An Account of Cawdrys Triplex Diatribe, Chapter 7 · Section 6
Sect. 6. Feſtivals not Romiſh. The primitive Churches pure from the hereſies that ſollicited them; The Romiſh corruptions not fetcht from them.
IN the next place he proceeds to my two inferences, the former of which being only this, that the antiquity or immemorial uſage of any feſtival in our nation doth no way argue that it hath any of the corruptions of the Romane See adhering to it, but the contrary, It is freely granted by him: And then I may for once congratulate the unexpected ſucceſſe of that Paper. For it ſeems the uſe of Feſtivals is not Romiſh and Antichriſtian, on the ſcore of which he certainly knowes ſome who have caſt them out, and I foreſee not how he will ever approve himſelf to them again, after this one confeſſion.
However he will make no delay to make ſome reparations, For though feſtivals have none of the corruptions of the Roman See adhering to them, yet, ſaith he, they may have too much of the corruption of thoſe Churches wherein they were firſt invented, corruptions which crept into thoſe Churches not long after the Apoſtles days, and the Romiſh religion is a bundle of moſt of thoſe corruptions.
To which I anſwer, that nothing could be more unjuſt at once and improbable, then what is here without either proof or diffidence ſuggeſted againſt the moſt ancient Primitive (and next to Apoſtolical) Church.
That there were many foul and dangerous errors which very early, even in the Apoſtles days, ſolicited and infeſted the Church, there is no doubt; that impure deteſtable ſink of the Gnoſticks, and the ſeveral ſorts of hereticks which all joined together under that title; But then tis moſt evident that the Governors of each Church, by the ſtrength of that depoſitum committed to them by the Apoſtles, uſed all care to ſecure their flocks from ſuch peſts as theſe, and were by Gods bleſſing ſucceſsful in it, noted, branded, expulſt theſe hereticks, and kept the Catholike Church intire from their corruptions.
And then as it is moſt incredible that thoſe Churches that cenſured theſe corruptions, ſhould be infected with them, ſo nothing can be more unjuſt, as well as uncharitable and impious, then to affix that character on the Churches, which belonged only to the hereticks that diſturbed and were ejected out of thoſe Churches.
By this account the Apoſtolical Churches themſelves, whileſt the Apoſtles preſided in them, might be blaſted alſo, for we know there was in their very time a myſtery of iniquity, foreign deceivers and Impoſtors, Antichriſts, and falſe teachers good ſtore, but, as S. Iohn ſaith of theſe, that they went out from us, ſeparated from the Churches, and ſo diſcovered that they were not of them; So it was alſo after the Apoſtles death, the hereticks and ſchiſmaticks infuſed not their corruptions into the Church, and ſo they cannot with truth be imputed to thoſe that were preſerved pure from them, the corruptions of the enemies of the Church, unto the Churches.
And however the Doctor have been accuſed ſometimes of complying with the Papiſts, I am confident he never let any thing fall which yielded them ſo true and ſolid advantage, as this one affirmation of the Diatribiſt, that the corruptions, of which the Romiſh religion is a bundle, are thoſe which crept into the Churches not long after the Apoſtles days: For what is that, but an agnition, that the moſt accuſed Romiſh practices now adays are the ſame which were delivered to them from the Primitive Church. For my part I proteſt my diſſent (and ſo ſure doth the whole Church of England, and every true ſon thereof) to this concluſion.