which is against the Law of Nations in the treachery and of common sense and reason in the contradiction But the errour in extream that I would warn you of hath the face of sincerity and Christian honour and perfection maintaining the soul to be all in all and the body or outside of our duties to be nothing and not worth the ordering or regarding who therefore seldom or never open their hands in charity to their brethren in distress but think it enough to pity and relieve them in their hearts that think good works needless least they justle out Faith which is the heart of all Religion that think decent ceremonies and habits in Gods service lawfully ordain'd and answering but to the body to be slighted as Inconsistent with the worship of God in Spirit and Truth which answers to the Soul and that there are to be no Masters or Superiours according to the flesh whatsoever St. Paul saith here to the contrary v. 22. but all to be thou'd with Hat on as equalls because the Soul hath but one Superiour to it that is God The root of such mens mistake lies in this that they conceive Subordinates to be contrary and comparatives wholly to destroy the positive that heart and hand cannot go together that the body and the soul and God and man and Heaven and Earth be inconsistent because the one doth so far excell and out-go the other Two errors there are Antient and modern contrary to one another yet twins of the same womb that have much annoyed and moth-eaten the beauty and glory of the Christian Church in its severall ages all along and brought needless straits and troubles upon many a well-meaning Christian 1. That of Monkery 2. that other of Nonconformity the root and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of both being in the one a Melancholly in the other a willfull Imagination of Inconsistency where there is none for the soul may be saved without going a begging and God may be worshipped as well as Idolatry incurr'd by the reverence of the knee For though this present World compared to that to come be nothing with the Monk as the knee compar'd to the heart is nothing with the Non-conformist wherein both be very right and Orthodox yet considered apart and by themselves out of such comparison they recover again their positive necessary and convenient beinâ— and their use and goodness with their being by consequence As the Earth is nothing in respect of Heaven and England therefore so small a part of the Earth is less than nothing in all reason However by it self positively considered it is a large Territory of many dayes Journey consisting of several Counties and famous Towns and Cities affording large materials for Laws and Government and Order But if Monk and Seperatist be compar'd as to the consequence of their principles or the sincerity of their Discipline the one is found to wrong himself only the other publick peace and order The one to despise the World which agrees with a Christian the other to despise Government which too much agrees with Antichrist Jud. 8. 2 Thess 2.4 withall it 's far easier to flesh and bloud to abstain from bowing or kneeling or capping than to wear Sack-cloath or to live on Bread and Water all ones life It s easier I say and less subject to taking cold to change you into thou than to walk bare-foot all the year therefore the Monk stands further off from the Hypocrite than the Quaker though from the unwise both much at equal distance To place all Religion and Service of God in opere operato or the work outwardly done though without the heart or understanding is Idle and Popish To place none in the outward Reverence of the body before Angels and men is Rude and Fanatical and Scandalous To perform all the parts of our outward duties with care and Reverence but to judge them as nothing and as meer formality compared to the truth and sincerity of our hearts to Christ this is Orthodox and Regular Religion and well pleasing in the sight of God and Reason For great is the natural greater or more sensible is the moral difference between our Bodies and Souls The Body like matter in Plato is a vast spungy dull Earthly lump and substance without any life or spirit But the Soul is a contract and strong and indivisible divine and lively essence and spirit being that in the Body what God is in the World tota in toto Giving life and motion and vigour to all its parts minimum maximi mâ—jus maximo minimi a Mole-hill of Gold is worth a Mountain of Oare But the moral difference between them currant in Conversation and the esteem and value of God and man seems much greater Five words of real English truth from the heart are better received with all men than ten thousand Complements and Grimaâ—ces Though a vast Estate be greatly valued in the World for the port and respect that attends it yet health and life have far the pre-eminence when ever they stand in Competition Yet the one and the other both Estate and life set against the Soul become so little worth that they both must expose themselves at its beck into Martyrdom and Sequestration and the Canons mouth to defend and make good but any one Article of Faith any one Principle of Honour and Loyalty in the heart And your Hectors bid higher who by their Hair-brain Duells and sickly Luxuries and hazardous and ignominious Lusts do loudly maintain that an erroneous thought or fancy of the Soul is of more value and price than health and life and all the World What then must be the worth and value of thoughts sober and wise and true What of the Soul it self the Matrix and mother of them all Therefore God who understands the nature of the Soul takes it for no service at all but rather a contempt which is offered to him by the lip without the heart Mat. 15.8 Ones whole life spent in his service without the heart is not one hour or minute spent therein If I speak with the Tongue of men and Angels and have not Charity that is do it not for the Glory of God and the Edification of men from my heart I am but as sounding-brass and a tinckling-cymbal If I bestow all I have to the poor and give my body to be burnt and have not Charity that is do it for a vain Glory or for some other respect than from my heart to God it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. But this second and principal part of my Text touching the Heart and Soul of our Actions may for distincter method be further explained and illustrated two ways By shewing 1. The Quomodo 2. The Quare The Quomodo how we are to Act is expressed in those words 1. From the heart 2. To the Lord. 3. Not to men 2. The Quare why we are so to Act is insinuated in those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
l. 28. d of p. 599. l. 35. r. may Col. 3.23 Whatsoever you do do it from the Heart as unto the Lord and not unto men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Soul THe difference between the Soul and the Body which is the foundation of all Religion and Honesty and Honour is not so plainly demonstrable from Natural marks and arguments wherein the resemblance of Organs and Animal operations in man and beast puts a meer Naturalist often to a stand as from Moral effects and experiments and signatures undenyable For men's Actions good and bad like the Men themselves consist of two Essential parts Body and Soul or the outside of the Action which men regard answering to the Body or Carcass and the inside or the intent and manner which God respects answering to the Heart and Soul which is all in all to assigne a few instances received throughout mankind without controll It is the mind and kindness of the giver which is as the Soul of the guift and not the bulk and quantity which is but as the Body that gives price and valuation to presents with God and God-like men And a Dinner of Herbs or Bread and Water where there is love and a cheerful countenance as a signe of hearty welcom which is the life and Soul of entertainment digests better than the most Sumptuous Magnificent Feast that is where these are wanting If a life be destroyed yet if the will and intention that is the heart appear to have no manner of hand at all therein there is a non est factum in the Case it 's neither Murder nor Slaughter but Chance Lucretia though Villanously Ravished in her Body stands Chast and undefiled in Story because she fully proved after her Roman way her mind to have been pure and unconsenting It was done against my will is a plea of Natural Logick in tender Age and Riper for their indemnity in any fault committed unawares â—â—ir promises and Professions that proceed not from the heart none value but as wind or as God doth the worship or repentance of a Hypocrite that hath a relapse and falsehood in his heart The Roman General knew not how to be angry with the transported Greeks that went nigh to press him to death with their excessive joy and thankfulness at his unexpected Publication of their liberty at the Olympick Games the verity of their heartiness drown'd the danger of their outward rudeness Whereby as by a tast it is apparent that the want and absence of the Soul or heart render all our actions not only pale and ghastly and ill favour'd but also null and void and dead and that the least touch and tincture communicated from the Soul unto them gives them a new and admirable life and beauty How great then must the loveliness and beauty of the Soul itself be if the image of the Sun shines so bright in a Pail of water How glorious is the Sun it self in full body in his own orb and firmament Upon this account so great a stress is laid upon the heart in all mens Actions by all wise and holy men by Solomon My Son give me thy heart Prov. 23.26 By our Blessed Saviour from the heart proceed all evil thoughts and works and all good by the contrary Mat. 15.19 By St. Paul in my Text Whatsoever you do do it from the Heart c. without which all Religious worship would be Insignificant and Cadaverous and dead as without brotherly love from the heart amonâ—â—t brethren your solemn Festivals would be but jejune Pageantry but a Feast of Artificial Napkins or painted Pastboard or that wooden treat of the Poet Et tot á sonat ulmea Caena saburrâ 2. The Text is a rule and lesson given to Servants But doth God take care of Servants only Doth it not as well belong to Masters also yea it doth as much belong to Masters Col. 4.1 For if the Servant is bound to eye the Authority and fear of Christ in his Master is not the Master bound by Counter-part in Equity to appear in the mercy and tenderness of Christ towards such an awful and conscientious Servant Or is there or can there be any better regulation of Master and Servant than when Christ is made a Rule for both And wherein lies the main-stay and support of all the Societies and Communities of the World more than in the right Regulation of Master and Servant Superiour and Inferiour For Communities ever stand or fall decay or flourish as Servants and Subjects Masters and Governours neglect or discharge each their several parts and duties For in all our service and subjection we have two Lords and Masters before us our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 22. those our visible Lords and Masters whom we outwardly and subordinatly serve in our Mortal bodies with a condition and reservation ever that they interfere not in their Commands with God Acts 4.19 And our Invisible and supreme Lord and Master whom we absolutely and unconditionally serve and obey with our immortall Souls and Spirits which know no Superiour but God alone or Christ the Lord in my text who because he hath right to the entire service of the heart and soul according to our Apostle in this text is therefore truly God And seeing we are to do all from the heart and soul or else nothing in reason is by us ever done And the heart or the soul knows none over it but only God the Apostle therefore takes Christians off from serving Earthly and perishing Lords Masters to serve our only ever-living Master in Heaven from the heart of whom Masters on Earth to Christians are as Signs and Symbols changing eye-service for fear into heart-service for Conscience v. 22. Our Earthly drudgery to men into Heavenly worship towards God fear of blows into fear of Hell temporal liberty and salary into everlasting bliss and Glory knowing saith he v. 24. That of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the Inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ Ye serve the Lord Christ and you are to serve your Masters and Governours over you in the flesh nevertheless yea the more because they are now to you vested with Christ By the Christian Hypothesis Earthly Masters and Governours are as I may say Sacramentally chang'd and consecrated into Christ yet continue the same Masters and Governours nevertheless un-transubstantiated un-removed from their beings and stations to make room for Christ So that a Quaker may with a safe conscience yeâ— ought in conscience to express Reverence from his heart as to Christ in the first place so to his Superiour in the next yea to Christ himself in the persons of his Superiours at once And as the Blessed Sacrament is Holy Bread to our sense while yet Christ himself to our Faith so the Christian Servant or Subject serves an Earthly Prince or Master in the flesh but serves the Lord Christ himself in his heart and Faith the outside of the service
is transacted here on Earth between man and man the Inside is performed in Heaven through Faith between the Soul and God The height and stature of a Right Christian reaches from Earth to Heaven pedibus terram terit caput inter nubila condit The Originall Model and Truth of all his actions is order'd and contriv'd in his upper-man in his Sanctum Sanctorum where there is access to none but God and his conscience Christ and his heart his outward Actions in his lower man or outward court of the body are but Copies and Proclamations of those Rules from above and are all executed by and towards deputies our hands being the Proxies of our Souls and our Neighbours and Superiours the Proxies of Christ And should a lust or Idoll or Self-interest or Carnall fear steal in or usurp like Lucifer or Antichrist the Throne of Christ in the upper man the Soul the Inferiour faculties below will serve and worship this Impostor or Usurper with the same Allegiance the same fear and trembling as Christ himself which is an abominable Idolatry and confusion and a vile and treasonable Prophanation and subversion of Christs Honour and Soveraignty in us together with that of our own Liberty and felicity Therefore the heart is to be always watch'd and guarded against invasions Prov. 4.24 and kept free and entire for Christ and whatsoever we do we are to do it for no other end or respect and for no mans sake but Christ which is the benefit and Interest of the superiour and Inferiour too The Master or Superiour is happy in the fidelity and Religion of his Servant who is now as diligent in his work behind the back as before the face directing his service not to man who cannot always see him but to Christ from his heart present at all times and places to him in his heart and faith And the servant is much more happy not only in his Immense and Infinite reward for his labour above what his Earthly Lord or Master could ever reach to give but in the glorious liberty and dignity of his condition being not so much Servant as brother to his own Lord and Master in Christ whose Servants both are alike and the chief Rulers of the Earth and the Angels of Heaven count it their chief honour and glory so to be The text as we all men consists of two parts Body and Soul The Body in those words whatsoever ye do ye that is ye Servants which takes in all ranks and orders and degrees of men all from the Plow to the Throne being but Servants Servants either of man or God or both and the word whatsoever comprehends all the duties and Actions of them all The Soul or the heart of my text in the other words do it from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men where there are two parts of this the heart the right ventricle and the left the right or positive part in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Lord and the left or Negative part in the other and not unto men 1. In the right part the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quatenus ipsum as Logicians say between the Lord and the heart whatsoever is done or not done from the heart is done or not done to the Lord in effect and whatsoever is or is not done for the Lord is or is not done from the heart because of the concatâ—nation or eternall correlation between these two for ever Inseparable Liege and Subject God and the Soul for though a sincere Heathen and a carnall Christian seem both miserably out the one for want of God the other for want of the â—earâ— in worship yet in neither where one is present iâ— the other correlative really ever wanting and Socrates and Cicero who serv'd false Gods actually did design the true God in their hearts and will rise up in judgement against such nominall Christians oâ— Catholicks who actually worship Christ but design another end in their hearts their Backs or Bellies or secular conveniences by him and whatsoever is the aim of our heart is our God And this chief end and treasure at the bottom of the heart and intention which as our Saviour notes Math. 6.21 goes ever with the heart is that which as the Soul of the action gives life and formality to it and denomination to the worshipper either of a true worshipper or true Christian where the chief end at bottom is the true God or Christ or of an Idolator or Atheist where the chief end in the heart is the world or self which God well knows and every mans conscience can best tell him which it is 2. The negative part not unto men yea to men as secondary Masters by the order of Christ the chief to Masters according to the flesh v. 22. but not from fleshly motives or worldly respect or fear that were contrary to the nature of the Soul and the faith of Christians for the Soul knows none to be loved or feared but God alone or in reference to him and faith sets us above the world and consequently above all wordly fears or ends in our actings if our actings be Christian and our Christianity be true To dwell on the first part or body of the text and to enumerate all the fair limbs and lineaments of duty belonging to all sorts of men in their severall ranks and orders were in effect to sum up to you the whole duty of man which yet without the second part or the heart in my text would prove but a meer Anatomy or Skeleton the shell without the kernell the body without the soul And though the outside of our duties be nothing if compar'd to the inside or heart therereof and the latter is to be chiefly done yet the former is not to be left undone for how can that be done from the heart which is not done at all or well done before God which is ill done before men before whom we are bound to glorifie God as well as within our hearts I shall therefore fall to the heart and life of my text after warning and detection given of a great and dangerous errour among Christians which lies in the extreme where faults use to lie Not theirs do I mean with whom their body and its wellfare are all in all with them and their immortall Souls but as ciphers out of sight out of mind which is a very Catholick Irreligion not to be refuted here because such cannot pretend to be Christians because they are no men and no men because they deny their Souls falling short of nobler Infidels and Heathens in Wit and Spirit and Religion and hearding themselves unworthily with the beasts that perish having no signs of manliness left but the false magnanimity of wounding and damning there no Souls and vilifying the Lord Christ his Scriptures and Ministers and that before any open renunciation of their Christianity
sight and hearing when the Christian Soul comes upon the Stage to Act its part before its God alone like a Nightingale in a still calm it being below the Soul to sing her part to any other ear neither can the heart own any competent spectator of its Actions but Him alone who can search and judge it And what is more agreable as with this text so with the great care of our Saviour also in the right ordering of our Religious Actions our Alms and Fasting and Prayer that we do all to Gods eye alone and not to be seen of men Math. 6.1 2 3. For if we do the same for men we have our reward that is they must pay us who set us on work or for whom we chuse to work but if for God in secret then God who seeth in secret shall reward us openly If we pray in our Closets it must be to God alone intirely being more seen and heard by him alone than if we prayed in the sight and hearing of the whole world If we pray in the Church where we are seen of men we are not so to pray that men may praise our devotions but that God may approve our hearts we are to Pray in private between God and our heart in the midst of the congregation as in a desert In duties of the Pulpit Bench or Shop our chief aim must not be lucre or vain glory the fear or the favour of any but the approving of our hearts and consciences to Christ which will make us just and bold and sober and tender We are not to be dejected or cast down for any loss but the loss of Christs favour by our sins which sorrow is its own cure we are not to esteem our selves better than others in any thing but where we can out-go them in conformity to our meek and humble Saviour which kind of humility is true and Divine Grandeur nor to count our selves at ease amidst our ease and plenty till we find it to go well with Christ and his Church which is our zeal and Loyalty The Christian that Acts all in Christ and through Christ and for Christ super-induces Christ upon himself and upon every other person he hath to do with as the colour of the glass shall colour all the objects the eye sees through it even as envy and malice on the contrary sees the Devil in every Brother and finds him in it self His hope of life and Salvation ebbs and flows according as he finds himself in or out of Christ Rom 8.1 and he finds himself in or out of Christ according as his thoughts words or actions agree or disagree with the person of Christ which as a Christian he hath put on for his rule and measure Gal. 3 27.-5.24 He dares not approach his Neighbours bed because he earries Christ in him and upon him wheresoever he moves shall I take a member of Christ to make it a member of an Harlot God forbid 1 Cor. 6.15 He preferrs every Brother or Sister in humility before himself against his pride because Christ to his Faith is in every Brother or Sister Rom. 12.10 1 Cor. 8.12 He is faithfull and diligent in his Masters business against his sloath and temptations considering with himself he serves not man but Christ as in my Text. In a relation of husband or wife Christ and his Church are to be acted betwen them the one is to love his wife for all her frailties as Christ loved his Church the other is to honour her Husband against her discontents as the Church honours Christ Eph. 5.22 25. He obeys his Superiors in all lawfull injunctions against his scruples because Christ in his Faith rules in them who is worthy to be submitted to Prov. 8.15 Rev. 1.5 He forgives his enemies against his stomach because Christs will is now his will and not his own Math. 5.44 He is liberal to the poor against his avarice because Christ to his Faith is in the poor as really saith St. Chrysostome as in the Sacrament Math. 25.40 He neither wrongs nor imposes on nor scandalizes any man with his good will that to his Faith were to wrong or impose upon or scandalize Christ himself 1 Cor. 8.12 as much as in him lyes which he abhorrs and trembles at Neither is he weary of praying or doing good as his flesh would suggest because to his Faith it s the same to him as being in Heaven with Christ all the while 1 Cor. 15.58 Heb. 11.1 he startles at the first step or motion to any sin because to his Faith which makes the threats of Christ ever present to him as well as his rewards it signifies here to him the same with departing from Christs presence into everlasting flames with the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 Good God! what an Heaven upon Earth it were to live among Christians if all that were Christians by name were Christians indeed and in truth And none can be truly saved but those alone who are truly Christians in heart to Christ and not in appearance to men only And so much for the Quomodo how we must do all from the heart to Christ and not to men Next follows the Quare or the two reasons why we are so to act the first implyed in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 1. Soul and 2. the Lord. 1. The first is from the fundamental nature and fabrick of our Souls which bear a connatural imbred allegiance and subjection to God and no other to whom they are as Unisons or Correlates as the eye was made to answer the Light or the herb Heliotropium to move at the motion of the Sun or as your common Daisies that as it were with mourning and joy shut and open according as they lose or enjoy the Sun Our Souls are not sui juris independant unaccountable beings that were for a Creature to be the same as God is but are subject and responsible for all their most inward designs and actions and that to God alone and no other All Earthly powers and their threats and bonds they flight and defie as Sampson did his Wit hs and Cords or Leviathan doth Iron and Brass to him but as straw and stubble But God or Christ they will own as their Leige who governs them by a Vice-Roy I mean Conscience which is the same with the heart in my Text which seems to be no other than the Soul it self made an Officer or Register both for and against it self to view and record and report all passages impartially against the great Tribunal being a manifest demonstration of the immense power of that Almighty Soveraign who thus controlls and rules this potent and lofty spirit the Soul of man and all for its good Rather than to be without a God to Worship by way of virtue and Religion the Soul will chuse an Idol to serve by way of Vice and Idolatry There are two experiments to
be remarked in the worst of sinners that irrefragably prove a God The first is their infinite insatiable appetite after their peculiar Lusts which is that true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Avarice which Scripture stiles Idolatry Col. 3.5 The second is that forlorn guilt and anguish that the Conscience ever meets with criminibus peractis as the Poet said as soon as the Commission of the sin is over which no Creature for the present can allay or still without either Gods pardon upon Repentance and amendment or the help of time at least to forget it whereby the heart like the skin grows more hard and senseless by its wounds ill Cur'd These two effects very evidently prove it was a Divine and an Infinite Bliss and Happiness the Soul did aim at and forfeit in all its wicked fruitions and disappointments such an unbounded manner of Pursuing and Ruing being as clear an argument as ten thousand miracles to prove the existence and nearness of the deity to mens Actions but that Vicious Souls by the habit and Custom of vice become Callous and Bedlam-like insensible and so wholly brutal and un-attentive after God as the very beasts that perish in whom we commonly observe several shadows and resemblances of our own Reason in some degree but not the least sense or footstep or inclination after Religion or Altars or Sacraments This being the peculiar imploy and prerogative of Immortal Spirits Seeing therefore our Souls cannot be without either God or Idol to serve and fear and cannot serve both or neither it is not only our duty but necessity to chuse to do all we do rightly from the heart to the true God alone to our unspeakable comfort and reward than erroneously to Worldly and private ends or Idols to our everlasting misery and ruine This is the first reason from the fundamental constitution and Genius of our Souls which were made from the beginning as Adam in Paradice to walk and converse only with God and the good lives of the best Patriarchs are remarkably compriz'd in Scripture in a phrase to the same effect That they walked with God And our own Law resolves all Crimes in her Indictments into one Cause The want of the fear of God before mens eyes And why is it that peace of Conscience can defie the frowns of the whole World and all the favour and affluence of the World cannot quiet a disturb'd mind but that the entire concern and interest of man is found by all experience to be solely and immediatly in God The second reason is implyed in the word Lord who is Christ For Christ became Lord of Christians by purchase and merit by dying for them as the Apostle Argues 2 Cor. 5.15 In whose Death and Cross this present World hath its end and period by Faith as the Old World in the deluge by Gods judgments And the Christian Church is a New raised people a new Creature springing out of the Grave of the second Adam as Eve the type of the Church from the first Adam fallen asleep and following Christ in heart and faith to the right hand of God where now he is For the Church of Christ is supposed and laid according to the Scriptures in Heaven above More fully shewed in another Discourse on Phil. 3.20 Col. 3.1 Heb. 12.22 23. and not in any Corner or City or Chair on Earth here below as some Modern Donatists or Romanists strongly fancy for their gain deceiving and being deceived And this present World with its pomps and concerns which used to allure and detain the Soul from God to be withdrawn and vanished and dead and gone Col. 3.3 1 Cor. 7.31 And all the Cob-webs of Worldly ends and lusts and transitory designes which used to bind Carnal hearts like strong Cords swept and removed out of the way and none left but Christ and the Soul alone upon the pit None for it to love or converse or set its heart upon but Christ alone Christ Personal or Christ Mystical Christ in himself or Christ in his living Images in being or to be that is his Church So like is our Restoration by Christ as Christians to our Creation at first by God as men by both we were made to converse with God alone all other things being set below us under our feet by subjection or by death By subjection by the law of the Creation and by death by the designe and fiction of the Regeneration So true is that of the Apple 1 Joh. 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ for as the Soul could not stir out of God so neither hath the Christian any life or motion or being out of Christ Whatsoever he doth he must do it according to that general Rule of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 Christ hath the heart of a Christian in the first place next those that are likest in their lives and places to him He joynes in Communion with this or that Church as far as they keep Communion with Christ and no further He 'l joyn in Communion with St. Peter that Christ is the Son of the living God he 'll separate from St. Peter himself in his Abnegation and return again to his Communion upon his Repentance with bitter tears for that his Abnegation being still constant to Christ though Peter not constant to himself And no other Inferiour Pope or Church on Earth can claime Communion with or submission from us upon any other terms than as our Prime and Eternal Allegiance to Christ will give leave and permit without the guilt of Treasonable Idolatry against Heaven in our selves to give and yield it in them to take or arrogate it For whether we serve a Master or obey a Governour or chuse or approve a Church or Marry or live single or eat or drink or celebrate a Festival or whatsoever else we are to do we are to do all from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men And so much of the Doctrinal part of my Text. Which in the first place is of infinite use and influence to the right ordering and prosperity of Societies and Communities whether those Majorum Gentium of the greater size and sort that of Church and Common-wealth or mankind in General or other particular Fraternities of a lesser compass formed after the mould and imitation of those greater For nothing ever was given more useful to the World to sodder and strengthen Societies and Corporations than Christian Charity or Love from the heart towards one another for Christs sake which adopts and Incorporates all both small and great to its Heavenly community all the members of any Company all the Companies of any City and all the Cities and States and Kingdoms of the world into an unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Men are weak and comfortless and of a narrow sphere while alone but grow strong and goodly and formidable and
useful to all and to one another when united and confederated together in lawful bands and Brother-hoods as I need not prove your vocation and establishment to be which is founded not only upon the indispensable needs of men but the express allowance also and the approbation of Laws both Humane and Divine It is not Wealth or Gold or Purse makes Interest and Power but men and friends as Cicero observes in his offices for those without these would little avail to our aid or comfort neither are we ever sure of men to be on our sides or fully to be trusted in till first we are sure of their hearts and nothing more wins and binds the hearts of men unto us than our hearts to them whether with our gift or without nothing so charms the heart of another as a heart to meet it as no loss more weakens and dethrones than the loss of hearts Now this communion and fellowship of hearts and souls is no where so to be learnt or acquired as in the School of Christ who is the sole legislator and judge of Souls and hearts I 'le Instance therefore in a concise description of a true and false Brother or member of this or that Society whether greater or smaller according to the Christian pattern and the Apostical rule of my Text to point but at the one or the other is sufficient praise and reproof for either A right Brother then of his Society is him in a word that is true hearted which no man ever was or will be without discharging every duty that lies upon him out of conscience to God and his Saviour he considers aright his livelihood and priviledge his love and honour from that Company or Charter to which he relates and his duty arising from his priviledge and the blessing of Heaven showring upon him and his while he conscientiously performs his duty He considers that by being of a Society he hath a new and a larger self than before being co-extended and co-multiplied according to the number and considerableness of the whole Brotherhood whereof he is and with this new-self a new-self preservation by consequence and a larger care doth grow upon him before he was but one and had but one to care for now he is grown into hundreds and hath hundreds therefore to love and tender even as he is tendered by them For it 's manifest the whole body owns the concerns of every the least member belonging to it and if a toe be but crushed the pain goes to head and heart and all He conceives it therefore but equity and reason that he should answer love with love that his gratitude should indent with his advantage from his Society yea that his returns of love should exceed his receipts like the good ground that repairs an handful of seed with an Harvest He loves therefore every Brother of his community equall yea above himself or his own single concern therein being thus match'd and exhausted in his disbursments and duty towards any one what stock hath he left to answer the love of the whole community who are hundreds of friends and defenders of him who is but one against them here he finds himself insolvent and over match'd with love and studies to get out of debt but cannot and gladly would he meet some streit or tryal or expence some happy kind of prejudice or honourable undoing of himself to do them some publick good and to testifie his preference of them by prostration and an humble annihilation of himself before them this is but the temper and due disposition of every member towards the publick good and preservation of that Body or Community whereof he is all true and Generous Spirits have their greatest wish and bliss when an opportunity is offered them to preserve and defend their Country though with the manifest hazard of their lives Dulce decorum est pro patriâ mori and so it is and ought to be in some parallel proportion in every lesser Corporation It is not only the duty but the delight of every genuine member thereof to Sacrifice his whole private interest therein for its publick welfare when necessity shall require and a greater allegiance to a greater Society or stronger relation shall not countermand him Thus he lives and thus he dies and when he dies his whole Society die with him in grief and sorrow for the loss of so dear a Brother so true a heart yea they will not suffer him to die nor his name to see corruption but attend him solemnly to his grave loaded with respect and mourning What to leave him there behind them No but to combat death for his rescue and to raise him from the dead in the strength of their love to which nothing is impossible and to bring him back into a life of honour and immortality in their hearts and memories this life of honour and good name being a new life and better than natural life it self in the sense of civilized mankind But he is before-hand with them being pre-embalm'd and secur'd against all assaults of death by his brazen wall the Testimony of a good conscience for a good conscience is infinitely better and more durable than a good name This is the Original life of honour to which that from our neighbours is but the Counterpart and eccho subject to mistakes both of love and malice But his blessed Saviour who is greater than his conscience is as much before-hand with him in point of life to be restored as he was with them his merciful Saviour graciously considers this poor man in all his toyl and imployment his heart did ever aim at me and shall I do nothing for him in his low condition now he is given by all for lost he considers when his feet travell'd toward his Patients his heart the same time travell'd towards Heaven and God that he tender'd the lives and purses of his charge the bills and reputation of his directors the orders and weal of his Society either his obedience to it or place of trust in it which all carry some equivalence to life all from his heart and conscience doing as he would be done by in the sight of Christ his Lord and Judge extracting by Divine Chymistry some service and worship to his Saviour out of every imployment on Earth Christ therefore owns him to have been his Minister and Servant all the while and not the Communities Now to be provided for and considered by a bountiful Master who hath ability and inclination to effect it to some purpose and this good and faithful Servant shall now enter into his Masters joy and be crowned with that astonishing bliss and Immortality to which all honour and good name here below so much valued in the world were but empty shadows and chances and peace of conscience it self which passeth all understanding but a short glimpse and fore-tast Dearly beloved and honour'd let me leave this lesson in your mind In
reason to envy the higher condition and temporal honours of Superiours in this World having such great reward and honour in reserve from God for his own work And we see the Soul it self though never so excellent or extensive to be content in this life with less room and port than the body and an Idiot may have a greater presence than a Rabbi though the one have its name from restraint and narrowness the other from Amplitude of person and endowments and Davids great spirit which encountred Bears and Lyons and Goliah's had but a narrow Case And St. Paul who overcame the world by his Ministry is said by some To be weak in presence and in his speech Contemptible 2 Cor. 10.10 And were not Christ the only Master and Rewarder and Judge and King and his Priesthood but in the Character and Condition of Labourers and Stewards under him and not the Lords and proprietors of his blessed word and Mysteries who were able or sufficient to requite their spirituals Is the tenth of an Estate or thousands of Rams or ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl or the whole World were one sole owner of it a sufficient price or present for the Gospel or for Christ or for pardon of sins and peace of Conscience and the Souls Salvation What Kings or Emperours were too good to bow and prostrate themselves before Popes if they preach'd or any right Minister of the Gospel were their comfortable messages their own and not their Heavenly Masters Yet though they are but Instruments and servants under Christ are they not to be left without honour and esteem and maintenance from men and that not mean or scant for their work sake though they be to expect their full reward and portion from none but God For the reason and Civility of Nations though they reserve the Glory and honour to the chief Authors of their deliverances and victories yet leaves not the Messengers of good Tydings without their due respect and presents God alone is our supream King and Father preserver and our Earthly Superiours and Benefactors and Delieverers are but Instruments under him And though the respect that is due and congruous to the principal be not payable to the Instrument yet by all Laws and Instincts of Gratitude and Conscience and Customes of Nations Instruments under God of Benefits Kings Fathers Conquerours Benefactors receive that proper and meet acknowledgment and return that is their due yet Instruments are by no means to step into the Throne or usurp or arrogate the Royalties of their Principals but must rest content with that Tribute of respect and honour that is due to their subordinate Ranks and Stations though they are the Conveyers under God of Spiritual which infinitely exceed all temporal benefits and mercies And great and remarkable is the difference between the Pains of the Clergy and the payments and rewards of the Laity in the Ancient and Primitive times when Christ was more in the heart and the World less towards what it is and hath been in the degenerate times of Christianity when the World began to have more of mens hearts than Christ St. Peter though the Prince of the Apostles and Founder of our great and Wealthy Popes was not worth a Groat upon the score of his Function for so is his answer to one begging his Alms Silver and Gold have I none but such as I have give I thee Act. 3.6 And yet all Rich Christians then that had either Land or Houses sold and parted with all and laid them at his feet c. 4.34 35 37. so great was the clearness of the one and the gratitude of the other and the care and preferrence of the Community and of the poor in both And St. Paul laboured night and day to get his living while he preach'd the Gospel of God unto others 1 Thess 2.9 Yet bears them record That they were ready to pluck out their eyes if possible to give them to him Gal. 4.15 A good Argument that they that would not spare their Eyes much less would spare their Purses for his sake as others more remote cannot erect Temples though miracles of the World for magnificence sufficiently answerable to the merits of his memory And the Apostolical abstinence was closely followed by the succeeding Heroes of the Primitive Church As Origen and others who preferr'd Hearts before Purses and fared hard and went barefoot while they had Nobles for their Converts which is not to be attributed to Sullenness or Melancholly or Vain-glory but either to the strict observation of our Saviours Rule Freely have you received freely give more binding in those times of Miraculous assistance Or to an aime of trampling this present World under their their feet and encouraging their Christian followers in their poverty and persecutions as the Emperour Severus us'd to walk bare-head in snow and rain to hasten the tardy March of his Armies Or to the Eternal Rules and decencies of giving and receiving which require the one part to forget their merits the other never to forget their benefits more lively exerted in them who by extraordinary Grace were better fitted to represent the several parts of God to the life whereof the Giver is ever one as the Receiver is of the Creature and the Receiver when he requites and repayes puts on again the Giver and the Giver becomes as a Creature to be in a capacity to receive which is a remarkable shadow and footstep in nature of the Incarnation and both parts of God could not be acted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by such unbounded zeal and thankfulness in both in imitation of Gods bounty who giveth liberally and is so far from upbraiding that he hazards the denyal of his existence and being with the inconsiderate for his silence and withdrawing But extraordinary times being not presidents for ordinary that the Clergy now should labour Gratis or the Laity hold all in Common as then they did as the manner of living in a Siege not a Rule for the manner of living when God sends Peace and plenty This noble strife and generous contention between Liberality and Refusal in Primitive Hearers and Teachers was stated afterwards and compos'd by Divine and Apostolical intimations not only That of the Labourer being worthy of his hire but that more express establishment Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should have by the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.14 Where the Evangelical maintenance is equall'd if not indentified with the Levitical which is known not to have been scant and prosperity and a Curse annex'd from God besides upon all that were just or unjust in paying or withholding their Tithes and Offerings Mal. 3.8.9 10. And further yet We wish you did reign that we also might reign with you 1 Cor. 4.8 Where it is implyed that it is but just and fit that the Ministers of the Gospel should partake and share in its highest prosperity and advancement who are sure to smart
Argathelia i. e. Ar-gwyahel contra Hibernum Glasco olim Glasghu Usher p. 684. p. 684. i. e. viridis dilecta aut forsan Glasgoed viridis Sylva Aher Ostium fluvii Dyglas Dylas fl sive Duglas Dû nigrum Glâs viride unde forsan nomen Familiae Illustris Ar-cluid Urbs super cluid sive Glottam nunc Dunbritton c. Edenburgh and both the Friths down to the Rivers Derwen or b Tervyn Britt Terminus Derwen Britt Quercus Tervyn or the c Ravon-glas fluvius Caerulens Morlas in Syntaxi Mor-glas mare Caerruleum Avonlas in Syntaxi Vide Gram. Cambro-brittanicas Ravonglas or further in Cumberland and over all Scotland and Ireland and the Isle of man where it is clear against all Arts and Inventions and Legends and dreams that the first planting of the faith amongst them people was by Brittish and not by any Romish Mission or Ministery from the difference Augustine met and found here between these Churches and the Roman upon his arrival not only in several Customes and observations which savour'd of the East more than Rome but in the most material characteristical distinction that can be imagin'd or conceived between Churches that pretend to hold the same Faith that of Subjection and Ordination which the Brittish Churches never acknowledged nor received from Rome but from themselves or from Jerusalem whence Rome it self must derive as from the common mother of Christendom or it is no Church of Christ Isa 2.3 2. That the Communalty of the Brittains in Lhoegr and Alban or England and Scotland Cittizens Shop-keepers Farmars Peasants and their Wives and Daughters and Servants and little Children which were a considerable part of that as they are of every Nation were not totally put to the Sword by the Conquering Party nor expell'd their Borders nor consum'd by Plague as some vulgarly dream and believe The Trunk and body of the Brittish Nation continuing still the same under the successive yoakes of Romans and Saxons and Danes and Normans whose War was ever against the Lords and Nobility for the dominion and Tribute of the Populacy These submitting successively to the most prevalent party and in their turnes producing great Spirits for their Countrey while the others circularly degenerated and strangely vanish'd and digesting and assimilating in time their Conquerours and men of War into their own substance and temper unless abundantly and constantly recruited from their first Homes There was a particular precept and exception for the Anathema or excision of all the old Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan to secure Gods Israel against Heathenish mixtures and impurities yet how many Perizzites and Jebusites and Canaanites escaped notwithstanding from being cut off But no such command from Heaven was ever given against the Brittains nor did the Interest of the Conqueror require the desolation of the Land Neither were the Pagan Saxons so zealous before for the removal of the Brittish Clergy out of Lhoegr into Wales as after the arrival of Monk Augustine upon them When the Picts from the North Scoti à Circio saith Gildas that is the Irish from the West began to Invade and overpower the naked Brittains being a little before drain'd by Maximus making for the Empire of all their Armes and Treasure and Fighting men who never return'd home but were for some space a terrour d Pont. Verunnius l. 5. p. 110. to the whole Roman Empire it was not out of Antipathy to these Nations that they made such Inroads being themselves Colonies that time had greatly incorporated into the same bloud and Language with the Brittains as appears by the names of places to this day over Ireland and especially the North-east of Scotland the Station of the Picts being very much Brittish as in Wales But out of Revenge against the Roman power here who forced the Brittains to serve under them to fight and gall them being neighbours and flesh and bloud which made some great Spirits amongst the Brittains to fly over to the Picts as did Cremus by name or Graham their Chief leader and Father they say of the Noble Montrossian Family whom the Scottish e Cremus Grym Britt Robur Buchanan Spotswood Hist Histories confess to be a Brittain And when the Saxon Auxiliaries instead of marching against the enemy turned their Armes against their Masters upon f Usher p. 410. Gildas Epistl pretence of want of pay and the opportunity of their weakness killing all before them from one end of the Land to the other as Gildas very querulously exaggerats all that stood in their way to be killed Nevertheless the Brittains soon after recovered in Numerous and Regular Armies under Heroick Princes to call their bloudy Mercenaries to a strict account for this by the care and means chiefly of g Guitelinus Archbishop of London of Irish extraction as is conjecturable from his name to whom the Brittains did owe Aurelius Ambrosius and Vther Pendragon and consequently Arthur his Son preserved from the hands of the Usurper Vortigern who had procured Constans the Elder Brother being under his tuition to be made away and hanged the Murderers for a colour of his Innocence for as soon as they had War-like Leaders they soon became Souldiers to vindicate their wrong animated with Guiteline's exhortation of the vicissitude between the Sword and the Spade So that the destruction and slaughter could not be so universal especially upon the common sort as it is render'd For it appears further by our English Histories that their Counties and Cities in North and South and East and West were generally gain'd by grant and Composition and Treaty and fair usage of those that yielded as well as by Sieges and Battles and ruine to such as stood out which cannot well consist with that weak conceit of total extirpation So h Guitelin diminitive Gwydhel sing Hybernus Gwydhelod plur Gwydhelun diminit u pronounced as y But in the Brittish M. S His name is Cyhelin which hath no affinity with Gwydhel i◠G. Malmesb. de Gestis Anglorum c. 3. Octa and Ebusa the Son and Brother of Hengist reduc'd the North profligatis qui resistendum putaverant reliquos in fidem acceptos placidae quietis gratiâ mulcebant Breaking such as made resistance the rest upon surrender they allur'd with good usage to rest quiet And Kent is well known not to have been conquer'd but bestowed as a present for Rowenna i M. Westmin A 489. 462. Usher p. 1114. as before Queens bring their portions with them but Misses are dear bought And i M. Westmin A 489. 462. Usher p. 1114. London a great and populous Emporium at that time as appears from Marcellinus and Bede and our Pope Gregory with neighbouring Counties for the Kings liberty And which was the stoutest though not the largest Kingdom and Conquer'd and swallowed the rest of the Heptarchyes and gave the first name to England the seven Counties of the West Saxons were first yielded over to
Fragm Britt p. 30 Saxon Officers and Nobles were driven into the Low-lands of Scotland by the Normans for they did not seek their refuge in Wales and the Highlands call them Saxons to this day and none retain more the Old Saxon dialect or perhaps the humour of their Ancestors in being Souldiers of Fortune abroad and Politick as in the Vigour and hasty earnestness of the Scotch Communalty and several Ancient Customes the Brittish or as men say the Welsh bloud and humour is as much discernible such hath been the apparent mercy and providence of God in their distinct preservation to this day that the whole Nation is greatly become Great Brittain again by their means and this Seed and Remnant sown over the whole field of Lhoegr amongst their Ancient Brethren again as appears more perceptibly and by Records in their Allyance with most and the chiefest Noble l Enderby Cambria Triumphans Families and Houses of England and may be dayly seen and found in most Companies you can fall into of the Communalty where Captains occurr not more frequent than Brittains either by Birth or Derivation or Alliance But is most remarkably and importantly evident and visible in the Throne it self The Royal Family of the Stewards having had their singular preservation in Wales betimes in m Cambden in Scotia p. 726. Buchanan Rege 86. p. 212. Fleance the only Son of Banquo escaping from the snares of Macbeth against his life and marrying Nesta the Daughter of Prince Griffith ap Lhewelin whereby they recovered to be Great Stewards or Abthanes of Scotland And their highest Exaltation of being Kings of Great Brittain by the like affinity and descent from King Henry the seventh in whom or his Queen was contain'd the Brittish Title from King Cadwaldr as well as the Norman and English descending either through f George Owen Harry Pedegree of King James Printed at London 1604 Et Langhornius Hist infine Gwladys Dhû the only Daughter of Prince Lhewelin ap Jorweth married to the Mortimers from whom his Queen descended or through Owen Tudyr from the last Prince Lhewelin Nephew to Gwladys Dhû from whom himself descended who though stil'd a Welsh g Hall 3. Rich. 3. f. 54. Milk-sop by King Richard Crook-back in his speech when they were ready to joyn Battle for the Crown yet it well appears what kind of Prince he was for wisdom and magnificence in my Lord Verulam's Monument of his Life and his own of his Death at Westminster So that Invasions and Conquests may be compared to Land-floods for their prevalence and premanency which for a while know no banks and discolour and alter the whole Channel from appearing to be the same current but after a short time this confusion is soon over and the River becomes the same as it was before and within its old banks and rules For we plainly perceive the English are so much the same at this day saving some few chief Families as if there had never been any Norman Inundation and by like parity the English themselves are the bulk of the Old Brittains wearing out the Saxon violence in the form of Brittains as the Norman in the form of English and all is great Brittain again as well in Truth as in Name not without Divine suggestion upon the minds of King and people to be so desirous to retrieve it As Grand Cairo is the same City though thousands go in and out in Caravans every day or our bodies are the same in substance though not in the parts which have undergone several fluxes and successions The Pressure of one Nation by another having more of chastisement in it than destruction and resembling an Ague more than Death for that when it hath made a great depredation of the Spirits which answer to the Nobility where the Disease most commonly is contracted and seated by Luxury and inflammations and brought the flesh of the body very low which answers to the Commonalty which bears its share in the smart and disorder then it departs and leaves us of its own accord without other force or Physick and we recover our old health and Spirits and Flesh and colour in our old accustom'd Aire and Aliment and are as we were at first having never been otherwise for substance but the same As in our own experience in our late Civil Wars which made two contrary Nations of one the Chiefs came to Scaffolds to Goldsmith-Hall or Tyburn for good or ill desert the body of the Nation continuing the same and the old Souldiers of the King making the best part of Cromwells Army as hath been observed and the Round-head and Cavalier now no more distinct And upon the same account our Modern Italians may be allowed to be the same Nation with the Ancient Romans but with far greater Alloy and mixture of Strangers than the Brittains Their Invasions and Feavers from Goths and Vandalls and Hunnes and Saracens being more turbulent and destructive than ours from a few Normans and Danes and Saxons which the Nation was better able to digest The main stream of the Flood passing over them and but its Eddy over us Which considerations afford an Argument and an Observation an Argument against their Cavil that would renew Alphonsus Garsias his exception to the English Embassadors plea in the Council of Basil touching the Antiquity and precedency of our Brittish Church Non sunt tempora compucanda à gente prima with him Britonibus Britonantibus quae totaliter est expulsa c. The time of Brittain's Conversion saith he is not to be reckoned from the first Inhabitants and very Brittans who were totally destroyed and expelled but from the time of the Saxons Invading England from whom the English descend for by the precedent suppositions it appears the Ancient Brittains were not wholly destroyed as he and others through ignorance have imagin'd And beside the English may with as much right inherit the priviledges of the Ancient Brittains as the modern Italians succeed in the Rights and Superiorities of the Ancient Roman Chaire For if Victorious Goths can inherit by force the Roman Supremacies why not Victorious Saxons and Normans as well inherit the exemptions of Brittain for the English are more old Brittains than the modern Italians are Old Romans And let them produce their Roman Charter when they please they 'l find our Brittanick freedom and Seniority upon the back thereof For the Pope himself Gods Rival will allow Catholick Conquerors to win and wear those Kingdoms with all their rights p Usher p. 143. which he bestowes from their right owners for their heresy setting himself therein above God's Commandment thou shalt not steal and much more lawfully doth God himself the absolute Soveraign of the World give away the rights of Nations that are to be chastised for their sins to his Instruments and labourers that he imployes in that work and the Wild Saxons were as capable to earn and succeed in such
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
Church and their own rules and principles first it is several wayes against the Canons in respect of their Invasions of the rights of other Metropolitans which was adjudg'd a Photii Nomoc. Tit. 1. p. 20. infamous and mulctable before that in the Council of Chalcedon and in Trullo power was yielded to the Emperours to erect or to translate Metropolitical Chaires and also against the Canons in respect of many Illegal Ordinations which made the Romish Church null in Law in England several wayes besides those nullities in fact and event we have before instanc'd Many are the Canons of the best and Ancientest Councils and the most general and Oecumenical that the Church of Christ ever had which condemn the first Entrance of Augustine and his Pope Gregory and the Re-entrance of Archbishop Theodore and his Successors upon our Brittish Church and Provinces under no less penalties than deposition or degradation of their Clergy from their several States and Dignities and Excommunication of their Laity from Christian Fellowship besides the making all their Ecclesiastical Acts and Ordinations to be utterly void and null to all intents If this were of any value or moment with them of the Church of Rome who boast and crack of a great respect they have above others for Fathers and Councils and Ancient Traditions but experience too much discovers it is all with Reservations and Provisoes that they offer not to touch or reflect upon their Church in any of its grossest errours or most enormous misdemeanours for if they do it in the lest the Canons of the Universal Church shall have no more respect at their hands than the Canonical Scriptures which are not allowed to have any sound or sense where they cross and disagree from the private interpretation of their Church I say private and suspicious because notoriously savouring of private ends and carnal designes and Worldly ambition and self-love above any Church or Haeresie whatsoever in all their Commentaries and Expositions and every point and Article of their Faith and Government wherein they differ from us Or they shall be openly disown'd and rejected for no lawful Councils either in whole or in part according to their liking or disliking of particulars who yet call for implicit obedience to their own petty Authorities and decrees how contrary soever to Common sense or reason while themselves dispute and contradict the power and jurisdiction of far greater Superiours acting and decreeing with the special assistance of the Spirit of God So that as to such Roman-Catholicks who are wedded and guided by their wills and Idols more than Truth or Conscience the Testimonies and Canons I shall produce will prove but Pearls ill cast yet with this advantage and satisfaction that they shall drive and force them either to submission or to rebellion either to confess and acknowledge themselves to be convict Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Robbers and Oppressors and their Popes and Missionaries depos'd and condemn'd in all their Titles Holy Orders and pretences by the Holy solemn Laws and Canons of the Universal and undoubtedly Catholick Church of Christ or manifestly detect themselves to be Antichrist in this as in their other practices and the Invaders of Gods Regiment and power in all its formes and varieties of of appearance as of God the Creator in disposing the Kingdoms of the World of God Redeemer in Lording over Souls and Consciences so of God the Holy Spirit and Sanctifier in slighting Scriptures and General Councils Which last part it is to be fear'd they 'l chuse to take as being thereto too much inclin'd by their Principles being one main cause if not perrhaps the principal that the spirit of truth and concord hath withdrawn it self in lamentable manner from Christian Churches and Councils these several last hundreds of years in whose Assemblies it cannot well appear with liberty and without diminution of its Divine Honour and Glory when its promis'd assistance to Gods Church gathered together in his name must be eftsoons check'd and controll'd by the Negative will and lust of one man that sets up himself above Both and the Interest of Rome made the mark to steer by instead of Truth and Holiness and Gods holy spirit thereby necessitated either to countenance Errour and Tyranny by its presence or to stand out whereby is left but a Carcass of a Church and not a Church for a Church without Gods spirit is but as the body without the Soul the one as ready moulders into errour and corruption as the other into stench and rottenness as is the condition of the Modern Roman Church too visibly The first Canon I shall instance in shall be the third General Council held at Ephesus than which hardly any president can be more apposite to the Case of Rome and Brittain and that Councill's determination upon the complaint of Cyprus against Antioch where three points may be observ'd 1. The state of their case and grievance 2. The sense and resentment of the Council 3. The decree and redress 1. Their complaint to the Council by Declaration and the Affirmation of their Bishops then and there present was that the Bishop or Patriarch of Antioch did send and Consecrate Bishops for the Isle of Cyprus in violation of their Ancient Rights and Customes The occasion of this encroachment was as is noted by Balsamon and Zonaras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon a pretence and imitation of the Duke of Antioch under the Romans sending thence a Deputy Governour for this Isle The plea of the Cypriots was as is imply'd in the Canon an Ancient immemorial right of chusing and consecrating their own Bishops among themselves On the other hand the Bishop of Antioch had his Patriarchal dignity and the Supremacy of St. Peters Chair to insist on from whom he deriv'd by undoubted Lineal Succession Now if this Controversy had come before the Pope of Rome and his Conclave or Lateran or Tridentine Council it is easie to coniecture who had gone by the worst but not so easie to know whom the prey should have been adjudg'd to whether to Antioch or rather to Rome her self although the other were the acknowledg'd Chaire of St. Peter establish'd for 7 years at Antioch at the lest before ever he arriv'd at Rome 2. But the sense and resentment of their wrong by this great Council is very remarkable who took this matter into their cognizance and Judicature though no lesâ— than the Patriarch of the East and as great as the Pope takes himself to be was one of the parties to aâ—ide their censure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus they represent the mischief and consequence of this encroachment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A new kind of Schismatical attempt in defiance of the Apostolical Laws of the Church and Canons of the Holy Fathers and striking at the common Liberty of Christendom yea the Spiritual Spiritual Liberty of men Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ himself by his bloud hath purchas'd for us
her chief and Soveraign end being chang'd her work of reason and Religion and Allegiance is changed by consequence and the Communion between the heart and Christ in Heaven turn'd out of doors and giving place to another between the soul and its new Soveraign the Pope It is still as busie and zealous as before but in a more confin'd sublunary sphere far out of Gods presence in the Pristrinum of this present World as a broken Shoomaker sets up for a Cobler or a fallen Angel to be a Devil And perhaps the necessary errours of the Roman Church can never be more clearly detected and satisfactorily solv'd than by this Hypothesis and fiction new for its name but old and too Common for its nature and practice of a Roman-Catholick Apshychite or Catholick Christians without souls for great must the Spiritual and Internal deadness be and as great and busie the external formality and heartless ceremonies of a Religion so condition'd Our Learned Divines who by invincible Arguments convince them of Idolatries in their Invocations and worship of the Hoast and of Images do but fall upon the branches which necessarily spring and grow from the evil root untouch'd for such must be the Fruit as is the Tree Math. 7 18. St. Paul and Christ and God himself the best Judges of Religion place it all in the heart and it's purity as doth our Brittish Proverb ffydh pawb yn ei galon as did all sober Heathens The end of the Commandment is charity out of a Pure heart 1 Tim. 1.5 Blessed are the Pure in heart for they shall see God Math. 8.8 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind which is the first and great Commandment And the Heathen from Deus est animus could infer pur â mente colendus even as Christ himself doth God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth that is with the heart without which all Worship is a lie Gratior diis existimatur qui delubris eorum a Plin. Panegyr puram castamque mentem quam qui meditatum carmen intulerit A mind holy and pure is the best Anthem with God If the truth and life of all Religion by the consent and suffrage of God and men consist thus in a Pure heart what Religion can they have whose Principles exclude and annihilate the heart and the Purity thereof by consequence for where the substantive is barr'd out the Adjective must stand out for company Therefore not this or that part or tenet or Article but the whole Religion of such a Church is Idolatrous or the worshiping of God with the body only without the soul whereby men necessarily frame Corporeal Anthropomorphitical sentiments to themselves of God and of all parts of his Worship for as without the Spiritual mind and soul there could be no conception of God who is a Spirit no more than of light without eyes so a Corporeal Religion requires a Corporeal Deity to answer it and a Carnal service to answer him for all worship true or false consists in likeness and conformity in the true men become pure and holy as God is in the false God and Religion are made Gross and Carnal as the men are which is an highly Idolatrous mistake of the true God against the first and second Commandment And Spiritual Rational Religion shall be traduc'd and slighted by such men for its contrariety and dislikeness to their tempers as the Moors hate heretical white Rivers cannot ascend higher than their springs nor an Absychitical Religion higher than the body and Carnal apprehension and outward frame and appearance or a form of godliness without its power and truth which is not therefore Religion but somthing outwardly like it no more than is a dead picture a true man though like in shape unto him Heaven and Hell to a Beast can never signifie more than the pain and pleasure of the body nor human words with Parrots than the outward syllables and sound nor Religion to Carnal minds but their Carnal Interests and conceptions This supposition shews the errours of Rome to be necessary consequences to the exclusion of the heart in the first place and Christ in the second throughout their Doctrines and Practices congruous to this Propheticall Character and that in such a condition and temper they can do no less than place their chiefest worship and Devotion in the outward parts and surface of Religion that hold the nearest resemblance to it in their Carnal conceipts This makes prayers in an unknown tongue without the heart and understanding a reasonable worship with them This makes transubstantiation both natural and necessary for Christians so described cannot conceive any otherwise than Corporeally and Grossly that Christ is in the Sacrament and to be worshipped there by consequence for Sursum corda to lift up the heart where there is no heart is but a lesson to the deaf but Metaphysicks to Moles This makes them so easily leave the invisible General so unlike their new beings to invocate an host of frail Creatures more like themselves and to find great resemblances to the deity in Images made by hands and much Grace and Spiritual refreshment and Protection in holy Water and great Salvation in a material Cross to which they 'l apply that of the Apostle God forbid that I should glory saving in the Cross of our Lord Jesus as much as to him that suffered on it as Pope Adrian to the Empress Jrene finds grounds for Image-worship in those passages in the Psalms Seek ye my face thy face O Lord will I seek and signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui Ps 26.4 This hath given that Christian virtue and reputation to Beads Crucifixes's Agnus Dei Christ-Mass-Babes new born Good-Friday-loggs interr'd Palls Saints Couls c. and the rest of their sacred shows not short of Bartholomew Fair in their number and congruity to weak and carnal fancies A most lamentable Profanation of our Spiritual and Heavenly worship to be bewail'd by all sincere and tender Christians with grief and tears and confuted by the Learned and suppressed by the Magistrate and prayed against by all A mock Religion carried on by great and strong numbers and Councils with a high face of Authority and Catholick truth on its side and more considerable for duration and combination than all other Heresies whatsoever both Ancient and Modern put together which bespeak it to be some thing more being the Blasphemy of them which they say are Jews that is Christians and Catholicks or new Israelites and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan carrying on his Kingdom with the same dark Arts and Eternal perdition to themselves and others as he himself doth Rev. 2.8 With whom Christianity consists not in a meet Marriage between the heart and Christ to bring forth Heavenly off-springs to God Rom. 7.3 even the divine and lovely fruits
of the Spirit Charity Meekness Patience Temperance Sobriety long suffering the Heavenly joy and Peace of a good conscience void of offence towards God and man guided by that wisdom from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without Hypocrisie Gal. 5.22 James 3.27 But in an unlawful Contract and Whoredom of the soul with another Husband stooping below its Divine rank and kind to the Impuâ—e lust of an Earthly Creature whence proceeds a Monâ—trous equivocal bastard-brood of Spiritual-Carnal Mulats which must pass for right Christians without as to sense being hardly men within to reason but liker to a prophane show of Puâ—peâ—s consisting of bare sound and mimick imitation without life or truth or understanding or a vile Communion of Baptiz'd Apes and Consecrated Foxes and Wild Beasts sign'd with many signs of the Cross without any souls or true Christian Inclinations but wholly dead to the Heaâ—enly life and as exactly alive to the Earthly and Sensual and Devilish and its fruits and works lyes legends dissimulations Cruelty Murders Treasons which must pass for Catholick zeal and Orthodox Religion by the Laws and pleasures of their guides There being no heart or Conscience left within nor any pulses thereof without in modesty and sense of honour to direct and prompt to better things that being miserably lost and ruin'd according to the supposition by being ill bestow'd upon a man instead of Christ The original cause of this woful degeneracy being the changing of their Soveraign and taking the Pope instead of the Son of God for their Lord and absolute guide surrendring their hearts and Judgements and Consciences to him without reserve which is a Divine honour and homage due to none but God wherein as was said at first lies the Characteristical note of distinction inter Cordatos Protestantes between sober Protestants that make a difference between the Creator and the Creature and inconsiderate Catholicks that make none The least soyle of the soul by surprize from any Intemperance or unmortified lusts clogs and disorders it in its devotions and addresses towards its God the suffocation thereof by the habit of vice wholly alienates it from his life leaving it dead and senseless under the Power of Satan in trespasses and sins The reduction and moral extinction thereof by its slavish profession to a lawless Counter-Christ makes it as dead and senceless under another mixt Dominion of Christ and Satan that is to say of Antichâ—ist or a mock-Christ or of a meer man assuming Gods Infallible nature upon him through his pride or evil as Christ the true God did frayle human nature in his humility for good This is that Roman Idol which is the glory and fear of devout Romanists being a God devoid of all Divine Attributes without either much holiness for imitation or all-sufficient bounty for the relief or constancy and truth which endures for ever for the stay and trust of his Worshippers being but titular in the one but a Broker in the other starving and over-reaching these corrupting others as Satan whom he relieves with favours And in the third so shamefully mash'd with contradictions and non-obstante's ever and anon at every appearance of Lucre and advantage that a Weather-Cock in the English or the retentives of a Suckling in the Brittish Proverb cannot be more uncertain and unsteddy The truth is it is not he himself that is God and Governour but his Lust or Mammon which Governs him at whose beck he must change his Laws and Bulls and Canons and Decrees which seldom yielded to God or his Scriptures as good men their vain thoughts and lives at God's rebukes or wicked men their good thoughts and Intervals of sobriety at the Rules of their Whores And there is no other hold to have him fast and sure by but this alone which makes the Rich to be the Elect and the poor to be as Reprobates in that Church nor any lasting hold by this without exceeding all Competitors in the more zealous worship of out-bidding as several Princes and Prelates have known it to their smart and which ever carried the cause at Rome beteewn York and Canterbury as it also did between Canterbury and St. Davids and in most Controversies before or since where the heaviest purse seldom sailed to be the best cause Is he fit to be a Witness between party and party that will swear any thing against Truth or Conscience for a guift or boon Or to be a judge in Tribunals who is professedly for a bribe above Justice And is he only fit then to be sole Judge of Controversie in Gods Church for Peace and Union who is notoriously mortally sick of the same disease and Inclination and makes his Disciples stupidly believe it to be perfect health and holiness whereon they may venter their Salvation Or is it not in this as in other Idols that they that make them are like unto them or as in other offences against Magistrates where the receiver is as bad as the thief or against God himself where as Satan is highly Blasphemous in taking Divine honour to himself so Witches are no less damnably unreasonable and impious in giving it by their Covenants and recognitions Men are as responsible in their Reputations in their Worldly Affairs for heedless and gross trusts as for heady and gross mistakes for chusing a manifest wrong way having sums about them under their trust as taking some known Robber for their guide in the right The Antichristianism is not so much to be wonder'd at on the one hand that some proud Spirits at the Instigation of the Serpent should affect to be as God as on the other that any should be so Spiritually besotted as contrary to the indelible Allegiance of their Souls to God and the Truth Traiterously to own and Recognize them A Perversion that humane nature which is essentially tyed to the Election of good in the general is not capable of it self to fall into without some omnipotent curse from God upon it condemning it to believe strong lyes for it s too much neglect in loving sound Truths as the Apostle shews 2 Thess 2.11 12. Therefore these kind of Fishermen catch most in troubled Waters find most Proselytes amongst the grosly ignorant and vitious amongst silly women loaden with sin and shame and weak children led by sence and shows and Customs or disorder'd sinners shackled with guilt or drown'd in Debauchery or sunk in Despair or stupified with sorrow and discontent or blinded with ambition and vain glory and an high esteem for implicit faith in order to absolute and tyrannical government over mens Souls and Bodies who are entertain'd with false joyes and lull'd with false pardons and releas'd with false Absolutions and heal'd with false Cures and supported with false Comforts and canoniz'd with â—alse Glory And all these Impostures and deceits father'd upon God and Christ and his Catholick Church and his
different Liquor unto others in Synods and Conventicles to make them turbulent and frantick and to worry their Rulers and destroy their Kings several have been so weary and tyred what with the noyse and scandal on the one hand what with the Narcotick steam and Operation on the other that they are ready to slumber and sleep at Noon-day and like sick men can find no rest but by changing their Religion as they do their Beds a deadly Symptom in both and to Rome they will go where they may sleep to purpose while their eyes are resign'd to their guides and their trust to man instead of God and never waken till the Trumpet and last Judgement to their Eternal wo. If it were to return to Rome Heathen in its glory and to change their Bibles for Tully or Seneca rather than for Lyes and Legends men might have some excuse for their intoxicated love of slavery which all free Spirits abhor and especially Spiritual slavery which is so contrary to the soul the freest of beings For there we should meet with Caesar and Cicero and Virgil and many other Heroes of several endowments we should light if not upon Christ yet upon the other part of my Text the Heart and Soul in that perfection and improvement by knowledge and virtue and valour as fully answer'd the Poets Character which compriz'd the utmost that men could do or Pen describe Imperium terris animos aequavit Olimpo they match'd the Gods with their parts and over-match'd the World with their Prowess And where the heart is well preserv'd and enlightened Christ is never far off even as Antichrist is never nigh but where the heart is first darkned and resign'd For the Sun of Righteousness was rising to the World about this time that Rome was so clear'd and enobl'd in heart and Spirit and mens souls were so awakned and sitted with Liberty and honour to receive his Truths The Roman Empire being raised and imployed in St. John Baptist's work as it were to prepare the way of the Lord and to train mens souls to value truth in the General above sordid self-love and to clense the eye in part to behold its lustre For as the Sun were of little use to people that had no eyes or were blinded with cataracts and scales so also is the Sun of righteousness to blind and servile and seal'd understandings and Christ to any heart that is muffled with Idols or enslaved to another Supremacy But in Popery neither Christ nor the Heart can well be met with both are so engrossed and devourâ—d by his Vicaâ— it is highest Honour there not to be true to Honour or Conscience which passes for a dangerous private Spirit against their Church and to quit on 's self of his soul and Heart and Judgement is the method to be a right Roman Catholick and Christ and the soul like correlates ever stand and fall together where the one departs the other seldom stays behind Which is the reason that Popish Rome in its highest manhood and perfection had little to shew of either for when it arrived to its highest pitch and all Crowns were Subject to its Mitre all Laws to its Canons where was its glory compar'd to the other Rome but in a Herd of Monkish-Blockheads to be set against the others Divine Classick Authors Bede Geoffrey Comestor or the Golden Legend against Livy and Tacitus and Plutarch c. Epistolae obscurorum virorum against those of Cicero or Seneca And who against Virgil and Juvenal and Horace Poetry was so Ingenious and true to human nature in whose exaltation it ever chirps as down in the mouth in its fall also that where the Heart was excluded it turn'd Protestant and never shewed more its head What they had left to boast of were men without souls Arguments without sence Sermons without Scriptures or Fathers Authors without the stile and dialect of men cloysterd Epicures fat and trading Monks Cardinals without Christian Lives and Popes without Faith or Religion In a word Christianity without a soul or Saviour the Image of Religion to mans eye without the life and truth thereof to God's The Pope and the Virgin Mary instead of Christ and blind Obedience instead of the heart that no time or Age since the Floud or Fall can be parallel'd to that of Popery in its full reign and adâ—ption for a total degeneracy of human and Christian nature in point of Morality and Grace and Learning and Knowledge and Pen. It were better to have our sight and Judgement and but Stars to guide us than to have a blind heart with such a Sun and Gospel It were more eligible to be Cicero â—s Servitour than a King of such Christian Cattel And this was the state of Popery in his highest culmination and plenitude of growth and Lustre And which it is still at to recover for Popery is not to be heeded by its present pretences but its known ends and humour when it hath attain'd its ends which of all things hates nothing more than eyes and private Judgement and light which Inseparablâ— accompany the heart for thieves are best at thâ—iâ— work in the dead of night and Kings are best gullâ—d of their Soveraignties and Subjects of their Câ—yn and Liberty by Ignorance and a scale or Ointment to blind their eyes and all are better cramped and confessed when they are asleep For to appeal to any mans sence or Conscience or observation is there any thing more experimentally manifest to the World in every Age than that the chief design of Popery as to its Leaders is to promote and compass secular ends and Grandeur and Wordly power upon what hazard soever to souls or disgrace to Christ and his Religion and that Mammon is as Catholickly servâ—d at Rome as God and that its main design is to have the Crowns of Kings and Purses of Subjects in its power and the Consciences of both in order thereunto Quae regio in terris c. What Territory or Kingdom can be nam'd in Europe whose Scepter it hath not made Feudatary and Tributary to St. Peters Chair by its Faith-craft as the Ancient Romans did more nobly and Lyon-like by their Arms and Manhood what hide of good land without the fence of mortmain had escap'd the Plow of mortified Monks what Chimney was in all the Kingdom without a Peter-pence what is more confessed and gloried in by our Modern Popes in their stamps and meddals wherein St. Peter is represented lifting up an old Woman from the ground with this motto Roma resurgens a fair and lucky Comment under their own Hand and Seal upon Rev. 13.12 And he exerciseth all the Power of the Beast before him and causeth the Earth and them that dwel therein to worship the first Beast whose deadly wounds was heal'd whereby is prov'd as by their own confession the Succession of Rome-Papal to Rome-Imperial it being the sence of the Ancient Fathers as before that the Empire which
succeeded the Roman should be Antichrist yet none must be Catholicks and right Christians but they alone How far they may prevail on any of our Great ones with their tale and story I cannot tell yet the generality of the Nation God be praised are not so forsaken by him as to love to be so deluded but are as deaf as Vlysses against such charms what attempts soever have been used to prepare and mollifie them by debauchery for the Imposture and ready to answer these Impostors as did the Neighbour-hood in the fable the beggar at Towns-end with his counterfeit Lame legg Quaere Pergrinum vicinia tota reclamat go to Japan or Hispaniola to set up your Stage and boast your receipts In England mens eyes are open and the mystery too well known yea the Wisest and Stoutest and most Prosperous of our Kings and Princes in former Ages our Renown'd Edwards and Henries and Elizabeth have sufficiently unkennel'd these Foxes and hunted them and their craft and their stink and their fire-brands and their trouble far out of our Church and State But when ever by a Judgement upon a Nation they light upon any that are more tractable and credulous their first attempt will be immediately like that of a Crow setting upon a young Lamb for prey to play first at the eyes to peck them both out to sink and fix Implicit Faith and blind obedience like two hollow pits instead And then the rest of the design shall be finish'd with less disturbance and every blow and Inconvenience never seen till it light and then also Conscience and Honour and Publick Peace and Truth and the Allegiance of the soul to Christ must make no objections after the Judgement is once Idolatrously resign'd yea should they offer to draw back when they see their errour and danger for to err is human to recover is Angelical to persevere is Diabolical How will these false guides grinne and shake their heads if not brew worse things in them at their departure or their return from Forreign cheats to God and their Country and the Truth How will they rip up and wound his name and honour with the Imputations of Inconstancy Weakness Apostacy Perjury and what not as the unclean Spirit tore the man in the Gospel when he was to quit possession for doing no more but what themselves as they are men and Christians ought to do in point of duty and safety upon the Eternal Allegiance of their Souls to Christ and the Truth and count it high honour and glory in great ones to lead It being in reason a greater Arrival and perfection to be wise and holy against the deceitfulness of sin and Satan than to be couragious amidst dangers Scipio and Alexander being more admir'd in Story for their Continence than for their Conquest for their Victories over Beauty than over Enemies If our Romish Pretenders had any the least descent or resemblance in bloud or temper or Spirit with the Ancient Roman Worthyes or any drop of Camillus or Scipioes bloud in their Veines who valued the honour and Sanctity of their false Gods above their lives and Empire could their great and clear Spirits thus descend to pervert the Gospel into matter of Trade and Merchandize or truel and plaister their mean and unworthy ends with the bloud of the Son of God And make his Glorious Resurrection and Ascention a Varnish for their secular usurpations And his chief Apostles and Holy Catholick Church complices and Vouchers of all their Frauds and Tyrannies and Treasons Which is manifestly done when any wrong to men or Churches as the Case was made plain in our Brittish are palliated with their Sacred Names and Authorities as the practice is as plain and common in their Romish Church towards us and all Christendom besides If it be counted miserable Ignominious Harlotry corpore questum facere how much more abominable is it to make the like Trade and sinful gain of the Gospel and Christ and their own Souls as well as those of their Brethren It were far more fair and generous in them and the lesser of the two evils to renounce and deny Christ and his Religion outright than so to profess it and to spit in the face of their Redeemer than thus to kiss him and to abuse without ceasing his most Holy Name and Faith to â—oâ— and deal and cheat and disturb the World as it were a less indignity to a person of honour to be denyed Quarter than preserv'd alive to tread Morâ—eâ— or to gâ—ind in a Mill. Tolerabilior esâ— qâ—â— morâ— jubet quam qui turpiteâ— vivere Can any sort of Christians be more realâ—y Heathens saving such Ambidextrous Protestants who for their present advantage and Interest can promote Popery in their Countrey though they believe it to be a false and a dead Religion and betray their own which they possess and know to be most Orthodox and sound preferring madly a superlative Carnal self before both Religions and their own truth But though those of Rome are far from Old Romans either in Faith or Fame or Bloud yet so are not we in England from the Old Brittains in either of these respects But far ouâ—â—oing both in another good quality of containing our selves within the bounds of our Isle without great and just cause to sally out and not coveting turbulently other mens rights or their Kingdoms or Churches which is true past doubt of the Brittains in Wales and was prov'd before at large as to the English In the great and as it were second Deluge of Christendom for their Gygantick sins by Goths and Vandalls and Normans and Saxons for inundations of Nations in Mystical Scriptures are compar'd to those of Waters Rev. 17.15 wherein most other people were swept away and drown'd and their Languages and names obliterated and Scepters and Churches overturn'd our Brittains alone charg'd through and surviv'd the brunt of all Invasions and swame to Land through all those Billowes alive and safe with their Bibles in their hands and their Creed in their hearts and their own Language in their mouths living to see their Church restor'd to its old liberty and purity their Crown to their own Flesh and Bloud and the divided Island to great Brittain again Before their nunc Dimiâ—â—is and dissolution by Incorporation with the English Nation or rather Re-union with their Loeâ—â—â—a Brethren recovering themselves through Gods wonderful mercies and Resurrections to innocent and long sufferers and his blasts and periods upon Lines of Bloud and violence in 〈◊〉 Princes and Nobles and Generality into Oâ—a 〈…〉 again as was prov'd before diâ—â—câ—ing perhaps in names and Dialect but not in Nature and Humour and Succession to the like generous defence of their Faith and Glory being â—oth observâ—d in their Dispositions for the most part to be alike Fearless and Harmless and Warlike and Liberâ—l and Religious and subject to Indignation and neither the one nor the other our Modern or Middle or most
therein or of a mixt sort between both on the frontiers between the flesh and spirit an unpeaceable station subject by turnes to the inroads and prevalence of both being mortal enemies to one another The Truth also is to be considered either absolutely in it self or in its due and suitable application to these several capacities and tempers Of which distinctions we find Christ himself to be a great approver who would not have his little ones offended Mat. 18.6 Nor his Pearles cast before Swine Mat. 7.6 Nor his bread given to Dogs nor denyed to Children c. 15.26 And no Rule was more exactly observ'd by his Apostles especially St. Paul wherein he is most carefully noted by St. Cbrysostom wherein lyes also the excellency of those Commentaries Now he argues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasoning after the manner of men or human reason Rom. 3.5 assigning the cause to be their Infirmity Rom. 6.19 as who would hardly believe any further than they were convinc'd by reason At other times when he hath to do with more perfect Christians more strongly establish'd in the faith He warnes and minds them of a higher rule to walâ—â— by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.8 according to Christ in his death and exaltation to the right hand of God Col. 3.1 2 3. and not according to the weak and beggarly Elements of this transitory World or the Philosophy of human model and Tradition which differs from the wisdom that is in Christ as Earth from Heaven or Death from life Here he speaks to his Auditors as to Babes or Carnal men And I Brethren could not speak to you as unto Spiritual but to you as unto Carnal even as to Babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you are not able to bear neither yet now are you able In another place saith he Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full Age or of perfection Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection Heb. 5. ult 6.1 c. Therefore the primitive Church divided her Disciples into several formes and degrees Catechumens and Believers c. some higher than others who were to be differently instructed with weaker or stronger aliment according to their several tempers and capacities At Athens St. Paul reasons with Philosophers from the light of nature at Ephesus and Philippi from the Creed and the Cross and the Resurrection St. Chrysostom in his great Christian Auditory uses an Apology for quoting Heathen Testimony before them where the matter seem'd to require it upon the like account Aristotle conceived young men by reason of their heady passions to be unfit Auditors of his Ethicks Which Considerations being premised and proved This Controversy may be decided in three Conclusions 1. Grace is to be affirmed to be free and unconditional and not to depend upon human merit and performance which it infinitely surpasses as well in point of time as of love undeserved and that Divinity which degenerates into a meer Moral Philosophy is to be suspected as unsound and far short of their Orthodoxy who assert and maintain the free love and Grace of God in Christ The principles of the one going no higher than immanent and Carnal self-preservation which the old man and Heathenism could reach the other to transitive and Divine proper to Christians or the new-man in Christ 2. That Christian edification which is to be heeded next after absolute Truth is most with them who attemper their Doctrines to the several maturities of their hearers Being all things to all men that they may gain some convincing natural men with natural light and those that are Spiritual with the demonstration of the Spirit and Truth For the glorious light of free grace which drinks up the pure soul in gratitude and redamation is too strong a lustre for weak and Carnal eyes enough to blind them into security and libertinism the soil being not fully fitted for this Heauenly seed such are better manur'd and prepar'd by rational culture to become right men in the first place to the end they may become right Christians in the next and their false health and confidence to be cast down with the discovery of their natural Disease and danger that their Cure and their Physitian may be rightly valued by them the servile spirit of bondage is best tamâ—d by a suitable terrour and Discipline The Husbands of the Amazons conquer'd their servants who had married their Wives in their absence when they brought their whips into the field against them who proved too hard before for their Masters at Weapons of War Divinity in the form of Philosophy may edifie Heathens that are in the form of Christians but Christians that are sincere and able to know Christ's voice from anothers are scandaliz'd and troubled at nothing more than at the change of of their Gospel and the return of Heathenism which is then intended when the milk is maintain'd to be strong meat and what served for edification to some is raised to be an absolute Law of Truth for all and grace to give place to morality Which is manifest Palagianism or Heathenism reviv'd which the Church hath been so careful to condemn though Pelagius himself perhaps intended his Principles no further than to the edification and conviction of corrupt and carnal Christians who walked short of the light of Nature as some Pious and great Diâ—ines have in other times and not for an Vniversal standing Truth throughout the Church of Christ which had been absolute Heresie As in a-like instance though eyes and ears be attributed to God by his own word for the sake of our weak capacities to infer from thence that God is really Corporeal as other mortals be were to run by such mistake into the Blasphemous Heresie of the Anthropomorphites 3. That in our Christian Congregation which consist of mixt tempers some perfect Christians some but Babes in Christ some meer Heathens in the shape of Christians A right Minister of God may and ought to be stor'd with varieties with Milk and Strong Meat Divinity and Philosophy in his Sermons according to mens several needs Nor are the defenders of free Grace and the truth to reproach him streight for an Arminian or Pelagian or our Conditionalists or Moralists for a Puritan as long as he obtrudes not his expedients of Edification as Articles of Faith as long as he keeps himself within St. Paul's distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I delivered as a Philosopher for some mens satisfaction but not as a Christian for a General rule of Evangelical Truth to all resolving to take nothing for such against the Scripture or his Creed or his Church The third Question is more Practical and to the point What sets the soul within the Church of Christ in Heaven out of which none can be ever saved nor in it ever lost A Roman Catholick if asked will say To be