A defence of the Apology of the Church of England containing an answer to…A defence of the Apologie of the Churche of Englande conteininge an answeare to…

The Recapitulation of the Apology.

The Recapitulation of the Apologie.

Thus thou seest, good Christian Reader, It is no new thing, though at this day the Religion of Christ be entertained with despites, and checks, being but lately restored, and, as it were, coming up again anew: for so much as the like hath chanced both to Christ him self, and to his Apostles: yet nevertheless, for fear thou mayest suffer thee self to be lead amiss, and to be seduced with those exclamations of our Adversaries, we have declared at large unto thee the very whole manner of our Religion, what our Faith is of God the Father, of his only Son Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, of the Church, of the Sacraments, of the Ministry, of the Scriptures, of Ceremonies, and of every part of Christian Belief. We have said, that we abandon, and detest, as plagues, and poisons, all those old Heresies, which either the sacred Scriptures, or the Ancient Councils have utterly condemned: that we call home again, as much as in us lieth, the right Discipline of the Church, which our Adversaries have quite brought into a poor and weak case: That we punish all licentiousness of life, and unruliness of manners, by the old, and long continued Laws, and with as much sharpness as is convenient, and lieth in our power: That we maintain still the state of Kingdoms, in the same condition, and state of honour wherein we found them, without any diminishing, or alteration, reserving unto our Princes their Majesty, and worldly preeminence safe, and without impairing, to our possible power: That we have so gotten our selves away from that Church, which they had made a den of Thieves, and wherein nothing was in good frame, or once like to the Church of God, and which by their own confessions had erred many ways, even as Lot in times past gate him out of Sodom, or Abraham out of Chaldea, not upon a desire of contention, but by the warning of God him self: And that we have searched out of the Holy Bible, which we are sure, cannot deceive, one sure form of Religion, & have returned again unto the Primitive Church of the Ancient Fathers, and Apostles, that is to say, to the ground, and beginning of things, unto the very foundations, and headsprings of Christs Church.