Charity neither do we condemn any who holds the foundation though in some lesser matter they differ from us but hope they may be saved as well as we We abhor the Doctrine of cruel persecuting of any for their Consciences The outmost we allow of or desire of that nature being the preservation of our own Societies pure from the contagion of other Traffiquers and the driving from us those who do so disturb us All the authority we give the Church is Paternal and not Tyrannical our Church-men we hold to be the Pastors but not the Lords of the flock who are obliged to feed them sincerely both by their Doctrine Labours and whole Conversation but we pretend to no blind obedience due to their directions and count them noble Christians who search and try all they say by that Test of the Scriptures We send the People to confess their sins to God from whom only we teach them to expect their pardon and pretend to no other keys but Ministerial ones over publick and known Scandals In our Worship as all do understand it so every one may joyn in it And in the number use and simplicity of our Sacraments we have religiously adhered to the Rules of the Gospel we holding them to be solemn federal Rites of our Stipulation with God in which if we do worthily partake of them we are assured of the Presence of the Divine Spirit and Grace for uniting our Souls more intirely to God and advancing us in all the ways of the Spirit of Life and if the Institution of them in the Gospel be compared with our Administration of them it will appear how close we have kept to our Rule And thus we see how exactly conform the Doctrine of our Church is to the whole Branches of the Christian Design upon which it is not to be doubted but the Characters of the Christian Religion will also fit ours We found our Faith only on the Scriptures and though we pay a great deal of venerable esteem to the Churches of God during their purity which continued above four Centuries and so be very willing to be determined in Rituals and Matters that are external and indifferent by their Opinions and Practices yet our Faith settles only on the Word of God and not on the Traditions of Men neither do we believe every Spirit that pretends to Rapts and Visions but try the Spirits whether they be of God or not and though an Angel should preach to us another Gospel we would hold him accursed The Miracles we trust to as the Proofs of the Truth of that Revelation which we believe are only those contained in the Scriptures and though we believe there was a wonder-working power continued for some time in the Church yet we make a great difference betwixt what we historically credit and what we religiously believe neither will we for supporting our Interest or Authority have recourse to that base trade of forging lying Wonders but we rest satisfied with the Miracles Christ and his Apostles wrought for the proof of the Religion we own since what we believe is no other than what they taught and therefore we leave the trade of forging new Miracles to them who have forged a new Religion And for the plain genuines of the Gospel we have not departed a step from it since we call upon our People by all the motives we can devise and with all the earnestness we are Masters of to receive full and clear Instruction in all the Matters of our Religion which we distinctly lay open to them And nothing of Interest or Design can be charged on us who pretend to nothing but to be the Stewards of the Mysteries of God nor have we offered to sophisticate the simplicity of our Worship by any additions to it for the determining about some particular forms is no addition to Worship but only the following forth of these Precepts of doing all things to edification peace and order But an addition to Worship is when any new piece of Divine Service is invented with a pretence of our being more acceptable to God thereby or of our receiving Grace by that conveyance and therefore any Rites we have as they are not without some hints from Scripture so we pretend not to become any way acceptable to God by them Further we teach no irrational nor unconceivable Doctrine It is true there are Mysteries in our Faith and even reason it self teacheth that these must be unconceivable but for all our other perswasions they are such as may be well made out to the rational faculties of man therefore we do not betake our selves to that Sanctuary that we must be believed assert what we please but we assert nothing but what we offer to evince by the clearest proofs And in â—…ine we add nothing to the burdensomness of the Laws of Christ but teach and propose them as we have them from his Gospel without adding changing or altering a tittle from the first Institution And so far have I considered the Doctrine and Worship of our Church wherein if I could justify all our Practices as well as I can do our Principles there were no grounds to fear hurt from all the Cavils of Mortals But for bad practices whatsoever matter of regrate they may furnish us with they afford none for separation Therefore there is no ground that can justify a separation from our Church much less warrant the turning over from us to the Communion of Rome And thus far have I pursued my designed Enquiry which was if with a safe Conscience any might adjoin themselves to the Popish Religion or if Communion with our Church was to be kept and continued in and have found great grounds to assert the evident hazards of the former so that no man to whom his salvation and welfare is dear can or ought to joyn himself to that Church on the other hand without renting the Body of Christ none can or ought to depart from our Churches But I leave the â—…erusal and considering of these things â—…o the serious Reader to whom I â—…ope they may give some satisfaction â—…f he bring with him to the Enquiry an attentive serious and unbyassed mind And I leave the success of this and every other attempt of this Nature for the clearing of Divine truth with him who is the only Fountain of Blessings who is over all God blessed for evermore Amen FINIS Errata PAge 16. line 6. for formerly read formally l. 24. Abuses r. Abases p. 30. l. 14. forewarnes r. warneâ—… â—…â—…1 l. 1. where r. what p. 52. l 9. but r. yet p. 54. â—… 24. dele a. p. 64. l. 18. betwixt add that p. 91. a r. â—…is p. 99. l. 5. enhansing r. engrossing l. 8. transmitâ—…ng r. transmuting p. 103. l. 16. since r. for p. 110. â—… 18. or r. for p. 138. l. 13. unity r. purity These Books are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the Angel near the Little North Door of St.
mention no more will sufficiently convince any who will be at the pains to read them as they are written by these who lived in that Communion And Matthew of Paris will at length inform his Reader how much and how often England smarted under this Tyranny And all this is so far from being denied that it is defended avowedly by noâ—… a few of the Canonists and Iesuits and is a Doctrine dearly entertained in the Court of Rome to this day as appeared from the late attempt of Pope Paul the fifth upon Venice But the World is now a little wiser than to be carried away by these Arts and therefore that pretence is laid to sleep till haply the â—…east be healed of the wound was given â—…t at the Reformation But I cannot leave this particular without my sad regrates that too deep a tincture of this spirit of Antichristianism is among many who pretend much aversion to it since the Doctrine of resisting Magistrates upon colours of Religion is so stiffly maintained and adhered to by many who pretend to be highly reformed though this be one of the Characters of the scarlet-coloured whore But thus far have we gone through the second part of Antichrists Character and have discovered too clear â—…ndications of a difformity to the spirit and truth of the Christian Religion in all the branches of the Honour and Worship due to Jesus the only Mediator of the new Covenant From this I proceed to the third part of my enquiry which is the opposition made to the great design of Christian Religion for elevating the souls oâ—… men into a participation of the divine Nature whereby the soul being inwardly purified and the outward conversation regulated the World may be restoreâ—… to its Primitive innocence And men admitted to an inward and intimate fellowship with their Maker The firsâ—… step of this renovation is repentance for God commands men every where to 〈◊〉 and repentance and remission of 〈◊〉 are alwayes united And this being 〈◊〉 horrour at sin upon the sense of its native deformity and contrariety to the Law of God which makes the soul apprehend the hazarâ—… it hath incurred by it so as to study by 〈◊〉 means possible to avoid it in all time coming nothing doth prepare the mind morâ—… for faith in Christ and the study of 〈◊〉 new life than repentance which 〈◊〉 needs be previous to these But what devices are found to enervate this sins must be divided into venial and mortal the former deserving only some temporal punishment and being easily expiated by some trifling piece of seeming Devotion and hereby many sins are struck out of the Penitents consideration For who can have a great apprehension of that which is so slightly expiated And this may be extended to the easie Pardons given for acknowledged mortal Sins For he who thinks that God can be appeased for them with the saying by rote so many Prayers cannot possibly have deep apprehensions of their being either so displeasing to God or so odious in themselves But shall I to this add their asserting that a simple attrition which is a sorrow flowing from the consideration of any temporal evil God hath brought upon the sinner without any regard had either to the vileness of the sin or the offence done to God by it that this I say can suffice for justifying sinners and qualifying them for the Sacrament whereby the necessity of contrition and sorrow flowing from the principle of the love of God is made only a high degree of perfection but not indispensibly necessary In the next place all these severities they enjoyn for Penances do but tend to nourish the life of sin when sinners see a trade set up by which they can buy themselves off from the wrath of God To this is to be added the Doctrine oâ—… Indulgences which is so direct an opposition to Evangelical repentance as if 〈◊〉 had been contrived for dispossessing the World of the sense of it That which is next pressed in the Gospel for uniting the souls of mankind to God is that noble ternary of Graces Faith Hope and Love by which the soul rests in God by a holy affiance in him believing the truth of his Gospel expecting the accomplishment of his Promises waiting for the full fruition of him and delighting in his glorious perfections and excellencies Now how much all this is shaken by these carnal and gross conceptions the Roman Doctrine offers of God in their Image and Mass-worship and by their Idolatry to Saints is apparent Are they not taught to confide more in the Virgin or their Tutelar Saints than in the holiest of all Doth not the fear of Purgatory damp the hopes of future blessedness And finally what impious Doctrine hath been publickly licensed and printed in that Church of the degrees of the love we owe to God Some blasphemously teaching that we are not at all bound to love him others mincing it so as if they were afraid of his being too much beloved In a word there is an impiety in the Morals of some of that Church particularly among the Disciples of Loyola beyond what was ever taught amongst the worst of the Heathen Philosophers which hath been fully discovered by some of the honester and more zealous of that communion And though these corruptions have not been avowed by the head of that Church yet by their being publickly vented by the deaf ear he gives to all the complaints against them and by the constant caresses and priviledges he heaps upon that Order which teacheth them he discovers either his great satisfaction in that corrupt Doctrine or that upon the account of other interests he is content to betray the souls of Christians into the corruption of such impious and 〈◊〉 godly leaders since the Order that 〈◊〉 owned all these corruptions is yet 〈◊〉 of the Consciences of the greater 〈◊〉 of them that own that Communioâ—… they being the universal 〈◊〉 And since they license the publick 〈◊〉 of so much corrupt Doctrine printed Writings what reason have 〈◊〉 to suspect their base compliance 〈◊〉 sins in their more secret and 〈◊〉 Practisings with such poor deluded 〈◊〉 as trust to their conduct of which 〈◊〉 proofs are brought by others of 〈◊〉 same Church But I pursue my enquiry into the 〈◊〉 traces of the Antichristian corruption of the purity and power of our 〈◊〉 holy Faith Solemn Worship and 〈◊〉 Devotion are the great means of 〈◊〉 souls to God and of deriving the sistance of his Spirit and Grace to us when these are performed in an 〈◊〉 tongue How uncapable are they of 〈◊〉 that end And the Doctrine of efficacy of the Sacraments for coming of grace by the work wrought looks like a design against all serious preparation for the worthy receiving of them since by that doctrine a man be he never so ill prepared yet is sure of their efficacy for if his Priest absolve him and he have a simple attrition for sin without any
Ioh. 4. 1. Now reason being the chief excellency of man and â—…hat wherein the Divine Image doth â—…ainly consist it were very absurd to â—…eny man a rational judging and discering of these things wherein his eternal â—…terest is most concerned Besides the nature of Religion it being a thing sutaâ—…e to the powers of the soul shews that man must have a conviction of the truth of it on his mind and that he cannot be bound in contradiction to his own apprehensions to receive any opinions â—…rly upon the testimony of others If to confirm all this I should add all can be brought from History for proving General Councils to have erred in matters of Faith or that Popes have beeâ—… Hereticks or that they have been ana thematized as such by other Popes and General Councils I should be too tedious But in end how shall the Vulgar know the definitions of Councils or the De crees of Popes Or must they be blindly determined by the Priests assertion Certainly this were to expose theâ—… to the greatest hazards since they aâ—… not suffered to found their Faith upoâ—… the Scriptures Nor doth the Churâ—… reveal her Doctrines to them so thâ—… their Faith must be resolved upon tâ—… bare Testimony of a Priest who is peâ—…haps both ignorant and licentioâ—… And by this we may judge to whâ—… a pass the souls of the people a brought by this Doctrine In a woâ—… we are not the servants of men nor bound to their Authority for none can be a Judge but where he hath power both to try and to coerce Now none but God can either search our hearts or change them for as no humane power can know our thoughts so neither can it turn them which are not in our own power much less in the power of others therefore our Consciences can and must only fall within Gods jurisdiction And since the renovation of the Image of God consists in Knowledge and Religion designs an union of our souls to Divine Truth that we may freely converse with it it will follow that all these pretences of absolute authority and infallibility in Teaching are contrary to Christs Prophetick Office who came to reveal the Father to us The second of Jesus Christs Offices was the Priestly without which the former had never been effectual for had we known never so perfectly the Will of God without a method had been laid down for reconciling sinners to him it was in vain to think of Religion since nothing sinners could do was able to appease God or expiate sin but this was fully done by the Sacrifice of that Lamb of God Who became sin for us and bare our sins on his own Body In whom we have redemption even forgiveness of sin through his Blood 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet 2. 24. Ephes. 1. 7. If then any have derogated from the value of this satisfaction they have offered the utmost indignity to the highest love and committed the crime of the greatest ingratitude imaginable who would requite the most inconcieveable love with such a Sacrilegious attempt But how guilty are they of this who would set the Merits and works of men in an equality with the Blood of God as if by these we were justified or owed our title to Glory to our own performances whereas we are taught by the Oracles of God that by grace we are saved that God only hath made the difference betwixt us and others and that he hath freely chosen us in his Son Christ Iesus Ephes. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 4. 7. And alas where are we or what is all we do that it can pretend to the lowest degree of Gods acceptance without he freely both help us in it and accept of us for it so that when he rewards us for our services with Eternal Life he freely crowns his own free gifts to us For when we consider how great a disproportion there is betwixt our best Services and Eternal Glory when we also remember how all our good actions flow from the Principles of Divine Grace freely given but withal reflect on the great defects and imperfections that hang about our best performances we will not be able to entertain any thoughts of our meriting ought at the hands of God And certainly the deeper impressions we have either of the evil of sin or the goodness of God we will be further from a capacity of swelling big in our own thoughts or of claiming any thing on the pretensions of justice or debt It is true this Doctrine of Merit is so explained by some of that Church that there remains no ground of quarrelling it except for the Terms sake which is indeed odious and improper though early used by the Ancients in an innocent sense But many of that Church acknowledge there can be no obligation on God by ouâ—… Works but that which his own promise binds upon him which none who believe the truth of the promises of the Gospel can question but still we must remember that we owe all to the love of Jesus and nothing to our selves which as it is the matter of the Allelujahs of glorified Saints so should be the subject of our daily acknowledgements wherefore we must abominate every thing that may seem to detract from this But alas were all this zeal many of that Communion own for Merits and good Works meant for the advancing a Holy and Spiritual Life it would carry a good apology with it and its noble design would very much qualify the severity of its censure but when these good works which for so many ages were highly magnified were the building of Churches the enriching of Abbeys Pilgrimages and other trifling and voluntary pieces of Will-worship advanced for the Secular interests of the Church what shall be said of all that pains was used by the Monks for advancing them but that they were willing to sell the value of the Blood and Merits of Christ for advancing their own Secular interests and divised practices Alas how far are these from that Holiness and Sanctity which must qualify us for the Kingdom of God and the inheritance of the Saints And to end this matter let me add one thing which is most evident to all who have observed the methods of the directours of Consciences in that Church that with whatever distinctions this matter be varnished over among them yet the Vulgar do really imagine they buy and sell with Almighty God by their undergoing these Laws of the Church and penances imposed by their Confessour Which as it nourisheth the life of Pride and Self-love so it detracts from the value they ought to set on the blood of Christ as their only title to Heaven and Glory And to this I must add that distinction of the temporary and eternal punishments sin deserves The latter whereof they acknowledge are removed by the Blood of Christ but the former must be expiated by our selves either by sufferings in this Life or those we must endure in Purgatory unless by
any attempt upon that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free he changeth the authority of the Church into a tyrannical Yoke much more if all the new articles of belief and rules for practice be imposed under the severest certificats But here we are to consider that all these things which that Church hath imposed on all of her Communion for which we withdrew from her are additions to our faith for in this we mainly differ from that Church that whatever we acknowledge they acknowledge likewise but with a great many additions we believe the Scriptures are a rule for Christians and they believe the same but they add traditions and the authority of the Church to the Scriptures We believe that God is to be worshipped spiritually they believe the same but add that he may be worshipped by Images and sensible Figures We believe Christ to be the Mediator betwixt God and Man they believe the same but add to this the intercession of Saints We hold that God and Christ are to be worshipped they hold the same but add Saints and Angels to our worship We believe Heaven and Hell to be the several States of the future life they believe the same but add Purgatory betwixt them to the day of Judgment We believe Baptism and the Lords Supper to be the Sacraments of the new Covenant they believe the same but add five more We believe Christ is spiritually and really present in the Lords Supper this they believe but add the unconceivable Tenent of his corporal presence In a word it might be instanced in many other particulars how they have driven us from their Communion by their additions to the truth and sincerity of the Gospel which they have adulterated by their Inventions and not only have they imposed all these things but thundered out Anathema's on all that question them and have so wreathed all their fopperies with that main and fundamental article of their belief of the infallibility of their Church that it is impossible to hope for their recovery till they renounce that Principle which is so dear to them For if their Church be infallible then in no matter of faith or practice can she decree amiss and therefore the lawfulness and sanctity of all her decrees must be maintained with an equal vigor and zeal for if in one of them she step aside her infallibility is for ever gone And by this we may see to how little purpose it is to treat of accomodating matters with that Church since there is no possibility of our union with them without we turn over entirely to them since they cannot part with one of their errors without they first renounce that which is the dearest of them all to wit the unerring authority of their Church How cruel then is that Church which addeth the severe sanction of an Anathema to all her decrees even about the most trifling matters and about things that are by their Confession of their own natures indifferent And a consectary to this is that cruel opinion they hold that none can be saved out of their Communion pretending there is no Salvation without the true Church which they restrict to these who are under the obedience of the Roman Bishop and this is what they usually frighten all with But it is to be considered what the true notion of the Church is that so we may see through this frightful Vizar The Church then is a Society of Christians united in the same faith for worshipping of God jointly And another definition of a Church cannot be proved from Scripture for the Church being called the Body of Christ its union with him as its head is held forth by the Apostle in these words Col. 2. 19. The head Christ from whom the whole body by joints and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God From which words we see what constitutes a man a member of the true Church which is first his union to Christ as his head together with a dependance on him for growth and nutriture and next his being knit to all others who are thus united to Christ which is first the inward union of divine Charity by which he loves all who cleave to Christ as their head and next his associating himself with them in outward visible acts of worship which every Christian is bound to do with all that worship God in Spirit and truth But if a Society of Christians do visibly swerve from Christ in many great and signal contradictions to the honour due to his Person and to the obedience due to his Laws and do grossly adulterate the worship so that communion cannot be had with that Church without departing from the head Christ then it can be no departing from the Church to adhere to Christ and his true worship and to separate from the corruptions are brought in upon the Christian religion If then it appear that the Church of Rome hath departed from the truth and simplicity of the Gospel in so many great and main points these who attempted the reforming her to her first purity and finding that not to be hoped for did unite among themselves for serving and worshiping God aright cannot be charged with separation from the true Church But by that cruel Tenent of theirs they breed up all their Children in the greatest uncharitableness imaginable condemning all who cannot believe all their strange Doctrines or concur in their unhallowed worship Thus they are the Schismatiques who have departed from the true Church and who force from their Communion all who adhere to it but this cruelty rests not in uncharitable censures but hath extended it self to as much bloody and barbarous rage as ever sprung from Hell for all the cruelty of the heathen Persecuters cannot match the practices of that Whore that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Iesus What enraged cruelty appeared against the poor Waldenses for the separating from their Corruption how many of all Sexes and Ages were cruelly butchered down by the procurement of the Rulers of that Church and because the Albigenses lived under the protection of Princes that favoured them how did the Popes depose their Princes and instigate other ambitious invaders to seize on their dominions which to effectuate a Croissade was proclaimed that had been formerly practised against the Enemies of the Christian Faith and heaven was promised to such as went against these poor innocents whereupon they were killed by thousands without all mercy Never was there any who had the zeal or honesty in these dark ages to witness against the apostacy of the Church but the Pope and Clergy used all means to get his zeal rewarded with a faggot And when the time of reformation came with what rage and spite did the Pope by his Letters and Legates instigate all the Princes of Europe to cruelty against them but as these things were not done in corners so
the Chalice from the People who in reason should be imagined so tenacious of so great a priviledge that no consideration should have obliged them to part with it and yet we know nor do they deny how it was wrung from them about 250 years ago What may seem less credible then for the People to consent to have their worship in an unknown Tongue and yet we know that all once worshipped in their Mother Tongue but that after by the overthrow of the Roman Empire the Latine Tongue decayed the barbarous worship was obtruded on the World And what piece of worship is both more visible and more contrary to the clearest evidence of Scriptures especially to the commandments in which the people were always instructed then the worshipping of Images And though we know well enough that for the first seven Centuries the Christian World abhorred them yet within a hundredth years after that we find a great part of it bewitched with them And what can be thought more uneasie for the World to have received then the Popes absolute authority over all the Churches and States of the World One should think that though Religion and Reason had lien out of the way yet Interest and Ambition had withstood this yet we see clearly by what steps they crept up from being Bishops of the Imperial City in an equality of power with their neighbouring Bishops into that culminating hight to which they have now mounted In a word we refuse not to appeal to the first four Ages of the Church in these matters that we quarrel the Roman Church for We deny not but humane infirmity begun soon to appear in the Church and a care to gain on the Heathens made them quickly fall upon some rites and use some terms which after-ages corrupted But the ruin of Religion was when the Roman Empire being overturned by the incursion of the Northern Nations in the beginning of the fifth Century both piety and Religion being laid to sleep instead of the Primitive simplicity of the faith and worship of the Christians they turned all their zeal to the adorning of the outwards of Religion hence the corruptions of the Church took their rise But I had almost forgot to name some Revelations which that Church pretends to even for some of her most doubtful opinions which are the visions and extraordinary Inspirations of some of their Saints from which they vouch a divine confirmation to their Doctrines I confess there is a great deal of extraordinary Visions Rapts and Extasies to be met with among the lives of their Saints and I fear a great deal more then truth for really whoso will but read these writings he must confess they are so far from being probable or well contrived that they speak out their forgery Alas whereas St. Paul being put to Glory of Visions and Revelations was to run back fourteen years for one Their Saints are found in them every day Are they not very credible Stories they tell of Christs appearing to some of their She-Saints and kissing them giving them Rings being married to them and celebrating nuptial rites making them drink out of his side and leaving on them the prints of his wounds with many other such like apparitions of the Virgin and other Saints which were either forgeries dreams or the effects of melancholy or histerical distempers and yet these extravagant fables are given out to the people as sacred pieces of Divine Revelations But the inspiration of the holy Writers on which we found our Faith was proved by their miracles which they wrought publickly in the sight of many and in the presence of their adversaries many of whom were convinced by them and it is certain that whosoever offers any thing to anothers belief pretending he comes to him in the Name of God must have some evident proof of his Divine Mission since none are bound to believe him barely on his own Testimony Otherwise there should be no end of Impostures if every pretender to Divine Inspiration were to be believed without proof Now the way it must be proved is by some evidence of Gods extraordinary assisting such a person which appeared alwayes either in Prophesies or Miracles but chiefly in miracles under the New Testament and therefore both Christ and his Apostles appeal to the mighty works they wrought as the great confirmation of their Doctrine If then there be new Doctrines brought into the Church they must have the like confirmation otherwise they are not to be believed But here those of that Church think they triumph For miracles they have in abundance not a Relique they have but hath wrought mighty wonders nor a Countrey-Saint but the Curat of the place can gravely tell a great many deeds of his puissance nor want the Images their marvellous atchievments but wondrously wondrous are the feats the Hosty hath performed Here I am upon a sad Subject of that trade of lies and fictions wherewith the Merchants of that Babylon have so long traffiqued of which the sincerer among themselves are ashamed How ridiculous are many of their miraculous narrations Was it a worthy piece of the Angelical Ministration for Angels to go trotting over Sea and Land with a load of Timber and Stones of the Virgins house till at length they set it down at Loretto that great devotions might be shown to it It is a goodly story for to tell of a Saint that walked so far after his head was cut off with it in his arms resting in some places to draw breath yet he will pass for an Infidel that should doubt of this at St. Denis-Church Who can look on the lives of the late Saints of that Church without nausea Gregories Dialogues begun this trade which indeed hath thriven well since The miracles of the Christian faith were grave and solemn actions but what ridiculous scenical stories not to say blasphemous ones meet us about the miracles of their Saints He that would know this may read the Lives of St. Francis and St. Dominic St. Bridgit and the two St. Catherines and he will be satisfied to a surfeit The Miracles also of Christ and his Apostles were acted publickly in the view of all but most of these narrations of their Wonders were transacted in corners none being witnesses but persons concerned to own the cheat And the Doctrine of Equivocating was a good cordial for the ease of their Consciences though they swore what they knew false according to the natural sense of the words which they uttered Thus we have many fables of Christs appearing in the Hosty sometimes as a child and sometimes as crucified when but a very few of the whole company present were honoured with that amazing sight Further the Miracles of the Christian Faith were written in the times in which they were acted that so enquiries might have been made into their falshood and the powers that then governed being enemies to the Faith it was safe for its opposers to have proved