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
onely the Lords Prayer but DC years after them by Gregory I. Platin. in vit Sixti I. Gregor I. Gregor Epist l. 7. c. 63. p. 664. edit Paris 1571. And all the world knows how lately and through how pleasant a trick the Gregorian Missall came in use in stead of the Ambrosian because being laid upon S. Peters Altar it was torn in peices in the night The story may be read at large in Durand's Rational divin offic l. 5. c. 2. § 5. p. 212. And with what a deal of violence and difficultie this Gregorian Missall was brought into Spain may be seen in Rod. Ximenes his History of Spain l. 6. c. 26. Cassand Praef. de Ord. Rom. 12. That Purgatory was very little or not at all mentioned among the Ancients a thing unknown to Antiquity and received into the Church but lately Episc Fisher Assert Lutherane consutat Artic. XVIII 13. That after PVRGATORY came in INDVLGENCES Idem ibid. Durand Antoninus apud Bellarm. and That the Jubilee was instituted MCCC yeares after Christ by that good man P. Boniface who their Historians say came in like a fox raigned like a lion and died like a dog See a treatise of Indulgences writ by Wesselus al. Basil Groningensis and another of the Jubilee by Santarel the Jesuite 14. Lastly for such citations would be endlesse as I might mind you who it was that Nicephorus Calisthus saith brought Prayer to Saints into the publick Liturgy c. According as M. Knot answers or approves of these I will give him more which I have in readinesse Alphonsus à Castro in his Treatise de justa punit Haeretic l. 2. c. 22. speaking of divers ceremonies which the Church of Rome useth in the consecration of Temples Altars Chalices habits ornaments saith NONE of these things were instituted by Jesus Christ but in after-times by little and little instituted by the Church Yet give me leave to adde one thing more That 't is cleare to me None of the Ancient Christians believed the Church of Rome to be a Guide or Judge of all Controversies in Christianity wherein M r. K. may do very well to satisfie me or as his friends do blame them for this reason among many Because in Epiphanius S. Augustine and others their Catalogues of Hereticks none are branded for denying this which they all did And if it had been believed at all especially as it is generally now viz. to be the original of all other heresies it had been farre more rationall to have put in this and left out all the rest then to have dealt with posterity as we see they have That Tertullian Vincentius Lirinensis and severall others should give us rules to know Hereticks by and forget this the main and clearest And which is stranger yet that not onely Optatus l. 5. contra Parmen mihi p. 130. after a long discourse against the Donatist about the unlawfulnesse of rebaptization Inter licet vestrûm non licet nostrûm nutant remigant animae populorum Well what must be done in this case Quaerendi sunt judices Who shall they be Si Christiani Si Paganus Si Judaeus inconveniences on every side should conclude Ergò in terris hac de re nullum poterit reperiri judicium de coelo quaerendus est Judex Habemê° in Evangelio Testamentum And S. August to the same purpose in Psal xxi èxposition 2. Tabulae aperiantur legantur verba mortui That I say not onely Optatus that learned Bishop and other Ancients should be so much in those early dayes mistaken for certainly your Church was not then in heaven but S. Paul also writing a very long epistle to the Romanes and setting down therein arguments against severall heresies should conclude with quisque suo sensu abundet if I may believe your Bible Rom. xiv 5. oportet esse haereses and not mention a word of any infallible remedy or Judge at Rome which news would have been worth all the rest of the Epistle And again That not onely all the Fathers of the first CCC yeares should passe over this opinion of the Romane Churches great Authority in silence the believing or disbelieving which alone with the Romanists now denominates every man a Catholick or an Heretick but that the Historians also of those dayes should say nothing of it if she had any such thing seemeth no more probable to me then that any learned man hereafter will write the Chronicle of England for these twelve years last and never mention the Lords Fairfax or Cromwell Having said thus much in generall concerning the manner of M. Knots disputes and his unfitting Topicks wherein he mistaketh Antiquity for Truth citations out of Protestants oft falsified for infallible conclusions and beseeching M. Knot if he shall vouchsafe an answer to this paper not to skip over these two last leaves but to give me some reason Why any Christian is BOUND to believe such positions as are confessedly novell And if he will say that all which he cannot with modesty or that any which he cannot with truth of the forenamed Romane Doctours speak that which is not true that he would consider how he puts into my mouth what to answer to much that he alledgeth out of Protestant Doctours against Mr. Chillingworth I come now to take a short view of his particular discourses and begin at his Preface Pref. p. 4. and 5. After he hath given his Readers some admonitions how to read his book I wish that he pretending to answer the whole had printed M. Chill's with it that we might the more readily have compared them and told them that one half of CHARITY MAINTAINED is yet unanswered he who readeth Mr. Chill's book or but the last lines of it sees the reason of that he professeth That he will not meddle with Mr. Chill's answer to the direct to N. N. very ingenuously spoken but why because it is confuted by a book entituled THE JVDGEMENT OF AN VNIVERSITY-MAN CONCERNING Mr. CHILLINGWORTHS PAMPHLET 't was a pretty little Pamphlet but whether that Judgement of an University-man which I never met with any man whosoever that saw unlesse such to whom I have shew'd it be a reall answer to any page of Mr. Chill's book any more then Chaucers tales are I desire any unprejudiced man to determine Onely I must take notice as I passe that Mr Knot doth very well to observe so soon that precept which Tully gives his Oratour and Ulysses in Ovid against Ajax practiseth to skip over the hardest arguments What 't is in an Oratour I 'le not say but I am sure it is no great signe of a good Disputant The next thing he telleth us is § 10. and 11. and so to the end af the Preface how the very title of Mr. Chill's book may be consuted out of Mr. Chill's own words for which he citeth p. 21. mihi lin 3. from whence M. Knot concludeth That millions of Protestants erre damnably and that Mr. Chill
cannot possibly be any just foundation of his confident conclusions But let us come to his proofs p. 2. § 2. he goes about to prove Christian faith is infallible and exempt from all possibility of errour or falshood His end is as I said before that he may prove the Romane Faith and Church infallible His medium is this FAITH is the gift of God and the prime veritie cannot inspire a falshood This I confesse is an argument to prove the infallibility of the Church which I never met or heard of before And I doubt it will prove more then he would have it viz. That Protestants since they have faith as Mr. Knot in Cha. Ma. par 1. c. 1. § 3 4. granteth they have unlesse he 'l say a man may be saved without it contrary to Hebr. xi 6. and Dr. Smith Bishop of Calcedon saith expresly in print Protestantibus credentibus c. they neither want FAITH nor a CHVRCH nor SALVATION are infallible as well as Romane-Catholicks And then Romane Catholicks cannot be infallible unlesse infallible men may contradictions another By the word saith in this argument Mr. Knot meaneth either the object of faith or the act of saith If he mean the object of faith the word of God revealed in the Gospel he abuseth himself and us for no Christian ever denied it If he mean the act of faith as he must if he say any thing against his Adversary or to the purpose then by this discourse not onely the Pope but every Bishop every Priest nay Thou and I and every Christian man and woman in the world who hath infused saith and that gift of God are as infallible as the Church of Rome And yet on this sandy argument Mr. Knot at the first entrance layes the foundation of all his Book and chooseth rather to build the infallibility of Christian Religion hereon than with his companions upon the infallibilitie of the Church In reading Mr. Knot 's book I stood amazed to heare him say so oft that he had already proved the infallibilitie of his Church and searching from Chapter to Chapter I found no other argument beside what I mentioned p. 10. concerning the infallibilitie of faith to which I conceive I have said enough but the notes of credibility p. 428. viz. Miracles sanctitie sufferings victory over enemies conversion of Nations wealthy he might have said Concerning which I come now to speak somewhat briefly 1. For Miracles Christ and the Apostles bid us to take heed of them and so we have the evidence of their true miracles then to keep us from all false ones now and we are bid to examine the miracles by the doctrine not the doctrine by the miracles And the Fathers confesse as much That miracles are not now necessary nor profitable nor marks of the true Religion That the Ancient hereticks pretended to miracles as much or more then the Orthodox And we know that the Heathens talked much of theirs and that many Romane Doctors acknowledge all this But it is strange is the Church of Rome have any miracles and be as she pretends desirous of our salvation and not afraid to convert us that she should never shew them among Protestants where they may abide the touch unlesse our presence be a charm and disable her Priests from doing wonders Very strange that most of her miracles should be done in secret when otherwise they are oft so notorious cheats that the Magistrate takes notice of them and punisheth them whereas Christ and the Apostles did theirs in the face of the Sunne and before all Israel before enemies as well as friends before hereticks and infidels as well as Orthodox that they might do good And that where she doth shew them as in France Italy and Spain they should not if they be true convince the Atheists who more abound in those than in any other Countreys Marsennus told us long since comm in Gen. that there were in his dayes fifty thousand Atheists in that one city of Paris Colerus l. de immort anim tells what store there be in Italy And for the Spaniards I need but mind the Reader of their converting the Indies by depopulating them and barbarously slaying millions auferre trucidare Imperium Religionem vocant as Galgac in Tacit. vitâ Agric. c. 20. insomuch that the poor Natives thought Christians the most cruel and wicked people in the world and called them Guacci that is beasts that live upon prey and Viracochie that is the scum of the sea and pointing at a piece of gold were wont to say Behold the Christians God Such were the sanctified lives of those that boasted of converting Nations Concerning which see a book entituled Spanish cruelties written by Barthol de las Cafas a Bishop and Dominican Frier and translated into French Italian c. printed in Latine at Frankfurt with pictures Also Benzo's historia novi orbis and other Relations of the Indies Which mindeth me of the 2 d Note 2. Sanctitie of life This argument varieth with the climate and in most places proveth rather against Romanists than for them 'T is not long since Clemangis Espencaeus Alvarez Petrarch Pelagius Dante 's Baronius and the Cardinals delegated by P. Paul III. and many of the Romane Doctors complained That all the miseries and civil warres in Christendome came from the ill lives of their Monastical and Clergy-men since Bellarmine sent great numbers of Popes to hell together and are they now come to be the onely Saints on earth 'T is confessed That discipline wherein even those Hereticks whom Mr. Knot calls Infidels by the confession of their most dreadfull Adversaries go beyond Romanists dangers and such externals make great alterations on some mens lives And in England there cannot be many monstrous wicked men of that Religion yet some there are because not many men in comparison with Protestants But what kind of people the plurality of them be in other Nations all the world knows And Salmeron in epist Pauli de falsis signis Eccl. disp 3. Costerus Enchirid. controvers c. 2. p. 101. à Costa de tempor noviss l. 2. c. 20. are so ingenuous as to confesse expresly That a life apparently good and honest is not proper to any one Sect but common to JEWS TURKS and HERETICKS And Card. Perron confesseth it tacitely while in his letter to his Vnkle he mentioneth not the good lives of any Catholicks And S. Chrysost in Matth. iii. hom 4. is as plain and large to my purpose as any of them It is too plain that arguing from the pretended holinesse of mens lives to the goodnesse of their cause or opinion is a Paralogisme which hath advanced Arianisme Pelagianisme and other heresies of old Mahumetanisme Familisme and Anabaptisme of late And unlesse God of His infinite Mercy prevent may ruine Christendome now His other Notes are so far from arguments that I am a little ashamed to say any thing to them The 3 d is SUFFERINGS And
ask how I shall know which is the infallible judge And if M r. K. give us in answer that generall rule which he sets down p. 369. When de facto any Pope defines some truth to be a matter of faith we are sure even by his doing so that he is true Pope Then I 'le reply to omit the circle he runs in that there may be not onely two but twenty true Popes together for twenty men may define twenty severall positions at the same time and all true and yet all these men may be foulely mistaken another time and if so I desire to know whether all these will be true Popes Or by what rule a Romanist may tell when a truth is defined and when not since Sixtus V. defined one Bible to be true Anno 1590. and Clemens VIII another two years after and each of them prohibited and condemned all but his own and these two Bibles contain many contradictions each to other See D r James of the contrariety of the vulgar Latine Bibles and certainly contradictory propositions cannot both be Gospel And if not then either one of these two was not such really whence inconveniences enough will follow or they were both true Popes and so both their definitions true and so no true Papist hath any true Bible XV. But suppose there be no schisme and all agreed on the Pope and a General Councel met How shall I be sure that he who is reputed Pope is so indeed seeing by their own principles Simonie makes him none See the Bull of P. Julius II. super Simoniaca Papae electione Si contigerit c. and Specul in tit de dispens § juxta vers 2. and Majolus de irregularitate l. 5. c. 47. p. 433. and that he was not Simoniacal it is impossible for me to know The election of Sixrus V. was notoriously Simoniacal For Cardinal d' Esté whom he bribed and promised to obey and defend against an opposite faction c. Sent all these obligations subscribed by Sixt. V. his own hand to Philip then King of Spain Who in the year MDLXXXIX sent to Rome to bid the Cardinals who had been elected before Sixt. V. came to the See to come to a Councel at Sevil in Spain where the original writing was produced and the crime was evidently proved And if so all the Cardinals which were made by this Sixtus were in reality no Cardinals and then all the Popes which have been made by those Cardinals since as Montaltus Sixtus his Nephew Urban VII Gregory XIV Innocent IX Clement VIII and Innocent X. that now is have been really no Popes See a book entituled Supplicatio ad Imperatorem Reges c. written at Rome by one that calls himself NOVUS HOMO and dedicated to K. James Anno MDCXII But testimony enough of such doings may be seen in the letters of Card. d' Ossat and the transactions of Card. de Joyeuse set down by Card. Pervon Heul sedes Apostolica orbis olim gloria nunc proh dolor efficeris officina Simonis Damian epist ad Firminum Baronius T. 11. 1033. XVI But admit the Pope were certainly known to be such and that neither he nor any of his predecessours came in by Simony yet how shall I know whether those Bishops who with him make up a Councel are Bishops indeed For if they be no Bishops then it is no Councel And that they are true Bishops it is for ever impossible for any Papist certainly to know For if he that did ordain them did not intend it when he gave Orders and whether he did or no God onely knows then by their own principles they are no Bishops and by consequence no Councel XVII But further how shall I know that the Pope and Bishops so met at Trent for example are Christians For if not then sure they are no legitimate Councel or Church representative And that they are Christians 't is impossible for any Catholick to know with any infallible certainty For if they be not baptized then I am sure with them they are no Christians and if the Priest that baptized them did not intend to do it then by the Canon of the Trent Councel they are not baptized Now what the Priest intended when he administred that Sacrament 't is impossible that any save God who knows the heart should certainly know without immediate revelation which they pretend not to and consequently 't is impossible that any of them should certainly know That ever there was a Pope or a Bishop or a Priest since our Saviours dayes nay impossible that They should know whether there he now one Christian in their Church and therefore much lesse that there is or hath been a lawfull Councel XVIII But admit all these doubts were clearly solved and a Councel in their own sense lawfull sitting and determining matters in Controversie yet how shall we know certainly with that absolute certainty M r Knot speaks of that these are their determinations specially since the Greek Church above two hundred years since accused the Romane for foisting a Canon into the Nicene Councels in behalf of the Popes being Head of the Universal Church which could never be found in the authentick copies though the African Bishops sent to Constantinople Alexandria Antioch to search for them Codex Can. Eccles Afr. Justel p. 39 40. We were not in the Councel nor ever saw any of the men that made the Canons we must rely on the honesty of the Amanuensis or of those other persons that conveigh them to us and those are certainly not infallible and we know there are such things as Indices expurgatorii foysting in and blotting out of Manuscripts XIX But admit all this cleared yet when I have indeed the genuine Canons and am sure of it how shall I be assured of the true meaning of them for M r K. tells us that we cannot without His Churches determination know what faith or repentance or any word else in the Scripture meaneth though I suppose the Apostles intended as well as he or I to be understood and though he tell us That the Scriptures are as perfect a rule as a writing can be I am fallible and may mistake and in his opinion so may any man but the Pope or a Councel This is no vain supposition for we know that Vega and Soto two famous and learned men in the Councel of Trent write and defend contradictory opinions yet each thinketh the Canon of the Councel to determine on his side Now of necessity one of them must mistake the doctrine of the Councel unlesse you 'l say the Councel determined contradictions and then the Councel is not infallible it self and if either of them mistook the Councel then it was not an infallible guide to him Now if learned men who were members of the Councel such as disputed much in it could not infallibly know the meaning of it how can I who am neither XX. Lastly not to trouble M. Knot with
Marcellus which was CCC and old yeares there were not two hundred Bishops made in all by all the Popes of Rome One in a yeare was a rare matter He saith not a syllable of the erecting any Arch-Bishoprick or Patriarchate all that time Not a word of forreign Bishops travelling or sending to Rome to beg Priviledges and Confirmations or to take an oath of fidelity and obedience But to come closer home and to the purpose The story of the seaven British Bishops and many other very learned men but especially the Monks of Bangor is very remarkable and may be read at large in the history of Bede set forth by our learned M r Whelock from p. 110. to 119. whâ—re it is said that these Monks of Bangor were divided into seven parts see also Bromton's Chronicle p. 780. the least whereof consisted of three hundred and That they told Augustine plainly that they would not relinquish their ancient customes without the consent and leave of their Countrymen And when Augustine had made a long speech to perswade them to be subject to the Pope of Rome Dinooth their Abbot answered him briefly in these words Bid ispis c. S r H. Spelmans Councels p. 108. Be it known unto you and without doubt that we are all and every one of us obedient and subjects to the Church of God and Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree with perfect charity and to help every one of them by word and deed to be the children of God And other obedience then this I do not know due to him whom you call the Pope or that he hath right to challenge or to require to be the Father of Fathers This obedience we are ready to give and to pay to him and to every Christian continually Besides we are under the government of the Bishop of Kaerleon upon Vske who is to oversee us under God to make us keep the spirituall way Would you know what became of these Monks hereupon Episcopi Abbates Doctores contra morem Ecclesiae Romanae viventes à Rege Ethelfrido vastante gentem Britonum ad nihilum redacti sunt cum tribus millibus Monachorum monasterii de Bangor qui in campum bellatorum adducti sunt ut Regi adversa imprecarent Hi omnes ut fertur de labore manuum suarum vivebant c. Thus far Gervasius printed by M r Bee p. 1632. See the sixteen immunities p. 1386. And S r H. Spelman citeth out of the ancient Annals of Gisburn these words p. 26. Till the time of K. Hen. 1. the Bishops of S. Davids were there consecrated by their own Welsh Suffragans VVITHOUT MAKING ANY PROFESSION OF SUBJECTION TO ANY OTHER CHURCH Not to insist upon the translating the Pall into little Britain he that would reade more to this purpose may peruse RR. Armach his discourses of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and Brittish chap. 8 9 10. de primordiis Eccles Britan. the eight first chapters ERRATA In the Preface p. 6. l. 3. which by consequence over p. 7. l. 17. indispensable p. 9. l. 14. be in schisme or heresie p. 10. l. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14. l. 34. intreat him for p. 16. l. 35. Cellot de Hierarchia p. 17. l. 9. the Christian Moderatour mentioneth p. 18. l. 15. Beza Luther ibid. l. 17. dele Luther p. 31. l. 30. dele John of Leiden p. 32. l. 30. chymes In the Apologie p. 22. l. 27. not to S. Paul p. 26. l. 11. unbeseeming at the least p. 62. l. 23. dele not p. 40. l. 13. nature among unintellectual beings p. 73. l. 13. Rimmon In. p. 83. l. 5 7 ate p 87. l. 3. in a slight ibid. l. 24. alone p. 88. l. 28. his conscience To the most vertuous Lady MARY de LANOU wife to the Marshall of THEMINIS MADAM HAving a designe to justifie in this Book That it is not permitted to a conscience which is satisfied in the knowledge of our Religion to continue in the profession of the Romane and desiring to confirm that by example which I think I have proved by reason I have not found any more illustrious than that which you have been pleased to give in the sight of heaven and earth in quitting the Romane Communion which is so sweet so pompous and advantageous in worldly respects to cast your self into the lap of the true Church as low and desolate as it appeareth in carnal eyes This brave and gallant action highly befitting your Name and Bloud hath demonstrated more evidently than any words of mine are able That the souls of those who believe as we do cannot enjoy the peace of God nor assurance of his grace nor hope of his glory in the communion which You have quitted For these things are all that you find among us worth speaking of all other advantages do far more abound among them nothing but these can you look or hope for ' midst us who are destitute of all the rest But You have judged that this rich pearl of the Gospel is alone worth far more then all other commodities beside so have rather chosen to hazard the rest to assure your self of this than to endure for assuring the rest to run any the least danger in the world of missing this jewell MADAM It is the Almighty who hath inspired into You so holy and so wise a resolution and hath given You strength to put it in execution at so unfavourable a time Whereat the Angels in heaven rejoyce whereat the Church on earth praiseth Him Amidst so many evils which she suffereth and more which she foreseeth 't is matter to Her of great comfort that in an age so full of ill examples she can find some souls of your quality and merit that have courage to disdain reproach and can rank themselves under the Crosse of their Saviour Even they who approve not your change admire your vertue and cannot deny but that 't is a rare and singular generositie which causeth you to preferre the contentment of your conscience before all other considerations But besides the joy that your conversion hath brought to those of the Church and the admiration that it affects them with who are out of it I hope that your example will be to the great edification of all strengthening the one in the Communion wherein they live and drawing in the other Which MADAM is the cause of my mentioning this to you in my entrance most humbly beseeching you to take it in good part and to suffer your name to shine in the front of this small book to give weight and light to its discourse and to invite all such as shall read it to imitate You in preferring the grace of Heaven before the interests of earth and the solid hopes of Eternity before the petty joyes of these few moments which we passe here below Which favour if I may as I hope I shall obtain from your