men as well lay as Clergy are bound to know upon their duty and Allegiance to God and their Country and Justice and Civility to their Neighbours least they be betrayed by willful Ignorance to aid an Usurper against the Right Heir wherein no more learning or Logick is required to master and understand the point but so much temper and Judgement as serves to hear an evidence and discern between soul and body or God and Creature or Christianity and Heathenism or Loyalty and Treason and to lay hand upon heart and to follow either the Laws of God and man whereby all men are Rul'd or fate and Providence whereby they are Over-ruled But whether in Gods mercy or Judgement we are to be freed or continued under our fears and anxieties to the fixed and resolved in faith it signifies no more than putting on a Winter or a Summer habit either the militant Garb of Patience to our great reward and comfort and your great account which alone can abate it or the Triumphant of thanksgiving to the mutual solace and bliss of both But as for the weaker flock whereof Paternal Princely bowels and pastoral charge are ever the most tender with what security and content will they lye down beside the still waters in green Pastures when they shall have such a Shepheard to be their guard and back and a terrour much less a harbour to the Roman Wolves that would devoure them How will the Mountains skip like Rams and our little Hills like Lambs Great and unparallel'd was our joy for your R. Brothers Restoration and your own together to your Ancient Rights and Dignities over us that the whole Nation seem'd like unto men that dream'd but so great is the sence and fear of Spiritual Slavery upon them and their children more insupportable than any Temporal which it also may draw along with it that the joy of that day is like to be but a dream indeed compared to those exultations and full content and streins of hearty Triumphs if heart-strings can hold that shall break out in every street and corner of the whole Nation with Bon-fires and Feasts and praises reaching up to Heaven and thence to earth again in the responses of Angels to our Anthems at the day of your return from the danger of errour to our Church and our blessing and the truth That your R.H. will be more glorious in the end than in the beginning after your Victories over temptations and deceitful guides like the Sun after an Eclipse which is the present trust or shall ever be as it ought the daily prayer and study and Patience of Your Royal Highness most humble most dutyful and faithful Servant T. JONES TO THE READER THe first part of this discourse being deliver'd before a worâ—… City Company and for reasons conceived just to be published comes forth with the addition of what was omitted out of regard to the limits of the time and the order of their feast and with a large corroboration of the chief exhortation therein against Popery Which Controversie is here reduced to one point whereon all the rest depend The Soveraign Authority arrogated by the Bishop of Rome and yielded to by many either more grossly over men's hearts and Judgments whereby many Surrender their reasons to him or to that Church by implicit Faith to Act many things out of Roman-Catholick obedience which the Laws of God and man and Truth and Honour and Conscience and natural affection directly forbid where therefore the dispute will lye between Christ and his high pretended Vicar which of them is God and the chief Sovereign and Legislator of the heart and the measure of good and evil and Judge of quick and dead an Argument of our Romanists being under a manifest curse and blindness to doubt or deny his Soveraignty either by word or deed whom all Christians in their Creeds do and are to recognize for their Lord upon the Peril of Eternal Damnation Or more plausibly claim'd upon some colourable pretences in reference to this Island where the Controversie then must lye between the Forreign claim and yoak of the Triple Crown who had nothing to do here Originally more than any other Bishop and the native rights and Immunities of our Brittish Crown and Mitre which all Inferiours are bound to defend and maintain not out of Conscience or Allegiance only but for fear or upon the Peril of Damnation Temporal and our Superiours also upon their honour and trust and account to God being no less a tye and their own self-preservation likewise it being their essential Prerogative to have none here before them which no chief Superiour can quit without a contradiction and dangerous diminution of his Soveraignty And the first of these pretences is Antiquity whereby some Illiterate amongst our Ancient Brittains are led to believe and stile the Modern Roman Religion the old Faith as if Ancienter than their own true which is 600 years Senior to Apostatical Rome which prevailâ—d here for 700 or 800 years and not a few years elder to Rome Orthodox and Apostolical if not its first Mother and planter before the real Arrival of St. Paul or the doubtful of St Peter amongst them The second is a belief or inconsideration of some few of our Learned English that the English Nation receiv'd their first Faith from Rome by Augustine the Monk and others intruding here whereby Rome can be conceiv'd by such no less than a Mother-Church to England by consequence the third a consequent stumbling block hereupon that our Reformation was Schismatical or the Daughter Correcting of her Mother which were inconvenient for Generous Princes to countenance least they give an example thereby of like disobedience and Insurrection against their own Authority All which pretences being false and groundless in themselves are herein revers'd and pluck'd up by the roots And the true Original Arch-Schismatick and sire of the brood and example is fully detected and unkennell'd the peculiar game and Sport of our Brittish Princes of most Renown and spirit and success Cadwalhan ap Cadvan Henry 8th Q. Elizabeth And not only the Right and Title of our Brittish Church in each respect asserted but the truth of Christian and natural Religion in General is also resolv'd into first and proper Principles of fact or Faith or Reason a Method well agreeing with the Soul and understanding which in all men are stamp'd with the same Divine broad Seal and natural Allegiance to God and Truth The chief principles made use of if heeded being two the difference between the Soul and Body and between God and Creature or between Creatures themselves in their several parts and Characters personating the Rule of the one or the subjection of the other which are ingredients that pervade all duties as 24 Letters all Words and Syllables or 7 Notes all variety of Musick or Black and White all Colours and are themselves resolv'd into their first Authour and Founder in whom alone we live
he was to expect from any who had been Elder If the Gospel be true and Christian this Doctrine of blind obedience which is one of the chiefest pins or props that supports the Fabrick of that Church is false and Antichristian If God be in the World this pernicious Hellish Model that is so contrary thereunto ought to be hiss'd and exploded out of it with zeal and indignation by all Generous and Religious Princes and by every honest man that loves God or his Saviour or mankind But when the Inferiour obeys his Superiour from the heart as unto Christ the one commanding the other observing not what his own heart doth prompt or lead him to but what a conscientious heart directed by Christ gives leave to either and expects not from any other either observance or obedience further than usque ad Aras as far as Christs Law permits then all are right and happy in this Regular obedience in the Lord As I have already and may further shew And indeed without this Rule in my Text to regulate and enliven Quod tibi fieri non vis it self which is the Rule of Rules and the sum of the Scriptures all Societies and enjoyments all converse and friendship would be false irregular and degenerate Friendship it self would be Hollow-hearted Counsels treacherous Promises wind mens tongues full of nought but lyes their hearts of uncleanness and their hands of bloud and unrighteousness Their Justice would be Cruelty their Wealth an Idol their Power Tyranny their fears wild and causeless their Joys and pleasures mean and sordid their desires Feavers their mirth madness their Sorrows Apoplexies their Reasons Vagabond their best works but outward shew their Vertues Scene and Hypocrisie For when the Soul is out of Christ every Action is out of Tune and order and account for as our outward Acts without the heart are frigid and dead and null so the Actions of the Soul it self without an aim after Christ are all impure and illigitimate and null But Christ and the heart super-added to every Action shall give it Truth and Rectitude and life and permanency every thing becomes true and lovely by agreeing and answering to its proper Rule and measure When the heart agrees with Christ its rule and Judge all Hypocrisie and impurity departs when our thoughts agree with such a heart they are cur'd of their vanity when our lips agree with such thoughts and such a heart such a rule and Judge there will be no deceit in them when every Action of our whole man copies out our heart as our heart copies out Christ we recover our Original perfection which consists in agreement to that Idea and Image of God in Holiness and true Righteousness according to which we were created by him and were restored to it by Christ as we fell from it in the fall This is Truth throughout the whole man and Christian and that Truth perhaps which Pilate desired but did not deserve to know from our Saviour For in such Acts and converse which have life in them as from the heart and Sincerity and Holiness as unto Christ the Souls of all men upon trial and experience find Truth and satisfaction and peace of conscience in them and but disappointment and vexation and lies ever in the contrary And Praise and Honour and shame and Infamy from men and Life and Death Eternal from God following close upon the heels of the one and the other are suffrages for this Truth beyond exception And what makes good men makes good Subjects and Rulers by easie consequence Out of Christ all would be uppermost and Supreme and none a Servant or Subject to another from his heart and with his good will whence arise Wars and Rebellion and poysons and steelettoes at opportunities whereof Histories especially Heathenish are so full and some Christian to their greater shame But in Christ our subjection being transferr'd over from men to the Lord our slavery is extinguish'd and our service enobled and made agreeable to our Souls which know no Lord over them but God and Christ and all pride and stubborness and secret murmuring is now turn'd into good will from the heart towards our Superiours whether mild or hard As is expresly taken notice of by the Apostle and with care recommended to Inferiours in a parallel place Ephes 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good will doing service to the Lord and not to men The Church makes no alteration in properties Luk. 12.14 or mens vocation 1 Cor. 7.20 much less in Constitutions of Governments or Civil Rights either of Kings or people but leaves all to the Reiglement of Municipal Laws and publick Contracts and local Customes which are secular things to which the Church is dead saving any thing of Conscience or duty to Christ or justice and mercy that may arise in and from them the Alteration therefore the Church makes is in the hearts and Souls of men and not in the outward things themselves It binds all rights and Duties established by Law upon any manner of persons with the bond of Conscience additional to that precedent bond of Law and Civil fear And humane Laws be they never so provident will have their oversights and holes for trangressors to escape if Conscience be not kept up in men which makes that which was a trespass in the outside against the Law to be treason in a Christian in the heart against Christ his Lord and he suffers for his offence not only as a Malefactor before men but as a Reprobate and Rebel in his Conscience to his Saviour Thus St. Paul states the matter of Christian obedience Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake For whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 5. If therefore Inferiours would obey their Superiours from the heart as unto Christ according to my Text would there be such fraud in Servants or any sedition or Rebellion or Non-conformity in Christian Subjects towards their Christian Masters and Governours Could they have the heart or Conscience thus to fight against Christ out of a tender Conscience What else is it to be Antichrist and visible Terrene Atheists against visible and Terrene Gods Nothing gives a greater blow to the order of the Universe and more provokes God to try his title of Soveraignty against men to the certain misery of the weaker side than Disobedience and Rebellion to Parents and Princes that on Earth do represent him next to Tyranny and ill example in Princes and Parents themselves It being more stupendiously monstrous and irregular to find Kings that stand for Christ to be Merciless or unholy than Subjects that represent the Creature to be frail and froward More contrary to the course of nature and experience for Parents to be unnatural than Children to be undutiful or Masters to be unjust and cruel than Servants to be false or
pronounce Joh. 20.23 nor the flock they feed 1 Pet. 5.2 their own but all is Christs own Mat. 28.18 1 Cor. 3.23 And they are but Earthen Vessels and meer Instruments and Ministers under Christ and Stewards of his Mysteries and Oracles 2 Cor. 4.7 The lustre of his own Power and presence obscures the Authority of these his Officers as the Sun doth Mercury by nearness who yet doing their duty aright and from the heart in his sight whether in preaching or threatning or absolving do all with his full Authority and what they bind upon Earth is bound in Heaven and whom they absolve upon Earth are absolved in Heaven and who Honours and despises them doth Honour and despise Christ himself to his high reward or peril 1 Thess 4.8 For the power and splendor of a right Minister of Christ lyes in being one and the same and incorporated together with his principal which is effected by the sincerity of his heart performing every part of his duty as in his sight and for his approbation only whereby his preaching shall become powerful and victorious and his Counsels Oracles and his threats thunders and his comforts present health and Salvation as if Christ himself spoke in him for then his sheep hear his voice Joh 10.3 There is not that sympathy and intelligence and corresponding responses between unisons of two Instruments when only one is touch'd as there is between Christ in the heart of sincere hearers discerning Christ in the hearts of sincere Preachers O the Glorious Enterviews and Heavenly contentions and killings of Grace and gratitude that occurr between two Christs in Master and Disciple in several respects and habitudes Speaking and hearing the words of Christ between them meek Majesty in the one lowlily imploring prostrate extasie in the other lovelily adoring and yielding For the Apostles had a regard to Christ as the judge of their preaching in the Consciences of their hearers as well as in their own Christ in both observing and overseeing the one and the other in their duties Therefore the Bereaens are commended by the Holy Ghost as Noble and Generous in that they did not receive with implicit Faith what St. Paul preached unto them but weighed and examined his Doctrine with their Consciences and Scripture as it were with eye and rule searching the Scriptures dayly whether those things were so Act. 17.11 For the Conscience of another is not our rule but our own neither shall we be judg'd hereafter according to the cure and sincerity of our Teachers but according to what was to be our own care and duty Therefore the Spirits of Prophets though inspir'd were to be tryed and judged by Rule or Christ in the Scripture by other Prophets and Christians that had not the same numerical inspiration 1 Cor. 14.29 32. And the Prophet of Juda was slain by God by a Lyon 1 King 13. for believing Gods word in another Prophet against Gods word to himself St. Paul considered that Christ had a throne in every Soul and accordingly addressed his preaching to stand or fall by it as that which could easily discern and judge between craft and truth 2 Cor. 4.2 We have renounc'd the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftyness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God for every mans Conscience ought to judge for it self of the Truths it hears and of the guides it trusts and chuses else truth and errour to be sav'd or damned by the one or the other were indifferent were one and the same unto us Therefore how many Souls there are so many Kingdoms there are and so many Christs in them to govern them here because he is their judge hereafter And nothing without us how right or good soever hath validity or being or naturalization in us till it be received and approved and re-enacted in every Soul for Atheism doth not annihilate God in himself but in the Soul of the Atheist As Faith doth not give being to Christ and Christian Truths but only in Believers hearts And the Soul can enact nothing rightly without the advice and Councel of its Superiour God and Christ in the heart which is its rule and in whom it lives and moves and acts And nothing can it act with right and validity nor satisfaction itself or safety from the sword of the Magistrate without or besides this rule For Rulers were ordain'd to be a terrour to evil works and not to good to correct the whoredoms and Idolatries of the Soul breaking out into vicious bastard Acts concieved by Idols and lusts admitted into those affections which were due to none but Christ her husband and guide And no Child is so lovely in the eye of a fond Parent as are the thoughts words and actions of Christians conceived between the Soul and Christ guiding her self by his word and Ministry and that not only in the sight of God and Governours and good men but to the Consciences of the worst sinners and much more to their own It 's a natural instinct in the Souls of all men good or evil which laughs at all humane Laws to the contrary to admit of nothing into their Creed or practice without consulting with the Rule that guides the heart whether it be Christ or Worldly Interest Neither would men at first have believed the Miracles of of Christ or his Apostles or received the Scripture without consultation first had by every one with God speaking to him in his senses or in his Conscience But the Church of Rome expects that Christians though subjects of Christs Heavenly Kingdom should receive her Laws and dictates implicity and without scanning or recourse had to Christ in the Conscience or private judgment which they utterly disallow and discountenance in diametrical opposition to Apostolical practice and common sense and instincts and the nature of the Soul and the Soveraignty of Christ the King of Souls which therefore is a manifest Antichristian invasion upon the Liberties of Jerusalem which is above our true Mother and the temple of the Lord Eph. 2.21 22. wherein we every where find Popes intruding If the inside of our British Churches that is our Souls owe Daughterly subjection to them at Rome It is either as they are Soveraigns of this Heavenly Jerusalem or as they are Ministers and Pastors If they arrogate the first then the charge of Antichrist against them is acknowledged and confessed with some ingenuity appearing in the Blasphemy If their pretended power over our spirits be only Ministerial and St. Paul and St. Peter never did nor could claim more over the inside of any Church 1 Pet. 5.3 why are not our Popes painful preachers to the Consciences of men If not ours yet of their own Italians Let that Rule and Canon of St. Peter whom they so much own for their Founder Judge between them and us which Church the Romish or
in that Church for sincere and true members of Christ by the searcher of their hearts and ours we trust by mutual offices of Prayer and Charity we hold Communion in the General And a particular rent or schism cannot be conceived without some particular Vnion or Subjection preceeding and it sufficiently appears â—ow little there was of old between Rome and Brittain for how can an Arm be out of joynt from that part with whom it was never In. They themselves who accuse first are Schismaticks unavoidably especially our deluded English and Brittish and Irish Roman-Catholicks born under the same Allegiance believing in the same Christ that refuse to joyn in communion and worship with their own Mother Church much more Ancient and pure than that of Rome which were it less corrupt than it is they unworthily prefer before her against proverb and practice for home is homely be it never so homely and you shall not meet a child of that folly that will prefer a pompous Countess before his poor Mother But so truly Catholick and Apostolick and free from all foul and loathsome Idolatries and Superstitions are the Sacraments of our own Church that if they once tasted with us the milk of their own chast Mother they would never covet Forreign breasts that have an ill name any more nor be so earnest with us to prefer manifest poison before it And the cause of their delusion that should nevertheless be so zealous to persevere in such unnatural ignoble obstinacy and disobedience so destructive to themselves must needs be more than humane 2 Thess 2.11 But our Communions and separations are not in our own power but we are to take and leave as God directs and God directs to hold the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 The unity of the Spirit and not the unity of the Flesh that is to select such for our Christian Brethren to associate with them in dear fellowship who express by their Conversation that they are dead to this present World and self ends by their Faith and conformity to the cross of Christ and live in Heaven by their holy conformity to his Ascention which is a state of the Spirit and Grace and the right Catholick Church But to avoid and separate as much as may be in this World from such as are Earthly carnal sensual selfish scandalous and especially if such by their Doctrine policy profession designe and principle for such are enemies to the cross of Christ and a state of confederacy with the flesh wholly asymbolical and contrary to the nature of such a Church a Christian is to hold Communion with so St. Paul explains and expressly decides this case Phil. 3.17 18 19. shewing that such whose God is their belly whose Glory is their shame who mind Earthly things are not to be followed but shunned be their brags never so Christian and Catholick and why are they to be shunn'd because they are enemies to the Cross of Christ which they abuse and profane to compass Worldly ends and grandeur and Christs subjects ought not to correspond with his enemies not only upon the score of Loyalty but Interest and safety for the end of both will be destruction v. 19. And the reason why he and such as walk'd as he did were to be followed and embrac'd is because he followed Christ in his Cross as is implyed by the contrary Antithesis v. 17 18. because he also followed him in his Resurrection and Heavenly life as it is expressed in these words v. 20. For our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour This is the Catholick Church where all that will joyn with it shall be sure to find Salvation by it And in like manner he directs the Romans 16 17 18. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the heart of the simple A prophetical Description of the Roman Church Apostatizing into Roman Catholick and preferring Titles befere Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good words presignifiing their meek and holy and publick pretensions and title of servant of servants Fathers Confessors Apostolick See c. and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faire speeches or rather blessings their easie Absolutions and innumerable Indulgences Ceremonious crossings of all things and persons The like rule is given to Timothy and to all Bishops and every Christian in him If thou observe any make a Trade and Merchandize of the Gospel Supposing gain to be godliness from such withdraw thy self 1 Tim. 6.5 Which markes and characters of true or false Christians though they are less heeded and regarded by the guides of the Church of Rome and their credulous Disciples than by their more observing neighbouring Churches who know that Simon Magus the Father of the old Gnosticks pointed at by the Apostle v. 20. was more certainly at Rome and left his successors behind him than Simon Peter The wonder is the less because gifts and lusts more blind the eyes of the receivers and Actors than the standers by Neither do these Apostolical warnings alone but the woful experiences that back them deterr us from their communion above any other We held communion heretofore with the Eastern Church and that of Jerusalem without spiritual hurt or damage to our selves and our communion with the Ancient Gallican Church in the West added strength and comfort to us The Churches of Scotland and Ireland though by Civil Governments they were under different Kings and them not often friends yet by the Christian faith they were one piece with our Brittish Church defending our cause against Rome and Augustine with equal concern But when we began to acquaint our selves with Rome when it was better than now it is we gain'd nought but wounds and defilements and misfortunes by it There Pelagius with Celestius had his fall and ruine when with like good intentions as some other learned men in after Ages he went about to alter Divinity into a moral Philosophy to fit the needs of Christians there who lived short of men and were but hardned the more in their sins by the Evangelical Doctrines of free grace an evident symptom of their ripeness for Divine vengeance as appeared by the dismal sacking of Rome shortly after Anno 410 †Inter Augustinianas Epist 142. Hieronymianas which he elegantly describes in his Epistle to Demetriades There Wilfrid imbib'd the principles of avarice and ambition wherewith he corrupted his Brittish Institution and brought troubles upon himself as well as others and more disturb'd than promoted the plantation of the Gospel amongst the Saxons carried on then by Brittish industry There St. Patrick and Palladius Sons of the Brittish Church and of contrary Doctrines and Customes to Rome as appeared in their plantations yet
furnish'd for Outward Appearance a true type of his Roman Church to this day gay without to the eye but naked and bare walls within to reason as appears from the Inventory of his furniture and Utensils c Bed lib. 1. c. 29. vasa sacra vestimenta altarium Ornamenta quoque Eeclesiarum Sacerdâ—talia Clericalia indumenta Sanctorum Apostolorum martyrum reliquias nec non codices plurimos in the last place and almost forgot and without the Epithite sacros to assure us they were Bibles Outward and decent Ornaments and Ceremonies in the worship and service of God cannot be justly tax'd or censured unless the whole stress and substance of Religion be placed therein and not in the heart which is much the humour of that Church and was so much the Principle and composition of our Augustine that though the Churches of Christ in Brittain were never so confessedly Ancient and Catholick as to all the Articles of their Faith or unblameable in their Discipline or eminent in their Clergy yet because they differed from Rome about Easter in the manner as before or in not using spittle or the like nasty Ceremony in Baptism perhaps as they do or had not their locks order'd after the like bald-pate manner for the pretence of not Preaching to the Saxons was but a meer artifice and colour nothing would serve the turn or allay his zeal and wrath but their total subversion and dissolution by the help of Pagan Arms and Gods name brought in to abett and countenance this Barbarâ— design and malice by Hypocritical Prophesies anâ— counterfeit Revelations If one using the name of the King of Spain should make an Embassy from that Crown to this now at peace with one another that if the English conform not forthwith to the Spanish mode not only in their habit but the cut of their Hair and the form of their mustachioes they must expect nothing less than the utter destruction of their Church and state from God and man though such a message might justly be look'd upon as the frensy of a mad-man would they be free from censure if they neglected their own security however if it was well known by experience that the like threats had been by dark means executed before their own doors within remembrance of their own History But the Learning and Doctrine of this Pretended Apostle was not more Weak and Rotten in the heart than the right means of propagating it with the mouth was proportionably defective and wanting and had it been sound and Christian if Faith comes by hearing how could he preach to English ears when neither understood the other no more than Duck-Chickens their Hen-dam recalling them from their connatural Element Neither is there any Sermon or Homily of his on record that might worthily entitle him to our conversion as is urg'd by the d Antiquitates Ecclesiast p. 35. learned and judicious in both particulars The guift of tongues and power of miracles here fail'd him where it was most requisite and necessary though else-where where they were frivolous and needless he abounded with them in so much that his careful Pope writes an Epistle to him on purpose not to be e Bed lib 1. c. 31. transported above measure with the many miracles he wrought which yet might be of the same nature with his own Divine Revelation f M. Westm An. 605. and Gods answer in a dream to his Prayer for Trajan to rescue him out of Hell which God had granted with this proviso that he should trouble him no more with his Prayers of that nature for Heathens and who were like to be his Interpreters whilst the Neighbouring Ministers of France were back-ward g Spelman Concil p. 77. in this work as Pope Gregory himself complains judging them unworthy of Christian Communion in the posture they stood to the Brittains that had hir'd them for Auxiliaries as is conjectur'd g Antique Eccles p. 35. by another the terms of repentance and restitution being like to be as much insisted by the one as rejected by the other therefore some French Merchants skill'd in the English through their commerce and Ignorant of the Canons or some mean Minister that might be won to Act for Gaine and Interest against the Rules of the Church and the Principles of his more conscientious Brethren must be the Interpreters and immediate Ghostly Fathers in the English conversion according to this state till in its proper place it shall be proved that the Brittains themselves who best could forgive their own injuries and the Disciples of their Institution were by a reconciling Providence Gods Instruments in this conversion and not our Augustine though it must needs have gone somewhat against the grain with their Chiefs to hold the Brittain's lands from them by the Sword and Heaven by their courtesie which the Intelligence and Avarice of Rome soon found out and is the true reason and not the Jingling Legend of the fair English Slaves sold at Rome in the market that some of the Haughty Saxon â—eptarchs when it was a shame to stand out while most of their subjects were converted and no less an Inconvenience to be introduc'd by the Brittains whom they forc'd from their Inheritances were first set on to send their desires to Rome to have it done by the Pope as appears by h Spelman Concil p. 77. Pope Gregory's Epistle to the King and Queen of France which he readily complied with aspiring to be Universal Bishop about this time by the help of i M. Westm A. 609. 605. Wheeloc in Bed lib. 2. c. 8. Tyrant Phocas and therefore sent Augustine in all hast hither both bethinking of the Worldly purchase of Supremacy and dominion that was to be gain'd right or wrong thereby according to the eternal principles and bent of that degenerate Church carnal ends requiring carnal means as suitable to promote them which is the second point to be cleared in this state 2. By what means our Augustine propagated his equivocal Gospel so far as it was propagated amongst the English It was not by the light of Gods word and the power and demonstration of the spirit approving it self to every ones Conscience which out of its eternal Allegiance to God admits of no Truth without it produce a Divine Ticket along with it which carnal Evangelists and selfish Apostles find too difficult exactly to coin and counfeit Neither was it with the enticeing words of human wisdom and eloquence whereof there was now little cause of fear from our Augustine the one being a Human the other the right Christian method of preaching the Gospel which St. k 1 Cor. 2.4 compared with 2 Cor. 4.2 Paul preferred But his method had several effects to prove it was rather Satanical and Antichristian being carried on with carnal Arts and Craft and Pride and Lying wonders and Blasphemies and Sacriledge and Robbery and Massacre and Murder which cannot be
Boethius l. 9. p. 171. That because they deserted the Religion of their Fathers and violated the Worship of their Gods perinde atque Brittannis atque Scotis se hostem futurum that he would be their enemy no less than to the Brittains and the Scots And lost his life at last in his Holy War against the East-Angles having lost an eye before in Scotland and a great Army at Bangor where he was also wounded breathing out his impious Soul like Julian only better for his constancy but not inferiour for his Heathenish Cruelty Deorum Religionis Protector Christiani Nominis Hostis ut vixi morior m Ibid. p. 172. I dye as I lived the Protector of the Religion of the Gods and the enemy of Christ and all his Christians who therefore was a very fit and useful Instrument for Monk Augustine to comply with for the destruction of the true Christian Religion here in Brittain that opposed the Roman and to plant his Popery instead and accordingly made use off If therefore the English were not all converted in their Hearts under Arthur and Aurelius because of the force It may well be presumed from the contrary reason that the Heart it self did not hold out against the Divine power of the same Ministry acting in its external weakness and exinanition God by his great Providence having us'd all means both harsh and easie to soften and chafe the hard and stubborn hearts of the English to receive his Gospel and shap'd and cast the Brittish Nation for their use and the use of all Germany through them into the mould as it were of Christs first and second coming to work and make impression upon them if it were possible either of the two wayes With this difference that here Humility came after Power to to win by Intreaty what it could not compass by command and force as there Power will come after Humility to bruise with irresistable destruction what it could not prevail upon by Grace and love And when all would not do delivered them over to Popery as it were to Satan or Antichrist to be chain'd in spiritual slavery and darkness with many other Nations for about a thousand years And then visited them again in mercy with the comfortable light and Glorious Liberty of the Reformation handed also to them by their Kings when they came to be of Brittish race to try their love to truth once more before his last stroke and Eternal destruction of the Impenitent and Incorrigible But nothing of the former passages though the truth thereof hath left sufficient markes and effects behind it in Saxon Laws and Homilies extant quite dissonant to Popery in several principles as shall hereafter be mention'd how remarkable soever occurrs in Bede's Popish History not a word of n Munster Cosm p. 552. Offa the Son of Ethelfred preaching the Gospel to the Germans beyond the Rhine Anno 603. and building Offenburg and Schuttern as Munster Notes nor o Ibid. p. 580. St. Columbanus our Irish Monk of whom the same Munster saith Certò Constat We have certain knowledge of his propagating the Gospel far and wide through Germany the passages being within the time and business of his History and for the Honour of this Land only tending too much to discover that the Gospel was preached by the Brittains to the Saxons in the houses of their Fiercest Kings which Right to that Nation was against Bede's Theme and humour to acknowledge But Ethelfred and Oswald being both Princes of his Countrey and Climate he is Civil to them and endeavours to do Right to both respectively in Magnifying the Vertues of King Oswald which are undenyable to Superstition And Palliating and lessening the wickedness of Ethelfred which was as notorious to Indignity seldom doing the least Right to the Brittains the enemies of his Nation and of his Catholick Faith as he openly stiles them lib. 5. c. ult Saving sometimes out of unavoidable necessity and for other ends and Interests as where he is to commend the way and Religion of the Scots and Irish for whom he had greater kindness The Brittish Faith whence the other deriv'd and stifly kept to is inevitably extoll'd by consequence Or when he mention'd the good work of Augustine in repairing Canterbury Church whither Queen Bertha resorted he had like to have betrayed and discovered to a sagacious smell how all then stood How much the Christian Brittish Religion was received and flourished in Kent before the coming of Augustine So the West Saxon Kingdom shall be all in darkness p Bede lib. 3. c. 7. Paganissimi when Birinus comes to convert it but when Aldhelmus is to do exploits in bringing them over to the Roman Easter it shall be very q Idem lib. 5. c. 19. full again of Brittish Christians whom he is to reduce and such is his Conversion of all Mercia by Diuma and but two or three more and the like of the other Heptarchies yet no Ecclesiastical Writer is now more Classic and Authentick than Bede nor any passage of Church Antiquity to be well credited without his attestation so beneficial was his Partiality to the Roman-church to his Reputation and Authority in the World Therefore the other mixt Conversion of the English and full completion or confirmation of the former by Brittish Ministy and Doctrine but not all Brittish persons shall be clear'd out of Bede their own Author against our Romanists and irrefragably evinc'd by cross examination of his History whereby it will appear that the English under God owe their Conversion to the Brittains and others and not to Rome And that Augustine came hither to no better end than to destroy the true Religion like a messenger of Antichrist or at least miserably to corrupt it with adulterate mixtures and Superstitions And the positive proofs out of Bede of the Gospel being preached and planted among the English upon mixt account and especially Northward where the English did most abound and the Brittains were least intermixt amongst them are not so much Proofs and undenyable Instances as Divine Miracles and over-ruling Providences and the manifest Finger of God calling not only for Assent but Astonishment and Admiration That not only Augustin's plantation at York and Kent should be totally extirpated as it were by Divine Retaliation by the same means and method himself contrived and set on foot to destroy our Brittish Church But the Sons of Edelfred swho was Augustine's Executioner to Massacre the Brittish Clergy are made by Gods controlling power the chief Patrons and Propagators of the Brittish Faith over most part of England and Oswald the best of them who for his own virtues was no doubt rewarded with rest and Glory permitted by Gods severity and hatred of his Fathers Murders at Bangor to be slain and mangled and quarter'd by his enemies in view well nigh and sight of that very place And the Brittains by excess of wrong and cruelties from their enemies
reason or not till the 12. of Nero which may be granted without any Inconvenience to our Argument And the second very bold but dâ—stitute of good Authority yet agreeable however to Apostolical deportment in St. Peter in all mens expectations as well as their own fancies were it true that he then was there for sayes one he then ordain'd and sent p Idem Anno 46. Bishops and Teachers to preach the Gospel over all Italy France and Spain which well became him and to Brittain saith another but who are there witnesses and Authors Only one of of their own Popes Innocentius primus some hundred years after for his own Interest in his own cause without any second and who for the other but Metaphrastes of whom siqua ei fides adhibenda est sine Majorum Authoritate Loquenti q Idem Anno 51. n. 3. is their own Character An Argument that they themselves believe not this Legend of St. Peter and the second year of Claudius which they obtrude upon the World with such great importance and so weak a guard and in contradiction to themselves For how could St. Peter there Act or Rule or Order where he then was not Neither in reality and truth on the one hand as is Learnedly and Concisely r Dr. Sudbury's late Sermon before the King demonstrated by an admirable sound and profound Divine who to admiration within the compass of a quarter of a year or thereabouts when he was in Wales for his Refuge for Loyalty in the late times both Learn'd and Preach'd in the Brittish Tongue so hard and difficult to English-Born as I was thereof well assured from good hands Nor yet in the sincere belief of our great Romanists as appears both by their Arguments and plain Confessions for the Arguments and reasons whereby Barnabas Å¿ Spondan A 51. n. 14. is by them proved not to be the first that Preach'd the Gospel to the Romans against Dorotheus his assertion are because he was then in the East at and had his Apostleship after the death of Herod Act. 12.23 25.1.41 which is known to have fallen out in the fourth year Å¿ Spondan A 51. n. 14. of Claudius and also because the Jews were expell'd Rome by Claudius in his ninth Which are as firm against St. Peter his being or preaching at Rome in such a time if St. Peter was a Jew for he is recorded in Scripture both before and after Herod's death to be as much in the East over seeing all the Churches of Judaea and Galile and Samaria Act. 8.14.9.31 Receiving St. Paul upon his Conversion Act. 8 14 25.9.27 Which fell out in the 36 year of Christ †Baron Tom. 1. p. 254. and the second after his Resurrection and after three years or about the latter end of Caligula whom Claudius succeeded he visited St. Peter at Jerusalem for 15 dayes Gal. 1.18 And 14 years after he visited him again at Jerusalem Gal. 12.1 At the time of the Councel being the 9th of Claudius which with Caligula's three years and 10 months reign made the 22th year u Nelvic Chron. of Tiberius and the second after the Resurrection wherein St. Paul was converted by this account Healing Aeneas at Lydda Act. 8.34 and remaining a long time at Joppa v. 43. where he raised Tubbitha from the dead v. 40. received and baptiz'd Cornelius Act. 10.5.48 and defended this Act at Jerusalem Act. 11.2 where he was Imprison'd by Herod and delivered by an Angel Act. 12. and after Herods death in the †Spondan Anno 51. n. 14. 4th of Claudius as before and many Cities of the Gentiles Converted by St. Paul and Barnabas Act. 15.3 4. he is found to be resident still at Jerusalem with the other great Apostles v. 2 7. and present at the Councel about Circumcision which was held in the 9th year of Claudius by their own t Ibid. Confession which is the other sign themselves believ'd him not to be then for 25 years at Rome Expulsum autem u Idem Anno 5. n. 1. cum caeteris Judaeis fuisse Petrum Apostolum nisi alia occasio inde eum abduxerit nulla est Dubitatio because he was expell'd without doubt with the rest of the Jews by Claudius or was drawn away upon another occasion which is well suggested by them for how could he be at Rome in their account and at Jerusalem in the account of Scripture as before the self same time or which is first to be believed which is likewise the reason they give why no x Idem Anno 58. n. 19. mention is made of St. Peter by St. Paul in his large Catalogue of Eminent Christians whom he sends his Commendation to Rom. 16. because being expell'd by Claudius say they he was gone else where or he sent his Commendation to St. Peter in a secret Letter by himself which was well thought of and is a Petitio principii like to their other proofs of this great and fundamental Article of their Faith and the chief foundation of their Supremacy whereby they do greater right to St. Peters name and memory in confessing necessarily that he was not there in those years than maintaining frivolously that he came so early and from far thither from Jerusalem to Rome like Cato into the Theatre to be gone as soon as he came or which were more incongruous to continue there for 25 years till the 12th of Nero to do nothing or but to catch flyes and at such a time when he was so hard to be spar'd when the whole World stood in need of his help for the first planting of the Gospel Therefore considering the first occasion of this errour y Helvic Chron. Anno Christ 70. Hieronymus Eusebii Chronico assuit in Graeco enim non est With or without their good leave we may take it for granted that St. Peter never came to Rome if he came at all till the year z Spond Anno 68. n. 1. St. Paul came thither of whose coming there is better certainty whose Authority ecclipsing all others was therefore followed by the first Popes in the Easter Controversy against the East and St. Peter himself a good sign he never came but manifest it is St. Paul came to Rome about the 13 year of Nero. And yet it is very well known and from the testimony of Scripture and good History and Nero's Bonefires very evident that there were many Christians at Rome and Italy before St. Paul arriv'd amongst them Act. 28.14 Who came from Rome as far as the three Taverns which was 33. and Appii forum which was fifty one Miles distant to meet him out of honour v. 15. yea some of them were Seniors to him in the Faith as himself acknowledges in Rom. 16.7 Andronicus and Junia to have been the one a Greek the other a Latine by their names yet his Kinsmen which had been no great wonder or special dignity if they had not resided
children before his face as it were by a just Judgement of God wherein it is likely the Popes had no more hand in the contrivance than Monk Augustine a few years after in the bloud of Bangor though some while after we find them openly and Traiterously destroying not Emperours only â—at the Empire of the East it self and despising and chopping the Kings and Emperours of the West as fast as Tarquâ—n did Poppies till they stumbled upon a Brittain And Holy Gregory kept fair Communion with this bloudy Phocas in Letters full of Honour and Respect nevertheless and his next or next Successor saving one who sate not half a year Boniface the third obtain'd from the Grant of Phocas that Universal Primacy wherewith they have troubl'd the World to this day which in others was Antichristanism by confession and yet themselves are the men A Phocâ obtinuit Bonifacius magna tamen contentione ut sedes B. Petri Apostoli que caput est Omnium Ecclesiarum ita diceretur haberetur ab omnibus He obtain'd with much ado of Phocas that the See of St. Peter which is the head of all Churches in their fansie should be so esteemed and accounted of by all d Platina in Bonifacio tertio They were and still are long studying and hammering for a square and proportionable Title and Foundation to bear this grand Fabrick of Universal Monarchy in the Church The house of Pudens and our Ruffina their Ancientest and Truest was too narrow The undoubted residence of St. Paul in their City was their most Honourable and Glorious Title but more serviceable for Salvation than for Supremacy for it made them but co-ordinate yea Junior to several Churches of Greece Athens Ephesus Thessalonica of the same Plantation Constantine's Imperial Graunt was Subject to change of time and Emperours to change of mind therefore no shoulders seem'd broader and fitter than St. Peter's to be their Atlas who yet if ever he came to Rome came thither upon the score of the Jews who were his peculiar charge as the Gentiles were St. Pauls as is plain from Scripture and their own e Spondan An. 51. n. 4. confession according to the appointment of God Gal. 2 7. and the decree of the Hierosolymitan Synod and their particular respective undertaking lest therefore by this they were at best but Popes of the Jews they 'l borrow help from St. Paul and both shall be their founders together in despite of God who made them Separate but then there are other Prerogatives since assum'd by that See of deposing Kings and Emperours and transferring Kingdoms which cannot be well derived from Fishermen and Tent-makers and Subjects Therefore it is a more adequate Title to be Christs Vicars by whom Kings Raign but because his Kingdom was not of this World nor his Mission while on Earth but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel The Roman Parasites discern that the Plaister is never broad enough for the sore till he is Vice-Deus or e Torturi Torâ—i p. 361. Vice-God on Earth as they begin to stile him in their dedications And this comes nearest to the Scriptures 2. Thes 2. Now it is not my design at present to display the great mischief and bloud-shed and confusion that did arise to Christian Kingdoms and Churches from this groundless Primacy nor the Enchantments upon souls by this Castle in the Air nor to examine whether Turcism or Popery have been the greater Nusance to Christendom or which was the greatest wrong to the spouse of Christ to be slain or defil'd to be pillag'd or divided For all Churches heretofore from one end of the Earth to the other were all as loving Sisters of one and the same Family under one and the same roof tyed to one another in a lovely knot and Union of mutual charity and preference and still might be if by the mercy of God and zeal of Christian Princes this common disturber were raised from being Servus Servorum an Hebraism for a great slave to be equal in Vote and Authority in Publick Councils to other Metropolitans and Primates his Reverend Brethren who otherwise hinders all with his proud humility and detestable Union of slavery But my scope and purpose only is to vindicate our own Rights and Liberties and to unmask this Bishop and his Clerks who come as thieves in the Coat of Christ and St. Peter to steal away our Crowns and Mitres and to seduce wel-meaning people and unwary Grandees to assist them in the Robbery out of Conscience and to burn and destroy us as Hereticks out of zeal for keeping our own against this their Phocacian Monopoly and Usurpation which c Whâ—lock not in Bed l. 2. c. 8. Monk Augustine and his Successors were sent hither to execute amongst as many as they could abuse and deceive For what fair obligation upon Conscience which is ever correlative and corresponding with Gods will can this Intrusion on the Fights of Neighbouring Kingdoms and Churches have which is so expresly forbidden by the Laws of God and Nations and the Canons of the Universal Church Can God be contrary to himself or one Catholick Church to another or the same Lord Christ be both the Avenger and Patron also of such as over-reach their Brethren or remove bounds and Land-marks Doth not Conscience bind them rather to aid their injur'd Neighbours against these holy Robbers and to study reparations wherever they were miss-led to be accessory and assisting to such Burglaries upon the Innocent If it be good Catholick Religion and Conscience to swallow hand over head any Tradition oâ— gloss that shall produce a Commission from God against his express Will and Precept to the contrary Then Adam and Eve were commendable Catholicks in hearkning to the Serpent to the ruine of themselves and their posterity and we in protesting from plain Scripture against such glosses and suggestions culpable Protestants Protestancy is not a name of Schism but of Duty and eternal Allegiance of the Soul to God and Truth against Atheism and falsehood and the works and words of the Devil in any shape The Act that pass'd at Germany about an 100 and odd years ago in protesting from manifest Scriptures against gross Errours counterfetting Divine authority was a duty in general 1500 years before and more and will be still to the Worlds end The vow of Baptism makes every Christian a Protestant from the Font. Nothing more makes Roman-Catholicks and Cardinals and Popes than a Carnal forgetfulness and abhorrence from such Protestantism It is not believing as men would have but as God in his word and will would have us to believe that makes true Catholicks and Christians for Christians are to resist temptations whereof the most prevalent love to be cloathed with God and Religion fatuus the Latine for a fool is conjectur'd to be deriv'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perswade one that is easily won to believe any Lie or Legend or Imposture Old Adam and
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
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
within the Pale of the Church of Rome or to be subject to the Pope and to believe as the Church believes will do it and nothing else without it For let a man be never so vitious and Ungodly if he stick close to their Church which is allowed to be consistent provided he have the Absolution of a Priest at the last gasp upon his sorrow and condition or if this be wanting upon his attrition or fear of Hell he shall not miss Eternal Salvation nor ever attain the same if he be a Protestant though never so holy or charitable or Penitent and believing so are such Casuists for their want of love to the truth delivered over to deceive both themselves and others But to wave all parties and to give a plain and clear answer according to the truth or the mind of God in his word which is the same which the soul and Conscience loves to believe and build upon before any human Authority whatsoever This question may be divided into two points or Issues Stricti juris largi 1. What that is that makes one a Member of that Heavenly Church which if he wants he is none 2. What makes him more assuredly of it than many others that yet be in it The first question is best answer'd in St. Paul's Phrase in one word in the sence of that Phrase in three By the first he is of this Salvifical Church who is in Christ he is not of it who is out of Christ Rom. 8 1. Here the issue is short and clear with St. Paul Not to be In or out of the Church of Rome this he never saith but in or out of Christ which he affirms throughout Neither Jew nor Gentile nor Greek nor Barbarian nor Brittain nor Roman nor English or Scot or Irish are nearer or further from Salvation by their Countrey but their conditions Not by their first birth which is Temporal but their second which is Celestial and Catholick and one and the same to all true Christians stilâ—d for this Originally the Brethren Neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision nor the skin Black or White nor a Pall from the body of St. Peter nor the Vest of St. Francis to be buried in nor dispensations Seal'd in Lead more lasting than Wax nor sprinkling nor bathing in Holy Water can avail any thing to save the soul or to purifie the heart but only faith which worketh by love Act. 15.9 Gal. 5.6 Nor the sign of the Cross alone nor the very nails and wood of the Cross it self were they to be seen and touch'd nor any other contact or show or specious title nor the entring in at Porta Caeli at a Jubile nor the Popes Canonization nor the name and title of Roman-Catholick nor the Holy Roman Church like the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord with them in the old Testament Jer. 7.4 or saying Lord Lord with them in the New Math. 7.21 can give entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven but the doing the will of our Father which is in Heaven And did not this old anile faith of Modern Rome which serves to make so many Catholick Sons of their Church serve as much to make them children Universally in understanding also which the Apostle dislikes 1 Cor. 14 20. their practices would have more of their own suspition and less of their Neighbour's Censures What can any mortal excellency that hath visibility and hic nunc or perishing Temporality stamp'd upon it signifie to Christians who are not of this World as Christians but of the World to come by faith And look not at the things which are seen but at the the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal It 's true as men we are to prefer and provide for the nearest in flesh unto us before others or else we are worse than Infidels and prefer our Country and our Prince before our own flesh and life or else we fall short of Noble Heathens but as Christians who is to be nearest to us but he that is holiest and likest to God and Christ How unlike Christians therefore are they in their estimates and measures who think any man is a better or worse Christian or more capable or incapable of Salvation for being of this or that place or City or Nation on Earth rather than for having his affection with Christ in Heaven at Gods right hand Col. 1.3 In whom is neither Greek nor Jew Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3.11 2 Cor 5.16 Math. 12.50 Act. 10.34 35. But how Antichristian is it to make a contrary measure of Salvation to curse them as Hereticks though they be in Christ that be not of their way and Communion and bless them as Catholicks though out of Christ if they be According to the sence of that Phrase it may be further answer'd in three words 1. To be Christ's and not his own 2. to dye in his death to Earth 3. to live in his life to Heaven 1. To be Christ's and not his own All are yours and ye are Christ's 1 Cor. 3.22 23. and 2 Cor. 5.15 Christ dyed for all that none should live unto themselves No Christian is to live unto himself but unto Christ He is to eat and drink and converse and rise and lye down and labour and rest and study and serve and obey and command and rule and to bring up or provide for children and relieve the poor and poor friends every thing as to Christ as guided by his Law and accountable to his Judicature For he cannot be said to be a Servant to another that minds his own affairs or pleasure altogether and never his Master's but when himself pleases for a spurt or humour Neither is any selfish person a Servant of Christ nor a true salvable Christian by consequence but is one that sets up for himself And is not under Christ's Law and will but his own Neither shall be under his pay but must must expect his reward and Salvation from himself as he lived wholly to and for himself and his Conscience cannot gain-say this Law for such a one never hath Communion with God as all true Christians have but only with himself like a Rebel Mock-god ordering all things in the World for his own ends as God doth all for his own glory and never durst trust God so far as to go out of himself for his sake In himself shall he therefore ever remain and out of Christ forever because he never had the honesty to give God his glory nor the faith to give his heart that is himself to his Redeemer 2. To dye in Christs death to the Pomp and vanity of the World which according to St. Paul's comment is the mystical Christian meaning and fulfilling of the Ancient Circumcision Col. 2.11 12. Phil. 3.3 Gal. 6.14 16. That as amongst the Jews