Thoughts into the smooth and pleasant waters of Devotion which wash the beautifull Walls of Sion rather then into the boysterous Sea of Controversie for which my Barke is too little and I ever returning thence Sea-sicke but onely induced Madam to give your selfe and some other of my worthy Friends satisfaction In the performance of which I shall little value the Censure of those who suffer themselves to be carried away with that easie fault of Fault-finding And doe beseech your Ladyship to give me your Blessing Your Ladyships most humble and most obedient Son R. T. The Contents CAP. I. COnsideration of Religion under the Notion of Reformations Wherein is discourst of severall of their Tempers and Opinions and perticularly of the Church of England CAP. II. Pag. 29. against Melatair An Answer to the particulars of that grand Objection repeated in the Words of Doctor Bramhal 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 Articles and Fundamentals of Catholique Faith neither our Reason nor our Religion nor our Charity will suffer us to listen to you 1. Wherein is related the Opinion of Antiquity Of the necessity of keeping communion with the Church of Rome 2. How Protestants agree and how they exclude one another 3. The Catholique Church excludes none but whom their owne errors exclude 4. Of the use of Reason in the Election of Religion CAP. III. A View of some of the chiefe Doctrines pretended to be the cause of their departure 1. Transubstantiation 2. Praying to Saints 3. Vse of Images 4. Praying for the Dead and Purgatory 5. Confession and Satisfaction 6. Of Fre-will CAP. IV. The falling away from the Church under the Notion of Reformation the cause of troubles of State and from the same grounds they build their opinions on arises the grounds of the disturbance of Governments 1. Wherein is declared the ill and unfortunate ends of those who in severall Ages and Kingdomes opposed the jurisdiction of the Sea of Rome 2. True Religion no Enemy to Governments CAP. V. An Invitation of Wits to the Study of Arts and to leave opposing the Church wherein 1. Of the excellency of the Fruits of Piety 2. That they proceed onely from true Religion CAP. I. Consideration of Religion under the Notion of Reformations THe esteeme and value men put on the finding of what is Truth makes all men so plausibly vent their perticular Opinions under the Notion of Reformation so that by the gate and entrance of that word mens understandings are delivered into an inextricable labyrinth of error and no sooner men withdraw their wary steps from one deluding path but they are insensibly conveyed into another and doe but still by the variety of falshoods tend to the Center of those Maeanders nor is there any way to get out of those toyles till by a neglect of all those artificiall fences that each party inclose their opinions with despising the Laws of their mazes men redeeme themselves into the liberty of a dis-interested judgement which neither the name of Calvin or any perticular opinion or nationall alterations hath shut up with prejudice There are sufficient Alarums to hearken to that precept of trying all things and as it is said by one of the Fathers the Church shall never be free from two sorts of persecution outward affliction to try mens affections to God and errors in faith to try their right knowing him but I perceived men subject and tide to any party or to men of perticular opinions rise to no further acknowledgements then of such Tenents and Articles which those men are Patrons of who cry up the Champions of them and are wholly frozen in charity towards those who using the freedom of their reasons make a retreat from their precipices Grotius the glory of his Country and Learning eminent through a universal knowledge and who drew his experience of the state of Christendom at the Fountain head of great affairs imployed all his Junior endevours for reconciling Protestants and bringing them under one band of government yet in the later deliveries of his judgement acknowledges that an impossibility and that there was a necessity to return to Catholique obedience or to communion with the Church of Rome as a Rock against which hitherto all Heresies had beat themselves into froath He made me with more equall eye look upon the ingenuous retractions of Doctor Vaine and Doctor Cressey against whom notwithstanding I had an edge for deserting that which as I thought should have centred all judgements and devotions but after finding them fetch from deep search of antiquity their resolutions of returning to that Church from which the ill accidents and obliquity of late times had misled men with reluctancy I found their testimonies true and my most rebelling understanding their reasons most imperiously brought to capitulate finding that though men professe to become ready captives of Truth yet they are unwilling to think but that they are in its fetters allready wherefore I obtained of my selfe to discharge all pre-ingaged affections all byas of Faction and interest resolving to pay that Homage to my Creator which I should finde he required of me knowing that when he commands a Sacrifice nature must sleep affections be silent I found this likewise a great deale more plausible to my selfe than easie with faithfulnesse to put in practice I perceived that a constant and steddy Judgement was required to enter upon the quarrellings of Polemick Discourses where were used so much subtilty in arguing partiall proceeding ingenious diversion where wits were imployd for conquest ayded with the advantages of Language and Science not for to be rewarded with the triumph of Truth but to beare the Lawrell for having conquered men with words though not satisfied them with reason Wherefore I considered the difference between what may be said what should be thought and therefore to discharge that duty which a man owes his own reason for the utmost examination and scrutiny of Truth I consider'd the Foundations and Authorities upon which severall parties at the same time did challenge mens devotions 1. The Presbyterians who acknowledging and ingeniously professing to be more convinced by then tyde to the Fathers or Antiquity equall their owne Interpretations and Preachings to the dignity and verity of the Text extolling and crying up their imaginary discipline to the meanes of setting up of which they sacrifice all Morall Civill Ecclesiasticall obligations counting it want of Zeale in Gods service to be true in any relation when for the promotion of the Covenant it is expedient to be failing in them this is their invention to which they ascribe an Apotheosis they dresse it up and adorne it with Scripture Phrase making the two Attributes of Gods Mercy and Justice all the threats and promises of either but to damn and crown mens
Church which is the house of God notes upon it thus Of which Damasus then Pope is at this day ruler And againe Primà adversus Ruffinum fidem suam quam vocat camque qua Romana pollet Ecclesia Si Romana respondent ergo Catholici sumus St Augustine of the fifth Age lib. 11. cap. 2. contra Faunsâ—um Vides in hac re quid Ecclesiae Catholicae valeâ—t authoritas quae ab ipsis fundatissimis seâ—ibus Apostolorum usque ad hodiernum diem succedentium sibi met Episcoporum serie populorum consensione firmata St. Jerom of most austere life a profound Schollar and generall Linguist lived unmarried a Monke a Priest said Masse St. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo confessedly a Priest and offered up the body and blood of Christ in Sacrifice for the living and the dead Saint Basil a Monke Priest unmarried did not they all live and dye in the communion of the Church of Rome and did detest Scisme I remember one told me at Venice pleasantly discoursing of the difference which that Republique had with the Pope We would have become saith he any thing to have been ad oppisitum with the Pope Lutherans or Calvenists but that we were satisfied with the truth of all opinions of the Church from our own Records which have been in violated and kept intire and delivered then with as great vigor as now observed for about a thousand years which time that City hath stood never taken or plunderd nor burnt the two great winding sheets of humane things Will not the Laws and constitutions of all ancient governments declare and demonstrate the same even of those places which have revolted from them must all men in so many grave Councels resorting from all parts of the Christian world relating one to another what in the severall places whence they came hath been held and so from time to time an universall establishment of such things as have been found to be the generall Traditions and Doctrines of the Church and yet must all these be thought to have walked in a vaine shadow Rocks Cities Woods must be thought to move while their eyes dwelling too much upon the currant of the times breeds this deception that they are thought to move from the little Boats when it is the Ship boats departing from them Thus it is evident who thrusts the Church of Rome upon them and what hath thrust them from the Church of Rome When parties are once engaged though testimonies be as lowd as Thunder yet the ball must be kept up poore pretences must undergoe the opinion of inevitable necessities all sticks seen in that Water must be crooked Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris They say It must not be obtruded upon them as Catholique it excluding three parts of foure of the Christian World All Christians in all Ages have pronounced that Artikle I beleeve the holy Catholique Church if mens saith should not vary the object must never faile and in all Ages downe from our blessed Saviours time they have most stedfastly pronounced this Artikle in the bosome of the Church of Rome which taken locally is but a Parish Church but in respect of retaining with others that same Doctrine which the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul delivered them whether by writing or by word of mouth in that sence it is called Catholique and so Orbis in Vrbe est When Heresies sprung as there must be Heresies they had recourse still to what was delivered by way of Doctrines to them wherby they did repel all false and erronious opinions as constantly maintain their own Doctrine When diverse parts of Scripture were called in question it was the Churches Authority did pronounce them Divine now the Church was to be deceived in its Sentence or not If it was then infallible why not now and in the interpretation and exposition as well as the Letter when Scripture is not Scripture but rightly Expounded As touching an externe and adventitious condition of the Church it suffers sometime dilatation and inlargement other time persecution and contraction yet still ever the same The Arke that was the type of the Church vvas sometimes on the Waves sometime in the Wildernesse travelling againe in the Temple in peace and glory When the Arrian Heresie had so catchingly surprized the World no doubt but the Catholique Church did exclude them and because it vvill not now let every stinking puddle of Opinion and every infectious currant of Faction run into its Sea or that like the Sea it will not let any dead or corrupt thing lye in its bowels therefore forsooth it must not be obtruded upon any as Catholique it excluding three parts of foure of the Christian World If it should have so much good nature to admit all its Doctrine would not be Catholique that is what was profest at all times the holy Catholique Church is but one Episcopacy is but one saith Saint Cyprian as Streames from the same Fountain Branches from the same Root here is nothing but that fidelity which a Spouse owes to her Betrothed no intertainment of Forraine loves or unlawfull mixtures Those that are called Reformists exclude not one another when they would appear a great body of opponents of the Roman Church they exclude them not from opposing the same Authority though in manner and in their own opinions they oppose and exclude one another like that Image part whereof was Clay part Iron that by cleaving together resembled a body though never incorporated Harmony of Confessions B. Hall of the Churches of Holland and France They are enemies of a good Catholique malice whilst they would unite all the different Formes of Scisme wherein every ones Fancy was their guide and of these would make an angry union to gratifie their humour of opposing their Mother Church and if one should lend a severe aspect into their own Commonwealths and Interests he shall seem to retreave the ancient Chaos each Sect so differing from other and every one dissenting from what themselves were at first When they shak'd hands with the Church of Rome every one departing a severall way according to the concernments and ends of their Leaders or the Genius and nature of the People or the accidents affaires of those times which steared their furies and indignations The Lutherans hold the Calvenists for the Phaetons of Europe and in a late Sinod have condemned them guilty of all the Warres and disasters in these late times Calvin allowes of Episcopacy yet his followers make it ground enough of an immortall quarrell to have them extirpated In every Country that ill Seed that Calvin sowed came up of a different fashion as he well perceived who described their severall humors of Genevizing Anglizing Scotizing What Wars are raysed in the mutuall opposition of each others Doctrine every one of them having some perticuler Opinion wherein they magnifie themselves being their Eurika and sets it as it were in the Van for an Ensigne of the Faction
part the Parabolicall the Figurative expressions the Naturall the Originals of the Old and New Testaments the Hebrew and the Greeke with the Antient Greeke and Latin Glosses If Hystory may prevaile Eusebius shall bring testimony Palladius Sezemen Socrates Ruffin shall be witnesses St. Bede St. Jerom shall tell what was the practises in the first times of Christianity If the pious Decrees of those Popes which themselves beleeve to be Saints in Heaven shall be heard Catholique Doctors have viewed all their Decrees both before the Councell of Nice and after If conquest by the Arts of Disputation be pretended to they have enterd into the nicest differences and have been cutters of a Commin Seed and are throughly acquainted with all the most retired advantages of Wit and Learning There have been many and great challenges to the foure first Generall Councels Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Calcedon but many Catholiques have not onely read from the first of Nice to the last of Trent but also all other approved Provinciall Councels If the Fathers Doctors and men famous in all Ages be consulted with they will appeare to be all of the same holy Catholique Church St. Basill St. Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen St. Gregory Nessen St. Gregory the great Iraeneus Cyprian Fulgentius Pamphilus the Martyr Palladius Theodoret Ruffinus Lactantius Vincentius Lyrenensis Dionisius the Areopagite Schollar to Saint Paul St. Ignatius St. Polycarpus St. Clement St. Augustine Hierome St. Ambrose Papias Schollar of St. John the Evangelist c. Who will not then put their foot into the same Barke with so excellent company to sayle to happinesse in but remaine in the Cock-Boars of their owne private opinions to be tost with every wave of Doctrine and to suffer Shipwracke The Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are preserved by the Roman Church defendors of the Catholique cause Its Doctrines whether writ or delivered by mouth Historians deliver the same to be with what Popes have maintained Decrees confirmed Expositions cleared Councels declared Schooles taught and Fathers delivered And their practice is demonstrated by all Ancient Laws of England Imperiall Nationall of Forraigne Countries and former times by confession of Enemies Mahumetans Jews Pagans and all those Scismatickes who confesse Antiquity is not for them I shall for those opinions that are pretended to be cause of their departure and the hinderance of their not returning againe to the Church of Rome give you a taste of the Fathers in severall Centuries and withall shew what fruits of piety charity and comfort they have contain'd in them Of the Eucharist Altars Sacrifice The word Transubstantiation must not be indured they say it is but a late word The verity of its Doctrine since the Councell of Laterane onely used hence they impute novelty to the Artikles of the Church they acknowledge the Church hath a power given it to decide controversies and the truth of the reall presence being called in question with subtile interpretation of words the Church must use some words of art to oppose them and secure the truth against their nimble turning of the sence of words so that to quarrell at the word is indeed to quarrell at the exercise of the Churches power moderne rebellions against the Tenents of holy Church forceth it to use some words to hinder the evasions of its enemies which they professe to signifie no more by then what was taught by This is my body The word Trinity was not used till Councels found it necessary to oppose certain Heresies of those times by framing that word But what a sinister laying hold of all occasions is there by those who once undertake to defend a party Ingenuity is fled passion is the Pilot whilst they are tost upon those faithles Seas of error Transelementation is as hard a word and M. Mountague allowes that The Greeks use a word to of the same signification yet no offence taken at it Heare the Fathers severall expressions as well as late Councels St. Ambrose in the fourth Age after Christ by the benediction nature it selfe is changed the change is not made by Faith alone but really saith St. Chrysostome Not every bread but that which receives the benediction is made the body of Christ Saint Augustine in the fifth Age. In answer to Melateiâ— The Bishop of Derry doth ingenuously confesse That Antiquity hath used the expressions of seeing Christ touching Christ in the Sacrament of fastning our teeth in his flesh c. What satisfaction can prevaile with a moderate ingenuity which one shall not meet with in later Schoole-men and Councels Clypeus Tridentinus saith Beleeve Transubstantiation but the manner of Transubstantiating you need not Schoole termes oblidge not whether by adduction or assumption or any other words of Art they may argue but not disturb the Faith of the Church How Christ is present in the Sacrament can neither be perceived by sense nor imagination St. Thomas of Aquin. Jeremias Patriarcha in Greece saith By the power of the omnipotent spirit the bread is changed into the very body of Christ wine into the very blood The Councell of Trent declares that in this Sacrament Jesus Christ true God and true Man is truely really and substantially contained under the species of those sensible things yet nor according to a naturall manner of existing but Sacramentally He was the Word that spake it And what that word did make it I doe beleeve and take it All the Ancients use constantly without flashes of Rhetoricke or translation of words the word sacrifice and not onely to note giving of thanks but propitiation oblation and offering likewise are used by the Fathers of the Councell of Nice Dialog 4.58 This sacrifice singularly saves the soule from Eternall destruction which doth repaire unto us by mistery the death of the onely begotten who although rising from the dead dyes not and death shall have no further power over him notwithstanding in himselfe immortally and incorruptibly living is againe sacrificed for us in the mistery of this holy oblation Fathers in all Ages have spoke and held this Cardinal Perron calls it a sacrifice applicative of a sacrifice Thus doe the enemies of Catholique Doctrines and words by their opposition of them make that which should be the band of Unity the flag of dissention And for the name of Altars St. Ambrose saith He is upon the Altar who suffered for all those under the Altar the bodies of Martyrs who are Redeemed by his Passion St. Augustine saith the sacrifice it selfe is the body of Christ which is not offered to the Martyrs because they themselves are that also The piety and fruits is brings The word Transubstantiaon truely understood affords us the comfort of asserting the truth of Gods promises For the severall modes and manners which those out of the Church fancy to themselves touching the presence of Christ if there were words of Art to expresse how detractive would they be found from the verity certainty and