An EXPLANATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS BELIEF, Concerning Their Church, Worship, justification, and civil Government and their other Tenets: As it was presented to some persons of Quality, for their particular satisfaction.  
Anno Dom. 1656.   

An Explanation of the Roman Catholics Belief, concerning Their Church, Worship, justification, civil Government, and their other Tenets: As it was presented to some Persons of Quality, for their particular satisfaction.  
WE believe the holy Scriptures to be of Divine inspiration and infallible Authority; and whatsoever is therein contained we firmly assent unto, as the Word of God, the Author of all Truth.  
But since in the holy Scriptures there are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstable wrist to their own destruction; 
2. Pet. 3.16.  we therefore profess (for the ending of controversies in our Religion, and settling of peace in our Consciences) to submit our private judgements to the Judgement of the Church, represented in a free General Council.  
2. We humbly believe the sacred Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, one Eternal, Almighty, and incomprehensible God whom only we adore and worship, as a loan having Sovereign Dominion over all things, to whom only, we acknowledge as due from men and Angels, all glory, 
1. Tim. 1.17.  service, and obedience (abhorring from our hearts, as a most detestable Sacrilege, to give our Greatours honour to any Creature whatsoever.  
And therefore we solemnly protest, that by the prayers we address to Angels and Saints, we intent no other than humbly to solicit their assistance before the Throne of God, as we desire the prayers of one another here upon earth, not that we hope any thing from them, as original Authors thereof, but from God the Fountain of all Goodness, through jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Redeemer.  
Neither do we believe any divinity or virtue to be in Images, for which they ought to be worshipped, as the Gentiles did their Idols, but we retain them with due and decent respect in our Churches, as instruments, which we find by experience, do often assist our memories, and excite our affections.  
3. We firmly believe, that no force of nature nor dignity of our best works can merit our justification, but we are justified freely by grace, 
Rom. 3.14.  through the Redemption that is in jesus Christ.  
And although we should by the grace of God persevere unto the end in a godly life and holy obedience to the Commandments; yet are our hopes of eternal glory still built upon the mercy of God, and the merits of Christ jesus.  
All other merits (according to our sense of that word) signify no more, than Actions done by the assistance, of God's grace, to which it has pleased his goodness to promise a reward; a Doctrine so fare from being unsuitable to the sense of the holy Scriptures, that it is their principal) design to invite and provoke us to a diligent observance of the Commandments, by promising heaven as the reward of our obedience, 1 Tim. 4.8. Godliness is profitable to all things, having the promise of this life, and of that which is to come, And Rom. 2.6. God will render to every man according to his deeds, to them, who by patiented, confidence in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life. And again, Rom. 8.3. If you live after the flesh you shall die, but is through the spirit you mortify the deeds of the body; you shall live, And Heb. 6.10. God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of love, which you have showed for his name, &c, Nothing being so frequently repeated in the Word of God, as his gracious promises to recompense with everlasting glory the faith and obedience of his servants; 
Luke 6.38.  Nor is the bounty of God barely according to our works, but high and plentiful, even beyond our capacities, giving full measure, heaped up, pressed down, and running over into the bosoms of all that love him.  
Thus we believe the merit or rewardablenesse of holy living (both which signify the same thing with us) arises not from the self-value even of our best actions, as they are ours, but from the Grace and Bounty of God; 
Luke 17.10.  and for ourselves, we sincerely profess, when we have done all those things, which are commanded us, we are unprofitable servants, having done nothing but that which was our duty, so that our boasting is not in ourselves, but all our glorying is in Christ.  
4. In the holy Eucharist, or most venerable Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord: We acknowledge that there are, as in all other Sacraments, two things. The visible sign, which is the forms of bread and wine, to which no Catholic may or doth direct his worship. There is also invisible Grace signified, the body of our blessed Lord, whom being present we adore and worship with all possible reverence and thanksgiving from our hearts for so great a blessing, warranted herein by our blessed Lord himself in each of the Gospels.  
5. We humbly confess that from the beginning of Christianity, the holy Communion was administered frequently, in both, & sometimes in each kind, according to several circumstances: and hence the holy Church following the piety of Christians, who insensibly became accustomed to receive it almost universally in one kind, upon great motives did afterwards ordain to have it in one, as now it is commonly administered, though the receiving of it so is not matter of faith. Neither do we believe that religious and devout communicants, are hereby bereft of any benefit or comfort in obeying the Church's orders, since our holy belief instructs us, 
Tried says. 21. a n. 3  that our blessed Lord the fountain of all grace is as equally present in one kind as in both.  
6. The holy Sacrifice indeed of the altar we clearly believe aught to be celebrated in both kinds, as now it is according to the divine institution, 
Luk. 21.9.  as being done in representation and commemoration of our Lords blessed passion on the cross, wherein the body and blood were separated: Whatsoever therefore propitiatory power our holy Religion attributes to this commemorative Sacrifice, it is by virtue of the Sacrifice of the cross, as being by this applied to us. This is the substance of our faith expressed in the Council of Trent, 
Ses. 22. c. 1.  so that still we humbly acknowledge the ground of our salvatlon to be derived from our Lords blessed and bitter passion.  
7. We freely acknowledge that is no way commanded by the Church, that the people should pray in a language which they understand not, nay, there is given them all possible encouragement to increase their devotions, and with the Apostle to allure all, if it may be, to continual prayer, (which is the life of our souls) by ordaining and publishing most excellent prayers in vulgar languages for their use.  
As to the liturgies they of the Church properly belong to Churchmen, and therefore were anciently styled the Priest's books, lest the people should not receive full benefit by their public use, there is an express command of our holy mother the Church in the Council of Trent, 
Ses. 5. c. 8.  that the Pastors and all who have charge of souls, in the very time of divine service, should expound and make them plain to the people's capacity, as in the old times of the Church we find it was also ordained and practised.  
Our faith teacheth us to exercise Christian Charity by humbling ourselves before the divine throne of God's mercy, to beg forgiveness (as we do for one another here upon earth) of the debts and trespasses of those middle sort of Christians, as S. Augustine and the Council of Florence call them, 
In Enchyridie ad Laurentium & De Civ. l. 21. c. 24.  who had not brought forth sufficient fruits of repentance, dying in communion of the faithful; which indigent condition of theirs, relievable by the Churches, or the prayers of the faithful surviving, speaks what the ancient call Purgatory: warranted herein by the practice under the law recorded and recommended in the Maccabees, which being in no ●ort reprehended by our Lord or his Apostles amongst the rest of the Jews unlawful practices, was and is justly presumed to have been allowed by him, as many of the Fathers understood his sermon in the Mount, 
Mat. 5.29. 1 Cor. 15.29. 2 Cor. 3.  and by them, as is hinted by S. Paul: whereupon it hath continued ever since in general practice throughout all ages, as even gravestones and all other Christian monuments do witness especially all ancient Liturgies of the Saints, and books of common prayers used in all Churches: neither can we decern how possibly this may be conceived offensive to God, whose justice herein we hope and do humbly endeavour to appease by our exercise of brotherly compassion.  
9 We firmly believe, and highly reverence the Moral Law, 
Exod. 20. Mat. 19 Eccles. 12.13.  being so solemnly delivered to Moses upon the Mount, so expressly confirmed by our Saviour in the Gospel, and containing in itself so perfect an Abridgement of our whole duty both to God and man.  
Which Moral Law we believe obliges all men to proceed with faithfulness and sincerity in their mutual contracts one towards another; and therefore our constant Profession is, that we are most strictly and absolutely bound to the exact and entire performance of our promises, made to any person of what Religion soever; much more to the Magistrates and Civil Powers, under whose protection we live, whom we are taught by the Word of God to obey, not only for fear, but conscience sake; and to whom we will most faithfully observe our promises of duty and obedience, notwithstanding any dispensation; absolution, or other proceed of any foreign Power or Authority whatsoever,  
Wherefore we utterly deny and renounce that false and scandalous position, that Faith is not to be kept with Heretics, as most uncharitably imputed to our practices, and most unjustly pinned upon our Religion.  
These we sincerely and solemnly profess, as in the sight of God, the searcher of all hearts, taking the words plainly and simply, in their usual and familiar sense, without any Equivocation or Mental Reservation whatsoever.