A letter to the true professors of Christ's Gospel/ inhabiting in the Parish off Allhallowis/ in Bredstrete in London/ made by Thomas Samson/ sometime their Pastore. 2. Corin. 6. ¶ We as helpers therefore exhort you/ that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. ¶ Imprinted at Strasburgh in Elsas/ at the sign of the golden Bibell/ In the month of August. the year of our LORD. 1554. The grace and favour of God/ our heavenly father/ purchased unto us/ by the bloody death of Christ our Saviour/ befelte and increased in all your consciences/ too your everlasting consolation. THe violence of this age doth not suffer me/ my most loving brethren/ to come (as I would do) unto you/ and by talk & brotherly conferring/ to put you in mind of the Gospel of jesus Christ/ which amongst woothers far more worthy/ even I by God's grace preached among you. I therefore have thought needful by these letters/ now to do the same/ now I say/ when though the perverse frowardness of men/ the true preaching of Christ's Gospel is banished and man's doctrine is taught with lies & fables: And though some perchance will think that this longeth not to me/ but to him that is your Pastore to do/ yet for as much as once I was your pastore/ I can not but testify/ that some piece of pastoral cure doth yet rest in my heart towards you. The which in deed doth much persuade me/ as the present necessity also seemeth no les to require/ to make a long & a large treatise/ by which ye might have an whole armour against all the assaults off false Prophets. But when I consider/ how truly/ and that with much diligence ye have been taught/ and therewith thinking/ that ye are not forgetful hearers of the word/ I think that among you it shall suffice/ if I do but name those greatest evelles/ which now are poured forth out of pulpits among you/ and therewith put you in mind of the truth/ contrary to these lies/ which once you both herd and recyeved/ desiring you to abide in the same. This will I do shortly/ as I have but little/ and the same unapt time to do it/ yet truly I trust to do it/ as let God's word therein try it. If first ye will suffer me to tell you/ that through these false Prophets/ the castle of your health/ the salvation of your souls is assaulted/ whom if ye suffer too be with you if ye yield up yourselves to the believing & following of their doctrine/ then know ye that as by blind lears ye be led/ so you with them then being blinded/ Math. 15. shall with them fall in to the pit of perdition/ which is prepared aswell for the falsely seduced/ as for the false seducer. Of this I could be content to speak the less/ but that I see that whilst of to many/ and that Londyners'/ these beasts befolowed. Ye have even drawn and pulled upon your heads those abominations/ which if but reason had ruled/ should not have been admitted before that by laws they had been thrust unto you/ that I speak not/ what true Christianity should have moved you too have done. Oh London/ London/ An exclamation upon London. is this the Gospelling fruit/ to be the first/ that without a law shouldest banish true preaching out of thee/ too be the first that against laws shalt admit that massing Idolatry/ to be the first that shall give the example of stumbling to all England/ which shouldest yet have been the first in constancy/ in humble/ saying for the continuing of the truth in thee/ in quiet and patient suffering for the truth's sake even death/ if by the rulers it had been offered the. That ground art thou/ which not in persecution/ but before persecution cometh dost go back/ a ground thou art reserved for the Lords woeful cures/ to whose judgement London I leave the. Seeing in London these evils are received/ as it is now meet for vigilant Pastors too watch over their flock/ to chase the wolf away/ les at the lords hand they do hear the name of hirelings/ joan. 10 so now is it high time for you my loving brethren/ and all them that he the children of God/ to take heed whose voice ye do hear/ too beware of the leaven of papistical Phariseis/ and to keep yourselves undefiled from all their abominations. The error of transubstantiation. The greatest of which now I will recite amongs all their abominations/ one of the principal is their doctrine of transsubstanciation/ the very pride of papistry/ and the horrible offence/ even of the turks and Heathen. That a popish priest/ by his huffing and bussinge/ and mumbling up of the words of Christ/ more like a Coniuror then a Christian/ should work that miraculous alteration and changing of the substance of bread and wine/ into the substance of the body and blood of Christ/ which then is to be taken/ as Christ himself God and man/ & so to be adored. But you know my dear brethren/ that there is no such miracle too be believed without the certain doctrine of God's word to warrant the same/ which the papists can never show/ & therefore their miracle is not to be believed/ Christ in Instituting the Supper/ meant not to leave there his body and blood really and substantially as the papists do teach: For Christ in the substance of his body/ was then to be crucified/ he was to die/ he was to rise again/ he was to ascend/ and he was/ and in the same yet now is/ to appear before the glorious God/ our Bishop/ advocate/ & mediator/ there so to remain until the last day/ as the schriptures do teach. In the Supper he instituted a commemoration of the breaking of his body/ and shedding of his blood/ to be done and made of them that do eat that bread/ and drink of that cup/ according to his institution: which he called his body and blood/ for that it is to the receivers a seal and confirmation of Christ's body broken/ and Christ's blood shed for them/ that the profit and commodity thereof is theirs/ which there do partake by faith. And so these words: This is my body, and this is my blood, are to be understand/ and not as the transsubstanciators/ literally enforce them. For their understanding/ them is both contrary to Christus meaning/ and also to the office of his body/ besides that it is against the nature of his very body. And that the same phrase of speaking is thus to be understanded/ as I have said: The like phrases in like matters in the scriptures doth sufficiently teach us. As whereof circumcision/ the LORD doth say: This is my covenant, where it was but the seal of the covenant/ as Paul calleth it. In the same sort it is said: This is the passover. This cup is the new Testament in my blood. Christ is the rock. And in like manner are these to be understanded. So that if the adversaries will give thee/ give the holy Ghost leave to expound himself/ then these words. This is my body? This is my blood? are figuratively to be understanded. As the leek Phariseis are/ and so serve they not all for their monstruus transubstantiation. The sacrifice of the mass. The second abomination is their sacrifice of the mass. In which (too let many things pass/ as the strangeness of the tongue/ the Jewish apparel/ the fond nods/ crosses/ becks & ducks.) Three evils most notable and to a Christian conscience intolerable are there. first their wicked sacrifice/ Three abominable evils in the sacrifice off the popish mass. which their masseboke testifieth/ to be Propitiatory/ to take away the sins of all those/ be they dead or living/ for whom they do say mass: Yea/ profitable and available for wars/ peace/ wether/ sickness/ for murrain of beasts/ and for whatsoever ye lust to buy their application. Oh shameful blasphemy. As concerning the sacrifice Propitiatory for sin/ ye must hold the anchor of your faith that this sacrifice Christ himself once offered for all in his own bloody death. He was the priest & the sacrifice/ the offerer and the thing offered/ & by his own bloody offering purified he in the shedding of his blood all his from sin. By it purchased he eternal sanctification & salvation for them that shallbe saved: & by it finished he for ever/ the full propitiation for sins: Math. 27 for saying these words it is finished or consummate/ he yielded up the ghost. Detestable therefore is the papistical sacrifice & ingerous to the bloody death of Christ. Christ instituted this supper to be a sacrament to us/ and not that of it a priest should make a propitiatory sacrifice for sin: In the eating & drinking of it/ that we should declare the lords death/ offering the sacrifice of thanks therefore (and therefore is it called of the fathers a sacrifice of thanks) and not leaving any more sacrifice propyciatorie for sin too any priest too offer: Eucharistia That we eating and drinking/ according too his institution/ should by faith apply unto our consciences/ the benefit of his death and passion/ and not giving power too any priest by messing too apply the benefit of his death/ to whom and to what he lysteth. The Lord's supper serve not for one dead. Christ ordained his Supper neither for the dead/ which have no use of eating and drinking with us in the congregation: nor yet for beasts/ wether/ nor war/ for which Christ did not dre: but for his church living upon this earth/ that needeth his word/ & needeth his Sacraments/ for the confirming of their faith. ☞ Thus plainly/ ye see one mischievous misuse in this mass. The second evil is/ that the bread and cup (which the Lord instituted too be received of the faithful with thanks giving) In their mass they do abuse/ and make of it an Idol/ holding it up for the people/ not only to gaze upon/ but to give unto it that honour/ which is dew unto God alone: And so both make of it an Idol/ and of the people gross idolaters/ and transgressers of God's commandment. The filthiness of which Idolatry/ I know you do see so plain/ that I need not with many words to impugum it/ for a Christian conscience can not but abhor it. The third evil is that in their mass/ that that is eaten and drunken is done & devoured of the priest all alone/ with quartering and soppinge/ with licking and supping/ with washing and wiping/ and such pretty tricks of their own inventing. Christ in his institution appointeth this supper too he selebrate of the whole congregation. Math. 26 Mar. 14. Luc. 22. Take ye, and drink ye all of this sayeth he: This do ye in remembrance of me. For so oft as ye eat this bread/ and drink of this cup ye show the lords death till he cometh. Christ and Paul speaketh not to the priest alone/ but to the whole congregation/ too observe this ordinance of eating and drinking at the lords supper: Whereby ye may plainly see how contrary this doing of our popish massers is in this also to the Institution of Christ. The mass of all Idols most abhorminable. And too be short in this their whole mass is nought/ else but an horrible profanation of the lords supper: Wherefore as a moste iniurius blasphemy/ too the blood of Christ/ as a most gross Idolatry/ as a most wicked profanation of Christ's institution/ of all Christians is this mass to be eschewed and abhorred. Out of his mischievous Idol the mass/ form they unto the people/ a new found sacrament of their own inventing: delivering to the people (as they say) through the miracle of their transsubstanciation a body/ in which body/ because also there is blood therefore/ they do not minister their consecrated cup accordingly/ for fear of spilling and yet they give drink too their houseled to wash down the crumbs withal. Oh thieves where learn ye too minister such a sacrament. Where have ye your ground in the scripture for this/ your unwholesome housel. Who can with a good consciince receive such a new found Popish sacrament at a papists hand/ saying also it is thereto off them used/ to put Christ's true institution out of his true use. Whose appointed ordinance is that the bread of thanksgiving/ and the cup of thanksgiving should be eaten and drunken of the congregation/ as before I said. This their new found Sacrament they hang up in the pix/ they carry abroad in processions to be adored/ with many such mischiefs of their own inventing/ which to reckon up/ all were an endless labour. The papists defend their doctrine with menacing words, with empresonement with fire and faggot, with axe and halter. The doctrine of justification corrupted of the papists I leave them therefore ever listening when I may hear them defend these their abominations by the written word off God/ but this as they never yet could do/ so shall they never be able to do it/ and therefore of all Christians are they wish their evasyons to be forsaken. In the doctrine of justification they wander enwrapped in laberin these inextricable. They err in extenuating sin both original and actual/ in not understanding the law/ the force of it (I mean) nor the end of it/ in making a justification/ partly of Christ's grace/ partly of man's free will/ good motions and good works/ and herein they so enwrap themselves with their terms of the first grace/ Toys for an ape too play with all. the second grace/ grace presidente/ grace concomitatinge/ grace following/ with merit of congruence/ and merit of condignity/ that neither understand thee true justification/ neither can other men understand what they do mean by their justification: But their doctrine is too bring men into a continual doubting of salvation/ and leadeth them clean from that free justification/ which we have in jesus Christ. But you my brethren have out of the scriptures received/ and I trust by the practises of your own consciences have tasted. ☞ That by nature ye are the children of wrath of yourselves: as of yourselves that ye are but such a lump of sin/ that in you dwelleth no good thing. For which the law justly condemneth you as guilty of God's curse and wrath/ and so driveth you too Christ. By whose grace ye be freely justified. By whose blood shedding/ only and alone/ the atonement is now made made between God and you/ which you believing are made the heirs of blessing/ of which your consciences by faith being assured by the work of God's spirit/ Rom. 5. ye be at peace with God/ because ye do feal even in your hearts by lively persuasion off faith/ that Christ hath loved you/ and given himself for you/ Ephe. 5. for whose only sake ye are justified and saved: Which you thus feeling/ are led by the same spirit that worketh this in you too render unto God the sacrifice of your body/ in living & doing those works/ which in his sight are acceptable/ and that in a freedom and liberty off the spirit/ I mean no fleshly liberty/ but that liberty of the spiritie/ by which we dare draw nigh unto the seat of God's grace/ calling him: Abba father/ that liberty that subdueth the liberty of the flesh/ and maketh it captive & bond too serve the spirit. In which you also walking/ when ye have done all that ye can do/ if ye could do all that is commanded you too do/ yet seeing all man's righteousness is but as a defiled cloth/ ye seek not thereby the perimplishment of your justification. Which is all ready fully given you in Christ's jesus/ ye look not to the merit of your good works: but on your part knowing your own want and imperfection/ Luc. 17. yea/ and sin even in the best ye do/ ye say: we are unprofitable servants commending all your doings to the grace of God thorough Christ/ that by him they may be made pure: on Gods part considering/ that the good ye do/ is the work of his spirit in you/ which worketh in all men/ both to will & to do/ ye do give unto him the glory/ seeing by his grace only/ ye are that good that ye are. Nevertheless/ yet this also ye know that the Lord/ Good works. which through Christ hath accepted you unto his grace/ doth of the same grace in Christ/ accept these your works into his favour/ as just perfect and good. Which though they be the works of his spirit in you/ yet is he content to have them called and esteemed as yours/ and as yours doth he of his own free grace reward them both in this life/ and in the life to come. In this that I have thus spoken/ you se the force of sin original and actual/ the force and end of the law/ the power of man's free will/ the true justification/ man's regeneration/ and the life/ fruits & perfection of God's regenerate child: By which ye may the more easily perceive how far the papists wander from the truth of justification/ by which they draw men into a desperate doubting of salvation/ which who so liketh/ let them taste thereof. Here is occasion also given me to warn you of all those means that they have taught too be meritorius to deserve God's grace/ as works of supererogation/ works done of a good intent/ fish fasts/ vows/ pilgrimages/ pardons/ Conterfa●ts good works. and such like Popish trash/ which though as yet perchance they dare not teeth/ yet have they taught/ and will hereafter teach it. But against all such/ I account you sufficiently armed/ if ye hold fast this that our only merit a valiable before god/ is the merit of Christ/ which he freely giveth/ and God for his only sake freely imputeth to all true believers/ which is unto them full perfit/ and sufficient merit/ righteousness/ sanctification/ & salvation. The intercession of saints. They teach also invocation of saints/ to make them mediators/ if not too God for us/ yet unto Christ to speak the better for us. 1. Tim. 2. The scripture teacheth plain/ that between God and man/ there is but one mediator/ the man jesus Christ/ who therefore became man/ that for men he alone should make intercession/ as for man's redemption he alone did die. joan. 15 Wherefore even he also teacheth men to call upon the father in his name/ promising to such that they shall be hard. Prayer abused among the papists 1. Cor. 14 Prayer abuse they not only in a strange tongue/ contrary to the doctrine of Paul/ which will have all things done in the congregation / to the edifying thereof: in superstitious numbering of a certain number of Psalms/ or Pater nosters/ of which because the people shallbe sure/ Math. 6 they teach them the use of beads/ contrary unto which Christ our Saviour taught/ condemning it as a Pharisaical superstition/ when for their much clatering sake/ they think themselves to be hard: praying for the dead But also they teach and defend praying for the dead/ to be charitable and propitiatory. Apoc. 14 Where as yet the scripture teacheth/ that they that die in the Lord/ are insolace and blessedness. As than they need not our prayers/ so our prayers can add nought unto their blessedness: Away with ioure purgatorij rakers, and four masses of Requsen. And on the contrary part they that die wickedly/ have no remedy everlastingly: So that on all parts/ this kind of prayer is in vain. The other being in most blessed safety/ and with these the time of health & grace being past/ their curious charity therefore/ and their peevish propitiatory prayer hath no ground in the scriptures. But through this they have picked the purse of many a poor man/ for on this unhappy ground build they chantries/ trentals universaries'/ diriges/ purgatory/ pardons for souls departed/ and a piece of their expiatory sacrifice/ with many such proper devices. Auricular confession. Auricular confession they teach/ in which they enforce a numbering of sins/ which is nought/ else but the tyranny of their kingdom/ and as they use it a kill of Christian consciences/ and hath no ground of the scriptures. In an anguish and dute of conscience it is both good/ necessary/ and comfortable/ for a man to counsel with sum such learned elder/ in whose lips doth lie the law of truth. Again/ if the true ecclesiastical discipline were used/ a piece of it ought too be/ that the man restored/ should of his fault make an open confession before the congregation/ to declare publicquely his repentance. Yea/ and a minister may upon just ground examine any/ of whom he hath cure/ of such a fault/ as he seeth him worth to be reproved for: But this is so far from their eareshrifte/ that a man most blind/ may easily judge thereof. Popisshe inventions. But the rabble of their errors are to many now to recite/ as of the authority of the church/ of the not erring of the church/ of discipline/ of their five new enuented sacrament/ of voves'/ of ckoyse of meats/ of images/ and such like. Against all/ which that ye may be armed my dear brethren/ I require you not only to call to mind the doctrine of the truth received. But also that for the trial of them ye do abide in the word of the truth/ Gods word I mean. And because/ here they have also an error/ I will but recite it/ and so make an end. Traditions Their error is/ that Gods written word is not a sufficient doctrine unto salvation/ but (say they) the voice of the church/ traditions/ and counsels are to be hard of necessity. As for traditions/ there is no tradition of any matter of faith to be received/ other than is in the scriptures expressed. Likewise doctors and counsels/ Doctors. Counsels. Customs. Note. with the consent and custom of the church/ are so far to be hard in matters of faith/ as they do agree with the written scripture: for it is the touch stone to try them all by/ & that in such sort/ that if they say not/ according to this word/ then as there is no light in them/ so are they not to be followed. Esa. 8. As for traditions/ customs/ Ceremonies and by and for the order of the church ceremonies received and used/ which be no matters of faith/ they may be admitted and altered at the discretion of them that have the rule of the church under Christ/ according to the necessity of the time/ and the disposition of the people/ so that in them be nothing else but true edifying to unfeigned Godliness. And such are of the people with humblines too be received. But for the full trial of such/ ●ea/ and for the full and perfect institution of all men/ in such things as concerning salvation/ God hath left unto his church and people his written word. The holy scripture is a sufficient doctrine for our salvation, without the Popish unwritten verities. joan. 20. In which though all things that God might have caused to be written/ be not written. Yet in it so much is written/ as sufficeth to teach us that jesus Christ is the son of God/ and also that we believing/ might have life everlasting/ as John doth witness/ by which we learn/ that the written word of God. is a sufficient doctrine to instruct us in that faith/ which bringeth to life everlasting. It is that sufficient doctrine that can alone make men learned unto salvation/ by the faith which is in Christ jesus/ it alone sufficeth to make the man of God perfectly instructed too all that is good/ as witnesseth Paul. 2. Tim. 3 joan. 5. Luc. 16. 2. Pet. 1. Therefore unto the scriptures do Christ send the Phariseis/ Abraham too Moses and the Prophets/ Peter also to the same word of the Prophets/ as to the doctrine that sufficeth to instruct us too salvation. The knowledge of which word whosoever goeth about to take from the people by putting it into a strange language to the end that the more safely/ our popish merchants may keep their mart of falsehood and Popery/ he robbeth the people of their mean to salvation/ he openeth a door for thieves and murderers/ to devour the flock of Christ/ and if at the worlds hand/ he sustaineth not the judgement of a thief/ yet at Gods hand shall he be sure to have the judgement of a soul murderer. ☞ Thus briefly I have put you in mind my dear brethren of the principal errors of the adversaries/ and of the truth contrary to them/ not so copiously as the matter deserveth/ but shortly measuring the need of your knowledge/ for I have not to do now with the ignorant/ but with you/ of whom by the time and kind of your teaching/ I judge that ye be able not only too judge off the truth/ but too be brotherly enstruetors of other in the same. And thus I have done furst to exhort you constantly to abide in the truth received. Continuane in the truth Call to your mind that God of his great mercy and goodness hath long been in planting/ sowing/ and watering of you/ as it were to make you a garden off pleasure unto himself. These sedes of life the devil by his doctors will now go about to pick out of your hearts. But if in this Gospelling age/ ye have been worthy hearers of the Gospel/ if with the word heard with your ears/ the lords spirit hath touched your hearts to believe the word of truth preached/ as he hath done to so many as have unfeignedly desired it/ joan. 10 if ye be the sheep/ which have rightly heard the shepherds voice/ then surely the strangers supplanting voice shall ye not hear/ but ye shall flee from such hurelinges/ as from thieves/ robbers and murderers. Hereby verily shall ye be known what ground ye are/ fruitful/ or unfruitful constant/ or servers of the time: The property of good gospelers. Good Gospel hearers be not such as will be tossed about with every wind/ they be no such ground as will be dried up with every blast of bourning heat/ but they abide in Gods truth/ searching and learning the same in his holy scriptures/ and that with such faithful diligence and constant obedience/ that if an angel from heaven shall preach an other Gospel/ they hold him accursed: Galat. 1. Yea/ and though there be many counterfaicie Christians/ that fall away from the lords truth/ yet abide they with Christ and say: joan. 6. Hear and keep the word off god. Thou haft the words of everlasting life: Consider my dear brethren/ that not too hear alone/ but to keep Christ's word maketh a man happy. And in keeping the principal part is too persever in the doctrine off truth/ this maketh Christ's disciples/ this maketh you free/ yea/ this is it/ that maketh a man safe/ for he that persevereth too the end/ shallbe saved. Matth. 10 This also have I written too exhort you/ to keep yourselves undefiled from all Popish leaven/ Note and beware. if ye do fall from the Gospel/ and embrace Popery/ ye fall from truth to lies/ from the word of light and life/ to darkness and death/ from salvation to damnation/ from God too the devil. Luce. 11. Ye are then they/ into whom the evil spirit re-entereth with seven worse than himself/ ye are then the foolish builders which suffer the unrecoverable ruin. And as then with that filth that is in Popery/ ye be defiled with it: so of the damnation which is due to such abomination/ ye shall be partakers of it. Christ's death & the Popish Mass can not agree together. But if ye think that ye can both embrace Popery and the Gospel/ ye do deceive yourselves/ for you can not both hold the taste off Christ's death in your consciences/ and allow also that mass/ which is the defacer of Christ's death/ you can not embrace the right use of the lords supper/ and also use and partake the horrible profanation of the same: Ye can not by faith apprehend free justification/ and yet seek by your righteousness and merits too be saved: you can not accept Gods written word/ as the sufficient doctrine of salvation: and also take man's doctrine and traditions/ as necessary to the same/ and so forth of the rest. This can ye not do both/ they are so contrary. Serve God according to his word. But if ye could do it/ yet may ye not do it/ for God will none of your mangled service/ for as there is no convenience between Christ and belial/ so men must not halt on both sides in Gods service/ but either say that God is God/ or else that Baal is god. 2. Cor. 6. 3. Reg. 18 God never allowed that service of the Samaritaines/ which both served their Idols/ and worshipped the living God. But if ye be turned to the Lord/ then all strange Gods must ye clean forsake. The Lord is God alone/ alone therefore according to his word will he be served. Exod. 20 God is over man a gelious God/ wherefore he will have whole man wholly to be his alone/ as our first commandment teacheth us. Again/ if you think that in your hearts ye will serve the Lord/ but yet ye will be and may be present in parson at their Idolatry. Fleshlij policy. For your heart shallbe in heaven. This is but a fleshly policy/ which faileth as many as trust unto it. The mass is an whorish thief. How can you/ too whom Christ's death is dear: abide to see that whorish thief/ that stealeth from Christ the glory of his death. How can ye/ which have been and are ready to receive with thankfulness the lords supper according to Christ's institution/ abide to see the horrible profanation thereof? Harte and mouth must go together in matters of God. And so forth of the rest. But if your conscience were such that ye could thus do/ yet know ye this/ that it is against your Christian profession. Rom. 10. For we are taught/ that too believe with the heart/ & to confess with the mouth maketh a man safe. Both hearts belief/ & mouths confession must go together/ which doth not so in you/ when inwardly ye are Gospelers/ & outwardly dessemblers with papists. Ye are bought with a price (sayeth Paul) glorify now God in your body and in your spirit/ which are Gods. 1. Cor. 6. seeing both body an spirit are Gods/ not only by creation/ but bought also by redemption/ even in the price of Christ's blood/ ye can not with a dissembling pretence/ couple your bodies with papists/ for than ye do not glorify God in your bodies. We read not that any child of God/ used ever justly any such dissimulation. Examples of constanci in god's word. dan. 6.14 Dan. 3. Daniel used none such and therefore was he soon accused of not adoring the king/ Bel and the Dragon. The three children/ whether they came by compulsion/ or came of their own mind/ where the Idol was/ dissembled not/ for forth with they were accused as transgressors of the kings commandment. Eleazarus would not dissemble/ eating even of lawful flesh. 2. mach. 6 These men glorified God in body & spirit/ these men believed in heart/ & confessed with the mouth/ & so must you do/ without any other muysinge/ if ye will do the office off Christians. Of offence giving. Note well. And this to do not only the profession of Christianity enforceth/ but Christian charity also. Our doings must be without offence giving: But by this dissembling a double stumble block is given which even in things indifferent is to be avoided. For what though a Christian may eat freely of meats offered unto Idols/ yet if thereby an Idolater/ whose conscience in his superstition/ should be confirmed thereby/ it were better never to eat flesh. And what though all things be clean to the clean to be eaten on all days with thanks giving/ yet better it is not to eat flesh/ nor to drink wine: Rom. 14 1. Cor. 8 then too offend thereby thy weak brother: Note ye dissembling gospelers. If this be to be observed in things indifferent/ how much more in things which are absolutely evil/ must ye take heed that neither ye give occasion off concerning the conscience of an Idolatry/ nor yet of offending the week to draw them to the leek evil with you: both which ye do/ when both a papist and a week brother seeth you as mingrels mingling yourselves with the Papists in their Idolatry. As much might I speak/ how that all things that ye do in the congregation must be done to edifying. 1. Cor. 14 But of this to have full instruction. Caluine. I refer you to the mind off master Caluine/ lately translated & printed in English. Thus now I end wishing you all well in the Lord. Godly exhortations. Abide in his truth/ keep yourselves undefiled. Offer yourselves humbly to suffer all violence of bloody laws for the truths sake/ keep safe your consciences/ though the sword taketh your lives from you/ suffer & bear withal humbleness and quiet obedience. Humble yourselves in unfeigned repentance before the Lord/ in the horrible plague of Popery/ that of his mercy he may be moved to end these days of delusion/ and let your prayers always ascend up before the Lord/ begging of him such things as ye need. In which I beseech you to pray also for me. Your loving friend and orator. Thomas Samson. The grace of our LORD jesus Christ be with you all. AMEN.