Angels and to avoid them as cursed and excommunicated persons if they should take the boldnesse to preach ought else but that Gospel which is already delivered Gal. i. 8 9. To depart straight out of Babylon and not to be kept in there lest we partake at once of her sinnes and plagues Revel xviii 4. In a schole where those of Ephesus are commended for having hated the Nicolaitans and those of Pergamus blamed for having tolerated their doctrine Rev. ii 6 15. In a schole where even at the beginning the children of the Church had continually so much care to separate from the communion of hereticks as Samosatenians Arians and others Who seeth not that according to this discipline it is sometimes not lawfull onely but even necessary to separate from some Societies that make profession of Christianitie and that in this case we must blame not generally and simply all that make a separation but those onely who make it either lightly and without reason or unjustly and without necessity The matter seems sufficiently cleare For since the conservation of such things as are united is the end of union 'T is evident that we are not to entertain any union but onely with them who may help forward that designe and so farre onely as they may help it forward If therefore there be any who under colour of the blessed name of Christ subvert His doctrine annihilate His authority and our salvation 't is so far from being our duty to unite our selves to them that on the contrary we are obliged to part from them because to unite with them were in effect to disunite from Christ and from His body and in stead of coming to salvation to fall into eternal ruine If in a State a City or Province should oblige those that live within it to perform actions that are contrary to the Majestie and service of the Soveraigne the loyal inhabitants may thereupon separate themselves and even oppose and resist the rebels with all their power if occasion be offered For 't is a law generally engraven by nature in all parts of the Universe even in insensible creatures That every thing seeks after the company of that which is like it and with equal violence avoids to be near or have any thing to do with that which is contrary to it So then both the discipline of Jesus Christ and the lawes of Civil societies and even those of nature her self permit us to avoid the communion of such as under any pretence name or colour whatsoever go about to destroy and ruine Christianity What did I say that they permit us nay they command it so expresly that we cannot refrain from such separations without offending God scandalizing our neighbours and destroying our selves And though this be a truth received among all Christians yet there is no Society or company of them wherein it is more strictly and more severely practised then among those against whom we now dispute For who knows not with what rigour Rome hath continually rejected the Communion of those who dissent from her In the infancy of Christianitie she anathematized the Churches of Asia for a matter of nothing viz. because they celebrated Easter otherwise then she and in these later dayes how hath she persecuted with fire and sword all those that would venture never so little to oppose her power and greatnesse How many ages have passed over her head since she broke with the Eastern Northern and Southern Churches with which notwithstanding she boasteth much of her having so great conformity of belief and service So nice is she and delicate in this point that we have seen not long ago the chiefest of her Monks the most exquisite of her Religious Orders fly off and separate from the State of Venice and renounce there her Churches and Altars where all the Articles of her faith were dayly publisht where all her devotions and services were continually celebrated onely upon pretence That this wise Commonwealth would not endure that Pope Paul the fift should bereave her of the power she had to make and execute lawes for the government of her subjects So that if separation simply be a crime who seeth not that our Adversaries are faulty too and consequently are not to be admitted to bring in the accusation against us CHAP. IV. That our Separation from Rome was not made rashly willingly or unnecessarily Object BUt they 'l say that They had reason to do so and that We have none Ans So then now we come to the businesse viz. To examine the causes of our separation before sentence be given against it Let us I beseech you leave the odious words of division and schisme and apply them to none but such to whom we shall find they appertain For if we have not had any important cause of our separation from the Church of Rome if she have not required any thing of us which destroys our faith offends our consciences and overthrows the service which we believe due to God If the differences between us have been small and such as we might safely have yeilded unto Then I 'le grant That men may call our Ancestours Schismaticks may condemn their separation to be rash and unjust and may impute to them all the sad disasters and scandals that have attended that action Bâ—t if they were urged to believe and pressed to do a thousand things contrary to their faith and to their conscience if onely for not doing them they were declared Hereticks enemies to J. Christ and his Church if they were deemed unworthy even of the honours or possessions yea even of that life it self which is enjoyed in this world who doth not see That they deserve the pity of men in stead of their hate and That their withdrawing themselves from people who have Treated them in this manner was just lawfull and necessary according to all the laws of heaven and earth Now it is very apparent that they were forced to make this separation for reasons which they in their consciences judged to be very great and important For excepting the motives of conscience all other considerations evidently obliged them to the contrary In separating from the Church of Rome they pluckt upon themselves all the disfavours of the world they incurred the indignation of their Magistrates the hatred of their Countreymen they exposed themselves to the losse of their goods their honours their friends their very countrey nay all that is sweet neare or deare unto them in this life and to the suffering of poverty ignominy banishment tortures and all imaginable punishments Who can believe that men who had the use of sense and reason as well as their neighbours should ever choose with chearfulnesse where there is no necessity to embrace such a side And though they had been so blind as not to have foreseen that such would be the event of their designe which yet is not a jot probable how should We come to have so little experience as
our own For as in civil societie we keep not company with such persons as we discover to be guilty of infidelitie or enormous vices because friendship or familiarity with such people slurrieth the honour and reputation of those that make any shew or profession of vertue but we do with a deal of sweetnesse and ingenuitie beare with the faults and frailties of such as are not miscreants at the bottome though notwithstanding their conversation be not altogether free from humane frailties So are we to do in Religion to avoid communicating with those whose errour overthrows the foundations of piety but charitably to teach those who retaining the principles cannot free themselves entirely from all perswasions contrary to truth The Ancients must pardon me if I venture to take notice that they were sometimes too scrupulous and if I may so speak too curious and strait-laced in this particular rejecting oftentimes innocent opinions with very tragical termes and handling such persons as gainsayed them with as much rigour as if they had overthrown the whole Gospel of Christ 'T is a wonder to see how some of them did in a manner sport with changing errours into heresies and all faults into crimes Philastrius Bishop of Brixium who lived in the time of S. Ambrose was among others very hot for he lib. de Haeres cap. 4. Bibl. P P. parte 1. p. 22. cap. 39. reckoned among heresies the opinion of those who attributed the Epistle to the Hebrews to Clement or to Barnabas and to S. Paul and of those who thought the CL. Psalmes in the Psalter were not all composed by David and of those who thought the starres were fastned to the orbs of heaven But none were ever so ready to excommunicate as those very men who keep such a complaining of our quitting their communion upon too slight causes To say nothing here of the lightnings and excommunications of Victor against Asia of Stephen against Africk and divers other Popes as well one against another as against strangers for reasons most an end of very small concernment Let any man reade onely the last Councel held at Trent he shall soon see how liberall they were of Anathema's They were not there content as thunder doth from Heaven to strike the cedars and the tops of the mountains scarce was there any herb in their adversaries fields though never so low and small that scaped their thunderbolts They who doubted whether marriage was a Sacrament or whether the Church can dispense with the degrees established in Leviticus or whether a Bishop be above a Presbyter or whether the reasons that moved Rome to deprive the Laity of the cup were of sufficient validity to that purpose things as every one may see of none or at least very little importance to pietie were excommunicated anathematized as well as they that denyed the divinitie of our Saviour or the truth of the last resurrection And for my part I understand not how it agrees with the mildnesse and gentle behaviour which the Doctrine of Christ doth strictly recommend unto us to have such an inhumane severitie as to be able to beare with nothing to spare no opinion but to make so high a market of the pretended thunderbolts as to let them fly indifferently against the lesse errours as well as against the greatest crimes Well this I am sure of If we would imitate Their examples and justifie our proceedings by the maximes of theirs we might end this question in three words For if he that thinks marriage is not a Sacrament is an anathema to him that holds it is I pray What should they who believe that the Eucharist is not bread but the Creatour of heaven and earth be deemed by those that hold the contrary And if to think that a Presbyter was originally the same with a Bishop give the Church of Rome sufficient cause to curse my communion how much more doth her elevating as she doth the Pope above the Church and above all the Kings in Christendome give me just cause to run away from her But 't is now time we should by Gods assistance clear our own innocence of those crimes which our side is accused of We confesse That Christian charitie is not so active and hot as their zeal Charitie often bears with what it doth not approve of and rejects nothing but what it cannot suffer without hazarding the salvation of our neighbours and our own souls 'T is so farre from excommunicating as the Councel of Trent doth Christians for small errours that I think it would easily beare with in faithfull persons that opinion of the Greeks for which they are so roughly anathematized touching the procession of the Holy Ghost For though I grant it is an errour to believe that the H. Ghost proceeded not from the Father and Sonne but from the Father onely by the Sonne yet if you observe 't is hard if not impossible to understand what prejudice this errour brings to piety and holy life The difference that is between us and such of our brethren as are called Lutherans is of the same nature I confesse 't is as impossible for us to believe as to conceive their Position concerning the body of our Saviour being really present in the bread of the Eucharist But yet 't is possible and I think according to the laws of charity necessary to bear with that in their doctrine which we cannot believe For this opinion in the terms and sense wherein They hold it hath no venome in it that I see It abolisheth not the Sacrament it destroyes not the signe whereof it consisteth it adoreth it not it neither divides nor mutilates it it makes it not an expiatory sacrifice for our sinnes it leaves it both the nature and the vertue of a Sacrament and doth not take any thing formally directly and immediately from Christ either of his substance or his properties onely it would have even the humanity of Christ present in the Eucharist that we may receive the vertue of his death and communicate of his body and bloud as S. Paul speaks 1 Cor. x. in such a manner as they confesse incomprehensible Which hypothesis whiles it goes no further engageth us not in any thing that is contrary either to piety or charity either to the honour of God or the good of men And so it may and ought to be tolerated And this hath been continually our judgement and so declared by the French churches in the nationall Synod held at Charenton in the yeare MDCXXXI by an expresse act wherein they receive such as are called Lutherans into their Communion unto their Holy Table notwithstanding this opinion and some few others of lesse importance wherein They and We differ Oh what a gentlenesse was this excellently becoming Christians worthy to be imitated by all believers in the world and consecrated with commendation to the memory of all succeeding ages a plain illustrious irrefragable testimony of the innocence of our Churches in this particular For
any more queries then are necessary what necessity of an infallible Judge at all The Christian world had no such Judge sor CCCXXIV years for the Nicene Councel was the first General and if They vnderstood Scripture and were saved then when they had no such thing why may not We now And if they were not saved the Church of Rome must blot out many hundreds and thousands of Saints Martyrs out of her Martyrology Till these twenty questions be insallibly resolved it seems to me impossible that any man should have any infallible knowledge of the Church of Romes Infallibility And I am the more confirmed in the necessity of a plain resolution to this last querie because though M. Knot be sometimes hot and positive in grounding all Christian Religion upon the infallibility of the Church I find beside what I said p. 22. Christ and the Apostles intimating the contrary Joh. v. 39. Act. iv 19. xviii 11. 2. Thess v. 21. 1. Joh. iv 1. Rev. ii 2. But to passe by such places of Scripture because I know that they who make profession of devising shifts will find euasions for them and to omit the positions of many Romane Doctours of lesse note who are as high for the non-necessity of an infallible guide as any Protestant can wish I shall onely hint at Lactantius his large Chapter to this purpose lib. 2. de orig error c. 7. beginning thus Quare oportet in ea re in qua vitae ratio versatur sibi quemque confidere suóque judicio ac propriis sensibus niti ad investigandam perpendendam veritatem quà m credentem alienis erroribus decipi tanquam ipsum rationis expertem Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam c. and rather insist upon a couple of most eminent Cardinals Baronius and Lugo Both these give their opinions very plainly on our side and which I value more their reasons and examples The former hath spent to our purpose a whole Appendix which he prefixed before the second tome of his Annals printed at Rome MDLXXXVIII where appealing to every particular Protestant's judgement concerning the truth of his cause and not once mentioning the infallibility of the Church he goes on thus Ingens sanè vis humanae insidet rationi c. Great is the power of humane reason if it be left unsettered and free in all things And therefore our Ancestors placing great confidence in the force of truth where they contended with obstinate hereticks when they declined and despised all judgement of the Church were so indulgent as not to refuse to try the judgement even of Infidels and expect their determination Such men being Judges the Jews Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 6. had the victory over the Samaritans And an heathen Philosopher being by consent chosen for an Arbitrator to whose judgement they were to stand Origen dialog overcame five most wicked hereticks And Archelaus Epiphan haeres 66. a Bishop in Mesopotamia did consute Manes a most desperate Arch-heretick before certain Heathens who were by consent chosen Judges c. The latter though a Jesuite a Spaniard plainly asserteth this non-necessity tom de virtut fidei dis 1. § 12. n. 247. c. And making it good by foure instances 1. THE BELIEF OF THE INFALLIBILITY IT SELF which must be received from some other motive than it self or its own testimony and consequently saith he all other doctrines of Christianity may be believed upon the same inducements not meerly upon the infallibility of the Church 2. CHILDREN or OLD PEOPLE who are newly converted to the faith do not believe the Infallibilitie before they embrace other Articles for they believe Articles in order as they are propounded this is commonly one of the last 3. RUSTICKS AND COMMON PEOPLE at this day in Spain Italy and other Catholick Countreys who commonly resolve their faith no further than their Parish-Priest or some other learned or holy man at the most 4. He asserteth num 252. That IN THE LAVV OF NATURE most believed onely upon the Authority of their Parents without any Church-propounding And also after the law was written most believed Moses the Prophets before their prophecies were received and propounded by the Church for the sanctity of their lives c. And this discourse wa◠written by speciall order from the late Pope Urban and dedicated to the present Pope Innocent X. And now my patient Reader to draw to a conclusion as my spare-leaves do for I have unawares detained thee very much longer then I intended when I first set pen to paper for this Preface which was after the following English Apologie was fully printed and that is one reason of its immethodicalness If I have writ any thing impertinent I hope that my brother THE UNIVERSITY-MAN Mr. Knots friend will help to excuse me if any thing that savoureth of passion which I shall be very sorry for as soon as it shall be discovered to me that Mr. Knot will be my Advocate each of them being commonly conceived sufficiently guilty of one or both of these faults and hereafter I may do as much for them And further to encourage M r K. to do somewhat for me I do here assure him That if he shall vouchsase punctually to answer these xx questions which seem to me very necessary to be plainly determined before he can assure any man of the Infallibility of the Romane Church on which foundation he layeth so huge a structure and withall to refute that one argument which I mentioned pag. 18. out of Dr. Jer. Taylors nervous discourse then prove that the Church of Rome is infallible by any one infallible argument for he hath told us that nothing lesse can do it I will be his Proselyte Vntill which time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse which I think far the more probable and therefore shall daily pray for it Mr. Knot will be so ingenuous as S. Augustine was to retract his errours in his later dayes and come over to the good Old Catholick Apostolick Faith leaving Romane superstructures For I begin to despair with that Milevitan Bishop of ever seeing while I am upon earth any infallible living Judge in matters of saith and to believe I must as the Jews speak expect the coming of Elias for that purpose having long observed by Mr. Knot 's seven books in this Controversie that Cause patrocinio non bona pejor erit To the Preface p. 8. l. 29. adde That there were Christians in Britain before Augustine the Monk came over is plain out of Eusebius Theodoret Arnobius Tertullian Gildas Bromton and I suppose no man that is not a meer stranger to Antiquity will deny That those Christians had no dependance upon Rome will appear to any who readeth the ancient Histories of Rome or England Platina saith that Antherus the 20 th Pope sate eleven years and made onely one Bishop In a word from the death of S t Peter till the entrance of
not to discern the danger We who follow their steps and have seen the whole world in a conspiracy for to reduce them with all possible force and artifice from this separation and to reunite us to Rome One must needs think then that both our Ancestours and We were carried on to this motion so apparently contrary to our own good and welfare by some very strong reason that forced us as it were against our wills to sleight what ever is naturally desirable and in stead of enjoying that to suffer what we are wont to dread which certainly can be no lesse then a strange fantasticalnesse and a silly opinionative humour which should make us take a delight in running counter to others as some without any appearance of reason are pleased to imagine I heartily wish it were in our power to accommodate our selves in this particular with a good conscience to the customes and Services of our Countreymen whose friendship We know very well how much we ought to value and how highly to prize the good favour of those Princes whom God hath set over us especially rather then to displease them needlesly in a matter of such high importance and which they affect with so much passion according to the great and singular devotion which they bear towards those things that they esteem divine We behold likewise and grieve to behold the disorders that this diversitie in Christianitie breeds and the extreme scandal that it gives to Infidels and such as are weak in faith And what ever others say We are not thanks be to God such enemies to His glory and the salvation of mankind as not be as sensible of these dolefull emergencies as of ought that most concerns our temporall good and private interests CHAP. V. Reasons of our Separation from Rome founded upon the diversitie of our Beliefs Object BUt you 'l say If it be thus how can you possibly passe over these considerations your selves which you pretend to think so important why do you not follow them whither they would lead you Seeing you desire the favour of Princes the love of your Countreymen a peaceable and settled condition seeing you would gladly promote the glory of God and the edification of men and do really abhorre the scandal of this disunion why are ye not again reconciled to the Romane Church she opens her arms wide unto you and is not so stiff and rigorous as you seem to apprehend her but for to gain you is willing to yield to some Accommodation and in favour of you to mitigate some of those things that offend you most What I pray is there so strange in her doctrine or in her service that should cause you to forsake her communion to avoid the ancient Churches and Religion of our Fathers to renounce the ordinary publick assemblies of Christian people to sever from all the rest of the world and to suffer all sorts of extremities Our Church adores the same JESVS CHRIST whom you professe to be the Prince and Authour of your Religion She confesseth the unity of His person and the veritie of His two natures She believes Him to be God eternal of the same substance with the Father and with the Holy Ghost and likewise man made in time of the flesh of the blessed Virgin like to us in all things sinne onely excepted truly Immanuel as the ancient Prophesies foretold She acknowledges the truth benefit and necessity of his sufferings and preacheth even as you That His bloud expiated the crimes of mankind That the freedome and salvation of the world is the fruit of His death She exalteth His glory and believes That He sits at the right hand of God in heaven and That He shall come in the last day to judge the world and she hopes after the renovation of this world for a blessed immortality through his grace in one to come She gives to her children baptisme which Christ did institute and refreshes them with His Eucharist and recommends to them piety toward Him and charity toward men She reverenceth the Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostles as books divinely inspired And if there be any other Article in the discipline of our Lord she receiveth and embraceth it as well as you and curseth the names and memory of those who have gone about to overthrow or shake them whether in former or latter ages Ans The truth is We neither can nor will denie that the Church of Rome doth at this day believe all these holy truths We thank our gracious Lord that she hath preserved them through so many ages midst so many disorders But we would to God That she had been as carefull of not adding as of not diminishing That she had foisted in nothing of her own but permitted us to content our selves with that which sufficed the Primitive Christians to bring them to salvation For had she kept within those bounds neither our Fathers nor We had ever had any cause of withdrawing from her Communion We had then sworn to her opinions and performed her service without any scruple finding abundantly in this brief but full and admirably complete rule of wisdome enough to replenish our faith and season our manners understandings and wills with all perfections necessary for attaining to that Soveraigne Happinesse which both you and We naturally desire But who knows not That to the aforesaid divine Articles clearly expressed in the Holy Scriptures authentically preach'd and founded by the Apostles uniformly believed and confessed by Christians of all places and ages Rome hath added divers others which she presseth equally with them forcing all those of her communion to receive them with the same faith as they do those aforesaid thundring out horrible anathemaes against all them that doubt of them and using for the ruine of such all the power and credit that she hath whether in the Church or in the world For besides J. Christ whom she acknowledgeth with us to be the Mediatour of mankind the High-Priest and chief Soveraigne of the Church she would have us hold the Saints departed to be our Mediatours and her Priests our Sacrificers and her Pope to be the Head and Husband of the Church Besides the sacrifice of the Crosse she forceth upon us that of the Altar Besides the bloud of Christ she commands us to expect our cleansing from the sufferings of Martyrs and from the vertue of a certain fire which she hath kindled under ground Besides the water of Baptisme and the refection of the Eucharist she presseth us to receive unction with oyles and the mysteries of her private Confessions Besides the Great God whom she adores and prayes to as we do she commandeth us to adore the holy Sacrament to invocate Angels and beatified Spirits Besides that service of the Gospel wherein she agreeth with us she imposeth upon us divers ceremonies abstaining from meats distinction of times veneration of images Besides the H. Scriptures which are divinely inspired which she confesseth with
foundation of faith and obliging men to separate and the other not That the opinions of the Church of Rome which we reject are of the first sort and those of the Lutherans of the second Object BUt you 'l say Is it lawfull then to separate from a Church because it preacheth publickly and generally some Doctrine which is contrary to our belief Is it possible that our Soveraign Lord who would have us to beare with the ill manners and actions of men for the good that peace unity brings to a Community should permit us to separate from them for false opinions Suppose that Rome have added somewhat to those things which Christ and his Apostles laid down Yet what need had your Fathers to depart from her so farre This Spirit of concord you speak of which obliged them as you grant to suffer the faults in their neighbours lives how chance it did not make them beare with some in their faith Ans Because there is in this respect an extreme difference between faults in doctrine and in life the first drawing after them a consequence farre differing from that of the latter because that the Church propounds unto us not Her life but Her doctrine to be the rule of our faith and manners Yet which we Protestants confesse all errours in doctrine do not give a man a just and sufficient cause to make a division from those that hold them For the Apostle commands us to receive him that is weak in the faith Rom. xiv 1. and not to trouble him with disputes and to afford him our selves for an example in bearing gently with those who are not of our mind in every thing Let us all who are perfect saith he be of the same mind and if any of you think otherwise God shall reveal even this unto him Phil. iii. 15. 'T is evident that this weaknesse in faith and this diversitie in opinon whereof S. Paul speaketh are errours but such as he would have us beare with Yet since he elsewhere pronounceth anathema against those that preach any other Gospel then that which he preached we must of necessitie conclude that there are two sorts of errours in religion the one such as a man may beare with without dividing from them who hold them and the other such for which he is bound to avoid their communion and this difference dependeth upon the nature of errours themselves For as the truths which we are to believe are not all of equall importance some being esteemed fundamentall and so absolutely requisite that a man cannot come to the kingdome of heaven if he be ignorant of them others being profitable yet not so necessary but that a man may without the knowledge of them serve God and enjoy salvation so it is with errours Some are pernicious and no way consistent with a true piety others are lesse hurtfull and do not necessarily draw in men to perdition S. Paul doth clearly enough discover to us this distinction 1 Cor. iii. 13 15. where after he had said That none could lay any other foundation but that which he had laid to wit Jesus Christ he addeth That they who builded upon this foundation wood hay stubble should have losse in their work when it comes to be tried neverthelesse they should be saved yet so as by fire that is to say with difficulty their person onely or that wherein their chief good consisted escaping a burning An evident signe that there be errours which do not deprive the Authours thereof of salvation much lesse exclude such from happinesse as believe them after Them and take them up when they are dead or gone meerly upon their trust and credit And to conclude who doth not see plainly That there be errours which utterly overthrow the foundations of Christianity ingaging us unavoidably in such things as are inconsistent with salvation and that there be others which do not so As for example if one should think that he were bound to worship the Sunne For seeing the Sunne is a creature and those who worship creatures have no portion in the kingdome of heaven 'T is evident that he who hath such an opinion cannot attain eternal happinesse And 't is so with all other errours which overthrow any of the first necessary and fundamentall articles of Christian religion But the errour of those who believed of old That the Church shall continue a thousand yeares or some long time with J. Christ upon earth after the resurrection is no way repugnant to piety towards God or charity towards our Neighbour nor doth it directly overthrow any of the foundations of the Gospel Though it be in my opinion contrary to divers passages of S. Paul and scarce consonant to the nature of Christs Kingdome A man would scarce believe how necessary it is to mark this difference among the errours of men in matters of religion for preventing that vain scrupulositie and importunate pensivenesse which many melancholy spirits are troubled with who condemne all errours alike and thunder out one and the same anathema against what ever differs though never so little from their apprehensions yet for keeping them from falling on the other side into the indifferencie of profane persons who conform to any thing and swallow a camel as well as a gnat Indeed the true pious person will endeavour to keep himself from all errour and will purge his neighbour too as well as himself so farre as he is able For any deviation from truth though it may be a light and small errour yet 't is an errour that is to say an ignorance and contradiction to the truth and by consequence an evil But a man must be very diligent and circumspect in observing this distinction among errours and acknowledge that one is much more dangerous then another and he should more or lesse abhorre them all according as he shall judge them to be more or lesse dangerous If they be of the first rank viz. those which overthrow the foundations of Christianitie he will bestirre himself with all possible prudence and dexteritie according to his vocation and gifts to free his neighbour from them and if he cannot gain upon him he will yet be sure to save and deliver his own soul from the communion of such as hold them This was the practise of the Faithfull in reference to Paulus Samosatensis Bishop of Antioch and Arius a Priest of Alexandria who held that Jesus Christ was a meer creature throwing down Christianitie from top to bottome by this abominable doctrine But if the errour be of a second sort not pernicious nor inconsistent with the principles of our faith we should do well if we could handsomely to free our brethren from it for it were to be wisht that we might be entirely exempt from errour but if we cannot get out we must not therefore straight sever from them but gently and quietly beare with what we cannot alter yet so that we prejudice not any mans salvation much lesse