a true Sacrament as to the Sign I Answer That it is a true Sacrament as to the Thing signified It is certain that to speak exactly he doth not take with his Mouth the Sacrament of Jesus Christ for this Sacrament is composed of Two parts and he receives but One But he receives Jesus Christ signified by the Sacrament and receives as much of Graces as they that Communicate of the Sacrament it self Why Because the Sacrament is entirely presented to him because he receives it in his desire and heart and because only an insuperable Impossibility hinders him from communicating of the Sign Suppose we that a Man is found which hath the same aversion for the Bread as for the Wine that never was it may be found but it is not impossible This Man will come to the Lords Table he will take with his hand the one and the other Sign he 'l bring them near to his Mouth but he will return them not being able to pass further What doth that Man Doth he take a true Sacrament Not at all he takes not the Sacrament he recelves the Spiritual things presented under the Sacrament that is Grace But to what purpose doth he come near the Table to receive nothing there For he might have received Grace without stirring from home He comes to make unto God a solemn Protestation that his Impotency is the only cause that hinders him from partaking of the Signs that he thirsts after his Grace that he desires to have part in the efficacy of the Sacrament and to shew to all the Faithful that he doth not deprive himself of those Sacred Signs out of contempt of Religion If those Doctours do not relish this Theology I beseech them to hear St Bernard that tells them It is not Privation of the Sacrament that damns but Contempt I conjure them to consult all the Theologues of their School and examine what they say of Baptism of Vow or the Vow of Baptism There is none but saith That he who desires sincerely and ardently to receive Baptism and dies without partaking of the Sign doth nevertheless receive the Efficacy and all the Virtue of Baptism ARTICLE XIV Of Holy Scripture WE have upon this Article very important Controversies with the Roman Church of the Perfection of Scripture of its Obscurity of its Authority also touching the Utility and Necessity of Reading the said Holy Scripture of the Soveraign Judge of Controversies and of Traditions Monsieur de Condom passes almost all these under Silence and wraps it up in few Words except the Question of its Authority which he Treats of a little more largely I have no design neither to make here large Common places upon these Controversies Volumes have been sufficiently written on both sides to compose great Libraries I will only say That all the dexterity of Monsieur de Condom will never make us to pass this for a thing of small importance We shall never relish that any should make it their Task to speak ill of Holy Scripture It is a wicked Character and a bad Prejudice for these Doctours Cause When Men speak ill of their Judge and that they seek for Means of Recusation against him it is a Proof that they do not believe him favourable to their Interest If the Roman Church believed the Scripture to be on their side they would not seek out so many Means to make her lose her Credit with the People It is a thing that could never be believed if we did not see it That Christians should busie themselves to prove that the Book which includes the Doctrine that saves them from Hell is an imperfect and mutilate Book gnawed by the Teeth of Time depraved and corrupted by the Jews and by the Hereticks that it contains but a little part of the Doctrine of the Church that they must add thereto the Help of Traditions That it is an an Obscure Book that Men cannot understand it without the help of the Church that God hath filled it with Rocks and Shelfs that proud Spirits might be wracked thereon That it is a Leaden Rule which Men turn what way they please that Hereticks may easily abuse it to fight against the Truth that we find not Light enough therein to dissipate the Darkness of Errour that it is a Labyrinth wherein Men are necessarily lost when they are not conducted that it hath no Authority in regard to us without the Testimony of the Church that it hath not Characters of Divinity sufficient to prove it self that it cannot explain it self by clear Places of what it saith in obscure Passages that without the Authority of the Church we should be no more obliged to believe it to be Divine than any other Book that the Lecture of this Book is dangerous that one must extreamly distinguish the Persons to whom the Reading thereof should be permitted that Versions in the Vulgar Tongue cannot appear without peril that the People should not have liberty of handling these Sacred Books They would have us to hear all these things patiently and that we should keep Silence thereat But that cannot be We should be the most base and the most ungrateful of all Men if we should abandon the Defence of a Book to which alone we are beholding next to God for our Eternal Salvation They will not fail to tell us that we are Calumniators and they speak not with that contempt of the Holy Scripture They will bring us the Testimonies of some particular Persons of the latter days which have spoken of it with grand Eloges and Praises And I could relate the Words of other particulars and would bring an hundred for one which speak thereof in the Terms which I expressed just now If Monsieur de Cedeau Bishop of Grass if the Gentlemen of Port-Royal have spoken of this Scripture with the Respect due thereto that hath not been regarded as their fair side and best Character And all the World knows the Violent Persecutions whereto some have been exposed because of that Monsieur de Condom may say what he pleases in favour of Tradition but we maintain That it is an opening of the Door to all the Corruptions of Doctrine and Worship There is none so strange and so opposite to the Spirit of Christianism that may not enter into the Church under this Name of Tradition Sad Experience teaches us enough thereof It is this Word that filled with Images the Temples of Christians to the great Scandal of those who are jealous of the Purity of Worship It is that which introduced into Religion the Service of Creatures Invocation of Saints the Worship of the Holy Virgin Pilgrimaget Adoration of Relicks and so many other such like things If the Roman Church were reduced to defend her self only by Scripture she should soon be driven to forsake the most part of her Worship and of her Devotions But where Scripture fails her Tradition is an obscure Spring entangled and Profound which furnishes with all
fair dealing but at this day things are very much altered the first Method hath not been found significant therefore the second is now taken up yet have they not universally renounced the former Italy Spain and most part of Germany and even of France either know not or relish not these Sweetnings Those that are grown old in the old Opinions do also respect the ancient Expressions as Consecrated and find it not difficult to use the Politicians as Prevaricators I wish they would observe these considerable Words of Father Mainbourg in his History of Lutheranism These pretended Expositions of the Faith which suppress or dissemble or express in ambiguous Terms only or too much sweetned a part of the Doctrine of the Church do satisfie neither the one nor the other which do equally complain that Men do mince it in an affair so delicate as Faith is where Men cannot fail in one point but that they must fail in all We understand well what he would say and whom he aims at it 's neither at Cardinal Contaren nor at the Authors of ancient Enoticks it 's to those that do Byass it at this day in their Expositions of the Catholick Faith Father Mainbourg writes like an honest Man he is most able and hath the right Sense of things There are then able and honest Men in the Roman Church who disapprove these ways of Sweetning and dare to say and to print it But there are others that think to prosper better in the Conversion of those whom they call Hereticks in stripping the Roman Church of all those terrible Images wherewith others have cloathed it Happily they may be of the same Apprehension with the others but they judge it good to express themselves otherwise to bring nearer again those Spirits which they had scared by their hard Manners Yet would I believe that among those moderate Persons there are many that do deal fairly that would willingly have things as they express them who if they were believed would reduce the Worship of Images to a little matter and would accommodate themselves in divers respects to the Weakness of those whom they consider as separate from the Church I believe the Author of the Saving Advises of the Virgin Mary to her indiscreet Devotes is of this Order and I doubt not but he hath many Approbators But though he had infinitely more that alters nothing at the bottom The Roman Church remains still the same in her Worship in her Canons and in her Dogma's Among all those Works which have for their aim the Sweetning of things and to lead Christians into a Spirit of Reconciliation there 's none more famous than the little Book of my Lord of Condom that hath for Title Exposition of the Catholick Doctrine about Matters of Controversie There was never any Work whereof the Author and his Party have made more boast especially since it 's fortified with the Approbations of Rome They look thereon as on the triumph of the Roman Church and they pretend that those changes of Religion that are at this day sufficiently ordinary and which they call Numerous Conversions are the effects of my Lord of Condom's Method I grant that I am not able enough to enter into the Merit of that piece I see nothing therein but what was written long ago My Lord of Condom hath not been the first who hath essay'd to disguise the Doctrine of the Roman Church It 's more than fity years since that this Method of Sweetning hath been used to draw Men and though it had not been printed it 's certain that it hath been used an hundred times by word of Mouth and face to face Except the delicate Dress the sweet and insinuating Manners of my Lord of Condom and some bold Propositions in the Subject of Images I see nothing there of his own nor that should have gained him so many Approbations Notwithstanding mens Spirits are so affected till labour be taken to recover them from it The Roman Catholick considers this Book as the Buckler of his Faith and the mighty Instrument of Conversions and the Protestant looks thereon as on a Ghost whereof he dreads the Illusions I am deceived if it be so dreadful as men imagine All its St eagth consists in disguising things from us and making us to behold them in another face Therefore there is need only to make that appear in its Natural state which he doth represent through a Veil to us That Work hath been Answer'd most learnedly and solidly and if I had no other design but that of Answering it I believe I should not trouble my Pen about it but here I much less purpose to Answer my Lord of Condom than to make a Book opposite to his All that Art and dexterity can imagine to engage those of our Religion to embrace his own is sprinkl'd through his Book and I will put into mine what I believe most capable to preserve them from the peril whereinto he would cast them My Lord of Condom presents his Religion to us under a Veil which he hath composed by an extraordinary effort of Spirit He would have Us to behold her only through that Veil But he may take it well though we have not that complaisance for him because it might be fatal to our Salvation I will therefore draw this Veil paint out the Roman Religion according to Truth whereto nothing can be reproached and shew it in its Natural complexion This is in my mind the best Preservative that we can give our People and particularly it 's of absolute necessity to ruinate the Design of my Lord of Condom Without having precisely a design to combat him yet will I fight him every where because I shall meet him every where and will be obliged to take off the Veil which he hath spread upon the Worship and the Dogma's of his Church I will bind my self also to follow his Order because he hath nothing but what is natural enough One may easily judge that the Affairs whereinto I chuse to enter is a question of Fact purely I will not engage my self to the discussion of the Right I do not enquire here which hath best Reason whether the Roman Church or the Protestant it 's enough to know what is taught both in the one and in the other Religion and not at all whether it be ill for either of them to teach so Therefore will I forbear proving and will not so much as touch those Proofs that my Lord of Condom brings in for his own Party But before we enter into the particulars I believe it fit we should make some general Reflexions ARTICLE I. General Reflexions upon my Lord of Condom's Book FIrst To know a Book well we must enter if possible into the Spirit of it and see within what prospect it hath been composed The Work now in hand is one of those that hath been produc'd by the design of reuniting the two Religions in France a design which some
question was only but about matter of Fact or their Controversies but of little Importance The Donatists upon that discovery had but unhandsomly said to the Catholicks Return to us that will be as commodious as if we our selves should come to you I am very sensible that this will be their Thought These Gentlemen say that they are in Possession It 's true among other things they are in Possession to suppose as certain that which is in dispute They are the Church It 's that whereof we agree not If they were the Church and that Church sound and entire we would not be so unreasonable to propose it them for to come to us The Church of St. Augustine was the true Church that of the Donatists was in Schism If they had perswaded us that which they assay to prove these many years that we are Schismaticks and Hereticks they would then have reason to invite us to make all these Advances and we should be in the wrong to expect them without moving our selves We are not Innovators we are Restorers of the Apostles Religion We have the advantage of Antiquity of Doctrines and Worship in comparison whereof Antiquity of Churches of Edifices of Chairs and Episcopal Seats is nothing at all We are in a perfect Conformity with the Scripture and the Church Apostolick that is better than Conformity with the Church of the Tenth Age and the following The Question then here is only of Fact thus for if we hold the Apostles Doctrine it s certainly their part who have forsaken it to return to us Time cannot prescribe against Truth It 's in vain to say They have for Title a long Possession The more ancient that such Wandrings are the worse they are But that cannot take from us the right of solliciting those People to return Besides it would be more easie for those Gentlemen to return to us than for us to joyn to them for we should not oblige them to any thing that would be against their Conscience seeing we adore only what they adore But we cannot go to them whilst they do serve that which we cannot serve If this Worship of Images this Invocation of Saints this Adoration of the Eucharist are so little a thing and if that should not hinder us from Joyning to them why do they not abandon that little Thing which scandalizes us so greatly and which we reckon to be much Is nothing to be done for Charity Should not Men renounce their own Interest when it s but inconsiderable for our Neighbours Salvation I pretend not that these Reasons will perswade those Gentlemen to abandon their Party and enter into ours Nor that they are capable of doing it So great a Business is not dispatch'd in so little time But it may give us to understand that we have as much right as they to ask for a Reunion without obligation to change any thing and that all those By-ways which have been invented within this little time some while Ways of Prescription then Ways of Prejudices or Prejudgments then Ways of Sweetning are all Ways of Illusion which only hinder us from Treating of the Business to the bottom and from entring into the particulars of the Controversies Because those Gentlemen do not find it commodious to keep that right Method which hath been used hitherto they are searching indirect Ways I do not hope that those Sweetnings of my Lord of Condom and of his Followers will do any great thing for the general Peace of Christianism and for the Repose of particular Persons Yet I cannot but. Essay to get some little Advantage from it by the by Assuredly we should be thankful to my Lord of Condom for his Book Though it should not produce that effect which he hopes for from it to wit the Reunion of both Religions into one One at least naturally it should produce some Peace between both Parties Till now the Roman Catholick and the Protestant have almost considered one another as the two Antipodes of the World Christian At this day they labour to make them return from thence To make our Spirits reapproach they give us Explications tending to make us see that we are not at such a distance as Men were perswaded of These Explications of my Lord of Condom that do reapproach in some parts his Doctrine to ours do also without doubt cause to reapproach our Doctrine to his If Disputes can be annihilated by the Explications of some Terms If our Doctrine be not far distant from that of the Roman Church and do not hurt the Foundation as is insinuated Why then is it made a Phantasm to the People Why then are Men arm'd against us Why so much abhorring for those Men that do not Sin but in that they understand not the Doctrine of the Church Why are the Powers arm'd and the Arm of Flesh Why have heretofore Floods of our Blood been drawn out Why do they cast on us frightful Names of Hereticks and Excommunicate damned Synagogues of Satan and Organs of the Devil Methinks if Men do but deal in good earnest after those Sweetnings men should have a little Sweetness for us or if they continue that rigorous and severe Method against us it seems to be a proof that these Sweetnings were not made with a Spirit of Sincerity but only with a design to procure an Illusion to the Ignorant and to furnish Pretences for those that do seek their Conveniences in the World This is a little advantage which might accrue to us from my Lord of Condoms Book if those of his Party would but be of his mind but I will draw another much more considerable It 's that at the bottom there was never a Book more favourable to the Protestants If we do but consider well the Shape which my Lord of Condom gives to all the controverted Articles this is not a defence of the Dogma's of the Roman Church it 's not an Apology it 's properly an Excuse it 's a Palliative Book if I may so speak Now every man that excuses a Fact a Doctrine or an accused Person by that it self confesses there is some Evil he only tries to make good that the Evil is tolerable This is that whereto my Lord of Condom doth visibly lead us With all his delicate Manners and his Spiritual modelling every Person uninterest'd will conclude that he hath felt some Evil to be within that Church whereto he would have us Reunite and that his Design is only to insinuate That this Evil is tolerable and that it ought not to hinder our Re-union Methinks this appears therein easily by a little attention given thereto for Example if we believe my Lord of Condom An Image hath no other virtue but that of recalling the Memory of the Original there is properly no kind of Homage rendred to it only Men do serve the Original in the presence of the Image Is not that neatly enough to confess That they that go beyond it are most guilty that
A PRESERVATIVE Against the CHANGE OF RELIGION OR A Just and true Idea of the Roman Catholick Religion opposed to the Flattering Portraictures made thereof and particularly to that of my Lord of Condom Translated out of the French Original by CLAUDIUS GILBERT Batchelor of Divinity and Minister of Belfast LONDON Printed by S. Roycroft for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey 1683. TO THE Worshipful Soveraign AND THE BURGESSES OF THE Borough of Belfast AND To the Inhabitants thereof Christian Friends THis Learned Piece was lately brought to my Hand by a Signal Providence in its Native French Dress By the renewed perusal thereof I found it to be very Substantial and Seasonable which made me willing to render it more useful by Publishing it in our Vulgar Habit. It hath been found to be of singular Service in its Native Country and may be so among us likewise through God's Blessing Whilst so many Thousand of our Neighbours Houses are daily Fired it 's time for All to awake The multiplied Persecutions of the Protestants in France so causelesly renewed of late should rowze up all Christians round about them In such Infectious Times a Choice ANTIDOTE should be valued and desired of All. Many Reasons might oblige me to recommend this Present to your View and Improvement The choice Ingredients thereof were very Skilfully Composed and Faithfully Dispensed by the Learned Author thereof My Zealous Affections for all Your Prosperous Welfare chiefly in Spirituals and for the Common Interest of all Christians have perswaded Me to this Publication which I desire cordially to commend to the Blessing of the Most High as becomes the Function and Relation of Your Faithfully Devoted in the Lord Jesus for the best Service CLAVDIVS GILBERT Belfast July 3. 1682. THE CONTENTS OF THE ARTICLES Contained in this BOOK ARTICLE I. GEneral Reflexions upon my Lord of Condom's Book pag. 19 Article II. A General Idea of both Religions p. 36 Article III. That we agree not about Fundamental Points p. 45 Article IV. That the Worship forbidden of God cannot terminate in him p. 53 Article V. Of the Invocation of the Saints p. 56 Article VI. Of Images and Relicks p. 78 Article VII Of Justification and Merit of Works p. 87 Article VIII Of Satisfactions Indulgences and Purgatory p. 101 Article IX Of Sacraments in General p. 115 Article X. Of the Eucharist of Real Presence and of Transubstantiation p. 120 Article XI Of the Adoration of the Host p. 137 Article XII Of the Sacrifice of the Mass p. 152 Article XIII Of the Retranchment of the Cup p. 165 Article XIV Of Holy Scripture p. 176 Article XV. Of the Church p. 182 Article XVI Of the Pope and of his Authority p. 189 Article XVII Of the Points which Monsieur de Condom hath forgotten Of the Worship in an Vnknown Tongue Of the Multitude of Ceremonies Of Masses without Communicants Of forced Celibat p. 198 A PRESERVATIVE Against the Change of Religion OR A just and true Idea of the Catholick Roman Religion opposed to the flattering Portraicture which is made thereof and particularly to that of my Lord of Condom NEver were greater Efforts in France to effect what they call Conversions and never was the Truth attack'd by so many Means nor fought with so much Success We see nothing else every where but Scandalous falls therefore they that lay to heart their Salvation ought to be furnished beforehand against the Contagion of this ill Air that reigns at this day It 's time to awake when the house is burning and one may say that if the Zeal of our Reformed in France be not kindled anew they are next to the seeing the ruine of their whole Party The Book of my Lord of Condom is one of the Means which is used with most Success to delude those Spirits that are Wavering and whereof the Piety is ill fixed These Gentlemen have so high an Opinion of that Work and of what it can do that many Bishops cause it to be printed at their own Cost and to be distributed within their Diocess to all considerable Protestants there The Temptation is powerful and the Method which my Lord of Condom hath used is dextrous his Artifices are fine and delicate and it is certain that this Book is able to Corrupt the hearts of those that are inclin'd towards the World and who are seeking out some Pretences to quit a Religion so cruelly attack'd It is then needful that all the World should be taught that every one should keep his Guard well against such a Temptation And as the Roman Church labours to spread my Lord of Condom's Book through all Europe by causing it to be turn'd into all Languages we must also disperse through them all the Answers opposed thereto And when the Publick shall have found one best liked every Particular Person should furnish himself with a Copy thereof that may be still at hand and still read over to be continually upheld against such a Temptation as is never at an end but is uncessantly still renewing Ever since that Loss which the Roman Church had in the beginning of the last Age of so many Millions of Souls which did then separate from her Communion no Endeavours have been omitted to repair that Breach and no Means but have been employ'd to bring back into her Bosom such as have gone away from it We must needs bear them this Witness that never so much Ardor and Zeal was seen in any Enterprize never was a more serious and important Affair undertaken than this design they have laid to hinder the duration and progress of That which they call Schism and Heresie It is indeed a design which cannot be blamed If these Gentlemen are well perswaded that the Religion which we have abandon'd is the only One that may conduct unto Salvation We may not wonder if they labour to bring us back thereto provided that they endeavour it in a good way honestly and by a Principle of Charity and true Zeal But as it often happens that in such a case Men prove the Cullies of their own hearts and that Self-love the Interest of the Flesh and that of the World do delude them all should well examine themselves in that regard and not take it ill that they that are concern'd therein be willing to have their part in such an Examination We should not imagine that all that which is called Zeal for Religion and a design to convert Hereticks should necessarily flow from a good Principle On the contrary God for the Trial of the Faith of his Elect hath almost always permitted that false Religions have had more Zeal for the destruction of the True than the True Religion for the ruine of the Falser When Christian Religion became predominant She did not do that for the ruine of Paganism which had been done against her during the Reign of Pagan Emperours It 's true that true Zeal is always accompanied with Moderation and false
there is no reason to say That Men must adore Images that there is no reason to fasten any virtue thereto to imagine that an Image of our Lady doth more Miracles than another that its blame worthy to carry them about in pomp to prostrate ones self before them to place them on Altars to make Vows and Pilgrimages to them and to buâ—n Incense to them as formerly they did to the false Gods If Invocation of Saints be done in the same Spirit as the Prayers which we present to the Faithful alive to pray for us It 's to accuse all those who do Invocate the Saints in another Spirit After all that I demand of those Gentlemen Why they do seek for an Extraordinary Turn That which they had used hitherto either was good reasonable and proper to give just Idea's of the Doctrine of the Roman Church or it was not so If it was not reason it is they should take another But how can it be that for so many years they have defended the Roman Church by so many Works without finding the proper Turn to give a just Idea of her Doctrine It 's a blindness of the preceding Doctors hardly to be conceived It 's a good hap for my Lord of Condom to have first found out the true sense of the Doctrine of the Church whereof one cannot suspect the cause But if the Turn which my Lord of Condom hath found out is different in that thing it self that it's different from others doth it not condemn them If that which he saith to us be the only true Sense of the Church all other Senses which Doctors have given it are false Senses and consequently he condemns all those that have not spoken like him Without doubt my Lord of Condom will say It was not his design to say any thing new that his Explications of the Doctrine of the Church are the Sense of the Canons of the Councils and of the decisions of the Doctors But if he pretended not to say any thing Extraordinary whence then comes the great Noise which those Gentlemen have made of that Work Can they look for so great Honour from a Thing that should have been said by all other Authors Whence is it that they have begg'd Approbations from all parts of the World That they put amongst those Approbators Cardinals Bishops yea the Pope himself For a thing which all the World had said should there be need of so mony Props seeing it could not be combated nor question'd Why doth my Lord of Condom at the end of his Work shew that he would not have us examine the different Means which the Catholick Theologues have used to establish or to cleaâ— up the Doctrine of the Council of Trent If he be agreed with the Doctors of his fide hath he cause to fear lest we should compare his Senses with theirs And is it not clear that he confesses thereby that he stands in great opposition to them If my Lord of Condom hath brought to light but the true and ancient Sense of the Church why doth he say at the end of his Book that he hath ruined all Disputes for that is it which these words signifie For to s y on this Treatise something solid c. they must shew that this Explication leaves all Disputes in their intire state He pretends then that his Explication must make all Disputes to cease I do not believe that he pretends thereto by the force of the Reasons whereby he hath upheld his cause For a little Book that only explains and which doth not prove cannot cause Disputes to cease by way of Discussion If it were true that the Sense which my Lord of Condom doth give is the Sense of the Roman Catholick Church that it should be received by both Parties and that it would not leave Disputes in their whole state it were true also that it would be some thing which the gravest Authors had not yet perceived For hitherto all the Divines of the Roman Catholick Church have verily believed that the Controversies about Images Invocation of Saints Indulgences Satisfactions were intire Disputes and most real The Council of Trent hath without doubt believed so for if their Sense had been that which my Lord of Condom gives and that it 's a Sense which leaves not Disputes whole why hath it pronounc'd Anathema's against the Lutherans and Zuinglians about things whereof it's decisions made all Disputes to vanish Let 's deal truly Did not the Council fulminate and condemn those People They did not then believe that the Sense of their Canons could easily be reconciled with the Doctrine of Zuinglius and of Luther Besides that I do not well conceive how my Lord of Condom can defend himself for having brought to light a Sense that was unknown to all that have Written and to the Prelates of the Council of Trent themselves Without doubt those Prelates pronounced Oracles without understanding them and more than an Age after an Interpreter is come who hath discovered that which the Holy Spirit had hitherto kept secret But it imports not whether my Lord of Condom be the first or only Man that hath understood the Council of Trent to the Exclusion of the Council it self he cannot hinder us from concluding That in establishing his Sense as the only good and as the Doctrine of his Church he condemns all others which the Doctors have given hitherto and therefore he acts for us and favours our Cause as much as it can be favoured Although the Explications of my Lord of Condom should terminate some different we should not be obliged to believe upon his Word that his Sense should be that of the Council of Trent It hath reproached to these Gentlemen that these Explications were against the Bull of Pius the Fourth which expresly forbids all Explications of that Council These be its own words To avoid the Confusions and Disorders that might arise if it were permitted to every One to bring to light their Commentaries and Interpretations upon the Decrees of the Council by Authority Apostolical we forbid all Persons Ecclesiastick or Laick of whatsoever Dignity Condition Honour or Power whatsoever and all Prelates under pain of being Interdicted the Entrance of the Church and others under pain of Excommunication to undertake without our Authority Commentaries Glosses Annotations Observations or any other kind of Interpretations under whatsoever Name neither under the very pretence of maintaining the Decrees better or Executing or any other Colour And if any find there is any thing obscure less clear needing Interpretation we Ordain he should ascend to the place which the Lord hath chosen that is to the Apostolick Seat which is the Master of all the Faithful and whereof the Holy Council it self hath acknowledged the Authority in a manner so full of respect After that should it be permitted to any private Man to give to the Council a Sense unknown to the whole Earth unknown even to the
of your Doctors On the contrary They lay before him the Scripture on the Tribunal of the Church They tell him Obey your Leaders suffer not your selves to be conducted by the false Lights of your own Reason Submit to the Mysteries but let not your Submission be blind consult the Scripture read instruct your selves and believe nothing upon the Witness of Men Do not rest but upon the Testimony of God His Word is clear solid sufficient for your Instruction His Authority is Soveraign and Independent of any other He sees not in the Worship of that Religion any strange Language which diffuses Darkness through all which conceals Mysteries from the Eyes of Ignorant Ones all is naked all is open all is simple He sees he hears all that is done all that is said every one Prays in the Tongue he understands and which is understood in the Country where he is This Infidel sees Preachers which exhort him to Repentance to Mortification to renouncing the Vanities and the Idols of the World but they do not impose on him the Necessity of declaring all the Motions of his Soul to a Man they order him to confess primarily to God then they advise him to make choice of a wise Director to discover with Liberty to him the Wounds of his own Conscience and to ask his Advices They tell him That all Human Satisfactions are incapable of paying the Justice of God That our Lord Jesus Christ hath paid for us abundantly That his Merit is granted to us by a gratuitous Mercy and that the true Satisfaction which God requires is the Contrition of the Heart Faith Charity and Amendment of Life They do not charge him with the multitude of External Observations of Fasts of Macerations of Pilgrimages They say to the contrary That bodily Exercise is profitable to little but that solid Piety hath the Promises of this present life and of that which is to come They labour to draw him out of the Security that the Worldlings are plunged in but they seek not to retain him in perpetual Terrours They tell him There is no Salvation for the Sinner that perseveres in Impenitency but that the true Penitent may be assured that God will shew him Mercy They assure him That if his Sins be pardoned him in this life they shall also be pardoned him in the other too and that there is no Purgatory nor Torments through which Men are to pass to arrive to Paradise They confess to him That they have not the power to remit Sins They tell him that that appertains to God only but they tell him That God never refuses that Grace to those that ask it with the Spirit of Humility In fine He sees nothing Pompous in the Government or that may relish of the Spirit of the World No Monarchs no Spiritual Soveraigns He sees none but Conductors that are Men of an equal Authority or if he sees in some places within that Church some Bishops and some Archbishops He understands that those Persons make Profession to have no other Head for the Spirituals but Jesus Christ and no other for their Temporals than those which God hath established in the World by his Providence If this Infidel who hath thus cast his Sight upon these two Religions be wise he will ask time to think of his Choice and will pronounce nothing upon what he hath seen But in Conscience can any Man believe that this Man who hath no other light but that of good Sense can perswade himself that these two Parties make up but one Religion that it is the same thing that their Differences are not Essential In one He sees Altars and Sacrifices in the other he sees none In the one he hears them invoke Saints and Angels in the other he sees they content themselves to reverence their Name and to invoke God In the one he sees Images to be served in the other he sees a mortal aversion for that Worship In the one he understands Nothing in the other he understands all If this Man suffers himself to be conducted by his Natural Lights he will without doubt believe that these two Religions are absolutely different and I cannot imagine that he could believe what my Lord of Condom saith That the Disputes of these two Parties can be nullified by explaining some Terms and that what remains hath nothing Capital and that can hurt the foundations of the Faith ARTICLE III. That we agree not about Fundamental Points BUt happily may some say That this general Review of the two Religions is proper only to make an Illusion because that in this Method Men judge only by appearances Now its true that they are in an Appearance of great distance whereas in examining things in particulars and at the bottom it may be that they would go near to accord about those things and should only dispute about Terms That might happily be and therefore I will not forbear entring into a particular Examen of each Article First My Lord of Condom saith That we all agree about the Foundations of the Faith that the Doctrines which we esteem Fundamental are all believed and professed in the Roman Church He brings for Witness thereof Monsieur Daillé who saith in his Book entituled Faith founded upon the Scriptures That all Fundamental Articles are without Contest that the Roman Church professes to believe them That in Truth we do not hold all the Opinions of that Church but that we hold all their Beliefs or Creances My Lord of Condom lays another Maxim which he draws from our Principles It's That if one agrees with the Foundations and then lays down Opinions which does overthrow those Foundations by Consequences we must not impute those Consequences to him who disavows The Opinion of the Lutherans about the real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist destroys the Human Nature of our Lord Jesus Christ by a lawful Consequence but the Lutherans disavow that Consequence therefore we will not impute it to them He would have us to have the same Equity for his Church For Example She establishes the Sacrifices of the Mass She lays down the Intercession of Saints She ordains Penances and Satisfactions We say That the first of them destroys the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ that the second prejudices his Mediation that the others are injurious to the Super-abounding fulness of his Merits But they say they are only Consequences which the Roman Church disowns therefore we may not impute the same to them without Calumny I might have many things to say thereabout If I had designed to make a great Book but I will restrain my self within this That this Consideration cannot be a Means of Reunion nor a Reason of our Re-entrance into the Roman Church First Because it 's not true that both Parties agree about all the Protestants esteem to be Fundamental There are Three general Foundations in Religion First That there is a God who is to be adored The
true that these things may be called Consquences and that we may be justified of that Accusation by denying them That is clear by this Example If one divide the Authority of the Prince Soveraign among his Subjects without his Permission I maintain That injury is done to him by that very thing and that one should not be received to say I deny I do injury to my Soveraign in giving one part of his Soveraign Authority to Others That 's a Consequence which I disown The Injury consists in the Act it self that is done and not in a Consequence which arises from the Action So to give a new Sacrifice new Intercessours and new Objects of a Religious Worship it 's directly to offend God the only Object of Religion It 's to oppose the Unity and Perfection of the Christian Sacrifice It 's to do injury to the only Intercessour and that by the very Actions which are done and not by Consequences which arise from those Actions But at least will they say You are obliged to grant that the most part of the Errours of the Roman Church are not Capital Thereupon I say Three things First That it 's enough if there be two or three Capital Errours and even One alone in a Religion to render intolerable that whith otherwise might have been tolerable The Second thing that I say is that the Errours which every one being apart might have been tolerated if they were alone cannot be born with when they are in a great Number A Life that should be wholly charged with those Sins which the Roman Church calls Venial and that should have no good Work at all would undoubtedly lead to Eternal death although every one of those Sins taken apart would not destroy Grace A Religion that should gather an infinite number of Practises of Superstitions and Errours whereof none were Capital could not be suffered nevertheless for it is a Capital Affair to bury the Truth in so great a number of Errours In fine I say that the Roman Church hath rendred Capital those of her Errours that would not otherwise be such since she hath made Articles of Faith of them She obliges under pain of Anathema that is to say Pain of Eternal damnation to believe that the Books of Maccabees are Canonical that Concupiscence after Baptism is no more Sin that the involuntary Motions of that Concupiscence are not Sins that Baptism is of an absolute necessity that Order is a true Sacrament that Marriage is not dissolved by Adultery and an hundred things of this Nature If she had received those Opinions without obliging others to receive them they might have been tolerated but as soon as she hath made them Articles of Faith they become intolerable For it 's a mortal Sin to receive Errours as Verities Fundamental It 's a horrid Crime to condemn to Hell Men that have but light Errours Now the Roman Church by her Anathema's obliges me to damn those who have but light Errours In fine It 's a black baseness to make Profession by Oath to believe as Capital Verities and necessary Ones such Opinions as we know to be Errours And that is it the Roman Church would oblige us to In a word I think to Reason justly in Reasoning thus All the Articles of Faith are Fundamental Points because they cannot be rejected without being Anathema's The Roman Church of those things which we might have considered as light Errours hath made Articles of Faith which may not be rejected without a direful Anathema Then hath the Roman Church in that regard those Opinions that could have pass'd for being of little importance Fundamental Points and in our regard Capital Errours And from thence it seems to me to be clear that after the decisions of the Council of Trent all Reconciliation is impossible with the Roman Church Because the Question is no more of tolerating light Errours but to believe them and make profession thereof and of damning all those that believe them not and that is it which an honest Man and a Christian cannot do ARTICLE IV. That the Worship forbidden of God cannot terminate in him BEhold the Second Principle of that Union which my Lord of Condom propounds it 's That the Religious Worship in the Pag. 17. Church of Rome terminates in God If the Honour she gives to the Holy Virgin and the Saints may be called Religious it 's because it relates necessarily to God He would conclude thence That in retaining our Principle that every Religious Honour is to be related to God we can without hurt to our Conscience partake of the Worship of the Roman Church seeing that she teaches That every Religionâ— Worship is to be referr'd to God as to its necessary End 1. I wish that my Lord of Condom had cited to us some Text of the Council of Trent which might assure us That all Religious Worship is terminated in God I see there that we must invoke Saints because they reign with Jesus Christ and because they intercede for us c. I read there no more I conceive there is a little difference between invoking a Saint for reference to God and terminate a Religious Worship to God It 's true that the Roman Chuch invokes Saints by respect to God that is to say because they are the Saints of God because they govern under God because they have merited with God because they intercede before God for Men. If those Saints should have no relation to God no doubt Men would not serve them But is not this to impose visibly upon the World to say That because of that all Religious Worship is terminated in God Because that a Favourite hath the Princes Ear that he disposes of the places of the State under his Authority that he obtains of him what he will he is courted a thousand Homages are done to him do those Honours terminate in the Prince because of that Is he bound to own them and regard them as if done to himself A Man that would say such a thing would not he render himself ridiculous Who ever heard that Worship doth not terminate in that Person which is the immediate Object thereof Those Gentlemen conceive that they have right to say what they please and that we are bound to believe them on their Word 2. But though it should be the Intention of those that invoke Saints to terminate all their Worship in God would that Intention suffice to effect the thing If it were so there would never have been any Idolaters that is to say Persons that had adored Images or Idols For there was never any Religion so brutish as to terminate their Worship upon Brass or Wood Silver or Gold whereof the Image is compounded If any Person have done it it must not be imputed to the Religion Those Idolaters referr'd their Worship to the Deity which was represented by the Idol The Israelites had not offended God in the Worship of the Golden Calf for it 's as certain
the Hymn called Maris Stella they say Oh singular Virgin Debonnair among all defend us from our Guils render us Chaste and Mild give us a pure Life prepare us in the sure Way to the end that seeing Jesus we may enjoy an eternal Joy We have an hundred times reproached those Gentlemen that of Jure Matris impera of the Old Missals and the Monstra te esse Matrem but we shall still have right to reproach them therewith till satisfaction be given us by Reason for it Instead thereof they renew the same and publish them in French that none might be ignorant thereof Oh bend by thy power both of Mother and Queen thy Son and our King That is but from the Year 1672. Methinks the Date is fresh enough and that they should not accuse us to have digg'd up Books buried in Oblivion and old Excesses that are no more in use One should Copy and Transcribe all the Missals Breviaries and all other Books of Devotion if one would relate all Why then do those Gentlemen say They only pray the Saints to pray for us It 's say they that in whatever Terms the Prayers are conceived that we address to Saints the Intention of the Church and of her Faithful Ones still reduces them to that form It s long since Bellarmine had advised us thereof As for Words it 's permitted to say Oh St. Peter have mercy on me save me open me the Gate of Heaven give me health of Body give me patience give me Courage c. So that we understand Save us and shew us Mercy in praying for us That might surprize us indeed First I would fain know what would these Gentlemen say of a Man that would say in good earnest to St. Peter Save me and pardon my Sins without reducing them to this Form St. Peter pray for me By those things which my Lord of Condom saith I have cause to believe he would look on him as an Idolater for he saith that the Church teaches That Men must cleave to God as to Him who alone can make up our felicity by the Communication of an Infinite Good which is himself But is it not a terrible thing to put into the Mouth of the People such Formularies as do cast them every day into the peril of Idolatry Where are the Men that are not naturally carried to take Words in their Literal sense The Literal sense of these Words of St. Peter Save me Pardon me carries Men to believe that St. Peter can Save and Pardon Must a simple Man have still at his Ear an Interpreter to tell him Take heed of taking these Words in their Literal sense you would commit an act of Idolatry reduce these Prayers to the Sense of the Church In a word I never could conceive what Prudence there can be in hiding a pious and devout Sense under Expressions altogether Criminal Is it not to lay a Snare continually for the Souls of the Simple 2. It Saints have no other Charge than that of Praying to God for us why are they made the Governours of the World under God It 's a Thesis that Bellarmine maintains with divers Proofs and which is not contested That the Faithful alive are not only conducted and governed by Angels but also by the blessed Spirits Another Author saith That if Kings destroy Armies of Enemies if the Rich relieve the Poor if Physicians with their Art heal Maladies Saints can do the same thing as well as the Angels whereof one killed 185000 in one Night another restored Sight to Toby and a third delivered St. Peter from Prison Governours do not always go to the Prince to present him the Requests of Suppliants they act of themselves according to the extent of their Commission 3. If Saints have no Superintendency on Inferiour things why then are Kingdoms Towns Families and particular Persons put under their Protection Why have Mens several Conditions differing Arts and differing Evils their particular Saints St. Luke is Patron of Physicians St. Yves of Advocates St. Crispin of Shoemakers They that are in danger of Shipwrack invoke St. Nicholas Bishop of Myre Women in labour pray to St. Margaret St. Roch is prayed to for the Plague and St. Apollony for the Toothach All that clearly supposes that the Saints have received Commission under God to have care of certain Persons and to preside over certain things for otherwise the first coming to hand of all the Saints would suffice to receive the Prayers of Men in whatever place they were and present them to God They do then something by themselves 4. If all Devotion for Saints be reduced to saying to them Pray for us why have they censur'd the Saving Advices of the Virgin to her indiscreet Devoti For in fine that Author had no other Aim but to bring thither the Prayers of Devout ones He would have them say Holy Mother of God supply by your Praises near the Almighty what our weakness cannot render to him and obtain for me from your beloved the Grace to know c. Yet hath that Book been censur'd at Rome and in Spain as containing Propositions suspected of Errour some Impieties and abuses of Scripture as withdrawing the Faithful from piety and Devotion to the Mother of God and from her Invocation This last word is very remarkable That Book withdraws from the Invocation of the Virgin He withdraws not from that Invocation Pray to God for us on the contrary he gives a Formulary express to invoke her so He withdraws then from the Invocation of the Virgin only because he would not have them to ask of her directly those things as if she were the Disposer thereof 5. Finally If the Sense of the Church be That Men pray the Saints to pray for us and no more why do they not censure so many Authors that tell us neatly That Saints give forgive save and distribute Graces themselves Câ—sterus writing on the Hymn Ave Maris Stella and explaining these words Loosen the Bonds of the Guilty thus Glosses thereon Solve Precibus Solve Merito Solve Auhoritate Solve Imperio Loosen with thy Prayers Loosen by thy Merit Loosen by thine Authority Loosen by thy Command I am tempted to add here all the like sayings of Bonaventure Gerson Cajetan Albert Ozorius Salazar Bernardine de Bustis and of Sienna Driedo Father Binet Viega Gabriel Biel Antonine and an hundred others that is to say the Ancients and Moderns the lesser the great and middle Authors But I will not yield to that Temptation for it would be an infinite work and we shall see anon that Father Cresset hath spared us that labour When they speak to us face to face they tell us Those are brave Authors indeed Must we judge of the Sense of the Church by little popular Books which ignorant Bigots put into the Peoples hands They are fallen into those Excesses which honest Men do condemn Yet these brave Authors are Canonized
little business and as of a Worship that cannot damnifie Piety or let them give us satisfaction for Father Cresset 's Book who saith That God ordinarily imparts no Grace to Men but by the Intercession of his Mother and that she prays ordinarily but for those that invoke her and are devout towards her And that so all those that are not devout toward the Virgin cannot he ordinarily saved because that God besides the Prayers of his Son would have our Salvation to depend on his Mother He approves what Salazar saith That God hath made a Decree not to confer his Grace to any Man but at the Intercession of Mary And what Suarez saith That she cooperates to our Salvation in three manners viz. That she hath merited the Incarnation That she pray'd for us on Earth and That she Sacrificed her Son willingly for the Salvation of Men. He likes it that Men should say That all Power belongs to her in Heaven and on Earth that nothing is impossible to her and that she can save the most desperate That she approaches God's Tribunal not only as a Servant praying to her Lord but as a Mother commanding her Son That she hath a kind of Jurisdiction upon the temporal Processions of the Holy Ghost that the Spouse hath a right on the Goods of the Spouse that the Virgin being the Spouse of the Holy Ghost she hath right to the distribution of his Graces and a part in his Communication So that no Creature hath received any Vertue or Grace from God which hath not been dispensed by the hands of this Charitable Mother that Devotion to the Virgin is a mark of Predestination that a Devoto of the Virgin cannot be damned that a business cannot fail when it is in the hand of the Virgin That she can command Jesus Christ by Authority of a Mother that she yet retains a kind Maternal Authority upon his Person his Goods and all his Power That one must say roundly and without mincing with Arnold of Chartres and Richard of St. Lawrence That she can do all that her Son can do because the Son and the Mother having but one Flesh they possess individually the same Power the Son by Nature the Mother by Grace That though the Virgin hate the Sin yet she loves the Sinners engaged in the greatest Crimes and hath tenderness for them that there is no Man though never so wicked who whilst he is on Earth is forsaken of her Mercy That she gets Souls out of Hell that is she hath kept from descending into Hell the Souls of Profligates and Thieves already severed from their Bodies and hath wrought Miracles to give them time to do Penance after their death because they had been devoted to her It s there they find the admirable History of that Thief whose Head was cut off and whose Head severed from his Body began to cry Confession Confession Confession After which they had time to send for a Priest of the next Town and to set the Head on the Body The Thief reported That as soon as his Head was cut off the Devils immediately cast themselves upon his Soul but that the Virgin saved her from their Claws because he had fasted on Saturday to her Honour It 's there also that they find the Miracle wrought in the Person of a Souldier who had always been most devout to the Virgin He was murthered and remained several years under a Bush the flesh of his Karkass was eaten away and the Thorns had passed quite through his Body Yet his Soul remained within by the Virgins favour till that Corps found means to confess himself Another Man fallen into the Danube was three days in the bottom of the Water but at last he heard a Voice which said to him O Man thou meritest to lose thy life and to be damned for thy Crimes but because thou art a Servant of the Mother of God thou shalt be delivered from this danger that thou maist confess thy self It 's there also that Father Cresset assures us That it cannot be denied without rashness that many Children died without Baptism many Idolaters dead in their Idolatries and consequently descended into Hell have been raised up by the favour of the Saints and of the Virgin to receive Baptism and to do Pennance that they might be received into Heaven It 's that Father Cresset that prays thus to the Virgin Mother of Mercy have pity on me c. Preserve me in your Family if I wander redress me if I combat defend me if I be wracked save me receive my Soul into your hands It is he that saith That the dignity of the Virgin is in some sort infinite That Men must give a Religious Adoration to the Saints and to the Angels that all Adoration is a kind of Honour but that all Honour is not Adoration That it 's not enough to honour the Saints but that we must adore them too That we owe to the Virgin that kind of Adoration which is called Hyperdulia that the quality of Mother of God renders her worthy of Adoration that the Angels adore the Virgin and have adored her even before she was in the World That Temples must be built to her Feasts consecrated and Vows made Methinks the least honour that can be done to a Religious man of Father Cressets Learning who hath above a thousand Citations of Authors ancient and modern is to believe that he knows his Religion the least thing that can be granted to a Provincial of a famous Order who hath given Approbation to the Examinators appointed by the King to grant the Priviledges to the Archbishop of Paris who thought fit that his Printer should attend this Work is to believe that they knew their Religion When should they know it if they knew it not in the Yeär 1679. after it hath been so examined so attack'd and so defended Whence is it that Father Cresset hath not profited by the Expositions of my Lord of Condom How dares he expose to the view of all the Earth a Book that carries its Condemnation in the Forehead by the Opposition he hath to the Book of the Exposition of the Catholick Doctrine approved by the Pope We cannot sufficiently admire the Providence of God who labours for our Justification and uses the Roman Church her self to dissipate all the Disguises whereby they would steal from us the knowledge of their Worship and of their Devotions Would we have yet another Witness besides Father Cresset We have the Author of the Saving Advices of the Holy Virgin to her indiscreet Devouts It 's one of those moderate Catholicks who disapproves the Excesses of the Virgins Devouts That Author grants That the People the Prelates the Doctors and Preachers do honour the Virgin as a Second Deity that they render her a Worship which is due to God only that they put their whole trust in her that they lift her up
the preceding But in truth one cannot resolve to say over always the same things I will only say That one must not treat of it as of a small business nor imagine it to be no obstacle to Reunion The Worship of Images is a Practise of all most opposite to the Spirit of Christianism and the most contrary to the dignity of Man It 's to do great wrong to a Man to oblige him to humble himself before Wood and Stone which are so far below him Men should not flatter themselves It 's the great Scandal of the Jew he hath Images in abhorrence and when he looks on Christian Religion on that side he conceives a mortal aversion from it So we cannot imagine that to be a small Affair an Article which retards that great Work of the Conversion of the Jews without which the Church will never be perfect But say they will Men never conceive that it 's a great Wrong to compare or confound us with Idolatrous Pagans It 's not true that we confound the Roman Church with the Pagans Pagans adored the Images of wicked Men and even the Idols of Demons the Roman Church serves the Images of Saints and of the Friends of God viz. Apostles Martyrs Confessors Those Gentlemen will nevertheless permit us to tell them That they put Pagans in places wherein they have not been so to put an infinite distance between those Pagans and themselves about the Service of Images and suppose that Pagans have ador'd their Images as gods We should have a little better Opinion of Men who resembled us so much for ordinary use of Reason They regarded their Images but as Pictures and Representations of their gods If I could here take the leisure I would prove it with the clearest Evidence possible My Lord of Condom justifies his Church about Images by these Words of the Council of Trent Which forbid to believe any Divinity or Vertue for which it should be rever'd have any Grace demanded thereof or fasten ones Confidence thereon I am surprized to see that after this Decree they suffer Prayers addressed to Images and that Men should say to the Cross O Cress more bright than all the Stars famous in the World amiable to all Men holier than all things which alone hast been worthy to bear the Talent of the World Sweet Wood that bearest the Nails and the Sweet Weights save this present Assembly that comes hither to celebrate thy Praises Every one knows the solemn Prayer made to the Cross on great Feasts particularly at Easter in Holy Week God save thee our only Hope in this time of the Passion augment the Righteousness of the Faithful and grant Pardon to the Guilty I know well what they say That these Prayers are referr'd to Jesus Christ Crucified It is not the Sense of Thomas Aquinas the Prince of the School for he maintains That the Worship of Latria ought to be deferr'd to the Cross and that Worship to be distinct from that which is rendred to Jesus Christ He proves it by the Hymn O Crux ave spes c. he concludes That the Cross whereon Christ Jesus hath been Crucified ought to be worship'd with Worship of Latria both because of the representation and that it hath touch'd the Members of Jesus Christ As for the Images of the Cross of whatever matter they be they must be adored with Latria only of the first sort viz. with a Relative Latria He seems to have reason for we cannot conceive how they can have Intention to speak to Jesus Christ speaking to his Cross seeing they expresly distinguish Christ from his Cross and that they say to it Arbor decora fulgida c. Thou art a fair and bright Tree adorn'd with the Kings Purple chosen cut of a precious Stock to touch his Holy Members I find that very good that the Council of Trent hath declared That there is no virtue at all within the Image but I cannot conceive how after that they have left in the Roman Pontifical Prayers which necessarily suppose that there is a Sanctifying virtue in the Images of the Cross For Example this which the Bishop utters in blessing a new Cross Take then this Cross in thy hands wherewith thou didst formerly embrace it and by the Sanctity of that sanctifie this as by that the World hath been purg'd of his Sins so the Souls of thy Servants that offer thee this Cross by its Merit may be preserv'd from all Sin After this Decree of the Council of Trent I know not why they tolerate the use of Agnus Dei whereto they attribute Virtue of preserving from the Crafts of the Devil and from the the Frauds of the Evil Spirits to keep from Shipwrack to put under shelter from all Adversity to preserve from the Pest from corrupt Air the Falling-sickness Storm Fires Peril in Childbirth and from all Iniquity I know not why they go in Pilgrimage to an Image of our Lady more than to another For in fine If Images have no other use than to recall the Memory of the Originals they are all alike If the Spirit of the Council of Trent was opposite to these Devotions why were they not retrench'd At the most will they say You cannot accuse the Church but of Negligence and Toleration but you cannot oppose to the Council of Trent any thing that may be of equal Authority I oppose thereto Books little less authorized than it as the Pontifical and Roman Ceremonial made by the Pope's Order approved and received by all the Roman Church review'd several times since the Council of Trent I oppose thereto the general and constant practise of all the Bishops even of the most moderate There is none of them that would bless a Cross in other Terms than those which are prescribed by the Pontifical I oppose thereto the practice of the whole Roman Church for if there be in France and elsewhere some honest persons who have purer Sentiments and which are disingaged from Popular Errours they make no Number in comparison of the People of Italy Spain Germany and France it self who are in this Practise My Lord of Condom about this matter goes farther than one could have believed He would fain perswade us that in the Roman Church they do not serve Images at all Our Intention is not so much to honour the Image as to honour the Apostle or Martyr in presence of the Image We use Images but to lift up our Spirit towards Heaven That is equivocal and they say That in Manuscript Copies of this Work which have ran through Mens hands long before it was printed my Lord of Condom spoke more strongly but having seen the Success of his Book and seeing himself upheld by so great Approbation he is return'd thither he goes freely through and makes the Author of the Advertisement say We serve not Images God forbid but we serve our selves of Images to raise us up to the Originals These
Charity and upheld by Hope This was the Sense of Gabriel Biel Occam Cajetan Dominicus à Soto who was in the Council of Trent these are not Imputations Molina justifies himself in his Book de Concordia liberi arbitrii cum Gratiae donis in citing all these Authors for himself Is there any thing more Pelagian more opposed to the Doctrine of St. Augustine who supposes and proves so often That the best of Mens Actions done without Grace are but illustrious Sins Though it were true to day that the Roman Church were return'd from that were there any right to accuse our Reformers for calumniating her And could they say That all our Reformation is founded on Calumny Were they bound to have a Spirit of Prophecy and to foresee that the School of Thomas which then did not make any figure in the World would reform it self would resume some force and would labour to re-establish part of the Doctrine of St. Augustine about Grace But I add That we have not the like cause to be content with the Council of Trent about the Doctrine of Justification as they would perswade us Why hath it kept measures with Pelagian Opinions Why did they not condem them And why did they affect an Ambiguity through which they save themselves that renew Pelagianism By that Ambiguity of the Canons of the Council of Trent the Author of the Advertisement would satisfie us in a word It 's true saith he there are some Matters which the Council would not decide and they were such whereof the Tradition was not constant and whereof they disputed in the Schools What the Matters of Grace against Pelagians were then but vain Disputes of the School about which it was not prudent to pronounce Had it not been defined in the Second Council of Orange that it 's a Gift of God when we have good Thoughts that we turn away our feet from Errour and Injustice That as often as we do good God acts in us that we may be able to act That we cannot prevent Grace by any Merit and that the good Works that are done without Grace merit not any recompence That the Grace which is not due to us prevents us that we may do good Works That it is the Gift of God to love him That he gives us to Love because he loves us before we love him That of our selves we have nothing but Sin and Lie That God doth in Man many good things without Man but that Man doth no good but what God makes him to do That the Vertue of Pagans was a worldly Cupidity but that of Christians is the Charity of God which is shed abroad in our hearts not by the force of Free Will which is in us but by the Holy Ghost which is given us There can nothing be more opposite to the Opinions of the School of Scotus who teaches That Man of himself may do all kind of good keep all the Commands in their substance love God above all do Acts of Contrition of true Faith true Hope and thereby prepare himself for Justification by a Proxime preparation Yea will they say but the Council of Trent hath condemn'd those lax Opinions which smelt of Pelagianism If they condemned them why are they yet alive in the Roman Church It 's an important Point and that must be proved The School of Scotus of Molina and the Molinists carries it by far and hath still carried it since the Council of Trent against the School of Thomas and the new Thomists This School of Molina teaches formally That all the Acts of Faith of Love of Repentance of Hope which are necessary for the Justification of an adult Infidel may be produced as to the Substance of the Work by a Man in the state of Nature corrupt with the only forces of Free Will That Divine Mysteries are indeed so high that a Man without Revelation could not find them out but when they are reveal'd to him in a convenient manner without any other Grace than an external Revelation and the Command of God to believe he may do Acts of true Faith and receive those Mysteries with full certitude This School saith the same of Contrition of God's Love c. and if Men will not believe us let them believe Molina himself Since the Council of Trent have they not maintained Preparations for Grace by the forces of Nature only with as much violence as before Estius teacheth us that Alphonsus à Castro doth teach That Man by the force of Nature and Free Will in doing that which is in him for observation of Nature's Law in the same Moment receives the Grace of God because that Divine Bounty suffers not that a Man that lives Morally well be deprived for a Moment of that Grace which may render him worthy of Eternal life though he be not instructed in the Faith of Christ and do not yet put his hope in him We learn from the same Estius that Dominicus à Soto who was present at the Council of Trent and made there so much stir in the Disputes about Grace Melchior Canus Franciscus à Victoria and many others do maintain Preparations for Grace under another form and say That Attrition which may be had by the only strength of Nature is sufficient with the Sacrament to obtain the Grace of Justification Vasquez is our Witness that Ricard Antony of Pantuse and many others have held since the Council of Trent That one may by the force of Nature obtain the Succour which is needful to pepare ones self immediately to the Grace of Justification Ricardus Tapperus and John Driedo Professours in the University of Lovain have taught That God fails not to come to him that makes a good use of his Natural strength by the practise of some Works morally good and that he gives him the Succour of his Grace for to dispose him to the remission of Sins All that is formally contrary to the Decisions of the Church against the Pelagians Yet all these Theologues have pretended to follow the Sense of the Council of Trent I demand then of these Gentlemen who assure us that the Canons of this Council have no ambiguity whence comes this diversity of Senses If the Canons of the Council are not ambiguous why do they suffer Persons who teach Pelagian Errours condemned by Canons clear and precise How can it be that Alphonsus à Castro who is such a Catholick should maintain Semi-Pelagianisme pure with such a violence that he accuses the contrary to his of Impurity and Heresie If it be true that this contrary Opinion be that of the Council of Trent Dominicus à Soto was present at the Council he knew their Spirit and should have known it yet from the time of the Council of Trent he put to light a Book Natura Gratia wherein he maintains by the Canons of the Council all his Semi-Pelagian Opinions At the same time Andrew Vega a Franciscan and Ambrose
Oath of Fidelity of transporting their Kingdoms to others and exercising in general all Actions of that Power which is attributed to him by the Canon Law It is clear then I must regard the Pope not by what the French say of him but in what he is and what he doth Men may say that a thing should be white when it is black and blacks others that changes nothing therein Besides that I see not why they could not regard him in France under the Character they give him in France it self The Council of Lateran wherein the Pope was called The Divine Majesty Vice-â—od King of Kings puts himself above all Councils is printed in France with the Kings Priviledge under the di ection of the Fathers Labbé and Cossart without any Correctiff Can France have lost the Memory of that terrible Harangue which was made in the grand Convention of the States 1615. by Cardinal Perron in the Name of all the Clergy of the Kingdom They would have passed an Ordinance in those States That no Subject under any Pretence could be dispensed from the Oath of Fidelity The Gallican Church by the Mouth of a French Cardinal opposed it and attributed to the Pope all that excess of Power that frights us How after that can any Man boast of the Sense of the Gallican Church But happily pretend they That Innocent the Eleventh who holds now the Seat hath renounced to all those Pretences that so offend us and hath reduced himself to the Moderation of the Gallican Church because he approves by a Brief Monsieur de Condom s Book and that Book of Monsieur de Condom saith That there are things whereof they Dispute in the Schools which the Ministers cease not to alledge to render that Puissance odious but that it is not necessary to speak thereof seeing they are not of the Catholick Faith In Conscience can Men believe that the Court of Rome by the touch of a Pen and without being either forc'd or sollicited had renounced all her magnificent Pretences to all those Priviledges which they have acquired by the effusion of so much Blood and for which they were like to have overthrown all during the Sitting of the Council of Trent in the fear they had that it was intended to have a stroak at them These Disputes of the Schools in the Sense of the Court of Rome are but the Nice Trifles wherein Canonists agree not although in the sight of my Lord of Condom they are possibly what we regard as Capital Men know how to find a commodious Sense in Terms more difficult to turns and the Court of Rome finds enough to satisfie themselves in these Words of Monsieur de Condom That Men ought to render to the Pope the Submission and Obedience which the Holy Councils have always taught the Faithful The two last of those Holy Councils are the Fifth of Lateran which is Counted General and that of Trent for which my Lord of Condom hath so great a respect Those two Councils carry the Popes Authority as far as it can go at least it will not be a Dispute of Schools to know whether they may call the Pope Our holy Lord for the Council of Trent seldom calls him otherwise although the Apostles have not called the Son of God but Our Lord simply It must neither be a Dispute of the Schools to know whether the Pope be Superiour to the Council for the Council of Trent submitted so fully to him that they did nothing withut his Order and seeing they proposed nothing but by the Pope Proponentibus legatis since it declared not to pretend to touch the Authority of the Holy See nor submit him to their Canons and since it demanded from the Pope the Confirmation of all their Decrees and indeed the Pope is at this day so far Master of this Council that he Dispenses against all their Canons After all this how can they invite us to re-enter into the Roman Church whilst such a Power shall subsist We that pretend That the Power of Pastours is a Pure Ministry We that believe That Jesus Christ hath not left them any Jurisdiction on Consciences We that acknowledge no other Universal Head of the Church but Jesus Christ We that believe That Humility is of the Essence of the Ministry Evangelical We that ascribe no Adoration nor Divine Majesty but to GOD ARTICLE XVII Of the Points which Monsieur de Condom hath forgotten Of the Worship in an Vnknown Tongue Of the Multitude of Ceremonies Of Masses without Communicants Of forced Celibat I Do heartily consent to what Monsieur de Condem wishes to lay apart divers Questions that we regard not as a lawful Subject of Rupture but we cannot advance our Complaisance so far as to confess all that he hath left and whereof he hath not spoken be of this Number I could add divers Points which are most Essential and which Justifie our Separation but I confine my self to Four that I may not be accused to make Subjects of Separation where there are none I. The First is the Necessity which the Roman Church hath imposed on her self to have their Service in the Latin Tongue which is not understood of the People I know not why Monsieur de Condom doth not take away the Scruples that we could have thereon but we are obliged in Conscience to advertize them that that alone would be capable of hindring us from re-entring into the Roman Church though there were nothing else to stay us because that nothing is more opposed to the Intention of Jesus Christ who hath instituted his Service with purpose that his People might be Edified thereby Although they could say the best and holiest things in the World that could serve for nothing seeing that the Spirit and the Heart that could not understand them could not be edified thereby II. The Second thing which Monsieur de Condom hath forgotten is the multitude of Ceremonies and it is an Article that we cannot pass any more than the others that makes an Essential difference between Religions Judaism and Christianism differ Essentially and only by that they call us to another Yoke like to that of the Jewish Church We do not believe we can suffer it with a good Conscience I have considered those Ceremonies as opposed to the true Service of God because the most are destined to honour Saints Images Relicks the Sacrament of the Eucharist and other Creatures At present I consider only their Number and their Uselesness and under that regard I maintain that they are absolutely opposed to the Spirit of Christianism We must not imagine that it is but a small ill to be useless in matter of Religion The Gospel condemns to the Fire the Useless Servant and punishes with Eternal Pains Unfruitful Works Let them not say That at the most those Ceremonies are Useless That which doth not serve in Religion doth much hurt Those Ceremonies are not come from a good place for the most