The Preface,

we defire to have the Church whole, and not to leave it

rent unto the pofteritie, and would have our felvesbc
counted not foolifh among men, and not ftubborne in
the light of God. There hath fcarce been any age, which
hath in fuchfortfeeneall Churches following altogether
one thing in all points, fo as there hath not alwaies been
fbme difference, either in dod^rine, or in ceremonies, or
in manners : and yet were not Chriftian Churches
through the world therefore cut afunder, unleiTe perad-
vcnture then, when the Bilhop of Rome brake off all a-
greement, and tyrannically injoyned to other Churches,
not what ought to be done, but what himfelfe would
have obferved but the Apoftle did not fo. BarnAhas in-
:

deed departed from ?4/, and Paul withftood Peter, and

furely for no trifle; and yet the one became not more
enemie or ftrange to the other, but the felfe fame fpirit,
which had coupled them from the beginning, never fuf-
fered them to be dis-joyned from them-felves. It is the
fafhion of Romifts to command, toeDforce,topreffejto
throw out curlings, and thunder excommunications up-
on the heads of thofe that whifper never fo little againft
them but let us, according to the docStrine of the holy
:

Ghoft, fuffer, and gently adraouilh each other : that is,

keeping the ground- work of faith, let us build love up-
on it and let us joyntly repaire thewals of Sion lying in
their mines.
It remaineth, that through the fame Lord Chrift we
befeech our reverent brethren in the Lord, whofe Con-
fefiions publilhed we let forth, that they take this our
painesin good part and fuffer us toleane, as it were, to
:

a ccrtaine ftay, to the common confent o[ the reformed

Churches, againft the accuiations and reproches of the
common adverlaries of the truth But it had been to be
wifhed, that we might at once have fet out all the Con-
feffioDs