under which they doe so peevishly militate A Satyre would be the best stile to describe the animosities they prosecute each others Opinion with and no lesse would it become all those angry fits that they expresse in their severall wandrings and errors they throw a Sea of gall and bitternesse after those who upon mature examination relinquish those Mazes they leade their followers in What should one speake of the fruitfull Independency big with all sorts of Opinions Brownists Anabaptists Arminian Zwinglian Aecolampadian and all these the English Church Protestant Episcopall banishes excludes from them The bosome of the Catholique Church is spread wide to intertaine all whom with earnest Prayers and endevors it invites and desires zealous of their salvation which onely in an ordinary way is to be had there The ancient Heretiques Arrians Nestorians Vtichians whose reliques yet possesse some place in the World are excluded likewise by themselves who make this objection and besides their owne Reformation hath been a varied unconstant one that except they would fal in love with this Word Reformation I know not well what can be understood by it H. 8. first onely threw out the Pope but retained the seven Sacraments after by degrees they were taken away and new Doctrines brought in with relaxations of Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and sometime it hath been wholly submitted to the Presbyterian humour in confusedly going to their Churches and so generally using their Directory whereas according to their own opinions vvithout Bishops no Ordination can be Quo teneam nodo They complaine That the opinion of the Church of Rome are obtruded upon them for Artikles and Fundamentals in Faith Doth not all the Wildernesse of their opinions their opiniotive Idolatries each one avouching their Doctrine with Thus saith the Lord Doth not all their Anarchies and irregularities flow in upon them by letting those antient bulworks goe into neglect which stood betwixt a Sea of error and themselves that is in stead of standing upon the old wayes to view and discover truth from they have onely disdainefully trampled upon them and in stead of asking the Fathers to see vvhat they held and thought they will make bold to thinke the Fathers mistaken if they finde themselves contradicted by them and hold and thinke of them as not worth asking Thus doe they discountenance Tradition and the establishments of the Church The Apostle saith When he should come he would order things Now saith the Father what hath beene universally observed was ordered by him St. Augustine de Bap. contra Donatist That which the Universall Church holds and is not Instituted by Councels but alwayes retained it s probably beleeved not to be delivered but by Apostolicall authority Their error that oppose the authority of the Church and the prerogative of the Apostolicall Seat flowes from this wretched pudled Fountaine that is Reducing Reformation to the Scripture it selfe interpreted by mens perticular judgements The holy and sacred letters are the blessed records of our salvation Celestiall Messages Angels of peace winged with love which hover over mens soules with celestiall protections comforts and graces they are the glasse wherein is beheld the beauty of holinesse the splendor of the Eternall Father the Image of his Sonne Yet as S. Austine saith The words of the Scripture are to be so understood as the world hath beleeved which it self foretold should beleeve they were writ upon severall occasions to perticuler Churches which faithfully kept what was committed unto them whether by writing or by word of mouth the Scripture confessing That if all had been writ the world would not have contained the Books and every where they enjoyne the hearkning to the Church which who should not heare are excluded from Christian communion by their holy censure The Church was then establisht when divers of these sacred letters were directed to them and by them and what other rules were delivered taught them they governed taught administred corrected and absolved so that they were like the Testimony in the Arke the Church of God had the custody and interpretation of them so that who should Sacrilegiously steale the testimony out of the Ark and run away with Scripture and impaile Congregations about with new goverments and cry The Word of the Lord and quarrell at the other orders and Traditions of the Church he would be judged by all to have ravisht the spheares of government to have disordered the Divine dispensation of his goodnesse towards us Neither can they pretend any right over those Laws who are condemned by those Laws Waters out of their own channels beget strange and forraine tasts and this is the grand and unhaypy sophistry of this age a bene conjunctis ad male divisa Scripture divided from the Church seems to countenance every party in their fancies making it like a Looking-glasse wherin they doe but see their owne Image not Gods and by an inward delusion view the reflections of their owne wits flattering their understandings whilst by a foreprepared conceipt they finde some countenance to their own inward thoughts Whereas Scriptures the Oracles of God are truth not the Pen or the Presse being writ because they were true not true because they were writ They say neither their Religion Reason nor Charity will permit them to acknowledge the Church of Rome for their Mother I shall now view the use of Reason in the election of Religion and see if it well directed doth hinder them When that which flows from well establisht authority shall be call'd in question or disputed through the violence and disorder of Factions the upholders of Government and Justice have recourse to the Origens and Fountaines of Justice shewing how all their Acts and Decrees received their obligatory nature from the agreement they had with those rules of Reason and those severall Laws which constituted them to be good and just so that they who before found onely the effects of peace by a due obedience to them now search into the reasons and causes why they were of such power to produce such effects And those who before pleasantly lived in the building laboriously now seeks the Foundation The mysteries of Religion being above reason were confirmed with mirakles which are above nature but whether this or that Religion be the same with that which was so confirmed must be examined according to all those rules which though divinely given must now by reason be examined whether they be conformable to them or not The protitipe was from Heaven the originall supernaturall but for to prove the continuance of it we must compare and examine it according to all that hath been delivered concerning the same formerly And it s no small difficulty to chase truth through its severall channels The Laws of Gods Church challenge our obedience the opposing wherof is Scisme because we are kept in one intire body by the observation of them the neglect whereof cuts us off from that communion Civill Governments and
forwardnesse or slownesse in this cause in titling to Divinity this their delusion with such heats doe they imbrace what was never heard of in Gods Church this fourteene hundred yeares and this doe they extoll to be the height of Reformation 2. All other sects and sorts that discent from them who will not be subject to this spirituall bondage have their bucklers of defence out of Scripture too the measure and judge whereof is their own interpretation they alledge That when two or three are gathered together God is in the midst of them whereas the Fathers say in their Expositions That when two or three of the Church are gathered together for devotion sake God is in the midst of them not that the gathering of two or three together doth make a Church thus in the Son of Gods Word doth swarmes of gnats and flyes play not capable of being governed And though both these Reformations be contrary to each other yet both oppose a third Reformation established by Parliamentary Laws which retained a solemnity of Forme and Ceremony and from its first angry leaving onely to acknowledge the Authority of the Roman Bishop fell by degrees to leave off one thing after another And as it served them to be able to bandy against the Church of Rome complide with those other reformists as they call themselves who in no other thing agreed with them but in disagreeing from it It s owne proper temper stood not upon termes irreconcilable but pretended the cause of new Doctrines received in the Church of Rome to be that which forced their departure the most ingenious and ingenuous owned this Modell whose parts I highly esteem whose persons I honour having had establishment of civill authority decency of Ceremony and Forme of Liturgy I endevoured to observe in the Writings of the chiefe upholders of it their freer and lesse compeld judgement concerning the Church of Rome such as fell from them in the intervals of their calentures heats of contradiction I found the Bishop of Canterbury against M. Fisher acknowledging that if they were another Church from the Church of Rome he would soon return to it Hooker denies to damne them who have been the authors of their salvation Others part stakes betwixt Truth and Faction saying The Church of Rome hath the truth in it as Silver lying hid among Rubbage I have heard a Learned Bishop yet living confesse All the difference was onely in words and termes Thus doe they date their Religion a new from some accidentall thing bringing in new Epochaes and accounts from changes and alterations which they terme Reformatition whereas the firme principle of the Church was ever a pleading an uninterrupted succession of Pastors and Doctrine from the Apostles time to this Saint Cyprian saying in his Epistles He hath not Ecclesiasticall Ordination who keeps not Ecclesiastical union but they have cut this Scepter which whilst whole every one did bow to into contemptible little coyne which are severall parties bearring different impressions which are onely currant with those whose perticular marke and character is set upon it CAP. II. A View of the whole Question betwixt the Church of Rome and the Episcopall party by answering the perticulars of that grand Objection which I repeate in the words of Doctor Bramhal Pag. 29. against Molatair If you seeke to obtrude upon us the Roman Church with its adherents for the Catholique Church excluding three parts of foure of the Christian World from the communion of Christ OR The Opinions thereof for Artikles and Fundamentals of Catholique Faith neither our Reason nor our Religion nor our Charity will suffer us to listen to you Thus doe they Patronize their opposition to the Church of Rome under the challenged protection of Religion Reason and Charity and with as great applause as the naming of these things can afford they celebrate the triumph of error They be few words I confesse but such as govern and constitute all the actings and reasonings of man by their light and influence But to Write over the Doore where the Plague is all the Medicinable names in Physicke will not preserve men from Infection onely the greater danger is that men more easily under the title of good things are deceived into places of mortality And because this Objection seemingly is framed up and upheld by all those things that are worthy of man I will leave pecking at stones in the field and will impartially view the inward strength and force of this building They finde fault that any should obtrude upon them the Roman Church with its adherents for the Catholique Church excluding three parts of foure of the Christian World from the communion of Christ Who is it that would obtrude the Roman Church with its adherents upon you is it onely in this age urged by a Faction Who is an enemy to your most necessary Reformation and for ambition and profit sake will not apply themselves to the innocency and purity of Gods true Religion Is it obtruded onely by those whom you have justly offended warranted thereto by the Laws of God and the Church Is it by those onely who by their erronious tenents makes justifiable your departure from them and bandying against them to returne to them again were to forfit your zeale in Gods cause to betray your Reason Religion and Charity but if on the contrary it prove onely a perverse proceeding to maintaine a Scisme if it be onely your calumny and ill dealing with your Mother from whose lap peevishly and without reason you have withdrawne your selves if it be you onely who take scandal at the Church which can be none to you though they may be to it Tunc alta ruunt subductis tâ—cta columnis then have you Passion for Zeale Opinion for Faith and confusion for the effects St. Iraeneus who lived in the second age in his Booke against Heresies reckons up a succession of the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter to the Pope then present and pronounces it necessary for all Churches to hold communion with those that adhere to the Church of Rome Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam hoc est omnes qui sunt undique fideles in quâ semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae sit ab Apostolis traditio fundamentis igitur Ecclesiam Apostoli Lino Episcopatum c. then were they plain and positive in the declaring the duty of all to desert all perticular Churches which did not adhere and hold communion with the Sea of Rome Tertullian of the same Age De prescriptione Hereticorum si autem Italiae adjaces habes Romam unde nobis auctoritas praesto est St. Ambrose of the fourth Age or century of the Church How happy is that Church upon which the Apostles have poured out all Doctrine with their bloods Saint Jerom of the same time upon the first Epistle to Timothy The
against the day of wrath for without doubt these satisfactory punishments doe greatly recall us from sin and as it were with a certaine bridle restraine us and make penitents more cautious for the future they cure likewise the reliques of sin they take likewise away ill habits got by vitious living but contrary acts of vertues nor at any time is there a surer way in Gods Church to remove punishments then that men frequent these works with true griefe of mind and it draws to this that whilst we by satisfying suffer for our sins we are made conformable to Christ Jesus who satisfied for our sins enjoying also the most certaine earnest that if we suffer together with him we shall likewise be glorified together with him Neither is this our satisfaction such which we pay for our sins that it is not made by Christ Jesus for we who of our selves as of our selves can doe nothing yet he co-operating who strengthens us we can doe all things so man hath not whence he may glory but all our glorying is in Christ in whom we live and merit in whom we satisfie doing worthy fruits of pennance which have their force from him and are offer'd from him to the Father and by him are accepted of the Father It was ever held in the Church of God the ordinary means of the forgivenesse of sins and is so farre from being a cause to drive men from the Catholique Church that to enjoy the benefit of it they should come with humble minds and teares in their eyes to beg the comfort of this onely approved sure way for their pardon St. Augustine in his Enchirid. saith God hath given liberty to none to sin though by his pittying of us he blot out our sins if sitting satisfaction be not neglected How wholesome must it be for our minds Fruits Piety to discharge themselves to ayre our minds by confession to have the state of our soules judged of all men being partiall censurers of themselves and thence fitting Physicke prescribed after his inspection of our inward complexion what comforts are conveyed into our breasts in liew of all vitious affections or acts we part with thence in Confessions our pardon is confirmed in Heaven as it is granted here on Earth How many thicke and foggy selfe-delusions false opinions desperate feares ill grounded doubts doe all vanish from that soule that hath dispersed those clouds by clearenesse of Confession What recruits of graces spirituall satisfactions healthfull directions are acquired here is exercised an act of that most acceptable humility in throwing your selfe down at the Feet of Gods Embassador in detestation of your selfe exercising your Faith likewise in beleeving that Whose Sins they remit they are remitted this being the second table after shipwracke Purgatory and Praying for the Dead It is the generall confession of those who call themselves the Reformed that Prayer for the Dead was anciently used some few testimonies of which I le shew you St. Augustine in his Booke pro Mortuis writes That if no where it should be read in the Old Testament yet the authority of the Vniversall Church is not small which is so cleare in the custome of this where in the Prayers which the Priests poure out to their Lord God at the Altar a recommending of the dead hath place also And the same Father ad Laurentium in the Enchiridion There is a certaine manner of living saith he not so good that it doth not require these things after death nor yet so ill that these things may not profit him after death Aerias was condemned of the whole Church for condemning this One may perceive by the constant practice of the Church how these Texts in Scripture are to be understood of being neither pardoned in this World nor in the World to come And that other place concerning those who build hay and stuble upon the Foundation they shall be saved yet as by Fire Martyrdome saith Clemens Alexandrinus is a purgation of sinnes with glory And St. Augustine saith That the recitall of the names of Martyrs at the Altar is more that they may pray for us then that we may pray for them For the pains in Purgatory one cannot conceive how there should be a Purgatory without suffering pain Heare what Boethius saith a thousand yeares since But I pray saith he remaine there no punishments after this life yes great certainly saith he for some saith he I take to be exercised with bitter punishments Liber 4. others with element purgations The fruits pietie To a Skoffer there shall never want matter but as he saith Cave sed fiat nè Jocus iste Focus When St. Paul mentions tryall by fire it s blowne away with a hundred light Interpretations an Atheisticall spirit would quarrell with that expression of the damned gnashing their teeth which they say is an effect rather of cold then of fire But as a Father saith Heresie is not from the Scripture but from the sence of Scripture which the Church by the providence of God safely preserves It must rayse no small comforts in the minds of those who have parted with what were their joy here to be able by devout Prayers to recommend them to a more advanced state of Joy It doth inlarge the subject of our charity whilst death it selfe doth but quicken our devotion for our Friends parting with them as men not without hope It sweetens our passage hence being not out of the pertaking of the benefit of Prayers Almes and the good Works of those we leave behind the Communion of Saints and for the effects that the opinions of postumous and after suffering must have upon the minds of men it must needs tend to the making the soule disgust these inferiour appetites and affections which breathe upon the soule an earthy vapor and foulenesse which it must be cleansed from with penall purgation before it can be admitted into those purer joyes to see God which only is granted to them that are cleane of heart The perverting and disordering the dispensation and application of Gods grace who though Gods merits be all-sufficient and our Redemption compleat and the Divine Promises large yet thinke that notwithstanding all their life time their judgements have been abused with the too great esteeme of the empty delights and glories of the world their wills following the impulse of carnall pleasures nor any Celestiall sparke ever kindling their affections yet by a swimming fancy in the head that Christ hath dyed for them thinke they shall presently jumpe into Paradise It is a merry conceit so was it of that Foole That thought that all the ships that came into the Harbor were his owne If we suffer together with him we shall likewise be glorified with him was held to be the surest earnest of Everlasting Joy Of Free-will He who hath made you without your selfe will not save you without your selfe saith a Father God is the way means and end all