for our constancy to the profession of our forefathers from which had we stincht but the breadth of a naile and taken upon us some new denomination we had been as hard to be found out as other Sectaries and as free from penalties as they which forefathers of ours living before Luthers dayes in communion with the Catholikes of France Spaine Italic and all the Christian world as we do now did deliver faithfully it stood upon their salvation so to do unto their children those of the rest of the Christian World did the like unto their children that Depositum of Christianity which they had received from their predecessors and they from theirs by a continued successive line of Tradition from the Apostles and Christ no reforming enemy being able to shew when the Catholike Faith now professed by us and persecuted in us began in the world nor when the successive Tradition we and all Catholikes pretend unto was intercepted an infallible argument of our persecuted Religions being from the Apostles Christ More then sufficient cause I say for all to return to the Catholike Church setled by Christ the divine Architect upon a rock never to be prevailed against by humane or Devills powers never subject to fall from her self in points of faith nor consequently to be reformed in them from which Church your first Reformers fell Ex nobis exeuntes one of the marks by which we are to discern Hereticks as the Apostles teach us in their Acts chap. 15. ver 24. going out from among us to gain sensuall liberty to themselves to be revenged on their superiors or for private by-ends troubling the world with words subverting mens soules without commission or mandate from any superior for their facts or pretended Reformations And finally cause enough for the world to reflect how ill advised they were in times past and what an ill president they shewed posterity in their former greedy acceptance of new reforming spirits so prejudiciall to saving truth to orderly government in Church and State and to particular mens properties And withall to take warning for the future not to remit the work of Reformation even in things subject thereunto as Ceremonies humane practices manners and the like to every giddy pretending spirit if you do so you shall certainly have more holes made then mended but to such as are lawfully ordered and commissioned for it by the visible Church the pillar and ground of truth that all things be done according to her prescript honestè secundum ordinem 1 Cor. 14. 40. But fearing lest I should make this Prefatory Discourse like the gates of the City Myndus or like a great portall to a little house I 'le first present you with the names of some late Converts and then deteine you no longer from my promised re-impression of Doctor Cariers learned Letter to King James which is here rendred verbatim according to the Originall excepting onely the addition of some few marginall Notes I desire you to read it with attention reflecting from those to these times and not permit your mind to bee so prejudicate as to give censure before you have well pondered the matter the scope of which mutato tempore is the same with this which comes from one who unfeignedly would have all men saved and come to the knowledge of and imbrace the truth N. STRANGE From Paris 1. Novemb. 1648. stylo novo PSAL. 2. Et nunc Reges intelligite erudimini qui judicatis terram Attendite disciplinam nè pereatis The names of some who have lately been Ministers or Vniversity men in England and Scotland and are now converted to the Catholike Faith Tho. Vane Doctor of Divinity of Christs Colledge Cambridge lately Chaplain Extraordinary to His Majesty and Parson of Crayford in Kent Hugh Paulin de Cressy of Cambridge lately Prebend of Windsore in England and Deane of Laghlin in Ireland now entred into the Religious Order of S. Benedict at Doway Hen. Ireson of All-Soules Oxford Doctor of the Civill Law N. Read of New Colledge Oxford Doctor of the Civill Law Mr. Rich. Nicholls Bachelor of Divinity of Peter-house Cambridge Mr. Rich. Crashaw Master of Arts of Peter-house Cambridge now Secretary to a Cardinall in Rome well known in England for his excellent and ingenious Poems Mr. William Rowlands Minister of S. Margarets Westminster Master of Arts of Exeter Colledge Oxford Mr. Tho. Normington Master of Arts of Pembroke Hall Cambridge now in Italy a very able man in divers Sciences Mr. Joyner Bachelor of Arts and Fellow of S. Mary Magdelens Colledge Oxford Mr. Blakiston Bachelor of Arts of Cambridge who died last yeare in the English Colledge at Rome Mr. Edward Barker of Caius Colledge Cambridge Bachelor of Arts. Mr. Eaton of Cambridge now Priest in the English Colledge at Rome Mr. Peter Glu Minister of Ballioll Colledge in Oxford now Priest Mr. Jackson Minister Mr. Cooper Minister Mr. Daniel Minister now entred into a Religious Order Of Scots Mr. John Chrighton a famous man in his Country late Preacher of Parson in Scotland afterwards eminent in Languedos and lastly Chaplain to the Marquesse of Ormond Mr. Andrew Youngston late Regent of Aberdein now in a Colledge in Spain Mr. William Simple late Regent in Glascow now also in Spain Mr. Hugh Rosse late Regent in Aberdein now also in Spain Mr. Tho. Johnston c. Besides these there are divers both learned and unlearned lately entred into Communion with the Church of Rome whose names you may more easily learne then I discreetly publish Nor do I doubt but one more commerced with England Scotland and Ireland with other parts of France and with the promises of the low Countries might easily furnish you with a larger Catalogue of Convertites of as good fame for their learning and good parts in your Universities and in their respective countries as these I have been bold to name their understanding being now better disposed to discern and reflect upon their former errours by the palpable confusion and unconsciable effects they saw e-every where sprouted and sprouting out of the late Reformation begun by Luther Errata in the Preface PAge 6. line 13. read pretence of p. 12. l. 6. r. the bread l. ult r. of a little ERRATA PAge 3. line 28. read title p. 7. l. 13. dele one at p. 11. l. 15. dele in p. 21. l. 24. r. swinge over p. 23. l. 13. r. in these p. 39. l. ult r. reasonable Other lesse materiall faults with some false pointings the discerning Reader will easily discover and correct Most Excellent and renowned Soveraign IT is not unknown to all that know me in England that for these many years I have had my health very ill And therfore having from time to time used all the meanes and medicines that England could afford last of all by the advice of my Physitians I have made it my humble suit unto your Majesty that I might travell unto the Spa for the use of those waters
of their two Sacraments They had decencies in their Burialls They had severall practises outwardly religious and in brief they had so many Reliques of the old Christianity of their Countrey as did manifestly distinguish them from Jews Turks and other more prophane people All which as they were plausible stayes to with-hold men in the Protestant Religion and not to thinke on any other especially if they were born and bred in Protestancy so made they any mans conversion to Catholike Religion in those daies more remarkable more wondered at and more subject to the question what moved him to forsake the Protestant Withall D. Cariers favour with his Prince together with his great learning and good parts making him capable of the chiefest spirituall dignities and promotions in the Kingdome might well move many to take notice of his conversion and wonder he should change both his present possessions pregnant hopes of more for the poor contemptible being of an exiled Papist perhaps scanted in necessaries to live and breath But now to use the Prophet Jeremies words in his Threnes c. 4. v. 1. cap. 2. v. 2. though in a different sense Obscuratum est aurum mutatus est color optimus dispersi sunt lapides Sanctuarii in capite omnium platearum what seemed gold among the Protestants is now altogether darkned and cast off as drosse the most specious of their fair colours is faded an argument it was of no long lasting complexion the seeming corner stones of their seeming Sanctuary are dispersed in the head of all the streets The sworne supreme head of their Church though gray aged and well deserved of them is made his vassalls subject their ward their captive scarce allowed to keep his own head on his shoulders and whilst it is on is little lesse then basely foot-balled by the miscreants of his owne Subjects Their Bishops once the corner-stones of the English Sanctuary or Reformation are even levelled to the flock by their owne Disciplinated sheep yea I may say facti sunt opprobrium vicinis subsannatio illusio his qui in circuitu sunt they are truly become a reproach to their neighbours a scorne and mock to all about them The Reformation now thought best for England can subsist they say as well without Bishops as their neighbour Churches Their old Ordination of Ministers and as old as it is onely invented in King Edward the sixths daies is already laid to the wall this present Parliament hath found a newer way to supply the Bishops Office there is no pretence to Mission derived by any order from the Apostles all claime an equall right to the Pulpit Tinkers Weavers Taylors Fidlers Souldiers nor do any faile of novell-hunting auditors some of the old Protestant Preachers silenced by the Parliament others fallen to silence of themselves as not knowing what to preach to day for fear they be driven to contradict it in the next Sermon or to fight for their Pulpit others preach according to the times though against their owne consciences to save their livings And good God! what non-sense ignorances seditious rebellious Doctrines yea Blasphemies do the Tubs and Pulpits ring with whilst they are knocks and belaboured by those new Mountebank Predicants or Praters who decry and contemn the Lords Prayer the Apostles Creed and ten Commandements as rags and reliques of Popery and Superstition Their Liturgie which began in the nonageraign of Edw. the 6. and after some years interruption got stronger footing by an Act of Parliament in Q. Elizabeths daies and so was become almost of fourscore years prescription half as old as one of our Grandfathers is decryed antiquated by the present Parliament contemned by the people and succeeded by a new thing called a Directory of 4. or 5. yeares unquiet standing which begins already to lose credit with its first accepters though as yet the stronger Faction not without frequent scuffles and blood-shed keeps it perforce in many Churches and what is kept in perforce it neither likely to breed devotion unlesse it be of the new garb nor to be of long durance if the old Proverb faile not Nihil violentum diuturnum Their former marke of thirty nine Articles is little regarded if not quite out of date yea which is worse the Apostles Creed the perpetuall marke or symbol of a Christian is questioned and hath stood these six or seven yeares subjected to the disquisition of the Parliaments subpedancan Divines without determination as yet whether it be to be imbraced all and intirely for truth or only part Concerning the solemnities of their Sacraments I need not tell you into what omission and confusion they are fallen about their Lords Supper some Churches having had no Communion at all these six or seven years some using it after the old fashion others after the new some receive it kneeling some standing some sitting none of the new-modell'd Ministers some of the old did others derided it claiming more power to consecrate then the Layicks of the Parliament can give them which they know to be no more then the Bakers that sell them bread can sell with it As for their Sacrament of Baptisme besides their novelty in the manner and circumstances it is certaine they are defective in some places even in the essentialls I meane in the words of Institution and application of water some saying instead of I baptize thee in the Name of the Father c. We take thee into the Congregation of the faithfull Whether all apply the water either at all or rightly is more then my distance out of the Countrey permits me to learne but not more then I have reason to doubt of And where any of the essentialls are wanting there certainely the child is not baptized but left as he was borne a child of perdition by the state of originall sin The Burialls now among the Reformed in England are in a manner prophane in many places the dead being throwne into the ground like dogs and not a word said nor have they willingly more differences of daies by holy or fast in memory of Christian mysteries then Turks and Infidells nor finally is there any thing almost out of the Catholikes hands left in the Countrey that can perswade a travelling stranger to think England to be rather Christian then Turkish excepting the outward shape of Churches which of the charges to alter them be not a Remora may be also reformed ere long To these metamorphosies or changes of late inventions into the present of a little fresher coine adde the confounded Chaos we see now in matters of Religion throughout the Kingdome God Almighty permitting the monster of Reformation to reveale its owne turpitude and to betray its selfe by its cloven feet of Sects and Divisions to be what indeed it is that men might more easily discern it to beat it down and detest it Luther himselfe at the first and afterwards his followers of whatsoever Reformation were mightily tormented with those questions
of the Catholikes Where the Church afterwards called the Lutheran or Reformed was in the yeare of Christ 1512. when Luther was an Augustine Frier in his Monastery a Catholike in communion with the Pope of Rome Who was then a Protestant In what Countrey did he live What was his name the question is not Who was then a Protestant in name without asking them we know by Histories that the Lutherans had the name of Protestants some yeares after the Reformation begun from their Covenants and Protestations first made at Spire and afterwards at Smalcald in Germany when finding their party growing strong they began to take head against their Catholike Soveraigne Charles the fifth Nor was the question who was then before Luthers forsaking his cloistre and former Religion opposite to the Church of Rome or of a different beliefe from hers This question had been easily answered by naming the Hussits Wicklesians Berengarians Arrians and others which for particular points of Doctrine were as different from Luther as he from the Catholike but the meaning of the question was and still is Who did then believe all those points of Faith and onely those which Luther or any other after-Reformer did afterwards believe and wherein they differed from the beliefe of Catholikes which they pretended to reforme this hath been from the beginning and still is a tormenting question to all of the Reformed Churches and though daily asked by Catholikes Writers and Discoursers yet to this day could never be answered with any satisfaction or probability worthy a Schollers pen. If now in this November 1648. I should aske who is a Protestant in England .i. one holding all those points of faith and only those what other definition of a Protestant to give I know not but desire the learned Protestants to agree in it and to set it downe that he who desires to be one of their number may know what he desires which Luther the supposed Grandfather of Protestancy and Enemy to Catholikes professed to believe perhaps it would prove as troublesome or unsatisfiable a Quaere as the former yea if I should aske what three or four Schollers speaking of those that are come to some eminency in learning and to have some conceit of themselves for it are to be found in the Kingdome justly agreeing in all matters of faith yea to come closer to the purpose if the question were what one man setting the Catholikes aside is there to be found of the same opinion now in matters of saith that he was of on the second of November 1640 the day before the present Parliament began perhaps it would put you to a long search before you met a sure satisfactory answer Lest you should think I speake too much at random consider I beseech you how frequently you meet with men seriously and deliberately saying Pox on it rather then hazard my life liberty or fortunes I 'le be of any profession I 'le keep my conscience to my self but I 'le never lose my land for want of outward compliance or conformity with the prevailing Multitude And really their practice both in Religion and Loyalty is squared by that Dictamen Of what Religion I pray you do you count these Are they Protestants Weighing them in the true scale of the Sanctuary I take them to be Nullisidians indifferent for Christianity or the Turkish Turbant in evident state of damnation for their soules and that Tyre and Sidon may escape with a more remisse damnation in the day of Judgment then they Mat. ch 11. v. 22. Consider secondly the multitude of Sects lately sprung up in the Kingdom what divisions and subdivisions are there known to be of the old Anabaptists besides the two main Factions of Presbyterians and Independents new things and names that have almost quite abolished their Protestant Progenitor their zeale and number ebbing and flowing by successe of the Sword Some you know are servent Zelots of the Scottish Reformation others detest it as pestiferous and hereticall Some retain the old denomination of Protestants yet have much of the new Modell Some hold Episcopacy essentiall to the true Protestant Church others deny it holding Bishops altogether unnecessary to the reformed Churches and demonstrating it by the not being and non-use of them in any Reformation even from the beginning out of the King of Englands Dominions Some againe as you know either of curiosity or to prevent Penalties frequent the Parish Churches on Sundayes and on other dayes frequent Conventicles of another Communion utterly detesting that of the Parish Church as superstitious or hereticall and so on the Week daies outwardly disavow the profession they avowed on the Sunday Consider thirdly the little regard that is now given to the 39. Articles heretofore the distinctive difference of the old English Protestant And fourthly the questioning of the Apostles Creed which implies a doubt of its truth at least in some points Before this Parliament it was every where used throughout the Kingdome as an outward profession of every ones beliefe Now it is questioned and consequently doubted of by the Representative Body of the whole Kingdome and their Synodicall Divines Add to this the old true saying Dubius in fide infidelis est he that doubts in matters of faith is no right believer and then draw you the consequence Put all together and you will see that the questions I made you are not so easily answerable as perhaps you thought at the first S. Augustine lib. de haeres numbereth ninety severall Heresies so many Reformations were they sprung up betwixt Christs time and his i. in about four Centuries So many more rose betwixt S. Augustines daies and Luthers i. 180. Heresies in 1500. yeares according to the observation of others Betwixt Luthers apostacie from S. Austins Rule and defection from the Catholike Church in the yeare 1517. and the year 1595. which is but the intervall of 78 modern Authors Staphilus Hosius Pâ—ateolus and others do reckon 270 new Sects all Reformations of what was some daies or houres before But if any man would number all the Reformations or Sects that these last 8. yeares have hatcht in England perhaps the probablest rule of his Arithmetick would be quot capita tot sententiae as many opinions in matters of Religion as heads of men no common name being to be found sit to comprehend our Sectaries but that of a Suist one that followes his own dreams or fancy in choice of Scripture in the interpretation of it and in every particular concerning Religion without profession of agreement or communion which any follow unlesse it be the communion of non-agreement The Scrofa Alba of Reformation hath been so fertile these later dayes that to use Stanislaus Roscius his words Lib. de Atheismis Errans nescit quid velit neec quid nolit The erring Reformer doth neither know what he would nor what he would not let it be but new it sufficeth S. Hilarie lib. ad Constantium Constantem Imperat.
his Deity for so he is present in hell also yet by the grace of his humanity by participation of which grace onely there is hope of salvation he is not present there at all except it be in corners and prisons and places of persecution And therefore whatsoever honour is pretended to be done to Christ in Schisme and Heresie is not done to him but to his utter enemies 8. And for his mysticall Body which is his Church and Kingdome there can be no greater diâ—honor done to Christ then to maintain schisme and dissention therein What would your Majesty think of any Subjects of yours that should go about to raise civill dissention or warres in your Kingdome and of those that should fâ—ster and adhere unto such men It is the fashion of all Rebells when they are in Armes to * You know who have done so of late pretend the safety of the King and the good of the Countrey but pretend what they will you cannot account such men any better then Traytors And shall we beleeve that our B. Saviour the King of Kings doth sit in heaven and either not see the practises of those that under colour of serving him with Reformation do nothing else but serve their owne turnes and distract his Church that is his Kingdome on earth with sedition Or shall we think that he will not in time revenge his wrong Verily he sees it and doth regard it and will in time revenge it 9. But I hope and pray that he may not revenge it upon you nor yours but rather that he will shew that your desire to honour him is accepted of him and therefore will move you to honour your selfe and your posterity with bestowing the same your favour upon his Church in the unity thereof which you do now bestow in the Schisme and that he will reward both you and yours for the same according to his promise not only with everlasting glory in heaven but also with long continued temporall honour and security in this world And this is the first reason of my hope grounded upon the promise of God The second Reason of my hope that Catholike Religion may be a great meanes of honour and security to your Majesties posterity is taken from the consideration of your neighbours the Kings and Princes of Christendome among whom there is no State ancient and truly honourable but only those that are Catholike The reason whereof I take to be because the Rules of Catholike Religion are eternall universall and constant unto themselves and withall so consonant unto Majestie and greatnesse as they have made and preserved the Catholike Church most reverent and venerable throughout the world for these 1600. yeares and those Temporall States that have been conformable thereunto have been alwaies most honourable and so are like to continue untill they hearken unto Schisme And as for those that have rejected and opposed the Rules of Catholike Religion they have been driven in short time to degenerate and become either tyrannicall or popular your Majestie I know doth abhor Tyranny but if Schisme and Heresie might have their full swing cover the Seas the very shadow and Reliques of Majesty in England should be utterly * God grant this prove not too true defaced and turned into Helvetian or Belgian popularity For they that make no conscience to prophane the Majesty of God and his Saints in the Church will after they feel their strength make no bones to violate the Majesty of the King and his Children in the Common-wealth 10. I know well that the Puritanes of England the Huguenots of France and the Gueses of Germany together with the rest of the Calvinists of all sorts are a great faction of Christendome and they are glad to have the pretence of so great a Majesty to be their chief and of your posterity to be their hope but I cannot be perswaded that they ever will or can joyne together to advance your Majesty or your Children farther then they may make a present gaine by you They are * One may sweare it not agreed of their own Religion nor of the principles of Universall and Eternall Truth and how can they be constant in the rules of particular and transitory honor where there is Nullum Principium ordinis there can be Nullum Principium honoris such is their case there is a voice of Confusion among them as well in matters of State as of Religion Their power is great but not to edification but destruction They joyne together only against good order which they call the Common Enemy and if they can destroy that they will in all likelihood turn their fury against themselves and like Devills torment like Serpents devoure one another In the meane time if they can make their Burgers Princes and turn old Kingdomes into new States it is like enough they will do it but that they will ever agree together to make any one Prince King or Emperour over them all and yeeld due obedience unto him further then either their gaine shall allure them or his Sword shall compell them that I cannot perswade my selfe to believe And therefore I cannot hope that your Majesty or your posterity can expect the like honour or security from them which you might do from Catholike Princes if you were joyned firmly to them in the unity of Religion 12. The third reason of my hope that Catholike Religion should be most available for the honour and security of your Majesty and your children is taken from the consideration of your Subjects which can be kept in obedience to God and to their King by no other Religion and least of all by the Calvinists for if their principles be received once and well drunk in and digested by your Subjects they will openly maintaine that God hath as well predestinated men to be * Is not this now openly professed by those who would have the King called to an account c. Traytors as to be Kings and he hath as well predestinated men to be Theeves as to be Judges and he hath as well predestinated that men should sin as that Christ should die for sin which kind of disputations I know by my experience in the Countrey are ordinary among your Countrey Calvinists that take themselves to be learned in the Scriptures especially when they are met in the Ale-house and have found a weaker brother whom they think sit to be instructed in the profound mysteries And howsoever they be not yet all so impudent as to hold these conclusions in plain termes yet it is certain they all hold these principles of Doctrine from whence working heads of greater liberty do at their pleasures draw these consequences in their lives and practises And is * It now appears it is not this a Religion sit to keep Subjects in obedience to their Soveraigns 13. Here I know the great Masters of Schisme will never leave objecting the horrible treason of certaine Catholikes against your
thing to think upon such exhortations and all one as if a phantasticall fellow finding a herd of young Cattell in a close should first break downe the hedges and then cry loud to the Cattell not to venture to go out nor to seek any fatter pasture for fear they be put into the pound and if they chance to feed where they are because they have no experience of other and to tarry in the Close for an houre or two then the unhappy fellow should run to the owner of the Cattell and tell him what great service he had done him and how he had kept his Cattell in the Close by his goodly charmes and exhortations Let them say what they list of their own honesty and of their exhortations to obedience as long as they do freely infect the peoples soules with such false opinions in Religion they do certainly sow the seeds of disobedience and Rebellion in mens understandings which if they be not prevented by your Majesties giving way to Catholike Religion will in all likelihood spring up in the K. Charles feels the sad effects of this predictioÌ„ next generation to the great prejudice and molestation of your Majesty and your posterity So that whether I doe respect heaven or earth my own soule or the service of your Majesty God or your Neighbours or your Subjects my assured hope is that by joyning my selfe to the Catholike Church I neither have done nor ever shall do any ill duty or service unto your Majesty 18. But perhaps there is such opposition both in matter of Doctrine and in matter of State as it is unpossible that ever there should be any reconcilation at all betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome of which I humbly pray your Majesty to give me leave to shew you what I have observed 19. It is true the breach hath continued now these many yeares and it is much increased by so long continuance so that it was never greater then it seems to be at this day nor ever more dangerous to deal withall For if a man do but go about to stop it there ariseth presently a great and fearfull noise and roaring of the waters against him but yet neverthelesse the greatnesse of the noise ought not to discourage us but rather to give us hope that although it be wide yet it is but shallow and not far from the bottome as proceeding from affection which is sudden and violent and not from judgement which is quiet constant and alwaies like it self for if a man ask in cold blood whether a Romane Catholike may be saved the most learned Church-man will not deny it And if a man aske whether a Romane Catholike may be a good Subject the most wise States-man will easily grant it May we be both saved then we are not divided in God May we be both good Subjects then we are not divided in the King What reason is there then that we should be thus hotly and unplacably divided 20. Truly there is no reason at all but only the violence of affection which being in a course cannot without some force be staied The multitude doth seldome or never judge according to truth but according to customes and therefore having of purpose been bred and brought up in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists cannot chuse but think they are bound to hate them still and that whosoever speaks a word in favour of the Church of Rome or of Catholike Religion is their utter enemy And the Puritannicall Preacher who can have no being in charity doth never cease by falsifications and slanders to blow the coales that he may burn them and warm himselfe But if your Majesty shall ever bee pleased to command those make bates to hold their peace a while and to say nothing but what they are able to prove by sufficient authority before those who are able to judge and in the mean time to admit a conference of learned and moderate men on either side the people who are now abused and with the light of the Gospell held in extreme ignorance are not yet so uncapable but they will be glad to heare of the truth when it shall be simply and evidently delivered by honest men and then they will plainly see that their Light of the Gospell which they so much talk of is but a counterfeit light in a Theeves lantern whereby honest mens eyes are dazzled and their Purses robbed And it will also appear that there is not indeed any such irreconcileable opposition betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome as they that live by the Schisme do make the world believe there is neither in matter of Doctrine nor matter of State 21. For matter of Doctrine there is no reason that your Majesty or the Kingdome should be molested or burdened for the maintenance of Calvinisme which is as much * Indeed a true Protestant and a Papist are now almost equally odious against the Religion of England as it is against the Religion of Rome and will by necessary consequence overthrow not only the Catholike Church the Communion of Saints and the forgivenesse of sinnes but also all the Articles of the Creed saving only so much as the Turk himselfe will be content to believe which will be easie to prove upon better leisure The Doctrine of England is that which is contained in the Common Prayer Book and Church Catechisme confirmed by Act of Parliament and by your Majesties Edict wherein all English men are Baptized and ought to be confirmed and therefore there is some reason that this should be stood upon But this Doctrine in most of the main points thereof as hath been touched before and requireth a just treatise to set down in particular doth much differ from the current opinions and Catechismes of Calvinisme or doth very neer agree with or at least not contradict the Church of Rome if we list with patience to hear one another And those points of Doctrine wherein we are made to be at warrs with the Church of Rome whether we will or not do rather argue the Corruptions of that state from whence they come then are argued by the grounds of that Religion whereupon they stand and the contradiction of Doctrine hath followed the alteraâ—ion of State and not the alteration of State been grounded upon any truth of Doctrine 22. For when the breach was resolved upon for the personall and particular ease of King Henry the eight and the Children of his later Wives it was necessary to give every part of the Common-wealth contentment for which they might hold out in the heat of affection and study to maintain the breach otherwise it was likely that in the clearnesse of Judgement it would quickly have grown together again and then the Authors thereof must have been excluded and given account of their practise 23. Therefore to the Lords and * In like manner the Members of Parliament and their Adherents have