Because they are not to be found in the Word of God 2. They are many of them contrary to the Word of God 3. No Church in the World hath Power to make New Articles of Faith Quest. 4. What are the New Articles of Faith the Church of Rome hath added to the Antient Creeds Answ. They are these following I. That the Traditions of the Church are to be received with the same Faith and Veneration we owe to the Holy Scriptures II. That there are seven Sacraments Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Pennance Extreme Unction Orders and Marriage and that these confer Grace III. That among the Ceremonies used in the Roman Church the Publick Service in Latin or an unknown Tongue is a commendable Service IV. That in the Mass there is offered to God a true Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead V. That in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the Bread and Wine are changed into the very Substance of Christ's Body and Blood VI. That Laymen need not receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist in both kinds and that it 's sufficient for them to communicate in one VII That there is a Purgatory or a Place after Death where good Mens Souls are tormented for smaller Sins and relieved by the Alms and Prayers of the Living VIII That the Saints departed this Life may and must be pray'd to and invoked and that their Reliques must be worshipp'd IX That the Images of Jesus Christ and of the Virgin Mary and of other Saints may and ought to be worshipp'd X. That Indulgences or Dispensations of the redundant Merits of Saints are very useful things XI That Auricular Confession or Confession of all our mortal Sins with the Circumstances of them to a Priest is necessary to Salvation XII That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church and Mistress of all other Churches Quest. 5. Why must not Traditions be received with the same Faith that is due to the written Word of God Answ. 1. Because the written Word of God is perfect containing all things necessary to Salvation And that does not direct us to Traditions but rather warns us against them 2. Because the Traditions of the Church of Rome many of them are false and many uncertain 3. Their Traditions are not Traditions which have been receiv'd in all Ages by all Churches and in all Places for such only are the true Apostolical Traditions 4. That they are not absolutely necessary their own Practice shews in that they reject Authentick Traditions and particularly that of Communicating Infants And here you may note The Reason why they fly to Tradition is because they cannot prove their New Doctrines by the Word of God Quest. 6. Why do not you believe seven Sacraments Answ. 1. The Holy Ghost in Scripture hath no where declared such a number 2. This precise number of Seven Sacraments was not heard of in the Christian Church till twelve hundred years after Christ. 3. There are but Two Sacraments mention'd in the New Testament I mean such as are true and proper Sacraments viz. Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. 4. The Council of Trent was the first that made this Number an Article of Faith Quest 7. Why do not you allow of Publick Service in Latin or in a Tongue not understood by the People Answ. 1. Because St. Paul writes a whole Chapter against it 1 Cor. 14. 2. Because the Publick Service ought to be for the Edification of the People and Service in an unknown Tongue cannot edifie 3. The Practice of the Primitive Church is against it 4. Some of the wiser Men in the Church of Rome themselves find fault with this Publick Service in an unknown Tongue 5. This Practice in the Church of Rome is only to serve some Worldly Ends. Quest. 8. Why do not you admit of the Sacrifice of the Mass Answ. 1. Because the Church of Rome tells us that they do sacrifice Christ every day in the Mass which is directly contrary to the 9th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 9. 25 26 27 28. 2. Because there can be no true and proper Sacrifice without Death and it founds dreadful to a Christian Ear that the Priest kills Christ every day or which is all one puts his God to Death 3. It destroys the end of a Sacrifice which is to testifie our Subjection to God but in this Sacrifice of the Mass the Offerer who is the Priest must be greater than the Offering 4. The Lord's Supper is only a Commemoration or Representation of Christ's Sacrifice and a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving but no proper or true Propitiatory Sacrifice Quest. 9. Why do not you believe a Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Answ. 1. It is against all Sense for we may see and feel and hear and taste and smell that the Bread and Wine after Consecration are Bread and Wine still 2. It is against Reason that Christ's Body and Blood should be in a thousand places at once 3. It is against Scripture for Christ protests that his flesh profits nothing Joh. 6. 63. 4. It is against the Nature of a Sacrament which is an outward visible Sign of something Spiritual and Transubstantiation destroys the Sign 5. Christ himself explains what he means by saying This is my Body when he adds Do this in remembrance of me which remembrance supposes the absence of his Natural Body 6. It is against that Article of our Faith which saith That Christ is to continue in Heaven till the Restitution of all things And there is no necessity we should take the words literally any more than the words in Jo. 10. 7. I am the door c. 7. This is my Body is a Phrase or Form of Speech exactly like that of the Lamb in the Passover This Lamb is the Passeover i. e. the Memorial of it 8. These words This is my Body do not naturally infer a substantial change by the Confession of some Papists themselves 9. They themselves cannot be sure of this Change because they say it depends upon the Intention of the Priest 10. The Absurdities that flow from the Doctrine of Transubstantiation are innumerable for then Christ must have eaten himself the Disciples must have eaten up their Master Christ's Body may be lockt up in a Box for half a year together and longer c. Whereas the Doctrine of the Church of England that the Bread represents Christ's Body and upon that account is his Body hath no Inconveniency in it 11. Transubstantiation is against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which calls the Bread the Figure of Christ's Body Quest. 10. Why do not you think it lawful for Laymen to receive the Communion in one kind only Answ. 1. Because Christ saith expresly to the Disciples Drink ye all of this 2. The Practice of the universal Church of Christ for a thousand years together is against it 3. The Council of Constance in the year 1416. was the first that durst venture
which the meanest Jew even before the Gospel understood without a Teacher for we may confidently believe that no Jew before Christ's time was so sottish to think when it 's said the flesh is the Passover Exod. 12. 11. that the Flesh or Blood was really the Passover but only a sign and representation of it or a token to them as Moses calls it ver 13. I will not here put you in mind of the strange Absurdities that must follow from this Doctrine of Transubstantiation viz. that Christ when he did eat and drink in this Sacrament must have eaten his own Flesh and that the Apostles must have eaten his Body while he was at the Table with them and before it was crucified c. I could tell you that this Doctrine is against the great Article of our Faith that Christ is ascended into Heaven and there sitteth at the Right hand of God until the day of Judgment That it is against the Nature of a real Body to be in a thousand places at once And that from hence it must follow that the Body and Blood of Christ is capable of being devoured by Vermin capable of being poisoned and instead of giving life may be so order'd that it shall kill and murther witness Victor the third Pope of Rome and Henry the VIIth Emperour who were poisoned in the Sacrament not to mention a thousand more of such Monstrous conscquences But since Madam you do insist so much upon that place of Scripture John 6. 53. Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you I 'le but briefly shew you how ill a Logician you are to conclude that this is spoke of the Sacrament or to conclude that these words infer a Corporal manducation of Christ's real Body and Blood if they be meant of the Eucharist it will necessarily follow that Christ oblig'd the Jews and his hearers to come to the Sacrament at the time he spake these words for he speaks of their present eating and drinking Except ye eat c. But this he could not possibly do for the Sacrament of his Body and Blood was not instituted till at least a whole twelve months after nor did any of his disciples at that time dream of any such thing as his dying and being crucified nor doth Christ speak the least word of it in the whole Chapter which he must necessarily have done if he had intended the Sacrament by it which is all together founded in his Crucifixion For this Sermon of Christ concerning eating and drinking his flesh and blood was delivered just about the Feast of the Passover ver 4. After which feast as it is said John 7. 1. 2. the Jews celebrated the feast of Tabernacles and after this they kept another feast of the Passover the last which Christ was at which was no less than a twelve month after John 11. 55. John 12. 21. So that the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood not being instituted before the last Passover as all the Evangelists agree it was not possible that either the believing Jews or the Apostles could understand it of the Sacrament and I suppose Christ intended to be understood because there was no such thing as yet instituted Besides it is impossible that it can be understood of the Sacramental eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Christ for without this eating and drinking there is no Salvation to be had as it is said Joh. 6. 53 54. and if it were to be understood of the Eucharist we must exclude all Christians from Salvation that are not in a capacity nor in a possibility of receiving it which I am sure your own Church will not do And that these words of Christ cannot possibly be understood of a Corporal eating Christ's flesh and drinking his Blood but must be understood of a Spiritual eating and drinking that is believing in him and obeying him and hoping for pardon through his Death which is the spiritual Food of the Soul is evident from the 54 th and 56 th Verse where every one that eats of his Flesh and drinks of his Blood is said to have actually eternal life in him and Christ dwelling in him and he dwelling in Christ. That is Christ loves him with a love of complacency he is a Child of God and beloved of him and an Heir of Heaven but since wicked men come to the Sacrament not only in our Church but even in the Church of Rome it would follow if a corporal eating were understood that wicked men eating Christ's Body and drinking his Blood have Eternal life in them and that Christ dwells in them and that they are true Children of God and Heirs of Heaven contrary to the unanimous Consent of the Holy Prophets and Apostles who call wicked men Children of the Devil and blinded by the Devil the God of the World and Heirs of Damnation And indeed it is strange that people should contend for this corporal and sensual eating of Christ's Flesh and drinking his Blood when Christ himself saith v. 63. That the flesh profiteth nothing and that this eating and drinking must be understood spiritually i. e. of Spiritual eating and drinking which is believing as it is said v. 64. You see Madam what it is not to make use of your own reason but to enslave it to the Faith of a Church which loves to act in the Dark and would have her Children Colliers and believe what the Church believes and know little more than the great Mystery of an Ave Maria or a Rosary Time was when you were pleased to tell our Ministers that though you were gone over to the Church of Rome yet you had Liberty not to pray to Saints nor to fall down before Images that was not thought necessary by the for Church of Rome which only recommends praying to Saints and Veneration of Relicks and Images as a thing useful and which men have received much benefit by And indeed I remember I was told you thought that praying to Saints was a kind of Idolatry and therefore were glad they would excuse you from that Worship but since I hear that you are grown as devout a Worshipper of Saints and peculiarly of the Virgin Mary and do prostrate your self before them as much as the most tractable Papist in the World I confess I did smell a Rat at first when your Priests assured you that Invocation of Saints was not a thing commanded but recommended as useful and was then confident that before a year came to an end for all these soft Expressions and Dispensations with your Omission of this Worship they would perswade you to that Worship which then you thought unlawful My Prophecy is come to pass and the Pill which seemed very bitter at first is swallowed and become sweeter than Honey and look'd upon as an excellent Medicine And this I must needs say is more than you could have in our Church But this is our Comfort that the more
FOUR TRACTS I. A Discourse against Revenge shewing the Exorbitant Passions in Man from Mat. V. 21 22. II. Questions and Answers concerning the Two Religions Viz. That of the Church of England and the other of the Church of Rome Intended for the Use and Benefit of the Younger Sort of People III. An Account of an Evening-Conference with a Jesuite in the Savoy Jan. 22. IV. A Disswasive from Popery being a Letter to a Lady to preserve her from Apostacy from the Communion of the Church of England By A. HORNECK D. D. late Prebendary of Westminster and Preacher at the Savoy With a Preface by Mr. EDWARDS London Printed for S. Lownds at the Savoy W. Hinchman at Westminster-hall S. Keble in Fleet-street and D. Browne without Temple Bar. 1697. THE PREFACE HAD I attempted my self to have published any thing of this nature which I now would only recommend I should then have had too great reason to have made an Excuse and indeed too just fears not to have obtain'd it but since the Goodness Authority and Piety of the deceased Author are so very deservedly valued by the World I shall only concern my self to let the Reader know that the following Tracts were his own writing as I was desired by the Bookseller to do and which piece of Service I could not well deny him having compared the Sheets with some Manuscripts that are in my hands and with some occasional Notes of his upon the Bible and Common Prayer-Book which were lately sold with his other Books and indeed after their resolution to publish them under his name it was but reason that the Reader should be satisfied they were such as they were represented And besides the Authority that they may have the Usefulness of the first to restrain the Provocations and Revenges which this Age as moral as it pretends to be is so very full of and of the other to dispel the Carelessness and Indifferency of the World towards any Worship at all as full of Religion or rather pieces of it as at present it is may now add to its recommending For first the Sinfulness of Revenge is so very great and the pretended occasions for it so very many that the fatal forerunners of it Anger and Malice can't be too many ways nor indeed by any too severely exploded For though it 's certain that the Courage of the present Age does not any more than the Piety come up to the Excellency of the Antient and Primitive time yet that which is call'd Courage no better it may be than an ill tim'd and ill manag'd Resentment will fly oftner in their Faces than their Conscience still and raise the Concern for an affected Reputation much above the care for their truly real and eternal Safety For a mistaken Resentment quickly forgets all Obligations of Nature Country Religion and the same Flesh and Blood too sometimes in the heighth of an encourag'd Passion and unthinking fury and the frequent repeating it serves only to harden the most recommending Tenderness of our Natures to another Person and at length it may and does too sometimes make a Man forget that self preserving Care that is so unquestionably due to his own Whereas the excusing a Provocation may include the having a Power to revenge it and besides this here is the Credit of the most difficult and recommending Mastery gain'd that of a Mans self and thus a Man is most likely to secure that Dominion which he would be assuming even over his Neighbour whose Pride and Resentment when too provokingly urg'd may prove as great as his If Men would therefore comply with this agreeable restraint upon such ungovernable Passions of their Nature Revenge would be left to God who was always pleas'd to reserve it to himself who can best right our injur'd Innocence with an hand whose Correction he can withdraw at his Pleasure which command of our selves we to be sure can't pretend to so shall we be freed from the indecencies of Revenge that can never be amended if the sinfulness of it should be repented of unless a Man once provok'd were as willing to forget as the Almighty though never so incensed is to forgive upon the Submission of a repenting Offender Thus much may serve to prepare the Reader to attend to the following Discourse with a true Intention not to resist such influence as by the Blessing of God it may have upon him as that good Man doubtless pray'd it might when he writ it and as I heartily desire it may to all that read it In Relation to the other Tracts they may without doubt be very serviceable not only to the Younger in years but to those too whose neglect of their time may in this respect have shamefully levell'd them with those whose smaller Time and Judgment have not yet impower'd them to attend it for I 'm afraid it is too great a Truth that many of our own Church apprehend as little of the Articles of that Faith they pretend to be of and the Object of our Worship as the generality of the other Church do of the Language of their's and we are not only willing but concern'd too that they should understand them both So that if the first Tract should any ways contribute to restrain the troublesome and uneasie disorders of Anger and Malice and the dismal procedure of double returning Revenge and the other should furnish any unapprehending Person with a reason of the hope he has of his Salvation whenever it should be demanded or any attempt made to remove him from it which the distance of it don't seem to secure more than the Dissatisfactions Controversies and Carelessnesses may threaten And if the Account that is here given of the Absurdities Impieties and Vanities that are in that Worship should convince any Person that he ought to decline it and retain his own the Church would be serv'd No Person that I know of injured and the Reader I hope as well as my self very well pleas'd in it London May 27th 1697. W. EDWARDS A DISCOURSE against Revenge c. Mat. V. 21 22. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell fire FAlse Teachers without doubt are very dangerous Men. The Murtherer kills the Body these the Soul and by the false Doctrines they sow in Mens Heads and Minds they not only obstruct their Salvation but lead them into Perdition Indeed if the Errors be light and trivial the hurt that 's done is not great and while the erroneous Doctrine reaches no farther than Speculation it can deserve no very severe Censure but when it spoiles and sullies
used as a means to get Money 5. By these Indulgences men are hindred from a true Repentance for they pretend to release Men by them both from Sin and Punishment at least the People are suffer'd to think so if they do but say so many Prayers or go in Pilgrimage to such a place or fast so many days from some kinds of Meats or give a large sum of Money for the building of a Church or go to War against Infidels c. Quest. 15. Why do not you think Auricular Confession to a Priest necessary to Salvation Here you must Note That we are not against Confession in the Church of England nay our Church presses it both publick and private to God and Confession to a pious and able Minister if the Conscience be burden'd and upon a Death-bed but we dare not say as they do in the Church of Rome that a Man cannot be pardon'd or saved except he Confesses to a Priest 1. We allow not of it in the sense of the Church of Rome Because there is nothing in the Word of God that makes the neglect of it Damnable 2. The Confession used in the Primitive Church was made by scandalous Sinners publickly in the Congregation and therefore is not the same with that practis'd in the Church of Rome which commands the Confessing all mortal Sins with their Circumstances into the ear of a Priest at set times and before the receiving of the Sacrament 3. Since it is not of Divine but Ecclesiastical Institution it cannot be absolutely necessary to Salvation 4. It cannot be a Sacrament as they make it in the Chuch of Rome because it wants Christ's Institution 5. This Confession to a Priest as it is managed in the Church of Rome is no Check but rather an Encouragement to Sin Quest. 16. UUhy do not you believe that the Church of Rome is the only Catholick Church and the Mistriss of all other Churches Answ. I can never believe that the Church of Rome is the only Catholick Church 1. Because there are vast multitudes of Christians in the World which are not in actual Communion with the Church of Rome and yet are Members of the Catholick or which is the same of Christ's universal Church dispersed all the World over 2. To say That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church is to say That a part is the whole or that a House is a whole City or that one Member is the whole Body 3. The Primitive Christians did not take the Church of Rome for the only Catholick Church 4. God hath no where in Scripture declared so much 5. To say the Church of Rome is the only Catholick Church is a most uncharitable Doctrine and to Damn the greater part of the Christian World 6. All Churches that do hold the ancient Faith contain'd in the three Creeds are Members of the Catholick Church 7. The Church of Rome is so far from being the only Catholick Church that her strange Doctrines make her at the best but a very unsound Member of the Catholick Church I do not believe That the Church of Rome is the Mistress of all other Churches in the World 1. Because there is no such Authority given her in the word of God 2. The Superiority she Claims is nothing but Usurpation 3. The Asian and African Churches heretofore rejected her Authority 4. The Eastern Churches at this day despise her Pride and pretended Authority 5. The Church of England was a free Church from the beginning and therefore justly maintains her Freedom and how should that Church be Mistress of all other Churches that takes Liberty to change Christ's Institutions and Commands and contradicts the Word of God Quest. 17. Doth the Church of Rome differ from the Church of England in any other Points Answ. Yes for she holds 1. That Extreme Unction is a Sacrament necessary to Salvation 2. That it is unlawful for Priests to Marry 3. That she is infallible 4. That the Scripture is not to be read in a vulgar Language by the common People 5. That the Books call'd Apocrypha are Canonical Scripture 6. That the Church of England had no Power to Reform her self All which we deny as contrary to Scripture and Reason Quest. 18. Why do not you believe that Extreme Unction is a Sacrament necessary to Salvation Ans. 1. Because that Unction or anointing sick Persons Jam. 5. 14 15. was a miraculous Gift and therefore not necessary to be continued 2. Christ did never institute this miraculous Unction as a Sacrament 3. The Unction they use in the Church of Rome hath no miraculous effects 4. The Apostles an̄ointed sick Persons that they might recover In the Church of Rome they anoint dying Persons who are past Recovery 5. In that place of St. James the saving of the sick Person is ascribed to the Prayer of Faith not to the anointing 6. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is sufficient to comfort the dying Man Quest. 19. Why do you look upon their forbidding Priests to marry as unlawful Answ. 1. Because St. Paul permits a Bishop and indeed all Clergy-men to marry 1 Tim. 3. 2. 8. 11. Tit. 1. 6. 2. The same Apostle saith to all Men in general It is better to marry than to burn 1 Cor. 7. 9. 3. The same Apostle calls forbidding to marry a Doctrine of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1. 3. 4. St. Peter himself an Apostle and a Priest was a married Man 5. Several of the Bishops in the Primitive Church were married Men such as Spiridion Chaereman Phileas Gregory Nyssen Gregory Nazianzen both Father and Son Hilary and others 6. It was Pope Hildebrand or Gregory VII the same that first presumed to depose Soveraign Princes that made the Clergy renounce their Wives contrary to Scripture a Man guilty of the greatest Crimes imaginable Quest. 20. Why do not you believe the Church of Rome infallible Answ. 1. Because it is only a Pretence founded neither in Scripture nor Antiquity 2. It is a Church that hath err'd both in Doctrine and the Worship of God most notoriously 3. God hath no where promis'd to make any one Church infallible 4. Themselves are not agreed where this Infallibility lies whether in the Pope or in a general Council or in the diffusive body of Christians 5. The Word of God is the only infallible Rule to walk by 6. There is no need of a visible infallible Judge for deciding of Controversies For 1st Controversies may be decided without such a Judge as they were in the Primitive Church the Bishops meeting in Council and arguing against Hereticks from the Word of God 2d A meek humble peaceable and charitable Temper would decide Controversies better than all the pretended infallible Judges in the World 3d. We do not find that when there were infallible Judges here on Earth such as Christ and his Apostles that all Controversies did cease Notwithstanding their presence there were Schisms and Heresies even among the Christians 1 Cor. 11. 19.
Merits because I find your Priests have two strings to their bow and tell the People one thing and their Adversaries when they dispute with them another affirm and deny it as they see occasion and necessity requires Only one thing I must needs take notice of before I take my leave and that is the Gigantick Argument that some of your Gentlemen boast of and which strikes all Protestants dead at the first hearing of it If there be any thing true this must be true that there is a God if there be a God there must be a true Religion if there be a true Religion there must be a true revealed Religion if there be a true revealed Religion the Christian Religion must be that true revealed Religion and if the Christian Religion be true then the Religion of the Church of Rome must be true for the Argument that proves the Christian Religion to be true proves the Religion of the Church of Rome to be true which is this Either the Christian Religion was propagated without Miracles or by Miracles if by Miracles then it must be Divine if without Miracles then it is the greatest Miracle that a Religion so contrary to Flesh and Blood should prevail with sensual Men. The same say they is true of the Religion of the Church of Rome For if it be propagated by Miracles it must be Divine if without Miracles it must be so much more because it prescribes things contrary to Flesh and Blood as Penances Austerities c. and thousands of People do embrace it It will not make my self merry here in a thing so serious else I could have told you that I have heard of an Argument when I was at School somewhat like this He that drinks well sleeps well he that sleeps well commits no Sin he that commits no Sin will be saved therefore he that drinks well will be saved But I forbear And as to the aforesaid Argument whereby one of your Priests that hath printed it thinks to end all Controversies I will say no more but this First that as there is no Christian but must readily confess that the Miracles Christ and his Apostles wrought were a Confirmation of the Divinity of their Doctrine so there is no Man of any brains can admit of the other part of the dilemma as universally true that a Religion that goes against Flesh and Blood if propagated without Miracles must therefore be necessarily Divine Secondly that so far as the Religion of the Church of Rome agrees with the truly Christian Religion so far it is undoubtedly true and it will naturally follow that if the Christian Religion be true the Religion of the Church of Rome so far as it agrees with the Christian Religion must needs be true And the same may be said of the Protestant Religion but that the Roman Religion must therefore be true where it goes away and differs from the truly Christian Religion revealed to us in the Gospel is a consequence which none but Children can approve of Thirdly with this Argument a Man might prove the Divinity of almost any Religion in the World He that is no stranger to History must needs know what Severities what Austerities of Life the Brachmans or the Heathen Friers in the Indies do both prescribe and practice and what Proselites they make and how full the Kingdom of the great Mogul is of them how some wallow in Ashes day and night how others go charged with heavy Iron Chaines all their days how others stand upright upon their Leggs for whole Weeks together c. How in Japan and other places of the Indies the Priests perswade the People to fast themselves to death to go long Pilgrimages to give all they have to the Priests to throw themselves down from steep Rocks and break their Necks and all to arrive the sooner to the Happiness of another World c. I think there cannot be things more contrary to Flesh and Blood than these and yet we see these Doctrines are propagated daily without any force of Arms only by Example and Perswasion to be sure without any Miracle but I hope that doth not prove their Religion to be Divine It 's a dictate of the light of Nature that the way to Heaven is straight and therefore People that are religiously inclined are easily won over to those Men whom they see exercise such Severities upon themselves To conclude Madam when all is done what the true Church is must be tried by the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles We see that even in the Apostles days Corruptions crept into the Church witness the Churches of Corinth Galatia and Colosse c. and the Simplicity of the Gospel began even then to be perverted and mingled with idle and foolish Opinions and Practices and therefore we must needs think that after the Apostles decease the Church of Christ was subject to the same fare so that if there be any Standard or Touchstone left whereby the Truth and Sincerity of a Church can be tried and we must needs think so well of God's Providence that he would not leave his Church without some Rule to rectifie their Errors by in case she should be infected with any it must be the Primitive Institution of the Christian Religion and that Church as I said before which teaches things that approach nearest to that Primitive Institution must be the true Church And Madam do but once more for your Souls fake and for your Salvations sake compare the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome with the Doctrines and Practices of the Gospel the Fountain of Christianity and try whether you can find there the Doctrines of Communion under one kind of publick Prayers in a Tongue unknown to the People of Purgatory of the Mass of Transubstantiation of the Church of Rome 's Supremacy and Infallibility of Worshipping and Adoring the Virgin Mary and Praying to Saints of Veneration of Relicks and Images of Adoration of the Hoste c. Do not force any places of Scripture and try whether you can make sense of any of these Doctrines by Scripture View the stream of the Gospel and search whether there be any thing like these Doctrines in it Why will you make your Reason a Slave to your Priests magisterial Sentences How can you answer it to God that you did not improve your Reason more What have you your Reason for but to judge what is agreeable to the Word of God and what is not Is not this acting like a Creature void of Reason to be guided altogether by what a few blind Guides say to you without enquiring at the Law and Testimony whether things are so as they say or no Wonderful Stupidity I stand amazed at it It is not all the seeming Holiness of those Priests you converse withal that make the Church you are in a true Church There is no Sect in the World but when they are under a Cloud Necessity and the Discouragement they are