Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	authority_n	law_n	power_n	1,453	5	4.7820	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43640	The third part of Naked truth, or, Some serious considerations, that are of high concern to the ruling clergy of England, Scotland, or any other Protestant nation and also a discovery of the excellency of the Protestant religion as it stands in opposition to papistical delusions, being a representation of what is the true glory of Protestants, and what are the base, contemptible and ridiculous principles, on which those that are called Roman Catholicks do build, as upon the sand being very necessary for all Protestant families in this present juncture of time.; Naked truth. Part 3	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1681 (1681)	Wing H1830; ESTC R2673	42,995	50

all men as men have by Nature unto God as unto their Supreme Lord and Creator Wherefore in as much as it is clear that all Laws which command men to forbear that Worship which they as Protestants do in their hearts judge and believe to be agreeable to the Mind Will and Word of God or which commands them to conform to such a Worship as they judge according to their own Understandings and connot but believe it to be disagreeable to the said Mind Will and Word of God are of this nature that is First they are such Laws as have a manifest Inconsistency either with the Law writ in the heart it self which is That God is indispensably to be worshipped in some manner or another Or Secondly they are such Laws as have an Inconsistency with the Law writ in the Word of God which is That he will reward all such as shall obey him according to the Rule which he hath given them in his said Word and will punish such as shall do the contrary Or Thirdly they are such Laws as have an Inconsistency with the Rule of the Reformation it self which is that all Worship which is Christian and foederal is to be given to God according to the Scriptures and that whatever IS NOT read in the Scriptures nor may be proved by the Scripture IS NOT to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith Which are the very words of the sixth Article of the Church of England and which Article if wounded the rest of the thirty nine Articles must be wounded equally with it seeing they are judged to be founded mainly upon it I do therefore with all humbleness say that all such Laws in any Protestant Government whatever which restrain such a Worship as is agreeable to the Word of God or is really believed to be such by them that practise it I say all such Laws are entirely against that Prior Law or preceding Obligation which men as men have by Nature indispensably unto God as to their Immediate Creator and Lord above any which they have or can have unto man how lawfully soever he may be the Superior of them And consequently that all Non-obedience or Non-conformity to any of the said Laws though it be in a sence voluntary yet it is neither elective nor indeed truly or properly free And therefore that such Non-obedience is not any the least breach of affection Nor any the least forfeiture of a mans Duty to his Prince or to the Government Because it is a Non-conformity or Disobedience that is absolutely constrained compelled and of an inevitable and indispensible nature in its self by reason of the Prior Law or of the preceding and indispensible Obligation which we have both as Men and as Christians unto God And have above and beyond any Obligation that we have or can have possibly to any person as the Prince or Superior of us And all men that maintain the contrary and that either out of a Luxury of Wit or out of a Super-foetation of Vanity Insolency or Pride do seek to baffle this Argument or to evade the force of it from or under the pretence of the Capriciousness Humoursomness and affectation of Singularity that may be in some Persons may with as good Reason and with as solid a Judgment make a meer Mock or Ridicule of all the Martyrs that have ever been since the World stood and may as well call Daniel and the three Children and all the Primitive Christians and the Apostles who suffered for God and for the Testimony of his Word and of Christ Revel 6.9 Revel 1.9 men that were only capricious humourous and persons that did affect a Singularity as call all men so at this Day whoever they are that do not conform to the Laws Nationally made about Worship and Religion For if their bare Allegation that all men that do not conform are men only of humorous and capricious Tempers and men who meerly affect a Singularity and Disturbance shall be taken for a sufficient Evidence against them By as just a Law the Testimony of any Atheist may as well be taken against all the Martyrs that ever were And the Testimony of any common Person may be taken against them themselves that alledge this that they are Atheists And if this last be not reasonable neither is the first For if anothers bare Allegation is not to be taken against them nor ought to be allowed as an Evidence So neither is their bare saying to be taken against others By all that I have said then it will appear that there is a clear difference between the Authority of a Prince in things Civil and in things relating to Worship and Religion For as a Princes Authority in things Civil is unquestionable and enterferes with no Law of God whatever and can have no pretence therefore to intrench upon the Conscience or upon any prior Obligation or Duty that a man oweth unto God and as it must for all these Reasons be necessarily and indispensably obeyed and submitted unto by all his Subjects So on the contrary a Prince especially as a Protestant can put out no Law about Divine Worship but his Subjects so far as they are Protestants are bound in Conscience and by the very Principles of that Religion which they profess not only to Consider it But to Examine it whether it be agreeable to the Word of God or not and if it appear not to be such at least according to the best of their Understandings As they will have a Plea always not to submit to it by Reason it intrencheth upon a Prior Obligation So this Plea cannot well with Justice be denyed them if no Crime whatever in their Conversation can be proved against them NOR can men in this Case be actually punished and proceeded against without the Sence and Grief of that Wrong or Oppression that is manifestly done to them and suffered by them especially seeing their Non-conformity to the said Laws proceeds not as we said either from their Election or Liberty Nor yet from any breach of Duty or Affection to their Prince But only from what appears to them to be an Inevitable or Indispensable Necessity that ariseth and is occasioned from their meer Profession as they are of the Protestant Religion To this end I shall therefore offer one Argument more which shall be taken from The Character of a Papist The thing which doth Essentially distinguish a Protestant from a Papist more than any Note Mark or Character whatever besides is That a Papist by his Principles as a Papist may not and indeed cannot dispute any Law whatever relating to the Worship or Service of God provided it be declared and established by what he acknowledgeth to be the Church Because he takes the Authority of the Church for the whole Argument or for the only Foundation of all his Obedience unto God rather than the Divine Authority of the Scripture or Word And because

he presumeth the Church also to be a thing altogether Holy and such as neither hath Erred nor can Err for should he question this he must question the whole of his Religion it self opposite to which Character we shall now consider The Character of a Protestant But the Protestant Church on the other hand having separated from the Church of Rome not only upon the Supposition that she hath actually Erred but that she hath been grosly corrupted as well in Manners as in Faith And the Protestant Church having for the better Justification of her own Practice both in the matter of Worship and in all things relating to Doctrine and Faith SET UP The Scriptures as the Sole and Soveraign Rule of Gods Mind and Will to his Church As she cannot challenge the Exercise of any Authority therefore that is beyond that of the Scripture or any that is not subordinate to the said Scripture it self So it is expected that all the Duties which she requires and all those Articles or Points of Faith which she at any time recommends to such as are the Members of her should always be enforced from those Arguments properly and only which are drawn from the Scripture Because it is this which she her self hath appealed unto and this only which she challengeth to justifie her A Protestant then that understands the Grounds of his Religion or that hath been at all instructed in the Rise or Principles of the Reformation taking this for the very first Article of his Faith That a Church may Err and may have Corruption in it and may in its Worship possibly swerve and depart from the pure Mind Word and Wisdom of God And laying that no less firmly as the Foundation of his Belief on the other hand viz. That the Scripture cannot Err nor can be other than the unalterable and incorruptible Rule of Gods Law and of his Will and Mind to his People he cannot possibly hold the Authority of the Church to be Divine any further or otherwise than as it appears to be clearly grounded upon the Scriptures as the Word of God And therefore the Tye or Obligation which he hath to obey the Church so far as it relates to the Conscience and binds the Conscience ariseth out of no other Ground than from the Conformity which he seeth or is perswaded that the said Church hath in her Laws Orders and Doctrines to the said Word and if this Conformity doth or shall once cease in the said Church a Protestant as a Protestant cannot but judge his Tye or Obligation to her as a Church ought to cease also with it And this being the true State of that Radical or Essential Difference that is between the Principles of a Protestant and the Principles of a Papist as a Papist It will hence follow That if a Church that professeth her self to be Protestant or the Ruling Clergy of a Protestant Church shall not much consider or regard the justifying of what Laws and Orders she makes by the Consonancy they expresly have to the Law or Mind of God in his Word which is his Rule to the Church nor shall much concern it self to clear and inforce the Faith and Doctrine which she holds by the Evidence of its Truth or by the Authority of it as sufficiently grounded upon that Word that is absolutely Divine But shall on the contrary in whatever she Commands or in the things she Teacheth constrain or exact an Obedience from her Members to her self and to her own Authority as absolute and as unsubordinate to the Word of God and therefore to her Authority as it is a distinct thing from the said Word That Church or the Clergy rather that are the Rulers of it so far as she doth this in any Doctrine or in any Law that she makes indispensable doth so far cease in her Principles and Practice to be Protestant and doth so far disclaim not only a main and chief Ground of her Separation from the Church of Rome but the very Principle it self upon which she pretends to guide her self in her Reformation For it cannot be denyed that these were the great and the main Causes of our Separation from the Church of Rome viz. First Because she had made her self Absolute and had set up an Authority in the matters of Worship and Faith above that of the Scriptures as the only Word of God And Secondly Because she did not barely excommunicate men but did also persecute them and did deprive them both of their Estates Liberties and Lives upon a Principle as contrary to humane Reason as it was contrary to humane Society and Quiet viz. not for any evil in their Conversations in their Morals or in their Lives But meerly for obeying what they sincerely judged to be the Law Mind and Will of God And meerly for believing that his whole Law Will and Mind to his Church as a Church especially relating to the Worship of himself was contained in his Word Thirdly Because by this persecution as it was extended to the extreme Punishment of Persons both in their Liberties and Goods and sometimes in their Lives by stinking Prisons and want of Necessaries she did unavoidably draw upon her self the Guilt of mens Apostacy Hypocrsie and Dissimulation who durst not but obey and comply with her Commands meerly out of fear And did as unavoidably draw upon her the Guilt of all that Suffering Cruelty and Blood whatever it were she spilt and did inflict upon those persons who withstood her Commands and who were otherwise in all things blameless both as to their Morals Lives and Conversations I say if it be matter of Fact and that which cannot be denyed that these three things were some of the Main and Principal Causes for which we separated from the Church of Rome and for which our first Reformers themselves called her Antichristian and sometimes Bloody and sometimes the Scarlet Whore And if these three things when at any time mentioned with reference to the Church of Rome are still acknowledged to be evil and so stiled to this day so far as it concerns her Yea if these three things are at this very present in our Controversies with that Church not only charged upon her but cast in her teeth among many other things by way of reproach and to set forth the just ground that we even as the Church of England as well as other Churches have both of exception against and hatred of her MUST NOT these three things be MUCH MORE EVIL in a Protestant Church who after she hath condemned all these things not only as evil but as Antichristian in the Church of Rome and after she hath pretended to separate from the said Church for them doth nevertheless give her self leave to practise them without condemning her self at all in them And MUST NOT This Practice cast a manifest Blemish and Reproach upon on her own Reformation and evidence to the world that she doth not either believe the Principles

of it OR doth not at least dare to Trust to it Wherefore if the said Church or the Clergy rather as the Rulers of it meerly upon these Grounds and only to these ends which are both thus evil in themselves and thus contrary to the very Grounds and Ends of our Reformation shall endeavour to Ingage the power of the Civil Magistrate to her Assistance which God forbid they should ever do any more in England for we have good ground to believe that several of the Ruling Clergy if not all do abhor it to their Praise be it spoken I humbly offer it to Consideration whether in moving this to a Prince especially as he is a Protestant she doth or can move him to any other purpose than That his Authority may promote the Defection she hath made from her own Principles and may Countenance her in that which she knoweth that the Rules of the Reformation and of Protestantism cannot viz. not only her Cruelty and Severity but her Exorbitancy And whether she hath or can have any Argument to the said Prince for his Countenancing of her greater than this viz Than as she knoweth that all the evil which would be charged upon HER wholly and ONLY as a Church may now through his countenancing of her be in part as well charged upon his Royal Authority and Pleasure as upon her Which Argument being really of no better a nature than this whether it be therefore reasonable in it self or whether it be so much as fit or modest for the said Church to make or whether it be agreeable to that Duty Honor and Sincerity which she as a Church professeth to owe and ought at all times uprightly to pay to her Prince I humbly leave and submit to the Judgments of all Ingenious Persons and especially when with reference to the Effect of this Motion it is matter of Fact that though twenty six private Persons would be thereby gratified some of whom are men of no Birth Interest or temporal Estate in the Nation and more than twice so many thousands are greatly grieved injured and wronged in their Persons and Estates which are equally his Majesties Subjects as well as they And many of which are every way Peers to them for Birth for Vertue for Loyalty for Temperance for Morality for Mercy for Charity for temporal Estates and even for Learning also And here it will be necessary in the next place to consider again what it is in these respects that we blame the Church of Rome for I mean What the Guilt of the Church of Rome is For either Guilt is a thing of Weight before God or it is not And either the Guilt which hath been charged upon the Church of Rome by reason of her Persecution by our Reformers first and by many worthy Men of the Church of England since is justly charged upon her or it is not But if that Guilt be Real and that it is justly charged upon the said Church It is apparently Criminal two ways First as she through her Persecution is the cause of all that Hypocrisie Dissimulation and Apostacy which men commit for meer fear of her and by which though out of weakness they do greatly wrong their own Conscience and greatly injure their former Profession before God and know they do so and lye oft-times under trouble of Conscience all their lives afterward for it And secondly she is equally guilty as she is the cause by reason of her Persecution of the Sufferings Distresses and great Afflictions which many particular Persons and many Families groan under by which she occasions many solemn Complaints Cries and Appeals to be made unto God which men who are conscious to themselves of their Sincerity towards God did pour out to him as the Righteous Judge of all persons And if this be The Guilt of the Church of Rome and if we as Protestants when we write against the Church of Rome do say that all the Righteous Prayers Appeals and Complaints to God against her shall be heard And that she shall answer as well for the Crimes of others as for the Oppressions and Wrongs that she hath done to others What then can be said when a Protestant Church or the Clergy rather who are the Rulers of it shall be guilty of the same manner of Persecution and upon the very same unjust or upon more unjust Grounds or Principles that the Popish Clergy are and when by the means of this Persecution the said Protestant Clergy are the occasion of many mens Hypocrisie Dissimulation and Desertion of their Principles through weakness to the extreme injury and wrong of their Consciences and are the express Cause of the Sighs Sufferings Groans and Complaints of divers others that are poured out in the very bitterness of their Souls unto God and when the said Protestant Church or the Ruling Clergy rather of it shall have no sence at all of the evil of any of these things nor seem to be in the least moved or concerned for them These things being considered the Question is whether any man that is rational can draw any other Conclusion from them but that The said Protestant Church or the Ruling Clergy of it do not believe themselves at all when they write against the Papists for these things and that notwithstanding they do threaten the Church of Rome with the Judgments of God because of their Cruelty and of their Persecutions of men for their Conscience sake yet they do indeed but laugh in their sleeves at it and do not believe any such thing as that the direful Judgments of God shall come upon any either for Cruelty or for Persecution of others for Conscience sake or for being the occasions of many mens sinning against and wounding of their own Consciences but that when they speak of the Judgments of God they speak of them but as Scare-Crows Bug-bears or Pot-Guns For would it not be an uncharitable thing or rather is it not an incredible thing for any man to think that the Protestant Clergy should do the very same things which they expresly declare and acknowledge to be heinous Offences and Crimes against God in their Adversaries the Church of Rome if they did really believe themselves in what they usually write when they threaten them with the Judgments of God upon them for the said things If to avoid this which they perhaps may look upon as some imputation or reflection upon them the said Protestant Church or rather the Ruling Clergy of it shall deny the Case to be the same and shall say that the Grounds or Principles upon which they persecute men are much different from those of the Papists or Church of Rome Let them I mean the Ruling Clergy lay down the State of it and shew us wherein the greatness of the said difference doth consist For if the Fact for which men are punished by the said Protestant Clergy be the very same or of the same nature with that for which the

Nature of her Policy For the Acquiring of that Arbitrary Absolute and unlimited Power which she exerciseth And first we find that she doth upon her own Authority affirm That it is neither the Letter of the Scripture nor the Grammar of it how Plain Clear or Express soever it be that doth or ought to bind the Consciences of men but the sence of the said Scripture only And Secondly she doth affirm That it is not the sence of the Scripture also which doth or can any way directly bind the Consciences of men if this sence be considered nakedly in it self either as literal or mystical but that the said sence is capable of binding only considered as it is Catholick And Thirdly That it is not either in the Letter or in the Grammar of the said Scripture how clear or plain soever it be that the Divine Authority of it is placed but simply and only in the sence of it as this sence is the sence of the Universal Church and therefore that sence which is properly called Catholick Which Propositions she having in her Prudence thus peculiarly laid down as the Grounds or Foundations not only of all Christian Faith but of all Christian Verity and Truth it self In the next place she builds upon these unsound Grounds an Assumption that is parallel to them and that is every way as entirely her own as the former viz. That she alone hath not only the Right as exclusive to all others of Dispencing this Catholick Sence to all the Members of the Christian Church but of dispencing it in order to their Salvation and hath inherent in her the full and absolute Power finally and Inappealeably to determine at all times and upon all Occasions what the said Catholick Sence is concerning all Points whatever that may be controverted and concerning all places of Scripture whatever that may be doubted of or disputed And that as this Power is absolutely necessary for the Preservation of the Unity so for the Preservation of the Purity of the said Christian Faith in regard it is impossible that such a Sence of the Scripture as is wholly Universal and Catholick should at any time Err. The Conclusion then if all these Premises be true is That the Church of Rome is to be believed and that all her Determinations whatever they be are for Conscience sake to be Obeyed and Submitted unto even by the whole Christian Church without any Dispute or without so much as any scruple of Mind This Conclusion being that which all the Partizans and Champions of the Church of Rome do labour with Might and Main to bring every man to and therefore it is the same with that Security and Rest which they pretend all men may have not only with absolute Safety but with absolute satisfaction in the Bosom of their Church But indeed this Conclusion hath not any tendency to Salvation at all but is quite contrary to all that is alledged and leads expresly to nothing else but to the utter Overthrow and Subversion of the whole Scripture it self with the Mind Law Will and Counsel of God so far at least as depends upon Revelation in regard it puts the Scripture together with the whole Authority of it though Divine in it self absolutely perfectly and entirely into the Arbitrary Will and Power of the said Church And therefore the Protestants upon Consideration of the extreme Mischiefs that must of necessity follow from such a Conclusion as this they do with Indignation reject it And First The Protestants do wholly deny that the said Church of Rome hath any rightful Authority to make null the Grammar of the Scripture Secondly The Protestants do much more deny that she hath any Right to institute or set up such a Sence of the Scripture under any name or pretence whatever that is either opposite to the Grammar of the Scripture or that at least pretends that there is not a necessity to follow and observe the Rules of it Thirdly Consequently they utterly deny that she hath any Right to transfer the Authority of the Scripture from the Sence proper to the Letter of it self to such a Sence as is only and properly hers And Fourthly They deny that she hath any Right or any Power to set up any Sence of her own at all which is not absolutely subjected to the Rule and Authority that is inherent to the Scriptures Letter and Word with the proper Sence of it as this is and ought to be Supreme to all others Fifthly And they do much less acknowledge that she hath any such Right in her or derived to her therefore as to make her Sence of the Scripture or what she declares to be so the Sence of the Universal Church Sixthly Or that she hath any Right to make her sence of the Scripture to be the Absolute or Supreme Rule of all Infallible and Christian Truth or to disallow any Appeal from her proper Determinations to the living Rule of the Scriptures Grammar and to the Letter or Word of it Seventhly And the Protestants denying all these things they do deny therefore that she hath any Authority Power or Right to dispence with That Duty and Obligation which is divinely and absolutely laid upon the Consciences of men which is To obey the Word of God in the litteral plain and express Sence of it Eighthly And the Protestants do deny consequently that the Consciences of men are or can any way possibly be obliged to her bare Determination of the Sence of the Scripture Especially so far as this is set up absolutely by her and is not dependant upon any Sence proper to the Words and Grammar of the Scripture it self All and every of which Powers as the Protestant Church doth wholly deny to the Church of Rome So for as much as the Church of Rome can pretend to no one of the said Rights or Authorities now mentioned otherwise than as it must by some means or other be lawfully conveyed or derived to her The Protestant Church therefore challengeth her and provoketh her to shew that special and peculiar Commission by which SHE and SHE alone is impowered to do all or any of those things before named Because without this Commission can be produced and produced upon some Clear Evident and Sufficient Warrant or Ground for it All Her pretences to the said Authority seeing it is so manifestly destructive to the Scripture it self must needs appear to be not only Precarious but very frivolous and very absurd The Church of Rome being thus challenged and provoked in the point of her Commission and yet well knowing that there is nothing which she can possibly appeal unto for the proof of her Authority beside the Scripture it self She becomes hereupon to be several ways distressed and perplexed First because she finds that she cannot allow of the Grammatical Sence of the Scripture in any one Case whatever But she must necessarily and unavoidably allow it in all other Cases also where it may

must also grant that the Truth Sanctity and Authority of the holy Scripture was and could not but necessarily be before any Truth Holiness Infallibility and Authority was or could possibly be in the Church and consequently we must grant that these were both first and so both of them were one before another respectively In like manner we must grant that as there is an absolute necessity that the Church and its Authority as infallible should be built upon the Scripture entirely and upon the Original Authority of it so there is as great a necessity that the Sence of the Scripture with the truth of it wherein its Authority doth properly and principally consist should be built upon the Church and upon the Authority of it and therefore a necessity that both these should be built each upon the other mutually and respectively and therefore a necessity that the Church should be the Foundation of all the Scriptures truth and that the Scripture should be the Foundation of all the Church its Truth and therefore that each of these should be the respective Basis or Ground of the other of these mutually The Clearness Consonancy Coherence and manifest Consistency of all which things whoever doth not understand and doth not also fully and unquestionably believe is neither a Schollar that is quick enough nor a schollar that is qualified enough for the sufficient and substantial comprehending of the Divinity of the Catholick sence And therefore upon the consideration of the whole we may conclude that if all these things now mentioned are substantially true and capable to be clearly understood by rational Persons and that they are consistent really one with another Then it must be certain that the Church of Rome is both a true Church and its Doctrines are all certainly and unquestionably true and all its followers must be true Christians also and free from all Error for these things must be all of them true and certain alike But if these several things above mentioned are manifestly contradictory and absurd and such therefore as are no way possible to be rationally understood or capable to be consistent any way one with another then these things can never be true viz. Either that the Church of Rome should be a true Church or that its Doctrines should be all of them true or that its followers should be such true Christians as to be free from all Error Seeing none of these three things can be otherwise true or certain than as the several things above mentioned are true or certain which are manifestly absurd and utterly false The horrible Wickedness of the Church of Rome further manifested The Impiety and Wickedness as well as Absurdity of the Church of Rome in this invention of the Catholick Sence and in her setting up of it will be evident also to any that will consider that even while she goeth about not only to corrupt but to defeat the Scripture of its proper Authority as a Divine Writing by her denying that any Sence is capable to be had from it but what the Church only doth give it and by denying therefore that the Litteral or Grammatical Sence or Construction of the Scripture is in any place certain or at least not so certain as it may be said of its self to be simply absolutely or infallibly true or so certain that it is in any place sufficient to give an infallibility of truth to us she doth no other than discover by all this what her drift is throughout all this Device For she would never run her self upon so many Rocks to maintain things so manifestly gross and absurd as this Invention puts her upon were it not that her aim by all this is To spoyl and deprive the Scripture utterly not only of all power and Authority but of all Right immediately and absolutely of its self to bind and oblige the Consciences of men to it even though the sence of it should from the plain and genuine Construction of its words appear never so strong clear or coherent to them which Scope or Design of the Church of Rome for withdrawing our Obedience and Subjection wholly from the Scripture it self even in things that are plain and can be no way doubted by us as we are rational Persons and understand well enough what the Nature and Import of Sence is I say this scope or design of withdrawing our Obedience from the Scripture it self and from the plain and genuine fence of it is no other than openly to withdraw us from the plain and express Mind of God the Scripture being his Word which is not only to offer an Injury to the Authority and Councel of God but to his very Grace also in giving his Word to us And yet that this is the Chief and Principal Aim of the Church of Rome in her contending for the Catholick Sence and in her disallowing all other Sence whatever to the Scripture is the more clear because it is matter of Fact that wheresoever she can or doth exercise any Dominion either by her self or by her delegates there she will suffer none even not of her own Clergy to depend upon the Scripture strictly But will have all men at all times to submit all their Judgments and all their Consciences absolutely to her particular Determinations in all things relating to Faith whether the things she doth determine be agreeable or not agreeable to the Word or Rule of Faith it self And if all her own Natives are treated with this Severity and Arbitrariness by her is is easie then to imagine what Strangers may expect from her especially if we consider that for the more effectual preventing the Laity also to shew any manner of Duty immediately to the Scripture and lest they should be convinced even by the very sight of it or should hold themselves obliged to the things plainly and expresly commanded by it she doth throughout all places where she hath any Power utterly forbid all use of the Scripture to them and will not suffer the Scripture so much as to be read or heard by them in a Vulgar or known Tongue By which Instances it may sufficiently appear seeing these things are matters of Fact that the Indeavour used by the Church of Rome to lessen the Credit of the Scriptures Letter Grammar or Word as if there were no certainty of sence in it is not really grounded upon any thing which may justly be attributed to the Scripture it self * But is a thing absolutely plotted Contrived formed or purposely Designed by the said Church for no other end but that men might not rely upon the Scripture or trust to the truth of those things that may be plainly and expresly founded in the very Letter of it and so might be moved to give Obedience to the Authority of it and to be led by it NOR for any other end but that Men might not be able to plead the said Word with the expressness of it against her or have a