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
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
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