understandings The first is where was your Church before Luther Now if you had called upon them to speak something against your religion from Scripture or right reason or Universal Tradition you had been secure as a Tortoise in her shell a cart pressed with sheavs could not have oppressed your cause or person though you had confessed you understood nothing of the mysteries of succession doctrinal or personal For if we can make it appear that our religion was that which Christ and his Apostles taught let the truth suffer what eclipses or prejudices can be supposed let it be hid like the holy fire in the captivity yet what Christ and his Apostles taught us is eternally true and shall by some means or other be conveyed to us even the enemies of truth have been conservators of that truth by which we can confute their errors But if you still aske where it was before Luther I answer it was there where it was after even in the Scriptures of the Old New Testament and I know no warrant for any other religion and if you will expect I should shew any society of men who professed all the doctrines which are now expressed in the confession of the Church of England I shall tell you it is unreasonable because some of our truths are now brought into our publick confessions that they might be oppos'd against your errors before the occasion of which there was no need of any such confessions till you made many things necessary to be professed which are not lawful to be believed For if we believe your superinduc'd follies we shall do unreasonably unconscionably and wickedly but the questions themselves are so useless abstracting from the accidental necessity which your follies have brought upon us that it had been happy if we had never heard of them more then the Saints and Martyrs did in the first ages of the Church but because your Clergy have invaded the liberty of the Church and multiplyed the dangers of damnation and pretend new necessities and have introduc'd new articles and affright the simple upon new pretensions and slight the very institution and the Commands of Christ and of the Apostles and invent new sacramentals constituting ceremonies of their own head and promise grace along with the use of them as if they were not Ministers but Lords of the Spirit and teach for doctrines the Commandments of men and make void the Commandment of God by their tradition and have made a strange body of Divinity therefore it is necessary that we should immure our faith by the refusal of such vain and superstitious dreams but our faith was compleated at first it is no other then that which was delivered to the saints and can be no more for ever So that it is a foolish demand to require that we should shew before Luther a systeme of Articles declaring our sense in these questions It was long before they were questions at all and when they were made questions they remained so a long time and when by their several pieces they were determined this part of the Church was oppressed with a violent power and when God gave opportunity then the yoke was broken and this is the whole progress of this affair But if you will still insist upon it then let the matter be put into equal ballances and let them shew any Church whose confession of faith was such as was obtruded upon you at Trent and if your religion be Pius quartus his Creed at Trent then we also have a question to aske and that is where was your religion before Trent The Councel of Trent determined that the souls departed before the day of judgement enjoy the beatifical vision It is certain this Article could not be shown in the confession of any of the antient Churches for most of the Fathers were of another opinion But that which is the greatest offence of Christendom is not only that these doctrines which we say are false were yet affirmed but that those things which the Church of God did alwayes reject or held as Uncertain should be made Articles of faith and so become parts of your religion and of these it is that I again aske the question which none of your side shall ever be able to answer for you where was your religion before Trent I could instance in many particulars but I shall name one to you which because the thing of it selfe is of no great consequence it will appear the more unreasonable and intolerable that your Church should adopt it into the things of necessary belief especially since it was only a matter of fact and they took the false part too For in the 21. Session the fourth Chapter it is affirmed that although the holy Fathers did give the Sacrament of the Eucharist to Infants yet they did it without any necessity of salvation that is they did not believe it necessary to their salvation which is notoriously false and the contrary is marked out with the black-lead of every man almost that reads their works and yet your Councel sayes this is sine controversiâ credendum to be believed without all controversie and all Christians forbidden to believe or teach otherwise So that here it is made an Article of faith amongst you that a man shall neither believe his reason nor his eyes and who can shew any confession of faith in which all the Trent doctrine was professed and enjoyned under pain of damnation and before the Councel of Constance the doctrine touching the Popes power was so new so decried that as Gerson says he hardly should have escaped the note of heresy that would have said so much as was there defined so that in that Article which now makes a great part of your belief where was your religion before the Councel of Constance and it is notorious that your Councel of Constance determined the doctrine of the halfe communion with a Non obstante to Christs institution that is with a defiance to it or a noted observed neglect of it and with a profession it was otherwise in the primitive Church Where then was your religion before Iohn Hus and Hierom of Pragues time against whom that Councel was convened But by this instance it appears most certainly that your Church cannot shew her confessions immediately after Christ and therefore if we could not shew ours immediately before Luther it were not halfe so much for since you receded from Christs Doctrine we might well recede from yours and it matters not who or how many or how long they professed your doctrine if neither Christ nor his Apostles did teach it so that if these Articles constitute your Church your Church was invisible at the first and if ours was invisible afterwards it matters not For yours was invisible in the dayes of light and ours was invisible in the dayes of darkness For our Church was alwayes visible in the reflections of Scripture and he that had his eyes of faith
to have a tender and a religious Conscience The first is That all the points of difference between us and your Church are such as do evidently serve the ends of covetousness and ambition of power and riches and so stand vehemently suspected of design and art rather then truth of the Article and designs upon Heaven I instance in the Popes power over Princes and all the world his power of dispensation The exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of Princes The doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences which was once made means to raise a portion for a Lady the Neece of Pope Leo the tenth The Priests power advanced beyond authority of any warrant from Scripture a doctrine apt to bring absolute obedience to the Papacy but because this is possibly too nice for you to suspect or consider that which I am sure ought to move you is this That you are gone to a Religion in which though through Gods grace prevailing over the follies of men there are I hope and charitably suppose many pious men that love God and live good lives yet there are very many doctrines taught by your men which are very ill Friends to a good life I instance in your Indulgences and pardons In which vitious men put a great confidence and rely greatly upon them The doctrine of Purgatory which gives countenance to a sort of Christians who live half to God and half to the world and for them this doctrine hath found out a way that they may go to Hell and to Heaven too The Doctrine that the Priests absolution can turn a trifling repentance into a perfect and a good and that suddenly too and at any time even on our death-bed or the minute before your death is a dangerous heap of falshoods and gives licence to wicked people and teaches men to reconcile a wicked debauched life with the hopes of Heaven And then for penances and temporal satisfaction which might seem to be as a plank after the shipwrack of the duty of Repentance to keep men in awe and to preserve them from sinking in an Ocean of Impiety it comes to just nothing by your doctrine for there are so many easie waies of Indulgences and getting pardons so many con-fraternities stations priviledg'd Altars little Offices Agnus Dei's amulets hallowed devices swords roses hats Churchyards and the fountain of these annexed indulgences the Pope himself and his power of granting what and when and to whom he list that he is a very unfortunate man that needs to smart with penances and after all he may choose to suffer any at all for he may pay them in Purgatory if he please and he may come out of Purgatory upon reasonable terms in case he should think it fit to go thither So that all the whole duty of Repentance seems to be destroyed with devices of men that seek power and gain and finde errour and folly insomuch that if I had a minde to live an evil Life and yet hope for Heaven at last I would be of your religion above any in the world But I forget I am writing a Letter I shall therefore desire you to consider upon the premises which is the safer way For surely it is lawful for a man to serve God without Images but that to worship Images is lawful is not so sure It is Lawful to pray to God alone to confess him to be true and every man a Liar to call no man Master upon Earth but to rely upon God teaching us But it is at least hugely disputable and not at all certain that any man or society of men can be infallible that we may put our trust in Saints in certain extraordinary Images or burne incense and offer consumptive oblations to the Virgin Mary or make vows to persons of whose state or place or Capacities or Condition we have no certain revelation we are sure we do well when in the holy Communion we worship God and Jesus Christ our Saviour but they who also worship what seems to be bread are put to strange shifts to make themselves believe it to be Lawful It is certainly Lawful to believe what we see and feel but it is an unnatural thing upon pretence of faith to disbelieve our eyes when our sense and our faith can better be reconciled as it is in the question of the real presence as it is taught by the Church of England So that unless you mean to prefer a danger before safety temptation to unholiness before a severe and a holy religion unless you mean to lose the Benefit of your prayers by praying what you perceive not and the Benefit of the sacrament in great degrees by falling from Christs Institution and taking halfe instead of all unless you desire to provoke God to jealousie by Images and Man to jealousie in professing a religion in which you may in many cases have leave to forfeit your faith and lawful trust unless you will still continue to give scandal to those good people with whom you have lived in a common religion and weaken the hearts of Gods afflicted ones unless you will choose a Catechism without the second Commandment and a faith that grows bigger or less as men please and a hope that in many degrees relyes on men and vain confidences and a Charity that damns all the world but your selves unless you will do all this that is suffer an abuse in your prayers in the Sacrament in the Commandments in faith in hope in Charity in the Communion of saints and your duty to your supreme you must return to the bosome of your Mother the Church of England from whence you have fallen rather weakly then maliciously and I doubt not but you will find the Comfort of it all your Life and in the Day of your Death and in the day of Judgment If you will not yet I have freed mine own soul and done an act of duty and Charity which at least you are bound to take kindely if you will not entertain it obediently Now let me adde this that although most of these objections are such things which are the open and avowed doctrines or practises of your Church and need not to be proved as being either notorious or confessed yet if any of your Guides shall seem to question any thing of it I will bind my selfe to verify it to a tittle and in that sense too which I intend them that is so as to be an objection obliging you to return under the pain of folly or heresy or disobedience according to the subject matter And though I have propounded these things now to your consideration yet if it be desired I shall represent them to your eye so that even your self shall be able to give sentence in the behalfe of truth In the mean time give me leave to tell you of how much folly you are guilty in being moved by such mock-arguments as your men use when they meet with women and tender consciences and weaker
treacherously he can never be admitted to friendship who speaks fairly and weeps pittifully Friendship is the greatest honesty and ingenuity in the world 4. Never accuse thy friend nor believe him that does if thou dost thou hast broken the skin but he that is angry with every little fault breaks the bones of friendship and when we consider that in society and the accidents of every day in which no man is constantly pleased or displeased with the same things we shall finde reason to impute the change unto our selves and the emanations of the Sun are still glorious when our eyes are sore and we have no reason to be angry with an eternal light because we have a changeable and a mortal faculty But however do not think thou didst contract alliance with an Angel when thou didst take thy friend into thy bosome he may be weak as well as thou art and thou mayest need pardon as well as he and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Theog that man loves flattery more then friendship who would not only have his friend but all the contingencies of his friend to humour him 5. Give thy friend counsel wisely and charitably but leave him to his liberty whether he will follow thee or no and be not angry if thy counsel be rejected for advice is no Empire and he is not my friend that will be my Judge whether I will or no Neoptolemus had never been honoured with the victory and spoiles of Troy if he had attended to the tears and counsel of Lycomedes who being afraid to venture the young man fain would have had him sleep at home safe in his little Island He that gives advice to his friend and exacts obedience to it does not the kindnesse and ingenuity of a friend but the office and pertness of a Schoolmaster 6. Never be a Judge between thy friends in any matter where both set their hearts upon the victory If stâ—angers or enemies be litigants what ever side thou favourest thou gettest a friend but when friends are the parties thou losest one 7. Never comport thy self so as that thy friend can be afraid of thee for then the state of the relation alters when a new and troublesome passion supervenes ODERUNT quos METUUNT Perfect love casteth out fear and no man is friend to a Tyrant but that friendship is Tyranny where the love is changed into fear equality into empire society into obedience for then all my kindness to him also will be no better then flattery 8. When you admonish your friend let it be without bitternesse when you chide him let it be without reproach when you praise him let it be with worthy purposes and for just caâ—ses and in friendly measures too much of that is flattery too little is envy if you doe it justly you teach him true measures but when others praise him rejoyce though they praise not thee and remember that if thou esteemest his praise to be thy disparagement thou art envious but neither just nor kind 9. When all things else are equal preferre an old friend before a new If thou meanest to spend thy friend and make a gain of him till he be weary thou wilt esteem him as a beast of burden the worse for his age But if thou esteemest him by noble measures he will be better to thee by thy being used to him by tryall and experience by reciprocation of indearments and an habitual worthiness An old friend is like old wine which when a man hath drunk he doth not desire new because he saith the old is better But every old friend was new once and if he be worthy keep the new one till he become old 10. After all this treat thy friend nobly love to be with him do to him all the worthinesses of love and fair endearment according to thy capacity and his Bear with his infirmities till they approach towards being criminal but never dissemble with him never despise him never leave him * Give him gifts and upbraid him not †and refuse not his kindnesses and be sure never to despise the smallness or the impropriety of them Confirmatur amor beneficio accepto A gift saith Solomon fastneth friendships for as an eye that dwells long upon a starre must be refreshed with lesser beauties and strengthened with greens and looking-glasses lest the sight become amazed with too great a splendor so must the love of friends sometimes be refreshed with material and low Caresses lest by striving to be too divine it becomes less humane It must be allowed its share of both It is humane in giving pardon and fair construction and opennesse and ingenuity and keeping secrets it hath something that is Divine because it is beneficent but much because it is Eternall FINIS Postscript MADAM IF you shall think it fit that these papers pass further then your own eye and Closet I desire they may be consign'd into the hands of my worthy friend Dr. Wedderburne For I do not only expose all my sickness to his cure but I submit my weaknesses to his censure being as confident to finde of him charity for what is pardonable as remedy for what is curable but indeed Madam I look upon that worthy man as an Idea of Friendship and if I had no other notices of Friendship or conversation to instruct me then his it were sufficient For whatsoever I can say of Friendship I can say of his and as all that know him reckon him amongst the best Physicians so I knew him worthy to be reckoned amongst the best friends Two Letters to Persons changed in their Religion A Copy of the First Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome M. B. I Was desirous of an opportunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me and have brought upon you this trouble to reade a long Letter which yet I hope you will be more willing to do because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person and a very great charity to your soul I must confesse I was on your behalf troubled when I heard you were fallen from the Communion of the Church of England and entred into a voluntary unnecessary schism and departure from the Laws of the King and the Communion of those with whom you have alwaies lived in charity going against those Laws in the defence and profession of which your Husband died going from the Religion in which you were baptized in which for so many years you lived piously and hoped for Heaven and all this without any sufficient reason without necessity or just scandall ministred to you and to aggravate all this you did it in a time when the Church of England was persecuted when she was marked with
the Characterismes of her Lord the marks of the Crosse of Jesus that is when she suffered for a holy cause and a holy conscience when the Church of England was more glorious then at any time before Even when she could shew more Martyrs and Confessors then any Church this day in Christendome even then when a King died in the profession of her Religion and thousands of Priests learned and pious men suffered the spoiling of their goods rather then they would forsake one Article of so excellent a Religion So that serioufly it is not easily to be imagined that any thing should move you unless it be that which troubled the perverse Jews and the Heathen Greeks Scandalum crucis the scandall of the Crosse You stumbled at that Rock of offence You left us because we were afflicted lessened in outward circumstances and wrapped in a cloud but give me leave only to reminde you of that sad saying of the Scripture that you may avoid the consequent of it They that fall on this stone shall be broken in pieces but they on whom it shall fall shall be grinded to powder And if we should consider things but prudently it is a great argument that the sons of our Church are very conscientious and just in their perswasions when it is evident that we have no temporall end to serve nothing but the great end of our souls all our hopes of preferment are gone all secular regards only we still have truth on our sides and we are not willing with the losse of truth to change from a persecuted to a prosperous Church from a Reformed to a Church that will not be reformed lest we give scandall to good people that suffer for a holy conscience and weaken the hands of the afflicted of which if you had been more carefull you would have remained much more innocent But I pray give me leave to consider for you because you in your change considered so little for your self what fault what false doctrine what wicked or dangerous proposition what defect what amiss did you finde in the Doctrine and Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England For its doctrine It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament all that which is in the three Creeds the Apostolical the Nicene and that of Athanasius and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councels or many other truly such and whatsoever was condemned in these our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresie And upon these accounts above four whole ages of the Church went to Heaven they baptized all their Catechumens into this faith their hopes of heaven was upon this and a good life their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone they denied Communion to none that professed this faith This is the Catholick faith so saith the Creed of Athanasius and unless a company of men have power to alter the faith of God whosoever live and die in this faith are intirely Catholick and Christian So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 years and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to saving faith if we live according to our beleef 2. For the Liturgy of the Church of England I shall not need to say much because the case will be very evident First Because the disputers of the Church of Rome have not been very forward to object any thing against it they cannot charge it with any evil 2. Because for all the time of K. Edw. 6. and till the 11th year of Q. Elizabeth your people came to our Churches and prayed with us till the Bull of Pius Quintus came out upon temporal regards and made a Schism by forbidding the Queens Subjects to pray as by Law was here appointed though the prayers were good and holy as themselves did beleeve That Bull enjoyned recusancy and made that which was as an act of rebellion and disobedience and schisme to be the Character of your Roman Catholikes And after this what can be supposed wanting in order to salvation We have the Word of God the faith of the Apostles the Creeds of the Primitive Church the Articles of the four first generall Councels a holy Liturgy excellent prayers perfect Sacraments Faith and Repentance the ten Commandements and the Sermons of Christ and all the precepts and counsels of the Gospel We teach the necessity of good works and require and strictly exact the severity of a holy life We live in obedience to God and are ready to die for him and do so when he requires us so to do We speak honour of his most holy Name we worship him at the mention of his Name we confess his Attributes we love his Servants we pray for all men we love all Christians even our most erring Brethren we confess our sinnes to God and to our Brethren whom we have offended and to Gods Ministers in cases of scandall or of a troubled Conscience We communicate often We are enjoyned to receive the holy Sacrament thrice every year at least Our Priests absolve the penitent our Bishops ordain Priests and confirm baptized persons and blesse their people and intercede for them and what could here be wanting to Salvation what necessity forced you from us I dare not suspect it was a temporal regard that drew you away but I am sure it could be no spirituall But now that I have told you and made you to consider from whence you went give me leave to represent to you and tell you whither you are gone that you may understand the nature and conditions of your change For do not think your self safe because they tell you that you are come to the Church You are indeed gone from one Church to another from a better to a worse as will appear in the induction the particular of which before I reckon give me leave to give you this advice if you mean in this affair to understand what you do it were better you enquired what your Religion is then what your Church is for that which is a true Religion to day will be so to morrow and for ever but that which is a holy Church to day may be heretical at the next change or may betray her trust or obtrude new Articles in contradiction to the old or by new interpretations may elude ancient truths or may change your Creed or may pretend to be the Spouse of Christ when she is idolatrous that is adulterous to God Your Religion is that which you must and therefore may competently understand You must live in it and grow in it and govern all the actions of your life by it and in all questions concerning the Church you are to choose your Church by the Religion and therefore this ought first and last to be enquired after Whether the Romane Church be the Catholique Church must depend upon so many uncertain enquiries is offered to be
proved by so long so tedious a method hath in it so many intrigues and Labyrinths of Question and is like a long line so impossible to be perfectly strait and to have no declination in it when it is held by such a hand as yours that unless it be by material enquiries into the Articles of the Religion you can never hope to have just grounds of confidence In the mean time you can consider this if the Romane Church were the Catholike that is so as to exclude all that are not of her communion then the Greek Churches had as good turn Turks as remain damned Christians and all that are in the communion of all the other Patriarchal Churches in Christendome must also perish like Heathens which thing before any man can beleeve he must have put off all reason and all modesty and all charity And who can with any probability think that the Communion of Saints in the Creed is nothing but the Communion of Roman Subjects and the Article of the Catholike Church was made to dispark the inclosures of Ierusalem but to turn them into the pale of Rome and the Church is as limited as ever it was save only that the Synagogue is translated to Rome which I think you will easily beleeve was a Proposition the Apostles understood not But though it be hard to trust to it it is also so hard to prove it that you shall never be able to understand the measures of that question and therefore your salvation can never depend upon it For no good or wise person can beleeve that God hath tied our Salvation to impossible measures or bound us to an Article that is not by us cognoscible or intends to have us conducted by that which we cannot understand and when you shall know that Learned men even of the Romane party are not agreed concerning the Catholike Church that is infallibly to guide you some saying that it is the virtual Church that is the Pope some that it is the representative Church that is a Councel Some that it is the Pope and the Councel the virtual Church and the representative Church together Some that neither of these nor both together are infallible but only the essential Church or the diffusive Church is the Catholique from whom we must at no hand dissent you will quickly finde your self in a Wood and uncertain whether you have more then a word in exchange for your soul when you are told you are in the Catholike Church But I will tell you what you may understand and see and feel something that your self can tell whether I say true or no concerning it You are now gone to a Church that protects it self by arts of subtlety and arms by violence and persecuting all that are not of their mindes to a Church in which you are to be a Subject of the King so long as it pleases the Pope In which you may be absolved from your Vows made to God your Oaths to the King your promises to men your duty to your Parents in some cases a Church in which men pray to God and to Saints in the same Form of words in which they pray to God as you may see in the Offices of Saints and particularly of our Lady a Church in which men are taught by most of the principal Leaders to worship Images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ or him or her whose Image it is and in which they usually picture God the Father and the holy Trinity to the great dishonour of that sacred mystery against the doctrine and practise of the Primitive Church against the express doctrine of Scripture against the honour of a divine attribute I mean the immensity and spirituality of the divine Nature You are gone to a Church that pretends to be infallible and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars and yet endures no contradiction and is impatient her children should enquire into any thing her Priests obtrude You are gone from receiving the whole Sacrament to receive it but half from Christs Institution to a humane invention from Scripture to uncertain Traditions and from ancient Tradition to new pretences from prayers which ye understood to prayers which ye understand not from confidence in God to rely upon creatures from intire dependance upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much in outward ministeries in the external work of Sacraments and of Sacramentals You are gone from a Church whose worshipping is simple Christian and Apostolical to a Church where mens consciences are loaden with a burthen of Ceremonies greater then that in the dayes of the Jewish Religion for the Ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great Book in Folio greater I say then all the Ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to reade the Word of God the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction institution comfort reproof a treasure of all excellencies to a Church that seals up that fountain from you and gives you drink by drops out of such Cisterns as they first make and then stain and then reach out and if it be told you that some men abuse Scripture it is true for if your Priests had not abused Scripture they could not thus have abused you but there is no necessity they should and you need not unless you list any more then you need to abuse the Sacraments or decrees of the Church or the messages of your friend or the Letters you receive or the Laws of the Land all which are liable to be abused by evil persons but not by good people and modest understandings It is now become a part of your Religion to be ignorant to walk in blindeness to beleeve the man that hears your Confessions to hear none but him not to hear God speaking but by him and so you are liable to be abused by him as he please without remedy You are gone from us where you were only taught to worship God through Jesus Christ and now you are taught to worship Saints and Angels with a worship at least dangerous and in some things proper to God for your Church worships the Virgin Mary with burning incense and candles to her and you give her presents which by the consent of all Nations used to be esteemed a worship peculiar to God and it is the same thing which was condemned for Heresie in the Collyridians who offered a Cake to the Virgin Mary A Candle and a Cake make no difference in the worship and your joyning God and the Saints in your worship and devotions is like the device of them that fought for King and Parliament the latter destroys the former I will trouble you with no more particulars because if these move you not to consider better nothing can But yet I have two things more to adde of another nature one of which at least may prevail upon you whom I suppose
under pain of damnation which cannot be made very probable much less certain and therefore that you sin against God and are in danger of his eternal displeasure but in giving the final sentence as we have no more to do then your men have yet so we refuse to follow your evil example and we follow the glorious precedent of our Blessed Lord who decreed and declared against the crime but not against the Criminal before the day He that does this or that is in danger of the Councel or in danger of judgment or liable and obnoxious to the danger of hell fire so we say of your greatest errors they put you in the danger of perishing but that you shall or shall not perish we leave it to your Judge and if you call this charity it is well I am sure it is piety and the fear of God 7. Whether you may be saved or whether you shall be damned for your errors does neither depend upon our affirmative nor your negative but according to the rate and value which God sets upon things Whatever we talke things are as they are not as we dispute or grant or hope and therefore it were well if your men would leave abusing you themselves with these litle arts of indirect support For many men that are warranted yet do eternally perish and you in your Church damne millions who I doubt not shall reign with Jesus eternally in the Heavens 8. I wish you would consider that if any of our men say salvation may be had in your Church it is not for the goodness of your new propositions but only because you do keep so much of that which is our Religion that upon the confidence of that we hope well concerning you And we do not hope any thing at all that is good of you or your Religion as it distinguishes from us and ours we hope that the good which you have common with us may obtain pardon directly or indirectly or may be an antidote of the venome and an amulet against the danger of your very great errors so that if you can derive any confidence from our concession you must remember where it takes root not upon any thing of yours but wholly upon the excellency of ours you are not at all safe or warranted for being Papists but we hope well of some of you for having so much of the Protestant and if that will do you any good proceed in it and follow it whither soever it leads you 9. The safety that you dream of which we say to be on your side is nothing of allowance or warranty but a hope that is collateral indirect and relative we do not say any thing whereby you can conclude yours to be safer then ours for it is not safe at all but extremely dangerous we affirm those errors in themselves to be damnable some to contain in them impiety some to have sacriledge some idolatry some superstition some practifes to be conjuring and charming and very like to witchcraft as in your hallowing of water and baptizing bels and exorcizing demoniacs and what safety there can be in these or what you can fancy we should allow to you I suppose you need not boast of Now because we hope some are saved amongst you you must not conclude yours to be safe for our hope relies upon this There are many of your propositions in which we differ from you that thousands amongst you understand and know nothing of it is to them as if they were not it is to them now as it was before the councel they hear not of it And though your Priests have taken a course that the most ignorant do practise some of your abhominations most grossely yet we hope this will not be laid upon them who as S. Austin's expression is caut â sollicitudine quaerunt veritatem corrigi parati cum invenerint do according as they are able warily and diligently seek for truth and are ready to swallow it when they finde it men who live good lives and repent of all their evils known and unknown Now if we are not deceived in our hopes these men shall rejoyce in the eternal goodness of God which prevails over the malice of them that misguide you but if we be deceived in our hopes of you your guides have abus'd you and the blind leaders of the blind will fall together For 10. If you will have the secret of this whole affair this it is The hopes we have of any of you as it is known principally relies upon the hopes of your repentance Now we say that a man may repent of an error which he knows not of as he that prayes heartily for the pardon of all his sins and errors known and unknown by his general repentance may obtain many degrees instances of mercy Now thus much also your men allow to us these who live well and die in a true though but general repentance of their sins and errors even amongst us your best wisest men pronounce to be in a saveable condition Here then we are equal and we are as safe by your confession as you are by ours But because there are some Bigots of your faction fierce and fiery who say that a general repentance will not serve our turns but it must be a particular renunciation of Protestancy these men deny not only to us but to themselves too all that comfort which they derive from our Concession and indeed which they can hope for from the mercies of God For be you sure we think as ill of your errors as you can suppose of our Articles and therefore if for errors be they on which side it chances a general repentance will not serve the turn without an actual dereliction then flatter not your selves by any thing of our kindness to your party for you must have a particular if a general be not sufficient But if it be sufficient for you it is so for us in case we be in error as your men suppose us but if it will not suffice us for remedy to those errors you charge us with neither will it suffice you for the case must needs be equall as to the value of repentance and the malignity of the error and therefore these men condemn themselves and will not allow us to hope well of them but if they will allow us to hope it must be by affirming the value of a general repentance and if they allow that they must hope as well of ours as we of theirs but if they deny it to us they deny it to themselves and then they can no more brag of any thing of our concession This only I adde to this consideration that your men does not cannot charge upon us any doctrine that is in its matter and effect impious there is nothing positive in our doctrine but is either true or innocent but we are accus'd for denying your super-structures ours therefore if we be deceived is but like a
voice but saw and perceived nothing of the sence and what you understood of it was like the man in the Gospel that was half blinde he saw men walking like Trees and so you possibly might perceive the meaning of it in generall You knew when they came to the Epistle when to the Gospel when the Introit when the Pax when any of the other more generall periods were but you could have nothing of the Spirit of prayer that is nothing of the devotion and the holy affections to the particular excellencies which could or ought there to have been represented but now you are taught how you may be really devout it is made facil and easie and there can want nothing but your consent and observation 2. Whereas now you are taken off from all humane confidences from relying wholly and almost ultimately upon the Priests power and external act from reckoning prayers by numbers from forms and out-sides you are not to think that the Priests power is less that the Sacraments are not effective that your prayers may not be repeated frequently but you are to remember that all outward things and Ceremonies all Sacraments and Institutions work their effect in the vertue of Christ by some morall Instrument The Priests in the Church of England can absolve you as much as the Romane Priests could fairly pretend but then we teach that you must first be a penitent and a returning person and our absolution does but manifest the work of God and comfort and instruct your Conscience direct and manage it You shall be absolved here but not unless you live a holy life So that in this you will finde no change but to the advantage of a strict life we will not flatter you and cozen your dear soul by pretended ministeries but we so order our discourses and directions that all our ministrations may be really effective and when you receive the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lords Supper it does more good here then they do there because if they consecrate ritely yet they do not communicate you fully and if they offer the whole representative Sacrifice yet they do not give you the whole Sacrament only we enjoyn that you come with so much holiness that the grace of God in your heart may be the principal and the Sacrament in our hands may be the ministring and assisting part we do not promise great effects to easie trifling dispositions because we would not deceive but really procure to you great effects and therefore you are now to come to our offices with the same expectations as before of pardon of grace of sanctification but you must do something more of the work your self that we may not do lesse in effect then you have in your expectation We will not to advance the reputation of our power deceive you into a less blessing 3. Be careful that you do not flatter your self that in our Communion you may have more ease and liberty of life for though I know your pious soule desires passionately to please God and to live religiously yet I ought to be careful to prevent a temptation lest it at any time should discompose your severity Therefore as to confession to a Priest which how it is usually practised amongst the Romane party your self can very well account and you have complain'd sadly that it is made an ordinary act easie and transient sometime matter of temptation often times impertinent but suppose it free from such scandal to which some mens folly did betray it yet the same severity you 'l finde among us for though we will not tell a lye to help a sinner and say that is necessary which is only appointed to make men do themselves good yet we advise and commend it and do all the work of souls to all those people that will be saved by all means to devout persons that make Religion the business of their lives and they that do not so in the Churches of the Roman Communion as they finde but little advantage by peridiocal confessions so they feel but little awfulness and severity by the injunction you must confess to God all your secret actions you must advise with a holy man in all the affairs of your soul you will be but an ill friend to your self if you conceal from him the state of your spiritual affairs We desire not to hear the circumstance of every sinne but when matter of justice is concerned or the nature of the sinne is changed that is when it ought to be made a Question and you will finde that though the Church of England gives you much liberty from the bondage of innumerable Ceremonies and humane devices yet in the matter of holiness you will be tied to very great service but such a service as is perfect freedom that is the service of God and the love of the holy Jesus and a very strict religious life for we do not promise heaven but upon the same terms it is promised us that is Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Iesus and as in faith we make no more to be necessary then what is made so in holy Scripture so in the matter of Repentance we give you no easie devices and suffer no lessening definitions of it but oblige you to that strictness which is the condition of being saved and so expressed to be by the infallible Word of God but such as in the Church of Rome they do not so much stand upon Madam I am weary of my Journey and although I did purpose to have spoken many things more yet I desire that my not doing it may be laid upon the account of my weariness all that I shall adde to the main businese is this 4. Reade the Scriptures diligently and with an humble spirit and in it observe what is plain and beleeve and live accordingly Trouble not your self with what is difficult for in that your duty is not described 5. Pray frequently and effectually I had rather your prayers should be often then long It was well said of Petrarch Magno verborum freno uti decet cum superiore colloquentem When you speak to your superiour you ought to have a bridle upon your tongue much more when you speak to God I speak of what is decent in respect of our selves and our infinite distances from God but if love makes you speak speak on so shall your prayer be full of charity and devotion Nullus est amore superior ille te coget ad veniam qui me ad multiloquium Love makes God to be our friend and our approaches more united and acceptable and therefore you may say to God the same love which made me speak will also move thee to hear and pardon Love and devotion may enlarge your Letanies but nothing else can unless Authority does interpoâ—e 6. Be curious not to communicate but with the true Sonnes of the Church of England lest if you follow them that were amongst us but are gone out from us because they were not of us you be offended and tempted to impute their follies to the Church of England 7. Trouble your self with no controversies willingly but how you may best please God by a strict and severe conversation 8. If any Protestant live loosely remember that he dishonours an excellent Religion and that it may be no more laid upon the charge of our Church then the ill lives of most Christians may upon the whole Religion 9. Let no man or woman affright you with declamations and scaring words of Heretick and Damnation and Changeable for these words may be spoken against them that return to light as well as to those that go to darkness and that which men of all sides can say it can be of effect to no side upon its own strength or pretension The End Martial l. 8. ep. 18. Prov. 27. 10. * Vt praestem Pyladen aliquis mihi praestet Oresten Hoc non fit verbis Maree ut ameris ama Mart. l. 6. ep. 11. * Extra fortunam est quicquid donatur amicis Quas dederis solas semper habebis opes Mart. l. 5. ep. 43. Et tamen hoc vitium sed non leve sit licet unum Quod colit ingratas pauper amicitias Quis largitur opes veteri fidoque sodali ep. 19. †Non bellè quaedam faciunt duo sufficit unus Huic operi si vis ut loquar ipse tace Crede mihi quamvis ingentia Posthume dones Authoris pereunt garrulitate sui ep. 53. De potest Eccles. cons. 12.