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
no new discoveries to be made in the intellectuall Globe nor means to be found out with the armes of an active reason to inlarge mans dominion over nature Doth not the Ethicks invite a further disquisition touching the Culture and Georgies of the mind and to finde out Methods of attaining vertue as well as handsomely to describe it Doth not the Physickes upbraide you with the few linkes that yet men have been able to take up of natures chaine whereas onely three accidental discoveries of Guns Printing and the Loadstone have alter'd the face of Christendome in its Wars Studies and Expeditions Are the Arts of reasoning themselves so exact and fit for these scrutanies that they need not the help of reason it selfe to make them more expressive and directive whereas Hooker saith There might be a way of reasoning found out wherewith mens judgements inured they would goe as farre beyond the greatest Doctor now as the Learnedest Doctor now doth a Childe But I finde it Writ That there must be Heresies Therefore doubts scruples and questions may breed the same disturbance in mens minds as the prosperity of the wicked did to David as soon as he entred into the Temple of God he found an end of them where now with pleasure we shall retire from this noyse without and walke into the Gardens of our Heavenly Spouse where we will view the excellent Fruits of Piety that he himselfe hath Sowed and Planted there and which can onely proceed from true Religion The Antidotes of humane Learning are many times the Aery Bladders of mens Pride though the Methods of Logicke object to men their confused blindnesse the Art of Rhetoricke their rudenesse the gravity of the Ethicks their passionate weaknesse yet are they pleased many times from them rather to plume themselves with some Feathers of ostentation then endevour the reall advancement of their natures by conforming it to duty and truth True Religion stablishes men in their duties and constitutes the vertues of men from the most worthy end of their Makers prayse vertue being else but a gathering together of colours seen through the glasse of Mens diversified humors There is no vertue but Religion Wise Valiant Sober Just are Names which none want which want not vice covering discretion Without this directive power designing all things their Offices Warre is but an angry fit and violence taught to undergoe a rule Courts and Tribunals but injustice wearing the Gowne and putting on the Formalities of Law all mens services and most obsequious performances are but well order'd Craft and methodicall subtility the conversations of Men but a Stage where Vizards are worne with applause Chastity the malignity of the complexion and humility but Phlegme Religion fills mens minds with magnanimity whilst the judgement is incited to censure worldly things vaine and transitory whereby the understanding takes off a true copy of the world and the cozenages of mens soules are prevented all the inconstancies which the Scene of humane affaires represents doe but yeeld a gratefull prospect to the soule beholding it selfe placed obove the alterable nature of humane things leaving to admire what is inferior to the dignity of its owne immortall nature finding that of all the Nymphs men court be it honour wealth power by a most true Metamorphosis they catch but an armefull of dust for the greatnesse of mens minds proceeds from the little esteeme they have of all such things as are under the power and uncertaine stroke of Fortune that is of things that by the Laws imposed on them hast to change and corruption for although mens minds may seem to be too much buried and deprest with the contemplation of the dissolution of things and in viewing how low all humane hopes doe lye yet are they thereby truely raysed and elevated which except mens minds had buried them that is have pursued things to their Tombes and Ashes they would have buried mens minds by setting a greater value and rate on things then their fluid altering nature would beare Thus are we cal'd on by Religion from these delusions from loving the world or the things in the world How doth it provide for our contents lifting up the soule not to any fruitlesse rocky swellings but to an active towring height transplanting mens soules making them take root in Heaven and to flourish downward in a constant practice of vertue towards men till the cold blasts of Death breathe on them when as then those Celestiall Spirits repayre to their Mother root to flourish for Eternity It makes our passions the instruments of vertue by giving them its directions in their motions hindring their excursions and fallings out upon the many false shewes and pretences of things How Heroicall are the commands of Religion making men the Champions of their neighbours Fame the deliverers of the oppressed and every where to erect the monuments of their Charity and this upon their Masters command with the contempt of the Aery rewards of the World but set on fire with an Heavenly flame which mens breaths neither kindle nor extinguish It makes its followers use the aydes and comforts of this their exile with security in order to sublimer purchases it makes them steddily follow through all states and conditions their Masters designments desiring onely to live in the world in order to his service that made it It will approach that breast with its Celestiall purities which erects a Stage for vain-glorious thoughts to action or sets up a Shop for gaine through covetousnesse or shambles for Envy to act its Massacres on or a Taverne for excesse and pleasure How many devout orders as it were the Regiments of the Church that sight these Battles and exercise this holy warfarre and how many have all of them afforded either stout Champions of the truth against Haeresie or have stored the Church with able and devout Governors or who have ayded mens devotions and have kindled mens minds with the love of God with their seraphicall devotions Iesuits The orders of Gods Church never growes barren but are alwayes teeming with the excellencies of transcendent gifts How many sublime and generous spirits by frequent making sacrifice of themselves into Forraigne parts makes the hearts of Savages Trophyes of Christ Crucified and fill the Letterd World with the admired productions of Wit and Learning Here the fire of Devotion is layd upon the true Altar which never goes out no houre in the Day or Night where in some Church or Convent there are not some actually in the Church offering up their cheerfull Hyms of Prayse or mournfull throbs of Soule-washing Teares or their soules dilated with the flames of burning charity poure forth their intercessions They profestly tread under feet the brags of worldly glory they contemne the dotage of the world who honour one another in vanity and set a price upon that which is but the Ensigne of their lost and falne condition Here that Hydropick distemper of covetousnesse is conquerd by sending a divorce to all propriety Here by a generous Flight on the wings of Fastings and Prayer their soules soare above the smoke and steames of Flesh and Blood and breathe in those Upper and purer Regions of Celestiall conversation their spirits with disdaine descend to moderate repasts all the inferiour actions of their life are but rationall distinctions no interruptions from their Prayers they being so refined and sublimed up to spirituall objects that their conversation and all the motions and affections of their heart doe but become one continued Prayer Here they follow that councell of leaving all and following him they view what the building of Christianity will cost and as the Apostle saith Resist unto blood proving what the holy and acceptable will of God is The Church likewise instructs its Children and brings them up in the exercise of an active devotion as well as contemplative fitted to the imployments of all sorts of persons and conditions making it speake in every ones proper and naturall Language the wisedome of Gods spirit descending upon men as it were in such cloven Tongues Piety and goodnesse is the end of the Commandement the will of God being our sanctification which appeares to triumph in the practice and doctrine of the onely true Catholique Church of Divine and Infallible authority to the manifestation and demonstration of which its agreeable with the Divine goodnesse to establish the same which is the onely director and care of our way to Heaven with effectuall Sacraments with a successive Priesthood the verity whereof might be shewed as a light upon a Hill by its universality of place and time Decrees of Councels Writings of Fathers and all Antiquity Vertue hath its proper object and all actions not steared by that compasse of obedience which truth it selfe hath enjoyned us though otherwayes plausible are wound up upon the bottome of error and turne upon the Poles of erronious and selfish Principles as the clearest Rivers which though they delight and profit in their passage yet emptying themselves into a Sea of error there lose their name and the best mettall is rung out of tune notwithstanding all those who with hearty and faithfull desires seek to know how to serve God with a will rather to lose a thousand worlds then not professe what they should know was Gods command God is at the end of such mens desires as he gave them a beginning and though such be actually in a by channell and way yet by those Heavenly inspirations and spirituall gusts they are Sayling out of them into the great Canal FINIS
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
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
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