another And all of high breeding and low fortunes that chuse to set up in the High way have the like temptations and distress for Apology for their Secular as the Church of Rome for its Ecclesiastical depredations not any want of necessaries but of Grace For the Roman Popes had little cause to be offended with the Constantinopolitan claim of Superiority now their City was the Seat of the Empire and Rome ever and anon taken and retaken by Goths this being the best stake in their own hedge when it was an Imperial City and the best and chiefest foundation of its Western Priority but being now brought down to the dust their last Emperour Augustulus resigning to Odoacer by force about 480. who fix'd his Court saith one at Ravenna ne umbra Regni Romae superesset Their Consuls and Senate ceasing in 540. Their Citizens fleeing for shelter into the Marshes of Venice and else-where far and nigh as the Brittains into Wales no Inhabitants left that could be counted Roman unless Goths and Vandals and Herules or as Platina c Platina in Gregorio saith Si Epirotae Dalmatae Pannoni faex totius orbis terrarum huc missa Romani appellari queant unless Epirots Dalmatians Hungarians and the dregs and Porters of all mankind sent amongst us might pass for Romans Their City often sack'd and Burnt and ruin●d by the Goths And the very c Platina in Gregorio ruins themselves and their Ancient Monuments and Statues ruin'd by our Pope Gregory as he is tax'd to contrive that mens repair to Rome might not be more for curiosity than Devotion what reason had the Church of Rome to expect to fare better in this her solitude and desolation than that of Jerusalem the undoubted Mother of all Churches which was glad in her Poverty to truckle under Caesarea where the deputies then resided as Caesarea under Antioch the residence of the chief President of the East and why not ruin●d Rome to the Constantinopolitan See now the residence of the Emperours themselves Nothing was here wanting to a good title of Supremacy as far as the Constantinopolitan Empire reach'd as it did undoubtedly to Rome at this time but only the Imperial ratification and assent without which Romes Priority by express Canons still continued unrepeal●d But when the Emperour began to interpose c Platina in Gregorio Et Mauritius monuit Gregorium ut Johanni Constantinopolitano obtemperaret and monish'd our Pope Gregory to submit and acquiesce under the See of Constantinople their Christian Patience could last no longer the string was wound so high till it broke here they first began to be desperate and though they quitted conscience they kept their cunning and seing Christ did not defend them better Satan shall Si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo Here our Pope Gregory first exonerates himself on his competitor John Archbishop of Constantinople and stiles him no less than Antichrist or his Fore-runner for affecting so large a Supremacy which yet himself and Successors more vehemently drove at but he Water-man-like with his face the contrary way carrying Servus Servorum in his mouth while Dominus Dominantium was in his heart Auxit que modestia Crimen to use the early expression of a worthy Pen the Hypocrisie and contradiction Antichristianiz'd his Crime Soon after Mauritius himself is murder'd by the Tyrant Phoc●s and his

Eve in hearkning to the Serpent against Gods word were the first Types of credulous Papists Christ the reformed Adam in siding with plain Scripture against the glosses of the Serpent was the first example of wary Protestants All Religion and Irreligion consists either in turning from the Creature to God to the exaltation and righting of the Soul or from God to the Creatures to its overturning to be in dishonourable subjection to the body its slave to its great wrong and misery This Novel Supremacy therefore being so manifestly unjust for its matter and trespass upon the rights of Soveraigns and Churches and so ungodly and scandalous for the motive and manner of its prevalence being founded in the like Pride that tumbled the Angels into Hell as Pope Gregory affirms it of his Competitor in the like impatience and despair that keeps them in it And carried on with the like love of lyes and murder and seduction as makes them intrude and wander out into our Air and prevailing upon many by the like Arts either as a Catholick Angel of light to seduce the unwary and superstitious or as a bountiful Prince with glorious offers of Palls and Caps and Dignities to win the proud and servile to comply and worship and terminating in the like everlasting damnation both to them and their followers 2 Thess 2.12 Phil. 3.19 hath enough in it hereby to dis-ingage all sober and considering English-men from any necessary zeal or tye of Conscience to subjugate themselves or betray their Church and Countrey into such dangerous and unworthy slavery Yea it were to be hop'd at first sight to dispose Italian zeal and ambition concern'd if it would but lay hand upon heart either to let us alone to enjoy our Ancient rights without wrong or trouble as all would wish to themselves and therefore ought to permit the same to others or at least to let God and Christ and Catholick Religion alone as not to bring his holy name and glory which is to be honour'd above all we have to countenance their sin and wrong to their just rebuke But that from the character of such an Apostatical Church in Prophecy which is praescient History any regard to the heart and Conscience or fear of Blasphemy is the least to be expected yea the exclusion of the one and admission of the other to be rather alwayes met as the sum and total of such Religion as the practice sufficiently confirms and fulfills the Prophecy For what Herogliphick or Emblem could more lively describe such a Church where at once the Heart and Soul is excluded and yet sanctity and zeal profess'd than that of the beast with two horns like a Lamb and speech like a Dragon Rev. 13.12 For what is any Society of men devoid of Conscience and private judgment and common Justice whose part is suum euique tribuere neminem laedere but a meer rout of Ravenous beasts or as they are describ'd elsewhere men of corrupted minds 1 Tim. 5.6 For where the mind is corrupted and dead and the body alone alive what there remains but a beast in humane shape Of the same Herd are those who are deliver'd over to a reprobate mind or a mind void of judgement like Salt that hath lost its savour or those in the Prophet whose eyes are blinded and their hearts hearden'd that they neither see with their eyes nor understand with their heart Joh. 12.40 For an useless eye is equivalent to no eye and an unconscionable Soul to no Soul at all as a depos'd King is a living man but a dead Prince so a reduc'd Conscience dethron'd by lusts or the Tyranny of any Church or Gods desertion is no Conscience A Soul subject to man more than God is no Soul as are all such who by force or choice are to obey man against the Truth Wherein as was proved at first the master-errour of Popery did consist Men of depos'd Souls or silenc'd Consciences in Scripture account are beasts But the other part of the character or a profession of Holiness and zeal included as well as good Conscience excluded is set forth by the other notes Hornes like a Lamb and Speech like a Dragon That is this beast is as Christ for arrogated Holiness and authority and yet as Satan or the Dragon or Serpent in Paradice for destructive seduction Good God! what a monstrous profession of Christians is here painted which in vulgar blazonry would signifie a Church hearted Beast armed Christ and langued Satan And the two horns and not seven as had the other may note that the Roman Empire had more of Gods blessing and approbation though counted Beast for its violence for God blessed the 7th day but so he did not the second Gen. 1.8 And the Roman Empire enlightned and civil'd the Countries it subdued but far otherwise it was with the Empire of Popery The Roman Religion upon this Prophetical supposition being all Christ without for Satan or the Dragon mostly tips his temptations with Religion and nothing of heart or Soul within is a Sphynx or a riddle it●s a Religion and no Religion The last because where there is no heart there can be no Lord no God no Bible no Religion no Salvation The first because the Pope alone serves for all for heart and judgement and God and Christ and Church and Bible and Salvation He declares all Faith allows all Scriptures decides all Controversies and where private Conscience is not to be consulted or regarded nor Scripture without his sense what makes good or evil amongst such but his pleasure only Lyes and Perjuries and Murders and Treasons and Blasphemy in favour of that Church and approv'd by them can be no sins but rather meritorious works by this Hypothesis For how can it be otherwise where there is no place or vote for Conscience to except and all power is in him alone acknowledg'd to approve and judge Beasts or un-soul'd men being not capable of faults or misdemeanours Now how can those be true Christians who are not men and how men who want Souls for where is the Soul if it be given away from Christ to any mortal whatsoever For the hearts and judgements that is the Souls of Papists are absolutely subject to the Pope but of Protestants only to Christ and truth the one are holy from the heart to Christ as Christs servants the other without a heart to their Pope or guide as the Servants of men And this Diminutio Capitis or Moral or Legal Annihilation of the Eternal soul by such a sinful profession of absolute Subjection to a mortal Creature hath the like effect and influence upon mens Acts of Worship and Religion as if it were its Physical and real extinction for not to appear is not to be and not to be valued or regarded is not to appear Not that the soul ceases to act as a soul in this its degradation or to cut out means for ends by its work of reason But that

Trinity of Dragon and Beast and false Prophet are as one Antichrist sending out 3 unclean spirits out of his mouth alike Revel 16.13 But the Peculiar work and Principal Charasteristical Arms of Pontifical Antichrist as the Sword was of the Turk is fire from Heaven v. 13 wherewith Elias destroyed his Enemies which kind of spirit our Saviour rebuked in his Disciples And who more at using this fire than our Popes and his Incendiaries by this they burn all Holy Christians members of Christ and Temples of the Holy-Ghost for Hereticks as they fall within their Power By this they blow up States and Kingdoms and set great Cities and all Europe from London to Hungary this day on fire if they are not belyed by this they 'l burn the Scriptures especially if Translated into Vulgar Tongues because the Rival word of God which may give them check if made so known Nor shall Christ himself escape better from their fire than his word or Servants whom in remaining Hosts each one perfect Christ to them they 'l yet burn b Innocentius 3 tius de Missa Can. Eadgari apud Lambard leges by the directions of their Rubricks and Missals out of no particular spleen or malice as in the former cases but out of fatall conformity to Prophetical descriptions to be intirely like themselves by this as a lightning or fire from Heaven which hath often dazled weak eyes they Excommunicate the remaining living body of Christ all faithful believers that bear not their v. 16 17. mark or ordination or Pall or License or Abjuration of the true Faith under the name of Heresie deserving fire And damn all Christian men and Churches to Eternal fire that are not qualified by this their mark to buy and sell v. 17. that is to be of their Antichristian factory and Communion to buy false Peace and Pardon for true Coyn and to sell their Pretious souls for a counterfeit Salvation and this Hellish Trinity Satan and the two Beasts his Vice-Roys though both the latter Proceed from the former or the Dragon who was a Murderer and a Lyer can change their properties for variety and Mahomet is as good at deceiving as at killing and the Pope as good at killing v. 15. as at deceiving The third Antichristian quality as inseparable from Satan and his Synagogue as Lying and Murdering and equally wasting and quenching the heart and Conscience Hosea 4.11 is that of Insatiable uncleanness and Carnal Impurity The Holy and the Counterfeit-Catholick-Church do both discover respectively the holiness or the impurity of the Ghost or Spirit that rules them in the chastity or Impurity of their Disciples Neither is Rome out-done by the Turk herein in Satanical compliance nor their Licensed Stews short of his Seraglioes nor their loose and Infamous privacies of the more regular of the two Mahometan Polygamy If all other signs had been wanting the strange and unexemplyfied excess of this filthyness of late in this sober Nation to the Astonishment of all Christians had been a sufficient discovery and Alarm of Popery advancing towards us as the motion of waves of the approach of a Whale And the true cause of this Heathenish degeneracy amongst Christians which Infallibly excludes from Heaven and Salvation 1 Cor. 6.9 though not from the Bosom of the Church of Rome lyes principally and solely in the want of giving our hearts to Christ whereby Christ becomes one with us for They that so put on Christ Crucifie the flesh with its lusts and affections which are so abominably unsuitable to their new Character and person they now sustain as Christians Gal. 5.24.4 27. 1 Cor. 6.15 But they that put on the Pope only by resignation of will and judgement can live in such pollutions nevertheless as not unusuall with Popes by the Confession of their best Historians The last Antichristian Satanical mark so opposite and contrary to all heart and Conscience as I shall chuse to Instance shall be that stile and attribute of The Accuser of the Brethren Revel 12.10 and false approvers of themselves by Consequence The Turks count Christians but as doggs and themselves as holy Musulmans or Royal Priests to God The Papist is as good at calumny against his betters and for the favouring his own party though with greater defiance to Truth and Conscience in all probability than the Turk where is there greater honour and Eulogies bestowed than they do on the chief promotors and supporters of their Carnal Synagogue Holy Fathers Confessors most Reverend Jesuites eminent Cardinalls Holy and Infallible Popes S. R. Ecclesia and the Apostolick See Rex Catholicus Christianissimus c. Commemorations Canonizations into Saints and Intercessors who better at disgraceing and sugmatizing them that cross their Trade and Idols who let them be the most holy the most excellently Learned and Orthodox persons in the World if any way hinderers of their Diana's Worship shall deserve no better Titles than of Hereticks and Schismaticks and Devils and Reprobates and Dunces and Fools and Madmen and Distracted and Possessed and what not worthy to be destroyed by Temporal and Eternal death where they may be reach'd by either Law and Power or else by poinyards and poisons and Massacres c. Can any that have the charity of Christ in their hearts Mat. 5.44 1 Pet. 2.23 be of such a Malignant Spirit or is not this with the rest a convincing Argument that they are not a Church that belongs to Christ who loves and blesses enemies but to Satan rather who hath his name and stile of Devil from Calumny whom they are more Industrious to resemble in all Antichristian practice And these are our Roman-Catholicks which is the title they so much arrogate and fancy to themselves more than of Roman-Christians or Roman-Orthodox which they more forbear and wave But why Catholick and why Roman which looks so like a contradiction If they affect the stile of Catholick in an Ancient sense in use among Christians of old though not the first whereby any Orthodox Church of any petty City or Countrey as well as of the greatest was call'd the Catholick Church of such a particular place as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Epiphan Praefat. Anchorat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For though it were particular as to place as at Suedri or Philippi or Athens or Rome or London yet Catholick and General nevertheless it was for its Doctrine and exact agreement with the Apostolical Christian Church throughout the World as every drop of clear and homogeneous water is equally water with the whole Ocean but so is not water and mud of heterogeneous mixture If this be their meaning we accept of this sense and measure for so they must not expect to be Catholick alone any more and their foolish distinction falls yea such Churches only that are Apostolical and Scriptural in their Doctrines can be call'd Catholick of Right and such as have most of the muddy heterogeneous mixtures of human Tradition and

dyed in their hope and trust for us for whose sake he 'l continue his goodness to their seed but though his wrath ebb'd 800 years his Grace and mercy wherein he delights to abound and exceed hath not stowed yet full 200 years or is he unable to perfect what he hath begun He that can work a Resurrection from the dead cannot he accomplish a Restoration to a living and surviving People yea and great confusion to all opposers of it No good man ought to envy or hinder the longed for mercies of God to a Nation no great man can and if having his descent alike from the same People how can such be deem'd either good or great but rather miserably unnaturall and deservedly unfortunate and improsperous Earthly Potentates may not give stop to God's tides King Edgar tryed but fail'd their timely retreat will be their greatest safety and Wisdom how many mistaken Politicians have been drowned and Shipwrack'd in such clandestine contrary Councils No Emperour on Earth can command it to be night after the Sun is risen where God is for us we need not fear any seduc'd Dust and Ashes that may appear against us It is likewise most impossible in reason unless in case of Gods great desertion and extraordinary curse The radical difference between Protestants and Papists as was Stated from the beginning and Instanc'd in all along lyes herein that the one take Christ the other the Pope or his pretended Vicar for their Messia or the Lord of their Hearts and Judgements The Protestants who live by faith as all true Christians do and ever did hold firm their Allegiance to their invisible Soveraign in Heaven The Papists who love to live more by sence and show through dis-regard to Faith and the Heart change their Heavenly Soveraign for a visible Christ on Earth which Rebellion can never succeed nor be done no not when it is done already Should not be in the holy Language is shall not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thing shall not be done say the Sons of Jacob touching the Ravishment of their Sister Dina already committed Gen. 34.7 The Soveraignty of Christ and the Allegiance of the soul to God and the Truth are Divine Eternal Establishments not to be alter'd by human pleasure they can no more be changed by the corruption of men or the combination and Clandestine Counsels of Conclaves and Politicians and seduced Grandees than the Constitution of Kingdoms or the Laws of Nations be repealed and changed by Conventicles of Pismires some rash attempt may be made while mens souls are besides themselves or drunk and intoxicated with Idols and vitious Customs but to no more effect than casting caps against the Moon which can never reach it or spitting against the wind which returns into the face or defiance of the Laws and Government by a strong Knot of High-way-men whose end in all likely-hood must be Repentance or Hell and Tyburn Which is further confirm'd by good Authorities the King of Prophets within the Church Psal 2. Why do the Heathens or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2.12 rage and the People Imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed or Messia saying Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us away with these invisible fanatick Lords and Laws of Souls and Consciences Let none in Heaven or Earth be obeyed in matters of Religion or Conscience but a Pope in Temporal matters but a Prince He that sitteth in Heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision to shew the Pittiful ridiculousnes and vanity of such void attempts And the Prince of Philosophers without the Church in his Golden Book of vertue and vice perceiv'd and affirm'd this Truth that the one is in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commendable and lovely and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternally deformed and censurable let men or Laws conspire what they can to the contrary And the unanimous consent and suffrage of all mens Souls and Counsciences to this particular points at the true cause hereof an indelible immediate Allegiance in every heart to God and the truth alone and a deafness to all other Forreign power whatsoever against him Yea and an accuser of it self under any such delinquency For Children and Clownes shall discern and condemn such disloyal deviations in their Prince whom they reverence and the Prince in himself being above all but not above the Soveraign of his heart Men of Honour or Reverence arriveing or supporting their Grandeur by the means and countenance of Vice upon the like Loyalty shall be despis'd by every mouth in the Streets and the Consciences of troubled silent Servants at home that dare not and of their own that dare and will reprove This loyalty and disloyalty against Heaven is such an eternal unalterable measure of mens Misery and bliss that Chast rags will not envy the condition of unclean Silks and Sattin but those shall often wish for the peace and pure content of these The Soul till drown'd in Lusts or gagg'd by Antichristian Tyranny never skrinks from its Heavenly Loyalty while it is a Soul it is for Christ It never deserts this Soveraign till it morally ceases to be a Soul Which is the reason a priori that Popery or the seduction of men from their Loyalty to Christ to slavery to a Mortal can never be well promoted without Debauchery which must first precede to extinguish the Soul Its obedience afterwards shall be blind implicit and servile like that of beasts that have no understanding nothing shall be its Conscience and Religion more but its Carnal Interest and gain and pleasures and complyance with its new false Christ for a false Salvation for human Nature cannot dispense to be without all Religion and Superstition too Its state and condition therefore is a state of enmity and rebellion against God whose Laws it neither is nor can b● subject to Rom. 8.7 And therefore all its Actions and designes are null and void and damn'd in Law and also in Fact when Gods patience is out either by its timely or eternal Recantation either by Repentance here or durance hereafter for all cross and Irregular wills must at last come up to Christs will the judge of quick and dead either with or against their wills and know their true Soveraign at last either by life or death Rom. 8.6 13. Whereby the true ground appears for our Reduction of this Controversy from the beginning to one single point of obedience or disobedience to the right Soveraign of the heart For so doth the wisest of Kings reduce all Divine and human concern and wisdom into one Principle of Loyalty to God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1.7 And not only the beginning but complement and perfection For he is the wisest and soberest Christian who hath not the Pope but Christ most

within the Pale of the Church of Rome or to be subject to the Pope and to believe as the Church believes will do it and nothing else without it For let a man be never so vitious and Ungodly if he stick close to their Church which is allowed to be consistent provided he have the Absolution of a Priest at the last gasp upon his sorrow and condition or if this be wanting upon his attrition or fear of Hell he shall not miss Eternal Salvation nor ever attain the same if he be a Protestant though never so holy or charitable or Penitent and believing so are such Casuists for their want of love to the truth delivered over to deceive both themselves and others But to wave all parties and to give a plain and clear answer according to the truth or the mind of God in his word which is the same which the soul and Conscience loves to believe and build upon before any human Authority whatsoever This question may be divided into two points or Issues Stricti juris largi 1. What that is that makes one a Member of that Heavenly Church which if he wants he is none 2. What makes him more assuredly of it than many others that yet be in it The first question is best answer'd in St. Paul's Phrase in one word in the sence of that Phrase in three By the first he is of this Salvifical Church who is in Christ he is not of it who is out of Christ Rom. 8 1. Here the issue is short and clear with St. Paul Not to be In or out of the Church of Rome this he never saith but in or out of Christ which he affirms throughout Neither Jew nor Gentile nor Greek nor Barbarian nor Brittain nor Roman nor English or Scot or Irish are nearer or further from Salvation by their Countrey but their conditions Not by their first birth which is Temporal but their second which is Celestial and Catholick and one and the same to all true Christians stil●d for this Originally the Brethren Neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision nor the skin Black or White nor a Pall from the body of St. Peter nor the Vest of St. Francis to be buried in nor dispensations Seal'd in Lead more lasting than Wax nor sprinkling nor bathing in Holy Water can avail any thing to save the soul or to purifie the heart but only faith which worketh by love Act. 15.9 Gal. 5.6 Nor the sign of the Cross alone nor the very nails and wood of the Cross it self were they to be seen and touch'd nor any other contact or show or specious title nor the entring in at Porta Caeli at a Jubile nor the Popes Canonization nor the name and title of Roman-Catholick nor the Holy Roman Church like the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord with them in the old Testament Jer. 7.4 or saying Lord Lord with them in the New Math. 7.21 can give entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven but the doing the will of our Father which is in Heaven And did not this old anile faith of Modern Rome which serves to make so many Catholick Sons of their Church serve as much to make them children Universally in understanding also which the Apostle dislikes 1 Cor. 14 20. their practices would have more of their own suspition and less of their Neighbour's Censures What can any mortal excellency that hath visibility and hic nunc or perishing Temporality stamp'd upon it signifie to Christians who are not of this World as Christians but of the World to come by faith And look not at the things which are seen but at the the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal It 's true as men we are to prefer and provide for the nearest in flesh unto us before others or else we are worse than Infidels and prefer our Country and our Prince before our own flesh and life or else we fall short of Noble Heathens but as Christians who is to be nearest to us but he that is holiest and likest to God and Christ How unlike Christians therefore are they in their estimates and measures who think any man is a better or worse Christian or more capable or incapable of Salvation for being of this or that place or City or Nation on Earth rather than for having his affection with Christ in Heaven at Gods right hand Col. 1.3 In whom is neither Greek nor Jew Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3.11 2 Cor 5.16 Math. 12.50 Act. 10.34 35. But how Antichristian is it to make a contrary measure of Salvation to curse them as Hereticks though they be in Christ that be not of their way and Communion and bless them as Catholicks though out of Christ if they be According to the sence of that Phrase it may be further answer'd in three words 1. To be Christ's and not his own 2. to dye in his death to Earth 3. to live in his life to Heaven 1. To be Christ's and not his own All are yours and ye are Christ's 1 Cor. 3.22 23. and 2 Cor. 5.15 Christ dyed for all that none should live unto themselves No Christian is to live unto himself but unto Christ He is to eat and drink and converse and rise and lye down and labour and rest and study and serve and obey and command and rule and to bring up or provide for children and relieve the poor and poor friends every thing as to Christ as guided by his Law and accountable to his Judicature For he cannot be said to be a Servant to another that minds his own affairs or pleasure altogether and never his Master's but when himself pleases for a spurt or humour Neither is any selfish person a Servant of Christ nor a true salvable Christian by consequence but is one that sets up for himself And is not under Christ's Law and will but his own Neither shall be under his pay but must must expect his reward and Salvation from himself as he lived wholly to and for himself and his Conscience cannot gain-say this Law for such a one never hath Communion with God as all true Christians have but only with himself like a Rebel Mock-god ordering all things in the World for his own ends as God doth all for his own glory and never durst trust God so far as to go out of himself for his sake In himself shall he therefore ever remain and out of Christ forever because he never had the honesty to give God his glory nor the faith to give his heart that is himself to his Redeemer 2. To dye in Christs death to the Pomp and vanity of the World which according to St. Paul's comment is the mystical Christian meaning and fulfilling of the Ancient Circumcision Col. 2.11 12. Phil. 3.3 Gal. 6.14 16. That as amongst the Jews