of most mens lives and that is it which we complain of And we have reason for they suffer their Casuists to determine all cases severely and gently strictly and loosly that so they may entertain all spirits and please all dispositions and govern them by their own inclinations and as they list to be governed by what may please them not by that which profits them that none may go away scandaliz'd or griev'd from their penitential chairs But upon this account it is a sad reckoning which can be made concerning souls in the Church of Rome Suppose one great Doctor amongst them as many of them do shall say it is lawful to kill a King whom the Pope declares Heretick By the Doctrine of probability here is his Warranty And though the Church do not declare that Doctrine that is the Church doth not make it certain in Speculation yet it may be safely done in practise Here is enough to give peace of conscience to him that does it Nay if the contrary be more safe yet if the other be but probable by reason or Authority you may do the less safe and refuse what is more For that also is the opinion of some grave Doctors If one Doctor says it is safe to swear a thing as of our knowledge which we do not know but believe it is so it is therefore probable that it is lawful to swear it because a grave Doctor says it and then it is safe enough to do so And upon this account who could finde fault with Pope Constantine the IV. who when he was accus'd in the Lateran Council for holding the See Apostolick when he was not in Orders justified himself by the example of Sergius Bishop of Ravenna and Stephen Bishop of Naples Here was exemplum bonorum honest men had done so before him and therefore he was innocent When it is observed by Cardinal Campegius and Albertus Pighius did teach That a Priest lives more holily and chaftly that keeps a Concubine than he that hath a married wife and then shall finde in the Popes Law That a Priest is not to be remov'd for fornication who will not or may not practically conclude that since by the Law of God marriage is holy and yet to some men fornication is more lawful and does not make a Priest irregular that therefore to keep a Concubine is very lawfull especially since abstracting from the consideration of a mans being in Orders or not fornication it self is probably no sin at all For so saies Durandus Simple fornication it self is not a deadly sin according to the Natural Law and excluding all positive Law and Martinus de Magistris saies To believe simp le fornication to be no deadly sin is not heretical because the testimonies of Scripture are not expresse These are grave Doctors and therefore the opinion is probable and the practise safe When the good people of the Church of Rome hear it read That P. Clement the VIII in the Index of prohibited Books saies That the Bible published in vulgar Tongues ought not to be read and retain'd no not so much as a compend of the History of the bible and Bellarmine saies That it is not necessary to salvation to believe that there are any Scriptures at all written and that Cardinal Hosius saith Perhaps it had been better for the Church if no Scriptures had been written They cannot but say That this Doctrine is probable and think themselves safe when they walk without the Light of Gods Word and relie wholly upon the Pope or their Priest in what he is pleas'd to tell them and that they are no way oblig'd to keep that Commandment of Christ Search the Scriptures Cardinal Tolet saies That if a Nobleman be set upon and may escape by going away he is not tied to it but may kill him that intends to strike him with a stick That if a man be in a great passion and so transported that he considers not what he saies if in that case he does blaspheme he does not always sin That if a man be beastly drunk and then commit fornication that fornication is no sin That if a man desires carnal pollution that he may be eas'd of his carnal temptations or for his health it were no sin That it is lawful for a man to expose his Bastards to the Hospital to conceal his own shame He saies it out of Soto and he from Thomas Aquinas That if the times be hard or the Iudge unequal a man that cannot sell his Wine at a due price may lawfully make his measures less than is appointed or mingle Water with his Wine and sell it for pure so he do not lie and yet if he does it is no mortal sin nor obliges him to restitution Emanuel Sà affirms That if a man lie with his intended Wife before Marriage it is no sin or light one nay quin etiam expedit si multum illa defferatur it is good to do so if the benediction or publication of marriage be much deferr'd That Infants in their Cradles may be made Priests is the common opinion of Divines and Canonists saith Tolet and that in their Cradles they can be made Bishops said the Archdeacon and the Provost and though some say the contrary yet the other is the more true saith the Cardinal Vasques saith That not onely an Image of God but any Creature in the World reasonable or unreasonable may without danger be worshipped together with God as his Images That we ought to adore the reliques of Saints though under the form of Worms and that it is no sin to worship a ray of light in which the Devil is invested if a man supposes him to be Christ And in the same manner if he supposes it to be a piece of a Saint which is not he shall not want the merit of his devotion And to conclude Pope Celestine the III. as Alphonsus à Castro reports himself to have seen a Decretal of his to that purpose affirmed That if one of the married couple fell into Heresie the marriage is dissolv'd and that the other may marry another and the marriage is nefarious and they are irritae nuptiae the Espousals are void if a Catholick and a Heretick marry together said the Fathers of the Synod in Trullo And though all of this be not own'd generally yet if a Roman Catholick marries a wife that is or shall turn Heretick he may leave her and part bed and board according to the Doctrine taught by the Canon Law it self by the Lawyers and Divines as appears in Covaruvias Mathias Aquarius and Bellarmine These opinions are indeed very strange to us of the Church of England and Ireland but no strangers in the Church of Rome and because they are taught by great Doctors by Popes themselves by Cardinals and the Canon Law respectively do at
Masse is as sure as may be to deliver the souls of his parents and a thousand more such stories as these are to be seen every where and every day Once for all There was a Book printed at Paris by Francis Regâ—ault A. D. 1536 May 25. called The hours of the most blessed Virgin Mary according to the use of Sarum in which for the saying three short prayers written in Rome in a place called The Chappel of the Holy Cross of seven Romans are promised fourscore and ten thousand years of pardon of deadly sin Now the meaning of these things is very plain By these devices they serve themselves and they do not serve God They serve themselves by this Doctrine For they teach that what penance is ordinarily imposed does not take away all the punishment that is due for they do not impose what was antiently enjoyn'd by the penitential Canons but some little thing instead of it and it may be that what was anciently enjoyn'd by the penitential Canons is not so much as God will exact for they suppose that he will forgive nothing but the guilt and the eternity but he will exact all that can be demanded on this side hell even to the last farthing he must be paid some way or other even when the guilt is taken away but therefore to prevent any falling that way they have given indulgences enough to take off what was due by the Old Canons and what may be due by the severity of God and if these fail they may have recourse to the Priests and they by their Masses can make supply so that their Disciples are well and the want of ancient Discipline shall do them no hurt But then how little they serve Gods end by treating the sinner so gently will be very evident For by this means they have found out a way that though it may be God will be more severe than the old penitential Canons and although these Canons were much more severe than men are now willing to suffer yet neither for the one or the other shall they need to be troubled they have found out an easier way to go to heaven than so An indulgence will be no great charge but that will take off all the supernumerary penances which ought to have been imposed by the ancient Discipline of the Church and may be requir'd by God A little alms to a Priest a small oblation to a Church a pilgrimage to the image or reliques of a Saint wearing Saint Francis Chord saying over the beads with an hallowed appendant entering into a Fraternity praying at a priviledged altar leaving a legacy for a soul Mass visiting a priviledged Caemetery and twenty other devices will secure the sinner from suffering punishment here or hereafter more then his friendly Priest is pleased gently to impose To them that ask what should any one need to get so many hundred thousand years of pardon as are ready to be had upon very easie terms They answer as before that whereas it may be for perjury the antient Canons enjoyned penance all their life that will be supposed to be twenty or forty years or suppose an hundred if the man have been perjur'd a thousand times and committed adultery so often and done innumerable other sins for every one of which he deserves to suffer forty years penance and how much more in the account of God he deserves he knows not if he be attrite and confess'd so that the guilt is taken away yet as much temporal punishment remains due as is not paid here but the indulgences of the Church will take off so much as it comes to even of all that would be suffered in Purgatory Now it is true that Purgatory at least as is believ'd cannot last a hundred thousand years but yet God may by the acerbity of the flames in twenty years equal the Canonical penances of twenty thousand years to prevent which these indulgences of so many thousand years are devised A wise and thrifty invention sure and well contriv'd and rightly applotted according to every mans need and according as they suspect his bill shall amount to This strange invention as strange as it is will be own'd for this is the account of it which we find in Bellarmine and although Gerson and Dominicus à Soto are asham'd of these prodigious indulgences and suppose that the Popes Quaestuaries onely did procure them yet it must not be so disown'd truth is truth and it is notoriously so and therefore a reason must be found out for it and this is it which we have accounted But the use we make of it is this That since they have declar'd that when sinnes are pardoned so easily yet the punishment remains so very great and that so much must be suffered here or in Purgatory it is strange that they should not onely in effect pretend to shew more mercy than God does or the primitive Church did but that they should directly lay aside the primitive Discipline and while they declaim against their adversaries for saying they are not necessary yet at the same time they should devise tricks to take them quite away so that neither penances shall much smart here nor Purgatory which is a device to make men to be Mulata's as the Spaniard calls half Christians a device to make a man go to heaven and to hell too shall not torment them hereafter However it be yet things are so ordered that the noise of penances need not trouble the greatest criminal unless he be so unfortunate as to live in no countrey and near no Church and without Priest or Friend or Money or notice of any thing that is so loudly talk'd of in Christendom If he be he hath no help but one he must live a holy and a severe life which is the onely great calamity which they are commanded to suffer in the Church of England but if he be not the case is plain he may by these doctrines take his ease SECT IV. WE doubt not but they who understand the proper sequele of these things will not wonder that the Church of Rome should have a numerous company of Proselytes made up of such as the beginnings of Davids Army were But that we may undeceive them also for to their souls we intend charity and relief by this address we have thought fit to add one consideration more and that is that it is not fit that they should trust to this or any thing of this not onely because there is no foundation of truth in these new devices but because even the Roman Doctors themselves when they are pinch'd with an objection let their hold go and to escape do in remarkable measures destroy their own new building The case is this To them who say that if there were truth in these pretensions then all these and the many millions of indulgences more and the many other wayes of releasing souls out of Purgatory the innumerable Masses
or other he should be at any time it seems it will serve For thus they turn Divinity and the care of souls into Mathematicks and Clockwork and dispute minutes and periods with God and are careful to tell their people how much liberty they may take and how far they may venture least they should lose any thing of their sins pleasure which they can possibly enjoy and yet have hopes of being sav'd at last 3. But there is worse yet If a man willingly commits a sin in hope and expectation of a Iubilee and of the Indulgences afterwards to be granted he does not lose the Indulgence but shall receive it which is expresly affirm'd by Navar and Antonius Cordubensis and Bellarmine though he asks the question denies it not By which it is evident that the Roman Doctrines and Divinity teach contrary to Gods way who is most of all angry with them that turn his grace into wantonness and sin that grace may abound 4. If any man by reason of povertie cannot give the prescrib'd Almes he cannot receive the Indulgence Now since it is sufficiently known that in all or most of the Indulgences a clause is sure to be included that something be offered to the Church to the Altar to a Religious House c. the consequent of this will be soon seen that Indulgences are made for the rich and the Treasures of the Church are to be dispensed to them that have Treasures of their own for habenti dabitur But then God help the poor for them Purgatory is prepar'd and they must burn For the Rich it is pretended but the smell of fire will not pass upon them From these premises we suppose it but too evident that the Roman Doctors prevaricate in the whole Doctrine of Repentance which indeed in Christ Jesus is the whole Oeconomy of Justification and Salvation it is the hopes and staff of all the world the remedy of all evils past present and to come And if our physick be poyson'd if our staff be broken if our hopes make us asham'd how shall we appear before Christ at his coming But we say that in all the parts of it their Doctrine is infinitely dangerous 1. Contrition is sufficient if it be but one little act and that in the very Article of death and before that time it is not necessary by the Law of God nay it is indeed sufficient but it is also insufficient for without confession in act or desire it suffices not And though it be thus insufficiently sufficient yet it is not necessary For attrition is also sufficient if a Priest can be had and then any little grief proceeding out of the fear of Hell will do it if the Priest do but absolve 2. Confession might be made of excellent use and is so among the pious children of the Church of England but by the Doctrines and Practises in the Church of Rome it is made not the remedy of sins by proper enargy but the excuse the alleviation the confidence the ritual external and sacramental remedy and serves instead of the labours of a holy and a regular life and yet is so intangled with innumerable and inextricable cases of Conscience Orders humane Prescripts and great and little Artifices that scruples are more increased than sins are lessened 3. For Satisfaction and Penances which if they were rightly order'd and made instrumental to kill the desires of sin or to punish the Criminal or were properly the fruits of repentance that is parts of a holy life good works done in charity and the habitual permanent grace of God were so prevailing as they do the work of God yet when they are taken away not only by the declension of primitive Discipline but by new Doctrines and Indulgences regular and offer'd commutations for mony and superstitious practises which are sins themselves and increase the numbers and weights of the account there is a great way made for the destruction of souls and the discountenancing the necessity of holy life but nothing for the advantage of holiness or the becoming like to God And now at last for a cover to this dish we have thought fit to mind the world and to give caution to all that mean to live godly in Christ Iesus to what an infinite scandal and impiety this affair hath risen in the Church of Rome we mean in the instance of their Taxa Camerae seu Cancellariae Apostolicae the tax of the Apostolical Chamber or Chancery A Book publikely printed and expos'd to common sale of which their own Espencaeus gives this account that it is a Book in which a man may learn more wickedness than in all the Summaries of vices published in the world and yet to them that will pay for it there is to many given a License to all an Absolution for the greatest and most horrid sins There is is a price set down for his Absolution that hath kill'd his Father or his Mother Brother Sister or Wife or that hath lyen with his Sister or his Mother We desire all good Christians to excuse us for naming such horrid things Nomina sunt ipso penè timenda sono But the Licences are printed at Paris in the Year 1500. by Tossan Denis Pope Innocent the VIII either was Author or inlarger of these Rules of this Chancery Tax and there are glosses upon them in which the Scholiast himself who made them affirms that he must for that time conceal some things to avoid Scandal But how far this impiety proceeded and how little regard there is in it to piety or the good of souls is visible by that which Augustinus de Anconâ teaches That the Pope ought not to give Indulgences to them who have a desire of giving mony but cannot as to them who actually give And whereas it may be objected that then poor mens souls are in a worse condition than the rich he answers That as to the remission of the punishment acquir'd by the Indulgence in such a case it is not inconvenient that the rich should be in a better condition than the poor For in that manner do they imitate God who is no respecter of persons SECT VI. THese Observations we conceive to be sufficient to deter every well-meaning person from running into or abiding in such temptations Every false Proposition that leads to impiety is a stock and fountain of temptations and these which we have reckon'd in the matter of Repentance having influence upon the whole life are yet much greater by corrupting the whole mass of Wisdom and Spiritual Propositions There are indeed many others We shall name some of them but shall not need much to insist on them Such as are 1. That one man may satisfie for another It is the general Doctrine of their Church The Divines and Lawyers consent in it and publikely own it The effect of which is this that some are made rich by it and some are careless But qui
least become very probable and therefore they may be believ'd and practis'd without danger according to the Doctrine of Probability And thus the most desperate things that ever were said by any though before the declaration of the Church they cannot become Articles of Faith yet besides that they are Doctrines publickly allowed they can also become rules of practise and securities to the conscience of their Disciples To this we may adde that which is usual in the Church of Rome the praxis Ecclesiae the practise of the Church Thus if an Indulgence be granted upon condition to visit such an Altar in a distant Church the Nuns that are shut up and Prisoners that cannot go abroad if they address themselves to an Altar of their own with that intention they shall obtain the Indulgence Id enim confirmat Ecclesiae praxis says Fabius The practise of the Church in this case gives first a probability in Speculation and then a certainty in practise This instance though it be of no concern yet we use it as a particular to shew the principle upon which they go But it is practicable in many things of greatest danger and concern If the question be Whether it be lawfull to worship the Image of the Cross or of Christ with Divine Worship first there is a Doctrine of S. Thomas for it and Vasquez and many others therefore it is probable and therefore is safe in practise sic est Ecclesiae praxis the Church also practises so as appears in their own Offices and S. Thomas makes this use of it Illi exhibemus cultum Latriae in quo ponimus spem salutis sed in cruce Christi ponimus spem salutis Cantat enim Ecclesia O Crux ave spes unica Hoc passionis tempore Auge piis justitiam Reisque dona veniam Ergo Crux Christi est adoranda adoratione Latriae We give Divine Worship says he to that in which we put our hopes of salvation but in the Cross we put our hopes of salvation for so the Church sings it is the practise of the Church Hail O Cross our onely hope in this time of suffering encrease righteousness to the godly and give pardon to the guilty therefore the Cross of Christ is to be ador'd with Divine Adoration By this Principle you may embrace any opinion of their Doctors safely especially if the practise of the Church do intervene and you need not trouble your self with any further inquiry And if an evil custom get amongst men that very custom shall legitimate the action if any of their grave Doctors allow it or good men use it and Christ is not your Rule but the examples of them that live with you or are in your eye and observation that 's your rule We hope we shall not need to say any more in this affair The pointing out this rock may be warning enough to them that would not suffer shipwrack to decline the danger that looks so formidably Sect. VIII AS these evil Doctrines have general influence into evil life so there are some others which if they be pursued to their proper and natural issues that is if they believ'd and practis'd are enemies to the particular and specifick parts of Piety and Religion Thus the very prayers of the Faithful are or may be spoil'd by Doctrines publickly allowed and prevailing in the Roman Church For 1. They teach That prayers themselves ex opere operato or by the natural work it self do prevail For it is not essential to prayer for a man to think particularly of what he sayes it is not necessary to think of the things signified by the words So Suarez teaches Nay it is not necessary to the essence of prayer that he who prays should think de ipsa locutione of the speaking it self And indeed it is necessary that they should all teach so or they cannot tolerably pretend to justifie their prayers in an unknown Tongue But this is indeed their publick Doctrine For prayers in the mouth of the man that says them are like the words of a Charmer they prevail even when they are not understood sayes Salmeron or as Antoninus They are like a precious stone of as much value in the hand of an unskilful man as of a Ieweller And therefore attention to or devotion in our prayers is not necessary For the understanding of which saith Cardinal Tolet when it is said that you must say your prayers or offices attently reverently and devoutly you must know that attention or advertency to your prayers is manifold 1. That you attend to the words so that you speak them not to fast or to begin the next verse of a Psalm before he that recites with you hath done the former verse and this attention is necessary But 2. There is an attention which is by understanding the sense and that is not necessary For if it were very extremely few would do their duty when so very few do at all understand what they say 3. There is an attention relating to the end of prayer that is that he that prays considers that he is present before God and speaks to him and this indeed is very profitable but it is not necessary No not so much So that by this Doctrine no attention is necessary but to attend that the words be all said and said right But even this attention is not necessary that it should be actual but it suffices to be virtual that is that he who says his office intends to do so and do not change his minde although he does not attend And he who does not change his minde that is unless observing himself not to attend he still turn his minde to other things he attends meaning he attends sufficiently and as much as is necessary though indeed speaking naturally and truly he does not attend If any man in the Church of England and Ireland had published such Doctrine as this he should quickly and deservedly have felt the severity of the Ecclesiastical Rod. But in Rome it goes for good Catholick Doctrine Now although upon this account Devotion is it may be good and it is good to attend to the words of our prayer and the sense of them yet that it is not necessary is evidently consequent to this But it is also expresly affirm'd by the same hand There ought to be devotion that our mind be inflam'd with the love of God though if this be wanting without contempt it is no deadly sin Ecclesiae satisfit per opus externum nec aliud jubet saith Reginaldus If ye do the outward work the Church is satisfied neither does she command any thing else Good Doctrine this And it is an excellent Church that commands nothing to him that prays but to say so many words Well! But after all this if Devotion be necessary or not if it be present or not if the minde wander or wander not if you minde what you pray or minde it not
be excused before God by their ignorant pretensions and suppositions we know not but they hope to save themselves harmless by saying that they believe the Bread to be their Saviour and that if they did not believe so they would not do so We believe that they say true but we are afraid that this will no more excuse them then it will excuse those who worship the Sun and Moon and the Queen of Heaven whom they would not worship if they did not believe to have Divinity in them And it may be observed That they are very fond of that persuasion by which they are led into this worship The error might be some excuse if it were probable or if there were much temptation to it But when they choose this persuasion and have nothing for it but a tropical expression of Scripture which rather than not believe in the natural useless and impossible sense they will defie all their own reason and four of the five operations of their soul Seeing Smelling Tasting and Feeling and contradict the plain Doctrine of the Ancient Church before they can consent to believe this error that Bread is changed into God and the Priest can make his Maker We have too much cause to fear that the error is too gross to admit an excuse and it is hard to suppose it invincible and involuntary because it is so hard and so untempting and so unnatural to admit the error We do desire that God may finde an excuse for it and that they would not But this we are most sure of that they might if they pleas'd finde many excuses or rather just causes for not giving Divine honour to the Consecrated Elements because there are so many contingencies in the whole conduct of this affair and we are so uncertain of the Priests intention and we can never be made certain that there is not in the whole order of causes any invalidity in the Consecration and it is so impossible that any man should be sure that Hâ—re and Now and This Bread is Transubstantiated and is really the Natural body of Christ that it were fit to omit the giving Gods due to that which they do not know to be any thing but a piece of bread and it cannot consist with holiness and our duty to God certainly to give Divine Worship to that thing which though their Doctrine were true they cannot know certainly to have a Divine Being SECT XIII AND now we shall plainly represent to our charges how this whole matter stands The case is this The Religion of a Christian consists in Faith and Hope Repentance and Charity Divine Worship and Celebration of the Sacraments and finally in keeping the Commandments of God Now in all these both in Doctrines and practices the Church of Rome does dangerously erre and teaches men so to do They do injury to Faith by creating new Articles and enjoyning them as of necessity to salvation * They spoil their hope by placing it upon Creatures and devices of their own * They greatly sin against Charity by damning all that are not of their opinion in things false or uncertain right or wrong * They break in pieces the salutary Doctrine of Repentance making it to be consistent with a wicked life and little or no amendment * They Worship they know not what and pray to them that hear them not and trust on that which helps them not * And as for the Commandments they leave one of them out of their Catechisms and Manuals and while they contend earnestly against some Opponents for the possibility of keeping them all they do not insist upon the necessity of keeping any in the course of their lives till the danger or article of their death * And concerning the Sacraments they have egregiously prevaricated in two points For not to mention their reckoning of seven Sacraments which we only reckon to be an unnecessary and un-Scholastical Errour they take the one half of the Principal away from the Laity and they institute little Sacraments of their own they invent Rites and annex Spiritual Graces to them whaâ— they please themselves of their own heads without a Divine Warrant or Institution and * At last perswade their people to that which can never be excus'd at least from Material Idolatry If these things can consist with the duty of Christians not only to eat what they worship but to adore those things with Divine Worship which are not God To reconcile a wicked life with certain hopes and expectations of Heaven at last and to place these hopes upon other things than God and to damn all the world that are not Christians at this rate then we have lost the true measures of Christianity and the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ is not a Natural and Rational Religion not a Religion that makes men holy but a Confederacy under the conduct of a Sect and it must rest in Forms and Ceremonies and Devices of Mans Invention And although we do not doubt but that the goodness of God does so prevail over all the follies and malice of mankind that there are in the Roman Communion many very good Christians yet they are not such as they are Papists but by some thing that is higher and before that something that is of an abstract and more sublime consideration And though the good people amongst them are what they are by the grace and goodness of God yet by all or any of these Opinions they are not so But the very best suffer diminution and allay by these things and very many more are wholly subverted and destroyed CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general and of Monarchy in special Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by Her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support SECT I. THat in the Church of Rome it is publickly taught by their greatest Doctors That it is lawful to lye or deceive the question of the Magistrate to conceal their name and to tell a false one to elude all examinations and make them insignificant and toothless cannot be doubted by any man that knows how the English Priests have behav'd themselves in the times of Queen Elizabeth King Iames and the Blessed Martyr King Charles I. Emonerius wrote in defence of it and Father Barnes who wrote a Book against Lying and Equivocating was suspected for a Heretick and smarted severely under their hands To him that askes you again for what you have paid him already you may safely say you never had any thing of him meaning so as to owe it him now It is the Doctrine of Emanuel SÃ and Sanchez which we understand to be a great lye and a great sin it being at the best a deceiving of the Law that you be not deceiv'd by your Creditor that is a doing evil to prevent one a sin to prevent the losing of your money If a man askes his Wife
yet Bellarmine dares not deny it but makes for it a crude and a cold Apology Now concerning this Article it will not be necessary to declare the Sentence of the Church of England and Ireland because it is notorious to all the World and is expresly oppos'd against this Roman Doctrine by Laws Articles Confessions Homilies the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy the Book of Christian Institution and the many excellent Writings of King Iames of Blessed Memory of our Bishops and other Learned Persons against Bellarmine Parsons Eudaemon Iohannes Creswel and others And nothing is more notorious than that the Church of England is most dutiful most zealous for the right of Kings and within these four and twenty years She hath had many Martyrs and very very many Confessors in this Cause It is true that the Church of Rome does recriminate in this point and charges some Calvinists and Presbyterians with Doctrines which indeed they borrowed from Rome using their Arguments making use of their Expressions and pursuing their Principles But with them in this Article we have nothing to do but to reprove the Men and condemn their Doctrine as we have done all along by private Writings and publick Instruments We conclude these our Reproofs with an Exhoriation to our respective Charges to all that desire to be sav'd in the day of the Lord Iesus that they decline from these horrid Doctrines which in their birth are new in their growth are scandalous in their proper consequents are infinitely dangerous to their Souls and hunt for their precious life But therefore it is highly fit that they also should perceive their own advantages and give God praise that they are immur'd from such infinite dangers by the Holy Precepts and Holy Faith taught and commanded in the Church of England and Ireland in which the Word of God is set before them as a Lanthorn to their feet and a Light unto their eyes and the Sacraments are fully administred according to Christs Institution and Repentance is preach'd according to the measures of the Gospel and Faith in Christ is propounded according to the Rule of the Apostles and the measures of the Churches Apostolical and Obedience to Kings is greatly and sacredly urg'd and the Authority and Order of Bishops is preserv'd against the Usurpation of the Pope and the Invasion of Schismaticks and Aerians new and old and Truth and Faith to all men is kept and preach'd to be necessary and inviolable and the Commandements are expounded with just severity and without scruples and Holiness of Life is urg'd upon all men as indispensably necessary to Salvation and therefore without any allowances tricks and little artifices of escaping from it by easie and imperfect Doctrines and every thing is practis'd which is useful to the saving of our Souls and Christs Merits and Satisfaction are intirely relyed upon for the pardon of our sins and the necessity of Good Works is universally taught and our Prayers are holy unblameable edifying and understood they are according to the measures of the Word of God and the practice of all Saints In this Church the Children are duly carefully and rightly Baptiz'd and the Baptiz'd in their due time are Confirm'd and the Confirm'd are Communicated and Penitents are Absolv'd and the Impenitents punished and discouraged and Holy Marriage in all men is preferr'd before unclean Concubinate in any and Nothing is wanting that God and his Christ hath made necessary to Salvation Behold we set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Safety and Danger Choose which you will but remember that the Prophets who are among you have declar'd to you the way of Salvation Now the Lord give you understanding in all things and reveal even this also unto you Amen FINIS 1 Cor. 6.4 Phil. â— 14 Cont. Hermogen De vera side in Moral â—â—g 72. c. 1. reg 80. c. 22. Epist. Pasch. 2 De incar Christi Lib. 2. cap. de origen error lib. 7. contr Celsum Can comperimus de consecr dist 2. in 1 Cor. 11. Eccles. 11.6 De uniâ— Eccles cap. 6. * Ecclesia ex facris canoniciâ— Scripturiâ— osteudenda est quaque exillis aftendi non potest Ecclesia non est S. Aug. deâ—â—tit Eccles. c. 4. c. 3. Ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam ibi deat namus causum nostram * Lib. Cano discipl Eccles. Angliâ— injunct Regiâ— Elis. A. D. 1571. Can. de concionatoribus â—at 3. Calend. Mart. Thâ—ssaâ—onicae a Quod sit metrum regula aâ— scientia credendorum Summae de Eccles. l. 2. c. 203. b Novum Symbolum condere solum ad Papam spectat quia est capuâ— fidei Christians cujus authoritate omnia quae ad filem spectant firmantur roborantur q. 59. a. 1. art 2. sicut potest novum symbolum condere ita potest novos articulos supra aelios multiplicare c Papa potest sacere novos arâ—iâ—ulos fidei id est quod modo credi oporteat cum sic prius non oportereâ— in cap. cum Christ. de hate n. 2. d Papa potest inducere novum articulum fidei in idem e Super 2. Decret de jurejur c. minis n. 1. f Apud Petrum Ciezam â—o 2. instit peruinae cap. â—9 * Iohannes Clemens aliquos folia Theodereti laceravit abjecit in socum in quibus contrae Transubstanâ—iaetionem praeclare disseruit Et cum non itae pridem Originem excuderent totum illud capuâ— sextum Iohannis quod commentabaetur Origenes omiserunt mutilum ediderunt librum propter candem causam * Sixtus Senensis Epist. Dedicat. ad Pium Quint. laudat Pontificem in haec verba Expurgari emaculari curâ—stâ— omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum at praeciput veterum Patrum scriptae Index Expurgator Madrili 1612. in Indiâ—e libror. expurgatorum pag. 39. Gal. 1. 8. Part 2. act 6. c. â— De potest Eccles consiâ— â— De Consiâ— author l. 2. c. 17. Section 1. Sess. 21. cap. 4. Part. 1. Sum. tit 10. c. 3. In art 18. Luther * Intravit ut vulpes regnavit ut leo moriebatur ut canis de eo saepius dictum Tertull. l. ad Martyr c. 1. S. Cyprian lib. 3. Ep. 15. apud Pamelium 11. Concil Nicen. 1. can 12. Conc. Ancyr c. 5. Concil Laodicen c. 2. S. Basil. in Ep. canonicis habentur in Nomocanone Photii can 73. * Communis opittio DD. tam Theologorum quaem Canonicorum quod sunt ex abundantiae meritorum quae ultrae mensuram demeritorum suorum sancti sustinuerunt Christi Sum. Angel v. Indulg 9. * Lib. 1. de indulgent cap. 2. 3. a In 4. l. sent dist 19. q. 2. b Ibid. dist 20. q. 3. Ubi supra In lib. 4. sent Verb. Indulgentia Vt quid non praevides tibâ— in die judicii quando nemo poterit per alium excusari vel defendi sed unusquisque sufficiens onus erit sibi ipsi Th. ae Kempis l. 1. de imit c. 24. a Homil. 1.