A DISCOURSE touching Choice of RELIGION.  
By Sr. RICHARD TEMPEST Baronet.  
Antiquam exquirite matrem, Virgil.  
Judge ye what I say, Acts Apostles.   

To the Lady TEMPEST.  
Madam,  
IT is my Duty to give you an account of spending my Hours, whose virtuous directions hath still enjoined me the employment of them in the best things: and there can be no endeavour comparable to the Inquest after Truth. Happy are men's early embraces of that most worthy mistress of Man's soul; when the Son of their Judgement rises free from those Clouds and Mists, which otherways by long ascending, time, and endeavour, they would be but hardly able to expel. I must acknowledge my weaknesses, and errors, knowing it is the Victory of Christianity, to conquer the Pride of a Mans own understanding, and whose vigour is showed in our lowest submissions. The World is like that Nymph, which still destroyed those, to whom she most seemed fair; And Men in the short course of life, heap up to themselves a sort of Opinions and Passions, and make them the faithless guides of their lives, of which though they highly esteem, yet do they but dwell under those barren Hills which are never without Clouds and Showers descending thence: And who would for the love of that, which in a moment perishes, refuse to profess that, which will bestow on him Eternity; and in a confusion of all humane things, will render him a felicity solid and durable? I shall show you what Port my Thoughts have arrived at, to escape the storms of Error, and from thence to despise the several Winds of Doctrine with which Men are much tossed, but never Sail; and through the diversity of Opinions, half of them Pray for those Winds, whereby the rest are Drowned. The name of Rome, but once Named, some men's minds become surcharged with the apprehensions of Superstition, Conspiracy; and what evils throng not into their conquered Imagination? whereas they being got out of the Magic Circle of parties, (where their minds are Conjured with the Devil of Faction) they find that to be the place, which did commend to the whole World, The Faith of the Romans. And where Christian Profession hath with infinite sufferings and persecutions triumphed over the Armed Power of its Adversaries, and four hundred Heresies that have sprung up before Luther; such high displeasures Men have entertained against those Names which they looking directly on with the Eye of Reason, would perceive engraven the well-drawn Lines of Truth; they by going on one side, looking with the Eye of Passion, draw the same Figures and Lines, by a deceit of the Eye, to bear an unhandsome proportion. We entertain Christian Profession, and the Sacred Word of God (the Records of it) delivered over to us upon a Divine infallible testimony, which is that of the holy Catholic Church, to which he hath promised his holy spirit to the World's end. Wherefore if Men would enlarge their thoughts, and take a free and open view of all the parts of the Fabric of Christianity, and shall consider of that power which he hath left to his Church, of his injunctions to hear his Church, of his promises to assist his Church; The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it; to remain as a Light upon a Hill: How great comfort must it needs raise in the Hearts of Christians, to find this made good, in a constant uninterrupted succession of Bishops from Saint Peter? Let God be true, and every man a liar. The Church of Rome locally, is but a particular Church; but let them not offer affront to the Divine goodness, through abuse of Wit, or Logical trifle (of a Universal particular) for the Church of Rome hath ever defended the Catholic cause; and antiquity hath ascribed unto it a more powerful principality, calling Her, The Mother of Churches; though the Holy Catholic church is ever the same; like the Ocean, which as it beats upon several Countries with its Waves, begets several Names; being now called the French Sea, than the Spanish. Those Madam who are possessed with prejudice against the Sea of Rome, have all different ways of maintaining their opposition; neither will they agree to the judgement of any one Tribunal; the same Arguments have not the same effects with its different enemies; but like Wards in a Key, they are to be fitted to the diversity of parties, and capacities, to unlock their judgements, fast bound with error: It being truly said, That not the perfection of Reason, but the proportion doth prevail. Some retain still something in the bottom of the Box, and will not let it see the Light by conference, lest it fly away; accounting it the surest tenure of Truth, to stick with obstinacy in the quicksands of error, and esteem it their best title to it, to refuse to dispute it. Another Measures Truth by the temper of indifferency, and esteems it to be the safest way to be freed from Error, to be willing to capitulate. A third frames his own principles, and by Reasons and deductions drawn thence, makes all their Discourse agree well enough with itself; As Astronomers, some of them making the Earth to move: some the Heavens; and by both Doctrines, according to their principles laid down, make up their Phainomena, and appearances; but tell them of Antiquity, Fathers, and the Counsels, they will answer you with that Merchant, that hung out for his Sign, Books set on fire; so that if any desired to have been Trusted, or to have come in his Books; He answered them, That they were burned: so if you would get any belief from them, from Libraries and Books, their Zeal hath already Burnt them. Another sort are wittily placed, betwixt a Puritan and a Priest; If the Priest urge Counsels and Fathers, they turn to the Puritan, and steal the Bible out of his pocket, to confute him with: And if the Puritan urge the Bible, than he turns to the Priest, and borrows of him the Decrees and Counsels, to defend himself with. Children, saith Aristotle, call every one Mother; but coming to the use of Reason, they then acknowledge only their true Mother. Thus do Men bear their spiritual Allegiance, dressed up in several garbs and forms, and apply to themselves the benefits of that stupendous Mystery of our Redemption, by the several Conduits and Channels of their own Fancies: but God is both the Way, the Means, and the End; He hath made complete the designations of his Grace, and Men will be found to be more in love with the Means, than the End, and to empty all their Zeals and Devotions into some new Mode in Religion, or particular Opinion, whereby they are differenced from others: They hold such a course, that do make them seem to be desirous to take our Saviour by the Hand, over the back of his Church; whereas he hath said of his Ambassadors, which were to continue to the World's End; Who hears not you, hears not me. But Madam, it's more agreeable to you, and more contentful, to cast the Lines of one's Thoughts into the smooth and pleasant waters of Devotion, which wash the beautiful Walls of Zion, rather than into the boisterous Sea of Controversy, for which my Bark is too little; and I ever returning thence Sea-sick: but only induced Madam to give yourself, and some other of my worthy Friend's satisfaction: In the performance of which, I shall little value the Censure of those who suffer themselves to be carried away with that easy fault of Faultfinding; And do beseech your Ladyship to give me your Blessing:  
Your Ladyship's most humble, and most obedient Son, R. T.   

The Contents.  

CAP. I.  
COnsideration of Religion, under the Notion of Reformations.  
Wherein is discoursed, of several of their Tempers and Opinions, and particularly 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 seek to obtrude upon us the Roman Church, with its Adherents, for the Catholic Church, excluding three parts of four of the Christian World, from the Communion of Christ; Or, the Opinions thereof for Articles, and Fundamentals of Catholic 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 Catholic Church excludes none, but whom their own errors exclude.  
4. Of the use of Reason, in the Election of Religion.   

CAP. III.  
A View of some of the chief Doctrines, pretended to be the cause of their departure.  

1. Transubstantiation.  
2. Praying to Saints.  
3. Use of Images.  
4. Praying for the Dead, and Purgatory.  
5. Confession and Satisfaction.  
6. Of Frewill.    

CAP. IU.  
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 several Ages and Kingdoms, 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 only from true Religion.    

CAP. I. Consideration of Religion, under the Notion of Reformations.  
THe esteem and value men put on the finding of what is Truth, makes all men so plausibly vent their particular Opinions, under the Notion of Reformation; so that by the gate and entrance of that word, men's 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 do but still by the variety of falsehoods, tend to the Centre of those Maeanders: nor is there any way to get out of those toils, till by a neglect of all those artificial fences, that each party enclose their opinions with, despising the Laws of their mazes; men redeem themselves into the liberty of a disinterested judgement, which neither the name of Calvin, or any particular opinion, or national alterations hath shut up with prejudice. There are sufficient Alarms 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 men's 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 particular opinions, rise to no further acknowledgements, then of such Tenants 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, employed all his Junior endeavours 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 Catholic obedience, or to communion with the Church of Rome, as a Rock against which hitherto, all Heresies had beat themselves into froth. He made me with more equal eye look upon the ingenuous retractions of Doctor Vain, 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 profess to become ready captives of Truth, yet they are unwilling to think, but that they are in its fetters already; wherefore I obtained of myself, to discharge all preingaged affections, all bias of Faction, and interest; resolving to pay that Homage to my Creator, which I should find he required of me; knowing, that when he commands a Sacrifice, nature must sleep, affections be silent. I found this likewise a great deal more plausible to myself, than easy with faithfulness to put in practice. I perceived that a constant and steady Judgement was required to enter upon the quarrelings of Polemic Discourses, where were used so much subtlety in arguing, partial proceeding, ingenious diversion (where wits were employed for conquest, aided with the advantages of Language and Science) not for to be rewarded with the triumph of Truth, but to bear the Laurel, 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 considered the Foundations and Authorities upon which several parties at the same time did challenge men's devotions. 1. The Presbyterians, who acknowledging, and ingeniously professing to be more convinced by, then tied to the Fathers, or Antiquity; equal their own Interpretations and Preach to the dignity and verity of the Text, extolling and crying up their imaginary discipline; to the means of setting up of which, they sacrifice all Moral, Civil, Ecclesiastical obligations, counting it want of Zeal in God's 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 dress it up, and adorn 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 men's forwardness or slowness in this cause, in titling to Divinity this their delusion; with such heats do they embrace, what was never heard of in God's Church this fourteen hundred years; and this do they extol to be the height of Reformation. 2. All other sects and sorts that descent from them, who will not be subject to this spiritual bondage, have their bucklers of defence out of Scripture too (the measure and judge whereof is their own interpretation) they allege, 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 God's Word, doth swarms of gnats and flies 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 Form and Ceremony, and from its first angry leaving only, 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 own proper temper stood not upon terms 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 Model, whose parts I highly esteem, whose persons I honour, having had establishment of civil authority, decency of Ceremony, and Form of Liturgy. I endeavoured to observe in the Writings of the chief upholders of it, their freer and less compelled 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 damn 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, confess, All the difference was only in words and terms. Thus do they date their Religion a new, from some accidental thing, bringing in new Epochaes and accounts from changes and alterations, (which they term Reformatition) whereas the firm 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 Ecclesiastical Ordination, who keeps not Ecclesiastical union; but they have cut this Sceptre (which whilst whole, every one did bow to) into contemptible little coin, which are several parties, bearring different impressions, which are only currant with those, whose particular mark and character is set upon it.   

CAP. II.  
A View of the whole Question betwixt the Church of Rome, and the Episcopal party, by answering the particulars of that grand Objection, which I repeat in the words of Doctor Bramhal.  

Pag. 29. against Molatair.  If you seek to obtrude upon us the Roman Church, with its adherents, for the Catholic Church, excluding three parts of four of the Christian World, from the communion of Christ:  
OR,  
The Opinions thereof for Artikles and Fundamentals of Catholic Faith; neither our Reason, nor our Religion, nor our Charity, will suffer us to listen to you.  
Thus do they Patronise 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 confess; but such as govern and constitute all the actings and reasonings of man, by their light, and influence. But to Write over the Door where the Plague is, all the Medicinable names in Physic, will not preserve men from Infection: only 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 find fault that any should obtrude upon them, the Roman Church, with its adherents, for the Catholic Church, excluding three parts of four, 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 only 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 God's true Religion? Is it obtruded only by those, whom you have justly offended, warranted thereto by the Laws of God, and the Church? Is it by those only, who by their erroneous tenants makes justifiable your departure from them, and bandying against them? to return to them again, were, to forfeit your zeal in God's cause, to betray your Reason, Religion, and Charity; but if on the contrary it prove only a perverse proceeding to maintain a Schism; if it be only your calumny, and ill dealing with your Mother, from whose lap, peevishly, and without reason you have withdrawn yourselves; if it be you only who take scandal at the Church, which can be none to you, though they may be to it, Tunc alta ruunt subductis t●cta columnis; then have you Passion for Zeal, Opinion for Faith, and confusion for the effects. St. Iraeneus, who lived in the second age, in his Book 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, etc. then were they plain and positive, in the declaring the duty of all, to desert all particular Churches, which did not adhere and hold communion with the Sea of Rome. Tertullian of the same Age, De prescriptione Hereticorum, si autem Italiae adjaces, habes Romam, unde & nobis auctoritas praesto est. St. Ambrose of the fourth Age or century of the Church, How happy is that Church, upon which the Apostles have poured out all Doctrine with their bloods. Saint Jerom of the same time, upon the first Epistle to Timothy, The Church which is the house of God, notes upon it thus; Of which Damasus (than Pope) is at this day ruler: And again, Primà adversus Ruffinum, fidem suam quam vocat; camque qua Romana pollet Ecclesia; Si Romana respondent, ergo Catholici sumus. St Augustine of the fifth Age, lib. 11. cap. 2. contra Fauns●um, Vides in hac re quid Ecclesiae Catholicae vale●t authoritas quae ab ipsis fundatissimis se●ibus Apostolorum usque ad hodiernum diem, succedentium sibi met Episcoporum serie, populorum consensione firmata. St. Jerom of most austere life, a profound Scholar, and general Linguist, lived unmarried, a Monk, a Priest, said Mass. St. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo, confessedly a Priest, and offered up the body and blood of Christ in Sacrifice, for the living and the dead. Saint Basil, a Monk, Priest, unmarried; did not they all live and die in the communion of the Church of Rome, and did detest Schism? I remember one told me at Venice, pleasantly discoursing of the difference which that Republic had with the Pope; We would have become (saith he) any thing to have been ad oppisitum with the Pope, Lutherans or Calvenists, but that we were satisfied with the truth of all opinions of the Church; from our own Records which have been in violated and kept entire, and delivered then with as great vigour, as now observed, for about a thousand years; which time that City hath stood, never taken, or plunderd, nor burnt; the two great winding sheets of humane things. Will not the Laws and constitutions of all ancient governments declare and demonstrate the same, even of those places which have revolted from them? must all men in so many grave Counsels, resorting from all parts of the Christian world, relating one to another, what in the several places whence they came, hath been held, and so from time to time an universal establishment of such things as have been found to be the general Traditions and Doctrines of the Church: and yet must all these be thought to have walked in a vain shadow? Rocks, Cities, Woods, must be thought to move, while their eyes dwelling too much upon the currant of the times, breeds this deception, that they are thought to move from the little Boats, when it is the Ship boats departing from them. Thus it is evident, who thrusts the Church of Rome upon them, and what hath thrust them from the Church of Rome? When parties are once engaged, though testimonies be as loud as Thunder, yet the ball must be kept up; poor pretences must undergo the opinion of inevitable necessities; all sticks seen in that Water, must be crooked: Non persuadebis, etiamsi persuaseris: They say, It must not be obtruded upon them as Catholic, it excluding three parts of four, of the Christian World. All Christians in all Ages have pronounced that Artikle, I believe the holy Catholic Church; if mens saith should not vary, the object must never fail; and in all Ages down from our blessed Saviour's time, they have most steadfastly pronounced this Artikle in the bosom of the Church of Rome; which taken locally, is but a Parish Church; but in respect of retaining with others that same Doctrine which the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul delivered them, whether by writing, or by word of mouth; in that sense, it is called Catholic; and so, Orbis in Vrbe est. When Heresies sprung, as there must be Heresies, they had recourse still to what was delivered by way of Doctrines to them, whereby they did repel all false and erroneous opinions, as constantly maintain their own Doctrine. When divers parts of Scripture were called in question, it was the Church's Authority did pronounce them Divine: now the Church was to be deceived in its Sentence, or not: If it was then infallible, why not now? and in the interpretation and exposition, as well as the Letter, when Scripture is not Scripture, but rightly Expounded. As touching an extern and adventitious condition of the Church, it suffers sometime dilatation and enlargement; other time, persecution and contraction, yet still ever the same. The Ark, that was the type of the Church, was sometimes on the Waves, sometime in the Wilderness, travelling: again, in the Temple in peace and glory. When the Arrian Heresy had so catchingly surprised the World, no doubt but the Catholic Church did exclude them; and because it will not now let every stinking puddle of Opinion, and every infectious currant of Faction run into its Sea; or that like the Sea, it will not let any dead or corrupt thing lie in its bowels; therefore forsooth, it must not be obtruded upon any as Catholic, it excluding three parts of four of the Christian World.  
If it should have so much good nature, to admit all, its Doctrine would not be Catholic, that is, what was professed at all times; the holy Catholic Church is but one. Episcopacy is but one, saith Saint Cyprian, as Streams from the same Fountain, Branches from the same Root; here is nothing but that fidelity, which a Spouse owes to her Betrothed, no entertainment of Foreign loves, or unlawful mixtures. Those that are called, Reformists, exclude not one another; when they would appear a great body of opponents of the Roman Church, they exclude them not from opposing the same Authority, though in manner, and in their own opinions they oppose and exclude one another; like that Image, part whereof was Clay, part Iron, that by cleaving together resembled a body, though never incorporated. 
Harmony of Confessions. B. Hall of the Churches of Holland and France.  They are enemies of a good Catholic malice, whilst they would unite all the different Forms of Schism, wherein every one's Fancy was their guide, and of these would make an angry union, to gratify their humour of opposing their Mother Church: and if one should lend a severe aspect into their own Commonwealths, and Interests, he shall seem to retreave the ancient Chaos, each Sect so differing from other, and every one dissenting from what themselves were at first: When they shaked hands with the Church of Rome, every one departing a several way, according to the concernments and ends of their Leaders, or the Genius and nature of the People, or the accidents & affairs of those times, which steared their furies, and indignations. The Lutherans hold the Calvenists for the Phaeton's of Europe, and in a late Synod have condemned them guilty of all the Wars and disasters in these late times. Calvin allows of Episcopacy, yet his followers make it ground enough of an immortal quarrel, to have them extirpated. In every Country, that ill Seed that Calvin sowed, came up of a different fashion; as he well perceived, who described their several humours of Genevizing, Anglizing, Scotizing. What Wars are raised in the mutual opposition of each others Doctrine, every one of them having some particular Opinion wherein they magnify themselves, being their Eurika; and sets it as it were in the Van, for an Ensign of the Faction, under which they do so peevishly militate? A Satire would be the best stile, to describe the animosities, they prosecute each others Opinion with, and no less would it become all those angry fits, that they express in their several wander and errors: they throw a Sea of gall and bitterness after those, who upon mature examination, relinquish those Mazes, they lead their followers in. What should one speak of the fruitful Independency, big with all sorts of Opinions, Brownists, Anabaptists, Arminian, Zwinglian, Aecolampadian, and all these the English Church Protestant, Episcopal banishes & excludes from them. The bosom of the Catholic Church is spread wide, to entertain all, whom with earnest Prayers and endeavours, it invites and desires, zealous of their salvation, which only in an ordinary way, is to be had there. The ancient Heretics, Arrians, Nestorians, Vtichians, whose relics yet possess some place in the World, are excluded likewise by themselves, who make this objection; and besides their own Reformation, hath been a varied unconstant one; that except they would (fall in love with this Word Reformation) I know not well what can be understood by it. H. 8. first only threw out the Pope, but retained the seven Sacraments: after, by degrees, they were taken away, and new Doctrines brought in, with relaxations of Ecclesiastical 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, without Bishops no Ordination can be; Quo teneam nodo?  
They complain, That the opinion of the Church of Rome, are obtruded upon them, for Artikles and Fundamentals in Faith. Doth not all the Wilderness 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 ancient bulworks go into neglect, which stood betwixt a Sea of error and themselves? that is, in stead of standing upon the old ways, to view and discover truth from: they have only disdainfully trampled upon them; and in stead of ask the Fathers, to see what they held and thought; they will make bold to think the Fathers mistaken, if they find themselves contradicted by them; and hold, and think of them, as not worth ask. Thus do 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 been universally observed, was ordered by him. St. Augustine de Bap. contra Donatist, That which the Universal Church holds, and is not Instituted by Counsels, but always retained, it's probably believed, not to be delivered, but by Apostolical authority. Their error that oppose the authority of the Church, and the prerogative of the Apostolical Seat, flows from this wretched pudled Fountain; that is, Reducing Reformation to the Scripture itself, interpreted by men's particular judgements. The holy and sacred letters, are the blessed records of our salvation, Celestial Messages, Angels of peace, winged with love, which hover over men's souls, with celestial protections, comforts, and graces: they are the glass, wherein is beheld the beauty of holiness, the splendour of the Eternal Father, the Image of his Son. Yet as S. Austin saith, The words of the Scripture, are to be so understood, as the world hath believed, which itself foretold should believe: they were writ upon several occasions to particular 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 enjoin the harkening to the Church, which who should not hear, are excluded from Christian communion, by their holy censure. The Church was then established, when divers of these sacred letters were directed to them; and by them, and what other rules were delivered & taught them: they governed, taught, administered, corrected, and absolved; so that they were like the Testimony in the Ark: the Church of God, had the custody and interpretation of them; so that who should Sacrilegiously steal 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 quarrel at the other orders and Traditions of the Church, he would be judged by all, to have ravished the spheres of government, to have disordered the Divine dispensation of his goodness 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 foreign tastes; 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-glass, wherein they do but see their own Image, not Gods; and by an inward delusion, view the reflections of their own wits, flattering their understandings, whilst by a foreprepared conceit, they find some countenance, to their own inward thoughts: Whereas Scriptures, the Oracles of God, are truth; not the Pen, or the Press, 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 established authority, shall be called in question, or disputed through the violence and disorder of Factions, the upholders of Government and Justice, have recourse to the origen's and Fountains of Justice; showing how all their Acts and Decrees, received their obligatory nature, from the agreement they had with those rules of Reason, and those several Laws which constituted them to be good and just: so that they who before found only 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 original supernatural; 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 several channels: The Laws of God's Church, challenge our obedience; the opposing whereof is Schism, because we are kept in one entire body, by the observation of them: the neglect whereof cuts us off from that communion. Civil 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 Virtue. What way is there to distinguish Ecclesiastical obedience, from schismatical combinations? but to prove the universality of the Church, its constant succession, with the exercise of its jurisdiction: and that those, who have separated themselves from it, bears a later date, begun from some accidental change in Government; the Pride of their Leaders, or the ignorance and heaped up errors of the people. What differences, Vice, and Virtue? not a local distinction, of being placed in the midst of Vice; but, as such actions observe the dictates of right Reason, which assigns them their end, their degrees of heats and motion. Who views not the establishment of ancient Commonwealths in their first and Primitive Laws, their Records, Acts of State, and a constant exercise of a Supreme Authority? When men with the arms of reason encounter the desert souls of Atheists, do they not prove the Impression of a Deity engraven on the souls of all, though they err in paying their Homage? Do they not bring reasons from several Sciences, for the demonstration of à natura naturans, or first mover, or Supreme Governor? Those who prove the truth of Christian Religion against Turks and Jews, do they not plead the innocency and simplycity of those men, that first Preached Christ crucified; that they could have no end, but the hope of an Immortal Glory to bear them out in all their sufferings; they delivered a Doctrine to the world, an enemy to carnal pleasures, and the ambition of the world; and with disarmed innocency to prevail over the furious malice of their Persecutors, must needs prove an omnipotent power that aided them: and having brought them to the acknowledgement, that God is the Author of our Faith, than they find a necessity, to receive the speaker, for a full demonstration of the truth of all that is spoke: 
Then do 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 prevail against it: and we see, that neither Tyrants, whose angers are Massacres; nor an Angel of Light-seeming falsehood, hath prevailed against his Church; neither the courses, nor discourses of men's Pens and Wits, have been prevalent against it; In hanc manca ru●s fortuna. It hath continued in the Succession of two hundred and sixty Popes; and according to the Sibyls Prophecy, The Fisher's hook hath subdued the Roman Empire, and conquered the World, verified in St. Peter's Successors. Thus Reason may have its satisfactions, and hath a latitude of discussing, and being active in those things which are its proper sphere, 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 Star conducted the Wise Men to the Son of Righteousness: and though illuminations from Heaven, sometime beat down 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 God's Law too) must be summoned up to our aid, whilst by degrees we recover our falling steps, and unwind ourselves out of error: Hos quaesitum munus in usus; Is there any way to wean men's minds, nursed in the embraces of error, but the employment and use of their reason? To discover what their opinions own to their cradle, what to a rational examination: men bear an affection to opinions, as to the places where they were borne, though it be the rude rugged mountains of the Swisseses. The soul with difficulty parts with its first imbibitions, and with pain climbs the rising Hill of Truth. Many are the innate delusions of men's souls: occult adhesions, and secret fastnesses, which are not cassierd till their judgements are informed from what source they spring, till by the thread of reason, they unwind themselves out of that Labyrinth, nature, or their first course delivered them into: men's judgements suffer from society, and example retorts upon our understanding. Custom and Affection, are mediums which represent things different from their true proportions: nothing can infranchise men's minds, or set them free from those enchanting embraces, but the Power and Sovereignty of Reason: 
Stultus non accipit, verba prudentiae,  
Nisi ea dixeris, quae sunt in cord ejus.  Now, as Reason compels them to return to the Church, so will the tenants of their own Religion, if great soul-killing opinions be not found to make the Gulf, and the mega kasma. Some particulars 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 Union with, and obedience to, by the Voice of Antiquity, which hath still kept its ancient deposited Doctrines, written and unwritten, whose bosom is ever open to receive all, but whom their own Schism and Error excludes; and that both their Reason, Religion, and Charity command a return.   

CAP. III. A View of the particular 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 show, That as these Doctrines excepted against are true, so likewise they have the Impressions of God engraven on them; though there be two pretences of exception that they make. First, Objecting to general Counsels, new creation of Truths, when they do no more than declare what are so. Nextly, From the words they make use of to condemn Error and Heresy. They would have it, that the Counsels make new Artikles, when as they pretend to signify no other thing by those words, then that which is certainly known 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 verbal contention, oppositions of Science falsely so called. There hath not wanted those in the Church of Rome, that have exactly tried the depths of all those studies, whether in the knowledge of Languages, for knowing the Text in the Original, or of History, or Schoole-reasoning, wherein any opponents can pretend to contest with them in. 
Convect Lond. 1562. Art 16.  If they will appeal to Scripture, as sometimes they do, how many Catholic Champions have faithfully studied the literal sense, the mystical, the Historical part, the parabolical, the Figurative expressions, the Natural, the Originals of the Old and New Testaments, the Hebrew and the Greek, with the Ancient Greek and Latin Glosses. If History may prevail, Eusebius shall bring testimony, Palladius, Sezemen Socrates, Ruffin shall be witnesses. St. Bede, St. Jerom shall tell what was the practices in the first times of Christianity. If the pious Decrees of those Popes (which themselves believe to be Saints in Heaven) shall be heard, Catholic Doctors have viewed all their Decrees, both before the Council of Nice, and after. If conquest, by the Arts of Disputation, be pretended to, they have entered 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 four first General Counsels, Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon; but many Catholics have not only read from the first of Nice, to the last of Trent, but also all other approved Provincial Counsels. If the Fathers, Doctors, and men famous in all Ages, be consulted with, they will appear to be all of the same holy Catholic 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, Dionysius the Areopagite, Scholar to Saint Paul. St. Ignatius, St. Polycarpus, St. Clement, St. Augustine, Hierome, St. Ambrose, Papias Scholar of St. John the Evangelist, etc. Who will not then put their foot into the same Bark, with so excellent company, to sail to happiness in? but remain in the Cock-Boars of their own private opinions, to be tossed with every wave of Doctrine, and to suffer Shipwreck? The Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, are preserved by the Roman Church (defendors of the Catholic cause. Its Doctrines whether writ, or delivered by mouth, Historians deliver the same to be with, what Popes have maintained, Decrees confirmed, Expositions cleared, Counsels declared, Schools taught, and Fathers delivered. And their practice is demonstrated by all Ancient Laws of England, Imperiall, Nationall of Foreign Countries, and former times: by confession of Enemies, Mahumetans, Jews, Pagans, and all those schismatics, who confess Antiquity is not for them. I shall for those opinions, that are pretended to be cause of their departure, and the hindrance of their not returning again to the Church of Rome, give you a taste of the Fathers in several Centuries: and withal show what fruits of piety, charity, and comfort they have contained in them.  

Of the Eucharist Altars, & Sacrifice.  The word Transubstantiation, must not be endured; they say it is but a late word, 
The verity of its Doctrine.  since the Council of Laterane only 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 real presence being called in question, with subtle interpretation of words, the Church must use some words of art to oppose them, and secure the truth against their nimble turning of the sense of words; so that to quarrel at the word, is indeed to quarrel at the exercise of the Church's power; modern rebellions against the Tenants of holy Church, forceth it to use some words, to hinder the evasions of its enemies, which they profess to signify no more by, than what was taught, by This is my body. The word Trinity was not used, till Counsels 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 tossed upon those faithless Seas of error. Transelementation is as hard a word, and M. Montague allows that. The Greeks use a word to of the same signification, yet no offence taken at it. Hear the Father's several expressions, as well as late Counsels. St. Ambrose in the fourth Age after Christ, by the benediction, nature itself is changed; the change is not made by Faith alone, but really, saith St. chrysostom. Not every bread, but that which receives the benediction, is made the body of Christ. Saint Augustine in the fifth Age. 
In answer to Melatei●  The Bishop of Derry doth ingenuously confess, That Antiquity hath used the expressions of seeing Christ, touching Christ in the Sacrament, of fastening our teeth in his flesh, etc. What satisfaction can prevail with a moderate ingenuity, which one shall not meet with in later Schoolmen and Counsels? Clypeus Tridentinus saith, Believe Transubstantiation, but the manner of Transubstantiating, you need not. School terms oblige 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 Council of Trent declares, that in this Sacrament, Jesus Christ, true God, and true Man, is truly, really, and substantially contained under the species of those sensible things, yet nor according to a natural manner of existing, but Sacramentally.  
He was the Word that spoke it,  
And what that word did make it,  
I do believe, and take it.  
All the Ancients use constantly without flashes of Rhetoric, or translation of words, the word sacrifice, and not only to note, giving of thanks, but propitiation: oblation and offering likewise are used by the Fathers of the Council of Nice: 
Dialog. 4.58.  This sacrifice singularly saves the soul from Eternal destruction, which doth repair unto us by mystery, the death of the only begotten; who although, rising from the dead, dies not, and death shall have no further power over him; notwithstanding in himself immortally and incorruptibly living, is again sacrificed for us in the mystery of this holy oblation. Fathers in all Ages have spoke and held this. Cardinal Perron calls it a sacrifice applicative of a sacrifice. Thus do the enemies of Catholic Doctrines and words, by their opposition of them, make that, which should be the band of Unity, the flag of dissension. 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 itself 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 truly understood, affords us the comfort of asserting the truth of God's promises: For the several modes and manners which those out of the Church fancy to themselves, touching the presence of Christ, if there were words of Art to express, how detractive would they be found, from the verity, certainty, and reality of that comfort which our Saviour intended us in the blessed Sacraments? But Catholics do adore the Lord Jesus, here truly present; only him do they adore, who although, till the world be dissolved, after a natural manner, he is above; yet here with us, is the truth of the Lord, That as often as we receive, we eat his Flesh, and drink his Blood, without which, there is no life in us; by which Union, how do our souls receive a torrent of joys and graces, which flow from a Celestial source, into all the faculties and powers of our mind, sanctifying them to him, who is our head, being incorporated into him?  

Invocation of Saints.  
Whilst we live in the earthly Tabernacles of our Bodies, we are subject to the sums of flesh and blood, to the Impressions of divers affections, and the clouds of the world; whence we are put to execute a warfare, and act a vigilant part against the depths of Satan; and to that end, we desire one another's Prayers; And shall theirs be less effectual, whose blessed souls are unbodied, out of a possibility of falling, and enjoying the blessed presence of God, inflaming with charity and good will towards us? They rejoice at our conversions; they understand our conditions: holy Church hath ever practised to make them friends in the Court of Heaven: To obtain their requests of their King and ours, the effects of Christ's mediation and merits, may be more hopefully purchased by Angelical Petitions, than man's disturbed and cold devotions. 
Chrysost. Hom: de Martyr: Egyp.  Let us ask the Fathers, and they will tell us, By the Prayers of the Martyrs, we may after our departure hence, see and embrace them, saith saint Chrysostom. And elsewhere, Mary prays for us, stronger than Deborah, more powerful than Jael. 
De Cog. nit: verae vitae.  St. Augustine saith, When you call upon the saints in Prayer, it behoves you thus to think of them, as placed in the glory of the Eternal beauty, most glorious lights, fare outshining the Son, who have fully all that is good in the Vision of God, and who forcibly assist all that call upon them. St. Hierom to Heliodore, After death (saith he) you shall pray for me, who have incited you, that you might overcome. In the Liturgy of Basil, Now Martyrs earnestly pray, that God may grant us remission of our sins. 
De vidue.  Saint Ambrose saith, The Angels are to be called upon in our behalf, who are assigned to us for our defence. And again, let us not be ashamed to have them the Intercessors of our infirmity: of the Intercession of the blessed Virgin; Doctor Don saith prettily, Her Womb was a strange Heaven, for there God clothed himself, and grew; our zealous thanks we pour, as her deeds were our helps, so are her Prayers; nor can she sue in vain, who hath such titles unto you. 
The piety and fruits of 〈◊〉  Whilst men make themselves such strangers to the Inhabitants above, they break the communion of saints: if men's joys were all above, if men did thirst after those glorious fruitions, they would accept of all the helps that might lead them to it. In invocating, and worshipping the saints, we worship him, whose saints they are: Saith a Father, in often contemplating their crowns, and begging their patronage, how are our hearts inflamed through their helps? it erects our thoughts on high, and gives us courage in our journey below, to have seen all the dangers of it conquered, by those who as they were our example, so now are our Patrons. 
〈…〉.  It inlarges and mends our prospect, when we view those Celestial Inhabitants shining all as stars of several magnitudes; one glorious in the ruddy beams of Martyrdom; another shining with the snow white purity of Chastity; others, now the higher, by having been low in their own esteem: they provoke us, by viewing their glories, to the care of acquiring their virtues; neither let any pretend, and say, God hath commanded us to call on him, therefore its needless to go to any other; for he hath told us, He hears not every one that cries, Lord, Lord, but him who doth the will of his Father; and his will is, that we should be obedient, and hearken to his Church, and not in stead of observing its commands, revile it, and rend, and tear it by contempt of its Doctrines.   

Confession, Absolution, Satisfaction.  
This is, and ever hath been, so universally, generally delivered, Preached, urged, practised in the Catholic Church, that none can deny it, but those whose stiffe-neckednes will not give them leave to look back into any Antiquity, or Fathers; these words are plainly, frequently made use of, to express this part of the Discipline of the Church, which the Fathers called, The vigour of the Gospel; as if without it, all men's manners and courses towards Heaven, would languish. 
Sermons of Confessions.  Bishop Andrews, from the Text, Whose Sins ye remit, they are remitted; acknowledges a particular personal Confession to be meant, by reason, he saith, it is expressed, whose Sins, not what Sins soever. 
Epist. 55.  Let us hear Saint Cyprian express himself against those that opposed it, It is endeavoured (saith he) that sins may not be redeemed, by satisfactions and just lamentations, that men's wounds may not be washed away with tears; true peace is taken away, by the lie of a false one; and the healthful bosom of a Mother (a stepmother interceding) is shut up; weeping and mourning should be heard from a sinner, and the face of those who have fall'n. 
August. Hom. 5.  Let him come to the Priests, those by whom the Keys are disposed of in the Church; and let him, from those who are set over those holy rites, receive the measure of his satisfaction. Tertullian de poenitentia, Confessio satisfactionis consilium. It is objected, that its an all-daring presumption, to pretend to be able to satisfy in the most pure eyes of Almighty God, and so plausibly run on in an ill applied humility; when a man doth, what another's demand is, it's said, he hath satisfied his desires: nay, if the Creditor do for some reasons, forgive the Debt; he is said to be satisfied: and it's spoken by reason of the Evangelicall compact, when God by promising, makes himself a debtor, saith the Father; and we doing what is required, that is, bringing forth fruits worthy of Penance, and performing such expressions of sorrow, and those penitential injunctions as the Church will be satisfied in, for the demonstrating our hearty repentance, it is called satisfaction: but whom the expressions of the Council of Trent will not satisfy, touching it, he is sick of siding and parties, nor is any desire of peace with the Church prevalent with him.  

Sessio. 14 cap. 8.  It's agreeable to the divine clemency, lest sins be pardoned us, without any satisfaction, occasion being taken, that we lightlier esteeming of sins, fall into more grievous ones, injurious, and contumelious to the holy spirit of God, treasuring up wrath for us against the day of wrath; for without doubt these satisfactory punishments, do greatly recall us from sin, and, as it were, with a certain bridle restrain us, and make penitents more cautious for the future; they cure likewise the relics of sin; they take likewise away ill habits got by vicious living, but contrary acts of virtues: nor at any time is there a surer way in God's Church to remove punishments, than that men frequent these works with true grief of mind: and it draws to this, that whilst we by satisfying suffer for our sins, we are made conformable to Christ Jesus, who satisfied for our sins, enjoying also the most certain earnest; that if we suffer together with him, we shall likewise be glorified together with him. Neither is this our satisfaction such, which we pay for our sins, that it is not made by Christ Jesus: for we who of ourselves, as of ourselves, can do nothing; yet he co-operating, who strengthens us, we can do all things: so man hath not whence he may glory, but all our glorying is in Christ, in whom we live, and merit; in whom we satisfy, doing worthy fruits of penance, which have their force from him, and are offered from him to the Father, and by him are accepted of the Father.  
It was ever held in the Church of God the ordinary means of the forgiveness of sins, and is so fare from being a cause to drive men from the Catholic Church, that to enjoy the benefit of it, they should come with humble minds, and tears in their eyes, to beg the comfort of this only approved sure way for their pardon. St. Augustine, in his Enchirid. saith, God hath given liberty to none to sin, though by his pitying of us, he blot out our sins, if sitting satisfaction be not neglected.  
How wholesome must it be for our minds, 
Fruits & Piety.  to discharge themselves, to air our minds by confession, to have the state of our souls judged of, (all men being partial censurers of themselves) and thence fitting Physic prescribed, after his inspection of our inward complexion? what comforts are conveyed into our breasts, in lieu of all vicious affections or acts we part with thence in Confessions? our pardon is confirmed in Heaven, as it is granted here on Earth. How many thick and foggy selfe-delusions, false opinions, desperate fears, ill grounded doubts, do all vanish from that soul, that hath dispersed those clouds by clearness of Confession? What recruits of graces, spiritual satisfactions, healthful directions are acquired? here is exercised an act of that most acceptable humility, in throwing yourself down at the Feet of God's Ambassador, in detestation of yourself; exercising your Faith likewise, in believing that, Whose Sins they remit, they are remitted, this being the second table after shipwreck.   

Purgatory, and Praying for the Dead.  
It is the general confession of those, who call themselves the Reformed, that Prayer for the Dead was anciently used; some few testimonies of which I'll show you. St. Augustine in his Book pro Mortuis, writes, That if no where it should be read in the Old Testament, yet the authority of the Universal Church is not small; which is so clear in the custom of this, where in the Prayers which the Priests pour out to their Lord God at the Altar, a recommending of the dead hath place also. And the same Father, ad Laurentium in the Enchiridion, There is a certain manner of living (saith he) not so good that it doth not require these things after death; nor yet so ill, that these things may not profit him after death. Aerias was condemned of the whole Church, for condemning this. One may perceive by the constant practice of the Church, how these Texts in Scripture are to be understood, of being neither pardoned in this World, nor in the World to come: And that other place, concerning those, who build hay and stubble upon the Foundation; they shall be saved, yet as by Fire. Martyrdom, saith Clemens Alexandrinus, is a purgation of sins with glory. And St. Augustine saith, That the recital of the names of Martyrs at the Altar, is more that they may pray for us, then that we may pray for them. For the pains in Purgatory; one cannot conceive how there should be a Purgatory, without suffering pain. Hear what Boethius saith a thousand years since, But I pray (saith he) remain there no punishments after this life? yes, great certainly (saith he:) for some (saith he) I take to be exercised with bitter punishments, 
Liber 4.  others with element purgations.  

The fruits & piety.  To a Skoffer, there shall never want matter; but as he saith, Cave sed fiat nè Jocus iste Focus: When St. Paul mentions trial by fire, it's blown away with a hundred light Interpretations: an Atheistical spirit would quarrel with that expression, of the damned gnashing their teeth; which, they say, is an effect rather of cold, then of fire. But as a Father saith, Heresy is not from the Scripture, but from the sense of Scripture, which the Church, by the providence of God, safely preserves.  
It must raise no small comforts in the minds of those, who have parted with what were their joy here, to be able by devout Prayers to recommend them to a more advanced state of Joy. It doth enlarge the subject of our charity, whilst death itself doth but quicken our devotion for our Friends, parting with them, as men not without hope. It sweetens our passage hence, being not out of the partaking of the benefit of Prayers, Alms, and the good Works of those we leave behind, the Communion of Saints: and for the effects that the opinions of postumous and after suffering must have upon the minds of men, it must needs tend to the making the soul disgust these inferior appetites and affections, which breathe upon the soul an earthy vapour and foulness, which it must be cleansed from, with penal purgation, before it can be admitted into those purer joys, to see God, which only is granted to them that are clean of heart. The perverting, and disordering the dispensation and application of God's grace, who (though Gods merits be all-sufficient, and our Redemption complete, and the Divine Promises large) yet think, that notwithstanding, all their life time, their judgements have been abused with the too great esteem of the empty delights and glories of the world, their wills following the impulse of carnal pleasures, nor any Celestial spark ever kindling their affections; yet by a swimming fancy in the head, that Christ hath died for them; think, they shall presently jump into Paradise; It is a merry conceit: so was it of that Fool, That thought, that all the ships that came into the Harbour, were his own. If we suffer together with him, we shall likewise be glorified with him, was held to be the surest earnest of Everlasting Joy.   

Of .  
He who hath made you without yourself, will not save you without yourself, saith a Father. God is the way, means, and end; all is from him, and to him: but how much more noble thought have they of the Deity, who conceive him to deal with man as endowed with free operations, then with us, as with stocks and stones, that are merely patiented? It is the mere grace of God that gives good works their force and value; yet no such necessity, that any thing is done, whether man will or no: 
Apolig. Epist.  For who could either praise, or discommend that, who can imagine such actions to be rewarded, or punished? or that soul to be immortal, and perform Religion, which should want free and reasonable actions, the arguments and pledges of immortality: but we are to admire the wisdom of God's Church, which agreeth the eternal prescience of God, with the temporal co-operation of man; that it leaves the first infallible, and yet proveth the temporal action, appetite and delight, or consent to any thing to be voluntary, free, and in the power of man, to be effected or omitted, rewarded and punished.   

Of the use and Veneration of Pictures and Images.  
Upon this is waged a perpetual war; Hic illius arma, hic currus fuit. The Reformists generally take it for Idolatry, and what ever is spoken against Idolatry in Scripture, they press and urge upon the use of Pictures. But before they tax our Mother with so odious a crime: they might please to consider the nature of the objection, and how fare the extent of it is: and withal, they might consult the opinion of ancient devout Fathers (who would rather have lost a thousand lives, then have committed Idolatry) touching it; and withal, they might have considered the use of them, before they should be frighted from their Mother's bosom (a place of protection) into wander and errors, where are laid the snares of the enemy. Church story informs us, That the ancient Christians would fall down before the Statues of the Emperors, which was then the manner and posture used to do reverence; as sometime to be bare before the Cloth of State, doth signify the like; though they would rather die, then salute so the Images of the false gods. But for the like postures to be forbid to be used to the Pictures of Saints, or of our blessed Saviour, none can show a prohibition; for those outward signs of honour signified by gesture, are indeed common towards God, 
Grotius.  Angels, and Men; no particular one being set a part, or commanded to be peculiarly used, to signify only Divine Worship: when we frame a thought of that good Shepherd in our minds, if we would deliver it in writing, why might we not write it in Hyreogliphies, as well as Letters, which are not so ancient, no other thing is so worthy, as the mind of Man? but if the Image of our Saviour Crucified be there drawn and viewed by the understanding; why may not our corporal Eye, behold it drawn on Paper, or other material, since they do but serve to recall and revive those former Ideas in the mind, which other objects might distract, or steal away? And by several Persons the several Attributes of God may be signified; as a King for Royalty, etc. St. Augustin saith, in the Visitation of the sick, There is added upon the Cross the Image of a Man; humbly embrace this, and weekly venerate it. The honour done to the Image, is referred to whose Image it is, saith Basil and Chrisostome. I know these things are proposed in vain, to those who will admit of no other Tribunal, than their own breasts, who exercise an Arbitrary and Tyrannical power over the Consciences of their followers, whom an imaginary exposition of some dark prophecy of Antichrist doth unhinge their minds and judgements, from off, what they ought to turn on, which is obedience to the Church, whose sacred Authority ought to bind in the luxuriant and forward imaginations of men's own brains: But I have only instanced in these few particulars, without using any illaqueation of Arguments, or finnesse of discourse. Thus are all the Church's Doctrines, Practices, and Ceremonies, advancements and means to Salvation and Piety, the establishment of its regiment on Earth, of Pope, Patriarches, Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, subdeacons, Exorcists, Lectors: where the mystery of our Redemption is so esteemed, and remembered, that no Holy day, no part of Divine Service is celebrated, but represents to us one benefit or another: no Ceremony in the holy Sacrifice, no action of the Priest, no Ornament or Attire he weareth, no Benediction he gives, no Sign of the Cross he makes, but hath its religious signification, and Preacheth to us, and speaks nothing but Christ Crucified: therefore, though the great work of our redemption may be thought not to be hindered, by opposing things of an inferior nature; yet it is no small matter, the opposing the Authority of the Church, tending to the dissolving that power, 
Richworths dialogue  by which the greatest things are maintained. Commonwealth's punish with death a small stealth; because it's an offence against the nature of Government. Heretofore men proved Doctrines to be true, from the authority of holy Church; and now they would annul her authority from her Tenants; and from her Articles, would throw dirt in her Face, as if she had lost her being, for being the faithful Keeper of what was committed to her, and had forfeited her breasts, the Scriptures, for feeding us with their milk.    

CAP. FOUR The falling away from the Church (under the Notion of Reformation) the cause of troubles of State; and from the same grounds, they build their opinions on, arises the grounds of the disturbance of Governments.  
THe Church being Divinely Founded, as it hath survived all the malices and practices of the greatest Tyrants, its enemies; so have those, who breaking of that Ecclesiastical league which kept them in the limits of the practice, and belief of the same things, missed of that enlargement and lastingness of commands, which they expected, by altering the sight and mark, they took their aim by; they have strayed the most, from what they chief took their aim at: whilst they sought a particular prosperity, separated from the peace of the Church; against which, the mustered, forces of men's malice, and Hell's fury, became ever weak and impotent.  
The blood of the first Bishops of Rome, was the fruitful compost of the Church; their Ashes were Generative: all the furious conflagrations, sackings, and spoilings of the City of Rome by the Goths, Huns, Visegoths, Halaricus, were like stormy winds, whose Goal and end was only to die and expire; while Rome triumphed over their spoils, in the continuance of that never failing Church: I will not name Attila, nor Limprandus; the one retiring from Rome by Saint Leos means: the other by Pope Zacharies, strangely and miraculously. Those barbarous Saracens, whose rage was glutted with the conquest of the Eastern Emperor, the glory of whose arms and conquest of Candy increased; who made Africa feel the effects of the advancement of their Armies, and struck terror into a great part of Europe and Asia; who deflowered fair Italy, and set fire to the Suburbs of Rome. And yet against Gregory the fourth, the Sea of their incursions, found its bounds, that its waves should go no further. The Duke of Bourbon (saith Fox) died censured, being slain in the assault of Rome, whose Faith hath still prevailed, in spite of Germane Schisms, or the powerful oppositions of Dalmatia, Slavonia, Bulgaria; or the entertainment of Luther's dissoluteness in Dania, Suevia; or calvin's subtleties in Zelandia, Franciae, Genevah, and all other blindnesses and powers of the rest of the world. Julian died with a, Vicis●i Galileae, thou hast overcome o Galilean, meaning our Saviour. The Arrian Emperors opposed, and were confounded. The Jacobines, Armenians, and Grecians, are under the Tyranny of the Turkish Empire, whilst they deny obedience to the Church of Rome. How many Pagan's Emperors before Constantine opposed it, and almost all died miserably. Four hundred Heretics before Luther, 
Bernard Lutzen. cate-log. Haeret.  whose malice was all dashed into froth upon this Rock? How many of the Kings of Scotland, England, Portugal, France. Emperors have been miserable, deposed, slain, who have contended with this Sea in its jurisdiction. 
Bede, lib. 3: 4: 5. hist.  Like success had those Saxon Kings, who opposed the Faith of that Sea: some whereof submitted, and became religious men; and those that were Apostates, miserably put to death. The British Kings, disobeyed Rome in the observation of Easter, and manner of shaving of the Crowns of Priests: a leaven thousand of their Munks, who defended this opposition, were wrapped up in the sad catastophre of being slain by the Pagans sword; their Country mastered, and awed by their hired soldiers; and of Kings over them, were made subjects to them. Upon the stage of every Kingdom, these parts have been acted, and have concluded in direful Tragedies; from whose every parcel and passage in our conquerors life, Edward's, Henries, Richards, the observation of men might store themselves with most stupendous examples of their sufferings, in, and from their contests with the Roman Sea; the revolt, defection, and falling away from which, I shall show to be pregnant with the unheard of mutations, distractions, wars, and tumults, which threatens such fatal trepidations and concussions in the bowels of all modern States: and as effects which are included in their causes, so all these evils to be shut up and virtually contained, in the principal, upon which their departure from Rome is made: propositions, which seemingly blausible, yet the higher they get into esteem and reputation, so much the more powerfully, do they shower down upon their followers, desolation & destruction: one may behold them at first like little Airy, soft and tender strings exhaled and ascending, drawn with the more powerful aspect of the Son: yet, with you shall ere long, find descending upon you in hard, condensed, thunder stone, with wild flaming expansions, breaking forth of the womb of that cloud that bred it; or like the wooden horse, peaceably at first let in, yet straight filling the Town with bands of Armed men. A way certainly (as Solomon saith) which seeming right in a Mans own eyes; yet the end thereof is death. I will first take a view of some of their particular opinions, and see what a dangerous influence they have upon Governments: Calvin teaches, That the Laws of the Magistrate do not bind the Conscience. Luther Preaches, That it is the nature of the Gospel to raise wars and seditions among Christians, etc. that there is no hope of remedy, till all humane Laws be taken away: and (then that which is the Foundation and ground of all, Reformation so called) that all things are to be settled, ordered, changed, according to their agreeing, or disagreeing with Scripture, the interpretation whereof must be the particular judgements of private Men. This rule is equally strong for all sides; too stiff to recant, or yield to others judgements: and this same rule must patronise as many opinions & sects, as the various fancies of men busied in Scripture can invent or suggest: thus naturally flows from this rule of Reformation, not only diversity of opinions, various judgements, and opposite Doctrines; but strong and numerous parties, that cry up such a man for their Apostle, or embrace such an opinion for their Faith: several bodies of considerable strength, whose obligations are the defence of such opinions. New and several interests, whereby every one studies their own preservations and upholdings, though never so contrary to each other, or destructive to the Government where they live: so that those who in a contemplative way, and abstracted consideraon did but lately talk of the purity of the Gospel, of light and truth; find themselves by and by, plunged in all practices, turbulent, seditious, unjust, oppressive: A wrong principle in the understanding, doth not only multiply notional absurdities, but begets and produces sinister actions: these numbers of men, of several persuasions and Doctrines, comes to be variously planted and spread, in several Countries and Governments; whether brought in by way of Traffic, negotiating one with another, or that such men being banished their own Countries, they sow their ill seed in others Provinces; or whether the errors be native, and sprung up there; or that, as infection, they catch and spread, by way of example and imitation; yet thus the world becomes to be blended, and the subjects in all sorts of Governments, get a new Primum mobile to their Allegiance and duty; and instead of intending the good of the community where they live, they are busied in the advancing of that body, which for conformity, and holding the same Tenants with them, they become concerned in: so that if in one Government, a sort of them be oppressed for their seditious practices; presently in all others, those of the same opinion are alarmed: so that Governors straight find their Laws silent, distractions multiplying; and none secured of their own subjects, who do either profusely throw away on their confederates, that treasure and money (which should be the support of their own Country) or if those opinions have taken hold of active and generous spirits, which endeavour still to make others of the same opinion with them, presently they expect Foreign aid and help, to change their proper policies and Governors. Then through the innate reverence that all people bear to the opinion of Divinity; believing that the spirit moves upon the Face of their Preachers watery discourses, they become powerful, like the winds, to make the people as the Sea, swell and become unpeaceable, whilst each bandies against other, and all against the State: thus are all the veins of Christendom filled with these unwholesome and noxious humours, whilst Ambition and Heresy often shake hands together; for Ambition seeks but under any pretence to procure the affections and services of men, and to apply them to their own uses: and now so great bodies of men, wanting but countenance, and great persons to be their head, and encourage them; these two seek their mutual 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 Crowns and Diadems upon the maintenance and upholding on one party or other, who becomes strong or weak, as that party ebbs or flows; 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 warlike Chariots through Germany; Mars so long a time, seeming to have set up his standard there; whilst replenished with these unwholesome humours, the Germane Diets became not so wholesome, as before: and no less suddenly hath those sparks taken hold, and flown over the French Stables, whilst Genevah, the Lady of the Lake, challenges the Prerogative of the Apostolical Seat, and dictates Laws to its Brethren. From Calvin's Institutions, the Swissers 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 Ecclesiastical league; and now all breaking up and disbanding, the face of Europe which was seen one and entire in the Sea of Rome, is now by these numberless Fractions, but parcels and pieces, representing several Faces, the sacred anchor of Religion being moved, 
True religion not contrary, nor prejudicial to Governments.  all the ships of States and Goverments, come to be tossed and troubled; Religion being like the Sun, which whilst it keeps its own proper and heavenly course, giveth 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 destruction to Commonwealths, though it last for ever, as the worship of Christ was instituted to do. There are vices of men, and there are vices of times; but disobedience to Governments, or Doctrines of disloyalty are detested by the Catholic 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 honoured of all Kings since; the same Sacrament, unchangeable; the same power of order, the same jurisdiction: there is not any point of civil regiment in that Sacrament, being wholly spiritual and supernatural; nothing concerning a temporal Commonwealth; no renouncing or denial 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 divers 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, Turks, condemn not their Priests for Traitors, but admit the exercise of their Function, as agreeable to the Commonwealth: and as it were a great absurdity to say, that the Pope in relieving the Catholic Students of Palestine, Grecia, Armenia, and such Nations, should do it in hope to be temporal Lords of those Countries, but only 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 temporal 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, penance, and punishment for sin, both in life and after; teaching duty to God, honour to Magistrates, equality to all, injury and oppression to none: the chiefest points 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 only 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 want and desideratars, complained here of too much luxuruancy of men's brains; for God hath so surely founded his Church on one side, and the Devil hath so busily in the night sown Tares on the other, that there is no employment here for the restless agitation of men's heads. It was truly observed by another, That Men must either resolve their Religion into Reason, or Authority: if into Reason, than they must believe no more than they can prove by Reason. If into Authority, It was apparent where it had continued this sixteen hundred years; but the measure of truth is many times the maintaining men's cause; but not truth the guide of their cause: they transfer and send the beams of their wit, to gild the clouds of their error. How unhappy are the triumphs of those endeavours, which strive to make falsehood appear more like truth, than truth itself? As the English Poet, describing truth by una, which is still one, and the same: and falsehood by Duessa, which is doubleness: complains, 
Though Una was as fair, as fair might be,  
Yet false Duessa, seemed as fair as she.  When the edge of wit is turned aside to maintain an error; how are men uncharitable to Texts of Scripture? how do 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, gross darkness. The Fathers must pretend to no more knowledge then that which hath now the approbation of men's more refined brains: and the lately found out rules of (Reformation so called) must overrule the witness of Antiquity, the Authority of Counsels, the constitutions of the Church. When Ireneus, and St. Hierom, etc. do magnify the Apostolical Seat, they must be held but flashes of Rhetoric, dashes with their Pen; they make use of hard niceties, elaborate thinness, weak finesse, where Sillogismes must seem to uphold the Church: whereas that which is comprehended within the rules of reasoning, will fly no higher than reason can carry it. Thus do they strive to place in the Clouds that Article of I believe the holy Catholic Church; Divine words being such, that they require a Simple believer, but argue a disputer impious; because in Divinity we respect not what is spoke, but who speaks: How do the holy virtues of Charity and Humility give place to Ambitious heats, and contentions, and trials of wit, where men more strive to get the conquest in words, then to become the happy subjects of truth? Is there no new discoveries to be made in the intellectual Globe? nor means to be found out with the arms of an active reason, to enlarge man's dominion over nature? Doth not the Ethics invite a further disquisition touching the Culture and Georgies of the mind, and to find out Methods of attaining virtue, as well as handsomely to describe it? Doth not the Physics upbraid you with the few links that yet men have been able to take up of nature's chain, whereas only three accidental discoveries of Guns, Printing, and the Loadstone, have altered the face of Christendom, 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 itself to make them more expressive and directive: whereas Hooker saith, There might be a way of reasoning found out, wherewith men's judgements enured, they would go as fare beyond the greatest Doctor now, as the Learnedest Doctor now doth a Child: But I find it Writ, That there must be Heresies: Therefore doubts, scruples, and questions may breed the same disturbance in men's minds, as the prosperity of the wicked did to David: as soon as he entered into the Temple of God, he found an end of them: where now with pleasure, we shall retire from this noise without, and walk into the Gardens of our Heavenly Spouse; where we will view the excellent Fruits of Piety, that he himself hath Sowed and Planted there; and which can only proceed from true Religion. The Antidotes of humane Learning, are many times the Airy Bladders of men's Pride, though the Methods of Logic, object to men their confused blindness; the Art of Rhetoric, their rudeness; the gravity of the Ethics, their passionate weakness: yet are they pleased many times, from them rather to plume themselves with some Feathers of ostentation, then endeavour the real advancement of their natures, by conforming it to duty and truth. True Religion stablishes men in their duties, and constitutes the virtues of men from the most worthy end of their Maker's praise: virtue being else but a gathering together of colours, seen through the glass of men's diversified humours.  
There is no virtue, 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, War is but an angry fit, and violence taught to undergo a rule. Courts, and Tribunals, but injustice, wearing the Gown, and putting on the Formalities of Law: all men's services, and most obsequious performances, are but well ordered Craft, and methodical subtlety: the conversations of Men, but a Stage, where Vizards are worn with applause: Chastity, the malignity of the complexion, and humility but Phlegm. Religion fills men's minds with magnanimity, whilst the judgement is incited to censure worldly things, vain and transitory, whereby the understanding takes off a true copy of the world; and the cozenages of men's souls are prevented, all the inconstancies which the Scene of humane affairs represents, do but yield a grateful prospect to the soul, beholding itself placed obove the alterable nature of humane things; leaving to admire what is inferior, to the dignity of its own immortal nature; finding that of all the Nymphs men court, be it honour, wealth, power, (by a most true Metamorphosis) they catch but an armful of dust: for the greatness of men's minds, proceeds from the little esteem they have of all such things, as are under the power, and uncertain stroke of Fortune, (that is, of things that by the Laws imposed on them hast to change and corruption) for although men's minds may seem to be too much buried and depressed, with the contemplation of the dissolution of things, and in viewing how low all humane hopes do lie: yet are they thereby truly raised, and elevated; which except men's minds had buried them, that is, have pursued things to their Tombs and Ashes; they would have buried men's minds, by setting a greater value and rate on things, than their fluid, altering nature would bear. Thus are we called 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 soul, not to any fruitless rocky swell, but to an active towering height, transplanting men's souls, making them take root in Heaven, and to flourish downward in a constant practice of virtue towards men, till the cold blasts of Death breathe on them; when as then those Celestial Spirits repair to their Mother root, to flourish for Eternity? It makes our passions the instruments of virtue, by giving them its directions in their motions, hindering their excursions and fall out, upon the many false shows and pretences of things. How Heroical are the commands of Religion? making men the Champions of their neighbour's Fame, the deliverers of the oppressed, and every where to erect the monuments of their Charity; and this upon their Master's command, with the contempt of the Airy rewards of the World, but set on fire with an Heavenly flame, which men's breaths neither kindle, nor extinguish: It makes its followers use the aids and comforts of this their exile with security, in order to sublimer purchases: it makes them steadily follow through all states and conditions, their Master's designments, desiring only to live in the world in order to his service that made it. It will approach that breast with its Celestial purities, which erects a Stage for vainglorious thoughts to action; or sets up a Shop for gain, through covetousness; or shambles, for Envy to act its Massacres on; or a Tavern for excess 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 Heresy; or have stored the Church with able and devout Governors; or who have aided men's devotions, and have kindled men's minds with the love of God, with their seraphical devotions? 
jesuits.  The orders of God's Church never grows barren, but are always teeming with the excellencies of transcendent gifts. How many sublime and generous spirits, by frequent making sacrifice of themselves into Foreign parts, makes the hearts of Savages Trophies of Christ Crucified, and fill the Letterd World with the admired productions of Wit and Learning? Here the fire of Devotion is laid upon the true Altar, which never goes out no hour in the Day or Night, where in some Church or Convent there are not some actually in the Church, offering up their cheerful Hymns of Praise, or mournful throbs of Soule-washing Tears, or their souls dilated with the flames of burning charity, pour forth their intercessions. They profestly tread under feet the brags of worldly glory: they contemn the dotage of the world, who honour one another in vanity, and set a price upon that, which is but the Ensign of their lost and fall'n condition. Here that Hydropic distemper of covetousness is conquered, by sending a divorce to all propriety: Here, by a generous Flight on the wings of Fast and Prayer, their souls soar above the smoke and steames of Flesh and Blood, and breathe in those Upper and purer Regions of Celestial conversation, their spirits with disdain, descend to moderate repasts, all the inferior actions of their life are but rational distinctions, no interruptions from their Prayers, they being so refined and sublimed up to spiritual objects, that their conversation, and all the motions and affections of their heart, do but become one continued Prayer: Here they follow that council 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 employments of all sorts of persons and conditions, making it speak in every one's proper and natural Language; the wisdom of God's spirit descending upon men (as it were) in such cloven Tongues. Piety and goodness is the end of the Commandment, the will of God being our sanctification, which appears to triumph in the practice and doctrine of the only true Catholic Church, of Divine and Infallible authority: to the manifestation and demonstration of which, its agreeable with the Divine goodness to establish the same (which is the only director and care of our way to Heaven) with effectual Sacraments, with a successive Priesthood; the verity whereof might be showed as a light upon a Hill, by its universality of place and time: Decrees of Counsels, Writings of Fathers, and all Antiquity. Virtue hath its proper object, and all actions, not steered by that compass of obedience, which truth itself hath enjoined us, though otherways plausible, are wound up upon the bottom of error, and turn upon the Poles of erroneous 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 mettle is rung out of tune: notwithstanding all those who with hearty and faithful desires seek to know how to serve God, with a will rather to lose a thousand worlds, than not profess what they should know was God's command. God is at the end of such men's desires, as he gave them a beginning; and though such be actually in a by channel and way, yet by those. Heavenly inspirations and spiritual gusts, they are Sailing out of them into the great Canal.  
FINIS.