Theon out of York and London Congersbury or Wells being a member of the Brittish Arch-Bishoprick of London and barring thereby the title of Occupancy which was Augustine's beatifical aim and giving edge to the Canons of General Councels against him for this forcible entrance neither is it at all improbable that the Brittains should affect here to mingle Rights and Protections by Intermarriages with the Saxons after they became Christian who were so culpably forward to be unequally yok'd before and be inclin'd to relinquish all notes of destinction apace the old style of Easter and their Brittish names and dialect and change Lhoid into Grey and Winn into White c. which signifie the same and though some sturdily retain'd their Brittish names of Dunne and d ee and Gough and Moyle and Trever yet others chang'd perhaps Trewen Trevechan Trene widh c. into Whittington Littleton Newton c. of the same signification for their convenience as upon like imitation now in Wales Powell Prichard Progers Jones c. are become standing Sirnames of Families which before with the old Brittains were but the Christian names of the Fathers ap Howel ap Risiart Roger Joan c. yea perhaps to disown all alliance with the Brittains in Wales standing out in War partly for security to themselves as the heard forsake a Deer that is pursued or Courtiers a fallen favorite partly out of modable conformity to the prevailing party as in a great part of Devonshire or Duffneint and Cornwall which are old Brittish Territories where it is freshly known the same Ancient people remain but their Language much worne out and giving place to another like as in little Bittain the whole entire Countrey are old Brittains whether some old Legions of Maximus settled there under c Several Dukes of Brittain were afterward so called Conâ—n Merriadoc d Hist Brit. Galsr as saith the Brittish Histories or new exiles forc'd thither as elsewhere by the Saxons e Usher 421. 422. as the Learned Primate guesses because he meets no mention in Authors of them abiding there till the Invasion of Gallia by the French which is near Cotemporary to that of Lhoegr by the Saxons though it is hard to imagine how they should win their Country from others who failed to defend their own But though they be undoubted Brittains in their origen yet now there is little or no difference between them and the meer French in appearance especially on that side of the Country towards France or High Brittain where the Brittish Language is wholy forgot and extinguished as amongst the Brittains of Lhoegr So in Gallia or France it self though the old Inhabitants the Gaules or Galli seem quite consumed every Mothers Son since the modern French or Franci out of Germany invaded their Land chang'd and suppressed their Language Names and Laws yet nothing is more evident by Historical character than that the Nation is still the same though the name and dress be alter'd and what by the nature of the Air and what by Inter-marriages with one another and what by Divine mercy relieving right owners at last on the one hand and vengeance on the other cutting off the lives and lines of men of bloud and violence the French are still the same Old Gauls of whom f M. Florus lib 2 c. 4. Florus his character about 2000 years ago is found true to this day primus impetus major quam virorum sequens minor quam faeminarum above men at first assault below women at rally Neither have our modern French the zeal and humour of the old Franci after liberty from whence they had that name In like manner in several Counties of Wales especially amongst several of the Gentry all is alter'd since the time of Henry the seventh who broke the middle wall of Partition and united in himself both Nations into one and the Councel settled in the marches not only in taking new and single Sirnames after the English manner instead of their Ancient and Brittish stile compounded of Progenitours as the modern Christian names of Europe's Grandees are with friends and Patrons which us'd to puzzle the English Judges of that Court in their Circuits and occasion a mistake of one man for 3 or 4 but in the total disuse of the Brittish tongue and using the English instead in several of their Families whether to follow the English as many of the English do the French or to avoid the burden and Inconvenience of being singular and distinct in so small a number against so great a body as is now the English Nation or because of their Intermarriages with the English in civility to their consorts which example of theirs were stronger than any Law to abolish and destroy the Brittish tongue forever but that it is mainly preserv'd upon the score of Religion in Pulpits between the Clergy and communalty who have a great and dear esteem of the Gospel Preached and are they that chiefly support the tongue and retain the Customs and Traditions and Principles and proverbs of their Ancestors and some novel Popish rites besides which have crept in amongst them as their praying at cross ways before their Corps which are tolerated by their guides least they should be unsettled and scandalized in their more Ancient and Catholick observations by abrupt disuse till by knowledge they come to leave them off of their own accord Neither are the Gentry of Wales the less Brittains as neither the old Brittains in Lhoegr for conforming daily to the English manner nor the French less Gauls for the loss of their Gallic tongue as the Brittish Language is in like danger to be wholly worn out also as was said unless the Chiefs of the Nation our Princes or Senate out of Generous filial honour to Antiquity and Truth think it fit and expedient and for the glory of the Nation which is ambitious of recovering as by some secret instinct the old Name of Great Brittain to give some support and life to the Language of Great Brittain likewise not yet incurable or exstinct A Language so Ancient and venerable in the first professing the true Religion immediately and all along from the Resurrection and in the first opposing of false Religion and Popish abuses above a 1000 years ago the mother-tongue of Lucius and Constantine the Great the first Princes of the Christian Church so useful to the Antiquities not only of our Btittish Isles but the greatest part of Europe that Forreigners have Printed our Dictionaries as the Origen of Gallic Antiquities under other names out of learned ambition Oriental in its Grammar copious as the Greek for compositions as elegant the more old as is the English the more new it is For the Rule and structure of its Poesies and the Awen or inspiration of its Poets hardly to be parallel'd in any Nation whatsoever that Augustus could not be more divertis'd with Horace c. than our Princes and Gentry were in ample manner
constantly present in his heart and mind As he is ever the vainest that hath him least This presence of Christ in the Soul being its chief life and sobriety or preservation of the mind as the Greek imports and begetting that syberwid wherein the Brittish Ethicks did and doth consist And our Laws which are the wisdom of the Nation Endite none but Rebells against God who for not setting his fear alwayes before their eyes become injurious to their Brethren The great Apostle of the Gentiles comprizes the Disease of the Heathen world in one like word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 their averseness to eye God ever in their minds and the health of the Christian World to be in this when the Grace of our Lord Jesus was alwayes with them which was ever his last wish and prayer And the Cure of the Antichristian to be herein for when he had forwarn'd of the Pest that was to overspread the Christian Church in future Ages for their want of love to the Truth 2 Thess 2.9 10 11 12. he there names the best Amulet and Antidote against it again and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 3.16.18 The Lord of Peace give you peace The Lord be with you all The Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all Amen For they alone should escheat to Antichrist who cast off Christ and Christ them and those fall into the pit of the one whore and the other that in the Proverbs and the other in the Revelation who are abhorr'd of the Lord Prov. 22.14 And so much shall suffice by way of Exhortation to all Loyal Christians true to Christ their King and Countrey to adhere to our own good Mother-Church of Brittain in opposition to the pretences and inveiglements of the Modern Roman whom we leave as we found as Epaminondas is said to leave a sleeping Centinel whom he run through without a heart and Soul and Life through their taking man and not Christ who is the truth and the life for the Lord and Soveraign of their hearts and judgment SECTION XVII Where the place of the undoubted true Church is out of whose Pale there is no Salvation And how to be of the Church in Heaven while we are on Earth THe Brittish Church of England is a good and a true Church and so are many others but before men the Church of Christ that is in Heaven by true Faith is the true Church before God and the heart And certain Salvation is annext to the Church of Hearts and Faith For according to St. Paul every true Christian who is a Mystical Jew or Israelite is to be tryed by this Rule For he is not a Jew saith he which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.28 29. An unblamable outward profession constitutes us Sons of this or that Church before men but the sincerity of the heart to God sets us in the true Church before God for as he were not a right Son of this Church that should only observe Rubricks and Ceremonies and Consormity and neglect Temperance and Charity and Truth and Honesty which are greater so where both these are outwardly observ'd and kept as the Laws of God and the Customes of the place are the measures of all wise and sober men yet not from sincere love and obedience in the heart to Christ but for impunity from human Laws or vain-glory or some other secret end and purpose of the mind it is that end we thereby serve and not the Lord and by our out-side and the charitable estimation of men who are deceiveable we may be true Sons of the Church of England but our Inside or our souls which truly are our selves will be found out of the Church of Christ in Gods account who Judges by the heart and cannot be deceived And this Church of Christ is in Heaven where Christ is at Gods right hand and men become of it by saith and the sincerity of the heart which alone can reach it while in the body they remain on Earth This is the true Catholick Church whose Silver Rome borrows to cover its Brass with out of whose pale there can be no Salvation nor Condemnation ever to any that are found within it Rom. 8.1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus If a man were Excommunicated by Rome and England and be of this Church he were safe being Christianus in occulto as St. Augustine stiles such a one in his Book de verá Religione cap. 6. and miss of Salvation though in the bosom of both Churches if he be not in his heart of this A Christian who is inwardly by his heart in Heaven with Christ Christ and Heaven are present to his heart by Consequence and such a one is as it were Christ Incarnate as every one who is out of Christ in his heart and wedded to other ends or Idols is a Devil incarnate more or less And this new Celestial person which he puts on becomes the standard of his Interest and the Rule of his deportment whatsoever he doth agreable to Christ thus in him is his honour and newself-preservation and peace and whatsoever unbecoming the contrary For Cicero would allow that the person we sustain by nature or by calling and by Grace by Consequence becomes the Rule and measure of men's duties and obligations so that there is a vast and an infinite difference between one in Christ and out of Christ between a Christian and no Christian as much as between Heaven and Earth Flesh and the Spirit God and a Creature And St. Paul reduces the whole to this point They only that are in Christ can be Justified and Sanctified and Saved and no other and their Natures are chang'd and exalted by this conjunction and consequently all their Actions and affections which answer to the nature they arise from as the fruit to the tree And they that are out of Christ are out of all hopes and possibility of Justification or Sanctification or Salvation and the old man or Nature continues in them and the mortal inclinations and deeds thereof by Consequence And this change of mens state in respect of dignity as well as safety to be freed from wrath and made as second Sons to God is not from any human merit or power but only from the Infinite and free grace of Christ By whom we have access by Faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5.2 Our Justification and happiness by this new state is attributed by the Scriptures to Christ and to Faith and to his Resurrection to Christ without us as to the Purchaser and Founder and Finisher To Faith within us as to the Counterpart Instrument of our acceptance and the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heart and the Lord and of these in Order 1. For the Quomodo in the first place Whatsoever we do we must do it from the Heart which requires these three properties at least 1. That we do it with Knowledge 2. With Freedom 3. With Conscience to God and no other The Will and Vnderstanding being the two parts of the Soul require the two first and the natural bent and verticity of the Soul after God its only center and rest requires the last For nothing is or can be said to be done from the heart which is not done for God and before him An honest hearty man doth all that he doth as it were upon his oath because he doth every thing from his heart and Conscience in the presence of God 1. In the first place what is done from the heart must be done with knowledge and attention which is the wakefulness of knowledge For where there is no understanding there can be no will or rational consent as in Beasts Idiots Lunatiques Minors and persons cheated surpriz'd miss-led and where no will then no heart heart will Soul and understanding being all the same Therefore St. Paul decides it to be Idolatry to worship even the true God ignorantly as in the Case of the Athenians Act. 17.23 And our Saviour Christ gives a reason for it Joh. 4.22 in the Case of the Samaritans Ye worship saith he you know not what In our Saviours account God is not reckoned to be worshipped by those that worship him ignorantly or blindly hit or miss whether him or an Idol or Usurper in his stead 2. With freedom which implies two things 1. The exclusion of force and fear 2. Necessity of Grace and Gods assistance For force and fear destroy the will and all hearty consent and delight as much as ignorance and errour did for what we do by force and fear we do it from a principle without to save our skins but what we do from the Heart we do it from a principle within in complyance with truth and justice or Gods mind wherewith the heart complies of its own accord These being so diametrically contrary to one another therefore freedom and force can never stand well together If Religion is to spring from the heart as saith my Text its absurdity and contradiction to propagate it by force Governours may and perhaps ought to use the discipline of the Rod and power paternally towards obstinate and froward Subjects to create Attention and respect in them towards the truth but to use Axe or Fagâ—ot to burn and destroy the Lives of all Dissenters is far from the spirit of Christ Luk. 9.55 Which method began to be in practice when Religion without a Heart and consequently without God began to be in fashion in the World and Corpus Christi worshipped and reverenc'd above Christ himself and the Wood of the Cross above the Mystery of the Cross and a frail Father on Earth above our Father in Heaven And as the growth and prevalence of the true Church over Idolatry and Heresie was by truth and meekness and benificence which tended to win the heart like the Suns victory over darkness which it early dispells with its light and rayes without noise or bloud-shed yet with a sufficient Glorious alteration in the World So the growth of the false hath mostly ever been by ignorance and Fire and Gun-powder which quench and alienate mens hearts and spirits or like the March of the Grand Seigniour which burns and destroys all that stands in its way 2. The necessity of the Assistance of Gods spirit obtainable by servent Prayer to renew and make us truly free and right without whose Illumination and renewing of our minds and hearts we can neither know nor love what is truly good nor in our hearts be affected towards it The carnall man who is blinded with lusts and suffers his affections which are the wings of the Soul to be intangled and fettered with the bird-limâ— of sensual pleasures and wordly delights and your glory hath neither heart nor power lâ—â—t him â—o 〈◊〉 up towards Heaven oâ— to quiâ— his sâ—eming g◠〈…〉 in hanâ— to purifie the savour of an◠〈…〉 â—hom he knows in his conscience to 〈…〉 to his present ways and practices 〈◊〉 wâ—en through the Cross and death of Christ and the mortification of his flesh by Fasting and Prayer the Soul dies to this present world and the lusts thereof and by that death of Faith is set at liberty and detach'd as men say from such snares and fetters then it can soar as an Eagle and ascend in its affections in the power of Christs ascention towards Heaven its true rest and center with delight and ease All are for ease and rest both godly and ungodly the rest and pleasure of the just and unjust differ from one another but by truth and appearance both pursue their vices and virtues from the heart the one with a false the other with true delight and satisfaction Wine and Women and the like which take away the heart Hos 14. are pursued from the heart by their several followers but with a void and dead consent because of the deceit and disappointment they meet in them thus all sinners tire themselves forever in a maze of contradictory and absurd elections and short-liv'd joyes soon repenting and hating that bliss they eagerly chuse and pursue because they put up false Coyn for true through want of skill and care and take their counsels and measures from sense and the flesh and not from the Soul or renewed mind to chuse objects for their hearts to rest on as shall never deceive or disappoint their expectation none being such but God or Christ alone Which is the third property requir'd in our doing whatsoever we do from the heart and contains the remaining parts of the Quomodo To the Lord and not to men which may be spoken to together The heart of man is not for two contraries at once God and Mammon Christ and a lust together the Soul abhors all such Polygamy it is either wholly and undividedly for God and all else for his sake or wholly for its prime lust and Idol which thereupon becomes as a God unto it For out of a God in generall true or false the Soul can neither Act nor move nor stir therefore the verse before the text requires Christ to be served and obey'd with singleness of heart which if it be done for any wordly end or design as the chief motive of the heart the heart is divided or doubled between them and a double heart is no heart the division of the heart and will destroys it and Christ is not serv'd or obey'd at all but rather Irritated and provok'd to enmity against us by our making other ends partners in our hearts of that glory and worship which is due to him alone whereby you may perceive the world is to withdraw and depart out of
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
Apostolical Rule in my Text in your own hands to measure and Judge as Solomon once did between two Mothers the true and the pretended For a Private Person with God to guide him may judge Infallibly which Church most agrees with God for a wavering eye and a trembling hand having a streight and a stable rule and line to guide it partakes of the stability and streightness that directs it the guide and guided being one and the same person by fiction and agreement And the Roman Catholick themselves as they love to be called cannot be denied to be every Mothers Son as Infallible as the Judge himself or their Church is to whom they give themselves entirely over to be guided by them take therefore in Gods name Gods clear mind and measure and judge impartially with the heart and soul and in the strength of him that guides you Your Holy Mother the Church of England hath nourished you up in a Sound and Orthodox Religion and Worship which you and your Prosterity can understand and therefore say Amen to it from your hearts because you understand it The great pretender of Rome starves her Children at Nurse and all their life time in their own Territories by Politick Ignorance and binds and enslaves their stoutest Champions in chains of darkness and of implicit faith and blind obedience the better to keep them under in Captivity and slavery to serve her unworthy and unnatural designs and to fight against the Truth as the Turk breeds up deluded Janizaries to War and subdue their own Fathers and Mothers and people which absolute and blind subjection of the heart to any man on Earth is Idolatry in the giver and the taker Is it not lamentable to consider how prophane and perfidious the guides of the Church of Rome are towards God and their people committed to their charge and in deceiving the one and mocking the other with a worship in an unknown tongue without the heart and understanding which is therefore a meer nullity by the Divine Doctrine of my Text and by common sense and therefore no worship at all but Idleness and â—â—â—â—ccation approaching to Idolatry Religion without the mind is not Religion or Worship but a shew or Stage-Play or a Counterfeit of Religion as the Scene is of Truth and History where an Actor or a Mimick stands for a Prince as here the shadow for the substance or crossing of the body for the contrition of the soul and all are able to know and understand very well the whole management in both to be a meer divertisement of the fancy only more sufferable on the Stage than in the Church in Gods presence where more sobriety and seriousness of mind is required and nothing else in point of Truth and reality because the Original Persons and parties are absent and wanting there the true Hero and here the Truth of the heart A sincere Protestant is grieved and troubled at every straggling thought and the least deviation of his heart at Prayer in Gods presence as a great and griveous affront and contempt of the Divine Majesty like turning our backs to a Prince while we are speaking to him But our confident Bigots of Rome by their Publick and common pactice maintain and defend that God is best worshipped when he is so affronted and despised and that the total absence of the heart and understanding so there be an outward Opus operatum with lip and breath is no sin at all but right Catholick Devotion most agreeing with the Deity If mumbling Pater Nosters and Ave Maries whether at Church or Closet or at Cards or Plays as Witches do Charms without knowledge or Attention or meaning make good and current Roman-Catholick Devotion then Parrots and Magpyes and Apes may commence Catholick Disciples of the Roman-Catholick Salvation And upon this score perhaps it was that one of the great and Sainted Patriarchs of an order amongst them began to bestow his pains and zeal in Preaching to Birds When men in contrariety to the Apostle in my Text judge it fanatical Innovation to Worship God as Protestants do with the heart and understanding They that so exclude the heart in the first place as needless will they not exclude the Lord likewise in the second place for these two are Correlates take away the one and take away the other also where the heart and the Lord are shut out in the first and second place will not the fear of the Lord be excluded likewise though the beginning of wisdom in the third place And where the fear of the Lord is once banisht from Religion is there any sin or Villany in Soul or Body that such Religious Atheists will boggle at to act and prepetrate at opportunity or temptation when it may with safety be committed and with impunity from the Laws of man It s well that Church exceeds all others in Pardons and Absolutions if such seives hold water for their Principles cut out work enough for Pardons and if their own allowed and best Historians are to be believed the practices of their chiefest Popes come not short of their Principles How deplorable and sad is the condition of such a Church to which no further degree of disorder and misery can be added or imagin'd Nor the Devil drive this nail further to the head than that they should strongly believe themselves to be the sole and only Catholicks salvable and infallible in such gross and damnable Errours And yet upon such holy guides such infallible Rocks the Roman-Catholick Church is built For all with them are bound to believe as the Church that is the Pope believes whom they believe to be infallible For though their lives are often frail and vicious yet their Doctrines or Testimonies for God say they are ever firm and true As if a Vicious life were not an effectual quenching and renouncing of the whole Faith of such a person during such impenitence or as if a Debauch'd person or Atheist were a fit witness for the Christian Faith much less the Judge thereof He that will be Infallible for another ought first to be Infallible for himself and his own Salvation And every man is bound upon his everlasting Peril to be as Infallible as he can for himself and his Brethren But as a Creature no man is or can be Infallible nec vox hominem Sonat but more or less he may be Infallible by help from without according as he is guided wholly or in part by God who is alone Infallible And the issue and whole state of the cause and difference between Protestants and Papists lyes in the right choice and election of their Infallible guide and judge Who this is being the great Question There is no judge under God and Christ the sole judge of quick and dead but the invict Supream Powers himself hath appointed in all Kingdoms and Churches and private breasts Invict Conscience in every private man in all Private and all Eternal concerns Invict
Fathers and Governours within their several Families depending on them for Education life and maintenance Invict Christian Princes and Holy Bishops in their several distinct Provinces and Kingdoms in matters of peace and order and external Ceremony being publick Consciences in their several Dominions which are so many larger Bodies or Families yet none of these are absolute or infallible any further than they agree with a Superiour Soveraign will which alone being such is their Rule and guide communicating its Infallibity to them that follow it which all are bound to do Now who this Infallible Soveraign guide and judge is whether the Pope in his Chair and Bulls or Christ and his Scriptures written in the Bible and mens hearts and Consciences seems to be the Question between Rome and us The Roman Church affirms it belongs to the Pope being near and visible on Earth The Reformed will have it to belong to Christ who is far nearer to mens Souls though in Heaven With Protestants the Invisible Soul is correlate with God its Invisible Lord where is its rest and satisfaction With Papists it must be correlate to the Pope a visible judge and guide else it wanders in uncertainties like a lost sheep Or though both agree perhaps that Gods mind and will is the Law and Rule of the Soul yet they vastly disagree about its promulgation That is Gods will say the Papists what the Pope defines to be his will that his Scripture and sense thereof what he allows and nothing but the sense of the Pope must be the sense of God though never so sensual and Carnal or contrary to truth and to common sense But Protestants hold Gods mind and will to be and to have been knowable by men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at several times and several wayes Heb. 1.1 Not only in the time of the Old Testament and before by the light of nature and the Law and the Prophets and Angelical Revelations and Vrim and Thummim and Visions and Dreams But also in the last dayes by his Son in his Holy Gospel and other inspired Writs delivered to his Church and sufficiently attested to the sense and Conscience by Miracles and right Catholick Tradition And that it is the first and proper work and duty of all mankind as soon as they come out of their Infancy and Non-age as on the one hand to know the difference between God and the Creature and the right and wrong Soveraigns and Legislators of their Souls and to follow truth and vertue which are ever the Laws of the one and to shun vice and lyes which are the dictates and Impostures of the other so also carefully to discern between the Authority of the Master and the Servant or the Prince and his Officer between the Canonical Scripture which is the Divine will and Testament of Christ and humane Tradition which is the Testimony of his Ministers subject to and controllable by and by no means Superiour to the other for next to the confounding of God and Idols in our values who are so infinitely contrary The levelling of all distance and degrees between Master and Servant though subordinate and friendly is most absurd and abominable with all sober Christians saving them at Rome with whom the Authority of their Church or the Pope which with them is equivalent is usually exalted above the authority of the Holy Scriptures though the will and mind of Christ the undoubted and confessed Lord and Master And we also hold that truth in the General which is ever Gods will and mind may be well known by men divers wayes without the Pope As matters of fact and Tradition by the Testimony of honest men of good lives and clean hands and Holy minds and Inclinations free from all worldly ends and designes in their report For where God alone doth rule and possess the heart there we may be sure of truth and sincerity where any Carnal interest or Idol prevails instead there we are to expect lyes Legends and Impostures which are the Dialect of false Gods as truth is of the true God dwelling in the heart And in like manner by the Oaths of Credible Neighbours wherein God is called present to the heart and mouth and by the decrees and sentences of Magistrates and just Judges who in Scripture are called Gods and the General consent of Nations vox populi vox dei and by every mans diligence and search after Truth as after hid Treasure which God rewards and prospers Prov. 2.4 5. and his pains and study in History Languages Customs Criticism c. As in the use of means without which God is tempted But instead of all these methods with Papists the sole report and decision of a Pope though unlearn'd or swayed perhaps by Interest or Avarice or Ambition or Fear which mislead the heart and tongue from God and Truth shall nevertheless be relyed on as an Oracle Infallible more conclusive than the famous Delphick and the heart and Conscience in every man which were made to indent with God and truth be totally excluded and silenc'd in that Church under the notion and bear-skin of private Judgment and opinion which endangers all Yet Protestants resolve to follow the former methods in whole or in part let the Pope contradict or Curse as much as he please So Papists are led by Authority Forraign and often false Protestants by Truth Domestick and more sure They follow the Doctrines of men as did the Scribes and Pharisees heretofore we the voice of Christ and the Commandments of God as all Christs sheep ought to do Herein I say lyes the main difference between us and not so much in those other many points and and Articles wherein we are divided As Image-Worship Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Purgatory Indulgences c. Which are and will be Learnedly and voluminously defended on each side to the Worlds end while each party resolves firmly to adhere to the God or Idol that either have chosen for their guide to the last gasp with stedfast zeal and constancy For if Protestants as well as Papists could believe the Pope or the Papists as well as Protestants did once believe Christ to be this Infallible Judge and guide all Controversie between us would soon cease and be laid asleep The whole Controversy lyes therefore in the choice or rejection in obedience or disobedience to the right guide or immediate Soveraign of the heart whether Christ or the Pope And exact obedience to the wrong becomes perfect disobedience to the right Superiour And that the Issue will lye here may further appear from each ones case stated by himself and their charge and imputation each against the other and from the state of the question naturally arising hereupon For the Protestants say they take Christ and Scripture and Conscience and what agrees thereto for the guide and rule of their hearts and judgments And that the Papists take the Pope and hold opinions and practices upon his Authority against
recover the spirits but they shorten life Da Kelwidh tra' coelir Od eir ymhelh gwelh iw'r gwîr saith the Brittish Proverb A Lye may do while it is believed but at long running Truth is better But this whipping story was not well feigned and designed to be believed for true by wiser posterity however it might for the present delude an ignorant Heathen For we seldom or never read that separated souls but only Christ or Gods Angels appear'd to men to direct them at a stand saving in one case where it is hard to determine what appear'd to Saul whether the Ghost of Samuel or the Devil in his shape withall this action more fitted a Town Beadle than a glorified Apostle or if St. Peter must be so severe and Butcher-like it might rather be not for his departing but his staying behind the rest of his Companions to disturb good Christians and corrupt poor Infidels with a false and bloudy Religion or if there were any reality in it beyond Melancholly or Art it might rather be the wrath of a tormenting spirit for deserting his cause or if done upon himself with his own hands we have presidents of Crafty criples b Cooke's Inst part 1. p. 127. endicted for the like stratagem to move compassion before some of our sage Judges But Mellitus his rushing c Bed lib. 2.7 into the midst of flames to quench a great fire in Canterbury with his Prayers looked more like a true wonder especially in one of his race and Principles who if not belyed are better skill'd in burning Cities than saving and blowing up States and Kingdoms as is too well known What Religion can that be or what obligations can it tye of obedience and gratitude upon Intelligent minds and consciences that 's supported and Propagated by Divine lies and Impostures so hateful to God and conscience and honour every lye as Cicero could observe carrying d Cicer. off l. 3. Perjury and Atheism in it in its defyance and slight of God and conscience which it sees and knows to contradict it and the lye that quotes God for its Author being the most abominable and worst of lyes No less were the converting Miracles of Augustine himself the chief Thaumaturgus which imposed upon the belief of venerable Bede and much more upon the less descerning multitude not only in restoring sight to the e Bed lib. 2. c. 2. blind Saxon he brought Punteus-like with him for to have tryed it upon an honest Brittain if there had been any at the disputation might have prov'd as difficult if not as impossible as his more necessary guift of tongues and that not about any point of Salvation or the extraordinary Glory of God but after miracles had long ceas'd in the Church designed only for the unbelieving about a trifle about some scruples or minutes of the Calendar in a Gamster-like wager and imitation of Elias the main juggle and drift being to discredit and subvert an Ancient Church in their well built Faith and Customs with Legerdemain But more especially and most abominably in his Enthusiastical Prophecy of f idem War and ruin to the Brittish Doctors and their People by the Arms of their Enemies for not joyning their assistance with him to Preach the Gospel to the English Quibus vir Domini Augustinus fertur minitans praedixisse c. to whom Augustine the man of God is reported to Prophecy by way of threat that if they refus'd Peace from Brethren they should receive War from Enemies and suffer a revenge of death by the hands of the English to whom they refused to Preach the word life Wherein he entitles God himself to all the lyes and mischiefs and spoils and murders and massacres that were contriv'd to attend this prediction which he grounded upon three false Assertions First that the Brittains envyed the Gospel to the English 2 That he good man came hither from Rome for no other end but to Preach it to them 3. That because they refused to joyn in that Ministry with him for the Salvation of their Souls therefore God had reveal'd unto him a Mene tekel or a suddain destruction to come upon them by their Enemies 1. And the first is the strongest exception or Quo Warranto to overthrow the Christianity of the Churches of Brittain to the just forfeiture of their Sees to rhe greater zeal and diligence of Rome that we hitherto met that against the chief precept and example of their Saviour to love their Enemies the badge of true Christians they should have that living sence of the loss of this present world to which they were dead by their Faith and Baptism as out of Satanical discontent to let go their hold of the other likewise and suffer themseves to be beaten out of their charity and duty as well as their Country and to revenge to Eternity a wrong of time But that experience daily imforms that doing of a wrong more dissolves all charity in the soul than suffering it and that men usually hate where they hurt though they be forgiven and secur'd by a Christian temper against the suspition of revenge and repercussion for he that wrongs another fights and assaults the Almighty in whose hands and Laws all mens persons and beings and consequently all mens rights are preserv'd and kept Act 17. and every conscience upon its reflection and sence of such a War is either presently smitten into Infinite repentance and restitution or becomes harden'd diabolically in its Rebellion and cannot rest till it finish its hatred and destruction of the Innocent without cause as it first began but it is not so in suffering wrong especially with Patience and forgiveness wherein we become liker to Christ and every loss in this is gain in the other world and a manifest token according to St. Paul Thess 1.5 6 c. of just fear and hope of damnation or Salvation respectively to the one or to the other and the Brittish Apothegme Duw a ro Imi fymhenid yn y bid yma God grant me all my pain and Penance in this world will well agree with the Apostolical Triumph we glory in Tribulations wherein we are more than Conquerours and beholding through him that loved us to them that hate us Rom. 5 3.-8.37 So that it is more in reason to be suspected and fear'd the Saxons were more averse to hear the Gospel from them as Hector Boethius well observed h Invisae Gentis magis quam Disciplinae de quâ multa atque praeclara frequentius Audiverant odio permoti lib. 9.171 § 10. than the Brittains to Preach it to them who brought it to their doors as Bede covertly and loathly intimates and maintained their Cross and Church at Canterbury in the Metropolis and Capitol of their Enemies where they were disabled to keep their Colours and when through pride of Victory some af the Saxons Heptarchs scorn'd Salvation from the hands of their Masters whom they had made their Vassals
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