Reformations about which they themselves cannot yet agree Which being so to Demonstrate clearly that this prime Ground of the Protestant Religion and general Tenet of all Protestant Teachers doth directly lead yea inevitably force if it be throughly looked into and searched to the bottom to the denyal of Christ and all Christianity I lay for my First Ground That without Faith in Jesus Christ no Man can be saved This is not only the Belief of all that wear and deserve the Noble Title of a Christian but certain also out of the Word of God. Act. 4. 12. There is not Salvation in any other for neither is there any other Name under Heaven given to Men to wit but the Name of Jesus wherein we must be saved Mark 16. 16 But he that shall not believe namely the Gospel and Religion of Christ shall be condemned Heb. 11. 6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God. Rom. 5. 1 Being therefore justified by Faith let us have Peace toward God by our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have access through Faith to his Grace This Ground then is certain and cannot be denied by any Christian For my Second Ground I lay That this Faith in Jesus Christ which by God's Ordination is of necessity required to Salvation is not a mere Natural Faith or Humane Credulity which Men may have by their own natural Forces without the help of God's special Grace such as is the Faith of Heathens of Jews and Turks and such indeed as is the Faith of all Hereticks But it is a Divine and Supernatural thing which Men acquire and attain to by the special Aid of God by the help of Divine Grace and therefore this Faith is called and truly is The gift of God. This ground is certain first out of the Word of God which clearly teacheth That saving Faith is the gift of God Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given for Christ not only to Believe in him but also to Suffer for him Eph. 2. 8. By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves for it is the gift of God Not of Works that no Man may glory Joh. 6. 44. No Man can come unto me that is believe in me for our first step toward Christ is Faith unless the Father that sent me draw him And Verse 65. Therefore did I say to you that no Man can come to me unless it be given him of my Father Joh. 15. 5. I am the Vine you the Branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth much fruit for without me you can do nothing Namely appertaining to Salvation and therefore not believe as is requisite to Life Everlasting without the help of Christ that is of Divine Grace by Christ merited and purchased for us These places are clear Secondly This ground is strongly proved by Reason For the end of Man being to enjoy Supernatural Glory that is the clear Vision of God in his blessed Kingdom The means to obtain this high and divine End must be suitable to it that is Divine and Supernatural For who will say that Man of himself and by his own forces without the Aid and special Favour of God is able to make himself fit and proportionate to be associated to the Saints to the Angels to Christ to God in Eternal Glory Who will say that of himself he is able to cleanse his Soul from the stains and filth of Sin and to put upon her a Wedding Garment a Golden and Resplendent Vesture suitable to the Banquet and Banqueters of Heaven The special Operation then of Divine Grace must Purifie and Embellish the Soul of Man and Attire her in Holy and Divine Virtues that so she may be fit to be the Consort of God in the fruition of his Eternal Glory And so Faith which is one of these Virtues and the very Ground and Foundation of the rest must be Divine and Supernatural and spring in Man from the help of God's Grace and be Adorned and Dignified by it that so there may be a fit proportion betwixt the Root and the Tree the Seed and the Fruit the Egg and the Bird a Christian Life and the Glory of Heaven Whosoever will deny this ground must not only forsake the clear Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and go against the light of Reason but he must also fall into the Pelagian Heresie condemned by the Church of Christ Twelve Hundred Years ago Which held That the Gospel of Christ being proposed by his Preachers Men of themselves without any further help of Divine Grace are able to believe the same and to do all therein required to Life Everlasting Which proud phansy of Pelagius St. Hierom S. Augustine and especially the Bishops of Rome by the invincible force of God's Word did crush confound and beat to the ground My third Ground is That as God cannot be the Author of a Lye of false Doctrine of a false Faith of a false Religion That is of a Religion and Doctrine of Faith that is mixed with Falshood and is partly true and partly false So he neither doth neither can stir up and draw Men by his special Grace Aid and Operation to believe those Religions or Doctrines of Faith which are so mixed with Falshood This seems to be evident even by the light of Reason for as it is the proper work of the Devil to mix Religions and to pollute them with Falshood So it is his continual and studious endeavour to stir up and induce Men by proposing some pleasing and delectable thing or other to believe and embrace the same that so he may deprive them of Divine Faith which is the Gift of God and bring them assuredly to Everlasting Damnation Neither let any one be so simple as to imagine That the Devil is only the Author of those Religions which are wholly False For scarcely is there any Religion in the World that doth teach no Truth at all And therefore it is sufficient to prove a Religion to be the work of the Devil if there be any Falshood in it at all as S. Paul doth seem to teach 1 Tim. 4. 1. where foretelling the rising of the Manichean Heresie which long did Pester the Church of God he call's the Doctrine thereof the Doctrine of Devils Notwithstanding that those Hereticks with some Falshoods did teach many Truths even as all Hereticks do who nevertheless are the Instruments of the Devil to seduce and destroy Souls Wherefore whosoever do culpably Believe and Follow Religions or Doctrines of Faith partly True partly False do never believe the same with Divine Faith which is the Gift of God though they esteem the Religion which they follow to be the best of all others yea to be the pure Light of the Gospel of Christ But their Faith is ever a meer Humane Credulity such as is the Faith of all Mis-believers which can never bring them to Eternal Happiness how laudably soever they live because without
Controversies about Faith and Religion now in question amongst Christian People which few I know have leisure or means fewer Capacity to look throughly unto or ability to distinguish always Light from Darkness Truth from Falsehood in them But my Endeavour is to stir you up to a serious consideration of certain general Heads and undenyable Truths which this little Treatise doth present unto you easie to be conceiv'd yet powerful to lay open even to mean Understandings the assured Light of the True Gospel of Christ and the absolute necessity of admitting some sure and un-erring Interpreter of God's Word by him ordained and enabled to deliver the right meaning thereof unto us in all Ages but especially when Controversies about Faith and Religion are raised which Interpreter being once admitted of and agreed upon all other Controversies about points of Belief will quickly be at an end Peace will be restored again to Christians and nothing will remain for the securing of Souls conjoin'd together in the Communion of Saints but a studious care to decline from Evil and to do Good and Industriously to imitate the Blessed Life of Christ But further yet to facilitate this affair be pleased to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks whom I often call Papists to condescend to the Style of Protestants so terming them for adhering in Religion to the Pope in Latine Papa this word signifying Father as the common Spiritual Father of Christians and supreme Pastor of the Flock of Christ be pleased I say to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks Divine Faith from Humane Their Articles of Faith from Humane Stories which many distinguishing not and thereupon perswading themselves that Catholicks with equal certainty and obligation believe the one and the other that is their Articles of Faith and the Humane Stories which relate the Lives Actions and Miracles of certain Saints and finding some of these to be very strange and to savour in their conceit of fraudulent Fictions take this to be a sufficient Warrant for them to contemn Papistry as a foolish ungrounded and fabulous Religion and to repute Papists indiscreetly credulous and plainly to be led in darkness and blindness But these do much mistake for the truth is that although all Catholicks be strictly bound to believe those points of Doctrine which their Church doth propose for Articles of Faith contained in the written word of God or in the perpetual Tradition of the Church or deduced by General Councils or by the Pastors of the Church out of God's Word when Heresies are condemned yet they are not bound to believe the Relations of particular Authors concerning the Actions and Miracles of Saints or other like things farther then discreet Prudence and Christian Piety doth lead them every Man being at liberty to weigh the worth and honesty of the Relator and the probability of the thing related and then to believe or not to believe as Reason and Piety shall dictate unto him Yet not forgetting that God is admirable in his Saints That His Wisdom Power Justice Mercy and Sweetness in Governing the World and in contriving and ordering the Affairs of Man's Salvation is far above the reach of our weak Understanding That frequently there is less danger in believing too much than in believing too little and that there are some as strange things related in the Holy Scriptures at which Atheists do stumble as are in the approved Histories of the Church Neither do Catholicks believe these Stories and their Articles of Faith with one and the same certainty for these Stories they believe meerly with Humane Faith for the Authority of the Relators who may Err mistake or deceive But their Articles of Faith they believe with Divine Faith for God's Authority speaking in his Word and by the ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church being bound under pain of forfeiting the Name of Catholicks and of incurring damnable Sin not to disbelieve wittingly any one of these Articles all of them being Divine Verities warranted for Truth by the Holy Ghost who continually guideth and directeth the Church in her Doctrine of Faith as is hereafter shewed out of Gods Word And so by disbelieving stubbornly the Articles of Faith which the Church professeth Heresie is incurred which is not incurred by disbelieving her Stories Furthermore if hereafter I affirm not for want of Charity but forced by unanswerable Arguments drawn from the word of God that the Followers of the Protestant Religion so dying are not sav'd take me to speak of those who culpably prefer this Religion before the Catholick or culpably dye therein being thereby destitute of that Faith and Charity which is of necessity required to Salvation and not of those who being truly Baptiz'd and brought up among Protestants have excusable Ignorance of the Catholick Faith and Church by reason either of their tender Years or of their weak Capacities or else of their mean and rude Education for such are secret Members of the Catholick Church and therefore if they depart this Life cloathed with those Garments of Christ with which he adorned them in the Sacrament of Baptism not having fallen into mortal Sin they shall certainly inherit the Kingdom of Heaven In which happiness none shall be Sharers that pass out of this Life destitute of Divine Faith which is the Gift of God of which more hereafter or defiled with Mortal Sin which is so called because it destroys the supernatural life of the Soul received by Regeneration in Baptism consisting in Divine Faith and other Celestial Virtues but especially in Sanctifying Grace and divine Charity without which Divine Charity nothing doth avail to Salvation as the Apostle teaches 1 Cor. 1. 13. Lastly because divers Protestant Teachers endeavour to make their Followers believe That the Fathers of the Primitive Church were Protestants seeking thereby to Illustrate the Protestant Religion that the greatness and boldness of this Imposture pardon the Word for I know not how otherwise to express truly the dealing of these Men may clearly appear I humbly intreat all understanding Protestants which know it not to take notice That those ancient Worthies and Lights of the Church of Christ were either Monks or Founders of Monastical Discipline or at least Approvers and Praisers of the same St. Anthony was a Monk and St. Athanasius his Praiser St. Basil the Great a Monk and the Founder of a Monastical Institute which in the Eastern part of the World is yet practised St. Gregory the Divine was a Monk St. Chrysostom a Monk St. Hierom a Monk the Great St. Augustine the Founder of a Monastical course of Life St. Martin a Monk St. Benedict a Monk and Founder of the Famous Order of Benedictine Monks which does yet flourish in the Western Church St. Gregory the Great was a Monk and by the Labours of Fourty Monks did first plant Christianity amongst the English Let any Man judge how likely or how true it is that these men were Protestants Secondly take notice that
Church Which hitherto have been the Converters of Heathen Nations Certainly none at all And as little solid hope can Protestants have that they shall one day be gathered together by the Holy Angels and placed amongst the Elect of God For certain it is that the Elect of God are to be gathered out of the Professors of the True Faith and Religion of Christ which is but one as I have already shewed and as the Apostle affirms Ephes 4. 5. One Faith one Baptism one God and out of his True Church and Fold Which also is but one as he himself doth teach John 10. 16. And other Sheep I have that are not of this Fold Them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice And there shall be made one Fold and one Pastor Out of which words note First That Christ speaking of his Church as she was to be after the Conjunction of the Jews and Gentiles together in one Faith assures us that she should be One Fold namely under one Visible Head one Jurisdiction one Government having one Faith one Worship of God one Communion one means of Sanctification for the Flock of this Fold Note Secondly That by this One Pastor that was to be made after Christ spake these words may well be meant not only Christ himself who was then the Good Pastor ver 11. and was not so made after this time but some other Supreme Ministerial Pastor made by Christ after the speaking of these words to preserve Unity in his Church and fittingly to govern her under himself Which was no other but blessed Peter made Supreme Pastor of the Flock of Christ John 21. which Office he left to his Successors Thirdly note That the Voice of the Church of Christ preaching in all Ages to the Nations of the Earth to bring them to his Fold is the Voice of Christ by his own acknowledgement And they saith he shall hear my Voice According to that of Luk. 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me And so Christ hath hitherto preached and doth yet preach to the Gentiles not by his own Corporal and Personal Voice but by the Voice of his Apostles and of their Successors the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church Whose Voice is his Voice because by him they are sent to teach and by him in their teaching are Guided And in like manner the sound of the Apostles doth yet go forth into all the Earth Psal 18. Rom. 10. And must go forth even till the day of Doom for a Testimony to all Nations Matth. 24. 14. Now then seeing that the Elect of God are to be gathered out of all the World and out of the Fold and Flock of Christ And that Christ verily and really hath but one Fold one Church one Faith one Flock and one Supreme Pastor under himself to guide fittingly this large Fold this great and numerous Flock spread over the VVorld And seeing also that the Protestants are neither spread over the VVorld that the Elect of God may be gathered out of them nor united to that Flock nor participants of that Faith which is spread over the VVorld nor within that Fold that is One nor under the Government and Feeding of that one Supreme Pastor of whom Christ speaketh Deplorable for the present is their Case most dangerous their State vain their Labour and fruitless their Hope And so it will ever be until they return to this Flock and Pastor again VVhich return how safely in Conscience and prudently they may make my next Question will declare Question XVI Whether Protestants or Catholicks do take the surer way to Eternal Happiness Where it is shewed That Papistry by the judgement of all Learned Protestants is a Saving Religion and consequently the securer way THe Doctrine delivered to Christian People concerning Heaven and Hell doth teach the one to be a place of such unspeakable Happiness And the other of such inexplicable Misery that no discreet Man among them will stick to say if he be asked that every Man and VVoman doth stand most deeply obliged out of their Duty to God and the natural Love they owe to themselves to take the surer way when doubt is made to gain the one and to avoid the other To take I say the surer way when doubt is made about the ways which are said to lead to Heaven or to bring to Hell. Amongst which ways two are of chief esteem the Catholick and the Protestant the Old and the New Religion Both which are said to be sure ways to Heaven yet both are doubted of The Old is doubted of among Christians only by a few of the Protestant Party who are neither of the best Learned amongst them nor of the most discreet For Learned Protestants generally hold that the Old Religion that is Papistry is a Saving Religion and a secure way to Heaven and that those which live and dye therein may be saved Here this witnessed by their own Pens and first by Doctor Covel in his defence of Mr. Hooker's Books of Ecclesiastical Polity Published by Authority Where he teacheth this at large saying Page 77. We affirm them of the Church of Rome to be part of the Church of Christ and that those which live and dye in that Church may notwithstanding be saved The same is taught by Doctor Field in his Third Book of the Church cap. 46. pag. 182. saying We doubt not but the Church in which the Bishop of Rome with more then Lucifer-like Pride exalted himself was notwithstanding the True Church of God And that it held a saving Profession of truth in Christ and by force thereof did Convert many from Errour And by Doctor Some in his defence against Penry pag. 182. saying In the Judgement of all Learned Men and all Reformed Churches there is in Popery a Church a Ministry a True Christ And pag. 176. If you think saith he that all the Popish sort which died in the Popish Church are damned you think absurdly and dissent from the Judgement of Learned Protestants Thus these Prime and Learned Protestants to whom I could add many more of later date but that it is needless in regard that all moderate Protestants do grant that Papists may be saved Yea this is the common Tenet of all Learned Protestants and of all Reformed Churches as you have heard out of Doctor Somes And not without cause in regard that Learned Protestants see well enough that if this they should deny they should not only very rashly and without any sure ground condemn to Hell all their Fore-fathers and the rest of the Christian World for above a Thousand Years before Luther not being well able to save from this Censure the Antient Fathers and innumerable other Learned Men and Holy Saints but should also lay open a fair way to plain Atheism to the utter denial of Christ and of God as my Tenth Eleventh and Twelfth Questions do very clearly demonstrate And therefore I may without danger of slander
affirm That those Protestants which deny Papistry to be a saving Religion and hold that Papists are not saved are neither of the best Learned nor of the Wisest sort For if they were Learned they would easily gather out of the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Histories of the Christian Church that to deny Papistry to be a saving Religion is to deny Christ in effect as I have before shewed And if they were discreet and wise they would not so rashly condemn to the pit of Hell the whole Christian World together with their Fore-fathers for so many hundreds of years in which Papistry reigned over the World without any firm ground or urgent reason at all Unless their own mistaking and ignorance must be reputed a firm ground For setting these aside by which their mis-informed and mis-guided Zeal doth take Papistry to be that which it is not what can they bring firm and solid to prove that Papistry is not a saving Religion Will they say that Papists are ignorant of or do not rely upon a certain special Faith by which they esteem themselves to be the Elect of God and to be Cock-sure of Salvation Be it so Neither did the Prophets nor the Apostles nor the Ancient Fathers rely upon this special Faith as is evident by their Lives For they applied themselves to Holy Works to much Prayer to frequent Fasting to great Austerity and Mortification seeking by these means to make sure their Vocation 2 Pet. 1. 10. and really working their Salvation in fear and trembling as the Apostle adviseth Philip. 2. 12. For all which Labour Care and Austerity this special Faith is a Supersedeas as is manifest by the Lives and Actions of those which rely thereon Wherefore if for want of this Sin-nourishing special Faith Papists do perish both Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and the Ancient Fathers yea all the Saints and Holy Servants of God which lived from Adam's time to Luther must perish with them For none of these were acquainted with or relyed upon this special Faith. Otherwise there would have been clear and manifest mention thereof in the Holy Scriptures in which the Holy Ghost not once or twice but most frequently would have inculcated the same if it had been so needful that without it Men could not be saved But seeing that in all his Divine Word he hath made no clear mention thereof Papists cannot be in danger for not relying thereon But rather those which relye thereon are in manifest danger of Eternal Perdition because in so weighty a business as their Everlasting Happiness is they forsaking the received Doctrine of the Christian World in the point of Jurisdiction rely upon a meer chimerical Fiction of their own as at their death they will find What then will these Zealous Precisians exclude Papists from Heaven because they commit Idolatry But this foul and foolish Crime Papists do no where commit but in these Mens mistaking Brains as is evident to all that know what Papists believe But Papists they will say do Err in divers points of Religion and therefore they cannot be saved But do not all Churches Err in these Mens conceipt Are not all subject to Erring Let them then either yield that Erring Religions are saving or else let them boldly teach That Jesus Christ hath not provided the World of any means of Salvation seeing he hath not established therein as these Men imagine any Religion that is not Erring By all which it is clear that in these parts of the World none do doubt but that Papistry is a Saving Religion saving a few unlearned Precisians who doubt of this but very indiscreetly as I have shewed But on the contrary all the Papists in the World who are far more in number than the Protestants are and really far excel them in Learning do not doubt whether the Protestant Religion be Saving or no but most firmly hold upon sure and undeceiving Grounds that it is not and that therefore no Man can be Saved precisely by the help of this Religion Which makes so many understanding Men and Women that know it right well forsake it notwithstanding that it is so easie and so pleasiing to Flesh and Blood and to imbrace Papistry far less agreeable to their Sensual Appetites with so great hazard of their Quiet Preferments Liberty and Goods Which certainly they would never do but to secure their Souls Which security if the Protestant Religion were able to afford no Man of Wit here in England would forsake the same to become a Catholick But no such security is to be found in this Religion but rather certain danger of Eternal Perdition as all do find that throughly search into it Neither are Papists for thus Censuring of the Protestant Religion to be esteemed less charitable then those Protestants which brand not Papistry with so hard a Censure For the Case of Papists and Protestants in this Affair is not alike Because Protestants in believing are at liberty according to their own Positions in regard That as they do not hold that there is upon Earth any Un-erring Church whose teaching all are bound to follow under pain of Damnanation So they do not esteem themselves bound to believe strictly the teaching of any Church or to think that Errors in Points of Faith do indanger Salvation But Papists are not at the like liberty because they believing that the Catholick Church which is no other than that Church which being spread over the World is joined in Communion to the Chair of Peter cannot Err in her Doctrine of Faith by reason of the continual assistance of the Holy Ghost do esteem themselves bound to believe as she teaches And therefore because this Church guided by the Holy Ghost and directed by the Holy Scriptures doth teach that there is but One Faith Ephes 4. but One Fold Joh. 10. That Christian People are bound under pain of Damnation to Obey their Lawful Prelates Heb. 13. And to hear the Voice of the Church Matth. 18. And to listen to the Ordinary Pastors thereof Luk. 10. And that they are in like sort bound to beware of false Prophets that is false Expounders of God's Word to avoid Heretical Teachers such as their Church hath declared Protestant Teachers to be For these and the like respects Catholicks do resolutely hold if they be such as understand their own Religion that by the help precisely of the Protestant Religion no Man can be saved Which they hold not for want of Charity but for Obedience to the Word of God and to the True and Catholick Church of Christ Let not then Protestants blame Catholicks for believing as they do seeing the word of God and so great Authority doth force them thereunto But rather let them blame themselves for following new Teachers contrary to the Doctrine of the Scriptures and for dis-uniting themselves from the True and Catholick Church of Christ out of whose Communion there is No Salvation as our Creeds do teach By all which
THE APPENDIX Whether the Apostles were Protestants or no. PRotestants generally conceive and believe that Jesus Christ and his Apostles Preached and planted in the World the Protestant Religion even the very self-same that Protestants now believe and practice and that they were really Protestants not in Name but in their Belief and Practice And that they instituted their Disciples and Followers that is the first Christians in the self-same Liberty of Gospel which Protestants now follow and charged them that with all Care and Diligence they should deliver this sweet and easie Religion which is so pleasing to Flesh and Blood to those who were to succeed them that so for ever it might be continued in the World for the Salvation of Mankind Thus I say do Protestants generally conceive and upon the Truth of this Conceipt they hazard their Souls notwithstanding that they are not agreed nor cannot yet agree among themselves which makes the matter very strange and the conceipt wholly improbable whether the Apostles in their Belief and Practice of Religion were Lutherans or Anabaptists or Swinglians or Calvinists or New Arians or Quakers or Arminians or Parliamentary Pretestants for each of these sorts or Branches of Protestants lay Claim to the Apostles and the Learned of each sort do bear their Followers in hand That the Doctrine which they Teach is the pure Light of the Gospel even the self-same that the Blessed Apostles Believed Taught and practised and of this they are all certain alike And so the conceipt of Saxony Denmark Sweden is that the Apostles were Lutherans The Conceipt of some of the Cantons of Switzerland is that they were Swinglians The Conceipt of many in Moravia and in Holland is that they were Anabaptists The Conceipt of Geneva of Scotland of Puritans of England and of some parts of Germany is that they were Calvinists The Conceipt of divers in England and Holland is that they were Quakers And the Conceipt of the Protestant Church of England is that the Apostles were of the same Belief and practised the same Worship of God that by Act of Parliament is here settled and established But to speak the Truth as it is impossible that the Apostles should be of all these Beliefs so it is more than probable that they were of none of them but rather that all these Beliefs are meer conjectural Conceipts of new Teachers who are wholly uncertain of what Belief the Apostles were For if they were certain that the Apostles were of some one of these Beliefs they would all doubtless be of the same But the Learned of the Protestants being indeed altogether uncertain and really ignorant of the Faith and Practise of the Apostles by guessing thereat so near as they can they have divided themselves into so many Branches and into so many contrary Faiths and practises each of them having nothing but his own conjecture to lead him to the true Light of the Gospel and to the right Religion of the Apostles But notwithstanding that Protestants do thus differ about Religion and are uncertain of the Faith and practice of the Apostles Yet they will not forsooth have it deny'd but that the Apostles were Protestants and that they planted in the World the Protestant Religion And so it must be supposed that they Taught That we are justified by Faith only That we have not Free-will in the works of Grace That our best Works are impure and stained with Sin That we do not merit by them either Increase of Grace or Glory That by Faith in Christ we are freed from the Yoke of the Law which is such as no man can keep and therefore Christ having fulfilled it for us our breach thereof doth neither wound the Conscience nor endanger the Soul. Moreover according to this supposed Doctrine of the Apostles we are not bound to confess our Sins to the Priests of God's Church or to do pennance for them no Works of ours being truly satisfactory Neither is Sin punished any where after this Life but in Hell and therefore we need not fear any purging Flames Christ having paid for all Furthermore we are not bound in Conscience to Fast or to abstain from Flesh upon certain days according as the Church doth appoint this being contrary to the Liberty of the Gospel It is likewise vain foolish superstitious to endeavour to gain Heaven by Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds by a Holy and mortified Life or to Vow Poverty Chastity and Obedience or to esteem perpetual Virginity Consecrated to God better more noble and more pleasing to God than Marriage Again according to the same supposed Apostolical Doctrine the Church of Christ is subject to Erring in her Doctrine of Faith and therefore we are not tyed to believe as she Teaches further than we esteem her Doctrine to agree with the written Word for to be so tyed is against the Liberty of the Gospel Against which Liberty also it is that Bishops and Priests should be tyed to live Chaste and Single Lives Lastly all sorts of Protestants saving Lutherans esteem the Apostles to have believed and taught that the Eucharist is not the true Body and Blood of Christ but a Figure or Remembrance thereof And so they consequently hold that Christ left no true and proper Sacrifice to be daily offered in his Church nor no true Priest-hood which cannot subsist without a true Sacrifice This is the Conceipt of Protestants in general real or pretended Real it may be of the ignorant and simple but pretended only I believe by the Understanding and Learned For these cannot but know that if the Apostles indeed had been Protestants and really had Preached spread and settled amongst the Nations of the Earth to which they Preached in Asia Europe and Africa the Protestant Religion which is so easie and so pleasing to Flesh and Blood that the same had continued infallibly at least for some while in the following Ages and that it could not possibly morally speaking so upon the sudden have been cast aside and extinguished in all places at once but that there would have remained illustrious Memory thereof at least in some of the primordial Churches in some of the Countries Provinces or Cities where the Apostles Preached This I think no understanding man will deny 1. Because the first Christians were zealous Followers and Imitators of the Doctrine and manners of the Apostles of whom they had a high esteem as also of their Doctrine which they knew the Apostles had confirmed by many true and Divine Miracles 2. Because they were very careful of their own Salvation as is evident by their admirable Constancy in suffering Losses Tribulations Torments yea terrible Deaths in the cruel and bloody Persecutions raised against them by the Roman Emperours for the space almost of Three Hundred Years How then is it likely if thus they suffer'd to save their Souls that they would wilfully cast them away by forsaking the true Religion of Christ which his Blessed Apostles had planted and so firmly