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A44536
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A letter from a Protestant gentleman to a lady revolted to the Church of Rome
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Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing H2845; ESTC R1400
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32,717
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156
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comes nearest to Scripture and which goes farthest off is such an Argument of impatience that you only seem to have yeilded to a dangerous temptation of the Devil If the Controversies between the Church of ROME and us are so intricate as you say and above your capacity to dive into them you have then run over to that Church in the dark and have as little reason to be satisfied with your proceedings as you believe you have with our way of Worship You plead that you have been sitting up whole nights and weeping and praying that God would discover to you which is the true way to Salvation and from that time forward you found inclinations to go over to that Church and is this a sufficient argument to justifie your forwardness when you had already begun to doubt whither our Church were a true Church or no because you found not that satisfaction in it your sickly desires wanted it was then an easie matter to give ear to confident People that magisterially and peremptorily assured you that you would find satifaction in their church and being fed with this hope your inclinations to that church grew stronger every day as Our Mother Eve the hopes of being like GOD suggested to her by the Serpent did egg and spur her on to eat of the fatal Tree We do not forbid people to pray to GOD to lead or direct them into the right way though sometimes it may be a perfect tempting of GOD when People are in the right way to desire GOD to discover to to them by a Sign of their own choice whether they are in it or no. But then if we pray to GOD to direct us we must not neglect the means GOD hath appointed in order to our satisfaction but must compare Scripture with Scripture and Books with Books and Arguments with Arguments and search which Religion agrees most with the Doctrines and Practices of Christ and his Apostles and as the noble Berrheans did examine all the Doctrines obtruded to our beleif by the Scripture and doing thus and continuing this search and these prayers together no doubt but GOD in his own good time will answer us and Direct us But to pray to GOD to direct Us and not to use the means in the use of which he hath promised to direct Us We do in a manner mock him or desire him to work a Miracle for Us or to vouchsafe Us some extroardinary Revelation when we have Moses and the Prophets and may hear them And I am confident had you joyned this way with your Prayer examined the Doctrines of the Church of ROME and compared them with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ seen whether there be any thing like it in the Bible and seâ—â—ched whether Christ and his Apostles ever taught such Doctrines and done all this not slightly but seriously and solidly It s impossible you could ever have turned Papist for if our Gospel be true that Religion can never be true for there is nothing in the World can run more counter to the Gospel than the Doctrines of that Church wherein we differ from them and they had need put the Bible among proâ—â—bited Books for should the people have Liberty freely to peruse it the Church of ROME would grow very thin and despicable I am sensible your Priests find fault with our Translation of the Bible and Cry out that there are great defects in it but when they talk so they had need talk to Women not to men of Learning and that understand Greek and Hebrew the Languages in which the Word was Originally written The Honesty of our Translators appears sufficiently from hence because if any sentence in the Bible be capable of a double sense they express the one in the Text and the other in the Margin and where they do but in the least vary from the Original they either discover it by the Italick Character or give you notice of it in the Margin then which there can be nothing more honest And let any Papist of you all shew Us wherein any thing in our Bibles is ill Translated out of malice or design or expressed in words which the Original will not bear If We examine Translations by the Original then sure I am there is few translations go further from it than the Vulgar Latine or the Rhemist Testament as were an easie matter to prove if I intended more than a Letter You are much taken with their Mortifications and Pennances which you say we have not in our Church But it 's a signe Madam you did not rightly understand our Religion We are so far from condemning Mortification and severity of life that we do commend it provided it be in order to subdue the body of Sin and to raise our selves to a greater pitch of Vertue Provided these severities be sepaâ—ated from all opinion of merit and from an opinion of their being satisfactory and expiatory and used only as helps to work in us a perfect detestation of Sin And I will assure you there are more in the Church of England that use severities in this humble holy way than you are aware of We indeed do not ordinarily inflict them on all persons because we know not their constitution nor what their nâ—ture will bear nor have we any command for it in the word of GOD but these things we leave to every mans discretion Urging that where Sins require stronger remedies there men ought to make use of them and if their corruptions will not be gone by reasonings and Arguments that there they must inflict mulcts and penalties on themselves to drive the Unclean Spirit out Though I must say still that Religious severities and austerities are not certain signs of a true Religion for Heathens do use them as much as Christians nay more than Christians Witness the Brahmanes in the Indies and the religious Pagans dispersed through all the Eastern parts and if you conclude that therefore the Church of ROME must be in the right because they inflict great pennances and severities and make daily use of them I am afraid you only forbear turning Turk or Heathen because you never saw their far greater severities in Religion than the Church of ROME can boast of But still the Protestant Church hath not the real Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Sacrament which the Church of ROME hath And are you sure the Church of ROME hath it I am perswaded you did never tast it nor see it nor feel it nor Smell it and how do you know it what because the Priests of that Church do tell you so No say you It is because Christ saith in express termes this is my Body And here I confess I stand amazed that men with learning and reason about them can sink into an opinion so contradictory that if all the consequences of it be considered there is nothing in nature can be more absurd or irrational and the Church of ROME had need oblige
may justly be supposed to have kept the publick Notaries from asserting things notoriously false In these Registers I say it will be found what succession our first Protestant Bishops had how Arch-Bishop Parker the first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizbeth to go no higher was consecrated December 17. 1559 by four persons then actually Bishops and who had formerly been Ordained by Bishops of the Church of ROME Viz. William Barlow in Henry the 8th dayes Bishop of St. Davids under Edward the 6th Bishop of Bath and Wells under Queen Mary driven into Exile and returned under Queen Elizabeth John Scory formerly Bishop of Chichester Miles Coverdale formerly Bishop of Exeter and John Hodgkins Bishop Suffragan of Bedford not to mention that the Queens Letters Patents in case any of the other should be sick or forced to be absent were directed to three Bishops more that had formerly been Popish Bishops and were turned Protestants Viz. Anthony Bishop of Laudaff John Bishop Suffâ—agan of Thedford and John Bale Bishop of Oâ—â—ery But all this hath bâ—en sâ—â—learly demonstrated out of 〈◊〉 â—ublick Records first by Mr. Mason and â—nce by Arâ—â—-Bishop Brambal that hâ— that writes of it can onely transcribe out of them and those that deny these Records must be men of strange Foreheads and of the greatest disingenuity From these men that had their Priesthood from the Church of Rome our Priesthood is lineally derived so that if our Priesthood be not valid theirs cannot be and if Heresie doth not make the Episcopal office void nor disable a man from conferring Episcopal order on other men as is evident from the second Councel of Nice with your Church an Oecumenical Counsel which received Bishop Anatolius tho consecrated by Dioscorus a Heretical Bishop if i say Heresie doth not make the Episcopal order void then suppose We were Hereticks our Priesthood which is derived from Popish Bishop that turned Protestants must be a true Priesthood still and to thiâ— purpose I remember one oâ— your Church said lately once a Priest for ever a Priest Madam if your desire to know the truth be honest and sincere you should Act like a person that hath a mind to be satisfied and search the Publick Records and tilâ— then believe not every Talâ— that 's told you the Common Plea of your Priests that ouâ— Records are sophisticated and that we have put in what we please argues only boldness and ignorance when they can shew neither where nor when nor by whom they they were corrupted Those that talk so seem neither to understand what a publick solemne thing the Consecration of a Bishop is in England nor to reflect how difficult it is to fill a publick Register with falsities as to matters of fact when there are so many hundered men that know what is done at such a time and View the Records and would most certainly speak of it if they found a flaw in the Relation But if we should deal thus with the Church of ROME question all their Registers in the Vatican and say which we might do with far greater reason thaâ— they are things packed and invented by men that have a mind to keep up a faction â— know what Language we should meet withal But will you boast say you oâ— having derived your orders from the Chuch of ROME when you believe the Church of ROME to be an Idolatrous Chuch Madam It is not the Office of a Bishop in youâ— Church we find fault withal but the abuses of it A Church that 's guilty of very great corruption both in Doctrine and manners may have something that 's good and allowable and he that retains that is not therefore guilty of her corruption nor espouses her Errours Your Idolatry is one thing and your Orders are another The Jews did take many good things from the Heathens and the Christians many commendable things from the Jewes but that neither made the Jewes approve of the Heathenish Worship nor the Christians allow of the Jewish Errours We are not so disingenious as to make the breach between you and Us wider then needs So far as you go with Scripture and true Antiquity we hold with you where you contradict both We cannot with a safe Conscience bear you Company He that sees a Pearl lye among a great deal of Trash if he take the Pearl is not therefore obliged to take the Rubbish too and if we have derived our Orders from you that inferrs no necessity that we must therefore consent to your Notorious depravations of the ancient simplicity of the Gospel The Christians heretofore that approved of the Baptism of the Donatists did not therefore presently acknowledge the truth of their opinions and he that should take a good custome from the Turks cannot be therefore said to approve of all things that are in the Alcoran Madam there is nothing more easie than to cavil at the most prudent Action in the World especially where People take a slight survey of things and do not with seriousness and deliberation weigh the circumstances of the fact and do not examine the inside as well as the outside and I must confess upon the best examination of your actions and proceedings in this Revolt to the Church of ROME you never took the Right way to be satisfied for instead of pondering the Arguments and Motives of Our departure from the Church of ROME and of the reasons we alledge for our Church and Doctrine you made it your chief imployment to read their Books and believed what they said to be Oracles for no other reason but because they talked with greater arrogance and confidence If you say that you could not judge of Arguments having never been bred a Schollar I would but ask you how you durst change your Religion then Did you change it without reason and without ground and if you are not able to Weigh the strength of Arguments how can you be sure that you are in the true Church at this time It is not talk but Arguments that must demonstrate the truth of a Religion and if you have not sufficiently weighed the Arguments of both sides It is a thousand to one you may still be in the wrong way and you know not but you may be as much out now as you were formerly Mâ—dam so great a thing as the change of your Religion upon which no less then Eternity depends might justly have challenged some years study before you had resolved upon it To do a thing of this nature upon so slight a Survey Consider whether it doth not argue rashness and weakness rather than Piety and Devotion To leave a Religion you have been bred and born in a Religion founded upon the Word of GOD and which you had Liberty to Examine by the Scripture upon reading a Popish Book or two without diving to the Bottom of the several controversies without reflecting on the importance of the points in question without studying a considerable time which Religion