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
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
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
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
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
Policies have their Acts and Statutes the opposing whereof makes men guilty of sedition and faction because there is a solution of continuity made and a dividing of them into parts which threatens destruction of the whole the preservation whereof is the end of all good Governments The Laws of Reason distinguish Vice and Vertue What way is there to distinguish Ecclesiasticall obedience from Scismaticall combinations but to prove the universality of the Church its constant succession with the exercise of its jurisdiction and that those who have seperated themselves from it bears a later date begun from some accidentall change in Government the Pride of their Leaders or the ignorance and heap'd up errors of the people What differences Vice and Vertue not a locall distinction of being placed in the midst of Vice but as such actions observe the dictates of right Reason which assignes them their end their degrees of heats and motion Who views not the establishment of ancient Common-wealths in their first and Primitive Laws their Records Acts of State and a constant exercise of a Supreme Authority When men with the armes of reason encounter the desert soules of Atheists doe they not prove the Impression of a Deity ingraven on the soules of all though they erre in paying their Homage Doe they not bring reasons from severall Sciences for the demonstration of à natura naturans or first mover or Supreme Governor Those who prove the truth of Christian Religion against Turkes and Jews doe they not pleade the innocency and simplycity of those men that first Preached Christ crucified that they could have no end but the hope of an Immortall Glory to beare them out in all their sufferings they deliver'd a Doctrine to the world an enemy to carnall pleasures and the ambition of the world and with disarmed innocency to prevaile over the furious malice of their Persecutors must needs prove an omnipotent power that ayded them and having brought them to the acknowledgement that God is the Author of our Faith then they finde a necessity to receive the speaker for a full demonstration of the truth of all that is spoke Then doe they all to heavenly rules give place Which passions kill reason doth deface The Church is builded upon the Divine promises That the gates of Hell should not prevaile against it and we see that neither Tyrants whose angers are Massacres nor an Angel of Light-seeming falshood hath prevailed against his Church neither the courses nor discourses of mens Pens and Wits have been prevalent against it In hanc manca ruâ—s fortuna It hath continued in the Succession of two hundred and sixty Popes and according to the Sibils Prophesie The Fishers hooke hath subdued the Roman Empire and conquered the World verified in St. Peters Successors Thus Reason may have its satisfactions and hath a latitude of discussing and being active in those things which are its proper spheare which are arguments of credibility the light of nature will conduct us a great way in our duties which we may carry in our hands till they be obscured with the clearer lights of grace A Starre conducted the Wise Men to the Sonne of Righteousnesse and though illuminations from Heaven sometime beate downe the fiercest Saul to the ground that is at once to make them humble and to know his will and though sometimes by his omnipotent grace he as it were casts his servants at once in a mould as Saint Paul was called Apostolus fusilis yet reason otherwhile which is Gods Law too must be summon'd up to our ayde whilst by degrees we recover our falling steps and unwinde our selves out of error Hos quaesitum munus in usus Is there any way to weane mens minds nurst in the imbraces of error but the imployment and use of their reason To discover what their opinions owe to their cradle what to a rationall examination men beare an affection to opinions as to the places where they were borne though it be the rude rugged mountains of the Swisses The soule with difficulty parts with its first imbibitions and with pain climes the rising Hill of Truth Many are the innate delusions of mens soules occult adhesions and secret fastnesses which are not cassierd till their judgements are informed from what source they spring till by the thred of reason they unwinde themselves out of that Labyrinth nature or their first course delivered them into Mens judgements suffer from society and example retorts upon our understanding Custome and Affection are mediums which represent things different from their true proportions nothing can infranchise mens minds or set them free from those inchanting imbraces but the Power and Soveraignty of Reason Stultus non accipit verba prudentiae Nisi ea dixeris quae sunt in corde ejus Now as Reason compels them to return to the Church so will the tenents of their own Religion if great soule-killing opinions be not found to make the Gulph and the mega kasma Some perticulars whereof in the next Chapter I shall examine and then I hope their Charity is such to themselves and others that they will be as good as their words Thus in a short Map I have let you see That the Church of Rome with its adherents doth necessarily challenge their Vnion with and obedience to by the Voyce of Antiquity which hath still kept its ancient deposited Doctrines written and unwritten whose bosome is ever open to receive all but whom their owne Scisme and Error excludes and that both their Reason Religion and Charity command a returne CAP. III. A View of the perticular Doctrines pretended to be the cause of their not returning THe just exceptions against any opinion is either want of Truth or want of Piety but they being convertibilia I shall shew That as these Doctrines excepted against are true so likewise they have the Impressions of God ingraven on them though there be two pretences of exception that they make First Objecting to generall Councels new creation of Truths when they doe no more then declare what are so Nextly From the words they make use of to condemne Error and Heresie They would have it that the Councels make new Artikles when as they pretend to signifie no other thing by those words then that which is certainely knowne to be the Ancient and Orthodox Doctrine The Reformed Religion so called thus stands in opposition and is a contradictory and a negative one and is an angry and verball contention oppositions of Science falsely so called There hath not wanted those in the Church of Rome that have exactly tride the depths of all those studies whether in the knowledge of Languages for knowing the Text in the Originall or of History or Schoole-reasoning wherein any opponents can pretend to contest with them in Convect Lond. 1562. Art 16. If they will appeale to Scripture as sometimes they doe how many Catholique Champions have faithfully studied the literall sence the mysticall the Historicall
reality of that comfort which our Saviour intended us in the blessed Sacraments But Catholiques doe adore the Lord Jesus here truely present onely him doe they adore who although till the world be dissolved after a naturall manner he is above yet here with us is the truth of the Lord That as often as we receive we eate his Flesh and drinke his Blood without which there is no life in us by which Union how doe our soules receive a torrent of joyes and graces which flow from a Celestiall source into all the faculties and powers of our minde sanctifying them to him who is our head being incorporated into him Invocation of Saints Whilst we live in the earthly Tabernacles of our Bodies we are subject to the sumes of flesh and blood to the Impressions of diverse affections and the clouds of the world whence we are put to execute a warfare and act a vigilent part against the depths of Satan and to that end we desire one anothers Prayers And shall theirs be lesse effectuall whose blessed soules are unbodied out of a possibility of falling and enjoying the blessed presence of God inflaming with charity and good will towards us They rejoyce at our conversions they understand our conditions holy Church hath ever practised to make them friends in the Court of Heaven To obtain their requests of their King and ours the effects of Christs mediation and merits may be more hopefully purchased by Angelical Petitions then mans disturbed and cold devotions Chrysost Hom de Martyr Egyp Let us aske the Fathers and they will tell us By the Prayers of the Martyrs we may after our departure hence see and imbrace them saith saint Chrysostom And elsewhere Mary praies for us stronger then Deborah more powerfull then Jael De Cog. nit verae vitae St. Augustine saith When you call upon the saints in Prayer it behoves you thus to thinke of them as placed in the glory of the Eternall beauty most glorious lights farre out-shining the Sonne who have fully all that is good in the Vision of God and who forcibly assist all that call upon them St. Hierom to Heliodore After death saith he you shall pray for me who have incited you that you might overcome In the Liturgy of Basil Now Martyrs earnestly pray that God may grant us remission of our sinnes De vidu◠Saint Ambrose saith The Angels are to be called upon in our behalfe who are assigned to us for our defence And againe let us not be ashamed to have them the Intercessors of our infirmity of the Intercession of the blessed Virgin Doctor Don saith prettily Her Wombe was a strange Heaven for there God cloath'd himselfe and grew our zealous thanks we poure as her deeds were our helps so are her Prayers nor can she sue in vaine who hath such titles unto you The piety and fruits of 〈◊〉 Whilst men make themselves such strangers to the Inhabitants above they break the communion of saints if mens joyes were all above if men did thirst after those glorious fruitions they would accept of all the helps that might leade them to it In invocating and worshipping the saints we worship him whose saints they are Saith a Father in often contemplating their crownes and begging their patronage how are our hearts inflamed through their helps it erects our thoughts on high and gives us courage in our journey below to have seen all the dangers of it conquered by those who as they were our example so now are our Patrons 〈…〉 It inlarges and mends our prospect when we view those Celestiall Inhabitants shining all as stars of severall magnitudes one glorious in the ruddy beams of Martyrdom another shining with the snow white purity of Chastity others now the higher by having been low in their own esteeme they provoke us by viewing their glories to the care of acquiring their vertues neither let any pretend and say God hath commanded us to call on him therefore its needlesse to goe to any other for he hath told us He heares not every one that cryes Lord Lord but him who doth the will of his Father and his will is that we should be obedient and hearken to his Church and not in stead of observing its commands revile it and rent and teare it by contempt of its Doctrines Confession Absolution Satisfaction This is and ever hath been so universally generally deliver'd Preached urged practised in the Catholique Church that none can deny it but those whose stiffe-neckednes will not give thē leave to look back into any Antiquity or Fathers these words are plainely frequently made use of to expresse this part of the Discipline of the Church which the Father 's called The vigor of the Gospel as if without it all mens manners and courses towards Heaven would languish Sermons of Confessions Bishop Andrews from the Text Whose Sins yee remit they are remitted acknowledges a perticular personall Confession to be ment by reason he saith it is exprest whose Sins not what Sins soever Epist 55. Let us heare Saint Cyprian expresse himselfe against those that opposed it It is indevoured saith he that sins may not be redeemed by satisfactions and just lamentations that mens wounds may not be washed away with tears true peace is taken away by the lye of a false one and the healthfull bosome of a Mother a step-mother interceding is shut up weeping and mourning should be heard from a sinner and the face of those who have falne August Hom. 5. Let him come to the Priests those by whom the Keyes are disposed of in the Church and let him from those who are set over those holy rites receive the measure of his satisfaction Tertullian de poenitentia Confessio satisfactionis consilium It is objected that its an all-daring presumption to pretend to be able to satisfie in the most pure eyes of Almighty God and so plausibly run on in an ill applide humility when a man doth what anothers demand is it s said he hath satisfied his desires nay if the Creditor doe for some reasons forgive the Debt he is said to be satisfied and it s spoken by reason of the Evangelicall compact when God by promising makes himselfe a debtor saith the Father and we doing what is required that is bringing forth fruits worthy of Pennance and performing such expressions of sorrow and those penitentiall injunctions as the Church wil be satisfied in for the demonstrating our hearty repentance it is cal'd satisfaction but whom the expressions of the Councel of Trent will not satisfie touching it he is sicke of siding and parties nor is any desire of peace with the Church prevalent with him Sessio 14 cap. 8. It s agreeable to the divine clemency lest sins be pardoned us without any satisfaction occasion being taken that we lightlier esteeming of sins fall into more grievous ones injurious and contumelious to the holy spirit of God treasuring up wrath for us
is from him and to him but how much more noble thought have they of the Deity who conceive him to deale with man as endowed with free operations then with us as with stockes and stones that are meerly patient It is the meere grace of God that gives good works their force and value yet no such necessity that any thing is done whether man will or no Apolig Epist For who could either prayse or discommend that who can imagine such actions to be rewarded or punished or that soule to be immortall and performe Religion which should want free and reasonable actions the arguments and pledges of immortality but we are to admire the wisedome of Gods Church which agreeth the aeternall prescience of God with the temporall co-operation of man that it leaves the first infallible and yet proveth the temporall action appetite and delight or consent to any thing to be voluntary free and in the power of man to be effected or omitted rewarded and punished Of the use and Veneration of Pictures and Images Upon this is waged a perpetuall warre Hic illius arma hic currus fuit The Reformists generally take it for Idolatry and what ever is spoken against Idolatry in Scripture they presse and urge upon the use of Pictures But before they tax our Mother with so odious a crime they might please to consider the nature of the objection and how farre the extent of it is and withall they might consult the opinion of ancient devout Fathers who would rather have lost a thousand lives then have committed Idolatry touching it and withall they might have considered the use of them before they should be frighted from their Mothers bosome a place of protection into wandrings and errors where are layd the snares of the enemy Church story informes us That the ancient Christians would fall downe before the Statues of the Emperors which was then the manner and posture used to doe reverence as sometime to be bare before the Cloath of State doth signifie the like though they would rather dye then salute so the Images of the false gods But for the like postures to be forbid to be used to the Pictures of Saints or of our blessed Saviour none can shew a prohibition for those outward signes of honour signified by gesture are indeed common towards God Grotius Angels and Men no perticular one being set a part or commanded to be peculiarly used to signifie onely Divine Worship when we frame a thought of that good Shepheard in our minds if we would deliver it in writing why might we not write it in Hyreogliphies as well as Letters which are not so ancient no other thing is so worthy as the mind of Man but if the Image of our Saviour Crucified be there drawne and viewed by the understanding why may not our corporall Eye behold it drawn on Paper or other materiall since they doe but serve to recall and revive those former Ideas in the mind which other objects might distract or steale away And by severall Persons the severall Attributes of God may be signified as a King for Royalty c. St. Augustin saith in the Visitation of the sicke There is added upon the Crosse the Image of a Man humbly imbrace this and weekely venerate it The honour done to the Image is refer'd to whose Image it is saith Basil and Chrisostome I know these things are proposed in vain to those who will admit of no other Tribunall then their own breasts who exercise an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall power over the Consciences of their followers whom an imaginary exposition of some dark prophesie of Anti-Christ doth unhinge their minds and judgements from off what they ought to turn on which is obedience to the Church whose sacred Authority ought to binde in the luxuriant and forward imaginations of mens owne braines But I have onely instanced in these few perticulars without using any illaqueation of Arguments or finnesse of discourse Thus are all the Churches Doctrines Practises and Ceremonies advancements and meanes to Salvation and Piety the establishment of its regiment on Earth of Pope Patriarchs Arch-Bishops Bishops Priests Deacons sub-Deacons Exorcists Lectors where the mistery of our Redemption is so esteemed and remembred that no Holy day no part of Divine Service is celebrated but represents to us one benefit or another no Ceremony in the holy Sacrifice no action of the Priest no Ornament or Attire he weareth no Benediction he gives no Signe of the Crosse he makes but hath its religious signification and Preacheth to us and speaks nothing but Christ Crucified therefore though the great worke of our redemption may be thought not to be hindred by opposing things of an inferiour nature yet it is no small matter the opposing the Authority of the Church tending to the dissolving that power Richworths dialogue by which the greatest things are maintained Common-wealths punish with death a small stealth because it s an offence against the nature of Government Heretofore men proved Doctrines to be true from the authority of holy Church and now they would annull her authority from her Tenents and from her Articles would throw durt in her Face as if she had lost her being for being the faithfull Keeper of what was committed to her and had forfeited her breasts the Scriptures for feeding us with their milke CAP. IIII. 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 THe Church being Divinely Founded as it hath survived all the malices and practises of the greatest Tyrants its enemies so have those who breaking of that Ecclesiasticall league which kept them in the limits of the practice and beleefe of the same things mist of that inlargement and lastingnesse of commands which they expected by altering the sight and mark they took their ayme by they have straide the most from what they chiefly took their ayme at whilst they sought a perticular prosperity seperated from the peace of the Church against which the musterd forces of mens malice and Hells fury became ever weake and impotent The blood of the first Bishops of Rome was the fruitfull compost of the Church their Ashes were Generative all the furious conflagrations sackings and spoylings of the City of Rome by the Goths Huns Visegoths Halaricus were like stormy winds whose Gole and end was onely to dye and expire while Rome triumphed over their spoyles in the continuance of that never fayling Church I will not name Attila nor Limprandus the one retiring from Rome by Saint Leos means the other by Pope Zacharies strangely and miraculously Those barbarous Saracens whose rage was glutted with the conquest of the Eastern Emperor the glory of whose armes and conquest of Candy increased who made Africa feele the effects of the advancement of their Armies and strucke terror into a great part of