are most eagerly promoted by such as deride those great Truths which they all own to be fundamental They that jointly believe the Truth and the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture are set to wrangling among themselves about some of its most obscure and unnecessary Places by them that believe none of it and for not mutually embracing and practising upon those most important Points whereon we are agreed we expose those Doctrines of our common Salvation which we all profess to the Contempt of the prophane and incredulous World Secondly The other Pillar which together with the Holy Scripture strongly Supports of our Faith is the Christian Creed We find also for this the same Consent of all Christian Churches they are unanimous in the Belief and Profession of it and hold all its Articles to be those great and necessary Truths without which none can be saved Whereas the several Contents of the Bible although equally true yet are not of an equal Concern and are too numerous to be carried in mind There was a Collection of those principal Points which are necessary to all drawn and appointed from the Beginning as a Form of sound Words or a Summary of the Christian Saving Faith This we call the Apostles Creed and this I say in all Ages of the Church and in the full Extent of it hath been received as a Confession of that Faith without which none can be saved Go to Rome or to Geneva or among the Lutherans or the Moscovites or the Greeks or Ethiopians as many as call on the Saving Name of Jesus do thus make Confession of their Faith in him Besides that each Article is very expresly and in many Places revealed in the Holy Bible here is the unanimous Agreement of the whole Church from first to last in every Nation and every Period of Time from the Days of Christ that this is the Badge and Cognizance of a Christian Believer and that the Profession of this Belief is the Faith once delivered to the Saints which shall endure to the End of the World Into this Faith and none other all Christians are baptized in all Communions thereby to be made Members of Christ's Catholick Church and Heirs of everlasting Life if they keep it unto the End whole and undefiled Thus for the believing any of those Points contained in the Apostles Creed or any of the Histories Promises or Commands deliver'd in Holy Scripture a Christian hath the best Warrant he can have for the Belief of any thing upon Earth even the joint Attestation of the whole Church of every Age who testified publickly and sometimes sealed their Testimony with their Blood that the Bible is the Word of God and the Creed is the Faith of Christ However Christians have fal'n out about other things as to these they are at one The Belief of this engageth you into no Dispute with any Here is a very great Number of most marvellous Transactions and gracious Promises and righteous Laws and important Predictions which are own'd by all to be Divine and infallibly true Your Belief and Profession of these depend not upon your Fancy or the Opinions of private Guides or the Tradition of your Countrey or of your Party but upon the unanimous Witness of millions of wise and good Men Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all those numerous Christian Societies dispers'd over the World which make up the universal Church Here is enough owned of all sides to make up an happy Agreement betwixt all Churches The having the same Bible and the same Creed is a very firm and large and lasting Foundation for Peace Here are all things that are of the greatest Moment for Faith and a good Life for the Service of God and the Salvation of our Souls every where receiv'd and profest He that should weigh the Importance of each of those Truths which are acknowledged by all would wonder what it is that can divide Christians and make them so fierce and uncharitable one against another We see Bigots of different Communions damn and destroy one another as if they were not Partakers of the same Nature and joyned together by owning the same God and the same Saviour and all the chiefest Articles of the same Religion Besides Mens Ignorance and Malice and intemperate Zeal no account can be given of the unbeseeming Contentions of Christians among themselves but that the things wherein they differ are of a present Concernment for Wealth or Dominion Secular Interest and humane Passions no doubt have made the Breach and they that secretly laugh at all Religion and neither regard the Creed nor the Word of God set on the Zealots to dispute and for their own Ends make use of the Contention when all this while there is a vast Collection of Truths for Comfort and Contempt of the World for Meekness and mutual Love profest to be firmly believ'd by all Parties engag'd But as Men are always craving and pursuing new things rather than they will make an Estimat of what they have receiv'd because they love to extend their Desires rather than to be satified and to be thankful so they rather chuse to wrangle and dispute about the meanest Punctilios wherein they are at odds than to rest in the greater things wherein they are agreed because they love to talk and to contend better than to practise and embrace each other This unsettles some Men that they know not what to believe and gives great occasion to the prophane to despise Religion as if all the Talk about it were arbitrary and uncertain they magnifie the Variety of Opinions and make as if the whole were matter of Contest when they see the Contenders act as if they were agreed about nothing Whereas I say all the great Articles have always been unquestioned notwithstanding the Peevishness of some and the ill Designs of others still the same Rules of Holiness and the same Points of Belief have remained constant and embraced by all The same Divine Revelation and the same Christian Faith have every where prevail'd and in the midst of all Disputes been preserved and acknowledged So that the whole Substance and all the necessary Parts of Religion have always been sacred confest and reverenc'd by all Christian Churches The twelve Articles of our Creed and all the uncontroverted Truths revealed in Holy Scripture make up a Body of Divinity so full so excellent and so comprehensive that if we compare it with the Uncertainties and Dissentions that were every where in the Heathen World at the first preaching of Christianity we shall look on its Professors as very harmonious and very well agreed There were never so many things so Great so Wonderful of so infinite a Concern to Mankind so strongly attested or so firmly believed by such infinite Multitudes of civiliz'd and knowing Men in all Parts of the World for so many Ages together Here is a Foundation whereon every good Christian may build Peace and Charity towards all his Brethren of
Christians believe a Judgment to come and a Retribution to Men according to their Works so we have all the same Promises of God and the same Rewards propounded to encourage us to do good we believe the same Threats and the same Punishments to deter us from Evil we all think our selves obliged to Morality and to be truly vertuous knowing that without Holiness no Man shall see God and I make no doubt but that in other Christian Communions as well as in ours there are many who truly fear God and work Righteousness The Difference betwixt us and the Roman Church is not whether or no we ought to be good but every one in either Church according to his Sincerity and his firm Perswasion of the Truth of Christianity endeavours to approve himself to the Searcher of Hearts so far we are agreed They have many things in their Roman Creed and in their Worship which we cannot approve but we have the same Rules of Life the same Divine Laws to direct our Obedience And I would to God we did all join in those things which admit of no Dispute and wherein we are all agreed and did lay the great Stress of our Hopes and of our Endeavours on them viz. the hearty Profession of the same Christian Creed the sincere Worship of the same God Father Son and Holy Ghost and a serious Earnestness to follow the Example and the Precepts of our common Saviour and to live in this present World soberly righteously and godly These that are the great things of God and the Foundations of Christian Religion and of true Goodness being owned on both sides if they were minded as our Interest in them and their Certainty do require would go near to compose our Differences in other things and to restrain that uncharitable Zeal which hath doom'd to Damnation Millions of good Christians However they that truly believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith and worship God according to his Will and our Saviour's Institutions and are careful to live like Christians worthy of the Gospel need not regard those Devices nor fear those Judgments which proceed only from Men they may be true and happy Saints both here and hereafter that have for Faith and the Service of God and for a Holy Life all that is of Divine Appointment without the Roman Additions Our rejecting what the Church of Rome hath for her Interest imposed where her Power doth reach will in no wise exclude us from Heaven if we be true to what we own If by our Life and Profession we confess Christ here before Men and are not ashamed of him nor of his Words we need not fear he should hereafter disown us because of their Anger that would have us take for Gospel whatever they dictate Damnation shall not be inflicted according to Mens Passions and Uncharitableness we ought to run from the Danger of it as far as is possible by preserving that Faith we were baptized into pure and undefiled and by living according to it But had the Promises of Mercy and Salvation been annexed to our Submission to Rome either the unversal Church would have clearly expressed it in making Men Members of Christ and Heirs of his Kingdom or to be sure God would have revealed it And seeing none of these is done it doth plainly demonstrate that such a Submission is designed for Temporal Power but no ways requisite to bring Men to Heaven and that consequently the hard Sentence of Roman Bigots against us may be prejudicial to them but can do us no Harm This might suffice to shew that we are safe notwithstanding their Outcries of Damnation against us that Part of their Religion which is called Popery being no Part of God's revealed Will and Saving Truth nor of the Primitive and Catholick Christianity embraced by the whole Christian Church In point of Faith or of Divine Worship what is peculiar to them is far enough from being necessary and for Rules of Conversation we have the same Precepts and believe the same Promises and the same Punishments So that though we reject many of their own Inventions yet still we want nothing necessary to Salvation and in order to it they have no Advantage over us But I may not stay here The Interest of Truth and human Souls obligeth me to say farther that we are safer in our Church and have several Advantages for the obtaining Comfort and eternal Happiness of which they are destitute in the Church of Rome First I say that we are safer What we believe as an Article of Faith is undoubtedly true owned by all Christians in all Ages of the World and plainly revealed in God's Word whereas those Traditions which the Church of Rome hath tack'd to the ancient Faith are newly coyn'd yet more newly made a Creed are not warranted by Divine Revelation nor embraced by Christians of other Communions And what a Presumption is it to change the Terms of Salvation and make those things necessary which God hath not prescribed and the Christian Church for many hundred Years hath not owned as a Part of her Saving Faith This is so like adding to the Book of God preaching another Gospel and teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men that we think our selves much safer within the ancient Boundaries and look upon it as a very dangerous Attempt to make new Creeds and impose them upon Mens Consciences especially when those Additions are not only beyond what is written but also of another Nature and even contrary The Christian Creed is for Life everlasting the Roman for the Roman Greatness the Christian expresseth our Obligations to God and our dependence upon him the Roman is a Profession of Subjection to Rome the Christian engageth Men to serve God only the Roman to worship Creatures also the Christian makes our Blessed Redeemer to be our only Mediator the Roman joyns to him the blessed Saints and the Blessed Virgin There are so many things in all Appearance very irreconcileable betwixt these two Confessions of Faith that the Roman cannot be safe and that we may conclude without Uncharitableness that they of that Persuasion that shall attain to Heaven shall not come thither by the Help of the Roman Doctrines but by discharging their Baptismal Engagements which are the same with ours and by professing the ancient common Creed of all Christians The Points of their own Creed are so far from conducing to Mens Salvation that they rather will prove great Hindrances to it They engage Men in a Worship very unlike to what we read in the Apostolical Writings or the antient Fathers Besides the unknown Tongue and the maim'd Communion there is so much of it that is meerly humane and ceremonious so much of it that relates to the Souls in Purgatory or the Saints in Heaven that we wish it may meet with Pardon but cannot think it should find Acceptance There are so many strange Exorcisms and Consecrations in their Rituals and Pontifical that after
whatever Countries or Communions they be and may establish a sure Hope of eternal Happiness to his own Soul if he doth heartily profess and obey those undoubted Truths which are embrac'd and acknowledged by all Christian Churches He that is fully persuaded of the Truth of Christianity and willing to depend for his Salvation upon that plain and essential Part of it which is confessed by all and to lay the great Stress of his Hopes and of his Obedience upon his Creed rather than upon controverted Points he hath what will comfort his Soul and encourage him to live well and he is safe peaceable and unmoveable in the midst of all Divisions he may be doom'd and called Names by them that would impose their Opinions as Articles of Faith but it doth him no harm whilst he stands firm upon the Rock of the Christian Creed and the Christian Life together These two are acknowledged of all sides to be both requisite and sufficient to Salvation Faith and Works together making up the whole Condition of that Gospel-Covenant to which is annexed the Promise of eternal Life Therefore in enquiring why they are all condemn'd as Reprobates that are not of the Roman Communion we must consider what are the Advantages peculiar to that Party I. Whether their Faith be more ancient and Catholick II. Whether their Worship be purer more conformable to God's Word III. And whether their Righteousness exceeds that of all others I. I begin with that Faith which is peculiar to Rome and is at large set down in the Introduction It indeed contains more Articles than that of any other Church and it may still receive further Encrease whilst their Popes and Councils can make and impose new Definitions as necessary but we believe that Saving Truths are neither made by Mens Authority nor evidenced by Number We are contented with that Faith once delivered by Christ and his Apostles and from the Beginning received by the whole Church and for this are declared Hereticks and adjudged to Perdition That Roman Faith about which we differ is made so essential and so necessary that their Converts are appointed by the Roman Pontifical in answer to the Bishops Questions that reconciles him to make an express Profession of it and if he were a noted Heretick even to swear to it condemning all to Damnation that embrace not the same and promising that if ever he acts or believes any thing contrary to that Oath he takes with both his Hands on the holy Evangils he will submit himself to the Severity of the Canons Although we be so far agreed with the Church of Rome as hath been seen before yet they lay so great a Stress upon their new Creed and derive so much of their Devotions from it That it is an astonishing and formidable Change to pass from our Church into theirs Besides the Surprise of their publick Worship which by a great Variety of Ceremonies Images and the Latin Tongue appears very strange They have a prescribed Form of reconciling Hereticks to which none can submit but they that are fully persuaded that those Opinions which became a Creed since the Council of Trent are Part of that Saving Truth of God which must be believed and profest under Pain of eternal Damnation It is not as some may fancy or perhaps are told when solicited to change that they shall find it very easy and be received upon what Terms they please But the Church of Rome as all other wise Societies hath its fixt Rules and Forms and follows them without taking Notice of the Talk or Thoughts of private Persons There is nothing can justify the Change or make it tolerable to a Man of Conscience but the being convinc'd of the Truth and Necessity of these Roman Doctrines which thitherto were no Part of his Creed When he hath search'd and us'd all proper means to understand the Points in Dispute and to satisfy himself and finds himself thoroughly persuaded that there is no Salvation in our Church and that the Belief and Worship peculiar to the Church of Rome are truly Christian and the necessary Terms of our Acceptance with God then is he oblig'd to follow his Light and to make Profession of what he believes to be Truth But till a Man be thus convinc'd his forsaking ours to joyn with the Church of Rome is a great Prevarication against God and Men that will make him odious to both and be inexcusable here and hereafter The formal Abjuration of all that the Roman Church doth condemn and the solemn Profession with a sacred Oath of all her Religious Doctrines and Practices in their full Latitude as is pretended in the Roman Pontifical should make every doubting Person amonst us very serious and very inquisitive cleerly to know what he doth leave and what he must embrace if he resolves to forsake ours and embrace the Roman Communion The case will be much more tolerable with them that were born and educated in that Persuasion if they are in a Mistake they having never profess'd nor perhaps had means to know any thing else is a Plea of which they are not capable who grown to Years of Discretion turn from one Church to another These had need take great Care that they deal uprightly and examine to the Bottom of things otherwise they mock God and Men and must expect to fare accordingly I do not deny but that Persons of Understanding and Sincerity may be prevail'd upon to pass from ours into the Roman Church for whilst Men are mortal they may err and be impos'd upon And may they all obtain Mercy that truly fear God and embrace what they judg to be his Truth though they be mistaken I only say that no Man educated amongst us that really believes his Christian Creed and would not throw his Soul away can make Profession of the Roman Faith till he becomes fully convinc'd of its Truth and Necessity For now it is not as it was before the Council of Trent when the Church of Rome it self had no other Confession of Faith but only the Christian which is common to all Churches and those Opinions which have since become Articles of the Roman Faith needed not be explicitly profest if they were but let alone and not disputed against Whereas now since Pius the 4th Hereticks so called that become Proselytes must make a solemn and express Declaration that they believe every thing that the Church of Rome doth either teach or practise and that they will submit and conform intirely to all that she prescribes either for Faith or for Divine Worship This I say no Man of Conscience or Honour can do till he become equally persuaded of the Truth and Necessity of the Roman as of the Christian Creed Confidence proves nothing and makes nothing to be really Divine and we all know that Religion is not what some Men will call so neither can we believe as we would or as we are bid we must have sufficient Reasons
that those things are from God which are proposed to our Faith so that persuaded as we are we might for Temporal Designs play the Hypocrites and dissemble but we can never become Proselytes to the Church of Rome And whilst we have reason to believe that those Articles of Faith which are peculiar to that Church are rather contrary to God's Revelation than contained in it and so think it our Duty to disown their Roman Creed We are so far from apprehending our selves to be in danger of Damnation for so doing that we rather believe we should incur that Danger if against our Persuasion and Conscience we should solemnly protest and declare those things to be our Belief and our Faith which indeed are not so How just and material are our Objections against each particular Doctrine which Rome would impose upon us is to be seen in many of the late Treatises upon those Subjects So here I shall give no further Account why we reject the Roman Creed than by making upon it these three general Reflections which alone might be sufficient to prove that it can in no wise be necessary to Salvation 1. That the Roman Creed seems to be calculated for the Meridian of This World rather than for the obtaining the Happiness of That which is to come The Christian Creed doth make no Man greater or richer here on Earth it is a Profession of our Faith in God Father Son and Holy Ghost which unites us to him engageth us to love and to serve him and to confess Christ before Men and obey his Gospel the end of it is to make us hope well and live well to give us Comfort against all Sorrows and Strength against all Temptations But the Roman Creed makes the Roman Court very great and very rich and makes Men have a great dependence upon it It establisheth those Opinions which much advance the Roman Dominion making Rome to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches engaging Men to submit intirely to her in embracing all her Traditions and Constitutions and obliging all hers that have any Power to use it to the utmost to bring all Men as they are able under her Obedience Then for Gain you have several Articles the Doctrine of Purgatory and of Indulgences the Worship of Saints and Images which doth not exclude Gifts and Oblations to them and the Sacrifice of the Mass offered as they are paid for it for the living or for the dead besides all the Appeals to Rome and the Bulls and Expeditions from it Read their whole Creed over again and you will clearly see that it all makes for the Empire or the Profit of Rome 'T is a shrewd Suspicion that they that have made it and impos'd it upon the World did therein regard their own Advantage more than the Truth of Christian Religion When the old universal Christian Creed makes all for the Honour of God and for the Sanctification and Salvation of human Souls and this new particular Creed is all for the Glory and the Power of Rome who that hath not resign'd up his reason but will be forc'd to think that the one is to bring Men to Heaven and the other to bring Profit to Rome 2. A Man will be so much the more confirm'd in this Opinion when he shall observe that the Roman Zeal is all turned this Way The Endeavours of their Zealots are much greater to make Men of the Roman Persuasion as to the controverted Points than to make Christians in what we are all agreed and amongst them a Man that believes the Bible and the ancient Creeds is as much damn'd and hated as if he were a meer Turk or Heathen Their Proceedings against them whom they call Hereticks have been more bloody and violent than against meer Unbelievers as if owning the same God and Saviour and the same Articles of Hope and Redemption were nothing except we also own the same Submission to Rome It may be reckoned as an Instance of their great Earnestness to progagate their Creed that their later Miracles for more than these five hundred Years are all in the behalf of it The Faith once delivered to the Saints was evidenced by those ancient Miracles recorded in the Bible But this Growing Faith of Rome is recommended to Peoples Belief by later Wonders such as their Legends and Breviaries and many Books of Devotion contain I need not say that many of those Miracles here in the Western Church are so dubious and ill-contriv'd that they make little for the Credit of those Doctrines which they are design'd to vouch I only note that they are all intended for to make credible those Points of the Roman Faith which are destitute of the Testimony of God's Word and of the Universal Church and that if we had not better Miracles and much better attested for the Proof of that Religion that came from Jerusalem than they have for that which came from Rome Libertines would not want an advantageous Plea to justify their Infidelity And 3. We may add that this Roman Creed is both new and confin'd whereas the Christian is as Catholick as the Church it self that is is equally extended to all Times and Places was ever every where receiv'd and is now profest in all Churches and in all Parts of the World Instead of this Universality for Ages and Extension the Roman Creed bears date 1564 and being dated from Rome is profest by none but those of that Communion which are but few in comparison with the rest of the Christian World So that if you pass into the African or Greek or Eastern Churches which are vast and numerous you shall find no other Creed but that of the Apostles explained by the Nicene and the Athanasian if in some of these Places they have some of the Roman Opinions or some of their own as doubtful and new yet they have no other Confession of Faith than as we have in our Reformed Churches in the West Nay even in the Church of Rome in the third Session of the Tridentine Council 1546 they made a Decree that according to the Example of the Fathers they would make a Confession of that Faith which in ancient times had been an impenetrable Shield against all Heresies which alone had been used for the Conversion of Unbelievers for the Confusion of Hereticks and for the Confirmation of the Faithful and then repeated the Nicene Creed and no more declaring That that was the express and formal Faith of the Church of Rome that Faith which is the Principle of Christian Unity and the sure and only Foundation against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail Happy had it been for the Christian World if this matter had so remain'd and the Roman Articles under Pius 4. eighteen Years after had not been made a necessary and essential Part of the Catholick Faith However 't is to be observ'd further that even now in the Roman Church when they baptize Children or grown Persons
they use none but the Apostles Creed and to make them Members of Christ and of his Church and Heirs of his Kingdom oblige them to the Profession of no other Articles but those that are the ancient Confession of Faith common to all Christian Churches Nay more whilst they live in that Communion in all Acts of Worship and when they die in it and are to make the last Confession of that Saving Faith of which they soon expect the End and Consummation they use none but the three Catholick Creeds the Roman serves only to tie all Power and Government to St. Peter's Chair and to persecute Hereticks withal So that this Roman Creed being for Temporal Advantages being not contain'd in the Word of God nor proved by the Testimony nor by the Miracles of the Primitive Church nor received by former Ages nor by any Church but the Roman nor by that but very lately and only in some cases profest we have great reason to believe that it is in no wise necessary to Salvation The Christian and universal Creed having been esteemed sufficient without any other for more than fifteen hundred Years ought to be so esteemed still without this Addition which is proved but by very unlikely and uncertain Miracles and by the Attestation of but that one particular Church for whose Wealth and Grandeur it so intirely makes These things considered we ought no ways to be dismayed with the frightful Words or Countenance of any that pronounce us accurs'd and damn'd because we hold not nor can believe what Pius the 4th did lately declare to be de Fide requisite to Salvation We shall find saving Instructions and Comfort enough in the Christian Creed which God's Word expresly confirms and the whole Church hath ever own'd if we embrace and study more and more the Divine and invariable Truths it contains and sincerely endeavour to lead our Lives accordingly II. What I have affirmed of the Roman Faith is to be understood also of the Roman Worship That Part of it which is not approved by us is very bad palliated or reproved by the cunningest or wisest of their Church or however no ways necessary which is all I am at present concerned in Indeed as to the Essentials of Divine Worship all Christians are agreed That God should have our Prayers and Praises in the Name of Jesus Christ our Mediator even the matter of our Requests is fixt and uniform amongst all that own the Lord's Prayer so far the Church of Rome hath many excellent and ancient Composures very unlike those new ones we reject That part of their publick or private Worship which is grounded upon the Christian Creed is very good and if they went no further we might as lawfully joyn with them as they might with us We have inserted nothing doubtful or controverted in our Offices of Religion nothing but what as to the sense is used and approved by all Churches Had they done so and extended their Worship no further than could be justified by that Christian Belief which is common to all the Differences betwixt them and other Christians had been much less and more reconcileable But they have turned all the Points of their new Creed into Exercises of publick Religion and these we do not think to be acceptable to God nor requisite to acquit us of that Adoration and Service which we ow to his Divine Majesty We are persuaded that without making or worshipping Images of God we may pay him that Homage which he requires of us that if we devoutly commemorate our Saviour's Passion and with thankful Hearts put our Trust in the Merits of it we shall not need to worship the Figure of his Cross and that if we lift up our Hearts to Heaven to adore him on the Right Hand of God we need not worship the Host here on Earth which many Christians believe to be only the Sacrament of his Death and none can be sure to be the Substance of his natural Body no not according to the Tenents of the Church of Rome Likewise that Part of their Worship which relates to Creatures the solemn Blessing or consecrating Images that being hallowed they may be fit to be set up to receive Incense and Oblations and many Honours and to excite their Devotion to Saints and Angels their manifold Pilgrimages and Prayers to those beatified Creatures The great dependence they express to have upon their Intercession their Merit and their Power The many Miracles and Mercies they are said to receive from them And the high Celebrations and Returns of religious Gratitude which they render to them All these which make too great a Part of their publick and private Devotions we have great reason to believe to be inconsistent with God's revealed Will and with our Duty and Obligations to him or however no ways necessary I appeal to them that have either read the New Testament or learned the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the ten Commandments which all Churches teach to be the Principles of the Christian Religion whether our calling upon him in whom we believe and serving him alone that hath declared himself jealous of his Honour and using no Images in our Addresses to him that hath forbid them and approaching to God by that one Mediator whom he hath appointed and who died and merited all for us and bad us come to him and use his Name alone in all our Requests Whether this Worship which is paid to God amongst us be not more conformable to his holy Word and to the Grounds of our common Christianity than that which is established in the Church of Rome Whatever they may think of us where the Inquisition reigns and under it blind Ignorance and a terrible Aversion against them that are called Hereticks yet elsewhere Men of better Sense and greater Instruction though of the same Church can hardly pronounce us to be God's Enemies and the Objects of his Wrath because we are afraid to give his Glory to others and to transgress his Laws or however their Thoughts will not alter the case and can do us no Harm we having a Rule of God's own prescribing to believe and to worship by and whilst we render to God the things that are God's we need not fear the rash Censures of uncharitable Men. We have the Warrant of Holy Scripture and the Concurrence and Approbation of all Christian Churches for the Worship establish'd in our Church if accordingly we serve God with Sincerity and Devotion we shall have the Reward of them that diligently seek him however we transgress no Law of his and we run no Risk But if the worshipping of Saints and Images should prove unacceptable the Papists run a great Danger they having neither Antiquity nor Scripture for the same whilst the Admonitions of their Fellow Christians and some Divine Prohibitions are point-blank against it III. As for the Necessity of a good Life our Church recommends it at least as much as the Roman All