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
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
seek their mutuall ends in this conjunction no discontented or ambitious great one but hath a prepared way to awe or be revenged on his Prince or State and Kings and Governors themselves are at last forced to hang their Crownes and Diadems upon the maintenance and upholding on one party or other who becomes strong or weake as that party ebbes or flowes all the rest esteeming themselves but persecuted by their power and would at last prove like the Ivy which first dissolves the Wall and then seems to uphold it Thus did Reformation so called Jehu like drive its war-like Chariots through Germany Mars so long a time seeming to have set up his standard there whilst replenished with these unwholesome humors the German Diets became not so wholesome as before and no lesse suddainely hath those sparkes taken hold and flowne over the French Stables whilst Genevah the Lady of the Lake challenges the Prerogative of the Apostolicall Seate and dictates Laws to its Brethren From Calvins Institutions the Switzers cantonize their Religion as well as Country and not meanly have these seeds grown up under the shade of Orange Tree The Dane with graver pace recedes from their former Ecclesiasticall league and now all breaking up and disbanding the face of Europe which was seen one and intire in the Sea of Rome is now by these numberlesse Fractions but parcels and peeces representing severall Faces the sacred anchor of Religion being moved True religion not contrary nor prejudiciall to Governments all the ships of States and Goverments come to be tost and troubled Religion being like the Sunne which whilst it keeps its owne proper and heavenly course gives light and influence to all but when the pretence of it serves earthly ends it causes a conflagration and is a Phaeton to set the world on fire Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum True Religion must be such that it carry no distruction to Common-wealths though it last for ever as the worship of Christ was instituted to doe There are vices of men and there are vices of times but disobedience to Governments or Doctrines of disloyalty are detested by the Catholique Religion and the Canons and Decrees of the Church I will recite the words of an English Jesuit This Priesthood which is now rejected is the same which was given to St. Peter and the Apostles the same which St. Augustine and his Associates had that converted England the same which hath been honor'd of all Kings since the same Sacrament unchangeable the same power of order the same jurisdiction there is not any poynt of civill regiment in that Sacrament being wholly spirituall and supernaturall nothing concerning a temporall Common-wealth no renouncing or deniall of any authority in England no conspiracy to Prince no authority communicated but to offer Sacrifice to Pray to Preach minister Sacraments The Grecians the Germans and other people having their Doctrine diverse to the Church of Rome have their seminaries in the same City and their Priests maintained by the same Popes yet the Princes of those Nations for the greater part being Infidels Turkes condemne not their Priests for Traytors but admit the exercise of their Function as agreeable to the Common-wealth and as it were a great absurdity to say that the Pope in relieving the Catholique Students of Palestine Grecia Armenia and such Nations should doe it in hope to be temporall Lords of those Countries but onely for love to true Religion so is it improbable he should have any such intent in England as unprobable as the other to be under his temporall regiment no Article we defend Prayer to the Saints Prayer for the Dead restitution for wrongs and injuries to those that live obedience to Governors the validity of their Laws the force of good works the number grace and reverence of the Sacraments pennance and punishment for sin both in life and after teaching duty to God honour to Magistrates equallity to all injury and oppression to none the chiefest poynts of true regiment cannot be offensive to a well ordered policy CAP. V. An Invitation of Wits to the study of Arts and to leave opposing the Church with the excellency of the fruits of Piety which onely can proceed from true Religion IT is observed by the most Ingenious Lord Virulam That in Divinity there was nothing to be added by the wit of Man and in stead of finding wantings and desideratars complained here of too much luxuruancy of Mens brains for God hath so surely founded his Church on one side and the Devill hath so busily in the night sowne Tares on the other that there is no imployment here for the restlesse agitation of Mens heads It was truely observed by another That Men must either resolve their Religion into Reason or Authority if into Reason then they must beleeve no more then they can prove by Reason If into Authority It was apparant where it had continued this sixteen hundred yeares but the measure of truth is many times the maintaining Mens cause but not truth the guide of their cause they transferre and send the beams of their wit to gild the clouds of their error How unhappy are the triumphs of those endevours which strive to make falshood appeare more like truth then truth it selfe As the English Poët describing truth by Vna which is still one and the same and falshood by Duessa which is doublenesse complains Though Una was as faire as faire might be Yet false Duessa seem'd as faire as she When the edge of wit is turned aside to maintain an error how are men uncharitable to Texts of Scripture how doe they pretend to a Genealogy by thredding all the oppositions that ever was in any Age against the Church on the line of their Discourse for their service such and such Ages must have the plagues of Egypt brought upon them grosse darknesse The Fathers must pretend to no more knowledge then that which hath now the approbation of mens more refined braines and the lately found out rules of Reformation so called must over-rule the witnesse of Antiquity the Authority of Councels the constitutions of the Church When Ireneus and St. Hierom c. doe magnifie the Apostolicall Seat they must be held but flashes of Rhetoricke dashes with their Pen they make use of hard niceties elaborate thinnesse weake finesse where Sillogismes must seem to uphold the Church whereas that which is comprehended within the rules of reasoning will fly no higher then reason can carry it Thus doe they strive to place in the Clouds that Article of I beleeve the holy Catholique Church Divine words being such that they require a Simple beleever but argue a disputer impious because in Divinity we respect not what is spoke but who speaks How doe the holy vertues of Charity and Humility give place to Ambitious heats and contentions and tryalls of wit where men more strive to get the conquest in words then to become the happy subjects of truth Is there