Lewis Bayly,
The Practice of Piety,
pp. 326-328

St. Paul’s epistle written to the ancient Christian Romans, but against our new antichristian Romans, will be the judge. And it will plainly appear that the doctrine which St. Paul taught to the ancient church of Rome is ex diametro [diametrically] opposite in twenty-six fundamental points of true religion to that which the new church of Rome teaches and maintains. For St. Paul taught the primitive church of Rome:

1. That our election is of God’s free grace, and not ex operibus praevisis [from previous works or based on previous achievements] (Rom. 9:11; 11:5-6).

2. That we are justified before God by faith only, without good works (Rom. 3:20, 28; 4:2, etc.; 1:17).

3. That the good works of the regenerate are not of their own condignity meritorious [based on their own worthiness], nor such as can deserve heaven (Rom. 8:18; 11:6; 6:23).

4. That those books only are God’s oracles and canonical Scripture, which were committed to the custody and credit of the Jews (Rom. 3:2; 1:2; 16:26); such were never the Apocrypha.

5. That the holy Scriptures have God’s authority (Rom. 9:17; 3:4; 11:32, compared with Gal. 3:22), and are therefore above the authority of the church. [Note that “the scripture saith,” “God saith,” and “the scripture concluded” are all one with Paul.]

6. That all, both laity and clergy, that will be saved, must familiarly read or know the holy Scripture (Rom. 15:4; 10:1-2, 8; 16:26).

7. That all images made of the true God are very idols (Rom. 1:23 and Rom. 2:22 compared).

8. That to bow the knee religiously to an image, or to worship any creature, is mere idolatry (Rom. 11:4) and a lying service (1:25).

9. That we must pray only to God, in whom we believe, and not to saints and angels (Rom. 10:13-14; 8:15, 27).

10. That Christ is our only intercessor in heaven (Rom. 8:34; 5:2; 16:27).

11. That the only sacrifice of Christians is the spiritual sacrifices of their souls and bodies, serving God in holiness and righteousness (Rom. 12:1; 15:16), therefore there is no real sacrificing of Christ in the Mass.

12. That the religious worship called dulia, as well as latria, belongs to God alone (Rom. 1:9; 12:11; 16:18 compared).

13. That all Christians are to pray to God in their own native language (Rom. 14:11).

14. That in the state of corruption, we do not have of ourselves freewill unto good (Rom. 7:18, etc.; 9:16).

15. That concupiscence in the regenerate is sin (Rom. 7:7-8, 10).

16. That the sacraments do not confer grace ex opere operato [by their mere performance], but rather signify and seal what has already been conferred upon us (Rom. 4:11-12; 2:28-29).

17. That every true believing Christian may be assured of their salvation in this life (Rom. 8:9; 16:35, etc.).

18. That since Adam’s fall, no one in this life can perfectly fulfill God’s commandments (Rom. 7:10, etc.; 3:19, etc.; 11:32).

19. That placing religious significance in the difference of food and days is superstition (Rom. 14:3, 5-6; 17:23).

20. That the imputed righteousness of Christ is the only thing that makes us righteous before God (Rom. 4:9, 17, 23).

21. That Christ’s flesh was made of the seed of David through the incarnation, not through transubstantiation into a wafer cake (Rom. 1:3).

22. That all true Christians are saints, and not just those whom the pope canonizes (Rom. 1:7; 8:27; 15:31; 16:2, 15; 15:25).

23. That ipse, Christ, the God of peace, and not ipsa, the woman, would bruise the serpent’s head (Rom. 16:20).

24. That every soul must of conscience be subject, and pay tribute to the higher powers, which are the magistrates who bear the sword (Rom. 13:1-2, etc.); therefore, the pope and all prelates must be subject to their emperors, kings, and magistrates unless they will bring damnation upon their souls as traitors who resist God and His ordinance (Rom. 13:2).

25. That Paul, not Peter, was ordained by the grace of God to be the chief apostle of the Gentiles and consequently of Rome, the chief city of the Gentiles (Rom. 15:15-16, 19-20, etc.; 11:4, 13, 16).

26. That the church of Rome can err and fall away from the true faith, just like the church of Jerusalem or any other particular church (Rom. 11:20-22).

And seeing the new upstart church of Rome teaches in all these, and in innumerable other points, clean contrary to that which the apostle taught the primitive Romans, let God and this epistle judge between them and us; whether of us both stands in the true ancient catholic faith, which the apostle taught the old Romans; and whether we have not done well to depart from them, so far as they have departed from the apostle’s doctrine? And whether it be not better to return to St. Paul’s truth, than still to continue in Rome’s error?