eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? but when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." v. 36. "he was moved with compassion on them, because.. they were scattered abroad-." x. 14. "whosoever shall not receive

you, nor hear your words," &c. xiii. 52. " every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." xviii. 12. “if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray," &c. Acts xiii. 51. "they shook off the dust of their feet against them." xviii. 6. "when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them-." 2 Cor. ii. 17. we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ." 1 Thess. ii. 5. "neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know." Tit. ii. 7. "in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works."

66

Opposed to the above are the ignorant, the slothful, the timid, flatterers, the dumb, false teachers, the covetous, the ambitious. Isai. ix. 15. "the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail." Ezek. xliv. 8. "ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves;" as was done by bishops formerly, and is not unfrequently practised by magistrates in the present day, thus depriving the people of their privilege of election. Isai. lvi. 10. “his watchmen are blind," &c. For an example or flatterers, see 2 Chron. xviii. 5. "the king of Israel gathered together of prophets four hundred men,' &c. Neh. vi. 12. "lo, I perceived that God had not sent him." Jer. ii. 8. "the priests said not, Where is Jehovah?" v. 14. "because ye speak this word," &c. v. 31. "the prophets prophesy falsely." vi. 13, 14. "from the least of them even unto the greatest," &c. viii. 9. "lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah, and what wisdom is in them?" x. 21 "the pastors are become brutish." xiv. 13-15, 18. "thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name," &c. xxiii. 9, &c. "mine heart is broken within me, because of the prophets." In this class are to be placed Hananiah, chap. xxviii. with the two other prophets mentioned in chap. xxix. 21. and Shemaiah, v. 24, &c. "because thou hast sent letters in my name unto all the people that are

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at Jerusalem. . . . saying, Jehovah hath made thee priest in the room of Jehoiada," &c. and Amaziah, Amos vii. 10—17. Jer. 1. 6. "their shepherds have caused them to go astray." Lament. ii. 14. "thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee." iv. 13. "for the sins of the prophets-." Ezek. xiii. 2, &c. "prophesy against the prophets of Israel," &c. xxii. 26. "her priests have violated my law." v. 28. "her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar." xxxiv. 2, &c. “ son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel." Hos. vi. 9. "as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way," &c. Amos viii. 11. "I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread," &c. Mic. iii. 5, 6. “ thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that make my people err—." v. 11. "the heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire-. Zeph. iii. 4. "her prophets are light and treacherous-. Zech. xi. 15, 16. "take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd." v. 17. "woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock." xiii. 2, &c. "I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land." Mal. ii. 1—10. “now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you." John ii. 16. "he said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence," &c. x. 10. "the thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." 2 Pet. ii. 1, &c. "there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you.'

THE DUTIES OF THE WHOLE CHURCH AND OF INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS TOWARDS THEIR MINISTERS are stated Book I. in the chapter concerning the ministers and people; to which many of the following texts may also be referred. Matt. ix. 37, 38. "the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest—.” x. 40, &c. "he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." See also John xiii. 29. Luke viii. 18. "take heed therefore how ye hear; for whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." Philipp. iii. 17, 18. "brethren, be followers together of me," &c. 1 Thess. v. 12, 13. " we beseech you, brethren, to know them that labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love, for their work's sake."

Heb. xiii. 7. "remember them which have the rule over you." v. 17, 18. "obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you." Jer. xxiii. 16. “hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah."

The contrary conduct is condemned, Isai. xxx. 9, 10. "this is a rebellious people," &c. Jer. xliii. 2. " saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: Jehovah our God hath not sent thee-." Micah ii. 6. "prophesy ye not; say ye to them that prophesy, &c. v. 11. "if a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying," &c. Luke vii. 29, 30, "the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him." 3 John 9. "I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not."

END OF THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.

THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN,

THAT PART ESPECIALLY, NOW CALLED ENGLAND;

FROM THE FIRST TRADITIONAL BEGINNING, CONTINUED TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

COLLECTED OUT OF THE ANCIENTEST AND BEST AUTHORS THEREOF.

[PUBLISHED FROM A COPY CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR HIMSELF, 1670.]

THE FIRST BOOK.

THE beginning of nations, those excepted of whom sacred books have spoken, is to this day unknown. Nor only the beginning, but the deeds also of many succeeding ages, yea, periods of ages, either wholly unknown, or obscured and blemished with fables. Whether it were that the use of letters came in long after, or were it the violence of barbarous inundations, or they themselves, at certain revolutions of time, fatally decaying, and degenerating into sloth and ignorance; whereby the monuments of more ancient civility have been some destroyed, some lost. Perhaps disesteem and contempt of the public affairs then present, as not worth recording, might partly be in cause. Certainly ofttimes we see that wise men, and of best ability, have forborn to write the acts of their own days, while they beheld with a just loathing and disdain, not only how unworthy, how perverse, how corrupt, but often how ignoble, how petty, how below all history, the persons and their actions were; who, either by fortune or some rude election, had attained, as a sore judgment and ignominy upon the land, to have chief sway in managing the commonwealth. But that any law, or superstition of our philosophers, the Druids, forbad the Britains to write their

memorable deeds, I know not why any out of Cæsar1 should allege: he indeed saith, that their doctrine they thought not lawful to commit to letters; but in most matters else, both private and public, among which well may history be reckoned, they used the Greek tongue; and that the British Druids, who taught those in Gaul, would be ignorant of any language known and used by their disciples, or so frequently writing other things, and so inquisitive into highest, would for want of recording be ever children in the knowledge of times and ages, is not likely. Whatever might be the reason, this we find, that of British affairs, from the first peopling of the island to the coming of Julius Cæsar, nothing certain, either by tradition, history, or ancient fame, hath hitherto been left us. That which we have of oldest seeming, hath by the greater part of judicious antiquaries been long rejected for a modern fable.

Nevertheless there being others, besides the first supposed author, men not unread, nor unlearned in antiquity, who admit that for approved story, which the former explode for fiction; and seeing that ofttimes relations heretofore accounted fabulous have been after found to contain in them many footsteps and reliques of something true, as what we read in poets of the flood, and giants little believed, till undoubted witnesses taught us, that all was not feigned; I have therefore determined to bestow the telling over even of these reputed tales be it for nothing else but in favour of our English poets and rhetoricians, who by their art will know how to use them judiciously.

;

I might also produce example, as Diodorus among the Greeks, Livy and others among the Latins, Polydore and Virunnius accounted among our own writers. But I intend not with controversies and quotations to delay or interrupt the smooth course of history; much less to argue and debate long who were the first inhabitants, with what probabilities, what authorities each opinion hath been upheld; but shall endeavour that which hitherto hath been needed most, with plain and lightsome brevity, to relate well and orderly things worth the noting, so as may best instruct and benefit them that read. Which, imploring divine assistance, that it may redound to his glory, and the good of the British nation, I now begin.

1 Cæs. 1. 6.