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THe Questions of Difference between Our Churches and the Church of Rome have been so often disputed, and the evidences on both Sides so often pro∣duc'd, that to those who are stran∣gers to the present constitution of Affairs, it may seem very unnecessary to say them over again: and yet it will seem almost impossible to produce any new matter; or if we could, it will not be probable, that what can be newly alledged
can prevail more than all that which already hath been so often urged in these Questions. But we are not de∣terr'd from doing our duty by any such considerations: as knowing, that the ••ame medicaments are with success applyed to a returning or an abiding Ulcer; and the Preachers of Gods Word must for ever be ready to put the People in minde of such things, which they already have heard, and by the same Scriptures and the same reasons endeavour to destroy their sin, or prevent their danger; and by the same Word of God to extirpate those errors, which have had opportunity in the time of our late Disorders to spring up and grow stroger, not when the Keepers of the Field slept, but when they were wounded, and their hands cut off, and their mouths stopp'd, least they should continue, or proceed to do the Work of God thoroughly.
A little warm Sun, and som•• indulgent showers of a softer rain, have made many weeds of erroneous Do∣ctrine to take root greatly, and to spread themselves widely: and the Bigots of the Roman Church by their late importune boldness and indiscreet frowardness in making Proselytes, have but too manifestly declar'd to all the World, that if they were rerum potiti, Masters of our affairs, they would suffer nothing to grow but their own Colo••ynths and Gourds. And although the Natu∣ral remedy for this were to take away that impunity, up∣on the account of which alone they do encrease; yet be∣cause we shall never be Authors of such Counsels, but confidently rely upon God, the Holy Scripture, right reason, and the most venerable and prime Antiquity, which are the proper defensatives of truth for its sup∣port and maintenance; yet we must not conceal from the People, committed to our charges, the great evils to
which they are tempted by the Roman Emissaries, that while the King and the Parliament take care to secure all the publick interests by instruments of their own, we also may by the word of our proper Ministery endeavour to stop the progression of such errors, which we know to be destructive of Christian Religion, and consequent∣ly dangerous to the interest of souls.
In this procedure, although we shall say some things which have not been alwayes plac'd before their eyes, and others we shall represent with a fittingness to their present necessities, and all with Charity too, and zeal for their souls; yet if we were to say nothing but what hath been often said already; we are still doing the work of God, and repeating his voice, and by the same remedies curing the same diseases, and we only wait for the blessing of God prospering that importu∣nity which is our duty: according to the advice of Solomon,* 1.1 In the Morning sow thy seed, and in the Evening with-hold not thy hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this, or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
Eccles. 11.6.