their saying Pater Nosters and Creeds to the Honour of them and Ave Maries to the Virgin Mary for the infallibility of the Bishop or Church of Rome for their Doctrine of the blessed Virgins Immunity from actual sin for the necessity of Auricular confession for the necessity of the Priests intention to obtain benefit by any of their Sacraments and lastly for their licentious Doctrine in holding that tho a man lives and dies without the practice of any Christian Vertue and with the Habits of many damnable sins unmortified yet if at the last moment of his life he has any sorrow for his sins and joyn confession to it he shall certainly be saved This is a Doctrine may keep many Souls out of Heaven but I doubt will scarce carry any one there So that the Papists Doctrine being ancient is nothing as long as 't is evident that they hold many dangerous errors As for instance the Millenaries and the Communicating Infants was more ancient than their Doctrine and 't is plain that Antiquity unless it be absolute and primative is not a certain sign of true Doctrine and the very Apostles themselves assure us that in their days the mystery of Iniquity was working The Papists demand how comes it to pass that their Doctrine is so Universal forgetting that weeds spread faster than good herbs And we ask them how the errours of the Millenaries and the Communicating Infants became so universal let them tell us this and we will tell them that for what is done in some may be done in others The Papists ask us where our Ch. was before Luther and tell us because 't was no Ch. before him therefore it can be no true Church at all To which we answer That this cause is no cause for tho Luther had no being before Luther yet none can deny but that he was when he was tho he could not be before he was So there may be a true Church after Luther tho there was none for some Ages before him as since Columbus his time there have been Christians in America tho there were none for many Ages before For it does not follow that nothing but a Church can possibly get a Church nor that the present being of a true Church depends necessarily upon the perpetuity of a Church in all Ages For though I cannot deny the Churches perpetuity yet that 's not here necessary to rur difference but that a false Church by Gods providence over-ruling it may preserve a means of confuting their own Heresies and so reduce men to Truth and raise a true Church I mean the integrity of the Word of God with Men. Thus the Jews preserve means to make men Christians and Papists preserve means to make men Protestants and the Protestants false Church as the Romans call it preserves men Papists Nor does it appear that the perpetuity of the Church is the truth of the Papists Church for they speak as if they were the only Christians in the World before Luther when the whole World knows that this is but talk and that there were other Christians besides the Papists that might have perpetuated the Church tho there had not been then one Papist in being For sure there was a Catholick Church before the Roman one Next the Papists say To hold that the Visible Church is not perpetual is a Heresie so that Luther's Reformation being but particular and not universal nor but of late date it can have nothing to do with the visible and perpetual Church Which the Protestants answer thus To say the visible Church is not perpetual is properly a Heresie but the Papists cannot deny but that the Apostles who preach'd the Gospel in the beginning did believe the Church universal tho their preaching at the beginning was not so So Luther also might well believe the Vniversal Church though his Reformation was but particular the Church in the Apostles time being universal de jure of right but not de facto in fact Nor did Luther and his followers as the Papists are pleased to mis-call many Protestants forsake the whole Church but the corruptions of it in renouncing some of their corrupt practices and this the Protestants say they did without Schism because they had cause to do it and no man can have cause to be a Schismatick because he is only one who leaves the Church without a cause for 't is not only separation but a causeless separation from the Church that is Schismatical and I think 't will not be amiss before I go any farther to distinguish the difference between Heresie and Schism Heresie is an obstinate defence of any error against any necessary Article of the Christian Faith. Schism is a causeless separation of one part of the Church from another Now we Protestants say still That we never forsook the whole Church or the external Communion of it but only that part of it which is corrupted and is to be fear'd will still continue so viz. The Papists Church and forsook not but only reformed another part which part they themselves were And sure the Papists will not say the Protestants forsook themselves nor their own Communion and therefore the Papists Argument must be very weak in urging that the Protestants joyned themselves to no other part of the Church therefore they must separate from the whole Church which the Protestants say is a false conclusion in as much as they themselves were part of it and still continue so and therefore the Protestants could no more separate from the whole than from themselves So that by the rule of Reason if Protestants be Schismaticks because they differ from one part of the visible Church by the same reason the Protestants may say that the Roman Church is in a manner made up of Schismaticks for the Jesuits are Schismaticks from the Dominicans and the Dominicans from the Jesuits and the Jesuits from the Canonists the Franciscans from the Dominicans and the Dominicans from the Franciscans for all these as the world knows differ in point of Doctrine and betwixt them there is an irreconcilable contradiction and therefore one part must be in error And if the Papists will but stand to justifie what they declare as truth That every error against a revealed Truth is a Heresie they holding for certain as a revealed Truth the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary then consequently the Dominicans that hold and declare it an error in Doctrine must necessarily hold a Heresie Now it may be a fault to be in error because it many times proceeds from a fault but sure Protestants forsaking error it cannot be a sin unless to be in error be a Vertue So hardly do Papists deal with us Protestants as they will either damn us in making us follow their false opinions or else brand us as Schismaticks for leaving them And yet the rational sort of Papists can hardly deny but the Protestant Religion must be a safer Religion than theirs in worshipping Pictures in
arrived at the Popedom by Evil Arts for disguising her self like a Man whereas she was a Woman she went when young with her Paramour a learned Man to Athens and made such Progress in Learning under the Professors there that coming to Rome she met with few that could equal much less go beyond her even in the knowledge of Scriptures and by her learned and ingenious Readings and Disputations she acquir'd so great Respect and Authority tbat upon the Death of Leo as Martin says by common consent she was chosen Pope in his Room But suffering afterwards one of her Domesticks to lye with her she hid her big Belly a while till as she was going to the Lateran Church between the Colossean Street so called from Nero's Coloss and St. Clements her Travail came upon her and she died upon the place having sat two Years one Month and four Days and was buried there without any Pomp. Some say the Pope for shame of the thing doth purposely decline going through that Street when he goes to the Lateran and that to avoid the like Error when any Pope is first placed in the Porphyry-Chair which hath an hole made for the purpose his Genitals are bandled by the youngest Deacon As for the First I deny it not but for the Second I take the Reason to be that he who is placed in so great Authority may be minded that he is not a God but a Man and obnoxious to the Necessities of Nature as of easing his Body whence that Seat hath the Name of Sedes Stercoraria This Story is vulgarly told but by very uncertain and obscure Authors and therefore I have related it barely and in short lest I should seem obstinate and pertinacious if I had omitted what is so generally talked of I had better mistake with the rest of the World though it be certain that what I have related may be thought not altogether incrodihle Thus Platina THE HISTORY OF THE Whores of ROME CHAP. I. I. Of the Pope's allowing and permitting the Whores of Rome II. Of his taking money of them III. Of his Countenancing them HAving remov'd the first grand Scandal thrown upon the Church of Rome by its Enemies concerning a Chymerical Pope Joan with its Appurtenances viz. Improbabilities Lyes Ridiculosities c. let 's now see how they have handled the second concerning the Romantick Story of the Popes of Rome allowing and taking great Sums of Money of the publick Whores that inhabit that City towards the maintaining of his Grandeur forsooth c. I. First then they endeavour to possess the World That the Popes of Rome allow these Creatures free exercise of their Trade paying him at certain times of the Year such Sum of money as are Taxed upon them by the said Popes But in very truth the Popes of Rome allow of the Sin of Whoredom no more than the Sin of Drunkenness is allowed in any Protestant Kingdom or Commonweal which Drunkenness is the greater Sin of the two because it rides double to Destruction and carries Luxury behind it Drink not Wine in which is Luxury says the Apostle Ephes 4. And if a certain English Writer hath publish'd that the Popes both permit the Whores and take money of them too for that permission First I answer that 's as true as a thousand other such fabulous Stories and Lies as that of Pope Joan before mentioned and published to the world by those who think it not un-lawful in the least so they think that there-by they may but make the Popes and Church of Rome odious and infamous to the world But most certain it is that all unbyassed and impartial persons that ever were at Rome will testifie the contrary if by Permitting you mean Allowing and Approving them in that course of Life For you must consider that there is a considerable difference between allowing and permitting a thing For Moses that most just Law-maker did not allow of though he permitted that Libel of Divorce to the Jews by reason of the hardness of their hearts Matth. 8. So Usury is permitted in several Countries at this day for Trade-sake and other Conveniencies but not allow'd of II. Then in the next place they 'll tell you that the Popes do not only allow these Creatures to live such a manner of debauched Life but he also takes money to help enrich his Coffers thereby c. But the plain truth of this is that this money is taken up upon Credit by these Romancers and not by the Pope For most certain it is that he is so far from receiving any money of these Drabs that he is at great Cost Charge and Trouble to hinder their Trading For some of these good Old Gentlemen the Popes of Rome to hinder all young Girls from being naught in turning Whores have founded Hospitals on purpose where they are carefully brought up till they be either married or made Nuns Nay and not only so but they give them Dowries also to choose which they please whether they will be married or made Nuns And to that purpose do they distribute yearly upon our Lady-day in Lent in the Dominicans Church a purse of money to each young Girl to the number of three hundred who are presented to the Pope then in Being by the Overseers of the said Hospital Neither is this all for these Old Gentlemen the Popes cause young Girls of tender years to be taken away from their suspected Mothers that are poor to prevent lest their being so should cause them to sacrifice their Virginity to Rich Mens Lust And moreover these Popes have caused a Monastery to be built in Rome to receive those unfortunate Women in who would leave that infamous course of life if they had but means to live on without it Nay they do grant Indulgences to any that will marry any of these Women to free them from their lewd ways and make them mend All this they do and much more which certainly would be a destroying of their own Trade and Gain if it were true That they allow of and permit the Whores for their proper Gain For Millers surely do not use to turn aside the current of waters from their own Mill. III. Then as to the Popes countenancing the Whores of Rome that also I will assure you they do the clean contrary way For if that be a countenancing them to forbid them to be at publick meetings and to appear at Assemblies where Women of Honour meet as at the Corso in the Evenings or at publick Marriages or at the sung Opera's and the like then they countenance them If it be a countenancing them to forbid them to go in Coaches in the day time and to stir out of doors in the night time then they are countenanced by the Popes If to forbid them to live together where they might encourage one another and pass their time more cheerfully be a countenancing of them then you may say the Pope countenances the Whores of
their Priest tells them as Men do Wives for better for worse and must marry their Faith to their Churches infallibility which allows that only to be Gospel which their Church says shall be not what the Apostles write is so for the Papists must obey the Pope though no where commanded in the Gospel but must not read the Gospel though they are commanded there to do it Nay when once the Papist can but touch the small Needle of any ones reason with the great Loadstone of the Harmonious Doctrine of a necessary Obedience to their infallible Church then they make such follow it to every point of the Compass be it good bad or indifferent and so they fail all their life in a Trade-wind of ignorance and superstition and must believe their Priests words before their own senses in the plainest objects of them as in the Miracle of Transubstantiation where you must have eyes and see not and hands and feel not but must believe in a moment real Bread and Wine to be turned into perfect Flesh and Blood though you cannot see the least change whatsoever yet they are bound to believe their Priest before their eyes smell tast nor dare their Priest say that the Consecrated Bread which they esteem the real Body of Christ will be less mouldy or more uncertain of corruption after Consecration than before and the jest of it is that at the same time the Papists believe that Miracle they also believe this Scripture That God will not suffer his Holy One to see corruption And tho for these and many other reasons I cannot believe this Transubstantiation-Miracle yet I cannot but admire this Miracle that belongs to Transubstantiation which is how the Pope can bring so many that have sense and reason to believe it But I shall pass by their adoring this Sacrament their praying to Saints and a multitude of their superstitious observances never used in the Primative Church shall only desire you Madam to observe in general that the Papists follow the Gospel just as they read Hebrew that 's backward for God plainly commands that all should search the Scripture And our Blessed Saviour ordered the Sacrament to be administred in both kinds 1 Cor. 11. 28. And St. Paul forbids publick Prayers in an unknown Language but that which is most for Edification 1 Cor. 14. 15 16. But these plain positive commands do not hinder the Church of Rome from declaring that unlearned men shall not read and search the Scriptures but if we believe St. Paul before the Pope we may read in the 17th of the Acts 11. how he commended the noble Bereans for searching the Scriptures and therefore if searching the Scriptures had not been not only lawful but a commendable act certainly St. Paul would never have commended them for so doing So that the Popish Clergy forbids the reading the Scriptures under pretence that their Laity might not truly understand them Next the Church of Rome allows only their Clergy except free Princes for they are excepters of Persons though God is not to receive the Communion but in one kind tho our Saviour commands that all drink of the Cup and the Papists cannot deny but that the Communion was taken in both kinds in all Christian Churches for above a Thousand Years after Christ And lastly for the poor vulgar sort they shall only hear their publick Prayers in an unknown Tongue viz. Latine which a Tenth part of them do not understand and therefore how that can be most for Edification let the Papists tell if they can I am sure we cannot nor do we believe they can without the help of another Transubstantiation-Miracle and making an unknown Language to most to be chang'd at the same time into a common known Language to all And now Madam I shall humbly desire you to consider in general that tho the Papists do out-noise us as shallow Rivers do still the deepest with the high and mighty Rodomontades of their Churches Infallibility yet such high Rants without true proof are but like School-boys paper-Kites which soar high and lofty but have nothing else worth taking notice of They will have the confidence to tell you that their Popish Church â—…s the Roman Catholick and only true Christian Church â—…n the whole World But the Protestants Answer to this their boasting is that all the Christian Churches in the whole World besides the Popish Churches tho more in number than they declare quite contrary They will ask you where your Protestant Church was before Luther which was wittily answered by one where the Papist Church never was in the Bible The Papists do divert themselves very much at our stiling our King Head of the Church as we do for their doing so for we esteem our King Head only in his own Dominions without the Popes title of infallible and sure 't is more rational that those of a Kingdom should allow their King to be Head of the Church in his own Kingdoms than that a few Cardinals should make the Head of the Church over all Kingdoms And for all their jeasting I am sure we can shew in sober earnest Scripture-presidents for Kings being Heads of Churches in their own Dominions which is more than the Papists can shew for their Pope or his Churches infallibility For sure they cannot object against it as new Doctrine though Doctrine that 's new is their greatest Trade that the Kings of Judah and the first Christian Emperors were Heads of the Jewish Churches and in their own Dominions And Solomon tells us That a Divine Sentence is in the lips of the King and his mouth transgresseth not in Judgment which I am sure Popes have not witness Liberius and Solomon gives the reason because the Heart of the King is in the Hand of the Lord. If the Papists will pretend so much Scripture for their Pope I shall only answer 'T is more than ever Protestants read or the Apostles writ The Papists will tell you with a great deal of confidence though we say the Bible is the Religion of Protestants yet there is no Protestant Religion or Church mentioned in the whole Creed which are the Articles of the Christian Faith And they will tell you that their Church is the Catholick Church and to believe the Catholick Church was an Article of the Christian Faith from the very infancy of the Church in the beginning of the Apostles time Now let the Papists tell us if they bring this as an Argument against the Protestant Religion in the Bible or not if not what cause have they to name it or what need have we to answer it but iâ—… it be one we make this reply That the Roman Church iâ—… no more named in the Apostles Creed than the Protestanâ—… Church is for the Apostles Creed was made before thâ—… Roman Church was a Church and this I am sure they cannot deny so that since the Catholick Church waâ—… then in being and the Roman Church not in being
Invocating Saints and Angels in denying the Lay-men the Communion in both kinds as was commanded by our blessed Saviour in celebrating their Church-Service in an unknown Tongue which was condemned by St. Paul in adoring the Sacrament and in all these a rational Papist cannot deny but he is on the more dangerous side as to the committing of sin and the Protestant in the more secure way as to the avoiding it For in all these things if Protestants say true the Papists do that which is impious but on the other side if the Papists were in the right yet the Protestants might be secure enough too for their fault would be only this that they should only not do some things which the Papists themselves confess is not altogether necessary to be done And truly the Protestants are so Charitably civil as only to say of Papists as St. Austin did of the Donatists That Catholicks approved the Doctrine of the Donatists but abhorred their Heresie of Rebaptization So Protestants approve the Fundamental and necessary Truths which the Papists retain by which many good Souls among them may be saved but abhor the many superstitions they use in their Religion And supposing these Errors of the Popish Church were in themselves not damnable to them that believe as they profess yet for us Protestants to profess what we do not believe and esteem those as Divine Truths which we believe not to be either Divine or true would be doubtless damnable as to us for 't is certain Two men may do the same thing and it may be sinful to one and not to the other as suppose a married Woman gives herself out to be a Widow and one knowing her Husband to be alive marries her doubtless his injoyment of her was adulterous but a second man comes and after seeing her pretended Husband buried marries her and dies without the least information of her first Husbands being then alive his ignorance sure protected him from sin and the second Husbands knowledg of the sin he acted condemned him of Adultery tho his fault might be palliated with some excuses yet it can never be defended by any just Apoligy And so tho we read in Scripture that it was St. Paul's Judgment that meat offered to Idols might lawfully be eaten yet he says if any should eat it with a doubtful Conscience he should sin and be condemned for so doing And supposing we Protestants ought not to have forsook the Papists Church for sin and errours if she had not injoyn'd and imposed them on us yet since she does maintain them with such obstinacy and imposes them with such tyranny we ought certainly to say with St. Peter and St. John 'T is better to forsake men than God and leave the Popish Church-Communion rather than commit or profess known errors as Divine Truths for as the Prophet Ezekiel tells us that to say The Lord hath said so when the Lord hath not said so is a high presumption and great sin be the matter never so small and therefore when St. Paul spoke concerning Virgins abstaining from marriage he said He had no commandment of the Lord but I declare my own judgment of it Now if St. Paul had given this as God's command surely we might have justly contradicted him and made a distinction between Divine Revelation and Humane Judgment So that for a Protestant to abide in the Communion of the Roman Church is so far from securing him from errour as that if I or any Protestant should continue in it I am confident I could not be saved by it and the reason is because the Papists will not admit of my Communion without professing the entire Popish Doctrine to be true and profess this I cannot but I must perpetually exulcerate my Conscience tho the errours of the Roman Church were not in themselves damnable yet for me to resist known Truths and to continue in the Profession of known errours and falshoods is certainly a capital sin and of great affinity with the sin which shall never be forgiven In short if the errours of the Roman Church did not warrant our departure yet the tyrannous imposition of them would be our sufficient justification for they force us either to forsake the Papists Communion or profess as Gospel-truths what our Conscience assures us is very little akin to them so that the Protestants were oblig'd to forsake those errours of the Popish Church and not the Church but the errours and we Protestants did and do still continue members of the Church having only left what appeared most plain to us to be superstitious and impious And we separate no more from the Popish Church thant she has separated from the Ancient Church and indeed to speak properly our difference is more against the Court than Church of Rome which has introduced so many new ceremonies and practises in the Popish Church as was never heard nor practised in the Primitive Times as for one instance of a Thousand I might give you Their denying the Cup to the Laity which was never practised in the Church a Thousand years after our Saviour But because the Papists brag so much of and depend so entirely on the Infallibility of their Church I shall pass by their Out-works and search a little into this their Grand Fort the Infallibility of their Church for except they prove that they prove nothing but in proving that they prove all and if the Papists could satisfie me either by Scripture or Reason that their Church is infallible I should not only be of their Church to morrow but repent I was not sooner but really by all that I ever heard or read for their making it good I find cause only to admire their confidence but not at all to esteem their reasons The cheif method they take and degrees they use to prove the Infallibility of their Church are by whole-sale these First that St. Peter was head and cheif amongst the Apostles and there was given to him and his Successors by our Saviour Universal Authority over his Militent Church That the Pope or Bishop of Rome is St. Peter's Successor and has his Authority of Vniversal Bishop and consequently the Roman Church being built upon this Rock is infallible all which I doubt not but to prove to be inconsistent with and contradictory both to Scripture and Reason As to the first point of St. Peter's being Head of the Apostles which the Papists all stile him and say he was called from thence Cephas which is derived from the Greek word Head it is a most gross mistake for Cephas is a Syriack word that signifies Stone but this is only by the by Now we Protestants say tho we allow St. Peter might have primacy of Order yet we cannot grant he had supremacy of power over the other Apostles for sure it cannot stand with the least reason that St. Peter should have authority over all the Apostles and yet never act the least authority over
and that the Church composed partly of the Holy Apostles themselves who were blessed with and inspired by the Holy Ghost could mistake and that there is no man free from sin and yet that the Body of men that make up the Popish Church should be infallible is I confess beside my faith to believe or reason to comprehend For sure if the Roman Church had been esteem'd by the Apostles infallible what needed the Apostles any other â—…reed than this short Creed I believe the Roman Church â—…fallible and that would have been more effectual to â—…eep the Believers of it from Heresie and in the true Faith â—…an this Apostolical Creed we now have And sure the Papists cannot but believe with us that â—…ose Holy Men that wrote the New Testament were not â—…nly Good Men but also Men that were desirous to direct â—…s in the plainest and surest way to Heaven And the Paâ—…ists cannot also but believe with us that they were likewise â—…en very sufficiently instructed by the Spirit of God in all â—…e necessary points of the Christian Faith Therefore cerâ—…inly 't is most rational to believe they could not be igâ—…orant of this unum necessarium that all Faith is no Faith â—…cept we believe the Church of Rome was design'd by God 〈…〉 be the Guide of Faith as the Church of Rome believes â—…d would have us believe so too We also further believe and that with great reason too â—…at the Writers of the New Testament were Wise Men espeâ—…ally being they were assisted by the Spirit of Wisdom and â—…ch that must know that an uncertain Guide was as bad as â—…ne at all and yet after all this is it possible for a Philosoâ—…ical or Contemplative man nay for any man that has reaâ—…n or common sense after all these suppositions to believe â—…at none among these holy Writers of the New Testament â—…ould remember ad rei memoriam to set down plainly â—…is most necessary Doctrine not so much as once That â—…e were to believe the Roman Church infallible Again that none of the Evangelists should so much as â—…ce name this Popish necessary point of Faith if they had â—…teem'd it necessary for us to believe it when St. Paul says â—…e kept not back any thing that was profitable for us and sure â—…e Papists cannot deny but was is necessary to salvation â—…ust be very profitable And St. Luke also plainly tells â—…hristians his intent was to write all things necessary And â—…re it stands also with reason that when St. Paul wrote to â—…e Romans he would have congratulated this their exâ—…aordinary priviledge if he had believ'd it belong'd to â—…em And though the Romans bring it as a great Argument â—…or them that St. Paul tells them Their Faith is spoken all the world over Yet pray let them moderate those thoughtâ—… with this consideration that St. Paul said the very same thing to the Thessalonians And let them further consider this that if the Roman Faith had been the Rule oâ—… Faith for all the World for ever as the Papists hold surâ—… St. Paul would have forborn to put the Romans in fear oâ—… a possibility for though Raillery is much in fashion now 〈…〉 sure 't was not then that they also nay the whole Churcâ—… of the Gentiles if they did not look to their standing might fall into Infidelity as the Jews had done 1 Ephesians 11. And methinks it also stands with great reason that the Apostles writing so often of Hereticks and Antichristâ—… should have given the Christian World this as Papists pretend only sure Preservative from them To be guided bâ—… the infallible Church of Rome and not to separate from it upon the pain of damnation Methinks also St. Peter St. James and St. Jude in their Catholick Epistles would not have forgot giving Christianâ—… this Catholick Direction of following the Roman Church and St. John instead of saying He that believes that Jesus 〈…〉 the Christ is born of God might have said He that adheres to the Doctrine of the Roman Church and lives according to it is a good Christian and by this mark you shall know him In a word can there be any thing more irrational than to believe that none of these holy Men who were so desirous of mens salvation should so much as once remember to write that we were to obey the Roman Church but leave it to be collected from uncertain Principles and by more uncertain Consequences So that upon the whole I cannot without much wonder look on the Pope's Confidence and the Papists Credulity in esteeming the Pope or his Councils to be an infallible Guide sure either they never read what they ought to believe or else they will not believe what they read though it be never so known a Truth and worthy of belief for if they did they could never believe the Infallibility of the Popish Church For indeed if they would read the Popish Story or as I may well call it the Civil Wars of the Popes you shall find as I said before Popes against Popes Councils against Councils some Fathers against others nay some against themselves new Traditions brought in and old ones turn'd out one Church against another nay the Church of one Age against the Church of another In a word the Papists say their Church is infallible and all other Christians besides themselves tho more in number than they absolutely deny it and yet we must for all that believe the Popish Church infallible And to speak the plain Truth and in a word to unravel the real cause of the Grandure of the Church of Rome above all other Churches is only this Rome was the Imperial Town of the Empire and its greatness was given by Men and not God and when afterwards Constantinople was the Imperial City they Decreed that the Church of Constantinople should have equal Priviledges and Dignities with that of Rome And now to end this Discourse I desire you will please to consider this Conclusion which is that after all that the Papists have said be it never so much and mighty to shew the Infallibility of their Church I am verily perswaded they cannot shew more if so much out of the Scriptures for their Church as the smallest Society of Christians met together in prayer can for themselves that when two or three are met together in my name I will be amongst them says the Lord And now I have just done this small Discourse and the Sun is just upon finishing this days visit I can very readily follow that holy advice of not letting it go down in my anger which I thank God I have to none living and therefore am in so much Charity with the Papists as to wish that neither they nor Protestants might waist their precious time in meer speculative controversies about words and ceremonies which of themselves will never carry us to Heaven but that we may spend our time like wise Christians in the ways and fear of God which