An answer to two treatises of Mr. John Can, the leader of the English…An answer to two treatises of Mr. Iohn Can, the leader of the English…

Though therefore they write, ¹that it was taken out of that Popish dunghill, the portius, and vile Mass-book, that the Papists suck no little advantage out of our Communion-Book, which they term an English translation out of the Mass-book, and out of the difficulty, whereby it came in, ²many Protestants themselves, adjudging that the stable of popish superstition was not throughly purged out of it; that Bristow draws the likeness of our Service-book to the countenancing of their Mass-book; ³And the Rhemists the absolution of the sick prescribed in our Communion-book, to an approbation of their absolution, Auricular confession, and Sacrament of penance: Howsoever they disallow the service, as it is practised in visitations, and enjoined in the late Canons, which denieth liberty not only to omit a ceremony, but also to add, alter, ⁴or omit any one word of the whole Liturgy, when we affirm the words of the Lords prayer, and the form in Baptism and the Supper may be altered, without fault. Though in these things they take exception against the Book, and the manner of urging it, yet they never disliked the use of it altogether, much less condemned it as a ⟨p. 8⟩false, devised, and idolatrous worship. Their profession and practice from time to time, both before and since the Controversies were moved about the Book, speak plainly in this matter. ⁵Judge then your self, whether it be not a notorious calumny in you to write, That our stinted service, devised by the Bishop, and translated from the Mass, is affirmed by our own Writers, to be a false and forged worship, and that it is even so, I appeal to many of your consciences: For why do you loath to use the same in your Families, but because you know it is not the incense made by fire from the Altar of the Lord. Is it a small thing thus to slander and reproach the servants of Christ, contrary to their writings, professions, and practices, and your own Conscience? And what a vain surmise is this, that because they forbear to use it in their houses, therefore in conscience they know it to be strange incense? As if many things might not be forborne, which in themselves are lawful? In reading the Scriptures a Christian may use one translation, when he doth not condemn others as abomination. I may presume, in private you make not use of the Lords prayer, and so of some others;