contrary to flesh and blood than these and yet we see these Doctrines are propogated daily without any force of Armes only by Example and perswasion to be sure without any Miracle but I hope that doth not prove their Religion to be divine It 's a Dictate of the light of Nature that the way to Heaven is strait and therefore people that are religiously inclined are easily won over to those men whom they see exercise such severities upon themselves To Conclude Madam when all is done what the true Church is must be tryed by the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles We see that even in the Apostles dayes corruptions crept into the Church Witness the Churches of Corinth Galatia and Colosse c. and the simplicity of the Gospel began even then to be perverted and mingled with idle and foolish opinions and practises and therefore we must needs think that after the Apostles decease the Church of Christ was subject to the same fate so that if there be any standard or touchstone left whereby the truth and sincerity of a Church can be tried and we must needs think so well of GODS providence that he would not leave his Church without some rule to rectifie their Errors by in case she should be infected with any it must be the Primitive institution of the Christian Religion and that Church as I said before which teaches things that approach nearest to that primitive institution must be the true Church And Madam do but once more for your Souls sake and for your Salvations sake compare the Doctrines and practises of the Church of ROME with the Doctrines and practises of the Gospel the Fountain of Christianity and try whether you can find there the Doctrines of Communion under one kind of publick prayers in a tongue unknown to the people of Purgatory of the Mass of Transubstantation of the Church of Rome's supremacy and infallibility of Worshipping and adoring the Virgin Mary and praying to Saints of Veneration of Relicks and Images of adoration of the Hoste c. Do not force any places of Scripture and try whether you can make sense of any of these Doctrines by Scripture View the Stream of the Gospel and search whether there be any thing like these Doctrines in it why will you make your reason a Slave to your Priests magisterial Sentences How can you answer it to GOD that you did not improve your reason more What have you your reason for but to judge what is agreeable to the Word of GOD and what is not Is not this acting like a Creature void of reason to be guided altogether by what a few blind guides say to you without enquiring at the Law and Testimony whether things are so as they say or no Wonderful stupidity I stand amazed at it It is not all the seeming Holiness of those Priests you converse withal that make the Church you are in a true Church There is no Sect in the World but when they are under a Cloud necessity and the discouragment they are under and their desire to make Proselytes makes them outwardly Religious There may be and no doubt are Zealous and outwardly pious men in all Religions in the World but that doth not make every Religion true and divine An outward shew of Piety is the only way of propagating any Religion The Devil himself could not propagate Heathenisme and Idolatry but by the pretened Zeal and Piety and Abstinence and Mortification of Apollonius Tyaneus who yet by the confession of the whole Christian world was no better then a Wizard and Conjurer I make no application to any particular Priest in the Church of ROME I do not deny but men may be in great Errors and be very Zealous for their errours and seemingly very pious in their Zeal and when their Errors are not very wilful and destroy not the true Worship of GOD for ought I know they may find mercy in the day of our Lord. I grant there is a great shew of outward Piety in the Church of ROME very dazeling and very moving but the great danger lyes here that the Worship they give to GOD with one hand they strike and pull down with the other I know too well the practise of their Churches and a Heathen that should come into their Temples beyond Sea would verily believe that they Worship a Multiplicity of Gods as well as he whatever their pretentions may be to the contrary It is not what people say so much as what they do that GOD takes notice of and though you should Ten Thousand times protest that you Worship and adore GOD alone yet while GOD sees you adore the Virgin Mary with as great Zeal and reverence as you do him pray to her oftener then you do to him make as many bowes to her and other Saints as you do to him and other things of that nature how can he believe you Religion is a thing that will not bear jests and Hypocrisy GOD will not be put off with contradictions between speeches and Practiess Madam I do from my heart Pitty you and as it might be the weakness of your Judgment that might lead you into this Erroneous Church so I beseech you for Christs sake to return to the Church you have rashly left where you cannot run a hazard if you will but follow the plain Doctrines of the Gospel besides which we preach nothing and enjoyn nothing as necessary to Salvation Should these entreaties and beseechings be alledged against you in the last day as things which you have contrary to reason refused and slighted how dreadful would your condition be I have discharged my Duty and given you warning I would not have your Guilt lye at my Door and therefore have let you know my real thoughts and Sentiments concerning your condition and the Church you are in The Great GOD of Heaven open your eyes that you may see and fear Time was when you would have believed us as much as you do now the Priests of the Church of ROME It 's strange that now they should speak nothing but truths and we nothing but faâ—shood Do you think we do not understand the Scriptures and Fathers and Antiquity as well as they And can we all be so besotted with interest and passion that none of us should yied to the dictates of their Church if we could prevail with our sense and reason to believe that the things wherein they differ from us were agreeable to the Gospel sure we have a great many men among us that are great Lovers of Peace and would be glad that the whole Christian world were agreed and would these men stand out against that union if it could be done with a safe Conscience Certainly we have men as learned among us as ever the Sun did shine upon nay the Church of ROME hath at this day few men to equal ours for Learning and knowledge And would all our Learned men be so stubborne and obstinate
may justly be supposed to have kept the publick Notaries from asserting things notoriously false In these Registers I say it will be found what succession our first Protestant Bishops had how Arch-Bishop Parker the first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizbeth to go no higher was consecrated December 17. 1559 by four persons then actually Bishops and who had formerly been Ordained by Bishops of the Church of ROME Viz. William Barlow in Henry the 8th dayes Bishop of St. Davids under Edward the 6th Bishop of Bath and Wells under Queen Mary driven into Exile and returned under Queen Elizabeth John Scory formerly Bishop of Chichester Miles Coverdale formerly Bishop of Exeter and John Hodgkins Bishop Suffragan of Bedford not to mention that the Queens Letters Patents in case any of the other should be sick or forced to be absent were directed to three Bishops more that had formerly been Popish Bishops and were turned Protestants Viz. Anthony Bishop of Laudaff John Bishop Suffâ—agan of Thedford and John Bale Bishop of Oâ—â—ery But all this hath bâ—en sâ—â—learly demonstrated out of 〈◊〉 â—ublick Records first by Mr. Mason and â—nce by Arâ—â—-Bishop Brambal that hâ— that writes of it can onely transcribe out of them and those that deny these Records must be men of strange Foreheads and of the greatest disingenuity From these men that had their Priesthood from the Church of Rome our Priesthood is lineally derived so that if our Priesthood be not valid theirs cannot be and if Heresie doth not make the Episcopal office void nor disable a man from conferring Episcopal order on other men as is evident from the second Councel of Nice with your Church an Oecumenical Counsel which received Bishop Anatolius tho consecrated by Dioscorus a Heretical Bishop if i say Heresie doth not make the Episcopal order void then suppose We were Hereticks our Priesthood which is derived from Popish Bishop that turned Protestants must be a true Priesthood still and to thiâ— purpose I remember one oâ— your Church said lately once a Priest for ever a Priest Madam if your desire to know the truth be honest and sincere you should Act like a person that hath a mind to be satisfied and search the Publick Records and tilâ— then believe not every Talâ— that 's told you the Common Plea of your Priests that ouâ— Records are sophisticated and that we have put in what we please argues only boldness and ignorance when they can shew neither where nor when nor by whom they they were corrupted Those that talk so seem neither to understand what a publick solemne thing the Consecration of a Bishop is in England nor to reflect how difficult it is to fill a publick Register with falsities as to matters of fact when there are so many hundered men that know what is done at such a time and View the Records and would most certainly speak of it if they found a flaw in the Relation But if we should deal thus with the Church of ROME question all their Registers in the Vatican and say which we might do with far greater reason thaâ— they are things packed and invented by men that have a mind to keep up a faction â— know what Language we should meet withal But will you boast say you oâ— having derived your orders from the Chuch of ROME when you believe the Church of ROME to be an Idolatrous Chuch Madam It is not the Office of a Bishop in youâ— Church we find fault withal but the abuses of it A Church that 's guilty of very great corruption both in Doctrine and manners may have something that 's good and allowable and he that retains that is not therefore guilty of her corruption nor espouses her Errours Your Idolatry is one thing and your Orders are another The Jews did take many good things from the Heathens and the Christians many commendable things from the Jewes but that neither made the Jewes approve of the Heathenish Worship nor the Christians allow of the Jewish Errours We are not so disingenious as to make the breach between you and Us wider then needs So far as you go with Scripture and true Antiquity we hold with you where you contradict both We cannot with a safe Conscience bear you Company He that sees a Pearl lye among a great deal of Trash if he take the Pearl is not therefore obliged to take the Rubbish too and if we have derived our Orders from you that inferrs no necessity that we must therefore consent to your Notorious depravations of the ancient simplicity of the Gospel The Christians heretofore that approved of the Baptism of the Donatists did not therefore presently acknowledge the truth of their opinions and he that should take a good custome from the Turks cannot be therefore said to approve of all things that are in the Alcoran Madam there is nothing more easie than to cavil at the most prudent Action in the World especially where People take a slight survey of things and do not with seriousness and deliberation weigh the circumstances of the fact and do not examine the inside as well as the outside and I must confess upon the best examination of your actions and proceedings in this Revolt to the Church of ROME you never took the Right way to be satisfied for instead of pondering the Arguments and Motives of Our departure from the Church of ROME and of the reasons we alledge for our Church and Doctrine you made it your chief imployment to read their Books and believed what they said to be Oracles for no other reason but because they talked with greater arrogance and confidence If you say that you could not judge of Arguments having never been bred a Schollar I would but ask you how you durst change your Religion then Did you change it without reason and without ground and if you are not able to Weigh the strength of Arguments how can you be sure that you are in the true Church at this time It is not talk but Arguments that must demonstrate the truth of a Religion and if you have not sufficiently weighed the Arguments of both sides It is a thousand to one you may still be in the wrong way and you know not but you may be as much out now as you were formerly Mâ—dam so great a thing as the change of your Religion upon which no less then Eternity depends might justly have challenged some years study before you had resolved upon it To do a thing of this nature upon so slight a Survey Consider whether it doth not argue rashness and weakness rather than Piety and Devotion To leave a Religion you have been bred and born in a Religion founded upon the Word of GOD and which you had Liberty to Examine by the Scripture upon reading a Popish Book or two without diving to the Bottom of the several controversies without reflecting on the importance of the points in question without studying a considerable time which Religion
Jesus Have not you just reason to be afraid that God will reject your Prayers which are addressed to Saints as Mediators contrary to his order and injunction What Kings suffer here on Earth in letting their Subjects address 〈…〉 to them can be no example here for God as he intends not to regulate his Court by the Court of Princes so we know it is against his Order to go to his Servants when we are commanded to come directly to him and it is such a voluntary humility as deprives us of our reward as the Apostles expresly tells us Coloss. 2.18 God knew well enough if men addressed themselves to his Servants to have access to him something of the Worship due to him would stick by the way and rest upon his Servants to his dishonour and disparagement and therefore he mentioned nothing of this mediate address It s true we desire our neighbours here on Earth to pray for us but for that we have a command for the invocation of Saints departed we have none and in vain do they worship me saith God teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men Mat. 15.9 But besides when you desire your living Neighbours to pray for you I hope you do not fall down upon your knees to them nor use the same zeal and devotion to them as you do to God and for whole hours together as you do to Saints departed But why will you blind your self in a thing which your own practice contradicts you in you know you do not onely pray to Saints departed to pray for you but you do many times without making any mention of their Prayers for you beg of them with the same reverence and prostrations you use to God to deliver you from all evil and consequently you beg the same Blessings of them you beg of God And it is but a weak excuse to say that you intend by those Prayers nothing else but that by their intercession they may get those blessings for you for you go contrary to the nature of things and whereas words ordinarily are interpreters of the mind you make your minds interpreters of your words and actions which is a strange evasion and if such a thing be intended why do you lay a snare before the Common sort of People who being ordered to pray to Saints for such and such blessings know nothing to the contrary but that they are able to dispense those Blessings to them and thus commit Idollatry by your willful connivance whose blood will certainly be required at your Churchmens hands one day Examine but your Prayers to the Virgin Mary in your own Manuals when you have prayed to her and begged of her all that you can pray of GOD you add a word or two of her intercession which in good truth is nothing but a blind that you may not be said to commit down right Idolatry You know those Prayers to the Virgin Mary which in the Latine and I think in the English Manual too are ordered to be said to the Virgin Morning and Evening the one O my Lady Holy Mary I commend my self my Soul and Body to thy blessed care and singular custody and to the bosome of thy mercy this day and every day and in the hour of my going out of the World All my hope and all my comfort all my afflictions and miseries my life my end I commit unto thee speak seriously what can you say more to GOD that by thy most holy Intercession and by thy merits all my words and actions may be directed and disposed according to thine and thy Sons Will Amen Where it 's worth noting that first you do put as much trust in the Virgin as you do in GOD and then afterwards to make these harsh expressions softer you desire her to interceed for you that your works may be directed according to Christs Will nay and her own as if she were a Law-giver too Then follows Maria Mater Gratiae c. O Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy Protect us from the Enemy and receive us in the hour of Death which St. Stephen thought was fitter to be said to Christ when he Cryed Lord Jesu receive my spirit Then followes the Evening Prayer to the Virgin Mary O Mary Mother of GOD and gratious Virgin the true Comforter of all distressed Creatures that call upon thee this Epithete by the way the Scripture gives to the Holy Ghost by that great joy whereby thou wast comforted when thou didst know that Jesus Christ was risen the third day from the Dead impassible be thou the Comforter of my Soul and by the same who is thine and GODS only Son in the last day when with body and Soul I shall rise again and give an account of all my actions do thou Vouchsafe to help me that I may escape the Sentence of perpetual Damnation by thee Pious Mother and Virgin and may come happily with all the Elect of GOD to Eternal joyes Amen Then follows vnder thy protection we flee Holy Mother of GOD despise not our prayer in our necessities but deliver us from all dangers alwayes O glorious and blessed Virgin Not to mention any more prayers of this nature whereof there is a vast number If GOD be a GOD jealous of his Glory how can he like and approve of such doings It 's true the Honour done to his Servants is done to him but then it must be such Honour as they are capable to receive so to Honour them as to give them the Epithetes and titles which the Scripture gives to none but GOD so to Honour them as to use in your prayers to them the same outward prostrations that you use to GOD when you pray to him so to Honour them as to spend more time in your addresses to them than you do in supplications to GOD as is evident from your Rosary so to Honour them as to say more prayers to them than to Christ so to Honour them as to joyn their merits with Christs merits This is an Honour which I believe will oblige GOD to say one day who hath required these things at your hands And how unlike the Worship of the true GOD is that Veneration you express to the Images and Pictures of Saints and to Relicks How unlike that plain and Simple Worship which the Gospel enjoynes One would think it should a little startle you to see that your Church is afraid to let the second Commandement be known to the people you know they leave it out in their Primmers and Catechismes or if they mention it they do so mince it that one sees plainly they are afraid the People should see the contrariety of their Worship to the express word of GOD. In the beginning of the Reformation the very sight of this Commandement made people run away from the Church of ROME as much as any thing indeed to consider the general termes GOD uses there Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image c. Thou shalt