The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

THUS I have acquainted thee, my Reader, that it is no new or strange thing to see the Christian Religion in these days upon its Restitution and Revival in the World, entertained with Slanders and Reproaches, for the same things happened to Christ himself and his Apostles. And yet, least thou shouldest be misled and imposed upon by these Clamours of our Adversaries, we have represented to thee what the whole manner of our Religion is; what we believe concerning God the Father, concerning his only Son Jesus Christ, and concerning the Holy Ghost; what our Opinion is concerning the Church, the Sacraments, the Ministry, the ⟨p. 140⟩Holy Scriptures, the Ceremonies of the Church, and all the other parts of the Christian Religion. We have declared also, that we detest, as pernicious to the Souls of Men, and plagues, all those Ancient Heresies that have been condemned by the old Councils and Holy Scriptures. That we have reduced into practise again, as much as we can possibly, the Ecclesiastical Discipline, which our Adversaries had much weakened; and that we punish all Licentious Courses of Life, and Debauchery in Manners, by our ancient and established Laws, and that with as much […] as is fit and possible. That we p•• serve all Kingdoms in the same State we found them, without any Diminution or Mutation, and preserve the Majesty of our Princes entire as much as we can possibly. That we have departed from that Church which they had made a Den of Thieves, in which they had left nothing sound or like a Church, and which they themselves confessed to have erred in many things, as Lot left Sodom, or Abraham Chaldea, not out of Contention, but out of Obedience to God; and have sought the certain way of Religion out of the sacred Scriptures, which we know cannot deceive us, and have returned to the Primitive Church of the ancient Fathers and Apostles, that is, to the beginning and first Rise of the Church, as to the proper Fountain.

THUS I have acquainted thee, my Reader, that it is no new or strange thing to see the Christian Religion in these days upon its Restitution and Revival in the World, entertain'd with Slanders and Reproaches, for the same things happened to Christ himself and his Apostles. And yet, least thou shouldest be misled and imposed upon by these Clamors of our Adversaries, we have represented to thee what the whole manner of our Religion is; what we believe concerning God the Father, concerning his only Son Jesus Christ, and concerning the Holy Ghost; what our Opinion is concerning the Church, the Sacraments, the Ministry, the