Knowledge of the State of the Saxon Church, wou'd have inform'd them of its Purity in those times; its exact Agreement with the Reform'd, and have at once dispatch'd that impertinent Question, on which the Romanists lay so great a stress, Where was your Church of England before Luther? We give them too great an Advantage to allow, that the Saxon Church, planted here by St. Augustine, was the same in Error and Corruption, with the Roman Church, at this Day. This Dr. Hickes has proved at large, in his Letters which pass'd between him and a Romish Priest, Chapter the third, from page 58 to 74; and more cannot be said upon the Subject, nor with greater plainness. It may not, however, be amiss to give the Saxon Reader some few Instances, of those Particulars to which the Doctor refers, the Authority whereof he has proved at large. First, As to their Faith. Secondly, As to their Prayers, and the Scriptures in their own Language. Thirdly, As to the Supremacy. Fourthly, As to the worshipping Images. And lastly, let me add Transubstantiation.
First, as to their Faith, and Prayers, in their own Language, take this Instance; which I have transcribed, and translated into English, from Mr. Whelock’s Edition of Bede, page four hundred ninety five, as it stands, with this Rubrick before it.
