The city remembrancer. Or, A sermon preached to the native-citizens, of London, at their…

4. The first King that ever renounced the Popes Supremacy, was King Henry the Eight; and the first King that ever wrote against the Pope, to prove him to be the Antichrist, and the whore of Babylon, was King James of famous memory. And therefore I may safely say, That it is a providence not to be slighted and disregarded, that we are by Nation Englishmen.

4. The first King that ever renounced the Popes Supremacy, was King Henry the Eight; and the first King that ever wrote against the Pope, to prove him to be the Antichrist, and the whore of Babylon, was King Iames of famous memory. And therefore I may safely say, That it is a providence not to be slighted and disregarded, that we are by Nation Englishmen.

¹Fourthly, to be born in a Noble and famous City is a desirable privilege. Paul reckoneth it as a mercy that he was born in Tarsus, and that he was a Citizen of no mean City. There is (I confess) some contention amongst learned men, about the place of Pauls birth. As seven ⟨p. 15⟩Cities strove about Homers birth, so there are many places which challenge an interest in this holy Apostle. Hierome brings it as the common opinion of his time,² that he was born in Giscalis a Town in Judea, and bred up in Tarsus. But in another place he recants this opinion and yet it is revived by Bede, ³Masius, and Arias Montanus. Some say he was born in Graecia, others that he was a Citizen of Rome. But (as Lorinus well saith) Paulo ipsi natal suum prodenti solum credendum est, We must believe Paul above all other witnesses, He saith expressly, That he was [Greek or Hebrew] Born in Tarsus, ⁴