sanctorum Apostolorum Petri Pauli istorum omnium sanctorum ut illis proficiat ad honorem nobis autem ad salutem illi pro nobis intercedere dignentur in coelis quorum memoriam agimus in terris Amen Receive O holy Trinity this Oblation which we offer to thee for the remembrance of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary of St. John the Baptist of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul of these and of all Saints that it may advance their honour and our salvation and that they may vouchsafe to intercede for us in heaven whose memory we celebrate on earth by the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen After this their offering of Christ in honour of the Saints we may well think that they judge nothing is too good or too much for them And so when they bless the Images either of Christ or of any Saint they serve them alike sprinkle them with Holy Water burn Incense to them and pray for all in the same manner Omnipotens sempiterne Deus c. O God who dost not dislike that we should paint or carve Images or semblances of thy Saints we beseech thee that this Image made for the honour or memory of thy Son or of such an Apostle or Martyr may by thee be blessed and sanctified and that thou wouldst grant to all that shall supplicate and serve such a Saint before it that they may by that Saints mediation obtain Grace here and Glory herafter Amen But to the Image of the blessed Virgin there are more Prayers and amongst them this is said or sung by the Bishop and assistants whilst he sprinkles it Sub tuum praesidium confugimus sancta Dei Genitrix nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus sed à periculis cunctis libera nos semper virgo gloriosa benedicta We flee to thy protection holy Mother of God despise not our Prayers in our necessities But deliver us from all dangers at all times O glorious and blessed Virgin So at all occasions and in all parts of their publick Worship God hath nothing peculiar to himself And every where with our blessed Saviour some Saint or other is joyned They excommunicate and they absolve Auctoritate Dei omnipotentis Beatorum Apostolorum c. By the authority of God and of his Saints And it is so in all their Ministrations while they live And when they are dying Holy Water is plentifully sprinkled and the Image of that beloved Saint they had most devotion to is set before them as the Ritual appoints and the Soul is bid to go forth in peace in the name of Angels and Archangels of Patriarchs and Pâ—ophets of Apostles and Martyrs of holy Monks and Eremits and of all the Saints And the weak man is taught to say with heart or voice Sancie Angele Dei mihi Custos assiste omnes sancti c. Holy Angel that art my Guardian assist me and pray for me and succour me all ye holy Angels and Saints And then to the blessed Virgin Maria mater gratiae mater misericordiae tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe Mary Mother of grace and of mercy protect us from our Enemies and receive us when we die And as in their Prayers so in their Glorifications the Saints must be partners with Almighty God every where as this one instance proves enough Sacrosanctae individuae Trinitati c. Eternal praise honour vertue and glory be by all Creatures evermore rendred to the holy and individual Trinity To the Fruitfulness and integrity of the most blessed and glorious Virgin and universally to all Saints This Magnificat hath an Indulgence annext to it by Pope Leo X. and is daily said by all that recite the Breviary By what hath been said and much more which is to be seen in their publick and most authorized Books and daily practice may appear what credit is to be given to those Romish Emissaries who very confidently deny their praying to Saints or giving them any Worship in the Church of Rome But that I may not be tedious I forbear to give any more proofs to the contrary and conclude with this which is in their ordinary and allowed Manual of English devotions Thus O holy and glorious Virgin Mary I commend my soul and body into thy blessed trust and singular custody and this night and ever especially in the hour of my death I commit to thy merciful charity all my hope and consolation all my distress and miseries my life and the end thereof that by thy most holy Intercession all my works may be directed according to the will of thy blessed Son Amen It is now clear that no Christian that fears to offend God by imparting to others that honour and worship due to him alone can joyn with the Church of Rome in their publick Worship Nor possibly live in a Communion where such a new Creed is imposed as hath been seen before But therefore they make use of Inquisition that where Conscience keeps men from assenting and complying with such Errors Superstitions and Idolatries there Terror may make them submit This is that Popish Religion without which as they say no man shall live in heaven and without which if they can no man shall live upon earth Here it appears that it was not a few tolerable abuses that made a great part of the Christian world so long wish and attempt and at last with great trouble and danger effect a happy Reformation here in the Western Churches wherein the Popes Tyranny had set up and imposed his Religion Their indispensable duty and allegiance to their God and Saviour obliged them to do it The terms of Communion with the Church of Rome were hardly consistent with the profession of Christianity and were most injurious to God and repugnant to that Faith and Worship revealed and appointed in the Gospel by our blessed Saviour God must be obeyed rather than Man And no compleasance no consideration whatever obligeth any man to destroy or venture his own Salvation This was their warrant and upon this they might well expose themselves to those cruel persecutions they endured for being counted Rebels to the Pope But what is there can oblige any man enlightned with the knowledge of the truth to separate from this Church Whereof the Faith is not a new and disputable Creed but that pure Primitive and Catholick Doctrine which is contained in the New Testament and wherein God alone is duly worshipped the Sacraments of Christ rightly administred wherein there are holy Prayers conformable to Gods Word humbly offered to him in the name of his blessed Son wherein the Ceremonies are few and grave and decent fit to express and to encrease our Reverence and Devotion and wherein the great design appears plainly to be Gods glory and mens salvation What man that loves Goodness and Piety and in the profession of
inclosures wherewith we have separated our selves from Popery and excluded it from mixing with us The Church of England hath not made any thing necessary to Salvation but what God hath declared so to be and hath imposed upon the People no controverted or doubtful Doctrines nothing but what all true Christians owned in all places and all times so that it hath given provocation to none but to such as own the New Creed of Pius IV. to separate from her Communion But the Church of Rome hath made to be Faith absolutely necessary to Salvation that which was not so before that which God no where revealed in his holy Word and that which is in many things contrary to it and to the true Catholick saith of all Christians And who that believes Jesus Christ to be that Great Prophet who revealed to us the whole Counsel of God and is alone to be heard as the only Author and finisher of our Faith can swear an indefinite obedience to the Pope and make it part of his belief that he embraceth all the Traditions of the Church of Rome which they themselves cannot number and receives all the definitions and declarations of her Councils especially that of Trent and believes her to be the Mother and Mistris of all Churches which is apparently false Who that believes them accursed that shall add any thing to that Faith which our Blessed Lord and his Apostles preached can now make part of it that Christ is truly sacrificed in the Mass for the Living and the Dead that he is wholly contained under either species in the Sacrament that there is a Purgatory where Souls are relieved by what the Living do here for them That the Saints must be prayed to and that due Worship must be given to their Relicks and Images and that Christ left to his Church a power of granting salutary indulgences to such as would purchase them as we see by their practice This is a Faith so new so strange so different from the Christian so contrary to it that any man that shall compare both and be persuaded that it is part of that highest honour which belongs to God alone that all his Dictates and Declarations should be received with an humble submission of our understanding and an entire faith will die as Millions have rather than make profession of this Roman Creed Joh. 2.9 Whosoever transgresseth or goeth beyond and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God The Doctrine of Christ we have in the Gospel of which the sum is contained in the Christian Creed It declares the glorious Attributes of God his wonderful works of power and mercy what great things he hath done for us what more he will have us to expect from him and all to engage us Religiously to serve and love him alone and own him for our Supreme Lord by an holy Worship and Obedience The Doctrine of Rome doth only set forth the unlimited power and dominion of the Pope and his Church over the souls and consciences of men and the means of seizing on their Wealth by selling the Mass Sacrifice and the indulgences by taking the Offerings of the Images and Shrines and drawing Souls out of Purgatory The Popes Crown and the Monks Belly is the sum of all and the crime of us Hereticks is the speaking against either or the not believing what makes for them as much as we believe in God For this were the Cruelties and Inquisitions of the Roman Church invented and exercised against all Christians whose knowledge and Conscience would not permit them to profess this new and unchristian Faith But from this it is apparent we dissent not out of peevishness or humour or a stubborn temper but upon the account of obligations and duty to our God and Saviour whose true Religion I hope we shall constantly own and profess whatever we suffer for it CHAP. II. Of several parts of the Roman Worship and first of their Exorcisms IT is not to be expected that where the Doctrines are so corrupted the Worship should be pure Mens Actions commonly are worse than their Principles and so here it is to be observed that those Articles of the Roman Creed on which is grounded any part of their Worship are not so bad in the Notion as they are in the Practice Their customs usages and outward Acts of Religion which are the true Interpreters of their Doctrines make them uncapable of those fine Glosses some of their Missionaries would put upon them and withal are so superstistitious so idolatrous that all men that fear God and are concerned for the honour of the Blessed Jesus must needs judge themselves absolutely obliged rather to die than to joyn and comply with the Popish Worship As far indeed as their Worship proceeds from that Christian Faith they have common with us the Apostles Creed they may have Prayers very good and very devout But as far as it proceeds from their new Roman Faith it is a strange Medley of conjuring consecrating abusing Gods holy Name and giving to Creatures the love and praises due to our Blessed Redeemer I shall give some instances of it and first begin with their conjuring Part. 1. chap. 2. sect 10. of which they have Treasures and Manuals Printed besides what is in their Rituals and other Books of publick use Of the first Bishop Tailor in his dissuasive from Popery gives us some account how they assault the Devil with Holy Water Incense Sulphur Rue little Papers containing holy words Relicks of Saints and notable Railing How the Priest with his Stole about the Neck of the Possessed very imperiously commands the Devil using many names of God Hebrew Greek and Latine very many signs of the Cross adjurations in the name of St. Ann St. Michael c. especially of the Blessed Virgin all whose Names Epithets Merits and Titles are very effectual the Form in the Ritual is not much better and all of it is a heap of things very absurd and very dishonourable to true Religion But in their daily Ministrations there are so many of these Exorcisms for to drive out Devils out of every thing that one would think they are Manichees who believed most of the Creation to belong to those evil Spirits In the Office for Baptism they Exorcise the Salt which they put into the Infants mouth with nine signs of the Cross and a Prayer whereby they beg it may become Salutare Sacramentum a salutary Sacrament and a perfect Medicine to all that receive it And even the Child is Exorcised with the Priests blowing three times in his Face and anointing it with his Spittle saying Exi ab eo immunde Spiritus tu autem effugare diabole appropinquabit enim judicium Dei Come out of him unclean Spirit and thou Devil be gone for the Judgment of God is at hand Together with this Prayer Exorcizo te immunde spiritus in Nomine Patris c. I exorcize thee unclean Spirit in the
Christianity seeks only to serve God and save his own soul can break Communion with this Church if he be within its Precincts Or will not rather judge it as much his duty to joyn with it as to separate from Rome A Government and Order and a Liturgy of necessity there must be all Christian all Reformed Churches have and maintain them to prevent Confusions Prophaness and Innovations such as are here amongst us established oblige to nothing that God hath forbid under them we may be vertuous and Religious in the highest degree and ought therefore to be meek and peaceable thankful to God that he hath graciously freed us from those Romish impositions before mentioned They that would break those Rules that are now fix'd and established either have little value for true Christian Religion or are willing to make way for Popish Innovations or will make it appear that some tempers are so ungovernable that nothing can hold them but that Yoke and Tyranny of which I am now to speak CHAP. III. How the Inquisition came to be established and first of the Oaths and Excommunications wherewith they tie the Consciences of men IT is not for denying any Article of the Christian Faith that we like our fore-fathers are bloudily persecuted where-ever the Popes power can reach Neither is it that we worship a False God or are any ways impious against the True one Father Son and Holy Ghost It is for rejecting that Romish Creed and Worship whereof I treated before And it was not to maintain Christianity but those corruptions that Inquisition was invented and used with so much rigour Any one that hath read the Life and Doctrine of our blessed Lord will easily judge that cruelties are destructive of her Religion and cannot be fit Instruments to propagate or maintain it But the maintaining of that formidable Empire and Dominion the Pope and his Clergy have got into their hands requires they should proceed with that inexorable severity they practise against them that dissent from those Doctrines on which is grounded their power therefore they oblige all that have any Jurisdiction among them by a strict Oath of Allegiance to be the Popes Subjects and to endeavour all possible ways to make others be so Thus Ego N. electus Ecclesiae vel Monasterii N. ab hac hora in antea fidelis obediens ero Beato c. I N. elect of such a Church or Monastery from henceforth will be faithful and obedient to blessed Peter the Apostle and to the Holy Roman Church and to our Lord Pope N. and to his lawful Successors I will give no counsel or consent that they should lose Life or Limb or be any way injured upon any account I will never to their detriment reveal to any what counsel they shall trust me with by their Nuncios or themselves I will help them against any man saving my Order to keep and maintain the Roman Papacy and the Regalities of St. Peter I will assist their Legates going and coming and contribute to their necessities I will endeavour to preserve defend and encrease the authority rights honours and priviledges of the Holy Roman Church and of our Lord the Pope and of his Successors And I will no way contribute but rather detect and hinder any thing that should be to their prejudice With all my strength will I observe and cause to be observed by others all the Rules of the Fathers and all Apostolick i. e. Papal Decrees and Commands Provisions and Reservations All Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels to our said Lord the Pope and to his Successors will I oppose and persecute I will come when called to Synods and once in three years come to Rome And I will give an account to our Lord the Pope of my Pastoral Office and of all things that pertain to the state of my Church and Clergy All Papal Injunctions I will humbly receive and most diligently execute c. So help me God and these holy Evangils Here is a good hold already whereby all Secular and Regular Prelates are enslaved to the Papacy and to the Roman Doctrine and Worship From which if they or any other swerve then are the direful thunderbolts of Excommunication lanc'd against them with extinguishing of Candles and in the name of God and of his Saints shutting them out of the Church in heaven and in earth denouncing them to be cursed and anathematiz'd and adjudging them to be damned in eternal fire with the Devil and his Angels and all Reprobates As is to be seen in their form of Excommunication All we reputed Hereticks and all others that fall under this severe doom are good for nothing afterwards but to be destroyed any way possible as will be seen in what follows But if any by terror or hope or any other inducement are brought into their Church from among Hereticks he must climb over a high and difficult partition-wall and be tied so short that he shall hardly ever think of a return It is not as they represent to deceive the simple only going amongst them and be within the Pale of the Church and do what you will But after they have drawn you so far that you cannot go back then you must in earnest be reconciled to the Church And this is the manner of it as is prescribed in the Pontificale The penitent Schismatick or Heretick must kneel before the Church-door and there make a Confession of his Faith and have the Devil Exorcised out of him And being brought in and kneeling before the High Altar renounce all heretical pravity and promise to live in the unity of the Roman Faith and have some Prayers and Grosses made over him and then swear obedience to the Pope imprecating damnation to himself if ever he departs from the Communion of his Church and if he were a noted Heretick he is thus kneeling to damn all Heresies that especially which he leaves and pronounce all that still hold it worthy of an eternal Curse and upon his Oath profess to believe from his heart that Faith which is taught by the Roman Church and promise if ever he quits it to submit himself to the severity of the Canons This one would think should be judged sufficient by the Church of Rome to keep men in her obedience But she dares not trust to it as indeed experience hath shewn that long agon the exorbitant greatness of the Papacy had been reduced and a general Reformation effected if nothing but ties of Conscience or Excommunications had been used other means therefore have been found more violent but more effectual Inquisition managed with great rigour and great policy hath been as Pope Sixtus Quintus called it in a Bull I shall cite afterwards Firmissimum Fidei Catholicae propugnaculum The best and strongest Supporter of the Catholick Faith A truth which will manifestly appear when we have seen how it was at first established and hath proceeded ever since SECT I. Of the beginning of the
account and upbraiding us with our many Sects shews that Rominists are not a little proud of their success in begetting or maintaining of them A man in a Vizard robs his Neighbour and having pulled it off reproacheth him for his beggarliness this is very disingenuous But very strange it is that the same man should yield himself a prey every time the Thief shall put on his mask The mischief is that Faction not Conscience makes the great differences in the Christian Church Opinions are embraced and asserted upon design to promote worldly interests Those Doctrines in the Romish Church we say and prove to be Innovations are such as tend to advance the power and greatness of those that brought them in and now impose them on others And it is not to be denied but that some are enemies to the Tyranny of that Church because they themselves would govern or be under no Government at all Factions like errors and sins may clash and fight one against another but it is not the property of true Religion to multiply Controversies or to be fierce in lesser contentions But then there are some things so bad in themselves so much against Divine Commandments and the duty every man ows to God that there he may not and must not comply Let who will injoyn what is dishonourable to God or forbidden by him the first and greatest Obligation ought to take place God must be obeyed above all though in the discharge of that obedience we expose our selves to great dangers and sufferings Glad should I be that Popery were the true Religion that our Blessed Lord had constituted the Pope his Vicar and made him infallible and commanded us to believe and obey all he should speak from his Chair It would supersede all our enquiries and the paiâ—s we are at to examine whether Papal Decrees agree well with our Masters wâ—ll It would have spared the bloud of Millions of Christians who rather chose to die in flames and tortures than comply with those Injunctions which they judged contrary to their Saviours Laws And it would free all meek good men who would buy peace and submit to any thing that were not sinful from the dread of Massacres and Inquisitions and what else may be feared from the formidable Principles and Persecutions of the See of Rome We are abundantly satisfied that the Bishop of that City hath no just right to that Power and Dominion he claims over all Crowns and Miters nay we clearly see by the Records of ancient times that every where he used very ill means to usurp that Authority Yet I believe most Protestants would easily be brought to recede from their right and for peace sake to give him more than is his due Precedency Honour even Money to maintain his Greatness I could afford him if that engaged me to nothing contrary to the duty I owe my God and Saviour But if yielding so far must oblige me to embrace a new Creed and false and to practice an unlawful Worship then I am bound to assert my liberty und to bear faith and allegiance to God whatever I suffer for it we might if we would part with our freedom but we may not give up Gods truth and honour The Case is this we may not live in the Communion of Rome but as the Popes Subjects and that would make us in many things rebels against God We are not obliged to live in that Communion and we dare not do it for then except we yield in all things we are proceeded against as Hereticks as accursed Traitors to God and the Pope and the greatest severities are inflicted on us So that as we would preserve our Consciences and our lives we must withdraw from Rome and live asunder All Christians are obliged to worship God alone and in all things to obey their Saviour and all men would live and enjoy their own Now I shall make it appear that if we are in the Communion or in the power of the Roman Church we can do neither We must believe and worship otherwise than Gods Word hath commanded or we must live under infamy and persecutions and expire in flames Whilst I give an account of these two things it will appear that there is a very great difference betwixt the case of the Reformation and the case of them that separate from the Church of England That as necessary and Just as that was this is as needless and unjust and that as much as Religion and self-preservation obligeth us to break communion with the Church of Rome so much the same bonds tie all Dissenters to unite with the Church of England and to live quietly like good Christiane and loyal Subjects in its Communion A Prayer to be said by them that are solemnly admitted into the Fraternity of the holy Virgin Mary wherein the devout Officers of the Inquisition are Commonly listed SAncta Maria Mater Dei Virgo ego N. N. te hodie in Dominam patronam advocatam eligo firmiterque statuo atque propono me nunquam te derelicturum neque contra to aliquid unquam dicturum aut facturum neque permissurum ut à meis subditis aliquid contra tuum honorem unquum agatur Obsecro te igitur suscipe me in servum perpetuum adsis mihi in omnibus actionibus meis nec me deseras in hora mortis Amen Holy Mary Mother of God and Virgin I N. N. chuse thee this day for my Lady Patroness and Advocate firmly resolving and engaging my self that I will never forsake thee nor yet ever say or do any thing against thee nor suffer any thing to be done against thine honour by any that are subject to me I beseech thee therefore let me be thy Servant for ever and own me for such assist me in all my actions and forsake me not at the hour of death Amen The Holy Inquisition IF the Church of Rome had kept to the Primitive Creeds and still retained the Ancient purity of Divine Worship and used her strength and policy only to maintain true Christianity it might have been said that too great a Zeal had transported her and made her too fierce against erroneus opinions That might have made some abatement of the censure she lies under of being too cruel but withal it had been a prejudice against that Religion that had occasioned the shedding so much bloud and destroying so many lives and it would have been thought that the Christian Faith had disposed its Professors to be merciless and unnatural Now if in both cases it be quite otherwise if Christianity inspires and recommends nothing but meekness and the greatest charity and if it hath not been to maintain the Doctrines of our Blessed Lord or the Worship of the True God that Rome hath persecuted and slain so many Nay if the Gospel forbids nothing more than to be hard and severe to take away mens lives or the comforts of them And if Rome by flames and tortures
Ecclesia utitur Sess 3. that they said nothing but the Nicen Creed this new one not being yet hatcht Nay even now in their publick Worship and when they Baptize as conscious of the Novelty of the Tridentine Faith they only use the three Catholick Creeds the new one is not mentioned but reserved to persecute Hereticks withall that is to damn and to destroy the Enemies of the might and grandeur of Rome For it is to be noted that all these New Articles are so contrived that they all manifestly make for the advantage of the Roman Church They establish its uncontrolable dominion over Mens Consciences they stretch and assert its power over all persons and in all cases and they bring great profit to the Roman Clergy Here you find nothing that glorifies any of Gods Attributes nothing to magnifie or explain the Mysteries of our Redemption nothing that can engage men to serve and love God better nothing to encrease the hopes or settle the peace of Christian souls All of it is nothing but the founding of the Roman Empire the Canonizing of those Means whereby the Pope and his Clergy should reign and abound in wealth Accordingly this Faith is not propagated or maintained as the Christian was by the humility meekness and patient sufferings of its Preachers and Professors but by craft and policy by might and violence Not by the demonstration of a a divine power in the working of Wonders and Miracles openly before all the world But by such pretended feats as many among themselves are ashamed to mention and to own These 500 years and upwards they have filled their Books with wondrous Stories to back those their new devices which are neither Primitive nor universally received neither contained in Scripture nor the ancient Creeds And these their Miracles are for the most part so ill contrived so absurd so private and obscure so ill attested that they confute themselves and prove nothing but the ungroundedness of those Doctrines and badness of that Cause whose interest they are brought to maintain SECT III. That this New Creed makes the distinction betwixt Papists and other Christians THis Creed is the unpassable Gulf fixt betwixt Popery and the Reformation and hath widened the breach never to be made up betwixt the Roman Church and all other Christian Churches It is not now as before the Council of Trent when many lived in the Roman Church hoping and endeavouring to rectifie what was amiss and without owning its errors Now those errors are become Articles of faith declared necessary to all mens salvation and men must make a publick profession of them and solemnly swear to them And it is become a common Maxim and a Principle on which they ground their proceedings against Dissenters Dubius in fide censetur haereticus that he is counted an heretick that doubts in matters of Faith You may not question not so much as hesitate about any Point in the New Articles neither may you interpret them or seek to give them a commodious sense as the Bishop of Condom hath endeavoured to do to make them plausible the whole Creed and Oath must go down in the Popes sense that imposed it be it what it will So that except a man truly and thoroughly can believe all this he cannot with any Conscience any ways comply with the Church of Rome or remain in its Communion And all the guilded words and promises of the Popish Clergy to them they would seduce about tolerating different opinions and leaving them to themselves are as appears by this Bull and Creed but pious Frauds and down-right lies Upon these New Articles of Faith is grounded the Worship now used in the Church of Rome Whoever believes them not must needs look on the Mass and other Popish devotions with great horrour and abhorrency and own it his duty to die rather than joyn with them in what is so contrary to true Religion and so dishonourable to his God and Saviour So that the Points of this New Creed are the touch-stone and trial of a Papist and stand as a Partition-wall betwixt him and a Protestant Whence I desire it may be considered how unjust and injurious they are to the Church of England and its Conformable Clergy that charge It and Them with being Popish and Popishly affected Some no doubt as we have seen by experience do it with evil designs and will do it in spight of all evidence to the contrary and to them nothing is to be said but God convert them Others that may be imposed upon will perhaps be satisfied when they consider 1. The constancy of our Clergy in professing that Worship and Doctrine for which our Reformers died Martyrs even in those days when they themselves were persecuted exiled and ruined for it and had all the provocations imaginable to pass over to Rome if they had had any inclination towards it 2. Or when they acquaint themselves with the many and most learned Writings of our Doctors of all Ranks against Romish Errors and Superstitions so strong so convincing that none can read them with any attention and remain unsatisfied in any Point wherein Protestants do differ from Rome 3. Or lastly If they will but compare the declared and avowed Doctrines of our Church as they are contained in the Common-Prayer-Book and the 39 Articles with either the Canons of the Council of Trent or in short with this Roman Creed For then they shall see not only that we hold none of these Tenets peculiar to the Church of Rome and contrary to Gods word But that our Doctrines and Perswasions are directly opposed to them As for those that make Popery to consist in two or three Ceremonies or indifferent Rites they much mistake the matter and they must be mightily in love with Ignorance and Scruples that cherish such thoughts and will not read what will inform them better Any Reformed Church might as well be charged with what any man shall please for some of their Customs and Orders will be found to resemble those of the Jews Pagans Mahometans or Socinians And where the differences are so many so great so just and material as betwixt us and the Church of Rome it is strangely unreasonable to expect that we should go naked or walk upon our heads for fear of doing any thing that the Papists do It is much more to be feared lest the want of Order and Decency of Creeds and Forms of Divine Worship and administring the Holy Sacraments should open an easie entrance for the Roman Innovations to come in where there is a great confusion and a great latitude and nothing fixt and establisht in opposition to them than that we who in the Conformity of our Confessions of Faith and of a pure and holy Worship of God alone through our Lord Jesus Christ hold a constant and avowed Communion with all Reformed Churches and all Christians that keep to the Primitive Rules should break our ties and break over those bars and