SECTION I. The Controversie reduced to one single point in General; of Obedience to the Right Soveraign of the heart: and Protestancy found Loyal; and Popery, the contrary, in its principles and Practice.

BUt in the Second place, I shall chuse to enlarge and insist, upon a more necessary Exhortation, because the danger of seduction grows daily greater, that you, and all other Christians here in Britain, would be carefull to preserve your selves, true and stedfast members (in the day of tryal,) of an higher Society, into which you were early enrolled, for more Holy and Eternal purposes, and to be obedi­ent to your own good Laws, and the Governours that are over you by Providence, and by consequence to God himself in them, and not to fall off (as many false hearts are like to do, like leaves in Au­tumn, upon a cold nip or trial,) into forraign Dirt, and Captivity, and imposture; from which the Wisdom and zeal of your Progenitors have set you free; for Originally (as the learned on both sides know,) our Brittish Church never was a Daughter of Rome, nor Subject to its See; being Ancienter in Christ, and Seniour to the Church, and Chair of Rome it self, or the first arrival of St. Peter there, were the Tradition, or Legend, true. But what a­vaileth it to have been, unless we still be, a true Church, agreeing with the mind of Christ, which [Page 44] some will by no means allow. Take therefore, for some instance, the Apostolical Rule in my Text, in your own hands; to measure and Judge as Solomon once did, between two Mothers, the true, and the pretended. For a Private Person, with God to guide him, may judge Infallibly, which Church most a­grees with God: for a wavering eye, and a trem­bling hand, having a streight and a stable rule and line to guide it, partakes of the stability and streight­ness that directs it: the guide, and guided, being one and the same person by fiction and agreement. And the Roman Catholick themselves (as they love to be called) cannot be denied to be every Mothers Son, as Infallible, as the Judge himself, or their Church is, to whom they give themselves entirely over to be guided by them: take therefore in Gods name, Gods clear mind; and measure and judge impartially, with the heart and soul, and in the strength of him, that guides you.

Your Holy Mother, the Church of England, hath nourished you up in a Sound and Orthodox Religi­on, and Worship, which you, and your Prosterity, can understand; and therefore, say Amen to it, from your hearts, because you understand it. The great pretender of Rome, starves her Children at Nurse, and all their life time, (in their own Territories) by Politick Ignorance; and binds, and enslaves their stoutest Champions, in chains of darkness, and of implicit faith, and blind obedience, the better to keep them under, in Captivity and slavery, to serve her unworthy and unnatural designs, and to fight a­gainst the Truth; as the Turk breeds up deluded Janizaries, to War and subdue their own Fathers, and Mothers, and people; which absolute and blind subjecti­on of the heart, to any man on Earth, is Idolatry in [Page 45] the giver, and the taker. Is it not lamentable to con­sider, how prophane and perfidious, the guides of the Church of Rome, are towards God, and their people committed to their charge; and in deceiving the one, and mocking the other, with a worship in an unknown tongue, without the heart and under­standing? which is therefore a meer nullity, by the Divine Doctrine of my Text, and by common sense; and therefore no worship at all, but Idleness, and [...]ccation approaching to Idolatry. Religion with­out the mind, is not Religion or Worship, but a shew, or Stage-Play, or a Counterfeit of Religion, as the Scene is of Truth and History: where an Actor, or a Mimick stands for a Prince; as here the shadow for the substance, or crossing of the body for the contrition of the soul; and all are able to know, and under­stand very well the whole management in both, to be a meer divertisement of the fancy only, (more sufferable on the Stage, than in the Church, in Gods presence, where more sobriety and seriousness of mind is required,) and nothing else in point of Truth and reality, because the Original Persons, and parties, are absent and wanting; there, the true Hero, and here, the Truth of the heart. A sincere Pro­testant is grieved and troubled at every straggling thought, and the least deviation of his heart, at Prayer in Gods presence, as a great and griveous af­front, and contempt of the Divine Majesty; like turning our backs to a Prince, while we are speaking to him. But our confident Bigots of Rome, by their Publick and common pactice, maintain and de­fend, that God is best worshipped, when he is so affronted and despised; and that the total absence of the heart and understanding, (so there be an out­ward Opus operatum with lip and breath) is no sin at [Page 46] all, but right Catholick Devotion, most agreeing with the Deity. If mumbling Pater Nosters, and Ave Maries, whether at Church, or Closet, or at Cards, or Plays, (as Witches do Charms without knowledge, or Attention, or meaning,) make good and current Roman-Catholick Devotion, then Par­rots, and Magpyes, and Apes, may commence Ca­tholick Disciples of the Roman-Catholick Salvation. And upon this score perhaps it was, that one of the great and Sainted Patriarchs of an order amongst them, began to bestow his pains and zeal in Preach­ing to Birds. When men, in contrariety to the A­postle in my Text, judge it fanatical Innovation to Worship God (as Protestants do) with the heart and understanding: They that so exclude the heart in the first place, as needless; will they not exclude the Lord likewise in the second place? (for these two are Correlates, take away the one, and take away the other also) where the heart, and the Lord, are shut out, in the first and second place, will not the fear of the Lord be excluded likewise, (though the beginning of wisdom) in the third place? And where the fear of the Lord is once banisht from Religion; is there any sin, or Villany in Soul or Body, that such Religious Atheists will boggle at, to act and prepetrate at opportunity, or temptation, when it may with safety be committed, and with impunity from the Laws of man? Its well, that Church exceeds all others, in Pardons and Absolu­tions, (if such seives hold water,) for their Principles cut out work enough for Pardons, and (if their own allowed, and best Historians, are to be believed) the practices of their chiefest Popes come not short of their Principles. How deplorable and sad, is the conditi­on of such a Church, to which no further degree of [Page 47] disorder and misery can be added, or imagin'd? Nor the Devil drive this nail further to the head, than, that they should strongly believe themselves to be the sole, and only Catholicks, salvable, and infallible, in such gross and damnable Errours.

And yet upon such holy guides, such infallible Rocks, the Roman-Catholick Church is built: For all with them are bound to believe as the Church (that is the Pope) believes, whom they believe to be infallible. For though their lives are often frail and vicious, yet their Doctrines, or Testimonies for God, (say they) are ever firm and true. As if a Vicious life were not an effectual quenching and renouncing of the whole Faith of such a person, during such im­penitence; or as if a Debauch'd person, or Atheist, were a fit witness for the Christian Faith, much less the Judge thereof. He that will be Infallible for ano­ther, ought first to be Infallible for himself, and his own Salvation: And every man is bound, upon his everlasting Peril, to be as Infallible as he can, for himself and his Brethren: But, as a Creature, no man is, or can be Infallible; nec vox hominem Sonat, but more or less, he may be Infallible, by help from with­out, according as he is guided wholly, or in part, by God, who is alone Infallible: And the issue and whole state of the cause and difference, between Protestants and Papists, lyes in the right choice and election of their Infallible guide and judge: Who this is? being the great Question. There is no judge under God (and Christ the sole judge of quick and dead) but the invict Supream Powers, himself hath appointed, in all Kingdoms and Churches, and private breasts; Invict Conscience, in every private man, in all Private, and all Eternal concerns: Invict Fathers and Governours, within their several Families de­pending [Page 48] on them, for Education, life and mainte­nance; Invict Christian Princes, and Holy Bishops, in their several distinct Provinces and Kingdoms, in matters of peace, and order, and external Ceremony, being publick Consciences, in their several Domini­ons, which are so many larger Bodies or Families; yet none of these are absolute or infallible any further, than they agree with a Superiour Soveraign will, which alone being such, is their Rule and guide, communicating its Infallibity to them that follow it, which all are bound to do: Now who this Infal­lible Soveraign guide and judge, is, whether the Pope in his Chair and Bulls, or Christ, and his Scrip­tures written in the Bible, and mens hearts and Con­sciences, seems to be the Question between Rome and us. The Roman Church affirms, it belongs to the Pope, being near and visible on Earth: The Refor­med, will have it to belong to Christ, who is far nearer to mens Souls, though in Heaven: With Protestants, the Invisible Soul, is correlate with God its Invisible Lord, where is its rest and satisfaction: With Papists it must be correlate to the Pope, a visible judge and guide, else it wanders in uncertainties, like a lost sheep. Or, though both agree perhaps, that, Gods mind and will, is the Law and Rule of the Soul; yet they vastly disagree, about its promulga­tion: That is Gods will, say the Papists, what the Pope defines to be his will; that his Scripture and sense thereof, what he allows, and nothing but the sense of the Pope must be the sense of God, (though never so sensual and Carnal, or contrary to truth, and to common sense.) But Protestants hold Gods mind and will to be, and to have been knowable by men, [...], at several times and several wayes, Heb. 1.1. Not only in the time of the Old [Page 49] Testament, and before, by the light of nature, and the Law and the Prophets, and Angelical Revelations, and Ʋrim, and Thummim, and Visions, and Dreams: But also in the last dayes, by his Son in his Holy Gospel, and other inspired Writs delivered to his Church, and sufficiently attested to the sense and Conscience by Miracles, and right Catholick Tradition: And that it is the first and proper work and duty of all mankind as soon as they come out of their Infancy and Non-age, as on the one hand, to know the diffe­rence between God and the Creature, and the right and wrong Soveraigns and Legislators of their Souls, and to follow truth and vertue, which are ever the Laws of the one, and to shun vice and lyes, which are the dictates and Impostures of the other; so also carefully to discern between the Authority of the Master and the Servant, or the Prince and his Of­ficer, between the Canonical Scripture, (which is the Divine will and Testament of Christ) and humane Tradition, which is the Testimony of his Ministers, subject to, and controllable by, and by no means Superiour to the other; for next to the confounding of God and Idols, in our values, (who are so infinitely con­trary,) The levelling of all distance and degrees be­tween Master and Servant, (though subordinate and friendly) is most absurd and abominable with all sober Christians, saving them at Rome, with whom the Au­thority of their Church, or the Pope (which with them is equivalent) is usually exalted above the autho­rity of the Holy Scriptures, though the will and mind of Christ, the undoubted and confessed Lord and Master. And we also hold, that truth in the Gene­ral, (which is ever Gods will and mind,) may be well known by men, divers wayes without the Pope: As matters of fact and Tradition, by the Testimony of [Page 50] honest men, of good lives, and clean hands, and Holy minds and Inclinations, free from all worldly ends and designes in their report: For where God alone doth rule and possess the heart, there we may be sure of truth and sincerity; where any Carnal interest or Idol prevails instead, there we are to ex­pect lyes, Legends, and Impostures, which are the Dialect of false Gods, as truth is of the true God, dwelling in the heart: And in like manner, by the Oaths of Credible Neighbours, wherein God is called present to the heart and mouth; and by the decrees and sentences of Magistrates and just Judges, who in Scripture are called Gods, and the General consent of Nations, vox populi vox dei, and by every mans diligence and search after Truth, as after hid Treasure, which God rewards and prospers, Prov. 2.4, 5. and his pains and study in History, Languages, Customs, Criticism, &c. As in the use of means, without which God is tempted. But instead of all these methods, with Papists, the sole report and de­cision of a Pope, though unlearn'd, or swayed per­haps by Interest, or Avarice, or Ambition, or Fear, (which mislead the heart and tongue from God and Truth,) shall nevertheless be relyed on as an Oracle Infallible, more conclusive than the famous Delphick; and the heart and Conscience in every man, (which were made to indent with God and truth,) be totally excluded and silenc'd in that Church under the notion and bear-skin of private Judgment and opinion, which endangers all: Yet Protestants resolve to follow the former methods in whole, or in part, let the Pope contradict, or Curse as much as he please. So Papists are led by Authority, (Forraign, and often false) Protestants by Truth, (Domestick and more sure.) They follow the Doctrines of men, as did the Scribes and [Page 51] Pharisees heretofore; we the voice of Christ and the Commandments of God, as all Christs sheep ought to do.

Herein, I say, lyes the main difference between us, and not so much in those other many points and and Articles, wherein we are divided: As Image-Worship, Invocation of Saints, Transubstantiation, Purgatory, Indulgences, &c. Which are, and will be, Learnedly and voluminously defended on each side to the Worlds end, while each party resolves firmly to adhere to the God, or Idol (that either have chosen for their guide) to the last gasp with stedfast zeal and constancy: For if Protestants, as well as Papists, could believe the Pope; or the Papists, as well as Protestants, did once believe Christ, to be this Infallible Judge and guide; all Controversie between us, would soon cease, and be laid asleep. The whole Controversy lyes therefore in the choice, or rejection, in obedience or disobedience, to the right guide or imme­diate Soveraign of the heart; whether Christ, or the Pope: And exact obedience to the wrong, becomes per­fect disobedience, to the right Superiour. And that the Issue will lye here, may further appear from each ones case stated by himself; and their charge and imputation each against the other, and from the state of the question naturally arising hereupon. For the Protestants say, they take Christ, and Scrip­ture, and Conscience (and what agrees thereto) for the guide and rule of their hearts and judgments: And that the Papists take the Pope; and hold opinions and practices upon his Authority against 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, [Page 52] 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? [Page 53] 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, [Page 54] 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 [Page 55] 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 Soveraigns have reduced the one, the other, and be first at peace; till either the Pope con­form to the will of Christ, (which we expect) which would beget an unity of Spirit and Truth between us, in the bond of peace, or Christ to the mind and will of the Pope, and have no Scriptures, that shall signifie any thing contrary to his sense, but that the Popes will shall be taken to be Christs Will, where they interfere, which is their aim in their engrossing the right of interpreting the Scriptures to their Church alone; (that is, their Pope) which would produce [Page 56] peace and union (its true) but such a carnall peace and slavish union, as were worse than any War or Captivity, or desolation whatsoever. Purgatory, in­dulgencies, image worship, Transubstantiation, blind obedience, Universal Monarchy over the whole Church, &c. let them be never so false, or unreasonable or scandalous, or absurd, not only with all learned and sober men, but with many of themselves, in their secret thoughts and retirements, yet because they support the Kitchin, and adorn the Hall, and carnal state, and esteem, of their Apostolick see, they shall, and must be owned and defended forever, as Infallible Doctrines De fide, more unalterable, than the Laws of Medes and Persians, by all her Catholick Sons, as they tender their continuance within her Pale, out of which (with them) there can be no Sal­vation: and our worship and Liturgie shall be con­demned, as Impious and prophane, till (upon obe­dience and Submission to their Chair, as was offered in Queen Elizabeths days) they shall permit it to be Orthodox, and Holy: and to be used in our Churches without any alteration, or further trouble: and all our Protestant Doctrines, (which are the same in effect with Gods Holy Scriptures, out of which they are drawn, and built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner stone;) yet because they comport not with their carnal designs and greatness, shall be condemn­ed, to be abjur'd, as false and Heretical, (though the Authors of them, Christ and his Apostles, and his purest Church, be involved with us in the same sen­tence, and themselves in Gods wo and curse in the Prophet, upon those that call good evil, evil good, light darkness, and darkness light, Esa. 15.20.)

What Law of Nature, or Nations, or Conscience, [Page 57] or Honour, or Humanity, or Civility, or Faith, or Plain-dealing (which are indelible imbred instincts in Ʋulgar, and Heathen Breasts, much more in Chri­stian, and Generous) will not the guides of that Church direct their charge to break, and violate, with as­sured hopes of Salvation, and Immortal Glory for the feat, so it tend to promote and advance their Holy Catholick cause? which is with them, as it were Gods last will and Testament, which Abrogates and annuls all precedent wills; the Eternal Laws of God and conscience, being but obsolete, or Corpora­tion orders, when they clash against the Infallible Bulls, and paramount Oracles of his Holiness: yea the contradiction shall be salved and heal'd, and Christ, by Interpretation, (which belongs to them,) is brought to say and sign their draught to be his own Will and meaning, and their Atheime shall be fac'd with his Authority, as Hypocrites do their Villanies with the cover of Religion, as King Philip of Macedon is said to have made the Oracles to Phillipize, and Prophesie for him. What Civil War and combustion must this make in English, and honest hearts, (who though they have a respect for Rome, think fit never­theless to reserve due Loyalty towards God, and their Redeemer, and their Country, to be thus necessitated, to offend against God, and man, to save their souls: who in compliance with that Church, and obedience to its commands and dictates, upon perill of dam­nation, must shocke the wise and settled Laws of their Nation, and disturb publick peace and Union, and bring fear and consternation upon their fellow Subjects, that desire to live in quietness, and slight and dispa­rage the learned and Religious Clergy of this land, and our unparallel'd Ʋniversities, and disobey glorious and Paternal Counsels seal'd in bloud, (for Gracious [Page 58] Kings are Fathers to all their Subjects, next to their own begotten) and shame the cause of friends and fel­low-sufferers, loyally and sincerely defended to the last gasp in bloud and ruine, and to give just cause of boast and triumph to others, for early and wise fears, and jealousies and fore-sight; and at last reconcile the Nation by a secret judgment, against themselves; and profess the true Religion before men (believed in the heart to be false) by humane Patent and dispensation, against Conscience: And conceal a false Religion, (believed in the heart to be true,) And act to the prejudice of the professed, before de­claring for the intended, like giving Hostile broadsides, without an Hostile Flag, against the Law of Nations, and continue, or forbear vitious living, according to humane Indulgence and tedder, above the fear of God. Such twisted Arts, and servile postures of the Soul, (set by God above humane reach and power) such chymical, sublimated hypocrisie, and doubling, (to which all the Swords and Artillery of the World, pointed and planted against a single breast, ought not to be able to force a Coward to, all Politicians and Head-pieces, and Whisperers, to gull and se­duce a fool to) though they may go down with more ease, with French and Italian tempers, innur'd by ill fate, to absolute governments and cringes, and Slavery, how loathsome and repugnant, and a­gainst the grain, must they prove to any honest and generous, and freeborne, English spirit. And whence can this Civil War and distraction arise, but from some failer, and breach, and division of the alle­giance of the heart; in admitting some up-start usur­per, or Impostor, to be co-ordinate and equal, if not Superiour to Christ, its natural Liege Lord, and So­veraign, (which the Loyal part of the Soul will [Page 59] never be flattered, or frighted to agree or yield to.) Thus the heart, through its own folly, suffers it self to be ever disturbed, and racked between two con­trary Potentates, within its bowells: God, and Old Conscience, command, and approve of natural af­fection, and truth, and peace, and love to Countrey and obedience to Parents, and Kings, and Mercy, and Civility to all in Misery and Anxiety. The Anti-god, or New Conscience, commands the contrary, (as a piece of Catholick zeal, and Glorious hazard, and self-denyal) under pain of displeasure of the Holy See, and St. Peter, and St. Paul, and exclusion out of the Pale of the Church, and the like usual forms. Plain therefore, and evident it is, that the whole Controversy between us and Papists is re­duceable to one point, touching the Right and So­veraignty of the heart and Conscience, whose it is, and ought to be; whether the Lord Christ in my Text, as we hold with St. Paul, or the Pope and Successor to St. Peter, as they maintain at Random. If the Pope be God and Lord of the Soul, and not Christ, then we Protestants are much to blame in 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 [Page 60] 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, [Page 61] 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 [Page 62] 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 [Page 63] 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 Impostures are less tolerable, than the open Treason of a Cromwell, or the Tyranny of the Turk, because men may easier endure to be robbed, than to be cheated; and deprived of their purses, or Estates against their will, than of their Honour and understanding, with consent.

And as it hath been largely proved, that Popery consists in evident disobedience and Rebellion against the Right Heir and Soveraign of the heart. And Papists (in a greater concern) to jump exactly with the old Sexton, whose Clock went truer than the Sun: so positively also further to clear and evince the Truth, to be on the Protestant side in this main point and Issue (which is the hinge of the Contro­versie between us:) I shall also instance, how we Protestants Loyally adhere to our Right guide and Judge; and how the heart in all our principles, relies on God, and none else; and on Christ, who is the sole [Page 64] foundation of the Church, 1 Cor. 3, 3, 11. and the Rock whereon it is built, against which the gates of Hell can never prevail. Math. 16.18. We build our Faith upon the Holy Scriptures, which are Gods word, for hearts to rest on, whose Divine Authori­ty themselves dare not deny, without being the most convicted Hereticks, that ever disturbed Gods Church, in any age, however they Blaspheme and traduce them before the Vulgar. We come to know the Scriptures to be Gods word, (being not present our selves at passages,) by the Testimony and tradi­tion of others; such a Testimony, as is also Divine (or nearest to Divine) to be relied on by the heart: Not upon the Testimony of the Church of Rome by any means, who hath so much cracked her credit by legending, forgeing, expurgating, &c. for it were a great fault, as well as folly, in us, (who profess our Devotion to God and the Truth) to confide in the Father of lies, or such his followers; but upon our own honest Christian Ancestors, with other Churches, especially the Primitive, when most pure and Holy, and therefore likest to God, and to be believed, by consequence from the heart; and the rather, when seconded with the Testimony of the Holy Spirit, (to Holy Livers,) who is God. We be­lieve our sences (in their own Sphere) in many points, against the whole world, because we believe God in them with our hearts, who made our sences, and speaks through them, Prov. 20.12. We believe be­yond sence, and can see things absent, as if they were present to us, when we have Gods word to assure the same to our Faith, and consequently to our hearts; and can discern Christ present in the blessed Sacra­ment, and the Bread to be present nevertheless in different respects; and be assured of both in our hearts, [Page 65] through the evidence and strength of God, in whom our Faith and sences act, and move. But in a Reli­gion without the heart, (as is the Roman,) It is hard, if not impossible, to conceive or imagine, how any Sacrament of Bread, can be at all, amongst them, without Transubstantiation in the Elements; who will not, and cannot, admit of any other change by the heart and Faith, (which are not much in use in that Church, in this, or any other part of worship) which shews the root and occasion of that monstrous errour in that carnal Catholick Church, which cannot distin­guish between the objects of sence and Faith, and is observ'd to Apostatize herein, from their own An­tient Mass, which doth. We believe plain and manifest Truths of Scripture, without need of guides, against the Glosses, or Sophistry, or Authority, of the whole world to the contrary; for we believe God himself in them, with our hearts, who requires and deserves, to be so believed; because God himself leads us by the hand, as it were, yea with both hands, in plain Texts of Holy writ, on the one side, and his manifest Instincts of good and evil, on the o­ther in such manifest duties. And when God himself doth speak, all the world must hold the tongue; while the Sun is above the Horizon, Stars and Candles, (which answer to guides and supplies) abscond, and give way. Hawks and all other Birds, quit the Air, where the Eagle Towres; what Stupidity were it in a man of years and knowledge of the City, to ask the way from Charing-Cross to Temple-bar out of Reverence to his guide, and distrust of himself? in things obscure and Controversiall, (wherein neither we, nor others, can clearly, and assuredly, discern Gods mind, and will, for the heart to acquiesce in,) here we make use of Candles and guides; and especi­ally [Page 66] our lawful Superiours, who are Gods deputies, to direct us, and all others, that resemble God, in their gifts, or years, or places, or Major vote. For the next to God, is as God, unto us, (when God himself cannot be heard,) and our hearts can rest on them, but not with equal assurance, as on plain and manifest duties (as their importance also is not equal,) for there is a greater respect of the two, due to the Principal, than to his deputy. In like manner, in all Indifferent matters, which are the proper Province of the Magistrate, (for where Scriptures end, there humane Laws begin, where God withdraws, there his Deputies step in,) we submit to the determinations and publick orders of our lawful Governours, as to Gods voice and Au­thority, out of the obedience of our hearts to Christ, (present in our Superiours to our Faith,) and regard to the Churches peace, which is his image and darling. And they that refuse to submit and con­form, do it in adherence to their conscience, as they pretend; now conscience without a Rule is an Atheist, as is the heart without the Lord, and of no use, like a Sun-diall in the dark: It is not conscience, but the Quakers dark-light within; and the Rule is Christs Will: or to come nearest to his Will, which is the utmost satisfaction of the heart; now whether we keep nearest to Christ, in adhearing stiffly to private fancy, or submitting modestly to publick Authority, and Major vote, is the Question? which St. Paul puts of question, 1 Cor. 14.33. For Christ is, where peace, and humility, and order is, and not where pride and strife, and division are, and are ever like to be, while each prefer themselves, not only, before their equals, (which is pride,) but their Superiours likewise which is disobedience, and contempt of Christ, in his Magistrates added to it, which all true [Page 67] Christian hearts will avoid more than death, as be­ing not from God, as Papists truly object.

And so we Protestants, hold no Principle or Opi­nion, but what agrees with the mind of God and Christ: (which was the Rule and measure, that was to be agreed upon by both, to arrive at Truth) and endeavour always, to approve our hearts to Christ, who alone, is their Judge and Soveraign, and no mortal man whatsoever; believing and considering, that, as there can be no sin or vertue, where there is no Law; so a Law were to no effect or purpose, without a Judge to reward and punish the observers or transgressors of that Law; and Law-giver there is but one, who can save and destroy, James 4.12. The blessed Lord Jesus, Judge of quick and dead at the last day; whose deputies on Earth in the Interim, are consciences in Private souls; and Magi­strates, and Governours in publick bodies, who are as the souls of such bodies; whether Temporall, in Ex­ternall; or Ecclesiastical, in more Internall matters and concerns, who are all (both Private and publick conscience) Subject and accountable unto him, who alone, is Judge and Soveraign. And therefore we can do nothing against Christ, upon any mans Au­thority whatsoever; and being found faithful to him; the sole and Supreme Judge and Soveraign of our souls, we trust to be found Gods Catholicks, though we are but Hereticks to the Pope, who is not our Judge; rejoycing in mans aspersion; while we have Gods Absolution to wipe it off; for not he, who commendeth himself, is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth, 2 Cor. 10.8.

SECTION II. Of the true Mother Church in particular, to all Christians in respest of their In-side, and Romes Ʋsurpation.

HAving shewed, that no Christian Churches, or persons, are subject to the Pope, while himself is not subject to Christ, the right Superiour and So­veraign over all; nor bound to offend against Christ, to please his pretended Vicar; all being bound to withdraw their Communion from him, who shakes off the undoubted Soveraign over all: I will further shew, that though the Church of Rome were sound and un-corrupt in its Doctrines and Loyalty, (which it is very far from,) yet it neither is, nor was, ever any mother Church, to our British Church, nor can have any right or title to its subjection or obedience.

It never had any Original motherhood, or superio­rity over us of right, (nor in fact at any time, but by the Concession of our Princes, imposed upon by its arts, which they may justly recal, and take a­way at their pleasure, as hath been done.)

So it appears, it's themselves that necessitate us to desert their Communion, out of Christian Loyalty to our Saviour, by them first deserted and depo­sed in a treasonable manner; and his glorious Majesty chang'd into the similitude of a Calf, or a Mortal Creature, that perisheth, which is the first spring and root of the rest of their desperate and monstrous Errours, which bear the manifest spots and tokens of [Page 69] Antichristianism, in the strength and infallibility of their Delusions. Though we can, and ought to be­wail, and compassionate their condition and slavery; yet to return to their bosome, as to a Mother Church, we understand not how it is our duty, or sober obe­dience, were it sound or healthy; yet we doubt not, but she hath angl'd several sincere, and ignorant, and unwary Sons of this Church with that bait: We con­fess, we have been pin'd and stary'd under her, for hundreds of years, as under a hard and cruel Step­mother, while harbour'd by the Fathers of our Coun­trey, (imposed upon by her inchantments,) whose issue by her, as by a second venter, upon her divorce, became appurtenant to the Father, and are incor­porated with the first stock and Family; but sure we are, she never teemed of our Brittish Churches, who never were the Daughters of her womb, nor sucked our first milk from her breasts. For whether their inside, or their outside, or extraction be consi­der'd, they appear to have no descent from Rome: Neither can they instance, or insist upon any other point or manner of Pedegree and derivation of one Church from another. For, as it is with every pri­vate man, if his inside, and Soul, and Spirit, be exa­mined, whence it came; it came from above, from the Father of our Spirits, Heb. 12.9. and to return in peace to him that gave it, is its utmost aim and bliss, Eccles. 12.7. If the outside, or his body; it came from the Earth, whence it was first taken, and whi­ther it must return? If his intermediate descent, he springs and proceeds from Fathers, and progenitors of the Flesh, and owns their superiority and Dis­cipline, and honours their names and memories: So it is with all Churches and Christian Societies. By our inside, we are not from below, or from beyond the [Page 70] Sea, but from Heaven; Jerusalem above being our mo­ther, and Jesus our King, the King and Lord of Souls: By our outside, we are under our own Kings, and Go­vernours on Earth, as our Nursing Fathers and Mo­thers, according to the Holy Prophecy. As to our de­scent, Old Christian Britannia is our Mother, to whom the Antient Church of Rome is Junior in the Faith, and much more any of her Perking Daughters or Clergy, which shall be further proved in every particular.

And first, as to the inside of all Christian Churches and of the Church of Rome it self, (if she will be a Church of Christ, and of thousands in her, that have not bowed the heart to any, but to Christ, known to God,) There is no Mother-Church to be accounted of, but one only; the Spouse of Christ expressed by name in Scripture, Heb. 12.22. Not the City of Rome, who rather is under ill report in them, but the City of the living God: The Heavenly Jerusalem, which Gal. 3.26. is by the Apostle, Stil'd the Mother of us all, and which is free, and answering unto Sarah; where­as Jerusalem on Earth, answers Hagar in her ser­vitude: and yet Jerusalem below, is more a Mother of all Christian Churches, than Rome it self, or any other here below; for Rome her self had her extracti­on thence: her St. Peter, and his Chair, and the Gospel, and Christ himself, she, and all, must de­rive originally from Sion: And if the Mother be not free, much less her Daughters; for no Soul, or Church, can be said to be free, in her exile and ser­vitude, whiles she serves any other, but her own natural Prince, who is Christ alone the High Priest and Bishop of our Souls, who is at the right hand of God, in that Heavenly City and Assembly of the Faithful. For Christ is the sole Monarch and Le­gislator in this Spiritual Kingdom, and none are free [Page 71] Subjects here, but those who obey him alone, and no other Controller. His will alone, is the Law and mea­sure of good and evil, and duty, and transgression. He enacts, and repeals, and dispenses, and absolves; he alone can search, and reward, and punish Souls. The everlasting concerns of Eternity, and the secrets of mens hearts, transcend all humane authority, and cognizance, and reach. No secular Powers are to tread within this Temple, but are to stand without in the Court, though Christians; and in the further Court of the Gentiles, if Heathen, or Antichristian: Christs Deputies and delegates, in this Heavenly work and Province, are all Bishops and Curates, who by their life and Doctrine, set forth his true, and lively word, and rightly and duely Administer his Holy Sacraments, who yet have no power, or property, or Authority, but from him: Neither is the word they preach, 2 Thes. 2.13. nor the Sa­craments they administer; 1 Cor. 4.1. nor the Abso­lution they pronounce, Joh. 20.23. nor the flock they feed, 1 Pet. 5.2. their own, but all is Christs own, Mat. 28.18. 1 Cor. 3.23. And they are but Earthen Vessels and meer Instruments and Ministers under Christ, and Stewards of his Mysteries and Ora­cles, 2 Cor. 4.7. The lustre of his own Power and presence, obscures the Authority of these his Of­ficers, as the Sun doth Mercury, by nearness; who yet doing their duty aright, and from the heart, in his sight, whether in preaching, or threatning, or absolving, do all with his full Authority; and what they bind upon Earth, is bound in Heaven; and whom they absolve upon Earth, are absolved in Hea­ven; and who Honours and despises them, doth Honour and despise Christ himself to his high re­ward or peril, 1 Thess. 4.8. For the power and [Page 72] splendor of a right Minister of Christ, lyes in being one, and the same, and incorporated together with his principal; which is effected, by the sincerity of his heart, performing every part of his duty, as in his sight, and for his approbation only; whereby his preaching shall become powerful and victorious, and his Counsels Oracles, and his threats thunders, and his comforts, present health and Salvation, as if Christ himself spoke in him; for then his sheep hear his voice, Joh; 10.3. There is not that sympathy and intelli­gence, and corresponding responses between unisons of two Instruments, when only one is touch'd, as there is between Christ in the heart of sincere hearers, dis­cerning Christ in the hearts of sincere Preachers: O the Glorious Enterviews and Heavenly contenti­ons and killings of Grace, and gratitude, that oc­curr between two Christs, in Master and Disciple, in several respects and habitudes; Speaking, and hearing, the words of Christ between them: meek Majesty in the one, lowlily imploring, prostrate ex­tasie in the other, lovelily adoring and yielding: For the Apostles had a regard to Christ, as the judge of their preaching in the Consciences of their hearers, as well as in their own: Christ in both, observing and o­verseeing, the one and the other in their duties. There­fore the Bereaens are commended by the Holy Ghost, as Noble and Generous, in that they did not receive with implicit Faith, what St. Paul preached unto them, but weighed and examined his Doctrine, with their Consciences and Scripture (as it were with eye and rule) searching the Scriptures dayly whe­ther those things were so, Act. 17.11. For the Con­science of another, is not our rule, but our own; nei­ther shall we be judg'd hereafter, according to the cure and sincerity of our Teachers, but according to [Page 73] what was to be our own care and duty: Therefore the Spirits of Prophets, though inspir'd, were to be tryed and judged by Rule, or Christ in the Scripture, by other Prophets and Christians, that had not the same numerical inspiration, 1 Cor. 14.29, 32. And the Prophet of Juda was slain by God by a Lyon, 1 King. 13. for believing Gods word in another Pro­phet, against Gods word to himself: St. Paul con­sidered, that Christ had a throne in every Soul, and accordingly addressed his preaching to stand or fall by it, as that, which could easily discern and judge between craft and truth, 2 Cor. 4.2. We have renounc'd the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftyness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God, for every mans Conscience, ought to judge for it self, of the Truths it hears, and of the guides it trusts and chuses; else truth and errour, to be sav'd or damned by the one, or the other, were indifferent, were one and the same unto us. Therefore how many Souls there are, so many Kingdoms there are, and so many Christs in them, to govern them here, because he is their judge hereafter: And nothing without us, (how right, or good soever, hath validity or being, or naturalization, in us; till it be received, and ap­proved, and re-enacted in every Soul; for Atheism doth not annihilate God in himself, but in the Soul of the Atheist: As Faith, doth not give being to Christ, and Christian Truths, but only in Believers hearts. And the Soul can enact nothing rightly, without the advice and Councel of its Superiour; God and Christ in the heart, which is its rule, and in whom it lives, and moves, and acts: And nothing can it act with right and validity, nor satisfaction [Page 74] itself, or safety from the sword of the Magistrate, without, or besides this rule: For Rulers were or­dain'd to be a terrour to evil works, and not to good; to correct the whoredoms and Idolatries of the Soul, breaking out into vicious bastard Acts, concieved by Idols and lusts, admitted into those affections, which were due to none but Christ, her husband and guide: And no Child is so lovely in the eye of a fond Parent, as are the thoughts, words, and actions of Christians conceived between the Soul and Christ, guiding her self by his word, and Ministry, and that not only in the sight of God and Governours, and good men, but to the Consciences of the worst sinners, and much more to their own. It's a natu­ral instinct in the Souls of all men, good or evil, (which laughs at all humane Laws to the contrary) to admit of nothing into their Creed or practice, with­out consulting with the Rule that guides the heart, whether it be Christ, or Worldly Interest. Neither would men at first, have believed the Miracles of of Christ, or his Apostles, or received the Scripture, without consultation first had by every one with God speaking to him in his senses, or in his Conscience: But the Church of Rome expects that Christians, (though subjects of Christs Heavenly Kingdom) should receive her Laws and dictates implicity, and without scanning or recourse had to Christ, in the Conscience, or private judgment, which they utter­ly disallow and discountenance, in diametrical op­position to Apostolical practice and common sense, and instincts, and the nature of the Soul, and the Soveraignty of Christ, the King of Souls, which therefore is a manifest Antichristian invasion upon the Liberties of Jerusalem, which is above, our true Mother, and the temple of the Lord, Eph. 2.21, 22. [Page 75] wherein we every where find Popes intruding. If the inside of our British Churches, that is, our Souls, owe Daughterly subjection to them at Rome: It is ei­ther, as they are Soveraigns of this Heavenly Jerusa­lem, or as they are Ministers and Pastors: If they arrogate the first, then the charge of Antichrist against them, is acknowledged and confessed, with some ingenuity appearing in the Blasphemy: If their pretended power over our spirits be only Ministerial, (and St. Paul and St. Peter never did, nor could claim more over the inside of any Church, 1 Pet. 5.3.) why are not our Popes painful preachers to the Consciences of men? If not ours, yet of their own Italians? Let that Rule and Canon of St. Peter (whom they so much own for their Founder,) Judge between them and us, which Church, the Romish, or the Brittish, is the most faithful and motherly in the education of her Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, 1 Pet. 5.1, 3, 4. The Elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an Elder, (or Fellow-Presbyter) and witness of the sufferings of Christ—Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the over-sight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy Lucre, but of a ready mind: Neither as being Lords over Gods heritage, but being examples to the flock; and when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a Crown of Glory: Now the Popes are so far from feeding Christs flock, by their Doctrine or ex­ample, that no Pope was ever seen in a Pulpit, these many hundred years; and sometimes are no Di­vines, but Canonists most an end, or States-men, or Nuncio's, better vers'd in the Mysteries of the World, than of the Soul: And as to the other part of being Holy examples to Christs flock, (which is as ne­cessary to edifying, as preaching;) they do not so [Page 76] much, as pretend to it, but instead of morall at­traction, by the Heavenliness of their doctrines, or lives (wherewith souls can alone be won, which close with nothing but God, or what most resembles him, in light and holiness) they use ignorance, and blind obedience, and force, and Fagot, and Inquisition, which are secular and temporal weapons, and methods, to work upon Beasts, and Malefactors, and the body only; and not Spiritual, or Ecclesiastical, or Heavenly and proportionable to mens souls, which are Inha­bitants of Heaven: But if the guides of their Church, have neither the Truth, nor pretence and colour of Holiness, the whole mystery of iniquity, would go to wrack; therefore Holiness shall be arrogated as pecu­liar to them, not in respect of heart and life before God and men, (which would prove a hard lesson, and an unstable title) but in the Right and Prerogative of the Apostolick chair, what ever be their lives, or examples, vertuous, or vitious, exemplary, or scandalous, and Atheistical; which is but a wooden title, and would be as unstable as the former, with­out the strong supports, and butresses of blind Faith, and the slavish and bestiall ignorance of their Dis­ciples to acknowledge and bear it up. But though our Popes do fully quitt and resign their Ministerial Superiority over the Inside of Churches, (which was all that could in this respect belong unto them, were they extraordinary and inspir'd Apostles from this, or their own Inferiour Churches Subject to them) and therefore we need not be troubled in conscience, for detaining this Right and priviledge from them, which they never lawfully had here, or if they had, they do, and have for many ages, voluntarily, and heartily, and in the face of the world, quitted, and relinquished it for ages immemorial, both at home [Page 77] and a broad. Yet as to the rights and Prerogatives of the Soveraign, or chief Shepheard of this Hea­venly Jerusalem, as St. Peter calls him, (which never belong'd to them, nor to St. Peter himself, their pre­tended founder) none are more for them, than they be, nor more daring and greedily encroaching, and usurping daily upon them, (a Symptome of the old Disease, we are like to meet in every one of their practices and opinions.) What Christ enacts to be sins of everlasting stain and pravity, to depose lawful Kings, to Massacre and murder Nations, shall be no sins in Roman Catholicks, when their Sove­raign the Pope, shall insinuate to the contrary: Or­thodox Christians in Christs esteem, keeping to his word and will, shall be but Hereticks and Dogs with the Pope, for the same reason. Christ ordained Bread and Wine, for the Sacraments, the Pope is for Wine only to the people. He'l forbid (like Murder or Treason) Communion with Protestants, (whose Sa­craments are much purer than his own) and dispense and connive at stews, which Christ abhors. Alle­giance to Kings, and Faith and Civility to men, are duties with Christ, but sins with the Pope at his plea­sure. The Orthodox, and penitent, whom Christ absolves, the Pope will bind: he'l dispense with Hy­pocrisie, and License incest, and absolve Impenitence, and imploy debauchery and vice, in men and women, to promote the Interest of Holy Church; (though means and ends are Homogeneous in their natures, and as it were, of a piece) And men shall be flatter'd in sin, for gain, and cozen'd into damnation, for filthy Lucre, which God, and Angels, and all good men abhor, and Scripture detests, and no honest, or wise man, would be seen in, none, but a Cain, or Satan, or a Pimp, or a Pope. And thousands more of the [Page 78] like Abominations, and controlling of Christs will and Law, too much in request and daily practice; enough, without repentance, to invite, and hasten a Turkish Rod upon them, and to make the Earth weary in bearing, and Heaven in forbearing, such scandalous impieties, under the name of Christ, and mask of Religion.

SECTION III. Of the true Mother Church to every Christian, in respect of the out-side, and Romes Ʋsur­pations.

ANd as Churches by their In-side, are under the King of Heaven alone, so by their out-sides they are under their respective Earthly Kings: and not the Pope in either, what ever his incroachments are, or have been against the one, or the other So­veraign, against either of whose Authorities and Prerogatives, a strong man cannot, a good man, that bears any Character of Christ (as Popes pretend highly to do,) will not offer to plead prescription. Though no Secular power, have eyes sharp enough to search or discern the secret Communion of mens hearts and spirits, either rightly with God, that made them, or vilely with an Idol, which they have made unto themselves; nor hands rich and Liberal, to out-bid the deceitful promises of the flesh, or buy them out from a fancy, or zeal, that's false; nor arm, or strength, or sufficient terrour, to wrench them from a [Page 79] Martyriall truth, and therefore are insignificant in all their inquests, or attempts upon mens thoughts, which are as it were in another world, far out of their reach and view, and subject to no King, but Christ; who by beatificial Visions, and Eternal tor­ments, and (which is more forceing) the immense Humility, and kindness of his death, and power of his Resurrection, checks and reduces all the Idols of mens hearts, with all their train, and deceits, and contumacy, and keeps his Assises in every corner of those Intellectual Regions, through the Ministry of his Holy word, which, Heb. 4.12. Is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, pier­ceing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit, and of the joynts and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him, with whom we have to do. His Ministers, like men in Virginals, raising an Heavenly Harmony, upon the dead strings of mens hearrs, when the finger of the living God is pleased to touch, or quicken either: or like Pipes in an Organ, Dead and Dumb, as of themselves, yet sounding out aloud the high praises of their God in his Church, when they are filled with his Breath, and Holy word, and spirit,

However, when these inward conceptions of mens spirits bud and break out in Births, James 1.15. and land in another World, in the Territories of Earth­ly Soveraigns, who, like God, are both Omniscient and Omnipotent in their own Dominions and pre­cincts; Here the case is far otherwise, Here Earthly Magistrates have their free Liberty and Authority, to arrest and take, as in the out-side and purliews of the soul, whether they be Christian or Heathen, as [Page 80] well the one, as the other in their several capacities and Characters, Heathen Kings being Gods Deacons, Rom, 13.4. or his Ministers in the State, to preserve the peace of God and man, by frowning upon all vice and sin, and wicked lewdness, Act. 18.14. which is spiritual Idolatry and War against God in the heart, provoking his vengaence and judgement a­gainst a land; and to Protect and praise them in e­very good work and vertue, which is the amicable and loyall deportment, and worship of righteous souls towards God, whereby he is won to be favour­able in his blessings and protections, not only to them and their seed, but to the whole land, (though less deserving,) for their sakes, Gen. 18.32. And Christian Kings, being the Fathers and Bishops of the Church, and Christs undoubted Viccars, on Earth in all the outward affairs of that Holy Polity, to preserve its beauty and order, and the holiness of its Communi­on, against blemishes and scandals, according to the Rules of Christ; Christian Kings I say cannot be denyed to be the Fathers of the Church, according to Gods own mind in Esa. 49.23. Prophecies, like to Faith, being the evidence of things not seen, given their right stiles and Titles, to persons and degrees, as yet not in being, as if they were. And, as they are Fathers, so they are Bishops and Overseers of Christs Flock the Church, in things without, as o­ther Holy Bishops are in things within, as it was de­clar'd by our Constantine, the first Christian Emperour, in the first and great general of Counsel of Nice, of 318. Primitive, and the best tried Bishops, the Church ever had, Nemine contradicente, not one dissenting, or disliking the expression, either then, or since, but our Romish Popes of late after the Church began to slumber and degenerate. And Viccars on Earth they [Page 81] all are severally in their own Kingdoms by the Popes own confession, for so Eleutherius early declares, in his Epistle to our Lucius, the first Christian King in the world, (about the year 170. if it were the Act of Eleu­therius, or about the year 110. if the Act of Evaristus according toUsher de Britan. Eccles. Pri­mordiis p. 34. Ninius, or sooner ac­cording toUsher de Britan. Eccles. Pri­mordiis p. 34. Paulus Jovius) which though it be not Authentick in all its parts, and purposes, yet because some of our Kings might send to some of the Popes of Rome (then Famous in the world for their uprightness) to be Brotherly advised about some points of their Government, (unless our difference from them about Easter, as well as the East, might interrupt such correspondence or Communion,) and the Epistle passes for true, and Authentick amongst many of our Romanists; therefore the Testimony and citation in it, touching Kings being Gods Vicars in their Territories, is firm however, and binding against them to the full. And St. Paul doth no less, in the Principles, he layes down in my Text; by which every master is Christs Vicar to his own Servant; and by consequent proportion every King is Christs Vicar to his own Subjects: for the Apostle would have tied obedience upon Subjects toward Christians Kings if they had been in his time in being, in the same from and tenour, as upon Christian Servants here, towards their Christian Masters, as is observed by a right learn­ed Person: towards whom they are to do all from the heart, [...], as unto Christ himself, this [...] as, implies [...], so: as the master is is over the Servant, in his Civil capacity, his Civil Lord and Master, so is he over him, in his Christian capacity, a Christian Servant as Christ is over Christians and Subjects: Masters (and Kings by consequence) being Christs Image or simili­ude, [Page 82] or Lievtenants, or Viccars, as the particle [...] im­plies. The same Apostle exhorting every soul to be sub­ject to the higher Powers, Rom. 13.1. amongst whom are comprehended Ecclesiastical persons, as well as lay, saith St. Chrysostom, If those Powers become Chri­stian, as they are now with us, they become the Vicars of Christ by consequence, to all their Christian Subjects of the Clergy, as well as Laity, and were his Holi­ness a liege Subject of this Kingdom, our King would be inevitably Christs Vicar on Earth unto him, as he is undoubtedly to all English, or Brittish Roman Catholicks, who yet suffer themselves to be seduced by him, (who is no Viccar of Christ, to them, as such) to withdraw their Christian obedience from him, who truly is; and Unchristianly and disloyally to disown his Supremacy over them, who is as truly Christs Vicar over them in this world, as he is their Christian King, or they his Christian Subject.

Which is also agreeable to right reason, as well as Scripture, for there is a great difference between the Inside and the Outside of any Church, or particular Christian, which are in two several Kingdoms under two distinct Governments; the one Heavenly and Eternal, as is the soul, the other Earthly, or Temporal, as is the body, of which two, they are severally made. For such actions of the Soul, as are concrete to the body, and of use and moment in this present world only, and not contrariant to Divine Institution, and are circumstantiated with time, and place, whereby they become visible facts, preceptible by mens senses, and open to the view and cognizance of humane Au­thority, though they be concerning matters Chri­stian, or deportments, and behaviours, and wears, to be used within the Church, and in time of service, the same are not properly Spiritual (as they are [Page 83] vulgarly call'd, especially with them at Rome, whose whole Religion is about the outside) or Heavenly, or Eternal, and Invisible, and belonging to Salvation, which is equivalent; but they carry a Temporal or Secular, or Carnal nature in them, and belong there­fore to Temporal Jurisdiction, to each Crown they are under, and by no pretence to Rome; (but where Rome hath a temporal Authority to order them in her own Subjects;) but with us, they belong to our Bri­ttish Thrones, and Tribunals, and to Ecclesiastical Courts, (where they concern Christian) and Tem­poral, where they concern Civil Society, and to the Kings Subjects, as witnesses, and Juries upon the place, and not to any Forraign Chair or Rota, or Pack of strangers, to make profit of the difference, and laugh at the follies, and credulity of the appel­lants. The Supremacy of the King in all Causes, and over all Persons, as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal, being that which hath been learnedly evinced by our Writers, and is solemnly recogniz'd every day, in Gods presence, in Prayers and Oaths, according to the settlement of our Laws, by the Wisdom of the Nation.

But though this inside of the Church be properly Secular and Temporal, because visible, yet the Secu­lar Causes, which belong to the determinations of Christian Secular Authorities, are well and orderly distinguishable into Ecclesiastical and Christian, or Temporal, and Civill, as the whole Commonwealth, may be considered, either as a Society of men, or a Society of Christian men, or Church. In the first respect, as men, all are Subject to their own Kings, and Laws, in matters of life, limb, and property, whether they be Christian, or Holy, or Heathen and Antichristian, as they were before Christ came into [Page 84] into the World, and must be to the Worlds end. For Magistracy is Gods Ordinance (whom all men therefore are to be subject to from the heart, which alwayes attends what God appoints) though ma­nag'd, by a Claudius, who was weak and infamously credulous; or Nero, who for his cruelty was believed by many to be Antichrist; for to such, the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul command obedience and sub­jection, not only for fear of wrath and power, but for Conscience sake, and the fear of God, Rom. 13.5. 1 Pet. 2.14, 16. For they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation, Rom. 13.2.

Yet on this undoubted unforfeitable right of Earthly Kings and Governours, according to their several Constitutions by the Laws of their King­doms, the Pope, like a fift Monarch, hath ever, and still doth, affect and design new incroachments (as before upon the King of Heaven) and spiritual pre­tences of Superiority: Not only by exempting his Sub­jects and Clergy from secular subjection, (assuming to be the mother of the Child, that's not her own,) but also through his Emissaries and influence, in the time of his Reign and Power, in bringing the Lives of Subjects to the Stake, and their States into For­feiture, from their Posterity, for Opinions; and the Heads and Crowns of Kings themselves, to the like danger, for the like insufficient cause; Absolving Subjects of their Allegiance, which Christ binds on every Soul, and leading them into perjury and Rebelli­on, which God forbids and damns; being not only Tray­tors against Heaven and Earth therein, but, which is infinitly worse, Traitor-makers; (as Satan is worse than a sinner,) and, as many Traitor-makers, by their Doctrine (and what lyes in them,) as there are Sub­jects, or Polls in any Kingdom, they would absolve [Page 85] and seduce. Which made the Nation joyn unani­mously against their methods, not only by Acts of Treason, since the Reformation, but of premunire long before. A very Apostolical and comely deportment in a chief Professor of Christian Holiness and vertue! that he, and his Missionaries, should deserve to be thrust, and shoulder'd out, like Pests, by a wise, and a Religious people, (and their Friends,) and the door made fast against them, with the strongest Barrica­does, that could be thought of, Hanging, and Draw­ing, and Quartering! Yea many of his own Con­fessors and Martyrs, our Native Roman-Catholicks to this day, who sincerely adhere to all his other Doctrines, (though Flead Alive with penalties, and inconveniences for it) yet disclaim and desert his in­fallible guidance in this particular, and would be ready to venter Lives and Fortunes, for their Laws and Countrey, against any Invasion of the Land, though countenanc'd or authoriz'd by the Pope; for though such Loyalty be looked upon at Rome with an evil eye, as hath lately appeared in the Irish Ex­communications for the like principle and profes­sion of Allegiance, yet they are resolved to be true to their King, let who will call them Hereticks for being honest Subjects: And this their Resolution must be grounded, either upon Policy, or vain glory, (to avoid the danger, as well as the Infamy, of Re­bellious principles,) or upon Conscience to God, which only is true honour: I am apt, (if I do no wrong,) to believe the last, and to acknowledge, and own all such by Consequence, as true English Protestants, as any in our own Church, for prefer­ring Conscience before the Pope, which, as I have proved, is the chief point in difference between Pa­pists and Protestants. And the rather, if they deal [Page 86] alike, with the rest of their opinions, which set us at distance from one another, by the same rule, which if it be good and right, must hold, in the rest, as well as this; dismissing all other Tenets, that are excepted against, and have no support from God, or Conscience, or the Scripture, but the bare Authority of the Pontifical Chair. For being so dangerously and perfidiously deceived, while trusting to its judge­ment and of right interpreting, in a case so evident, and plain, and Important, as Neck, and Estate, and Salvation, can amount to: If they will suffer them­selves again, to be over-rul'd to differ from their Brethren, upon no reason of Conscience, but this bare Authority alone, whereof they have had tryal of its fidelity, and the old sophisme of believing as that Church believes: This cannot be counted wor­thy and filial piety, and well weighed Religion in them, but a negligent unadvisedness, equivalent to plain fault and folly, (especially there being present suffering, and future hazard in the Case,) according to the known Proverb: The Friend, that deceives me once, it is his fault; twice, it is my own. All differences in our Religion, being thus easily com­pos'd between us, (if they stand constant to their good principle throughout its consequences, as rea­son binds them to, (and there will be no reason else, to believe or trust their Loyalty) what a day of bliss would it be to them, and us, to go hand in hand to­gether, like Christian, as well as English, brethren, to their Churches and ours? what peace to them­selves, in their concerns, both within, and without? what tears of joy, would it cause in their Protestant Tenants and dependants, who would willingly re­signe their lives, to see that blessed day, what accla­mation and bone-fire throughout the Nation, for [Page 87] the restoration of its strength and Union? what Ec­choes and Halelujahs amongst the Angels of Heaven, that delight in mens Salvation, and return from Er­rour. But should they offer to make themselves, and us, and the Nation, happy, with such a Festival: How must they expect to be well lash'd for this, by their Old Friends, for Hereticks, and Schismaticks, and Apostates, from the Holy See; besides the ig­nobleness of changing, and being unconstant; to which I shall not now reply: But those of them, that through Gods Grace assisting them, nowithstanding such discouragements and obstacles, that will be leaders and examples to their brethren, in such paths of Peace and Life, and count it Glory and magna­nimity to adhere to truth, through shame and ca­lumny, and but an Heathenish vain glory, to be con­stant to Antient Errour, and will accept to be Gods Catholicks, although they may be branded for being Hereticks to the Pope therein; may the blessings of Heaven be multiplyed upon every one of them, and their Posterity for ever, according to the numbers and Myriads of hearts, in Heaven, and Earth, they shall, with their own, refresh thereby.

In the second respect, as the Church is a Society of Christian men, standing in need of Government, and Peace, and Order, and outward decency and Regu­lation in its publick Worship, and Communion, a­gainst scandalls from within, 1 Cor. 5.11. or tongues and censures from without, 1 Cor. 14.23. Autho­rity and power must of necessity be allowed in such external matters, to those that are Superiours and Governours in such a body, without whom, it were as impossible for it, to be kept in any order, as for an Army to subsist without any Officers, or Com­manders. And here, if any where▪ the Pope is to [Page 88] put in his plea and claim for Supremacy, which cannot be well denyed him at Rome, and his Suburbicarian Territories, where he hath the Power both of Prince and Bishop; but he never originally had over^(a) Mil­lain, and his next neighbours the seven Provinces of Italy, heretofore under their own peculiar Jurisdiction, without appeal to Rome, or conformity with it, in several of its Catholick Ceremonies, and ways of Devotion, particularly the Roman Fasting upon Sa­turday: much less over our British Isles, which ne­ver were within the Diocess, or Bayliwick of Rome, by any right; besides its new exclusion by the Su­premacy of our Kings, becoming Christian; the rising of the one, being the setting of the Glory of the other, like the Baptist giving place to Christ. For though before Kings be Christians, the Bishops and Officers of the Church, were Supream in their se­veral limits: It being equally incongruous, and in­convenient, for the Church, in Church Affairs, to be under Heathen Government, as under none at all: Yet Bishops themselves, though of Christs own ap­pointment and Institution, gave place and prece­dence to Kings and Emperours, becoming Chri­stians; who are Lords of our outward-man, and Gods of the outside, in all communities; allowing them to be now, Christian heads, of their Christian, as they were, Civil heads before, of their Civil Do­minions and Territories: And contenting themselves to be eyes to these Christian heads, and not the head it self, their Counsellours under them, and not their Lords above them, under any colour or pretence. The Bishops of the Church, being to resemble the Stars, in the Firmament of the Church, as they are stil'd by our Saviour, Revel. 1.10. who are to Rule [Page 89] by night as chief, when there is no Sun to shine: but as soon as the Sun appears (who resembles Christ, and Kings, his proper Deputies and Vicars,) then though never so fixt, they withdraw their splendor, and dis-appear, as to Lustre, but not as to influence, and assistance, being ready, in case of any Antichristian Ecclipse, to peep and shine at mid-day; as the dotage of Parents manumits the Sons; and in case not only the Sun be overcast, but the Stars also with it, by some Carnal Sympathy, and compliance, or thick storm and cloud, be in­tercepted from us, why may not private Souls be­low, take each Gods word and will, in the Bible, or Conscience, in the Creed, or Babtismal vow, as a Lamp to their feet, and a guide to their path, when there is no other light? Ps. 119.105. Why not beg the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that leads to all truth, which is not denyed to fervent prayer? 1 Joh. 2.20, 27. Luc. 11.13. The Cessation of Fathers and guides on Earth, doth not dissolve the Allegiance, or hopes of Orphan Christians from their Heavenly Fa­ther; but very commonly makes the dependance near­er, and closer, and the assistance wonderful, as in the Case of the late glorious King, deprived of his Chap­lains, of numbers of Religious Christians, such as St. Bernard, Gerson, and others, under the darkest times of Popery, and many British Families in England, de­prived of their Teachers, in the Pagan Invasion of the Saxons. The right Christian Soul, neither is, nor can be deprived of Christ, her best self; whether her guides on Earth remove, or stay, Rom. 8.38, 39. where she hath Superiours left, she obeyes them in Christ, which is the best obedience on Earth; where none are left, Christ alone, hath her whole heart, and immediate service, which is the obedience, [Page 90] that's paid in Heaven: as Noah is said to walk with God, the times being so corrupt, he had none else to walk with here. Gen. 8.9.

But when God doth bless a Nation, with guides and deputies under him, the chiefest heed and duty of the Soul (wherein her wisdom or folly before God and man, and her self appears) is in her chusing, and cleaving to her true guide, and superiour, and not the wrong; for by mistake herein, the rights and honour of the true Superiour, and representative of Christ, shall be Sacrilegiously with-held, and pro­phanely conferred on the false, which is her case and fate in every sin, that engrosses her affections, where the honour that's due to God alone, is paid to an Idol, for want of heed and difference to be made, between what is her real, and that which is only her seeming good, and lure to deceive her.

And the Errour, that may be commited in the Re­cognition of wrong Superiours over us, under Christ, in External matters of Religion, (For in Internals, or externals there is none to be over us, but himself,) is twofold; either (1) In specie, in kind, or (2.) gradu, in degree. The first, is a mistake in the whole; as if a Subject of France, should take the King of Spain for his Soveraign; in such a case, his obedience to the wrong, is Treason against the right Superiour, and is not his obedience, but his sin: the mistake in degree, is between Superiour and Subordinate; where respect and obedience is due to both, but the respect that's due to the Master, is given to the Servant, and the Steward honoured above the Lord, and the Officer, above the Prince, that Authorizes him, which is the usual honour of those, that make blind obedience and advantage, more than conscience, the measure of their duties. The last, is more absurd [Page 91] and faulty, for the first, is liker madness and distraction, one purblin'd in his Intellects may be guilty of the one, but none can be guilty of the other, but him, who is wholly blind, and mad. For God and nature directs men, and Christians, and Irrational Creatures themselves, to make a difference between Friends and strangers, and though to be civil to all, yet not to rely, and trust on those we know not, as much, as on those we know. The word Hostis for an Ene­my, at first did signifie a stranger, so easy is the transition that is between them: and in Church de­pendance, which is our present case, God hath given great Instances to the world in general, and to all Nations in particular, that it is not his will, we should be led by strangers, more than by guides of our own flesh and bloud: for this cause, Christ took upon him humane nature, when sent by God, John 17.3. to direct the world; For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels for this purpose, Heb. 2.16. which though greatly Holy, is yet Forraign to ours; and, as it were of another Country, and their best messages seldome received, by the best Christians, without fear, and horrour, and suspition Luk. 2.9. Math. 28.45. But he took upon him the seed of Abra­ham, being sent unto his own, John. 1.11. And in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren to be the better fitted for Sympathy towards us on his part, and the belief thereof on ours. Heb. 2.17, 18. In like manner, in sending his Apostles for the con­version of Nations, the first fruits in every Nation, that were converted to Christ, were appointed for Bishops and Teachers, as soon as might be, to convert their Brethren, and the Supemacy over the Gentile Churches, not entail'd upon a Jewish line and suc­cession forever, as our first Teachers; but upon the [Page 92] Natives themselves, in every City and Country, when fitted for it, to Govern and direct their people; and every Province to have its own Metropolitan, chief within it self, and unsubordinate to Foreigners. And it is likewise observed, that the needs of every Country in point of food, and Raiment, and Phy­sick, is best supplied from within it self; and whether it be for the health, or interest of this Nation, to delight to wear forraign Liveries above its own, I shall not now dispute; and, but that the Witchcraft and fascination, that is in errour, doth Seal up the Intellect, it deludes; less dispute there would be with all sober minds, but that we have Governours of our own Nation (praised be God) fitted as likely for ability and compassion, to be faithful guides to their In­feriour Brethren, as the greatest Angels of the Church of Rome; to whom (were it alwayes certain, they would prove good Angels) we are not so near and dear, as to our own Pastors, who are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. And that our own wise Kings and Parliaments, have, and can, make as wholesom Laws for this Church and State, as the Conclave ever can or did, how far, and how dear soever fetched and bought.

To alledge, as the Romanists do, that Christ had his fix'd Officers, his Apostles, and Bishops in his Church, before there were any Christian Kings, which cannot be denyed; that St. Peter was the chief of these Apostles, which also may be granted, for peace-sake, as to his precedence, but not any Juris­diction; that the present Popes are the successors of St. Peter in all his Authority and Holiness, whether they follow him, as he followed Christ, or not; and therefore are Superiours to all Christian Kings and Princes, in their own Teritories, as well as at Rome, [Page 93] in all affairs relating to Religion, is such a broken Title, such a far-fetch'd Etymology, and derivation of Authority, as only fully proves the Antichri­stian humour of exalting themselves, above every thing that is called God, or [...] Majesty, as the word may imply (which is the Jaundize, that over­spreads the face and vitals of that Church all over) but cannot satisfie the conscience of any sober Eng­lish Christian, to relinquish, and renounce, his mani­fest allegiance, and Subjection to his own Prince, and Church, to whom it is due, to bestow the same to his own wrong, and Spiritual danger, as well as Temporal, upon a forraign Power, to whom it is not due, and to rob his King, to maintain a cheat. For neither are our Brittish Churches more Subject to the Chair of Rome, than is the Crown of France, to the Crown of Spain, which it had long a mind to, but never any right; neither, if degrees and dignities be compared, are Crowns to be Subject to the Mitre, but the Mitre to the Crown. For Kings, if Heathen, are without the Church, and therefore not Subject to the Pope, were he a lawful Vicar of Christ, for what have I to do, to judge them that are without—them that are without, God judgeth, 1 Cor. 5.12, 13. neither do they forfeit their Soveraignty, by being Christian Kings, by any colour or pretence of St. Peters su­premacy, St. Peter himself being judge, who writes to his fellow Elders, to feed the flock of God, which was among them, 1 Pet. 5.1, 2. and to be subject for the Lords sake to the King, as supreme; for so is the will of God. 1 Pet. 5.1, 2. There is no where, less love and honour from the heart, to that blessed Apostle St. Peter, (no not perhaps in Hell) than amongst them at Rome; an out-side love or Phi­lauty, for Secular ends and designs, they may have [Page 94] for him, beyond any, (such as the Ephesian Silver­smiths had for Diana, by which they had their wealth. Act. 19.24, 25. or Turks for Christs Sepulcher, which turns to account unto them,) which is not their love to St. Peter, but to themselves, and bellies; for if they had the least love and honour from the heart, in Christ, to his name and dignity, they would rather chuse to starve, or beg, than face their frauds, and cheats upon all degrees of men, with his name and Authority, or make him a com­plice, or an Author, to all their impious Usurpations, and Rebellions, against the Kings both of Heaven and Earth, against his mind and principles, as before. For St. Peter himself, from whom Popes derive all the power over Kings, they can pretend to, yea Christ himself, from whom St. Peter had his, and the whole Christian Church in his divine person, while he was on Earth, did submit to Magistrates and Presidents, acknowledging their Power to be from Heaven John 19.11. and his Kingdom not to be of this world, Joh. 18.36. as his pretended Vicars cannot also be, by consequence; for a Deputy cannot have more Power than his Soveraign. St. Paul commands every soul to be Subject, or subordinate to the higher Powers, Rom. 13.1. (which St. Chrysostom upon the place, as before, extends to Apostles and Ecclesiasticks, as well as Lay, and with good reason, for no Crime can be Treason, where is no Subjection,) and gives the title of excellency to Festus, an Heathen President, Act. 26. as St. Luke to Theophilus a Christian, Luk. 1.3: an evident argument, that neither would have denied the title of Majesty to a King, and much more to a Christian King; for as Servants gained no outward liberty, by becoming Christians, but continued Ser­vants after, as well as before their conversion. [Page 95] 1 Cor. 7, 20, 21. So neither do Kings lose their Pre­rogatives, or Supremacy, by being Christians, but are to be received into the Christian Society, or Church, in the same degree, and quality, they had in the Civil, or State; Superiour to all, Inferiour to none: And the Texts therefore, that command obedience and submission to Heathen Magistrates, do command the same much more to Christian: And manifestly condemn the Pope as Antichristian, in denying it. And as in the World, or the Kingdom of God, they were Gods Deacons, or Liturgists, as they are stiled, Rom. 13.4, 6. or his Ministers for the encou­ragement and discouragement of Vertue and Vice v. 4. So in the Church, or the Kingdom of Christ, they are Christs Ministers, to serve him with their Authorities, in maintenance of Holiness and Order, which is ver­tue in its highest degree; and extirpation of Scandals, which is Vice and Confusion, under greatest aggra­vation. Which trust and supremacy, they bore in the Church of God, in all Ages, under all dispensa­tions, in Old Israel, or the Jewish Church, and New Israel, or the Christian, Gal. 6.16. For so Aaron gave place to Moses, and Nathan though inspir'd, counts himself, but the servant of his King nevertheless, bowing himself with his face to the ground, when he came into his presence, as his deportment is re­corded, (not for naught) by the Spirit of God, 1 King. 1.23, 27. And such was the power and in­fluence of the Kings of Israel, in matters Eccle­siastical, that the whole state and face of the present Church, and the fate and destiny of the land it self, is usually comprised by Scripture, in one word, in the Character of the Kings heart, that reigned, whe­ther it was right with God, or not: When it sayes, that such and such Kings, did that which is good, or [Page 96] that which was evil, in the sight of the Lord, and what was like to follow from such example; for no face or figure of Heaven, can be more benigne, or fortunate: No Comet so portending, and ill boding to a Nation, as a wakeful, or a supine Prince, in Mercy, or Judgment, appointed over it, that eyes all him­self in his Charge, or trusts too far to others: The Prince is the first and Master wheel, even in the Church, that gives motion, and Order, to all the rest; all will be at a stand, or out of order, when this, is: He is the Architect in the building, and or­dering, both of Tabernacle and Temple, according to his Pattern from God; he sets all to their proper work, and erects, and dedicates, both the one and the other; and places Aaron and Levi in their several Stations, each one afterwards to look to their own work and duties of Instructing, Sacrificing, attoning, interceding, that God may dwell in the Camp or State, as the Life, and Soul, and Strength there of. And their care of Gods Church, was not a free will Offering, or a generous work of Super-erogation in the Kings of Israel, which was their praise and honour to mind and attend, and not their guilt to neglect and leave to others; but it was the principal indispen­sable point of their trust and charge. For Old Israel might be said, to be more a Church, than a Kingdom, being the [...], the Lot and Inheritance, the Clergy, or spiritual Kingdom of God. The rest of the Hea­then World, being revolted from him, and kept in slavery under the Prince of the power of the Air, Ephes. 2.2. And therefore the Governour of such a Nation, was more the head of a Church, than the King of a Countrey, being truly both the one and the other; the one supremacy being common to every Heathen Prince, but the other proper and peculiar [Page 97] to Rulers in Israel. For God himself by particular condescention was King of Israel, 1 King. 8.7. And men came to be Kings, by his permission and al­lowance, as his Vicars and Lieutenants, to main­tain his Worship and Honour, wherein the peoples happiness, as well as their Prerogative did consist. In the World, he was the best and completest Prince, that had most of the Councellor, or Captain in him, to suppress all disorder and violence at home, by Laws, and all invasions and dangers from abroad, by Arms and Courage: But in Israel, he was the best King, that had most of the Priest and Bishop in him, to win God of his side: They conquered their ene­mies in the field then best, when they served God best at home: Their Victories and Successes depended not so much upon their Bow and Chariot, or the Conduct of their Generals, or the Courage and Num­ber of their men, as upon having the Lord of Hosts on their side, to go along with their Armies, which Blasphemous Lives never had the Happiness to pro­cure; that Rule of our Saviour, that directs how to prosper in the World, being true, as well before, as since his coming: But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his Rightousness, and all things shall be added unto you, Mat. 6.33. For it was their sins, that gave va­lour and prevalence to their enemies, and despon­dency to themselves; Then was there War in the gate, when they sought after new Gods, Jud. 5.8. The chil­dren of Ephraim carrying Bowes, turn'd their backs in the day of Battel, because they kept not the Covenant of God, Psal. 79.9. And it was their Piety and Re­pentance made them miraculously Victorious, when over-match'd: Yea, the Heathen Historian observes and confesses the like touching the Roman Empire, that its progress and success was founded in sincere [Page 98] zeal for their Gods, as its decayes and overthrow to arise from profane remissness and easie Luxury. Up­on good reasons therefore, as well of Conscience and Equity, to approve themselves Faithful and Loyal to Gods Honour and Interest, to whom Kings are immediate Subjects, as they expected the like Fide­delity and Loyalty from their people appointed to be their Subjects; as of publick wel-fare and pro­s [...]erity to their Nation, (obliging Arguments with ri [...]ht Princely dispositions,) We find the best Kings of Israel (and even Heathen Kings, when sober,) chief­ly to imploy their Royal Authority and Power about matters Ecclesiastical, to suppress Idolatry, to reform Abuses, to settle wholesom Laws and Fences, about Doctrine, Worship and Discipline, in Gods Church. To put down high places, Groves, Idolatrous Altars, Sodomites-houses, and all strange Religion, as did Josia, 2 Kings. 23.4, 5, 6, 7. And other Kings to break in pieces the Brasen Serpen [...], though made by Moses, when abused to Idolatry, as did Hezechia, 2 King. 18.4. To send able Teachers throughout the Land as did Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 2.8. to Dedicate, and Re­paire, and Purifie the Temple, as did Solomon, 1 King. 8.29.6. and Joash, 2 Chron. 24.4. and Heze­chia, 2 Chron. 5. To institute the Feast for the De­dication of the Temple, as did the Macchabees, 1 Macch. 4.56.59. which our Saviour honour'd with his presence, Joh. 10.22. To restore the celebrating of the Passoever to its Ancient Rite, 2 King. 22.21. To appoint a Fa [...]r to save his Nation, as did the King of Niniveh with success, Jon. 3.7, 10. To decree Blas­pheming Hectors to be cut in pieces, as did the King of Babylon, when converted, Dan. 3.29. To appoint Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical, as well as Temporal, 2 Chron. 19.8. Amaria the Chief Priest in all matters [Page 99] of the Lord, and Zebadia the Ruler of the house of Juda for all the Kings matters, v. 11. To assemble Synods and Councells about Sacred Affairs, for set­tling the Ark, as did David, 1 Chron, 13.2. For dedi­cating the Temple, as did Solomon, 1 Reg. 8. and refor­ming the Nation, and bringing them back un­to the Lord God of their Fathers, as did Jehosha­phat, 2 Chron. 19.4. To maintain their Command and Soveraignity in such matters, not only over all the people in general, 1 King. 23.21. but over the High Priests themselves in particular, by assigning their work and duty, 2 King. 22.8, 12. Where Jeho­shaphat layes command upon Hilkiah the High-Priest; thrusting them out of their High-Priesthood for their Disloyalty, as Solomon did Abiathar, 1 King. 2.27. And sparing them their Lives in courtesie to their Coat, v. 26. And this their pious care and zeal for God and Religion, (which in the Popes account were little less than intermeddling in other mens rights,) is recorded in Gods account, as their Eternal praise, and honour, and good service to their Countrey. And like Josiah, was there no King before him, that turn'd to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his Soul, and with all his might,—Neither arose there any like him, 2 King. 23.25. And Jehoshaphat sought to the Lord God of his Father, and walked in his Com­mandments, and not after the doings of Israel. There­fore the Lord established the Kingdom in his hands, and all Juda brought to Jehoshaphat Presents, and he had Riches and honour, in abundance, 2 Chron. 17.5. And the contrary neglect about the Worship of God, in their wicked Kings, and making their people to sin by their defection, or ill example, was the ruine of their Land, 2 Chron. 36.17. And a Brand of Infamy upon their names in particular, forever, as the fol­lowers [Page 100] of Jereboam the Son of Nebat which made Is­rael to sin, and therefore liker to Satan therein, than to Gracious Kings and Fathers.

And what was thus their bounden duty and honour, in the Kings of Israel, to imploy their Autho­rity and Government for God and his Church, upon the like ground and proportion, is the duty and in­terest of all Christian Kings: for a Kingdom that becomes Christian, becomes a Church thereby, or the [...], 1 Pet. 3.5. the Heritage and Clergie of God: a Christian Kingdom is a new Israel of God, Gal. 6.16. and Christian Kings by consequence are heyres of the same Prerogative and Supremacy, that did belong in Israel to the Kings of Israel, where the High-Priests were subordinate in externals to the Kings, and not the Kings to the Priests. It is a contradiction to be a King, and to be Subject: wherein Popes are made Supreme, Kings are made Subjects; there cannot be two Supremes in the same Church or Kingdom; and it were a great snare and Spiritual misery to be sub­jects under two contrary Soveraigns, and to be bound in conscience to obey contrary injunctions and commands, whereby inevitably their obedience to the one, becomes their sin and transgression against the other Soveraign; which is the condition of Ro­man Catholicks, who own the Pope for supreme, to the wrong of those Christians Soveraigns over them, whose right it is; whereby their conscientious Catho­lick obedience, becomes unconscionable disobedience to their right Superiour. It concerns and behoves them therefore, and every other Christian subject (in whom the word of Christ ought to dwell richly in all wisdom, Col. 3.16.) to be fully satisfied, who is to rule them. He that mistakes his Soveraign will mistake his Loyalty. The Old and New Testament, [Page 101] knows but two Soveraigns, God or the King, Christ or Caesar, 2. Chron. 19.11. Math. 22.21. so the Jewish, so the Ancient Christian Church; so the Church of England held upon the Reformation, when the whole Nation, both Parliament, and Convocation unani­mously agreed, that the Pope had no more to do in England, than any other Bishop. The Soveraignty of the Lord the Pope, starting up when the Church began to degenerate, strongly savours of a fifth Mo­narchy, or an Antichristian erection. Christ only is the Immediate Soveraign of the Inside of men in his Church, Kings the Immediate Soveraigns of the outside in their Dominions: the Pope or Prelate is Soveraign in neither, Pet. 5.3. Rom. 13.1. therefore there is no obedience due, from the heart and con­science, to spirituall Governours, but wherein they agree in their Doctrines with Christs mind, and clash not in their outward order and Discipline, with the rights of Christian Kings: for delegates are to be obeyed in, and for, and not against their Prin­cipals, and the soul is subject to none, but to a su­preme, either the Lord Christ, who is absolutely such; or our Lord the King, who is such in externals by Christs concession, Prov. 8.15. subject also it is to Governours, but for his sake, and by his com­mand, that is to say, it's subject not to them, but to him.

But it will be still objected, what have Kings to do with Religion? that wholly belongs to Spiritual persons, and the Clergy, and to the Pope, the Pa­triarch, in such matters, and by consequence, Su­preme; and it must still be answered and acknow­ledged; That the substantial part of Christian Reli­gion lyes out of the Horizon and Territory of Kings, in another world, as it were, where yet none is Sove­raign [Page 100] [...] [Page 101] [...] [Page 102] but Christ alone; Popes and Bishops and Infe­riour Priests being all officers and Ministers under him in this Kingdom, all of equal degree and power; with­out difference in their Authorities or Keys, saving that in equity and merit, they are foremost and chiefest, who are most painful and faithful in this trust. Kings well observe their bounds therein, they do not (as they ought not) intermeddle in such mat­ters between the soul and God, as are of divine Insti­tution, or immortal importance; they meddle not with the Priestly office; and great would be the peace of Churches, and of the world, if the Pope did as little meddle with the Kingly: they take not upon them to preach and publish the Laws and mind of Christ in his name and Authority, nor to denounce wrath and War against offenders high or low, nor of themselves to Excommunicate the unworthy from the Holy Society of Christs Church, and all hopes of mercy till they repent and change, nor to arbitrate, as for Christ, who are fit and worthy of Grace or pardon; neither do they travel between Heaven and Earth, upon messages between Christ and souls, as the Angels upon the ladder, being now Gods mouth to the people, in wholsom Counsels and Instructions; anon the peoples mouths to God, in humble con­fessions or thanskgivings; as neither did the Kings of Israel ever offer to enter the holy place, or order the Shew Bread, or Sacrifice, or incense, (which might have been done with the same skill, though not with the same Authority, by Common persons, as by Priests) and hath been attempted by one or two, but to their wo: No, under both Law and Gospel, these offices did solely belong to peculiar Ministers and Levites set a part by Gods Institution on purpose, who were and are the Clergy of his Clergy and Heri­tage, [Page 103] and the Priests to those in speciall, that were and are his peculiar people and Priest-hood, Exod. 19.6. Revel. 1.6. The Church it self being Laick and common compar'd to these, as was the World to the Church. For no less is implied in the reason of those expressions, where both the Christian and Jewish Church, are said to be a Kingdom of Priests, as in Exodus, or Kings, and Priests to God, as in the Reve­lation: they being in special manner Kings, and Priests, and Clergy, from whom the name and title is deriv'd to others, for some likeness and comparison, for what the Copy is, that is the Original much more. And if Christs mission was not from Secular, but Di­vine Authority, so neither is the Institution of the Evangelical Priesthood from man, but from God, be­ing sent from Christ, as he was sent from God, Joh. 20.21. Bishops and Presbyters being equally from Christs own Ordination and appointment, though not of equal order and degree between themselves, but in several respects the one Superiour (and which may seem strange) inferiour likewise to the other. For the better understanding whereof, the distinction be­tween Spiritual and Temporal, is to be remembered, and considered in its Primitive and Apostolical ac­ception, and not the modern Roman sense, who con­found Heaven and Earth in their notions, as they do in their values and affections; the one referring to the present visible world, the object of sense; the o­ther to the Church, or Invisible world to come, wherein Christians live here by Faith; the Church be­ing more excellent than this world, as eternity is more than time; and yet this world more excellent than the Church, (which is dead unto it,) in the estimation of sense, as is the living more excellent than the dead, Eccles. 9.5. whereby is discoverable the several Su­periorities [Page 104] between Episcopacy and Presbytery, in the same person in whom both are co-incident, as they are in every Bishop, and those Elders in Timothy, who for Ruling well, and labouring also in the word and Doctrine, were counted worthy of double honour, 1 Tim. 5.17. where, in the words [...], and [...], we have a clavis to decide this diffe­rence; for the habitude and Character of a Bishop, is that of [...] or Ruler or Prince, as the Brittains term their Arcsh-Bishop of Carleon to Monk Agustine; but that of a Priest or Presbyter, is the form and quality of a Subject, or Servant, or Labourer, which two notions greatly differ, like God and Creature; But then their several allotments, or respective worlds, are to be considered, wherein the one and the other are said to labour, or bear Rule. And clear, first it is, that the Presbyters labour, as a Ser­vant under Christ, in his word and Sacraments, is within the Vineyard of the Church, and therefore belonging to Eternity, as the Church it self doth; and that the Rule of the Bishop in the second place, is Temporal by consequence, and about order in this pre­sent world; and the better preservation of the Tem­poral out-side of the Church; for to affirm it to be a Spiritual Rule over the Church in its in-side, (which is Eternal, and Christs own Peculiar Jurisdiction,) were very inconvenient and unsound. And this Temporal Superiority over the Temporal part of an Ecclesiastical Community, as to all Causes and per­sons, that be within it, (for any Society whether Sacred or Civil, can no more subsist, or fare well, without a Governour or a Chief, than a body with­out a head) continues in Bishops, by Christs establish­ment, till the rising of the Sun; that is, till the Civil Magistrate of that Province become Christian; [Page 105] whose defect they before supplied, as Guardians; and then it doth set, or cease, but Heliacally, as the Stars set in the morning, in deference to a grea­ter lustre, that is better able to do their work, continuing still in the same firmament and San­hedrin, under his Rayes, and Bound nevertheless by their office and duty, to be ready to shine again without him, (as before) in case of dark­ness, or Eclipse, as was said before. And it well appears how the Christian Temporal Magistrates, and the Church have understood one another, in reference to their several bounds and limits, by those parcels of Ecclesiastical Authority the one hath resum'd, as his right, and the other wil­lingly quitted and yeilded thereunto as just, upon his arrivall to Supremacy in Church, as well as state. For we never find him offering to touch any part of the Priestly office or the Power of the Keys, nor to preach, or Baptize, or absolve, or consecrate, which acts and Authorities belong to another Spiritual Kingdom, farr enough out of his Temporal Dominion and Jurisdiction. But several parts of Episcopal Rule and Government, have been rightly assum'd and yielded to him in Gene­rall Counsels, and in our Church of England in particular, wherein he is declared supreme in all Causes and over all persons Ecclesiastical, which was the Original Right of Metropolitans, but since held by them, as was fit, not as Soveraigns any more but as subordinate to their Christian Magistrates. And by this Hypothesis, is resolvable, whether Bishops ordain Priests, as they are Priests, or as they are Rulers, which would make for the strength and re-al­lyance of the Protestant Interest: For Bishops cannot Ordain of themselves, without Priests to assist, much [Page 106] less can Priests Ordain without a Bishop to preside, where he may be had; and Christian Kings offer not to resume (as their temporal right) any part of the Ordination or Consecration of either sort, but only nominate our Bishops in the right of Patrons or Foun­ders, or as representers of the whole Community, by whom they were in the Primitive Church elected, as likewise in the Brittish. Therefore the Priest, who is but a Labourer, is Inferiour and subordinate in this World to the Bishop, who is a Ruler, by Divine Order and designation, not to be violated by any, with­out the guilt and scandal of being Rebells against Su­periours. And the Bishop in his Chair as a Ruler, is Inferiour to himself in his Pulpit, as Christs Labourer and Preacher, in reference to the other World. For it is a higher excellency to be the least in Eternity, than the greatest in time, to subdue sin than to subdue the World, Psal. 84.11. Which yet, is so, as to Faith, and reason, and the Consciences of all sober men, with their own; yet not as to sense, or the Law and course of this present life, and general Practice; whereby through humane infirmity very few, (yet not wanting in our times,) have been observed to be as ambitious of the labour of Converting Souls, as of the honour and command of a Rich Bishoprick; though the worst (and Welsey himself) at their dying hour have yielded to this Truth: Whereby no In­feriour Minister, that is diligent in his work and cal­ling, can have reason to envy the higher condition and temporal honours of Superiours in this World, having such great reward and honour in reserve from God, for his own work. And we see the Soul it self, though never so excellent or extensive, to be con­tent in this life, with less room and port, than the body; and an Idiot may have a greater presence [Page 107] than a Rabbi, though the one have its name from restraint and narrowness, the other from Amplitude of person and endowments; and Davids great spirit which encountred Bears, and Lyons, and Goliah's, had but a narrow Case: And St. Paul who overcame the world by his Ministry, is said by some; To be weak in presence, and in his speech Contemptible, 2 Cor. 10.10.

And were not Christ, the only Master and Re­warder, and Judge, and King; and his Priesthood but in the Character and Condition of Labourers and Stewards under him, and not the Lords and pro­prietors of his blessed word and Mysteries; who were able or sufficient, to requite their spirituals? Is the tenth of an Estate, or thousands of Rams, or ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl, or the whole World (were one sole owner of it) a sufficient price or pre­sent, for the Gospel, or for Christ, or for pardon of sins, and peace of Conscience, and the Souls Salva­tion? What Kings or Emperours were too good to bow, and prostrate themselves before Popes, (if they preach'd) or any right Minister of the Gospel, were their comfortable messages their own, and not their Heavenly Masters? Yet though they are but Instru­ments and servants under Christ, are they not to be left without honour, and esteem, and maintenance from men, and that not mean or scant, for their work sake; though they be to expect their full re­ward and portion from none, but God. For the reason and Civility of Nations, (though they reserve the Glory and honour to the chief Authors of their deliverances and victories,) yet leaves not the Mes­sengers of good Tydings without their due respect and presents. God alone is our supream King, and Father, preserver, and our Earthly Superiours, and [Page 108] Benefactors, and Delieverers, are but Instruments under him: And though the respect that is due and congruous to the principal, be not payable to the Instrument; yet by all Laws, and Instincts of Grati­tude, and Conscience, and Customes of Nations, Instruments under God of Benefits, Kings, Fathers, Conquerours, Benefactors, receive that proper and meet acknowledgment and return, that is their due; yet Instruments are by no means to step into the Throne, or usurp or arrogate the Royalties of their Principals, but must rest content with that Tribute of respect and honour, that is due to their subordinate Ranks and Stations, though they are the Con­veyers under God of Spiritual, which infinitely ex­ceed all temporal benefits and mercies.

And great and remarkable is the difference be­tween the Pains of the Clergy, and the payments and rewards of the Laity, in the Ancient and Primi­tive times, when Christ was more in the heart, and the World less, towards what it is, and hath been, in the degenerate times of Christianity, when the World began to have more of mens hearts, than Christ. St. Peter, though the Prince of the Apostles, and Foun­der of our great and Wealthy Popes, was not worth a Groat upon the score of his Function; for so is his answer to one begging his Alms, Silver and Gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee, Act. 3.6. And yet all Rich Christians then, that had either Land, or Houses, sold and parted with all, and laid them at his feet, c. 4.34, 35, 37. so great was the clearness of the one, and the gratitude of the other, and the care and pre­ferrence of the Community and of the poor in both. And St. Paul laboured night and day to get his liv­ing, while he preach'd the Gospel of God unto o­thers, 1 Thess. 2.9. Yet bears them record, That [Page 109] they were ready to pluck out their eyes, if possible, to give them to him, Gal. 4.15. A good Argument, that they that would not spare their Eyes, much less would spare their Purses for his sake; as others more re­mote cannot erect Temples, (though miracles of the World for magnificence) sufficiently answerable to the merits of his memory. And the Apostolical ab­stinence was closely followed by the succeeding Heroes of the Primitive Church: As Origen and o­thers, who preferr'd Hearts before Purses, and fared hard, and went barefoot, while they had Nobles for their Converts, which is not to be attributed to Sullenness, or Melancholly, or Vain-glory, but ei­ther to the strict observation of our Saviours Rule, Freely have you received, freely give, more binding in those times of Miraculous assistance: Or to an aime of trampling this present World under their their feet, and encouraging their Christian followers in their poverty and persecutions, as the Emperour Severus us'd to walk bare-head in snow and rain, to hasten the tardy March of his Armies: Or to the Eternal Rules and decencies of giving and receiv­ing, which require the one part to forget their merits, the other never to forget their benefits; more lively exerted in them, who by extraordinary Grace were better fitted to represent the several parts of God, to the life; whereof the Giver is ever one, as the Receiver is of the Creature, and the Receiver, (when he requites and repayes) puts on again the Giver, and the Giver becomes as a Creature to be in a capa­city to receive, (which is a remarkable shadow and footstep in nature of the Incarnation) and both parts of God could not be acted [...], but by such un­bounded zeal, and thankfulness in both, in imitation of Gods bounty, who giveth liberally, and is so far [Page 110] from upbraiding, that he hazards the denyal of his existence and being with the inconsiderate, for his silence and withdrawing. But extraordinary times being not presidents for ordinary, that the Clergy now should labour Gratis, or the Laity hold all in Com­mon, as then they did, as the manner of living in a Siege, not a Rule for the manner of living, when God sends Peace and plenty: This noble strife and generous contention between Liberality and Refusal in Primitive Hearers and Teachers, was stated after­wards, and compos'd by Divine and Apostolical in­timations; not only, That of the Labourer being wor­thy of his hire, but that more express establishment, Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the Gospel should have by the Gospel, 1 Cor. 9.14. Where the Evangelical maintenance is equall'd, if not in­dentified, with the Levitical, which is known not to have been scant; and prosperity and a Curse an­nex'd from God besides, upon all that were just, or unjust, in paying, or withholding their Tithes and Offerings, Mal. 3.8.9, 10. And further yet; We wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you, 1 Cor. 4.8. Where it is implyed, that it is but just and fit, that the Ministers of the Gospel should partake and share in its highest prosperity and advancement, who are sure to smart with the first, in its adversity and contempt: For every Religion expresses what ho­nour it hath for the Deity it worships, by the respect and honour it enjoyns to be paid to its Ministers and Attendants: And amongst all degrees of Christians, from the lowest to the highest, neither Christ, nor his Ministers, can be said to be either lov'd, or ho­nour'd, where both are not lov'd and honour'd equal­ly, if not above themselves. And no man can de­spise the Ministers of his Religion, without despising [Page 111] his Religion, nor despise his Religion, without despising himself, for where is a man's self more than in his God, or Idol. If Christ and his Religion be to be honour­ed, it is to be invited, to sit equal with us in our Feasts, if not above, wherein no Church is more pro­portionable, than this of England, which hath its Min [...]stry so adequate and comporting with the seve­ral degrees and conditions of its Laity; like Ar­teries with the veins along the body from the toe to the head.

But now far otherwise is it amongst Christians, Teachers and Disciples, when the world hath pos­sessed their hearts; And Christ dwells but at their tongues only? many there are besides Quakers, it is to be feared, that would be well contented to be without any Gospel at all, on condition to be Tith-free; and judge no sort of men better to be spared or retrenched in this Commonwealth than Christs Ministers. And if they had Power enough in their hands, would judge an 100 l. per annum to be revenew enough, or two much, for any Bishop to support himself, and Family, and to keep Hospitality, and relieve the poor, and strangers, and to defend the Church against its Enemies, and not 10000 l. per annum too much for themselves, to spend upon their lusts and Vanity. And in some Nations, the Lay sort Raign and Rule, and the Clergy hold the stirrup, or serve under revocable pay, like other workmen, and trained thereby to be, as observant of the state, as of God; neither hath the degenerate Clergy been behind in over­reaching, to the degenerate Laity, in grudging and subducting; especially in the Roman Church, who conceived she never had enough, untill she had all, not only their Lands, but their Liberties, and all [Page 112] became her Tenants or Vassals, or tributaries from the Plow to the Throne. Now, how would these two contrary lusts tear and destroy one another, if God had not raised Kings to preserve the peace be­tween them? How would Religion and good lite­rature all fall to the ground, and Atheism and Bar­barism, or equivalent Ignorance and superstition, come again in their place, if Kings were not Nur­sing Fathers to secure their Rights, and Defenders of the Faith, to maintain their Priviledges and quiet­ness? to correct on the one hand the Idolatrous Avarice of some hard hearts who would starve the Lord Christ, to cherish their Lord Mammon; And to check the Hypocrisie and worldliness of others, on the other hand, who Christopher-like carry Christ upon their backs, to begg mens hearts; who make use of Purgatory, and the world to come, to gull men out of this present; who call all men to be their Paymasters for the unvaluable unrequitable mysteries of the Gospel, (which they at best but counterfeit) and make them Vassals for ever afterward, upon the score of that Tribute and acknowledgement; who claim a Supremacy over Princes, not upon the score of the Pulpit, and the Eternal obligations thereof, which they quit, but upon the score of their Chairs, which was borrowed from the Throne, and intended it should return to its subordination thereunto. Though Spi­ritual Graces, (wherewith they are ill stock'd) are above all Temporal reward, as much as Salvation is above an Earthly Crown; yet it doth not follow, that the Instruments and conveyers of Grace, are Supe­riours here in in this world, to all that receive it by their Ministry. The message and Author is, but not the messenger; Kings hear Gods word, as Subjects to Christs whole word it is, but not as Subjects to those, [Page 113] that Preach it, but their Masters rather. It is an ill and Un-evangelical Inference, and too much savour­ing of Antichrist, from Spiritual Doctrines to raise Secular Superiority, and to make wordly Rule and Ambition, the chief end of the everlasting Gospel, Ego & Rex meus, was a perfidious Traiterous crime in Wolsey, to transfer his Masters honour and Sove­raignty upon himself, which is their great Disease at Rome, and constant Boldness upon Christ. A Pursiveant, though sent from a King, to Arrest a Peer, is not Superiour in quality thereby to the Peer, although his Authority and errand be; we may as well conclude all Centinels to be Generals of the Field, or every Chaplain declaring Christ will in a Sermon before the King, to be Primate of the Church, and every Christian, who Conquers the world by his Faith, to be Emperour of this world, as Popes to be Supremes in Christian Kingdoms and Churches over mens souls and bodies, because they are the Servants and Officers of Christ, who is. When St. Ambrose boldly durst suspend his Soveraign, and Theodosius meekely yielded to the censure of his Subject; there was no Superiority either lost or got, by this in either; both doing their parts of Servants herein, the Bishop of fidelity about his Master's mysteries, the Empe­rour of Submission to his Saviours Steward. All or­ders and degrees in the Church, are every one in the Postures of Servants to Christ, and Servants to another for Christ his sake, 1 Cor. 3.22. and he alone the only Master and Soveraign, Math. 23.8. In this world, it's true, it's otherwise, where some are Ser­vants, others are Masters; some Rulers, and others Ruled: all to be regarded, as unto Christ in their several Superiorities, by Christians, who are to serve and obey them all from the heart upon Christs ac­count [Page 114] in addition to their Civil obligation, which is correlative to their Civil Superiority; for as we are Christians, we serve none but Christ: and those that Rule and Govern, if Christians, do it as his Ser­vants; and Pious Kings have justly esteemed it to be a greater Dignity to be Servants of Christ, than Soveraignes of this world. Whosoever therefore mis­guides, or mis-governs his Inferiour, or wrongs, or deceives his Neighbour, or disobeys, or dishonours his Superiour, Christian: violates his Faith and duty, first to his Heavenly Soveraign in his heart, before he wrongs any other on Earth, by his out­ward Act. And it is our concern and honour, as to detect and shun all such as are Traytors and Faithless to our Saviour, so dearly to embrace and love them from our hearts that are true. But though Kings meddle not with the Substantialls of Religion, or the rights of Christ, yet with the out-side or Circumstan­tials, that fall within their charge and cogni­zance, they well may, and must: whatsoever in Church matters is of Temporal, not of Eternal mo­ment, neither determined by Christ, nor necessary to Salvation, but conducing only to Order, and Peace, and Decency, and good example before men, belongs to Christian Kings, to regulate by discretion, with the advice of their Clergy, Numb. 27.21. Mal. 2.7. for their Transitory Nature makes them more allyed to this present world (where Kings are Soveraigns,) than their bare Connexion to Holy duties, doth make them appurtenances to the other immortal world, where Christ only Raigns and Rules. For Instance, whether it be more decent to perform Divine service in a Gown, or Surplice, or in a Cloak, or Querpo? whe­ther with the people having all their Hats on, as do the Jewes, or the Minister, as the French, or all bare, [Page 115] both Minister and People, as usually amongst us? whether kneeling, or sitting, be the best and seemliest postures at several Offices before men? (for it is clear, before God that the heart is all in all,) whe­ther a Bason at the Ministers Elbow be more comly than a Font; or whether the Font stand best in the Chancel with the other Table for the other Sacra­ment, or at the Church door, in token of our en­trance by it? Whether the Cross may be used in Baptism, or the Ring in Marriage? Whether the King have not power to found and endow Churches, and to alter Sees, and to translate the Metropolitan from one place to another, as he thinks fit for any new convenience, or redress. These things are no­minally spiritual, but really secular, and belong to Christian Temporal Jurisdiction, which no way in­trenches herein upon Divine Institution or Sove­raignity, which hath left out such matters and causes free for Christian Kings to regulate, even in the Church and Temple, as did the Kings of Israel. The Church being part of their state and Province, where Kings and Subjects are Christian; and the one to order every thing to the Lord Christ, whose Deputies and Vicars now they are; and the other to obey them in all such their Orders, from the heart as to the Lord: Neither is there any peril of Soul or Salvation, by such transitory matters, as wears and postures of the Body, (where they are not ordained for to honour, or acknowledge Idols, and false Gods;) there may be great danger in contention, 1 Cor. 11.16. and dis­obedience to those Divine and Eternal Laws, which command obedience and Conformity to humane: Nei­ther are the Circumstances of Religion made equal hereby to the substantial parts thereof, being ob­served to such several Ends, and intents, sufficiently [Page 116] distinct and different, as are the Authorities that ap­point, both the one and the other, God himself in those, and Kings as his Deputies and delegates in these, (though many mens too much placing their Heaven, and zeal, and humour and scruples upon Ce­remonies and shadows, make them substances as to themselves.) For the difference between Time and Eternity, or the Body and the Soul, or sense and faith, or word and sword, or Heaven and Earth, or peace of Conscience, and the peace of the Kingdom, is not more fixt, and manifest, and unconfounded, than is that, between the inside and outside of the Church; the one lying within the Perambulation and Jurisdiction of Divine Soveraignty, the other of humane; neither of the Popes, over us in England; nor the latter, but on­ly there, where he is a Temporal; nor the former, even at Rome it self, where so he is.

And O! the Unchristian Arts and Methods, that have been us'd by Popery all along, both above and under-board, according as it was high or low, to wrest this Ecclesiastical Supremacy and Prerogative, from Christian Kings, which is their manifest and un­doubted right, and chiefest Glory in their Temporal Crowns, and a peculiar Talent for their manage­ment, in order to an Eternal. Sometimes openly and above-board, by an impudent pretence of Ple­nitude of Power (when they had none at all) they have eagerly endeavoured to hook unto themselves, our Kings Royal Priviledges, about Investures and nomination of Bishops, and the Crowns off from their heads, which is too well known: For any ones Tem­poral right, that had any reference or Relation to­wards the Church, was straightway the undoubted Appurtenance of St. Peters Chair; under that pre­tence, they caus'd King Henry the Second, in the [Page 117] Controversie about the exemption of the Clergy, which was an absolute invasion of his Royal Govern­ment and Authority,) to be whipt and stript by his Subjects, like a Malefactor in Bridewell, for the good of his Soul, and in breach of his Royal Trust and Dig­nity, to allow Appeals to Rome, to heal his wounded Conscience. Their poisoning Attempts, and Invasi­ons, and Powder-plots against Queen Elizabeth, and King James, are fresh in Memory. When open Arts can do no good, they'l work their Ends in Masque­rade and smaller undertakings: Here possessing Quakers, and raising Sects, to resist and Blaspheme our Religion and Government: There endeavouring to get more considerable Instruments into power, to promote their Romish Interest in Protestant Shapes, with greater succcess and lesser noise, because less discern'd; to corrupt our hopeful Clergy, and de­stroy honest men under-hand; and imbroile the Na­tion, by widening the differences between Pro­testants, which were ready to close; and multi­plying Non-conformists, whether they would or not. For it is obvious and easie to observe, that all, or most of our Presbyterian Dissenters of the younger sort throughout the Nation, did see their Errour, and desert their Party, upon the Restauration of our Church: And that the Elder sort were no less con­vinc'd from the experience of late confusions, but that it was harder for the one than for the other, in point of Reputation, to change, and walk con­trary on a suddain to their former Actings. And the secret enemies of our Protestant peace and union, laid hold of this advantage (as Non-conformists alledge) and cast in politick Provisoes and ob­structions, to make their Repentance harder still, if not impossible, to the trouble of our Government, [Page 118] and the joy of Rome. Some ambodextrous Pens (like Mountebanks upon a Stage,) shall publickly wound and confute, and presently heal and defend the Church of Rome, as faithfully as any of her own In­quisitors, and as safely as any of our own Authors, by this double stile; falling fiercely upon their first Deserters, and such as begin to espy and loath any of its grosser Errours, (enough in time, if not so care­fully prevented and discourag'd, to cause a general defection throughout the host,) because they are not perfect Protestants in a moment, able to see and re­linquish all her Corruptions at first waking: And there­fore the sincere Irish Clergy shall be rigorously chid, for beginning an Orthodox Allegiance, in disobedience to their Church, and violation of their Oaths: And the Jansenists, for defending Catholick Doctrines, with the like sincerity to Christ, and dis-rellish to the Pope. And the Distinguishers of the Church of Rome from its more corrupt Court, as Pestiferous and rash beginners, or some Ho-body Hoyes, and no right Sons of the one Church or of the other; against all Principles of Christian Charity, which forbids to quench the smoaking Flax, or break the bruised Reed, as also against common humanity, and ordinary prudence, exactly gratifying the Italian sagacity by such useful Hostilities. And contriving on the other hand, to cut down all fences and securities of this Church, and repeal its penal Laws, out of generous Charity, and for more free commerce with Ingenu­ous Roman Catholicks: Whereby their numerous and Industrious Emissaries may over-run the Land, and disturb and seduce our people, with greater safety. Where a Protestant may be discern'd at the Elbow of the Jesuite, and a Jesuite at the Elbow of the Pro­testant in every page, both contriving to assist one [Page 119] another against a Sun-shine, or a Rainy day, by be­traying this Church; for clear it is, that the Italian out-wits the Jew in his part, and the lurch befalls the English side. For though the Protestant Vulgar think their cause well defended, yet the more discerning Conclave finds its designs more Effectually promoted by such Arts. How do such deserve to be admir'd and noted for their Wit, that can serve two contrary Masters with success? and bid fair to be uppermost, let what party that will prevail? and be rewarded by both, as the open Champions of the one, and the secret Factors of the other? Neither do they yet less deserve to be scorn'd and detested by all wise and true heart­ed English-men and Protestants, for such scandalous wiles, and abominable doubling and betraying their Mother Church with a kiss. Others of duller studies, and Epicurean Inclinations, judge no method better, than that of Balaam at Baal Peor, Numb. 24.15. 2 Pet. 2.15. Whose stratagem according to the Chaldee Paraphrast was thus laid with Balak. That the peo­ple of Israel could not be curs'd or weakned, but by dividing them from their God: That this was to be best effected by bringing the fairest Daughters of Moab into the field (instead of an Army) to allure them to their Embraces, which soon took effect: For the People began to commit Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab—And the Anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel: Till the zeal of Phineas put a stay unto it, Numb. 25.1, 2, 8.11. To the like kind of Prophets, and Romish suggestions, and connivance, we owe the present deluge of Debauchery amongst our Gentry and Superiours, whereby men are fitted by Spiritual wounds and servitudes, for Romish Plai­sters; and our Church, and its guides disgraced, and a greater deluge of judgment and destruction is [Page 120] hanging over us, unless God grant us Grace timely to repent, out of love and commiseration to our selves and Countrey, as well as duty to God, whom we have so unthankfully provoked.

And least Kings themselves, who can have no ends, but God and the publick, should bring too great an happiness upon a Nation, by taking the charge thereof themselves: They suggest the manage­ment of the Reins of Government to be difficult and toilsom for Princes to tire their Arms or Brains with, and that others may be better trusted with such fatigues; and Princes to take their pleasure; and if trusted, than trusted for good and all by all means, for to trust and suspect were disingenious and contradictory, whereby the Prince shall be divested and depos'd from most of his Authority, and a Juncto of petty Tyrants raised and multiplied to act under the shelter of the Government against its Interest and honour; like unskilful Mountebanks, that take liberty to kill under the colour of a License: Where­as, in truth, nothing is more easie and plain, espe­cially in some Nations, than the Rulers work and office: For what more easie, than to know good from evil? which a Child will soon arrive to, (in difficult and knotty points, they have Counsels, and Tribunals to assist, as Moses had his, Exod. 18.) And what more Divine, than to be an encourager of the one, and a Terrour to the other? Or can be more their In­terest, and strength, and blessing, and Acclamati­on and praise from God and men? Provided that they take a Text, or two, for their direction, as my present Text, to do all from the heart, as to the Lord: For none are able to Act Christ to the full, both in the temper of his first and second coming, as Princes may, by Meekness in the first place, towards such as are [Page 121] tractable; by Resolution and severity in the next, to­wards such as prove Incorrigible: And that other Text, Rom. 12.8. [...]. He that ruleth, let him do it with diligence, not consuming his time and thoughts upon mean and and common Recreations, much less on scandalous and sinful pleasures, but to make his Government his en­tertainment and pastime. For what can be more the sport and health of a Prince, than the pro­sperity of his people? And what Musick more de­lighting in a Generous Eare, than the Te Deums of Orphans, and Widows, and the Oppressed, for their rescue and Protection? Any Squire, or lusty Clown, can equal a Prince in skill and content at Hunting of a Fox or Deer; But to detect, and hunt Wolves in Sheeps cloathing out of the Church, or the wild Bore out of Christs Vinyard, and Foxes from Pub­lick Tribunals and Sees, and noisom Vermin, that prey upon their innocent Neighbours, out of every corner of the Land; This is Game for a Prince, wherein no Subject can be his Rival, or share or partake in his Delight and Glory. And what a glorious happiness doth it ever prove to a Nation, when Kings inspect their own Affairs, and trust not too far to others; and are led by the heart more than by the ear; by God more than by Man; by Conscience, (and Christ its rule, which can never deceive them,) than by Man who is a lyar, which can, and often doth deceive, and betray them into manifold unworthiness and inconvenience. The Proverb saith, the eye of the Master feeds the Horse; But it is far more true, that the eye of the King will beatifie a Nation, According to that of Solomon, The King sitting in his Throne of Judgment scattereth away all Iniquity with his eye, Prov, 20.8. The Sun it self [Page 122] cannot be more useful to the world by its Beams and Influence, nor less be spared, than a diligent and wakeful Prince to his People; for he is more than a Sun, being as God and Christ amongst them, not in Title only, but in Efficacy and Benefit, when by Precept and Example he acts all in conjunction with him, and subservience to him; and Christ is ever where he is, and He is ever where Christ is: What an eye-sore would this prove? but to none other but to Flatterers, Hypocrites, Pimps, Oppres­sors, Atheists, Epicures; but to Satan and his Pope, who envy every Kingdom, the Divine and Father­ly care and inspection of its respective Kings, and is ever incroaching for a share in every Crown, by the pretence of his Chair; though he hath no more right or authority to meddle here, than the Lord Mayor of DƲBLIN to Govern the City of LON­DON, or our British Church to rule and controll the See of ROME, and not so much, because ju­nior in the Faith to Us, as well as Apostatical from its right Guide and Rule, as hath been shewed. And the Elder and the Healthy hath some pretence to Govern the Younger, but the Younger and Sickly no manner of colour to Govern his Sound and Elder Brother; which brings me to the Third and Last Point, to prove, That the Church of Rome hath no Superiority or Mother-hood over our British Church, in respect of its Extraction, or first Plantation of the Gospel.

SECTION IV. Rome no mother Church to Brittain in respect of Extraction, or Plantation of the Christian Faith, but much Junior to it.

WHich it never had from Rome, nor by its means, but without it, altogether; and for a good space of time, before it had any Chair to boast of. Our Brittish Islands, by remarkable Providence, being exempt and distinct from all the world, (as to sub­jection, though not to Communion)^(a) not only in respect of its seperate scituation, and the Supre­macy of its Crown; but the Antiquity and Indepen­dancy of its Sees. But rather than to be dumb, and confess, and yield the cause, the Romish Advocates will stand up, and pretend, some out of Simeon Me­taphrastes, that St. Peter himself made a long a­bode in Brittain, and converted many, and ordained Bishops, Priests, and Deacons amongst us, and at the founding of Westminster, his apparition, and Ghost appeared to direct the Builders, which Legend is not worth an answer, not only for its suspected Author, but for its ill conduct against its own In­terest, and forgetting its cause, making Brittain no more Inferiour, but equall and co-ordinate to Rome, and Sisters from the same Spirituall Father St. Peter. But others with more colour, will object, did not Augustine the Monk sent from Rome, about the year [Page 124] 600 convert this land, and especially the English to the Christian Faith? Had they not quiet possession of their plantation for about a thousand years, till they were wrongfully justled out by King Henry the Eighth in a Rebellious manner? Is not the Chair of Canterbury, which derives its descent from Rome and Austine, Superiour by publick allowance to all the Chairs of Brittain besides? to ascend higher, to stop the mouths of the Ancient Brittains, that plead more Antiquity in this Island, than the English or Saxon can or do, whose first landing here was not till about the year 449; Did not the Pope Eleuthe­rius (through Faganus and Dwywanus he sent hither with others) Christen their King Lucius about the year 170, and convert and Baptize the rest of the Nation, and settle Bishops and Arch-Bishops amongst them, where Flamins and Arch Flamins were before, as appears by their own Histories? And is not this a sufficient Title, (that is 1500 years standing) to prove the Church of Rome the fountain, and Mother Church to Brittain, and if a Mother where is the honour and Obedience, that is due unto her?

But if it shall more fairly and truly appear. (1) That the Church of Brittain was planted by the Im­mediate followers of our Saviour, either Apostles or Apostolical men, shortly after his Resurrection, and before St. Peters Arrival at Rome (whether that tradition be true or false:) and the same seed, (though sometimes in some parts of the Nation mixt with tars, in other parts more purified from them,) con­tinued among us without failer, (especially in the Northern and Western Parts of this Island) from that day to this: (2) If the whole passage by consequence between Eleutherius and King Lucius, cannot be al­lowed for true, which Savours of the latter Arts of [Page 125] Rome to compass Sveraignty, contrary to the ex­press words and tenor of Eleutherius his Epistle and answer to the King, and the subsequent Practice of the Bishops of Rome for some hundreds of years after him while they continued good: (3) If Augustine the Monks arrival here, was a manifest Intrusion upon anothers Province, without Invitation or consent of the Christians of the place, to Invade and subjugate and destroy the Brittish Church, by the help and means of Pagan Enemies then making War upon them, as Jackcals and Vulturs follow Camps for Prey, where­by he and all his Clergy, stood depos'd and degraded of their Orders, and all his party, of Christian com­munion, by the concurrent suffrages and Canons of all the Generall Counsels, of the whole Catholick Church, that went before him. (4) If the Contro­versie between the Church of Brittain and Rome in those Early times, was the same that is now main­tained against it, by the Protestant Church of Eng­land at this day, touching its Superstitions and Arro­gated Supemacy; with this difference, that there was no roome nor place then, for those Sophismes now us'd, where was your Church before Luther, or Henry the Eighth, but both still agreeing in their manner and temper of Proceeding, now, as then, and then as it is now, on the one side great learning, and Truth, and piety, on the other as great Ignorance, and Arrogance, with lying wonders and Massacres. (5) If the Gospel was Providentially planted amongst the English or Saxons, by Brittish Ministry, and not by Romish, and the Church of Rome by its bewitching Power and Grandeur, in degenerare times over all this part of the world, did but invade and disturb both the English and Brittish Church, and ravish their Sees, and disorder their Consecrations and successi­ons, [Page 126] and Ʋnchurch it self thereby, and attempt to enslave our Crown, as well as Mitre: (6) if Henry the Eights relief of both Crown, and Church, was just and Providentiall, and also Brittish; and not the unsettling of a Right Possessor, but the lawful ejection of an old Intruder; And the peace and Interest and Glory of this Nation, is fairly pointed out by Pro­vidence to consist in pursuing this design, (7) If the Primacy of the See of Canterbury be from the Grace and pleasure of our Kings and Laws, who can alter it, as they think fit; and not from any Ecclesiastical Right of the Pope, according to the Laws and Canons of the Universal Church, but rather in contrariety unto them. And Christian Subjects ought to submit to the supreme Magistrates Right and pleasure in ordering such external matters about the Church, as clash not with Salvation: If these seven points shall appear as clear from proof and evidence, as they are in the model and supposition: will it not inevi­tably follow, that no English, much less Brittish Christian subject, of what perswasion soever, can with any conscience, or thankfulness to God, re­nounce his Mother of Brittain, to own a Forraign Church for his Mother; or desert his Colours to list himself under the Conduct and Supremacy of Rome, to Act against his own Church and Country, without being apparently convict before God and the world, as well as his conscience, of being a Renegade to his Church, and false unnatural to his Country, and (as our wise Laws upon good grounds declare and define) a Perfidious Traitor against his Sove­raign.

First then, it may be affirmed, what cannot, and is not denied by our Adversaries themselves, that the Christian Faith was first introduced to our Brit­tain, [Page 127] by Joseph of Arimathea, who buried our Savi­our in his own new Tomb, Math. 27.60. who landed here with other followers of our Saviour shortly after his Resurrection, and Diu ante-long before Eleutherius his time, saith^(a) Barronius fixing it to the 35 year of Christ, where, after he had preach'd the Gospel in this Country, he ended here his days; and quotes an English M.S. in the Vatican Library for one of his Authors, and Sanders and Cressy and Pitseus, and the rest of the Roman Catholick writers upon this Subject, allow this story; so that habemus confitentes reos, we have such a testimony for the proof of our first point, as in wordly Tribunals, is counted fatall and conclusive, the confession of the Adverse party: And it is to be wondred of such men, that they should be so ill advised, as to yield such a Truth so easily to such a prejudice to their Cause; but what then should become of the credit of so many holy Monks Relations and Revelations, touching the Monastry of Glastenbury, and not only the devout visits of Faganus and Dwywanus, and Austine, and Paulinus sent hither from the Pope, to preach the Gospel, (which proves Christian Reli­gion, as well as that Old Church to have been here, in their belief and perswation, long before their Arrival hither,) but the many Divine Revela­tions from Angels, and the Virgin Mary, and Christ himself, about the building and dedicating that Ancient Church? It's safer therefore with our Ro­mish Authors, and a less inconvenience of the two, to confess this fact, and yield the cause, than question the credit of so many Miracles, and Super­naturall Revelations, enough to spoil and over­throw [Page 128] their Church, (whose errours are chiefly sup­ported and confirmed by such devices,) and extol the wisdom of Protestants, that rely on no Divine Vi­sions, but those recorded in Scripture. But others are swayed much more, by other Evidences; so ma­ny Charters of Kings, as well Brittish, as Saxon, and Norman (several extant to this day) given to this Monastery upon the account and acknowldge­ment of its undoubted Antiquity, and priority, to all other Churches in this Land, or in this part of the world. The Charter of King^(e) Henry the Second in the year 1185. where it is affirm'd of it, Fons & Origo totius Religionis Angliae pro certo habetur. And recites the Charters of former Kings, touching the place; of William the 1. and 2. and ‘Henry his Grandfather, and those Ancienter of Edgar, and Edmond, and Edward, and Alfred, and Bringwalch, Kentwin, Baldred, Ina (Inclyti Ar­thuri) the famous Arthur, Cudred, and many o­ther Christian Kings, all diligently perus'd, and read before him: and the Charter of Edward the third in the third year of his Reign—to the like effect, both perus'd by the Renowned Ʋsher.’ The first Church in the Kingdom of Brittain, saith King Ina, counted the Principal in this Kingdom, ab Antiquo, from Ancient time, saith Edgar; built by the Disciples of Christ, where in all agree. And^(g) the Tombs of so many Abbots, and Saints, and Bishops, and Kings, counting it Honour to be there Interr'd, and King^(h) Arthur in particular, whose Tomb and inscription after the burning of the Abby, was there found about the year 1200. say the best Historians of ^(f) [Page 129] those times. But the bringing of this Tradition to publick test and examination in several⁽ⁱ⁾ Gene­ral Synods of Europe gives it much great reputation, where the Embassadors of England, in the Contro­versie about the Dignity and Precedency of England with France, (who derive their first conversion from Dionysius the Areopagite converted by St. Paul at Athens, Act. 17.34) and with Spain or Castile, (who ascend higher for their founder to James, the Bro­ther of John, kill'd by Herod. Act. 12.) yet claim'd Priority to England before either of them, from Joseph of Arimathea's landing and preaching here, statim post ⁱ Passionem Christi, immediately after the Passion of our Saviour: and the weakness of the exceptions of the Advocates of the adverse part, may be seen in the great Ʋsher, with answers to them, where requisite; which Controversie was first set on foot in the Council of Pisa, in the year 1409. next in the Council of Constance in 1417. between the Embassadors of France and England: in the Council of Sena, 1424. before Pope Martyn the fift, between us, and French, and Spaniards together; 1434. between the Embassadors of England and Castile again: which passages have so prevail'd with Cressy, that he hath no scruple left but one; and that, not against the Fact, and body of the story, but a­gainst the time, and earliness thereof;^k he can not hastily believe, that Joseph arrived here so soon; wherein yet he is to be commended by that party, for his watchfulness for the Honour and Prerogative of the Church of Rome, in apparent danger of being overthrown by this Church, if the date and time, as well as the substance of the story [Page 130] be once granted and evinced; For if Joseph arrived here in the 35 year of Christ, as Baronius guesses, or the 36. as others, (for where some differr it to 63.^m Sir H. Spelman conceives the figures displaced 63 for 36) and our Saviour suffered in the 34 of his age, it follows, that Joseph repaired hither immediately after the Resurrection, in the 21, or 22. that is to say, the last, or last year saving one of Tiberius his Reign; Christ being Crucified in his 20^{th. n} whom Caligula succeeded, Regning three years, and ten Months: And ( [...]) Claudius after him, thirteen years and eight months. Andⁿ Nero after Claudius, a­nother thirteen years, and eight months. And St. Peter's arrival at Rome, is not so much as pretended by them of Rome to be before the second year of Claudius, (which yet Protestants can never grant, finding him in those years to be in Palestine, and Papists can never prove) but that he came to Rome about the 12 or 13 year of Nero, they have tradition more favourable for them, and more reconcilable to his other abodes, and Martyrdom: It is conse­quent here upon, that the Christian Faith was in Brittain, before St. Peter ever came to Rome, for as many years, as are between the latter end of Ti­berius, and the second of Claudius, in their own ac­count: that is, for about seven years; and in the ac­count of all others, for as much time, as Intervenes between the end of Tiberius, and the 12 or 13 year of Nero; that is, that the Church of Brittain is manifestly Senior, and Ancienter in the Faith, than the Church of Rome, by thirty years complete; And yet, for this under-graduate title, and pretend­ed pre-eminence of the Chair of St. Peter, above this of our Brittish Church, all this strife, and zeal, is [Page 131] us'd by deluded Roman-Catholicks, to their own hazard and peril, in their Estates, and consciences, and to publick disturbance, and unnatural combinations a­gainst the Priviledges and Glory of their own Coun­try, from year to year, and Age to Age, without end or rest. Cressy foresaw this foul inconvenience, and had no mind to permit Joseph to Land in Brittain, before St. Peter arrived at Rome, to have an Influ­ence over this, as well as the other Western Churches: but neither had he, nor any else of his party, any argument, or exception in bar, and stop, of such timely arrival of Joseph, and the Gospel with him into this Isle, or that he continued 30 years at Jeru­salem, or else where, to give way to St. Peter to arrive first at Rome, before he entred upon these parts; but on the contrary, there are strong pre­sumptions, that he made no stay; first, when the chief Priests and Elders and Souldiers were form­ing their Information for the Governour, [His Disci­ples came by night and stole him away, Math. 28.12.] It was high time for this Disciple so nearly concern­ed, to be gon among the first: his persecution in all probability preceded that of St. Stephen, to which the adjoyning Countreys, did owe their first Gospel; And the Phenician Ships that much frequented these ^(p) parts for its tinne, were not probably wanting to the design of Providence upon him, for our happi­ness; which may perhaps be a reason for his Souther­ly Landing. Secondly, his Senatoria [...] Age, being an honourable Counsellour, Mark. 15.43. was not consistent with many years delay: Thirdly, to wave conjectures, and probabilities, and to produce such evidence, as may justly be esteemed full and home, [Page 132] and certain, and satisfactory in this Question about time; the Testimonies of our Brittish Gildas, so well seconded by others, puts this matter far out of doubt and question: Gildas, whom Bellarmine in his Catalogue, allows to be a Classick Father of the Church untainted with any errour:^q Author vera­cissimus, saith Ʋsher, A writer that is for truth above all: who spares not to rip up all the crimes and miscar­riages of the Ancient Brittains, as well their Princes, and Clergy, as the People, wherewith they daily plung'd themselves, and their Country, under the di­vine displeasure; who therefore in equity is to be be­liev'd mentioning but one passage that makes for their honour, and that likewise, the more to upbraid their unworthiness:^r Tempore, ut scimus, summo Tibe­rii Caesaris, we know, saith he, that in the latter end of Tiberius Caesar's Reign, when this Island lay frozen by her distance from the visible Sun, Christ the true Sun, not from a Temporal, but an Eternal firmament, was first pleased to communicate his rayes, that is, his precepts, to our Inhabitants, hel'd fast by some with more, or less fervency, to the hot days of Diocletian: which passage was utter'd by him above eleven hundred years ago, and averred in the face, as it were, of the whole Nation, (chastized and gall'd with his Fatherly rebukes) not upon slight tradition, but upon full and certain knowledge of the points; when as yet there was no doubt or difference, no party pro. or con. to be serv'd or disserv'd with the assertion; and when there was, as another said, upon a different Fact, nullum mendacio pretium, nothing to be gain'd by the lye; which over-rul'd^s Polydor Virgil and^t Cardinal Poole after him, (both of the Roman [Page 133] party as is well known) to affirm in full Parliament, in his Speech to King Philip and Mary, that this was the first of all Provinces, that received and embrac'd the Christian Faith: Wherein, we have the concurrent suffrages of more Classick and early Wri­ters, and Fathers of the Church, who affirm these Isles to have been converted, and imme­diatly founded upon the Apostles, who after Christ (the chief Corner-stone,) are the next in the Foundation of his Church. I shall select but two or three amongst many, designing brevity.^u Eu­sebius expresly affirms, that some of their number [...] to have cross'd the Seas to the Island cal­led Brittain: ^y Theodoret, [...]. Our Fishermen and Publicans—did not only bring about the Roman World—but the Brittains and Cimbrians —to receive the Laws of the Crucified. And^z Nicephorus. [...] Aegypt and Lybia fell to one (Apostles) share and lot, the Ocean and the Britannick Isles to another: that is, to Simon Zelotes according to him, and the Greek Monology, and our own Traditions; who suster'd Martyrdom in Brittain, and not in Persia, as they affirm at Rome. But whether it were him, or St. John the Evangelist, (to whom our Paschal Traditions are referred) as^a Buchanan conceives, or^b St. Paul himself, as Sophronius and others, or^c Ari­stobulus [Page 134] mention'd, Rom. 16.10. St. Barnabas his Bro­ther, (and Father to Concordia St. Peters Wife, who is said to suffer Martyrdom under Nero at Rome, not long before her Husband) whom Dorotheus, and the Greek Menology, and others, affirm to have been ordain'd Bishop of Brittain by St. Paul; I shall not take upon me to determine, but rest satisfied in this, that our Brittish Churches appear to be uncontrollably of Aposto­lical descent, and long before Eleutherius: God himself by his subsequent special Primacies and Pre­eminences bestowed on Brittain, of having the first Christian King, and the first Christian Emperour be­fore any other City, or Nation, easily disposing us to believe his other Antecedent Grace and savour to our Land, which we have proved, of being the first Christian Plantation in the Western World.

SECTION V. The Faith never fail'd in Brittain from the Re­surrection to this present.

WHich no Persecution, or Invasion, no Art, or power of Satan, or Gates of Hell, have been able to eradicate, or totally to blast and ex­tinguish in any Age; but we and our Progenitors, through Gods great help, have kept and main­tained it from that day to this; and hope, and trust, that we and our posterity will stand to it, till Christs coming in the Clouds. For the first Age, the Authors mentioned, and the extraordinary vigor of this Heavenly seed at its first planting, and miracu­lous [Page 135] powers to attend and back it, every where alike, may suffice to satisfie any: For the second Age, and Century after the Apostles, a greater de­fect of Writers is generally observed in the whole Church; whether it were the design of Providence, to create a distance, or fix a Gulf and separation, between Divine, or Canonical, and Ecclesiastical, or humane Authors, (as several Regions are parted from neighbouring Kingdoms, by impervious Moun­tains, and wild, and inhospitable deserts;) or whe­ther it were, that the Ink then in use was Bloud, and their best evidences and Records, flames and Martyr­dom: Nevertheless the acknowledged increase of Religion over all the Land in King Lucius his time, will attest the zeal and fidelity of this Age to their Principles, when it shall appear from the Epistle of Eleutherius, that Christian Religion is pre-supposed therein, to be settled in this Land before, and the King pre-instructed in it. And the^c great Ʋsher Marshalls about 20 or 30 Authors, both Foreign and Domestick, to confute and stop the mouths of some ignorant suggestions, as if Religion had fail'd, or expir'd in this Land, between the time of its first planting, and Dioclesians persecution. For the third Age, Origen and Tertullian early Fathers, mention Religion to flourish here; the one writing about the year 201. Brittannorum in accessa Romanis loca, Christo vero subdita: That Christ was received as Lord here, where the Romans had much ado to enter; the o­ther, that they were united to Christ in Brittain, though divided from the rest by situation. And Dio­clesians persecution in the beginning of the fourth Age, about the Year 303. largely proves the ex­istence [Page 136] of the Christian Faith in this Land, which it so fiercely endeavour'd totally to suppress, but to little effect: Yea to the more corroborating of Chri­stianity here by the exemplary constancy of Mar­tyrs, St. Alban, and Amphibalus, and Julius, and Aaron, &c. establishing it the more by their suffer­ings, and^d Converting their Executioners with their invincible meekness and patience: And occa­sioning its larger extent, and the full Conversion of the Scots, (dwelling then in the Northwest of Scot­land beyond Dunbritton Frith) by the Brittish Cul­dees ^e, retiring to those parts, as Archbishop Spotswood and Buchanan acknowledge the Provi­dential benefit, from whose Cells the Ancient Scots denominated their Churches: Who in after Ages were extruded saith the same Author^e by a new sort of Popish Monks; Tanto Doctrinâ & pictate illis inferiores, so much coming short of the other for Learning and Piety, as they exceeded them in Riches and Ceremonies, wherewith they affect mens Senses and infatuate their minds. In the Year 313. when peace was restor'd by Constantine, they begin, saith Gildas ^f to Re-build their Churches, demolished to the ground; and her exil'd Children, dissipated into Corners, gather themselves together into the bosom of the Church, to Celebrate their Festivals, and Tri­umphs over their Enemies, to give God the Glory, and to attend his Sacraments with pure heart and mind. In the following year, the Church being in good order, we find the three Archbishops of Brittain taking their places, and subscribing in the [Page 137] great Councel of Arles in France, Eborius (Ivor) Arch-Bishop of York, Restitutus (Edrud) Archbishop of London, and Adelfius (Brawdol) Archbishop of Caer­leon upon Ʋsk (a Roman Colony, where a Legion, (in the Brittish Leon) kept their Garrison) corruptly set down in the Council with several other places^h Civitate Colonia Londinensium, where an uniform Ce­lebration of Easter was agreed upon; and thereupon Constantine ⁱ with good reason assures all the Ortho­dox Bishops, that were not present at the Council of Nice, (which was held eleven Years before that of Arles) that the Church of Brittain with others did agree with the rest of the World in the Orthodox ob­servation of Easter. In 347. in a Councel of about 400 Western Bishops, we find the Bishops of Brittain to joyn in the Condemnation of the Arrian Heresie, and the clearing of^k Athanasius, as himself doth testifie. About the Year 390.^lSt. Chrysostom likewise, magnifies the Divine power of Christ, from the Holy Faith, and Life, the Churches, and Altars in Brittain, as it were in another World. In the latter end of this Age,^m Maximus in this Island, making for the Roman Empire, exhausted the Nati­on of all its Fighting men, and Arms, and Treasure, wherewith he Coped with two Emperours, Gratian and Valentinian, driving the one out of Rome, the other out of his Life, and leaving the Nation weak and open to the Incursion of its Enemies round a­bout; but made far more weak by Gods desertion upon the follies, and ill life of Vortigern, inviting the Saxons into his pay against the Scots and Picts, and prefering the Beauty of Hengist's Daughter, be­fore [Page 138] his Faith, and Countrey; and his Christian Sub­jects, after his example, inter-marrying with the Saxon Infidells, which was one^o of the reasons brought over St. German and Lupus, to disswade them from such wickedness; but all in vain, till God gave them and their Countrey over, to be barbarously and mercilessly destroyed by their per­fidious mercenaries, Confederating with their ene­mies against them, who were before too strong for them in their weakness; yet God in his mercy rais'd them pious and Couragious Princes, Aurelius Am­brosius, and Ʋter Pendragon, and the Renowned Arthur, who by the strength of a Christian^p Lea­gue enter'd into, with Picts and Scots, made great slaughter upon the Infidels, and subdued and chas'd them out of the Land: And (what further proves not only the continuation, but the true temper, and life of the Christian Faith amongst them) our Brit­tains were zealous and successful, to preach and plant the Gospel amongst their Enemies and Invaders: As the most Reverend and Holy Bishop Ninian, as Beda stiles him, lib. 3. c. 4. about the year 412. Converted by his Preaching the Southern Picts, dwelling then between the Frith of Edenburgh and the Hills, having his See amongst his own Countrey­men, at Whitern or Candida Casa, translated after­wards to Glasgow (that Territory^r from Dunbritton Firth down to Cumberland, remaining then in the possession of the Ancient Brittains; and the names of Rivers, and Towns, and Mountains, are as Brit­tish, as in the heart of Wales.) In the Year 432. the great St. Patrick, a Brittain born, (whether about St. Davids in^ſ Wales, as some say, or at Kir­patrick [Page 139] ^t near Dunbritton, as others will have it, it matters not much, the people and Language in the one place, and in the other, being then of the same Brittains) whence he was stollen with about an hundred more, by Irish Pirates, and sold for a Slave, whereby he had time to learn their Language, and was enabled by God to Captivate the whole Nati­on to Christ, both Princes and people, and the Isle of ^ſ Man together, in a miraculous manner, which was his Christian retaliation to his enemies: Whose reward is great with God, and the greater by this, that he hath the less of praise from men: his very Adorers (since his plantation was long obscur'd by a Romish Fog that still lasts upon it,) never ceasing to defame and traduce his Divine work, with Super­stitious descriptions and unworthy Legends, though intended perhaps for Honour. In 451.^† Gildas Al­banius born at Arcluit, (in Beda's time called Al­cluid) that is a Town upon the River Cluid, now Dunbritton, Inhabited then by the Brittains, preach'd to, and converted the North parts of Scotland beyond the Hills, whether Ninias before had not reach'd. And after him, in 565. St. Columba, of Irish Birth, and Brittish Doctrine and Institution, assisted by^u Constantine Duke of Cornwall, repenting of his Adulteries and Murthers, upon the reproofs of Gildas Badonicus, and taking orders, perfected the Conversion of the Picts; Serfus one of the Culdees, and consequently of Brittish, either Birth, or Prin­ciple, promoting the same work as far as the Or­cades. About the Year 560. St. Kentigerne ^y Nephew to King Arthur, and Founder of St. Asaph, returned [Page 140] to his Bishoprick of Glasco, and preached first the Gospel to the English, though enemies, permitted upon^(f) submission and fealty, under Octa and Ebusa Sons of Hengist, newly conquer'd by Aure­lius Ambrosius, to live in that Brittish Territory; between the Friths and the Wall, where they suffer'd the Brittains before (being worsted by them) to re­side upon like submission. About 596, what by divi­sions among themselves, what by great invasions by Gormond from Ireland, as well as by the Saxons in their bowels, what by a great and Epidemical Plague and Jaundize, and the entrance of Monk Austin the greatest Plague of all, two of their Candlesticks were removed, Thadiock Arch-Bishop of the See of York, and Theon of London, being forc'd from their Sees and charge, with the Clergy, and Gentry from their Estates and Homes, to retire for their safety into the parts of Wales, and Cornwall, (and Ireland very pro­bably) none staying behind, but the Peasantry, at the Terms, and for the conveniencies and interest of the conquerour; York faring best of the two Sees, for the Cambrian ^(m) Kingdom, or Cumberland, (called Valentia) with Scotland, or old Albany, which formerly had been parcels of the See of York, stood yet entire and safe, under the Protection of their own Kings and Princes, who were able to defend their Religion and Territories, both from Pagan, and Romish Encroachments, about this time infesting them: But in the See of London and the body of Lhoegr (as the Brittains still call England) the Inhabi­tants that remain'd behind, Tributaries to the Saxon Conquerour, were to retain their Faith between the [Page 141] heart and God, after their Clergy were expell'd (by the procurement of Rome, as is to be suspected) un­less some lurked behind in-cognitò (as is usual) for their comfort and assistance; or the Pagan Conque­rours as we shall see anon, gave them toleration of Religion, either by Grace, or Articles; as did Irme­ricus in Kent, and Penda in Mercia, and Kerdic in West Saxony, &c. whereof Bede takes little notice, though he could not, and doth not wholly conceale the passages. But then, as the loss of one sense, adds strength to the other, and the shutting of one eye, enlarges the others Candle, Ireland grew rich and famous, upon this dispersion and accession of learn­ed men into its Teritories for refuge, whereby it became about this time the University (as it were) of these Western parts of Europe, for the Christian Orthodox Religion, and term'd, Insula Sanctorum, the Island of Saints, whither recourse was made for Spiritual knowledge, from all parts and King­doms; and Wales, and its Sees, and Abbies, was no less stock'd with choice of Able-men, and particu­larly the famous Monastery of Bangor-is-y coed, where we find about this time, above two thousand learned Monks living together in a holy Fraternity, all Subject to the Metropolitical See of St. David; whither the Chair was removed from Caerleon, by the Authority of King Arthur and a Synod about the year 521: These in 602, gave Augustine the Monk a meeting about Worcester, where the pre­tended Supremacy of the Church of Rome, with its superstitious Innovations, were Synodically dis­claimed, and rejected, Augustines design being to seize our Brittish Churches, as it were by occupancy, and to subject them to Rome under colour of Con­version. For that their Sees were made too hot to [Page 142] hold Thadiock and Theon, at the arrival of Augustine, or not long before, is some Argument, that the Pagan fury, was made to burn the fiercer with Roman-Catholick bellows; and that the believing Brittains, (who needed not their Conversion) must veil their Ancient Metropolitan Chair of St. David, or Caer­leon likewise, to an upstart See of Romes erection, as Austine expected, this manifestly proves and dis­covers, it was their Temporal Dominion, and supe­riority, (which by them is call'd the Catholick Faith) that was the chief aim of Rome by all Inhumane, and Unchristian Arts, to propagate here in Brittain. And if we were constrained to submit in part and for a time, to their yoke and superstition, (when the Crown in our Kings for a time was miss-led by their influence) and were freed from the same yoke in H. 8. when the Crown was better rectified by Providence, we stand, as we were, holding fast our Liberty, with a better conscience than they could usurp it from us; being now under no Tye or obligation to Rome, either for our Faith, or errours; not for our first Faith which we never had from them, nor for some latter superstitions, which we restor'd back unto them: continuing a right Church from first to last, because when we were at the worst, we were as Orthodox as themselves, who corrupted us; and recovering our clearness again from their forc'd mud and mixture, we continue (as well English as Brit­tains, now mutually Incorporated) to profess the same Faith, which was planted here above sixteen hundred and odd years ago, not only before Lut [...]er was born, but before Rome it self had its Christian being.

SECTION VI. Brittain had not the Faith from Pope Eleuthe­rius.

‘THe first point being thus clear'd, It becomes as clear, we had not our Faith from Pope Eleu­therius by King Lucius, and (were the Epistle, and the Persons contemporary) it makes more against them than for them, whereof the sum is this. You desired of us to send you the Roman Laws, which you would use in the Kingdom of Brittain, we can never disallow Gods Laws, but may Caesars. You have lately by Divine mercy, received the Law and Faith of Christ, you have with you in the Kingdom both the New and Old Testament, whence by the advice of your Peers, and the Council of your Kingdom, you may select holy and blameless Laws, which may be enacted, and supported not by any Forreign, but your own Au­thority, who are Gods Vicar in your Kingdom, and represent his power to your People.’ But not a word about Lucius his Baptism, or the Nations conversion, (which it rather plainly pre-supposes:) Nor was it unbeseeming in a first Christian King, (much less the forfeiture of the Liberties of his Brit­tish Church and Kingdom forever,) to ask the ad­vice of Neighbouring Churches, or such excellent Christians (as the Popes of Rome in those times were,) about the settlement and Government of the Church in his Dominion: and the answer and the event do shew, there was no such danger: for [Page 144] the Popes answer is Protestant and Orthodox, that the King is Christs Vicar in his Kingdom, and the head of the Church, which he may well Govern with his own Authority without depending upon Forreign: provided he took along the Law of God, and the opinion of his sages, for his Rule and help; the advice to be theirs, the Acts of Governing to be his own; which with the present Church of Rome, is unsound and Heretical Doctrine; for, it's the Land that moves with some, and not themselves, when they are sailing from it. And it appears by event, the Popes did never intermeddle in the Government of this Church or State: yea, that they were such strangers to us all along, to the time of Pope Gregory, who sent Austine hither▪ that by his questions and clinches about the English he met at Rome in the Market, Angli, Angeli: Deira, Dei ira; King Elle, Halelujah; it appears: whether we were Pagans, or Christians here in Brittain, he did not very well know; but some Papists are grown wil­ling of late, to relinquish this part of their pretence; and to allow this Epistle to be counterfeit (because so contrary to their present Doctrines, and seditious principles, more than for the considerable reasons Sir H. Spelman layes down against it, which Mr. Prynne takes upon him to disallow, and answer to severally:) but the other part of the story, though thus crack'd in credit, that Lucius was Baptiz'd toge­ther with all the Land, by Eleutherius his Emissaries, must stand nevertheless; which yet is wholly im­probable, and contrary to all sense and reason; for the Brittish Church in Augustines time, was found so uniformly unlike in all its rites and customs to the Roman, (if the Roman observations in the time of Augustine and Eleutherius were the same) that [Page 145] one may easily believe, that the fair Nothern Na­tions are so many Colonies of Blackamoores, as believe Brittain to be regenerated by the Baptism of Rome, to which Mother it held so little resemblance in any of its Ecclesiastical features. For one of the main points in difference, between the Brittains and Austine, we find in Bede. lib. 2. c. 2. was, about their Ceremonies of Baptism; then, that known and lasting difference and contention about Easter; and their abstinence on Wednesdays, and Frydays, (not on Saturday as was, and is observ'd at Rome against the sense and Custom of the Catholick Church:) there being as little Conformity, between this Church and that, in the heads and guides, as well as the whole body, of the People in the former rites: Our Deacons, varying from them in point of tonsure, our Priests and Bishops in that of Marriage, our Arch-Bishops in the Characteristicall Badge and livery of the Pall, which these Churches never fetch'd or wore in token of compliance or depen­dance on that Church, as shall be further proved in every particular out of their own, or better Authors: so that they may be justly ashamed, as much of the Second part of this lye and pretence, touching the Baptism of our King and Kingdom, as they are of the first, touching the Epistle; where by the way it may be observ'd with abhorrence and detestation, what unworthy Arts and Methods this holy Roman-Catholick Church, makes no conscience to use, to compass its Unchristian Ambition, and Supremacy over Kingdoms and Nations, where it can find the least colour or occasion: what lyes, they scruple not to Father upon all manner of men, the living and the dead, even on their best Popes, and the Apo­stles, and the Virgin Mary, and Christ and God [Page 146] himself, so their Carnals ends and Grandeur may be advanced thereby; and what forgeries and false­hoods, have they not foisted into all manner of books, and Records, and Histories, to promote their Dominion, hook or by crook, particularly into our Brittish, in the time of Ignorance, and their Kingdom of darkness, extending once to all parts and Persons: Geoffrey of Monmouth, affirming that that he did not compile, but only Translate into Latine his History out of a Brittish Manuscript, which Gualter Arch-Deacon of Oxford brought over hither, from little Brittain; whereas that Gualter attests likewise in the close of that very book, that he Translated^a the same out of Latine into the Brittish tongue, by which device the Enemies of the Glory of our Brittish Church and Nation, have to the wrong of the first, and to help on their vain Supremacy by any Art or shift, shuffled in this passage touching Lucius, into ours, as the other touching Constantine, into other Histories, that both were Baptized by Popes, Eleutherius and Silvester by all means, be­cause the one the first Christian King, the other the first Christian Emperour, and both brag's equally true: as likewise that Dubritius Arch-Bishop of Caerleon, in King Arthurs time, was Apostolicae sedis legatus, not unlike another of their fictions of the Popes sending the Pall to St. Patrick to make him Arch-Bishop of Ireland under Rome, though a Pall in Ireland was never heard off, till the time^b of Malachias Anno. 1152: and to the diminution of the Second, clogg'd the Archievements of the great [Page 147] and Religious King Arthur with their unworthy Legends and Fables, as with a designe, that the one with the other, might in time be of equal credit; which hath induc'd some blind to lead the blind to believe, there was no such King: In so much that Buchanan, well knowing, and see­ing the contrary in the Records of his own Nation, could not forbear to make a digression on purpose, to vindicate his name and story, (which in other^c Nations concerned in that History, is acknow­led'd, as well as in the Scottish, and our own) in a just indignation against the underminers of the fame of so great a Hero. ^d

But some light and occasion perhaps they had for their Monkish Invention, in that very probably, Lucius was Baptized by one from Rome, viz. ^e Ti­motheus, one of St. Pauls Disciples, one of his own bloud and extraction, being the Son of Claudia Ruf­fina ^f a Brittish Lady, admired by^f Roman Writers for her Accomplishments, not short of any then in Rome or Athens, ^e the Wife of Pudens (and Mother of Linus) in whose house at Rome, Baronius saith^g 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 Dissenter sufficiently answered by the most Learned Ʋsher) they both were the same per­sons, who are mention'd^e 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 [Page 148] 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 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 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 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.

[Page 149]And were it true, that Lucius of a King became a Preacher before his end, and Converted to the Faith Bavaria ^k and Switzerland, as several Au­thors report out of the Annals of those places, as our English ^k Willibrord, and Suidbert, and Wilfrid did Holland and Frizland, and Boniface or Winfrid, did the Thurmgi, Suevi & Franci, ^l 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 [Page 150] 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, and taken for granted out of Bede, that the Scottish, and Pictish, and Irish Churches, were then one and the same exactly, in Principles and Customes, with their Mother the Brittish Church; and what is delivered of the one, belongs to the other; yea the Daughters were more hot and zea­lous [Page 152] in the Cause of their Mother against Rome's In­vasion, than the Mother it self: For the Brittish Bishops agree to give Augustine a fair meeting, to dispute their Rights and Pretensions;^a but Da­ganus and Columbanus, though Courted and respected, would neither eate nor drink with those of Augustines party, nor lye in the same house. To give therefore a brief Character of both Churches, as to their Principles, its worth observing what Bede delivers of both,^b though no great favourer of the Brittains, as the Learned have observed. And first of the Brit­tains; next of Augustine and his Religion. The Brittish is represented to be a Church, Scriptural, for for its Doctrine; Episcopal, for its Government; Primitive and Oriental, for its Customes and Traditions. And Augustine himself, to have nothing to object against it for his quarrel, but these three pretences. 1. [^c] That she observed not Easter after the way of Rome, 2. Nor Baptism with Roman Ceremonies. 3. And refus'd to preach the Gospel to the Saxons: And the great sore of all at the bottom, because they would not owne Augustine himself to be an Archbishop, denying by consequence the Popes Supremacy who sent him. Bede out of his moderation, conjectures the cause of their Errour about Easter, to be this, [^d] ut pote quibus longe ultra orbem positis, &c, being situated out of the rest of the World, the decrees of Councils, about the observation of Easter, had not reach'd them, only what works of Piety and Purity, were to be learnt out of the Writings of the Prophets and Evangelists, and the Apostles, they made it their chief care and diligence to observe and practice. And we are not to this day in Brittain, out of love with [Page 153] this Errour, as were none of the Ancient Fathers, or Councils who took Scripture for their only Rule; and Gildas after their manner, hath scarce one Para­graph in his Epistle, unstor'd therewith; and one of his chief lamentations in Diocletian's Persecution is, for their Bibles being burnt in the publick Markets, which kind of sight our Apostate Modern Roman-ca­tholicks would have been content to behold in larger manner, with dry eyes. And that they were not in any Errour, or ignorance of the Decrees of Synods, about this point, appears from Constantine the great his Epistle, and Certificate in their behalf before mention'd, and the presence of the Brittish Bishops in the great Council of Arles determining this particular Controversy about Easter. ^e

The next Doctrine of our Ancient Brittains in­cluded in the former, was the example of our blessed Saviours meekness and humility, as the rule of imi­tation and Communion, Mat. 11.29. so the famous Abbot Dunawd, ^f or Dionothus resolved his Coun­trey-men, upon their question, whether they should give Augustine another meeting, or hearken to him; for in a former he had staggerd them (as Bede be­lieved) not so much with Argument, as with a Mi­racle, by restoring a Blind man (one of his own Company) to his sight, before them all; but the Brittish Doctors for all this would not^f Priscis ab­dicare moribus, relinquish their Ancient Customes, as then (above a thousand years past) they stil'd them, without further advising with their Brethren; ^g [Page 154] whereupon Dunawd being consulted with at Bangor, advised them to be guided by Christs example, more then deceitful miracles; give him the meeting, saith he, and regard his messages, if he be a man of God: But how may that be known, say they, do not you read what our Saviour saith, take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. If he be meek and lowly, it is very likely, he bears that yoke himself, and would have you to bear the same; but if he be rigorous and proud, it's manifest, he is not of God, and you need not care for his message. But how shall this also be known, let him come first to the place, and if, when you arrive, (who exceed in number and other respects) he arise to meet and honour you, as his Christian Brethren, it's some sign, he belongs to Christ; you are to hear him with all respect and deference, but if not, but with State and distance, he think to re­duce and over-aw you, and your People, you are to defend the Liberties of your Church, and dis­appoint him of his carnal expectation: which last took place in a high degree on both sides, eum no­tantes superbiae, cunctis que dicebat, contradicere la­borabant,—neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habituros respondebant, they own'd him for no Arch-Bishop, but taxed him for his pride, who might have had their honour by humility, and contradicted and baffled him in all he had to say, for they were 7. Bishops, & plures viri Doctissimi, many very learn'd men, as Bede there observes, where upon he Prophesied their destruction, which shortly fell out, in Barbarous manner, more by Instigation, than prescience; to the ruine of that Kings Kingdom, who did execute his Prophecy, and providentiall planting of the Gospel among the Saxon, or English, by Brittish [Page 155] Ministry, without the help of the Romish, as will further appear.

To these two Catholicks principles and Doctrines, touching the word of God written, and Incarnate, best leading them to Holiness, and the life of the other world: they added a third, that brought them peace in this; obedience to Superiours, or theit Gods on Earth, and their Temporal and Spiritual Governours in their several districts, and submission to the Synods and Councils of the Church, about doubts and Controversies hapning in Religion; up­on this score the above said Dunawd, saith the Brit­tish History^g Miro modo liberalibus artibus Erudi­tus, Augustino petenti ab Episcopis Britonibus sub­jectionem, diversis monstravit Argumentationibus ipsos ei nulla [...] subjectionem debere, cum & suum Archiprae­sulem haberent, being wonderfully learned, clear'd by diverse Arguments, the Brittish Bishops owed him no subjection, as he, and his Pope expected, and particularly by this, because they had an Arch­Bishop of their own, and were not to disobey their lawful Superiour to please an Usurper: for it is the chiefest part of obedience to know ones right Su­periour, and to own none besides; wherein lyes the first perversion of every English Subject, that fol­lowes Rome, and its Forreign Father, against the inward natural Allegiance of his consci [...]nce, to­wards Christ and the Truth, and his outward duty to his Governours and Fathers at home, viola­ting the fift commandment, with a Pharisaical cor­ban, saying to their peculiar Fathers, it's given to Rome, whatsoever you might be profited by us, following uncertain traditions before Gods express [Page 156] Law, and teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men, as our Saviour himself hath timely detected, and forwarn'd against this Holy fraud, Math. 15.5. for by the same reason, that every good wife, is to know her own Husband from another; and every good Subject, his own King from a Forreigner, or Usurper; and every Souldier his own Commander and Co­lours; by the same duty and conscience, every English Christian is to follow his own Church in Christ, before another; for obedience misplac'd, is but Godly transgression, or Traiterous Loyalty, to the distur­bance of the publick, besides its own shame and prejudice.

And by submission to Governours and Synods, they were heal'd of the Pelagian Heresie, which most annoyed this Church, (next to Romish Inroades that trode down the whole field, and sowed their tares and superstitions from year to year among our best corn) this made also our Church to under go seve­ral variations about the observation of Easter, as times required. As for the Arian Heresie and venome, (which began to Breath a little in these parts upon^h Gratians toleration of divers opinions in Reli­gion) it found not the air to agree with it, neither did Pelagius, (or Morgan) though born in Brittain, and as it is saidⁱ the same day St. Augustine was born in Africk, suck^k or Propagate, his Heresie here, but fell into it at Rome, by finding Christians to come short of Heathens, and abusing Grace to Libertinisme and Wantonness; for otherwise, he was in great esteem and veneration for his learning and Sanctity, with the chief^l Fathers of the East and West, St. Augustine, and St. Chrysostom; and in [Page 157] the East^m ended his days, having never return'd to his own Country, but his Heresie came to be spread here nevertheless, (in those parts especially that were reduc'd by the Saxon Conquerour) by the means ofⁿ Agricola a French man, the Son of Severianus a Pelagian Bishop, and in the rooting of it out amongst the Brittains left behind in Lhoegr, Germanus and Lupus French-men likewise, did good service, as by Neutrality they were better fitted, (as for instance, their first and main success in disputa­tion, was about^o St. Albans, where Gildas and such as he, durst not approach for the Enemy) as his complaint is taken notice of by^p Camden there) being their chiefest Champions sent hither from the Gallican, at the request of the Brittish Church, signi­fying her distemper and troubles & qua [...]primum fidei Catholicae debere succurri, that the Catholick Faith should be assisted as soon as might be, such was the loving Communion then between this, and that Church, and still might be, especially with the soundest and learned'st part thereof, (under frown for Orthodoxy) if he, who now letteth, were once taken fully out of the way, 2 Thess. 2. But it recover'd it self again, after Germanus his time, till St. David (newly ordained Bishop by the Patriarch of Jerusa­lem) in a publick Synod (whereto he was invited) held in Wales against it, gave it^q its final over­throw, and was made Arch-Bishop of St. David in the same Synod thereupon. For the Easter Con­troversie, which was the only materiall point, Au­gustine had to object, (for the other about Baptism was meer Ceremony, and since lost in oblivion) it consisted of two parts, Doctrinal, and Astronomical [Page 158] Doctrinal, as in the early Controversie between the Churches of East and West; wherein it is most proba­ble the Brittains followed the East, before the Synod of^q Arles and Nice determined otherwise; and Astronomical, between, Augustine and the Brittains at this time, being much the same difference be­tween stylo veteri & stylo novo in our days, which the Ignorance of Augustine made to be a Catholick tra­dition derived from St. Peter, and the chief ground and pretence of quarrel to disturb our Churches.

St. Paul dehorts Christians from observing dayes, and Months, and times, and years, Gal. 4, 10, very agreeably to the Christian Hypothesis, whereby this present world, or the old Creation, hath its end and period in the death of Christ, Sacramentally to our Faith; and^r time (its Concomitant twinne) hath the like end and period with it by consequence; Where­fore if ye be dead with Christ, from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye Subject to Ordinances, for properly a Christian, as a Christian lives not in this world, but in Eternity, or to use the Apostles expression, his [...], his Con­versation and Scene of living, is not on Earth but in Heaven with Christ at the right hand of God Phil. 3, 20. Col. 3.1. Which Doctrine highly Suits with the nature and genius of the immortal Soul; all whose Acts of vice or virtue, (though as born in the body, within the virge of time and place, they are Temporal and transitory) yet as they are the free-born off-springs of the Soul, they carry the features [Page 159] and signatures of Eternity upon them, being Eternal as their Parent, in the memory of their guilt or merit. Not, as if the old Creation, (wherein we still live in the flesh, 2 Cor. 10.3.) were wholly consumed and transubstantiated in the sight of our rational faculties; which a moral Philosopher would justly deride as madness in those that should maintain it; but that the whole sublunary and moral nature of all its parts, is to be elevated and consecrated to Heavenly uses, in this state of Grace, and nearer access to God, wherein the Church, as a new Creature, by faith now stands; Rom. 5.21. 2 Cor. 5.17. Therefore old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. We Christians eate, and drink, and obey, and rule, and mourn, and rejoyce, and observe dayes, and times, and feasts, as well as the Jews, or Hea­thens did; but in another World, by faith, between the heart and the Lord, in whom times, persons, and degrees, and differences of persons meet in one, as the whole Hemisphere in the candle of the eye, or Dia­meters in their Center: In the World, men are Greeks, or Barbarians, bond or free, Male or Female; but in the Church, Christ is all, and in all: For as in a degenerate Church, or false Christian, the present World or his Interest, and profit, is all in all; and Holy Church, and Religion, and God, and Christ, and Faith, and Sacraments, are all Hypocritically and profanely named, and used in order and sub­serviency thereunto, and no further; so in the true Christian Religion, Christ is all in all; and all things besides of this World, are dead things to a Christian, that cannot help him forward towards Christ, and the other life; as the other World and Religion, is an insipid story, to a false Christian, where they are useless to serve his ends in this.

[Page 160]Any Christian may, and ought, to observe and regard time, as well as other things of life or death, but to Christ, who died and rose again, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living, Rom. 14.6, 8. much more may he observe time, when commanded by Christian Governours, to whom he is subject in the Lord; more yet a time of Apostoli­cal Institution, to whom he, and his Christian Go­vernours are subject to obey; such is that singular Lords-day mentioned in St. John, Rev. 1.10. [...], the day of our Lords Resurrection, or Easter; which Christ himself by his own example hath re­commended to his Church for perpetual observa­tion; as the lasting practice proves the first direction: For on that day Christ rose from the dead, (founding his new Creation in one day, as God did the old in a week) and instructed Mary Magdalen touching the Communion and participation of Christians in his Re­surrection, and Adoption by it; which constitutes the Christian Church and the substance of its Cate­chisme. Say to my Brethren, I ascend to my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your God, Joh. 20.17. On the Octaves of the same day, carefully noted v. 19. he appeared to his Disciples met together; and Instituted the Governours of his Church with a Consecration Sermon, ad clerum, touching their Au­thority and duty: As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you, and breathing on them, said, receive ye the Holy Ghost, whosoever sins ye remit, they are re­mitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retain'd, v. 21, 22. And after eight dayes again, or a Disdiapason, or the third day from the Resur­rection, he met his Disciples again, and preach'd a Sermon ad populum, containing the chief funda­mental principle of Christianity, and the blessedness [Page 161] of those, that have not seen, and yet shall believe, mildly reproving the foreseen Curiosity and Infide­lity of Christians in the person of St. Thomas v. 29. Expressing hereby his leading will and example, for the observing of Sunday forever, as a Holy day for Worship and Instruction, upon the score of the Re­surrection; or, as 51 Octaves of Easter day, as the subsequent Apostolical practice of the Church hath prov'd this first Institution, Act. 20.7. 1 Cor. 16.2. The Jewish Sabbath being dissolved with the old Creation by Faith, and the Christian Sabbath erected in its stead, (the new Creation requring its Sabbath, as well as old, because a Creation:) And the Church, or Spiritual Israel bound by the decalogue to the observation of it, in remembrance of its deliverance from Spiritual Aegypt and bondage; as the Jews, or Carnal Israel to the other in remembrance of such deliverance in the letter: Besides the Law of Constantine and other godly Kings of New Israel for observing of the same. And not against, but according to our Saviours Inti­mation, Mat. 9.15. That the Disciples should fast, when the Bridegroom was taken away, Wednesday and Fri­day, (preceding his passion,) and from thence all the Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, saving the time of Pentecost, (when the Bridegroom returned to his Spouse in the Comforter) have been observed by the Ancient Catholick Church, as a Fast in reference to his Cross, as Easter (and thence all the Sundays in the year) as a Feast in reference to his Resurrection; both the one, and the other, being regarded to the Lord: The Church particularly training it self to the conformity of Christs death to to this World in the one; as of his life, in the Hea­venly joyes of the other; Christ in his Cross, and Christ in his Resurrection, being the whole lesson, [Page 162] and both side of the leaf, to the Christian Church, 1 Cor. 2.2. Philip. 3.10.

The Charter of Easter, and its weekly repetitions, or Sundays, which some prefer in honour before Easter it self, (the Copy before the Original,) being so clear in Scripture in its first Institution; of so great importance is Charity, and condescention to the frailties of our Christian Brethren, that the great Lords-day, (or Easter) as well as the Sabbath, was by Christs mind, to give place unto it, in some places, and for some time. Accordingly we find the Eastern Churches, adioyning to Jerusalem, to observe Easter out of its time, the same day, as the Jews did their Passover, what day of the Week soever it fell on, whether Sunday or not; and also to observe Satur­day as a Holy-day, as well as Sunday throughout the year, in complyance with the Jews. But the Western would by no means yield or approve thereof, but thunder'd against it, with the same zeal, as St. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles did▪ against the introduceing of Circumcision amongst the Gentiles, Gal. 25.5.2. Phil. 3.2. which yet was to­lerated in the Christian Jewish Church, Act, 21.20, 21, 25. And therefore St. Peter, the Apostle of the Jews, Gal. 2.7. is more complyant with the weak Jews in their Ceremonies, (whom he fear'd to offend) than St. Paul, (who did as much fear to scanda­lize his weak Gentiles,) and reproved St. Peter to his face upon that score, Gal. 2.11. and yet both the one and the other in their zeal and moderation, were acted by a diversified charity, but the same inspir'd directions, Gal. 2.8. And the true Reason in all pro­bability of the Roman Fast on Saturday, so contrary to the Apostolical Tradition of the rest of the Chri­stian Church, (what other plaister soever many [Page 163] may invent for this notorious Non-conformisty,) was the zeal of St. Paul's successors, after his example and steps, Gal. 2.5. strictly to assert the Christian liberty of the believing Gentiles in the West from the yoak of the Law, and all seeming Judaical observation of the weekly Saturday with equal respect to the week­ly Lords-day: As they would by no means before, veile their Annual Easter to the Annual Passover up­on the like score; wherein St. Peter, and all Chri­stians of the Circumcision would not have been so precise and strict, (as it is well known they were not) to keep such exact distance from the Synagogue; nor needed they at Rome to have been, after the limited time of toleration to the weaker Jews was expir'd, as it was no less than Schisme and disobe­dience in them, to continue in this their needless singularity (though originally generous) after the Catholick Church in General Councils had declared its dislike against it. Now if the first Popes of Rome, as Victor, with others, had believed themselves to be the Successors of St. Peter, they would not have raised such a bitter quarrel against the Eastern Church about the time of observing Easter, for this had been to have made St. Peter fight against him­self: So that Romes persisting in her Saturday Fast, is an Eternal evidence and record against her self, that neither her Popes were Successors to St. Peter, nor she truly Catholick and Apostolical in her Traditions, and that leaving her St. Paul's Bible at last for St. Peter's Keyes, which belong'd not to her alone, she is fallen to the ground between two Chaires and Titles. Now it is well known, that to the time of the Coun­cil of Nice, for about 300 years after Christ, the Ea­stern Churches and such of the Western (who were for observing Easter upon a Sunday, and not one the pre­cise [Page 164] day of the Jewish Passover) continued their difference to that height, that [...], saith Epiphanius ^r they did not com­municate with one another: The Western (or the Roman) taking the Resurrection for their rule; and the Eastern supported by the Authority of St. John the Evangelist a long Liver, and St. Peter, as afore, and the Bishops of the Circumcision, whom they followed; whose determination (by Apostolical Constitution,) the whole World was to follow, to prevent Schisme and Division in the Church, as the same Father Notes: They having more to say by this for their^r Title to be [...], the chief Judges of Controversy in the Church, than the Bishops of Rome could ever pretend to, because James the just, the first Bishop of Jerusalem whom they succeeded, stil'd the Brother of our Lord,^ſ [...], was the first who received the Episcopal Chaire, and whom the Lord entrusted with his throne upon Earth in the formost place. And it is an Argument of greater Superiority to succeed the Master (as they did,) than to succeed St. Peter, his Minister, which is the utmost that Rome doth, or can pretend, though with more ambition, than antiquity, or reason of its side: Now of what side the Churches of Brittain were in this early Controversie, whether of the East, or of the West, before the Councils of Arles and Nice determin'd it, is gatherable from the answer of Colman the [Page 165] Bishop of Lindisfarn to Wilfrid at the dispute before the King of Northumberland at Streanshall, or Whitby: so that their conformity to the East, as will appear, proves the Brittish Church by consequence, to have more adher'd to St. Peter and his party, than did Rome; for in that solemn Synod held upon this parti­cular point in the year 664. they say, Pascha hoc quod agere solo a majoribus meis accepi, qui me huc Episcopum miserunt; quod omnes patres nostri viri deo dilecti, eodem modo modo celebrasse noscuntur: quod ne cui contemnendum & reprobandum esse videatur, ipsum est, quod beatus Johannes Evangelista, Discipulus specia­liter Domino dilectus, cum omnibus, quibus praeerat Ecclesiis, celebrasse legitur, Bed. l. 3. c. 25. This kind of keeping of Easter which I observe, I received from my Ancestors, which sent me hither a Bishop, which all our Fathers, belov'd of God, are known to have observ'd after the same manner. And least any should imagine this way to be depised or dis­allowed, its the very same, which the blessed Evan­gelist, St. John (the Disciple specially beloved by our Lord) is recorded to have observ'd himself, with all the Churches that were under him. And Wilfrid on the other side, referr'd his way of observing it after the manner of the Roman Church, to a tra­dition derived down from St. Peter, being both in the dark about the point now in difference; which was not Doctrinal, but Astronomical: but clearly discovering the extraction, and Communion of the Brittish Church and her Daughters (in the belief and perswasion of Ancestours) to be from, and with the East, and not from Rome. For so Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus in his Synodicall Epistle, writ a­gainst Pope Victor, as it is mentioned by St. Hierome in his Catalogue, ‘In Asia lye St. Philip and his three [Page 166] Daughters, at Hierapolis, St. John, who lean'd on our Lords bosom, at Ephesus; and with them Poly­carp, Thrascas, Sagaris, Papyrius, Melito, who all kept Easter according to Evangelicall tradition, and the Canon of the Church, on the fourteenth day, without inclining to either side. And I Polycrates, according to the Doctrine of my Immediate pre­decessors Bishops, being 7 in number, whereof I am the Eight, have alwayes observ'd Easter when the people of the Jews keep their feast of unleaven­ed Bread.’ But after the Councils of Arles and Nice, interpos'd and decided this Controversie be­tween the East and West, it is as clear, the Brittish Church kept Easter no more upon the day of the Passover, but on the^t Sunday following, according to the mind and decision of the Council, wherein they differ'd from the Quartadecimani, who are branded for Hereticks for keeping it on the Pass­over day, and not on Sunday, and that fasting; and so much is also confessed in Wilfrid's reply to Colman, Johannes adlegis Mosaicae—Nihil de primâ sabbati curabat, quod vos non facitis, qui non nisi primâ sabbati celebratis, that they differ'd from St. John and the East, in having so punctual a regard to the Lords-day, or the first day of the week, which Moses and the Synagogue, and those Eastern Christians that went their way, never heeded, where, by the way, we may observe, that as the Bishops of the Circum­cision were of Ancient Right and Custom, Superiours to Rome and all our Gentile Churches, so Christian Emperours in General Counsels were Superiours to both; over ruling both the one and the other, to peace and unity, against their several traditions; [Page 167] and in defect of General Councils, who now never meet, and the Bishops of the Circumcision, who are exstinct, the Brittish Church becomes Supreme with­in it self, under its own Governours, being no more under Rome, than Rome under it, and no other left that pretends to such Superiority. But if the Church of Brittain left its Eastern traditions to observe the decrees of Councils, (which Rome alike observ'd) where then was the difference between Augustine and the Btittains? there was none in Doctrine, but only in Almanack Calculation. For as^u the learn­ed Primate proves, both Churches followed the same Paschall Cycle, from about the year 382. to the time of Dionysius Exiguus, who taught the Church of Rome a better, about the year 500. convinceing them to be two dayes out in theit account; and^x Baronius confesses that after the Council of Nice, the Bishops of Rome received their directions from year to year, for the week (Easter was to be kept) from the Church of Alexandria, where they had better Mathematicians. When the Roman Church followed the Cycle of 84 yeers which the Brittains also were guided by, they would not keep their Easter on the 15^•h. day of the Moon, though it fell upon the Lords-day, least good-friday should there­by be observ'd of necessity before the 14^th day a­gainst the Law of Moses, but differ'd it to the follow­ing Sunday being the 22^th; but if the following Sun­day was on the 16^th. day after the full Moon or 14^th. the former Inconvenience was prevented. So the Latines before they were rectified from Alexandria, observed their Easter on such Sundayes as fell out between the 16^th. and 22^th. never went so far as [Page 168] 23, nor began at 14 or 15.^y Sulpitius Severus of France, about the year 410, to amend the errour and overplus of about two dayes, which he observ'd, invents another new way of observing Easter between the 14^th. and 20^th. which the Brittains are taxed in Bede for observing likewise, whereby when Easter is kept the 14^th. the Evening of the 13^th, preceeding, is taken into it, against the limits of the Law, which confines the beginning of the Passover ever to the Evening of the 14^th, and not before or latter. So the Roman Church having for about 100 years laid aside her wonted Cycle, and rule of 84, and from 16 to 22, to follow the exacter tables of Dionysius, and the Church of Brittain for about the same space of time, following the Gallican method of Sulpitius from 14 to 20 being more intent upon the sincerity of their duty, than exactness in hours, and scruples, and se­conds, this gave occasion to Augustine the Monk and his followers to espy a mistake to raise a quarrel upon, to disturb^z our Churches: for they confi­dently affirm'd that their Alexandrine Calandar, was a tradition deriv'd from St. Peter, who kept the keyes of Heaven; upon which^a Oswi, King of Northumberland, was deterr'd from his Brittish insti­tution, to follow the Roman Church, for fear of being shut out. Colman being discredited, quitted his Bishop­rick, and went back into Seotland, and the spotless Church of Brittain had a fowle imputation fastened upon it, of being no less than Heretical, for want of better skill or heed in Almanacks and Accounts: and trusting too much her Neighbours of France to tell the Clock, whilst she was busie. With the like Ig­norance, though not with the same mischief and scandal, a gifted Preacher preferring the Illumina­tion [Page 169] of the spirit, before all human learning what­soever, being ask'd by a grave Divine, to expound the meaning of Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades, Job 28.31, comparing them with Leviathan there­abouts, that was as hard a word in his phancy, answers presently they were Sea-Monsters, and earnest he was the learned Minister should veyle and submit to his Ignorant inspirations. Consent and Harmony a­mong Churches, were to be wish'd in every rite, and truth however to be followed, in points, that are least considerable: but of the two, it is easy to believe, God is better pleased with Sincerity, than Punctillioes, and that a clean heart stylo veteri is far more acceptable with its searcher, than an old heart puffed with pride and malice stylo novo: the Virgins saith St. Chrysostom, were shut out for want of Oyle, Math. 25.11. another for not having his wedding garment, Math. 12.12, 13. but we read of none that were arraign'd or punished, for mistaking the Month of the Passover.

The Church of Rome therefore (its Adversa­ry,) largely proves our Brittish to be Orthodox in Doctrine, in that she had no more but this Easter difference to lay to her charge, or to ju­stifie her self above her. And as her Doctrine throughout was sound and Scriptural, so was her Government Ancient and Primitive by Bishops who were chosen by their^b Clergy and People, as their Arch-Bishops^c by their Kings and Sy­nods and Parliaments, to Rule at home, and to appear a broad in General Councils, Nice, Sardyca, Ariminum, as there be Instances. That there were [Page 170] here 28 Bishops, and three Arch-Bishops erected o­ver the rest by King Lucius, and the^d Revenues of the Druides tranferr'd from Idolatry to endow the Church, and so kept still sacred fot the use of Re­ligion in general, as Geoffrey of Monmouth and^e Pla­tina intimate, and is prov'd as to London, by the early Simony of Wini Bishop of Winchester, buying the same of King Wolfer, is not the less improbable, be­cause some learned men are offended with the new­ness of the word Arch-slamins us'd by the Interpre­ter, who writ in an ignorant Monkish age, when the thing meant thereby (and that there was sub­ordination, and one set over the rest) is expressly affirmed by Caesar in his Account of their Discipline and Order: yet others are inclin'd with Baleus, and and Powel, and Sir H. Spelman to believe that the Church of Brittain took her pattern from the East, and from Scripture rather than Idolatry, in the found­ing of her Bishopricks. And that^f the 7 Bishops of Wales under the Arch-Bishop of St. David, (who are recorded to meet Monk Augustine) were found­ed and erected after the^g number and example of the 7 Churches of Asia and their Angels Revel. capp. 1.2, 3. (as those Churches likewise after the like re­markeable number in the Angelical Hirarchy Zach. 4.10. Rev. 1.4, 5.) which opinion Arch-Bishop Ʋsher recites without any censure or dislike. Accor­dingly^h we meet with 7 Bishops in the North un­der the Arch-Bishop of York in like manner: And twice 7 under the Arch-Bishop of London, being twice as large as the two other Provinces; or 7 only per­haps, but each of those of larger extent, than now they are, as wasⁱ Lincolne before Eli, Peterburgh, [Page 171] and Oxford, were taken from it; or Lichfeild, Sid­nacester, Dorchester, Legecester and Worcester, when all made but^k one Bishoprick, and whereas Rome had 10 suburbicarian Provinces under it,^l Millain (which was more Oriental in her Customs) had but 7. But one discord note we may find in the Brittish Doctrine, touching persons Ecclesiastical, which yet well agrees with St. Paul, disallowing any to be fit guides, that did not follow his example in living, as he followed Christ, Phil. 3.17. though not so well with Roman practice or profession, where Bishops may be holy, maugre all their scandals and impie­ties; and Infallible in their monstrous errours, be­cause they sit in the Chair of St. Peter: whereas in the sence of^m Gildas, and consequently of our Brittish Church, all holy Ministers are the successors of Peter in his Chair, and they that are otherwise ‘are Judas his successors, being not Ministers of Christ, but of the Devil, and their bellies; who are more in­tent for peferments in the Church, than for the Kin­gdom of Heaven, or adorning such dignities with life and Doctrine; who can hold their peace at the a­bominable sins of men, whereby God is offended, and roare to purpose at the least injury done to them­selves, as if done to Christ; such are Gods Enemies, and not his Priests, the Ringleaders of the wicked, and not Popes of the Church; traitors not succces­sors of the Apostles; Rebels, not Ministers of Christ.’

And for our Brittish Customs, they were and are Primitive and Catholick, and Oriental, and not Roman. We observe with solemn fast the holy week in Lent, called Grawys, fromⁿ different and rough [Page 172] attire (as is conceived) then us'd, especially there­in Dydh Mercher y Bràd and Dydh Gwener y Croglith, that is, as we term those two days, Wednesday where­in he was betrayed, and Friday with the lessen of the Cross, and from thence all theⁿ Wednesdays and Fridays of the year, saving Pentecost, as Bede con­fesses of us; and the strict practice rhereof with the devouter sort, is fresh in memory, this and other Brittish Customs, having escaped better under Popery, than under the pretended Reformation of the late War: whereas its well known the Church of Rome stands condemn'd, and censur'd in her Clergy and laity, the one to be depriv'd, the other to be excom­municate, by the 6^th.^o Generall Council for fast­ing upon the Saturdays, [...], contrary to the Ancient tradition of the Church and the Apostolical Canon of like seve­rity. It's no wonder therefore if the Church of Rome denies the Authority of this Council, [...].^p For it went like a Sword through their heart to find themselves charg'd and impeached of going contrary to the Apostolical Ca­non: And though the Church of Brittain in the West, and of Africa in the South, and of Millain at her doors, agreed with the Eastern, and Aposto­lick, followed by this Council, yet this Universal consent must not prevail, the single Church of Rome Schismatically dissenting from the whole Church in her traditions, must be Catholick nevertheless, and her Customs to be observed equally with the Scriptures.

[Page 173]The Asiatic custome of singing a Carol to Christ about Cock-crowing mention'd in Plinie, ^p in his Epistle to Trajan the Emperour, in the first Age of the Church, is retain'd amonst us to this day, in our Plygains or Pulgains as we term them.

Though we look upon the material Cross, as a great rarity (which at Rome they Idolize, and are beholding to our St. Helena for any naile or part thereof, they have to shew) and honour that bear­ing, as the Church's Coat of Arms, yet our true sense and Religious use thereof, appears in our Re­membrances and obligations by it, to brotherly love and charity, having no other word to express wel­come which ought to be from the heart, but Croeso, which is deriv'd from the Cross, mae chwi groeso, you are welcome in the Cross.

Though they believe no Purgatory, yet at the death of their Friends it is usual with them to wish the party Deceas'd a good Resurrection, Duw a Ro iddo Ailgyfodiad da, God grant him a good Re­surrection, an Ancient^q practice in the Eastern Church, much abus'd by them at Rome to their se­cular profit, as usual.

None have firmer beliefs of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the other World, than the Ancient Brittains, nor greater detestation and Dicipline against lying, even in Children, which the Roman Church indulges in her Records, and Liturgies, and chiefest Saints.

^r They had likewise, besides Eremites and Ancho­rites of the stictest sort, their Nuneries for Christ's, [Page 174] Virgins, and Abbeyes for Monkes, not such as our Western Modern Orders of St. Benedict, St. Francis, or St. Domnick, but far Ancienter, and after the Rule in the East, and^ſ Aegypt, so much extoll'd in in the Ancient Fathers, and especially in St. Chry­sostom's Homilies all along, not begging their Bread, or being a burden to others, but earning their Liveli­hood, with the work of their hands, and spending the rest of their time in Study, and mutual Edifica­tion, renowned in History for their great Sanctity and Learning; yet it was not counted unlawful for any of their Clergy to Marry, for St. Patrick was the Son of^† Calphurnius a Deacon, who was the Son of^† Potitus a Presbyter: And^u Restitutus the Brittish Archbishop at the Council of Arles was a Married man, and so was St. Hilarie his friend, as well as St. Philip and St. Peter.

In their Tonsures, which is also an^x excepti­on by Augustin's party against them, if they had any, they followed the manner of the East, which shaved the forehead (not the Crown, as did our Romanists,) who were as much dissatisfied with Theodorus of Tarsus St. Paul's City, who being de­sign'd Archbishop of Canterbury to revive and pro­mote the Roman Interest in Brittain (quite lost well nigh,) was^y fain to stay four Months at Rome be­fore his setting out into his dignity, that his Haire might grow fit to be shaved after the Roman mode, being well contented to part with an old lock for a new Throne, which proves the Greeks to be as far dif­ferent from the Romans, as our Brittains in this Rite.

Episcopalem vero Confirmationem—prae alia [Page 175] gente [...]otus populus magnopere petit, ^x no Nation had Episcopal Confirmation more in esteem, and so de­sired by all, as the Brittains saith Cambrensis; whose Archbishops did Consecrate their Suffragans, and were Consecrated by them in their own Pro­vince: And never sought to Rome for their Pall, as did several other Nations, as Pope Gregory did^a ac­quaint his Augustine, in answer to his 7 [...]. Question, directing to take no Superiority over Arles, because ab Antiquis praedecessorum meorum temporibus pallium accepit, that Archbishop did use to receive his Pall from Rome, and therefore was not to be depriv'd of the Authority, which once he had obtained,^a Bri­tanmarum vero Omnes Episcopes tuae fraternitate com­mittimus. But he'le give leave to his Augustine to bring all the Bishops of Brittain under him, who by consequence, (and in the Popes opinion, and di­ligent search,) never had any Pall from Rome, which by the Principles of the^b New Roman Church, is Essentially requisite to constitute an Archbishop, because it brings a round sum of Money to their Coffers, and dependance and Canonical obedience to their See, and the disowning the Su­premacy of Temporal Soveraigns by Consequence: But whether the Archbishops of Brittain, so esteem'd for several Primitive Ages, by Emperours, and the great Councils of the Ancient Church, who sum­mon'd and own'd them, under that dignity and Charter, must lose their Ancient right and privi­ledge at the pleasure of a younger Church, because it never complyed with its new and sordid devices, ^b [Page 176] for gain and Lucre, is justly a question, of which more hereafter, but their diminution in fact, upon the reason that is implyed to occasion it, sets it out of question, that by the confession of the Popes themselves, Brittain never own'd, or acknowledg­ed any Superiority, that Rome pretended over it: But though our Bishops never went to Rome for their Pall, or Consecration, yet they us'd not to stand upon such terms of distance, from the Asiatic Churches, nor the Church of Jerusalem (though for some Ages, by reason of the destruction of that City, truckling under Daughter Cities, that were of greater note and fame,) but really and originally the Mother of all Churches, and particularly re­spected by the Church of Brittain, upon that score. For thither they us'd from hence to flock and resort, as is observed by St. Hierome, ^c thither^d St. Helena repaired with her Retinue, building and en­riching Churches: Thither Pelagius went, and was cleared in their Councils, explaining his own sense in^e Greek before them, against his Errours: Whether it was his care and Interest to speak more warily, or whether, as one defends Calvin, against a Jesuite, charging him with Atheism, that he read Calvin in Bellarmines Works, and not in his own▪ but it is rather to be supected, that Pelagius was more truly guilty of his dangerous Heresie, than that the Synods of his own Countrey should so ex­plode him without cause, or St. Augustine his ho­nourer write so well, in vain, against him: But not to digress, but to speak more directly, (for Pelagius had he been Orthodox, was but a^f Layman) thi­ther our chiefest Brittish Doctors are recorded to re­pair, [Page 177] St. David, Paternus, Elius or Teilaw, and to be Consecrated Bishops by that Patriarch in order to to their return, which the Brittish Church was so far from dis-rellishing; that the first of them in full Synod, was translated to be Archbishop of Menevia (called afterwards by his Name,) upon the score of that Consecration, together with his parts, as before was mentioned out of^e Giraldus Cambrensis, whose aime was, as himself declares, to be another Gildas in delivering nothing but the Truth.^f

Many other Rites and Customes there were in use among the Brittains, as Bede observes, that were con­trary to the unity of His Catholick Church^g plu­rima alia faciebant unitati Ecclesiasticae contraria, which took up a long dispute at the Synod of Strean­shall; from which the Brittains would by no means recede, but preferr'd their own Traditions, as well as they might, before all that were followed by the Roman Church at that time, which Bede, calls the whole World; whereby it appears, that though our Brittish Antiquities, are many of them lost and perished, through Wars and desolations, and the special malignity of the Church of Rome, to suppress the memory and honour of so emulous a Church, (as this of Brittain was in its eyes) and Abbot Dunawd's Books of the priviledges of the See of St. David▪ and of the Ancient Rites and Customes of the Brittish Church, mentioned in Pitseus, were destroyed with many other at Bangor, with its Monks and Mo­nastery and^h Library, (and I pray God to pre­serve our English Libraries from the like rude zeal,) yet the account of its Customes and Anti­quities, [Page 178] is sufficiently preserved, and contain'd in the first best Councils o [...] the Primitive Church, and the Learned Orthodox Fathers of the East, with whom it so entirely and exactly agreed and con­curr'd in all sound Traditions, as appears by the tast, and instances I have already given, from which Rome very much departed, and stands noto­riously censur'd by the Catholick Church as Schisma­tical for the same; which abundantly proves the Brittish Church never was any Daughter of Rome, nor could be; not only because of Ancienter years, and standing, than her supposed Mother, but because as wholly dislike to her in every line, and feature, and humour, and Ceremony, as are the Spaniards to the French, though both Christians in their kind.

I shall add, but two or three of their Homilitical Customes and Principles, (and pass on to the Cha­racters of their Antagonists from Rome) such I mean, as had more influence upon their Converse with one another; whether the respect of the Church to the Prince, or the Prince and people to the Church, or the people to one another.

As to their respect and Loyalty to their Prince: There are no footsteps in the Primitive Church, nor the Ancient Brittish for deposing Kings for Heresies, or Scandal. Spiritual Dicipline is not to alter, or un­setle Civil rights. It's an Antichristian fift Monarchy Principle that offers at it: If Rome be a Mother Church in any thing, it is in this. Whoever us'd it here, had it from her forge. Mens several rights, as they are men, and as they are Christians, are as different, as peace of Conscience, and the peace of the Kingdom, as the law of the land, and the law of God, as the Body, and the Soul, as Outlary and Excommunicat [...]on; which the Church of Rome [Page 179] confounds together: But the Brittish Clergy knew how to pay their several rights to God and Caesar, to be faithful Servants to Christ, and Loyal Subjects to their King; they boldly reproved and censur'd the enormous vices of their Princes out of love to God, and them, and Countrie, as appears by^a Voadin Archbishop of London, reproving King Vor­tigern for marrying Hengist's Daughter, a Pagan, when he had a lawfull Queen, slain for it, by the procurement of her Father, not by Vortigern, though a very ill man, and more happy in such a Martyr­dom, than in a perfidious connivance, in a whole skin, and a ragged Conscience; and also by Gildas his sharp reproofs remaining to this day, against se­veral of their chifest Princes, for which not an hair of his head was touch'd by any of them, as can be heard or read, as likewise by^b Aidanus his spe­cial severity against great offenders. They severally reprov'd, but never rebell'd against their Princes, nor encourag'd any to it, and they were the more lov'd and embrac'd for it by several of them re­turning, as did Constantine the Son of Cador, ^c Prince of Cornwall, who upon Gildas his rebuke, became a zealous Preacher of the Gospel from a bloudy De­bauch; and Mouric and Morcant Princes of South­wales, became great Patrons and Benefactors to the Church, for its fidelity to their Souls against their vitious humours; both securing and gaining Hea­ven to themselves thereby, the one by their Inte­grity, the other by their Repentance. But as to their blameless, and more worthy Princes, the Brittish Bishops were never distant from them, neither in their ^d [Page 180] danger, nor joyes, nor deaths: Eldad ^e Bishop of Gloucester followed King Ambrose in all his Wars and Victories:^f Dubritius Archbishop of St. David, encouraged King Arthur's Army against the Infidels in his Badonic Victory. The whole Clergy of the land alwayes assembled to interre^g their Princes at Stonehenge. Cowardize in any of their Souldiers in the Cause of their Prince and Countrey^h was Excommunication with them. The root of Brittish Valour, was Conscience and Loyalty, according to that Canon of theⁱ Council of Orange: Fortitu­dinem gentilium mundana cupiditas, fortitudinem [...]utem Christianorum dei charitas facit, Heathens are valiant for some lusts sake, Christians for Conscience. And it appears by good confession, they never were reduc'd for want of Valour or Loyalty to their Prince,^k Emmanuel Emperour of Constantinople requesting of King Henry the Second an account of his Kingdom and Rarities, was returned this for one; In quadam Insulae parte sunt Gentes, quae Wallenses dicuntur, tantae audaciae & ferocitatis, ut nudi cum armatis congredi non vereantur, adeo ut sanguinem fundere pro patriâ promptissimé, vitamque velint pro laude pacisci: In a certain place of this Island there is a Nation, called the Welsh, of such bold and daring Spirits, that they'l make nothing to cope with Armed men, though naked; and to spend their bloud for their Countrey, their lives for Honour, is what they most desire and wish for. Newbrigensis delivers the same Cha­racter in effect, though not with the same Candour; Barbaros, Audaces, alieni sanguinis ^z avidos, & proprii [Page 181] prodigos. And if they had not been not only over­powred, but outwitted by Edward the first, by a mercyful Providence, they had sought it out to the last man with disadvantage, rather than survive their Prince. Rege incolumi mens omnibus una: amisso rup [...]re fidem, And since they came under the English Crown, they have acted, and greatly suf­fered in several Civil Wars, but never against the Right Soveraign, A fair Inducement to our Royal Princes of Wales, not to rest content with the bare title, but to be better acquainted with their people for their encouragement, as we find Prince Arthur of late to have kept his Court amongst them; for the best bloud will clot, if never cherished by the heart.

Nor were the Princes, and Gentry, and People inferiour in their respects and honour to their Church, (which with Tertullian is a great sign and Character of the true and Orthodox.) By the Law of Howel Dha, ^l Of the three, that were of the Quorum to make a Court, the Clergy man ever was one, and the alone custos rotulorum. The Ancient Princes never feasted, nor consulted, nor went to^m War, without their Bishops, as before; Ethelfred's cruelty towards the Monks of Bangor went soon to all their hearts, which cost him above 10000 of his men upon the place, and the loss of his Kingdom shortly after: their common respects to the meanest of their Clergy ap­pears out of Cambrensis ⁿ viro cuilibet Relligioso, monacho vel clerico, vel cuicunque Religionis habitum praeferenti, statim projectis armis, cernuo capite, benedictionem petunt, any Church-man they met, [Page 182] whether Monk or Minister, that wore the habit of Religion, they threw aside their arms, and with humble bow and Reverence asked his blessing: the greatest Gentry for Birth and quality, (of right Brit­tish education and Principles) are observ'd to our days, not to take the right hand of any Minister; minding him by their respect (which they count no disparagement) to mind himself and his coate the better. The Church of Rome procures the like Re­verence from the greatest of her Grandees, but by Romish Arts, and Indirect sollicitations, as 40 dayes pardon of venial sins, for kissing the Garment of him that celebrates, with other secular contrivances and Inducements; But the Brittish Church, hath re­spect from her own, and others of high degree and Dignity, without such bribes, and politick encou­ragements; The Churches of Scotland, and Ireland, her Daughters, sided with her against Popery about a 1000 years ago, with utmost zeal and vigour, when she was desolate and over-powr'd. The great­est Pillars of our Church in latter years, the renown­ed Arch-Bishops Ʋsher, and Parker, and Bramhall with others, bestowed learned pains in her particular ho­nour and defence, when she had but small power to requite their Love, not to mention the like esteem in the breasts and mouths of many, (if not all) our Reverend and learned Mitres, both dead and living.

Nor were, nor are, their People, (that retain their right Brittish principles) less wanting in mutu­all Charity, and respects to one another, and espe­cially in compassion towards the weaker and poorer sort: for in such kind of charity and succour, none perhaps, came nearer to the Primitive Christians, (who had all in^o Common amongst them) than [Page 183] our Right Ancient Brittains, of whom saith Cam­brensis, ^p. Nemo in hac gente mendicus, omnium enim, &c. though they were poor, yet none was in want amongst them, if any had it to give, de ^q quo libet pane apposito primum fractionis angulum pauperibus dant, of every loafe set upon the their table, the first cut was laid aside for the poor; their frequent meetings, prohibited by the severe Laws of Henry the fourth, therein called Cymmorthaes, were clubs of the Richer sort amongst themselves, to relieve their poor friends and neighbours, as the word imports, be­ing comportations, or Collections to set up the poor, not wholly out of use to this day; Largitatem ^p. & dapsilitatem cunctis virtutibus anteponunt; Lberality, and Hospitality (for others to farewell by them) they fancied above all other vertues whatsoever. I suppose he alludes to the great esteem, and con­tempt, that Syberwid and Ansyberwid was, and is in, still amongst them, that have kept their Language, and Ancient Customs most free from Forreign mix­tures; for with such, no man can fall under a worse or better character them of Syberw or Ansyberw; no greater commendation have they for any man, or woman, than gwr or gwraig Syberw, no greater note of Infamy and unworthyness, than Ansyberw, (which they pronounce as Suber and Ansuber though writ with y) which words, whatever is their Etymolo­gy, in their common acception, carry a compre­hensive signification of several good and evil quali­ties, as ingredients. And (1) it is manifest Syberw in the first surface denotes liberality, as Ansyberw niggardness; but then further, it points at the cause [Page 184] and reason of both, for (2) such a man is to be allow­ed Syberw, that doth by all men, as he would be done by; and the contrary is Ansyberw, so is he, that takes greater measure to himself, than he will af­ford to others, so are all that can endure to fare richly while their Neighbours starve by them; and Syberw is he, that is watchful and resolute against all avaritious inequality, and overreach­ing, or unconcernedness for others, that be in want and misery; so that Syberw is just and mercyful, as well as Liberal; and Ansyberw unjust, and merciless: (3) It implies some inequality, when a man strives to be kinder ro another, than to himself, and pinches himself in back and belly, to be kind and liberall to many: as I have known vety good Women, who went habited scare above beggars, and of propor­tionable abstinence in their diet, who if they had worn all their large almes upon their backs from year to year, (which they valued above all gayety and good fare) might have appear'd and far'd as splendid as any of their rank, and know by this time they made a better choice: and herein is the essence and formality of Syberwid; and such an en­grafted traditional honour and esteem there is for such, amongst the Brittains, that their names are mentioned with great and cordial dearness, as if this were to be a Saint; for faith and all vertues are presu­med to be in that man or woman, where this temper is found; and though it may seem unreasonable, (or at least a work of Superogation) to love another above himself, yet they judge nothing to be a greater duty, and content, and blessing: (as indeed what is more Divine and Honourable, and the source all noble actions and rewards, exposeing life for Country? &c.) and in their common bargains [Page 185] and measures, they abhorr and dread, precise and exact equality, without some addition, or voluntary overplus of kindness to another, they deal with, a­bove the strict contract; and they had rather abate of the price agteed, than be disabled to give the said addition, as their free guift; over and above their bargain; which they proverbially call rhád-duw, or Gods Grace, and Blessing. And the giver is as Willing, or rather more, to give his Rhad-duw into the bargain, than the other to receive it. (4) It takes in con­science, and the heart above all: they'l hardly re­ceive it, if it comes not from the heart, and from no ends, but as a free guift: and he that is Ansyberw is therefore hateful with them, because esteemed to have no conscience, and he that is Syberw from the heart, is call'd glan ei galon or clear spirited, which is the loveliest Character, they judge, any man can deserve or receive; and probably Syberw comes from Sobrius, and Sobrius from [...], in the Etymology of it, whereby it signifies the preservati­on of the mind, and heart; which is done, they conceive, by nothing more than Syberwid; as the mind and soul is destroyed and corrupted, by nothing more than Ansyberwid; which is the same with Phi­lau [...], or self love, (as appears by the premises) so hateful with St. Paul, and our Brittans, and with all good men: so that by this their imbred tradition received amongst all undegenerate Brittains, both high and low, they judge honesty and mercy, and love to others above themselves, (as in the case of humi­lity) to be their self-preservation, and chiefest In­terest, and surest method to prosper. And no wonder they preferr'd this hearty Syberwid before all other vertues, it being nothing else, but that love, which is the fulfilling of the Law; or that charity from a [Page 186] pure heart, which is the end of the commandment, and the total of all Religion; for what excellency, or degeneracy is there in human or Christian na­ture, that is not contain'd in Syberw, and avoided in Ansyberw? What is honour in Nobles, honestum with Romans, [...], with Greeks, humility and charity with Christians, is all comprehended, in Syberw. And this Brittish Principle and Custom, is so undoubted­ly Apostolical and Primitive, that nothing more is the root and cause of the Arrogance and trouble­somness of Popery, or of that hollowness and Hippocrisie, that hath too much prevail'd in Modern Protestancy, and Puritanism it self, than the manifest want thereof: Some of our degenerate Gentry ought to compare their ignoble and sinful constant healthing and swill­ing, (while they can hardly spare a glass of Water to Christ in their poor Neighbour) with this sober and salvifical principle of their Progenitours, who (it is to be believed) never met to^r drink, but in re­lation to Cymmortha; and these are so much Brittains (they say) in their servile imitations of forreign vi­tious Customs, that the health of an Ansyberw or nigga [...]dly, selfish person, was never known to go round amongst them, but only of the Syberw and generous. This character of our Brittish Church in her Doctrines and Rites, is exactly the same with that, which^ſ Epiphanius gives of the Primitive Catholick, which the Church of England this day professes to follow, and to retrive, which is the same Church with the Ancient Brittish Church; the Brittains, and the English, being the same People, not only in Faith and worship, but in Laws and bloud; and greater alliance in Doctrine, and [Page 187] Consanginity to be found between them, than be­tween Alexander and Clement, modern Italians, and Linus and Anacletus their predecessors, Ancient Ro­mans; as may further appear.

The Brittish Church therefore appearing from un­doubted evidence, and their adversaries exceptions, to be so sound and Ancient in the substance of her Orthodox Faith, to impute schism to it for her distance, or departure from the Roman, her Junior, or to ask where was your Church before Luther, is a cavil not only ignorantly groundless, but inpudently ridiculous, if they pre­tend to be in their Sences, that urge it. They may with as much colour of reason, object a separation in us from Prester-John, or the Church of the Abyssines, well known perhaps to our Fore-Fathers, when they met at Jerusalem, whither both resort­ed; with whom, as with all other Churches of Christendom, and, as many as are allowed in that Church, for sincere and true members of Christ by the searcher of their hearts and ours, we trust by mutual offices of Prayer and Charity, we hold Communion in the General; And a particular rent or schism cannot be conceived, without some particular Ʋnion or Subjection preceeding, (and it sufficiently ap­pears [...]ow little there was of old between Rome and Brittain) for how can an Arm be out of joynt from that part, with whom it was never In. They them­selves who accuse first, are Schismaticks unavoidably, especially our deluded English, and Brittish, and Irish Roman-Catholicks, born under the same Allegiance, believing in the same Christ, that refuse to joyn in com­munion and worship with their own Mother Church, much more Ancient and pure than that of Rome; which were it less corrupt, than it is, they unwor­thily [Page 188] prefer before her, against proverb and practice, for home is homely, be it never so homely, and you shall not meet a child of that folly, that will prefer a pompous Countess before his poor Mother. But so truly Catholick, and Apostolick, and free from all foul and loathsome Idolatries and Superstitions, are the Sacraments of our own Church, that if they once tasted with us the milk of their own chast Mo­ther, they would never covet Forreign breasts (that have an ill name) any more, nor be so earnest with us to prefer manifest poison before it. And the cause of their delusion (that should nevertheless be so zealous to persevere in such unnatural ignoble obstinacy and disobedience, so destructive to themselves) must needs be more than humane, 2 Thess. 2.11. But our Communions and separations are not in our own power; but we are to take and leave, as God di­rects, and God directs to hold the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, Eph. 4.3. The unity of the Spirit, and not the unity of the Flesh; that is, to select such for our Christian Brethren, to associate with them in dear fellowship, who express by their Conversation, that they are dead to this present World, and self ends, by their Faith and confor­mity to the cross of Christ, and live in Heaven by their holy conformity to his Ascention, which is a state of the Spirit, and Grace, and the right Catho­lick Church: But to avoid and separate, as much as may be in this World, from such as are Earthly, carnal, sensual, selfish, scandalous, and especially if such, by their Doctrine, policy, profession, de­signe, and principle; for such are enemies to the cross of Christ, and a state of confederacy with the flesh; wholly asymbolical and contrary to the na­ture of such a Church, a Christian is to hold Com­munion [Page 189] with; so St. Paul explains and expressly de­cides this case, Phil. 3.17, 18, 19. shewing that such, whose God is their belly, whose Glory is their shame, who mind Earthly things; are not to be followed, but shunned, be their brags never so Christian and Ca­tholick; and why are they to be shunn'd? because they are enemies to the Cross of Christ, which they abuse and profane to compass Worldly ends and grandeur; and Christs subjects ought not to cor­respond with his enemies, not only upon the score of Loyalty, but Interest and safety, for the end of both will be destruction, v. 19. And the reason why he, and such as walk'd, as he did, were to be followed and embrac'd, is, because he followed Christ in his Cross, as is implyed by the contrary Antithesis, v. 17, 18. because he also followed him in his Resurrection and Heavenly life, as it is expressed in these words, v. 20. For our Conversation is in Heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour. This is the Catholick Church, where all that will joyn with it, shall be sure to find Salvation by it. And in like manner he directs the Romans 16, 17, 18. Now I beseech you Brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them, for they that are such, serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words, and fair speeches, deceive the heart of the simple. A prophetical De­scription of the Roman Church, Apostatizing into Roman Catholick, and preferring Titles befere Truth: [...], or good words, presignifiing their meek, and holy, and publick pretensions, and title of ser­vant of servants, Fathers, Confessors, Apostolick See, &c. and their [...], faire speeches, (or rather blessings,) their easie Absolutions, and innumerable Indulgences, Ceremonious crossings of all things, [Page 190] and persons. The like rule is given to Timothy and to all Bishops, and every Christian in him: If thou ob­serve any make a Trade and Merchandize of the Gospel, Supposing gain to be godliness, from such with­draw thy self, 1 Tim. 6.5. Which markes and cha­racters of true, or false Christians, though they are less heeded and regarded by the guides of the Church of Rome, and their credulous Disciples, than by their more observing neighbouring Churches, who know that Simon Magus (the Father of the old Gnosticks) pointed at by the Apostle, v. 20. was more certainly at Rome, and left his successors be­hind him, than Simon Peter: The wonder is the less, because gifts, and lusts, more blind the eyes of the receivers, and Actors, than the standers by. Nei­ther do these Apostolical warnings alone, but the woful experiences, that back them, deterr us, from their communion above any other. We held com­munion heretofore with the Eastern Church, and that of Jerusalem, without spiritual hurt, or damage to our selves; and our communion with the Ancient Gallican Church in the West, added strength and comfort to us: The Churches of Scotland and Ire­land, though by Civil Governments they were un­der different Kings, and them not often friends, yet by the Christian faith they were one piece with our Brittish Church, defending our cause against Rome and Augustine with equal concern. But when we began to acquaint our selves with Rome, (when it was better than now it is) we gain'd nought but wounds, and defilements, and misfortunes by it. There Pelagius (with Celestius) had his fall and ruine, when with like good intentions, (as some other learned men in after Ages) he went about to alter Divinity into a moral Philosophy, to fit the needs [Page 191] of Christians there, who lived short of men, and were but hardned the more in their sins, by the E­vangelical Doctrines of free grace; an evident symptom of their ripeness for Divine vengeance, as appeared by the dismal sacking of Rome shortly after, Anno 410,^† which he elegantly describes in his Epistle to Demetriades. There Wilfrid imbib'd the principles of avarice and ambition, wherewith he corrupted his Brittish Institution, and brought troubles upon himself, as well as others; and more disturb'd, than promoted the plantation of the Go­spel amongst the Saxons, carried on then by Brittish industry. There St. Patrick and Palladius, Sons of the Brittish Church, and of contrary Doctrines and Customes to Rome, as appeared in their plantations, yet had the name and imputation of being Missio­naries of Rome, for the Conversion of Ireland and Scotland, say their Legends; for Politicians love ever to have holy, and good men, for their tooles, and instruments, and pretences; for so St. Peter and St. Paul, theirs name are as often us'd and applyed in the Courts of Rome, to countenance their carnal policies and designes, as John Doe and Richard Roe in ours, to vouch suites; and though they make the cross of Christ their Antipodes, and re-exalt the World with its pomp, into its old zenith and me­ridian, yet no where is the material cross, adored and worship'd with that excess of Reverence, as by these enemies of the Spiritual. What gain'd our Saxon and Norman Kings by their generous respects to­wards them, (bearing then the name of a Church in chief,) but the exhausting of their Subjects, and the clipping of their own Prerogatives and Supre­macies, [Page 192] and to be made their Engineers and Exe­cutioners to suppress and destroy the Anc [...] Church of Brittain, its Metropolitan Sees of York and Lon­don, by the means of the first, and St. David of the last? Neither will it suffice to plead, the whole English Brittish Church was once under the yoak and Jurisdiction of Rome for a long space of a time, and that it was Schisme therefore and rebellious disobedi­ence in them to shake off their Government: For this yoak and imposition was early protested against by the Brittains, as unchristian and unjust; and kept off with their utmost power as long as they could, and the Nation made often entries, in so many Sta­tutes of provisors, and premunire's against it; and the endeavours of Wickleff and Lollards, (who could expect no other than ill names for it:) and they were fully evicted out of it at last in Henry 8. of Brittish descent, by wonderful providence: Was it a Schism against the Cromwellian party, who pretended to as much holiness as Rome it self, and more, for our Sove­veraign to return to his own Throne, from whence he and his Father were so wrongfully kept out, and so long? If they know not Gods usual method, to give his own people over into the hands of their enemies for their sins, and to redeem them from them upon their repentance by miraculous deli­verance, they erre, not knowing the Scriptures, Mat. 22.29. nor the power and Discipline of God, nor the patience and priviledges of his servants. Their own Church of Rome, lay in captivity under the Exarchs, or the Constantinopolitan Emperours Vice-Royes, residing at Ravenna, from the year 568. to 743. and some of their Popes for their refractoriness, have been coursely us'd by them in the Streets of Constantinople; yet they held it no Schism to recover [Page 193] their Ancient liberty, though by very ill means, by dividing the Empire, and hazarding Christendom, and strengthning the Turk, as the poor Greeks to this day complain. And may not we without Schism enjoy our Ancient rights and freedom, recovered by lawful means, and in Gods time, without wrong to any, and with, and not against the rights, and wills of our Soveraigns, as they by the contrary, in all respects; yet it was more excusable in them to gratifie the Turk, and subvert Christendom, to pre­serve their own Chair, then joyn with Pagans, to invade the Chaires of other Churches, as a thief that steals for his necessity, is more to be pardoned, than an Adulterer that wrongs his neighbour for his lust: but the Romish Popes shewed themselves de­void of all conscience, and honour, and fear of God, in that they combin'd to deprive us of our liberty, then about 596. when themselves lay groaning for the loss of their own: being worse than robbers under the Gallowes, or the thief that reviled our Saviour, be­ing himself under the same condemnation; which, together with the violation of the Canons, is the reason the Brittains in Bede esteemed these Roman-ca­tholicks and their Disciples, no better than Pagans, us­que hodie moris est Britonum, fidem Anglorum pro nihilo habere, nec in aliquo communicare quam cum Paganis, lib. 2. c. 20. Yea they were more reconcilable to the Pagan Saxons, that rob'd them of their Countrey, as appears by their leagues, and friendships, and intermarriages (reproved as afore by Lupus and Germanus,) than with Inhuman Christians that us'd Pagan assistance to rob them of their Faith, and tread down their Church: (for they valued Truth above their Territory.) And they would not admit any of the Romish, into their Brittish com­munion, [Page 194] ^ſ under 40 dayes pennance, as the Ro­manists (to serve their designes) denyed the validity of the Brittish Ordinations, as they do still, that of our English; so that the Church of England now, as the old Brittish Church heretofore, stand upon the same points of difference from Rome, those of Mission, and Superstition, and Supremacy, upon which three most of the rest depend, which leads, to give a more particular character and description of Au­gustine and his Roman Faith, as it then stood in op­position, that the state of the Controversy, and the merit of both Churches and Causes may the more fully appear.

SECTION VIII. The face of the Roman Church about the same time, and of Augustin's Qualification and method for his pretended propagation of the Gospel amongst the English; and that the Nation are under no Obligation to Rome for his work here, but bound by their Christianity to abhorre and detest it.

TO this end I shall only briefly recount some passages out of Bede. 1. Touching his qua­lification for the pretended Conversion of the Saxons. 2. His method of propagating his Ro­man Faith amongst them. That several of the [Page 195] English Nation, as well Learned as Unlearned, and Romanists as well as Protestants, may review and consider, how this Augustine can be ever own'd for an Apostle of the English, without wrong and disparagement to Gods Church, and the Truth, and themselves.

1. Touching his Qualification in respect of Learn­ing and principles: And his elocution and means of conveyance of the other, to his Disciples. It ap­pears he was no great Clerk, (wherein yet he may far better be born with, because of the rude Age he lived in) not only by his insisting upon the Alexandrine Calender, as afore, (not above an hun­dred years standing before his time,) as a Tradition of St. Peter, so necessary to the right being of a Church, that by Divine Revelation, he prognostica­ted the destruction of the Brittish Doctors by hostile Arms for their dissent therein, and the other two points, about Baptism and preaching to the Saxons; but also from his Questions and Scruples sent to his Pope Gregory, (much about the same size for parts, though above for dignity:) Whose common character is, that he was the worst that went before him, and the best Pope of all, that came after him. His^a eight interrogation and scruple is, si praegnans mulier debet baptizari: If a woman being with child, might lawfully be baptized? That she was believing, is pre­suppos'd; and in case she had been delivered, that she had been so many days (as her child proved Male or Female,) Levitically unclean, and consequently un­capable of Baptism (by his Romish Divinity, which at this time, like the Alcharon, was a mixture of Ju­daism and Christianity) was, with him, out of question: [Page 196] but what was to be done, before her delivery, and pollution in child bearing, was his great doubt, to be sent as far as Rome, for an answer; which argued him to be wary, and of a very tender Ignorance in the Christian Faith, he was now to plant and cherish, as the chief Husbandman, and the great Arch-Bishop of these Churches, instead of its Brittish Governours, that were now to be laid aside, and depos'd out of their own Sees and Chairs, for being so unlike to him. Neither will I hear repeat the resolution of the Pope, which is at large in Bede, to this point: much less his elaborate carnal theories, and endless impure speculations, wherewith his Holiness enter­tains his Grace (in Probation) upon that other question, whether an Husband having known his wife, may enter into the Church, before he be wash'd with Water? verifying an Aphorism, and observa­tion of St. Paul between them, that where the con­junction of God and the heart is not heeded and maintained, men become Fools and senceless, Rom. 1, 22-28. 1 Tim. 1.5, 6, 7. for the Soul that hath its face towards God in uncessant Prayer, or any honest imployment in his sight, hath its back ever upon such impurities: as when its face is towards them, its back is ever towards God; And they are better kept wholly out of the fancy, than order'd, and stated, never so well in it: wherein the Casuists, or Sca­vangers of the Church of Rome to this day, exceed all other writers in the Critical ordering of this Mahumetan filth. Neither was it out of dis-respect to such Fathers, that Bede thought fit to set down such passages, as sober Heathens, Livy, or Tacitus, would not have defil'd their Histories, or their Ho­nour in recording; but from a [...], a mind ignorant of what was becoming or unbecoming, by [Page 197] a Romish taint and fleshliness of the soul, which kept in its purity, Superiority, and distance from things below, is our right person, and Honour and our So­briety, and our measure to discern good from evil, Decorum from absurdity, as Cicero sets forth in his Offices: which the Roman Principle aim'd at, the Christian attains; the Romish, chiefly neglects and swerves from. But that other direction of Pope Gregory to our Augustine ^b fana Idolorum non demo­liantur, sed aquâ benedictâ, &c. that IdolTemples were not to be demolished, but to be purified, and con­secrated to Christian use, with holy Water, savours of an Ignorance and frailty in both, which is less pardonable, because more than humane or Christian; not excusable in any Age, or Condition. Por it al­lows Idols and Elements, a greater power to defile or Sanctifie, than the light of nature, or Faith can admit of; decent dedication of Churches to Gods service, may agree with reason and Religion, but such Superstitious Sanctifications discover too great a crack in both; For neither is an Idol any thing where there is knowledge, 1 Cor. 8.4, 7. nor can any thing defile, but what comes from the heart, that is, the impure assents of the Soul Math. 15.11. But where the Soul is made nothing of, an Idol becomes considerable and dreadful. And its External impu­rity requires much external Element to wash it off, with those, whose Religion consists wholly in the out­side, wherein the Pharisie and the Papist Jump, and our Saviour having refuted the one, refuted the o­ther by the same Text and argument; But supposing sin could cleave to wals, can Water wash it off from walls or souls? If it can, it must be in the ver­tue [Page 198] of Divine blessing and Institution, or without it; That Water alone is ineffectual to wash a Moor, much less a Spirit, or spiritual stain, Heathens had Divinity enough to assure them. That with it, it can, and doth in baptism, was never doubted among Christians. Now to raise this dead Element to work other effects supernatural and miraculous, without Divine Commission or Authority, is to equal and Rival God. For to transfer and apply the holy Wa­ter of his Institution and blessing, to other Creatures, than whom he redeemed with his precious bloud (for whom they were by himself peculiarly design'd) is such an abominable prophanation, and taking Gods name, and his ordinances in vain, such a charm, and witchcraft, and mingling light and darkness, holy and prophane together, as none could be the first Author and Inventer of, but Satan, the Father of Antichrist, whose known practice of old was to revile and libel Religion by mock-Sacraments, and Sacrifices, and Ephods, to bring it into contempt, as it were by Tra­vesty and Burlesque, and Ape God Almighty, as drones build cels like to hony combs. Whose me­thods they of Rome have all along filially observed and imitated above any other Heresie, new or old, saveing the impure Gnosticks; who very probably are the same with our Romanists; As by their descent from the same place, and Father Simon Magus, their exact agreement in character with the false A­postles in St. Pauls time, who exalted themselves above him, (non ovum ovo similius,) their affecting the best Christian titles, amidst Antichristian hellish Practices and Customs, might be fairly evinc'd; for where are Gods ordinances more daily prophan'd by mocke imitation; holy Baptism applied to Bells and stone Walls; preaching to the fouls of the Air, as be­fore; [Page 199] and to shame them to amendment, more than to dishonour a contrary Religion; though they have not yet arriv'd to that abominable prophaness, as actually to feed other domestick Creatures with the Eucharist, they so much worship, yet they have already done it, by their Principles and Customs; it's frequent with them in the Egge, though not in the Serpent; And these are they, who must now be own'd, as the Apostles of our Religion, and Patri­archs of the English Faith; to whose successors for ever, all obedience and worship, and submission must be paid in all gratitude, for their sake; and not a few (deserted by God for not loving the Truth, 2 Thess. 2.10.) already begin to bow the knee to: Satan, and corrupt Nature, in weak, and simple, and childish judgements, and debauch'd persons (the weakest and simplest of all, for nothing eats out the heart more than vice) helping on the Apostacy, according to the Brittish Proverb, Gwaith hawdh iw methu, It is an easie work to fail; or Socrates his an­swer to fair Lais, the famous Courtesan, bragging as she met him, that she had more that followed her, than he had; who replied, that her Disciples went down the Hill to her S [...] but his, came up Hill to him.

But Augustine, though he was Bare and Poor for Inward Principles and Endowments, yet he was not so ill furnish'd for Outward Appearance, (a true type of his Roman Church to this day, gay without to the eye, but naked, and bare walls within to reason) as appears from the Inventory of his furniture, and Utensils^c vasa sacra, vestimenta altarium, Orna­menta quoque Eeclesiarum, & Sacerd [...]talia, & Clericalia [Page 200] indumenta, Sanctorum Apostolorum & martyrum reli­quias, nec non & codices plurimos, in the last place, and almost forgot, and without the Epithite sacros, to assure us, they were Bibles. Outward and decent Orna­ments and Ceremonies, in the worship and service of God, cannot be justly tax'd or censured, un­less the whole stress and substance of Religion be placed therein, and not in the heart: which is much the humour of that Church, and was so much the Principle and composition of our Augustine, that though the Churches of Christ in Brittain, were never so confessedly Ancient and Catholick, as to all the Articles of their Faith, or unblameable in their Discipline, or eminent in their Clergy, yet because they differed from Rome about Easter, in the manner as before, or in not using spittle, or the like nasty Ceremony in Baptism perhaps, as they do; or had not their locks order'd after the like bald-pate manner; (for the pretence of not Preaching to the Saxons, was but a meer artifice and colour) nothing would serve the turn, or allay his zeal, and wrath, but their total subversion and dissolution, by the help of Pagan Arms, and Gods name brought in to abett, and countenance this Barbar [...] design and malice, by Hypocritical Prophesies an [...] counterfeit Revelations; If one using the name of the King of Spain, should make an Embassy from that Crown to this, now at peace with one another, that if the English con­form not forthwith, to the Spanish mode, not only in their habit, but the cut of their Hair, and the form of their mustachioes; they must expect nothing less, than the utter destruction of their Church and state, from God and man; though such a message might justly be look'd upon, as the frensy of a mad­man, would they be free from censure, if they neg­lected [Page 201] their own security however, if it was well known by experience, that the like threats had been by dark means executed, before their own doors, within remembrance of their own History?

But the Learning, and Doctrine, of this Pretended Apostle, was not more Weak and Rotten in the heart, than the right means of propagating it with the mouth, was proportionably defective and wanting: and had it been sound and Christian, if (Faith comes by hearing) how could he preach to English ears, when neither understood the other? no more than Duck-Chickens their Hen-dam, recalling them from their connatural Element. Neither is there any Sermon or Homily of his, on record, that might worthily entitle him to our conversion, as is urg'd by the^d learned and judicious in both particulars. The guift of tongues and power of miracles, here fail'd him, where it was most requisite and necessary; though else-where, (where they were frivolous and needless, he abounded with them) in so much that his careful Pope, writes an Epistle to him on pur­pose, not to be^e transported above measure, with the many miracles he wrought, which yet might be of the same nature with his own Divine Revelation,^f and Gods answer in a dream, to his Prayer for Trajan, to rescue him out of Hell, which God had granted, with this proviso, that he should trouble him no more with his Prayers of that nature for Heathens; and who were like to be his Interpreters, whilst the Neighbouring Ministers of France were back-ward^g in this work (as Pope Gregory himself complains?) judging them unworthy [Page 202] of Christian Communion, in the posture they stood to the Brittains, that had hir'd them for Auxiliaries, (as is conjectur'd^g by another,) the terms of re­pentance and restitution, being like to be as much insisted, by the one, as rejected by the other; there­fore some French Merchants skill'd in the English, through their commerce, and Ignorant of the Canons, or some mean Minister, that might be won to Act for Gaine and Interest against the Rules of the Church, and the Principles of his more conscienti­ous Brethren, must be the Interpreters, and imme­diate Ghostly Fathers in the English conversion ac­cording to this state, till in its proper place, it shall be proved, that the Brittains themselves (who best could forgive their own injuries) and the Disciples of their Institution, were by a reconciling Provi­dence, Gods Instruments in this conversion, and not our Augustine: though it must needs have gone somewhat against the grain, with their Chiefs, to hold the Brittain's lands from them by the Sword, and Heaven by their courtesie; which the Intelligence and Avarice of Rome soon found out, and is the true reason (and not the Jingling Legend of the fair English Slaves sold at Rome in the market;) that some of the Haughty Saxon [...]eptarchs, (when it was a shame to stand out, while most of their subjects were converted, and no less an Inconvenience to be introduc'd by the Brittains, whom they forc'd from their Inheritances;) were first set on, to send their desires to Rome, to have it done by the Pope, as appears by^h Pope Gregory's Epistle to the King and Queen of France, which he readily complied with, aspiring to be Universal Bishop about this time by [Page 203] the help ofⁱ Tyrant Phocas, and therefore sent Au­gustine in all hast hither; both bethinking of the World­ly purchase of Supremacy and dominion, that was to be gain'd (right or wrong) thereby, according to the eternal principles and bent of that degenerate Church; carnal ends, requiring carnal means, as suit­able to promote them, which is the second point to be cleared in this state.

2. By what means our Augustine propagated his (equivocal) Gospel, (so far as it was propagated a­mongst the English, It was not by the light of Gods word, and the power and demonstration of the spi­rit, approving it self to every ones Conscience, which out of its eternal Allegiance to God, admits of no Truth without it produce a Divine Ticket along with it, which carnal Evangelists and selfish Apostles find too difficult exactly to coin and coun­feit: Neither was it with the enticeing words of human wisdom and eloquence, whereof there was now little cause of fear from our Augustine, the one being a Human, the other the right Christian me­thod of preaching the Gospel, which St.^k Paul pre­ferred; But his method had several effects to prove it was rather Satanical and Antichristian, being carried on with carnal Arts, and Craft, and Pride, and Lying wonders, and Blasphemies, and Sacriledge, and Rob­bery, and Massacre, and Murder, which cannot be 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 [Page 204] 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 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 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 aⁿ 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 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 the Brittish [Page 205] 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 forc'd to quit his new Archbishoprick, and return with young Edwin's Queen to Canterbury, ^q 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 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 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^† 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 [Page 206] 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^† 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 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 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 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 [Page 207] blasted the remaining part of his Nursery left at Canterbury, had not Laurentius, I say, step'd in with a miracle, being sorely^z 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 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 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 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 recover the spirits, but they shorten life: Da Kelwidh tra' coelir, Od eir ymhelh gwelh iw'r gwîr, saith the Brittish Proverb; A Lye may do, while it is believed, but at long running, Truth is better. But this whipping story was not well feigned and designed, to be believed for true, by wiser posterity, however it might for the present delude an ignorant Heathen: For we seldom or never read, that separated [Page 208] souls, (but only Christ, or Gods Angels) appear'd to men, to direct them at a stand, saving in one case, where it is hard to determine, what appear'd to Saul, whether the Ghost of Samuel, or the Devil in his shape; withall this action more fitted a Town Beadle than a glorified Apostle; or if St. Peter must be so severe and Butcher-like, it might rather be, not for his departing, but his staying behind the rest of his Companions, to disturb good Christians, and corrupt poor Infidels with a false and bloudy Religion; or if there were any reality in it, beyond Melanchol­ly, or Art, it might rather be the wrath of a tor­menting spirit for deserting his cause, or if done up­on himself with his own hands, we have presidents of Crafty criples^b endicted for the like stratagem to move compassion, before some of our sage Judges. But Mellitus his rushing^c into the midst of flames, to quench a great fire in Canterbury with his Prayers, looked more like a true wonder (especially in one of his race and Principles,) who if not belyed, are better skill'd in burning Cities, than saving; and blowing up States and Kingdoms, as is too well known. What Religion can that be, or what obligations can it tye of obedience and gratitude upon Intelligent minds and consciences, that's supported and Propagated by Divine lies and Impostures, so hateful to God, and conscience, and honour? every lye, as Cicero could observe, carry­ing^d Perjury and Atheism in it, in its defyance and slight of God and conscience, which it sees and knows to contradict it: and the lye, that quotes God for its Author, being the most abominable and worst of lyes: No less were the converting [Page 209] Miracles of Augustine himself, the chief Thauma­turgus, which imposed upon the belief of venerable Bede, and much more upon the less descerning multi­tude, not only in restoring sight to the^e blind Saxon, he brought, Punteus-like, with him, (for to have tryed it upon an honest Brittain, if there had been any at the disputation, might have prov'd as difficult, if not as impossible, as his more necessary guift of tongues) and that not about any point of Salvation, or the extraordinary Glory of God, but (after miracles had long ceas'd in the Church, de­signed only for the unbelieving) about a trifle, a­bout some scruples or minutes of the Calendar (in a Gamster-like wager) and imitation of Elias; the main juggle and drift being to discredit and subvert an Ancient Church in their well built Faith, and Customs, with Legerdemain. But more espe­cially and most abominably in his Enthusiastical Pro­phecy of^f War and ruin to the Brittish Doctors and their People by the Arms of their Enemies, for not joyning their assistance with him, to Preach the Gospel to the English, Quibus vir Domini Au­gustinus fertur minitans praedixisse, &c. to whom Au­gustine the man of God, is reported to Prophecy by way of threat, that if they refus'd Peace from Brethren, they should receive War from Enemies, and suffer a revenge of death by the hands of the English, to whom they refused to Preach the word life. Wherein he entitles God himself to all the lyes, and mischiefs, and spoils, and murders, and mas­sacres, that were contriv'd to attend this prediction; which he grounded upon three false Assertions; First, that the Brittains envyed the Gospel to the [Page 210] English. (2) That he good man, came hither, from Rome, for no other end but to Preach it to them. (3.) That because they refused to joyn in that Ministry with him, for the Salvation of their Souls, therefore God had reveal'd unto him, a Mene tekel, or a suddain destruction, to come upon them by their Enemies.

(1.) And the first is the strongest exception, or Quo Warranto to overthrow the Christianity of the Churches of Brittain, (to the just forfeiture of their Sees, to rhe greater zeal and diligence of Rome,) that we hitherto met; that, against the chief pre­cept and example of their Saviour, to love their Enemies, (the badge of true Christians) they should have that living sence of the loss of this present world, (to which they were dead by their Faith and Baptism) as out of Satanical discontent, to let go their hold of the other likewise, and suffer them­seves to be beaten out of their charity and duty, as well as their Country, and to revenge to Eternity a wrong of time: But that experience daily imforms, that doing of a wrong more dissolves all charity in the soul, than suffering it; and that men usually hate where they hurt, though they be forgiven, and secur'd by a Christian temper against the suspition of revenge and repercussion; for he that wrongs ano­ther fights and assaults the Almighty, (in whose hands, and Laws, all mens persons, and beings, and consequently all mens rights are preserv'd and kept, Act▪ 17.) and every conscience, (upon its reflection and sence of such a War) is either presently smitten into Infinite repentance and restitution; or becomes harden'd diabolically in its Rebellion, and can­not rest, till it finish its hatred and destruction of the Innocent, without cause, as it first began; but it is [Page 211] not so in suffering wrong, especially with Patience and forgiveness; wherein we become liker to Christ; and every loss in this, is gain in the other world, and a manifest token, according to St. Paul, Thess. 1.5, 6, &c. of just fear, and hope, of damnation, or Sal­vation, respectively to the one or to the other; and the Brittish Apothegme, Duw a ro Imi fymhenid yn y bid yma, God grant me all my pain and Penance in this world, will well agree with the Apostolical Triumph, we glory in Tribulations wherein we are more than Conquerours, and beholding (through him that loved us) to them that hate us, Rom. 5.3.-8.37. So that it is more in reason to be suspected and fear'd, the Saxons were more averse to hear the Gospel from them, as Hector Boethius well observed^h than the Brittains, to Preach it to them; who brought it to their doors, (as Bede covertly and loathly intimates) and maintained their Cross and Church at Canterbury, in the Metropolis and Capitol of their Enemies, where they were disabled to keep their Colours; and when, through pride of Victory, some af the Saxons Heptarchs scorn'd Salvation from the hands of their Masters, whom they had made their Vassals, but continued to stop their Ears, and chose rather to be poison'd from abroad, than heal'd by them at home, and invited forreign Quacks to abuse their Souls, as well as to combat and destroy their Brittish Church and Clergy, it was time for charity it self to wax faint and weary, Act. 13.46. and to resolve to put up its Pearls, as conscience grows mute, after long dis-regard. But to hear our Augustine, or any of the Romish Principle, to tax them for it, [Page 212] Ʋltra Sauromatas fugere hinc libet, &c. the detestable Hypocrisy is enough to make one burst with indigna­tion, that they should accuse, whose frequent practice, upon the least pretended violation of their usurp'd authorities, was to suspend Cities, interdict whole Kingdoms, for a good part of an Age, whose entire Religion and policy is to de­prive Christian Souls of the Gospel, and Bible, and Religion, and Knowledge, and to stick a feather of an Ave Mary, or Pater Noster, to colour the stealing of the substance. But it is alleadged, it is not Augustin's charge alone, but the crime of the Brittains urg'd by Bede out of their own Gildas, ⁱ Brittonas hoc facinus addere supe­rioribus, ut nunquam fidem Saxonibus praedicarent: For an answer; this is strongly to be suspected to be a Monkish forgery, or an addition to the Text of Gildas, because, where better could such a calumnie, with more probable success be inserted, than to a Book which rip'd up all their Crimes and frailties? Which perhaps is the reason, that, that Ancient Book alone was suffered to survive; because the Clause is absolutely and notoriously false in fact: And Gildas would never have been guilty to belye strangers, much less his own Nation: Or, it is justly to be fear'd, Bede took Gildas by the wrong handle,^k like such, as would accuse and traduce a searching Preacher, for a false accuser, or defamer of most of his Parish; making no distinction be­tween Charge and Enditement, or righteousness in the sight of God, (before whom none are just) and righteousness before men (where many are and [Page 213] ought to be unblameable) which is the disingenuity of Milton likewise towards them, like those, that would measure the morality of the English Nation towards their neighbours, from their humble and publick confession before God, that they have no truth in them. Gildas his reproofs are in the General; and of none in Particular, but their Princes, out of his Christian zeal, and courage, and Paternal bowells, to set them and their Countrey at Rights with God. And though, through the faults of the English, or their own, (through prejudices and Hostilities in the one, and passion, or frailty, or Cainish ne­glect of extending the Grace they had received to others round about) in the other, some might be too far guilty of Gildas his charge of Christian un­naturalness, which is to be feard, hath made far more Reprobates in the World, than ever Gods De­crees did; yet the whole Brittish Church could not be justly charg'd therewith, though some should have peevishly denyed it, to such as were willing to receive it, whereof there is no instance; for it was never any publick Resolution or agreement be­tween them, nor the particular perverse judgment of any that were chief in Authority for Learning and wisdom amongst them, which bears some equi­valence to publick Allowance; as it was not of Gildas his own liking, who mentions this possible default in some, with very severe and bitter reproof (which Bede had not the Nostril to distinguish per­haps from Approbation,) nor of those of the Brittish Clergy, that concurr'd with Gildas in the like de­testation of such a sin, by whose prayers and ex­amples, he confesses, he was much supported in evil times, and declares he would not have his re­proofs to be understood to reach them in the least. [Page 214] For we shall find the contrary to what Bede affirms, to be true all along, of whom a great lover, and an able and Impartial Judge, of Truth, for several such particulars, gives this character.^l Ex Anglo Saxonum gente fuisse considerandum, qui, & Brittanicarum Antiquitatum inscii, & a Rebus Brit­tonum ornandis animo fuerunt alienissimo: For (to reserve the proof of the Gospel being planted a­mongst the English by the Ministry of the Brittains, to its proper place,) The practice of St. Patrick and his followers, preaching to the Irish his enemies, who enslaved him; likewise that of^m Nynias to the Picts, (who were Thornes in the sides of the Brittains, while under the Romans) andⁿ St. Kentigern to the English under Octa and Ebyssa, as before, largely proves the contrary. Neither was^o Asserius Menevensis, backward (when desir'd) to contribute his assistance to King Alfred, to the erecting of the University of Oxford, as a Nursery for the better propagating of the Christian Faith, but left Illa tam sancta loca, in quibus nutri­tus & doctus fuit, that holy place, wherein he was bred up, and taught under his Archbishop of St. Davids, as he there stiles him, to repair to be a Professor in that Univesity: Where yet, the story saith, there was an old Academy continued, by the Brittains time of out mind, from the dayes of Gildas, and Melkin, and Ninnius, first Teachers there, about 200 or 300 years before. But Kent it self, had been as great an instance, as any, that our Augustin's charge was groundless, to his own knowledge, if Bede had added some more particulars touching the [Page 215] Church,^p Augustine found at Canterbury upon his first arrival, built in the time of the Romans, there­fore not under 200 years (but might be well 400 or 500 years before,) to which^p Bertha, Ethelbert's Queen, of French descent, and a Christian, with her Chaplain Luidhardus, did use to resort for Wor­ship; which Augustine repair'd, and changed its name from St. Martins, unto Chist-Church, making it his Cathedral Seat, and the Metropolis of England; and wherein King Ethelbert was Baptiz'd. If he had likewise inserted, who first built, repaired, and as­sembled in it, all along, at, and before the arrival of Queen Bertha or Augustine; what was the state of the Countrey, and the Civil Rights and Priviledges of the Kentish Inhabitants, which they retained after the change of their Governours, who came not over them by storm, but by guift and Articles, and what was also the state and Government Ecclesiastical of those parts, before Augustin's arrival, for it appears by our Historians, that the Archbishop of London, (under whom was Kent) was not beaten and driven to quit his See, and flee into Wales, till the year 597. according to Ʋsher ^q (being the next year with him after Monk Augustin's entrance) or 586. according to^r Math. Westminster, being 10 years before Augustin's setting out according to Bede and him in 596.) whereby it is clear, the Brittish Arch­bishops of London (as also of York) notwithstanding all Pagan stormes and Invasions, kept their Sees nevertheless; from the entrance of the Saxons till Rome's entrance after them, for about 150^ſ years, which implyes they had a Lay-charge still left to [Page 216] govern. And though Bede disingenuously conceals, Who they were, least Monk Augustine should appear guilty of too much Schisme, and violence, and Sa­criledge; yet it is easie to conjecture who they were, as well, because the Kentish Brittish Chri­stians were not forc'd to quit their Countrey, (which was amicably surrendred,) as also because of their Intermarriadges with the Saxons, which brought many of them to the Faith of their own accord; which in King Arthur's time they were all necessi­tated to embrace, or profess, or quit the Land; and when that necessity and force was over, and all was in the power of the Saxon Pagan Kings again, King Jurminricus (Father to King^t Ethelbert, Monk Augustines convert) Christi doctrinam haud vetuit inter Anglos propalare, saith^t Hector Boethius out of Turgottus, and who was then to propagate it amongst them, but the Brittains? whereby Bedes faith appears, and false charge against the Brittains Who were the men that assembled, and kept up this Church, till Augustine came: And that Rome, through Augustine, did more michief in one year, toward the subverting the Christian Churches and Sees of Brit­tain, than the Saxon Pagan cruelty had done in 150 years before. And that the Saxon Communalty were tractable and willing to receive the Faith from the Brittains, and it was only their Kings and chiefs, that through their pride, were averse thereunto, (and not all of them) but some gave leave how­ever and toleration to their people and Subjects, to become Christians through the Ministry of the Brit­tains. It is I say to be considered, that Kent was [Page 217] reduc'd not by conquest, but by grant and courtesie, in consideration^u to Hengist, for his Daughter Rowenna, to be King Vortigerns second unlawful wife; whereby the people continued in their ha­bitations and rights, and the Christian Faith in the Countrey with them; though the King yielded his Royalties to strangers, as himself to stranger lusts. And their tenures of Gavel-kind in that County, is a further pregnant proof, which some derive from give all Kyn, or give all Kind; others with more reason and colour from a Brittish Etymology from Gevelh, twinne; because of the equal division of Lands between the Children of that Tenure, or from Gavel which signifies a hold or Tenure, forming the word Gavel-kind therefrom, by a mixt composition of English and Brittish, answerable to that of the people, who are half English, half Brittains, or Gavel-kenedl, the Tenure by Families and Kindreds, as others more probably; or (which may seem the most probable of all, because furthest from any streine, and agreeing, as well with the nature of this Tenure, as the first occasion for the phrase) Gavel­cynt, the Tenure heretofore, in Syntaxis and right Brittish structure Gavel-gynt, by turning c into g (which kind of Shibboleth, or [...], and change of Initial letters, the English, that live together and speak the Brittish, are seldom known to Master,) whereby the people newly reduc'd under Forreign Government and Customes, did notifie, and plead their former Rights and Tenures, (when any wrong or Cam, was offer'd them, as they use this^x Brit­tish word amongst them to this day.) Which kind of Tenure is known to have been the same, which [Page 218] was in common usage amongst the Brittains ^y of old, in Wales, whereby they weakned their houses by this equality, to make good their natural af­fection and justice. And though after the death of young Vortimer, the Hopes of Brittain, poison'd by his Mother-in-Law Rowenna, (who had beaten the Saxons in several Battells out of the Land, into the Isle of Thanet, and their Ships) they returned again, and finding access to Vortigern, through his Hea­then Mistress that bewitch'd him, they obtain'd a meeting for a Treaty, and watching their time, and^z Stabbing about 300 or 400 Brittish Nobles with long Knives, they forc'd the King for his Ransome and Liberty,^a to quit Essex, Sussex, and Midldesex, as he had done Kent before, through easiness; it is not probable they did, or could use the whole City of London, with those neighbouring Countries, as they did the soft King, and his un­wary Nobles; but that they had their Terms, as well as Kent; and preferred the profession and Tenure of their Christian Faith before any other right or liberty; which is the cause their Arch­bishops were able to continue their several Sees till Augustines arrival, as before; whose chief aime was for their dignities, and, as one said, the Bees must first be destroyed, to come at their Honey; which is also the reason of the continuance of the Brittish Church in Canterbury, (which Bede slubbers over) resorted to by the Brittish Christians of Kent, co-habiting with the Saxon Pagans, to whom this is an Argument, that they envyed not the Gospel, because they envyed not their Daughters [Page 219] in^b Marriage, and their own flesh and bloud unto them, (as they did^c to the Picts) and to several of them while unconverted, Ʋt ^b nesciretur quis Christianus, quis Paganus ob mixturam Matrimoni­orum, & multudinem Saxonum, it was hard to di­stinguish Christians from Pagans, which was one of the greatest sins, and chiefest provocation (in all probability) of the Ancient Brittains, because (as is usual) found to be the Instrumental, as well as the meritorious cause of their ruin and destruction, as in the Instance of Rowenna; into which they fell, partly by the ill example of their Prince, and part­ly perhaps by regard to outward shapes and linea­ments, which no less prevail in the weak and infirm World, that chuses sence before Faith, and the Pre­sidents of frail Superiours, before the Eternal Laws of Christ and conscience, for its Rule and guide. But as Queen Bertha on the one hand shewed her self rightly instructed in the Principles of Chri­stianity and communion of Saints, while she chose rather to Assemble her self with fellow Christians in affliction, than to perform her worship with less envy perhaps, in the private Closet of her Palace: So nothing appears more then the contrary, in the Actions of our Augustine, sufficiently Ʋnchristian in their present, and much more pernicious, in the de­sign'd perpetuity, of their Irregularity: for to joyn in designs with Pagans against Christians, and to erect a private Church before the Publick Cathedral, the Daughter before the Mother, yea to set the Church of Canterbury before all our Ancient Metro­politans Sees then in being, and several Arch-Bishops residing in them: (if our Roman Christians had been as [Page 220] kind, as their Pagan Eenemies were towards them, And it could not be a wreck, while there was so much Christianity to be found alive in the Island, neither was Augustine Lord of the Escheate.) To erect I say, an Inferiour Church in opposition and Precedence to all its Superiours, was a manifest scandalous schism in our Agustine to attempt and begin, in all Roman-Catholicks, to approve and promote, for after Ages: Though not so in Protestants to submit to, (by their Principles) after the chief Magistrate and our Laws (to whom such rights belong to here, (and not to the Pope) had interpos'd an Establishment, and Translated their Obedience from one Metropolis to another, whether before in being, or a new erected by them. But our Roman-Catholicks are Fanaticks or schismaticks unavoidably in this point; as well, when they disown a Protestant, or own and acknowledge any Arch-Bishop of their own Church and perswasion in that See. They are Fanatically disobedient by their own Principles in the first case, for to reject and disown a Protestant Arch-Bishop settled by Law, as their Governour, out of duty to the Pope, whom they presume and believe to disallow him; this is like in all proportion to the Protestant's rejecting the Pope, out of duty and Allegiance to Christ, the chief So­veraign of all; which Papists esteem Fanatical in Protestants: Though Protestants believe, that Christ is to be obeyed, as much before the Pope, as the Pope according to them, above the Archbishop or our Laws, and also, that the Pope in several Doctrines clashes against Christ, as manifestly as any Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, can ever clash against the Pope; But to take Christ's will and private consci­ence, to judge of the Pope, is absolutely Fanaticall in Protestants, say the Papists, therefore for dissent­ing [Page 221] Papists, out of their Private conscience accord­ing to the Popes will, to judge and reject any Pro­testant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, their lawful Su­periour, is absolutely Fanaticall by their own Prin­ciples and sayings, and opening a gap for Inferiours to judge their Governours. And that they are as apparent Schismaticks, in the sence of the whole Christian Church, in obeying or approving any Ro­man-Catholick Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, usurping Jurisdiction in the Diocess of others against their wills and Rights, shall in due place, more fully ap­pear; whereby it is manifest that our Romanists (who are first at accusing) cannot stir or move out of the Schismaticks themselves, untill they become Brittish Protestants. Neither was our Augustine and his followers guilty of Schism only, but of Hostility and invasion made upon the Rights of Christian Brethren, which is more than Schism, as much as War and clashing, is more than bare and harmless distance between Friends, which should be one and the same, and a War of a scandalous Insolence, and a more scandalous confederacy; not to be counte­nanced by any Prince, in the first respect, because commenced without provocation, and tending to level all Superiority in the World, making a Subject Superiour to his Soveraign, the Younger to preceed the Elder, the little Daughter of Canterbury, to command their Greater and Ancienter Mothers of York and London: but the scandal of the confederacy exceeded the Insolence; and the Spiritual confusion, the Temporal, that was attendant to it; such was his combination with Pagans against Christians, to promote his wordly Pride, making himself worse than a Pagan thereby to any sober judgement; as if the Rector of Otranto, or a Greek Priest sojourning there, should [Page 222] combine to betray the Town, to the great Turk, on terms that not only that Church should be made equal to the See of Rome, as was Ravenna, but Metro­polis to it, and himself Superiour to the Pope, when it, and all Italy were reduc'd by Turkish Arms, who could soon silence all Christian Priviledges and pre­scriptions for the contrary title; Its in vain to make application: for the Idolatrous Pride and madness of them at Rome, scorns to be reduc'd and shakled by the Laws of Nations, or common band of Christen­dome, or the great Law of doing to others, as they would be done by; what promotes their Church, and its Grandeur, is Right Christianity, be the means never so Turkish, or Heathenish, or unconscionable: and what abates it in the least, is Heresie, or Turcism, be they never so Christian or Regular: All Laws, and Canons, and Bibles themselves, are to be interpre­ted and regulated by their own becks and Interests: according to the like character Busbeqius gives of the great Turk, (a Partner Antichrist) nil aequum putat, quod nolit; nil iniquum, quod velit: nothing with him is just or unjust, but his own will and pride. The Brittains could easier brook rapacious Heathens to Rob them of their Country, than holy Christians (holpe by Heathens) thus to Rob them of their Sees and Churches. But their wonder and regret is answered in their own Proverb, that reports a Gen­tleman (who became a Highway-man) when a near kinsman Rob'd by him, minded him of his Birth and consanguinity, for better usage, to have return'd this answer to that Plea, Na choelia dy gi dy hun, pan gyndheiriocca, trust not thy own Dog, when he runs mad.

(2) The Btittains were not backward therefore, but forward enough, to Preach and promote the Gospels [Page 223] among their Enemies, though not all so forward, as the zeal of Gildas did wish, by reason of their many discou­ragements and Impediments from Hostilities, especi­ally from Augustine and his party, who 2ly. came not over hither to Preach the Gospel as he pretends, but to fish in troubled waters, and to raise his fortune out of the misfortunes and calamities of the Brit­tains, like those that come to steal goods, when mens houses are on fire: for as he could do but little good by his coming, for want of learning and the Language; so there was no need at all of his coming, for Queen Bertha had prepar'd her Husband for Baptism, as Pope Gregory intimates in his Epistle to her,^d com­paring her to Queen Helena Mother of Constantine the Great, for her zeal and endeavours in this affair, (Where (by the way) it is observable, by the con­fession and tradition of Popes themselves, who was the chief Instrument under God, in preparing and converting the first Christian Emperours, Constan­tius Chlorus her Husband, and Constantine the Great, her Son, and the rest of the Emperours by conse­quence, after their example to the Christian Faith: If Rome had the like to say, of any of her Daughters, as Brittain of her Helena, to have given the like overthrow to the Heathen World, the like encourage­ment and exaltation to the Christian, who could stand before her brags?) And what Queen^e Bertha had so prepar'd, Luidhardus her Chaplain, who attended her, was well able to consummate, and to Baptize the King, whom he had no doubt instructed in the Faith before, which he was far more qualified to do, than Augustine was, or could [Page 224] be, having not the Tongue, nor that guift of Mi­racle. What came this Monk so many Miles hither for? was it for the souls health of the Saxons, and to Preach the Gospel to them in conjunction with the Brittains, as he here pretends? he should have us'd some likely means towards the attaining of this end, better ingratiated himself with the Brittains, than to pick quarrels about trifles, and tonsures, and inconsiderable Ceremonies, against the General^e Instructions of his Pope; honoured them with his communion, as did Bertha and Luidhardus; hin­der'd confederacies with Pagans against them, as did^f Palladius in Scotland: or, as Leland Roundly and solidly reproves this Italian Hypocrisie, and zeal of him and his Pope, in the judgement of the learned and eloquent^f Arch-Bishop Parker, (sup­posed to be the Author of Antiquitates Ecclesiasticae) debuerat Gregorius admonuisse Saxonas, gentem per­fidem, ut si sincerè Christianismum admittere vellent, Britanniae Imperium, (quod contra Sacramentum mi­litiae per tyrannidem occupaverant) justis Dominis, as possessoribus restituerent, Pope Gregory by his Au­gustine, ought to have admonished the Saxons, who were a perfidious Nation; that if they intended to embrace the Christian Faith in sincerity, and to any purpose, they should restore the Scepter of Brittain to the right Lords and owners, who had hir'd them for their service and defence, from whom on the con­trary, they wrested it by force and perjury, against the Faith and honour of Souldiers. But Cressy ob­jects quiet Possession for 4 or 5 descents fron Hengist; as if Emrys, or Aurelius Ambrosius; and Ʋther Pen­dragon, and Arthur, as well as Young Vortimer, [Page 225] had made no re-enties. But this seemed as unsuc­cessful Divinity with Augustine, as to desire the leave and liking of the Brittains to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury over their heads: or to be ordained and consecrated by the Brittish Bishops, in order there­unto, which he so far shunned, that he went o­ver Seas to France, as far as Arles to^g Etherius Arch-Bishop there, to receive his consecration for Arch-Bishop of England, and that saith Bede, by the special directions of Pope Gregory, which compar'd with the former passage of the same Pope, con­cerning Brittain never having had a Pall from Rome, and consequently never being Subject to, or depend­ing upon that See, and their subsequent indefatigable Industry (after Augustine's Plantation and succession was extinct) of thrusting new Arch-Bishops from time to time, and undervaluing all our Brittish consecra­tions, manifestly proves the bottom of Romes design upon England: that it was not Edification but Empire, that was ever there aim; though with the ruin of this Ancient Church, if it could no other ways be compassed; so Augustine had the face in a Synodical meeting of the Brittish Bishops near Worcester, as before, to require the Brittains to joyn with him (assuming now to be an Arch-Bishop here against leave, and Law, and Canons) to Preach the Gospel to the Saxons (which was his pretext and Artifice to hook in their allowance and approbation of his un­just and Schismatical usurpation;) which subtile Proposal was difficult to be granted, or denied, but either with the Inconvenience of betraying their Church, and Country, and Christian communion, (by the Canons of the Church) if they yeilded to [Page 226] joyn with him; or having the odium of witholding the Gospel from the Saxon Pagans, if they refus'd: which is the true rise and State of this Infernal ca­lumny rais'd again the Brittains, of their denying to Preach the Gospel to the Saxons, which induc'd the worthy and Reverend Author afore mention'd,^h to conclude this meeting to have been contriv'd for a snare, to get words of Indignation from them, to provoke the Pagan Saxons to form a War against them, to ruin the remainder of the Brittish Clergy in Wales, and to cover the combination with Prophesie, to Father the murder upon God to make it justice.

(3) And accordingly Ethelbert, as Bede acknow­ledges,^h provok'd Ethelfred King of Northumber­land the chief Patron of Paganism, and Enemy of the Christian Faith, against them, (upon the score of the high words that passed between them, and Au­gustine at that meeting) and it is as easy to guess: who informed and incensed his new convert, King Ethelbert, from his denunciation of War against them upon the place, though in the form of Pro­phesie and Divine Revelation, Si pacem cum fratri­bus accipere nollent, bellum ab hostibus forent accepturi, no small evidence with considering men,ⁱ of this Apostles having a chief hand in the Barbarous en­suing murders, and long and bloudy Wars, and devastations that followed, which he could so cer­tainly fortell: for these and other Saxon Kings, coming with united forces, against Brochwael Scy­thrawg Prince of Powys, not so well provided for them, and soon putting him to the rout at Legecestria, saith Bede, that is Westchester, (Wales being then [Page 227] larger than now it is, and by the Brittains called Caer­leon, from a Roman Legion that quartered in that City,) sell in the next place upon the Monks that were with him in his Army, and slew of them 1250. no more but fifty of them escaping Their assisting with their Prayers, being made a pretence for this hostile usage by the Kings, so saith Bede: But the Norman Ancient M. S of Trivet in Spelman ⁱ saith, that they were found in the City,^k and every one of them put to the Sword in cold bloud, because they were Brittains, the Latine copies of Bede add this to be done, after the death of our Augustine, but there is no such clause in any of the Saxon Manu­scripts,^l and Bishop Jewel finds Augustine's hand to se­veral Charters signed some years after this Massacre, committed in^m 603. whereas our Augustine acord­ing to our best Chronologers dyed notⁿ till 613, so that He might well be present at the place of their slaughter^o (If it was not according to some in 613. the same year that he dyed which was a bloudy Le­gacy) encouraging their Executioners: Whereby we have a tast of the Roman forgeries, while they were masters of our Records and Manuscripts: Nothing that seemed to make for their Church, have they neg­lected to insert, without either Art, or Colour; nor to expunge and alter all that made against them, (as this^p passage of Augustine, against all circum­stances, and the opinions of the most Candid Anti­quaries; doing their works of darkness in the light, or according to the Brittish saying, ymgudhio [Page 228] ar gefn y gist, hiding themselves upon the back of chest.

Not contented with so small a slaughter of Inno­cents, they march on triumphantly to destroy the rest, with their famous Monastery of Bangor, not a­bove 10 Miles off, where they were overtaken by by the Princes of North and South-wales, and Corn­wall, ^c who kill'd ten thousand sixty and six upon upon the place, Edelfred himself wounded and beaten by Cadvan Prince of Northwales (chosen for their Monarch) as far as Humber: Not to mention the cruel Wars, that followed between Cadwal­han, or (according to Bede,) Cedwalla the Son of Cadvan, and Edwin King of Northumberland, up­on whose overthrow, England was shortly after cleared of all the Remainder of our Augustin's plan­tation in the North, and in Kent also, as was said; Providence making room by the bloud of Martyrs, for the plantation of the Gospel amongst the English, in our Brittain, upon a Brittish score, and not a Roman: It being more for the English Honour, and Ʋnion, and Innocence, to have received the Faith from Gods Apostles, through Brittish hands, than from Rome and Augustine; who during the short reign of him and his Italian successors, were able by their principles and endowments, to sow nothing here, but Ignorance, and Superstition, and Schisme, and Rapine, and Sacriledge, and Murders, and Massacres, all fathered upon God by Miracles and Revelations, as is the usual method with Hypocrites. For no Idol set up in any heart instead of Christ, as is the World with the chief Governours, and the Pope by the governed in the Church of Rome, by their [Page 229] Doctrines and practice; and every lust or sordid private end in any mans heart whatsoever, in Christs throne, by negligence and sensuality; which is Spi­ritual servitude and Idolatry; but this new Lord of the heart will have new Laws, new Religion, and and Customes, and this new fundamental rule and precept, that there must be no other Gods before it. But out of zeal to it, every thing (though of God,) (that shall stand in its way to cross and hinder,) must down, and veile; whether it be the voice of Con­science, or the lives of the Innocent, or the Rights of men, and Churches, and Nations, and Kings, or the honour and glory of Almighty God himself: For as Christ in the heart mortifies all sin and vice there­in, so any Idol in the heart mortifies and extirpates all honesty, and good Conscience, and Christ him­self in, and out of it. This being the great distemper and dangerous captivity of the Souls of men, which God in all habitudes, and Incarnations is so care­ful to prevent and preserve, as a Hen her young ones from the Invasions of the Aire, by careful Pa­rents and sober Governours, by Conscience within, by the faithful advice of Friends without, as a se­cond Conscience, by the examples and different ends of men good and evil, by Scripture, by his Son, by his holy Spirit, by Pulpits, by Tribunals, and Exe­cutions, by Judgments, and Plagues, Famine, Sword, Fire, and Captivity, and Hell fire at last forever to consume it, when his care and patience is too much abus'd, and his soveraignity despis'd and dis­own'd, and all other means have fail'd.

Their natural descent and extraction, (which is not in mens power,) were it in the modern English from the old Saxons, (and not from the Brittains in more than [...]00. to one, than from the other, as is far more pro­bable,) [Page 230] is no disgrace, or imputation upon posterity; all others having sometimes been equal to them herein, in their Heathenish Original, at least from Adam, who by departure from God, began all Ido­latry and Heathenism, (which is the Scripture phrase for Atheisme) throughout the World: but to derive the Original of their Faith, (which is more in their choice and election) from Hypocrites, and Lyars, and Murderers, such whose present Com­munion ought to be abhorr'd, and detested by all good Christians, and by consequence any ancient and past Society or derivation from them, (the E­ternal Soul being unconfined from space and time in its Election and Refusals,) No English, Learned or Unlearned, can, or ought to involve themselves in such a guilt and participation of Crimes and Er­rours, upon the colour of the first Conversion of their Ancestours by this ignorant and ungodly Monk from Rome, because the colour and pretence it self is remov'd out of the way by good Providence, and Gods regard to innocent bloud; for it shall be made further to appear, that this pretended Plantation of our, Augustine, whatever it was, was totally rooted out and extinguish'd here; and himself to be no better than a Schismatic, or a Pagan, for his Intrusion, in the account of the Canons of the universal Church, as well as of our Injur'd Brittains: and the Saxons, or English to have had the Gospel rightly preached a­mongst them in every County by an Orthodox Brit­tish Ministry, of different Principles from the Degene­rate Church of Rome, which is our fourth point to be cleared in order.

SECTION IX. That the Gospel was planted among the English throughout their Counties by Brittish Mini­stry: And that Augustin's Roman planta­tion here came to nothing, and no Bishop lest in all this land of Rome's Ordination, but one, and he a Simonaick; and that the body of the Nation are Old Brittains, and our Princes especially, and therefore by honour and nature bound to maintain the Rights of our Brittish Church against Forreign en­croachments.

THat the Gospel by good Providence was plan­ted amongst the Saxons or English, through­out the Counties they had reduc'd, by Brittish Preachers and Doctors, and not by Roman; (for in the rest of Brittain the old Original Apostolical Faith continued:) which shall be largely proved by particular Instances of fact, after two previous sup­positions sent before to prevent and remove the Rubbish of vulgar errours and mistakes.

1. And first it is to be remember'd and repeated, that the Gospel from its first planting by the Apostles was never extinguish'd or eradicated from among the Brittains, (as it soon far'd with our Augustin's adventures upon the English,) but that they per­severe to praise God to this day, in the same Religion and Language with their forefathers, these 1600 [Page 232] years and upwards, as they trust to continue till Christ's second coming: Being the same Religion that was alike preserv'd amongst the Cornish, and several West-Saxons Counties, and in the ^a Cam­brian or Cumbrian Kingdom of the Brittains in the North, reaching from ^a Edenburgh and both the Friths, down to the Rivers Derwen, or^b Tervyn, or the^c Ravonglas, or further in Cumberland; and over all Scotland and Ireland, and the Isle of man: where it is clear against all Arts and Inventions, and Legends and dreams, that the first planting of the faith amongst them people, was by Brittish, and not by any Romish Mission, or Ministery; from the difference Augustine met, and found here between these Churches and the Roman, upon his arrival, not on­ly in several Customes, and observations, (which savour'd of the East more than Rome) but in (the most material characteristical distinction) that can be imagin'd or conceived between Churches that pre­tend to hold the same Faith, that of Subjection and Ordination, which the Brittish Churches never ac­knowledged, nor received from Rome, but from [Page 233] themselves, or from Jerusalem, whence Rome it self must derive, as from the common mother of Chri­stendom, or it is no Church of Christ, Isa. 2.3.

2. That the Communalty of the Brittains in Lhoegr and Alban, (or England and Scotland) Cit­tizens, Shop-keepers, Farmars, Peasants, and their Wives, and Daughters, and Servants, and little Children, which were a considerable part of that (as they are of every Nation,) were not totally put to the Sword by the Conquering Party, nor ex­pell'd their Borders, nor consum'd by Plague, as some vulgarly dream and believe. The Trunk and body of the Brittish Nation continuing still the same, under the successive yoakes of Romans and Saxons, and Danes, and Normans; whose War was ever against the Lords and Nobility, for the dominion and Tribute of the Populacy: These submitting suc­cessively to the most prevalent party, and in their turnes producing great Spirits for their Countrey, while the others circularly degenerated and strangely vanish'd, and digesting and assimilating in time, their Conquerours, and men of War into their own substance and temper, unless abundantly and constantly recruited from their first Homes. There was a particular precept and exception for the Anathema, or excision of all the old Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan, to secure Gods Israel a­gainst Heathenish mixtures and impurities; yet how many Perizzites, and Jebusites, and Canaanites escaped notwithstanding from being cut off? But no such command from Heaven was ever given against the Brittains; nor did the Interest of the Con­queror require the desolation of the Land: Neither were the Pagan Saxons so zealous before, for the removal of the Brittish Clergy out of Lhoegr in­to [Page 234] Wales, as after the arrival of Monk Augustine upon them.

When the Picts from the North, & Scoti à Circio, saith Gildas, that is, the Irish from the West, began to Invade, and overpower the naked Brittains, be­ing a little before drain'd by Maximus, (making for the Empire,) of all their Armes, and Treasure, and Fighting men, who never return'd home, but were for some space a terrour^d to the whole Roman Empire, it was not out of Antipathy to these Nations, that they made such Inroads; (being themselves Colonies, that time had greatly incorporated, into the same bloud and Language with the Brittains, as appears by the names of places to this day over Ireland, and especially the North-east of Scotland, the Station of the Picts, being very much Brittish, as in Wales,) But out of Revenge against the Roman power here, who forced the Brittains to serve under them, to fight and gall them, being neighbours, and flesh and bloud; which made some great Spirits amongst the Brittains, to fly over to the Picts, as did Cremus by name, or Graham their Chief leader, and Father, they say, of the Noble Montrossian Family, whom the Scottish ^e Histories confess to be a Brittain: And when the Saxon Auxiliaries, (instead of marching against the enemy) turned their Armes against their Masters, upon^f pretence of want of pay, and the opportunity of their weakness, killing all before them, from one end of the Land to the other, (as Gildas very querulously exaggerats) all that stood in their way to be killed: Nevertheless the Brittains [Page 235] soon after recovered in Numerous and Regular Armies under Heroick Princes, to call their bloudy Mercenaries to a strict account for this, by the care and means chiefly of [g] Guitelinus Archbishop of London, of Irish extraction, as is conjecturable from his name, to whom the Brittains did owe Aurelius Ambrosius, and Ʋther Pendragon, and consequently Arthur his Son, preserved from the hands of the Usurper Vortigern, who had procured Constans the Elder Brother, (being under his tuition) to be made away; and hanged the Murderers for a colour of his Innocence; for as soon as they had War-like Leaders, they soon became Souldiers, to vindicate their wrong; animated with Guiteline's exhortation of the vicissi­tude between the Sword and the Spade: So that the destruction and slaughter could not be so uni­versal, especially upon the common sort, as it is render'd: For it appears further by our English Histories, that their Counties and Cities in North, and South, and East, and West, were generally gain'd by grant, and Composition, and Treaty, and fair usage of those that yielded, as well as by Sieges, and Battles, and ruine to such, as stood out; which can­not well consist with that weak conceit of total extirpation, So^h Octa and Ebusa the Son and Brother of Hengist reduc'd the North; profligatis qui resistendum putaverant, reliquos in fidem acceptos placidae quietis gratiâ mulcebant: Breaking such as made resistance, the rest upon surrender, they al­lur'd with good usage to rest quiet. And Kent is well known not to have been conquer'd, but bestowed [Page 236] as a present for Rowenna ⁱ as before. Queens bring their portions with them, but Misses are dear bought. Andⁱ London, a great and populous Emporium at that time (as appears from Marcellinus, and Bede, and our Pope Gregory,) with neighbouring Counties for the Kings liberty: And (which was the stoutest, though not the largest Kingdom, and Conquer'd and swallowed the rest of the Heptarchyes, and gave the first name to England) the seven Counties of the West Saxons were first yielded over to Kerdick by^k Mordred, Arthurs Nephew, and Vice-Roy in his absence, to assist his Title to the Crown against Arthur, who was not so near by strict and Legi­timate descent, as by his Election, (for his Valour and merit,) wherein then the Princes Rights in Brittain were chiefly founded; and therefore^l this Mordred, or Medrod, with Vortigerne, (who deli­vered this Land to the Saxons,) and Androgeus (or Avarvy, or Mandrubatius, who betrayed it to Caesar,) are recorded, as the three disgraces of Brittain, yet all the people were not consumed, when they were thus surrendred and betrayed: How else could they serve them in their Armies and Legions? And upon King Arthur's return, after several weari­some and Bloudy Contests, Kerdick was Re-in­vested, and^m confirmed by Arthur in several of those Southern Counties, upon his swearing^m Al­legiance to him for them, and^m toleration of Chri­stian Religion in them, as Ʋsher proves out of Rud­born, Polychronicon and others; so Bath, Cicester, and Gloucester, ⁿ were surrender'd after long and formal [Page 237] Sieges, and many sharp fights preceding: And where^o M. Westm. speaks of the East-Angels in­vading Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, &c. Counties, and destroying all the Christians that were in them, the clause, Omni crudelitatis genere Christianos affecerunt, Is observ'd by Ʋsher to be wanting in the Manuscript: and the slaughter which Gormund made, in con­junction with the Saxons, upon the Brittains in the time of King Careticus, (which was their greatest overthrow and destruction) is word by word, Gildas ^p dis description of Hengist's first Irruption and slaughter. So that in every Heptarchy, though all were reduc'd and conquered, yet all the Brittish Inhabitants were not destroyed or expell'd, but only such as were in Arms, and had Estates. And as for destruction by Plague, the English and Irish, as well as the Brittains equally felt the smart thereof, as Bede ^q is witness: And the Streets of London, after great a Plague, have been seen as ful next year, as before. Withall, this [...], or totall destructi­on of the Brittish communalty in England, was a­gainst the mutual Practice of the combatants, who gave Quarter to such, on both sides; and against the Interest and benefit of the Conquerour. It was Ethelfreds method, stil'd Ferus, the bloudiest of the Saxon Kings, to make all Countreys he conquer'd, aut Tributarias aut Inhabitabiles, ^r saith Bede, ei­ther Tributary or wast: to hurt them further, had been to hurt himself, and deprive himself of his Rent and Contribution: when Hengist and his Saxons were driven to quit the land by young Vor­timer, who was the first made Hengist ever turn his [Page 238] back in Battel, said M. Westminster, the English and Scottish History agree with the Brittish, that their wives and children were left behind, and^ſ spar'd from the Sword; and Quarter given, well doth prove, Quarter to have been before received. And when Aurelius Ambrosius totally defeated and reduc'd Hengist his numerous Army, his Son^† Octa forc'd to surrender York and himself; and Ebyssa Dunbritton, and Hengist cut off^u for example, or kill'd by Ambrosius in pursuite,^x saith the Scottish History; and the most Warlike, banished into their own Countrey, yet the rest of their Commons were permitted to live together with the Brittains, in the lower parts of Scotland, upon terms of Allegiance,^y and their embracing Christianity, as was observ'd before. So that the destruction of all the Brittains out of England, is like that story of the^z Picts, who are reported to be destroyed all in one day; both meer fables, though they lost their Kingdom in the Battle, yet the com­munalty still remained, being the Major part of the Scottish Kingdom, and their after Kings using still the stile of Kings of Picts, as well as Scots, as the Learned Arch-Bishop^z Ʋsher largely proves.

The Brittish Christians therefore remaining behind in Brittain, under the Power of the Enemy, were not the less a Church of Christ, than was the Primi­tive Church, by being under Persecution, for the first 300 years; or, than now are the Greeks under Infidel, or the Roman Church it self, under Gothish Conque­rours; Lazarus belongs to Heaven, as well, yea more than Dives: afflictions being assistant mortifi­cations, [Page 239] helping us to dye to this world in our af­fections and Values, wherein consists the Heart and Inside of the Church: and those Spiritual Leaders, that stayed behind with their charge, (for about 150 years, before Augustine arrived to expel them) be­came the more Supreme over them under Christ, upon the Remove all of their Christian Temporal Ma­gistrates. Its true, not to appear, and not to be, are alike in some sence, as to man, not, as to God. And the invisibility of the Brittains in Lhoegr, was more for want of History and evidence, (either concealed or destroyed by the envy and malice of Adversaries) than for want of Existence and being, yea mention shall be made of them in their obscurity and invisibi­lity, when it serves the turn of the adverse Part. Bede mentions^a multos Brittonas Occidentalibus Saxoni­bus subditos, reduced by Aldhelmus to follow the Ro­man Easter, which proves there were numbers of them remaining in the Country, some reduced, and some still unreduced. And it is probable, more Brittish Christians were in this West-Saxon Kingdom, than any other part, because of the Vicinity of Glaston­bury, and^b Caer Went, or Winchester, and its Ancient Monastery and large possessions, and the example of Amphibalus, (the Brittains receiving great encou­ragement from the Neighbourhood of their Martyrs to persevre in their Faith.) The Chronicle of Glaston­bury mentions the residence of Brittish Bishops in their Sees in those parts, (as Bede their People:) for when King Ina, about the year 700, Translated the See of^c Congersbury to Wells adjoyning, in the time of Daniel the last Bishop of the Brittains there, it [Page 240] affirms the same so to have continued a succession of Brittish Bishops for 600 years and above, till that time, which is about 500 years together before the arrival of Monk Augustine, and about an 100 years af­ter: which proves either strict observations of Mordred and Arthur's Articles with Kerdick; or great consan­guinity and kindness amongst them; that the zeal and Interest of Augustine, could not prevail with the Pagan Saxons, to hunt this Bishop out of Congers­bury, as well as Thadioc and Theon out of York and London, Congersbury or Wells being a member of the Brittish Arch-Bishoprick of London, and barring there­by the title of Occupancy, (which was Augustine's beatifical aim) and giving edge to the Canons of General Councels against him for this forcible entrance: neither is it at all improbable, that the Brittains should affect here to mingle Rights and Pro­tections by Intermarriages with the Saxons, after they became Christian (who were so culpably forward to be unequally yok'd before) and be inclin'd to relinquish all notes of destinction apace, the old style of Easter, and their Brittish names and dialect, and change Lhoid into Grey, and Winn into White, &c. which signifie the same, and though some sturdily retain'd their Brittish names of Dunne, and Dee, and Gough, and Moyle, and Trever, yet others chang'd perhaps Trewen, Trevechan Trene widh, &c. into Whittington, Littleton, Newton, &c. of the same signification, for their con­venience, as upon like imitation now in Wales, Powell, Prichard, Progers, Jones, &c. are become standing Sirnames of Families, which before with the old Brit­tains were but the Christian names of the Fathers, ap Howel, ap. Risiart, Roger, Joan, &c. yea per­haps to disown all alliance with the Brittains in Wales, standing out in War; partly for security to [Page 241] themselves, as the heard forsake a Deer that is pur­sued, or Courtiers a fallen favorite, partly out of modable conformity to the prevailing party, as in a great part of Devonshire, or Duffneint, and Cornwall, which are old Brittish Territories, where it is freshly known, the same Ancient people remain, but their Language much worne out, and giving place to a­nother; like as in little Bittain the whole entire Countrey are old Brittains; whether some old Le­gions of Maximus settled there under^c Con [...]n Mer­riadoc, ^d as saith the Brittish Histories, or new ex­iles forc'd thither, as elsewhere by the Saxons, ^e (as the Learned Primate guesses, because he meets no mention in Authors of them abiding there, till the Invasion of Gallia by the French, which is near Co­temporary to that of Lhoegr by the Saxons, though it is hard to imagine, how they should win their Country from others, who failed to defend their own) But though they be undoubted Brittains in their origen, yet now there is little or no difference between them, and the meer French in appearance, especially on that side of the Country, towards France, or High Brittain, where the Brittish Lan­guage is wholy forgot and extinguished, (as amongst the Brittains of Lhoegr): So in Gallia or France it self, though the old Inhabitants the Gaules, or Galli, seem quite consumed, every Mothers Son; since the modern French, or Franci out of Germany invaded their Land, chang'd and suppressed their Language, Names, and Laws; yet nothing is more evident by Historical character, than that the Nation is still the same, though the name and dress be alter'd; and what by the nature of the Air, and what by Inter-marriages [Page 242] with one another, and what by Divine mercy re­lieving right owners at last, on the one hand, and vengeance on the other, cutting off the lives and lines of men of bloud and violence, the French are still the same Old Gauls, of whom^f Florus his cha­racter about 2000 years ago, is found true to this day, primus impetus major quam virorum, sequens minor quam faeminarum, above men at first assault, below women at rally. Neither have our modern French the zeal and humour of the old Franci after liberty, from whence they had that name. In like manner, in several Counties of Wales, especially amongst se­veral of the Gentry, all is alter'd since the time of Henry the seventh, (who broke the middle wall of Partition, and united in himself both Nations into one,) and the Councel settled in the marches, not only in taking new and single Sirnames after the Eng­lish manner, instead of their Ancient and Brittish stile, compounded of Progenitours (as the modern Christian names of Europe's Grandees are with friends and Patrons) which us'd to puzzle the Eng­lish Judges of that Court in their Circuits, and oc­casion a mistake of one man for 3 or 4, but in the total disuse of the Brittish tongue, and using the Eng­lish instead, in several of their Families, whether to follow the English, as many of the English do the French, or to avoid the burden and Incon­venience, of being singular and distinct in so small a number, against so great a body; as is now the English Nation; or because of their Intermarriages with the English, in civility to their consorts, which example of theirs, were stronger than any Law, to abolish and destroy the Brittish tongue forever, but that it is mainly preserv'd upon the score of Re­ligion [Page 243] in Pulpits, between the Clergy and commu­nalty, who have a great and dear esteem of the Gospel Preached, and are they, that chiefly support the tongue, and retain the Customs, and Traditions, and Principles, and proverbs of their Ancestors, (and some novel Popish rites besides, which have crept in amongst them, as their praying at cross ways before their Corps, which are tolerated by their guides, least they should be unsettled and scandali­zed in their more Ancient and Catholick observati­ons by abrupt disuse, till by knowledge they come to leave them off, of their own accord.) Neither are the Gentry of Wales the less Brittains, (as neither the old Brittains in Lhoegr) for conforming daily to the English manner; nor the French, less Gauls for the loss of their Gallic tongue, as the Brittish Language is in like danger to be wholly worn out also, as was said, unless the Chiefs of the Nation, our Princes or Senate, out of Generous filial honour to Antiquity and Truth, think it fit and expedient, and for the glory of the Nation, (which is ambitious of recovering, as by some secret instinct, the old Name of Great Brittain,) to give some support and life to the Language of Great Brittain likewise, not yet incurable or exstinct. A Language so Ancient and venerable in the first professing the true Religion immediately, and all a­long, from the Resurrection: and in the first oppo­sing of false Religion, and Popish abuses above a 1000 years ago: the mother-tongue of Lucius and Constantine the Great, the first Princes of the Chri­stian Church; so useful to the Antiquities, not only of our Btittish Isles, but the greatest part of Europe, that Forreigners have Printed our Dictionaries, as the Origen of Gallic Antiquities under other names, out of learned ambition; Oriental in its Grammar, copious, [Page 244] as the Greek, for compositions; as elegant, the more old, as is the English, the more new it is; For the Rule and structure of its Poesies, and the Awen, or in­spiration of its Poets, hardly to be parallel'd in any Nation whatsoever, that Augustus could not be more divertis'd with Horace, &c. than our Princes and Gen­try were in ample manner with there Prydydhion: Or at least that some worthy Wellwisher to the Brittish Nation, would oblige thousands of grateful hearts, and God himself, by so good a work, in commise­rating the Spiritual condition of men and Maid-servants, resorting, hither from Wales for service, who for several years (while they are to learn the English tongue, and to be able to keep pace with the volubility of Pulpits, which learners of other Languages find to be too quick for the ear in the most stayed delivery) are for that time in the condition of the Deaf Born: without they had a Church built, and assign'd, as other Nations have, for a morning Fa­mily service and Instruction, which others (that well understand the English) would however resort with gladness to, out of imbred delight and satisfaction, to speak to their God in their own tongue, and both might easily be effected with little or no charge to the friend of the Brittains, but the procuring by his interest, or Authority, publick rule and countenance for the same.

And on the other hand, we find the English not wanting or tardy, (even in times of former Hosti­lities) to unite and incorporate the Brittains with themselves, by all manner of Civility consistent with their ends of dominion: For in the North, be­yond Humber, where the Saxons did most settle and overflow,^g perswading King Vortigerne, it [Page 245] was for his better defence and safeguard against his Northern enemies, the Lords and Gentry that did resist, as having most to lose, fared the worst by it, but the rest, or the Brittish Communalty, had fair and alluring conditions given them, as be­fore; and intermarried altogether.^g But in the South, or West Saxon Kingdom; (where they were the Major part for Poll, no doubt,) they lived in a far milder Aire, and kinder usage, as appears by that West Saxon ^h Constitution in Sir H. Spelman, at­tributed to King Ina, about the Intermarriadges be­tween the English and the Brittains (who used the like policy towards the Danes; ⁱ though their ene­mies.) Ʋniversi Angli, qui tunc temporis extiterunt, uxores suas ceperunt de Britonum genere, & Britones uxores suas de illustri sanguine & genere Anglorum, hoc est, de genere Saxonum, hoc enim factum fuit per commune concilium, & assensum omnium Episcoporum, & Principum, procerum, comitum, & omnium sapien­tum, seniorum, & populorum, totius Regni, & per praeceptum Regis Inae praedicti Ita fuerunt tunc temporis per universum Regnum Brittanniae, duo in carne una—gens una & populus unus miseratione divinâ: All the English universally in those dayes married their Wives out of Brittish Families, and the Brittains in like manner, their Wives out of the Noble Bloud of the English, or Saxons. For this was done by the Common Council, and the assent of all the Bishops, and Princes, Peers, Earles, and all the Wisemen, and Elders, and people, of the whole Kingdom, and by the Commandment of King Ina aforesaid; so then over all the Kingdom of Brittain [Page 246] they were two in one flesh, one Nation and one peo­ple—by Gods mercy. But the authentickness and truth of this Constitution is doubted by that Learned Knight, not that it could be supposed, that either the Brittains, or Mr. Lambard were the In­ventors of it; but that it supposes King Ina to have married King Cadwaladr's Daughter, and Heire of Brittain, whom Malmesbury mentions to have had but one Wife; and with her, and by her perswasions to have ended his dayes at Rome, in the Armes of the Apostles, as then they were imposed upon; yet con­fesses that Humphrey Lhuyd (that great Antiquary and Herald,) averrs Ina to be Cadwaladr's Son, others his Granchild; and the Brittish names of the Kings immediatly succeeding Ina, Cedwalla, Centwin, Es­civin, Cenwalch is some argument of affinity in use between them, but this Western Constitution seems ra­ther to refer to the time of^k Egbert, who was Regis Inae de Fratre Inigildo abnepos, King Ina's great Ne­phew by his Brother Ingild, who first reduc'd by his Armes, the rest of the Saxon Heptarchyes under him­self, as one Monarch over all: for then, saith the Constitution, (which proves it to have been made, when, as one Kingdom, it was to have but one name,) deinde universi vocaverunt Regnum Anglorum, quod antea vocatum fuit Regnum Brittaniae, then all agreed, it should be thenceforth called England, which be­fore was called Brittain, as being his own right now, not so much by Conquest, (wherein his numerous intermingled Brittains were not the least serviceable to him,) as by descent and title from the Brittish Kings, the former Rightful Proprietors. So na­turally all right Titles, usurped and invaded for a [Page 247] time) long to return to their Right owners, as a stone to its Center, when the force that held it in the Aire, is nigh expir'd. And so this decree for Inter-marriadges was in further acknowledgment and corroboration of the right title, to extinguish en­mity and distance, and to unite the people in one Brittish bloud: Or, if there was never any such de­cree, or Law, then the least that can be imagin'd is, that it was some prophecy, (far exceeding Merlin's for event and perspicuity,) that got into their Rolls and Registers: For what is there more plain and ma­nifest, than that the three parts of Great Brittain, the Alban-Brittains, or the Scots; and Loegrian or Locrine-Brittains, or the English; and the Cambro-Brittains, or the Welsh, (who alone ever surviv'd visibly distinct) are all soderd and united into one and the same Nation, by Marriadges, and Bloud, and name, and Government. And that therefore in all probability, (considering the Attributes of God, his Justice, and mercy, and that prophetical Aphorisme of our Saviour, All they that take the Sword, shall perish with the Sword, Mat. 26.52. Rev. 13.10. and the Brittish Tradition, Twylh y cyllilh hirion a dhial ar y Saeson, Treachery and long Knives apace, will bring down vengeance on the Saxon race, and the shortness of the Lives and Lines of Conquerors, and bloudy men, Psal. 55.24. and how ready God is to have done cor­recting, and to burn the Rod, when the Child amends:) If all mens Cards and Pedigree throughout this Isle were known, or confess'd, that there would be found over all the Nation, more than an hundred to one, that were of Brittish extraction, to any that were pure Norman, or Dane, or Saxon, or Roman, or descended either from their Martial Leaders, or or Females of their Camp: And further, touching [Page 248] the Brittains of Wales apart, which no doubt were the chief Gentry and Nobility, and the military part of the Loegrian Brittains, driven out of their Seats and Lands by the Saxons, (as the^† Saxon Officers and Nobles were driven into the Low-lands of Scotland by the Normans, for they did not seek their refuge in Wales, and the Highlands call them Saxons to this day, and none retain more the Old Saxon dialect, or perhaps the humour of their Ancestors, in being Souldiers of Fortune abroad, and Politick: as in the Vigour and hasty earnestness of the Scotch Communalty, and seve­ral Ancient Customes, the Brittish, or, as men say, the Welsh bloud and humour, is as much discernible) such hath been, the apparent mercy and provi­dence of God in their distinct preservation to this day; that the whole Nation is greatly become Great Brittain again by their means, and this Seed and Remnant sown over the whole field of Lhoegr amongst their Ancient Brethren again; as appears more perceptibly, and by Records, in their Allyance with most and the chiefest Noble^l Families and Houses of England, and may be dayly seen and found in most Companies, you can fall into, of the Commu­nalty; where, Captains occurr not more frequent than Brittains, either by Birth, or Derivation, or Alliance: But is most remarkably and importantly evident and visible in the Throne it self. The Royal Family of the Stewards, having had their singular preservation in Wales betimes, in^m Fleance the only Son of Banquo, escaping from the snares of Macbeth against his life, and marrying Nesta the [Page 249] Daughter of Prince Griffith ap Lhewelin, whereby they recovered to be Great Stewards or Abthanes of Scotland: And their highest Exaltation, of being Kings of Great Brittain by the like affinity, and de­scent from King Henry the seventh, in whom (or his Queen) was contain'd the Brittish Title from King Cadwaldr, (as well as the Norman and English) descending either through^f Gwladys Dhû, the only Daughter of Prince Lhewelin ap Jorweth, married to the Mortimers, from whom his Queen descended; or through Owen Tudyr from the last Prince Lhewelin, Nephew to Gwladys Dhû, from whom himself de­scended; who though stil'd a Welsh ^g Milk-sop by King Richard Crook-back in his speech, when they were ready to joyn Battle for the Crown, yet it well appears what kind of Prince he was, for wis­dom and magnificence, in my Lord Verulam's Monu­ment of his Life, and his own of his Death at West­minster. So that Invasions and Conquests may be compared to Land-floods for their prevalence and premanency, which for a while know no banks; and discolour, and alter the whole Channel from appearing to be the same current; but after a short time, this confusion is soon over, and the River be­comes the same as it was before, and within its old banks and rules: For we plainly perceive the English are so much the same at this day, saving some few chief Families, as if there had never been any Norman Inundation; and by like parity, the English themselves are the bulk of the Old Brittains, wearing out the Saxon violence, in the form of Brittains, as the Norman in the form of English; [Page 250] and all is great Brittain again, as well in Truth as in Name, not without Divine suggestion upon the minds of King and people to be so desirous to re­trieve it. As Grand Cairo is the same City, though thousands go in and out in Caravans every day; or our bodies are the same in substance, though not in the parts, which have undergone several fluxes and successions: The Pressure of one Nation by another, having more of chastisement in it, than destruction, and resembling an Ague more than Death, for that when it hath made a great depredation of the Spi­rits, (which answer to the Nobility, where the Dis­ease most commonly is contracted and seated by Luxury and inflammations,) and brought the flesh of the body very low, (which answers to the Com­monalty, which bears its share in the smart and dis­order,) then it departs and leaves us of its own ac­cord, without other force or Physick, and we re­cover our old health, and Spirits, and Flesh, and colour, in our old accustom'd Aire, and Aliment, and are as we were at first, having never been other­wise for substance, but the same. As in our own ex­perience in our late Civil Wars, which made two contrary Nations of one, the Chiefs came to Scaf­folds, to Goldsmith-Hall, or Tyburn, for good or ill desert; the body of the Nation continuing the same, and the old Souldiers of the King, making the best part of Cromwells Army, as hath been observed, and the Round-head and Cavalier now no more distinct: And upon the same account our Modern Italians, may be allowed to be the same Nation with the Ancient Romans; but with far greater Alloy and mixture of Strangers, than the Brittains: Their Invasions and Feavers from Goths, and Vandalls, and Hunnes, and Saracens, being more turbulent and destructive, [Page 251] than ours from a few Normans, and Danes, and Saxons, which the Nation was better able to digest: The main stream of the Flood passing over them, and but its Eddy over us.