For our
parts, if we could have judged ignorance, error, superstition, idolatry,
men's inventions, and the same commonly disagreeing with the Holy
Scriptures, either to please God or to be sufficient for the obtaining
everlasting salvation; or if we could ascertain ourselves, that the word
of God was written but for a time only, and afterward again ought to be
abrogated and put away: or else that the sayings and commandments of God
ought to be subject to man's will, that whatsoever God saith and
commandeth, except the Bishop of Rome willeth and commandeth the same, it
must be taken as void and unspoken: if we could have brought ourselves to
believe these things, we grant there had been no cause at all why we
should have left these men's company. As touching that we have now done
to depart from that Church, whose errors were proved and made manifest to
the world, which Church also had already evidently departed from God's
word: and yet not to depart so much from itself, as from the errors
thereof; and not to do this disorderly or wickedly, but quietly and
soberly; we have done nothing herein against the doctrine either of
Christ or of His Apostles.
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