other hand the lawfulness of our Restoration and recovery of those Rights and Truths whereof we were in just possession heretofore but were kept out for some hundreds of years by force and fraud and its Un-christian confederations with Infidels against us It is as hopeless and ungrateful a labour as to them I say as to read Lectures of honesty and restitution to Thieves and Robbers Willful Schismaticks being as Averse to have their Idol errours crossed and dishonour'd as right Christians their God and their Truth blasphem'd Neither were it wisdom or Prudence or right thankfulness to God in our selves by such discourses to bring into doubt our manifest Rights and Duties and Gods mercy and deliverance being all as clear as the Sun Such a foolish undertaking this were as for the Royal party as before was instanc'd to make Apologies for his Majesties return and his right to reassume his Crown against those that kept him out for so many years Or for Jews to justify their return to Jerusalem upon King Cyrus his Proclamation after the prescription of 70 years Captivity against them or their Fathers the Israelites in Egypt their departure from under Pharaohs Government after 430 years subjection or the Heathen world to justify their shaking off Satans yoak to take Christs instead after they had layen under the other well nigh 4000 years for no errour or wrong of how long time soever it be can prescribe or compare with truth and right which are Eternal Neither can we find that our Romanists themselves could be easily perswaded or inclin'd to return under their Constantinopolitan Exarchs though their lawful Governours were they yet in being nor under the Turk their Masters successor by right of Conquest to whom themselves did contribute their scandalous assistance who yet hath far more right to their subjection and return than they to ours who never were our just and rightful Superiours If they would have us return under an unjust yoak they ought to give first an example by returning themselves under one more just Else how can they expect their Counsels or Challenges to be regarded whilest themselves count it ridiculous to do that right to others which they expect from us to be done to them to our own wrong Therefore instead of proving the legality I shall chuse rather to admire the wonderful Providence of our Brittish Restoration And how God hath blessed such our Princes with great success and Glory that have sincerely advanc'd the same spiritual freedom of their Church and Countrey and hath blasted and mulcted others with trouble and disaster and loss of strength and Territory and honour and publick love that have openly or clandestinely gone about to overthrow this great blessing of our Restoration whose beginning many ascribe to the time of Henry the 8th as its accomplishment and perfection in great part to that of Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth But if the Restoration of the Brittish Church and Nation be consider'd in his first root and cause as all certain Science is ever by the cause The day-break of our deliverance and reformation began in the miraculous and fatal entrance of our Great and Wise and Magnificent Prince King Henry the 7th For then properly was this Church restored when according to Ancient hopes and expectations the Ancient Brittains were in him restor'd to their Crown and Countrey Who no doubt were Gods Ancient Church and first new Israel within this Isle the seed and Reliques of the first Apostolick Plantation who amidst so many stormes and Invasions that have drown'd the names and memories of other Nations were kept up a distinct people by his Providence amidst prevalent enemies round about as it were by Antiperistasis till the arrival of Henry the 7th For ever since the distinction of that people in Names Language Tenure Manners Laws Customes vanish'd by degrees and the English and Brittains are dissolv'd into one and the same Nation and the charge and right of preserving and enjoying their liberty and Reformation devolv'd on both alike For it cannot be well unobserv'd how in the deep Counsels of Gods Providence true Religion and the Brittish Monarchy like twins have fallen and risen up together hand in hand being partners by a kind of Sympathy in the wounds and prosperity of one another For when Popery and Augustine the Monk first came in the Brittish Monarchy was declining And no sooner this was up again in King Henry's Person but Popery like a Bucket was to go down and vanish as it never could since Clandestinely attempt to get up without great Convulsions and hazards and weakning of this Monarchy So that this Nation had the honour and singular mercy to be the first of all Nations especially Western in receiving the first Life the first Wounds the first Cure in its Religion It being the first Province that welcom'd Christian Religion into its own Throne under its Kings the first that exalted it into the Throne of the Roman Empire when her Kings grew Emperors The first opposer of Antichrist to its wound and glory in the beginning of its dark Raign which lasted about 900 years and the first partaker and chief cause under God in the Reformation and deliverance from it Henry the 7th being the morning Star and tydings of this day-break not only to Brittain but to the rest of Europe For King Henry came in 1485. and Martyn Luther began to shine in Germany about thirty years after As there were Prophesies and Visions to King Cadwaladr 797 years before believed saith our c Edward Hall Union of York and Lancaster 1 Hen. 7. f. 2. English Historian to be verified in his exaltation For the d Hist Britt l. 12. c. 17. Brittish story mentions an Angelical Vision to King Cadwaladr to this effect populum Britonum merito suae fidei insulam adepturum c. That the Brittains for their Faiths sake should recover this Island and their Kingdom which they had lost but the Condition of bringing Cadwaladr's bones from Rome whither we proved he never went may well be look'd upon as a Fabulous Addition of the Monks This is said to agree with other Prophesies of e Piâ—seus p. 63. Aquila of Caer-septon or Shaftsbury and other Traditions they had in both Brittains Not of Merlin only which yet are commonly cited as authorities touching the change of the Sees from London to Canterbury by our English Historians W. Malmesbury Mat. Westminster c. delebitur Relligio Dignitas Londoniae adornabit Doroberniam spoken about 150 years before it took effect But other Brittish Authors without blemish as f Apud Usher 567. St. Kentigern to his Scholars on the day his Kinsman St. David departed about the year of our Lord 544. Tradet Dominus Brittanniam exteris Nationibus deum ignorantibus c. God will deliver Brittain over unto Foreign Nations that know not God The Law of Christian Religion shall be abolished therein for a prefix'd time but it
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
promoted by and promoting that Authority here in contempt and breacâ— of all the Laws and Canons of the Catholick Church and the rights of this particular And attended in the Heavens above with dismal signes and prodigies as the like was never seen before Tanta hoc â—eâ— pore prodigia f Platina in Gregor 1 mo quanta nunquam antea Comeâ—es perlucidus puer quadrupes c. which last might serve as a significant Emblem of this new Religion which serv'd to make men Babes in knowledge and Beasts in heart and conscience And accompanied on Earth below so uniform are its Antichristian Symptomes with another parallel Deceiver in the East the prophet Mahomet both alike feigning the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost by a Pigeon at the Ear wherein Gregory was not taught by Mahomet who was Junior to him and born in the year of Monk Augustine's landing here But rather Mahomet might have heard or borrowed it from Gregory or both perhaps been taught the Art by one and the same Tutor But both Reignes the Mahometan and the Gregorian have much the same Epocha and Horoscope And both began to prevail the one in the West the other in the East in the duske and twilight of that long and Greenland night that was to prevail by Gods permission and secret judgement over the whole face of the Christian Church for the space and duration of eight or 900 years or more to count from the year 600 when the Western part thereof first began to the dawning of our Restoration in Henry the seventh as before The success of this Romish Plantation among us being answerable to its first manner of entrance and proving in the end the Eclipse of the true Religion before in the Land and it self a degenerate sort of Christianity falling short of sober Heathenism in many respects Of which that of St. Paul may be rightly applyed And the times of this Ignorance God wincked at but now Commandeth all men every where to repent Act. 17.30 About the dead time of this dismal long night of Popery that is about the years 900 to 1300. answering to the hours from 12. to 3. in the morning The dreams of Purgatory and Transubstantion first possess'd mens fancies and dead Ghosts and Specters and Hobgoblins began to fry and skreek in Purgatory and to cry for help from private Masses And the Franciscan and several other Melancholly Orders to walk bare-foot up and down like Noctambulon's or night walkers in their sleeps and shirts And men stumbl'd upon many Tutelar Gods and Patrons groping in the dark for the true and still us'd Candles at Noon-day throughout their Worship without any need as it were further to prove that it is a time of night amongst them And the Dreams of Nunnes and Monks were rehears'd in Pulpits instead of godly Sermons as the g Bradwardin in Prefat in lib. de causâ Dei Deriving his name or descent I suppose from Brordordhun Castle in Herefordshire belonging to the Family of the Vaughans Profoundest and greatest Clerks then hardly abstain'd from their own in their Writings and the eyes of all both Clergy and Laity sealed up in a deep sleep of implicit Faith And the Host went from Street to Street with a Bellman and the Popes Rid sleepy Kings and Emperours For in the year eleven hundred Hildebrand or Pope Gregory the seventh depos'd the Emperour Henry the fourth And another took his Crown from King John while he was nodding About the same time Canterbury oâ—erlay St. Davids and in Thomas Becket began to sting our Princes that had given it warmth and being But the Fornications and other works of darkness in that time are not to be nam'd or number'd the peculiar concomitant of this fleshly Haeresie as they say to this day scarce reckon'd or censur'd for a sin for its commonness amongst the chief Saints of this dark perswasion And this dark season serv'd as well for Robberies of all sorts of Goods Lands Houses Churches throughout the Isle which were secur'd and appropriated to Sanctuaries and Monasteries by the same dark Arts they were committed till about the time of Ricâ—ard the second several were awakned out of their first sleep with the â—â—r as was Wickliff and Sir Joâ—n Old-Castle Lord Cobham and the Lollâ—rds who were desirous to rise before it was day and to reform these abuses before it was Gods appointed time But all between that and morning fell asleep again as fast as ever till dawning of day in the Henryes 7. and 8. of Brittish race which last finding himself thin and unattended expected more respect and observation for saith he in a speech h Hall 24. H. 8 fo 205. We thought that our Clergy of our Realm had been our Subjects wholly but now we have well perceived that they be but half our Subjects for all the Prelates at their consecration make an Oath to the Pope clean contrary to the Oath they made to us so that they seem to be his Subjects and not ours And began then to take course to recover his Spiritual Subjects whom the Pope stole from him and to rouse and awaken both Court and Kingdom against the Burglaries they committed upon others in the dead of night anâ— to seize upon the stolen Gooâ—â— which in England seldom â—evert to the right owners and to Discipline the whole Fraternity into better dependance upon their Soveraign burning several in the hand to make them cry God save the King instead of the Pope and as i Sinnych Saul â—x Rex some affirm arraigning Thomas â—ecket of high Treason against Henry the second after he had been prayed to in Heaven for about 400 hundred years to heal his people of the seditious influence of his Canonization By this time it was Sun-rising and the Gospel appear'd in our Horizon and in the English tongue and in Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth and King James after some Eclipse encreased in ful lustre to a perfect day that all eyes were open and sluggards began to rise and understand themselves and to be asham'd of their somnolent Religion yea the chief Calebs and Spies and Writers of the Roman Church by peeping into our Hemisphere and reading our Heretical Books as they reproach them became strangely alter'd and enlightened ever afterwards in stile and learning as well as our selves for the Polite World ows all its knowledge to Protestantism as it former Barbarous Ignorance to Popery but to their greater guilt and Condemnation with those in the Gospel That had eyes and would not see and ears and would not hear their hearts through love of its Idol more than God and the Truth being out of order But since the weather in our English Church hath been dark and cloudy for some years through the contrivance and malignity of some evil spirits Infesting our Air and troubling our Elements recommending poison to Grandees in Marriage Wine and Treaties to dispose them to old drowsiness and a far
World it seem'd agreeable to Ministerial obligation as well as Loyal Reputation to communicate my satisfactions to the World in the view of your R. H. that all might see that nothing else was able to make a Loyal Brittain shrinke from the steps of his Prince but a greater Loyalty to the manifest rights of God and the King and the Truth Which I trust will not be construed Contempt but Constancy nothing being more the duty of every Loyal Servant and a Minister especially than to be as faithful to his Prince and consequently to God and the Nation as Conscience is in every breast which will never approve or agree to any disloyal revolt from Heaven and Truth but will chuse rather to be silenc'd for a time than consent and with patient agony refer the matter to God himself Nor are any to be reckon'd straight-way unfortunate as is the manner of some weak and Carnal reasons and Turba Bemi and also the Divinity of some grave Deacons of the belly and present ease and greatness for any wound or inconvenience they may bring upon themselves for such fidelity to the Temporal and Eternal Interests of their Master either from declar'd which is more faire or undeclar'd and invisible Hostilities which is less For such suffer in their manifest duties which is therefore to be presum'd to be their choice by consequence when such need require and their right and best self-preservation if they be right men or Christians for if we are bound to love our Neighbours as our selves at the least so much more our Prince and Countrey above our selves as the hand doth the head And greater and truer love cannot be express'd than by long misery and durance for the Truth like an Anchor under Waves to hold fast the great Soul of one's Prince compos'd of Grace and Mercy and the fear of God by his bowells and compassion stronger than any Cable from running against Eternal Rocks and clashing with his Heavenly Sovereign which is the first and Original disloyalty and insurrection against the Chief whereof the Tumults of Subjects against Secondary Mortal Soveraigns are usually but copies and fatal consequences by man's manifest fault but Gods secret righteous judgement as the fear and subjection of the Creature is observ'd by Divines to be abated and impair'd towards Adam after his fall And no Prince can more deserve such Martyrial fidelity from Servants and Subjects than your R H. not only upon the score of Loyalty and Conscience common to all Princes but of personal and peculiar merit and exemplary frequent fatigues and hazards and lovely deportments on the confines of life and death for the glory of your Country which your R. H. valued above your life and present and hereditary greatness as much as many mean and vulgar spirits do below their petty self-ends and differences And that great fight cannot easily depart from my remembrance of your serene Magnanimity and cheerful unconcernedness on Quarter Deck June 3d. 1665. which betoken'd to my hopes a great distance of dangers from your R. H. even then when Roaring deaths hail'd thick about your R. Person and besprinkled your Buff with the bloud of your ever memorable Companions that fell by you Such contempt of death and the Pomp and Glory of this World for the defence of your King and Country being a lively resemblance of that true Christian Charity which doth the like for Christ and souls and fits the understanding to receive and embrace the truth And I have just cause often to bless God for a kind of Publick reward then of my many Prayers in private for your R. H. which was my chief and sole Armour in your defence that your R. H. should observe and declare it as an Omen of Victory annext to the publick Service and Exhortation performed by me the even before the fight by your R. H. appointment that one of the greatest Ships of the Enemy should take fire in that moment in the fight of both Fleets reported to be one of the member that were particularly bound to destroy you And why should I distrust in God or the power of truth or the success of sincere love and loyalty but that these my prostrate sentiments proved and preferred through much patience before all the offers of this World may not contribute with the Prayers of all good Christians and far greater Abilities and Counsels and the consideration and candor of your R. H. own breast and Princely Loyalty to God and Truth the greatest of all to beget that satisfaction and stability in your R. H. as may kindle more Bon-fires in our Streets than did that your Renowned Victory Quinctius the Roman General proclaiming in the name of the Senate by sound of Trumpet unexpected Liberty to all the Cities of Greece then newly Conquered as the Nation met to begin their Olympick games did so discompose and lick up all their inclinations after their sports with the suddainness of the good tydings that when they could believe it to be true they could think on nothing else And rushing one upon another with excess of joy and thankfulness to kiss his hands and to cast their Crowns and Garlands at his feet went nigh to put him in manifest danger of his life with their Crowd and immoderate Transports that forgot all manâ—rs and distance had not his great strength of body and the Vigour of his years being 33 saith Livy and some content and satisfaction to observe whence their Rudeness sprang served to Rescue him from the danger of too great love Such a Jubile to our Brittain and such a lovely danger to your R. H. as may be gather'd from the General pulse the dismission of some scruples would soon produce which many suspect and fear but I never did nor can before a special declaration being so over-ruled to the contrary by your Princely wisdom and justice for what greater violation of the Law of Nations can there be to the dissolution of all Faith and Truth among men whereon Allegiance to Princes and the peace of the World hang than openly or secretly to oppose or prejudice a Religion professed before it be Renounced or wherein can the Catholick plaister of dispensation to equivocate mend the matter with Generous and sober understandings whereby the soul is licens'd to be damn'd to save the skin Least therefore by any pretence or whisper of Right or colour of Conscience wherein all the fear can lye your R. H. should be mis-led to espouse unnaturally a Forreign and wrong Superiour to the manifest dethroning of our Right Mother-Church of Brittain more Ancient as well as more sound and Orthodox than the other I have leaving all speculative Controversies and hard questions to Scholars and Students throughly handled one Practical point of plain Right and Title or meum and tuum or the Pretences and Immunities of both Churches which will give great light if not a final end to all the rest and which all sorts of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
Gods Truth resisting God therein and preferring man before him which is Papistry or making the Pope an Idol And the Papists on the contrary say they obey the Pope as Christs Infallibe Vicar on Earth in his decisions and thereby Christ himself by consequence and enjoy Peace and Union agmonst themselves as the reward of this Submission And that Protestants are guided by a Private spirit which cannot be seen or met under the colour of Christ and Scripture and are led and Imbroyled by it in Eternal Sects and Divisions which is a Fanaticism that cannot be of God And I suppose both sides will easily subscribe this repetition of their Case and main exceptions against each other to be faithful and true and agreeing with their minds Now there are Three Questions to be run over to find out the true wherein we differ The first of Right the second of Opinion the third of Fact The first or Questio juris whether in the General or the Abstract without relation to parties or circumstances whether I say by way of Major Proposition Truth as Gods mind is to be follow'd by the heart and errour to be shunned as contrary to his mind and the nature of our souls is out of question and by both agreed to The second that each side believe and suppose in their minds and perswasions their own Opinion to be Truth and their Adversaries to be an errour is also yeilded to and that the Opinion of the one or the other that is Gods mind too as well as mans mind is not the Private Opinion of man but the absolute Catholick Truth of God to be followed by all hearts which is a rule and measure to end the controversie by the Question therefore between us is of Fact or the Assumption and Minor Proposition What parties Opinion is the mind of God too whose Facts and principles agree with the right rule and guide who do as they should do or to put it in the words of my Text which party doth whatsoever it doth from the heart as unto the Lord and not unto men or who to men and therefore not from the heart unto the Lord or by way of Simile which Dyall most agrees with the Sun it being pre-allowed 1. That the Sun goes right 2. That the Dyall which best agrees with it is truest For the further clearing hereof the heart as I have shewed cannot be alone without its guide and confident to advize it no more than Ivie without an Oak or Wall to bear it or a stone without its weight and Bias towards its Center As of solitary persons it 's said they are either Angels or Beasts because of the objects the soul is sure to entertain though solitary so the heart can never be alone but through heed or heedlesness and want of grace will of necessity chuse a God true or false either Christ or bosom sin or a man of sin to be led by The will and design of the first if chosen for an head and Soveraign will be Gods glory and the souls bliss of the second the desires and satisfactions of the flesh of the third Secular Power and Authority over every thing that is called God 2 Thess 2.4 The Laws of Christ are in holy Scriptures of sin In the carnal fancy of the man of sin in blind obedience and strong delusions The force and Co-ercive Power of the first lyes in life and Death Eternal of the second in carnal joyes and sorrows which in fleshly minds make Jubiles and Earth-quaks equal to Heaven and Hell as to them of the third in false Salvation to his Catholicks and false damnation to his Hereticks as Satan was ever the Ape of the Almighty Christ will not admit of any Soveraign in the heart before or beside himself which is observed to be the reason he could not be received according to the desires of the Senate in the days of Tiberius into the number of their Gods at Rome for all were to be quitted to admit him but bosom sin is more Civil will allow of Religion to co-habit with it but if it offers to contradict or controul it must quit and pack the man of sin will admit both of sin and Christ will indulge and dispense with sin that may advance his Grandeur and by all means admit of Christ for Interest and Lustre to his designs and ambition but if sin or Truth shall offer to clash with or Impede his secular ends and Master Interest the one shall be discontinued the other excluded for expedience and all to give place to the Soveraign who is own'd To let pass the servitude and slavery of the heart to sin Rom. 6.12 Against which as our greatest misery and Captivity we stand upon our Christian Watch and Warfare throughout our whole life I 'le Instance in the slavery of the heart to a man of sin which is like unto the former and is the everlasting breach and difference between Protestancy and Popery and will fully discover and prove the point in Question who obey the right or the wrong Superiour of the heart who Christ and who a man that is contrary unto him The true Christian Church in her Christs Cross and her Baptismall vow doth bind and teach her Children to die to this world and its Pomps and Vanities and to live to Heaven and Christ But the Romish Church or its Rulers which is the same with them insists on nothing more than secular Grandeur and domination in this present world and on nothing less that on Christian Truths when they stand in contrariety to the former The first fundamental Article in the Popes Religion is Romes greatness and his own Supremacy and Perogative over all orders of men guarded with spirituall Lightning and Thunder-bolts as Paradice with a flaming Sword with the motto Noli me Tangere any Article of the Creed or precept of the Dialogue or Institution of Christ himself shall be sooner spar'd or dispensed with or dismissed yea Heaven and Earth shall pass away with them before any one jot of the Rights and acquisitions of the Triple Crown whether rightly or wrongly come by shall be curtailed or diminished in the least All Errours that favour this Interest must be believed to be Orthodox Truths all wickedness that promotes it Meritorious all Truths that oppose it to be Heretical and damnable by those that have surrendred that intire obedience and submission of heart and Judgement to a mortall guide which was due to none but the immortall Lord in my Text For as where sin rules the heart all virtue and sobriety shall be judged folly and Impertinence And miserable debauchery true Liberty and pleasure so where the man of sin gets into the same Throne all Truths that cross him shall be Heresies all errours that please him and advance his Interest shall become Orthodox Truths and Catholick traditions and no truce or accommodation can be settled between the subjects of either till such Antagonist
denying our implicit obedience and submission to him But if Christ be God than we are safe and have the truth of our side and their errours are the more dangerous And both these Masters especially of contrary wills as it evidently appears cannot be obeyed together for there cannot be two Kings in the same Kingdom nor two Suns in the same Firmament nor two immortal Souls in the same man But it will be alledged as a Salve 1. That Gods commands in Scripture or Conscience bind not Christians but through the Pope who is to interpret them for us least we mistake and where they seem to cross his will to explain them otherwise to us or to dispense with our obedience in that Case which is an usual practice at Rome though it makes but one Master out of two and the Pope to be chief alone and Christ to stand but for a Cypher or as a Minor whose will is involv'd in his Guardian Viccar hereby the Sun is measured by the Dyal and not the Dial by the Sun It makes Conscience and Scriptures the greatest gifts of Heaven useless to Christians unless the Pope stand by in every place of the World to be consulted with by every Soul which is Christs mind in all cases and scruples And sets up man instead of Christ and confesses the Idolatry and gives up the Cause This contrivance of assuming power to interpret the mind and word of God against the plain sense thereof being the first known invention of Satan in Paradice who was the Father of Antichrist for which our Romanists ought to suspect themselves in the Imitation least they discover themselves too much 2. The second Salve will be that out of obedience to Christ who is in Heaven afar off they yield this obedience to the Pope as his Viccar on Earth as a more near and visible officer under him over them supposing not granting this feigned trust and Deputation It 's against the nature of any trust for him that is trusted to act contrary to the Interest of him that trusted him and to be followed against his Principal St. Paul would be followed by others as far as he followed Christ and no further 1 Cor. 11.1 The Radical cause of Popery lyes in the exclusion of the heart and Judgment and taking the outside to be the man and the measure of all concerns and values which by consequence must be Earthly and Carnal and answering only to the outward man But where the heart which is the man is the chief measure and faith in the heart the only evidence to judge by Christ in Heaven in his Majesty is more near and visible to such a Soul than his Holiness on Earth can be to any Roman Catholick doing Reverence to his Toe for the private end or principle that suggests this respect is nearer to his Soul than his person is to whom it is performed For our Conceptions within are nearer to us than the objects without and our actions proceed immediatly from our conceptions Princes respects and dread would be scant and inexpedient if their persons were no greater in our reasons and conceptions than they are to the eye and sense And were it true and certain that if such a Vicar were set by Christ over his whole Church which can never be proved yet out of obedience to the Soveraign we ought not to obey but shake off such an Officer that should lead us to Rebellion against him that is over him and us The Souldiers under command ought not to obey that General that went about to depose his Prince But if it could be supposed that a Prince did or could intrust any Officer with such absolute power as to interpret all commands and orders directed to him in his own sense against their plain and common meaning and to over-rule all his subjects against all the parts of their Allegiance at his pleasure to act against the known will of his Soveraign and neither to be accountable for such Treasons then the case were much altered for such a King had resigned his Crown in effect to such an Officer who were now to be absolutely obeyed without reservation of Allegiance to another And in such manner the Pope becomes Soveraign to such instead of Christ who believe he is to be obeyed against the Laws of God and men And St. Paul was mistaken in his Doctrine that Christ alone was that Lord and Soveraign and no other man but not mistaken however in his early praediction and warning that the time should come when there should be a falling away and a man of sin revealed who should exalt himself above all that is called God and as God sit in the Temple of God whereof every Christian Soul wherein Christ dwells by his Holy Spirit is so much the more for that the body of a Christian is Gods Temple 1 Cor. 6.19 and more yet the Christian Church which comprizes both And he manifestly St. Pauls Antichrist who sits and Lords it in such a Temple To trample under feet the Glories of this present World to despise the frowns and favours of Princes to adhere to God and Truth all must allow and confess to be highly pious and praise worthy and superlatively Heroick but to hazard all upon a Religion that is a manifest Irreligion and to make Conscience to act against Conscience and Truth to jar with Truth and God to be contrary to himself This were to fall into the like detestable abominations with them of old in St. Paul Who did evil that good might come of it whose damnation is just saith he Rom. 3.8 A fearful sentence from so mild a mouth or of some late zealots in our days who subverted our Laws and Government to exalt Christs Kingdom This were not courage or magnanimity but inconsiderate ignominious rashness condemnable in Shops and Markets This were not Catholick zeal or good Conscience but liker the strong Delusion of Antichrist 2 Thes 2.11 An Omen and fore-runner of further wrath and destruction to be inflicted by the jealousie and indignation of Heaven upon such as forget their Allegiance to their Redeemer preferring a deceiver before him who ought not to have been compared to the Son of God at all or the first mention of his blasphemous pretences to the Perogatives of Christ and his Soveraignty in mens hearts ought to have been attended rather with renting of cloaths and a suddain horrour and indignation and-a-God-forbid but that the needs of deluded souls which himself Redeemed with his precious bloud required the matter to be laid open and enlarged for their rescue and undeceiving but that daily experience teacheth as well as Antient memories that any lust or Avarice or Ambition or revenge or self end or the Sun and Moon or stocks and stones without keeping due watch and ward upon our hearts may and have often invaded and domineer'd in Christ Throne in the soul when deserted by God as much as this Romish perkin Warbeck whose
one of St. Pauls Disciples one of his own bloud and extraction being the Son of Claudia Ruffina f Martial Fpigr lib. 11. Ep. 53. lib. 4. Ep. 13. a Brittish Lady admired by f Martial Fpigr lib. 11. Ep. 53. lib. 4. Ep. 13. Roman Writers for her Accomplishments not short of any then in Rome or Athens e Usher cap. 3. p. 31. seq the Wife of Pudens and Mother of Linus in whose house at Rome Baronius saith g Anno Christi 44. the Tradition goes St. Peter had his abode in Converted afterwards into a Temple but which is more certain and generally agreed on by their Writers and ours and the exceptions of one e Usher cap. 3. p. 31. seq Dissenter sufficiently answered by the most Learned Vsher they both were the same persons who are mention'd e Usher cap. 3. p. 31. seq in St. Paul's 2 Epistle to another Timothy 4.21 Pudens and Linus and Claudia greet thee and all the Brethren Who after acquaintance with St. Paul in all Probability was more instrumental to conveigh and promote more and more the Gospel into her Countrey than before pieces of Roman Wit as she was wont as is rightly inferred by the Polite and Reverend Author of Antiquitates Ecclesiasticae who yet is more industrious than need in the derivation and Roman forming of both her names Claudia from Claudius Caesar and Ruffina from Pudens Rufus a Roman Knight her Husband when her own h Hist Britt l. 2. c. 2. Brittish name might easily and without such streining be formed after the Latine Mode common with it to other Tongues to make some alterations in Forreign names which they are to pronounce in their own who being Young and newly Married with Pudens Martialls Patron stil'd Sanctus by the Poet in his Epithalamium for his Modesty and Vertue might well be the Mother of a Son that might be fit for time as well as mutual affection to Baptize our Brittish King coming over to be a Christian and probably by his means and influence for K. Lucius or Lhês lived not at that distance of time but that this might be well Effected in Anno 156. saith Geoffry h Hist Britt l. 2. c. 2. of Monmouth and sooner say Ninius and P. Jovius as before Withall there was but his Father King Coillus and Marius or Meirig his Grandfather between Lucius and Aruiragus mention'd in Roman Writers who was Contemporary with Joseph of Arimathaea and g Gwladys Ruffydh or Gryffith whence Ruffinus Ruffina Griffin The old Brittains retain'd their Maiden surnames though Married and do still amonst the communalty and pronounâ—e u as y and melt away g. bountiful to him at Glastonbury say our Histories and Lucius might be called Arviragus or Apviragus for his name in Brittish form was Lhês Coel ap Meirig i Usher p 18 And were it true that Lucius of a King became a Preacher before his end and Converted to the Faith Bavaria k Usher p 31. and Switzerland as several Authors report out of the Annals of those places as our English k Ubbo Emmius Reâ— Frisicarum Willibrord and Suidbert and Wilfrid did Holland and Frizland and Boniface or Winfrid did the Thurmgi Suevi Franci l Munster Cosm l. 3. p. 323. doth it follow they must owe an Eternal Subjection to the Church of Brittain upon that score Or did the Ancient Brittains ever pretend to a Supremacy or Jurisdiction over Ireland upon the pretence of its Conversion by their St. Patrick as is the way at Rome to insist Or were it lawful for them and in their own power to pav us or another that should upon such a score expect it such their subjection and obedience against their due Loyalty and Allegiance to their own Soveraign whose right it is but though we pretend to no rule over them nor expect any more but their love and kindness which is mutually due we may justly take it ill and unkind at their hands that they chuse rather to be guided in their Faith by Forreign Deceivers to their Misery than continue their Communion with their Ancient Christian Friends and Brethren Branach to their great felicity in Soul and Body and the happy peace of both Nations Where Christian Religion is wholly imployed and adapted to compass Worldly ends and Temporal Superiority its dignity is embased and its nature really chang'd into another kind or species and ought not by consequence to be call'd Religion For the end is better than the means and the Master than the Servant and the Building than the Scaffold And this present World Satans Kingdom is more excellent than such a Church which is wholly designed and dedicated to serve and gain it with all the end gives name and being and definition unto the means as a sum of Money imployed to relieve the poor is Charity to pay Debts Justice to Bribe an Evidence Perjury to hire an Assasinate Murder or a Building made to dwell in is a House to Grind Corn a Mill to keep off Enemies a Fort to serve God in a Church to buy and sell in a Shop and by consequence that Religion that hath Earthly Rule and advantage for its chief end and professes Earth thereby to be better than Heaven and Gospel good for nothing more than to fill Coffers cannot be call'd Christian or true Catholick Religion for the chief aime of such is the World to come but rather an Antichristian trade or craft which sets Conscience and Truth and Sacraments all at sale to make sure of this And so much may suffice touching the second point to shew that Rome is no Mother Church to Brittain neither by Conception or Education for she was neither conceived in her womb nor nourished on her breast but was a Virgin of full Age when her pretended Mother was but in her Swadling Clouts and Cradle SECTION VII The Description of the Old Brittish Church in its Doctrine Discipline and Goverment and Traditions when Augustine the Monk made his Impression here IN the third place to come to Augustine the Monkes Impression upon our Brittish Church we are to examine whether being free born she forfeited that liberty by any foul Heresie or Schisme Or the Church of Rome at that time merited Superiority over her by being a more Excellent and purer Church Or by any Act of redemption or unrequitable Courtesie which swallows liberty hath won or oblig'd it in justice and equity to be subject to her Or wherein her Title to this Supremacy lay in its first advance and setting out before any pretence or colour from prescription or possession The Face therefore and Physiognomy of both Churches at that time is to be viewed and examined in its lines and features which of the two for Doctrine and Discipline and Traditions was most Catholick and Apostolick and Primitive and Merited supposing their years and standing equal to Rule and give Law to the other Where it is to be premised
from God and they that take this Augustine to be the Father of their Faith had need beware whom they take for Grandfather The names of his fellow workmen that were more eminent than the rest but Inferiour in parts in all probability to him their leader were Mellitus Justus Paulinus and whereas ignorance usually is as harmless as it is dull and flegmatick theirs was high and pernicious active and politick and Harpy-like inferiour to none in the dextrous suiting of their temptations to the several inclinations of the party who was to be brought about to serve their turnes His insolent swelling pride as Mr. l Perambulation of Kent p. 79 Lambard taxes it appeared towards the Brittish Bishops who intended him a respectful meeting beyond what he could merit for his honesty going about to erect a new Bishoprick in a Diocess that did not belong unto him as an Altar against Altar and upon another Altar against all Laws and Canons Being sure of one Archbishorick by the Conversion of Ethelbert King of Kent carrying a great stroak in it who was as good as preconverted by others m Polyd. Virg. lib. 4. p. 63. ministry before he sent for Augustine though Bede conceal that matter The next mark was another Archbishoprick for Paulinus that of the York where Elthelfred and Edwin the one elder the other younger are to be won to serve their Church by different Lures Old Ethelfred is toll'd out by his ambition and zealous enmity against Christianity to seise and destroy the borders of the Brittains in the first place and himself in the next Young Edwin is brought over to the Christian Faith by carnal attraction and a n Bed lib. 2. c. 9. marriage with King Ethelbert's Daughter and the addition of pre-acquaintance in dreams between him and Paulinus to dispose him to Christianity not unlike those between o Ibid. Paul and Ananias Act. 9. but in their Truth for Edwin could be no stranger to the Christian Faith being brought up from the Cradle to ripe years as p Histor Britt Galfr. the Brittish History relates Bede not disagreeing l. 2. c. 12. with Prince Cadwalhan of the same Age whom Bede calls Carduella or Cedwalla furious enemies afterwards to one another thanks to Augustine to the loss of many thousand lives sometimes the one and sometimes the other prevailing and killing and burning all before them Edwin in the end going by the worst and Paulinus q lib. 2. c. 20. forc'd to quit his new Archbishoprick and return with young Edwin's Queen to Canterbury q lib. 2. c. 20. Carduella non pepercit religioni eorum exortae jam c. Cadwalhan not sparing to root up his new plantation Northward for the reason before cited out of Bede And yet this old part of their Ministry in match-making and bestowing mens Kingdoms from them upon others to the disturbance of Nations and sometimes of themselves the Church of Rome is not out of love with to this day And had it not been for a subtile r Bed l. 2. c. 2. Miracle of Laurentius the whole plantation of these Italian adventurers had gone presently to wrack For London soon expell'd these Forreign propagators with Mellitus their new Bishop who never durst return any more Bede smothers the true reason of this usage and sayes in one place that Seberts Children then the Princes of London did it because Mellitus denyed them being unbaptiz'd the pure white ſ Idem c. 5. bread of the Eucharist which their eye long'd for to tast as if they had been inur'd but to brown-bread before In †Idem c. 6. another place Londonienses excludunt Mellitum Idololatris pontificibus servire gaudentes The Londoners sent him away preferring Heathenish Idolatry before the Roman Religion As if the Saxon Pagans of London had not the like noble disposition for the Truth as the Kentish but those had more Grace than these But takes no notice of the Majority of the people of London being Ancient Brittains reduc'd by treaty and Christians therefore by consequence which was a reason they had a Brittish Archbishop and Clergy residing amongst them from the beginning of Christianity and after the Saxon Invasion for an Age or two till they were †M. Westmin 586. expell'd to make room for Monk Augustine Who did not welcome Augustine himself though coming with his Pall from the Pope to be an Archbishop amongst them which is the reason Malmsbury intimates of his setling at Canterbury u G. Malmesb. de Gestis Pontif lib. 1. where he was better welcome and very probably was the fear and jealousy that mov'd him to make Laurentius his successor at Canterbury in his life time against the Canons to secure the succession least the Primacy after his death should devolve where it was before and who but London could raise this fear because of old Right Much less therefore would they welcome Mellitus as a bare Bishop over them or contribute to their own degradation as well as the Sacriledge and Schisme Bede therefore is right as to the fact though not the cause that the Londoners sent him on going which is confirmed by Malmesburie's x Idem Epis◠Lond. lib. 2. Penu◠ria Potestatis that Ealbald had not power enough to keep him there which cannot be understood of the opposition of the Sebarets who were his Cousins y Ibid. and at his Devotion but more probably of the body of the City as Christians better principled But then Eadbald who succeeded Ethelbert apostatizing from his Fathers Faith had like to have blasted the remaining part of his Nursery left at Canterbury had not Laurentius I say step'd in with a miracle being sorely z Bed l. 2. c. 6. scourg'd all over black and blew by St. Peter as he lay in Church the whole night before for having some thoughts himself to follow Mellitus and Justus Bishop of Rochester his Companions who in despair of doing any good here were resolv'd to go for France The sight and story whereof made a new alteration and a present compassion in the well meaning King and Justus and Mellitus to return to England shortly after but all to little purpose Edilred King of Mercia not many years after viz. Anno 676. coming upon them Maligno a Idem lib. 4. c. 12. exercitu with a Malignant Army for Mercia had now and before received the Christian Faith from Brittish Teachers laid all Kent wast saith Bede and demolish'd b Idem Ibid. all their Churches and Monasteries to the ground with the like irreverence to their Italian Religion as Carduella or Cadwalhan had in the North and the City of Rochester was destroyed in the same common ruine and calamity b Idem Ibid. Putta its Bishop retiring and ending his dayes with Sexwulf Bishop of Mercia His Church being destroyed and plunder'd of all it had Feigned Miracles like hot waters with the intemperate may a little
is said to be buried might well be of Ancienter date and consequently Caerleon the Metropolitan over them whose Citizens Julius and Aaron were Martyrs in the time of Dioclesian h Bed lib. 1. c. 7. Which See continued unsubject to Canterbury though not to Rome till the time of Henry first who subdued those parts for while they were able to defend themselves against there Invaders under there own Princes the Pope took another way and caught and kept them under with the same wile he did the Church of Scotland which could not endure to hear of any subjection to York or Canterbury as it is clear in the Case of their King Alexander and Eadmerus who for his Fame was sent for from Canterbury to be Archbishop of St. Andrews but as soon as he made the lest mention that it was requisite for him to have his Consecration from the See of Canterbury i Eadmer Histor Nov. lib. 5 p. 132. Alexander conturbatus animo discessit ab eo nolebat enim Ecclesiam Cantuariensem praeferri Ecclesiae Sancti Andraeae de Scotiâ The King was much moved thereat and turn'd away from him for he could not endure that the Church of Canterbury should be preferr'd before that of St. Andrews in Scotland and therefore sent Eadmerus back from whence he came To appease him therefore and the better to keep and hold that Church under Rome by Craft which he saw he could not do by force neither his own nor others The Pope sides with Scotland against Canterbury And therefore Pope Clement k â—og Hoveden pars posterior p. 372. sends a pleasing decree to William King of Scotland in the time of Henry the second Duximus statuendum ut Scoticana Ecclesia Apostolicae sedi cujus filia specialis existit nullo mediante debeat subjacere nenimi nisi Papae licet interdicere We thought fit to Decree that the Church of Scotland ought to be subject to none but the Apostolical See alone and to be censur'd by no other Superiour So the Scots are back'd by the Pope to stand upon their Liberty against Canterbury for which the Brittains were destroyed and murder'd by the means of Augustine Yet their sin lay not there they also by like submission to the Church of Rome shall be alike exempted from Canterbury and Elbodius l Elbodius Archiepiscopus factus ob conciliatos Cambros Romanae Ecclesiae H. Lhuid fragm p. 55. besides be made an Archbishop to betray his Church for a Pall The old Christian Church prevail'd over the World by truth The Carnal way of Rome is most by Palls and preferments to the proud and Covetous And accordingly the Bishops of St. David had a new Pall from the Pope and the Confirmation of their Archiepiscopal Dignity by a new power which yet was soon lost when times turn'd and their Enemies prevail'd saith m Usher p 85. ex H. Hun H. Huntington in whose time this fell out The Popes never failing to side with the strongest side and their greatest gain And Roger Hoveden and Cambrensis both agree in the Relation following Vsque ad Anglorum Regem Henricum primum c. n Cambrens Itinerar lib 2. c. 1 The Church of St. David enjoyed all along all manner of Metropolical dignity the use of the Pall excepted to the time of Henry the first King of England who Conquer'd that part of Wales and subjected the Welsh to the English Church owing Subjection to no Church before but to the Roman only and to her immediately as the case also is of the Scottish Church The Bishops of Wales being always Consecrated till that time by the Archbishop of St. David and he likewise by them as his suffragans no profession of obedience or subjection being made to any other Church And so the succession and dignity continued to the year 1115. that Bernard not chosen by the Clergy of Wales pro more o Goodwins Catalogue in Bernard but nominated by K. Henry 1. and David Fitz Gerald by King Stephen and Peter by Henry 2. and Galfridus in the time of King John Regio urgente mandato Cantuariae Consecrationem susceperunt saith Cambrensis p Roge Hoveden pars posterior p. 454. per Regiam violentiam saith Hoveden were forc'd by the Kings command to take their Consecration at Canterbury p Roge Hoveden pars posterior p. 454. And David and Peter besides had oaths against the Canons imposed upon them that they should stir no more in defence of their Metropolitical right But Bernard after p Roge Hoveden pars posterior p. 454. the death of Henry 1. tryed his title notwithstanding with Theobald Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the Council of Remes but the cause being remov'd to the Court of Rome before Eugenius the third he was over-born by Purse and witnesses that prov'd against him his promise of obedience to the See of Canterbury which he wholly denyed as well as his Consecration thence had which he willingly granted and so lost his cause and was decreed to be Subject to the See of Canterbuny Yet p R. Hoveden pars poster p 454. Giraldus Cambrensis being chosen had the Courage to try again this title with Arch-Bishop Hubert before Innocent the third but was over-rul'd to obey him Et Papa p R. Hoveden pars poster p 454. praecepit non amplius extorqueri illicitum juramentum de non prosequendo jure Metropolico sed tantum exigeret canonicam obedientiam And the Pope order'd the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury should no more exact that unlawful Oath of not trying their Metropolical title any more for that might hinder grist to Rome but that they should rest contented with Canonical obedience only for the future And so as the Learned and Candid Sr. Henry Spelman bewailes Brittannicae Ecclesiae radius ultimus the last spark of the Brittish Glory was put out which had continued 400 years before the time of Austin and 600 years after Illud quaero saith the same q Spelm. Conc. p. 26. p. 110. Author quî factum sit ut Caerlegionenses alias Menevenses Episcopi successoresque sui qui ab aevo Lucii Metropoliticis Floruêre Privilegis Archiepiscopi nominati nullâ quod sciam pulsati Synodo sine Crimine provinciâ sua Antiqua Jurisdictione deinceps sunt exuti atque spoliati This I ask how it should come to pass that the Bishops of Caerleon or St. Davids and their Successors which ever from the time of King Lucius were Adorn'd with all Metropolitical Priviledges and bore the name and stile of Arch-Bishops should nevertheless without being call'd in question in any Synod as I could ever learn or any Crime or defection laid ever to their charge be spoil'd and devested of their Province and Ancient Jurisdiction for ever without remedy If private Interest did permit others who are more concern'd to be as sensible of this wrong and Sacriledge as was this honest and conscientious Lay-Gentleman
Church and their own rules and principles first it is several wayes against the Canons in respect of their Invasions of the rights of other Metropolitans which was adjudg'd a Photii Nomoc. Tit. 1. p. 20. infamous and mulctable before that in the Council of Chalcedon and in Trullo power was yielded to the Emperours to erect or to translate Metropolitical Chaires and also against the Canons in respect of many Illegal Ordinations which made the Romish Church null in Law in England several wayes besides those nullities in fact and event we have before instanc'd Many are the Canons of the best and Ancientest Councils and the most general and Oecumenical that the Church of Christ ever had which condemn the first Entrance of Augustine and his Pope Gregory and the Re-entrance of Archbishop Theodore and his Successors upon our Brittish Church and Provinces under no less penalties than deposition or degradation of their Clergy from their several States and Dignities and Excommunication of their Laity from Christian Fellowship besides the making all their Ecclesiastical Acts and Ordinations to be utterly void and null to all intents If this were of any value or moment with them of the Church of Rome who boast and crack of a great respect they have above others for Fathers and Councils and Ancient Traditions but experience too much discovers it is all with Reservations and Provisoes that they offer not to touch or reflect upon their Church in any of its grossest errours or most enormous misdemeanours for if they do it in the lest the Canons of the Universal Church shall have no more respect at their hands than the Canonical Scriptures which are not allowed to have any sound or sense where they cross and disagree from the private interpretation of their Church I say private and suspicious because notoriously savouring of private ends and carnal designes and Worldly ambition and self-love above any Church or Haeresie whatsoever in all their Commentaries and Expositions and every point and Article of their Faith and Government wherein they differ from us Or they shall be openly disown'd and rejected for no lawful Councils either in whole or in part according to their liking or disliking of particulars who yet call for implicit obedience to their own petty Authorities and decrees how contrary soever to Common sense or reason while themselves dispute and contradict the power and jurisdiction of far greater Superiours acting and decreeing with the special assistance of the Spirit of God So that as to such Roman-Catholicks who are wedded and guided by their wills and Idols more than Truth or Conscience the Testimonies and Canons I shall produce will prove but Pearls ill cast yet with this advantage and satisfaction that they shall drive and force them either to submission or to rebellion either to confess and acknowledge themselves to be convict Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Robbers and Oppressors and their Popes and Missionaries depos'd and condemn'd in all their Titles Holy Orders and pretences by the Holy solemn Laws and Canons of the Universal and undoubtedly Catholick Church of Christ or manifestly detect themselves to be Antichrist in this as in their other practices and the Invaders of Gods Regiment and power in all its formes and varieties of of appearance as of God the Creator in disposing the Kingdoms of the World of God Redeemer in Lording over Souls and Consciences so of God the Holy Spirit and Sanctifier in slighting Scriptures and General Councils Which last part it is to be fear'd they 'l chuse to take as being thereto too much inclin'd by their Principles being one main cause if not perrhaps the principal that the spirit of truth and concord hath withdrawn it self in lamentable manner from Christian Churches and Councils these several last hundreds of years in whose Assemblies it cannot well appear with liberty and without diminution of its Divine Honour and Glory when its promis'd assistance to Gods Church gathered together in his name must be eftsoons check'd and controll'd by the Negative will and lust of one man that sets up himself above Both and the Interest of Rome made the mark to steer by instead of Truth and Holiness and Gods holy spirit thereby necessitated either to countenance Errour and Tyranny by its presence or to stand out whereby is left but a Carcass of a Church and not a Church for a Church without Gods spirit is but as the body without the Soul the one as ready moulders into errour and corruption as the other into stench and rottenness as is the condition of the Modern Roman Church too visibly The first Canon I shall instance in shall be the third General Council held at Ephesus than which hardly any president can be more apposite to the Case of Rome and Brittain and that Councill's determination upon the complaint of Cyprus against Antioch where three points may be observ'd 1. The state of their case and grievance 2. The sense and resentment of the Council 3. The decree and redress 1. Their complaint to the Council by Declaration and the Affirmation of their Bishops then and there present was that the Bishop or Patriarch of Antioch did send and Consecrate Bishops for the Isle of Cyprus in violation of their Ancient Rights and Customes The occasion of this encroachment was as is noted by Balsamon and Zonaras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon a pretence and imitation of the Duke of Antioch under the Romans sending thence a Deputy Governour for this Isle The plea of the Cypriots was as is imply'd in the Canon an Ancient immemorial right of chusing and consecrating their own Bishops among themselves On the other hand the Bishop of Antioch had his Patriarchal dignity and the Supremacy of St. Peters Chair to insist on from whom he deriv'd by undoubted Lineal Succession Now if this Controversy had come before the Pope of Rome and his Conclave or Lateran or Tridentine Council it is easie to coniecture who had gone by the worst but not so easie to know whom the prey should have been adjudg'd to whether to Antioch or rather to Rome her self although the other were the acknowledg'd Chaire of St. Peter establish'd for 7 years at Antioch at the lest before ever he arriv'd at Rome 2. But the sense and resentment of their wrong by this great Council is very remarkable who took this matter into their cognizance and Judicature though no lesâ— than the Patriarch of the East and as great as the Pope takes himself to be was one of the parties to aâ—ide their censure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus they represent the mischief and consequence of this encroachment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A new kind of Schismatical attempt in defiance of the Apostolical Laws of the Church and Canons of the Holy Fathers and striking at the common Liberty of Christendom yea the Spiritual Spiritual Liberty of men Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ himself by his bloud hath purchas'd for us
president of a Holy Pope or Prelate promoting his privare lusts and Interest jure Divino shall affect and Assimilate whole Kingdoms Provinces Churches and all degrees of men both Secular and Spiritual all Politicians Libertines Rebels and Carnal Christians whether within or without his Holiness obedience to take after the example and Pattern when once known to become their Own Popes to License their own Crimes and Cruelty and Treachery for their gain and advantage as well as He having so great an example for Apology and excuse and the like deceitful heart to prompt them to it and under the shelter of Sola fides as well as that of Sola Ecclesia both of the same mould and spring both shall drive on their ungodly designs and be justified Saints and good Catholicks in their own esteem and vote amidst all their Hypocrisie and Rebellion nevertheless whatever they be in Christ's who is their Judge And the end of Christianity is hereby defeated and the Gospel and Baptism reversâ—d and every mans Will is his own Bible and the Rule of his Neighbours Rights and his Soveraigns duty self-love his wisdom and Religion and Charity and Loyalty gon out of fashion and request and all are Popes but none are Christians whereas Christ neither in his own person nor his Disciples nor his Laws gave the least Countenance or example for such Encroachments upon Kingdoms or Brethren He allowed his rights to Caesar and consequently his external Supremacy to every Prince in his own Territory his greatest Apostles kept their own bounds and line and did not build upon their Neighbours foundations Rom. 15.20 2 Cor. 10.16 Gal. 2.7 Thou shalt not Covet thy Neighbours House c. is is one of his greatest Laws and Maxims daily inculcated upon all his Christians without exception And his Apostles forwarn and testifie That he is the avenger of all such that oppress or over-reach their Brethren in any matter 1 Thess 4.6 But nothing is more the Profession or Custom of Rome than over-reaching and Intruding into other mens rights and building upon other's foundations and Senior Churches and thrusting their Sickle into other mens Harvests rather then keep honestly and peaceably at home within their appointed bounds and want their Peter-Pence Yea rather then fail by any sinfull ignoble Arts whatsoever confederating with Pagans against Christians setting on Subjects against their Princes and Princes against Subjects and the People against one another not to mention poisons secret murders Massacres Powder-Plots c. And which is the greatest violence to mens faculties and common sence and makes mens ears to tingle at the Blasphemy and hearts to tremble at such Atheistical Insurrections and contempt of the Soveraigns of Heaven and Earth This invasion of Neighbours must be the Catholick Cause this wrong and injustice must be Gods own Will and Commission and St. Peters Charter the chief Robbers and Rebels in the design the choysest Saints and Catholick Champions of Christ who according to St. Paul was the Avenger of all such but according to our Popes is made the Patron and approver Whereby their Repentance and Cure becomes morally impossible not only because recovery with them were disease or their departure from the Faith and their amendment after Christ's mind a damnable State and Condition but also because Reason and Conscience are gagg'd and the faculties of their soul wholly lockâ—d up from helping to their Conversion Heathens were easier recoverable than Papists from their Idols because in the one there was a reserv'd Allegiance to God and the Truth left in their souls for Arguments to work upon but in the Roman Heathenism that Allegiance is so fix'd and settled in the Pope as God that the soul is to regard no Truth or Oracle whatsoever of God himself against him Papists are more Pope's people than God's people and their reasons and Consciences by consequence bound more to follow guides and the Will of the Pope than to follow Truth or the Will of God Socrates is my Friend and Plato is my Friend but Truth is more my Friend than either was the Heathen Liberty Truth is my Friend and Conscience is my Friend but my Ghostly Father and Guide is more my Friend then all is the Popish slavery In the Roman Religion man is to be regarded above God yea most are not allowed to give any hearing to God at all who speaks in his Scriptures which ever were and are esteem'd Gods Word in all Christendom whatever they be at Rome Papists to our sight are Gods rational Creatures as other men and Christians be but in reason they are but parcells of the Pope detach'd from God As Tangier to the eye is in Africa but by fiction of reason in England to whom it is subject A Papist therefore being more the Popes subject than Gods is hardly reclaim'd by any Truth which is but the voice or will of God as of a Potentate more Forreign and remote and weaker as to him than God who is the strongest of all to all the World besides Esdr 4. And his rational faculties ordain'd to take the part of truth are kept prisoners from doing it any service yea are listed and impress'd to obstruct and batter it as Canons taken and master'd by an enemy and turn'd to do execution upon Friends whereof the Divines and Parasites of that Church in many voluminous learnedly vain Discourses in defence of gross Errours against plain Truths have given a considerable instance to the World Now how this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or falling away from God and truth 2 Thess 2.3 came first to pass and that once great and glorious Church and its Angels to leave their first Station and to be tumbled down into their Papal pit of darkness and seduction next to the Infernal where in the one as in the other both sorts take a miserable pleasure to continue according to the Brittish saying y cyw y fegur yn Vffern yn Vffern y myn ef fôd but a far greater pleasure and triumph to ensnare as many Souls as they can to bear them company and participate in their plague is sufficiently clear in History and strangely describ'd to the life in Prophecy And to begin with the first Pride and a high stomack had a chief hand in both the falls and founder'd patience in the latter with an insatiable avarice and ambition in the Fathers of this Church after the vain pomp and glory of this world which the children of Christs School are instructed early to renounce that it pleased God in his deep wisdom and Justice to deliver them over to a reprobate sense and an infatuated mind to be a curse and plague to themselves and the rest of Christendom for many years for their sterility and ungratitude under the Gospel of his Son And as it was with the Fox in the Fable who long strove in vain to repass out of the Granary through the same hole with a full belly through which he had entred in
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
different Liquor unto others in Synods and Conventicles to make them turbulent and frantick and to worry their Rulers and destroy their Kings several have been so weary and tyred what with the noyse and scandal on the one hand what with the Narcotick steam and Operation on the other that they are ready to slumber and sleep at Noon-day and like sick men can find no rest but by changing their Religion as they do their Beds a deadly Symptom in both and to Rome they will go where they may sleep to purpose while their eyes are resign'd to their guides and their trust to man instead of God and never waken till the Trumpet and last Judgement to their Eternal wo. If it were to return to Rome Heathen in its glory and to change their Bibles for Tully or Seneca rather than for Lyes and Legends men might have some excuse for their intoxicated love of slavery which all free Spirits abhor and especially Spiritual slavery which is so contrary to the soul the freest of beings For there we should meet with Caesar and Cicero and Virgil and many other Heroes of several endowments we should light if not upon Christ yet upon the other part of my Text the Heart and Soul in that perfection and improvement by knowledge and virtue and valour as fully answer'd the Poets Character which compriz'd the utmost that men could do or Pen describe Imperium terris animos aequavit Olimpo they match'd the Gods with their parts and over-match'd the World with their Prowess And where the heart is well preserv'd and enlightened Christ is never far off even as Antichrist is never nigh but where the heart is first darkned and resign'd For the Sun of Righteousness was rising to the World about this time that Rome was so clear'd and enobl'd in heart and Spirit and mens souls were so awakned and sitted with Liberty and honour to receive his Truths The Roman Empire being raised and imployed in St. John Baptist's work as it were to prepare the way of the Lord and to train mens souls to value truth in the General above sordid self-love and to clense the eye in part to behold its lustre For as the Sun were of little use to people that had no eyes or were blinded with cataracts and scales so also is the Sun of righteousness to blind and servile and seal'd understandings and Christ to any heart that is muffled with Idols or enslaved to another Supremacy But in Popery neither Christ nor the Heart can well be met with both are so engrossed and devourâ—d by his Vicaâ— it is highest Honour there not to be true to Honour or Conscience which passes for a dangerous private Spirit against their Church and to quit on 's self of his soul and Heart and Judgement is the method to be a right Roman Catholick and Christ and the soul like correlates ever stand and fall together where the one departs the other seldom stays behind Which is the reason that Popish Rome in its highest manhood and perfection had little to shew of either for when it arrived to its highest pitch and all Crowns were Subject to its Mitre all Laws to its Canons where was its glory compar'd to the other Rome but in a Herd of Monkish-Blockheads to be set against the others Divine Classick Authors Bede Geoffrey Comestor or the Golden Legend against Livy and Tacitus and Plutarch c. Epistolae obscurorum virorum against those of Cicero or Seneca And who against Virgil and Juvenal and Horace Poetry was so Ingenious and true to human nature in whose exaltation it ever chirps as down in the mouth in its fall also that where the Heart was excluded it turn'd Protestant and never shewed more its head What they had left to boast of were men without souls Arguments without sence Sermons without Scriptures or Fathers Authors without the stile and dialect of men cloysterd Epicures fat and trading Monks Cardinals without Christian Lives and Popes without Faith or Religion In a word Christianity without a soul or Saviour the Image of Religion to mans eye without the life and truth thereof to God's The Pope and the Virgin Mary instead of Christ and blind Obedience instead of the heart that no time or Age since the Floud or Fall can be parallel'd to that of Popery in its full reign and adâ—ption for a total degeneracy of human and Christian nature in point of Morality and Grace and Learning and Knowledge and Pen. It were better to have our sight and Judgement and but Stars to guide us than to have a blind heart with such a Sun and Gospel It were more eligible to be Cicero â—s Servitour than a King of such Christian Cattel And this was the state of Popery in his highest culmination and plenitude of growth and Lustre And which it is still at to recover for Popery is not to be heeded by its present pretences but its known ends and humour when it hath attain'd its ends which of all things hates nothing more than eyes and private Judgement and light which Inseparablâ— accompany the heart for thieves are best at thâ—iâ— work in the dead of night and Kings are best gullâ—d of their Soveraignties and Subjects of their Câ—yn and Liberty by Ignorance and a scale or Ointment to blind their eyes and all are better cramped and confessed when they are asleep For to appeal to any mans sence or Conscience or observation is there any thing more experimentally manifest to the World in every Age than that the chief design of Popery as to its Leaders is to promote and compass secular ends and Grandeur and Wordly power upon what hazard soever to souls or disgrace to Christ and his Religion and that Mammon is as Catholickly servâ—d at Rome as God and that its main design is to have the Crowns of Kings and Purses of Subjects in its power and the Consciences of both in order thereunto Quae regio in terris c. What Territory or Kingdom can be nam'd in Europe whose Scepter it hath not made Feudatary and Tributary to St. Peters Chair by its Faith-craft as the Ancient Romans did more nobly and Lyon-like by their Arms and Manhood what hide of good land without the fence of mortmain had escap'd the Plow of mortified Monks what Chimney was in all the Kingdom without a Peter-pence what is more confessed and gloried in by our Modern Popes in their stamps and meddals wherein St. Peter is represented lifting up an old Woman from the ground with this motto Roma resurgens a fair and lucky Comment under their own Hand and Seal upon Rev. 13.12 And he exerciseth all the Power of the Beast before him and causeth the Earth and them that dwel therein to worship the first Beast whose deadly wounds was heal'd whereby is prov'd as by their own confession the Succession of Rome-Papal to Rome-Imperial it being the sence of the Ancient Fathers as before that the Empire which
Inferiour either in Piety or Parts or Prowess And change their Truths for Lyes their Bibles for Legends and Christ for a Pope and the Creator for a Creature Can any of our Gracious Princes and Defenders in whose protection under God we trust suffer their people while not backward to assist them with their Prayers and Lives and Fortunes both them and their posterity to be thus enslav'd under a Forreign yoak which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear and so long strugled against and in the end not without success And such an indignity and violence to be offer'd to the Ancient honour and rights of this our Brittish Church and Nation For manifest it is that the remnant in Wales are the undoubted Heires and Successors of the Ancient Brittains who since their Incorporation are in all reason and honour to be defended in their Priviledges and immunity by the whole English Nation for in a body the right or wrong of any part is within the sense and concern of the whole and the weaker it is the more and especially by our Princes and chief Nobles being of the same descent Yeâ— the Body and Major part of the English themselves were proved to be descendants from the Ancient Brittains and by right of Bloud and Faith as well as Armes to succeed into their places and possessions and priviledges and aire and humour and their Infirmities and divisions in some part as their vertues in most and bound therefore to repel these Roman encroachments from themselves by self-preservation which is a strong â—ye upon all mankind and from their Children by Paternal trust which is stronger as the same obligations upon our Princes in whom all rights and trusts of private men and Fathers concenter is strongest of all And this new Roman Catholick Faith or Fraud rather hath enlarg'd the Royal Office and duty to one part of Princely care and circumspection which Justinian never dream'd of For besides the defence of their people from Forreign Invasion and Captivity by their Armes and Puissance and from Domestic broiles and disorder by their Laws and wisdom in which two parts the Emperour compriz'd and circumscrib'd the Imperial charge There is a third Protection of their flock now incumbent upon them upon the same equity and reason their preservation from Forreign Imposture which contains both the other evils in its womb and draws home-bred confusion and hostile Subjugation and slavery along with at its heels and therefore in point of necessity fit for Princely encounter and prevention but in point of Honour much more it being a greater excellency to be wise than to be strong and couragious for the Souldier gives place to his General and our Sheriffs obey our Judges and of the two miseries it is more Ignominious and disgraceful to be over-seen than overcom as they are ever like to be who will be guided by any Mortals here-say against their knowledge and regulated Conscience And it may wonder'd what good is to be seen or gain'd by our return to Popery so destructive of Publick Peace and Eternal Salvation and so derogatory and disloyal towards Divine Soveraignty as well as human as hath been prov'd all along to whom Princes themselves ow an Original exemplarâ—y obedience and fidelity as Subjects ow to them a secondary by way of consequence and Copy There is much manifestly to be lost by the change of inestimable Knowledge and pretious Liberty and valuable Wealth and Treasure great will be the damage and detriment the Incongruity greater The Impossibility to sober men and Christians the greatest of all What though every man be Lord of his own Purse to give away what is his own how and to whom he pleases yet he cannot be thus Liberal in the encouragement of Vice and Imposture without a blot and censure upon his understanding Nor betray and necessitate his fellows for condition though not for folly to the like contribution and disbursement without great dishonesty and sacriledge if he be private person or if a Superiour in Publick trust without High and Blasphemous Perfidiousness for to explain these Epithites the wrong of private men upon others of the same condition is not an assault on their rights alone but on God whose they are and all their rights by consequence whom they mutually represent to one another 1 Cor. 8.12 as they undergo the correlative habitude and fashion of Creatures upon themselves by consequence like their faces Gods Images seen by one another but out of sight unto themselves But the wrongs and breach of trusts in Superiours towards their Subjects trusting under the shadow of their wings is like the case of God proving untrue to his Creatures whereof there can be no conception made without Blasphemy nor is there any manner of Instance or track to be found thereof throughout the whole regular Creation neither the weakest nor wildest Creatures being ever found false or unnatural to their own dependants only miscreant Tyrants and Parents and Governours without bowels are they alone who Blaspheme the Divine Character they bear by being as God in their persons but as Satan in their deportment Acting a Deity that hath neither Grace nor Goodness nor Truth which is the highest Abomination and stupendiously monstrous Blasphemy that can be conceiv'd or represented which God will rebuke But the Incongruity increases further for what were such a change but selling our Birth-right for a mess of Catholick poison and preferring Italian Hypocrisie before English and Brittish Truth a rotten Disease before sound Health a Painted Face before a natural Beauty or for chast and Noble Matrons to become Hand-maids to Courtezans or Grave Judges to be Secretaries to Theives or Gentry and great Nobles to be Pages to Mountebanks or Kings and Emperours a Life Guard to Rebels and High-way-men Xanthe retro propera versaeque recurrite limphae the World will be as orderly when Rivers flow back to the tops of Mountains and the Globe of the Earth enlightens the Sun and the Stars and the Beasts of the Field who are without heart or understanding are to Instruct mankind And the Impossibility to the sober is yet greatest of all such a change being very improbable in fate and most impossible in reason God who is Irresistible in his Judgements is as Omnipotent in his mercies towards his People His Church flourish'd here in Brittain more or less and without Romish defilement for 600 years that is from the Resurrection to Monk Augustine's entrance It was afterwards sorely visited and condemn'd to Popish darkness and Captivity for great sins for the space of 800 years and visited again in mercy at the Reformation God's departure upon displeasure Ebbs according to hundreds but his return in mercy flows according to thousands to those that love him or whom he loves though we are unworthy yet he is all mercy and Truth and it is not to be doubted but we have had our Abrahams Isacks and Jacobs in our Brittish Israel who
dyed in their hope and trust for us for whose sake he 'l continue his goodness to their seed but though his wrath ebb'd 800 years his Grace and mercy wherein he delights to abound and exceed hath not stowed yet full 200 years or is he unable to perfect what he hath begun He that can work a Resurrection from the dead cannot he accomplish a Restoration to a living and surviving People yea and great confusion to all opposers of it No good man ought to envy or hinder the longed for mercies of God to a Nation no great man can and if having his descent alike from the same People how can such be deem'd either good or great but rather miserably unnaturall and deservedly unfortunate and improsperous Earthly Potentates may not give stop to God's tides King Edgar tryed but fail'd their timely retreat will be their greatest safety and Wisdom how many mistaken Politicians have been drowned and Shipwrack'd in such clandestine contrary Councils No Emperour on Earth can command it to be night after the Sun is risen where God is for us we need not fear any seduc'd Dust and Ashes that may appear against us It is likewise most impossible in reason unless in case of Gods great desertion and extraordinary curse The radical difference between Protestants and Papists as was Stated from the beginning and Instanc'd in all along lyes herein that the one take Christ the other the Pope or his pretended Vicar for their Messia or the Lord of their Hearts and Judgements The Protestants who live by faith as all true Christians do and ever did hold firm their Allegiance to their invisible Soveraign in Heaven The Papists who love to live more by sence and show through dis-regard to Faith and the Heart change their Heavenly Soveraign for a visible Christ on Earth which Rebellion can never succeed nor be done no not when it is done already Should not be in the holy Language is shall not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thing shall not be done say the Sons of Jacob touching the Ravishment of their Sister Dina already committed Gen. 34.7 The Soveraignty of Christ and the Allegiance of the soul to God and the Truth are Divine Eternal Establishments not to be alter'd by human pleasure they can no more be changed by the corruption of men or the combination and Clandestine Counsels of Conclaves and Politicians and seduced Grandees than the Constitution of Kingdoms or the Laws of Nations be repealed and changed by Conventicles of Pismires some rash attempt may be made while mens souls are besides themselves or drunk and intoxicated with Idols and vitious Customs but to no more effect than casting caps against the Moon which can never reach it or spitting against the wind which returns into the face or defiance of the Laws and Government by a strong Knot of High-way-men whose end in all likely-hood must be Repentance or Hell and Tyburn Which is further confirm'd by good Authorities the King of Prophets within the Church Psal 2. Why do the Heathens or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2.12 rage and the People Imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed or Messia saying Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us away with these invisible fanatick Lords and Laws of Souls and Consciences Let none in Heaven or Earth be obeyed in matters of Religion or Conscience but a Pope in Temporal matters but a Prince He that sitteth in Heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision to shew the Pittiful ridiculousnes and vanity of such void attempts And the Prince of Philosophers without the Church in his Golden Book of vertue and vice perceiv'd and affirm'd this Truth that the one is in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commendable and lovely and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternally deformed and censurable let men or Laws conspire what they can to the contrary And the unanimous consent and suffrage of all mens Souls and Counsciences to this particular points at the true cause hereof an indelible immediate Allegiance in every heart to God and the truth alone and a deafness to all other Forreign power whatsoever against him Yea and an accuser of it self under any such delinquency For Children and Clownes shall discern and condemn such disloyal deviations in their Prince whom they reverence and the Prince in himself being above all but not above the Soveraign of his heart Men of Honour or Reverence arriveing or supporting their Grandeur by the means and countenance of Vice upon the like Loyalty shall be despis'd by every mouth in the Streets and the Consciences of troubled silent Servants at home that dare not and of their own that dare and will reprove This loyalty and disloyalty against Heaven is such an eternal unalterable measure of mens Misery and bliss that Chast rags will not envy the condition of unclean Silks and Sattin but those shall often wish for the peace and pure content of these The Soul till drown'd in Lusts or gagg'd by Antichristian Tyranny never skrinks from its Heavenly Loyalty while it is a Soul it is for Christ It never deserts this Soveraign till it morally ceases to be a Soul Which is the reason a priori that Popery or the seduction of men from their Loyalty to Christ to slavery to a Mortal can never be well promoted without Debauchery which must first precede to extinguish the Soul Its obedience afterwards shall be blind implicit and servile like that of beasts that have no understanding nothing shall be its Conscience and Religion more but its Carnal Interest and gain and pleasures and complyance with its new false Christ for a false Salvation for human Nature cannot dispense to be without all Religion and Superstition too Its state and condition therefore is a state of enmity and rebellion against God whose Laws it neither is nor can b◠subject to Rom. 8.7 And therefore all its Actions and designes are null and void and damn'd in Law and also in Fact when Gods patience is out either by its timely or eternal Recantation either by Repentance here or durance hereafter for all cross and Irregular wills must at last come up to Christs will the judge of quick and dead either with or against their wills and know their true Soveraign at last either by life or death Rom. 8.6 13. Whereby the true ground appears for our Reduction of this Controversy from the beginning to one single point of obedience or disobedience to the right Soveraign of the heart For so doth the wisest of Kings reduce all Divine and human concern and wisdom into one Principle of Loyalty to God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1.7 And not only the beginning but complement and perfection For he is the wisest and soberest Christian who hath not the Pope but Christ most