over their persons who are subjects to another prince, nor ever had till he was called and admitted to a limited jurisdiction, which from time to time was restrained or enlarged as the wisdom of the state thought convenient in the most catholic times, and was at last by the same consent and judgment utterly abolished by a catholic king, catholic clergy, and catholic people, before the Reformation.

How assured soever the church of England is in all that she hath done or consented to, it hath observed likewise the modesty prescribed by the apostle, "To judge nothing before the time," that concerns others: it condemns nobody over whom it has no just authority; it does not look upon itself as an evangelist sent to reform other churches, or to censure and determine, that the opinions which they hold and believe do exclude them from salvation; it meddles not with determining who is Antichrist, nor with purgatory or transubstantiation, as they are stated by other churches. Indeed, those opinions are rejected and censured by the church in her own children, or in those who ought to submit to her conclusions; and even in those it doth not make those opinions to be damnable, lest it might seem to condemn all who hold the same; which is the unwarrantable presumption that it complains of in the church of Rome. And

if that church duly considered in how many of the most important articles of religion the church of England agrees with her, and in how few she differs, and those very modernly enjoined, (if not received) as conditions of salvation by her; and if it had not more of the artifice and the policy of the court, than of the wisdom and piety of the church, it would not presume for those few particulars to exclude a much greater number of Christians from any hope of salvation, if her vote could exclude them, than are contained within the pale of that church by her own computation and geography; and when many of those whom she will needs reckon as her own, differ from her, and renounce a subjection to her in those particulars which she reckons as fundamental as any upon which the church of England dissents with her, as shall be made manifest in this discourse. But it is yet more strange, that she should apply the humility and charity of our church, (that charity that covers a multitude of sins, and is the very essence and soul of Christianity itself) because we extend it as far as possibly it will reach on their behalf, in the hope that they may be saved, as an argument against us, and to induce us to decline our own church and to betake us to their communion, because they have the presumption and impudence to conclude that we cannot otherwise be saved.

A

But this must not alter our temper; they cannot provoke the church of England by their uncharitable and rash precept, nor by their furious example, to say worse of purgatory, worshipping, and adoration of images, and invocation of saints, than that the Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons, worshipping, and adoration, as well of images, as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God. These are the words, and all the judgment that the church of England hath declared upon those particulars in the two-and-twentieth article. We pronounce no anathema against those who are of another profession, but are well content that those tares shall grow till the harvest. In the argument of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, the church of England prescribes and enjoins the same reflections, the same recollections, the same piety, and the same devotion, which the other church pretends to commend; it administers it in the same words in which our Saviour instituted it; pronounces the same benefit and reward to those who receive it worthily, and the same insupportable penalties to those who unworthily partake of it, as the other church does, and which was as much as the catholic church enjoined for a thousand years after our Saviour. And for the

other irrational innovation, the new term of transubstantiation, that hath introduced with it all the choleric and uncharitable terms, and a new rude language into all debates of religion; the church of England pronounces no more, than, that transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of bread and wine) in the supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy writ, but is repugnant to the plain words of scripture, overthroweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. These are the words of the eightand-twentieth article; and all other censures and reproaches, which by the warmth of contention are cast upon these particulars, or the persons who own those doctrines, are not the language of the church of England, which is guided by a much gentler spirit; let them who think otherwise stand or fall to their own master.

It cannot be wondered at, nor need it be excused, that in the beginning of the Reformation, (which happened in or near the same time in several kingdoms and provinces, though God knows upon very different occasions, and carried on with very different circumstances) the novelties introduced, which are always odious in religion; and the horrible outrages which in many places were committed, when all kinds of prophaneness were applied to the removing some kind of superstitions; and the foul

pretence of conscience made use of to pull down churches, and interrupt all exercise of religion, to withdraw all duty and obedience from kings and princes, and to contemn all laws and government; when armies were raised, battles fought, the most execrable murders committed, and all the licence and excess that fire and sword could commit, were practised for religion-sake: I say, I do not wonder that the church and court of Rome (to whom all these people, and all these nations, had before submitted) was so much transported, as to throw about all their wild-fire promiscuously amongst them all, and to use all the reproaches and ill words against them all, which they had been accustomed to when they had been worse used and affronted, without examining the difference in substance and circum. stance that was in the proceedings in the several climates; and rather satisfying themselves that the submission and obedience that had been formerly paid to them was but their due, than enquiring how it came to be so: and thus very pious and learned men, who lived under that jurisdiction, thought it necessary to condemn all the actions which were done, and all the doctrines which were taught by some or all of them, with equal bitterness and animosity. This rage was encountered with the like passion by many worthy men of the Reformation; who were not content with declining the